Another (not so) brief update

Let me start with a brief rundown of Katie's visit. To see some pics you can check out my last post!

Saturday 3/14:
-Katie landed a little after 9:30, emerged from the airport doors around 10:30
-Bus ride back to Royal Holloway
-Brief walk about campus, visiting the Founder's Building, etc.
-Grocery run to pick up the essentials for the week
-Staying local and simply taking our time as we walked everywhere.
-Make spaghetti dinner
-Go to the Happy Man pub off campus for sticky toffee pudding dessert

Sunday 3/15:
-Train into London
-Tower of London (and the weird former port authority building across the street from the Tower), complete with Beefeater tour and crown jewels
-Trafalgar Square to check out the St. Patrick's Day celebration and get lunch from a street vendor place. The celebration turned out to be a huge free concert of Irish bands and boy bands... the Irish boy band was really bad, but we had a good time.
-Speaker's Corner at Hyde Park. That's where are the crazy religious and political nuts go to espouse their ridiculous theories while standing on soap boxes, step ladders and buckets. Very funny to watch.
-Casual time sitting and resting on the grass in Hyde Park. It was a beautiful day. Actually, it was a beautiful week. Katie never saw rain in England.
-Buckingham Palace... as anticlimactic as the first time I was there. But a couple good pics.
-Walked over to the area around the Houses of Parliament and the Eye. Got some daytime pictures. Ate dinner (grilled cheeses... budget). Got pictures at night.
-Trained back to school and passed out!

Monday 3/16:
-Monday was a slow day because I had class in the afternoon (2-3), essentially killing possibilities of going anywhere.
-In the morning I showed Katie the absolute chaos of the computer center as I had to hand in my final paper to the Geography Department.
-Class (Katie did homework I think).
-Long walk around Engelfield Green (another town essentially touching Royal Holloway) and the Engelfield Green cemetery, looking for old graves. Surprisingly not very many.
-Night filled with homework, unfortunately. I had three classes the next day, and one I had to make a presentation for... and then he never got around to letting me give my presentation!

Tuesday 3/17... St. Patrick's Day!
-Lazy morning.
-Class 12-1. Katie used the time to go visit the farmers' market held at the students' union every Tuesday. She grabbed some apples and potatoes. Nothing too exciting.
-Lunch together... then back to class 2-4.
-Immediately after class at 4, threw a bunch of clothes in a backpack, and took off on a train for the city!
-Arrive after battling rush hour type crowds on the Tube at the Generator Hostel. They initially put Katie and I in different rooms, despite telling me when I booked that we were together in a four person. After objecting we wound up together in a 7-person. Weird. But it worked.
-After dropping our stuff we headed to my favorite pub in London, The Boot, for dinner. Nice atmosphere with St. Patrick's Day decorations up, and Irish folk music playing in the background. Made me love it even more.
-Next we headed back to King's Cross Station to take pictures with the Harry Potter Platform 9 3/4 pushcart. Mom, you'd know what this meant if you just read the books like I asked...
-From there we hopped on the Tube for a ride to the Square Mile/City of London. It is where the original city of London began, where the original London Bridge led, and where the current financial sector lies.
-We saw "The Monument" in that area, which commemorates the Great Fire of 1666 which burned down most of the city, yet ironically also killed the rats that were spreading the plague.
-We saw the inside out building (you'd have to see it to understand) that is Lloyd's of London.
-Also views of Tower Bridge at night from London Bridge.
-Snapped some pics in a red phone booth
-Hit up a pub that I had read was the best in London, called the Nag's Head. Turned out to have terrible service. Left us both with a bad taste in our mouths.
-Headed back to the Generator to attempt sleep.

