|THE EYE OF LONDON: city lights|

|THE EYE OF LONDON|

This past Saturday, the 25th of September was my dear friend Shari’s 20th Birthday!!!  As one of my closest friends, Shari & I decided we wanted to study abroad together back in our freshman year of college after she discovered that I always wanted to visit.  Ironically Shari and her family are from the UK and she still has many family & friends that live here, so it only made it that more ideal to venture out on this crazy adventure together!

Since being here, neither of us had actually taken a trip into Central London yet because we have been so busy getting to know our University and adjusting to everything.  So…finally yesterday Shari & I ventured into Central London taking the train in Kingston right after our classes.  We arrived at Waterloo Train Station at dusk & walked through this amazingly cool tunnel authorized for graffiti artists to display their work!   We then decided to eat at this delicious restaurant called The Slug & Lettuce as friends celebrating Shari’s birthday and our first trip into London.  The food was very yummy especially with our complimentary wine & beer!!!   We spent a couple hours just lounging in this superbly fantastic & chic restaurant eating, drinking, & laughing.

After our meal we literally walked a few steps down the street and walked straight up to the London Eye/Millennium Wheel.  It was one of the most captivating moments as I gazed at this giant ferris wheel lighting up the sky.  As Shari & I rounded the corner I was taken aback by the image of The House of Parliament & Big Ben standing tall.  It was one of those moments where tears literally came to my eyes because I have thought about this since I was a kid.  We walked closer to take some pictures along the Thames and Shari & I got to watch as the sun set behind Westminster Bridge, The House of Parliament & Big Ben.  It was one of the most astonishing things I have ever seen!  In that moment, as I watched the entire city light up, I thought to myself: “this is living the dream!”  Tears welting up in my eyes I felt the power of fulfilling my childhood dream!  It was as if my breath was taken away, & for as corny or cliche as that may sound, it is not at all an exaggeration, because I can still see the image in my head as if it just happened!!!

My Country

There is a popular saying, “Home is where the heart is.” My heart is here. There are few things I know about my future, but one thing I do know is that my future is here. I try not to think of how much time I have left in Australia (because it seems so short); but I do know that when I do leave I will leave my heart here. I will long to return home. Below is one of the most popular poems in Australian literature that describes my heart’s new home.

My Country
© 1904 Dorothea MacKellar

(modified from original)

The love of field and coppice, of green and shaded lanes,
Of ordered woods and gardens is running in your veins.
Strong love of grey-blue distance, brown streams and soft, dim skies-
I know but cannot share it, my love is otherwise.

I love a sunburnt country, a land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges, of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons, I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror- the wide brown land for me!

The stark white ring-barked forests, all tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains, the hot gold hush of noon,
An opal-hearted country, a wilful, lavish land –
All you who have not loved her, you will not understand –
Though earth holds many splendours, wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country my homing thoughts will fly.

————

P.B. (Post Blog) Australian’s understand this country’s hold on me. They love to travel but would never want to live anywhere but here. Jus think, how many Australians have you met in America or wherever it is you live?…My point exactly.

Short Post: Language Differences

In Australia an “answering machine” is a “message bank”.

No one says g’day mate; not anyone of my generation anyway. People do say phrases like “Hey mate!”. By the way, mate is sort of another word for friend, but it has more loyalty and comradeship associated with it than the word “friend”.

Americans say “How are you doing?”, we say “How are you going?”.

I had a surreal moment today when I wrote arvo almost without thinking. Arvo is Australian for afternoon. Seems like I’m assimilating well.

Update!

What a busy week it’s been! I guess that’s why I haven’t had time to update this blog.

On Monday, Lauren and I were able to pick out what classes we’re going to be taking. Since we’re both doing psychology and needed similar classes in order to fulfill the major requirements back at New Paltz, we wound up with the same (AMAZING) schedule. On Thursdays from 10:15-11:15, we’re taking Intro to Narrative (we’re supposed to take one English or history class in addition to our psychology classes), then from 11:15-12:15 we have Individual Differences, which, given the description we heard, sounds like Psychology of Personality. On Fridays from 9:15-11:15 we have Exploring Investigative Psychology, which involves forensics–something I’ve always been curious about, and from 12:15-1:15 we have Health Psychology. AND THAT’S IT. Only four classes, only twice a week. I’ll sure be doing a lot of traveling during my weekly five-day weekends!

