london | buckingham palace & harrods

4218 miles.

that is approximately how far dan & i had to travel

to be closer than we have ever been before.

for the past three years or so,

dan has been driving up about once a month 

from columbus, ga
to see me.

that's two hours worth of drive time (one-way).

this past summer, we calculated how many miles he has driven so far.

and it came out to being nearly as much as a 

roundtrip, cross-continental-u.s. road trip.

& he has never complained, ever.

currently, while i am studying in Oxford,

he is in London at Queen Mary, University of London.

technically, we are closer in distance;
however, due to the sometimes awful traffic coming in and out of London,

it can take between a 1.5-2 hour bus ride from one city to the other.

as can be imagined, 

naps make the time go by a much faster, indeed.

for my first trip to london,

we decided to plan something along the lines of

a fancy date.

oh! and in comparison to my previous posts,

this one will have a significantly larger number of

people pictures.

upon discovering that we arrived at 

buckingham palace too late - all the entrance tickets were sold out,

we sat outside a deliberated a bit about what to do next.

of course, we took pictures.

the queen was actually at her summer palace,

so visitors were able to take tours throughout the place.

she's back at home now, i believe.

it was extremely crowded.

so many people everywhere!

and horse poo.

yes, it was left by the horses that were part

of the changing of the guards procession.

victoria memorial

dan's photography skills are steadily improving.

it seems i have taught him well! ;)

when i first met dan at governor's honors program

during the summer of 2009,

i called him a polo model because he always dressed so nicely.

so now, i often jokingly refer to him

as my own model.

he is always very cooperative whenever i want 

someone to photograph.

a little higher up from the ground.

here is a better view of the palace.

these gates aren't actually part of the palace,

but they were very majestic and beautiful in appearance.

they make me look so small.

and finally, harrods!

this is the largest department store in all of europe.

it occupies 5 acres of land

and has one million square feet of selling space.

it literally felt like walking into a palace

(so, in a sense, it made up for not getting to go into buckingham. haha)

it was hall after hall after hall 

of extravagance.

clothes, jewelry, cosmetics, food, and tea/coffee.

my jaw dropped,

my eyes grew big and probably sparkled.

it was like a dream come true.

& my pictures simply do not do it justice.

this was one of the first cosmetic halls

that the main entrance opened up into.

such a classy ralph lauren store.

fancy ceiling decor.

and another huge cosmetic hall.

chanel, ysl, dior, georgio armani, lancome, la mer, etc.

there were several different chanel and louis vuitton shops.

one mainly for purses, another for shoes, and even one for clothing!

oh my goodness, and the food.

it goes without saying that their food hall is actually

world famous.

we were both quite hungry by the time we finally got around to eating.

let's just say, i got a little carried away while looking around,

and next thing we knew, almost an hour and a half had passed!

because there are no places to sit down inside,

we had to eat outside on a bench.

regardless, it was one of my favorite sandwiches

that i've had so far in england.

[prosciutto, cheese, and tomato]

& i think dan's was some kind of asian chicken.

the desserts!

we were so full by the time we finished our sandwiches,

but of course we had to take some home ;)

creme brulee is my favorite dessert of all time.

fancy bar-style restaurants.

this was part of the chocolate/tea hall,

which contained so many flavors and brands

from countries all over the world!

our last stop was the ice cream parlor on the third floor.

it was such a cute place to sit and talk and relax.

our nutella ice cream.

i imagine the place looks even more wonderful when it is lit

on the outside at night.

the shoe hall.

it was nothing short of amazing.

jimmy choo, louis vuitton, 

& the tory burch flats that i love.

mirror, mirror on the wall.

after a couple of weeks away from home,

we were both missing traditional asian food.

so, we ate at a korean restaurant for dinner!

we also had a galbi dish, but the picture came out blurry. 

it was quite expensive,

but very worth it!

neatly cut orange pieces.

and last but not least, 

our dessert from harrods!

we decided to save it as our post-dinner dessert.

(creme brulee & cappuccino cheesecake)

if i could bring some back to america with me,

i would.

we often have people ask us

if we chose to come to england because of the other person.

and honestly, the answer is no.

we have both always dreamed of studying abroad

for a semester in england.

