Kate

Today was a day full of walking, exploring, and at times truly wandering throughout the city.  If you really want to see a city from side to side and everything in between, that’s the way to do it.  There’s so much more to cities than even the best tour guide will ever tell you.  And we had a really good tour guide today.

But more on that later.

My day started with a search for coffee, as usual.  Today was a bank holiday in England, so I knew most stores, cafes and businesses would be closed, but I figured at least a Pret a Manger (similar to Au Bon Pain, for a reference point) or something would be open.  So I took a stroll down a block to a bigger road and looked for signs of life in any of the shops.  I asked a local if he knew where the closest and fastest place for coffee was.  He said my best bets were Pret, which was farther down the road, or McDonald’s.

I looked at my watch.  It was 8:55 am, and I had to meet my group at 9:15 to catch the 8-bus to our meeting place in the city.  Pret would have been a mile walk there and back, and I can’t run very well in Sperry’s (or with a cup of coffee in my hand).  If I hadn’t been on a time crunch, I would have taken the long walk down to Pret.  But no matter how I tried to justify it to myself, I just couldn’t risk being late and giving the professors and other students a bad impression.  So, regrettably, McDonald’s it was.

I walked in and looked for my options on the menu board.  Along with the usual mixed coffee drinks, this place had “black” coffee and “white” coffee.  I assumed “black” coffee was just regular, plain coffee with nothing added into it, but I wasn’t sure what “white” coffee entailed, so I asked the man at the counter.  He had a very thick Indian accent and spoke quickly, so I ended up asking him to repeat a time or two until I finally understood that “white” coffee is “just milky coffee” and not as strong as black coffee.  Probably something I could have figured out on my own, now that I think about it, but it was early and I’d never seen it before.  I ordered my black coffee, added a packet of sweetener and took a sip.  I remembered that European coffee is much stronger than what I drink in America, but wow that was strong.  I probably could have ordered a white coffee and it would have been drinkable with one packet of sweetener.  It took three packets until my black coffee was drinkable.

And I still drank every drop of it.  When you need coffee, you need coffee.  That probably made me sound like a huge addict, but y’all already knew that.

After my morning coffee adventure, the group took the 8-bus to “The Monument” in London to meet with our Blue Badge tour guide, Warren.  Two things before I go on:

1. The bus system in London is labeled by numbers; certain numbers take certain routes.  The 8-bus is the route most convenient to our flats, so that’s what we take most often.

2. “Blue Badge” is a very high certification for London tour guides.  They’re extremely knowledgeable about every little tiny thing about the city, its past, present and future, and everything in between.  They get the name from the blue badges they wear on their jackets.

“The Monument” (left) is a landmark in London that signifies the Great Fire of 1666.  It’s a tall, thin structure with a carving at the bottom and a gold “fire ball” at the top.  It stands over 300 feet high, and you can climb to the top and get a great view of the city.

Side note: I don’t do well in short, narrow stairwells with tight spiral staircases.  But the view at the top was totally worth testing my near claustrophobia.


Warren took us to so many different places and sights that I can’t even remember them all.  All I know if, after our tour today, I can’t wait for our open-air coach tour with him next week.  If I can’t walk around London, the next best thing is an open-air double-decker bus!

Our tour ended at a shopping mall, where we split off into smaller groups for lunch and separate activities.  My group had a quick lunch at a cafe called Eat, which also reminded me a lot of Au Bon Pain.  I had a ham, brie and cranberry baguette sandwich and it was tasty.  But one guy in my group had a “steak and ale pie” with mashed potatoes–simply called “mash” over here–and it looked and smelled incredible.  I’ll have to try that next time.

After our lunch, the five of us went exploring.  We walked outside the mall, picked a direction, and walked that way until we found something interesting.  If we came to a crossroads, we picked another direction and walked onward.  Sometimes being arbitrary like that leads to the best discoveries and coolest sights.  Even though it was closed, we discovered Borough Market and plan to go back when it’s open.  Next to the market was a little bakery with empanadas and “dulce de leche” pastries.  Even though I’m not a huge caramel person, I couldn’t pass up a croissant filled with dulce de leche.  Delicious.

We wandered farther and farther, but eventually ended up back at the Monument, where we caught the tube and made it back to the flats.  My feet are still dying, but I’m totally ready to go back out tonight–it’s only a quarter til 8 pm right now–and keep exploring.

