Adventurous walk

I took a walk down a different street today thinking I would just wind around and find a small park or an interesting street. As I continued to walk I ended up taking a turn north. I started to go through a park and then realized I could see the London Eye. I thought, it must not be far if I could see it, so I tried to simply follow it. Well the buildings got taller, but I must've had a good sense of direction because I was able to walk to the London Eye. It was fun to just walk around the streets, have no idea where I am, but to come to the correct final destination. Here are a few shots of the walk, the London Eye, and Big Ben.

What I thought were stepping stones turned out to be gravestones

 such a little door, for a little person?

 London Eye

Big Ben

Escaping the boredom

of being sick that is. I have absolutely no voice whatsoever. I decided to take a walk down the street since I couldn't go to anything school related (they're having a big fair today...but what would be the point if  I can't talk to anyone :(  ) .

East St. Market..just down the street. 

Interesting building

Random sculptures I found in the park

photos today!

Today was the Study Abroad Welcome Day, so although I'm still not feeling 100%, I was able to attend and finally meet some people. Part of the day included a tour focused on finding the lesser-known secrets of London. We spent most of the time in the High Holborn area which is apparently where anything to do with Law takes place. I made it through the tour and even to my free traditional pint and then had to head home and rest. Like I said, it was great to meet people, but a little bit difficult to socialize while losing my voice-fun stuff.

Here are some shots from the tour:  (kind of makes the world of Harry Potter not seem so unusual)

  Apparently they always wear these traditional robes and wigs in court...so strange. 

Visiting a church 

 The church where The Da Vinci Code was filmed. Built in the 1100s. 

sorry-two days in a row!

I know, what a huge disappointment. No awesome London photos. Well I'm still ill. I went to one tour at school today, and well the school is awesome inside, but I was all feverish and couldn't stay for anything else.
Tomorrow I promise pictures. I will be heading off to the central base for Study abroad orientation day. Somehow, I plan on making it through the day including the scheduled stop at the pub at the end of the day.

No photos today

I regret to inform you all that there are no photos today. Yesterday I came down with something and have been stuck in bed desperately trying to recover before orientation on Tuesday. I should be okay tomorrow to go out and explore but not for long. 

So instead of pictures I will share some more excerpts from my Grandpa's memoirs. I really wanted to post these along with photos related to the war like the other day, but oh well. 

These came chronologically before the posts from my other entry. 

Before heading off to war: 

"The next six weeks were spent in Indiantowngap, Pennsylvania taking basic training where we learned about munitions and getting us into good physical shape. After that we were shipped to Fort Hamilton, New York by train. There we were organized into port battalion outfits and instructed in the ways and means of loading and unloading merchant ships. We went to Staten Island daily and helped load ships which were destined for Murmansk, Russia. This was our luxury base and I was able to come home every weekend, from April through August 1943, sometimes using my bicycle and riding back home about 15 miles to Irvington. We had a ball at this base - little did we know what the future held" 

After arriving in England: 

"We were put up in nice barracks and received training here but we had our first taste of the real war and were bombed several times by the Germans. A few months later many of us were given furlough passes for a trip to London under the care of the Red Cross. The sights of the Tower of London, Parliament, St. Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey were awesome. We were also bombed there and took shelter in the underground subway shelters. After several months we were shipped to Wales where we were given some practice in beach unloading and we were billeted in private homes - two American soldiers to each home. As the Army trucks rolled down the streets, they stopped at homes that had agreed to accept soldiers and two were assigned as we went along." 

more for later posts :D 

Portobello Road

This morning I headed off to Portobello Road. It's a street market that takes place every Saturday. I think it would be a bit better a month later, although a bit colder, but it was extremely crowded today. still fun though! I walked all the way down and saw everything from silver tea pots to vintage boots and fur coats.

Imperial War Museum

Today I took a walk to the Imperial War Museum. It's only a few blocks from my school, and although it was a rainy day, I survived :)
I thought it would be appropriate to accompany these pictures with some excerpts from my Grandpa's war memoirs. He was in the Army on limited service. While he was in Europe he was stationed with a Welsh family who I spoke about earlier.
Here are a few excerpts:

"The name of the little town was Treorchy in the Rhondda Valley, Glamorgan, SO. Wales and I had the good fortune to live with the Exell Family (Mr. & Ms. Colin Exell and their four children). Their youngest son, Gordon, and I became very good friends which resulted in a lifetime friendship of over 45 years. Living standards in Treorchy were about twenty-five years behind ours and an interesting experience for an American lad. The bathroom was in the backyard and the bathtub (per se) was a copper tub in the basement that had to be filled with hot water from the stove before we bathed. We were accepted and treated like family and they enjoyed fussing over us.

