London: Company Visits

Our final day in London consisted of our company visits as well as our group dinner.  Luckily,  nothing happened until 3:00 pm, so all of us were able to catch up on some much needed sleep (I set the record of sleeping in until 1:00 pm).

For our first company visit, we traveled into the heart of London to go to London and Partners.  London and Partners, in short, is a P.R.- like firm for London, working to attract tourism, business, and overall interest to the city.  At London and Partners, we discussed the trade and investment side of their efforts, the need to make London more efficient and eco-friendly, and the efforts to bring company headquarters to the city.

Students had an excellent Q&A time during this visit.  Because many students are interested in new energy technologies and sustainability, they were able to discuss the specifics on making London a greener city.

For our second visit, Idea Shop (part of Ogilvy Group) came to us at London and Partners headquarters.  Idea Shop is a small, yet effective sub sect of Ogilvy that works to give small businesses, non-profits, and artists free marketing advice.  Although Idea Shop could only present for a short period of time (we had to leave our meeting room because a yoga class was meeting there), we were able to learn about how the company began and the work it has been doing in the city.



In the evening, we all met for our group dinner at Albert's Pub, which served us a carving-style dinner (consisting of beef, turkey, and pork) as well as our choice of chocolate cake, cheesecake, or apple pie for dessert.  The dinner was amazing (although the dining room was packed and extremely warm).  Overall, it was a great time.

It was an early night for most; the trip to Paris commenced at 8:30 the next morning.

London Free Days

We had three free days in London (Saturday through Sunday) to do whatever we pleased.  This gave some students the opportunity to travel even further abroad, while others used it as a time to see more of the city.

Parliament

I personally used it to see more of the city.  One of the things I did during this time was a tour of Parliament.  I am a huge government/politics buff, so this was a must for me.  On the tour, I was able to go through the entire building, seeing the House of Commons, the House of Lords, as well as the chambers and halls in between.  The tour guide discussed the history of the building, the Parliament, and its relationship to the kings/queens of the past few centuries.  Overall, it was an amazing experience that I couldn't pass up.

Dublin   

Early Saturday morning, seven of us dragged ourselves out of bed in order to make it to the airport in time for a 6:30 flight to Dublin.  Needless to say, we were all pretty exhausted, but after dropping our things off at our hostel, we stopped for a traditional Irish breakfast of eggs, sausage, beans, bacon, and toast.  After breakfast, we did a lot of other shopping and sightseeing, but the stop I was most excited about was the Guinness Storehouse.  The inside of the building is shaped like a giant pint glass, and as we made our way upstairs we learned about the history of Guinness and the brewing process.  A couple of us even stopped to learn to pour the perfect pint, which was pretty awesome, before making our way to see the amazing views from the gravity bar at the top of the building.  Between all of the sightseeing we tried to squeeze in and our crazy flight times, we were all pretty exhausted, but Dublin was totally worth it!

                                                                                                                      -Marissa Wynn

Covenant Gardens and other experiences

To read about Nicole McCormick's experiences in London, check out her blog here.

Wimbledon

My favorite part of our trip to London was my visit to the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, which is the site of the famous Wimbledon tournament.  Austin and I had the chance to go on a tour of Centre Court, the No. 1 Court, the press room, and the Millennium Building.  It was really neat because we got to see the groundskeepers preparing the courts for the tournament next month.  The most interesting part of the tour was the wide variety of countries that the tourists were from.  There were visitors from the Unites States, United Kingdom, Spain, Germany, and Argentina.  It showed how the game of tennis really is an international sport.  As the tour guide spoke of the former winners of Wimbledon, it seemed that each country had their own hero they identified with (although he emphasized the fact that the U.K. is still waiting for their first Wimbledon champion in 75 years).  The fact that tennis is such a global sport is one of the reasons why I love the game so much and I’m so thrilled that I had the opportunity to see the game’s ultimate arena first-hand.  I can definitely say that when I watch the tournament next month I will not view it the same now that I’ve been on the grounds.

                                                                                                              -Lesley Ferkinhoff

Some students also had the opportunity to take salsa and swing dance lessons in the hotel at night.  We also had a spa/sauna at our disposal, so that was hit up on a regular basis as well.

Monday night, many students journeyed over to Her Majesty's Theater to see a production of Phantom of the Opera - which was incredible!  

Overall, these free days were used to allow students to see and learn about things that pertained to their own interests.  Whether it be a brewery, the government, or dancing, every student was able to gain a cultural experience they couldn't experience anywhere else.

Tomorrow brings our London company visits as well as our final day in the city.  London has been terrific and tomorrow should be no different.                                                                                       

London: Day One

Students awoke early (against their will) to eat an incredible breakfast at the hotel, pack their things to move to the new hotel, and to hop on the bus for a four hour tour of London.

