The Traveling Scholar

Back to normal London life here. Aside from the blue skies and sunshine today, life feels normal again. After twelve days of family time, it felt a bit strange to wake up by myself in my flat. I think the worst part was perhaps the fact that it just felt normal; like it had always been this way and our twelve days of Falzon family fun was just a long dream. Saddening. It was definitely harder to say goodbye for the second time yesterday but everything feels as it should today: working on papers, doing research and heading to the gym shortly. I suppose you have to get back into the groove of things at some point…

Although it’s all over and my dad and sister are likely fast asleep in their cozy beds in Northern California, it was seriously awesome to have a bit of family time, even just for a couple of weeks. I hadn’t realized quite how much I missed having them around until they were here! I had a gift sent to them when they left (a package of my favorite pictures from our trip [95 of them] courtesy of snapfish.com) and am looking to send another package of memories shortly. We had talked about having four pictures from our trip blown up to 8 x 10s to be framed: one from each leg of the journey. That being said, I’ve been going through some of my photos to find my favorite picture from each trip. Here are some that I’m considering:

England

This is one of my most favorite pictures ever! So cute!

I have a number of other pictures of them in front of St. Paul’s but I like that they’re heading toward the church. Maybe in B&W?

Wicked was their favorite part of the London trip… though I wouldn’t pick this pic normally, it could be a good memory :)

Prague

In the Old Town Square enjoying hot dogs and beer? Quintessential Prague!

Tiff & I in front of the Vlatva River

Tiff & dad in front of Prague Castle!

Paris

Dad & Tiff in front of Sacre-Couer!

Tiff & I at the Eiffel Tower

Dad & Tiff at Notre Dame

Amsterdam

T walking by a canal in Amsterdam.

Dad & Tiff in the Rembrandtplein area.

The view from our room :)

—-

Alternatively, I’m thinking of doing one quintessential shot from each of the cities that we visited; no people, just something that capture the essence of the country. Here are the four I’m looking at:

England: I could (should?) probably use a picture of Big Ben, the National Gallery or St. Paul’s to capture England, but I absolutely love, love, LOVE this picture of two horseback-riding bobbies down by Buckingham. The colors are gorg!

Loving this picture of Tyn Church with a hint of a market stall in the foreground.

Without a doubt, my favorite picture from France: lunch.

I love this shot of Amsterdam: the buildings, the canals and even a hint of a bike seat!

What do you guys think? Which pictures should make it to 8×10 status for the fam?

Love from London,

Welcome to Brighton Pier

To say that the morning was a bit hectic might be a bit of an understatement. It actually played out much like a movie. Lindsay & I had tickets for a 956A train to Brighton. We decided to leave our flat at around 915A, fairly leisurely actually. The was probably the first bad choice. Our train was supposed to leave from London Bridge which is about 20 minutes away by tube, so we were cutting it close. We arrived at the LB tube station at about 950A and had to collect our tickets for the train. No surprise: the line was lengthy and we had exactly 5 minutes (maybe less) to collect our tickets and board. At 954A we were at the ticket machine, in the process of collecting our tickets after waiting very impatiently; literally counting the seconds. As soon as our tickets were printed, we ran full force (imagine a girl running in heels across the station… comical, to say the least) to the gate where the train was to leave from. It was still waiting, doors open. I put my ticket through the machine and crossed through and waited for Linds as she frantically tried to find the right ticket to shove through the slot (we were clearly disheveled at this point). She finally made it through and we ran to the train just as the doors were shutting. We maniacally pressed the ‘open door’ button on the train and watched as the travelers sitting ever-so-comfortably inside the cars stared at our faces as they took off. Seriously. Scene out of a movie. We were so close, yet so far. As luck would have it though, there was another train to Brighton leaving at 1015A (a train for which our tickets would work!), so we grabbed some much-needed caffeine and quietly chose our seats on the train. Moral of the story: cutting it close is not fun; 10 extra minutes to get ready means frantically running around town to make it on time.

Brighton Beach

In any case, we made it to Brighton with no plan, no map and no idea of what there was to see or do — the recipe for a perfect day. After picking up a map of the city at the train station, we decided to head to the Brighton Pier and then check out the Lanes — fun, funky little shopping areas to grab vegan cuisine, Native American jewelry or vintage goods. First stop: Brighton Pier for a glimpse of the beach and a taste of California. As luck would have it, it couldn’t have been a more perfect day. A little windy, but the sun was shining and the weather was pretty mild. It actually felt like Santa Cruz during this time of year and for a few hours we felt like we were transported back home! The Pier itself is darling; very much like the boardwalk: carousel, henna tattoos, candy, ice cream, roller coasters, bumper cars, the works!

