June 25-26: Study Trip to London

It is again late and tomorrow is an early rise so I will try to be brief. The past two days were spent in London on our study trip. Each class had a different agenda. Ours seem to be the most haphazard and not related to our class, but I’m not the organizer. Friday began with our bus not starting so instead of being picked up at 8:15 we were picked up at 9:30. Of course we didn’t know this ahead of time so we bonded over an episode of Columbo. The bus ride was long and upon arriving we found ourselves on the other side of the bridge from where we were when we visited London. Our “walking tour” if you can even call it that was random along the water point out a few things. They took us past the Film institute, but we had other random sights to see and the tube to take back to our hostel. Now they said it was not up a hill, but that was a lie there was a slight hill and it was about a mile from the tube stop to our hostel. We entered finding out that all 11 girls would be staying in one room with triple bunk beds. I’ve never seen that before. We all conquer that they should do these trips with these hostels first and then take us to Coverrack where the hostels are infinitely nicer. For some reason they thought it was a good idea to take us to the hostel only to have to leave after dinner to go right back where we were before dinner for the movie. They also didn’t leave enough time so we had to run that 1 mile back to the tube. The movie was intense and depressing. You felt like you needed to watch an episode of Winnie the pooh or something after that.

Catherine, Amelia, Christina and I were the only ones to stay in London after the movie. We walked around a bit, took some photos, had some ice cream and then made our way back. The next day was met with a cornucopia of alarms all going off at different times and people putting them on snooze and refusing to get up. We ate breakfast and headed to met our guide, but upon arriving there they told us we were almost an hour early so we could go explore. We walked down the street and found nothing to go into so we simply walked back. The tour was of Notting Hill, which didn’t used to be as nice as it is now. More celebrities live there than anywhere else in London and London has the most celebrities of anywhere in the world. The tour was fine, but I felt like we were going in circles as we passed right by our hostel. We ended at portabella market, which was way more expensive than I thought it would be at the little shops and it was super crowded. Furthermore, we had way too much time there and most of us sat in an alley waiting for the time to pass, getting some amusement from the pigeons. We then had to hike all the way back to our hostel to catch the bus (why the bus couldn’t meet us I have no idea) and embark on the long bus ride back to Bath.

In Bath we watched the USA vs. Ghana game :[ so GO ENGLAND! The rest of the evening was uploading pictures and such. Laura and I are going to Cardiff, Wales for a short day trip tomorrow. Hope the Veaseys have a great crab fest! I wish I was there! Have tons of fun!

photos from the trip

June 24: Bristol, Bath's ugly twin

In the interest of the hour (and because I have to get up in a very short amount of time) , this will again be a short post. Tomorrow we leave for London, at least the Film and Politics classes do. Laura departs with the Holmes class for Dartmoor. In London the politics class will split from the film class with the politics going to parliament and the film class going to some obscure places.

Today our Jane Austen class went to Bristol. This meant getting up earlier for class and from Nelson house catching the train to Bristol. The train ride was only around 10 minutes. The tour of Bristol itself wasn’t all that interesting and it didn’t actually have a lot to do with Jane Austen either. None of us really thought it would be quite that long either. I’m glad we went so I can say I went to Bristol and saw a few things of interest like the abbey and St. Mary Redcliff’s, but otherwise not that different from a U.S. city. In Jane Austen's time Bristol was a trading city and was not viewed as highly as Bath for that and other reasons. It was often smelly and more dirty as well.

In film we watched A Room With A View which I did my paper on. The quiz we take once a week on the computer after class was incredibly difficult, a drastic change from last week’s quiz. It was as though since we all did so well on that quiz he felt he had to make this one harder but he went to such the other extreme. And there was a typo and one wasn’t even a question it was simply a statement. The quiz is timed so we couldn’t ask him about it, but hopefully he’ll give us credit for his mistake. Other than that we tried to do a bit of shopping, but failed at the store we’ve been eyeing. We hoped to catch the end of the really long match from Wimbledon, but we missed that as well.

The rest of the evening passed fairly uneventfully. We were all pretty tired and we think it might have to do something with the fact that we’ve basically had one day off this entire trip and it’s catching up to us. Well I am off to bed so I can get up in a few hours and go down to catch the bus at 8:15. Oh the joys of being the first group to get picked up. I’ll write when we return on Saturday, though it will be late so perhaps not til Sunday. Have a great crab feast Veaseys!

photos from today (page 4 #72)

June 23: The Best of Both Worlds - USA and England advance in the World Cup

In an effort to not go to bed incredibly late tonight, I shall write a fairly short blog entry tonight. Classes were not that eventful. In Jane Austen we talked a bit about Emma and Laura, MJ and I were in a group. We were talking about mysteries and puzzles with characters. Our second class was pushed up to 1:30pm instead of 2:30pm. This was all because of the world cup games. Our classes were to get out by 3:20pm so we could watch the game that started at 3pm. My teacher let us out a little bit after 3, but I waited for Laura and 3:20 and then we headed up to watch the game. We switched between the USA and the England match. They were really exciting with the USA scoring in the 92^nd minute! Yay for both advancing. The USA now plans Ghana and England plays Germany.

