Day 16-Ignoring the underlying tension...

30 July 2007
I decided at the last minute to skip the trip to Wales. Instead I stayed in London and enjoyed the rainy weather. This morning I went with a small group to the Portobello Market in Notting Hill. I really enjoyed the day. Funny thing though about my fellow students. We were there for exactly 15 minutes (11:45 am) before they had seen enough and wanted to go to a pub. I know this isn't going to sound very British and will go against the thoughts of most of my fellow Study Centre students...but travelling across town just to go to a freaking pub just isn't cool. I don't get it. Not to be lame...but honestly...following up a night of drinking with a morning of drinking ... what's the big deal? (Edit: Please don't take this to mean that I am anti-alcohol..I am not. I simply don't see what's so great about consuming it around the clock when there is so much cool stuff to see in this city.) Oh well..that's just my opinion. More about the market....

Portobello Road is a narrow road with 2-3 story buildings lining the street. The street becomes a flea market on Saturday and it's very interesting indeed. Instead of the normal junk and Chinese dollar store imports found at many American Flea Markets the Portobello market had some very interesting items. Some of the more random vendors I saw were a man selling brass bicycle horns and 2 vendors selling actual mink stoles and coats. There were also many vendors selling hand-made jewellery, clothing, purses and produce. Of course there were other items too but it was a lot to absorb and remember. On the way back to the back to the tube station I noticed a landmark on a blue townhouse - George Orwell, Novelist and Essayist lived here. I took some photos of it but haven't uploaded them yet. That is a funny thing about London...there is so much to see here that it's hard to take it all in. I actually live across the street from the house that Charles Dickens lived in and didn't even notice the landmark for nearly two weeks despite the fact that I walk past it daily.

After Portobello Road I decided to go try Oxford street to buy a new raincoat since I left mine in Tallahassee and have been irritated with myself for doing so ever since I got here. I read in a travel guide that the Primark store had good bargains so I went there first. I was very impressed with that store. The prices there were so good. I got exactly the jacket that I was looking for and the price was only 10GPB. I also got some socks (6 for 2GBP) and some slippers for 3GBP. Even with the conversion rate I think I got a better price than I would in the US on these items which is awesome. An odd thing did occur when I was in the Primark store .. a lady was trying to take her child up the escalator in a stroller and the security guard stopped her at the foot of the escalator to redirect her to the lift. He held her arm and told her to use the lift and the woman just started screaming in a foreign language. It was really quite a scene, I watched for a second and then walked away because it was actually a little embarrassing to be completely honest.

All this retail therapy was definitely in order as I try to ignore the terrorist activities of the past 24 hours. Although Glasgow is in another country it is still part of the United Kingdom and the car bomb used in that event seems very similar to what occurred in London. Perhaps it is some sort of message being sent by terrorist groups to try to intimidate the new Prime Minister, time will tell. This sort of thing was really my only reservation about coming to live in London. I also had a weird feeling about this power turn over being an opportunity for terrorist to try to exploit the new government. It's a little scary that there are individuals out there who are sick enough in the head to want to do something like this. But all in all I feel very safe here in London. I think that the police here deal with these sort of things very well.

So, that's really all I have for tonight. I hope that everyone is well and safe.

Have a great night!

xox
~Jenn

UPDATE: Pics of George Orwell's House



UPDATE2: Here is a pic of a building used in the 1984 movie. It is actually the senate building from the University of London.

Day 15-Fun Stuff...

Today was another day of work. We spent some time discussing the recent events with the attemted terrorist attacks in the Piccadilly Circus area. This evening I went with a group of friends to Cafe Emm in Soho. It was a really nice meal. There were a lot of traditional pub items on the menu but also some cool stuff for vegetarians as well. Personally I had a burger and chips and it was mammoth and delicious. And the price for all that goodness? 10 pounds including tip. It was a pretty good deal.

Tomorrow I'll be taking a little road trip to Cardiff with a group of friends. We're going to tour the capital city and maybe take in a castle as well. It should be pretty interesting (I hope).

