My Night with Jack the Ripper

Tonight, API brought us on the Jack the Ripper Tour. We got a private tour which was pretty cool. The tours are usually pretty big so it was nice to have a small group. You could really hear all the stories. It was about an hour and a half walking tour through parts of London.

Before I give you some background on the night I should explain to you Colleen, Katie, and my adventure getting to Tower Hill Tube station to meet for the tour. We were leaving from Regent campus. It should have been a simple tube ride, take the the Central line from Oxford Circus switch to the District or Circle line at Bank and the get off at Tower Hill. Well as we are stopped at one of the stops on the Central line where we wait for about 8 minutes. The announcer said there was a hold up on the line and never gave us an approximate wait time. After the 8 minutes we decided that we would switch to the Piccadilly line even though it was longer since we didn't know how long we would be waiting. We legitimately step off the tube and they announce that the tube will be departing and the doors shut. Just our luck right. So we still went to the Piccadilly line and we ended up taking 2 more tubes and making our trip at least 15 minutes longer. I guess we really like to ride the tube...

So back to Jack the Ripper. If you do not know the story behind him here is a basic overview. Jack the Ripper was a serial killer in London during 1888. He brutally murdered 5 women who were prostitutes. Each women was found with there throat slit open. The first two women were murdered within a month of each other. The women had appeared to have been raped and sliced open. The third and fourth women were killed on the same night. It is said that the he was interrupted during the first one of the night because she only had her throat slit open. The fourth one also had organs ripped out of her that were dispersed around her body. Each women so far except for the third one had their uterus stolen and the 4th had her kidney stolen. The fifth and final murder was the worst one. Mary Kelly was the name of the final girl. She was in her twenties while all others were in their forties. Mary Kelly was found murdered in her apartment. Her throat was slit open, her organs were hanging around the room. and parts of her skin had been ripped up, torn and pulled over her body. To this day the police do not know who Jack the Ripper actually was. There is a lot of speculation but nothing can be proven. Jack the Ripper got his name from a letter that was sent to a newspaper signed Jack the Ripper. It was later found that one of the paper writers had written the letter to add publicity to the story so the paper would sell more copies.

Our tour guide was great. He was very energetic and entertaining. He gave us a lot of inside detail to the Jack the Ripper case. It would take me way to long to write it all. He tried to scare us every now and then by emphasizing different parts of the story and making them more dramatic. It was really funny when I was in front of him and he tried to scare me because it was "my turn" and I was the only person to not jump. It was slightly a failed effort on his part but we all got a good laugh. My Twice Told Tales class last fall had given me some background to the Jack the Ripper story which I think helped to make the tour more interesting. Over all it was a fun night.

Cheers,
Allie

The start of our tour

Original London Boarder

Creative Hair Studio Name

The Culture Shock

I feel as though I adjusted very well to my life in London. I got comfortable in my area of the city quickly and can easily maneuver my way around the city on the tube. I can also figure out my way when walking but sometimes half the fun of that is wandering around and seeing where it takes you. I feel like I am going to go home with so much knowledge of the city of London and have nothing to do with it. London and Europe in general is so much different than the States. School is different but I have already mentioned that. Markets are a big part of the culture out here. We do not have any markets at home, we just go to the mall. PDA is unreal out here. I was in shock at first because everyone thinks that Americans can be slutty. I do not think there has been one day  have been out that I have not seen a couple making out on a street corner or in the tube way to inappropriately. It's kinda funny actually.

One huge difference is the drinking age. I am aloud to drink and buy alcohol over here, I don't even get carded unless I am walking into a bar at night. I was carded when buying a lighter however and my fried was carded for buying knives in a kitchen set. It is so weird the things you get carded for out here. I love talking to people from around the country in  my classes. They are amazed by things I tell them about the US and I am shocked by what they tell me about their countries, especially when it comes to school.

I feel like I am going to have a bigger culture shock going back home as weird as that might sounds. I am so use to the hustle and bustle of the city. Honestly, I really enjoy it. I won't have a half hour commute to class and I will actually have to do school work which there is very little of out here. I will be back in the small town setting that I grew up in. I am very curious as to how I will adjust to being back home. I have 2 months before I figure it out and in no way do I want it to fly by. I have way to much to still explore out here before my adventure ends.

