Last Entry

I spent most of early this week in the library finishing my essays. Today, I went to Brighton, which is by the ocean about an hour away by train. It has a really really cool palace decorated in Asian themes. I think my favorite was the huge chandelier with the dragons and flowers. I wish I could put some pictures up, but since my laptop is still broken, I won't be able to download anymore till I get home. Anyway, Brighton is really cool. It's where Lydia ran away with Mr. Wickham in "Pride and Prejudice". I also walked along the pier, which has rides, games, and food.

Tomorrow I have my last class, then I'll probably spend the rest of the day packing. Friday, my Dad will be here. We'll move my stuff and we're going to see "Avenue Q"! Then on Saturday I'll be home!!!! It's been a really great semester. I'm definitely glad I decided to come to London!!!!!!!!!

Icky Computers

Tuesday I pretty much just worked on essays. Wednesday, my class was just talking about the essay and since the visiting students' is due sooner, we'd already gotten all the information, so I didn't have to go! So in the morning I went and saw the Fleming Collection, which is very small, but nice. Then I walked through the parks back to the station. In the afternoon, my computer got some kind of virus and wouldn't turn on. It wasn't any better on Thursday, so I took it to the IT services in the library. The guy said they don't fix people's personal computers (he was actually kind of rude for an English guy) but I could bring it back later and some other guy might be able to help. So I brought it back after my class and the other much nicer guy worked on it, but after a few hours and no progress, he said I could bring it back today and he'd try some more, but it was unlikely that he would be able to fix it.

This morning, I went to the Royal Academy of Arts to see the Byzantine exhibit. The reason that I'd kept it this late was because my Crusades class was supposed to go together, but that was pushed back to next term, when I won't be here. It was a very nice exhibit. I think my favorite was the huge chandelier. Afterwards, I walked to Trafalgar Square to see the Christmas tree. I would put a picture up, but I don't have a computer to download them on. So I'm writing this on a library computer, which I hate because the keyboard is different, so I keep pressing the wrong buttons and it's taking forever.

Thanks for listening to me complain.

Pictures from Nicole and Naomi's Visit

Nicole and Naomi Visit!!!!

On Friday morning Nicole and Naomi arrived from Glasgow! We quickly dropped their stuff off and headed out to the Tower of London. We walked along the river on the way and stopped for bagel sandwiches and explored Tower Bridge. It was rainy, so instead of the usual tour at the Tower, the Warder just talked to us inside and didn't go as in depth. But it was still a lot of fun, we talked to some reenactors and got to see the ravens up close! Next we walked down to Southwark Cathedral. Then we had dinner at the pub where I had had the awesome treacle tart, but they didn't have it anymore! :( After dinner we walked around a bit more, past the Globe, across the Millennium Bridge, and to St. Paul's. Then we went back to my flat and watched "Pride and Prejudice" in preparation for the next 2 days and tried the honey spiced mead we had bought at the Tower, it was strong, but had a pleasant after-taste.

Saturday we went to the British Museum. The 3 of us took a class, "Women in Antiquities" together last year and we got to see some of the stuff we'd studied, most notably The Warren Cup, which was included in a presentation Naomi and I had given. Next we went to Platform 9 3/4 (Nicole and Naomi are also big fans). Then we went to the Library Exhibition, we were especially excited to see the Jane Austen writings. Next, we went down to Piccadilly Circus and had dinner at an Italian place. Then we saw Les Miserables!!!! It's just as wonderful the 4th time as it is the 1st!!!! After the show we walked around a bit more to Westminster.

Sunday we took a bus tour to Stonehenge and Bath. Stonehenge is very cool. It was very cold and windy out there, though. Next we went to Bath, which is a lovely little city. I wish we'd had more time there. First we went to the Roman baths, which were especially pretty in the dimming light. There is a little museum and you can see all the ruins. We sampled the water in the Pump Room. Everyone always makes a big deal about how horrible it tastes, but I thought it tasted fine. By the time we'd finished there, there was only about 20 minutes left. Bath had a little Christmas festival going on at the time with little crafty booths which we looked at. We got back to the city around 8. The driving was actually quite terrifying at times because the defroster would go out every once in a while, so the driver couldn't see (I was in the seat right behind him). I don't recommend driving down the highway into London with an opaque windshield. We were hungry after the tour and ate at the 1st place we found, a pub called The Duke of York. I had a steak and ale pie. It was my first beef in about 5 years. I'd forgotten how wonderful dead cows taste.

Nicole and Naomi left this morning. I was able to turn in 2 of my essays today! There's only 2 weeks left! I'm still not sure how I feel about that.

More Museums!

Sunday, I went to the Tate Modern. It's really nice. I wound up going through it faster than I would have liked, but I had to get back to work on my essays and I was also presenting on the reading in my Lit class on Monday. But I have 1 essay down and 3 to go!

This morning, I went to Sir John Soane's Museum, who was an architect and collected a lot of art and antiquities. His house is now a neat little museum.

Friday, Nicole and Naomi will arrive from Scotland for the weekend!!!!

Only 20 Days Left

I'm really starting to miss the letter z (or they pronounce it "zed" here, but that's another story). They hardly ever use it. Words that we would end -ize, such as realize, they spell with -ise, like realise. it didn't bother me at first, but it's really starting to piss me off.

On Wednesday night/Thursday morning at 5:30 AM, the fire alarm went off and we all had to go stand outside for 20 minutes. Then, an hour later, when I was just about to finally fall asleep again, it went off again, but stopped when we were all half way down the stairs. Then it kept going off for a few seconds at a time for the rest of the night. Luckily my class wasn't until noon on Thursday.

Friday was supposed to be the release date for the 6th Harry Potter movie, but stupid people decided to postpone it until June. So, I needed some retail therapy and did a little shopping and walked around Hyde Park (I only saw about half of it last time). It was really nice, but windy.

Today, I walked around the Temple area. There isn't really anything to do there, but it has a lot of really neat buildings, including the original Twinings tea shop. It is also where the Knights Templar lived. Then I walked along Fleet Street up to St. Paul's. And then looked around the Borough Market, which has a lot of people selling different foods. It was really neat.

As of today, there are only 20 days left until I go home. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

Witches and Emma

Monday, in my Magic and Myth class, we performed our own witch trial, which was pretty cool, because I got to be the accused witch. I was acquitted conditionally because my accusers were questionable and since my character was pregnant they couldn't torture a confession out of me. There's also this guy in my class who looks kind of like Heath Ledger and he was one of the people defending me.

Today, I met up with Emma, a recent Beloit Alum and fellow Art History major who is going to grad school here in London. We had lunch and did some shopping around Covent Garden. It was really nice to catch up.