Done with the September program

Yesterday I went to my last Children’s Literature class and then spent most of the day finishing up my paper. When I was done, I went out dancing with some friends which turned out to be a lot of fun. Today, I slept in, printed my paper and turned it in! I’m officially done with my first British course. Then I went into Brighton with a couple friends to do some shopping at Primark which is a big clothing store with a lot of cheap clothing. I don’t usually buy very much but as an early birthday present to myself, I bought a bunch of purple things. I got a cute shirt, a nice coat, flats, a scarf and two headbands, all for less than forty pounds. We then got some ice cream and took the bus back to campus where we went to the Leaving Reception for the Sussex in September program. Most of the group had plans to go out clubbing after the reception, but I had noticed a carnival had been set up in Brighton, so I convinced a couple of other girls to come with me. We had a blast!! Since it was Thursday, they had a special deal where all the rides were a pound, so we went on a bunch of rides and got candy floss (cotton candy). Our favorite ride was the tilt-a-whirl, which Rachel and I went on twice. The carnival workers actually ran around the ride spinning the cars extra fast, and it wasn’t scary like this one ride we went on that may make me lose my voice tomorrow I screamed so much! Then Rachel and I decided (being hyped up on sugar from the cotton candy) that we didn’t want to go back to school quite yet, so we walked down to the beach and hung out there for a while before coming back to school.

Buckingham Palace

Here I give a Royal wave in front of the carriage that has a history of attending Royal weddings. Foreshadowing my future?

Since Buckingham Palace is only open to the public through the end of September, I decided to use my day without class to go visit. Last week, I casually mentioned my desire to visit the palace to a friend, and we decided to go together. So Amy and I set off this morning to London. I began rereading Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (the British version though!) for probably the twentieth time while on the train for class tomorrow and wished we were traveling into King’s Cross Station instead of Victoria Station so I could pretend I was going to Hogwarts with Harry. We arrived just in time to see the changing of the guards. I’m using the word “see” in the loosest terms here because there were literally hundreds and hundreds of people crowding around the gates and in the street, all trying to take pictures of the same thing. Still, it was one of those can’t-miss events, and I managed to get a few good pictures by standing on my tiptoes, holding the camera above my head, and randomly snapping shots. My favorite part was when the band starting playing the Pirates of the Caribbean theme song (after Dancing Queen and Mamma Mia) during the ceremony. The ceremony ended right in time for us to get to our 12:15 appointment at the Queen’s Gallery, which was a museum of many of the beautiful pieces of art collected by the royal monarchs over the years. Next came a tour of the State Rooms in the palace. They were absolutely gorgeous! We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside, but I had already taken so many pictures of men in red uniforms and giant hats that I was okay with putting my camera away for a while and just taking in the sites! After seeing the state rooms, the tour emptied into the Royal Gardens (which I was a little miffed to find did not consist of many flowers). By this time, I was beginning to wilt, so we stopped for some lunch at a little sandwich shop, where I ordered a delicious Belgium waffle. For the final part of our tour package, we headed over to the Royal Mews where they house the carriages and horses that transport the Queen, which were also lavishly decorated. I was quite exhausted by this point and was happy to take a nap on the train ride back to campus, where I found myself refreshed enough to start my paper. I'm attempting to attach a video of the changing of the guards- it will give a good feel for the crush of the crowd (and a really good view of that guy in the hat) while the band plays Pirates.

Food and Paper

I went to class this morning and then came back to my dorm to start outlining my paper. I didn't get too far since I spent a lot of time unpacking from my trip and putting up pictures! Then I went out to lunch in Brighton with a couple friends. When I got back, I started my paper outline but then it was time to go out to dinner with another group of friends since it was the birthday of the first girl I met in the Sussex program (at the airport my first morning in England). We went to a nice Chinese restaurant in the Brighton Marina. It was yummy but they only gave us half a class of water and we had to pay for it!! So after Chinese, we stopped at McDonalds for water and ice cream. When I got back to my dorm, I finally finished that pesky paper outline and now it's off to bed so I'm rested for my trip to tour Buckingham Palace tomorrow.

Weekend in Cardiff, Wales

Thursday:
I went to class in the morning and then packed for the trip. I only took a backpack and a purse so I had to pack light! Jena, my traveling buddy for the weekend, and I met up with some other people heading into London for the train ride. We had a little trouble getting train tickets and probably paid too much, but we really didn’t have a choice since we needed to get to London on time to catch the MegaBus to Cardiff. It was close, but we made it on the trains and then on the bus and we were off the Wales! We made it to Cardiff without a problem but we got dropped off in the middle of the city and had to figure out how to get to our hostel. We ended up taking a cab, checked into the hostel and stayed in for the night. The hostel was nice and they provided sheets and I rented a towel for 50p. We stayed in a room with three girls from Germany who were nice but were not very considerate. They definitely had the rule of the room and we tried to stay out of the way.

