Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head

  Once again, I've misunderstood this great city of London.  When I packed my suitcase (this time last week... weird), I assumed that I would need layers.  You know, sweaters, light jackets, a long sleeve shirt or two: casual and easy.  Never would I have imagined it be the equivalent of a harsh Southern winter.  For all you Auburn people,  I'm talking- strap on your galoshes and parka because you're about to walk from Lowder to Funchess, through a cold, wet, mess uphill both ways kind of weather.  The past two days, today in particular, I gained a new appreciation for the South and our hot, muggy summers.  So all you people out there grumbling about the hot Auburn sun, your backpack sweat, your sunburn, your inability to eat a popsicle outside without it melting down your arm- wipe your brow, rub on that Aloe, lick up that popsicle, and praise the Lord for that beautiful humidity.  Today is one of those days I'm missing my Southern summer.

  

  Nevertheless, let's go back to Wednesday.  Wednesday will probably be my favorite day of the week here in London.  I can already tell.  We slept in, finished homework (yeah, Mom and Dad, I'm actually taking class), grabbed lunch and headed to the Victoria and Albert Museum.  Out of all of the museums I have visited so far this trip, this one is by far my favorite.  We traveled through fashion from the 1750s to the present and enjoyed pieces of artwork in piece.  The Victoria and Albert Museum is in South Kensington, away from the rush of most of tourist London, so I enjoyed getting to take my time reading about the things that interested me the most.

Downton Abbey- for real though.

Courtyard in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

In front of a staircase from the 1500s. Woah.

Look at the miniature human door.  People were tiny back in the day.

Leonardi di Vinci's Journal... Is it bad that this makes me think of Ever After?

A picture Bible for people who could not read.

Hey guys.

Looks like a backgammon board.

   After we got back from the museum, we met a bunch of our friends in the Refectory (the dining hall at Regent's), grabbed some dinner, and decided we all needed milkshakes.  Scott recommended we go to a place in Camden called Byron, so about 15 of us rallied together and headed through Regent's Park like a school group headed on a tour of the London Zoo (also in Regent's Park and hope to go at some point).  Runners, families, foreigners (including ourselves), flooded the park and reminded us of the vibrancy and diversity of London culture.  We even saw some Brits playing American baseball and thought we might show them how its really done another day (not that I would be much help).  The park is large and beautiful, and I'm looking forward to my time exploring it over the next five weeks.  Our time at Byron was filled with laughter, gigantic, handspun milkshakes, talk of Greek life at Auburn, and an attempt to pull our cash together to pay for all 15 milkshakes.  Another successful night.  

Sweet Mary Allison.  Alpha Gams take London by milkshake.

Costumes from the opening ceremony of the Olympics this past year!

In an old pub in the Museum of London.

   Today, we took at field trip as a group to Hampton Court Palace.  Although the palace's interior and history far surpassed my expectations, the weather seemed to put a damper (literally) on the palace landscape.  Apparently, I missed getting to explore the beautiful palace gardens behind and around Hampton Court because I was too determined to see anything and everything near a heater.  The royal apartments and and preserved quarters of Henry VIII were the most interesting parts of the palace to me.  There is so much history (and so much drama) behind those walls, and I enjoyed getting to walk through Henry VIII's life and see where he ruled.

Caroline, Ellen, and I riding the tube to catch our train to Hampton Court Palace.

Carson and I on the train.

Scott and Caroline.

Carson and Anna in the courtyard of Hampton Court Palace!

Rainy, cold, freezing day.

Anna, Carson, Shannon, and Mary Allison outside of a courtyard.

Carson and Anna dining like Henry and Anne.

My turn.

Cheating by eating Italian food.  Already sick of food in in the Regent's Refectory. Yikes.

All in all, it's been a jam packed and awesome first week.  We're headed to Oxford tomorrow, so more pictures and stories to come.

Cheerio!

#Tourist

   After living in London for three days, I can officially say that I am a typical tourist.  I wear obnoxiously bright colors, talk too loudly, stand on the wrong side of the escalator in the tube, buy gas-powered curling irons (more on that later), look the wrong way while crossing the street, and am looking for anything and everything to do that ranges from 15 pounds-free.  Fortunately, as a student, this is easy to do.

