I'm such a TOURIST!

Hi there,

I have lots of pictures to share with you on Flickr with this entry; the link is at the end of the blog post and be prepared because I think there are around 65 of them.

Sunday was absolutely gorgeous weather here – about 70 degrees with a few clouds here and there but NO RAIN finally! Because it was so nice out, I played 100% tourist and walked along the South Bank area of the Thames (pronounced TIMS), crossed Westminster Bridge near the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, then went around the corner to see Westminster Abbey. From there, I walked down Whitehall (the street with all the government buildings), ate lunch at a pub, then walked to Trafalgar Square. After THAT, I walked through St. James’ Park to Buckingham Palace. I ended my afternoon by walking up Piccadilly Street to Piccadilly Circus, London’s answer to Times Square, where I got the Tube back home. All in all, I was out for about 7 hours.

South Bank was fun – it has a distinct summer festival atmosphere with street performers, parents out with the kids, tourists, museums (e.g., the London Aquarium, the Museum of Horror Movies, etc.) That’s also the location of the London Eye, sort of a giant ferris wheel that you can stand up in. When you go on it, it’s called taking a flight. It has a spectacular view of London but it also has a spectacular price tag and spectacular waiting line, so I decided to skip it unless I get to the end of the trip and have money left over.

Probably the thing that struck me the most, however, was finally getting a glimpse of the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. Up to this point, I hadn’t yet seen that famous image that we think of when we think of London. To be honest, up until yesterday, it felt as though London is just a generic big city that you’d see anyplace only with really cool accents and vocabulary. However, that all changed when I got to the banks of the river and saw it for the first time. It really is an amazing sight!

I walked the length of South Bank from the Royal Jubilee bridge to Westminster bridge, where I crossed the Thames. This puts you right in front of the Houses of Parliament/Big Ben, and you are just around the corner from Westminster Abbey. The Abbey is actually comprised of several smaller churches so I took pictures of one called St. Margaret’s; it had beautiful stonework and these huge wooden doors that were amazing. Then I walked around to the front of the Abbey. It was closed because of it being Sunday, but there had been some sort of service just before I got there so people dressed in their Sunday best were still milling about. It’s such a shock to see such a famous building that’s so huge right in the middle of town, across from a modern office building. It has a nice gift shop that actually had decent London souvenirs rather than the rubbish (ha, how’s that for a British word) you see on the streets or in convenience stores. I stocked up!

After Westminster, I walked along Whitehall, the avenue where all the important British government buildings are located. I even walked past 10 Downing Street, the home of the Prime Minister, but it was blocked off with gates and guards so you really couldn’t see much of anything. One of the locations I walked past was the quarters for the Horse Guards, one of the Queen’s army regiments. They actually had some guards on horses outside the gates – go figure! Their uniforms were gorgeous, as were their black horses. There was a sign warning that the horses will occasionally bite and kick but I have to say that they were some of the most well-behaved horses I’ve ever seen, considering the crowds around them all day and how they have to stand so patiently while at the post.

By then, I was hungry and needing a diet coke, so I stopped into a pub called The Clarence. It had a great vibe, great service, and GREAT onion rings! It’s interesting how the Brits have the same names for some foods, like a club sandwich, which really aren’t what Americans think of when they think “club sandwich.” I have to say, though, that the food here was really good and I’ll go back when I’m in that area again.

On to Trafalgar Square. This commemorates Lord Nelson but more importantly is considered a national heritage site; it’s a frequent location for both demonstrations and celebrations. The National Gallery of Art sits just off the square, and there are statues and fountains all around. It really is a cool gathering spot. Yesterday when I was there, there was a group of individuals protesting China’s ban on North Korea in the Olympic games. But there were also loads of people just hanging out, climbing the lion statues (they are GIANT), reading near the fountain. It was neat. Many of the foreign embassies are either on Whitehall or at Trafalgar Square.

I looked at the map and thought that Buckingham Palace was a ways away, but saw a sign that pointed in the direction of the Palace so I decided to go for it. I walked onto an avenue known as Pall Mall (but people here just call it the Mall), which is the famous avenue you see whenever you see any kind of processions from the palace into London (e.g., Princess Diana's carriage ride on the way to her wedding). St. James’ Park is along the Mall on one side and is a beautiful and lively park. There were families galore having picnics, and a small orchestra was playing under a tent. You can rent lawn chairs for $4.00 for two hours and there are hot dog stands etc. along all the paths.

Across the street are Clarence House (Prince Charles’ home) and St. James’ Palace (Princes William & Harry live here). I tried to take pictures but they are behind some pretty tall walls and there is a lot of landscaping that extends even above the wall. Here’s where I saw my first Household Division guards – you know, the ones with the red jackets and huge furry black hats? You can walk right up to them and stand near them to have your picture taken, but they won’t speak to you or look you in the eye. The other interesting thing was that they were holding machine guns that had huge knives attached to the ends of them. I don’t know why that surprised me so much, but it did. I guess I thought they’d just have a shiny sword or something but I read online that the guards are actual serving soldiers and are considered to be the elite among all British army members. Guards are placed at St. James’, Clarence House, and Buckingham Palace. I was too late to see the Changing of the Guard (it usually occurs around 11:30) but from what I understand, it’s kind of hit-or-miss in London anyway in terms of the schedule and whether there are too many tourists to even see the change. All the guidebooks recommend that you go to Windsor Castle to see the Changing of the Guard.

