Fountains Abbey Day Trip

Welcome back! Are you ready for the onslaught of pictures? I hope you enjoy looking at them all. I had a hard time picking out the ones I would be using for this blog post!

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On February 1st, Alyssa, Gaby, and I took a day trip to Fountains Abbey and the Studley Royal Water Gardens. It was an amazing way to kick off my English adventures. And it was only a 2 hour journey in total. We first had to take a double-decker bus from Leeds to Ripon and then a smaller bus to the Fountains Abbey site.

When we had set off on our journey, it was a beautiful, sunny day with very little wind (a scarcity during this time of year). Unfortunately, by the time we got to Fountains Abbey, the clouds had rushed in, as well as some monstrous wind. But we were all excited for our first adventure, and so we followed the signs to Fountains Abbey:

There was a cute little cottage on our walk to the abbey.

Yes, it really did look like this!

Almost there!

We made it to the abbey! 

First view of the abbey.

The abbey was massive! To give you an idea of just how magnificent it was, look at this picture of me in front of the building:

I felt like an ant next to it!

Entrance to the abbey.

Entrance archways.

Welcome!

So this next picture is where I got some "good luck." There were quite a few pigeons flying across this open area, and when I was admiring the view in front of me, I felt a splat on the back of my head. I didn't feel anything in my hair so I kept on with our exploration. But as we were walking back to take a break, Alyssa noticed something white and crunchy in my hair.... I don't know about you, but considering that the bird pooped on the back of my head--an extremely difficult location to successfully clean by yourself--I can't say I see the experience in the same light as those who believe it is a sign of good luck. 

The scene of the crime. Be careful of English pigeons!

The cellarium, a place to store food, ale, and wines in English monasteries.

The view of the abbey from the side.

After our fingertips and toes felt like they were about to get frostbite, we headed back to the cafe to get some treats:

Nothing is better than a brownie and some hot chocolate!

Afterwards, we once more braved the cold for a 30-minute tour of the abbey, led by a cute, old tour guide. I'm loving all of these tour guides! (I don't have photos from the tour since I had already taken my best photos before the tour.)

When the tour was over, we took another trail that led us to the Studley Royal Water Gardens. We only got a glimpse of the gardens (we didn't have enough time to explore it fully, so I hope to go back), but what we saw was beautiful!

We also made a hike up to Anne Boleyn's Seat:

I can see why she made this her special place. Take a look at the view!

The view from Anne's seat. Can you spot the abbey?

Fountains Abbey from afar!

For our last stop of the day, we went to Fountains Hall. It was a beautiful hall, but we unfortunately were only allowed to see the first floor of the building.

Fountains Hall

When we saw this, we just had to:

After looking around in Fountains Hall, it was time to head back to Leeds. We took one last photo before we left:

It was an amazing day that made for some amazing memories. :)

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Here are the links to Alyssa's and Gaby's blogs if you want to check them out:

Alyssa's: http://andstartingnow.blogspot.co.uk/

Gaby's: http://cheersandsouvenirs.wordpress.com/

Until next time!

My Journey to Leeds + Life in Leeds

Hello, everyone! Here's the second installment in my "I'm still catching-up" series. I am almost caught up with my posts, I promise! Just one more to go! 

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My Journey to Leeds:
Getting to Leeds wasn't the most smooth sailing I've ever had. Or should I say train ride. It started out just fine. I managed to get all of my heavy luggage to King's Cross Station without a hitch and even took a picture at Platform 9 3/4! They even had the scarves from each of the houses in the Harry Potter series. As you can tell, I chose Gryffindor. :)

Ten minutes prior to my train's departure, the platform was finally announced. (Apparently, this is common for English train stations.) But because of this delayed notification, a large mass of train goers are all trying to walk to the correct platform to board the train. This is, in itself, a slightly stressful event. To make things more interesting, this also means that our large group of 34 study abroad students have to load this train in under 10 minutes, abundant luggage in tow. Unfortunately, we had reserved seats in Cabin B, the cabin that was all the way at the front of the train. So what did we do? 

Step 1: Fast walk all the way down to our cabin like mad men (and women).
Step 2: Shuffle everyone onto the train.
Step 3: Find places to safely store our luggage.
Step 4: Figure out seating arrangements.
Step 5: Unload the train 15 minutes later.

I know what you're thinking. Why did you have to unload the train? Sadly, an announcement from the train conductor informed us that a person had been hit by a train further down the line. I was shocked: that was not how I imagined my first train ride would turn out.

After getting everyone back out of the train, we then had to wait for about an hour, give or take, until they announced the next available train to Leeds. Another mad dash commenced, but this time it was a lot more organized since we had figured out how to fit all of us and our luggage onto the train. I'm pretty sure all of us were relieved when our second train took off.

