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!

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!!!

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 cafĂ© 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! :)