[November 29] London: Westminster Abbey, Oxford Circus, & A Really Painful Ear Infection

On the Friday after Thanksgiving, I was shopping with friends all literally ALL OF A SUDDEN, my left ear had sharp pains in it. It slowly but surely got worse and worse and I was in A LOT of pain by the wee hours of the next morning, so I went to the emergency room and got a prescription for some antibiotic ear drops. When I left the emergency room, I was really confused—I went to reception and asked, "So... how exactly do I pay for this?" I was already imagining a pain in the butt experience with insurance, paying hundreds of dollars, blah blah blah, but she said "Oh, it's free." Me: "...Really???" A little smile, "Yes." 

Wow. 

So I skipped merrily home, but not really. 

That morning, I went to get my ear drops. I got them, they were about $10 as ALL prescriptions are. I skipped merrily home. 

THEN I realized, wait a second—these are EYE DROPS. What?!?! So I took them back and found out the 'Chemist' (they called most of the pharmacies 'Chemists') didn't have them. In total, I visited EIGHT PHARMACIES looking for these ear drops. During which I was miserably dealing with my painful ear. The pain spread to the rest of my head, neck, and even shoulder. I walked a lot, took the bus, and eventually found them. Yeah. But then... I couldn't find the right buses home, and eventually when I did get on a bus, it terminated and it was freezing out and I had no idea what to do so I got a taxi, which ended up being expensive. But I didn't care because I really felt terrible!

To make this already long story shorter, after 2 trips to the emergency room and 1 doctor appointment, I finally got antibiotic ear drops and pills, then I started getting better. But even though it's 1 month later, my ear still plugs up a bit.

During this time, I had a day where I was actually feeling decent! So I went and toured the inside of Westminster Abbey. No pictures allowed inside, though.

Later, I met my favorite person living in London (haha) at Oxford Circus for coffee. Aren't the decorations prettyyy??!?!

[November 26] London: 'Shopping' on Sloane Street

I was SO spoiled in London. My bus ride to and from the IES Centre where classes were held went through Sloane Street, a street that is a lovely and confusing line of designer stores. I say confusing, because sometimes the things I saw in the displays were just UGLY. But that's 'high fashion' for you. 

One day, I went walking around Sloane Street with a couple of friends and *GASP* actually went inside some of the stores. I was a bit nervous because the shop girls and boys probably could 'tell' that we weren't actually even considering buying anything—and rightly so, despite some really gorgeous dresses and jewelry and shoes and purses that I saw. *drool*? There is always a 'guard' standing by the door and he (or she, but almost always he) would open the door for you... and all of the shop employees were ALL really nice and friendly. 

These were my favorite stores, as in, I found the most things I liked in them:

[November 25] London: Imperial War Museum & A Very Happy Thanksgiving

How annoying—we didn't get any vacation for Thanksgiving! Haha. Meh. 

For my WWI class on Thanksgiving, we went to the Imperial War Museum. I did some research there for my paper about propaganda posters during the First World War and their use to recruit women. I've 'always' sort of been interested in propaganda posters. I think if I had to have a job during WWI, I would have liked to make propaganda posters. Tsk tsk!

On this visit to the museum, I looked at a couple of exhibits I didn't get to on the first time. There was a huge Holocaust exhibit that was moving and disturbing on so many levels, I can't really get into it. Then there was also an exhibit about spies that was awfully fascinating. Here are some interesting quotes I found from that exhibit:

So, moving on: This year was my first thanksgiving away from home. But we still had a nice Thanksgiving meal with some friends! Rachel did a really nice job of arranging everything, don't you think? She made a turkey, which I think is impressive, since I cannot even manage to make sweet potatoes with marshmallows. Yeah. They literally caught on FIRE in our stupid oven and I had to dump them in the sink and there was smoke everywhere. Embarrassing and it made me panicky, but in the end, I thought it was rather funny... !!! Don't tell anyone though, please. ;D

After stuffing my face, I went out DaNcInG! To burn off all those calories... but not really. :]

[November 23 Part Two] London: Beach House

Okay... Beach House... wow. They are definitely one of my very favorite bands but this concert at the Shepherd's Bush O2 venue just made me like them more. I went by myself to this concert, which was a tad depressing at certain moments, but I don't really care, because I'm SO glad I saw them. Their music is pretty mellow on the whole, but at the same time very intense and passionate. It's pretty dreamy... so it seems like the two main band members would be pretty chill and relaxed onstage, but I actually thought they were totally ROCK STARS. They played my favorite songs and I knew every single song. Brag, brag, brag.

