Princess, look out the window, and welcome to Estonia.

Currently, you find me sitting on a park bench by the river, because the dorms are a few of the places in the city without wifi. What. The. Heck. Don't worry, I'm remedying the situation, but for now, my laptop is basically a paperweight that can play movies. I watched both "Mamma Mia!" and "Mona Lisa Smile" last night, after spending the day a-wandering.

But let me back up. I left my hostel in London at around 5am. I'd developed a sore throat, but it wasn't too bad. I got some water at Victoria station, found a bench and chatted with my dad while awaiting a train. From there, I flew to Helsinki. I thought that trip was supposed to be 6 hours, but it was only 2. Yay! Then I had a layover in Helsinki before the 45 minute flight (I thought it was 2 hours), to Tartu. All in all, significantly shorter flying times than expected, but not entirely pleasant. My ear hadn't popped from the flight to Helsinki and was really uncomfortable the rest of the way.

Tartu's airport is crazy small. Clearly we're in driving country. It handles about one airplane at a time, and they're the propeller, Horizon Air, types. The luggage carousel, to quote my dad, looks like a "kiddie pool." From there, we'd all been told to take either the Airport Shuttle or a cab to our dorms. There were eight of us students: two from the US, two from the Netherlands, one from France, two from Switzerland, and one from China. And a number of non-University affiliated individuals. We loaded up the shuttle, and then realized there were nearly twice as many of us as the shuttle would hold. This was the last run of the day and the shuttle driver was really conflicted as to whether or not he'd come back for us. We were all for getting a taxi, but there were exactly zero of them available. Finally, the driver agreed to come back, but said it'd take about 50 minutes to drop off everyone and come back. It wasn't raining, so we piled outside with our luggage and talked, hoping he'd come back, discussing the size of Tartu, based on the airport size and the fact there were no cars driving by and only a couple of people passing us in the hour we were there.

We made it, eventually. Checked into our rooms, disturbed by the lack of wifi, and crashed. I met my roommate, from Russia. We're still working on remembering each other's names; we haven't been in the room awake at the same time much yet. But I do know she's a Masters student in computer science. 

My ear still hasn't popped, though I don't think that's much the problem anymore. My throat has gotten worse, but I didn't let that stop me... much.

I slept, fitfully, until about noon yesterday, having used a scarf as a sheet, and a pile of clothes as a pillow. I found enough wifi at a store down the street to send a quick email and a Facebook message or two, and then went about trying to find bedding. I gave up several hours of walking in the rain later, and stopped by the same store, picked up the items below, having a rough idea of what was contained within the packages. 

My first Tartu shopping adventure.

 We got some toilet paper, a package of sour cream mashed potatoes, a package of chicken mashed potatoes, three orange juice boxes, trash bags, and two packages of chicken noodle soup. I did eat one of the soup packages for dinner last night, and I'm not sure the water out of my faucet gets hot enough for that.
But I still needed bedding, so I asked the houselady (that's what she's called) where I could get some, she gave me a map, and off I went. By this time, the "yeah, it's raining," plus the distance I'd have to walk resulted in "Wow, that is quite the downpour." I added to my shopping list, as much as I thought it ridiculous, an umbrella. They're clearly not only for tourists here. I found a store, bought some of the things on my list, including a rainbow umbrella. I stopped at the store near my dorm later for some (what I'm assuming is) milk and granola with coconut and peanuts. I'm definitely shopping by pictures on containers, and the milk had a cow on it so...
 Here's a bit of my little slice of dorm. I have a desk, a chair, a window, several shelves, a cabinet for my clothes, and a bed, with my new bedding on it. The room has an attached kitchen (no microwave!) and a bathroom with heated floors, which is good because the shower curtain does next to nothing. Floor's a bit too hot for me, but...

 Below is the view outside my window; overlooks a road and a park. Not much to see but there it is. 

Tomorrow I start my orientation, which will hopefully get me into a rhythm. School is school anywhere, right? I haven't gone to the area where most of the school buildings are yet. I'm headed there to hopefully find food, though we'll see. 

Hope everybody has a great Tuesday, and I'll catch you on the flip side!

