Florida student goes to london

Belgium

Sage and I had discussed going to Belgium several times, but it was always very expensive. Finally, she found a deal online and we were able to go over our long Easter weekend. What better place to celebrate a chocolate holiday than the land where it was perfected? We took the longest overnight bus ever; in fact it ran into the next day. Note: make sure your driver knows where he is going, speaks the language of the country, and tries not to get pulled over for not wearing a seatbelt leaving you stranded in France for 2 hours. Each time I woke up, I was in a different country. I woke up first in London, then France, the Belgium. We might have even wandered into Germany at some point. I don’t even know.

We finally go there and checked into our lovely hotel. Showers with water pressure! What was this novelty? We went to the grocery store and gawked at some funny foods

and got some funny flavored beers, like raspberry.

We spent the next day exploring the city, a bit confusing at first.

But we got some chocolate covered waffles, and took a ton of pictures.

We went out for a drink that night at the Delirium Bar, boasting a bazillion beers on tap (yes, a bazillion).I had a mango beer. We wandered all over the city, and headed back to the hotel before it got dark.

The next day was Easter, and we got free Easter chocolates! And of course ate more waffles.  

I was surprised how many people were out and about on a holiday. I’m exactly sure what I was expecting, more people to be at home with their families and going to church? We walked by several churches, but even more chocolate shops, I think the total came out to be around 35 stores.

On our last day, we conquered both the Atomium and every country in the EU in miniature. The Atomium is an impressive piece of architecture, and is cool inside as well. It is a functional space for events and conferences. There is even a section to housing underprivileged youth; giving them a space to live and study. It looks small from the outside, but each ball is a few levels with quite a lot of space. A lot of it is a museum dedicated to modern architecture and the World Fair.

Next we went to Mini Europe, which is exactly as it sounds.

Ok, it’s more like a huge advertisement for the all the countries in the EU. But it was a great way to travel to all the countries I didn’t get to go to. Like Berlin, and the Berlin wall. Can I now say I’ve signed the wall?

We also saw some familiar places. The first is Amy catching me falling off the cliffs of Dover… too soon?

And of course, some sights that I see at least weekly while living in London.

I thought mini europe was a brilliant idea. Admission came with a a detailed booklet of the sights to see in each country, it really inspires people to travel and see new things. 

Legally Blonde the Musical

Sage and I went to see Legally Blonde. Like Matilda, we lined up in the morning and got tickets. Unlike Matilda, people properly queued, and we got 3rd row seats with an amazing view! And yes, we wore pink on purpose.

I was already really familiar with the movie, like Sage, but also I knew the music because they are doing the same show on Broadway. They sang it very close to the way I know. I must say though, it was very odd hearing obviously English people putting on American accents. It was a nice flip, instead of american’s pretending to be English. It wasn’t distracting, although it was noticeable. 

Overall, I really enjoyed the show. I was really happy to finally see it after singing and humming the music for years. I thought that they did a really excellent job.

Bath

Bath is a weird town. I can’t really describe it too much, it is this complete mish mash of new and old, from the buildings to the culture, to the people themselves. Amy and I really wanted to see the Roman Baths, who wouldn’t when it is just a few hours on a bus away? It also made a lot of connections for us, the roman history of England to the England history of England, from religion to culture, to authors like Jane Austen.

The Romans were a remarkable people all around, they had an undefeatable army, but they also knew how to utilize their environment and have a good time; fully represented by the baths. They took a natural land feature, like the hot springs, and developed several complex systems to optimize and develop different hot and cool rooms for swimming, praying, massage, steaming, etc. I found it really interesting that archeologists discovered bits of metal that people had written curses on, from the mundane like someone stealing flip-flops, and submitted to the watery temple of one of their gods. I found the baths really entertaining, and the audio book was interesting and helpful. This main section was open air, and the water was literally steaming! 

