The Christmas lights and Christmas spirit in London starts around October! It was so fun seeing every part of the city covered in Christmas lights. Towards the end of my study abroad I had a few extra days to explore the city and visit all of the Christmasy areas (& do my Christmas gift shopping). My favorite was the huge Christmas tree in Covent Garden, angels above the street on Oxford street, and the Harrods building. I LOVE Christmas time so it was really exciting for me. In London it really felt like Christmas was on its way with the cold weather, bright lights everywhere, and choirs singing Christmas carols. In Hawaii, we are not that big on grand decorations so it was really fun to see the lights on Oxford street, the Seven Dials Market, Covent Garden, and China Town. Although, I am grateful to have went home for the holidays because Christmas is not the same without family and I felt satisfied with everywhere I got to explore before coming home to my family and the warm weather.
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In Cambridge we learned about the history while riding on a Gondola boat through the river, being pushed with a long steel pole our guide used. (The water is not that deep which allows them to use the pole). There were many willow trees at the edge of the water which added to the campus's beauty. After our boat tour we did a walking tour around the town. Unfortunately we were not allowed to go on the actual campus but it looked beautiful and vintage from the water. Afterwards we ate lunch at a popular restaurant recommended by our guide called "The Eagle". I ordered a meat pie with mash and gravy which was so delicious and warm. I ended up buying some Cambridge merchandise as well and I love the beanie I got.
I found it interesting that Cambridge is pronounced 'came-bridge' due to someone calling it that which eventually became the norm. It runs over the 'Cam' river so I do not know why it's not pronounced 'cam-bridge'. I also observed that the demographics there is mainly caucasians and international asians. Cambridge is one of the most prestigious schools to attend in England and the campus was quite beautiful but the town was smaller than I expected. I learned that Cambridge University is made up of 31 different colleges which is crazy to me since I initially thought it was only a few like Hawaii. I also now realize "collegiate universities" are broken up into different colleges depending on your major or field of study While in London I watched two musicals; Hamilton and Wicked. I watched Hamilton on Disney+ and I enjoyed the storyline so being able to watch it in person was a great experience. It was really long (3ish hours) so I got tired towards the end, but the acting and musical itself was flawless. As for the Wicked play, the stage was set with a big dragon hanging over it and the ambience was unique and fun. This was my favorite musical and I loved the storyline, songs, and acting. I would highly recommend going to see at least one musical or play while in London as it is much cheaper than in America and it is well done. I also learned how the tin man, lion, and scarecrow came to be.
Due to all of my travels I felt that I was not able to explore London as much as I hoped (time was flying by so fast!). However, I went with Kaycee and Kaylee to go into the city to visit a few museums for the day. We went to the Natural History museum, the Victory & Albert museum, and the Sherlock Holmes museum. The Sherlock Holmes museum was unique and I enjoyed going through the rooms and looking at all of the trinkets in their store at the end (I was particularly intrigued with the pipes and matches for some reason). The natural history museum was also really fun to go through. I love animals and it was interesting reading all of their displays and looking at the jars of specimen (it was sad seeing the larger animals in the jars). At the end of our day we went to the top of Primrose Hill at Regents park to watch the sunset. It reminded me of Poli Poli's on Maui, and it looks out onto the whole city. Although it was a far trek up the hill, the view was worth it and many other younger kids hang out up there too.
Halloween was fun because we got to dress up and go into the city. The halloween spirit is not as crazy as I have seen in the U.S. but it was still fun to celebrate. I was a hot tamale, Kaycee was Tom Shelby from the peaky blinders show, Saskia was a fairy, and Adriana was a character from a Tim Burton movie. We went to the Alchemist and walked around SOHO for a little bit before heading back to school.
Wales in a way reminded me of my trip to Bath. The first little town we visited named Caerleon had a small museum and large open "theatre" area covered in grass. It was peaceful to walk around the area and read about the artifacts in the museum. We also stopped in Cardiff and Swansea. That day (the 29th) was my birthday so after our little excursion we settled into our holiday inn bedrooms and a few friends and I went out to dinner and to a bar in Swansea. Many people were already starting their halloween spirit so the entire town was filled with college students dressed in their costumes. The next day we went to explore the coal mines and Tintern Abbey. My favorite part of this excursion was going into the coal mines and exploring all of the tunnels. Our guide was very passionate about his job so it was really interesting listening to all of his stories. It was cold and dark in the tunnels which was kind of scary and claustrophobic. I cannot imagine working down there every day with the risk of getting injured due to an unforeseen incident. Our guide emphasized how much he cared for each of the men he worked with since they worked long hours together every day in the tunnels. When put into perspective it opened my eyes to how dangerous coal mining is and that these men risk their lives every day. We were sent down with gear to keep us safe, but if an actual emergency or explosion were to happen I don't know how we would get out of there alive.
