Visiting and witnessing London Tower was so miraculous that it needed its own entry.  As mentioned in a previous blog, the British are very superstitious.  London Tower, much like the London Eye, also has a few quarks about it as well.  There are, and always will be, six ravens at London Tower.  King Henry XIII was told that if and when the ravens left, the kingdom would fall.  To this day, there are still six ravens, with clipped wings so they cannot leave, as well as a seventh close by just in case.

London Tower in itself is amazing.  Going inside and touring all of the buildings and seeing the Crown Jewels was quite a sight.  The actual crown the queen wears is placed in a glass case for all to see, covered in diamonds, emeralds, rubies, sapphires and pearls.  Many of the difference stones were given or passed on from other royalty members, such as a pair of pearl earring that were Princess Diana’s.

If something is not covered in jewels, it’s covered in gold.  There is a gold plated punch bowl that can hold up to 144 bottles of wine.  Guess how much that must weigh.  Half a ton.  So what’s the secret?  Everything is actually silver and just plated with gold because otherwise it would be too heavy to even hold itself.  There are guards in every room there to answer questions and make sure no photos are taken-there is a copyright on the Crown Jewels. Guests are able to walk throughout the all of the towers and along the top to look out over London, into what used to be dungeons or rooms for the royalty.

Fun fact: people still live there today.  It’s like its’ own little village with their own church, doctor and even their own pub.  Many are the tour guides and their families.  Not just anyone could be a tour guide.  You have to have served in the British military for a minimum of 22 years as well as have certain honors and a spotless background.  Guards will also be seen for there is still today an apartment for the queen if she chooses to stay in it.  Regardless of her presence, it is guarded 24 hours a day, every day.

Another fun fact that I personally found very interesting was the fact that there were many different kinds of animals that lived in the tower throughout the years, and I’m not talking about dogs or cats or horses.  I’m talking about lions, tigers, monkeys, elephants and even a polar bear.  Other royalty would give the king and queen exotic animals as gifts.  Unfortunately for the animals, they were kept in cages and often did not live long.  They had even killed people who came too close to them.

Many exciting things happened in the walls of the tower, such as a woman smuggling out her husband by dressing him as a woman just hours before he was supposed to be decapitated.  There were also many deaths in the tower walls, including five women, three of which were queens.

The London Tower is filled with history and mystery in the walls and is a place every person who visits London should see.

This past weekend our group took the train down to London for the weekend to experience the breath-taking experience of seeing Big Ben, Tower Bridge, London Tower and so much more.  To say that the weekend was incredible would be an understatement.

I woke up around 5:30am Saturday morning, hopped in the taxi by 7am and were off on the train by 7:30am.  The first stop was High Street Kensington so we could stop in at the hostel and drop off our bags.  The walk wasn’t too bad and the hostel was very nice compared to what I was picturing.  All of the girls stayed in one room, luckily we got our own room, and Zach, the only guy on the trip, was in a separate room with a couple different guys he did not know as well.  After the bags were dropped off, we hopped back onto the tube and headed over to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards.  The sidewalks were filled with people lined up to watch, which seemed like a lot to me, but apparently wasn’t many at all.

As luck would have it, right when we arrived in England, their 50 degree weather disappeared to Valparaiso because it was quite chilly in London and apparently 55 degrees back at home.  Anyways, after, we ventured through the Queen’s park and over to see the miraculous Big Ben and the Clock Tower.  Most people believe that Big Ben is the huge clock tower, when in reality it is the bell inside of the tower.  The tower itself was just renamed a couple of months ago to The Queen Elizabeth II’s Clock Tower in honor of her diamond jubilee.  There we all took numerous pictures of the tower in awe and amazement.  It was definitely a sight to take your breath away.

We continued our way and saw the great London Eye, the fourth largest ferris wheel-though don’t let them hear you call it that-in the world.  It was closed for yearly maintenance though so we couldn’t actually go on it.  There are 32 pods that represent the 32 districts in London.  Entertaining enough, there is no pod 13 for the British are very superstitious.

