Check me out in London!
Want more? Take a tour of my flat.
Tuesday, 6 March 2007
Saturday, 3 March 2007
Oxford
Today I went day tripping with the flatmates to Oxford. It was a pretty fun day. We caught the Oxford Tube, a 2 hour ride on a pretty sweet double decker bus, got to Oxford a little after noon. We grabbed some sandwiches at the covered market and set off to sightsee around the town. First, we walked to Oxford Castle and saw a really sweet mound. Yep, you heard me. Except, we couldn't go up the mound because it was closed for maintenance- true story. The castle was also okay, but it was quite pricey and didn't look so great. Then we checked out the standard colleges- Christchurch, Magdalen, New College and Merton, and of course walked past a number of others. Christchurch and Magdalen charged admission, so we obviously just looked in from outside. However, Merton was very scenic, and as we got caught in the middle of a shower in the middle, we camped out in a little archway, and it was quite nice.
After that, we went to a nice little place to get afternoon tea. It was so great. It was the cutest place, the tea was delish and the scones were even better. Then, we were planning to hit some souvenir shops and maybe some other stores, as we didn't really know what else to do. Unfortunately, while we were at tea, Oxford, for all intents and purposes, closed. But, fortunately, thanks to our Oxford alumnus friend, we had a list of the bumpin places to go at night. We met up with a friend of Jessica's (my flatmate) and ate dinner at one pub, the King's Arms, then rolled over to Turf Tavern for a pint. This particular joint (pun intended, just wait) is made famous by the rumor that Bill Clinton did not inhale here. It was pretty late at this point, so we headed back to the bus, got on the very front row on top, and were riding back when we noticed the moon, which I thought looked really weird. Upon getting home, I googled it and it turns out we were witnessing a lunar eclipse. All in all, a really excellent day.
After that, we went to a nice little place to get afternoon tea. It was so great. It was the cutest place, the tea was delish and the scones were even better. Then, we were planning to hit some souvenir shops and maybe some other stores, as we didn't really know what else to do. Unfortunately, while we were at tea, Oxford, for all intents and purposes, closed. But, fortunately, thanks to our Oxford alumnus friend, we had a list of the bumpin places to go at night. We met up with a friend of Jessica's (my flatmate) and ate dinner at one pub, the King's Arms, then rolled over to Turf Tavern for a pint. This particular joint (pun intended, just wait) is made famous by the rumor that Bill Clinton did not inhale here. It was pretty late at this point, so we headed back to the bus, got on the very front row on top, and were riding back when we noticed the moon, which I thought looked really weird. Upon getting home, I googled it and it turns out we were witnessing a lunar eclipse. All in all, a really excellent day.
Tuesday, 27 February 2007
Out of the darkness and into the light
I am in utter disbelief about what happened tonight. Ok, that makes it sound more exciting than it really is, but still, this is a big deal to me. So, as I've complained to some of you, I've been having a difficult time adjusting to certain things having to do with my classes here. For example hw submission is a bit strange, but I always just thought it was because I was new, and as I'm taking third and fourth year courses, everyone else knows what's going on, so they don't explain things in the classes. Which is partly the case, but I was missing something else too. At the beginning of the semester, I got a UCL computer science e-mail account, and I subscribed to the mailing lists for my courses using that account, as I was told to do. After a few weeks, I hadn't received any e-mail from the lists, and I consulted one of my friends, who told me that in the class we shared, we had not received any e-mail from the mailing list, so I thought everything was fine. Hindsight being 20/20, I see now that I definitely should have known something was wrong.
Today I was running errands and was unable to make it back in time for my lecture, and afterward I told my friend I felt bad for missing our lecture, and he informed me that we had no lectures today or tomorrow, as the CS lecturers are on retreat. And he told me I should've gotten an e-mail. Further investigation revealed I was not receiving any e-mail in my computer science account. So, I e-mailed the helpdesk, and they fixed the problem, and there were 60 messages waiting for me.
