Ireland

Tonight Leanne and I will be heading off to Dublin, Ireland for the weekend! Our night train leaves London at 10pm, which we will ride up through the northwest of England. From there we will take a ferry at approximately 3am into Dublin's city centre & will arrive at our hotel around 6 in the morning. We're staying there until Sunday night; our return will be a similar process. We will be doing a hop on- hop off tour like the one Wads and Johnny did in NYC on the first full day and will hopefully be able to visit Tara Palace & the prison (its name has escaped me) by the second day. We're so excited & have a lot to do before tonight so I'm off!

Tiger Tiger & Tonight

Yesterday was definitely the most productive sight seeing day I've had yet. Tommy and I saw everything around the Westminster area. As soon as we walked up the steps from the tube, Big Ben was at our feet. Parliament was amazing, as was the Ministry of Defence (James Bond's office), Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, and Westminster Abbey. There are so many more buildings that were built before America was even in the picture. The architecture in this particular part of town is just breathtaking. Even the bricks are decorated with the tiniest details. What's really cool is that King Charles built an entire palace spanning from the Thames all the way inland about 1,000 yards. Most of his compound has burned to the ground over the years, but a few of the buildings still stand and are let to very wealthy citizens & lords. One particular lord, a descendant of the current queen, pays about 30 shillings (a few dollars) a month to live in the most prime apartment with his wife and two small dogs. This property was a gift from her highness. The wife and dogs actually walked right in front of us just as the Ministry of Defence’s guard was telling us about the family and their fortune. From the MOD, we continued up the lane away from the Thames, past two guards on horses, through King Charles’ palace’s archway, out his backyard, past a few statues of infamous English military dudes, up a whole bunch of steps, and came upon a very historical building that is now used for the HQ of the ‘Royal Society’ (which, much to my dismay, is not currently accepting applications). This particular building was the site of the French/President Charles deGualle when the country was being invaded during WW2. It’s quite possible that the events of D-Day were planned inside the very building that we were gazing at. Amazing!!
Last night my ISA group and I met up with Stu & Liz at TigerTiger & had an awesome time dancing around. There were about 16 of us in total, so we were safe (that’s for you dad).
We’re going to Wicked tonight and I’ll probably meet up with Ailsa later on today if she’s over the flu.
Ciao!

to see my pictures:

http://uk.msnusers.com/london1/

select 'pictures' on the left hand side. let me know if you can't view all the pages!

London is great!

Hey yall! I'm so sorry it's been so long. London is still rockin, we're alive despite the 'flash flooding' that's going on in the UK. It's really not that where we are; I've hardly been able to wear my new green rainboots. The River Thames is supposedly going to flood and shut down the tubes, which would be absolutely disasterous since we rely so heavily on them to get everywhere!
The weekend was great. We spent a long day at the Hampton Court Palace on Friday. This was Henry VIII's crib- where he lived with all six of his wives. He kept beheading them when they gave birth to daughters instead of sons. The property is beautiful. There are impeccably manicured gardens as far as the eye can see. There is a maze of 10-foot tall bushes that is annoying after having consumed even a half-pint of Carling.
In other news, I am going to wander the streets of Westminster this afternoon with Tommy and some others. We haven't been by Big Ben (which is actually the bell inside the clock), the Abbey, or Parliament yet. Becky Gableman just called me and gave me an earful for not having seen these joints yet. Rightfully so, but I have been doing other things! I went to the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge last week. Climbing to the top of St. Paul's Cathedral was a highlight fo sho. You can look at my photographs for all the other place I've been to when I figure out how to upload them. I just don't like to do the really touristy things that require fanny packs and floral print shirts.
Leanne, whose ancestry is Irish, and I are traveling to Dublin for the weekend. She wants to go skydiving. I'll be waiting for her on the ground.
I am in the midst of putting finishing touches on my travel plans after my ISA programme is complete. Definitely going to Amsterdam to see the Van Gogh museum and the Anne Frank House of course. Perhaps to Interlaken, Switzerland as well to go canyoning. We will see!!

Saturday, Sunday, and Monday

On Saturday morning at 10 am I arrived at London Gatwick having slept well on the plane & feeling quite fresh! I worried that my bags could be lost in the shuffling between countries but I was relieved to be the first passenger to exit and retrieve all of my baggage. (Some students in our group were not as fortunate.) I proceeded to an adjacent terminal where I met up with a whole slew of people whom I will be sharing experiences with for the next three weeks. There are around 27 students in my program from AZ, AR, CA, KS, MO, NJ, NY, OK, TX, VA and beyond. There are other international study abroad students at Westminster, too, who are in our classes. (One girl in my class is from the Netherlands and she always drinks 7-Up from these tiny cans that are about 1/3 of the size of our Coke cans. It’s so weird.)

Sunday and Monday were interesting days. We were all so tired yet too excited to make ourselves slow down. We had ISA orientation at a park on High Holborne, near the London School of Economics (this is where Stu goes). Our resident director told us all kinds of random info. The coolest is that the average Londoner is photographed 300 times per day. It’s part of their high tech security system called CCTV. There are cameras and video surveillance on street posts, buildings, in the tubes, you name it.

Sunday night we explored. We found a tree house-like pub near Leister Square, which Ryan Liebrandt so sweetly directed me to. Of all the 6 million people in London, I happened to bump into him on the tube escalator. Too bad it was his last night and my first. Miss you buddy!

School. The University of Westminster is located on Oxford Street, a renowned shopping Mecca. Just to get to our building we pass NikeTown (sad to see they won’t be carrying Mike’s new shoe), H&M and TopShop. Burberry, Oasis, and Zara Home (Mead & Rachel should be glad that I’m eager to check this one out) are one block down. The streets and sidewalks are always packed with people so you really have to pay attention to where you’re going. I’ve discovered that I really don’t like to be whacked when I’m walking; I’ll be discovering low-key neighborhoods tomorrow.

It's getting late & I'm feeling sick so I suppose I'll finish the rest of the week's details later. Tomorrow Leanne and I will be going to several markets in SOHO!
I cannot believe that I have been in London for one week already! It has flown by!