Friday Funny

Happy Friday!  Spring break is coming up so in honor of getting in that fun spirit here’s a friday funny.  Minnie looks great in this photo and I look super awkward mid-sentence.  Can anyone come up with a good caption for what I was saying here?

Worldly Wednesday: Madrid

This week’s Worldly Wednesday takes us to Madrid!  Madrid was one of my favorite cities that I visited and I had such a great time there with friends.  Continuing my trend of recapping the trip by photos…

Football: We decided last minute to attend an Atlético football match and had a fantastic time.  We had nosebleed seats but felt the energy of the game surrounded by many enthusiastic fans.  I also scored a children’s jersey on sale as a souvenir from the game.  It was a nice warm day as well so it was great being able to enjoy the sunshine and the game.

Retiro Park: I’m seen here attempting to row the boat on the pond at Retiro Park.  We only had about half an hour out on the pond as we had to switch AirBnBs and were short on time.  But, it was so relaxing and was something less touristy that made us feel immersed in daily Spanish life.  We had sangria and sandwiches before going out on the pond and again just enjoyed the beautiful weather.

Royal Palace/other touristy sites: We did not go into the Royal Palace but did take photos outside.  We also hit up the traditional touristy sites such as the Prado Museum and Plaza Mayor.

Madrid was our first trip away from England and so we weren’t sure what to expect but things went very smoothly and our adventures for the semester were off to a fantastic start.

WDW Half Marathon Cancellation

Well, as you probably heard the WDW 1/2 Marathon was cancelled in January.  I was supposed to run the half on my 21st birthday but the night before the race, we were carb loading at Il Mulino and received the email that the race had been cancelled due to possible lightning the next morning.  I completely understand why they decided not to risk having thousands of runners stand in a parking lot when there was a 90% chance of lightning forecasted for hours.   RunDisney did a great job of offering other options to compensate for the cancellation from a full Disney gift card reimbursement to transferring to another runDisney race.  I didn’t expect them to do this, but it was fantastic and truly Disney guest service that they did.

On the bright side though, I was then able to go to the bar at our resort and right after midnight (and right before closing) I was able to get a drink with one of my cousins (shout out).  My aunt and uncle ran the half on the 7th, as many other motivated runners did and were cheered on by other resort guests.

My friend, sister, and I went to Hollywood Studios for opening and I rode Rock’n’Roller Coaster as the first ride on my 21st birthday which was awesome.  It ended up being a very cold day so we left Studios, had lunch back at the resort and then went to Disney Springs for my birthday dinner with all my family members.

I will definitely run another runDisney race, but since I don’t know what I am doing after graduation in May yet, I didn’t want to register for any others!

Worldly Wednesday: Amsterdam

An old posting series is returning!  Worldly Wednesday will highlight my travels while I was studying abroad last semester.  Our first destination is Amsterdam in the Netherlands.  Amsterdam was not on my list of places I had to visit but I am very glad my friend and I decided to go for a four day weekend there. In connection with my photos, here are my thoughts on the city…

The Brightly Colored Sandwich:  Yes, I could get a sandwich anywhere.  But, my friend found this wonderful breakfast restaurant in her guidebook called Omelegg.  I highly recommend eating at this quaint spot in the Red Light District but you will probably have to wait outside.  We also ate at a cafe called Blushing for two meals that had delicious sandwiches as well.  I did not know what type of food to expect but overall our meals in Amsterdam exceeded my expectations.

The Canals: Amsterdam is known for its canals and it was especially pretty when we visited in the fall with the foliage changing colors.  We took a canal cruise as well which I recommend as we were able to take a break from walking all day and hear about the history of the city with the audio guide. If you have a map, it is a very walkable city and we walked all around each day, sometimes from one end of the city to another.  We would count how many canals to cross to keep our sense of direction.

The Clogs: My friend ended up purchasing some clog slippers during the trip but I just enjoyed browsing at all of the different stores.  It was interesting to see the many clog variations and see how each retailer used the shoe.

The Museums: We visited the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum, and of course the Anne Frank Museum during our weekend.  The Rijksmuseum was neat and very large.  The famous I Amsterdam sign is in front of the museum.  The Van Gogh Museum is a must do but make sure to go before it gets too crowded and buy tickets ahead of time.  I couldn’t go to Amsterdam and not visit the Anne Frank Museum, especially since my friend and I had done a project on Anne Frank for our English class the semester before.  We were not able to get tickets in advance, but that morning at breakfast I checked online and a few slots opened up.  So, I used my international data and got us in.  It was such a moving experience to be able to see where Anne Frank hid and now I’m inspired to re-read her diary.

 

WDW Weekly News Update

This week isn’t even over yet but Disney has shared a few different pieces of exciting news with the public.  In chronological order…

February 12th: Rivers of Light show opens.  The long anticipated show that was supposed to open last summer is now ready to go.  This date is based on Fastpass+ bookings which recently were added to the system.

March 17th: Although this date was announced a while ago, I am so excited for The Beauty and The Beast movie!

May 11th: Final showing of Wishes which is the nighttime fireworks show at Magic Kingdom.
I really hope I can see Wishes one more time before it ends because it is a fantastic show and there is nothing like the soundtrack.

May 12th: “Happily Ever After” replaces Wishes as the new nighttime show.  I expect Magic Kingdom will be absolutely packed on this night.

May 27th: The opening date of Animal Kingdom’s Pandora!  We have not been able to see much of the construction, besides the one very tall tower structure so I am interested to see what Disney has done with Avatar, even though it was not my favorite movie.  I will definitely need to watch it again before May 27th.

2019: At some point in this year, the Star Wars Land portion of Hollywood Studios will be opening!

In conclusion, this summer is a great time to visit the Walt Disney World parks.  2019 will be a fantastic year to go if you are a Star Wars fan, or you can wait until 2020 when the hype decreases a little.

5K Part 2 and half marathon disappointment posts coming up soon!

Greenwich, Gin, and Gulls

Well the title is an alliterative quick summary of the past week here.
Last Wednesday we went to Greenwich (not the preppy Connecticut town, but the one here in England) to the National Maritime Museum.  The museum had a variety of exhibits, but I enjoyed seeing Nelson’s coat from the Battle of Trafalgar
the most.   It was the one he was wearing when he got hit, and then later died from the wound.  They also had his blood stained stockings.  It’s a bit crazy how blood stained stockings have been saved for more than two hundred years.    
On Thursday, we took a tour of the Beefeater Distillery Tour.  We definitely were able
to see more when we toured the apple cider mill in France and I believe we did as well at the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin.  We did see much on this tour other than the ingredients they use to make the gin.  They gave us a free gin and tonic but I was not a huge fan.

Sadly for Friday, I couldn’t come up with word beginning with “g” for our Sherlock Holmes walking tour.  We saw different sites all around the city and heard about how Sir Arthur Conan Doyle published the short stories in the Strand magazine, which then made the magazine very popular.  One of my classmates mentioned “The Great Mouse Detective” on the tour and now I really want to watch the movie again!  The voice of Sherlock Holmes in the movie is actually voiced by an actor who went on to play Sherlock Holmes in many different mediums and his name is Basil Rathbone.  And we learned about the origins of Holmes’ hat and pipe.

Our second all day field trip was on Saturday and we took the train to Brighton where we saw sea gulls.  The day started out sunny and bright when we arrived at the beach town.  We had a few minutes to take photos of the beach before we started our sewer tour.  Yes, sewer tour.  Sewer tours are a thing and supposedly you have to book them way in advance because they are so popular.  I was shocked that vacationers actually did this.  Our professor had signed us up so we had no choice.  We wore hard hats and gloves (because there are rats in the sewers…yay).  First, the workers/tour guides gave us a quick introduction about the sewers and we saw a short film.  They gave us advice to take a deep sniff to numb our senses as we walked in but it did not really help.  We walked through different overflow areas (which had been hosed off before the tour but just use your imagination on how well that worked).  After an hour and a half, we were ready to head back into the sunshine so we climbed a staircase and we emerged from a manhole (like Amy Adams does in Disney’s Enchanted).  You should’ve seen people’s faces walking by as they asked what we were doing and we said “a sewer tour.”  After the tour, we had a pub lunch where I had a good pulled pork sandwich.  My friends and I then went shopping around town and stopped for ice cream, but unfortunately the weather had turned and it was now pouring.