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"It is a very strange sensation to inexperienced youth to feel itself quite alone in the world, cut adrift from every connection, uncertain whether the port to which it is bound can be reached, and prevented by many impediments from returning to that which has been quitted. The charm of adventure sweetens that sensation, the glow of pride warms it; but then the throb of fear disturbs it..." -Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, pg. 108

Seeing the Sights: London & Beyond, part 2

From the back of Buckingham Palace, looking out
over the gardens.

Day 3: Buckingham Palace has timed entrance tickets, which is nice, because it means I actually got up and out of the hostel at a reasonable time to get lots done today. I walked more than 5.5 miles, as I decided this was a "No Tube" day. I can feel maybe 3 of those miles in my calves at the moment, and I'm sure it'll hurt more in the morning. Thank you, London.
     If Wikipedia is to be believed, Buckingham Palace was first opened to the public as a result of the 1992 fire at Windsor Castle, in an effort to pay for the restoration of said castle. You don't get to tour as much of the palace as you do the castle (though, for the size of these things, you really don't tour much at all), but it was still interesting, especially with the current display on Royal Childhood. They really pulled out the stops, and managed to bring nearly every room back to the events children have had in them, pictures taken of the various royal children doing children-y things, etc. The dining room is set up for Prince Leopold's christening with a giant cake, the music room has many of the christening props, the gallery has a picture of Prince Charles and Princess Anne reading on the floor, and the 1844 room has a similar picture of Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret. (This did not put a damper on my goals to be a princess one day, just in case you were curious.)

Dear Queen Elizabeth II, while you were out, I toured
a couple of your houses. They're pretty nice.
Keep the change.
London Love, a colonist. 

    After Buckingham Palace, the plan was to go to Kensington Palace, but since that seemed a bit farther off on the map, I thought I'd try Westminster Abbey first. While London is a huge city, the major tourist attractions are pretty easy to find, especially if you know a little bit about London already. I was following street names on my map every now and again, but as soon as the Tower of Westminster popped up over the buildings, I knew where I was headed.
     I didn't end up going into the Abbey. Yes, the line was fairly long, but more importantly, I got distracted. I know what you're thinking, "Westminster Abbey is... a-huge, both in size and tourist attraction-y points, how could you possibly get distracted?" Well, let me tell you a thing. It was not the waffle & hot dog carts, though that did give me pause. It was this:::
     
                This, my friend, is what we in the business call "guerilla marketing", at least it is if I'm remembering that correctly. So, you're walking along, a goal in mind, maybe not, but you see this TARDIS in the middle of Parliament Square, and suddenly it doesn't matter what your plans were, or the fact that you need to cross several streetlike-bits to get to it, you're gonna find out what's up with this TARDIS. It's sectioned away from the public, so one can't get too close to it, but it's an ad for the new series of Doctor Who which airs tomorrow (if anyone needs me at 7:50p tomorrow, I'll be watching Doctor Who, so don't need me). If anyone has an idea for an eye-catching, plan-stopping thing we can do for Rainbow along this vein, let me know! Now! The weirder the better! (Note: Turns out Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman did a photoshoot with the TARDIS this morning.)
     All right, I did eventually move away from the TARDIS, after taking a couple pictures. From there, I started on an epic quest. I didn't know how epic this undertaking actually would be, but I'd found a thing on my map that I needed to see. So, off I went, toward the West End.

     And we're walking.


     And we're walking.


     And we're walking. This was certainly one of those trips that really shows how not knowing where you're going makes the journey seems so much longer; coming back from something, the walk or drive always goes so much faster. But! I did finally make it; can anyone identify the building?

     Yeah, I really didn't think so (unless specific people, i.e. the Mr. Barnett types, are looking at this, in which case, maybe). This is Freemasons' Hall in London, home to the United Grand Lodge of England, built around 1933 to remember those Masons who had died during WWI. It only took 4 posts for this to turn to the Masons... beat that History Channel. It is huge (I have a couple other exterior pictures to post to Facebook. To Juneau's Masons: Can we have one of these? Please?), and inside there's a museum and (right now) a display on Garibaldi in London. It's another one of those "no pictures" places, but it was pretty cool to see the Masonic paraphernalia on display. They had mini officer badges, various items from the Order of Women Freemasons, King George VI's PGM apron, a replica of King Solomon's Temple, etc. It was interesting to see that the Grand Masters of the various orders of Masonry don't necessarily serve for a single year (the Grand Master of the Mark Master Masons has been Grand Master since 1986; that change of command has got to suck).

