Hello,
This week had been busier than that last week that’s for sure. Things have started to pick up because classes are really getting into to swing and we’re starting to do excursions now. Things are getting into a good rhythm and I’m really enjoying myself here. I still haven’t heard about my internship yet. I talked to the people here and they still haven’t heard back from the company that I’ll hopefully be interning for. Just a waiting game now.
Jan 17th
This is my busy class day. I got up pretty early to make sure that I got my run in. There was a nice rain in the morning and it felt really nice to run through that. I haven’t had a nice run in the rain for a long time, so that was really nice. After that I had a quick lunch and then had to head to class. I have class for six hours on Wednesday, so that’s going to be a long day. The first class of the day was a lot of fun. The professor is just a really cool guy. We spent the entire time talking about who we knew from British culture. Justin was really impressed that I knew Christopher Eccelstion (Doctor Who) and Roger Banister (first man to break the four minute mile). Most of the people that we knew were from times of British crisis and popular culture. That makes sense overall. After class I had some time to burn until the next class. Its normally earlier, but this week we were going on a walking tour of a bunch of the theatres around the area in Soho. We went to the sandwich shop and sat outside on bus stop bench eating them. We waited around the at the bus arcade that’s by the Tube stop and that’s where I took that picture of the dog. I still can’t get over how people leave there dogs just sitting around here. The dog was just tied up outside the store. I just get a kick out of that.
Once we got to the theater we met up with the professor and started walking around. We had to go to ten theaters and get brochures from them. We got all but one that was closed. It took us a couple of hours and once we got done, we hopped a tube back to the flat. Once I got back, I sat around in my room and I actually talked to Katie for a while. That was really nice. I just read for a while then before going to bed.
Jan 18th
This was a much more mellow day than the one that proceeded it. I didn’t have anything to do today, so I just enjoyed it as much as possible. I went for my run in the morning and that was really interesting. That was the day that the huge storms hit Europe and things just got battered. The winds had to have gusted up to 40 or 50 miles an hour at a couple points. It was like running under water. There was one point that the wind hit me on the side and I think that I was at a 30 degree angle, or at least that’s what it felt like. I had a hurried lunch and then went off to have a meeting with the internship people. Like I said, they haven’t heard back from the office yet, so I’m still waiting. I at least got a look at what the sheet is going to look like once I have my placement though. I stopped by on the way back and got my international student ID card. This should get me discounts when I’m traveling around Europe and hopefully get me the discounts around here that the ID they gave me was supposed to give me discounts everywhere. I didn’t have anything else to do until the night so I just sat around and read. A bunch of people from the group got together to go get some food before the play we were going to that night. We ended up leaving about half an hour late because people just couldn’t get going. So once we got on the Tube, things continued to go even slower. Because of the storm and winds, everything was really backed up. All the roads were packed and so was the tube. Some of the lines were done and the trains were going really slow on top on that. We ended up only having about 45 minutes to find and eat. Some people branched off and went to a Subway. We soldiered on and found a really nice café that the proprietor was really trying to get us to eat at. It was 6.50 for a two course meal, but I was the only one who wanted to go. They decided that Pizza Hut for about the same price was a better bet. I just said screw it and headed out with another guy on the trip to find something else. I just wasn’t ready to eat at an American place at that point of the trip. We found a fish and chips shop and that was really cool. I had my first taste of that and I really enjoyed it.
The play itself was really cool. Their was a robbery or something outside that seemed to set the stage rather well, but I never did find out what was actually going on there. The playhouse was tucked away in a big block of buildings and from the way we came in; you really couldn’t tell what it was. The playhouse itself is really cool. The seats were really cramped, especially where we were sitting. The stage was surrounded by classical paintings of various Greek mythological scenes, but I didn’t recognize any of them. The play itself was called Blood Brothers. It’s a play about these two twins are separated at birth. The mother is a poor worker who can’t afford to feed the both of them so is forced to give one of them away. She gives one of her sons to the women she works for who is incapable of having children. The key theme in the play is a superstition that if you tell two twins that they were separated at birth, they will die that day. So a huge chunk of the play is spent with the parents trying to keep them apart. This invariably doesn’t work and they end up becoming best friends. The set itself was also really interesting. It was a double story set, with the orchestra hidden behind the second story. There was also a devil type figure who also acted as a basic narrator. He would come and go in the scenes from time to time and just generally hung around the edge of the set and as the play progressed became more and more involved. I really liked the play and thought it was really interesting.