I'll make sure to take some pictures of it!

Have a nice night!

:-)

~Jenn

Day 15-AM Response to Recent News

29 June 2007
Car Bomb Story
I am writing this post in response to an event which occurred this morning around 2am in Central London. Although this event occurred about a mile from the Study Centre, everything here is ok. London was very fortunate that whatever crazy ill-intentioned individual was trying to commit this crime was unsuccessful.

We are going about our daily activities as normal but with a careful eye out for anything unusual.

Hope that all back home are well.

~Jennifer

Day 14-Faculty Party

28 June 2007
Nothing great to write today really. Just work and a party afterwards. I have a few pictures but I'll just post the one with me in it.

Was supposed to have a 3-day weekend but it looks like I will be in the office tomorrow so that I can help prepare the computers for the students that will be here on 5 July. I am not even getting paid for my time until after 1 July, all this has been pro-bono work on my part...I can't believe that I volunteered to give up my day off.

Perhaps I need a CAT-Scan..maybe I have a tumor.


The part was at a bar called Truckles which is located on a little lane called Bury Place directly across from the main entrance of the British Museum. It was a cute bar.



Have a nice night all...

:-)
~Jenn

Day 13-A comedy of errors..

27 Jan 2007

If today happened to someone else and I was just watching it, it would have been a lot funnier....

Work was interesting. I was in charge of preparing some old computers for a new life. All of the machines had their own unique issues which gave me lots of support practice but that wasn't really where the day got goofy.

After work I was to meet with a group of fellow students and walk to the Eutsus Train Station ...on the way it started to rain. So we brisk walked/ran the remaining 5 blocks to the train station. After we arrived we got into the que and waited in line..and when we got to the front of the line found out we were in the wrong line. We were redirected to a line in the next room which was three times as long and 10x as slow as the previous one. When we finally made it to the front of the line to purchase our tickets we totally confused the ticket agent with the name of the town we wanted to visit and after all the confusion learned that we cannot even take a train all the way to the town we want to visit. When we finally got on the same page with the ticket guy we learned that the tickets would cost 3 times what we expected so for all that hassle we didn't even buy any tickets.

Instead of trudging back through the streets of London in the rain we decided to go with discount transportation...the city bus. Just as we arrived at the bus stop and translated the sign to determine which bus we wanted to take ..that bus drove off. So we waited around for about 10 minutes and another bus on that line and got on. Despite what the sign said, this bus didn't take us towards the study centre, it took us away. And after about a 15 minute ride, the bus turned off the lights, let us out and went out of service. Luckily we were at an underground station...unfortunately we were now in zone 3. So we had to take the underground. In our haste to get back to our neighborhood we boarded the first train on the northern line. Luckily I was paying attention because we didn't get on the right one. The underground took us back to the train station that we had bussed from earlier and we had to switch trains to the other line. And finally we made it home. It was an ordeal.

So that was my day...Sorry my writing probably dragged on and on..but well..that's sort of how thd day went too.

Have a good night...

~Jenn

Day 12-Normalizing...

26 June 2007
Things around here are starting to get routine now. Today consisted of work, a funny meeting with our local Policeman about safety in London, dinner and laundry. Really it was almost so routine and mundane that it was unremarkable.

The meeting with our local Policeman was actually the most interesting part. We learned quite a bit of common sense stuff...and a little not so common sense stuff about being safe in London. London is a farely safe city. For the most part people here are pretty considerate of one another and violent crime for the most part is pretty low. Financial crimes, however, are very high. This comes in the form of mugging (which is relatively rare), pick pocketing and highly adapted ATM fraud. The ATM fraud has actually happened to two (2) people who are in the study center right now...one on Monday and another last week to the tune of $3,000.00.

