Day 2

Above: my dorm room, Below: The view from my window

So Friday night was fantastic. Taryn and Sue and I went out looking for a bar. We tried to go to the Imperial College Union but they won’t let you in unless you know someone that goes to college there, so that was strike number one. Then we went looking again and asked a guy on the street and he showed us a Russian bar, but it was empty, so that was strike number two. Then we got hungry so we went looking for the pizzeria we had seen earlier but we ended up going the complete wrong way so that was strike number three… We went to Pizza Hut, very European I know, and ate there instead. We asked the waiter where we should go and he pointed us in the direction of a bar called Archangel. It was really cool! I have a few pictures of it, but I’m sure I’ll go back there at some point. We met the bartender. His name was Tiago and he’s from Brazil. I tried this Japanese beer called Asahi. It was pretty good but Sue didn’t like hers. We stayed there until about 11:30 and then we decided it was time to move on. On the walk back home someone stopped us and asked us, “Pardon me but would you ladies care for a nightcap?” We said sure and he walked us over to a club called Twenty. They wanted us to pay a 20 pound cover charge but we said no way, so they wanted us to make a deal. They let us go downstairs and check it out first. It was pretty empty so we told them we’d pay 5 pounds and they went for it. From there we had a pretty good time. We met some interesting people and danced in the crazy club atmosphere. I tried this alcohol called Sambuka, which tasted like licorice. I met a Polish guy named Maciej (pronounced Majeek), and he bought Taryn a jager bomb. He thought they were only a European thing, but definitely not. Anyways there are some very weird names over here. We ended up going home at about 2. All in all it was a fantastic first night!

Saturday morning I had to get up and go to orientation at 10 am. I had breakfast at a cute little French pastry shop that’s just down the street from our dorms. I had a delicious mocha, and I will definitely be going back to try their omelets. I think I lost my student ID card there though, so now I have to get a new one. Good thing they’ll make them for free. At 10 they walked us over to the mechanical engineering building in the Imperial College. Basically the orientation was just an overview of all the stuff they gave us in our welcome packet and information about our stay in London and classes and all that. I’m required to buy an Oyster Pass for my History of London class, which leads me to believe I’ll be doing a lot of traveling to actually see the history of the city. That’ll be very cool. The orientation wasn’t anything special though. Afterwards I went to lunch with a few people at this delicious pizzeria called Demario. Apparently Princess Di used to go there a lot so it’s dedicated to her. I suppose it makes sense she went there because she lived in Kensington Palace for a long time. I had the best pizza I’ve ever had. It was called the Vesuvio and it had all kinds of fancy cheese and like really thin sliced ham on top. I have a few pictures from there. After lunch we had a bus tour of the city that was completely fantastic.

Our tour guide was really funny, and he told us lots of stories in a very entertaining way. I learned probably more about British history today than I’ve ever known before, and I’ll probably retain most of it because he made it so interesting. We drove past Harrods, which takes up an entire city block. We saw the Duke of Wellington arch and then we went to Buckingham Palace. The Queen unfortunately wasn’t in. It’s such a beautiful place. Our guide talked about how the monarchy is so essential to the English culture. I’m planning on going back to see the changing of the guards and to get breakfast at a little place called The Crumpet Shop (or something like that) because Danny highly recommends it. Anyways from there we went to Westminster Abbey. It was built in the 1200s and is absolutely fantastic. I will definitely be going back to go inside and see all the tombs. There are 2,000 people buried in there. As the guide said, “It’s not a church, it’s the city of the dead!” Sir Isaac Newton’s tomb is in there, and that’s where the scene in The Da Vinci Code when Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) figures out the code thingy takes place. Our guide did an entertaining rendition of it while telling us that story. Next we walked over to see the parliament building. Part of it is thousands of years old (the part where they tried William Wallace), but most of it is only 140 years old. Our guide said his house was 20 years older and only slightly larger and grander. He told us the story of Oliver Cromwell and how he and the puritans took over and tried… oh nuts, I don’t remember the king’s name. I think it was Charles? We’ll pretend it was Charles. Anyways Oliver Cromwell tried Charles the first for treason and declared him guilty. The king stood during the trial, because he believed he had the god given right to do what he did (I don’t know what led up to this point, mind you). Cromwell had him executed and then took charge of England as a state with no more monarchy. Then a few years after Cromwell died, they got bored of this, invited Charles the second back from his exile in France, and proceeded to give him back the throne. Charles II’s first move was to dig Cromwell’s body back up from its resting place in Westminster Abbey and put his decaying body and the rest of the puritans who were left on trial for treason. They were all found guilty and were henceforth executed. Oliver Cromwell’s decaying body was re-killed. And today on that street you can see a statue of Oliver Cromwell facing Westminster Abbey and a statue of the head of Charles the first looking back across the street at him towards parliament. Poor guys, I bet if they knew that was going to happen they wouldn’t be so happy about it. Also in this area was parliament square, where there was a huge protest going on for the rights of Sri Lanka. “Stop state fascism!” There’s a guy there named Greg Hale that’s been literally living in that square in a tent for 8 years. Starting in 2001 he first protested the policies regarding Iraq, then the force taken in Iraq, and now the occupation of Iraq. He seriously lives in a tent in parliament square. He is literally living in protest. There was also a guy that was on hunger strike until parliament does something about Sri Lanka.