Amy and I indulged in some bath water (from a fountain don’t worry!). It was warm and tasted salty, filled with minerals. They say the water has healing powers, so maybe that’s why I got better!

After we left the baths, we made a stop to the Jane Austen center, as I am a fan. I was a bit disappointed, mostly it was gear from the movies, but it was still interesting! A successful day in Bath. 

Greenwich

Again, I was not feeling my best on this day, but I was determined not to miss out on the class trip to Greenwich. We went with our politics class, I’m still not sure how it relates to the class besides the fact if parliament was in jeopardy they would move to the university, but it was fun to see nonetheless. We took a tour boat on the Thames to get there, rather the tube or the speedy boat. If you have ever prepared English style tea, aka with milk, that is about the color of the Thames. It is probably one of the most polluted disgusting rivers in modern society. If you swam in it in central London you would probably come out with an extra head or something. Not to say other rivers in the US are much cleaner, but even the Hudson in NYC is cleaner than the Thames.

So of course when people think Greenwich, they think GMT and the Meridian line, standing in 2 hemispheres, etc. But there is also Painted Hall, which was beautiful.

We walked around the little town for a bit, it would be a lovely place to live/ attend uni. After we finished class, we grabbed some pastries and sat on the university lawn with the other uni students. We sat in front of the music hall, so there was some jazzy uptempo background music to listen to. After soaking up some sunshine, we got back on the boat and headed back towards the house. 

It was one of the first nice days we had, no rain and we actually saw the sun! In addition, I was on the mend after being up and down for weeks. I figured the sunshine would be good for me. We took the tube out, and after a bit of a hike uphill (I had been sick! It felt like a hike!) We sat on top of the heath overlooking central London. We were really in the suburbs of London, school children coming out as we were going over, lots of babies being pushed around in prams. If I live in the suburbs of DC, this certainly felt like the London equivalent. It was beautiful and relaxing away from the crowded city. Then, we took the bus back into the city so we could see a bit more. We ended the day with FroYo!

My best friend’s mom, my second mom, sent me a care package with Girl Scout Cookies.

Colliding at this same point in time was when I started really missing American food. We spent a whole interval during the play Bingo discussing what foods we were going to eat when we were back in the states. From Panera to Goldfish to Nutterbutters, there were quite a few things on our collective list. Although London has many foods that are “the normal” that we don’t have in America (aka almost every sandwich at EAT and Prêt) and some of those are very good, you start to miss the familiar. I think we had the adventure of London wearing off, and we were really settled into life here. I am going to miss brie panini’s, but I would trade that 1000 times over for a normal sized Coke at a normal sized price. Also, they really don’t do ice tea here like in the US, and only Sainsbury’s sells “American style” ginger ale. The list goes on. And even if we have care packages

I still miss American food. Which I 100% did not think was going to happen. I think it may be easier to be my kind of vegetarian in the US as well. It’s harder to go to  a restaurant here//Europe in general and find something meat free on the menu that is not pasta. 

Hampton Court Palace

            Hampton court palace, just a short train ride from central London is a beautiful place, inside and out. It was originally built in the Tudor period under King Henry VIII, and the architecture reflects. It was then added to in the Baroque period, so one can see the stark contrast of design plans. It makes the palace unique and special. The gardens were based on Versailles. Overall, it is a very decadent palace, and any royal would be lucky to live there. Since it was built under Henry VIII it has a rich a salacious history with his wives. There were a lot of connections to what I saw in the National Portrait gallery and what we discussed in class.

I thought the palace functioned very well as a museum currently. There were several interactive pieces, and explicative parts from children in primary school to adults. I really like the people walking around in costume and the ghost stories.

The gardens were picture perfect. We also spent some time wandering around in the mazes. 

To top off a lovely day, I indulged in an English favorite, a cone with a flake. 

