Richmond's Own (but unowned) Website

Wow, what a busy day today! We started up early – we had to eat breakfast around 7 – they had the chocolate croissants again today! As well as the frozen (and rather tart) berries and yogurt. But the chocolate croissants got everybody excited. We picked up bag lunches for the day, and proceeded to make our way to the main gate to meet with Dave at the main gate for our trip into London.

The 72 bus came, but it was too full, leaving Nicole, Brendan, and myself stranded at the bus stop! The next bus passed by full, and we ended up taking a different line down a few stops before switching to the 72 line again – thank you to the rest of the group who waited for us at the bus stop at Barnes!

We got onto the train, and Dave had us get off at Vauxhall, before Waterloo. We got off there and waited for a bus to take us toward Parliament – it was a double decker bus, and quite crowded, but at least we all got on this time! I should note that trains here have a real gap between the door and the platform. They play the message a lot on US trains, but usually it’s pretty close – like stepping over the gap in an elevator. However, here, sometimes the step up to the train door (and bottom of the carriage) is a foot or more (over 30 cm I guess), which is an interesting difference. But it’s pretty easy to get used to. We also got to see the MI-5 building (from a distance!)

Parliament is huge! Amazing gothic architecture – but built in the 19th century, as part of a revival of medieval British architecture. We met up with Stephen outside Parliament, and proceeded inside, after going through an airport like security. 

We entered Westminster Hall, the main part and oldest surviving part of the building, built in the 11th century – almost 1000 years old! We were shown the “new” roof – only built in the 14th century! It has an amazing roof – when it was built, the Americas haven’t even been discovered! It’s amazing, because the floor has plaques showing the exact place where many Kings and Queens have stood. 

The local MP for the area around Roehampton (member of Parliament), Justine Greening, kindly took the time to give us a tour of Parliament. We went through the Central Lobby, where MPs meet their constituents, and gives rise to the word “lobbying.”  Also interesting was to see the symbolism of a united kingdom for the UK, for each of the 4 entry ways had a portrait corresponding with England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland.  We got to go through the chamber for the House of Lords (which is designated in red), seeing the throne, and learning about them, and then the chamber for the House of Commons (designated in green). We also got to see the voting lobby. When the House of Commons vote, members physically have to go into one of two rooms – the yes or no lobbies, and then file past a clerk who manually checks off their mark as either yes or no. No electronic buttons! What also struck me in both chambers were the dangling microphones for the cameras for television (of course they had to have them, but it never occurred to me that they would dangle from the ceiling). But it was amazing to actually walk on the floor of the House of Commons – I’ve seen it on tv or on the computer many times, and I actually was able to stand there! There were many historical aspects that we learned about the workings of Parliament – such as how the Queen is not allowed into the House of Commons, and how when summoned to the House of Lords the House of Commons shuts the door before going there, to symbolize the power of the common people.

After our tour, Stephen took over for the day – we had a moment to get some coffee and buy some gifts, before heading out on our political tour.

Many of the government buildings are built in a neoclassical style (like Washington DC), since they were built during the height of the British empire – when there was a sense that London was like the new Rome, and they had created a new Roman Empire.  Stephen talked about the lack of a constitution like our constitution, as well as how the political system in the UK has really evolved over time – such as the power of the monarch, and how much of that power has gone to the prime minister, but still having remaining questions like the function and purpose of the House of Lords, amongst others.

We passed number 10 Downing Street, and Stephen talked about the dynamics between the Prime Minister, and the powerful Chancellor of the Exchequer (like the head of the treasury department in the US, but with more power), and some of the dynamics with Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. 

We passed through the Cavalry Museum, where we actually saw horses this time, into the beauitul St. James’s Park.  There were lots of birds and even a giant pelican! We sat down under some trees to eat lunch, and it began to rain. Besides that, it would have been a wonderful picnic! Even got to see a marching band go by (as Stephen said, London putting on a show for the tourists!) However, we had a good discussion about California politics, it began raining quite hard as we headed toward Buckingham Palace.  After the heavy rain, we briskly walked through Trafalgar Square, and into the national gallery for an hour to warm up and dry off a little! I enjoyed it (except maybe the 1 pound for a map – but I suppose it’s alright since the museum is free). I loved looking the the Van Gogh paintings – especially the Sunflowers! As well as A Wheatfield, with Cypresses, which they have the plant wall outside which looks similar. But there is so much 3D texture on the actual paintings that you can never see in photos. It was amazing!

