Bonjour!

Bonjour! From Paris! That’s right I am in Paris! Really can’t believe this. (Got an awesome stamp on my passport.) Well, I suppose I won’t waste any time letting ya’ll know how it’s been so far! Of course it’s been great, but we shall go in to detail. Everyone loves detail. Here we go.

We woke up at the crack of dawn to catch a train at St. Pancras to go to Paris. It was all a bit overwhelming and confusing, but the Olympic rings are up so that was pretty darn cool. After having a bit of breakfast (a chocolate banana muffin that was super organic) we made our way to our train. We went through lots of security and got an awesome stamp with a train on it. I really love stamps on my passport. We got on our Eurostar and off we went to Paris! It was a little over two hours for the whole ride and we went under the English Channel for about 20 minutes. That’s right. We went underwater in a train. The train also had a dining car which was awesome. Okay, so. We get there. And we get off the train at a super complicated and busy station. There were people everywhere and they were rushing around and everything was in French. Crazy! We managed to find a place to exchange some money, so we were able to get some Euros. I don’t know why these countries can’t use the same currency. We then walked outside to a line of taxis with French men trying to get you to come in their cabs. I’ve seen Taken so getting in a random, non-official, cab is a bit scary. We were going to go with someone but a nice French man told us to go to the official cabs, which charged a lot less. Good thing we found him because we saved €30. We found our way to the official line for cabs and waited a bit, guarding our bags with fervor, as we have heard there are pickpocketers. There were also men on motorcycles offering to give rides. Um, no, I do not think so. There is no way I would get on someone’s motorcycle. And they were gross looking.

So we get in this cab. It’s official. Our driver looks decent I suppose. We literally have barely closed the door to the cab before he has taken off at high speeds. We are thrown all around the back as we winds down the street shouting the F word at people, yelling in French, and rapping along with the radio. I don’t know if he thinks the F word is funny, but he sure liked that word. There are absolutely no road rules here or lines on the streets so one simply weaves all over the place, avoiding the other cars. Seriously thought I was going to die. He was a maniac, yelling out different monuments and important places but not pausing for one moment to let us actually look. He pointed out the tunnel where Diana crashed. So sad! Of course I had all of two seconds to look before he found his way to another street. Then he went off about how the monarchy killed Diana, and she was pregnant with Dodi’s child. We also listed to “N*ggas in Paris” by Jay-Z and Kanye West which I thought was appropriate. And then we finally manage to make it to the hotel, in one piece thank goodness. By the way they drive on the same side of the road that we do.


We go on in and attempt to check in. Well that’s a whole another story. Many places in Paris will not allow you to put more than two people in a room, which is dumb. Even though we told five different people that we needed three people, they did not have that on the records. So we sat in the lobby for an hour and a half trying to sort all that out. We couldn’t move hotels either because we have no idea where we are. We finally figured it all out finally and went up to the room. In order to get to our room we had to go on the smallest elevator ever. It barely fit three people. If you know me, I do not like elevators at all. So being in a miniature one with three people isn’t my idea of fun. I survived. It’s a lovely room. To turn on the lights, you have to insert your door key into a thing then you are connected us to the electricity. Isn’t the weird? The hall lights are also off until you walk through, they are motion censored.


