London, Bath, Stonehenge

Everyday in London is both jam-packed and laid back.  Each day, I wake up at 8, eat a short breakfast, go to Jay's class then Danny's.  We've been having most classes in Hyde Park, which is close to our hotel. There are many English people who take their very well trained dogs to the park. 

Each day after class, we find something else to do.  As I said, we went to the British Museum and the British Library the first day. There is always so much going on that I forget what's happened if I don't write it down right away.  One day, we took a walk through Hyde Park.  We took a picture with the Peter Pan statue, because it was part of Jay's scavenger hunt.  Another day, we went to Harrod's, which is comparable to Saks Fifth Avenue in New York City, but more expensive if you can imagine. Supposedly, you can get anything there.  Even a lion...Forget the lion, we saw a 103 inch flat screen plasma TV. It came out to only 90,000 US dollars. Shipka was like a bug to a light with that thing.  I think he wanted to sleep next to it.

Today, we woke up early and got on a bus at 8 to travel to Stonehenge and bath.  The few hours we drove through the English country side was very beautiful, even though I slept through most of it. Both Stonehenge and Bath were breathtaking.  Of course Stonehenge was just a piling of rocks but it made for some great photo ops and we all cut up.  Bath was beautiful and interesting.  It was a Roman colony were the Romans actually all gathered to bathe.  A little creepy, yes, but intriguing.  I finally got to buy a few new shirts for cheap price in Bath.  

Nights in London.  I wish there were pubs in America like there are in Europe.  There are so many of them that you are bound to find the one that most fits you.  Unlike at LSU, rap music doesn't blare in your ear the entire time you are out. It's much more about experiencing the culture and meeting people.  Prince Alfred's pub is very near our hotel and we usually stop there before we go anywhere else at night.  There is low, descent music and there are lots of people there to meet.  I've been three times to Linoler now, which is a German pub also within walking distance from the hotel. It's become my favorite.  There is a little German woman and and wee little Hungarian man in fancy little get-ups who bring you steins of Dortmunder Beer.  A stein is roughly two pints.  There is a man who plays the piano and sings there also.  Much of it is german folkish kind of music, but he takes requests and many people do karaoke.  One man thought he was Elvis the first night we went, and he was pretty good.  

We had a bit of schooling there one night with Jay.  Not a literal class, but the guys learned a lot from Jay about branching out to the locals, with whom the bar was mostly filled.  The result was that we met a woman named Kate, her boyfriend James and a large group of their friends. They were understood to be English royalty, and they showed us a great time.  We danced with them all and shared a few pints.  The next time we went, we met some more interesting people.  I met a soldier from the UK Army.  It was hard to understand most of what he was saying because of his heavy Scottish accent, but he shared some stories about the War in Afghanistan. We also met a guy who was born in Kenner, but works as a Defense Contractor at Arizona State University.  We got his business card and very much plan to keep in touch with him.

Overall, the trip has been amazing so far.  We are about at the halfway point now.  It's almost as though I forget that I am actually taking classes. It's amazing what you can learn about yourself and other cultures when you visit an English pub. I can't imagine I'll be nearly the same as I was before I left for this trip. This trip so far has been the most amazing experience and I would recommend it to anyone, not just Mass Comm majors.  The greatest part of it is that we have yet to see Edinburgh and Isle of Skye, and those are the places I am looking most forward too.