This will be a blog full of wildlife and fun. Casey and I both had the day off today so we decided to stroll the parks. We were to begin with St. James Park which is said to have a nice view of Buckingham Palace. We happened upon the changing of the guard and so stayed to watch. The band played and all was merry.
Then we took a stroll through St. James park which is really beautiful. However, we felt that at any given time we may be attacked by creatures. In fact, Casey was about to be attacked by the little squirrel below. All he (the squirrel, not Casey) really wanted was the girl next to us’ peanuts. This pelican was huge. There were a nice variety of geese, ducks, and other random birds. Some I had never seen before.
Look this is a whole gaggle of geese!
This was just a neat fountain that was at the end of Hyde Park which we went to after St. James. This is of course an extremely large park and we traversed the whole thing, we definitely got our exercise in for the day.
This is Princess Diana’s memorial fountain. It is a simply lovely little fountain. Just a simple circle with a few hills and dips in it with a flowing fountain running through. You are encouraged to stick your feet in, so I did and it was very cold.
At some point in the day we all went the Harrod’s, you know the huge store everybody says you have to go to in London. We’ll I wasn’t super excited about it but my own sister said it was a much so I went. This photo shows just how mature Casey and I can be as we are having a dog fight with puppets. I’m not sure the staff thought we were genuinely interested in buying their 80 pound umbrellas and 130 pounds ties.
Tonight Casey and I went to see the musical Avenue Q it was hilarious. It was a musical with puppets and it was quite obscene but funny non-the-less. As it is described in the bill, naughty puppets bring to life stories that are dangerously true to life. … The stories were also things everybody is thinking but not really willing to say. The tickets were more than half off so we decided it would be a good time to go. This evening a coupla the girls and I went to Gloucester Arms and had a Strongbow, came home and now I am going to bed. I’m sure tomorrow will be another eventful afternoon out and about.
Author Archives: Pam Schwartz
A day of wandering parks
First day of work
We haven’t had water for a day or so now, which didn’t make me very happy considering I couldn’t even shower for my first day of work today. Thank goodness I had a couple of bottles of water in the fridge..it was a cold wash-up this morning. Anyways went to work this morning and I got my official British Museum security card. I am now an official employee and when I flash my card I get into any national UK museum free and free tours and usually discounts at gift shops, sweet. Family, you can all be expecting some nice souvenir from the British Museum.
My office is just an open area with about 7-10 other people working in it though I do get my own desk and computer. Everybody seems very pleasant and I even have my own British Museum e-mail. So for the first part of my internship it looks like I will be engaged in audience observation and surveying for the exhibit “American Scenes: Prints from Pollock to Hopper.” How fitting right? I know who all the artists are. Today I began by creating a blueprint of the exhibit so that on Monday I can begin visitor observation. This includes my lurking about the exhibit and choosing random people who come into the exhibit to observe. I time them as they walk in and observe and draw on my little map where they go and how long they stand in each place. Creepy? A little bit, but it should also be quite interesting. I will also be conducting some other types of research as if the way the exhibit is set-up is the most effective way it could be. This exhibit will be traveling around the UK when it finishes at the BM so my research will actually me influencing other UK museums and the way they install the exhibit!
I’ll be working four days a week for about 6-7 hours a day. They figure this whole process won’t take me the full time I am here so they are going to find me something interesting things to do later on. I tried to pay attention today so I hope I don’t get lost trying to find my office on Monday. The whole set up is kind of like a labyrinth. Fortunately for my weight-loss program the exhibit I am surveying is on the exact opposite side of a HUGE museum and there are lots of stairs. Hopefully I will lose some weight between this and the fact that my meals consist of a couple of pb&j sandwiches a day along with the occasional bowl of rice or spaghetti.
So all is well and exciting. We’re going out to the pub this evening for a celebratory drink for completing our first week and tomorrow Casey and I are going to go wandering about and on Saturday we are going to the horse races. Fun. Love you all and hope you are having an enjoyable summer!
Demon Barber of Fleet Street and the Rosetta Stone
Yesterday Leslie and I went and found her place of work. She didn’t have the right address so that didn’t really work out for us. However, this allowed us to find Fleet Street (as in Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street) so of course I had to have my picture taken with a street sign and nice timing with Leslie, I was obviously in the middle of saying something.
As many of you know it was my 21st birthday the day I arrived here. I didn’t get too wild and crazy. We went to a local pub and had a Bloody Mary as well as a couple of shots, compliments of some boys. The bartender who was very cute and very English yelled at me for having a bloody mary and nachos on my birthday…apparently I was supposed to be having champagne and caviar..I guess that shows how classy I am. It was good though, he made drinks I have never heard of, lit them on fire and made me drink them while they were still on fire. Interesting to say the very least. In this picture not only is the Bloody Mary outrageously hot I also have a mouthful of grapes.
This is Leslie and me posing at the Black Sheep Pub…we always pose why would this be any different.
