Day 112: Goodbye, London

4:09 AM. Time to finish any last-minute packing and cleaning and get ready to board the buses in an hour or so. I'll be back to Minneapolis at around 5:30 PM (Central time) tonight, which is just something I can't wrap my mind around right now, though perhaps that is because of the time and my apparent lack of sleep.

Thanks for reading the blog or even just pretending to. I hope it's been interesting or even humorous at times... I hope to post more pictures in the upcoming days, so keep an eye out if you'd like.

And again, thanks for reading. It's been an amazing semester, and I'm glad I could share it.

Cheers!

Day 111: Last day in London

And now it's Wednesday, December 17. The last day in London.

We leave the flats tomorrow morning at 5-something a.m., so today is the last bit of time we have in London. I got up early this morning and went outside to take some pictures and get a cup of coffee at this place I've been meaning to go to for a while, and now it's time to finish packing. It is a beautiful, sunny day out, though... absolutely amazing.

The plan is to finish packing soon so I can go outside and walk around, but we'll see how it goes.

I'm still in denial that we're actually leaving, and I'm usually pretty good with this kind of thing.

Anyway, I'll try to get another post in sometime soon with pictures, but I should probably just wait to do an overall recap when I'm home tomorrow (yikes!) so I don't take up time in my last day here.

I'll leave with a short quote from one of my favorite songs to listen to on the morning walk to school since I listened to it this morning while taking pictures, and the last line rang quite true - Elbow's "One Day Like This" (definitely listen to the song and you'll see why it's such a great morning song):

So throw those curtains wide
One day like this a year'd see me right

Day 110: Done with finals!

(This is for Tuesday 16 December)

Done with finals! Had Theology and Economics finals yesterday... then headed out with a friend to celebrate our birthdays and do a little shopping. We ended up getting food at a pub right near the flats which we'd heard was really good; it ended up being the best pub food I've had here, although I haven't really eaten much pub food. A much better birthday meal than the Subway sandwich I picked up on the way home on my actual birthday!

Day 109: History, done.

Had my history final today at noon; one down, two to go. I've got my theology and economics finals tomorrow, and then I'm done! I'm actually only one of two people I know of who don't have Wednesday finals.

Oh, and I should mention: We all leave Thursday morning from the flats at something like 5:55 am, and I think my flight to Chicago from London Heathrow is at 10 am. I'm not really sure. I'll check on that soon... but I'll be back to the MSP at around 5:30 pm Thursday night, so only a few more days before I see you all again!

I'm definitely content with everything I've done in London, but I still can't believe that everything this semester has comprised is coming to a close. It's still strange that classes are over, and I'll be done with finals 24 hours from now. Wow. What a semester.

Day 108: Studying and packing

(This is for Sunday 14 December)

Spent all of Sunday studying and packing... nothing too exciting. It's so hard to believe the semester is coming to an end, and kind of sad that what lies between now and being home is finals and packing.

I did watch Love Actually yesterday while I packed for the first time since being in London - very fun. I actually recognized the places and things they were referring to, and the airplane scenes at the beginning and end also made me excited to come home (which, don't get me wrong, I'm incredibly excited to see you all, but I also don't want to leave London yet)!

Day 107: Mass with the Cardinal

(This is for Saturday 13 December)

Saturday after studying I headed off to the London Centre to practice guitar for the closing Mass. The Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster was coming to celebrate Mass with us, which was really special.

The Mass was really nice, and thankfully the music went well too. It was the last official London Program event of the semester, and it finally feels like things are officially wrapping up here.

After Mass some students were invited to a reception with the Cardinal, and I was asked to take some photos. Here are a couple:

 

A great close to an amazing semester.

Day 106: Dover + Christmas Party

(This is for Friday 12 December)

Friday I finally made it out to the white cliffs of Dover! Sadly, the castle and war tunnels (which I really wanted to go to) closed super early, so even though we were there at 3 pm we couldn't go. Very sad.

It was a cute town, though, and the cliffs were gorgeous (even though it was cloudy and freezing and windy). Made it feel more historical than just like a beach city... you could almost see the Nazis flying over.

















