Halloween weekend is upon us! BOO! Not in the I’m pissed sense, mostly in the im trying to add some All Hallow’s Eve cheer, plus a little shout out to the Boo Bear…Anyway, yes it is Halloween weekend, and Im pumped! I love Halloween! So, Friday we don’t have class, so Rachel and I decided it would be a great idea to finish our Palace escapades with a visit to Hampton Court Palace, the favored palace of one Henry the 8th. Oh man, were we pumped! We took a train out to Hampton Court, which was about an hour away, if not less. It was really nice because the palace was literally right across the river from the train station. It was a beautiful area! And the palace was MASSIVE. I didn’t expect it to be that big. It was bigger then Buckingham and Kensington pretty sure, but smaller then Windsor. It too had people living inside of it still. I couldn’t believe how big it was. The palace was a maze too. We had to go all over the place to make sure we had seen it all. I think it was my favorite palace next to Windsor. It was soo cool. They had it themed so it was like the wedding day of Henry to Kateryn Parr. We toured the state apartments all 5 sets of them (each king/queen had their own design and area that they preferred), the chapel (STUNNING), kitchens (huge and amazing), cellars, and various courtyards and great halls and stuff. It was soo big and just overall the coolest thing ever. I loved it soo much! Then after you think you can see no more, there are even more buildings that serve different purposes. They kind of look like soldier barracks but house different areas of need for the castle. We toured some of the gardens, but there are like 12, so we only did the 2 closest ones. We also did the hedge maze, which was more challenging then the one at Blenheim, so that was a lot of fun. We had the best time! I would definitely recommend that to anyone that comes here. I want to go back!
Once we finished at the palace, we went back to London and cooked dinner. We had to pick up some finishing touches for our costumes too. All I needed to buy was a mask, so my costume was hella cheap, but Rachel’s was a bit more complicated. She was a vampire, so she bought a whole new outfit, fake blood, and fangs. It was a lot of fun to shop. The girls, minus Rachel, plus Ben wanted to watch a scary movie, so we decided to search for one. All of our friends from the states have been telling us about “paranormal activity” so we decided to boot leg it and download it off the internet. Oh man minkz, did we think that movie was funny. It was not scary at all. I was more confused as to what the hell was going on and how people thought it was actually scary. Our commentary throughout the whole thing was more entertaining then the actual movie. It was so fun watching it! After the movie, I just went to bed, I was hella tired.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Its Saturday, Halloween, and a beautiful day in London! We were going to go to the London Dungeons today, but we couldn’t get tickets, and its really expensive, so we opted out. Instead we all went out to lunch together at a café down the street. It is super cute and italian. I had the best caesar salad, holla! After lunch, we all just kinda hung out and started getting ready for the evening. Rachel got ready first because she was going out to the Albion (a pub in our neighborhood) with some of the guys and 2 girls that she met at Roehampton (where we take our management class). The rest of the girls, plus matt and ben got ready to head to sidcup to attend a halloween party hosted by 2 girls from Rose Bruford (the school we go to for Global Issues). It was great meeting the girls and all of their friends, especially because most of them will be coming to study abroad at SMU next year. It was so much fun getting to hang out with them and see how British students interact outside of school. After awhile Krista, Lindsay, and I wanted to leave, so we headed back to London. This was kind of a problem because all the trains stop around 11, so we had to take buses…needless to say it took us about 2 hours to get home. Once home, I took a shower and went to bed. It was a good time! Haha I love sleeping.
Ah yes, Sunday again! The first of November! I cant believe I go home in a month and a half! Its crazy!!! Its definitely weird because I feel like I have been away from home for a flong time, but I feel like I have been here for a very short time…Its odd how that works. Well, I woke up to the door bell and was surprised to see a delivery man…I think he was scared of me…You would be too if you saw my hair when I wake up like that…Anyway, I was PUMPED! My wonderful parents sent me a sweatshirt and best of all a ZUNE!!!! YAY! I HAVE MUSIC AGAIN!!! HOLLAA!!! You don’t know happy I was! Back to my day…I started it by just hanging out with everyone in the flat, cleaning a bit, but then Sam and I decided we were hungry, so we set out to find some food. We walked to a café near by and got really good sandwiches and had a great conversation. I love sam, she is a good kid! :) its soo funny because I look at all the people that are on this trip with me and I realize that the only person I really knew before I went on this trip was Rachel. Its crazy how close you get to people in such a short time. I love it though. Later that night, Rachel had seen a flier promoting a French chamber choir concert at the church near our flat, so we decided to go. We both love choral music, so we figured it would be pretty. It was great! They were wonderful and sang a lot of great songs. It was a wonderful, relaxing end to the day.
Technically Monday isnt the weekend, but I will keep going because there isnt much to say….We went to class at 10:15 and got out at 10:45, thanks Gary! We didn’t have much to talk about, so that was cool. Rache and I decided to run errands. We went grocery shopping and bought cookie sheets so we can make some cookies here pretty soon. After errands we all just hung out around the flat and made dinner. At around 8:30, we left for this small pub in the Camden area. We were all going to see a play called Nursery Crimes, did Humpty fall or was he pushed? Yeah, it sounded interesting. It is a fringe theatre, so it is a hella small space and has these kind of racy, cutting edge, plays. The one thatwe were seeing though was just a musical with adult language. Oh man, it was definitely the best play we have seen this whole trip! Everyone agreed. It was positively the funniest thing I have seen in awhile. I died. I don’t think I stoped smiling. All of the songs were incredibly witty and the story was just really cool. All the characters were from different nursery rhymes. It was just an amazingly creative show. I loved every minute!
After the show, we all went back to the flats and fell asleep. Another successful night in London!
Finally, there ya go! All caught up! Well, besides today, which Im still living…and so far nothing has happened, just school. So, there ya go! I will update later when my life becomes more interesting…We go to Scotland on Thursday, soooooo incredibly pumped!!!! WOOT WOOTT!!! Oh, one cute thing is that Meran’s mom, Sue, aka my mom too, but whatever, sent me the cutest package! I love her! : ) It made my day!
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Indian Food, K Space, and Religion! Yeah, London!
Alright, so now we are up to Wednesday the 28th of October! Phew! Time flies, eh?! Anyway, I skipped Tuesday because nothing happened. Wednesday was a bit more exciting…I had the day off, so I slept in for awhile and then I decided to clean for a bit. Overall the day was pretty boring, we didn’t do much. Then, we went out to dinner before the play we had to see for our Theater class. We decided to go to this Indian restaurant because none of us had been to one yet…yeah, pretty sure that was the worst idea I have ever had for myself. I had had Indian food before in Paris, and I loved it, I had no troubles. However, this Indian food was TERRIBLE. We all felt soo sick afterward. I thought I was going to die. It was soo bad. It really sucked that I felt so sick too considering the play we were going was a little show called, “Inherit the Wind” at the Old Vic starring the one and only KEVIN SPACEY!!!! Yeah, that’s right, I saw him perform live! It was AMAZING! I felt well enough to appreciate what I was seeing. The show was soo good too. It had a great message. I loved it! The lady sitting next to me was super cute too. She was this elderly woman who was from Australia, but moved to England a few decades ago. She was asking me all about the states and where I came from. She couldn’t have been cuter. Anyway, the whole play was great, but I was ready to vom, so I left right after it was over, unlike the rest of my class who stayed and hung out hoping to get Kspace’s autograph (that didn’t happen…). The rest of the night consisted of me sleeping my way to health, which worked! I felt like a million dollars the next morning! Super!
Thursday I didn’t do much considering that for art we are working on these papers that are pretty much our whole grade, so we didn’t really have class, we just had to research. I slept in and then went down to the National Portrait Gallery and did some research. It was really nice. When I had been there awhile, Lindsay and I went to this restaurant called “The Crypt” which is literally a crypt turned into a restaurant and gift shop. It was pretty neat. We ate in this small little alcove made of brick. It was awesome! Another thing checked off the list of things I wanted to do in London! :) After lunch, I had Politics class, which was interesting as always. I love my teachers, they couldn’t be cuter if they tried!
Oh! I forgot to tell you all, so for Global Issues on Tuesday, yeah, the day I didn’t talk about, we went and visited a Church of England parish in Barnes (a cute little area near Hammersmith, where our flats are). The vicar or priest made us coffee and cookies and showed us around as well as talked to us about what the Church of England is and how it differs from every other religion. Anyway, this parish had a catholic base, so its an Anglican Catholic church or something, it was pretty interesting to hear about how they put the 2 together. Also, it was really cool because the vicar talked about how there are all these different types of religions and parishes in Barnes, such as Methodists, Catholics, Jewish, Muslim, etc and they all get together for a get together every year and cook out and have different events and such. I thought that was really interesting how they can all come together as a community based on religion and get a long and find that similarity. Because as my mom always says, and the vicar said, they are all basically the same, just a little different.
Oh and after we left the church, I got lunch with Bob, Matt, and Rachel and then we headed off to Management…But then when we got there, we all decided that we shouldn’t have class that day because we didn’t feel like it. Darrin, our tutor who is taking over for Chris Bond while he is in Asia, had to go to the Arctic Circle (Norway) for a few days, so he wanted to get out of there early to finish packing. So, we didn’t have class, HOLLA! Early weekend!!!
So, now Im thinking I should have just written about Tuesday, oh well, you get the gist…Back to Thursday! After Politics I didn’t do anything, so there ya have it, a very exciting day! Haha.
Thursday I didn’t do much considering that for art we are working on these papers that are pretty much our whole grade, so we didn’t really have class, we just had to research. I slept in and then went down to the National Portrait Gallery and did some research. It was really nice. When I had been there awhile, Lindsay and I went to this restaurant called “The Crypt” which is literally a crypt turned into a restaurant and gift shop. It was pretty neat. We ate in this small little alcove made of brick. It was awesome! Another thing checked off the list of things I wanted to do in London! :) After lunch, I had Politics class, which was interesting as always. I love my teachers, they couldn’t be cuter if they tried!
Oh! I forgot to tell you all, so for Global Issues on Tuesday, yeah, the day I didn’t talk about, we went and visited a Church of England parish in Barnes (a cute little area near Hammersmith, where our flats are). The vicar or priest made us coffee and cookies and showed us around as well as talked to us about what the Church of England is and how it differs from every other religion. Anyway, this parish had a catholic base, so its an Anglican Catholic church or something, it was pretty interesting to hear about how they put the 2 together. Also, it was really cool because the vicar talked about how there are all these different types of religions and parishes in Barnes, such as Methodists, Catholics, Jewish, Muslim, etc and they all get together for a get together every year and cook out and have different events and such. I thought that was really interesting how they can all come together as a community based on religion and get a long and find that similarity. Because as my mom always says, and the vicar said, they are all basically the same, just a little different.
Oh and after we left the church, I got lunch with Bob, Matt, and Rachel and then we headed off to Management…But then when we got there, we all decided that we shouldn’t have class that day because we didn’t feel like it. Darrin, our tutor who is taking over for Chris Bond while he is in Asia, had to go to the Arctic Circle (Norway) for a few days, so he wanted to get out of there early to finish packing. So, we didn’t have class, HOLLA! Early weekend!!!
So, now Im thinking I should have just written about Tuesday, oh well, you get the gist…Back to Thursday! After Politics I didn’t do anything, so there ya have it, a very exciting day! Haha.
Where in the surrounding areas of London is Taryn Wirkus?
So, this is what we call a busy weekend! You ready? Good. Alright, so Friday Rachel and I went to Oxford, holla! Home of bright minds and some great dictionaries among other things! Anyway, we had a bit of a mishap in the morning…We missed our bus because we couldn’t find where it was leaving from. All the directions said were Buckingham Palace Rd…Well, if you havent been to London, that road is FLONG and has many places where buses come…so it wasn’t exactly helpful. We tried to call the company, but they werent very helpful, so needless to say, we had to find a new way to get there. We finally got there by ANOTHER bus company, and it was fairly cheap, so we went for it! Oxford is only about an hour and a half from London, so it was a really nice drive. I love travelling here, its soo pretty! Especially now with the leaves changing and such.
When we go to Oxford we realized we didn’t really have a plan of action, but its fine. We knew that our friend Wiggy was actually coming to Oxford the same day, but he was staying with his friend Nick, who actually goes to Oxford University (holla!), and so we were going to hang out with them later, but for the time being had no plans. The bus dropped us off in the city centre area, so we just kind of walked around and went into shops and such. It was around lunch time, so we actually went to Pizza Hut ( I know, I know, kinda trashy, but actually not!). You’d be surprised how nice they are here…Holy crap! They are all decorated to the T and look like stylish, metropolitan Italian restaurants. It was super nice. We had to walk do wn this spiral staircase and then were greeted by a hostess and waited on, so it was great. Pizza was awesome too. I hadnt had it in awhile. After lunch, our friend Wiggy arrived and we walked around with him for a bit until we came upon Christ’s Church. We had to go in! This is the place where some of the Harry Potter movies were filmed as well as the home of the great hall that inspired the great hall in Harry. So, we loved it to say the least! It was awesome! Soo pretty and really cool. Once we walked through the whole thing, we realized that there was this huge field behind it with like a mini forest and a river that kind of curved all over through the forest. It was GORGEOUS!!!!! We walked in a ways and sat on a bench under these huge, colorful trees, facing the river filled with ducks and swans. It was AMAZING. Best part of the trip right there! England is famazing, you should come.
After sitting there for awhile, we decided we should probably meet back up with Wiggy and meet his friend, Nick. So we walked back into town and met them. Nick was so nice and hella smart…Yeah, we felt really cool saying we went to SMU…Except not really…Anyway, he was really nice and showed us around his college, Worcester (a college within Oxford). Apparently it is the prettiest and best college at Oxford. I believe it, it was PHENOMENAL. They have these exquisite buildings with great architecture, their own private lake, courtyard, gardens, and playing fields. He took us to his dorm aka house where he and 4 other people share a kithchen and living room. They each have their own room and bathroom. It was sooo nice! I loved it! I was jealous, but walking into his room I realized that I wouldn’t have like it there…It didn’t look very pleasant to go to school there. He had boards of notes, books, and essays everywhere. It was kinda overwhelming. Nick said that his finals were 7 months away and he was already freaking out because he doesn’t have enough time to study…Im like dude, you don’t even know, I am lucky if I spend 7 hours studying for finals…Man, I wouldn’t last. Haha, oh well! But overall, it was a really cool insight into Oxford University!
After we toured Worcester, we went out to dinner at a Thai restaurant, and it was really good. The waiters were hella funny and really nice. After we walked around for a bit, Rachel and I realized we should head home, so we did. It was a great day in Oxford! Loved it! We were super tired though and had to get up early for a big day of travelling the next day.
