London Adventures 2012 - A Shutterfly Photo Book

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It's been grand, folks.  While I hope to post a few more stories here on Blogger, I would hate to make promises I might not keep.  For now, I hope you enjoy my little photo book I've put together on Shutterfly.  It was a great chance to look through all my 1,000 pictures from Ireland, England, and Paris.  It also made me miss London all the more... I may have looked up airline ticket prices for transatlantic flights in January... but I should practice more patience.

I'll get back there one day.

How to Make a Museum - with some help from Prezi

While experimenting with the new presentation software (cloudware?) Prezi, I explored three of the most innovative museums we visited in England. These institutions featured interactive exhibits that were highly immersive and artistic. I hope my pictures do them justice!

 A small warning: Prezi is known as the "zooming" presentation; it's been known to cause motion sickness in those predisposed to it. No joke. I tried to make mine as non-zoomy as possible.

How to Make a Museum on Prezi

Museum websites:
The Museum of London
The Story Museum
"House of Cards" at Kensington Palace

How to Share

I've been home for a little less than 24 hours now.  I had very little ambition about this day, so I ended up watching all of Downton Abbey, season 1, and working on my cross-stitch.  I didn't want to tackle the heat today - 100 degrees is daunting when one is used to 60s and 70s - and I also had no idea when the jet-lag would kick in.

Finally rousing myself around 4:30pm to take a shower, I started thinking about integrating back into everyday life.  What struck me was that I now had this thing, this great big experience, in which no one around me took part.  I think a very large part of friendship is shared experience, which is why I know I'll always have a bond with those 11 other women - we shared London together.  But how can I share my time in London with everyone back home?

I see a choice in front of me.  I can either let this study-abroad experience alienate me from my friends - "No one knows the things I've seen!" - or slowly and deliberately try to share it with them.  Anybody who asks me, "How was London?" is simply asking the wrong question (and I may tell them as much).  Since I'm not a Vulcan, I can't just mind-meld with you.  I have to accept that there's no way to communicate an entire memory.  What I do have are stories.

This is obviously a reason for keeping a blog when you travel.  But there's oh so much I haven't written about here.  Since I'm not a particularly good storyteller, I think I'm going to force myself to get to a library or coffee shop (or maybe one of the local tea shops, just for some good tea!) and write stories of our travels.  Nothing fancy, just a more intentional time to write and organize my thoughts and memories.

I daresay that I have begun a love affair with England that I'll be pursuing my entire life.  I must stop myself from dramatically declaring that I'll spend my whole life trying to get back there, because I know there are many other things in life that I will pursue.  But England - it's almost unfair how you've stolen my heart.

A London Invasion

Last night and today, I've almost felt I'm in a different city.  I hate to be pretentious and say that this isn't my London, but it really does seem like London has changed completely over the weekend.

Up until this point, if someone asked me, "Are you seeing all the preparations for the Olympics?", my response would have been, "No, actually, except for the posters everywhere warning about increased traffic, you'd have no idea the games were happening."  But oh, it's a different story now.  They put short info spots down on the sidewalk next to our flats, they've replaced some artistic telephone boxes with artistic Wenlocks (one-eyed Olympic mascot, with his Paralympic buddy, Mandeville), and the crowds have tripled at least.  We took a stroll past Trafalgar Square, where the huge screens are being set up for games viewing, down past the Houses of Parliment to the London Eye (for a spin around the Eye!), then up to a park close to Buckingham Palace.  So yeah - we saw ALL the newly-arrived tourists.

I'm really excited to watch the games from home, and I'm sure they'll make me miss London like crazy.  But I also hate crowds and tourist environments, so I'm actually surprisingly willing to get out of town while I can.  It makes leaving a little bit easier.  Just a little.

As a wrap-up to my trip so far, here's a look at all the panoramic pictures I've taken.  It's very easy with my camera, and I just love them.  I'll continue blogging when I'm home - we have a few more assignments before our class is officially done - and there's so much more that I haven't talked about.  So stay tuned!

London Skyline - taken from the London Eye

Atlantic Ocean - taken from a beach near Tully Cross, Ireland

Kylemore Lough - taken from Kylemore Abbey grounds

London Skyline - taken from the golden gallery on top of St. Paul's Cathedral

Olympic Park - taken from the closest train station

Regent's Park - taken in... Regent's Park

The Royal Crescent - taken in Bath, England

Paris Skyline - taken from the top of the Arc de Triomphe (the real thing curves a lot more!)

Paris Skyline - taken from the front of Sacre Coeur

Paris, I love you... especially your food

Paris.  What can I say?  Where do I start?

Let me just say that when I get back to home, I'm watching Paris, je t'aime (seriously, rent it or watch it on Netflix - it's great!), Midnight in Paris, Amelie, in addition to the excessively long list of British movies I'm making.

It took awhile to get to know Paris - we were doing touristy things, because, well, you've got to prioritize when you only have a weekend.  Instead of a blow-by-blow (which would be LONG and probably boring at some point), let's go to the bullet points.  Scroll down for the FOOD.

