Family visits London!

I apologize that it has been a long time since I have updated my blog, life in London has been crazy busy!

My parents and aunt and uncle arrived in London just over two weeks ago, and we had an amazing time! I loved being able to show them around my new home and they were able to see what my life is like over here. We had a very full week! Before the Voissems arrived, I was able to show my parents around a market, went to the British Museum and saw the Rosetta Stone and parts of the Parthenon, and went to Covent Garden as well. Once the Voissems arrived, we went to the first British Pub and saw both Harrods and the Oxford Street lights. Throughout the week we toured many places including: the Prime Meridian, Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, went on the London Eye and the Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace and saw Les Miserables. I was able to do things I haven't been able to do this semester yet, including riding bikes through Hyde Park. By the end of the week, I think they had the hang of the tubes down and were learning to love the city just as much as I do. 


For the weekend, we rented a car and headed for the Cotswolds, which is about a two hour  drive west of London. Both my dad and Uncle Dan were brave and volunteered to drive, which I can imagine would be quite a challenge. I am actually pretty scared to go back and drive, even though it should come back to me, I am nervous I am going to get confused with the sides of the street to drive on! The Cotswolds were beautiful! every little town was fun and filled with cute, small shops. My favorite part of the countryside was all of the beautiful homes. The Bed and Breakfast we stayed at was a 50 year old home, but it looked like it was hundreds of years old. The details in the home were beautiful and the grounds it was on were very cool. They had 8 other small cottages, a pool house, an arboretum and an opera house all on the grounds. The breakfasts were also delicious and quite large, I saw my first traditional English breakfast, which I actually didn't know what it was before that. It surprised me that every "traditional English breakfast" consisted of the same things, eggs, beans, mushrooms and sausage. It also confused me why they put the toast on stands, which made them cold before they were served. On Saturday, we visited Stratford upon Avon, where Shakespeare was born. We saw the home and town he grew up in, and also saw the pub Mr. Harvard sold to get money to come over to the states and build a library where Harvard is now located.

The week was filled with traditional English food, and it was so nice to see my family! I had a wonderful time. It was sad to see them leave, but was nice to get back to my normal schedule and I know that i will see them in a few short weeks.

Since I had been really busy the past few weeks, I was unable to plan a Thanksgiving trip. I tried to start planning one last week, but it didn't make sense to stress myself over going somewhere when I am in an awesome city that I haven't even fully explored yet. On Thanksgiving, I went Christmas shopping, and thankfully got lots done! For dinner, I went to an Italian restaurant with two friends and got dessert nearby as well. 


Friday, I went on a small day trip to Windsor with a friend. It was about an hour train ride from central London to Windsor. The city was really cute and small, and the Castle was amazing. There is a State Event happening this Tuesday, and we visited the castle just in time. Because of the state event, we were actually able to see more than we normally would have, and were able to see the exact rooms the event will be taking place in. In one room, they will all be eating at one table, seating 168 people. The table is to be set absolutely perfectly, using a ruler. The Queen has been visiting Windsor almost every weekend for the past 60 years and arrived on Friday morning, making our experience even cooler. She arrived by helicopter  which has only happened a few times before. I would have been very cool to see her arrive on Friday morning! Both the flag flying and the smoke coming out of the chimney in her sitting room showed us that she was in the Castle. We were able to look across a court yard to where the Queen's apartment is and in that courtyard, jousting used to occur. We were able to have both audio guides and a personal guide as well, and we were able to ask all the questions we wanted. At the Chapel at Windsor Castle, there are a lot of past Kings and Queens buried, including the parents of Elizabeth II, George and Elizabeth. 


Although I was unfortunately unable to travel this weekend, I did a lot of homework, which will be much appreciated in the busy weeks ahead. I will be arriving in the states in just under three weeks. The time I have here has flown by and I will be really sad to leave London! I have had an amazing semester so far!

MI6

The Prime Meridian

Parliament

London Eye

London Eye

London Eye

London Eye

Changing of the Guards

Hyde Park

Inns Court & Lloyds of London

Last Tuesday, the group went to an American bar to celebrate Halloween. I knew before hand that Halloween wasn't celebrated much, but the only people I saw in costumes were from the U.S. Even on the day of Halloween, I only saw a few kids dressed up. Halloween was a very exciting day for me, I got two cards and a package in the mail! 

Most of the week was filled with homework, my family will be visiting starting next weekend, so I have been trying to get everything done ahead of time. On Friday, we had a two mandatory academic tours. In the morning, I visited Inns of Court, which is a school of law and an association. Every lawyer must belong to an association similar to Inns of Court. It was similar to viewing a college campus, but larger. It also has the oldest church in London within the premises. 

In the afternoon, I got a tour of Lloyd's of London, which is an insurance marketplace. Companies or individuals have areas where they share risk in other things. Lloyd's started out as a coffee shop in the same location, where ships would be insured before they went off on their journeys. The Titanic was insured at Lloyd's. The building was all metal, a very modern structure. The elevators were outside of the buildings, made of glass, and they showed a great view of London from the top. They had a few documents that were signed by the Queen that I was able to see. 

On Saturday, I went to Grenwich, where there is a market and the Prime Meridian. The market was small, but covered and there were really nice things there. The whole area near Grenwich was really nice! The walk to the Prime Meridian was a little longer than expected and we weren't quite sure how to get to it, but ended up finding it fairly easily. It happens to be on top of a high hill that overlooks much of London. I had never seen London like that and it made me realize even more of how big of a city it actually is. Even though there aren't many extremely tall buildings, the city just keeps going. I was able to recognize some of the major monuments from the hill and they looked much farther apart than what I know them as. 

Yesterday, I had planned to get up early and do some tourist things during the day, and do homework at night. When I woke up, it was raining and the forecast said it would be raining the majority of the day. I decided to stay in and try to be productive. It had been quite some time since I had time to sit at home without a plan and it was nice not to go anywhere! Since I arrived in London, there have only been a few rainy days. From what I hear, I have been really lucky. Sunday was the first time rain intruded on my plans to do something outside. 

Today was my last day of volunteering at the Abbey Centre. It was definitely bittersweet. I really enjoy helping the center out, but I will also be very happy to have my Mondays open from now on. I did about 45-50 hours of work with the Abbey Centre, from working reception, giving presentations, or coming up with a business plan. The employees were extremely grateful for our work over the past 7 weeks and were sad to see us go.