We saw the sun for a bit this morning but it has retreated behind clouds once again. No matter, I'm off to do some shopping and go to the gym.
Last night I went out with friends...really nice night in the city, went to a bar called Walkabout. It's an Australian chain of bars but the one we went to in Leicester Square is actually located inside an old church so the architecture was amazing....as were the drinks and company. They played the marcarena"...in a bar...it reminded me of 8th grade dances but was overall loved by both the American and British crowd. We used a 'bike taxi' to get to the bar from the tube stop because it was quite a hike. I've come into fortune with friends as my friend Ashley is from Queens, NY...she argued us a good deal!
Finishing up the week feels great, Paris is now a week away! If anyone caught wind of the problems in the Channel Tunnel it was an electric problem that they say will assuredly be fixed by the time next Friday roles around; nothing harmful or worrisome though. I have some group projects coming up in the next few weeks. Nothing too rigorous yet but it feels nice to be getting into the swing of things with work and classes.
As the days pass I get to know more and more people in the dorm, which has developed a very tight knit community. We also become more familiar with local shops, transportation, and events. These things make London seem quite like a home away from home. As for my weekend I'm off to Stonehenge and Bath for the day bright and early tomorrow at 8am but I'm very excited. (The last time I went to Stonehenge I was about 8 years old and quite uninterested in large rocks in funny shapes). I also need to get books for my classes which has proved quite amusing. I need a book for 'Globalization' and kept entering it in an online search at the local bookstore only to have an employee explain that they don't spell things with 'Zeds' (Z's) over here...so 'Globalisation' turned up in the system after the gentleman helping me had a good laugh.
Anyways thank you for all of your comments and posts, I love reading them and staying in touch with you all!
Friday, September 12, 2008
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
I forgot I was here for school....I should probably start going to class
Thanks for reminding me about school....I thought I was on an extended vacation and wine tasting trip. So I'll write a bit about my day to entertain the idea that I actually attend classes here ;o)
Today I got up at noon...I know...lazy Kate. Anyhow I packed up my backpack, grabbed my Ipod and made my way to the 'high street' tube station at a quick pace as I had to meet my class at the 'St Paul' tube stop about 20 minutes away. This is for my History of London course where we have seminar on Mondays and field trips on Wednesdays. Last week we went to the British Museum where the Rosetta stone is located among many other artifacts relevant to British history and early development of culture (pre-Roman invasion):
British Museum:
So this week we are focusing just past 50 AD as the Romans are invading London and quite easily conquer this mainly village based, non-militaristic region. After the Boudiccan uprising against the Romans, the Romans decided it would be appropriate to surround the city of London with walls as defense. London was at an ideal location upon the Thames with 2 hills, also beneficial for defense purposes. So on the field trip we looked at some of the remains of the Roman wall left in the city today. The wall, of course, has been added to and built upon, but the foundations are from the original wall that went up around 200 AD. During the medieval time period the British decided to let the wall remain, as taking down a large wall surrounding a square mile is time consuming and lots of work. So today if you walk around the city of London you walk amongst original Roman wall scattered throughout modern British architecture and a few buildings pre-'the great fire' (though few remain). Here is a segment of the wall that we passed today:
As a side track, while we were in the area of 'St. Pauls' tube stop we looked of course at the 'new 'St Paul's Cathedral which stands 365 feet (one foot for ever day in the year-easy to remember!). This was the masterpiece of Christopher Wren, among many other buildings he was commissioned to re-build after the great fire of 1666. The fire, which miraculously only killed 5 people wiped out nearly 80% of the city and left 13,000 homeless. The Old St. Paul's was burned to the ground and then re-built under Wren's plans for the new city. His grave inside the beautiful building is a simple stone tablet which would surprise many however it reads..."Underneath lies buried Christopher Wren, the builder of this church and city; who lived beyond the age of ninety years, not for himself, but for the public good.--Reader, if you seek his monument, look around you" St Pauls:
St Pauls became the symbol of hope and the future of London. During the blitz in WWII there was a special segment of the public devoted to watching the Cathedral night and day. If a bomb dropped on or near it the team would remove and drive the bomb as far away from the city as they could, risking their lives for the symbol of the city. Many believed if St. Paul's could survive, so could they, which is why during the day the people came and prayed for the war to end. Dozens of people died removing the bombs to save St. Paul's and because of this today it still stands.
