Eggs, Football, and Pigeons

Hello!

I'm not really sure if I have enough excitement from this weekend to fill up a whole post, but I've gotten on this "posting every three days" kick, so I figured I'd hate to break my streak... haha. 

      Friday, I only had one class, and it didn't start until three, so I had the morning free to finish up homework and what not. We slept until 10 or so, and then Olivia and I made brunch. We are perfecting the "egg-in-a-hole" recipe...Basically, you take a piece of bread, cut a circle out of the middle, and then fry the egg inside of the toast. It's really good! (Also, notice that I have been eating a lot of eggs on this trip. haha. They are cheap and easy to make.) Before class, I heard a strange noise outside my window. I didn't think much of until I remembered that I'm on the 14th floor...When I looked out my window I saw a protest march going on outside. There was huge group of people carrying flags and posters down the road, escorted by police cars. Im not positive what the march was for, but a few of us did some news research and have some guesses. Our class even got out 30 mins early on Friday, making for an early start to our weekend! By this time, however, it was almost five, so our tummies were rumbling again. However, Friday was my friend Anna's birthday and we were all going out to dinner later that night. Olivia and I stopped by a pizza place on the way home for something to tie us over. We decided to split a personal pizza, and it was my first "european pizza." It was pretty good, but I'm still holding out for Italy's... Also, on Friday, when we did go out, I had my first meat pie!! It was delicious, and I'm now an official fan. Later that night, my friend Hope came to my room and we chatted and surfed the internet until it was time for bed. OH! A few of us also bought tickets to another show! WOO! (also, sorry this whole day revolves around food...)

     Saturday morning, our whole class got to go to a football match! (football, as in soccer). I really didn't know what to expect of the game....especially because it was so cold. But I layered and layered, and then when I got there, I was so into the game that I forgot about the weather! The game was just so exciting! I'd never been to a professional soccer game before, but it is so fast pace and intense! At 58 seconds until halftime, Olivia and I decided to beat the rush and go on to the bathroom and grab Hot chocolate to warm us up. Of course, in those 58 seconds, the one and only goal of the game was scored...it was so ridiculous, we just laughed. The final score was 1-0, Fulham. They were the ones we liked the best anyways, so we were happy to celebrate their victory...even if we missed their goal....haha. We all went back to our apartments (after a very round about route on a bus) and had some left overs for dinner. Then my friend Mary and I hung out and finished most of our homework for the weekend. 

       Today is Sunday which means one thing...Hillsong! We meant some great people while we were there who invited us to go out to lunch with them. Apparently this is a thing that the people we met do every Sunday, so hopefully it will become a habit for us to. We went to this restaurant around the corner and filled up the entire second floor. My table had me, Olivia, Hope, Monica, and Connor (all centre students), two ghanians, a singaporean, a german, a scottish guy, and a polish guy. Only one person at our table was actually born in England. I just thought that that was so cool! It reflected the diversity of the city and validated that London truly is a global hub. What a cool experience! This evening Mary and I headed to Notting Hill for a meeting with our government professor. He had to meet with each group to give us information on our first project. We were each assigned two constituencies and we have to visit and research each of them, and then analyze their voting patterns. One of our constituencies is a very wealth part of London, while the other is very poor. I think it will be interesting to compare to two starkly different regions. Plus, he had a cool apartment with a funky lime green rug (which was kinda bizarre?) and a very very sweet puppy. 

Now Olivia and I are trying to learn Italian (and also Luxembourgish?) on YouTube...hey, why not?

Things I've Learned:

1. I do not like pigeons. They are fearless birds who land on soccer fields, fly into Tube trains, and scare me everyday...haha. I am attempting to make peace...I'll keep you posted on the development of our relationship...

2. If you leave something plugged into the kitchen outlets for too long, you're converter will pop and no longer work...whoops.

3. British Students go to college virtually free

4. The Circle Line is not a reliable form of transportation of the weekends

5. This summer, I will be an RA at Governor's Scholars Program!

Love from London,

Deanna

(also, sorry there are no pictures...I only took a few this weekend, but they are still on my camera. I will put them up soon!)

Thinking Outside the Academic Box

Hello blog readers (whoever you are...)!

Its Thursday evening here, but lets trace back to Tuesday to keep you up to date on my daily adventures (: 

Chinatown! 

