London (Weeks 1 and 2)

Have to get the picture with the Parliament and Big Ben

 I just can't believe that it has already been two weeks just about in London.  I have really enjoyed my time here and am glad to be here.  I have met so many great people from around the world and really have enjoyed the city.

Its a very nice city and the apartments I am staying in are very centrally located, right in the heart of the city.  To get to class I cross Waterloo bridge every day and see the City of London to my right and London Eye and Parliament to my left.  Every day it is beautiful and I don't see how it could get old.

City of London skyline over the Thames

London Eye, Parliament, Big Ben...and of course a cabbie

 So I have been able to go around London a little bit, although not as much as I would like.  Of course at near the first opportunity I went to Westminster to see all the sites firsthand.

Big Ben

Westminster Abbey: West Entrance

Westminster Abbey

Buckingham Palace

British Flag

Trafalgar Square - Filled with Harry Potter fans camping out to see the celebrities a day later

 I also of course had to try some of the local cuisine, which is of course fish and chips.

Fish and Chips

One day I went to the Imperial War Museum in the afternoon with a friend, Caleb.  We were there for I think 3 hours and were only really able to see two large sections of the basement, the World War I and II exhibits.  They were great and I definitely need to go back before I leave

Imperial War Museum

Just inside the museum

How about some weaponry?

These might have had a bit of power

 One day I also walked around the City of London a bit with some of my friends I've gained here and we saw some of the major sites and skyscrapers.

St. Pauls, unfortunately we weren't able to go in then since they closed right before

Not sure what the building is, but it is nice

The Gherkin

Other skyscrapers in London

 I also was able to go to Oxford for a few hours one day.  I only got a quick tour around and got to see some of the colleges of the university, they were quite posh.  I hope to go back sometime before I leave to get a more extensive look around the town.

Nice building

The Bodleian Library

Another building

A rather posh college

Home, Sweet home

 That is my luxurious room here at the apartments.  It isn't the largest room, but it does suffice.  The door on the left is the en suite bathroom, in which half is a shower.

Spork

 So, you may wonder why I decided to put a picture of a spork on my blog.  Well, the story goes like this.  My friends and I went to Sainsbury's, a (small) supermarket to get some food and everything.  I hadn't gotten any cutlery yet and my friend said last time he came they had it at the counter or whatever, so I asked one of the workers if they had any plastic silverware or anything and he said they did and left to get some.  I went to check out and when he returned he brought me this spork, while my friend was cracking up seeing him do this.  So, hopefully next time I go to the supermarket I can actually get some cutlery.

Somerset House, right by my university

Again, I am so glad to be here.  I have only been here for two weeks, yet I have met a lot of great people from literally all over the world.  I was somewhat surprised to find that there weren't too many Americans or Brits in the Summer School program, although there are some.  For instance in my flat of 7 people I am the only American and the others are from Singapore, China, Tanzania, Russia and two from Italy.  In my class I am again the only American and there are also I think 5 from Italy, 2 from Germany (plus the professor), 2 from Turkey, 2 from the Netherlands, 2 from India and one person from England, France, Austria,  Canada, Brazil, Qatar, Lebanon, Greece and Taiwan.  Apart from all of these people I have met people from Argentina, Colombia, Bulgaria, the Ukraine, Slovakia, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Portugal, Australia, South Africa, El Salvador and Pakistan.  I am also probably forgetting a few countries.  So, obviously there are people from a lot of places and it has been such a pleasure being able to meet so many people here from such varied backgrounds.  It definitely has made for a bit of interesting discussion in my class having such diversity since my class is titled: Managing International Conflict, thus is an International Relations type class.

So far though it has been amazing to meet people from other places, both here in the UK and in the other countries that I have been to.  It is always interesting to meet people who are coming from a different place and have a different background.  I have enjoyed discussing some of the differences between the States and Europe and have loved hearing about other countries and cultures.  It only wants to make me want to travel more to see all these places that I hear about and to further experience these other cultures, especially some non-Western countries. 

