For those of you who don't have facebook (namely, the adults) I uploaded some new pictures on to my picture site that other people have taken of me. It's under the album "Random Pictures"!
Not much else is new, besides the fact that I have so much work to do! I definitely don't think I could go to UCL full time. Although, I am at a slight disadvantage since I'm only here for the term. The other students who are here full time do not have finals until June--some people have papers, but nothing final. I have papers AND final exams, so it's rough. My friend across the hall from me, who is in the history department, has 8 papers to write! Even so, I think I'd rather have that than have two final exams for econ which count for my entire grade.
Fortunately, I am really into the paper I'm writing for history. I talked to my teacher about writing on a different topic (as opposed to the ones she suggested), so now I am answering the question "What was the impact of the Black Death on religious beliefs and practices?" I have always been really interested in the black death so this paper is actually enjoyable to write. My first paper, which I handed in the other day, was about the papal initiatives between 1050-1100... not as interesting!
I am hoping to finish my history paper as soon as possible so I can just concentrate on my exams for economics, which will take a lot of studying for. Most people here aren't as worried as I am, because they just need to pass (at most schools, your study abroad grades are taken pass/fail rather than A,B,C,D) but whatever I get for a grade here will be factored into my GPA at Conn, so I need to do well.
This will probably be my last post unless something really exciting happens in the next few weeks, but I'll mostly just be doing work! I do hope to, at least, visit Harrod's at night sometime (the Christmas lights are all up and it looks gorgeous) and go on the London Eye. Expect more pictures, anyway!
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Paris
This past weekend I took my last trip of the term to Paris. It was actually also the first trip I took outside the UK, so it's surprising that I wasn't the one who forgot my passport (sorry Sam, I had to mention it!).. not a big deal though, we took a later Eurostar train for no extra cost and got to Paris 2 hours later. The Eurostar is extremely convenient, I would definitely recommend it to anyone thinking of going to Paris from London!
Once we arrived in Paris, we had to take the metro to our hotel. Lucky for us, the line we needed was running and came within 10 minutes (Paris transport was on strike, so most lines weren't running. We also got to ride for free) we easily found out hotel, which was a cheap one but very nice. The first few pictures in my Paris album are views from the balcony off of our room.
The next day, we met Sam's friend Kate who is studying abroad in Paris. It was really nice to have her around, because she showed us all the touristy sites and we usually didn't have to pull out a map. Unfortunately I can't really remember some of the places we saw, but we did go to the Opera House and the Louvre at night. We also went on top of this building where we could see all of Paris--there are pictures in my album.
The next day we went to the Musee d'Orsay, and at night we had an amazing dinner at an expensive French restaurant. I had scallops, which were expensive, but totally worth it. Afterwards, we went to Haagen Daz and got this icecream special, with 18 balls of icecream (multiple flavors) and a variety of fruit, with a bowl of hot fudge in the middle to dip everything in, along with hot chocolate to drink. We were all pretty sugar-high and silly by the end of it, but it was a great dinner.
I didn't end up seeing the Eiffel Tower up close, because it was too out of the way to walk to, which we would have had to do because the metro was down. I had a lot of fun anyway, and Paris is definitely a great city. Plus, I made use of my french! I knew it would come in handy some day! However, I will say that Paris is absolutely FREEZING this time of year. It is actually mcuh warmer in London. We had to make a lot of pit-stops in cafes on the walk back to Gare du Nord.
Overall, a good trip, but I still London is the best city! Check out my photo site for pictures. Sorry, I didn't put captions on any of them because there was some error in uploading and I missed the part where you add captions. Anyway, here is the link again:
http://www.webshots.com/user/justinekelly87
Once we arrived in Paris, we had to take the metro to our hotel. Lucky for us, the line we needed was running and came within 10 minutes (Paris transport was on strike, so most lines weren't running. We also got to ride for free) we easily found out hotel, which was a cheap one but very nice. The first few pictures in my Paris album are views from the balcony off of our room.
The next day, we met Sam's friend Kate who is studying abroad in Paris. It was really nice to have her around, because she showed us all the touristy sites and we usually didn't have to pull out a map. Unfortunately I can't really remember some of the places we saw, but we did go to the Opera House and the Louvre at night. We also went on top of this building where we could see all of Paris--there are pictures in my album.