The journey to Leeds from that point on was an easy one. The train ride was comfortable and relaxing. Alyssa and I even met another girl in our group going to Leeds named Gaby, who you will be seeing more of on this blog in my English adventures (stay tuned for my next post). There were some amazing views as we traveled across the beautiful, green countryside that I had to take pictures of:

After snapping some photos, I took a much needed nap on the train. There's something about car rides, train rides, etc. that always lulls me to sleep... :)

And before we knew it, we were arriving at Leeds and splitting off to take taxis to our accommodations. 

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Life in Leeds:

Weather: 
I was expecting the cold and especially the rain. 

Wind? Not so much. 

And I'm not talking about a breeze or anything. The wind here is pretty powerful, so much so that there is no use trying to use an umbrella when it's raining. Umbrellas just can't win against English winds. I've had my umbrella flip inside out several times since I've been here, much to the amusement of the locals. And Alyssa.

As I'm typing this, the wind is roaring outside. My umbrella wouldn't last 5 seconds.

Wind aside, I am doing well with the cold, regardless of my affinity for cooler weather. I am very glad that I have a good wool coat, however. With a layer or two under it, the cold can't touch me. And fleece-lined tights/leggings underneath my jeans help keep my legs warm as well. Sometimes, I actually get too warm as I'm walking to and from campus and especially when I go into (any) buildings. But it's better than the opposite.

I'm still not liking the rain factor. I definitely miss California weather, as it is so much more predictable than the weather in England. Alyssa and I, during our first week in Leeds, got caught in a sudden downpour (wind included) on our way to a Study Abroad Welcome Social. Of course, I only had my umbrella to protect my head. Even with a hood, it wouldn't have done much good with the wind-rain combo pelting our faces. Luckily, we were able to seek shelter at Gaby's place to wait out the worst of the downpour, but not before Alyssa's umbrella malfunctioned. For the few seconds in between the umbrella malfunction and her seeking refuge under mine, Alyssa looked like she stepped in a shower for a couple of seconds. Thankfully, my umbrella held up as we huddled behind it, pushing against the oncoming wind and rain. We waited for about 15 minutes until the storm calmed down enough to make a dash for the event site. Before heading back out again, I borrowed Alyssa's scarf to make a makeshift hood to provide myself with some protection against Mother Nature. Here's my lovely picture documentation:

Courses (aka: Modules): 
I was expecting my professors to be a lot more strict and matter-of-fact than back in America, but this hasn't been the case at all. They are similar to the professors I have back home (minus the accents), and you can tell that all of them are passionate about what they are teaching. They also seem very approachable and helpful, as I was thinking that I would be intimidated if I needed to ask them questions or for help.

Studying is very independent here, as is reflected by the lack of lecture time per week. With the exception of one class, my "modules" are all an hour long (but in reality are 50 minutes) and meet once a week. (The class that is an exception meets twice a week for an hour each, but this seems to be because it starts halfway through the semester.) I was also very scared for the infamous "reading lists," which are long lists of articles or textbooks that are created by the professors for their classes. I learned that students are supposed to decipher these lists and pick out the most important readings for their preparations for their finals. It turns out, at least for my classes, that these lists are more for if you are either having trouble grasping a concept or want to learn more about a subject discussed in lecture. My professors only expecting us to read the items that they tell us to read or "recommend" (which really means required). I can't tell you how much of a relief that is!

Testing is another dissimilarity between the American and British education. Whereas in America you typically have various quizzes and midterm(s) to gauge how you are progressing in a class before the final, classes here usually just have one final at the end of the semester that is worth 100% of your grade. Gulp. Another variant of this is one or two essays and/or a final. Still gulping. This part of academic life abroad scares me, since I'm used to the safety net that midterms provide, no matter how aggravating they might be at the time. Hopefully all goes well.

Daily Life:
A major difference between American and English universities is the mode of transportation. Mainly, you walk. Everywhere. I walk to and from campus, which is a 20-30 minute walk both ways. (15 minutes if you're super power walking). For the first couple of weeks, my legs and feet tired quickly. In the past week though, I've already noticed that I have endurance that I didn't have previously. I see it as my cardio time! 

If people don't walk, they either bike to campus or take the bus. Unfortunately, bus passes for a semester are expensive, so I'm going to stick to walking. Besides, I'm liking all of the walking anyways. :)

The topic of walking segues to my next observation. There's a perk that I took for granted when you live in California: our easy access to food. It is so much easier to get your groceries at home than it is here, simply because of transportation. In California, we have our cars to transport all of our groceries back home and don't even think twice about it. In Leeds, most students don't have cars. So what is a Cali girl to do? Alyssa found out that many of the grocery stores deliver your groceries to your door. Even after one delivery the other day, I already know that this will be a lifesaver for me this semester, as it's going to free up much more of my day. (A grocery shopping trip can take 2 hours due to walking time.)