            No one wants to get sick, especially on a study abroad. Lucky for me, I managed to stay healthy while everyone else experience mild colds and coughs. Unlucky for me, I managed to catch the plague, or least what I imagine the plague to feel like. The week after excursion week, I began to feel run down, and was slightly feverish… then my lymph nodes in my neck swoll to 18 times their original size. At that point I figured it was time to see a doctor. I walked down the street (it was labored walk, but I made it) and was fortunate enough to get an appointment later that day. I got to see a doctor, a very nice man. He said I probably had a virus, maybe glandular fever. He sent me for a blood test to confirm it. The test came back negative, but apparently sometimes it comes back as a false negative. Then I had more blood taken (they didn’t take enough), and then again (inconclusive), and again (the mixed up my blood with someone of a similar name). I think I ended up with my blood taken 4 times, a total of around 15 vials in 2 week period. Although I didn’t have to pay for any of my appointments, I would have rather have only had to go to one or two. So did I have glandular fever? Should I have gone to hospital? Who knows? But I went to the brink of death (or so it felt like after having a 103 fever every day for almost 3 weeks) and can live to tell the tale. 

Matilda the Musical

            I saw the poster for Matilda the Musical in the tube and knew I had to find a way to go see it.

It was one of my favorite books, and I absolutely adored the movie. A musical?? It was the perfect trifecta. I explored a bit, and found out that 10 £5 student tickets were sold at 10 am every day of the performance. Sage and I naively woke up one morning, around 8 am and showed up to the theater a bit before 9. There were already 10 people lined up in front of the door, much to our disappointment. We took it in stride; we asked them how long they had been waiting, hours.

            So the next time, we went prepared. We woke up at the crack of dawn, and were first in line! At 7:15 in the morning. We waited in the cold under many layers and blankets, watching movies on the laptop. People slowly trickled in. That is the brilliant thing about people here, they know how to queue and respect in. Then, not even 15 minutes before 10am the dumb American have to roll in. They start a queue on the other side of the gate, clearly within view of the already-established queue. I was furious, and so were the other people in line, we had some sort of solidarity, standing in the cold for hours together, and were not even going to begin to allow these idiots to have a fighting chance for our tickets. I confronted the girls who started the other queue, who said “Oh we didn’t see your line” I responded with a “fine, well why don’t you just join the end of ours then?” They were not too into that idea. I explained we had been waiting in line for hours, and they argued that their queue was just as good as ours, and challenged us to join at the end of theirs! The nerve!!! The entitlement!!! I have never wanted to just slap a person across the face as I did at that moment.

I am still furious just thinking about it right now. I won’t bother with the details of the conversation we had with them. In the end, their line got more expensive and blocked view seats that were further in the back. The people who waited in line got the £5 tickets, which were a few rows up and full view. All I can say is QUEUING IS A REAL THING. RESPECT IT. RESPECT AN ESTABLISHED QUEUE.

            The show was spectacular, and made up for any negative emtions I felt in the morning. The little girl who performed Matilda was the best performer I have ever seen, and certainly the best singer. Hands down, that girl has more talent in her pinky finger than I have in my whole life. The stage was amazing, there were block letters all over it, the desks rose from the floor, swings came down from the ceiling, and a whole library came out of the wings.

Everything was colorful, the lighting was amazing. The child cast was phenomenal. I would see it again if I could, but maybe a bit closer to the stage and not in student seats! I am so happy I got to see it, it was a nice refreshing different change from the more sophisticated and mature plays we have been going to in theater class. I love musicals, and I was happy to see one over all the plays.

            I also loved all the British-isms in the show. When the father was listing off green things, he didn’t say money, because money isn’t green here! Ms. Trunchball was watching BBC news. And there were several other things that, as an American I thought was funny.

            I LOVED THIS SHOW. I think everyone, young and old, should go see it. 

Naughty from Matilda the Musical

But nobody else is gonna put it right for me.
Nobody but me is gonna change my story.
Sometimes you have to be a little bit naughty.