Yesterday afternoon Leslie and I went shopping…not as exciting as I had hoped I didn’t really buy anything except a scarf, a decorative one. Everybody in the UK wears a scarf even the guys so I thought I might try it out.
Today Casey and I went to the British Museum. Uh wow. This is where I’m going to be working THE British Museum. It is so awesome. We spent three hours there, didn’t really read any text panels just kinda wandered through to check out the place and didn’t even make it through the first floor. Gorgeous it is going to be such an awesome place to work.
Also very cool was that I got to see the Rosetta Stone, a 3000 year old mummy, and a head from Easter Island all in one day and as I said I haven’t even seen a good part of the museum yet. I’m hoping as a perk I’ll maybe get a discount at the museum store, wouldn’t that be neat?
I had my PELA (Perspectives in Experiential Learning Abroad) class tonight. For part of it we are required to go to a grad career fair. What do you think mom, should I start looking for grad schools or a career here? Haha..but I am taking a few copies of my resume just in case.
Today Casey and I found a day trip to Stonehenge, Bath, and Salisbury for really cheap so even though I said I wasn’t taking any trips we are going to do this one anyways along with Laura and Leslie.
So I start work tomorrow, I’m really excited!
Police are quite a lot of cheery blokes.
Today we had more orientation….and more orientation…and more orientation. Thank goodness today was the last day of that. I still know nothing about my internship except that I don’t have my interview until Thursday afternoon. Most people have theirs over the next two days so I suppose I’ll spend a few days out wandering around London. Today we had a safety talk with a couple of officers who were hilarious. They actually taught us more about living in London than anybody else had over the past 15 days. Some of the useful things we’ve learned include that there is in fact no law against jaywalking but if you choose to do so you will most likely get hit by a car. You are allowed to walk around the streets and parks drinking alcohol as you like…HOWEVER, a new law just passed banning alcohol from public transportation, no more drinking on the bus and tube. People are rioting and protesting…absurd. There was much more than this but another disturbing point is that you should always plan extra time for your trip to work on Mondays simply because this is the most popular of jumping days. This simply means that usually on Mondays there are people who jump in front of the trains and trains are delayed so that the mess can be cleared. They said this in all honestly but many have told us this as it is apparently not an uncommon occurance. This doesn’t even phase people, they get upset because it makes them late for work.
This afternoon we had a Cream Tea Reception at the Regency Hotel. It was all very fancy. Scones, clotted cream, pastys, cucumber sandwiches, puddings, and tea and all was very good. Here are Jake, Leslie, Laura, Ben, myself, and Mai. Notice Jake’s proper pinky finger etiquette.
This all aside I love London, it is so historical and homey feeling. Today I got the chance to wander around on me onesies for a bit, in and out of shops, there is so much to do here. I wanted to travel out of the area and go up to Scotland and go over to Amsterdam but I don’t think that this is going to happen. Everything is very expensive in London and so funding will not be possible for those sorts of trips. Alas, I’m all right there is much to do here in London, much of it free or fairly cheap. I can definitely keep myself busy for two months, instead of buying a plane or train ticket I’ll just split that money up and do five different things here.
Some of my plans include hitting up the theatre, a lot! There are so many shows going on everywhere. Be prepared to be jealous Mom…they have Dirty Dancing on stage here and I am totally going sometime this week. I’ll be going on a Jack the Ripper tour, I am seeing King Lear at THE Shakesphere’s Globe Theatre next week, I’ll have to hit up the London Eye and there is a haunted London Bridge Tombs attraction that is in store. Hope all is well and that weather is better there…it’s true what they say that the sun doesn’t exist on this little island.
London!
Our first views of London, nice crowded little streets.
Here is what the outside of our accommodations at Liberty Fields look like, not too shabby right?
The view from my window, charming isn’t it. Though without screens on the windows I’m a bit scared I’ll have pigeons as pets before long.
Here is my flat, a nice little closet in the wall that I share with one other girl.
We took a three hour bus tour today. The London Eye and Big Ben.
The London Bridge
The Tower of London, I can’t wait to actually go here.
Here is a picture Dad might enjoy a little bit more, MI6 their spy headquarters. Recognize it from any of the James Bond flicks?
Last but not least, Casey, Ben and I wandered London this evening whilst looking for our internships places. Ben walks out of the tube right up to Big Ben what an unfortunate site to have to see every morning, it is truly amazing. Here you can see the London Eye in the background as well. Even though Casey is afraid of heights I think we’ve talked him into going up in it with us. We also went and saw the British Museum, HUGE! I can’t wait. I find out more about my internship tomorrow. I know I originally wanted to travel the whole island and maybe go to Amsterdam…but there is more than enough to keep me busy here for two months…and might save me some money! We’ll see.
I’ve Arrived!
