A New Way to Watch the Olympics

I love the Olympics. At varying points in my life, I've aspired to be an Olympic gymnast, soccer player, figure skater, and tennis player. At the moment, I'm thinking curling. It looks easy enough to pick up, and I'm already comfortable on the ice from skating. Although I'm told that big stone thing is a lot heavier than they make it look...but we all know what great arm strength I have, so I doubt it will be a problem. Anything to get me to Olympus.

Since I've had to come to the sad realization that I will never get to the Olympics as an athlete (here's hoping I make it as a journalist someday!), I've settled for being a super fan whenever the Games roll around. I just love watching the events and the excitement of a race or a game coming down to the wire. There is something about sports that unites people, whether they support the same team or in the case of the Olympics, are from the same country. My obsession with figure skating also really comes out each quadrennium...my apologies to my flatmates and friends here in London who have endured my excessive talk about the results of the events. And the stories that come out of the Olympics are just amazing. Just look at Vancouver...Canadian figure skater Joannie Rochette competing after the death of her mother and winning bronze, Lindsey Vonn overcoming her injury to win gold, Shaun White dominating in the snowboarding, Apolo Ohno becoming the most decorated American Winter Olympian, Bode Miller overcoming his demons from Torino four years ago, the list goes on. They are just compelling stories about the triumph of the human spirit.

But for a viewer from London, most of these compelling stories have taken place around 3-5 am local time. Not exactly the best time for viewing, especially for a busy college student with class or work in the morning. And then not much of it was rebroadcast in primetime, which was a little weird. People here just don't seem as excited about the Olympics. On the Friday of the Opening Ceremonies, the Canadian Embassy, which happens to be right near my classroom building, set up some activities in Trafalgar Square to get people excited...a big video screen, ice sculptures, etc. But there weren't many people there when I walked by, althought, granted, it was a Friday morning. When we were in Edinburgh, we tried to find a pub broadcasting the Games, but it was pretty hard. When we asked the guy at the desk at our hostel for some advice, he was shocked we even wanted to watch at all. "Oh, but you guys are from a country that matters," was his response...apparently he did not have much faith in the athletes from Great Britain, haha.

As I mentioned, I am not only a superfan of the Olympics, but the figure skating discipline in particular. Which is how I found myself setting my alarm for 3 am on the evening of the men's long program, after only having gone to bed at one, to watch Evan Lysacek's showdown with Evgeny Plushenko. And it was more than worth it, after watching them both throw down their best efforts and then my fav Lysacek coming out on top. I was lying in the dark, in my bed with my laptop on my lap, watching the live feed from the BBC website, and silently screaming with joy as Lysacek landed jump after jump. I'm sure most of you aren't surprised.

I suppose I could take this opportunity to weigh in on the controversy surrounding Evan's gold medal. But then I would have to dignify Plushenko's hip shaking, shoulder shimmying, and kiss blowing as actual footwork. And I'd really rather not do that. ;)

Suffice to say that I think the skater with the complete package won--jumps, intricate footwork, beautiful choreography and presentation, and difficult spins. No disrespect to Plushenko's jumping ability, because that quad-triple is amazing, but jumping was really all he did. And not even well every single time. I will say that I think it is ridiculous that everyone is giving Evan a hard time about the quad. He can't do it because of an injury; it wasn't that he copped out. He decided to go out and skate his personal best and let the chips fall where they may. You can't fault the guy for doing the best he could do on that night. He didn't make a decision to bring the rest of men's figure skating back to the 1980s and all that other stuff they are accusing him of. He made a decision based on his own personal foot injury, not one for the rest of the sport. And as for all the smack-talking that is occuring after, its just making figure skating look bad. Plushenko said that Lysacek "needed" the gold more than he did, but it seemed to me that Lysacek wanted it more. It wasn't his federation or his wife convincing him to come back and skate, but his own dream and desire.

Well, maybe I should just write a sports blog. Or better yet, a figure skating blog. Apologies for the tangent...back to the post!

I sadly wasn't able to stay up for the other figure skating events, what with all the papers and homework I had this week, but working at NBC definitely came in handy. There is a program on our computers that lets you watch TV and usually mine is on the Today show, since that is the program we do the most stories for. But the past two Wednesdays, I have had it in the British Eurosport station as it replayed both the men's and women's short programs. Pretty much the most wonderful two days at work possible...typing away as I watched my favorite sport out of the corner of my eye.

So as this Olympics comes to a close, I'm already looking forward to the next one. And being able to watch it at a normal hour.

What a View

Lots of papers due this week meant a quiet weekend in London last weekend, but a rest from our usual breakneck speed was definitely welcome!
On Friday afternoon, Kaitlin, Megan, and I went to the Rail Europe office and booked all of our trains for our Spring Break trip. We leave on Thursday night, which is crazy...the semester is flying by! The Rail Europe guy valiantly tried to con us into buying a rail pass that actually would have cost about $200 more than just buying each ticket individually (we did all the math the night before...more math than I've done since high school, that's for sure), but we weren't having it. I put on my best "I am practically a grown up and want you to take me seriously voice" and told him that we already knew what tickets we wanted and their prices and that the pass just wasn't worth it. I think he was a little surprised that we didn't just blindly agree to the pass and we may have lost him his commission, but I was pretty proud of myself for standing up for us. Which is probably something I would have been more reluctant to do in the past, since I hate confrontation, even in its mildest form. It may have only been a small instance, but it really showed me how good this semester has been for me. And to celebrate our booking success, we went to Covent Garden, easily one of my favorite spots in all of London, and got crepes at Creme de La Crepe, this cute little place in the market.

