Michael Goes to London

I’m back in the USA. It feels so strange to not be in London so...

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 19:46:45 -0400

I’m back in the USA. It feels so strange to not be in London so suddenly.

I didn’t plan on posting anything else on this blog, but I want to share this video that John made of the trip. It’s amazing. I think I’ll work on one soon as well.

Does This Have to End?

Sat, 21 Apr 2012 05:35:00 -0400

Well this is awful. I don’t think I can comprehend that I’m actually leaving. Even though I’m going home, I feel like I’m leaving home.

We had a final banquet last night where we gave out superlatives that we all had voted on and we had dinner with the teachers as well as Charlotte. Everyone got dressed up and we had a great time. I don’t have the pictures for this yet, they’re on other cameras. As a group we pitched in a little money each and we got Charlotte flowers, a card, and a gift card to one of her favorite restaurants. Afterwards, we came back to Madison House… for the last time. Many of us hung around in Flat A until around 1 or 2 in the morning, and people slowly trickled off as they had early flights in the morning. That was the last time I saw most of the people here in London.

I could barely sleep last night. I woke up at 6 and kept waking up every 10 minutes after that. I’m not sure why. When I finally got up at 9, almost everyone was gone. The place is empty; Charlotte and some students took down everything yesterday. All the walls are bare. Everything is gone. There’s only about 10 students left here. Some are staying in London a little longer, some are going to Paris, and the rest are going back to the USA. We’re all just finishing packing and cleaning out the flats.

I’ll see some people next weekend, when I visit JMU. I’m really looking forward to that. I’ll meet up with Becca at the beach throughout the summer, Katie, Candice, and I will visit each other’s home towns, I’ll tour DC with Sarah, and I hope to see many other friends back in the States as well. But this is all just so weird. I’ve spent the last 3 months, every single day, with the same 28 people. I’ve seen the same people in the morning when we argued over people taking too long in the bathroom, every day for class in the same classroom, and all over Europe while we traveled together. Every morning when I woke up, on the way out to class I always stopped in Charlotte’s office to talk to her, see Mariah, and usually meet up with my friends for the morning. We complained about the same classes every day, and looked forward to some great classes as well. We were constantly busy, JMU had 90% of our time planned for us, and we were all overwhelmed but having an amazing time together. And now after seeing the same faces every day, there’s only a few left here, and we’re all flying all over Europe and to different locations in America.

I hope to keep in touch with these people for the rest of my life. Being here and traveling all around was incredible, but it was definitely because of everyone in this group that is was as amazing and unforgettable as it was.

michaelcarafaphotography: London Eye All photos © Michael...

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 11:08:26 -0400

michaelcarafaphotography:

London Eye

All photos © Michael Carafa Photography.

michaelcarafaphotography: London Eye All photos © Michael...

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 11:08:14 -0400

michaelcarafaphotography:

London Eye

All photos © Michael Carafa Photography.

Nosing people for our scavenger hunt last Sunday.

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 11:04:40 -0400

Nosing people for our scavenger hunt last Sunday.

The Comedy Store

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 05:59:33 -0400

Last night Katie, Candice, Meghan and myself went to The Comedy Store in Picadilly Circus. I wish we had known about this place earlier in the semester. It’s very famous and many comedians have gotten their starts there, like Robin Williams. Tickets were only £10 for students.

We arrived at 6:30 for happy hour. We saved seats in the front row. The show started at 8:00. Tuesday nights are “The Cutting Edge” team, which is 5 or 6 comedians that, for the most part, have to make impromptu jokes about topics in the news that the audience shouts out.

Being in the front row, the comedians whose to pick and call on Candice and myself constantly throughout the whole show. There was the two of us plus an Austrian woman and a guy named Greg that sells margarine that they made jokes about for large amount of the show, it was hilarious… especially after Candice’s third Strongbow that she had snuck in.

The Irish looking comedian had a lot to say to Candice about her and our being american. Also, he asked her what her favorite movie was. She said The Sound of Music. He then asked if she liked Obama. After she said “um” he badgered her saying that that’s why she liked The Sound of Music. They were absolutely hilarious.

The show ended with each comedian singing a song that they had to make up, which the musical comedian played some blues chords. The comedian that picked on me the most sang a song about me, and Greg got a song about himself as well.

It was a great night, we just only wish we had known about how cheap this place was earlier in the semester!

Finals

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 07:29:07 -0400

It’s finals week. I’m done with my internship and half my classes are cancelled this week. I had 5 papers to write and I’ve written 4 of them. We just took the Politics final which was significantly easier than I expected. It’s great that this work is almost done, but we’re all dreading leaving London. That’ll be rough. I can’t wait to see New Hope, but I’m not ready to leave here.

