The Magic of the English Everyday - Eric Peters

Each day in London has its own charm. One may never know what they will stumble upon. However, often times the only way one finds the extraordinary is by getting hopelessly lost in an unfamiliar borough of the city. I was lucky enough to do just that this past Tuesday.

                After finishing off another two hour session of statistics with Dr. Mee, I decided that today, instead of immediately starting my homework, I was going to go explore London and see some marvelous ancient place I had not yet seen. After consulting my nifty list of attractions to see, I settled in on seeing the Inns of Court, specifically Lincoln’s Inn. From my quick, pre-trip research, I noticed several words that stuck with me and gave me what I believed to be an accurate representation of the purpose of Lincoln’s Inn. The words that stuck with me: bar, barristers (which looked a lot like baristas), and bar again. Naturally, I assumed I was about to walk into the fanciest bartending school in the world. Solid.

                10 minutes later, I arrived. Ok. An extremely nice bartending school in the most picturesque park-like environment. 

Random Park-like setting. Very nice. Peaceful.

Lincoln's Inn.

Personally, I didn’t understand how a bartending school could be good enough to deserve such a setting, but I am just a “silly” American. While exploring the grounds, I came across the Lincoln’s Inn Chapel.

The Chapel at Lincoln's Inn.

                Yeah, beautiful.

                Finally, I made my way to the reception desk, to learn more about tours and the history of the inn. There I discovered the truth. Much to my own personal chagrin, what I had been exploring was not the world’s classiest bartending school, but one of the four original legal schools in the London area, dating back almost 400 years. Bar. Bar exam. Suits. Yeah. It all made sense. Such scholastic. Nice.

A bashful Eric decided it was time to head back to the study centre and begin the statistics assignment for the night. But what fun would a trek home be if we didn’t take an alternative route? Answer: no fun at all. So, on the way home, I became lost again. Typical. While trying to figure out where I was, I happened to walk by one of these nifty signs…

Oh herro.

And suddenly found myself on the campus of the world’s foremost thinking school in economics: the London School of Economics. 

LSE: World Renowned in the Study of Economics.

Not a shabby discovery. A truly neat place, and perhaps something to keep in mind for future days.

                Eventually, after consulting the conveniently placed bus marker maps a number of times, I walked down Drury Lane (the same Drury Lane where the muffin man is supposed to live) and made it back home. Another adventure. Another day in London. Not too shabby. 

- Eric Peters

Stockholm Syndrome Strikes - Troy Galyon

I try to write weekly, but I got caught up in class and the crazy London life last week to sit down and do it. Not to worry, I am back again, and I am here to tell you all about an amazing weekend in Stockholm. I will quickly mention that GLS took on Cambridge the weekend of the 23rd, and we all witnessed the history and culture of a school that dates back to the thirteenth century.

King's College in Cambridge

This weekend we Maggie, Abbey, and myself decided a trip to Stockholm was in order, so we hopped on a plane and flew to the most northern city we've ever visited. I expected a lot for this trip because Scotland was such an incredible trip, and I have to say that I was not disappointed in the slightest.  I prepared for this trip by buying as many warm clothes as I could get my hands on.  It seemed that everything was well prepared and ready to go for what I imagined was going to be the coldest weekend of my life.  What I didn't realize, and I hate to get sappy, was that it was one of the warmest, best weekends with friends I've had in a long time.

The typical scenery for our Swedish weekend

We arrived on Friday and walked around the city to find our hostel, the local shops, and any attractions we could see after 6:00 pm on a Friday.  Our first order of business was finding somewhere to get some food after what was an entire day of travel. After dinner we continued walking around Stockholm and stumbled upon a nice snow-covered park. Not only did we figuratively stumble upon this park, but Abbey literally stumbled and may have accidentally fallen on a half pipe. Needless to say, Maggie and I found that incredibly humorous and managed to bring it up at least once each day for the rest of the weekend.

