I'm really bad at keeping this updated...so I'm just going to recap what has happened the last 3 weekends since nothing TOO exciting happens during the week.
The last weekend in January was when Emily and Phil came to visit. It was really really nice - as Phil said - to have people around that I have known more than a month. I hung out with them Thursday night and Friday morning but Friday afternoon I went and stayed with a host family. It was the biggest disappointment here so far. We could not stay at the family that we were supposed to because the lady's car had broken down. I had information on what the family was going to be like and was very excited because it said they had 2 dogs. I miss Ella...a lot. The family that I actually stayed with did not have a dog...she had a bird and the son had a snake. Not the same...but the woman was nice. It was not what I was expecting though. I didn't learn much about their family and about traditional English food because they fed us food from Tesco that I would buy...pasta and pizzas. On Saturday all of the people that were with a family - 10 girls went to Windsor Castle together. I didn't think we were given enough time because there was also Eton to see. We had to pay 14 pounds to get in as well. We walked to Eton where there is Eton College...where the princes went...and it costs 130,000 pounds a year to attend! That's college - which is our high school! Saturday night we watched Euro Vision...similar to American Idol only each country in Europe has its own competition and then the winners of each country have a big competition. We slept in on Sunday and then took the train back to London from where we were - Surrey/Woking.
The 1st weekend in February IFSA-Butler had a Saturday day trip to Ely Cathedral and Cambridge. I really don't like how Bulter has put together these trips. First of all, there is not enough time in a day to do 2 things. We left at around 8:30 am..but it was an hour or two bus ride and we had to leave Cambridge at 4:00. Also, there are no tours so you have to research the city before you go to know what to do there. The cathedral at Ely was nice. At Cambridge we had a traditional English Breakfast...complete with baked beans and then walked around all of the colleges there. It was different that Oxford - the buildings looked different and didn't all have a brown tint to them.
Last weekend we had another IFSA-Bulter trip to Warwick Castle and Stratford-Upon-Avon. This trip took longer to get there and we stopped at Oxford to pick up people that go to the university there. We didn't leave until about 9:00 because people were late. Warwick Castle is a medival castle that has been turned into a Disneyworld. There were people walking around in medival garb, sword fighting competitions, and wax people all over that you could take your picture with. The best part I thought was a garden full of peacocks just walking around. You could also climb to the tops of the towers and look around at the town. It was after 2 when we got to Stratford-Upon-Avon so we all were hungry and crabby. We eventually found a pub that didn't have an hour long wait - since it was Valentine's Day - and I had an amazing fish and chips with mushy peas. We walked around the town a bit and saw Shakespeare's birthplace but didn't pay the 9 pounds to get inside. We ran to see his grave in a church but then we had to go right back to catch the buses. Again...not enough time to do anything else.
Everything else has been going well. I think I'm settling down here. I feel comfortable enough to take the tube anywhere or find a bus route which is cheaper. Classes are fine - courseworks are becoming due soon. I have my operations management group paper due next Thursday and all we have to do is edit it. My other group project has started - for marketing - but it's not progressing very fast. I have my other 2 essays for Art and Society and London Theatre coming due in March so I should be starting those soon.
Wednesday 18 February 2009
Wednesday 28 January 2009
Brunch with Harry Potter
I should first post about the rest of my classes. Thursdays are crazy for me. I have Art and Society from 9-12 with like 6 or 7 other people on in the IFSA-Butler program. Last Thursday we got right into it and went to the Banqueting house. It had a painted ceiling that was very interesting to hear the story about each painting. Most of the class was spent sitting on the floor listening to our teacher...and older man who knows everything there is to know about England history. We are learning mostly about the 17th and 18th century which I like a lot because it's the time of Henry the 8th. I've always enjoyed studying that time period...I just haven't had a history class since high school.
After that class I have a 2 hour break, so Ann and I went to Pizza Hut. I know..I know...I'm in London...I should be going to non-American franchises, but we both craved pizza and "American Breadsticks!" Then we have London Theatre in Performance together. I was expecting to go to the theatre each class, much like Art and Society going to a museum. However, the setup is much different. They give us the schedule and we have to see the play before the following week. It is kind of expensive but I think in the long run it will be worth it. Last night we went and saw Complicit with Richard Dreyfuss! Anyway, both of these classes are just offered to abroad students so everyone in this class is American except for one girl from Denmark.
