Signs: Part Two (NOT The Movie)

Here's some more funny signs from my European travels. Starting a long, long time ago, in a town far far away...Firenze (Florence), Italy. 7 March, 2009
How could I not be excited to see this sign in Florence? I only wonder if Boston is their only destination. Not that I don't love Boston, but that's gotta limit business.

I seriously considered buying one. But it was 10 in the morning. Duff beer!!

This was in the airport on our way out of Rome, heading to Athens. Is it just me, or is it SUPER creepy? I mean, the babies are all innocent looking, but the woman just looks like a psychopath, and wearing a wolf pelt is not helping. And it's an ad for Espresso. Really?

Saw this outside an antique shop on Portobello Road when I was with Frances. Dr. T.J. Eckleberg much?

This was along the Champ Elysees in Paris. Woot for Franklin Roosevelt!

I just thought the rabbit was hilarious. Do the Parisian metro authorities really think that a pink and yellow rabbit reminiscent of one Roger would make people take these safety instructions seriously?

Um, it should be self explanatory why I found this necessary of capturing.

Well, I DO want a posh dog! I have one, and I'm very happy with him.

Just 'cause papayas are awesome.

Tee hee at the wee wee.

Soo...It's Been a Long Time!

While there's a LOT I've been doing - going on Spring Break to Italy and Greece, going to Paris with Frances and George, going to Stratford-upon-Avon, la la la, there's one thing I've been doing above all - finding funny signs!!

Here's part numero uno.
Yeah, I see this every day. But it's still hilariously awesome. The Brits are so polite in everything - if buses aren't picking up, their signs say "Sorry Not In Service."
Um, I assume why I had to take a picture of this sign is kind of obvious. This was in Greenwich, which was a pretty fun little trip.

Also in Greenwich. As you can tell, I was somewhat perplexed by the concept of a merlion.
This was on our way to Liverpool. Since, I've seen more of these "Little Mister and Little Miss" books, but here was the first. It brought back so many memories of my childhood with those books. And for some reason, they make me think of Mr. Sketch smelly markers. Mmm, I could go for one of those right about now.
This is just hilarious.
Ok, this is not a sign. But how could I not document this outrageous book title? "Itchy" London? Gosh, I hope not!
When we went to Brugge - amazing city BTW, small, quiet, and beautiful, no matter what Colin Farrell may say. So there was this little carnival thing, and there was this painting on the side. Which is EXACTLY the same as this Disney puzzle Frances, my sister, and I used to do all the time. How crazy (awesome) is that?
I don't know if you've seen these at airports or other establishments yet. They're called "A Novel Idea." Get it? It was at the Gatwick Airport on our way to Florence and Spring Break. At least Katie had heard of it. However, I had not. It's quite an interesting and innovative concept, but I can't help but get the hebbie jeebies from it. And isn't there usually a bookstore, I don't know, 50 feet away at airports?
This was in the window of a Florenti shop. London followed us everywhere!

Dickens Comes to London (well, Dickensian Weather, at Least)

SNOW! SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW!

There's snow in London! It started last night around 10 or 11, when the Super Bowl began.
They began putting salt down around noon, which Katie and I found hilarious. Being from Buffalo and New England, and going to Ithaca, the fact that they were so concerned as to put out salt a good 10 hours beforehand was amusing. Though I have heard since that they haven't had significant snow - really, any snow that counts as snow - here in six years. Six years!

A bunch of kids were being rowdy in the street, throwing snowballs and nearly getting hit by cars. It reminded me of Ithaca and playing in the snow, I really wanted to go out. Tears.
This morning we heard that virtually all the tube lines are down, and when Katie and I walked to the bus stop, no buses were coming, either. So we walked to the London Centre through Hyde Park. It was gorgeous, and I was ecstatic. Poor Katie wasn't feeling well, and her shoes got completely soaked, so she was less than thrilled.

When we finally got to the London Centre - which only took us an hour, and we were walking through snow - only a few people were there, and with all the prep for us cold students coming in Bill started class half an hour late, and let us out a bit early as well. And my afternoon class had been cancelled. After hanging for a bit, I walked back through Hyde Park - which was gorgeous! There were some roses that had already bloomed, poor things. 

A bunch of the trees were very green and mossy, which was a beautiful contrast to their bark and the snow. 