      Tuesday I had my government class (which is on the other side of London) at 9am. That meant I had to leave my apartment around 8:15 and battle morning rush hour on the tube. The professor for this class is not a Centre professor, but rather a British politician who has volunteered to teach us. However, instead of him coming to us, all thirty or so of us have to go to him... but thats okay. We all got there okay. A two hour summary of the last 60 years of British politics and 5 or 6 pages of rushed notes later, we wrapped everything up and headed all the way back... I came back to the room just in time to see Olivia off to her Shakespeare class. I had about two hours to kill before my next class so I scrambled an egg and took a nap! My next class was definitely not what I was expecting though. Here, "class" doesn't always mean your typical college class: four walls, desks, lectures, and notes. Here, we have a lot more liberty. For my class, we spent two hours walking around London, philosophizing about Kant's view of truth, beauty, and aesthetics. Then we strolled on down to the poet John Keat's house and read some of his poetry in his front yard. No big deal.... It was just a simple reminder of the fact that I am living in a hub of culture, literature, and history and how very exciting that is! Olivia and I hated to head back to our apartment after such an exciting afternoon, so we headed to SOHO for some wings. Yes, wings. I realize that this is not the most English of meals, but we had been craving them...so, yeah...haha. It ended up being an awesome evening. Little did we know that Leicester Square and Chinatown were all within a few streets of each other. As we walked around we kept stumbling on these major London attractions! Plus, we found the largest candy store I have ever seen...four stories of JUST MnMs. It verged on ridiculous, haha. Chinatown was very different than what I pictured. The only thing I had to compare it to was the one in NYC, but this one is very much less market orientated, and is instead very focused on food. Plus, it was decorated with beautiful strands of lit paper lanterns that hug up and down all the streets. This was also the location of my very first London souvenir! What, you may ask, did I choose for this monumental purchase? A scarf, of course. Olivia and I found these beautiful Chinese scarves for quite cheap, so i picked out a blue and silver one with a peacock :) Perhaps it will show up in later pictures... After we got home I caught up on this week's episode of The Bachelor and then watched A King's Speech with a few friends. It was such a great movie! It dealt with a part of history that we have been talking about a lot in my WW2 class, plus it was shot in London so I had fun trying to identify landmarks. I recommend this movie!!

John Keat's house.

At the heath, after all that
philosophy.

Learning on the
 move!

     Wednesdays we don't have class! Yay! Instead, we get to spend the whole day on excursions and explorations! We all went to the Museum of London with our professors. It was so cool! It covered everything from the Roman Roads, to the Black Plague, to the Great Fire. We left with heavy hearts in remembrance of those killed in the recent Tube system terrorist attacks. Olivia and I made our way to the grocery store to pick up a few things that we still needed for dinner that night. It was our turn to cook for the cooking group, so we need enough food for nine hungry people. We timed it just right though, and everyone seemed to enjoy it. Then it was a rush to clean up as much as we can, make ourselves look presentable, and head to our first play of many! We saw "Our Country's Good" at the St. James theatre, which is suprisingly difficult to find. A group of us knew what tube stop to get off at, and hoped it would be obvious from there. That, unfortunately, was not the case. However, after wandering and getting lost together, we decided to just make things easier and catch a taxi. It ended up being really exciting, cause it was my first taxi! That was our silver lining! Plus, when we got to the show, it was SO GOOD. I had no expectations going in, simply because I had never heard of it. It was the story of criminal immigrants to Australia and a Lieutenant who cast them in a play rather than hanging them, as instructed. It was so funny, and yet heart wrenching at times. The best part is that this is the show selected for Centre Players in the upcoming fall! Looks like we will be spending a lot more time with it.

Our attempt to translate how cold we
were. haha.

      Today I had another "adventure class." Instead of sitting and learning about British Theatre, we went out and embraced it. We toured the globe, saw some beautiful churches, and stood on the land where important things once stood....(we just had to use our imagination). The only problem was that it was below freezing... which tends to put a damper on a four hour adventure. We were all wrapping our scarves around our faces and craving soup! Luckily, we found a coffee shop and I warmed up with some hot chocolate! Plus, my rosy cheeks faded and my ears thawed, so no harm. haha. It was a lot of fun. Plus, our professors surprised us with tickets to see The Tempest in April AT the Globe. I kept the theatre momentum rolling by booking tickets to see The Lion King with my parents.

     Now I'm singing country music loudly in my room in memory of home with my homework sitting beside me. I should probably get on that...but not without my list....!