Wednesday 3/18
-Started the day with a search for Greenwich Park, which is dissected by the Prime Meridian. Katie and I met on spring break last year in Ecuador, where we jumped over the equator... so we wanted to jump the Prime Meridian together too! It took us a long time to find (it's just generally a trip to find anyway...). We first wound up in Sloane Square due to some bad information. Eventually we found the park, and looked on a park map to see where the Prime Meridian cut it in half. We found the spot we were looking for, but it was not marked with a line. So we made our own with our coats, and jumped over! One of the highlights of the trip.
-We then hastily returned to the Eye in the middle of the city to hop on (we had bought time specific tickets). Another beautiful, sunny day gave some nice views, and our fellow passengers were nice, so we got lots of pictures.
-From the Eye we grabbed a quick hot dog lunch and headed towards Wesminster.
-Got confused by where we were going and wound up just behind the Houses of Parliament, but eventually figured it out.
-Found Westminster and discovered it was closed! Took some pics outside, and headed to St. Paul's, which we had been intending to do as well.
-Spent a good long time in St. Paul's exploring the art, sculpture tombs, and dome (climb lots of stairs for views from above both inside and out!).
-Stayed in St. Paul's for Evensong, a short evening service.
-Headed home for a very late dinner!

Thursday 3/19:
-Started the day with a walk to Runnymede, where the Magna Carta was signed. It's still nothing but a big field, but now Katie can say she danced where the Magna Carta was signed.
-Ate some lunch at home.
-Caught a bus to Windsor. Queen wasn't home when we got there. Explored St. George's Chapel, took pics with the funny bear hat guard, explored the State Apartments. As we were getting ready to go, we wanted to kill time, because it wasn't quite time for dinner. So we went into a couple gift shops. As we finally were choosing to leave, I was going to comment about the Queen never being around during my three trips to Windsor, and my two to Buckingham, when I noticed that her flag was flying! She arrive while we were there!
-Explored the town a bit.
-Dinner out.
-Home for a movie.

Friday 3/20:
-Slow day... class 10-12, 2-4.
-Just generally spent as much time with Katie lounging about as possible. I think she explored a bit on her own while I was in class.
-Made dinner together.
-Back to Happy Man pub for more sticky toffee pudding.
-Explore Founder's Building... find really creepy closet. Really creepy.
-Back for a sad bedtime :-(

Saturday 3/21:
-Up early to catch a bus to the airport. Super :-(


All in all it was a splendid week. More to come about what's happened since then, and what's coming up. Soon I hope, because I leave Sunday!

Windsor II

So... this is a little late, but last Saturday I was at Windsor again! The first trip was run through Royal Holloway for the benefit of all the international students. This second trip was one I purchased through Arcadia University (the people that organized my studies here) before I knew that Royal Holloway was bringing us. I like it enough the first time that I figured it couldn't hurt to go again. I pretty much saw all the same stuff, but with a different group of people (they were all Americans studying at various universities around the UK through Arcadia).

Turns out that Windsor is about a ten minute bus ride from Royal Holloway, but Arcadia wanted everyone to meet in London at 9:30 AM on Saturday and ride a bus out from the city center. So essentially my choices were to wake up super early, take a 40 minute train ride and another 15 minute tube ride, followed by an hour long bus ride to approximately the location from which I began (and then do it all in reverse at the end of the day), or wake up later, buy a less expensive bus ticket, travel for 10-15 minutes by bus there, and 10-15 minutes back. It was a simple choice. Doing it, however, was less simple as the Brits once again lived up to my expectations of being terrible at returning emails (I had to ask to make sure it was acceptable to meet the group in Windsor instead of London).

Nevertheless it was fun, and I got to do/see a couple things I missed the first time. For instance, this time I grabbed an audio tour guide thing. I had seen them around the first time, but assumed you had to pay and was not really all that interested. As it turns out, they are free with admission, so I got a little more in depth understanding of what I was looking at. Another enhancement to the trip was that I got to see the changing of the guard. Yes, those dudes in funny bear hats came out in a big group, did a little marching around and stomping, played some tunes, and even tried to get the crowd clapping along. The whole time I was watching I couldn't help but think of what a fearsome fighting unit they were, what with their bear caps covering their eyes, their immobilizing long trench coats, their flutes and drums, and of course their willingness to allow potential assassins essentially to touch them. I still cower in fear just to think of it. During the performance I met up with Ben and Viral, two of the guys that I had lived with on my homestay (they go to King's College through Arcadia's programming).

