Harry Potter Studio Tour

So I may have just had the best experience of my life here. I went to see the Harry Potter Studio Tour and oh my God, it was A-mazing. I went by myself because at first there were no tickets available until after I'm scheduled to leave, but I managed to snag one for today. Anyway, I'm not to bent up about it, because I got to explore and marvel at things alone, and that helped make the experience even better. Here are some of the pictures:

It's going to sound very cliched, but there was something so magical about this whole day. To be honest, when I saw the big model of Hogwarts (last picture), I cried. I walked into the room, saw the castle, and was swept away by emotion. I think it's because Harry Potter has been a part of my life for so long that it's sad to think it's over. The conclusion of the HP series means the end of an era and the end of my childhood. Seeing the castle was like seeing a long-lost friend, someone you love and will miss dearly. And, too, I think every HP fan wishes Hogwarts and magic was real, and this got me a little closer to that dream. I know it sounds stupid and dorky, but it really was a moving experience.

Obviously there are a ton of additional pictures on Facebook. To anyone considering travelling to England in the near future, I would definitely suggest this tour.





Billy Elliot and The Globe Theatre

Last night everyone in my program went to see Billy Elliot at West End, which is like London's Broadway. I had never heard of the musical before, but I was really impressed with the actors. The kid playing Billy could really dance!

Me with my friends Alexa, Alicia, Tess, Ellen, and Megg



 Today, instead of having class as usual, my professor had us all come out to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre to see Henry V on stage. It was pretty cool to see Shakespeare's play on (a replica of) his original theater, but the trip wasn't without its drama. We were supposed to also go to the museum and have a tour before the play, but there was a mixup with the staff and policies, and my professor ended up having an argument with the manager. The entire staff that we dealt with were really rude, so if you plan to go to the Globe museum for the tour with more than 10 people, make sure to make a reservation. Otherwise, though, the whole fieldtrip was a pretty successful one.



Between seeing the museum and the play, a few girls and I went to the Tate Modern art museum. We kind of stumbled onto it, actually, and were really just looking to kill some time, but it ended up being pretty cool. Some of the art was a bit too, well, modern for my tastes, but there were some pretty good pieces too. For an easy way to spend the time, the museum turned out to be pretty interesting.

Tower of London and Tower Bridge

Since today marks the beginning of a new school week (and the end of 1/3 of my stay here), my friends and I decided to start doing some hard-core touristy things. Today we chose the Tower of London as our destination. It was pretty cool, but different than I expected. Considering its dark history, I anticipated the buildings to be dark and sinister, but they were bright and welcoming (the sunshine didn't hurt either). There were a lot of people there for a Monday afternoon, though. I ran into many people with American accents and people who didn't speak English at all. Anyway, I enjoyed it.



After the Tower, we walked over to the Tower Bridge. I'll admit, I always thought the Tower Bridge and the London Bridge were the same thing, but they are not. When Americans say "The London Bridge," they're usually referring to the Tower Bridge. Surprisingly, you can walk on the bridge, and we did. The view was pretty great, and it was a fun little outing.



Tomorrow we're going with our program to see Billy Elliot in the West End, which is like London's Broadway. I'm excited to get dressed up and see a new show!

Weekend in Wales

I'm back in my dorm after a wonderful weekend in Wales! I had never really given Wales much thought before this trip, but I'm now convinced it's one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. If you want to vacation in Europe and are looking for relaxation, beautiful scenery, and friendly people, I'd highly suggest Wales.

We left London bright and early on Saturday morning, and on the drive down we passed Windsor Palace where the queen lives. I couldn't get any pictures from the bus, but that's OK. I pretty much used up most of my camera's memory with the pictures I took in Wales.
The first thing we did was stop at the site of some ancient Roman ruins. It was a bit unreal to walk around the foundations of buildings soldiers and gladiators used to roam around.

Soldier's barracks (above) and the amphitheatre (below)

After the Roman ruins, we went to tour the ruins of Caerphilly Castle. Apparently Wales has more castles per square mile than any other European nation. I had no idea you can actually walk around the castle ruins, though. It was so beautiful!

