Dover, Tate Modern, Jack the Ripper, Dinner at Philippa's, and Ceremony of the Keys

On Sunday I went to Dover, England with Curtis. Dover was about an hour and 45 minute train ride north east of London. It is located on the coast. The first thing we did when we got there was walk to the Castle. The castle was very pretty. There were a lot of kids there! They had the inside of the castle decorated with some typical mid-evil furniture and clothing. This castle was used up until after the World Wars though. Being on the coast they had to use it to protect any enemies from invading Britain. We spent most of our time just walking around and going to the top of the tower for the view. We also brought our lunch and ate it there. The sun wasn't out at first, which made it really cold, but as soon as it came out it felt great! From there we wanted to walk to the White Cliffs of Dover. It took us awhile to figure out how to walk there. We thought it would be really easy because we saw the Cliffs from the castle, but there was no pedestrian sidewalks. We ended up walking around for awhile and then going back to the castle to ask one of the workers how to get there. She told us to just walk on the side of the road. It took awhile to get there because there wasn't much room on the side of the road to walk and it was all uphill. Once we got there though it was totally worth it! It was absolutely beautiful! We mostly just walked around and enjoyed the view.








On Monday I had to meet Philippa at Tate Modern. This was the first art museum that I had been to that had modern art. I didn't really like much of it. I don't really understand modern art. One piece that we looked at was just a mirror. That was it. A plain square mirror. It doesn't seem very impressive to me. After that I was able to go home and grab a quick dinner before I had to meet our program for a Jack the Ripper walk. Jack the Ripper was a man in the 1800's who killed 5 women and was never caught. We walked to all the places that the man had killed the women and the tour guide told us all the details. It was really creepy because it was dark out and every time someone heard a random noise someone in the group jumped.

On Tuesday I had British Pop music with Rob. We talked a lot about the Sex Pistols. After that I had British Literature and I had to give a presentation on Evelyn Waugh. Waugh was an English literary author. I got a perfect score on my presentation! After that I had to go straight to Kennington where Philippa lives for dinner. Philippa was really generous to have all 30 of us over for dinner! She prepared lasagna for all of us! It was really good and a lot of us wanted the recipe, but when we asked her she said she didn't have a recipe for it and that she just made it up. She is brilliant! She also had a lot of snacks that she made and ice cream for us. From there Philippa took some of us to the Ceremony of the Keys at the Tower of London.

Courtauld, Imperial War Museum, West Ham VS South Hampton, and Rochester

Monday I went to the Courtauld Museum for Art History. This is where many of the Impressionist paintings are displayed. I saw many of Monet's painting there along with Renoir, Manet, and Degas. Impressionism started after the invention of photography. Painters were no longer needed to slave over portraits of people and try to make them look as realistic as possible. Painters now had more freedom to paint. Here are some of the painting I saw:





On Tuesday I had British Pop Music with Rob. We mostly talked about Led Zeppelin and Progressive Rock (but Rob hates ProgRock). From there I met Nora for Brit Lit at the Imperial War Museum. She showed us around the World War I area and took us to the trenches. I cannot believe that war was like that only a hundred years ago. Over 3 million British men died. It was very sad to walk through the museum knowing that most men were just thrown out onto the battle field and had absolutely no chance of living. The trenches were cool to learn about. The exhibit actually smelt like the trenches though- rioting bodies and yearn. It was gross! I had to plug my nose when I went through. Unfortunately, that is what those men lived in for months at a time. Nora told me an interesting fact though. She said that in no man's land men from Germany and Britain would wave a white flag and then go out and play football with each other sometimes. Nora only kept us for about an hour, which was really nice because we had to make our way to Uptown Park to see West Ham take on South Hampton. This game was an intense one! Both teams are at the top of their league and are big rivals. The crowd was a lot louder at this stadium than at the Everton game, which surprised me. It was a very fun game. A played on West Ham's team ended up getting a red card about 15 minutes into the game so they were down one player. They ended up holding on and the game ended in a draw 1-1. Here is a video that I took at the game when the West Ham fans were singing their song at the game!