After the rather silly display we went back into my favorite building (possibly ever), St. George's Chapel. It's soooooooo ornate, you simply wouldn't believe it. I asked one of the information ladies (who double as anti-photograph enforcement agents... we saw one make a girl delete about 20 photos off her digital camera) a question at one point and then felt really bad as she fumbled around with her many paper apologizing because she was new. The sad thing is I don't even remember what I asked, nonetheless what the answer wound up being! Still, St. George's chapel is pretty cool, and it is fun to stand on Charles I (the king they beheaded during the Civil War) and Henry VIII, and their tomb is marked by a stone in the middle of the walkway in the chapel.

Afterwards we did all the other Windsor stuff, none of which is of particular note since I have already commented on it previously, got some late lunch/early dinner, and went home.

Since then things have been relatively small scale. I have my first two papers due next week, and another due the week after, so I've been trying to focus just enough to get those done. I also finally submitted my application to an internship I would like to get over the summer with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

Of cultural note I would say the last significant thing I did was go to the Happy Man pub last night with my friends Win and Leah (it was really weird when Win was on the phone and said "I'm at the Happy Man with Leah and Jason") to get some Sticky Toffee Pudding. I figured I had to after hearing Doug rave about it. Verdict: it looks really gross, but tastes pretty good. Definitely will be having it again if my wallet doesn't feel too light. Tomorrow is hopefully a trip into the city, possibly to see a museum and Harrod's. I'd also like to pick something up....

PS - Pictures are a Statue of Queen Victoria outside Windsor Castle, me in front of St. George's, the funny bear hat band, and me in front of the extremely long walkway that leads up to Windsor, where the Queen's dog's are apparently walked on occasion, though I'm sure not by her.

Windsor, and a grocery store!

Hey folks!

I'm finally getting settled here at Royal Holloway. The Brits just started arriving on campus today, as classes start tomorrow, so for now the people I have met are still in the international crowd. Hopefully that will change soon!

Yesterday Royal Holloway organized a trip for its international students to Eton and Windsor. While in Eton we saw the school boys moving between classes in their funny uniforms that can only be described as too formal for a prom, or even most weddings. They looked quite bizarre!

Windsor castle was definitely the highlight of the day though. St. George's chapel was absolutely astounding. I wish I could have taken pictures of some of the ridiculously intricate features inside. The wood working was beyond the realm of belief! It also felt weird to be walking around a building that served as burial chambers for a large number of British monarchs (Henry VIII the one that sticks in my head most clearly). The other rooms of the castle were equally amazing, housing legitimate suits of armor (again, Henry VIII's armor sticks out most clearly; you could tell from it that he was quite a stocky man!), and a huge assortment of weapons ranging from swords and maces all the way through muskets and pistols. There was also a huge collection of artwork, and even many ceilings were large murals. It deserved more than a day, and luckily I will be returning there in the future with a trip organized by Arcadia. Hopefully I can break loose from any tours they may try to force me on so that I can simply explore!

I was getting a little ahead of myself... we started the day actually, by visiting Runnymede, the location where the Magna Carta was signed. Today it is just one big field, but there is a memorial that is entirely underwhelming, and incredibly bizarre. It is located right next to the JFK memorial (no joke... and I have no explanation), and it was built by the American Bar Association. It amounts to nothing more than a stone gazebo with some text about the magna carta. I'm pretty sure, however, that the memorial says "American Bar Association" in more places than it actually mentions the magna carta. Lame.

Finally, today was the last day before classes. In the morning we walked into the town near the university, Egham, to see how the walk was and to explore. After a bit of wandering we picked up some more groceries, then grabbed lunch at a local pub. It was nothing too exciting, but all pretty necessary stuff, and I had a good time. After that I took as much of my class schedule as (I think) I know, and walked campus to make sure I know which buildings my classes are in. It is a long story, but class registration here is incredibly archaic, and I won't feel comfortable with all my class stuff until probably next week...

So for the next week the plan is to stay pretty local; I'd like to get worked into classes, and begin finally meeting some of the natives! I've already put myself on the mailing list for the school's volunteer organization, and tomorrow I am going to buy my membership at the student's union. I'll keep you posted as best I can.

Oh, and enjoy the pictures above... they are from the Windsor trip!