The Pier

In true Shannon & Lindsay fashion

Needless to say, we spent a good while exploring the pier, enjoying delicious fish & chips (from Harry Ramsden’s… allegedly the best fish & chips in town) and wearing sunglasses because we finally could! It wasn’t quite the same beachy smell as in California, not as salty and sandy, but the wind on the pier was definitely a bit nostalgic.

We crossed through the lanes on our way back to the station, loving all of the fun shops that decorate the streets of Brighton. The town is seriously so cute and so fun! They have the most eclectic selection of shops and very few chains. We saw ONE Pret the entire time we were there! In true beach town fashion, the main shopping thoroughfare is dotted with loads of vegetarian, vegan and organic restaurants and shops… so perfect! It made for the most perfect day trip ever and a second trip in the summer is definitely a must! Out of all of the little towns that I’ve seen (Canterbury, Cambridge, Bristol, Chester, etc.), Brighton tops my list. I may be biased… it may just remind me so much of California (Santa Cruz/Monterey, specifically) that it’s a way for me to feel like I’m home for a bit, but I really doubt I could find someone who doesn’t like this place! It’s definitely a must see for anyone living in London!

Heading to the beach

As a side note, something else that makes Brighton amazing? Street art. Everywhere! Brighton is such a fun, young town that it seems fitting that select streets are covered in art; so cool:

A little Banksy action

Walls like this EVERYWHERE!

Conclusion: Beach towns are universal. Universal and amazing.

To see more pictures of beautiful Brighton, check out my entire album!

Lots of love and happiness,

Cambridge

Being that Wednesday marked the end of my school week and the completion of presentation number two of three for the term, I felt like a little excursion out of London was necessary. Not that I don’t love London, mind you, but since I’m in England, I think that getting the most out of my time here is essential. Sunday, I booked round trip coach tickets through National Express and got fun fare ticket pricing for £8 return!

To be honest, Oxford was higher on my list, but the fact that I found tickets that were so inexpensive — well, Cambridge seemed like a worthy excursion at that price! I visited the town’s website before going so I could get a feel for what there is to see, but aside from shopping, my main sightseeing was geared towards seeing the colleges (there are 31 of them). I think most people are aware that Cambridge has been home to some bright minds — Watson & Crick and their discovery of DNA, Milne’s Winnie the Pooh, Isaac Newton’s discovery of gravity… certainly a pool of intelligence and I was excited to see the colleges at the very least. It’s rather interesting because each college is an independent institution. When I typically think of universities, I imagine going to one main ‘campus’ of sorts and then sightseeing from there, but in this case, the town is Cambridge’s campus, with colleges sprawled all over. Sadly, a number of the colleges were closed when I was there so I only got to see the exteriors, but even from the outside the buildings were pretty intense.

One of the colleges, I think?

King's College

I wish I had more pictures of everything housed in these colleges — the libraries, the mathematical bridge, etc. but a number were closed and most of them (that have sights to see) charge admission fees. I probably should have just paid the fee to get the most out of it, but the rain was a bit of a deterrent.

An interesting discovery — I felt like I was back in Davis for a moment when I got to Cambridge: bikes everywhere! When you walk down the streets, there are bikes tied to every fence along the way and cyclists along the streets. Perhaps it’s just because London is not the most cyclist-friendly of places that seeing so many bikes caught me off guard, but it was seriously intense:

A part of me was actually a bit nervous about making the trip – I was afraid that after being there and seeing the colleges, I would feel a tinge of regret for coming to LSE over looking at Cambridge or Oxford. Let me just say – the trip did one important thing for me: It reinforced the fact that London was the best decision for me! Not that Cambridge wasn’t nice. The town was cute — kind of antiquated and preserved with pretty good shopping for a town of its size. Perhaps the rain put a bit of a damper on the day, but despite all of its history and architecture, etc., etc., I spent most of the day shopping, poking around old book shops (came home with loads of new books)! In fact, one of the best parts of my day was being on the coach as it entered London at night. Seeing London all lit up as we drove along the Thames reminded me just how amazing London is. I might be a bit biased, but I came up with a brilliant theory during my trip (perhaps from being surrounded by Grade A brainwaves):

London + LSE > Small town living + Cambridge

Also, for anyone that’s going to Cambridge, two pieces of advice: 1) Don’t go when it’s raining! I think that the rain put as serious damper on the day; had it been sunny I may have really taken a liking to the place, and 2) Go on a Saturday. I went on a Thursday and saw a number of signs about markets that take place on Saturdays – different craft markets, farmers markets, etc.