So what’s on the agenda? We are indeed in Paris, so perhaps we should see Parisian things. First stop? Eiffel Tower! We asked for directions from the lady who works the front desk and made our way there. We were trying to work our way there, a bit confused given the fact we are in a completely new and confusing city, when we turned a corner and BAM! There it was! We continued forward to get a closer view. Here are my first thoughts: It honestly looks like a cellphone tower at the top, so not that great. It’s a bunch of metal. My first impression was not great. It just wasn’t as spectacular as I expected it to be. As we continued forward we decided to stop for some lunch before actually going up to it. We had lunch at Le Malakoff which we found in the roundabout closest to the Eiffel Tower. (They really like roundabouts in this city, which are super hectic and confusing.) I had a Caesar salad but it tasted nothing like a Caesar salad I have ever had. They don’t really like salad dressing here, so the dressing was more of vinaigrette and didn’t taste like the typical Caesar. The croutons were fried which was weird, but I liked it. So, nothing like a normal Caesar salad, but delicious none the less. We then walked closer to the Eiffel Tower. We first got a glimpse of it at the Palais de Chaillot on a platform where one had a great view. We wanted to actually walk down and get close to it, so we did that. That thing is massive and I got tons of great pictures. I’ve decided that the bottom portion is the best portion of the whole thing. We did not climb up to the top because 1.) There is only one lift working. 2.) I don’t like elevators. 3.) There was a long line. My main goal was to see it and get up close to it. I didn’t have to climb to the top to be happy. We walked around it and under it and to the far side to ensure we had a view from everywhere. A friend recommended that we take a river boat cruise, so we decided to do so on the first night and made our way to the banks of the Seine to get tickets for that night. From there we walked to the Arc de Triomphe. The monument recognizes all the people who fought in the French Revolution.  It’s a really lovely monument. I was really looking forward to seeing this. I took some pictures from far away then we went underground to be able to go under it. It began to rain, but that did not deter us. The inside detail is beautiful and intricately carved. It’s a spectacular monument. We also came across a military ceremony. After googling it after the fact, we discovered that it was the lighting of a flame at the memorial of the unknown soldier. Pretty cool. Over all I would say this is my favorite monument in Paris. We made our way back to the hotel to freshen up and to sit down for a bit, as we had already had such a busy day!

It was time for the river cruise so we went back down near the Eiffel Tower to the River Seine to board our boat. I really like cities that have rivers running through it. London. Paris. Savannah. So the Seine was also one of my favorite things. We boarded the boat and off we went. This boat ride took us down the river and we were able to see many monuments and buildings. We also had a guide and an audio guide to point out specific things and tell us some history. A few notable things were The Louvre, Notre Dame, and The Eiffel Tower. In Paris there are a ton of bridges spanning the river, almost like London but there are tons more, practically one of each block. Bridges are called ‘ponts.’ One of the most famous is the Pont Neuf, which means New Bridge but it’s actually one of the oldest. I really like the bridges. They are just so cool and pretty. I’ll tell you more about bridges later. The Eiffel Tower looked a little more majestic in this evening lighting, by the way. Afterwards, Emily and I were hungry even though it was 10 at night. We went to a place called Cafe Trocadero. (No website)  For some reason, we were craving spaghetti so that’s what we had. I know we aren’t in Italy but it’s what we wanted, so that’s what we had. We had spaghetti with Bolognese sauce and it was delicious. For dessert we decided to be French and get a crème brulee. I had never had crème brulee but it was delicious! Stuffed beyond capacity, we walked back to see the Eiffel Tower. During dinner it had gotten dark, so it was all lit up. This is where the Eiffel Tower becomes pretty, when it’s all lit up in beautiful lights. There’s also a light on top that spins. It was quite beautiful in all its light.  Completely out of the blue, it began to sparkle. There were sparkling lights all over it. So cool! After the show, we walked back to our hotel to turn in for the night. The hotel is quite lovely but there is no wifi in the rooms, only one Ethernet cord, which is a bit inconvenient given there are three of us who need to do things online. We also had some “fun” trying to figure out converters and such. We planned the next day, got ready for bed, and fell fast asleep. We were exhausted.

As we had been in Paris for a full day now, I have some observations of Parisians but I will wait and write about those on my last Paris blog, as more observations were added later in the trip.  Here are a few teasers:

• These people smell. Like bad. They don’t wear deodorant and even if they put some on, they would still smell. Like you need to go scrub your pits for an hour to get of that smell.  Even waiters smelled like b.o..

• Parisians like to smoke. A lot.

That's not a ton of pictures but there are a bunch of pictures on Facebook. Go look!

Week Four: Day Four: BLC 18

The 4th of July!

So, it’s USA Independence Day and here I am in England. No celebrations. No barbeques. No fireworks. I’m really missing some good Southern food. I tried to explain sweet tea and boiled peanuts to someone and they simply did not understand. So, in recognition of the day, I wore red, white, and blue to work.

