March 5, 2012- The British Museum

The British Museum was AWESOME! There was so so so much to see there one afternoon (2 hours) was not enough time. We began to look around and looked at the time and an hour had passed, yet we were still on the first floor. So, then we took off with map in hand to check out the pieces we most wanted to see...or tried to at least. I will just let the pictures do the talking. So many once in a lifetime historical objects under one roof. I was blown away.

Rosetta Stone

Parthenon Frieze

Sutton Hoo

Aztec Two headed serpent

March 4, 2012-River Thames Boat Tour & Platform 9 3/4

We got off the bus and went down to the River Thames to catch our boat. We were standing right beside Parliament and Big Ben and could see a bit of West Minster Abbey!

We got on the boat and it was warm! Happiness!!! It went slowly and we had a tour guide. We saw London Bridge and Tower Bridge and the guide explained the difference (they are not the same bridge).

We saw the London Eye and were just right next to the enormous structure....can't wait to go to the top!

Once the boat ride was over we went to catch the Underground for the first time. We all had our own passes. The Tube Stations were crazy busy, people everywhere! We had to put our card in the little slot and it would pop back up in another slot and the little gates would open and we would rush though. You had to be quick and know where you put your little card or you might get trampled. Once I realized which station we would be in I flipped out. We had to pass through King's Cross Station. Which if you have read Harry Potter...you know that is where Platform 9 3/4 is!!! I woke back up and knew I had to find it! Jenn B. said "Sure, we can do this!" So, off we went.

We found it!!!!!!! I wasn't the only nerdy tourist who had to find it. When we got there, there was a line. lol So we had to give it a shot...total photo op :)

We then walked back through the station and realized it was beautiful in and of it self.

So exciting!!
We headed back to our station and then to our hotel. We stayed in the Royal National Hotel. It was huge. There were so many students there from all over the world....France, Germany, Spain, and even Australia. We got checked into our little dorm like rooms. Melisha crashed for the day and the rest of us went to find some food. We had been awake for more than 24 hours at this point. I was becoming a bit delirious :/ We found The London Pub which was just beside our hotel. We thought, awesome, we don't even have to cross the street! We ordered some food and waited to see what "chips" looked like....guess what? they look like french fries! lol I knew they were potatoes but I thought they might be at least shaped a little different?? Oh well...yummy!

It was then about 6:30 pm London time and I went back to room because I just couldn't stay awake anymore!! Feel asleep and woke back up about 9:30pm...started making plans and looking at the map with Melisha and went back to sleep around 2:00 am London time.

London
March 3,2012-March 9,2012

Austin Peay State University
Art appreciation & World Literature &4090




Nashville to Houston to London----day 1

We arrived at the Nashville airport at 8:00am Saturday morning. We were flying with Continental but on this Saturday Continental was merging with United. "Today of all days!" we said. After switching lines several times, we were all able to check in after about 30 or 45 minutes. So not too bad I guess. Once we checked in we hit security and took our shoes off and were on our best behavior......we all made it through! Then put our belts, shoes and laptops all back in place, then went to the gate to wait for our ride to Houston! It was Krystal's first airplane ride ever. She was a bit nervous but ended up doing just fine....and claimed to enjoy turbulence! Crazy girl :) 

The first plane was teeny tiny. Only 3 seats across. It was hot and the air was stagnant. We were all excited to get the trip started but I think we were all excited to get off that plane! Luckily the flight was only a little over 2 hours long. We landed in Houston with no problems, thankfully. Then we made our way through the huge huge Houston airport. We decided to go ahead and exchange our U.S. Cash for British pounds. It was a little painful....my $180 only got me 100 British pounds. (note to self: Spend Wisely!). Next we got on a train/mono rail kinda thing to get to our gate.  It kinda felt like disney world for a minute...only a minute. Then we scattered and went to find food. My little group opted for Italian food....I chose pizza (surprise surprise right?). Dr. Snyder and I were off to look at magazines and books when Jennifer B came and found us and said "it's time to board!".  So we rushed to our gate....no new books for us. Oh well...