After getting home one of the flats decorated everything all cute for Christmas, so I stopped by for the Christmas party. Very fun and festive, and it almost felt like we were a big London family.






Click here for the Dover + Christmas album.

Day 105: Presentation + The Globe

(This is for Thursday 11 December)

Had my final day at BBDO Thursday! I gave my presentation around 11:30, and it was great to finish with it and show my work to my coworkers. It was really an amazing experience, and I've learned so much in different ways. I can't really imagine what my experience in London would have been like without the internship. Let me clarify: I know that it would have been just as incredible, but in different ways. I think the internship has given me a kind of British construct to define my British experience here, and I don't know how I would have defined it otherwise.

Here are some photos of the outside of the building:

From BBDO, Oxford, The Globe

After work, I shopped around Marylebone High Street and then Oxford Street for a bit, which was a little overwhelming but also very Christmasy feeling.







Some photos on the way to the Globe:





There was a Shakespeare class here that's been working on scenes from A Midsummer Night's Dream the whole semester, and they performed them at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre Thursday night, which was just awesome. I can't imagine what it would be like to act on that stage, though watching friends was pretty exciting. We had a nice reception afterward, and then it was back to the flats to finish up some work!

Day 104: Brick Lane

(This is for Wednesday 10 December)

Final day of class! Wow.

After class, I worked on my final project for BBDO at the London Centre and then we had our final gathering for the Honours Seminar as a dinner at Brick Lane. It was great to head there while our professor pointed out various historical things and told us about Jack the Ripper. We had just about every appetizer, and then somehow I had enough room for my main course, which was amazing... I can't quite remember what it was - I got chicken and prawn d____. It had onions, tomatoes, and I think green peppers... milder tasting, and not so saucy.

It was a great end to a semester of an amazing class, and we've already tentatively planned a reunion next semester.

Still, even now I can't believe this semester is over!

Day 103: Happy birthday to me

(This is for Tuesday 9 December)

So, Tuesday was my birthday! We sang happy birthday the night before at midnight at a pub after the show, so that was nice... saw a lot of people on Tuesday and headed to the Cecil Sharp Folk Club after a day full of class - very cool. So amazing to be spending a birthday in London! Can't believe it.

Day 102: The Woman in Black

(This is for Monday 8 December)

Monday I went to the play The Woman in Black just off of Covent Garden at the Fortune Theatre for Honours Seminar. It's a classic ghost story and was incredibly well done. I definitely almost screamed a few times. I really enjoyed the play and love to scare myself, and it was the perfect play for that. If you didn't want to be scared, you probably wouldn't be. There was a large group of middle school or high school aged kids behind us (scary how I can't tell how old kids are anymore), which was hilarious... gasps and screaming all over the place.

I'd definitely recommend it at Christmastime to anyone in London!

Day 101: Homework at Southbank

(This is for Sunday 7 December)

Sunday I had to do work the whole day, but I decided to head to the Southbank Centre since they have free wi-fi instead of staying inside in the flats or going to the London Centre.

I sat outside for a while reading and watched people at the Christmas market. I still can't believe that I did homework just watching the Thames and a Christmas market in London...





I headed inside after it got darker and watched some children's choirs perform, which was adorable. A great way to do homework, even though I'm sure I could have been more productive.

Day 100: Union Chapel

(This is for Saturday 6 December)

Saturday I went to a free concert at Union Chapel in Islington because one of the groups from Friday, Rún, mentioned they were doing a show. It was really nice, and I liked the variety of wintery-Christmas songs and more trad-sounding ones. I hadn't been to the Union Chapel yet and had wanted to go, so this was the perfect opportunity.

Day 99: Young Folk Awards

(This is for Friday 5 December)

Friday after our final English Composers class I stayed at the London Centre for a while to finish up some work and then was planning on heading over to the Southbank Centre for a quick free performance organized by The Magpie's Nest , a folk club I've fallen in love with here. They had organized a few sets before and after the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, so since the awards were sold out I figured I'd stop at the first free set on my way home from the London Centre.

