Imperial War Museums

Last night I went on the Jack the Ripper tour with a few new friends. It was pretty cool to hear all of the gruesome stories where they actually took place, but it's a shame that most of the original buildings are gone from heavy bombing during WWII. Afterwards, I took my friends to Fleet Street (an area that I am now becoming quite familiar with) and returned to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese to have a pint. After the pubs closed, we made our way to the Thames embankment and walked towards Westminster. At night, most of the buildings are lit up and look really pretty.

Today was a marathon day for me. I spent the afternoon in two museums, both part of the Imperial War Museum.

First, I went through the Cabinet War Rooms used by Churchill during WWII and the Churchill Museum. They are in the basement of a building filled with offices right near Westminster, and have been well preserved. Throughout the war, the bunkers remained a secret to the Germans, and the phones ran 24 hours a day for the course of the war. In my favorite part, you see a door marked "lavatory" that was always locked, and all of the men (except for the PM) thought it was just Churchill's private bathroom. Turns out, it was a secret phone room that had a direct line from Churchill right to FDR. There was also a museum detailing Churchill's life and personality which was really interesting. I spent about 3 hours there, and I can easily say that this is my favorite museum so far in London. Upon leaving, I was handed a brochure for another Imperial War Museum not too far away that had a Holocaust exhibit and free admission, so I headed over there.

From the tube, I walked through some not so nice looking neighborhoods, and I found a small market run by some African nuns. They were dancing around and blasting music, and, this is for you Mikey P: I felt straight out of Sister Act.

After I found the other War Museum, I went in and saw some great exhibits on both world wars. The picture to the left is of the entrance to the war exhibits, and as you can see, it's a pretty modern museum. They also had exhibits on children in the war, a simulated trench from WWI, and a simulation about the 1940 Blitz on London. From there, I went to an exhibit on Secret Soldiers, which told me all about MI5 and MI6 operations during the wars. Eventually I made my way to the Holocaust exhibit, which was really well done. It was not too crowded for a free museum, and I would definitely go back again.

After I got back into Kensington, I went to Harrods for the first time. It was pretty crazy. I spent a little time in the De Beers diamond room and then went to the designer gallery. I tried to take a picture of a £5,000 Oscar de la Renta gown and got yelled at. I went on the Egyptian escalator and saw the Diana memorials. Finally, I found a Krispy Kreme stand in the basement, got a doughnut, and headed over to Hyde Park.

At Hyde Park, I saw the west end of the park, where the Serpentine and the Princess Diana memorial are. The Diana memorial (on the right) is a circular fountain which is also a wading pool. I ate my doughnut with my tired feet in the memorial, and then stayed there to read for a bit. When I was sufficiently rested, I went to Kensington Gardens across the street. Here, I saw the Peter Pan statue, Kensington Palace, and a few more memorials. Eventually I found a tube station and headed back home.

I feel like I am finally getting my bearings in the city. Today, several people stopped me for directions and I was actually able to help them. Although I was on my own again today (my flatmates did Buckingham...too crowded for me...), I feel like I see more that way, and I definitely am better oriented. I'm not ready to ditch my map anytime soon though...

Soho, Westminster, and Belgravia

Wednesday I only worked a half day in the morning, and then I had a walking tour of Soho and the north West End for my British Pop Culture class. My teacher showed us some nice music clubs in the area, and took us to Denmark Street where the Beatles, Rolling Stones, and Elton John recorded. Then, my teacher took us near Carnaby Street (where the Swinging Sixties started) and then to the Hare Krishna temple.

Yesterday was my day off, and I got up early to start walking around. I headed over to Baker Street and found the location of the Beatles' Apple Studios, which was unfortunately under scaffolding. Then I went over to the Beatles store to look at some memorabilia. After a while, I had to head over to Trafalgar Square to meet up with my Pop Culture class. We went in the National Gallery and saw some Van Gogh, Picasso, Monet, and Seurat, among other artists.

After the class, I walked down Whitehall Road, where I ran into Scotland Yard, the museum of the guard horses, 10 Downing Street, and a bunch of WWII memorials. When I got to Westminster, I took the tube into central London, where I visited the Temple Church again but just missed the last entry. Then, I walked St. Paul's to the Millennium Bridge and the Old Bailey.