Cheers,
Allie

Just a Casual Day Trip to Wales

Yesterday, Colleen and I decided to take a day trip to Cardiff, Wales. Cardiff is the capital of Wales. Colleen and I definitely have big travel bugs. We booked bus tickets to Cardiff on Saturday. We got up bright and early on Sunday morning, so early we caught the very first tube. We ended up only being able to take the tube to Kings Cross because the Victoria Line was down for the day. We would not have made our bus if we went back and switched to the District Line so we had to take a taxi to the bus station. When we got to the bus station we realized that either of us brought our passports. I remembered Rachel saying that to move around countries in the UK was just like going from state to state in the US and we didn't need passports but we were still nervous. Luckily Rachel was right and we did not need our passports. We had a three and a half hour bus ride to Wales which gave us enough time to nap and be ready for the day.

We got into Cardiff around 12:00. The city was having a 5k race and festival that was just finishing as we arrived. We walked through the festival hoping to find a map but that was a fail. There was a map on the street though so we knew where we were in the city. We decided to walk further into town and see what we could find. Cardiff Castle was literally right behind us the whole time. We drove by it on the bus and neither of us realized it. We toured the Castle first. It was beautiful. The landscape around the castle was so pretty especially from the top. The inside of the Main House was gorgeous. The architecture and design once again kept me staring. Pictures can not do a justice to the detail in painting and carvings this building had.

Once we left the castle we went into a cute little Welsh store. It had all classic Welsh things. We decided to go back later after walking down to the Warf. We now set out in search of Mermaid Quay (which is pronounced "key") I said it wrong when I asked for directions and got quite a weird look. "Tourista Tourista" as my dad always says. It was a bit of a walk to the Warf and we definitely walked through the sketchy part of town but once we got there it was beautiful!! We were right on the water. Mermaid Quay had a lot of restaurants and only a few little shops. We got lunch here at a really good Italian place. We walked around a little more by the Warf and found an art gallery called "Crafts int the Bay". It was one of the places I had written down when doing research on what to do in Cardiff. We decided it was "so much better online." it was not as interesting as the description made it sound but that's alright.

We then walked back into town and through some of the shops on the main stretch. Unfortunately the Welsh store was closed which was slightly upsetting but we went back into the Cardiff Castle Gift Shoppe for souvenirs. Being a Sunday in Europe all the shops close down by 5:00. Our bus back wasn't until 7:40 so we went into a bar and got some drinks while we waited. Overall I really liked Wales. Cardiff was a quaint little town. It did not seem like a city. I definitely felt like I was in Wales. It was a good day trip for sure. I think if we went for a weekend or even one night we would have gotten board quickly. Wales is my third country so far. I have a lot of traveling a head of me in the next three weeks. I leave for Scotland on Friday which is my next big trip and then I have the API overnight in York and immediately leave for my week in Italy. Needless to say I won't be getting much sleep in the next three weeks. Stay tuned for more of my adventures!

Cheers,
Allie

Time Flies

I can't believe that a month ago today I hopped on a plane and came to London. This past month has been amazing. So far my study abroad experience has been everything I wanted and more! It has been a dream. I love London. It is such an amazing city. I am never bored. There is always something different to do or someplace new to explore. I could not be happier with my decision of studying here. I have absolutely no regrets. I have made some great friends that I am so happy to share this experience with. I wish I could stay for a whole year. At this point I do not want to leave.

I have not been home sick which I think is a good thing. I think part of that is because I know I can not go home. I think the other reason is because I have so much to do here. I am constantly busy. I don't have time to think about what I might be missing at home. It will definitely be weird to be back home in December. I feel like I barely have to do school work here and only having 2 days of classes a week leaves me so much time to do other things. I am going to hate being back to reality next semester and actually having to do school work.

Part of my reasoning for studying abroad was to get out, explore, and see the world. This I am definitely doing. When I leave Europe I will have been to 7 different countries in this one, three month, trip and who knows how many different cities. That is crazy! One of my other reasons was to step out of my comfort zone. Do things I wouldn't normally do. Experience something totally new. London has definitely done this for me. I am so happy here. I am comfortable in this city and feel at home in a way. I can't believe I only have 2 months left. I hate the thought of leaving but I also know I will be happy to go home and see my family and friends. Everyday has been a new experience. I hope the next two months continue to be just as amazing. Coming to London has been the best thing I could have ever done. I am so excited to see what the rest of my adventure is going to bring!

