A Tale of Two Days

*This entry is an extremely long post. You have been warned.*

I know everyone noticed that there was no blog post yesterday, I didn't get any e-mails about how distressed people were but I know you were. I didn't do a blog post yesterday becasue I decided, on a whim (just like everything), to go on skype and give my mom, sister, brother, and dad a call. By the time we were done talking, it was already past 2 am and I was too tired to write anything. So there ya go. I will be calling other people sometime soon too so don't be surprised if you hear my wonderful voice on the other end of the line. Now for a mammoth recap of the past two days.

Yesterday and today were pretty similar, at least at the outset. Both days I woke at around 10 am (you're jealous, its ok). Both days I ate breakfast and showered and just kind of sat around until about noon. Both days I left my flat at noon for my destination. That's where things start to diverge.

Yesterday I decided to go to Westminster Abbey (we entered through the North Transept, picture 1). This is the place where just about every King or Queen has been coronated. It is also the burial ground for a TON of different artists, writers, scientists, and royalty. Very cool place. I went with Vanessa and Chelsey. I decided to finally go inside a building for once! Problem is, they don't allow people to take pictures inside, haha, oops. The one time I could actually give you guys some pictures of the inside of a famous building, I can't. Oh well. I did take some pictures of the inside (they're illegal, thus more important).

The reason I decided to go to Westminster (the West Towers are picture 3) was because it was right by the Parliament Building which we had a tour of later in the day. So like I said we went to Westminster and it was amazing. The building itself is just awesome. It is so big and so grand that it definitely puts everyone who visits in awe. We had to pay the £7 entry fee but if you come for a mass (Church of England) you can get in and see the building for free. There are so many memorials inside the church. Along just about every wall and little chapel and stuff branching off the main nave, there are memorials and statues and plaques. It really is mindboggling. I can't remember all the famous people we saw but a short list off the top of my head is: Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dickens, Jane Austen, Newton, Darwin (thought that one was odd), Elizabeth I, Henry VIII, and so many more. There were memorials from as long ago as 1400 and some as recent as 1998 (probably more recent ones than that, that was just the most recent I saw for myself). There is also the so-called 'Oldest Door In Britain' (picture 2). Keep in mind that these things are all over the place and we didn't get an audio guide so we spent kind of a long time walking around and looking for all the famous names that we knew where there.

So while I was inside the Abbey, I was thinking about seeing all these famous names but I was also thinking a lot about The Da Vinci Code. For those who don't know, the last and climactic scene of the book (the movie sucked), happens in Westminster Abbey. So it was fun walking around trying to remember all the parts of the book and where they happened in the Abbey and stuff. One of the coolest things we saw in the Abbey was the throne. It was constructed in 1305 and every King or Queen sits in it during the coronation. Every single one. Since 1305. Wow. I told Chelsey that I would definitely lose a bunch of weight before coronation so I wouldn't break it. That would suck to be known as "the guy who broke the 700 year old thorne because he was too fat". We sat inside the church after exploring it, partly to suck up the atmosphere and partly because we didn't have anything else to do and about 2 hours to spare.

We decided to walk up the road a little and see 10 Downing Street (picture 4), where the Prime Minister lives. Its back behind a bunch of security :-( so I didn't get a very good picture of it, but I did take a picture which I think counts for something. So that was pretty cool. Then we visited the horse guards again because Chelsey had never seen them. Same old same old. Vanessa asked why they were there and I told her that they might attack her for asking questions like that (you never know with horses). Then we made our way over to St. James Park (where Vanessa and I went the other day). We went to a little shop thing that is built into the ground and Chelsey got a sandwich and I got hot chocolate and a couple cookies. The cookies were just otherworldly. Chelsey was having problems with her sandwich. It had this stuff on the bottom that didn't taste good and the mustard she put on it was really hot (seems like all mustards here are hot, or so I've heard). She said it was the worst sandwich experience of her life.

We made our way back over to the Parliament Building to meet up with everyon else. Everyone made it there safe and sound and the last people arrived one minute early. Woot! So we got a tour of the building. The building is sort of split in two. The House of Lords (sort of like Senators but not elected, they are appointed) side is just ridiculously elegant and extravagant. Gold leaf and paint was in no short supply. Again no pictures allowed (poo...) so you'll just have to take my word for it. There was a lot of information imbued on us by our tour guide but I can't remember a lot of it and most of it was relevant to what we were looking at so its pretty worthless. The House of Commons side is basically all stone, very little paint and gold leaf I guess is what I am saying. This is the way it is supposed to be. The House of Lords is for the nobility (sort of) and the House of Commons is supposed to be the common people so there ya go.

