Busy Days and Fun Times

I haven't updated this blog in awhile, and that's ridiculous and I'm sorry. I promised to keep everyone updated, but this lack of posting recently is mostly due to how routine some of my days are becoming and how much work has been piling on my desk. The spring semester is always busier than the fall, and this is definitely no exception.

So what has been keeping me busy? Answer: The sudden school work. I'm halfway done with my semester abroad (eek!), which means midterm season galore. I wrote one paper on working and living conditions during the Industrial Revolution, and have a midterm and a paper due in my Political Change in 20th and 21st Century Britain class.

And remember when I said that classes in the UK make students be more self-sufficient? This is definitely true. From the British students and graduates I've talked to, they spend much less time in formal class and much more time in the library doing their own reading and researching on the subject. So basically, the last few weeks have been spent sorting through the piles of books on my desk, taking notes and writing furiously to stay on schedule.

No worries though. I, of course, have found ways to keep life in London exciting, as if every day here isn't already filled with some kind of excitement.

This week was half-term recess in Parliament, meaning no bills or session was to be had. Some MPs worked in their constituencies for the week, while some went on vacation. For me, this basically meant that I went on one more tour of Parliament with my Political Change class and then gave a quasi-tour to one of my friends.

On the forever-loved Saturday afternoon, we traveled to Camden Town Market in North London. A lot of it was like the other Markets we've been to, but it was a little more punk-ish in a way. Probably because it was in North London. And rain aside, it was a pretty fun time.

Lesson learned: When in doubt about a market, buy some food. You can't go wrong.

I also spent Saturday night watching "The King's Speech." After hearing countless glowing reviews of the movie and saying "I'll just wait until I'm home to see it," I just decided to fork over the 7 pounds and go to the theater.

It was so worth it. The movie itself is pretty amazing, and I would definitely recommend it. I don't know if I have ever cheered as much for a character to succeed as a did for Albert throughout that movie. Despite being a movie centered around therapy sessions, the plot development and the writing kept the story moving and I was never bored. And I was on the edge of my seat throughout the King's speech announcing the beginning of World War Two.

Besides that, it was also worth it just to see some of the reactions of the British moviegoers. They sometimes laughed at parts that I wouldn't have, which just shows how much I don't really understand about different British dialects. It was also slightly odd to see the old footage of Hitler knowing that it actually played in London theaters. The shots of planes over London, bomb sirens blaring, and Buckingham Palace probably also struck me more in a London theater than they would have in a stateside theater.

Either way though, the movie is definitely worth seeing. I would recommend it to everyone.

And now it's back to Midterm studying. Sorry again for the lack of pictures. Don't worry though, because I will definitely invest in batteries for my camera before going to Edinburgh, Scotland this weekend! Expect a ton of photos of beautiful architecture and landscapes next weekend, though hopefully I'll have a chance to update before then.

Cheers!

Why The World Needs Apparition

There are too many different and important things going on in two of my favorite cities. All I want is to be able to go to work, and then apparate back to Madison to watch the rallies at Capitol Square.

Seriously, there are no words for how much this story makes me want to be back in Madison. Governor Walker dictatorially deciding to scrap collective bargaining rights for state and local employees? A) Ridiculous. B) Please. I should be there. Either to cover it or to participate. (Are any of you lovely people participating? What do you think of the protests?)

I was surprised by the video on that article and excited. When was the last time students protested at the Capitol against something?

I'm not sure how I feel about all the Facebook events though. It's great to see word spread about these kind of 'movements' on Facebook and to see people enthusiastic about them online. But are people actually doing it?

Anyway, I would love to see how all this stuff is going down in Madison. Which is Reason #1 why we need apparition.

Reason #2 is because the sun was shining and the birds were singing in London today, and you all should have been there. I also saw the inside of a BBC studio and the Thames through the window of a Parliamentary Committee room. So that was exciting.

Now back to real homework. Oh yeah, it's still studying abroad, isn't it? Fantastic.

Valentine's Day

Happy V-Day everyone! I obviously spent my Valentine's Day away from all my great loves, who are back on my native side of the pond.

Instead, I visited my new love: Big Ben.

That basically means all of London, my friends.

This picture illustrates all of my favorite things about this city: the traditional and iconic Big Ben and Houses of Parliament, my workplace of Portcullis House and the modern ever-present London Eye.

