Regent's Park

Im a tad bit behind on my posting, but hopefully I can catch up soon. On Sunday a glorious and rare occasion came to pass--the sun came out! This put a bit of a damper on my original plans to be bummy, sit in my sweats all day, and do some homework. As tempting as it was to carry on with my original plans I just couldn't pass up the good weather. I decided to go to one of the royal parks-- The Regent's Park.

The Regent's Park is a short tube ride away from Russell Square, on the Bakerloo line at Regents Parl (hard to guess). It's rather large, containing the London Zoo at the north and Primrose Hill. It also houses Queen Mary's Garden which I'm sure is beautiful in spring, but was kind of dull. Kelsey, Annie, and I brought sandwiches and ate lunch on one of the benches. It was nice to watch the people in the park. There were a lot of joggers and bikers taking advantage of the good weather. Families were also out and about, on walks and playing football (soccer). There were a lot of people reading as well, though as the sun went down it got extremely cold.

We didn't get a chance to walk the entire park as it got cold very quickly, but I definitely want to revisit Regent's Park as well as the other royal parks. It was nice to escape the hustle & bustle of the city and be surrounded by some greenery.

Hip-Hop ya don't stop.

On Friday I went to my first real british club courtesy of one of our ACCENT staff members, Matt. It was in Brixton, in a sketch area but it was brilliant. It was called Plan B. There were a couple djs spinning throughout most of the early night, then at midnight two local rappers got onstage and started doing their thing. I couldnt understand a lot of what they said, but the atmosphere was really invigorating, just the raw music and the energy the crowd was giving off. I also liked intermingling with the british folk, met lots of guys (hey, it was a hiphop show) and listened to them talk about the music. I watched a lot of guys who were really drunk dance ridiculously, which I guess was entertaining if not mostly disturbing. The night ended with a mission to find a way home, since the tube stops running at midnight (isnt that stupid?). Ended up taking the night bus to the british museum and then walking the block home. Overall, the first real night out was a success.

Week One.

I have officially survived my first week in London. I can't believe I have already been here for a week! The Annenberg program is amazing, and I definitely feel like I've seen a lot of the popular sights. Now I'm trying to settle into the daily hustle & bustle of actually living in one of the world's busiest metropolises. This includes searching the local Sainsbury's, Waitrose, and Tesco for the cheapest McVitties and figuring out which line to take on the tube. I feel like I'm doing a pretty good job at this so far.

Let me recap some of the last week on a day-to-day basis:

Wednesday, 6 January 2010: Departed from LAX at 6:30 pm after being delayed for an hour. I was so antsy. I just wanted to go! I slept a bit on the plane, and watched Fame (which sucked) and The September Issue (which was fabulous). Sat by a british bloke who teaches at SDSU...he was coming to the motherland to visit family. Very nice chap, and he pointed out some of the sights as we flew over London in the morning.

Thursday, 7 January 2010: Arrive in London around noon and take a bus to 19 Bedford Place. I remember feeling slightly carsick during this ride because I was sitting backwards, nevertheless this was the first look I got at London and I was excited! That evening the group went out to a pub just a few blocks from the ACCENT center, where we take classes. This was where i tasted my first authentic british food...and unfortunately, I was underwhelmed.

Friday, 8 January 2010: Early morning start with an orientation at the ACCENT center. This was very helpful, but I don't remember that much about it because jetlag started kicking in at full force. That afternoon we took a walking tour of Covent Garden and the surrounding area. It was really neat to see what was right in our backyard. That night the whole group went out for Patrick's 21st birthday which was fun. We ended up going to this little bar in the basement of a lebanese restaurant which we basically took over and converted to a club.

Saturday, 9 January 2010: Went to Portabello Market, a street market with lots of local vendors selling silver, tea sets, warm accessories, books, pictures, and much, much more. It was freezing that day and the entire market was outdoors, so I saw as much as I could before I felt like my feet were going to fall off. Ate a scrumdiddlyumptious ham and cheese sandwich that was only £2.

Sunday, 10 January 2010: Took a coach tour of London. This was really helpful because I got a better picture of the layout of london in comparison to where I am staying. We got to see part of the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, the tower of london, the tower bridge, westminster abbey, parliament, big ben (which is NOT the name of the clock, but the name of a bell!), St.Paul's Cathedral, Piccadilly Circus, Harrods, and more.

Monday, 11 January, 2010: First day of class!!! I started off this day sick, unfortunately, and went to boots in the morning to ask a chemist (not pharmacist) what I should take for my runny nose. The plus side to this trip was discovering Waitrose, which is a large supermarket that kind of reminds me of Target. It's a bit pricier than Sainsbury's but its AMAZING. This also led to my discovery of the New Brunswick shopping center, an outdoor shopping center that houses lots of shops and food places (including Crussh, which i think is the british equivalent of Jamba Juice). Class was okay, kind of boring because it was the first day but it seems like its going to be really interesting. My professor works for the BBC, and we are actually going to design a media project for social change. Cheers to classes that actually matter.

Tuesday, 12 January 2010: NO CLASSSSSS!!! I met up with Stephanie, one of my friends from USC who is studying at King's College, and we went to the British Museum and Harrods. The British Museum is MASSIVE and I only got to see the Thebes room, which houses mummies and other ancient egyptian artifacts (most of which I knew about because of references made to them in The Mummy) , and the Parthenon room which had lots of statues that the brits took from the greeks.

Wednesday, 13 January 2010: Rhetoric of London class in the morning, My professor speaks like the typical british professor--slow and very proper. I would normally be ecstatic about this, except at 9:30 in the morning this tends to put me to sleep. That afternoon we took a tour of the Tower of London which was one of my favorite things so far. I got to see one of the oldest buildings in london, where so many people of historical notoriety once passed through. Of course, being obsessed with The Tudors, my favorite former residents were Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. It was kind of creepy to be in the Tower when it was closing...one of the guards shooed us away, but I definitely left wondering about all the horrible torture that so many people endured hundreds of years prior to my visit. For dinner I went to this really good portuguese chicken place called Nando's. It was the best chicken I've ever eaten. At night Kelsey, Annie, Michelle and I booked our trip to Berlin for the first weekend in february... which was so exciting!

Thursday, 14 January 2010: Full day of class proved pretty interesting, actually. In the am I had Media Consumption taught by Shawn Powers. It seems like it's going to be very helpful in bridging a lot of the other communication classes I've taken. Interpreting Popular Culture is probably going to be my favorite class. It's all about the music scene in London and how it developed and changed from the blues age to now. There's a particular emphasis on the Beatles and we are going to focus on punk for a class period so I am SO EXCITED. Also, any professor that mentions The Clash, Lily Allen, Amy Winehouse, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and The Smiths on the first day of class is alright by me :)


And now, to balance out this mass of text with something more visually stimulating, here are just a few photos out of the hundreds I have already taken.