Well, I am finally making a post, and it only took me a whole week! I arrived into London on Monday, June 28th around noon. We got stuck on a flight with 300 high school band students from the state of Wisconsin. They weren’t too bad, but Dane was the lucky one and got stuck next to the kid with the bloody nose. We also ended up behind them in the line to get through customs at Heathrow airport. So, after a few hours in customs, and an hour train ride to King’s Cross in London, we finally made it to our dorms, The John Dodgson House. Mom, you failed to mention the lack of air conditioning in Europe!! It’s been crazy hot here, and we are apparently too poor to afford places with air conditioning. I just sleep on top of the bed with the windows open. Looks like I might be investing in a fan. We have even resorted to walking over to the grocery store and hanging out in their refrigerated section.
The study abroad group has been keeping us busy with activities for most of the day everyday, which has thrown a major kink in my thesis rhythm. We hit up a hand full of tourist attractions in London this week, and Friday morning a small group of us came to Paris. Needless to say, Friday morning was somewhat of an ordeal, all because of me. But, we made it. We spent the weekend in Paris and made a day trip to Brussels, Belgium yesterday for the first stage of the Tour De France. I’m currently sitting on a train in Paris heading back to London for the week, but I’ll give you an overview of all the things we have done below:
Monday, June 28th, 2010
We arrived into London-Heathrow around noon local time. Due to the massive number of band students on our flight, customs took two hours. We then caught the underground to King’s Cross Station. Twenty-seven stops and an hour later, we finally arrived at King’s Cross. Our dorms are located only a few blocks from King’s Cross, which is nice because most of the trains and underground connect through there.
The group of four I traveled with were the last portion of the group to arrive in London. A majority of the class arrived earlier in the day. After arriving at the John Dodgson House, we walked down to get our cell phones and then wandered around the Trafalgar Square area. We all ate dinner at a pub close to Trafalgar Square. It wasn’t too bad. They had cider on tap, which I have since then found EVERYWHERE in London. Clinton ordered some Ploughman’s Lunch pork pie, which I have to say looked absolutely disgusting, but he of course ate all of it. I was suffering from a serious case of jet lag that day; So, they kept us out until 10:00 PM that night to keep us from falling asleep too early.
Tuesday, June 29th, 2010
We started the day off at 9:00 AM. I was still feeling a little sluggish, but much better than the day before. We took a
bus across town to St. Paul’s Cathedral, which is currently my favorite thing I have seen in London thus far. There was a section in the back dedicated to American soldiers from the people of Great Britain, which was pretty incredible. We climbed all 365 ft to the top of the church and over looked the city. After St. Paul’s we grabbed some lunch from Marks and Spencer and walked over to the Tate Modern and ate lunch outside. Marks and Spencer is set up like a small specialty grocery store, but with mostly pre-fixed meals. I might just open one in the states. Great food. We walked into the Tate Modern art museum after lunch, which was interesting to say the least. I found some of it enjoyable to look at; whereas, some if it was a little too far out there for me.
We took a walk down the Thames River and passed by the Tower Bridge. We decided to take the tour, which ended up being really interesting. They had a video depicting the design and construction of the bridge, and a ridiculous BIM model and video. Some of you might not know what BIM is, so a quick overview: BIM- Building Information Modeling. Basically, build a 3D model of a project from 2D plans. The models contain costs and scheduling information, among other things. The aim is to streamline the preconstruction and construction phases. It’s what I am currently working on for my thesis.
We stopped by the “Gherkin” on our walk back to the metro, and a small group of us ended the day on Tuesday with a Jackson Browne concert in Royal Albert Hall. We had planned on stopping at a pub close to the concert to eat, but when we arrived we could not find a pub. We did, however, stumble across a World Cup get-together at Imperial University. So, we stopped and grabbed some dinner and watched the first half of the Portugal game. Royal Albert Hall was impressive to say the least. We were seated in the box seats, which sounds like something special, but a majority of the seats were situated like that. Jackson Browne put on a great show, as well. I’m not familiar with all of his songs, but he did play a handful of songs that I like.