Scavenger Hunt

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 07:27:25 -0400

Yesterday was a scavenger hunt that Social Committee had planned. People made teams of 3–4 people and they were to try and get as many points as they could throughout the city. The night before there were 4 teams that we knew of, and Flat E was mapping out the whole hunt. The winning team won £10 each to My Old Dutch, a crepe restaurant down the street. We really wanted to win, so Katie, Candice, Meghan, and myself left the house at 10, determined to get the most points. Some of my favorites…

10 points: Running with the cart into Platform 9¾ at King’s Cross Station

We met up with Martie for lunch, where we were able to complete many points. I ate fish and chips in 3 minutes for 20 points, we chugged a pint as a team for 15 points, and Katie kissed and god kissed by a stranger for 15 points each.

15 points: Kiss a stranger.

We struggled to get on top of a lion in Trafalgar Square…

And then 15 points: Planking a lion in Trafalgar Square.

10 points: At 221b Baker Street dressed at Sherlock & Watson

There was 20 bonus points awarded to the team who pets the most dogs.

And 20 more for the team with the most planking pictures…

“I’ll be a stool and you can plank me.” — Candice

The scavenger hunt deadline was to meet at the London Eye at 4:30. Without bonus points, we had already won 175 points. Well, as it turns out all the other teams slept in and we were the only ones that did anything. Nonetheless, there was a lot that I wanted to see in London that I got to that day that I hadn’t yet: the Peter Pan statue in Hyde Park, taking a picture in a phone booth as a team, Platform 9¾. It was a fun day and we each won £10 to My Old Dutch, where we’ll be going tonight for £5 Monday crepes.

Social Committee had planned a London Eye trip for everyone, so about 25 people had met up there for this.

Upon returning to Madison House we watched hours of Downton Abbey.

Last weekend in London. Success.

Sherlock Holmes & St. Pauls

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 07:12:02 -0400

On Saturday, having finally finished all my essays, I spent the day with Shannon going to the Sherlock Holmes Museum at 221B Baker Street and to the top of St. Paul’s Cathedral.

The museum was alright. It would have been better if there were less tourists, but it was absolutely packed in this small apartment and there wasn’t much room to walk or look around, let alone take pictures. There was Sherlock’s, Watson’s, and Mrs. Hudson’s rooms as well as the common rooms. They were filled with trinkets from the stories and Watson’s notes from his cases.

From here we went to the top of St. Paul’s. I wanted to go during a CBD outing, but the top was closed due to stair maintenance. However, it reopened on the second and I wanted to go before I left.

It first took you to one landing, the whispering gallery. This is the biggest circle in the dome. You can whisper on one side of the dome and people will here you on the opposite side due to the curve of the wall. After this, you head up another flight to the second landing for a view of London. Finally, you head up more stairs to the very small top for a higher view of London.

Jimmy Fallon’s parody of Downton Abbey.

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 17:13:53 -0400

Jimmy Fallon’s parody of Downton Abbey.

Kew Gardens

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 17:13:31 -0400

We went to Kew Gardens this morning on a group outing. We found Charlotte when we arrived at the station, yet she had gotten us lost, so we sprinted the rest of the way.

Wikipedia explains Kew Gardens:

The Royal Botanic Gardens… usually referred to as Kew Gardens, is 121 hectares of gardens and botanical glasshouses between Richmond and Kew in southwest London, England… The director of the Royal Botanic Gardens… is responsible for the world’s largest collection of living plants. The organisation employs more than 650 scientists and other staff. The living collections include more than 30,000 different kinds of plants, while the herbarium, which is one of the largest in the world, has over seven million preserved plant specimens. The library contains more than 750,000 volumes, and the illustrations collection contains more than 175,000 prints and drawings of plants. The Kew site includes four Grade I listed buildings and 36 Grade II listed structures in an internationally significant landscape.

The above greenhouse is the rainforest one…

The ground are immense and used to be owned by royalty.

The water lilly greenhouse:

The Princess of Wales greenhouse, which had, mainly, fish and cacti:

After we left, Shannon, Sarah, Candice, Katie, Meghan, PJ, and myself had lunch at a Kew Cafeé down the road. After relaxing there for a few hours we came back to madison house. Most of us took long naps, now we’re watching Downton Abbey, and in 45 minutes we’re leaving to go see the hunger games. The Community, Diversity, and Pop Culture class saw it on Tuesday, but I already had tickets to see Zach Braff’s All New People. I have to make-up see it—though I will be reimbursed—so I will be seeing it tonight with Katie and Candice, whom will be seeing it for the 4th time.

Today I saw Zach Braff’s play, All New People, which was a...

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 19:07:43 -0400

Today I saw Zach Braff’s play, All New People, which was a lot of fun. It’s a comedy (written and starring Zach Braff) that takes place in real time and is about a guy (Zach Braff) that gets caught trying to hang himself. He spends the net hour and a half with the real estate agent who caught him, her fireman friend who comes by, and a prostitute that is sent over by a friend. They talk to him and discuss their problems while trying to reassure him of his self-worth. It’s a great play, but best of all, I GOT MY PICTURE TAKEN WITH HIM!! And he autographed my ticket! He was extremely nice, took his time to autograph and get photos with everyone that wanted one, and was very funny. He made a lot of funny comments while I was waiting for my picture, but the one I particularly remember and enjoyed was when someone had a Scrubs DVD for him to sign. He said, “Oh, I head this show is really good, people keep telling me to watch it.” The person replied that it is a great show, and Zach responded “Yeah, except season nine, right?” As a Scrubs fan, that comment was hilarious and much appreciated.