Also, I'm lazy, so you won't get any fancy emphasis letters from me.

Friday

• Arc de Triomphe
• Champs-Elysees (big, fancy shopping street)
• AMAZING LUNCH
• Eiffel Tower
• The outside of Notre Dame
• Boat ride on the Seine
• Shakespeare & Co. (really famous English bookstore)
• The Louvre

Saturday

• Catacombs
• Latin Quarter (Notre Dame area)
• The Conciergerie
• Saint-Chappelle
• Tour of the Latin Quarter by a Parisian
• The INSIDE of Notre Dame
• Gelato!
• The Opera House & Gallerie Lafayette
• The Eiffel Tower at night

Sunday

• Sacre Coeur for mass!
• Wandered around Montmartre for the rest of the day

Food

Somebody mentioned this weekend that after eating in Paris, no food tastes as good.  I'm really worried that this is going to prove true.

I wish I had taken pictures of our whole lunch on Friday - a salad of bitter greens with thin flakes of Parmesan on a bed of thin meat (prosciutto, maybe?), followed by a plate of chicken & gravy, the creamiest mashed potatoes ever, and a bit of lettuce with pesto.
And then came the creme brulee - oh. my. heavens.  I never want to have creme brulee again, or I fear I would sully my experience.  I had my full plate and half of someone else's, even though I was stuffed.


Saturday's breakfast was a pain au chocolat on the go - a pastry with bits of dark chocolate wrapped in crispy, flaky dough.

 For lunch, we stopped for crepes and coffee.  The crepe was Nutella and banana - the French, they love their Nutella - and the coffee was a cafe au lait, since the regular "coffee" is espresso.  It came with a packet of sugar, and though I usually put a few packets in my coffee, this was perfect with just the one.  Why can't I get coffee like this in Madison?  Maybe I can, but I need to find it.  There's also a creperie in Madison, and I may just have to make that a habit.

 Crepes aren't really filling for long, so we needed a gelato in the afternoon.  We waited in line for about 35 minutes for a treat from the oldest gelato place in the Latin Quarter (maybe all of Paris).  I got a double scoop of praline amaretto and chocolat blanc - white chocolate.  If you can see how firmly I'm holding the cone, you can guess how excited I was to eat it and how much I didn't want to drop gelato into the Seine as I snapped a picture.

Dinner for me was boeuf bourguignon - beef stew - and oh, was it tender.  A friend once made Julia Child's boeuf bourguignon, and I almost want to say it was more flavorful.  But after a day of walking miles and a few hours since that gelato, food just tastes so much better.

I was on my own for Sunday breakfast, and I was able to order "deux pain au chocolat, s'il vous plait".  Yes, I am fairly proud of myself.  No, I have no idea what the lady said back to me.  They were just as delicious.

A few of us wandered in Montmartre until we found a creperie/sandwicherie (no kidding, that was the sign).  I ordered a simple sandwich with chicken, bacon, lettuce, tomato, and mayo.

Good Lord, why can't every sandwich taste like that?  So fresh, perfect bread, just the right blend of flavors.  We sat at the little place for an hour or two, so a strawberry ice cream soon followed.

Paris, I will miss your food.  I will not miss your different language (it's beautiful, just not one that I know), your dirty metro, your panhandlers, your smelly people (they really don't use deodorant often), or my lack of home there.

Coming back to London felt like coming home in so many ways, but the knowledge that I'd be leaving in two days meant that it was a bittersweet return.  I loved my weekend in Paris, but it meant less time in London.  Some decisions are difficult, and will always be difficult.  It is comforting to know that I'm much more likely to return to England than to France... so perhaps this was my one shot at Paris.  And I will certainly remember it!

The Beauty of Yes

One of those great life lessons that I've heard is that the key to a happy life is to say 'yes'.  Some people - those who want most to please people - benefit more from knowing that they can say 'no' to requests.  This helps them not overstretch themselves.

I'm not gifted with the natural inclination to please people.  It's just a temperament thing; I have other good, natural inclinations.  I know my limits in taking on responsibilities well enough, but I also tend to play my life pretty safely.  I normally stick to what I can control.

Needless to say, this London trip has been a big step for me.  I don't think there's any better experience of not being in control of things than when you travel.  Now, I haven't really kept this roll-with-the-punches mindset my whole time: as I learn more about London, I'm more in control.  And I'll be back in control when I return home.  Preparing for a weekend in Paris, however, I notice this anxiety of the uncontrollable creeping in again.

This picture is from an art piece at the British Library - a whole wall of YES.  It was a good reminder today that saying yes and going with the flow... well, it makes your whole experience so much better.  It's an openness to life.

Heck - sign me up for that!

I'll be leaving my laptop in London this weekend, so the soonest I can post is Sunday evening.  I look forward to sharing my Paris adventures with you, and returning home shortly after (next Tuesday! whoa!).  Talk to you soon!

Just for Fun

A few videos that feature Britain at her best.

Sadly, this bookstore is WAY in the north, so I won't be visiting