Photos

I'm posting some photos from London on Facebook. Hope you have a Facebook account, otherwise, you won't get to see them! I still have a few more to post, but it's getting pretty late.

I made it safely to Santander, Spain - not without some travel stress. We flew small airplanes and small airlines, so there were some difficulties - not to mention language issues. My Spanish is pretty terrible, but I can say a few key phrases - enough to purchase food and find my way around. A couple people here speak Spanish really well, so they help out when necessary.

We got here yesterday evening. Teresa, one of my roomates, had attempted to ensure we'd be able to check in a day early, but there was a misunderstanding, and they thought only she was going to check in a day early. Brian, my other roomate, and I thought we'd have to sleep in the park across the street. Apparently it's a very busy weekend in Santander. It's a resort town, and there is a big military festival here. The King of Spain was in town today, so that's kind of crazy. Anyways, we were able to work everything out, and 6 of us crowded into a room last night. It wasn't completely comfortable, but it was better than sleeping in the park!

I woke up kind of sick this morning. I had a seriously sore throat, and my body was achy. I think all the running around has gotten to me. Plus, we've been sleeping with windows open, and I've been around a lot of people smoking lately. I'm exhausted, and still trying to adapt to the time change. I spent all of my time in London running around and trying to squeeze in as much as possible. But I took some medicine, and I feel a lot better. I had a good meal today, and I took a nap.

We were able to switch to our permanent room, and I've unpacked and everything. I'm all settled. It feels nice. We had orientation tonight, and it was nice. There was food and drink, and it was cool to meet everyone. There are some people from other law schools here, including a guy from Willamette, so that's cool.

It turns out that tomorrow is a holidy of some sort in the town, so there's no school. It's awesome, because I'm so tired. But it also gives me more time to do homework. Also, Prof. Peeler (way cooler in Europe) has organized a bus tour of Santander. It will be nice to see more of the town. We should be done around noon, so that leaves plenty of time to go to the beach, relax and read our assignments for Tuesday.

I haven't really taken any photos of Santander yet, but I plan to soon - especially on the tour tomorrow. I'll also post some pics of my room and stuff soon. Meanwhile, it's almost one a.m. I opted not to go out with everyone tonight because I was so tired and wanted to go to bed early. So much for that happening.

London Day Three

Just a quick note about today before we spend all day tomorrow traveling to Santander, Spain. We spent a couple hours hanging out in Hyde Park - reading newspapers, taking pictures, listening to iPods, and I did some sudoku. I have to say that the 5 star difficulty sudoku puzzle wasn't that difficult. The Brits have us beat at the literary level, but not at sudoku.

Then we went to dinner, and I finally had fish and chips. It was fine, but nothing special. It tasted the same as in the U.S. But it did come with a grilled lemon and some peas. Then we had a pint and took the tube to Big Ben and Westminster Abbey again to take pictures at night.

While there, a man asked me to take a couple of pictures of him with Big Ben and the Parliament buildings behind him. Being the good, kind person that I am, I took two mediocre photos of him. Then he offered to return the favor. I shrugged and allowed him to do so. The result was my favorite photo of the trip so far:

Goodbye London. See you in August.

London Day Two and Three

Day Two of London was even more awesome than the first. For starters, I was awake and feeling good.

We started out with a free English breakfast from the hotel - fried eggs, "bacon" (really like ham), a bangar (sausage) and beans. Plus toast and tea. MMMMM. I gotta say that I really like British food. I've heard it said that English food is not that great on the culinary scale, but I like it. It's good comfort food. For lunch I had Cottage Pie - basically pretty much like shepard's pie. For dinner we had Italian food - pasta with pancetta and mushrooms in a creamy sauce for me. Awesome.

After breakfast, we hopped on the tube and went to Wimbledon. We didn't take a tour or even go in the museum, because centre court was closed, so there wasn't really a point. Instead we got to go inside and see a couple of the fields, and we hit up the gift shop. I saw the cutest tennis outfits for my future kids, but I refrained.

Then we got on a train and took a 30 minute ride to Hampton Court. This was the castle that King Henry VIII loved most. It was huge. There were tons of beautiful gardens, and a lot of rooms were set up to look like they would have in his day. There were kitchens, the queen's rooms, King Henry VIII's rooms, the Georgian rooms (King George I and II), and did I mention the gardens? We went through a maze made entirely of bushes. It was cool. To top things off, King Henry VIII himself was walking around the grounds getting ready for his wedding later in the day to Kateryn Parr. I never did see her, but I got a picture with King Henry VIII. It was really cool. There was also a lot of art - paintings of a lot of royalty, tapestries, and paintings on the ceilings.

After Hampton Court, we stopped for a late lunch at a restaurant nearby. Halfway through our meal we spotted our first spider. By the end of the meal we'd seen several more. It was kind of creepy. Poor Teresa thought she had spiders on her all the rest of the day.

We took the train home, and rested a bit before we went out later. We went to Leichester Square (kind of like Times Square), and walked around a bit. We then ate a late supper, and then went to a pub. We stayed there til closing (around midnight), and then went on to this Irish bar that had a live band on one floor, and dance music on another. It was pretty cool. We met some people, but just generally had a good time dancing and being goofy. By the end of the evening, we were all pretty inebriated, and got home around 4 a.m. Then I called Mike. Skype is awesome.

We got up late this morning - around 11ish. Teresa and I went to get bagels, and I also bought some postcards. Then we came back and ate and chilled a little. Then Brian still wasn't up, so we went to get Teresa a new bag so that her suitcase isn't so heavy for the flights to Spain. Then we came back and woke him up. There's not much else we really want to do or see here, so this afternoon, I think we'll just go to Hyde Park and sit and relax - maybe read, etc. I still haven't had fish and chips (shocking, I know), so I plan to eat that tonight.

