London, Day 2 (July 20th)

I actually got to sleep in a bit and after having delicious pancakes for breakfast, we went for a walk in the Kensington Gardens, enjoying a leisurely morning stroll around Kensington Palace and its beautiful grounds. After the walk, I took the Tube to another part of London to complete my “walking tour” of the city. I first went to see St Paul’s Cathedral, which is a magnificent structure that sits on top of a hill. I have always wanted to see this landmark, but when I tried to remember some interesting facts about it from highschool, I could only recollect the name of the architect (Sir Christopher Wrenn).
My next destination was the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. To get there, I walked along the Thames so I was able to see the majestic Tower Bridge from afar. I took about thirty pictures of the bridge from every distance, and I think Im developing a serious bridge obsession (judging from another twenty or so pictures of the Golden Gate bridge I took this past weekend). .
The Tower of London itself turned out to be more than I had expected. Even though I had only a few hours to explore, I managed to see lots of various parts of this historic structure. I first took a tour of the grounds given by a real Yeoman Warder (aka Beefeater---ceremonial guard of the Tower), which provided a lot of interesting background. Apparently, the Tower used to be a fortress, a seat of the monarchy at one time, and, of course, a prison for many famous people, accused of various crimes, including religious disagreements with the mainstream church.

After the tour, I went to see the most famous attraction of the Tower---the Crown Jewels. They were absolutely breathtaking, and each crown (there are several for various occasions) has an interesting story behind it. After the Crown Room, I only had about thirty minutes to see the rest of the exhibitions. Even though it was clearly not enough, I did manage to visit some of the buildings: a prison chamber with writings from its former inhabitants, the museum telling the story of some of the diamonds, and some other chambers that were set up as the living quarters of the pastOverall, I was very satisfied with my 40 hours in London: catching up with a friend, seeing most of the famous landmarks, and getting a feel for this city. The next morning I took the Tube to Heathrow (so convenient) and was off to Russia for a 3-week long vacation.

London, Day 1 (July 19)

This is a few months late, but better late than never, right…
The day after I got my very improbable best paper award at the conference, I departed the quiet city of Cheltenham for London where I was prepared to see as much as I can in the span of two days. It has always been a dream to see this great city since I have read and studied so much about it while learning English in school in Russia. After battling the stairs at metro stations again with my two suitcases (with the help of some polite Londoners), I arrived at the apartment of one of my friends who used to live in DC and now lives in London with her husband. After some quick catching up, I embarked on my grand tour of London. My first stop was the Westminster Abbey and the surrounding area. Even though I have pictured that area in my mind so many times before, I never realized how truly grand it is. Right after getting off the Tube (the metro), I saw the magnificent Houses of Parliament and the Big Ben, one of my new favorite sites ever! The whole building was exquisitely made of brown stone with lace-like carvings all over. And Big Ben…what a sight!


The Westminster Abbey was another beautiful building, but its real beauty awaited inside. It wasn’t grand as many Catholic churches are, but it had soooo much history woven into its walls and floors that made it up for the lack of opulence that I have seen in other places. Most of the British monarchy throughout the centuries was buried there, including some more known figures such as Henry VIII, Mary Queen of Scots, Elizabeth I. In the Poet’s Corner, there are a number of famous British writers and poets either buried or commemorated (Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, John Keats, and many others).

After a nice tour of the Abbey, I walked over to the Trafalgar Square to see the famous statues of Admiral Nelson. Unfortunately, there was a rally going on the square, so I wasn’t able to take really good pictures of it (I did get to use the restroom in the National Galleries of Arts building). After some map reading and people-bugging (for directions), I found myself at Picadilly Circus, walked around some busier shopping streets, and finally found a quiet park near St. James Palace, which turned out to be the actual residence of the British monarchy (where Prince Charles lives now). There was some kind of a royal wedding going on, so I made friends with one of the paparazzis to find out who was getting married: it turned out to be the younger sister of Princess Helen (I’m not making this up), and Kate Middleton, Prince William’s girlfriend, was supposed to be in attendance. After this exciting brush with the nobles, I walked down to Buckingham Palace, walked around the square in front of it, and then down one of the numerous London parks in search of my last stop of the day, Harrod’s.