Today we took our day trip to Rochester. Rochester is where Charles Dickens lived for most of his life. England is celebrating Charles Dickens 200th Birthday this year so it was an appropriate time to visit! Nearly every pub and stores name has something to do with Dickens or his writings. Most of the pubs he actually went to when he was alive too! When we first got to Rochester from the train we visited a museum that was called the 7 Poor Travelers. This helped inspire one Dickens novels. We also got a visit from a "Crier" who is the person who shouts things out in the town. Today they only do it for tradition, but the man said that when the Queen passes away he will have to go around the town crying "The Queen is dead, long live the King". It was very interesting. From there we went to Rochester Castle, which was built by the Normans. It was so cool! The view from top was amazing! It is kinda hard for me to describe, but here are a bunch of pictures!

Oxford, a play, Portobello & Camden Town, Harrods again, and Liverpool

It has been awhile since I last wrote and I have a lot that I have done! On Wednesday we took our day trip to Oxford with Philippa. We took the train and when we arrived it was freezing! I wish that the weather was like my first week here! Sunny and warm! Anyways we first met up with two students who Philippa knew that attend Oxford University. One was girl in here first year studying geography and the other was a second year boy studying engineering. They talked about life and studying at Oxford and then answered any questions that we had. I learned that it is cheaper to go to Oxford than it is to go to Ball State! At least it is for now, the government is thinking of increasing tuition rates. Oxford has over 40 different colleges, which are basically schools separated into majors. We took a tour of the church on Oxford and saw a beautiful dining room where the students eat, which is also where parts of Harry Potter were filmed! I also saw a library that holds over 80 million books underground. Every book that is published in the UK has to be sent to this library before is can be published. We took a lunch break where I found a great Mexican place called Mission Burrito. It is kinda hard to come by Mexican in England so it was really good! Then Philippa took us to a store where we could buy Oxford apparel. I think I was the only one that didn't buy anything! We were free to go after that so I headed back to the flat and took a nap and went to bed early! I was exhausted!






On Thursday I meet up with Curtis and we went to lunch at a cafe near Regents Park. He got the English Breakfast which he has been getting a lot lately and I had a salad. They don't really put dressing on salads here so I didn't think it was very good. After lunch we walked around Regents park for awhile. It was very pretty and I can't wait to go back towards the end of my trip when the trees and flowers are blooming! From there I went to class for British Life and Culture. We watched a movie called Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and then discussed social class in the UK. Straight from class I got on the tube for a long ride for a play we were going to see. It took almost an hour to get there! We grabbed some food right next to the theatre and made it just in time! We had a quick talk with the director of the play beforehand. It was a round theatre and the first round theatre I had ever been to. The play was a modern play about people at a dinner party when the tsunami hit Haiti. It was better than I expected it to be, but I was still a little upset that it was so far away and we got back so late!



On Friday I had British Life and Culture and then I went straight to meet Curtis at the tube. We went to Portobello Market. The market was a lot different than I thought it would be. It was a lot of fun to just walk through the market and experience the atmosphere, but I didn't think it was the best place for shopping. The stuff in the street stands was just a bunch of random stuff or of clothing items that you can't try on. All of the indoor stores were all really expensive. We just walked around for awhile and enjoyed it though! From there we went straight to Camden Town. This also has a very big market, but it has a very different vibe. Camden is where you can find a lot of music and punk and rock. This is where Amy Winehouse lived and died if that tells you anything. It was really fun though! I stopped at an H&M and bought a shirt and then we just walked around for a little while longer. From there we went straight to Harrods and walked through the furniture and toy floors! The toys were a lot of fun to play and look at! They had a whole section dedicated to Harry Potter wands. It looked just like the movie! You could pick from any character! We found an Italian Restuarant that Curtis went with his family when they were visiting his sister, Kristen, in London. They had the best burschetta ever! We also each got a pizza. Then it was time to go home and rest up for Saturday!

