Day 27

As excited as I am for Paris this weekend, the trip could not have fallen at a worse time, unfortunately. It will be my last weekend here (AKA: the only time I have to work on my final projects before I present next Thursday). It has me a little stressed out but I'm sure everything will work itself out. The main problem is that I have a full day of sight-seeing tomorrow and Chicago that night (can't wait :) ), and Thursday night I have a trip to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. I am SO glad to be able to do all of these things, but it leaves absolutely no time to work on finals stuff before this weekend. Looks like my last week here may be a little stressful. It will all get done, though.

Today, classes were great. Allie and I had some free time to go by Paperchase for items for our Trends Projects. Paperchase is this HUGE 3-story stationary/fabric store in London. It was really very helpful to go there and I was happy to see another part of the city I hadn't been to yet. We ate lunch at a little Italian restaurant on Tottenham Court Road, and I had the BEST chicken pot pie ever to exist!



Later, I did some shopping at Miss Selfridges on Oxford Street before heading back to the school for my second class. I actually bought myself something - a top and some jewelry! I really like it, and the store had reasonably affordable prices (although I wouldn't say London is known for its affordability in general).

Ladies and gentleman, Robin Dutt (he posed for us today):



I just love this professor! He's so animated and unique every single time I see him. It seems like I find out some interesting fact about his life every time we meet. We watched an old movie from the 50s in class today to write a movie review over - The Rear Window. It's an Alfred Hitchcock film with Grace Kelley and Jimmy Stewart. I really enjoyed it, but it would have been much more enjoyable had it not been so hot. I don't know how much I have really emphasized the heat here the last few days, but it's unbearable at times. Well, it would be bearable if the buildings here had AC...but they don't. I mean NONE of them. It's been so hot (humid today) lately, and you can't even escape it when you go inside. Watching that movie today, we were all sweating, felt like we couldn't breathe and I'm pretty sure I started seeing double. I realize that this particular region of the world is chilly 90 percent of the year, but for these few weeks during the summer that it is hot, people here need to have air conditioners ready. Seriously.

So, earlier tonight Allie and I had planned on going to the London Eye. Unfortunately, when we got there we found out it closed within 5 minutes at 9 p.m. I should have researched it more before we went, but I just assumed they would keep it open into the night so people could see London all lit up. (I'm sure that's the case in the winter, but because it stays light outside for so long right now, they can't wait for the sun to set). We were a little bummed, but decided we would go back next Tuesday. We did end up eating over there, though. It was a fancier steak/burger place. It was fun to be south of the river and listen to the restaurant's piano player as I ate my salmon. I FINALLY got some salmon - and it was very good.
:]

Day 26

I feel very accomplished at the end of day 26. I like days like today when I don't have to worry about class, and I can just roam around London and enjoy every minute. I just love this city more and more! ;]

The morning started off great because I got an e-mail from the school with the itinerary for my trip to Paris this weekend! That is always a great way to start off a morning, a Monday morning at that. I was so excited that I wanted to go exchange some of my pounds for euro right away, mostly because I'm not going to have a lot of time the remainder of the week to do it. So, I left for the currency exchange place, and actually ended up meeting Allie once I got to the tube. It turned out she was going to the same tube station as me to visit the National Portrait Gallery for one of her classes. I hadn't ever been there, so I decided I that after I got my Euro I would head back to the museum to listen in on her class as they toured the place.



There was obviously a lot of history within the portraits, so I did find it interesting to walk through. It is nice to have a professor who knows all about it give the commentary. After the class was over, we headed back to the school so I could print out my itinerary and I was SO happy to find a package from home waiting for me in the library! Let's face it, it's ALWAYS fun to get a package in the mail. :D

Next, we decided to do a little shopping at Selfridges (Huge department store in London that is a must-see) before dinner that night.



Allie and I scheduled dinner with one of my fashion merchandising professors from Texas State, Dr. Tyner, while she was in town with her mom. It was so nice to catch up with them (her class is basically the reason I'm in London in the first place) and the restaurant we ate at was DELICIOUS! It's called Giraffe, and it was really close to campus (I couldn't believe we had never seen it before). I had a falafel burger that was very good, and we all even shared a waffle/banana split dessert...yum!

So, all in all, a very fun and interesting day. It was also really sunny again today, which was great. I think I heard it was record-setting heat today...that made since.

Also, as a side note...I thought it was pretty cool that I have a 20 US dollar bill, a 20 pound bill and a 20 euro bill all at the same time. I don't know when or if this will ever happen again, so I thought it would be cool to have a picture!

Day 25

Brighton was INCREDIBLE!!

I never expected to find a beautiful little beach town on the southern coast of England, and yet, I was proven wrong. I am so glad I was wrong, because it was a gorgeous day and we saw so many awesome things while we were there.

When we first arrived, we went to find the Royal Pavilion.



This place was crazy-huge! It is a palace that was built during the 17th century when King George IV was under rule. It was built to shock and awe its guests, and it totally did its job. Pictures weren't allowed (gotta sell those post cards in the gift shop), but it didn't really matter because a picture could not capture the grandeur and extravagance of this place. The main dining hall had to have ceilings that were at least 40 feet tall, if not more. The room itself was probably just as long and a had a gigantic table going down the full length of it in the center. The details were stunning, almost too much. Every wall was hand painted, gold encrusted and dramatic. There were four chandeliers in each corner of the dining room, and the main one in the center, which is the largest I've ever seen or knew existed, was 30 feet long and weighed one ton. The whole palace had a Chinese-inspired theme. All the wall paintings were Chinese art, and there were a lot of dragon sculptures everywhere. In the 17th century, King George probably thought it would show his worldliness and importance to have other areas of the world so accurately displayed in his "getaway" home, during a time when most never traveled outside of their home cities or countries. Overall, I was very glad we decided to go. It was very interesting and it's always neat to see how Kings lived back in the day.

Next, we headed down to the pier. This is where the day started to get a little interesting. The pier itself was picturesque. It reminded me a lot of the Santa Monica Pier, which was so strange and surprising to me.









Imagine, seeing a pier in southern England that looks like one in southern California!! I was blown away by the coast. The water was actually quite blue and clear. I don't know what I was expecting to see, but you just don't hear great things about England's beaches. It completey trumps the Texas gulf coast ten fold. The pier was very big, much bigger than I had in mind before seeing it. There were carnival rides on it, a roler coaster, and a casino.





As soon as we walked up to the pier and were taking in all the beauty and amazment of what we saw compared to what we thought we would see, Lauren says, "Kristina, a bird just pooped in my hair."
Yes, that's right. We were officially initiated into Brighton (or I guess Lauren was anyway). Sure enough, a sea gull had pooped on her head, and sadly, against her blonde hair, the disgusting black poop could not be hidden. I then spent about 10 minutes rubbing my hand sanitizer onto napkins from an ice cream stand to try and clean sea gull waste out of Lauren's hair (sounds really grose to say now, but at the time it was actually really funny).

Until today, I had never seen a rock beach before. The Brighton Beach, however, had no sand - just rocks.



It was kind of cool just because it was different and unlike any beach I had ever been to, and admittedly, it was nice to not have everything get sandy when we went to sit for a while. I didn't like the feeling of the rocks, though. We had towels to sit on, but lets be honest, who wants to sit on rocks?? Still, different is always interesting to me (even if it means getting rocks stuck in your filp-flops everytime you try to walk anywhere).

After we walked the pier, we went down to the beach and I ate shrimp and chips (fries) while we looked out over the ocean in the direction of France. Other than the whole sitting on rocks thing, it was really nice. The best part was when we got up to leave, I noticed a bracelet laying abandoned on the rocks, not far from where we were. There was no one around it for at least 15 feet in all directions, and when I picked it up, no one claimed it. So I have a momento from the beach, and it's a really cute cuff bracelet!! I felt kind of bad taking it, but there seriously was NO one even remotely close to it. Later, as we were walking down the sidewalk by the water, it fell out of my bag when I was trying to get something out of it, and I had to go digging though a thorny bush to get it - I'm sure it was quite funny to watch.

