Not much time tonight either, so I suppose I’ll wait until tomorrow for my LA/London transport comparison – so wait for that, it’s coming! So for today, regular day of waking up at 5:30, leaving at 6:30 for the 7am train, getting to West Hollywood around 9am. Today was continuing yesterday’s sites/blogs/brands for marketing a mobile app. It’s interesting to see all the research and work that goes into these promotions. Also saw today’s Abe’s Market live videocast (they sell natural goods in their online store, mostly foods), and the end of today’s show marked the return of the Loveologist Wendy Strgar – she’s quite an entertaining character about sexual health and her natural products – here’s a link to her first appearance (content warning – not really PG, things get kinda crazy (but entertaining too) in her talk) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUyv-U65ucg&feature=channel_video_title . My research got sent to some other people who found it useful, I think it’s really cool to see that what I’m doing is actually being seen (fingers crossed that something gets used! But even if not, maybe it’ll spark an idea in someone else). Had to leave early for a Cornell in Hollywood Event (by taxi for 10 minutes instead of 2 hours by bus – more on my frustrations another time) with some recruiters at Fox (and had a run in with my cousin on the way, which was a nice surprise!), who had very good advice about finding work in the entertainment industry, especially regarding resumes and interviews – very glad we had that arranged for us! And on top of that, we got to sit in some nice chairs at a nice table in a nice view. I feel like the Fox Plaza building is Fox’s LA version of NBC’s 30 Rock (the building, not the show).  Fox Plaza!  Inside the Metro Rapid Bus - it had those cool accordion connectors (like when Adam and I went to Camden Arts Centre!) Took a Metro Rapid bus back (like an express bus), and missed the last train to Industry by 3 minutes. I even did the run from the bus down the escalator through the plaza and into the train tunnels – I think I had a guy yell/laugh at me as I was running – but to no avail, I got to an empty platform. I ended up buying a sandwich at the station (past 6:30 by then) – a bit like when we bought dinner at the station at Edinburgh! But it was more fun with 12 other people. I think it had a lot of sodium though, I’m pretty thirsty now. Ended up taking a 7:10 train to Covina instead, and had to wait for a ride back home – was past 8 by the time I got home – about a 15 hour day! Wow. Here’s to tomorrow…
Work/Intern: Back to the long days of interning. The stuff I do is pretty interesting though – today I was looking for some web sites and tie ins that might be possibilities for a mobile app that is being developed.
Commute: Long as always. Napped on the Metrolink train to Union Station. Strange characters on the bus. Miss London transport – more on that soon (and some comparisons to come at a later date)
Debt Ceiling: Missed a lot today. Saw the markets fall a lot when they opened this morning, was home as Speaker Boehner was responding to President Obama. And saw that wonderful “Countdown to Default” countdown clock in the bottom corner of CNN.
And now why LA Public Transport (transportation for Americans) is so bad – there are trains in like a backwards C shape. There’s a network downtown, in the San Fernando Valley (Northwestish) and in Orange County (Southwestish), but from Hollywood to the coast, there’s NOTHING. Except buses. But figuring out those isn’t that easy. Basically it boils down to planning a trip that’s about 5-6 miles by bus SHOULD NOT TAKE AN HOUR to figure out. </rant> I just wish it was like in London, where practically every bus stop had a map of the bus lines in the near vicinity (so I would be able to go my 5 or 6 miles by looking at a bus stop and not spending an hour reading through online timetables because the metro auto planner wasn’t working), and schedules posted for each on posts at the bus stops. It was very easier as an foreigner/outsider coming to London to make sense of their transport system – I live in the LA area, and I can’t even make sense of it. Very different. But at least I have my plan for my 16 hour long day tomorrow. Commuting from inland is just great. Though I have a lot of respect for those who do this on a regular basis, every week of the year.
