How long does a Queen last?

I found this link today and it looks into how long a queen last. I thought it was a really funny and interesting look at The Queen

http://www.funri.com/how-long-does-a-queen-last/

Scotland!

I have just returned from one of the most amazing trips I think I  have ever been on. The past few days have been extremely busy, but it was an absolutely amazing experience! So, as usual I will break down the trip by the days for you all to follow along!

Thursday

Since the trip up to Scotland is a 9-10 hour drive, we decided to take an overnight megabus that way we didn't waste a whole day traveling. We took a bus that went from central London to Glasgow, Scotland

The drive up was pretty much what you could imagine it would be like, a little crowded and loud, but hey it was a cheap ride up. We left around 1 am and got into Glasgow around 11:30am. We spent the day exploring Glasgow, backpacks and all. We went to a neat place called the Lighthouse (which is not really a lighthouse) which is basically a museum about architecture. The neat thing about this place was that it had a view tower that you could climb up and get a birds eye view of the city. We climbed the 135 steps up to the top and were memorized by the amazing view this little tower in the center of the city had.

view from the tower

After visiting the Lighthouse we walked around town, visiting the Glasgow Museum of Art, town center, and a few other places. One place we went to was the Tenement House. This was an apartment building dating back to the very early 1900s. The room of one of the occupants has been left unchanged since 1935, and is now used as a museum. We explored the city a little more and grabbed some dinner then visited the city's Modern Art Museum. The place is full of odd pieces, including this one:

If you can't read it, it says: "It doesn't matter which one you pick, they are all poison

After the museum, we hopped on a bus that took us to Edinburgh. It was a little late when we got there, but we did have enough time/light to take a few snapshots of the city before calling it a night

the Edinburgh Castle

Friday

On this day, we booked a group tour that took us out into the Highlands of Scotland! I don't think my words could do nearly enough justice to how pretty Scotland is! Hopefully my pictures on here and on facebook leads you all to think the same thing. Here is the route we took to for the trip:

One of the first places we stopped on the trip was the Deanton Whiskey Distillery. We got a short tour of the place and a talk on how it was made followed by a short breakfast break. 

Deanton Distillery 

Afterwards, we drove into the mountains making occasional stops to get out of the caravaan and take pictures followed by a quick lunch break in Glencoe! This area is known widely around here due to the Massacre of Glencoe. This occured during the reign of King William, who was king of both Scotland and England at the time (long story behind that one). He wasn't pleased with the clan of Highlanders that lived in Glencoe (the Macdonald clan) because they did not immediately pledge their allegance to him. Because of this he had the town brutally massacred one morning, which started lead to uprisings against the King's ruling. (more information can be found here: Massacre of Glencoe, Glencoe Massacre) 

In the Highlands

Driving through Glencoe

After lunch, we made our way up to the famous, Loch Ness. Sadie and I got to go on a boat cruise on a small portion of the lake (and by small, I mean very small since the lake is the 24 miles long!) The rumor of the Loch Ness Monster was first recorded 1,500 years ago!! While there is no proof of the existence of a monster living in the lake, the people in the area are strong believers that there is some sort of monster down there! On top of that, even though you can't really tell in my pictures the lake's water was pitch black. It definitely made the situation a little spookier!

Nessie!

On Loch Ness

After Loch Ness, we made our way back to Edinburgh which also included a few more photo opportunities and some snack time.

Saturday

The day started off pretty early with a hike up a hill in the center of town called Calton Hill. This hill is a public park with tons of greek/roman-like statues. The Hill offered a nice view of the entire city, included the now-extinct volcano, Arthur's seat. On my way back I managed to walk right by Mel Gibson!!! Crazy start to the day right?? Afterwards Sadie and I went an ate breakfast at the Elephant House, which is where J.K. Rowling did most of her writing for her first few Harry Potter books!

view from Calton Hill

Afterwards we got to go on a walking tour of the city and learned a lot about Scotland and Edinburgh's history! The walking tour went all over the old town (Edinburgh is split up into the old town and new town, which are both pretty much self explanatory). We learned about some of Scotland's crown jewels, major battles that took place, the development of the town, as well as some interesting facts related to Harry Potter!  After the tour, Sadie & I went to visit Dolly the Sheep, also known as the first organism to be cloned.

Dolly the Sheep

We then walked around town for a little longer, both the new and old and eventually decided to take a long hike up the extinct volcano! We definitely worked our muscles and killed our feet getting up there, but the view was totally worth it!

on top of the extinct volcano overlooking the city!

We then had some dinner, hung around the town for a bit and then took another overnight bus back to London this morning. Here was the route back for us:

As you can hopefully tell by my pictures the trip was gorgeous! I hope to back here again and see more of what Scotland has to offer!

