 This is going to be a blog which I will write during my five-week stay in London. I will attempt to add to it every few days, and to describe the greater part of what occurs while I'm here.
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Just a Short Message Tara and I have left the Citadines in Holborn, and are now staying at the Hilton. It is quite luxurious compared to every other place that we have stayed. This is our last week here in London, and we are going to be visiting Buckingham Palace (which has just opened for tourists) Bath, and Stonehenge. Wanted to let everyone know that, because we are required to pay for our internet access while we are here, I will not be on much this week. I may have to finish my little blog after I get home, though I'm sure I'll have to repeat much of it in person.
Much as I would like to stay in London, I will be glad to come home. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone, and sharing my stories. It will also be nice to relax, and not have to worry about hotels, travel, etc. I think I will be arriving at the LAX airport on Saturday at around 1 PM. I'll have to look up my itinerary to confirm this, but I'm pretty sure it is something like that. Anyway, see you all in a week!
Some More Stuff Another list
I only have a little more than a week left here in England. So many days have passed, that I’m going to have to make another list of things I’ve done.
After visiting Windsor Castle, Tara and I found a little tea house (a building which was built a little crooked – the walls had a slight diagonal slant) and had our first afternoon tea. They served us scones, jam, clotted cream, cake, and tea sandwiches (ham, cucumber, and smoked salmon) on a pretty three-tiered serving platter. And tea, of course. I’ve found that I like English Breakfast tea the best. After that, we went back on the train and went home The next day, Tara and I went walking around in search of a post office to buy stamps. I have a few post cards for a few friends that I still need to send. When we finally found a post office, it was closed. The thing about England, is that the hours are different here. Many shops are completely closed on Sundays, or even Saturdays (like the post office). Many things close early, from 5 to 9 PM. Even pubs usually only stay open until midnight. It differs from LA in that way. After Tara and I got back from looking for the post office, we had to rush a bit to get ready for the Opera. The Opera House is less than a ten minute walk from our hotel, so we walked, though it was a little challenging in high heels. Tara’s heel straps kept slipping down. We made it to the Opera House, which is a large white building with Roman columns, and I went to collect the tickets from the box office. Tara and I were dressed pretty nicely – I was wearing a black, beaded top and flowing black pants, and Tara was wearing a black and white dress with a black shawl. I noticed that we were dressed more nicely than many of the people there. We weren’t completely out of place. I saw a few people dressed as well as we were, but we had over-dressed a little, generally speaking. No big deal, though. It can be fun dressing up. We went to our restaurant, which was located inside the Opera House. As I have stated before, it is a large room with a high ceiling, and it has a glass wall on one side, and a mirror on the other. It was formerly a flower market, which has been recently renovated to be a restaurant. Since we had already preordered our meal, the waiter simply had to look at our card (which had been placed on the table before our arrival) and check that our orders were correct. Then he went off and brought us little appetizers – a kind of vegetable soup in a little glass, which was quite good. Both Tara and I had asparagus and hollandaise sauce for the first course. It was served on a simple, rectangular white plate, and the hollandaise was in a little white, egg-shaped cup. He asparagus was cooked to perfection, nether too crunchy or too soft. The sauce was also good, and added a subtle flavor. I decided to order Savignon Blanc instead of a Cabernet Savignon and I was surprised to find that I liked it, though Tara had to help me finish it. I have yet to drink an entire glass of wine. For our main course, Tara had gnocchi, which is an Italian pasta dish, and I had lamb. The lamb was extremely good – a perfect medium-rare. We had opted to be served our first two courses before the Opera, and our dessert during the interval. We collected our programs from an usher. I still have mine - a beautiful glossy red booklet. Tara and I crowded into the theatre, and went to our separate seats. When I had bought the tickets, I had not been able to find two inexpensive seats together, so I had booked them separately. The Opera House has five different levels: the Orchestra, the Stalls, the Grand Tier (which are the best, most expensive seats) the Balconies, and the Amphitheater. Both Tara and I were sitting in the Stalls (the second level), across from each other. The theatre itself is U-shaped, and Tara and I were on the sides. We had padded red bench seats. The theatre was beautiful, decorated in red and gold without being gaudy, and lit by little lamps at the front of each tier. I noticed that much of the audience was older. Tara and I were among the youngest audience members. Then the show started. It is always exciting to me, no matter what show I happen to be watching, to hear the beginning notes of the orchestra tuning itself. It builds the anticipation, and signals the start of the show.
