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).

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!!

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.

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.

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!!!!

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.

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...

Please comment!!!!

So since I have been doing a lot of sight seeing, here are some photos:

The London Bridge

The Parliament

Jo Beth, Mandy, Emily and me

Eric Clapton's house...NOW

The London Eye, Tower and Big Ben

There are so many coins in this contry...

Okay so I want to start of with a little rant. London has been amazing, perfect practically except they use coins for every dollar amount. Have they heard of one pound (their currency) bills? They have coins for 1 pence (equal to one penny), 2 pence, 5 pence, 10 pence, 20 pence, 50 pence, 1 pound and 2 pound. It takes me 5 minutes to just pay someone. I had to tell the bartender to hold on because its gonna take me a bit. Ugh, but at least that’s the only bad thing, I think I can get used to it though.

My flight to London was good, minus the fact that it took 20 minutes to get off the ground due to paper work problems. I became a ad concerned when they announced this over the PA. I was wondering if the pilot could fly if he couldn’t even fill out paperwork. Luckily, I got to London safely. There was no one next to me or in front of me so I laid down and tried to sleep. Only got about 2 hours that night. Everything was good in Customs and with my luggage, no problems there. The “earlier: group had to wait for the 30 others to arrive about an hour later and then we took a coach to the flat. The outside of the flat is gorgeous. However, my flat is located in the basement, or as we call it “The Pit.”

My bed in the flat

Emily and I got he largest double room. There is another double and a triple full of girls we know. This is when we met Craig. Craig is a middle aged man with a wolf sweatshirt. Now don’t think he is a nerdy guy, no. Craig has had 3 ex-wives and was a marine stationed in Afghanistan, Vietnam and many more.

Address: 29 Clifton Gardens Flat B London, UK W 9A (only for letters)

We went to the grocery store, where we found out just how expensive London really is. VERY EXPENSIVE!!!! I think I will be going on the liquid diet from now on…

The next day we woke up and took the tube to our classrooms, which in in Central London. The tube is beautiful. I am comparing it to the T of course. Its clean! There is no graffiti on the wall, you can see in front of you. The walls are nicely painted. You will not contract any viruses if you sit down. Its very nice. Then we had an orientation, ate lunch, and had a tour of London. Tour wasn’t so good since it was raining (shocking) and cold and I couldn’t hear the tour guide. I think we walked about 4 miles.

New Blog

So something was wrong with wordpress so I decided to get rid of it altogether. Sorry for the mix-up.