I went into work today without a schedule, which meant I had no idea where I was meant to go after the homeroom period. Feeling a bit overwhelmed, I went to homeroom. It was not a big deal. The teacher was there and the boys were good. I had missed them. Some of those boys, the head boy and one other especially, are just really nice. They make me remember why I like this age group. After that I went off in search of my contact teacher. I went to the other buildings but was unable to find her. So, with no idea of where I was supposed to be, I went to the staff lounge, where I was pretty sure D. (my favorite teacher) would be.  And she was! I chatted with her a bit and then I resolved to simply sit and wait. So I drank some water and read the paper. I also chatted with some faculty and such. They clearly have no idea where Georgia is, but I’ll get to that later. Eventually a teacher came along and said I could go help the year 5 and 6 work on kite making. Sure, why not? So I went and helped them tie some sticks together and glue tissue paper onto the frame. I was fun and I got to reconnect with some of my younger kids. They really are precious. I also got wished “Happy 4^th of July” by an American student. Thank you. Finally. After the kites had been made after much struggle and fighting over glue, we made our way to the park to attempt to fly them. Well, flying didn’t actually. They just ran around with the flag dragging behind them which eventually led to the demise of the flags. Those poor kites came back ripped and broken. So much for that.

I have found that there are two types of teachers. There are the nice ones who will actually acknowledge you and say “hello” and the ones who act as though it is a burden to have you help out in class.

After that I went to lunch and learned that the school was having “Celebration Day” today. This is basically an awards ceremony with some artistic highlights. But before I get to that, I must talk about lunch. Well, first about on the way to lunch. I saw a kid from my homeroom who says to me, “Did you know that today is Independence Day in America?” This kid was dead serious. Yes. I know. I am wearing my country’s colors. Haha. Then him and I just started talking. He is quite precious and I’m glad I got to know him more. D. was so sweet and went to Sainsbury and bought me some candy to celebrate the 4^th. She is seriously the best! I also sat and talked with some teachers. Back to their lack of knowledge of the states’ locations. I had to try to explain to a man (with an Indian accent) where Georgia was. He thought it was by Hawaii. Uh no. Then he thought it was by Washington. No. Wrong. He didn’t understand. I was also asked by D. if I go to Mexico a lot because I’m so close. Haha. Gotta love her. No. The only places in the US that these people know are New York, California, and Texas. Texas? Random. That’s so random. D. and I also had such an encouraging talk about our faiths which I loved so much. I’m about to go all Anne of Green Gables. I believe her and I are going to be bosom friends haha. We have decided we are going to keep up with each other.

D. and I took the year 6 to the assembly which was over on Oxford Street so we had some good time to talk. We learned about each other’s hometowns, etc. The assembly was great, and I liked doing something non-academic in the school. I felt as though I was a part of the school. Some of the students who I know got some awards and nominations. I was so proud! The performances were so impressive. They had students read original poems, perform from plays, and sing. They choirs were absolutely beautiful. There was even a boy, who’s in my homeroom, who had the voice of an angel. He could sing higher than any girl I know. Crazy. What was even more surprising, the other students were so supportive of each other. After each performance, the students clapped and cheered for each other. It was quite great to see. Once again, so proud. Afterwards we went back to school and walked around the art exhibit they had set up. These students are seriously talented.

Mrs. Morgan is coming today so that tomorrow we can begin our Paris adventures!! I can’t believe this is happening, but at the same time, I feel like it’s not a big deal. It’s just the normal thing to do here. That’s what I love about Europe. It’s so easy to go to different countries. I wish the US wasn’t so isolated. Though I could always go to Canada or Mexico. Gee.

I am almost packed and we are leaving super early in the morning. As soon as I get sleep I am sure I will be excited! I am bringing along my Kindle and a play script to read on our train ride. Goodness!