So that's worth being happy about this Valentine's Day I suppose.

Either way, I miss everyone back home terribly! Shout-out to my truly amazing friends and family who continue to read this blog!

Cheers loves!

Old Fashioned Marketing

On Saturday, we decided to take advantage of a rare sunny day and check out some of London's biggest markets.

First Stop: Borough Market
Borough Market is a food market in South London by London Bridge Tube station. This market features some food stands that are set up for the weekend, and some that have their own regular shop.

It was also filled with all kinds of good and interesting food. All of the bread booths were amazing, with different types of baguettes and loafs. They also had probably five different cheese stands. All of the cakes and fudge and brownies looked amazing too. While I didn't buy this huge brownie because it was 2 pounds, I heard it was absolutely godly. So I may have to revisit this Market just for the brownies.

They also sold ostrich and reindeer burgers. My jaw dropped at how bright red the meat was, but the line for these burgers stretched around the corner. I was in shock. Among other unexpected items, there was a 75 pound bottle of olive oil, a fair amount of duck meat and some funky drinks. There was also a barber shop tucked away in the Market, where appointments weren't necessary.

The place was packed with people having lunch, stocking up on fresh food for the week and us touristy folk exploring. It was also by this beautiful cathedral.

We obviously picked the right day to explore the markets. Look! The sky is blue!



Seeing all of these cheeses made me so excited. There's amazing food in London after all!







And different foods!









And spring is coming!

At least in London it feels like it is...








At this point, my camera died. So while we did venture out on to London Bridge and I caught my first glimpse of the iconic Tower Bridge since my arrival, I could not capture photos of it. No worries though, because I will definitely be visiting this market and seeing Tower Bridge again.

Also to visit again is the next market: Portobello Road Market

This one was amazing because it featured tons of antique booths. These sold everything from old teapots, maps, books, cameras and jewelry. A lot of it was a great deal and would make great trinkets for my London flat. Other booths featured more expensive but priceless antiques.

This market went for blocks down the street in Notting Hill, which is an amazing area in and of itself. After some of the antique booths, there were clothing racks set up on the streets with some great deals.

There was also at least two blocks worth of food stands. Like Market Borough, some of these sold nice lunch meals, while others sold fresh fruit and veggies for the week. Some others sold common grocery type items, like cookies (that's biscuits, here), chocolates and cheese.

And that comprised most of our weekend. But it also feels weird blogging without pictures of any of this exciting stuff. Expect those to follow at another point. But ahead this week: work as usual, homework to catch up on and a midterm essay to write. I'll be busy, but I'll update when I can.

Cheers! (I fit my first cheers into 'regular' conversation this week. It was a little strange. Why is there no American equivalent? Work on this States, please.)

A Not So Touristy Weekend

This weekend, we decided to do some more creative things with our time. We've lived in London for a month now, so the tourist traps start to look like traps. And we start to get annoyed when "new" people crowd the Tube and don't know where they're going.

So we started Saturday afternoon off by exploring a Vintage store. Apparently this is a traveling Vintage event too, which we thought was worth checking out.

Surprisingly, some of the stuff was fairly expensive. Half of the clothes were real vintage - 60s, 70s, or 80s style - which I would need to be more creative to find a way to wear it. Or it was really cute clothes that were the same price as the nearest Primark or Topshop, two of the cheaper and decent stores in London.

The area also came complete with a bowling alley, a pub, and a small cafe, with racks of clothes stacked on the floor above and around these extra downstairs pit stops.

A signature purchase: I invested in a nice change purse. The frequent use of British coins, rather than 'notes', was literally making my clutch burst at the seams. The change purse is way more functional for Europe.

On Sunday, we celebrated the Chinese New Year in Trafalgar Square and Chinatown, where streets were closed off and decorated.

It was pretty cool. Trafalgar Square was packed. So then the lesson of the day became that the distance from one historic place to another is not as far as it seems on the Tube. I walked from Trafalgar Square to Piccadilly Circus to Chinatown in about 15 minutes.

When you're on the Tube, the distance you travel between those points feels a lot longer.

