my, I've outdone myself this time!

Today Kali and I went on a trip that Queen Mary had organized to Dover Castle and Canterbury.
We met the bus at 8:30 in the morning with a forecast of (thankfully) no rain, but cloudy skies and lots of wind. So most of these pics look pretty dark and foreboding, but I swear it wasn't really that dark outside.
When we got to Dover Castle, we found out that the wind was too strong for the central tower of the castle to be open, since it would be dangerous to be up that high and outside on the battlements with the wind. So our stay there was shortened to one hour instead of two. Kali and I really wanted to see the "secret wartime tunnels" which were used during WWII, so we literally ran to find them so we would still have time to explore.
The tunnels were really cool! Unfortunately there was a no picture policy inside, but we joined a guided tour of the tunnels. There are 4 levels, 2 were built during the Napoleonic wars and 2 were added during WWII. They were used as a medic post where they would patch people up and ship them to the nearest hospital. They were actually in use up to 1984 as a crucial part in the emergency plan for nuclear fallout. The tour guide pointed out that, since the tunnels are dug in chalk, they wouldn't have been much help against fallout and "they would have crisped up nicely".
It blew my mind that they just added on to something that was so old. Walking around there were additions to the castle that were clearly built in the 20th century right next to tunnels and walls built in the 13th and 14th centuries! I was trying to imagine the conversation: "Hey we need an emergency meeting place/hideaway/hospital" "well, you know we do have that big castle on the hill over there that has been around forever... would that work?"
After the tour Kali and I scampered around most of the grounds and castle and then met back with the groups and huddled against the wind for a bit until the bus came back. Then it was off to Canterbury.
When we got there, Kali and our friend Victoria found a little restaurant/cafe for lunch. Then we went to the cathedral and spent at least and hour and a half there. It was beautiful. And when the service started we were still wandering, so you could hear the choir singing and it was some of the most breath-taking music I have ever heard.
There were tons of dead people though, lots of really elaborate tombs. And, if you read the stones you were walking on, half of those were actually grave markers too. There was also a disturbing amount of plaques that read "so-and-so WAS here for about 200/300 years, but then we moved him to the room next door". Which really begs the question of "why the HECK do we keep moving these poor folks around so much?"
But all in all, well worth the 7 pounds it cost to get in. I highly recommend it.
After that, we walked around the shops and stuff and then headed back to London!
A downside of the day was that my camera died halfway through the cathedral, so until I borrow Kali's memory card and get the pics that I missed, here are some highlights.

english countryside

castle!

the white cliffs of Dover

a creepy tunnel i did NOT go into

this house was slanted because they used green wood or something, I forget the details. But it was the coolest children's bookstore I have ever seen inside with a cubby hole that was full of patchwork pillows for kids to sit and read. 

tea!

king henry IV and his wife

Busy day, but a pretty amazing one.
and so ends the longest blog post yet!

Today Kali and I went to go visit the British Museum.
WOAH DANG that place is huge!
We wandered around for about 2 hours an didn't see even close to half of the stuff in there! And when I say wandered I mean walked strait through some rooms, you could spend all day there and still have more to see especially if you stopped and looked at every display case.
What we did manage to see was pretty cool! Highlights were the Rosetta Stone, and lots of mummies. The cool thing about museums in the UK is that they are all free (except for special limited time exhibits) and you can take pictures in them (either that or they are exceptionally bad at enforcing that rule)

at a place across the street

outside the museum

check out the cool ceiling!

the Rosetta Stone!

 this clock is an example of a clock that clockmakers would make to be considered a "master clockmaker", sort of like a final exam into clock making.

congrats, you passed!

tomorrow my bus leaves for my trip to Canterbury and Dover and 8:15 in the morning... Which will probably be the earliest that I have woken up in a very long time.

And so life goes!

