Cardiff Wales, Stonehenge, and Bath

So I took my very first trip outside of England. Yes I know Wales is still in the UK and it's not even a flight-worthy trip, but still, Wales is considered a country after all. So we [20-something WC students] took our bus (10pounds round trip!) ride to Wales very early Friday morning and got our first taste of the English countryside. Although I was not thrilled to have to wake up at 6:45 on a Friday when I don't have class, I was happy to see the sun rising over the English countryside as we rode toward Cardiff.

On arrival, we immediately realized one very nice fact about the Wales capitol: everything is much much less expensive. The cab ride to our hostels cost around 7 pounds whereas in London it would've been pushing 20. The hostel I stayed in was called the Nomad. It was my first hostel experience and I must say a more pleasant one than not. For some reason, all the private rooms were books so me, Miles, and Mike ended up in a shared dormitory room which had 6 beds and 2 other people spending Friday night. I feel bad for the random girl who was also staying in our room. She must have been terrified at the thought of being in the same room with 4 guys she didn't know. During the day, I was feeling the effects mono and stayed in and slept the majority of it.
Cardiff is not London. It's much smaller, cleaner, and more laid back. The buildings aren't as big and the signs are in English and Gaelic. There are less cars and friendlier people. The Cardiff Castle and Cardiff Bay are pretty much the only tourist attractions in Cardiff. The weekend as a whole was very relaxing as our smaller groups did our own things respectively. I really enjoyed visiting the Cardiff national museum but my favorite part of the Cardiff trip was being able to spend three pounds for a full sized meal of fish and chips and cup of tea at a quality restaurant. Sunday I ended up walking the length of Cardiff 4 times when I got lost searching for church, lost looking for the rest of my group, lost looking for the Cardiff Bay, and finally the walk back to city centre where we eventually were picked up by the bus for the ride home.

Another week of classes. Some more public transportation and Serbian cooking at home. We got two boys, this time from Denmark, to add to our diverse household which now includes Serbians, 1 Greek-American, 2 Italians, 2 Norwegians, and now the 2 Danish

Friday a few of us took a day trip guided tour to Stonehenge and Bath. Stonehenge was very very interesting...for the first 10 minutes. The most impressive fact about it is that each stone would taken at least 60 men to carry and also that each layer of stones were from different regions of the UK. The only other interesting fact I learned about Stonehenge is that it is we about 1/3 of each stone is lodged underground so it would be virtually impossible to tip one over. Even if we were allowed to go near the stones. In fact, someone did. There were these two guys from California on this tour who had more facial piercings than I have fingers and toes. The one, on a dare, decided it would be funny to get a picture while leaning on Stonehenge. He jumped the little fence and struck his pose while leaning on the stone. Within 5 seconds, a security guy also jumps the fence and snatches our proud American friend before the picture was even taken. Needless to say, it was quite comical to witness someone getting kicked out of Stonehenge of all places.

The second leg of our day trip was to Bath. The city of Bath had a very unique style to it. Very Victorian with its limestone buildings and pseudo-Grecian pillars. We gained entrance into the Roman Baths (hence the city name, Bath), which were built some centuries ago when the Romans invaded this far into Britain. The Baths are basically a bunch of natural water reaching so deep into the center of the earth that the core heats the water near its boiling point. The water itself is untreated and we were warned not to touch it (I touched it). I wonder if the water was always green when the Romans used it regularly...I should have asked my new buddy, Octavius something someone and something more in Latin. This guy had like 12 names and seriously believed he was the head priest to serve the gods at the Bath. I gotta give the guy credit, either he was a little cuckoo in the head or he is going to win the next Oscar for never getting out of character. Well anyway, visiting the Roman baths was a unique experience to have in the UK. We then rode our bus home which concluded our day trip to Stonehenge and Bath.

