Day 2 in the Czech Republic

Today was fantastic.  My post will be quick because it's time for bed since we're rising early tomorrow.  This morning we got up and enjoyed breakfast burritos in Eastern Europe.  Hilarious. And delicious.  We then set out to a town not too far away where there is a traditional town on display as a museum for tourists.  It reminded me a lot of some of the colonial towns that are set up in the traditional way for tourists to get an idea of what life was like.  This was really a great museum.  It was full of well-maintained, Moravian-style buildings, made completely of wood. 

The grounds of the museum. Where's the snow??

A replica of the "town hall" and "general store."

We got to also try a bit of a Czech specialty, spiced warm wine.  It tasted a lot like cough medicine to me, but it’s enjoyed all over the country.  We popped into the café and had a snack of Czech beer, pretzels and traditional garlic soup before heading out.

 We then drove to get some lunch at a very typical Czech Restaurant, and it was AMAZING.  SO good and very cozy.  The restaurant also brews their own beer, which we enjoyed together.  Well, all but the pregnant Lisa. J 

After our day of adventure, we only had a few minutes at home before it was off to church.  The service was in Czech, but luckily we had a translator so that we didn’t completely die of confusion and boredom.  The people were so nice after the service, coming up and saying hello, asking questions.  It’s a nice community of Czechs and other internationals.  After church we grabbed ingredients for a yummy tuna salad dinner (we were still feeling our massive lunch) and Lisa and I prepared the food.  After a dinner and a yummy dessert involving Bailey’s Mint Chocolate, we played another round of Carcassonne in which I did not win…again.  At least this time, I did not come in completely last.

Hope everyone’s weekend is going well.  Enjoy the last remnant of freedom before Monday hits.  This was going to be short but I guess that didn’t happen. Haha! 

High Tea...and Sad Goodbyes

Tomorrow we leave London.  It's actually really sad for both of us.  We've loved every minute and I can't say that there are many things I miss about NYC while being here.  Of course I miss my friends and I miss my bed, but honestly there's something so inticing about this city I can't really put it into words.  You kind of just want to wander all the time...just to anywhere.  You're on old streets with rickety clanking stone sidewalks, bustling old ladies with hats and bags that look like they came from another era, and the charming taxis where drivers actually know every single road b/c of that gosh darn exam they're forced to take.  Anyway, it's just addictive that's all.  I'm excited to leave for the Czech Republic and some sweet times with Jonny & Lisa so I'm grateful for that.  I'll be sure to post lots of pix from that part of our trip, though I've been told the snow has melted away. (Major bummer.)

Yesterday I had afternoon tea with my classmates at the British Museum.  It was lovely and I'll definitely do it again.  I liked it much better than Harrod's--less pretentious and more yum.  Here's a shot of my treats.  I only had the scones because I was so stuffed after them that I couldn't think of eating the sweets...shame...

Doesn't it look to die for??  Yes, that's clotted cream! Woot!

Anyway, I really need to head to bed, but I did want to mention that Nathan & I ate yummy Indian food on Brick Lane, something I've always wanted to do.  I was warned it's terrible and for tourists but after much research, one of Nathan's coworkers and his wife found a great spot and was full of Brits.  Brilliant!  Off to bed.  Much love to you all.  Thanks for reading!

xx

God Save the Queen!

Sorry it’s been a while since I’ve posted.  It’s that terrible habit that if you miss a day, it becomes so much easier to miss many.  If I hope to keep this blog up, I need to do it every day.  (Discipline, Meredith. Discipline!)  Okay, okay! 

So, I want to talk a bit about Sunday because it was day two of our friends’ visit and we definitely took advantage of another tourist day, despite exhaustion from a full day prior. In the morning we decided to head out to Notting Hill before we searched for a place for breakfast hoping that it would save us time.  It turned out to be a great decision because we found an AMAZING bakery right when we got off the bus called Paul Rhodes Bakery (oh, and it is a new location I just noticed, when i looked up the site!).  Oh man. Delish. They had these funky milk bottle lights that reminded me strangely of the movie Runaway Bride where Julia Roberts plays an industrial designer.  Anyway  Here’s a picture of the amazing meringues (Don’t they look fantastic, Emma??):

We then walked along and I didn’t take a lot of cell phone pix, so I don’t have much for you.  I enjoyed Notting Hill and Portabella Market about as much as I did 8 years ago.  Really cute and diverse with a million things I’d buy if I didn’t have to haul them back to the States.  I came close to getting a couple fun prints, actually, but it didn’t make much sense.  If you’ve been to Notting Hill, you probably remember this one shop before you get to the market that sells a million “old fashion” (translate: weather worn) metal signs.  This one made me laugh pretty hard:

After we walked around quite a bit in the area through residential parts and such, we decided to head to Buckingham Palace before it got too late.  We grabbed a bit to eat at a pub off the Victoria Station stop and then walked through the beautiful gardens to the Palace. 

The lighting was perfect and it was nice to be in the sun most of the day.  Every day here has been cloudy basically, so it was a great break from dreary weather!  Anyway, we walked through the gardens, past geese, ducks and a few pelicans (??) to the palace itself.  So majestic.  Love.