Today was also a pretty normal day. I spent a good chunk playing Locomotion – an early 2000s game, which is like SimCity meets Roller Coaster Tycoon (the old version) – basically you’re building a transportation company (utilizing lots of trains!), in an old Roller Coaster Tycoon type interface. It’s a lot of fun, and I probably spend too much time on it! Maybe it’s a bit nerdy, but I love trying to figure out different signal and station configurations to try to make my railroad system the most efficient. I remember when we were in London, each time we took a train and I saw something cool, I went to try to incorporate it into my game! Besides the game, I put in some more time working on that website – I think I got some good things, viewing individual posts, adding some links to the posts, and figuring out default settings for when you browse different posts. I suppose it’s trying to build like Twitter (did that already! Cool!) with Amazon search functionalities, with some stuff from other sites. A lot of work. Thanks to the Mythbusters for accompanying me while I was working. I also had the chance to make more homemade popcorn today! I love the stuff – just some salt, oil, and popcorn kernels, none of that processed microwave stuff. Even though some people find the flavor bland (no buttery stuff – and I didn’t use a “u” in flavor!), I find it delicious! And snack on it quite a lot – one pot doesn’t last me very long. At least there’s a lot of fiber in it! But it is much healthier than the microwave popcorn, so I don’t feel too bad about it. Better than potato crisps (chips). Some exciting news down from San Diego Comic Con this weekend! I’m just quite sad that there’s nothing Stargate related this year, as the end of the latest series, Stargate Universe, was effectively the end of the franchise (for now at least, but if it ever comes back, it’ll probably be a reboot, which just wouldn’t be the same). My aunt and uncle came over today – traded produce with them – got some fresh tomatoes, and compared them to ours, got to see their large yellow tomatoes (we only have tiny ones), and saw their bell peppers and spicy peppers! We had lamb for dinner with pasta with a fresh homemade tomato sauce, which was wonderful! Had a pretty deep conversation with my dad about the stars and space after dinner too. So tonight is an early night to sleep – need to wake up at 5:30am tomorrow morning, back to my internship! Getting ready to be excited for the internship work, and ready to get mad at LA local transit for its infrequent nature (unlike what we’ve experienced in London!) – until tomorrow!
Today felt like a very productive day! Today we got up early and made a quick family trip back down to Dana Point to pick up the car, and I drove back on the freeway. Though after hitting high freeway speeds, it feels like driving on regular streets is very slow! 40mph used to seem pretty fast, but not so much now…
At home, I put in a few more hours on the website I’m working on – I got the system working to the point where people can post certain information – I still need to work on searching that information and subscribing to that information. Sorry I can’t be more upfront on the details!
I started practice clarinet too today, which I haven’t played for quite a while now. Just playing a few long tones and some scales, but it was good to get the air back through the instrument and my fingers moving again! My mom went to some lunch function, but brought home take out dim sum, which was good. Then in the afternoon, I went out on my own mini shopping trip. Looked at some grills at Home Depot. Then I went to Sam Ash to look for some music for my clarinet music audition for CU Winds in about a month. I almost opened the door the wrong way though – in the UK a lot of doors opened inward, so you’d push to enter (seems like a safety hazard?) – Kelsey and Nicole got a good laugh of me finding this out the hard way at the hostel in Scotland. But most doors in the US open outward (pull to enter, push to exit). Anyways, I spent a lot of time at Sam Ash looking for music – trying to find pieces not too hard and not too easy, or ones that look hard but end up being the same 16th note pattern repeated 12 times. So I picked a couple out after at least half an hour – time to try them out now! Made a stop in Best Buy to price some things, then over to Target to get some clothes, toiletries, and cleaning supplies. Good car trip overall.
And once at home, I had time for a quick dip in the pool – time to swim some laps and play with my lego “oil rig.” All in all, a productive day – I did quite a lot (not mentioning some work related emails I sent and received), and a relaxing evening watching Huell Howser visit the corner of California in Lake Tahoe (the convex corner), where he humorously leaned over the boat to put a little floating California flag in the water, and watching a Discover Channel documentary on the killing of Osama Bin Laden (gee, isn’t it a bit soon for that? Modern television…) Hope the rest of my summer is this productive!
I’m not sure how long I’m going to keep my dates European (I changed one of my clocks to 24 hour time too, instead of 12 hour – a lot of things were on 12 hour time in England, but bus schedules and cinema times were on 24 hour time), but I’ll do it for a while, or at least until I get tired of it.
Not a whole lot to report today. Drove to Dana Point with my mom for some car stuff – nice to see the Pacific Ocean, something I don’t see as much as I probably should. It’s like all the people we met in London who said we’ve seen more of it than they have – I need to get out and see more of the LA area! The freeways here are much bigger though – 5+ lanes per direction, when we were in London, even though we were on freeways/highways/carriageways twice, the most I ever saw was 3 lanes per direction – just a different size and scale. Not to mention the size of the cars. So today was my first time driving long distance in a month – getting used to big cars, big streets, and driving on the right side (not that we drove while we were there). It was alright – about as normal as my freeway driving pre-London anyways.
