Friends

First of all, let it be known that I am a horrible blogger. I apologize that I'm bad at updating, but on the bright side the anticipation builds!

After having been here only a short time, I had the fortune of seeing several familiar faces. My friend Stephanie from Delta Gamma back at DePauw came to Canterbury to visit a friend and spent a few days with me in London. We got to do some of the fun touristy things together before she had to head back.

Stephanie and I eating a very exotic meal of pizza, considered an exclusively English dish by many...

 After my class on Friday, we went to the Tower of London, getting caught in rain and hail on the way. Unfortunately, we got there too late in the day for a visit because it was closing in 45 minutes, and it takes longer than that to experience the Tower. We decided we would come back the next day and fit it in.

It looked so warm and welcoming inside the Tower while we were freezing outside.

We ended up heading to the British Museum, which, conveniently, was open into the evening. It's a truly massive building, and we only went through the Egyptian and Greek exhibits.

Me in front of the museum.

The Rosetta stone.

 After the museum, we met up with another DG sister, Amanda Lane, for dinner. Then after that, Steph and I met up with the DePauw winter term group at their hotel, which included more DGs: Rachel Rominger (One of my littles!!!!), Ashley Catillo, and Rachel Lemonds (New House Manager!!!) and one of my good friends, Zaq Keller! We went and got them some food, and Zaq and I downed two pitchers of Sangria because we are awesome.

Sisters and friends. And Sangria.

The next day, Stephanie and I went back to the Tower of London and actually got to go inside! We saw so many cool things, including a 530 carat diamond which we couldn't take pictures of. But seriously: 530 CARATS. The crown jewels were all gorgeous and the armor was quite impressive. We also got to go into the church in which many famous people are interred, including the wives that King Henry VIII had executed.

This is the site where truly important executions took place. The majority took place outside the grounds on Tower Hill, but Queen Anne Boleyn, Lady Jane Gray, Jane Boleyn, and Queen Catherine Howard all met their doom here.

In the next post (which will theoretically be soon): pictures of my room and Parliament.

My Start in London

On the day I left for London after a nice lunch with my mom, dad, sister Beth, and cousin Megan, I went to the Indianapolis airport for my flight to Toronto. At my gate, I spotted a familiar face: Roy Leaf, a fellow DePauw student and a member of my first year seminar class. Turns out he was on my flight to Toronto, but instead of continuing on to London like I was, he was going to Chile. (Yes, going north to Canada in order to fly south to Chile). We didn't sit near each other on the plane, but when we got to Toronto, our flights were at side-by-side gates, which was so convenient. Lucky me, I had someone to talk to before my flight and someone to watch my bags while I got food, used the restroom, and all that jazz.

On my flight to London, I sat next to an old British woman, who, while very nice, had a distinct smell and kept putting her feet in my foot space while she was sleeping. Needless to say, I didn't sleep on the plane. Instead, I watched three movies: Going the Distance, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, and Never Let Me Go. I found them okay, boring, and good respectively.

When I arrived at Heathrow, I nabbed all of my bags and was conveniently directed to the group for Queen Mary students that would take via bus to the campus. We drove right through downtown London to get to Queen Mary, but I kept dosing at intervals because I was tired. When we got to school, I got my key and found my room, then napped til dinner.

Most of campus wasn't back, so it was bascially international students for the first weekend. I met a lot of people and sampled local restaurants. I also took a bus tour of London, saw some sights, and oriented myself with the city. We got off the bus to see Buckingham Palace, St. Paul's Cathedral, and London Bridge (which, incidentally, is not one of the more interesting bridges as both the Tower and Millenium bridges surpass it in coolness).

M16 building, aka, where James Bond would work if he were real.

St. Paul's Cathedral. It was difficult to get a full shot from so close up but it's really gorgeous.

The City of London area. The torpedo shaped one is called "The Gherkin"

Classes started on Monday, and after initial struggles getting my schedule finalized, I'm now in four really exciting classes. On Mondays from 1-3 I have King Arthur, which is about Arthurian legend, why it remains such a popular topic for authors, and all that jazz. Then I have no class on Tuesday. On Wednesday I have Architecture in London 1837-Present from 12-2, on Thursday, I have Text, Art, and Performance in London from 1-3, then on Friday I have Time, Narrative, and Culture from 10-12. Overall, not a bad schedule if I do say so myself.

In upcoming blogposts: Visits with friends, descriptions of Queen Mary, room, and flatmates. Stay tuned!