BES Assignment Eight - Greenwich

Today I went to Greenwich via boat, and explored part of Greenwich for a few hours. The boat ride was awesome! I had been wanted to take pictures of sites around the Thames because I forgot to bring my camera last time I was in that part and this boat ride gave me the opportunity to take some great pictures from the river. When we got to the Canary Wharf area, I was excited to get some pictures of the Canary Wharf building. I have really gotten into the Doctor Who series lately, and in the show, the Canary Wharf building is a front for Torchwood. It is nerdy, but I still wanted to see it. Stepping off the boat, I could tell that Greenwich was going to be a beautiful area.

My first stop was the observatory. I loved being on top of the hill it sits on and looking out over London. The spot where a person can straddle two hemispheres was cool to think about, but I was not in a hurry to get a picture there so I went into the observatory. I skimmed through the few various rooms that they had on display, but I did not really start looking at things till I got to the time section of the observatory. I really like watches and clocks; it is amazing how much detail and tiny parts go into making a clock tick.

The observatory had a lot of old nautical clock and the best part is the gears of the clocks were exposed. This gave me the chance to really observe how these clocks functioned. It is amazing how anyone figured out how to make such complicated pieces of equipment! Another tidbit that I learned was that people used to ‘sell time’. Basically people would charge a customer to set that persons clock to the correct time. This is a foreign concept to me because it is so simple to set watches to the correct time now, and I never really thought about how difficult that would have been when clocks first started appearing regularly.

My next stop was to the covered market. This was a unique market because it seemed to be focused on handmade arts and crafts as well as vintage items. There were these creepy stuffed bunny things that seemed to be staring into my soul. I have no clue how that lady sells any of them. A stand that I really liked had a ton of vintage tins and glass bottles. It would have been a great place to pick something up for my dad if I didn’t already have something for him. For some reason, this market made me want to buy a tea set. A few stands were selling vintage tea sets, and one stand had tea cups converted to candles. I never thought I would want to buy a tea set, but I guess I was wrong. I did a walk through the naval college after the market. The architecture of the buildings was magnificent. The college was just beautiful! One last thing, thanks for being good sports at Café Sol today!! I think that made every ones day!

Internship Assignment D

BES Assignment Nine - Reflection

BES Assignment Four - Orginazation

While here in London, I joined a poker club that was created by people from my internship. I used to play poker quite often when I was younger, but I have not had the chance to play in a long while. When I heard about this poker club, I had to join. Once week a group of guys get together, usually around 19.00, at one of the coffee shops that Coffeesmiths owns for a game of Texas Hold’em .

 My favorite coffee shop to play at is Liberty of Norton Folgate; mainly because the one side of the shop is all windows. This gave the game a cool feeling to it. I would be playing a hand and look up, and there is the city all lit up. Here I am playing poker with a group of friends in London; I never thought this would even be an option for me at this age. It was a great feeling, and winning my money back was a great feeling too.  

It is usually a £10 buy in, but this would vary depending on the feel of the group. Sometimes there would be someone at the game that was low on money so we would drop the buy in or just play for fun. At first, I did not want to spend the money, but I ended up joining since I thought I could win at least a couple of the games. Turned out I was right. I ended up winning one of the games throughout my time with the cub, which won me a decent amount. I also came in second once and third a couple times. Overall, I don’t think I lost any money.

Even though playing poker was fun, I think the best part was just hanging out with everyone in the club. It reminded me of my friends back home. My group of friends back home and I would get together for a card night; that made this club a little nostalgic for me. Normally after we all showed up, we would stand around and talk for a while before we would actually start the game.

One of the guys would always bring some aged whiskey with him, which added to the poker club feel. Have some whiskey with friends, cracking jokes, and trying to win some money. It turned out to be a great time! I am really happy I decided to join. This club makes me want to start something similar up in the States. The problem is college students don’t usually have the any money to play.

BES Assignment Seven - Villages of London

My village of choice was Hampstead, and wow was it a little odd for me. I can’t really believe that I was still in London. It was so quiet! No sirens, not a ton of traffic, and no construction. It was like stepping into the twilight zone. Once I turned off the main road, it was dead quiet, and funny enough, I was headed to a graveyard. The graveyard was beautiful if you ask me. It was not well kept; many headstones covered in moss, the bushes overgrown, the ground littered with leaves and branches, and some headstones lay in the same position they landed when they toppled over many years before. It really showed its age, and that was the magnificent part about it. It is hard to explain the feel it gave me without letting one experience it for himself/herself. I would not mind spending an hour just sitting on a bench and soaking in the whole place.

Walking up Holly Walk, I had this eerie feeling come over me. The place just seems so old and out of place with London. That with the combination of the quiet skinny street with no one but me walking it gave me chills. I was thinking that this place should not be here; it should be out in the countryside somewhere. When I got back to the main roads, the feeling drifted away as I found other life besides me.

