Richmond's Own (but unowned) Website

Today we started off with an early day – 7 am, going to a 7:30 breakfast. Soon afterwards, we headed out to go to the Portobello Market in London. It’s basically a street market. I went thinking it’d be a block or so, but it was huge! Blocks and blocks on one single street – and it was organized into areas – antiques, fruits & veg, clothing, new products, etc. There were a lot of cool little stalls I stopped by. There were ones with stamps with letters of the alphabet (like for initials) – though they were more like fancy print type than stamps. Like the first letters of the first word of a chapter with fancy flowers around it – like that. I also went by the tourist stalls – I think I’m starting to recognize all the tourist merchandise – the same keychains, pens, t-shirts, etc. Must be the same supplier out there somewhere. Anyways, there were some really nice prints that I looked at – some were from old cigarette boxes, there were series with different trains of the world, including some that I recognize from Thomas (Snowdon railway in particular), and another stall had prints of drawings from Winnie the Pooh, Babar the Elephant, and Thomas the Tank Engine (all guaranteed to be 60+ years older!) There were very nice antique maps too – I was considering getting one too, before realizing I probably wouldn’t have the same appreciation for a 100 pound map as others would (albeit being 100+ years old!) – personally, I probably would have been alright with a photocopy, so alas, I didn’t buy one.

After that, Nicole, Kevin and I set out to meet Brendan at the Doctor Who Experience, not too far, at Kensington Olympia. When we were leaving Portobello Market, it was getting VERY crowded (lots of tourists!) – I’m glad we decided to go early in the morning! We took the district line train to Earl’s Court, and had to wait for a train to basically take us on a one stop branch to Kensington/Olympia. This station was a little different (and cool!) because it didn’t have electronic boards like other stations saying the destination and platform and time until the next train, but they did have a board on each platform with the names of destinations, and an arrow would appear next to the destination of the approaching train, which was an innovative (and probably earlier) way of notifying passengers. The person making the announcements was a bit overly excited – maybe bored? “On platform 4, District Line to KENsington Olyyymmmpia!!” – though the train got switched to platform 3 – all of us (and there were a lot of old people too!) had to get off the train we got on and move over to the next platform. Good thing we listened!

When we got to Kensington Olympia, the rain was really pouring down hard! Almost Edinburgh hard rain! It was crazy – I was getting wet, even with my umbrella and semi-waterproof jacket. We got to the Doctor Who Experience as Brendan was leaving, so we said hi as he leaved. He went through the actual experience (like museum/video attractions – you have to pay though), while we just went to the shop part. The Experience is like an exhibition of Doctor Who props/costumes/memorabilia type things. The shop was so cool – I was so excited! There was a display case in the middle like a TARDIS console, and the theme was playing! They had so much – sonic screwdrivers, DVDs, tshirts, lego (well lego-like at least) sets, action figures, TARDIS playsets, Dalek pens, and even a lifesize cardboard TARDIS! It was surreal being there, though I wish not as many things were for children as there were. But it was still a lot of fun.

By the time we left, it was still raining. We decided to go to Tate Modern because Kevin needed to buy some gifts, and we were meeting the group at the Globe theater to watch a performance of Anne Boleyn, which was right nearby. We took the District Line to Mansion House, walked over the Thames on the Millennium Bridge. It was still raining, but since the Millennium Bridge is metal, I could “skate” across it – which was a lot of fun to do! I think I might have attracted some stares though… Kevin and I were going to take shelter under the bridge on the south side – then going underneath it, we realized, it was designed so water would drip down through the bridge. So much for staying dry.

Kevin and Nicole went in the Tate gift shop – it was a different one and bigger one than the one I went to last time – there’s a second gift shop on another floor. But I was shopped out, and sat on one of the huge wide ramps in the open area (it used to be a power station) and ate my packed lunch from Roehampton, and tried to dry off a bit. Though I noticed that there were a lot of people camped out on the sides. Like a refugee place. Well maybe that’s too tough. Evacuation center maybe. Like a hurricane or wildfire evacuation center, people sitting along in their little groups and all that.

After that, we went to the Globe Theatre! Shakespeare’s Globe! It’s not the original – but it’s a reconstruction of the original. We had yard tickets, meaning we had to stand for the 2 hours of the show, but it was worth it (for 5 pounds! For more, we could have paid for seats) – almost like a peasant’s view of how it would have been – though they might have had mud instead of concrete. There’s no roof (for the yard/standing tickets – there are if you pay for seats, which is covered), but the show goes on no matter the weather! I bought a poncho because it was raining pretty hard when we got there, but I ended up not needing it, because the rain let down during the show, luckily. We saw “Anne Boleyn” – a play about the infamous woman, which jumped between the timelines of King James I (and the King James Bible), and Henry VIII & Anne. It was very good – funny, entertaining, and moving - I enjoyed it greatly, I am so happy that we all decided to go watch! And 3 guys can play a lot of music on older instruments and bells, which helped set the time period of the play.  I never thought I would be able to see a show like that, and I am so glad that I had this opportunity!