Then we did some shopping. There is also VERY good shopping in Brighton. When we got back to the train station to head back to London, the departure board said our train was cancelled...yeah. We freaked out for a few minutes and then someone told us that since they cancelled our train, we were allowed to take any train back to London. So, we just took a later train, but it still added another element of crazy to the trip.

The last bit of crazy, though, came with the train stop just before London. A guy who boarded the train at that stop sang and danced (and wasen't shy about it) the whole 10 minutes back to London. I'm talking he belted out Akon's "Bananza Belly Dancer" for a whole 10 minutes while doing a little jig. He was completely alone, and obviously thought he was at some sort of concert and not on a train. It was a long 10 minutes, and everyone on the train who had been trying to sleep looked like they wanted to hurt him. All we could do was laugh...at that point, it wasn't a surprise.

Day 24

A day off is hard to come by here, so I was so glad to have a break today. I got caught up on a few things (including sleep) and basically relaxed today.

Earlier this evening Lauren and I decided to go down the road to see the Camden Markets and the canal area of our neighborhood. It's hard to believe we haven't been down there before now. It was packed with people, and the markets are definitely something I need to go back to when I have time to actually shop.







We basically went down there to see what it was like and eat dinner somewhere...little did we know pretty much every pub in that area quits serving food after about 7 p.m. One of the bar tenders actually let Lauren order food and a drink, but when I went up to order, they told me they weren't serving food anymore. When I told them my friend just ordered food, the bar tender who took her order got in trouble and Lauren was given a full refund. It was kind of funny, actually. We ended up just having drinks there, and then went to find food. We literally had to leave the market area to find a restaurant that served food.

So, lesson learned I suppose. Pub's in London (or in Camden at least) generally quit serving food after 7 or 7:30, so don't expect to eat at any of them after that. It was still a lot of fun though. I loved seeing this part of our neighborhood we had never been to, and we ended up eating at a really good Italian restaurant. It was nice to go to a sit-down restaurant and be served (there are not many places like that here). This was the first restaurant I've been to here where we didn't seat ourselves and order at the bar.

Tomorrow is the trip to Brighton! I'm so excited to see the beach here!! The weather is supposed to be nearly 80 degrees tomorrow, and I could not be happier about it! Bring on the sun and the sand! Who says you can't lay out in England??

Day 23

It has become so commonplace for me to go to museums and parks and shows on a daily basis here that sometimes it’s easy to forget the value of it all. It seems that almost every day I’m pinching myself about the places I get to go and the things I get to see. I fully realize that for some people it might not be any big deal to experience so much greatness and awesomeness in a few weeks time, but for me, it’s completely magical. Every day here has been magical because I’m living in an indescribably AMAZING city, something I never could have predicted happening a year ago, and I’m learning about new things that actually interest me. What could be better?

Now that I have just under two weeks left here, I find myself not fully ready to leave. It’s quite ironic actually, because after the first week here I was already homesick and wondering how I might make a whole 5 weeks here. Today, as I took the London tube all by myself down to one of my favorite areas of the city to visit a museum and explore for a while, I wondered why I ever had thoughts of wanting to leave here so quickly. I’ve met a handful of people at AIU who started out as study abroad students and then decided to stay in London after the term was up. I’ll admit when I first met these people I thought they were very brave, but also very crazy. I couldn’t imagine not going back home after this. While I still can’t imagine not going back to the states, I can sort of see why that handful of people decided to stay. It’s really easy to fall in love with London. The friendly people, the beautiful and historic buildings, the lush flowers and rich green grass in the parks, and even in some ways the weather. Not because the weather is so unpredictable (that part actually isn’t awesome at all), but because the people here are so overjoyed, so thankful when it is a sunny day. Obviously, being from Texas, I am so fortunate to say that beautiful days back home are a dime a dozen, a fact that I realize I have always taken for granted. But only in London, will you see people walking around with huge smiles on their faces, singing and talking about what a beautiful day it is – I personally think the fact that the people of London are so thankful for the beauty in a day is a gift.

