Week Two

Wow, another week has gone by. I have been having so much fun that I have been struggling to find time to write these blog entries, but here we go. So since last I wrote we have really began to get into the swing of things, getting used to walking a mile to class everyday, walking even further than that to get groceries and buying everything in smaller quantities and more often (thats just how they do it over here, no preservatives means smaller quantities and more frequent shopping). This past tuesday I went over to a new park across the river called Battersea Park where I did one of my favorite workouts to do, 5-3-1 two times, where you run hard for 5 minutes take 3 minutes rest, hard for 3 more rest for 1, hard for 1 then full recovery of maybe 5 minutes and then repeat. It was a gorgeous day and the park was beautiful. I was so glad I went over there. They had some really fun paths that winded all aroun some duck ponds where there were giant cranes and swans and many birds. It was really fun and afterwards I sat on the shore of one of the ponds and stretched as the birds swam directly up to me, probably expecting some sort of bread or crackers that I didn't have.

Wednesday was a big day for me. No because I had class from 5-8, not because I went to the V&A museum, but because this was the day I ventured out to find the beautiful home that one of my all time favorite movies was shot at, The Parent Trap. Sure enough, 23 Egerton Terrace was the home of Annie James and Elizabeth James. So my heart melted a little while I starred into the beautiful white house, probably creeping out the neighbors but I'm sure I'm not the first. They should feel complimented that so many of us are fans of their home and neighborhood.

After this visit I stopped in at the V&A Museum which is just chalk full of a random assortment of beautiful artifacts from all over Europe. My favorite sections were both the photography exhibits (obviously) and the glass exhibit. I am really intrigued by glass and art created with it or by it and so this area of the museum was just stunning to me. There were some excellent pieces in both sections of the museum but by far the best and most important to me was the large print of a photo by Steven Meisel, my favorite photographer. It was quite exciting and thrilling to see his work from something other than a computer screen and to be able to study the intricacies of his work. Plus this time his picture had been made into a giant puzzel so that was just cool also.

(Top Right is the V&A from the outside, Left: amazing centerpiece in the museum, Bottom Left: the dome inside, Bottom Center: glass work of art, incredible, Bottom Right: columns of stacked glass as the railing in the glass exhibit, nifty.)

 (Here is my favorite peice of the day, Meisel's puzzel. INCREDIBLE)

On thursday evening I went to my first Serpentine Running Club official practice. And guess what, it was at Battersea Park. So I made my way over there at 7 pm, which meant it was dark out so I was curious how well lit the park would be for our workout. Anyways, we did 9k of speed work (ouch!) but it was very beneficial for me. We did a tempo paced run around the outside of the park which was a 3k loop, then 90 seconds rest, then 3 x 800 meter intervals at 5k pace, so fast, with only 75 seconds rest in between. Then I somehow survived another tempo loop around the park, but this was more about survival than tempo-ing the thing. But I did and I didn't do too shabby. So I was proud of myself. It was really fun and I met some really great people so I will definitely head back over there for next thursday's workout.


By saturday it was time for our free trip to Stonhenge/Bath. I was really excited about his, and I got some great photos out of it. I decided to scurry away from the Marist group in an attempt to try to meet some new people, (why not right?) and I was successful. I spent the entire day with a girl named Sabrina who is in two of my classes. She attends Drexel and we had a great day all around together. Later on saturday we met back up and she introduced me to a bunch of other Drexel-ites so it was great to meet more people in the FIE family. Anywho, Stonehenge was incredible, the story of it, the beauty, just everything about it was mystical and very interesting to me. Not so much for most of the other ditsy girls attending the trip as I heard many of them say, "Ok I don't need any more stupid pictures of rocks, lets go." This occurring only maybe 10 minutes after we arrived. Good. Then we headed out to Bath and learned a lot of the history from our bus tour guide before even reaching the city. Incredible place, that looks so much like an Italian Roman city its scary. We got to go to the relatively newly rediscovered Roman Bath houses and saw the amazing natural springs and got to roam the city for a few hours following this. It was really fun and extremely interesting.

 (Photos of Stonehenge, Roman Baths, English countryside and the beautiful architecture of a Church in Bath)

 

This brings us to Saturday night. A big group of us from Marist headed out to the Worlds End Pub in Camden. The worlds biggest pub that is. I had been there before but this was the first for everyone else. We had the times of our lives. While the photos may make it seem like we were all incredibly drunk this could not be further from the truth. I am certain that not one of us was even buzzed. We were just having so much fun spending time together, dancing the night away and just enjoying some great company from the other pub attendees, and I think we gave them quite a show. The magic truly began when none other than Lady Gagas classic, "Poker Face" was played by the eclectic DJ. We took over the dance floor and from then on we got had most of the pub dancing. It was a blast. So many random people came up to us and asked us where we were from and said that we were so much fun and wished we could be with them whenever they went out. We were happy to give the good old USA a good representation for once.

