Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Seriously? How do these thing happen to me?

This semester in London has been amazing. It was one of the best experiences of my life, and I would not change it for the world...well most of it. What I would change is my commute home. I had the most ridiculous commute ever. You would think when I booked my ticket home, 6 months ago, that it would be easy to get home. However, this is not the case.

If you are not aware, the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland just keeps on erupting and has a huge ash cloud coming from it. I do not know if you are also aware, the volcano hasn't erupted in hundreds of years. Anyway... I get to airport at 8am for my 11:35 flight. I got through check-in and security without any problems. I find my gate, sit down to board and everything is going well. Then about 5 minutes before we were supposed to board, they tell my my flight was cancelled!! Seriously, why me? Then after not knowing what to do and not being told anything for about 30 mins, I find out I couldn't fly because they plane was to small to go around the ash cloud. Why can't they just get a new plane??? Apparently that is not possibly. So I got wait in line for another 30 mins to find my new flight assignment: Fly to Chicago O'Hare in 3 hours and then transfer to Boston coming in at 1am. Sounds good right? Well of course that would not work out. The flight to Chicago was fine - except we had to go around the ash cloud so it was another 1 hour and 15 mins. After running through the airport, cutting the customs line, running to find out baggage, we missed our plane because of the delay. Now, I could not even find any of my luggage in chicago so I had no clothes, nothing. Slept in the Crown Plaza with Vanessa, which we thought was free - nope - but it was discounted. An amazing hotel, with a great shower and bed. Good thing we were in it for 5 hours because we had to wake up at 4am to get on the 7am flight. Everything from there worked out fine - still no luggage when I landed though. Finally got my luggage the next day at 10 am and everything is well. What a fun trip. Rachel and my mom picked my up at the airport with a bagel world bagel in hand :-D. Stacy and Aunt Sue came over for stroganoff and belinis.

Also, I did not know if you heard, there was a hung parliament in britain. Another thing that hasnt happened in like 60 years. Why me?

Anyways, this semester has been awesome, like i said. It was so incredible. Learned a lot about myself, London and THE BEATLES.

Wolfpack <3 forever and always

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Wow... time has flown by

So yes, it has been my final two weeks in London. I am prepared to go home. I am looking forward to seeing Stacy and Rachel at the airport and then my mom<3. Its going to be nice to have my own room, bathroom, a dishwasher, a dryer, a straightener and curler, clothes, car, and MY FRIENDS AND FAMILY!

Anyway...two weekends ago I traveled to Amsterdam with some of the girls. I think its pretty obvious why I went to Amsterdam - Anne Frank's house. I did go there and it was amazing. It was not sad, but there was definitely a presence there. It was just wild to me to actually see how tiny these rooms where people actually lived for so long. The tulips were beautiful and yes, I went to the Red Light District. We called it the bad place, because it was scary. The women were in windows stacked next to each other. There is no actual building, just windows - and the women are in their underwear. Its unusual. We had great weather, and all in all it was an exhausting but fun trip.


I then had my final week of classes - turned in a lot of papers - did a lot studying. Pretty boring week.

I finally got to go to the Globe Theater and see Macbeth. He was a hottie!

It was the most surreal experience I have had here yet - mostly because I love Shakespeare. We had to stand under this black tarp with holes for your head and one of our friends actually fainted (Dont worry he is fine). The production itself was a tad gory and just okay, but the fact that it was performed at the Globe Theater made it 100 times better.

This weekend was also the same - worked on a papers FOREVER! Well, I am finally a senior and do not have anymore classes for the semester. HAPPY SUMMER EVERYONE!! I am home in 5 days... ahh so crazy.

See everyone soon. Miss you all

Monday, April 19, 2010

Iceland Volcano...I hate you

I don't know if you have heard, but a huge volcano erupted in Iceland on Thursday and has prevented ANYONE from flying all around Europe. Its crazy. One girl who was staying at our flat had to go home to Ireland, took her 14 hours because of ferries and buses. So I am supposed to go to Amsterdam on Friday, but we don't know if we can still do it...hopefully we can.

Wednesday, I should have been doing work, but instead I took advantage of a beautiful day and walked around Camden. One of my favorite places in London. It has TONS of flea markets and AMAZING INTERNATIONAL FOOD. I learned I like Hungarian and Turkish food. I also got a cheap henna tattoo!

On Friday a group of us went to Brighton which is in England, but on the coast. Its gorgeous. Its a hippie town with lots of seafood. I got muscles. YUM. They also had a pier with a carnival type thing. It was a ton of fun, and it was finally nice out.




Saturday was Mandy's birthday. Emily, Mandy and I went shopping to Ache Y Emme for her birthday dress. You would all be proud of me, I did not bring my wallet out so I would not spend any money.She got a really nice leopard print dress. Emily and I bought her some orange headphones (since she kept stealing ours). She loved the gift. The we went to dinner at this Tex-Mex restaurant. They have a special which is 12 gbp pitchers of margaritas and nachos. I split it with Jasmina and Morgan. I also got a steak burrito with good guacamole. This place is pretty cheap too. Then we got ready to go out. We all decided to get really dolled up since its a 21st bday! It was probably one of my favorite nights our in London.



Sunday was 60 degrees. I know unheard of for London. So naturally we took advantage of it. We ate at this place up the street called Raouls. There food is heaven, evern Paul McCartney agrees. I have yet to see him. A huge group of us ventured to Hyde Park to do homework, play Frisbee and soccer and just hang out. I finally realized how many people actually do live in London. Apparently everyone in the world had the same idea to hang out outside in London. There were 4 futbol games going on around us, a ParKoure/ Taiwan demonstration with shirtless men. I think they were into each other and their stunts more than anything else. They entertained all of us. Then I got home and skype Sam. He had so much new information for me...NOT. But it was nice to talk to him. <3

Today I decided I will be a student and catch up on some homework since I have a ton.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Paris and EURODISNEY!

Not surprisingly,since the first week I found out I was going abroad and Stacy was going abroad, we knew we were going to meet up in one place: DISNEY! oh yeah and Paris too. She wrote a bomb entry http://stacykirkland.wordpress.com/.

But here is mine,

I meet Stacy at the airport on Friday. We traveled to our hotel which is in a small town 10 minutes away from Disney and 45 minutes out of the city. The first thing we found was the best homemade croissants and many other pastries and we got a baguette. So Delicious!! I could not even describe to you how good it is, its beautiful.

The next day we woke up bright and early to prepare for a full day of Disney. We even got there before the park opened...we are dedicated. But only a few of you would appreciate that. We got our map, planned out some of the important rides and parades. We did everything we could do and enjoyed every minute of it. We ate lunch in Frontierland with fajitas. We even got 2 pairs of FastPass tickets... shush don't tell anyone...we cheated the system.

We ate dinner at Disney Village at some sports bar where we watched the Man U vs FCB futbol game. We stayed till one hour before park closing because we were STARVING.

PS-We each got ears. I got t-i-double Ga-er and Stacy got Minnie.


On Sunday we went to Paris finally. I want to go on record and say that this is the place where Stacy and I feel in love... its is the MOST ROMANTIC CITY IN THE WORLD! We dropped our bags off at some locker place and then headed out. Weirdly enough the first Paris site we saw was the Paris Marathon. It was so exciting. Then we went to Notre Dame and got into Sunday Mass for free. It is amazing, the best cathedral EVER! Next was The Louvre.



Stacy had heard a great idea that if you say you are studying art you can get in for free. IT WORKS! Saw the Mona Lisa for free.

Stayed along the Marathon and bonded with some runners and got some food. We finally had crepes... so delicious, I still miss them. We then tried to go to find a Longchamp bag since everyone owns it there, but there were no stores. Where is the famous Paris shopping??! Oh well. We walked by the Arc de Triumph onto the Eiffel Tower. Let me just tell you how amazing this thing is. Its beautiful. Stacy made us stay in the cold till night fell and it lite up. At the time I was cold and something else, but now I am SO glad she made us wait cause it was worth it.
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We then went to get our bags from the metro stop and got there at 10:01, it closed at 10. The luckiest moment of my life, the people who were closing up were walking out and unlocked the the doors and let us get our bags. Close call. Then we went to our hotel near the airport which was the same as the one I stayed in when I went to Liverpool. They were really nice.

