Well, yesterday and today has been another whirlwind of activity! Our orientation was yesterday, which was okay. Ellen and I successfully mastered the Tube on the way to school, so we gave ourselves a pat on the back. The Tube is crazy and rather exciting, except for that fact that it is INCREDIBLY stuffy and crowded. And the fact that no one talks. We got a couple dirty looks from fellow passengers if we dared open our mouths to speak at all. But orientation was nice. All my classes sound really interesting. I am particularly excited for my Shakespeare class, because the professor is a complete hoot! I think it will be a lot of fun, and I'm really eager to read more of Shakespeare, since he was rather neglected by the CHS curriculum during my high school career. After we were done for the day, a bunch of us walked down to a store and got our UK cell phones. It's a little embarrassing, but we probably perpetuated the stereotype that Americans are loud and obnoxious. But I think that was due to the fact that there were about 10 or more of us, and we all were sort of talking over each other. But whatever.
Once again, we had a very early start this morning. Ellen and I met up with two other girls from our program, Katie and Andi, who live in Eastcote too, and we caught the Tube to Westminster together. Everything went great, so great in fact, that we arrived at our destination a whole hour early! Crazy, I know. Luckily, right when we stepped out onto the street, Big Ben was right across the street from us, as well as the Palace of Westminster. I seriously could not believe how close I was to such famous landmarks! It didn't even feel real.
Since we had an hour to kill before we had to be back at our meeting place to meet with the rest of our program, we decided to explore around a little. Of course, we acted the typical American tourists, taking dozens of pictures of the palace, street, and various statues. As it happens, Westminster Abbey was literally across the street, so we walked on over to take even more pictures. Now, I've only had a few "pinch me, I must be dreaming" moments in my lifetime, but this was absolutely one of them! I can't describe how exciting and wonderful it was to be right outside the abbey, where so many of the British nobility, royalty, and notable people have gotten married, been buried, or had services. Without a doubt, I will be returning to Westminster Abbey for the indoor tour!! I have many pilgrimages to make, obviously. Another thing that was really funny and a little scary was that when I stood directly in front of the abbey, and looked straight up to the top, the moving clouds gave the optical illusion that the abbey was toppling forward onto us! Well, you sort of had to be there to get the full effect. It unsettled me, at least. We also had a look around in the gift shop, and there are so many cute things in there, but all so expensive! I might have to do some of my souvinier shopping in there.
By then, it was time to meet up with the group, so we returned to the Westminster tube barriers and joined the rest of the people. Then we walked over to the riverside, where we boarded a riverboat that took us on a tour up the Thames! It was really neat to see London from the river, and there were many pretty and historical buildings and places to take pictures of. But OH MY GOSH, I was freezing the entire time!!!!!! I couldn't stop shivering for the entire hour and a half boat ride, and I had a bit of trouble hearing what our tour guide was saying since I was seated near the back of the group. But it's not everyday you get to cruise on the Thames!!
Finally we reached our destination, Kew Gardens. It is an enormous, and I mean, ENORMOUS, botanical garden. This place is so vast that you would definitely need two full days to see everything there is to see. By the time we arrived, we were all extremely hungry, so we all went to eat lunch together. I tried a sausage roll for the first time, and it was actually really good!! Afterwards, we went to Kew Palace, where King George III and his family often lived, especially when he had his bouts of mental illness. The palace (more like a large house, really) was very well preserved, and there were lots of cool things to see in it. The gardens in the back of the palace were absolutely adorable. So English. Then, we walked to the Kew Palace kitchen, which was a smaller house a bit removed from the palace. It wasn't as exciting as the palace, but there were some fantastic pumpkins and other plants growing in the garden, which was great. Everyone sort of went their separate ways after that, so a group of us made our way to the Water Lily pond exhibit, which was actually very pretty, then a very large greenhouse (the name escapes me) that was modeled after the Crystal Palace in the Great Exhibition of 1851. So many exotic plants were all mixed up together, like henna plants, vanilla plants, coffee plants, even rubber trees! You could also climb up a winding staircase and view the greenhouse from up high, so that was a pretty neat view from the top. Our last stop in Kew Gardens was to a treetop walk, which was actually very high up! For someone who is scared of heights, it actually didn't bother me at all. Up there, we got some great panorama views of Kew Gardens. I actually really enjoyed our visit to Kew Gardens, much more than I anticipated. I'm not really one for looking at plants and reveling in nature, but there was a lot of beautiful scenery and seemed like a really relaxing, tranquil place to be.
In the last few days, Ellen and I have been able to do some shopping and get some things that we need, like toiletry items and food to make our lunches with. Gotta save that money for the important things, like Fall Break and excursions. We also investigated some of the restaurants near our homestay, and several of them sound pretty interesting! And not too expensive, which is also good. We made it our goal to try a knickerbocker glory before we leave, which a local eatery serves.
All in all, it was a very enjoyable day! Tomorrow, the real classes begin. So I guess now I have to do homework??
PS - Sorry for this obnoxiously long post.
No comments:
Post a Comment