Saturday! We booked an Evan Evans Tour of Warwick Castle, Stratford-Upon-Avon, The Cotswolds, and….Well, we didn’t know this when we booked it, but yeah, Oxford! Super fun! Haha. Anyway, the bus was SUPER nice! And our guide was named Leslie and our bus driver was Jill. They were soo cute! I loved them! It was kind of a whirl wind trip, we didn’t get to stay very long at all the places, but that’s alright!
We started the day off at Warwick Castle, which was phenomenal! Soo much fun! It was really kid friendly. I kept thinking my cousins would LOVE IT. They had it all decorated like a medieval castle and it was also decorated for halloween. It was awesome. There were also Madame Tussaud figures everywhere, which were slightly creep minkz because I thought they were real. There were 3 exhibitions going on: The Weekend Party, The Kingmaker, and something about Henry the 8th. The Weekend party was basically showcasing what would have happened when there were Royal weekend parties at the castle. Needless to say, I was pumped! The Kingmaker exhibit took you down into the bottom part of the castle, which was basically cellars and tunnels and an exhibit on how they prepared for battles and stocked the castle. It was really cool. The Henry the 8th exhibit was really cool too because it showcased what the castle looked like when he was there and some of his belongings. We walked all over the castle and it was just amazing. After we were done roaming the castle, we climbed up the mound and saw the grounds from a high point. It was soo pretty! Then we went to the gardens and saw peacocks. Beautiful! It started down pouring though, which was kinda fun, but cold.
Our next stop was Stratford-Upon-Avon, the hood of one Billy Shakespeare. We saw his crib from the outside, but didn’t go in because it wasn’t worth the money. We walked around the very small town for a bit, but then went to lunch at a cheap italian restaurant. Overall, a really nice trip there. It was a really cute little town.
After Stratford, Jill drove us through the Cotswolds! I was soooo fexcited!!!!! They were GORGEOUS!!! Especially with all of the colors. It was amazing! On top of it, there was a rainbow that went over the whole area. It was great! There were all of these rolling hills with small villages dotting the valleys. Little streams going through the cobblestone streets. Small stone cottages with thatched roofs and little gardens. It was totally picturesque. I loved it soo much! Holla!
Oxford is the gateway to the Cotswolds, so we stopped there for about an hour. It was great to be back! We just walked around and went into a few shops. It was a nice little end to the day.
Alright, Sunday! Holla! Our weekend adventures still go on! So, Rachel and I are trying to see all the royal palaces before we are done here and we still have 2 left to see. Knowing this, we took it upon ourselves to use this beautiful fall day to go and see Princess Diana’s main hizzity hang, Kensington Palace. It is situated pretty much in Hyde Park (probably my favorite place in London). Oh man it was a beyond GORGEOUS day! The colors at Hyde park were beyond words. We walked around for awhile before visiting the palace. While we were walking up to the gates, we realized that we were surrounded by these large men in sweat suits….This was a bit different…There were also people walking up to them randomly and asking for autographs, so we were like who are these dudes? I looked at their outfits and on them it read, “Blackburn Rovers F.C.” so I knew they were a football club, but I had never heard of them. Apparently, over here, they are a pretty big team. They played Chelsea that day, but lost terribly, its not their faults though, I guess there was an outbreak of the swine on their team. Anyway, that was pretty neat knowing we walked through Hyde Park with them and didn’t know it. We thought they were looking at us strangely. Anyway, finally, we reached the palace. It wasn’t that impressive, but it still was pretty on the outside.
The first part of the tour of the palace was the “Last Debutante Exhibit.” It showcased what debutantes went through, all of their clothing and accessories, the different ettiquette lessons they had to take, and overall the process of becoming a debutante and coming out into society. It was really interesting. We also got to see a room full of Diana’s dresses. They were gorgeous. After the exhibit, we got to go and see the state apartments that are still decorated in Queen Victoria’s liking. It was so cool to see everything. It was all soo pretty and a lot bigger than it looked from the outside. The whole tour was amazing. I still think Windsor is my favorite though!
After the palace, we walked around Hyde park some more and saw Harrod’s, but didn’t go in (we are saving it for later). We ran into Prince Albert Hall and went inside, it was really neat. From there we walked around and saw the National History Museum, but didn’t go in either…At this point though, we were really tired, so we decided to go home.
That night we cooked an amazing dinner! So good! We had pasta, chicken, and veggies. It was great. Then we decided to prepare ourselves for halloween by watching an oldie but goodie: HOCUS POCUS! Holla! From here our world came crashing down however when we were told Zachary Bink’s real name is actually Thackery as in…Well, I don’t really know, but its fug. Oh well. Anyway, that was Sunday! Good day overall!
See, here you would think our travels are done, however they are not! They continue to Monday! When we decided that it would be the perfect day to go to Stonehenge! HOLLA! It was a GORGEOUS and sunny day, so Gina (Matt’s Sister), Matt, Rachel, and I hopped a coach bus and headed off to our destination. On the ride there, I didn’t have an ipod, so Gina and I jammed out to her iphone. It was great! I was so pumped because the first 12 songs she played were amazing, so we had a great time. After a gorgeous, but incredibly long (only about 2 hours..but still felt like forever) journey, we saw the beautiful rock formation on one side of the bus and a HUGE flock of sheep on the right, I was PUMPED!!!!! Everytime I see sheep I think of Darmby. I love them! Soo much! Stonehenge was beautiful! It was really interesting because right when we got there the weather turned to have this kind of eerie, overcast look to it, so it was definitely cool. You couldn’t go up to the rocks, but you could walk around them about 400 feet away. They were an incredible sight! I was so excited to be standing in front of something that is older than the pyramids of giza. It is so amazing. Anyway, we got to hang out there for a couple of hours. It was defintely worth the money to go!
When we got back to London we went out to dinner because it was Gina’s last night, so that was really nice. After dinner we headed back to the flats and hung out until bed time. It was a wonderful day! : )
When we go to Oxford we realized we didn’t really have a plan of action, but its fine. We knew that our friend Wiggy was actually coming to Oxford the same day, but he was staying with his friend Nick, who actually goes to Oxford University (holla!), and so we were going to hang out with them later, but for the time being had no plans. The bus dropped us off in the city centre area, so we just kind of walked around and went into shops and such. It was around lunch time, so we actually went to Pizza Hut ( I know, I know, kinda trashy, but actually not!). You’d be surprised how nice they are here…Holy crap! They are all decorated to the T and look like stylish, metropolitan Italian restaurants. It was super nice. We had to walk do wn this spiral staircase and then were greeted by a hostess and waited on, so it was great. Pizza was awesome too. I hadnt had it in awhile. After lunch, our friend Wiggy arrived and we walked around with him for a bit until we came upon Christ’s Church. We had to go in! This is the place where some of the Harry Potter movies were filmed as well as the home of the great hall that inspired the great hall in Harry. So, we loved it to say the least! It was awesome! Soo pretty and really cool. Once we walked through the whole thing, we realized that there was this huge field behind it with like a mini forest and a river that kind of curved all over through the forest. It was GORGEOUS!!!!! We walked in a ways and sat on a bench under these huge, colorful trees, facing the river filled with ducks and swans. It was AMAZING. Best part of the trip right there! England is famazing, you should come.
After sitting there for awhile, we decided we should probably meet back up with Wiggy and meet his friend, Nick. So we walked back into town and met them. Nick was so nice and hella smart…Yeah, we felt really cool saying we went to SMU…Except not really…Anyway, he was really nice and showed us around his college, Worcester (a college within Oxford). Apparently it is the prettiest and best college at Oxford. I believe it, it was PHENOMENAL. They have these exquisite buildings with great architecture, their own private lake, courtyard, gardens, and playing fields. He took us to his dorm aka house where he and 4 other people share a kithchen and living room. They each have their own room and bathroom. It was sooo nice! I loved it! I was jealous, but walking into his room I realized that I wouldn’t have like it there…It didn’t look very pleasant to go to school there. He had boards of notes, books, and essays everywhere. It was kinda overwhelming. Nick said that his finals were 7 months away and he was already freaking out because he doesn’t have enough time to study…Im like dude, you don’t even know, I am lucky if I spend 7 hours studying for finals…Man, I wouldn’t last. Haha, oh well! But overall, it was a really cool insight into Oxford University!
After we toured Worcester, we went out to dinner at a Thai restaurant, and it was really good. The waiters were hella funny and really nice. After we walked around for a bit, Rachel and I realized we should head home, so we did. It was a great day in Oxford! Loved it! We were super tired though and had to get up early for a big day of travelling the next day.
Saturday! We booked an Evan Evans Tour of Warwick Castle, Stratford-Upon-Avon, The Cotswolds, and….Well, we didn’t know this when we booked it, but yeah, Oxford! Super fun! Haha. Anyway, the bus was SUPER nice! And our guide was named Leslie and our bus driver was Jill. They were soo cute! I loved them! It was kind of a whirl wind trip, we didn’t get to stay very long at all the places, but that’s alright!
We started the day off at Warwick Castle, which was phenomenal! Soo much fun! It was really kid friendly. I kept thinking my cousins would LOVE IT. They had it all decorated like a medieval castle and it was also decorated for halloween. It was awesome. There were also Madame Tussaud figures everywhere, which were slightly creep minkz because I thought they were real. There were 3 exhibitions going on: The Weekend Party, The Kingmaker, and something about Henry the 8th. The Weekend party was basically showcasing what would have happened when there were Royal weekend parties at the castle. Needless to say, I was pumped! The Kingmaker exhibit took you down into the bottom part of the castle, which was basically cellars and tunnels and an exhibit on how they prepared for battles and stocked the castle. It was really cool. The Henry the 8th exhibit was really cool too because it showcased what the castle looked like when he was there and some of his belongings. We walked all over the castle and it was just amazing. After we were done roaming the castle, we climbed up the mound and saw the grounds from a high point. It was soo pretty! Then we went to the gardens and saw peacocks. Beautiful! It started down pouring though, which was kinda fun, but cold.
Our next stop was Stratford-Upon-Avon, the hood of one Billy Shakespeare. We saw his crib from the outside, but didn’t go in because it wasn’t worth the money. We walked around the very small town for a bit, but then went to lunch at a cheap italian restaurant. Overall, a really nice trip there. It was a really cute little town.
After Stratford, Jill drove us through the Cotswolds! I was soooo fexcited!!!!! They were GORGEOUS!!! Especially with all of the colors. It was amazing! On top of it, there was a rainbow that went over the whole area. It was great! There were all of these rolling hills with small villages dotting the valleys. Little streams going through the cobblestone streets. Small stone cottages with thatched roofs and little gardens. It was totally picturesque. I loved it soo much! Holla!
Oxford is the gateway to the Cotswolds, so we stopped there for about an hour. It was great to be back! We just walked around and went into a few shops. It was a nice little end to the day.
Alright, Sunday! Holla! Our weekend adventures still go on! So, Rachel and I are trying to see all the royal palaces before we are done here and we still have 2 left to see. Knowing this, we took it upon ourselves to use this beautiful fall day to go and see Princess Diana’s main hizzity hang, Kensington Palace. It is situated pretty much in Hyde Park (probably my favorite place in London). Oh man it was a beyond GORGEOUS day! The colors at Hyde park were beyond words. We walked around for awhile before visiting the palace. While we were walking up to the gates, we realized that we were surrounded by these large men in sweat suits….This was a bit different…There were also people walking up to them randomly and asking for autographs, so we were like who are these dudes? I looked at their outfits and on them it read, “Blackburn Rovers F.C.” so I knew they were a football club, but I had never heard of them. Apparently, over here, they are a pretty big team. They played Chelsea that day, but lost terribly, its not their faults though, I guess there was an outbreak of the swine on their team. Anyway, that was pretty neat knowing we walked through Hyde Park with them and didn’t know it. We thought they were looking at us strangely. Anyway, finally, we reached the palace. It wasn’t that impressive, but it still was pretty on the outside.
The first part of the tour of the palace was the “Last Debutante Exhibit.” It showcased what debutantes went through, all of their clothing and accessories, the different ettiquette lessons they had to take, and overall the process of becoming a debutante and coming out into society. It was really interesting. We also got to see a room full of Diana’s dresses. They were gorgeous. After the exhibit, we got to go and see the state apartments that are still decorated in Queen Victoria’s liking. It was so cool to see everything. It was all soo pretty and a lot bigger than it looked from the outside. The whole tour was amazing. I still think Windsor is my favorite though!
After the palace, we walked around Hyde park some more and saw Harrod’s, but didn’t go in (we are saving it for later). We ran into Prince Albert Hall and went inside, it was really neat. From there we walked around and saw the National History Museum, but didn’t go in either…At this point though, we were really tired, so we decided to go home.
That night we cooked an amazing dinner! So good! We had pasta, chicken, and veggies. It was great. Then we decided to prepare ourselves for halloween by watching an oldie but goodie: HOCUS POCUS! Holla! From here our world came crashing down however when we were told Zachary Bink’s real name is actually Thackery as in…Well, I don’t really know, but its fug. Oh well. Anyway, that was Sunday! Good day overall!
See, here you would think our travels are done, however they are not! They continue to Monday! When we decided that it would be the perfect day to go to Stonehenge! HOLLA! It was a GORGEOUS and sunny day, so Gina (Matt’s Sister), Matt, Rachel, and I hopped a coach bus and headed off to our destination. On the ride there, I didn’t have an ipod, so Gina and I jammed out to her iphone. It was great! I was so pumped because the first 12 songs she played were amazing, so we had a great time. After a gorgeous, but incredibly long (only about 2 hours..but still felt like forever) journey, we saw the beautiful rock formation on one side of the bus and a HUGE flock of sheep on the right, I was PUMPED!!!!! Everytime I see sheep I think of Darmby. I love them! Soo much! Stonehenge was beautiful! It was really interesting because right when we got there the weather turned to have this kind of eerie, overcast look to it, so it was definitely cool. You couldn’t go up to the rocks, but you could walk around them about 400 feet away. They were an incredible sight! I was so excited to be standing in front of something that is older than the pyramids of giza. It is so amazing. Anyway, we got to hang out there for a couple of hours. It was defintely worth the money to go!
When we got back to London we went out to dinner because it was Gina’s last night, so that was really nice. After dinner we headed back to the flats and hung out until bed time. It was a wonderful day! : )
A week in a review
The week of the 19th wasn’t that exciting lets see…We got back from York Sunday and I worked on my project. Ben’s friends Sarah and Caro made all of us lasagne (soo good and super nice of them) for dinner and we all just hung out for a bit.
