^^^ This is an electric kettle. You fill it up with water, press the button, and it boils your water in less than three minutes. It’s very good for when you want tea. Since I don’t drink tea or particularly like it, I use it to make instant coffee so I’m not spending five hundred dollars on Starbucks for the six weeks I’m here.

You know what else it’s good for? Boiling noodles! Especially when you’re too tired to figure out how to light the pilot on the stove and/or the lighter your flat gives you to light said pilot is out of lighter fluid. So, thinking it worked the same as boiling noodles on the stove, I put my tortellini noodles in there, turned it on, and lo-and-behold, it worked! Noodles boiled in less than three minutes! Perfect for the lazy college student or someone who has no idea how to boil noodles. Ingenious and practical!

I know I can’t be the first person to think of that…

Wednesday night for the Fourth of July a group of us went to a club in Piccadilly. Piccadilly is definitely more of the touristy area and you’ll find a lot more foreigners there than locals.

Yesterday was our last day of class for the week. First week of classes flew by! Afterwards, we were supposed to go to the British Museum, but my prof post-poned that trip for later in the summer and told us to go home and get some rest and have a good weekend because we’d been “going non-stop since we arrived.” Which was pretty much true. So, I took a nap and it was glorious.

Last night some of us decided it would be fun to go to the Shard light show. The Shard is now the tallest building in Europe and last night was the grand opening. Taking the tube, we managed to arrive early enough and stopped at the Westminster stop. I knew we were close to the major, well-known London attractions, but I didn’t know we’d end up that close…

When we walked out of the station, the London Eye was RIGHT THERE. IT WAS AMAZING. I totally freaked out like a tourist and there was no shame.

And then we walked up these steps and around the corner and you looked up and THERE WAS BIG BEN.

In all honesty, it’s quite breathtaking.

This is the statue of Boadicea (I had to look this up…)

Some of our group.

The church on the left there is Westminster Abbey. We didn’t make it close to it, but I plan on going back and hopefully taking a tour.

It worked out that we were there at the bottom of the hour so we got to hear it chime.

This is the Shard (named like a shard of glass, I guess?). We ended up having to get back on the Underground and take the tube to the London Bridge stop across the Thames.

The Shard after the light show started. It went on for about two hours, but we sat there for about an hour.

Did you know that you can have open alcoholic beverages on the street in London? Like in Las Vegas. Just thought I’d share that.

Afterward, a group of us decided to go to a pub across the street and then travel to Piccadilly (again) to find a bar there. We ended up at another club, and it was fun. The end. I feel like I haven’t quite experienced London night life yet since the two clubs we’ve been to have had a lot of other international people (I talked to someone from Australia, Spain, and Ireland), but London at night is interesting. Some tube stations stop at midnight, though, so unless you want to pay an arm and a leg to get a cab half way across town, you have to kind of plan ahead. Or navigate the bus system, because that still runs all night.

Today the weather decided to be bi-polar again and rain in the morning and then the sun popped out for a few hours and then it down poured for about five minutes and now the sun and blue skies are showing again. It’s just the way it is here, and I actually kind of like it. At least I know it’s not dreary all the time.

Also today I walked down Oxford Street which is just north of Hyde Park (I love where I live here because I’m pretty much equidistance between Regents and Hyde Park [a mile north and south, respectively]). It has all these huge shopping places. The Primark was insane and my head just about exploded when I walked inside. Also there was this huge building called Selfridges that was four floors of designer EVERYTHING YOU CAN EVER IMAGINE. When you walked in the main floor, your nostrils were assaulted by the perfume and designer smells being sprayed everywhere (think the makeup/perfume section in Macy’s except ten times that and ten times more expensive). Then you rode the escalators up and there were designer clothes, shoes, handbags, etc. It was amazing and frightening at the same time and I’ll most likely go there again.

Tonight some of the girls in my group are going to this night club where you have to put your name on a guest list in order to even be considered inside. AND there is a dress code which includes heels. So this 5’9” American girl with size ten feet went and bought some cheap heels to wear to the legit London night club tonight. Do you know how annoying it is to try and find shoes in a country where the highest women’s shoe size is equivalent to a US Women’s Size 9 or 10? Sorry my feet are flippers. No big deal, guys. But I did find the heels, and I’m actually really excited.

And now some random picture time:

I ordered this salad a few nights ago. It’s tomatoes with avocado and balls of mozzarella cheese. It was kind of weird, but I enjoyed it.

Saw this car outside Regents before we left Orientation last Sunday. The average car isn’t much bigger here.

This was the sandwich I made today. I just feel like posting this. Enjoy.

One of my roommates bought this the first night we were here. Way to be boring, America. Why aren’t any of our vodka bottles cool like this? Except the caricatures of the people on it are kind of creepy, I will admit.

**Note: For those of you who might be musically challenged, the title of this blog post are lyrics from this song:

How cool is this?

I just ate a bowl of mango chunks and yogurt and it was delicious. Also, grapes. Yum. Thought you should know. Mom, I’m eating so don’t worry.

Also, did you guys know it rained in London? Yeah. It does. Rain actually is a thing here. Like, every day. But if you’re a local, this is not unusual and the question, “Is it going to rain today?” isn’t in your diction. It’s more of, “When is it not going to rain?” Even after four days, though, I’ve learned that if you’re a local, this is normal and if you’re shopping or going about your daily life and the skies start spitting at you, it’s not a big deal and some people don’t even open their umbrellas. Just don’t expect to have a decent hair day. Not a problem for me, since I live in Michigan and it’s humid during the rest of the year that doesn’t have snow falling from the sky.

Today, though, I learned that blue skies actually exist here, and the sun does pay attention to the Land of the Queen. For about an hour, anyway. Good enough for me.

Two nights ago I took the tube for the first time and I have to say after spending a month in NYC and navigating the subway system there, public transportation is a must and honestly the best thing ever. But, let’s be honest, to anyone who’s been to both London and New York, the tube here is SO MUCH NICER than it is there. Sorry, NYC, but yours is smelly and gross and the chairs are hard and plastic. Here? It smells nice (even being underground, it doesn’t smell like dirty-hobo; this could be in part that it doesn’t get to ninety degrees here in the summer) and the seats are upholstered. Upholstered tube seats? I mean, only the British could get away with that and have it be considered tasteful and classy instead of gross and tacky.

For those who’ve never rode the London Underground, there is a saying that they say before the doors open. “Mind the gap.” And you better listen because there is literally a foot long gap between the train and the platform and if you fall, I don’t know if the train would stop for you. So, jump, leap, do whatever you have to do, but mind the effing gap. Just some advice.

So, after that tube ride, I went on this haunted tour of London. It wasn’t really a haunted tour; it was more of a tour of places around the Tower of London where there were several hundred people hanged between the 15th and 18th centuries as well as several popular beheadings. Also, we traveled to some places notably famous for being spots Jack the Ripper murdered some of his victims. I mean, all in all it was entertaining and I always enjoy learning about history (even morbid history like that), but I was expecting to go through some haunted houses/churches or something like that. See some ghosts. You know, the usual.

Because I am a twelve-year-old boy and this is a statue on top of a building of a giant naked man.

Tower of London. There is a separate tour you can take inside. Apparently it’s the most haunted place in London.

These were lions outside the tower because apparently the royal animals kept in the Tower and several royals had lions because it’s the animal of England.

Tower Bridge where about a week and a half ago the Mayor of London revealed the Olympic Rings. I didn’t even realize we were close to it and we came down this hill and there it was and I was like, “Oh, my God, that’s freaking SWEET,” and had a mild geek-out moment. It was awesome.

Oh, hi there. It was raining, just so you know.

This was a church where one of Jack the Ripper’s murders took place. It’s nickname was Prostitute’s Church, appropriately named due to the number of prostitutes that sashayed around here at night looking for some high class clientele.

