Today I am...discovering

Mom and Dad, click on the pictures to make them bigger! Love you!


Day #13 - Friday, October 1
I was woken up this morning by a phone call around 8:30...and seeing as I have about 3 contacts in my phone, I was a little confused but answered anyway. It was someone from FedEx with a package! Eric sent me a pillow, Scrabble, a few little things, and season 6 of Grey's Anatomy (which has proven to be dangerous!). I went back to sleep and woke up a while later and watched some Grey's, of course (totally unrelated to London, but me and Grey's are a dangerous mix. Over Christmas break last year I watched all 5 and a half season in about 2 weeks. I am rather addicted to it) So, needless to say, I watched and episode (or 2) of Grey's.

Then Paige and I got together to figure out something to do for the night. We browsed through a magazine we got at  the Freshers Fayre last week looking for a place to eat. We ended up choosing "Golden Union", famous for fish and chips, which is located right off of Oxford Street, an area we are a little familiar with. Definitely a good choice!! I wish I would have taken a picture of the huge piece of cod I got! So much food for only 7 pounds. The restaurant also had a really nice atmosphere, kind of like a 50's style diner. I will for sure be going back there!

After we ate, we wandered around for a bit and found a little Irish pub called O'Neills, and had a beer. I tried some more cider beer (can't remember the name), that was pretty good. Then we headed home around 11. 

When I got home, I decided I needed to make a list of things to do in London. I feel like a lot of my free time is spent trying to figure out what I want to do instead of going and doing things. So I spend a couple hours searching the internet and reading the books I've purchased and made a list of about 30 things that I want to do and see during my year here! 

Cute little ketchup dispenser (the tomato) and the menu!

Excellent food if you're ever in London! Also making

an appearance in the photo is Scooter, the turtle, who

is my travel buddy. He will be making more appearances,

so look for him!

Day #14 - Saturday, October 2

I woke up today and decided to go exploring. As I've mentioned in a few posts before, I really like the South Bank of London, near the London Eye. It's a short bus ride and doable walk about away from where I live, so when the weather is nice (ha, like that happens here) it's fine to walk. I headed over there and first just wandered around a bit, taking some pictures. Not very many of them turned out very well because it was really really gloomy outside and I wasn't patient enough to mess with my camera to get it right. 

I had read online about an exhibit going on at the South Bank Center called "Art by Offenders" that seemed interesting, so I decided to go and check it out. It is desribed on the website as "An exhibition and programme of events showcasing arts and crafts, music, writing and film by offenders, secure psychiatric patients and immigration detainees across the UK. Through this ground-breaking collaboration, the arts of offenders are presented for the first time by victims of offenders." It was amazing to see some of the art work that some people in jail have created. There were some pieces that I would love to have on my wall. Some of it was also really disturbing and really sad. The whole show was curated by victims of crimes which also put another twist on the idea of it all. 

After wandering through the exhibit for an hour or so and looking at all the pieces (some multiple times), I went out to the Real Food Festival going on outside the  hall. The first weekend of every month, local businesses occupy one of the squares in South Bank. Meats, cheese, wine, bread, coffee, desserts, produce, anything fresh you can think of was there. I had a British Pork and Jalapeno Sausage for lunch, which was really good. I didn't have a lot of money with me, but I ended up purchasing three loaves of bread from different venders, all for about 6 pounds. I'll post a picture of the delicious breads below. I got organic mango bread, rosemary bread, and tomato, onion, rosemary focaccia bread. I will definitely be going back next month to get some more bread!

I got home and made some diner to go along with my new found bread. I made some chicken with peppers and noodles with sauce. Their tomato sauce doesn't taste very good over here. Ick. It's not that I'm not willing to try to new foods, but when I buy something and think I know what it should taste like and it doesn't, it just doesn't do the trick. But oh well, it's all part of adjusting! I'll just need to explore more new foods instead of making things I'm used to. After dinner I did some more list making of places to go, watched some Grey's and headed to bed after my nice day of exploring!

my theme of the day!

London Eye, Royal Festival Hall, and the Real Food Market

entry to the exhibit

my new breads! mango, tomato onion basil foccacia, and rosemary

Day #15 - Sunday, October 3

Alright, so after being in London for 2 weeks and seeing the sun for all of but an hour, today was a "I'm sick of rain and I want to stay in bed all day." If you look at the picture at the bottom of the page, this explains London. In five days, the most exciting thing on the forecast is "sunny intervals." Gross. And a couple people have even said this is just the start of the fun weather, it only gets worse. And it is the most pathetic rain you will ever see. I like rain when it pours and thunders and lightenings. Not sideways mist. So I spend the day in bed with my iPad reading and watching some more Grey's. 

At around 4:00 I decided to finally start my day. I had bought tickets to see a concert at the South Bank Centre a few days ago, and Paige decided to join me too. We went out for dinner at Strada, a nice little Italian restaurant by the concert hall. We had an extremely rude waiter who pretty much told Paige she was eating her pizza like an animal and told her to "take smaller bites, don't use fingers." Neither of us were aware that pizza isn't finger food at places outside of Pizza Hut. Lesson #10: When at a somewhat classy (it really wasn't super nice) restaurant, DO NOT eat with your fingers. You look like a foolish American. 

