"There's no place like London"

Good morning one and all! Well, good morning to you, good afternoon to me. I am back in Maastricht now, bathed, shaved, and smelling all together rather nicely after my jaunt into the English land of hostels and fuzzy showers. (All right that is an exaggeration, but those of you who travel know that showering anywhere other than home is difficult and not much of a pleasurable experience.) Now that I'm well rested I'm ready to write about my week.

I've spent a lot of time thinking about how to tell you of London without writing a thesis on the week. I by no means want to bore you so I'll tell you of the highlights.

Living in London

Quite honestly our hostel on the first night was a flop. It was new, in a residential part of town, and while it was safe, the over crowding of sleeping 15 people in a room coupled with the wonderful European sense that clothing can be optional lead to extreme cases of culture shock. We moved the next day.

St. Christopher's is a wonderful hostel in London. They're motto is "Party hard, sleep easy," yea. Well the first part of that aside, the hostel is surrounded by little cafes and restaurants and only three doors down from the London Bridge Tube station (I now consider myself an expert on the London Tube as I have been on nearly every line and in every borrough of the city). It's also within walking distance of many tourist areas including the Globe and Tower of London.


Of course there are some things you need to know of England/ Europe in general. There seems to be some sort of strike against top sheets here. Every bed I've slept in since I've left America has a fitted sheet and a covered duvet. Also, if it is not advertised, there is no air conditioning. You, my friend will have to sleep with the window open like everyone else. Therefore you must not be concerned of bugs flying in while you are asleep as this worry makes you a germophobic (or instectaphobic?) American.

Eating in London

I love food. That is no secret, and the quickest way to get me to eat something odd it to tell me its a cultural thing. Our first night in London, we found a little restaurant that serves Fish and Chips under the gaze of the London eye. Of course, you've got to eat it like a true Brit, swear off ketchup, it's malt vinegar all the way. There was a chain restaurant just across the street from our hostel that we ate at a couple of times called "The Slug and Lettuce." It seemed to be the gathering place for many a business person or dating couple. Here I got to try Steak and Mushroom pie ( never could find the steak and kidney) with my friends and we sat for four hours just eating and talking. (This is around the time we noticed that no one sat around with their cell phones out but chose to communicate with other humans). On my last morning in town Erin and I walked to a little cafe to have a "Full English Breakfast," but I backed out when I realized that they served Bubble and Squeak on the menu. Bubble and Squeak is one of those things that you've spent your entire life hearing about- perhaps in that Dickens book you had to read as a freshman or in some random movie- but never knew what it was. Apparently it's some sort of a potato/cabbage/ anything else you have laying around the house thing (like hash I suppose). Anyway, I had that instead, but the Bubble and Squeak took a back seat to the fact that the dish came with, among other things, something very similar to baked beans- for breakfast.





Our most interesting finds, however came from the grocery story just down the street from the hostel where we bought lunch on most days. Tuna and Sweet corn seemed to be a recurring theme, was proved tasty as well. The crunchiness of the corn added a unique texture. Also, prawns (tiny shrimp like things) were everywhere as well. Including the potato chips. I found a bag of potato chips that was prawn cocktail flavored- it wasn't as bad as it sounds. Also I found a German Bratwurst flavor, but didn't get the chance to try it.

My very favorite thing, however is a piece of candy called "Flake." It's a thick ribbon of folded chocolate and I believe is made by the Cadbury company, so think Cadbury eggs, but more amazing then that. The popular thing is to stick it down into the side of soft serve ice cream. I first discovered this tasty little treat at a food stand just outside of Westminster. We'd just walked down from the Art Gallery for Evening Song (which we were too late for) and drowned our sorrows in an ice cream cone (complete with Flake) in the shade of the sanctuary.

Sightseeing in London

On to what this post should actually be about, I suppose.


I won't lie. I'd been to London once before and met the idea of going back with a little disappointment. I wanted to see something new... Oxford, Stratford Upon Avon, Canterbury, something. When I realized all we would have time for was London I was somewhat afraid that I would regret not going somewhere else. I had no idea how little I had seen in London the first time.

