Ari's Adventures Abroad: Week 14
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Ari's Adventures Abroad: Week 14

We did High Tea on Easter!

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Ari's Adventures Abroad: Week 14
Ariana Puzzo

My third block in London is flying by and in a few short weeks, I will be packing up again and returning to the United States to my hometown in New Jersey. The past few weeks were a flurry of activity, between traveling to Rome for our spring break and then starting new classes, so here is a brief recap from weeks 12 and 13, as well as what I did during my 14th week in London.

Week 12

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Before my second block ended, my Intercultural Communication and Leadership class attended the play, “Chinglish” in Finsbury Park. The play discusses miscommunication and how it can occur when people either do not speak the same language or do not understand another person’s culture. The play was fast-paced and required close attention since much of it was spoken in Chinese, and we were reading the on-screen translations. Despite the constant effort to keep up with the translation, as well as acknowledging the quick wit, I walked away having enjoyed the play. I realized how English-speaking cultures often take for granted that other cultures speak English, and we simply expect that they will find a way to communicate with us so that we do not have to stretch our own capabilities to communicate with them.

Thursday, March 30, 2017

The following day, my 19th Century British Literature class visited the Hunterian Museum. The museum featured many medical instruments, which were interesting, and also many pickled body parts, which were disturbing. I am still not sure how it related to the course, since the history pre-dated the 19th century, and you could not pay me to return to the museum for even a day.

That evening, we decided to return to the hot dog restaurant, Bubbledog’s, which we were craving for over a week. Since we gave our Oyster Cards to CIEE to have them topped up for the third block, we walked from the Global Institute to Bubbledog’s and then from the restaurant back to King’s Cross. Thankfully, it was a nice evening and prior to eating, we walked around the gated Fitzroy Square, admiring the warming temperature.

Week 13

Thursday, April 6, 2017

On the first day of Block III, I had my new course, British Theatre: A History. We had a shorter class on the first day, only lasting an hour, and at 6:15 p.m., many of us left King’s Cross together to take the tube to the Royal Court to see “The Kid Stays In The Picture.” The play is based on American director Robert Evans’ autobiography, where he discusses his early life to his experiences working for Paramount Pictures and then his eventual fall when he was linked to a drug deal and a murder trial. The play used multimedia elements, which made it more engaging, and the actors were incredibly talented. Additionally, prior to attending the play, our teacher showed us an interview of the director, who founded the theatre company, Complicite. From these clips, it was clear that he did an excellent job utilizing different theatrical elements and expertly directed individual performances so that no aspect overshadowed another one.

Saturday, April 8, 2017

The weather was absolutely beautiful on Saturday, so we decided to finally make our way to Abbey Road. The road is extremely busy, so it took a while to get our photos crossing to the other side, but it was a fun experience, and I got Erin to walk across barefoot.

From there, we went to Regent’s Park to relax. We found a hill and laid out to try and get some sun since at that point it was 70 degrees and sunny. It was incredibly peaceful, and it was a great spot to also watch groups of guys play football (soccer) on the available pitches. There, we also enjoyed a late breakfast at a café called The Hub, before we continued on walking through the park. The funniest part of the day would not happen until later, though, when Erin realized that she was sunburnt.

While we tried to brainstorm other ideas on what to do that afternoon, we came to the conclusion that it was as prime a time as any to go look for souvenirs. I suggested that we go to Camden Market since it was mentioned in passing a number of times and we had seen it when we went to get fish and chips at Poppie’s, but still had not properly visited it. I had also heard that it was a good place to find little gifts for friends, so I thought that it was worth exploring. We ended up finding some nice souvenirs both for our friends and family back home, as well as for ourselves, so it was an overall successful trip, and we then ended our time out by returning back to the King’s Cross area to pick up individual pies from Pizza Union, which just reopened after over a month of electrical issues.

