Final Photo Essay- Jeff Jensen

London Day 4

Bivens had been talking about this friend of his Jeff Outlaw, who was the Froeign Ambassador to the US Consulate, a lofty position, and he could get us into the Tower of London for free. This would enable us all to save money, as the Tower costs about 14 pounds a person. Bivens ends up only getting 6 tickets, so some people in the group devise this plan that the people who dont pay for the tickets put up halt the money to buy the ones who dont have a ticket, tickets, which ends up being about 6 pounds a person. So we get to the Tower, ask for the Beefeater that Outlaw told us, and they didn't even check out tickets!! We all could have gotten in for free, oh well thats life! Anyway the Tower has always been one of my most favorite places to visit in London, not only because of the gruesome history and all the carnage, but because the Crown Jewels are there and those are some serious rocks! Seeing the ravens is always a fun adventure, espicially since the cheat and clip their wings so that they never leave, because if the ravens do leave the Tower, the Tower will fall and the Monarchy will crumble, but hey, who believes that? HA! So moving on we then moved down the street towards St. Pauls again and partook in some more Yo! Sushi, where it was Monday and they were pricing every plate as 2.20 pounds, such a deal!! We ate our fill there and then decided as a group to head over to Greenwich for the afternoon to take in the Mean Time, Maritime Museum, and the other sites. When we got there, we found out that they were shooting a movie at the old War College and it turned out to be Gullivers Travels starring Jack Black! He was there but we never got to see him, they kept him under lock and key. We then hiked up the hill to the Mean Time center, leaving Emily and Courtney at the bottom of the hill. Let me tell you, the view form there was beautiful, you could see all of London. We had our fill of Greenwich and then headed back to the Center to get ready for Emily's Farewell Dinner at the Hard Rock in London, where Miss Paladino pulled some strings and got us in no problem, you rock Emily!!

London Day 3

If you ask me what day is the best to just walk around London and not get worried about getting hit by a car, my answer would be Sunday. Dani and Meghan asked me to be their tour guide on a day in London to take them to all the tourist hot spots and I agreed. We had the guys come with us, Dakota joined in and we had ourselves a party. We did Green Park, Westminster, Trafalger, Piccadilly, Marble Arch, and Speakers Corner, what a day! Speakers corner was probably the most entertaining, the park was teeming with people on a lovely Sunday afternoon debating, talking, yelling, or dancing to invisible music, what a group. There was one fellow who said he was the Devil incarnate and he was released from Hell to warn people about the dangers of women, smart man I say.....Anyway we moved on from there and crashed at the hotel weary of another big day ahead of us. Dinner was uneventful and nothing too bad, London has great food!

London Day 3

I dont know if you noticed, but I seem to be following the trend of going to museums in London. Well thats because they have some of the best in the World! Today we continued that trend by visiting the Science Museum and the Britishs Museum. To start off with the Science, we saw many exhibits on flight, biology, human DNA, and many more! They even had this game where you were a sperm and you had to race the others to create life, you certainly wont find that game in America! We moved on from there to the British Museum where some of the worlds most famous artifacts are kept. We saw the Rosetta Stone, the key to unlock Egyptian Hieroglyphics, mummies, parts of the Greek Parthenon, and artifacts from the Mesopotamian civilizations. All in all this museum day seemed to take the most out of us and we retired to the hotel early, with the intent to catch dinner at yet another TexMex restaurant that we found when I was here last, the Texas Embassy. Now this was a good idea to start, but I wont go into detail, but let me just say, the Europeans need to learn how to do seperate checks, their lives would be so much easier!!