We spent the entire first day at the British Museum mingling with Ancient Egyptian kings, and staring at the original Rosetta Stone (no, it isn't just a computer program). At the tower of London we saw the Crown Jewels (except for the current crown because the Queen happened to be wearing it at the time. Also, they were running a new exhibit on the armor of the Kings and had the full metal armor of Henry VIII (big dude). We saw original Monet and Van Gogh (who is Dutch by the way) at the National Gallery. I was able to search out the Broad Street water pump (one of those "worlds' biggest ball of twine" moments, my mother would say) and the Evelyn Tables at the Hunterian museum in the Royal College of Surgeons.

We even searched out Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station (and found about ten other people [ read: college students] doing the same!)

I do have a confession however, I've never read Harry Potter. I've seen the movies when someone wants to go with me, but I've never been that big of a fan. I couldn't resist the picture though!




Out of everything we saw I had two favorites. One was a 19th century operating theater that had been attached to St. Thomas Hospital between 1820-1860. The theater was for female patients only and is the only operating theater left in England, perhaps Europe as the others have been converted or torn down. It was an amazing room, like the ones I've seen in pictures many times over. It was fascinating to stand on the floor and look up at the seats where medical students would have sat watching such and such procedure and to think of the surgeries that occured in the room, as the theater predates the use of Anesthesia.

My other favorite wasn't even a selection of mine, but Erin's. It was the Cabinet War rooms where Winston Churchill ran the British government during the bombing raids of London. They were deep underground, underneath White Hall and when peace was declared everyone working in the rooms straightened their papers but them in the desk drawers and cut out the lights (apparently it was the firs time the lights had been cut out in years!). They simply left and everything stayed as it was until a few years ago. The rooms themselves are in immaculate condition and the Churchill museum that is attached inside is the most state of the art museum that I've been in. Part of me would say it even surpassed the Lincoln Museum in Springfield. It's an excellent piece of Interprative History.

So that was my week in a nutshell. Of course there are many things I haven't mentioned here, perhaps they'll appear sometime in the future. In all it was a wonderful trip full of learning experiences, and beautiful scenery.

Cheers!

I've posted the rest of my pictures at this link. Feel free to look around!

Bon Voyage!

Dear all,

Today marks the first day of individual travel! A group of us will be boarding a train this morning to northern Holland before taking a ferry across to England. We'll be spending the week in London. As a personal rule my computer will stay in Maastricht so I won't be around here until next week.

See you then!
Lindsay

Culture Shock

Pop quiz: You arrive in a country that officially makes your language the non majority. You brought no food or toilettries so the first order of business is grocery shopping. Fortunately you're with someone who has been to this country before and can show you where said store is. After that you're on your own. Cereal sounds like a decent thing to have around so you go in search of the most important ingredient: milk. Suddenly you find yourself standing in front of half a wall of milk. You assume that it's milk, because the "melk" looks similar to the English word, but there are so many choices! How do you make a educated decision on what to buy?

Answer: You don't. You go for what's ever cheapest because that's the only thing you can judge (unfortunately the amount is in Euros so you can't even compare that amount to the American price you would pay) or you pick the carton that expires on 5/6/10 (if you remember that in Europe this means the fifth of June and not the sixth of May, which was two weeks ago). So the "melk" you choose expires after all the others. Is that normal? I don't know, you might have just purchased yourself some soy "melk."

I'd forgotten the culture shock we experience when we went to Paris some five years ago now, but it has all come rushing back to me in many ways, the most prevalent being my trip to the grocery store yesterday. It's intimidating being in a different country and not speaking the native language, even when everyone knows how to speak your language.

Then of course there are more cultural things than lack of knowledge of language. I personally believe the way a society eats is revealing of it's culture. If you can master the culinary rituals, you can master just about anything and look like a pro, even if you're speaking English while doing it. Unfortunately many times we must fall and bump our heads before we take those first steps. So it's ok to loiter in front of a restaurant to see if people just sit down randomly at the outdoor cafes, all the while knowing everyone has spotted you as an American, and try to enjoy sitting at your table and talking with your friends even though you finished your meal half an hour ago. We rush too much anyway.