After the Globe, we split up. Adam, Kelsey, Alexis and I went to Covent Garden, intending to do some shopping. When we got there, it was still raining (pouring more – like actual Edinburgh rain this time – but I guess it’s not a real London experience without the rain!), and already 5:30 – since we wanted to get back for dinner, we had about 15 minutes to shop. Alexis and I went back to the Jubilee Market (indoor street market/vendors area), thinking it’d be tourist stuff like last time, but apparently Saturday is for arts & crafts vendors – so we got to see booths with prints, woodwork and metalwork – there were some really cool metal figures placed around wine bottles to look like people! We met back up and got onto the tube, but the lines were CRAZY! There were long lines for the lifts (elevators) down – because this station didn’t have an escalator. There were transit people directing us to the lifts – wouldn’t let us down the 193 stairs (15 storeys I believe(and I believe that’s how they spell stories like floors here)), so we waited for the lift down to the tube which was equally as crowded. But we made it back to Waterloo, ran to the train (always running to trains – transportation here is always a race a man remarked to me last night) – but we did get back in time for dinner. Tonight was burritos! Saw Johnny serving us food again too. The burritos were pretty good – would’ve been better with salsa, but a tomato from the salad bar worked well.

After dinner, I was going to stay in, sleep early, upload some facebook pics. And the like. But the girls were planning on going to the Fez club over in Putney (the nearby town). I figured I’d like to go out, but wasn’t really in the mood to lose my hearing. I got the guys together (rebelling against the club) and we did a “guys night out” (hope the girls weren’t too mad – but maybe that gave them so more freedom in their activities). We ended up on the same bus as the girls (I called it!) because while we went to 2 different bus stops, the busses were running every 20 minutes, so we ended up on the same bus anyways. We went to the Duke’s Head in Putney, which is nice and right on the embankment of the Thames. Tom and Ahren had been there a few times. We got our drinks (big night for me!) – and headed out to a nice spot on the embankment where we sat down on the slope over the river, looking out at Putney Bridge, and the moon, and the light reflected in the sky from the sun. (There are glimmers of sun until at least 10 here – I’m going to miss that. Though Ahren said we’re at the same latitude as Juneau, Alaska – sun up at 5am, down at 10pm – I hear that in the winter, the sun can be set as early as 3pm. I will miss it being light still at 9pm once I get back home to California though.) We also passed some really drunk passed out people, one guy (“He only had one beer! Wake up mate!”) and a drunk girl (“I want  sex!”, before promptly falling down), both being cared for by a group of (what I presume are their) friends, as well as a woman in heels who ran away from her group. Interesting night. None of that happened to us – we were all quite civil! It was just nice for us to go sit by the river, talk and share stories, and spend some time together as friends, it was a really nice evening, and I’m glad we did it (and I spent less money that I would have at the club!).

But tonight made me realize how much I’m going to miss Putney. It’s a nice place, right on the Thames, and I love the bridge at night! It’s low key, but has enough going on while being suburban enough as well as busy enough to be interesting, and it has a very close proximity to London and super bustling areas. It’s been great to be able to spend time there, I’ve really enjoyed it, and I’m going to miss what Putney has to offer when I get back home.

My internet isn’t working, so I’m going to type this tonight on word(12:30 am on July 16) and post in the morning – won’t have time to put in pictures though because it’s going to be a busy day, so sorry about that!

Today was our presentations – it was really cool! We dressed up and everything. We were Team Scorsese, and we showed our film first. Ours was about education and citizenship – and the debate over how citizenship should be taught in schools, if at all. You can watch it on Youtube here:

The other two groups (Spielberg and Tarantino) did theirs on gaps between different “groups” of citizens, and on protests. All of them looked great, and I think everyone did a wonderful job! I really enjoyed watching the videos this morning, along with the presentation – in front of the panel of Stephen Driver, Dave, and Yasmin, along with some of our other lecturers. We all dressed up and did our presentations and presented our films. It has been a long 48 hours of straight work on the films, but it was all worth it in the end! I am really proud with how our film turned out, I think it was great – pacing, camerawork, music, theme and message, and how we all contributed to the final product – it was much better than I originally thought it was going to be! Got laughs in the right spots too! Maybe I should consider documentary making more in my future…

After we showed the films, Yasmin took us to the courtyard where we awaiting the judging panel – ala the Apprentice (or the Inquisition!) – though I was kind of sad that we had thunder in one of our parts of the audio, she said she enjoyed it – it fit in with the doom and gloom bit that the kids were talking about – so if you hear that, it was a piece of excellent symbolism! The judging panel had mostly kind words to say about our film – we were very pleased with the feedback - and then like that, our academic work for the summer was over! A bit scary.

We had lunch in Froebel (fish and chips with mushy peas! I got Ahren onto the mushy peas team – Brendan too I think, somewhat at least – they are so good!) In the afternoon was a reception in Grove House with more of the academic staff, as well as the marketing people and Roehampton administration. There were refreshments and some snacks there as well – if it was from the same catering company, this proves that they are capable of making some quite good food! And if it wasn’t them, the food was still quite good! We mingled for a bit, before showing our video again, so that the marketing people and the other academics, and the Vice Chancellor could see it (he nicely integrated themes from each of the films into his little talk to us) – local MP (Member of Parliament) Justine Greening (who we’ve had the pleasure to meet on several occasions) came near the end (enough to catch a bit of our video!) and was able to help hand out our certificates (and goody bags!) Everyone was there – Dave, Stephen, Tessa, Jonathan, Nicola, Kriss, Emma, Talah, Gary, and I probably forgot some people, but it was great to see them all!

Time to take a moment here, and thank the Fulbright Commission for offering this excellent summer programme, as well as Roehampton University for hosting us – the academic team who did an amazing job exposing us to different issues and viewpoints in the various sessions and the marketing team for making our stay here comfortable. I really enjoyed being in the small group, and the British teaching culture – being able to build these relationships with the people who taught us, calling them by their first names, having conversations as equals – it was much different than the way I learn at home, and it has been a tremendous experience.