I don’t know what this is. I just thought it was interesting. I’d like to buy a miniature and put it on my coffee table.

Oh, and this. This was cool, too.

This looks like a giant pickle, doesn’t it? Yeah, I thought so, too. It’s called the Gerken.

Then yesterday after class we went to Piccadilly Circus to walk around. This reminded me of Times Square (minus the giant billboards made of lights) because there were a lot of tourists and touristy shops. I apologize in advance for the number of comparisons I will make about London to NYC, but I’m finding a lot of similarities and I spent a decent amount of time in NYC that I think it’s natural to compare the two.

Outside the tube station at Piccadilly Circus.

Waving the Union Jack loud and proud.

Does every major city have an M&M World?

I have seen about five Chipotle’s since being here. Or, as my mother likes to call it “Chipotel.” (not “Chipot-lay“)

Last night we went to our first play, The Comedy of Errors. It’s a Shakespeare play and usually Shakespeare doesn’t do anything for me (I swear I’m the worst English major; I don’t like a lot of the so-called “classics” that everyone else does and I don’t understand Shakespeare…) but this was excellent. It had a modern twist on it and it was FUNNY and I could understand it relatively easy due to the modern twist (this is besides the fact that I looked up the summary beforehand…but it’s Shakespeare and I didn’t want to be completely lost). It might be my favorite (or, should I start spelling it “favourite?”) Shakespeare comedy/over-all play. I highly recommend it. Plus, I think the fact that all the actors were British added to the effect.

Afterwards some of us went out to dinner and drinks. Today after class we went to the Keats’ House (where the poet John Keats lived some time during his unfortunately short life) which is located in Hamstead, this cute, quaint little town that is basically how I pictured London with all these shops and pubs and bakeries and small, cobble-stoned alleyways. It was so pretty. Plus the sun was out!

Tonight my group is going out to some club that is celebrating Fourth of July (because, no, to anyone who is wondering, Britain does not celebrate the day that America gained their independence from the [then] greatest military/kingdom in the world. Sorry we’re not sorry) and I’m sure it will be a grand time. But before then I have to write a paper and actually do the homework I’m assigned for my classes because this is actually a real thing.

Happy Independence Day, America!

Oh, wait, that’s not the right anthem…

So yesterday after orientation at Regent’s (which makes MSU look like the Titanic of colleges, by the way), I moved into my flat. The flats are cute with four to five people. Then we went to Waitrose to buy groceries and cleaning things then we went to dinner, and I had fish and chips with a glass of wine (whoop! haha). Then I was basically stumbling up the stairs because I was so tired (not drunk), so I came back, unpacked, and went to bed around 10:30.

Today was my first day of class at Regents. It’s pretty basic. We’re broken up in to groups with half-hour to hour segments for classes where we discuss what we’re reading. I’m not going to write about it because who wants to hear about an English Literature class? Um, no one.

After lunch at Regents we went to the Wallace Collection to look at some paintings. Basically this Marquess collected a lot of works of art and now his McMansion home is a gallery/museum. It’s pretty cool, with all these massive chandeliers and gold frames and huge paintings with half-naked women and men. But, you know, that’s what that time period was all about.

This was the staircase leading to the upper floors. You know, marble with a red carpet. The usual.

Painting of Queen Victoria

There were marble busts EVERYWHERE. These people were all about the marble busts. Some even had the Janet Jackson nipple slippage. I plan on getting this done when I’m old so my family has something to look at and talk about and set on their coffee table. Minus the nipple slip.

This child’s eyes creeped me out. It was like child from The Omen or Insidious. Imagine having this hanging in your living room.

This was the painting we went to the Wallace Collection to look for specifically. It’s called “The Swing” and if you look at it closer (google it), on the left was this woman’s lover and on the right was her husband. Her lover had it commissioned because he “thought she had beautiful legs.” So, naturally, he’s looking up her skirts. Classy. I’m sure her husband was proud.

This woman’s widow’s peak was something to be admired. My friend I was with said she looked like a vampire.

On the ground floor were several rooms of armor, swords, and guns. It was sweet, and some of the armor were so detailed.

I found Magneto’s helmet.

Another demon child portrait.

There were crystal chandeliers everywhere, as well. I think it would be a wonderful addition to my apartment next year.

Also, I’m pretty sure decorating my apartment like this would be lovely. Hope my roommate doesn’t mind. I’m really in love with the bright red wallpaper and gold-gilt framed paintings.

Or a blue? Covered wall to floor in paintings.

This collection of paintings was actually gorgeous. It depicted  some events of Jesus and the Holy Family from when Mary went to visit her sister Elizabeth when she was pregnant with John the Baptist all through the point before Jesus’s crucifixion. I loved the blue in every picture. I’m not an art history major, but I just liked these a lot.

Ceremonial cannon!

Some random, battle helmets.

So, that was a mini-field trip today. I’m leaving to go in a few minutes on a haunted London tour? Something like that. Should be entertaining.

On a final note, I bought a cheap flip phone to get in touch with people in my group and whatever and I’m going to be honest, I’ve forgotten how to work it properly. Also, how did people function with T9? Obviously they did (I did; a razor was my first phone), but I’d forgotten how to use it…I sound like a spoiled American who can’t function without a normal phone. Oh, well. I’m in London, and that’s what matters.

Before every big trip, it’s always the mounting anticipation that helps to build the excitement. All last week, since I finished work on Tuesday, I knew I had four days until London…three days…two…and then finally it was last night and I was finishing up my packing (which, I’m going to be honest, wasn’t completely finished until twenty minutes before I left the house this morning). I made it to GR Airport and flew to Atlanta.

And then the real waiting began.

I’ve never known anyone who has had a twelve-hour layover in one place before. Unless your flight is delayed or canceled, I never thought it was at all possible.

It’s possble.

My flight from GR landed at 8:15. I’ve been here since then. That’s ten and a half HOURS. What travel company has their customer book a flight with a TWELVE-HOUR layover? My dad joked last night that I could have drove to Atlanta in twelve hours. Ha. Hilarious.

So, in my ten and a half hours (going on eleven) of meandering around this airport, I’ve picked up a few things one can do trying to endure the wait while suppressing the urge to run up and down the terminal because they’re starting to get antsy.

You can:

-Surf the internet: Granted this is AFTER you pay seven dollars to gain a twenty-four hour, unrestricted access pass to the net. Seven dollars? I’m already here for twelve hours of my day, and you still don’t have free wi-fi, Atlanta? Don’t even get me started on your lack of electrical outlets in the lobby.
-Try not to look suspicious: I promise I wasn’t, but earlier when I was still walking around the lobby/food-court before proceeding through security, I still had my giant suitcase and was lugging that around along with my two carry-on bags. There wasn’t anywhere to sit, so I just kept walking around, pulling my giant suitcase behind me.
-Watch TV: I watched three and a half episodes of Glee, completing the third season. Half-way through one of the episodes, the internet randomly shut down and my computer shut off. Cool.
-Write a letter: Let’s say you have a sibling who is away at Basic Training for the Air Force Academy and you want to write him a letter before you leave the country. I still have two and a half hours to do so. No biggie.

-Paint your nails: This is a no-brainer. It also took up about a half-hour. And what a great half hour spent! I set up shop in the corner of my gate and had Glee playing in the background. Purple for my toes and red for my fingers.
-Exchange your currency: I had $300. Now I have 190 GBP. The size of the bill gets bigger as the number increases!
-People watch: Lasts about ten minutes. Then you look like you’re staring and could be potentially creepy.
-Bomb your twitter account: My tweets were ridiculous today and I’m sure my followers were either amused or annoyed.
-Stand in lines: Line to check-in, line to check your baggage, line to security check-in, line to get Qdoba. Line to board the plane (eventually)
-Watch CNN: Because the volume is pretty much up all the way and you have no other choice but to hear the news anchor talk about what your choice of shoes means about your relationship (No joke. This was a news segment. And, what, there’s nothing else going on in the world right now?)
-Catch up on some pre-study abroad reading: Yeah. Didn’t quite do that…yet.
-Try not to go stir-crazy/get too slap happy:  That’s long gone.

