Cambridge Oct. '09, by Katherine Albis

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Stonehenge and Bath Oct. '09 (158 photos), by Katherine Albis

I'd like to share my Snapfish photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.

Paris Sept. '09 (165 photos), by Katherine Albis

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Correction!

Cambridge is NOT where Alice had her adventures in Wonderland (a.k.a., where Lewis Carroll wrote). It was Oxford. I was sorely mistaken.

Nevertheless, I had a good time in Cambridge. First of all, Cambridge is OLD. Some of the buildings date back to the 1300s. Plus, there were lots of allusions to Henry VIII during our tour, so I was pleased since I am obsessed with the show "The Tudors." At some points when I was there I wished I had gone to a school like Cambridge...but then I remembered how much I love my city life. Cambridge was nice for a day but I don't know if I could live there for my entire college career. Not that they would accept my lowly American self, anyway.

It was a beautiful, crisp fall day in Cambridge. Not cold enough for people to stop punting, however. "Punting" is the uppity British form of gondola-steering, basically. Mom and Dad, you might remember seeing people do that at Oxford in the movie "Brideshead Revisited."

On our tour we visited the King's College chapel. It's famous for its fan-vaulted ceiling and a painting by Rubens that hangs near the altar of the chapel. The photo I took of the painting is kind of blurry (just imagine it: baby Jesus, Mary, wise men, etc.), but to the left is a photo of the vaulted ceiling.

Tonight I'm cooking risotto for some friends, tomorrow I'll be studying, then a few days of classes, then off to Scotland for the weekend! I should be adding a link to all of my pictures from Paris, Bath and Stonehenge, and Cambridge a bit later. Cheers, mates!

Snow is falling steadily in my little Stonehenge snowglobe, and I am content.

My nose has been firmly fixed to the grindstone lately, (luckily) with a few reprieves. Last Sunday I traveled southward with NYUL to Stonehenge and Bath. If only the number of souvenirs I purchased could begin to convey my enthusiasm for the two historical sites.

Stonehenge was impressive, I don't care what anybody says otherwise. The surrounding sheep, rolling hills, and...freeway... really completed the scene. And Bath was a quaint little town; I was thrilled to see the Roman baths there! The water in the baths was a murky green--so murky that it was beautiful--and the stone the baths were composed of was stunning, especially in the grey light coming from the sky. I also had the opportunity to visit the Jane Austen tea room, which was just darling.

To further my week of English heritage experiences, I went to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre to see "Love's Labour's Lost. " It was light and funny, but lasted three hours and it was very cold in the open-air theatre. We stuck it out though and had a great time. My favorite part of the play was a Latin joke which I shall relate for all those Latinists out there reading this: "Hercules defeated the three headed canus and strangled a snake in his...manus." The scenery was beautiful and the stage reminded me of what the ancient Roman stage would have looked like.

I've just booked my trains and planes for fall break. My friends and I are going to Madrid, Barcelona, Florence, and Rome. It should be a busy but fun trip. I've also just booked a flight to Scotland for the end of October to visit some friends there. AND I ordered an air mattress for the people who will be staying with me in November. All this planning has made me realize how little time I really have left here. I'm so excited to be here, but I also can't wait to be home for the holidays.

Well, for now it's back to the routine of classes. I just handed in my first set of papers and have more deadlines coming in the next few weeks. I also finally started my SOAS classes. I've made SOAS friends too! I even went shopping with some SOAS girls last week. So I'm well on my way to a full experience of London university life. Right now I'm reading Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe for my Contemporary African Literature class. In my other SOAS class, I'm learning about language in Africa. It's hard to count, but it seems that there are almost 2000 languages in Africa! These range from spoken languages to sign languages to click languages. Neat, right? Pictured at right is my Intro to Pan-Africanism classroom, with my friends Monet and Sylvia looking studious.

Saturday I'm spending the day in Cambridge, the land of Alice and her adventures. More to come after that.

J'adore Paris (To a Degree)

Now that I've been "home" in London for several days, I can properly reflect on the whirlwind that was our trip to Paris.

I ate some great food and some not so great food, saw some great art and some not so great art, and had some great experiences and some not so great experiences.

My friend Brenda and I traveled to Paris together and arrived there at about 8:30 AM last Thursday morning. After our relatively smooth metro ride to the arrondissement of our hostel, we happened upon what would become our favorite bakery in the world. I bought a baguette to eat throughout the day. Then we met up with our friend Sylvia who had arrived in Paris the day before. We went with her to see the Champs-Elysees (not that impressive, unless you think Louis Vuitton is a god) and the Arc de Triomphe (very impressive, especially in comparison with the Washington Square arch). Later we ventured to a couple of different areas within Paris and grabbed lunch at a quaint little restaurant. I ordered the cassoulet avec canard, which was by far the best meal I had in Paris (aside from the baked goods). Upon returning to our hostel, Brenda and I both took much-needed naps, as we had been awake since about 3:00 in the morning to catch our train. We woke up and decided to go to the restaurant which was adjacent to our hostel for dinner.