Now, Columbia students, I know you'll understand, because Columbia professors rely heavily on e-mail. Imagine you didn't receive any e-mails that your professors sent to the whole course. You'd be completely lost. Corrections to homework assignments, review sessions, due date changes, extensions, etc. all get conveyed to students through the mailing lists. CS teachers are, as you can imagine, especially fond of informing students through e-mail. I missed all this.
The coursework that I was panicking to finish before the deadline? Weeklong extension. The coursework that I did alone (we were allowed to work in pairs) because I didn't know anyone in the class, and I program in C++, which noone here knows? Someone e-mailed the list looking for a partner to write in C++. The coursework due tomorrow (which I had a question on, but received no reply from my lecturer, because, as I now know, she is on retreat)? Due on Thursday instead. Unbelievable.
It's so sad that it's actually comical how much grief this would have saved me this semester.
Today I was running errands and was unable to make it back in time for my lecture, and afterward I told my friend I felt bad for missing our lecture, and he informed me that we had no lectures today or tomorrow, as the CS lecturers are on retreat. And he told me I should've gotten an e-mail. Further investigation revealed I was not receiving any e-mail in my computer science account. So, I e-mailed the helpdesk, and they fixed the problem, and there were 60 messages waiting for me.
Now, Columbia students, I know you'll understand, because Columbia professors rely heavily on e-mail. Imagine you didn't receive any e-mails that your professors sent to the whole course. You'd be completely lost. Corrections to homework assignments, review sessions, due date changes, extensions, etc. all get conveyed to students through the mailing lists. CS teachers are, as you can imagine, especially fond of informing students through e-mail. I missed all this.
The coursework that I was panicking to finish before the deadline? Weeklong extension. The coursework that I did alone (we were allowed to work in pairs) because I didn't know anyone in the class, and I program in C++, which noone here knows? Someone e-mailed the list looking for a partner to write in C++. The coursework due tomorrow (which I had a question on, but received no reply from my lecturer, because, as I now know, she is on retreat)? Due on Thursday instead. Unbelievable.
It's so sad that it's actually comical how much grief this would have saved me this semester.
Monday, 26 February 2007
Bowling and Laundry
Culture shock? Any article of clothing that is worn to most places besides school or walking around (pubs, the bowling alley, a smoking friend's flat, etc.) has to be washed before it can ever be worn again. No matter how short of a time I was there, or how un-smoky it seemed at the time, inevitably I come home and my clothes and my hair smell like smoke. It's so frustrating. Laundry is £2.40 (~$5) per load. London is tightening up on smoking bans, but it's definitely something I take for granted at home that I can come home and not reek of it. I knew I would have to deal with smoking here, but I didn't realise this would be a consequence as well. Seriously, it's costing me a fortune!
Anyway, went bowling tonight, it was definitely a good time. And, look, it's not cause I won both games, though I did. There's a neat little alley about 10 minutes away, and from 10pm on Monday nights, it's £3 per game and they have some good drink specials- like the £2.50 (trust me, that's good for London) White Russian, mixed the "Big Labowski [sic]" way. They have the same bowling deal during the weekdays, so I think we'll be headed back pretty soon. Although it's sort of an Americana bowling alley, I feel like it counts as a good "London" activity if we go with our British neighbours, right?
Anyway, went bowling tonight, it was definitely a good time. And, look, it's not cause I won both games, though I did. There's a neat little alley about 10 minutes away, and from 10pm on Monday nights, it's £3 per game and they have some good drink specials- like the £2.50 (trust me, that's good for London) White Russian, mixed the "Big Labowski [sic]" way. They have the same bowling deal during the weekdays, so I think we'll be headed back pretty soon. Although it's sort of an Americana bowling alley, I feel like it counts as a good "London" activity if we go with our British neighbours, right?
Monday, 19 February 2007
Can't believe I forgot!
The Carlsberg factory in Copenhagen. So great- best 25 kroner (student price) I ever spent. You get to walk through the museum, then you get two beers- a 'special' (expensive) one and a regular one. It was awesome, the beer tasted so good and fresh, and it was only 5 bucks! Highly recommended.