I’ve been sitting at my gate for a while and a flight to Venice has already left and now people are lining up to go to Albany. Venice is cool, but the flight that leaves at 9:35 is even cooler. I’ve made it this far. I can do another two and a half hours. Then it’s only an 8 and a half hour flight. No big deal.

With so little time left, I thought it was important to recap what I have accomplished so far. Here was my original to-do list.

So what can I check off my list so far?

In one of my first posts, I said I wanted to learn more about photography. Through my visual journalism class I am right on track! Each week we have different photo assignments which have lead me throughout the city. The class has taught me so much more than the photography basics I was hoping to learn. It is also about photojournalism and how to tell a story through your photos. I am working on my portfolio so check back in April to see the final product!

I also wanted to learn more about the history and culture of London. My classes and studying have been a huge help. My kooky Historic London teacher has filled us with trivia knowledge while in Performing Arts in London we have seen A Midsummer’s Night Dream, the House of Bernarda Alba, and the opera Aida. So far, the House of Bernarda Alba has been my favorite. Aida had great music, however my Italian was too rusty and my eyes too poor for me to have any idea what the play was about. My roommate walked out of the theater after the three-hour performance and asked who was Aida…

Fish n’ Chips, CHECK! While in London I have tasted yummy fish and chips, meat pies, high tea and cucumber sandwiches! Traditional British food is kind of bland, which has led us to try the ethnic cuisine famously lining every street. The other night we tried Thai food and next in line is Indian! I have also tried to eat the local dishes wherever we have travelled, from fresh seafood and potatoes in Ireland to bread dumplings and goulash in Prague! I can’t tell if I am more excited for chocolate and cheese from Switzerland or pasta and gelato from Italy!

Along that track, my passport is filling up! So far, I have visited Ireland, Scotland, and the Czech Republic. Already booked for the rest of the semester are Switzerland, Spain, Germany, Italy, and Austria!

With the time I have left, I still plan to visit local advertising agencies and media corporations. I am hoping to tour MediaCom and the BBC Production Department for sure, while I am still waiting to hear back from some advertising agencies.

And I could never forget the Sound of Music I am planning to visit Austria with my mom where I will climb every mountain, waltz around Salzburg belting do-re-mi, and enjoy some of my favorite things!

As for my blog, I am trying to stay up to date but my days are full of sightseeing so it is hard to catch up. And for a journalism major, I really do hate writing.

I am excited for what the other half of this trip brings!

 Quick Facts about St. Paul’s Cathedral:

• Winston Churchill during WWII ordered people to stay at the cathedral to prevent it from burning down in case a bomb hit it
• The cathedral is a pillar of hope to the city and there are laws that prevent other building from disrupting the view of St. Paul’s from key points throughout the city
• It is the building inside the globe in Mary Poppins
• Charles and Lady Diana were married there
• It is one of the most famous churches because everyone knows who it is actually dedicated to, St. Paul the Apostle Most of the London cathedrals aren’t dedicated to anyone specific
• They still put on daily services
• Designed and built by Christopher Wren in a English Baroque technique
•  Apparently, if we stand on one side of the dome, you can whisper into the wall and someone can hear you directly across. We tried but we couldn’t get it to work
• Outside on the grounds of the Cathedral is the base for #OccupyLondon

Occupy London

Occupy London on the steps of St. Paul's

Occupy London Protester sticking it to the man while drinking Starbucks...

St. Paul's Cathedral

Only pic I could sneak up top in the dome of St. Paul's before I got yelled at. Here we tried to whisper across the dome but couldn't get it to work.

Mary Poppins globe

Quick Facts about Tower of London

• Rumor is ravens need to always be on the grounds or else the kingdom and the fortress will fall. The Beefeaters watch after seven tagged ravens that remain on the Tower grounds
• Started as one tower, the white tower, and more was built around it
• Houses the crown jewels
• Although not primarily built as a prison, it has been used as one and many people were executed here
• Many of the royalty have lived here at one point because it was supposed to be a defensive and safe point in the city
• The ghost of Anne Boleyn is supposed to haunt some of the buildings (she was beheaded here)
• The supposed bodies of little brothers Edward V and Richard of Shrewsbury were found here. It is alleged that their uncle, Richard III, had them killed for succession of the throne

The White Tower, which is the center of the Tower of London

This is Tower Bridge, although many think it is London Bridge

Part of the grounds haunted by Anne Boleyn and the little royal brothers

This raven picked out beak-fulls of rubbish

We weren't allowed to take any pics inside!

There was also a museum of torture and armor. We giggled like little girls at this one for a good five minutes.

I am excited for the other places we will visit throughout the semester!

Borough Market

I started off with a duck sandwich (my dad would be proud I am trying new international things, although it did taste a lot like chicken). We then walked around and sampled dozens of delicious cheeses and homemade breads. We spent a lot of time at a nut stand where they would fling you samples to try. I ended up buying honey-covered almonds and chocolate covered cashews.

They had some interesting wild game at the market. We swore we saw one of these rabbits move.

We sampled these Turkish Delights! They are kinda like gelatin.

So many yummy nuts!

After the Market we headed to Harrods, the famous department store. I have never been in a store like this before! It is completely different from any department store back in America. Harrods is a luxurious store filled with floors of expensive and extravagant things.

Harrods

After wandering around the rooms of Gucci and Prada handbags we made it to the Meat and Poultry room, something we could actually afford. They even have an entire room dedicated to just fancy chocolates! On top of outrageously expensive and fancy clothes, Harrods has a toy store with over-the-top toys like giant stuffed elephants and buckets of fake snow. If you were kid, you could spend an entire day on this floor just playing with the thousands of different toys.

Chocolate Cows in the Chocolate Room at Harrods

Next to the toy store is a pet store! The pet store had puppies, kitties, rabbits and fish. We weren’t allowed to take pictures, but I had to sneak a few pic of what I would buy Gigi!

Pet Store in Harrods!

Warning: if you do not love my puppy Gigi as much as I do, you could probably stop reading now.

New bed for Gigi

More for Gigi!

Doggy nail polish for Gigi

Actual dog diapers...

Fancy dog collars for Gigi

Princess Gigi!

In the end, I did have to splurge on something for myself at Harrods. I bought a Stella McCartney tank top for the London Olympics.

Another successful day in London!

High Tea at the Orangery!

Today we went to the Orangery for high tea; it used to be one of Princess Diana’s favorite places. It was quintessential British tea, exactly how I picture Queen Elizabeth, Julie Andrews, or my grandma having their tea. We got the traditional high tea, which is your choice of tea (I got the Palace Earl Grey) and trays of finger sandwiches and desserts. It was delicious and surprisingly filling!

Palace Earl Grey

Ham sandwich, Cucumber sandwich, Salmon lox sandwich, Egg salad sandwhich. Scone with clotted creme and raspberry jam. Brownie and some delicious dessert with a crazy name.

The restaurant is in the Kensington Gardens, beside the Kensington Palace (the palace is being renovated right now, rumor is its being remodeled for Kate and William to move into!). Today was rainy, but I would love to go back in the spring when the garden is blooming and you can eat out on the patio! If you are looking for picture perfect high tea, I would suggest the Orangery. The evening ended with a beautiful sunset on our way home. Today was exactly how I imagined my life in London!