There is a room called Westminster Hall. It was built in 1100. It is where a ton of famous stuff has happened. Lots of people have Lain in State in there. William Wallace had his trial in it, as did Sir Thomas More (picture 5).

On entry into the actual House of Commons room (where they meet) there is a statue of Winston Churchill which our tour guide told us everyone rubs for good luck so we all started to rub it for good luck. Some security guard with an ego said that we shouldn't do that even though there is no sign or protection. Our tour guide made up some story about how he got a letter saying that people could start doing that again. We enterd the other room and I saw that security guard talking to another one about the situation. When we walked by her again, she said that its not a big deal, our tour guide is just not supposed to promote it. He was very gracious but as soon he got out of her ear shot he said, "Security." and rolled his eyes. Haha. I thought the whole situation was dumb.

I really liked our tour guide. He actually works for one of the Lords. He told us that we should come back on Monday afternoon and watch the House of Lords in action. They are going to be discussing a law about embyronic stem cell research and a law about not being able to abort babies past 24 weeks except if they are handicapped, then you can. Obviously the part being debated is the handicapped part. Sounds very interesting and a bunch of people sounded like they wanted to go (I do too) so I hope it works out.

After the Parliament tour (picture 6). I came back to the flat and did some more research on spring break and later plans. Looking up hostels and planes and such. Through some hard work and good planning, Vanessa and I figured out the three hostels we want to stay at (cost, location, reviews were all factors). I made a bacon and cheese quiche for dinner. Absolutely fantastic. It was frozen so all I had to do was warm it in the over but it was less than £1 which made it taste better I think. Even my peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with all ingredients combined are probably more expensive than that.

After dinner and more research, I called up my fam on Skype. Very cool. I love technology. It was just super stupendous that they all answered and I got to talk to all of them. I missed them terribly (along with everyone else back home) so it was nice to hear their voices and stuff.

As I said, today I left the flat at around noon but not for Westminster. In the e-mail I got back from Sonya, she told me how much she liked this place called Canary Wharf and a village named Greenwich. I had wanted to go to both just based on the readings from the books I have but she affirmed what I already thought. Sonya told me that Canary Wharf was a lot like Minneapolis. Boy was she right. Before I get into that too much, I'll just talk about the journey there a little bit. The Tube is very old so every weekend there is always closures or partial closures and the train that I wanted was under a closure so I had to take a different way. Which was take the Tube to Tower Hill and then hop on the DLR (docklands light rail) down to the Wharf and Greenwich. This turned out to be the best way to do it anyway. Very easy and the DLR is above ground so it was cool seeing stuff as it based by (as opposed to tunnels). The part of London that I passed through was very different from any part I had seen yet. There were a LOT of like ten story humungous apartment buildings. In central london, its just about all 4 or 5 levels and that's it (except things like St. Pauls Cathedral or whatever). Seeing this part was nice.

So I got to Canary Wharf (station is picture 7) and started walking around in the city streets. I ran into a park that had little eye balls sticking out of the fountains and the ground (picture 8). Very weird. While I was walking, I kept thinking, "Geez, this place really is like Downtown Minneapolis but something is missing..." I finally realized what was missing. PEOPLE. There was basically not a soul to be found on the streets. I realize that it is an area with a lot of high rises and so on a Saturday afternoon it wouldn't be teeming with life but god. I would say that I saw about 20 people the entire time I was walking around (which was probably 45 minutes plus). Very strange. I loved this area though. It made me miss Minneapolis a lot. Even though I don't spend that much time Downtown, I always know its there and this made me realize how much I like knowing that. There were canals and large office buildings (picture 9) all over the place too which I really liked as well. It was very quiet and peaceful. Very different from everywhere else I have been in London. I liked the fact that I was the only tourist around. Made me feel special. I want to come back here on a weekday night or something and eat dinner, that would be very nice. The area was all built during the Thatcher Era (80's) and apparently never really lived up to its promise until recently when a bunch of companies came in and stuff. I saw a sculpture in a square with a founatin that I really liked (picture 10).