The scam is pretty elaborate. The theves, who work in gangs, have purchase or built scanners which fit over the card insertation point on the ATM machines. Some of them are so elaborate that the thieves are downright ingenious. After you use the ATM, the theif remotely intercepts your card number and your pin and then in short time cleans out the balance of your account. To one of the guys it happened to, his balance had been completely stolen within a half hour of using the cash machine. That being said, if you are using an ATM in London (or any other city for that matter) examine the machine very closely before completing any transations on it. Look for any parts that just don't seem quite right. If you do find that the machine is tampered with cancel your cards at once and call the police but don't try to remove the device because the bad guys are close by and might attack you if they see you doing it. That's it straight from the PC's mouth to my blog.

So, that's all I have for today, Hope everyone has a nice night.

~Jenn

Day 11-Scrumpy Jack Cider

25 Jun 2007

I have discovered a rather addictive elixor called Scrumpy Jack Cider. It is the reason that this blog is probably going to suck. 2 pints of this wonderful drink have me working far to hard to hit the correct keys whilst I type here in the dark.

Actually, today wasn't about much at all really. I worked and then I came home. Tonight I hung out in the living room sort of watching Big Brother and mostly just bullshitting with my flatmates. It was a lot of fun. This is a good group of people here.

We're planning a little mini-break this weekend to a small town in Wales called Hay-on-Wye which is known for the number of used bookstores as well as a food festival being held this Saturday. We intend to go for the day and try some Welch delacacies and find some nice novels as well. We'll just have to see if it's as good as we imagine it will be. The best part about the entire thing is that the rail pass is only about £12 which is quite a deal.

We'll let you know how that goes on Sunday.

It's about time for me to get some rest so that I am good for work in the morning.

Hope all are well.

Goodnight..
~Jenn

Day 10-Mellow Sunday...

24 June 2007
This morning started off with a coach tour of the sites of London. It was a overcast, drizzley and crisp day. We rode around town to various places and took snapshots. Today ws my first time seeing the River Thames which was pretty cool. On the tour we managed to see, Trafalgar Square, National Gallery, St. Pauls Cathederal, Tower of London, London Bridge, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parlament and Piccadilly Circus. It was a was a nice trip, however due to the weather and the fact that it started quite early in the morning the tour wasn't all that I thought it would be.

Dispite that..I have 66 pictures that I took of various sites along the way posted in the slide show below. I hope that tomorrow is sunny again!

Have a great night all!

~Jenn

Day 10-Buckingham Palace, Parlament, London Bridge, Tower of London, Westminister Abbey...

24 June 2007


Photos will be commented on later. If you click the Picasa logo in the bottom right corner of the slide show you can see a much larger picture as well as the comments.

Day 9-Trafalgar Square, Gordon Brown, Bloomsbury, West End Live!

23 June 2007
Today was probably the most educational day I have had in London so far. It started at 10:30 this morning with a walking tour of the neighborhood surrounding our Study Centre, Bloomsbury. Before that even happened we experienced a bit of history in the making right here at the Study Centre. While queuing in the street prior to the store we noticed a lot of Bobbies standing in front of the Trades Union Congress which is across the street from the center. After a few minutes media trucks started gathering as well. As it turned out, the future (as in next week) Prime Minister was coming for a meeting with the trade unions. I managed to get within about 5 feet of him and took a pretty decent picture which is in the gallery below.

After getting some snaps of the Prime Minister we were off in a small group to do the walking tour of Bloomsbury. There is a photo slideshow of the tour below. If you click on the picture you will be able to see captions about what each picture is (provided I have had a chance to arrange them :-) We saw some really amazing places and learned some neat things about our own neighborhood...like..Charles Dickens lived in the house across the street... and John Maynard Keynes (the Father of economic theory) lived right around the block. Virginia Woolf lived around the corner too. And 1984 was actually built at the Senate Building of the University of London (see photos).