Sunset in London

Paris metro was exactly like the tube, so it was very easy to navigate. We also were located right next to Anvers train station so it was very simple to know how to get back. I sincerely loved Paris and it’s atmosphere. I really want to learn French and go back. Many natives came up to me and asked for directions, to take pictures, etc. and it was so flattering. I don’t have the “London” look, but I really fit in with the French women and their personalities (good thing I thought they were rude…). I mean that more like I don’t walk around with a big dopey look on my face and actually presented myself in an intelligent yet reserved manner (or so I’d like to believe, who knows, at this rate). Obviously once I opened my mouth my “French” facade went to crap and my American-ness was revealed. I was mocked a couple times, specifically because Americans are notorious for saying “OH MY GOD” to everything. Sorry, France, but we don’t have freaking palaces just hanging around the corner in America. Sorry for being taken back by your country’s beauty. Yeah, like I said, the French people, although usually nice, are very rude sometimes.

Jenny’s Paris friends were very cool and fun to hang out with. I also got to see my neighbor who lives in Paris this semester, so it was great to finally see a friend! Everyone else has had friends visit and I felt left out, so I was so happy to have someone to see. I also met some of the UNC students in their program, and they were all very smart and very sweet. I wish they were in our program. But it is nice to know that they will come visit and we can all hang out again.

Anyway, our hostel was right by the train station, and it was very nice and had a great atmosphere. The workers (the male ones, at least) were very nice and understanding, but there was one woman who was rather rude. Basically in France, every woman I met (aside from the very sweet french girl who Jenny knew) were so rude. All the men were very nice and understanding. I know what you’re thinking, “it’s because you’re a girl” but I would speak to older train station workers and they would be nice. I just don’t understand. So, all in all, I love all the male French people, but the French women were very callous.

We actually became friends with our one hostel receptionist, Alex. He lived in Colorado for a year so he knew English very well, and even understood sarcasm. Thank God! He taught me how to make crepes and even let me help him make complimentary breakfast for the hostel—a very cool experience. Crepes are delicious and bountiful in Paris. Everywhere you go, boom, crepe station. They also have many sandwich shops and the bread is so delicious it doesn’t even matter if the rest of the sub isn’t good. I loved LOVED the food. I have had french food before, but even silly food was good. Mcdonald’s in France is actually really delicious (I couldn’t muster the nerve to actually go there) but everyone insisted it is so much better in Europe than America. Not that there is much competition. But I need to try it in England, since my co-workers insisted it was the best fast food in England. I’m still skeptical, but I will manage.

Anyway, we tried to cram as many sites as possible in our short stay. We saw Notre Dame, Montmartre (right by our hostel!), Eiffel Tower, Luxembourg Gardens, Louvre Muesum, and lots of shops. I am very sad to say I bought some beautiful earrings and left the bag at the store. I am still heartbroken. But I picked up a shirt and boots for a very good price. Paris is even more like NYC in the fact that there are many flea markets and shops that display their goods right outside of the store. I loved the shopping; England requires more of a commute to shop, which kind of turns me off to it. Especially because you normally go to Primark (basically a Forever 21 but much better) and subsequently results in 1 hour lines to the fitting room and cash register. Not really worth the £5 dress (I have received many compliments on it. Glad to know my $70 Free People shirt received three compliments in the 7 months I have had it, but this silly dress with a horse print received three compliments that day I wore it and from people I don’t even like/don’t even like me. Sigh).

We decided to dress in the trendiest clothes we could find, which was actually more fun that you would think. I felt pretty elite and European in my tuxedo jacket, black pants, peeptoe ankle booties and my Chanel bag. I looked very, very chic. Yet, I barely fit in with the chic attendees in the showroom. Funny how that works out. Yet, the designers were tricked by my “rich Euro” facade and tried to pitch to me 200 pound dresses that are originally 800 pounds. I politely declined in my American accent, and they instantly went off. Kristi had a designer who attempted to trick her a la “Legally Blonde” by pitching a last season dress at a this season price the second the designer realized Kristi was American. The bloody zipper was broken and the designer had the audacity to say that it was because it was “high quality”. It is kind of sad how British people think of Americans, but then again, they also have shows like “Jersey Shore” as evidence of our stupidty. Damn you, Snookie.

Anyway, luckily for me all the “larger” sizes were gone, so I wasn’t even able to be tempted. The jewelry, however, taunted me. They were all so gorgeous, so my style, and so out of any plausible price range. Story of my life. Kristi found some great steals, but Jenny and I decided to leave, especially when my feet were suffering from “hot shoe”-itis. The blisters, which I didn’t even know I could possibly accumulate anymore of, are bleeding and on very awkward parts of my toe. Delightful.

All in all the weekend was relatively uneventful. We went to a “western” club which was fun, but low key. I finally bought a 10 pound dress (big spender over here) so I enjoyed wearing something new. The washing machines here are dreadful and make my clothes feel like paper, so I also enjoyed the feeling of actual cotton. There are many novelties I miss about America. Particularly food. Luckily today at my internship I ran in late, only to find a box of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts waiting for me. I never been so happy to eat insanely unhealthy food in my life. My co-workers definitely mocked my joy for an “American Breakfast”. I don’t blame them.

The stress has gone away and I have my debit card, at long freaking last.

Cheers,
Suzanne

This weekend we kicked off our first trip of 2011 to the Czech Republic. Our trip to Prague linked up study abroad students and friends studying in Florence, London, and Rome to the enchanting city of Prague. From our launch point at the Czech Inn, one of Europe’s top hostel accommodations, we were able to take advantage of all the great sightseeing and hang out spots that Prague has to offer. Some favorites were the John Lennon Wall, Astronomical Clock, and Prague Castle. The New Europe Walking Tour gave us a way to appreciate the culture and people of this wonderful city in a humorous and entertaining way.  Nighttime events included a pub-crawl in the center of Old Town, and a trip to Lucerna, a club which hosts an 80’s 90’s pop music video party every Saturday (arguably the best night in Europe!).

As the winter season rolls along, another massive group enjoyed the go-to adventure hot spot of Interlaken. With mother nature on our side, everyone traveling with Bus2alps to Switzerland this weekend had an amazing time. The weather was sunny and warm everyday, making for some awesome skiing conditions. Clear skies made all those who went skydiving and paragliding happy as they admired Switzerland from above while experience some adrenaline pounding thrills. Those with a sweet tooth enjoyed a chocolate show in town while another lucky Bus2alps traveler won over 200 Swiss francs at the local casino! As usual, the Metro Bar was hopping both nights as everyone danced their hearts out with their friends they came with, and all the new ones they met on the trip. Never short of adventure and good times, Interlaken once again wowed the three bus loads of students who traveled with Bus2alps.

Overall another incredible weekend with Bus2alps as we look towards the few weeks, where more Interlaken and Prague, and trips to Vienna & Salzburg and Venice Carnival await.

We can’t wait to get back on the bus!

The Brits in my internship (5 men, ranging from 28-40) are all really nice. They have an initiation planned for me, and even bought me my sandwich for lunch yesterday (which was all I ate that day. The cost of food is killing me, but at least I might lose a pound or twenty). I’m looking forward to working with them, but the 10 hour shift and hours of commute/anxiety drained me especially. I had to miss out on fish n chips at the pub because I was in such a horrible and panic stricken mood, but luckily everyone came over to say hi and give me a hug. I also have another intern working with me on Thursday, from another school. Luckily he’s a boy so I won’t have competition for favorite intern.

Theatre class was today. AKA we sat there and she whispered as a heating machine over powered her voice. I’m not planning on learning anything from the class. I took it to watch theatre for free, and that is what we’re doing. We are seeing a Shakespearean play first…then a couple others, and then, we are going to see none other than Frankenstein. (the book I used for every project from 8-12th grade). I don’t have to do any outside reading! Woo hoo.