So I rode the DLR a little farther until I got to the Thames River. Greenwich is across the river so you might be asking me why I got off on the other side. Welllll, there is a tunnel (picture 12) just for pedestrians that goes under the river and goes out right in Greenwich. Of course I had to do it. Not much to say about it, I took a couple pictures. A little unsettling knowing that I was under all that pressure from water and land and the tunnel is from 1904 but that's ok. I made it through and survived.

I popped out in Greenwich and looked back across the river at Canary Whart. The skyline reminded me of Downtown which is my favorite skyline ever so that's a compliment. I explored Greenwich. I went to the two Royal Naval War College buildings. Why are there two and not one building? Good question. Because the Queen's House was behind it and the Queen didn't want her view disrupted so they split the College into two symmetrical buildings with a gap between so the Queen could still see the river (picture 11). Not much to say about the College, one side had a chapel and the other had a Painted Room (the chapel and painted room are with the domes in picture 13). Man was that room ever painted. All over the place, paintings (picture 14). I went to the Queen's House. Nothing of note.

I made my way up to the Royal Observatory. Its up a hill. This is where the Prime Meridian is (picture 15). A bunch of people were getting their picture taken with one foot in the Eastern Hemisphere and one in the Western Hemisphere. I didn't. There were a ton of tourists and I just wasn't that interested in the whole thing. I don't think I looked at on exhibit. I suppose I should have. Oh well. The view from the Observatory was very cool. You could make out St. Paul's Cathedral and Tower Bridge to the west. The Millenium Dome was to the right.

I walked back down the hill but this time through the town. Very nice little village. I had some chips (french fries) for lunch and then made my way back to Canary Wharf. I walked around there more (I told you I liked it). This is where part of 'The World Is Not Enough', a Bond film, was filmed. He chanced some bad guys through the canals. I was walking around and I saw an escalator down into the entrance of a mall so I went down and it. By doing so, I found out where everyone was. They were all underground shopping at these HUGE underground hallways with shops galore. It looked just like a mall back in the US. As I was going to the DLR station, I noticed that there was a skating rink (picture 16). Seriously, add some snow and that picture looks like Minneapolis.

I made my way back and stopped and got laundry detergent. I am currently washing clothes which ended up costing £8 ($16) total. That's without the price of laundry detergent. Ugh. Oh well. It has to be done. Just like this entry. This is the longest entry to date. Hope you enjoyed it! Toodles!

I Would Walk 500 Miles

I am listening to "She's a Lady" by Tom Jones as I am starting to write this entry. These are the kinds of thing you won't get from any other blog about a person studying abroad in London. There probably not many to choose from but you get the idea, you guys get a guy who will listen to Tom Jones and not be ashamed about it. Next up on my blogging playlist (I should have made one of those before I left) is "You Sexy Thing". Yup.

Moving along from that, apparently some people got a little too rowdy last night and there were noise complaints to Metrogate and stuff about people from CSB/SJU being too loud. I would agree with that statement, I could hear them in my room. Oh well. This morning I woke up at 10 and showered (hot water, woo) and ate some breakfast. I went to see what Vanessa wanted to do today and she came up with the idea of walking from our apartment out into London and seeing where it took us. Now this is my kind of deal, venturing out with little to no real destination and taking pictures along the way. We walked along Hyde Park and go to Hyde Park Corner. This is where a bunch of WWI memorial are. There is a Machine Gun Corps Memorial (picture 1) and a New Zealand War Memorial and a whole bunch more that I don't want to list. We then walked along Green Park and made our way to Buckingham Palace (picture 2). I feel bad because I pass all these really cool buildings and usually only take pictures of the outside of them. I promise that sometime I will go inside them and take more pictures.

Aside: I take WAY more pictures than I put on this blog, I just put the highlights on here so don't be surprised when I get home if I sit you all down for a realllllly long time and show all the pictures to you.

