Finals Week Arrives

Snow Day!

It snowed on and off throughout most of the first of this month and on Thursday December 2nd we had a snow day. On the fourth Rez held her birthday party with a bunch of her friends. Unfortunately I've been rather forgetful with my camera so I don't have any pictures although a couple hundred from that night found their way onto facebook so I'll be able to show you some when I get back. We went out to eat at wagamama and after some seating difficulties (party of 13) we had a very nice meal. Then at the tube station on our way to Hyde Park for the circus we were split into two groups because some of the younger girls didn't have travel money on their cards and Rez needed to get there ASAP to pick up the tickets. Most people went on ahead with her but Arami and I stayed back to help the girls top up their cards and look after them on the journey to meet up with the others. We both felt like parents trying to keep track of their kids.

Most of the Birthday crew. (Photo stolen from Catherine's facebook)

We made it to the circus a few minutes late but they still let us in and found an empty upper corner to seat us in. The show was very fun and we got to see quite a few amazing stunts. My favorite involved the 'wheel of death.' After the circus we walked around Winter Wonderland as it was closing (the parenting thing kicked in again and I was constantly checking to make sure we hadn't lost anyone) and took the younger girls home.
Most of the week passed by normally and despite a credit card issue I was able to have everything completely booked for Rez's birthday (the 10th) by last Monday.

Globe Restaurant. (found this image online)

On Friday night I took Rez to the Globe Restaurant which sits on the top level of a hotel. The restaurant was gorgeous and decorated for Christmas. When we got there only one other table was taken and we were seated right next to the window so we had a great view of the city. We probably took too long deciding on what to get so when we got our main courses we had to rush a bit. It was very good though! We rushed off to the Old Vic but again were a bit late. We didn't miss very much and were seated in some empty end seats near the back until the intermission where we moved up to our actual seats in the center of the second row. The play was pretty good and quite funny although I think I might still prefer a comedy at the Old Log. To cap off the evening we went for hot chocolate and a chocolate cupcake and Rez opened her gifts.

A Flea In Her Ear poster. Unfortunately I
didn't have my camera on me last night.

Now it's really crunch time for me, I have final tests on Monday and Thursday, two very difficult essays due on Wednesday, one essay due on Thursday and one experiential essay that is due by the 31st but since I'm going traveling I need to have it in on the 19th. Also a number of students from other study abroad programs have been turning up here which is very poor timing because now I can't use the common room in the middle of the night due to people sleeping in there. I try to avoid it during the day because it's impossible to work in there with all the constant noise from other students.

November Summary

Oxford Street in mid November.

It's been way too long since I updated this. I meant to do it after I transfered more pictures to my computer but that seemed like too much effort for a while so it didn't happen until now. I have some schoolwork to finish up tonight so I'll just try and cover the highlights of the last 3 weeks.

The London Eye.

On the 15th Rez and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary (although the actual date is the 16th). We went on the London Eye which takes roughly a half hour to go around once. It provides a wonderful view of the city and we were lucky that our 'pod' wasn't very full seeing as we went at night. We also went out to eat at a Japanese restaurant which was very nice. On a side note I was a bit tired that day from staying up the entire night before writing an essay for my British Life and Culture class. I got that back yesterday and got an A on it.

Zahra and Rez on a carousel.

On the following Saturday (the 20th) I went to the Science Museum and Natural History Museum with Rez and her 5 year old cousin Zahra. We had a lot of fun together. At the start of the day Zahra was shy and hid behind Rezzy (even though she'd met me twice before) but by halfway through the day she was holding my hand and asking for piggy back rides.

Rez reaching into a T-Rex's mouth! Oh no!!!

Zahra with the remains of a 'Feathered, Flightless Giant'

For Thanksgiving our study abroad group met at a pub in Fulham and we were given a special Thanksgiving dinner. We were allowed to bring guests so naturally I invited Rez. Some students' parents showed up and a girl on the trip's boyfriend from St. John's (not in the SA group) even came. All in all maybe about 40 people were there. The food was really late and there wasn't really enough for everyone. They pub's kitchen had some complications because the chef's father had died the day before. The dinner was quite fun but went much later than we thought it would so Rez and I had to postpone booking our European travels.

Students at the table before Thanksgiving dinner.