Another attempt at Catching-up Hopefully, this will be the last catch-up blog. I’m going to try to bring you up to the current day.
On the day after the last one above mentioned, our professor took us to the British Museum, which was only a short walk from our hotel. He had secured a private viewing for our class, where we were able to enter a private room and view actual copies of works by William Blake, the poet we are studying. Blake was an artist as well as a poet, and he fully illustrated many copies of his poetry. I’ve seen facsimiles of his work before, but they don’t compare to the real thing, of course. His prints (which he engraved himself) and watercolors, viewed in their original state, have a fabulous texture, vividness, and detail that cannot be seen in books. It is rather like the difference between seeing a real Monet and only viewing a picture of it. The picture never quite does it justice. I was quite fascinated by the prints, and tried to imagine a flesh-and-blood Blake working on them. After the museum, Tara and I ate lunch, and then went back to our hotel to rest before we had to get ready for our show. Tara had gotten us tickets to “Les Miserables” at the Queen’s Theatre, and signed up for the “dinner and show” package, so we had dinner reservations at a place called Sugar Reef, close to the theatre. Sugar Reef is a restaurant on the ground floor, and a club on the lower floor. We got there early, so we went down into the club area and had a drink (I had arches and lemonade, which was quite good), then went back up to the restaurant when our table was ready. I had a delicious three-course meal: tomato soup for the first course, roast chicken and vegetables for the main course. I’ve racked my brain, but I can’t remember what I had for dessert. And this was only a week ago! We also had some rosč wine, which I liked. It’s funny how Tara and I are never carded over here. The legal drinking age is 18. After dinner, we walked to the theatre to find our seats for “Les Miserables.” I thoroughly enjoyed the show. There is nothing like seeing a professional performance, where everything, from the orchestra to the sets to the actors, is very good. The show itself is pretty decent; not necessarily my favorite kind of music, but there was nothing terrible, either. Some of it was kind of pretty. The actor playing Jean Valjean (the lead character) was just great, and he had a great singing voice. I liked him the best. Tara also enjoyed the show, and afterwards we walked back to the underground station and went home. I have recently bought the book “Les Miserables,” and begun reading it. It is huge – about 1200 pages. I like it so far. One thing I will say, is that the London theatre district is a fantastic place to be, especially at night. There are tons of nicely dressed people out on the streets, and there are huge signs and gorgeous theatre buildings everywhere. There is even a street that has a large screen on a building that flashes advertisements, like Time Square in New York. The next day, our professor took us on a walk through Soho (which is the theatre district, where we had been the evening before) and showed us around. As usual, he pointed out places relevant to our studying, like the site where William Blake was born, and where he lived in his later years. During this time, Tara and I were able to talk to him a lot, having general conversations about every day things. We told him that we had gone to Les Mis, and he said that he loved music in general, but didn’t like musicals. I like talking to professors. They are always very knowledgeable. We learned that he speaks three languages: French, Palestinian (because that’s where his family is from) and English. Listening to him talk, however, you would never be able to tell. He’s obviously been raised in America. He has published three books. The first two are academic works on William Blake, and the most recent one is about Palestinian politics. He told us that he had a lecture at a university that evening to talk about his new book. Tara, Michael and I were able to accompany him, after he had dismissed the class, to a café. Tara and I stayed behind, while Michael went with him back to the hotel. Tara and I sat outside. I had a sandwich and some hot chocolate (which I sample at almost every place I go to). We ended up having a long conversation with the British man next to us. Tara did most of the talking (she’s quite opinionated), and we discussed everything from British politics to British and American television. The British guy (we never asked him his name) said something that I think is very true. He said that America “has the best of everything, and the worst of everything”, from entertainment to the government. After that, we went back to our hotel and watched a little TV, then went to the pub with Michael, Cheryl, and Michelle (Cheryl’s roommate). We ate and had some drinks, then went home. I had bought train tickets for Tara and I, so that we could take a day trip to the city of Bath. The next morning, we got up and got ready, leaving our hotel forty-five minutes before our train was to depart. But we made a mistake, and underestimated the time it would take to get to the station and run our errands. Long story short, after being delayed almost ten minutes on the Tube (which is another name for the underground), we ended up missing our train to Bath by about 4 minutes. We went to the ticket office and we were told that, because of the nature of our reservation, we would not be able to trade our tickets for the next train to Bath, or even get a refund. We would have had to buy completely new tickets (which were more expensive than the ones we had ordered online). Frustrated, we left the ticket office, not knowing what to do. We eventually decided to go to the ticket machine and buy cheap tickets to the city of Windsor, where we intended to tour Windsor Castle. We made sure that we didn’t miss that train. We found ourselves, about