In fact, Sarah (my roommate in New Paltz who is studying in Dundee, Scotland right now), Lauren and I are planning a trip to London and Paris in a few weeks! I’ve actually been to both London and Paris before, but it was when I was 11 and was with my dad and stepmom for our “family honeymoon”. We only spent five days in each city and, being so young, I don’t think I was really able to appreciate it as much as I will this time around, even if I’ll still only be spending about five days in each city.

On Tuesday we had to go to campus to meet with our tutor groups, which every course (major) has several of. Tutor groups are groups of about 15 students, led by one professor/advisor, that meets once a week to discuss anything related to the course the students are on. I think this is a great idea because it helps to build the community which can be hard, especially at a large school like Huddersfield. Everyone in our group, which is, aside from Lauren and me, comprised of first years, was nice and welcoming and a bunch of us ate together during our lunch break, which was nice. The only part of the group that I’m not terribly enthusiastic about it that it meets on Wednesday afternoons, so we’ll have to go to campus when we otherwise wouldn’t have to. Such a hard life I lead!

On Wednesday, Lauren and I went to the not-as-exciting-as-I’d-hoped Societies Fayre (fair), a big event in which all the societies (clubs) and sports teams tabled and tried to get students to join. That night, I went to the first meeting of the LGBT society, which was held in the Graduate, the bar in the Students’ Union, and then moved to a bar in town. Some “meeting”! It was definitely a lot of fun though and I met some great people.

On Thursday, I met up with two of the girls I met the night before, both of whom are named Kirsty, and their friend Maria, for the Freshers Fayre, where local businesses came to campus and bombarded all of the first years with free EVERYTHING that no one really wants! I spent most of the rest of the day with the Kirstys and Maria.

Friday was pretty low-key. At night, I went to a party outside (yes, literally, outside) one of the halls in the complex I live in with one of the Kirtsys and a few of her other friends. Eventually, a group of us went back to one of their flats where it was actually warm and where we were audible to each other. We spent a few hours there, which I enjoyed. People really seem to enjoy my accent!

Yesterday, Lauren and I went on our trip to Manchester! We had to leave pretty early in the morning and I was extremely tired from the night before, but once I’d finally had some breakfast, I was ready to begin exploring Manchester–which is a wonderful city! There’s a lot of shopping there, a TON of pubs, and many beautiful buildings which I must admit, give New York a run for its money. It was too bad I was so tired or I would have liked to do more exploring. Lauren and I did sit near Piccadilly Square for about an hour and watch the people and pigeons go by, which was both entertaining and relaxing. I fell asleep on the bus ride back (as I did on the bus ride there), and when we got back to Storthes Hall, we ordered Chinese food and had a quiet night in.

This morning I was supposed to go to Liverpool, but I woke up still feeling exhausted and a bit sick, so I decided to skip it. Lauren tells me it was absolutely amazing and that she, Berit, Lucie, and a new friend they made from Finland, Marianne, want to go back very soon, so it looks like I’ll be able to see the city shortly anyway!

I start class on Thursday, which is probably a good thing since I can definitely feel my brain rotting. I’m glad I have this blog to update (even if I did slack off this week), otherwise I’m pretty sure I’d actually have no brain left at all.

Here are some pictures from Manchester:

Retiro, Rastro, and very little rest

I wish I had time to write a blog entry more than once a week because so much happens in one week that it’s hard to recap everything….

Last Sunday I visited the Retiro park in Madrid for the second time, but this time I took some pictures! It is a humongous park, comparable to Central Park in New York City. I left Getafe around 5pm and arrived at the Atocha train station close to 6, then waisted some time walking around lost as usual, but I ended up running into this huge outdoor book sale. Most of the books were in Spanish, but I also found A Farewell to Arms by Hemingway so I was surprised.

When I finally reached the Retiro I walked around this man-made lake where people were rowing boats. Around the lake there were a lot of street performers. I took some video of this one band covering a Bob Marley song. They were pretty good. I also spotted Minnie Mouse and Barney walking around. It was pretty funny.