Afterwards, we all took pictures outside (with the official Roehampton photographer!), and then went for a post debriefing with Rebecca from the Fulbright Commission – and the infamous W curve for culture shock. I really am going to miss a lot of this when I get back – the people, the friends, the relationships I’ve built, and just the feel of being awestruck by something amazing every day – it may be a bit hard to go back after seeing all this. Some things just seem trivial now in comparison – but I suppose more of that deep reflection stuff will happen once I’m back and moody and in the bottom of the culture shock curve!

This afternoon we sat around. I started getting a headache (not enough sleep I’m guessing!) and took a little nap (and some aspirin) after dinner. The others went to Putney to hang out before watching Harry Potter – I came and met them there. It was a small theater, only 3 screens, but it was nice! The men’s toilet was out of order, so I had to use the disabled one – there was a long line of people. I actually met the same guy in line twice waiting in lines 2 different times to use the toilet – strange.


Spoiler free version of tonight:
So after my first  time in the toilet, I met the others across the street, and we hung out a bit. Then we went into the theatre. (Or cinema?) I got salted popcorn – it was interesting (no butter!) – could have gotten sweet popcorn too. It was like kettle corn – but salted instead of sweet. Didn’t like it much at first, but by the time I was at the end of the box (yes, they used a box! Not one of those stupid AMC bags of popcorn! (for the record, I don’t think bags are stupid – I just like boxes better)), it had grown on me.  We had reserved seats. It started at 9:30pm, but at 9:30 it was pretty empty. I realized why soon. They started showing COMMERCIALS – like for milk and bikes and cable companies – at 9:30 – it wasn’t until 9:45 until trailers started! It was probably close to 10 or after 10 (2200) when the film properly started.

I was very happy afterwards, and I want to see it again now! I realize it’s been 10 (close to 11) years that Harry Potter has been in my life – half my life – and it ended (kind of) tonight. Big weight. Ahren and I were talking about how we had been introduced to the books – third grade classes, and a dad who bought a book at Costco. I think they’ve shaped a lot about what I had considered to be British – and JK Rowling did get a lot of things right! But it was a great 2 hours, and great to spend it with most of the kids from the Fulbright group!


SPOILER VERSION OF TONIGHT! MY TAKES ON THE MOVIE!

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Just wanted to say a couple things – first, my have things improved from the first film!

Bad things first:
Not enough time with the central trio – it’s alright at first…then it’s either Harry by himself, Ron and Hermione by themselves, Harry as a third wheel, or other characters. That said, there were some nice scenes with 3 of them, and we have had 7 films with them together…

The whole movie takes place over 2 days! (Though an important 2 days, Alexis reminded me).

CASTLE CHANGED AGAIN. NOT COOL. Some things – like how the courtyard looked I can be like okay, Bellatrix destroyed a lot last time she was there. BUT THE CASTLE BRIDGE DOES NOT LEAD THERE. IT USED TO LEAD TO A BUILDING, NOT AN ENTRANCE!! I BET THEY DIDN’T THINK PEOPLE WOULD NOTICE THAT! BUT I DID! DANG YOU. Though I had always wondered, the school never had a proper entrance to it – when I was looking through the castle, the closest thing was the wood bridge (featured predominantly in movie 3), though no “real entrance.” Until the 8th movie. When they got one out of thing air. Thanks. Not really.

Hagrid got like 3 lines of dialogue in the film. And one was just “Harry.” And Fleur only got 1.

Not enough time mourning our lost favourite characters! But I guess it’s a “positive” thing not to dwell…

Not really a bad thing, but I felt the epilogue was kinda funny…which it wasn’t exactly supposed to be. But at least they used the same actors! It was semi believable. Though it had heart to it! I just wish we could have seen other characters/references to characters when they were older.

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Now Good things!:
Epic battle scenes. Very sad to see Hogwarts in the state it was…But Lord of the Rings sized armies – complete with giants and everything!

Emotional scenes for me! Even if they didn’t need to be. Or I was overly emotional – but I loved Snape’s flashbacks.

When Bellatrix flies toward the camera, Kevin screamed – which was funny, because NO ONE else in the theatre did. (Some people laughed after that).

Some good comedic moments in the film.

We’ve been to London now! So we recognized things. When the dragon flew over London, I was like I WAS THERE! I SAW THE LONDON EYE!

Dragon scene was very Jurassic Park like. Which I liked. Perfection would have been if the  dragon stood on the roof and roared, ala T-rex in The Lost World. But maybe that’d be too much. But I liked that aspect.

Scenes we heard about but didn’t see in the books – killing of Nagini, Ron and Hermione in the Chamber of Secrets, and the visual nature of film gave the “Kings Cross” and Snape’s memories scenes added meaning for me, than I got from the books.

Amazing visual effects of the castle and the surrounding countryside. Having been to Scotland now gave me a HUGE appreciation for the visual scope of the scenery in Harry Potter.

Throwbacks to most of the films, which was really cool! I realize now how richly JK Rowling wrote her world, how plot elements from separate books really came together. But as a last movie, it was visually satisfying to going back and seeing all these things we had seen before. Gringotts from 1 (I want to see how much that changed!), Quidditch picth (in it’s sad burning state), the pixies from movie 2, Room of Requirement more similar to how it was in 6, the wood bridge from 3, Platform 9 ¾ from 1 and 2 in an amazing feeling of full circle-ness (and feeling old!), Cho, Lavender, Trelawny, Sprout, McGonnagall (I know I spelled that wrong, but she played an amazing, almost grandmotherlike role – best performance from Maggie Smith in any of the films!), Slughorn, Spiders from 2 and 6, all the Weasleys, Sirius, Tonks and Lupin – all nicely integrated into the film.

