And so it ends...

My time in London is coming to a close. Today marks the first day of the last week in this beautiful city I've called home for the last three months. One would expect me to be quite depressed, but in reality I am mearly looking forward to the next step in my life. There is no point to being sad about leaving, because I have had some of the most amazing days, and amazing adventures. I've also met some extraordinary people, and have tons of memories of this once in a life time experience. Even though i have to leave some of these great friends behind, in today's world run by technology, I have no doubt that keeping in touch will be a problem, plus it gives me excuses to come back.

Here are some pictures of great times and great friends.

Tower bridge, outside of the Tower of London.

Libby and me at Stonehenge

"One of the biggest Henge's in the world"

Tom and me at my going away party. 

Adele and Carly at my going away party.

Kris yelling at me to stop looking at him while he is bowling. 

Paris- City of Lights and Rude French People

Due to time constraints, I find that I have an amazing ability to get into a city, see a few very specific things and get out of the city in 3 days. I did this with New York two Octobers ago, where we flew in saw Equus, the Statue of Liberty, ate at Angelo's, saw the Lion King and got back to Vegas. My Paris trip was very similar. This time I didn't have to plan it, instead I went with International Friends on a three day Paris tour by coach.

Sara decided to join me on this trip just last week, (I had the plans to do it since Feb) and boy am I glad that she did. We had to be at Embankment Station at 6:20am, we got to see the sun rise over St. Paul's before boarding the bus for a two hour ride to Dover, an hour and a half ferry across the English Channel to Calais, and then a three hour ride to Paris. If you thought New York or LA was bad as far as traffic goes- it's the same in Paris! it took us an hour just to get through the traffic to our hotel in the Bercy area of Paris. After we dropped off our bags and freshened up the bus took us around to all the big sites before dropping us off at the Eiffel Tower for a boat cruise.


We cruised along the Seine, and then rode the Elevator to the very top of the Effile Tower. You can appreciate why Paris is called the city of lights when standing at the very top of this large metal contraption 1000 feet in the air.












The next day we hiked to the top of the hill that Sacre Coeur stands upon, and get a morning view of the city we had seen the night before. I honestly don't know which one is better. We walked around the artist area behind the church where I bought a Moulin Rouge Mug and a painting, then walked down to the Moulin Rouge.

Our next stop was Notre Dame. I was tempted to yell out for sanctuary but I restrained myself... I wonder how many times a day the people that work there hear it. Notre Dame is a beautiful church, it almost makes me want to be Catholic... almost. The sun was out by then, and Sara and I got a bit of a tan as we walked around the giant stone church. After that it was off to the Palace of Versailles, built by King Louis the XIV - also known as the Sun king, who I'm pretty sure was compensating for something.

The palace is unbelievably beautiful and I could get lost in the gardens for days. I expect I would be angry as well if I were starving and the King and Queen were living in that Heaven on earth.  The Hall of Mirrors (a simply corridor between rooms) is so magnificent it took my breath away (pictured above).

I'm still not sure why, but it seems that French people really don't like Americans. We got dirty looks when speaking English, and even dirtier looks when I attempted French. I'm aware that my French isn't all that great but at least in American and Mexico when you struggle with the language people do their best to help you along with a smile instead of scowl at you.

We had dinner at a nice French restaurant that night, then a crepe for desert before back to the hotel room for a restful night sleep before we tackled the Louvre the next morning.

As far as museums go, you could hate ever one you've ever been in, and still love the Louvre. Home to Da Vinci's Virgin on the Rocks, and the Mona Lisa, Michangelo's Dying slave, The Venus de Milo and Winged Victory. The Louvre is filled with nothing but amazing works of masterpiece. After seeing the required pieces Sara and I ventured outside to enjoy the warmest day I've felt since I left Redlands, and walk amongst the glass pyrimids, the "Argos" plated Rose line, and the beauty that is the outside of the Louvre on a sunny day.