After Buckingham Palace, we ventured forth into St. James Park. This park was originally the King's hunting grounds, then landscaped like to look like a French Park, then landscaped to look natural, like it does today. It's very pretty there. There are a ton of birds in the park though. Pigeons, swans, geese, and a whole bunch that I don't know. Very crazy. They would whiz by my head and I'd duck. We then walked on to Trafalgar Square. Same old, same old. Haha. I don't really mean that but we didn't linger there. From Trafalgar Square, we got on a road called The Strand. This road runs from Trafalgar Square to the Tower of London. We didn't go all the way to the Tower of London however (since I was just there yesterday). We walked along the road and I has a trusty guide book out (of course). Actually, here's a list of stuff that I always carry with me (safely in my rain coat pockets which are zippered and velcroed shut, almost impossible to open):

• money
• camera
• map
• guidebook
• oyster card (for the tube)
• passport
  

So there ya go. Now you know. It gets kind of cumbersome sometimes but I usually don't mind it, I always use all of it. I also add things like a ticket or pencil or what have you, when I need to. So we walked along The Stand and all of a sudden a church appeared in the middle of the road, between the two lanes of traffic! It's called St. Mary-Le-Strand (picture 3). It was very beautiful inside (picture 4). Vanessa and I continued onward and lo and behold, another church was in the middle of the road! This one was the Royal Air Force Church and we walked in and listened to a talk. Then we went down to the crypt which had little plaques all over the walls (picture 5). Next up on our walking tour was the Royal Courts of Justice (picture 6). These are the highest courts in England for civil cases. High profile divorces and other things go on inside. People can go in and listen for free (don't take pictures, they get angry). The inquest into Diana's death is going on there right now. Heavy stuff. I was glancing at the guide book and I noticed this out of the way little thing called Temple which the book said we should go to, so we did. It turned out to be Temple Church, the Church where Knights Templar used to be ordained and stuff.

More importantly, it was featured in Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code! I couldn't believe it. Vanessa can attest to my excitement for finding one of the places he featured prominently in the book (along with a library that I can't think of the name of and Westminster Abbey). Inside the church, there are stone effigys of Knights (picture 7). I loved it. We continued on down some cool alleys and then back up to The Strand. This is where we were getting tired and decided to was about time to go back (um, Tube? Yes, please!). The closest tube station was St. Paul's Cathedral. The place that I have already been to three times and have not been in (soon, I promise). It was still just as beautiful and awesome as when I first saw it. We were tired, the walk was about 4.5 miles and obviously, Half Dome and Skeleton Point and Odessa Lake and stuff were not the long but I was in better shape then and we sat down a lot. Here, no sitting, lots of walking. We finished our tour in about 3 hours. So we went to get on the train but the line we wanted was down so we had to transfer twice to get back to our flat. It was very annoying when we were so tired.

Everyone decided to go out to dinner together before Stomp started. We all met up and made it on the tube (no one get hit by a car or anything). It was THE MOST crowded ride on the Tube I have ever seen. Unbelieveable. At each stop people would cram and push so they could just barely fit in when the doors closed. People almost had their heads cut off. But, we made it safe and sound to Leicester Square (pronounced Lester Square, just like Gloucester Road, my Tube stop, is pronounced Gl-ow!-ster Road). Anyway, we went to an Italian restaurant (all 25, Nick couldn't make it to dinner) and we had the upstairs all to ourselves (picture 8). I sat with some people I never talk to and tried to have a conversation. It was difficult, there were teeth pulled and stuff but I got us talking a little. I had to ask leading questions and stuff but it was worth. I got to know some people a little better and I think I made a good impression (how could I not? right?). I ate Rissoto Al Pollo (risotto with chicken breast, peppers, and mushrooms in a saffron and white wine sauce). It was basically the best thing I have eaten here. It was so delicious, words can describe. Then we went to Stomp (picture 9) which I had seen before but, it was still really good and entertaining. Banging on cans and using brooms and other household items to make sound. Awesome. Then we headed back and that's where I'm at.

Tomorrow we visit parliament (go inside and stuff with a tour guide). Again, I am super excited and basically the luckiest guy in the world to see all this stuff. I finished the post by listening to Rhianna, again, yup. Smoochs!

Towers, Bridges, Churches, Oh My!

I had an idea on how to start this blog entry but I forgot it. The reason why I forgot it will be revealed later in the entry (see what I did there... that's called a cliffhanger, now I am a real writer, haha).