Another thing I am happy about is the fact that the peanut butter out here is totally fine! I heard so many people saying that the peanut butter here doesn't taste good, and seeing that I had no room for a big jar of Skippy peanut butter, I was fearing what I would do without it. Thankfully, the problem seems to be the lack of sugar added to the peanut butter on this side of the Atlantic. The peanut butter I currently have is made up of 90% peanuts (although it can be up to 95% in other brands). And since I pile on the peanut butter in my sandwiches, I can taste a lot more of the flavor than others typically might. Either way, I am relieved that peanut butter sandwiches will still be a staple in my diet while I'm abroad.  :) Here's what one of the brands I've used looks like:

Only I would take pictures of peanut butter... 

I wish they sold bigger jars out here though. :(

Hello, London!

Hello, everyone!

I am extremely sorry about the much delayed post. For anyone wondering why, let's just say that if you ever travel, make sure you have adapters for all of your electrical appliances, including your laptop....

Because of my technical difficulties, this is going to be one big lump of a post. Hope you don't mind. :)

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What a whirlwind my first time in London was! My time there was much too short, and you will definitely be seeing another post involving the city again. But let's start at the beginning of my journey:

ARRIVAL:

I would say that my flight experience was a 6 out of 10. I left LAX at 9:30 pm for the Heathrow Airport in London, England. My airline, Virgin Atlantic, actually had some decent airplane food, as I've heard some stories of airlines' not-so-awesome menus. The reason why I rated it on the lower side is due to the sleeping arrangement. There was no sleeping arrangement, really. Once the seat belt sign was turned off, there was a mad exodus of passengers in our section to other parts of the plane. In the meantime, Alyssa and I were scratching our heads in confusion. Only later, after a couple of hours of searching for the perfect (non-existent) position to sleep in our chairs, we realized that these people were finding empty seats for more sleeping room. I will definitely be following their lead on my flight home in 6 months.

Once we landed, our journey was fairly easy. Customs wasn't as strict as I had anticipated, and despite the long walk from the airport to the Tube station, it was easy to navigate the Tube. It was only when we needed to get off that we found ourselves in a pickle. The Picadilly Line we were taking has 5 zones. As we discovered, the busiest zone is Zone 1. And our stop was in Zone 1. You can probably guess that once we entered Zone 1, our car became jam-packed with Londoners. Before we knew it, our station was coming up. With myself in the lead, Alyssa and I pushed our way through the crowd of standing people to reach the Tube doors; however, we weren't quick enough. 

I can't tell you what came over me. I saw the Tube doors closing and just reacted. Rather than getting off on the next stop like the next guy, I shoved my suitcase in between the doors. Was this the best idea? Probably not, as the doors kept my suitcase sandwiched in between them, while all of my fellow Tube riders stared back at me, most likely in annoyance. I'm not sure, as I had my head down the entire time. If anyone wants their American identity displayed for everyone to see, just stick your suitcase between two closing doors like I did. After the longest 15 seconds of my life, the doors finally opened, allowing Alyssa and I to escape the disapproving eyes of the locals.

Nothing too exciting happened after the Tube situation. We made it to our hotel after a short time of looking at a map and settled in for our first night at the Harlingford Hotel. When we made it to the front steps of the hotel, there was a cat there to greet us! (Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture.) Not only did the hotel have a cat, it also had a dog that we saw as we were checking in that night. Now that's what I call good service! 

Even though I didn't snap any shots of the animals, I did remember to take pictures of the hotel, as well as a little bit of the surrounding area the next day:

The Harlingford Hotel

Close up of the Harlingford Hotel

Neighboring Hotels

DAY 1:
My first night at the hotel was a bit rocky, and that can most likely be blamed on jet lag (or the hard mattress). Despite my lack of sleep, I was still excited for the day's activities. Alyssa and I started the day off right with a "full English breakfast" provided by the hotel. Mine consisted of scrambled eggs, a sausage, two pieces of bacon, hash browns, and many pieces of toast. And I ate it all. We also tried some coffee, which was still quite bitter after adding cream and sugar, so we ended up washing it down with juice.

Then it was time to explore some of the city! Except, we didn't really know where to go, so we ended up walking around the areas close to the hotel. The best sight we discovered was the St. Pancras Renaissance London Hotel:

The St. Pancras Renaissance London Hotel, est. 1873

Continuing view of the St. Pancras Renaissance London Hotel

The architecture in London has so much beautiful detail!