Saturday was a combination of homework and a wonderful visit to St. Paul's Cathedral. It is the oldest cathedral in London and the fourth cathedral on that site dedicated to St. Paul. It has been through bombings in both world wars and the Great Fire of London in the 1600s, so it has changed appearance many times. The current cathderal was desgined by Sir Christopher Wren and built between 1675 and 1710. The outside is an impressive part of the London skyline (look for it in the opening scenes of the sixth Harry Potter movie!), with a magnificent dome (although it still can't compare to the Golden Dome, in my mind). Kaitlin, Kelly, and I took a tour of the inside of the cathedral with Jirinia, a woman from the Czech Republic now living in London. There seem to be so many people living here from other countries. They told us at all those pre-departure meetings that this was a global city, but I have really seen it in my own experiences. But back to Jirinia and St. Paul's. She was a great tour guide--very knowledgable and even told us the best place to snap covert photographs, since technically cameras weren't allowed inside because it was a place of worship. It was a beautiful sunny day (shockingly), so the sunlight streamed in the windows of the cathedral, catching the mosaics and making them sparkle in the light. It was just a breathtaking view, so I had to take a picture, even though that was not one of Jirinia's recommended spots. These mosaics on the ceiling were my favorite. The colors were just brilliant.

After our tour ended, we climbed the 530 steps up to the top of the Dome for absolutely breathtaking views of the entire city of London. The climb was a little dicey--it just seemed to get steeper and smaller the farther up we went. Definitely not for the claustrophobic! And I just had visions of tripping and falling and taking out all the people coming up behind me, but thankfully my trademark "Maura wobble" did not make an appearance at St. Paul's. The weather was on our side and the sun stayed out, so we were able to get lots of photos. Big Ben, the London Eye, and the Thames were in one direction, with the rest of the city spread out before us in the other. I was almost certain I could see Kamen House, the flat where I live, which is actually pretty plausible, because the flats on the upper floors have great views of the 355.5 foot-tall Dome and spire. I tried to take a picture, but the lady behind me was a little bit antsy and overly rule-abiding and yelled at me that I was supposed to keep moving. Ergo, there is no picture of Kamen House from St. Paul's to post in this blog update. But I could have sworn I saw the strange brick and white arches of Kamen. I moved on and managed to snap many more photos without the crazy lady yelling at me again, so I was happy. This was definitely one of my favorite things in London so far! And an added perk, Jirina gave us some advice for our upcoming trip to Prague and is even trying to put us in touch with her nephew who lives there and can show us the sites.

Sunday was a day full of homework at the London Centre. I just seem to work better when I am sitting at a desk in the library there than when I am in my flat. I really like the London Centre library. It's this old-fashioned room in the London Centre with decorative moldings on the ceiling (pulled that out from my Home and Garden Television viewing with Mom and Julie!) and big windows. It's much more open than the ND library, which is I think what I like about it. It's a good spot to get work done, but I don't feel like I am locked away from the rest of the world and stuck in a maze of bookshelves like I am at the Hesburgh Library on campus. Although I still really like the study cubbies. For some reason, having something on either side of my head helps me study better. Which probably means I need my head examined...

Wonderful Weekend in "Edinburg-ah" (as the locals say it)

