Hey England! Let's kick it!

2005-11-22T04:46:00.000-08:00

So for some reason, i thought i was awfully behind updating this, but apparently I'm not that bad. Anyway...yesterday I got up and ventured off to do some more contacts (a common theme of this weekend). I have enough contacts, don't get me wrong, i haven't been squandering my time here..its all a matter though of the required ones....anyway. I had a happy little accident on my way to the Banqueting house. I decided to get off at the Charing Cross tube stop rather than the Westminster stop and walk. On my way (actually right across) I noticed some movement going on at the ol' Horse Guards...oh what was it? The start of the Changing of the Guard!!!! so i followed all of the horses to Buckingham where i watched the festivities...not bad..plus it was one of my required contacts!!!whoo hoo!

MOre to come later...must go to a lecture

2005-11-20T09:14:00.000-08:00

So what have i been up to? Lots!!! In the past few days I have been making up on seeing all of my required contacts. So here is an itemized list.
After the movie I decided to do some more contacts. I ended up on the Southbank where I went to the Hayward Gallery which was really awesome and totally something I could see my friend Leah thoroughly enjoying...lots of art. And an awesome gift shop. They also had the entire city of London made out of pots and pans. Very cool.
After that I decided to go partake in some movie watching at the NFT...the national film theatre. It is such a cool place, they show all these old classic movies. I watched the movie 'Double Indemnity' apparently its the definitive Film Noir movie. Very good...what a chiller!!!
The next day was a marathon of contacts, with it starting off at the Pollack's Toy museum which was kind of an old creepy place....from one of those movies where the toy maker is evil and all the toys come alive to kill unsuspecting tourists like me....spooky!!!
After that Stef and I went to the John Soane museum...we didn't know who he was, but we had to go, so we did. It was a really interesting place...lots of old pieces of crownwork and very interesting architectual artifacts (he was an architect in case you were wondering!)
After that we went on a Legal London walk where we jaunted around the Inns of Court, learning where the best place to buy your legal robes and wigs is and what not. Much of the tour I'd done before on accident and by this book that my mom got me with all of these different london walks in. Still it was a good source of information AND a requirement.
After that we ended at the Royal Courts of Justice, which looks like a cathedral, when in fact its a court house. We watched two court cases, one on immigration and the other on pedophilia....a very interesting experience!!!
After that I hopped on a bus to the Barbicon where I saw Tamburlaine, a Christopher Marlowe play. Christopher Marlowe being a contemporary of Shakespeare....very cool. This is the third play that i've seen by the director David Farr....he gets around in London apparently.
Prior to the play there was this awesome afro-cuban jazz performance going on in the lobby. It was part of the London Jazz festival...i love little suprises like that!!
After that I came home and rested a bit, thinking about all the contacts i did that day.
The next morning I slept in a bit and got out and went to a lecture at the British Museum after that stef and I saw the Chelsea Royal Hospital and then I went over to Tate Modern where I saw some interesting modern art and then back to the NFT to watch "Love in the Afternoon" with Audrey Hepburn.....it was an adorable movie. I highly suggest it.
Today I got up and went to church as St Pauls...it was awesome to go there and they had the choir going and there was a beautiful echo.....good times. The Sermon sounded almost like a tourist annoucement though, with references to the Lion King Musical and Tate Britain, oh well, it was mostly tourists there anyway.
After that I went to the Tower Bridge Exhibition where I learned how the whole thing worked and its history. I also met some people that are from the town where I was born (peoria!)...it was crazy...what a small small world. After that I went to the Albert Memorial, had myself some chinese lunch and then met up with Stef for a lecture on kimono at the V & A. I've almost got allof my contacts done with....this is a very good thing. Tonight we're going to mass at the newman center next door (I have to have two religious services as contacts...so im doubling up on church today!).
Tomorrow: Who knows?!