We made our way through Covent Garden, seeing the shopping area, again inspired by Italy, and where My Fair Lady took place! Stephen showed us a bank, but it was beautiful, built in the Victorian times, and was very ornate! We then went through a door, onto a cobblestone alley, finding out that it was the law area – (before we had gone by the Royal Courts of Justice) where all the lawyers work. It was very interesting, for lawyers work in these society places, which seem to be like a college institutions – I thought the buildings quite looked like an American college(s)! We made our way back down to the Thames, and walked along the Thames which was a nice walk – seemed like something out of a movie!

We wanted to stay in the city a little longer, so Stephen left us back at Covent Garden, where we went around, listened to an opera singer, and shopped in some of the little stores.  The group split, some of us coming back, and a few stayed behind. We went through Waterloo station (it’s all familiar now!), came back to Barnes, and came back.

Dinner tonight was another hamburger, chips, string beans and brussel sprouts, and some others. We also came back to some large packets of reading to complete! But today was a great day – learned a lot of history, political science, and had a lot of fun!

Today was pretty fun as well. We woke up early and went to breakfast – they didn’t have the chocolate rolls today! But on the other hand, the hot chocolate was pretty good. We had our academic induction, in our classroom, and meeting some of our academic professors and tutors. We went over the schedule and class assessments. After that, we had a library induction, where we learned about the library services and got our library/ID cards. The books at Roehampton are self checked in and out – it’s a pretty cool system! Also, the library was a lot larger than I had imagined it to be! One thing I’ve seen from the buildings that we’ve been in here so far, is that they have a lot of little narrow and winding hallways and staircases. It’s quite nice, and an interesting use of the space, though sometimes confusing to walk in! But I think it’s much more fun to walk through than buildings with a single hallway straight down the middle.

For lunch, I had the vegetarian option today, I forgot the name of the dish, but I believe Sophia said that it was Greek. It was alright – not quite what I expected, but it was pretty good. After lunch, we had a lesson on the online computer systems, moodle and mahara, so that we can use the blogs. I think from a technical end, moodle is very user friendly, and it has a much cleaner interface and better functionality than the blackboard service my school has in the US (from what I’ve seen – I know blackboard has a new version out, but I haven’t seen it yet).  We also were showed how to import videos from our Flip cameras, as well as use Windows Movie Maker. I know a lot of people tend to bag on Movie Maker (including me sometimes), but I enjoy it a lot – it’s sure a whole lot better than the new Live Movie Maker on Windows machines. It has much more functionality. And I edited this video on there too - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZbciyckDyk !

We came back and some of us started our reading for session 1 – Politics and Participation, reading about thoughts on the referendum, and statistics about UK political engagement. I read out in the hall by the couch with some other people which was nice, because we could discuss things as we went along. Sometimes I wish I roomed with people taking the same classes as me at school so that we could do the same thing – it’s a lot more fun to do reading that way! We also popped in to see Talah and Valarie to get some recommendations about places to go out to – both around here in Putney and Richmond, as well as out in London.

For dinner, there was a lot of food! There was a fried chicken with some sort of stuffing, or herbal spices inserted in, chips (though the lady said fries when we approached – I guess we’re easily identifiable as Americans. And there seem to be potatoes at every meal – staple food perhaps?), peas and carrots, pasta, and an apple crisp with custard (according to Brendan). We split up afterwards – part of the group went to Richmond (and had an exciting time navigating the bus system or so I hear), and I went with Brendan, Alexis, Tom, and Ahren to watch the play “Stags and Hens” – set in the ladies and mens room at a 70s dance club in England, which was quite an interesting play. It was interesting in some of the ideas about differences, class, and it was also funny. It was also interesting to see how certain choice words are pronounced differently! There were some jokes though, that I didn't understand, because I didn't know what the words they were saying meant! I enjoyed the second half more – I found it funnier, but that was probably also because I started getting used to the accents and was able to understand more of what the actors and actresses were saying! But it was good fun.

Tomorrow is going to be an early start – visiting the Houses of Parliament! I’ve done my reading on that, and now most people are going around trying to figure out what to wear tomorrow!