Friday I have Principles of Marketing. My tutor for this class is really nice and she is young. I think the class is going to be interesting. So then I had seminar and we had go around the room and introduce ourselves since theres only about 20 students in the class. Of course, I'm the only person from the US. We are supposed to form groups of 3-5 to do a paper and presentation at the end of the semester and this girl after class from Estonia comes up to me and asks if I want to be in a group with her. I said sure, but why? She responds and says that I seem hard working!!! Just because I'm American...and they worned us about this...that people in Europe usually think Americans are hard working...but I didn't think it would actually be true. So, I'm thinking to myself...geez what else do they think I am? I don't know...I just took it as a complement...she seemed nice enough.
Saturday I went to Blenheim Palace and Oxford. Both were enjoyable since we had a very attractive and knowledgeable tour guide. We were immediately in love with him and truely hope he will come on the rest of our trips with us. I signed up to do the Social Programm...that includes something every few weeks...so this was the first thing. We walked around the palace where parts of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was taped. The grounds were nice but it was quite cold out...well not as cold as Iowa and Illinois are right now, but stil in the upper 30s i think. In Oxford then we walked around the colleges there and saw were the Great Hall from Harry Potter is taped. It was nice, but a huge tourist trap. We made it back home by dinner time, so it was a nice day trip.
Phil and Varn come tomorrow and I am very excited about this...just to be able to see people that know me longer than 3 weeks will be nice. Everyone here is nice, but I miss having people around that know me. This will get better I am aware as time goes on. Another thing...I finish Maybe the Moon....and it was really good. I bought Twilight and read it in 3 days. That's all I've been doing in my free time and I think I should wait awhile until I start the second book mainly since I haven't been doing any school work. I loved it and became obsessed with reading it. This weekend also is the family stay so I will have that to talk about in my next post.
After that class I have a 2 hour break, so Ann and I went to Pizza Hut. I know..I know...I'm in London...I should be going to non-American franchises, but we both craved pizza and "American Breadsticks!" Then we have London Theatre in Performance together. I was expecting to go to the theatre each class, much like Art and Society going to a museum. However, the setup is much different. They give us the schedule and we have to see the play before the following week. It is kind of expensive but I think in the long run it will be worth it. Last night we went and saw Complicit with Richard Dreyfuss! Anyway, both of these classes are just offered to abroad students so everyone in this class is American except for one girl from Denmark.
Friday I have Principles of Marketing. My tutor for this class is really nice and she is young. I think the class is going to be interesting. So then I had seminar and we had go around the room and introduce ourselves since theres only about 20 students in the class. Of course, I'm the only person from the US. We are supposed to form groups of 3-5 to do a paper and presentation at the end of the semester and this girl after class from Estonia comes up to me and asks if I want to be in a group with her. I said sure, but why? She responds and says that I seem hard working!!! Just because I'm American...and they worned us about this...that people in Europe usually think Americans are hard working...but I didn't think it would actually be true. So, I'm thinking to myself...geez what else do they think I am? I don't know...I just took it as a complement...she seemed nice enough.
Saturday I went to Blenheim Palace and Oxford. Both were enjoyable since we had a very attractive and knowledgeable tour guide. We were immediately in love with him and truely hope he will come on the rest of our trips with us. I signed up to do the Social Programm...that includes something every few weeks...so this was the first thing. We walked around the palace where parts of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was taped. The grounds were nice but it was quite cold out...well not as cold as Iowa and Illinois are right now, but stil in the upper 30s i think. In Oxford then we walked around the colleges there and saw were the Great Hall from Harry Potter is taped. It was nice, but a huge tourist trap. We made it back home by dinner time, so it was a nice day trip.
