" We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment" -Hilaire Belloc

It has always been my experience that layovers between flights suck. Three hours in the St. Paul, Minnesota airport was certainly less than exhilarating. So, of course, when I was trying to book my flight to Athens and the only two flights available both had insane layovers, I was not thrilled. However, the cheaper of the two (“cheaper” being a relative term), had a nine hour layover in Frankfurt, Germany. I have a few friends who always tell me how wonderful Germany is, and another friend who routinely has massive layovers, which she uses as a chance to get a bonus trip, so I decided to take my cue from them, and spent a few hours exploring Frankfurt. Here is what I learned:

1. German is a language with far too many consonants. Many of the words are actually very similar to their English counterparts, just with random Ws, Xs, Hs, and Zs, thrown in. As a result, German sounds very harsh, and the speakers seem somewhat angry. Really, I think they are just tired from using so many unnecessary letters.

2. Nine hours was all I really needed to see Frankfurt. It is not a huge city, and since it was a Sunday, very little was open, so the short amount of time I had allowed me to explore the city without feeling too rushed, but also from getting bored or tempted to do too much.

3. Everyone really does speak English. My friend who lived there for two years had told me this ahead of time, but I thought he was exaggerating. But really, everyone there spoke English and I had no trouble communicating or getting help when I needed it. Even the homeless woman who helped me find my way spoke fluent English! I hope this doesn’t make me an annoying American tourist, but this was a comforting discovery.

4. There are a surprising amount of Roman ruins in Frankfurt. I couldn’t believe all the old remains I saw, or how beautiful the Roman part of the city is.

5. Frankfurt is very clean! There was little graffiti, the city felt entirely safe, there weren’t any vagrants, and everyone was friendly. Maybe it’s because I just wrote a paper on the Holocaust, but I was expecting a very cold, hostile, ugly place, but I was pleasantly surprised.

I really needed some time away from London and school and stress and everything, and just some time to be by myself and not have to worry too much about anything, so this was a great way to start off my trip and I was so grateful for the opportunity.

Since I was traveling alone, I could not take pictures of myself, and I have heard too many stories of people having their cameras stolen by seemingly nice people offering to take their picture. Still, I didn’t just want to have boring scenery pictures that look the same as everyone else’s who has been to Frankfurt, so I took along Mr. Chick, a little stuffed chick I found on sale at a store in London, and enlisted him to be my model for the pictures.

Eschenheimer Turm

A beautiful graveyard I happened upon as I was lost (with Mr. Chick)

Not sure what this building is but it was really pretty

Reconstructed Roman building (the original was bombed in 1944)

The Kaiserdom, circa 1356

Mr. Chick hanging out on some Roman ruins

I loved the mix of old and new here

"Whatever else is unsure in this stinking dunghill of a world a mother's love is not." - James Joyce

For those who don’t know, I have the greatest mother ever. Seriously, she’s the best. And, she spent the last week in London with me! Naturally, it was fantastic.

She came armed with an itinerary a mile long, most of which was taken from my London Bucket List (see below) so we checked off several key things, and had a lovely time.

When she arrived on Sunday, we had a nice cup of tea/cappuccino and headed to the Wallace Collection, which was surprisingly incredible, and highly underrated.

The armor and weaponry room at the Wallace Collection

Then we went to Hampstead Heath which was beautiful, but quite chilly. We got some great pictures, saw amazing sights, and walked and talked for miles.

The view from Hampstead Heath

John Keats' House, next to Hampstead Heath

On Monday, after my classes we went to a fabulous, and quite unique dinner and then saw The Misanthrope (which was awful, by the way, but seeing Keira Knightly from the second row was pretty cool). Tuesday we went to the V&A, got crepes nearby, and went to see Private Lives, with Kim Cattrall and Matthew Macfayden, which was fantastic. Wednesday, since I had the day off, we went over to Kingston, where I got to go riding in Richmond Park, and we attempted to go to Hampton Court (we got there just after they sold the last ticket of the day L), did a bit of exploring, and then saw A Midsummer’s Night Dream with Dame Judy Dench, which was also great.

Thursday, my Mom booked us on an incredible tour that took us to Bath, Stonehenge, and this small town Lacock, which is beautifully untouched by time. It was one of the best days I’ve spent in England, and it was an unforgettable experience. I took lots of pictures!

