January 28, 2012

London to Dover

Saturday we took a trip to the White Cliffs of Dover and Canterbury.  The cliffs are on the edge of England, and people said that you could see the coastline of France from the beach.  Dover is still used as an active port today and was around 2 hours away from the center.  We got to walk along the beach for a bit, which is NOTHING like the beaches back home (or even the ones in Nor Cal).  This beach had huge round rocks all over, was pretty hilly, and nasty windy.  But it was definitely worth it to see the view of the cliffs and to pretend like I could see France (everyone else said they could see the outline of the mountains....but maybe this was one of those "The Emperor's New Clothes" phenomenon where no one wanted to be left out of seeing France).    So, after some walking around on the rocky beach (which made me really homesick for the fantastic beaches back in California) and taking billions of pictures, we headed to St. Augustine's Cathedral.

Cliffs of Dover coastline

St. Augustine's Abbey is basically a mosh of boulders stacked around randomly.  It used to be an actual abbey, but Henry VIII (yep, that naughty King again) started dismantling the church and selling some of the boulders.  Essentially all that remains is a rough skeleton of what it used to be.  We had fun climbing on top of the remains of this sacred church.  Unfortunately, we seem to cause problems wherever we go, and we heard a proper old English couple remark, "our colonial cousins are jumping around and screaming."  They didn't seem mad, just simply remarking on our bad behavior as they would if they were noticing that it was cloudy.

St. Augustine's

Next up was Dover Castle, the largest castle in England.  It was used as a defensive post to protect England's shore.  We explored the main castle, the grounds, the chapel, and some surrounding smaller offsets of the castle.  The castle has some secret wartime tunnels, but unfortunately they were closed.  So dumb.  I'm getting sick of all these exciting places being closed.  We did get to look at cool recreations in the castle of what it might have looked like when it was in use.  However, we got in trouble when we started picking up props and sitting on the beds.  We could tell that nothing was authentic on display, and we had been allowed to touch everything in Dover Castle, so we assumed we'd be allowed to touch the super-fake looking stuff here.  Not the case.  We got yelled at for stroking a small lyre and other girls got in trouble when they threw themselves on the king's bed.  Whoops.

Outside Dover Castle.  Not as cool as Hampton Court, but still pretty cool.

Some secrety tunnels

View from top of the castle

Just creeping around in the place where they'd shoot arrows from

A cliff to the side of the castle

After Dover we made our way to Canterbury and got lunch in the town.  We stopped off at a fantastic little cafe and got (finally) a wonderful meal.  I got a baguette sandwich and chips (aka, fries).  So far food has been a huge disappointment in London (and I'm not talking about the .....food.... we get at the center.  I'm talking about the actual food in London.  It's all super expensive, tiny proportions, and gross.  Which is apparently the reputation is already has.  So it was nice to finally have a good meal here.  Too bad that place was 2 hours away or I'd go every day for lunch.  Oh well, back to peanut butter and nutella sandwiches for lunch (and sometimes dinner, depending on what surprise we get for dinner...).  No wonder I'm getting fat. 

A view of Dover Castle

We then got a tour of Canterbury Cathedral, a place where thousands of pilgrims came back in the middle ages to see the place of Thomas Becket's murder.  I won't bore you with the details of all the history (honestly, I'm bored with them.  We read "Canterbury Tales" and have talked about the history to death.  I am so glad I wasn't alive during the middle ages, because I would have been a pretty grumpy pilgrim to have to make the trek to Canterbury just because I'm so sick of hearing about it).  But basically Thomas Becket and the king were friends, and then they weren't friends, and then the king had him killed in Canterbury Cathedral, and then he felt bad.  So then Thomas was made a saint, and all these pilgrims started coming to Canterbury to worship him.

Canterbury Cathedral

The cathedral was fantastic overall and I loved the ancient old tour guide that took us around.  It's so funny when we go on guided tours here, because when our guide finds out we're American they start pointing out all the tiny American contributions and American details in the history of the castle or cathedral we're in.  This little tour guide skittered over to a huge display of dozens of brochures, and grabbed a stack of brochures labeled, "The American Experience in Canterbury Cathedral."  I just couldn't help but laugh at how they try to make it more personable for Americans when we make our own pilgrimages to Canterbury.