I ended up finding a place to sit underneath a tree and I did some homework and wrote a letter back to the U.S. For only 78 euro cents you can send a letter to the US and it takes less than a week! It’s great.

On Monday I started my first week of classes without Spanish, and for the most part my week went pretty well. I start most of my classes at 9 or 10:45 in the morning and get out either by 12:15 or 2 and then have the rest of the day to nap, or be productive….

On Monday I got a pet fish, Norton! He’s adorable. He’s a telescope eyed goldfish and has these HUGE eyes and tiny little body. Although he has such big eyes, their positioning makes it hard for him to see straight ahead of him so I have to direct him with my finger in order for him to find his food. He’s really dumb but very cute.

On Tuesday, I started my documentary film class and I LOVE IT!!!! It is so much work but it’s a lot of fun. For this one week I had to watch 3 full length documentaries just to catch up on the past two weeks, and I had to write a paper on what we had learned the weeks I had missed, and I still have to analyze a short documentary for this coming Tuesday.

On top of all the individual work, I am working with my group to produce our own documentary. Our topic is the aftermath of dictatorship in Spain; how Franco has affected people’s lives and how Spaniards deal with such a negative past. The crazy thing is that when we all went to meet in Sol (central Madrid) to discuss our project, we landed right in the middle of an anti Franco protest. Members from la Asociacion para la Recuperacion de la Memoria Historica (directly translated: Association for the recuperation of historical memory) were there with posters of family members that had been killed during Franco’s reign and we’re protesting against the reopening of the monument to Franco at Valle de los Caidos (Valley of the Fallen), where Franco is buried. We met a lot of great people that were very eager to be interviewed for the documentary. We even met Emilio Silva, the author of the book “Las fosas de Franco” (The mass graves of Franco) which I’m reading right now. Everything seems to be fitting right into place with this documentary project and I’m really excited!

As for my economics classes, I’m more worried. They all seemed reasonable until Friday when my econometrics professor went over the first problem set and I was completely lost! And of course I was the only person lost in the class because they had all learned all these formulas in their previous classes. Even though I’ve taken econometrics before in New Paltz I had no idea what was going on so I’m pretty disillusioned right now. I have a quiz on Friday and I’m probably going to have to stay in my room studying all week in order to pass. Not fun.

What was fun was Friday night. Me and the girls from New Paltz along with an Italian girl and a girl from Denmark that we both met at UC3M went to our first Spanish concert, with Spanish music. Believe me its actually rare to go out at night in Madrid and hear Spanish music. It’s insane how many times a day I hear Lady Gaga. My neighbor sings “Alejandro” every day, and unfortunately for me the walls are paper thin. Spain needs to start embracing Spanish music more because the band we saw on Friday, El Sombrero del Abuelo, was really good! They were a mix of flamenco with funk and rock. I might go see them again in a month when they return to Madrid. In the meantime, Getafe is having a music festival this weekend so Madeline and I might go for a day and check out the Spanish artists.

Today I went to Madrid’s famous Rastro, this huge outdoor flee market, but I really wasn’t too impressed. I was expecting more antiques and hand made items but most of the stands all offered the same kinds of clothing, bracelets, etc. There were some interesting stands. For example, one was selling these strange gas mask/ military mask things… and there were a couple of stands that had some authentic Spanish comics… most of which were adult comics lol. Other than that I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary or anything that caught my eye. The highlight of my trip there was the food, of course 🙂 All the little restaurants around there were serving “tostas” which are open-faced sandwiches on baggette bread. They are delicious!

Anyway, here are some pictures of el Retiro, el Rastro,  some pictures of a night in Sol, some of the protest in Sol. I tried to upload video of some street performers and the protest in Sol but unfortunately the files were too big.

Hasta luego,

Sandy

Kisschasy: LIVE!