View of the town from the tower (above) and main entrance (below).

After touring the castle, we went to the Museum of Welsh Life, but we ended up only having half an hour there because some guys on our tour forgot what time we were supposed to be back on the bus and played a game of soccer with some Welsh boys for 45 extra minutes. After that, we went to our hotel, which was fabulous! I have never appreciated how soft hotel beds are until I was able to compare them to our dorm beds!

This morning we went on a tour of an old mine shaft which was a lot cooler than I expected. Wales produced about 1/3 of the world's coal until the 1970s when a lot of the mines were shut down. The didn't let us take cameras into the mine, but I'm sure there will be a picture of me in mining gear circulating around at some point.

After the mine tour, we stopped for lunch at Monmouth, where we saw this 13th century bridge. I can't wrap my brain around the fact that people in town can look out their windows and be so close to history!

Funny story about Monmouth and Caerphilly Castle: I'm taking a Shakespeare class while I'm here, and so far we've studied Shakespeare's Henry V and Marlow's Edward II. In the play and in reality, Edward II had an affair with a man called Hugh Jr. who fled to Caerphilly Castle when Edward's enemies came after the two men. Hugh Jr. took the lavish gifts Edward bestowed upon him and decorated the great hall of Caerphilly Castle before he was found and executed. And the town of Monmouth, with the really old bridge is where Henry V was actually born. It's funny how I go on a weekend excursion and find my studies relating to my real life.

After Monmouth we went to see the ruins of Tintern Abbey, which was built by Savignac monks in the 12th century. Honestly, I think these were the prettiest of the ruins we saw. The sun even came out while we visited!

All in all, I really enjoyed Wales. It was such a beautiful place, and it would be great to come back sometime and spend more than 36 hours there.

Buckingham Palace

Last night, my friends and I went out and had a really great time. A word to the wise, though: when going out in the evening in London, wear a jacket. It's not a particularly warm place.

Today was our first day off, so my friends and I went to see the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. I use the term "see" loosely, though, because there were so many people there that we couldn't see anything at all. I got a few pictures, though, and just being there was cool. The palace was really beautiful!



The weather was rather gross today, so after the Changing of the Guard, we went to the National Gallery. We weren't allowed to take pictures there, but we did get to see some famous paintings by Van Gogh and Monet. It was really cool to get so close to art I've learned about in school!

Tomorrow we're getting up bright and early and taking a weekend trip to Wales with our program. I probably won't be able to post anything until Sunday night, but expect castles, sheep, and mine shafts! ...Yeah, I'm a little confused too.

Are You from the States?

My friends and I have been getting asked lately by British people where we're from. We often wonder, "Isn't it obvious?" We have rather pronounced American accents...

Anyway, today I basically just had class and went shopping with my friends Megg and Ellen. We stopped in a great little shop called Accessorize, which is a better version of Claire's, and H&M. The area where our campus is, Oxford Circus, literally has four H&M's within a mile of each other. It's a little ridiculous. However, the lack of additional sales tax in England makes shopping trips a lot easier to handle; I can add in my head how much I'm spending. Now if I could only figure out how to use British coins...

Tomorrow is our last day of the first week of classes. It's crazy; Ellen and I were talking to an American woman in H&M about how long we'd been in London, and when we said four days, we both decided that it felt like much longer. It's strange to think it's been less than a week since I've arrived here and I already feel like I belong here.

Unfortunately, the weather is planning to take a turn for the worse tomorrow. We'll probably have rain, which I suppose I shouldn't be too bent out of shape about because it is England and all. The last few days have been lovely by British standards, so I suppose the rain was inevitable. Hopefully it won't rain on Friday, though, because we have a big day planned. There should be plenty of pictures!

No Short Shorts without Tight Tights

It was so warm today! Earlier in the afternoon it was nice and sunny, so after class my friends and I got lunch and went shopping for tights (apparently if you wear short shorts without tight underneath, you get tutted at). We stumbled upon Top Shop, a really great clothing store that's kind of like a more upscale Forever21. Needless to say, more shopping there will follow.