Besides that, it’s interesting being back within my “news bubble” – constant source of Twitter feeds via BBC News and CNN, along with cable news networks all day – follow the tragic bombings and killings in Norway, up tp the minute with the latest play by play on the debt ceiling – I’m not sure whether it’s a good or bad thing to be this connected to everything – perhaps that’s something to think about for another blog entry.
I started back on some web programming, which I haven’t really done in over a month. I’m working on a new website, so it was a bit strange to look at it after not seeing it for a while, but I’m starting to get back into the swing of things there.
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Mailbag!
Priscilla – Carded a few times – not sure if it was our age or if some places didn’t care as much…you can look pretty young too! I suppose being called “the Americans” is slightly easier when there’s not the same language barrier, and a lot of our actions and appearance (not to mention our accents) probably labeled us as Americans!
Brendan – Yes, strange to be home – quite weird to not be around all of you, and suddenly a much slower pace of life – no more wake up calls 8am by Adam and nonstop until 1am. It’s nice to get sleep! But it’s still a bit offsetting not to be busy 24 hours a day. And I wish I had rain and cooler temperatures now – it’s only been in the 80s/90s, and I’m already getting tired of the heat!
Hmm, there’s not exactly a whole lot to write about today – I can see why I stopped blogging as often as every day – there’s not as much to write about when you’re not travelling around every day. Though to go off of that, life has certainly slowed down quite a bit – perhaps not as much when I’m interning again though.
My sleeping schedule is still off by a bit – last night I fell asleep at 1900 (7pm) and woke up at midnight. Then a couple hours of more sleep, to wake up at 3 in the morning for the landing of the space shuttle Atlantis! It was a pre-dawn landing, and the shuttle coming down in the darkness, illuminated by giant NASA lamps was a pretty spectacular sight – me along with 50,000 other people on NASA’s live stream, and I had a nice little Twitter conversation with Kurt about it. There’s a nice 5 minute soliloquy of Neil deGrasse Tyson (astrophysicist and host of PBS’s NOVA) about what NASA means to us as a country (and those 5 minutes go by really quickly!
On another note, I’ve forgotten just how hot it can be here in Southern California, and I’m missing the orange squash already!
I’ve been home for about 24hours already, and while I’m glad to be home, there are many things I miss about being in London!
Oyster Cards – The travel/transport passes (the cards you swipe to go on a bus/tube/train, etc). They were easy to use and represented a lot of freedom for us! Which let us go everywhere in London (practically) and were probably one of the most useful things during out trip.
Small Streets – and small cars. Everything was just smaller, which was nice. I was looking at the main road in our town (Colima) and realized that I had seen practically no roads that wide while I was in London (maybe 1 or 2 in the city, but that’s all) – it was as wide as a carriageway in London! Though when cars were parked on narrow streets (and cars were parked halfway on the curb and on the street – the spots are outlined like that, but the curbs are not as high – and people park in both directions on both sides of the streets!), bus drivers would go crazy weaving left and right. This was especially scary on the top of a double decker bus! I remember a couple times from the top of the bus it looked like we were going to crash into a van – I remember Sophia and I saw it and it freaked us out!
Non-flushing urinals – Maybe it’s not something to miss. And in their defense, I think they do flush, but either before you start your business, or at pre-determined intervals. But most of the time, the urinals didn’t seem to flush – certainly not right after you leave it. No handle or sensor, but there were pipes going to the top, implying they clean eventually. But it seems in that way that they are very environmentally friendly!
Brown Cane Sugar – for coffee – and it wasn’t just “high end” places – Starbucks, Costa Coffee, Caffe Nero (other coffee chains), and even the university canteen/cafeteria had it! I liked using it instead of white sugar, and now that I’m back to our white sugar, I miss the brown stuff!
Saying “Toilet” – Though people will probably understand you saying “restroom” (maybe “bathroom” but they think that’s weird), most people say “toilet.” As in, “Where is the toilet?” or “I’m going to the toilet.” And it’s seen as normal, though in the US saying that would probably get you a stare, and people might see that as a bit rude. I enjoyed saying toilet instead of restroom though - have to get used to the US way again.
TO LET - Related to that were the signs that said “TO LET” – which equals “FOR RENT” – though at first I thought they were signs for the toilet with the “I” missing – so every time I saw one, that’s what came to mind!