Monday was my theatres presentation that was really long, but turned out very well. So glad its over! Now I have nothing to worry about for the rest of the time here, such a relief to get it over with! After class, Rachel and I went to the Queen’s Head, a pub restaurant near our flats by the park with the tennis courts, for the first time. It was such a nice place! Its now one of our favorites! They have amazing food and it’s a great atmosphere. While we were eating, we watched Wiggy and Steve, two of our friends on the trip play tennis, so that was entertaining. After lunch we walked to Tesco and went grocery shopping. That was all that happened on Monday..Pretty exciting, I know…
Tuesday we had our long journey to Rose Bruford where we had a different teacher for our Global Issues class. Michael, our new tutor, is teaching us about religion in Europe (specifically U.K.) for the next 3 weeks. He is a very nice guy and very knowledgeable. It was really funny though because he talked to us about Buddhism for a bit, and then preceeded to make us all meditate for awhile…It was pretty funny. You had to be there, but whatever! Anyway, after global issues we made the trek to our new home for International Management, Roehampton University. The university is located in Barnes, which is only about 15 minutes away from our flats, so that’s pretty nice. We met with Darren, who is so nice, and had class. Afterwards, he took us down to the student union and we hung out in their bar/café section for awhile. It was interesting meeting some of his other students and talking to him. He’s such a nice guy and very interesting. I feel like all of our tutors are…Its great! Anyway, we all had a play to go to, so we left after awhile.
That night, we headed to Sloane Square for “The Author” by Tim Crouch. Wow, what an interesting play to say the least…I mean, we were warned, but it was weird, but strangely very good. It’s an odd set up because there is no stage, there is just 2 sets of bleacher style seats facing eachother. The actors and playwright all sit among the audience and you don’t know who they are until they start the show. It was extremely awkward to say the least, but also hella funny. The play is about being an audience member, but also about another play that the actors are putting on by the same playwright. The stuff they talk about is pretty racy and very uncomfortable at times. Some of the issues were really in your face and tough subjects to hear about. What made it even more interesting was that I was sitting next to Rachel and the playwright happened to sit next to her. It was interesting to say the least. He was amazing though, so interesting. The actors actually talked to the audience members and asked their opinions on the subject matter. It was such an interesting and uncomfortable show. You should definitely google it.
Wednesday was pretty boring, I didn’t do much, but make dinner with Rachel in the evening and go to Oxford Street to shop around a bit.
Thursday we went to the National Gallery for art and saw Turner and the Masters exhibit. It was so pretty and neat to see all the different famous paintings. After art, nothing really happened, except for the arrival of Matt’s sister, Gina. She is so nice and came to stay with us for a few days.
That’s all that happened throughout my week, but on Friday I head to Oxford, so pumped!
Monday was my theatres presentation that was really long, but turned out very well. So glad its over! Now I have nothing to worry about for the rest of the time here, such a relief to get it over with! After class, Rachel and I went to the Queen’s Head, a pub restaurant near our flats by the park with the tennis courts, for the first time. It was such a nice place! Its now one of our favorites! They have amazing food and it’s a great atmosphere. While we were eating, we watched Wiggy and Steve, two of our friends on the trip play tennis, so that was entertaining. After lunch we walked to Tesco and went grocery shopping. That was all that happened on Monday..Pretty exciting, I know…
Tuesday we had our long journey to Rose Bruford where we had a different teacher for our Global Issues class. Michael, our new tutor, is teaching us about religion in Europe (specifically U.K.) for the next 3 weeks. He is a very nice guy and very knowledgeable. It was really funny though because he talked to us about Buddhism for a bit, and then preceeded to make us all meditate for awhile…It was pretty funny. You had to be there, but whatever! Anyway, after global issues we made the trek to our new home for International Management, Roehampton University. The university is located in Barnes, which is only about 15 minutes away from our flats, so that’s pretty nice. We met with Darren, who is so nice, and had class. Afterwards, he took us down to the student union and we hung out in their bar/café section for awhile. It was interesting meeting some of his other students and talking to him. He’s such a nice guy and very interesting. I feel like all of our tutors are…Its great! Anyway, we all had a play to go to, so we left after awhile.
That night, we headed to Sloane Square for “The Author” by Tim Crouch. Wow, what an interesting play to say the least…I mean, we were warned, but it was weird, but strangely very good. It’s an odd set up because there is no stage, there is just 2 sets of bleacher style seats facing eachother. The actors and playwright all sit among the audience and you don’t know who they are until they start the show. It was extremely awkward to say the least, but also hella funny. The play is about being an audience member, but also about another play that the actors are putting on by the same playwright. The stuff they talk about is pretty racy and very uncomfortable at times. Some of the issues were really in your face and tough subjects to hear about. What made it even more interesting was that I was sitting next to Rachel and the playwright happened to sit next to her. It was interesting to say the least. He was amazing though, so interesting. The actors actually talked to the audience members and asked their opinions on the subject matter. It was such an interesting and uncomfortable show. You should definitely google it.
Wednesday was pretty boring, I didn’t do much, but make dinner with Rachel in the evening and go to Oxford Street to shop around a bit.
Thursday we went to the National Gallery for art and saw Turner and the Masters exhibit. It was so pretty and neat to see all the different famous paintings. After art, nothing really happened, except for the arrival of Matt’s sister, Gina. She is so nice and came to stay with us for a few days.
That’s all that happened throughout my week, but on Friday I head to Oxford, so pumped!
FINALLY!
Hey Strangers! Im a terrible person, Im aware. Im sorry it has taken me so frackin long to update! But later is better than never, right? I hope so. Well, I left off the day before I went to York, which was the weekend of the 16th of October…Oh balls, so it was a long time ago…My bad. Anyway, off to York we go!!! Good times had by all! Rachel and I decided to take this really cheap bus company called the Megabus. Its actually really nice. We had to get up at 4am so we could get ready and arrive at St. Pancras International train station by 6:30. It is about a half hour tube ride away and we didn’t know exactly where to pick up the bus. When we got there we grabbed breakfast and found that we actually took a train for a part of the way. It was a gorgeous train ride! I love the English countryside. If I could put it in my purse, I would. The train ride itself was about an hour and a half and then we took the bus the rest of the way. The whole journey took about 5 hours. Once we got to York we were kind of dropped off on the outskirts of the city, so we had to take another bus to the city centre. Luckily, we found that York was actually pretty small for being one of England’s major cities. We actually could walk everywhere. It was so nice. I would say our small bed and breakfast (Holgate Bridge B&B, super cute and very nice people!) was about a mile away from every attraction we wanted to see, so it was great! (Althought the place was great, I was an idiot. I decided it would be really smart to put my waterbottle in my purse as we were walking because I had so much to carry, and it spilled all over…yeah, my ipod died…It was terrible! I was heart broken…Its my life, but its fine! I survived the situation…) We got there Friday evening, so once we got situated we went to a pub for dinner. While we were eating there was this small group of old men who were hella cute! Their accents were amazing! They sounded like Shrek, no lie. They swore a lot, which was kinda funny just because it wasn’t a big deal for them, yet this older couple was scoffing and shooting them death glares. It was a great meal! After dinner we walked around a bit and decided that we wanted to see “Fame” the movie, so we did. It was pretty good. I enjoyed it. Later that night, we decided to go on a ghost walk. It was supposed to be one of the best in England, but I wasn’t THAT impressed. It was interesting and all, but I think it could have been better. The guide took us all over York, down little alleyways and up to the big monuments and such. It was interesting to hear about York’s past. After that we were both hella tired, so we went back to the b&b and went to sleep.
The next morning we woke up early and had a complimentary full english breakfast with coffee! It was phenomenal! Loved my life! We got ready for the day after eating and headed out to see the Minster. It was gorgeous! We didn’t pay to go all the way in and look everywhere, but we went into the entrance and saw enough. It was HUGE! Next door was the Treasurer’s House, so we toured that. It was beautiful! They had this small cellar/cave thing that you could go down into and the floor was actually part of the original Roman road from when they occupied the area. They told us ghost stories down there, and it was so cool. We even got to wear protective head wear, so it was great! We were stylin’. When we got our fill of the house, we went and shopped around for a bit and ate at another pub. It was really good, but it took FOREVER. Dining experiences always do though…It kinda sucks when you are budgeting time, but oh well! After lunch we went and walked around on the city walls. Everything was so pretty from up there. All the leaves were changing colors and the houses all had these beautiful gardens and everything. It was a gorgeous sunny day! Loved life!
York has all these pretty gardens and parks you can walk around in, so we did that for awhile. A river also runs through York, so we walked around the riverside and over the bridges, which was hella pretty. Later that evening when we had walked everywhere we decided to take an evening boat cruise. It was soo pretty outside! The sky was a deep, navy and the stars were out (you don’t see them in london often…), it was great! The only problem was that it was FREEZING! Yeah, I almost got hypothermia, but its cool. Its all about the experience! The boat tour was centered on York through time, so we heard all about York’s history and different things we were seeing as we went. It was great! When the boat cruise finished we went out to eat at a really nice Italian restaurant then headed back to the b&b and went to sleep.
We left York pretty early in the morning (about 8am) and got back to London in the early afternoon. It was a really fun weekend trip and I definitely recommend going! The people were soo friendly and there was so much to see and do. It was another place I could see myself living. I was so upset on Sunday though because I had my huge theatre presentation the next day, so I had to work on that when I got home…I was a bit tired, but I survived. No big deal!
The next morning we woke up early and had a complimentary full english breakfast with coffee! It was phenomenal! Loved my life! We got ready for the day after eating and headed out to see the Minster. It was gorgeous! We didn’t pay to go all the way in and look everywhere, but we went into the entrance and saw enough. It was HUGE! Next door was the Treasurer’s House, so we toured that. It was beautiful! They had this small cellar/cave thing that you could go down into and the floor was actually part of the original Roman road from when they occupied the area. They told us ghost stories down there, and it was so cool. We even got to wear protective head wear, so it was great! We were stylin’. When we got our fill of the house, we went and shopped around for a bit and ate at another pub. It was really good, but it took FOREVER. Dining experiences always do though…It kinda sucks when you are budgeting time, but oh well! After lunch we went and walked around on the city walls. Everything was so pretty from up there. All the leaves were changing colors and the houses all had these beautiful gardens and everything. It was a gorgeous sunny day! Loved life!
York has all these pretty gardens and parks you can walk around in, so we did that for awhile. A river also runs through York, so we walked around the riverside and over the bridges, which was hella pretty. Later that evening when we had walked everywhere we decided to take an evening boat cruise. It was soo pretty outside! The sky was a deep, navy and the stars were out (you don’t see them in london often…), it was great! The only problem was that it was FREEZING! Yeah, I almost got hypothermia, but its cool. Its all about the experience! The boat tour was centered on York through time, so we heard all about York’s history and different things we were seeing as we went. It was great! When the boat cruise finished we went out to eat at a really nice Italian restaurant then headed back to the b&b and went to sleep.
We left York pretty early in the morning (about 8am) and got back to London in the early afternoon. It was a really fun weekend trip and I definitely recommend going! The people were soo friendly and there was so much to see and do. It was another place I could see myself living. I was so upset on Sunday though because I had my huge theatre presentation the next day, so I had to work on that when I got home…I was a bit tired, but I survived. No big deal!
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Royalty? Je pense donc je suis! Not really, but I wish.
Alright! So, pretty sure I havent updated in awhile, I am sorry, but my life has been HELLA boring up to 2 days ago. I will give you a brief overview of what happened this last week…Tuesday we had classes all day, so that was exciting. Then that night Rachel and I went on a walk throughout the neighborhood. So, that was Tuesday. Wednesday I had the day off, so I slept in for a bit, then I watched Footloose. Don’t ask me why, I just did. Good times! Then later that afternoon, Rachel went to TESCO and bought a TON of food, so we cooked up a storm. For dinner we made chicken, lamb, potatoes, and vegetables. It was epic. I am actually pretty proud of my cooking skills on this trip ;). Rachel had a bit of trouble cooking the lamb…it took about 3 hours…And then it looked sketch minkz, but shes not dead, so that’s a plus. Anyway, it was NAST minkz!!! When you pressed on it, blood came out…It was terrible. Baa Baa black sheep have you any wool? No, because Rachel ate it all! OH NO. It was soo sad! I know, I know, I have no problems eating chicken and beef…But it has always been worse with Lamb, I don’t know why. Anyllama! That was Wednesday, sooo exciting, I know, you all are on the edges of your seats!!! So then if you follow the chronological order of a week, you get to Thursday. On Thursday, there was no class for Art, so we slept in, and had a relaxing morning. Unfortunately, I had to go to class at 2, so I did that, which was pretty exciting. Afterwards, we did nothing! It was a great time! :) Im pretty sure we just hung out and thought of our dreams and aspirations…aka I booked trips to Paris and Dublin for Rachel and I, so that’s exciting!!! While im on the topic, I would like to share this with you…We all have 6 weekends left here in London before we go on our 2 week travels, and then home. Well, Rachel and I will be here for a grand total of 1 of those weekends! Holla! Yeah, we will be busy… So, this coming weekend we are going to York. Then the following weekend we are going to Oxford and the Cotswolds, I couldnt be more pumped :) ! Apparently, the exchange rate is amazing right now? But, if its not, we are not going…So I need to get on that to figure things out. Finally, the following weekend is Halloween, which will be our final weekend in London aka tourism galore and scary attractions. The weekend after that (November Holla!) we are going to Scotland. Then the following weekends are Paris (with steve howe!!!) and then Dublin!!! SOOO PUMPED FOR LIFE!!! :) Im going to be in debt SOO bad, but I don’t care! Its about the experience!!! So I am going to jump back to describing my week…I think we left off on Thursday, which I am done with, so now Friday! We had ANOTHER day off! So, I decided to be productive and did my laundry (which cost me my spleen, aka its fexpensive! It was 6 pounds to wash and dry one load, so about $10…CRAZY). After that, we went to Tesco and bought food for the rest of the week. While at the grocery store, Rachel got the idea to dye her hair! So, we did that when we got home! Now she has dark brown hair! Its soo pretty! I dyed it, and I was nervous that I would screw up, but it actually looks really good, so HOLLA!!! After we dyed her hair, Sam came home and so we had a mini girls night. We ate ice cream and watched Varsity Blues, hella fun times!!! Alright, brace yourselves for one of the best weekends of your…Well, technically my life, anyway! Are you braced?! GOOD!!!!
Saturday we (Rachel and I of course) went to WINDSOR CASTLE!!!! AKA the Queens favorite and mostly weekend residence!!! It was FUGE and on a hill and STUNNING!!!! Oh man, was it gorgeous!!! Yeah, pretty sure one of the highlights was going into the chapel and seeing the home of the Order of the Garter and also walking over Henry the 8th’s, Jane Seymour’s, and Charles the something’s graves! It was GREAT! I couldn’t believe they were ACTUALLY there, buried under my feet. It sounds weird, but it is an awesome feeling that so much history is ACTUALLY there and not in a book. We also saw the place where they laid the Queen Mother and Queen Elizabeths dad to rest. It was beautiful! The whole of Windsor was just so decorated and inside the castle was a small city. There are over 150 people who live inside and everything is sooo cute!!! I love it!!!! I want to live there sooo bad!!! It was probably by far my favorite part of the journey so far! I loved loved loved it! Windsor was only an hour train ride outside the city of London. So, not only was Winsdsor in the city of Windsor, but so is ETON COLLEGE!!! Okay, for those of you who are not aware, I have a freakish obsession with private, british boarding schools. I think they are awesome! And hella interesting…So! It was only fitting and like seeing Mecca for me, that Eton was there! It is the most famous and elite boarding school in all of England. Both princes and a ton of prime ministers attended the school. Unfortunately, it was shut down for tours, but we got to see it and it was BEAUTIFUL! I bought a guide book , if anyone is interested. Sadly, I had to leave my heaven (windsor and eton) and go back to London. 0nce we got home we ate some dinner and then we planned some more of our lives and Rachel read me stories about Henry the 8th, in a British accent of course. It was a great day!!!