Jan 19th
This was a big day. We went out to Warwick castle so we had to head out pretty early. We were on the road around nine and it took about two hours to get there. It really wasn’t that far, but the traffic in the city was really bad. I took a little nap in the way there and I was set. The castle itself was really cool. It was a really old place. William built the Conqueror the original castle in the 11th century. The newer stonework was a really cool place. I won’t go into a lot of detail because I put all the picture on my site, and that will be much better than I could ever describe it here. We spent about three hours exploring the old castle and then grabbed a bite to eat then headed home. I got back and did a little shopping before I had to go to a meeting with the RA’s that live in our place. Apparently, there had been a complaint filed against us by one of the other floors. They called the head place about a noise complaint and a complaint about a stranger in the flats. Well, it turns out the stranger was one of their boy friends. Woops. The problem comes from the fact that some of the people live with students from another floor. Instead of talking to us about the problem, they went over everyone’s head and made it a lot bigger deal than it had to be. There was some issue about people partying on the fourth floor and they didn’t like that I guess. Whatever. Its just more drama than I really want to deal with, especially at this point in the trip. I also don’t want it to have to come down to having to point fingers at the people in our group who are partying.
After that little bit of fun, I headed out with some people to go to a few pubs. We first hit up the Olde Miter, the one that I went to a couple of days ago. That was a fun time again. After that we headed out to a place called the Citi of York. That was one that was more popular with a younger crowd. We sat there for a long time and talked quite a bit. It was a really cool place but it was really smoky. We sat around there for about an hour then went to a place called the Queen’s Ladder. This was a place where the medicine and supplies were stored for Edward the Third (I think) when he was being treated for mental illness. We spent a good hour there too and then took the Tube home. That was an interesting trip. Nick, one of the guys with us, met a guy he had worked with a couple of years ago. The Tube itself was packed because of the outage and it was the time that all the pubs were closing and I think that they were still catching up to an extent. I got back from that and headed to sleep.
Saturday, 20 January 2007
Tuesday, 16 January 2007
Jan 16th
Hi again.
Sunday was a productive day for me. I spent most of the day writing in my blog to get caught up. I also spent a lot of time writing in the journal that I bought a couple of days ago. I hadn’t written in it for until last Sunday, so I had some catching up to do. It took me quite a few hours to get caught with all that writing. I penmanship is not what it used to be. I made some dinner and finished up the journal and blog. I did some reading and talked to Katie while I was waiting for a movie to come on. We had a flat night again on Sunday and we watched Terminator 3. Not a good movie but a pretty good time. Finished up the movie and headed to bed.
Monday was an interesting day. It was absolutely beautiful day out. I got up for my class and headed out. The class itself looks like its going to be pretty interesting. It my senior seminar class and the topic is going to be on Britain during the two world war or there abouts. We have so many cool places to go and see that it will make for some really cool experiences if nothing else. After class I dropped some cash at the grocery store and I found some really interesting, good deals. One thing that I’m really liking about the grocery stores here is that they carry a whole ton of really great fresh food. Its stuff that you can keep refrigerated and tastes really good. For example, I picked up two fresh pizzas and a couple of packs of fresh tortellini. Good stuff. After the store I came back and made some food then headed out to the Science and Technology museum. I went with a couple of guys from the trip and we spent a couple of hours walking around. We got through the first floor which had stuff on the development of steam power, the rocket age, and then just some random tech stuff. I’ll throw some picture up some time soon here. I also found an old dental chair and stand that I think Mom should appreciate. I went for a long run because the weather was so good. I ended up doing two laps around entire park to get the distance. After that Katie and talked for about four hours. That was very nice.