The Humongous Plane

Melisha and Jenn B and I all entered to board the plane one after another. We walked around the corner to find huge glass windows and the was the plane. It was a giant! All three of us grabbed our cameras and started snapping. Jenn said " You can't tell we are art students,huh? Haha". I the we are all on a mission to take as many pictures as our memory cards will hold!

We boarded the plane and said wow!!!! This plane was so nice. 9 seats across, 2 aisles, tvs in each and every headrest (touch screen), remotes in the arm rest and so so much more room than the first plane. I think I heard someone say there would be about 400 people on the plane. So we got right down to picking movies out to watch.  Yippee! Free new movies! I watched The Decendants first...a bit depressing...on to something more upbeat! We checked the flight map about 2 hours in and we are nearly over New York. We have hello to Bobby King who is in New York for the NAEA National Conference. We can look out the window and see the lights of some city. It's dark outside now...we hope it's the lights of New York City! But who knows??? 

They turned the cabin lights out...to sleep or not to sleep?........
As it turns out....not to sleep. Many of us were able to fall asleep off and on through out the flight and some seemed to sleep the entire flight. I unfortunately was unable to sleep at all. So I watched the new Footloose which only then made me want to get up and dance. (maybe not the best idea lol). So after many hours on this plane we began to get very close to London. We were served breakfast which was melon and a croissant. Then we had to fill out a card with our information to present to customs. We arrived about 10 minutes early but was not allowed to land until 6:00am London time. So the plane had to circle for 10 minutes. This made us a little queasy and made for a funny/odd screen shot of our route. The 10 minutes of circling passed and we landed safely at London's Heathrow Airport!

London Time
London is 6 hours ahead of us back in Tennessee. So this means, since it was 6:00 am London time it felt like midnight Tennessee time. At this point I had already been awake for 18 hours....and our day in London was just beginning.....

We were ecstatic to actually be on foreign soil! We made it to London!!!!!!! Most importantly next we all had to make it through customs. One by one we all went separately to speak to the agent and all made it through without a hitch. Then the fun began...one student realized couldn't find her cellphone and had left it on the plane. Next we got our baggage from the carrousels and one students was missing. Needless to say we had some frazzled and upset members of the group at this point. We then gathered to meet up with Tina and were about to load on to the bus, when a student realized they had left their passport in the restroom. Stress!! Luckily the passport was recovered and we made our way to the bus.

March 4,2012 --Day 2 (technically)

We walk outside to see double decker red busses and various cars, some of which looked like the Super Nanny car!.....admit you know what I'm talking about..... We all just tried to take everything in on the bus ride to the hotel. There were already so much different and interesting things to see. And....we were driving on then wrong side of the road! Well the correct side actually but it sure felt strange...kind of disorienting. We arrive at our hotel- The Royal National Hotel in Russell Square. It was huge. We were so early ( it was only around 8:00am) that we couldn't check in. They let us leave luggage with them locked up until we could check in. We had about 5 minutes to freshen up a bit....not a lot of time. Remember we had been in the same clothes for about 20 hours now....but no time to waste....it was time to go out into the city.

Tina explained to us where a close by little shopping area was, so we made our way in that direction. Traffic was crazy and we were doing our best to look both ways before crossing.....since cars are going in the opposite direction then we are used to. We found the shopping area. Many shops were closed since it was Sunday. We did find a little restaurant to have some coffee and brunch. This was a cute little place and we all tried to decipher the menu and try to figure out what to order.  Our coffees had heart shaped foam on top....how cute! We ate and the little restaurant became super crowded with all of us and the staff became a little overwhelmed. We finally paid and then headed back to our hotel to catch the double decker bus tour.

Double decker bus tour

It was cold, colder than some of us were ready for (me included)....and it was raining. The bus had an open top so it was a bit painful to ride up there in that weather. On this tour we had recording to listen to and it was so cool to hear the British accent. You could choose from several different languages to listen to it in. We flew around the city at top speed and saw so many things. Then we changed buses (still on a double decker one though) and this one had an actual tour guide. He was quite informative but by this point some of us were nodding off. We zipped around the city on the left side of the street and saw so much in such a short period of time it's hard to keep up.