AND THE WEEKEND STILL ISNT OVER!!!
SUNDAY! Aka FUNDAY! We started the morning with some Yoga, aka I had to stretch my calf meat because I felt like I had a charlie horse! It blew minkz spleen! Then I ate breakfast, THEN! THEN!!! We (Rachel and I of course) went to the Tower of London!!! HOLLA!!!! It was GLORIOUS! And FUGE! I loved it sooo much!!! I didn’t realise that it was so much more than just a few tours. All the Beefeaters (gaurds) live inside the walls as well as the governor. It was absoulutely FAMAZING!!! We took a tour with a beefeater, who was hilarious and had so many interesting stories. After his tour, we went and saw the crown jewels (BEAUTIFUL, STUNNING, HOUSE OF BLING to the nth DEGREE!!!), not a big deal…And then toured the place. There is a special exhibition of Henry the 8ths items that will never be all together ever again, so we saw that. It was all of his armour, some of his clothing, all of his weapons, and some other stuff. It was so cool! I loved my life on Sunday! :) Anyway! After the Tower of London, we walked the 100 feet or so to the TOWER BRIDGE!!! OH MAN MINKZ!!! I am in LOVE with TOWER BRIDGE! I am going to be it for Halloween(not really)!!! I love it so much! Its stunning!!! We walked up the 70391 stairs (Finger, I thought of you because remember when we had to walk up the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and there were all those stairs and we were laughing so hard? Yeah…that happened again! Aka it is Londons idea of a stair master) and got to the top. It was gorgeous, but rainy, oh well! I loved it! I love this city!!! SUPER CUTE!!! :O) Basically, I had a FAMAZING weekend! After the bridge we just went back to the flat and made chicken parmesan (HELLA GOOD!) and did homework. That is your anti-climax for this weekend, but I don’t think much can beat it around our flat…Oh well. Well, I miss you all and cant believe its already pretty much mid-october! Its CRAZY! But I have soo much more to do here! I will keep you posted! Love you all!
Saturday we (Rachel and I of course) went to WINDSOR CASTLE!!!! AKA the Queens favorite and mostly weekend residence!!! It was FUGE and on a hill and STUNNING!!!! Oh man, was it gorgeous!!! Yeah, pretty sure one of the highlights was going into the chapel and seeing the home of the Order of the Garter and also walking over Henry the 8th’s, Jane Seymour’s, and Charles the something’s graves! It was GREAT! I couldn’t believe they were ACTUALLY there, buried under my feet. It sounds weird, but it is an awesome feeling that so much history is ACTUALLY there and not in a book. We also saw the place where they laid the Queen Mother and Queen Elizabeths dad to rest. It was beautiful! The whole of Windsor was just so decorated and inside the castle was a small city. There are over 150 people who live inside and everything is sooo cute!!! I love it!!!! I want to live there sooo bad!!! It was probably by far my favorite part of the journey so far! I loved loved loved it! Windsor was only an hour train ride outside the city of London. So, not only was Winsdsor in the city of Windsor, but so is ETON COLLEGE!!! Okay, for those of you who are not aware, I have a freakish obsession with private, british boarding schools. I think they are awesome! And hella interesting…So! It was only fitting and like seeing Mecca for me, that Eton was there! It is the most famous and elite boarding school in all of England. Both princes and a ton of prime ministers attended the school. Unfortunately, it was shut down for tours, but we got to see it and it was BEAUTIFUL! I bought a guide book , if anyone is interested. Sadly, I had to leave my heaven (windsor and eton) and go back to London. 0nce we got home we ate some dinner and then we planned some more of our lives and Rachel read me stories about Henry the 8th, in a British accent of course. It was a great day!!!
AND THE WEEKEND STILL ISNT OVER!!!
SUNDAY! Aka FUNDAY! We started the morning with some Yoga, aka I had to stretch my calf meat because I felt like I had a charlie horse! It blew minkz spleen! Then I ate breakfast, THEN! THEN!!! We (Rachel and I of course) went to the Tower of London!!! HOLLA!!!! It was GLORIOUS! And FUGE! I loved it sooo much!!! I didn’t realise that it was so much more than just a few tours. All the Beefeaters (gaurds) live inside the walls as well as the governor. It was absoulutely FAMAZING!!! We took a tour with a beefeater, who was hilarious and had so many interesting stories. After his tour, we went and saw the crown jewels (BEAUTIFUL, STUNNING, HOUSE OF BLING to the nth DEGREE!!!), not a big deal…And then toured the place. There is a special exhibition of Henry the 8ths items that will never be all together ever again, so we saw that. It was all of his armour, some of his clothing, all of his weapons, and some other stuff. It was so cool! I loved my life on Sunday! :) Anyway! After the Tower of London, we walked the 100 feet or so to the TOWER BRIDGE!!! OH MAN MINKZ!!! I am in LOVE with TOWER BRIDGE! I am going to be it for Halloween(not really)!!! I love it so much! Its stunning!!! We walked up the 70391 stairs (Finger, I thought of you because remember when we had to walk up the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and there were all those stairs and we were laughing so hard? Yeah…that happened again! Aka it is Londons idea of a stair master) and got to the top. It was gorgeous, but rainy, oh well! I loved it! I love this city!!! SUPER CUTE!!! :O) Basically, I had a FAMAZING weekend! After the bridge we just went back to the flat and made chicken parmesan (HELLA GOOD!) and did homework. That is your anti-climax for this weekend, but I don’t think much can beat it around our flat…Oh well. Well, I miss you all and cant believe its already pretty much mid-october! Its CRAZY! But I have soo much more to do here! I will keep you posted! Love you all!
Monday, October 5, 2009
Day 30-32: A couple of Romans, Hugh Grant, and some footie! :)
Day 30-32:
October 2nd aka Happy Birthday Felz! We left for Bath around 8am. I was PUMPED!!! I have ALWAYS wanted to go to Bath! We had PERFECT weather! Our bus driver was hella nice too! The ride was GOREGOUS. We actually got to see bigger hills, so that was fun! It was like being at home! But it was better because around Bath there are just valleys and valleys of lush green, herds of sheep and horses, and these beautiful english manors and little farm houses that are soo beautiful. I love it soo much! Once we got into Bath I died. It was AMAZING!!! It sits in the middle of this valley and I there is this river that runs through it and kind of curves around everywhere. There are houses all over the hillside and they are all stunning! Oh man, I loved it! The first thing we did was go on a tour of the Roman Baths, which Bath is famous for. They were beautiful and really cool! They excavated all of these underground baths and different parts that made up the old city center of the Romans. It was amazing how they did everything back then. Everything was still in pretty good shape and it was amazing how they built modern Bath right on top and around the historical site. The city of Bath is just utterly gorgeous. Pictures don’t do it justice. After the tour of the Baths, we walked around the town and down by the river. The weather was beautiful and it made everything else better! While we were down by the river we met a yellow lab puppy named “Barley” and he was sooo CUTE. I also saw a pair of Teests (snowys) and they were club super cute! I wanted to take them. Rachel, Matt, Ben, Reckase, and I went to lunch at this VERY nice, but non-expensive place in the city. It was really cool. I had an amazing burger, so it was a success for sure. The whole trip was phenomenal! After lunch we went to the Bath Abbey which was hella cool. They had a crypt and everything, love it. When we arrived at the Abbey and the Baths (they are right next to eachother and surround a square along with a bunch of shops/restaruants/pubs) there was a guy playing the violin and he was FAMAZING! It defintely set the mood and it was very European. I love it here! :) I think if I had to move somewhere here, Bath would be one of my top choices. I love it soo much! Sadly, we had to leave Bath at 3:30, but it was a great trip! Once we got back, I watched a movie (Shaun of the Dead) with Sam, which was pretty funny. Great day! Miss you all! Loves!
I will try to post some pictures here, but they will most likely be Rachel’s due to the fact that my camera isnt working at the moment :(
Day 31:
Wow, today was a FULL day! Rache and I have decided that we are trying to get stuff done before we start travelling! And by getting stuff done, we mean, seeing touristy stuff that we want to see before we get hella busy. So we started our Saturday morning with a jaunt to Portobello Market on Notting Hill. It was a beautfiul area! Loved it! And the market was FUGE and PACKED! They sold EVERYTHING! I bought 3 really nice scarves for 5 pounds, so that was exciting! We walked around for about an hour and then got sick of the crowds, so we headed back towards the tube stop. We realized King’s Cross wasn’t too far out, so we decided, what the hell?! Lets go see where Harry Potter takes the train! So once we got there we found this small little wall that was “moved due to construction” haha yeah…How the hell are the wizards supposed to find it and get to the right place when it was MOVED?! Haha. Yeah…anyway, needless to say we took the stereotypical tourist photos and it was a great time! Once we got our fill of Platform 9 3/4, we walked around the area trying to find somewhere for lunch. We came across this coffee house-esque restaruant which was pretty cute. We ordered pizza and garlic bread. It was cheap and hella good! But here’s the thing. It’s very European, and sort of nice and all, but when you want to get things done, its not the way you want it to be. ANY MEAL HERE TAKES FOOOREEEVVERR!!! I understand that eating is more of a social thing, but honestly, oh my god! Seriously, I don’t want a pizza lunch to take 2 FRACKIN HOURS! It was a bit ridiculous, but that’s just the American in me talking. After lunch, we needed to walk off the pizza, so we decided to head to Camden (the birthplace of punk music, holla, right up my alley…not, but its still cool) and it was PACKED as well. OH man minkz! We headed towards what we thought was the market and ran into this really gorgeous neighborhood with huge houses, so we were like, huh, pretty sure this isnt it…So we looked around for a bit and ran right into the London Zoo of all places! HOLLA! JACKPOT! So we, like any normal person would, decided to find our inner child and go see the Am-in-als! We walked in with a bunch of 7 year olds and it was GREAT! We saw the reptile house, Gorilla kingdom!, and a bunch of other stuff. My top 3 fav’s were: 1. The monkeys! They had a bunch of spider monkeys in a small enclosure full of trees and a walking path, and they didn’t keep them in cages, they were just kind of all around this enclosure hanging out. So you could walk right up to them, didn’t pet em, they probably would have ran, but it was awesome! They were right ther! Holla! 2. The penguins! We got to watch them during feeding time and they were soo cute! Just like Happy Feet! :) 3. LIONS!!! And TIGERS!!! They had baby lion cubs and they were the most adorable things I have ever seen! Defintely simba and nala, nbd. I was pumped and the tigers were BEAUTIFUL! The zoo was awesome!!! :) Good choices! After the zoo though, we were dying. It was now 5:00 and we had left the house at 8am. SO! It was time to head home! We walked the mile or so back to the tube station and it took us an hour to get home. Tons of walking, but it was all worth it! So much fun! :) Great day! After we got back we just hung out and didn’t do much. We had dinner and hung out with the girls and went to bed early.
Day 32:
So Sunday it is! We thought we were going to be really productive and do another day full of touristy stuff, but we were hella tired! And the weather was pretty overcast and cold, so we weren’t motivated at all. Rachel and I got up early though, and walked to the really cute neighborhood by our flat and went to the Green Hotel for breakfast. It is this little bed and breakfast place that has a pub/coffee house feel restaurant on the bottom. I tried a full english breakfast for the first time! It was sooo good! Loved it! Had a great cup of coffee and it was perfect! :) However, once again, the meal took FOREVER! Another hour and a half. But, oh well! It was hella good. After breakfast we headed to Tesco to buy stuff for making lunches the next 2 days. We wanted to cook. When we got back to the flat and cleaned up, did some facebooking, etc, we decided to make taco salads for lunch. We are really good cooks! Holla! They were famazing! Matt came over and invited us to watch the huge rivalry game between Chelsea and Liverpool at this one pub, so we figured what the hell! I have always wanted to experience football european style, especially because the fans are ridiculous. We went down to the Fulham area and we just saw masses of people in all blue for Chelsea. It was ridiculous, but really fun. There were cops everywhere and bouncers at every door. They would ask who you were rooting for and that would determine whether or not you could go in or not. We decided that the area was a tad rowdy, so we headed back to the flat area and went to this pub down the street. Matt knows the owners, they are this really cute family, so we watched the game there. It was so fun! All of the fans are super cute! I love watching football (soccer), its interesting! :) After the game we just all hung out all night. Had a small dance party, nothing too extreme. I went to bed fairly early, so that’s always nice! Another day off tomorrow! HOLLA!!!
October 2nd aka Happy Birthday Felz! We left for Bath around 8am. I was PUMPED!!! I have ALWAYS wanted to go to Bath! We had PERFECT weather! Our bus driver was hella nice too! The ride was GOREGOUS. We actually got to see bigger hills, so that was fun! It was like being at home! But it was better because around Bath there are just valleys and valleys of lush green, herds of sheep and horses, and these beautiful english manors and little farm houses that are soo beautiful. I love it soo much! Once we got into Bath I died. It was AMAZING!!! It sits in the middle of this valley and I there is this river that runs through it and kind of curves around everywhere. There are houses all over the hillside and they are all stunning! Oh man, I loved it! The first thing we did was go on a tour of the Roman Baths, which Bath is famous for. They were beautiful and really cool! They excavated all of these underground baths and different parts that made up the old city center of the Romans. It was amazing how they did everything back then. Everything was still in pretty good shape and it was amazing how they built modern Bath right on top and around the historical site. The city of Bath is just utterly gorgeous. Pictures don’t do it justice. After the tour of the Baths, we walked around the town and down by the river. The weather was beautiful and it made everything else better! While we were down by the river we met a yellow lab puppy named “Barley” and he was sooo CUTE. I also saw a pair of Teests (snowys) and they were club super cute! I wanted to take them. Rachel, Matt, Ben, Reckase, and I went to lunch at this VERY nice, but non-expensive place in the city. It was really cool. I had an amazing burger, so it was a success for sure. The whole trip was phenomenal! After lunch we went to the Bath Abbey which was hella cool. They had a crypt and everything, love it. When we arrived at the Abbey and the Baths (they are right next to eachother and surround a square along with a bunch of shops/restaruants/pubs) there was a guy playing the violin and he was FAMAZING! It defintely set the mood and it was very European. I love it here! :) I think if I had to move somewhere here, Bath would be one of my top choices. I love it soo much! Sadly, we had to leave Bath at 3:30, but it was a great trip! Once we got back, I watched a movie (Shaun of the Dead) with Sam, which was pretty funny. Great day! Miss you all! Loves!