At this point it was time to head back to our place so that Marc and Albert could get their luggage and head to the airport.  Nathan and I also had to head out to go see some family friends in the country.  It was so sad to say goodbye to Marc and Albert, but it’s okay.  We’ll see them again soon I hope.  Next time it’s Barcelona!!!!!! 

This week deserves a separate post which I will not do until tomorrow.

Pubs, Parliament and Photos

I didn’t do a “real” post yesterday and I apologize.  It was a day full of chores and some slight British hilarity/annoyance as I got locked out of my flat for an hour as the cleaning woman took the keys and couldn’t be found.  I’m not kidding.

So, last night was a blast.  We went out to a local pub for drinks and such with Arup people.  I know hanging out with a group of engineers sounds like the last thing in the world you might want to do, but let me tell you it was great fun.  It might not have been too wise to have zero to eat before heading over there (why do I always do that!?), but either way, lovely conversation and lively crowd.  Later on, like around midnight, Albert & Marc arrive from the airport!!  We grabbed dessert and had a bit of a chat before crashing to sleep at about 3am…yikes.

The Larkin

Nate playing foosball at the pub with coworkers

Today was loads of fun.  We got up for a later start and grabbed an English breakfast at Russell Square Park right near the guys’ hostel.  It was decent, but of course the company was the best.  I do love me a great English breakfast, but the eggs were definitely lacking.  Oh well.  The beans were great.  After that, we head out toward Chelsea and Manresa Rd. (at King’s Road) to see my old apartment where I lived for 5 months in 2003.  I cannot believe that it really has been about 8 years since I did my internship at TIME.  Is that possible!?  Am I really 28 years old??!  Anyway, here’s a picture of the place today.  Looks exactly the same though a tad worn.

My old building.

Good old Manresa Rd.

Then we took the number 11 bus down King’s Rd through Victoria station all the way to Westminster Abbey where we got off and hit up the Abbey (looked, didn’t pay 14 GBP to walk in…lame!), the Parliament, Big Ben, & 10 Downing Street.  We then walked through to Trafalgar Square and enjoyed walking up through the Covent Garden area to see the shops including the world’s largest (and dare I say most gorgeous) Apple Store. 

On the 11 down King's Road--my old stomping grounds!

Parliament

Apple Store: Covent Garden

We ate lunch, grabbed some coffee, as it was really chilly and windy, and then took a walk across the Waterloo Bridge just as the sun was setting.  It sets at 4pm basically, so anyway…

View of the Eye, Parliament and Big Ben

After we made it across, we walked along the Southbank until we go to the Tate Modern where we spent a bit over an hour looking at two different exhibits.  It was cool, and by the time we were finished it was pitch black out already.  Ick.  Oh, so the other day when I thought I was walking the Millennium Bridge, I was not.  I was on the Hungerford Foot Bridge.  Yeah….I’m a tad embarrassed by this, but at least I’m admitting it.  Today, I actually did cross the Millennium Bridge after we walked out of the Tate.  It was a nice walk and we then saw St. Paul’s Cathedral (designed by Sir Christopher Wren) and walked to the Tube to head back towards our flat.  I needed to do a bit of homework and we were starting to think that getting dinner before watching the Barca game would be a good idea. 

Tomorrow we will try to do Notting Hill, which I’m excited about and that might be all.  Marc & Albert leave and we will be heading out to see some family friends an hour outside the city.  Hope you enjoyed all the pix!  I’ll do my best to also post tomorrow evening, but I’m not sure of what my wifi ability will be. 

Look! There's an Emergency Exit!

  It's day five and things are starting to feel relatively normal here.  It's odd how you can just jump into another culture and just adjust.  It is possible that some of the reason I feel this way is because I've already had friends visit as well as the fact that I lived here for almost half a year back in my undergraduate days (and blogged most of it).  Either way, I love London and pretty much always have.  I wish that I took more pix on my iPhone to share with you all because today I walked through Covent Garden, to the Strand and right past my old office at Brettenham House on the way to the Waterloo Bridge.  What a rush of memories.  I commented to a classmate of mine that I am grateful that though filled with nostalgia, I'm not at all filled with regret or wishing for the past.  It was a rich time, and though filled with a fantastic mix of joy, success, and adventure, it was also a time of deep personal pain and confusion.  I even managed to get a marriage proposal in there as well. Haha! (Another story for another time...maybe.)

