Weekend with Dad

This weekend my dad came to visit me from Friday until midday Sunday, and it was great to get a small taste of home.  He stayed at a hotel within a 5-minute walk from my campus, so it was very easy meeting up with him.  I first took him for a walk around Richmond Park, and I realized how I was already accustomed to seeing 100's of deer in a field at once, when it was amazing to him.  We went into downtown Richmond so he could withdraw some money and we stopped at a small pub to get appetizers to hold us over until dinner.  We decided to head into Central London later in the day, and ended up buying a 24-hour package for The Big Bus double decker tour of London.

It was a fast and convenient way to see as much of London as he could, since he was only here for a few days.  The weather was perfect to sit on the open top, and we saw things like Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, Tower Bridge, and various cathedrals and significant government buildings.  I kept the itinerary of the bus route as a souvenir.  With this tour, you could get off the bus and walk around at any time, so we did that for Buckingham Palace so he could get a closer view of the guards and the front of the palace.  We didn't get to see a changing of the guards, but it was cool to see people touring the palace, as it is open for this during a short period of time in September when the Queen is away.  We came back to campus later in the evening and I took him across the street to the Lass to try the infamous England's fish & chips.  I enjoyed some cheese croquets, which are like giant mozzerella sticks with onion flavoring in them. 

On Saturday I had a full day planned for us, so we took the train to where Madame Tussaud's museum was.  We had an appointment between 12 and 12:30, so we ate at a Panera-like cafe called Nero Cafe (it looks like the sign says 'Nerd Cafe' every time I read it.)  We got in line shortly after for the museum, and I noticed there was a high population of Indians who did not like giving strangers their personal space in a crowd.  

The wax museum was only the first part of Madame Tussaud's.  We were able to see various celebrities in these wax sculptures such as Lady Gaga, Adele, Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez, David and Victoria Beckham, the Royal Family, Shakespeare and even Barack Obama.  There was a walk-through haunted mansion afterwards, a short ride that described Britain's history, and finally a really cool 4-D movie.  The place was a lot bigger and involved much more than I had expected I paid for, so I was glad.

Since the double decker bus tour was valid for 24 hours, we were able to hop on that right at Madame Tussaud's and take it to the remaining parts of the tour we hadn't had the chance to see on Friday.  It worked out perfectly.  We saw a lot of shopping plazas, and even drove past Harrod's that I would definitely want to go back to when it's lit up at Christmastime.  We saw a park that has a Peter Pan statue in it, and the street where the creator of Peter Pan lived.  We also saw Drury Lane, where the Muffin Man lives!

We got off on the stop for the London Eye, as that was the next thing on our to-do list for the day. I had bought the two attractions in a package to save money.  We waited in line for that for around an hour, and the ride itself took around 35 minutes.  It wasn't a sunny day, so the pictures had no glare, but it was difficult to see too far into the distance with the clouds.  There was a wedding happening on the London Eye while we were on it, which is apparently a frequent occurrence.  They are married at the top and then come down to have their friends and family on a boat cruise with them.  It was pretty sweet to see.

When we headed back into Richmond, I took him to the Pizzeria Rustica that I had loved right outside of the train station.  We split a pizza and he said he loved it just as much as I did!

We went for a walk Sunday morning before he had to leave at noon.  Dad helped me sign up and pay for a gym membership at his hotel for 2 months, as a chance to get away from campus for a while and use a decent gym.  I've figured out the size of the gym at this school is just about 10 lunges lengthwise, and maybe 6 lunges wide.  It's not big.  It consists of 2 ellipticals, 2 bikes, 2 treadmills, 2 rowing machines, and a few other weights.  A bigger gym will definitely help me de-stress a bit better here, so I'm excited that that starts up this Monday, the 30th.

It was weird seeing my dad pack up, as it was comforting knowing a family member was just around the corner if I needed anything.  He drove off in the bus to catch his flight, and I returned to studying for my week of quizzes, a final, and a presentation to finish off this first 3-week class.  I wouldn't say it's flying by, but my somewhat busy schedule is certainly making it seem faster. 