I can't believe that it was exactly one week ago that my overnight bus from London's Victoria Station was leaving for Edinburgh. Partially because I am shocked that I waited so long to blog about it (the homework finally kicked in) and partially because I am amazed at how quickly time passes here in London. Spring break is only two weeks away...the semester is flying by! My friends and I agree that there is definitely some sort of crazy London time warp that makes us feel like we have been here forever, but, at the same time, that time is passing in the blink of an eye. Our two days in Edinburgh felt like a minute, but we managed to cram an awful lot into that minute.
Since we are poor college students, we opted to take the overnight bus to Edinburgh on Friday night. At 21 pounds, the price was right, and it also allowed us some extra time in London on Friday afternoon to explore some more. So Megan, Kelly, Dan M, and I went to Harrods. Dan didn't make it for too long in this wonderful, frightfully expensive, and luxurious department store. Naturally, the food section was my favorite (I think I have a problem that needs to be addressed...) and we all bought wonderful desserts. I opted for a glittering Oreo cupcake that was delicious! We wandered around the rest of the store for awhile, coming upon a jewelery section so full of diamonds that it hurt my eyes to look in the room, more purses and handbags than I have ever seen in one place, and the best room, the dresses. Rack after rack of beautiful, colorful, and sparkly dresses by designers whose names I had only read in People Magazine. I should note that Dan was long gone by that point. Apparently he didn't enjoy the sparkles as much as we did and headed back to the London Centre to get work done.
After Harrods, we had a few hours to kill before taking the Tube to the bus station. We had some wine and Strongbow (my favorite cider so far) in the hopes of it lulling us to sleep on the bus. And let me tell you, it was successful, because I was conked out for most of that bus ride. Which was wonderful, because we had a full day ahead of us when we arrived in Edinburgh around 8 on Saturday morning.
After a little bit of wandering down the wrong road, we made our way through a silent city to our hostel, Budget Backpackers on the Royal Mile, the same road as Edinburgh Castle. We couldn't have asked for a better location, and the hostel was clean, safe, and had relatively comfy beds, so we were happy. The crazy neon decorations were just an added bonus.
After freshening up and dropping off our backpacks, Megan, Kelly, Kaitlin, and I set off to find The Elephant House, the coffee shop were JK Rowling started writing the Harry Potter series, on a napkin as she enjoyed her morning coffee. Luckily for us, Edinburgh is a relatively small city that is really easy to navigate and, less than five minutes later, these four American girls stood transfixed in front of "The Birthplace of Harry Potter." Once I lifted my jaw up off the ground and pinched myself, I was able to walk inside and enjoy a delicious cup of hot chocolate and naturally, we all took photos pretending to write on a napkin. And then it was off to Edinburgh Castle, which was absolutely amazing! Luckily we had bought tickets online, because the queue at the ticket office was ridiculously long. The views of the city from the castle were spectacular...my camera really didn't do it justice, but I'll include some photos anyway. The castle is set on an enormous hill overlooking the city in one direction and the giant cliff, Arthur's Seat, in the other. And it was a sunny morning in Edinburgh, which made it even more perfect. I just wanted to stand and drink it all in and never forget what it looked like. Besides the wonderful views, there were plenty of other things to see at the castle: the Scottish War Memorial, exhibits on Scottish history and weapons, the Crown Jewels, dungeons, and prisons. They were even giving away free alcohol samples in some of the gift shops, Scottish whiskey, liqueur, and raspberry vodka. I tried the raspberry and some sort of Scottish something that wasn't whiskey but apparently was similar to Bailey's (according to Kelly, haha). Whatever it was, it definitely warmed me up after walking around in the cold. There was also some William Wallace whiskey, which I thought about purchasing for a few Braveheart fans that I know, haha.
Judging from the exhibits, the Scottish people seem very proud and patriotic. It actually made me wish that I had some Scottish heritage, as weird as that sounds. I wanted to be able to look through the tartan and family crest displays for the Sullivan or Mellon pattern, but I suppose I can save stuff like that for my visit to Ireland.
After the castle, it was time for some shopping on the Royal Mile, the road leading up to the Castle. There were lots of touristy shops and stores with cashmere and tartan. I honestly wasn't too impressed with it, because it seemed like a lot of the same store over and over, but we still had a good time looking at all the kilts and other Scottish clothing. We wandered down a close (Scottish for alley) off the Royal Mile and stumbled upon The Writer's Museum. It was such a great find--exhibits about Scotland's most famous authors and poets, including Sir Walter Scott. It was so great to spontaneously find something that turned out to be so interesting, it felt very European backpacker.
After fueling up on caffeine at a cute little cafe, we went to St. Giles' Cathedral, yet another beautiful European Cathedral. For dinner we found another beer and a burger deal, which always seems to perfectly fit our budgets and our stomachs. Dessert was the best part, which I am going to describe in detail. My apologies for the constant references to food; my semester abroad had been defined far too much by my food experiences, especially for someone who isn't in a country known for its food. But back to dessert. It's this place called Chocolate Soup, which has every kind of chocolate dessert imaginable: cakes, brownies, shakes, cupcakes, and even just shots of pure chocolate (a brilliant invention, in my opinion). I opted for the brownie explosion sundae, and it was a wonderful choice. Everyone else got some sort of shake, complete with lots of whipped cream, candy pieces, and chocolate drizzled on top. Basically it was a chocolate addict's dream. So my dream.
All that chocolate almost put us in a food coma, but we couldn't rest yet, because it was time for our Edinburgh Ghost Tour. Yes, I went on a Ghost Tour. Granted, lots of coercing and peer pressure was required to get me to agree to this venture, since I am a bit of a wimp/scared-y cat/wet blanket. But I absolutely LOVED the ghost tour! Our tour guide, Lizzie was just as hilarious as she was creepy, so it wasn't too scary, and we learned a lot about the history of Edinburgh. I could have done without some of the gorier details of the torturing and executions that used to take place, though. Lizzie definitely made the tour; some parts could have been corny but she was funny enough to pull it off. And she even took us into this underground part of the city where people used to live and is apparently the most haunted place in the UK, according to the BBC. No ghost sightings here though, although Kelly and I were gripping each other's hands in fright at some points.

