Ok, so first off I’m sorry I haven’t written in so long!
There are many reasons I haven’t (including illness and traveling) that I won’t
bother going into, so I’ll just dive in. Since I last posted I visited another
castle, visited London, and gave my first presentation. From now on I may not
post any photos on my blog because my internet gets worse with every passing
day, so I’ll just try to post a link to my Facebook album and make it public so
anyone reading who isn’t a friend on Facebook can hopefully see them too.
So first off, my trip to London! I took the train and it was
marvelous and I’m so glad I didn’t have to take the plane. London wasn’t really
what I expected. I suppose with all the photos of Big Ben and after having been
in Paris for a while I thought it would look more old, but apparently the blitz
took care of a lot of old buildings. It looks more like an American city
architecturally than Paris does, except that most of the buildings aren’t very
tall. It really was grey there, which was expected, but somehow it surprised
me. Overall it was a lot less picturesque than I imagined. Paris has lots of
dirty areas but even in those, the lighting is better and there are older
buildings so I suppose it feels more European to me. We did, however, have good
weather so that’s a plus. It only really rained one morning and I was sleeping
in anyway!
My hostel was pretty nice. There was a low-key pub
downstairs and a place to put food. The rooms had 10 people in it but most
people were considerate and it was clean and comfortable. The non-considerate
people (I’m looking at you, drunk Australians who were roughhousing and shaking
the bunk bed at 1 AM) were only there for a short amount of time. I loved the
staff; they were really friendly and funny and even knew my name. Shout out to
Paul the Scottish man, you are the bomb. Thanks for talking to me about
Venezuela and Ukraine and for being all-around friendly and helpful.
The days went by pretty quickly so I can’t give a
blow-by-blow of everything I did every day, but basically imagine everything a
tourist would do in London. I saw Big Ben, the outside of Westminster Abbey
(they make you pay in London, unlike in Paris), Trafalgar Square, Buckingham
Palace, Saint James Park, 221b Baker Street (aka the Sherlock Holmes Museum),
the British Museum, the London Eye, the Globe Theatre, the Tower of London, the
Tower Bridge, the Millennium Bridge, got a great meat pie (which was AMAZING
and completely worth it – if you’re ever in London, go get pie from Windmill),
had tea, and saw Ian McKellen’s pub. I also met up with some friends who are
studying in London and got to talk to them and visit some pubs with them.
Buckingham Palace was no Versailles, but honestly that’s a
good thing. You could say it’s a sign of how the British monarchy survived and
why the French monarchy was brutally murdered. Of course I couldn’t see the
inside, which I’m sure is quite lavishly outfitted, but the fact that it is
actually in London and not isolated from the capital, as well as it being
smaller and less ostentatious on the outside with a MUCH more modest garden
outside are all indicators that they are wasting less of their people’s money.
Of course I don’t know what I’m talking about and I’m aware there are vehement
supporters of the crown and also vehement republicans (which for all you
Americans out there does not mean conservative, it means they support a
republic which means no monarchy) but that was just a split second analysis
from an ignorant outsider.
The Sherlock Holmes Museum wasn’t that cool honestly. It’s
actually at Sherlock Holmes’ address, which is cool. They had it decked out
like a Victorian era abode, which was nifty, but the upper floors were all
weird mannequins posed like situations from the books. I haven’t read the books
so it wasn’t that fascinating for me, and it was a bit crowded so I couldn’t
geek out over the Victorian-ness of it. Plus I would have been more into it if
they had described how Victorians lived and described the objects and stuff,
but they didn’t. Oh, and one of the reasons it was so crowded was that schools in Asia were on break while I was there and the show Sherlock has been a huge hit there, so a majority of the tourists in the Sherlock Holmes museum were Asian school kids.
The British Museum was fascinating of course, and I didn’t
see even half of it. The signs of controversy over their having some of the things
they do was evident, which was interesting. They had a plaque about how they
“rescued” things from the acropolis and saved them from the elements, but the
Greek government wants them back and built a room to house the objects. It’s
definitely worth a visit.
I loved the Globe and the Tower of London. They both appeal
to my inner (or not so inner) history-nerd. The Globe is a reconstruction since
the original burnt down in the 17th century, but it was really cool
to see and I caught a demonstration of costuming. The Tower of London I
actually didn’t know much about. I thought it was just a prison, and I thought
it was literally just a tower. It’s actually a castle/fortress built by William
the Conqueror and later expanded. It was a royal residence, an armory, a
prison, and it houses the crown jewels. There was way too much to see there and
I wish I could have stayed longer but it closed fairly early.
Ian McKellen’s pub was interesting. My friend took me there
because we share a love of Ian McKellen, and we kept looking around hoping to
see him! There were dogs in the pub and we talked to the one owner for a long
time while petting the dogs. She was really interesting. On the subject of
pubs, I decided that I love pub culture. It’s more low-key than bar culture. I
don’t like beer (I know, I am a bad American) so it’s a bit annoying because
they don’t have as many drinks as bars, but luckily I like gin and tonic so it
was my go-to. I joked I’d be impervious to malaria by the time I left. They
usually offer food, often fish and chips or meat pies or something. I saw a
sign in one pub that offered a pint and a pie for something like 7£ and I was
very confused because I thought it meant an American-style fruity dessert pie.
