To Do List for Spring Break

1) Indulge in gelato and chocolate

2) Remain in denial of the fact that swimsuit season approaches--that's what cover-ups are for, right?

3) Continue my obsessive viewing of all-Jane-Austen-all-the-time adaptations, including: Jane Austen Book Club (watched it five times over the past month), Ang Lee's Sense & Sensibility, Becoming Jane and the Keira Knightley/Matthew McFadyen Pride and Prejudice

4) Go on a picnic!

5) Break out tan-in-a-bottle lotion to camouflage my Casperesque legs!

To Market To Market To Buy a ? ? ?

As much as I have loved seeing the 'sights' of London like Big Ben, London Bridge, and the Tower of London, some of my favorite experiences are when I'm walking around the city just doing normal everyday things. Visiting London's markets is definitely one of those everyday experiences that are just awesome! I've been to Portobello Rd. Market twice. Portobello Rd. is in the Notting Hill area, as in the movie Notting Hill. In fact, the sceene where Hugh Grant walks through the market and the seasons change was shot in Portobello Rd. The best day to go to Portobello Rd. Market is a Saturday when it's packed with people and things to see, taste, and buy. Notting Hill itself is very eclectic and so is the market. You can find just about everything in Portobello Rd. Market from magenta leopard-print tights to flasks, to knockoff purses to paella and crepes. If you're claustrophobic you might want to go early and avoid crowds, but otherwise you just have to elbow you're way in to see what you want to. There are a good number of clothes booths which are for the most part cute, but sans dressing rooms, so I tended to avoid those. There are great purses there if you take your time and shop around before buying, the nicer knockoffs are more expensive, but you can find decent prices. Pashminas are a hot market item as is sparkly jewelry of all varieties and persuasions. The market also has a good number of antiques booths. I bought some teacups and saucers which were really pretty, but I'm sure would not make it to Antiques Roadshow. One thing that I was not expecting to find was a food market in the middle of everything else. There is produce, cheese, meat, seafood, and readymade food, too. I sampled some paella which is made in huge pans. I chose chicken paella in saffron rice with beans mixed in. Delicious! I've also visited Borough Market which is made up of only food. Everything there is incredibly fresh and looks tasty. The prices aren't too bad there either. You could easily eat breakfast and lunch there while you shop. There are Indian booths, Italian, traditional English, baked goods, fresh juices, etc. The only drawback is that every booth you pass tempts you to buy something to enjoy!

Final Week!

So I have been decidely lax about updating my blog in the past two weeks! Shame on me. I'll try to make up for it in this entry. This last week I've been checking things off my list of stuff to see and do, so my days tend to be a mishmosh of experiences all over the city. Today I made it out of bed in time to get a decent spot and watch the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. The best part was hearing the guard's band play. You would expect them to play really stuffy music, but they were fabulous. They played marching band type songs that you would expect to hear at a parade or a football game. They also played some jazz which was awesome! I then sauntered over to St. James Park where I ate my lunch under a tree. I felt so bohemian and chic! It was sunny and gorgeous for once so I read a book and watched everyone go by. The parks are definitely one of my favorite things about London. They are always full of people and they are all gorgeous. I hopped on the tube after lunch and rode north to Hampstead Heath. Hampstead Heath is part park and part forest. It was nice to wander around for a while. They also have a house there which acts as an art gallery, so I looked around. Then I stopped for tea around four o'clock as any true Londoner would. They have a cafe in the park looking towards the garden house. So I sipped my wild berry tea and delicately nibbled my scone with clotted cream and jam while gazing at an adorable little cottage with roses and wildflowers growing all over it. I read my book again and just enjoyed the atmosphere. I wandered around the rest of the park then hopped on the tube to visit Abbey Road, the shrine for all things Beatles here in London. The long tube ride was putting me to sleep and I almost decided to call it a day and go back to the dorm, but I pushed through and made it. The studio itself is right behind the famous cross-walk where the Beatles were photographed. Obviously you can't go in because they are still actual studios there. Oustide there is a white wall enclosing the studio where people have written their names or Beatles' lyric. When in London . . . I chose the lyric from "Hey Jude" where they sing "take a sad song and make it better." I added "Let It Be"since that's another of my favorite songs and then added my name and the date. I also walked the famous cross-walk and took numerous photos of the ground and different people crossing it. It was definitely a trip highlight for me. "All you need is love, bum ba bum ba bum"