The next day we went to the Musee d'Orsay, and at night we had an amazing dinner at an expensive French restaurant. I had scallops, which were expensive, but totally worth it. Afterwards, we went to Haagen Daz and got this icecream special, with 18 balls of icecream (multiple flavors) and a variety of fruit, with a bowl of hot fudge in the middle to dip everything in, along with hot chocolate to drink. We were all pretty sugar-high and silly by the end of it, but it was a great dinner.
I didn't end up seeing the Eiffel Tower up close, because it was too out of the way to walk to, which we would have had to do because the metro was down. I had a lot of fun anyway, and Paris is definitely a great city. Plus, I made use of my french! I knew it would come in handy some day! However, I will say that Paris is absolutely FREEZING this time of year. It is actually mcuh warmer in London. We had to make a lot of pit-stops in cafes on the walk back to Gare du Nord.
Overall, a good trip, but I still London is the best city! Check out my photo site for pictures. Sorry, I didn't put captions on any of them because there was some error in uploading and I missed the part where you add captions. Anyway, here is the link again:
http://www.webshots.com/user/justinekelly87
Monday, November 12, 2007
Cambridge, Cardiff, & Kent
I reached the 2000-word mark on my history essay so I figured it was a good time to take a break and update.
I have been doing a lot of traveling lately, which has been great except for the fact that I'm swamped with work! On Thursday, November 1st, I took the bus to Cambridge to visit Johnny. Johnny is studying at Pembroke College at Cambridge University; it is a really nice college that dates back to 1347. We went out to dinner that night, and hung around the college bar later, which is much more posh than the UCL Union bar. The next day (Johnny's birthday!), we walked around Cambridge and got to see a bunch of different colleges, including King's, Trinity, St. John's, and Emmanuel. King's was great to see mostly because of the chapel. Henry VIII put a lot of work into the chapel, including the gift of an organ that is still there today. There were also "HR" initials all over the paneling, as well as "RA" which I think stands for Anne Boleyn.
Trinity had been my favorite college when I visited the university with my dad, but I have to say I liked St. John's much more. It was founded by Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII, and it was quite obvious because all the architecture was clearly Tudor. We then went to Emmanuel, since that's where my dad went, and got to go inside the chapel and the dining hall.
That night, we went to formal hall at Pembroke. Formal hall is something that happens every night at Pembroke at 7:30. You can get dressed up, wear your gown (everyone at Cambridge has one) and get served a fancy dinner, though you do have to buy tickets. It was very nice, except for being yelled at in the beginning for being 5 minutes late. Cambridge students are also very fond of pennying other people's drinks (pennying a drink is essentially throwing a penny into someone's glass, and the victim has to drink the whole glass quickly so the Queen doesn't drown). One thing I found interesting was that you aren't allowed to take pictures if the "fellows" are there, which they were, so I waited to take pictures until they had left. I felt a lot like I was in Harry Potter--everyone sits at these long wooden tables, and the fellows sit at tables that are higher up on a platform at the front.
After dinner we had a birthday party for Johnny, which was a lot of fun. I should also mention that the food at Cambridge is amazing, especially breakfast! Certainly isn't your typical dining hall food.
Saturday night we went to see Elizabeth: The Golden Age which was very good, I recommend it! Sunday we just hung around and did some work, and I left around 5:30.
I didn't have much time to rest, and my coach to Cardiff, Wales was the next morning, Monday, at 8am. It was a 3 hour bus ride, but it was only 5 pounds! The bed and breakfast we stayed in was very nice and cute. It was about a 20 minute walk from the center of the city, in an old Victorian house. We had a bathroom with a shower in our room, and nice comfty beds, as well as a great breakfast each morning. Cardiff is a really cool city, it has the typical pubs, bars, and clubs, but it also has a lot of "arcards" which are these sort of outlet stores with neat treasures in them. I found one store that was an "old books" store, and found a book on the Tudors for only 1.50. We also spent one day walking down to Cardiff Bay, which was really pretty, despite how cold it was! We went to Cardiff Castle (or Castell Caerdydd! I think Welsh is the coolest language), which was basically the focal point of the city. The castle dates back to the arrival of the Romans, although most of what survives today is from the 1800's. The inside was amazing, with really incredible architecture and artwork on the walls and ceilings, but unfortunately photography wasn't allowed inside.
The most exciting part of our trip was on Sunday when we saw Prince Charles unexpectedly. We walked up to a war memorial, quite on accident, and a man asked my friend if we had come to see Prince Charles, and told her that we had just missed him by 5 minutes! Anyway, later on in the day, we were walking by the castle and saw all these police standing outside. We overhead that Charles was visiting the castle, so we waited around for about a half an hour to see him. We were practically the only ones standing there (I guess people either didn't know about it or didn't care), and it was really cool when he drove up in his car and rolled down the window to wave.