I will try to post some pictures here, but they will most likely be Rachel’s due to the fact that my camera isnt working at the moment :(
Day 31:
Wow, today was a FULL day! Rache and I have decided that we are trying to get stuff done before we start travelling! And by getting stuff done, we mean, seeing touristy stuff that we want to see before we get hella busy. So we started our Saturday morning with a jaunt to Portobello Market on Notting Hill. It was a beautfiul area! Loved it! And the market was FUGE and PACKED! They sold EVERYTHING! I bought 3 really nice scarves for 5 pounds, so that was exciting! We walked around for about an hour and then got sick of the crowds, so we headed back towards the tube stop. We realized King’s Cross wasn’t too far out, so we decided, what the hell?! Lets go see where Harry Potter takes the train! So once we got there we found this small little wall that was “moved due to construction” haha yeah…How the hell are the wizards supposed to find it and get to the right place when it was MOVED?! Haha. Yeah…anyway, needless to say we took the stereotypical tourist photos and it was a great time! Once we got our fill of Platform 9 3/4, we walked around the area trying to find somewhere for lunch. We came across this coffee house-esque restaruant which was pretty cute. We ordered pizza and garlic bread. It was cheap and hella good! But here’s the thing. It’s very European, and sort of nice and all, but when you want to get things done, its not the way you want it to be. ANY MEAL HERE TAKES FOOOREEEVVERR!!! I understand that eating is more of a social thing, but honestly, oh my god! Seriously, I don’t want a pizza lunch to take 2 FRACKIN HOURS! It was a bit ridiculous, but that’s just the American in me talking. After lunch, we needed to walk off the pizza, so we decided to head to Camden (the birthplace of punk music, holla, right up my alley…not, but its still cool) and it was PACKED as well. OH man minkz! We headed towards what we thought was the market and ran into this really gorgeous neighborhood with huge houses, so we were like, huh, pretty sure this isnt it…So we looked around for a bit and ran right into the London Zoo of all places! HOLLA! JACKPOT! So we, like any normal person would, decided to find our inner child and go see the Am-in-als! We walked in with a bunch of 7 year olds and it was GREAT! We saw the reptile house, Gorilla kingdom!, and a bunch of other stuff. My top 3 fav’s were: 1. The monkeys! They had a bunch of spider monkeys in a small enclosure full of trees and a walking path, and they didn’t keep them in cages, they were just kind of all around this enclosure hanging out. So you could walk right up to them, didn’t pet em, they probably would have ran, but it was awesome! They were right ther! Holla! 2. The penguins! We got to watch them during feeding time and they were soo cute! Just like Happy Feet! :) 3. LIONS!!! And TIGERS!!! They had baby lion cubs and they were the most adorable things I have ever seen! Defintely simba and nala, nbd. I was pumped and the tigers were BEAUTIFUL! The zoo was awesome!!! :) Good choices! After the zoo though, we were dying. It was now 5:00 and we had left the house at 8am. SO! It was time to head home! We walked the mile or so back to the tube station and it took us an hour to get home. Tons of walking, but it was all worth it! So much fun! :) Great day! After we got back we just hung out and didn’t do much. We had dinner and hung out with the girls and went to bed early.
Day 32:
So Sunday it is! We thought we were going to be really productive and do another day full of touristy stuff, but we were hella tired! And the weather was pretty overcast and cold, so we weren’t motivated at all. Rachel and I got up early though, and walked to the really cute neighborhood by our flat and went to the Green Hotel for breakfast. It is this little bed and breakfast place that has a pub/coffee house feel restaurant on the bottom. I tried a full english breakfast for the first time! It was sooo good! Loved it! Had a great cup of coffee and it was perfect! :) However, once again, the meal took FOREVER! Another hour and a half. But, oh well! It was hella good. After breakfast we headed to Tesco to buy stuff for making lunches the next 2 days. We wanted to cook. When we got back to the flat and cleaned up, did some facebooking, etc, we decided to make taco salads for lunch. We are really good cooks! Holla! They were famazing! Matt came over and invited us to watch the huge rivalry game between Chelsea and Liverpool at this one pub, so we figured what the hell! I have always wanted to experience football european style, especially because the fans are ridiculous. We went down to the Fulham area and we just saw masses of people in all blue for Chelsea. It was ridiculous, but really fun. There were cops everywhere and bouncers at every door. They would ask who you were rooting for and that would determine whether or not you could go in or not. We decided that the area was a tad rowdy, so we headed back to the flat area and went to this pub down the street. Matt knows the owners, they are this really cute family, so we watched the game there. It was so fun! All of the fans are super cute! I love watching football (soccer), its interesting! :) After the game we just all hung out all night. Had a small dance party, nothing too extreme. I went to bed fairly early, so that’s always nice! Another day off tomorrow! HOLLA!!!
Day 28 and 29: Modern Art...Not a fan.
Day 28/29:
Today was my day off during the week so I didn’t do much :) I watched Glee for a bit, then Rachel and I went shopping. She has been looking for a coat, so we found a really cute one that was not that expensive. SUCCESS! Holla! :) After that we went to get Kebabs (of course) and they knew us, so that was cute. Haha. Once we were done there, we went to Iceland (the store, not the country) and got some food for the week. Later that night, we decided to go see this British movie that we thought looked interesting. It’s called “Fish Tank” and it was…Interesting. It was about a girl who was a “dancer” aka the worst dancer I have ever seen in my life! And there was this part where these 4 girls tried to dance to “Me and U” by Cassie…Oh man, Rache and I laughed SOOO hard. They were TERRIBLE. I don’t know if they meant to be, but it was just AWFUL. You should google it. Haha :) Anyway, after the movie we went back to the flats and went to bed.
Day 29:
For Art in London we got to go to the Tate Modern. We were pumped! So, to get there we had to walk across the Millenium Bridge, which was famazing! Lots of fun seeing as though its not blown up for real, no worries. Once we got there, we went to the café and had coffee and muffins. Lucy, our tutor is so cute! We love her! She got us tickets for the POP art exhibit. It was very interesting and some of it was very cool. However, a lot of it was…different. There were 2 rooms full of basically just pornographic pictures which was just great ya know, not fawkward at all. No worries. Then, there was a bunch of really cool stuff from like Andy Warhol and other street painters and stuff. So one part of the exhibit was HILARIOUS! Because there was this really cute little girl with her dad, and they were walking towards us through these 2 rooms. Well, in the first room there was just a small, older, tv with a porno on it…Yeah, awesome. Don’t know how that is art, but whatever. The second room had a life-size horse with a stake stuck through the middle of it with a sign on it that said something or other…So this poor little girl walks in with her dad, who is trying to shield her from the tv, but she turns and sees it, covers her face and gets huge eyes, which was pretty funny, then the poor thing walks in the next room, sees the horse, and then starts to cry. It was terrible! I felt so bad, but it was also pretty funny. Oh man. There was sooo many weird things in that place. I cant even describe. I know one thing, modern art, for the most part, is NOT my thing. Oh well, the whole experience was pretty fun and great for being a class. Beats the run of the mill classroom experience if you ask me. After art Rachel and I tried our first pasty, which was REALLY good! We liked it a lot, but they are defintely not good for you. Once we got back to the flats I had another class, Politics, so that was fun. I love that class! So interesting and the guy is super cute. Overall, just an average day here in London. We didn’t really do much that night, just hung out. The next day we had our last day trip until Scotland, so holla! :)
Today was my day off during the week so I didn’t do much :) I watched Glee for a bit, then Rachel and I went shopping. She has been looking for a coat, so we found a really cute one that was not that expensive. SUCCESS! Holla! :) After that we went to get Kebabs (of course) and they knew us, so that was cute. Haha. Once we were done there, we went to Iceland (the store, not the country) and got some food for the week. Later that night, we decided to go see this British movie that we thought looked interesting. It’s called “Fish Tank” and it was…Interesting. It was about a girl who was a “dancer” aka the worst dancer I have ever seen in my life! And there was this part where these 4 girls tried to dance to “Me and U” by Cassie…Oh man, Rache and I laughed SOOO hard. They were TERRIBLE. I don’t know if they meant to be, but it was just AWFUL. You should google it. Haha :) Anyway, after the movie we went back to the flats and went to bed.
Day 29:
For Art in London we got to go to the Tate Modern. We were pumped! So, to get there we had to walk across the Millenium Bridge, which was famazing! Lots of fun seeing as though its not blown up for real, no worries. Once we got there, we went to the café and had coffee and muffins. Lucy, our tutor is so cute! We love her! She got us tickets for the POP art exhibit. It was very interesting and some of it was very cool. However, a lot of it was…different. There were 2 rooms full of basically just pornographic pictures which was just great ya know, not fawkward at all. No worries. Then, there was a bunch of really cool stuff from like Andy Warhol and other street painters and stuff. So one part of the exhibit was HILARIOUS! Because there was this really cute little girl with her dad, and they were walking towards us through these 2 rooms. Well, in the first room there was just a small, older, tv with a porno on it…Yeah, awesome. Don’t know how that is art, but whatever. The second room had a life-size horse with a stake stuck through the middle of it with a sign on it that said something or other…So this poor little girl walks in with her dad, who is trying to shield her from the tv, but she turns and sees it, covers her face and gets huge eyes, which was pretty funny, then the poor thing walks in the next room, sees the horse, and then starts to cry. It was terrible! I felt so bad, but it was also pretty funny. Oh man. There was sooo many weird things in that place. I cant even describe. I know one thing, modern art, for the most part, is NOT my thing. Oh well, the whole experience was pretty fun and great for being a class. Beats the run of the mill classroom experience if you ask me. After art Rachel and I tried our first pasty, which was REALLY good! We liked it a lot, but they are defintely not good for you. Once we got back to the flats I had another class, Politics, so that was fun. I love that class! So interesting and the guy is super cute. Overall, just an average day here in London. We didn’t really do much that night, just hung out. The next day we had our last day trip until Scotland, so holla! :)
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Day 26/27: Dress Up and Museums, HOLLA!
Well I turned in my first paper of the trip so far during my Theatre in London class…Basically, the paper was a joke seeing as though it was only about our thoughts on each play we’ve seen…So NBD. Real easy. Our class was only an hour long (very nice!) so we had the rest of the day off. Rachel and I headed off to get Kebabs down the street again. They are soo good! Very cheap, very filling, great kids that work there! Every time we go down that way we see this grocery store that looke HELLA cheap, so we decided to go in and check it out. It was like an Aldi’s…But a little better. So Rache and I bought food there and I got TONS of stuff for only 15 pounds…It was great! :) When we came back we just kinda hung out around the flat, did some homework…Aka our first, non-graded, International Management presentation with Bob…Yeah, we didn’t know what we were doing, but its fine! Bond, Chris Bond (our tutor) thought we did fine. After awhile, Sam and Krista came home! And there our hella fun night begins!!! Apparently they went to Camden Market and decided to stop into this dress shop. Sam, oh Sam, she is probably one of the nicest people in the world, and has troubles telling people no…And Im pretty sure the shop owner could tell this because he was this foreign, very gay man who basically pressured her into buying these 2 interesting dresses because they looked, “just fabulous” on her…Oh poor girl! I mean they were really nice dresses, however the grand total came out to be over 100 pounds…Which is A LOT. So she is going to try and return them today…But the guy cut off all the tags…and never handed her a receipt…So pretty sure she got taken advantage of…:( Poor Sam. At least they DO look good on her! Anyway, after that story, and a fashion show, which was really pretty funny, everyone started a dress up event haha…Rachel and I decided to make outfits out of our scarves…Very cute and Krista put on her Tree Trunk sweater…Its just a sweater with a large cowl neck…and she joked that it was from when she was really fat and her neck was as large as a tree trunk…oh man minkz! Ya had to be there, but it was funny! So after while of different outfits, we decided to dress Rachel up kinda slutty (because she is the OPPOSITE of slutty, hence it being funny) and dared her to go over to the boys flat and ask to see Ben (they have a running gag because he always comes into the flat when she is only in her towel, and she walks into their flat when HE is in HIS towel) because of the irony between fawkwardness…Anyway, most of you probably arent understanding why this is funny…but it is. Let me assure you. The tale is more for me to have as a memory, not for you all to read. Anyway! Steve came to the door…and well…Steve and Rachel have been flirty, so it was just hilarious and really fawk! We have it in pictures, no worries! So that was that night…Very funny and a really good time. Flat mate bonding times! Gotta love em’!!!
Day 27:
So for Global Issues we met Steve (our tutor) at Waterloo Station for class. The girls arrived early, so we got bagels and read the news. Once everyone arrived we started the walk to the Imperial War Museum. Steve walked us around everywhere and we got to see some interesting things, and heard some more about London. He also showed us where London was bombed during the Blitz in WW2. Very interesting. The war museum was FAMAZING. Sooo interesting. I loved it! We went to one of the exhibits which was entitled, “Crimes Against Humanity” and it was just a film of crimes against humanity…aka just random people getting killed all over the globe…it was certainly eye opening, but good to see in the fact that it makes people aware of the current situations around the world. We also went to the Holocaust exhibit, which was OUTSTANDING. They had so many facts, videos (of various interviews from holocaust survirors), photos, real stories, artifacts, etc…They had a huge model of Auschwitz and different uniforms, shoes, etc…it was all so horrible, but so intresting. Defintely very cool, especially since it was free. They also had an exhibit called the Trench experience and one that was called the Blitz Experience…Those were amazing as well! So cool to actually see what it was like. LOVED the whole experience. After we were done at the museum, we found our way back to our flat and got ready for international management. Overall, a very good class, good presentation, etc. He informed us that we are going to be going to his university and meeting his students and hanging out there sometimes, so that should be cool. Also, when he gets back from business trip he is taking us to China Town and we are going to have a meal and hang out with some kids down there. It should be hella interesting!!! After class I planned for our life and figured out what we MIGHT be doing for travel throughout our time here. Good work for me! Holla! It was a great night, filled with fun and frivolity. We hung out with the guys for awhile and then when the girls came home, hung out with them. I went to bed around 10, so that was fun! Love sleeping! :) Day off tomorrow so who knows what will happen! Cheerio!