Triumphant Return . . . Sort of

Well I enjoyed Scotland, but missed London and was glad to return last Sunday. The best and worst part of Scotland was taking a ghost tour around the city's most famous graveyard on Friday the 13th. Of course, we did not realize that it was Friday the 13th until we were already on the tour. It was a little scary but mostly fun and interesting. In fact, a ton of Harry Potter references in the cemetary and Edingurgh in general because that is where JKR wrote the first few books and where she lives. Heriots school in Edinburgh was said to be a school for witches and wizards in the 16th century, and Heriots and Hogwarts are not too far from each other. Also, Goblet of Fire features a cemetary very prominently, hmmm. Anyway, the worst part was that it rained on the tour and during our walk home so that we got soaked and I got a cold. Boo, hiss! Anyway, I am on the mend and trying to see as much as possible during my last few weeks here in London. Monday I spent an hour at the National Portrait Gallery and only made it through the first floor! However, I got to see all the portraits that really mattered to me, namely Shakespeare and Jane Austen. In fact, the NPG houses the only life-drawn portrait of Jane Austen! There were a ton of great portraits of lesser known authors, royalty etc. They also had the famous Gilbert portrait of George Washington. Then Tuesday I packed in the Charles Dickens House Museum, the Sir John Soanes Museum, and a stroll in Hyde Park. The Sir John Soanes Museum exceeded all expectations. Soanes was an architect who purchased No. 12,13,14 on Lincoln's Inn Fields (a street) tore them down and rebuilt them according to his own designs. He was also a ravenous art collector. The house itself is incredible! There are mirrors everywhere reflecting all different aspects of the rooms as well as sort of riotous windows that are yellow and red and even purple. So when the sun shines in, as it did on Tuesday you can see the entire room change color. Going back to the mirrors, I should clarify that they aren't all normal looking-glass sort of mirrors, but some are small circular ones placed in ceiling or outlining something. Then there was a sort of courtyard inside the house covered, literally every inch, with Greek and Roman sculpture. Busts, full length statues, small pieces of buildings, columns etc. In the middle of this courtyard you can look down and see the sarcophogas of Seti I of Egypt. Another room was decorated in the regency style with a gorgeous circular skylight and a painted design on the ceiling. Another room had rotating walls that were filled with pictures and etchings he had collected. Then downstairs you could see the heiroglyphics on the sarcophogas! So unbelieveable. The basement was a little eerie, but playfully so. There were some skulls in one room, along with gothic statues and on one windowsill a grinning Chinese dragon cast in black stone that, for me at least, resembled a lap dog. It was so cute! I was tempted to take it home with me, but I think if I had tried security ninjas would have jumped out and tackled me. One final touch to the basement was that when you walked back up the stairs to the main house there was a small window through which you saw a complete human skeleton, literally, hanging in a closet. I laughed out loud, it was so funny and disturbing at the same time. Upstairs the sitting room was bright yellow with red and white windows. It sounds really disgusting, but for whatever reason it worked for this house, in an old-fashioned sort of way. There were also some beautiful views of the park across the street from the upstairs windows. But, the best part about the Sir John Soanes Museum was that all the gorgeousness and creepiness was absolutely FREE! Sir John intended his house to be an example for architecture students and art lovers to be able to come and view his collection. Hence the mishmash of Greek/Roman/Egyptian/Gothic/Chinese dragons. It was the kind of house where you could visit it a hundred times and see something different every time. Walking through rooms multiple times I definitley saw different things. Probably my favorite museum of the trip thus far. Although, the Jane Austen house could definitely trump that. We'll see if I get there or not!