I arrived back in London late Wednesday night, and on Friday I was off to meet my dad and Uncle Roger and Karen at a bar in London. I got back to my room late Friday night, and was off again at 8am Saturday morning to go on the Butler excursion to Hever Castle. I had always wanted to see this castle because it was the childhood home of Anne Boleyn. The castle was really pretty, and I got to see Anne's bedroom, which included the original headboard to her bed. It's unfortunate that, once again, photography was not allowed inside.
Karen picked me up from Hever, and I went back to their house which is about 30 minutes away in Kent. Grandma had already arrived, and Lucille arrived shortly after. It was a fun family reunion, and we went out to dinner that night at this great fish restaurant (I had crab cakes, and was so excited to be eating a proper meal for once). I got to ride in Karen's new porsche, which was pretty incredible. The next day, Grandma and Lucille left relatively early since it's a 5 hour drive back to Manchester, but me, my dad, Karen and Roger went to go see my cousin Christopher play football (/soccer). Everyone actually calls him Nippy, so it's strange for me to be typing Christopher. He is still only 15, but is of course 7 inches taller than me. I also saw my cousins Samantha (who everyone calls Wiz or Wizzy) and Shiona, both of whom are also taller than me, even Shiona who is only 13. Wiz has the most red hair I have ever seen and I am completely jealous!
I was originally going to stay until Monday morning, but decided to go back Sunday night to get some more work done. The work is really getting stressful now. I have two 2500 word essays for History due by the end of the term, a Macroeconomics coursework for my final grade, and two exams in Enviro econ and Labour Econ which take place the 11th and 12th of December. I am trying to get my history essays done as soon as possible, so that I can concentrate on studying for my econ exams, which are 100% of my final grade.
I am going to Paris this weekend with Sam who is my best friend from Conn, so expect another update next week, if I can pull myself away from work!
I have been doing a lot of traveling lately, which has been great except for the fact that I'm swamped with work! On Thursday, November 1st, I took the bus to Cambridge to visit Johnny. Johnny is studying at Pembroke College at Cambridge University; it is a really nice college that dates back to 1347. We went out to dinner that night, and hung around the college bar later, which is much more posh than the UCL Union bar. The next day (Johnny's birthday!), we walked around Cambridge and got to see a bunch of different colleges, including King's, Trinity, St. John's, and Emmanuel. King's was great to see mostly because of the chapel. Henry VIII put a lot of work into the chapel, including the gift of an organ that is still there today. There were also "HR" initials all over the paneling, as well as "RA" which I think stands for Anne Boleyn.
Trinity had been my favorite college when I visited the university with my dad, but I have to say I liked St. John's much more. It was founded by Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII, and it was quite obvious because all the architecture was clearly Tudor. We then went to Emmanuel, since that's where my dad went, and got to go inside the chapel and the dining hall.
That night, we went to formal hall at Pembroke. Formal hall is something that happens every night at Pembroke at 7:30. You can get dressed up, wear your gown (everyone at Cambridge has one) and get served a fancy dinner, though you do have to buy tickets. It was very nice, except for being yelled at in the beginning for being 5 minutes late. Cambridge students are also very fond of pennying other people's drinks (pennying a drink is essentially throwing a penny into someone's glass, and the victim has to drink the whole glass quickly so the Queen doesn't drown). One thing I found interesting was that you aren't allowed to take pictures if the "fellows" are there, which they were, so I waited to take pictures until they had left. I felt a lot like I was in Harry Potter--everyone sits at these long wooden tables, and the fellows sit at tables that are higher up on a platform at the front.
After dinner we had a birthday party for Johnny, which was a lot of fun. I should also mention that the food at Cambridge is amazing, especially breakfast! Certainly isn't your typical dining hall food.
Saturday night we went to see Elizabeth: The Golden Age which was very good, I recommend it! Sunday we just hung around and did some work, and I left around 5:30.
I didn't have much time to rest, and my coach to Cardiff, Wales was the next morning, Monday, at 8am. It was a 3 hour bus ride, but it was only 5 pounds! The bed and breakfast we stayed in was very nice and cute. It was about a 20 minute walk from the center of the city, in an old Victorian house. We had a bathroom with a shower in our room, and nice comfty beds, as well as a great breakfast each morning. Cardiff is a really cool city, it has the typical pubs, bars, and clubs, but it also has a lot of "arcards" which are these sort of outlet stores with neat treasures in them. I found one store that was an "old books" store, and found a book on the Tudors for only 1.50. We also spent one day walking down to Cardiff Bay, which was really pretty, despite how cold it was! We went to Cardiff Castle (or Castell Caerdydd! I think Welsh is the coolest language), which was basically the focal point of the city. The castle dates back to the arrival of the Romans, although most of what survives today is from the 1800's. The inside was amazing, with really incredible architecture and artwork on the walls and ceilings, but unfortunately photography wasn't allowed inside.
The most exciting part of our trip was on Sunday when we saw Prince Charles unexpectedly. We walked up to a war memorial, quite on accident, and a man asked my friend if we had come to see Prince Charles, and told her that we had just missed him by 5 minutes! Anyway, later on in the day, we were walking by the castle and saw all these police standing outside. We overhead that Charles was visiting the castle, so we waited around for about a half an hour to see him. We were practically the only ones standing there (I guess people either didn't know about it or didn't care), and it was really cool when he drove up in his car and rolled down the window to wave.
I arrived back in London late Wednesday night, and on Friday I was off to meet my dad and Uncle Roger and Karen at a bar in London. I got back to my room late Friday night, and was off again at 8am Saturday morning to go on the Butler excursion to Hever Castle. I had always wanted to see this castle because it was the childhood home of Anne Boleyn. The castle was really pretty, and I got to see Anne's bedroom, which included the original headboard to her bed. It's unfortunate that, once again, photography was not allowed inside.
Karen picked me up from Hever, and I went back to their house which is about 30 minutes away in Kent. Grandma had already arrived, and Lucille arrived shortly after. It was a fun family reunion, and we went out to dinner that night at this great fish restaurant (I had crab cakes, and was so excited to be eating a proper meal for once). I got to ride in Karen's new porsche, which was pretty incredible. The next day, Grandma and Lucille left relatively early since it's a 5 hour drive back to Manchester, but me, my dad, Karen and Roger went to go see my cousin Christopher play football (/soccer). Everyone actually calls him Nippy, so it's strange for me to be typing Christopher. He is still only 15, but is of course 7 inches taller than me. I also saw my cousins Samantha (who everyone calls Wiz or Wizzy) and Shiona, both of whom are also taller than me, even Shiona who is only 13. Wiz has the most red hair I have ever seen and I am completely jealous!
I was originally going to stay until Monday morning, but decided to go back Sunday night to get some more work done. The work is really getting stressful now. I have two 2500 word essays for History due by the end of the term, a Macroeconomics coursework for my final grade, and two exams in Enviro econ and Labour Econ which take place the 11th and 12th of December. I am trying to get my history essays done as soon as possible, so that I can concentrate on studying for my econ exams, which are 100% of my final grade.
I am going to Paris this weekend with Sam who is my best friend from Conn, so expect another update next week, if I can pull myself away from work!
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Photos
I have been really busy lately with traveling to both Cambridge and Cardiff, and I'll have to leave an update for later (I've got a lot of homework to do!). I just wanted to post the new link to my photosite. Apparently I reached the limit on my old photosite (350 photos) so I moved to a different site with a limit of 1000 photos. All my photos are now on this site, and I have updated it with photos from Cambridge and Cardiff. Here is the link:
http://www.webshots.com/user/justinekelly87
Enjoy! Will update the blog as soon as possible.
http://www.webshots.com/user/justinekelly87
Enjoy! Will update the blog as soon as possible.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Coursework, travel plans
I figured I would post an update since I got my first coursework assignment back today. I should preface this by saying that everyone says grades in Britain are generally lower because the grading process is done by adding points to 0 rather than subtracting points from 100, so anything above a 60 is considered to be pretty good.
For both my Labour and Environmental Economics courses, we are required to submit at least 2 pieces of coursework to be graded. The coursework does not count toward our final grade (which is 100& examination), but completing it allows us to sit the exam. I decided to submit coursework for Environmental last week, and I got it back in my tutorial yesterday and I got a 90 with the comment "very good"! It's too bad that the 90 doesn't go toward my final grade, but it's still exciting nonetheless since everyone told me that no one gets 90s.
On a similar note, my European Macro teacher approached me on Monday to tell me that I will not have to have an exam for the class. Instead, he is going to take my second submitted coursework and use that for my final grade. I believe his exact words were "I don't want to freak you out with an exam, so you can use your book and notes and stuff to do this coursework." I wish my other Economics teachers had the same attitude!
This is a completely random note, but I have discovered the wonders of Caffe Nero over here. It's a coffee place that's just as big as Starbucks (in other words, there is one every few blocks. In fact, Tottenham Court Road goes something like this: Caffe Nero. Boots. Starbucks. Tesco. Caffe Nero. Starbucks. ATM. Tesco. Boots. ATM. Caffe Nero. You get the idea) it's a wee bit expensive, but it's my coffee of choice when I'm not on campus at UCL. Apparently it was voted #1 coffee house in the UK for the 6th year in a row now.
As far as traveling, I'm not doing nearly as many big things as some other people here (lots of people have already been to Scotland, Ireland, Amsterdam, Italy, etc.) because traveling is just so expensive. But, I do have a few trips planned. This Saturday I'm going to Stratford-upon-Avon for the day which I'm really excited about. The weekend after, I'm going to visit Johnny at Cambridge. Although I've been there before, I think I'll appreciate it a lot more this time. The week after that is my reading week (no lectures or classes) so I'm spending half of it in Cardiff, Wales with my friend Kate. It's only a 10 pound bus ride, so we're going to stay in a nice B&B rather than a hostel. It should be really relaxing. The following weekend, my dad comes to visit and I'm going to see my family in Kent. That Saturday is also the Butler trip to Canterbury and Hever Castle, which are conveniently also in Kent. The weekend after that I'm going to Paris with Sam, and on December 8th I'll be going on the Butler trip to Bath. So, most of my trips are trips around the UK, but that's fine with me--I did come to study in London because I wanted to be in the UK!
Meanwhile, I'm trying to get as much work done as possible in these next two weeks. I'm sad that I can't watch the Red Sox in the world series! The games all start around 1:30am here, so there's no way any place would be playing it. I met some English students the other night who were actually really into American football--one of them was a big Patriots fan who absolutely loves Tom Brady and Randy Moss. I asked them about baseball and apparently no one likes baseball here--they think it is too slow, but they love football! I guess that makes sense, because rugby is very similar to football.
Not much else is new. It is getting VERY cold here--in the mornings it's usually around 40 degrees. Luckily, it hardly rains! I think it rains more in New London than it does here. Watch, I probably just jinxed it.
I plan to take some pictures of UCL itself soon (I realized that there is so much beautiful architecture on UCL's campus and I haven't taken any pictures of it!) so check my picture site sometime soon!
For both my Labour and Environmental Economics courses, we are required to submit at least 2 pieces of coursework to be graded. The coursework does not count toward our final grade (which is 100& examination), but completing it allows us to sit the exam. I decided to submit coursework for Environmental last week, and I got it back in my tutorial yesterday and I got a 90 with the comment "very good"! It's too bad that the 90 doesn't go toward my final grade, but it's still exciting nonetheless since everyone told me that no one gets 90s.
On a similar note, my European Macro teacher approached me on Monday to tell me that I will not have to have an exam for the class. Instead, he is going to take my second submitted coursework and use that for my final grade. I believe his exact words were "I don't want to freak you out with an exam, so you can use your book and notes and stuff to do this coursework." I wish my other Economics teachers had the same attitude!
This is a completely random note, but I have discovered the wonders of Caffe Nero over here. It's a coffee place that's just as big as Starbucks (in other words, there is one every few blocks. In fact, Tottenham Court Road goes something like this: Caffe Nero. Boots. Starbucks. Tesco. Caffe Nero. Starbucks. ATM. Tesco. Boots. ATM. Caffe Nero. You get the idea) it's a wee bit expensive, but it's my coffee of choice when I'm not on campus at UCL. Apparently it was voted #1 coffee house in the UK for the 6th year in a row now.
As far as traveling, I'm not doing nearly as many big things as some other people here (lots of people have already been to Scotland, Ireland, Amsterdam, Italy, etc.) because traveling is just so expensive. But, I do have a few trips planned. This Saturday I'm going to Stratford-upon-Avon for the day which I'm really excited about. The weekend after, I'm going to visit Johnny at Cambridge. Although I've been there before, I think I'll appreciate it a lot more this time. The week after that is my reading week (no lectures or classes) so I'm spending half of it in Cardiff, Wales with my friend Kate. It's only a 10 pound bus ride, so we're going to stay in a nice B&B rather than a hostel. It should be really relaxing. The following weekend, my dad comes to visit and I'm going to see my family in Kent. That Saturday is also the Butler trip to Canterbury and Hever Castle, which are conveniently also in Kent. The weekend after that I'm going to Paris with Sam, and on December 8th I'll be going on the Butler trip to Bath. So, most of my trips are trips around the UK, but that's fine with me--I did come to study in London because I wanted to be in the UK!
Meanwhile, I'm trying to get as much work done as possible in these next two weeks. I'm sad that I can't watch the Red Sox in the world series! The games all start around 1:30am here, so there's no way any place would be playing it. I met some English students the other night who were actually really into American football--one of them was a big Patriots fan who absolutely loves Tom Brady and Randy Moss. I asked them about baseball and apparently no one likes baseball here--they think it is too slow, but they love football! I guess that makes sense, because rugby is very similar to football.
Not much else is new. It is getting VERY cold here--in the mornings it's usually around 40 degrees. Luckily, it hardly rains! I think it rains more in New London than it does here. Watch, I probably just jinxed it.
I plan to take some pictures of UCL itself soon (I realized that there is so much beautiful architecture on UCL's campus and I haven't taken any pictures of it!) so check my picture site sometime soon!
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Hampton Court Palace
Another post so soon!
I went to Hampton Court Palace yesterday and it was amazing. We took the train from Waterloo tube station, and it was only 5.70 round trip! The palace itself was 10.50 with a student discount. Anyway, I'll divide the palace up into its sections:
The Tudor kitchens: These were pretty cool. I thought it was amazing how small the doorways were around the kitchens, my friend Kate had to duck to get through. This was the only place I could really take pictures indoors.
The Queen's Apartments/King's Apartments: Both were amazing. They date from the 1700's, around Queen Mary II and William III's reign. It's interesting to see how many rooms they have in each apartment. For example, in the Queen's I remember seeing a room where the guard stood, an audience chamber where the Queen receives people, another chamber beyond that for socializing with people, a chamber for dining, and a bed chamber.. I know there was more! In both the Queen and King's apartments there was original furniture, including the original bed from the 1700s--a little creepy, if you ask me. Also, all the rooms had these gorgeous murals painted on the ceiling, and huge fireplaces and wall-to-ceiling windows.
King Henry VIII's Apartments: Unfortunately, they were rather small, since monarchs after him built things over them. But we did see the infamous "long gallery" by the chapel where Katherine Howard supposedly ran through screaming after she found out she was to be beheaded. She supposedly haunts the gallery now.
Young King Henry VIII Exhibit: This was pretty cool; it was set in some of Wolsey's old rooms, and they had written quotes all over the place, and had lots of portraits hanging.
The Georgian Rooms: Similar to the 1700's apartments--they were absolutely gorgeous, and one of the few places in the palace that actually felt warm! I couldn't believe how freezing the majority of the palace was, it felt colder than outside.
The Gardens were also incredible, they were so big there was no way we could walk through all of it.
Overall it was a great experience, though I was sad that I couldn't take pictures of most of the cool stuff inside because of portraits hanging from the Royal Collection... I guess the Queen is kinda paranoid about them getting stolen.
Be sure to check out the pictures that I could take: http://www.picturetrail.com/justinekelly
I went to Hampton Court Palace yesterday and it was amazing. We took the train from Waterloo tube station, and it was only 5.70 round trip! The palace itself was 10.50 with a student discount. Anyway, I'll divide the palace up into its sections:
The Tudor kitchens: These were pretty cool. I thought it was amazing how small the doorways were around the kitchens, my friend Kate had to duck to get through. This was the only place I could really take pictures indoors.
The Queen's Apartments/King's Apartments: Both were amazing. They date from the 1700's, around Queen Mary II and William III's reign. It's interesting to see how many rooms they have in each apartment. For example, in the Queen's I remember seeing a room where the guard stood, an audience chamber where the Queen receives people, another chamber beyond that for socializing with people, a chamber for dining, and a bed chamber.. I know there was more! In both the Queen and King's apartments there was original furniture, including the original bed from the 1700s--a little creepy, if you ask me. Also, all the rooms had these gorgeous murals painted on the ceiling, and huge fireplaces and wall-to-ceiling windows.
King Henry VIII's Apartments: Unfortunately, they were rather small, since monarchs after him built things over them. But we did see the infamous "long gallery" by the chapel where Katherine Howard supposedly ran through screaming after she found out she was to be beheaded. She supposedly haunts the gallery now.
Young King Henry VIII Exhibit: This was pretty cool; it was set in some of Wolsey's old rooms, and they had written quotes all over the place, and had lots of portraits hanging.