Day 27:
So for Global Issues we met Steve (our tutor) at Waterloo Station for class. The girls arrived early, so we got bagels and read the news. Once everyone arrived we started the walk to the Imperial War Museum. Steve walked us around everywhere and we got to see some interesting things, and heard some more about London. He also showed us where London was bombed during the Blitz in WW2. Very interesting. The war museum was FAMAZING. Sooo interesting. I loved it! We went to one of the exhibits which was entitled, “Crimes Against Humanity” and it was just a film of crimes against humanity…aka just random people getting killed all over the globe…it was certainly eye opening, but good to see in the fact that it makes people aware of the current situations around the world. We also went to the Holocaust exhibit, which was OUTSTANDING. They had so many facts, videos (of various interviews from holocaust survirors), photos, real stories, artifacts, etc…They had a huge model of Auschwitz and different uniforms, shoes, etc…it was all so horrible, but so intresting. Defintely very cool, especially since it was free. They also had an exhibit called the Trench experience and one that was called the Blitz Experience…Those were amazing as well! So cool to actually see what it was like. LOVED the whole experience. After we were done at the museum, we found our way back to our flat and got ready for international management. Overall, a very good class, good presentation, etc. He informed us that we are going to be going to his university and meeting his students and hanging out there sometimes, so that should be cool. Also, when he gets back from business trip he is taking us to China Town and we are going to have a meal and hang out with some kids down there. It should be hella interesting!!! After class I planned for our life and figured out what we MIGHT be doing for travel throughout our time here. Good work for me! Holla! It was a great night, filled with fun and frivolity. We hung out with the guys for awhile and then when the girls came home, hung out with them. I went to bed around 10, so that was fun! Love sleeping! :) Day off tomorrow so who knows what will happen! Cheerio!
Monday, September 28, 2009
Day 24 & 25: Elvish translations...You can google it.
Day 24 &25:
So! Off to the start of another week here in London! Sunday was a very lazy day. It started off very productive, but then it hit noon and I got lazy. In the morning I woke up at 8 and Sam and I walked the block to the laundromat where I then did 50 lbs of laundry…Yeah, next time im going to do it more often, instead of all at once. It was a really nice place and the owner was club super nice! I love it here :) Most people are really cute and you want to put them in your purse. Sam and I felt hella scuzzy though because we both were wearing sweat pants, pajama-esque tshirts, and had not showered…So! Basically, we felt amyed (judged) the whole way to the laundromat. Especially because everyone in London always looks hella nice. Rache and I have a count going and so far we have seen 13 people where some form of sweat pants…13…That’s not that much compared to where we come from. But then again, that’s America for ya. Love it! Haha :) Anyway, after laundry I came back, put it all away, had breakfast, and blogged about my ideals. It was very productive…But then Rache came home and we both decided that our beds looked really appealing, so we made the executive decision to take a nap…However, this is sort of a problem for me. When we moved in, I realized that my bed wasn’t up to par with all beds in the world… aka it is literally bent in half on one side and my mattress has decided to follow suite. So its kind of a danger to our health and well being…Especially since it’s the bottom bunk and Krista sleeps on the top…Therefore we are both afraid for our lives…Being the smart kids that we are we A. have now advised the landlord about the poverty bed and B. decided to use cooking pots to stabalize the bed until he can fix it or get us new beds….Oh and have I mentioned that although my bed IS comfortable, my back isnt liking the whole bent idea very much. Anyway, that was that…After about a 2 hour nap (hellz yea!) we decided to wake up and do nothing! Holla!!! But after awhile we got bored of nothing and decided to write our papers for Theatre in London, so we did that. All together, a very exciting night…Until DUN DUN DUN!!!! Our friend Ben has this girl that he is interested in and her facebook name is “Sulu El” but her real name is Sarah…So we were like Whaddahell? I decided that it was probably Sarah in Klingon, Vulcan, or Elvish…Needless to say I was wrong (figured this out because we went online and translated her name into all of these languages…Translators are easy to come by these days! They even do elmer fudd and shat! Holla), but we did get great ideas for new door decks for all of the rooms in our flat and the boys’ flat. Now everyone has there name written in Elvish with the meanings and phonetical spelling. LOVE IT! So funny! You may call me “Tariel” (Tahr-ee-ell) meaning, “Queen” (duh minkz…I could have told you that…nbd). Oh balls! We are winners. But it was pretty funny. Anyway, after writing my paper, making door decks, and helping Wiggy hang up his stoner cloth (he bought it at Camden Market aka the birthplace of punk) on his ceiling (don’t ask), I went to bed and dreamt that P wills (aka Prince William) and I were best friends. NBD. It probably will happen, don’t judge me. :)
Day 25:
So we got to sleep in today because class wasn’t until 10:15 (Holla). It only went for an hour, so that was hella nice. After class, Rache had to run errands, so I went back to the flat and hung out , did some homework, ya know, nothing exciting. When she came back, we walked down the street for about a mile and got kebabs. They are super good and really cheap! Love them! After that we went to a grocery store called “iceland” which reminds me of you, Dad. It seems like a European version of the european Aldi store that you love so much! Haha its pretty trashy, but their food is CHEAP! So we bought a good amount of stuff and it only cost me 15 quid. NOT TOO BAD! :) Then we went to work on our International Management presentations with Bob. Its not a hard class, but seeing as though none of us have taken a business course before, it was a bit of a challenge. I needed Boo Bear or Meran, someone with a business brain. Anyway, we had to act as a consulting firm and help a company that had had negative press against them. So we had to form strategies, an action plan, and write a press release. It went pretty quickly and we probably saved the company, nbd. And all this before dinner! Holla! :) After we finished, I called my dad, sister, and mom, and only my dad picked up, so thanks kids :) haha they were busy, nbd. I did get to finally talk to Pilg, so that made my life!!! She makes me so happy. Super cute that one! :) I miss everyone so much, but it truly is famazing here!!! I feel like its home. So that is really cool. I will talk to you all soon! Hope you are doing well!
So! Off to the start of another week here in London! Sunday was a very lazy day. It started off very productive, but then it hit noon and I got lazy. In the morning I woke up at 8 and Sam and I walked the block to the laundromat where I then did 50 lbs of laundry…Yeah, next time im going to do it more often, instead of all at once. It was a really nice place and the owner was club super nice! I love it here :) Most people are really cute and you want to put them in your purse. Sam and I felt hella scuzzy though because we both were wearing sweat pants, pajama-esque tshirts, and had not showered…So! Basically, we felt amyed (judged) the whole way to the laundromat. Especially because everyone in London always looks hella nice. Rache and I have a count going and so far we have seen 13 people where some form of sweat pants…13…That’s not that much compared to where we come from. But then again, that’s America for ya. Love it! Haha :) Anyway, after laundry I came back, put it all away, had breakfast, and blogged about my ideals. It was very productive…But then Rache came home and we both decided that our beds looked really appealing, so we made the executive decision to take a nap…However, this is sort of a problem for me. When we moved in, I realized that my bed wasn’t up to par with all beds in the world… aka it is literally bent in half on one side and my mattress has decided to follow suite. So its kind of a danger to our health and well being…Especially since it’s the bottom bunk and Krista sleeps on the top…Therefore we are both afraid for our lives…Being the smart kids that we are we A. have now advised the landlord about the poverty bed and B. decided to use cooking pots to stabalize the bed until he can fix it or get us new beds….Oh and have I mentioned that although my bed IS comfortable, my back isnt liking the whole bent idea very much. Anyway, that was that…After about a 2 hour nap (hellz yea!) we decided to wake up and do nothing! Holla!!! But after awhile we got bored of nothing and decided to write our papers for Theatre in London, so we did that. All together, a very exciting night…Until DUN DUN DUN!!!! Our friend Ben has this girl that he is interested in and her facebook name is “Sulu El” but her real name is Sarah…So we were like Whaddahell? I decided that it was probably Sarah in Klingon, Vulcan, or Elvish…Needless to say I was wrong (figured this out because we went online and translated her name into all of these languages…Translators are easy to come by these days! They even do elmer fudd and shat! Holla), but we did get great ideas for new door decks for all of the rooms in our flat and the boys’ flat. Now everyone has there name written in Elvish with the meanings and phonetical spelling. LOVE IT! So funny! You may call me “Tariel” (Tahr-ee-ell) meaning, “Queen” (duh minkz…I could have told you that…nbd). Oh balls! We are winners. But it was pretty funny. Anyway, after writing my paper, making door decks, and helping Wiggy hang up his stoner cloth (he bought it at Camden Market aka the birthplace of punk) on his ceiling (don’t ask), I went to bed and dreamt that P wills (aka Prince William) and I were best friends. NBD. It probably will happen, don’t judge me. :)
Day 25:
So we got to sleep in today because class wasn’t until 10:15 (Holla). It only went for an hour, so that was hella nice. After class, Rache had to run errands, so I went back to the flat and hung out , did some homework, ya know, nothing exciting. When she came back, we walked down the street for about a mile and got kebabs. They are super good and really cheap! Love them! After that we went to a grocery store called “iceland” which reminds me of you, Dad. It seems like a European version of the european Aldi store that you love so much! Haha its pretty trashy, but their food is CHEAP! So we bought a good amount of stuff and it only cost me 15 quid. NOT TOO BAD! :) Then we went to work on our International Management presentations with Bob. Its not a hard class, but seeing as though none of us have taken a business course before, it was a bit of a challenge. I needed Boo Bear or Meran, someone with a business brain. Anyway, we had to act as a consulting firm and help a company that had had negative press against them. So we had to form strategies, an action plan, and write a press release. It went pretty quickly and we probably saved the company, nbd. And all this before dinner! Holla! :) After we finished, I called my dad, sister, and mom, and only my dad picked up, so thanks kids :) haha they were busy, nbd. I did get to finally talk to Pilg, so that made my life!!! She makes me so happy. Super cute that one! :) I miss everyone so much, but it truly is famazing here!!! I feel like its home. So that is really cool. I will talk to you all soon! Hope you are doing well!
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Days 20, 22, &23: Because 19 and 21 didn't make the cut...
Day 20:
So today is Wednesday and it is my day off, so I have decided to do something with my life! After Rache got done with Lit class, we plus Matt, decided to take a real trip to the Queen’s Hizzity-Hang. Yes, Buckingham Palace ppl! And man minkz was I pumped!!! Once we got there we took some pictures (0f course!), but those are on Rachel and Matt’s cameras because mine is deciding to not work at the moment, and then we purchased tickets to go inside! We opted to not take the audio tour and decided to tour it with our own commentary, it was filarious! The palace doesn’t look THAT exciting on the outside, but inside it is STUNNNING!!! I floved it so much! Im probably going to move there, nbd. When we got there we saw a diplomat leave, so that was exciting. The Queen was not at her residence due to the fact that she is vacationing at Balmoral, her estate in Scotland (I love it and want to own it, but apparently that’s not possible…whatever). The tour took about 45 minutes to an hour and we just got to walk through all of her different colored rooms where she meets with people, the galleries, exhibits, ballroom, and dining room. They also had a selection of her jewels layed out and different things she wears to events. They were gorgeous! Could she HAVE any more chandeliers? Probably…but still, there were tons! I wanted to put some in my purse, but apparently THAT’S not allowed..Oh well. The palace is huge and I would have defintely gotten lost inside had it not been for the red ropes everywhere marking off where to go…It’s a maze, love it! Proably would have been really good for the Princes to play hide and seek …But perhaps that wasn’t allowed…Who knows. We saw the stairs and the room that the Prime Minister takes and meets the Queen in every week. I was pumped!!! You can see it on the Queen movie if you would like! Its worth a viewing…You’ll see Balmoral too. After we descended the Minister’s staircase, we went down a flong hallway full of marble statues…This was about the time that Matt decided it would be a good time to trip over his feet, yeah…Winner. Thank god I was right behind him and have cat like reflexes and caught him or else he would be screwed due to the fact he most likely would have broken something…So funny though! We always know how to make a scene. Love life, London loves us, nbd, its okay if you’re jealous. So anyway, after we safely made it out of the palace, we got to walk around her gardens and pond area, which was beyond beautiful. Loved every moment of it! Defintely worth the like 12 pound admission fee!
After the palace we were hungry so we went back to our neck of the woods and went to one of Matt’s favorite restaurants to get Kebabs. I didn’t know what they were, except for the ones where you put the meet/vegetables/life on a stick…But these were different. They were like grilled meet and you put them in a pita and stuff…Pretty good and very cheap. Probably going to need to do those again sometime. Sam met us to eat, so it was wonderful hanging out with her too!
My day doesn’t end there!!! That night, Rachel and I had tickets to see the Phantom of the Opera…Oh balls was I excited!!! I flove the movie, but have never seen it performed live, so this was a great opportunity! We had pretty good seats and the performance was FAMAZING. My favorite show yet pretty sure. Soo good! They had so many amazing effects and all of the peformers were phenomenal! It was a great time! Definitely worth the money! The performance concluded my fun day and it was probably my favorite day so far this trip! So many great things accomplished for the day and I was in heavan! Made me love this town just a bit more! Miss you all, but Im definitely not ready to leave it! Good thing, due to the fact that I still have a couple months yet…Update more soon! Love you!!!
Day 22 and 23:
Today we went to Canterbury for our 3rd day trip! Its also Boo Bear’s BDAY!!! SO HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOO!!! LOVE YOU!!!! The day couldn’t be anymore perfect weather wise! The weather has been amazing! We are having an Indian summer over here, so it has been pretty nice and sunny, but not to hot! HOLLA! The bus ride was pretty uneventful, but we did get to see a ton of sights on our way out of the city, such as: The Tower of London, London Eye, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and the Parliament Buildings, so that was pretty sweet! Afer a couple hours of travelling, or sleeping whatever, we arrived in Canterbury. It was gorgeous!!! It’s a partially walled city, due to the fact that it was a Medieval city. There are tons of shops and restaurants and many of them are housed in building that have been here for more than a thousand years. It is crazy! We had a tour from a guy named Terry (thought of you Dad!) and he was a really nice guy! Super cute! He took us around the town and explained a lot of the history. He took us to the FUGE Cathedral near the center of the city, that is now, and has been a Pilgrim destination after one of their bishops was killed inside. It was GORGEOUS!!! And never ending! I couldn’t believe how big and ornate it was! All of the stone carvings and designs were out of this world! There is also the crypt which is HUGE as well and is basically just another cathedral in the basement. Its ridiculous, but the history is just extroardinary! All of this stuff has been here forever and so many amazing people had been walking on the same floors as I have. It was FAMAZING! After our tours and looking around, Rachel and I found a Mexican restaurant, which we were PUMPED about! I miss Mexican food soo much! I had a chimichanga, and it was great. It was also funny because as we were eating, on one tv was Beyonce in concer and on the other was MJ’s concert. It was great! After lunch we only had about a half hour before we had to leave, so we just walked around and met some people from Chicago who were studying in Canterbury. They were really nice, and it was great to have that American connection for a bit! Holla! Overall, the trip was great and it was amazing to get out of the city for a bit and to a smaller one! I feel so blessed to have this experience, honestly, its amazing!!! Thanks family!!! After the trip I went grocery shopping and just hung out with people in the flats, pretty exciting!!!
