Tower of London, Borough Market, Picasso, and Shakespeare walk into a Bar...

Tower of London

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Time to fill in what I've been up to. Get ready for a doozy.  Yesterday we all (About 8 of us) hopped on the tube and headed off to the Tower of London. The tube station we left from was how it was when it was first made in the 1960's (I think 1960's). It was an interesting sight, especially thinking of how many people have been on the same platform (I'm going to say this probably ever day about every place). I couldn't find Platform 9 3/4, but that's probably because I'm not a wizard. Moving on. I actually brought my camera this time and took over 300 pictures with it (Thanks for letting me bring your camera, Kate! [my sister]) You can check my facebook for the good ones. One of the first things we saw when we got out of Tower Hill station was this huge sundial with an old man singing next to it. The architecture was phenomenal, ranging from ancient to modern styles. They all looked cool. That is the extent of my knowledge about architecture. Please try not to be too impressed. When we turned around, there was the Tower of London, all majestic-like, with clouds sailing by it. I'm pretty sure the crowned jewels are in there, but we didn't go in this time. You might now think that is all we did. Nope. We walked just about everywhere. We took a picture with this statue. I couldn't tell you who it was, because the sign on it really didn't help, but he looked cool. We walked across the Tower Bridge. The combination of this and the actual Tower with all the modern buildings was something I've never experienced before coming here. Some of these buildings are centuries old, while others are probably not too much older than myself. One looked like a building that should be in space, and the other shot up into the sky, like that one tower Saruman stands on. We walked across the bridge as cars and buses whizzed by. We stumbled back to the Borough Market (there is food everywhere). The girls haven't seen it yet, so they went in as the guys explored. We saw Southwark Cathedral. This was where Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, and many more people have gone since 606. Afterwards, we all met up again and headed to the Globe (Shakespeare Theatre) to just look around. We walked next door to look at some art.

Art Exhibit (Art Rant/Critique)
 I honestly wasn't impressed with most of it. There was a couple floors of different types of art.  Literally, one exhibit looked like someone dropped their pants and relieved themselves all over the floor. And by literally, I mean literally. I had a similar response to Picasso's paintings. It was cool that I was able to see such famous pieces, but seriously, I felt the duty on the floor exhibit had more meaning. If I drew like Picasso did when I was five, I would've probably been embarrassed if my mom put the picture on the fridge. I hope I'm not offending any art fans with my rant. But seriously, how is there any merit behind his works of art. Each piece of art had an explanation beside it. Beside one of his paintings, it said that he completed it in one day. Well paint me yellow and call me big bird. One day! That's so impressive! You might ask, "I thought you said his artwork was less impressive then a room scattered with excrement." This is where I would tell you how I was just being sarcastic. In fact, it's embarrassing that it took a whole day. I've seen a first grade art class produce something better in one 40 minute period. How is that worth millions? In another room there was a giant canvas with vertical blue lines of paint. That was it. But it was art. That's all it takes to be a famous artist, draw really big lines a couple times. Beautiful. Astounding. Sorry for my rant. Maybe I feel my Jeff Reed mask I made in 8th grade should be in the Louvre or maybe I'm just a little bit jealous that I didn't think of drawing ugly pictures to be famous first. Obviously, I'm a tad bitter. Just don't judge me too much. It was still cool to see "art," some of which were famous. I guess a positive from this is to realize that I have an opinion, even if it makes me a bit upset. Finally, we walked across a uniquely designed bridge (kinda looked like a strand of DNA).

St. Paul's Cathedral

This was absolutely gigantic. There were no pictures allowed, so we didn't take any inside. They were about to sing, so we got in for free, but only got to see a small portion of it. Absolutely beautiful. We headed back to the tube.

LillyWhites 

On the way back home, we stopped at Lillywhite's (spelling?). It was a sports store. On the second floor, there was tons of soccer gear. I was walking in the clouds. Clouds with racks upon racks of soccer gear. There were jerseys everywear.  A whole room stacked to the ceiling with soccer cleats (boots) it was called the boot room.