Okay well that was my class review.....no I did not copy and paste that...I am actually learning!!! Shocking I know :o)
Anyways I'm off to European Business Environment for 3 hours...ouch...talk to you all later!!
(Oh and it's raining again).
Lots of love,
Kate
Today I got up at noon...I know...lazy Kate. Anyhow I packed up my backpack, grabbed my Ipod and made my way to the 'high street' tube station at a quick pace as I had to meet my class at the 'St Paul' tube stop about 20 minutes away. This is for my History of London course where we have seminar on Mondays and field trips on Wednesdays. Last week we went to the British Museum where the Rosetta stone is located among many other artifacts relevant to British history and early development of culture (pre-Roman invasion):
British Museum:
So this week we are focusing just past 50 AD as the Romans are invading London and quite easily conquer this mainly village based, non-militaristic region. After the Boudiccan uprising against the Romans, the Romans decided it would be appropriate to surround the city of London with walls as defense. London was at an ideal location upon the Thames with 2 hills, also beneficial for defense purposes. So on the field trip we looked at some of the remains of the Roman wall left in the city today. The wall, of course, has been added to and built upon, but the foundations are from the original wall that went up around 200 AD. During the medieval time period the British decided to let the wall remain, as taking down a large wall surrounding a square mile is time consuming and lots of work. So today if you walk around the city of London you walk amongst original Roman wall scattered throughout modern British architecture and a few buildings pre-'the great fire' (though few remain). Here is a segment of the wall that we passed today:
As a side track, while we were in the area of 'St. Pauls' tube stop we looked of course at the 'new 'St Paul's Cathedral which stands 365 feet (one foot for ever day in the year-easy to remember!). This was the masterpiece of Christopher Wren, among many other buildings he was commissioned to re-build after the great fire of 1666. The fire, which miraculously only killed 5 people wiped out nearly 80% of the city and left 13,000 homeless. The Old St. Paul's was burned to the ground and then re-built under Wren's plans for the new city. His grave inside the beautiful building is a simple stone tablet which would surprise many however it reads..."Underneath lies buried Christopher Wren, the builder of this church and city; who lived beyond the age of ninety years, not for himself, but for the public good.--Reader, if you seek his monument, look around you" St Pauls:
St Pauls became the symbol of hope and the future of London. During the blitz in WWII there was a special segment of the public devoted to watching the Cathedral night and day. If a bomb dropped on or near it the team would remove and drive the bomb as far away from the city as they could, risking their lives for the symbol of the city. Many believed if St. Paul's could survive, so could they, which is why during the day the people came and prayed for the war to end. Dozens of people died removing the bombs to save St. Paul's and because of this today it still stands.Okay well that was my class review.....no I did not copy and paste that...I am actually learning!!! Shocking I know :o)
Anyways I'm off to European Business Environment for 3 hours...ouch...talk to you all later!!
(Oh and it's raining again).
Lots of love,
Kate
Sunday, September 7, 2008
A lazy Sunday and the rain has stopped!
Pictures above are:
Above- courtyard at the other dorms...all hanging out before Thursday night - No Friday classes!
Right - in the cab heading out Saturday night with the girls.
First of all I was so glad to hear the road race back home went well! (For a few years my neighborhood has held a road race as a cancer fundraiser....kudos, you all rock!)
So London is really starting to feel homey, the weekend was a lot of fun! On Friday night we found a place called O'neils in Soho...don't worry it was a good part of Soho...I promise. There was a live band and no cover charge which was amazing. The study abroad students tend to all find each other on the weekends, so walking in and hanging out in a big group was fun.
Saturday again we headed over near Covenant Gardens to 'Dirty Martini', kind of crowded but a good Saturday night out. Today was very relaxing, I rolled out of bed later than I'd like to admit and worked on cruise things. The girls and I booked all of our excursions.