Art class is tomorrow, and I’m sure it will be just as riveting. Maybe I can sleep? Or maybe eat?
Already have 2 holes in my hummus brother’s loyalty card, and I bought a salmon pasta salad for dinner tonight. I might exceed 1000 calories today for less than 10 pounds. yay!

Yesterday wasn’t really worth blogging about. Except that we had redundant meetings and I was annoyed. But, we did go to heaven on earth: Hummus Brothers. Its slogan, “give peas a chance”, showed the many mixes of hummus with other concotions that you would never guess. My hummus of choice was guacamole with jalapenos, peppers, and peprica. It was honestly the tastiest thing I have ever had. I couldn’t even finish a small. (side note: my eating habits have gotten much better, mostly because I’m cheap and don’t have money to eat and the fact that they serve small portions. Thanks, UK) We also stopped by the British Museum to see where our friend Jenna was interning. It was absolutely stunning. I can’t even put it into words. We were there for maybe 10 minutes and it was so overwhelmingly gorgeous (and FREE). There were no ceilings, just glass window panes, and the sunlight complimenting various artifacts. It was awesome.

I stayed in and sulked while watching Daria. I can’t say I didn’t hate it. I got to skype with a couple of friends and see how they are doing. Clearly I am doing better than them.

Today was long boring tour day! We got to see Buckingham Palace, London Bridge, London Tower, a ton of statues, and lots of buildings. I took lots of pictures of nothing, really. But it was nice. Tiring, but nice. Finally got more than 4 hours of sleep last night but had to sacrifice doing a dry run to my internship. Frankly, the rest was needed, I’ll figure it out tomorrow and add the 45+ minutes of commute. Obviously it was pretty, but it got really boring. Oh, but don’t worry, we get to wake up at 7:30 am to go to Oxford and Warwick Castle.

And I finally bought shampoo that can clean my hair, not make it extra greasy. Perfection.
Cheers,
Suzanne

The flight ended, and we landed. Boom. London. What? They drive on the left side of the road. They have double decker busses. It was like re-living “Spice World” all over again. The scenery was just like New York, which I am a huge fan of, and the weather was a bit dreary but soothing. And of course every person who spoke in their charming accent was deemed the “cutest”, especially the little tykes running rampant in the streets with their angry mothers trying to keep up.

We walked around town trying to eat, since I hadn’t eaten in about 15 hours. I appeased said hunger with a salad and met a charming older woman along the way. She chimed in on our conversation and continued to complain about how she “wishes her brother would shut up because he’s so boring”. I liked her. I liked the London people.

Our flat is about as big as a thumbnail, but it is quaint. I don’t care, I’m in London. I’ll manage. Our common room, however, is really nice and recently re-furnished with nice leather seats.

I don’t have an adapter to charge my laptop, so this post is under strict time control. But, tomorrow we have a tour and a swanky dinner to attend, and I’m sure once we all get some rest we will seek out the insanity that lies in the London night life. Jenny and Kristi (my roommates) have gone to sleep, and I finally gained enough strength to stay awake so I can wake up at a reasonable hour (and not…well, 3 am, London time).

Hope all is well,
Cheers,
Suzanne

My classes are awesome! Most of them I’ll hardly be in the classroom but rather in art galleries learning about paintings in the original! How cool is that? I have one class that is two times a week and its the one class that sticks around campus. (Modern Europe) Its a really interesting class and the teacher is really making sure that we understand what’s going on! My other classes: History of Renaissance Art, History of Modern Art, History of London, and Cultural Diversity in the Media, all have trips to different galleries or libraries. It makes learning so much more fun! I will also be posting a more detailed VIDEO blog about my classes very soon. I made the video but then had huge issues trying to upload it… so I’m working on getting that figured out soon! 

The second week in my History of London class, we went to tour the Tower of London! It is such an awesome place! There’s so much going on there! The Crown Jewels are there as well as some graffiti from prisoners that were held there in the 1400s! Very interesting! The picture to the right is of the Chapel that is in the White Tower (if you are familiar with the area, its the one in the middle) This was my favorite part because it was just so beautiful and quite in there.

My first couple weeks have been awesome! My best friend Emily since my freshman year and some other girls came to visit us in London from the Netherlands (which is where they are studying this semester) and we covered a lot of ground that weekend! I’m not sure if you’ve seen my facebook photos, but most of them are up. We went to take pictures of the Tower of London, Tower Bridge ( photo to the left with my friend Abby), Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and Buckingham Palace. The next day we went two hours away to Stonehenge, which is the same place that you see all of those pictures of rocks stacked on each other and what not. The final day we went to see different things around London, like Abbey Road where the
Beatles took that famous picture on the cross walk, as well as the Peter Pan statue in Hyde park (which is a really awesome park that I will definitely be going back to) and then to the “Platform 9 and 3/4″ which “really does exist!”

The second weekend, I didn’t do very much just out to a few pubs with friends

believe how awesome and stunning it is! It was one of those moments that completely took my breath away. (I don’t get those very often).  It looks really awesome at night, too!

Well, I’ll be signing off now. I have class in the morning! Its midnight here!!

I wish I could upload more photos, but I don’t want to clutter up the page! Enjoy, everyone!

Helloooo everyone!!

I am IN LONDON now! Let me tell you, it’s awesome! Everything is sooo beautiful and Regents is a really neat school. Ok, so the beginning of this whole thing started a couple days ago when my mom and I drove from St. Louis to Chicago in a SNOW storm! It was awful, but we made it there! My mom and I went to the Contemporary Art Museum and saw some really interesting modern art and then had a delicious Indian Dinner at a place called “Indian Garden” It was sooo yummy!

On Wednesday (the 12th) My dad and step-mom Jan flew into Chicago very early in the morning after dealing with flight delays and changing flights. None-the-less, they made it! We had a great breakfast at a little cafe down the block from our hotel and then made our way to the Art Institute of Chicago where we saw amazing works of art by some of my favorite artists! We even saw “The Cloud”… or “The Bean” as some of you may know it.  This first image that you see on the left is from one of my favorite artists, Jackson Pollock. I just think that he has amazing work and It was really awesome

Jackson Pollock circa 1960

to see his work in person. I really love his style, and I’ve started doing work similar to this when I actually have the time to paint. He’s definitely an Inspiration! My absolute favorite artist is Mark Rothko. Not a lot of people really like his work, because they think its far too simple, and that it doesnt have any meaning to it… but they’re wrong. There’s a ton of meaning to his work, however there are people who don’t take the time to realize that. This is the first time that I have ever seen a work of Rothko’s in person and I hope that there are some other originals over here in London! So, this is the piece that I was able to see, and it was absolutely amazing!

Mark Rothko circa 1960

He doesn’t ever title his pieces and I think that’s because he doesn’t want the title to get in the way of the experience that people have with his work.

Anyway, enough about that. We finally saw “the bean” in Chicago. If you’ve never seen it… its basically this big bean that is shiny and silver and when you look into it, you can see the whole Chicago skyline behind you. Its really neat! We went and took a ton of pictures and had a great time. After that we made our way over to the airport, and had a little snack and I was basically on my way to London! I said goodbye to my family with lots of hugs and

At the Bean!

7 hours later, here I am! Unfortunately, I only slept for like two hours on the plane… which then resulted in me being super tired when I got here. The great news is, ALL of my luggage  made it here, and 3 of us shared one taxi to campus and it wasn’t that expensive!

So when we got to school, We were able to go to our rooms, and unpack all of our stuff! At the moment, I do not have a roommate BUT I will be getting one and she is supposed to be here in a day or so. I think her flight was cancelled out of Boston. (I’ll post pictures of our room when she gets here) Anyways, we got here and were strictly told not to sleep because it would help with the jet lag. (I slept for two or three hours.. and I’m fine… just don’t tell anyone k?) They then took us out to a bar for drinks which were also supposed to help with the jet lag… I’m not really sure if it really does, but we went none-the-less!

