Southwark at Night

My friend Vera (from Austria but studying in Dublin) came to visit for a couple of days in February.  We went to Camden Market, Burough Market, Brick Lane Market and went around to a ton of sights in the city. 
It was great having her visit because I hadn't seen since she was in Seattle a couple of years ago.  Hopefully I can visit her in Vienna sometime this summer!

Vera and I trying on some uber-cool shades in Camden

A great walk we did was along the south side of the Thames, beginning at Tower Bridge.  We walked west along the river through Southwark to the London Eye.  Here are a few of my favorite photos.

This is looking east from about Waterloo bridge.  You can see St. Pauls and the Gherkin.

St. Paul's.  My favorite building in London!

Same view as the first, just after a shopping break.  The lights on the river are really cool.

The London Eye (Lit up red for Valentine's Day), Parliament and Big Ben.

Greenwich

Some months ago (seven to be precise) some friends from school and I took a boat trip to Greenwich.  It was beautiful, even though the weather was a bit overcast.  I live in the easter part of central london and never get to see grass or trees, so being in Greenwich was like being on a nature preserve.

This is a view of Tower Bridge from our clipper ride down the Thames

A large portion of Greenwich is occupied by the Naval College.  Most of the buidling were designed by Christopher Wren (the guy responsible for St. Paul's Catherdral).  I never get tired of looking at his architecture.

This is the huge park behind the college.  At the top of the hill is the Royal Observatory which is most famous for marking the Prime Meridian.

This is the view from the top of the hill.   The buildings in the background there are Canary Wharf.  On a clear day you can see central London in the far left.

This is me excited to see trees and grass!

This silver-arty thing is what marks the Prime Meridian.

And there I am standing on it!

We were lucky to come to Greenwich when we did (in November) because they began charging a 15 quid entrance to go in.  The museum itself houses a bunch of really clocks, but not worth the entrance fee.

See later posts for a sunny view of Greenwich!

Roller Disco

Today being the last day of classes for the term, some of us PGEU students (PGEU=Politics and Government of the European Union) of course wanted to celebrate being free.  In a more southern part of central London, by the Vauxhall tube stop, there is a roller disco.  That's right, I said roller disco.  And at least on Thursday nights it is awesome!  The entrance fee is only 5 quid and it includes roller skates and wrist guards.

I haven't roller skated since elementary school parties at Skate King.  It's kind of like riding a bicycle though.  The only scary part was remembering how to stop.

All in all, we had a great time and I hope we go again!

Christmas treats!

Tonight, my department had a little holiday get together.  It's really put me in the Christmas spirit!(particularly while I sit here blogging to Christmas music with snow falling outside.)
There were two traditional British things I tried for the first time tonight:

Mulled Wine
So yummy! This is the alcoholic's answer to spiced cider.  The difference between spiced cider and apple juice is like that of mulled wine to regular red wine.  It just tastes like the holidays.  I love it!  And I plan to attempt to brew some of my own when I go home for Christmas!  (in just a couple of weeks!)

Minced Pies
I am not particularly a fan of these little pastries.  They are little pies, with very rich crust, filled with spiced (and perhaps rum soaked) raisins and maybe currants too.  In theory this would tasty, however I'm not much a fan of raisins.

If you have the opportunity, I would definitely recommend having a glass of Mulled Wine.  And for the raisin fan, a Minced Pie.

On Friday, once I turn in my last essay, I will blog about my trip to Greenwich!

What I'm up to

So it has been a very long time since my last post...I do apologize and will try to be better about keeping you updated.

The truth is though, since school has picked up, I haven't done anything that is really blog worthy.