This last Sunday night after Rez got off of work we came back to South Ken and after visiting with Mutian for a hour we booked our European Trip. We'll be sending a detailed itinerary home soon. The trip will go as follows: London -> Amsterdam -> Berlin -> Venice -> Florence -> Rome -> Barcelona -> Paris -> London. Obviously covering this many places in only 12 days won't allow us to see everything but we'll do our best to make the most of the time we have in each city.

Snow!

Today I got my wish and it snowed in London which is exceedingly rare here especially for this time of year. Seeing it outside the window when I woke up helped me start the day off in a good mood. It's still going now (some 16 hours later) although it has slowed down quite a bit. No snow really built up during the day since it would melt as soon as it landed on anything but late in the evening it built up enough on the ground for me to make a snowball to throw at Rez.

Midweek Update

Christmas is upon us.

On Monday I met up with Rezzy after our classes. We met at her doctor's office which was near impossible to find since she had an appointment for after her classes. She was pretty sick last week and she had a terrible cough but she's gotten much better. We went to see Due Date which was pretty funny and before the movie we had dinner in Greenwich.
On Tuesday I felt pretty miserable for most of the day while at my internship. I think Rez passed whatever she had onto me since I had a really bad case of the sniffles and went through quite a few tissues.

Statue of St. Paul on a pillar near the cathedral.

Today I felt better than yesterday but still not great. I'll be quite happy when I no longer have to get up at 7:30 three days a week for my internship. I met up with Rez at a station halfway between South Ken and her school and we ended up walking to St. Paul's Cathedral. We had lunch at Nando's (chicken place) where we got half of a chicken for free through Rez's loyalty card. Afterwards I dropped her off at work and we bumped into her friend Susan on the way there.

Audi R8 - A common sight outside our flat these days.

Some aspects of living in the student housing here are really starting to frustrate me. Each flat has about 6 rooms, a common room with a kitchen, and about 15 students or so. Of these students only about 10 do their dishes so every couple days a huge pile accumulates in the sink. Pretty much all of the students are extremely messy too, so the table and cooking surfaces have crumbs or mystery sticky spots everywhere. Also quite a few of them feel that if something is in the fridge then it belongs to them. Nevermind the fact that my name is clearly written on the top and side of the container. About 1/3rd of my butter has gone missing, over half of my cream cheese was stolen and my box of beef stock tablets has disappeared entirely.

Remember Remember...

London Eye, Parliament Building and Big Ben.

Unfortunately I have no pictures of the Remembrance Day fireworks to post here but I do have a few videos that are entirely too large to upload. After my internship on Friday Rez and I met up at South Kensington Station and headed down to Clapham Common for the fireworks display. Despite being a Friday night the fireworks started at 7:30pm so I didn't even have time to drop off my backpack at the flat. The fireworks were fun though the planning could have been a bit better since we were all stuck staring through trees. The tube was completely packed on the way to the fireworks so we took a bus on our way back.

A fox in south east London.

The next day Rez and I met at Waterloo to go to a festival but we met up rather late in the afternoon and the festival was pretty much over so we walked along the riverside and had dinner in West End.
Today I took a tour of the Houses of Parliament but unfortunately pictures were not allowed inside so I have none to share. The building is very beautiful on the inside and out. I was a bit surprised at how small the actual rooms are where the Houses of Commons and Lords meet.
Even before Halloween I'd started seeing Christmas decorations popping up around the city. It seems like they jump the gun even worse than we do. =P

London MCM Expo

Me with a fully functional R2D2.

Rez and I went to the London MCM Expo today. We thought some of her friends from 6th form would meet up with us but it ended up being just the 2 of us. There were tons and tons of small shops set up in a manner similar to a market, though like most markets I've been too they pretty much all sold the same things. It was really fun shopping, Rez got about 5 DVDs or so and I ended up buying a couple daggers and a pocket knife. ^^;

Bananas in Pajamas!

There were a bunch of really good cosplays but for every good one there were about 5 bad ones. During lunch we even made a list of the ones that annoyed us most. Speaking of food, I found Astronaut Ice Cream (freeze-dried ice cream) at the convention! I bought 3 bags of it for £5 which was quite a bit cheaper than I was expecting. I also bought Rez her first Barq's root beer from the "American Food" stand which sold candy and soda.

Random booth at the Expo.