Tuesday was a pretty do nothing day as well. I don’t have a class today so I can do my internship, so I sat around most of the day. I was going to go to the changing of guard this morning, so I got up for that. It was raining this morning however, so they don’t do an outdoor ceremony. I came back and sat around reading for the rest of the morning. After lunch, the flat was pretty much empty, so I got started reading one of my Harper’s. Only a couple of months out of date now. Went for a run in the afternoon and ended up getting a little lost. I wanted to go a distance that I hadn’t run in the park before, so I did some trail blazing. I thought that the path I turned on would take me how far I wanted to go, but it took me a bit farther. Oh well. We’re going on a trip this Friday, so I probably won’t be running that day. It’ll be a nice day off. The night ended up being pretty fun. We had a dinner thing for FIE to get us out at the college. We had free food and free drinks, so it was a good time. We hung out there for a while and talked to quite a few people. We met a couple of guys from Iowa who were just passing through. They were here for a couple weeks then they’re going to a school in Wales for the semester. It sounded like they were having and were going to have a great time. I came back to the place and sat around and talking. Some people headed out to a Karaoke bar, but it’s at least a half hour tube ride, more than that on the way back on the bus, and it would have made for a long night. I have six hours of class tomorrow, so I really didn’t want to be out late tonight. I with some people at the flat and did some homework and we watched CSI. A good night.
Hope the weather isn’t getting you all down.
Sunday was a productive day for me. I spent most of the day writing in my blog to get caught up. I also spent a lot of time writing in the journal that I bought a couple of days ago. I hadn’t written in it for until last Sunday, so I had some catching up to do. It took me quite a few hours to get caught with all that writing. I penmanship is not what it used to be. I made some dinner and finished up the journal and blog. I did some reading and talked to Katie while I was waiting for a movie to come on. We had a flat night again on Sunday and we watched Terminator 3. Not a good movie but a pretty good time. Finished up the movie and headed to bed.
Monday was an interesting day. It was absolutely beautiful day out. I got up for my class and headed out. The class itself looks like its going to be pretty interesting. It my senior seminar class and the topic is going to be on Britain during the two world war or there abouts. We have so many cool places to go and see that it will make for some really cool experiences if nothing else. After class I dropped some cash at the grocery store and I found some really interesting, good deals. One thing that I’m really liking about the grocery stores here is that they carry a whole ton of really great fresh food. Its stuff that you can keep refrigerated and tastes really good. For example, I picked up two fresh pizzas and a couple of packs of fresh tortellini. Good stuff. After the store I came back and made some food then headed out to the Science and Technology museum. I went with a couple of guys from the trip and we spent a couple of hours walking around. We got through the first floor which had stuff on the development of steam power, the rocket age, and then just some random tech stuff. I’ll throw some picture up some time soon here. I also found an old dental chair and stand that I think Mom should appreciate. I went for a long run because the weather was so good. I ended up doing two laps around entire park to get the distance. After that Katie and talked for about four hours. That was very nice.
Tuesday was a pretty do nothing day as well. I don’t have a class today so I can do my internship, so I sat around most of the day. I was going to go to the changing of guard this morning, so I got up for that. It was raining this morning however, so they don’t do an outdoor ceremony. I came back and sat around reading for the rest of the morning. After lunch, the flat was pretty much empty, so I got started reading one of my Harper’s. Only a couple of months out of date now. Went for a run in the afternoon and ended up getting a little lost. I wanted to go a distance that I hadn’t run in the park before, so I did some trail blazing. I thought that the path I turned on would take me how far I wanted to go, but it took me a bit farther. Oh well. We’re going on a trip this Friday, so I probably won’t be running that day. It’ll be a nice day off. The night ended up being pretty fun. We had a dinner thing for FIE to get us out at the college. We had free food and free drinks, so it was a good time. We hung out there for a while and talked to quite a few people. We met a couple of guys from Iowa who were just passing through. They were here for a couple weeks then they’re going to a school in Wales for the semester. It sounded like they were having and were going to have a great time. I came back to the place and sat around and talking. Some people headed out to a Karaoke bar, but it’s at least a half hour tube ride, more than that on the way back on the bus, and it would have made for a long night. I have six hours of class tomorrow, so I really didn’t want to be out late tonight. I with some people at the flat and did some homework and we watched CSI. A good night.