Two stories that stood out to me: Our guide mentioned that years back, a young boy was working in the mines and all they had were candles/ candle light to see. The wind took out the flame and suddenly it was pitch black. It took his partners a few hours to get to him. The reason why this stood out to me was because our guide made us all turn off our headlamps to see what it was like for that young boy. It was PITCH BLACK and very eerie. The horses they used to haul the coal in and out of the tunnels were miniature horses. They had to be short in order to fit through the tunnels. It was sad because they had stalls they were kept in underground and it was dark, lonely, and enclosed. Their life consisted of working in the dark 24/7 which is so sad. And if anything were to happen such as an explosion or disaster, the horses would be left to die. I also understand why the 7 dwarves worked in the coal mines. As a woman under 5 ft, it was easy for me to get around the tunnels without having to duck or worry about hitting my head LOL. In London they call soccer, "football". I did not know it was a term widely used everywhere in Europe too. This was my first ever in person professional football game I attended and it was so exciting. The game my family and I were planning to go to during the week of the queens memorial was rescheduled so my dad let me use their tickets to take 3 friends to see another game. I played soccer since I was 7 years old up until my freshman year of college. I love the game and I love being a part of a cohesive team. I also love watching soccer since I understand the game and am interested in the sport. Kaycee, Adriana, and Ryan were fun company to have since they all love watching the game too. We were able to grab food and drinks before the game started but we were not allowed to drink in the stadium so we finished our food and everything before getting to our seats. Although we were in the nosebleeds, it was a great view of the whole field and the game was so interesting! West Ham was the home team so we were rooting for them. They ended up winning which was exciting. My favorite play was the foul Fulham made in the box that allowed West Ham to score a PK to put them in the lead. The crowd was really into the game and would chant and cheer with every play.
Dover Castle and the white cliffs was one of my favorite excursions. The white cliffs were so beautiful and I learned they are made of white chalk so it is crucial that you do not stand too close to the edge of the cliff because the chalk is continuously "eroding" and any piece of the cliff can collapse at any given time so you could potentially fall off the cliff. We were lucky to get a tour bus and guide for this excursion so while we got the rundown of the history of everywhere we stopped, it also saved us walking time and allowed us to avoid using the public transportation to get to our destinations. The dover castle was equally beautiful and there were lots of stairs everywhere, but exploring the inside of the castle and surrounding lookout areas was a fun experience. My favorite areas was the top of one of the buildings that looked out onto the ocean and this grassy area with benches on the high part of the hill where I enjoyed eating my lunch.
I heard of Oktoberfest in movies and it always looked like a fun celebration so I was excited to see how this Oktoberfest venue was. I went with our group of people from UH and it was fun to have a larger group at this event. We did go on a Thursday evening so it was not as lively as I expected when we arrived however, through the night more and more people started filling in. There was a live walking band of men wearing the traditional Oktoberfest outfits. They played modern songs with the saxophone, trumpet, trombone, and drum set. The food vendors were also really good and they had a variety of food from fish and chips to Japanese cuisine.
We also used paddington station to get to and from the Pergola so of course I had to take a picture of Paddington the Bear. (I actually just watched the Paddington movie for the first time the week before) Paddington station was huge and it was one of the nicer stations in London in my opinion. The walking tour was the first of the 5 excursions of the social programme we took around London through the semester. I was not quite prepared for how long we would be walking for and I wore my converse rather than my actual walking shoes that day. I brought my film camera with me to take pictures and I am really happy with how they all turned out (all 6 pictures above are on film). We started off by a train station and walked through a food market where we all grabbed a quick lunch. From there we walked past St. Paul's Cathedral (there was a wedding! and the family was taking picture outside of the building), Leadenhall market, the Royal Exchange building, Tower Bridge, and Borough Market. Unfortunately we were running behind schedule so Borough Market was closing when we got there but it was nice to explore the city and learn about the history of each major building/area.
The first week of school was mainly getting to know my tutors, establishing a routine, and learning how to use the public transportation. I only had classes on Tuesdays and Wednesdays so I had a lot of extra time to take my trips around Europe on the weekend and explore London. There was a vegan cafe on campus called the Hive Cafe that I would go to every so often for a hot lunch and coffee. My favorite thing to get there was the tomato, basil, and mozzarella toastie (toasties are basically paninis).