The view from the Bridge in Bath

Bath Abbey

The Roman Baths

the beautiful and mystifying Stonehenge

Mom and me at Stonehenge

King John I's Hunting Lodge in Lacock, where the king was forced to sign the Magna Carta at knifepoint in 1215

Church Graveyard in Lacock

The Medieval Fireplace at the George Inn in Lacock, where we had a most fabulous dinner (the inn was established in 1361)

A small dog would run inside this wheel to fuel the fire in the fireplace above

Friday we did some shopping and had tea at Fortnum and Mason’s (which I loved even more because in the musical Oliver! there is a cart onstage from Fortnum and Mason’s during “Who Will Buy”). After the tour guide from Thursday’s adventure and I recommended WarHorse, my mom suggested we try for return tickets, which we lucked out with and got great seats. I think I enjoyed the play even more this time, possibly because I wasn’t jetlagged out of my mind, and partly because I was with much better company than before. But I (like the rest of London theater-goers) would highly recommend it to anyone in London.

tea at Fortnum and Mason's

For my mom’s birthday I’d done the British Library’s Adopt-a-Book program, and adopted a 1904 edition of Anne of Green Gables for her (she read it to me when I was little, because, as I said, she’s the best mom ever), and so on Saturday we got to take a special tour of the library, which was very interesting and made me appreciate the library even more. Then I dragged her to my favorite part of London, the markets. First we went to Camden Market, where I got my dress for Ivy Day next year (Seriously, next year!!!). Then we went to Portobello Road, which I think my mom liked a lot better, and we looked at the beautiful antique jewelry, and she bought a beautiful brooch, and we got some delicious crepes.

We passed George Orwell's house on the way to Portobello Road

Afterwards we went and saw The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I may be scarred for life, but my mom enjoyed it because she’d read the books and actually understood what was going on. We got Indian food for dinner, and all was right with the world.

After a lovely lay in at her amazing hotel and a yummy English breakfast (well, as yummy as any English breakfast can be) we bid adieu. It was so great to spend time with her, and do things I could not have done with anyone else. Also just being on the same continent as her was great, because normally our schedules do not mesh well with the time difference, so being able to talk with her was so wonderful and cathartic in many ways. I was so glad to see her and spend time with her and just be able to hug her for the first time in months. I do not think I realized until fairly recently just how blessed I am to have such a great relationship with my parents, so having my mom here was just fantastic, especially since, by sheer coincidence she was here for the British Mother’s Day, so she gets 2 mother’s days this year!

"Smile. It makes people wonder what you're up to."- Anonymous

Last week was one of those weeks where there is not one horribly, catastrophic thing that goes wrong, but rather the kind where a whole bunch of little things go wrong and they build up until you jut want to bury yourself under a heap of blankets. And after a hard day, my flatmates decided to have some loud party so now my head is throbbing.

But things are actually going well! The second term is off to a great start, and I have some great looking travel prospects for my ridiculously long break. So here are some things that are not going wrong:

I have started working as a volunteer homework tutor at a local library. The kids come from around the London area, many of their families immigrated here and the parents often do not speak or read English, and some of the kids struggle as well. But the kids are so sweet and smart, and it is so rewarding to see the smile on their face when they get the hang of improper fractions, or finally learn their spelling words. Plus, they’re really cute British kids!! They all call me “Miss” which makes me feel old, and they laugh at me when I use American terms- who knew this: “.” is called a “Full stop” here? To explain the differences to one of the 8 year-old students I asked her what she thought “pants” are, and as she thoughtfully explained, “pants are what you put on first, and you have to change your pants every day. Pants are essential” (referring, of course, to what we Americans call “underwear”). When I explained we call “pants” what they call “trousers,” she looked quite scandalized, and said “Miss, they teach you really bad English in America”

Speaking of adorable British children, I’ve been babysitting again. I always hoped to spend my nights with cute British boys, I had just hoped they would be over the age of two. Oh well, beggars cannot be choosers. But seriously, these kids are adorable, especially because they are at the age where they are learning to speak more. Last night as I was putting one of the little cuties to sleep, he said “buh bye” and “Night night!” which I had never heard him say before. It was the perfect cure to a long day.