Today was my second day of classes. I had Britain and Europe and US Foreign Policy. Both seem very very interesting and I am not going to drop either, so my schedule is more or less set. I just need to sign and turn in one more paper to make it official.
Every Thursday there is a Farmer's Market on campus. I checked it out with Kali, mostly there was hot cooked food, but we did end up buying some apples. Next week I'll probably cave and get a tiny cactus that they had in the booth next door.
My US Foreign Policy class deserves further recognition just because it will be the hardest class I have taken thus far with by far the most interesting dynamic. Out of the 40ish people in the class I am the only American to my knowledge, it is being taught by 2 Canadians, and most of the other students are in the middle of writing their dissertations about politics or international relations and are very opinionated and knowledgeable. In my discussion group there are 6 British students, 1 Bulgarian, me, and the Canadian TA. Today in the discussion group, we basically just had an open forum and after all the other students went around and talked about where they think US foreign policy comes from and if domestic issues, the media individuals, and ideology issues had more sway in the decision making process (and I was feeling properly overwhelmed) the TA turned to me and asked "well what does the resident American think?" Although she quickly realized what an open-ended question that was and rephrased it into several smaller specific questions, it was still a pretty nerve-wracking experience.
So what did we learn? That I really need to keep up with current US political issues while I am over here.
Also the term "resident American" makes me feel like the class fish.
Queen Mary has a film society where once a week they watch a film and then go to a pub and talk (sometimes about the film even!). So I went to the first meeting today and we watched Forbidden Planet (1956). Then we went to a pub down the street and talked for a long while. I left after 3 hours and conversation was still going! But it was a ton of fun and there a bunch of nice friendly people who like watching obscure movies, so I'm sure we will all get along fantastic.

Squirrels here don't have rabies!

Isn't that cool? So if you wanted to, you could pet them!
My first day of classes was yesterday. I had my German cinema class and Gender and Politics. German cinema is going to be really fascinating and all sorts of fun where I will learn, as my professor said "absolutely masses of information". My Gender and Politics class sounds really interesting too. It is the first time they are teaching that class here, so it is cool because the professor is going to ask us for feedback a lot, and we will decide really what the class discussion is going to be on. Being a guinea pig is fun sometimes. The film industry is like politics in that it has been traditionally male dominated, so it will be interesting to see where the discussions go in terms of applying them to industries outside of British politics.
I had lunch with my friend Hannah today. For those of you who don't know her, she is a Queen Mary student year above me (So in her last year at undergrad here because the British only have 3 years) and studied at UM last year. It was so cool and crazy to see her in England, it was a bit surreal at first. I also signed up for the gym here today so I can keep running here. There are parks nearby, but it gets dark so early and the area it not quite safe for running outside. Also it is cold.
Last night there was a boat cruise on the river for the study abroad kids. It was fun, there was a DJ and a bar on the first floor of the boat and the top was open so there were some really pretty views of London. The downside was that it was FREEZING, but I stayed on the top most of the ride. The boat started at the Tower of London and went west to Big Ben and then turned around and went East to Millennium Stadium and then went back.

tower bridge from the dock

Kali and Lauren

the Eye all lit up

Big Ben again

and Parliament

the Canary Wharf skyline

Millennium Stadium from very far away

settling in

Today I went on a bus tour of London with other Queen Mary study abroad students. It was nice because we first went to all the place we went yesterday on our adventure. This as cool because yesterday we didn't really know what half of the buildings and statues we saw were, or that random buildings were significant in any way, so it was nice to learn about the places we found by accident.

the eye across the river

these two are of the building where where King Henry the VIII spent his first "official" night with Anne Bolyn. How romantic right? 

 

these hats are real bear fur, apparently they haven't found a synthetic material that they like yet.

st paul's cathedral 

 you can't see very well, but this is the bridge that in the 6th harry potter movie the death eaters blow up at the beginning. 

tower of london

tower bridge

 

bad pic, but this is the oldest thing in London, Cleopatra's needle.