All the walking and standing in lines today has left my legs rather sore but it was definitely worth it. I got to meet some of Rez's university's anime club members since we bumped into them as we were leaving. We had some yummy dinner near her house and she took me back to 'Iceland' so I finally got my bag of chicken kiev! Overall it was a wonderful day and I'm really glad we went. Now I get to look forward to Favre giving away another Vikings game. 

Half-Term Break

Yummy Steak Dinner For Two.
For some reason on chrome the image doesn't appear correctly
when the large size is selected so this one is medium.

We've had all of this week off from school which has been really nice. I've stayed with Rez for a few days since she had her aunt's flat to herself. Her friends Hannah and Arami stayed over for a couple days as well. We did a lot of movie watching (Hannah and Arami went through countless episodes of The Wire) and cooked some yummy meals like the one pictured above. We went to this really good and cheap grocery store called Iceland that I've been trying to get Rez to take me back to.
Today I went in to the FIE foundation house and sorted out my transport situation. I'm getting my oyster replaced for free and the £2.80 I had on the card at the time is even being put on the replacement card. This is better than I ever could have imagined so I'm exceedingly happy about it. I should get it in 3-5 days. Until then I'll do pay-as-you go but the fees for that are nothing in comparison to what I would have had to pay if I had to buy my own travel passes for the next 2 months.
Hannah is throwing a Halloween party, so I've been trying to scrape some costume ideas that are also cheap but I'm not coming up with too much. I would have liked to have gone shopping tonight with Rez but she's busy with coursework. Also I finally got my phone topped up after going about 2 weeks with no credit on it (Rez had my top up card from when I went to Istanbul) so now I can finally make calls again.

Long Overdue Post

These satyrs were said to have been the inspiration for
Mr. Tumnus in 'The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe'

I’m sorry for not updating this is a while, I’ve been pretty busy and tired lately. I’ll give a brief description of as many days as I can remember since I’ve been back from Istanbul. I think I’ve been a bit too thorough so updating the blog with every single day’s events has become a bit of a chore for me. So from now on I’ll just be covering the more interesting or important days and events.

~Bowling with Rez~

On the first Tuesday (5^th) since I’ve been back Rez and I met in Chinatown after my internship and then went bowling. We got 3 games for the price of 2 so that was a good deal but by the end of the third game both of our hands were sore, but we had a good time. I made up for missing my internship on the previous Friday by going in on Wednesday since my class was cancelled. I ended up going in 4 days in a row (and needing to be up at 7:30 each day) so by the end of the week I was very tired. I did 28 hours at my internship instead of my normal 20 during that week. I didn’t get to see too much of Rez on the first week back but on that Thursday (7^th) I had a fun conversation with Rez and her little 5 year old cousin Zahra on the phone.

University Church of St. Mary the Virgin

On Saturday the 9^th we got up bright and early to go to Oxford. We were given a while to just roam around the town and get some lunch. Then at 1pm we all gathered together, split into 2 groups and took a tour of the town and many of the colleges. I don’t remember the specific college but one was holding fresher’s week events and a couple of us got bubbles and ‘fun snaps’ for free. We had a fun time playing with the bubbles. (Also I noticed that Oxford students are quite heavy drinkers, some of the people who were working at the events had already downed 2-3 drinks and it wasn’t even 2pm yet). After the tour I headed back to London and the station the train came in at was really close to Rezzy’s work and she was working an odd Saturday so I popped in to buy a few things from her.

Panlogic's office.

The following day was my first chance to sleep in all month so I took full advantage of that and didn’t get up until afternoon. Rez and I went to see the movie ‘Life As We Know It.’ We also saw a fox! I was a bit surprised to see one in the middle of London and tried to get a picture but it was too dark. I missed the last tube back and had to take buses so I didn’t get back until around 2am or so.

Shakespeare's Globe Theater.

Instead of having class on Monday the 11^th we went to the Globe Theater for a tour instead. This Monday was one of the best days I’ve had in a long time. The day started off by waking up to Mustakrakish, and reading the paper on the way to the Globe. The weather was just gorgeous on this day too, it was sunny but still a bit brisk. We took our tour and we were free to go around 11:30am. Mutian and I went to get some sandwiches for ‘brunch’ and then did some grocery shopping before going back to the flat. Later on when cooking lunch (a mix of veggies and beef) Mutian added some Korean BBQ sauce to my dish and it was delicious so when I met up with Rez that evening we went to Chinatown to pick some of that up (she was a copycat and got some too) and do some other shopping as well. We also got some chicken buns and a strangle waffle-like treat that I can’t remember the name of. I napped a bit and woke up at 2am for the Vikings Monday night game at the Jets.