We were blessed with incredibly weather today, but unfortunately it’s supposed to be gray and rainy tomorrow.  Tomorrow is our first day of class, though, so we won’t be outside all that much, so it works out anyway.

And now for the day’s pictures…

We encountered a Chinese (I think) drum ensemble in a market!

St. Paul’s as seen from the viewing deck at the shopping mall

Globe Theatre! Will be seeing a few plays here. So excited!

Me, Laurabess and Mariel with the Tower Bridge (way) behind us

Tower Bridge, as seen from the top of the Monument

Just around the block from our flats is a store called Sainsbury.  It’s essentially the British version of some blend of Target and Walmart.  It’s got a full grocery store, electronics, some basic clothes, household appliances…you name it, Sainsbury has it.  After a trip there, I’ve got my flat essentials: granola bars, fruit, peanut butter, jam, bread, and of course, a few Cokes.  And all the toiletries I didn’t bother to pack because I knew I could get them here.

P.S. in England, “jam” = the stuff you put on sandwiches or serve over top warm brie cheese.  “Jelly’ = the sweet gelatin kids eat for dessert.

After being here for less than 12 hours, I’ve already decided the tube is the greatest thing in the world.  While spending almost an hour and a half on it between Heathrow and the flats wasn’t exactly ideal, I enjoyed that much more than I would have enjoyed paying for a taxi or taking a minibus.  And after exploring a little bit of the area around the flats and some of the “big spots” in London, the tube is definitely the way to go.  The maps look daunting at first–seriously, at first glance it looked more like a color-coded spider web than a transportation map–but I’ve been told it’s easy to learn and I’ll know my favorite tube patterns like the back of my hand in no time.

Tonight we had our welcome dinner at the Sussex Pub.  I had a delicious meat pie–made with potatoes,  ground beef and carrots–which is pretty much a staple in British diets.  Or at least pies in general are.  Along with my pie, I tried my first cider beer.

“You’re JUST NOW having your first cider?”


Yes, I am.  I’m generally not a beer person, but I will say that cider was tasty.

After dinner, one of our professors, Fred, who grew up in the London area, took us on a walk toward the River Thames so we could start to get a feel for the city and what we’re in for these next four weeks.

I’ve been to London before, so I had a little bit of an idea of what the city is like.  But these next four weeks are going to challenge me to become a better student, to be more independent, and to learn to trust my instincts and feelings about where to go, what to explore next, and more.

And I can’t wait.

I’m going to try my best to blog every day while I’m here.  I don’t know how much of that I can guarantee, but I will promise my best to keep everyone updated and to share all my stories and experiences here.

So for starters, here are a few photos I took during our post-dinner “taste of London”walk:

London and the Thames with a slowly setting sun

St. Paul’s Cathedral behind the Millennium Bridge

An extremely zoomed-in London Bridge as seen from Millennium Bridge

“The Shard” building.  They’re creative with names, aren’t they?

Tomorrow we’re taking a walking tour of the city, during which I intend to take a ton more pictures and come back with some great experiences to share here!

And now my Advil is kicking in, so it’s good night from London, until tomorrow!

At 2:30 this morning, after a long and frustrating day of travel, my parents and I arrived home after spending the week exploring the inside passage of Alaska and Canada.  We left Philly early on July 2nd, and landed in Seattle around 11am pacific time.  After catching a shuttle to the port, we met the magnificent Disney Wonder ship and one of our Disney Adventure Guides, Robyn.  We got a couple of hours to enjoy the view of the Puget Sound from the ship’s deck while our state room was being prepared.  Later that evening, it was “bon voyage!” as the Wonder set sail for the Inside Passage!

This was our third cruise as a family; we took two others, both on the Disney Wonder, when I was in elementary school.  Those were 4-day Bahamas cruises, which were great fun, but now that I’m older, we wanted to explore a different part of the country where I could really appreciate the beauty of the land and the simplicity of the ports we visited.  I don’t want to write a huge, long post that shares every little detail of our trip, so I will share the best highlights.  I’m more than happy to share more if you ask!