One thing though that I have especially come to realize is to ignore stereotypes.  Although I have always known never to trust and listen to stereotypes, it is even more obvious once meeting people from so many places.   Obviously, you can never judge a person solely on their nationality nor can you judge a nation solely on one person.  I do think that stereotype disrupt relations though and make people more close-minded and prejudiced against others, which doesn't help anything.  So, again, I am glad to have met all the people from other countries and I hope that I have been able to be a good sort of ambassador for the US and have helped to lessen some of the negative stereotypes of Americans and the US.  Maybe I am turning into a constructivist, but I do think that interaction with people from other countries and cultures promotes better understanding between people, which is always helpful with all the conflicts worldwide.

That all isn't to belittle the Americans I have met here.  I haven't met too many, but I have met some from various parts of the country and they too have been great people to meet and get to hang out with some.

At a Spanish pub

London Eye

Eyes left...Cars right. Why must they drive on the left side of the road?

London

London at night

A posh school

Oxford

Oxford

2012 games

So, I also went to Brussels with my class on Wednesday to visit NATO's SHAPE and the European Commission, but I will have to get to that in my next post.  I need to sleep, because tomorrow I think I might be going to Brighton and Saturday probably Cambridge...then in afternoons and on Sunday...work on my presentation and paper.

Cheers again from the UK

Amsterdam

One of the many canals through the city

So, I was only able to spend a day in Amsterdam on this trip, but it was a nice city.  The city has canals formed in semi-circles spanning out from the Centraal Station.   Amsterdam also has one of the largest historic districts around.  We spent a good part of the day just walking around the city and around the canals looking at the buildings and everything.  We passed some of the big museums like the Van Gogh museum and the Anne Frank museum.  The Anne Frank museum had an absolutely enormous line, so we decided since we were only there for a day that it would be better to try and go around more places than spend an hour or two waiting in line to get in to see the museum.  And for Van Gogh I don't think either of us are huge art enthusiasts so we skipped it along with the Rijksmuseum, which houses a lot of art and other things, including much of Rembrant's work.

Grand Centraal Station

Nice side street

Church near the Centraal Station

More Bridges

 We went by the main square the Dam, a few times during the day.  They had some street soccer going on in the square.  The first time we went, there were kids teams playing against each other.  Later on there were some older professionals? who would play with a group of the kids doing ball handling tricks with the ball and such.

The Royal Palace

The kids playing soccer in the square

Nieuwe Kerk

We also went to a cheese tasting where we had some great cheeses.  The first two were actually goat cheeses and they were very good, surprisingly.  The cheeses had different ages, so some were a bit older and were similar to like parmesan, while some were newer and thus a bit creamier and mild.  They were all great though.

5 of the 6 cheeses we tried (the first is on the other guillotine cutter thing)

Pro Cheese Taster

 So after the cheese we weren't super hungry so we went to one of the city parks (the Vondelpark).  There was some sort of children's show going on at the stage so we caught the end of that.  It was on Dutch, so I couldn't quite make out what was being said but it was interesting, certainly.  Then we found a spot in the park and napped for a bit after having to have woken up around 6 to catch the train to Amsterdam from Cologne.

The actors at the children's performance

Vondelpark 

We went to an old Heineken brewery and saw how beer was/is made there, so that was an interesting tour.

Brewery

Of course, we had to go by a windmill while we were in Amsterdam.  The windmills weren't built in the city, but as the city grew some are now within it, such as this one, De Gooyer.

De Gooyer

We took some random bus and tram trips around the city to make more use out of our day passes so we saw random other parts of the city, which was interesting.  We left the city pretty early though to get back to the hotel, which is close to the airport, outside the city a bit.

Canal at night

The Rijksmuseum

A church

Another church

Canal and bridge

Off to London

So, I've now been in London just short of a week.  It has been great so far and I have been meeting a lot of great people and have gotten just a glimpse into the city.  I still have so much I want to do and see and so little time.  I will update this soon hopefully with whats been going on for the past week.

Cheers, from the UK.