So I travelled to London, settled in Spain for the two week orientation, went to Morocco for a three and a half day exchange program, then spent a week in Italy. So it makes sense that I am a little behind on the blogging, right? All right, first up- England.
There are a so many words I could use to describe my week in England, but I decided to go with these three: busy, classic, beautiful.
We whirlwind week in London! Thanks to the hospitality of Jen Ehr- a Valpo friend that lives in London- and her amazing parents, we have had a comfy home, great food, and great local tour guide.
Seeing the huge city by foot lead us to see some really amazing things in such a short time. Museums in London are free (with optional donations), so we took full advantage of that! Other monuments and London must-sees are in the hundreds of photos we took during our time there. As we would walk down the streets, I often looked up in sheer amazement as I realize I was looking at history.
That is one of the differences that I came to enjoy about London, it is so much older than the United States. We, in the U.S. are a couple hundred years old, but London is thousands. Next to a building with gothic architecture is a building that looks like it was build 20 years ago. It is wonderfully strange.
One of the sights that we couldn't resist going and touring inside were Churchill's War Rooms. It was an interactive audio tour that gave us a look at London's brave World War II leader. The only way I can describe it is that we were walking through history. We were standing outside the rooms where some of the most important phone calls were made, radio speeches were given, and tactful military decisions were reached. It is the kind of history and learning that I find intriguing. I can see myself happily pulling out some of those facts for my next polysci research paper- no shame:)
Though I tried to look less like a gawking tourist by dressing in [my vision of] "London Fashion", I couldn't resist basically jumping up and down and whipping out my camera as we came across the world-famous Big Ben clock tower. THAT was truly the moment when I had the feeling of "ohmigosh I'm actually standing in London, England!!!!" (not to be confused with the "we aren't in Kansas anymore feeling"). And mind you, that was day 3 of being in London and we had seen plenty of other famous sights. This one was somehow different- breathtaking, exciting, and overwhelming all at the same time. There are plenty of pictures there!
That was just the first three days! Next was our theater day where I was truly cultured as a Londoner. Seeing a play in the Globe Theater was an amazing experience! Not only is this the theater I studied in high school English class, but the play was one that the four of us studied for our honors college Freshman Program. We got the cheap tickets that had us standing at stage level for the 3 hour play, but interacting with actors and being right there for all of the action!
The next, and unfortunately final, day was spent road tripping the countryside. The morning was spent in Bath (pronounced "Bawth") walking through the ancient Roman Baths from approximately 2000 years ago! After the fall of the Roman Empire, the city as it was got built over, so what we were walking through had been excavated for people to see. Hearing and seeing the history there was amazing. We then had the early afternoon in Cirencester (Eric's childhood home), and the rest of the day we had the chance to tour Oxford, where Jen now goes to school. It was beautiful. I mean, I love Valpo and all, but this is completely different. Some of the buildings have such ornate structures that I feel as though I might spend entire classes staring outside in awe:)
All in all, many great memories were made in London and surrounding cities/towns. There was a lot learn and soooo much to see! Some of the photos are featured below. Stay tuned for the adventures in Spain, my real home for the next few months, and you can subscribe to get the blog entries by email if you would like by clicking at the bottom of the page.
The next, and unfortunately final, day was spent road tripping the countryside. The morning was spent in Bath (pronounced "Bawth") walking through the ancient Roman Baths from approximately 2000 years ago! After the fall of the Roman Empire, the city as it was got built over, so what we were walking through had been excavated for people to see. Hearing and seeing the history there was amazing. We then had the early afternoon in Cirencester (Eric's childhood home), and the rest of the day we had the chance to tour Oxford, where Jen now goes to school. It was beautiful. I mean, I love Valpo and all, but this is completely different. Some of the buildings have such ornate structures that I feel as though I might spend entire classes staring outside in awe:)
All in all, many great memories were made in London and surrounding cities/towns. There was a lot learn and soooo much to see! Some of the photos are featured below. Stay tuned for the adventures in Spain, my real home for the next few months, and you can subscribe to get the blog entries by email if you would like by clicking at the bottom of the page.
Day 1: Beating the jet lag
Oxford was some kind of beautiful
Embracing the tourist picture and trying to contain our excitement
The queen took this picture for us (in my dreams)
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