A home away from home

So this weekend I had my homestay.  It was quite a nice change from city life.  Our group's homestay was in the small town of Tunbridge Wells, in the region of Kent.  Tunbridge Wells is a very cute little town, it reminded me a lot like either Mainstreet USA from Disney World or Stars Hollow from Gilmore Girls.  There were many little shops throughout the town, and a main streety area called High Street, however it wasn't the most exciting place aside from the shopping.

My homestay mother was Lucy Stevens.  Lucy was awesome, I really lucked out with getting her.  There was kinda some drama before we left with our families because me and Alex's family never showd up to pick us up.  Apparently they had not realize they were having two homestay students for the weekend.  To make matters worst they already had two German female students staying with them, so they couldnt mix two male students into the situation.  So after making a few phone calls, we ended up switching with two girls-so we went with their homestay family which was Lucy's family, and they ended up going with our original intended family.

Lucy's family consisted of a daughter named Jess who was studying at Uni at the moment, a son named Ben who was just starting to apply to Uni's and a German exchange student named Freddie, who was living with the family for the year.  She was such a wonderful host.   She told us that we didnt have to wake up early to go to do the walking tour of the town if we didnt want to, and that she would gladly show us around the town later....YES!  So me and Alex got to sleep in, which was so nice.

Later that day she basically showd us the highlights of the town, and took us down to the Pantiles.  The Pantiles were part of the historical section of town.  They were these Victorian style shops and cafes, that were around since the 1800s.  There was also a well with old rust water, that she told us people back in the day used to come to the town to drink the water, thinking it had some therapeutic qualities-hmmmmm rusty water.....not so much in my book.  But nonetheless it was all quite interesting.  After Lucy gave us a tour of the town she dropped us off by the mall and we did alittle shopping.  The mall was very Americanized, and was no different from the shopping malls in the state.  After the mall, we went and had a bite to eat at a local pub, and then walked back up to Lucy's home, for supper.

On Sunday we again slept in, and then went back into town for a bit.  It was such a beautiful sunny day out we also stopped at a park which was quite nice.  Overall the weekend was a very nice city break.  Life in England is not so vastly different from life in the states after all.

My Homestay bedroom

The Fireplace

Tubridge Wells 

My homestay mother, Lucy

A park in Tunbridge Wells 

It was very English 

The Pantiles

in the Park, it was so sunny out

Greenwich, not just in Connecticut

in Greenwich Park 

So on Monday I got to experience Greenwich for the first time with Genesis.  It was probably my favorite place that I visited so far in London, besides Portobello Road.  It was just so picturesque, and had an essence of the Victorian Age.

We started off our day in Greenwich with a walk to the docks.  Most of the dockyard was under construction-they are building a new museum around one of the schooners.  Anyways we continued on into the Royal Naval College of London.  The campus was gorgeous, there were so many old buildings, we first stopped into the Painted Hall.  The Painted Hall was this cathedral-like space (though not a church) it was massive and the entire space was covered in murals.  It reminded me of what I would imagine the Sistine Chapel to look like.  The murals were beautifully done and depicted the King and Queen as sort of God-like beings.  After the Painted Hall we then crossed over the university and went to the Chapel of St Peter and St Paul.  The Chapel was very intimate but exquisit in detail.  There was also a beautiful painted mural that covered the ceiling.

After the Royal Naval College we walked over to the Museuam area, where the National Maritime Museum was as well as Greenwich Park and the Royal Observatory.  The National Maritime Museum was a pretty interesting museum, they had an exhibition being held of toy sailboats.  It kinda was a museum geared more toward children.  Anyways after the Maritime Museum we went for a walk in the park, following the path up the hill to the Royal Obsevatory.