Borough Market

We went to the Borough Market near the Tower of London and London Bridge (It is still standing and appears to not be falling down). It was such a nice day, I didn't even wear a coat. I think tomorrow's going to be nicer though. There were so many tents selling cheese and we had many samples at each one. They were so good. My favorite sample was the pizza in some alley. We walked for a while and ended up in some Indian district. Restaurants were along the street and workers would try to get us to come in and buy food as we walked by. The first one that we actually talked to was reaaaallly pushy about it and was honestly kind of a jerk, so we kept walking. The restaurant looked kind of shady anyway. We ended up haggling with this other one down the road to pay ten pounds a person for a starter, main dish, and 2 beers. each. Quite a good deal. I think he was just happy to get our group of 6 people in. More people, more money. I got a Sheek Kebab to start, which was pretty much just two small things of lamb. Then the main dish came with this interesting bread. I got garlic chicken, and it also came with a side of rice. I mixed it all together and it was sooooooo good. I'm still full. Well, I also had a candy bar called Boost. It is chocolate, carmel and "biscuit energy" whatever that is. That is all, I am very tired, though there is tons of traffic on the stairs and it is very loud. Plus people are having a SUPER important conversation that can't happen anywhere else, because our door is the best place to talk in front of. Maybe they can get together with Sammy Door Slammer next door. I don't know if that's his name, but I bet it is. Haha, sorry I'm tired. Have a good night.

My roommate is reminding me that the internet here is pretty bad. He told me to put it in my blog.

Last Night

We went to a pub called The World's End in Camden. It was huge, we were looking for a the bathroom and it was never ending. I wonder if they got a ton of business last December? Anyway, afterwards me and Joe had to go to the bathroom so bad while walking home, so we went into a restaurant and asked to use their toilet. They said we had to be paying customers, so we split some food so we could use the bathroom. So pretty much we paid to use their bathroom, and got a free bit of food too.

Piccadilly... Yes that's a real town.

We all ventured out to Piccadilly yesterday. Saw a four story M&M store and plenty bars/food stores. Tonight we're heading back out there to O'Reilly's to have a beer or two. After all, Thursday means the weekend! Today's classes were good. I really like my Interpersonal Communications class. Anyhow, I'll try to keep up better with the blog.

Classes

Yesterday was my first day of classes. I go from 9-12 then 2-5.

9 World Religions
1030 Interpersonal Communications
2 World Civilizations
330 Business Ethics

Today I had Accounting.

So far, I enjoyed Interpersonal Communications the most, but it was only one day. Over all the classes though, there will be a good amount of field trips to see more of London.

In other news, JCU paid for our gym memberships, so that's good.

Have a wonderful Wednesday.

Lost in London

So the other day we decided to walk to Camden again and show some people Sainsbury's. We walked over as it was getting dark, so the park was closed, and as you know, I'm terrible with directions. So it was dark and some of the group went back, but a couple of us decided to try a pub out. We hung out there for a bit, but then left and almost immediately got lost. We got back eventually, but long story short, I'm pretty unreliable with navigation.

Jan 19-21

Jan 19

After I napped, 150 Regent's Students and I set out on the Thames River on a boat. It was a beautiful sight gliding by the lightened up city at night. We got back and went to bed.

Jan 20

Today was really a rest day. I mostly relaxed, ate some good food at the cafeteria, and finished up my RA application. Started to watch the AFC Championship Game, but went to bed.

Jan 21 Monday

Turns out I didn't have any classes today! Got a good sleep and then headed to lunch. I had a rice risotto with vegetables on the side. Delicious. Then, Dan and I set out to Sainsbury's in Camden. It is basically a convenience store like Giant Eagle. Most importantly, it was a very cheap option to get supplies that we'll need. I bought some detergent, soap/shampoo, contact solution, frebreeze, toothpaste, etc. for about 15 pounds, which I thought was a good deal. Now I'm just hanging out until dinner, when everyone else gets out of class. Might read some Accounting.