Friday:
We got up Friday morning and had the delicious free breakfast provided by the hostel with bacon, eggs, hash browns, croissants, etc. We decided not to spend money on taking a bus so we walked about thirty minutes to the city centre. We visited Cardiff Castle first and spend the morning exploring and taking pictures. We went to Subway for lunch to save money but took it across the street to a really pretty garden and had a picnic in the flowers. We explored another garden after lunch and then went to the National Museum. After the museum we explored some of the little shops in Cardiff, and then came the long hike back to the hostel. We stopped at a grocery store on the way and got this great meal deal for 5 pounds which we cooked up in the hostel kitchen. After dinner we ran into some other girls from Sussex who were staying at the same hostel and went out to dinner with them (minus the food of course since our meal was so cheap and delicious already). We took the notoriously late buses to the City Centre this time though so we wouldn’t be walking in the dark. Then we went to an Irish pub and an 80s dance club before heading back to the hostel for the night.
Saturday:
We decided to spend the day with the other group of seven girls, so after another nice breakfast, we walked across the street from the hostel to Roath Park which had gorgeous gardens, a playground and a lake! We spent the rest of the morning there, taking pictures of the flowers and playing on the playground. We then took a bus to the City Centre where we caught a bus to St. Fagan’s, a historical village a little bit like Williamsburg. We ate Nutella sandwiches made at breakfast for lunch and explored the village. We also found another castle on the grounds which had more gorgeous gardens. We were all pretty tired by this time so we headed back into town and Jena and I separated from the bigger group to get the same meal deal at the grocery, cooked it up, and then went to bed early. Saturday was the only day we didn’t carry all of our stuff around with us because we locked it up with the other girls’ stuff. The other days we had to tote around all that we brought!

Sunday:
We had the free breakfast for the last time and walked into the City Centre. The other group of Sussex girls had left the night before so Jena and I were on our own again. We found that it’s a lot easier to travel with fewer people though, so it was nice that it was just the two of us. Our German roommates had given us some sightseeing bus passes the evening before. They were good for 24 hours so we were able to use them that morning to get from the City Centre to Cardiff Bay. We walked around the bay and got some lunch at a different grocery store. Then we sat on the wharf for a while before deciding to splurge and take a four pound boat trip around the bay. It was really nice and then we got ice cream as a treat for eating so cheaply all weekend. Our bus tickets had expired by this point so we walked from the Bay into the City Centre where we were able to catch the MegaBus into London and then a train and a bus back to campus. There was plenty of walking all weekend, and we traveled pretty cheaply- I think I spend less than 150 pounds for the entire trip. It was also a good practice trip for future trips!

100 Akre Wood

Above: on the Poohsticks Bridge. Below: in the sixty-something trees

I had class this morning then packed a lunch and headed out on a class field trip to Ashdown Forest, more commonly known as the Hundred Acre Wood because E.H. Shepard got his ideas for the illustrations for Winnie the Pooh there. If you compare my pictures with illustrations in the book, they are quite similar! We saw what people suppose to be the sixty-something trees in a circle, a Heffalump trap, Roo’s sandpit, and the enchanted place at the top of the Forest. Then we took a short drive and a longer walk to the Poohsticks Bridge where Christopher Robin really did play as a child. We of course had to play Poohsticks but my stick was a bit lagging and ended up somewhere around fifth place. I don’t think Pooh would have minded. We then drove into a nearby village where there was “Pooh Corner,” a shop filled with Winnie the Pooh merchandise! Finally, it was time to come back to campus and I had to do laundry for the first time here, and it was very expensive and confusing. Luckily, I went with Jena, so together we managed to sort it out, and now I have all clean clothes. Just in time too, as I am going to Wales from Thursday until Sunday, so I’ll have to blog extra on Sunday to make up for the missed days! Also, the reason this post is late coming up is because I went out dancing last night. The dancing part was okay, but the best part of the night was when a guy on the bus on the way home started singing classic Disney songs out loud and the entire top of the double decker bus joined in!

A low-key day

Today was a pretty low-key day; I woke up to a steady downpour that continued throughout the morning while I wrote my paper for Children’s Lit. Then I went into Brighton with some other girls and they went shopping and I sort of browsed around. I then returned early to watch Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire which was being shown for my class. Unfortunately, I was the only one who showed up to the viewing since people had already seen it or were too busy writing their papers to come. But I stayed and watched it anyway! Then I came back to my room for dinner and wanted to watch more Harry Potter, so I watched some of A Very Potter Musical on YouTube (which I would highly recommend if you’re a HP fan who also likes comedy). Nothing too exciting today, but every now and then you need one of those do very little days!

The Globe

sunset over the Thames:

I went to class this morning and then had time to make lunch and outline my paper before it was time to head to London for the evening. A few other girls and I had dinner right on the Thames River at a pizza place and then the whole group met up at the Globe Theatre for a production of As You Like It. I’m quite a fan of Shakespeare (especially after spending a whole year studying him freshman year in college) so I was really excited to see a play performed at the Globe, and it definitely lived up to its expectations. We had seats in the uppermost section looking down at the stage and I rented a cushion for the hard seat. The play was funny and well performed but long enough that I was glad not to be in the standing section. On the way back to campus, I managed to finish The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, so that I got a lot accomplished today while also having fun.in front of the Globe and in the Globe!