Latest Endeavors

Well, it's been awhile since my last post, but during the week I'm basically just a college student. Anyways, I'll give you an update of my last three days. On Friday I decided to be touristy again. Four of us headed to Trafalgar Square (which you may of seen on the news - Saturday there were some massive Israel-Palestine protests). From there we went and saw Big Ben (I got some pics of it but mine are crappy, I'll get the good ones from Eric) and Westminster Abbey. After we walked around that area we headed to Brick Lane which is infamous for curry houses and Bangladeshi restaurants. Literally, on a two block stretch there is AT LEAST 50 Indian restaurants. Each place has a "promoter" outside their door trying to get people to come in, its almost intimidating at first. Brick Lane is the best place in the world to get curry, better than India! If you haven't tried it, its a must, but it won't be as good in the states. 

On Saturday I went to Cardiff, which is the capital of Wales. Wales is such a beautiful country, rolling hills and sheep everywhere. Unfortunately, I saw it in January, so it wasn't as green as you would see in pictures. It's still pretty amazing. Cardiff is a cool city, we explored the city during the day and visited the Cardiff Castle, which was pretty sweet. That night we made our way down to their port area. It is just amazing. All of these restaurants were on a peer hanging over the ocean. A group of 9 of us went to an amazing authentic Italian restaurant called Strada. It was a great culinary experience. After that our entire group got together at a very happening pub called the Prince of Wales. It was a great chance for us all to be together, its tough to do stuff with a huge group. I stayed in my first hostel on Saturday night, it's an experience (not like being

 in a hotel, but I managed). 

This morning (Sunday) we went to a coal mine and toured that. It was really cool. We went to a coal mine because that's what Wale's is known for. When the world still relied on coal to power it, Wales was a happening place. Since it was so dirty the industry has basically fallen off the face of the earth. Wales has been struggling for sometime but they are trying to re-emerge in the world of commerce. The coal mine we went to was actually the mine that supplied the coal for the Titanic. Seeing places like Wales make you realize how scary it'd be to live in a place when your economy is literally dependent on one industry. 

I probably won't post again until next Sunday night/Monday morning. Actually, maybe I will post before I leave on Thursday. I am doing the "Jack the Ripper" tour tomorrow night and then touring Parliament on Tuesday morning. But as a reminder, I am leaving for Istanbul early on Thursday morning and won't get back til late Sunday. I can't even explain how excited I am to visit Turkey. I promise I'll be safe though, not sure if you guys have been following international news...

Love everyone, and feel free to comment or e-mail me, I check both each day and I love hearing from everyone. 

The Weekend

Well yesterday was a ton of fun and I FINALLY started taking some pictures. We went to Stratford upon Avon, which is the hometown of William Shakespeare. We got to see his birthplace (the house he grew up in), the spot where his house used to exist, and Anne Hathaways house (his wife). The city was so cool and the English countryside is just something else. We got to wander around the town for a couple hours and it was really cool. We stopped at a pub to get some food that was built in the 1500's!!!

After that we went to Warwick castle which was pretty amazing as well. We had a ton of fun. I got some good pictures but a lot of other people g

ot some great shots I'm going to look to get a hold of as well. The castle was built around 1000, but was redone in the stone that still exist around 1300. It had a ton of history and was a great experience. I'm going to try and post some pictures on this blog because I am pretty sure I can. Today has been a lazy Sunday but I am going to head to the British Museum here in a bit to do some of my Art History homework. 

This is going to sound bad but I'm not sure if I mentioned in my last post or not (and I can't check it until I post this one), but I am going to Istanbul, Turkey in two weeks and am so incredibly excited. 

Well I hate to tell you all this and 

especially that my mum (ha!) will see this, but I feel like I could just stay over here for good. So if any of you are interested in migrating over the Atlantic to settle in permanently, do let me know and I'll come along or just stay. 

Hope everyone is doing well back in MN, stay warm, I have been watching the temps. FYI its been hovering between 45-55 degrees here. 

Love you all!

Jan 14-16

Hey Everyone,

The rest of the week ended up shaping out well. I saw some museums and different parts of the city, as well as my first theatrical experience. We went to a show that was crazy funny about queen. It was a musical and it played all of their old music set to a pretty wacky story line. British humor is great. Brian May (Queen's guitarist) even played the final guitar solo which was cool to see. That night we went out and saw a lot of London, Chinatown, Soho, and accidentally went to a gay bar and drew some looks. 

Last night we had a mixer for all of the students associated with the program we were on. It was fun again as well and then a large group of us from CSB/SJU went to a really cool pub called The Albany. And for those who didn't know Eric, my roommate and really good friend is from Albany, MN, so of coarse we got a picture of that. Our group is really tight knit which is cool. 

Today I don't have much for plans other than that Eric and I are going to the Cirque de Soleil show Quidam. I know a lot of you didn't have the best experience in MN with the Cirque, but I feel like that was because of the fact that it was a traveling show. Quidam has been here in London for months with the same performers and its the famous Royal Albert Hall. I can't describe how excited I am. 

Tomorrow, we are doing a group excursion and heading the Warwick Castle which is in central England. After that we are going to Stratford upon Avon which is where William Shakespeare is from. 

I hope this blog is helpful to keep everyone posted on my whereabouts over here, but feel free to e-mail me as well. I haven't been that great about checking my e-mail, but trust me you wouldn't either in this city. 

