The Tower of London from Tower Hill tube station
Yeoman warders make great tour guides!
White Tower
the Crown Jewels
Harry Potter studio!!! Woooo hooo 😀
Studio entrance
Harry’s room at the Darsley home
The Great Hall
Professor Snape and potions class
Quidditch uniforms
Ford Anglia and me
Ravenclaw pride<3
Location: London, UK
I hope it’s not too late but congratulations on $12+ million raised for THON 2013 FTK!!!! I knew Penn State would top last year’s total. But surpassing it for nearly $2 million? That was beyond my expectation. I am incredibly proud of every single individual who has dedicated their time, energy and resources to this great cause.
Shout out to everyone who has donated even a penny, stood on street corners for hours with cans, bought one shirt or raffle ticket, ran booths, doing the PR work, danced for 46 hours, supported the dancers in every way possible, delivered live news coverage (yay for College of Communications), and/or wished us good luck.
I wasn’t able to be there in person but I was thinking of THON at all times over the last weekend, asleep or awake. It has inspired me to be more involved next time. The #1 item on my senior year bucket list is to be in BJC for the THON finale. I have only been able to watch the last 3 finales on my computer but I definitely want to see it in person.
This past week has been a very eventful one, considering how much of a homebody I am.
On Sunday during the THON weekend, fellow Penn Stater and fashionista, Fuli, invited me to go to Clerkenwell for apparently the biggest, most extravagant vintage fashion fair. The overall quality was nice, but a lot of the items were way over my budget. It was quite a journey from Central London but it was fun to look at things and hear stories about the pieces from the sellers. The Clerkenwell fair is a monthly event and the admission is 2 pounds with a valid student id.
On Tuesday, I went to visit Fuli, who was helping with running a booth at the Design Marketplace fashion fair and a Forest Hill Fashion Week catwalk show nearby. Unlike the name suggests, it was a very cozy, at-home-y experience. Forest Hill seems to be an area where up-and-coming fashion and interior designers and artists establish their ateliers/studios/workshops/shops. It is a quirky area to explore but unfortunately I may not be frequenting here because of the lack of options for transportation.
Then later that night the heating system in my dorm building broke down–again. It was my second time not having hot water for more than 10 hours. I had no other choice but postpone a shower until next morning, thinking hot water would come back soon since it is quite usual that the water does not heat up when it’s past certain times at night.
Wrong. By the time I woke up in the morning, the whole room was cold. I waited for hours upon hours until noon for hot water to no avail. I decided to use a random gym’s shower. I couldn’t wait any longer because later on that day, I was supposed to be meeting up with a recent Penn State and Belly Dance Club alum, Katie, for a trip to Warner Brothers Harry Potter Studio. When I rang a nearby gym on Baker Street, the representative said I would have to pay 20 pounds for a one-time access to the facility. I grabbed a 20-pound bank note, toiletries and change of clothing and rushed to the nearest shower. But when I got there and explained my situation, they let me in for free. I don’t know when exactly it was fixed.
The heating incident aside, Wednesday couldn’t be more magical! Katie and I decided to meet each other at Euston railway station but neither of us could text each other because of the bad signal. But we were able to find each other in the crowded station and got to the studio with no hassle at all. It was wonderful catching up on what happened recently after the last time we saw each other. She seems to be having a somewhat relaxing time after her graduation in December, traveling around in Europe and visiting old friends in State College.
The studio tour took us through the actual sets and props used during the filming of all 8 movies and live reenactment of iconic scenes (dueling with a Death Eater, anyone?). The tickets are on the pricey side, but I would recommend this to anyone who considers themselves to be hardcore Harry Potter fans. If you have read all of the books, seen all the movies and liked them, it is worth a visit. This is the place to be if you can name most of the members of the Order of Phoenix, the main Death Eaters, and/or Dumbledore’s Army, can recite more than 5 spells, know more than 5 magical creatures besides wizards and witches and have a particular House to pledge your allegiance to. Try to have a taste of butter beer while you’re there too (someone told me after I came back about this)! There are so many photo opportunities so don’t forget to bring your fully-charged-and-ready-to-shoot cameras!
I think I had never spent more money in one day before London Fashion Weekend rolled around. It was the fanciest, blingy-est and most glamorous event I have attended besides the LOFT x Marie Claire College Front Row Challenge catwalk show in Fall 2011. The spring/summer catwalk was full of striking color combinations (splashes of neon against neutral backdrops) but at the same time versatile and wearable. The shirts, dresses, jackets and jumpsuits were all breezy, effortless and not over-the-top costume-y.