Alas, Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

Alas, faithful readers this weekend I will be traveling from my home away from home here in London and will not be able to post again until Monday. Never fear though, I will supply one final installment before this commercial blog break.
To finish my thoughts on Stonehenge, it was indeed an awesome sight. The audio guides said that up to 1/3 of the stones remain anchored underground, so they are actually much larger than what you can see. Also, some of the smaller stones come from a remote place in Wales, and scholars don't really know why they were brought from so far away to be placed in the circle. I was also surprised to learn that the circle of stones actually developed over hundreds of years and was changed and redesigned by many different groups of people. The stones themselves have inspired a number of tales about how Merlin or even the devil were responsible for their location. One interesting thing about the stones is that they sit right next to a highway, which sort of ruins their ancient and mysterious atmosphere, however in the next few years the highway will be routed underground, so that the site will not be disturbed. The surrounding coutnryside is absolutely gorgeous with lots of sheep and rolling green hills.
Before I depart, I also have to tell you about my favorite part of the trip so far . . . visiting the Globe Theatre and seeing Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice performed!!! At first I was not so enthused about the performance because our tickets were for the groundlings section of the theater. During Elizabethan times, and today, the groundlings stand for the entire performance. On top of that, the Globe does not have any sort of roof to protect the audience, and if it rains, the show must go on. Of course it did rain, and of course you are not allowed to use umbrellas and of course I got soaked. So that part was not so good. However, seeing the Globe Theatre as Shakespeare would have seen it, being only five feet away from the stage, and watching The Merchant of Venice as Elizabethan theatregoers would have was unbelieveably cool! My English nerd popped out again. I took pictures of the stage and the theatre, though not of the play because that is not allowed. Standing in a crowd of people, hearing their laughter and sorrow all around you, looking up into the night sky, and hearing Shakespeare's beautiful poetry was a feeling that words can only faintly describe. My feet hurt as they have never hurt before (we also went on a walking tour that day!) but it was all worth it. And, I will get to see two more plays there, Love's Labours Lost, and Othello!!!

Stones on a Hill

So, I promised more about Stonehenge. Here goes . . . As I've said, we drove an hour from Bath to get to Stonehenge. At the time we had just left the Jane Austen Centre without getting to tour the museum, so I was not particularly excited about the long drive to see a bunch of giant stones sitting on a hill. The drive was not bad, though. On the way we saw something called the White Horse. Bath and the surrounding countryside sits on top of a layer of chalk and a very distinct form of land art has sprung up because of this. Centuries ago, I believe when Celtic tribes still inhabited the area, the layer of soil was removed from the hills in the shape of different symbols, sometimes dragons, sometimes horses, or even geometric shapes. In the case of the White Horse a huge White Horse was imprinted on the hill which can be seen from miles away because the chalk is so bright against the grass. That was awesome in and of itself. I guide told us that every few years volunteers clean the White Horse so that it will stay bright fro years to come! It's sort of strange to see a huge white horse in the middle of farm country, but awesome at the same time. When we arrived at Stonehenge we picked up our audio guides and walked to stones.
I must say that compared to auido guides in the states, the Brits are much more theatrical. Their auido guides contain sound effects and sappy admonitions to "Turn in a circle. . . Take one last glance at Stonehenge and the surrounding countryside." It made me laugh, at least. It was enjoyable to watch the people actually turning in a circle, trying not to look foolish.
Apart from that I enjoyed Stonehenge a lot. Right now we're off to a briefing at the Treasury Department (also called the Exchequer!) More later.

The Immortal Bard

We've had a constant stream of Shakespeare since we arrived in London. We've been reading The Merchant of Venice in class and on Saturday we took a train to Stratford to see where Shakespeare was born, and later was buried. The town has been built up as a tourist attraction with all things Shakespeare. The Royal Shakespeare Company has a theatre there and there are street upon streets filled with shops and restaurants with names like Shakespearience, or Montague House. We picniced near the river Avon where is a sort of mini carnival with a merry-go-round and some game booths. There are a large number of barges on the river and a good number of swans ans ducks, all kept well fed by gullible tourists such as ourselves who enjoy feeding them. The house where Shakespeare was born was very interesting. First you're taken through a small exhibit on his life and writings then you walk outside through gardens and into his family's house, which was quite large in comparison to historic houses from say, Williamsburg. Shakespeare's father was a glove maker and a community leader, so I guess he did fairly well. There's not too much in the house from when Shakespeare would have lived there, but recreations have been placed in the rooms to simulate the Renaissance period. I will confess that I got goosebumps being in the room where Shakespeare was born, my English nerd side came out. It was also interesting to see that the windows of the house had a good bit of names carved into them where people had left their mark on the house. Several famous authors like Mark Twain and Charles Dickens, as well as Presidents Jefferson and John Adams had visited the house. The birthplace as it is often referred has been a literary pilgrimage of sorts for hundreds fo years. Shakespeare's tomb is quite ordinary and simple, but housed in the church he would have gone to during his time in Stratford. I just realized I forgot to write about Stonehenge . . . oh well, more tomorrow!