What a Busy Week!

First off, my apologies everyone for not keeping this updating this week. It has been an extremely busy week which I will tell you about! Second off, my apologies for my pictures not being up. Just realized tonight that Flickr had an error and deleted all my albums. All being fixed within the next few minutes. Captions and explanations of them may just have to wait a while. But the pictures are up to date as of what I have taken tonight!! You can click on the top link above this!

Monday morning started off early with a boat ride on the Thames to Hampton Court Palace with my British Culture and Society class. I was in the afternoon tour group so in the morning we got to explore the area. We went through the gardens which are gorgeously done, especially since there is a flower show there this weekend and went to see some grape vines that they described to us as "older than America." I climbed a few feet up on the trellis for a picture which i'm sure wasn't allowed but a good picture moment none the less. Three others, Chris, Jackie, Matt, as well as myself went to the Hampton Court Hedge Maze next. It's been in the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest hedge maze. It was a bit harder than we expected to be and we almost didn't make it out in time to make it to our tour on time. During the tour we got to learn a bit of history about the different parts of the palace. The front part of the Palace, the Tudor part, was built first for Cardinal Wolsey circa 1514 who was a close friend of Henry the VIII. When Wolsey became unfavorable, Henry the VIII took over and used it for the Royal Courts to stay in and he enlarged it to be able to handle his court. The rest of the castle was done by King James 1 and is called the Stuart period. It's decorated and designed much differently than the front half. We also got to see where the fire destroyed part of the Palace in the 1980's and learned about how they restored everything almost perfectly. The Palace was absolutely gorgeous and I'm excited to visit some more. Monday night I started not feeling all that great and ended up having a fever so I took some ibuprofen and knocked out pretty early. I figured because I've barely slept in the last week that I just needed some rest.

Tuesday morning we had to be up bright and early for Shakespeare class. I still wasn't feeling very well but I went anyway. After morning lectures we went into London to do a Bankside walk and see the Globe as well as other Shakespeare significant places. Our teacher is really fun and loves teaching American students. The teaching style is different here and is more casual which I absolutely love. I wish it was like that at home, it makes learning so much more enjoyable. By the time we had walked all through the Southwark district of London, also known as 'Shakespeare's London' I was exhausted but we still had a tour aboard the Golden Hinde. I'm not sure of its actual relevance to Shakespeare but it was an English flagship boat, navigated by Sir Francis Drake. It was the 2nd boat to ever circum-navigate the world between 1577-80. It isn't the original boat, but it's a replica which they say accurately portrays it as best as anyone could ever get it. Our tour guide made alot of jokes and kept it interesting but being very tired, having a bad headache, a sore throat, and a throbbing ear pain, the only thing I wanted to do was head back into Kingston, to my flat and go to bed. Our class finally ended at a pub where we got to have drinks and hang out with our teacher. Had I been feeling a tiny bit better I would have enjoyed it even more but I was ready to leave. The pub we met at was called the George and is the only Elizabethon pub left in London. In many tour books it's the #1 pub to visit. It was gorgeous and very nice to sit outside. After we were dismissed from class I made my way back as quick as possible to Waterloo to catch a train back. To get to Waterloo I had to take the "tube" as it's called which got stopped because of someone having to have a paramedic on one a few stops ahead so I ended up having to walk a good distance back to Waterloo and then had to run to catch a very long train back to where I live. As soon as I got back I grabbed something to eat and called it a night.

On a sidenote, many people in London were unhappy on Tuesday. It was 7/7 - the anniversary of the London bombings 5 years ago and the mayor didn't recognize it. There were flowers left at several bus stations as well as underground stations left by families and friends to honor those who lost their lives.

Yesterday morning I woke up feeling even worse so as soon as I got to class I had the teacher instruct me where to find the health center and the doctor at. Two hours later after alot of waiting and paperwork, I saw the doctor and was told i had a throat infection and got a prescription. I went back to class for a final lecture before heading to the pharmacist to get my prescription filled. In our British Culture and Society class we have two days where we have "Independent London Visits" instead of class fieldtrips where we are supposed to go visit something that interests us. My health interest took over and I ended up going to the Hunterian Museum located at the Royal College of Surgeons of England. For those of you who haven't heard of it here's a link with some info:

http://www.igougo.com/journal-j41120-London-Strange_Museums_in_London.html#1171899


I decided it was best not to post pictures of what I actually saw in the museum because a) I wasn't supposed to take pictures anyway and b) it was pretty gross stuff. I think the link pretty much can give you an idea of what they have. My flatmate, Jerryl went with me who is also a health related major at his school at home so he found a lot of it interesting too. After the museum we ended up walking around a little and wandered through the London Inn and the Royal Courts of Justice. We then went to Bond Street to walk around before catching the Underground to Waterloo and the train back to Surbiton. I was feeling really tired and needed to take my medicine by this point so we decided to avoid the 15 minute walk back from the train station to our flat. Big Mistake- we took a bus that detoured us about an hour. We learned our lesson and now know never to take a K3 bus. Last night I went to sleep early too and was forced to wake up really early this morning to read Shakespeare.

Now to today - this morning I had to wake up super early and read Shakespeare's 'As You Like It'. Not being a very big reader, nor play enthusiastic, I struggled through it but read it none the less. We discussed it all morning in class before we were excused at 4:15 to go and get ready for a play that we saw tonight. A girl in my class, Stacy, who is also from North Carolina, and I went shopping in Kingston and then hopped on the train from there to go into London and the 'As You Like It' at the Old Vic. It was my first place experience and I enjoyed it. I was a bit tired of the play since we've discussed and read it all day but it gave me an entirely new view and perspective on the play. I think for the next one I may try to watch a version of it before I try to read it to make it more understandable. The play was from 7:30-10:30 tonight so we took a late train back. Since we've been back I've Skyped some with mom and I have been packing. We leave at 6:45am tomorrow morning to head to Scotland for the weekend! I'm really excited but really exhausted and am dreading packing.

July has been flyingggg by. It does not seem like I have been here for over a week and I still am not sure when I'm going to be able to find the time to see everything I want to see and still make the time to go to class and write my papers. I am learning alot, seeing alot, meeting alot of cool people, and having the time of my life. This is by far the best thing I have ever done, and I recommend studying abroad to any and everyone.

I'm already planning on trying to come back in 2012 to join in on some of the Olympic festivities. =) I have fallen in love with this city and I'm sure I'll return back as much as I can. Hope everyone is having fun at home.

Miss & Love everyone!