Very Lazy Day

So today I didn't do anything. Really. Nothing. I woke up with a scratchy throat and Jill was also sick so we cancelled our plans. I sat around my room and lounged. I listened to some Trivia and started a show on Netflix. Mr. Selfridge to be exact. It's a dramatization of the life of Harry Selfridge. He created Selfridge's, which is a very famous department store just over a few blocks from where I live. I like it so far. I would recommend it. Today has been really good. It was really nice to sit around and do absolutely nothing, especially after our stressful ending to yesterday.

Well I'm off to go space out some more. Night folks!

JessLynn

Making Plans

Good evening!! It's been another exciting day here in London!

This morning, Jill and I went back to Speedy's for some lunch. We wanted pictures of the shop with when it was open and people were there. We took a couple pictures and headed inside for some food. We were insanely overwhelmed so we decided take away would be our best bet. I unintentionally ordered the most complicated sandwich that has ever been made. Below is a little snippet of the conversation between me and the woman behind the counter (who had a very thick accent and in quite a hurry even though we were the only people at the counter).

Me: I'll have a roast beef sandwich on a roll.
Her: We don't have rolls, just the big ones.
Me: Oh, ok that's fine.
Her: Do you want horseradish and salad?
Me: Ummm, (completely confused as to what "salad" is) no. Just mayonnaise?
Her: So you just want mayo and roast beef on a roll?
Me: (staring blankly) No, I'll have salad on it also, sorry. (still uncertain as to what that meant)
Her: (looking at me like I'm insane) ok, do you want salt and pepper too?
Me: Yes please.

Writing it out really doesn't do it justice. You're all just going to have to believe me that it was quite and interesting moment. I was totally ok with whatever she was going to make me. All of the questions really weren't necessary and they just confused and flustered me. It was kind of a mess. Jill witnessed the whole thing and when we walked out we couldn't help but start laughing. I asked if she knew what "salad" was and she assumed it was coleslaw, which is what I was thinking also. We walked down the block a bit and sat on the side of a short wall. It turns out that salad is lettuce, tomato, and cucumber. (And there was no mayo). It was still pretty good and I would go back, this time a little more prepared.

Speedy's is open!

After lunch we decided to check out the Natural History Museum. It was huge. The building itself is massive and absolutely beautiful. The exhibits are all scientific, which isn't necessarily my favorite but it was still really cool. The dinosaur exhibit was especially fun.

The inside of the Natural History Museum with a statue of Darwin in the back.

One of the last things we saw was the "Giant Sequoia." It's a section of a giant tree that was cut down in California in the 1880's, if I remember correctly. It began growing in 550, so it was incredible. We walked up the stair and Jill or I made a comment about going to check out "the big tree." We both chuckled until we found the plaque below. Apparently the tree is known as the big tree, which amuses me very much.

Giant Sequoia.

After a while at the museum we headed home and just hung out for a bit. Then we headed in to the kitchen to cook french fries and plan our 10 day trip. In the middle of our term we have 10 days to travel and explore this part of the world. Jill and I are travelling together to Wales and Scotland. Planning a trip, buying tickets and booking hostels is incredibly difficult and stressful. We spent a lot of time sitting in the kitchen trying to figure everything out. Looking at our plans, it doesn't seem like we got that much done but I am thoroughly exhausted. So, here are our plans so far!

Fri 14 Feb : 1pm train leaves for Fishguard, Wales. Arrive and check in to hostel.
Sat 15 Feb: Day in Fishguard.
Sun 16 Feb: Day in Fishguard.
Mon 17 Feb: 1am train leaves for London (with change at 3am). 3pm plane leaves for Edinburgh.                      Arrive and check in to hostel.
Tues 18 Feb: Day in Edingburgh.
Wed 19 Feb: Day tour of the Highlands with Haggis Adventures.
Thurs 20 Feb: Day in Edingburgh.
Fri 21 Feb: Day in Edingburgh.
Sat 22 Feb: 11am plane leaves for London.

I am so excited and I know that Jill and I are going to have a great time. If anyone has any suggestions for what we should do on our free days in Wales and Scotland, please leave me a comment We would really love some help!!

Tonight I'm a little homesick. Trivia starts tonight at Lawrence. For those or you who don't know what Trivia is, it's a crazy 50 straight hours of trivia and one of my favorite things about Lawrence. I have loved playing Trivia for the past two years and this year my lovely Portia is a Trivia Master. So, obviously I'm a little bummed to be missing it. Luckily, I will be able to listen to it online and enjoy it from afar. Good luck to all the teams this year and I hope you have a great time!!