The park was swarming with people - mostly kids and parents. Virtually all London schools were cancelled, and between people not being able to get to work and offices closing, parents got a day off, too. I eventually found out ten of the eleven tube lines were either down or partly suspended, and it was the first time EVER that ALL London buses were withdrawn from the roads. This includes the Blitz, people. So basically, the town that kept things running on the roads during bombings couldn't deal with 7 inches of snow. All that is a roundabout way of saying, the park was covered in snowmen and snowballs. I found one that was an inch or two wider than I am tall in diameter. How do people make these things?

Ollie Ollie OXEN-free: Happy Chinese New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year everyone! Congrats to all Ox-people and enthusiasts. It was a bit confusing here, because the New Year started last Monday, and that's when all us in the flat thought the big China in London celebration was. I was a bit bummed because I had to go to a play for my Drama class, so to celebrate I bought my own little meal.

The meal was more money than I was expecting to pay, and I waited MUCH longer than I would have liked, but it was actually pretty good, and it made up about 3 meals. Plus it had mushrooms, and as I'm very hobbit-like in my adoration of mushrooms, that made me very happy.
It turned out that the celebration was not the night of the 26th, but this past Sunday, February 1st. Jackie, Katie, Clara and I went to it for a little bit. Honestly, it wasn't too exciting. I did love seeing so many people in Trafalgar Square. And the singers and dancers on the stage were pretty spectacular, but they were far away. So we went into the National Gallery for a bit.
I had no idea 15th century artists liked to paint Mary breast-feeding baby Jesus so much.

Walk 2: Cathedrals and Gardens and Landmarks, Oh My!

Our second Bill-led walk was on January 24th (hey, I'm only about a week behind on London recaps!), and wasn't as long as the first. Maybe because we've been here longer, but it wasn't quite as new, exciting, or fun. We still got to see tons of great sites. We started out by St. Paul's (the Fifth version of it, constructed by Christopher Wren, and the first Cathedral specifically build for the Protestant faith).We then saw a Christopher Wren designed gate for the City. Really, virtually everything we saw was Wren. By the end I was a little Wren out.

St. Paul's was followed seeing a bunch of cute little green areas. My favorite was Postman's Park. There was an adorable fountain, and memorial tiles for people who sacrificed their lives trying to save others. It was sad and beautiful. I remembered the area from the film Closer.

I can't really remember the order of the things we saw. St. Bartholomew-the-Greater stands out for me, it was a beautiful, very old church. Before going in, we saw Smithfield Street - where William Wallace was eviscerated and Queen Mary watched Protestants die - and the memorial to Wallace outside St. Bartholomew's Hospital. The whole situation of the area was incredibly ironic - "Over here is the site of one of the oldest hospitals in the world. And over here is the site of thousands and thousands of executions over hundreds of years."

But the church was very pretty. Much of the church dates from the 15oo's, and has been used in films for the period look. It was in Shakespeare in Love, which I love (I'm just realizing a lot of this is relating places back to films. I can't help it though, and in my defense, these places advertise the facts of their fame). I also lit a candle next to a nativity.
And this is the Golden Boy of Pye Corner. Since the Great Fire of London started in Pudding Lane (at a bakery, natch) and ended at Pye Corner, the people blamed it on the sin of Gluttony (that is, when they weren't blaming it on the Catholics). Thus, the reminder about the sin via this "fat" little boy. We had lunch in the Museum of London, right next to the Barbican - the old Roman wall around London - here's a part of it. The Museum of London looked nice, though we couldn't see much of it. I ordered a baguette and salmon pate, which came in a cute jar. I would never have been able to eat all the pate, and I wasn't about to leave it, so I took it back. Jar and all!

Almost at the end, we got to see the Guildhall, and the outline of the Roman stadium. The Guildhall was very pretty, with all sorts of neat statues. I LOVED the crazy wood carvings of Gog and Magog. Here's the pretty lights and windows, and Bill the Encyclopedia explaining things to us ignorant students.
There was a lion, which reminded me of Aslan. But for some reason, he thought my hand was very tasty. Oh no!We rounded out the walk back at St. Paul's, with a much better view. Jackie, Clara, Katie, and I had wanted to take the bus back, but it took us a while to figure out the buses weren't going as far as Edgware Road because of protests. It was really nice to see the absolute center of London, though.

