Horses, Somalia, and a Clock Named Ben

London did get better for Troy and myself. Since our lovely Wednesday we have done all of the touristy London stuff together (except for the London Eye..which is happening tomorrow). We took a bus to Buckingham Palace and I had ton of fun watching the guards patrol. In fact, I probably had a little too much fun as I elaborately told Troy how I bet that the guards create a secret code to converse with one another while they are on duty. If the boy didn't think I was crazy already...he most certainly does now. Our adventure took us to Westminster Abby, Westminster Bridge, and oddly enough a statue of Abraham Lincoln and William Tyndale (and a lion but that's besides the point). We ended up in Trafalgar Square, ate at a really cool pub, and then walked The Strand back to campus. Oh wait..before we did all that we got on the right bus going in the wrong direction. We ended up in Wandsworth, one of the poorer areas of London. So then we had to take the bus back....public transportation has not been our best friend.

In Exmouth Market, located directly behind my dorm, there is a bookshop that just opened called Clerkenwell Tales. Troy and I talked to the owner (the shop just opened last Monday) and I really want this cute little store to succeed because this is its story: the guy who opened it was a journalist who actually really wanted to open a book shop all his life. He reads a lot, and he just seemed cool. He was like, "Yeah, my girlfriend is in Malaysia, she's a zoologist, but we decided that I'd rather do want I've always really wanted to do and make little money over doing what I've always been told I'd be good at (being a journalist) and making reasonable money...so we may both end up back at my parents house but we'll see"

Someday, that's going to be me. I'm going to be starting my own coffee shop after quitting whatever occupation I really end up in. I'm seriously rooting for Clerkenwell Tales.

So the picture at the top is of the royal horses. Troy took it, but I stole it from him to show you!

In other news: my essay is finished and my class is absolutely amazing. Today's assignment?

You've (me and a team of four others) been granted $5 million from the US State Dept. to start a media outlet in Somalia. You have 1/2 hour to present your plan of action to the board. Go.

My classmates and I get pretty serious about hypothetical role-playing games. You could almost feel the adrenaline rush through the room. But alas, we designed a plan to create a "mobile phone" (who knew that Somalia, and most of Africa, has greater mobile phone access than any other media with the slight exception of radio) media outlet. Most of our budget went to pay off the Somalia government, and the other large portion went to create safe havens for our journalists. But together we decided that by going into Somalia and creating this program, more good would come than harm. I think that in itself gives hope.

From Advenutre 101 to Adventure 202.

So I should be writing my 1500 word essay or enjoying the London sunshine or getting ready for class in 30 minutes, but I am here instead because I know that if I don't record the last two days they are not going to get recorded because I have been a slacker about keeping a journal.

Troy arrived on Tuesday, and we are both super excited about going on grand adventures in London.

However, I'm pretty sure God decided that it was time for us to move from a course in Adventure 101 to Adventure 202. Or 303. or maybe even 707.

Tuesday was a lovely day. I went to class, and then hung out with Troy. I can't even begin to describe how great it is to have someone to share London with. We walked around Spa Fields and Exmouth Market. Troy saw some cool cars, we ate pizza at this authentic Italian restaurant just down the street (hey...guess what! Most cheese isn't "foreign" here and it makes it a lot less expensive...that is the only thing that is less expensive in London)

Yesterday I wake up and make phone calls trying to figure out how in the world to get to Dunsfold Park to see Top Gear. Take the Angel Tube to Euston, switch to the Victoria Line to the Victoria Station to hop a bus to Guildsford, which is still 7 miles from Dunsfold Park. But we figured, we're young and we could at least hitch hike or even run those 7 miles.
It's a 15 minute Tube Ride to Victoria Station. We leave at 10:15 and the bus to Gildford is scheduled to leave at 11am, arriving at 12. But Troy and I couldn't find the bus station. We asked people and read signs, ALL of which said it was just around the corner. Which, it was....just around the corner and 5 or 6 blocks down! Not only that, but there were large busses lined up all over Victoria (which is also a train station). We finally find the bus stop at 10:50. We even find the bus to Gilford that tells us we have to buy tickets at the ticket booth (we pretty much knew that but thought maybe he'd take pitty on us for being two worn out Americans). So we stand in line at the ticket booth, and when we approach I ask "When is the next bus for Gilford leaving?"
"at 11:15"
"Really?!" I reply, "I thought another train didn't leave until 12!"
"Nope, there are several today. That will be £26 for the both of you"

I tell Troy that's more expensive than I thought, but we didn't really think twice about it. We race down the bus station to terminal 10, which is conveniently the farthest away. Troy and I step on the bus and ask "Is this the bus going to Guildford?"