This morning, (14 Jan.) We had an orientation type meeting where various departments introduced themselves and explained where their offices were and all that. It was pretty boring, but that’s alright. We had a quick lunch and then we all met with our advisors to make sure all of our classes are correct. I changed a couple of mine so my class list looks like this:

Modern Europe- M/W 10.30-12.30
Renaissance Art- M 2-5
Modern Art- T 2-5
Cultural Diversity in the Media- T 5.30- 8.30
Social History: Making of London- Th 2-5

I’m super excited about these classes! Two art history classes, and two history classes! It will be so awesome to take classes that I can’t get in the US.

That’s basically everything I’ve done so far! Tonight I’m going with a couple other girls to get some money from the ATM, buy and Oyster Card (card for the tube/busses..ect) and to top up our cell phones so we can all communicate! Thats basically it though!

Thanks for reading! You all are awesome!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season. I know that I am.

I’ts definitely been a while since I’ve posted a blog, but that’s because I’ve been super busy finishing up my semester at Webster as well as getting ready for London! In the past month or so, I’ve finished up school, moved home, had my brother in Saint Louis, gotten 2 viruses on my laptop (terribly timing if you’re asking me) and now I’m up in Minnesota spending time with my dad before I depart.

As most of you know, I was having a pretty rough semester (London fever…if you couldn’t guess) and I have been super excited to be finished with school for the moment. With the support of my family and friends, I made it through, which I am very grateful for. The best part about my finals week was definitely when I was at the library with my study buddies, Emily and Molly, working on a project for the following evening to be alerted by the infamous Skype that my brother Adam was adding me! (Why he hadn’t before… I’m not sure) Without further adue, I added him back and within seconds, Adam was calling me. When I answered I COULDN’T Believe my eyes because there he was… sitting on my moms couch a WHOLE DAY earlier than planned! You all should have seen my face. It was pretty priceless. And you know that happy feeling you get that makes you want to cry? Yeah I had that. It was a really awesome surprise. Definitely made my week.

Since Adam elected to visit Missouri for his birthday (Golden, 19th non-the-less) he was required by me of course to help me move all of my valuables, or should I say “junk,” back home to Chesterfield.While I packed up my apartment, I had two bags set aside to put things in that I wanted to make sure I brought with me on my trip. I made sure that I had my passport carrier thing..(goes under your clothing…you know?) some shampoo and conditioner, a scarf that was given to me especially for my trip, my London city guide book, two small books, and a lot more little odds and ends that I’m going to need. Aside from the London  It took about 7 hours of packing and loading to get it all into our cars. Best part? One trip! It all fit! I was so shocked, but when I asked Adam how he did it… his response, “I play tetris a lot.”
Okay then…
(Actually, I can’t judge…because I’m addicted to that game too.)

That night I basically unpacked all of my “junk” and put a lot of things in storage that I won’t be needing over the next four months while I’m away, and sorted through my clothes to see which ones I would be taking with me to London or leaving here at home. If you have ever seen the amount of clothing I own, you would know that this was quite the task. Since one of my least favorite activities is moving, its more or less been a stop and start project for about a week now. (My mom isn’t too happy about that… sorry!)

Since school ended, and I’ve moved home I’ve been constantly making lists and checking them off as I go to get prepared for London. I never knew all of the different things that you have to take care of before you leave the country or the kind of documents that you need before you can leave or enter another country.
Some things that I’ve been getting together are:

• Passport (obviously)
• International Insurance
• ISIC Card- Basically used for discounts and to prove I’m an international student
• Regents College Acceptance Letter- Needed to prove I go to school there
• Letter to Immigration Officer- SUPER important to have when entering the UK
• UK currency/Pounds for when I first arrive
• Cash- for when I’m in the airport in Chicago
• My UK cell phone- uncharged… bummer.
• Debit card with all of my hard earned savings

These are the really important things that I’m going to need when I leave the country. I also have a huge packing list stored on my handy dandy iPhone. I figured that if I wrote it down on a piece of paper… I’d most likely lose it while moving.

Back to the Holidays!
Adam and I drove up to Minnesota on Monday the 20th during a super awesome snow storm that had us (by “us” I mean Adam) driving about 40 miles per hour for all but three hours of the trip. We experienced snow, ice, slush, jack-knifed trucks, cars in ditches, tons of police cars, traffic, freezing windshield and wipers, and delicious sugar cookies. Let me tell you… those cookies sure brightened up our afternoon. HA!

While I’ve been up here all of three days we’ve celebrated (again) Adam’s birthday with my dad and step-mom, and I was able to go see my best friend since second grade, Emily. I also spent a lot of time with my step siblings Aimee, and Cory. Aimee is married and has three beautiful children whom I adore and I loved hanging out with! Cory has an awesome girlfriend and it was so great to meet her!

I hung out with my step-mom, Jan a lot as well! We did a TON of grocery shopping! I was wiped out by the end. On top of that, when we got home… she did a large portion of the cooking. I don’t know how she does it… but I’m very impressed. I also helped out in the kitchen the next day and made my first refried bean casserole! It was awesome. I learned that Jan’s favorite kitchen tool is a spatula… and this other tool that helps break up ground beef in the fry pan. I don’t remember what its called.

I think I’m going to call it quits with this post. Sorry it took me forever to get it posted! I started on the 23rd.. but preparing for my trip sort of took over my life… PLUS my computer was out of commission for 2 weeks!!

Anyways! Thanks for reading, you all are awesome!

Welcome to my revamped blog! I have recently deleted pretty much everything else that I had on here and this is now the official place to read all about my trip before, during and after. The best part? I cannot WAIT to share everything with all of you.

I know that most of you are family and friends reading, and I’m very grateful that you all are going to be keeping an eye on whats happening abroad.

What I plan to do for the next couple months until I leave, is update every couple weeks to let you know what I’ve been doing to get prepared for my trip from getting all of my finances in order, to getting everything packed and ready to go, to how I’m saving money for the trip.

So, you are probably wondering whats happened so far, right?

General Info
I’ll be going to school at Regents College in London, England
I’m leaving on January 12th from Chicago on United Airlines.

Pink-eyed Passport photo

Well, I’ve had a lot going on in terms of getting prepared for this      trip. It all started a few months ago when I went to apply for my  passport. For some reason this past spring the flowers and grass  decided to hate me and I was struggling with some terrible  allergies. So, lucky for me… when I went to get my passport and    have my photo taken, I had nasty hair and bloodshot eyes.Cool,  right? That was a really fun day– having the wonderful people at the post office think i was dying from Pink-eye. Sweet.

After I applied for my passport, I wasn’t able to do very much until school started. This is when everything started moving to get the trip planned and tickets purchased.

Application

The application was really easy to fill out, and since I’m a good student with good grades, I had no problem being accepted into the program. I had to have a teacher reference, and write a few short answers to some questions, and that was that. It was due September 15th, 2010.

Pre-Acceptance

After they had all of the applications turned in and processed, we had a “Pre-Acceptance Meeting/Interview” with one of the Study Abroad Advisors. We learned about basic information such as when payments are due, and signatures we need to have before we are allowed to officially go on the trip. For example, we need to make sure our academic advisor knows we are leaving as well as the financial aid office and dean of students office.

We also received a student handbook that has all of the information we would ever want to know about traveling abroad to London.