 

(Here we have myself and my brat pack of Sarah and Yasin breakin it down to who knows what, probably Ke$ha, possibly Gaga, either way having fun which is all that matters. Second we have the group of people that fell in love with us and wanted to take a photo with us. One of them even told us we could stop by the starbucks he works at and get free drinks whenever we want. We might just have to hit him up on that one of these days!)

So this brings us to Sunday which meant of course, LONG RUN. As always I ventured off to a new park to do some exploring while running at the same time. This time I went to the park where I know my next cross country race is to be held. This place is called Horsenden Hill. It was so much fun, very muddy, very slippery (confession: I actually slipped on a turn and face planted in a mud puddle, fun times) but a great way to explor the area and see a great new running venue that I will use in the future I'm sure.

Today was a good day filled with class and running and then some hanging out with my fellow flat mates. I went to see Black Swan for a second time tonight at a little picturehouse (which was a 1 room cinema that was amazing and had a student discount, so I know where I will be seeing my movies from now on) and it was just as splendid the second time around. Still blown away by that movie. But that brings you up to date on everything that has happened in the past week. Maybe sometime this week I'll make time to do a mid week post, no guarentees though so don't hold me to that! I hope everything is going well wherever you the reader are! On a side note, great job to my Red Foxes back at home!!! Great performances by the men in NYC last weekend and then to the ladies this past weekend at Harvard!!! So happy for all of you that have got new PR's or collegiate bests! Keep it up! So proud of all of you for that, because I know how hard you all work so its always great to see it finally pay off! Other than that take care everyone and try and stay warm, I hear it is bitterly cold over there right now. All I can say is that I ran in shorts today, and was comfortable doing so. Unfortunately I don't feel any of you did the same. Except maybe Lauren in Micronesia. But thats a different story. Ok I'm done. Take care.

 

Week One

So much has happened since my last post. We have now completed our first week of classes, which have been awesome thus far. The professors here are all about field trips and getting us out of the classroom and into the streets of London and therefore have planned multiple excursions for us around the town. This starts with tomorrows trip to Parliament for my British Life and Cultures class with the rest of the Marist students. Very exciting stuff. My Social Welfare Issues in the UK has made a promising start to the semester with very intriguing debates and discussions in class already occurring. Finally my Media in Britain class promises to be very helpful towards broadening my advetising skills through a more global outlook on the media world. Thus far I really enjoy all three classes and have not minded the 3 hour class sessions. The rooms in the Foundation House (where we have all of our classes) are named after successful Brits such as The Viveanne Westwood Room, the T.S. Elliot Room along with many others, which is pretty cool (much better than any of the basement dungeon rooms in Lowell Thomas thats for sure).

Now that we are settled into a much more usual schedule and things are getting routine around here we have all began to have adventures of our very own. I have run around Buckingham Palace a few times while the Changing of the Guard ceremony was occurring. Very cool to see and its remarkable how many people see it on a daily basis. Most recently I participated in my first race since I've been here. I did an 8k yesterday at Alexandra Palace, or as the locals call it Ally Pally! This is essential a gigantic castle ontop of a hill. Since we are cross country freaks and we love to run through the mud (which was completely redefined for me after this race) they had the men run straight up this mountain 3 consecutive times. The course started in a big field at the base of the hill and we did a big loop around the outside of the field and then after completing this circle turned and went in a straight line up the hill for about 200 meters. For those of you wondering how steep this was I will compare it to two different hills you might recognize. First it felt like running up Cemetary Hill at Van Cortland Park three times which equals death. Mind you this would be like running up Cemetary if it were all grass and all mud. Not just a little mud, we're talkin like feet sinking in a few inches, shoes nearly getting sucked off type of mud, for all 200 meters of the hill. Now for those of you who don't know what Cemetary is you might understand this reference. It was like running straight up the Lost Valley hill in front of the base lodge, three times. Fun times. Even though the course was insanely muddy, hilly and tiring it was true cross country which made it absurdly fun!!! I loved it. I wasn't really trying to hard I was just having fun with it and just feeling out the way races are run over here. And surprisingly to me most people said that these conditions weren't even that bad. So for my next race I will be prepared for the worst! But I had a blast, met some really cool runners and look forward to working out with them for the rest of my time here.