Greenwich park was absolutely beautiful.  It reminded me a lot of the park that Mary Poppins, Bert and the children go to in the movie, Mary Poppins.  There were a lot of rolling hills, but the largest hill was the one that we had to climb to get to the Royal Observatory.  When we got to the top the views of the city were brilliant.  You can basially see everything from the Gerkin to the London Eye to St Pauls.  So after taking loads of pictures we went in search of the prime meridian.  The Royal Observatory was pretty cool.  There was a planetarium on one end and on the other end was the Prime Meridian.  We first went into the Planetarium but only spent about 20 mintues there because it was really boring.  After the Planetarium we walked over to the area that housed the Prime Meridian.  The Prime Meridian was actually really cool.  There was a laser that pointed in the distance-creating the boundry line that separates the East from the West.  There was also a sculpture that im guessing represented the Prime Meridian as well.  After taking loads of pictures we went on our way.  On the way out we stopped to look at the 24 hour clock.  It was basically a clock with every hour represented on it.  It was pretty neat.

The Royal Naval College, it was gorgeous 

at the top of the hill in Greenwich Park, beautiful views of the London Skyline

the Prime Meridian

the 24 hour clock, there were a lot of clocks in Greenwich

After visiting the touristy stuff in Greenwich we decided to get some food.  We stopped and had a traditional british meal at the Green Village Restaurant.  Genesis opted for the fish and chips, while I had the english roast, which was Turkey with baked potatoes, cabbage and yorkshire pudding.  It was pretty good.  After dinner we headed back to Goldsmiths-it was a nice day. :)

Weekend at Krissy's

Hogwarts here I come!

at Portobello Road in Notting Hill 

In front of Buckingham Palace

Portbello Road

the Delicious Italian Restaurant, though the service was awful

So I know I havn't posted anything lately on here.  This past week was just really tough because I have honestly been feeling homesick, and didnt want my posts to be depressing and sad because thats never fun.  I am feeling better since my last post.  I realized that at Goldsmiths there are two terms a spring term and a summer term, so I think I am going to change my stay here to only the Spring term rather then the Spring and Summer terms-hopefully Arcadia will be accomodating to that-if not oh well, I will still be leaving once I finish my Spring term classes on my own accord. :)

Anyways this past weekend was exceptionally good.  First off the weather was great.  It hasnt rained in days which just makes me feel 100 times better.  Second off I got to spend the weekend in center city with Krissy and Lara.  It was a great time, heres a play by play of what I did.

On Friday I got to Krissy's at around 3.  We hung out for alittle in her flat, and then went and got Lara and headed out for Kings Cross Station.  Sadly when we got to the station is was under heavy construction-Kristina was very sad because she said the station is usually exceptionally beautiful when it isnt heavily scaffolded.  Anyways we stopped at one of the stands in the station and got Pasties.  A Cornish Pasty is a savory pastry-meaing it is usually filled with cheeses, meats and vegatables.  The one that we all got was the Chicken and Vegatable Pasty.  It kinda reminded me of a Chicken Pot Pie without the pot that you ate with your hands.  Anyways it was really good-after we got Pasties we went to find Platform 9 and 3/4.  Again because of the construction, disappointment continued.  The brickwall that was once Platform 9 and 3/4 was gone-and instead of having actually bricks it was more like a mural of bricks with a luggage cart going through it.  It was kinda pathetic but we still all posed for pictures by it (sadly I didnt get transported to the actual platform).

Anyways after Kings Cross we went for a short walk to the Britsh Library.  The British Library was really cool.  It was massive for one thing, but what made it great was the museum that was inside it.  They had original manuscripts for many of the great novels, from writers like Jane Austin, The Bronte Sisters, Lewis Carrol and even Shakespeare.  The library also housed the Magna Carta-which was under heavy guard in its own little section.  My favorite part of the museum was probably the section devoted to the Beatles.  They had original hand written lyrics by John, Paul, Ringo and George.  For example A Hard Days Night was written on the back of a birthday card for John's son.  It was a really interesting museum that I will probably go back to sometime to explore.

After the Britsh Library we caught the next train to Russel Square and went to the Britsh Museum.  The British Museum was also tremendous and probably had one of the most beautiful atriums I have ever seen in a museum.  The achitecture was beautiful-and I would say it would be worth seeing just to see the main atrium.  Anyway we saw many of the artifacts that are housed in the museum, such as the Rosetta Stone, Cleopatra's mummy, and an original drawing by Michaelangelo.  The museum also had beautiful sculptures made by the Greeks and Romans.