Woke up and went to the airport and had to register for classes then. Such an experience. Made it home safely. I am so thankful I went on this trip, I loved it so much. <3 Stacy.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

SB,Duke,Stacy, Internet...could not get any better

Guess what? After a week of occasionally going to Starbucks/McDonalds for Internet, it is back in Clifton Gardens. Everyone knows the only reason I was so concerned was because I have so much homework to do and research, not because of email or facebook.

Oh by the way...DUKE IS NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!!! <3<3 I stayed up till 5:30 to watch them win and still went to class at 10:30. Impressive?

So mi mum has been telling me for the past week that my last blog post was not enough. I need to write about Spring Break, so here it is:
Barcelona:First we have a little drama... British Airways decided it was going to go on strike the day we need to use them. So some of the girls were on the phone for hours trying to find a new flight. But when we did get on the airplane, it was empty. Some of us went a day earlier. Barcelona was destination #1. We had a hostel on Gran Via. The hostel was adorable. It looked like an old business building but on the 3rd floor was our hostel. It was very quiet and the woman who worked there was young and awesome... did I mention free internet. The first night we ate and got goblets of sangria. I got a little tipsy from it, but luckily my hostel was across the street. Then we went to bed at a reasonable hour and were headed to the beach the next day. However, we got a little lost, and it wasnt exactly beach weather. It was low 60s and we found water, but no beach. We walked a lot. Around the port, Las Ramblas, jsut getting lost and expolring the city. Thats the thing about Spain, there isn't much you have to go to and see but you want to just walk around. That night we went to Dow Jones Bar. The bar is what it sounds like... the Stock Market. The drink prices are based on how popular they are and at every hour the stock crashes and the prices decrease drastically. The only downfall was it RECKED of cigarette smoke, I can still smell it on my dress... EW. The next day we went to La Sagrada Famalia... but since we were bored with cathedrals, we just saw the outside. It was really cool, but has been under construction... for about 100 years. I dont think it will ever end. Then we walked around more of Barcelona, the streets, the parks. Everywhere. We went to Las Ramblas which is the shopping mecca of Barcelona. Out final day in Barcelona we went to Sitges... ITS BEAUTIFUL. It was my favorite day on spring break. Its a beautiful beach town. The pictures describe it on its own... see previous blog...

Madrid: Went to the big park, El Prado, and many other things. Its a little like Barcelona. Many people say its the lady and Barcelona is the teen girl. The metro is kind scary in Madrid so we tried to avoid it. We got to our hostel which was intersting. We had a room to ourselves for 2 out of 4 nights, have a random the other 2. Hostel living for you. We did a lot of expolring drinking sangria...

Did I mention it rained 80% of the time in Spain... I guess the rain is spain does NOT stay mainly in the plain. UGH

Stacy came last weekend!! I met her at the airport on Friday and we got to my flat. We immediately went site seeing and walked around London. We went to the Tower of London, B-Girl battle, River boat cruise, Piccadilly, Leicster, Abbey Road, walked around the Thames, particpated in the changing of the guards, and walked around a lot. It was a blast. We had so much fun. Ate fish and chips, some great mexican food and made the most delicious chicken, asparagus and guacamole EVER. Yeah we are part time chefs. Such a fun yet exhuasting weekend!! So worth it though. Oh did I mention, we went out a couple of times. Got to show her a good time.

But...Stacy and I are going to Paris tomorrow... to DISNEYLAND. So wait for that post. It will be phenomenal.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Barthelona y Madrid AKA SPRING BREAK!!

So, my internet seem to want to back stab me when an electrical fire broke out in the place. It will not be till Tuesday before I get it. So I am writing this from McDonalds...boy do I love America.
I know many of you have been patiently waiting for my spring break post. I am sorry it has taken me so long, but that's cause i needed a rest. It was pretty informative and eventful. I have decided since I do not have much internet time or anything I will do a collage/photo montage.... HERE IT IS:

Barcelona and Madrid in photos

Flamenco Dancer in Madrid


The Beatles (puppets) in Madrid


The fountain in Madrid...amazing


Parco del Retero...Madrid


Sitges!!!


again Sitges!!


