A Look into my Life

First off, I seem to have screwed something up a bit. I put up some pictures with absolutely nothing about written. This past Thursday massive stars and some store fronts turned on their Christmas lights for the first time. For right now it is only along Regent Street but others will be following from mid-November to early December. The Christmas lights maybe coming on, but it’s hard to get into the Christmas spirit right now.

Today is Remembrance Day here in the UK. A little of what it is about:

“Remembrance Day is a day to commemorate the sacrifices of members of the armed forces and of civilians in times of war, specifically since the First World War. It is observed on 11 November to recall the end of World War I on that date in 1918. The day was specifically dedicated by King George V, on 7 November 1919, to the observance of members of the armed forces who were killed during war.”

I believe this was my last chance to catch a glimpse of the Queen out in public. I do believe that I have a picture of her! So I went out early today, 9 30am to head down to the memorial. When I arrived security was strict as an airport and the place was packed! I did manage to get a decent spot to see everything and was promptly sealed off by the London Police. Trapped! So Big Ben struck 11:00 and there was two minutes of silence to mark the beginning of the ceremony. The marching band played quite a few songs and sounded brilliant! Next certain important people, such as the Queen, placed wreaths on the memorial and then the parade of veterans began. My there were quite a few of them! The parade seemed to last forever while we were barricaded in along the streets. Finally the last of the parade passed and we were released into the streets and made a mad dash for the tube stations. It truly was a great ceremony to witness and I’m glad I braved the cold for 4 hours for a small glimpse of the queen!

Enjoy what is left of your weekend! Mine is pretty much over as it is 5pm and it’s very, very dark out.

Football, a Saturday, and rain. Yes I am in England! I received a ticket to attend a football match between the Queen’s Park Rangers, a local team, and Cardiff City, from Wales. We were told to keep a close eye on the spectators. It seems that the reserved British throw everything out the window at these games. They have quite a few chants saying not very nice things about the other team’s mothers. The most striking thing was boy behind me who couldn’t have been much older than 10 screaming to the opposing team that they are freaking crap (edited, I’d like to keep my site rated PG!). It certainly was a very interesting time indeed! It was a terrible day for it, it poured nearly the entire game.

I do have a bit of advice for attending such a match, research BOTH team’s colors. Turns out that I showed up wearing the opposing teams colors, GREAT. Noting came out of it but you do get quite a few dirty looks.

This past Friday I finally got to see Quantum of Solace. It was a good movie with an awesome car chase first thing. At the end I had quite a hollow feeling. It was a good movie, not a great one. Still go see it when it comes out!

Tomorrow I’ll be attending the Remembrance Day Parade. Remembrance day is about the equivalent to our Memorial Day. The Queen will be out to lay a wreath on the memorial in London. I hope to catch a glimpse to her! I’ll report back with my findings.

Pictures will be up shortly of the football game.

Today’s Understanding Britain class had a little twist. We had two guest speakers (and their dog) in for class. They are homeless and living in the streets of London. The professor that teaches this class has a high interest in this topic. It is an interesting one indeed and provided a look into a sometimes misunderstood lifestyle. The UK is a welfare state and has provisions to take care of everyone. That is until you fall off the complete bottom as both of these individuals have. They are stuck in an endless loop of being unable to afford and do not have a permanent address for a passport and cannot get a job because of no official ID and no permanent address and no bank account for the previous reasons. It’s an endless loop which neither can get out. They rely on each other for daily survival and their dog brings a little happiness into their lives.

I’ve always thought this subject to be a little bit of a taboo but it was interesting hearing them speak and how they get money (basically begging getting around £7/day between the two of them) and getting food. It truly is quite a sad story and proves that some wrong decisions will lead to bad consequences. 

It was another gloomy day here in London. Rather cold and very wet. Tomorrows forecast is looking better though! This Saturday I’ll be going to a football game (soccer for you Americans) for class. Real hard work I know! From what I heard the crowds can get a little rowdy. There’s still a little time until that happens though. Good luck voting tomorrow! Make the right choice!

I saw this on the internet just now and though it was a good read. There are very few trash cans along the streets of London for security reasons. It makes it very frustrating when you do have a hand full of rubbish to get rid of. Now there seems to be an answer! Bomb proof bins have been created. Sadly I will probably never see them, but there is a solution!

“London will be the first city to test out new bomb-proof garbage cans, which are also going to multitask as recycling bins with LCDs that stream travel info and news. Security concerns (AKA fear of terrorists dropping bombs in them) have kept rubbish bins out of subway stations and many of the city’s streets since the mid-80′s, causing frustration among citizens, not to mention what amounts to forced littering. The new cans, developed by British company Media Metrica, weigh one ton each, and were tested in the lifeless deserts of New Mexico for five years to ensure they are completely, totally indestructible, can absorb heat from explosives, prevent shrapnel spread, and extinguish “fireballs.” Eh. Put ‘em in New York City — someone will surely figure out how to utterly destroy them in 24 hours or less.”