Saturday morning we got up to get on the train to go to Liverpool to watch Everton take on Chelsea in a football match. It was about a 2.5 hour train ride and when we arrived in Liverpool I was not very impressed. It was a very dirty city. Maybe it was just the part of town we were in but it wasn't very nice at all! The only thing I thought that they really had going for them was that the Beatles came from there! And the football of course! Also, we tried to grab lunch before the game at a pub, but none of them served food on match days so we found a small cafe and ate there. Everything was much cheaper than it London so that was nice! The game was a lot of fun! I didn't realize that Landon Donovan and Tim Howard, both Americans, played for Everton! Everton won 2-0 over Chelsea!

Lion King and British Pop Music

Tonight I saw Lion King with my program. Curtis was able to tag along with us! He tried to take me back when we were first dating, but I already had tickets to see it with my Grandma and Mom. I decided to take him this time since he missed out! Afterward we got a drink at a pub. Here is a preview of Lion King:




I had British Pop Music with Rob today. I have been learning some very interesting things in this class! If you are interested here is a brief overview of the things I've learned the past 4 weeks in his class.

So who really started British pop music? Well the Beatles of course! It all started with four boys from Liverpool as Rob would say. The Beatles first band name was actually called the Quarrymen though. The band consisted of John Lennon and was soon joined by Paul McCartney who brought along George Harrison. Also in the band was Stuart Sutcliffe and Pete Best. The bands name changed many times. It changed from the Quarrymen to Johnny and the Moon Dogs to Silver Beatles to just the Beatles. At the time the Beatles were the worst band in Liverpool. They soon got a gig in Hamburg, Germany. This made the Beatles. They spent 12 hours performing everyday in a pub. All the practice is how the Beatles got good. This is where Paul and John discovered that the money was in song writing so they started writing a lot of songs. Harrison was deported because someone found out that Harrison was underage and performing and drinking in pubs. Stuart decided to stay in Germany, but the rest of the boys moved back to Liverpool. This is what I find very interesting, the Beatles were turned down by every recording studio in England. One man, Dick Rowe, told them that there was no future in guitar based music. Wow were they wrong. After a long time the Beatles were about ready to give up, but decided to give it one last chance. They auditioned at Abbey Road Studios. Rob said that the manager said that he told the Beatles that their music was "shit" and that he didn't like them. The manager asked the Beatles if there was anything that they didn't like about him and Harrison replied that he didn't like his tie. This is what got the Beatles signed. He signed them because he liked their personality. The manager told them that they had to sack Pete Best because he wasn't a good enough drummer. The Beatles went to Liverpool and asked the best drummer in Liverpool at the time to join their band. Ringo Starr could not turn down a band who signed with a recording studio and joined the band. On the first album though the manager actually had a man named Alan White to play drums on some of the songs, because he didn't think that Ringo was good enough. Their first single "Love Me Do" made 17 on the charts, but was still an average song. The second one was called "Please, Please", which made number 1. Rob said what made the Beatles so great was the tension between Paul and John. I mean whose band was it really? Then the Beatles made the song "She Loves You" and it moved the Beatles in front of all other bands at the time. Beatles Mania started. Their first album was recorded in 12 hours. The last song recorded was "Twist and Shout". Ever wonder why Lennon's voice sounds like it is about to give out? Well that's because it was about to give out. I always thought that this was on purpose, but after 12 hours straight of recording a whole album Lennon could only do 3 cuts of the song before he lost his voice. They went on tour the next day. This is what Rob would say is "F-ing Rock N Roll Baby".



This is all I have time to write for now. I am going to Oxford tomorrow and need to get some sleep! I will continue with Beatle mania and how they shaped the path for all other British bands tomorrow!