...In Nice, France we are going to Monaco and Monte Carlo ...in Pisa we take a 10 hour tour of Tuscany, Florence, and Pisa ...Rome we are doing on our own ....in Naples myself and Ashley are hiking Vesuvius and sightseeing in Pompeii ...Sicily is a beach transfer for a nice relaxing day :o)
Couldn't be more excited!!!!!
These are the girls I'm going on the cruise with:
Lauren, Deanna and Ashley!
(They are all Yankees fans - it's been tough but if my cousin can marry one I'll deal ;o)
So the rest of the day I hung around with my girlfriends...we talked over trips to Dublin and Amsterdam and then headed to Whole Foods for dinner. I really am a Whole Foods junkie now, all my snacks are organic and gluten free (I'm channeling my Aunt Rose - Hope the Pats win!!!). Afterwards I headed to the gym for the evening, hit the sauna, showered, stopped at Starbucks for a frappachinno (sorry no spell check on that) and then I headed home. Getting into routine with school, gym, eating etc. feels wonderful!
Lots of love all xoxo,Kate
Friday, September 5, 2008
Another day of rain...
Another long day of rain to begin the weekend with. Lazy day recovering fromvfun activities of last night. Bunch of us hopped on the underground and ended up slightly lost...or as the person who got us lost put it, we were 'exploring'. I have to note something about funny/different about going out here. In America you cannot drink in public...in London you're the odd man out on a weekend if you don't have a beer in your hand on the streets. Different culture...kind of an amusing difference. As my teacher put it you're more likely to get arrested for 'sober in public' here. I'm behaving myself, (and having fun) don't worry!
Also, when you get on a treadmill not in the US...don't crank it to '6 miles per hour' because it's not in miles and you will near wipe out. I saved myself just in time thankfully. Anyways the sun is just going down (or so I assume as I have not seen it for a while) and the rain continues.
Also, I miss ginger ale...have some for me.
Lots of love,
Kate
Also, when you get on a treadmill not in the US...don't crank it to '6 miles per hour' because it's not in miles and you will near wipe out. I saved myself just in time thankfully. Anyways the sun is just going down (or so I assume as I have not seen it for a while) and the rain continues.
Also, I miss ginger ale...have some for me.
Lots of love,
Kate
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Classes and Life thus far...
So I have one class left then the weekend here!!! Richmond does not hold classes on Fridays so every weekend is a long weekend which is pretty nice. My classes have definitely been different from those in the U.S. First off there is a lot more intensive discussion and reading involved but on the other hand less work in a sense. Almost all my classes require an essay, midterm and final and that's it for the grade...no participation or attendance count towards your grade (though there is a school wise policy). I have a few scattered group projects in 2 classes but otherwise my entire semester is outlined right from the start which again, is nice.
I have already said 'hello' and 'goodbye' to one of my classes (it was near graduate level and threatened a 5% mark down if your cell phone went off). I readily replaced it with Advertising Management which I think will be fun, I have always liked marketing.
The European standards of university are generally different on a different level as well. In my 'European Business Environment' the class is split between Americans and year round, 4 year students. There are people from Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, Sri-Lanka, Germany among many others. They spoke for a bit about their views of Americans and how we approach schooling. The girl from Italy said she was appalled one semester by a student who walked in with a hat and flip-flops on as well as coffee in hand. Then there was an uproar of laughter from the year round students when they mentioned the idea of going to class in pajamas. Things are simply more formal as to what is expected in university ('Uni' as it's called here). I personally miss wearing sweats to class but I'll manage until December. There is no such thing as 'multiple choice', 'true/false', or 'fill in the blank'...a professor stated 'I know you are from American but we aren't in Elementary school anymore. So the good news it despite lack of television and going insane about missing ABC shows I will heave pleanty of reading to do this semester. Though I did find shows on YouTube (online) which made my night last night.
Nothing else much is new...we've had rain and sun on and off for 5 days now and the chilly nights are already upon us here in the UK. I hope you are still having some pleasant nights back home! I have signed up for a Stonehenge trip so hopefully that will work out in coming weeks!
