Windsor Castle

As expected, the pictures don't do this gorgeous castle justice.  Even though it was under overcast skies, it was still incredible.  I had bought this trip to Windsor through my school over the summer online, so I've been excited to go here!  I've heard that most weekends, the Queen enjoys spending her free time here.  We were able to walk around the outside as shown in my pictures, but there was also a part where we were able to see the apartments on the inside.  These were just breathtaking.  The dining halls and bedrooms and ballrooms that we got to see were all so huge and extravagant.  Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but I wish I could have!  There was just so much to see from the chandeliers to the chairs and carpets, to the detailed architecture of the ceilings.  I can't even imagine living in a place this big.

We were able to see a few different places where the guards were posted, and every so often they would march back and forth, swinging their arm that wasn't holding a rifle, with a stern look that never left their face.  It's amazing to me how someone can do this job every single day and not get bored by it.  Shown clearly by the picture I took with the guard, they do not move, do not have facial expressions, and I'm not sure how often these guards are able to go to the bathroom and eat!  I'm assuming it is a very prideful job for them, but I would like to know more about this peculiar-seeming job!

There were various gift shops throughout the castle, just like in any other place we've toured here.  Everything was quite expensive, also as expected.  There were post cards with the royal family's pictures on them, various towels and bath soaps with Windsor Castle written on them, and even stuffed animal dogs to resemble the Queen's dog.  Overall, the pictures just speak for themselves.  It's amazing to me that this castle can be just ONE of a person's many homes.  The royal life here still amazes me.

Camden Market

This Friday I went to Camden Market!! It was such an experience, and although I was quite intimidated at first, it became so much fun to shop like this.  I've never been to a market like this, so upon walking up to it, there were huge crowds of people and tons of vendors selling various items along the streets.  Some were yelling at me to come over and check theirs out, others were focusing on a customer who seemed interested in one of their items.  There was a point where I just happened to look inside a store, and the vendor yelled "You see somesing you like?? Oh, come come!" I politely told him "No thank you" and kept moving along with Brooke and Amanda.

You can barely see it on the top picture, but there was a giant green sign which was a tent with loads of vendors underneath.  That's where we went next.  There was a very distinct smell of foreign cuisines, as it was lunch time for the vendors.  There were vendors in almost every aisle of clothing, ready to assist you as soon as you had a question or inquiry.  Inside the tent there was mostly jewelry and clothing.  The clothing consisted of anything from dresses and tank tops, to lingerie and pants.  They also had many iPhone cases for sale, as well as purses.  When we came upon a vendor who was selling sweatshirts that I liked, I stopped and had a look around.  I found a bright pink one that says "London, England" across the front.  When I asked the man how much it cost, he said "How much do you want it to cost?" The question took me by surprise in a sense, but I had also tried preparing myself for this, as I knew it was to be expected at such a market.  I said "10 pounds" just instinctively, not really having any reason behind it.  He said it was worth 15 pounds, and he wasn't so sure about my offer.  He walked away to grab a plastic bag, as if I had already agreed on a price.  He said 14 pounds.  I said "11 pounds or I don't want it."  I got the sweatshirt for 11 pounds.

I was proud of the way I was able to handle such a sale.  I never would have thought I would be good at a bargaining situation, but it made me feel accomplished because I was able to get a good deal that I worked for.  I was also checking out some small luggage, and the man said it was 30 pounds.  I realized I wouldn't have space for it on my travels back home, so I said "No thank you" and began to walk away.  He started shouting prices at me as I walked.  "25 pounds!  How about 20!!"  I just smiled and kept walking, as I knew it was all part of the game of shopping at a market.

I was able to get a few other things as gifts, so I won't share what they were here as they are surprises for certain people. :) But overall, I was extremely happy with what I paid for everything that day, and hopefully we can go to another market very soon to do some more bargain shopping.  It just made me think of my Grammy and how I know she would HATE being bothered by vendors while trying to shop.  Hopefully she reads this and if not, I can't wait to tell her how it went!

Trafalgar Square

I haven't posted much in the past few weeks, as I haven't really been traveling or doing too many exciting things where I've taken lots of pictures. It's really amazing how quickly your money goes, especially with the rising exchange rate. Just simply taking the tube so many times forces you to "top up" or add money to your card.

This weekend Brooke and I went to Regent Street to shop again, with less of a crowd than when the NFL had their events on the street. We visited the 4-floor Niketown, and simply looked in awe at everything they had to offer. We wandered in and out of a few other souvenir shops searching for gifts for friends and family, and then we headed to Trafalgar Square. While we were waiting for the tube, a woman with an accent that I couldn't distinguish came up to me panicked and asked me for directions. She wanted to know if she was getting on the correct train for where she wanted to go. When I have time to figure out where I need to go based on where I am, I can figure out which tube I need to take where, when I need to get off, and if I need to change to a different platform. As I tried deciphering first what she said, and then the tube map she had in her hand with five different stops circled on it, she was yelling at me for help. She was so panicked that as I started explaining how she could get there, she said "Nevermind!!" and ran off. It was very rude, and I didn't really understand why she would be so upset when the trains run every few minutes. I think she just needed to take a minute and figure out the map on her own. I ended up seeing her on the train that we got on, and she still looked just as frazzled and confused.

Walking from the station to Trafalgar Square, we noticed Benjamin Franklin's house, so we took pictures of it and moved on. It's so interesting that we can be walking down a random street and see something like that, which we may not have even noticed if there wasn't a huge sign explaining to us what is was. Trafalgar Square was packed with people, so we took a few pictures of that and then left.  We made it back to Richmond fine, unlike a few weeks ago when we had to retrieve my broken laptop from Brent Cross shopping centre....We completely missed the stop to Richmond and had to wait another 20 minutes for a train to go back. It was a nightmare and freezing, but this time we both paid attention and made it back in time for dinner. Today I start studying for my Psychology midterm which is on Tuesday. It will be 50 multiple choice questions in an hour. My professor told us that if we are even a minute late arriving to the exam, he will shut and lock the door on us and we will not be allowed into the room, resulting in a failing grade. I also found something interesting that he told us about the exam. He said that after the first half hour I believe, we are not allowed to ask any more questions. Maybe that is to minimize the distraction of people walking around the room. I've just never heard of such a thing. Next week we have the day trip to Windsor Castle and Eton Riverside. Pictures to come!

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!