6.29.2011

Wagamama

After the Bloomsbury Walking Tour the GC's do a little scavenger hunt around London. There are a lot of practical questions, fun questions, and hard questions. Plus they get extra points for pictures or brochures from specific places. This year our winner was Flat 15! The students always have a really good time and afterwards we take them to dinner at Wagamama's with the winning team getting their meal paid for. It's a pretty sweet deal. Wagamama is a pan-asian noodle restaurant all over the UK and is now international. So far they've only made their way to Boston in the states, but one can only hope!

Congrats to Flat 15 (who includes 2 UT Sport Management people... just sayin)

6.28.2011

A little taste of Bloomsbury

Every arrivals weekend 2 of our full-time staff members give a historical tour of the immediate area that we live in called Bloomsbury. Ever heard of the Bloomsbury Group? Yea this is where they met. Our building 99 Great Russel Street? Built by aristocrats back in the 1600's as their house. We live in a very historical area and it's always cool to hear how the area has changed over time. Charles Dickens and Virgina Wolf lived in Bloomsbury. The man to discover vaccinations had a building down the street. And many other scientists, doctors, lawyers, and artists lived in our area. I'm very lucky and what better way to rejuvenate my appreciation than taking a walking tour that makes me stop and think about what I'm looking at. A very enjoyable time. 

 Dr. David Parkes telling about the history of our building (the cream one in the background)
 The building where the man who pushed for the corn tax in parliament lived. There were riots and bricks thrown by the poor who disapproved of this.

 Bedford Square. This is right behind our building and the oldest reserved square in London and only accessible to those who live in the square. They get a key when they move into the area. Although it's mostly used for business and colleges now.
 The main building for University of London. It houses their library and grad students. It was also taken over by the government during the 2nd world war. And would've been the headquarters of the Third Reich had Hitler been able to take over London. It was the completed right before the war started so he figured "forget Westminster or Buckingham, I'm going to be in the newest, biggest building in London." Too bad it's not the prettiest building!

 See that green hut? It's a place for taxi drivers to take a tea break! Not many of them still exist, but they were originally built to encourage horse drawn cabs to stop drinking gin. They were getting drunk and driving around the city. So to encourage getting sober they created these huts for tea time. Genius!

You can see the snuffers on the black archway. As I mentioned a lot of really rich, aristocratic people used to live in this area. And after they would've returned home with their servants they would've snuffed out their torches on the archway so they could use it the next night. Electricity made these obsolete some time ago, but it's cool that some history still remains just right out on the street. 

Tavistock Square. This is where Virgina Wolf used to walk around in circles writing. Yep, she actually wrote while walking around sometimes. The site of where she lives is across the street. It doesn't actually exist anymore. It was bombed during the war and is now the site of a hotel, but there is a bust of her located in the park.

Hope you enjoyed a little history lesson around Bloomsbury!

6.27.2011

My Old Dutch

So there is this pretty awesome restaurant in London called My Old Dutch. They have all types of Pancakes! And I'm not usually a big pancake person, but pancakes in Europe generally come out more crepe like. Plus 5 quid pancake Mondays can't be beat. So me and a couple of the students headed out there for lunch one day to see what delicious food we could find. It was delicious!


Mine is the closest to the camera and it's cinnamon and apple with cream! The other is mixed fruit with cream. Ice cream was also an option, but I felt it was a little too early to have that :) Plus it's vanilla, blech!
Yes, they're really as big as they look!

6.25.2011

London Feis!!

Last weekend was James's birthday! After he ran a sprint triathlon that morning I met up with him and some of his friends for London Feis. It's an Irish music festival in Finsbury Park. The weather was a little spotty, but I think we all had a great time none the less! I didn't quite have time to bake him cookies so I bought him some instead. They were still pretty delicious. I also heard some good Irish Bands like Christy Moore, The Cranberries, and Bob Dylan live. I don't actually know his music, but I can still say I saw him in concert :) I also, to my surprise, had a freakishly hot burrito from one of the trailer food vendors on the grounds. I thought "well when it says 'hot' in London that doesn't mean much. I'm from Texas." I was very wrong! I couldn't even finish all my food because my mouth was on fire and of course neither of us had a drink. So what did I find? A texas wagon :) Yep, Texas is represented everywhere even at an Irish festival in London! We grabbed ourselves some curly fries and a diet coke before James needed a Guinness. Gotta keep it national right? This was my first real festival in London and I'm glad I got to experience one before I leave. Only 6 weeks left!