MUSIC. I CANNOT SAY HOW MUCH I LOVED THROWBACKS TO JOHN WILLIAMS!! Didn’t open with the traditional Hedwig’s Theme, but there were enough snippets integrated in the music in the first 5 minutes to satisfy me. And the epilogue. I AM WRITING THE REST OF THIS IN CAPS BECAUSE I LOVED IT SO MUCH. I WAS JUMPING IN MY CHAIR AND PRACTICALLY SCREAMING WHEN THE JOHN WILLIAMS THEME OF “LEAVING HOGWARTS” PLAYED IN THE EPILOGUE. WHICH IS EXACTLY HOW I WOULD HAVE WANTED IT TO END MUSICALLY! AND THENNNNN IN THE BEGINNING OF THE CREDITS, THEY PLAYED THE WILLIAMS CUE OF “HEDWIGS THEME” – THIS IS ALL MUSIC THAT HASN’T BEEN HEARD IN THIS FORM SINCE THE 2ND MOVIE!!! THE 2ND MOVIE – THAT’S LIKE…8 YEARS AT LEAST, MAYBE 9 SINCE I HEARD THIS IN THE THEATER. AMAZING STUFF. I insisted on staying for a good chunk of the credits to listen to it. I was really disappointed when neither John Williams nor Nicholas Hooper were going to score the 7th and 8th films, but I think they did a wonderful tribute to John Williams’ music in this film.
Only thing that could make it better was if they played Harry’s Wondrous World – though it’s not so wondrous now, so I suppose that makes sense…


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END SPOILERS

You can comment now! Hopefully I can get my full…5…hours of sleep before tomorrow!

More working on videos today! Today we woke up and continued working on our video, trying to cut it down. Most of the day we spent working on our video – getting audio right, getting fades, and perfecting when we cut the clips. We had a pretty good rough cut by lunch time.

For lunch, I took the roast beef – though it cost me 4.50, it was quite good! Though I’m realizing that I’ve been stocking up pretty well on dark chocolate bars. We came back, and began to work on some other aspects of the video – adding pans and audio clips, and some other things. By the end, I think we had a pretty successful video! We also tried calling Dave using the hall phone – that was an interesting experience, but it’ll probably be easier in the future to just facebook him! By dinner, we had our video completed! It felt great to be done relatively early! We ate dinner (turkey). Though before dinner, Emma delivered our flight confirmations for the flight home – which set a bit of a sad mood – I can’t believe it’s almost been 4 weeks, I still feel like I just got here. I really don’t feel ready to leave yet!

Tonight we started working on our presentation. We got a good chunk of it done. I also spent some time in the dance room to use a piano – fun to play for an hour or so, then came back. Not a whole lot to blog about today, but definitely a very productive day!

Today was quite a work day! In the morning, I woke up at 9, to find Kelsey and Alexis already watching videos. I came to join them, and Tom came a little bit after. For the whole morning, we just watched our various videos and interviews. At first, we worked out in the hallway alcove, but we soon moved a table into the middle hallway, after finding it a bit noisy, and needed an electrical outlet!

We took a break for lunch – today I had duck leg (I hope it wasn’t from a duck from the lake – didn’t realize that until later – I suppose it’d be “eating local” though…) but it was pretty good. We came back and began to storyboard our documentary – based around education and citizenship – using pieces of paper to write down the clips and themes we had developed and watched in the morning. Afterwards, we began converting the videos from mp4 format to wmv, so we could use them on Movie Maker.  While we were doing this, some workmen came in to fix my sink lamp! I have light now! I’m happy. We were also trying to come up with titles while we waited. There were some things “Lions, Dragons, and Unicorns, Oh My,” “A Political Mind,” “The Teacher and I,” “Citizens’ Gain,” and other titles along that vein – none of which we ended up with! When converting took a while, we took a break – I took the time to read some Tina Fey and catch a couple minutes of sleep.

We started editing before dinner. There are some fun little montages I got to edit. We all went as a group to dinner. Afterwards, some people went to a beer factory tonight, I stayed with Kelsey and we finished a rough cut of our video project! I really love our project – there are parts that look great. I love being able to see something in my head, and then see it realized into something real! It’s the most amazing feeling!  Most everyone who stayed spent the time working on the projects – the kitchen was turned into a computer lounge! Our video progress was pretty much more than I thought we’d get to do – so tomorrow we can put the finishing touches on it and be ready for our presentations on Friday!

Today was our last day of volunteering. Unfortunately, since the end of term is near, the teachers were busy wrapping up and we weren’t able to talk to any of them. However, we were able to see Sonny and Liam one last time which was really nice, and we were also able to sit in on a PSE class (Personal and Social Education I believe.) It was interesting – today’s lesson was on netiquette – it was interesting to see that being taught in a more formal environment – I never had a formal class lesson with that. They were also watching the show “Being Victor” – produced by MTV, it’s a bit like a sitcom meets a soap meets Skins (though I’ve never seen Skins, so I’m not entirely sure) – but it deals with online etiquette, sex and drugs, and other things of that sort. Also interesting was that it was a class with some of the more troubled kids in the year – the teaching style and way the class behaved was much different than how my classes were – it was interesting to see this from a new perspective.  Though we were able to speak to the kids and they asked us some questions – it was quiet for the first time in the period! We left shortly after that – much thanks to Ms. Oliver and the Oasis Academy for hosting us, I had a great time, and it opened up new ways of looking at education for me.