So today plans are to finish up classes, head to the gym, play frisbee in Hyde Park with some friends, have dinner and head into the city for the evening :o)
Things I've noticed:
-TJMaxx is TKMaxx (though I'm sure Katie would hate either)
-Everyone here is 'go green'. Unless you ask for a bag you won't be given one and often if you require a big bag for shopping they will charge you 10 p. for it (about 18 cents).
-British beef is horrible...I miss American cheeseburgers more and more as days pass
-Cars stop for no-one...so you either play frogger or wait until there are no cars.
-Teachers love to joke about how hung-over we are everyday of the week...they also like to recommend good Pubs and Bars...
-Whole foods is the best store in the entire world...
-People actually say 'cherrio'...it's cute.
Lots of love,
Kate
I have already said 'hello' and 'goodbye' to one of my classes (it was near graduate level and threatened a 5% mark down if your cell phone went off). I readily replaced it with Advertising Management which I think will be fun, I have always liked marketing.
The European standards of university are generally different on a different level as well. In my 'European Business Environment' the class is split between Americans and year round, 4 year students. There are people from Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, Sri-Lanka, Germany among many others. They spoke for a bit about their views of Americans and how we approach schooling. The girl from Italy said she was appalled one semester by a student who walked in with a hat and flip-flops on as well as coffee in hand. Then there was an uproar of laughter from the year round students when they mentioned the idea of going to class in pajamas. Things are simply more formal as to what is expected in university ('Uni' as it's called here). I personally miss wearing sweats to class but I'll manage until December. There is no such thing as 'multiple choice', 'true/false', or 'fill in the blank'...a professor stated 'I know you are from American but we aren't in Elementary school anymore. So the good news it despite lack of television and going insane about missing ABC shows I will heave pleanty of reading to do this semester. Though I did find shows on YouTube (online) which made my night last night.
Nothing else much is new...we've had rain and sun on and off for 5 days now and the chilly nights are already upon us here in the UK. I hope you are still having some pleasant nights back home! I have signed up for a Stonehenge trip so hopefully that will work out in coming weeks!
So today plans are to finish up classes, head to the gym, play frisbee in Hyde Park with some friends, have dinner and head into the city for the evening :o)
Things I've noticed:
-TJMaxx is TKMaxx (though I'm sure Katie would hate either)
-Everyone here is 'go green'. Unless you ask for a bag you won't be given one and often if you require a big bag for shopping they will charge you 10 p. for it (about 18 cents).
-British beef is horrible...I miss American cheeseburgers more and more as days pass
-Cars stop for no-one...so you either play frogger or wait until there are no cars.
-Teachers love to joke about how hung-over we are everyday of the week...they also like to recommend good Pubs and Bars...
-Whole foods is the best store in the entire world...
-People actually say 'cherrio'...it's cute.
Lots of love,
Kate
Monday, September 1, 2008
My fall break plans....
*Make sure to note I posted two new entries tonight, just to break up a lot of writing**
My fall break plans:
I think a picture serves best my excitement! Myself and three girlfriends are going on a Mediterranean Cruise for fall break!!!!!!! I'm freaking out a little myself. We leave from Barcelona on the 18th of October on the 'Royal Caribbean: Voyager of the Seas' and sail to Nice, Florence, Rome, Naples, and Palermo (Sicily) followed by a day at sea and return to Barcelona. I am so incredibly indescribably excited. We got quite a deal because we are all fitting into an interior room. Really the most exciting part are some of the excursions to the beaches of Nice, Monte Calro/Monaco, Pompeii, wine tasting in Tuscany, pizza tasting and Tower of Pisa and tours of Rome. So I'll keep everyone updated on plans and such but I'm so happy the cruise and the flights are all booked and will have to settle into the idea that it's not just a dream.
