Parliament!

Today my class woke up at the ungodly hour of 7 a.m. to see Parliament.  Yeay!  Although it was a neat tour I wish I would have been a little bit more awake to remember everything our tour guide said.  During most of the tour visitors weren't allowed to take pictures so I only have the ones above from Westminister Hall (not to be confused with Westminister Abbey).  But here are some random things I remember from class research and from our tour today:

-The House of Commons is represented by the color green because it is more of a plain color; the House of Commons is an elected body-they truly represent the people of UK & are the government of it all.

-The House of Lords is represented by the color red and inside their house is tons of gold and red decor. This shows how they are much more distinguished and royal-they are nominated to have their positions in the House of Lords.

-In the House of Commons the aisle down the center of it features a white line on each side.  This was put there during the days of sword fighting and such.  Members were asked to "toe the line" meaning that they couldn't go past the line and fight when debates became too heated.

-The Queen (or King) is never allowed in the House of Commons.

-According to my teacher, one of the longest debates that happened recently was over a bill that was against fox hunting.  He said the debate went on for many months because some members of Parliament saw fox hunting as a sport while others saw various parts of the sport as too cruel.

Kay well that is all I could think of for now...I had a little bit of information overload at 8 a.m. in the morning!  I hope you learned something from my relay of information =]

A fun day of class in London.

Our proposed class bill that now hangs proudly in my flat.

Okay, so I've been a slacker on the whole blog thing lately buutttt.....I didn't forget about you all in the States!  

So, Monday, January 26:

Today I had British Life & Culture class.  During the second half of our day our teacher made us role play as Parliament.  Last week we each received notebooks with certain colored stickers and numbers on the front of them.  Those colors and stickers each meant something for our Parliament exercise.  I received a red sticker and the number three on my notebook; this meant that I belonged to the Labour Party and also that I was a Cabinet Minister, one of the heads of government next to the Prime Minister.  On Monday, I, along with the "Prime Minister" Gordan Brown (AKA my flat mate Bri) & 3 other Cabinet Ministers had to propose a Bill during lunch for our "Parliament" to discuss and pass.  Our teacher instructed us to make it a fun bill so this is what we came up with (and before we came up with the bill our teacher said last year's class made their bill state that each American man who came to London had to wear a scarf):

I, Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of this fine class, under the instruction of Sir Lyndon Sly, with the help of my lovely Ministers of State do propose a bill in which states:

In any pub or club, any English gent whom encounters and/or converses with a woman of American descent, must therefore by law purhcas the woman a drink of her choice and not be obliged to buy him a drink in RETURN!

(the bill was amended and passed with one little addition: this bill is only valid during 3 days, Thur., Fri,. & Sat., and after payday)

A run through Hyde Park...

I woke up this morning and while I was about to read a book I saw the sun coming through the windows of my flat and decided, "Hey, why not run through Hyde Park?"  My flat is only a 5-8 minute walk away from Hyde Park so I put on my running shoes, grabbed my camera and iPod and started my sightseeing workout.  Hyde Park is just so neat!  There were people running, bicycling, skateboarding, feeding ducks, walking, reading and so on.  Along with all the people there the whole park was just gorgeous.  I couldn't stop taking pictures (and it was a good excuse to NOT run).  If I lived in London I bet I'd run more often because how could you not want to run or power walk when you have such a beautiful park down the block from you?!  Another reason why I should live here...

Pictures!

The Travel Bookshop

Yesterday afternoon I decided that since I didn't have anything to do for the day, I would see the notorious Travel Bookshop from the movie Knotting Hill (Julia Roberts & Hugh Grant).  So after a quick ride on the tube to Notting Hill...Nikki & I found it!  Here are some pictures of the Knotting Hill area and the beloved bookshop.  I even bought a book there, not many people can say they did that!

Me in front of the Travel Bookshop with my new books!

Articles about the movie Knotting Hill that was set in The Travel Bookshop.

Streets of Knotting Hill.  This area was SO CUTE!

We thought this flat might be the one from the movie, you know...the one with the blue door?  It's a possibility.

Daytrip to Warwick Castle, Stratford-upon-Avon, etc.

Hello everyone!

Me on top of the tower of Warwick Castle.  Look at the greenery behind me, gorgeous!

Wednesday was our group's first day trip (we have one every Wed.) and for our first trip we toured Warwick Castle, Stratford-Upon-Avon, Shakespeare's Home, Shakespeare's Grave, Anne Hathaway's (Shakespeare's wife) home & for the finale we saw 'Romeo & Juliet' performed by the Royal Shakespearean Company.  Although the day was bitterly cold during our tour of Warwick Castle, it warmed up & the sunshine came out a little bit. 