So the day started off with the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms, which is one I went to in hopes of finding some interesting information about my Pawpaw and the Yugoslavian underground during WWII. There was a LOT of really interesting things in the museum, including the actual rooms where Churchill and his cabinet members would have their top secret meetings during the war when England was on the brink of being invaded by the Germans. The whole museum is underground, most parts of it have been left completely intact how they were during the war. It showed the bedrooms where officials, secretaries and typists had to stay night after night, awaiting a day when the war would finally end, and they could come out of the dungeon and into the sunlight again. It was really moving to be in there, but unfortunately, I didn’t find anything about what I was looking for.



The museum was basically a tribute to Churchill’s memory and all that he did for England during the war, and I would recommend this museum to anyone with an interest in Britain’s history, Churchill or WWII. This museum does cost money, but students and seniors get a discount and children under 16 are free so it’s not too bad and definitely worth the money.

Next, I had lunch at the circular café in the middle of St. James’ Park before heading back to the flat. On the way back I stumbled upon something really cool by complete accident. I was getting directions from a London Police Officer (who was SO nice and helpful; I think he got a kick out of talking to me) and when he learned I was from Texas, he told me about a plaque I should have a look at on St. James’ Street. He told me that the building housing Berry Brothers and Rudd (a fancy wine store) was once of important significance to Texas, and that there was a plaque on the side of the building to prove it. So, after thinking I might have just fallen subject to a “tourist joke” of sorts, I wondered over there anyway to see if this “Texas Plaque” would be in the middle of London and sure enough, there it was.





Even after reading it I wasn’t quite sure what it meant. It said, “In this building was the legation for the ministers from the Republic of Texas to the court of St. James, 1842-1846.” Later, I googled it and found out that (the following is from Wikipedia):

A Texas Legation (a type of embassy) was maintained by the Republic of Texas in Washington, D.C., London, and Paris from 1836 through 1845.
In a bid to protect itself from almost certain invasion by forces from neighboring Mexico, the government of the republic sought to foster international ties. It did this by also opening the Texas Legations in London and Paris. Their opening is believed by some academics to be less an attempt by Texas to enter the international stage as an independent country and more a maneuver to prompt officials in the United States to worry that an independent Texas might allow British and French soldiers to mass on the south border of the U.S.
When Texas sought to join the United States in 1845, the British Empire supported keeping it independent. The British even offered to guarantee Texas's borders with both the States and Mexico. Texas was a tactical ally of Britain acting as a counterweight to the United States. Nonetheless an independent Texas was probably enviable for financial reasons, and when the Republic became a state in 1845 the embassy was shut down.
The Texas Legation in London was located on St. James Street near St. James's Palace in a building that also houses Berry Brothers and Rudd, a wine merchant's firm that has been at that site since 1730. On the north side of the building is a plaque marking it as the site of the legation.

SO cool, right?
I thought so, especially since it was such a random find today. I never knew it was there until the nice old English chap told me about it. Ha!

I went to see Blood Brothers at the Phoenix Theatre earlier tonight. The theatre was gorgeous! It is one of the older, original theatres in the city, so it’s a bit smaller but was detailed beautifully on the inside.





What an amazing show. It was more of a play than a musical, although there was quite a bit of singing. I loved it, but it was more intense and emotional than I was thinking it would be. The acting was incredible and the storyline literally made everyone hold back tears (some couldn’t). I don’t want to give the wrong impression of it, beyond being absolutely heart-rinching at times, it had a fun, humorous feel to it also. It was a very good story and show overall, but I did leave there wondering how those actors can give emotionally-draining performances like that night after night.

Day 22

Nothing all too interesting to report today in terms of pictures and fun stories, but I did have a successful day at school. Today was midterm day (crazy since it’s only the 6th class day), so I met with my Trends professor, Virginia Grose, so she could look over my research and talk with me about it one-on-one. It went very well! She really likes my ideas about a travel-inspired, 50s-vintage jewelry line. She thinks my ideas would work very well for the retailer I chose (Anthropologie) and would successfully appeal to their target market. I was glad she had good feedback because I really enjoy my potential line as well, I mean, I would wear it in a heartbeat! It’s hard to know whether or not someone else will envision your ideas the way you do, though. I think she did and I am SO glad! She also loved that I picked jewelry as well because it is not chosen often. Honestly, what outfit is complete without jewelry?! I don’t know why anyone wouldn’t pick jewelry – it’s the best part! I guess it’s a tough job creating pretty things, but someone has to do it.