People calling me by the right name – when introducing myself, I never had someone mistake me for “Richard” – unlike several times here in the US. Maybe partly because there’s an area/city of London in the southwest called Richmond, so it’s like “My name is Richmond, like down the street” – there actually was a Richmond street which we travelled on several times.
People calling me RICH-WHAT? – Thanks to Johnny I suppose, for coining this. Wasn’t that fond of it at first, but it’s grown on me, and I miss some of the others in the group saying that.
The people in the group – going off the last one, I really miss being with everyone! You don’t spend 24 hours a day for a month with the same people and not get close. I have some amazing memories to share with those people! At least we have Facebook – pictures, our groups, and all those – though it’s hard to replace actual human face to face contact – reunion time hopefully!
Marketing people – They were really cool, and really close to us (physically on the storey under us, and close like friends too) – they were great guides to stuff we could see and do in London too.
Pubs – not that I’m alcohol crazy, but it was cool to be able to walk into a pub (maybe it’s just because it’s something you can’t do here). I know they have a big drinking culture there, and a lot of people get very drunk, like in the US, but I feel like (not speaking from personal experience, but I can’t know for certain) in the US, because beer is cheap, and easy (?) to sneak into places, underage people tend to use that to get super drunk, rather than a more light social drinking. It was interesting to see people drinking different drinks – mixed drinks, ciders, and other stuff I’m not even sure about – but it sure was more expensive. And people are probably less likely to have tons and tons when it’s more expensive (again, that’s an assumption because I don’t know much about this…) – so maybe if super expensive alcohol was legal for kids at 18, and all alcohol was legal at 21, it might promote a more tempered drinking culture. Or not. Just something that went through my head. But yes, pubs were cool – and it was normal, not like “oooh, you guys are in a pub,” but just everyday life. We got carded in some places (some of us look under 18), but besides that, it was like a normal every day experience.
Academics – I do miss being in the class – to me, the module on “Questioning Citizenship” was intellectually stimulating for me! I also miss the academic people many of whom we were close with too, and were great personalities. I also miss the seminar teaching style, and how we were all seen as equals – calling them by their first names and whatnot.
Weather – California was nice for a few hours before it got super hot! I miss the rain already!
Coins! – For 1 and 2 pounds, they don’t have paper notes, but use coins instead. Which was strange at first, but I got used to it. It was convenient too, since I didn’t have to pull out my whole wallet every time I wanted to buy something, and could just dig around for a pound or 2 in my pocket. Though since we’re used to coins being less than a dollar, having all those coins made me feel like I didn’t have much money – leading to a nice surprise when I emptied my pockets and found I had more money than I thought!
Being called “the Americans” – it was interesting, some places we’d go (like the debate in Putney, or volunteering at our school), and be referred to as “the Americans” which was an interesting, but nice little title name for us. I suppose it’s true that we are Americans, and that that’d be the way to refer to us, but not traveling overseas in a group like this before, it was a little strange at first, before becoming more endearing after that.
I’ll probably add to this list with other blog posts over the next few weeks. I’ll try to continue with my blog post every day and see what happens, might go back down to a week when school starts, but 32 days is pretty good…
Back in the USA tonight (though as I’m writing, it’s 8am in London – strange to remember the huge time difference). On that note, I really cannot believe that breakfast and watching everyone leave was really 24 hours ago. It all feels like it’s been one day – seeing the first group leave at 4:30 am, breakfast at 8, leaving at 11:30, plane around 4 in the afternoon, getting to the US around 8 or 9 at night. I suppose I did some proper time traveling there.
But back to this (yesterday?) morning. I didn’t really get much sleep. Kelsey and Nicole got back around 3am. There was some tackling and running going on in the hallway too. As people continued packing, I took a wool blanket into Adam’s room – Alexis wanted to hear fairy tale stories, so Adam and I came up with the girl and the elephant – going line by line, which degraded quite quickly. Better than my story about a middle eastern prince. Though Alexis tried to tell one about a Russian prince – sorry to say that I fell asleep. But Adam woke me up about 20 minutes later.
We waited around, and 4:30 soon came around, and we had to say goodbye to Adam, Stephanie, Nicole, and Katie. It was a bit sad – some tears, pictures, and many hugs going around. We waved as they walked around the corner with their suitcases. Though they were lucky in some ways, because I think they got home before my flight even left!
 A thoughtful morning At 4:30 though, the sky was already pretty light (higher latitude), and I thought it’d be cool to watch the sunrise. Ahren, Tom, Alexis, Kevin and I trekked out behind Lawrence to the grass and the lake to watch the sun rise. It was really peaceful in the morning – morning light in the sky, the sounds of crickets, ducks, and geese, and dew on the ground. It felt like 6am, and it was quite relaxing and calm. It was a nice way to remember the presence of nature at Roehampton. Though we didn’t stay out long enough to watch the sun actually rise (it was cold!), we did stay out there for a little while.
Soon, it was time for Tom, Ahren, Brendan, and Sophia to leave, and we did the routine again. More tears, pictures, and hugs. It was a bit sad coming back in though, with just four of us remaining – Kelsey, Alexis, Kevin, and me. It was quite quiet – and Kevin was finishing his postcards, the rest of us went to sleep for a whole hour and a half or so.
 Putney breakfast! I woke up a bit after 7 – and then the tiredness really hit me. I was so tired! Wasn’t feeling that great either. But the four of us had decided earlier to go out to breakfast for our last morning – get real food! We took the bus to Putney, which was a lot busier in the morning than I thought it’d be, and went to an Italian restaurant that Talah recommended to us. I had scrambled eggs with grilled tomatoes and toast (first eggs since I’ve been here!) with breakfast tea, and everyone’s food looked great! We took the bus back to Medfield Street, where we stopped for stamps and at the convenience store. We got back and saw that the cleaning staff had already started cleaning out the rooms of the others – the doors were open, beds stripped, rubbish bins outside – it was a bit sad too! We got our things together and finished packing, then went down to say bye to the marketing team before heading out to our taxi.
 Empty hallway.... The taxi took us to the airport – it was our first time in a car! Alexis was dropped off first, then Kevin and I, and Kelsey was last, so we all gave each other our last hugs. We checked in at Heathrow and proceeded to go through security – pretty much like American airports. However, what was different was that once we got through security, there was a central waiting area, with shops and seats, and boards telling us what gate to go to about 30 minutes before boarding, instead of waiting by the gate. We bought lunch – I got mine from a pharmacy – chicken sandwiches, and potato crisps, and a tropical fruit juice. Kevin napped a bit, and I read Bossypants, and then we had our gate assigned, and had a 20 minute walk to the gate – the airport is huge! After presenting our boarding passes, we were ushered into another waiting area by the gate, where yesterday’s Evening Standard was there for free, and then waited another 20 minutes before boarding.
It was nice not to have my rolling case on the plane – it felt a lot freer! The seats were small again, but it was alright, I slept as soon as I could. I woke up a bit, we were still on the ground (delayed), but they turned on the entertainment system, which was not working earlier. When we took off, I put together a music playlist on the entertainment system and fell asleep again. Later, there was a meal (roast chicken), and I watched the movie “Morning Glory” – I thought it was interesting, though I guess I was expecting a more Sorkin-esque view of news, but it was a good couple hours of entertainment (though I felt a lack of closure to the entertainment vs. news debate, and the love story felt unfinished), but it had a nice feel good ending at the end. I fell asleep again, waking up for the second meal of spinach quiche, on the 11 hour flight. I played a racing game and battleship on the entertainment console, before sleeping again. I woke up once we landed, and made it through customs. We grabbed our luggage, and Kevin and I bid our goodbyes.
I had an amazing experience – again, thank you to the US-UK Fulbright Commission for offering this program, and to the Roehampton University Academic and Marketing teams for making this an experience of a lifetime – this has probably been my best summer! It was a lot of fun, and I was looking through my pictures the other day – we have done some amazing things that I never thought I would get to do – and saw places I never imagined I’d see!
30 Days in London. The UK really, I guess. I cannot believe that it’s coming to an end already – today was our final full day all together. We split up a bit in the morning (but we all come back together later in the story!) Our breakfast this morning was chocolate croissants! Not a bad way to end breakfasts here. This morning, Alexis, Adam, Kevin, and I wanted to run into London to try to find some touristy souvenir shops. Katie was going to go with us, but she ended up going with Ahren on the morning boat tour. We only had about an hour, because we wanted to be back for lunch at Roehampton. We went to Covent Garden first, thinking that the Jubilee Market Hall would have stalls – though it turned out that on Mondays they have antique stalls, not general stalls, so there was only one place there, and one convenience store down the street that sold souvenirs as well. I bought some things there, and Kevin and I got ice creams (it was cheaper than it costs here at school!). Then, we walked over to Trafalgar Square – they found a booth on the sidewalk, but I remembered seeing a tourist shop around from when we walked. I found it, and we spent a few minutes there, before heading back to Roehampton for lunch.