Phil and Varn come tomorrow and I am very excited about this...just to be able to see people that know me longer than 3 weeks will be nice. Everyone here is nice, but I miss having people around that know me. This will get better I am aware as time goes on. Another thing...I finish Maybe the Moon....and it was really good. I bought Twilight and read it in 3 days. That's all I've been doing in my free time and I think I should wait awhile until I start the second book mainly since I haven't been doing any school work. I loved it and became obsessed with reading it. This weekend also is the family stay so I will have that to talk about in my next post.
Tuesday 20 January 2009
First Day of Class and First Mid-Week Weekend
So...I don't have classes on Tuesdays or Wednesdays. Can we say awesome?! I'm going to try and explore London at least one of these days every week.
First of all though, I did have class on Monday. Operations Management seminar started at 10am in the next building over. Me being as nervous as I was, left early and got there about 10 minutes before class was to start. I had found the room on Sunday night so I knew exactly where it was, however no one was there. In fact, the teacher didn't even show up until about 3 minutes before 10. I was thoroughly surprised. There was trouble with the tube which caused some people not to show I later found out. Anyway, the teacher of the seminar is amazing. His name is Bill Hollins and he is the author of the textbook. He admitted to us that the topic is really boring but that he will try his darnedest to make it more "Jolly" for us. Bill is a small older man, probably in his late 60s or early 70s and works at a self started consulting firm and then teaches once a week. I'm really glad that I got him since he is so interested in the topic. There is another Butler girl in the class, so it was nice to have her there and to work we have to work in partners on a project anyway. I went back, made a sandwich for lunch and then had lecture for the same class. It was ok...kind of boring, but the Professor, or Tutor as they call them here, seemed nice. We have the one partner assignment worth 30% of our grade and then a test at the end of our 3 week break worth 70%.
After class I went shopping, again. This time to Primark! Yeah Laura, I finally went! It was very overwhelming. There were shirts for 3 pounds..about $4.10 and jeans for 6 pounds. I walked around the whole store picking up 3 pairs of jeans and 2 shirts to try on. I haven't yet mastered the European/British sizing yet. I then waited in the queue for 20 minutes to try them on. I ended up getting a shirt for 8 pounds.
Tuesday I got up and after lunch walked to the British Museum. I'm still not used to museums being free. I stayed 2 hours there and I think I covered everything but I'm sure I missed some rooms. There were many school groups that were being led around and then they would have to draw one of the things in the room. You can see my pictures on Facebook. I took a lot and was feeling very artsy. I then walked to Covent Gardens and walked around the market there. It was more like a giant shopping area. It was really nice but it was kind of cold so I took the tube back. Once I got back I went down to the common room with a girl in the Butler program to watch history happen - the inauguration.
Wednesday, today, I was woken up by a fire alarm at 7:30am. The girl from Hawaii and I stuck our heads out of our rooms and then made our way down the 8 flights of stairs. They then told us that it wasn't anything and we took the elevator back up. There were only a few people down in the lobby and no one else from our floor. I didn't really say anything because I was still asleep. I fell back asleep soon and didn't wake until 11:30 which was nice. After lunch I decided to go to Harrods. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's kind of like a Marshall Fields or now Macy's in Chicago. It's huge. Out of the 4 floors, I bought something from the first three. On the first floor I bought Anne's birthday present, on the second I bought a Lock & Lock container for leftovers, and on the third I bought Twilight the book at Waterstones which is kind of like Barnes and Noble. Yes, Harrods had a Waterstones and a HMV which is a CD/DVD store inside it. It also had a lot of cafes and diners and a restaurant that only sold Chocolate things. I almost got a hot chocolate but I resisted. Oh and on the way to Harrods I had to walk around Hyde park. I watched kids there having gym class and that's about it. There were some people running and riding bikes, but not too many. I found a bus that went back to Baker St station and took it back.
Tonight I made UK's version of Ramen noodles called Super Noodles. They aren't the same, but will do. I also did laundry. Oh and Laura, I have been reading Maybe the Moon every night and I love it! More on classes later after I have them Thursday and Friday. This Saturday I'm going to Oxford with the social program for study abroad students. It should be a good time.