Before the catwalk show started, Fuli, her friend Mariya and I explored the shopping stalls. Many of the items on display were very costly, with three-digit numbers in GBP being the norm, but there were occasional grab-any-for-�5 jewelry deals. The price range for the scarves was bearable. I dished out what is about a little over $100 (oops) on the goodie bag, a shiny new Kate Sheridan backpack, a few baked goodies and dinner at a posh Turkish restaurant nearby. Uh oh. I hope having lived as frugally as humanly possible my entire college life up until this semester will justify this. I really do. From now on I will try to live as cheaply as possible until Easter/spring break because I will need money for traveling.
Thank you for reading! I hope you’ll have a nice day 🙂
P.S. I will try to post pictures as soon as possible!
Location: London, UK
First thing first, since the clock has hit midnight in my lovely hometown, Shanghai, HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR to all!!!!!!
‘Tis the beginning of the Snake Year! May all your wishes come true; may you be prosperous in whatever endeavor you’ll embark on and I wish you a happy, healthy year.
蛇年吉祥，万事如意，恭喜发财，年年有余！祝大家新年快乐，事业成功，学业进步，健康度过每一天！
My Facebook and Twitter feeds are filled with throwback-Thursday pictures of THON 2012 and snowy State College! It’s that time of the year again! Too bad I’ll have to miss the THON weekend this time around but I will try to tune in as much as possible. I’ll be sending love and positive energy your way, Penn State! Let’s beat cancer!
Okay, back to London. Last Saturday I went to give FREE hugs at Trafalgar Square with a friend. The organizer of the event is a community group called Focallocal (in conjunction with Couch Surfers). Since everybody got creative with their recycled paper/cardboard/shopping bag signs, the event turned out to be super green too 🙂
It was great hugging everybody! It felt wonderful to break the ice, get up-close and share a moment with so many city folks. Holding up a giant sign, standing/bouncing around a town square in the cold and jamming to whoever’s iPod reminded me of THON canning trips again!!
I would love to go to another Free Hug event again when the weather becomes nicer.
Also I have been playing around with the kitchen and so far soups have worked very well for me (check out my recipe here: http://krazzykitty.tumblr.com/#42666827458).
But since Valentine’s Day is around the corner, I would love to get my paws on baking as well.
I’m so excited to visit the Chinatown in London aka. the largest Chinese community outside of China tomorrow! I heard it’s GREAT!
More pictures to follow (hopefully, if I don’t slack off).
Location: London, UK
As I promised, here are some of my favourite photos taken by yours truly and my friends! I still need to figure out a number of things with the GeoBlog/MovableType website apparently (I keep running into technical problems). I apologize for the pictures not being in a chronological order (technology hates me).
To see the pictures, scroll down. Enjoy!
London Evening Standard about 2 weeks ago. Unlike in State College, snow is rare in London.
Yes, I live SUPER close to Baker Street
Tower Bridge from Thames
Parliament and Big Ben
The Beatle’s Abbey Road Studio
Location: London, UK
The amount of readings for Week 2 was not overwhelming–yet. I ‘reserved’ a book (Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children) to read in my free time. Let’s see if I will finish this book without disrupting my study.
Our 2nd destination for A&S fireld trip was St Paul’s Cathedral. Saying that my neck still hurts from constantly looking up at fresco paintings and the building itself was a magnificent yet exquisite piece of art is an understatement.
Too bad we weren’t allwed to take photos of the interior. Our professor was looking forward to taking us to the top galleries (it’d be his first time to see the city with the persistent snow) but the two of them were closed that day. We ended up visiting only the ground (Cathedral) floor, the Whispering Gallery and the basement (Crypt). He said, from there we’d able to enjoy a good panoramic view of the city of London. Considering that admission to St Paul’s isn’t usually free, I am still not sure about coming back for it.
Aside from schoolwork, I have been researching about the belly dance scene in London and I discovered a cyber community for London belly dancers (www.londonbellydance.com). That’s also where I found the 5-week advanced/improver workshop with Belly Dance Body Mind (www.bellydancebodymind.com) run by Ms Claudia Yasmina.
She was recruiting students for shorter ‘drop-in’ sessions to fill out the gap between her much-longer ‘courses’ on the London Belly Dance forum. In her post she mentioned Camden Town then something inside my head went “DING!” Her studio just happens to be a 10-minute bus ride away from my dorm.
