Markets and Mile End Park

Last Sunday and This Saturday I ventured to two different markets near where I live. Last Sunday was spent at the beautiful and well known, Brick lane, and then on Saturday to the Roman Road Market, both of which are within walking distance of my campus. Both markets are a mixture between swapmeet and a farmers markets.

Brick Lane is a long street in the middle of Bangletown. I was able to get a few scarves, gloves, freshly made crapes with bananas and Nutella, and got my picture taken professionally for a five pound donation to Haiti. There was art, there were movies and music, and hundreds of people.

Roman Road is a lot like Brick Lane, except that it was smaller, and had more clothes than food or swap-meet things. I was able to get some nice gladiator sandals and a cute new top for less than fifteen pounds. But the best part of Roman road was the walk there and back. I walked along the canal that is next to my campus and through Mile End park, past green hills, semi clear water, and people. The park that was covered with snow the first three weeks I was here, is now full of color and life. The canal is lined by small boathouses tied to the sides.

I took some pictures, and even got to write in a little cafe, sipping coffee (which is so much more biter here then it is at home) and eating a danish. Not to mention, the Sun decided to show itself after a day of rain and then snow, giving me a gorgeous view out my window of the buildings down at Canary wharf. Overall, a good day.

Mile End Park, next to Queen Mary

Brick Lane sign in another language and some art.

A Walking Day

I decided I needed a day to myself. A day that I spent doing exactly what I wanted to do, by myself with no timetable. So, I walked. I left the college at noon, turned left and walked at least a mile and a half until I found a cheap hair salon. I got my hair cut and continued in the same direction, getting peaks of the Olympic Stadium, and Bow Street Church (which is built in the middle of the road, and has a cemetery and everything). Close to two miles later I found myself at Stratford Mall, where I spent some time shopping (New favorite store called, Internacionale, where everything was on sale) before catching the bus back to school.

I made it back to campus around 3:30pm, dropped off my bags and then caught the tube down to Hyde Park to find Peter Pan. I have to report that, due to the fact that I had no idea where in Hyde Park Peter was located (no where, technically he is in Kensington Gardens, the park directly next to and only separated by a single road from Hyde Park) I never found him. I did spend two hours walking through the huge park however, finding a statue of an Isis bird, Princess Di's Fountain, Queen Caroline's memorial, Cupid's Fountain, and the Rose Garden with an interesting statue of a boy and a fish. Hyde Park and the Serpentine (the lake inside Hyde Park) let you completely forget you are in the center of London for just how huge they are. I could have told you the water behind me was the Thames River, and I bet you all would have believed me. It was a beautiful, and quite place that I'm sure I'll be spending much more time in, in the future.

Overall it was a beautiful day to walk for hours and enjoy the slightly chilly but dry weather of London, no sun, but who needs sun when your in the most beautiful place in the world?

Statue of Cupid

The Serpentine Lake in Hyde Park

The Reform Tree

Me in front of the statue of the boy and the fish

just some pictures

The River Thames at night.

A guard at St James Palace (near Buckingham)

St. Paul's Cathedral at night (+me)

Side Entrance to St. James Palace, where King Henry the VIII and his wives lived

My flat mate Kris (from Northern Ireland) and myself at our dinner table.

These are just some of the pictures from my trip that I thought I would show you all. I really believe I'm living in the most beautiful city in the world!

Odds and Firsts.

I’ve been in London a little over a week now, and I’ve found quite a few things odd, and had quite a few firsts for myself. Being a bit of an anglophile, I thought I had prepared myself for London. I knew it would rain all the time. I knew a lot of words and their meanings: a coach for a bus, trousers not pants (pants means underwear) jumper not a sweater… etc. I was prepared for the questions that were going to arise: Does everyone in America own a gun? But apparently there are things that I was unaware were different, or were perceived differently. They follow.

Odds

When you make eye contact with someone walking down the street or around campus, if they don’t know you, nine times out of ten they won’t smile at you, even if you smile at them first.

There is a cemetery on Campus.

Normal coffee (black) is referred to as Americano.

The University Pub, is open most of the day and then into the night.

No one has even heard of Ranch dressing. I ordered chicken nuggets at Burger King the other day and got something called Chili sauce, that tasted sort of like sweet and sour sauce you would get at a Chinese food restaurant.

London is way more culturally diverse than back at home. My flat mates include a Norwegian, a Sri Lankan , Vietnamese, Northern Irish, and one English (from the Cambridge area). I’ve seen more women in head scarves than anything else. As opposed to the one or two people in a class that might be from a different country or talk with a heavy accent, it will actually make up half of a class here.

We were asked, upon meeting our Vietnamese flat mate, if we knew where Vietnam was. We are still not sure if she perceived us as stupid Americans or what, but at least two of us had to stop ourselves from responding, “Yeah, I think I’ve heard of it before… Did we fight a war there once?”

Firsts

First Legal Drink – Pimm’s Classic (a gin and lemonade drink)

First time on an Underground – They call it the Tube

First time seeing a woman in a full burqa in real life. I’ve seen people in the head scarf before but never fully covered. I have a girl in my Linguistics of Story Telling class that wore a black one the other day.

First time having only one class a day. My schedule gives me almost too much free time. I have one class a day four days a week. In addition. I have a reading week off (same as Redlands Spring Break I think) and the entire month of April off as my Spring break, this is followed by a month of finals (which I probably won’t have because I’m doing English and not something that requires tests…

First Days in London

Day One:

If there was any way to start what is supposed to be one of the greatest adventures of my life, it would not be taking three flights over a a whole day while a painful case of strep throat slowly inflamed my tonsils until I couldn’t swallow. Descending into London after a six and a half hour light, where my ears refused to pop and continued to put pressure on my painful tonsils, is probably number 3 on my list of most painful moments in my life. I guess when you think about it though, my trip can really only go up from there.

Once we arrived at the hotel (St. Giles, Bedford Ave, London W1) I was able to take out some money, hail my first taxi, and experience England’s nationalized health care system. In my personal and professional opinion I have to agree with the Brits, it is much better than what we have at home. I was able to get the medicine for my throat along with every med I would need for the next month, for about 40 pounds, even with the conversion, that is less than it would cost me in the states.

Day Two:

During our orientation, I was able to meet a Pearly Queen. (Picture) There are Pearly Kings and Queens for every area of London, and it is there job to raise money for charities. All of their suits are covered in designs done in pearl buttons, in order to be recognizable and stand out. They are well known around England, and the one I met had met the Queen Mother, Elton John, Michael Caine, Ringo Star, and plenty of other famous people. Afterwards I was went to Carphone, and picked up a new cell. Now everyone says that London is excessively more expensive than the states, and they are completely right, except on one account, Mobil Phones. I paid five pounds for an LG phone, and ten pounds for a top up card. Even then, every minute only costs me 20p (p=cents), texts 10p, and if they guy knew what he was talking about 7p to call the states. Everything is completely free if someone else calls me.

The best part about Day Two however was attending Avenue Q at the Gielgud Theater. Bundled up in two sets of leggings, a skirt, a sweater, a jacket, a scarf, a hat, and fuzzy boots, we trekked five minutes away to the theater. Avenue Q was an interesting, and hilarious take on life after graduation from college. To top off a great evening, as we left the theatre it snowed, slow, soft flakes falling from the sky.

Days Three, Four, and Five:

These last three days have been spent mostly doing administration things. Paperwork, moving in, so on and so forth. I used my first public bus to go shopping for some food items. It seems like buses are going to be my new best friends while I’m here. There are plenty of things within walking distance, but the bigger stores (something comparable to Wal-mart) is a 15 minute bus ride away. From my window I can see just about all of the Queen Mary campus, which is just a tad larger and more spread out than Redlands.

Believe it or not, there is a cemetery on campus. I haven’t figure out who is buried there, but it looks quite odd. You can see from the picture there is snow in London. We’ve been told that last year was the first time it had snowed in London in 6 years, and this year was the worst as far as snow and cold as it has been in 32 years. Personally I’m loving it. It feels like a perfect skiing day in Tahoe to me.

I haven’t been able to do much sightseeing, but we are going on a bus tour on Sunday, and a boat tour of the Thames on Monday night, so hopefully I’ll have a lot more pictures then.

Fun and Interesting Facts

You can buy a 24oz. beer for 2 pounds out of a vending machine in the hotel. (Second shelf from the bottom).

On the 10 pound, is Charles Darwin on one side, and the queen on the other.

As the denomination of cash goes up, so does the size of the bill. The 5 is smaller than the 10, the 10 smaller than the 20.

Signing out from London,

L3 Shannon