Last Week of Lectures!

Today is my last day of lecture courses! Which is odd to think about since yesterday was High Point's last day of classes and they will be home in less a week and a half, and I still have over a month left in London! 

Next week most classes are optional or you have a revealed exam/presentation to finish off the year. Its weird to think that classes are over, because I feel like I have been to hardly any classes! With classes only being once a week, it means I have only had 12 or 13ish lectures per class. Back at home, I go to more than 12 classes in a week! And I am not the only one who sees the huge difference between schools back home and here. One of the girls in the program said that her teacher told her that its so different because only a small portion of kids go to college here, unlike America. Another girl said that her teacher told her that its so much easier because they make sure the students pass so that they receive the student's awarded grant money, because if they don't pass then the school doesn't get the money. 

Tonight my friend Sadie & I take off for Scotland! Prepare for photos, blogs, etc. to be up Sunday when I get back!

Tourist Thursday: Oxford!

Yesterday, Kevin and I took a day trip our of London to the famous university town of Oxford! I have wanted to see this famous college for years, and it finally happen! But it was certainly not what I expected! 

For starters, Oxford University is the 3rd oldest University in the world! However, when the students founded the school, they were not welcomed by the town what-so-ever. If you can tell from my pictures in my Facebook album, all the colleges are closed in, by walls/fences/whatever. This is because the town folks use to try and kill the students around the 13th century, so as a mean of protecting the students the university developed residence buildings and gates so that the students could remain in the university and not worry about being killed (According to our walking tour guide, there was one period when 60 students were killed by the townsfolks. CRAZY). But this wasn't the part that I would describe as "what I didn't expect." 

Oxford University is not a unified campus, so-to-speak. Instead it is made up of a bunch of little colleges, and I don't mean a bunch of specialized colleges (ex. College of Pharmacy, School of Education, etc.). Each college offers more-the-less the same courses, so when applying to Oxford University, you have to also apply to the college you want. And they are treated as if they are all different colleges, not just one big Oxford University college. For example, If I was a student attending New College at Oxford University majoring in English and Kevin was attending Balliol College at Oxford University also majoring in English, I couldn't just waltz my way into Balliol College and see Kevin. I would have to be invited in as a guest. But I still couldn't use the facilities on my own, such as the dining hall or the libraries.  It's rather confusing (or at least I think so). But the map below shows how the colleges are spread out ll throughout the town and not necessarily even connected/close to one another - all the lettered dots on the map represent the colleges of Oxford Univesity

But anyways, itinerary wise Kevin and I went on a walking tour of the city and got to go into some of the colleges: Balliol College, Wadham College, New College, etc. We also went around and saw some other important pieces to Oxford University, such as the Sheldonian Theatre which is where some of the university's graduation takes place.  

 Entrance to Balliol College - the oldest college of Oxford University

Chapel at New College

After the tour we went and had some lunch at the oldest pub in Oxford, Turf Tavern! Following that, we headed up to Oxford's Museum of the History of Science and got to see a collection of old instruments that the university has collected - such as teloscopes and instruments used to create penicillin. But the most cherish item that the museum held was the blackboard used by Albert Einstein when he taught at Oxford University briefly as well as the his notes that were left on the board!

Official Chalkboard & Writing of Albert Einstein!

We then headed down to the Museum of Natural History and the Pitt Rivers Museum! the Museum of Natural History is known for having the most complete collection of the Dodo bird! Unfortunately, the museum was going through renovations, so most of their items (including the Dodo bird) where wrapped up and moved for protection. After the museum we took another stroll around the town to see Christ Church College (their dining hall is what Hogwart's dining hall is model after in Harry Potter). We didn't get to go inside, but it was nice to walk around the building, which is next to a large park full of dear! Afterwards, we headed to the train and headed home!

But before I end the blog, there is one last thing I must share - that I believe is BEYOND cool. First off for any Harry Potter fans reading this, you should be familar where I am from my picture below. But if you haven't seen Harry Potter, I included a clip for you to watch!

Here are the pictures from my walk down Harry Potter lane:

Less then a week till I'm off to Scotland!! 

Scottish Travels! And Other News

I am excited to announce that I will traveling to the lovely land of Gerald Butler and Kilts. That's right, I'm going to Scotland! Kevin is going to be skipping out on this trip, instead I am going on a little girls weekend with one of the girls here, Sadie! We will be seeing Glasgow, Edinburgh, and I will also be tracking down the famous Loch Ness Monster!! Now, this trip isn't until the end of April, but I am so excited for it! Let me know if anyone is interested in any kilts, I can help you out :)

In other news, some major events are taking in place in London this week with the recent death of Margaret Thatcher. There will be a state funeral for her on Wednesday which includes being marched throughout the city from the Tower of London to Westminster - its the same funeral that Winston Churchill had. We are still deciding if we want to go down to witness this event (because even though it is a funeral, it would be really neat to be an eye witness to this event that doesn't happen very often). 