After the British Museum we decided to head back to Nido (the building where Krissy and Lara reside in while in London).  When we got back we videochatted for alittle bit with Jess-informing her about THE WEDDING, and we werent refering to the wedding of Prince Charles and Kate Middleton.  After an hour of laughs we all unanimously decided to try to find Black Swan on the internet to watch.  Amazingly Lara found it on this site-and it was a supurb copy of it.  Halfway through the movie I fell asleep-but having seeing it once before I didnt mind.  Krissy and Lara like me, loved the movie-and we talked about it, and decided Natalie Portman should win every award offered to her.

Saturday proved to be just as awesome as Friday.  The day started with a journey to one of the places I always wanted to visit ever since I was a child, Portobello Road.  Being a Disney Brat I grew up watching almost every Disney film and one of my favorites was the movie Bedknobs and Broomsticks.  In the movie there is a song called Portobello Road, and it is about this road where all the riches of ages are stowed.  Anyways it was one of those places that I knew I had to visit while in Lonodn.

Portobello Road Market is a series of stalls and shops that are all open to the public on this endless road in Notting Hill.  Most of the shops were antique shops, but I did see a lot of cool stuff.  They had everything from Vintage jewlery, to old books, antique china sets, and even handmade footballs (yes from pig skin).  While on Portobello Road I also had my first Crepe experience while being abroad.  I decided to get a Banana and Nutella Crepe.  It was delicious, next time I think I am going to try a strawberry and Cream Crepe.  Anyways we spent a good portion of the day on Portobello Road, taking pictures and having fun.  I know for sure I will be visiting it again soon.

Anyways after Portobello Road we decided to head off to Green Park and see the Queen at Buckingham Palace.  When we got to the gate it was pretty dark-but still light enough to take pictures.  The pictures actually came out very apocolyptic looking on my camera for some reason-but it definitely had a nice moody feeling to it.  Anyways the Palace was beautfiul-there were a ton of people looking at it.  It reminded me of the White House in Washington DC-just because there was a gate that everyone crowded around and the street leading up to the palace looked like the National Mall.

After we had our impromptu photoshoot we decided to go eat.  We all wanted Italian, and we found this great place near Russel Square.  I decided to go for Gnocchi, while Lara got the Lasagna and Krissy got the Bruschetto.  The food was supurb, the only downside was the service was crappy-after waiting for a half hour for our bill we decided to not tip for obvious reasons :).  Though the French Rasta Waiter didnt seem to care.

Anyways after our scenes from an Italian Restaurant we decided to head back to Nido.  Originally we were going to go to a club, but then we decided to try this place called Shake Rattle and Bowl.  It was a 50s theme bowling alley, diner and club all in one.  The place seemed really cool-but we decided to leave early just because it was kinda lame with only the three of us-we definitely want to go back to it someday and go bowling.

Overally my weekend was a lot of fun.  I am so glad that Kristina and Lara are both in London with me.  We will definitely have more adventures in the near future.

First Day of Class

So today was my first day of class at Goldsmiths.  I had my Studio practice.  It was a pretty interesting class.  Today we broke up into groups to work on this video design project.  What we have to do is create a short-film to show the idea of a phobia, my group picked claustrophobia.  It seems like a cool project, though I have to say I do miss Arcadia.  I am sort of disappointed with my experience so far, it wasnt really what I had expected.  I just hope things start to get better.  I think tomorrow I may talk with someone about switching out of one class.  There is this course that seems really interesting, its called ArtWorlds, and basically for the course you travel to different museums in and around London.  I just hope they let me switch.  As for the class I had today I am still on the fence over whether or not I want to switch out of it.  I dont know why I been feeling so homesick lately.  Its very odd since I normally never get homesick when Im at school, or when I had traveled in the past. I just hope I grow past it soon.  I dont know what it is but I havnt been feeling like myself since getting into the country.  Im still excited to do some traveling, but I keep thinking to myself wow I am here for six months.  Its sort of a trapped feeling that I have to try to get over I guess.  I am just really glad that I do have a lot of my close friends in London with me, I think things would be a lot worst if it wasn't for them.