Monday-Tuesday (12th,13th)

Hey all, 

Well classes have officially started, but I really like the format of our classes. On Monday I have 6 hours of class but both are extremely interesting. One of the classes is going to focus on British Culture and the other is a class about Islam. Today I had class for just 3 hours but its an Art History class and we actually went to the British Museum. The rest of our classes for Art History are actually at Museums with the exception of our final. So that is nice, not having any classroom work to do. I'm a little bummed I tried to get into a theatre class that has a similar format, you just go out to shows. However, I wasn't able to switch into it because all of the tickets for the events have already been purchased. On Wednesday and Thursday's I will only have class from 10-11:30. 

The British Museum was pretty cool today, we were looking at an exhibit that showed remnants of the sculptures that were on the Parthenon. Its the largest collection of the pieces in the world, you'd think Greece would have the biggest collection, but the Brits took em in the 1700's. 

A couple of us used "The Tube" today. The Tube is the subway system over here but it was pretty easy to use. The more of this city I explore the more I continue to fall in love with it. 

Hope everyone is doing fine back in the States, and bearing out that crazy cold weather! It was a balmy 50 degrees here today. Much love.

Sunday the 11th

Hey all, I decided I'd give a quick update today. We went on two guided tours today which was extremely helpful for getting a sense of direction. The first was a tour of Kensington, the bureau I live in. The second tour was a bus tour and we got a quick zip around central London. This city is SOOOOOO big, its crazy. We got to see the Westminster, Buckingham, Parliament, the Tower Bridge, Big Ben, Pica-dilly Circus, etc. All of the touristy stuff. However, if I had to get there right now, there is no way I could. 

Classes start tomorrow which is a bit of a drag. I think the classes should be pretty 

exciting though. 

Sorry this was a short one, love ya everyone. 

Well I'm here in London! 

Let me start from the beginning, Eric (roommate) and I both got bumped to an earlier flight at MSP airport, because of that we ended up having a 4 hour layover in Chicago. At Chicago we had to go to the international terminal. We made it through security in a flash and got to our gate 3:45 early. For some unknown reason there were no places to eat in the international terminal so we decided to go back out and found a bar to get some food. Eric and I have the tendency to get into deep political, economic, and "life" discussions; combine that with some 

beer and lets just say time flies. Only because I had to go to the bathroom did we realize that it was 9:15 and the gate closed at 9:25, oh yeah and we had to go through security again and the line was about 50 people deep. Basically, we started freaking out. To our luck, a BA flight attendant was running late some how found us, we

 sprinted, were able to duck the lines and get a "sped up security process" and then ran to our gate. 

The flight was good but when we got to the airport Eric, Greg (my other roommate here), I all had our luggage

 lost. So we spent the first two days without luggage. I actually threw my boxers away and rolled commando on Friday. Luckily, on Friday night our luggage did arrive and man did it feel good to put on some new clothes. 

The first night we got there we had our first pub experience. We went to two different pubs and decided to start our "beer tour." Our goal is to try 100 different beers and we are taking a photo of each one we try. 

Basically 

we have just toured the area, we are so lucky to live where we are living. Basically its the nicest part of London. The streets are lined with Mazerati's, Rolls-Royce's, Benz's, BMW's, Volvo's, Audi's, Range Rover's, and Mini-Coopers. Basically the cheap car around here is a Volkswagon. We've gone out to a few pubs -> Beer is a lot less expensive than I

 was thinking and most pubs have pretty good deals for dinner. You can get a beer and dinner for around 10 pounds. There are few sandwich places that are relatively inexpensive as well. The only thing is that since we are in the nicest part of London everything is pretty expensive. Even the grocery stores are pretty high-end. 

So I've been talking a lot about how nice Kensington is, and it is. However, we live right next to a bunch of embassies (the Dutch and Israeli are on the same block) and because of our location we are right in the middle of a pretty intense protest that

 started today (Saturday). Two-hundred thousand people were on our street protesting the Israel-Palestine conflict. It was for the most part peaceful but turned pretty nasty pretty fast. We're staying in because the protesters really really really don't like

 westerners or anything western. Eric and I were out today and went to the Natural History Museum and Harrods. On our way back we 

were going to stop at a pub to meet some people for dinner. However, we realized that the pub was filled with a bunch of protesters, we felt that being around them as they consumed alcohol would not be a good decision. We ran to a sandwich shop and then stopped to get some beer. As we were in the liquor store we noticed that 3 police vans with about 20 officers rushed out and put a bunch young guys against the wall and were padding them down. We then realized that they had thrown a police traffic barricade through a Starbuck's window. They were also chanting about how much they hated Westerner's. 

To put it bluntly, Eric and I were scared shitless. We ended up taking the longest route but furthest away from the crowds to get home. We didn't talk the whole way back because we didn't want anyone to here our accents. You can find the article at this link that describes the Starbuck's incidence on the second page. 

No one has adjusted to the time yet we have been staying up crazy late and sleeping til about 1 or 2. No one intends to sleep that long it just happens. 

This city is pretty awesome and there is so much to do, I keep forgetting I have to start class on Monday, which is a drag. I feel like this will be a pretty special 4 months. I could stay here for all 16 weeks (not travel once) and maybe experience 1/100th of what this city has to offer. I'll try to get out and do a bit more than to experience this AWESOME pub culture, but its so fun. I think I can post pictures on the blog so I'll try to keep everyone up to date (although I will admit that Eric and I aren't picture people). 

I'll try to keep this updated every few days. Love ya everyone.