EXCITING NEWS!!!!!!!!!!

Oh my gosh!!! As I write this I am levitating out of my seat with excitement!!!! Josh Ritter is coming to London!!!!!!!!!!!! The venue he is playing at is literally a 10 minute walk from my house!!!!!! I am going tomorrow to see if I can get tickets!!!!!!!!!! March 31st baby!!!!!!!!!!!

my writing

Hey just so you know I write these really fast and usually don't check for spelling/grammar errors. Sorry if it's annoying.

Temple Church (well the outside)

Dylan and I went to see Temple Church a few days ago. Temple church was built by the Knight's Templar (the monk warrior dudes founded to protect pilgrims going back and forth to Jerusalem in the 12th century). Like idiots we forgot to check and see if it was open that day. The church itself wasn't open-they were having first communion. So we just walked around and explored the outside. It was a strange place. The church itself was surrounded by office buildings and apartments. Nice ones. Really nice ones, the names on the buzzers had a lot of Lord so and so and Lady blah. There were also a lot of beautiful gardens. It is open to the public but they certainly don't advertise. We weren't sure we were in the right place for the longest time. So we walked up the street, through the guard gate(that man was not helpful at all), and wandered around the maze of buildings not sure if we were going the right way till a courtyard opened up and we saw the church. I don't know if it was in my imagination(probably) but the whole place had a very secretive air about it.

Read this for some of the history. Remember if you click on the pictures they get bigger!

The tall statue has two Knights Templar on one horse. The knights didn't have enough money for them to have their own horses.


I have yet to meet cool door I didn't want to take a picture of. This door had a huge keyhole:

I should have put my finger next to it to show scale. Anyway, I looked through the keyhole to see what was happening inside and all I could see was some brown leather boots. They looked like olden days Robin Hood boots. They were lace ups.It cracked me up. I was like, "Dylan come here! Check out these boots!"

On the walk back to the tube station(blackfriars, on a building next to it there is a black statue of guess what? a friar) we passed St. Bride's Church.

Read this for the history I am once again too lazy to type up:

Pretty cool church. I'll definitely have to come back and explore the inside.

Building faces

These guys were just on a random building in London. No sign or anything to tell us why they were there or what they meant.

flickr

I forgot to tell everyone how to get to my flickr account. If you go to flickr.com and search for elsila1 under people you should be able to find me! To leave comments I think you have to have a yahoo account(which is free). I love comments!

It makes more sense to just view my sets. They are sets of pictures in different places so I have a Oxford set and a St. Paul's set, etc. It's easier than looking at a giant line of pictures you're not sure where they are. They are also in the order I put them in and not all discombobulated like the ones under "elsila1's pictures."

Brighton day trip

Last week I went on a daytrip to Brighton Beach with Alissa, Dan, Zach and Dylan. We took the bus and man am I glad I packed the Dramamine, it was a bumpy ride. It was pretty empty, so for most of the ride I slept curled up on two seats. At one point I was sleeping facing the backs of the seats and the bus driver braked really hard and I fell into the leg room area. Rude awakening!

When we arrived we couldn't believe how sunny it was! I was sorry I had forgotten to pack my sunglasses. We of course did the expected, cheesy, "it's so bright in Brighton" jokes. hardy harr harr. lol

The beach! Famous Brighton Pier. Which turned out to not be all that impressive. Just a bunch of subpar carnival rides that were waaay to expensive to ride. Must have been a huge deal in the 40's though.

Where's the sand!? I picked up two rocks to take home. One for Sue in my office and one for me.

Alissa and I.

The Royal Pavilion. Built by George IV.

Brighton's history is quite tawdry(that's a good word). It's history reads like a cheap romance novel and before it was a place for families to go on a beach holiday Brighton was known as a place to take a mistress or two for a weekend.

Because it was such a beautiful day we spent most of it wandering through the town, the gardens and the palace grounds. So many people were out on the streets and everyone was smiling. I heard more than one person say, "it's just like summer!" We got milkshakes at a place called Shakeaways. They have over 160 flavors of milkshakes, including tic tac flavor eeeeeew. I ended up getting the kinder bueno flavored one(I'm currently obsessed with this candy bar).

We saw all sorts of street musicians: jazz, raggae, a dude with a guitar, and big bands like this one. The sign says community.

They were showing "Danny the Champion of the World" at the playhouse and I was freaking out with excitement because that is one of my favorite books of all time. Turns out it was Alissa's too. So she and I decided to see the matinee show. The boys didn't want to so they went off somewhere and we went to see it. It was geared towards kids but it was still great.

After the play Alissa and I went down to the beach to the first beach sunset we'd seen since we'd been here.

I took about sixteen shots. I won't put them all on here but they're all on flickr of course!

After the sunset(which put me in such a good mood.)we met the boys and together went and had a fantastic dinner at a place called Pinochio's. It was the best meal I've had in a long time. They had a two course deal so I had minestrone soup and four cheese ravioli. It took us longer than it should have to count everyone's change for the bill and the waiters started laughing and making fun of us!!!