Jan 16-20th

First, before anything I'd like to thank my parents for helping me on my way to make this trip possible.

Now for my background if you need a reminder or for some reason are following my blog and you don't know me. I am a sophomore at John Carroll University from Pittsburgh. This spring I am spending a semester at London's Regent's College. It is located in the center of London in Regent's Park, which is in UK in Europe, etc.

Now to start with January the 16th...

My Dad and I set off for Cleveland airport from Pittsburgh. Got a nose bleed on the way, which made me nervous that my nose would explode as we started to go up in the plane, but fortunately that didn't happen. I was the first from JCU at the terminal after going through security and what not, but then more kids came. Eventually a man who worked at the airport came up and told us that there was going to be a delay for our flight to Newark (which would mess up our connecting flight to London). Fortunately, he got things worked out and we got an earlier flight and made the plane in Newark just in time. We all ran by Newark's restaurants, eyeing the many hamburger, steak, and sushi shops. We got in a much bigger plane, a Boeing 777. It was so quiet for take off and landing, it was surprising. Anyway, this was a longer flight, but there was on demand in flight movies, so we were pretty much set.  I watched the Dark Knight Rises. It was sooooooooooo good. What also amazed me was the many meals and drinks that the flight attendants gave to us. They just kept going up and down the aisles. We were close to England and we had to fill out some customs form, it was kind of confusing, but we all got them finished. All of us sleepily exited the plane and into the airport.  We got in line for customs and quickly went through. There was a foreign pair of people arguing about cutting in line, but everyone else was remarkably quiet, taking in the sights around them. I got through to desk #32 and a friendly woman looked over my papers and let me in.

Thursday, January 17th

 I was in London! Pretty wild, still hasn't hit me yet. We met a girl that was on our flight that was also going to Regent's. She followed us to baggage then we went our separate ways. Dr. Trew met us at the airport, kind of like how Hagrid did in Harry Potter. Then we boarded our rowboats and started towards the castle. Just kidding, we got on a coach bus and headed towards Regent's. It was a really fancy bus, with a bathroom and everything. We took an hour or so sleepily watching the city as we drove towards school. We finally arrived, got checked in, received our ID's and room numbers, then went and unpacked. The Jet-lag was starting to hit me, and it was just the beginning of the day. at 12 we set out to pick up cell phones. One person in our group had to go back to the airport because he grabbed the wrong bag. We walked to a store like Macy's called Primark and had a beer at the Student bar at Regents. A ton of walking. On the way back we also stopped at a Sherlock Holmes fish and chips store. Delicious.  Then we wen t back and got to bed. Probably missing some things, but it was a couple days ago.

Friday, January 19th

Friday we all woke up around 8 and went to breakfast in the cafeteria. It was very delicous. I got an egg, toast, and sausage. Then our day began at 9, we went to the auditorium to have an information session, then we had free lunch. After that we checked our classes. I changed from International Law to World Civilizations before 1500. Looked cool to me. Then we walked to Primark again because some people still needed things. When we got back a huge group of us went to the Metropolitan Bar and ordered some drinks. I got carded, haha. I ordered a Hopgoblin, it was pretty good.

Saturday, January 20th

We woke up and had breakfast around 945, then set out to Westminster Abbey on the Tube. We walked everywhere, I'm so tired.  First we got out of the station and saw Big Ben. We took pictures, then my(sister's) camera died. I should probably charge it before I go out. Woops. Then we went across the street to St. Margaret's Church. It was a beautiful sight in and out. Also it was awe-inspiring to think of the many famous and regular people that have been in the Church all these years. Afterwards, we set out to Buckingham Palace. We saw the royal guards, too. We walked an walked, then ended up at the National Art Museum, and saw many paintings, including some Vincent Van Gogh's. It was pretty cool to see all of the historic art, but I found a lot of them more impressive than Van Gogh's. His look like a two year old drew them, but it was interesting that I was seeing a famous painter's work. We just got back to our rooms now, I am going to nap. Later we are going on a boat on Thames. I will write about that later.