The girls loving Skansen

The next day we got up and walked to what we called the "Museum Island" which surprise surprise contained a majority of the museums in Stockholm. We went to one called Skansen that showed old Swedish homes and relics as well as Scandinavian animals. The only bad part about this was that it was outdoors, and I was wearing the wrong shoes. After about an hour of walking in the snow, my socks were soaked all the way through, and after four hours I couldn't feel my feet anymore. At one point in the outdoor museum I would stop walking and a shooting pain would go through my left calf. I truly thought that my toes might not make it through the end of the day, but I would gladly give some toes for the memories of that day with Maggie and Abbey! After the outdoor museum, we went to the Vasa Museum which held a ship built in the 1600's that sank and was then pulled from the bottom of the sea in 1959. At first, we thought this ship had been a great warship that sank in battle and was rediscovered by the Swedish, but we soon learned that it had been built in a rush and only made it 1500 meters out of port before capsizing. That's some mighty fine Swedish ingenuity!

The Vasa

Sunday we got up early and went to the largest spherical building in the world and rode up the side of it. Sky View Stockholm is a huge tourist attraction, and it doubles as a concert arena. The Swedish are very proud of it and rightly so. It was amazing. We got to the top and could see all of Stockholm.

Sky View Stockholm

Only a few minor freak outs by Mom (Abbey) later we made it back to Stansted Airport in London and found our way sleepily back to our flats. It was an incredible weekend, and the only thing I would change about it would be to have more time there!

Chillin in Sweden (get it?)

In other news, we started our last week of statistics today! It's a happy moment indeed because after Thursday the GLS fam has its spring break! We are all traveling to different places around the continent, and some of us are even venturing to other continents. I received a letter from my favorite Wake Forest girl today, and now I am on the lookout for a castle I can buy for us to live in when we come back to London to live forever!

I hope everyone is having a great time back at home! Stay tuned for future adventures!

Troy

Hi everyone!

Today we started our forth and last week of statistics and I can't believe we're almost done with our first class of the semester. By the end of this week everyone is leaving me to go on spring break while I will stay here until Sunday, because my dad is coming into town for the weekend. Although I am flying out to Sweden on Sunday and am super excited to see one of my best friends in Sweden, I wish I could go with everyone else to all the amazing places they are going.

Last weekend we went to Hastings and Oxford which were both amazing places to visit. Hastings looked like a location from a movie and everyone took a ton of pictures. We are so lucky that we get to be here in London and travel to so many different places.

Starting the program here in London I was a little bit worried about living with 6 other people (Abbey and Rani also pretty much live with us, so actually 8) and having to share a room. Turns out it is actually amazing. Everyone gets along great and the flat is always filled with lots of laughter. I couldn't have asked for anything better than this.

That's it for now,
xoxo German Girl/Julia/Jules/JGannse/Goose/Hulia

Oxford

Hello again,

Well since we last left off, I was getting lost in the metropolis and enjoying the sights. Along with becoming more acquainted with the city this week, I had the opportunity visit Hastings. We rode down Friday morning on a two hour train ride. Once leaving the station we quickly ran over to the beach. Now, this beach was a little different. If you can imagine rocks about the size of fifty cent pieces being the beach, then yes, we went to the beach. We dashed over to the Hastings Country Park and climbed up the stone path to a massive fairway on the cliff. The city must have maintained it, because it was beautiful. The wind was blowing, the sun was shining (for the most part), and I was getting to see greenery that was not a local park. I also was able to explore the woods and see the cave that the park boasted. Overall, the trip was a great success.

The next day was Oxford. We arrived to a cold, rainy Oxford. The streets were empty for the morning as the rain descended. We stopped by the covered market there and were presented with the opportunity to purchase full pheasants right across from a store selling Barbour jackets. Yes, we had made it. We were due to meet Dr. Mee for a tour of Oxford, so we walked over to a French cafe called the Buttery. We had baguettes and then proceeded to the tour.

My favorite part of the trip was not in Oxford. I had the opportunity to travel to the home of C.S. Lewis, the Kiln. We toured the house and the gardens.

This weekend went by quickly but I' looking forward to see what next week has in store!

William Gass

A Snowy Weekend in Stockholm - Abbey Rozanski

Although this post doesn't involve anything related to Harry Potter or me crying, I hope it'll still be a good one.  Last Monday, Maggie, Troy and I decided that we wanted to go somewhere for our last three-day weekend.  To be honest, we had no idea where to go and ended up picking Stockholm because Maggie found cool pictures of it on Pinterest.  I am forever indebted to Pinterest (and Maggie) for making us want to go to Sweden.

