Because going to London and saying you've seen England would be like going to New York and saying you've seen the entire United States

The internet is powerful stuff. This weekend, while I was staying in a bed and breakfast in Blackpool, I was talking to the man who owned the house about a British TV show called Top Gear, which features road tests and crazy stunts done with cars. The show is very popular in the United Kingdom (The security guard in my dorm even watches it through the windows of the TV room) but has not made its way to the United States yet. As we talked, the man mentioned an episode that I had watched on Youtube a while ago, before I even knew I was coming to London. It was great to make that cultural connection with him. Internet piracy is making our world smaller.

Blackpool was beautiful. It used to be the place to go to the beach for the weekend from anywhere in Britain, but in the past few decades it's gotten less attention because Ryanair can fly you to the coast of Spain for so little money. Because of this, it's retained a lot of its old-fashioned charm. In Blackpool, three piers extend over the beach, each with games and small rides and great views. At low tide, you can walk out for about 1,000 feet onto the beach below, which slopes very slowly into the Irish Sea. Blackpool was one of the first towns in the world to be wired up with electricity, and it still shows today. At night, the Illuminations festival, which runs through November, lit up the streets with lights strung across the street and on the sidewalk for miles, as if Christmas were coming early. Old double-deck streetcars ran along the waterfront, Britain's oldest continually-function tramway. Even though the beach is nice, it was cold, getting as low as 40 degrees at night. I'd like 1928 better if it were warmer.

Before Blackpool I had been in Manchester for one night. Famous football team, old industrial revolution history, but nothing to really see. Don't go to Manchester. It's not too exciting. The Museum of Industry was interesting, but that's about it.

Liverpool, on the other hand, was quite nice. Famous for being the birthplace of the Beatles, I biked out of the town center to see Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane beneath the blue suburban sky. Back in the city center, I went to The Cavern, the club that was active in the 1960s where The Beatles were discovered and many other musical group, including The Who and Queen, performed. The entire street The Cavern's on, actually, was dominated by live music on Saturday night, and the sounds of numerous guitars could be heard pouring out of the half a dozen or so venues on the street.

Britain outside of London was, like the United States outside of New York, less exciting and quieter. On the train ride up north, I passed a number of farms with sheep and cows. The center of all three places I went was dominated by an outdoor car-free shopping area. It appeared to be the local hangout for high school kids in each place. Even though these shopping areas featured all chain stores, it seemed to be a nicer solution than sticking Wal-Mart and Costco on the side of a busy road for retail.

This weekend was the Durham Fair. It's the biggest event in town that happens every year, and this is the first time in at least fifteen years I haven't gone. I knew this day would come sometime, when I'd have something bigger and better to do than head home for the weekend and enjoy popcorn, llama shows, and seeing old friends. Traveling around Britain is fun, but I did miss the fair this weekend. I'll go next year.

In Liverpool there was a modern art gallery. On an old wooden table in the museum, surrounded by paintings and sculptures, was a red binder. Inside, people had written all kinds of words of encouragement, drawn smiley faces, and shared funny stories. One man wrote a poem for his wife.

I love you so much

You light up my life

I'm so glad I met you

And made you my wife

And when we're both older

And wrinkly and gray

I'll love you as much

As I love you today

It made me smile.

Little streets made of gray stones

Rome lives on a different schedule than the rest of the world. At midnight, the piazzas are still crowded with people eating dinner in the warm September air at the restaurants. At 6:00 in the morning, no one is around, not even the early commuters on their way to work. So as I made my way to the train station this morning to catch my early flight back to London, I had to hail a taxi from a stand because I could not get a bus. When we arrived two days ago, the driver who took us to the apartment we rented from the train station ended up driving us to an unfamiliar neighborhood. After a frazzled hour of arguing with the poor agent from the apartment agency, we learned that the apartment we had reserved had a plumbing problem and settled in to our new Roman residence, a large place in the Trastevere neighborhood in the center of Rome.

Roman piazza

Rome is arranged around beautiful piazzas, squares with churches. Unlike London's squares, which are quiet, grass-filled places where locals can relax, Rome's piazzas are busy with all sorts of people shopping, eating, or just passing through during the day.
Sunday morning my grandmother and I went to a flea market. It stretched for at least half a mile down the neighborhood. It was very busy and had very cheap prices on electronics, clothes, and souvenirs.

Tiber River at dusk

We went to the Pantheon, but stayed away from the other touristy sights like the Vatican, Spanish Steps, and the Colosseum. I liked walking around and seeing the way real Romans lived, not just the old ruins from 2,000 years ago. Even so, we inevitably stumbled upon the occasional ancient ruins in this 2,000 year old capitol.

There are always archaeologists uncovering more of ancient Rome

On the way into London this morning the plane flew right over the city.

Today I got my placement for the SHINE project, a volunteer opportunity in which I help out in a London elementary school classroom. I will be at St. Andrews Primary School in the London borough of Islington. I am excited to start next week.