First Impressions of Goldsmiths

I just got the internet working in my room at Goldsmiths...finally.  Last night was the first night I spent here.  The heat wasnt working in my room and I didnt have hot water, but I went to the office this morning and put in a maintance request for it-it looks like now I have hot water, and the heat works alittle better (its still alittle cold in here), but I think they'll come back to fix it.  The school itself is in a really cool area, I like it alot-there are beautiful views of the city, it reminds me a lot like Williamsburg in Brooklyn.  Today I also had my academic meeting, start classes on Monday.   I thought there would be more design majors studying here, but it looks like its just me and Mike, who I know from Arcadia.  The program itself seems really intense and kinda overwhelming.  I wasnt really expecting it to be this intense, but I think thats a good thing-i can use the challange.  It also seems a lot broader-to include all
 elements of design like fashion, textile, furniture, product, packaging as well as typography and the typical design stuff that I am used to doing.   I also found out today that Goldsmiths has a Track team, and from what it sounds like I may be able to participate in it-there is a club and sports meeting on Tuesday-so I think I am going to look into that possibly.  I did sign up for 3 trips, I got the Wales, and Manchester trips, and today I just signed up for the Amsterdam trip that Goldsmiths offers-the only thing I was concerned about is that I have classes everyday of the week, and I have one Friday morning-but I guess worst case scenario I can miss them if I must-I mean I am only going to be in Europe once-so I dont want to miss out on an opportunity because I have class.

Moneywise I feel like I been spending a lot but I think thats just because I spent close to 450 pounds for the trips (179, 160, 90)-which I always had plan on doing.  Overall I spent about 70 pounds, but that was because I spent about 20 pounds for my phone, 20 pounds for stuff for my room and the rest on Food (which we have been eating out a lot, but I think after this week it will be less).   I only got to see Kristina once, and havnt been much into central London, so I think tomorrow I want to try to meet up with her and try to see more of the city itself.  Im glad I finally got the internet to work-though im not used to not having wireless connection. 

Day 1

Finally I made it!  My first day in the UK was kinda interesting.  I got to the hotel around 11 and was among about 5 others.  Everyone seemed pretty cool.  I met a couple of people from my program, and we decided to walk around the area near the hotel after we got there because they told us we couldnt check in until after 2.

The area the hotel is in is called Islington I think.  Its kinda interesting.  A few blocks up from the hotel there is a street with a lot of stores and shops.  We decided we wanted phones so we walked to a Carphone Warehouse, which sells really cheap phones, and prepaid phoneplans.  I got this super cheap phone called a Alacatel, it was only 3 pounds and with the plan I got which was Virgin, it included unlimited texting and 120 minutes and was 20 pounds to top up.  Right after I got the phone I saw a Barclays next to the place and decided to take out some money just to make sure I can.  After we all got phones we decided to get some food.  We went to this place called The Arc.  The atomosphere of the restaurant was kinda cool, but the food was terrible.  Luckily I only decided to split nachos with someone, and it only cost 2.50 pounds, so it wasnt a big lost.

After we walked around we got back to the hotel and moved our stuff into the room.  I also saw Sarika, which was exciting and went to hang out with her and a few other girls for a bit, they wanted to get phones so we went to find the place I went to before.  We kinda got lost and began walking in circles so we decided to just go back to the hotel because it was time for our first orientation meeting.  Everyone was really tired, and the meeting was extrememly dull but very informative.  I found out that I got the two trips that I signed up for so I will be doing the Adventure Weekend in Wales and the Manchester Weekend in England-so I am very excited about that.