Oh and we also saw Big Ben, which is not the name of the clock or even the clock tower, it’s the name of the giant bell inside the clock tower. The White something Bell Foundry is the company that made this bell, and they also made the Liberty Bell. Interestingly, both of these bells cracked the very first time they were struck. So as our guide said, if you were to buy a bell, don’t buy it from those guys. Next we went to the south bank of the Thames River. We walked down the river walk and saw the Globe Theater. I’m going to go see a production of Romeo and Juliet there towards the end of my trip. The program is arranging it. The Globe that’s there now isn’t the original one, but it was rebuilt as an exact replica and there are still no nails used, only wooden nails. We also saw Tate Modern, which is the largest modern art museum in… England? The world? I don’t remember what. It’s a free museum so I’ll try to make it back there to go see the art and the exhibits. Inside is this huge common area where there were literally hundreds of people just chillin on the cement floor drinking beers and chatting with each other. It was incredible.

After Tate Modern we walked over the pedestrian bridge that crosses the Thames to St. Paul Cathedral. We stopped here and our guide told us some fascinating stories about it. I would write them in here but they’re pretty long. He told us the story of the American war memorial that’s inside, and how Edward R. Murrow was reporting the events of the bombings of 1940 and his photographer got this picture of the dome of St. Paul’s with a huge bomb lighting up the sky behind it. This picture was an incredibly important icon in London because it represented the resiliency of the city and how even in the wake of such incredible disaster, London will never fail to pick itself back up again and keep going. “Never changing, always changing,” is what the guide called it. I will definitely be going back to the cathedral to see the inside. So after the tour I got back and didn’t have anything to do. I was pretty worried that I wouldn’t be able to find anyone to go out with so I went and talked to some girls that are in the room across from mine. They invited me out to dinner with them and I’m glad I decided to go. We walked down Church Street to find the place one of the girl’s friends said to meet at. It ended up being a super packed pub that we couldn’t get into because there was a group of 8 of us girls. We decided to just keep walking towards Notting Hill to see what restaurants we could find, and we chose a place called Nando’s, or something like that. It was a Portuguese restaurant and it was very cheap. I had some delicious chicken called Peri Peri chicken and I tried this drink called Savannah Cider which is from South Africa! It was pretty good. After dinner we decided to catch the Tube to Picadilly Circus to try to find some gelato. I finally got my Oyster Card and now I know how the Tube works! It’s definitely idiot proof, what with all the signs and the ridiculously easily marked maps on every wall. So we got to Picadilly and it was incredible!! It was all lit up and there were some awesome looking buildings. It almost looked like what I imagine Times Square looks like. We walked through there looking at all the shops and little restaurants and all the clubs and made our way towards Leicester Square. Leicester Square is apparently where it’s at! That’s where all the good pubs, clubs, and bars are. We didn’t go in any because it was Saturday night jammed and we didn’t feel like dealing with the already drunk crowds. So we saw the sights of the square and headed towards Covent Garden. That was where we found tons of fantastic looking shops (which I’ll be going back to in the day time) and the Royal Opera House. Outside it there was a guy playing guitar with an amp in the middle of the street. He was really good, so I bought his CD. I figured what the heck, why not support the local music scene and get a cool souvenir. We wanted to sit outside at the restaurant that was right next to him and drink a glass of wine but they had just closed. That was pretty much the end of the night for us. We walked over to the Covent Garden underground station and caught the Picadilly Line back home to Gloucester station. Then a few of us went to get on the internet in the computer lab seeing as none of our requests for WiFi have been accepted yet. It’s really frustrating not having my own internet yet… that’s for sure.

So all in all I had a good Saturday. I saw a lot more of London and now I’ve got the Tube system under my belt. Tomorrow I’m meeting the girls for breakfast at 11 and then we’re going on the tour to Primrose Hill and Camden, where we plan to stay and shop even if the tour group leaves. We figure we have our Oyster Cards, why not use them? I’m really glad I went out with these girls tonight, I think I made a lot of good friends to have while I’m here, especially since four out of the six of them live on my floor. That should hopefully make my time here a lot more fun.

I’m in love with London. It’s a whole new world over here. There are over 200 languages spoken by the people that live here, and every culture in the world is represented. As our guide today said, “London isn’t a city, it’s a world.” I’ll be back here someday, and I’ll go see the rest of Europe too. There’s no doubt in my mind that I will come back here, and hopefully sooner rather than later!

Love you guys!

Jaime

P.S. You should comment on my posts so I know who's actually reading this!