Student + International Tourist = Exhausting!

Now that I'm finally settling in here in London, I was able to get out and explore more! This week was also my first week of classes and homework. It was a reminder that the main reason I'm here is to actually STUDY abroad. But that doesn't mean it can't be fun!

This week I went shopping in London for the first time! Primark is one of the most popular stores here. It has stylish but cheaper clothes and three floors full of fashion!

I also had my first week of classes. I love them all, my schedule is amazing! I get to travel with three out of five of my classes and do a lot of creative writing. One class I even get to get lost on purpose for my final project! (Anyone who knows me knows that this will not be a problem!) I am taking a History of London class where we spend one class per week traveling around to see the things we learn about in the lectures. This class is really unique because it is taught by a different historian each week. Each is an expert in what we are learning about that week and we are studying everything from Roman occupation of England to the fashion styles of Princess Diana and the Queen! 

We had our first trip to the Museum of London to learn about when the Roman's controlled London. I left early to make sure I didn't get lost and found myself with some extra time, so I went exploring. I wandered into Postman's Park which seemed at first very unremarkable. It was tucked in between an old church and an apartment building and had a pretty fountain and a few nice gardens. But the thing that made it stick out was the wall of stories. In mosaics there are a bunch of stories remembering those who had lost their lives in a selfless way, usually while rescuing others from the fate they ended up enduring themselves. It was very moving.

When we got to the museum, our main teacher led us through some of the exhibits. One of the most amazing things was right outside the museum are the ruins of the old wall that the Romans had built to protect the city. This is one of the towers that were incorporated into it, still in its original location.

 On a completely different note, I tried a lot of the local food this week. Most people would think that England has much of the same food as America and that is true, but they also incorporate a lot of foods from other places in Europe. I had an amazing cannoli in a small cafe near my school. It was delicious, although it was only as big as one of my fingers. Their portion sizes are much smaller here.

 I also had afternoon tea in between some of my classes and it was awesome! Their tomato soup was somewhat of a different story.

Our school even attempted pizza and wings one night! I have to say the pizza wasn't too bad, even for being used to Buffalo food. But the wings were very different from what I'm used to at home.

On Saturday I finally tried a traditional English breakfast! It consists of a poached egg, baked beans, mushrooms, sausage and what they call bacon. It also usually comes with a grilled tomato but seeing as I am not a fan of tomato's, I opted out of that one.

On Sunday we went on our first day trip! Everyone who is studying through the AIFS program got to go on a trip to Stonehenge and the City of Bath. These are both considered World Heritage Sites. Both sites are West of London, Stonehenge was a two hour bus ride and Bath was an hour more. We went to Stonehenge first and got off the bus to a light drizzle. Thankfully it stopped within a few minutes and we had the rest of the day free of rain!

 The area that Stonehenge is in is pretty much the middle of nowhere. We didn't pass too many cities and once you get out of London, the countryside takes over.

 As we were approaching Stonehenge on the bus, our guide described some of the burial sites that surround the world famous site. When he pointed out the window my first impression was that he was showing us one of those sights. He was actually pointing to Stonehenge itself. It was much smaller than I had imagined it to be. Once we got out of the bus we were able to walk around the pathway surrounding the stones and take pictures. Even though it wasn't exactly what I pictured it to be, it was still amazing to think that people built this site without modern technology. It is so old and it's surreal to think about the history you are looking at.

This is one of my friends Evelyn, we spent the day together touring!

Some guys from our program decided to build their own version! 

After seeing Stonehenge we continued on to the city of Bath. This is an old city in England that is famous for its Roman bath houses. When the Roman's conquered England they discovered natural hot springs below the town and created public baths. These sites were found under the newer bath houses that were established in the 16th century. There is still the hot pools of water and some Roman drains that remain today. Of course, there is now also a museum that accompanies the historic site. 

 The town was amazing in itself. The main square had a performer singing and a pigeon woman who had the birds all over her!

This is the main abbey in the city. It was beautiful!

These little "Roman coins" were our tickets to get into the museum.

This is one of the old Roman drains that are still working today! This drains the water from the bath into a channel that will take it to a nearby river. 

One of the other bath rooms that is no longer filled.

 Me and my roommate Sevaynna since I realized I have yet to post a picture of the two of us!

There was also a man who dressed up in the Roman attire and would talk to you about the history of the bath houses.

After we finished our tour we had some free time in the city. Our tour guide for the trip gave us the option to go on a walking tour of the city and see some other sites. About 15 of us went while everyone else went to get dinner or do some shopping. He told us a lot about the history of Bath in the 16th century.  Bath was the place for the upper class people to go to be seen. This is also the city that two of Jane Austen's novels take place, Persuasion and Northanger Abbey, and the place that she lived with her parents. She wrote these novels making fun of the wealthy people who came to Bath just to be seen and parade around in their best clothes. While we were there people were celebrating a week dedicated to her and were dressed up as people from her books. 

This is the building where most of the events were held for the upper class who came to Bath.

This is one of the most famous shows of architecture in Bath called the circus. This is were many wealthy people live including Nicolas Cage!

We even got to lean up against his door. Probably because he wasn't home at the time.

Yesterday I had my second class of Shakespeare and his world. It was super exciting because the class went to see the play "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the globe! This is the theater that Shakespeare started himself and it is still ran in the historical fashion. It has been rebuilt on the same place after the original was destroyed, but is made out of wood and has a thatched roof covering the seats. We got to see the play the way the pesants would have back in Shakespeare's time. Those who could not afford seats stood in the pit for the duration of the play. Thankfully we had beautiful weather and no rain because it is an open air theater!
We weren't supposed to take pictures inside the building so these are the ones that I managed to take.

The set and the costumes were beautiful and the acting was amazing. I have to say it was probably the best play that I have been to in my life. We will be seeing two more plays here for my class and I will probably end up going to more on my own.

 For the remainder of this week I will mostly be focusing on classes and getting my reading done because on Friday we leave for Paris!!! We will be there until Sunday and will be seeing a lot of the major sites as well as taking a boat ride through the city! It should be an exciting weekend!