My first month of culture!

Dearest friends and followers last weekend marked my first full month in ye grande ole London, and it was a bitter-sweet sentiment, because it’s fun to finally feel like I understand this random, un-gridded city, but at the same time I cannot believe how fast the time is going!! This past week my classes had few outings to give us a li’tle bit o’ culture. It made me so thankful that I choose to study abroad through this programme that’s designed to immerse us into the city.

On Tuesday, for theatre we had a tour of the Globe Theatre, which, no, is not the same Globe that Shakespeare built –that one was destroyed in the 1600s-, but rather was rebuilt in the 1800s off of original designs and materials of Shakespeare’s Globe (so the frame is all wood, no metal nails, and it has a thatched roof over the seats and stage in a circular frame, leaving a hole in the middle to let in the daylight (which lights the shows) and the rain!). They sell tickets in the standing space in front of that stage for 5 quid, and my friends and I are gonna try it in a few weeks!

While coming home from the Globe, I crossed the Millennium Bridge (famous for blowing up in Harry Potter 5) and happened to be in St. Paul’s Square looking onto St. Paul’s Cathedral, which was magnificent at dusk with a rain-splattered ground, and so I went into the Cathedral and they just happened to be starting 5 o’clock mass. The sound of the choirboys filling the massive hall was truly a moving experience.

The next day, for our Literature class, we had a tour of Charles Dickens house, which was the first London residence he took after becoming famous. I even got to sit in the spot where he wrote Oliver Twist, yet, I’m sorry to report, I was not struck with a sudden urge to take quill to parchment and bust out a novel, and then last night, we got tickets to the Philharmonic in the Royal Festival Hall, which overlooks the Thames and the London Eye (both incredible at night!). The music was incredible and the violins and the end were “soul-piercing” to quote a friend.

Anyways that’s this last week in a compacted nutshell, and as for this weekend it’s fashion weekend in London, which means this already ridiculously well-dressed city will be looking its finest (and just so you know, everything you’ve heard about fashion in London is 100% true), everyone here just dresses so well, not even flashy or anything (although the elderly ladies with the mink suits and bright red lipstick are great) just very classy, well fit. Alright I must sign off and get my day started, over and out from Londontown!

A little boy's dream..

It feels like every week brings incredible once in a lifetime experiences, and I feel like I am sort of just wondering around awestruck most of the time. Yesterday was full of these particularly memorable moments.

My program had a scheduled tour of Aston Martin, the automobile factory (which if you don't know what they are look them up right now, because they are beautiful). Anyways we got to walk around the actual factory where these autos worth millions of pounds are actually made and assembled, and because they are so exclusive, each of the parts are made and assembled by hand (the 'aluminium' is hand hammered into shape and the leather for the interior is sewed by individual sewing machines and even by hand!) and then we got a tour of the design room with sketches and designs and things. The tour we got of the factory was really exclusive with no photography or anything, and they told us virtually no one else gets the kind of tour we got today except for auto purchasers. At the end we got to sit in the cars in the design room and take pictures!

Let me tell you, i never fancied myself a car fan prior to that tour, but afterwards i wouldnt mind cruising around in one of those babies, not that i would ever spend enough to save an african village on a car, but still theyre classssy

After this tour, we got take to a "mystery" destiny, which turned out to be Warwick Castle, which is a Castle that got turned into a tourist funland. The castle was gorgeous and we had a great time exploring the grounds, climbing the towers, seeing the peacock conservatory, and eating a "medieval" feast, which was just boiled veggies, a lot of meat, and gravy, and exploring the inside which was turned into a wax museum to imitate medieval times, and my friend and I 'borrowed' some of the costumes and went around and had fun pretending to be wax figures to the other tourists.

We got home from our adventures about an hour after Mubarak stepped down, which had our neighborhood (which is The arabic district in London) in a state of celebration. So we got home changed and went and celebrated in the streets with the Egyptians, Lebanese, Saudi, and basically everyone who happened to stumble upon our neighborhood until the wee hours. There was drumming, chanting and singing (none of which i could understand, but still it was inspiring) It was an incredibly joyful feeling and we met an amazing man, who just arrived back from Egypt that day, and had been protesting in the square! He had been shot in the leg during the protest, so he returned to London to be with his family. It was a great end to a great day of unique experiences.

Other than that, this past week, we had a tour of the National Portrait Gallery for our Theatre Class and I did some exploring with a few girls and discovered Holland Park, which is a gorgeous park with gardens, peacocks, and japanese gardens. It was lovely!

Anyways that's all for this week, signing off from LondonTown!

Settling Down and Traveling Around

So my blog has had a few roadbumps getting going, i.e. I lost my password and I'm not in my flat enough to sit down and write not to mention I have limited band-width per week in the flat (the internet is a rare commodity here haha). Anyways, I love my little flat located in the Arabic district (many times I'm the only woman not covered on the road outside), our main street outside, Edgeware road specializes in Halal cuisine, and Fatoush (which is essentially salad with crutons) is the delicacy not to mention every cafe offers Hookah. The flats themselves are full of international students from all over the U.S. primarily, and I've gotten to know quite a few of them. My flat has four other girls from my program, and I love them all, we all get along well and have named our flat "The Gypsy Tavern". In my program is 30 other students, half from the University of San Francisco and half from Fordham in NY (ya Ian!).

Our University is located in the heart of Kensington High Street, right by the National History Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, Royal Albert Hall, and Kensington Palace. It's a cool place to go school. From our flats we are about a 30 minute walk from everything in London, which has allowed me to explore loads of London on foot!

I've also been out of London a lot considering I've only been here 3 weeks. The first weekend here, I went to Amsterdam and Brugge with a student tour. It was so incredible, we left 5 a.m. Friday morning and did not sleep until we returned Sunday night. In Amsterdam, I saw clog making, cheese making, got a canal tour, saw the Van Gough Museum, and got a Red Light District walking tour and in Brugge I saw the Madonna and Jesus that Michaelangelo created for the Flemish Cathedral and I touched Jesus's blood in a church there! Not to mention tried Belgian chocolate and beer (not together don't worry).

Then last weekend, our class went on a day trip to bath, which was the perfect amount of time to spend in the town. It is gorgeous (everything is limestone) and we got an amazing walking tour of the town and then the ancient Roman bath houses. But I couldn't imagine spending longer than a day there, it just seems like the kind of place to grow old and eat crumpets (which I still have yet to taste, although I did discover what Yorkshire Pudding was).

As far as exploring London goes, I have seen about 5 museums, explored Soho, Picadilly Circus, Oxford Circus, Westminster Abbey (which is the most incredible place I've ever been in), the London Eye, Big Ben, been to two plays in London theatres, and walked in Regent, Hyde, and Green Parks. All I can say is so far I love London town!