Tragedy, Curry Night, and Amsterdam

First of all, I realize I have not been on for about two weeks now. Part of the reason for the delay is to the extremely upsetting incident that took place about a week and half ago when I was on a city bus. While reading a book I suddenly realized that water was dripping from my purse. I looked inside and half of my water bottle had spilled creating a small pool at the bottom of my bag. I could go every moment of disappointment but that would just amount to a very depressing blog. So, to make a long story short, I lost my phone, camera, and iPod to this sad water bottle accident. But I've moved on.

Next - over the past few weeks I have had some amazin

g food! On Valentines Day, which also happened to be the kick-off for the Chinese New Year week of celebration, I went to China Town with most of my roommates (those of us without a Valentine) and ate at a Chinese restaurant. Although I'm guessing Chinese here is not what it is like in China, it is a lot less grease-y and fried. And the rice is better. Last thursday night we went to Brick Lane in East London, known for it's East Indian population, and had curry night. Because it was a CAPA event we ate our appetizers while listening to a former teacher talk about the poor immigrants of Brick Lane. The curry was really good and so was the rest of the four course meal!

The next day my roommate and I took off for Amsterdam. On saturday we went to a couple small towns not too far away from the city in which we learned about the process of making Gouda (and yes we got to sample about 20 different flavors of Gouda) and saw clogs. A lot of clogs. When we

got back to Amsterdam we took a boat tour to the Ann Frank house, walked around a very boutique filled street and then made our way to some museums. Unfortunately museums cost about €15 in Amsterdam (about $16.50) and they close around 5 on

Saturdays. So we hung out for a while then went to the Red Light district to see what that was all about. Before going on this trip classmates had told me this was a very scary experience and that if you took pictures pimps would come out of dark alleys, grab your camera, and throw it in the canal. Yes, prostitutes in the windows was weird and kind of gross, but it was so busy, so touristy, and had cops hanging out on the corners that I can't imagine being scared. The next morning we left Amsterdam to goto Bruges, in which our tour guide and coach driver constantly made references to the movie In Bruges. I was a very cute place with AMAZING chocolate. We got waffles covered with chocolate and fruit as well as hot chocolate. I mean every other store in this town was a chocolate shop. And the half was lace shops. By the time I got back to London I had been in four countries in one day (the Netherlands, Belgium, France, and the UK).

I leave for spring break on Friday - so yes I will be in Italy for a week (Venice, Florence, Pompei/Naples, and Rome). When I get back my wonderful friend Megan Gilmore is coming to visit me! then the weekend after that I just booked a trip to Scotland! What an exciting month March shall be! My biggest lesson so far - do not keep a water bottle in your purse.

The city that makes the money, and the city that spends it

This past week I feel as if I did very little when it comes to being a tourist, yet I managed to spent enough for the average tourist. London is actually divided into two cities, the city of London and Westminster. Most tourist attractions, political offices and basically the majority of the fun London activities take place in Westminster. Most of the businesses (including my internship) are in the city of London (at some points these two are divided by the Thames). Any ways, the saying (until the recent economic crisis) is that London makes the money and Westminster spends it. It makes sense until you take the tube over to High street Kensington or Oxford street. Both of these places have store after store and thousands of people crowding the sidewalks with shopping bags. I made it out alive yesterday, somewhat successfully, with a computer cord which will now allow us to watch movies through the TV for those rainy afternoons.

As for my tourist activities, on Friday a few of us went to the London Dungeons, which is a haunted house-like "tour" of London circa 1600-1700s. Actors coughing and sneezing from the plaque taught us about Jack the Ripper and Sweeney Todd. Earlier in the week I joined one of the Harry Potter walking tours (which was a bit difficult to get pictures of since it started at 7 p.m.). The tour was cool and entertaining since the tour guide yelled "IT'S A NORBERT!" every time she saw a statue of a dragon. Today some of us went to the Sherlock Holmes museum, which is located at the fictional character's address on Baker street (about a 10 minute walk from my flat). It was a little strange considering how many old manikins there were in each room, but cute at the same time (including the somewhat hard to understand old man taking on the role of Dr. Watson). We didn't make it to the Tate Modern but that is now at the top of my list for next weekend. Beatles tour is on thursday (although this tour is also starting at 7). This week I learned that the British will never show too much excitement either way about anything. On that note, the past week was not bad.