Later that day, we went to an orientation for our study abroad program, UCEAP, to learn more about life in England and how to thrive during our time overseas. After the orientation, they took us to eat at Byron Proper Hamburgers. Although it was more of an American meal than I was expecting for my first real dinner in London, I still enjoyed it. I had a "Classic Burger" with a fresh lemonade.

Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel to get some shuteye for a long but exciting day of exploring London.


DAY 2:
This was by far the most exciting day abroad so far. Our group went to so many amazing places in day 2. But before we were able to experience these great sites, we had to face the dreaded rush hour in the Tube. With a group as large as 34 students, it's very easy to predict that something will go awry. As you can gather from my first experience with it, the Tube shows no mercy to its passengers. Essentially, the Tube cut our group in half with an unforgiving fashion as we all attempted to pile into a car. Thankfully, I was able to slip through right as the doors were closing at my heels. You would think the Tube was holding a grudge on me for delaying it with my suitcase only a day ago. 

Luckily, we were all able to join back together and reach our first destination, the Tate Modern. The Tate Modern is one of the most visited museums in the world, with more than 5 million people visiting it each year! Even though I'm not a big fan of museums in general, our tour guide made the visit a great experience. You could tell that he really knew his stuff; more than that, he explained the artwork that he showed us in a way that really made me appreciate them. He gave explanations for the paintings, such as what they were supposed to mean or represent, which I usually have trouble understanding on my own. If I had a tour guide like him every time I went to an art museum, I would enjoy them a whole lot more.

After visiting the Tate Modern, we headed to a big shopping center for 2 hours of free time. This included Alyssa and I finding something for lunch and purchasing UK mobiles. And too soon for my tired feet, we were off again to meet our local tour guides for a tour around London! We met them at Trafalgar Square:

Trafalgar Square

Fountain statue in Trafalgar Square

The National Gallery in Trafalgar Square

Lion statue in Trafalgar Square

Me with my favorite statue in Trafalgar Square.
Photo Credit: Alyssa McCarthy

The random blue rooster currently displayed in Trafalgar Square.

Our big group of 34 was divided into two groups, one going with each tour guide. My tour guide was an adorable older lady. She was short and sweet but also had a hilarious (but morbid) sense of humor. Many times throughout the tour she warned us not to do things that might get us shot, killed, etc. I'm still not sure if she was being serious or not. On our walk to our first major tourist destination, we saw many beautiful government buildings, as well as guards on horses! Be careful, though: the horses may kick or bite!

See, I wasn't lying about the kicking or biting!

Beautiful government buildings.

My first glimpse of Big Ben!

The London Eye! I need to come back to London so I can go on it!

Soon, we were crossing the street to see Big Ben. I know this is cliché to say, but Big Ben is beautiful! (Did you know that Big Ben is actually the name of the bell in the famous tower, rather than the tower itself? I sure didn't.) If you are ever able to make it to England, you must see it, because pictures can't capture its beauty, in all seriousness. It was probably my favorite site that we were shown that day. 

A close up of Big Ben. My pictures couldn't capture the gold detailing of the tower. :(

Right down the road was the famous Westminster Abbey. I hope when I return to London I can take a tour inside of it, as I'm sure the inside is even more incredible than the outside was!

Westminster Abbey

Front doors to the Westminster Abbey

Side of the abbey

The abbey's grounds

The abbey's beautiful window detail

My other favorite site of the day was St. James' Park, which we were able to admire as we made our way to Buckingham Palace. I definitely want to come back here as well. There were so many pretty views, as well as an abundant wildlife!

The park's lake

A beautiful cottage by the lake

The squirrels here were so friendly. They were jumping up on the railings right in front of passersby!

This guy was ready for his closeup. 

The lake had quite a couple fountains, which were beautiful against the sunset

Another glimpse of the London Eye

Proof that I am alive and well. Hey, family! <3

Our last stop of our walking tour was Buckingham Palace. It is definitely as beautiful as everyone says. And quite grand! I'll let the pictures speak for themselves:

Buckingham Palace

Side view of Buckingham Palace. It's crazy that some people pass by it every day!

Gorgeous gates around Buckingham Palace

We ended the tour by eating at Sartori's, where each table had meter long pizzas! We also got dessert! I had a raspberry, mango, and lemon sorbet, which was extremely refreshing!

This definitely hit the spot after a long day!

After our meal, we finished the day out by going to see One Man, Two Guvnors, which was a hilarious British play. I would definitely recommend it to anyone wanting to have a good laugh!

As this post is already so long, I am going to end it here for now. If you want to know about my journey to Leeds and my experiences so far at my host university, stay tuned for another post that will (hopefully) not be as lengthy. Thanks for reading!