Week Four: Day Three: Internship 10

The British Library

This week the students went on trips and I had the privilege of attending with the year 10 class on their trip to the British library. The class was split and one group went in the morning and one in the afternoon. I went with both groups and mainly stayed with the head teacher. In the morning we walked the first group of students over The British Library. It is spectacular, nothing like a library that I am familiar with. It had huge ceilings and was all clean and modern. I didn’t even see any books. The only books I saw were in “The King’s Library.” This consisted of five floors enclosed in glass walls filled with books, tons of them. These are the books the King George III collected during his reign. Apparently, it was a status booster to own a massive library filled with the most expensive and beautiful books. And that’s exactly what he did. One cannot go into this portion of the library, as you need special permission. But you could look in the exhibit and see all the books. There were tons of golden colored spines with ornate decorations. Such a site to see! We then split them up into two smaller groups and each went with their own tour guides. The students are preparing for their creative writing controlled coursework for next year, so we went to see the “Writing Britain.” This exhibit featured manuscripts and old editions of books written by British authors. The exhibit is divided up into geographical categories that describe the literary work in some way.

To begin, we looked at the different categories and looked at key words that described them. The students then chose a word from the list of key words. This word was theirs and they had to go around the exhibit and find pieces that fit with their word. After doing this we all came back together and wrote sentences with new key words that they found in the descriptions of the manuscripts. We then made a poem with our sentences. It was interesting.

While the students were doing their assignment, I was able to walk around the exhibit, and it actually had some pretty interesting things! I saw some first editions of classic books such as Jekyll and Hyde as well as Jane Eyre. I also saw a draft of Pygmalion with George Bernard Shaw’s notes written on it. The best thing was the first handwritten draft of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, written by J.K. Rowling!! So cool. It was so casual, just the story written on some notebook paper.

After our first group departed, I stayed behind with the head teacher and we had lunch at the library café. She’s super nice! There were a ton of people there, with their own packed lunches, doing research or work on computers. I learned that in order to get to the books you have to register for the reading rooms and then you can go in and read a book. I don’t think you can take one out, which is kinda weird. I also learned that it is law that The British Library owns a copy of every book published in Britain. That’s a lot of books! The majority are kept underground. Fun fact: If you ride the tube near King’s Cross, you are actually riding between the warehouses where books are stored.

 Teacher and I had lovely conversations at lunch. We talked some about the differences between the school systems and I learned that my school is private. I also learned that the students are quite wealthy. Some of the parents are famous, politicians, or very wealthy. We then walked to see the Beatles collection where the library had pieces from the Beatles, as you may have guessed. I saw the first write up of "Hard Day’s Night", which John Lennon wrote on the back of a birthday card. There were a few more pieces as well, which were fascinating. I also saw Handel’s "Messiah" that was handwritten and the Magna Carta. It was all quite amazing to see. Soon, the second group arrived, and had some of the students I knew a bit better, and we began the program all over again. I won’t go back over it. At the end, one of our lovely boys felt the need to touch a painting and set off the alarm, so that was great. We all walked back to school and that was basically the end of the school day. I was glad for a different schedule.

 I am always so exhausted after the work day, but the class was scheduled to see The Lion King. Despite my exhaustion, I am not going to pass up seeing a play, though I didn’t have a choice. I was not going to be any less excited for this because I was tired. We had lovely seats in the balcony and just as I thought, the play was spectacular. I have seen The Lion King in Atlanta a while ago, but it was just as if I had seen it for the first time. Fantastic. The costume designed is a genius. Seriously. I love it. And I really love the songs that were added, that weren’t from the movie. The new ones were some of the best that were in the show.

 That was basically my day! It’s crazy to think we only have two weeks left! I have too much to do!

Week Four: Day Two: Internship 9

Observations

A new week means a new schedule and this for today I was a bit confused as to what my schedule was. I went to the school and did not go to my homeroom because I thought I was meant to be in the library. Turns out I was not, so I missed my year 9 boys for nothing. So sad. After a bit more confusion, I came to find out that I was needed in the library for the first two periods. I was helping D. who is the wonderful Romanian teacher who I had met my first week. She, as I believe I mentioned before, teaches English as a second language. I primarily observed during the morning periods, but it was nothing short of interesting.