The Three Rules

Our professor who organized this trip and was our main source of information coming here left us after our first week and will return again in December to take us home. Before she left, she said there are three rules we must follow:

1. Don't die

2. Don't go to jail

3. Don't get kicked out of school

A smaller group of us from Richmond met with a larger group at Kensington campus to take buses to see to world heritage sites today: Stonehenge and Bath. The tour guide we had was great, and I learned a ton about them, especially the history behind Stonehenge. We don't know who built Stonehenge and why. It goes back 5,000 years to about 3,000 BC. The stones arrived in 2,500BC and the building was finished in 2,000BC which was the beginning of the Bronze Age. Britain was heavily forested with lots of deer in in 2,500BC  during the Neolothic age (the New Stone Age). Stones back then were bashed into shape using other stones. Stonehenge is a circle of stones that are shaped in this manner. There are stones going horizontal atop the stone circles as well. It would've taken about 200 people to drag these stones into place. There is a strong likelihood that there were wooden pieces forming a circle before the stones, but they are not there anymore. 2 types of stones make up this structure: smaller (blue stones) which came from 180 miles away in Wales and larger stones ( between 25 to 50 tons) which came from a quarry about 20 miles away from Stonehenge. It would be a 1 week journey on foot from 180 miles away. Stones may have been put on wooden rafts on a river to be brought to the site, then put on wooden platforms, which were put on wooden rollers which were tree trunks. They would have taken the tree trunks out from back and put in front again. It was believed that blue stones had healing or curative properties. 2 full stone circles with 2 semi circles within. What I saw is 50% of what it used to be. Many stones have fallen or been taken for building as it was a source of stone for people. 1/3 of the stone is in the ground to hold it in position. They used antlers of deer to pick into the ground, or the shoulder blade bones of cattle. The bones help us date Stonehenge. It is on a northeast to southwest axis, and it is in line with the summer and winter solstice. The hele stone stands by itself, it is believed it was once one of a pair, as an entrance that lead into Stonehenge. On mid summers day, if you face the sun it rises directly above the hele stone if you are standing in the middle of the stones. 

Bath was also very beautiful with amazing architecture. I think it was a very romantic city with lots of birds, street music and performers, and flowers everywhere. The Roman Baths that we received a tour of are one of the best remaining Roman relics in the country. They were natural springs that were used as communal baths for the Romans inside this temple which we toured. We weren't allowed to touch the water in the bath where most of the pictures were taken, but at the end we had the opportunity to touch and even drink some filtered water from the baths coming out of a fountain. 

All of the souvenir shops around here gave me lots of options for gift purchases for family and friends, and we stopped at a pub for lunch. At a pub, you seat yourself, look at a menu, and go up to the bar, order and pay separately when you are ready. They see where you sit and bring the food to you when it's done. Many of the pubs I've been to so far have the kitchen where they cook the food downstairs and they send it up to the bartender using a dumbwaiter.

On the way back to Kensington, we were able to see Windsor castle in the distance. The royal family resides there on occasion, and it is said that the Queen enjoys spending her weekends there. I have a trip planned through the school here and to Eton later on in my study abroad, but there's no chance that I will see the royal family unfortunately.

A few more things today that I noticed and thought was different about this country are as follows:

Apartments are called flats.

There are 365 pubs in the London area that sell Fuller beer, one for every day of the year. 

"To Let" means "for sale"

Traffic lights go yellow to red to slow down, then yellow to green to warn the driver that it's almost time to go again. 

Our tour guide seemed to call exits off the highway "slip roads"

Public schools require you to pay a tuition per trimester, where private schools do not. The public school where the princes attended costs around 9,000 pounds per trimester, so almost 30,000 pounds for one school year. That is the equivalent of $47,634.

Fulham vs. West Bromwich Football Match

Our marketing professor brought us to Fulham stadium to watch a football (soccer) match today!  We took the train from Richmond station into Putney, and walked for 20 minutes to arrive at the stadium.  The fans there were absolutely crazy!  There were families with young kids who were just as into their home team as the adults were!  Older men with lots of friends use this as a social gathering event.  Lots of chanting and singing from the fans of both teams accompanied the game.  Fulham was up 1-0 almost the whole match, but then with 6 minutes of added time at the end, West Bromwich scored on a corner kick.  It was a big upset for the home team fans but an exciting game to watch nonetheless.

At the beginning of the game my professor announced that there would be an extra credit opportunity for us.  We had to purchase and consume half of the above drink, known as "Bovril", and he had to watch us drink it.  I was the first one who volunteered to purchase it.  It smelled like a barn.  The taste was a very salty, "beefy drink", as shown on the cup.  It was just about as tasty as the container appears, but I finished my half before anyone else, and earned my 10 extra points toward my final grade in the class.  I washed it down quickly afterward with a cadbury hot chocolate.  Cadbury is popular and apparently quite delicious here in London, but I have yet to try just a plain candy bar.

After the game we split up in two groups to go to different restaurants for dinner.  I chose Pizzeria Rustica, and boy was it an excellent choice!!! The pizza was amazing!! It was very thin, not too much sauce, and was huge for only around 7 pounds.  It was interesting that they served the pizzas whole and we had to cut them ourselves.  I'm not ashamed to say I ate the whole thing by myself...The service was great, and I definitely want to go back again soon. It's about a ten minute walk from school!

As expected, there are so many changes that I've had to adapt to while here in London.  Culture shock has been a regular occurrence for me with all sorts of things.  The pictures above just show a few of those examples.  The hot and cold water do not come out of the same spout; instead you have to move your hands back and forth between the two to get the full effect.  They also have tons of different coins from one pence, two pence, five pence, 20 pence, 50 pence, 1 pound, and 2 pounds.  It's hard telling the difference between them in the middle of a store when I'm trying to pay for something.  Also, the keyboards in the library are different.  They have a key for Euros and Pounds, and the @ key is with the apostrophe, while the quotation mark is on the 2.  The shift keys also don't say shift, and are smaller than the shift bars I am used to.  Typing has been a bit of a challenge on these computers, but maybe I'll get used to it.  A few other random culture shocks were like when I met a girl in my Psychology class from Bulgaria, and an hour later she gave me a hug to say goodbye.  The ground floor is actually the first floor here, so finding my class took be a few extra minutes.  When we figured out how much gas would be per gallon in U.S. dollars in comparison to what it is here right now, it came out to around $8 per gallon which is crazy! Their version of a dollar store is known as Poundland, which makes sense!  Also, they have a TK Maxx instead of a TJ Maxx, but I wasn't able to find out why.  Here, they call french fries chips, and potato chips crisps.  Emails with professors are also very formal here, as they address students with "Dear..." and end them with "Sincerely...".  Rain boots here are also called "Wellies."  There are so many more that I can't even think of right now, but I'm slowly started to adapt to all of these changes. Stonehenge and Bath tomorrow! Pictures to come!

New Student Boat Cruise

Last night we went on a boat cruise along the Thames River in London.  We saw some amazing view like the Tower Bridge pictured above.  The boat cruised along the river one way, so we were able to view everything in the daylight, and then again at night to see the city lit up.  It became a bit chilly as the night progressed, but we lucked out with absolutely no rain.  The DJ played some familiar throwbacks, and everyone took advantage of the bars on the upper and lower decks as well.  The whole trip only cost us around 10 pounds, and we had free transportation back to school around 10:30pm.  It was a fun way to start off the semester with all of the new students.  It's crazy to think we've already almost been here a week!