Along with that, Kevin and I will be spending our Tourist Thursday in Oxford, England! My dream school (well, at least it was my dream school in the 6th grade)!!! So keep an eye out for some new pictures and post coming soon!

Back into the Routine

Now that classes have started back up again (after being on break for 2 and 1/2 weeks) I am starting to get into the routine of things again. I only have 3 weeks of classes left and then basically a month for "finals" (I'll explain later) and last minute exploring! 

These next few weeks will mostly consist of finishing up the remainder of the work for the year, which frankly is equivalent to a weeks worth of homework at high point so it's not very stressful. Following the ending of classes is a short window of "finals" that not every class participates in - I only have 2 out of my 4 classes. The reason I am using quotation marks is because finals over here are kind of a joke when compared to the finals I know of. When I think of finals I think of hours of studying and preparation for a three hours exam that makes you want to cry at the end of it. But here, finals are a 1 hour revealed essay. Now I know you must be thinking the same thing when I heard of it, what exactly is a revealed essay? Well, it is exactly like it sounds. It is an essay where they tell you the question(s) weeks in advance so you can practice writing it before the day of the final. I don't exactly understand the effectiveness of this type of final, because you're not really being test on the semester's worth of material.   But I'm not going to complain.

Other than the last minute work and the brief period of finals, I am hoping to get in a few last minute trips  before the end of the semester. I am hoping to get out into the other districts of the UK, especially Wales and Scotland, as well as some of the other cities in the area, such as Oxford and Brighton. 

Other than that, not much else to share about life in London! 

Stonehenge & Bath

The last part of this week's adventure was a day trip out to see Stonehenge and Bath! The trip was apart of a groupon deal that included the bus ride there and back, entry into Stonehenge, and a private tour guide. We left central London early yesterday morning and began our journey. The drive out to Stonehenge was a little over an hour and a half and our private tour guide told us countless information on the way there. 

The actual experience of Stonehenge was indescribable! It still doesn't feel like it really happen! However, even though the experience was incredible it was BEYOND freezing! The open field surrounding Stonehenge made it extremely windy, but I would do it all over again!

Just a quick hour away from Stonehenge was the city of Bath. Bath was built up by the ancient Roman Empire. Its architecture was absolutely gorgeous! It was built along a hillside and the river Avon (sidenote: there are multiple rivers in England called Avon because it is the anglo-saxon word for river). The city is also the home to a set of Roman Baths, which still uses the same piping that the Romans put in centuries ago! We spent most of the time there walking around and eating!

Brussels, Belgium

The second adventure of this past week was our trip to Brussels, Belgium! Mom, Mikhaila, Kevin and I had a marvelous time exploring the city, but it was a little more difficult then previous cities because Belgians speak 3 main languages: French, Dutch  and German! So unlike Paris where there were some English on them, Belgium did not because they had to fit so many other languages to deal with. But despite the language barrier, it was still an interesting time!

Tuesday

We woke up early Tuesday morning (like around 5:30am!) and headed to St. Pancras International station. We then took a lovely train ride out of London all the way to Brussels. Now, you may be wondering how you take a train from England to the mainland. There is a tunnel that goes under the channel that trains travel through, unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) the tunnel is completely enclosed and there is no windows that let you see as you are traveling through the tunnel. When we got to Brussels, we took the subway and got to our hotel room for the next few days. After checking in, we grab a little lunch and began to explore!
The first stop that day was Saint Micheal's Cathedral. It reminded me a lot of Notre Dame back in Paris!

Afterwards, we walked down into the Grand Market which is in the center in the city. It was gorgeous! the Market was surrounded by some of the most important buildings in the city: The King's House, Guildhalls, the Duke's house, Town Hall, and many others! At night, the Market place was a scene of flashing, colorful lights!

We walked around some more before we headed back to the hotel to take a short siesta (which Brussels still takes part of as everything in the town appears to be closed between 3 adn 6). After the nap we found a local restaurant and stuffed our face with some of the most delicious pasta ever. We walked around for a little while after and grabbed some famous Belgian chocolate and then called it a night!

Wednesday

We started the day with traveling outside the city to Heysel Park to see the world's biggest atom! This 335 foot atom was built back in 1958 and still stands today! We goofed around for a bit and had a picnic just under the atom before we packed up and headed back into the city area.

After the Atom, we walked around Brussels some more through Brussels Park that looks upon the Royal Palace. A lot of the trees and plants in the park were still dead from the cold months, but we could tell that it would be stunning in the warmer months! 