2005-11-17T04:56:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, I woke up and pulled myself to class to discuss Charles Dickens' Great Expectations. It was a very interesting class and it was nice to have more of a Dominican style discussion rather than a lecture, which is the norm here. After that Stef and I went to the Somerset House (huge and awesome...with ice skating that we will be doing later) and the Courtald Art Gallery. I've decided that I am a George Seurat fan. Any gifts of his work will be greatly appreciated...hehe.
After that we walked back to Covent Garden, grabbed some starbucks, went shopping, and finally met up with our friend Nikki to go and see Cole Porter's 'High Society'...its musical based on the Philadephia Story. Very entertaining and totally old Hollywood musical. Lovely!!!
Wednesday (that being yesterday...look I'm almost caught up!!!) we got up EXTREMELY early (8 o'clock) to make our way to Parliament. We got a tour of Parliament (very very very cool, pretty, not government looking at all) our tour guide was slightly condescending however and then we talked with a member of Parliament. He was very entertaining to talk to but most certainly a politician. I mean that in that he had a very way of answering the question that he wanted to answer, not necessarilly the question that was asked. A handful of us then went to watch a debate. To get into the gallery, I had to be thoroughly patted down....twice!!!! Thats high security. The debate was hardly the loud, lively debate that I was expecting. There were a handful of MPs and they were downright civil!!! oh well next time I suppose! After that Stef and I went to the Cabinet War Rooms and the Winston Churchill museum. I have decided that Churchill was one heck of a guy.....very very entertaining. The museum was really neat, especially when you consider that people lived underground like this during air raids and that so much important business was undertook here.
Afterwards, I made my way back home and had an easy night of hanging out in the lounge with the Marymount girls who were having a movie night. We watched house of wax (horribly gory and badly written, but what was I expecting?) and Zoolander (always a good choice!!!). That leads me up to today where we watched "Her Majesty, Mrs. Brown" about Queen Victoria and the relationship she had with her servant John Brown (not a scandalous relationship as you might think, she loved Albert far too much for that of couse!!) It was actually not a half bad movie AND it had Billy Connolly...he's in Boondock Saints....I love that movie. Anyway...that means I'm finally caught up and have managed to squeeze a whole week into two entries...quite impressive! I'm off to go see museums and what not and do what I'm supposed to do here...sight see. My dad and brother are coming here in a week, which should prove to be quite an interesting thanksgiving.
One last note: I know it's tech week for Dominican's production of "Little Shop of Horrors" and I just wanted to tell everyone to 'break a leg!' Have fun guys!

