Hello Loved Ones!

Today is officially my eighth day in London. I’ll try to remember as much as I can from the past week and tell you about all my adventures. First off: a few lists!

Twelve things thought during the plane ride to London:

1. This plane ride will never end. I will die here in this seat at the age of 99 with a pair of headphones that I am sure will end up on a bill somewhere.

2. Gosh this woman next to me will not stop talking. I feel like I’m with Christina.

3. Oooh we have touch-screen monitors. That’s fantastic! I can turn on my overhead light without getting up. Must restrain the impulse to keep turning the light on and off during the flight.

4. Why is everyone around me playing Bejeweled? (a game available on the monitor that’s basically a puzzle-thing made up of jewels) What a ridiculous game, I’m going to sleep.

5. Can’t sleep.

6. Hmmm. Bejeweled isn’t so bad. It’s got pretty colors.

7. Darn it. The elderly woman across the aisle from me has tripled my Bejeweled score.

8. I hate Bejeweled.

9. I wish Chunky were here.

10. Oh thank God; we’re landing and I can get away from the talkative woman and get coffee.
11. Do they even sell coffee in London?
12. I hope the baristas have accents.

After waiting three hours for the bus with Henry (another student on the trip), we make it to our apartment. There are six of us to a flat that has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, and a living area. There are I think 19 students in total plus three professors from VT (Jane W, Jane S, and Peter). The boys are all in one flat (there’s only six boys on the trip) and the girls are split up into the two flats. The professors have their own flats, naturally.

I love my flat! I’m in a room with Amanda and Sarah, two great girls who love Harry Potter and also Chunky. Chunky has become quite popular already. I’ve often walked into the living area to see one of my flatmates curled up with a cup of tea and a book with Chunky in their lap.

There’s also another Sarah, Tahn (rhymes with Sean), and Jennie (one of the other interns).

As great as my flatmates are, I must tell you about the evil washing machine. It claims to be able to dry clothes as well. Lies! There’s a setting for “cotton dry.” Well that looks perfect for me, I thought to myself the other night. I set the timer for 40 minutes and when I got back I realized that the innocuous and misleading label “cotton dry” was actually synonymous with “boil clothes until all the hot water in the flat has been used up, amateur.” Meep. Luckily my flatmates were understanding and the hot water came back on in the afternoon. But my poor clothes! I keep apologizing to them. Imagine expecting to get a gentle tumble dry and instead be boiled alive :/

In other news, the food here is quite interesting. The nutrition labels have the calories in kcals and kjoules. The former is basically the calories but I have no idea what kila joules are. I’m sure if I paid attention in Chemistry I would know; alas, I am an English major and did not. Anyway the kjoules are always a much higher number than the kilacalories. I drank a powerade zero at the airport and was looking in interest at the label only to almost drop it in shock.

Henry: What’s wrong?

Me: It says here I just drank 1200 kilajoules!

Henry: Huh. I guess you could always run to the apartments.

I’m been trying to branch out and eat new food. On our first night here (I had been up almost two days at this point) we went out to dinner where we all gorged ourselves just to make sure we didn’t fall asleep at the table and knock over the water glasses (and royally embarrass the Janes). I had this steak and mushroom thing that arrived in a toasted bread thing that obviously I can not explain articulately. Fish and chips is a big thing here, and I had a bite of Jennie’s fish and chips yesterday. It was okay, but I stuck with my spicy veggie burger. There’s this great little sweet shop that sells all these really British treats. I got Knicker Boxers, which were marshmallows shaped like ice cream cones and also this toffee thing that was meant to be a gift for Greg but my flatmates and I have already eaten half of it. Whoops. Never buy a food gift five weeks in advance.

I love how I’ve been in London a week and the first things I mention are the washing machine and food. On to the tours and sites and culture!