After the tour we left on our second adventure of the day. Myself and 2 of my 6 roommates went down to Leicester Square and saw "West End Live" which is a totally free music festival conducted by the acts of London's famous West End. We actually saw 2 songs performed by the cast of Avenue Q (which is terribly funny) and 4 actors who sang different songs from Cameron Mackintosh's productions of Oliver, My Fair Lady, Phantom of the Opera and others, it was a real treat. On the way out of the park we also got free goodie bags with samples of various household items. It was really cool. (There are pictures from that as well)

After Leicester Square, we walked down the block to the National Portrait Gallery. We did a brief walk through and saw some really impressive art. The collection spans a period of about 250+ years of portraits of different people. Both the collections of portraits as well as the building itself were very impressive.

Upon leaving the NPG we realized we were only one block from Trafalgar Square so we headed down there. It's just absolutely beautiful and also a bit humbling when you realize the history behind the site. Aside from the beautiful fountain in the square, there are also some very interesting buildings nearby. I actually got a nice photograph of Big Ben from the far side of the square.

To finish a really increadible day of sight seeing and experiencing London I took my first Tube ride. We got on at the Charing Cross Road Station and we went to Tottingham Court Road. For £1.50 we rode the Tube for exactly 5 minutes. It was a really cool experience but next time I think I'll just walk :-)

So for now I need to wind this up, Tomorrow I am doing a bus tour very early that should hit most of the big tourist sites that I haven't yet seen in town.

Until next time...

Have a great night..
~Jenn

Day 9-Additional Photos

23 June 2007
Here are additional photos today, I will comment them later. They are Trafalger Square, The West End Live, Big Ben and Gordon Brown (who will be Prime Minister after next week).

Check back later for more details ...

Day 9-Photos Bloomsbury District of London

23 June 2007

Day 8-Pubs, Theater and more Pubs.

22 June 2007
It's finally Friday. I have officially made it through a week in London. On Monday I wouldn't have thought the week would go by so quickly. I am steadily making new friends and trying to make arrangements to travel to other, less expensive, places.

Today was a rather quick day. We had two orientation sessions for the new students where I had to get in front of the group and introduce myself. As silly and outgoing as I appear to be, I still get very nervous and quite frankly dumb when I get in front of an audience. Basically I just try to say something humerous about myself as quickly as possible so that the introductions can carry on quickly to the next person and I can get out from under the gun.



After orientations and work I went with a group of my flatmates to "Jack Horner" Pub. We sat out on the street side (Tottingham Court Rd. to be specific) and drank beers and cider and had traditional pub fare. I had a bacon cheeseburger which was excellent. It had British style bacon on it (which is more like Canadian Bacon that the US variety) and tomato relish which was terrific. I also had some great chips as well. To top it all off, the pub had the US version of Heinz 57 Ketchup, Yum!

After the pub it was off to the Duke of York Theater for Little Shop of Horrors. On the way back to the Study Center to meet with the group I noticed the London Eye for the very first time. Although I have walked down the very street before I never looked up and noticed how close we were to it before....either that, or the thing is just so massive that it appears to be just down the street from us. Either way, I thought that was cool too.

The theater is located right in the middle of the famous West End of London. On the way we passed by lots of pubs and clubs and even walked through Chinatown. Nice.

The theater itself is about 115 years old and is quite an impressive old building (but then again..in London, nearly every building is an impressive old building, in fact the building I reside in is over 300 years old!). The show was very entertaining and up to the end followed very closely with the movie. It is only the very end that has a twist in plot that differs from the film....I don't want to spoil it here in case you are ever in London to see the show, but if you'd like to know e-mail me and I'll tell you.

After the play we walked back to the Study Centre again through Covent Garden and the Seven Dials which is an area where seven different roads all intersect in seven different directions. It's very cool that in London there are several places where streets were built after structures. This means that sometimes the road goes under a building or takes random twisty paths, it's very unique. After that I met up with another flatmate and gave him the 10p tour as well. He arrived late today without luggage because his bags were somehow detoured to Zurich (hope they enjoyed the flight). We walked down Oxford Street a bit and then down another parallel road. Even though I have only been here a week I feel like a bit of an expert in the locating of grocery and drug stores.