Saw this door and sign on a class outing today…

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 18:56:00 -0400

Saw this door and sign on a class outing today…

AVADA KADAVRA

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 18:54:45 -0400

I died I’m dead I died. I saw all the real Harry Potter sets, costumes, special effects, and more at the Warner Bros. Harry Potter Studio Tour in London.

I bought tickets with Kristen almost immediately after the came on sale, months ago. I met up with her yesterday at a tube station… an hour early accidentally… and we took the overground to the tour!

It started off with a video of Daniel, Rupert, and Emma talking to the audience while we watched from a small movie theatre. The video ended with them walking into the Great Hall. Then the curtain went up, AND THERE WAS THE ACTUAL GREAT HALL.

The entire time I couldn’t comprehend that I was actually walking through the place where all of the Harry Potter actors walked for years. It was amazing.

One of my favorite parts was the potions room, which was also used for Fluffy’s chamber in the 1st movie, and Snape’s Office in another…

There was the boys’ dormitory in Gryffindor…

And I got a picture with the Fat Lady…

Dumbledore’s office!

Props…

The Weasley’s house…

One of the things that I found most interesting was Professor Umbridge’s costumes. It said that as she gained power in the films, her wardrobe got progressively pinker. Additionally, people working under her gained more and stronger pink accents in their uniforms, like ties stripes and button-downs.

A sign explained that designed all the graphic props for the films was a “graphic designer’s dream” and lots of fun to do. Looking at them closely, even the newspapers have full articles in them. Everything was designed to the smallest detail.

We got pictures in the Weasley’s flying car and Hagrid’s motorcycle.

And we stopped by at #4 Privet Drive…

We went through Diagon Alley.

But, possibly the coolest part, was seeing the model of Hogwarts.

This model took up most of a very large room. Everything was so finely and minutely designed. It was used when filmed shots of the school, and later edited to look more realistic. There were videos showing how they used this for some special effects that you wouldn’t even know were special effects. For example, there’s a video of Daniel Ratcliffe walking on a green treadmill on a green floor against a green screen. They then took this shot and used it in combination with a high up arial shot of the school, to have him walking around on the school ground from far away. They employed the same technique in a shot of Cho Chang just standing on a balcony of Hogwarts from a far off shot.

Going to the Warner Bros. Harry Potter Studio Tour tomorrow with...

Sun, 08 Apr 2012 20:20:47 -0400

Going to the Warner Bros. Harry Potter Studio Tour tomorrow with Kristen!

Boats & Markets

Sun, 08 Apr 2012 20:16:33 -0400

This weekend was my first free weekend since the beginning of the program. On Friday, Candice, Katlyn, Katie, Meghan and myself went to Borough Market where I spent £35 of delicious food. Candice, Meghan and myself saw Singin’ in the Rain later that night which was incredible. It even rained on the stage.

On Saturday we went to Portobello Road Market. It was absolutely packed. It was a lot of fun and we stopped at many shops and street vendors. We ran into Laken, Katlyn, and Ellen, and bunch of other JMU students while we were there.

Candice & Katie stopped for uncommonly long hot dogs…

Candice’s birthday was on Wednesday, so we surprised her with a very classy dinner cruise over the Thames on Saturday night. And when I say “classy,” I mean the dinner consisted of cold chicken and a slab of iceberg lettuce, the boat was recently rescued from the sea, and those in attendance consisted of ourselves, and a drunk bachelorette party, and about 6 or so other people. Nonetheless, it was a lot of fun.

Finally, today, we stayed in all day and got some work done. Tanc’s class is starting late tomorrow for the bank holiday and I’ll be going to the Warner Bros. Harry Potter studio tour afterwards!

I met the Queen with Candice today!

Sun, 08 Apr 2012 15:21:02 -0400

I met the Queen with Candice today!

This morning we had planned on going to Highclere Castle—Downton...

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 19:07:45 -0400

This morning we had planned on going to Highclere Castle—Downton Abbey—but weren’t able to. So instead, Katie, Candice, Meghan, Katlyn and myself spent some time at Borough Market and ate a lot. I just got back from Singin’ in the Rain with Meghan & Candice. I had no idea what it was about, going into it. It was great! It even rained on stage and the main character was dancing and splashing the audience.

michaelcarafaphotography: Eiffel Tower at Night, B&W All...

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 19:02:17 -0400

michaelcarafaphotography:

Eiffel Tower at Night, B&W

All photos © Michael Carafa Photography.

michaelcarafaphotography: Looking Up, L’Arc de Triomphe All...

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 19:01:52 -0400

michaelcarafaphotography:

Looking Up, L’Arc de Triomphe

All photos © Michael Carafa Photography.