& somehow, it all worked out perfectly

that we are both able to be here

at the exact same time.

it's truly a blessing.

salisbury, sarum, & stonehenge | a british field trip

the rain has cleared,
and the sky is now a gorgeous blue
figuratively speaking, i mean.
(we actually don't get as much rain here as most people assume)
my crazy four-week seminar courses ended last week,
and after an immediate shift into tutorials,
i am now looking at a wonderful schedule,
where i actually have time for non-school related activities.

i have class for one hour on monday for sociology of education.
my tutor and i meet one-on-one for that class,
and i am enjoying the topics immensely.

on tuesday's, i have my shakespeare course
with two other students from UGA.
my tutor has not given us the full reading list yet,
but i can already tell we will be covering quite a bit of the repertoire.
we've already finished reading
Taming of the Shrew, Two Gentlemen of Verona, and Comedy of Errors,
and for next week, i'm working on
The Merchant of Venice and Romeo & Juliet.

this batch of pictures is from a long, long time ago.
the first week of being at Oxford, in fact.
on the saturday before our first day of class,
we went on a group outing to salisbury, sarum, and stonehenge.
if i remember correctly,
we had to wake up at about 7 am,
eat a quick breakfast,
and jump on the bus for a near two hour ride.

the first stop: salisbury

the name of the city only sounded

vaguely familiar to me before this trip,

so don't worry if you've never heard of it before at all.

we primarily went there to see

the oldest medieval doom painting in the world

& one of the original copies of the magna carta.

i basically try to take as many ceiling pictures as possible,
as they are all so unique.

some fancy wooden chairs
& a man playing classical guitar in the back.

this is the beautiful salisbury cathedral.
housed inside, is the copy of the magna carta that i mentioned earlier.
it was such a lovely, sunny day.

eunice & i with the walking madonna statue.
we all had some laughs taking pictures with her, as you can see...

another picture from a different angle of the cathedral.

the inside is another one of those breath-takers.
so much symmetry, so much intricacy.
the green/cream block in the middle is actually a fountain.
there are also a few other wings of the cathedral
farther in the back:
one contains the organ
and another has several altars.

fancy podium.

that wooden box under the flag is actually
the exit, which leads to the special room for the magna carta.
however, to protect the document,
they don't allow photography
at all.
this little old lady, who was one of the curators,
kept eyeing me with suspicion as i walked around
since my camera was hanging around my neck.

the quad inside of the cathedral.

afterwards, we were given some money
& sent to scour the city for food.
it was actually pretty difficult, surprisingly,
because all of the bigger food places were also pubs,
and they didn't open until later.

our little group opted for sandwiches,
and we sat on the lawn while we ate.

then, we sat by the river
and just talked until it was time to depart again!

next stop: sarum.

this is the earliest settlement of salisbury, england
and has evidence of human habitation
dating back to 3000 b.c.

white flowers on the hillside.

some of the ruins.

my favorite pair of shoes, at the moment.

a picture of me that my friend Thomas took.

finally, stonehenge.
it's hard to believe these rocks have been here
since about 2400 b.c.!
we had several musings about how they were erected.
there was a range of answers -
levers, flying creatures, incredibly strong people.
i suppose we may never know.

unfortunately, there is relatively new regulation
that prevents visitors from getting close to the actual structure,
so, it is entirely roped off.
one person on the trip actually remembers going on picnics
with her family on the rocks of stonehenge,
which would be impossible now.

a group of us with stonehenge.
you can see the rope blocking it off in this picture.

seeing stonehenge in person really brought me to
the final scene in Thomas Hardy's
Tess of the d'Urbervilles
when Tess lies down on a rock of Stonehenge
in surrender to the authorities closing in around the plain. 

if i were to pay to see stonehenge,
i would say that it's relatively expensive (about 10 GBP)
because you can only really look at it
and take pictures
from afar.
but, i'm really glad that the uga @ oxford program
organized this trip for us
because it's undoubtedly one of england's
most famous landmarks.

everything over here is going smoothly and peacefully.
i think i like england more every single day.
despite the fact that everything here is about fifty-percent
more expensive than in the u.s.,
it's a nice change to the things i've grown used to.
having a bus pass makes it really easy
to go into city centre.
sometimes, i like to just walk around
and peer into the little cafes and misc. shops.

one of the most bothersome facts about england, though,
is that nearly every other person here smokes.
i am constantly forced to hold my breath
and walk briskly by.
other than that, i could really imagine myself
living here one day.

just as a quick update,
i have officially booked plane tickets to
barcelona & paris!!
in the mean time,
i'm going to try to get to as many of the
closer places as possible: dublin, scotland, edinburgh,
& the harry potter studios (this one is an absolute must).