Later in the day we went on a tour of the Olympic Park. We couldn't get very close to much of anything, but we did see the IKEA sculpture (funded by, you guessed it, IKEA), the Orbit sculpture, and part of the arena and aquatic center. It was pretty cool to see the places in person; I'm excited to watch the Olympics and be able to say, "I was there!"



First Day of Class

As the title states, today was my first day of classes. We had orientation first thing in the morning and had class afterwards. I'm a little disappointed that there are no "home" students - students who are from England - in my class; we're all from North America. However, it seems like it will be much better than the Shakespeare class I took at GVSU. It's quite interesting, because one of the girls my group hooked up with to go see Kings Cross goes to Saginaw Valley State University, which is one of GV's rivals (Battle of the Valleys and all that). Small world, I guess!

After class, two of the girls I'm with, Megg and Ellen, and I went to get fish and chips from a real English pub. It was really delicious and a fun experience.

Tomorrow after class, all of the international students are going on a tour of the Olympic site. I'm not sure what all we'll be seeing, but I'm sure there will be lots of picture taking involved!

No photos today, but hopefully there will be more tomorrow.

Scavenger Hunt and King's Cross

The weather today was lovely and sunny, a great turn around from yesterday's cold and windy.The scavenger hunt was a bit of a bust; it was very difficult and out of order, so we only did a few of the things on the list. However, before and after the hunt my friends and I walked around and found some pretty cool things. We had lunch at a cafe along the Thames and walked around quite a bit. We hit Covent Garden (which I always thought was an actual garden, but it's really a shopping district) and checked out some historical sites. We plan to go back to do some actual shopping and to take a closer look.

Benjamin Franklin's house (top) and Herman Melville's house (bottom)

We also teamed up with another group of girls and went to Kings Cross station to find platform 9 3/4! You can't go onto the actual platform without a train ticket, but we found a substitute.

Tomorrow I have orientation and my first day of classes. I'm taking a class on Shakespeare, which I'll have Monday through Thursday from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm for the next three weeks. Hopefully I won't have too much homework, because I really want to spend more time out and about!

Exploring!

So this morning one of the girls with me, Ellen, and I went out in search of hair dryers. Unfortunately, the store was closed (as most are on Sundays, apparently), so we went exploring instead. We quickly discovered that we're less than a mile from all of these awesome things:





My dorm building is on Lambeth Road, which apparently puts it close to all of the really cool historic parts of the city.

This is my dorm room. It's a pretty good size (albeit a bit messy at the moment). There's a bathroom and a kitchen on each floor, so aside from the food part, I'm pretty well taken care of.

Today we're doing that scavenger hunt, so I'll be posting more pictures here later. There are also more from this morning's adventures on Facebook.

The Journey and First Impressions

I'm in England! AHHH!

In regards to my flights and terminal trekking, well, let's just say it was a good thing I had four hours in between my flights and that my flight was scheduled to arrive at London Heathrow two hours earlier than I needed to be there. I knew there'd be airplane drama, but it ended up being a bit grueling.

Anyway, it turns out the place I'm staying, the University of Westminster's International House, is right in the middle of a really awesome part of the city; there are pubs, mini outdoor markets, used book shops, etc., so it's a dream place for me to be. I'm here with five other girls from the U.S. and we've been hanging out a bit to get to know each other. I have a feeling we'll be getting along pretty well.

Since we were really busy getting used to our new surroundings and not sleeping, there are no pictures from today. However, tomorrow there's a scavenger hunt that the study abroad program puts on that we're all going to be in, and I expect there will be many pictures taken then.

A couple of things I didn't think about:

• The fact that my U.S. phone has no service means I have no alarm clock until I either buy an alarm clock or get a U.K. phone (the former seems more likely to happen first).  
• Stores in England are mostly closed by 8:00pm, so if I wanted to buy an alarm clock, I probably should do it during the day.
• When the forecast says "66 degrees Fahrenheit", it really means "maybe the air around you is 66 degrees, but this wind I'm throwing at you is more like 26."

Aside from these minor setbacks, I'm doing well and am having fun so far. I'm excited for tomorrow and will update again soon!