Flying Through London

LONDON today!!!  It was kind of a whirlwind of a trip, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

Woke up at 6:01 when my alarm went off and was out the door by 6:40.  I walked to Park Campus in the dark with a large group of BCA girls.  At park we got on the ‘coach’ hired by the Uni of Gloucester International Student’s Union (the nice people I have to thank for today’s adventure) and drove two hours through the country to London.  I’ve actually been to London before and I have to admit, the visit doesn’t rank among my fondest memories (horror stories from Madam Tussaud’s Wax Museum, exhaustion, and vomiting…).  I’m happy to report that this visit was much better.  And since I haven’t been to London in about ten years, I hardly remembered any of it, so it was new all over again.

 

First stop: Buckingham Palace.  (I need to make this comment now so that you can read the rest of the narrative with a better understanding as to the circumstances of the day.  It was absolutely freezing.  Literally.  My fingers were swollen, my nose was red, etc. etc.).  The flag was flying, so that means that the queen was there (that IS what it means, right?).

(The statues were exquisite.  This one was exceptionally fine...)

Rush past Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Cathedral, the Prime Minister’s house, and then to the National Art Gallery.  I LOVE paintings.  But I also really needed to eat, so Abi and I used up half of our time grabbing lunch (coffee and a bun!) at the café.  Then I dashed around the different rooms until the time was up.  Unbeknownst to me (phrase of the day!) while I was in the museum, the student protestors were becoming riotous outside.  So I had to ‘evacuate’ through a different door than I came in.  I missed most of the action, but it was still an interesting component to the day.

 (I think the Lions were beautiful.  They were Huge too.)

Sprint past some famous theatres, a famous casino where premieres take place, then on to the market at Covenant Square gardens.  I think the market was probably my favorite part of the day.  I loved the delicious-smelling food; the music from the stringed quintet; the adorable, quirky, tiny, cramped little shops, the street performers, the crowds, my purchases…

Then through Chinatown and to Piccadilly Circus (where all the big lights/screens were covered up with sheets because they were working on the buildings).  Then dinner with some fabulous girls at ‘Hog in Pound’, which had as English-tasting food as its English-sounding name.  Then out to wait in the cold (with tea!) for the rest of our group and for the bus.

Thankful for yet another amazing day.

Adventure of the Day

Yesterday Abi and I went to Gloucester.  We paid a pound and rode for half an hour on the top story of a double-decker bus.  We saw the Gloucester Cathedral.  Oh.  My.  Gosh.  I’ve seen a lot of beautiful churches—well, not a lot a lot of churches, but quite a few (in Rome, Austria, etc.)—but this one left them all behind.  It’s a thousand years old!  Almost.  Also, it’s where they filmed some of the halls scenes in Harry Potter.  Pretty exciting.  

 (Casting a spell...)

 When we left the cathedral it was raining (and absolutely freezing—Gloucester is on the river, so it was incredibly damp and grey.  A chilled to the bone sort of afternoon.).  We decided that tea was in order, so we stopped at the sweetest little teashop and got chocolate tea and scones with jelly and clotted cream (hey, I may never live in England again.  I’m going to take advantage of all its charms).   Feeling better, we walked to the historic docks, where apparently they filmed some scenes from Amazing Grace and some other movie that I can’t remember.  Then we stumbled upon the Gloucester outlet malls and we walked around inside until we’d warmed up enough to go back out to find…the rugby fields.  Apparently Gloucester has a pretty good rugby team.  We found it.  Abi was ecstatic.  We didn’t see any rugby players.  However, we did see a lot of athletic men all over the place.  The city was positively swarming with them.  Wednesday is the day when all the University teams have their games.  Wednesday is therefore the perfect day to go to Gloucester.  After seeing the rugby stadium, we went and saw its antithesis: The Beatrix Potter house.  I bought the most adorable little cards with bunnies and cats and mice on them.  Then back on the bus and back to Cheltenham.  

 (Broken window pane.)

All credit for these beautiful pictures goes to Abi, because my camera battery died...

Wandering Feet, Wandering Thoughts

 Walked again.  Found another town.   Not sure what town.  Met a horse and named him Squire.  My first English horse friend.   

 Rambled farther into the country.  Squelched in a good bit of English mud. 

 Stumbled upon a castle.  A castle with a bell tower.

Had Christmas dinner with my flat—enjoyed it quite a bit.  Met some new friends, strengthened acquaintances (acquaintanceship?).  Ate a lot of Betty Crocker Rich and Creamy Icing (who knew they had Betty in Cheltenham?).  Learned what to say in response to the phrase: “Cheers, mate”.  Read the Narrative of Frederick Douglass.  Read Paradise Lost (not all of it!).   Read ten hundred poems… Couldn’t remember the names of two of my classes (Restoration, Romantics, and Revolution and Revolution to Renaissance?  Or  Renaissance, Revolution, Restoration and Restoration to the Romantics?).  Found all my classes.  Wrote my first slightly pathetic paper.  Still not in school-mode.  Spent less than seven hours in class all week.  Enjoyed the fact that my Islam class is up in an “attic” with skylights even if it is absolutely freezing.   Learned that if the door handle is round you pull and if it is flat you push.  This has saved me from looking ridiculous on more than a few occasions.  Down to my last 5 pounds (stipend on Monday!).   Got both my shower drain and my toilet pipes fixed by two amicable plumbers.  Becoming more knowledgeable about the ways of the world (e.g. international drinking games—observing not participating).  Enjoying becoming friends with people I don’t have the slightest thing in common with.  Praying for specific things and expecting (in faith) to be answered.

