England 002

Okay,

Update II, frankly I don’t know how many more of these I can write. I’m terrible with correspondence. This past weekend we went to York and Edinburgh.

York is fully of history and ugly people. The history is great. We walked the old city walls back from the Middle Ages, some of it on roman foundations. The city gates there are called bars and the bridges are gates. The bars are all over the city and are still used today, mostly as underpasses and thorough fairs. One of em still has its original portcullis. Um, we also saw the remains an old gothic church that had been built over and around an old Norman church and it was pretty in the sunlight. We walked the Shambles, which is the old butchery street from around Tudor times. Original buildings still stand with their cross-timbers and plaster, half of it level the other half sagging. There are meet hooks all of their front facades too. After we had a walk about we rested in a square and ate pasties and ice cream listening to a native sing gin blossoms, deep blue something, the killers, hootie, a few songs from the grey’s anatomy seasons, and some other classics like “I wanna be like you” from the jungle book. I had to give him a pound for play list and entertainment, not necessarily for talent. Later that day we took afternoon tea at Betty’s. If anyone decides to venture to York, I recommend the free city tour and Betty’s for tea. It was the best earl grey I’ve ever had, and the atmosphere is nice too.

We walked around late into the evening and noticed two things. First, everything started closing up around 6. this appalled me. Dad heartily disagreed and so I bet him all the money in his pocket that he couldn’t find a store or coffee shop open. I won a lousy 90 pence. Second thing we noticed, ugly people. It started abruptly; women in cocktail dresses and evening dresses with small feathery clumps of color in their hair stumbling down the street. It was amusing at first but then we began to wonder, where are they all coming from? They all had little pink tags pinned to their apparel and of course, in their drunken amblings, one happened to fall off. We promptly inspected it; they were coming from the derby. It took Allison and me half a second to try and connect the dots. If any of you don’t know what a derby is, it’s roughly another excuse for social elite to dress up, drink champagne, and socialize; and as with all English events, hats are required. If this is still unclear, I refer you to Krystina Kemp, she knows all about what I speak of. Horrified looks crossed our faces, morphed into confusion, offense and disgust. These women had been to the derby looking like wanna-be clubbers! Apparently the all decided to go to the tanning bed a few days earlier, buy a dress that was decidedly two sizes too small, with large print patterns, distasteful colors (ie teal, magenta, hot pink, royal purple), and plunging neck lines revealing grotesque sternums, and atop the grizzled, fried, teased, bleached hair, they all were under the misapprehension that three feathers (colors frighteningly matching their dresses) glued to a hair barrette equaled a dressy day hat! Don’t laugh boys, your kind was just as guilty as the women in this fashion magnum faux pa. The men seemed to be going clubbing too. They all wore black suites with satiny shirts and matching ties! I don’t mean, “oh that tie really compliments your outfit,” I mean “those colors are almost the same shade albeit different fabric.” But then! A few shockers! They had pure satin shirts with MATCHING ties!!! Color and all!!! And to top off their hair was gelled, I guess, tenderly into a spiky mess. This whole debacle was atrocious and appalling to the senses. We walked back to the B&B briskly with our heads down trying not to look at the drunkards around us. And they were all around us. Somehow they decided that standing out in the sun gulping Moet wasn’t enough and two or three pints at the pub would do the trick. Ya know in Gone With The Wind when Rhett blinds the horse so it wouldn’t get scared and could drive them to safety the night they burnt ol’ Dixie down? I felt like the horse. I felt like a needed to be lead blindly to safety or else catch glimpse of these club monsters and run screaming insanely into the night. We made it back in one piece, but I think the sensory damage is permanent.