Week 14

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Finally into Week 14, we went on a walking tour of Notting Hill on Tuesday morning. The area we walked through was incredibly elite, and the houses were colorful like I had seen in photos on a London Instagram account that I follow. To start the tour, we passed Kensington Gardens, which we had visited in the past. We also passed place of protest toward Russian embassy and saw Café Diana where, according to our guide, Sarah who works for CIEE, Princess Diana frequented with her boys when they were young.

Next, we walked down Kensington High Street. Sarah pointed out a hotel that Justin Bieber apparently frequently stays in when he is in London (she was glad to hear that we were not fans and could care less), and then we approached St. Mary Abbot’s Church. We continued and saw Kensington Church Street, where we passed galleries and boutiques. There, we also learned in brief detail about the Bohemian Art Movement in the 1970s.

During the end of our tour, we saw the smallest house in London that goes for £1.4 million and then Churchill Arms, a pub where Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s parents went. The pub had tons of knick-knacks on the inside and since it was empty at 11 a.m., there was plenty of room to walk around and view the Churchill memorabilia. Afterwards we were free to go off on our own way, so we stopped at a Bubble Tea shop called Bubbleology. I had never tried Bubble Tea before, so naturally I went for the Oreo-flavor, which was thick and frankly, not great, so I was unable to finish it.

That evening we had another play for our theatre class. We saw William Shakespeare’s “A Winter's Tale”, which was bizarre due to the adaptation’s modern spin on it. Most of our class did not like it and thought that the previous play was better, and I agreed.

Friday, April 14, 2017

Friday was a relaxed day with no classes since it was Good Friday. We decided to go back to Primark, where we spent much of the morning and I found my outfit for Easter. The great (and terrible) part about going to Primark is that everything is so inexpensive that you are lulled into a false sense that you are saving money, until you pile up items and then leave with the bigger bag option (#noregrets).

Saturday, April 15, 2017

On Saturday afternoon and early evening, I met up with my cousins, Seb and Ben, and we went out for a night in London. We went to a pub called The Adam & Eve, where they were having a beer festival, and we hung out there for several hours, enjoying the atmosphere both in the outside garden, as well as the indoor billiards area. The best part of our time there was probably in the beginning when we watched people throwing Ping-Pong size balls into a crown basketball hoop and then when we saw these guys arguing with each other over a billiards game. The billiards table itself was bizarre-looking and we spent a fair amount of time figuring out how you would even hit the ball from certain angles on it.

After leaving the pub, we went to get something to eat at a kebab shop. I ended up getting a fish burger, and while we were eating, a group of drunken girls came in and were causing a ruckus. Nothing will traumatize you as much as watching someone laughing to the point where they fall off their seat and smack the top of their head directly on the ground. I watched the entire scene go down in what felt like slow-motion and I can still hear her head connecting with the linoleum floor. Thankfully, her friends guided her out shortly after that, and we followed suit, heading to a club that Ben had gone to before.

The club that we went to was called Stockwell and the genre of music was centered on the 1960s. There were three areas of the club: the bar, the garden and the dance hall. The first two were nice if you wanted to listen to music, but also sit down and talk, whereas the last was where most people were congregated by the end of the evening. The vibe was really cool and despite attracting an older crowd, there was a great energy throughout it.

Sunday, April 16, 2017

The next morning was incredibly rough. I got back to my accommodation at 3:30 a.m. and then I made the (semi) conscious decision to watch a livestream of Harry Styles on “Saturday Night Live” until 6 a.m. (#worthit). So after I got about 3 hours of sleep, we went to Mass at 11 a.m. and then went to High Tea at Café Royal in Piccadilly Circus. The café was beautiful and had intricate designs on the walls and ceiling. Additionally, the food was incredibly filling – we each got our own pot of tea, and then had different types of small sandwiches (cucumber, egg salad, chicken, among others) and pastries. It was the perfect way to spend Easter and the people who worked there were so friendly to us.

Spring is officially here in London and despite the weather being cool more recently, it is sunny and perfect for a walk midday when the temperature is at its peak. Stay tuned for my next installment where I will discuss my final study tour to Edinburg, Scotland!

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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