Engadget

It is incredibly difficult to photograph fish. They move too much and too quickly. Regardless there are still some pictures to check out in the gallery. The aquarium is incredibly small and works it’s way into the basement of the County Hall. It’s located adjacent to the London Eye. It took no more than an hour to stroll through and at £11 I didn’t find it good value for money. Regardless I have gone through the London Aquarium!

Another bit of house keeping: Happy Halloween!

Tomorrow will be a very early morning. I hope to be down in Knightsbridge around 7:30 tomorrow morning to catch the Harrod’s Christmas Parade which welcomes Father Christmas into the store for thousands of kid’s to sit and get sick on his lap! I have chosen November 1st as the start of my Christmas music season. I love Christmas Music!! I’ll be heading east tomorrow afternoon. It’s a large exhibition center in the east of London. This weekend they are housing the Stuff Live! electronics show. I’ll report back tomorrow evening about both of these events.

Yes, that is right! I saw the latest Bond, Daniel Craig. Tonight was the premier at the Odeon in Leicester Square. There were mobs of people gathered to see it. There were large barriers setup to block views, but thankfully being 6’2″ I was able to see! It’s still amazing that I was able to witness this event. Check back shortly for pictures.

On a much more boring note, CAPA organized a cream tea for us at the Regency Hotel. It was a nice occasion with all the tea you could drink and small sandwiches and pastries. It is a British tradition that I have no taken part of. Like I said, compared to Daniel Craig and the first snow snow in central London since 1934 (so I’ve heard). It’s going to be hard to top all of this!

That’s right! We got snow last night. I just happened to look out the window at one point last evening and to my surprise I found bits of white stuff falling from the sky. At that point I grabbed my coat and shoes and ran out the door to witness this spectacular event. Some of us got the bright idea to run down to Tower Bridge and try and get some pictures of it in the snow. By the time we got down there the snow had sadly stopped. Check the gallery for some bad, yet exciting pictures of last evening!

The smell of Christmas is in the air! It seems that the Christmas season kicks in a bit early when you don’t have Thanksgiving to mark the start of the Holiday season. I took a nice walk down Oxford Street in the brisk autumn air and I was astonished at the number of shops that have their Christmas window displays set up and lights have been strung on the buildings. There are massive stars also strung between the buildings on Regent Street. I’m very anxious to see what else develops over the next few weeks. I’ll be sure to make an album for all the Christmas lights in the next few weeks, don’t worry!

Amsterdam!

The final leg of break was an exciting trip to Amsterdam. I’ll pick of the story very early Thursday morning. Now when I say early I mean 2:30am early. We were ready early and then caught a cab to Victoria train station. We caught a train to Gatwick Airport and had a 7am flight to Amsterdam. When we arrived we made our way to our hotel, checked in, and we both were completely exhausted. There was no time for sleep though! We had to keep moving. We walked into town stopping at a small pub for lunch. I assume it was traditional Dutch cuisine, but I’m not 100% what it really was.

The city is on the small side. One side to the other was about 45 minutes at normal walking pace. Thankfully they do drive on the right side of the road and I could default to normal walking habits, which have become not so default over the past few weeks. In reality you did have to worry about cars. The residents relied mainly on bikes for transportation. There were thousands of them running around and chained to anything that wouldn’t move. They had stretched ones with spots in the front for their children and all!

Our first goal for the day was to take a canal cruise through the many canals that make up the city. The sights along the canals were fantastic and actually made my day. Many of the pictures we took came from the cruise. We also did some shopping around. For a touristy place they certainly do hide a lot of the touristy stuff and the tourists!

Did I mention there were a lot of tulips? We walked through the flower market. There were huge amounts of tulips, tulip bulbs, wooden tulips, wooden shoes (who knew they were real?), and various other things (junk).

That evening we had a walk through the famous red light district. I only dared to take my camera out for one picture and that’s all you guys are going to see! At this point I’ve forgotten a lot of details about that trip. I’m sure Jamie can comment on a few things as well.

We finished things up the next morning with a stop at the Heineken brewery and then headed back for a rest and then catching our flight out. At this point we were exhausted, it was raining, and the beds at the hotel were calling our name!!

Status Update

There are 25 days until my mom and dad come over for the week of Thanksgiving. I’m looking forward to that. My mom has already scoped out the largest shopping mall, which just opened up in West London recently. I believe they will also be going to Paris and doing the Windsor/Stonehenge/Bath tour. I believe we will also take a day trip to Hampton Court Palace (they don’t know this!). Henry VIII turned this into a royal palace in 1514. It is thought that his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, haunts the palace.

