Friday, September 26, 2008

There's No Place Like London

Classes have really started to pick up this past week. I have my first "quiz" in my history class next week, and two other classes assigned the midterm paper topics. The second half of my art history class consisted of a trip to the National Gallery to see some works by the Pre-Raphaelites in a special exhibition. The black-and-white photo below is of Trafalger Square from the front of the National Gallery (the Clock Tower can been seen in the distance).



Across the intersection from our local tube station is a Lamborghini dealership. Thursday evening, the cars were moved out of the showroom and were quite the spectacle. So, of course, I wanted a picture with the beautiful sports cars.




Friday morning, we made a trip to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards.




Also a good opportunity to take pictures with the guards. I could totally be a guard.



In the afternoon, we headed over to the Globe to see if we could get tickets to A Midsummer's Night's Dream. Unfortunately, it was sold out. In fact, it's sold out for the rest of the season (which ends next week). However, the ticketmaster told us that if we wanted to queue up 90 minutes before the performance, we might get any unclaimed tickets. So we tried, and luckily, we did! And since we were in line so early, we got standing room next to the stage, which was close enough for the actors to look directly at us when saying some of their lines.


Friday, September 19, 2008

Stonehenge, Bath, and Beyond

IES plans several excursions for students, but most of our weekends are free, so last weekend, a few of the girls and I got out our "diaries" (British for planners) and scheduled a few excursions of our own. The big excursion this week was a trip to Stonehenge and Bath. We booked a tour with a local touring company, and our first stop was Stonehenge.





After a walk around the mysterious stones (which are situated between two motorways...not quite as surreal and serene as they want you to believe), we got back on the bus and continued on to one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen. Bath is named after the Roman Baths, which were built upon the only hot spring in Great Britain.






So, according to legend, the King of the area many, many years ago left to go do the great kingly things that kings do and when he returned, he had contracted leprosy. Since it is a contagious and incurable disease, his subjects would not let him back, and he was forced to become a pig farmer. However, since leprosy is so contagious, the pigs developed leprosy as well. This king would wander the countryside with his sick pigs, until one day, the pigs returned from wallowing completely healed. The king was amazed, so he followed them the next day to the wallowing spot and discovered a hot spring. Since the pigs were healed, the king thought he would try the healing powers of the spring on himself. Miraculously, the king was healed as well, so he returned to his subjects and resumed his rule, but in doing so, he relocated his kingdom to the hot spring. And that is the story of the beginnings of Bath. This summer, several local artists were given a chance to decorate pig statues, and these statues will be auctioned off in a few weeks, but it was fun to walk around and see all the pigs on display. I have pictures of 25 different pigs that we saw in our ramblings around the city. My favourite: the binary pig below.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

The Week In Review

This past week has been pretty busy. We started classes, so for at least 2.5 hours a day, Monday through Thursday, I'm learning at the IES Center in the Bloomsbury district. Our schedules keep us pretty busy, but we did manage to have some fun this week. Wednesday was not only my 21st birthday, but Kyle's (another girl in the program) as well. To celebrate, the girls and I went out to dinner at Made in Italy, a restaurant just down the street, where I had my first glass of wine. We then walked back to the residence hall, but as soon as we set foot in the lobby, the fire alarm sounded. The pictures below are of the girls with the fire truck behind us (the reflectors). The photographer for the bottom picture told us to look scared...



While waiting for the fire alarm to clear, Traci and I finally got to take the roommate picture.



IES doesn't schedule any classes for Fridays, so on our first Friday we decided to visit the Tower of London. We arrived a little early to take a tour, so we took pictures of the Tower Bridge while we waited. The girls (L-R) in the picture below are as follows: Kaitlin, Me, Kristen, Katie, Kyle, and Katelyn.



After taking a tour with a Beefeater (one of the tower guards), we saw the Crown Jewels and had lunch. The girls weren't interested in seeing anything else, so I stayed for a couple more hours by myself to see the White Tower(below), the Bloody Tower, and the torture room.


Below are Gin(left) and Beer(right). They were part of the museum inside the White Tower. They are supposed to have hung over the food storage room.