So I got here at 6am last Sunday, got to the flat around 1pm, unpacked and greeted everyone, fell asleep on the couch on my stomach with Chunky as a pillow for an hour, and then took the tube for dinner. Quite an experience. The tube is the subway, and the British announcer is always telling you to “MIND THE GAP” when getting on and off the tube. Three of our classmates from VT bought T-shirts that say MIND THE GAP with the tube symbol in the background. I really, really want one.

So after dinner, we all went back and fell into a dead sleep. The Janes had plans for us in the morning to get groceries and everything but we just slept in. Oh how reliable college students are. Then we had a 2pm walking tour of central London, which started at The Monument, which is a monument to the Great Fire of Britain. It started because some baker forgot to turn off his ovens and he happened to live next door to a guy (“bloke”) who stored gunpowder. Whoops. Our tour guide was excellent, and he actually wrote a book, which a few of us (including myself) bought for 10 pounds. Although he was wrong about one thing. He took us down a street and told us it was Diagon Alley. BUT IT WASN’T. It was used for come close ups of Ollivander’s wand shop but not for the wide shots. I thought it wasn’t right because when I looked down it I thought the shops curved at a different angle from the Diagon Alley in the movie. I feel lied to :(

That night, a few of the girls went out to a club, but that’s not really my scene. Jennie, Amanda and Sarah stayed back too, so we went to Tesco (local supermarket), bought some food and wine and made a very Italian dinner complete with pasta, garlic bread, and a much-used container of balsamic vinegar. So proud, so proud.

We had an orientation class the next day, which involved warning us against everything from pick pocketing to terrorist attacks.

“Well the terrorist threat is SEVERE… anyone know what that means? It means that the possibility of a terrorist attack if HIGHLY LIKELY… [pause while we all stare at him wide-eyed] But it really shouldn’t affect your stay in London all that much. And really, what can you do about a terrorist attack? [another pause while we all exchange raised-eyebrow glances with each other] Nothing, exactly! So… on to something you can prevent: pickpocketing! [Me, to Sara next to me: “didn’t he start out by saying how safe London is?”]

But I haven’t had any problems with safety or anything like that, so no one worry! The worst experience I had was with that washing machine.

After class, we saw a play called The Cherry Orchard. So depressing, but what else did I expect from a Russian play by Chekhov? Luckily there was ice cream at intermission.

That was Tuesday. Wednesday was the result of the Janes trying to stuff as much walking into a day as physically possible: Wake up at eight, downstairs before nine, bus (“coach”) tour for three hours (read: scrunch up into a comfortable position and let the tour guide’s English accent lull me to sleep for an hour or so). I did have to wake up for bit to see Buckingham Palace, which was AWESOME. The Queen was having a garden party so we saw shiny cars pull up and women with extravagant hats get out.

Jennie: I want to go!

Me: I’m sure our invitations just got lost in the mail.

Jennie: I just want to touch their hats. Can you imagine the material?

Me: You are such a Theater major.

After the coach tour, we stopped for lunch at St Paul’s, followed by a tour of St Paul’s, which was just amazing. Except the catacombs; there was just no way you couldn’t walk over the graves and that was slightly creepy. Everyone was shifting and shuffling around, trying not to step on anyone too important.

So after walking around St Paul’s for two hours, we went straight to Parliament. The Janes were so excited about it! And we were grumbling the whole time. Because we can’t sit in Parliament since we’re not Lords or Commons or whatever, so they showed us around the whole place, had us stand next to the benches we couldn’t sit on, and talked endlessly about government.

No time to rest after that, because we had a play at The Globe: All’s Well That Ends Well. Great play, and we all loved it. But we had to stand. On concrete. For three hours. I kept going outside to sit on the benches, apologize to my poor feet, and wonder if they were going to just detach themselves from my legs and walk/limp haughtily away.

On the way back to the tube, everyone was gushing about the play and we ended up discussing the versatility of Shakespeare versus the inflexibility of Chekovian tragedy. I love being around English majors.