James and his delicious birthday cookie

Mr. Bob Dylan

It's even a covered wagon! and there is a picture of John Wayne in the middle of the American Flag.


James's sister and brother in law

6.20.2011

Time to say Goodbye

It's that time again where it's time to say Goodbye to all the kids. Well not ALL, some of them are staying for the second session, but most of them headed back home to Florida. I had a great time with them this semester. We played a lot of cards, watched some movies, and of course explored London together (at least when I wasn't working). Here are some of the students that I spent my last 6 weeks with.

Their 2nd to last night we went to a pub called The White Hart- it's one of London's oldest licensed pubs. None of them had ever been so I got to take them some place new and I think they enjoyed the atmosphere and getting out of the Study Centre.

 We had our farewell tea at The Wallace Collection this time around. It's a grand house with a single person's collection of art over the years. It was pretty amazing. And the center of the house is a covered courtyard cafe where we had afternoon tea.

 Abby, Nicole, and I enjoying our cup of tea!
Brianna and Alexis enjoying their champagne part of our tea! Don't worry... many scones were consumed during this event!

6.19.2011

Dover Castle

So I know I complained about seeing Edinburgh Castle because I had seen so many and then I willingly went to the Dover Castle, but it was totally worth it. One of the prettiest castle grounds I've seen. It seems like in the most recent years it was mostly used as a military base so maybe that's what also made it stand out from all the other castles. It had a lot of history connected to it from the wars. It's grounds were pretty large and very green! It has also been updated throughout the years to keep up with current military practices so you could also see it's history throughout the years. I'll be going back in this next semester and get to do everything I didn't get to do this last time. There was a lot to do!

Of course they're all built on a hill so they're easier to defend, but man it's not fun climbing up to them.

 Although being at the top also means you have the best views.


 These are just stickers on the window, but it kinda looks like the ships are actually in the sea and the planes in the air.


The city of Dover

 The Great Tower. This was the main part of the castle where people would've probably lived. They even had it all decorated inside as to how it might have looked back then. Pretty cool. Better than just walking around and looking at a bunch of stone walls and trying to imagine living there. 

 You can't really tell from this picture but France isn't that far away! They even have ferries that go back and forth throughout the day. It was quite tempting to jump on one and spend the wknd in France, but alas I headed back home with the kiddos after a quite enjoyable day.


6.18.2011

White Cliffs of Dover

Last weekend one of the students, John, convinced a few of us to take a day trip to Dover. It's a couple of hours by bus just east of London. We had a great time! The weather was a little dodgy at times, but it didn't start pouring until right before we left. Ever wanted to know if the cliffs are actually white? Well they are! The sea front was really nice and the castle was even prettier. But those pictures are saved for the next blog post. For now enjoy the pics of the Dover sea coast!


Nicole and Shelly burying John under the rocks. 

            I tried to recreate a similar image that I took when I studied in '09. It's not quite as cool, but I still like the way it turned out.

 



Some cute houses on our walk to see get a better view of the cliffs. They were all really colorful and had flowers hanging in the doorway. Too cute and very British!

 I've seen some beautiful views since being in the UK. This is just another of the many :)

6.17.2011

Just a Muggle in a Wizard World

For our last day trip of the 1st summer session we went to Oxford and the Cotswolds. Oxford, besides being a world renown university, was the inspiration for parts of the Hogwarts set and some of it was even filmed here. It was also where Lewis Carrol attended school and got inspiration for Alice in Wonderland. I didn't realize how many well known people had attended school here, including Bill Clinton. It was kinda a rainy day, but the campus was still beautiful.


 I thought it looked like a face
 Hogwarts, Hogwarts!
 The same stairs in the Philosopher's Stone that the 1st years climb before they get sorted in the great hall




 the Bodelian Library

Goodbye Oxford! I've already chose to be a Cambridge fan so so long :)