So I have been contemplating how to do this post so that it is not a million pages long. I am going to give a short synopsis of each day and possibly write a short blurb after I have described each day saying my overall feelings of the trip?
The night before I left (so Friday the 1rst) two of my friends here turned 21. It was quite a fun night, but I am sure that I did not get as much sleep as I probably should have since I had to be at the airport at 7am on Saturday.
Saturday: Drag myself to the airport at 7am, and get to London with my class at around noon. Immediately our leaders let us loose for lunch and tell us to meet at our first academic visit in a few hours. Not the best planning on their part since we had NO idea where anything was/where we were/what we should eat/and money besides the 10 pounds they gave us for lunch. We went to a little sandwich place in Leicester Square, and managed to figure out the tube enough to make it to our station to meet up with our leaders. We went to this amazing supervised "adventure playground" which was a ton of swings and crazy things to climb on all painted different colors. It was called Glamis Adventure Playground if you feel like creeping on it on google, I also posted a million pictures of it on facebook. After that we went to an Idian restaurant called Banglore Express that was the best meal I have had in a long time. It had 3 courses, and was family style. We had these chips with different types of chutney, a plate with salmon and shrimp, and the main course had lamb and chicken and rice and this really yummy parsnip thing and coconut naan. After dinner we went to the London Eye, and that is when my camera battery died and I realized I had forgotten my charger. Luckily for the rest of the trip Bailey took pictures of the stuff I really wanted, and at the hostel a girl let me borrow her charger. I slept so well at the hotel the first night.
Sunday: Kate and I woke up to her alarm and got ready and went downstairs for breakfast, and then figured out when we didn't see anyone else that we had forgotten about the 1 hour time difference and we were an hour early. Breakfast was good, but I possibly went back to my room while everyone else finished and watched part of "The UK's Top 100 Pop Princesses" which was great. Ke$ha was in the 80's and I laughed. After breakfast we went on a bus/walking tour of London. Our tour guide was a hilarious Scottish man with a fascination with kittens. We got out to take pictures in front of the Tower Bridge and we waited to watch it go up for a boat to pass under, but it did not and our tour guide was annoyed. We all got back on the bus and were going to actually drive over the bridge when this happened (1:40-2:30 at least...):
Okay, not really. But right as we were about to cross over the bridge we get stopped and have to watch it go up in front of us. We were obviously not as cool as the Spice Girls. We had lunch on our own, and then went to the Freud Museum, aka the nerdiest thing of my life. We saw his couch, which was the highlight. It would have also been a lot cooler if the audio tour hadn't been the most boring thing I had ever heard. We ended at around 4:30 and we all went back to the hotel to regroup. A bunch of us went out to dinner on our own and I got Yorkshire Pudding and it was not nearly as good as my mother's, but it was still nice to get to eat it. Afterwards a few girls and I went out to a pub in Covent Garden and had a beer, but the pub closed at 10:30 on Sundays so I was back in the hotel watching amazing British TV by 11:30.
Monday: On Monday they told us to wear long sleeves and pants because we were going to be visiting an all boys Islamic school and a Mosque. This is also the day that the Tube was on strike, so we had to walk to Brick Lane from our hotel by the Barbican. The first school we went to was the London East Academy which was really interesting because we had to wear head scarves and the people who were talking to us were very passionate about their religion, but so far off from the stereotype it was very eye-opening. The week I was in London is when the states announced the travel warning for being in big cities in Europe and I guess besides Germany and France, London was a "high-risk zone" also? So our entire trip people were freaking out and it was all over the news and some people from my class got interviewed and such. It was weird to feel so safe in an Islamic environment while our country was telling us to be afraid. After the school we went to the East London Mosque which is the closest mosque to where the 7/7 bombings (7th of July in 2005) happened in London. The people of the mosque were personally affected by it and lost people that they knew. It was also a place of emergency refuge for people who needed assistance on that day. There are a lot of aspects of Islam that I am not sure I agree with, but it made a big impact to see how their community has to deal with the fear of terrorist attacks and how they deal with the hate. The man giving the tour of the mosque asked us what our opinion was on the Islamic Center plans near the Twin Tower cite, and we had a nice healthy dialogue about it. He also gave up each a copy of the Quran, which was nice but definitely raised tension going back through airport security at the end of the trip. It is crazy how much something like a book can freak people out, but I plan to look through mine once I get some time again. After the mosque we went to another yummy Indian buffet where I had more lamb (maybe I actually am my father's daughter? hmmm...) and a lot of other food. Then we walked to the WIlliam Davis Primary School which is in one of the most deprived areas in the entire country, but all of the students are still able to achieve the national learning standards. It was probably the most inspiring school I have ever been to, where everything seemed so nice and well rounded and the programs and atmosphere were excellent. It was hard having to remind myself that these children were not dealt the greatest cards in life, because this school was such a wonderful resource for them. Right after that we actually sprung for some taxis (because of the Tube strike we had been walking all day, and there was no way we could get to our next activity on time). Our next activity was a Bollywood workshop at a dance studio! Remember those jeans and long sleeved shirts we were wearing? Yeah, we were not told that we needed a change of workout clothes and as much fun as it was, it was so gross and sweaty in there and the mirrors were dripping with our sweat. It was hilarious and fun and made me really miss dancing. We were going to take the bus back to the hotel to shower and change before coming back to the theatre district to see Chicago, but because of the lovely Tube strike every bus was jammed full and running late. We just stayed (as stinky and lovely as we were) and got dinner at a gourmet burger place, I got a chicken breast with brie and cranberry sauce burger that I could eat every day of my life it was so good. After dinner a few of us bought cheap tickets to see Chicago, and then our cheap tickets were upgraded for free to better seats. It was interesting to hear their fake American accents, only one of the characters slipped back to English a few times. Then we went home and slept.
Whew, that is a lot of writing. I think I shall leave this to be continued later. I want to be able to remember my trip though, so this is as edited down as it is going to get. This week has not been that great. Midterms galore and I literally did the worst I have ever done on a psych test in my life. If I get a C I will be amazing, although probably still cry that it is not an A. Where did my obsession with my GPA come from? In high school I got miserable grades and didn't care at all. I just need to keep reminding myself that I am in Europe, and in the long run if I get a bad grade on a test while I am here life will go on. I talked to a woman today while we were waiting for the bus who was hospitalized where I live when she was 5 years old. She was older, but not I am wondering just when my building was converted, because I thought it stopped being a hospital 100 years ago...
EDIT: Um, Kommunehospitalet (aka the old hospital that is not the University of København aka where I LIVE, was a functioning hospital 1858-1999... I don't know if this sketches me out more or less...
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