london one ten

So I was supposed to already be back in St. Louis, except snow has plagued Britain and all study abroad students are stuck here until the airport is back to operating capacity. I currently have a flight scheduled to leave London for the 23rd in which I should arrive in St. Louis around 11pm, but the outlook for that to actually happen is looking grim. If that flight does indeed get canceled, I won’t be home until well after Christmas. Hopefully if that does occur, I will be heading to Dublin to stay with the family that we stayed with while we were in Dublin.

It’s been pretty hard, and everyone is anxious to get home, but the best that we can do is hope for a speedy homecoming.

My birthday was yesterday. It started off pretty dreary because we were all consumed with trying to figure out flight information, but towards the evening it turned into a great time. A bunch of my friends all came down to the hallway outside of our room and we played games like Knock 31 and Bananagrams. Then I got to Skype with my family, Autumn, and Kenny. It was the second best outcome that I could have wished for.

There is a winter carnival that takes place in Hyde Park every year called Winter Wonderland. It consists of merchant stands, food stands, amusement rides, and many statues of Santa.

We went into a funhouse.

This tunnel made me incredibly dizzy, the tunnel spun and the walkway rocked back and forth!

The last bit was all mirrors and glass, and I couldn’t find my way out! So Melissa and Morgan had to wait for me on the other side while they were free and I was still stuck in the maze!

Lots of fudge.

It snowed in London, and this is the view from my room the next morning. It’s supposed to snow again tomorrow, so here’s to hoping that it doesn’t delay my flight home on Sunday!

Hi friends, and hello to my future self who will come back to this blog to relive what you have experienced during this wonderful autumn semester in London.

I am now finished with my classes, all papers have been edited and submitted, all projects have been finalized and printed, all essays have been hastily written in their blue booklets, and all math equations have happily been solved.

Thursday was the day that I had most of my finals; my Gender and Madness final consisted of two essays, my International Relations final consisted of three essays, and my Modular Algebra final was four math problems that were solved.

My Topics in Theatre class final was a project where I read a play and designed everything for it, ranging from the set to the costumes. In my architecture class, there was a ridiculously hard multiple choice slide test that I might have done well on if I had been paying attention during the review session instead of drawing really cool Celtic knots in my notebook.

Overall, the range of finals-related activities that I did was a good variety, and the essays did not require the copious amounts of studying that was necessary for my friends and colleagues.

So now this week will serve as my “last minute tourist week in London” week. I am planning on going to a few markets. Portobello Market is an antique market, and Borough Market is a food market. There are hopes to tour the BBC, as well as my desire to explore once more the park in which I have lived for these four months. Also, there are still a few gifts that I must purchase for my loved ones, as it has proved difficult to find suitable gifts for everyone!

While this semester has had some very negative points for me in my life, I would change nothing at all. At times I was afraid that I was losing my love for traveling, becoming an apathetic traveler. But, after deep consideration, I know that it was apathy, but just plain exhaustion. Traveling every other weekend to different countries, rushing to the airport at 4am, and sleeping in hostels that could better be described as a mosquito colony can take a lot out of a person. What I have learned is that traveling is more than going places and seeing things. It requires research about the destination culture, knowledge of the language (beginners proficiency, of course) and customs, and the will to allow yourself to become lost and be okay with it. Working on an itinerary for the trip the night before you depart can be okay for a city that you have visited before, but when you are traveling in a group of people who have different expectations from the trip, those expectations need to be expressed so that they can fit into the plan well, and not hastily completed at the last minute during the trip.

The best thing that I have learned this semester is something that is so important to me, and my knowledge of it is a major player in my future.

Saint Louis is my home. I will travel away from it again, perhaps for long amounts of time, but I will never leave it. The world is beautiful, and its opportunities are unlimited, but the people that are in St. Louis, my people, are the most important part of my life. So, to my people, I’ll see you soon.

We went to an American diner located in Camden, called The Diner. The entire place was decorated in American swag.