Tomorrow we are supposed to go on a walking tour of the Bloomsbury neighborhood. This tour is actually one where the history of the area is discussed including info about Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury group. It should be quite interesting provided I wake in time to go. This time I really will bring my camera as well. Sunday we are taking a tour of the city by bus and will have another opportunity to take photos of the area. I will try to get a gallery up that day so that you have more than my long-winded texts to read.

Hope everyone has a great night.

~Jenn

Day 7-Seventh Heaven

21 June 2007
Ok, so I finally have some roommates!! So far I have met three of them and they all seem to be very nice, what a relief! Today when 2 of them arrived hungry and jet-lagged I gave them the 10 pence tour of the area showing them how to get to Sainsbury Central and Boots Pharmacy. We also had a nice lunch at Dionysis a Greek restaurant on the corner of Oxford Street and Trottingham Court Road. It is an excellent place to get a tasty meal. Small tip for Greek Food in London, Donor Burger=Gyro. They give really generous portions and the price is not that bad. For lunch today I had a cheese and onion pie and chips which was also really great. After lunch I walked one of my roommates up to Marks & Spencer (M&S) which is a relatively inexpensive place to pick up some housewares that also has a Food Hall (grocery store) downstairs in the basement. If I had to compare it to an American store I would say it's like a Super Target only with a black and green color scheme.

After the shopping excursion it was time to go to work. Work was pretty cool today. At 4:00 we had an orientation session for all the new students which included an assortment of English candies (Cadburys and Marshmello Fluff) and Subway sandwiches. All the professors gave a brief synopsis of their courses and I was jealous that I will not be able to attend any of the classes myself. One of the classes being taught to International Affairs majors is taught by Sandy D'Alemberte who was previously the president of FSU and many other organizations. I helped him configure the wireless on his Mac Book Pro and I feel a little bit like I met a celebrity. :-)

Well, it's getting close to the time for me to get off from work so I will close this blog for now. If anything interesting occurs before tomorrow I'll be sure to update it later.

Added update: Do the British make great looking cakes or what? Cakes

Have a great evening!

~Jenn

Day 6-Sixth Day

20 June 2007
Today I didn't really do anything special at all. The only reason that I am writing this blog is for the sake of daily consistency. I woke up, did laundry, baked a meat pie and came to work. I am here now for the next 3 and a half hours. It's really nice and quiet luckily, being a library, there is no shortage of things to read around the office which is a tremendous plus.

Let's see..things that struck me today. Ah, if you are ever in England - learn the expression "Mind the Gap". It is used quite frequently on the underground referring to the gap between the train and the platform. It's a classic phrase around here.

Another sort of interesting thing on the tele is a show called "Loose Women". It's really funny. I comes on about noontime on ITV4 and is sort of the British version of "The View" only a bit raunchy. I doubt I would find the American show talking in some of the crude suggestive ways that these ladies do. Particularly on an afternoon show on a public TV channel, not cable :-)

So, that's all I can think of for now. I might come back sometime over the next couple hours and append to this message.

If not, I hope that everyone has a great day.

~Jenn

Day 6-Ideas??

20 June 2007
I will have a 3 day weekend next week and want to venture out of the city. Anyone have any ideas where I might go? Of course I can see more UK or perhaps Europe?

I am open to ideas...so if you have one do please share!

~Jenn

Day 5-A Morbid but Effective PSA

19 June 2007
I saw this PSA on BBC1 tonight and thought it was pretty harsh..but it definitely had an impact.

Day 5-Day Five Is It?

19 June 2007



I think it's Day 5, starting to lose count here. I am at work right now, watching an empty library and computer lab. It's really nice and peaceful here. I will try my best to remain conscious during the next two and a half hours. This is going to be absolutely wonderful when it comes to the Fall term where I will be taking 12 hours of courses, lots of time to study.

Today took me slightly further from the center of London then I have been so far. I went to the BUNAC office for my orientation. The office is located about a mile away in an area of London with slightly less congested streets and less foot traffic as well. Luckily today was completely rain free. Although there has been rain every other day I have been here the showers have never hung around for very long and by afternoon the skies have been rather sunny.