The Georgian Rooms: Similar to the 1700's apartments--they were absolutely gorgeous, and one of the few places in the palace that actually felt warm! I couldn't believe how freezing the majority of the palace was, it felt colder than outside.
The Gardens were also incredible, they were so big there was no way we could walk through all of it.
Overall it was a great experience, though I was sad that I couldn't take pictures of most of the cool stuff inside because of portraits hanging from the Royal Collection... I guess the Queen is kinda paranoid about them getting stolen.
Be sure to check out the pictures that I could take: http://www.picturetrail.com/justinekelly
Thursday, October 18, 2007
A quick update
Not too much has been going on lately, but I figured I'd update anyway. I feel like I'm finally starting to catch up with the reading for my courses, though still not entirely caught up, of course (in other words, there is always reading that I COULD be doing at any point in time). Believe it or not, I actually have the LEAST amount of work for my history course. You would think that course would have the most reading, and that my economics courses would have the least amount, but it's actually the other way around! It's very hard to get used to reading economics, because at Conn, we are given ONE textbook and are really only supposed to refer to it if we need further explanation. Here, we are given 3 or 4 textbooks and loads of articles and essays to read. The old rule of thumb at Conn is "if it wasn't covered in class, it won't be on the exam" but that rule certainly does not hold here, so I basically have to take notes on EVERYTHING while I read. I'm trying not to highlight any of my books so I can sell them back at a good price later, but that just means I have to take notes on everything, which is extremely time consuming.
Another reason why I have more work for my economics courses is because my final grade is determined by 100% examination. We have one exam at the end of the term, and that grade we get on the exam is our final grade, essentially. With history, all I have to do is write 2 5-page papers on basically any topic I want having to do with medieval history. This will not only be much more enjoyable, but also much less stressful. If I know there is a topic I won't have to write a paper on, I basically don't have to pay it much attention.
While on the topic of courses, I should mention that I've had to start thinking about my courses for the Spring at Conn! It seems so soon, but the pre-registration process starts next week. Luckily for me, Conn FINALLY got on board with online registration (think it took them long enough?) so registering for classes should be relatively easy for me.
One thing I have noticed about professors/teachers here in the UK is that they don't seem as into teaching as back home. At Conn, most of my professors are really excited about what they are teaching, and tend to get really into it. Here, teachers seem lke they are just teaching because they have to. They all tend to speak in a fairly monotone voice as if the material is stuff they just HAVE to know about and not stuff they are actually interested in. I guess the one exception is my history teacher, but she isn't great either since she just seems to read directly from a textbook.
Moving on, today, I went into this huge bookstore that I pass every day on the way to class. It's where students get their textbooks most of the time (I didn't get mine there because buying them used off amazon is cheaper). Anyway, it's about 4 floors and has a huge Tudor history section. I was very tempted to buy this book that just came out, but it was 20 pounds! I could buy 4 books at New England Mobile back home for that price... so I resisted the temptation.
Tomorrow I'm planning on going to Hampton Court Palace with my friend Kate (who is incidentally another big fan of historical fiction novels). It's about a 35-minute train ride away, so not bad at all.
I'll have to end this post with a little rant about my living situation. I've accepted the fact that I have a small room, and that the showers are awful because they turn off every minute and the pressure is bad. BUT, today I got really fed up after we had our 5th fire alarm in less than a month. Fire alarms here are much more annoying than fire alarms at Conn because we have to wait for the London Fire Dept to get to the dorm, which usually takes a while (I don't want to think about what would happen if there was an actual fire). Plus, there are 250 of us, so it takes forever just to get back to my room when it's all over. The main thing is that I feel like we've had a fire alarm every week, it's ridiculous. On top of that, there is only 1 working shower on my floor now for 17 girls. We have 3 all together in the bathroom; one of them has had an "out of order" sign on it since I arrived here on September 18th, and then another one broke just last week and also now has an "out of order" sign on it. Coveniently for me, whenever someone takes a shower in the ONE working shower we have, the pipes drone sooo loudly near my room. It's a horrible sound. And since it's now the only working shower, I hear that drone quite often. I'm also amazed at how much paper is wasted here. I get a flyer, sometimes two, under my door everyday for some club promotion. The problem is that a lot of people kick them out into the hallways and now the hallways are always a mess. Lastly, our kitchen is a mess. This isn't so much Astor College's fault, but more the people who live on my floor. You would think that the girls' kitchen would be cleaner than the boys', but it isn't. There are pots and pans in the sink every time I go there, so it's really difficult to wash anything out. People also leave their pots on the stove top, so you always have to move things if you want to cook something (which, trust me, I don't do very often). Actually, tonight I made something quite excellent--I put shredded cheese in a tortilla and put it in the microwave. Brilliant.