After the Louvre it was time for a return bus trip to London, back across the channel and back to speaking English. Paris was beautiful, but London is home. (for now at least- 18 more days before home becomes Lake Havasu)

Vinopolis and the Most Beautiful Day

First things first I have two main things to say: 1. If the weather stays this amazing for the next 30 days, I will never want to leave. 2. We all know that I am not that much of a drinker... but what I'm about to write about, I enjoyed very, very much.














After getting up and going to the gym for a 5k, Sara and I decided to have a late start at of our sight seeing and book a 10 pound wine-tasting experience at a wonderful place called Vinopolis. We learned the different stages to tasting wine, what you look for through the glass, what you smell for, how you are supposed to let the wine run over you tongue and then inhale over it in order to taste the combinations of flavors. We were then set free to pick and chose any 5 wines we would like. I found that my previous dislike for wine is more of a dislike for cheep wine (which is perfectly acceptable) and that good wine is actually quite pleasant. We were then treated to Gin martini's which were amazing. We finished up the day with a rum tasting, which makes me understand why Jack Sparrow was so distraught when his rum was gone.

Afterwards we walked back across the London Bridge (This is the second "London Bridge" I've walked across, the other one being in Lake Havasu) and took the Tube home. While this may seem like an uneventful day, it was one of the best day's I've had here. I enjoy the rain, but when you haven't seen the sun, or felt it touch your face in nearly two months, it is a sight that can make even the most boring day, one to remember.

3 Places at Once and a Little Bit of Dancing as Well

If you've ever seen the movie A Walk to Remember, then you know the trick to being in two places at once. You simply straddle the line between states, or countries. Well On April 6th I was technically in three places at once. The Prime Meridian of the world lies in Greenwich. By placing a foot on either side of the line, you are in the Eastern Hemisphere, the Western Hemisphere, and the Northern Hemisphere (Not quite as cool if you think about the fact that you are always in two hemispheres, but still, three hemispheres at once!).Could you imagine being at the Prime Meridian and the Equator... It would be like the Four Corners (U.S.) but the Four Corners of the World.  I thought about a flat map, that cut off at the prime meridian, but like some video games, when you went off one side, you would appear on the other. If it was Me, I would have hopped back and forth from the two sides of the screen. After straddling hemispheres we spent some time at the National Maritime Museum, checking out relics of ships and paintings and an entire exhibit on Nelson.

We were also able to experience a rather fun Easter Monday Celebration, where a group of men in bells and ribbons danced with sticks and handkerchief and then lifted a "virgin" in a chair as an offering to the Anglo-Saxon Goddess Eastre (where we get the name Easter). Libby got to be one of the offerings to the Goddess and was lifted in the air by ten or so men three times. When they brought her back to the earth they all took turns kissing her on the cheek, and getting in line three times to do it over and over again.
Libby being offered to the Goddess Eastre
 Eastre Dancing

We were also able to find a new market (our new favorite hobby) that got us all quality gifts and a few cute things for ourselves. Overall, a beautiful day, no matter which hemispheres we were in.

The Theater

If there is one thing England knows how to do, it is train actors. The idea of waiting tables for ten years between auditions, waiting for someone to finally see some potential in you is not exactly the life most good actors live on this side of the pond. I'm not saying that no actor in England has ever had to wait tables, but the theater schools over here find talent and capitalize on it quickly. You might think then, “Where are all these bright new talent-filled actors?” Simple answer: on stage. The shows in London are second to none. I have yet to see a play I haven't completely loved, and this love affair of mine with London stage reached its high point on St. Patrick's Day.

My flatmate, Libby, got a hold of two tickets to the Old Vic showing of Six Degrees of Separation. I was more than happy to join her when I saw that Anthony Head was the main character. For those of you that don't know Anthony Head played the loveable Giles on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The show was at 2:30pm. Don't let the early hour fool you, because the story was intriguing and the acting was superb.

