Fab Visit to London

Alright now that I have slept a lot I can actually recound what happened.

Here is what the plan was:
Come to London on Friday, check into hostel, visit the Tower of London, eat dinner, see a play at the Globe, go out and party on the town. On Saturday go to Hyde Park, survey the situation, watch Live8 from whatever screen we can find, then in the early evening when the show was scheduled to be over go have dinner, have more fun on the town, then get back to Oxford at ungodly hours of the night.

Here's what actually happened:
So Friday morning after breakfast I, along with my fairly large travel group, borded a bus and headed for London with the plan to check into the hostel, drop off our stuff, and then go forth and have lots of fun in the city. We actually made good time coming into town, but when we arrived the hostel front desk lady said that we can't actually check in till 2pm, but we are welcome to leave our luggage and just come back later. I personally didn't want to lug around a totebag with a change of clothes all day and neither did my travel buddies, so we dumped our stuff in their storage area and headed out.

We walked to the Globe from our Hostel on Great Dover Street and bought groundling tickets for Pericles and then headed out along the river walk towards the Tower Bridge. Along the way I stooped about every 10 seconds to take a picture of the Thames, St. Paul's dome, bridges, ships, and pretty much everything I could see that looked cool. I think I took about a billion pictures of the HMS Belfast and of the Tower Bridge, both very neat looking things. As we walked along we had a pretty good time goofing off and stopping at every store that looked interesting. So in fact walking to the Tower Bridge took much longer than we originally thought it would. When we finally saw the Bridge from behind all the other things going on on the London riverfront, I paused for the photo op:

By this point the weather turned for the worse and the clouds started glooming, the temperature dropped a few degrees and I started getting cold. But we made it to the Tower Bridge and walked across, I took pictures of both sides like any good tourist and then past St. Katherine's docks, we were at the Tower! We bought tickets, complained about the weather and the price and got in line for a Yeoman (read: Beefeater) guided tour. Our guide was pleasantly loud since there was a very large group on the tour and his accent reminded me a bit of Michael Palin, one of the Monty Python guys. He told whimsical tales of murders and beheadings, and was actually a very funny guy. He told us all about the Queen's House and the fat ravens, the Bloody Tower and the rack. Great Fun!!! We then walked around inside the White Tower, looking at the armory exhibits, and then when the line died down took the moving sidewalk through the vault that houses the Crown Jewels. Let me just say... I want a giant gold sceptre with my coat of arms on it, and Queen Victoria definitely had the right idea with the tiny diamond tiara instead of that gigantic and heavy state crown. Here are some pictures of our tour at the Tower:


















After the Tower we actually went back to the hostel, checked in, changed for the theater, and headed out for a quick snack. We made it to the Globe right on time for the performance and I was very giddy. Not only would I get to see a Shakespeare play, but at the GLOBE no less, standing room in the yard! How Elizabethan! I sort of hoped for a traditional performance with the poofy pants and full dresses but apparently they rarely do traditional plays anymore, espcially at the Globe, so we settled for a more modern rendition of Pericles, and boy was it amazing! The actors were also acrobats and during the first shipwreck scene they would climb up the ropes and act as if they're falling out of the ship, they brought out silk sails onto the stage and the band situated in the balcony above the stage would make storm noises. It was so powerful and visually stunning. Same went for the competition of Princes for Thaisa's hand, instead of jousting as it was described in the original play, they did acrobatics. It was like watching the circus! One girl did all kinds of twists and flips in a hoolahoop suspended from the roof, another wrapped herself up in ribbons and then unrolled all the way back town from the top of the building. The only negative things about the performance were that I couldn't take pictures and standing up for 3 hours on concrete without a roof over your head is painful and humid! the end my knees were tired and my feet were throbbing, but I managed to put on a brave face for the picture in front of the stage. You can see some of the ropes still hanging up from the set:

