an hour later, in the city of Windsor. It is an English suburban town and it is very pretty, like most English suburban towns. It is overlooked by the Windsor Castle, one of the official residences of the Queen and Prince Charles. The view from Windsor Castle, over the small town and green fields, is splendid. It was raining a little that day, which added to the charm of the scene. It was beautiful to watch the rain falling in light sheets over the green trees and brown rooftops. There was even an old church with a pointed brown spire at some distance, which made the view quite perfect. To me, that was the best part about our tour. I don’t know why, but I’m not particularly keen about walking through a bunch of grand, ornate rooms. That’s not to say that I don’t appreciate the architecture and the history. It amazes me that some of the rooms are like works of art, painted with mythical scenes and people from floor to ceiling. It’s also a little creepy, and I imagine it would be like living in a museum. What bothers me, and especially Tara, are the elaborate pieces of furniture and china that the monarchs of the past used. A gold, castle-shaped flagon? That’s almost as absurd as gold-plated tissue paper.
Trying to play Major Catch-Up So many days have passed, that in order to keep the reader up to date, I'm going to have to make a plain, un-detailed list of what I have done so far. I will only mention a few important details.
The day after the one above mentioned, Tara and I went out for a traditional English breakfast. It's the same as ours, accept for the beans and the bacon. They have a different kind of bacon than ours, which resembles slices of ham more than regular American bacon. The food was pretty good. Since we hadn't had time to go to the Tower of London the day before, we decided to visit that day. We toured through the castle (which was interesting enough, though just a bunch of grand rooms), and then jumped on the underground to make sure that we were back at the hotel in time for the walking tour with our class. Our professor took us down fleet street (which was where I took that picture of St. Paul's) and pointed out the various different locations (houses, meeting rooms, etc.) for the 1790's British Revolutionaries. One good thing that came of our walk - Tara and I met two other people whom we liked. The first was Michael. He's a nice, intelligent, harmless guy. The other was Cheryl, a slightly older woman, who is quite laid back and easy to talk to. We went home after our walk, and that was it. The next day, Tara and I invited Michael to come with us to the National Gallery, which is a British museum of art. It is quite fantastic, and has tons of paintings to look at. I was able to see such artists as Da Vinci, Monet, Degas, Renior, etc. I even bought a really nice print of a Monet painting of Big Ben and the river Thames. After we were finished, the three of us sat down in a Cafe and talked a lot about various religious and political subjects. I had some really excellent hot chocolate (which is what I remember most...lol). We went back to our hotel, rested, then went out to another pub with Michael. This one had a more lively atmosphere, and was more fun than the first one we had gone to. After we got home, I went online and booked train tickets for Tara and I to visit Bath and Oxford. That was the end of our day. After that, Tara and I went back to Kew Gardens (which we had gone to with our professor to visit the National Archives), but this time we actually wanted to visit the gardens themselves. Kew Garden is a lovely little town with lots of little markets (cafes, bread shops, butcher shops, etc.) and Tara and I agreed that we would both love to live there. It is such pretty and quaint suburban neighborhood, and it's only a ten minute underground ride from central London. The gardens themselves are just gorgeous and green. We bought sandwiches and ate them while sitting in one or two of the low trees (yes, Tara and I climbed trees.) After visiting the gardens, we went to the store to get some more food, and then went home. The next day, Tara and I got up late and went to the Covent Garden Market, which is an open-door market for all sorts of merchandise. Then we had lunch at a cafe called "Boswell's," which is a historic place because many famous British authors (like Dr. Johnson and Boswell) used to meet there. After that, we decided to go back to St. James' Park, and we sat on the grass in front of the lake and read our books until it got cold, and we went home to our hotel. We got up late again the next day (it was the weekend, after all,) and visited the Charles Dickens house and Museum. It was a really cool little place, which had various different artifacts from Dickens' life, including clothing he used to wear, desks he used to use, his furniture, some of his original manuscripts for his novels, etc. I was really excited to be going there, because I love Charles Dickens. I bought myself of one of Dickens' novels - it is an rare version, and the book itself is 93 years old! It was not in perfect conditions, which is why it was only 10 pounds. After that, Tara and I spend a long time looking for a Tesco Grocery store, because they were giving away free DVD's of the BBC "Pride and Prejudice" with one of their newspapers. We were starving and tired from all the walking by the time we found one, but Tara thought it was worth it. Then we went home. The next day We invited Michael and Cheryl to come to Baker street with us, where we went to the Sherlock Holmes Museum. It was made to look like Sherlock's house, and there was an actor dressed up as Dr. Watson. After that, we stopped at a cafe, and then went home to rest. We went to a pub, where Michael and Tara tried to convince me to have more than one drink, but I steadily refused. Not that I can't trust them, but I'm very careful when I go out to drink, because I'm not used to it. We went home, and that was the end of our day.