Spark Notes
Cardiff, Wales - very nice atmosphere, I want to return if time permits.
Stonehenge - impressive for about 10 minutes, witnessed a fellow American do our country proud by getting kicked out of the place.
Bath - very unique town with an attractive flavor to it. I touched Roman bath water. It was green. And warm.

Until next time!

Class Assignmen: Technology - UK and USA

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As most of us know, believe it or not, my first and foremost purpose of being in London is to study and take classes worth college credit back home at Westminster College. I'm enrolled in a PR and Advertising class, a Math Perspectives class, and a "cluster course" (where two seemingly unrelated subjects are taught in accordance to one another) - in this case - Computer Science and Internet Psychology. In fact, I keep my blog not only for my personal memories and for you, my faithful readers lol. I keep my blog also as a class requirement. Now with requirements come specific assignments. Class, today you will learn about some technological differences between the US and UK (mainly because that is my assignment).

Obviously there are multitudes of cultural differences when it comes to comparing British and American society. One huge contributor toward such differences is technology. No, when I say "technology", I don't mean that they drive flying cars and spaceships as travel, sorry. By technology I mean more how the differences lie in the use of technology in everyday life.

Take transportation for example. In America, we all wake up and most likely drive ourselves to work each day (often grabbing a cup of coffee at Sheetz or McDonalds) in our own car. This typical morning scenario is very different in British life. For one, the majority of London's population don't drive cars. In fact, I don't think the a good number of British even own cars (imagine 7 million cars driving through streets that were made to accomadate horse drawn carts in medieval times). Although there is constant traffic in the streets of London, only a fraction of the population are actually driving. There is one significant reason to the lack of car travel.

Public Transportation.

London has one the most impressive public transportation system I have ever seen. It's cheaper, faster (most of the time), and surprisingly consistant. The main form of getting around is riding on the Underground or "the Tube" as some call it. This is simply done by checking in and out of the station of your choice with the Oyster Card (this card a necessity to get around London), and then hopping on the train operating on the line towards your destination. With well over 200 stations, the people can essentially get from Heathrow Airport (west of London) to Cockfosters (east of London) on the Piccadilly Line. Or how about Covent Garden to Portabella Road? The Victoria Station is only a 10 minute walk from Buckingham Palace.
Once off the tube, you can catch one of the several buses going through one of the many bus stops along the streets. I can not think of a single place I've been that hasn't been more than a 15 minute walk to a bus stop. The convenient thing is the bus system runs 24/7 so you never need to fear for a lack of transportation.

There are many other technological differences such as the light switch - this one's for you Dr. Lenox! :) - or the plug outlets in my room. Now if anyone were to ask me what the biggest difference between the US and UK, I would have to say the use of public transportation.

I do have a lot more to blog about (Jack the Ripper tour, pub life etc) but I will hold off until I return from Wales this weekend.
Until next time!

Latest blurbs, Mayor of Thames Fest, the Internet and the Like

It has now been 10 days since I left the United States and I already feel rather acclimated to British culture. I can certainly spot tourists gawking at the architectural and historical design of the city - much like I was only a week ago. I do not have an accent but I have picked up on many different ways of speaking. For example: If I, after hoo-ing the linens, were to get lost while walking along the motorway after passing the chemist, I would find a bloke and ask him where the nearest bloody tube was because I left my reading in the toilets near the way out after minding the gap.
Got it?
ok great because I didnt' either only a week ago. Differences in languages was the topic today at dinner with our new homestays - two more girls from Italy (Gabriella and the other's name is the italian feminine version of Frederick...I'm just going to call her Freddy), and now two boys from Norway (Sebastian and a unique Norweigan name that sounds kinda like "turban" with a bunch of accents... and I used to think Miltiadis was tough). I better learn these four new homestays names because they will be here for the duration of my stay in London as well.