I went to a live performance by Kisschasy this past weekend at the Royal Melbourne Showgrounds. Kisschasy is an Australian band that originated in Melbourne. I have been listening to their music since before I arrived in Australia. They didn’t look like what I would have expected; they didn’t look like a rock band. Then again, I haven’t been to many concerts. I also didn’t expect to get so close to the stage. I thoroughly enjoyed the concert and roamed around the showgrounds afterwards. There is something called “showbags” that are sold at the fair. Showbags are sample bags of related products. I still don’t understand it really; it was the first time I felt some culture shock. I paid $19 to get into the showgrounds which I would have thought expensive but it was a cheap price to pay for a live concert of an Australian band that I am a fan of.

First Weekend in England

My first weekend in England has been one of the most memorable spent with my host family the Booth’s.  I literally have to remind myself to slow down because it seems strange to be having this much fun all at once.  But hey, I don’t mind it in the least!!!

FRIDAY SEPT. 17TH:

On Friday, I got to spend some remarkable quality time relaxing with my host family and friends of theirs the Chamberlin’s.  Nick and Amanda Booth, and their nine year old daughter Lucy are the amazingly sweet host family of which I’m so fortunate to stay with while I’m here in Kingston.  They are the most welcoming of people and have been so kind as to open their home to me.  They live literally across the street from part of the Kingston University campus on Penrhyn Road, ironically the bit of campus that I will attend all of my classes at.  I’m very excited that all I have to do is a hop, skip, & a jump across the street to get to my classes each day!

Anywho, on Friday afternoon after Lucy returned home from school, friends of their family, as I stated before the Chamberlin’s came over for a visit.  Mrs. Chamberlin (Samantha) brought her four children over to play and I was very happy I got to meet them.  The most adorable of kids I was introduced to nearly 11 yr. old Maya, 9 yr. old Ella (fellow classmate & BFF to Lucy), nearly 6 yr. old Noah, and 2 1/2 yr. old Ethan.  A beautiful family indeed, I got to spend the afternoon in the Booth’s garden playing football, rugby, basketball, and the game “hot potato” with the kids.  I had such an enjoyable time having them ask me questions about my country and my hometown; they were so curious to know every detail of my family and our American culture.  I had brought along a gift for the Booth’s when I arrived here in England, a picture book of New York State, so I sat down with the kids and showed them the pictures of the state of which I’m from and described some of the historical places and major cities.  Along with that, I brought my computer down and showed them pictures of my family, friends, and pets.  They absolutely loved seeing pictures of my dogs and cats!

After a tiring playtime with five energetic kids, Manda (Mrs. Booth), made us all pizza for dinner and I got to sit around the table enjoying the company of what felt like my family from back home.  It was nice to experience being at a large table with the chaos of multiple voices chattering all at once; it made me feel like I was right at home as the kids raved over my afro!  Once dessert was finished, the kids all ran upstairs into my room and were fascinated by my iPod, cellphone, and MacBook as  I showed them how to work all the electronics.

I had such an amazing time hanging with all the kids on Friday.  They pop over often at the Booth’s house so I hope to see much more of them because they truly are hysterical little ones!  I really enjoyed their company and learning about all the places they visited and their hobbies here in England.

SAT. SEPT. 18TH/SUN. SEPT. 19TH:

On Saturday I got invited to go to Brighton with the Booth’s.  I was obliged to be offered to come along for the ride because I have always wanted to see Brighton Pier and visit the sea  We stopped off and walked along the pier before driving over to visit a liter of Cockapoo puppies that Lucy has been eyeing at for weeks.  Lucy is very eager and excited about eventually getting a Cockapoo puppy, however, hasn’t yet found the perfect one yet.

Brighton Pier was absolutely gorgeous!!!  It was so lively in the area, I’m sure mostly in part to it attracting so many tourists…however, there was so much to experience.  When we first drove through the town of Brighton, there was a chili festival taking place and you could see all the students that attend University in the area walking about enjoying the beautiful day!  Once we reached the pier we walked along and there was different types of music playing and they have carnival like rides and games on the pier.  Looking out onto the beach you could see families walking along and tucked away there was a group of men fishing off the wall.  Nick and Manda showed me the old Brighton Pier off in the distance that burned down a few years ago and also pointed out the hotel along the coastline which had intentionally been set on fire years ago as an assassination attempt toward  Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher while she was staying there.