First of all though, I did have class on Monday. Operations Management seminar started at 10am in the next building over. Me being as nervous as I was, left early and got there about 10 minutes before class was to start. I had found the room on Sunday night so I knew exactly where it was, however no one was there. In fact, the teacher didn't even show up until about 3 minutes before 10. I was thoroughly surprised. There was trouble with the tube which caused some people not to show I later found out. Anyway, the teacher of the seminar is amazing. His name is Bill Hollins and he is the author of the textbook. He admitted to us that the topic is really boring but that he will try his darnedest to make it more "Jolly" for us. Bill is a small older man, probably in his late 60s or early 70s and works at a self started consulting firm and then teaches once a week. I'm really glad that I got him since he is so interested in the topic. There is another Butler girl in the class, so it was nice to have her there and to work we have to work in partners on a project anyway. I went back, made a sandwich for lunch and then had lecture for the same class. It was ok...kind of boring, but the Professor, or Tutor as they call them here, seemed nice. We have the one partner assignment worth 30% of our grade and then a test at the end of our 3 week break worth 70%.
After class I went shopping, again. This time to Primark! Yeah Laura, I finally went! It was very overwhelming. There were shirts for 3 pounds..about $4.10 and jeans for 6 pounds. I walked around the whole store picking up 3 pairs of jeans and 2 shirts to try on. I haven't yet mastered the European/British sizing yet. I then waited in the queue for 20 minutes to try them on. I ended up getting a shirt for 8 pounds.
Tuesday I got up and after lunch walked to the British Museum. I'm still not used to museums being free. I stayed 2 hours there and I think I covered everything but I'm sure I missed some rooms. There were many school groups that were being led around and then they would have to draw one of the things in the room. You can see my pictures on Facebook. I took a lot and was feeling very artsy. I then walked to Covent Gardens and walked around the market there. It was more like a giant shopping area. It was really nice but it was kind of cold so I took the tube back. Once I got back I went down to the common room with a girl in the Butler program to watch history happen - the inauguration.
Wednesday, today, I was woken up by a fire alarm at 7:30am. The girl from Hawaii and I stuck our heads out of our rooms and then made our way down the 8 flights of stairs. They then told us that it wasn't anything and we took the elevator back up. There were only a few people down in the lobby and no one else from our floor. I didn't really say anything because I was still asleep. I fell back asleep soon and didn't wake until 11:30 which was nice. After lunch I decided to go to Harrods. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's kind of like a Marshall Fields or now Macy's in Chicago. It's huge. Out of the 4 floors, I bought something from the first three. On the first floor I bought Anne's birthday present, on the second I bought a Lock & Lock container for leftovers, and on the third I bought Twilight the book at Waterstones which is kind of like Barnes and Noble. Yes, Harrods had a Waterstones and a HMV which is a CD/DVD store inside it. It also had a lot of cafes and diners and a restaurant that only sold Chocolate things. I almost got a hot chocolate but I resisted. Oh and on the way to Harrods I had to walk around Hyde park. I watched kids there having gym class and that's about it. There were some people running and riding bikes, but not too many. I found a bus that went back to Baker St station and took it back.
Tonight I made UK's version of Ramen noodles called Super Noodles. They aren't the same, but will do. I also did laundry. Oh and Laura, I have been reading Maybe the Moon every night and I love it! More on classes later after I have them Thursday and Friday. This Saturday I'm going to Oxford with the social program for study abroad students. It should be a good time.
Monday 19 January 2009
Westminster "Week"
After more of settling in over the weekend I had orientation with Westminster on Monday afternoon. I got lost trying to find the building since it was on another campus and therefore missed coffee with other Butler people :( Orientation was about 3 hours of mostly the same stuff we had heard from Butler, but I still felt that it was worth listening to again. At the end we were split into challenge groups. I was put with 3 other Americans that did not want to do the challenge, and a really cool girl from Paris. We met Tuesday at noon to do the "challenge" and one of the American girls didn't even show up. Basically it was a bunch of questions to answer about the city and part of it we had to actually go to a theatre and Trafalgar Square. It really wasn't that bad at all and we ended up splitting up the questions anyway, but some of the people did not want to do it.