Day 23:
Oh Saturdays! I love them! I kinda slept in and then made breakfast, it was great! We had a play to go to at 2, so we all just kinda hung out in the morning and then got ready for the day. Before the play, Sam, Lindsay, and I went down to the South Bank of the Thames River and had lunch before the show. We ate at a famazing restaurant, that wasn’t that expensive, so defintely a win win situation! Afterwards, we headed towards the National Theatre, where the play was being put on, and found a small festival going on outside. We hung around there for awhile and Rachel, George (one of gary’s students from Rose Bruford), and Reckase participated in a Hula Hooping event. It was pretty funny and impressive. The play was called, “The Black Album” and it was about politics and racism against different racial groups in England. It was really interesting and very well done. I liked it a lot! After the play, I went with Rachel and Matt to a pizza place on the Thames and we just hung out there for a bit. We ran into Lucy, our art teacher, so that was exciting! She is super nice. Like her a lot. Talk about a small world though! Not that easy to run into someone you know! After dinner we were going to go on the London Eye, but we decided to just walk around for a bit and head back to the flats because the line was longer than life…We are going to try to do that on Wednesday instead. It was great day overall and once again, I flove London! That’s all I gotta say. Good night!!!
So today is Wednesday and it is my day off, so I have decided to do something with my life! After Rache got done with Lit class, we plus Matt, decided to take a real trip to the Queen’s Hizzity-Hang. Yes, Buckingham Palace ppl! And man minkz was I pumped!!! Once we got there we took some pictures (0f course!), but those are on Rachel and Matt’s cameras because mine is deciding to not work at the moment, and then we purchased tickets to go inside! We opted to not take the audio tour and decided to tour it with our own commentary, it was filarious! The palace doesn’t look THAT exciting on the outside, but inside it is STUNNNING!!! I floved it so much! Im probably going to move there, nbd. When we got there we saw a diplomat leave, so that was exciting. The Queen was not at her residence due to the fact that she is vacationing at Balmoral, her estate in Scotland (I love it and want to own it, but apparently that’s not possible…whatever). The tour took about 45 minutes to an hour and we just got to walk through all of her different colored rooms where she meets with people, the galleries, exhibits, ballroom, and dining room. They also had a selection of her jewels layed out and different things she wears to events. They were gorgeous! Could she HAVE any more chandeliers? Probably…but still, there were tons! I wanted to put some in my purse, but apparently THAT’S not allowed..Oh well. The palace is huge and I would have defintely gotten lost inside had it not been for the red ropes everywhere marking off where to go…It’s a maze, love it! Proably would have been really good for the Princes to play hide and seek …But perhaps that wasn’t allowed…Who knows. We saw the stairs and the room that the Prime Minister takes and meets the Queen in every week. I was pumped!!! You can see it on the Queen movie if you would like! Its worth a viewing…You’ll see Balmoral too. After we descended the Minister’s staircase, we went down a flong hallway full of marble statues…This was about the time that Matt decided it would be a good time to trip over his feet, yeah…Winner. Thank god I was right behind him and have cat like reflexes and caught him or else he would be screwed due to the fact he most likely would have broken something…So funny though! We always know how to make a scene. Love life, London loves us, nbd, its okay if you’re jealous. So anyway, after we safely made it out of the palace, we got to walk around her gardens and pond area, which was beyond beautiful. Loved every moment of it! Defintely worth the like 12 pound admission fee!
After the palace we were hungry so we went back to our neck of the woods and went to one of Matt’s favorite restaurants to get Kebabs. I didn’t know what they were, except for the ones where you put the meet/vegetables/life on a stick…But these were different. They were like grilled meet and you put them in a pita and stuff…Pretty good and very cheap. Probably going to need to do those again sometime. Sam met us to eat, so it was wonderful hanging out with her too!
My day doesn’t end there!!! That night, Rachel and I had tickets to see the Phantom of the Opera…Oh balls was I excited!!! I flove the movie, but have never seen it performed live, so this was a great opportunity! We had pretty good seats and the performance was FAMAZING. My favorite show yet pretty sure. Soo good! They had so many amazing effects and all of the peformers were phenomenal! It was a great time! Definitely worth the money! The performance concluded my fun day and it was probably my favorite day so far this trip! So many great things accomplished for the day and I was in heavan! Made me love this town just a bit more! Miss you all, but Im definitely not ready to leave it! Good thing, due to the fact that I still have a couple months yet…Update more soon! Love you!!!
Day 22 and 23:
Today we went to Canterbury for our 3rd day trip! Its also Boo Bear’s BDAY!!! SO HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOO!!! LOVE YOU!!!! The day couldn’t be anymore perfect weather wise! The weather has been amazing! We are having an Indian summer over here, so it has been pretty nice and sunny, but not to hot! HOLLA! The bus ride was pretty uneventful, but we did get to see a ton of sights on our way out of the city, such as: The Tower of London, London Eye, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and the Parliament Buildings, so that was pretty sweet! Afer a couple hours of travelling, or sleeping whatever, we arrived in Canterbury. It was gorgeous!!! It’s a partially walled city, due to the fact that it was a Medieval city. There are tons of shops and restaurants and many of them are housed in building that have been here for more than a thousand years. It is crazy! We had a tour from a guy named Terry (thought of you Dad!) and he was a really nice guy! Super cute! He took us around the town and explained a lot of the history. He took us to the FUGE Cathedral near the center of the city, that is now, and has been a Pilgrim destination after one of their bishops was killed inside. It was GORGEOUS!!! And never ending! I couldn’t believe how big and ornate it was! All of the stone carvings and designs were out of this world! There is also the crypt which is HUGE as well and is basically just another cathedral in the basement. Its ridiculous, but the history is just extroardinary! All of this stuff has been here forever and so many amazing people had been walking on the same floors as I have. It was FAMAZING! After our tours and looking around, Rachel and I found a Mexican restaurant, which we were PUMPED about! I miss Mexican food soo much! I had a chimichanga, and it was great. It was also funny because as we were eating, on one tv was Beyonce in concer and on the other was MJ’s concert. It was great! After lunch we only had about a half hour before we had to leave, so we just walked around and met some people from Chicago who were studying in Canterbury. They were really nice, and it was great to have that American connection for a bit! Holla! Overall, the trip was great and it was amazing to get out of the city for a bit and to a smaller one! I feel so blessed to have this experience, honestly, its amazing!!! Thanks family!!! After the trip I went grocery shopping and just hung out with people in the flats, pretty exciting!!!
Day 23:
Oh Saturdays! I love them! I kinda slept in and then made breakfast, it was great! We had a play to go to at 2, so we all just kinda hung out in the morning and then got ready for the day. Before the play, Sam, Lindsay, and I went down to the South Bank of the Thames River and had lunch before the show. We ate at a famazing restaurant, that wasn’t that expensive, so defintely a win win situation! Afterwards, we headed towards the National Theatre, where the play was being put on, and found a small festival going on outside. We hung around there for awhile and Rachel, George (one of gary’s students from Rose Bruford), and Reckase participated in a Hula Hooping event. It was pretty funny and impressive. The play was called, “The Black Album” and it was about politics and racism against different racial groups in England. It was really interesting and very well done. I liked it a lot! After the play, I went with Rachel and Matt to a pizza place on the Thames and we just hung out there for a bit. We ran into Lucy, our art teacher, so that was exciting! She is super nice. Like her a lot. Talk about a small world though! Not that easy to run into someone you know! After dinner we were going to go on the London Eye, but we decided to just walk around for a bit and head back to the flats because the line was longer than life…We are going to try to do that on Wednesday instead. It was great day overall and once again, I flove London! That’s all I gotta say. Good night!!!
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Day 17/18: Where my pigeons at? Oh yeah, the Queens Hizzity Hang...
Day 17 and 18:
So Sunday was a pretty fun day, full of relaxation and exploring. I got up at a good time (9am) and decided to catch up on some tv shows that I miss in America. That was fun! I miss tv…We don’t have ours hooked up here because it doesn’t make sense, which is a good thing. Rache and I decided to go to Hyde Park to do homework because it was a pretty nice day. We packed a lunch and set off on the tube to Hyde Park Corner. When we got there, we accidentally took the wrong exit out of the tube station. This is a very easy thing to do because the underground, especially at bigger stops like that, have many different exits and tunnels that lead to various places. So! Rache and I THOUGHT we were going out the correct exit, but man were we wrong! We get out of the tube station and see a big bunch of grass/trees with buildings around, so we figure its probably Hyde Park, nbd. We keep walking and then we realize that it didn’t look familiar. Also, it didn’t help that it was the Mayor of London’s skyride program, so there were people on bikes EVERYWHERE! We continued to walk and realized that there was a large brown, brick wall with barbed wire and cameras on the top with police marking the entrance every 30 yards or so…SO, here we were, la dee da, thinking perhaps that Hyde Park increased its security or something…yeah, right…WELL! All the sudden, we keep walking around the block, it’s a pretty big block I must say, and low and behold there starts to be more and more cafes/shops/etc that seem to be marked with the term “palace” and stuff…Yeah, walk for a bit longer and on our left we see the Royal Mews and im like, huh, that’s weird...Look farther up the street and oh yeah, nbd, there, in all its glory is none other than the Queen’s crib itself, BUCKINGHAM PALACE! HOLY BALLS!!! Soo pumped! I was like, REALLY?! I WOULD accidentally run into the frackin palace! The one place in London I have REALLY REALLY wanted to see! Oh man! Haha but it was a ton of fun! Loved seeing it! We are actually going to tour it for real on Wednesday hopefully. But anyway, so after recovering from our shock, we said goodbye to the palace, due to the fact that we both forgot our cameras (of course) and found Green Park, the park RIGHT smack dab to the left of the palace. So we sat on a bench in view of the palace and ate some lunch. However, this task was not going to be simple…Why you may ask? Oh I dunno, maybe because for some reason I scream Snow White to the frackin animals in parks! Okay, so one pigeon comes and I ACCIDENTALLY drop a part of my cracker on the ground, he goes for it, and all the sudden another pigeon pops up, and then another, Im like huh, and look up and OH MAN! What do I see? Yeah, 20 pigeons literally flying at me!!! It was scary! Im like RACHE WHY DIDN’T WE BRING A TENNIS RACKET! It was so scary! Im like, hello! Who called Alfred Hitchcock, def. not me! K, thanks. Ya know? Oh man…It was bad minkyz…But it was pretty funny. Rachel came to my rescue though and ran them out with her feet. They have some balls those pigeons. Although most of the pigeons left us, the original pigeon, you could pick him out because he had red eyes (yeah…) and weird coloring…So I of course dubbed him, “Lucifer”or Lucy for short…Yeah, we became best friends. He never left the whole time we were on the bench…Well, until Mr. Bubba T. Squirrels decided to enter the picture…And if you think the pigeons had balls, you havent seen anything yet! That squirrel literally was about a cm away from my toe…and Rache decided to throw a piece of cheese right by my toe for him…Pretty sure I thought he was going to bite my toe off…Not cool…But basically it was like Animals gone wild at the park! Made it pretty hard to do homework…Oh and to add a little cherry on top, there was a “dance crew” if you can call them that…Were playing Thriller over and over and attempting to dance to it…So that was pretty entertaining…Good times. Overall, a very interesting day at the park! Not gonna lie… After the park we just went back home, ate dinner, hung out, and went to bed.
Day 18:
Monday, Monday, holla, holla…Today wasn’t too bad because for our Theatre in London class we were going on a tour of the oldest theatre in the world (I guess…Or so they claim). The theatre was called something London and Drury Lane. It was pretty interesting and had a lot of really cool stories. We went underground under the theatre to their tunnels and such, and it was really cool how they all used to be connected to various parts of London. The tunnels under the theatre used to connect to places like the Thames, brothels, pubs, and hotels. It was really interesting. Then they just gave us some history on theatre and I guess at that praticular theatre, they held the first musical, first woman to ever act on stage, first periodical play, first costume design,and a bunch of other things. Needless to say, the theatre majors were in heaven apparently!
The theatre was located in the Covent Garden area, so there were tons of trendy shops and pubs to go see and look around in. There were markets, theatres, and places to eat everywhere, so Rachel and I picked one at random to eat lunch. It turned about to be an amazing choice! When we walked in there were posters of all different types of American bands and celebrities, plus hockey was on tv, so rachel was pumped. I ordered my first real burger on the trip, and it was FAMAZING!!! I was in heavan! After we ate we headed back to the flats, to only be able to chill for a bit, and head back to Covent Garden to see a play.
The play we went to that evening was FAMAZING too! I think Wog and Twirkass would love it! It was called, ‘War Horse’ and it was about WW1 and a boys relationship with his horse. All of the horses were actually puppets that were to the size of real horses and controlled by 3 ppl inside the puppet. People road them and they were really life like, other than the fact that you could see the wood on them. It was an incredible show and really heart-warming. I loved it! I would def. recommend it to anyone who came to London…So there you go, when you come to visit me you can go! No biggie. Other than the show, nothing else happened, we headed back home and went to bed. It was all together a pretty good day!
Monday, September 21, 2009
Day 16: All's Well That Ends Well...Wasn't Well...
Day 16:
Oh yes, another weekend here in London Town!!! Today I slept in until 10: 30. It’s so nice to sleep in on the weekends because we are SO busy all week. The morning and early afternoon was really chill. We didn’t do much. I made breakfast and hung out with Sam for awhile, then Rachel and Krista woke up and we all just sorta hung out in our janky living room (ghetto, not nice, etc…). Lindsay went out to IKEA with Gary and Ben for supplies for their play, so she wasn’t around. I was pumped though, because the lady from upstairs came and knocked on our door bringing with her a large package. She asked if I was there and I was like YEAH I AM!! She had taken my package because she didn’t want it to get stolen, and brought it to me this morning. I was soo excited!!! My parents sent me a keyboard (thank god!!), a mouse (thank god!!), and some more clothes. It was so nice of them! Oh, and also, my Wogre (mom) with a few comments from the Pog (dad), wrote me a letter, and that made me soo happy! My mom is sooo funny!!! Hahaha, she told me about how she had to read a part in her instruction manual at work about how if someone calls in a bomb threat you have to ask them all these questions…I laughed pretty hard because I can totally see her telling me that story. Love her!!! Anyway, later on I got ready because all of us had to attend yet another play at the National Theatre. NOBODY was pumped for this one because it was supposed to suck. Once again, it was Shakespeare and entitled, “All’s Well That Ends Well” and yeah, it BLEW. SOO boring, but the set was cool, so they had that going for them. After 3 hours of boredom, we were set free! I felt like Harriet Tubman….Or not, but you catch my drift….So, Rachel, Reckase, and I went to grab food and headed back to our flats. Once there I ate dinner and fell asleep. Pretty much a very relaxing day overall! Super fun!