British Museum tour the next morning. Agony. My feet still hurt from the day before and looking at mummified corpses just before lunchtime didn’t help.

Tour guide: “And this one here is called Ginger. Anyone know why? Yes, his hair! Still preserved after all these years. So let’s discuss why his skin hasn’t decomposed yet. Any ideas?”

Also, our tour guide made some mistakes. While looking a the Greek Freezes, I read the caption below that mentioned how the victims were being led to be sacrificed, which explained all the bulls.

“So the bulls were sacrificed?” I asked

“What?”

“The bulls.” I pointed to the sign. “It calls them victims.”

“Oh.” She squinted at the writing. “Hmm… yes, I suppose they were.”

Jennie: [to me] “She got the sun-god wrong too. It was Apollo, not Helios. He just drove the chariot.”

We gave our feet a break after the tour, and got this amazing chicken hummus with pita bread and sat outside for a few hours before class. What a great time. Just chatting and eating and shooing away hopeful-looking pigeons. Since it was our first free night, you would think we’d all dress up and go out. But we all fell asleep- crashed- more like, and I actually fell asleep on the couch with Chunky again and Jennie had to drag me to my bed at around midnight.

Friday: Sara, Amanda and I went on a mission to find the REAL Diagon Alley. Well, we didn’t. We did find a great bookstore though, and we each bought a large stack of books. We were like kids in a candy store, giddy and running around because we were surrounded by books and to an English major that’s the best place to be. Speaking of candy stores, there was one on that street! And a Costa (their version of Starbucks). Hands down my favorite place in London so far. Friday night, Sara and Amanda and I went to this Armenian place near our flat and had tea and this spicy pita thing that was amazing but I can’t pronounce or spell the name. It was very authentically foreign, not touristy at all and a lot of fun.

Slept in on Saturday (thank God) and got dinner with Sarah, Amanda, and Jennie at his pub place near the theater we were going to that night. The play was AMAZING BEYOND BELIEF, and not just because of the ice cream at intermission, although that was great too. The play was Much Ado About Nothing, and it wasn’t a play that everyone had to go to; we bought the tickets ourselves and just went as a small group. It starred David Tennant and Catherine Tate and we had to stand the whole time but I didn’t even care. It was SO FUNNY. I was laughing so hard I was doubled over at some points, and I completely forgot I was even standing. Tennant is basically a Scottish Jim Carrey and Tate was just as hilarious. They got a standing ovation at the end and we plan on the seeing the play again before we leave. Afterward, we even got to see them in person, as they went outside to sign autographs, and we got to spot the other actors quickly slipping out a side door as well. It was surreal seeing them all up-close after seeing them perform on a famous stage.

It’s surreal being here in general. This past week has flown by, yet I feel as if I’ve been here quite a long time. I’m having such a great time and am loving this London life, so to speak. I’ll update sometime in the next week. I start my internship at a local primary (elementary) school on Tuesday, so I’m sure I’ll have lots to write about. How I plan on disciplining adorable, tiny, British children in any way, I have no idea.

Love you all!

Oh, and pictures are below:

Grocery shopping for the first time. Tahn bought an adorable little container of milk.

The Monument. It's really tall.

 Sign about The Monument

The River Thames and the Tower Bridge. The ship is an old WWII ship and is now a floating museum.

 I just liked the name of the street :)

The fake Diagon Alley :(

 Statue of a horse, just because!

This is by an art gallery, and the black line is part of a large circle that used to be a gladiator area. It was pretty cool to stand in the middle of it. 

This was a picture of an overhang by a 9/11 monument to those UK citizens who died that day. 

 God being awesome during the coach tour.

Me at Buckingham Palace!

Beautiful horses driving by the bus :)

 This picture wouldn't stay rotated, oh well. Me trying to break into the Ministry of Magic (Harry Potter reference!).

 We didn't eat here but I liked the sign :)