UK and USA: A Comparison (Part Two)

Since I've not done anything remotely interesting since my birthday, mostly because exams are fast approaching and I have to study at least a bit, I've decided to finally post the second part of the comparison between the USA and the UK.

So here it is finally!

1. Window Screens. They don't have window screens over here. I've not seen one the whole time I've been here. I wonder how they keep the bugs out during the summer... don't they have mosquitoes?
2. Fast Food. The U.K. does have plenty of familiar fast food chains, such as Pizza Hut, Domino's, Subway, and the occasional Taco Bell. But they don't have Dairy Queen, or Sonic, or any of my favorites really. Ranch is a rarity, as I've mentioned before. I've also really been craving dill pickles recently, but they just aren't the same as at home. 
3. Pigeons. There are tons of pigeons here; I'm sure there are in the States as well, but not where I'm from. And because Manchester is pretty populated, the birds are totally comfortable around humans. They won't even move if you're walking right at it. I kicked one once (it was an accident, I promise!) and now I move for the birds.
4. Accents. I know there are different accents in America. There's the southern drawl, and the Boston accent, the Canadian-ish accent in Wisconsin.... But America is a big place; it makes sense that we have different accents. But the UK is so tiny!! It doesn't make sense that there are over 40 different accents in the British Isles. If you live in the south, you have a different accent that the north. If you live in Liverpool, you have a different accent than those that live in Manchester. London has it's own special accent. Here are some maps for visual effect:

A Birthday to Remember

When I woke up this morning, on my birthday, I was both excited and very sad. This is the first time I've spent my birthday away from home and my loved ones, yet one can't NOT be excited on one's birthday.

I woke up not expecting a huge celebration, or gifts, or anything really. But when I came downstairs, there were a couple "Happy Birthday" banners on the walls. There was a giant balloon tied to my usual chair at the table. Ray and Susan surprised me with a gift; a Willow Tree figurine that is completely appropriate for the situation.

Forget-Me-Not

Andrew and Charlotte got me this book, which is absolutely pointless (obviously) and amazing. I can't wait to use it. 

Then I was gifted with a beautiful necklace with a Blue John stone, which is mined locally in Derbyshire (which is the only place it's found) and looks something like this:  

The most amazing gift, though, was that I finally got to meet the rest of my family. Not all of them, there were a couple who couldn't make it, but most of them. It was absolutely amazing; a bunch of strangers came to celebrate my birthday, and they welcomed me completely. They were so wonderful,  all of them. I realized how lucky I truly am, to come to a foreign country and have people who want to meet me and get to know me. They didn't ask questions or judge me. They were family, right away. 

Back rows: Charlotte, Andrew, Paul, Susan, Ray, Kaan, Maureen, Irving
Kneeling: Tulin, Kaya, Me, Lindsay

And that was the best feeling ever. 

English Tea in England

Mady and I decided we needed a nice day out, so we found a tearoom close by and went for afternoon tea. The best thing? IT WAS ALICE IN WONDERLAND THEMED!!!! 

The Richmond Tea Room, located on Richmond Street, is absolutely charming. 

Here's the outside; Very cute!

"Eat Me" and "Drink Me" just like Alice!

It's just so adorable! I loved it sooo much. I'll definitely have to go back at some point. And take some pictures. Because I stole these ones from their website.








We took a really long time to decide what we wanted. They had carrot cake, and you all know how much I love carrot cake! But eventually we both decided on the "Alice Tea," which included a pot of tea (of which you had like 20 choices) and a scone with clotted cream and jam. We both chose English Breakfast tea. I think we were both overwhelmed with the choices that we stuck to the known. But it was very good, and the prices weren't bad either.

Doesn't it look delicious? It was.  

So yeah, just thought I'd share that with you!!

An Adventure in London: Day 2

The second day in London was even better than the first (although Francine disagrees!). We decided to get up at eight, because we were going on a tour at 11 and didn't want to be late. But we didn't get up until nine. We got ready quickly, and actually made it on time! We were almost late, but Francine's sense of direction saved us.