A view of St. Paul's Cathedral from across the Thames. (Just outside the Globe)

The rest of the week was fairly normal, except on Tuesday Rez surprised me and came to meet me after my internship in Richmond. I cooked her dinner at the flat that night. Late Saturday (16^th) afternoon I met Rez at Canada Water station and we went to a sporting goods store. We didn’t buy anything but we had a lot of fun just playing with the equipment there. I got her to try skateboarding and these odd skateboard-like things with only one wheel on each end. We also did some rollerblading, putting, cricket batting, and ping pong. Afterwards we saw Despicable Me in 3-D at the IMAX. It was a really cute film.

Greenwich Park behind the National Maritime Museum.

On Sunday Will, AJ, and I all overslept and missed the boat to Greenwich (note: we’re all roommates). Steven had even come into our room but didn’t bother waking any of us. So we took the tube and DLR to Greenwich a bit late and ate at a subpar restaurant before going to the National Maritime Museum where we were able to check in with Arnott. After the museum and Greenwich park we headed back. Monday after class I went shopping for a scarf for Rez since she was bummed that she lost hers last week. 

A silly sculpture at Oxford.

On Wednesday I met up with Rez for a little while after our classes and before she had to work. We went to Kensington Gardens for a while then to her work. After she started working I did some shopping there and at a tea store before going to head back home but when I got to Bayswater Station I couldn't find my oyster card. I went back to everywhere I'd been since the last time I'd used it and asked employees at all the stores but it never turned up. My FIE ID is in the case with it, so if a good person found it they would have no trouble contacting FIE and returning it, however I doubt that I'll ever see it again. I have a 1 week oyster right now and will likely spend over $200 for the remaining 2 months of travel.

Istanbul

Hagia Sophia from the hotel's roof on the first night.

Day 1 - Thursday morning everyone going to Istanbul (about half of the CSBSJU students and about 20 or so from other schools) went to Heathrow for our flight. Before we'd even gotten our boarding passes the flight had a delay. There was another delay while we were waiting for our gate to open up so the flight took off over 90 min behind schedule. The plane was really nice, probably the nicest I’ve ever been on. We arrived late in the evening, maybe around 9pm or so, not quite sure anymore. To buy my visa I needed to use either US currency or Euros which was problematic since I’d been told it had to be US or Lira. I tried using a traveler’s check seeing as I had no US currency or Euros on me but the woman at the booth looked like she’d never even seen one before. Luckily they did accept credit cards and I was able to pay that way. After dropping off our luggage at the hotel we were all herded down to a fairly nice restaurant nearby. It was a nice experience since we were dining on the roof, too bad there wasn’t much of a view from there.

Spiral column from the Hippodrome.

Day 2 - We had to be up early on Friday and Will never woke anyone up after he showered (the hotel didn’t do their 7:30 wake-up call like they said they would either) so the rest of us rushed to get ready and go to the hotel lobby in 7 minutes. We went down to the Hippodrome first (not much to say about it, just 2 obelisks and a spirally pillar), followed by the Blue Mosque which was quite pretty. Though after the first mosque it was a ‘seen one, seen them all’ type of thing. Next we went to the Hagia Sophia which had a number of mosaics that were interesting and the wishing column was something fun. You can see the mosaics and more pictures from the trip on my facebook.

Inside the Blue Mosque.

We topped off the morning with the Basilica Cistern but we were told we only had 10 minutes since we were behind schedule. It was very cool inside but I missed out on most of it since I was hurrying to be at the meeting place at the appointed time. Turns out even the FIE leaders on the trip (the ones who planned everything and designated the times to meet) were at least 10 minutes late so I could have stayed in the cistern for far longer. Next we took a boat ride over to the Asia side of Istanbul for lunch. They had an interesting yogurt and rice soup that wasn’t that good. One guy at our table tried a yogurt based beverage that pretty much tasted like salty cream cheese (most of the table sampled it). But overall the lunch was very good. Most people slept on the boat ride back to the European part of Istanbul and we then had a speaker that failed to hold the attention of most of the students (many more sleepyheads).