Time is going by so quickly here - it kind of sucks. However, I'm ready to get to Spain and get unpacked and settled. I'd like to spend a little time relaxing. Plus I got emails with all the homework I have to get done. So, it's sad to be leaving London tomorrow morning, but also, it will be nice to go get settled.

Once I get to Spain, I'll post pictures from London on Facebook, and maybe a couple on here. Later!

Travel, and London Day One

The trip went really well. In fact, I think it was the smoothest, least problematic trip I have ever had. I had an aisle seat on both flights, and an empty seat on the other side on both flights. My suitcase was almost the first one off of the plane, and I had no problems getting to the hotel from the airport - despite the necessity of changing lines on the tube. Then as soon as I got out of the tube station, Teresa and Brian had just gotten there to meet me. Perfect.

I will be flying Air Canada again in the future. I watched 5 different movies on the flights - for free. I watched: "Yes Man," "Marley and Me," "Doubt," "Easy Virtue," and some Canadian Film called "One Week." All good. However, I was disappointed that the song "One Week" was not on the soundtrack to the movie "One Week." It's a Canadian Film, and the Barenaked Ladies are a Canadian Band. I know the theme of the song is completely different from a story of a man who finds out he has cancer and takes off on a motorcycle trip across Canada, but there should have been some way to work it in.

Here's a picture of my passport with its first two stamps - one for Canada (in the Toronto airport), and one for London.

We got a bagel for breakfast, and then I set up my stuff at the hotel. It's a really small room, but who cares? It's basically just a place to keep all of our stuff while we're out, and a place to sleep.

We got ready, and headed out for a walking tour of London. We started at The Tower of London. We actually went in, did the whole tour. It was awesome. This is where Anne Boleyn was killed - along with many other people who crossed paths with King Henry with VIII. There were many rooms showing how the tower rooms used to be, the torture devices used, the Tower as it had originally been built, and the history of everything the Tower has been used for. Apparently there was a peasant revolt in the 1300s, and part of it was destroyed. There was also a big exhibit of life during King Henry VIII's reign - the jousts, the battles, the court, etc. There was also an exhibit of all the crown jewels. It was beautiful.

After a couple hours at the Tower, I was beginning to feel sleepy. I hardly slept on the trip over here, because I was so excited, and I didn't sleep at all before we went out, so I was running up on 20 hours with little sleep. So we took a break and had some lunch - I had a fish sandwhich and fries. Mmmmm. Then we moved on.

We walked several miles along something called The Queen's Walk. It takes you past most of the famous London sights. We passed The Globe Theatre, but we weren't allowed in, because they were rehearsing for a play. Total crap. Then we walked past the Tate Modern Museum, The HMS Belfast, a bunch of museums and theatres, as well as the London Eye Wheel. That's when we got to the good stuff - Lambeth Place, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, and Westminster Abbey.

Lambeth Place is the place where the Archbishop of Cantebury lived. It's across the Thames from the Houses of Parliament in order to signify the separation of Church and State. There is nothing so awe-inspriring as the Houses of Parliament, and Big Ben. It's an amazing building. Westminster Abbey is beautiful also. I'll have to do some research about what it is used for (we didn't go inside), but I'm pretty sure that coronations happen there, and I think Princess Diana and Prince Charles were married there.

We kept walking after all of this and passed the Calvary Museum, where some guards were on horses outside the place. I got some cool video.

Not far away from there is Buckingham Palace. It was kind of gaudy. All the gates were guilded, and extremely ornate. But it was really awesome. The guards weren't changing, but they did some marching around. They were far away - like way behind the closed gates. I kind of expected them to be outside of the gate, but I suppose that happens only at the changing of the guard.

So after 7 hours of walking and touristing, we came back to the hotel. The plan was to rest a little, then go out to a pub to watch the Manchester United v. Barcelona "football" match. But we wanted to go early to be sure we could get a table, so there wasn't a lot of time. So, I didn't go to sleep. Now I was running on 28ish hours with no sleep. We went out, got our drinks, and started watching the game. I was pretty lucid for the first half of the game, but 2 and a half pints later, and still with no sleep, I was toast. I don't remember any of the second half, and I barely remember walking home and getting into bed. I think I fell asleep while I was peeing before bed. Teresa had to knock on the door of the bathroom.

I slept well - for 11 hours. Then we got up and had a nice English breakfast (baked beans anyone?) at the hotel. The plan for today is a little uncertain as of yet. We still want to see Hampton Court and Wimbledon. I've decided not to go to Chatsworth to see the Jane Austen House, because it turns out that it's a 3.5 hour train ride each way. After getting to Chatsworth, you have to get on a bus for a half hour to get there. That means 4 hours of travel each way - which means a total of an hour or two there. It's not really worth the time and effort. It will have to wait for my literary tour of England.

The Night Before

My plane leaves in less than 12 hours. My bags are packed (except for deodorant that I'll need in the morning). My documents are in order. I'm ready.

My first stop will be London. I'll be there until Saturday, when I'll be flying to Santander, Spain where I'll be spending most of June. Then I'll be moving on to Toulouse, France for all of July. I will get back to London by August 3rd, which is my flight home.

But I'm having mixed emotions. This is a really long trip - I'll be gone for more than 2 months. I'll miss Mike. I'll miss my apartment and my bed. I'll miss my friends. I'll miss Mike.

It's always a little nerve-wracking going somewhere new. I've never been to London. I've never been to Spain. I've never been to Toulouse, although I have been to France. I have big plans. It seems so insufficient to say I'm so excited. I am excited. But I'm a lot of other emotions too (as per usual).

All of my summer adventures will be posted here, along with photos and videos. Hope you all have a good summer too!