Oh, one fun thing we learned on our tour of the cathedral- we went to the area where Thomas Becket was actually murdered and learned a bit about his murder and the aftermath.  After he was killed monks came to clean the body before he was buried.  They undressed him, and were surprised to find he was wearing simple monk's clothes rather than rich, expensive clothes most rich clergymen would wear.  They felt honored that he would be humble enough to wear the scratchy clothes and live simply.  Then they took those clothes off.  And were overjoyed with what he was wearing underneath them.  A shirt and pants made from freaking hair filled with lice and maggots.  So apparently (OBVIOUSLY) hair is not comfortable to wear, and this was his way of punishing his sins.  K honestly, I'm pretty sure we can find better way to punish us for our sins, Tommy.  Like how about washing your mouth out with soap or a little whipping every now and then? (Both of these were common practices back in the day for punishing sins)  Yeah, the tour was kind of ruined for me after finding that out about Thomas.

Thomas Becket being murdered....in his hair shirt...

We got to stay for Evensong in the Cathedral after our tour and it was a fantastic experience.  They had a boy choir and an older male choir.  The service was a bit over an hour long.  It was amazing to hear songs they sang back in the middle ages in a cathedral that was hundreds of years old.  The acoustics in the cathedral were magnificent and the sound floated up to the ceiling.

After the great day trip it was a quick 2 hour bus ride back to London, and then a great dinner to get crepes (and a long bus ride around London after of course).

January 27, 2012

A view in a random neighborhood we got lost in. A view on one of my walks.  I love this neighborhood area.

Well, I'm all done with my assigned London Walks for my class.  Thank goodness.  I like doing the walks, because if forces me to get out and see London and is essentially a written tour guide.  I hate doing the walks, because they are...walks.  Seriously I'm pretty sure I walked about 80 miles today.  I did my last two walks, and the second walk began with this introduction, "just a word of warning.  The walk is a rather long one.  Just consider it your exercise for today."  Why, thank you Book, for that introduction.  Now let me just go and sit down for a bit because just reading that introduction tired me out.

A quick pic with the iconic phonebooth and Benjamin in the background

The first walk today took us on a walk to Buckingham Palace.  We passed my some royal Horseguards.  Yep, Horseguards.  Their job is to sit on a horse for hours and let annoying tourists stand awkwardly by them and take hundreds of pictures.  Oh, and they have to stay completely still atop their horse who is standing in mounds of horse...stuff.  Because apparently they don't clean up the horse...stuff until all the shifts that day are over (we can't have them leaving the area unprotected while commoners clean the area.  There must ALWAYS be Horseguards guarding the area).  It didn't smell too bad, but I'm pretty sure that horse was not too happy, chilling in all his friend's horse...stuff from hours before.  

Famous Horseguards in front of a palace

The guards are kind of creepy too.  I've seen several guards since I've been here in London- at the Tower of London, around several castles, in front of certain important buildings, etc.- and they all creep me out.  They just stand there, with shifty eyes and weird platform shoes on.  Honestly, all that moves is their eyes.  And it's pretty disturbing to walk up to someone to get a picture next to them and watch them just follow you with their eyes (and not moving at all).  So, we joined in with the hundreds of other tourists waiting in line to get their hokey picture with the Horseguards.  But hey, it was pretty exciting.  I've always wanted a picture with a Horseguard.

Couldn't resist...

We stopped off at Buckingham Palace for a bit and snapped some more tourist pictures.  The palace is stunning, but I'd love to see the inside.  Too bad I'm just a commoner (and a foreign commoner at that) and will not be allowed inside.  The actual walk up to the palace was stunning.  I loved seeing how wide the roads were.  This might sound odd that I noticed this, but back home we have sometimes three or four lanes of traffic going both ways in busier residential areas with trees lining the streets.  Something that’s bothered me since I came to London is how claustrophobic I’ve felt.  But going to Buckingham was fantastic because the roads were wide and there were trees lining a sidewalk on each side.