They said this particular show was the biggest show they've ever played. NEATO!

[November 23 Part One] London: Imperial War Museum

For my British Women's Social History class one day, we met at the Imperial War Museum to look at British women's role in the First World War. Wow. I loved this museum. Really well-done and I am especially interested in WWII—and now, thanks to this class and also my History of London focus on WWI, I am also really interested in WWI.

A piece of the Berlin Wall that was outside of the museum:

Even though I really don't like riding in airplanes, I have a sort of fascination with them. Probably because I just CANNOT understand how they actually work!

I thought this was particularly interesting because it shows bandages that were made out of lace. Women had a really huge and absolutely crucial role in the war effort and I imagine a women cutting up one of her pretty dresses to make bandages for the soldiers. This just really stuck out in my mind.

I guess the military would try to use pigeons as messengers? I'm not exactly sure how this would work, but interesting nonetheless I thought.

A paint set and some paintings made by soldiers on the warfront:

A display that showed women's involvement in making munitions. Thousands and thousands of women did this dangerous work, but it gave them a new sort of freedom in that it paid very well.

Propaganda posters recruiting women... I think if I had a job during WWI (which most everyone did), I would have been good at creating these posters:

There was an exhibit were you could walk through 'the trenches' and it was a bit scary...

There was also a lot about WWII which I looked at just because of my own personal interest. Something that is just really striking to me are the gas masks. Really haunting and spooky, I feel.

I sort of choked up when I saw this picture... the baby with it's 'gas mask' on:

This is an example of a bomb shelter during WWII... honestly, it doesn't look too safe to me!

This violin was made out of some wood on one of the battlefields... I just thought that was neat.

[November 22] London: Sylvia Plath Sightseeing

Like my stack of Sylvia Plath-related books? I took a picture of them at home because I'm 'so proud' of them, ha ha. Oh, well there's a DVD in there too. Anyway, the purpose of showing this is that Sylvia Plath, although American, married an English poet and lived in England for parts of her life. I was really excited to see a couple of the houses that she lived in that are in London!

This is Queen Square next to the church that Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes were married in:

The church that Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes were married in:

I took the tube up to Camden and began my search for Fitzroy Road. I saw this lovely river along the way, and I had a fun time imagining Sylvia walking around the area, maybe pushing her small children in a stroller, going for walks in the nearby Regent's Park.

Ah-ha! I found it!

The house that Sylvia died in was also a house that Yeats lived in before. Sylvia was really excited that he had lived and created there, and that she would get to do the same. BUT, although Sylvia died there, there was no blue circle saying she had lived there! I have no idea why. There is all sorts of criteria for these blue circles on buildings throughout England, and as far and I and one of my English professors can tell, she fits the criteria just fine. Especially since she is 'well-known' for committing suicide, you'd think there would be a plaque especially on the Fitzroy Road house... but no... I'm still puzzled.

I knew that nearby, Plath had also lived in another house, but I hadn't written down the address so I decided to just walk around and by chance, after doing a double-take, I found the other house she lived in, this time with a plaque:

A pastel purple house among other cutely-colored pastel houses:

I was a bit surprised by how lovely the houses Plath lived in seemed to be. I've always been under the impression that although her and Hughes managed to get by financially, they were always worried about money and whatnot. But I would be pretty happy to live in one of these houses... especially by a park! That is one of my 'conditions' for living in London: It's got to be in a lovely house that looks out onto a park.

I imagine her small children played in Chalcot Square...

And as I left, I saw this old woman feeding birds. It was a bit scary to walk past because sometimes, the birds in London were a bit aggressive!