Hope the weather isn’t getting you all down.
Sunday, 14 January 2007
Thoughts on the First Week
BRITISH CULTURE
To be honest, this part hasn’t been as hard to figure out as I though it would be. The language thing really isn’t that bad. Granted, we’re in a pretty affluent part of the city, so I’m guessing a lot of the slang isn’t used a lot, but even still, I haven’t really found myself at a complete loss yet. Most of the stuff is close enough where it might take me a minute to guess, but its not really that hard. What is really throwing me for a loop is the little bits of interaction that go on. For example, having to buy specific seats at the cinema caused, at least I felt, kind of a big problem. Or the way that interactions go in the restaurants is really different too. The waiters are there to serve you, but they don’t come around anywhere near as often as you would suspect or the fact that you get charged for a lot more. Just little things like that are keeping me on my toes.
LONDON THE CITY
London is a really pretty town. They kept feeding us this line from some old poet, “Those who tire of London, tire of life” or something to that affect. What they mean is that there is so much to do in London that you should never really get bored or have explored everything. I would agree. There’s so much to explore even in our own little area that I know I won’t be able to do even that justice. As cities go, I think it is a pretty city too. Overall, I think I’ll like it here. The crush of people might start to wear on me eventually, but I think I’ll be able to manage.
THE FLAT
This is going to be really interesting for me. I have to say that the place itself is not all that nice. For any of you who visited me at Seton, I would say that it definitely not as nice as that. Our shower is covered with mold in the corners and there are just a lot of things that need to get fixed. I’m sure part of that has to do with fact that this place is almost constantly filled with college kids, but it was kind of let down for me. Its all really crowded. The bedrooms are pretty small, but that’s not a huge deal because I don’t think I’ll need to be spending a lot of time in there. The walls are really thin though, so sounds just goes right through. The common room is also really small, especially for 15 people. When there are only about 6 people in there, it still feels comfortable, but after that it starts to get crowded. I really like my own personal space and I think I’m going to have to make a real effort to go out and find it.
FIE
This is the group that we are interacting with while we are over here. They are the ones that we’re taking classes with and they own the flats. My experience with them has been pretty bad. Things just aren’t organized in any really meaningful way. We were pretty much just dropped off and told to go. I feel like we were left out to dry. Its one thing to be told to go out and explore, but a little guidance would be appreciated. Whatever. The internship process has just gotten me mad though. I understand that there isn’t a lot they can tell us about placement and that we just have to trust a lot of this to them. I understand and am fine with that. They just give us so little information to go on. For example, I have a conflict with my internship time and one of my classes. When I went to talk to the team about this, I was told that I should have expected this from the schedule we had. I didn’t get a schedule until Tuesday or Wednesday. I registered for classes without knowing times about three months ago, internship about the same. How am I supposed to know all this? I think the problem comes from the fact our program just doesn’t mess well with the whole internship process. Other schools do open enrollment to the university so they have a lot more flexibility. They just don’t do anything to make it easier on us.
OVERALL
I like it here a lot. The first nights were kind of tough from a homesickness point of view. I think that’s when it really hit me that I wasn’t going to be seeing a lot of people for a really long time. That combined with all the stress and tiredness was not a real fun experience. Oh well. I’m getting into the swing of things and really starting to have a good time. I’m starting to get to know people and finding my place. This is going to be a lot of fun.
To be honest, this part hasn’t been as hard to figure out as I though it would be. The language thing really isn’t that bad. Granted, we’re in a pretty affluent part of the city, so I’m guessing a lot of the slang isn’t used a lot, but even still, I haven’t really found myself at a complete loss yet. Most of the stuff is close enough where it might take me a minute to guess, but its not really that hard. What is really throwing me for a loop is the little bits of interaction that go on. For example, having to buy specific seats at the cinema caused, at least I felt, kind of a big problem. Or the way that interactions go in the restaurants is really different too. The waiters are there to serve you, but they don’t come around anywhere near as often as you would suspect or the fact that you get charged for a lot more. Just little things like that are keeping me on my toes.