Anyways aside from all that today was my first day of classes. I had 'History of London' which is a dual course: taught in classroom and through field trips. We go to about 6 local museums, the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey among many others. Should be lots of fun! Continuing to adjust has been interesting. Going to the food store and not recognizing any brands can be frustrating, I miss Jiffy PB, and Heinz Ketchup, as well as Orbitz spearmint gum (they have funny flavors here such as 'melon banana'). The saving grace of the food is 'Whole Foods' located just 3 blocks away. Three stories of wonderful edible things. I'm sure I'll adjust to food here eventually, just staying away from the beef...I tried a burger 2 nights ago and really have never missed Ray Cafeteria so much in my life (Ray is my PC cafeteria and by no means a five star restaurant).
My roommates moved into school yesterday! I am nostalgic of the past 3 years and cannot believe I'm not there to decorate and clutter the room, I'll have to entrust that to them. Anyways I'm certainly starting to miss you all very much and love you keeping in touch so much (makes me feel not so far away)!
Lots of love
xoxo Kate
My fall break plans:
I think a picture serves best my excitement! Myself and three girlfriends are going on a Mediterranean Cruise for fall break!!!!!!! I'm freaking out a little myself. We leave from Barcelona on the 18th of October on the 'Royal Caribbean: Voyager of the Seas' and sail to Nice, Florence, Rome, Naples, and Palermo (Sicily) followed by a day at sea and return to Barcelona. I am so incredibly indescribably excited. We got quite a deal because we are all fitting into an interior room. Really the most exciting part are some of the excursions to the beaches of Nice, Monte Calro/Monaco, Pompeii, wine tasting in Tuscany, pizza tasting and Tower of Pisa and tours of Rome. So I'll keep everyone updated on plans and such but I'm so happy the cruise and the flights are all booked and will have to settle into the idea that it's not just a dream.
Anyways aside from all that today was my first day of classes. I had 'History of London' which is a dual course: taught in classroom and through field trips. We go to about 6 local museums, the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey among many others. Should be lots of fun! Continuing to adjust has been interesting. Going to the food store and not recognizing any brands can be frustrating, I miss Jiffy PB, and Heinz Ketchup, as well as Orbitz spearmint gum (they have funny flavors here such as 'melon banana'). The saving grace of the food is 'Whole Foods' located just 3 blocks away. Three stories of wonderful edible things. I'm sure I'll adjust to food here eventually, just staying away from the beef...I tried a burger 2 nights ago and really have never missed Ray Cafeteria so much in my life (Ray is my PC cafeteria and by no means a five star restaurant).
My roommates moved into school yesterday! I am nostalgic of the past 3 years and cannot believe I'm not there to decorate and clutter the room, I'll have to entrust that to them. Anyways I'm certainly starting to miss you all very much and love you keeping in touch so much (makes me feel not so far away)!
Lots of love
xoxo Kate
Boat Cruise at Sunset in London
Sorry I haven't written for another few days, classes just started today and the weekend was a little busy still getting used to things around here!
The boat cruise on friday night was out of a movie, absolutely so stunning to be on the Thames at sunset. Our boat left from the docks right by Big Ben (at right) and the London Eye (at left). The girl in the photo on the left is Mara, my roommate and some boys we met earlier in the week (the one on the left is from PC!); the girls at right are friends that I've met this week as well.
So we cruised up and down the Thames as the sun (behind the clouds) set over London and the lights came up illuminating both a city of old architecture and modern wonders. Upon departure the bar opened up and the dance floor got movin', it was a lot of fun. Classic American rap and R&B made us feel right at home. High heels and wake water resulted in a few sways and trips on board but I managed to keep my footing. Later we passed under Tower Bridge and London bridge as people waved and the lights came on for the evening. We also passed by the Dome at Greenwich (where they set time) at the Prime Meridian. Interestingly enough the line of the prime meridian is lit up in the night horizon to horizon as a green laser beam (really cool)! So I made a wish under the prime meridian and we turned around making our way back to Big Ben. See pictures below:
Greenwich Dome Big Ben and House of Parliament
Myself and Ashley by Tower Bridge at Night
And the London Eye all lit up!
It was a wonderful time and amazing way to start the semester :o)
Love and miss you all
xoxo Kate
Sorry just added this: not my picture but this is the laser at the prime meridian!
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