A day of cancellations.

Today was weird. Plain and simple, weird. 

I made plans last night to go by myself and explore the Natural History Museum a couple blocks away. But when I woke up it was pouring. That mixed with very little motivation meant that the museum was going to have to wait. Instead, I took my time getting ready and made some breakfast. Of course, as soon as I made this decision the skies cleared and it was bright and sunny. For my only class of the day (Modern British Politics) we were going to Parliament. I was pretty excited but the day also had the potential to be excruciatingly boring. I left Metrogate a little early so I could swing by Foundation House and pick up a book I needed to read for class. Christine was in the office and she stopped me to inform me that our class had been postponed to 3 (rather than 2). I debated going down to Westminster anyway and just walking for a bit but decided it was best just to head back home. Once I got back I met up with Mallory and Ben and the three of us headed out together. We met our classmates at Westminster tube station and began placing our bets as to how late our professor would be. (He has been late to a few classes because of the flooding where he lives. A lot of the trains have been cancelled so it's harder for him to get in to the city.) When he arrived, he apologized and thought Parliament was a bit of a lost cause for the day. Instead, we all went to a nearby pub where he bought us drinks (I had tea again!) and we chatted. We also rescheduled our trip to Parliament for next week, when (hopefully) nothing will go wrong. We spent a lot of time in the pub before heading home. I ate some dinner and I'm about to read Sherlock Holmes for homework. I think I'm also making plans with Jill about our 10 day break. I will be sure to share our plans as soon as we make our decisions. 

This week has been a bit of an odd one. It's been interesting but definitely a little weird. Hopefully this weekend will go a bit more smoothly. 

JessLynn

A nice easy day.

This morning we had British Life and Culture. We talked a lot about the monarchy and the Queen's relationship with the people. It was really interesting to talk about. One of my favorite things about Professor Fosdal is a joke that he uses almost every class. He will begin talking about the monarchy and say "America, you could have had this. But, you decided to go at it alone. You preferred your Richard Nixon and George Bush. Just remember, you had your chance to stay." He's said the joke at least 4 times and I still chuckle. Also, he addresses the group of us as "America" which means he walks in every morning and welcomes us with a big "Good Morning America." However, 3 of us aren't American so it is more like "Good Morning America....and Jamaica....and India." And that doesn't have as nice of a ring to it.

My second class of the day was British Crime Fiction but, it was cancelled because Christine wasn't feeling well. So, my whole afternoon was free. First, I just hung out for a bit. Then, Mallory and I went to Fait Maison for tea. I don't usually like tea but I thought I would give it a try. I had mint tea with a pastry with custard in it. It was delicious! I am hoping that means I will start liking more tea. I have always liked the idea of tea, but the taste never rubbed me the right way. But, who knows? That could all be changing!! Mallory and I had a really nice life chat while we had tea. I am really enjoying living with her and we are so much more similar than I expected. We went back to our room (because it looked like it was going to rain) and watched Peter Pan. After watching the play on Monday a bunch of us have had the desire to watch the old Disney cartoon. For the rest of the afternoon I lounged around and didn't do much.

Tomorrow I only have class in the afternoon (and we are going to Parliament, yay!) so I am planning on walking over to the Natural History Museum for the morning. I love living this close to free museums! I'm hoping that tomorrow will be very interesting so I'll have a bit more to write!!

JessLynn

This one's for Giggles.

Good Evening! (Or good afternoon, I guess. It is only 2 pm back in the states. Here it's 8.)

This morning, I did nothing. I woke up late and lounged around. It was great. I watched the majority of a movie and took my time getting ready.

First class of the day was British Crime Fiction. We talked about Poe a lot and our thoughts on his story Murders in the Rue Morgue. I really enjoyed the story and found it very interesting to compare to modern works of Crime Fiction. We start Sherlock Holmes next week and I'm very excited to learn more about Arthur Conan Doyle's work.