We went on a walking tour at 6pm with a guy named Andrew Butterworth. It wasn’t as good as the Bizarre Bath tour, but it was alright. He invited us all into a place called Porter’s afterwards for a drink. There we watched the Ghana versus Germany game and then headed up to our house at halftime. We caught a bit of the Wimbledon game that is so far lasting for over 9hours. I then ventured down to use the telephone booth and make a few calls.

Tomorrow the Jane Austen classes head to Bristol, the opposite of Bath during Austen’s time. This weekend is our study trip weekends too and we are going to London, but the non-touristy parts of London. Nothing else too exciting happened today I just hope my roommate feels better soon! Oh and the minutes on your phone card are not actually the number of minutes you get; it is a lie! You get a ton less actually, which is weird.

photos from today (staring with #24 page 2 first row)

June 22: tacos, clueless, and emma lead to fun discussions

Nothing of interest really happened today. I was awoken this morning by the cleaning ladies. They came before we went off to class, which was slightly odd. It is nice that they empty our trash and vacuum our room though. I went to class as usual and got assigned our next presentation assignments. I am doing the Highbury in Emma. I talked with Lindsay between classes about our possible trip this weekend. We are thinking of going to Cardiff in Wales on Sunday and possibly Tintern Abbey as well. We watched High Hopes in our film class, which wasn’t really my cup of tea, but a lot of other people liked it.

After class Chelsea and I went to a little grocery store to search for taco ingredients. We were successful and I made tacos for everyone. The seasoning over here is a little interesting and Chelsea said it gave it a bit of an Indian flavor. We chatted for a bit and then started to watch Clueless. We have to watch Clueless or Emma for our Jane Austen class. In that time I also chatted with Jenny and she told me she got a 36 on her mcats. CONGRATULATIONS JENNY! You’ll make a great doctor!

We are currently watching Emma after finishing Clueless and having quit ea fun time criticizing and comparing, but I thought I should write a little blog. Sorry that there is nothing too exciting to talk about. We are having some very interesting conversations, but they would not relate well here.

photos from today (starting with #12)

June 21: Is it really week three already?

Happy first day of summer everyone. If we were at Stonhenge today instead of last Friday we would have been greeted with quite the variety of individuals. Today was the beginning of week three, I can’t believe it. As Laura and I planned out the things we have left to do we realized how little time is left for us to do them in.

My first class was Jane Austen where we talked about social rank, status, and morals. I felt like I understood it more than usual and participated a great deal. Between classes I was proud that I made it to Reyman’s to purchase some dvds for pictures. My second class was a discussion on the film Another Country and concluded with the handing of our papers. He sufficiently worried most of us with his speech beforehand, but concluded by saying no one did poorly. I got an A- which isn’t bad, but it’s frustrating I can’t break into the true A range. But it’s done and I can just hope to do better on the final paper, however unlikely that may be.

Laura and I ventured to Iceland and M&S after class to get some food, but alas they failed me and did not have everything I need so I must venture to the true grocery store tomorrow after class. The majority of the evening was spent reading Emma and discovering that I don’t really like her as a character. She is in stark contrast to many of Jane Austen’s heroines and she seems to represent a different kind of female character who doesn’t aspire to marry and has a certain amount of money. I didn’t actually finish, but had to consult summaries for the ending, but as I was only required to finish Volume I, I still have time to truly finish.

No major plans for this week, but we shall see what the week holds. My roommate Laura is now sick (a different kind then mine) so I’m not sure how much adventuring will happen this week. Hopefully she makes a speedy recovery.

photos from today (starting with #7)

June 20: A day with no plans, what a nice change

Hello again. It was a very short time ago that I wrote my last blog for yesterday, since I wrote it this morning, but that shall not stop me from writing a blog today. Nothing really of interest happened today. It was our very first day with nothing on the schedule, which was actually very refreshing. No alarm had to be set, didn’t have to go anywhere or do anything. I still woke up before noon, which for the adults seems very late, but as I didn’t go to bed until after 3am and I haven’t been getting a lot of sleep the past few days that was not that much sleep.

I didn’t do much today either. I woke up and had some cereal for breakfast. I uploaded a bunch of photos and read some of Emma. Later I had some eggs and more cereal (haven’t been to the store recently so this is what I have to eat. Furthermore it’s Sunday and Bath stores close really early but even earlier on Sundays). I called my dad to wish him a Happy Father’s Day! Happy Father’s Day Dad! I hope you had a good day and sorry I wasn’t there to give you a hug and tell you what a great dad you are!

That was pretty much the end of my eventful day, so I will not bore you with more ramblings as you will likely be reading yesterday’s post and being absorbed by the large number of photos. Have a good start to the week everyone!

Happy Father's Day Dad! I Love You!

photos from today

June 19: Running through London, literally

What is there to say about our trip to London? Let us start with a checklist.