On the way down there, I saw a nice monument to Wellington and walked alongside Hyde Park. Harrod’s turned out to be really pretty inside, but too busy to really enjoy any of the sights. I did buy some tea and had some tea at the café in the food section of the store. Upon the return to my friend’s place (which happens to be right next to a beautiful Anglican church), we had a delicious home-cooked dinner in the garden by their apartment and did lots of catching up.

And the blog lives...

Even though I have taken a long blogging sabbatical, I am determined to catch up on the rest of the England trip, my time and travels in Russia, and my recent trip to California. Now that baseball season is almost over, I have time again to blog...

Stanger things have happened...

So, today started with me deciding to ditch the morning sessions of the conference and instead walking some more around Cheltenham since this is my last day in this town. I went around various streets, peaked into a few shops (Marks & Spencer's), visited the local museum (where I learned some interesting things about an Antarctic exploration that ended tragically), and perfectly played the part of the Japanese tourist in Disneyland by snapping a thousand pictures of the beautiful surroundings full of flowers and gothic structures.

I showed up at the conference around lunchtime right in time to have a delicious fruit tarte for dessert (I simply had to mention it because these fruit tartes just happen to be my absolutely favorite dessert and always bring a smile to my face). After sitting through some final discussions (and I wouldn't be able to tell you what they were really about since my brain simply stopped taking in any new research information), we moved on to the closing session of the conference. After the usual round of "thank you" speeches, the organizers began passing out a few awards for best presentations and best papers. I really cannot describe my utter surprised when I heard my name being called for the best paper award (one of three)!!! I was beyond shocked since this paper is definitely not my strongest one by far (and it took me two months to write it). In any case, this was a very nice honor, which also came with a nice monetary reward---woohoo! After a relaxing Thai dinner with a few new friends, I'm now attempting to pack. Off to London tomorrow!

One of Cheltenham's parks

Another one of the old churches in Cheltenham

South Wales

A field trip is a normal part of most research conferences, and this one was no exception. There were many choices, but I decided to go to Gower Peninsula in South Wales to discover another part of the UK. My choice proved to be the right one. I LOVED Gower and the Welsh people. It took us about 3 hours to get there with part of the way taking us on some windy narrow roads that reminded me of the roads in the Andes. All along the way, we saw green pastures with sheep, cows, and horses happily grazing on the rich grasses. They all looked so content that I just wanted to run out and pet them:)
We got to the beautiful Gower peninsula and had a chance to take in the incredibly picturesque and somber Worm Head island. Even though it was quite cloudy and windy, the view of the Atlantic, the green grassy hills, and the sandy beach was breathtaking. We had the leaders of the Gower Commons Association share about their activities and how they manage their land. It is amazing how much pride they take in the commons on which they graze their sheep, cattle, and horse just as their ancestors had done for several centuries. Unfortunately, the younger people are leaving for urban areas since farming is not profitable anymore.
We had lunch outside on one of the commons called Cefn Bryn (pronounced “Kevin brin”) and walked around it taking it the view from the top of the hill and even encountering some stones and rocks, which were the remains of an ancient burial ground (of the same type as the Stonehendge). After lunch we drove to an area where the members of the association demonstrated how they deal with bracken (a fern-like weed that prevents heathgrasses and other beneficial vegetation from growing) and even learned how to make organic compost.
Overall, I must say that so far the Welsh are the friendliest and most kind-hearted (and funny) people I have met here. They speak fast with their own cute accent, have delicious foods (oh, the tasty Welsh cakes), and are proud owners of some of the most beautiful sights on the island. It was interesting to see that most road and street signs were in both English and Welsh, the ancient language of Wales originating from the Celtic language. It was a truly enjoyable trip, and we once again got to see the cute sheep laying or frolicking around in the green pastures along the way.