On Sunday morning we got up for Mass at Saint Mary's Cathedral. Ironically enough, we knew most of the songs, but they didn't ask us to be the choir, for some reason. Then we headed back to The Elephant House for breakfast, just so we could go there one more time. Kaitlin was brave and tried haggis and blood pudding (google it if you don't know what it is...I can't bear to think about it). After breakfast it was time to work off all those calories, so we climbed the beautiful Calton Hill for more spectacular views of the city. It was definitely a workout, but so worth it to see the city and the castle from the other side. And we got to see and climb "the shame of Scotland," which is this replica of the Parthenon that was never finished because the city ran out of money. It's not exactly the easiest thing to climb, but teamwork got us all up and down from it, as I'm sure you can see from the photo to the left. After climbing down Calton Hill, we saw the Sir Walter Scott Memorial, the Scottish National Gallery (lots of beautiful paintings, but too many to remember any specifics), and my personal favorite, the Balmoral Hotel, where JK Rowling finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It was basically a weekend meant for a Harry Potter nerd like myself.
Then it was off to the station for a five hour train back to London, during which, being typical girls, we chatted nonstop about the highlights of the weekend and reminisced a bit about Notre Dame. As much as we love it here and as amazing as it is to be in Europe, we all still miss our Home under the Dome. Which says a lot about what a special place ND is. But there's no way that I would trade this whole experience, which is still pretty surreal, even after over a month of being here, for anything. I kept walking around all weekend saying, "Guys, we're in Edinburgh!" as if that would make it more real, or something. I just want to embrace every day as an opportunity to learn a little more about the world and have some adventures along the way.

Things I Learned Today in London...

1. Brown suede boots and a wool pea coat are not appropriate for a rainy day, unless you want wet feet, socks stained the color of your boots, and a weird-smelling coat.

2. I have yet to master the "lift and twist" motion that allows Londoners to walk on tiny, crowded sidewalks with giant umbrellas. They all just lift the umbrella up and gracefully turn to the side to pass me, while I fumble with my umbrella and get squished in the crowd. Maybe it will come with time. In the interim, my apologies to every Londoner who has been hit, poked, or wacked with my umbrella.

"Studying" Abroad

Seeing as this whole London experience is officially called "study abroad," its probably about time that I mention a little more about my classes. Although all this fun stuff I am doing is definitely another type of learning. I feel like have learned so much about British history and culture in my short time here, just from all the sightseeing and exploring I've been doing. But there has in fact been learning going on in the classroom as well.
I am taking four classes, in addition to my internship, which counts as an American Studies class. Everyone here in the ND Program has to take a class called Images of Britain Through the Arts, which fulfills the university fine art requirement. I had originally thought that this class would just be a boring requirement, but it is actually pretty interesting. We have a six-week seminar class where we learn about general British culture through film, paintings, literature, drama, and music. We watched the movie "The Queen" with Helen Mirren for the seminar class, a really good movie. It showed us the conflicting views of the monarchy in Britain. It is a respected and honored tradition that sometimes is out of touch with the feelings and beliefs of the public. And the guy that played Tony Blair was also in New Moon, in case you were wondering. I spent the majority of the movie trying to figure out where I had seen him before. Thank goodness for imdb.com.
In addition to the seminar, we take two electives. I was really silly when I made my schedule and picked two elective that meet on Fridays, which means I have Friday class all semester and therefore am much more limited in my weekend travel options. But so far it is turning out great, because I really like my first elective. It's the Portrayal of Royalty class that I've mentioned a few times before and I just love how we get to go see all of the art and paintings we are learning about in person. And I never knew that such tiny details in paintings can actually be the artist's way of making a political statement or conveying the power of a monarch. My second elective is Intro to London Theatre, where we basically go see different plays and musicals on Tuesday nights and then discuss them in Friday class. So I'm thinking I won't be regretting that class choice either, despite the travel limitations.
I'm finishing up my anthropology minor with my Archaeology and Ethics class, which is also really interesting. Last week we watched Raiders of the Lost Ark and wrote a paper about whether or not Indiana Jones is an ethical archaeologist (for the record, he's not, but he means well, haha). This week we discussed the effect of looting and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on the many historical artifacts and museums in the Middle East. We discuss so many current, pertinent issues, which keeps us all interested.
Since I'm an American Studies major, there aren't too many classes over here in London that help me fulfill those requirements, so I'm finishing up the rest of my university and Arts and Letters (Leisure?) requirements. I'm taking Christianity and Islam as my second theo requirement. It is an absolutely fascinating topic, especially here in Britain where there is a significant Muslim population, and what with the current state of affairs in the Middle East. We even get to go to visit a Mosque at some point during the semester, which I am really looking forward to. The lectures in this class aren't the best, but that probably has something to do with the fact that the class lasts almost three hours on Tuesday afternoons. And because our professor has a tendency to just use words in Arabic and then not write them on the board or give us any indication about how they are spelled. So sometimes that is a struggle, but all the reading is really interesting.
My fourth class fulfills my literature requirement, and is called London Writers. We read different novels, poems, and short stories either set in London or written by someone who lived in London (if you couldn't tell that from the title...). I love that I am getting to know the city enough that I recognize the places that the characters in all the stories are talking about or going to, and it really helps me paint a picture of the action in my mind. My favorite text so far has been Sherlock Holmes--I loved Arthur Conan Doyle's writing style, it was such a page turner.