After the show Libby and I decided that instead of heading back and starting our St. Patty's Day celebrations, that we should go to Leicester Square and see what half price tickets we could find for that night. What we found were 28 pound tickets to see Waiting for Godot staring Sir Ian McKellen and Roger Rees. Again, if those names don't ring a bell (and they damn well better), Sir Ian McKellen is well known for playing Gandalf and Magneto, while Roger Rees is well known for his stage acting and as the Sheriff of Rottingham in Robin Hood: Men in Tights. Waiting for Godot is absolutely positively absurd and absolutely positively amazing! An absurd comedy of two old homeless men waiting for some unknown reason for a man named Godot. They are forever trapped in a repeating cycle of events, the shoes that McKellen's character takes off and puts on because his feet either hurt or are cold. The traveling man and his servant who stalk across the stage bags in hand. The repeating question of what type of tree they are waiting by and if the could hang themselves from it with just a bit of rope. All this repeats day in and day out because they are waiting for Godot.

While seeing this show could have been the high light of the night, something far better happened just minutes after the curtain came down. Libby and I found the stage door and waited by it with maybe five other people. We got to meet, talk with and get autographs of Sir Ian McKellen, and Roger Rees. Roger even agreed with me that Robin Hood: Men in Tights, “Really was the greatest movie, wasn't it?”

What a perfect day.

In Wonderland and Oz

As many of you know, Alice in Wonderland came out last Friday and kicked Avatar's butt for highest grossing 3D film on opening weekend. Libby (flatmate) who is a huge fan of Tim Burton, and I decided to go see it the day after we got back from Wales (neither of us have Monday classes). While I would have been ok with watching it at the local 5 pound cinema, she suggested we go to Leicester Square, where the actual World Premier happened just two weeks prior. We are going to skip the part where the tickets were 16 pounds (Don't try to convert that, it is much too painful). Going to this Cinema was like going to a play. We bought our tickets for very specific seats, and actually sat where the movie stars and directors and all sit when watching the World Premier. The theater was huge, they had gold reliefs on the side walls, and the screen was HUGE. The movie was Awesome, I loved it. Most memorably when Libby and I looked at each other and then back at the caterpillar and went "Snape!" I don't care what people say about this movie, I thought it was brilliant.

On Wednesday we took a trip into another far away imagined land, the Land of Oz. IFSA got us 14 pound tickets to see Wicked, and I have to say it was probably the best 14 pounds I've spent while here. What an amazing story, with amazing music and costumes and acting. I can see why it is one of the highest grossing plays world wide. Wicked has to be the best Musical I've ever seen, and now I can understand why everyone in high school was obsessed with it.

Snowdon, Wales

Included in IFSA Butler services are three trips throughout the semester, the first to Bath for a day, the Second an Adventure weekend at the base of Snowdon Mountain in Wales, and the third a day trip to Dover. This past weekend was our Adventure weekend, two days and two nights at a hotel in the countryside of Wales surrounded by sheep and shadowed by Snowdon Mountain.

After a five hour bus ride the night before, we were up bright and early Saturday morning to be served a "traditional breakfast." If slabs of bacon instead of strips served next to undercooked scrambled eggs and a warm half a tomato constitute as a "traditional breakfast" I'll stick to the new age stuff. Afterwards we geared up, and along with 10 other people piled into a van to go a lovely rock up the hill for the purpose of jumping off it tied to a rope. In the UK this is referred to as "Abseiling", in the US as "Repelling", and by me as "The fun part of rock climbing." We didn't get to climb up the rock, we hiked to the top and then came down by rope, which while fun was slightly anti-climatic due to the rock being fairly curved and nothing like the movies. We were having a conversation about indoor rock climbing while waiting our turn, and got on to the subject of taking risks while top roping, because you knew the rope was there to catch you. This reminded me of the opening scene from Mission Impossible where Tom jumps and is hanging by the tips of his fingers on the lip of a cliff. Luckily enough someone had mission impossible music, and played it while I was repelling. After a nasty ______ and butter sandwich, (all the sandwiches they gave us had butter and or cheese on them mixed with either turkey, ham or some combination of the four) I set off to my second activity- The High Ropes Challenge.

