Cultural Events

In the past two days I've had two cultural events. The first was on Wednesday night. My friends and I, along with a larger group of AIFS students, left from Gloucester Road tube station and went all the way to the West End to see Mary Poppins on stage. The play was absolutely amazing! It did not fully follow the movie that we're all familiar with. Instead it was a mixture of the movie, the book, and a bit of original creativity, espcially with the songs.


The sets were wonderful. There was a house that had two levels and a roof. When there were scenes in the childrens bedroom the house pulls back, and out from under the roof the bedroom lowers to the stage floor. In the scenes in which Mary takes Jane and Michael to the park with Bert, the statues come alive.

Out of all of the scenes in the show, the one that I liked the best was the roof top scene where the chimney sweeps sing and dance to "Step In Time." The actor who plays Bert was in a hidden harness and he walked up the side of the stage and went completely upside down at the top and began to dance before he walked down the other side. The second part that I loved was at the end when Mary Poppins flies away with her umbrella. The actress flew right into the audience and straight towards the balconey where Sarah and I were sitting. It was so cool.


The second event that I had signed up for this week was a trip to the Wimbledon tennis courts. Yesterday, we took the tube to Southfield's station and walked all the way to the courts. Once there, we got to enter Court #1 and Center Court. We also took pictures of the green lawn where people can sit and watch the match on a large screen.


Since the Wimbledon tournament is quickly approaching, the strips were being painted on the grass courts (the paint is actually a clay mixture) and everything was getting a fresh coat of paint. Once the tour had ended I visited the gift shop. Everything was expensive, however I did purchase two things, and that is all I'm going to say cause the birthday girl is reading this blog and I don't want to spoil the surprise. Hee-hee. She'll just have to wait until I come home in July!

Even though I've been on the tube for only two round trips, I'm starting to under how to get to places. I still have to study the maps for a while to make sure I know exactly where I'm going. I don't want to get off on the wrong stop and find myself turned around and confused.

I got out of class early today cause we watched a film called "Withnail and I" instead of discussing the readings. I think I'm going to explore the city a bit with my friends. Tomorrow I plan to see the Trooping of the Colours and catch a glimps of the Queen as she rides by in her carriage. Did you know that she's turned 80 this year?

A Comment On Leaving Comments

I forgot to add this in my initial post. I made it possible for anyone to leave a comment on the blog. You don't have to be a member and log in. Some people have figured this out, but for anyone who have questions about it - this post is for you. Leave me comments or email me whenever you want. Make sure that you leave your name!

London Weather

Here in London the weather is always a good topic for conversation. When I arrived on Saturday it was pleasantly warm, however it was 8:00 AM. Later that day it got hotter and hotter. As I've said before, the past three days have been in the 80's. Since I live on the fourth floor, my room is stuffy and hot, even at night. You know the saying: hot air rises. It's true. My roommate and I keep the window open to let some fresh air in, but there is never a breeze. Sunday, my roommate caved in and bought a fan. I'm determined to save money and not buy one myself. Another reason not to is the fact that I won't be able to take it home with me at the end of the second session. I don't really mind the heat. I take a cold shower before bed and I sleep on top of the bed covers and I'm fine. Living in a building without air conditioning is part of the experience of being in London anyway.

This morning, however, I woke to the pleasant surprise of rain. I stuck half my body out of the small window opening and watched the street below and the locals with their umbrellas. It was nice and cool. I loved it. This is the London weather I was expexting. The rain stopped mid morning when I was in class. The sky remained overcasted and it was slightly warm.



Some of my new friends and I went walking in Hyde Park after lunch. The park was full of little kids praticing football (soccer) and cricket. We also saw soldiers from the barracks training and people riding their horses as well. We walked for a while till we noticed that the weather was slowly changing and we felt litle drops fall on our face. We decided that we should head back towards the dorms and after taking a few group pictures we did. Half way there, however, did it start raining. It wasn't a light rain and it wasn't a down pour. It was just a medium rain, but it came on very fast.



Earlier today I checked the weather and it said that it wasn't going to rain the rest of the day, so we didn't bring our umbrellas. One thing you must learn while living in London is, bring your umbrella even if only partly cloudy skies is forecasted. We walked back to the Albert Hotel to let Sarah, my newest friend, change and get her umbrella. From there we continued on back to the Atlantic House where Cyndie and I changed.

Even though we got drenched wet, we didn't care. It was fun and refreshing. What was funny was that with the heat in the house as I climbed the stairs and as I changed in my room, I was drying off fast.

As of now the forcast for the city is in the mid 70's with light rain expected tomorrow. I'm going to enjoy this weather while it lasts. Who knows, maybe next week the temperature will be back up in the 80's. But I'll keep the umbrella with me just in case.

Travel Writing

'Allo. Well today was my second day of my Travel Writing class. The first day I felt so overwhelmed. There is quite abit of reading and writing. The format is simple. We have a packet of travel stories and then we have two actual books to read. Each day we discuss what we've read and how the techniques presented are effective for travel writing. We also have a thirty minute creative writing exercise per day. This is where I stuggle a little bit. On the first day we had to write about an experience that we've had while exploring London. I had only been in the city for two days and hadn't had many experiences yet, so my work was not particularly good. However, some of my fellow classmates have already been here three weeks, so they have plenty of things to write about. And boy can they write! There is one guy named Joshua, who is a acting major and claims that he can't write so well, and yet his work is amazing.

After the first day I felt a little intimdated, however today I felt more confident. After discussing he stories that we've read we got to the creative writing assignment, which was to rewrite one of the stories but from the point of view of another character. I couldn't decide which character to do, and so after a while I decided to be adventurous and write from the pet pig's perspective. I still couldn't write well, at least to my satisfaction, but I did it and read it out loud to the class.

Tomorrow the class is going to meet at the Victoria and Albert Museum, which only a few streets down from the Atlantic House. As an assignment we have to complete a worksheet. This is one of three assingments outside of class, other than the readings, that we have to do. The second one is where we read one of two stories and then do a ten minute presentation about it. We have to talk about the author, the techinques and so on. I'll be a little nervous about this one cause I don't like presentations, but I'll live. The third assingment is the largest. We have to keep a journal during the session, pick a style we want to write in, such as thrid-person narration, sci-fi, gothic, and so on. We turn this journal in at the end of the session along with a typed explaination of why we chose the style to write in and discuss any problems there might have been in doing so. At the moment I don't know which style to write in, but I'll think of one soon. Do you have any suggestions?

Traveling to London

Hey everyone. Well, I made it to the big city. The flight was good. I flew British Airways from Dallas and was happy with the services. What I found very cool was that they offered me headphones, a travel kit that included socks, tooth brush and tooth paste, and a eye mask to all the passengers, along with a pillow and blanket. Also, on the back of every seat there is a little TV screen where you can pick a channel and watch a movie or a TV show. I watched "King Kong" and then surfed between other movies for awhile. My neighbors, the Yanoff sisters Rachel and Rebecca, were also part of AIFS study abroad program. They are both from Austin as well. Unlike me, they slept most of the time. I didn't sleep much, unfortunately. The man sitting in front of me had his seat lowered most of the flight and with my long legs it was uncomfortable for me. The times that I was almost able to catch some shut eye was when there was turbulence.

Also among the channels there was the map channel that showed a map of the USA, the Atlantic Ocean, and Europe and where our plane was located. It also listed how high, how fast, how far we still had to go till we reached our destination, and so on. Here below is something very similar to what was on the plane.



Once in London, going through customs and picking up my checked suitcase was very easy. I did need to answer several questions about what and where I was going to study before I could get my passport stamped. One note for anyone who is interested in studying abroad. Make sure you bring an acceptance letter from the foreign school. This might come in handy. The passport control woman we talked to asked to see such a letter, which none of us had, but we did however have other documents for her to see. Also, see if you can get a letter from your school that states that you will be studying abroad. It's always safe to be prepared.

In a minibus, which is like a van only slightly larger, a representative from AIFS drove us all the way from Gatwick airport to the Kensington campus of Richmond University where we are living and studying. Kensington is a very pretty place. In the residential areas it is quiet and there are flowers in private gardens that smell wonderful. There are three houses that the students are staying in. I'm in the Atlantic house, which is the main dorm. There is also the Ambassador House, and then there is the Albert Hotel, which is -- unfortunately for some -- a youth hostel.

You can see a satellite photo of the Atlantic House on Google Maps. Atlantic House is the large building just above the label for "Saint Alban's Grove". You can zoom in, turning on the road map, the satellite photo, or both. The High Street tube station is just to the west-by-northwest. Here is a photo of the front steps into Atlantic House:


The houses do not have air conditioning so it can get a bit stuffy at times. The only place in the house that is air conditioned is the computer labs in the basement. There are no elevators, which is OK unless you are really tired and you live on the fourth floor. Like me. It's eight flights of stairs all the way up. I'll count the steps next I come up and I'll let you know the total. My room is a narrow double room. My roommate, Michelle, is very nice. She has the bed near the window and the sink. I sleep by the door. There are little wardrobes, a single dresser that we share, two desks, and four electrical outlets that are placed in odd places in the room.

Currently, London is hot! In fact, it's in the 80s. It's like Texas -- on a good day. Supposedly during Session A the students were complaining that the weather was too cold. They jinxed us and now we have hot weather. Thankfully, it has been said that it will get down to the mid-70s later on this week, which is the type of weather that I packed for.

Another thing to make mention of is the price of living in London. Right now the exchange rate is almost $2.00 for ≈£1. So everything is doubled over here. I try to buy everything as cheaply as possible. However, the only time that I've felt that I have succeeded in being cheap is going to McDonald's and ordering a medium fry and a medium drink for £2 and some added pences. When I bought bathroom supplies, I bought the cheapest items I could get. I'll keep you posted on where you can save some money and where you can't.

Well, I must be off. The computer labs are not open 24 hours here and it closes at midnight, which is 6 pm Central Standard time in the US. I'll be back to report what has happened since I've arrived Saturday morning and how my first day of class goes.