Afterwards we went to have a pint before we caught our bus back and picked a random pub. Turns out it was a gay pub. It was called the Black Horse lol. The bartender tried to sneakily take a picture of one of the guys in our group hahahaha. I don't know what the was about but I've never seen the poor boy so red. After that we went to our bus depot. Alissa and I had to pee so we popped into a random club next to the depot. Turned out it was a gay club! HAHA. Brighton must have a huge gay community. I got hit on by a woman wearing a GI Jane costume(it was dress up night there). She asked what my costume was and I said tourist. That cracked her up.

We had a little bit of time left and the boys wanted snacks for the bus. How they were hungry after that meal we had I have no idea but we went to the nastiest grocery store I've ever been in. It smelled soooo bad and the fruit was rotting in the bins. Gross.

We all napped the whole way back to London. It was a good day.

London is amazing

London is amazing. Every night I can't fall asleep because I'm still so excited to be here. Everyday something interesting/exciting/amazing happens.

Protest outside of Goodge Street Station

Walking up the street to Goodge Street Station I heard chanting, but I couldn't make out what they were saying. When I rounded the corner I saw this:

About a hundred people were gathered.

Turns out they were protesting scientology. There is a scientology center right next to Goodge Street Station. They are always handing us flyers for "free stress tests" and asking us if we want peace for the world and in our hearts. One of them was rude to me once. When I said I had to go because I was late for class he called me a liar.

I was curious because these people were really against scientology. I mean they had some seriously emotional chanting going on. They were also wearing V for Vendetta- Guy Fawkes masks. I had to ask what this was all about.(When I got home and told people that I took pictures and gasp! actually talked to the protestors people were shocked. Some girls in the house actually walked four blocks out of their way because they were afraid of going near the protest. I'm not really sure what they were so afraid of.)

Turns out the protestors thought scientology was a cult that kills people and steals money from them, etc. They were wearing the masks because they thought that the scientologist were taking pictures of the group and would follow them home and hmm... I'm not exactly sure what they thought they would do to them but it wasn't good.

I asked these guys what they were all about:

They were quite a nice lot.

Now I don't personally have anything against scientology, but it was great to see a protest in another country. First off the cops were there but they weren't freaking out or trying to break it up(and the protestors were loud), in fact they had a barricade set up for them. Interesting. Like the old quote that says I don't agree with you but dude you definitely have the right to say whatevuh you want(or something like that).

Oxford day trip

Last Saturday I went on a solo daytrip to Oxford. Some people in the house said they wanted to go but everyone ended up changing their minds. I thought to myself I can wait around to do cool stuff with other people, which means that cool stuff might not happen at all, or go it alone. So I decided to go it alone. I was so excited! First to see Oxford, of course, a place I've wanted to see since I first read the Golden Compass and the Subtle Knife and second to travel alone for the first time ever. wow that sentence is nice and long.

I booked my train two nights before I left and it was the most frustrating experience I've ever had buying online. The people who design websites here must all be smoking something because they just don't make any sense. It took my two hours to do something that should have taken twenty minutes. But I got that sorted out and I was ready. I left the house at seven in the morning and walked to the tube station in the freezing semidarkness. When I was on the tube it stopped in the tunnel and a lady came over the loudspeaker and announced that the train would be delayed because of a "body under the tracks ahead." I, of course, was like oh my gosh and my mouth dropped open. I looked around at everyone else and they didn't seem to care at all. They just kept on reading there newspapers and books and didn't blink an eye. I thought I would be late but I guess they got the body of the tracks fast and I was soon on my way again. Even with they delay I got to Paddington Station super early. I found a seat facing the platform announcements and waited and people watched. It was so funny because there were pigeons just wandering around Paddington station between peoples feet of perched next to a businessman reading the paper. No one seemed to care.

Another interesting thing about Paddington is how quiet it is. Everyone seemed to be whispering. There was no yelling or loud echoing shouts like you'd expect. So I was sitting there people watching for about 45minutes. There was always about a hundred people standing or sitting around watching the platform announcements. Then without any changes in the platform announcements at all 50 people would all of a sudden gather up their things and start scurrying en masse to a certain platform. I don't get it. How did they know to go?

I wanted to make sure I had all my information correct so I went to find some help. The people whose job it is to help passengers wander around all the stations in bright-green-highlighter colored vests. I had to ask three different people because the first didn't know english, the second said, "oh tickets, I'm not good with questions about those." And what praytell are you good with? I wanted to say but didn't. Finally, the third person could help me. And boy is it lucky I asked. For some reason even though my ticket said London Paddington to Oxford the platform announcement and train I had to look for said it was going Hereford. How could I know this!! What if I hadn't asked!? It wasn't on the ticket. So, I ran to the Hereford train found my seat and was really on my way.