 We then we went on the hunt to find the famous Peeing Boy! I don't really know the reason behind the sculpture of the peeing boy, but there are figurines all over the city for sale! the statue is also remarkably small - its about the same size as 3/4 of my arm. It is also reported that there is a "squatting girl" somewhere around the city as well!

After finding the peeing boy we enjoyed one of Belgium's famous waffle (which is more of a desert then a breakfast item) and then headed back for another siesta! Afterwards, we went out for dinner (another Italian restaurant where the chief made the pasta fresh each morning!!) and did a little more exploring at night before calling it a night!

Thursday

For our last day in Brussels, we split up into 2 and went to the museum of our choice. Mom & Mikhaila went to one of the Art Museums that had an exhibition of Kandinsky while Kevin & I went to the Belvue Museum that was about the history of Belgium. Kevin & I learned a lot from the museum, especially concerning the development of the country in 1830. With the country only being a little more than 180 years old there wasn't much history to it just yet as compared to France and England. The Belgian Revolution mostly took place in Brussels against the Netherlands, just shortly after the French Revolution  ended. Since Belgium won its freedom in 1830, there have been only 5 monarch to help oversee the country. The museum also went into some details about Belgium's place during both World Wars and it development over the years. If you are curious about the history of Belgium here are some links: Belgian Revolution, Belgian Revolution 2, Belgium WW1

After the museums, we walked around one last time and picked up some last minute souvenirs before we grabbed our bags and hopped on the train back to London! 

Mom & Mikhaila - Sunday & Monday

A LOT has happened this last week and I am very excited to share it all with you! To make it easier on all of us, I'm breaking the week up into separate blogs instead of just having one colossal blog post. This first post is about my mom & Mikhaila arriving into London on Sunday and the adventures we had that day and on Monday.

Mom & Mikhaila got in early Sunday Morning (around 7:30am London time or 2:30am EST). I met them at the airport that morning and brought them back to my homestay so they could drop off their bags and freshin up after their over-night flight. After introducing them to my host family and cleaning up, I took them around the college campus and introduced them to the Twickenham area! Kevin came and met us up in Twickenham and we had lunch at one of the local Pubs, The George. 

After lunch, we headed into Central London so that they could get a "sneak preview" of what they had in store for Monday. I showed them Trafalgar Square (where the National Gallery is), St. Martin in the Field Church, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey. and a few other things that were in the area. It was extremely crowded since it was Easter Sunday, but it made it all the more amusing! There was some sort of Easter festival going on in the square where people dressed up as bunnies and roller bladed around town.

We then boarded the train back to my homestay where Kevin made us some yummy Easter Dinner! (which I showed also add ended up being more difficult then we would have thought because in London almost all stores are closed down and many restaurants have early closing times, so Kevin had to go 2 towns over in order to find an open grocery store!)

After dinner, I helped Mom & Mikhaila with their bags and got them checked in at the hotel.

We got up early Monday morning and made a (stressful) trip down to Kensington Palace. Kensington Palace is currently the home of Prince Charles and Kate - or better known as Katherine here. Princess Diana also lived here! The Palace has a portion that is open to the public that walks through the history of some of the past Kings & Queens that have lived here. A large portion of the Palace is dedicated to the history of Queen Victoria and King Albert's family. It also goes through the life of Queen Anne and other monarchies as well! 

After spending most of the morning in the Palace, we grabbed some lunch and jumped onto a Hop on-Hop off Bus tour of London.  The Tour covered almost every inch of the city and also included an audio guide that pointed out neat facts about where we were as well as some history behind the buildings.  The Map below shows the route we took around the city and highlights some of the things we saw - we took the blue route!

Some of the things we saw included: Buckingham Palace,Tower Bridge, Hyde Park, London Eye, Big Ben, Parliament  Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral  Trafalgar Square, Towers of London, Piccadilly Circus, Green Park, and Oxford Streets. With the tour being a hop on-hop off bus, we got to get off at any of the stops we liked and then get back on whenever we were ready to continue with the tour. One of the places we got off at was the gigantic Harrods' Department store! Big doesn't even begin to describe this place! It was 6 stories high, included everything from 5* restaurants to organic food supplies to designer clothes. All together, the tour took several hours to complete and included hundreds and hundreds of photos!

The Southbank and London Eye

Trafalgar Square

Big Ben

Piccadilly Circus

After touring the city for hours we headed back to Twickenham and ate at another local pub, Spoons (odd names, I know) and headed back so we could begin packing for our next adventure to Brussels, Belgium!

Mom & Mikhaila's Arrival!

The past 48 hours have certainly been eventful and there will be lots to write about at the end of the week and TONS of photos to upload!! We are off to Brussels, Belgium to gorge ourselves in chocolate and Belgian waffles!! Sorry to you guys waiting on all the juicy details :)