TRACY ARM: This was our first “stop” on the cruise.  Tracy Arm is a series of fjords along the inside passage that ends with the Sawyer Glacier and its accompanying ice field.  What amazed me most about this was the quiet beauty of the passage.  The water was greener than summer grass and still as glass.  Icebergs floated along in the water; they looked stunning blue against the green water.  If you looked closely, you could see a harbour seal chillin’ on an iceberg, or a bald eagle flying from island to island.  It was worth being nearly frozen in the wind and light rain for the sights!

ROBYN & KRISTIN: Our wonderful Disney Adventure Guides!  They were so full of energy and smiles, and were always willing to tell us a story or share some interesting facts about the places we visited, or their past experiences working with Disney in LA.  I’ll never forget Kristin’s story about how she met Johnny Depp, and how my dad made them both almost hysterical with a comment about one of our tours (Robyn and Kristin, if you’re reading this: “Hot Dog!”).  The most awesome part?  We all had these awesome animal hats.  We even talked my mom into buying one, too.

THE MEALS AND FOOD: Every night (except the last night, more on that in a bit), we ate dinner at one of three amazing restaurants on the ship: Triton’s, Parrot Cay, and Animator’s Palate.  We had two servers that rotated with us each night: Sedat, from Turkey, and Nyoman, from Indonesia.  They were both really great and always had smiles on their faces.  Sedat even gave us a puzzle every night!  Watch out, my engineering friends…I’ll be showing those to you once we’re back at VT!  I tried to branch out and try some new foods during this trip.  My favourite “new” food was elk.  I had it the first night at Parrot Cay.  I really didn’t know what it would be like, and all I knew about it was that it was red meat.  It was incredible!  Elk is very lean, and it tastes a lot like beef steak, but it’s not as fibrous as beef steak.  I also tried reindeer and venison.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t push myself to try any of the fish…I’m just not a seafood person at all.  Aside from dinner, every morning at breakfast, they had this all-natural, low-fat yogurt.  I know it sounds really plain, but it was delicious, especially with some almonds and strawberry compote on top!


WHITE PASS RAILROAD: After venturing up to the Yukon Suspension Bridge in Canada, we took the White Pass Railroad back down to our port in Skagway, Alaska.  This train followed the White Pass, which many used during the Yukon Gold Rush of 1898.  For a good chunk of the hour-and-a-half ride, I stood out on the platform at the front of the train car for the incredibly fresh air and breathtaking views of the mountains and falls. I don’t even know how else to describe it.  It was just beautiful.

ZIP LINING IN THE RAIN FOREST: It’s been on my bucket list for a few years now.  Our last port in Alaska was the town of Ketchikan, which is one of, if not the rainiest city in the country.  We took a bus ride into the rain forest, which is absolutely nothing like the rain forests you see in textbooks.  I was a little nervous about zipping, but I was determined to at least give it a try before I turned around.  I went all-out and chose to go on the Eagle Creek line, which is the more advanced line of the two (the other was the Bear Creek line).  I had a little trouble breaking, or slowing down to land, at first, but after the second line, I got it down almost perfectly.  Zip lining is the scariest but most awesome thing I have ever done.  I think I would do it again, especially if I’m doing it somewhere it’s not raining and there’s some sun. 

VICTORIA, BC: As a final stop before we returned to Seattle, we stopped in Victoria, British Columbia for a few hours.  We were on our own, but we met up with Robyn and Kristin, and another family in our Disney Adventure group, and we went to this wonderful little place for dinner called The Local Kitchen.  Robyn had been there before and suggested another visit.  At her recommendation, most of us ordered their “fall-off-the-bone” BBQ ribs with mac and cheese.  Oh my goodness.  They are very true to their name!  My fingers smelled like the maple glaze for a day after.  The mac and cheese was so rich and creamy.  I also learned that Canadians make their Shirley Temples with orange juice and lime with ginger ale instead of grenadine and cherry.  I’m not complaining, though; it was still good!  We had a little time to explore downtown Victoria after dinner.  We couldn’t see much, but from what I could see, I want to go back.  Downtown was really cool!

If you look closely, you can see the snow-topped mountains in the background!

Overall, our trip to Alaska and parts of Canada was a success!  I wish I could tell all of my stories, because there are plenty to share!  I will end by saying this: if you’ve never been to Alaska, go.  It’s truly beautiful.  And Seward was an idiot for buying and selling it so cheap.