The other big news this weekend is the renowned Mayor of Thames Festival. It is a festival that extends a couple miles long just south of the Thames river. Imagine a long stretch of sidewalk surrounded by tents, booths, stands, and displays varying from clothing to pottery to food to an acupunctural neck massage. A buzz of people from around the world fills the air. It is impossible to walk more than ten feet without hearing at least 3 or 4 different languages. It is here I witnessed a street magician perform his show, bought a lamb wrap from Sweden, examined pottery handmade in Jerusalem, nearly walked into a Pole (get it? haha), and even took a picture of Michael Jackson:
If anyone is looking for a definition of the word "diversity", you need look no further than the Mayor of Thames Festival. The cultures represented at this festival span the entire globe. Just the possibility that there was a person from nearly every country in the world at this festival absolutely blew my mind.

Feeling quite inspired by the multitude of cultures, I couldn't wait to submerse myself right in the middle of other countries. So I went online to my new favourite travel website (travelsupermarket .com) and started searching. Currently, I now have trips booked to Barcelona Spain, Paris France, Geneva Switzerland, Wales UK, Rome Italy, and a return flight from Tel Aviv. Ireland I will book soon and I will try to squeeze in Germany and Austria for my final open weekends of this trip. The Pound-to-Dollar exchange rate is taking a big hit on my bank account but hey, when will I get this opportunity again? (besides, I didn't work 3 jobs this summer for nothing).

I have spent at least 6 hours total looking around on the internet for the cheapest flights, buses, hostels etc. which leads me to realize how dependant I am on the internet. Without the internet I would completely lost in this foreign land. I would have to travel to travel agencies to buy my tickets, yet, to find these agencies, I would search online. I even go online to find directions to where the nearest Greek Orthodox churches are located. As an American living in a foreign country, the internet has become my best friend and my worst enemy.

I find myself spending more and more time online. Some of it is very productive yet a significant amount of time online has been surfing through facebook, watching youtube, and checking on my ever-important Baltimore Ravens. Of course they don't broadcast NFL on European TV so I spent about an hour today trying to find some live feed of the Ravens-Chiefs game - of which I had no luck. I don't like being dependant on the internet yet I find it can be incredibly addicting. I'm going to try to limit myself to only productive things online. I don't know, I guess I'll wing it. and now I'm rambling...Hey it's London.
Until next time!

My First Week Overseas

After spending the first 19 years, 10 months, and 11 days of my life in the United States, I left my home country, my home town, my home college in New Wilmington to go study abroad in London, England - arguably the world's most cosmopolitan city. I, and around 30 students and 2 faculty from Westminster College endured the 9 hour night flight from Atlanta GA to the Gatwick Airport right outside London. It was the shortest time between a sunset and sunrise I've witnessed.

One could feel the excitement stirring in the air as we touched ground in our ancestral, yet foreign, nation. Gatwick looked like any other airport with its multiple planes and terminals and the like. The feeling of excitement instantly tripled when we were greeted by an airport attendant with a very British "Goo' Mornin' 'ope you 'ad a nice flyte". A growing feeling of eagerness began to permeate our entire group as we very suddenly realized that we were the ones speaking with an accent now. After passing through customs and collecting our baggage, we were bussed to The Grange in Ealing London. It was here where we were torn away from our peers as our host families arrived to pick us up one by one. I was picked up by my host mom named Slava. She is not British but moved from Serbia to London some thirty-plus years ago.

After settling in my small but clean room, I was introduced to the other current students living in the house - 1 student from Spain and 6 students from Italy (who have now departed, but there are two new Italian students staying.

Over the weekend, I experienced the adventurous night life of Piccadilly Square, walked by the Big Ben, touched the tomb of Queen Elizabeth I, drank my first pint, kissed in front of Buckingham Palace, entered Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, split my first bottle of wine, lit a candle at Saint Paul's Cathedral, walked past the Tower of London, and finally figured out the public underground transportation system - or "the tube" as the British call it.

Now the first three days of classes have come to an end and I can only imagine what the rest of Europe has to offer. I intend to find out.
Cheers!