London Semester – Page 4

Flight Ban Lifted! Hooray!!!

Apologies. I meant to publish a new post about 2 weeks ago, but my Italy vacation has gotten in the way between me and the Internet access. Anywho… I am now back in the good ol’ US of A. Having experienced 5 different cities in 5 days, I magically made it back to Boston, MA safely and have been frolicking down Comm Ave. while everyone else focused on their final exam studies.

My last few weeks in London were rather hectic – a final exam, an internship tutorial paper, packing, setting up a storage space and most of all, worrying about the volcanic ash.

About a couple weeks ago I began following @guardiannews and @heathrowairport on Twitter just so I can keep up with the latest on this Ay-a-voo-loo-u-e-ah volcanic eruption madness. (Yes, I looked up how to say Eyjafjallajökull and it’s not pretty). Just a week before the end of the program, the news of the Icelandic volcano beginning to erupt, sending mushroom clouds and debris up into the atmosphere and subsequently preventing ALL flights from flying in and out of the UK exploded Twitter feeds, news websites, front page headlines and Facebook status updates.

Thousands and thousands of people were left stranded at airports while BU students sat in their South Kensington dorms panicking whether they will make their flight back home to the US this weekend. I personally sat in my room worrying whether 1. if I will indeed make it to Sicily this Sunday, 2. if I don’t, what happens? 3. if I do, can I come back to London next Friday to make my international flight back home?

After a full week of this stressful thoughts and wonders, I am now SO HAPPY to report, the blanket flight ban in the UK airspace has officially been lifted! Thank goodness! Though I have enjoyed following the Guardian live blog updates every minute and reading Heathrow’s tweets about its status, I have finally (kinda sorta not really) moved on and left my new favorite city, London.

After surviving the finals, I spent a week in Italy, traveling to Sicily, Rome and Florence. I will definitely write more in detail about my wonderful vacation this week, but for now, some “London” things I miss the most:

Hyde Park: Surprise, surprise… Right as I was leaving the cloudy/rainy city, it decided it was finally time to let some sunshine in. A picnic in Hyde Park with some good friends. Ahhhh.

[Camden, Greenwich, Portobello, etc.] Markets: Great food, cheap goods, fun people-watching spots… Need I say more? I miss walking around the markets and looking at the weirdest souvenirs or drinking the best coffee ever.

Pubs: Just an awesome place to waste a couple hours, hang out with friends, eat fish & chips, drink Guinness Extra Cold, sometimes eat fantastic Thai food and sometimes stay till close playing Clue.

The Tube and the night buses: T that stops running at 12:30 a.m. with no sufficient night transportation plans and that moves at maybe 2 miles per hour? What is that? London’s Underground and buses are definitely superior to the T in Boston.

Yes, yes. Even though I’ve been back for maybe two days, I miss London already. Don’t get me wrong; it is wonderful being back in the city where I have so many great friends. I think now I’ll just have to split my love between Boston and London.

Also, I will continue to update my blog even if I’m not in London anymore. I just have so much more to write about the UK and my time abroad!!!

PS. Surprisingly, the Globe featured a fantastic series of pictures of the Icelandic crazy volcano (if you haven’t checked it out already): http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/04/icelands_disruptive_volcano.html

Say What? – Things the British People Say…

Even though we speak the same language, English – just in case you were wondering? – some things the British people say just boggle my mind. While their accents, especially on cute boys, sweep me off my feet right then and there, some things they say, I have to look at them, do a double-take, tilt my head and say, WHAT? In fact, when I first started working at my internship, etv media group, I managed to understand only about 90% of conversations taking place among my coworkers.

After four months in London though, I did finally pick up some slang. While I don’t exactly drop these in my everyday sentences, when I hear them, I will understand them and respond appropriately… Instead of saying, say whaaaaaaaa?

First off, absolutely everything is BRILLIANT. The color of that dress is brilliant. The weather is brilliant. My weekend was brilliant. Everything I do for my boss gets a response, brilliant. I’m almost at a point where I forget what I used to say to express, “That is brilliant!” Great? Good? Awesome? Hmm… Almost doesn’t sound as good as Brilliant, does it?

Also on a side note, it can also be fantastic, or you’re a superstar!!!

Have you seen my new BROLLY? Your new what? I got it from the Ideal Home Show. It’s brilliant! What Bianca was talking about here was her new umbrella, and you know what, it was mega-adorable. The black tall umbrella had bows and sparkles everywhere. Not sure about its practicality especially in Boston, but I seriously want one as well.

You alright? I don’t know why, but you don’t say “How are you” or “How’s it going” as part of your greetings. You say… You alright?

Nicked means stolen. At one of our RA meetings, we seriously had a long discussion about who might have nicked a box of cous cous and a bottle of ketchup. Yes, totally serious.

So pissed is equivalent to so drunk. Probably one of my favorite sayings. At the first company party I attended, my lovely boss said to me, “I’m so sorry babe, I’m so pissed but hope you had a great time!” Hilarious.

Having a slash… to pee. Could you ever have guessed? Me neither.

