Saturday marked my first visit to a real working palace, because (as you might know) the United Kingdom has a real working royal family AND (as you may not know) when said royal family takes its royal vacation said palace is open to the public! In plain speak, on Saturday I paid money to take an audio-guided tour of Buckingham Palace because the Queen is away on official state business/vacation time. I’m just gonna say it because it’s true…but her house is COOL. Not only is the building full of history but 70,000 people pass through the palace in any given year and not just tourists but also heads of state and other important people. It was really cool to take a Biltmore-Estate-Like tour of a place that is still of such importance. Yes, I recognize that touring the White House is similar, but it is also extremely different. This is mainly because, while cool, the White House is not a palace.
After a delightful tour of the royal house and some of its gardens (speaking of – in which some kids pitched a tent in the 1980s thinking it was Hyde park, oopsies) an afternoon was spent in St. James’ Park, Green Park and Hyde Park in or around a variety of forms of water. Meaning of course that I climbed upon fountains in Green Park and that we rented a pedal boat in Serpentine Lake in Hyde Park and ingested a variety of forms of water products (read: coffee and water and food stuffs). The evening of Saturday was spent gallivanting around Hampstead High Street, a mere walk from my lovely residence in London and adorable and fantastic and much like Georgetown or something like that.
Sunday sent me back to Elizabethan times when I saw “Love’s Labour’s Lost” performed at the rebuilt “Shakespeare’s Globe Theater” in London! The interior of the theater reminded me a little too much of the theater presented in “Shakespeare in Love” but that was equally romantic. The five pound tickets were standing room only, which made the “Shakespeare experience” that much more realistic. I thoroughly enjoyed myself.
Monday marked the first day of classes (WAHOOOO!!!!) and an incident with a squirrel that makes the UNC squirrels look tame. Let’s just say that the squirrel story ends with said squirrel climbing up a 10 year old boys leg, after which the boy does not scream or squirm (not my style), but feeds the squirrel sausage, oh that he had found in his pocket. Could someone explain that one to me? The beginning of classes was a welcome change to the monotony of my summer (ha!) but was actually really refreshing to be able to LEARN something again! My first class of Fall 2009 began very harshly and the professor had hardly said his name before diving into an analysis of Theodore Drieser’s Sister Carrie. Let it be known that myself (and the 20+ study abroad students in the class) had no idea that the book was on a syllabus, let alone that it had to be read! The second class was slightly calmer and even included (gasp) a course outline and a powerpoint, oh the comforts of home.
As you can see with all this as evidence, life in London is a peach. There are many more misadventures ahead and I certainly cannot wait for the next one (which may or may not include figuring out how to take Bus 13 in the morning commute OR ). Please, stay tuned.
With love and in peace,
Lauren Shor
PS – You (internet-land/anonymous reader) will have to excuse my abuse of Lauren speak in the above post, I blame it on the late hour, long day, and cough.
PPS - I WILL get better at being funny/regular/interesting in these posting things. Its a goal of mine.
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