The concert I went to was called London Sinfonietta: Strange News. For only 4 pounds, I wasn't really expecting much, but figured it would be fun anyway. It was amazing. The first half consisted of two choral compositions, the first with a 12 member choir and the second with an added baritone soloist singer who was sensational. The composer of the second piece was sitting right in front of me, and I had no idea. At the end of it he stood up and went on stage, and I recognized his picture from the program. I've never been to a concert before where the composer was in the audience. The second half of the concert was even more wonderful than the first. It featured the London Sinfonietta, which is a 12 piece resident ensemble at the South Bank Center. The were accompanied by an actor from Uganda. The musicians and actor, along with the help a video, portrayed the story of the war front in Africa. It was very very well done. I particularly enjoyed because I had read a book this summer A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah (which I would recommend) which was the recollection of a boy soldier in Africa. The scenes from the video and the dialogue of the actor where identical to the book. It was interesting to find that connection over here to that book (thanks, summer class). The music of the London Sinfonietta was wonderful, and I'm already planning on going to some more of their concerts soon!

Day #16 - Monday, October 4

I woke up today and went to run some errands. I went to a little shop down the street and got an extra set of silverware, a strainer, a new mug for tea (with chickens on it!), some bathroom cleaning supplies, and some other little kitchen gadgets. Then I went to Tesco (grocery store) and a few items. I dropped that off and then began a very interesting afternoon(but there are lessons to be learned, don't worry).

I needed to add money to my cell phone, and since I don't have a UK bank account, the only way I can do it is in store. The nearest store to here is about a 20 minute bus ride away. So I hopped on the 12 bus and rode over. I topped up my card and since I was near a shopping area, decided to go do some window shopping. Once I walked around for a little bit, I decided to head back home. I found the nearest bus stop for the 12 and got on, thinking I should be home in 20 minutes. WRONG. A little ways into the bus ride the bus driver announces "This bus will now be terminating at Parliament Square," which was quite a few stops and on the opposite side of the river from where I wanted to be. So I got off where the bus terminated, thinking I could easily just get another bus home. After very confusedly wandering around Parliament Square, I started to get a little concerned how to get home. The only bus stop stop I found that went towards where I was going had a sign that said "This bus stop is not in use. Go directly down the road 100 meters and use next bus stop" There was not a bus stop directly down that road, no where in sight. By this time, my 1 hour ride ticket for the bus was about to expire, so I thought I'd just go and take the tube or go add money at the tube station. Well, lucky me, the tube workers went on strike today and the tube station wasn't open. I started to panic a little because my ticket had 10 minutes left, I had no change for another bus if I could even find one to go where I wanted, and no where was open to give me change for the cash I had. Well, 10 minutes of wandering came and went, bus pass expired. Finally I discovered a bus stop that went Waterloo (the area by South Bank Center) and I know how to get home from there, and I also finally discovered a store that was open to give me change. So I got the bus pass, got on, and got off at the Waterloo Train Station. Then I got lost in there for about 20 minutes and couldn't figure out how to get out. Finally I got out, got on the right bus, and got home. Two hours, three buses, a lot of confusion, and few tears later, I got home.

Now, mom and dad, you might be wondering what lessons I learned from this? Lessons #11, 12, 13: Always care extra change for a bus ride. Always carry a map incase you need to walk or find another bus. Keep a taxi number in your phone incase you are so absolutely lost that you just need to call a taxi. I am now a prepared city child. 

Later that night I got to Skype with mom and dad (and Cotton), which was great. It's amazing how wonderful technology is, that we can have real time conversations with people 5,000 miles across the ocean. It's nothing short of incredible!

Day #17 - Tuesday, October 5

Today was my first day of school! Yes, I am actually in London for a reason! After nearly 5 months of summer, I was more than ready to get back into a schedule and learn again. I had to meet at school at 1030, where we had a syllabus day and got a tour of the building. There are about 40 students in the program, plus six tudy abroad students. Five of those study abroad students all go to school together in New York together, so essentially I was the only person who didn't know anyone. A little intimidating, but some of the British students introduced themselves to me and I got to talking with them. After a few hours of fun syllabus stuff, we had a little lunch break. I went and ate out in the courtyard. The buildings of our school used to be a military hospital and a jail where they held prisoners of war, and there a little courtyard that used to belong to the jail. Neat fact. Then after lunch we got a tour of the buildings and of the library. Oh my, the library was wonderful. I will take picture of the library and the campus on the times I'm over there, it is all beautiful. 

I got home around 5, tried to take a little nap, ended up just killing some time, and getting dinner. I spent the rest of the night looking up flight info for my trip home for Christmas, doing some research for a school project, and just relaxing. Now it's time for bed!

Beautiful London weather!

English Language Revised

In my syllabus was a glossary of terms, so I'll put that on here. Some it is kind of common sense, which is a little funny they wouldn't think we could guess what some of them mean.

UK - US/Rest of the world

class - course

course - major

uni - school

tutor - professor

rubber - eraser

term - semester

foundation - freshmen

1st year - sophomore

2nd year - junior

3rd year - senior

secondary school - high school