Now if your thinking that sounds fun and dangerous, you would be absolutely correct. It involved tightrope walking, climbing a climbing wall 30 feet in the air, and swinging from one platform to the next while nothing more than a rope attached to the wire above you and your belt was making sure that should your arms or legs failed you would only drop about five feet, instead of the 30-40 feet to the ground. (By the way if you did fall, there was no way to let you down or pull you up, you would have to grab on to the closest pole or wire or rope and pull yourself up by your own strength. After completing these two courses (and finding a brand new fear of falling from very high places buried deep inside of me) we went on to do a little thing called the leap of faith. Essentially this involves climbing a telephone pole using rock climbing hand holds to a very small two by four foot platform that you must, and I quote "Get your feet as high as you can, and then just mount it." Then once you are standing you must wait while your partner does the same. When the two of you are standing 35 feet in the air, you count off to three and then jump for a large trapeze. The trapeze doesn't go any where, once you've caught it you simply let go and the lovely rope harness brings you back to earth.

The next day we boarded a bus and were taken to the coastal town of LLandudno (believe me when I tell you to not even try to pronounce that word, or any other Welsh word for that matter because you will be wrong). It would have felt like any California coastal town with its beach and pier, except that it couldn't have been more than 50 degrees and there were no surfers present.

Wales is unbelievably beautiful. As someone on the bus said, "This is what England is supposed to look like." I can only assume they haven't left London since they've gotten here, I'm pretty sure the countryside looks pretty much the same.

Libby (flatmate), Sara (Friend), and myself at the beach. Proof that I actually have friends.

On the walk back to the hotel we stopped by this ruined Keep. We went inside and climbed to the top and it was really awesome. You could still see the bases of the stone walls that would have made up the adjoining castle.

My high ropes challenge team in front of the lake with Snowdon behind us to the right.

After coming down from the rock, standing in front of a beautiful valley wearing the hat Connie knitted for me.

That would be me- Look Mom, one hand!!!

Trafalgar Square, National Gallery, 221b Baker Street.

For the Wednesday and Thursday of my Tourist Week I decided to visit the Trafalgar Square- with its bronze lions, and its 18 foot statue of Nelson on top of a pillar, The National Gallery- home to many works of arts by Peter Paul Rubens, Titian, Da Vinci, Rembrandt, Monet, Manet, and my new favorite artist - Claude Laurent, And 221B Baker Street- what they claim is the most famous address in England, being the home to the fictional character Sherlock Holmes and his best friend Dr. Watson.

Trafalgar Square is one of the most visited places in the world. There are two fountains, large statues, and a column on top of which stands an 18 foot tall statue of Admiral Nelson, and at the base is guarded by 4 bronze lions. The sun decided to show itself for about a half an hour that day, just long enough to take some amazing pictures of the square before heading inside to the National Gallery.

Inside the National Gallery I opted to wander by myself instead of partake in a audio tour, or even take a map of where certain artists were. I find it must more interesting to walk into a room and find the first piece of art that catches your eye, and then go to it. Because I was in an art museum that showcased quite a bit of Renaissance art there were two main themes with the art- Jesus and Greek/Roman Mythology. For those of you who know me well, you'll understand what I mean when I say that the art that caught my eye 90% of the time had nothing to do with Christ. Titian's Bacchus and Ariadne caught my eye for it's vibrant colors and beautiful imagery of the moment when Bacchus gives Ariadne her own constellation in the sky. Rubens painted The Judgement of Paris more than once, and both views on display depicted the goddesses in different ways, the anger on Hera's face, or the uncomfortable feeling Athena is going though, being without her armor. My absolute favorite had to be Claude (Laurent)'s paintings. Being mainly a landscape painter, he paints these beautiful landscapes and adds in Mythology people. My two favorites being Landscape with Psyche outside the Palace of Cupid, and Landscape with Narcissus and Echo. I was able to see one Da Vinci- as the National Gallery's Virgin of the Rocks was not on display it was a sketch called the Leonardo Cartoon - because it was drawn and not painted.

221b Baker Street was a whole different experience. When Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote about Sherlock Holmes, Baker Street did not extend as far as 221b. Years later when the street grew larger and it came time to make this address, it was only appropriate to make it into a museum that matched Doyle's description to the T. The first two floors are just as one would imagine from reading the books, a small sitting room stuffed with a dinner table, Holmes' desk, Holmes' chemistry table, a violin, and all sort of knickknacks from his adventures. His bedroom is small and his hats and traveling chemistry set lay out on his bed, ready for his next case. Watson's room is upstairs and as we can all expect is a great deal tidier than Holmes'. The best part about 221b is the third floor, where there are wax statues of various people and things from the Holmes' stories - the Hound of the Bakervilles, the picture of Irene Adler and the King of Bohemia from A Scandal in Bohemia a full size statue of Professor Moriarty- Holmes' arch enemy, even Mr. Jabez Wilson, copying the Encyclopedia from my favorite story The Redheaded League. IT really is a must see for any body who enjoys the greatest detective in history.

St. Paul's Cathedral

St. Paul's Cathedral was the first Anglican Church built in England. It stands out in every way and is in my opinion Christopher Wren's most amazing creation. It's crypts hold artists and vetrans alike. The two biggest tombs being for the Duke of Wellington, who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo, and Nelson, who won the Battle of Trafalgar against Napoleon's forces.

Above the crypt is the most amazing dome. The main part of the dome is painted black and white with 8 pictures of the life of St. Paul, below that are golden mosaics 4 new Testamate Saints and 4 Old Testamate Profits. and below that on the inner alcoves are more golden mosaics of Jesus and his life. 280 feet from the ground floor is the top most gallery. It takes 530 steps to reach this gallery and see London from this perch. These aren't nice easy steps either, most of them are spiral, and if not, then they are very narrowly shoved into rock where you have to squeeze through to have the privilege of walking these 530 steps.

The View you get from the Golden gallery is worth every panting breath it took to get up there. I don't know if Christopher Wren knew if he was building the Perch of London, when he built the Dome. I have a feeling he was more concerned with what the dome looked like from the ground than what people could see from it

After I spent over four hours there, I found myself a pub, and finally had the Fish and Chips I've wanted since before I got to London... and Damn was it good.

The British Museum

Today I ventured out to find the British Museum, and find it I did. This place is huge, housing mummies, the Rosetta Stone, parts of the Parthenon, hundreds if not thousands of books and so, so much more. I used an entire 1GB memory card and didn't even see the entire museum. You can be sure I'll be going back.

Below, there are 280 something pictures of Greek, Roman, and Egyptian artwork, mostly sculptures. Many of the pictures of sculptures are followed by a picture of the plaque discrib describing what the statue is of.

Things of Notice:

"DUM DUM, Bring me GUM GUM?" - You'll know it when you see it.

Rosetta stone, the key to understanding Egyptian Hieroglyphics, and it's replica. Housed in two different parts of the museum, one behind glass and one not.

"Hercules, Hercules, Hercules!"

A King of Egypt or two... or 12, I lost count.

Lots of bodies missing heads, or arms... torsos really, makes me think the Ancient world was more about battle than art.

Gods... and whole lot of them. Of course if you remember that most of the Greek and Roman gods are the same, it pairs the number down a bit, but then you have to add in all those Egyptian Gods and their kings who were thought of as gods... then all those guys who called themselves Gods... Deity Parties must have been packed in the Ancient world.

What would an English Museum be without at least one Harry Potter item?

I will be going back to the Museum to get a better look around. In April they are having a Renaissance exhibit with work from Michalagelo and Da Vinci and all those other names that everyone knows. I can't wait for that one.