The Globe!
CTPOD

New things that I have learned!
1. How to make a vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, and lactose-free dinner that is actually pretty good.
2. If you do not charge your camera, you will not have pictures to put in your blog... (thanks to Olivia for letting me use some of hers! haha)
3. HOW TO CONTROL THE TEMPERATURE ON THE SHOWER
4. All those creative strategies that Pinterest has for curling your hair are difficult
5. Where to buy really cool postcards (hint, hint)
6. There are a lot of really awesome people on my trip with me.

Love from London,
Deanna

Markets, Worship, and Train Stations

The Market at Covent Garden

    Here in London, things are starting to fall into a routine. We know where all the closest grocery stores are, we have our regular waitress at our regular pub, and we are starting to explore past the few streets that surround our apartment. Saturday, we all slept fairly late. How late? Thats not really important... We decided to take a subway to Covent Garden, which I honestly knew very little about. When we got there, It was a bustling hub of shopping, markets, and street performers. My favorite part was probably the market. They had lots of handmade jewelry, art, and spunky clothes. Oh! and a very cute candy shop :) I bought a water bottle there and the guy charged me "a pound and a smile." I thought that was cute!

     Sunday was one of my favorite days since I have been here. Imagine a full size, epic music hall. Now fill it up with people from all over the world. Now imagine all of those people lifting their hands and singing worship music. It was such an awesome experience. It was at Hillsong Church, a global church that began in Australia. I guess because London already has so many buildings, its hard to find a place to build a new one. Therefore, lots of the buildings have to be repurposed. Because theatres are closed on Sundays, they become great places to hold church. While we were there, we found out that the worship band was going to be recording some of their songs for an album that night, and they wanted a live audience. Well we were all over that, and so we came back that night and it was an awesome service. There was a line all the way around the block to get in. A line to get into church! How cool?? Check it out here: Hillsong Worship

My Panini!

     After church I went to this little panini shop with some friends and quizzed myself on all the British coins. I am really trying to get them down... its quite embarrassing to be paying for something and to have to pull coins out of your wallet individually and read them because you don't know what they are. Also...speaking of embarrassing.... In London, you can buy these things called Oyster cards. They basically hold money on them for you to use for public transportation. Instead of having to buy a ticket for every tube ride, or get out the change every time you take the bus, you just swipe your Oyster card and it is deducted from your balance. You can add more money at any local convince store. Super easy, super useful. Also, the place that we are leaving is fairly high security, and we have a card that swipes us into the building, the kitchens, the gym, the rooms, etc. Anyways, we had to take the bus to get to church. So, like always, I got out my card to swipe onto the bus. So here I was, standing at the very front swiping away. But the machine kept flashing red and beeping at me. So I tried again and again, and finally the driver got annoyed and just started driving, so now I'm swiping away on a moving bus, in front of lots of people and still getting beeped out. Finally, I decided to just pay for it so I started digging for change (mind you, I don't know what any of the coins mean), but it was really loud and I couldn't figure out how much the driver was telling me to pay, so I kept giving her the wrong amount. FINALLY, I gave her what she needed, and made it to my seat. By this time, I was embarrassed, frazzled, and concerned that my card had somehow messed up. Then it dawned on me...I was trying to get on this bus with my apartment card, not my Oyster card. See? Embarrassing.

       Today was our first day of normal classes. But by lunch we were done, and by that point I was free to go to Pret A Manger (their version of Starbucks) to grab a sandwhich with some friends, and then we explored the ends and outs of St. Pancras Train Station, going through a bookstore and a stationary store. Also, there is this clothes store that my friend Krissy and I found that we are in love with, yet unfortunately it is far out of our price range. For now we will be admiring from afar... Olivia and I just got back from grocery shopping to get our things for the coming week, plus these fun reusable bags that have peacocks on them! We have joined a cooking group with seven or so other people. We will each take turns cooking so that 1) we all can avoid eating out every night, and 2) we can avoid having to cook every night of the week. This way, we take turns cooking for everyone! Our first night to cook is Wednesday, so we got the ingredients for a mexican recipe.

And now, for what I am sure you all have anxiously awaited.... (drumroll please)... New things that I've learned!

CTPOD
(classic tourist photo of the day!)

1.) If you look hard enough, you can find tickets to a show at the National Theatre for 15 pounds! Olivia and I got what our professor called "a steal!" Woot woot!
2.) You are expected to bag your own groceries at the store.
3.) I really really like Digestive Biscuits. (Aren't actually biscuits, or good for your digestive system. In reality, they are like graham crackers dipped in chocolate and they eat them with tea)
4.) Big Ben is actually not all that big. More like Average Ben.                                                                

Something that I still have yet to learn...
1.) How to control the temperature on the shower. Hopefully I'll figure it out soon, haha.

