A guy and his dog

I saw the best sight on the tube this morning. Some guy had brought his dog onto the train! The funniest part? The dog had it's own seat while others had to stand up. Needless to say the guy and his dog were not getting happy looks from the people who were standing. I had to try so hard not to laugh. That totally made my morning :)

The move

Yesterday was the day I moved out of Dorothy and Alan's house in Princes Risborough and into Hampstead in London. I was quite sad to leave and I think they were a bit disappointed too.

Luckily, because I'm a smartie, I had already taken some of my luggage to the new place so I didn't have to carry around too much for the move. It was still one very very heavy thing to drag around and I am thankful for all the nice guys who asked if I needed help up and down the stairs in the underground because I sure as heck did. So the train from Princes Risborough left at 2:06 and I got into London at 3, dragged my stuff into the underground. I like the way that sounds... into the underground. Okay, sorry, anyways I had found out last week that there were going to be some major workings done on the tube lines and that many of them were inoperable in spots. Well could you take a guess at which one wasn't working? Mine? Pretty much. I was able to take the tube to a certain point but then I had to drag my luggage out of the building and over to the bus stop so they could finish the route.

Eventually I made it to my stop, and walked onto the main road (Hampstead High Street) which was packed with people. The street is so cute. It's lined with lots of stores, a fruitstand!!!, and a quite a bit of restaurants. The flat is also pretty nice. There's no lounge, unfortunately, but it has a kitchen, bathroom, separate toilet, a kitchen table in the hallway area, and 3 bedrooms. Mine is very TINY. I can deal with that no problem though. It's not like I have a lot of belongings. From the window in my room, I can see part of Hampstead High Street which is neat, although I've noticed that it can get pretty loud and I hear almost everything on the street-cars and people. I think the windows are paper thin. The kitchen has everything but a dishwasher which I can deal with. It also has...get this...a 2 in 1 washer and dryer! I am totally psyched about that. Who knew they made such things? I did a load of clothes last night, and it goes through it's cycles and when it turns off, your clothes are dry- no switching of clothes from one machine to another, no forgetting about your clothes in the washer and then when you need them they're still wet, and no pressing buttons to change from washer to dryer. Lovely.

After I dragged my crap inside, I left to explore the street and look for a grocery store. It's really quite a lovely area (as I'd been told). Only problem was at that point is was 4:40 and most shops close at 5. Can you believe on a Saturday shops closing at 5? Such a bummer... I walked into a couple stores just to have a look around. Everything here is just so expensive so I haven't bought anything for myself yet. Eventually I came across a grocery store. Their stores are so weird. All their fruits and vegetables are packed in bags or plastic containers which is odd to me. Even bananas are wrapped in plastic. Why? Groceries here are really cheap (except probably not if I converted the price into US dollars). I'm excited about finding weird British recipes to cook.

My flatmates are quite nice. Eleanor works at the same school where I'm interning. She seems a bit quiet or shy, I'm not sure which yet. The other isn't either and she'll talk a lot. I have trouble understanding her accent. Last night we were talking and had mentioned that Eleanor might not be around saturday. She said that Eleanor's friend was around, but because of her accent I heard that Eleanor's friend had drowned, so I'm like oh no that's horrible! She looked at me funny and then I realized that wasn't what she meant. Ha! At least it was funny. Aren't accents just great?

So today is my day to explore Hampstead. I'm planning to go to Hampstead Heath which is supposed to be gorgeous.

Until next time,

Britt

Differences between the US and the UK

I decided to make a list of some of the differences between the US and UK. Some are pretty crazy.

