September 1st, 2011 - Move In

Alright, so today is my official day of term. I mean move in day. :-D 

I am living in the posh neighborhood of Chelsea, London and going to Heythrop College. My room is so quaint. I enter it using a key card, exactly like a hotels except white, boring, with only a tiny arrow. The card also gets me into my kitchen and runs the lights in the room. 

The bath room is behind two doors and looks like a small closet. There are two wardrobes, bunked beds, and two desk. The rooms are smaller than at Augie! 

I am rooming with S.D. and we're having a fantastic time being amazing and AWESOME together. 

The next post will sort of follow a few tours we had just to cover everything in a more interesting way! 

(I seem to be playing a ton of catch-up with my posting - I've been busy),

H.C.

August 31st, 2011 - Buckingham Palace

Today we went to the Queen's abode. You can walk up to Buckingham Fountain and the gates of the palace any old day, which is definitely worth it. And, if you want to see changing of the guard, you need to arrive at least two hours early to stake out a good spot. 

Aside from this, you can take a tour of the Palace complete with audio. It is definitely the most worth it tour you can imagine. You get to walk through the Palace and see the furniture, tapestries, portraits, of all the royal family. It's so cool, at least to me, to learn about the architecture of the palace. There are informational boards you can read to learn about which monarch changes the palace and how they refurbished and refurnished it. 

I have to say my favorite part of the tour was the Throne Room as well as the Faberge collection. You may be wondering: 'Why does Faberge sound familiar?'  Well you may remember (in the very far reaches of your mind) Czar Nicholas and his wife the Czarina of Russia? 

Then you would remember learning about the Faberge eggs, the great masterpieces of art that he comissioned for her, the ones that open and have mechanical things inside them and are encrusted with jewels. 

I was actually fascinated by all the things Faberge made. The entire royal family, for centuries (not recently because Faberge went out of business) bought each other: cigarette cases, picture frames, small animal figurines, jewelry boxes, pipe cases...the list goes on. The royal family of England has the largest collection (only collection) of Faberge in the world. And all of it is breathtaking, located in a dark room in cases at the heart of the palace tour.

For the artists: like S.D. and a few others I know, you'll love the free audio tour that explains the style of specific (and famous) pieces of art in their gallery. It's actually really interesting to see the level of detail. 

What I enjoyed most were the many portraits in oil painting of the royal family. The level of detail astounded me and I found myself intrigued by the personalities captured in the portraits and the amazing color in the portraits after all this time.

After you are done in the palace, you can walk to the gift shop and then, upon exit, you can view parts of the 39 acre royal garden, including a large lake and many beautiful flowers. 

It is definitely worth the money, and students (I believe) get a discount for the tours. But you must go before October 1st. 

~ H.C.

August 29th, 2011 - Aviour Brussels

Mondays are always dreaded days, especially because this Monday means my last day in Brussels. 

But the morning was fantastic! We visited the Atonium, a life-size structure of an Iron Atom (biology and science majors don't have your brain explode - I know there is no such thing as an iron atom, but that is what it is meant to be).  

The Atonium was built for the 1958 World's Fair in Brussels. It houses five floors and a restaurant. On each floor, not only are you going higher and higher, but you are learning all about Brussels in the 1950s, immigration, how the fair impacted the city, what kind of structures were built by each country, etcetera. It was very interesting. 

The best part was the amazing pictures I got of Brussels from the windows of the Atonium. It was really a cool experience and made me sort of sad when I realized there isn't much left from the World's Fair when it was held in Chicago. 

After we ate pizza and Belgian fries. Fries actually originated in Belgium (not France) and Belgian fries are exactly and inch-thick and you can buy them covered in many different sauces. The mayonnaise sauce was really rich and delicious. 

This was a really enjoyable day and made for a cool ending to an awesome side trip.

Aviour,

~ H.C.

August 28th 2011 - Bonjour Brussels! - P3

Bonjeour!

Today was a relaxing day. We walked around the town taking time to look at monuments, statues, and other grand things around Brussels. We saw this monolith that commemorated wars between 1912 and 1945, it was really interesting and the area it was located in had a wonderful view of the city below. 

Then we went to the rooftop of the Musical Instruments Museum and had coffee and tea. It was a really relaxing day. 

It helped to have a low key day thrown into our weekend, because Monday was a really full  morning. 

Aviour,

~ H.C.