Buckingham Palace

Outside Buckingham

The street leading up to Buckinham

Sitting on top of the fountain area outside the palace

London has hundreds of fantastic statues everywhere.  This has been one of my favorites.

Oh, and we also passed by the Hyde Park Chapel during one of the walks.  The chapel is the closest to the center, so of course we can't go there.  Most of us have to leave 2 hours early to get to church on time.  They've scattered us among wards across London, and miss out on the closeness and amazingness of this chapel.  It's under construction right now though, so alot of church business is being conducted at the center.  For example, a week or two ago they used the living room at the center for an interview BBC conducted with a church leader about Romney running for president and Mormon-y stuff.  Anyways, something cool about this chapel is that it's the reason why we use the word "cultural hall" instead of "gym".  So after WWII the church bought this land and had to get everything approved.  Because of zoning laws in the area they couldn't use "gym," "recreation hall," or "social hall."  Basically the building wasn't approved to be a place for recreation or business so they couldn't use those words.  The architect helped church leaders come up with the word, "cultural hall" instead so they could go ahead with building plans.  So basically this church building is pretty dang awesome and he is a major trend-setter.

The Hyde Park Chapel

January 24, 2012

Have you ever seen this happen to someone before? Have you ever experienced this before yourself? I can now proudly say that I have. I was on my way to Kensington Gardens in the pouring rain, going for a run. As I precariously stopped on the edge of the street, waiting to cross (and remember, I'm in London so people drive on the opposite sides of the road...it's super confusing and basically if I'm going to die here in London it's going to be because I will have stepped directly in front of oncoming traffic because I was just looking the wrong way)a speeding car drove straight into 6 feet of water in the gutter right next to me and soaked me. But, it actually wasn't that bad at all for a couple reasons:

1. Honestly, after watching a car splash in almost every chick flick, hasn't everyone kind of wished something crazy like that would happen to them?
2. Since it was already pouring outside, it didn't make me that much wetter.
3. It was just about the funniest thing ever.
4. Hmmmm...I'm pretty hot already and I just started out my run. Oh, what's this!? Ahh...thank you car, for that refreshing shower.
5. Why, now I look super sweaty and like I'm some intense, hard-core runner. Also, since I already look like I've run 20 miles I guess I can just do a quick jog around the duck pond and call it a day!

 Kensington Garden is alot like Hyde Park- huge and open. I love the parks, but I wish the weather was better so I could actually spend time at them. I was going to take a picture of me after running to show how completely soaked I was, but honestly I could hardly stand to look at myself in the mirror, and the internet is definitely not ready for that side of Ashley. I have to admit when I got back to the center I got some pretty weird looks too and didn't really understand until I actually looked in the mirror. I basically looked like a sweaty mess, as I had water dripping off my hair, face, chest, and was soaked. My clothes were completely soaked too. I had to show people my armpits, which were completely dry, to prove that it was just the rain and not nasty sweat. It basically looked like I had reverse-sweated because only my armpits were dry. Sometimes I'm just so attractive.

January 23, 2012

Another day of adventures on the buses. We love just riding the bus until it has to stop. Today we ended up all the way in Chiswick, which is about 4 or 5 miles away (and London is tiny, so that's a ways away). We had the entire top story of the bus to ourselves and just had a great time chatting and riding the bus. Let me tell you, riding the bus is one of the scariest and most thrilling things I've done in London so far. Basically it reminds me of a ride at Disneyland- there's a bar in front of your seat you can hold on to while the bus lurches around other cars, trees, posts, bicyclists, and pedestrians. I'm absolutely shocked that I haven't seen anyone get hit yet. I'm not sure, but I think that I've seen several people's feet get run over by the buses I've been on. The pedestrians are much too brave and reckless and the bus drivers are much too aggressive and reckless to share the road together. I know it's only a matter of time that the two have a violent run-in with one another.

So we had to get off our bus in Chisick, and we walked around the little suburban area for a while. It was a darling little town with houses stacked everywhere. I feel like almost every community has their own little park and we saw lots of people walking their dogs or playing with their kids. It was a really quaint area, and of course, they had some red phone boxes. We took a couple pictures, and then tried to find a bus stop so we could get on another bus and find our way back to the center. It's always an adventure to try to find our way back home when we get lost taking buses. Basically when we take buses, we ride them until we terminate (or get off at an upcoming stop if someone on the bus smells funky. There's no way I can stay on a bus for 20 minutes or so with a smeller) and then we get on the next bus we see, no matter which direction we're going. We'll do this for an hour or two, and then try to navigate our way back home on another bus. It's quite the adventure.


Some of the iconic red telephone booths. Apparently I'm alot shorter than I thought...


The bus we rode for half an hour until the bus terminated in Chiswick. The bus driver yelled to us, "hey all you up top!" We had figured we could just chill up on the top deck until the bus started driving again. Apparently, the driver had other plans...


One of my MANY rides on the tube

After the bus adventure I went with Lyssa and Mikelle on one of our London Walks through Hyde Park. This park is HUGE and basically just an open area of grass. It was beautiful and we walked around it as the sun was setting. I'd love to come back to the park later on when the weather gets warmer and lay out and read a book and have a picnic or something. It'd be an excellent area for going bike riding too. The only bad thing about the park is that it's overrun by birds. Birds EVERYWHERE. And the stupid people feed the birds! They're basically encouraging the birds to live in the park! I mean, don't get me wrong, I don't mind a couple of birds here and there, singing and frolicking and doing bird-things, but it gets annoying when you're basically stepping on birds everywhere you go and when you have to use an umbrella with no clouds in the sky, because it will protect you from little white bird-gifts that may fall on you. Seriously birds, go away.

I just got back from going to Byron's- a fantastic restaurant that I see in many of my future nights here in London. It's basically an American burger-joint. Except it looks like the classiest place ever. We heard from some Americans in one of my friend's wards that it's a great burger and shake place if we're missing home and American food. So basically you'll be able to find me here every night after dinner, having my real dinner (because usually dinner is a sketchy business at the center. We did get some good chicken curry for dinner tonight though. Yay!). We went just to check it out and try their shakes. I got an Oreo shake and it was actually pretty dang good. Thank you London! I didn't think I'd be able to last 4 months without a good shake. Oh, and great news- they have 2 Chipotle's here in London!! So no worries, I won't be starving while I'm here!


Oreo milkshake. You were delicious.

Anyways, now I really need to start a 3-page paper that's due tomorrow. It's weird trying to balance school and all the stuff here in London. We have a hard time realizing that we're doing a "STUDY" abroad and not just a "vacation" abroad sometimes. Lock-down time...

January 21, 2012

Saturdays are always interesting because we don't get fed by the center (we're fed breakfast and dinner on every other day), and usually have the entire day free. So we're free to roam the city and have the day to ourselves. This Saturday we went to Portobello Market, another one of London's many outdoor flea markets. It reminded me alot of the Swap Meet back home, but less organized and much more crowded. They had booths with antiques, purses, spoons, instruments, clothes, food, scarves, telescopes, jewelry, and a ton of other stuff. We left around 11 AM, and it was crazy! Next Saturday I think we'll leave around 8 or 7 AM to try to beat the crowds.

I basically wanted to buy everything in this market. Everything is pretty well priced too. Unfortunately I didn't want to fight with the crowds, and it started raining a bit while we were there.

So, the best thing about this market is not actually anything I've mentioned so far. It's not the fancy antiques you can buy. It's not the creepy food you can look at. It's not even the rude people who squash you as they fight their way to look at a wall full of flashy feather boas (because we all need a new boa, right?). No, it was the amazing, beautiful street performer who serenaded me for over an hour. We saw a huge crowd gathered and heard a beautiful melodic folk voice dancing over the crowd, floating into my eager ears. Oh yes, it was my future husband. Robbie was promoting an upcoming band performance in February and playing for some extra cash, which the ladies in the crowd were only too eager to give him. He sounded like a mix between Howie Day, Benton Paul, Chris Martin from Coldplay, and the folk essence of Mumford.