So we went a-walking. Our tour guide, Rachel, started out telling us about Covent Gardens (which was originally Convent Gardens, and was shortened over time.) As the name suggests, it was originally a garden in a convent. Then the land changed hands a couple times, I won't bore you with the details, until the 18th century, when Covent Garden became a well-known red-light district. There were so many prostitutes, that a catalog was put together by a man with way too much time on his hands. Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies, the "essential guide and accessory for any serious gentleman of pleasure," included names, addresses, age, physical descriptions, prices, and sexual specialities of the working women in the area. Which I think is just ridiculous. But there's the 1700s for ya.

Then we moved to Trafalgar Square, where I learned all about the giant pillar and the lions in the center of the square. The name commemorates the Battle of Trafalgar, a British naval victory of the Napoleonic Wars over France and Spain. So apparently it was a victory due to the genius of a guy named Vice Admiral Lord Nelson. I didn't understand all the tactical whatever, but basically the British fleet was badly outnumbered but didn't lose a single ship because they forced the French/Spanish fleet to fire in on itself. So the Franish (haha, Franish) surrendered and the British confiscated all their ammunition. Sadly though, Nelson was shot during the battle. The bullet entered his chest and exited at the base of his spine, and died a couple hours later. So sad.

Anyway, they wouldn't throw the guy overboard because he was an important dude, but they were two weeks away from home. And that would be smelly. So the men folded him in half and stuffed him in a barrel, then filled it with rum. Because everyone knows alcohol preserves meat. But when they got home there was only a little bit of rum left. Because these men thought they were gonna die in a battle and they didn't. You would celebrate too, right? So they drank the rum with the dead guy floating in it, because a little blood never hurt anyone. 

Then they took the ammunition they stole, melted it down, and made this beautiful memorial: 

It's called Nelson's Column

And it's guarded by four lions, one in each corner.

Rachel called it "the biggest middle finger to France that England could muster." Haha. People were climbing on the lions. But I couldn't, because I was wearing a dress and so had to be 'ladylike.' Too bad.

From theore we moved on to St James's Palace on Pall Mall, which is one of the oldest palaces in London. Henry VIII commissioned the palace as a hunting lodge in 1531. We got to see the guards in the funny hats here, but I'm not sure what they were doing exactly. But it was cool to watch.

 

While we were there, Rachel took us through a "short" history of all Henry VIII's wives. It was really funny, because she play-acted the part of Henry, and kept pulling girls out of the group to play the Wives. She picked my to be Wife #1, Catherine of Aragon. So I got up there and "made a baby" with  "Henry" (which was done by dancing like idiots and bumping hips.) I had a girl named Mary. And then I was divorced.

This is the Palace. Doesn't look like much does it?

Then as we were walking toward Buckingham Palace, we stopped by this sign on the side of a building. Apparently Nell Gywnne lived here. Nell Gwynne was a long-time mistress of King Charles II and the most famous Restoration actress (and one of the first female actresses ever). Gwynne had two sons by King Charles (named Charles and James.) The Queen of the time was Portuguese and catholic (gasp!) and wasn't very popular with the people. In fact, they hated her. One day, Nell borrowed the Queen's carriage (which had the queen's crest on the sides) and as she was traveling a huge crowd of people stormed up and stated violently rocking the carriage. They were shouting "Bring out the catholic whore!" and so Nell supposedly stepped out, let them see her, and said, "I am not your catholic whore! I am your regular whore!" and bowed (obviously she used old timey language though). I loved that story. It was funny.

 

"In a house on this site lived Nell Gwynne from 1671-1687"

 Then we made it to Buckingham Palace, where we learned how to tell if the Queen was home (she wasn't; you can tell by looking at whether the Royal Standard is flying.) Basically we learned about how amazing Queen Elizabeth is and how she's just a really nice little old lady. Which I could totally see. Our tour guide has met her a couple times, because Rachel occasionally works as a food taster (you know, to screen for poisons and such.)

That's Rachel. She was great. 

An Adventure in London: Day 1

I've spent the last couple days in London, seeing all the sights and spending some time with one of my English friends.

Francine and I left early (and I do mean early. Like 5:50 early.) on Wednesday morning. We didn't leave quite as early as we planned, because I ended up forgetting my shoes and had to go back for them. Then we got on the bus to get to our coach. But evidently we got on the wrong bus, because it didn't go to Piccadilly, so we got of on the wrong stop and took a taxi the rest of the way. Then we sat at the coach station for 15 minutes with this god-awful buzzing sound driving us insane. I have no idea what it was, but it was really annoying.