Football and Celebrities

After a long week of school and work, yesterday afternoon we went to a football match (QPR v. Scunthorpe) which was interesting. QPR, the home team, is not very good but they have very dedicated fans (as a Minnesotan this is not a foreign concept). The difference is that these fans, of all ages, are constantly yelling, chanting, and cussing- which is how we all (quietly therefore obviously Americans) knew what was going on. Today we went to Madame Tussaud's wax museum. Basically a bunch of public figures as wax statues and even more tourists from around the world pushing each other out of the way to get a picture. After the celebrities, classic Hollywood figures, athletes, singers, and politicians there is a haunted house- which seems a bit out of place but was entertaining (only two of the four of us had the guts to go through), next you go on a short "tour" (basically a ride) giving a very brief history of London during which they stopped the ride to yell at us for something we did not do. Lots of fun. The ride then ends at the gift shop. Any ways I currently do not have any exciting plans for this week (besides a field trip to financial district of London) but you never know where you'll end up here!

On friday we all went to Stonehenge and Bath for the day. It was quite cold and raining, which our driver said is the best time to go to Stonehenge. In Bath we explored the city then took a tour in the Roman Bath, which was amazing to think about how old every thing was. Unlike the older cities and towns of the US (which are nearly as close to the age of the old cities and towns here) Bath has many shopping chains and fast food joints (the main two being Burger King and KFC, which is big here in the UK), although there is one rule- that I know of- which is all buildings must be built in stone. Yesterday afternoon a few of us went to the Portobello Market in Notting Hill where I finally found a pair of boots enabling me to fit into the London culture. The market has fresh foods, many antique and craft tables, as well as music up and down the street. I want to go back to actually get some groceries, but yesterday I just got a bratwurst for lunch (it was really good- they put it in a baguette with sauteed onions). Today we tried to catch up on some sleep and ended up at the biggest Apple store I have ever been in... and the worst customer service, one of my professors said customer service has not reached the UK yet and so far this has been true. Any ways I just booked my spring break to Italy (flying into Venice and out of Rome) and looking forward to it! This weekend we learned that it's not cute for Americans to yell out British profanity such as wanker, just because we don't get it or find it offensive does not mean we should say it.

Today I write to you from CAPA (between classes). On Sunday I went to find my internship site which took a while since the two major tube lines were down for the weekend. Luckily it did not take me two hours to get there monday morning, when I had my interview- which went well. I'm excited for the internship although last night, after the course that goes a long with it, I had doubts. The course work does not seem too difficult but one of the instructer spent the first hour talking about how Richard Branson (Virgin mogul) and Ronald Regan are true leaders unlike Ralph Nader and Hillary Clinton. But he might not be my teacher. Hopefully. Any ways between classes and work (20 hours a week is required by law for work) I will have little time to travel. Luckily my boss seems really understanding of the whole wanting to travel idea and is flexable which is good since I signed up for a 3 day trip to Bruges and Amsterdam towards the end of Febuary- don't worry mom and dad it's more of a scenic tour. Today I learned that the tubes are a bit more then unreliable- and an understanding of the bus system seems very important in this city. I hope to have more pictures up soon!

Today we went on tour buses around London and saw all of the major attractions. I really used it as a way to figure out what areas I want to go back to and do more then drive by on a bus. We got off the bus at Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge, and St. Paul Cathedral (although we didn't get to stay long). We've been attempting to learn getting around on buses although it's not that easy. Any ways tomorrow we get to relax and explore then we begin our semester on Monday! The street in this picture was used in Harry Potter for Diagon Alley (we also went by the building used for Gringotts Bank).

OK... so I don't have a lot of pictures YET but I will soon. Today I had an orientation which is not entirely interesting except I took the tube and a double decker bus for the first time and went to Harrods (I bought a keychain which was probably over priced) and then my roommates and I got lost in London which may seem scary although it's not that bad... the transportation is SO much better here then in Minneapolis although the roads are not- I have no idea why anyone would want to own a car if they lived here. Any ways I promise to have much more interesting posts over the next week (we're going to Stonehenge and Bath next Friday). Today I learned not to talk to or look anyone in the eyes on the tube... they actually told us this during orientation which explained why the ride over was so awkwardly quiet.