 For the first period, she had N., Y., and S. who are two Japanese students. (S. is the student who I worked with all last week and N. is another Japanese student who was in my classes last week. N. is very self-motivated and hard working.) Now, I have been wondering how the students with language barriers stayed afloat. Besides having a teacher with them to work on some big assignments, and having an electronic dictionary, they (at least the Japanese students) have a few lessons a week where they can catch up on homework with some assistance. Learning English is also a part of these supplemental lessons. I sat while D. helped a Japanese boy with his English. She is seriously great at her job. They were working on Macbeth, which was the chosen piece for the English class, and she had a great strategy. First Y. read a section (in modern English, rather than Shakespearian). He was then meant to underline any words he did not understand then look them up in his dictionary and write the word in Japanese. This way they can improve their reading, speaking, and vocabulary. Y. did not want to work and seemed tired. Turns out he is the brother of S., who shares the same apathy.  D. did so well trying to work him through the reading and asked great though provoking questions that helped him grasp the general message of the passage. I also learned that many of the Japanese students do not take the English controlled assessments; instead they take an international exam.

The next period we had one more student. The boys used this time to catch up on homework and were able to ask questions to clarify anything. I could really see the difference between the three students. S. is not motivated to work and definitely plays into the fact that he does not understand English. He is constantly using this as an excuse to not do work. During this period, he managed to spend more time watching a video on the computer. N. does so well. He does know more language than the other boys, but still is not fluent. He does not let this stop him though. He diligently works and asks for help when he needs it. His questions go beyond simple comprehension. N. asks for more complex synonyms in order to better his work. He also seems to be reluctant to speak in Japanese when the others ask him homework questions.  I did not catch the name of the third boy, so I will simply call him Boy. Boy did not want to work with D. so I’m pretty sure he used another homework assignment as an excuse. He did not however, work very hard on this homework. He spent most of the time looking up cartoons as well and became defensive when reprimanded. I think it is so interesting how they all differ. The American stereotype and British as well, of Asian students are that they are extremely bright and academics are extremely important. I do not see this with Boy and S.. They have no motivation, and I do not think the language barrier is the only cause of this. Since the boys were more or less working, us teachers sat and chatted, which was lovely. And Jose and Mary came to visit, which was great.

Since I had no true idea of my schedule for today, I kinda made it up and went with D. to her next lesson. She had S. for that time and they were going to read a short story then look up words and answer questions. I truly admire her for having the patience to deal with them for three periods of lesson. S. was very reluctant to work and was easily distracted by anything, from his pens to the computer mouse. D. kept working to get him to read the short story and look up the words he did not understand. S. did not seem to want me there, and asked why I was there. I feel as though he is a bit embarrassed having someone observe. The main message D. has been trying to get across to S. is that he must practice during summer in order to ensure he will not regress. She has been encouraging him to listen to English television, and read newspapers. She has even emailed his father, though none of this seems to be having an effect. I can’t remember if I have discussed S.’s home life, but I will here as well. S. and Y.’s family love the Japanese culture and do not speak English as home. This hinders the boys’ education of the English language. They get no practice at home, especially during the summer break. Learning is disabled when there is a language barrier and even more so when the learning of English contradicts the home life. (I remember learning about such things in class.) So even though D. stresses and encourages, it simply is not a priority at home, so it hurts the boys tremendously. S. is extremely reluctant to practice at home. He sees summer and a break for him which means no English practice and he became very defensive. I seriously do not know how D. stays so calm and engaged. She earnestly cares about his mastering of the subject and is one of the teachers that I have seen truly has an interest in her students. She also knows about their interests and pets, etc. She is so great.

So turns out I have tons to say about today, which I didn’t think I would, but I don’t care. Maybe I have so much to say because I got to work with my favorite teacher and with students who need assistance. Basically, students similar to the ones I want to work with. Bam.  (Once again, I may have already stated this but, I have noticed that education is written about quite often in the papers, which I find super interesting.)

After lunch I attended regular lessons. I had history with year 10 and had a few of the students who I had gotten to know. It was good to see them again. The class was looking at pictures, letters, etc and had to analyze them. Much like the DBQ’s we had to do for AP. I worked with three boys and helped to motivate them to actually get work done and help them analyze the picture. Thankfully I have done this before, so I was useful. I then moved on to math, which they call maths with some more year 10s. For this class, I really just observed as the students were simply going over their exam scores. They were in the C/D range, which I think it interesting. Almost everyone had these marks. Apparently this class is a preparation for the next year and no one is capable of getting an A. That’s so weird to me. I may need to research this whole system. They also don’t have “F”, the “E”. It’s super weird. I also learned that 6 form (which I believe to be the same as 12^th grade) do not have to wear uniforms.