Last night I ventured off to Camden Town for round two of what we had been told was the happening neighborhood of London. I went to a pub called The Camden Head which was pretty centrally located. Not my first choice, I originally wanted to go to a place called Cafe 1001 where there was live music but the tube access to it was not working so I decided to head up the Camden instead. Anywho, I met these three awesome people Michael, Fran and Ricki. Michael has a gigantic fro and has lived in 5 different countries and is a really talented guitarist. Fran, his girlfriend, has also lived in a bunch of different countries and now lives near Portabello Road in London with Ricki who is originally from Australia. They were really inviting and nice so we started talking and they were really cool. They wanted to go to a jazz club across the street from the Camden Head but after we heard that they weren't letting anyone else in we decided to head up to the self proclaimed the World Biggest Pub, called Worlds End. They rightfully deserve this title. This pub was a network of rooms with spiral staircases, intricate decor and an amazing mix of people from all over the world inside. The pub is decorated to look like a street market on the inside and the flooring is cobblestoned. Basically I was in love from the the decorations, to the 60's music they were playing and the incredible mix of characters inside. I will definitely go back here to hang out later for sure. Anywho the 4 of us hung out for the rest of the night and laughed and eventually they asked if I wanted to hang out with them some more. SUCCESS!!! This was what I was aiming for this whole time. Then ontop of this great news they told me that their original plans were to go to Cafe 1001 but they were really glad they met me and came to Camden instead! FATE!!!!! I told them thats where I originally wanted to go but couldn't get to. So I have now successfully made some authentic Brit friends and look forward to more of an insiders view of the city with the three of them.

Other than running and classes I have taken a few pictures here and there and so here is your first glimpse at what my life is like here in London. Hope you enjoy and are all doing well! Take care!

Here's me in the first race sporting my Marist Cross Country shirt!!! This was just the beginning of the huge hill, but you can see how muddy it was. That was consistent throughout the whole course! Lets just say I got a bit sloppy.

This is what all of the homes in Kensington look like..... gorgeous. 

Prince Alberts Monument, right across the street from my house. We learned that since it is almost made of all gold in WWII it was disassembled in fear that it would get bombed and wasn't reassembled for many years following. 

The moon from outside of my window in the early evening. Pretty. 

Traffic in front of our house. I have always wanted to take one of these delayed shots. 

There are so many different species of birds in Hyde Park. This one was quite charismatic. 

A fountain at the top of the Serpentine (the lake that Hyde Park is based around). 

This is one of the many pixies and other magical creatures featured on the amazing Peter Pan statue made of bronze in Hyde Park. The park is where the idea for the story was created and based off of, also where it was written. Finding Neverland, yes, it was also filmed in this park. 

Follow the Brit!!!

Well it has been a whirlwind of chaos since we got to London with meetings and introductions and seminars, but tomorrow the real work begins as classes start. Thus far it has felt much more like a vacation than a school semester but that will change shortly I'm sure. And so, with that said here is a recap on my on-goings-on for the last few days. First up, the flight.....

After my caravan of relatives getting me down to Newark my uncle and I finally arrived far too early, so early that the check in counter for Virgin Atlantic was still occupied by Air India. Therefore we walk back and forth with my luggage up and down the huge lobby trying to find the right counter until we finally asked a security guard who actually knew what was going on (the previous two we had asked had both told us to go in the opposite direction that the previous guard had said... good). So we ate some dinner and then went through check in really smoothly and then off I went through security. I was crossing my fingers that I would be one of the lucky few who would be randomly selected for a sensual pat down by the beautiful tsa guard with the mullet while going through security but I unfortunately wasn't. Anyways to make a long story short I sat in the terminal for a long time before my flight, then boarded the gorgeous plane, found very little leg room in my seat (but I was on the aisle seat so that was good), and found out that the entire row of students I was with were all from marist (I did not recognize this until we had started to take off, so it was a little embarrasing because apparently they all recognized me but I did not return the favor, thats what you get when you're a space case like me), and then we were up in the air. On a side note there were 387 passengers on the plane, wow, that is more than double the size of my graduating class. As the 7 hour flight commenced I immediately started to watch movies. This time I saw Never Let Me Go (which was excellent but very depressing and so I cheered my self up with...) and Toy Story 3 (STILL EPIC THE 2ND TIME!!). After attempting to sleep which was a total fail I tried to watch some other random things like Family Guy and Mad Men but before I knew it we were coming down to land. So the flight was altogether very easy and smooth, I even got my bags easily and got through customs quickly, so fast that I was the first FIE student out of the airport and had to wait around for everyone else to catch up. Winner.