See? I really am doing homework here. At least occasionally.

Loving the West End

So life in London is pretty expensive. Although apparently the exchange rate for the pound is dropping rapidly, which can only mean good things for my bank account. But I decided that while I am here in London, the one thing that I will splurge on is seeing plays and musicals. The theatre scene here in London is absolutely amazing! I've been to so many great shows already (Nation, Legally Blonde) and am really looking forward to taking my Intro to London Theatre class during the second half of the semester.
One of the best parts about London theatre is that so many famous actors are in plays here--Kiera Knightley and Ian MacKellan, to name a few. The other night, Dan and Megan and I impulsively bought tickets to see Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, starring none other than the famous James Earl Jones, Phylicia Rashad (the mom from The Cosby Show), and Sanaa Lathan (the girl from that movie "Love and Basketball"--Julie, you know what I'm talking about ;). I didn't know anything about the play (besides the fact that Dan is obsessed with it, haha), but when Dan found tickets for 12 pounds and I saw who was in it, I couldn't say no.
The night got off to a great start when our 12-pound tickets in the second to last row of the highest balcony got upgraded to the tenth row in the beautiful Novello Theatre. The West End (London's version of Broadway) production of this show is a little different, because it is an all-black cast, which is not how Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is usually staged. Big Daddy, the main character, is supposed to be a powerful plantation owner in the early 20th century, so it seemed a little historically inaccurate, but it is a ground breaking show.
The show tells the story of a powerful Southern family whose partriarch is dying of cancer, which is Big Daddy, James Earl Jones' character. The problem is that he doesn't know he is dying of cancer and there is all sorts of other family dysfunction going on as his sons and daughters-in-law scheme to get his money once he is gone. The show takes place on one set, in the same room, so there is a lot of dialogue. But the actors were all so amazing; I couldn't believe I actually got to see them in person! Jones and Rashad were so impressive--I expected to hear Darth Vader's voice and see Mrs. Cosby on the stage, but they completely transformed into these characters. Big Daddy is pretty cruel to Rashad's character, Big Momma, but once he realizes he is dying, he shapes up a bit. My favorite part was close to the very end, when he stopped being all gruff and cranky and let her hold his hand. But that was as close to a Disney-esque happy ending that the show got. Williams leaves the question of the inheritance open-ended and then there was Big Daddy's son Brick, who may or may not be gay (I think yes, Dan disagrees, haha). None of the loose ends were tied up, but Williams obviously did that for a reason. It reminded me of that Tolstoy quote about unhappy families each being unhappy in their own way. The family in this show was definitely dysfunctional, but isn't everyone dysfunctional sometimes? And not everything has a clear and simple resolution.
So despite the lack of a happy ending (which I am slowly learning doesn't have to be a bad thing), it was still a good show. And I also still don't think it has sunk in that I saw such famous and accomplished actors on stage, in person. Definitely a night to remember.

After almost a month of living in London (whoa!), I've discovered that one of the biggest differences between being at Notre Dame and being abroad is the spiritual life. At ND, it is so easy to pray or go to Mass. There are literally hundreds of Masses each week and we have the beautiful grotto by the lakes to go visit whenever we want. Here in London, instead of walking downstairs in my slippers to McG mass, I have to work a little harder to find a church. But luckily there are several Catholic Churches nearby and I have managed to make it to Mass every Sunday so far. It has been a nice piece of continuity and familiarity as I adjust to living across the pond. But there have also been some adventures...yes, even at Church.

A few weeks ago, we went to Mass right up the street at an Italian Church, and didn't read the fine print on the Mass schedule, and ended up at a 7 pm Mass said completely in Italian. Oops. All I understood was "Amen," "Alleluia," and the Sign of the Cross. Add that to my list of "Global London" experiences. They weren't kidding when they said London was an international city.

So naturally, we decided to find a church where they said Mass in English and Kelly, Megan, Kaitlin, and I ended up at St. Peter and St. Paul's Church, a short walk away from the flats. Once again, we struggled with the Mass schedule (what is our ND education teaching us?) and arrived early for Mass at noon, only to discover that the Mass was actually at 12:15. So we sat in the pews looking around the small, but very pretty, church. And as we waited, the choir director came over to our pew and asked us if we would like to join her and sing with the choir. We were a bit taken aback and tried to politely decline. I even cited my terrible singing voice as an excuse, but she was pretty insistent, telling us that it doesn't matter what our voices sound like, just that we are praising God (certain people who have had the misfortune of hearing my singing voice might suggest otherwise...). The choir director seemed like a sweet lady and we wanted to help her out, so we decided, why not? Let's go up and join the choir for the day. We thought it would be a good way to get more involved in the community and it just seemed like it could be one of those memorable stories that people tell about their abroad experiences. I figured I'd be telling my sister, who is a wonderful singer, about what a choir is like over here in England. So we followed the sweet choir director to the back of the church and up the steps to the choir loft.

There was no one else there.

WE were the choir. Kelly, Megan, Kaitlin, and I were the choir at a local London church for the past two weekends at 12:15 Mass.