Halloween

Halloween is not as big of a deal here as it is in the US, you can't find good candy in the store, and kids don't go trick-or-treating.  That being said, young adults still dress up and go out, so I had to find a costume.  Myself and a few girls, plus one gentleman came up with the idea of being Jack the Ripper and his victims.  My dorm is on one of the stops for the Jack the Ripper tour, so it was an especially good idea.  Implementing it was a bit tricky though.  A trip to the Capitol Hill Value Village would have been perfect place to find horrible prom or bridesmaid dresses we could have altered to look more like mangled 19th century prostitutes.  The only second hand store we could find was pretty lame.  We ended up in Camden at a Gothic shop.  Our costumes look more like Madonna circa 1983 though than 1883 London.

This is Jacob aka Jack 

Here are Nina, Myself, and Despina, aka the victims (notice our bloody throats).

One of the more interesting costumes of the night!

(I have no idea who was in it though)

School

Things at school have become very busy.  I have either an essay to write or a presentation to give every week until I come home for Christmas.  All of the things I'm reading and writing about are very interesting, but because they are assigned, it makes them tedious to do.

One cool thing to note about school is I discovered the study room for my department.  Because there is only one library at school, it gets really full and difficult to find a place to work.  The study room has hardly any people in it and has super comfy chairs with large desks.  The best part is that we can eat and drink in there.  We have to leave the library if we need to eat a snack...very annoying.  Sometimes I find myself alone and I crank up the tunes while I work on my essays.

Other London Things

Yesterday was the Mayor of London Day.  There was a big parade and fireworks show pretty close to my dorm.  The reason though, that I was out and about and discovered this was because St. Paul's Cathedral was free all day and they had free performances of Peter and the Wolf.  The organ was very cool and it was fun to see and hear all of the British children.  The novelty of adult English accents has kind of worn off.  Kids however are still super cute!

Today was Remembrance Day Sunday.  By Trafalgar Square, there is a big procession with the royal armed forces and the Queen, along with other VIP's lay wreaths around a war memorial in honor of Veteran's Day (Remembrance Day in British English).  Unfortunately  I did not get there early enough to find a good place to stand.  There were about 5 rows of people in front of me, with most people much taller than I.  All I could see of the whole event was the tops of the black bear hats the guards wear.  I was though probably within 200 yards of the Queen.  Unfortunately no photos to show.

Domestic Stuff

Most of you know that I really like to cook and bake.  It has been challenging to do so though in my dorm, with my limited resources in terms of kitchen supplies.  I did attempt to make my mom's famous oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.  Despite vanilla flavoring instead of extract and butter instead of Crisco, they actually turned out alright, not quite like mom's but close.

Notice, my mixing bowl was a big pot and the absence of an electric mixer.

I got a workout in mixing them by hand with a wooden spoon. 

I hate my oven a little bit, but they turned out alright!

A couple of months ago, I promised to post pictures of my room once it was decorated and clean.  It feels more like home, or at least my home away from home.  Well, here you go...(I cleaned really well one day, in order to put off essay writing.)

 It's got a little bit more personality and color than the before photos.

 Some cool decals I found at a store. 

The best I could do with such a large white wall I was not allowed to paint.

Next week's agenda:  A trip to Greenwich!

Update and Walking Tour

So I've officially been in London for 4 weeks now and I love it!  I'm finally beginning to have a rhythm and feel like I fit in (although I still can't remember my class schedule by heart).

School is going well.  I know my way around campus and have found my favorite spot in the library and the cheap place to have a cup of tea.  This term I am taking History and Theory of the EU (very boring), European Defense and Security (interesting, with a very good professor), and EU in the World (the professor is from the US and conducts her class the same way).

Just as I've gotten caught up on most of my reading, the deluge of essays begins.  Next week I have my first essay due, and pretty much one every week after that until Christmas.  The thing I find most difficult to deal with though is that all of the essays are formative...meaning I'm not graded on them.  I still need to put in a lot of effort, because I will receive written feedback and they help to prepare for the Exams in June.  That's the other thing I'm adjusting to about the British (and perhaps European in general) system: the classes I take this fall, I won't be tested on until June.  That is quite an ample amount of time to forget most all that I have learned.