Mr. Exell was a coal miner and the town was in a valley surrounded by mountains. Very often Gordon and I climbed to the top of one of the mountains where we practiced target shooting. It was a great thrill for Gordon (who was 18 years old) to use an American carbine. The family was on war rations so we GI's would often sneak home extra Army rations. It was a most pleasant place to be prior to the invasion of Europe which we knew was not too far off."
...

D-Day

"As dawn broke we could see a sight as awesome as anyone will ever see of thousands of ships gathered together in the channel to invade France. We could hear the planes overhead carrying the paratroopers. As it got a little lighter we began to see that we weren't too far from land and the only ships in front of us were the minesweepers - meaning that we were one of the first ships to arrive in our area. Behind us and alongside us we could see ships with soldiers, tanks and whatever. As the day got brighter it had stopped raining and we could see the beach and some of our fighting men starting to make landings on the beach, and we could see what a true picture of war was really about. Our ship was held away from the beach while others passed us by - they evidently felt that the gasoline was a very critical iem and didn't want to lose it so we sat anchored about a half mile from the beach. "

There's much more, maybe I'll share again.

Here are the pictures for today

British Museum

After I took a stroll down the street to see what's close by, I headed off to the British Museum. It reminded me of the MET but it had no art, just artifacts. I was very impressed with what they did have, but it was very similar to the things at the MET, and they had no Egyptian Pyramid. haha. I'm not sure anything can beat the MET with the huge variety of things they have there. Anyway, I saw some pretty neat artifacts from all different cultures. After the museum I headed over to Oxford St. where all the big shops are. I didn't think it would be that hectic considering it's a Thursday, but everyone in the world is shopping on that street right now. I went in all the big shops, and now I think I'll be researching where the quieter, smaller versions of them all are. It was fun, and nice to recognize the area because it's where I stayed the last few times I've been to London.

I know I've always been a bit of a hater when it comes to the DC metro, but I would love it right now. London is awesome, but their subway system is more confusing, complicated and disorganized than New York's. I feel like you go in circles, up and down stairs and down hallways and other platforms just to get to the platform you want. Half the trains are still old as anything (different ones on different lines). People are slow, and no one knows whether to walk on the left or right (that goes for the sidewalks too). Unlike DC metro, it will bring you to a million more places than DC metro ever will, so I can't complain there.

Another thing I've noticed is the food. They have a million and one options as far as candy goes, but only about 6 for cereal. They don't have any kid cereals, which really sucks. I love Lucky Charms and if you read the label,...it isn't that bad for you at all. I guess I'll just have to deal with plain cheerios that are crunchy....weird.

Ok, I've written enough, here are the pictures.

The British Museum

                  

It rained, I got to wear my puddle boots. yay! (oh and walk around with a NY yankee umbrella hahaha)

Interesting choices for food...I stuck with something familiar.

okay, see the girl in blue in the back...sitting down....that's the security/info girl for that gallery. So jealous they get to sit!!

Elephant plate!

mummies. Okay, as cool as it is that it's a real mummy, if what the Egyptians believed was true, their afterlives are currently being completely ruined and taken over. I almost find it completely disrespectful to put them on display like that, but I guess people don't believe in things like that anymore.

nothing exciting today

So I came back to London today. Got some more things for my room and life... some necessities, food, soap...ect.

The rest of my evening will be for resting, but  I'm trying desperately to get on the right sleep schedule, so I'll stay up and watch a movie. Maybe the Back to the Future trilogy will keep me occupied for a few hours


My room's set up...nothing like my apartment in DC, but it will do for 3 months

Julliet bought me a paper tree to grow because she knows I can't keep plants alive.

yay It's starting to sprout!!! I love it.

few hours later...and apparently it's not done blooming yet.

Last Day in Wales

My time is almost up in Wales, but today Sophie, Rob, and I went on a hike to see some waterfalls. It was very lovely, a bit muddy, but it was nice to be in the great outdoors. Seems like it's been forever since I've done something like that.