• They drive on the left side of the road
• The drivers seat is on the right side of the car
• They call the yellow traffic light amber
• They call flashlights "torches"
• They call underwear "pants"
• They call pants "trousers"
• The bathroom to them is literally a room with a bath. If you need to go to the bathroom, ask for the toilet or loo.
• They call vacations "holidays"
• To say you are pissed means that you are drunk
• In some toilets, the toilet paper is dispensed like tissues.
• Their verbs are a bit different. For example, they say, "England are the best team."
• They use the 24 hour clock
• If you're talking about a place and where it is located, UK says "The grocery store is in Oxford Street" where we would say it's on Oxford Street
• If you talk about an accommodation, you are ALWAYS talking about a place to live or stay.
• You throw something away in the "bin"
• They switch the month and day around in their dates. For example, my birthday would look like 19/07/1988.
• Chips are called "crisps" and french fries are called "chips"
• Flavour, colour, neighbourhood, organisation, co-ordinate, recognise. Those are just some of the spelling differences
• Traffic lights go from yellow to red to yellow to green.
• When you walk into a building, you are on the "ground floor." The floor above that is the first floor.
• The elevator is called the "lift"
• We say: "I'll think about that." They say: "I'll have a think about it."
• Measurements of course. I can't even get into those.
• If you get a pint, like at the pub, you are actually getting 20 ounces, not 16 ounces.
• 
  

I'm sure I've left out something obvious but that's the list I've come up with so far...

Update on London? I move into my new place in London on Saturday! The commute to the LSHTM should now be 25 minutes instead of 1.5-2 hours. Yay! I'm having internship troubles... we're trying to get that fixed so I might have a post soon that will explain what's going on. I don't want to say anything too soon. But if you want to know, I am absolutely stressed. Okay, enough of that. It's bedtime!

Until next time,

Britt

The Beginnings...

So, I knew awhile ago that I should probably write a blog that narrated my experiences in London, especially since this is my first time out of the United States. I haven't had the time to do so until now. SO. Here's a brief description of the past week and a half:

Wednesday 6 January: Left Raleigh, got to Philly, had to drag all my luggage (1 huge suitcase which had a wheel broken off as soon as we took it out of the car at the airport, yes lovely, 1 duffel bag, a laptop case and a carry on) past two terminals in the freezing outside to get to the terminal with British Airways only to find out that my flight had been canceled. Great. Sat in the airport for 3 hours before being told that a hotel with dinner and breakfast would be provided for me free that night. yay! Then I found out I had a new flight to London for Friday AND they upgraded my ticket!

Thursday 7 January: Explored Philly for the day. Met an Italian guy on the train and talked to him for awhile and spent an hour or two browsing around Philly until we parted ways. I went to see the Liberty Bell, the Edgar Allen Poe Historical site, ate Philly Cheese Steak (not the traditional Philly way because onions and cheese whiz are gross) and it was GOOD, walked along the Delaware River for a bit, and then headed back to the hotel to pack and get ready for the next day's depature.

Friday 8 January: Arrived at the airport, checked my luggage in, found out that because my seats had been upgraded I was allowed to check in 2 bags for free:), met a girl in the airport who was also going to London, happened to be on my flight, and, oddly enough, we happened to sit next to each other on the plane. Wierd!

Saturday 9 January: Arrived absolutely exhausted in London, but safe. I had a hell of a time getting through customs. Literally, it took an hour and a half for them to let me through. Eventually, they let me through due to a "loophole in the system" so I was allowed in as a student visitor. Which is what I am. Duh. Left the airport, took the tube into the city center, dragged all my shit (don't know how I did it) up the stairs and out of the tube station and made it to the hostel where I was planning to stay (still don't know how I did it). I'm not going to lie. Lots of people laughed at me. It was not very encouraging after a night with no sleep and in a foreign country.

Sunday 10 January: I had a horrible night at the hostel and couldn't stand being there much longer, especially since I hadn't had a shower and had only 10 hours of sleep in 2 days, so I went to my ECU academic advisor's husband's, sister's life partner's sister's house to stay and they've (her and her husband) so graciously allowed me to stay there for now and that's where I've been the past week!...No idea if any of that made sense. They took me to a lovely pub for a "pub lunch" as they call them, and had delicious food and a pint of beer. I'm beginning to like pubs already:) Did you know pints here are 20 ounces? Yup.

Monday-Friday 11-16 January : My first week of internship. Not an easy start as I was told I needed to come up with my own projects. That wasn't what I came here for. Oh well... On Tuesday I got invited by my mentor, I guess you could call her, to go to the pub with some of the PhD students. They were all so impressed at how fast I was able to finish a pint, which to me wasn't a big deal. My mentor told me "We (British) drink to binge. American's drink to fall flat on the pavement outside." Well that just totally made my night. Sadly that first week, I missed my only sister's sweet 16 on 14 January :( Sorry Meghan! Love you! So for the weekend I tried to leave all the internship stress behind as I was finally able to enjoy London!

Saturday 17 January: I took the tube into South Kensington which is where a good deal of museums in London are. I visited the Science Museum first, which ended up being massive! It has five floors total and I spent 2.5 hours on the first floor and one area of the third floor. The first floor talked about space, genetic engineering, steam power, and the third floor talked about health in the olden days (now you know why I only saw part of the third floor!). The second museum I went to was the History of Natural Science. Natural science museums are always my favorites. Yet again, this museum was enormous, and contained exhibits dealing with dinosaurs, global warming, a Charles Darwin centre, and had a gem and mineral room. Very cool. Also, the building this museum in was GORGEOUS. It was easily the nicest building I had seen in my life. I spent another 2.5 hours at this museum and then went to mass at the Brompton Oratory. I thought it would be neat to go to mass in a different country. Not too much different from traditional mass services in the US, only a few different parts which were mostly at communion. What I didn't know was how absolutely beautiful the inside architecture of this church would be. It was absolutely stunning. Not that I've traveled much, but I've never seen a building with so much attention to detail. Even if you're not Catholic, it's definitely a building to check out if you go to London. Only sad part was that pictures weren't allowed inside. After mass I went to a pub down the street and had the traditional British meal of Fish and Chips. For all of you (if anybody actually reads this) who know how much I hate fish, you should all be so proud of me. It wasn't bad either (although the pint (20 oz, don't forget!) I drank before might have contributed to the dulling of my taste buds). And then, for whatever reason, I decided I needed another pint. Oh, and be excited for me, they have cider! Apple and pear, so I get a choice. I don't think I've indefinitely decided, but I think that pear is my favorite.

Sunday 18 January: LONDON WAS SUNNY!! Holy crap! So how could I not take the train into London? I decided to walk on the south shore of the River Thames (try as hard as you might, I bet you can't pronounce it), in an area which is so creatively named South Shore. I was able to take some beautiful pictures of London. I was able to see the houses of parliament, Big Ben (Did you know Big Ben is the name of the bell in the clock, and not the clock itself?), The Eye (if you don't know what this is, google it. One day, I'm going on it.), The National Theatre, St. Paul's Cathedral, OXO tower, the London Bridge (and it wasn't falling down!), the Millennium Bridge, Shakespeare's The Globe Theatre, a cute pub built in the 17th century, the Tower Bridge and many more. What an eventful day! Then I came home, and Dorothy had made Cottage Pie for dinner which is basically ground beef, veggies (like stewed tomatoes, carrots, peas and onions) and some spices all mixed together and layered in a dutch oven. Then a mixture of mashed potatoes and mashed parsnips are layered on top and put in the oven to bake for a little while. It was very delicious. Sunday was a great day.

Today, Monday 19 January: Finally, today, I went to my internship and just started working on a brochure and some fun games for the obese children at the clinic to educate them on healthy eating. I sent in a proposal to my internship advisor and my mentor so they're going to review my work and see if it is something that could be delivered to the clinic. There's good potential that it wont work as my internship advisor doesn't work there, but I have hope that something will work out for this. Hopefully I didn't come to London for nothing, right?

So I said I'd keep it brief, but I so obviously didn't. Really though, how was I supposed to keep the descriptions of a week and a half in a new country short?

Until the next post,

Britt

PS: Did I mention I have a place to stay in London starting the 23rd? No? Well I do! I'll be staying in Hampstead which is supposed to be very nice. I've only been there once, and that was to see the flat and room, and I wasn't paying all too much attention to my outside surroundings because I was still spaced out from the flight.