I had a delicious Root Beer to drink.

And a delicious meal to match. On the menu was mashed potatoes and gravy (yes, I know, I broke the vegetarian rules, but I forgot to ask for no gravy!), sweet potatoes, greenbeans, stuffing, and….. CRANBERRY SAUCE! I love me some cranberry sauce.

I ate my food all gone!

A good time was had by all, and I am grateful for my friends who I was there with; Melissa, Morgan, Angie, Alyssa, Leigha, Sam, and Kelsey.

We took the Eurostar from London St. Pancras to Paris Gare du Nord on Friday morning. When we arrived, we dropped our bags off at our hotel and went to the Louvre. Since we are students at a European college, we had free entry.

We saw the major attractions of the museum, such as the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, and Winged Victory.

We also saw some Egyptian art as well.

There is an inverted pyramid in one of the lobbies, and I recreated a photo that I have from when I went to Paris in high school.

I have a car company!

We walked from the Louvre to Notre Dame, where they were putting ornaments on the Christmas tree.

We went to Moulin Rouge on two separate occasions, in order to see it during the day and at night, when it was lit up. Our hotel was on the same road as Moulin Rouge, and the walk from Moulin Rouge to our hotel took us through the Red Light District.

The region that we were staying in is called Montmartre. Historically, it is where the artists of the city live. It is the highest point of the city, and the Sacre Couer Cathedral sits up at the top.

We rode the Metro to Pere Lachaise Cemetery, where many famous people are buried.

The cemetery was incredibly large, but there were street signs within, and I took a photo of the map on my camera, so we were able to navigate through.

This is Oscar Wilde’s grave. It is customary to put on lipstick and kiss his grave.

There were heaps and heaps of beautiful stone memorials.

There was a whole row of memorials to people who died during the Holocaust.

Edith Piaf is buried in the cemetery, in a very simple marble grave.

Jim Morrison died while he was in Paris, and was buried at Pere Lachaise.

Frederic Chopin is also buried there.

We went to the Champs Elysees, where we saw the Arc de Triomphe, large stores, and the Christmas Market.

Of course, we went to the Eiffel Tower.

I went a little photo crazy, of course.

We also took a Seine river cruise, which was very cold! After that, we had dinner. I had vegetable soup, bread, and a delicious Rose wine.

On Sunday, we went to the Centre Pompidou.

There was an interactive exhibit.

This is by Picasso, called Arlequin. It’s probably the only Picasso that I actually like.

This is the main level of the Pompidou.

While in Paris, I was very comfortable. I was able to speak French, and I even got in a small argument with the hotel maid when she tried to take my uneaten breakfast! I really miss taking French classes, but luckily I am enrolled in a French film class for the Spring.

Paris, je t’aime.

I went to Dublin this weekend. We were supposed to wake up at 3:15 in order to catch our bus to the airport. However, unfortunately, we overslept and missed it. We had to take a taxi to the airport, which cost 120 pounds. Once at the airport, we flew from London to Dublin via Ryanair, and then spent the day in Dublin. We stayed with a family friend of Melissa, so at night her sister drove us to her house that was about 45 minutes outside of Dublin. On Saturday, we explored around the Irish countryside. Sunday morning, our flight left at 6:45.

We got tickets for the hop-on/hop-off bus tour of the city.

On the tour, we passed the Guinness brewery.

We got off the bus at the Jameson Distillery, and took a tour. We learned how the whiskey is made.

At the end of the tour, everyone in the tour group was given a sample of the whiskey. We could choose from a shot of whiskey, whiskey and coke, whiskey and ginger ale, and whiskey and cranberry. I got the whiskey and cranberry.

After the Jameson tour, we went to Trinity College. We intended to see the Book of Kells, but it cost 8 euro, so we decided to not see it.

After that, we went to Temple Bar, which is a section of the city with a lot of pubs.

The next day, Jo (our lovely host) took us around the area where she lives. We went to an area called Powerscourt.