Trying to Play Catch-Up As each day passes, it gets more difficult to keep up with everything that I do. Tara and I usually do a lot of things in one day. I’ll try to give more brief accounts of what I’ve done for the past six or seven days, just to keep up to date.
My third day in London was my first day in class. We arrived at the conference room at nine o’clock and waited for our professor. He was about ten or fifteen minutes late, which we didn’t appreciate, because we were all tired and still getting used to the time difference. We had class from 9 to 12, but he gave us plenty of breaks. He was mostly talking to us about the British revolutionaries of the 1790’s. After class, Tara and I decided to go to Westminster, which we had not had a chance to visit the day before. We bought sandwiches, which is what we usually do when we walk somewhere, so we don’t have to stop to eat at a restaurant. It saves time and money that way. The sandwiches at EAT or Pret A Manger (another sandwich shop) are usually only a couple of pounds each. On our way to Westminster, Tara took me through Trafalgar Square. Trafalgar is huge. It has a tall, thin statue in the middle (it must be at least 75 feet), with two fountains on either side. Next to Trafalgar is the magnificent National Gallery – a massive grey stone building with Romanesque columns. We arrived at Westminster, which includes such things as Westminster Abbey (an extremely grand gothic cathedral) Big Ben, and the Parliament building, the two former being some of the most famous monuments in England. I remember it being really crowded, and we were lucky enough to be around to hear Big Ben strike 3 o’clock. After that, Tara and I ended up in St. James Park, which is a five-minute walk from Westminster. England has beautiful parks. St. James is completely green and filled with trees, and there is a huge lake in which we could see ducks and even a few swans. Tara and I looked around a bit, then sat down by the lake on a bench and ate our sandwiches. Then we decided, since we were so close, to go to Buckingham Palace. It was very grand, and I liked watching the marching red guards by the front gates. We just stood outside the gate and watched people go in and out. I was a little surprised to find, however, that Buckingham Palace, as beautiful as it is, was rather boring. I think I ultimately like “living” London better than the rather static monuments. We haven’t taken a palace tour yet, but we will eventually. Tara and I walked back through St. James park, where a lady gave us crumbs to feed the birds, and then we went home. That was the end of my third day. The next day, our professor to the class to the National Archives. We took the underground to Kew Gardens (pronounced “Q” Gardens; the section of London in which the Archives is located) and arrived there around 10 o’clock AM. We walked through a quaint residential area, where the old, white houses stood neatly in rows. I loved the houses, and thought about how great it would be to live in one of them. After five minutes of walking, the class arrived at the National Archives. It is a modern building, and a fantastic place to research the legal and/or civil history of England. They have many original documents that can be ordered and examined, from birth records to court cases to newspapers, dating from the 17th century. Our professor had requested several documents for our class to look at, and we went into a room and examined many things – newspaper clippings, pamphlets, hand-written arrest warrants, etc. – all which had been used by the British revolutionaries of the 1790’s. It was quite cool, and hard to believe that most of the papers that we were handling were over two-hundred years old. After class, Tara and I decided to stay behind and search through the computer data base at the Archives. There was tons of information. I discovered that they actually have Jane Austen’s written will stored in their building. It required written permission to see it. After that, Tara and I decided on a whim to take the underground to the Tower of London, to see if we could take a tour. The Tower, of course, is the famous castle where the monarchs used to imprison many of their enemies. We arrived at the Tower at 4 o’clock. It is an old, yellow-and-red-stoned castle, which looks like something out of a movie. Unfortunately, we were not able to take a tour. The lady at the counter told us that the castle closed at 5 PM, and we would only have an hour to see everything, which was not enough time. We took a quick look around on the outside, and went into one of the smaller chapels before we caught the underground home. In the evening, I went to my first pub. It was very uneventful, and Tara and I just had one fruity drink each. The pubs in England are also very nice. Some of them are extremely old, and the one we went to had walls and tables made of shinning dark wood. We had a little drink, then we went home, and that was the end of our day.