Snogging. We all know this from Harry Potter. Ron hates it when Ginny goes around snogging her boyfriend.

Bloody hell!!! Yes, people really say this! I was surprised too. It’s not just the cute lil’ red head Ron who says it all the time. Bloody can in fact be added to just about anything as an effective adjective.

Bugger! Kinda like… Sh*t! Or F**k! Makes me giggle a little when I hear this. It’s just funny.

Chips vs. Crisps Oh man, oh man… Simply, Chips = Fries and Crisps = Potato Chips. So so so confusing at first, but according to Jack, this makes more sense. Fries look more like wood chips. Potato chips are crispy. So duhhhh!”

“Ladies! Follow the fag!!!” WHAT? Fag is another word for a cigarette. Clearly, we use this word totally differently in the US. In England, however, fag simply refers to a cig you’re holding in your hand. The quote comes from a lady whom we encountered on our way back from Avenue Q, the funniest musical I have seen so far. 8 p.m. Wednesday evening in Soho obviously means extremely crowded streets. In order to make sure her friends were behind her, she simply shouted, “Ladies, just follow the fag!”

Taking a mickey out of Garrett is my favorite hobby. Just kidding!!! To take a mickey means to make fun of or poke fun.

Now that I’ve added these to my vocabulary, I think I’m ready to go back to the US and show off my new knowledge? Well, if this volcanic ash ever clears…

Paris Je T'aime

Even the second time around, Paris successfully won me over. The city of fashion, love, art, romance, lights… You name it. I spent the last weekend of March wandering around the capital of France, basically absorbing everything that is French – baguette, cheese, the Louvre, Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower and most importantly, the crêpes! (Does that surprise you at all?)

The first time I went to Paris was about two years ago, my freshman year spring break. I had spent three days in Amsterdam and three in Paris. Indeed it was a week jam-packed with sightseeing, eating and uh, a lot of typical college spring break characteristics. But I must say, I gained a bit more out of this second visit.

Instead of doing a bus tour, we did a 3+ hour walking tour – the same company that ran free tours in Dublin. We walked around everywhere. We wandered. We bought food from street stands. All in all, I feel we sufficiently experienced everything that is French.

First things first. The market. We arrived at our hotel a bit earlier than expected, which meant about 30 minutes of waiting time before we could check into our room. The nice lady at the hotel reception suggested we go walk around the nearby market for a bit, and of course, us hungry sleep-deprived tourists took her advice and headed out to the market. Maybe she read our minds because we definitely stumbled upon one of the best street markets I have ever visited. We found baguettes, cheese and fresh strawberries. Yum!

After enjoying our impromptu, yet delicious, breakfast/lunch, we headed out for St. Michel metro stop, the meeting point for the walking tour. I found the Paris metro to be fast, efficient, but smelly. Not sure why, but Paris streets and metro stops seemed to be infected to trash and stink… More so than London, Boston or Madrid.

Anyway… Our walking tour basically highlighted all the major sights of Paris and provided a bit of history as well. Not too surprisingly the tour took more than three hours, but simply walking around the city for that long made me fall in love with Paris even more. (But don’t you worry, still in love with London… and Berlin as well – You’ll see in my later post about my Easter weekend).

After St. Michel, we walked along the river until we reached Notre Dame. From there, we could see the Shakespeare book store and the police headquarters. Currently under renovation, the police headquarters building has a big screen with pictures of all sorts of people working there. My favorite, the Rollerblade guy.

With determination and focus as intense as that of that Roller-cop, we walked toward the Louvre. On our way, we walked past the very first stone bridge in Paris constructed under the direction of Henry IV and the narcotics control building, which contains the only wounds from World War II.

(the random black indented spots on the building are bullet holes from WWII)

Next up, the Louvre. Ah, the Louvre. The biggest museum ever. After walking through the plaza with the “invisible” pyramid, we strolled around the Tuileries Garden where we followed the Axis of Paris or Axis Historique (an imaginary line that contains all the major monuments and sights of Paris) that eventually led us to Obelisk, a big monument basically stolen by Napoleon from Egypt (it’s really… NBD). From there, you can see the Eiffel Tower in the distance and begin walking along Champs d’Elysee.

Simply, what a gorgeous walk! By the end of the tour, we had walked by or seen the Little Palace, the Big Palace, the Invalides, Joan of Arc and many more. Afterward, we spoiled ourselves even more by well, first, stopping by an Irish pub for refreshments and heading up to Sacre Coeur for this:

From there not only can you indulge in this view of Paris but also enjoy impromptu dance or music performances put on by the locals. Honestly I’m not exactly sure where in the world we conjured up energy to continue on to Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower, but we did it.

I have to say the way to conclude a day in Paris is definitely going to the top of the Eiffel Tower – despite it being extremely windy due to its height and scary altogether – and walking around the Bastille area for some good Shwarma and people-watching. While the first day was filled with romantic and historic sights, the second day was rather different and unique – THE CATACOMBS. When Jack first tried to explain to me what visiting the Catacombs entailed, I couldn’t exactly get the complete picture of it. The exhibit, located about 100 steps below the ground, contains a mass grave. Hmm… a mass grave? Under Paris? Yes. You enter the exhibit near one metro stop, and you come out about 2-3 metro stops south of your original entrance.