Their school system is really weird. Some classes are two years and even though one may have a D, you can bring it up to an A by the end of the second year. Also, some classes take precedence over others and students are missing secondary classes quite often to take other exams. It’s so complicated. Maybe it’s more organized during the rest of the year, not leading up to summer. Who knows? Tomorrow I am going on a field trip to The British Library with year 10, so I’m excited. I’m sure it will be great! We also get to see The Lion King tomorrow! Woohoo!

Ps. The cut up chicken and the hummus from Sainsbury is quite delicious and our mouse has returned. Great.

Week Five: Day One: Internship 8

God Save the Queen

The third palace. What we were all waiting for. What was the third palace? Why, of course, it was Buckingham Palace. The place where they Queen herself lives and works. How exciting. We were really fortunate to be able to go into the palace this summer. Typically it is not open this time of year, but there was a special two week period where it has been opened. We left early to try and see the changing of the guards, but we did not make it in time and there were huge crowds. The new plan for that is to go on a weekday and go super early so we can have a prime spot. It will happen. After collecting our tickets for the "Royal Day Out" we made our way to The Queen's Gallery. Inside we saw an exhibit called "Leonardo da Vinci: Anatomist." We looked around at several drawings that da Vinci completed depicting the human body. Apparently he was very interested in anatomy and would even dissect human bodies and draw what he saw. He was also interested in body processes, such as childbirth. It was all quite interesting.

One of da Vinci's drawings

We then made our ways to the Royal Mews. This is where the royal horses are kept, some stable/staff members reside, and where a few special items are held, or at least put on display. These special items were the royal carriages that the Queen and royal family use. They were beautiful and extravagant. They had pictures up of the Queen in the carriage we were all snapping pictures of. We even saw the coach that carried Princess Diana to St. Paul’s on her wedding day! Another great thing that we saw was the royal limousine. It was huge and elegant. I would love to ride in that! One of the best parts was seeing the Coronation carriage. It was massive and extravagant. There was a ton of detailing and gold everywhere. Amazing. The final stop at the Royal Mews was to meet two of the horses. They were very handsome horses.

The Royal limousine

The carriage that carried Diana on her wedding day.

The coronation carriage!

Then, we made our way to the palace. The actual palace where the Queen lives, and holds state dinners, and garden parties. At all of these places there was strict security and sadly no pictures were allowed in the Queen’s state rooms, which are the rooms that are open to the public. There are19 state rooms that we got to tour. Let me tell you. They were amazing. Everything from the ceilings to the walls, to the décor was extremely elegant and expensive. There were gold accents everywhere and each room had its own character. We could not touch a thing but the carpet. I’m pretty sure I did not blink once. It was spectacular. There really aren’t words to describe how wonderful everything looked. We saw the room with Elizabeth and Philip’s thrones, where they had taken their wedding photos. Kate and William also took their wedding photos there in those thrones. We saw where the Queen holds state dinners and the table she uses. We also saw the room in which several members of the royal family, including William were baptized. These rooms are in full use when they are not being used in the few summer weeks for tour. I cannot believe I was in the rooms that the royal family has walked through. We also got to see a temporary exhibit called “Diamonds: A Jubilee Celebration.” Inside were several crowns among other wonderful pieces owned by royalty. We saw crowns worn by Queen Elizabeth that we see on the bank notes, and in her diamond jubilee photos. It was so cool. We also saw a crown worn by Queen Victoria after the death of her husband Albert. There were so many diamonds. Love it. A highlight was the Cullinan diamonds. It was a massive diamond, 3,105 carats, which was then cut and put in several pieces that are still used by the Queen today. As much as I loved this exhibit, it was extremely crowded and people were pushy. Towards the end, I had to get out of the queue (that people were already cutting in and out of) and get a view of the crowns from a bit farther back. I still saw them all and had a good view, but I could not stand there much longer. The whole experience took a good four hours, but I was so glad we went and got to experience that. We also got to walk around the gardens, where I can only imagine that Kate and William take strolls. The gardens are also where the Queen holds her garden parties.