Cheers,
Allie

St. Paul's Cathedral

Today I went to Church at St. Paul's Cathedral. I thought it would be a neat experience to say I have been to church there. It is an Anglican Church. It was interesting to see the differences between their ceremony and a Catholic mass. They do not do Eucharist during every celebration. We went to what is called the Choral Evensong and Sermon. It was really interesting. The chorus was made up of mostly adult males and young boys. There were only a few women singing. Most of the ceremony was sung. It wasn't as different as I expected. The service was an hour long. I was surprised at this because there was no communion. I enjoyed it though. The Cathedral itself was beautiful! The architecture was absolutely amazing. The detail that was put into the carvings on the walls were unbelievable. I can only imagine the work that was put into this building so many years ago. The ceiling was my favorite part I spent a lot of time looking at it during the service. It is definitely the most beautiful Cathedral I have ever been in. I am happy I went to a service there as well. It was a great experience and such a beautiful place to be in. We were not suppose to take pictures inside the cathedral But I managed to sneak one with my phone. Shhh

Cheers,
Allie

Stonehenge and the Roman Baths

Yesterday, API brought us to see Stonehenge and Bath. Both of these sights are famous in England and not to far from London. We were up bright and early to catch our bus. We went to Stonehenge first. To be honest its was pretty underwhelming. It is cool to say I have seen it and to have the pictures though. A lot of the information given from the head-set tour is myth. No one actually has an answer to why the stones are there or how they got it. For the most part it was just "Some people believe this" and "Someone thinks that". There is some history behind the stones but most of it is just speculation. You can not walk right up to the stones either. We only stayed at Stonehenge for an hour before heading to Bath.

Bath was beautiful! The first thing we did was walk through the Roman Baths. They were really pretty and all the artifacts throughout the museum were really interesting.  The city around the baths was beautiful as well. I have found that one of my favorite things to do in London and anywhere else I go is look at the architecture of the buildings. These buildings have been around for thousands of years. The detail into the architecture is amazing. You can not find anything like it in the States. Walking around Bath, I felt like I was in Italy which would make sense considering they were Roman Baths. After walking through the Baths we had some free time for lunch and to walk around and then Carmen, one of our API group leaders, walked us up to the Crescent. This is where the rich people of Bath live. There was a park in front where everyone was out playing or just sitting on the grass. The rich people did not want their view to be obstructed by the city so they built this park. Personally, I think it was a great idea.

Overall it was a good day. I never feel bored while I am here. There is just so much to do and see. The more area's I explore, the more I love London. I have been here for almost a month which is crazy! It has flown by but definitely has been one of the greatest months of my life.

Cheers,
Allie

A Night at the Theatre

The Theatre is a huge part of British culture. I have always loved going to plays and musicals with my family so naturally I wanted to go to some when I was in London. Most of the shows are in the West End of London (feels like home). I was pumped when I found out I could take a class called London Theatre and Performance. I am getting 4 credits to go to a theatre show every week, meet actors and other important people in the theatre industry, and get tours of different theaters, one being the Globe Theater. So far I have seen 2 different shows. I have tickets for 2 more on Monday and Tuesday as well.

The first show I went to was "The Woman in Black". This show I had to go to for my class. The movie was based off the play which has been running in London for over 2 years. I was very curious to see how a thriller would be portrayed on stage. It was much scarier than I anticipated. There were only two actors throughout the whole show and then of course someone who played the women in black. The two main characters played many different roles throughout the show. It was a simple set. Props were the same throughout the show but they changed roles, so to speak, and represented different things. For example the trunk on stage was a trunk, a table, a bench, and a horse cart. It was really interesting to see how the show was put together . The effects they used to make it scary was really interesting. I was actually kinda terrified as I sat in my seat.

Colleen, Caitlyn, and I after the show

The second show I went to was called "Our Boys." Colleen and I wanted to see this one for fun so we decided to go tonight. The show was about 6 guys who are in the army but have all been injured in combat and are in recovery.  Matthew Lewis, who plays Neville Longbottom in Harry Potter, was one of the six actors. It was so cool to see him act in a theatre production rather than on screen. Again it was a simple set. They would have small set changes but what i found interesting was when the lights went down, the actors stayed in character since you could still see their shadows. It definitely made the show and their injuries seem more real. After the show Colleen and I made it a mission to find the stage door and meet Matthew Lewis when he came out. We did just that. We got autographs and pictures. We are partners in crime when it comes to things like this. We were both in heaven! We could not stop smiling after we left. Matthew Lewis is so nice. We were able to talk for a few minutes but there were a lot of people around. He seemed like a genuinely nice guy. It was such a great night!!

 

Casually hanging with Matthew Lewis

Partners in Crime

Autograph!

Paparazzi moment

I am excited to go to more shows and maybe meet more celebrities!?! (Taylor Swift is currently in town) I have a list of more plays and musicals I hope to go to before I go home. It is so fun to dress up for a night and go to the theatre. This whole trip is so surreal. It's amazing.

Cheers,
Allie

PS. I know I am normally a horrible speller but Theater is spelled "Theatre" out here so I promise I know how to spell it I just figured I would try and fit in with the British.