Anyway, Chinese New Year turned out to be pretty cool, despite the lack of free food that some people thought would be there. Really, there were a ton of booths set up selling Chinese New Year trinkets and noisemakers, the streets were decorated, and there were some stages set up with entertainment. The only entertainment I actually saw was Kung Fu Panda.

That was exciting.

Then... we once again digressed in to more tourist stuff.

Introducing: The Natural History Museum.

This museum is part of a series of museums in South Kensington, about a 20 minute journey from my flat in Earl's Court. The building is absolutely breathtaking.

The best part of the actual museum was probably the dinosaur fossils on the first floor. The one on the left was pretty cool. There's also some galleries on the floor above, so you could look down over this dinosaur almost anywhere you go in the museum. After about an hour though, we felt like we had seen the best parts of the museum and decided to head out.

Except we ended up going the wrong way on a bus and ended up in Harrod's.

I've never walked through Harrod's before.

Looking at the building in and of itself is kind of stunning.

Going inside and glancing at some of the price tags is literally jaw-dropping.

Totally worth a step inside though, even if you're only walking through it to take advantage of the heat before reaching the Tube station, like we did.



In other news this past Sunday, my neighborhood was fairly excited about the Chelsea v. Liverpool match. [That's an understatement, folks.] It was a big deal because Chelsea had just signed a previous Liverpool player, Fernando Tores, in a record-breaking 50 million pound deal.

And Chelsea still lost 0-1 against Liverpool.

There were some pretty depressed people in blue and white walking around Earl's Court that night. So that topped any thoughts I had about the Super Bowl for awhile.

Phew. It was a busy, but incredible weekend. Note to self: busy weekends are better on so many levels.

Of Crumpets

[This post is dedicated to my roommate, Liz Schultz, without whom I would have persisted in my ignorant belief that crumpets are basically English muffins.]

Crumpets are so much better than English muffins.

They're more like miniature waffles. I think English muffins are a little flatter, but a crumpet is thicker, so the butter seeps through it.

It's just really good bread. Try it if you get the chance.

I think food overall here is pretty good. Most of the restaurants or cafes I've tried have been amazing. (Obviously, we're living in a city, so there has to be good food somewhere.)

I might not be the best person to write about cooking, seeing as I don't do much of it anywhere. However, I have succeeded in not burning any pots or pans, or forgetting about food stored in some corner of my cabinet, which is a success in my eyes. I can stock up on food fairly cheaply at the Tesco or Tesco Express. And most stores will randomly put food on sale if it's about to expire, leading me to buy a pack of muffins, crumpets or baguettes whenever it's marked down to 99p or less.

So there. Food in Britain: not bad. Am I excited to try food in other countries though? Absolutely. I would pretty much give anything to have a crepe cart in this city. [And there's a shout out to you Bre.]

..And the fish is pretty big here too obviously. [Sonya? Ah, sorry. I'm just going to start tagging you guys in posts I think you should look at.]

In the News

The Super Bowl was yesterday! Usually I just watch the Super Bowl every year to see the awesome advertisements. I seriously mute the TV during the game, and watch the commercials. It's fun. Unfortunately I've had to check out all the $3 million dollar ads on YouTube this year. Still, seeing this was one of the best parts of the morning after coverage:


I've watched this three times today. Once at work without the sound on.

I did stay up to watch the game a little bit. Mostly because, instead of ads, BBC had some random commentators talking about the game. We're pretty sure one of them didn't even know what a receiver was.

Quality.

I can't disclose who I rooted for though, because my Dad will disown me if I rooted for the Packers, and I'm pretty sure I'd lose half my friends if I rooted for the Steelers.

Anyway, you Wisconsin folks will be glad to know you got a full page in the London Evening Standard. Except it was mostly about Christina Aguilera messing up the national anthem, the Black Eyed Peas, and a shot of George Bush. Instead, the game was reduced, not to a sentence, but a clause:

Former president George Bush, and film stars Jennifer Aniston, Michael Douglas and wife Catherine Zeta-Jones were in the crowd in Texas to watch the Green bay Packers beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 31-25.

That's it. Well, and this bit about Aaron Rodgers at the bottom of the Sport section.

So what's happening in British news?

-Chelsea lost against Liverpool in their first game after the 50 million pound deal to sign Tores, who played for Liverpool previously. That was kind of a big deal. I was slightly and irrationally a little worried about walking outside after the game... I also still want a Chelsea scarf.