I attended her free session on Monday but since it was for beginners, I didn’t feel like I learned much but it felt great to stretch out my stiff muscles. But oh my! I really need to work on my flexibility! I use to be a rather flexible person but now I’m the least flexible person in the belly dance class!!!! Good grief!
I told Claudia was unsure, and she offered to let me attend another session (the advanced-level one) on Thursday for free! Claudia is by far one of the nicest people in the world, hands down. She greets by kissing on both cheeks and hugs. She hugs me so tightly, by the end of the lessons I start to smell like her. We went over shimmies and layering today. Maintaining two or more movements at the same time–AND SMILING THE WHOLE TIME–was definitely a challenge. But the sour/numb legs and hips confirmed that the improver workshop is the one for me. I paid the fee (40 GBP) and signed my name. I was informed I will get my invoice via email. I’m so excited for new moves I’m about to master and new friends I’m about to make there! I’m very happy to be able to continue to do what I love the most.
Thanks again for stopping by and have a nice day everyone!
Location: London, UK
I started my first week of classes with fellow students at Uni of Westminster on Monday, January 14.
Here, it is normal for a lecture to last for 2 hours (sometimes with a 5-minute break) and is followed by a more-intimate seminars. Many study abroad students here seem to have at least one weekday off and I only have one class per day from Monday to Thursday.
While it may sound great to some of you post-sylly-week Penn Staters, trust me, it is not what it seems. It means I have to put in more self-directed work, I have to do the readings and note-taking outside of my lectures. For each of the 3 classes I’ve been to so far, my mark (aka. grades) will be determined by 2 essays. Yuck. I normally do better with a bazillion weekly assignments that weigh less. …..And I am a procrastinator. I shall plan ahead and start thinking about this essay which is due in February……
On the bright side, all of the professors were nice so if I have questions I can always shoot them an email 🙂
Wednesday’s class was absolutely my favorite (don’t get me wrong, I adore my women’s studies class too)!!!! It’s called “Arts and Society.” It is a London Studies class specially designed for us study abroad students which critically examines the “visual culture” of London from 60s onward. It is a great way to get to know London in less cheesy, touristy ways. The class format is a one-hour lecture followed by a 2-and-a-half-hour field trip to London’s cultural landmarks.
This week we went to the British Museum! We were sorted into small groups with TAs and museum guides to explore different corners of the building. Our guide took us to the Ancient Greek, Enlightenment Era and Dying & Living rooms.
The Ancient Greek marble sculptures were such a delight to look at. The anatomical precision is just amazing. I felt a strong cultural connection between the ancient Greeks and contemporary college-aged Americans, particularly in what they value the most: athleticism, intelligence (now in the form of diplomas), hardwork and masculinity.
The Enlightenment Era was decorated like the interior of a rich person’s old private library with its rows of wooden cabinets. This was the time when modern natural science and defiance against religion (in the Western World, at least) were born. This also marked the time when ethnocentrism was most openly expressed without much questioning.
The Living & Dying room, in contrast, gave more contextual details of its objects, explaining how the items were made, who used them, when they were used, why they were used and how they were used.
It was interesting to see how other cultures interpret and observe milestone events such as birth, marriage, illness, misfortune and death.
After the class was over at 12:30pm, we were dismissed right on the spot. I was hungry by then but ended up staying for another hour and a half looking at other exhibits. I simply couldn’t get enough of the place!!!!!
The Egyptian mummies and sarcophagi were eerie but cool. The fragments of ancient Mesopotamian/Persian palaces and the reconstruction of the gates with a pair of winged lamassus were breath-taking.
There was a touch-screen interactive guide panel in front of a mummy that I thought was interesting. Through the panel, I could “slice” the bones and remaining flesh on the body to see what’s inside. I could also “flip” and “rotate” the body around. The panel also informed me that the mummy is a male who was stabbed to death in his shoulder blade and that due to the arid climate, his body was naturally preserved, with fingernails, hair, some skin and clothing intact. After playing with it for a few minutes, it was taken over by a bunch of uniformed primary schoolers.
Last night Carol, our local CIEE coordinator/director, took us to Brixton area to see the musical “Taboo.” It was candid and interactive. The musical greatly reminded me of “The Rockey Horror Show” minus the flying bread crumbs (that was awful, by the way. I will never forget.). There was lots of exploring relationships, cross-dressing and boundaries of homo- vs. heterosexuality.