I would just like to point out that my three talented friends are all former singers, musicians, and musical performers. I was in the choir in middle school, by some miracle, but the only singing I've done since then is along with the radio and at Mass, where my dismal voice gets drowned out by other, more talented singers.
I would also like to point out that they sing different hymns here in England. And they don't have the music in the hymnals, its just the words. So there we were, four American girls crowded around an organ in a church in London, trying to read the sheet music over the choir director's shoulder and the lyrics in our hymnals at the same time. Luckily, another singer joined us right as Mass started, but that still didn't solve the problem of not knowing the music...
I know we didn't hit all the right notes, but we definitely tried hard. And the choir director (whose name we have yet to find out) told us that we did a "smashing" job and to come back any time. So we weren't too surprised when she waved at us from the choir loft this past weekend and invited us up. There was one other singer this time, which was good, because this very sweet choir director has a tendency to stop singing during the verses in an attempt to get us to sing louder...which usually doesn't work.
It's only a small church tucked away on a little side road in the bustling city of London, but it was so nice to be welcomed with open arms and invited to return, which I hope I can do often. It definitely doesn't compare to McGlinn Mass (how could it, with me singing?). But I loved that we reached out in the community and stepped out of the Notre Dame bubble here in London.

Two Wonderful Saturdays, Courtesy of Jane Austen

The past two Saturdays, I have taken day trips outside of London with the ND London Program. Last week was Stonehenge and Bath, and this week was Winchester and Chawton, home of the famous British author (and my fav!) Jane Austen. Both times it was so nice to get out of the city for a little while and get away from the fast pace of London. There is always so much to do here, but that means that everything (including us) is moving at a lightning quick pace. It's great to step away from it for awhile, slow down, and see some green grass. Because city living has definitely made me miss green grass!

The trip to Stonehenge and Bath was a requirement for my Archaeology and Ethics class. To be honest, Stonehenge didn't exactly knock my socks off. But it was so cold there that it was probably better that I kept my socks on. The blustery wind reminded me a little too much of South Bend...
Stonehenge is definitely an amazing structure, right in the midst of the beautiful English countryside. But I think I was a little frazzled because I was there with my class. I was trying to take pictures, take notes, listen to my professor, and still enjoy the site with my friends. But it was definitely beautiful, as I'm sure you can see from this photo.
After Stonehenge we went to Bath, which was such a cute little city! Many of Jane Austen's novels are set in Bath and she even lived there herself for a few years. We (and by we I mean the girls) felt like we were in a Jane Austen movie or novel. They've actually filmed a lot of Jane Austen movies there and the Georgian architecture is absolutely beautiful. It was still a city, but at a much slower pace than London. There was more green space and quaint houses on cobblestoned streets.
After wandering around Bath for about an hour, we went to the Roman Baths, which were so cool! It is this ancient Roman Temple and Bath House and it is just amazing that it was still standing and in such good condition. Obviously they have done a lot of excavation and preservation, but it was yet another instance where history came to life (yes, I am a dork). We saw the ruins of the temple where they prayed to Minerva and lots of other artifacts that archaeologists had discovered--pots, religious statues, etc. The hot springs underneath the city still heat the baths and we could see the steam coming off the water into the cold winter air. And we walked around the baths on the same stones that the ancient Romans themselves walked on!
And after seeing all these wonderful sites, I got to fill out a six-page worksheet about everything I learned and how it relates to ethical archaeology. Long story short, Stonehenge is not an ethical site because it uses goofy music and stereotypes to randomly hypothesize about the origins of the site (probably a main part of the reason it didn't knock my socks off...) and the Baths are an ethical site because accurate historical facts, not opinion, are the main priority there. Hopefully that expanded into six pages translates into an A in archaeology.

This past Saturday we went to the beautiful Winchester Cathedral and saw Jane Austen's house!! The literature lover in me was in heaven! The cathedral was beautiful and housed Jane Austen's grave, where a new bouquet of flowers is placed every day. The architecture ranged from medieval to Georgian to Renaissance (I think--there was so much information on the tour, haha). There were beautiful stained glass windows, but since this is England, there was no sunlight to shine through them. But I'm sure that it looks amazing with the sunlight streaming through. There was also a lot of empty space on the walls and various other empty spots where Catholic art and statues had been before Henry VIII broke with the Catholic Church to form the Church of England. After the break, Henry ordered the destruction of all Catholic art and idols and it was very apparent in the cathedral. I had learned about this in my Portrayal of Royalty class, so it was really cool to see it in person. There were these little stone platforms by some of the tombs in the cathedral that were clearly meant to hold a statues, but just stood empty. You can kind of tell from this photo:

After the cathdral, we went to Chawton, a quaint village in the English countryside. We saw both Jane Austen's house and Chawton House, the house her brother lived in and where she often visited. I sat at the same dining room table that Jane Austen did on the tour of Chawton House, but her actual house was the highlight of the day. We saw her bedroom, the desk where she actually wrote all her fabulous novels, and even costumes from the movie "Becoming Jane" (Steph Spera, if you are reading this blog, we should totally see the end of that movie sometime...without it falling off the projector). Her house was basically heaven for a literature geek, full of notes and letters in Jane's own handwriting and illustrations from orinigal copies of Pride and Prejudice. Definitely the highlight of the semester so far!!