We arrived Friday around 4 and spent the afternoon wandering around the city.  That night we went to a Swedish pub and thought the man sitting at the table next to us was Chris Martin (the lead singer of Coldplay) and I may or may not have almost freaked out.  It's fine. 

Apart from our almost Chris Martin sighting, some other highlights from this weekend were walking to an island full of museums, getting bitten by an otter, eating really good Chinese food, meeting a Spanish man who went to school in London but is working at an Irish pub in Sweden, and seeing all of Stockholm from the top of the world's largest spherical building. 

Overall, it was an incredible adventure, and I would love nothing more than to go back.

300 year old boat at the Vasa Museum.

We heart ABBA. 

Church at the Skansen Outdoor Museum.

View from the top of the Ericsson Globe.

The joy is in the journey

What has happened during Taylor's first three weeks abroad you ask? I'll happily tell you.
I have climbed Arthur's Seat (a slightly huge mountain that you can see from everywhere in Edinburgh), visited the Edinburgh Castle, gazed at the Rosetta stone, explored the streets of Paris, selfied at the London eye, ate curry flavored goodness at Mikhail's grandmother's, figured out the tube (metro) system, walked fourteen miles in Cambridge, heard a live band at a local pub, found a favorite coffee shop, had flat (apartment) family dinners, and (almost) survived Statistics. It took three days to fall in love with this city, three weeks to begin to get to know it, and there's only three months left until I have to leave it (or be deported); so, I'm going to make sure it's awesome! Stay tuned for more hiking, exploring, and flying to foreign places.

-Taylor King

Exploring a Little Town by the Sea -- Sara Seaman

On Friday I had a perfect day...not in London. Are you thrown off?

Now don't get me wrong, I am loving London. I am one of those crazy people who actually enjoys the hustle and bustle of a big city. I love the bright lights, endless options for dinner spots, countless tea and coffee shops, and all the different people and cultures who find themselves in a big city. London is particularly special because it has all of these things as well as lovely architecture. However, it is a bit gloomy sometimes with the cold, rain, and clouds...and sometimes the big city life is just too much. This week it seemed to be that way for most of us here from Tennessee - where the sun usually shines and one can always find a get-a-way spot. Those spots aren't so easily found in the center of London. So...we left the city and found a very large, and quite arguably the most beautiful, get-away spot. A little town by the sea called Hastings.

Eight of us got our tickets - very last minute - and took a two hour train ride out to what became my favorite day in the three weeks I've been here. As the train pulled up to our stop, the sun shone so brightly that all of us smiled as we saw the much needed sun. I had no idea where I was going when I got on the train...no really, I did not know the town's name, that it was by the sea, or what we would do when we got there. I just hopped on that train.

The ocean is my happy place, so you can imagine my joy and surprise when I caught my first glimpse of it. We walked in the direction of beach, and when we were close enough we all ran to the water's edge. (I ran a little too close because soon after my moment of pure joy I kind of soaked. Oops.)

After we ran around for a bit on the pebbly beach we found a lunch spot and then headed in a direction that would hopefully take us up the very large hill we spotted from the beach. We walked down little streets with brightly colored homes and the higher we got the more beautiful the view was when I turned around. Which I think I did about every three steps.

We got to what we thought would be the most beautiful spot and saw the whole town as it lined the ocean.

Then we walked a little higher and I really did see the most beautiful view I could ever see - the largest green space lined with little yellow flowers that looked out over the town and the ocean all under incredibly blue skies. (Quite a big contrast to the city.) After running and cartwheeling all over, we spent the next few hours simply exploring and enjoying each other's company.

It was such a joyful and full, refreshing day. London is wonderful and so much more than anyone could put into words. But so was Hastings. It was exactly what we all needed - a little sunshine, untouched land, salty air, the sound of the ocean, and no agenda. I have never been more happy to have no plan for a day...and let me tell you, I am a big planner.

I am not sure I have ever felt more free in my life. No matter where you live or where you go - take a day and go explore a place you don't know much about and see how it can surprise you. Because it will. And if you ever find yourself in England, take a day to get to know Hastings.

Cheers!

- Sara Seaman