Nearly get run over on Abbey Road...check

Ask how to get to platform 9¾...check

Sit on a big book in the British Library...check

Walk in the footsteps of Sherlock...check

See the Rosetta Stone...check

Recreate the image of Harold framed by the Tower Bridge...check

Witness three different weddings going on in the city...check

Fight to get on and ride a double decker bus...check

Spy on the guards at Buckingham palace with my long lens...check

Take phonebooth photo...check

Pose with Big Ben (both in the day and at night)...check

Eat at a London pub...check

Flag down a taxi (after failing twice, third time's the charm)...check

Well we certainly made the most of one day. We got up at 5:50am and headed down to the train station at 6:15am to catch our train at 7am. The train ride was fairly uneventful with most of us reading Emma or falling asleep or in my case both. There were some technical problems so we didn’t end up arriving until after 9am. From there we purchased all day tube tickets (well worth it for how much we used them). From our detailed planning earlier in the week Amelia typed up a list of our stops and coordinating tube stations. We first got off to take the very important Beatles photo on Abbey Road. With our assigned parts in two groups we set out to recreate it. We did not expect it to be such a busy road! It was a bit ridiculous but we were comforted by the fact that a group of four guys were attempting to recreate it as well. It took several attempts, but we finally got a couple that we decided were good enough and we ceased risking our lives on the crosswalk.

From the delay on the train to the amount of time for the abbey road picture we were set back in our schedule a bit, but next on our agenda was King’s Cross Station. Here we culminated our experience by asking a guard where Platform 9 ¾ was. He kept an amazingly straight face for a bunch of college kids asking this bizarre question. We proceeded in the direction and were guided by people saying Harry (like Harry when he is searching for the platform only he follows people saying muggle). After this stop we split up and Casey and Christina went to the globe whereas the rest of us went to the British Library. My statement on Friday about seeing the oldest document I will ever see was a lie for we saw much older pieces today. We also saw another copy of the Magna Carta (there are four in total and I think I’ve probably also seen the one in DC so now I just have one left to go). The globe ended up taking the other group a great deal of time so went on to meet them at 221b baker street. The tube station was covered with Sherlock as well which was cool.

Now this stop was probably Laura’s favorite as she loves Sherlock Holmes and is taking the seminar class on him. I went in with her to visit the house and we took lots of pictures, but probably my favorite is our one with the guard at the door complete with hats and pipe. They even had wax figures on the upper floors depicting characters from some of the stories. The globe crew was still delayed so we headed over to the British Museum and did the quickest museum trip ever ;) Trying to get back on schedule. I saw the Rosetta Stone and some of the Parthenon sculptures.

The last true stop and not simply a photo shoot was the Tower of London, however we arrived there a little after 4pm and they said it would not be enough time. This was a little disappointing as I really wanted to go in, but never fear for Laura and I are already planning a trip back to London so we can see the changing of the guard, the inside of Westminster Abbey, and the tower. We got rained on a bit here and waited a while for Casey and Christina to rejoin us. Laura and I went down to look at the Tower Bridge where we took a picture framed by it. It made me think of Harold, who is in the movie The Long Good Friday and delivers a moving speech while being framed by that bridge on a boat. It took some coordinating to finally find Casey and Christina but Amelia discovered them and we headed onward.

The next part of our journey involved the touristy parts of London. First we had to get on a double decker bus because they close certain lines on the weekends to work on them. This was quite a difficult task as everyone seemed to want to get on the bus. We managed to get on the third one that came by and went on the second level. Getting off in Trafalgar Square we discovered that the museums there were closed (our guide books lied to us) so we took some photos and decided to make our way down to Buckingham Palace. It was quite a walk, but upon arriving we got to see the guards move around and take some pretty photos. On the way back we stopped in a gift shop that was just entirely overwhelming and then we made our way to Big Ben. The main sightseeing things in London are all right by each other so we got some photos with Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminster Abbey before finally stopping for food. It was nearly 9pm by this point so we stopped in a pub where I ordered a coronation chicken sandwich. It was ok, but not my favorite. The chips were really good. After eating, it was sufficiently dark to take our night photos with Big Ben so we did that and then got on the tube followed by the train to get home. The train was fairly full for so late, but we were the very first ones on it. It also was a bit delayed on the way back too.

Upon arriving back we discovered that it was quite cold and quite a long walk to get back up to our house. We elected to see how much it would cost to get a taxi, but that task was more difficult than expected. We got one and as he pulled around he picked up someone else. Another taxi said he would come around but he drove away. We finally got one and she said it would be £6. I sat in the front seat. Now I never really thought that driving on the other side was that weird, but when you are sitting in the space that should have the wheel and when you can see out the front window it is a bit weird. I looked at the temperature gauge in the taxi and it was just 40 degrees outside! Furthermore, in a bizarre twist, Bath was a happenign place at 1:30am. So it shuts down at like 6pm but is bustling with people again later, very strange. Upon arriving back the plan was to upload photos, but I was just too tired to finish so I got a shower and went to bed.

photos from London part 1

photos from London part 2