Barcelona from the Parc Guel


Barcelona's Arc de Triumf


La Sagrada Familia


Girls at the Port

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Mi Mum and Sue visit Londontown

As you can see, I had my first visitors to London... Mi Mum and Aunt Sue. They got here on Friday morning.

But earlier that week I saw two plays: London Assurance and Money. Money is basically the most ridiculous play that I had ever seen. The only reason that it was manageable was because half way through they offered us a glass of champagne. Now, most of the audience had only 1, however since I strategically placed myself right next to the cart, I ended up having 4. The play got a lot better after that. It was an interactive play...which sounds awesome, but I had no idea what it was about so I couldn't even help the actors out. Mind you it was also pretty scary, the lights went out all the time and there was this half naked man with feathers all over him (apparently he was representing a feral child...did not get that). London Assurance was good, except there were some parts where I could not understand the Cockney accent.

Friday came along and I met Mi Mum and Sue at their hotel. It was a really nice hotel. We went on the hop on/hop off tour that took us around London. Then we hopped on the river boat cruise up the Thames River. Then we had dinner at a local pub where they got to try cider for the first time. Delicious!

Saturday- Took a train to Stratford upon Avon aka Shakespears home. We met one of my mom's work friends there, Siva. We walked around Shakespears' home and his daughters as well. It was a really nice town right outside London. Then we went to dinner at this amazing Mexican place called Wahacca. Its like Mexican tapas. Then we got churros and chocolate for dinner...YUM!!

Sunday- Woke up at 7 am to catch an 8:20 tour to Oxford, Stonehedge and Windsor Castle. Windsor Castle is where the queen goes on the weekend, so we were in the same place as the queen for 2 hours. Unfortunately, her butler did not give her the memo that I was visiting, so she did not get to have tea and crumpets with us like we all had planned. Oh well. Maybe another time. Then it was an hour bus ride to Stonehenge. Now if you are a fan of my blog, you know I have been already. But, I am not going to lie, it was still jsut as cool as the first time. We got an audio tour this time so we learned more about it. Apparently there is a woodhenge which is where people lived and stonehenge is where they were buried. Interesting facts huh? Then another hour bus ride to Oxford. Oxford is not just where the uni (university) is, its actually home to about 6-8 colleges. Its beautiful as well...puts American colleges to shame. We got to tour all town and even see where JK Rowling got her inspiration for Harry's scar. Story goes she did not know what the shape of the scar was going to look like until she saw this lighting bolt engraved in the pavement. See below. We got some tea and scones there and then headed back for home. At night we went to this Indian restaurant. Then skyped Stacy!!

Monday - We stayed in London this day. I finally got to go to the London Tower. It is where all the toruting and executions happened in the 15-19 centuries. Also, it is home to the crown jewels. The crown jewels are just what they sound like they are. They are the crowns that the kings and queens where when they have appearances or are inagurated. They are so extravagant with their precious stone. One had a 570 carot diamond... LIKE WHAT?? They have to be worth $100 million dollars each... no lie. Then my mom and I had a tour of the Towers. We heard stories of how one executioner was drunk butcher. So one time when he was beheading someone, it took 5 times because he kept missing with the sword, so he finally had to take his butcher knife out and kill them that way. Anne Boelyn, Lady Jane Grey and many more important figures where executed there. If anyone wants to go to London... this is the first stop. Then we met another one of my mom's co-workers for lunch. Matt took us to wagamama noodle bar. Again, good food. Suprisingly, England isn't known for food, but its been good. Then we walked to Paliament and Westminister Abbey. It is an ornant church, where the monarchs are sworn in and famous people like Darwin, Jane Austin, T.S. Elliot, Alexander Olivier and Newton are buried. We ended up in Winston Churchill's museum and cabinet war rooms. This is ACTUALLY where Churchill made orders for WW2 to defeat Hitler. It was extermely interesting. Churchill was a very witty, funny man I learned. After a long day, we hung around at a pub and saw Mousetrap. It is what inspired the movie and game Clue. Then I had some complications with my spring break flight, since British Airways went on strike...UGH. But it was figured out and everything is fine for now... to be continued.