Next we took a coach bus into London with a little bit of a tour guide on the bus. Her name was Jan (so immediately I began comparing her to my mom and she was the spitting image of her if mom were to be British, crazy I know) we learned a lot about the outskirts of the city as we drove in and she was a great help to orient us with the way of the land in the city. We arrived at our new home Hyde Park Gate which is the crappiest of all the FIE housing, not to mention Marist was placed on the top floors so we had to carry all of our luggage up 5 flights of stairs. This, the girls were not to pleased about. So we moved into our home which is very long and narrow. It has this long interconnecting hallway that definitely seems more like a maze or attic than apartments. But I moved into my room which had its own bathroom and was moderately sized. I'm living with my old housemate from Marist, Chris so that makes things easy because he's a great guy, really easy to live with, and there was no awkward introductions to be made! Easily the best part of our room was one addition to the bathroom that I was quite shocked to see. There sitting right next to the toilet was......... a bidet. While some of you might think "Oh thats common in Europe." Which is true, we were the only one's to recieve one in our bathroom. Glamorous. So accomedations are okay, but still much better than most college apartment buildings so whatever.

After checking into our house, picking up our packets of info and attending some unnecessary meetings we all got some food and spent the night getting to know one another. The one person I semi-knew before the trip, Sarah, showed up later in the day with her friend Yasin. We immediately formed a brat pack (as the rest of the marist group already had extreme clique problems, I was a little left out) and we went to the closest pub to our home called Gloucester Arms which is about 5 minutes from Hyde Park Gate. We went in a little confused on what was expected of us but we eventually figured out that you just seat yourself and go up to the bar if you want drinks or food, they won't come to you. So we got some food and some drinks. I tried some Stella beer, boo this sucked, and the girls tried some Cyder, very good and very popular around London. The food was great and cheap and the atmosphere was much different than the USA. Much more community oriented and felt more like a rowdy starbucks than a bar, everyone was just enjoying their drinks and talking to friends, no mingling or socializing outside of your group occurred. After this we hopped on the Tube for our inaugural ride and went to see Big Ben and the London Eye. At night these both were absolutely breath taking. And thus ended our first night.

The second day brought on some extremely painfully boring orientation meetings which were necessary but not very educational. After we survived this I went out for a run (oh yeah, I did somehow manage to get the energy to run the day before even after not sleeping for a good 2 days) in Hyde Park which is absolutely gigantic and beautiful, this will be an incredible place to train while I'm here. After that we decided that we wanted to go exploring a little and go somewhere a little younger. Thus we decided to head up to Camden which is a much hipper and younger borough of the city than Kensington (this is where all of the really rich and elite business people live therefore there is a lack of youth in the area). We got on the Tube, got off where we thought we needed to and started walking in what we assumed was the direction of Camden. After 15 minutes of not much except walking past a nearly empty pub with an Asian Elvis singing Karaoke (I wanted to sing just one song with him but Yasin and Sarah did not find it as funny as I did) we started to lose some faith in our sense of direction. We eventually spotted a woman in a very sparkly dress with bright red heels walking in front of us and so we all said, "She know's where the party is!" and followed her. We ended up passing her as she was very flustered over something on the phone and stopped and we found a little pub next to a canal. There were flashing lights and loud music so it seemed promising. We go in and order some Cyder from the bar and soon start to feel like we don't belong. Something about the atmosphere just wasn't right. Then Sarah says, "Guys turn around, there are some balloons that say 30 and a table of catered food, I think this is someones 30th birthday party..." HAHAHAHAHA so we crashed this 30th bday bash and quickly got out of there. So we continued on down the road till we found another bumpin late night pub called Millers. As we go inside a security guard asks for our IDs and of course Yasin does not bring her's except for her FIE student ID which essentially gives no valuable information. The guard just asked her what her birthday was and then let us in, good. After the first half hour of crappy music and not much fun we approached the DJ and asked him for some Gaga to maybe spice things up. He laughed, asked where we were from then responded by playing Jay-Z's New York. Of course we belted out all of the words just because it applied to us. He ended up playing much more fun music and night turned into a great success. We rode the bus back home (which is incredibly useful and safe in London, where as NYC it is terrifying) and got in around 2:30, successful night #2.