Although the focus of this post is on Saturdays, I'm going to digress a bit and also mention that we went to see the Prime Meridian on Friday afternoon. It's really just a sign and a line on the ground, but pretty cool nonetheless and a great opportunity for goofy pictures (which were not taken on my camera or they would be posted here). The National Maritime Museum was basically the male version of the Jane Austen House. They loved it and couldn't get enough of it, while the girls were just a little bit bored, much like the guys were the next day when we spent quality time with Jane.
We also went to the National Observatory, which I loved. There were all sorts of facts and kid-friendly games about astronomy, which reminded me of the good old days of Spring 2008 when I took astronomy with Michele, Tim, Chris, and Chels. I can't believe it was already two years ago!! I must say, I did remember more than I thought I would from the class with the esteemed Professr TRegs. And the parts that I didn't remember I will blame on the fact that it was nearly two years ago...and not that we spent more time passing notes than actually taking notes.
But back to London, or, rather, Greenwich. The view from the absolutely gigantic hill that the observatory and prime meridian are on was beautiful!! It was a beautiful panoramic view of the city, since Greenwich is just on the outskirts of London. And it was a rare sunny day, which made it even more breathtaking. Gotta love London.

More Food

An addition to Thursday's post about food...

I just returned from a delicious traditional English lunch! Kris, one of the rectors of Kamen-Minerva (the flats here in London) often invites students to her flat for Sunday lunch. It is a bit of a tradition here in England for families to have big Sunday lunches after church and just kind of relax all day. It's sort of like our Sunday brunch, except there isn't any bacon and eggs. Kris' husband James cooked the wonderful meal for us and by the end, all seven of us who were there were completely stuffed with delicious English food. I know most people don't come to England for the food, but I was so surprised at how much I enjoyed the meal. The main course was lamb, which I had never had before, and it was delicious! Different than steak, but still good red meat (sorry, Lamb Chop...I tried not to think about you while I was eating. We were such good friends when I was a little kid, after all...) I will admit that I did put mustard on the lamb, which is a typical Maura move, to slather anything slightly different in mustard and think all will be well. But it was dijon mustard, which I thought blended perfectly with the lamb and was recommended by the cook. At least it wasn't American French's mustard (which I miss a lot, for the record). So I think I should still get some credit.
I also had rutabaga for the first time and loved that as well. It could be that my body is just really enjoying the few vegetables I get to eat, but it was delicious. It didn't have a very distinct flavor (which seems to be a trend with most foods I enjoy), but it was also a little sweet, too. And then there were roasted potatoes, my favorite part of the meal, and an interesting onion-y sauce that wasn't actually supposed to go on top of anything, but it was its own side dish.
Dessert was the best part--sweet toffee treacle pudding! It looked like the picture to the left, which actually looks kind of weird. But trust me, it tastes amazing. Now I know why Harry Potter loved treacle tart so much. It's mostly sugar, but it is SO delicious! I'm incredibly partial to chocolate (which some of you can attest to better than others, haha), but the treacle was just amazing. It tasted like a combination of gingerbread and pecan pie. I think we need to introduce it at American Thanksgiving dinner; I would totally trade in my yearly slice of pumpkin pie for some of that pudding. Or a lot of that pudding.
It was also really nice to have a relaxing Sunday afternoon. We went to Mass and then lunch and I am going to work on some homework and do some trip planning for the rest of the afternoon. It seems like we have constantly been in motion since arriving in London over three weeks ago, so I was definitely in need of a bit of a lazy Sunday. I can rest and regroup a bit before another busy week in this wonderful city!

Food

I'm sure most of you reading this blog know this about me anyway, but I'm just going to come right out and say it. I am minorly obsessed with food. Scratch that, make it majorly obsessed. I am the type of person who is thinking about dinner while I am eating breakfast. And I'm writing this post as I eat my lunch in the library of the London Centre.
What can I say? I love and appreciate food. (I could also make the argument that my dear mother and father played too many games involving "pull the food away from Baby Maura right as it gets to her mouth and laugh at her distraught face" and now I'm just subconsciously worried that that will happen again...but I suppose that's an argument for another time...).
So now that my beloved South Dining Hall and chocolate froyo is several thousand miles and an ocean away, food has become even more of a priority in my life. Mostly because I am now responsible for buying and cooking it, instead of just putting it on my tray and eating it. I've documented some of my cooking adventures (all of them good, thank goodness!), but I've come into contact with a lot if interesting foods lately and thought that they deserved a blog post all their own.