We went to Powerscourt Falls.

From there, we went to Powerscourt House and Gardens.

There was a pet cemetery in the gardens that included the graves of cows and horses.

Later that night, Jo’s daughters tried to teach us how to Irish Stepdance. I’d say I learned the general step pretty well, but after that, I was a gonner.

On Sunday at 3:30am, Jo took us back to the airport so that we could catch our flight back to London.

I loved Ireland.

If all of you will remember back to when I met one of my idols, Imogen Heap, about a month ago, tonight was the night of her concert at Royal Albert Hall.

A stock image of the building, in daylight, without rain (which is the opposite of what I saw it in):

We sat very high up, but the seats were enjoyable and we could see. Pardon the terrible photo quality. My Nikon 35mm wasn’t permitted in, and I was using my smaller Canon point-and-shoot that’s been my trusty friend for years.

The show was split into two: the first was a world premiere of a film called “Love the Earth”, and a full orchestra played the music live to accompany it, which was recorded for the DVD. Immi wrote and conducted the movements, and was one of the editors of the movie.

Here are some images that I found of the show. I’m not sure if these are audience or professional photos.

After the movie, there was a break, and then she performed her normal concert.

The entire performance was fed live to the internet, where home viewers could watch the show from their couches, beds, and toilets. There were many a camera to be spotted, and two screens were placed in the venue so that we could see what the home viewers were seeing, which greatly helped us up in the balcony to see in better detail.

Overall, the concert was fantastic. The amount of talent that it takes for Immi to create such innovative music as she does for her albums as well as being able to fully write a piece of music for a full orchestra is mind-blowing. During the concert, she repeatedly used crazy instruments such as crystal glasses, a saw, a keytar, and much much much.

She is easily the most well-rounded and unique musical artist that I have ever known of.

Pisa was small. We got partially lost at one point because my GPS was guiding us in a driving manor, not a walking manor, from the train station to the Leaning Tower. But then we took a bus and it was all okay. We stayed in a nice little hostel right down the road from the piazza where the tower and the church were.

We sat in the grass for a good while, then walked around, and then there really wasn’t much to do. So we returned to our hostel and watched television/played cards until restaurants were open for dinner. At seven, we went and had our last Italian dinner. I had spaghetti and we all split a cheese plate, where it was decided that none of us like Brie.

Florence was the town that we stayed in for the longest. Our hostel was in a prime location, and the city was extremely walkable.

The Cattedrale di Santa Marie del Fiore was a major landmark for us, since we walked past it on our way to nearly everything.

We went to see Michelangelo’s statue of David. We did not know that we would wait in line for 4 hours. Apparently, the line was also long for other people, considering a person was born in line, and grew up enough to be able to form a sentence in the past tense and understand the meaning of an arrow symbol.

After waiting in the long line and paying to get in, we were informed that photographs were not allowed. This irritated me a bit, since every single other art gallery/museum that I have been to (not a million, but a fair share, including famous ones), photographs were allowed for the sculptures but not the paintings. There were very obnoxious guards going after anyone who attempted to take a photograph, and one caught Morgan, and created a ridiculous scene when Morgan did not treat her as an Almighty Security Guard. Morgan was forced to delete her images, but while this woman was having a cow, I am certain that every other tourist in the gallery took their chance and got a photo, including Melissa.

I understand why the rule is in place, and almost even support it, but the ways that the institution treated its visitors was completely unacceptable and this supposed masterpiece is being used solely as a profit making machine.

In the piazza of the Uffizi, a famous art museum, there stands a replica of David. He is standing and gazing in the direction of Rome.

I’m not exactly sure what was in this building, but we roamed into it and it was beautiful. According to Google Maps, it’s called Comune di Firenze.

There is a famous bridge that crosses the Arno river that sells very expensive jewelry.

We went to Basilica di Santa Croce, where many famous people are entombed.

Galileo Galilei:

Michelangelo:

Machiavelli: