July 10th-16th

Man, I’m getting really behind on this blog! Last weekend was really relaxing; we did a lot of shopping! On Saturday we went to Camden Markets, which is the largest outdoor shopping market here in London. It was really neat, and there was a lot of great stuff for reasonable prices. My friend Nick Bigham arrived on Saturday as well. He is doing study abroad through MSU at Cambridge; it was nice to see him for the day.

On Sunday, the 11^th, Hannah and I went to church at Westminster Abbey. So amazing! I can’t even begin to describe how beautiful the service was. We sat right by the boys/men’s choir, which was neat. We walked around a little bit after mass and then went shopping over by Hyde Park.

The week was short for us, we had class all morning-afternoon on Monday and then on Tuesday we went to Stonehenge, Florence Nightingale’s grave, and Embley park, one of the homes once owned by the Nightingale Family. The estate has now been turned into a private school, but some of the home has been preserved for groups like us that tour it. Tuesday Evening we had two new arrivals, my friend Paul Graf and my roommate’s friend Melissa from Spain where they just got done with their study abroad. Melissa, Emmalilly, and I went to go see Love Never Dies, the sequel to Phantom of the Opera that night. Even though I hadn’t seen Phantom, the play wasn’t hard to follow and it was still really great. For some reason, I can't find my pictures from our day trip...I'll post the pictures from it as soon as I find them.

On Wednesday I went to Bath for the day to see the Roman Bath’s and see Bath Abbey. The Bath’s were really neat; it’s so cool to see things that have been around since 80 AD. After I toured the Bath’s, I went to Bath Abbey where I did a tour of the church and climbed 212 steps up through the Bell Tower and onto the roof of the church, which overlooked the town. The town is surrounded by rolling hills and was so pretty to see from such a high view.

The View from the Roof of Bath Abbey:

On Thursday everyone left for Paris, which gave me some great time to get my final paper and group project done this weekend. Paul and I went to go see Changing of the Guards on Thursday Morning, and then went to Harrods, Nike Town and the Apple Store. That evening we went on the London Eye and walked along the Thames River while everything was lit up.

July 7th-9th

Wednesday was definitely an interesting day for us. We woke up early and traveled as a class to Eyam, a small town located around many hills and mountains. This was the town that was devastated by the Plaque in 1666, and lost almost all of its residents. We toured the local museum once we arrived, and then walked around to see some of the houses that are still standing that once were occupied by plaque victims. After that, we went to the church and cemetery where many of the victims were buried.

Some of us wanted to go and find the Boundary Stone…this was the marker where neighboring towns would drop off food and medical supplies to Eyam during the Plaque because Eyam was blocked off from any outside interaction. According to our Professor, the walk should only take 20 minutes to find the stone. How little did we know…

2 hours later and after crossing five sheep fields, we still had not found the stone. It was raining pretty well and super windy. We finally decided to give up and turn around. Let’s just say it was not a pretty site when we finally made it back down. We finally made it back to our apartments at 9pm that night. Such a long day…

Oh! I forgot to mention, we stopped by platform 9 3/4 from the Harry Potter books!

One of the plaque homes:

On Thursday we went to the Gordon Pathology Museum. This has so far been my favorite museum to go to. There were three levels to this, and each was separated into four sections. Each section was then broken down into body parts or disease, and the walls were lined with organs, body parts, anything you could really think of. There was one section on abortion that really struck me…there were actual fetuses preserved and it was so sad to look at.

Friday was a short day…we went to St. Thomas’ Hospital, which is considered one of the oldest hospitals in the world. It was neat to see, but so much has been renovated and moved around that you really didn’t get the feeling of it like we expected. We then went to the Old Operating Theatre. This is one of the first “surgical settings” in the world, and much has been preserved to keep it as it was in the 1800’s. It was neat to see because at one point, the room was closed off and blocked, and shortly after World War II, someone found it, and it was in the same condition as it had been when it first started. After that Hannah, Emmalilly, Kasey and I went to see the London Bridge (which was nothing but a bridge…go figure!) and then the Tower of London. The picture below is the operating table at the theatre:

This picture below isn't the actual London Bridge...it's the Tower of London Bridge:

July 4th-July 6th

Sunday we went to the Museum of London to work on an extra credit assignment. That afternoon we relaxed, and then went to Hyde Park to listen to Jay-Z perform at his outdoor concert.