Rambling

 (This is part of my University--or my "Uni" as the British call it.)

 So I’ve had two classes.  One on Tuesday and one on Wednesday.  They were both hardly longer than an hour.  I have two more classes (one on Thursday and one on Friday).  That’s it.  Four classes.  None of them longer than two hours.  None of the tutors (a.k.a. professors) give homework, just recommended reading.  I don’t know what to do!!!  I did read poetry for a while today, but then I gave it up to go walking with Abi.

First we walked through Pittville Park.  Then we were planning  on walking to the racecourse.  Cheltenham is famous for its racecourse.  Even the royals come to this racecourse.  The big races are in the middle of March.  Apparently we’ll be descended upon by 250,000 race attendees  for four or five days in two months or so.   

 (The racecourse.)

Today however, the courses were empty and we found this little rambling path that went around the course.  We followed it towards the countryside that we could see in the distance.  It actually wasn’t as far away as we thought it would be, and suddenly we were in another town: Prestbury.  Oh my goodness.  It was beautiful.   This is what I had hoped England would look like.  I’m getting used to the city, but oh wow, I love the country.  It was a good day…even if my fingers were frozen so much so that they wouldn’t straighten.

Somehow going for walks or writing blogs just seems more important than doing “homework”…hopefully that’s okay.

Bath

Bath.

As in the Roman Baths.  As in Jane Austen and Persuasion.  As in Bath, UK. 

I liked it.

The bus ride was really pretty.  It’s so green in England.  Like, brilliantly green.  Even though most of the trees don’t have their leaves (and for January, it’s surprising how many trees do have their leaves) they still appear green because of the moss or lichen growing all over the bark.  Then there’s the rest of the wood that hasn’t been smothered by growing things and it’s all dark and wet from the constant moisture.  The dark stands out against the bright green.  And then there’s sheep, which contrast nicely with the green and the dark wood…

When we got there, we stopped first at Sally Lunn’s (the oldest Tea Room in Bath—think hundreds of years) and ate some of their famous buns (think hamburger buns x 4 toasted, sweetened, slathered with butter, jelly, and clotted cream). 

(My famous Sally Lunn's bun)

Next we went to see the Roman Baths (created after the emperor Claudius conquered Britain—he only stayed there 2 days after the conquest.  Then he went home.  Lame.).  I have to admit—I really go for all that ancient stuff.

Next we found our way to the Jane Austen museum, which was a bit of a disappointment.  They didn’t even have anything I wanted at the gift shop.  Then we wandered around some more (I was in charge of finding our way for much of the trip.  I don’t know how that happened).  We strolled past a rugby team boarding their coach bus.  Their necks were about as thick as my waist.  We ate a leisurely lunch, did some shops, visited the Bath Abbey.  Oh, how I LOVE old churches/cathedrals/abbey/monasteries.

  

So grateful for the opportunity to see a part of the world I’ve never seen before.

Four Day Whirlwind; Introduction to Cheltenham

I had hoped to make a good impression with my first post, but too much has happened lately for me to think and write impressively—I just want to shoot this out quickly so that I can get it all down.  So, I’m going to do this in a kind of ‘flow-of-thought-fashion’. 

Here goes:

Up at 4:00 (Albuquerque time) to fly away by 6.  Two hour layover in Dallas/Ft. Worth.  Over three hour flight to JFK where I meet the rest of the group.  Six hour layover.  Eight hour flight to Heathrow.  Extremely uncomfortable.  Stupid in-flight movies.  Met by incredibly lovely BCA directors.  Hour and a half coach ride to the Cheltenham and our dorms.  After of unpacking, talking, and general-figuring-things-out I freaked out slightly (emotions and exhaustion) and fell asleep after being awake for over 40 hours.

Lots of information.  Meetings, meetings, meetings.  New friends.  Trying to sort ourselves out into little groups—I’m interested to see who will end up hanging out with who.  Haven’t met many English students yet because most won’t arrive to start the new term until Sunday.  Realized that Cheltenham is not what I would consider a “village”, but is in fact, a bustling city.  Discovered that it is much harder to manage walking the streets when the cars are driving on the wrong side of the road…oh, and that drivers—not pedestrians—have the right of way.   

(View from my window--second story.)

Visited my first two English pubs.  Bought my first pair of European boots.  Grocery shopped on three separate occasions.  Tried to make my hardly-bigger-than-a-breadbox room (with a provided-upon-arrival Southwestern duvet cover—come on, really?) more like a home.  Cut up the bottom of a soda bottle to catch the drips that are leaking out of the pipes in my bathroom.  Became acquainted with drain-o.  Said hello to the seagulls and pigeons that live in the abandoned brick building outside my window.  Didn’t sleep well.  Took a sleeping pill.  Slept wonderfully.  Made soup from a can.  Ate an amazing dinner at an Italian restaurant in an old cathedral (the pizza oven was on the altar).   Walked and walked, but still haven’t seen an eighth of all I need to see.  Preparing to go to Bath tomorrow—now that we’ve had a lecture on the Romans and the Celts and we know all the history behind the baths.  Praying lots.

 (On my walk to campus...)