Love from London,
Deanna

Nice to meet ya, London.

Greetings All!

Ready to Fly....

Fish and Chips at O'Neils

      I made it to London safe and sound. All my flight/customs went smoothly and I arrived at my apartment at about 1pm Wednesday (8am Kentucky time). My roommate and I (Olivia) spent an hour or so unpacking, and then we had Orientation with our 2 professors and the other 30 or so students. Through this Orientation, we traveled through the streets of London to our classrooms and the grocery store, and then we ventured under the streets to the Embankment via the Tube (the London subway). The Embankment was very cool, as it allowed us to see the Thames River and the sky line all lit up. From there however, out professors turned us loose and let us find out own way home. Definitely a learning experience. We found our way back and stumbled upon a lovely Pub. We had a wonderful waitress who thought we were so funny, and too sweet to understand her harsh but loving British sarcasm. There I had my first London meal and the first thing that I had eaten all day: Fish and Chips. Appropriate enough, I thought. Afterwards, we all went back to our apartment building and crashed in attempt to make up for our jet lag. I slept like a rock.

On the boat passing under
the Tower Bridge

      The next day (Thursday), we met back at the embankment and boarded a ferry to Greenwich. Along the way, we saw iconic sites like Big Ben, The Globe Theatre, and London Tower. It started raining too, but so far, thats been the only time we've had rain. It is usually just cloudy... But after the rain stopped and we had make our way down the river we made it to Greenwich! I must say, it was much more my style than the hustling, bustling City of London. There, we climbed aboard Cutty Sark (a ship used by the East Indian Trading Company), ate at another pub (I ordered a cheeseburger....), Straddled the Prime Meridian, visited an Art Museum, and went to a different pub for dinner. We stayed in Greenwich until 8 or so, and then walked through a tunnel under the Thames River and got on the tube on the other side. That night, however, we could not retreat to our beds like we would have liked...instead we had to be practical and go grocery shopping. Surprisingly, the grocery was very similar to like a Save-A-Lot and was very easy to navigate....Plus a lot more Indian food and alcohol. I got some breakfast food, some chocolate, and rice. Balanced diet, right? Eventually, we made our way home and in honor of Valentines Day, I got to Skype my boy and my folks :) It made for a quite a good ending day to a wonderful day.

The view from the Royal Observatory

The Royal Naval Academy (recognize this from any movies?)

Just a classic looking street.

      Today (Friday) began reality. Or at least, as close as you can get to reality when living in London. Classes. We met at our classrooms (which are about a 25 minute walk away) at 9am. Today was a kind of Orientation Day for all our classes, so we were there until about 4. In the middle, however, we had a decent sized break for lunch. A few of us found a street vendor selling Curry (which was wonderful!). We took it back to the park by our classroom and just sat on a bench, watching the people, and eating our curry. I'm not gonna lie...we felt pretty cool. Then my friend Mary and I wandered around looking for a phone store. After asking people at a shopping mall, the post office, and a sidewalk vendor, we finally found it and both got pay-as-you-go phones so that we can keep in contact with people in the UK while we are here. Then, back to class. I really think I am going to like all my classes though... A British Theatre class, British WW2 History, British Politics, and a Philosophy class. After class, we ventured to the British Museum for about an hour. I could probably spend several days going through it's endless rooms. In London, all of the museums are free, so luckily I can go back whenever I want! Then, our tummies began to grumble and we hit up another pub (detecting a pattern?). I had always heard that pubs weren't worth eating at because the food wasn't good. Perhaps we have just been lucky, but I haven't had anything bad yet. Wait scratch that. The carrots are gross. Bleh.

Now it is 8:30pm and I am in for the night. It might be kinda lame to sit in my room and watch a movie on my first Friday night in London, but hey, I need to catch up on my sleep! While writing this, however, I have been able to reflect back over my last few days and compile of list of things that I have learned in my first three days....

1. Everyone here is attractive. It doesn't matter age, race, gender.
2. A lot of people smoke.
3. People are generally quieter.
4. Pistachios are not salted.
5. People walk fast.
6. Machines are ironically quite slow.
7. Drivers are very aggressive.
8. "Cheers" can be used for both "Thank you" and "You're Welcome"
9. The tube system is not all that difficult.
10. Water fountains are not a thing.

I am sure that I will be learning more and more everyday, but for now, I am having fun just exploring! I'll try to post fairly regularly and keep everyone up to date.

Love from London,
Deanna