Good morning from the snow globe that is London!
Before I update you on the latest since my last post, I'll fill you in on the weather here. It snowed yesterday and last night (more snow predicted for today and Wednesday, along with some sleet), and clearly this does not happen often in London. Please forgive me as I revel in a very rare and previously non-existent experience - I know more about snow than the majority of the people slipping and sliding along outside my window!!
There are only about 4-5 inches on the ground throughout the city (there's a little more here because we're farther outside of the "Heat Bubble" of the center of the city) and the city has literally shut down. My class today was canceled. All but one of the underground lines is severely delayed or completely shut down. The entire bus system is shut down. There are car accidents all over the city making driving impossible. All trains are shut down. And, rather inexplicably, cell phone networks are down.
Queen Mary's campus does not seem to own shovels (well, even if they did no one would be able to make it into work to be using them) and they definitely don't know to salt the pathways around campus. My fellow London-ers are equally ill-prepared - they all have worn suede boots (in their defense, they're probably the only boots they have without a heal), which are completely soaked through at this point. They're also bundled up as if they were about to go spelunking through some Arctic caves. I have to go get a book later today from a bookstore in London as our campus bookstore is shut down, and I'm really looking forward to seeing the city in snow - it's BEAUTIFUL in the snow. That's one thing I love about snow - everything just seems 10 times more lovely when covered by it, and the dreary grey sky here finally matches the ground!
Alright, on to what I've done since I last posted:
1. Gotten ahead on work in preparation for my various adventures coming up.
2. I went to Windsor Castle! It was really quite impressive! I think my favorite part was Queen Mary's Dollhouse. It's not a dollhouse you would play with, but is a perfect miniature replica of a typical castle of the time. It had tiny little furniture and was insanely detailed. I also saw the State Appartment, where the Royal Family entertains important guests when they come to the castle. It was stunning - there was a fire there in 1992 and they took that opportunity to re-do some of the rooms. They kept the integrity of the designs but updated them - there's one room that I'm sure was looking rather faded before but now is the most incredible shade of crimson, from the wall paper to the furniture. I then walked around the town of Windsor, which was very nice. Eton College, the world-renowned top English boy's prep school (college here means high school), was also nearby, so I walked over and saw that as well. I didn't get to go on a tour as they only offer them during certain seasons, but it was very cool to see the campus - it was huge and absolutely spectacular. Their chapel is as big as Trinity's, if not bigger! Overall, it was a lovely day and I always enjoy my bus-rides as an opportunity to see more of England.
3. I went to Bath! It was a great adventure of a day. I went with my four friends from Fordham; one goes to University College London and the other three go to Queen Mary with me. When the four of us that go to Queen Mary got ready to get on the tube to catch our bus from Victoria Station, we realized that we had a problem - the line we needed wasn't running that early on a Sunday. So being the clever travelers that we are, we devisded a plan to get there on a different combination of tube lines, and we would have made it had it not been for the last line we needed being completely closed for the day for track work (ironically this is the one line that is running with good service today). We then tried to run through the city to make it to Victoria, ran for what felt like a mile, found out we had made no progress, took a city bus, and ended up missing our bus by about 5 minutes. While we were not able to get a refund or switch our tickets, we went ahead and got on the next bus anyways since we already had our return tickets booked, and since we were determined to go to Bath! And it was completely worth it! The bus ride was beautiful (about 3 hours) and when we got there we had some lunch (I always pack my lunches so I can save money on my weekend adventures). Then we walked around the town and saw the Abbey and, the pride of Bath, the Roman Baths. They were absolutely incredible - it's made me so excited to go to Italy and see more history like this! I took a ton of photos which I will put up on my web album (http://picasaweb.google.com/Jordyn.Sims). My Windsor photos are already up. Jillian and I then stopped by the Jane Austen Center, which made me feel that I had fulfilled my duty as an English major in Bath, while the boys went and did "manly things" (they watched a rugby match and found a maze that they ran through). Jillian and I read for a while in a cute little cafe called "The Boston Tea Party" (we thought the name was pretty amusing), and then we all had some dinner, and got on our bus home! We got a glimpse of Bristol when we switched buses there, though it was dark so I didn't really get to see much there.
Alright, well I'm off to see if the gym is open, and then plan to entertain myself with a stroll through London in the snow! It's actually snowing more as I write! I hope you're all having a wonderful day, wish you a delightful week with good health and happiness, and will write next week about my snowy week in London and my exciting birthday weekend in Edinburgh with Caroline (Claire is going to be visiting then from Dublin, too!!!)
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