As for my classes, I took business psychology (BUS 367G), international business and emerging markets (BUS 367I), business organizations in a global economy (BUS 367G), and the class my resident director taught: personal health and wellness (KRS 395). For my three business classes, I had a lecture first then later in the day I would have a seminar where we did readings, discussed the issues talked about in the lectures, and applied our learnings to the in-class assignments we were given. There was no homework (formative assessments) due in any of my classes. Our grade solely relied on our summative assessment essay that was 2500 words and worth 100% of our grade. It was intimidating at first since I was not used to my grade being so heavily weighed on ONE assignment. But the way the grades transferred back to UHM was a "70" mark at Roehampton is considered an "A" in the UH grade system (Apparently an 80 or above is considered publishable work and is hard to achieve). We used Moodle as our study platform to turn in our assignments and get our resources such as readings or powerpoint the tutors uploaded (It was like Laulima but more organized). I was required to write two research papers and one reflective paper. Business psychology and business organizations in a global economy were first year classes so many of the students were in their first year of university. My international business and emerging markets class was a second year class however, I did not notice a difference in rigor compared to my first year classes other than the fact that the tutor was more interactive and more students participated in the discussion. I am grateful to have received two 80 markings which are equivalent to A's and one 68 marking which is equivalent to an A-. *In London, the "professors" are called "tutors" or you call them by their first name.* Due to my trip to Scotland, the only events I attended during freshers week was PRYZM and the freshers finale. Freshers week is basically an orientation for new students to participate in many fun activities the school plans. There is an all included wristband you can purchase, or you can purchase each event separately. The events this semester included outdoor cinema, silent disco, PRYZM, tag archery, jungle rumble, Thorpe park (which was highly recommended to attend since they reserve the whole amusement park just for Roehampton students), freshers fair, and freshers finale. PRYZM is a popular club Roehampton students will go to during nights out. It is around 30 minutes away on the bus from the school. This night it was only open to students from Kingston and Roehampton. I had a lot of fun and I would highly recommend anyone to attend this event if you get the chance to with friends. The DJʻs played really good songs and there were lots of cool effects with the lights and fog smoke. There was also another room you could dance in that was themed "Disco", however, it was most fun on the main floor upstairs.
Once I checked in and received my Oyster card, care package, SIM card, and accommodation card, I went to my assigned room to drop my bags off. Luckily I got a private bath so I had my own shower and toilet in my room. The room was somewhat spacious and my flat was cleaned pretty well. We received our own bedding and kitchen utensils including pots, pans, and plates. The school unfortunately does not provide you with any other necessities including soap or toilet paper so before my family dropped me off we went to Londis (a convenient store that is a 5 minute walk away) to get toiletries and soap. Later that evening I was able to meet up with a few other students to get groceries and housing essentials at ASDA which is basically a Walmart that is a 15 minute bus ride away. Tips:
My family and I planned a day tour to Bath and Stonehenge. It was a long 3 hour ride to get to Bath but the scenery on the way to Bath was beautiful and majestic. The tour guide pointed out that on one of the hills in the distance there is a white horse shaped patch engraved on it. I was luckily enough to spot it which was cool. I also learned that there are millions of sheep in England and I think the sheep outnumber the amount of people. Once we got to the Stonehenge area, we waited in line for a bus to take us to the stones. The stones are clustered in the middle and surrounded by a vast field. It was a great experience to visit one of the wonders of the world. We visited a few other areas in Bath such as a small town nearby that had lots of food, ice cream shops, and entertainment in the middle of the courtyard.
Although it was a sad mourning time for the British and their country, it was an honor to experience Queen Elizabeth II's mourning period. Thousands of people came out every day that week to Green Park, Westminster Abbey, and Buckingham Palace to lay flowers for the queen. All of the notes people left for her showed that she was an amazing queen and great leader to her people. I was fortunate enough to travel to London two weeks prior to orientation with my family. Traveling in London beforehand with my family was very helpful for me to get a feel of the public transportation and city comfortably. We stayed at the Andaz by Liverpool street which was close to many restaurants, pubs, and the Elizabeth line which made it easy for us to hop on the tube to go around London. My family and I went to Green Park the week of her funeral and laid flowers down amongst the heaps that were already on the fields. We also attended her ceremony and watched from the large screens at Green Park. The amount of people that surrounded us was a little intimidating but it was an honor to witness everything. There was also a cannon nearby that would go off every so often and it was LOUD; I would jump every time it exploded. Many celebrations and activities were put on hold such as the football (soccer) game we were supposed to watch that week but with good reason as one of the greatest political figures passed away.
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