I Promise I Do Things Other Than Travel

Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament,

Lately it's been more and more difficult to keep up with blog posts. Since I last wrote, I have visited London for four days, had three days of courses, attended an international dinner party and spent a day in Amsterdam. How on earth could I ever fit all of this into one blog post?! Oh don't worry, reader. I'm gonna try.

Some of you may know that on my list of cities to visit, London probably occupies the first or second spot. It's been my dream to see the city for as long as I can remember, and not just because of the Harry Potter series. Last weekend I finally got to see it for myself with my friend Ginny and another friend from DU, Lizzie, who is studying abroad in England at the University of Lancaster.

It would be impossible to include everything we did while in London, but some of the highlights were seeing the London Eye, Big Ben and Houses of Parliament, visiting Buckingham Palace and taking a stroll through Harrod's (a famous department store). My two favorite activities, however, were the London Dungeon and Shakespeare's Globe.

The London Dungeon is an interactive tour through London's most macabre pieces of history. Actors lead you through a dungeon where each room is a separate event in the city's past, including everything from the plague, to Jack the Ripper, to Sweeney Todd. The tour includes many interactive moments, and the actors try to scare you at every turn.

Shakespeare's Globe

During the plague segment, we were led into a room where there was a "corpse" lying on a table. A nurse was explaining the attributes of the plague to us when, suddenly, the lights went out. When they went back on, guess where she was standing? Yep. Right in front of me, growling into my face. If there had been a window in there it would have shattered from my screaming. And that happened to me twice.

Visiting Shakespeare's Globe, while equally informative, was not quite as terror-inducing. This theater is not actually the theater in which Shakespeare's plays were first presented, but is modeled exactly after the original and stands just 500 meters away from its initial location. The project was begun by an American actor named Sam Wanamaker and was funded solely by private donation.

Me and Ginny in front of the London Eye.

Visitors can attend a play there (by Shakespeare or otherwise) for only £5 if they are willing to stand on the floor near the stage. During Shakespeare's heyday, these patrons were called Groundlings. The weekend we were there, the Globe was showing "A Comedy of Errors," but unfortunately we didn't have time to go, so maybe I'll go to a play in their indoor theater when I am there with my parents during Christmas.

My first trip to London was amazing, but even four full days wasn't enough, so I'm glad to be going back with my parents when they are here in December.

Last week was also the Soirée Plat International, an annual dinner held by Club Ulysse at my university. Each student brings a dish from their home country to share with everyone, so there is basically a buffet of different foods from all around the world. At first we couldn't think of anything truly American to bring (hamburgers are originally German, apparently) but we finally decided on an Apple Pie. Our marraine, Valérie, lent us her oven and helped us bake it! It was a hit at the party and was gone very quickly. Kind of funny that the first time I ever baked an Apple Pie was in France.

My next adventure last week (aside from a bit of a cooking experiment on Friday, which turned out surprisingly well) was a day trip to Amsterdam with Club Ulysse on Saturday. There I met up with Emily and Ginny, who were staying the weekend with a friend.

We left from Lille around 6:30 AM, so I slept during most of the four hour ride there. After arriving I walked to the center city with some other students from Lille 3, perused a flower market, sampled some Dutch cheese and took in the beauty of the city. Around noon I met up with Emily and Ginny to continue our day.

First we visited one of Amsterdam's famed coffee shops, and then went to take a boat tour of the city. This was the perfect way to see Amsterdam because we were safe from the rain in our enclosed boat and got to see many sights that would have been too far away by foot. And, after the tour, it has become more and more clear to me that I'm simply in love with canaled cities. If I visited Venice I might die.

When we'd finished the tour we grabbed lunch at an Italian restaurant (in the Netherlands... owned by a German company... #globalism) and then headed to Amsterdam's shopping streets to have a look around. I didn't find anything I liked (don't worry, Mom. No weed-themed sweatshirts for this girl.) but I enjoyed just wandering the streets during my last few hours.

Shots from the boat tour.

Our last activity of the day was a trip to the Anne Frank house just to see it from the outside (because the line to go in stretches literally two city blocks), but when we arrived we were disappointed to find that it was under construction. We did get to see the sign designating it the Anne Frank house, but unfortunately didn't get to experience it in any other way. By that time it was almost time for me to catch my bus back to Lille, so we wandered back through the city to the central station and said goodbye.

It is still amazing to me that I can be within three different countries in the span of a week. I am so lucky to have been able to travel so much already, and I've only been here for just under two months! The next two will certainly hold more travels, though maybe not quite so many. This weekend I'm looking forward to staying in Lille and enjoying all that my city has to offer.