    From there, I started back toward Kensington Palace, in the hopes of finding food along the way. When I stopped in Trafalgar Square, I found, in front of the National Gallery, this statue of George Washington, which was given to the people of Great Britain and Northern Ireland by the Commonwealth of Virginia. I think the date on the sign was shortly after the Revolution, but even if it wasn't, I can't tell if a statue of this man in particular is a nice gift, or kind of jerkish.    
     Trafalgar Square seems to be the congregating point for a specific type of person in London. There was a man playing the bagpipes (which isn't too weird), a statue man, several men dressed as Yoda floating mid-air, a magician, and this statue of a giant blue chicken. Hmmm...
    So I head back toward the Mall, because from here I can pretty much find my way to where I'm going. I take a little walk through St. James' Park. Walk past Victoria Station, pull out the map to see which road I need to turn on to in order to get to Kensington Palace, and really focus on the vast expanse of Kensington Garden & Hyde Park that separates me and the palace. It is at this point, that I decide that can wait until a Tube day.

Day 4: I definitely went more off the beaten tourist path today. About an hour away from it, in fact. I took the train to Alton, and from there acquired a map to get me to Chawton. The plan had been to take the bus about halfway there, but the man at the rail station said it was easily walkable, so I figured what the heck. What he did not mention was that at some point, the sidewalk ends, and you'll walk arms-length from cars on the A31 as you try not to get stabbed by plants or attacked by badgers (Author's Note: I didn't see any badgers, but it would not have been out of the realm of possibility). And then you'll need to cross the road. But I did not die, mainly due to the lack of badger sightings.

[Okay, having now finished the new Doctor Who Episode, let's do this!]
From the pictures I'd seen of Jane Austen's house, I was expecting it to be off to the side, kind of on it's own, however it's, uh, not. It's at a fork in the road, but other than that, a standard little neighbourhood. The building doesn't look quite how it would have in Jane Austen's day, but it's pretty similar. It was passed down until around the 1940s, when it was in an estate sale, purchased by a single man who then donated it to the Jane Austen Society. All of her novels were published while she lived in this house (except the two which were published posthumously, but written at this house).

The above are a few things from the Austen household. On the left are all three pieces of jewelery Jane Austen owned (of which we are aware). I can't imagine owning only three pieces of jewelery, but she owned a turquoise ring, a topaz (I think) cross necklace, and a fancier turquoise necklace. Seems like a "going out" necklace, and an "everyday" necklace is all a girl needs. As the saying goes, "Jesus matches everything." Up until 2 years ago, these three pieces hadn't been in the same place since Jane Austen's death. On the right, we see a table setting from the Austen dinner table. Clearly, they ruled the 7 seas.

Mansfield Park was first published in 1814, making this
it's 200th birthday. So the museum has several displays up on
the book, and various plaques referencing various pieces of it,
as well as many copies of the book to follow along or simply
read in the garden. Let me tell you, pictures like this are much
easier to do when you're not by yourself. I did actually read several
chapters of Mansfield Park in the garden, though not while doing this.

This is Jane Austen's writing table, where she revised Sense & Sensibility, Pride & Prejudice, Persuasion, and where she penned all her other novels. This tiny little desk did so much. From this window and onto the page sprung so many scenes I could picture as I walked around the village. Marianne and Margaret walking up a hill, tempting fate to make it rain; Catherine Morland reading in the grass under a tree; the picnic outside Barton Cottage; Every scene in which someone took a turn around the garden. It's absolutely beautiful. I could never live in London; there are too many people... everywhere. As much as I love it, I couldn't do it. But I could totally live in the country. I even found a house!

This is pretty much my dream home (regardless of the fact
that it's down the street from Jane Austen's). And luckily,
it's for sale! Mama, Papa, check this one out!

Oh, and in case you're wondering, yes, my calves hurt. ("Estoniaaa daaay awaaaaaaay"... to be sung to the tune of "Tomorrow" from Annie. By tomorrow evening, I'll be in the land of... Estonians! Seriously, not a single major export comes to mind that would be useful here...)