 lunch being cooked! For lunch, I got food from the theatre menu – today was chicken fajitas. It was great to see the chef cook them right in front of us! And he showed us how we could fold the tortillas like a cup to eat it. Not sure if that’s authentic, but it sure tasted great – I’m going to miss watching him cook our food for lunch! A very good lunch to end our stay here with! Afterwards, we headed back into London to go on a boat tour on the Thames. Brendan, Alexis, Kevin, Adam and I walked down to Barnes and took the train and tube to Westminster (across the street from Parliament). We met Kelsey there. We boarded, after waiting for Nicole – she made it just in time! They were already putting the ramp away when she got there – but she got on board the boat! The tour went eastward, passing the London Eye, several bridges, Tower Bridge, the Tower of London, and made its way to Canary Wharf –about 45 minutes. It was soothing to be on the boat, but when we got further, it started getting cold, and our group went to sit inside.
We got to Greenwich, though we didn’t have much time – we wanted to do some other things, so we took pictures on the pier (hello, Eastern Hemisphere!), and boarded another boat going back west. It seemed slightly nicer – with curtains and tables on the inside portion. We sat there for a while, and then went up on the deck. A bunch of young American kids got on and crowded the boat before we got back to Westminster, but it ended up alright. We then split ways with Kelsey and Nicole who went to do other shopping.
 Tower Bridge  This is about as far as we got in Greenwich  Nice interior on the second boat I really enjoyed doing the boat tour when we did (though it would have been cooler at night!) We passed by a bunch of places and things we had already seen and been to (Tate Modern, St Paul’s Cathedral, London Eye, Tower of London, etc), and it was almost like a trip down memory lane (or river?), and also cool to see things from a different angle.
My group went to Hyde Park so we could go to Buckingham Palace, and met up with Tom, Stephanie, and Sophia. Adam wanted pictures of Buckingham Palace not in a storm like we did last time (and from a far distance) – when we started walking, it rained! We stopped at Hyde Park for 99 Ice Cream cones (basically it’s vanilla soft serve with a chocolate flake) – when I got my cone, it fell over onto the ground! Sophia laughed – but then when she got hers, the same thing happened! But hers was funnier, because her glob of ice cream on the ground started sliding down the sidewalk. The vendor was kind enough to give us both new cones. We got to Buckingham Palace and took our pictures, which was nice. We came back, going through a tunnel to the tube station that highlighted the Battle of Waterloo. The tube was very crowded! We had to pass up 2 trains, because they were absolutely packed like sardines (probably because they were going to the airport, Heathrow). The train we got on was still crowded, but just enough room for us to get on. We met up with everyone on the Southbank, including Talah, Kriss, and Emma from marketing, and Bradley, a student at Sophia, Kevin, Nicole, and Ahren’s volunteering school.
 Buckingham Palace We wanted Asian food, so went to Busaba Eathai (a Thai restaurant, we wanted to go there for Ahren’s birthday) – it was pretty good food, I had a green chicken curry with fried rice. My table had Bradley, Ahren, Stephanie, Tom, Katie, Kriss, and Emma. After dinner, we walked around a bit – some people got ice cream, then Talah had to leave. The rest of us walked over to Southbank, where Kriss, Emma, and Bradley left after we took some pictures on the bridges.
We went to the London Festival Hall afterwards – there were some couches and chairs and tables we moved around to make our own little “living room.” I grabbed a coffee, some of the guys got beers from the bar. We sat around for a while, then later we did more emotional stuff. We went around the group, and each member had to go and say something about every single person in the group. It was fun, and a bit emotional, but it was a nice way to end our programme. After that, we went out onto the Southbank and took tons of pictures at night with the London Eye and Parliament! Which was a lot of fun – and emotional too! I’m really sad that we’re all leaving – I feel that we’ve all gotten very close, and ending tonight with the group talking in our fake living room, and doing group pictures with everyone out by the river Thames was a great ending.
 Our living room  Out on the embankment Kelsey and Nicole went to see Harry Potter in 3D IMAX (biggest IMAX , 10400 watts of power!), the rest of us came back. The train was delayed a while (someone got hit at Wimbledon. Again.) but we got back – packed, spent the time, making a fake bubble bath, cleaning, watching lip dubs, football tackling – this is going to be a long night! We’re leaving in batches of 4 via taxi (seems like a reality tv show) – so I’m in the last group, so I’ll be here a bit longer. Time to go enjoy our last hour together – I hope we all keep in touch, I really love all the people in this group.
