Paris: Day 1

The day finally came!  My Dad arrived in London Heathrow airport around 10 on July 22nd.We immediately hoped back on the tube to drop off his larger suitcase in my room and grab my suitcase for a weekend in Paris.

Before we headed out we skyped with my Mom quickly to let her know that Dad had gotten to London okay, and to open up a surprise care package they had packed for me!

My Mom and Dad had packed peanut butter, Tastykakes, and Philly pretzels for me!

After eating lunch, he had his first tradition English pie, at a pub down the road, we headed for the London St. Pancras train station via the tube.

Once we got to the train station we picked up our tickets and went through security and border control.  We had about an hour before our train was scheduled to leave so we found two seats in the lounge, got two coffees and waited.  Eventually they posted the platform number of our train and within minutes we were on the train, in our seats and on our way to Paris!

We took the Eurostar Chunnel with is about a three hour ride from London to Paris.  I had read that the event of going under the English Channel was anything but exciting, which was exactly right.  If it wasn't announce we would have never known that we were anywhere near the channel.

The entire ride from London to Paris looked like this, except for the twenty minutes that we were below the English Channel.

Since Dad was exhausted, he had been away for almost 30 hours by then, I read up on and planned out our next fours days, and of course kept my camera ready if anything exciting happened from our window.

Eventually we arrived in Paris, and started off on the task of finding our hotel.

I'll admit that it was strange traveling only three hours and have suddenly have a difficult time getting around.  The language barrier was obvious as soon as we got there.  I haven't felt like I am in a foreign country at all this summer because there is only a cultural barrier, not a language barrier, in the UK.  Eventually after a few transfers, and many sets of stairs, we made it to our hotel.

Using the Metro in Paris made me appreciate the London Underground and how well it is laid out.  The Paris Metro is modeled after the London Underground but I felt like the lines were not situated throughout the city properly.  It seemed like the lines were added one on top of another over time without consideration of the number of transfers it would take to get from one major destination to another.

We were both extremely hungry by then so we dropped of our bags and headed a few streets over to find some place to eat.  We settled on Cafe Central.  Dinner was simple, nothing to Parisian.

Whenever we ordered Coke we would get glass bottled Coke, however the bottles were never the exact same shape, size, or weight the entire weekend.

During dinner we were discussing my Grandmom Millie, since that day would have been her birthday.  I mentioned that should would have loved my dinner, Eggs Benedict, because she really liked poached eggs.  Dad and I both laughed about how particular she was about how her gets were cooked and the funny faces she would make if they were just slightly off.  Then he said, "She would have been very proud of you."  Almost instantly a very familiar song came on over the stereo system, Louis Armstrong's What A Wonderful World.  We both smiled and laughed, because that song was part of the remembrance video shown for my grandparents funeral and we both knew it was Grandmom Millie's way of agreeing with Dad and letting us know that she is okay and watching over us.

After dinner we took a walk to stretch our legs and look what we found!

Our hotel was a 15 minute walk from the Champ de Mars.  We were there long enough to realize that we were really in Paris and to revile in how amazing it looked at night.  However we were both exhausted and we know that the next few days were going to be tiring as well so we headed back to the hotel to get some sleep.

If you want to see more pictures from the first day of Paris, click here.

Wales Adventure Weekend: Part 3

Our last activity was during the morning of our second day, which was kayaking.

One of the "tricks" we tried was catching one of the small waves at just the right time in order to skim in between the two rocks.  If you caught it at the wrong time, you would be stuck until the next wave.

Again, more photos to come, but I loved kayaking!  I honestly researched buying one for when I return to the States.  The whole experience of putting wet-suits and all the gear on was interesting, I can't say that was enjoyable.  

If you want to see more photos of Wales, click here.

Wales Adventure Weekend: Part 2

The second of our three activities was coast-steering.  Put simply it involves climbing up rocks along the coast in order to jump off of them in to the water.  We used waterproof cameras, so all of the photo's haven't been developed yet, but here are a few.

I'll admit that after climbing the rocks and attempting not to cut my hands on the barnacles, my muscles were sore.  But jumping into the water was awesome, even though I chickened out on the last jump.  I'll post more picture when they are developed!

If you want to see more pictures from Wales, click here.

Wales Adventure Weekend: Part 1

Last weekend was my first full weekend trip.  FIE offered a Wales Adventure Weekend to us at a discounted rate, so a large percentage of us decided to join the trip.  Although the whole Drexel in London program only has 12 people enrolled so we didn't exactly dominate the population.  The weekend was through Preseli Venture.  They offered us each three activities over two days; hiking, and a choice of two of the following: surfing, coast-steering, and kayaking.