Sunday, 18 February 2007
Copenhagen & Berlin
Well, I spent the last week traveling, and it has been amazing. We started off the week in Copenhagen, in the freezing cold. Also important to note, I thought that London was the most expensive place, ever. Not so, Copenhagen definitely takes the cake. Pretty much everything was at least 20-25 kroner- or about $3.50- 4.50 USD. Coffees, muffins, hot dogs (of which I ate 5), beer (starting at around 40 kroner, or $7 in bars), etc. The city itself was as beautiful and quaint as one could hope from a Scandinavian city, and we got to see some pretty cool sights- changing of the guard at the palace, the Little Mermaid statue, Christiania (hippie commune), to mention a few. Less exciting sights include a whole host of activities we were looking forward to that were closed because it was winter- Tivoli Gardens, bike tours, canal tours, etc. Probably the best part of Copenhagen was ice skating at Kongens Nytov, in the middle of the square downtown. It was scenic and a total blast.
After Copenhagen, we headed off to Berlin. We arrived at night, so we went to a very German restaurant for dinner- we all ordered sausages, or wursts, and ate them with sauerkraut and mustards, and washed them down with tall German beers. The next morning we got up to take a free walking tour around the city. Our guide was an American (and a Cal Polyian at that- for those not in the know, that's about 90 mins from Santa Barbara) and led us on an amazing tour of the sites of so many historical events from the last 800 years of Berlin history. I was surprised by how little I knew, especially about the events occurring in the last 50 years. "Berlin wall" has always been a somewhat foreign concept to me, but hearing it and seeing the artifacts from the Communist government in East Berlin was pretty incredible.
The same company that does the free tour also has a Berlin pub crawl, which we'd heard great things about and decided to go on. It was pretty epic. The first person we met from the crawl was from Santa Barbara, went to my high school, and was friends with my next door neighbor. From there, we met people from Australia, Israel, Switzerland, Iran, etc. It was absolutely amazing to meet so many people and have such a fun time.
I'm sad I didn't have more time in Berlin to see more of the city, I would go back in a heartbeat. I've never really been interested in more recent history before, but the things that city has seen are incredible. The monuments to the grisly events of the past- the book burnings on Bebelplatz, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (actually what it's called), the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Churcht and many others are very moving and thought provoking. The city itself is ugly as hell- very few old buildings, as about 80-90% of the city was demolished in WWII. Many of the new buildings were built under the Communists, who really knew how to build an ugly building.
On our last day we took another walking tour "Behind the Iron Curtain" led by a Berliner, who was born in the British section of West Berlin. The tour itself was underwhelming, but what I found interesting about it was the fact that our guide, who I thought would be strongly anti-Communist, was more like "it was kind of bad and just didn't work." On the other hand, James, our American tour guide, had told us of the horrors that occurred under the communist regime. Our tour guide seemed to have had some connections that made his experience with the Wall easier than others, but still, the difference was interesting. In typical American fashion, we like to gloss over the fact that reunification wasn't great and many people were unemployed.
Other highlights include: the National Gallery (with Rodin's 'The Thinker'- SO much smaller than Columbia's, I might point out), Shwanosee (aka Swan Lake) at the Berlin Opera House for 5 Euro, climbing the dome on the Reichstag, watching the face of one of my travel companions after she lost 50 Euro to a betting scam on the street (the rest of us had moved on and did not realize she was going to do this, which is why we didn't talk her out of it) and the other sights on the tour(s). I highly recommend Berlin to anyone.
After Copenhagen, we headed off to Berlin. We arrived at night, so we went to a very German restaurant for dinner- we all ordered sausages, or wursts, and ate them with sauerkraut and mustards, and washed them down with tall German beers. The next morning we got up to take a free walking tour around the city. Our guide was an American (and a Cal Polyian at that- for those not in the know, that's about 90 mins from Santa Barbara) and led us on an amazing tour of the sites of so many historical events from the last 800 years of Berlin history. I was surprised by how little I knew, especially about the events occurring in the last 50 years. "Berlin wall" has always been a somewhat foreign concept to me, but hearing it and seeing the artifacts from the Communist government in East Berlin was pretty incredible.