Tuesday - Last day that they were here. I had class till 2:30 then I met up with them at the British Museum which is a 2 minute walk from my classroom. We walked around that for a little then headed to Covent Gardens. It is exactly like Fanueil Hall, with lots of street performers. Then I said goodbye :-(. But they are off to Florence, so not too sad for them.

Miss you guys and am really happy you came. LOVE LOVE LOVE XOXOXO

Today - since Mum and Sue had 3 day passes and only used 2 days of them, myself, Jake and Taylor went to St. Paul's Cathedral. Its a beautful cathedral that you can walk to the top point. Its only about 500-600 narrow stairs, that where hard to walk up. We went to the millenium bridge (the one from Harry Potter where the dementors destroy).

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Liverpool

So this week which consisted of Natural Science (dinosaurs) Museum and HAIRSPRAY was by far overshadowed by Liverpool. At first I was sort of excited for this trip because I thought it was going to be Beatles overkill, but it did not even matter!! It was amazing. I will do a play-by-play recap of this trip.

Friday: left London at 9am for a 4 hour trip to Liverpool, England...home of The Beatles. Met our amazing guide, Jackie. She was lovely. We took a walk around Albert Dock which is where our hotel is located. I roomed with the one and only Jo Beth. First we went to the Beatles Story building one: The spirit of John Lennon. Basically you just learn everything you need to know/or ever could know about the man. But, we got it told from his first wife, Cynthia, and eldest son, Julian's perspective. [side note: Paul McCartney wrote "Hey Jude" about Julian when John and Cynthia were going through their divorce] This is where I learned to dislike John when he and Yoko got together. Basically he cheated on Cynthia with Yoko... not cool. Then we went on a walk to Mathew Street. This is where The Beatles hung out before they got big. The played 80+ times and The Cavern and that is where they were discovered. The Cavern has also seen Queen...and many more. After that we saw the Eleanor Rigby statue and were free for dinner. Now it was 5:30 and about a 30 minute walk to our hotel. So some of us decided it was a good idea to just eat at a pub on Mathew Street and stay there for the night and drink. I got a sausage and potatoes (delicious) and a cider. Since the drinks were so cheap and there was karaoke, we stayed for the night. We sang "Spice Girls" and "Journey." The crowd loved us and some of the other men (much older...maybe 60) dedicated a song to us.

Saturday: Woke up bright and early to the most amazing, delicious breakfast I have ever had. A traditional Liverpool English breakfast. I cannot even describe to you how good it was... it was that good. I miss it!! After that we had a coach tour of South Liverpool. This consisted of driving by John, Paul and George's houses, and going inside <3ringo's house, Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields (which were really an orphanage), St. Peter's Church (where Paul met John for the 1st time and they joined the Quarry Men with George). Finally we ended the day with "The Beatles Story." It was an interactive museum that told us all about their story to Bealtemania and then their final break-up. I especially liked how they all idolized Elvis (John said he almost got kicked ot of school for having Elvis sideburns). Then we had a pub crawl with Jackie and out professor. It was a blast. Lots of tequila shots and dancing.

Sunday: Woke up early again to the wonderful breakfast... YUM! Had a coach tour of South London where we saw the Casbah Coffee Club. This was owned by Pete Best (oringial drummer)'s mom let The Beatles (Quarry Men at the time) play and really build their fan base. We got a tour from Pete's Best sister in law herself. Then we off to John and Paul's house. WE SAT ON THE BED WHERE THEY BOTH SLEPT WHILE THEY GREW UP. IT WAS AWESOME. Not many people get to do that. Finally we ended with going inside The Cavern and getting exclusive backstage tour of Me with Pete Best's kit
the dressing room (authentic), where The Beatles and many other bands got dressed and we got to go on stage like they did. Amazing!!

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Dublin

One of my favorite weekends by far...makes up for an okay week.

I decided that I should got out on Tuesday because its college night. I put my coat down for 5 minutes, and its gone. Luckily all they got was my coat and gloves. But I learned my lesson...CHECK YOUR COAT!! The next day I went shopping :-). Got a lovely new black jacket in London. What a great story.