Today, I went to Soho again for breakfast at a French bakery, Maison Bertaux, for a croissant and coffee. Delicious. Then, I headed back to Chelsea for a walking tour of Sloane Square and the Chelsea hospital, which is a retirement village for widowed veterans. Afterwards, we got some gellato from a little stand.

Tonight I'm going on the Jack the Ripper walking tour with a few friends. Should see some spooky stuff!

Hope everyone is having a nice weekend!

Weekend in Edinburgh, Scotland

I had a fabulous weekend. In Scotland. In EdinBRAAAAA (as I was told to pronounce it by a coworker).

We took the train up on Friday morning from King's Cross, and during our 5 hour journey we got to see some English countryside and a bit of the blue North Sea. I had a short exchange with a little Scottish boy who had orange hair, and looked like a young version of Ron Weasley from Harry Potter. He asked me if I was an American, and he was pretty cute. We eventually got to Edinburgh at around 2, and walked out of the train station to the sound of bagpipes.

My two flatmates and I dropped our bags off at our B&B right near the city center. The room was about twice as big as our entire flat back in London, and it had a great view with comfortable beds. We set off exploring the city, and walked towards Princes St. and St. Andrew's square. Later we climbed to the top of Calton Hill, the site of an observatory and several national monuments. Here's a pic of me on the national monument at the top:


After that, we stopped for dinner in a small pub, where I met some interesting Scottish men. We were pretty exhausted from the early train ride and decided to have an easy night with the satellite (!) TV in our room. We got some Tennent's beer, which may be my new favorite, and some digestives (cookies meant for tea time) and went to bed early.

On Saturday, we were up early for a day tour of the Highlands, Stirling, and Loch Lomond. The highlands were beautiful, and none of the pictures I have do it any justice. Loch Lomond (the one from the song "you take the high road, I'll take the low road, and I'll be in Scotland afore ya") is the biggest freshwater lake in Britain where many Scots go to vacation. We took a boat tour around the lake, and saw all of the luxury hotels and a few castles. After that, we headed over to Aberfoyle for lunch at the base of the highlands. I had a steak pie with fresh grass-fed beef, and it was delicious.


On Sunday, our train didn't leave until 7PM so we had a full day to see the rest of Edinburgh. We started out at Edinburgh Castle, the inspiration for Hogwarts Castle from the Harry Potter series (there's a theme here...). The series was actually started by JK Rowlings in a little coffee shop in the city where she lived for several years. The castle was pretty touristy and didn't really have that much stuff inside it, but I did enjoy it. I probably wouldn't go back again, but it was worth it for one time.

After Edinburgh Castle, we walked the Royal Mile (High Street) where there was a large crafts market. After dropping a bunch of pounds (British Pounds, that is) we headed over to Holyrood Palace, the summer residence of the queen. We were able to walk through the apartments of Mary Queen of Scots and saw the ruins of the abbey. The abbey was destroyed by a group of Catholic-hating Protestants, and was the inspiration for Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 3 in A Minor, or, the Scottish symphony. After the palace, we headed up another crag in the area, Salisbury Craig, to get some views of the city.




After climbing back down the mountain, we had to head over to the train. I would love to see more of Scotland in the future.

I had to be to work early this morning, but at noon, everyone went over to the local football pitch (in central London, heart of the financial district) to play for an hour. During our "adult recess" I asked one of my coworkers if she had ever heard of Brett Favre, and she hadn't. Our two cultures are definitely different.

This week I have two papers due, so I will be busy until Wednesday, but afterwards I am free to explore the city again. I will hopefully update you with my findings later in the week. Until then!

Hello!

This Monday and Tuesday I worked 8 hour days at my internship. I am starting to feel more in place there and I am still learning a lot. On Monday, one of my boss bet one of my coworkers that he couldn't eat however many Penguins (basically extra-rich Kit-Kats) in 15 minutes, so that was entertaining. He ended up eating 12 in 15 minutes, and my boss owed him 60 GBP. On Wednesday, I just had a half day at work, but then I had to go to 5 hours of class. At least that's over with until next week.

Today was my day off, so I went over to Hyde Park to go explore. Hyde Park is the equivalent to Central Park in NYC, and it's filled with memorials and monuments to various events in British History. It used to be part of the monarch's parks until it was opened to the public in the 1600s. I only got to see about half of it today, so I'll have to go back some other time to see everything.

Tomorrow my flatmates and I leave for Edinburgh! We will be back late on Sunday night, so I will not be able to update until Monday or later. Have a nice weekend!