*All pictures are of Tower Bridge, Tower of London, and St. Paul's Cathedral*

Anyway, I woke up at 8 even though our class didn't start until 10 because I wanted my hot water for my shower. Yesterday, I didn't have any hot water, today, I did and it was GLORIOUS. Honestly, it just the week I've been here, I have really started to appreciate the small things in life a lot more. Like a hot shower and meat (meat is expensive so I don't buy it, I eat PB or eggs instead). So after my nice hot shower, I ate breakfast (orange, yogurt, bagel) and dinked around online. Its annoying that the morning here is like 3 am over in the US. Oh well. We only had one class and it only lasted an hour and a half. It was the second part of our senior seminar class with Phil this week. We had a reading to do which talked about moral arguments (having evidence and not letting emotion get in the way is important but almost impossible). We spent a bunch of the class talking about trip business. Then Phil started talking about this guy named David Fanshawe. Phil knows him well and he is a composer. He spends a lot of his time going around to different areas of the globe recording native music. Like he went to Africa and recorded tribal rituals and he went to the Middle East and recorded rabbis praying. He has been doing this thirty years so he has a lot of tapes. He then takes these tapes and combines them and writes music to combine them with live choral singing and percussion. It is FANTASTIC. We listened to two pieces by him today and they blew me away. One was a combination of rabbis singing and a choir and the other was a, as Phil put it, "Andrew Lloyd Webber inspired" song of the Our Father. David Fanshawe and ALW went to the Royal School of Music (like two blocks from my flat) together and were both bad students. How cool is that???? AND THEN, next saturday (a week from this saturday) we are going to stonehenge and also visiting David in his home. It is going to amazing. I am legitimately excited for this. So, that was my class today, haha.

After class, I had a granola bar or something I felt stupid for just sitting inside on such a wonderful day so I went alone (I tried to find some people to go but most either had their doors shut or were gone) to the Tower Bridge and Tower of London. They were spectacular. Even after being here a week (has it only been a week, it feels like its been a year) I still can't believe that I'm actually here. Seeing all these things that I've read about and seen hundreds of pictures of, still surprises me. So I walked around the Tower of London and across the Tower Bridge. Then I walked along the south side of the Thames from the Tower Bridge to the London Bridge on what is called "The Queen's Walk". After that I made my way over to St. Paul's Cathedral. It looks much more awesome from a little farther away than it did up close like on the bus tour. I walked for a while more and I got on the tube back to my flat.

Back at the flat (sounds like a song of some kind) I sat around some more. I was thinking about what I wanted to do for my spring break. I didn't really think of anything though. I waited until about 7 or so for everyone to clear out of the kitchen so I could use it. I will put up a picture somday but there are probably 30 people who use the kitchen almost every meal and it is skinnier and shorter than the kitchen at my mom's house. It is ridiculous. At any rate, I made whole wheat spaghetti (cheapest kind of pasta available) and some pre-made tomato sauce. It was reallllllly good. Then I went down to the computer lab and looked up flight information and package deals and all sorts of info until Vanessa came down at around 9 or 10. We brainstormed and finally picked out the place that we figured we should go for spring break. That's why I forgot what I was going to say at the beginning of this entry. Drum Roll please (to build suspense)...

We decided to spend our week (well 9 days) in Italy! We are going to go to Venice, then Florence, then Rome. More people might join us on our little extravaganza but we don't know yet. We just decided like an hour or two ago and then spent a bunch of time looking up flights and hostels and things to see and places to eat and transportation and etc. So, that's my big news. I decided to publish the news because both of us were tired of thinking of places to go and when we decided, we wanted to really decide. By publishing it, if we change our minds, everyone can make fun of me.

So that's all I've got for now. It's 1 am here now and I should go to bed even though I don't have class. We are all going to a production of Stomp though. That should fun. Two posts two days in a row!

Ciao!

Schoolhouse Rock

Well then. When I originally set up this blog, my aim was to update it everyday so as to keep the people who chose to read itthe utmost informed of my life here. I have not been living up to that and I am sorry. It would be easy for me to make excuses like I was sick or I was busy but there are no excuses really. Hopefully with my sickness almost over (I can feel it) and school starting in earnest I will better manage my time and keep this thing updated more. On the flip side, with only updating every other day or so you all get SUPER LONG posts to read, like this one will almost assuredly be.

*All the pictures along the side were taken at (or of) the Natural History Museum and the British Museum.*

To recap my Sunday, I slept for 18 out of a possible 24 hours. Then Sunday night (Monday morning) I slept from midnight to eight. So out of 32 hours, I slept for 26. That might be a world record or something. It was intense sleeping too, not much waking up and laying there or what have you. It was the down and out for the count kind of sleeping. So Monday we started our first day of class. My first class was entitled (I'm not kidding) Ethnology of Selected Culture Areas. Haha, what a weird name. My professor, Justin Lorentzen, said it sounded stupid too. He prefers to call it Sociology of London. We spent almost the entire class (all three hours of it...) asking him questions about London and his life and stuff. It was very interesting to hear his perspective on American movies and music and stuff. We also filled out a little sheet that was meant to help explore our stereotypes of British people and he would either debunk them or say that they were actually true. Like I said, it was an interesting class and should be fun. He has always lived in London and lives in Notting Hill right now with his wife and six year old son. He said his son's favorite song is "Umbrella" by Rhianna. Everyone in the class busted out laughing. In the class, we will be covering a bunch of different topics about London from its popular music to its history to the different areas, all sorts of things. We are even going to take a tour of the East End with Justin (he grew up there). It has changed significantly since he lived there though. It is now filled with immigrant Muslims and eastern Europeans. Very cool.

We had our Senior Seminar with Phil after that. The topic of our Senior Seminar is Ethics and Morals in Art. We spent half our class time talking about just group business and the other half we spent discussing what ethics actually is. Now I must say that I don't particularly enjoy that type of discussion. I just feel like there is no point really because, as Phil told us himself, "this question hasn't been answered for thousands of years and probably won't be for another few thousand years". Well if there is no answer then what's the point??? Oh well, I can deal with it. Our first reading assignment was reading a bunch of stories and making a decision. Like one was about a father separating conjoined twins and one died. So the question is if he should go to jail or not. Ugh. Again, I will deal. After that class, I went grocery shopping (a week's worth of groceries for £9!!!!) I am expert shopper. I was also broken in on the potato flakes diet ;-). I spent most of the rest of my night laying in my bed watching tv (I watched almost all of Bring It On, I am pathetic). I had a bad headache and was still kind of achy. I did get up to try and find a pub where they were playing the football (soccer) game with Rachelle and Peter but they weren't playing it anywhere. So I went back and watched tv and went to bed.

Today, I got up and was already feeling better. I didn't really have a headache but throat still hurt. Oh well. I went to take a shower but all the hot water was gone (I need to wake up earlier) so I only washed my hair. The first class was my Islam vs. The West class. The course is taught by a guy who was born in Iran but does not practice Islam. We took a bunch of notes and I learned a ton. It's really amazing how I could know absolutely nothing about something so huge in the world; there are over 1 billion Muslims. Anyway, I am going to learn a lot in this course and am kind of excited about it. I hope there aren't as many notes every time. My hand hurt.

I came back to the flats and had a PBJ sandwich and then went to the Natural History Museum with Peter, Kristina, and Vanessa. It was pretty cool. The building is amazing (picture 1) and the exhibits were nice. I guess I just wasn't really that interested when I was walking through. I was glad I went though, the museum is only 4 or 5 blocks from my flat and its free (FREEEEEE!!!). I did kind of tired by the end though. The second picture is of a sort of sculpture thing they had about different ideas on how the Earth (and parts of it) were formed. That is Poseidon I believe.

Next up was our Art History course. The teacher immediately whisked us off to the British Museum to the the Parthenon Frieze there (SO COOOOOOOL!!!). The outside of the British Museum is picture 3 by the way. We were leaving the place where our class was to head to the tube and a girl got hit by a car. The car wasn't going that fast (thank god) but it was a very crazy moment. The light had just changed from green to red for the cars, the car didn't stop, and the girl went out in the traffic and man, crazy. It turns out that she was apparently ok, just a little shaken up. Anyway, we all got to the Museum and on the way to the Friezes and we walked by the Rosetta Stone! Yeah, you know, the thing that deciphered all heiroglyphics... Man, so sweet. It's picture 4 by the way. So then we went to the Parthenon Friezes. Some guy basically stole them from the Parthenon site a long time ago and boy did he steal a lot. He took the whole Southern Frieze, its the length of the long side of the Parthenon. Our professor is insanely smart and she walked us through all the details of the friezes and other marble things from the Parthenon. Very cool and agian, I learned a lot. The Friezes are picture 5.