During your journey underground, you walk through something like this:

A bit spooky. A bit cool. A bit weird. Thousands, no millions, possibly billions of skulls and bones are stacked up quite nicely on both sides of the hall away that intertwines in the darkness for about 45 minutes. Some are even arranged in heart shapes or cross!

Naturally, after the Catacombs visit, we went straight for some delicious crêpes. Yum. Then stopped by the Louvre for some Mona Lisa viewing and headed toward Gare du Nord for dinner with our friend Devon, which finally concluded our short weekend in Paris. I honestly couldn’t have asked for better company and a better city for this lovely weekend trip! Take me back soon? 😉

A Weekend in Dublin

My Goodness My Guinness! My trip to Dublin, in short, consisted of a lot of food, a lot of Guinness, a lot of walking and a lack of sleep. Now, does that count as an epic weekend?

Jack, Garrett, Christina and I somehow managed to leave at 2 a.m. to catch the night bus, N74, to catch the Easybus to Stansted Airport and finally to catch our flight to Dublin. So we started our first day in Dublin with a short nap at our hostel, Harrington House. I actually recommend this hostel to anyone who is visiting Dublin in the future. Even though it’s about 20 minutes of a walking distance from the center of the city, it is quite cozy, has en suite bathrooms and best of all, has the nicest reception lady ever. During the 20 minute walk to downtown, you’ll walk on Camden Street, which is one of main streets with many pubs and restaurants, so the walk really isn’t a big problem at all.

We started our Dublin excursion with a 3-hour walking tour of the city, led by a local Dubliner. (Thanks Garrett for finding out about this!) While 3 hours may sound daunting at first, the tour actually went by quickly, and by the end, we had walked around the entire city, seen all the major tourist attraction and learned a whole lot about the Irish history. I must say, the Irish struggle for independence was a long and gruesome one. But hooray! The Republic of Ireland stands today as an independent country – albeit a couple ongoing issues.

http://www.neweuropetours.eu/ That is the website for the tour company. They offer FREE tours for major cities in Europe. I definitely plan on going on these in Paris and Berlin.

So here are some highlights of food, places and drinks we absolutely loved:

Full Irish Breakfast at Copper Alley Bistro: It is very similar to the full English breakfast, except you get blood puddings, on top of the beans, the eggs, the sausages and the bacon. Not many people are familiar with blood puddings, and nor was I until I tried it (quite bravely) and enquired about the ingredients AFTERWARD. My conclusion on blood puddings – interesting texture, glad I tried it, probably won’t eat it daily in the future.

Dublin Castle, Trinity College, the Parliament, St. Stephen’s Green, the Ha’Penny Bridge: Those are some of the major sights we visited on our walking tour. Each place has a story about their independence movement or the Catholics vs. Protestants struggle.

Jameson Distillery: Now, who doesn’t love whiskey? A bit out of the way (so is the Guinness Storehouse), but absolutely worth the 15 minute walk. The guided tour lasts for about an hour, and it teaches you what kind of mixers go well with Jameson. Though I felt like the whole thing was a big, fat ad for John Jameson – the intro video is all about him and his fancy buckled shoes…, I enjoyed learning all about why Jameson is so special.

Fish & Chips at Leo Burdock: As you can see, it is the oldest Chipper in Dublin. For about €9, you can satisfy your hunger with the biggest cod and the thickest chips (fries). They don’t have any seating area, so during the day, you’ll see people lined up against the fence across the street, devouring their fish and chips. That’s exactly why we decided to try this place out and loved it. Also, the pub next door with an outdoor seating has a sign that says “DO NOT eat your fish and chips here.” That alone is a convincing evidence.

Temple Bar: Unfortunately, or fortunately?, there are no pictures from our pub crawl adventure. I can tell you, however, Temple Bar is a FUN area with many bars, coffee shops and so much Irish Spirit. Many pubs have live music, which makes it even more entertaining. Some we visited during our stay are Turkshead, the Purty Kitchen, Pravda and Czech Inn.

Guinness Storehouse: Man, oh man. Dublin is home to Guinness at its finest. All the pubs will serve the best Guinness you’ve ever had. One even lets you pour your own Guinness at your table! A must-see is the Guinness Storehouse, where you can easily spend three hours admiring the brewing process, the history and the Gravity Bar overlooking the city. While it is a self-guided tour, the exhibitions are very easy to follow, and the cafe on the 1st floor serves Guinness and Bailey’s cupcakes that makes a perfect mid-tour break. The tour eventually ends at the “sky” bar on the 7th floor and makes it the perfect ending to the 3 hour journey through the history of Guinness with a refreshing pint and a gorgeous view.

Clearly I absolutely enjoyed this fun weekend getaway to Ireland. Even though early morning flights doubled our exhaustion, being surrounded by loads of Irish spirit and Guinness definitely woke us up instantly. On the other hand, the steep price of EVERYTHING caught us by surprise. After all, it is considered one of the most expensive places in Europe.

But come on, how can you not love this?