Although only there for a short time, it was quite nice to learn about a little bit of history while exploring the pier.  We then ventured off to go visit the puppies at this woman’s home not to far from Brighton.  Along the way we passed a very posh and well known all girls boarding school in Roedean.  The school itself is built on a hill overlooking the sea and is utterly amazing.

On Sunday,  after breakfast, the Booth’s and I walked down by the Thames River in Kingston and took a ferry down to the Hampton Court Palace.  They took me inside the Hampton Court grounds and we walked around and looked at some of the beautiful gardens and I got to see the palace from the outside.  It was astonishingly beautiful witnessing some of the old architecture and to see the historical value of the palace.  Although we did not go inside the palace, just witnessing some of the gardens and learning about how the royal family and Queen Elizabeth come and stay at this estate was enough to make the visit memorable.

Afterward, we walked along a trailway next to the river and past the outskirts of the Hampton Court.  Along the river I got to see the beautiful privately owned homes, watch as the ferries passed by, and even had a local fisherman tell me how much he liked my hair!  Upon returning into Kingston, the Booth’s took me to a pub and we sat outside on a picnic table and I got to experience sampling my very first half-pints of 3 different types of beer (my favorite was the cider, it was the sweetest!)  It may seem silly, but I was super excited to experience drinking a beer in a real pint glass in Europe…its way cooler than going to a bar in America!

All in all my weekend was splendid and I had such an amazing time with the Booth’s and having them show me around certain areas of England.  They may even put up with my overly tourist ways of taking pictures of everything I come across and take me into Central London one of these days!  However, until then “cheers!!!”

York!

Today I went on the first of three trips I mentioned in my previous entry, which was to York. York was the most important Roman British city and has been extremely well-preserved, so it’s quite beautiful. My friends Lucie and Berit, who I also mentioned in my previous entry, went on the trip with me and Lauren too, so it was a lot of fun!

York was extremely rainy and cold today—not much different from how Huddersfield has been, but the weather in York (or maybe just today’s weather in Northern England in general) did put a littttle bit of a damper on the experience. We certainly made the best of it, though, and explored as much of the city as we could.

We started the day walking through the huge outdoor food festival, which was comprised of stand after stand of fish and meat and bread and sweets and jam and a LOT of free samples. We then decided to get lunch at a pretty good pub, where I got fantastic macaroni and cheese (I think they flavored it with cinnamon or nutmeg or both, which was really interesting), which came with a nice salad and awesome garlic bread, and a glass of chardonnay. What I’ve noticed about a lot of British eateries is that even though waiters bring you your food, once you’ve decided what you want from the menu, you have to go up to the bar and order it and even pay for it beforehand. But since this isn’t always the case, it tends to be a bit awkward knowing exactly how/when/from whom to order.

After lunch, we just walked around the very rainy and very beautiful streets, stopping in stores and taking a ton of pictures. Past the food festival was another outdoor market which had stands that sold a lot of knick knacks and scarves and other cute, small things of that nature.

About two hours before we had to leave, we stopped at a cafe for tea and coffee—I still hadn’t done tea time in England yet!—and relaxed and talked about the differences between our cultures (American, Danish, and Czech) and our experiences in other countries. It’s really interesting finding so many similarities and differences in customs you would never even give a second thought to, like what a normal breakfast is or how much you like your tea to be steeped or what you wear out to a club, or “disco”, at night.

On our way back to the bus, we stopped again at the food festival. We all gave in and bought brownies to take back to our flats. We’d gotten free samples of them earlier and none of us had forgotten how good they were. I got an Oreo brownie and a Nutella brownie, which I hope will last me a while. For dessert tonight, I had plain yogurt with honey, cinnamon, blackberries, and a few pieces of the Oreo brownie. YUM!

All of this coming week is Freshers Week, which means that there are events every day and every night geared specifically toward first years and new international students. Last week I bought a wrist band for five pounds which gives me access to every event for free, AND queue (line) skipping privileges. Lauren and I also have meetings with our psychology advisor almost every day this week, which is when we’ll sign up for classes, or “modules” and have an introduction to the psychology major, or “course”.

Here are some pictures of Huddersfield and York:

Am I really here?