The back of Buckingham Palace

After a full day of royalty, we were in need of some dinner. We decided to check out a place that our dear roommate Lauren has been raving about called Vapiano. It’s a pasta/pizza place where you got to the counter and tell them what pasta and you watch them make your pasta. I had the ravioli con carne in a tomato cream sauce and it was so good. Exactly what I needed after walking around all day. I highly recommend this place. We also had some roommate bonding time while watching the EURO 2012 final. I don't know if we were all just tired, or super giggly, but we had a good time tonight.

Week Four: Day Seven: BLC 18

Kensington Palace

Day two of palaces! Even though I haven’t been to tomorrow’s selection, this may have already beaten it out. We went to Kensington Palace. It was absolutely beautiful. It was quiet and calm, so unlike the rest of London, yet smack in the middle of London. So, why is Kensington important? Well, Queen Victoria lived there. So did…Princess Diana. And Kate and William currently live there. Kensington Palace is one of their two residences. If I was royalty, I would choose to live there, and kick all the tourists out because I would want to gardens to myself. There were five exhibits that we went through, so I will discuss each separately to make sure they are each given credit, as they were all great.

Diana: Glimpses of a Modern Princess:

This was a wonderful exhibit on Diana. It was small and fairly new, but great all the same. The entryway had this fabulous wallpaper with artsy drawings of Diana. Some were iconic photos, while others were just beautiful. I may have taken a ton of pictures of this, but who cares? If I could make this the wallpaper in my room, I so would. Inside were several of Diana’s dresses. So pretty! I loved seeing them, simply because I love Diana.

The wallpaper.

Diana's Dresses!

My wedding dress will look like this. Only in white.

King’s State Apartment:

Here we saw rooms occupied by past kings. They were quite spectacular. My favorite may have been the room where dancing took place. It was very colorful and happy, and I could imagine balls taking place there. In this exhibit, there was an interactive game for us to play. In every room we were to collect playing cards that had a different member of court on them. They also contained a letter of the alphabet. Before entering the King’s private room, we were told to pick three cards with letters that resulted in spelling a word. We took these three cards and the word they spelled and went into the room. There, we found cabinets with drawers in them. Each drawer had a different word on it. In order to find out what position we held in court, we found our corresponding drawer and opened it. Turns out, I was the royal physician. Emily and Lindsay were the King’s mistresses. (Floozies.) In some of the drawers, it said things such as “shunned” or “banished.” Thankfully, we were in the King’s good graces. That was a great way to work our way through the exhibit. Once again the rooms were beautiful with wonderful ceilings and tapestries.

The King's Staircase

Jubilee: A View from the Crowd:

Queen Elizabeth recently celebrated her diamond jubilee. Queen Victoria is the only other monarch to also celebrate this landmark event. She reigned for 64 events. This exhibition showed her diamond jubilee celebration. We saw decorations and souvenirs from the event. (I especially loved the plates and china. Is it weird to have a plate collection?) They also had a model of London from that era with scale buildings and a map of London on the floor. That was super cool. We also could write a postcard to Queen Victoria and “mail” it. So of course we did. You could also read some that people had written. On the part where you put why you were in London, someone had written, “I had wanted to go on this trip for 50 years.” How precious is that?! We also saw video footage of Queen Victoria riding in her carriage.

Model of London

Queen’s State Apartments:

Then we saw the Queen’s apartments. Apparenlty there’s a storyline that was to be followed but it wasn’t explicitly set out, so we didn’t get it. I’ll just google the story later. But her rooms were quite lovely.