Inside the Hagia Sophia.

In the evening a bunch of the guys were going to go for a Turkish bath and go out to a hookah bar (the second of which isn’t really my thing) so I stayed back and wandered around Istanbul looking for a place to eat. I got to know the area around the hotel pretty well during this time. Eventually got some beef goulash, which was good but really expensive for such a meager portion.

Inside the Basilica Cistern.

Day 3 - We had to meet at 8:45am in the lobby again on Saturday but luckily I had time to shower and eat this time. Breakfast was up on the hotel’s roof which provided a nice view of the morning city. We went to the Topkapi Palace for the entirety of the morning. It was huge and a morning really wasn’t enough time to explore it properly. There was a section with holy relics, including the sword of David, that was very cool and the treasury which featured MASSIVE gems and a stunning 86 carat diamond. Unfortunately pictures were not allowed in these areas, so most of my pictures are merely of the buildings. Our tour guide wasted a lot of time saying redundant things and building up the things he was going to show us instead of just showing us. A lot of it wasn’t even telling us the history, it was just telling us how much we would enjoy seeing it.

Topkapi Palace grounds.

After the palace we had time for lunch and I went to a restaurant that I’d been eyeing the night before. It was really good but again the portions were small, that was an ongoing theme with all the food in Turkey. But this place was MUCH cheaper than the other one too, so it balanced out. It was probably my favorite restaurant in Istanbul. Anyways, in the early afternoon we had 1 more mosque visit which was short and uneventful. Then we were set loose on the Egyptian spice market and the Grand Bazaar. The spice market was much smaller than the bazaar but had almost all of the same things. I was really nervous about the haggling/bartering since I’m shy and quiet but it turned out to be a lot easier than I expected. I was able to reduce all the prices of things I bought to reasonable amounts, though I noticed that the girls were having greater success getting low prices than the guys were. I really enjoyed shopping in the bazaar and spice market, it was definitely my favorite part of the trip.

In the Grand Bazaar.

That evening Will, AJ, and I were all feeling rather a bit tired and like staying in so we ended up ordering a couple pizzas (with the help of the hotel’s receptionist) and watching Star Wars Episode 2 in Turkish on the TV. I was also missing Rez a bunch so I made a very expensive 5 minute phone call to her that night (£1.50/minute).

A picture from the restaurant that I grew fond of.

Day 4 – On Sunday we were able to sleep in 45 minutes later but I didn’t know that so I was up and showering at 7:30am like usual. After breakfast I went back to bed for a little bit. Our last excursion was to the Dolmabahçe Palace which was much more modern and luxurious than the Topkapi. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed inside the palace. The sheer amount of gold in the palace (much of it on the ceilings) is mind boggling and the chandeliers inside were breath-taking. I took the extended harem tour (private living areas) simply to kill time before we were supposed to meet up at the hotel at 5pm to go to the airport.

Dolmabahçe Palace, it's a shame we couldn't take pictures inside.

After the harem tour and lunch I wandered around a bit and found what seemed to have been a mini auto show featuring several 60’s Impalas however as I arrived all of them were starting to leave. I managed to snap a few pics though. I headed back to the hotel about 90 minutes early or so and found a lot of other students already waiting there. The airport went smoothly but the flight back was nowhere near as nice as the flight to Istanbul. I was hoping to knock out 2 movies on the way back but each seat didn’t have its own screen and remote like my previous 2 flights had. The seats were pretty uncomfortable too. Luckily I was tired enough to fall asleep for most of the flight. I was woken up somewhere over France to fill out the UK border patrol card. The airport went smoothly and we got a shuttle bus back to our flats since the second tube strike since we’ve been here began earlier that day.

An unexpected 64 Impala.

Quick Update

Feeding the birds at the park.
Dunno why I'm hold my left arm awkwardly like that... maybe to shoo birds away from my face?

I've been pretty busy as of late but after I get back from Istanbul I'll try to get back in the habit of updating the blog 2-3 times per week. I'm leaving Thursday morning and will get back on Sunday night.