After that, Allie and I had lunch at a restaurant near campus called Zoom. I had a hamburger, which was really good, but the service wasn’t all that great. I was almost late for my second class because the waitress was so slow getting our bills figured out. I’m still not quite sure what the problem was, but she could barely understand us, and didn’t like the fact that Allie didn’t have exact change…for whatever reason.

My second class was good as well. Robin Dutt actually beat me there today, which I couldn’t believe. He had on his version of a casual, every-day look which was a black three-piece suit with his signature lapel and broach. The first thing he made us do was write 100 words on the spot about our favorite color. Not just what it is and why, but an in-depth description of the color so everyone could imagine the same shade when reading what we wrote. We all went around and read them out, and he liked mine. He said something about it drawing the reader in. That made since. I think I’ve become so used to writing feature stories at school that I tend to start everything I write as if I’m building to something. I can’t remember exactly what I wrote because he made us turn it in with our midterm portfolios, but I talked about granny-smith apples and sea green, relating it to tropical destinations and relaxation.

He also liked my midterm topic – the evolution of the handbag from small to HUGE, and the health concerns for women who carry too much weight in their purses every day. Then he showed us a silent movie made about five years ago that he had a small part in. I was a short film, but it did go to film festivals in the UK and the US and won several awards. We have to write a review on it. It was called Against Nature, and was directed by Antony Zaki. Robin Dutt did the costuming for the whole film, as well as being an actor.

Click here to see some more about it!

Tomorrow should be interesting, I hope. I'm heading over to the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms in the morning and later that night going to see Blood Brothers at the Phoenix Theater. Can't wait!

Day 21

Today was full of unexpected surprises, and I loved every minute of it! The highlight of the day was going to Wimbledon, but more about that in a minute.

I finished my midterm paper last night and FINALLY have everything ready to turn in tomorrow! It's a huge amount of stress lifted from my shoulders. It's really hard to go to school in a foreign country. All I want to do is sight see and enjoy London, and even when I do, school is always in the back of my mind. It's not that I don't enjoy what I'm learning, because I sincerely do. I just don't like deadlines pulling my focus away from all the trips I have been taking. I am certain, however, the things I'm learning here (both in school and not) will remain with me for the rest of my life. There are new experiences daily that are changing my outlook on my career and my life. It is very true when they say that studying abroad is more than just learning in a classroom.

So, after I got back to the flat from the school this morning, Lauren and I got ready and went to Wimbledon (of course hoping we might be able to get in and see a match or two). Turns out, we got there pretty early, so we were fairly far up in the queue (line) when they started letting people in. We got in and were SO excited!









I have to say, I have never been much of a tennis fan per se, but after tonight I'm ready to buy a racket and learn how to play. The first game we watched was a woman's match with Melanie Oudin, an American and a woman from Australia.



It was so much fun to watch because they are SO good - best tennis I've ever seen for sure. Australia ended up winning, but I really wasn't upset about it - she definitely outplayed the other girl.

We also watched a men's double, which was even more awesome because they serve the ball so fast you can barely see it in the air. Lauren and I were trying to figure out nationalities of these teams - we never quite figured it out, but I think one team was French and the other was either British or Australian (they spoke English). The British/Australian/possibly Canadian team ended up winning. In the middle of that game, however, a man sitting right in front of us turns around and says, "Would anyone like center court tickets?" I immediately laughed at his obvious joke. The center court is the arena-size tennis court in the center of Wimbledon where the big matches are usually held. People reserve spots in there for months and the tickets aren't cheap. Turns out he was completely serious. He wanted to watch the match he was at, and had no need for the tickets the rest of that day. Lauren and I were giddy at the thought of getting to see inside the stadium.



No one REALLY cool was playing by this point of the day, but it was still worth seeing the inside of the center court - very cool.

Time for tennis lessons!