I spent Sunday meeting up with family friends and going on a tour around London led by a family friend/connection and that was really fun.  I walked 11.68 miles on Sunday!    Monday, we went to the Alexander Fleming Museum at St. Mary’s Hospital (where many members of the royal family have been born).  This hospital looked very old and different from the hospitals I’ve seen back home.  We couldn’t believe that royals had been born here.  The museum was up a few flights of windy stairs and not air conditioned.  The last week or so has been brutal without air conditioning, especially when you are listening to a tour guide or packed in with lots of Londoners on the tube.

Yesterday, we went to the Victoria and Albert Museum, which is my favorite museum in London but unfortunately our tour guide got the time mixed up so we started the tour late and were all hot and exhausted.  I am hoping to head back to the museum if I have time this weekend, since I was not able to see much.  I met up with two friends from high school who are also studying abroad in London for dinner and we got a great deal at an Italian restaurant with 10 pounds for two courses and wine!

Hope everyone’s week went well!

Bank of England and A Visit to the Countryside

Thanks everyone for reading about all of my museum visits and following along during my time in London. Enjoy the exciting posts now because once I get to the university in October, I do not think my daily life will be as thrilling!

On Monday we had an afternoon free, as yesterday was an all day field trip and our professor offered to give us some time off before the busy day.  So Monday afternoon, I went to the Bank of England to exchange some old notes.  I also went to the Bank of England Museum.  This Museum was very well done.  I read through (almost) everything in 45 minutes but it was very interactive and made the financial system easy to understand.

I was able to touch a gold bar as well which was neat and they had how much it was currently worth in pounds right above the gold.  I touched gold worth 350,000 GBP!  The museum is free, easy to get to, and was not crowded.  I would definitely recommend visiting this museum.

Yesterday we had our all day visit to Faversham in Kent.  We took an early train out of London Victoria and headed into the countryside.  I slept (as I always do in any sort of vehicle) but kept an alarm because unlike my summer trains into the city and back, I was not getting off at the last stop.  We started off the day a little tired and wondering how this all day trip was going to be.  Surprisingly, I did not look up anything about where we were going ahead of time.

When we arrived in Faversham, we walked to the Fleur de Lis Heritage Centre.

This centre exceeded my expectations.  I thought it would be a small exhibit that we would spend at most an hour at before going to lunch.  However, the Centre took up three older houses and we split into a few groups so that tour guides could lead us through the exhibits.  The centre is very hands on with a record player we could adjust, rotary telephones to call each other on, and air raid helmets we were able to try on.  The items here go back to the spearheads of the ancient times all the way to the World Wars.  The tour guide even sounded an air raid siren for us.  We heard a variety of stories from a woman who murdered her husband on the 7th attempt and dragged him through the snow and was immediately discovered as her footsteps gave her away, to a story on a real life pirate.  Our tour guide was fantastic, as were the rest of the guides for the day. We stayed at the volunteer run museum for two hours before having a lunch break.

I went with a few friends to the Vault, a small pub in Faversham.  I had Shepherd’s Pie as well as some chips.  I had just enough time to run to the second hand bookstore in town before we had to meet back up as a class.  I HAD to purchase the Winnie the Pooh stories in the photo below.  Plus the book was only a pound.  The bookshop was run by volunteers as well and the elderly lady ringing up the book said to me “Oh you’ve found one!” very excitedly and then asked which one and all.  While Amazon is convenient, I really enjoy small bookstores.    Since our class is focused on chemistry and the relationship of this science with the public, we headed to the Chart Gunpowder Mills next.  The walk there was over the river and through the woods.  Okay, not quite, but it was through a few neighborhoods and then by a river which bugs just loved.  I had to put on my sweater in the heat in order to avoid blowing up with mosquito bites.  I was expecting something different, as the Mills were tucked away and it was only one small building.  The guides, similar to the one at the Heritage Centre, knew a LOT about the mills and were very passionate volunteers which was great.  I was in the group that went on a forty five minute walking tour first (so glad I wore my sneakers this day).  We learned more about Faversham and saw old sites from the time of the Gunpowder Mills.  Our professor almost got attacked by a duck when we stopped near a pond as the ducks came up to us easily hoping for food and then flew over us to others who had brought bread.  Along the tour, residents we passed all said “Hiya” or “Cheers” to us so I felt like we were very welcomed even though we took up half of the narrow road at times.