Walk 1: Big Ben is REALLY Big, and London Bridge is NOT Falling Down!

Hullo again! London's still great, though right now it's typically overcast and wet. It was a lot better out - but much colder - two Saturdays ago when Bill, the London Centre director, took a bunch of us students out for his first Walk. What's a walk? It is a tour around certain parts of London. A walking tour. Inventive title, isn't it?

I kid, the Walks are actually very fun. Bill's been living in London a good 30 years, and since he studies history, there's a lot he can tell us. So on the 17th we had our first outing, starting at the Westminster tube stop, ending at Tower Hill. The walk was a good 11 days ago, and this is rather delayed, I admit. But better late than never, I always say. Well, I don't always say it. It happens to be appropriate to this situation. So I'm using it now.

As I said, we started out at the Westminster tube stop. The moment we came out of the exit - BAM! The London Eye was right in front of us. Oh my gosh, there it is!

What did we see when we turned around? BAM Big Ben! Along with this statue of Boudicca. Pretty nifty.

We walked by Westminster Abbey, and Downing Street, which is all blocked off and guarded. Considering how people regarded Blair, and are starting to regard Brown, I'd say that security is a good idea.

We saw some other places on the North bank before crossing one of the many bridges to the South side. There's a stretch of about five miles of walkway right next to the Thames. We saw the National Theatre, The New Globe, the site of the original Globe...

...went into the Tate Modern, where there was this really weird exhibit about the future, with a very scary giant spider. Like Shelob.

We also looked around at a market. Which was basically cheese heaven. Aw, there were so many delicious cheeses. Let me take a minute to think about it...yes, delicious!

It felt like we walked for so, so long, but it was only about two miles from first crossing the river to getting back to the North side by crossing over at Tower Bridge. I actually stood over the little gap between the sections, and looked down at the Thames! Here's Tower Bridge in the background, with the Tower or London and it's wall in front.

And this is a little pigeon sitting on top of the remnants of the Roman wall. I just thought it was cute.

Thus ends the first Walk. Too fun! Coming soon - recap of Walk Two!

There's No Place Like London!

Finally - my first real post about being in fab London! The past (nearly) two weeks have absolutely flown by. From arriving and adjusting to flat-hunting, moving into our flat and starting classes, getting my internship sorted out and exploring the city it's been a crazy time. But crazy in a good way. 

When I arrived at Logan Monday, January 13th, with Mom and Frances, Dad was there to say my Virgin Atlantic flight had been cancelled. It was good it was, firstly because it had "mechanical problems" and I would not want to be in the air when that was happening. Secondly, I ended up on a British Airways flight that left an hour and forty-five minutes earlier (and according to Katie, Virgin doesn't have comfortable seats). Two other students and I were on it, and we became the third through fifth students to arrive - at 5 am London time, by the way. There were crazy severe delays for everyone else, so no one really arrived until about noon. 

Katie (my really good friend from the Catholic Community) and I were already definitely living together, and we connected with Clara, Jackie, Alyssa, and Josue. We got a really nice flat after checking out about eight others. It's on Edgware Road, right between the Edgware Road and Marble Arch tube stops. Here's the Marble Arch, as you see it from the tube stop.

This is Alyssa and Josue in our front hallway with all our suitcases. Look at the pretty floor!

This is four of the six of us - Katie, Jackie, Clara, and me - for our first dinner in the flat! 

After buying some very well priced sheet sets and duvets at Marks & Spencers, Katie and I felt pretty at home in our room. It would just be a lot nicer if we could use the Internet, seeing as every other part of the flat gets service (when our wireless decides to work). But since we at least get Internet in our flat - and it's included - I'm not complaining too much. 

This is our living room, or common room, or whatever your region and/or nationality would call it. It's pretty nice, we have two leather (or faux-leather) couches, and a TV. Albeit, I had to disentangle all the wires to get our cable service up, but at least we get a good 20+ channels. Which means we can watch Skins!

Our living room is also a our dining room. Most of us spend most of our time out here. Say hi Katie!

Around the corner from the main hall (I can't believe we have a main hall) is Alyssa and Joe's door, on the far right, and one of our bathrooms. The other one is in Jackie and Clara's room, but we all use it.