The Short American That Can't Climb onto the Lions at Trafalgar Square and Other Adventures

Mailbox (US)

Letterbox (British)

BA Image of the Day!  Where I put my mail.


I thought "Wow the mailboxes over here look funny!" And then I realized our little blue boxes probably look pretty funny to other people.

So, how's it going everyone? It's been over a week. I'm really lazy and just couldn't be asked to write a blog post, so I didn't. Until today. Because I felt bad for not giving the readers what they deserve. You deserve something to do while you procrastinate on work and school projects and such (with a little bit of culture built in ;) I gave you guys a little something to look for if you are ever in Camden Market. A little shameless self promotion never hurt either :)

I was serious when I said I will probably have a picture of
St. Paul's Cathedral at every angle by the end of this trip.

I didn't really do a whole whole lot this week. Well, I went to Tate Modern last Monday and looked at a bunch of art that I didn't really understand, but still enjoyed. My favorite is the red cloth staircase coming out of the ceiling. And I took Chester! And of course I had to take a picture with my little man at Millennium Bridge and all.

 And I have to say, I think I'm getting pretty good at taking pictures!

I had a pretty boring week. I find that since I can just lay around and do nothing since I'm taking fewer credit hours than I typically do, I take advantage of the opportunity to lay around and do nothing (even though I am in one of the greatest cities in the world). But I went to Hampstead Heath and Parliament Hill Friday evening. And I got a little lost from my friends that I came with... 

Stop looking at me, Swan!

 No, seriously Swan... Stop looking at me!


But anyways, we walked around for a long time and kinda got lost for a bit. We ended up getting to Parliament Hill just in time to see the gorgeous view of London at sunset. Unfortunately, none of the pictures we took turned out that great.

 Oh, yea, and when I got lost, this is what these people were doing once I found them. Actually, come to think of it, I don't know these people :)

 Actually, it was these people. Yea, we wrote graffiti on the wall at Camden Market while sitting on the moped seats while enjoying our dinner! This is also where my shameless self promotion went on as well.

 Oh yea, and people before us decided to help the environment by trying to make a filter like the guys in the film Biodome. However, all it did was make me sing "Makin a filter. Makin a filter" over and over again like the stoner in the film

 And today I decided to run around with one of my mates at Greenview, Connor. We went to a bunch of different sites around London for the heck of it. But we had to be back by 8pm before the Arsenal match started! First stop on the list is what I presume to be a former Banksy... but somebody had to paint over it. One of the things I really want to do while I'm over here is hunt for a bunch of Banksy street art pieces. There are a ton of them in London. And if you don't know who Banksy and Robbo are, then here is a culture learning opportunity. Look it up.

But yea, Connor and I just kinda ran around and saw some sites. This is the pirate ship I bought the other day. It's how we got around today ;)

 And we tried to get the whole Shard of Glass into one picture. These buildings in front of it are people's apartments. Gladly no cat ladies or anything ran us off. Well... actually that would have been an interesting story come to think of it.

 And I took a whole bunch of pictures of/on Tower Bridge

 And we went by the Tower of London. This is where I shop for jewelry ;) (Where the Crown Jewels are kept. Although I thought Prince William was out of the country right now ;)

 And I went to Piccadilly Circus for the first time

 And I was too short to climb onto the lions at Trafalgar Square. I didn't feel like risking the fall. So I just took a picture next to the lion's butt.

 The funny thing about this picture is that some random guy ran up to me and shoved me into the fountain. Kidding! Life would be more interesting if crazy things happened to me.

Hey, there are only 170 more days until the Olympics! I keep telling people about this video blog post that I want to do, but it never seems like the right time. Maybe I'm just too lazy. Maybe some day I will do this video and not procrastinating on doing blog posts. Then again, maybe I won't. You'll just have to wait and see! Until then, cheers!

PS a few things to amend. I changed the settings and anyone can now comment on here. Yay! And if you are looking for another ISU student blog to view, a friend of mine, Nick Pennington, is also keeping a blog. He is at Edge Hill University in Omskirk, England and offers another perspective on life in England! Check him out! http://the-england-experience.blogspot.com/

Make My Travel Plans!

BA Word of the Day:  homework. Say "I'm gonna go get some homework done" at a student accommodation in London and be prepared to get giggled at. Here, work for uni courses is called coursework or just work.

Beautiful theatre, horrible play to sit through

Hello everyone! Get ready to be disappointed because... I really didn't do anything exciting this week. Yea. It's kinda sad. I've been avoiding doing this post in hopes that something exciting would come up... but no. It's been a bit of a lazy week. I did, however, take my first train ride ever to Richmond to see a show for my theatre class. We sat in the nosebleeds and watched probably one of the most agonizing performances I have ever sat through.

Driver's Licenses from three different countries. Left, Isle of Man; Center, Indiana, USA; Right, UK. Random photo, I know

Valentine's goodies are still tasty even after a month in the mail

Yea... I'm the pimp that lives in the penthouse suite with a view

View of a school from my balcony

 Oh, and I received a lovely package of delicious goodies!

 I also discovered that I have the coolest view ever from the penthouse balcony outside my window. We watched a few horror movies Friday night here at the castle on the hill.  

Looking down on the Harringey minions

The wonderful view where I enjoyed my ice cream Southwark Cathedral

Salted Caramel Chocolate Brownie... Best. Mashup. Ever.

Yesterday I went to Borough Market and scored a ton of free samples of cheese, mushrooms, and other delicious things. I did actually pay for a little bit of food consisting of a steak sandwich and WAY too much ice cream. 