My Second Day (Cont.) Tara and I finally arrived at the area for restaurant reservations. It was a cafe/bakery area, with several tables. The man behind the counter told us that he would call the managers of our restaurant, so that we could have our questions answered. After a few minutes on the phone, he came back out and told us that all the lines were busy, but that he would try again after a little while. He invited us to sit down at one of the tables. I took off my coat and asked Tara to give me my water (which I had purchased earlier), because I was thirsty. I had just begun to open my water, when suddenly it bubbled up and squirted all over me and all over the table, as if it had been a soda. Tara laughed, and it was then that I looked at the label, which read "sparkling water." The man behind the counter didn't seem to notice. Or perhaps he politely declined to notice. Whatever the case, I felt quite embarrassed. Here I was at the Royal Opera House, attempting to carry myself with some dignity and already a little self-conscious about my messy and student-like appearance, when I suddenly found myself covered in water. I quickly cleaned up the mess and put my coat on over my damp clothes, hoping that no one had noticed.
A few minutes later, the man behind the counter (I think he was French - I've noticed that there are a several people from other countries working in London) came up to me and said that he had an employee from my restaurant on the phone, if I wanted to talk to her. I only had a few questions about pre-ordering our dinner for the Opera. When I finished, the Frenchman gave Tara and me menu forms for the restaurant, and we filled in what we wished to eat for the evening and ordered our wine. Tara and I will be having a three course meal. For the first course, we are both having poached asparagus with hollandaise sauce. For the main dish, Tara is having a baked semolina gnocchi (an Italian pasta dish) and I am having a seared Welsh lamb. For dessert, I will have Grand Marnier souffle glace (which is supposed to be a dark chocolate soup), and Tara ordered a "seasonal cheese." We had originally considered buying a bottle of wine to share, but then decided to buy some cheaper wine, which they sell buy the glass. Tara will be drinking a Sauvignon Blanc, and I will be having a Cabernet Sauvignon. Tara said that she thought red wine would be better suited for lamb. It was only 10 o'clock by the time we finished our business at the Opera House, and we left. We then wished to go the the Globe Theatre at the edge of the River Thames to pick up tickets to see Shakespeare's "King Lear." On our way there, however, we got a little side-tracked. We stumbled upon a building called King's College, which is a branch of the University of London. We went inside to look around. It seemed like the usual school setting, with offices, classrooms, cafeterias, etc., but Tara and I were excited to be there. Both of us want to do our graduate studies in England, and we thought it would be really cool to go to school there. Tara went up to the desk and asked if they had any information on their graduate programs, and the girl behind the counter gave us two copies of their Graduate Prospectus. It was thick and glossy, like a magazine, and gave us much of the information we needed about the qualifications required and the application process for the graduate program. I'll probably apply to this school, as well as Oxford and Cambridge, when I graduate UCLA. Tara and I finally made it to the Globe Theatre and purchased our tickets. The Globe is modeled after the original Globe Theatre - the place where Shakespeare and this theatre company often performed their plays. The original burnt down, and the current Globe is a re-built version. The Theatre is entirely circular, and has an audience that almost completely encircles the stage. After this, we found ourselves besides the river Thames. Tara told me about her trip to London the year before, where the Thames had been so flooded that it had knocked down some of the wooden staircases that had been two close to its shore. She also showed me the outside of the Tate Museum, which we will eventually visit. The Tate has two different sides two it. The first, which was the side that we were on, is called the Tate Modern, which houses contemporary art. The second section is the Tate Britain, which is an older, more traditional museum. The Tate Britain is just across the Waterloo Bridge. Tara and I crossed Waterloo. In the distance, straight in front of us, I could see the huge blue dome of St. Paul's Cathedral coming into view. I was simply amazed by St. Paul's, which is a massive and ornate stone building. Tara and I decided that we wanted to stop and eat our sandwiches. We sat at some tables right next to St. Paul's. It