This afternoon, we came back for lunch. There was no hot food, but there was salad, which we ate. We came back and had a couple hours, I took a short nap – I was quite tired today, even though I bought a tea at the East Croydon train station. In the afternoon, we had our packed dinners brought to us – various salads (again) with paper bags with the crisps and biscuits and fruit. Adam and I went with the tuna salad. We all got dressed in our best clothes too – me in my new ASDA shoes – for a Fulbright Reception tonight.

The reception was at the Reform Club in London. It’s a gentlemen’s club, and apparently it’s quite hard to get into the building. It was a very nice building – lots of gold plating, I suppose the ideal version of “British posh.” The clubhouse has a dresscode (jacket at all times, things like that), and yes, it’s hard to get into – apparently it’s the same place where Around the World in 80 Days is based from! It was nice to be there though. The Fulbright people were there, and Gary and Emma went with us. We heard the American Ambassador speak, as well as a former Fulbright Commissioner, and the Minister of Higher Education. There was a lot of mingling – along with wine, soft drinks, and many hour devours – the chicken kebabs and fried mushroom cakes were quite good! We met a lot of new people – a Fulbright Scholar from Chicago, the Minister, a journalist, Fulbright interns, our British Fulbright Summer Institute counterparts, a woman who works at Southampton, and a very talkative and fun Fulbright Scholar from Philadelphia.

Afterwards, Gary took us to a sports bar – drinks, and nachos and curly fries! (Or curled chips? And chips with cheese.) That was cool. I came back with Kelsey and Nicole, others came back a little while later. Tomorrow will be pretty much devoted to working on our films!

Today’s been a long day – I got about 5 hours of sleep last night. Today was a volunteering day at Shirley Park again. My group, Tom, Alexis, Kelsey, and I went to get the bus and train at 7am. Too early to get canteen breakfast, and we forgot to grab our croissants off the train last night (at least they were only 97p), so I ended up eating my Starbucks muffin, some of the others ate fruit or bought something at the station.

We got to the school around 8:30. Whenever I'm there, I feel a bit like I'm back in high school. Except inside. And people wear uniforms. We got to talk with some of the teachers who work with the English learners. There are a lot of students there who are refugees – we read some heartbreaking stories, about their parents being killed in front of them, riding into England hanging underneath lorries (trucks), and saw some of their writings. The one that really hit me was on a speech bubble of a bunch of students’ experiences, which said “Coming to London was dangerous. Stay home was even more dangerous.”  That’s very scary, especially hearing about what some people do to get here.  It gives a greater appreciation. They are eager to learn, and hopefully they will continue to have the resources to help them live in London. 

After that, we were able to sit in a class with some of the most troubled students in that year – which really provides a sense of prospective. They were learning about how to build a house (or rather what goes into it). I give the teachers props – they are very dedicated and very patient, and stern when they need to be. Though there were some moments of laughter and connection during what some may consider a more rowdy class, and those moments were wonderful.

We were walked down to the primary school, where we were able to talk to the kids there, the head boy and girl, and student council representative, and some others. They have houses too – like Hogwarts! (Or as I suspect, a British thing). We talked to them about different things – food, music, America, plays, museums, etc). Some of these kids really liked to make use of the London museums, and when asked about cultural identity, they associated it with nationality, which I thought was interesting. They were well mannered and very polite, and it was a pleasure to be able to speak with them. And sit on little chairs!

We had lunch, and ran into Liam and his friends again, who ate with us. It was really nice to see them all again. After lunch, we interviewed the history/citizenship teacher whose class we sat in yesterday, and then were able to sit in a French GCSE (that’s their big tests – think of it as an SAT subject test to get into 11th and 12th grade, which is called 6th form school here. Secondary goes up to year 11 (about US 10th grade), then they can go to 6th form school for 2 more years to study for A-Levels (those would be more like real SATs, but harder. Probably closer to AP’s/IB tests) to apply to university. So the idea of 11th and 12th grade IB makes a lot more sense now, if it’s more like a British model of schooling) class, and watch them translate and do some other classwork.

After our day at the school, we came back. Grabbed a banana bread slice at the East Croyden station because the baguette with (some, if you can call it that) chicken wasn't enough. (Got really jealous when I heard of some of the other groups' school's canteens. But I  We had a short meeting with Dave to talk about our film project, and I (finally) found some software to convert the mp4 video files into wmv so I can use the awesome Windows Movie Maker (better than Windows Live Movie Maker at least!) to work on the film. Most of tonight was spent on academic blogs by the group (and I also caught up on my Scotland blogs for personal use) – as well as singing with my computer, as ended up not doing our karaoke night out in London. I think I just ended up doing a lot of falsetto. Which Katie gave me some props on. Speaking of her, she has a bunch of pictures from the trip as her desktop background – which I would like to do. I have some amazing pictures from this trip, and I’d love to see them again! Time to do that before I sleep – the midnight academic blog deadline is approaching (8 minutes) – so I’ll do a bit, then get ready for tomorrow’s long day!

The second day in Scotland was just as busy, if not busier than the first! We finally got to eat a real breakfast! The hostel had a good breakfast line. I got scrambled eggs (whites – and they needed salt and pepper, but were ok), yogurt (dairy!), grapefruit, hashbrowns, sausage (I wasn’t expecting much…and didn’t get much…), and beans (didn’t know what else to get). I also had a bite of Katie’s haggis…I think one bite was enough for me. We went back to pack our stuff, and met Mike to go to the castle. Basically, Edinburgh has a castle (I guess historically it’s for defense) and at the other end is the Holyrood Palace (for fine royal living), and connecting the two is a street called the Royal Mile – it’s about a mile away.