Oh yes, another weekend here in London Town!!! Today I slept in until 10: 30. It’s so nice to sleep in on the weekends because we are SO busy all week. The morning and early afternoon was really chill. We didn’t do much. I made breakfast and hung out with Sam for awhile, then Rachel and Krista woke up and we all just sorta hung out in our janky living room (ghetto, not nice, etc…). Lindsay went out to IKEA with Gary and Ben for supplies for their play, so she wasn’t around. I was pumped though, because the lady from upstairs came and knocked on our door bringing with her a large package. She asked if I was there and I was like YEAH I AM!! She had taken my package because she didn’t want it to get stolen, and brought it to me this morning. I was soo excited!!! My parents sent me a keyboard (thank god!!), a mouse (thank god!!), and some more clothes. It was so nice of them! Oh, and also, my Wogre (mom) with a few comments from the Pog (dad), wrote me a letter, and that made me soo happy! My mom is sooo funny!!! Hahaha, she told me about how she had to read a part in her instruction manual at work about how if someone calls in a bomb threat you have to ask them all these questions…I laughed pretty hard because I can totally see her telling me that story. Love her!!! Anyway, later on I got ready because all of us had to attend yet another play at the National Theatre. NOBODY was pumped for this one because it was supposed to suck. Once again, it was Shakespeare and entitled, “All’s Well That Ends Well” and yeah, it BLEW. SOO boring, but the set was cool, so they had that going for them. After 3 hours of boredom, we were set free! I felt like Harriet Tubman….Or not, but you catch my drift….So, Rachel, Reckase, and I went to grab food and headed back to our flats. Once there I ate dinner and fell asleep. Pretty much a very relaxing day overall! Super fun!
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Days 14 & 15: A bit of culture washed down with some more culture! HOLLA!
Day 14:
For Art in London our tutor, Lucy, took us to the National Portrait Gallery. The girls went early, so we decided to take pictures with the big lions in Trafalgar Square (where the National Gallery is p.s.). It was a beautiful morning, and really nice to just hang out on the benches and people watch. There is a new exhibition in Trafalgar Square aka “art” that is, people sign up for a slot of time (an hour), and are lifted on top of one of the pillars in the square, and can do whatever they want. This goes on 24/7 until October or something…I don’t remember. But, we saw a guy up there who was just holding up large mirrors, so it was kinda interesting. Our politics teacher told us that he walked by there the other day, and he saw a man who was completely naked doing different poses…so it’s pretty interesting. After awhile of waiting, Lucy showed up and we started class by going into the Gallery Café and having coffee (my kind of class! Holla!) and discussing the articles we read for homework. It was pretty fun, and then we got sent on a scavenger hunt type of thing throughout the museum. We saw a lot of really cool things and learned a lot. I love that kind of stuff! So interesting : ) Before class was over, she took us to the BP Portrait Awards exhibition and there were all of these portratis that had been in a competition that were painted by various people throughout England. They were AMAZING!!!! One guy even made a sculpture in his own blood…It was thouroughly disgusting, I almost vommed, but it was cool none the less. Now that’s dedication to the art. My favorite by far was entitled ‘Maggie.’ The painting consisted of a close up head shot of an elderly woman, who was the artist’s mother. She was stunning! Big beautiful blue eyes, a very interesting expression, and the cutest blue sweater. The painting looks like a photograph. I was so drawn to the portrait and I don’t know why. Possibly because it reminds me of both of my grandmas and my friends grandparents, my family, and a bunch of other things. But most of all, it screamed Taylor. I had to get it in some way shape or form, so I purchased a print of it for her. I hope she loves it as much as I do.
After class, I had lunch back at the flat with Rache, and then headed off to Politics. Once again, a very interesting class and the tutor was so nice and such a cute old man. Love him! I think that will be one of my favorite classes by far.
When class was over I just hung out in the classroom and called family and friends and went on the internet. Rache and I watched House Bunny too, and it reminded me so much of home. God, I love that movie!!! ; ) I miss you all more than you know, but I love it here. Its starting to feel so familiar and comfortable. Also, everyone is starting to get closer and more comfortable with eachother. I love it. We are going to Blenheim palace tomorrow and im SOOO pumped!!! Holla!!!!
Day 15:
Friday, September 18th, not only a GORGEOUS day in England for a trip to Blenheim Palace, but also a great day for WROBELLION’s bday!!! Happy Birthday Wrobellion!!! I wish I was there to give you a hug and celebrate, but alas, im here…Being forced to go to a historical monument aka my future home! DAMN. Haha : )
So, off to Blenheim palace we go! Ahh!!! : ) The palace is located near Oxford, and was about an hour or 2 long bus ride outside of London. There are no words to describe the English countryside. Its just stunning. I love it so much. I feel completely at peace when I am out there. I know I described this when we went to Cambridge, but honestly, I cant get over how green and lush everything is. How you can have these rolling hills of greenery and little farm houses (with sheep, cattle, and horses SOO beautiful!) and little villages and houses that have been there for hundreds or thousands of years. It’s absolutely crazy and drop dead gorgeous! I couldn’t love it more! Once we got to the palace, I was in heaven. The word STUNNING does not describe it in the slightest. Its built on kind of a hill on a lake with rolling hills all around it. There is a drop down and hill that leads up to this huge statue that sits on a grazing filled with a huge flock of sheep (HARMONY!!!). There is a rose garden, a few other gardens with huge fountains and statues, as well as a lake walk with picturesque boat houses and such. WOW is all I have to say! And it doesn’t end there! There is a cinema as well as a whole other part of the palace, which you take a mini TRAIN to get to!!! And in that other part is a huge hedge MAZE and huge checkers, a butterfly garden, and café. We were pumped!!!
When we got there we had time to hang out for a bit, so we explored some of the gardens and took pictures, then we went on a tour of the palace. We could only tour the main part of the palace, because the family who owns it was actually home! Holla! And do you know who that family is?! Yeah, the Duke of Marlborough, aka one of the highest positions in the aristocracy of England, after the queen and princes of course. He and his family were home! Too bad we didn’t get to see them, but its alright, I will prob survive. Winston Churchill was born there…In the cloak room…Interesting, eh? Yeah, stepped on the ground where he came into the world…yeah, pretty sweet, im aware. He was actually part of the family that runs Blenheim, but he wasn’t in line for the Duke position.
The palace was stunning and filled with historical artifacts, gorgeous paintings, and hundreds of great stories! LOVED IT!!!! : ). After the tour, we decided to go out to the maze and have lunch at the café. Lunch was pretty good, but expensive : (. Not happy, but hey, it happens. The maze was SOOO much fun!!! I went through it with Krista and Sam, as Rachel and Ben had a race through it…Sorry Rache, but Ben kicked your butt! Haha :). It was a ton of fun and we met some really cute elderly couples inside. What a great time!!! : ). After we all finished the maze Rachel and Ben played Sam in chess, so funny. We headed back to the main part of the palace after we explored the FOTT minkz butterfly house…Never been that warm in my life…
Back at the palace, Rache and I decided to walk up the hill to the statue and meet the sheep. I wanted to pet one becaue it reminded me so much of Harmony Hop. However, the sheep were bitches…No offense. But honestly, who doenst like humans? Haha. They were really cute though! But major amy’s (Someone who judges). We climbed all the way to the top, not that easy considering that the ground was FULL of poop (dad you would have been pumped). The area was GORGEOUS though!!! There was a huge lake on either side, with a large stone bridge, swans and geese infested the lake, and there were trees everywhere!!! Stunning : ). As Rachel and I climbed down a different way then we came, we came upon a fence…yeah, that fence was obviously to keep the sheep in, however, it looked to be electrical, so I was nervous. Rachel just kinda launched herself over, but I wanted to take my time, due to the fact a. I don’t launch myself ANYWHERE, and b. because it was electrical, so I was FERVOUS to say the least. So as I was climbing over, I caught my foot on my purse string, that rachel was holding…Oh man, never laughed that hard in my life… Def. stumbled a bit and found out the fence was NOT electrical, so its fine! Hahah!!! Oh man minkz…What an experience. A gentleman walking by got quite the show and thought it was hilarious! : ) You’re welcome England, we will be here for 3 more months! NBD. After the fence fiasco of 2009, Rache climbecd a tree, but didn’t scrape her knee ( name that movie!!! Ok, you pulled my leg! Sound of music! Holla!). We headed back to the palace, had ice cream (famazing!!) with the boys and Gary and then headed back to London. Once we got back to London we went to a pub with Gary by our flat called the Albion. It is owned by this really cute family and one of the bartender/waiter ppl. Is named Sprog…Well, its not his REAL name, but that’s what they call him (obvisously because it means youngest of the family). He is super cute and always greets everyone with a hug and kiss on the cheek! Love this culture!! So friendly and nice! : ) We had a great dinner and then decided to go dancing! Haha…Oh man, soo funny because we didn’t just go dancing to go dancing, we brought our FUG moves…Aka we made a fool of ourselves, it was great!!! They played a ton of American music (duh…Because it’s the best!) and it was hilarious! Soo much fun! After awhile though we were fweat minkz and fired (sweaty and tired) so we went back to our flats and went to bed. Overall a great day!!! Long and tiring, but so much fun and action packed !!! : )
Days 11, 12, &13: Les Mis, P painters, and plays oh my!!! :)..Im lame, very aware.
Day 11, 12, and 13:
DAY 11 was FINGGERRRRR’s BDAY!!! Holla!!!! Happy Birthday!!! : ) I wish I could have been there to celebrate with you : (, but I hope you had fun anyway.
It is the start of the second week here, and I feel like Im definitely getting into the swing of things and forming a routine. The time is arleady starting to fly by, but I still look forward to December and I feel like I am going to be here forever. However, I was talking to the girls last night and I realised that when I leave, I’m going to miss it here a lot. We’ll see how it goes, but overall it will be a bittersweet goodbye I suppose.
We started Monday out with our theatre in London class, which was a ton of fun due to the fact that we were discussing Les Mis because we were going to go see it that evening. I WAS SOOO PUMPED!!! I FLOVE IT MORE THAN LIFE!!! After class we just hung out until we went downtown to get dinner and then to the show. I had the BEST caesar salad ever! Probably my favorite meal I’ve had since touchdown here. The show was FAMAZING , but a smaller version (i.e. cast, venue, sets, etc), not like when we went to the Ordway in Minnesota. It was overall a great night! Loved it too!!! : )
Day 12:
Oh Tuesday mornings, how fun you are! NOT. Haha, we have to brave our 2 hour journey to class at Rose Bruford for Global Issues. It’s not that bad once you get off the tube, but the tube is always just way tooo packed, kinda like a mosh pit at a screamo concert. It’s ridiculous, but its life in the big city. Man minkz, do I love that class though! It’s worth it to travel so far. Our tutor is amazing, and the discussions are very interesting and a lot of fun. We talked a lot about the European Union today and America’s position in the world. Needless to say, all topics are very much up my alley! : ) After class we me, Rache, and the boys headed back to central London to meet up with Bond, Chris Bond for our International Management class, which was also very interesting. Overall, a very good day of classes! Later that evening, I did laundry, went grocery shopping, and just hung out and did homework.
Day 13:
Wednesdays, how I love thee!!! My free day : ) No classes, so I didn’t do much haha. I hung out with the girls in the morning and we went to TESCO to buy stuff for dinner that evening. It was David’s bday, so the girls (well, just Rache and I because the other girls had play rehersal) were going to make the boys dinner (next week they are making us dinner, so its fair : )). However, before we could do dinner, we were forced to go to a play at the National Theatre on the Thames, for a viewing of the best play of 2008, Pitman Painters. I’m glad we were forced, because it was really good! I enjoyed it a lot, very funny and interesting. It actually paralleled what we were talking about in Art in London, what makes art art and its meanings and stuff. You should read what it is about, its actually a really cool story. We also sat by some really cute elderly couples during the play, who talked to us and asked us questions, it was very nice : ). After the play, Rache and I cooked dinner and the boys came over. We had a good time just hanging out, but it was a full day, so we all went to bed early because we had classes the next day (yay…).
Days 9 & 10: Finding Peter! :)
Day 9:
So I have not written in awhile, and I apologize, but life has been kinda crazy and I just got my package in the mail from my family with a new keyboard in it, so life is good!!! They are sooo cute, p.s. Anyway, what has been going on with me! Well, a ton of stuff, nothing too exciting, but I will start with days 9 and 1o.
Day 9, was the first Saturday of my study abroad experience and it was pretty chill and fun day. The girls and a few of the boys went to Primark (sorta like a Macy’s) downtown in Oxford Circus to spruce up one of our group members, Ben. It was a lot of fun and we found him some really cute stuff. Then we just kinda walked around and had lunch at a traditional English pub (there are soo many of them and they are all so cute!). Later that night Rache and I just kinda hung out in the flat, watched Made of Honor on my computer (thanks Dad!!!), and listened to music. It was really nice to just relax and not have to do anything out and about. We also made door signs for all of the girls, they’re welcome They are pretty cute if we do say so ourselves.
Day 10:
Day 10, Sunday was a fun filled and action packed day. Rache and I went to church at this really cute, old, and small church in our neighborhood. It was filled with little children, so it was HELLA loud the whole time, but it was really really cute!!! I loved it too, because this sounds really bad, but its true, there is not a lot of diversity in La Crosse, or Winona for that matter, so I loved going to church here and seeing all different ethnicities and races. It was very cool and everyone was sooo cute and welcoming After church, we walked the 2 blocks to Tesco and bought some food and took it back to the flat to make breakfast. Later on we headed to the Thames festival which took place downtown on either side of the Thames river. It was pretty fun, reminded me a lot of Riverfest. It was all booths of food, crafts, and little shops with various entertainment venus set up. We watched a guy do magic (pretty cool), break dancers, alive statue people, and a skate/bike exhibition. It was pretty fun, nothing too exciting. Then we decided to go search for Peter pan in Hyde Park, so we grabbed the tube to Hyde Park corner and found a map….And this is where the fun began lol. We were both wearing shoes that were probably NOT the best for walking, but we figured, how far could it be? Yeah…pretty damn far haha. We looked on the map and we were literally in one corner, and Peter was in the opposite corner, like miles away! Oh my jesus hahah, but its fine : ) After like an hour of walking by this huge lake with tons of ducks, a beautiful bridge, a gorgeous little eatery, tons of trees/gardens, little fountains and statues, etc, we found Peter! And he was glorious : ) haha, we took some pictures and decided to check out Kensington gardens which is within Hyde Park too. It was really beautiful, but sad because we went on a very overcast day. Loved it though! It’s wonderful to be around nature every once in awhile. After getting home from the park I went with Rache up the street to the classroom space to call people and do some homework. It was pretty fun haha, no I like the classroom space, its very relaxing and a good place to work. Overall, it was a pretty good day : ) Miss and love you all!!!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