was just so great, eating my chicken and parsley sandwich, enjoying the fresh cool air, staring up as the dome of St. Paul's towered over us. It was a moment, like several other moments that I have had, where I said to myself, "I'm so happy to be in London!" Tara and I had originally planned on going to Westminster to see the parliament house and Big Ben, but after lunch Tara told me that she had twisted her ankle a little and wanted to go back to the hotel. I was fine with it, and we walked back. We agreed that we would go to Westminster early the next morning. We spent the rest of the day resting in our room, for we had been out for nearly five hours. And that was the end of my second day. St. Paul's Cathedral; picture I took while standing on Fleet Street 
My Second Day I just wanted to take this moment to make some observations about my fellow classmates. They are all quite nice, and I seem to get on with them well enough, but I am still very glad to have Tara as a companion. She is the person whom I can relate to the most. She says the same thing of me, as well. Now, maybe this is just me, but I feel almost as if the other students may not have as great an appreciation of London as they ought. It might be a little arrogant of me to say this, but that is how I feel, though I can't quite explain it. Anyway, I shouldn't put anyone down. On with my descriptions.
Tara and I both woke up at six the next morning. The main reason for this, of course, was that we were still getting used to London time. Tara turned on the tv and we watched the BBC for an hour, while I was on my computer. I find that I really like the BBC News a lot better than American news. They aren't so hysterical, and they are more likely to address world-wide, interesting issues than celebrities. Not to say that they don't talk about celebrities, but not nearly as much as the Americans do. Tara and I ate some breakfast (tea, crumpets, and some crackers and cheese), then we took showers and got ready. We ended up leaving our room at around 8:30, and decided to run a few errands. We went back to Sainsbury and bought dish soap, and then went to an inexpensive sandwich place simply called "EAT." Tara had our day planned out for us, and said that we would buy sandwiches for lunch, so that we wouldn't have to eat out. In London, they tend to have more unusual sandwich selections, like "cream cheese and cucumber", or "salmon and watercress,". I purchased a chicken and parsley sandwich, and we went on our way. Our first stop was at an electronic store, so that Tara could buy a plug adaptor for her computer. The next order of business we had was to stop by the Royal Opera House. We were required to pre-order our wine and our meal for our dinner reservations. I remember feeling rather out of place, a couple of ragamuffin young students in oversized black coats walking up to the magnificent white marble building. The two men in the lobby were both in suits. I asked for the restaurant reservation area, and they directed us up the stairs. Tara and I were able to enter the Paul Hamlyn Restaurant, which is where we have our reservations. There was no one in there, of course. It was just beautiful, with an incredibly high, glass domed ceiling. The building was recently renovated and was formerly used as a flower market. One side is almost entirely made of glass, which looks out onto the green trees and foliage outside. The opposite wall is covered in one large mirror, which makes the place look even larger. There are two floors. The lower floor is the bar area, and the upper floor is a glass balcony overlooking the bar, where they have the dinner tables. Tara and I will be eating on the balcony. My Arrival and First day (cont.) Tara and I finally arrived at Holborn station. It was there that I figured out how laborious it is to take two heavy pieces of luggage through the London underground stations. I had trouble getting out of the train, but luckily there was a nice young man who helped me lift my large suitcase onto the platform. I was dismayed to find that the London underground is full of stairs and escalators. I attempted in vain to carry both pieces of luggage down a flight of stairs, but another young man was kind enough to help me. I was quite the damsel in distress that day. Except, not at all graceful. I think it would be more accurate to say that I was a clumsy, tired, slightly frazzled girl, than an attractively distressed damsel. We literally had to go up three or four steep escalators to finally get up to the street. I nervously pulled my huge suitcase and backpack after me, and was afraid that somehow I would end up falling down the escalator, or letting go of the luggage. I kept vowing to myself that next time I would only bring one suitcase, and Tara laughed at me the whole time.