Love from wonderful London,

First, re-capping last night’s society ball (held at a hotel in Trafalgar Square), I must give a shout out to my flatmate Lindsay and all of the other lovely ladies involved in co-hosting the event: it was such a fun time and such a fun idea! For £10, our tickets got us 3 drinks plus a full (deliciously amazing) buffet and a sweet DJ! Plus, we got gifts, courtesy of the accounting society (the hosts of the night): purse-sized calculators! So fitting. Plus, pretty practical.

Now, as for today’s excursion: Staying on top of my New Year’s goal (to branch out and experience or explore a new part of London every week), I joined a fellow LSEer, A.,  for a mid-day getaway to Hampton Court Palace. The Palace is 35ish minutes from London by train and today’s sunshine made it a perfect break from London.

Despite having lived here for five months, this was one of my first times taking the train and venturing outside of central London. I must admit, I’m going to have to push myself to explore a little more often; it was such a beautiful area and it was nice to step outside of the overpopulated city centre. For anyone counting costs, it was £9.50 for a return ticket from Waterloo to Hampton Court!

Palace Entrance

Hampton Court Palace

Music in front of the palace

After running into the palace and snapping some pictures, we decided to forgo the actual palace tour this time around (£15.80 for tickets… eek!); instead we headed down to the Thames to people-watch and soak up the oh-so-rare sunshine.

The Thames

Everything looked pretty amazing with the sun shining on it (I feel like I’d seen London in a new light!), and seeing the families, kiddos and dog walkers running around the area was such a nice change of pace. Getting out into these types of areas occassionally definitely serves as a reminder of how nice it is to enjoy a change of scenery once in a while. With this being a short train ride from London, it was definitely worth the investment!

My goal for this week is to finally head over to St. Paul’s and get a proper look at it from the inside and outside! My friend, Steve (aka HoboDrifter) had some great photos (and a video, for that matter) from his trip over to St. Paul’s and it definitely piqued my interest! Also on the agenda for some time in the near future: Oxford!

Lots of love,

Wow, I feel like it’s been forever since my last post! It’s actually been 3 days, which is practically the same thing in blogger years, I suppose. In any case, I spent this past weekend in Windsor at Cumberland Lodge with my Social Policy and Development program. The weekend was a training/bonding-focused weekend that involved around eight 1-1/2 hour trainings. It was super intense but really informative and really fun! Despite the fact that we were all a bit stressed out with it being our first week back in class, I think most of us managed to have a really good time and get to know each other better as we enter the term.

Here’s some evidence of the fact that we actually did work… lots of it!

Here’s a shot of my team in action… hard at work constructing a log frame!

The training part of the weekend definitely occupied most of our time, but we followed up our 815A – 10P trainings with a party on Saturday night! It was way past my bedtime, but so fun to hang out with everyone in a non-academic way. The idea of the evening was to come dressed in cultural garb and we ended up with a slew of awesome outfits. I, of course, had nothing quintessentially Californian to wear, so I opted for an LBD which I thought sort of/kind of fit the bill.

Pretty girls!

Andy's outfit was my fave :)

Some of the profs!

We had our morning free on Sunday, so we hit up Windsor chapel for a morning service. There is serious security outside of the chapel gates (no phones, no cameras and a pass is required) and people aren’t typically allowed inside without proper clearance. Being that we stayed at the lodge we were allowed to sign up for the service and got our clearance for the morning. Apparently the queen hits up that chapel on Sundays when she’s in residence! Afterwards, we explored the grounds of Cumberland Lodge a bit and took our group photo! Check out how pretty this place is:

Cumberland Lodge

At the Lodge!

With part of the Latin Mafia!

Pooja, Faye & I

All around, it was an eventful weekend! The week ahead is going to be a ridiculously busy one, but I do have family coming to visit for the weekend, so there’s a light at the end of the tunnel!

Also, seeing Amartya Sen tomorrow — so excited!
I bought his book to get an autograph :)

After a bit of an AM fiasco yesterday (missed the 930A bus that we had booked), Rita, Austin, H., Cosima and I managed to get on the 1030A coach to Canterbury to get the proverbial ball rolling. Let me just say, I secretly wished that my high school English teacher (Mrs. Thompson, if you’re reading this, you’ll be proud!) could see me jetting off on the coach to see the site of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and, more importantly, the site of the beheading/martyrdom of Archbishop Thomas Becket (c.1170). We ended up snagging tickets for £14.20 round trip from London Victoria Station to Canterbury (although we ended up paying a premium for missing our first bus, but I digress); definitely a good deal for all the fun that ensued on our historical excursion. Yesterday also marked Austin’s 25th birthday so it was doubly amazing!

Being that I live in London, we don’t get much of the British countryside during our escapades. Traveling through Kent was definitely a cool experience — we finally got to see some quintessentially British homes, land and architecture.