Today has been a day with many cultural bobbles, but I've learned a lot too, like people don't start to eat dinner until 6 even though they start drinking at noon, don't try and smile at people you meet in the street (they won't respond), don't be afraid to ask for the English menu at a restaurant, and best of all the steps of the St. Servaas Basilica is the best place to sit and eat pistachio ice cream. I have three months here and I'm going to fake it until I make it. Until then, yes I'll eat my french fries with the mayonnase the waiter brought instead of asking for ketchup. Who comes to Europe to be an American?

Welcome to Amsterdam!

Yesterday (or was it today?) I boarded the plane from Houston to Amsterdam at 3:40 for the second time this week and am proud to say that we were successful! We landed in Amsterdam around 8:40 this morning (flight was nine hours total). I've been rather intrigued, since I've now flown from and to Houston some three times, to watch the different routes our aircraft had taken. I never paid much attention before but on our first journey (the one that eventually ended in New Jersey) I happened to look up at the GPS running on the cabin monitors to find that we were directly between Jackson and Meridian. On our return journey that same night we flew further West, right over Vicksburg. I think it's odd how I could be so close to my family and yet 33,000 feet away at the same time. Then this morning we flew much further west between Longview and Shreveport and then crossing over Canada (almost over Greenland at times!)

After we landed we went claimed our baggage (not a problem there) and then through customs (again rather simple). We took two steps out of the airport and who's gorgeous face greeted us but Mr. Patrick Dempsey. Say what you want about the Dutch, they have admirable taste.

At the airport we loaded into a bus and drove three hours south to Maastricht. This was my favorite part of the trip, partly because I had a seat to myself (!) and partly because I just stare out the window. If you took away the architecture and windmills of Holland I could have been driving west on I20. The road varied between four and eight lanes with eighteen wheelers and the occasional RV (though not the big Class A's you find in America). There weren't many trucks or SUV's this Mom, Dad, and I discovered during our France trip. However, the cars weren't as teeny as they were in France. In fact I saw brands I actually knew. Toyota, Hyundai, Honda, Volkswagen (yes Dad, I have to go all the way to Holland to notice a Volkswagen). I even saw a Land Rover and a Santa Fe. There were over passes, rest stops with gas stations. In all the drive down was neat and rather surprising.

So after a long day's journey, I'm settled in my dorm with my things unpacks. I have some milk in my fridge (at least that's what I think it is) and a day and a half before my first escapade across the European Continent. It's been a good day. Goedenacht!

Oh and since my picture of my travel companion Maas wouldn't load I thought I'd try and introduce him again. Here he is (in the middle) with my friends Amy and Amanda, excited about the bus ride to Maastricht!

Southern Hospitality

Where else but in the South could you find a family of strangers willing to pick you up from the airport and house you for three days? Certainly no where about the Mason Dixon line. As exhausting and disappointing as it was for us not to get to Maastricht on Monday, I think many of up feel that it was a blessing in disguise. We learned on Monday morning that we wouldn't be able to get a flight out until Thursday (tom.) afternoon. This brought about the question as to where all of us would go for the next few days. Many of us, if not all dispersed to homes of other students who were from Houston.

I've spent the past three days in The Woodlands with Amy, Amanda, and Brittany, three girls who I didn't know at all. We've watch an untold amount of movies, relaxed in the hot tub, and spent the majority of yesterday at the mall just wandering and looking. I think that we've been able to get to know each other in a way we wouldn't have if we hadn't had this time together. So in essence, I've made friends because of the whateveryoucallit volcano.

With that said, we are scheduled to fly out tomorrow afternoon, and I'm really hoping we make it this time because plans have been made for the first week of traveling. It's time to be in Europe.

We plan, God laughs...

This is one of mom's favorite sayings. She always uses it when I go into control freak mode. It's suppose to remind us that no matter how hard we try the plan can always go astray. God has His own plans in mind, particularly when your trying to get to Amsterdam on a one way flight from Houston.