Seeing some of Switzerland

On Thursday after class I went to meet up with Curtis. He made some chicken, rice, and strawberries with chocolate for dinner! Then we went to see Chicago! I have really been wanting to see Chicago for a long time. It was not what I expected, but it was still really good! Here is a preview:





On Friday I headed off to Geneva, Switzerland with Curtis. We had a very smooth flight to Geneva. Once we got to Geneva we took the train to our hotel. We were walking around trying to find our hotel at 8:00 so we decided to stop at a McDonald's to get a quick dinner and ask someone where our hotel was. For both of us to eat it was 22 franc! It was ridiculous! I also find it odd that at most European McDonald's and other fast food restaurants you have to purchase packets of ketchup and mayonnaise separately. It is quite unfortunate for ketchup lovers like me to have to buy expensive packets of ketchup, but I have just been skipping ketchup with my fries for now. We found our hotel and it was really nice! We walked around the city for a little bit and then returned back to get some sleep for Saturday. We woke up really early on Saturday morning so that we would be able to watch the sunrise over the Alps by the lake. When we went outside it was awful! It was freezing and the wind was VERY strong! We walked for a little bit and found a coffee shop to sit inside because we were early for sunrise! We got some very good Swiss hot chocolate and decided that we should just head back to the hotel for our free breakfast. We got our free breakfast and went back to bed for awhile. We ventured back out into the city when the sun was out and it warmed up a tad. It was still probably 10 degrees and strong winds, but the sun made it feel a lot better! We walked around a lot and saw the town. Switzerland gives tourists free transportation for the trains, buses, trams, etc. We rode on some of the buses to stay warm and to see a lot of the city. A bus even took us out into the Swiss countryside and then back into the city. We stopped and went to a pizzeria for lunch. After sitting inside for lunch I still couldn't feel my toes so we went back for a break at the hotel again. We went out again walking around, but it was getting dark and very cold! After awhile we starting trying to find a place to eat dinner. We had to walk on the bridge across the lake to get back to our hotel and find some place to eat. This was probably the coldest I have ever been! It was so awful! Curtis even got windburn on his face!




On Sunday we packed up and walked around some more before heading to the airport on the bus. We ended up buying some Swiss chocolate at the airport because it was actually cheaper than what we found in the city. Then we headed to British Airways to check in and get our boarding passes. This is where we starting have a lot of trouble. British Airways self check in machines were not working. This meant we had to stand in a line for over an hour to get our boarding passes. The line was massive! On top of that London had gotten about 2 or 3 inches of snow Saturday night. London freaks out when they get snow. London hardly ever gets snow and when it does the city pretty much shuts down. All flights to Heathrow London were canceled. Luckily we were flying back to Gatwick London which was only delaying their flights. When we finally got up to check in we were told that we had been put on standby. We got in through security and had to hang around for awhile. The screen said to wait about an hour for info on our flight. When that came around it said to wait another hour. Then another hour. Finally, our gate number popped up on the screen. We ran to the gate so that we could make sure that we were put off of standby. We were able to get on the flight! We had to wait around for awhile still though. However, British Airways gave Curtis and I each a 23 franc voucher for food at the airport. I had already eaten dinner so I bought even more Swiss chocolate and goodies! The picture below is what we ended up bringing back with us! Once we all boarded the plane the pilot told us that we had missed our time slot to take off. We had to sit on the plane for an hour! Finally we took off! We arrived safely back to London. Once we spend awhile getting through customs we had to wait on our baggage! We did so much waiting around, but we finally made it home! It is weird coming back to London and just feeling like it is home and being so happy! It is such a wonderful place!




Today I had British Life and Culture and we learned a lot about social class in the UK. I had Art History after and we went to Tate Britain Art Gallery. I saw some very cool things there! I had to do some research on the artist John Everttt Millias. Here is one of his most famous painting which is located in the gallery.