First, our weekend started off Friday at noon.  The entire group of FIE students gathered at Foundation House where we got a short talking to about being responsible and careful, and then we made our way to Paddington Station through the tube.

The six hour ride consisted of farms..

and more farms.

After that we took a combined six hour train right, with a connecting train during hour three.  Finally we were in Wales and hopped on a bus for another 20 minutes through a maze of twisted roads, but we arrived relatively quickly and were welcomed with homemade veggie lasagna so it didn't seem so bad.  Since we had been traveling all day we relaxed for the night and got to know students from other schools.

The Drexel group was split into three groups so that we all weren't doing the same activities together.  The group I was with went hiking first.

First activity of the day, hiking along the Welsh coast.

One very helpful sign along the way.

Almost the entire hike was along coast like this, there were cliffs to our left and sheep to our right.  Of course there was a fence to keep the sheep in, but no fence to keep up from falling down the cliffs.

A long way down...

The hike was fun, although there were a few times when I should have been paying attention to where my feet were going instead of the view.  Lets just say my sneakers are show signs of a few trips and falls.

We also had the fun experience of accidentally trapping a sheep in between a fence, a gate, and cliffs.  As a group it was decided that he had a death wish since he escaped by running on the very edges of the cliffs.

And finally the rocky "beach" that we were told was at the end of the hike.

And in the afternoon, coast-steering!

If you want to see me photos, click here.

New Photos

Our group is off on our first full weekend adventure.  This weekend actually starts off my many weekend trips that are planned.

I have uploaded a significant amount of new photos, check them out if you get a chance.

And with that I leave you with some fun photos of our little group.

We happen to catch Emma Watson and a few other cast members walk down the red carpet before we went into a play for class.

Several small trip, lots of fun facts!

Like I have said before, we take a decent amount of field trips for classes.  The past week or so we have gone on a few trips, and while they don't exactly warrant a full blog post with all of the information, some of it is interesting.

First, we went for a tour through Parliament for our British Culture and Visual Media class.  We walked through the House of Lords, which uses red as its color, and the House of Commons, which uses green.  Everything that is associated with each house follows these colors from the leather seats to the carpets, the monitors with the days agendas, the wall hangings, and the leather bound books with the hard copy daily briefings for the entire year.  Unfortunately the only part of the tour we could take photos of was Westminster Hall and the exterior of course.

Westminster Hall is the only surviving part of the original Westminster Palace which burnt down in 1834.  King William IV immediately offered Buckingham Palace to Parliament in hopes to have the home taken of his hands, as he disliked the palace.  There were several other places that were considered for relocation, but the tradition and importance of Westminster was to important so the palace was rebuilt.  

Big Ben has become a national symbol over the years.  "Ben" is actually the name for the largest of the five different bells that ring inside the clock tower, the other four bells ring every quarter hour, but Ben only rings on the hour.  At one point during both world wars the clocks were dark and during World War I the bells were silenced to reduce it's visibility from the sky in order to ward off attacks.

The next day we took a trip to Hampstead, just outside of London.  This trip was for History of Modern Design, where we are currently looking at the Modernist movement.  We took a train to Hampstead to see a few examples of modernist buildings to reinforce what we had learned in class.  Each building had the clean lines, streamlining, large window panes, simple color schemes, and non-load bearing walls that we had talked about in class.  While the architecture doesn't enthrall me, it is nice to see examples of modernist buildings rather than just read about them.

Isokon Building

Hampstead is one of the most affluent areas of London people like Paul McCartney, Madonna, Judi Dench, and Elizabeth Taylor lived here at one point or another.

Our most recent class trip was to Greenwich for British Culture and Visual Media.  Again, we went to observe the architecture of the town and explore more of the London area.  Again, we took a train but this time we actually walked from the train station to Greenwich, by way of a tunnel under the Thames River, which I found extremely impressive considering the size of ships that can still make their way up the Thames.

Right out of the train station I noticed that the area we were in was much different from architecturally from other parts of London I had seen.  Our professor explained to us that this was the financial center.  Morgan-Stanley, Citibank  and Bank of America all have offices here.

The Old Royal Naval College is on the bank of the Thames River and has served many purposes in its history.  First it was the Greenwich Hospital which was used to house and care for injured sailors.  Eventually the sailors were relocated and the complex was used as a training center for the Royal Navy.  Since 1998 the building is now a tourist attraction, and has been used in several films, Pirates of the Caribbean IV included.