Not that yesterday was bad, it was just long. But I did have a great lunch with my friend at Whole Foods, and then headed off to my wonderful art history class. I am taking Renaissance Art in London Collections, which means we go to a museum for each class and look at different pieces. It’s really interesting, and fun. Also, a lot of what I learned in Mr. Nici’s class in high school is coming back for this clas,s which makes me looks smart! I took some pictures yesterday at the V&A.

The V&A

Really cool chandelier

Cool Renaisannce stuff

Creepy babies on a fountain

This sculpture, besides being really great, is on all of the ads for the V&A, so I took this to kind of prove that I was actually there

Also, I have been meeting some new people, and getting close to people who I did not know as well last term, which has been great, and been keeping me busy. I have also been (somewhat) better at keeping in touch with friends from home, which is really great.

In other news, my classes are fantastic, I am at ten shows (saw Wicked from row L for 20 pounds!), I discovered the magic that is Borough Market, I have finally figured out how to get the water in the shower to do more than drizzle, the heat in my room is finally working, I am almost done with the wonderful book I am reading, I have renewed my addiction to the New York Times, and I think I may have found the perfect gift for my Mommy’s birthday. And, I’m sitting here, watching Lost on DVD, drinking really good tea and eating almond biscotti, and I have the day off tomorrow. Life is good.

"It is easier to be wise for others than for ourselves. " -François Duc de La Rochefoucauld

One of my best friends just left for her semester abroad, and several others have been roaming about the globe since the New Year. So, maybe I should have posted this earlier, but better late than never. So, here is a list of 11 things I wish someone had told me before I left:

1. Jet lag is real and it sucks. It takes my body about a week to adjust, and it seems, for me at least, that jet lag gets worse before it gets better. I was walking around in a fog, exhausted no matter how much I slept, had headaches, and could not concentrate properly. All you can really do is try to sleep on a normal schedule and wait for your body to adjust.

2. Culture shock is very, very real, and is a phenomenon studied in organizational psychology. It can lead to fatigue as a result of the strain from the effort required to make adaptations, a sense of loss or deprivation, feelings of rejection or isolation, confusion, anxiety, and indignation at being forced to adapt. There’s a whole chapter dedicated to it in my textbook, but basically, it goes back to our innate need to control and understand situations, and when that is taken away, we react very negatively. When we had this lecture, I found it quite comforting because it meant that I was not a failure for feeling some of these things. It is OK to feel frustrated, lonely, confused, and tempted to get on the next plane home. YOU ARE ALLOWED TO FEEL BAD. Once I acknowledged that this was what I was feeling and why, I was much more able to handle it, and things greatly improved (if only this lecture had not come at the end of last term!).

3. Trust your instincts. If your gut is telling you that the directions the nasty French lady gave you were wrong, don’t keep doing what she says or you may find yourself in a very sketchy area far away from where you were meant to be. If something seems to be telling you the way you are going is not safe, find a different way. Even if you wind up walking much more than you intended, or even splurging on a taxi, your safety is what comes first.

4. “If you never have, you should. These things are fun and fun is good!”- Dr. Seuss
Try things you never thought you would try. Do something different. Even if you hate it, at least you can say you tried it.

5. Work hard, play hard, but balance them, and plan for each. I set a goal for myself to get all of my papers and work for the end of last term a week early, so that meant I had the last week of the term to just enjoy Christmas time in London without anything hanging over my head. It was fantastic!

6. If you’re cooking for yourself, cook way more food than you think you’ll eat in one sitting, and save the rest. It’s so nice to know there are yummy things to reheat if you have a paper to work on later in the week.

7. You don’t have to forget that you’re an American. Bake cookies even if the concept is foreign to your non-American friends. Watch The Biggest Loser and Glee online if only to be able to talk to your American friends about them. Refuse to use Google.co.uk and stay loyal to Google.com. This helped me to feel connected to home, and established a stronger sense of normalcy for me.

8. Speak up! I had a lecturer who was using an example of “prefects” to explain a concept. I could tell a lot of the other Americans in the room and I had no idea what a “prefect” was but we were all a bit embarrassed. Finally someone spoke up, the professor laughed, explained, and from then on was careful to always explain uniquely British terms he used.