Seeing the Sights: London & Beyond, Part 1

Backside of the library, from the Tube station.
The courtyard out front has the statue of Isaac Newton,
a café called "The Last Word" (there's also a café inside the library),
and ping-pong tables.

Day 1: After arriving in London and getting checked into the hostel, I had about 2 hours before the British Library closed. After figuring out how to get an Oyster Card, I was off. Luckily, the library isn't off the beaten path or anything; it's there, announcing it's presence. I was there specifically to see Jane Austen's desk. Not only was her desk displayed in the History of English Literature display case, but so was her original manuscript of Persuasion, which just might be my favourite book of hers. There were originals by Shakespeare, da Vinci, Michelangelo, etc. Somewhere there was, what I can only assume must have been, a huge exhibit on Alice's Adventure's in Wonderland as well as the development of comics in the U.K. Unfortunately, I was getting hungry, I had food back at the hostel, and I as trying to beat the Wednesday work crowd back from the Tube, so I didn't stay too long. I did pop into the gift shop and see the tiniest copies of Jane Austen's books. They were smaller than index cards, and they were read turned on the side and from top to bottom, instead of left to right.
    The station right near the British Library is the King's Cross-St. Pancras station. King's Cross is home to... Platform 9 3/4. However, the little searching I did for it was fruitless (nobody say, "Did you look between Platforms 9 & 10?" Thank you, you helpful people.), so I'll have to do that on my next trip to London, hopefully for my birthday, where more HP things will be accomplished.

Day 2: The Royal Collection's website informed me that Windsor Castle is at it's busiest between 9:30a-11:30a. Other places on the internet said it should take me about 35 minutes to get there. So around 11:00a, I headed toward the Tube station. It took several tube stops, plus a train ticket to get there, but the journey wasn't altogether that long, and I started and finished a book (it was significantly shorter a book than I was expecting it to be). Windsor Castle has been home to the monarchs of England and later the United Kingdom for more than 900 years.

St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle's Round Tower, and
the home of the Poor Knights of Windsor.

     Outside the castle walls of Windsor is a pretty adorable little town, complete with a McDonalds. (Sometimes even monarchs need burgers and chips.) In the castle, you can't take pictures, of course, but I did find it interesting what sticks out when you can't take a million pictures of everything. I became one of those audio guide people, and while I'm not sure the information enhanced my visit much, it did make me slow down and take a closer look at things I probably would have rushed past.
     I saw one of the Military Knights as he saw a friend off from the private section of Windsor, King Henry VIII's grave along with his favourite wife, Jane Seymour. The graves of King George V & Queen Mary, King George VI & Queen Elizabeth, and several other monarchs further back in history (probably before the McDonalds). I saw a letter of condolence from President Abraham Lincoln to Queen Victoria upon the death of Prince Albert, Queen Elizabeth I's accounting book, and Queen Elizabeth II's diary entry from her parents' coronation day.

     One of the most interesting things, surprisingly to me, was looking at all the helmets of the Garter Knights, which rest on wooden heads in the choir section of St. George's Chapel. Each knight has some sort of symbol (and I'm talking giant, 3D, not like an engraving) on the top of his/her helmet. Some of them look a little ridiculous, but from the pictures I've seen, it doesn't look like they have to wear them like that. Each knight has his/her own chair in the top row of the choir, and a plaque screwed to the wall between the chair and the helmet. There are more than 800 plaques on the wall; while the helmet & banner of the knight are removed when they die, the plaque is not. One of the knights recently passed away, and a wreath is currently hung over his plaque. There are shields which I believe have their banners painted on them, in one of the halls inside the castle. If and when a Garter Knight commits a crime, is shield is painted white, but not taken down, as a reminder of his shame. (No idea what they're going to do when they fill all of the walls/ceilings of that room...)
    In 1992, a lantern in Windsor Castle started a fire that affected several of the rooms. For more information, see the internet. What I wanted to mention is that there's this long white and gold room just off to the side of where the fire started. Apparently, the walls were scorched and the floor burned badly in the fire (as would be expected). They washed and painted the walls, but were trying to problem solve how to fix the intricately patterned wood floor. In the end, they just pulled the floor up, piece by piece, and flipped them over. Problem solved! In the same room where the fire started is a suit of armour of King Henry VIII's. From the front, you're like, "Could have sworn that guy was bigger. Not too bad." And from the side you're like, "Aha! Extension pieces!" because that sucker was rotund!