The rest of the week consisted of shopping shopping and more shopping. That's pretty much what I've been doing every day. I didn't bring that many things, so I've purchased 3 shirts and a messenger bag so far. I'm still on the hunt for some black boots, cute flats for going out, and some skinny jeans. Thursday I met with a study abroad counselor to make sure I was happy with my classes. I am very happy so far. I have Operations Management on Mondays, Art and Society and London Theatre in Performance on Thursdays and then Principles of Marketing on Fridays. Thursday night we went to Intermission, a bar on the campus that I'm at. I met up with the French girl and her 3 guy friends that came from the same school as her. My Butler friends all met them as well. Friday night Westminster held a boat party on the Thames....the boat didn't move though. After that...as in like 9pm...we went to a dance club somewhere around Piccadilly Circus. I had some troubles making my way back but eventually did make it back.
I didn't do much on Saturday since I was so tired from the night before. Sunday I bought some spiral notebooks for school. We have also started Sunday night dinners with Butler students plus any other dorm living people. It was a nice last hurrah before classes began today.
The rest of the week consisted of shopping shopping and more shopping. That's pretty much what I've been doing every day. I didn't bring that many things, so I've purchased 3 shirts and a messenger bag so far. I'm still on the hunt for some black boots, cute flats for going out, and some skinny jeans. Thursday I met with a study abroad counselor to make sure I was happy with my classes. I am very happy so far. I have Operations Management on Mondays, Art and Society and London Theatre in Performance on Thursdays and then Principles of Marketing on Fridays. Thursday night we went to Intermission, a bar on the campus that I'm at. I met up with the French girl and her 3 guy friends that came from the same school as her. My Butler friends all met them as well. Friday night Westminster held a boat party on the Thames....the boat didn't move though. After that...as in like 9pm...we went to a dance club somewhere around Piccadilly Circus. I had some troubles making my way back but eventually did make it back.
I didn't do much on Saturday since I was so tired from the night before. Sunday I bought some spiral notebooks for school. We have also started Sunday night dinners with Butler students plus any other dorm living people. It was a nice last hurrah before classes began today.
Saturday 10 January 2009
The Very Beginning
Hello all who are reading this. I didn't really want to blog but a bunch of people have requested that I do. It will be a good way to remember my experiences as well I guess. Just DON'T judge me by my writing abilities. This blog will just be a collection of my thoughts and a description of what is going on with my life whilst over here in London. Yeah yeah did you like that British term there??? They use it all the time. I'll try to lump things together so this isn't so boring.
SO Let's start with the first 3 days upon my arrival. I got here Wednesday morning, the 7th of January. I flew from Chicago on Tuesday morning. I got to spend Monday night with my grandparents and mom in Downers Grove, IL which was really nice, however it made it harder saying goodbye the next morning. Oh, on the flight from O'hare to JFK, there was a group of high school teenagers going to Spain for a week. They were the most annoying people ever...just talking about how old and mature they were for being "seniors" and ruling their high school. They will soon get over that when they become fresh meat next year. When I got to JFK, I waited over 3 hours in a terminal with people who I thought I was going to London with, however everyone I met seemed to be headed to Edinburgh, Scotland. They all seemed really outgoing which to me is very intimidating and made me homesick even though I was still in the US. However, once I actually got seated on the flight, I was put next to some amazing people who were going to the University of Westminster with me. The flight itself wasn't so bad...only 6 and a half hours which is nothing compared to the Israel and Australia flights that I have experienced. I watched Mama Mia and talked with the people next to me.