Quick recap of the last week:

Wednesday (22nd) - Stayed up very late reading A Man For All Seasons the night before so I was prepared for class on Wed. I met Rez before she had to go to work and we picked up some clothes for my internship. Two shirts and a pair of pants for £19 altogether.
Thursday - Internship in the morning and then class in the afternoon. I met with Rez after work and we came back to the flat. We spent most of the evening in the common room with Mutian.

Friday - A full day at my internship. I spent most of the day reading up on and setting up Solr and Tomcat. They had already been installed but were a complete mess and various folders with various things were scattered all over the hard drive. Ended up reinstalling both so I could do the setup myself for sanity's sake. Rez and I were supposed to go out on a date but it got pushed back until Saturday. 

Saturday - Slept in and caught up on some rest. Met Rez in the evening and we planned on dinner at 7 at Bella Italia but we were quite a bit late so we each had a pork bun to hold us over until after the mystery segment of the date that Rez had planned. We ended up going to see 'Going the Distance' which was something we decided that we should watch on principle since it was a romantic comedy about a long distance relationship. Afterwards we were too full from popcorn and candy so we decided we'd go to the restaurant some other time.

Sunday - Slept in on Sunday too. I was rather unproductive most of the day and just seemed to be killing time until the Vikings game which was really ugly but at least it was a win. The Vikings defense has really been shining this year, giving up only 31 points in 3 games.

Empty tube from the Japan Matsuri night. Pretty much the same going home on Monday though.

Monday - After classes I met up with Rez near her school. I had done some research online and found a nearby mini-golf course to surprise her with. It was cute how impatient and curious she was while we were on our way there. After mini-golf we went on a shopping errand for Rez's aunt and then to dinner at Bella Italia and out for a walk. It decided to rain and Rez wasn't feeling well (obviously sick but she wouldn't admit it) so we got on a bus and I took her all the way back to her aunts before heading home myself.

Tuesday - Full day at my internship again. I spent most of the day fixing various little problems with Panlogic's website or updating some content. I had to relearn some HTML and I spent forever formatting one page. When everything was right on one browser, things looked wacky with another. 

Playing with the birdies!
Good thing the army of swans stayed in the water, one feisty swan was enough!

Wednesday (29th) - Today I got up and went to class. Then I met up with Rez before she went to work. We walked to Kensington Gardens to the pond we went to before and I brought some old bread with. We fed some ducks, geese, swans, and pigeons. Mostly pigeons. When they started flying in our faces Rez got scared and fled from the bench leaving me to handle easily over 50 birds (luckily most of the fleet of swans were too lazy to get out of the water). It was really fun feeding them all and having up to 4 birds or so on my arm at once (as well as a few in my lap and on my shoulders). I'd like to go back and do it again sometime. It was starting to rain so we hopped on a bus and got some Thai food before Rez had to go to work. I unexpectedly came to pick her up after work and surprised her with flowers. We came back to the flat and had a chicken dinner and she helped me pack for Istanbul. 

Busy Week

Windsor Castle.

Friday night I made dinner with Rez and then we rushed off with Mutian to get to the theater. We were already late for the play by the time we got out of our tube station and we ran for close to 10 minutes in the general direction of the theater and found it. We got into the Globe maybe 5-10 minutes after the play started but since it was in the standing portion we didn't really bother anyone coming in. The play was a lot better live than reading it like we'd done for class.

Courtyard at Windsor.

Afterwards I took a train to Greenwich to meet Rez at bar/nightclub for her friend Siana's 19th birthday party. We sat around in a private room for a while then everyone went downstairs to the club section and danced to awful hip hop, rap, and a little bit of pop for a few hours. Rez and I got too hot and tired out quicker than some of the others so we went back to the room to cool down a few times and get some water (which was all we drank that night). At the end of the night I took a couple of buses home, since the tube stops running a bit after midnight, and caught a few hours sleep before waking up at 8am to go to Windsor.

St. George's Chapel.

Windsor Castle was much larger than Warwick Castle but also quite a bit less interesting save for St. George's Chapel which we were not allowed to take photos in. It was very beautiful inside the chapel and the craftsmanship of the marble tombs(?) was amazing. I didn't stay in Windsor for too long, Mutian and I caught a 12:30 train back to London so that we could attend a festival called Japan Matsuri. I was able to meet some of Rez's friends who went to Japan with her. Mutian spent a lot of money trying different foods there while I just got a bowl of udon noodles and later bought ice cream for Rez and myself. There were musical performances, art displays, martial arts demonstrations, and much more.