     After my travels back from Windsor, I tried to see the Sherlock Holmes Museum, however the line, she was crazy. And they closed in less than an hour. So I headed back, via le Tube, grabbed some dunch/linner and caught up (most of the way) on the last Doctor Who season.

Keep Calm & Head to London

Fairly certain that's my finger...

Good Afternoon, all! Welcome to 1:07pm on a sunny, 55+˚F day in London!

Time changes have me a little messed up, but here goes:
After a night in the hotel, I checked out as late as possible, and spent 4 hours in the lobby partaking of their Wifi. So if anyone was on Pinterest and concerned about me, don't be; I haven't gone too crazy.
     Shuttle ---> Terminal 4 ---> Airtrain to Terminal 2 to get my luggage (heads up, folks, Terminal 2's station is not connected to the terminal!) ---> Airtrain to Terminal 4 to get luggage --> Airtrain to Terminal 2 to get luggage --> Airtrain to Terminal 1 to check in. Norwegian Air, upon which I flew across an ocean, wasn't open to check in when I arrived at the terminal along with (insert large number) of my fellow travelers. I sat between the luggage scale, and the J.F.K. Mosque, pictured above.
      All right, so Check-In, Luggage Drop, Brunch, Security, Overwhelmed with the crazy number of high-end stores inside airport, turn around you went down the wrong hallway, arrive at gate, charge all devices and get some reading done, acquire dinner. Get in line to board, flight delayed: Peachy. Finally on the plane, where we can play lots of solitaire, watch some Project Runway All-Stars, Friends, Big Bang Theory, and then attempt to sleep. We landed and I managed to find my way through the border, followed by customs, the train ticket machines, onto and off of the train, all in one piece! From there we pushed the suitcase to the hostel, from which I post this, which was both closer and further than expected. I hadn't quite taken into account the fact that my stomach likes trains even less than it likes flying, so all the reading material I had for train rides over the next couple of days might be kind of useless. We'll have to find something to do on the train... ideas?
     This does mean I'm officially out of range of my cell plan, so calls/texts are significantly more expensive for the next few days, until I put in a new SIM. Luckily, unlike in New York, the hostel has awesome Wifi, so emails, Facebook messages, etc., are still fantastic ways to get ahold of me, should the need strike you.

Going Out With a Bang!

      Last night, while finishing packing (aka pulling out random pieces of clothing until everything fit), everything started to hit me. Unfortunately, it was all of those negative emotions that hit me, the excitement has yet to come, but I'm really waiting for it. I thought about how crazy this idea was. I began to panic, I got anxious, overwhelmed, and crazy nervous. So nervous I managed to psychologically get myself sick (at least, that's really what we're going to hope it is). Two hours of completely interrupted sleep later, I was on the couch, under a blanket, urging myself to get up and get to the airport. But I made it and luckily had a row to myself. I've never been able to sleep on planes, but I blew up my pillow and was out. I woke up a couple of times, and nearly slid off the seats during landing, but with the use of only one air-sickness bag, I'm going to count it as a win. Weirdest thing? We came into the S terminal in SEA-TAC. I've never been to this part of the world before. It's so... red.
     So now I've got a little bit of a layover, where I should really probably grab some food, and then am off to Minneapolis, followed by New York, where I shall embark on the journey of grabbing my bags, switching airlines, and hopefully head back through security for a 12-hour layover of movies and Netflix. Afterward? London!

All that leg room, and a foot stool!
I had to lean forward to reach the tray table.

Update: Turns out, I'm actually in New York for nearly 24 hours. With the help of my amazing parents (since JFK doesn't have unlocked Wifi... what's up with that?!) I found my way to a hotel for the night, and am awaiting the arrival of my luggage, which went to Minneapolis without me. Due to mechanical issues, I would have missed my connection from MSP to JFK, so I was moved to a non-stop flight. Even in the middle seat, my seat rocked. It had a footstool! I watched Top Gear (the Sydney Festival episode), Comic Book Men, and Chef (there had to have been some other things, but they clearly weren't important). All in all, a very long day, after which I was certainly not the happiest of campers, and no where near being a happy camper. But it's a new day, and by the end of it, I'll be in London, with a whole new set of problems to tackle.