The same company that does the free tour also has a Berlin pub crawl, which we'd heard great things about and decided to go on. It was pretty epic. The first person we met from the crawl was from Santa Barbara, went to my high school, and was friends with my next door neighbor. From there, we met people from Australia, Israel, Switzerland, Iran, etc. It was absolutely amazing to meet so many people and have such a fun time.
I'm sad I didn't have more time in Berlin to see more of the city, I would go back in a heartbeat. I've never really been interested in more recent history before, but the things that city has seen are incredible. The monuments to the grisly events of the past- the book burnings on Bebelplatz, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (actually what it's called), the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Churcht and many others are very moving and thought provoking. The city itself is ugly as hell- very few old buildings, as about 80-90% of the city was demolished in WWII. Many of the new buildings were built under the Communists, who really knew how to build an ugly building.
On our last day we took another walking tour "Behind the Iron Curtain" led by a Berliner, who was born in the British section of West Berlin. The tour itself was underwhelming, but what I found interesting about it was the fact that our guide, who I thought would be strongly anti-Communist, was more like "it was kind of bad and just didn't work." On the other hand, James, our American tour guide, had told us of the horrors that occurred under the communist regime. Our tour guide seemed to have had some connections that made his experience with the Wall easier than others, but still, the difference was interesting. In typical American fashion, we like to gloss over the fact that reunification wasn't great and many people were unemployed.
Other highlights include: the National Gallery (with Rodin's 'The Thinker'- SO much smaller than Columbia's, I might point out), Shwanosee (aka Swan Lake) at the Berlin Opera House for 5 Euro, climbing the dome on the Reichstag, watching the face of one of my travel companions after she lost 50 Euro to a betting scam on the street (the rest of us had moved on and did not realize she was going to do this, which is why we didn't talk her out of it) and the other sights on the tour(s). I highly recommend Berlin to anyone.
Saturday, 10 February 2007
Reading Week
Ok, so today is the first day of our first break of the semester, reading week. Early tomorrow morn me and two flatmates are departing for Copenhagen followed by Berlin.
And it feels good to be on break, as I have actually been kind of busy with schoolwork(!). I know, study abroad right? But, one of my courses ended yesterday after 5 grueling weeks of 10am class, and thus I also had to do all the work for that course in 5 weeks, which meant a bit of a crunch at the end, but it's over now, and I am happy.
So, picking up approximately where I left off last time, the next weekend we took a daytrip to Stonehenge and Salisbury. I was expecting to be a bit let down by Stonehenge, but it was cool. However, I had to roll my eyes a few times when listening to the audio tour and they're talking about how there were 4 (now only 2) corner stones (I think that's what they were called...) and AMAZINGLY enough, these stones form a PERFECT rectangle and the center of the rectangle is EXACTLY in the middle of the henge. No duh, they built it that way on purpose. If they can move those huge stones all the way from Wales, they're not just going to throw them down haphazardly. Then we spent the afternoon in Salisbury, which was pretty cool, got to see a sweet Cathedral, go to a market, eat some chips from a fish and chippery. Not ready for the fish part yet... maybe someday. Also saw one of the four remaining copies of the Magna Carta, and the best preserved one. Which was really cool, but there were approximately 40 copies originally, and there are four left, so it's less special than it could be.
In terms of our British friends, we have continued to cultivate our relationships with the people living around us. We now regularly go out with the boys from the flat down the hall and their friends, and it's a good time. We have also bonded with the flat across the courtyard, as we quite often see each other in our respective kitchens, so we finally went out with them last weekend.
Well, I am off to pack/launder/clean etc. as things have become rather bleak on that front.
And it feels good to be on break, as I have actually been kind of busy with schoolwork(!). I know, study abroad right? But, one of my courses ended yesterday after 5 grueling weeks of 10am class, and thus I also had to do all the work for that course in 5 weeks, which meant a bit of a crunch at the end, but it's over now, and I am happy.