Then I went to Dublin, Ireland!! I flew on Ryan air. We heard Ryan air does not do customer service, well they were right. One of my friends left her printed boarding pass at home and they were going to charge 40 euros to print another. When she asked the Ryan air lady if there was a printer, the lady said no. Well she lied!! There was a printer a floor above and luckily we found out before she paid. The flight was good otherwise.

We landed in Dublin late Thursday night. There were about 15 of us. We went to our hostel called The Shinning...yes like the scary movie. The hostels was... well it was a hostel. But we booked a 14 person room and apparently they didn't have that available so 10 slept in one room and 5 slept in another large room. But basically everyone ended up sleeping in the room together. First 15 minutes there, we left and went out to a local Irish pub. It was amazing. These 2 guys, on the guitar and FIDDLE started singing a mix of country, Sinatra, and pop. Crazy huh.

Friday, we went on a free 3 hour walking tour. It was awesome. Our tour guide was a 6'4" red haired sterotypical irishman. He was amazing. He told us all about Ireland's history and how they hate the British. We went for drinks after the tour with him. Then we split up and Vanessa, Emily, Jake and myself went to the Jameson Distillery. It was cool. I got picked to taste test the various kinds of whiskeys around the world - Jameson being the best. Basically I got to drink more than everyone else. Not bad. Oh and I got a lovely diploma for doing it. Then we went out to Temple Bar.



Saturday we woke up and went to the Irish coast...beautiful!! I got an amazing breakfast consisting of poached eggs, sausage and of course, chips (french fries). It was an authentic Irish breakfast. When we got our bill we realized they added wrong so we all got a 1 euro discount on our meal. Not to shabby. Then we watch the Ireland v England rugby match at a local pub. It was so much fun. Everyone was so into it. It was such a good atmosphere. Then we went out (notice a trend).
We finally just got back to London about 2 hours ago. I missed Clifton Garden's bed.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Camden

This week I understood what the "study" part of study abroad meant. I had a lot of work to do so I stayed in more to work on it. Also, I watched the olympics...Shaun White kicking butt in the halfpipe. Amazing!

On Friday, we went to Camden Market, Stables Market, and some other places like markets. Its basically like a big flea market and a bunch of little chinatown, nyc-like places. I bought some cheap scarves and ate some Hungarian Food called langas. Its fried dough with garlic, sour cream and mozzarella cheese.


On Saturday, some of the girls went to one of our friend's rugby match. It was really cool to see how the game is played. Its so rugged and manly. His team won 45-0. Not to shabby. I like to think they played so well because a bunch of American girls were there.

On Sunday, I celebrated he Chinese New Year. I knew of some of the planned activities that went on but I didn't realize it was going to be so packed that I could barely move. Here is it in images.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

7 Wonders of the World

This has been a pretty eventful/memorable weekend. Where do I begin.

Well today I saw my first fat London person, I swear everyone in this country is a tooth pick and could be a supermodel in their spare time if needed. I am thinking that this woman was an American who is visiting because lets face it, we have a surplus of over weight people and this country is having a fat epidemic right now.

My second memorable event was seeing one of the seven wonders of the world... Stonehenge! From what people had said before I visited, it was just rocks. So I was excited but was thinking I would be in awe for only a minute. This however was not the case. It was really amazing and beautiful. Apparently it could have been used for sacrificial reasons and some of the rocks shine blue in the sunset. But my favorite thing about Stonehenge is that ALIENS made it, I am completely convinced of this...well at least its a good story.
<--The girls at Stonehenge

Michelle and I took a 4 miles walk to and from and around Regents Park... not only is it beautiful, but the rugby and futbol men were as well. It felt good to actually do some excercise even though I am walking a lot on my own.

The next wonder that I saw was when I went to the National Gallery. It is full of beautful paintings from many amazing artist. Here are just some "not so" famous men: Monet, DiVinci, Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Picasso. Like who does that, hold paintings from the most famous artists EVER.