He was perfect from his feathered cap complete with some ironic nerd glasses and sexy man-beard, to his scarved neck with his plaid Scotland pants and his flat brown leather oxfords. Oh Robbie Boyd, you know how to win a girl's heart. Since I'll be in Rome for his upcoming concert (a sad but necessary sacrifice), I felt it pertinent that I ingest his sweet voice then and there. And it was free too!


Bestfriend, Robbie

Basically Robbie Boyd Band is going on my top five best things about London. We stayed and just listened to him play, and he kept throwing us some precious side smiles when he saw that we were still standing there, basking in his attractive-osity. Ahhh Robbie, well done.


so attractive...


so artistic...


so adorable...

So after all the Robbie stuff we were absolutely starving (not only because we hadn't had breakfast or lunch but also because basking in the glory of a musical genius is very tiring). So we got food from McDonald's (I haven't had McDonald's in about 6 years, but I feel I'll be eating alot of it here because it's cheap and reminds me of America).

After a hearty meal (which included much frustration when both the cashier and I could not understand each other. She had the dang thickest Indian accent I've about ever heard and I'm pretty sure she felt like I had the thickest American accent ever. Luckily she understood hand gestures and got the idea that I wanted a chicken sandwich when I started clucking like a chicken and walking around McDonald's like one. However, pretending to lay an egg probably confused her more...) we decided to take a ride on the bus and just go around London. The buses (as mentioned in an earlier post) are AMAZING. The best seat in the house is on the top story right at the front. However, as these seats are right next to the staircase they are usually taken. We had to slowly inch our way up to the front of the bus as other people got off. When we got up to the front we'd just chat and chill, watching London fly past us. Buses are the best way to see all of London. We stayed on the bus and it took us all around the city. Eventually it terminated at some random little town in London, and we had to get off. But then we got on another random bus and rode that for a good 45 minutes or so. We stopped off on one bus and got some cookies, but then got right back on another bus. We went to Trafalgar Square, Soho, Buckingham Palace, Kensington Park, and so many other places I didn't even recognize. Buses are the way to go.

*side note- don't look at the rest of Robbie's band online. They are not attractive at all and he sounds soooo much better acoustic. Way to go, Robbie.

January 20, 2012

Commence work on my castle. I would like it to basically be an exact replica of Hampton Court. Hampton Court is the castle to end all castles. We left at 9AM and took a train down to Surrey to see the magnificent castle. A little background history- the castle is right next to the Thames and has not been inhabited by the royal family since the 18th century. It was originally built for Cardinal Wolsey, but King Henry the 8th took it back when he got mad at Wolsey. Yep, that King Henry the 8th. The crazy one with all the wives. William III rebuilt and expanded parts of the castle, and the castle took on a Tudor and Baroque style.


So one area had rooms with these chair in it. The top of the chairs tells what was happening to each character at that point in history. In this picture Mikelle (in the center) was the King (and he was gaining lots of power and land), Lyssa (on the right) was the queen (who was pregnant with her first child), and I was Cardinal Wolsey (who was being a sneaky little power snatcher and trying to gain more land through my evil deeds).


The other castles we’ve visited so far have been pretty cool, but they don’t hold a candle to Hampton Court. From the moment we walked on the castle grounds we were in awe. The place is HUGE. And it honestly felt like stepping on to a movie set. The castle has huge open courtyards that were stunning. You could imagine the hustle and bustle and how the castle looked with real inhabitants thousands of years ago.


Just messing around with some of the locals in the main square.




We were able to go look through Henry VIII’s apartments, walk through a series of rooms that illustrated Henry VIII’s early life, saw William III’s apartments, Mary II’s apartments, and had a tour of Henry VIII’s kitchens. We had free audio devices that gave us a tour of each room. The kitchens often cooked for over 600 people twice a day! Fantastic! Also, there was a really nice huge live fire in one of the kitchens, so that became our best friend on the kitchen tour. It was a nasty cold day.