Before the orientation we stopped in " Studio Coffee Bar" about 4 doors down. I ordered a bagel and tea and the bill came to £2.2. I asked if there was a service kitty and they said yes so I gave them the £.8 and they tried to talk me into keeping it, saying that was too big a tip for such a small order. After trying to return the tip twice they graciously accepted it. This sort of amazes me because back home I would probably be thought of as giving too small a tip? I would never be asked to take it back because it was too much..that's for sure. And in a city as expensive as London that just blows my mind. All the same, next time I go to BUNAC I will definitely go to the Coffee Bar again. There was something slightly different about the taste of the cream cheese over here and I think the difference was definitely for the better.

The BUNAC orientation was interesting, for the most part we just discussed how to file our taxes and where to hang out and party with the other BUNAC participants. In addition we watched some sales pitches for a company called Haggis which has really roudy tours of Scotland. The group was mostly US Students however there were a couple of Canadians there as well. So far working in England is not half bad!

After BUNAC stopped into EVEs Sandwich Bar and got a Take Away Lasagne (Lasagne here is very different then from back home. They don't use any cheese per se. Instead there is a white cream on top. In addition there is very little tomato paste in the sauce so..when it all comes together it taste more like soft beefy noodles really...not bad, just different), came back to my flat ate quickly and then came to work.

Here's a photo of Eves:




So that's pretty much been my day. I get off work at 10pm all week and afterwards will run to find something to eat. Tonight will be another night enjoying one of the five channels we receive in my flat. Surprisingly enough the shows aren't that bad.

Have a great night!

Quick Update (20:12 -- It is now raining. So what I said previously about a day without rain is now rendered untrue).

~Jenn

Day 4-Getting Adjusted to the Brit Way

18 June 2007
Say What?

I really enjoy hearing the different way people say things over here. I saw this one on TV today while I was writing this blog and thought I would share it.

In a school:
Lunch Lady = Dinner Lady

I just never thought of that time of day as dinner.

Today was my first day at work. It is really laid back. My boss Nadeem and the Head Librarian David are both very nice. I got my schedule and just about every other weekend I have a 3 day weekend -- woo hoo. Very Cool.

I went back to Oxford street on my trek for a box to put my toiletries in...Today Success! Of all places I found my box in a stationairy store. I have been in all sorts of department stores and such but hadn't had any luck but today I finally found it. (Incidentally they were in the very back corner of the store so it was completely luck...I am a person who loves to shop but with all the stores I admit it is just too tiring to go into every one).

One nice thing about 99.9% of items sold in the UK is that they are quoted with taxes already included in the price. If it wasn't for the fact that VAT (the name of the tax) was 17.5% things here would almost be reasonable despite the weak dollar.

I have been told that if I will just go to Zone 2 or 3 that I will save a lot of money...that central London is just pricey..no way around it.

Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera out again today. Sorry Guys. Tomorrow I am potentially taking my first ride on the bus or tube to the BUNAC (the organisation that sponsors my work visa) with my roommate to orientation. It is only about a mile away so I am considering walking to save pounds and possibly shed some too!

Perhaps I'll have the camera with me then.

Until tomorrow...Have a great today!

~Jenn

Day 3-Getting the Hang of Things...

17 June 2007
Today was a better day. My roommate Colleen arrived this morning and I finally had someone to chat with that I didn't have to pay 5p/min. to do so. How cool is that? Very.

This morning Colleen and I went out to grab some lunch and some groceries. We ate at a little stall called Pret A Manger. Those places are everywhere around here. Basically it's just a sandwich shoppe sort of like Panara Bread or something but the sandwiches are already made and in a deli case. These Brits sure do like fish sandwiches. They had Crawfish & Rockets (what are rockets?? later edit: shrimp), Salmon and Tuna sandwiches as well as some salad spread type sandwiches. I once again opted for the familiar and had a Tuna Fish.