While I was there, I saw Sam Lee, one of the people in charge of The Magpie's Nest, who conducted our workshop at the Cecil Sharp House for English Composers. I mentioned that I'd decided to stop by on my way home even though I wasn't going to the awards, and after the performances he found me and mentioned he had asked about getting more tickets - what a nice guy! He ended up finding out that there were actually a lot of tickets that had been returned, but still, I wouldn't have found that out if he hadn't checked on them. I ended up going to the awards show, which was great. There were so many talented young people, some of whom just exuded amazing potential, and others who were more seasoned already. I think my favorite performance was from the winners of last year's award, Jeana Leslie and Siobhan Miller.

You can listen to their performance from last year's awards here. Or I'd highly recommend watching the following two YouTube videos:
Saints and Sinners
Bedlam Boys

This year's contestants and winners were great as well, but I left wanting to find more of last year's winners' music.

Oh, and here are some photos from the walk over there:

From London and Thames at Night

Day 98: Lighting of the Tree

(This is for Thursday 4 December)

Thursday I was at my internship all day working on my final project, so afterwards I met up with a friend in Trafalgar Square for the lighting of the tree. Every year for about 62 years now, I believe, Oslo has donated a tree from their forest to London as a sign of thankfulness for Britain's help in the war. There were a choir and a band there for carols before the ceremony, and then numerous people including the Lord Mayor of Westminster, the mayor of London (Boris Johnson), and the mayor of Oslo gave speeches.

Boris Johnson lived up to his reputation, saying something about "all those hedge fund managers who have made millions in shorting to get us in this crisis are wondering when it will be okay to go out and start flashing all their money as they walk down Oxford and Regent Street... well, the lighting of this tree is a signal that it's okay to go." What a guy...

The mayor of Oslo made a very sweet speech in English, including a few jokes that I'm sure made sense before the translation, and then pressed the button to light the tree.

It was a cute ceremony, and there were a surprising number of Oslonians (?) there as well, including two very tall ones in front of my friend and me. Here's an example of me just holding up my camera and hoping for the best:

And here, the Christmas tree after the ceremony:

Day 97: Queens, giant spiders, and socks.

(This is for Wednesday 3 December)

Behind again... sorry! I'll catch up though because I should be studying for finals, so we all know I'll be needing some study breaks.

Wednesday after class I heard from someone it was the opening of Parliament, so I headed over towards Parliament to see if I could see the Queen. Thankfully I had my camera with me that day, so I was able to get some shots. It was pretty cool to see all of the guards lined up and all of the horsemen coming through - something special you don't really get to see too often.

From Queens, giant spiders, and socks

I stayed long enough to see the Queen go into Parliament and come back out, then headed over to the Tate Modern , my original plan for the day. I walked through the Southbank Christmas market on the way, which was cute.





Though I wouldn't say I'm necessarily a modern art-lover, I really do enjoy a good amount of it. Even if you don't like Jackson Pollock (though I do), there's something different about standing two feet away from those paint streaks and splatters than looking at a slide of it.

One of the main exhibitions a lot of the ND kids have been talking about is Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster's "TH.2058". There's a large, warehouse-type room with empty metal bunk beds, a giant spider,  a giant apple core, a dinosaur skeleton, and other random things.



Can't really say whether I really liked or didn't like the exhibition, but it was pretty neat to walk through it since it was just a giant room. After going through pretty much all of the free rooms, I went to this little quiz/game thing where there were about six adults playing a touch screen game. Apparently, I dominated the game, and at the end all of the arrows pointed towards my screen, and this sweet old Irish couple were just absolutely amazed and thought I must be a genius for winning the Tate Modern quiz game. I chatted with them for a bit, and the husband had been involved in the integration of education in Northern Ireland, meeting and working with Bill Clinton in the 1980s. Pretty cool to randomly meet someone involved with something like that.

Heading back to the flats, I took Millenium Bridge over the Thames and headed past St. Paul's Cathedral, which now has a Christmas tree up in front of it!




I'm not sure if it's because I'm a December baby, but Christmastime is one of the best times of year.

Later that night I headed out to the Borderline in Soho to see the band Department of Eagles. The show was just great, and we managed to get up to the front and centre, right in front of the stage. It was a small venue anyway, but it was great being right there. I only took a few pictures, but I'm glad with how they turned out. The concert made me appreciate the band's music a lot more, and it doesn't hurt that they were really down-to-earth guys. I got my ticket signed afterwards, and when I was talking with one of the guys, I said I'd seen his sock during the show and it looked like he had guitar socks that matched his sweater -- turns out they were actually squirrel socks. And that he was wearing two different socks. I'm not awkward when I talk to people in bands at all...

Day 96: British humour

In an optional extra Honours Seminar class today we watched our professor's favorite comedy, which was very British but also hilarious. Made me realize there aren't too many good comedies from the US, though. I actually cannot think off the top of my head what my favorite comedy is... but I guess I'm not too much of a movie person anyway.

Day 95: The Holly and the Ivy

Wow. What a concert... we went to St. John's in Smith Square today for a Christmas concert - "The Glory of Christmas" - which was a benefit for the Head & Neck Cancer Research Trust. It was spectacular.

Here's the program:

Christmas Oratorio | JS Bach

Jauchzet, frohlocket | BWV 248

Winter from "The Seasons" | A Vivaldi

Fantasia on Christmas Carols | Ralph Vaughan Williams

Messiah | Worthy is the Lamb | GF Handel

____

Messiah | Hallelujah Chorus | GF Handel

Choir and audience | The First Nowell

Choir

In Dulci Jubilo | arr Pearsall (Carols for choirs)

The Holly and the Ivy | arr Jacques (Carols for choirs)

Lully Lulla | Kenneth Leighton

Choir and audience | O Little Town of Bethlehem

Choir and audience | See Amid the Winter's Snow

Choir and orchestra

Il est né le divin enfant

Myn Lyking

Masters in this Hall

Choir and audience | Hark the Herald Angels Sing

Organ Voluntary

In Dulce Jubilo | JS Bach

There were readings in between most pieces done by (I think) those who have been treated for neck or head cancer or are somehow involved with the organization. It was really nice and helped to break everything up.

It was performed by the Thames Chamber Orchestra under director Keith Marshall with the Choir of Christ's College, Cambridge under director David Rowland.

Oh, and did I mention that [HRH] Princess Alexandra was there, too? We did the whole stand until she sat down thing, although I never saw her.

The performance was beautiful, and the lead violinist was stunning. I don't know if this is normal at all, but for the Vivaldi piece he stood up and led the orchestra instead of the conductor directing everyone. It was incredible to hear and see it performed from the second row in a beautiful old church; we could even hear the violinist (David Juritz) breathe.

Anyway, time to study some more for an econ test. I can't believe it's December and that I've been to a Christmas concert already! This makes me wish I could go to the Christmas concert at Wooddale this month, but I'm missing it by I think four days, sadly.

Day 94: Blog updating

(This is for today!!)

Wow, finally caught up!

For something fun, watch this video. It will make you happy – or at least, that's my wish.

Day 93: Barn Dance

(This is for Saturday 29 November)

Saturday night I headed to a barn dance up the road as part of my recent folk endeavors. I wasn't really sure what the dance would entail, but I was able to get my name and my friends' names on the concessionary ticket list since we are local, so why not check it out?

It was at the Finsbury Town Hall in a large ball room that was beautiful.

When we arrived, the band hadn't started yet and people were kind of just standing around. I immediately felt underdressed, but soon realized we were also the youngest people there. There were a lot of late 20-somethings, but there was a strong representation of 30-somethings and 50+ people as well.

The first dance, we initially decided to wait it out and just see what things were like, but a friend and I decided we might as well just go for it. There was a lady up front announcing the moves and teaching everyone what the dance was like. We missed the first bit though, so we ended up not really having any idea what was going on. This dance required switching partners each time, which was so much fun. You'd end up with someone else who had no idea what was going on, and you'd both just give each other a shrug saying, "I have no idea what to do, but oh well!" and attempt to follow along with the dance.