Finally, I went and took pictures at Tralfagar Square. Its beautful. Its one of the centers of London.
<-- Us roaring with the Lions
<-- So I couldnt get up on my own, so Taylor had to pull me up. Embaressing

..bday

Happy Birthday Grandma Ruth!!!!

Friday, February 12, 2010

Kiss and Run

Now, I know some of you may be confused with the title of this entry, but it does not pertain to me. It pertains to someone I know... no names needed. I just really enjoyed the title.

Anyways...

Since I have last written the biggest news is I booked spring break tickets. I hope Spain enjoyes these Elon/London girls. We are coming to invade. We are flying into Barcelona on Sat, March 20th. On Thursday, we will travel by some means to Madrid and stay there till Sunday, March 28th. I am super excited. We do not have any more details but I will keep informed.

I have visited a lot of museums in these past couple of days.
Sarah, Jackie and I did the British Museum where some of the Rosetta stone is. It was amazing. I cannot believe the main instrument that deciphered the Egyptain language was right in front of us. Unreal. We were there for 2 hours and only did the first floor... we wil be back.
Imperail War Museum-amazing, we went for our beatles class but will be going 2 more times for the history class. There were tons of old planes, Holocaust part (I almost cried) and various WW1, WW2, British War and the Blitz War. Its been really interesting learning about how the British were only powers because everyone else was dealing with internal fairs or was not a country. We learned about the Boer War... basically the British were Barbaric (yet again) and killed thousands of people for gold. Alright, enough with my history schpel...I am learning.
The other museum I visited was today with Emily, the Science Museum. Now most people who know me know that I LOVE THE SCIENCE MUSEUM IN BOSTON. If people come visit or need something to do in Boston, I immediately suggest this museum. I attend random exhibits....cough cough harry potter cough cough...However, the London version was not as good as the Boston one. Nonetheless it was a lot of fun.


So my days have been consisting of site seeing, class and going out. We found a college night with one gbp fifty drinks and 7 gbp pitchers and just enjoying the culthure and everything it has to offer. Its been fun, but I feel like I have been hear a month, not a week and half. I still cannot believe I am here for 3 months. Its out of control and I love it. The Londoniers I have met are sarcastic so I feel at home. Makes me think of my friends at home.

Oh, if anyone was wondering about Stephanie Lindsey Oden, I have talked to her about 8 hours total. Shes doing great. I miss her.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Hogwarts, here I come

So on Monday, while everyone was going internships, a group of us decided to explore London. First stop, Platform 9 3/4! Obviously I was very excited about this since I love me some Harry Potter, so I had to act like I was actually going.


Then we went to a place that was heaven...Primark. Its basically a discount clothing store. There were so many people there. Then we walked for about 30 minutes to Convent Gardens, a fanuiel hall like place. It was adorable except for the fact it was about 30 degress, a mix or rain and SNOW and I wore cloth shoes. Not smart on my part.

Today we had our first day of classes. As most of you know I am taking The Beatles, History of London and The London Theatre. Seems like a 3 month vacation right? Try again. I will actually be doing work, and a good amount. Apparently, the Beatles' teacher didnt realize that this was a vacation and is piling on the reading and writing assignments. We have to work on 2 albums so if any mega beatles fans are out there, please email me and help me. Other than that the class is cool. I feel in like with Ringo while watching him on the Ed Sullivan show due to his awkwardness and the fact he is a drummer. I am glad I know what he looks like now because not my type. The London Theatre class is next. We are going to see 9 plays total plus maybe MacBeth in the Globe Theatre in May. Talk about an amazing experience. Boy do I love Shakespeare. The class doesnt seem like too much work. I have to do 2 papers and lead an oral presentation about one play with Lindy-Poo....an ESA member. Last but not least, my favorite class...the History of London. This class seems amazing since our teacher is a G (basicaly a cool man.) He LOVES to tell us stories about WWII and the people who fought in the war he knows. Also, about how The British were very arrogant and egotistical and thought they were going to run the world...but didnt. He really likes that they lost all their power. We watched a little of War of the Worlds as well. Also, I think my teacher just loves Jews because he talks about how he absolutely hates this man who believes that the Holocaust didnt happen. In conclusion, he is amazing.

Here is to hopping that this semester is easier than I think...