Busy Busy Weekend!

I haven't updated in a while, and I have a lot to share. Go get a cup of coffee, use the bathroom...this will be a long post.

Wednesday I woke up with a bad cold and had 4 hours of internship followed by 5 hours of classes. It was a long day, but I made it through. On Thursday for my British Pop Culture class, our prof took us to the British Museum and we had a small your. We didn't get to see much because it was already late in the day, but it seems like you would need a whole 3 days to get through the whole thing. I did get to see the Rosetta Stone, which is much bigger than I was expecting.

On Thursday night, my flatmate Maddie and I went out to explore central London (the ancient city). We started out on the infamous Fleet Street, and walked in the footsteps of Charles Dickens and Shakespeare. We each had a pint at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese pub, where Dickens and Dr Samuel Johnson (a famous Brit who wrote the dictionary) liked to write. It was rebuilt in 1667 after the London fire, and it now has 3 bars on different levels, with a large open cellar room for sitting. After that, we found the Tipperary, which is the oldest Irish pub in London. It was one of the only buildings to survive the fire, which makes it one of the oldest buildings in central London. We found Dr Johnson's house and a statue of his cat Hodge, sitting on top of a dictionary.

After that, we set out to see the supposed living place of Sweeney Todd, if he even existed. When we stopped at 186 Fleet Street, we met a group of people being led by another one of their friends on a ghost tour of old London. They invited us to join them, and they took us around the Temple of the city, where crusaders were blessed before they went to battle in the 11th century. We also stopped at the Blackfriar Saloon, a 900 year old pub, and had a pint. At the end of the night, we said goodbye to our new friends, and made it home safely.

On Friday, my flatmates and I did a little shopping on Kensington High Street and then went to the Victoria and Albert Museum. The V&A Museum, like most other museums in London, is free admission. My favorite exhibit was the Theatre and Performance section, where they had old outfits worn by Mick Jagger and Elton John, along with a large tribute to BBC's Top of the Pops. We had to get home early, because we had a daytrip to Stonehenge and Bath planned for the early morning.

Stonehenge, on Saturday, was pretty boring. There were way too many people there, and it was kind of lackluster, so my friends and I just took some interesting pictures to try and spice it up a bit. Good thing we were only there for 45 minutes, and then we were off to Bath, an ancient Roman settlement.

Bath was beautiful. It is a middle sized town with hills all around it and a little river running through it. Nicholas Cage used to own a house there, and it's rumored that Johnny Depp is looking to buy a house there. We toured the city and the Roman bath, and sampled some of the spring water.


Today, my flatmates Maddie, Lindsay and I went on a daytrip to Greenwich, which is just east of London. We wanted a different experience, so we opted to travel by boat. We took a commuter ferry all the way up the Thames and ended up right in the heart of Greenwich. The city has a large Royal naval college in it, and it has the national maritime museum. We got lunch in the Greenwich Market, which was filled with food from all over the world. I got the most delicious gyro I have ever eaten from a small Turkish vendor.


From there we explored the royal naval museum, where I got to try on some knight's armor and got to hold a jousting lance. From there we climbed the hill in Greenwich Park to the Royal Observatory. There, after waiting in line for 20 minutes, I got to stand on the Prime Meridian separating the western and eastern hemispheres. The view from the top, however, was more exciting than the meridian. We could see all the way to London from the hill. We took the ferry back from Greenwich, and had a nice nap on the boat.






















My flatmates and I are busy planning our travels for the rest of our stay in the UK. Looks like I'll be headed off to Ireland next weekend!

Weekend and my Internship

Saturday was my last free day. My flatmates and I went to Hampton Court Palace. Here's a link if you're interested: http://www.hrp.org.uk/hamptoncourtpalace/ . This is one of the palaces that Henry VIII lived in with his many wives. We also had some nice weather to tour the acres of gardens and to walk through the moderate sized hedge maze. They were also kind enough to install this extremely campy wooden statue with wooden people sitting at the bottom. What at excellent photo opportunity. The palace also had another kodak-ready moment in the King's great hall. I do have many more serious pictures, which I will post on Facebook at the end of the week.





