It was all worth it, of course. The very first sight that greeted me when I went out onto the street was a huge, majestic, white marble building which looked more like a landmark than a business. We had only to walk for five minutes before we finally arrived at our hotel. The time was 2:15 PM, and we still had another 45 minutes before they would allow the UCLA student to check in. Tara sat in the lobby and rested, but I decided I wanted to take a walk. I must have walked about a mile or so down the street from our hotel. The architecture in London is just amazing! Many of the buildings are quite old and ornate. I honestly don't know what I was expecting to see before I had arrived, but I hadn't expected to be so enthralled. London is a city which has to be seen to be believed. It is almost other-worldly. You can walk down one street and see the fantastic, heavy ornamentation of a gothic-style cathedral building, and yet walk down another street and find yourself surrounded by completely modern buildings of concrete and fiber-glass. The old and the new are blended together. Unlike California, or at least the parts of it that I am familiar with, the streets and buildings are not set up in regular, parallel lines. The streets, for one thing, curve and twist in all different directions. It reminds me a little of LA. The buildings are almost haphazardly placed here and there, as if the architects of the city tried to fit in as much as they possibly could. It's great! To me, there is something more human about the cityscape. It's not meticulously regular, but a rather wild. Each of the streets are lined with huge, green-leaved trees. I was just amazed by everything, and I kept wishing that I had my family with me, so that they could see what I was seeing. After about half-an-hour of walking and admiring the scenery, I went back to the hotel. Tara and I were given the key to our room at 3 o'clock. We had requested to be roommates. Our room is like a tiny little studio apartment. There is only one room with a tv, a desk, two small tables, and a little couch which doubles as a trundle bed. There is a little corridor leading from the front door. On one side we have a little closet, and on the other side is the bathroom. We also have a kitchen - the tiniest kitchen I've ever seen. It's only a little larger than a closet, but there is just enough room for a stove, a sink, a small fridge, some cabinets, and a tiny dishwasher. The kitchen is stocked with little dishes and silverware, as well as a few pots and pans. It is actually quite cute. We have one window which looks out onto an office building. As soon as we were settled in our room, Tara wanted to go out and buy groceries for the week. So she took me to a grocery store called Sainsbury, and we bought a few things for the week. We actually had fun looking for bargains, and trying to out-do each other by finding the best deals. I think we make a pretty good pair; both of us are very conscious of the money we spend. Tara also is a good balance for me, because she tries to make sure that we have vegetables and fruit - something that I usually tend to overlook, or simply not bother with. After we bought groceries, Tara and I returned to our room, and Tara cooked dinner. She made some good stir fry vegetables, and a little pasta with tomato sauce. It was good, and we were glad to finally be settled. We just rested for awhile, trying to stay awake, though we hadn't slept very much in the past 24 hours. Our professor, when we had seen him at the luggage claim, told us not to nap. He said that the only way to get used to the time difference was to make ourselves stay up until at least 9 or 10. Only then should we allow ourselves to sleep. The whole class had a meeting with our professor in the hotel conference room at 6 PM, and he just told us a few things about the class, and our possible visits to particular sites. The class I am taking is about the British Revolutionary, Romantic literature of the 1790's, with an emphasis on the poet/engraver William Blake. We will be visiting various locations where Blake lived and worked, and the 1790's Revolutionaries met and conspired. After we went back to our room, Tara ended up falling asleep at around 8 o'clock. It was a little ironic, because it had been she who had been urging me not to nap, or fall asleep too early. But I could hardly blame her because, little as I had slept on the plane ride, she had not slept at all. I left the room and took my laptop into the hotel lobby, to see if I could gain internet access. There I met several other students in my class, and they told me that they were planning on taking a walk to the River Thames. I decided that I would accompany them. We all walked down to the river, one girl with a map leading the way. I socialized a bit with the other students, but spent much of my time just looking around at the beautiful buildings. We all had to make sure that we were careful when we crossed the streets. The British drive on the "wrong" side of the road. I have attempted to develop the habit of looking right, then left when I cross the street. The weather was cold, and a little showery, but we didn't mind. We arrived at the edge of the large Thames River, and from there we were able to catch a glimpse of the "London Eye," which is a ferris-wheel-like ride which supposedly has some of the best views in England. However, it costs 30 pounds to ride it. As we walked along the river, we were also able to catch a glimpse of Big Ben, which was really cool. After that, we went back to our hotel, and I ended up falling asleep at around 9 PM. And that was the end of my arrival day in England.