Continuing down the Mall, you can see the Queen Victoria Memorial which sits right in front of Buckingham Palace. All around are beautiful flower gardens and these HUGE black gates tipped with gold. It’s really pretty impressive. The palace itself is impressive in that it’s so freaking big, but I didn’t find it to be particularly beautiful – except for the gates. It needs some new window treatments – the curtains are sort of your run-of-the-mill sheers (at least that’s how it looks from the outside, I’m sure they’re fancy from the inside. Despite me yelling, “Hey, Queenie! I’m here to represent! How about a shout out?” she ignored me and didn’t come out. I don’t understand it. I think it may be because they’re still fussing over us winning the war. The least she could have done was throw me a biscuit.

From there, I walked up Piccadilly to Piccadilly Circus. Piccadilly reminds me of a street in Manhattan; all big hotels and street vendors with paintings, used books, jewelry, etc. I was knackered (tired) after all the walking (those of you who know me well probably can’t believe I did all this hiking around) so I decided to head home. I also had a bag full of souvenirs that I was sick of carrying around. I hopped on the Tube and came back to my perch at the Rhodes Hotel.

Today at MPC was the first day of the intensive therapy course for the 10-14 year old kids and their families. I will write more about that later in the week, but my job so far is to sit in on the parents’ group and assist Willie Botterill, the lead clinician. This means I write things the parents say on big flip charts and write important information on post-it notes about things we need to remember (e.g., “get box of Kleenex”). It’s great, actually, because it allows me to really pay attention to the group process and see how these parents are experiencing it rather than having to try to be on my feet and lead the group. I continue to be so grateful for my experience here and get such a buzz out of watching these clinicians work.

Ok, now for the random observations:

-- The bathrooms here really ARE called “loos” (they don't just call them that on TV). You go to the loo. If you say “bathroom” they just think you’re American. If you say “restroom” they have no idea what you’re talking about.

-- Water pressure is a funny thing; although they have much better water pressure here than in, say, Italy, if you’re in a public restroom and the person next to you flushes their toilet, you might have to wait a minute or two before yours has enough pressure to flush.

-- Also, the public restrooms in the Tube stations all cost some amount of money to use. The loos at Paddington and Westminster stations are 30p (p = pence, about 60 cents) and the loos at Piccadilly Circus station were 60p. Can you believe it, $1.20 just to go pee. Yikes. The other stressful thing about this is that when you really have to pee and you have to come up with money for it, and you aren’t 100% certain yet about what coins are what denomination, it can make you really hop up and down.

-- Speaking of coins, they have coins for: 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p, 1 pound, and 2 pounds. This is way too many coins, in my opinion. Or, if they’re going to have this many, they should at least be ordered by size. The 5p coin is the smallest, and 2p is one of the largest. The only ones I know for sure are the 1 pound, 2 pound, and 5p coins. I’m probably getting ripped off because every time someone charges me, say, 1 pound 80 pence, I just throw some coins at them and ask them if that’s right. Every time I think I have the amounts figured out, I find out that I’m wrong. So, this tells me that they have too many coins and should just reorganize their monetary system so that it makes it easier on people like me. Who have to pee. Now.

-- Back to the bathroom topic. The English are extremely polite. This is evident even in the setup of their bathroom stalls. The sides and door come all the way down until about 6 inches off the ground. This means that you can’t see whether someone is in the stall or not. Remember the famous “Can you spare a square?” from Seinfeld? Yeah, that wouldn’t happen here. However, in order to help you determine whether a stall is available or not, they have little indicators on the doors. Once you go into the stall and slide the handle across to lock it, a little window on the front will say “Occupied” or “Engaged,” or have a little red dot in it to show that that stall is in use. If the stall is empty, this same little window will say something like “Available” or have a green dot. This is one of the things I actually really love about the British system and think America should consider adopting as a practice. Besides being irrationally afraid of clowns, one of my other big fears is someone walking in on me while I'm going to the bathroom in a public restroom. I don't worry about that here. I also haven't seen any clowns, come to think of it. Hmm, no wonder I'm loving this place.

-- New words/sayings: “pitch up” = get started or get going. I like this term a lot. “Joiner” = carpenter. We have a dad in the group who is a joiner for the BBC and works on the sets for East Enders (major soap opera sort of show here) and Pride and Prejudice. That gave the group a big charge because even though he’s not famous, he’s probably met people who are. LOL

-- It was 74 degrees here for the high today. Although it was warm in the clinic because of no air conditioning, it actually was a gorgeous day today. However, the Londoners were dying from the heat -- one of the clinic secretaries told me that “Summer is finally here! It’s so hot!” Um, guess I won’t be inviting her for a summer trip to Florida. Or Nebraska. Or Kansas. Or Illinois. Or Philadelphia. Ha.

-- There's are big signs out on the streetcorners in front of my hotel that say, "KERB CRAWLING RESULTED IN 18 ARRESTS BETWEEN 10-12 JUNE. BEWARE THAT POLICE ARE PATROLLING THIS NEIGHBORHOOD AND YOU WILL LOSE YOUR LICENSE IF CAUGHT." It's been out there for several days and I kept meaning to ask Chris & Maria about what the sign means but just hadn't gotten around to it yet (remember, I'm trying to keep my head down because of the whole blowing up the 6th floor's electrical system last week). This morning at breakfast, another American (some scruffy looking guy from Virginia) asked Chris about it and he really dodged the answer for quite awhile, then finally told us that kerb crawling was men picking up prostitutes. Because this is such a touristy area, I guess there are occasionally some working girls out working our street. I haven't seen them, but then I don't go out after dark much. If you pull over to pick up a prostitute and a policeman catches you, not only do you go to jail and get a ticket, but they take your driver's license away. Wow. Most interesting to me, however, is that they spell "curb" as kerb. Wrong.

As always, thanks for your emails that let me know you’re reading along. It’s great to hear from home and I know I’ve been bad about responding; I’m going to try to get caught up with all of you this week.
Love,Lisa

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