Sleep last night was interesting. I slept around 9, and the sun was still up. I woke up at 2am, and then again at 6am (the sun was already up – I heard that it had risen as early as 4 or 5 in the morning!), and then finally at 7, I woke up for the last time. We went and had breakfast in the cafeteria – I had a chocolate filled bread thing, which was pretty good actually! I also had some rice krispies (is there a generic name for that? Puffed rice ceral?), and an apple, which was pretty good as well! We came back from breakfast, and some people tried waking up Ahren, who apparently mumbled back something which no one heard during the door pounding. We had a while to wait, Alexis was showing us some break dancing moves, and we had some fun out on the little balcony, by climbing out the window.

We went to a Roehampton University introduction and orientation, finding out some more general information, as well as an introduction from the US-UK Fulbright Commission.  We also got our Roehamptom ducks, and sweatshirt and t-shirts! Got all my Roehampton gear now!

We had lunch a little while later, right across from our building. I had a lamb burger, I think they put some type of mayonnaise on it (tasted a little like tartar sauce too), with fries, and a small salad. (It seems like we’re eating a lot of burgers out here!) The lamb burger was pretty good though! We also received a copy of our bios in one of the packets, and started finding (and sharing) a bit more about each other – besides everything we already knew based off of facebook!

 We came back and got ready for our London orientation, in our 2 scavenger/photo/video hunt teams, Team Win, and Team Even Better (which was the best one of course!).  My group consisted of myself, Katie, Stephanie, Adam, Kelsey, and Brendan, and our Roehampton guides Emma and Mike.  The whole group took the bus down to the Barnes train station, to take an overground train into London. (I’m thinking that’s something they say here, instead of above ground). The ride was really smooth! Unlike a lot of American rail and commuter trains, we just glided (I don’t think glode is a word…I was about to type that – or glid? I don’t think so either) along into Waterloo station.

I really liked Waterloo station – there was a glass ceiling and it was huge!! Which seemed like a new extension of an older brick building – if I have time, maybe I’ll see if Wikipedia has a history of the station. But it was a very nice, very airport looking type place – shows how much prominence trains have here.  And Mike treated us to a much needed cup of (Caffe Nero – think Starbucks. Well they have those here too. Maybe more a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf? They also have another chain called Costa Coffee, where we met at the airport yesterday)coffee.

Our group headed out, and went to the London Eye (that’s the big wheel!) – Mike said when they built it, they built it in pieces, and floated it down the Thames, and then rose up it (like literally laid on its said, and was risen up!) 

Soon we saw Westminster Palace (where Parliament is), and Big Ben!  We crossed the Thames, and got to see it up close – the architecture is amazing! I love the gothic style architecture, and the ornate detail. We also went over to Westminster Abbey, which absolutely gorgeous as well! We passed a statue of Lincoln outside of Parliament square (though I’ve never seen a statue of Churchill in DC – interesting, isn’t it), and found a phone booth, where we tried to (successfully or not) do a picture similar to some previous kids, whose picture is on the cover of our Fulbright Summer Programme packets!

We passed 10 Downing Street, where we took a picture with our ducks, and some policeman (or do they call them constables? Bobbies?) who were nice and chatted with us about our ducks – almost not seeing a car they had to open the gate for! Cool though! We passed the Household Calvary Museum, where we took a picture with a guard! We made our way to Trafalgar Sqaure – home of Nelson’s Column and the National Gallery – and the T Mobile Sing Along!

We then walked up to Piccadilly Circus, which is near the West End, and has a lot of neon signs – think Times Square-esque.  We walked by Lecester Square (Harry Potter premiers me thinks), but most of it was closed off because of construction. But there were tons of restaurants and shops. We made a quick walk through Chinatown, which smelled like a usual Chinatown – though it was interesting to see Chinese signs mixed in the brick architecture. Speaking of architecture, I love the architecture, especially the mix – there are really old, hundred(s) year old buildings, juxtaposed next to new, modern buildings – giving a sense of the city’s age and history, as well as its moderness, and cultural change. 

We then made our way down to the tube, where as Laura told us earlier, stand on the right, walk on the left( or some people will get quite angry!)  It was deep and windy, like the New York system, yet it was much more brightly lit and cleaner. And seemed more orderly too, despite the throngs of people there.  It was fun – I’m starting to get the hang of it (and the use of my oyster card(think transit pass)!).  We came out near St. Paul’s Cathedral, and made a quick stop at Caffe Nero before heading over there. However, when we came out it started to rain! I suppose I blended in well with my black umbrella. We went to St. Paul’s Cathedral, then took the Millennium Bridge (didn’t it get destroyed at the start of the 6th Harry Potter movie?), over to Tate Modern, and were able to see Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre!