After lunch we stopped in Boots (the chemist/pharmacy) and I got some tweezers -- finally. My eyebrows were starting to look like little furry critters. Then we went to Tesco Metro which is another grocery store with a larger selection and lower prices than Sainsbury Central. Oddly enough everything I purchased (less one item..I forget what) cost less than £1 which is very cool, my total basket was only £6.

After the grocery I went out exploring on my own. Today I walked down Oxford Street to Selfridges & Co. Department Store. Now, I have been told that this store pales in comparison to Harrods, but let me tell you...it is one cool store. I have never been to a department store quite this nice or chic. Even though I didn't buy anything just walking around and looking at all of the options was very cool. The store itself has a Roman design with columns going around the entire building. It is 6 stories tall. I mainly went there to look for something in the Bed & Bath Department but I couldn't help looking into the Foodhalls which I had seen on the Travel Channel. They were really neat! It seemed like they had everything there. One of the deli cases had olives in it and there were literally 50 different types of fresh olives to choose from. In the butchery there were so many different cuts of meat I was very impressed. It is definitely a place I will bring guests if they have the time.

Aside from that, I spent some time watching television (these Brits just love gardening) and chatting with my roommate.

That's all for today. Sorry no pics. Perhaps I'll have some tomorrow which is my first day of work. Tuesday will be the first day I take "the tube/underground".

Maybe I'll have some pics of that too.

Have a great day!

~J

Day 2-Recovering from Jet Lag

16 June 2007
It is now the end of Day 2 of my London Experience. I just heard a loud "Woah" in a heavy British Accent, I am listening and trying to hold back my giggles because I just realized it is the garbage collectors who are down stairs working on that mountain of garbage left by the previous residents. It's pretty funny to hear to say the least.

Today I did a little more exploring of the area around my flat. First I went to the British Museum and took some random pictures of the curiosities. I posted them in a blog below this one. I noticed that people really have a fascination with death. Of all the fantastic exhibits in the museum the largest gatherings were always around mummies or skeletons or tombs. I am not sure whether it's comical or creepy really. I am not to be excluded from that lot, as you can see from the pictures I took many of mummies, canopic jars and mummified animals. I opted not to take pictures of the skeletons because I thought it might be in poor taste :-)

After the museum, I stopped into a little shoppe and purchased some post cards and then made my way to Oxford Street...shopping capital of London. I only walked through a short stretch of Oxford street stopping by stores that mainly sold musical instruments and books. Further down the street and closer to my flat there is an area called Trottingham Court which has a grocer, a couple of fast food outlets and several electronics retailers.

Still feeling a little out of place I opted to eat at another American restaurant tonight (Yesterday it was Burger King), Pizza Hut. Surprisingly enough, I thought that Pizza Hut was somewhat of a bargain. They have meals on their menu, a meal for one being $12.00us, which included potato wedges with dipping sauces (sour cream and chives and bbq), a small amount of random lettuce (salad?), an 8" pepperoni & pineapple pizza (which quite frankly does not taste anything like the US version) and a dessert of Strawberry Ice Cream cake. The cake was pretty interesting. It reminded me of those Good Humor Strawberry Shortcake Bars and it had raspberry sauce on top. In addition I had two bottles of "still" water (this is how they describe non-sparkling water or what we consider regular bottled water) which had a funny little message from the Scottish Castle that it is bottled at on the back. I wish that I had kept it because all this stuff is still so cool and foreign to me. However I am sure that this will probably wear off soon and I really don't have the space for all the excess stuff anyways.

So, for now I guess I will end this post. I am really having issues with adjusting to the time difference. It is now 1:51am but to my body it is only 8:51pm. With luck things will begin adjusting soon.

Hope all is well and to hear from you guys soon!

Have a great day!

~Jenn

Day 2Pictures from the British Museum

16 June 2007
Click the image below to open the gallery of pictures from the

Day 1-I made it to England...and this is what I saw...

15 June 2007


This is a photo of the street view of the Study Centre. The main entrance is located at #99 however there are actually 5 or 6 doors that enter the building.




This is a picture of my room. This is after a post-flight nap.