Just, you know, playing with the meat hooks in the kitchen.


Fatty meat we found in the kitchen. Gross.

For the most part the rooms were kept looking authentic and many of the original paintings were still left up. The palace was absolutely fantastic. I think this is definitely one of the places I want to take mom to. Oh, and one fun thing that happened was when we were walking through some rooms a guide stopped us and asked if we wanted to see something special in a room that wasn’t talked about on the tour. He told us that in William II’s bed chamber there was a painting on the ceiling of Venus, then he pointed to me and said, “she looks an awful lot like you. Blonde and very beautiful with the face of an angel.” Oh my gosh I about fainted. I don’t think I’ve ever been given such a high compliment in my life! The gist of what the guide told us was that there is a naked painting of Venus (I hope he wasn't thinking of comparing me to that part of the painting...) and her eyes follow you around in the room. But that’s besides the point. The point is, that an old tour guide man told me I look like Venus!! London is amazing!



Oh, another fun thing- so apparently they have people dressed up like Henry VIII and stuff walking around the rooms who you can talk to and stuff. We hadn’t seen anyone yet, and we were in Henry VIII’s apartments. It was just the three of us- Alyssa, Mikelle, and me, and we walked into this big, long room that was almost empty. It had a fireplace on each side, 2 small wooden tables with 2 chairs each on either side with some ancient game set up, and cushions lined up against the walls. The cushions were like big bean bag things. So we walked in and at the far end of the hall was Henry VII, sitting on a throne, and one of his Lords. A tour guide lady ushered us in and asked if we wanted to talk to the king and if we had anything to ask him, then she whispered, “just don’t ask about his wives. He’ll never stop talking.” Basically we felt so awkward to walk in on this crazy scene that we just started giggling in the corner. The Lord came over to us to try to engage with us, and he told us that I have an excuse for acting bashful and weird, because of my hair color (blonde), but that the other two couldn’t use that excuse. Then he made us walk up to talk to the king. Out of nowhere he starts up a story about how I came to court to get a husband for my older, ugly sister. So the king makes me walk right up to his throne and explain the situation. It was just about the funniest thing ever. I felt so so so awkward and didn’t even know what to say. So I just made up some stuff about how I couldn’t get married until she did and that she’s super smart and stuff, but apparently she’s super ugly. The king made some comment that she had missed out because I had all the looks apparently and was the beautiful one, and oh my gosh did I ever blush then. I guess I’m just not used to getting compliments from royalty yet. So then to try to take the spotlight off me and onto my two giggling friends behind me I told the king that I was also trying to marry off my other friends as well. Overall it was pretty awkward for me, so I guess I’ll try to not talk to any more royals while I’m here because I might embarrass myself more.


Just chilling with the king.


And with his little Lord friend.



Stealing the King's throne of course. Actually I got in trouble for this when the dumb Lord came back in and saw me on it. He told me he was going to tattle to the king. Little rat.


I’m going to need an exact replica of the gardens at Hampton Court for my castle. Honestly they were stunning. There were over 60 acres of beautiful gardens. It had huge fountains, statues everywhere, bridges over little streams with swans swimming everywhere, beautiful paths, awesome huge trees that have been trimmed into mushroom shapes, trellises, a rose garden (that wasn’t in bloom unfortunately), a maze (but you had to pay 2 pounds to go in it, so we didn’t), and hundreds of flowers. We all would have been more than happy to have spent hours there, but it was windy and freezing so we were only there for about an hour. The gardens reminded us of period pieces like “Pride and Prejudice” and any of Shakespeare’s works. You could just imagine setting up sneaky little makeout sessions between couples and them meeting each other out there in some part of the gardens. Basically, I need to get myself some gardens. We were the last three to leave Hampton Court, and we were there for over 5 hours. And I definitely want to go back.




I fail at jumping pictures.


Future band picture