We first toured Warwick Castle, a true castle from the Medieval times.  Our group had some free time to walk around the castle and explore.  We had either a choice of a) looking at the gardens or b) walking up into the tower inside Warwick castle.  Me, being a smart person, I chose to walk into the tower to get some pictures from up top.  BAD LIFE CHOICE!  By the top of the tower I wanted to pass out BUT when I got up there the whole sight was beautiful!  There were a ton of little houses, buildings and fields of green.  It was great!

Also during the day my group got some free time to visit Stratford-upon-Avon.  It was the cutest little town ever!  It was a bunch of little cobblestone streets filled with rows of old homey cottage shops, restaurants and so on.  I tried to take numerous pictures of everything I saw so I hope you enjoy them.  The link @ the bottom of the page will direct you to my pictures.

Pictures!

For the first day trip I had a ton of fun! I am getting to know people better and better, which is making the adjustment into London easier.  Also, it is fun having people to share these experiences with although everytime I go somewhere I always think, "Oh my mom would love this place," or it reminds me of someone from home.  But for now, I am loving London and excited to see more.

Oh and guess what else?  Friday morning I get to go to Camden Market!  Expect pictures of what I saw AND what I bought =]

Q. So what is there to do in London on a Tuesday when you don't have class?

A. GO TO MADAME TUSSAUDS FOR FREE OF COURSE! =]

So since today was PRESIDENT Obama's Inauguration Day, Madame Tussauds Wax Museum was offering free admission to Americans in London.  Of course any college kid is going to go to something when it's FREE, so we woke up early, beat the crowd and took a billion pictures with our favorite [wax] stars.  You would think posing by manequins wouldn't be that fun...but, it is! We had a blast making obnoxious faces next to our favorites.  I got a couple priceless pictures...I tried to put my favorites ones below.

Later on in the night some of us Americans got together in our friend's flat to watch the Obama Inauguration and order pizza.  It was kind of sad being out of the States on such a historical day for America but then again, it was neat being in London and seeing what the rest of the world, particularly England, said about Obama becoming president and such.   All in all, it was a fun day and I think I will be going back to Madame Tussauds at least one more time before I leave London.

(That means I'm taking YOU Diana.  Start practicing your posing!)

Us at the Obama Party!!!

The reason we got to go to Madame Tussauds: President Obama.  Here we are in the Oval House.

Shrek

Jim Carey is hilarious!  We just hit it off instantly.

Spiderman, spiderman....this one is for you, Craig!

Okay so Drew Barrymore's wax model didn't totally look like herself.

I told her 'Once a cheater, always a cheater.'

Hanging out with my pal, Julia!

Some people think Tom is crazy, but I think he's just charming!

Me and my new friends waiting for Madame Tussauds to open!

The wax-going crowd.

Walk along the River Thames

Note: this is Clock Tower, NOT Big Ben.  Big Ben is the chime inside of clock tower.  Don't ask a London local where Big Ben is unless you want to look like a huge tourist.  Look at how intricate it is!

This building with the flat tops on it is the British 'CIA' (well it's not really called the CIA but its similar to our CIA).  It's also been seen in numerous James Bond movies.

The group taking in London.  Can you tell we are new here?

Clock Tower in front of the River Thames.

The London Eye.  The largest ferris wheel in the world!

Just walking along the river...

This is the OXO building, the first advertisement in Britain.  They couldn't really advertise so they company built their logo OXO into the infrastructure.  Clever, eh?

Millennium Bridge, for walking pedestrians only.  They added the sides that curl up around in years after because the bridge 'wobbled' when people walked across it.

A remake of the Spanish Armada...although this model did actually sail around the whole world like the original one did.

London Bridge.

Making our way down the River Thames trail.

HMS Bellfast from WWII, it was a state of the art warcraft ship in its day.  

Ann Bolyn was executed here by Henry the 8th.

Tower Bridge:

Some views from on top of it looking out...

As you can see in the picture above, left,

it was a little rainy & wet.

Looking out from Tower Bridge.

And Tower Bridge itself, with a little bit of sunshine...

Today was my first official day of class in London.  Our Ball State London group was split into two different groups to take the walk along tour.  Somehow I managed to be lucky enough to go on the morning tour.  I woke up at 6:30 a.m. to a cold & rainy London.  Once some of the other girls here and I were off to the tube station we knew it would be a cold tour.

Needless to say once we actually were along the River Thames, on Tower Bridge it was cold, rainy and windy.  My fingers and toes were frozen in the first 10 minutes.  Yet, there were some highlights to the tour, besides seeing the amazing architecture of London: our professor bought our whole group a free coffee for being good sports, we saw the most beautiful buildings ever, we were informed about British history, monarchies, culture and commerce in 3 hours and the rain stopped after the first half hour!