Vivian would be our tour guide for the day.  Her light humor about the French and the history of England would make this four hour tour seem like a mere glimpse in the day.  On the tour, she took us to locations all throughout the city, including Westminster Abbey, Parliament, the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, as well as many monuments and statues.

At Buckingham Palace, we were able to see the changing of the guard by sitting on a wall outside of the palace.

Changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace

At the conclusion of the tour, we jumped aboard the London Eye to get the best view of the city.  The ride of the Eye took about 30 minutes to complete, but was well worth it.  From the top of the huge wheel, we could see all sides of the city, allowing to get incredible pictures and plan out what we wanted to see during the rest of our trip.

The London Eye

After the tour, we made the switch to our new hotel, which was even more impressive than our first one. With an all access spa, large, nice rooms, and a huge lobby with light up walls, we will definitely be living like kings and queens for the next two days.

Park Plaza; our hotel.

The rest of the day allowed us to go off on our own tours of the city.  Many students went to Westminster Abbey for a Church of England service (going to a service at the church allowed us to skip the fee attached to the tours of the Abbey).

Westminster Abbey

Dinners at pubs and local restaurants followed in the evening.

Typical dinner at an English pub - Bangers and Mash

The weekend will consist of complete free time for all students.  Some students will use this time to travel other countries nearby, while others will stay in London to see more historic locations.

London has been absolutely fantastic so far!  The weekend promises to be a fun and educational experience for all of us students.

Keep up to date with the blog.  A post outlining many of the students' experiences during their free time over the weekend will be posted next.

Rome: Day Three - and the Journey to London

The itinerary for day three in our adventure in Rome was completely up to us.  Students were given the whole day to do whatever they pleased - which may seem scaring but really gave us the opportunity to have some amazing experiences.

Although we could all do whatever we wanted, every student chose to use this day as a time to visit the Vatican City.

To get to the Vatican, students hopped aboard the Metro (the underground subway) and traveled to the middle of Rome.  The Metro was quite the experience - and it was extremely packed.

Upon arriving at the Vatican, students broke off into smaller groups.  All of the groups eventually had to go through security (including metal detectors) to enter into the Vatican.  During this security check, one of the groups got a brief glimpse of the Pope driving through the city.

In the city, students were able to tour the St. Peter's square, the museums, the Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter's Basilica.  A couple of students (including myself), along with Dr. Davis, even had the rare opportunity to tour underneath St. Peter's Basilica, where Constantine's original Basilica was built.  We even went lower, to the ancient necropolis, which was a catacomb of ancient tombs.

To discuss this experience, I'm going to let another student, Joey Fazio, continue the blog.

The Scavi Tour

Going underneath St. Peter's was one of the coolest and most humbling experiences ever.  This was part of the Scavi Tour, which we signed up for in early January due its extremely high demand.  On the day of our visit, we followed our Italian tour guide into the depths of the necropolis as we viewed many tombs, ruins, and Christian art pieces.  On our way down, though, it was interesting to take note that we passed through a series of thick glass doors.  These doors operated in an efficient manner, opening and closing immediately before and after the first and last persons.  This was a modernized attempt at preservation for a historic site.  Shutting the doors quickly and having checkpoints of doors between burial sections kept the humidity at 99%.  While the site was kept in pristine condition, we were not, as most of us were sweating and taking deep gulps of air as we were amazed by the history revealed to us.

For me, the highlight of the tour was near the end.  This was when we saw the bones of St. Peter.  This was the humbling part because we realized that we were in the presence of the actual remains from someone who spent his every waking moment with Jesus Christ.  We were invited to stay and pray or be silent for a couple minutes by his bones.  This was definitely a tour that I will never forget and an experience that I recommend to anyone that plans to visit the Vatican.  This is a layer beneath a layer beneath another layer that many people never even get the chance to see.  We are very fortunate to have witnessed these rare sites and to have caught a glimpse of the Pope!  What an incredible Vatican experience we had!

                                                                                                                         - Joey Fazio

Some more locations were visited (or revisited), and our final dinners were eaten (some us returned to our favorite restaurants from earlier.  I had the exact same meal at the exact same place from the night before).

The next morning, we all woke up bright and early to check out of the hotel and head to the airport.  This time, we traveled for about two and half hours aboard EasyJet to arrive in London.  We landed about one hour and 30 minutes outside of London, which required us to bus our way through small towns to get to our hotel in central London.  We arrived at our first hotel (which we only stay in for one night), and spent the rest of the day relaxing and catching up on sleep.  Some students also took advantage of the laundry facilities in the hotel during the free time.

London looks like it will be just as promising as Rome!  I'll keep you up to speed with all the adventures happening in our second city.