This evening I was checking my bank account to see how much money I had spent in my first three weeks here. I spent more than I expected-about $1400 more! Someone had stolen my debit card, somehow, and was withdrawing £200 twice a day all weekend while I was in Italy. I have to live frugally for the next couple of weeks before I get a new debit card in the mail. Hopefully I have enough cash to live off of until then.

Side note: I'm not sure why some of the pictures come out with high-resolution versions when clicked and some don't. I uploaded that last one differently via my Flickr account. I'll do the rest like that.

Rain on the Riviera

Train from the airport to Monterosso

I never got to see the sun turn the pastel colors of the Riviera’s stucco houses to gold. Yesterday, on my day in the small village of Monterosso on Italy’s northwest coast, it rained all morning and afternoon, finally giving way to a humid and cloudy night.

Cliffs dropping into the ocean

Monterosso from way up on the trail

But despite the rain, I had a wonderful time traveling with my grandparents, who are in Europe for the week. Monterosso, the northernmost village in the Cinque Terre national park, is built on the bottom of huge cliffs that drop sharply into the Ligurian Sea. It is connected to the other four villages in the Cinque Terre, all built along the water, by a footpath that scales the cliffs and looks out on the clear sea below. After breakfast in the hotel, which was high above the village and built into the cliff, my grandmother and I set off for Vernazza, a village located on the other end of the longest and most remote stretch of the Cinque Terre paths. Along the way, we wound our way past thousands of terraces filled with grape vines used for making wine.

Train used for collecting grapes that winds around the mountain

Vernazza from the trail

A light rain during the hike kept us cool but not wet, but on arrival to Vernazza it started to downpour. We grabbed some real Italian pizza from a restaurant in the village and sat under my umbrella as tourists and villagers ran for cover from the rain. We then hopped a train to the southernmost village of Riomaggiore and walked along the short and well-paved trail to Manarola, even though it was downpouring. Of course, I enjoyed some gelato during my stay in the Cinque Terre! Ice cream in London is a rare treat, with a pint costing over ₤4 ($6) in every grocery store.
As I write, I am racing toward Rome on a train with compartments like the Hogwarts Express (They even came by with a food cart, but it wasn’t selling any Bertie Botts’ Every Flavor Beans). There, my grandparents and I will meet up with my uncle, who is teaching a study abroad class for the University of Washington. When I came to Italy five years ago on a family vacation one summer, I remember passing fields of sunflowers and seeing rows of vibrant yellow all pointed in the same direction to face the sun. The train just passed a field of dead sunflowers, all brown, all facing in different directions, many fallen over. Maybe Rome will have peanut butter. Grandma is upset because she can’t find any in Italy.

"When it's three o'clock in New York, it's still 1938 in London."-Bette Midler

I'm starting to feel more of the "study" aspect of study abroad. Classes are in full swing, but the workload is not too bad yet, although I do have a couple of papers assigned already. About half my classes included walking field trips all over London, where the professor talks about the history of the neighborhood and its buildings (all in the same fashion as the Power in the City class I took in New York). London's so nice with its narrow winding streets and brick buildings, it's sometimes hard to understand why it's compared with New York's busy sidewalks and wide avenues. Everything is pretty and old. So far, my classes have taken me to the Prime Meridian, the British Museum, and on top of St. Paul's Cathedral. St. Paul's has amazing views of London, and despite the light rain, it was fantastic to look out over the entire city.

Naval College at Greenwich

This weekend the Thames Festival was held on the river. The festival is an event with live music, stalls that sell tons of food and merchandise, and games. The festivities conclude with a parade and fireworks. The fireworks scene was as crowded as the riverbank could possibly get. After a while, my friends and I gave up and sat down in some empty chairs in a park, surrounded by a mob of people pushing toward the waterfront. While we didn't have a riverfront view, the fireworks show was just as amazing, and we didn't have to fight the crowd. Before the Thames Festival, I went out to Portobello Road Market. Lots of antiques, trendy shirts, and the best lunch I've eaten in London yet-a chicken wrap and a nutella crepe.

Fireworks at Thames Festival-The perfect view!

Grandma and Grandpa are landing at Heathrow in about an hour. Tomorrow when I'm not in class I'll be showing them around London.

3,454 miles away

It’s like coming to a new college all over again. I don’t know anyone, it’s normal to attend orientation sessions just to meet new people even though I already know what’s going on, and, somehow, even though I’ve spent years in classrooms, I still don’t know exactly what these British professors expect of me. But that’s all part of the experience. These New York University students are different from their Manhattan College counterparts. To me, they’re all hipsters who care about music, maybe a little too much, and most of them like experimenting with all sorts of drugs. Still, I love their passion for culture that Manhattan College students are usually lacking, and I am making friends and enjoying their music.
 

There was a Tube strike today. I'm glad I have that bike. There was a massive traffic jam winding its way through the city. The cab drivers must love it when the Tube shuts down. At this point, I've ridden my bike past most of the touristy stuff-Buckingham Palace, Piccadilly Circus, Parliament, St. Paul's, and over the tower bridge. A bunch of us went to the Tate Modern and saw the Lichtensteins and the Warhols on Sunday before classes started on Monday. Last night offered the opportunity for a relaxing night at a pub right around the corner from the dorm with some of the new people I’ve met here. So far, experiencing the quintessential London stuff. There are no local students around yet, since the University of London does not start until the week of September 27th. When it does, the neighborhood will be buzzing, since University of London has an enrollment of five times the size of Uconn.
 