Sorry the pictures and text are so messed up...I am still getting used to this new blog thing!  I can't believe how much I learned in my first day of class.  It was crazy to see old buildings that had been around for soooo long, hundreds of years.  They were beautiful too!  Why don't we save buildings in America?  Maybe we do...but not usually.  Anyways, I am on information overload right now from all the history and background I heard today.  It's a rainy day in London so maybe I should take a little cat nap...

Tomorrow is Obama's inauguration!! We are all planning on watching it in our flats AND since we are American we are suppose to get free admission into Madame Tussad's Wax Museum.  Yes!  Expect more pictures tomorrow...I don't have any classes Tuesday either =]

Sunny Sunday

So after waking up at 12 p.m. my flat mates, our friend Jamie and decided to go to Hyde Park today to take some touristy pictures.  Once we got there we were looking for Speakers Corner but stumbled upon a Muslim protest against Israeli terrorists in defense of hurting children in the Gaza strip.  Although it wasn't what we thought at first it was pretty interesting to watch.  I had never seen a live protest before so it was pretty eye-opening.  I realized that I don't really know too much about what's going on in the world either.  Most of the news is either local shootings or robberies, high school sports and celebrity gossip.  After thinking of all the usual junk I listen to or watch everyday I feel guilty not knowing about other parts of the world.

After the protest we headed over to the actual Speakers Corner for another new experience.  Speaker's Corner features various people who literally stand up on step ladders and voice their opinions to the public there.  For example, today there were 2 or 3 speakers talking about religion and promoting Christianity yet there were people there bashing the speakers too.  There was also a Princess Di/Queen impersonator, a guy giving our free hugs and another guy singing gospel songs.  

While we were at Speakers Corner we met this guy, Billy, who was from Texas but was working and living in London for now.  He was telling us all about the people at Speakers Corner and how they come every week to bicker and argue.  It was a very different experience because although we have freedom of speech in America I've never seen people debate or argue in each other's faces like they did today.   Apparently here though, it is quite normal for Speaker's Corner.

I also went to Westminster Abbey today for an organ recietal.  It was GORGEOUS!  I'm not a big one for classical gospel music but this was just the coolest thing you can ever experience.  Imagine sitting there listening to beautiful organ music and looking up and seeing all these old, classical arches and marble statues along the side of the walls.  It was just the best experience in London so far.  I'm pretty sure I'll be going back next Sunday for another concert.  I loved it!

Well tomorrow is the first day of classes so I should rest up.  We are taking a 4 mile walk through London to learn some history about different aspects of the city.  It will be a great photo opp. - as long as it doesn't rain!

first Friday in London & meeting new people.

So the first Friday in London was exhausting & exciting.  In the morning our group had orientation at CWC from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m.  I think that was when the jet lag all hit us, hard, because looking around the room everyone had bags under their eyes and plenty of yawns throughout the meeting.  After orientation and an hour nap I felt much better and ready to see some of London.   So my wonderful friend Katie G. studied abroad in Australia last year from January until April and while she was there she met a friend named James.  Before Nikki and I left for London Katie G. told us we had to meet up with her friend so on our first weekend night in London we figured what else better to do than meet some new people!  Nikki and I were a little nervous not about meeting new people though, more about how we would find this pub we were suppose to go to by tube + bus.  Yet, we found our way without calling James to ask for help!

So this pub we went to was so cute!  To me, a tourist, it seemed like the typical little English pub where everyone was sitting down chatting and making friends.  Nikki and I had a great time meeting new people and everyone we met Friday night was so interested in us studying here and giving us tips on how to 'survive' in London.   Nikki and I even found our way back to our flat afterwards via many different bus routes.

Saturday was gorgeous in London!  It was sunny and warm so what better way to spend the day than shopping on Oxford Street.  I've already found a store that I am forbidding myself to go into: Primark!  This store is absolutely AMAZING.  Primark is a department store with trendy everything: womens & mens clothes, shoes, home stuff and so on.  Yet, it is very, very cheap.  I bought a pair of boots for 15 pounds...probably only about 23 US dollars.  I even got 2 pairs of skinny jeans for 7 pounds each (aka 12 US dollars).  I'm already in love with it which is why I can't go back for another 3 or 4 weeks.  Even standing in line for the fitting room I made a friend!  This lady was standing in line in front of me and we started up a conversation about what to do and where to go in London.  After 20 min. of talking and waiting in line we are now facebook friends with her and she gave us her e-mail so we can get in contact with her brother who knows what to do in London.  

Later Saturday night some of the girls wanted to go out in London.  I brought 2 travel books with me and after looking through them we decided to try this pub called Waxy O'Conners.  Once we went inside we were in for quite a shock.  It seemed like a little place but it wasn't!  It had probably 4 or 5 different floors to it with this inside decor of fake trees with lights strewn about.  As crazy as it was it was a lot of fun!  Oh, and it was my first time trying a Guiness.  Different, but I would order it again.

Anyways, it was a good first weekend in London.  I've been making friends everywhere..who says the British are stand-offish?!

The first couple days.

Okay, well as you know I've had to refigure my blog.  Sadly to say my work before I left didn't matter...and I had to make a new blog.  Anyways, I have compiled a little list of what I have done so far in London.

Wed., January 13

So we arrived into London around 12 p.m. via Heathrow Airport, got the entire groups luggage, packed it into a charter bus and arrived at our flat.  My flat is on the 10th floor, which offers a great view of London complete with the top of the London Eye.  The group also had an orientation from our flat managing group, Anglo American (Anglo American is a London-based company that provides housing for international students studying in London) and finally that day we went down to the tube (aka subway) station to get our Oyster cards, a London transportation pass that allows us to travel by tube or bus to almost every part of London.  Needless to say after this day the whole group was exhausted and quite jet lagged.

Thurs., January 14

So on this day we went to our school, City of Westminster College (CWC), to get our student ID cards and register for our classes.  CWC is a junior college, comparitively it would be an Ivy Tech back home; a community college with people age 14-84.  Besides our school IDs some girls and I went shopping for groceries, which was quite exhausting itself because we had NO IDEA what to buy.  I've seemed to manage with the basics: cereal, bread, ham, cheese, coffee and CRUMPETS!  I've had crumpets for breakfast the past 2 days, they are pretty similar to an english muffin just not as crunchy.  They are becoming a breakfast regular.  Also something else neat the whole group did on Thursday was fill our a British quiz.  Our professor gave us a quiz with 10 questions about London.  Random questions such as: What is a pub quiz?  What is a Chelsea Tractor and who drives them?  Who doesn't go south of the river after midnight?  The funny thing is our group had to answer them individually without looking online.  So we had to actually go and talk to British people.  Ahhh!!! Talk about intimidating, asking British people about their own culture.  The funny thing is once we started talking to them about these questions they were more than helpful and didn't mind telling us all the answers.  Here was our complete quiz along with answers:

1. What is a pub quiz? - Literally, this is a quiz at a pub made up by the bartender.  Appranently it is a big phenomenon here.  Barman (not bartenders, barman) will schedule one on a certain day and teams will come to compete against each other.  It is supposedly great fun.

2. What is 'the knowledge' and who has it?  'The knowledge' is knowing the streets of London and how to get to certain places and cab drivers have 'the knowledge' because they know how to get where.

3. What is a 'Cockney'? - A cockney is a person from East London, you can tell because they have a certain accent.

4. What do Cockney's call a 'currant bun' and why? - They call the sun, as in the London Sun Newspaper, a currant bun because they rhyme everything.  Sun...currant BUN.  That sort of thing.

5. Who will not go South of the river after midnight? - This is somewhat of an urban myth but taxi cab drivers won't go because they are scared.

6. How do you get an ASBO?  You get an Anti-Social Behavior Order (ASBO) by breaking the law.

7. What is a Chelsea Tractor and who drives them? - It is a 4 wheel drive car that rich people drive, basically to show off how rich they are.  Also, Chelsea is a rather wealthy part of London...that's why it is a CHELSEA tractor.

8. If you were in 'the Clink' where would you be? - You would be in jail!

9. Why is there a number 30 bus called 'The Spirit of London'? - So, I don't know in what year this happened, there were terrorists who tried to bomb a certain number of buses in London.  Bus 30 was hit by one of the bombs and in memory the government of London bought a new, sort of souped-up bus which is now called the Spirit of London in honor of the old bus 30.

10. What would you get from a 'hole in the wall'? - Money, because a whole in the wall is an ATM.

Interesting huh? It makes me wonder, if you had to make a quiz about American culture?  What would you put on it?!?

 

Having some problems...

Well in an attempt to copy and past the blogs from my past blog site....I was unsuccessful.  That's why there are 4 empty blogs there...Opps!  Anyways, I guess I will mess with this blog later.  Right now it's 45 degrees and sunny out so I think I might catch a bus to Hyde Park and take some pictures =]

Don't worry I'll post them up here for all to see!

Okay so long story short...my blog from before was giving me problems and so I've had to switch blog addresses & servers.  I will be copy & pasting things from my earlier blog to put on here...but for future reference, this is my blog about London.