Off to Lavinia’s (The program director) for a picnic: We took a very long, hilly walk to Lavinia’s house a couple of days ago for dinner- you would think that the hills become easier to climb after a while, but they really don’t. But the scenery was beautiful all the while, so no one really minded the walk. In order to get to her house, we all entered a narrow passageway, one-by-one, and slowly climbed our way through a long tunnel. It was the most fun I have ever had physically entering a house in my entire life. While there were massive amounts of mosquitos outside, the backyard picnic was really refreshing- especially after the long and grueling walk. I, along with some of the other students, stupidly thought the meal was one course of pasta with bread and then dessert… but after stuffing our faces with pasta, we soon found out that there were in fact three courses (like every other italian meal i have been served), and chose to then really stuff our faces to the point of explosion. The food is worth it here- and the hills, for the most part, make up for the massive amounts of food eaten. Today, I somehow woke up at 1:00 pm ( I really needed sleep), to a three course meal of pasta, chicken, and baked potatos- with an offering of ice cream at the end. That was the biggest breakfast I have ever eaten hands down.

The group at Lavinia’s:

Friday was spa day- or rather, hot springs day.I didn’t know how stiff my body was until after emerging from layers of warm, (and really smelly), sulfer infused water.

And finally: yesterday I went to Florence and had the most incredible time: the architecture is surreal, the streets look like they’re from a different time, and the artwork is breathtaking. While it is essentially the mecca of tourism, (apart from Rome), you completely forget about the millions of people around you when staring in awe at the massive and intricate Duomo. I can’t wait to take the hour bus ride again with my class to visit the Ufizzi museum. Some other girls and I wanted to see the Caravaggio exhibit on display there yesterday, but it cost around 20 euro, and required a long wait in line to get into, so we opted to wander the streets of Florence instead. After some wondering, we came across an outdoor market that sold more leather bags and pashmire scarves than is ever imaginable. Haggling is really not a known part of italian market life, so I didn’t buy much, but I most definitely had an urge to splurge on everything.

Here are some pictures of the day trip:

The UPS Man!

So it is  September 17th, 2010…a mellow Friday night here in Kingston and I apologize readers for not posting another blog sooner than now, but my life has been literally on full speed since I departed from the States on Tuesday the 14th.  Clearly, my wish came true & my passport was returned to me on time if I am here in Kingston currently sitting in my comfortable bedroom.  Let me fill you all in since my last post because it is a funny story at that!

So come early Monday morning (Sept. 13th ’10) I obsessively checked my email yet again to see if there was any progress in the issuing of my passport/visa.  To my amazement I was sent a confirmation email saying that my passport indeed has been issued and was going to be sent via mail for 24 hr. next day air.  Let me tell you, at that moment in time a feeling of relief definitely came over me.  However, after repeatedly checking my email every 30 mins. to see if the tracking of my package via UPS (United Postal Service) had been sent, to my dismay, the tracking never progressed throughout the greater part of the day.

Ok, so you can only imagine that by now that sigh of relief I experienced earlier for about 30 seconds now was turning into straight aggravation and nervousness.  All I kept thinking was that my passport would never be returned on time before I had to catch a flight the next day at approx. 2:23.

Well after dinner that night I got an email saying that my passport was FINALLY in the hands of UPS and was en route.  So after an extremely long long night of crossed fingers and harassing of the service agents that work at UPS, I was finally a bit hopeful that my passport may be returned to me before my flight the next day.  Skip to about 10:30 a.m the following morning…after sweating bullets for fear of never having my passport, the UPS man happily showed up at my doorstep bearing my packaged passport.  “THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOUUUUU!!!” is all I managed to repeatedly say to the UPS man, I literally was about two steps away from hugging him because I was soooo happy and in such disbelief that this happened…besides he was a good-looking  fellow at that 😉

After this whole escapade, my mother & I rushed out of the house and drove to Hancock International Airport, in Syracuse, NY.  My head was rushing and my heart  was beating at a ridiculously high rate.  NERVES.  However, for as a nervous wreck as I was (& believe me, I had such butterflies in my stomach, that I truly thought I was going to get sick) I finally realized I was holding my passport with my stamped visa in my hand.  And it was in that exact moment of that it dawned on me that this dream I have been waiting for for the past few years was REALLY going to happen now!