After being herded out of the airport, since there was a fire alarm going off, we got to a coach that took us to our hotel. My first impressions of the city driving into Central London were...wow the sky really is grey. The Butler guy that was will us pointed out things along the way which was nice. We had free time that day until 5pm so a small group of us went for a walk and got kind of lost. We tried to stay up the whole time until dinner but none of us made it and ended up taking a small nap. Dinner was strange because we met the Butler staff in the lobby but they never really introduced themselves or talked to us. The food itself was good, my eating schedule was just way off so I couldn't eat much of it. It was at a traditional pub with fried mushrooms as appetizers, a meat pie as the main course with mashed potatoes, and then...no joke...the desert was called spotted dick. It was a cake-like thing with raisins in it, drenched in custard. It was in the same shape as the flan we had in San Antonio for the Alamo Bowl for all of you HMBers reading this :)
That leads me to Thursday in which we had Butler orienation from I think 9-5 with an hour break for lunch. The Butler staff are all very nice and informative, but we were all exhausted by the end of the day. That night they took us to see Avenue Q, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I knew many of the songs from Anne playing them in our room last year. Before the play, Butler took us out to dinner at Wagamama which is a restaurant they have in Boston as well as all over the UK, but it was really good Japanese food.
Friday morning we all repacked and loaded 2 coaches to go to our dorms. I moved into my dorm which has just been redone this year. I have my very own airplane size bathroom with a toilet, sink and shower. I didn't have any toilet paper however until I went out later that night...but 2 other girls that lived in the same dorm and I went to Argos. It is this amazing store filled with just catalogues. I got sheets, towels, pans, knives, silverware and a hairdryer with 2 or 3 trips over the next few days. I had some trouble getting the internet set up, but eventually did which was very nice since I hadn't seen a computer since I had left.
SO Let's start with the first 3 days upon my arrival. I got here Wednesday morning, the 7th of January. I flew from Chicago on Tuesday morning. I got to spend Monday night with my grandparents and mom in Downers Grove, IL which was really nice, however it made it harder saying goodbye the next morning. Oh, on the flight from O'hare to JFK, there was a group of high school teenagers going to Spain for a week. They were the most annoying people ever...just talking about how old and mature they were for being "seniors" and ruling their high school. They will soon get over that when they become fresh meat next year. When I got to JFK, I waited over 3 hours in a terminal with people who I thought I was going to London with, however everyone I met seemed to be headed to Edinburgh, Scotland. They all seemed really outgoing which to me is very intimidating and made me homesick even though I was still in the US. However, once I actually got seated on the flight, I was put next to some amazing people who were going to the University of Westminster with me. The flight itself wasn't so bad...only 6 and a half hours which is nothing compared to the Israel and Australia flights that I have experienced. I watched Mama Mia and talked with the people next to me.
After being herded out of the airport, since there was a fire alarm going off, we got to a coach that took us to our hotel. My first impressions of the city driving into Central London were...wow the sky really is grey. The Butler guy that was will us pointed out things along the way which was nice. We had free time that day until 5pm so a small group of us went for a walk and got kind of lost. We tried to stay up the whole time until dinner but none of us made it and ended up taking a small nap. Dinner was strange because we met the Butler staff in the lobby but they never really introduced themselves or talked to us. The food itself was good, my eating schedule was just way off so I couldn't eat much of it. It was at a traditional pub with fried mushrooms as appetizers, a meat pie as the main course with mashed potatoes, and then...no joke...the desert was called spotted dick. It was a cake-like thing with raisins in it, drenched in custard. It was in the same shape as the flan we had in San Antonio for the Alamo Bowl for all of you HMBers reading this :)
That leads me to Thursday in which we had Butler orienation from I think 9-5 with an hour break for lunch. The Butler staff are all very nice and informative, but we were all exhausted by the end of the day. That night they took us to see Avenue Q, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I knew many of the songs from Anne playing them in our room last year. Before the play, Butler took us out to dinner at Wagamama which is a restaurant they have in Boston as well as all over the UK, but it was really good Japanese food.
Friday morning we all repacked and loaded 2 coaches to go to our dorms. I moved into my dorm which has just been redone this year. I have my very own airplane size bathroom with a toilet, sink and shower. I didn't have any toilet paper however until I went out later that night...but 2 other girls that lived in the same dorm and I went to Argos. It is this amazing store filled with just catalogues. I got sheets, towels, pans, knives, silverware and a hairdryer with 2 or 3 trips over the next few days. I had some trouble getting the internet set up, but eventually did which was very nice since I hadn't seen a computer since I had left.
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