We went through this stadium that was set up in front of the castle, for military festivals. Which reminded me of that scene from The Lost World: Jurassic Park when they have the San Diego Jurassic Park amphitheater – not anywhere that huge, but I thought of that! The castle itself is on a hill, and has many levels of defenses, and a lot of cobblestone everywhere we walked. I really enjoyed it – there seemed to be a lot more there to do than there was at Windsor (though it’s not a royal residence, so that may have something to do with it). There was so much to see! There were walls to climb on (where they would shoot arrows and defend the castle from), cannons (so many of those), statues, museums, military and war galleries and exhibits and museums. It was up on the hill, and had beautiful views of rock, grass, and of Edinburgh below. There was a memorial and chapel to fallen Scottish soldiers. We also got to see the prisons of war – and walk inside them – barracks and cells, which was cool. There were Americans housed there in 1781 from the American War of Independence (that’s how it’s referred to there), so I felt a connection there! It was interesting to see their conditions – soldiers as prisoners of war seemed to have much nicer accommodations than common people (but were by no means luxurious). It was a great little whirlwind tour of the castle!

After the castle, we walked back down the Royal Model toward the palace, and ate at a restaurant/pub called Canons’ Gate. I had another meat pie! Beef this time. And it came with mash and lots of peas. It was also very good! It wasn’t a traditional pie serving, but with the stew on a plate and a crust laid on top – but it was still good. We also saw Formula 1 racing on the TV – interesting, since cars are not going around an over with one way turns for hours – but instead laps around a winding track for hours! And Sir Patrick Stewart was there, interviewed on tv at the beginning. I went out to look at some shopping – there was a Christmas Shoppe! Which was cute, but pretty much had only ornaments. I was tempted to be a 13.99 pound bagpipe Christmas music CD. Which I didn’t.

Then we went to Holyrood Palace, home of Mary Queen of Scots, and still an official Royal Palace – in fact, the queen was there recently on her trip to Scotland! We also got our picture taken by a Spanish woman – puedo decir “gracias!” en espanol! They gave us an audio tour, which was funny when we all had the little things pressed against our ears. It was a nice palace – amazing detail to the ceiling plaster work, some large halls and courtyard, and obligatory spiral staircase. Also, there was a ruined abbey (historical) right there – the Holyrood Abbey I believe. And quite a colorful garden too. It’s a very different sense of history over here, not like in the US. There’s just nothing that old in the US – the sense of old here could mean 13th century, and “new” could be 1730 – there wasn’t even an America yet! So I feel that the sense of history is completely different. It just astounds me sometimes to see these historic and old places.  After the palace, I did a little more shopping, and went into a Starbucks (darn globalization) to get an Americano (though I notice Starbucks makes you add your own milk, at Caffe Nero or Costa Coffee, you have to ask for it white!), and a muffin for breakfast tomorrow.

Ahren, Tom, Steph, and Katie went to climb the Salisbury Crags earlier (hills/mountains overlooking Edinburgh, partly formed by an extinct volcano), and Adam and Alexis were thinking about coming up later, so I decided to go head up myself – after all, I’d only be here this one time! And with over an hour and a half left, I figured why not. I thought I could cut some time by not going on the huge tourist path, but up the side, the smaller path through the grass where you could see some footsteps – and some of the steps up I had to take were like at least a foot high, there were some areas where I could lean forward not a whole lot and have my face up close to the hill, so it was a bit steep in some areas. About half way up, I got to a flatter part and looked down – and thought this might not have been such a bright idea! But I kept going up (didn’t slip and fall all the way down!), got some beautiful pictures, and then got to the ridge where the main path was. It was an amazing sight from just there – I could see Parliament, the water body off of Edinburgh (the Firth of Fourth. Say that 3 times straight), and even taller hills/mountains, along with all the tall grass. It was beautiful, and no picture or words can really do it justice. I really wish I had a crane or helicopter shot, that would run up the hill through the grass, to come over the ledge and see the valley, or the lake and Firth and hills on the other side. It was breathtaking. But it doesn’t end there! I ran into the group of four heading down as I made it near the summit. We took pictures, and I stayed there to take a few more. I went up more almost to the top, and thought I’d turn around, but I went less than 100 yards before I ran into Adam and Alexis – and decided to go all the way to the summit with them! We made it up there, and the view was beautiful. Slightly dehydrated from the coffee (drank the water from my bag when I got there), sweating heavily, and quads sore, I was at the top, and I am so happy and grateful that I decided to take that opportunity, it was probably the highlight of my trip there! There were some people there, but it wasn’t super crowded. Some people were sitting on the rocks near the ledge. I took tons of pictures and videos! A woman from Missouri took our picture, with the incredible view. Edinburgh looked like a tiny toy city, and the hills looked like something out of Harry Potter or the Sound of Music. I wish I could have made a movie. And the tall grass looked like waves of wheat almost, blowing blissfully in the wind. We decided to start walking down, and it began to rain. So we pulled out the umbrellas – which wasn’t too bad, since we stayed on the gentler tourist path on the way down. It was a very fulfilling hike, and even though it was a spur of the moment decision (or I did it on the hoof? Maybe. Don’t think that’s the right way to use that), that was great.

