Another week in the UK!

So, now classes are in full swing, and I only have class 3 days a week for 2 hours each day! My classes are based on either one big exam or paper at the end of the course, but no homework assignments or mid-terms like Clarkson. I think that this leads to a lot of pressure to do well on the final assignment, but hopefully I will be fine! It is starting to get colder over here, but not Northern, NY temperatures yet (no chances of snow, thank goodness:))! Next weekend I am going to a football game with one of my friends! When I say football, I obviously mean soccer, which the rest of the world calls football. I am so excited, as it was one of the things I definitely wanted to do while being abroad!
This week I went to a museum in Brighton and saw all kinds of exhibits about Brighton, and other places in the world. In the picture you can see a mummy that was at the museum. It was a really interesting museum, and there was quite a lot to see. I also went shopping in the Lanes, which is an area of Brighton that has many small shops in small, narrow streets. You don't get to go shopping in a place like that in the US! I went on a ghost walk on Friday night, in which the tour guide took us around the town and showed us different places that are supposedly haunted. It was pretty neat, especially with Halloween coming up soon! I am not sure how many of the stories were actually true, but it was cool to learn some more about the town. Supposedly, Jack the Ripper spent quite a lot of time at The Cricketers, which is a pub in Brighton that we stopped at. On Saturday I went back to London, walked around again and then Saturday night saw The Phantom of the Opera. I thought that the musical was pretty good, but it did not compare to the musical Wicked that I saw the previous week. The picture that I have included shows the inside of the theater. On Sunday, I went to a place called the Seven Sisters, in which there are 7 different cliffs in a row. It was such a beautiful place, and the pictures definitely do not do the area justice. That's all for now, I will be sure to update next week! :)

Today I spent the day in London and went on a tour so I could make sure I saw all of the significant places in the city. We started off the day with a train ride from Brighton into London and from there we walked to Buckingham Palace, and saw where the Queen of England lives. There was a certain flag up at the palace that indicated that the Queen was not in the Palace today. After that, we walked and saw the changing of the guards. I have included a video of this at the end of my post! It was pretty cool, but honestly not as exciting as I expected. We then walked around London and saw all kinds of sights like Big Ben, Downing Street (where the Prime Minister lives), the London Eye, Westminster Abbey, Parliament, and more! I learned that Big Ben is not the actual name of the clock tower but instead a bell that is inside of the clock tower and most people are just confused and call the clock tower Big Ben.
We also went on a boat cruise down the Thames River and saw all kinds of different sights like the Millennium Bridge and an old Boy's School where people such as Winston Churchill attended when they were children. I learned so much about the history of London today and am very glad that I was able to see such famous sights!
After the sight-seeing we were able to go shopping so we walked around for a while, had dinner, and then took the subway back to get to our train and then headed home. The weather was cloudy at some points but thank goodness the rain held off. It hasn't rained here as often as I thought it was going to but some days can be very dreary when it is cold and gray outside.

On Wednesday of this week I was actually in London too and saw the musical Wicked. I thought that it was very good and would recommend it to anyone who is thinking about seeing a musical. It was about the background of the Wizard of Oz and I thought that the story line was great.

My friends and I want to see the musical, Phantom of the Opera so hopefully we will head back to London soon to shop and see the musical. I am planning on going to Stonehenge within the next couple of weeks and in less than a month I will be spending a weekend in Paris!

Field Trip!

So, this weekend I went on a tour of East Sussex as part of a field trip. For our first stop we went to an area called Beachy Head. It was so beautiful there with the cliffs and the view of the water. The cliff at Beachy Head is actually the highest chalk sea cliff in England and is about 162 meters above the sea level - pretty cool! Next we went to a location called High and Over and saw the beautiful scenery of the hilltops. After this we drove to the quaint town of Alfriston and visited St. Andrews Church which is also known as the "Cathedral of the South Downs" and dates back to 1360. The town had a very nice coffee shop, chocolate shop, and general store. After we left Alfriston we passed the Long Man of Wilmington which is a famous chalk carving in the hills. No one is sure how the man was carved out of the chalk in the hills or why he is there, but he has been a part of the hills for hundreds of years! After a lunch in a countryside pub we went to the Battle Abbey, which lies on the historic site of the Battle of Hastings. At this location, the battle between the English Army under King Harold and the invading troops of William, the Duke of Normandy took place on October 14th, 1066. The battle ended with King Harold's death from an arrow in the eye, and the English were defeated. Four years later, William built the Battle Abbey for penance of the battle fought at the location. Today, there are many ruins of the Battle as well as a school on the ground called Battle Abbey School where children actually attend school on the historic grounds! I think that would be an awesome place to go to school as a kid- for recess you could play in the ruins!

Tomorrow I am going to the Seven Sisters, which is going to have some awesome scenery! Also, next Saturday I am going to London to see all of the sights there!

Jen :)