I have 45 days remaining in London. I can’t believe how fast time is passing! I’m going to be home before I know it. I’m trying to pack my weekends full of all I can to make sure that I accomplish everything that I want to.

Before I get into anything else there have been several changes in the UK over the past week or so. The most import is the dollar to pound ratio. Its now $1.50:£1. Things are becoming affordable! Fall has also moved into the area. The temperature has fallen over the past week (ask Jamie!) and the days are becoming much shorter. The island has also left British Summer Time after last Saturday. For this week we are only 4 hours ahead of Eastern Time. With the time change the evenings end very early. This hit hard today while sitting in class. The sun had set by 4:30pm!! By the time I got back to my tube stop it was dark. Plus I had to go food shopping. What a depressing place! We have been warned that it will begin to get dark as soon as 3:30pm while we are here.

Without further distraction, back to break week! Wednesday was a London day. We went around to all the important attractions in the city. First off was Buckingham Palace. We were there EARLY and were the only tourists in the area. Made for some excellent pictures and stress free enjoyment of the royal residence. Sadly the queen wasn’t at home this morning.

Next we headed to Tower Hill for a walk across Tower Bridge and spent a few hours within Tower of London. Look back for details on the tower. Not much changed since my last entry, other than a much lamer tour guide. Pictures will be posted however!

We swung back to check out St. Paul’s Cathedral. The size still amazes me. We had lunch next to it at a Pizza Express. We then headed to Harrod’s for some shopping. This is a department store spread out into a building that could house a medium size mall. It is owned by Mohamed Al Fayed, the father of Dodi Al Fayed. On the bottom floor is a memorial dedicated to Diana and Dodi. 

After that we walked down Oxford Street and picked up a few nick knacks a long the way. Of course stopping by the Apple Store!! We then snagged some dinner and proceeded to relocate our luggage to my flat for storage and preparation for our early departure for Amsterdam. It will take me some time to type that up. Look for it tomorrow since it’s my day off!

Until then, enjoy the snow Western Pennsylvania!!

Today I planned on doing a little exploring of areas that I haven’t really been to in the city. However the weather has taken a turn for the worse and I’m still recovering from a hectic past week I decided this is one rainy day that I will stay in and relax.

So I’ll pick up the story where I left off, Tuesday, 21 October, we awoke early once again to be picked up by a shuttle. This time we were transported to Victoria Coach Station not to far away from our hotel. We would shortly disembark for Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and then on to Bath.

A short coach ride to Windsor Castle revealed that we would have a beautiful but cold day. Mind you that this is the first of very cold weather, which had to happen the week of break! As I always say though, it could be much worse. The first view of Windsor was astonishing. It is perched upon a hill, which gives it a sense of presence and importance. The rising sun lit up its stone façade. Our tour group was herded into the walls of the castle while the little British man rambled on about it’s importance and the fact that it is still a royal residence and used by the Queen on the weekends. What a weekend home!! The moat, like the Tower of London’s, is now a luscious, green garden. The group was then herded into the bowels of the castle where our first sight was the largest dollhouse I’ve ever seen.

“Queen Mary’s dollhouse was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens in 1924. Nearly every item in it was specially commissioned on a scale of twelve to one. The mechanical and engineering equipment is made to work, including the water system, the electric lights and the two lifts. Can you imagine the fun the children could have had sending the baby up on the lift for its evening bath, drying it off with small hand towels, then putting it to bed?”

At the end of our Windsor tour we did manage to get a glimpse at changing of the guard. The band had quite a sense of humor as they played the Mission Impossible them song while we waited.

Next up was lunch at a restaurant at the side of the road (AKA tourist trap). I did get to try Yorkshire pudding. It’s not pudding in the sense that you may think. I see it as more of a pastry than pudding.

When then headed towards Salisbury Plains, once again seeing Stonehenge. This was my second time seeing the henge, but I didn’t mind. It’s an infamous landmark that it gets better with every viewing. This time however the weather was much nicer and there weren’t kamikaze spiders attacking use from what appeared to be thin air (did I mention that I made sure to wear a hat this day!).

Next off was Bath. I was actually disappointed in this portion of the trip. When I got to go earlier in the semester we had a great deal of time to explore the small city and take a lot of photos. This time it was very rushed. We had a few minutes to jump into a shop and buy some things and then meet in front of the Roman Baths. We actually missed the meeting time but what had to be seconds but were admitted slightly late. After a walk through the baths we then loaded onto the coach and headed back towards London arriving back at our hotel around 8pm completely exhausted.