9. Walk. Besides allowing me to lose some weight (yay!) , it can actually mean getting somewhere faster or with less hassle than you would on public transportation, and it has allowed me to see some really cool parts of London I never would have seen otherwise. A great site is www.walkit.com (it tells you the fastest route, estimated time for slow/average/fast walkers, calories burned, and how much CO2 you’re avoiding)

10. Don’t be afraid to do things by yourself. I’m still working on this one, but often not having “someone to go with” has held me back from seeing a museum or checking out a market. It can be a really great experience to do things on your own.

11. Call, email, and gchat with family and friends A LOT. Yes, it’s great to make new friends, but homesickness can make you miserable, and it doesn't make you weak to want your mommy when you're sick, or wish your Dad was there when things seem to be falling apart. I have actually gotten much closer to some friends from back home than I was before I left, and I have come to appreciate my family so much more. Maybe distance does make the heart grow fonder, or maybe I’m just clingy, but I am so grateful for how much my relationships have benefited from my being here. I love my family and friends more than I can say, and I don’t know how I would have made it through last term without them.

I love traveling; it’s the act of traveling that I hate. And by that, of course, I mean flying. Despite how much I love New York and London, traveling between the two is true torture, especially if I am on one of the older planes, with less leg room (and when someone my height is complaining about a lack of leg room, there’s a problem). To add to my misery, on the flight I took last night/this morning, my seat-mate, despite being very sweet, looked like she had a nasty case of the plague. Several other people on the flight spent the whole 6 hours coughing. As such, I am now popping vitamins like candy.
Flying makes me cranky. Saying goodbye to people I really love makes me depressed. The fact that the heat is yet again on the fritz in my flat means I’m cold. So I’m cranky, depressed, and cold and need to cheer myself up. So, I am watching a marathon of Season 2 of The Office and making a list of reasons all the things I still want to do before the end of term:

(I'll continue to update this list and italicize the ones I have done)

IN LONDON:
-Spitalfields Market
-Brick Lane Market
-Petticoat Lane Market
- Greenwich Market
- Borough Market (I have a thing for markets)
-London Transport Museum
-Queen Mary’s Gardens & The Inner Circle
-Foundling Museum
-The White Tower and The Crown Jewels
-Museum of London

-Hampstead Heath
-Clink Street Museum
- Natural History Museum
-Tower of London
-Hampton Court Palace

-Have high tea
-Go riding in Hyde Park again
- see Billy Elliott The Musical Again
- See Les Miserables 3 or more times
- Reach my goal of seeing 20 shows
-Explore St. John's Wood

OUTSIDE OF LONDON:
-Windsor Castle
- Royal Pavilion (Brighton)
- Canterbury Cathedral
- Leeds Castle
- Oxford University
- Cambridge University
- Bath

- Stonehenge
- Stratford-Upon-Avon
- Salisbury Cathedral
- Edinburgh Castle
- Paris
- Disneyland Paris
- Greece
- Rome- go to the Vatican and Galleria Borghese
- Germany
- Auschwitz/ Terezin/ Dachau (I’mn not sure I can handle more than one)

"So if you really love Christmas, come on and let it snow"-Billy Mack

I always get mad when my friends don’t update their blogs for weeks and weeks, but now I suppose I am just as guilty.

The holidays have long since been upon us here in London, but now it has gotten very official. Oxford Street is all lit up, the crowds are worse than ever, and there is quite a nip in the air. One British Christmas tradition that I was previously unaware of is German Christmas Markets. There are a few really cool ones scattered around London, and even my inner Grinch cannot stop me from loving them. They are so fun! I have been to the Cologne one along the bank, and the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. The latter is much bigger, complete with rides and far more stalls, but both were a ton of fun.
The entrance at Hyde Park
The markets are very enthusiastically German, so right by the entrance at Hyde Park is this giant moose head that sings Christmas songs in German. Creepy, no?
There is always lots of German food and sweets, but I stuck with my beloved crepes.

Some friends and I with the Santa statue at the Winter Wonderland

The whole group of us inside a giant snow globe. (you had to pay for the pictures, so we all chipped in and my friend scanned the image. It's not the best quality but its still really cute!)