After the meeting we wanted to get some food.  Luckily the area we are in is full of pubs so we decided to go to this really cool pub and get authentic British food.  It was a pretty good deal 7.95 pounds (12 dollars) for a drink and fish and chips.  I decided to order a Guinness from the tap. It was the first time I ever drank Guinness, and I didnt realize that it was black.  It was very stout but I managed to drink it all.  The fish and chips were delicious.  It was kinda odd because they gave us plain white bread and butter with the fish and chips, it almost seemed like two slices of wonder bread, but maybe its a British thing.  The actual fish and chips was very different from the way it is served in the states because it was an actual entire filet of a fish covered in beerbatter, rather then pieces, but nonetheless it was still amazing.

After dinner we went to run a few more errands and then went back to the hotel, everyone kinda went back to their rooms but I wanted to meet with Kristina and Lara so I texted them and they came down to the hotel.  They seemed like they are really loving their new flats, though I heard some interesting stories from them about some experiences they already had here.  Kristina decided to take me to Big Ben (St Stephens Tower) and Westminster Abbey because I told her that my first day was kinda bland.  We took the tube which reminded me a lot of the NYC subways, but only cleaner.  After we got the Westmninster we went to take pictures.  It was kinda rainy but very amazing to see all these landmarks lit up among the night sky.  I saw Big Ben, the London Eye, the Parliment Building, Victoria Tower and Westminster Abbey all within a matter of minutes.  It was very British and I took a good number of pictures, and they came out pretty well considering it was at night.  I cant wait to go back there and actually see these places for real.

Anticipation

So there is just about a week left until my big journey.  It seems surreal to think that in just 7 days I will be relocating continents, flying from JFK to Heathrow.  This past semester seemed to fly by, and now its hear, and I will literally be "flying by" in a few days.  So this will be my first blog post.  I made it a point for me to create a blog for while I'm abroad-to allow friends and family to keep track of my whereabouts, make sure I'm alive :) and above all for myself to reflect upon my experiences while overseas.   In this first post I am going to include some lists of things that I plan to do while abroad.  At the end of my experience I will reflect back on the lists and see how many I actually got to.

Things I want to do

:In London

1. Eat Authentic fish and chips by the seaport.
2. Take a Harry Potter tour-and visit as many sites from the movies/books as possible.
3. Visit the Prime Meridian.
4. Go to the Childhood Museum.
5. Go to the Tate Modern, and see the Ai Weiwei exhibit.
6. See a show on the West End.
7. Attend a big time movie premiere.
8. Attend the ROYAL WEDDING, or try to see something from it.
9. Eat at an Indian Restaurant.
10. Visit the huge Hindi Temple.
11. Photograph a Victorian Cemetery (Abbney Park, or Highgate).
12. Take a picture in front of Big Ben (Saint Stephens Tower).
13. Go on the London Eye.
14. Visit the London Zoo.
15. Tour Westminster Abbey.
16. Tour of Tower of London.
17. Visit St. Pauls.
18. Shop at the Camden Markets.
19. Visit the Portobello Road marketplace.
20. Actually send a postcard to someone.
21. Hampstead Heath picnic.
22. The Changing of the Guards.
23. Attend a Fashion Show.
24. Get lost on the Tube.
25. Go to "Church".

: In England/UK

1. Cotswolds
2. Oxford-Christ Church
3. Dover-White Cliffs
4. Ancient Forest of Dean
5. Wye Valley
6. Brighton Pier
7. Yorkshire
8. Manchester
9. Liverpool
10. Ride an old Steam engine train (Hogwarts style)
11. Prembrokeshire Coast-Wales
12. Lake District-Scotland 
13. See a "Football" game.
14. Go for a run somewhere in the countryside.
15. See the sunrise somewhere pretty. 

:In Europe

1. Visit Italy-Venice, Florence, Rome and Naples
2. Paris, France
3. South of France-Nice (Cannes Film Festival)
4. Istanbul, Turkey-Travel to the Asian side
5. Prague, Czech Republic
6. Granada, Spain (Morrocco?)
7. Iceland-See the Aurora Borealis 
8. Amsterdam-Do something crazy & Windmills.
9. Copenhagen, Denmark
10. Ireland on St. Patricks Day.