And surprisingly, for the last 2 days, it’s been SNOWING in London!!!!!!
I woke up to a winter wonderland but both times I failed to take pictures that showed the snow clearly. I shall try a couple more times since the snow will persist for 3-4 more days 🙂
I have worn 2 pairs of pants (not exactly, because I have a leggings + jeans combo), 2 pairs of gloves and 2 pairs of socks on top of my regular winter get-ups but oh my!! It is still cold! I need a pair of comfy boots and a trench coat ASAP.
Lots of study abroad students around me have been sick these days, so everyone please take care and stay warm!
I will continue to upload my pictures on Facebook and then on Tumblr (non-Facebook friends, you can still get a sneak peek on Instagram!). Have a good evening :]
Location: London, UK
I am still looking for alternative ways to upload pictures, as my netbook’s screen size does bot work well with the GeoBlog website.
Meanwhile, you can view the pictures I’ve uploaded on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.4656732667746.2165898.1576244502&type=3. If you are not (yet) my Facebook friend, you can also view them on my Tumblr page at www.krazzykitty.tumblr.com or my Instagram (my username is kasumihrkw).
I apologize for the inconvenience. I hope I can find a computer lab from where I can post pictures from this trip.
Location: London, UK
I was way too tired to post anything yesterday. That’s what a jet lag does to people, I guess. Making people massively unproductive.
Anyways today was my 2nd day in London. We walked quite a bit and figured out how to get from point A to point B by ourselves but I’m a city girl myself so the modes of transportation here aren’t too difficult to navigate. I’d love to hop on one of the double deckers soon.
We started the day with Carol’s presentation on London at one of the CIEE offices which is just a few blocks away from Citadine, our orientation hotel.
Then I, along with 3 other girls (Amber, Randal and Fatima), strolled Jubilee Gardens and watched the street performers. Their talents ranged from making huge bubbles, balancing soccor balls (they are called footballs here, if I remember correctly) and water bottles on a stick, back flipping, folding own body into a pretzel, not moving for hours on end to resemble a statue (don’t forget the bronze spray paint!), riding a 6-foot tall monocycle, getting in and out of a child-sized tennis racket and sitting in mid air with no string attached.
Then we caught up with the rest of the CIEE team for a Duck Tour trip. The “ducks” are yellow, robust, heavy-duty buses which double as motorized boats while floating on the Thames. According to our Duck Tour guide, they used to load and deliver supplies for the military in the times of war and now provide curious tourists 90-minute guided tours around the city. Each vehicle is named after a female character from Shakespeare’s plays. Ours was Portia from Julius Caesar and the one that departed before ours was Cleopatra.
I love how London has such visible remnants of its past, both grim and glorious, in between modern glass-and-metal office buildings. I cannot wait to visit as many of the pop-culture landmarks, historic sites and museums as humanly possible this semester.
Pictures to follow soon (hopefully within this or next week, because I’m using a netbook and the way the screen works on mine isn’t best for uploading pictures).
Location: London, UK
Hi folks! Welcome to my GeoBlog page 🙂 🙂
Quick facts about myself:
I’m Kasumi, a junior print journalism major/psych & int’l studies minor.
I was born in Japan to Chinese parents and grew up in both China and Japan.
I have been to 10 countries/regions: Japan, China, USA, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Thailand, Turkey and Egypt.
I speak Japanese, English, Mandarin Chinese and Shanghainese.
I’m a HUUGE fan of raqs sharqi (which is a fancy word for belly dancing) and bhangra music.
I love (window) shopping and museum hopping.
As you can see I’ve been quite a globe-trotting nomad myself so you shouldn’t expect cute-but-naive posts like “oohhhh my word! people in Country X serve and eat a fish WHOLE!!!!!!!!!”
Eating a fish whole (and sometimes live or raw) is a normal part of someone’s life, somewhere on this planet. You just don’t know. Normalcy is such an arbitrary thing once you open your eyes to new cultures.
I will be looking into stuff that’s buried deeper and more interesting, to me personally.
I’m particularly looking forward to discovering how the Londoners/Brits define gender equality, diversity/multiculturalism and globalization.
And also getting a taste of the belly dance/bhangra scene, of course!
I hope you all can join me in this journey! 😀
P.S. And I wish all of my fellow GeoBloggers, study abroad students and my offline friends & family a happy holiday season! 🙂
Location: Los Angeles, CA