Across the river we saw the London Bridge and well as Tower Bridge.  Maybe people confuse the two.  The London Bridge is not the beautiful bridge, but actually quite boring.  It’s the Tower Bridge that everyone loves to look at and take photos of.  Of course next to Tower Bridge is the London Tower that I will write more about in my next blog.

After sightseeing for a while, we hopped on one of the on-and-off buses and took a tour around the city.  We saw every well-known and tourist spot there is to see in London as well as learned a lot about the city itself. Such as, there are dragons in every entrance and exit in the city of London.  When you are entering the city, the dragons will be facing you, when exiting they will have their backs turned away from you. We also learned about the bubonic plague and how the saying “God bless you” came from the time of the plague and that people would say it because once they began to sneeze, they would only live for another 48 hours.

Another tour some of us went on was the Harry Potter tour that took you all around the city and showed you the places that the movie was filmed and inspired by.  We saw The Ministry of Magic, Gringotts Bank, Diagon Alley and a few other little places throughout the different books.

There were many other places we went, like Piccadilly Circus where we saw the play 39 Steps, Trafalgar Square and Leicester Square.  The trip was truly amazing and felt like it was more than just a mere two days.  I can’t wait to go back and experience more of the city because it is just not possible to see it all in two days.

Arriving in London, I thought it would be an automatic, “oh my god, I’m here, I can’t believe it!”, but it really wasn’t.  There was no huge moment of realization and it actually took until we saw Big Ben in London that it did start to sink in that I was truly 3,950 miles from home.  There are many differences here in England from home and many things that are different from what I expected.

Of course there are the obvious things such as the cars on the opposite sides of the road that everyone already knows about.  However, they look significantly different than they do back home in the US even if they are the same brand like Ford or Toyota.  Another huge difference is the food.  I had already heard that burgers taste differently because their cows are treated and fed differently than ours are in the US and I can confidently agree with that statement now from experience, they taste significantly different.  Not bad different, but just not what you would expect when biting into a burger.  Of course the first night in the pub, that’s exactly what I ordered.  Pubs are quite different from our restaurants or bars as well.  First off, you don’t have someone waiting on your table, but you go up to the bar, order your drink and food, pay and then sit back down.  They will bring you your food and that’s about it, and they will bring it out as its ready, not everyone’s together.  If you are just going for drinks, but don’t actually want to order something, they do want you to pay for water just because they don’t like it when people are taking up a seat and not spending money.  In restaurants, if you want your check, you have to ask for it, they will not just bring it out to you.  All of these are good tips to know when eating out inEngland.

When walking around, the city itself is so significantly different from anything I have ever seen before.  The streets are so narrow you wonder how those huge double-decker buses even fit on the streets.  A general rule for walking around the town, always stop and wait for the walking signal, cars, buses and especially bikes will not stop for you.  Bikes here are treated like cars, they drive on the road and have their own lane and they will hit you if you walk out in front of them.  Pedestrians in no way have the right of way in the roads.  We always have to be very careful and look every which way before we cross because most times we cannot even tell which ways the cars are coming from.  It really did not come as much of a shock to me when I heard that kids here do not learn to drive until they are 17 and do not get their licenses until at least 18, if then.  If you think driving in Chicago is bad, you can’t even begin to imagine what the lane changes and crazy driving goes on in England.  The traffic patterns still have yet to make sense to me and people should really be saying that those English drivers are bad, not the Chicago ones.

While walking the streets, I noticed that there aren’t garage cans spread along the sidewalks.  It’s actually a bit of a search to find one.  Surprisingly enough, the streets aren’t filled with litter.  If walking in the City Centre around 6:00pm, it was very shocking to notice that the stores were beginning to close, so if you wanted to go shopping, you have to make sure to do it earlier in the day.  However, while shopping earlier, something that is quite common I have found to know is that there are street performers either singing or playing the guitar all along the streets.  It’s very interesting to me as well as very enjoyable to hear.  In general while walking, the British will not make eye contact with you if you are passing them.  In my opinion, I have found that the men are much friendlier than the women as well.