We headed back to the hostel in hopes of running into a pub or club that we could party at, but since all the pus close at 11pm in the UK we were hard pressed to find one. Finally nearing our hostel we ran into a convenience store to ask someone if they knew of any clubs open around here and the guy told us that we're just a few blocks from the Ministry of Sound. Now, for those of you who don't know, the Ministry of Sound is one of the best known and most respected dance clubs in the world, the DJs that mix at the club are of international caliber and they often tour under the collective name. Each year several albums of various mixes are put out, and it's an over all big deal in the techno community. So as you can expect with Tech students, just about everyone got riddiculously excited at our good fortune and we all but RAN to the place. Sadly Friday nights are R&B nights and some of the guys weren't properly dressed, we vowed to come back on Saturday. So instead of the Ministry we headed back, stopped at a local place for some drinks and then retreated to the hostel for a fun few hours of cards in the lounge.

Saturday morning all seven of us got up early to head to Hyde Park for Live8. The plan was to find somewhere to watch the show without actually having a ticket. The closer we got to the park though, the more people we found and by 11:30am we were in a line of thousands waiting outside. We found out that without tickets there was a slim to none chance of us actually getting to see the show since the entire grounds of the park were closed off. The security people suggested we find a pub, get comfy and watch the live feed. In retrospect I think that was the best decision, because from what I hear there were a few riots outside of the entrance due to the cap on the capacity of a free concert in a giant park, plus this way we were in a cool uncrowded place with food and drinks and lively people instead of standing up in the elments in the risk of getting trampled. Of course if I had tickets to get IN the place I would have been there at 7am to get in line...

We instead settled in a very nice pub in Kensington on very cushy couches and watched about 2/3rds of the concert there. There was a definitely missable line up of artist in the middle which we took advantage of and hopped a bus back to Oxford to watch the rest in the comfort of our town and not have to take the bus back at 4am. Thankfully we got back in time for Madonna and me and a few guys finnished the concert off in a pub at Oxford that had wall screen with a projector. I did get to see Pink Floyd and sing along and have a spiritual experience seeing all four members perform my favorite song of all time. It was truly great and I can always say I was in England and I saw this live :). So we didn't get to go back to the Ministry of Sound after all but we've already set up a special trip to London for THIS Saturday specifically to go back.

Well this small essay just about covers all the important stuff that happened in those two days, it was a bit of a breakdown in travel plans but I had a fun time because I was with some great people who were flexible and cheery. I am going back to London for more touristy fun this weekend so there is more!

London Calling!!

Remind me to never ever EVER again look for a hostel in the center of London the night before a huge free summer concert. We did find one though, but after compromising to pay about $50 for one night. At least it's super nice and very much in the center of town with individual rooms and bathrooms, so I'm going to have my privacy on Friday night. There's a bunch of people going which is great because it's always more fun to travel in a large group, although not everyone is staying for the concert on Saturday, some people are actually going to that whole tennis business.

The main event today was getting everyone organized with the hostel business, but once we booked it and settled the matter after dinner, about 15 or so people went down to a pub called the Purple Turtle. It's located in the basement of some other building and appears to be a series of cellars converted into a pub with neon lights, techno playing in the background, leather couches, and a foozball table. Happy hour there (a pint for a pound) ends at 8 on Thursday nights to we rushed there right after dinner at 7:30 to get some cheap drinks in. With a few rounds and merry spirits we then (mostly girls) ran off to see Mr. and Mrs Smith at the Odeon. The boys that did come with us wound up enjoying it immensly too, which is cool I guess, although I think they just liked half naked Angelina Jolie and lots of shooting. I of course went for the half naked Brad Pitt.

I'm so incredibly excited about going to London tomorrow. We're hoping to get to see the Tower, Westminster Abbey, parts of the British Museum and maybe the London Eye in the evening. Although there's no solid plan, I'm sure it'll be a great time anyway. I'll come back with lots of pictures, stories, and souveniers, so for now I sign off to wake up to an early bus ride!

See you all Sunday!