I decided to save money by walking into Oxford from the train station instead of taking the bus. It was only a ten minute walk to the city center. I didn't come to Oxford with a plan. I had a few things I knew I wanted to see but besides that I wanted to stay free. I started by wandering around and looking at random campuses. I would see a small wooden door in a giant stone fence and if it was open I would go in and most of the time it would open up into this:

It was a beautiful sunny day. At one point it stayed sunny but started raining lightly so I took refuge under an archway.

I liked not having a plan. I just wandered around at my own pace, people watched and explored random alleys. Three times I was approached by people who thought I was in their art history class. So, I guess there's an Oxford student who looks like me!

I spent an hour in a bookshop and printshop called Blackwell's. I bought this print because I thought it was the oddest thing I'd seen in a long time:

This a horrible pic. But you can see the old sailor skipping wildly on the beach. hahahahaha It cracks me up everytime I see it.

Hobbit house. That door is literally about 2 feet tall.

In one of the colleges archways I saw a little teeny wooden door with stairs winding up. So I went in and up the stairs and managed to get this shot right before security escorted me out. whoops!! The security all wear these black bowler hats. I wanted a picture but decided it probably wouldn't be wise to ask for one.

The Sheldonian Theatre. Designed by Christopher Wren(the same guy who designed St. Paul's Cathedral in London.)

Scholars and important dudes ringing the fence of the Sheldonian.

This one reminded me of my dad because he had a beard and was smiling instead of trying to look all stern.

Christ Church Cathedral.

Entrance to the grounds of Christ Church.

Beautiful stained glass windows were everywhere in the Cathedral. When I first entered the main Cathedral the door didn't close behind me so I turned around and made sure it shut behind me. The caretaker lady was so suprised she said I was the first person ever to make sure the door was shut behind me. She said I was so concientous and if I had any questions or needed anything to just ask. Later I asked her two questions. I saw a small plaque that said,"Bishop of Oxford: Samuel Wilberforce" I asked her if he was related to William Wilberforce (yes it was his son) and I also asked her about a saying that said, among other things,"Loyalty to the brotherhood" I wanted to know what brotherhood it was refering to(turned out it was a memorial to the Oxfordshire army platoons killed in wars and that was their slogan.) She freaked out. She got so excited, she said I was the first person to ever ask her about those things. She kept saying, "wonderful! wonderful! A young person who knows her history!" She even called the other caretaker(an ancient man wearing a burgundy coat with a coat of arms on the breast) over to tell him about my questions. It was kind of embarassing. But there must be a lot of rude people to come through that cathedral if she was that excited.

Beautiful. My Grammy would have loved to see all the stained glass windows.

Whatever you believe about religion you have to admit Catholics do their churches up right! lol

The ugly of Oxford.

Ducks in a park.

Random stories of my day in oxford:

1. I sat down on a bench when I first arrived to eat a snickers marathon I had brought with me to eat for breakfast. Some old man walks by and says, "you'll get fat if you keep eating those." I was so shocked.

2. This is the only time I was ever bothered by anyone. Later in the day, after lunch, I was sitting on a bench taking a rest. Just as I was about to pull out my map a drunk guy comes up to me and says, "schma hoon man blag bah." Then he grabs my arm and pulls me off the bench. I was freaked. I don't know what he wanted but before I found out I heard, "oy! oy!" and three guys run up, one of them grabs the guy on the back of the coat and basically sends him on his way. They asked if I was OK and kept saying, "Oxford's not like that." Then they invited me to a pub for a pint. So, I went and had a pint with some Oxford lads!!! They were pretty cute too! When I complained about how late my train back was one of them invited me to stay at his flat. I declined. But I had a great time and an escort to the train station later that night!

3. I went into a small cafe to get a baguette sandwich for lunch. When they were making it one of my favorite Bruce Springsteen songs, Philadelphia, was playing. Then right after it they played Unforgettable Fire by U2. It made me happy.

4. My train back to London was delayed. As I was waiting I look to my left and see a young man casually tap dancing in place. ball change filap ball change. The loudspeaker announces our train won't be coming and we need to take a different train to a town and then switch to another train and another. I was like what?! So, I saw a man standing to my right and I got a good vibe from him so I asked if he was going to London Paddington. He said yes and then I asked if I could follow him back to London. He laughed and said yes. Turned out he was an HIV doctor in London. We talked the whole way back. Travel, American and British politics, AIDs, healthcare,theatre, we covered a lot. Such a nice person.

Thought: I think that traveling alone is amazing. I may be hooked!I think that I interacted with people and had more experiences than I would have had if I had been traveling with a big group. There is something so exhilerating about being in control of everything you do and only doing the things you want to do. If I want to climb up a giant hill to eat my lunch, spend hours in a bookshop, NOT spend hours in the Ashmolean, have a pint with Oxford lads, I can! And I did!

p.s. these aren't all of my pictures. more on flickr.