Then we had a four hour coach ride, which I mostly slept through. Once we got to London, we made out way on the tube to Mill Hill, which is where Fran's Grandma lives. Ann, Fran's grandma, was kind enough to let us stay with her for a couple days. She is an absolutely amazing woman, and she has a very thick Irish accent that I love. She was so kind, and even made me a cup of tea.

We made our way into London, and our first stop was Westminster. We saw the famous clock tower, which, by the way, is NOT called Big Ben. The bell is called Big Ben, and the tower itself is the Elizabeth Clock Tower.

And it was such a beautiful day!

Then we continued on to Westminster Abbey, which was recently the site of a royal wedding! We didn't go in, because it was expensive, but it was magnificent enough from the outside. At one point, we were standing on top of a wall to get better pictures, and this group of seven or eight boys with skateboards walked past and shouted, "Get those angles, girls!" Which made no sense at all. And then one of them tripped so we started dying. Anyway, here are the pictures we took:

Sadly, it was too expensive to go inside. 

Then we went for a walk in St. James's Park, which is just alone the road from Westminster Abbey. It was very beautiful, because the flowers have finally arrived and the trees are beginning to bloom.

 We were silly and took some fun pictures under the blossoms; Francine didn't get as into it as I did. We did get some funny looks though.

Then we went to a pub to meet some of Francine's old friends, who were lovely. We had a great time, and then went to dinner with them too. Then we made our way back to Mill Hill and crashed very soon after.

Paris: Icons of France

I'm sorry that this post is so late; I've been spending some much needed time with family these past couple days.

But back to Paris!

The first day we were in Paris, we visited the Notre Dame. The famous cathedral and the set of Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame. As you probably know, the novel tells the story of a hunchback called Quasimodo who is a bell-ringer in the cathedral of Paris. The hunchback falls in love with a beautiful gypsy girl called Esmeralda. Sound familiar? That's because of Disney:

Thanks Disney!

At the time of writing this story, the cathedral was in a terrible state and desperately needed to be repaired. When the book was published, people became interested in the cathedral and everyone insisted on renovating the building, thereby saving it from certain destruction.

So while I'd seen the cathedral before, it had only been in cartoon form. Here was the real thing, right before my eyes:

Do you remember at the very beginning of the film, when Frolllo kills the gypsy woman right on the steps of Notre Dame, and the Priest warns him of the "eyes of Notre Dame?"

This part. It used to scare me when I was little. 

That part is surprisingly accurate. When I walked through the doors, I felt eyes on me. The entire façade is covered in a row of saints, looking on and silently judging. The gargoyles on the top were also quite impressive, though they never did pop to life.

Mady and I. This is the back of the cathedral.

We visited the Louvre on the second day. And while we didn't actually go in, there was plenty to see outside as well, such as the famous pyramids. The glass pyramid was built by I.M. Pei, and was inaugurated on March 30, 1989. They were resisted at first, because the metal and glass clash severely with the old and stately building where it is based.

Mom is getting really impatient for this one. So here it is: The Eiffel Tower. 

Me in the rain... with a ton of other tourists. 

Me and Mady actually visited the Eiffel Tower on three different occasions. The first time it was raining, so we didn't stay long at all; only long enough to snap a couple of pictures. The second time we went, it was dark. That was my favorite visit, because the Tower looked so beautiful all lit up. 

This is one of my favorite photos that I've ever taken.
I may have to invest in a real camera when I go home. 

At eight, the Tower started to sparkle. It was so amazing, and I could feel the excitement in the air. Mady and I were breathless and laughing, and we were running under the tower to the other side to capture the event in a picture. Sadly, none of the pictures turned out great. This is the bast one:

The last time we made our way to the Eiffel Tower, it was the day we were to leave. So we got up early to see it one last time, and get some last chance photos. 

The last day in Paris, but what a great time we had!

Our very last stop was the Arc de Triomphe (Arch of Triumph). It was built between 1806 and 1836, and stands at the centre of the Place Charles de Gaulle. The Arch stands 162 ft tall, 150 ft wide and 72 ft deep. It's absolutely massive. The arch is in honor of those who fought for France, in particular, those who fought during the Napoleonic Wars. Engraved on the inside and at the top of the arch are all of the names of the generals and wars fought. There are inscriptions in the ground underneath the vault of the arch which include the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I, where the Memorial Flame burns.