Grocery Shopping & The Park

                       

 The food here is a bit different to get used to.  A few of us girls went into town today to find the grocery store in London, and needless to say a lot of the food is different.  The strawberries are tiny, but they looked pretty good!  They had weird styles of Milky Ways called "Crazy Caramel", and 3 Musketeers is called "Wild and Whippy."  Even their Goldfish look exactly the same but have a different name.  And their Coke bottles are narrow and taller.  All of these things are weird for me to see, but they are normal to English people who are used to living with them.  I have yet to try some infamous Fish and Chips, but I hope to do so this weekend.  The food at the dining hall here is quite bland, but I manage to eat bread, meat, and salad at lunch and dinner.  It will all definitely take some getting used to, but I'll survive.  I could really go for a PB&J sandwich from home right about now...

My roommate Brooke and I went over to Richmond Park which has some beautiful views and gardens everywhere.  We even saw a wedding occurring at one corner of this giant piece of land.  It is just a short walk around the corner from campus, and it was such a nice day out that we just had to get outside.  There was a small blonde girl probably about 2 years old wobbling around with her grandparents and they asked in their formal accent "What's that you got there?" And she responded with her miniature version of their accent "App-le!"  I still can't seem to get over hearing children with the accent we all envy.

We attended a Welcome New Students Reception in front of the school later in the day, and got to drink wine and meet some professors and other students.  The man who spoke to welcome us told us that Richmond has students from over 100 different countries, which sounded crazy to me!  However, most of these students are here for all 4 years as opposed to just 3 and a half months like us, so it's even more drastic for them.

We went to a pub last night, and were able to order drinks at the bar, which is still such a new and intimidating thing for me.  But below is a picture of me and my roommate, and we are getting along great.  She is from Connecticut, not too far from WNE.  There is supposed to be a New Student Boat Party tonight from 7-11pm, but it may rain so I'm not sure what we will be doing.

Central London

I have blisters on my heels from walking in Sperry's all day.  It was around 80 degrees which is extremely warm for England, so everyone was out taking pictures and touring the beautiful city.  I couldn't believe how close we are to London. A quick 25-minute train ride from Richmond took us right to the heart of the city, and we walked out to find the intimidating London Eye towering over us in the distance.  The London Eye is the world's largest ferris wheel.

Due to the long lines and our excitement to see as many things as we could, we decided we'd save taking the 45 minute ride for some other day.  There were lots of street performers including a singer named Charlotte Campbell, a young man performing with a soccer ball, and this "statue"...

We took tons of pictures leading up to and then right next to Big Ben, which was breathtaking to see.  There were various vendors selling I <3 London gear in shirts, bumper stickers, lanyards, and signs. People speaking all different languages were rushing by, bumping into me, and giving me weird looks listening to me talk.  I still can't get over the English accents.  Whether it's an elderly person, a small child, or an announcer on the train. "Mind the gap" was constantly said as we prepared to enter and exit the train. The large gap between the train and the concrete is  bit of a jump, but that's how I've felt since arriving in London. Although there are some familiar foods and faces, the culture shock has been hard to get over. It's hard to remember to look the opposite way when crossing the street, or not to panic for a second when seeing no one driving the car but then realizing they're on the other side.

We were able to stand right outside the gates of Buckingham Palace, and we had just missed the changing of the guards.  It's amazing to me how they stand out there all day, guarding the Palace.  Hopefully I can go on a tour sometime during my stay. We stopped at a restaurant on the way back and then tried to retrace our steps as best as we could. We ended up finding our way back to Richmond by train, and stopped at a local convenience store to purchase things such as laundry detergent, shampoo, and tape to put pictures on our walls. Unfortunately, I found out when I returned to campus that an ATM I used withdrew money from my account that I didn't get, so I've been trying to sort that all out. We took the traditional Western New England picture with the Sophomore Experience Abroad banner in front of the school...while everyone stared at us...I don't think our style is really up to par according to the English students. Hopefully we'll all warm up to each other a bit more after the New Student Boat Party on Friday!