We left the Museum and I went back to the flat. We had a big FIE get together thing where everyone in FIE came together and hung out. There was free beer (uh oh) and free appetizer. Later on in the evening there was a lot of dancing (mostly caused by the booze, I believe). I had a couple beers and danced but I came back and talked about Spring Break plans with Vanessa. It appears we are the only two without plans at the moment. More on that later (no decisions made and I don't want to ruin the surprise, if there was one).

I think I just wrote a novel... Thanks for reading and have fun everyone! Maybe an update tomorrow ;-)

Organizational Information

Ok. So I will make an actual post about the last two days when I am done with this little informational one.

First off, a lot of people have asked for my mailing address which is really nice because that means that you care about where I live and possibly want to send me something. Keep in mind that packages are possibly searched and stuff when they are sent over seas. Also keep in mind that postage is very expensive and I don't particularly need anything at the moment (but would welcome anything you send me). Without further ado... here it is:

Jeremy Bydlon
Metrogate
3-7 Queen's Gate Terrace
London SW7 5PE, UK

Another informational thing, and honestly this is more for me than for the people who care to read my ramblings, is a list of the excursions that our group is going to take and dates that they will occur on. I don't really know why I am posting this but I feel it might be necessary
Saturday, January 26 - Salisbury Cathedral, Stonehenge, Fanshawe Country home/studio

Friday, February 1 - George Inn Southwark
Saturday, February 2 - Canterbury Cathedral, Dover Castle, Wartime Tunnels

February 14 - February 24 = Spring Break

Saturday, March 1 - Cambridge, Kings College Chapel Evensong

Saturday, March 15 - Coventry Cathedral, Warwick Castle

March 20-24 = Easter Break

Saturday, April 5 - Stratford, Shakespeare properties, Royal Shakespeare Company The Merchant of Venice

In between all of those excursion we have a bunch of plays that we are going to go to as a group for our Senior Seminar Class. It should be very interesting and I am looking forward to all of the excursions.

I can't think of anything else I need to tell people about at the moment. If you think of some other information I should tell you, let me know and I'll post it.

Sickness Sucks

So here's the deal. I'm sick. It kind of started last night and yesterday but today it was full blown sickness. Last night I had a headache and was really tired for most of the night but when I woke up today, I was super warm (sweating profusely) and my through hard a ton every time I swallowed and I was really achy. I sucked it up and went to church with Rachelle. The church we went to was called Our Lady of Victories Catholic Church. It was a really cool church. We went to the 10 am mass which was the family and children mass. It was so loud. They don't have crying rooms or anything (not that that would have helped, everyone would have had to go into the crying room anyway). After church we walked back to our flats and I immediately went to bed. I was so tired. I ended up sleeping from about noon to nine. This was after sleeping from midnight to nine last night. I feel better now but my throat still hurts. I think that the main reason for the sickness was the lack of sleep and the out put of energy I put myself through yesterday and the day before. Moral of the story: sleep and don't go overboard on seeing everything right away.
Speaking of yesterday, I will fill you in on what happened. So after I posted that blog entry, we went on a bus tour. Rochelle and I were seat buddies. We had the same guide that we did the day before on our walk around the neighborhood. She was funny and very smart. She knew stories and little facts about what seemed like every single place we drove by. We drove just about all over London. First we went to Chelsey and then we drove back around along the Thames and by Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. After that we proceeded to the area of London called The City. It is the oldest part of London. We took a break at St. Paul's Cathedral. I went into the Crypt Cafe and got the most delicious brownie ever. After St. Paul's Cathedral we went to Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus and some other places that I can't really remember. We made our way back to the flats. Rachelle, Vanessa, Peter, Mallory, Kristina, Amy and I decided to take the train to Westminster and walk from there to Piccadilly Circus. It was a very beautiful walk and well worth the effort. We stopped by the horse guards and everyone got a picture taken next to them. We got to Piccadilly and decided to walk along Regent Street which was the only street in all of London that was actually planned and designed. Rachelle, Mallory, and I were really tired so we went back while the other four got some tea. All seven of us met up at the flats later and we all made PB&J together for dinner. It was a lot of fun. Mallory and Rachelle discussed travel plans for spring break and our free weekends. After eating dinner we took the tube down to the Thames again and found the Sherlock Holmes Restaurant and Pub. We got a pint (or something else) and it was fun. We walked along the Thames again and made our way back to our flats. I was really tired and went straight to bed. And then, like I said, today I went to church and slept. I felt kind of bad about sleeping that much but there's nothing that I could do about it. When you're sick, you're sick. Anyway, tomorrow we start classes (booooo) and hope I feel even better tomorrow morning. Three straight hours of class with a headache and sore throat would be terrible. I think it will be ok though. I guess that's all for now.