Victoria Revealed:

So I will admit. I was excited to go to Kensington mainly because I like Queen Victoria, because we share a name. Duh. So I was really excited for this exhibit. The whole exhibit is expressed through Queen Victoria’s own words found in a journal of hers. That was so cool. Every room had her own personal thoughts of that exact room, or that exact dress she was wearing. The best part was the love story between her and Prince Albert. We got to read her words about her affection for him and see the gifts they exchanged before their wedding day. It was precious. Absolutely precious. Sadly, when Prince Albert died unexpectedly, Queen Victoria was heartbroken and wore black for the remainder of her life, which was over 30 years. Isn’t that extremely sad? A few highlights were her wedding dress and we saw a staircase leading to the room where Victoria was told that her uncle was dead and that she, as a teenager, was now queen. In the exact building I was in, such monumental news was received.

One of Queen Victoria's black dresses.

That’s the exhibits. So wonderful. This has been one of the best things I have seen so far and would definitely come back here. We wandered around the palace gardens, which were spectacular. The gardens turned into Kensington Park so we wandered around. The weather was so wonderful and sunny that it was blissful. It was all so calm. We want to go back before we leave and have a picnic there. We were also in search of the Peter Pan statue that was featured in the Mary Kate and Ashley movie, Winning London. It was great. Gotta love Peter Pan.

The gardens.

Kensington Park

Peter Pan statue

We were quite famished after such an adventure so we made our way to High Street Kensington and went to a restaurant called Giraffe. It was absolutely delicious. I had the BBQ chicken quesadilla. Wonderful. I need to go back there before I leave. We then walked in some shops to see if we could find anything. High Street Kensington has all the same great shops as Oxford Street but is so much less insane. There are less people, which I quite enjoyed. It’s a great area of London. I love it. Today was so wonderful, and I can’t wait for the third addition to the palace trilogy. I suppose I will upload pictures to Facebook now! Cheerio!

Week Four: Day Six: BLC 17

Hampton Court Palace

This begins day one of our three days of palaces. That's right. In three days we will see three different royal palaces. The first one on the agenda is Hampton Court Palace. This palace is not in central London so we had to use several methods of transportation to arrive there. We rode the tube to Richmond Station then got on a boat and rode for over an hour down the River Thames. Our boat ride was quite quaint. It was cool to see such a different part of London. It was much more residential and very similar to riding down the water at home. People had docks and boats and I loved it. I sure am missing the water. Once we got there we had lunch at the palace’s café. I had soup with bread and a massive chocolate chip cookie. We then began our tour of the palace. It was quite windy, as it typically is in this city.

Hampton Court was the home of King William and Queen Mary as well as Henry VIII. We began the tour with a bit of history of Henry VIII and his many wives that we know all about. I think one of the main focal points of this palace is the architecture. Each monarch that lived here added wings with their own architectural style. We toured the majority of the palace, the notable items. We saw the kitchens and pantry and learned about the tons of food it takes to entertain the King and guests at the banquets. In one year, they drank 600,000 gallons of beer. That’s a lot of beer. We also saw Henry VIII’s toilet. It was old! And gross! I don’t know why that was saved, or on display. We then saw an exhibit called “The Wild, the Beautiful and the Damned.” Basically, this exhibit exposed some scandals of the Stuart Line. If TMZ was around back then, they would have had a field day. We learned about royal mistresses and saw portraits of scantily clad women that kings would hang in their rooms. Scandalous. I think the best part of the palace is the ceilings. They put a lot of effort into those. Each wall also had huge tapestries on them, which were very detailed. That should come back in style that would be so cool. I would have a tapestry on my wall. It could happen. Although we could not take pictures in the chapel, it was easily the most beautiful room in the palace.

Ceiling

And another.

Wall Tapestry

Henry VIII

Another ceiling.

The best part of Hampton Court Palace was the gardens. They were absolutely spectacular with tons of beautiful flowers. We also saw The Great Vine which is one of the oldest vines in existence. The maze was a highlight. It was quite large, with beautiful tall hedges.  We managed to make it through quite quickly! That was a lot of fun.

The Great Vine

The Rose Garden.

We came back to London by train, which is always different and fun. We were exhausted at the end of the day, but I always enjoy day trips. We went for a bit of shopping at Oxford Street. Let me tell you. These Londoners love to shop and Oxford Street is absolute madness.

Tomorrow: Palace #2. I wonder which one it will be?

Week Four: Day Five: BLC 16