Rain, rain go away and quit flooding my college

Day four England; day two runny nose and bad weather. Well actually the weather isn't too bad, we just have these burst of thunderstorms every now and then. Today the big storm came during class, so it actually cut our Shakespeare lecture short because not even Professor Wood can talk over crackling lightning. Dr. Moore, and many other people, told us that Oxford (and England in general) really isn't at all prepared for lots of water so fast because the sewer systems are so old, which led to tons of cases of flooding in the dorms and around town. A few professors’ flats, several dorms, along with our makeshift computer lab got hit so a few big strong boys helped move the computers out to another room so the Intro to CS students could do their Matlab homework uninterrupted. I think at any other school the professors would have pushed the homework deadline back, but this is still Tech even if it is a few thousand miles away. My room is nice and dry. HA!

So whoever said English food was bad obviously has never eaten at Worcester. Today we had pecan/chocolate chip crusted cheesecake with strawberry sauce, never mind the steak and seasoned potato combo before it. But as someone at dinner noted today this could become pretty boring after a few weeks, and I think fairly soon people are going to start venturing out for food. I refuse to because food here is crazy expensive. This one place called "Old Orleans" which is a very humorous attempt at southern food, has 8 pound entrees, which is roughly $15. A $15 entree isn't bad at a nice sit-down place, but this is their cheapest one and it's this open air "best hangout in town" kind of restaurant. In my mind that doesn’t merit such expensiveness for a few pieces of fried chicken. We did find a KFC in town, but none of us have actually eaten there yet. I wonder if it'll taste the same...



That's my room! Or at least the half that has a bed on it. I posted the other end as well as one of my en suite WC in my Worcester album. I took these yesterday before bedtime, but before my scout had a chance to straighten it up. Now when I say scout I don't mean like little girl in uniform selling cookies, scouts here are professional cleaning staff that have been working at Worcester for years (and some even decades). They apparently love students and love their work and will try to make our stay as nice as possible. They're the first people to go to when you need another pillow or a real door stop (which I MacGyver’d out of a hanger). My scout is this nice Asian lady whose name I forgot to ask. She comes in every day between 11am and 11:30, so I try to be awake by then. Today she vacuumed my room, made my bed (oh yeah!), washed my sink and gave me fresh towels. Apparently on Friday I get fresh bed linens. I could totally get used to this.

For now I head to bed in hopes that my runny nose will be cured tomorrow.

Lovely English weather

Ok, so this day wasn't exactly the most spectacular second day. First of all, I woke up with a runny nose at 7:45am, so going to breakfast was totally out of the question. I initially blamed it on the windows which I left open all night to combat the lack of A.C., but now I think it's probably because I'm in a totally different country with different weather and different allergens. My throat isn't hurting, I'm not coughing or sneezing, but my nose has been like a faucet all day.

We watched a bit of Much Ado About Nothing in Shakespeare class today, the Kenneth Branagh version, which I LOVE! And everyone giggled about Keanu Reeves playing Don John, and all the random "miscellaneous body parts" that are in the big communal bath scene. Why naked butts of people are so funny I don't know, but the entire class laughed. I kept snickering because I was expecting Keanu to say "Whoa!". Medieval History was much of the same, we learned about Boudicca's little vindictive torching of Londinium and just how good it was using Roman roads and indoor plumbing for the unwashed Celts.

Dinner at Worcester is quite an event in itself because it's a three course sit down deal in this dining hall with loooong tables and benches. Which means absolutely NO skirts at dinner, or the people next to you get an indecent peek while you're swinging your legs over the side. Soups and salads seem to be the starters of choice, and then whatever creativeness they come up for chicken and vegetables. Tonight we had salad, chicken with zucchini and pasta, and for desert this chocolate basket filled with pudding and strawberries. I just go to dinner for the deserts... yesterday it was three layer chocolate cake, day before it was berry cheesecake. Who needs all those vegetables and chicken when you can get your weekly sugar intake in one sitting? Check out the hall:



Instead of doing homework as good kids should we ventured out into the town to find Sarah's boyfriend a birthday present, and wound up spending about an hour at Borders. It was all well and good until the sky opened up and people started darting into the store, dripping from head to toe. You'd think the English would be used to this and carry their umbrellas, but once we were on our way back (with our umbrellas) we didn't see anyone on the streets. Lots of people were inside buildings waiting it out, which made no sense to me. The rain was cold and formed lots of puddles on the old and uneven streets in town, so everyone's pants got pretty wet pretty quickly. On top of this the air temperature dropped a few degrees so the part so of me that got wet also got cold very quickly. Some jerks honked at us while we were crossing the street and hopping over puddles, and it made me think about how people regard one another here.