London Day 2

Day 2 in London, whew!! Who knew the third time here would be the most exhausting? The 90 degree heat in August of 2003 was bad, but this is way more walking that I've done in awhile, but my parents raised me to walk so it's no problem for me. Today we had the wonderful experience of going to St. Pauls Cathedral, form Mary Poppins. I have never been in there before and let me tell you, it was amazing, simply breathtaking. The ornate workings in gold around the dome is enough to invoke the God fearing man in any person. I also was able to take a little time and offer a prayer for my Grandma who recently passed away, I know she would have liked that. We left St. Pauls looking for some place to eat and we stumbled upon a place that my Aunt had reccomended we go for years and years, Yo! Sushi. This place is a wonder just to sit and watch. Basically the premis is it's a sushi bar that they put in on conveyor belts and it rolls around the restaurant for you to pick up and eat. At the end of the meal, they total up your color coded plates worth different money values and that's your bill. It was so delicious, we ate so much! Rachel gave birth to a rice baby shortly after lunch and named it Edward, they are both in good health and doing very well. After st. Pauls we moved on to Harrods, any women's Heaven. We spent a good hour walking around in there, me basically following Rachel while she moved around the purse depatement with the attention span of a Goldfish, trying to find the perfect bag, which she did and she's very happy with it. I also made a purchase from the Sporting Goods section, an Arsenal jersey, they're a soccer team in London, much like Chelsea. So we escaped Harrods and went to meet up with the group at the Museum of Natural History, a place I've never been before. Now, one problem with this place was the fact that it did not have AC, on one of London's hottest days, filled with screaming and rnning kids. I have patience, but they were running thin after 5 mins in that place, interesting but not totally worth it. We caught the train back to the hotel and found dinner, concluding another successful day in London!

London Day 1

We finally arrived in London at the Queens Park Hotel, not the Ritz Carlton but then again, I've spent 11 straight days in a tent, I can handle no AC, but some people just can't I guess. Anyway we got the gang together and went out to explore London. This was my 3rd time being in London so I pretty much knew the Underground, or the Tube like the back of my hand, but it never hurts to look at the map again and again. We went to Westminster and walked by Big Ben just in time to hear him ring in the hour of 5pm. More protestors were outside the Houses of Parliment protesting some unfair treatment of the people in Sri Lanka. I never knew there was a problem down there, go figure in my American bubble, but I like it in there! We walked through Green park following this card or 2 mile walks that Cory had got from Barnes and Noble back home, very cool walk that took us behind 10 Downing Street, no we didn't see Gordon Brown. We walked up through the park, saw Buckingham Palace and the Queen was in residence because the flag was flying, thats how you know! After that we went bakc to the hotel and chilled until we had to go meet the Barnetts for a nice Mexican dinner at a place called Pacifico where the men shared a bucket of Coronas and the ladies had Sangria, very delicious!

England Tips, Likes, and Dislikes

So, you're thinking about coming on the England Study Abroad Trip. Take it from me, DO IT!!!! this is by far the most amazing trip you'll go on. Sure Spain is fine and dandy, if you wanna lose your liver in the process and not learn anything, but in England, you can party it up and still learn about our technical Mother Country. But a few words of advice to help you along your way.
1. Don't be afraid to meet knew people, that's the whole key of the trip
2. Listen to the professors when they tell you how much clothes to bring, if you think you wont wear it, 9 out of 10 you wont
3. Plan to take taxis everywhere after dark, walking is NOT the way to go, trust me
4. Don't forget a converter, your life will suck without it
5. Use cash, but be responsible, cash is the easiest way to go, not everywhere takes cards here, and Bank of America is the best option, no ATM fees
6. Explore the manor inside and out, leave no door unopened, thats how you find the ghosts, ask Rachel Cross
7. Bring a rain jacket, umbrellas just dont cut it, they end up getting given to the rain gods in the trash can
If theres anything else, read other people blogs, but take it from me, this is by far the best trip of all the study abroad trips!

Likes: I liked the fact that we had more scheduled trips, like Scotland and Wales, and the perfect time in London. I liked the fact that we get money when we leave the manor, and the professors trust us with it. I liked that we were a small group, 70 people is impersonal and it needs to stay like 20-30 people, that's the way to go.

Dislikes: We did't go to Paris. We didn't spend enough time in Scotland. We didn't have enough train passes, we needed like 8. There's not that many dislikes, but those were my main gripes.