LONDON THE CITY
London is a really pretty town. They kept feeding us this line from some old poet, “Those who tire of London, tire of life” or something to that affect. What they mean is that there is so much to do in London that you should never really get bored or have explored everything. I would agree. There’s so much to explore even in our own little area that I know I won’t be able to do even that justice. As cities go, I think it is a pretty city too. Overall, I think I’ll like it here. The crush of people might start to wear on me eventually, but I think I’ll be able to manage.
THE FLAT
This is going to be really interesting for me. I have to say that the place itself is not all that nice. For any of you who visited me at Seton, I would say that it definitely not as nice as that. Our shower is covered with mold in the corners and there are just a lot of things that need to get fixed. I’m sure part of that has to do with fact that this place is almost constantly filled with college kids, but it was kind of let down for me. Its all really crowded. The bedrooms are pretty small, but that’s not a huge deal because I don’t think I’ll need to be spending a lot of time in there. The walls are really thin though, so sounds just goes right through. The common room is also really small, especially for 15 people. When there are only about 6 people in there, it still feels comfortable, but after that it starts to get crowded. I really like my own personal space and I think I’m going to have to make a real effort to go out and find it.
FIE
This is the group that we are interacting with while we are over here. They are the ones that we’re taking classes with and they own the flats. My experience with them has been pretty bad. Things just aren’t organized in any really meaningful way. We were pretty much just dropped off and told to go. I feel like we were left out to dry. Its one thing to be told to go out and explore, but a little guidance would be appreciated. Whatever. The internship process has just gotten me mad though. I understand that there isn’t a lot they can tell us about placement and that we just have to trust a lot of this to them. I understand and am fine with that. They just give us so little information to go on. For example, I have a conflict with my internship time and one of my classes. When I went to talk to the team about this, I was told that I should have expected this from the schedule we had. I didn’t get a schedule until Tuesday or Wednesday. I registered for classes without knowing times about three months ago, internship about the same. How am I supposed to know all this? I think the problem comes from the fact our program just doesn’t mess well with the whole internship process. Other schools do open enrollment to the university so they have a lot more flexibility. They just don’t do anything to make it easier on us.
OVERALL
I like it here a lot. The first nights were kind of tough from a homesickness point of view. I think that’s when it really hit me that I wasn’t going to be seeing a lot of people for a really long time. That combined with all the stress and tiredness was not a real fun experience. Oh well. I’m getting into the swing of things and really starting to have a good time. I’m starting to get to know people and finding my place. This is going to be a lot of fun.
Jann 14
Hello. Friday night I did end up going to the cinema with a couple of other people from the flat. We hopped a bus to get there, it is about three miles away I would guess. When we go there, a guy was having people in line to sign a petition to save the cinema instead of turning it into flats. He said I could sign the petition even though I technically don’t live anywhere near this place. Oh well. Save the cinema I guess. That overall was a pretty cool experience. It cost about $15 bucks to get in, but I think that it was worth it. You actually had to buy your seat too, like in a proper theater. So that caused a bit of confusion for us, and the people selling tickets. Learned something new I guess. The previews were also quite long here. It was about half an hour’s worth of commercials and such. That wasn’t really all that bad though because they were a lot more creative than the ads you see in the states so it wasn’t all that bad. We went and saw The Last King of Scotland. That was a really good movie. It was pretty graphic at times, but still really good. Its about this Scottish guy who becomes the personal doctor to a dictator in Africa and how he gets sucked into the machine of destruction. Good stuff. I got back from my flat and did a little bit of emailing and reading and then went to bed.