And then I made one of the biggest gastronomical mistakes of my life by ordering veal kidney. Our French waitress told us it was "very special but very good." So I took the plunge and ordered it, thinking that if I like haggis then I must like veal kidney. I was quite wrong. However, I ate most of it anyway and washed it down with some delicious French wine. As we were eating dinner, the rest of our crew arrived at the hostel and stumbled upon us eating outside at the restaurant. They sat down to join us and, being sane, ordered much more mild dishes than I did.

And then I made one of the biggest general mistakes of my life, which was to go out barhopping in Paris without knowing how to get back to the hostel, and without knowing how to speak French. We got lost, were accosted by an angry Frenchman who thought we were prostitutes, and if it weren't for a lovely Francophone British girl named Helen who directed us back to the hostel, we would have been in deep doo doo, to put it most eloquently.
Luckily we redeemed ourselves the next day by going to the Louvre and touring around central Paris. Perhaps the best moment of the trip was when I saw my favorite piece of artwork ever created--the Winged Nike of Samothrake (pictured at left). I also saw the Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa, to name a few. I hate the Mona Lisa so I didn't take a picture of it. Sorry to disappoint you.

Anyway, I'm going to stop there even though I could go on and on about how much I despise that painting. After the Louvre, we ate lunch by the Seine and enjoyed the lovely weather. Then I went to le Tour Eiffel to meet Sylvia while the other girls took a boat ride along the Seine. It was a beautiful evening to be near the tower. The next day was relaxing and fun. We spent a big chunk of our day sleeping in a park next to the Notre Dame, and then ate some less than satisfactory French food in the Latin Quarter.

Overall, it was a good trip. I think it could have been much better if I knew French. Good thing that's the next modern language I plan to "master."

So now we're back to reality in London--back to classes, papers, grad school applications, thesis writing, and pints, of course. Stay tuned for a link to all of my Paris photos.

The past few days have been full of excitement. I've walked the grand halls of Buckingham Palace and seen my first London show. And there's more excitement to come. Early tomorrow morning I'll set foot in Paris for the first time.

I don't have much to say other than wow, the royalty of today must be thankful to Henry VIII for looting all those monasteries and churches way back in the 16th century. I wonder if he realized that his exploits would fund the lavish households of future kings and queens. Considering his predilection for good looks, perhaps he would have preferred his exploits to fund botox injections for the current royal family.

The Birthday Issue

There's not much new here in London except that I'm 21 now! And we're going to Paris on Thursday. Baguettes and cheese, here I come!

Following are some pictures from Brenda's and my joint birthday party:

Straddle that Prime Meridian!!

London Fall '09, by Katherine Albis

I'd like to share my Snapfish photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.

Look how contemplative I am in Greenwich!

Just a note--click on the pictures if you want to see them full-size (like, for example, if you want a huge plate of fish and chips all up in your face).

Classes have begun, but not yet in earnest. I've found out that two of my classes which are at the School of Oriental and African Studies don't even start until October when all of the British students arrive back at the university. However, I like my classes so far. It seems that I will be doing a lot of thinking about race and identity this semester, which should be very helpful for my senior thesis topic and beneficial for life in general.
This past Friday was the NYUL trip to Greenwich. We traveled by boat along the Thames and got to take some great photos. At Greenwich, I was able to stand at the very spot where Henry VIII was injured in a jousting accident that led to his substantial weight gain. I also had the opportunity to straddle the Eastern and Western hemispheres at the prime meridian. And I ate fish and chips for the first time. Thus, I accomplished quite a lot on that trip.
At a nearby Indian restaurant I had my first taste of England's favorite dish, chicken tikka massala, and I loved it. Though my excessive cider consumption often leads to a trip to McDonald's at 2:00 in the morning, I have nevertheless been eating very well here.
This past Saturday night I attended more clubs/bars/pubs in one night than I probably should attend in a whole week. I charmed a Spanish man into paying my cover charge for a club and buying me a beer, so I was quite pleased with myself.
Tonight I think I will cook for myself in my darling little kitchen; I have not had a home-cooked meal in about a week. Scroll down to see some pictures of my room, just in case you were spending sleepless nights wondering in what sort of squalor I live. In fact, it is the opposite of squalor. For now anyway.