This past Monday I started my internship in downtown London. I get off the tube in the middle of the historic city and walk past the Bank of England on my commute. My office is on the 5th floor of a small office building. About 12 people work there, and I am one of three women. It is an executive headhunting firm that deals with everyone in the finance industry, especially corporations like Merrill Lynch, Goldman-Sachs, Citi, and Deutsche Bank. Today I spent the day making flow charts and spreadsheets of the VPs for Citi. It seems like a great way to learn all the aspects of investment banking without doing any actual finance work.

My colleagues are very helpful and are a lot of fun, and the office is more relaxed than I thought it would be. We have a large flat screen TV in the office that shows news in the morning and gets switched to cricket at noon. Today we even had an office cricket game, where the loser had to go down the street to pick of coffees. There is another intern my age from Villanova here on a similar program, and he has only been here for a week so he is as equally lost as I am. I can only work 20 hours a week with my visa, so I will be working Monday, Tuesday, and a half day on Wednesday. Classes start tomorrow, though, so I will be very busy!

Exploring the City

Today was quite the day on the tube. My flatmates and I set out to find our internship sites around the city. My internship is only a few blocks away from the Bank of England in the heart of the financial district. The building is in the middle of being remodeled, so there is scaffolding surrounding it, but it looks pretty corporate inside. From there we went to the other internship sites, and eventually made our way back to Baker Street. On Baker Street, we stopped for fish and chips (with delicious malt vinegar) and some ale. Then we found the address for the Sherlock Holmes museum, which we were unable to enter because it was closed for the evening. From there, we made our way to Westminster.

The tube stairs lead directly to parliament, the clock tower, and Westminster Abbey. Although most of the major landmarks are being cleaned and remodeled for the 2012 Olympics, they looked just like they do in history books. From there, we made our way over to Trafalgar Square, where as a special summer treat, they were playing Dirty Dancing and were giving away free watermelon slices.

It was a long and hot day here in London (probably around 85F), and I am exhausted. Hampton Court Palace and the World Cup final tomorrow!

Arrival and Acclimation

Hello friends and (mostly) family!

I have made it safely to England. I have unpacked. And I have survived left hand driving streets for two days. It is an understatement to say that the "look right" and "look left" signs have saved my life several times.

My flat is small and filled with IKEA furniture, and is located in Earl's Court in the Royal borough of Kensington and Chelsea, just outside of central London. There are a total of five flats in the building, all students from my CAPA program, and there are five other girls in my flat. I am happy to report that we all came over with the same expectations, and are getting along quite well. It is an adjustment to live in such close quarters, and the streets are quite loud at night, but we all are managing.

On the first day, I was met at the door by a CAPA staff member, Kerian, who kindly carried my bags and showed me my flat. He gave my flatmates and I a walking tour, where he pointed out the local tube and bus station, the best pub around, and some great places to eat. We spent the rest of the day desperately trying to stay awake to avoid further jet lag, but our several pints at the pub didn't exactly help.

The second day was filled with CAPA internship orientation, where we learned that our interviews start on Monday and that our supervisors and coworkers will often poke fun at us in humor that we won't understand. My internship is with a finance company called Options Group, and is located in the central City of London, the "historic core" of Greater London. I think it's safe to say that my internship will be a great look into the average life of a Brit.

My flatmates and I spent the rest of the day exploring on the tube, and visited beautiful Hyde Park, Royal Albert Hall, Harrods, Picadilly Circus, King's Cross Station, and West End. The tube is a great way to get around, except that it is extremely hot down there and there is no air flow on the cars. As our orientation leaders pointed out, no one is allowed to transport cattle if the temperature is greater than 30C, but plenty of commuters pack on the tube every morning, in conditions that are too inhumane for cattle.

So far, I have blended in exactly one time, when a man in a sandwich shop asked me if I "was queuin' to pay" in a full Scottish accent and I immediately understood him, and responded with a confident "yes." Other than that, I have caused many a SNAFU with my Oyster card (used on the tube), when it only works about half the time to get in and out of the barriers. I'm sure that I'll get the hang of it eventually, but for now I can be easily spotted in a tube station when a long line of frustrated commuters forms in back of me.

I am happy to report that I have been experiencing UK pub life like a true Brit, and I am trying all of their local ales. The world cup final is this Sunday, and despite my pleas to go to the Netherlands to watch the game, we will be watching the game here in London in a large football pub.

I have posted some photos on Facebook of my tube journey yesterday, and will be posting more as my trip goes on, and I hope to update this blog every few days with news about my latest way to obstruct traffic in the tube. Cheers!