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

That's the Mr. Rogers song by the way. First of all, I added pictures to the previous post so check those out. They are really sweet. Next up, sorry about the whole no post thing yesterday. It was a busy day (like all will be for a while). But it is 2:27 am back home so I guess I just missed the cut off. Time to catching everyone up on what I have been up to since Thursday. Let's do it.
After I finished the last post, I went into our common room and laid down on a couch for what I thought was going to be a couple minutes. That turned in two hours. Then I went up to my room and went to sleep. I ended up sleeping about 12 hours straight. Probably the most glorious 12 hours of sleep I have ever had. While we are on the subject of my room... I share a bedroom with Mo and there is another bedroom connected to us which has Nick and Dan in it. The four of us share a bathroom. So it is like my apartment from last fall except no kitchen and no living room. It is pretty nice. We probably have the biggest bedroom out of our group as far as square footage goes. I like that aspect of it. A picture is to the right. I sleep on the left by the way. So after sleeping 12 hours, I was plenty rested.
Thursday morning I got up at around 7 and went into the dining room area and read some of "The Hatchet". I ate breakfast and just kind of hung out with a couple other people until we had to leave for our next orientation thing at 10. The orientation thing was basically us sitting in desks while two people told us a bunch of information that I felt I had heard before. I made sure to grab a window seat and I just looked out the window whenever I would get bored. After that I went back to Metrogate (the name of the building I live in). I ate lunch and sat around again. Our next orientation thing was a walking tour of our neighborhood (thus the name of the post). I live in a neighborhood called Kensington. It is a very affluent neighborhood. The row houses across the street from me sell for around 1 million dollars (£500,000). That is incredible. It is a very nice neighborhood to walk around and it pretty safe at night. The picture to the right is not of the street I live on but it is very much like all the streets near where I live. They are so cool and a lot of them are made out of red brick and they are awesome. So we walked around our neighborhood and saw Kensington Palace which is a 10 to 15 minute walk from my flat. We walked down High Kensington Street which is very similar to Michigan Avenue in Chicago, busy street with a lot of shops. We walked by T.S. Eliot's former residence. It was a very enjoyable walk, mostly because it wasn't raining and the sun popped out a couple times (more on that in the future sometime).
After the walking tour, we had the night to ourselves. I went back to High Kensington with Rochelle, Vanessa, and Amy. We went to a couple stores and then walked back to our flats. After resting up for a little bit, Peter, Amy, Kristina, Vanessa, Mallory, Rochelle, and I went out to eat. We found a fish and chips place. Nothing interesting about it, fried fish and french fries. It was sweet to eat them in England though. After that we just kind of walked around aimlessly for an hour or so. As we were walking, we talked about a myriad of subjects. It turns out that 5 of the 7 have a significant other (everyone knows which group I was in). We ended up making a big loop around the Kensington neighborhood. We walked by the Natural History Museum. It was dark so the picture is kind of blurry but you get it. The building is incredibly awesome and to the right in the picture they had set up an ice rink. It was kind of sprinkling when we walked by it so it was disorienting to see people skating while it was like 40 degrees out and sprinkling. There were a lot of people there. I suppose it is a novelty here. Another thing to mention about my neighborhood is that I am about 10 to 15 minutes from the Natural History Museum, Science Museum, and Victoria and Albert Museum. All three are awesome and all three are FREE. Can you believe that???
After walking around we stopped at an Italian restaurant and got tea. We ended up spending 3 hours there talking as a group. We went around the circle and told a mini version of our live story. It was really cool and fun just hanging out and talking. Then we came back to our flats and continued the conversation in Kristina's room. I got into bed at around 2 am. Ugh. Then I woke up at 6:30 this morning and couldn't fall asleep. So I got up and ran from my flat to Westminster and Big Ben. AMAZING. I didn't bring my camera but seeing the sun rise in the middle of the London Eye and reflecting on the Thames River was magical. In 45 minutes we're taking a bus tour so there will be MANY pictures later today or tomorrow. Till then, toodles!