-Assange's trial. In the standard, there's a big headline that his extradition "will risk him being sent to Guantanamo" and his lawyer said, "there is a real risk that he could be subject to the death penalty." There's a more in-depth article on BBC.

And since it's only Monday, I'll leave any more news for later.

Snowpocalypse v. Westminster

So, there was a blizzard in the Midwest or something?

Oh. Right. That little thing.

I understand this storm is one of those crazy stories that only happens every ten years or whatever, but seriously, can everyone calm down? All I see is a tremendous storm and a wonderful opportunity for a snow day.


Photo Courtesy Mom and Dad Allen


Okay, maybe I'm just jealous of your snow day... good old, perfect, MY University of Wisconsin... And maybe I miss the snow a little.

But when all anyone can talk about is the blizzard, I seriously start to wonder whether all of this transatlantic communication technology is really worth it.

My Typical Skype Conversation This Week:
Me: Hello?
Somebody: Hello?
Me: Oh good! The internet is finally working, [which it never does over here because high-speed connections are non-existent.] It's so great to talk to you! How are you? How's everything going?
Somebody: Well, we have this blizzard coming, did you hear?
Me: Yeah I saw on Facebook and everything. You even got a little shout out on BBC-
Somebody: Oh it's going to be a big one! Everyone was grocery shopping like there was going to be no tomorrow. On the Weather Channel it's stretching over the Midwest to the East Coast! It's all ice on the ground now, but then there's going to be some major snowfall!
Me: Right, I saw it on weather.com-
Somebody: It's going to be a big one!
Me: Yeah, well at work today-
Somebody: All the school's have a snow day!
Me: Aw, I missed it! And I had to work today-
Somebody: Yeah, everyone had a snow day! Classes kept getting canceled or delayed, and then they just called a snow day! Everyone was so excited... yada yada yada for the next 10 minutes.

New Rule: If I suddenly lose all communication with you because of a blizzard, or if all you can talk about is a blizzard, I will stop going on Skype, Facebook and updating Twitter and Blogspot.

...Ok not really, obviously. But I really wanted to.

So what did I really do this week besides feel grumpy about this ridiculous blizzard that I don't even get to enjoy? You know, walking through Westminster, listening to debates, writing writing writing, website work, class. Keeping busy.

Proof:

Why are these buildings always under some sort of construction? [Because they're really old and need preserving?] Anyway, you get the idea, I hope. I finally snapped this picture when I didn't feel ridiculously self-conscious about pulling my camera out in the middle of Westminster Hall.

Ok, more updates that are more exciting than the snowpocalypse to come soon!

British Humour

Yes, the British spell it with a 'u', so I'm going to spell humour with a 'u' for the time being.

Dealing with the British sense of humour is probably one of the hardest things about living in London. And I did not expect it to be. I like the Monty Python series. I like Hugh Laurie. I've watched my fair share of British television shows and movies. So I know I like British comedy and figured I'd at least be able to recognize it when I hear it.

Case in point

Turns out this is referred to comedy, folks. The British interject humour into their everyday life like Americans ask each other "how are you?" The problem with this for outsiders (like me) is that it's often hard to tell when they're being serious and when they're joking, especially because a lot of British humour isn't even meant to get a laugh.

Rather, according to an article I had to read for class, British humour is made up of ironies, understatements and wittiness. Humour is well-timed and well-turned.

The article adds the British have a thing about being earnest. "Seriousness is acceptable, solemnity is prohibited. Sincerity is allowed, earnestness is strictly forbidden." This ban on taking oneself too seriously leads to the phrase "Oh, come off it!" It also leads to self-deprecation, because they place a high value on modesty.

Anyway, the English are always ready to throw some humour into anything. The author gave the example that when her father went out to dinner with some Italian friends, and they complained about the restaurant, her father simply said, "Oh, so you wouldn't recommend it, then?"

Dealing with that can get difficult. Especially if I think something is a joke and start to laugh, but the English barely smirk. The humour is subtle and interjected everywhere you go. You have to be quick to recognize it and quick to respond to it.



Are they serious? Are they joking? What the-?

So, just another part of British culture to get used to. Some study abroad to learn a new language, and I feel like I'm studying abroad to relearn a language.