Airlines, Flights, and Travel-Plex

The next thing that needed to happen was the purchasing of airline tickets!
This was so exciting!  Since I’m paying for my flight, I decided that I wanted to save some money and fly out of Chicago instead of Saint Louis. I contacted the travel agent that Webster Study Abroad uses, Tammy Francis from Travel-Plex,  to book all of the flights and she was able to help me get on the same flight as all of the Webster students traveling to London in January. I leave on January 12th from Chicago O’Hare International Airport around 6pm.

Loans–Ew

One of the other things I needed to take care of was a loan to cover the housing room and board at Regents College. Since London is a pretty expensive city to live in, you can only imagine what a college is going to charge for a dorm room. Let me tell you, its quite the pretty penny. So, I’ll be using my financial aid to pay for my housing. My loan check will arrive after I leave, and my mom will be able to pick up the check and wire the money over to the school.

Well, this is pretty much all of the info that I have to share with all of you at the moment. Be sure to check out the links I’ve posted, and I hope you all are doing well!

This week’s Bus2alps Featured Blogger, Curtis Chude learned about the Happiest Place in the World and recounted it in his blog. Below is an excerpt from 2nd day at Oktoberfest with Bus2alps. Click here to read his entire blog.

Oktoberfest

After an exhausting day previously, Saturday was spent with intention to just enjoy the festival and not so much down as many steins the festival. By 8am, the staff of Bus2Alps and Stoke waked most of the camp for breakfast and beer, which after two days seemed rather normal. The bus was filled with eager souls and when Colin, Niko, and I went to the HB tent – the lines were already ridiculous and the breakfast crowds in the tents were kicked out the tent to make way for the busiest day at the festival. There must have been thousands on the streets by mid afternoon. Most of them were Germans and in their lederhosen attire. I didn’t really have much success getting into tents with the crowds, the rain and losing my group. So I went to some local restaurants and grabbed a beer and ate some German dishes, which made absolutely no sense to me; Cheese, pretzel sticks, 3 different meats, horseradish (or it could have been wasabi cause I was crying when I took a big bite, and some mozzarella cheese topped off this one dish. Kind of embarrassed myself in front of some Germans since I didn’t finish most of the meal on the wooden platter and ate it with solely my hands. I was out of it by this point – didn’t really care. Tons of beer gardens were all around the place to grab a stein and walk around the site, so had to get my drink on soon. It was getting about that time to go back to the campsite since there weren’t as many busses being supplied on the day 2 and previously. I made it in minutes before the bus arrived and left suddenly not really waiting for others. Getting back to the campsite couldn’t find my tent mate Colin. It was rather worrisome since it was both our first times in Munich.

I began my regular social clout again as previous days and started having conversations with people from California, Florida, Aussies from Stoke, Indiana, and New York. I’m sure there were more people I made friends with their from other parts of the globe. Music played into the night as the staff joined the company of the group.

Went to the tent early to take a power nap since my body was still in exhaustion of the previous day. Awoke probably at about 4am when most were sleep or drunk.. The one Italian guy was using the poles from the food tents to hold himself up. He found his way to bed with orange neon paint all over his face, which I guess was from a girl out of her mind earlier just painting people. Had about 4 beers and went to sleep – still no tent mate.

Lots of wonderful things have come out of England: Shakespeare, scones, the Beatles, Prince William, clotted cream, Winston Churchill, Harry Potter, Jane Austen, Fergie’s song about the London Bridge, the actual London Bridge, Mr. Darcy, words like “knickers,” and a little thing called America. Me, being someone who loves all of these things, (especially Winston Churchill because me and Justin decided when we are old we will live in London and have a fat gray cat named Winston (even though I blanked out on his name when writing this and by accident wrote Willy Nelson)) REALLY loved London. It was the perfect mix of Europe and people I can actually speak English with. And it was SO GOOD to hear English. But kind of weird, because by this time I had already learned to tune out Danish conversations, so in England I learned all sorts of crazy gossip and could ask people for directions without being awkward, etc.

ANYHOW, here’s a rundown of my trip to London.

On Sunday, Feb 28, Holly and I set sail for Copenhagen Airport. We rode on a fun regional train but were kind of confused so we asked one of the attendants a question. This attendant turned out to be tremendously flamboyant, which I always find funny, but the best part was when, after the attendant had shut himself up in his special little closet across from where we were sitting and I began to tell Holly some juicy gossip, he slowly slid the door to his closet open like 5 inches. I started laughing so hard because it was super awkward and it definitely looked like he opened his door to hear the gossip. After about 1 minute of uncontrollable laughing, he slowly slid his door back shut. And that was the last we saw of him. After arriving at the airport, we had lunch with Richard and boarded the plane to London Heathrow. I was really happy when we got off the plane because a.) as we all know, I hate planes/flying and b.) there were hundreds of people with banners and musical instruments singing, as well as tv cameras everywhere. I though London was really welcoming but apparently we were on the same flight as the Egyptian soccer team and every single Egyptian in London came to see them get off the plane.

Goodbye Copenhagen!

Hello London/Egyptians!

From the airport, we went on a realllly long (like 4 hours) bus tour of the city. Our fearless and unabashedly British tour guide, Mark, pointed out all the sites while our speed-happy bus driver (Bill, Bob?) flew by them, increasingly annoying Mark to the point where he would be say, “Look there’s Gordon Brown’s house. LOOK, LOOK WHERE I’m pointing right now. Do you see where I’m pointing? Now if Bill will slow down a bit we can all see it. More slowly, Bill, please. PLEASE.” I actually kind of felt like I was on the Knight Bus from Harry Potter but without all the magic and shrunken heads hanging in the window.

What may or may not have been Kensington Palace. Courtesy of race (bus) driver Bill (bob?)

After the bus tour, we checked into the King’s Cross Holiday Inn which was not the Holiday Inn of middle Tennessee variety but more of a Marriott of Nashville variety, which was really nice and served us a free hot breakfast buffet of delicious eggs and croissants and other odd British things like beans everyday. Then we went on the tube for the first time, whee! And went to a very nice dinner at Bertorelli’s. At the risk of sounding like I’m 80 years old, I’m just going to straight up say there was not a lot of night life involved because DIS ran us ragged every day. However, I didn’t feel like I was missing much, especially when I was passed out on my bed at 10 pm.

The next day we got to choose which art gallery to visit, and I went to Richard, Hadley and Jonas to the Courtauld Gallery, which I LOVED. I saw the famous Da Vinci self-portrait with the ear cut off and I saw original Michaelangelo sketches which were really awe-inspiring. Plus, the gallery was in a beautiful old building with gorgeous carvings and paintings all over the ceilings. From there we went browsing around the markets. It was beautiful and sunny and I thought about escaping DIS and living there forever.

Yay English cliches!

Michaelangelo sketch

From there I visited the “Let Them Eat Cake” fashion magazine, which everyone should check out at http://www.cakeit.net/ It’s an amazing magazine run by about 3 women and their photo spreads are really just amazing. After achieving fashion nirvana, I went in search of thrift stores with Holly, only to discover that that part of town was not really fashionable at all. Continuing my artsy day, I went with the group to Cafe 1001 where we had grill-style dinner and watched the Short and Sweet film viewing in the cinema part of the cafe. That was interesting….Let’s just say I was not artsy enough for some of these films, which contained, among others, an entire film with odd cartoon characters doing weird things like licking eggs and making grunting noises. Another highlight was the man-eating cat film which gave me artsy nightmares, and the film in which underground people eat a man and send up a note saying “Thanks for the eat,” which became one of my London catchphrases. I think most of these films disturbed rather than inspired me, but it was an interesting experience.

The next day, we had some free time before we had to split up into smaller groups for PR interviews. I went to London Tower with a bunch of people and toured around. England executed A LOT of people. I saw where Anne Boleyn was buried and sat in the chapel, which was amazing. Did you know the governor of London lives in the castle? So do the beefeater guards. I’m all for living in castles, but the London Tower is a pretty creepy one to live in, considering graffiti of prisoners still remains etched on the walls of the dungeons and thousands of people were buried under the chapel. I also saw the crown jewels, which I would really like to own one day. Don’t know how realistic that dream is though…I’m thinking not very.