Everyone seems to be in their own little world, with their headphones and their worries and their thoughts. Oxford is a small town so I expected more of the smiling and opening doors, but I've seen very little of it so far. People at Worcester are super nice to us which is great, but once you venture out no one cares and people just keep walking and pushing past you on sidewalks and in store aisles. Thankfully the cashiers are friendly and patient while I take the time to figure out the new coinage and all the colorful Monopoly money they use here.

The torrential downpour and the soaking of jeans combined with my runny nose and medicine-induced drowsiness kind of made this a low day, but my spirits remain high because I've got 40 days left here to wander around and meet people as friendly as the bartender and the drunk locals at the White Horse were last night. And with this I turn in for the night :)

My college, my room, my classes

So as I said I'm staying at Worcester College, which is somewhat off to the side of the main University campus. Not necessarily a bad thing because once I walk out the front gates it's only a few blocks to all the dreamy spires. We're situated in the city centre which means it's a short walk to local shops and eateries, a few of which we've gotten a chance to explore. For instance last night we walked into town and found the Bridge of Sights which is an exact replica of the Bridge of Sights in Venice. Cambridge has one too, though their bridge is actually over the river Cam, the one in Oxford is just over a road. My album has a picture of me under the bridge of sights too:



We also found a quaint pub called the White Horse, which I dubbed the Prancing Pony because I'm a nerd. Speaking of Tolkien, the Eagle and Child, the pub where Tolkien wrote a good bit of Lord of the Rings, is a few blocks to the left of campus. Me and some classmates wanted to find it, but the pouring rain that started a few hours ago cut our day short. Back to the Prancing Pony, er... White Horse: I got a real pint of real Guinness which is so very cool for some reason, and the bartender somehow wove a three leaf clover into the head, I was super impressed:



There are a few pictures of the short walk outside posted in the around Oxford album, but there will be more later. I'm not going to post ALL of my pictures, mainly because I took 77 that day, but also because not all of them are as spectacularly interesting. The few I chose are of Bodleian Library and Radcliff Camera, all famous buildings the latter being built in honor of a famous physician and teacher and at one point used as an auditorium for students. Now there's a book shop in the basement and it's just a touristy spot.

Inside Worcester is designed like many other colleges at Oxford. There is a central quad with a grassy knoll which you can't step on because it's "sacred ground". A lot of times the dorms and classrooms are mixed in together along with professor/don/fellow housing, although I still don't know what a don or a fellow is. We were warned about a million times by a million different people NOT to step on the grass in the middle or the slopes around it. No one explained exactly why the grass is sacred but it just is. So here's a lovely shot of the main building with the sacred grass in front of it. The three right-most arches lead to the Harry Potter like dining hall, and the three left-most lead to the chapel. Both of these pictures are in the Photobucket album. The center arches lead to the porter's lodge and the outside:



My room is pretty nice, I guess. I've never lived in the dorms so all you dorm people will need to tell me whether or not this room is good. It's good for my purposes, let's just say that. I live in a lovely building that consists of several blocks of 6 single rooms with a communal kitchen. The rooms are of varying size depending on which part of the building you're in, my room is along an outside wall and is circled in the picture below. I've got a lovely view of the lake from the large sit-in window. My room is actually circled in this small photo:



My classes aren't anything to really talk about. One is Shakespeare and the other History of Medieval England, both relevant to where I am. The history class is coming out to be the winner in interestingness, mainly because I've read all the plays for the Shakespeare class already and Prof. Wood is not the most titillating lecturer. Dr. Moore is by far more interesting, plus she likes to tell us how strangely people get killed when she tells us about important dates and battles.

This is going to be the last of the super informative blog entries, the rest are going to be more about what I'm up to and how my days are. Pictures of things will still be included but check the album daily for more picture fun! The albums are subcategorized for easy access and all that. So for now, toodles.