Another photo of St. Paul's

I think by the end of this trip I will have pictures of St. Paul's at every angle

And today... it's cold and rainy. Although I am watching an exciting game of rugby on tv, nothing much is going on. It's hard to get motivated to go out on such an icky day. In fact, it has come to my attention that in the month I have been here I haven't done enough.

So here's what we are going to do today. I'm gonna throw down a list of things I want to do while I'm over here in a Google Doc. I'm gonna put the link to the Google Doc below. You can go on that Google Doc and view all of my travel ideas. If there is something specific either in London, in the UK, or in Europe that you think would be cool for me to do, put it on the "Blog Viewers' Ideas" list. All edits that anyone puts will be able to be viewed on that list. Please put your name next to it as I would love to know who comes up with these great ideas! If there is something specific that you would like to see me do at a certain location (For example, Sophia might put "Take a picture of Chester the Bear watching a play"), please feel free to put that on the list. As I complete items on the list, I will put a line through it. This will be a working document that you may edit at any time. Please do not erase anything as that would be really sad for the people that have contributed to the list. Remember that grandmas and grandpas will be viewing this document, so if you write anything vulgar, it will get erased and I might hunt you down ;). Also, if you think you are a funny guy and try to erase everything, I have it backed up and will be monitoring it like a hawk.

The Link:  Clarissa's Travel Plans

I'm so excited to see everyone's ideas! If you don't have an idea to start off with, look up something crazy to do and write it. Hopefully next blog I will get to do the video I've been really wanting to do. And most importantly, maybe more things will be crossed off the list. So get to adding some good ideas! Until next time, Cheers!

Pictures! Pictures! Pictures!

BA Word of the Day: Food Edition! So after cooking and baking over the past few days, I've found that there are some significant differences between what we call certain foods and how we eat them. I shall go forward in chronological order of what I cooked.

wraps. Apparently the other day I made wraps, not soft tacos. Anything in a tortilla is a wrap.

pancakes. Over here they have Shrove Tuesday (aka Pancake Day) instead of Mardi Gras. Huge letdown for me because I wanted to make king's cake and put a mask on. Anyway, people in the UK do thinner pancakes I think (thinner than an American pancakes, thicker than a crepe). They place selected condiments in the pancake (whipped cream, syrup, oh and the shelves are cleared of Nutella on the days before Pancake Day), wrap them up, and eat them with their hands (basically crepe style). And eating bacon with pancakes is unheard of over here (although it did get approval from some people here).

biscuits. Don't ever say the phrase "biscuits and gravy" to a Brit and expect them to be willing to try what you make. Biscuits over here means cookies.... cookies and gravy is basically what you are saying. So then the question that becomes of this situation "What the hell do they call biscuits?" Bread roll kinda worked, but after showing them a picture, scones (pronounced scons by them) was the word to use. But it still didn't suffice because people were expecting a sweet scone with raisins in it.

crisps and chips. French fries =chips. Potato chips= crisps.

I can't think of anything else significant right now, but these have caused some interesting cultural exchanges.

Ok now for the cool pictures I took. Wednesday I got to go to St. Paul's Cathedral (not inside it though), the Millennium Bridge, and The Globe Theatre. Thursday I went for a walk and got a little lost. Friday I went to Wembley Stadium. Ok picture time!

St. Paul's Cathedral

Cool view down one of the roads

Gah! Why is she pointing at me?!? I swear I didn't do anything wrong today!

Cool lamppost... in front of StPC (my new abbrev for it)

Occupy London at StPC

Another cool lamppost

Occupy London at StPC... Seriously why would they do that in front of a cathedral?

I don't know if you can see the guy back there right up against the fence... but  he is some sort of security guard. I figured since he was coyly trying to be a security guy, I would coyly take a picture of him.

View of the Shard of Glass. What is the actually name of this building anyways?

Tate Modern. A museum that I did not have time to go in.

The Globe!

Walking across Millennium Bridge

Shard o' Glass and some other buildings

Oh my gosh! I'm closer to The Globe!

London Bridge from Millennium Bridge. I took a picture of a bridge from a bridge... Yea.

StPC from the Millennium Bridge

Two guys practicing a sword fight in the Exhibition center of the Globe

 A little bit about the Globe must be mentioned. First of all, in case you didn't know, the idea of rebuilding it was an American's idea. Second, we went in while there was a rehearsal for A Midsummer Night's Dream going on. I think it's pretty cool that I got to go into the reconstruction of Shakespeare's Globe and see a tech rehearsal of a Shakespeare play. Third, we weren't suppose to take pictures inside the Globe... but I really wish I would have.

So the other day I decided to go for a walk. I found this cool little pathway, but I got kinda lost. I found out that the houses just north of where I live are really nice though!

And then I found this beautiful view of London whilst being lost. My camera and photography skills don't do this view any justice.

 Friday I went to Wembley with Hayley because she is working there and needed to time how long it would take to get there.

Good thing we weren't on this bus ;)

I think I need to make a meme that says "Not sure if it's a giant roller coaster... or Wembley Stadium"

Wembley

Wembley

Wembley again

Wembley yet again

The roller coaster

Hayley as close as any of us would get to riding the Wembley roller coaster ;)

 There are black cabs all over London with cool designs and ads on them. On Wednesday I saw a Coach cab but was deeply saddened when I couldn't get a picture.

Coach black cab

And then we found one near Wembley!!!!! Yay!

7 11 in London

Staples Superstore in London

I went in and asked for you, Buddy, but they said you weren't there :(

Hayley at her uni

Hayley had to drop by her uni to get some papers sorted out. This little building is all her uni consists of. Yes, my friends, there is a university more jank than Indiana State. I know you probably can't believe, but here is the proof.

So that is it! All of my fun pictures from the week. Don't really know what's in store for the next few days, but I'm sure I'll find something to blog about. Until then, Cheers!