Saturday we had a bus tour of the city in the morning which was incredibly helpful and educational, I really enjoyed seeing all of the different areas of the city and hearing about the history, followed by a walking tour of our neighborhood and its history in the afternoon. After this I went running for the first time in the daylight since I've been here, everyother time I got started when it was already dark out but surprisingly a lot of people were out running with me so apparently its pretty popular and safe. After all of this we wanted to do something new and fun for the night. And so we knocked on the door of another floor not Marist, met some really nice and fun Wisconsin kids and tried to make plans with them but that failed, but I'm sure it will happen eventually. Then we decided we would try to get a bigger group of Marist kids together to hang out for the night. We only successfully added 5 more to our group of 3, but it was an improvement. We went back to the Gloucester Arms, then attempted to go to a sports bar in the Times Square of London called Piccadilly Circus (pronouced Pick-a-Dilly Circus, weird I know) but there was a cover charge and Sarah and I weren't down for that. So we grabbed a bus up to Camden and decided to go for round two! This time we were definitely in the heart of Camden and found it to be full of young people much more like our age and we decided to go to this venue called The Underworld. There was quite the line to get in and the crowd looked fun so we said hey why not. We met a very charasmatic Brit outside of the club called Kinsley and he was shocked and impressed that we were from New York (our goal for the night was to make new Brit friend, SUCCESS!) So we went into the club to find it was a network of hallways and rooms the eventually lead to a huge dance floor that was lower than everything else (thus the name underworld because you started by going to the basement of a building and then just continued downwards). The club was full of hipsters and people jamming by themselves to some very eccletic music. Sarah and I were a little caught off guard when we went down to the dance floor and found that people actually moved for you when you walked by where as in America you have to assert yourself through the crowds. There was almost an uncomfortable amount of space on the dance floor, I kind of wanted a little less space honestly, but we had fun and saw some very interesting people and all around had a great time. We hopped on a bus and made our way back home. We met up with some Temple students who were lost and could not find their way back to FIE. After assuming I was British and yelling, "FOLLOW THE BRIT!" when I gave them directions, we all made it home.

Today has been a day of sleeping in, I went up to new park a little further away to run today, it was packed with lots of Futbol and various activities going on. But it was a great park to run in and also had a zoo. I ran by a giraffe, no big deal. And so here I am sitting at my table relaxing and getting ready for our first class which is tomorrow at 9:30! So tomorrow the real FIE starts. Well thats a pretty hefty update on my life, but there have been many things happening. I will try to make my posts much more frequent so they aren't all this long! Take care to everyone at home. Congrats to all of my Red Foxes who had great first meets at the Armory on Friday, especially Matt Flint for breaking the 2 minute mark officially for the 800, awesome job! Best of luck in your next meets!!! Take care.

True Life: I'm Studying Abroad

Tomorrow begins the journey. Surprisingly I am neither nervous or anxious. I feel content and ready to go. Whether this continues into Wednesday when I'm actually boarding the flight remains to be seen. Anyways, my bags are packed and are hopefully under the weight limit required by Virgin Atlantic (keep your fingers crossed). But tomorrow I will be driving to meet my Aunt in Massachusettes, then driving to her house in Connecticut where I will be spending the night. Finally I will make the final leg of the caravan by driving with my Uncle to Newark on Wednesday afternoon. So wish me luck with my upcoming travels and the next post should come when I have finally made it to my new home in Kensington!!!

9 Days and Counting

Well I truly can't believe this is happening but it is. I am headed to London for the next 4 months of my life and I am in shock that it is actually occurring. It was always a distant dream of mine to go abroad, especially somewhere across the pond, but never seemed probable until I transferred to Marist. Now being surrounded by abroad opportunities and testimonies from nearly half of the student body about successful abroad adventures it seemed not only probable but incredibly realistic. When I presented the idea to my parents I recieved support for the idea, but an underlying sense of doubt was obviously present during the conversation from both of them. But here we are, getting my departure information, class schedules and supplies as I prep for the greatest adventure of my life thus far. I hope this blog will help me to keep in touch with persons back home, serve as a source of information for other prospective and hopeful abroad students in the future, and allow me to share my experiences while recieving feedback and suggestions from readers. Feel free to comment on my postings giving possible options or destinations worth traveling to that I might be interested in as the course of these next 4 months plays out. With that all said I hope that you are all having a great holiday season and are enjoying time with family and friends as we have been completely snowed in to our house as a wicked nor'easter just hit the northeast. Take care.