We left Houston yesterday at 3:40 without problems. We got into the air. It was a pretty smooth fight. I ate dinner and got to watch When in Rome and even got about an hour of sleep (which is all I usually get on a plan). I was marveling at how we'd just reached the halfway mark 4.5 hours when I heard a disturbing word come from someone's mouth, "Newark, New Jersey."

We were halfway there, floating over the Atlantic Ocean when most of the major European airports were shut down due to the ash cloud from the Elkjoiudoaidufoaiudfapoifu (name is paraphrased here) volcano in Iceland. Before I knew what was happening we were in New Jersey at 1:30 in the morning refueling before heading back to Houston. Now we're all camping out in the lobby of a hotel that has given us rooms but don't quite have then cleaned yet.

Needless to say I haven't slept in 24 hours. I'm tired and hungry and somehow have managed to travel for 14 hours and not actually have been anywhere yet. Ah well, we plan...

Bears, Books, and Bags.

How exactly do you go about cramming three months of clothes, bedding, personal, and school supplies into two suitcases weighing less that 50lbs? I'm convinced this is impossible unless you have the packing skills of a squirrel hoarding acorns for winter. Fortunately, my mom possesses such skill. It's not that I'm concerned with getting everything over there as much as getting it all back- when I don't have Mom's superhuman organizational skills.


For any of you who want to do a study abroad or an extended stay somewhere in the future, here's a trick, fill one suitcase with cheap items- undergarments, socks, pillows, bedsheets, towels- and throw them out before you come back, that way you can fill the bag with whatever you buy when you're over there.


I've over packed. I know this right now. I have too many tops, WAY too many pants/shorts. But these items combined are outnumbered by the books I've packed. How do you guesstimate how many books you'll read in three months? Or if you'll feel like fiction or nonfiction or even a biography? The only answer I found was to pack for all possibilities, and in doing so realized that I don't have many non American books: Pride and Prejudice, Wuthering Heights, The Diary of Ann Frank, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame about cover it. I guess this means I'll be taking a trip to the bookstore.


Lastly I want to introduce you to my friend. His name is Maas, and he will be making the trip with me. Alright, 'tis all for now! I'll see you when I get to Maastricht!

*** note, due to technical problems I can't upload my pictures. I'll work on them later, promise.

"The Travel writer seeks the world we have lost- the lost valleys of the imagination"- Alexander Cockburn

It took me a really long time to name my blog, I spent a good thirty minutes flipping through my quotation dictionary before settling on a title. Ultimately the question was "what do I want to do with this blog?" Alexander Cockburn gave me the answer, to write about something that perhaps wasn't lost as much as it just wasn't discovered in the first place. I want to show my friends at home the unique world of Europe with it's ancient history, cuisine, customs, and languages. So let me tell you a story...



For three month (May-August) I've been given the opportunity to study in the Netherlands. When one thinks about studying in Europe, usually England, France, or Italy comes to mind, but the program through my University allows me to participate in a full study abroad experience and do it in the summer complete with three day weekends every week (some weeks I have four day weekends) and three solid weeks of traveling at the end of the month. So, why not the Netherlands? We'll do something a little different, and the best part is I don't have to be fluent in Dutch.

The area I'm going to be studying in is known as the Limburg region (the area shaded in light blue). Maastricht is the red dot at the very bottom of the map. Most of you who know me know that I'm full of random tidbits of information and I shall not disappoint in this blog (I hope). Maastricht argues itself to be the oldest city of the Netherlands (apparently another city claims the same thing and no one is sure who's telling the truth).

***Also, for your random knowledge, I was pleased to find out that the people of the Netherlands are averaged to be the tallest in the world. Yes! No more towering over all my friends, (sorry Amanda).

Anyway, back to Maastricht. The city gets it's name from the Maas river which now runs through the center of the city (traditionally, though, it flowed around the outside walls of the ancient walls). The picture at the top of my blog is of one of the bridges that crosses the Maas into the city proper.

Ok, so geography lesson over! All in all, I would like to say that I'm so excited (and a little nervous, not going to lie here) about this trip and the opportunity to write about my travels. So, stick with me, and let me take you to the lost valleys of the imagination... I think the trip will be fun.