We walked back toward the hostel – and stopped for some ice cream on the way back. We met up, walked to the station, and say bye to Mike, then bought dinner in a store. It was like a small mini grocery, but you can imagine the cashier’s surprise when Kriss unloaded a hand basket with 12 people’s worth of food in it. It was a bit overwhelming, and we made it to the train with 5 minutes to spare. I got a table seat with Nicole, Kelsey, and Tom (who switched seats with Katie halfway through). So it was bye to hills, sheep, countryside, and fake Kansas/Pennsylvania. I wish I could say it was bye to all the rain too! There was one point we passed a lake and a steam/smoke cloud coming out of the wood – which looked like the Hogwarts Express from far away! Had to take a picture of that!

We got back to the city, and on the tube with 2 Irish lads, who had apparently gotten on going the wrong way. We couldn’t help them to where they were going (didn’t know where it was), so they (to our humour) started cussing each other out – dropping lots of f bombs, and words I’d rather not hint to on this blog at each other (though not angrily, but in a half angry buddy way – Irish stereotype?) – it made a tiring night into an entertaining ride. I wrote my academic blog and slept very late – close to 2!

(See, I posted this on the 9th, not 11th of July! Right...?) We went to Edinburgh, Scotland! It was a rather early morning – we had to leave by 7:30 am (not so early compared to other things, but it’s early compared to class started at 10am!) we took the Picadilly line from Hammersmith – which today was the west-most station due to railway work.

We then arrived at King’s Cross station – yes, that’s where Platform 9 ¾ is in Harry Potter. Though there was a lot of construction, and it didn’t look as bright and happy as the station does in the movie.  I went with Katie, Kevin, Adam, and Alexis to find it – as we neared platforms 9 and 10, we were told by a person who worked there that it wasn’t there, but out in front. I bet he has to say that to tons of tourists! So we went outside – I’ll admit it was cool, but a bit of a letdown. There’s a cart that’s halfway into the brick wall – the “brick” is basically a poster of a brick wall…and there’s an electric box above it. But it’s nice that they have something there! So I got my obligatory picture.

It was time to get onto the train. We passed nice 1st class carriages with tables at every seat, and coffee waiting. We weren’t in 1st class. But they were alright – their sliding doors were glass and cooler than Amtrak’s! But no footrests like Amtrak. They did have electrical outlets though. I sat with Nicole for the ride up. Food was packed breakfast (wrapped croissant) and packed lunch (took another tuna!). Not the best food, but glad to have it. It was strange going through a lot of tunnels as we went north of London – the air pressure kept changing every couple minutes when we went in and out of tunnels – and our ears would pop. Though it was alright in the end I guess. Soon we started to pass hills, sheep, and even seaside on the east coast of England! I took pictures, though they really don’t show the rolling hills that well, it looks rather flat. But believe me, there were hills! In some ways, it looked a bit like America’s heartland, where there were lots of farms (no corn though) – maybe Pennsylvania because of the hills. I played a couple games of UNO with Nicole and read Bossypants by Tina Fey to pass the time – and a 20 minute nap. We passed by Newcastle, where another cohort of Fulbright summer institute kids are currently located.

I realized (perhaps too late and too close to Edinburgh) that we were in Scotland – the land of Hogwarts! So I could listen to Harry Potter music on my iPod. A lot of the Nicholas Hooper scores (5 & 6) really capture the essence of travelling up there. I’m pretty sure Williams’ score from 3 would fit the mood as well, but I didn’t have that on my iPod! Finally, 4.5 hours later, we arrived in Scotland!

Our tour guide, Mike (Scottish, and complete with kilt!) met us at the train station and took us to our hostel so we could drop off things. We then walked around – there was so much history that came from Edinburgh! Adam Smith, 14 story buildings centuries ago, Hume, Sir Walter Scott, and JK Rowling!

We then got to see Parliament, which was amazing – it was very modern, built around the theme of a tree, or a branch. The old parliament dates back to the 13th century, dissolved in the 18th when they united with England, and the new parliament was established in 1999, the new building in 2003. It was very cool architecturally, because it was built with cameras and microphones built in, and not after the fact. There is wood and stone coming from and representing different areas of Scotland. There are large skylights and lots of windows for natural light – it is not your typical government building! We got to see a committee room, as well as the main debate chamber. It was beautiful, and also had a beautiful view of the hills/mountains (formed from an extinct volcano – Salisbury Crags maybe?) next to Edinburgh (which itself is built on hills), which were breathtaking! The only downside was that it was pouring that day. I understand why Harry Potter movies are always rainy and gloomy – it just poured down on us. I’m very glad I brought my umbrella, but it was still crazy, and I still got soaked!

After Parliament, we went to have a pub dinner – I ended up having lamp and mint pie which was delicious! I think everyone enjoyed their meal! We had a nice water feature of water coming down through the ceiling too, though on the other side of the seating area from us. Afterwards, I walked around Edinburgh with Nicole, Kelsey, and Kevin, on the newer side of the valley (I believe it used to be a loch years ago, now there’s gardens and railways). It was beautiful to see buildings on the stone faces of mountains and hills – again I’ll say it, but it keeps reminding me of Hogwarts! But Scotland is an absolutely beautiful place. I love the old buildings and style of architecture that they have too. We also got to go by the cafe where JK Rowling started writing Harry Potter! From the window, you can see the Edinbrugh castle...and a cemetary. That gives some perspective to the books. Apparently, some of the surnames for book characters have come from the cemetary gravemarkers. That night, the four of us played UNO in the girls’ room, along with Adam who came back. It was an INTENSE game, that lasted over an hour and we still didn’t finish, in deference to sleep. There was a bit of a mob mentality going on against the person with the least amount of cards. And sacrificing one’s own hand to find that +2 or +4 wild card out of the deck to play it against someone! Notable quotes include “It doesn’t matter what card you play, it just doesn’t matter!” and “- I’m closely monitoring the situation. –That’s what President Bush said about Afghanistan,” and the drawing of half the deck to find a blue card. It was great fun! I was in a room with Katie and Stephanie that night. It was decent – bunk beds (I was on top), and the toilet room had a shower in it with no curtain and a drain on the floor – like the train toilet Levar Burton showed on Reading Rainbow in the 90s. But nicer that what I thought we were going to get! I fell asleep very fast, for I was very much tired out!