I later found out they meant meat pie and was laughed at.
It was really great to see friends from American University
and to compare notes about the countries we were studying in. One thing that
really was interesting to me is I was actually jarred by the accents. I thought
I would have no problem because I watch so much British TV that sometimes I
don’t even notice when an American character comes on the show because I’ve
lost the ability to distinguish the accents. And in France whenever I hear
someone speaking English, British or not, I immediately feel a connection with
them. But in London I felt completely like a fish out of water. In France, it’s
immediately obvious to everyone that I am foreign as soon as I open my mouth,
but I’m also not taken for just another tourist because I can speak
conversational French. In the UK, I was just wrong. There was no way to prove
that I wasn’t just a tourist (which actually, I was just a tourist). But for my
friends studying there, it’s the same thing. Everyone just assumes they’re
there for the week or something instead of studying there. French people assume
I am here for a longer period of time. It’s also because American accents seem
stupid compared to British ones, so it’s hard to be taken seriously in class or
something.
(Interesting side note: most French people can’t tell the
difference between British and American accents and I’ve been asked several
times if I was British)
While eating out one time, my friends and I encountered a
friendly British man who chatted for a while. It was one of the best
experiences I’ve had talking to someone while abroad. He concurred that the
Queen is a “badass” and expressed his dislike of Justin Bieber. He considers
Harry Styles better than Justin Bieber. I informed him that Bieber wasn’t our
fault; he’s Canadian. He’d been to the US and to France and really liked both,
which was interesting because the French and the English have a bit of a
love-hate relationship.
I honestly found London to be a bit safer, especially at
night. It might just be my neighborhood, but in Paris I am constantly followed
by men at night and if you so much as make eye contact they take it as an
invitation. It’s been really difficult for me to learn to completely ignore
another human being, especially when they follow really closely and say “madame,
madame” repeatedly in my ear. Sometimes they pretend to ask for directions, but
unless you want to take a gamble you have to ignore them. In London they
weren’t aggressive at all and no one even followed me. My friend said she’s
been followed a few times but just said a jolly “fuck off” and they were on
their merry way. London also seemed a bit cleaner. It’s true that in Paris
there is dog poo everywhere. Street workers clean it up, but that can take a
while. In London the owner cleans it up.
My friends in London don’t think the English are overly
friendly but compared to the French they seem to be a bit more open. Which, by
the way, is not a judgment. As I’ve stated before, I like the French reserved-ness
sometimes. I hadn’t realized that I missed the friendlier American attitude
until I experience the British being slightly more friendly than the French.
Also, they really do say sorry all the time. Especially compared to the French,
who frequently say “pardon” when they really mean, “get out of my way” on the
metro. The metro in London was almost as silent as the one in Paris, unlike in
Washington DC where everyone talks really loudly. Americans really are loud.
It’s one of the things I still catch myself doing frequently.
I have to say that I prefer the Paris Métro to the London
Underground. The Underground is much cleaner but the Métro goes more places and
crosses lines more frequently. Pretty much anywhere in Paris is within a 10-20
minute walk of a Métro stop, and from there you can transfer pretty easily to
pretty much anywhere. This is not the case in London. Plus their system is a
bit more confusing. For my purposes it worked wonderfully and didn’t confuse
me, but for someone living in London there are vast areas where you cannot get
to easily, and if you aren’t used to using some sort of metro it could be very
confusing.
Now that I’ve written a novel about London, I’ll talk
briefly about Paris again. Not much has really gone on here except that I’ve
further settled in. I adore my host family, I’m more used to my neighborhood
and am getting more familiar with the city, where I can now say where major
landmarks are in relation to metro stops. I’m not being recognized as foreign
until I speak now, instead of as soon as someone sees me. I’ve identified some
French brands of toiletries that I like, and the pros and cons of different
food stores. I’ve made more friends and seen more things, like the Château de
Vincennes at the end of metro line 1, which was an old royal residence built in
the 14th century. I also feel more comfortable in my French. I
definitely am not completely fluent and I don’t think that is a realistic goal
for a semester, but I’m less worried. Honestly part of it isn’t even that my
French has improved but my anxiety has lessened. I may still say
incomprehensible things with the wrong verb tenses and mixed-up nouns, but I’m
not stuttering when I say it and I just try to say it another way when I fail.
My major accomplishment has been giving my first
presentation! I was up there for about 45 minutes but only talked for 25. My
professor was really nice and the class was small and also nice, so I wasn’t
too scared. It was for my geography class, which is interesting for me because
my school back home doesn’t even HAVE geography. It was on Greece and Ireland,
and I had to talk about the geography, the people/culture, and the economy. The
two were made into one presentation because of the bad economic state of both
countries. I had already made a handout with all the information and I
basically just read it off. The professor even helped me when I stumbled over
how to say all the big numbers (which is my downfall). I realized after I gave
the presentation that I used American-style numbers instead of French ones, but
oh well! The French use commas where we use decimal points, and vice versa.
All-in-all the professor definitely helped me out by filling in information I
didn’t have and fielding questions for me, but I still felt accomplished when I
sat down. And definitely relieved!
So anyway sorry I haven’t posted in so long, sorry there are
no pictures, and sorry this is so long.
Bisous,
La vache espagnole
For pictures of France, try clicking here.
For pictures of London, click here.