"Yes, yes, hurry up we are about to leave"

15 minutes later the bus announces that we must wear our seatbealts and will arrive in Oxford in about an hour. Oxford? I look at Troy, and then check the tickets. That's right the tickets say we are going to Oxford, which is in the opposite direction of Guildford.

An hour and a one half later Troy and I are in Oxford, UK. We've now missed Top Gear (the reason Troy came to London) and have wasted the day. So we wandered around, ate some fish and chips, and went back. Oxford really was lovely, but Troy didn't have his camera so it was all-in-all a sad day.

Oh but wait! Troy and I are scheduled to see Harry Potter at 10:45 this night. We purchase our tickets and make a time to meet up with some of my friends from LSE to make the 8 minutes walk to The Vue in Islington together. But at 9, Troy decides to go get food and gets lost. So instead of being incredibly early to Harry Potter, we are now pushing it close time wise....We get to the theatre and Troy asks, "You've got the tickets?" and I pull out two glossy pieces of paper.
"Lizziey, those aren't the tickets....Those are the things that came with the tickets. I put the tickets on your desk."

"Oh. That's a problem"

Troy is still tired from sprinting back to the dorm to get the tickets..but thankfully my friends saved us seats, and we sat down in time to watch an amazing production once again.

I don't live with regrets, but I can say that I am very glad that day is over.

And what did you learn in class today?

Today I sat in class with Nick Sturdee, and independent film maker who has recently made several film reports for Channel 4 news here in London. While he's done much work in Chechnya (the war zone between Georgia and Russia), his new focus is taking place in both Somalia and Ethiopia. I found it really interesting and thought I would include the link to his work:

www.smiproduction.com From there click on the "recent work" link at the bottom.
We watched the video entitled "Ethiopia" in class, and it was incredible to ask and find out about how reports deal with interviewing persons such as starving mothers and how journalists can just be really creative and get into countries. Actually, it kind of made me want to take my backpack, Kelty, and go join the fight for feeding Somalians.....

Magic in Kensignton Gardens

I watched Wendy fly away with Peter Pan tonight, and I am lost in the magic of it all.

“That's the thing with magic. You've got to know it's still here, all around us, or it just stays invisible for you.”

Magic. Despite of, or conceivably due to, the intermittent rains of London, the city is a spring for the mystique, the exquisite, the charm that can only be found in a olden town where the presence of queens and kings from a time long before is mingled with the ever growing cosmopolitanism of the world’s financial center. Like cupid shooting a flaming arrow into my heart, the winsome London has captured my attention and I stand in amazement at the world around me.

Mara and Lydia are two sisters from Texas also studying with me at LSE. Tonight the three of us ventured to Hyde Park’s Kensington Garden to watch the live theatre performance of Peter Pan. First of all, Kensington Garden in and of itself is awe inspiring. Only a few steps away from the tube we were greeted with a massive fountain spraying it's water in every direction. On our walk to the theatre we passed all sorts of beautiful trees (I kind of have a thing about cool trees, let's face it: I am a granola...). This is one of the only instances that I can truly say the theatre didn't distract from nature, but complemented it...quite nicely I might add. The theatre-in-the-round was “just a tent” set up in the middle of the park. Around the top five or six feet stood a beautifully animated scene: the same scene that made the flying of Wendy and Peter Pan absolutely alive and real. Tink was a comical sight: she wore a pink tutu with twinkling lights in her up-do hair style, but on her feet she was decked out in grey theater shoes…it worked perfectly for the setting of Never Never Land! Tink but was spunky and mean, and still her demeanor led the crowd to shake our little pink bells and whisper “I do believe in fairies” to revive her after she had fallen to the vicious tactics of Captain Hook! I learned way more about Peter Pan through watching, and despite the differences I love it all the more.