This is basically what happened for the rest of the dances... so much fun. Some of them my friends and I actually understood, so we'd spend the dance trying to help other people figure out what was going on while not stepping on anyone's feet. I was definitely laughing most of the time. I love folk music. It really was quite the experience and is one of my favorite things I've done in London that I definitely would not have been able to do on campus.

Day 92: Cambridge

(This is for Friday 28 November)

Friday after class most of the Honours Seminar headed out to Cambridge for class. Our professor went to Cambridge, so he was the perfect tour guide for our day there. We stopped for a pub lunch overlooking the river and then walked around a lot of the colleges. It was absolutely beautiful, and I'm glad we were able to see Cambridge at night. One word that really comes to mind is 'romantic'.

I'll hopefully get some pictures up soon, but I'm trying to find my card reader right now... it's got to be around the flat somewhere.

I think I liked Cambridge better than Oxford, but that's probably mainly because I learned so much about the University I wouldn't have learned if I'd gone on my own. I also feel like I have a much better understanding of what students are like there and what college life means. I think I would really like that style of learning, where intellectual and personal are so much more intertwined. The learning process isn't something confined as much to the classroom as it is in America.

After walking around, we headed to a historical pub where there were (I think) 12th century vernacular paintings on some of the walls. Also, the US Air Force was stationed near there during WWII, and before going out on their flight missions, they would stand on the tables and use candles to write on the ceiling messages to loved ones, their names, or short notes. You could still see the messages on the ceiling, though they were fading. Our professor said that as a student, it wasn't unusual for him to be sitting reading in the pub and then to see older men come in and just weep.

This was probably the best day trip I've made since being here, and it was a great experience to go as a class. It definitely helped me to learn more about the history of Cambridge and about my own intellectual pursuits and growth.

Day 91: Thanksgiving

(This is for Thursday 27 November, obviously!)

Thursday at work the departments where there are interns decided to have a potluck-style Thanksgiving lunch for the interns since Thanksgiving isn't celebrated here in the UK. It was so cute; no one really knew what was Thanksgiving-y, so we had everything from empanadas to quiche, and a great selection of desserts. It was really sweet of them to do this for us in an attempt to help us feel more at home. I was already stuffed by 2:00 on Thanksgiving day, so I guess you could say this was pretty normal.

Thursday night the rectors had organized buying food for flats that wanted to participate in floor dinners, so we went next door for Thanksgiving dinner, complete with a turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. It was really fun, and we even went around the table saying what we were thankful for.

After pie we watched some football (soccer) since there wasn't American football on, but other than that it felt like your regular American Thanksgiving.

A very thanking-filled Thanksgiving spent in London, even though I missed being with family. Sounds like you all had a great time :)

Day 90: British Museum and The Jayhawks

(This is for Wednesday 26 November)

On Wednesday I went to the British Museum, which was just incredible. I'd really like to go back because there is so much to see. Here are a few highlights:

The Rosetta Stone


A mummified fish (Grandpa, do you think you'd do this sometime?)

Some watches for Adam

Also, Adam's favorite


Amazing museum with so many important pieces. And it's free! And probably only a 15 minute walk from the flats. For more photos, click here.

When I arrived home, I was welcomed to my flat by a very large box with my name on it with this inside:

Thanks so much again for the fruit basket, you guys!

Later on Wednesday night, I headed over to Brick Lane for a free in-store performance by Gary Louris and Mark Olson of The Jayhawks, a classic alt-country band from Minneapolis.

There weren't too many people there, which worked well for a quick 20 minute set before the two headed off to the real (read: expensive) show afterwards.

Louris and Olson:

Olson:

Louris:

It was a bummer how short the set was, but so nice that the guys came out to do a free gig. I talked to both of them afterward and mentioned how it was funny that I live in Minneapolis, but am finally seeing them in London. They were really nice guys, and it was a bummer they had to run off so quickly to their show.

After getting home, I watched the new bridge episode of 24, "Redemption." And wow. I didn't think I'd be so excited for the next season, but I'm going to be on the edge of my seat for a while now.