On High Street, I started to pay attention to the people around me and the shops. The people were from middle age on up mostly. I was one of the few younger individuals walking the street. The majority were in their sixties and seventies (guessing of course). Much of the diversity disappeared as well. In Central London, there is a huge mix of people, but in Hampstead, it was mainly white people with a few other ethnicities scattered here and there. The people were all dressed nicely, and many of the old men had an old English village style to their dress. The pace of the street was much slower to Central London. I am used to walking quickly, but Hampstead was rather sleepy; no one was in much of a hurry. I had to slow down a bit so I did not stick out as much. The High Street was filled with many shops and cafes.

The shops were mainly niche clothing stores, which all looked too pricey for my taste. The cafes were littered down the street, and many people were enjoying the nice day outside with some coffee. I did notice there were not any chain grocery stores on the street; no Tesco, no Sainsburys, or no Waitrose. They did have a butcher shop and a bakery. Now that I think about it, it only seems right to have the traditional shops in a village like Hampstead. Anything else would seem odd. Hampstead is a nice place, but it did give me that weird eerie feeling. I don’t think I would choose to live there. 

BES Assignment Six - The East End

For this East end walk, I made sure that I went on a Sunday; mainly because the markets were my main interest within this assignment. I have not been to many covered markets, and it seemed like these markets were going to have more arts and crafts items, which I have not seen much of at other markets. Before we get to the markets, I will talk a little about the other things about the East end.

So I just now noticed how close I work to the East end. One of the coffee shops I work at, Liberty of Norton Folgate, is right across from Folgate street (hence the name). I wasn’t even aware that that was the East End of London, and that Brick Ln. was so close. Anyways, the Georgian houses were beautiful, and London’s quick change act struck once again. Just by turning one corner, I went from skyscrapers created from glass and steel to Georgian houses frozen in time. This is one of the great things about London; every street could be a new world. Dennis Servers’ House was closed, but it would have been interesting to step back in time. Just seeing the candles by the front door felt a little odd and out of place, but that is the magic of it. I did not stop in any of the churches as I must say, I am a little sick of exploring churches. The next stop was Spitalfields Market.

Spitalfields was a nice market. There were a ton of clothes stands, and many homemade crafts/art being sold. I enjoyed looking at the homemade items, and thought about buying a few; I thought again and saved my money. I did pass a doughnut stand, and that was so tempting! I haven’t had doughnuts since I have gotten to London. It was an instant craving when I saw them. Although this market was great, the next market was by far the better one; probably because of all the food!

This market was also a covered market, and the first thing that hit me when I walked in was the amazing smells! Half of the market was taken up by food stands from all different ethnic backgrounds. There was Chinese, Indian, Lithuanian, Spanish, Jamaican, and more. I am adventurous with my food so this was like a honey hole! I had to make three trips around the stands to finally decide what I wanted. Luckily there were a few stands giving out samples to help me decide. I ended up going with some lamb curry; it smelt great and the sample melted in my mouth. I have no regrets about getting it, but I had a sample of the Lithuanian food that was delicious! I put this market on my list to go back to so I can try the Lithuanian food, and of course, the many baked good stands they had there as well! The East End was a great place to spend a day. The cultural diversity of the area is something everyone should experience.   

BES Assignment Three - Interview

I stayed with a host family this past weekend, and they were nice enough to let me interview one of them. I interviewed Kitter, age 50, who has lived his whole life in a small village outside of Norwich. He owns and runs a duck farm, and he sells the ducks to Waitrose. He has two sons, ages 11 and 9, and one daughter, age 5. He and his wife, Jane, have been married for 12 years. Kitter also has a couple of brothers who live in house owned by the farm. His brothers are divorced, which is fine with him. He doesn't have a strong opinion on divorce.

When asked about the pressures that are placed on parents and children, he said there is pressure on the parents to raise their kids right and keep a steady income for the family. At times, he is kept awake by worries of money, and when to buy and sell land in order to keep the farm profitable. For the kids, he tries to keep their lives as stress free as possible. They have to do their school work and go to their various activities, but when they are at home, he doesn't have them do many chores. He wants them to enjoy their childhood because it goes quickly. This was really different from how I was raised. My parents tried to instill a good work ethic in me so I had chores and had to maintain a job once old enough. I don’t know which way is better or if there is a better way; both seem to be working well. I turned out pretty good, and his kids are very well behaved.

We got onto the topic of identity, and what it means to be British. I brought up the U.S. and how patriotism is a large part of being American, and that the UK doesn't seem to show a lot of patriotism. He said that with the U.S. flag being a large symbol of being American, he can see why we have so much patriotism. For Britain, he said, we don’t associate as much with symbols of our country. I asked if he had any input on the big debate of what makes someone British.

Kitter was quick on this one; he said that with the amount of people immigrating to the England, he can understand why it is a debate. However, for him and anyone else who has lived in England their whole lives, we know what it means to be British. I wanted to ask him what he knew that so many people didn't  but he seemed defensive about the previous question; it would have been rude for me to pry any more. I think this question is one of those that may not have an answer. People know they are British; they may not know what specifically it means to be British, but don’t ever tell them they aren't British!