  So, back to the day's events.  I skipped over the fact that I went to class and it was good.  I learned more crazy stuff and have decided that taking notes is futile because all the information is mainly on the ppt anyway.  I learn more if I'm focused on the professor.  The morning walk to class was glorious and sunny (the sun was literally shining directly in my eyes the entire way) and I loved it.  I popped in my ear buds, grabbed at S'bux and made it to class early.  I even remembered to bring my clementines for break.  Yessss.  The class then headed off together to go on the London Eye.  That was the walk that took me by my old office building.  The Eye just reminds me of the Staton's engagement (NYC friends of ours), so of course I think I told their engagement story about 5 times this afternoon.  Everyone thought it was super romantic and cute.  (Props, Josh!)  The group of us all got to get our own pod in the Eye, so that was cool and basically all we did was ooohhh and ahhhhh for the full 27 minutes or whatever it took to get around.  I was just glad I didn't have to pay the 20 pounds to go on it.  It wasn't that exciting on such a grey, cloudy day.   A few people in the class are pretty scared of heights so having to quickly "jump aboard" freaked some of them out.  One guy was like "oh, good! There's an emergency exit!"  Yikes, what would that look like from the top of the world's largest ferris wheel??  Eeek!  Afterward, we walked accross the Millennium Bridge (built by Arup), crossed the Strand at Leicester Square and passed the National Gallery, which reminded me of Liz Zelie because we went there when she came to visit me in London 7 years ago.  I got some postcard stamps once we got back to the Bloomsbury area (where I'm staying) and then spent the rest of the evening doing homework and making dinner, etc.
 
  That's about it.  I did want to mention that I also had a FAB phone call from Kristi last night which was so nice.  Skype calls aren't too pricey to the UK cell we have.  Also, if you're on wifi and you're calling me on skype (username: meredithann), it's FREE!  Hope all is well with everyone.  Here are some pix of our flat.  Sorry for the poor resolution, but they were specifically requested by Heather. =)

xx

This is the main living area.  I didn't take a shot from the other side, so this is half the room.

This is the cute kitchenette.  The microwave is also a convection oven.

The loo (taken from the windowed side by the toilet).

"Did you get the other basket?" "What basket?"

It's day three and I'll try to make this update shorter.  Class went well.  It's a good group of people with wide variety of backgrounds (in life and in academic focus).  After our class (10am-1pm), we all headed to Wagamama for lunch.  Seriously yum.  Nathan and I did some grocery shopping and managed to forget half of the things we wanted to buy, in our second grocery basket...I think that we can safely blame jet lag for this one.  We then took advantage of our afternoon off and caught some exhibits at the British Museum, which is not only free, but just half a mile from our flat.  Seeing the Rosetta Stone and pieces of the Pantheon were definitely highlights.  I guess I should mention the ceiling in the Grand Hall as well, since it is architectural, artistic, and engineering feet which could best be enjoyed in daylight with some sun...of which we had none.  What was NOT a highlight: the Picasso exhibit that actually only had ONE Picasso.  Serious fail.  After that, we finished up the shopping we forgot, had a cuppa and snack then made dinner in our tiny flat, which was DELISH and much cheaper than a local restaurant.

I was given a link to a fantastic PBS program called The Age of AIDS that does a great job summarizing the pandemic from first cases in the US to current day.  If you want to be more in the know, I suggest watching.  It is in small "episodes" and could be watched over time if you don't have 250 minutes to dedicate to it. =)  Let me know if you watch and we can discuss!

Okay, time for bed.  Class tomorrow and Nathan's first day of work.

Oh, and it snowed today.  Loved it.

Reminder to Self: Voltage is Different in the UK

Well, it is day two in London.  This morning I burned my hair with my overpowered hair dryer.  I mean it..I lost two big chunks of hair.  I didn’t cry and for that, I’m proud.   Feeling a bit dumb that I didn’t pay attention to the heat setting…yikes!  We also did a bit of exploring.  We had Nando’s for lunch (yum!) and bought some quick essentials at the overpriced market, because I needed to head back home to write my paper.  We then headed off to go to an evening service at Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB), which was just as awesome as it was 7 years ago when I attended for 5 months.  Tim Hughes leads their worship, which is kind of hilarious.  He’s so chill and relaxed that you forget he’s sold tons of albums.  I left Nathan there and skipped off to a reception for my course (explanation below) at a local pub.  It was a full day!

I probably ought to explain why it is that Nathan and I are here.  The main reason is that I am taking a course at NYU London during our January Intersession called HIV Prevention & Counseling.  It’s going to be fantastic and draining, I can already tell you that.  My first paper is due the first day of class, tomorrow at 10am.  Since volunteering at the Bailey-Holt House in Chelsea for the past (almost) year and a half, I’ve become more and more aware of the impact HIV/AIDS has had on our culture as a whole as well as the impact it continues to have on my generation and youth in the US.  Anyway, a round about way of saying that I feel like I need to understand more and our professor is a well-respected and well-published leader in the field.  Stay tuned for more on that.  Nathan decided to ask his London-based company if he could work remotely in their London office for the two weeks I’m here.  They said yes, so here we are!  They’ve set up an itinerary for Nathan’s time here, including a couple field work visits, some presentations on his work in the NY office, and a trip to their Leeds office where a lot of wastewater engineering work takes place—an area of high interest for Nathan.  Tomorrow is a Bank Holiday so he doesn’t go to work, but I start class.  No fair! 

Okay, that was long.  Expect that from me, though.  I tend to write A LOT when I blog.  Time for sleep!  Looking forward to a fun and full week that will include class, seeing Mike Yates, seeing some Spanish friends, and also doing as much sightseeing as we can fit in!!....

xx