We walked along the Thames (in the rain!), past the National Theatre, and had dinner on the South Bank, and a restaurant called Giraffe, where we met up with the other group, and Roehampton staff. Dinner was quite delicious – I elected to go with a cranberry juice, but it’s interesting to note the cultural differences here in regards to alcohol. Drinking age is 18, but it seems that people drink more as a social thing, in the sense that they don’t drink to get super drunk, unlike in some places in America. I wonder if it’s the drinking age, or the culture and history we have with drinking, or some combination of those and other factors, but it’s one of the many differences between the two sides of the pond. We also got quizzed on some different usages of US and UK words! We headed back out afterwards (not in the rain, thankfully), and took a train back to Putney, the little town (or village?) near Roehampton. Kriss showed us a pub where we stayed for a bit (no, I didn’t drink anything tonight – perhaps next time, but I was really tired tonight!). I left with a group, and we got to take a double decker bus back! We got off over at the co-op, and had about a 10 minute walk back to campus – the weather at night was very nice tonight!

Today was an amazing experience, thrilling, and a bit overwhelming! We saw so much of London in just a few hours (and a plethora of tourists from all over the world!), I’d love to go back and take more time at a lot of places! There is so much going on here, and so much to see and learn!

Blogging from Roehampton University, London! 8 hours ahead of my pacific time counterparts.

So, to start with today (Saturday – it feels like today for me, though I guess technically it was really yesterday…darn time changes). Had breakfast with dad at Denny’s for an early Father’s Day breakfast.  Then I finished packing up my stuff. Except for my computer, which decided that it would install updates as I shut it down. Making us stay at home 20 minutes extra. But we still got to the airport at a reasonable time, more than 3 hours early, but the line at Air New Zealand was really long. And only 2 attendants were working the counter – but soon there were 6 or 7, and the line went quite quickly!  Got thrown a bit of a curveball with them weighing the carry on baggage, but it worked out.

I met Kevin at the airport, before we boarded the plane.  It was nice to walk past the first two classes, with fully reclining seats that turn into beds, and footrests. But then was to the back economy class, where the seats seemed awfully close together – maybe even closer than regular flights. 

But it was an interesting flight. There was back seat entertainment – I watched a couple bits from some Glee episodes, and I also finally watched The Social Network (not a very satisfying ending!), and The Adjustment Bureau (Went in with low expectations, came out satisfied). Also tried to get some sleep. It was hard though, without much room to rest my arms, and a crying baby.  Though to make up for my lack of sleep were meals! We had a dinner meal, I had a chicken pasta dish, which came with chickpea salad, a roll, and a mini cup of ice cream. We also had breakfast – I had a cheese omelet, with a little bowl of fruit and yogurt cup. Thank you Air New Zealand! There was a beautiful moment went we broke through the cloud cover over London, and were able to make a nice circle, the Thames in full view – I wasn’t able to get a picture, but it sure looked amazing!

When we landed at London Heathrow, we had to go through customs – the line was long, but it went quickly, and the customs officer that I was with was friendly. The airport was very nice as well – a lot of glass work and natural light. Then baggage claim, then out to Costa Coffee, where Kevin and I met up with 9 of the other students, with one coming later, along with our Roehampton representative Kriss.  We waited for a coach (on the left side of the street!) and boarded, on our way to Roehampton. The streets seem a lot narrower than they are in America, and it was also interesting to see all the traffic circles (and how used to them people are, as opposed to some in the US).

Once we got here, we settled in for a bit, and Kriss gave us a tour around campus. It’s a nice campus, with a lot of old buildings. I have a nice view of a green/field out my window, and the rooms also have their own sinks in them (a nice amenity!). We tried to go to dinner, but arrived an hour early (and in the process of walking there went pretty close to a wedding party and its security guard). We went back and waited around for a while, before walking south to look for a convenience store, before coming back for dinner.

We had hamburgers, corn, potatoes, and salad. The hamburger wasn’t the best, but the cheese (munster I think?) was pretty good, and the rest of the food was rather like dorm food. It was alright. There were pitchers of water along the long tables, along with a sweeter drink (something between sugar water, lemonade, and capri sun). Been settling in to Roehampton – I really need some sleep! Hope tomorrow is just as exciting!

(pictures will be on Facebook soon!)