On our way to the bus stop in Canterbury, we passed by a pretty sweet Castle-esque structure. I think it’s ruins of an old castle (Norman Castle, perhaps?) but I only got a glimpse of it on the way in so I didn’t get to investigate. Still, pretty cool:

Our main objective was to see the Canterbury Cathedral, which dates back to 597AD. I think part of my desire to see the town was from reading Chaucer’s work in high school, but there is something pretty amazing about walking through a Cathedral that was constructed 1000+ years ago. I don’t know about you, but I don’t get to do that every day.

Rita and I were pretty pumped about checking out the Cathedral — even the entrance was amazing! They, of course, charge an admission fee. £6.50 if you’re a student, £7.50 for adults. We tried to pass for a ‘family’ wherein we could all enter for £21.50, but none of us could pass for under 16s and H had a particularly hard time passing as my 24 year-old Asian father (it was worth a shot). Even having to pay the fee, the place was worth it. Simply spectacular. The outside of it (see below) was astounding and the inside housed some amazing history.

About 10 minutes in, we ran across the famous martyrdom site. Apparently we’re not the only ones interested, because it’s clearly marked.

This vicious looking piece was erected to recognize where Thomas Becket was beheaded… or at least where they tell us he was beheaded. I’m gonna take their word for it because I would have no idea based on historical fact.

{King Henry IV}

After enjoying the Cathedral and checking out the Tombs of Archbishop William Courtenay and King Henry IV and his wifey, we headed to check out the grounds — so pretty!

As luck (and my planning skills) would have it, Kent’s International Arts Festival started yesterday, so we were able to check out some cool art and some fun little stands dotting the streets — paella by the bucketful, cupcakes bigger than my head and homemade fudge! Plus, we ran into a number of old restaurants and shops that have been around since 1500 (some from earlier). The doors and ceilings are so low!

We also randomly stumbled upon amazingness like this castle-ish structure above. In the words of Rita, “Hey guys, just FYI, we’re coming upon a fortress.” No biggie.

After enjoying Canterbury, we ended up at a little pub called the City Arms Inn where we found pitchers of cocktails for £9! Rita and I shared a pitcher of Sex on the Beach while we waited for our bus, and H & Austin shared a pitcher of Long Island Iced Tea!

All in all, it was a super fun day trip and a fun way to celebrate Austin’s birthday (hopefully he felt the same way)! After having such a good time, we’ve decided that day trips to Bath & Stonehenge, Oxford, Cambridge and Brighton are in order! National Express makes getting there so cheap with their ‘fun fares’ that it makes staying indoors seem like such a waste of a perfectly good weekend!

Hope everyone else’s weekend was eventful!

Lots of love,

If you wanna see the rest of the album (there are nearly 100 pictures posted!), check out my facebook album here.

So, I must let off a tid bit of steam:

A group of friends decided to hit up Barcelona this weekend to enjoy the sunshine and Spanish love before the year started getting heavy with work. I, unfortunately, was operating under the impression that my second paper was due on Monday. I was not alone on this, mind you; there was a group of individuals operating under the same assumption. I discovered, however, that the paper that was ‘due on Monday’ is actually due on November 23rd! Waaaaaay off! Not that I’m not ecstatic that I don’t have to sit here today and work crazily on readings and formulating a cohesive and wondrous essay, but I also missed out on my opportunity to hit up Barcelona! Boooo.

That being said, I felt as though staying in London would be a bit of a waste of the weekend. Not that London isn’t amazing, but I do get to live here, so I can see the sights any day of the week (Tate Modern, British Museum, Victoria & Albert, Westminster Abbey, etc., etc.) So, in lieu of hitting up the glorious land of Barcelona, I have decided to coordinate a fun-filled trip to Canterbury! Yes, it’s no 70 degree weather (it’s slated to be 53 and partly sunny), but the way-too-cute town (made famous by Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales… which I’m sure is compulsory for every HS student!) is hosting Kent’s International Arts festival starting on Saturday and there’s the Canterbury Cathedral, home of the 1170 murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket (the Cathedral’s history goes back to 597AD… no big deal)! There is also St. Augustine’s Abbey and St. Martin’s Church which help form the trio of World Heritage Sites. Plus, if that weren’t enough, there are two castles and six museums. So, needless to say, there will be plenty for us to do for a day trip. To top it off, we can get ‘fun fares’ through National Express for 15 pounds or less round trip! It’s about a two hour journey, but it’s above ground, so we’ll actually get to see a couple of hours of British countryside. Definitely excited to not be cooped up in my room writing papers. I’ve decided to make seeing other parts of the UK a priority on weekends like this. If I don’t have academic obligations, seeing Manchester, Newcastle, the Lake District, Brighton, etc. will definitely be on my calendar!

I’ll keep you posted on the amazingness that is Canterbury tomorrow!

Lots of love,