Okay on to Scotland. Oh! I almost forgot. Lovely, efficient, we-are-better-than-you BritRail was working on the track this weekend so we had to jump on the train for thirty minutes, take a crowded cramped bus to Newcastle in the middle of traffic (Fulham was at Newcastle) and then hop on another train to get to Edinburgh, BUT that wasn’t enough we were two hours delayed somewhere in between because our trains engine was broken and they didn’t have enough sense to bring us another train until a hour and a half had past. Anyway, we make to Scotland and it is beautiful. I see the North Sea which is very blue and choppy. I see lots of sheep and cows living together. I saw a black sheep!! It really was! It was all black from nose to hoof and it was in the middle of a bunch of white sheep! I felt real special. Edinburgh is a very old city. It has soo much history everywhere. Maybe because they don’t want to spend the money to tear them down, or money to clean them up from the soot of the Industrial Revolution (yes, I do mean Industrial Revolution), but everything looks super old. We went to the castle and that is a really cool place. It’s on top of this volcanic hill (the whole city is on hills; tiring) and going in you are flanked by two statues Robert the Bruce and Mel Gibson. They have plaques everywhere to these two guys. Our tour guide was great. He made fun of everyone including the Scotts and was a very proud man. We saw the Stone of Destiny and was very proud that they have it back in Scotland and that it is Scottish and that people have to go get it from Scotland for every coronation of a British monarch. Monday, my English Architecture professor, who is very British, told us about the Stone of Destiny too. We were at Westminster Abbey and looking at the coronation chair and he said,

“Notice the hole beneath the seat. This is where the Stone of Destiny fits. Edward II stole it from the Scotts in 1296 (or something) and ever since, every British monarch has been coronated whilst sitting on top of it, to show their dominance over Scotland.”—by the way, Scotland was its own country for like 400 years if you remember Braveheart, and this stone was in England the entire time—“ I think the Scots tried to steal it in the ‘50’s, got it all the way to Scotland before we took it back. And then some stupid Prime Minister, really stupid guy, decided to give it back to them. I mean really stupid.”

Anyway, our Scottish tour guide failed to mention any of this. He said the monarchs used this to bind the two countries together. I mean I’ll agree with James I but before then? And come on guys, stealing it back? But really, the castle is great; you get a great view of the entire city from up there. There are so many other things we didn’t get to do. We went to St Giles just down the street. This is important for us because it’s like the head of the Presbyterian Church or something. Um, the Royal Mile was fun to walk downhill. Again lots of history. And tourists suck. They don’t look where they’re going, they don’t care who they walk in front of or whose pictures they ruin.

I think that’s about it. We had the whole working on the track thing when we came back too. My parents are gone now. I have no big trips planned, and probably some papers coming up. I’m not sour like this blog sounds, just some things annoy me ya know. But this place is still amazing and awesome and great and very walkable and everyone should find a way to get over here. Oh, and I have a new respect for the US. And everyone here was all “remember 9/11” and stuff which was new because they all hate us and Bush and Blair by association, but at least the Blair thing is making the dollar value go up.

London 001

Hey everyone,

Here goes from the UK. I’ve done so much already and I’ve only been here a few days. I’ve already browsed Trafalgar Square,Westminster, the Tower, the British Museum to name a few, and everything you can see walking between them. London is a very walkable city and so we do. Um, I wish my notes were as organized as Wes’s but my rime and reason is out the window. Okay I guess I’ll try to give you a quick run through of everything thus far: --oh, sorry, this will be very dry but hopefully just a few notes

Day 1 I arrived and learned that international travel can be a bitch getting through customs. I took the Gatwick Express into Victoria Station and got my first taste of England. It was green and cloudy and there were a lot of private gardens everywhere. It reminded me a lot of Pennsylvania sans the gardens. Anyway I got excited and stuff. Um so the cab drive was ridiculous. I learned very quickly that the pedestrian does not have the right-of-way here as my driver almost ran over several people and a biker he didn’t feel like waiting on. I give everyone who drives here props. Got to the dorm in the middle of Regent’s Park right next to the rose garden and met three ppl off the bat…2 from Philly and one from Pittsburg. I got a jolly good laugh. We set off down the road not knowing where we were headed and ended up on Oxford Street. Girls, this street is literally just miles of shopping, that’s it, shopping, very accessible, very appealing. (I’ve been there almost every day now) We got back to the college only to discover that the food really does suck.

Day 2 parents come in and I have orientation stuff, we find the location of the school pub, the one in the basement. We do more pedestrial explorations. We go to a night club, Umbaba. It’s really flash inside and there’s a dress code. Drinks cost ₤8! So I don’t drink anything. It was a lot of fun and the DJ was really effing good with fading and mixing and some other technical terms I don’t know. We ended up walking barefoot in SoHo trying to find a bus that would get us home because our RA’s got us there and left us without any idea as to how to get back. It was a hoot.