Beautiful Gower Peninsula with Worm Head island in the background
Views of South Wales

Conference

The conference is winding down, and it has been very interesting. My boss is actually the president of the association that organized the conference. There are about 400 people from all over the world working on issues of common property resources such as forests, grazing lands, fisheries, etc. We had a senior UNEP official give a speech during lunch one day, which was pretty fascinating. On Wednesday night, we had a conference dinner in the town hall---it was really splendid inside, as was the meal. I gave my presentation on Wednesday afternoon as part of the panel of 2 other researchers from the workshop I attended in Kenya: it went well, and even though we didn’t draw that many people, we had an excellent informal discussion after all the presentations, which will help me strengthen my paper.

Cheltenham

I have had a few days to explore the quaint little city in the south west of England that we are in. Even according to other people from the UK, this town is exceptionally peaceful and somewhat posh with the streets lined up with beautiful white homes with green flowery gardens. On Tuesday, I took a guided tour of the town center, and this is what I found out:
Cheltenham was originally founded as a spa town where people came to drink and bathe in mineral waters. These mineral springs were actually discovered when people noticed that pigeons were congregating at certain spots---the spots that had the salty mineral waters. Since then, Cheltenham prospered, and while there are no spas left, the city now has some investment and insurance businesses, and being just a 2-hour train ride away from London, is actually home to some who work in London and commute daily. A pigeon is now the symbol of the city and can be found three times on its seal and on top of the street signs.
I have gone on several runs on various streets and even through the center and several gardens and parks. Im always amazed that despite having lots of shops and restaurants, the town is still pretty quiet, with friendly people, and trees and gardens everywhere. Another interesting fact about Cheltenham (Meg, you will love this one): it won the largest pancake contest a few years ago. The chef from the posh Queen’s Hotel (used to be the largest hotel in England) made a pancake that was 25 feet in diameter.

A street sign with a pigeon on top

An old church (now a pizzeria inside:)

Cheltenham Lady's College (exclusive boarding school for girls)

Commemorating the world largest pancake 1987

Yay for England

I had an interesting journey over here, once again being reminded that God's plans are always better than mine. Im very particular about where I sit in the airplane, so the night before the flight, I chose the seat that I wanted (unlike Meg, my strategy revolves around the bathrooms and not around emergency exits:). In any case, when I checked-in at the airport, I found out that they have changed the aircraft and I got a window seat (no matter how much I pleaded), which doesn't work for a frequent bathroom visitor like myself. Even though I was mentally typing an angry email to United Airlines customer service, when I got in line at the counter near the gate, the lady was really nice and switched me to an Economy Plus seat for free (more leg room). The seat turned out to be right behind the business class area, so the whole flight I got the business class treatment without actually being in business class (champagne upon entry, delicious meals, extra attention, cleaner bathrooms:).

When we got to Heathrow, the immigration process went so fast that I didn't even realize that I had just gone through immigration (very surprising since you would think that the UK would be even more paranoid than the US). Good thing that I was traveling with 2 of my colleagues because the way to the conference site was a bit confusing: we had to first get on a bus to the train station, then a train (with a change) to our final destination. Apparently, there is no set train schedule for Sundays, so we were a bit confused and missed an earlier train while we were eating superdelicious homemade pasties (that's right, not pastries). To get to the later train, we had to change platforms, i.e. drag our luggage back and forth, several times up and down the stairs across the overpass. The ride itself took us through some picturesque English countryside with cute cottages, happy cows and sheep, and green pastures. We are staying at a cute bed and breakfast in the quiet town of Cheltenham. Tonight, we organized a small reception for some of our collaborators from around the world who have come for the same conference, and afterwards I took a little walk around town. First impression of England: very much like it.

Here are some detailed observations (for those who are still reading):

1)The country is VERY green.
2)I can barely understand the accent:):):)---all the efforts of my English professor from the university in Vladimir have gone to the dogs.
3)No trash cans in train stations and cameras everywhere---I guess the memories of the IRA (Irish Republican Army) terror times are still fresh.
4)The food is quite heavy (but good): how do people stay thin?
5)It is pretty clear right away that there is so much less consumerism here than back in the States(e.g., barely any SUVs on the road).

So happy to be here and can't wait to explore more of the UK!