Intermission was great: even though there were many children in the audience (who giggled oh so cutely), the deck outside (but still covered due to the ever present London rain) was very classy. The image below was show above the bar: which had an expanse much larger than my classroom wall. The tables were covered with sparkling white clothes. For a night, I was a spectator of the enchating tale of the boy who didn't want to grow up, and for a moment I, too, want to move to Never Never Land to live a life full of adventure and wanderlust. I want to fight the daring Captain Hook and tell stories to the Lost Boys. And, like Wendy, I also want to take the friends I've met along the way with me to grow up together. Maybe that's part of the magic...that my life is a form of Peter Pan in and of itself..and that thought a lot alone is enchanting.

Monday

Today was the first day of classes. In that regard, London is no different than any other nation.(well except for Costa Rica, which was cool because palm trees grew out of my classrooms. But, hey you can't ask for everything.) I sat in a lecture for 3 hours, which oddly didn't seem any longer than the normal 50 minutes.

After class, each department had a "welcome party". Unless you are a major suck-up (which I totally am), students don't generally attend these in the states because they are down right boring. But not in London! I enter the Senior Dining Room on the 5th floor of the Old Building on Houghton Street to be greeted by men in suits carrying around trays of food of Goat Cheese and English Sausages. Bartenders walk around filling your goblets with your choice Chardonnay, a host of red wines, or Pelligrino. I meet the chair of the Economics Department. He's a slightly peculiar old man. He has the grey, wiry professor hair, and continually wipes his mouth as he is engaging in conversation with me. Actually, I expect Einstein acted very much the same way: super intelligent, but a little socially awkward.

I started chatting with Sunny, whom I shared ice-cream with the day before. We ended up meeting people from Hong Kong and Brussels, from Harvard and Yale and South Korea. Yes, I put those three of those together. I'll leave it up to you to figure out why. Anyway, The group of us went out to Cafe Rouge after the party to celebrate French Food and get to know each other better. It was super cool, and I am excited to be in London, to meet new people, to drink Chardonnay at school sponsored events, and to learn.

In fact, that's the most spectacular thing about studying outside of your comfort zone. You find that you are learning both in and out of the classroom, while you are awake and searching for knowledge and when you are asleep and knowledge just comes to you.

I was debating (one of only numerous times) with Troy over if I should change majors. Do I really want to pursue economics? What am I going to do with my life? And his subtle questions of , " What happened to working for the UN?" refocused me. I realized, once again in this impressive city, that I do want to impact this world. It may sound (or possibly even be) arrogant, but I am from the States. That automatically makes us wealthy and intelligent. So, I'm slowly learning that I am going to change the world. Like it or not, we all change the world, when we are standing in line at the supermarket or playing with the kid in the park or watching the news at night we all make decisions that will influence the world we live in. Apathy really isn't even an option for Americans, we either are impacting in a positive or detrimental matter. We can't choose to not be. So right now, that's what I'm learning, and I am content to be in London: to talk to the men who have been camping out 24/7 at Exmouth Market to inform people about the situation in Iran, to watch the magic that happens as the sun pulls the cover over its head slowly revealing the sparkle of the city night over the Thames, knowing that each adventure, each experience, is shaping me to influence the world.

I was hanging out with some guys tonight (haha. That statement is SO weird. I went from all-girls school to like 90% boys school) and this kid from Poland was saying how he just didn't understand religion and started asking me about it since I was from the Midwest (I'm not really from the bible belt, but that's the view he had of what the Midwest was like). I wish I could tell you that I pulled out this amazing testimony of who God is and what He can do for you, but I didn't. I simply said, it's sad that people don't read the Bible or Qur'an or the religious texts before making the decision for themselves. He asked me if I had, and I said truthfully, "yes" and left it at that. Should I have said more? Should I have told him "I totally believe in this crazy story that God sent his son to earth to die this horrible death for all of us, so that we may be able to not be separated from Him, so that we could personally understand more and more about our God each day?" I walked away feeling as if I had disowned my God a little bit, and for that I will always regret. The point of this paragraph, is that I'm so not perfect. I'm so not even used to being around unbelievers anymore that I don't know what to say or how to act, and that scares me.

So my challenge to myself while in London is to rediscover who I am, and how I fit in my community. Oh yeah, and to get an A. That's always one of my goals. :)

5th of July

I'm a perpetually lucky person. When I was little I always seemed to win things, and I must admit cool things just happen into my life all the time.