A few things that I was told to prepare for that I don’t find accurate exactly was first that the portion sizes were very small.  I did not seem to think they were small but actually quite large in some pubs.  In London, it seemed like every place we passed had a huge section of fried too as well.  At the hostel we stayed at, breakfast included fried bread, a fried egg, fried hash browns, a fried tomato, fried sausage and ham that were all cooked in a large pan filled with about an inch of oil.  They also served baked beans which everyone in our group decided to pass on at 8:30am.

The girls in our group were also told to make sure to pack tampons because they were very hard to find inEngland.  I have been to many different grocery and pharmacy stores-similar to a Walgreens, CVS, or Walmart back home-and have seen tampons sold at each.  On the other hand, I wish we were told that zip-lock baggies were not sold in theUK.  The British seem to love their saran wrap and use it for everything.  A few people had told me that North Face jackets were slightly frowned upon as well as sweatshirts with hoods, however, I have seen many people wearing both and many people also wear jeans out and about.

Overall, I have to say that I am loving my English experience and learning all of the differences between America and England.  It is fascinating to witness everything and I cannot wait to have more interactions with the British to learn more about their culture and ways.

There are so many things I could say about this topic. Why I chose Cambridge? The reasons are too many to count! The main reason I chose to study abroad in England, is that it has always fascinated me. Starting when I was around 10 years old, Great Britain has been an obsession of mine. I love everything about it. Their history is so amazing and so vast. It spans back centuries and it is so full of mystery and opportunity. I love reading about the history of England. Just to think, the city of Cambridge first came into being around the time that Christ was alive. So many thousands of years of history! I cannot wait to explore that history. So then, when an opportunity to travel 2 weeks in Europe was presented to me my sophomore year of high school, I jumped at the chance to experience all that I was so enamored with. I told my parents about it, and my Dad told me that I could travel for two weeks in high school, or I could take a semester in college and study abroad for a full 5 months. I was ecstatic! I couldn’t believe my luck that my parents would let me do something like that. Looking back now, I kind of think that it was my parent’s way of getting me off my travel kick for the moment and keep me safely in the U.S. I don’t think they ever dreamed that I would grasp onto that promise- that I would be able to travel in college- and I would never let it go. When I was searching and applying for colleges one of my stipulations for attending any college was that it had to have a superb study abroad program so that I knew I would have the best experience possible. So when I found out that Valparaiso had such a good Nursing school, I immediately set to searching about its study abroad programs and what I found thrilled me. Not only did they have a fabulous study abroad program, they had a study site in Cambridge, England! I was beyond thrilled! My wildest dreams were going to come true. I knew for sure I was going to Cambridge.

I am looking forward to so many things while I am living in another country. I am looking forward to a new culture, a new way of doing things, and a new way of viewing the world. I am looking forward to learning more of their history, and meeting new people. And most of all, I am looking forward to traveling. All over the world! From London, to Paris. From Berlin, to Venice and Rome. I cannot wait to go on a gondola ride in Venice, or climb to the top of the Eiffel Tower. I can’t wait to touch the Berlin wall and walk through the castle that inspired the one and only Cinderella’s Castle. I can’t wait to see the Stonehenge and wander through the Colosseum in Rome. So many things I have on my bucket list that I hope to do while I am over there. I am so excited writing this that I can’t even contain myself! There are so many other things that I wish to do, but I don’t want to write too much!

Although a lot of people probably don’t add this, I am looking forward to the classes I will take while I am abroad. They can teach me more about the country I will be living in for my semester abroad. I can’t wait to write blogs and journals. I love writing, and to be able to write about my experiences in the most exciting 6 months of my life will be a blast!