Classes seem really interesting, for the most part. I have only had two classes so far. One of them appears to be a somewhat technical architecture course, but it seems like it will incorporate some captivating stories of what makes London unique as well. The other seems very good, a class about what has made London a global city in the past 30 years or so, which is more or less some of the stuff I look up on Wikipedia in my free time anyway. These classes, though, are three hours long. This won’t be too bad when the class takes a walking tour of a neighborhood or a trip to a museum, but in a classroom it’s a long time. The material’s interesting, though, and NYU students have told me that they have not had a bad professor. Ever.
 

I was talking to someone here who's been to Dubai. She said it's all so new and shiny, it feels fake in a Disney World kind of way. Everyone here agrees, London's not New York. I think that might be a good thing. I don't need a map any more.

I'm entirely bonkers. But all the best people are.

Yesterday I did something crazy. It all started with the book sale. A local bookstore came to the academic center and tried to sell us books. I wouldn't have any of it. I went back to my room and ordered some on Amazon.co.uk for much cheaper. But when I was filling out the shipping address, I couldn't remember the postcode for the life of me. I went on the NYU blackboard, where all the helpful hints about study abroad are kept, hoping to dig up a file containing the full address of the NYU center. While I did not come up with any  postcode, I did end up finding a link to a website called Gumtree.com, which is the British equivalent to Craigslist. Poking around, I noticed that there were people selling bikes on Gumtree for £40 or £50. I then researched when the London bike hire, which allows anyone to use public shared bikes for short-term use for £1 a day, would be available to people without British bank accounts. As it turned out, mayor Boris Johnson just announced that it would not be at least until November. The original launch date was scheduled for July 30, but the new system has problems that are still being worked out.
Since coming to London,I have missed the convenience of having my bike in New York. Walking seems painfully slow compared to riding a bike, and a subway fare here is even more expensive than in New York, with the cheapest Tube fares start at £1.80 ($2.78) and go up from there depending on how long your journey is.
So I sent out messages to people on Gumtree who were selling cheap bikes that I could use while in London. I only got one response back saying that I could have a bike for £50 ($77) and I could pick it up any time. Yesterday evening I set off to Elephant and Castle to buy a used bike. A direct bus took me there from Russell Square for £1.20.
Elephant and Castle is ugly. It's a series of very busy intersections with too many cars driving quite quickly. The neighborhood I picked up the bike in, though just a few steps from this awful road, was quiet and nice. Little row houses set back in a small, car-free complex. I picked a bench in the neighborhood to meet the seller and get the bike. The seller came to meet me. She was about my age, a student who had studied in London this summer and was ready to head back to her home in Germany. We stood in her front yard, and she told me about how the bike had gears but she never used them because London is so flat and other practical information.
When I mentioned I was from the United States, one of the seller's friends asked me, "Why are you here? Isn't the United States the best country in the world?" I was surprised. Surely, these foreigners must know that, like any other country, the United States has its share of problems. But then again, there are many Americans-probably the majority of Americans-who think that, yes, the United States is the best country in the world. Maybe I'm the weird one who doesn't see why it's so amazing.
After exchanging money and thank-yous, I began riding back to my dorm, avoiding most of the terrible Elephant and Castle traffic by taking a different route. I was not entirely sure where I was going, but I knew I was heading in the right direction. I passed Waterloo Station and ended up crossing Westminster Bridge. It was dusk, and it was absolutely amazing riding over that bridge, going just a little slower than London traffic even on that heavy mountain bike, looking around at a sweeping panoramic view of the Thames with Parliament and Big Ben taking center stage.
In the end, it might have been easier and cheaper to just open a British bank account, transfer some money over, and make use of the public bike hire system. If I did that, though, I wouldn't have gotten a bike, seen a different part of London, and meet locals all at the same time.

Free Bird

It was a good start. Everything was on time. I arrived at the airport early, and passing through New York’s outer boroughs with little traffic during rush hour is rare. But after tossing my bag onto the conveyer belt, exchanging hugs goodbye, and heading to the plane, I was finally on my way out of the United States.

The plane sailed off into the stars and, one sleepless night later, I found myself in the customs line at Heathrow airport. I had arrived. Along the way I met the guy in the seat next to me, who was a NYU student originally from Minnesota traveling to London to study computer science. On the shuttle bus to the dormitory I met other students. In the 90 minutes of painfully slow traffic between Heathrow and Bloomsbury, I learned that many NYU students come from all over the country, unlike Manhattan College. My roommate, however, is a New York City native who seems like a nice guy with a relaxed personality. As soon as I saw the bed, I wanted to sleep. Determined to fight jetlag, I left the room and took a walking tour of the neighborhood, bought a cell phone, and got groceries.

So far, this study abroad adventure seems to have a lot of potential, but I haven’t really been here long enough to enjoy any of what London has to offer. After dinner I’m going to rest up for a day of orientation activities tomorrow.