This morning I headed down to Holborn, where LSE is located. A girl from Germany, Lisa, and I had breakfast together and grabbed some coffee at Nero's, but she departed to go shopping while I waited in line to registrar for my classes. I'm waiting in line, and I hear a band. As I get closer, I find out that it's actually a church service going on inside LSE!

I hurry through the whole registration process just excited that I've found what I officially call "Rusty music". The sermon was on hospitality, how the church needs to be hospitable to everyone. Needless to say, it was the perfect day to attend. It's a young church, there weren't more than 50 people renting out the little theatre that I would come to have lecture in the next morning, but no one was over 50 either. Everyone was super friendly and came up and talked to me. So next Sunday I'll be heading to a small group before attending again! I cannot wait!

Further news of the day: LSE gave out free ice cream from a British ice cream truck today. I love ice cream. I met so many people, that I'm afraid I won't even remember meeting half of them.

4th of July 2009

Exmouth Market: The Lane of International Restaurants and Cute Litttle Shops. Yeah...you can also learn how to Tango here.

Early this morning I watched as golden sparks lit up my darken room following a tremendous BOOM! that most likely woke up my neighbors.

Fireworks, you ask?

Not quite. Rather, it was my hair dryer blowing up the adapter/converter I borrowed from Hannah AND blowing the fuse in my room. I proceeded to ask our very nice front desk people (called the Warden...it makes me feel just a little bit like I am in prison) where I could purchase a converter and adapter that would work. They told me Sainsburys, the local grocery store, but that it would cost 70 or 80 GBP! I figured it wasn't really something I could live without, so I headed toward northern Islington. Long story short Sainsburys didn't have a converter. Nor did the Pound Shop. Or M & S. So, I did the next logical thing. I asked for directions to the Apple Store. At least I could power my computer then, right?

I hopped on bus 73, which was supposed to take me to the overly glorified (and crowded) albiet still spectacular Oxford Street. Little did I know that London's Gay Pride Festival was going on, so the bus stopped somewhere short of Oxford Street and just announces "The route terminates here due to the closures of the Pride Festival". The doors open, and out we all hop.

One important detail, London is an old city. While the city's roads do have names, unlike those in Costa Rica, they can end abruptly and change name quite often. (actually, I live on Rosebery Ave. If you head south for about 45 minutes it turns into Oxford Street. But I didn't know this on the 4th.) So I picked a general direction and started walking...

A gay pride festival, many wrong turns, a zoo inside a glorious park with people actually flying the American flag and paddle boating, and an orange slushie later, I found Oxford Street.

It was crazy. There were just people EVERYWHERE. But I found some cute shops, and the gap had a 60% off sale which was cool. So I finally arrive at the Apple store and ask the gentlemen if he can help me with my electricity problem. He told me that my computer just needed an adapter, not a converter. But I'm not sure if I believe him. So because I didn't want to lay my laptop to rest alongside my hair dryer, I waited until Tuesday to actually buy an adapter and try it....

and guess what! It worked.
It was a pretty long process to find that out. Kind of like the movie Up!, it just proves that life is more about the journey than where you are going.

2nd July, 2009

Spa Fields Park Behind My Dorm

2 July Islington:
So I’m waiting the 5 minutes it takes for the Piccadilly line to arrive at Heathrow and a handsome man from Jordon asks me where Big Ben is. I explain that I am just arriving and have no clue. We share life stories: he wants to take his three (absolutely adorable) young sons to Big Ben and I tell him I go to Notre Dame (okay, I lied, but it’s way easier than explaining SMC). At this point the British women standing next to us responds, “I was just in South Bend! I graduated from Notre Dame in 2002!” Yes, the first conversation I had with a native Brit was with one whom ended up living in South Bend, Indiana for 4 years majoring in political science. The world really is shrinking.

3rd July Islington:
As I'm sitting here in this lovely park next to my residence I am amazed at how much this setting fits with the very essence of who I am. Perhaps it is my naivety , but I feel much safer here than I have ever felt in any large city. The borough is charming, if I had to describe it in one word, that is definitely the word I'd use. There's a dance studio next to my dorm (which is located across Sadler Well's Theatre) and I'm working up the courage to try a class or two there! More to come later