Lastly, thank goodness for tv-links.co.uk, it has helped satisfy my new Gilmore Girls obsession. Unfortunately it also keeps me from doing work. Oh well.
til next time!
P.S. Just to let you know, if you have a google account of any kind (gmail or something) you can leave a comment on my entry. Comments are fun!
EDIT: I forgot to mention that it's getting a lot colder here! This morning it was about 45 degrees... and the rest of the week it's not supposed to go above 55 degrees. I might have to say goodbye to my flats soon!
Another reason why I have more work for my economics courses is because my final grade is determined by 100% examination. We have one exam at the end of the term, and that grade we get on the exam is our final grade, essentially. With history, all I have to do is write 2 5-page papers on basically any topic I want having to do with medieval history. This will not only be much more enjoyable, but also much less stressful. If I know there is a topic I won't have to write a paper on, I basically don't have to pay it much attention.
While on the topic of courses, I should mention that I've had to start thinking about my courses for the Spring at Conn! It seems so soon, but the pre-registration process starts next week. Luckily for me, Conn FINALLY got on board with online registration (think it took them long enough?) so registering for classes should be relatively easy for me.
One thing I have noticed about professors/teachers here in the UK is that they don't seem as into teaching as back home. At Conn, most of my professors are really excited about what they are teaching, and tend to get really into it. Here, teachers seem lke they are just teaching because they have to. They all tend to speak in a fairly monotone voice as if the material is stuff they just HAVE to know about and not stuff they are actually interested in. I guess the one exception is my history teacher, but she isn't great either since she just seems to read directly from a textbook.
Moving on, today, I went into this huge bookstore that I pass every day on the way to class. It's where students get their textbooks most of the time (I didn't get mine there because buying them used off amazon is cheaper). Anyway, it's about 4 floors and has a huge Tudor history section. I was very tempted to buy this book that just came out, but it was 20 pounds! I could buy 4 books at New England Mobile back home for that price... so I resisted the temptation.
Tomorrow I'm planning on going to Hampton Court Palace with my friend Kate (who is incidentally another big fan of historical fiction novels). It's about a 35-minute train ride away, so not bad at all.
I'll have to end this post with a little rant about my living situation. I've accepted the fact that I have a small room, and that the showers are awful because they turn off every minute and the pressure is bad. BUT, today I got really fed up after we had our 5th fire alarm in less than a month. Fire alarms here are much more annoying than fire alarms at Conn because we have to wait for the London Fire Dept to get to the dorm, which usually takes a while (I don't want to think about what would happen if there was an actual fire). Plus, there are 250 of us, so it takes forever just to get back to my room when it's all over. The main thing is that I feel like we've had a fire alarm every week, it's ridiculous. On top of that, there is only 1 working shower on my floor now for 17 girls. We have 3 all together in the bathroom; one of them has had an "out of order" sign on it since I arrived here on September 18th, and then another one broke just last week and also now has an "out of order" sign on it. Coveniently for me, whenever someone takes a shower in the ONE working shower we have, the pipes drone sooo loudly near my room. It's a horrible sound. And since it's now the only working shower, I hear that drone quite often. I'm also amazed at how much paper is wasted here. I get a flyer, sometimes two, under my door everyday for some club promotion. The problem is that a lot of people kick them out into the hallways and now the hallways are always a mess. Lastly, our kitchen is a mess. This isn't so much Astor College's fault, but more the people who live on my floor. You would think that the girls' kitchen would be cleaner than the boys', but it isn't. There are pots and pans in the sink every time I go there, so it's really difficult to wash anything out. People also leave their pots on the stove top, so you always have to move things if you want to cook something (which, trust me, I don't do very often). Actually, tonight I made something quite excellent--I put shredded cheese in a tortilla and put it in the microwave. Brilliant.
Lastly, thank goodness for tv-links.co.uk, it has helped satisfy my new Gilmore Girls obsession. Unfortunately it also keeps me from doing work. Oh well.
til next time!
P.S. Just to let you know, if you have a google account of any kind (gmail or something) you can leave a comment on my entry. Comments are fun!
EDIT: I forgot to mention that it's getting a lot colder here! This morning it was about 45 degrees... and the rest of the week it's not supposed to go above 55 degrees. I might have to say goodbye to my flats soon!
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