Rez in her kimono with Mutian.

Sunday I slept in and met Rez for her lunch break at work. After she got off work she came over and I let her relax while I cooked dinner for the two of us. We semi-watched the Vikings game which was quite a disappointment. Monday classes resumed and nothing really notable happened. I ended up procrastinating most of the day. Today I had my first day at my internship which went pretty well but the main IT guy who I'll be working most closely with was gone since his wife and daughter were sick. I spent the day reformatting old computers that were going to be donated. Then tonight Rez and I went grocery shopping so I should be pretty well set with food for a week or so.

Thorpe Park

Saw: The Ride.

On Tuesday Rez and I went to Thorpe Park which is an amusement park a little ways out of London. She was about 45 minutes late to our meeting place since she had forgotten the tickets and had to go back for them (She bought them really cheaply online). We went on just about all the main attractions that were open and never had to wait very long since it was the middle of a weekday. I'd had an upset stomach since after dinner on Monday night so after the spinning teacups and a ride called the Zodiac I felt quite nauseous and I laid down on a bench for a while to let my stomach settle. The most fun rides of the day were the fairly new Saw-themed ride, which has a 100° drop that  as you can see above, and the Stealth which was probably the shortest roller coaster I've ever been on, lasting only really 15 seconds or so.

The Stealth.

 Wednesday I had class then Rez came over for a little while before work. I went with her all the way to her work and afterwards I had planned on picking up a few more collared shirts for work (Primark has some for only £3) in a nearby area but I wasn't feeling too well so I just came back to the flat and took a 90 minute nap. After that I made dinner, did the readings for today's class and went to bed. Tomorrow we're going to the National Gallery and in the evening we're seeing the Merry Wives of Windsor at the Globe Theater. Then on Saturday we're actually going to Windsor.
(Also I didn't bring my camera to Thorpe Park so the pictures in this blog post were not taken by me. All the pictures in the other posts are by me.)

Weekend Adventures

Rosetta Stone at the British Museum.

Friday morning we made our way to the British Museum. We split apart into our own little groups and went off exploring the museum. Mutian and I covered the Egyptian area first then moved onto the section on Greece. He was in a hurry to get to the Asian section so we passed through the sections on North and South America rather quickly. We spent some time looking at things from the Enlightenment but cut that short for him to get to the Asian area before his camera's battery died.

Buddha statue.

We were both quite tired after the Asian rooms and decided to go home then. We'd spent roughly 3.5 hours in the museum. I would like to go back again before I leave to revisit and finish the Enlightenment rooms and explore some of the places we missed such as were the Egyptian mummies are kept and a few additional rooms dedicated to Rome/Greece.
On Saturday we met outside Manson Place at 8am and hopped on a bus to Warwick Castle and Stratford-upon-Avon. The bus ride was probably a bit over 2 hours and most people slept a good chunk of it since we're not used to being up that early here.

Warwick Castle. The large tower in front is Guy's Tower.

The castle was pretty fun. We split up into groups again and once inside the castle my group joined a tour that had just started. While the others were waiting for the Ghost Tour to start I went off on my own to do the tower walk. I then joined the Ghost Tour which wasn't terribly interesting except for the dungeon. Unfortunately I didn't have time to go see the trebuchet since after the Ghost Tour finished we had to leave for Stratford-upon-Avon.

Inside the castle.

We took an hour for lunch and met in front of Shakespeare's birthplace. The next building over had a walk-through tour where each room had a large video screen and told us about Shakespeare's life. After that tour finished you would enter Shakespeare's home from the side and tour the house itself. We then went to a museum next to New Place which is where he lived later on and eventually died at. Most people were worn out by now but we still went to one more museum, Hall's Croft, which was where one of Shakespeare's daughters and her husband lived.

Shakespeare's Birthplace.

We didn't make it back to London until after 8pm so the castle, Stratford, and the bus journey came out to over 12 hours. On Sunday I slept until about noon and went to Oxford Street with Mutian and Rachael. From there I went to pick up Rez from her work and we came back to my flat and cooked dinner together while streaming various NFL games. Today I had class and my internship interview which seemed to go pretty well. I'll be starting a week from tomorrow.