I got up on Saturday pretty early, right around 9. (Ok I know, I’m speaking relatively here.) I had a quick breakfast and went to the Albert and Victoria Museum that’s not to far away. It’s one of a few museums of one sort or another that are really close. I went with a few people from the trip and we walked around there for a couple of hours. We only got through about half the first floor, but it was so cool. The museum is supposed to showcase all the different kinds of art and works from the height of British rule. So it’s got stuff from Asia, Middle East, India and a tin of stuff from Europe. Its really cool and I’m sure I’ll be returning. After that we headed out to Portabella Road for a market that goes on there. That was absolutely amazing. I can’t remember if Hanna has said that she made it there when she was over here, but it is really her kind of place. Tons of antiques and antique clothing. Don’t even get me started on all the great food. It was so amazing. Its about two miles of road with shops on the building and then little tent shops set up along the road. There is just so much to see. We ran into some people from the trip that also happened to be walking the road that day, so that was pretty cool. I bought a scarf down there too. It’s a longer red one made out of knit wool. I really liked it. There was a shop selling some really nice merino and cashmere ones, but those were really expensive. We walked back to you apartment, and I was pretty spent. I think that we figured that we walked about five miles that day. So not short. After a small break, I went out for a run again. I got back from that and went out to get some food. First, me and a few other people stopped by a Japanese place, but that was really expensive so we moved on to an Indian place a little ways down. That seemed a lot cheaper so we went in. The service and the food was really great, but they charged us for everything, even about £2.50 for tap water. So the meal ended up being about £20 a person. Ouch. Oh well, we live in a really expensive part of London, so it looks like I won’t be eating out all the much. I spent the rest of the night reading and watching movies, Harry Potter was on.
I got this morning at a more reasonable 11:30. I think I’m finally starting to get used to the time change. Now that I’m starting to get some what of a rhythm down things will get a lot easier. I went for a run and had some lunch. I finally got to see some good British comedy on TV. I’ve been waiting al week for that to be honest. That made me pretty happy. I’m going to get started on a journal and finish up some stuff for the blog. Hope you’re all doing well.
I got up on Saturday pretty early, right around 9. (Ok I know, I’m speaking relatively here.) I had a quick breakfast and went to the Albert and Victoria Museum that’s not to far away. It’s one of a few museums of one sort or another that are really close. I went with a few people from the trip and we walked around there for a couple of hours. We only got through about half the first floor, but it was so cool. The museum is supposed to showcase all the different kinds of art and works from the height of British rule. So it’s got stuff from Asia, Middle East, India and a tin of stuff from Europe. Its really cool and I’m sure I’ll be returning. After that we headed out to Portabella Road for a market that goes on there. That was absolutely amazing. I can’t remember if Hanna has said that she made it there when she was over here, but it is really her kind of place. Tons of antiques and antique clothing. Don’t even get me started on all the great food. It was so amazing. Its about two miles of road with shops on the building and then little tent shops set up along the road. There is just so much to see. We ran into some people from the trip that also happened to be walking the road that day, so that was pretty cool. I bought a scarf down there too. It’s a longer red one made out of knit wool. I really liked it. There was a shop selling some really nice merino and cashmere ones, but those were really expensive. We walked back to you apartment, and I was pretty spent. I think that we figured that we walked about five miles that day. So not short. After a small break, I went out for a run again. I got back from that and went out to get some food. First, me and a few other people stopped by a Japanese place, but that was really expensive so we moved on to an Indian place a little ways down. That seemed a lot cheaper so we went in. The service and the food was really great, but they charged us for everything, even about £2.50 for tap water. So the meal ended up being about £20 a person. Ouch. Oh well, we live in a really expensive part of London, so it looks like I won’t be eating out all the much. I spent the rest of the night reading and watching movies, Harry Potter was on.
I got this morning at a more reasonable 11:30. I think I’m finally starting to get used to the time change. Now that I’m starting to get some what of a rhythm down things will get a lot easier. I went for a run and had some lunch. I finally got to see some good British comedy on TV. I’ve been waiting al week for that to be honest. That made me pretty happy. I’m going to get started on a journal and finish up some stuff for the blog. Hope you’re all doing well.
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