My Arrival and First day I will begin my London blog by giving a brief description of my flight. I must have been nervous the day of the trip, because I ended up throwing up twice at home while I was packing, which I haven't done in years. I was in the middle of a phone conversation with my father when I had to say "Hold on, Dad," and then run to the bathroom and be sick. It's rather funny, in retrospect.
But the flight itself went really well. I flew on a Boeing 747 using British Airways. It was pretty uneventful, and quite long - ten hours, to be exact. I sat in a three-seat isle, with my friend Tara next to the window, me in the middle, and some random Scottsman on the end. I only spoke to him once or twice, because he was absorbed most of the time with his ipod. We didn't have much room, but it was tolerable. I was actually impressed with the services on the flight. Each seat had an entertainment system. There was a touch screen in front of the seat where you could choose from the various entertainment libraries the plane had stored. You could watch a movie, listen to music, watch episodes of television shows, etc. Of course, selections were limited, but it was still useful. You just had to make your selection, put on your headphones, and you were set. I ended up watching half of a movie called "The Other Boleyn Girl," an episode of "30 Rock," and listening to a few Bach concertos. The only disadvantage to this was that, in order to hear the sound over the hum of the plane, I had to turn up the volume on my headphones really high. This hurt my ears, even when I tried to use tissue as earplugs, so I didn't do it too much. The entertainment system also recorded the progress of our flight, and would show the plane's journey on a map. It occurred to me, during the flight, that this kind of technology seems to keep people from talking to each other. Shame, really. With the exception of my attempts to entertain myself with the screen system, I spent most of the journey (about five or six hours) trying to get myself to sleep. It was difficult, though. Attempting to sleep in an airplane is like trying to sleep in the front seat of a car. It's not particularly comfortable. I don't think I ever fell asleep completely - just closed my eyes and rested. I did talk to Tara a few times during the journey, though not extensively. I made sure to move my legs around while I was in my seat, and I got up two or three times during the flight to use the restrooms and walk around. I also thought the plane food was pretty decent. Two hours after we had taken off, they served us dinner. We had a choice between chicken and pasta. I ate the BBQ chicken, which came with vegetables, a small salad, a little bread roll, and a really good lemon cheese cake for dessert. They even offered free red or white wine with the meal which, Tara, told me, was one of the reasons she wanted to fly with BA. Tara didn't end up drinking any wine, though...lol For breakfast, which they served an hour before landing, they gave us a croissant with cheese and turkey on it, some orange juice, and some black tea. We flew up over the middle of the US into Canada, and then over Greenland, Ireland, finally landing in Heathrow airport about noon London Time, which would have been four in the morning Pacific Time. Needless to say, Tara and I were very tired. Tara had remained awake for the entire trip. We got off the plane and retrieved our luggage. It was there that I saw my professor, and we learned that he had been on the same flight as us. He left after he had found his baggage, and Tara was able to take me to get an Oyster Card, which is for use on the underground and buses. I chose a "pay-as-you-go" plan, and put 30 pounds on it. Then Tara led me to the station where we were to take the underground to Holborn, where our hotel was. I kept thinking that I was lucky Tara knew what she was doing. We took the Piccadilly Line for about half-an-hour, maybe forty minutes. Sometimes it got really crowded. It was here that I caught my first glimpses of the English landscape. Though I was rather tired, I was really excited. The train, when it went above ground, was often surrounded by thick, green foliage and tall trees. It was a cloudy, showery day. I was amazed at how green everything was. I was ecstatic when I was able to see a few neighborhoods. Most of the buildings in England, including the houses that people live in, are old. Much older than in the US. Many of the houses that I saw while on the underground were made of old, worn brick. They had old roof tiles to match, which were sometimes covered in moss. The train tracks were obviously old and worn (though efficient), and the metal fences around it were rusty - probably from all that rain. The train itself was slightly rickety. It was white with a blue stripe. It had red doors, and blue and yellow poles to hold on to. It reminded me of BART, except it was obviously older.
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