Last Friday, the Dans, Kaitlin, Megan, Kelly, and I stopped by Borough Market on the Thames again. The food there is simply amazing! I tried some wonderful strawberry jam and delicious chocolate fudge, but that was nothing new for me. And Borough Market is definitely the place to have a food adventure. My food adventure consisted of buying some interesting cheese that tasted wonderful with crackers and wine before dinner. It was called something like "carefully," or at least that's what it sounded like when we asked the vendor what kind of cheese it was. But cheese wasn't enough of a food adventure for Kaitlin and the Dans, who opted to buy some ostrich to eat for dinner. Yes, ostrich.
I'm sure none of you will be surprised to hear that I decided to get some pasta from the grocery store with Kelly and Megan. But I was still excited to watch this ostrich adventure transpire. And surprisingly enough, after two attempts at cooking the ostrich steaks enough, they actually liked the taste!
The bigger surprise? I tried a teeny, tiny piece of Kaitlin's ostrich burger...and actually didn't think it was half bad! It tastes kind of like sausage...although nothing I would ever order or cook for myself, haha.

The next great food adventure was Saturday, when the gang went to IndianVeg on the recomendation of Miss Alice, the librarian at the London Centre. She told us it was the cheapest all-you-can-eat Indian food in the city, and since Dan Crupi maybe, might have, sort of mentioned a time or two that he loves Indian food, we figured we would give it a try. And because we also love cheap things. ;)
After getting a little bit lost and stumbling upon Filthy McNasty's, the incredibly classy pub my dad would like to go to when the fam comes to visit in April, we found IndianVeg. And then the magic happened.
Most people would describe me as a picky eater, but I absolutely LOVED the Indian food. Vegetarian Indian food, no less. We took the all-you-can-eat thing very seriously. I think we might have startled the workers there when we burst it and immediately began filling our plates. We had just gotten off a four-hour bus ride from Bath and were a little (ok, a lot) hungry. In all fairness, we did ask if we needed to pay before eating...
We aren't really sure what exactly we ate, but it was delicious. And filling, which rarely happens here in Londontown. And it was only 3.95 pounds, which was the best part for these college students on tight budgets.
Actually, I take that back. The best part was when the nice little Indian man who owned the restaurant started helping Dan Crupi, the Indian food lover, create all sorts of crazy food combos. And then he just started throwing things on plates and putting them on our table. Again, not quite sure what it was, but it was delicious! I think there was mint and mango sauce on one of the concoctions, which I surprisingly really enjoyed. Needless to say, we are already planning on heading back to IndianVeg this Saturday!

Swordfights, Jewels, and Milkshakes

I am a blogging slacker. And for that, dear readers (if there are any of you left), I apologize. But who can really blame me when there is so much to do and see in London?

So I'm going to try and recount the past week, but probably in several posts, partly so its not overwhelming and partly because its already 1 AM here and I would like to get to sleep before class tomorrow. :)

Last Thursday was my first official cooking night in the flat and I am pleased to say it was another success. Pesto pasta with chicken, garlic, sundried tomatoes, and apples. Its making me hungry right now as I think about it...but maybe that's because most of us feel like we've been in a constant state of hunger ever since we got here, haha. This cooking stuff is actually really fun, but it doesn't beat a nice home-cooked meal.

I really love Fridays here in London. I only have my Portrayal of Royalty class, and it is so interesting, and then the afternoon always seems to bring about some sort of adventure for me and my London buds. This week it was the Tower of London. Which is featured prominently in the movie that shares its name with this blog, coincidentally enough. Yup, going to the Tower of London was pretty much a dream come true. ;)
But in all seriousness, it really was great! I am constantly amazed at the amazing historical artifacts and places in and around London. It is pretty much like a history book come to life, complete with a beautiful river view, of course. The Tower was great, after a lovely stroll there along the Thames River with beautiful views of the Tower Bridge. Which is not, in fact, London Bridge. Who knew? Not six ND students, that's for sure. London Bridge was more of an un-impressive, metal-looking letdown. But back to the Tower, which was actually more like several castle buildings situated near each other.
We saw where several of Henry VIII's wives were beheaded and buried and goofed around in the various exhibits about weapons throughout English history (Note: I would not have won a sword fight in the 1600s...observe Dan's superior dueling form).

We also saw the Crown Jewels, which were absolutely magnificent! My eyes almost hurt from looking at such sparkling diamonds. Contrary to certain information in an aformentioned film, there are no earrings in the Crown Jewels. But there are several beautiful crowns, scepters, and rings. My favorite was Queen Victoria's crown. It was this beautiful little tiara that was actually made because it was easier to wear with her mourning veil after King Albert died, which is kind of sad. But nonetheless, it was a gorgeous, diamond encrusted crown, and I'm thinking that if I ever run in to William or Harry, I'll have to ask them if I can borrow it for the next McGlinn formal ;)

I should also mention our fabulous tour guide, whose name now escapes me (this is why I need to blog sooner...). The guides are called beefeaters or Yeoman Warders and they are former military men who know work at the Tower. Our guide was absolutely hilarious and also incredibly knowledgable about the site. His best joke? He asked the crowd what you would bring to someone about to be burned at the stake, in order to lessen the pain. According to our wonderful guide, some delightfully intelligent Americans suggested a bag of marshmallows...
The real answer? Gunpowder to put around your feet so you would get blown up and die quickly, rather than burn at a painstakingly slow pace. A little morbid, but that seemed to be the theme of the day at a place that was the site of so much pain and death throughout history.

And what better way to end a tour of the Tower of London in 30-degree weather but with a milkshake? Unconventional, yes, but also delicious! :)