Besides school, (when I have free time), I've been enjoying a bit of the London night life.  On Thursdays, about 30 of the students from my program all go out and have a beer or two at one of the pubs on campus (George IV).  We only have class Monday-Thursday, so we begin our weekend celebration before we all go home.  In addition, I've been going out with a few of the people from my dorm, exploring bars close to where I live, as well as an area called Shoreditch, which is about a mile walk.  Close proximity is very important as the Tube stops running around 12:30.  One weird thing is that a lot of bars close around 11:00 or 12:00, even on the weekend.  If you stay out later (usually at a more loungy/club type of place) there are night busses that run, but they aren't as easy to figure out.

This Sunday was another very nice day, so I went with a friend from school on a walking tour.  It was great because it was FREE, I just was suggested to tip the tour guide at the end (which I happily did).  See the photos below!

I know none of these people, but I wanted to take a picture of the Duke of Wellington Arch.  The tour met at the Corner of Hyde Park.

This was my first experience in "nature" since I've been in London. I had to take a picture of the trees, because they do exist in the city.  It I could finally tell it is autumn, because the leaves are beginning to change their color.

This is the gate to Buckingham palace.  Notice the red road.  All the main roads that lead to the palace are red. So the Queen is always on a red carpet.  Our tour guide was filled with cool and useless facts like this.

This is me in front of Buckingham Palace.  (Sorry the photo is so dark.  I accidentally messed with one of the settings on my camera.)

A brighter photo of Buckingham.  Frankly, I find Schoenbrun to be cooler.  You can't even go inside.

Our tour guide told a really funny story about how someone broke into Buckingham Palace in 1982.  Read about it here.

A guard.

Unfortunately it wasn't one of the guys in the red jackets and big bear skinned hats (which last for 100 years, the hats, not the guards).  Apparently the different services rotate guard duty.

This is in Trafalgar Square.  Its a really big ship build inside a really large bottle.  (A model of the ship Lord Nelson commanded at the Battle at Trafalgar.)

Here is Trafalgar Square.

(It is geographically in the center of London.  Another did you know...there are very few pigeons in the square.  This is very odd because it was known for being completely overrun with the feathered rats.  There are laws prohibiting the feeding of the birds, but contraceptive is also mixed in with their regular feed.  Not sure if I believe that one.  The tour guide might have been pulling our legs with that factoid.)

This building, laden with moss and vines is (or was) one of the buildings for MI6 (or MI5). (I can't remember)

Parliament!

The tour finished with the story about Guy Fawkes and his attempt to blow up parliament.

Overall:  I got to see and learn (cool facts) about my new city!

Tower of London

This is very long overdue...

A couple of weeks ago, I went and took the tour of the Tower of London.  I think it was one of the first sunny days I experienced.  There have been several more since then, so London doesn't seem quite so gray and gloomy.

The Tower and all its glory are only about a mile south of where I live.  Can you believe that?

From the outside, where you buy the tickets. 

The Tower refers to the whole structure.  It is formally called:  Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress.  It is one big tourist trap now though.

This was my Beefeater.  He was very funny and put on a great show.  I learned all kinds of things about Henry the VIII and his many wives, as well as other historical things, like how much the English hate the French.  The story about Anne Boleyn was the most interesting though.

White Tower.

This was where the Medieval Kings and their families and court lived.  Now it holds a large display of royal armour.

Tower Green

This was the infamous site where Anne Boleyn had her head chopped off.  The buildings behind it were built for her to stay in before she was coronated.  Ironically, she stayed there again before she was beheaded.

One other very cool thing I saw in the tower (but I was not allowed to take photos of) were some of the Royal Jewels.  Unfortunately they put you on moving walkways so you are only allowed to look at them for a very small amount of time.  How great it would be to be Queen and be laden with jewels.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time here and would recommend it to anyone visiting London who likes this kind of history stuff.  For those who aren't there is a cool pub by the name of Hung, Drawn, and Quartered where you can sample another part of British history and culture:  Ale and Fish and Chips!