So, picking up approximately where I left off last time, the next weekend we took a daytrip to Stonehenge and Salisbury. I was expecting to be a bit let down by Stonehenge, but it was cool. However, I had to roll my eyes a few times when listening to the audio tour and they're talking about how there were 4 (now only 2) corner stones (I think that's what they were called...) and AMAZINGLY enough, these stones form a PERFECT rectangle and the center of the rectangle is EXACTLY in the middle of the henge. No duh, they built it that way on purpose. If they can move those huge stones all the way from Wales, they're not just going to throw them down haphazardly. Then we spent the afternoon in Salisbury, which was pretty cool, got to see a sweet Cathedral, go to a market, eat some chips from a fish and chippery. Not ready for the fish part yet... maybe someday. Also saw one of the four remaining copies of the Magna Carta, and the best preserved one. Which was really cool, but there were approximately 40 copies originally, and there are four left, so it's less special than it could be.
In terms of our British friends, we have continued to cultivate our relationships with the people living around us. We now regularly go out with the boys from the flat down the hall and their friends, and it's a good time. We have also bonded with the flat across the courtyard, as we quite often see each other in our respective kitchens, so we finally went out with them last weekend.
Well, I am off to pack/launder/clean etc. as things have become rather bleak on that front.
Friday, 19 January 2007
Best Day Ever
Ok, seriously, it has been like the best 24 hours ever. So as I mentioned before, we threw a party in our flat to get to know some other people on our floor, and we met these cool guys from the flat down the hall. We wanted to hang out with them again, so we hatched this plan- we'd return a glass they left at our place and be like "sooo, whatcha guys doin tonight" and then they'd be like "we're goin to this place, it's gonna be cool, you should totally come" and basically, that's exactly what happened.
So me and my two flatmates, Jessica and Olga, went out with the 3 guys in that flat and met up with a couple of their friends at this bar where their friend was DJing. Basically it was awesome- we hung out with our friends from the party and we met some really cool new people and we have plans to hang out with them again already, plus we had a really fun night to boot.
Then we got one of the funnier memos I've ever seen under our flat door when we got home, but I won't get into that here, ask me about it.
So then today I went to my class and in this class there's like this clique of 10 guys and they all know each other and I sort of just chill by myself, cause you know, I'm a computer science major, I'm socially awkward. Plus, it's just really hard to approach a group like that, I mean they've all been taking classes together for 3 years, and I'm some random newcomer. So after class, I left and as I was walking out of the building, one of the guys was waiting there, and he was like "hey, I know how hard it can be to be in a class where you don't know anyone, so I wanted to introduce myself." And then we walked together. It was just SO nice, I seriously still can't even believe it.
Then, I went straight to ultimate practice after class, which was fun cause I haven't played in a while and met some more new people there and I'm gonna go to practice again tomorrow morning. Basically, overall, it was just rockin. I'm just really happy with the way things are going. I'm really tight with a couple of my flatmates, but now we have more friends too, and British friends at that.
So me and my two flatmates, Jessica and Olga, went out with the 3 guys in that flat and met up with a couple of their friends at this bar where their friend was DJing. Basically it was awesome- we hung out with our friends from the party and we met some really cool new people and we have plans to hang out with them again already, plus we had a really fun night to boot.
Then we got one of the funnier memos I've ever seen under our flat door when we got home, but I won't get into that here, ask me about it.
So then today I went to my class and in this class there's like this clique of 10 guys and they all know each other and I sort of just chill by myself, cause you know, I'm a computer science major, I'm socially awkward. Plus, it's just really hard to approach a group like that, I mean they've all been taking classes together for 3 years, and I'm some random newcomer. So after class, I left and as I was walking out of the building, one of the guys was waiting there, and he was like "hey, I know how hard it can be to be in a class where you don't know anyone, so I wanted to introduce myself." And then we walked together. It was just SO nice, I seriously still can't even believe it.