By Abby Lorenzo, Nursing major from Seymour, Indiana.  More posts to come soon!

One of the biggest cultural shocks that I have experienced so far would be the life of people on the streets. The very first day that I walked through the streets, my impression was somewhere along the lines of, “this is so adorable!”. The streets are narrow but the buildings are cute, and there was much life on the streets.

At first I was mesmerized by how different a typical “street” was. Considering that Cambridge is a pretty big city I expected it to be somewhat similar to Chicago which I am fairly familiar with – lots of cars, tall buildings, a lot of people walking, homeless people, and mostly: many honking cars. However, Cambridge was pretty much the opposite of everything that I listed above. Everything, thats is, besides a lot of people walking.

I realized that the people of Cambridge get to point A from point B, primarily by walking. You see many people walking down the streets in suits and business attires which is quite similar to Chicago. This part I was familiar with. The thing that I wasn’t familiar with though, was how many people used biking as their method of transportation. I’m used to seeing a few people here and there riding bikes, but here, there are quite a few. And they like to ride their bikes pretty darn fast. I have learned that in England, the drivers have the primary right of way, then bikers, then pedestrians. This is very different from the US system of pedestrians always having the right of way. This means that bikes and cars can go pretty speedy even in areas of people walking and they aren’t too afraid to knock you over. This was a surprise to me since growing up in the US, I assumed that it was natural for me to always be the priority on the streets if I was walking. This is definitely something that I need to become accustomed to.

 

Another different aspect of the streets at Cambridge is the buildings. In Chicago I always have to crane my neck to see the top of the buildings and most of them are all new and shiny. The buildings on the streets in Cambridge are fairly short and definitely not new and shiny. Most of these buildings have been around for hundreds of years. I especially love this because although I’m not such a history whiz, I very much enjoy seeing old buildings that are filled with history. The thought of people living here and having such different lives here many, many years ago is so thrilling to me. It’s hard to describe in words though. But I am sure these buildings have seen so many people come and go and every person having their own stories. Sometimes I wish I could invent a time machine and go back in different times and observe people and their lives then…although that sounds a little creepy. But overall, the buildings are the symbols of the deep and long history that Cambridge holds.

Something that was similar but different are the homeless people of Cambridge. There are a few homeless people on the streets begging for money just like Chicago. However the difference is that none of these homeless people have signs explaining why they are homeless and need the money. But the bigger surprise to me was that almost every single homeless person I saw in Cambridge had a dog with them. This was something that broke my heart. I have a soft spot in my heart for dogs (especially because I own an adorable dog that I miss very much!) and seeing the dogs looking sad and poor made me feel worse for them than for the people, to be quite honest. I’m not sure if that is their technique to make money but it is possibly something that I will find out during my stay here.

The last difference I noticed (but there are probably many more out there), is how less noisy the city is. The one thing I dislike about Chicago is how noisy it is with people honking their cars ALL the time. In Cambridge though, and English people in general, I have noticed that they are somewhat more patient and tolerant. I hear hardly any cars honking at each other and typically the English don’t have conversations with each other in a very loud tone. That is probably why the Americans are knowns as being very loud. Typically, the city seems to be a peaceful place.

Street life is something that is right outside the door of our centre and it is amazing to see how much it’s different. Of course there are similar things like the language we speak, what kind of music they listen to, but when it comes to culture, something can be so different – even if we are all living on the same planet. This leads me to expand my thoughts on the differences of culture. If I am surprised at how the English street system is compared to the US one, how different is it going to be in other countries such as Russia, or India, or South Africa? It is just endless thinking about it but it also brings awareness to myself and how many different cultures are out there. Hopefully one day I will be able to expose myself to many other cultures and countries. But for now, I am looking forward to be able to travel to see the nearby European countries!

By Aya Takahashi, more blogs to come soon!