My second class of the day was Fringe Theatre. Our class time for Tuesdays is 6-8pm but our professor had a prior commitment so we decided to meet earlier and go on a short walk through London. We were meeting at 5 which meant that I had about an hour in between my classes. Because we were too lazy to walk back to Metrogate only to turn around and walk back in order to catch the tube, Jill and I stayed at Foundation House. (From know on, Jill will now be called Giggles Salisbury, just so everyone is aware. You can thank Christine Harris for that one.) Giggles and I sat on the floor of the Lawrence classroom and ate snacks until we had to get the tube (and the cleaning lady was about to kick us out). We rode the tube to Embankment station and met up with our class. We walked through the city and learned a bit about the history and significance of where we were. After a bit we stopped at The Salisbury pub to warm up and have a drink. Giggles was rather excited. We sat for a while and talked about how much we hated the play from the night before and how it could have been better. After everyone finished their drinks, we did a little more walking to Covent Garden. That's where we went our separate ways. Jill, excuse me. Giggles and I stopped at a candy shop that sells American candy and I got Mini Chewy Sweettarts (one of my faves). Then we headed home for some dinner. On our way we discussed how it was possibly that we weren't friend until recently. We are so similar it's a bit scary. Now, it's time for homework and a movie. Then I'm off to bed.

On a completely unrelated note, the internet here is still terrible and it's very frustrating. All of us are slowly losing our minds because of how awful it is. Here's hoping it gets better.

JessLynn

Lost Boy

Good morning! I didn't have a chance to write last night because the internet in Metrogate is absolutely terrible. I'm hoping that it won't distract me from posting every day. I really want to stick with this.  That being said, let's get on with it!

Writing about days when I just have class is not as interesting as days when I go out and explore. Just so you are aware. Yesterday, I had Modern British Politics in the morning. We talked all about Parliament. We are going to Parliament on Thursday so we had to prepare ourselves for what we were going to experience. We will be able to sit in on sessions for both the House of Commons and the House of Lords. Sometimes, debates in the House of Commons get really heated and exciting but Fosdal doesn't think that's actually going to happen. We're keeping our fingers crossed.

Then in the afternoon I had Fringe Theatre. We spent the entire 2 hours talking about the play we saw last Tuesday. Most of us liked it so talking about it was easy and enjoyable. The play was very deep and French so picking it apart was not hard at all. We made plans for the show we were going to that evening and went our separate ways.

The final thing I did yesterday was see a show for Fringe. The point of Fringe Theatre in London is to watch and experience new, experimental theatre. The show we saw last night was.......different. It was called Lost Boy. Set in 1914 England at the start of the first world war, it was about Peter Pan after he grew up and how he copes with being an adult. And it was a musical. It got great reviews so we assumed it was going to be fantastic. All of us expected it to be shocking and dark, but I'm not sure if that's what we got. I'm a fan of some musicals, but it was really cheesy. I wanted so much more from the show. I felt it could have been really dark and depressing (in a good way) but it was just...weird. The nice thing is that I'm pretty sure none of us liked it so our class discussion is going to be fantastic. One of the show's few redeeming qualities was the actors. They did a great job. They sounded amazing and were very talented. Unfortunately though, the script was not on their side.

If you want to know more about the show here is a review. He is a little more fond of the show than I am but, we will forgive him for it. (He sets the scene a little more eloquently than the actual show did)

Well that's all for now. I hope to see you all back tonight!

JessLynn

Jess and Jill's Sherlock Adventure! (Part 2)

So, last night I was having a ton of issues with the internet and in my frustration left out two of the best parts of the day. Here's a little bonus stuff that I thought you would all like to know. :)

1) In the Sherlock Holmes museum, there was a book of letters written to Sherlock after the Reichenbach Falls. I am not sure when they were sent but they seem very recent. This particular letter caught our eye. We read the first couple sentences and couldn't read on. It was so heartbreaking and the girl was so upset (and we were already an emotional wreck) that I had to walk away. Here is that letter.

2) Comedy here in England is different than back home. English humor (excuse me, humour) is much more dry and sarcastic. So, outright exclamations of excitement aren't common at all. That being said, the conductor of our train yesterday was the exception to the rule. We got on the train at Baker Street and he came on the loud speaker to tell us that the train wouldn't depart for 6 minutes and he was sorry for the inconvenience. He made this same announcement at the 3 and 1 minute marks. Just as we were about to depart, he came on the speaker again saying "Yaaaaaaaaaay! We're ready to depart now! Let's get going!!" This was then follower by a joke about him not rememebering to put the train in gear and that's why we were stuck. It was hilarious and Jill and I were shocked. The weirdest part of the whole experience was the reaction (or lack of) from everyone else on the train. No one even flinched. One of the women sitting across from us looked at Jill and I like we were crazy because we thought it was adorable! It was so bizarre and fantastic, I had to share it with you all. Well that's al for now, I'm headed to class!

JessLynn