Last Thursday I returned to class, where we went on a tour of the Sky News center in Osterley. It was awesome to see the news as they were filming and producing it, and see a front line perspective on how much work goes in to a television broadcast. We literally stood in the control room and watched everything happening live – it was awesome. Not to mention we saw a cast member of Geordie Shore (yes, Britain’s spin off of Jersey Shore) walk by, so all the girls were a bit star struck. Also at Osterley station I got a samosa for a pound (go figure), and it was delicious. I wish they sold samosas everywhere in America like they do here!
Then Thursday night (evening? whatever) we went with our program on the London Eye, which is the big ferris wheel thing on the Thames River. I have to admit I had pretty low expectations, but the view was amazing. You could literally see everything in London and see everything beyond it for miles. All of the pictures had natural lighting and were absolutely gorgeous. Don’t know if I would go for a second round, but I am definitely glad I got to see it once.
Friday’s class was also interesting because it was a walking tour of London’s east end. I knew it had the reputation of being the immigrant’s quarter, and we walked through it briefly during our Jack the Ripper tour, but I had no idea it had such rich history. Many different immigrants have come and gone through the area, including Jews, so there was an amazing bagel shop randomly in there (that I am definitely planning on returning to) and synagogues mixed in to the predominately Muslim Bangladeshi community that currently resides there. Later that night we ended up going back to Liverpool Street, which is on the border of the east end, and went to a pub there. It was a lot of fun, until we accidentally missed the last tube, which gave us the inspiration to walk home. Note to self: Liverpool Street is NOT fifteen minutes away from my flat… it is closer to an hour. On the plus side we stopped off at an amazing kebab place (dubbed “Mr. Shish”) so we went to sleep that night with full and happy bellies.
On Saturday morning, Amanda, Jennings, Claire, Brandt and I headed over to Trafalgar Square to watch West End Live, which was an outdoor festival that gave twenty minute previews of all the shows currently playing in the theaters. In my opinion, we saw all the best ones – “Wicked”, “We Will Rock You”, “Chicago”, “Jersey Boys”… but we only saw maybe about a quarter of the festival. The positives to this adventure? I got a happy meal from McDonalds on the way there (don’t judge me) and got the most fascinating toy I have ever gotten in a fast food bag… it was a fake iPod, and it ACTUALLY PLAYED MUSIC. Kids these days are so lucky, because that toy was legit. Also we got to see the best parts of most of the musicals we wanted to see without having to pay to see them all. The downside? The weather honestly sucked. I have never seen weather change SO fast in my entire life. Ok I know I am from California and we don’t have “real” weather and blah blah blah, but still – it went from sunny, to rain, to sunny, to cloudy, to rain, to sunny, to HAIL, to sunny… all changing in about five minute intervals. Brandt said it best, in that if he had a dollar for every time he had to take his jacket on or off during that performance, he would be rich.
Needless to say, after watching the end of the “Jersey Boys” performance, we headed back to our flat to dry off/hang out/make some lunch. I was very content to make the Mac n Cheese my mom mailed me, and watch a crappy show called “Made in Chelsea”, which is basically the UK’s version of “The Hills”. This low key sentiment carried out through Saturday night, where we chose to go to Hagen Daas to get ice cream in Leicester Square instead of going out. Let me tell you, it was the best decision ever. Brandt and I decided to split a crepe with lemon sorbet, raspberry sauce, and chocolate crispies, and it was absolutely delicious.
Sunday morning Amanda and I woke up early, because the Primack clan arrived in London! We went over to their hotel, and took my dad out to a full English breakfast for Father’s Day. My mom was reallllly excited because they played lots of Beatles and Paul McCartney music in the restaurant we were in.
Afterwards we went out to Greenwich, which has a cool open air market on Sundays, and is also the location of the Prime Meridian line, the Queen’s Palace, and some other random cool stuff. I felt really bad because it took a lot longer to get there than I expected (stupid Underground construction), and my jetlagged family was obviously fading fast. However they were troopers and powered through the day, and I think it was a good short introduction to London for them.
For as much energy as my family lacked, Amanda and I had that much excess energy. This inspired us to basically rip apart our flat and build a fort. It was more difficult than we originally anticipated, simply because we lacked a lot of key materials such as safety pins, string, etc., but we made it work. You can tell me whether it was a major success or a major failure:
Monday was relatively uneventful – it was raining outside, so we felt extra lazy. Classes were easy too because we just held them in the Syracuse center, but the speakers were at least pretty interesting. One of them was Roger Hardy, who spoke about reporting Middle East issues, which of course spurred on several never-ending debates (oy vey). After class Amanda and I met up with the fam, and we went to a pub in Leicester Square. Robyn and my mom had their first fish and chips (yay!) and as expected my dad was boring and got a hamburger (love you Dad, you have to admit it’s funny though).
Now I’m finally caught up to today, which started off with me going to work for a half day. The time flew by fast because I had to write a ten minute speech that my MP is supposed to deliver on Friday (so soon!). At lunchtime I left because our class had a field trip to the US Embassy! The security measures there were ridiculous – literally their security is more uptight than the security at the White House. We spoke with a Foreign Service officer, who gave us a really interesting insight on what it’s like to work in the embassy and what it takes to get that kind of job (it is a lot tougher than I thought!).
After the embassy trip I rushed home in order to meet up with my family in time for an early dinner, because we had tickets to see “Doctor Faustus” at Shakespeare’s Globe Theater! I was really excited not only to see a play, but also to sit in the Globe Theater. Even though it has been remodeled, it is exactly how it was like back in Shakespeare’s day. The play was really good, and we had surprisingly good seats. It has also been a lot of fun and refreshing to see my family after work and classes, and I’m going to be sad to see them go next week.
An overriding change since the past week is the amount of time Amanda and I spend upstairs with our friends in Flat 10. Our dear friend Jennings, who we have been friends with since the beginning of the program, lives up there, and we automatically clicked with the rest of the roommates and have been hanging out with them an insane amount ever since. They provide lots of laughs and good fun, and its cool to have other Syracuse students here to hang out with, but are also a change of scenery from the faces we see in class everyday. So basically if you see time gaps in my blog, you can insert “Allison and Amanda were sitting in Flat 10”, and that would be a pretty accurate representation of our day.
That’s about all I have for now. Good stuff to come for next time… have some trips planned this weekend with the family, and I got a call from Mara today that she has arrived in London! I am SO excited because I haven’t seen her since she left me to go study abroad Israel! Until next time :)
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