Day 3 we ducked into the Volunteer which is the local pub for a pint (my first in England) before the fam and I walked around Trafalgar Square and took a lot of pics. We saw Whitehall and the Horse Guard. Oh, I loved this. So ya know the British with their snooty “we don’t need guns b/c they’re stupid even our cops don’t use em” attitude, there was a British mp with an AK 47 just chillin at the Horse Guard, not even a very popular monument. This will most likely be my next facebook pic. Okay, so we walked to Big Ben and Westminster and then took a bus around God-knows-where London and ended up next to the Chelsea football club stadium! We walked around St. James Park and then had the best Indian food.

Day 4 was more walking around the British Museum. After 5 hours of heavy historical saturation we called it a day after only seeing 1/3 of what it had to offer. It was so freaking cool, I loved every minute of it and totally flipped when we got to the Elgin marbles (look it up). Oh yes! And the Brit Museum is right near Tottenham, which for those of you who don’t know, is my EPL team so I was extra happy about that. Okay, then we went to Hyde Park which is the most beautiful park I’ve ever been to. There are lakes and Kensington Palace and a gazebo and ducks and other water fowl and big trees and statues and beautiful weather and picture-esqueness and most importantly Peter Pan! I got to the statue of Peter Pan in Hyde Park where as hopefully some of you know, Peter spent his very early years there living with the fairies. It was a wonderful end to a long long day. Well, it turns out that around where we were was the same pub that my parents had their very first meal in England c. 35 years ago, The Swan, so we stopped in, had a pint and fish and chips and jacket potatoes (baked potatoes) and walked around the most expensive place to live in London; it didn’t look it. I went back to Regent’s just in time to see everyone going out to the Volunteer.

Day 5 marked the beginning of classes but not before a speedy run to the Tower of London in the morning. It is by far the coolest place I’ve been yet!! Sooo much history and its so old! And just—wow! Okay, for an English and history buff this was it. I saw the Water Gate, the White Tower (the building of which was overseen by a monk named Gundulf) c. 1080, the Queen’s House where prisoners stayed, the place where private beheadings took place, the chapel where everyone is buried (1500 ppl) the crowned jewels and armor, the armory, etc and three canons of Napoleon’s that were captured at Waterloo. Then I hightailed it back to school for class, missing a lot more.

I’m taking four classes: English Architecture 1066-present, Civilisation of London 1066-present, English Palaces and Country Houses, and European Renaissance art. All classes spend about 30-50% of the class time on field trips!

 It’s been weird being here. I don’t really feel like I’m in England. Ya know Monty Python? The fish dance? Well, I feel a lot like John Clease. Every once in a while I’ll get hit with a herring and I’ll feel “wow!!! I’m really freaking here!” but it’s not a permanent feeling which worries me. So I’m taking lots of pictures so I’ll be able to remind myself that I actually was here. When I get a chance to upload them next week I’ll have like 500 or so and they’ll be on my webshots site, gidget9r. Okay, well I guess to sum things up, I absolutely love it here. It’s not what I expected but it surpasses all previous theories. If anyone knows of a way I can end up living here don’t hesitate to pass that on. Everything is wonderful and I’ve got so much else to do. By the by, anyone and everyone is welcome to visit. Right, well I guess that’s it then.

Kristen

so i'm excited to see mr tumnus and aslan and edmond and turkish delight. it will be funly for sure. narnia, get in it

so i probably should have posted before this because there was plenty to post about. I learned to hate i-70 like a real coloradan, i fell in love with snowboarding and visit it frequently in my dreams, i thanked facebook for existing so the goodbyes weren't so hard, i got caught up with werder-bremen in new york, i wandered unknowingly into time square with the best company, i finally figured out what the hype around "rent" was all about, i was thankful to miss carnegie deli for a hole-in-wall-deli ruben, i still have never uttered the words "i love new york," i shed a single tear out of pure joy to see tulane friends again, i had more fun vegetating in the penthouse than planning site-seeing in the city of brotherly love, i was reminded of how much fun next fall will be, i remembered how much i love birthday cake, i arrived back in houston....with a feeling of numbness

and dickens on the strand is this weekend in galveston