From our view of the Royal Naval College we walked under the Thames River though a tunnel, while not very pretty to look at, I was still impressed by the tunnel.

Along the path up the the Greenwich Observatory.

The Shepard Clock and standard measurements.  The clock is a 24 hour clock which is controlled by electric pulses from a master clock inside the observatory.  The standard measurements is a set of pins marking 1 yard, 2 feet, 1 foot, 6 inches, and 3 inches.  At 60 degrees Fahrenheit a rod measuring exactly the appropriate measurement will rest perfectly between the pins.

Some of our group in the front courtyard of the Old Royal Navel College.

Overall the trips were fun, educational of course, but of all of them I am definitely interested enough to revisit Greenwich and explore the market, the stores, the park, and the Royal Observatory in greater detail.  Our professor suggested that if we were to visit again to come on a Sunday when the market is in full swing and people are walking around the town.

Day by the Beach

Today was I took another day trip with a few members of the Drexel group.  We went to the coastal town of Brighton.  Since the trip was extremely affordable through FIE that I decided to go, even though I didn't know anything about the town.

Our day started at 7:45 outside of our building, we then took a coach to Brighton and arrived around 10.  As soon as we got to Brighton we started a 2 hour walking tour that took us through the town including down small allies, about 3 feet wide, that were part of the original medieval street plans.  Our guide took us along the beach, where ships use to dock, through the older quarters, through the markets, and then finally through the gardens of the Royal Pavilion.  Once we got to the Pavilion FIE had arranged for us to take an audio guided tour of the Royal Pavilion.  It was beautiful, but unfortunately no photography was allowed.

View of the Brighton Pier

Brighton is famous for the graffiti or street art, depending on the way you look at it.  It covers the back of houses and is constantly changing.

Our first look at the Royal Pavilion where King George IV lived while the Prince Regent.  According to our guide George came to Brighton initially because a local doctor thought that the sea water, mixed with other concoctions, would solve problems of the glands by drink or bathing in it.

In front of the Royal Pavilion

The pavilion was built for George IV, the Prince of Wales.  He settled here and would spend his time throwing elaborate parties.  He was extremely proud of the rooms that he entertained in because they showed how luxurious his life was.  It has also been said that he enjoyed his food, a lot, so the kitchen was always equipped with the most recent technology.  His dinners also had around 100 different dishes, all which he sampled, and returned for seconds of others.  After his death, Queen Victoria the crown and she quickly established that she disliked the Royal Pavilion because it was over decorated and not small enough to accommodate the he growing family of 9 children, plus their care givers.  She decided to sell the home to the city of Brighton, however, she decided to take all of the interior decoration with her to her new home, the Osborne House.  Most of the decoration ended up in Buckingham Palace or Windsor Castle until the 1950's when the current monarch, Queen Elizabeth returned most of the decoration to the Royal Pavilion, as it has turned into a large tourist attraction bringing about 400,000 people to Brighton each year.

Lunch for the day, chicken and mushroom pie with chips and pear cider.

Another view of the beach, it looks gorgeous and sunny, but the wind was so strong that we were cold with just a sweater on.

Chairs for hire on the beach.

Oxford Day Trip

Last Saturday I took a day trip to the town of Oxford.  The university is located here, but it is only a part of the history.  Overall the town was very interesting, but definitely at a slower pace than I have been experiencing in London.  The hour train ride took me far enough away from the city that I was able to relax and enjoy myself.  I went into a few small shops and a small museum that showed the history of Oxford from centuries before the university existed.

Street view of Oxford.

While waiting for a tour of Oxford Castle to start I had tea and read a local newspaper outside.  The sun was out enough that I could actually take off my jacket.

The top of St. George's tower is the highest point in Oxford and give you 360 degree views.

St. George's Tower

View from the top of the tower.

Our guide for Oxford Castle Unlocked, she kept to a very good character through the tour.  The only remaining part of the castle is St. George's tower.  Also the castle has a long history of entrapment, torture, and most recently (at least relative to its history) reports of ghosts in the attached hotel.

All of the streets of Oxford were lined by interesting and contrasting architecture.

Finally around 6 pm I was ready for dinner.  I had read about Eagle and Child while looking up things to do in Oxford.  The pub is most famous for being a common gathering place for famous writers such as C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien.  They would write at the college near by and then come here for drinks and dinner.  Lewis originally presented drafts of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe here.

I was afraid it would be a shire to these people and a large tourist attraction but it turn out to be a nice quiet pub with a great atmosphere.

My dinner that I wrote about previously, it was so good, I had to show it to you again.