All right, no worries everybody I am in London and living in a flat smaller than your closet. I don’t have much time to type now, and we don’t have internet at our flats yet. Once we get that all sorted out I will be posting about my travels here and all those wonderful pictures. More soon.
Leaving Tomorrow!
Yesterday I went to Australia. It was amazing. Well almost, I actually went to the Australian Embassy which I guess technically counts as being on Australian soil, neat. Well anyways, yesterday was pretty uneventful. We just did our presentations and the embassy. My presentation was about Britain and the European Union. Mostly just on why some people are for/or against it and what sort of benefits it has for the UK.
Today, more presentations and a little seminar from DC Vote. We had our farewell dinner tonight at Elephant & Castle which is a British type restaurant here in D.C. They served everything buffet style, I wasn’t very impressed but the little desserts (or puddings at they say in London) were tasty. I’ve been learning all sorts of fun slang, such as –spotted dick=pudding with raisins or fruit in it–‘jelly=jello only their’s comes all ready made in a box…really weird. Tipp-ex it white-out. Fit Bird=Good looking Girl, etc. etc. It will take a bit to catch on.
After dinner a couple of girls and I spent an hour or two at the bookstore. Apparently Laura also likes my favorite author which is awesome because nobody else has even heard of her, so we exchanged books and authors. It’s rare that I find somebody who likes to read the same random stuff as I do. Tonight is full of laundry and packing, tomorrow picking up a few last minute things, packing more, and then we’re off to the airport at 6:15 even though our flight doesn’t leave until 11. I’m not sure why.
Heard from Romney at the home museum today, apparently she heard from somebody at the British Museum who was pleased to tell her I would be starting there next week…She knows more about what is going on than I do. Oh well, soon enough I’ll be in London! Mom says some of my readers would like to comment on my blogs, apparently blogspot has changed and you can only do that if you have your own blog, which isn’t very handy. However, I would love to hear from you all via e-mail (pss004@uni.edu) , sorry it’s not more convenient.
Supreme Court
We went to the Supreme Courtroom. SWEET! The seats of the justices above and below the decor. Also very neat . The marble is from all over the place , ceilings are from Spain I believe. Beautiful and the carvings are really detailed and I would love to go actually watch while they are in session sometime.
Below is the spiral staircase. It’s all marble and self-supported. It was built from the bottom up and the stairs are just sort of stuck together like lego pieces. I want one.
On a side note, Leslie and I stopped in at the Lucky Asian Buffet ( the one we saw Uncle Joe and Aunt Diana) Scary! Everything they had pretty much looked like the animal it was. Baby octopus, fish with their heads cut off, baby animals. Weird. I ate some french fries, they were really tasty. I’m new to this buying food by the pound thing. Iowans don’t really do that I guess. Either way I’m also currently reading “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” it’s good so far. I bought it for reading on the airplane. Apparently we get free socks, so that exciting.Memorial Day
George Bush Speaking 
Bob Dole
Memorial Day Weekend
Our lovely tour guide.
A couple of nights ago Alisa, Leslie, Casey and I went on a haunted walking tour of Lafayette Square. It was a lot of fun. Heard stories about Abe Lincoln, Dan Sickles, Tecumseh, etc. It was all very interesting. I now want to read the book American Scoundrel which is about Dan Sickles, but they sure don’t have that book ANYWHERE in D.C. I was going to get it to read on the plane. This was our tour guide along with one of the monuments on the square.
So, here is a nice picture of the Whitehouse…with a random guy on the roof.
We had a long metro ride home...when we saw this advertisement on the wall. We proceeded to do EVERYTHING on this list. It was fun and kept us busy.
We went to the Mall to peruse the monuments when we came upon this fountain.
The Washington Monument
Standing in the gorgeous WWII Memorial.
World War II Memorial
The Korean War Memorial.
The Lincoln Monument (My fave of course!)
I did a day on Washington D.C. today. Roomies slept in so I took off early this morning. I started by going to the Eastern Market, Mom would been amazed…It was BIG and there was a lot of stuff. There were a lot of thing I wanted but I was good and didn’t let myself get anything. Next I went to the National Portrait Gallery as part of my scavenger hunt assignment (even though I had planned on going anyways). I had to go to the presidential win g and chose my favorite portrait. My favorite was a photograph of Abraham Lincoln a month before his 2nd inauguration taken by Alexander Gardner, I feel like his face just has a lot of conviction in it. After this I wandered through a few shops and went down to the Mall. Saw the Smithsonian Castle, Sackler Gallery, Freer Gallery, and African Art Gallery. As well as the sculpture gardens, loved them.I watched the Rolling Thunder parade. Rolling Thunder is all of the veterans and/or motorcycle riders bring their bikes and ride them around the mall. There were THOUSANDS upon THOUSANDS of bikes there today. It was loud, but it was fun to see all of the diversity amongst the bikers.
Rolling Thunder Parade
TAPS at the Capitol
Memorial Concert at The Capitol Building
Pamela Schwartz 