Some things I've learned:
-Switzerland is expensive
-Weather can ruin a trip
-London does not know how to deal with snow
- Swiss chocolate in London is much cheaper
- You can almost always find someone who speaks English in foreign countries
-David Beckham is still considered working class here in the UK
-Kate Middleton is still considered a middle class commoner even though she is a part of the royal family
-The Queen's father died 60 years ago today and marks her accession to the throne
-Londoners think that American democrats are conservatives and republicans are just very conservative
-Even if you become a Knight in England it still does not move you up in social class
-It is much harder to move around in social class here in the UK than it is in the US. The US definitely prides its self on hard work and how much money you can make. It doesn't matter how hard you work or how much money you make, you will still probably be seen the same way.

Windsor, Eton, and a Comedy Show

On Wednesday for our day trip we went to Windsor, which is right outside of East London. Windsor is where the Queen lives most of the time in Windsor Castle. We met with our program at Paddington Train Station at 9 to take the train to Windsor. When we first arrived we were dropped off right by the castle. We were able to see a lot of stuff at the castle! Unfortunately the Queen was not at the castle when we were. Windsor Castle along with most other castle in England was built by the Normans when they invaded England. They build castle all around the outside of London that were one days march from each other. They did this so that they could escape if under attack. The first thing I saw was Saint George's Chapel. The chapel was very beautiful. A lot of Kings and Queens were buried here including Henry VIII, the Queens Mother and Father, Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert, and many more. From the Chapel we went to see Queen Mary's Doll House. This is a replica of the Castle that is 1/12 the size of Windsor. It was given to Queen Mary as a gift. The toilets in the castle flush and the miniature Rolls Royce work as well. From there we went to view the State rooms in the Castle. This included seeing a royal table that could seat about 162 people! All made of mahogany wood! Under the table is the biggest piece of carpet in the world. Philippa said told us that if there is a fire alarm that the workers in the castle are trained to have enough people come and roll up the carpet to take out of the Castle. Crazy! This part of the Castle is not usually used by the Royal family unless it is for a significant occasion or needed for entertaining. The rest of the time this part of the Castle is open up to the public to view. The part of the Castle where the Queen lives is a lot more modern and less elaborate than what I was seeing. The stuff I was seeing were mostly extravagant furniture, gifts, paintings, and armor that were hundreds of years old. Unfortunatly you are not allowed to take pictures inside any of the places I went. I pulled some photos from the inside of the castle from the internet so that everyone can see though!

After we went to Windsor I stopped and got some lunch at a small cafe in the town surrounding the Castle. The village surrounding the Castle was very cute! After lunch some of the people met up with Philippa early to go on a walk. There is a path leading up to the castle that the Queen usually uses when she is driving somewhere. We walked along this path. The path is about 3 miles long and leads you up a hill where there is some statues of stuff and is where a lot of land is, which is usually used to charity events or polo matches. We didn't make it all the way up but we went about half way and turned around so that we could meet up with the rest of the group. It was very pretty!




From town we went to Eton College, which is right by Windsor. Eton college is an elite boarding school for boys ages 13-18. This is where Prince William and Harry went. Philippa has a friend who teaches English and drama there, so he took us on a little tour and showed us the place! It costs about 30,000 pounds to go to school there for a year! There are about 1300 boys who go there and they all live there and all have their own rooms! The boys and the teachers all wear uniforms. Below is a picture of the boys in their uniforms that I pulled from the internet too! It was very interesting to learn about some of the schooling systems in the UK and compare it to the US. To get into Eton you have to be able to speak Latin and another language besides English. I found it very interesting that in the UK they give out scholarships but almost never do they give out full ride scholarships, because they don't want students to lost their motivation. At most they usually give out 80% scholarships. 19 Prime Ministers attended Eton! It was a very cold and long day so by the time we were done at Eton I was ready to get on the train!


Straight from our train ride back to London we had to go downtown to Picadilly to go to a improv comedy show! It was pretty good! I was so tired by the second half though that I was almost falling asleep!



Today I am going to try and get some half priced theatre tickets and see Chicago or some other show! This weekend I will be going to Geneva, Switzerland! I probably won't be able to post for awhile, but I will write right when I get back from my trip!