After returning from our walk, we switched with the other group and went inside the Mill.  I know Britain does not get that hot all that often, but I would’ve really appreciated some air conditioning (or a huge ice cream cone) at that point.  It’s been in the 70’s and 80’s here!  We heard more about the actual gunpowder making process with the tools right there in front of us.  Our guide also told us about his recent travels and quizzed us on British currency.   Overall the day was one of my favorites so far as Faversham is the cutest town and I highly recommend it as a day trip out of London!  We were all exhausted at the end of the day and barely scraped together a cooked dinner, but the trip was definitely worth it.

7 Days Done, 7 Lessons Learned

1. Bring your own bags when you go grocery shopping.  It is 5 pence for each bag you use.  So unless you are buying meat or something that really needs a plastic bag, bring your own reusable bag.
2. They do not seem to have applesauce in the grocery stores, which is devastating.
3. Items expire sooner.  Nothing we buy lasts for more than five days, other than Oreo cookies 🙂  Okay, maybe a few other items but it seems food is bought more often here.
4. When crossing the street, the loud beeping means you can cross now.  Definitely startling the first time you hear it.
5. The regular M and M’s are made using a different kind of chocolate or are just different over here, but still very good.
6. The tube is not air conditioned.  So this summer in NYC, I was sweating standing on the platform but then cooled off once in the car.  Here, I am fine on the platform but sweating once I enter the car as it has been in the 70’s here most days and has barely rained.
7. Most of the grocery stores only have one cashier and then 20 self service check out machines.  I love self checkout so this is lovely.  And if you don’t want to spend time sorting coins, you can just put them in the machine to pay and it tells you how much you still need.  If you put in a Euro by accident, it will spit it back out.  (Photo is from King’s Cross station)

First Few Days Recap

The days are flying by as it’s already almost Thursday (and I still need to complete my reading for tomorrow!) of the first week of class.  Yesterday, we went to a pub as a class for dinner, where I had Chicken and Leek Pie (basically chicken pot pie).  It was very good and slightly bigger than the portion I had in Orlando a month ago.  I was not able to finish this one even though I was starving! I was not a fan of the mash but the vegetables were actually pretty good and were well cooked.  I am starting to miss having a bucket load of ice in my water though as you barely get two ice cubes here and I enjoy my water ice cold.  I am the American who asks for more ice, especially when it is 75 degrees and there is no AC!

Before we got to the pub, a group of us went to Big Ben and the London Eye to do some exploring after our field trip at the Museum of London.  We walked all around and even passed where my family and I saw a show last year in the Udderbelly.  Along the river it was very lively with music and street shows going on before the London Eye.  We are going on the Eye as a class at the end of the trip and we did not have much time before dinner so we just walked by it this time.

The Museum of London was just as I had remembered it with a lot on the Great Fire.  It was a little larger though and had a few exhibits such as one on the London Olympic Cauldron that were not there when I last visited in 2008.  We spent a solid two hours there before regrouping.

Today, we had class in the morning as usual and then went to the Museum of London Docklands in the afternoon.  The past few days have been sunny and the perfect temperature.  I brought my fleece but did not end up needing to put it on.  It was a neat museum but I am not going into the shipping industry anytime soon.  I stopped to take a photo near an Underground sign in the Museum and felt like I was Vanna White on Wheel of Fortune with how I ended up posing.  After our adventures all around the city, we ended up cooking tacos for dinner.  All three of us had to call our moms to ask questions about cooking the chicken so we laughed about that, but it was a success!  We had some wine with dinner as well before calling it a night.  Now I have to get to my reading for tomorrow, before it gets too late!

Peaceful Packing: A True Oxymoron

Packing, at least for me, is not peaceful.  All my items are currently on the floor in the bedroom waiting to be stuffed into my suitcase.  I should’ve kept track of what I packed two years ago when I went to Oxford for two weeks for a summer program.  My professor for the London seminar sent us an email and told us three times in the email to pack lightly.  Well packing lightly for a whole semester is a challenge (even for me who never overpacks when going to Walt Disney World).  I do not know how my friends who are international students studying in the US do it every year.  Shoes take up so much room!

Packing my carry on will be interesting as I always try to stuff as much as possible into my carry on.  I’ll need my traditional plane snacks (animal crackers) but won’t be flying JetBlue so I won’t get my favorite Blue Chips.  I think my sister has some saved from our last Florida flight so maybe she will let me take those along…