    

    On Sunday, Carson, Scott, Caroline, and I decided to figure out how to navigate London after our class orientation.  Our weekly tube passes in hand, we walked confidently up to the Baker Street tube stop until we realized we had no idea what line to take.  After staring, squinting, pointing, and hovering over the map in the tube for a while, we finally realized what line we needed to take to downtown and also the fact that frustrated locals stood waiting, giving us pointed looks.  We quickly moved out the way and attempted to remember all of the local common courtesies we learned in our orientation.  Mostly, I just tried to talk quietly and get out of way if someone was dressed "smart" for a business meeting.

The London Eye Sore looking nice on this sunny day.

   As soon as we exited the tube, we seemed to be bombarded by all things London.  Flags, guards, lots of girls wearing black tights (more on fashion later), cameras, dogs, policemen and women on horses, and of course, the most beautiful architecture I have ever seen.  We decided to head to Buckingham Palace and took a lovely stroll (using my British lingo) along St. James Park.  All of the sudden, we came across a mass of men in uniform and automatically assumed that the Queen or Princess Kate (duh) must be near by.  Eyes pealed, we made our way closer to crowd and began taking pictures frantically, ready to capture the royal family or anyone else important who we would pretend like we knew.  A kind woman noticed our frantic, excited confusion and informed us the the parade was for veterans of the guard.  She encouraged us to stick around and listen to the Queen's band.  They truly blew me away (get it? Jack will be proud of that one).

Parade we came across by Buckingham Palace.

These guys look like George Stanley Banks from Mary Poppins, notice the hats and umbrellas.

   After the parade, we made our way through Trafalgar Square and managed to pass by Westminster Abbey, Parliament, and the London Eye.  We walked our little tourist feet to the bone, and we were so excited that we easily figured out how to hit the big stops in one quick walking tour.

Caroline, Scott, and Carson in front of Parliament (the bell inside of the clock tower is actually named "Big Ben").  I'm the mom that makes everyone take pictures. They'll thank me later.

I wanted to get in the picture.

Parliament.

Shameless tourist pic for Mom and Dad. 

Saved my life more than once already.

  Since we only have class on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Carson, Scott, and I decided to run errands in the morning on Monday and found that this was a task larger than our confident, tube conquering ambitions could cater to.  First item on the shopping list: a fan.  The high these past few days in London has been in the 60s.  Seems comfortable, maybe even chilly, with our windows open in Reid Hall, right? Nope.  Somehow, our curtain seems to trap in all of the cool air from the outside which seems impossible, considering my room in the Ross House was a constant 50-60 degrees this winter just because there was a tiny crack at the top of my window.  Some scientist needs to explain this phenomena to me.  Anyways, after sweating our first two nights in London, we decided enough was enough.  Carson bought the fan because I bought the curling iron for myself and her mom when she comes later in the semester.  All seemed well and good as we headed back to Regents after our shopping spree.  We talked merrily about our plans to visit the Natural Museum of History and thought we were big shot London naturals.

We only get one pillow, so Carson uses her neck pillow to sit up and read at night. #dormlife

Carson's fan came unassembled.

   Carson opens her fan and realizes that we have to assemble it.  Not a problem, except the dorm has no tools.  She literally put this entire thing together with a pair of tweezers, and we are living in the blissful breeze that makes this former Sahara Desert into a pleasant place to sleep.  She's pretty impressive.

Gas powered curling iron.  Pray I don't come home bald. #fail

  I, on the other hand, am a struggle.  Reason being: I bought a GAS powered curling iron.  Apparently, I somehow imagined that a curling iron must a curling iron that you plug into the wall and picked up the only one they had at Boots (a drug store).  When I opened my package, I first wondered why there was no cord.  I then wondered what a little tube of liquid labeled "flammable" could possibly be doing in the box with my curling iron.  Finally, I read the directions and discovered that it is a portable curling iron.  Literally, I strike it up like a Bunsen burner, and its a beautification science experiment.  Think of all the possibilities: curling your hair in the car, on a walk, on the tennis court, at school, while you're camping.  Just pop that baby in your purse an you're good to go as long as you stand clear of the bonfire.  More updates on my experiences with the curling iron to come.