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010
Dr. Burt, the Department Head for Auburn University’s Building Science Department, is actually from England. He came over to hang out with us and show us around our first week here. On Tuesday morning, we took a train out to Princes Risborough, which is where he grew up. We walked around town for a few hours, and then took a 10-mile “country walk” to a completely different town. It was more like a hike, than a walk. We started the hike around 1:00 PM and ended around 5:00 PM. It was nice to get out of the city and see some of the rural areas of England. Either I was still suffering from a case of jet lag, or else I am seriously out of shape because that hike took a lot out of me. I’m going to stick with the jet lag theory. We grabbed a drink at a pub, and then caught the train back into London.
After arriving back in London, Anoop and Azhar (our professors), took us to an Indian Restaurant. Service was horrible, but the food was really good. I got the Meat Thali (Meat Platter), but we didn’t get our waters until halfway through the meal. Luckily, it wasn’t too spicy, or else I would have been walking into the kitchen and fixing my own drink.
Thursday, July 1st,2010
Thursday was a relative short day compared to the previous days. We started at the Tower of London, which I was really excited about beforehand because I am a HUGE fan of The Tudors. However, it was somewhat of a let down; or, maybe I was just hoping for something too spectacular. There were parts that seemed a little too juvenile for my liking, and tons of kids were there on field trips. We did get to see the crown jewels and royal armoury, and I also saw where Ann Boleyn was executed.
We walked over to the HMS Belfast after lunch. I think by this time I was a little overwhelmed with museums for the week, and a little preoccupied trying to figure out when I was ever going to find time to work on Thesis. A few of us headed over to the London Bridge Experience, which started out slow, but ended up really fun. It’s basically like London’s version of a haunted house.
We went back to the dorms around 4:00 PM and had project progress meetings shortly thereafter with our professors. We determined that I still have about 65 hours left of work to finish my thesis, which should average out to about 3-4 hours per day. Can anyone say BUZZ KILL? Ha-ha, hopefully I can get on a roll and cut that down, but it was about the average time frame left for everyone to finish.
Friday, July 2nd,2010
As I said earlier, we got to Paris Friday morning around 8:00 AM local time. If you are in Alabama or Oklahoma reading this, then Paris is 7 hours ahead of you and London is 6 hours ahead. We took the chunnel from London to Paris, which left at 5:15 AM. A few of us decided to go out and have “A” drink the night before, and as usual stayed out much later than planned. We went to a pub around the corner and ended up going down the street to another pub. Someone yelled a random “War Eagle” to the bouncer, and he surprisingly responded with a “Roll Tide.” So, we decided to see what that place was all about. John and I ended up playing pool against a French guy and his girlfriend. We were thoroughly confused during a majority of the game. The pool table is smaller. The billiards are smaller, and there were no numbers on them. They were just solid colors: red, blue, and yellow. Moral of the story: we lost, or else the French guy cheated us. We grabbed some authentic English cuisine: “quarter-pounder with cheese,” and headed back to the dorms. I’m not even going to post what time we got back, because I know you’re reading this, Mother. I’m sure you can guess what happens next. I slept through my alarm. Woke up at 4:50, but was able to sprint to the train station and still make the train to Paris.
It was 8:00 AM when we arrived in Paris. I have to say my first impression of Paris was not a pleasant one. I tried to use the restroom at the train station, but you have to pay 70 Euro Cents to get into the restroom. Seeing as I had just arrived from London, who uses Pounds, I did not have any Euros yet. Dane, let me bum some money off of him, and all was well. Apparently, the norm in Europe is to pay for public restrooms though.
The high on Friday was 93 degrees, and we of course did not have AC in our hotel room. I was sooo tired by this point, that I could pretty much have slept standing up. We went by the hotel, dropped our stuff off, and then grabbed some breakfast. French food rocks!! Everyone was getting pretty irritated with the lack of ice in the drinks in Europe. Luckily, I don’t use much ice, but I do like my drinks cold. Dane asked for some ice at breakfast, and they brought us a whole bucket! That pretty much made his day. We saw Notre-Dame, took a nap in the park, and then headed to the Eiffel tower around 10:00 PM, which was sunset in Paris. Eiffel Tower was spectacular. Hands down my favorite place in Paris.