After the tour was over, my friends Allison, Lauren and Kali (all adventure buddies from yesterday) and Zach and Thomas returned to campus to put on some more layers (it was so cold!) and then decided to take the 25 bus again to do some shopping. We got off once we found a Top Shop (there are about 3 on this bus route). After looking around a Top Shop and a neighboring H&M (I almost got this really awesome mariachi-looking jacket, but it turned out to be 35 pounds instead of 10... not worth it) we got school supplies. I finally  have a planner now, which is good because I have so many deadlines coming up for things that I was starting to panic. But now that everything is all lined out its cool.
Getting back was an unexpected adventure. We couldn't find the bus stop to return to QM because all the shops were on a one way street going to other direction. After wandering around we ended up getting on the 25 bus and riding it all the way around.
My flat-mates are all moved in now since classes start tomorrow, I have met most of them. Apparently there is a mouse on our floor though that is small enough to fit under doors.
There is a towel rolled up on the floor by my door and it will remain there until the mouse is gone.

Last night a group of us went to the pub right by campus. It was weird to order a drink and not be asked to show ID or anything. I guess that means I look older then 18... yay! Or, more likely, the people who run the pub are used to QM students and could tell I was American and thus probably 18.
I have 2 classes tomorrow, my German cinema class and Gender and Politics. I don't know where the film class is yet, so I need to figure that out before 10 AM.

Adventure time!

today a group of us decided to go on an adventure. (with the help of our newly purchased Oyster cards) we took a bus to Oxford Circle and, since we didn't really know quite where we were, decided to walk south. We ended up at St. James Park and we really excited when we found out that it is right near Buckingham palace. From there we could see Big Ben, so after stopping in a gift shop we went to see Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminster Abby. Then it was getting dark (which happens around 4 here) so we headed back which was another adventure in itself because 4 lines had delays or were closed today. but we are basically pros at the tube now (not really) and the group made it back all together! yay! 

chillin in a phone booth

Buckingham Palace

a guard (not wearing the red coat tho)

Fellow Springfield-ians! I realize that some of you may have been uneasy about traveling away from the Land of Lincoln. How does one function without our beloved 16th president's constant presence? How can I survive when I don't see that honest face at every turn? Fear not, I found him in London! 

good 'ol Abe

hello Westminster Abbey

I'll be seeing you again soon for that wedding yes?

one of the best pics I've ever taken while walking

Big Ben!

a guard with a horse!

the queens building on my campus

the street my campus is on

walking by oxford circle

 If you want to see exactly where we walked (ish).  it turned out to be quite the hike!


View Larger Map

Right, right. Jolly Good!

Well I made it!!!!!

My parents and I got to Chicago super early on Wednesday (as in 4 hours early) because there was problems printing out my boarding pass because of how long I am staying in Europe. A nice lady at the Springfield airport printed it out for us so I just waited a while at my gate reading and such.

The flight was a long one. I watched the Social Network and then looked at the tracker thingy they have on the screen on the back of the seats, thinking we would be at least into the ocean by now, but we were just over New York and I still had 6 hours of flight left.

Get Economy Plus btw if you fly United. Extra leg room is good!

So I landed, tried to realize that it was Thursday already, got through customs with minimum hassle, and then trekked through Heathrow from Terminal 1 to Terminal 3. 

2 hours later I was on campus. Got my key in literally 2 seconds and went to explore my new room.

Here it be in all its glory.

the loverly view outside my window...

if you look this way you can see the canal and some of the park next door

the bathroom... eek! :/

skyline. apparently there's some construction going on

better pic of the canal/park

This is monumental folks! This is the first time EVER I have had my own room.

But it is on the smaller side with little to no storage space, although the bed does flip up so I can put my suitcases underneath it.

the rest of the day was a blur. My friend from UM Kali arrived, we went to a free dinner (at which they gave everyone beer instead of like soda or water or something. Welcome to the UK I guess!) and went shopping for necessary things like toilet paper and soap.

Today we went to a looooong orientation lecture. Then I went around, got the time tables for my classes, which should hopefully all work out, and officially registered as a student at Queen Mary!

Kali and I are off to brave the Tube in search of a shop Argos where hopefully we will both buy phones.

Yesterday I didn't have access to Internet or a phone and was feeling more then a little lost and detached from the world. Now that I have Internet it is better.

That's all for now!