Monday morning we went on a walking tour of London led by Professor Selanders. She's been heading this study abroad group now for the past 15 years! So she was definitely qualified as our tour guide. We had class later that afternoon, and that evening we went to the theatre to see "The woman in black". The play itself was alright, but I felt that we could have seen something better for the price of our ticket. The picture directly below is an ancient entrance that used to sit right on the Thames River and people had to walk through to enter the city:

Florence Nightingale herself:

Some of us girls before the play:
Hannah! My UofM friend =)

Today we had class in the morning and after lunch we traveled to see the Florence Nightingale Museum and St. Thomas’ Hospital. Unfortunately we were unable to tour the hospital because there was someone of “royal importance”. We asked if it was Prince William or Henry but we never did find the answer…

The Florence Nightingale Museum was really interesting; there was a ton of items that was used by Nightingale herself—including a lamp that she carried with her during the Crimean War. There was also outfits worn by Florence and some of her journals that she kept note in while she was a nurse.

June 30th-July 3rd

Yikes! I didn't realize how long its been since I last posted--that must mean I'm having toomuch fun over here =)

So far, London has been amazing! The city is so different then the life I’m used too, and its so cool to see all the history London has to offer. I mean you think about it, and other then Washington DC, New York, Boston, and Philadelphia there’s not much historic major cities. But when you come to London, you see HISTORY. We’ve seen things dating back to 1026, and so much more!

July 1^st was our official first day in the classroom, and I’m not going to lie, it felt great to finally start the class. I really like everyone in our group, and we all get along great. On a typical day we have class from 9-12 and then do sightseeing in the afternoon.

July 2^nd after morning class, we went to the London Eye—the World’s largest Ferris wheel right next to the Thames River. It was so cool to see London from the sky—we could see every important building and much much more.

On Saturday, the 3^rd we went to Parliament. I was so excited for this, because of the history. The only downside was we couldn’t take pictures inside, bummer. However, we could take pictures inside the main entrance: Westminster Hall, which was built in 1026. Our tour guide said that just a couple years ago, the hall was being cleaned and they found tennis balls lodged up in the rafters of the ceiling—come to find out, historians believe they are from King Henry VIII who enjoyed playing tennis. The tour of Parliament was awesome. I loved learning about another countries government, and the history behind it. At times it was funny to hear how some of the rules and traditions are kept even to this day.

After Parliament, some of the girls and I went to Buckingham Palace. We arrived just in time to see the changing of the guards, which was really neat. Afterwards we went to lunch and then to Trafalgar Square.

Top of the mornin' to ya!

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Another early morning for us…after eating breakfast we took the Dart (like a subway system above ground) to the town of Greystone, about 45 minutes away.

The entire way cliffs and mountains surrounded us, along with the Irish Sea. Once we arrived, we walked down to the beach and waded in a bit. It was freezing—but this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, I can now say that I have stepped in the Irish sea!

We grabbed ice-cream and walked around the shops a bit more and then took the Dart to the town of Bray. We ate a local café, this time I had homemade a chicken and mushroom pastry and vanilla latte. Again, the food was awesome! We then walked down to the beach and took some pictures on the rocks. I noticed that on the nearest mountain, there was a cross, I wasn’t able to get a close-up picture, but still the sight of it was really neat.

We then went to the Sea of Life where we were able to hold starfish and see seahorses, stingrays, and jellyfish, amongst many other things. We took the Dart back to Dublin so we could finish out our trip at St. Patrick’s Cathedral—something I had been anxiously awaiting sine we arrived. It was about a 20 minute walk, but once we arrived, it was so peaceful and breathtaking.

On the north side of the church was a garden where people could just come and relax by the water fountain, or just sit on the benches or lay on the grass. Once we entered the church, I was simply amazed. Even though we knew the Church was very historic, it really didn’t hit me until the moment that we entered. On the north and south entrance sides were statues of famous people who had passed away. This here is a monument to the famous chemist Charles Boyle's wife:

There were plaques covering the walls throughout the church as well of important people who had passed away. Upon entering, as I turned right, was the main part of the church, where the services are held weekly. (To the left was a gift shop). Here in this picture is the main part:

I forgot to mention, the Church is shaped as a cross. So as you walk towards the main part of the church, there are two wings—one to the north and one to the south. Throughout each wing there were historical symbols and descriptions of the artifacts. To the right wing, there were mainly just artifacts, including different keys used to enter the church, dating back to the 1850’s. These next two pictures are from the right wing:

Here is a closer look as you would have neared the altar. It's sort of hard to tell, but hanging above the seats are the armor of lords and those who served in wars:

Another picture from the right wing:

In the left wing there was two monuments for the World Wars and for those who had lost their lives. Hanging above and to the sides of these monuments were flags. And not just any ordinary flag—some of these flags dated back to the Crimean War, and even farther back. I just stood there for a couple minutes taking it all in, and how awesome it was that they could preserve things like that.

A somewhat closer look at the monuments for those serving in the wars:

But we're Americans!!

Monday, June 28^th

We woke up bright and early today to prepare for our day tour to Wicklow Mountains. This was a great opportunity to learn more information about Ireland as well. The tour started at 9:20 AM and lasted until 5:30 PM, which worked perfectly with the other things we still wanted to do. Our tour guide, Devan, was awesome! I couldn’t have asked for a better guide. He gave us tons of insight about the history of Ireland, where to eat, where to shop, and anything else you could think of. It took us about an hour to get out of the city and into the country, but once we did, it was amazing.

The view was spectacular everywhere we went. We traveled in valleys, passed by Guinness lake, and up into the mountains. I cannot express how breathtaking the view was, not even the pictures can truly capture all of it. Here's Guinness Lake:

It did start to rain during the tour, but it wasn’t too bad. Here's the location of one of the scenes shot for P.S. I love you:

We stopped for lunch in a small town called Glendalough. We decided to eat a café, which was really neat. It’s so neat to hear the Irish accent, and I’ve noticed how they say “ya” a lot at the end of questions/statements. For example, they lady who asked for my order at the café said “what would you like, ya?” So cool, I wish I could record it. The food was really good, I had a quiche and hot chocolate. All of the food here in Ireland is extremely good. It’s nothing like American food, everything is fresh and homemade, it’s so good. There are hardly any “fast food” places as well. After lunch, we toured the “7 churches”

and walked onto to see the Glendalough lakes. Along the way, the tour guide asked us "Does anyone know how long it takes to walk 1.5 kilometers?" Me, being the vocal one of the bus asked "Sir, what is that in miles? We're from America." The girls all seemed to find it hilarious and so now any time that we do something "American" they always make that quote. Back to the trip--again, the views were simply breathtaking. Here's us girls at Glendalough Lakes:

After the lakes, we headed to a small town, where the oldest weaving company in Ireland is located, the company is called Avoco. They demonstrated how they make their international famous scarves, blankets, and much more. All the material in this picture comes together in the following picture:

After that we headed back to Dublin, and stopped at the hostel to get ready for dinner and going to the pubs. We decided to eat at one of the pub’s our tour guide suggested and we invested in some homemade Irish food, I had a lamb stew with carrots and cheesy potatoes. The drinking is interesting here as well…it’s definitely expensive, we found that out quick! It’s very common to have a drink with dinner, and people do not abuse it. After dinner we went to the pub right next to our hostel and called it a night shortly after.