Katelyn's mom has some friends here, and one of them has a son in university. He invited us out to the suburbs to meet his "mates" and get a taste of the London night life. So Friday we met them at a pub/club (a "plub" as Katie called it). They considered it a continuation of the birthday celebration, and at one point, I even heard the dj say, "Here's a birthday shoutout to a Stephanie, here all the way from Oregon."



That is the week in review. Thanks for all the birthday wishes!

Monday, September 8, 2008

My First Day Of School

Monday was our first day of classes. My only class started at 10:00 am, and after over two hours of introduction to the idea of censorship and what it means in Britain, I had the afternoon free. A couple of the girls and I wanted to go down to the Thames and see the Houses of Parliament and Westminster. Despite the fact that we've been here for nearly a week, we haven't had much time to do the tourist-y thing, so we were very much excited to be there. The bottom picture shows the London Eye behind the Clock Tower.



I don't think we originally planned on going inside Westminster, but we got there and took our pictures and decided that we did want to go inside. Westminster offers an audio guide, so we each took one and spent the next 75 or so minutes walking around the monuments. It was amazing to see the tombs and memorials of Shakespeare, Dickens, Mary Tudor, Elizabeth I, Newton, Darwin, Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, Chaucer, and Handel, among others. The bottom picture was taken from the cloisters inside the Abbey. The Abbey has a no-picture policy, so I'm entirely sure if I was allowed to take it or not...




After our trip to the Abbey, we went down to Piccadilly Circus and spoke to some of the box offices at the theatres. Turns out they offer leftover tickets to students at the door on the night of the show, so we came back in the evening to see The Rain Man, featuring Josh Hartnett (Pearl Harbor) in Tom Cruise's original role. Being the recently-teenage girls that we are, we waited outside the stage door behind the theatre for a glimpse of Josh after the show. It was worth the short wait, because all three of us were able to snap multiple pictures and snag autographs.




After the show, we walked back into Piccadilly Circus on the way back to the Underground station. Being the London version of Times Square, Piccadilly was lit up and full of people.


The above picture is borrowed from the genius of Alex's photography. I (and the other girls in the group) like her idea of using the marked crosswalks to highlight the double-decker bus down the street.

Saturday, September 6, 2008

House of Tudor


Today, we visited Hampton Court Palace, home to King Henry VIII and his many wives. Also, it was later home to King William and Queen Mary.



Two of the inner courtyards. Fountain Court, below, has the windows of the state apartments visible. Clock Court, above, is named for the astronomical clock (created for Henry VIII in 1540) over Anne Boleyn's gateway. The clock still works.



The south side of the building. Outside were many beautifully landscaped gardens. Some of them were private gardens, hidden within rows of hedges. The picture below was taken in a little nook by a private garden.



The picture below was taken by the Fountain Garden in front of the East Front. The other girls in my group were taking the "roommates" picture, but Kaitlin and I were roommate-less for the outing, so we took our picture without the roommates.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

London Address and Such

Stephanie Hatley
IES Residence Hall
Manresa Road (at Kings Road)
Chelsea, London
SW3 6NA
ENGLAND

Phone Number: 07506560419 (if you're calling from the United States, the number is 01144 7506560419)

Explanation of previous blog title: Finland was a reference to Monty Python's Spamalot. At the beginning of the play, the historian talks about England, but the first number has Scandinavian costumes and the line "Finland, Finland, Finland. That's the country for me," until the historian walks back out onstage to say, "I said England!"

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Finland, Finland, Finland. That's The Country For Me!




Made it! All by myself, too! I successfully navigated O'Hare, managing to both find my gate and miss seeing Michael Phelps, who was rumored to be walking around the same terminal wing. After landing at Heathrow in London, I sailed through customs, claimed my baggage, and found the ticket office for the Heathrow Express, which would take me downtown. From the giant Paddington Station, I found the taxi line and hailed a cab to take me the rest of the way to the dorm. After unpacking and exploring my tiny room, I decided to explore the greater outdoors, known as Kings Road, where I found food and purchased the required cell phone. Oh, and I also discovered the Thames. It's only a couple of blocks down the road.

The pictures are of my dorm room, but I don't think they fully demonstrate how little space there is in here. The bathroom is that closet-looking door in the bottom picture.