Richard and I on the Tower Bridge

London Tower

Bloody Tower

From there I went to my PR interview with the Darling Department, an independent PR company for music. It was interesting, especially considering I used to do publicity for Universal Music Group. Then, we actually were forced to have a class to talk about what we did, which I am going to skip over because it was utterly boring and I blocked it out of my memory already.

We had dinner at Brown’s which was good and full of DIS-provided alcohol so we all had a great time. Except for one lady at the restaurant who had a stroke and was wheeled past us as we were eating. That was a downer…hopefully she did alright. But overall, it was really nice to sit and chat and drink with the whole group.

The group at Brown's

The next morning was my absolute favorite day, maybe one of my favorite days abroad in general. We left pretty early and took a bus to Stonehenge. The English countryside was GORGEOUS and made me want to relive the movie the Holiday and swap houses with Kate Winslet and fall in love with Jude Law. Stonehenge was pretty cool but FREEZING and we had a tour guide which I didn’t think was really necessary because all you do is walk in a circle around the rocks and look at them. I didn’t really need someone telling me that they were old and kind of mysterious. Also, because I got spoiled by the London sunshine, I made the bright decision to wear a skirt and a little leather jacket. Wrong decision, because about half-way through I lost the feeling in my butt. However, watching a herd of sheep running really fast in a field made it a little better, because running sheep are funny.

Richard, Holly and I at Stonehenge

We love rocks!

Stonehenge

Sheep running are funny!

Then, we boarded up on the bus and headed to Bath. I have always wanted to go to Bath because I am obsessed with Jane Austen who always talks about Bath and the balls at the Pump Room so when I found out we were going I almost fainted. The city is so beautiful- it’s like being transported to another time. Because of laws, all of the buildings have to be constructed out of this tan stone. The baths are preserved so well and its such a picturesque place that I wish I had had more time there. But its okay because I vowed to come back when I’m 25…and this time I’m draggin my mother along. So while in Bath, I saw the Royal Crescent of houses where Johnny Depp has a house, I saw Jane Austen’s house, I toured the Roman Baths, and I drank the spring water in the Pump Room of Austonian fame. It tasted like sulphur. Note to self: don’t drink bath water ever again. I ate a famous Sally Lunn Bun at her tea house, which is the oldest house in Bath, built in 1482. I also had a traditional steak pie in a pub and bought old-fashioned clotted cream fudge at a candy store. It was really just a perfect day- I was in heaven. On the way home we stopped at a beautiful English cottage in Wiltshire called the Pear Tree, which was actually a restaurant. It was so cozy and had a great atmosphere. I would love to go back someday.

View from Pultaney Bridge in Bath

Roman Baths

Beautiful picture of Bath

Holly and I at Jane Austen's Pump Room!

Pretty view of Bath

The next day we went to a lecture by Tony Blair’s spin doctor, Mads Qvortrup, but all I could think about was how much I wanted to go back to Bath. From there we went to the London Eye. I guess this is where I tell you about my London mission. Before I left for London, my boyfriend mentioned VERY SPECIFICALLY that he would like a mug with the Tube on it. I thought it would be easy enough to find so I resolved to get it. Little did I know that the Tube mug actually went by another name- the Holy Grail. That thing was the hardest souvenir to find and of course the more I looked the more obsessed with it I became. Guess what? The London Eye gift shop didn’t have it. So  I was rode the Eye,  taking pictures and plotting my next move.

The Eye!

Aw group photo on the Eye

BIG BEN?!

After the Eye we had lunch at a french restaurant called Chez Gerard which actually thought we weren’t coming so it took a little longer than expected but was actually quite good. On the way I spotted the Tube mug and ran to the door to claim my prize but alas! The shop was closed. After lunch we had some time to wander and that was when I spotted another Tube mug and actually managed to buy it, along with some tea and a shot glass. Talk about relief! I think the Tube mug was a test of my affection. Guess what? I passed. From there, Hadley, Holly and I went to Abbey Road where we left our signatures on the wall of signatures and took the iconic picture of us crossing the road just like the Beatles. I miserably failed at both pictures and noticed that I was hunching when I walked. So now I have a complex and I don’t even look like a real Beatle! From there we went to Buckingham Palace and wanted to annoy the guards but figured out we couldn’t get within like one mile of them, so we abandoned that plan quickly. That night we went to West End and saw Billy Elliot the musical, which I loved. The little boy was sooo talented. Apparently all the Billys train for like years then can only perform for a year before they get to big. It was pretty intense. I really wanted to see Phantom of the Opera while I was there too but just couldn’t make it happen. Next time for sure! Then most of the communications class including our wonderful teacher Jonas went to a club and partied until late. It was magical- especially when Miley Cyrus’ Party in the USA came on.

Well. We tried.

Our names in blue marker on abbey road!

Abbey Road

Me at Buckingham Palace!

The next morning, we visited the newspaper the Telegraph and took a tour. It was interesting but I was kind of depressed we were leaving that day. From there we had a lunch of fish and chips and I managed to sneak in a visit to Harry Potter’s Platform 9 3/4 in King’s Cross Station to take some nerdy pictures before we went to London Gatwick and flew back to Copenhagen on an EasyJet flight whose engine may or may not have blew out during the descent. I have never hear such a horrible noise coming from an airplace. It was like someone sawing metal and it was definitely coming from one of the wings and when we finally managed to land it slowly stopped as the engine stopped turning. I. Hate. Flying.

Harry Potter nerdiness

So overall, I had a wonderful, amazing trip. I love London and I absolutely plan on going back soon. Sorry the post was so late in coming but I finally did it, and am about to write another one about my birthday (today!) and my travel plans for the future (tomorrow)

love you and miss you

xoxoxo

h.

Since a little birdie (my mom) told me my last post was “too depressing”, here’s a little treat:

oh happy day

It’s me, near Abbey Road. Like a sunflower, I gravitated to the sunniest spot and turned my face towards it. Thankfully, I think Copenhagen finally decided it needed sun too because since we’ve returned its been relatively mild ( for Copenhagen) and sunny. So that’s about it for now. I’m happy. I’m in Copenhagen. And I’m working on my long long blog post about London so all you rabid fans and groupies out there can cool it.

xoxoxo h.

ooh and here’s something fun! tell me where to go after may 15th!!

We’re going to Shakespeare’s Globe theater for a tour and then we’re going to a matinee performance of Twelfth Night in Regents Park

I’ll update with details once I get back

Well The Globe is a great theatre and I really like how it keeps with the original style of the Globe. The current Globe is actually a reconstructed version of the original b/c it hadn’t been discovered until more recent times. They tried to match the original one as much as possible by using other theatres as points of refrences that still existed. It still has a thatched roof which they had to get a law passed specifically for the globe to have it b/c they were outlawed in London. People here in London are very Fire cautious. We didn’t actually see a performance there. But the tour did help us understand how a performance would have been back in those times. They had different tiers and levels at the theatre and it basically represented different social classes. The standing room in the stalls people were called groundlings. they stood all away around the stage. As you moved into the seated areas and up you had to pay more and it showed your status in those times.

We did go see a performance of Twelfth Night over at Regents Park… it had been set in the Jazz era and it was quite good …I was a bit annoyed that they had an inconsisted use of mics on the actors either mic all or none at all.

When I got back the group got together for dinner and Terra made chicken tenders and mac and cheese YUMMY!

We planned for the next day and I went back to get packed for IRELAND!!! We have an early day tomorrow so I’ll have to say good night!