Over the past couple of days, I have taken many a picture and acquired many a blister. Sunday was our NYU organized bus tour of London. I learned quite a few facts about London. For example, "Big Ben" isn't really the name of the clock tower--it's only the name of the bell inside the tower. If only I could remember what the tower is actually called. Also, London Bridge is often confused with the more memorable-looking Tower Bridge. And a store called Primark is the shopping hotspot where all Londoners find cheap clothing. We drove down Fleet Street in the bus and I fortunately did not run into the demon barber Sweeney Todd.
I ate my first full English breakfast at a place in my road (that's British for "on my road") called the Euston Flyer, which serves breakfast all day. I chose 5:00PM as my ideal breakfast time. The meal consists of sausages, eggs, rashers of bacon (which look more like Canadian bacon than anything else), baked beans, grilled or sauteed tomatoes, and toast. Twas delicious.
Monday was my first day of classes. I had one class called Intro to Pan-Africanism. It's very small--only eight people--and I think it'll be a good way for me to transition from Classics into African Studies. Later that day I had Thai food in Britain for the first time. It was a great experience. I ate coconut soup (pictured at left) and pork pad thai. (By the way, expect this blog to turn into a gastronomical tour of Europe on occasion.) After that my friends Anuja, Brenda, Sam and I decided make our maiden voyage on the tube. It's a lot like the subway in New York but smaller and with luxurious padded seating. Well, luxurious compared to New York. We went to Piccadilly Circus (sort of the English equivalent of Times Square) and walked from there all the way down the shopping thoroughfare of Oxford Street. Hence the blisters and the new addendum to the Bible called "The Prodigal Kate."
On our way we grabbed coffee at an Italian cafe to energize ourselves and took advantage of some telephone booths that were standing nearby so innocently. To finish off our day of excitement we made a pot luck dinner in one of the kitchens in our dorm.
After exploring London a bit, I am only just now starting to realize how diverse a city this is. I see people of various backgrounds when walking down the street and hear different languages every day--even more so than in New York. And I must be blending in to a degree; I've been asked for directions by British people at least three times already.

These are some puppetresses near the Millenium Bridge.

Today was a dreary but surprisingly warm day in London. After sampling a good amount of British food, I am convinced that it is not, in fact, bad. Pictured here is a goat's cheese and rocket (arugula?) rigatoni, which I ordered at a restaurant where we were tricked into tipping, not according to the English custom. Well, at least tipping isn't according to the British custom. Tricking people into tipping may be completely customary.
Last night I was asked for directions by an English man--a drunken English man, that is, but nonetheless I was asked for directions and that's what counts. And I am delighted to say that I have memorized the route of the 30-minute walk to campus. On the way to campus is a building with some gorgeous caryatid columns, pictured at left. Tonight there was an NYU London social at a place called Smithy's wine bar. Impecunious students that we are, we bought two bottles of the cheapest white wine we could find and ate free finger foods. Then we returned to the NYU London hotspot the Rocket for some more drinks and dancing.
At four full days in London, I am surprised at how much we've been able to do. We've mingled with locals, explored adjacent areas of London, gone to restaurants, and initiated ourselves into the world of the grocery store Tesco. Nevertheless, we have much more to experience and accomplish. Tomorrow will be a free bus tour of London--my first foray into the symbolic London which everyone knows from postcards. It will also be the last day to explore London without the cares of classes weighing on our poor, unfortunate souls.

Well, I've made it to London and survived two full days of attempting to make a good first impression upon my peers. It's hard work; I haven't felt this exhausted in a long time.
Yesterday was our NYU London orientation--an annoyingly long review of academic expectations, safety tips, and travel opportunities. At least they fed us fried chicken for free. I met some very nice people who are quite unlike the typical cold NYU students. A group of us decided to attend the NYU London pub quiz, which was a selection of British trivia of varying degrees of obscurity. After that we were fed more free fried food. So much for getting healthy in London.
Then about every NYU student in London decided to go to a pub called The Rocket. The place was thronged with tipsy young coeds....and a few old British people who were substantially tipsier. I drank a strawberry beer called Fruli which tasted deceptively like candy.
Today, Friday, I bought some of my textbooks and ate some less-than-scrumptious free wraps for lunch. Later I made my first trip to the grocery store Tesco and bought some necessities: toilet paper, eggs, chocolate. Tonight I'll be meeting up with my art teacher from high school who is getting her masters in London. I'm excited to see an old friend in a new place.

Pre-Departure Jitters

It's 9:38PM on Monday and my flight to Heathrow leaves at about this time tomorrow. Right now, I'm contemplating all of the tips about British lingo I've learned from various people over the past few days.

1. My friend Dave informed me that "pants" in the British tongue means underwear. "Trousers" means pants.

2. My gynecologist told me that "circus" means roundabout or circle (such as Picadilly Circus).

3. "Fanny" means vagina. Surprisingly, I did not learn that one from my gynecologist.