Weekend in Wales

So I didn't really spend the weekend in Wales per say, but I did spend two days, so it was like a weekend. And "Weekend in Wales" sounds was better than "Wednesday and Thursday in Wales."

Anyway, Susan and Ray were kind enough to take me to Wales to see my first castles! We left around 10 in the morning, and our first stop was Conwy Castle.

Conwy was built for Edward I between 1283 and 1289. The castle has a total of eight huge round towers (but we only climbed up a couple) and the views from the battlements are amazing. They look out across both the mountains and the sea. From the top of the tower, we could see Conwy's whole ring of town walls. Conwy is the classic walled town. Its circuit of walls are almost a mile long and guarded by 22 towers.

That's me, wishing for a castle of my own...

The best photo I took of Conwy, from atop one of the towers.

After Conwy, we took a slight detour to see the smallest house in Britain. It's so tiny; only one room (a kitchen I think) and a ladder to a loft as a bedroom. It doesn't look all that bad in the first picture, so I included the neighbor house in the second one for scale.

We also saw this lovely lady dressed in traditional Welsh dress. 

The nest stop was this lighthouse on the coast by the name of South Stack. This is the same place that they took my Aunt Stacey when she came to visit years ago. We didn't actually go down to the lighthouse, because the weather was horrible. It was cold and raining, and the wind was the worst of all. I would have loved it had the weather been nicer, because it was so beautiful. Susan said that when the weather is nicer, you can sometimes see the seals playing around here. And had it not been so foggy across the water, I would have been able to see the coast of Ireland.

South Stack Lighthouse

A beautiful picture of the Coast. I could definitely live around here. 

The last stop of the day was Llanfair­pwllgwyngyll­gogery­chwyrn­drobwll­llan­tysilio­gogo­goch. Yes, that's actually the name of the town. It means "St Mary's church in the hollow of the white hazel near to the fierce whirlpool and the church of St Tysilio of the red cave" in Welsh. Locals call it Llanfair PG for short, and I don't blame them. I wouldn't call it by the actually name either. It is in the Guinness Book of Records for being the place with the longest name in Britain. With 58 characters, it is the longest place name in Europe and the second longest official one-word place name in the world (the winner being Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoron-ukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu in New Zealand).

The next day we got up and had a nice breakfast at a local pub before heading to our second castle in as many days: Caernarfon. the construction of Caernarfon be can in 1283, and was completed in 1330. Interior buildings no longer survive and many of the building plans were never finished. After the English Civil War, Caernarfon Castle was allowed to fall into ruin, until the 19th century when the state funded repairs. In 1911, Caernarfon Castle was used for the investiture of the Prince of Wales, and again in 1969 with the investiture of Prince Charles.

The castle was a labyrinth of passageways and tight spiral stairs. Many corridors led to dead ends and I had to turn around. The stairs were a nightmare; all of the stairs were the steep and spiral variety. They were also uneven, and one had to be careful when placing one's feet. The way down was twice as difficult as the way up. We only climbed to the top of one tower because of this.

This is the view when you first walk in.

And this is the view of the castle from atop the tower we climbed. 

Guys, I want a castle. Look how at home I look!

I also made a friend. This is the resident castle cat, who was very friendly, and we became quite a pair. I pet her once, and picked her up and set her on my lap, and from that moment on we were best friends. But then she wouldn't leave me alone. My jeans have cat prints all over them now, but that's ok, because I was having cuddly animal withdrawals. Castle Cat helped me a little.

Isn't she pretty? 

One last view of the castle walls, from the outside.

Then we went to the beach!!! We went to a rocky beach first, which I absolutely loved. Rocky beaches aren't nearly as messy as sandy beaches, and the rocks all look so pretty. I'm a fan. 

That island in the background is Puffin Island. :)

Another picture of the coastline

Susan and Ray and I found some pretty seashells. I kept them.

One more picture of the coast :) I just loved it so much!

On the way home, we took a roundabout way through Snowdonia, the mountain range in Wales. It was gorgeous, and it made me want to go climb a mountain! Which is weird, because I don't do that. But maybe I should start, because look at this view: