Right. So, it's been a while.
Big things that happened include Easter weekend, a week of class and internship things, and a day trip to Dover yesterday.
Easter weekend was exciting because I had visitors! My mom and her friend Diane arrived on Good Friday and I took them on walking tours through Russell Square, Leicester Square, Covent Garden, Trafalgar Square, the strand, etc. It was interesting to see the city fill up with ten times more tourists than usual for that particular weekend. Maybe by interesting I mean annoying. But that weekend I managed to go to the Tate Modern (which surprisingly is full of modern art) and generally hang out in the southbankish area.
I also showed off my "home" area, including Alexandra Palace itself and the closest pub (which is adorable and a true pub--not one of the commercialized ones), and generally made my mom hike various places in north and central London.
Classes were the usual. One day after class some friends and I made the smart decision to go to the carnival behind Alexandra Palace (Ally Pally, as some call it) and get on an extremely dodgy version of the Tilt-a-Whirl that resulted in a variety of injuries...some of which were psychological... Basically, nothing with hard metal surrounding the place where your head goes should spin that fast. Ever.
One of my favorite experiences from the week was watching the second Arsenal vs. Barcelona football match in the pub down the road. Somehow I've become an Arsenal fan (they are the closest team to where I live and the team my host family supports wholeheartedly), and even though Arsenal lost, it was really cool to feel the whole pub literally jump when Arsenal scored its one goal of the evening (and pretty entertaining to hear the quiet and not-so-quiet comments about the other team).
This Saturday we went to Dover--which is now famous for its...ferry to France. We went to see the white cliffs, which were gorgeous, especially because it was sunny and relatively warm. I could have spent an embarrassingly long amount of time climbing on those cliffs (we had some time...but not enough!), but we also visited the castle and took a tour through the "secret wartime tunnels" that were created when they thought Napoleon was coming over, then used again in WWII.
This coming weekend we go to Wales for hiking, cliff diving and swimming in sea caves!!!! AHHHHHH.
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Ahhh, Wales. You'll love it. Talked to your Mom the other night -- she had a great time. Of course you know that; just thought I'd share. Can't think of much else as the brain at this point in the semester is dead, dead, dead.
ReplyDeleteMy students are loving my tales and pictures of my London visit. Of course, 4th graders want to hear all about "The Bloody Tower of London." Their new favorite expression is "Mind the Gap" and they have altered this to "Mind the Stairs" as we traverse the hallways and stairs at school. Thanks for sharing London with me.
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