First an addition to yesterday – I mentioned that there were a lot of elderly people on the tube to Kensington Olympia, but offered no explanation – there was a 50+ convention! Thought I’d just explain that! And now on to today…
Today was a long and busy day! We woke up around 7 to go to breakfast (regular croissants – it’s interesting when you realize if you hit a croissant with a spoon and it chips…it’s probably been in the oven too long. Which sparked a discussion on the quality of the breakfast food.) 8 of us (Stephanie, Ahren, and Tom went to Oxford, Katie slept in today) went into the city to go to the Victoria and Albert museum. We got on the bus, and at the next stop, dozens of French and Spanish summer camp kids at Roehampton kids got on the bus. Gee, isn’t it annoying when a bunch of international students come get on the bus at the same time (and I haven't even said anything yet about those pesky Fulbright American students!)!
We got to the station, and there was a cool underground passageway (subway they call it – just a foot tunnel) to the museum (as well as the Natural History, Science Museums, and the Royal Albert Hall). So I thought the Victoria & Albert Museum was just mostly fashion stuff – but there was so much more! I was very pleased and excited (except the strange guy in the bathroom) – I had a great time there actually! We all split up into different groups so we could do our own things. I started off in the China room – there was some Chinese art, tapestries and rugs, some jade, and some more modern art pieces (see the exploding chair!) which were cool to look at.
 An "exploding" Chinese chair, "frozen" in midair After that, I went to look at the photography gallery, which was a guy who took a lot of photos of South Africa, which were interesting to look at and see the stories and lives of people during Apartheid. After that, I wandered my way into the Plasters room – which blew my mind! There were these enormous huge buildings and statues of plaster inside the building – they were exquisitely detailed and were gigantic! The scale was amazing, I was pleasantly surprised from that wandering.
 The people on the bottom give a sense of the scale of the plaster - this is taken from the balcony. It's super impressive being on the bottom looking up, but this gives a better sense of scale. I walked through the Medieval and Renaissance area – there were some cool building fronts (like a huge spiral staircase made of wood), and a harpsichord – I saw one at Cornell when I visited before I decided to go there, and so I recognized this one pretty soon, which was cool! I then took a glass elevator up 1 floor (because it was a glass elevator!) I went up to the theater arts area. There was one really cool exhibit, which was called “Five Truths” – taking the crazy Ophelia scene from Hamlet (unfortunately I haven’t read it yet…), directed in 5 different styles, and displayed on 10 screens (2 per each style, from 2 different camera angles), and played at the same time. It was strange, to hear dialogue spoken differently, using different props, different sounds, some camera angles straight into the face, some camera angles distorted and looking creepy. It was a bit of a trippy experience! But I thought it was very interesting, and artistically amazing! I walked through the rest of the theatre exhibit – I looked at models of various stages for famous plays which was really cool to see (love models!), and strolled past the costumes.
 Old wooden spiral staircase  Set models!  Cool staircase in the Jewelry Gallery Kelsey recommended the jewelry room, so I did a quick stroll. It was pretty cool, though I saw a lot of men sitting on the benches! And many woman up at the glass displays! But the room itself looked cool and modern, with a blue lit spiral staircase in the middle. I walked by some landscape paintings of England and Europe too, which were beautiful to see! I then walked up to the glasswork area – there were amazing things, going back to Venetian times, showing vases, cups, a model boat, glass horns, rolling pins, and bells (the sign said that they were quite impractical!) and many other glass objects.
Last I went into the architecture room – it was amazing, I loved it! I could have spent all my time there! There were many models, representing many styles. Tudor, more contemporary, showing how buildings are built to climate (and to being environmentally friendly), models of the Reading Room at the British Museum, Parliament, Gatwick Airport, and many more. It was amazing to see all the styles!
 Glass boat!  Architecture - model of a middle school  Model of a "green" housing community Afterwards, we all went outside to eat our packed lunches (guess my sandwich…tuna again!) on the benches out in front of the museum. And had some Jurassic Park moments with swarming pigeons! Swatting them away from our bench (me and Adam) – those tricky beasts then tried to sneak around the back of us between the bench and the wall. And then Kevin threw a crumb at them – and they went berserk! Crazy pigeons. We started walking down the street toward Harrods! We got across the street, and the skies opened up and started pouring heavy rain down – just like Edinburgh rain!