The Long Road to England

Hoorah! I made it all the way here in one piece with all my luggage, it's a miracle. I've settled into my room at Worcester and got a chance to see just a tad of Oxford. For reference, you can click on all the small versions of pictures in the blog to access the full version in my Photobucket album.

My trip started out at about 8:30am ('Nooga and ATL time) Saturday morning, when I woke up and got ready to head to the airport. Me and Nick grabbed some lunch at Le Madeline then my parents took me to Hartsfield. I'm sure you all know what it's like to check in your luggage and go through security, so that's not at all interesting. The plane I flew on was very nice though. Boeing 777, flying British Airways. I've also decided that if I ever fly BA again, I'm flying first class so that I can have a reclining cot with a privacy screen between me and the person next to me. The little cots face opposite directions so your head is never in someone else's feet. It's totally cushy and very roomy. Plus in the middle of the plane the cots face each other so you create a mini living room, but enough talking about how comfortable everyone -else- had it.

I was in a regular 3 seat arrangement, window side thankfully. I sat next to a super spoiled 12 year old and a lady that was traveling with her that wasn't her mother. My guess was an au pair, but could have been an aunt or something. She certainly acted like an au pair. The girl would move around, pull books out of her bag, put them back, do her make-up, and play on her cell phone. She also stayed up all night watching movies with her overhead light on. So on top of the fact that I was in a corner trying to get as comfortable as I can flying coach, I was also sitting next to the ONLY person that had their light on all night. The entire plane was dark, everyone trying to sleep, and this girl is having a party next to me. Needless to say, I did not sleep a wink. Not one tiny bit. I closed my eyes, and tried to make myself get some rest, but it did not work because 5 minutes later she'd move around and I was staring out my window again. I did manage to pass about 5 hours of the trip watching The Pacifier and Be Cool, which were both very funny. My fingers are crossed that Master and Commander will be shown on the way back, they were showing previews for it. That'll make all 9 hours fly by.

The airplane food was airplane, nothing spectacular or good, I'm thinking I'll call BA and say I want a Kosher meal in hopes that it'll be fresher and better on the way back. There were copious amounts of good coffee consumed, and I did get a personal bottle of red wine at dinner. It wasn't a full one, nor a mini one either, more like a third of a real bottle and that lasted me well after dinner. The moment the pilot said we're entering Irish airspace, I looked out the window. And what did I find? Clouds!!! That made me a bit peeved, and almost the entire way to Gatwick it was cloudy over land, so I didn't really get to see anything except a far and blurry view of Brighton until we almost landed. You can see that picture in my Photobucket album but I could only tell it was Brighton because of the blurry pier in the middle that I matched to the picture in my guidebook. When we finally got below the clouds this is what I saw:



It was absolutely breathtaking and I took several more pictures as mementos. One is currently my desktop background. It's all exactly as I've read about: bright green fields separated with rows of trees and dotted with villages and various estates. Thatch roofs and tiny clusters of life around what looked like very old churches. I was glued to the window until the last moment. Upon landing, I actually went through customs and baggage claim very quickly and was able to grab a cup of super good coffee before hopping on a charter bus to Oxford. The drive there was quite an experience, but mainly because of the novelty of it all. In essence things are the same, but at the same time different. The cars obviously come from the other direction and the drivers are on the other side. But what I immediately noticed that the trees are different and the wildflowers in the medians are ones I've never seen before. The fences on the side of the motorway were pretty wood farm fences and not the chain link or barb kind I'm used to. No trees on the sides of the road instead short bushes and I could see far into the hilly country on either side. I took a picture of pretty blue flowers covering a sloped field, with a group of cows nested in the middle.



I got in around 11am local time (which is 5 hours ahead of EST) and got settled in quite quickly. Managed to lose my keys on the way to my room as I was dragging my suitcases across the ENTIRE campus, but found those again quite quickly. Tommy came to visit for a few hours, after which I headed to dinner and orientation.


Next Entry: Worcester, my room, and classes