This is a picture of our living room. There are three sofas, 2 small tables and a 13 inch television that gets an impressive 5 channels. I have already learned that the British have seem to have an large interest in the Big Brother show because every time I turn on the tv they are either talking about it or showing an episode. The BBC One channel does a lot of documentary type programming. It's pretty much like Saturday Afternoon PBS from back home.



This is the lovely view from our living room window. Note the overflowing rubbish containers. Apparently, this is not the norm but rather the result of a the mass exodus of Summer A term students leaving to go back to the states and once weekly trash pickup.



This is our small kitchen. It has 3 refrigerators, 1 freezer, a microwave oven, a regular oven and an electronic tea kettle.



This is a picture of "the loo". There is a very small sink and a toilet on one side of the hall and a small shower stall on the other side of the hall. I think the sink with a separate hot and cold water tap will take some getting used to but otherwise it should be ok...aside from wondering what it will be like with 5 people sharing it.

Another thing to note in this photo are our interesting windows. The windows do not have screens (despite the fact that there are mosquitos here and without a/c it can be hot) and they tip out. They also have their own built in shades.

Here are a few snaps from walking around yesterday afternoon.



This is a shot from outside of the British Museum. It is a very large and imposing building that has a Roman architectual influence.



This is a picture of the top of the British Museum. Here you can also see the sky as it has been intermittantly since I arrived. Today it was raining off and on all day and the wind was at times gusty enough to turn my umbrella inside out. I noticed that many people do not wear any rain gear or use an umbrella and just walk around as though it was a normal sunny day.



This is a picture of one of the famous red phone booths. They really are everywhere. They are pretty cool because many of them are equipt with phones that have keyboards incorporated into them so you can send text messages to your friend's cells.



The final picture from my first day is one of the back side of the famous Double-Decker busses. These busses are very popular around town as well as another bus which is also red and are 2 single level busses joined together with an accordion like joint.

Day 1-Update

15 June 2007
Here's a little snap of the places I went today. I found this really cool tool online that shows them. The BK in this picture is the actual one I went to and the grocery store as well as the chemist were also nearby.

http://www.streetsensation.co.uk/tottcrt/tcr_w1.htm

Day One

Wow. After all the prep and anticipation I am finally here.

It's 6:30pm and I am in my flat kicking back, relaxing and catching an episode of The Simpsons.

There is so much to describe already but my jet-lagged brain is so exhausted that I am having a hard time organising (picking up on the British spelling) my thoughts enough to adequtely caputre what I have see up to this point.

When I left the airport I took the Gatwick Express, a non-stop train, to Victoria Station. The ride to the train station was about 40 minutes long. The most noteworthy thing I saw on the ride were these areas (about the size of a football field) which appeared to be community gardens or something. There were many little plats of land which were all in various stages of gardening. It was a little different, I wish that I had a picture to show you what I mean.

After the train ride I took a short cab ride to the Study Centre in one of the famous Black Cabs. The cab driver was very sociable and was pointing out various sites such as "The Ole Girls House" (as he called it) Buckingham Palace and different theater attractions. He asked me about whether I had a chance to see the Queen when she was over in the states for the Kentucky Derby -- I told him that was pretty far away from Florida. Then he started asking me about The Hamptons since his neice was moving there and I told him it was the same situation as Kentucky -- only farther.

After I got to the Study Centre I took a nap and then went out to eat at Burger King which is on Oxford Street (a couple of blocks away). The major differences between the food here and there is that they don't put condiments on the burger and they call the condiments Sause. In addition thanks to a terrible exchange rate my burger cost me $9.00.

Afterwards I went to Stainsbury (the local grocery store) and I bought 3 items...some chocolate, a small box of cereal and a VERY small milk. Total cost: $11.00.

I am sorry that this first blog is so boring. I walked around and took some photos today but I didn't bring the right cable to upload them to my laptop so I am not able to post them here. In addition I didn't proofread this because I am too sleepy.

I promise to write something more interesting soon!

Have a great weekend!

<3

~Jenn