Saturday, July 3rd, 2010
Clinton came by and woke us up Saturday morning with a funny story. Apparently the leg on the bed in he and Dane’s room broke, which made the mattress slope towards the floor. I think they had a hard time sleeping on it without sliding onto the floor. Dane made the comment “I would have slept in the floor, but it was crooked too!!” Kay had a hard time sleeping in our room too due to the noise and heat. They didn’t get much sleep, but I slept like a baby.
We grabbed breakfast and headed over to the Louvre. Kay and I wanted to shop, so we split from Dane and Clinton for a few hours because they weren’t too excited about hanging out in Paris boutiques. We met back up that afternoon. We had initially planned on going into the Louvre, but we didn’t have time. The museum closed at 6:00 PM. So, Kay and Clinton went out to a few more sightseeing places while Dane and I went back to look up places to eat.
I had my heart set on going to the Tour De France in Brussels on Sunday. I really got the itch to “do” something and take a break from the “ultra-touristy” activities for a little while. So, Dane and I got a wild hair and bought train tickets for Brussels Saturday evening. We had initially talked about renting scooters and driving them to Brussels, but decided that was a little bit of a stretch. I still think it would have been worth it. We met back up with Kay and Clinton at the Eiffel Tower around 6:30 PM and dropped the big news about going to Brussels the following day. We weren’t sure if they would go for it or not, but they were pretty excited about going. We headed to the Latin Quarter for dinner. I also wanted to check out the Shakespeare and Company bookstore, which happened to be right next to where we ate dinner. Dinner was amazing. Obviously, I ordered desert. I would order it for a meal if I could. Quite possibly the best thing I have ever eaten. Clinton and Kay booked their train tickets late Saturday night when we got back to the hotel. Luckily, there were seats available on the same train.
Sunday, July 4th, 2010
Our train left Paris at 9:01 AM Sunday morning. We made it to Brussels at 10:23 AM. Upon exiting the train, Dane and I met up with Kay and Clinton, who were sooooo impressed with the train service. Dane and I thought it was nice, but nothing spectacular. Then, Kay and Clinton go on and on and on about their cheese croissants and free wireless internet. That was when it hit us: Those jokers got stuck in first class! It’s ok, though. I am convinced Dane and I got a much richer cultural experience back in the cab with the common folk. I mean they didn’t have the random drunk homeless guy walking up and down the aisle yelling obscenities. You don’t get exposed to that in first class.
We hopped on the metro and headed over to the area where the finish for the Tour De France would be taking place. We got there around 12:00 PM. There weren’t too many people there yet, and we decided to stake our claim 150 meters from the finish line. Probably the best decision we have ever made. The bikers didn’t finish until 5:30 PM, so we had to tailgate for 5 hours, but we had primetime seats. I bought an American flag, seeing how it was the 4th of July and all. A couple came up and asked where we were from, and they actually ended up being from Birmingham, Alabama. Random, I know. I had my flag hanging over the railing, and one of Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong staff came up and asked if he could take a picture of us with the flag. Kay was gone to the bathroom, so she missed out. I’m hoping it pops up on a website somewhere.
I’m not sure if any of you watched the first stage of the Tour De France yesterday, but the last stretch was filled with wrecks, three to be exact. The last wreck happened literally right in front of us. I’m pretty sure we are on television somewhere. Just look for the American flag. It’s the wreck where the guy picks up his bike and throws it into a wall, just out of sheer frustration. It was awesome. Lance came by right in front of us. It was hard to see them all because they FLEW by. It goes much faster than it looks on television. I do have a good picture of him, though. He was either checking out the flag, or possibly the wreck right in front of us. I’m going to assume he was looking at me, ha-ha. I will have to say our Tour De France experience was a solid success. Definitely worth it. We headed back to Paris later that night, and went over to the Eiffel Tower to check it out one more time. Now, we are all on our way back to London. We should be arriving shortly. On our list for today: Imperial War Museum, and a play this evening. I’m not sure about any other specific details of our day, but I will update tonight or in the morning whenever I get a chance. Photos will also be added soon, but I'm sitting in Starbuck's right now with only 10 mins of power left on my laptop.
