Happy Independence Day!

"And I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free..."

This song has become something of an inside joke for us since one of the girls pointed out that "where" is grammatically incorrect as it doesn't agree with "American." This is what I get for going on a study abroad with a bunch of English Language students! (Coincidentally, my friend Alexis and I realized that this is our song because of this line: from the lakes of Minnesota to the hills of Tennessee... :)

So, July the Fourth (or as I've titled it this year, the Fourth Day of my Celebration of American Independence...in Britain!) We got on the bus this morning and Nigel promptly wished us a happy Independence Day. When someone (read: Heather) cheekily said "you too!" he laughed and replied that England was relieved to get rid of us. And so our day was off to a great start! We had one stop today, and it was Windsor Palace! Kind of like that other summer home for the royal family. We spent four hours touring the grounds, watching the changing of the guard, walking through the palace itself, and finding a nice little place for lunch in the city of Windsor. I took great pleasure in watching the guard pace very ceremoniously back and forth. The fife and drum "band" was fun to watch/hear!

Our first stop in the palace was St. George's Chapel, and what a stop it was! I love these religious sites best of all and St. George's did not disappoint! Give me a moment to gush. Enormous stained glass windows. An organ with pipes that are painted in floral designs. Flying buttresses! A choir of stone angels, shown from the waist up and holding a long scroll, circles the entire congregation from about halfway up the walls. But the coolest part of all was in the actual "choir" (room at the front of the chapel). England has it's secret little society called the Order of the Garter (started by some cheeky king who had a crush on some girl who lost her garter at a ball--MYTH! Not fact. But the king was certainly cheeky! There are 24 knights in this order currently, along with the Queen and the Prince of Wales, and each of these knights has a little "shrine" in the choir. At the top is his banner, a "mannequin" head upon which sits his family's helm. A half drawn sword represents his willingness to serve the Queen at a moment's notice and his personal brass plaque sits on the wall underneath it all. There were several empty mannequin heads, indicating a knight who died without a successor of some kind. The woodwork in this room was exquisite--really defying all description. Fortunately I was able to find a postcard, since I wasn't allowed to take pictures! Plenty of English monarchs were buried in this chapel. At least, they have tombstones there. It's always a little sobering to walk where actual historical people are buried! (And it's totally cool, but I'm less inclined to admit that. :) )

The rest of the visit involved walking around the State Apartments and admiring the general splendor. One of England's Queen's (Anne, I think) had a dollhouse of Windsor Palace made that was easily ten feet tall. And it was for display only! We got to look at it and everything was quite beautiful, but I can't imagine having such a big thing around. It would completely fill the space in my living room! Queen Elizabeth II is celebrating her Diamond Jubilee this year (60 years of being queen) so we got to look at a photo gallery of her, then we headed into the State Apartments. Lots of beautiful rooms. The cool thing about Windsor Palace is that it looks like the other castles we've seen from the outside, but it's still in good repair inside! One of the few that are still active, I suppose. I'd like to take this moment to say that we walked through a room called the king's bedroom, but we were told that he didn't actually sleep there. He just held his daily "I'm waking up, come watch me do it!" parties there. And people would come watch the king "wake up." I can't imagine wanting to do such a thing.

So now we get to the best part of the day--maybe of the whole trip, I'm not sure--moving into a flat in London. I am in a basement flat with two other girls and we share a kitchen with four other girls in the flat nextdoor. I have a bed and two little nightstands and a nice big closet/dresser that will be mine for the next three weeks. I have a key for the outside door to our building and a key for my individual flat's door. We have a patio that we share with the neighbos too: a square of pavement with walls on all four sides and scaffolding up above. Not the greatest view of London, but I don't much care about that. What we DO have is the tube! We hear the subway passing by at regular intervals--it actually shakes our flat! I'm told this doesn't happen all night, just until the tube stops around midnight, but I'm certainly loving it right now!

Let me give you an idea of the neighborhood I have moved into. When we were driving up, Nigel said we were in a "swank" part of town. And I don't think truer words have ever been spoken! Sure there are a lot of student housing buildings for international studies, but most of it consists of flats, and apartments that are in pretty high demand. (Our Resident Life Manager, James, said that Our neighborhood is probably one of the most sought after living places in the world.

Have some figures.

The most recent apartment to be sold in this area went for 350 Million pounds.
People who rent around here do so at the rate of 20,000 pounds. Per week. (No, this is NOT what I'm paying!)
It's not a figure, but Kensington Gardens (and thus Kensington Palace) is literally right up the street? My new neighbors are Will and Kate! (Or at least the royal couple is moving there soon.) I think my jaw hit the floor. This little area is called Kensington at Chelsea. I've taken a little walk around the block, bought some groceries that weren't just bread and cheese (I have a refrigerator now!), found the Hyde Park Chapel where we'll be having classes starting tomorrow and church on Sundays (just a 10 minute walk away) and then returned home for our Fourth of July hot dog party. When the girls went to buy the hot dogs, the employees at the store didn't know what a hot dog was--they're called frankfurters here! We all convened in our kitchen, which is the biggest of the lot, and ate a "barbecue" of hot dogs, chips, fruit, soda, and red, white, and blue chocolate strawberries. We sang (sometimes only vaguely) patriotic songs together and watched a breathtaking fireworks display on youtube. And there was much dancing. Many of the girls have confessed to feeling more patriotic here than they ever have in their lives, maybe because we have to do it or no one will, for once. We have a great group. Tomorrow classes start and we get our Subway cards. And most of the girls are going to see Phantom of the Opera (which I did not sign up for because I've seen it recently, but I am now regretting that choice. Phantom is one of my very favorite musicals!) I'll get back to you with more then! Happy Fourth of July, everyone!