We got into Harrods (slightly wet) – it was an amazing place, and a huge department store! I feel like it’s only the super rich and tourists who go in there! But it was almost like being in Las Vegas – each room is themed differently (and very richly!), and there’s an Egyptian themed escalator bank (Luxor!) There were so many people there, but it was crazy! Saw 27,000 pound rugs. And gold cannons you could put on your office desk for decorations. Adam, Brendan, and I went to the toys section! There were lots of legos, and A LOT of Hornby model trains! (HO scale!) – I think it rekindled my interest in model trains! When I get time (and space and money) I’d love to set up a model train system – probably based on British trains, not so much American ones – which I noticed Hornby seems to have mostly British trains (while the ones I have at home are US trains). We also went through the bookstore and DVD area (admiring the Star Trek, Stargate and West Wing DVDs with Adam!), and we even went into the Harrod’s Gift Shop (yes, they have their own gift shop!).
 Harrods!  Food shopping at Harrods - fancy decor!  Looking down the Egyptian escalator (see the column on the left)  Model trains!!! After Harrod’s, we took the tube to Oxford Street – the girls went to buy clothing. In the tube station, Adam and I finally got to see the Star Trek ad we missed the other day (the tube came before we could read it) – looks like The Next Generation is coming to tv here soon. Adam, Brendan, Kevin and I went to buy some souvenirs. After that, Adam, Brendan and I continued walking around – it was raining a little, but water dripped onto us as we walked under scaffolding – which was an interesting (and not so nicely wet) experience. We wandered and decided to go to Grosvenor Square – current home of the US Embassy! (they’re moving down to Battersea soon). We saw the FDR memorial, and a memorial to WWII Pilots (sponsored by William Randolph Hearst – I don’t know, that seems to lessen its sincerity a bit to me. That’d be like saying welcome to the Tostitos Washington Monument! Maybe it was just generosity though). Then the US Embassy – with a huge gate in front of it! But it was nice, in front, they had the flags of all the states flying on flagpoles (saw California!), and on the roof there was a giant eagle perched wings spread out, in front of a waving American flag. It was nice to see – the 3 of us did a nice humming of the national anthem as we walked by. Yay America! Though the eagle was pretty intimidating (or a symbol of American power perhaps?). We also went by statues of Eisenhower and Reagan.
 Star Trek ad!  Top of the US Embassy in the UK! We walked around some more, tried to find Berkeley Square, but failed, so we just walked around – saw some nice buildings though. We then stopped at a Costa Coffee (like Starbucks) – I got an iced mocha, but the drinks ended up taking a while, and weren’t going to be able to walk back in time to get to the meeting point, so we ended up taking the tube for 2 stops – but it was pretty fun, running through the tube station (or at least a brisk walk), running to get to the train as we heard it approaching the platform when we were still in the corridors. We made it only about 4 minutes late, and that pretty much counts for on time. Afterwards, we all took (a very crowded) tube back, running a bit again, and took the train back to Barnes.
We had our last dinner here (said bye to the cafeteria staff too). It was hamburgers, roasted potatoes, corn, and muffins – the exact same dinner as our first night – full circles can be strange. We had a good time talking and eating. After dinner, we did some personal things, I started packing (mostly folding clothes…and singing), but all came out together to play UNO. We played real UNO – the ones the last for hours, because no one gives up, and we all try to destroy each other! Though I thought it was a rather anti-Hobbesian ideal – our “every man for himself” mentality, yet there was some common good of not wanting the person with the least cards to win, so we all kept each other in check, not descending into chaos. Though I suppose I may be looking too deeply into a game of UNO. But there were points when one person’s hand of cards was as much as the entire deck of shuffled cards in the middle. It got bad to point where we had to do a “1 card amnesty” to discard a card from the hand to try to increase the size of the deck. It was fun because we also started singing – starting off with 90s songs, then Don’t Stop Believing and Mamma Mia and then spent a long time on Disney songs. It was a lot of fun to play and sing! In the end, Adam “won” because we had to say no more shuffling the deck and no more drawing cards because it was taking too long! We were going to play Tension, but decided we were all too tired.
So I finished as much packing as I could, and wrote a super long blog entry! 1 more day – I still can’t believe this is coming to an end – I plan to enjoy the next 36 hours as much as possible!
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