Then, I went straight to ultimate practice after class, which was fun cause I haven't played in a while and met some more new people there and I'm gonna go to practice again tomorrow morning. Basically, overall, it was just rockin. I'm just really happy with the way things are going. I'm really tight with a couple of my flatmates, but now we have more friends too, and British friends at that.
Wednesday, 17 January 2007
Fire Alarms
I feel like I live in McBain. So far, in my short week and a half here, I have experienced no less than 3 fire alarms in my building, and I know of AT LEAST one more that occurred when I was not here. And for reals, these alarms are LOUD and they have one in every single room. (Except, as I discovered during the one that woke me up this morning, in the bathrooms. Hmm...) This is so annoying- living in Hartley softened me up too much, I can't handle something like this. At least they're over pretty quickly, we're usually back in our rooms within I'd say 15-20 minutes. But still.
A Rainy Day in London
You know what? I'm just gonna do it, I'm just gonna get the ball rolling on this whole abroad thing, since I'm the newest arrival to my school away from school. Ok, so, I did the requisite thing: calling my blog post/e-mail/photo album/etc. a song name/movie title/expression/etc. involving the word London. But anyone can do "London, baby!" or "London Calling," so I wikipediaed songs about London, and this one seems about right... Yes, I'm really that much of a dork.
So here I am in London, I arrived almost 2 weeks ago to the middle of international student orientation. My first London experience was taking the tube in to my dorm, cause that's just how I roll. I like the tube, the cars are rounded, which is how I feel an underground system should be, and the seats are squishy, which is maybe a little gross, but certainly more comfy.
Since that time, the adventures have included Oxford Street (shopping), a bus tour in the pouring rain, a boat tour, Harrods & the Harrods food court, the Tate Modern & other various sights on the South Bank (incl. the Clink prison museum, you know as in 'in the clink'), Camden Lock (a giantous clothing/jewelry/shoes/everything market), lots of walking around the city and the inside of a pub here and there.
Possibly the best move we made, and by we I mean me and my flatmates- 3 other Americans and 1 Canadian, was deciding to throw a party to meet the other people on our floor. At first it seemed like kind of a bust when it was our flat (minus one of us), 2 other Columbians and 3 other Cornellians (one of my flatmates is from Cornell), but after a while a few Brits showed up and it ended up being quite fun. Since that time we have done our best to cultivate these relationships and we seem to be obtaining some British friends, so bully for us.
Classes, not so great, and I have them on Monday AND Friday (and Tue/Thu), but oh well, only 3 more weeks of class until Reading Week (aka spring break) and then 5 more weeks after that until classes are OVER, on March 23rd. So, oh well. Ok, that is all for now.
So here I am in London, I arrived almost 2 weeks ago to the middle of international student orientation. My first London experience was taking the tube in to my dorm, cause that's just how I roll. I like the tube, the cars are rounded, which is how I feel an underground system should be, and the seats are squishy, which is maybe a little gross, but certainly more comfy.
Since that time, the adventures have included Oxford Street (shopping), a bus tour in the pouring rain, a boat tour, Harrods & the Harrods food court, the Tate Modern & other various sights on the South Bank (incl. the Clink prison museum, you know as in 'in the clink'), Camden Lock (a giantous clothing/jewelry/shoes/everything market), lots of walking around the city and the inside of a pub here and there.
Possibly the best move we made, and by we I mean me and my flatmates- 3 other Americans and 1 Canadian, was deciding to throw a party to meet the other people on our floor. At first it seemed like kind of a bust when it was our flat (minus one of us), 2 other Columbians and 3 other Cornellians (one of my flatmates is from Cornell), but after a while a few Brits showed up and it ended up being quite fun. Since that time we have done our best to cultivate these relationships and we seem to be obtaining some British friends, so bully for us.
Classes, not so great, and I have them on Monday AND Friday (and Tue/Thu), but oh well, only 3 more weeks of class until Reading Week (aka spring break) and then 5 more weeks after that until classes are OVER, on March 23rd. So, oh well. Ok, that is all for now.
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