Discovering new ways to open doors.  We just have to hold up our card to the sensor, so Scott figured out he only needed to hold up his back pocket.

   After marveling at this portable wealth of hair styling, we decided to go back into town and explore the Natural Museum of History.  It's free, and they have dinosaur bones, so this probably will not be our only trip.  Anna joined us, and I have enjoyed getting to know her better over the past two days.

Carson, Scott, and Anna Natural History Museum.

Dino thigh. Umm its my height.

  In the middle of our tour of the mammals, a woman who worked at the museum informed us that there was a free thirty minute seminar in the theatre with real scientists.  As English majors, I cannot lie to you and say we were particularly excited about this seminar, but we had time to kill, so we went.  To our great surprise and hesitant enthusiasm, Sandy Knapp, the local expert on potato botany, led the seminar and told us of her research and all of the cool places she's been to look at potatoes and their distant cousins.  There are apparently 1500 species of potato.  Yeah, I didn't know that either.  Look Mom and Dad, I'm already learning something new already.

On the left, Sany Knapp, our potato specialist.

Listening to those elephant sounds.

Heyy Scott and Anna.

    After the museum, Scott reminded us of his enthusiasm for crepes (literally, he talked about them at least four times in the two days we had been in London) and told us about a place recommended to him in South Kensington just a block away from the museum that has great ones.  After walking back and forth around the museum for half and hour, we finally came across a quaint part of town with shops and restaurants.  And there it was, the creperie.  Seriously, Scott was right.  The crepes were amazing.  The four of us split two chocolate crepes and had the messiest and tastiest experience of the trip so far.  Unfortunately, some of us got a little more messy than others.  Carson somehow managed to miss her mouth and spilled most her chocolate crepe on her jacket.  Keep in mind that earlier this day, Carson spilled a whole diet coke on her pants at lunch.  What a warrior.  No worries though, with the help our friends inside the creperie, she was cleaned up and ready to search for theatre tickets in Leicester Square.  Note to self, never take crepes to go.  Pay the extra pence and eat inside.

We finally found the Scott's crepe place. It's literally perfect. We want to go back again for sure.

Chocolate on chocolate on chocolate.

Anna and Carson and their crepe in front of the creperie.

Let the mess begin.

Chocolate in her hair two hours later. The crepe that keeps on giving.

Going back to South Kensington for sure.

Carson is a great roomie.

So glad I got connected with Anna. She goes to First Pres! So awesome to have church family in London with me.

   Our night ended perfectly with cheap tickets to the Phantom of the Opera.  A pole may have given me quite a restricted view, and when I say restricted, I mean the pole was directly in front of me.  But with some leaning and listening, the show was fabulous and might be my favorite rendition I've seen.

Got last minute tickets to see Phantom at Her Majesty's Theatre!

Scott, Carson, and Anna- Notice we're literally on the back row.

Caroline looking London fab.

Even though we were far back, the show was fantastic!

Wrote The Secret Garden and The Little Princess.  Apparently there's a real secret garden in Regent's Park, so I'm on the look out for Burnett's inspiration!

  We had class all day today.  Literally.  For seven hours.  However, we still managed to get out of Regents for a little bit tonight and attempted to catch the actors on the set of the show Sherlock.  I was mostly interested in Watson, because he's the same actor who plays Bilbo Baggins in the Hobbit.  If you know me, you know how much I love Lord of the Rings.  Unfortunately, we missed them by an hour but discovered a new part of town and enjoyed getting some fresh air after a day inside.

Anna in front of the place where they film the Sherlock show.

Happy Birthday Shannon! Shannon and Mary Allison looking so cute for birthday dinner.

We missed the filming by an hour, but maybe we'll catch them another day!

Our tube stop is one of the original undergrounds and has been preserved.

   That's all for now!  Good day to you all!