It is crazy to think I am almost halfway done with my year abroad. My goal was to see 10 shows before I went home for the Holidays, and so far I am at 9 (after seeing The Lion King this past week, which was ok). I would love to see Les Miserables or Billy Elliot again but we are going to try to get tickets for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (with James Earl Jones!) if we can.

I will be home from December 19th-January 8th. I cannot wait to go home!!! I have been feeling very homesick lately, and it is hard to be in a foreign country for so long, where you don’t really know anyone. In my organizational psychology class we learned about the stages of Culture Shock (which is actually a very serious phenomenon people go through when they relocate, despite its often trivial use in popular culture), and most people who go abroad experience a very difficult time adjusting, especially if they are planning to stay for an extended period of time (so students who go abroad for a semester have a much easier time adjusting than those going for 2 semesters or more). That is quite comforting, but it still doesn’t make things easier. I miss my family and my friends, and I have never felt so patriotic in my life. Also, I just realized I will be home for the last night of Hannukah, when the menorahs are all fully lit, and its really beautiful. I’m excited!

(extra points to whoever knows where the quote in the title comes from!)

"Christmas, children, is not a date. It is a state of mind."- Mary Ellen Chase

I preface this post with this: I am in the midst of writing a huge, boring paper that counts for 40% of my grade, so I am a bit cranky. So if that comes across in the writing, forgive me.

Christmas is big in London. I suppose since there is no Thanksgiving and Halloween is a much less significant thing here (rendering only a shelf or two in the grocery store), there is little else to make Autumn/early winter festive, but seriously, nobody needs to hear Christmas music in mid-October. And the window displays lose their splendor if they do not change for 3 months.

I admit it: I’m a Grinch. I grew up with Hannukah, and those “8 Crazy Nights” Adam Sandler sings of? Not so crazy. The first night is fun and the last night is nice when the whole menorah is all lit up, but between those two nights it’s just underwhelming. Even in my hometown of Mini-Jerusalem, we were bombarded with Christmas stuff and constant reminders that Santa would not be shimmying down our chimneys anytime soon.

But my friends here are determined to be the Cindy Lou to my Grinch and get me in the spirit of things (which I will consent to only now that it is November- again, nobody needs the Christmas spirit before Halloween). So on Saturday morning we decided to go to go to the Christmas Parade at Harrod’s. The parade is a big deal- they shut down Knightsbridge and there’s lot of dancers and people, until, at last Father Christmas arrives and is greeted by Mohamed Al Fayed, the owner of Harrod’s, who leads Father Christmas into the Christmas Grotto, where he stays, meeting children (who have tickets- there is none of this line-up-and-wait-three-hours business here like there is in the States) until Christmas.

I, being brilliant, decide not to check the service announcements for the tube ahead of time, thinking the Piccadilly line is never down. So of course, when I get to the tube, I learn it’s running on a very delayed service. Delightful. So I was very late getting to Harrod’s, unlike my friends who were early enough to get the good spots. There was a huge crowd preventing me from getting over to them, so I had to go to the front of the store (less desirable) and look like the 20-year-old loser who doesn’t have any friends or kids to watch the parade with.

In honor of the 70th anniversary of The Wizard of Oz movie, Harrod’s has gone all Oz-themed for the holidays, which somehow benefits the Great Ormand Street Children’s Hospital, though I’m not sure how. The windows are actually really cool, but my spot for the parade just happened to be directly in front of the window that was blasting the commercial for the “70th Anniversary Collector’s Item DVD” on a continuous loop. For an hour. I can now recite it from memory. On the other side of my head was a baby who screamed the entire time. Such a fun morning for me.

But even a Grinch can appreciate a good parade, and it was really nice. Nowhere near as good as the Macy’s Day Parade, but it was still fun. I took lots of pictures:

Window Displays (above and below)




Emerald City Dancers
Dancing and hissing witches
The Tinman
Dancing Dorothys
London's version of the Rockettes (but not nearly as good)
Really cute little boys. Some of them were really good at doing the Tin-Men walk, others not so much. They wished us a "Happy Christmas".
The band who led the parade


The Yellow Brick Road is lined with Burberry Handbags :-)


Father Christmas!

After the parade, I found my friends, who took pictures of us covered in the fake snow- as soon as I get them I'll post them here.