Just a quick note on the blog - not sure if I needed to categorize this under "london" but I did just in case there are any daily followers from the London category, which was on the Fulbright tweet! (hello 1 person out there!)

Anyways, blog housekeeping. As we're going to be in Edinburgh (Ed-In-Borough for you Americans!) over the weekend, and I'm not going to have internet access, I won't be posting tomorrow (and maybe not the next night either). Definitely Monday night, but maybe not until then. I will have a notebook with me to take notes, and camera to take plenty of pictures! So I'll type up my notes and update it when I can get back on the internet - and thanks to the wonders of technology and the Weebly platform, I can adjust the date to make it look like I posted the entries earlier!

And since I'm on a 20 day blog posting streak, which I'd like to continue as long as possible, I don't consider this next day (or 2) a gap in that continuity, since it's a problem of physical access and not me not wanting to write.

And now back to the curling game - type to all of you soon!

A day too late for that tagline? Or a week and a half early? Or right on time, because today was our last academic session! (We still have volunteering sessions and time to work on our films next week though). Today’s academic session was based on “Question Time,” a BBC programme where people ask questions to politicians. Before that though, we filled out another feedback form for Dave, and had a short discussion on feedback about the program. Today was pretty cool, because it brought back a bunch of lecturers and guests from our other sessions and put them together in one room on a panel. I loved having them all there in one room – it really helped everything feel connected. Jackie hosted the panel, which consisted of Stephen, Dave, Darren, Alex, and Yasmin – all of whom were great during their respective sessions, and were great today as well! We went over topics such as British Identity, Volunteerism, the phone hacking scandals, and important issues facing the UK in the future. It was great to hear their different viewpoints, and see them agree (and disagree!) with each other!

Today’s lunch was fish n chips – and mushy peas! I found that I like mushy peas – it tasted like split pea soup, but had the consistency of mashed potatoes. Maybe that doesn’t sound the most appetizing, but I really thought it was delicious! Shame that not as many other people like peas. Kriss came by too, giving us our Oysters, and talking a little about tomorrow’s trip to Edinburgh.

After lunch, we were done, though we had tutorials with Dave over blogs. Tutorials are like one on one feedback sessions, like office hours, but more specific on feedback on work (or at least that’s the feeling I get). I got some good feedback on my academic blog, as well as some things I could do better. I accidentally had a muppet video on there from when I was testing out the system – I didn’t know that was the view that was graded! Oh well, it’s gone now, but you can imagine there’s one there on the sidebar! You can read the academic blog here:

This afternoon, I also discovered that on YouTube in the UK, you can watch full length videos of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics! So I watched parts of the opening ceremony, along with CURLING! John Shuster and the US Team! They weren’t the best performing team…so I may watch some UK games as well. It’s all coming back to me! Curling in/out, the house, peels, hammers, and all the rest of it! Brings me back to high school senior year at home and in Dawdy’s class! Also took the time to work on my second set of academic blogs, getting those out of the way before Monday or Tuesday. Felt good to get something done! And watch curling again! I love this – I think it’s geoblocked in the US. So I’m going to get as much out of it as I can!

Dinner was good – saw Johnny and said hello – I had a vegetarian tortellini with corn and carrots. But the bread was fresh tonight, and very good! Tonight I went to the ASDA with Katie – it’s a bit like Wal-Mart, but more food based, though they have a fair selection of clothing. I needed to get a pair of (cheap!) shoes (and were they ever so cheap and uncomfortable…), and grabbed some snacks, while Katie looked for some sandals (came up empty handed). It was nice to go though, had some nice talking time about our backgrounds, being Asian, school, and stuff. The lines were really long though – everyone was buying so much! I suppose that was quite Wal-Mart like. I think me standing there with my one pair of less than 20 pound shoes and bag of peanuts was the least of anyone who was buying. Some other interesting things – they don’t say canned here, but tinned – tinned soup, tinned vegetables, etc. And nappies for diapers. And “squash” means concentrated juice…unlike what I thought…which was vegetable squash juice. Woops.

Tonight was pretty much relaxation – working on the blog, facebook, chatted with Priscilla, and watching more curling! And packing (lightly!) for our trip to Edinburgh tomorrow. I was watching the USA vs GBR game, when the US had the hammer (throwing the last stone of the end (ends are like innings)) and had the chance to score 2 points, and take the lead (2 points is pretty big in curling!), and they blew it. Easiest shot ever. And they got 0. I screamed in frustration. Katie and Stephanie who were in the room talking to me about something else jumped, and Tom who was in the hall choked on a banana. Woops. But I get passionate like other people are passionate about other sports! Wouldn’t you be mad if it was 1st down, 2 yards from the end zone, and they lose the ball, and the other team makes a touchdown? That’s about how I felt (on the losing side). And I remember we lost that game. Like other people remember old football games. I remember old curling games. Tonight, a bunch of us were wearing the I <3 RU shirts, looking the same – leading to Adam’s “Camp Counselor Night” comment. But anyways, time for me to go – need to get up early to go to Kings Cross tomorrow (Harry Potter anyone?) and finish watching this GBR vs DEN game of curling!