2005-11-17T04:00:00.000-08:00

Well...I seem to have gotten a week behind in this thing. I blame it on Ireland. Ireland being so amazing it has distracted me from my faithful blogging....sounds good right?Anyway...here's the update.
I was here a week ago and then I decided to head out to the vast world that is the country of Ireland...via Train and Ferry. The sad part is that in the amount of time I spent in said train and ferry plus an hour I could have been back in the states....almost. Anyway, it was a really cool way to see a lot of the country side. On my way to the train station I was walking behind a gentleman I can only refer to as 'Disco Stu' this man was straight out of the 1970s. He was wearing jean bell bottoms, an open collared shirt and a leather jacket, his hair was immaculate: permed and sprayed to perfection. The kicker to his whole existence: HE WAS STRUTTING!! yes thats right, he was strutting!!! I was hoping that the Bee Gees would jump out of nowhere and start singing. It was hilarious. But I digress. So...I get on the train and take it all the way to Holyhead Wales, right on the coast where I then walk to the ferry terminal which resembles a low security airport. I have no idea what to expect from this boat ride at all. Then they put us all on a bus and drive us into the ferry, where we all got off and made our way up to the passenger deck. It was pretty nice, there was a little cinema area, a shop and some restaurants. It was dark, so I opted to stay inside, rather than face the cold on deck. I had some lovely irish stew to acclimate myself to the country and had fun watching the other passengers try to maneuver around the ship whilst we were in rough water, swaying back and forth. I almost got sea sick. Apparently, they cancelled the run after mine because the seas were too rough.
I finally arrived in Dublin where I was then again put on a bus and driven to a different terminal, where I was the only non-EU national to go through the passport line. Anyway, the bottom line is that I got a nice little stamp saying I was in Ireland...whoo hooo!!!
I had a little trouble getting onto the city centre bus because all I was Euro notes, no change (for crying out loud...i'm fresh off the boat!!) Luckily the driver finally got changed (some guy from slightly north of london was about to pay for me!) Anyway, I got to connolly station in the centre of town and then embarked to find my hostel. I decided that rather than wander around the city trying to find it, I hopped in a taxi and had them bring be to the door....which was literally right around the corner....oh well. I checked into my hostel and decided to go check out the local craic down at the pub two doors down. I went to O'Sheas hotel pub and there was live music and some old ladies set dancing. I sat and watched for a bit, talking to a few people and then I decided to call it a night. I walked back to my hostel, only to get sucked into a long conversation with some of the regulars at the hostel who hailed from Italy, Spain, Argentina and France. Definately a good lesson in hostel culture. We talked until 2 AM and I decided to go to bed. I woke up in the morning to go to breakfast which sort of made me feel like i was in prison. No joke. I grabbed a tray on which they threw (literally) a loaf of bread and some butter and jam, and a really bad cup of tea. No worries, it was very filling. I checked out and hit up the town.
I really didn't have any plans, so I wandered around the Temple Bar area a little bit and just took in the town. After that I decided to go to the Jameson Whiskey Distillery to take a tour. On this tour there were like fifty people and i got picked to be on of the whiskey tasters at the end. The tour ended in a bar where all of us that got picked (there were six of us) sat around a table and were given a placemat with five different shots of whiskey/scotch/bourbon. It was then explained to us the subtle differences in each kind....kind of like a wine tasting....we then tried all five and were asked to put down our favorites....obviously it was the jameson (thats where we were!!) afterwards I got a certificate stating that I am an official whiskey taste tester now....watch out! Across the table from me were some American college boys and they asked me to go to the Guiness Brewery with them, so that was our next stop. We learned all about the history of Guiness and advertisement and then had our free pint atop the Gravity Bar where we could see all of Dublin...pretty snazzy if you ask me. After that I went back to my hostel and grabbed my stuff to hop on a train to Killarney.
I picked up something to read (the DaVinci Code) and settled in for a long train ride. Luckily I sat next to some young Killarney locals who informed me that there wasn't much to do there (yay!) but they did help my find my hostel when I wouldn't have been able to at all on my own. I settled in to this hostel (I was staying in an 8 bed room, but only had one roommate...that worked out quite nicely!) I realized that I hadn't eaten anything and all the pubs and quit serving food, so I ended up eating some chicken nuggets from a fast food restaurant...mmm. I went to a few pubs and sat around and listened to some irish music and had a little sing along which was interesting because I knew most of the songs. After that I made my way back to my hostel where I called it a night. That morning I woke up and walked 3 miles out of town to go to the Killarney National Park. Here I trekked another 4 miles to go and see the Torc waterfall. It was simply amazing!!! I took a couple of pictures...but they really don't do it justice. Along the way I also explored Muckross Abbey, and old abandoned abbey that was free to roam around in...slightly spooky, but lots of fun. I also walked all along the lakes and to Muckross House...quite a nice little estate. I then had to walk that whole seven miles back...just to run to miss my bus....for shame. No worries, there was train in another hour. Sooo...I went to this really nice pub and had hands down the best irish stew of my life....delicious. I also watched the kickoff of the big Ireland vs New Zealand All Blacks rugby game...hoorah.
Anyway, I finally got on my train (just in time!) and headed up to Galway. I got to Galway (by the way, finishing the DaVinci code on the way) and met up with my friend Natalie, who I really hadn't seen since graduating from high school. We dropped my stuff off back at her house and made our way to down town Galway for the night. It was quite a hopping place. We went to three pub/club things: The Quays, which was beautiful inside (like a church/cave thing going on), then Bazaar which had a very middle Eastern/Aladdin's Cave thing going on (and very interestingly dressed patrons: one was dressed Gothic to the max and a Kilt wearer...theywere a couple!) finally, Natalie and I followed the couple to a pub called the Kings Head (named so because Charles I's executioner was given the house as thanks for his service) its now a pub. They had a cover band who wasn't half bad and then a DJ so we danced to our little hearts content. After that the entire town and I mean it, headed to this fast food giant of a restaurant called SuperMacs. I got some fries and a milkshake and we sat and caught up...until some very over served young boy came over and started throwing our fries at people...we decided to leave.
When we woke up the next morning we went to Galway bay and it was simply beautiful...i very much enjoyed it. We went back to Natalies House, only to discover that I had to wait another hour for my train. No worries...we sat and talked about how many people from high school were getting hitched...it was kind of depressing and fun at the same time.
After that, I got on a train to Dublin and hopped in a taxi that took me to my new hostel for the night. It was probably the nicest of all of the places I had stayed. After settling, I went out for some delicious Indian food with some people from the hostel and then walked along the river, but decided to call it a night because I had quite an early trip tomorrow.
The next day, I woke up at 5:30 (quite a feat if you ask me!!) to catch a taxi back to the Ferry Port. On the Ferry I got to watch the sunrise over the Irish Sea....that was quite possibly one of the most amazing sights I have ever seen. A note on the Ferry though. I forgot to mention the movie they decided to show on both legs of the journey. Now usually you would play a somewhat current or at least relevent movie right? Well our trip decided to play "Hocus Pocus" twice..... nice choice. I waited/had breakfast in Holyhead while talking to a Kiwi (new zealander) who now lives in San Diego, but was in Ireland/England following Rugby (obviously an All Blacks fan). Very nice guy. Back on the train I talked with this absolutely marvelous lady who restores historic Gardens, she was the stereotypical old british women and I loved it!!!!
Once back in London, I rested a spell and met up with Alison and Stefanie to go to the Royal Albert Hall to see Jamie Cullum in concert. It was amazing. It was jazz with rock like energy. Luckily we upgraded our restricted view seats to get closer and it was well worth it. AMAZING show.
Well that would take me to Tuesday. Which I'm going to make a new entry of.

2005-11-09T16:41:00.000-08:00

Does anyone read this??
Reader Roll Call!!!!
Leave a comment if you read this....
and with your name answer the following question: What's your favorite Britain based movie?
Thank you for your cooperation.
It's very serious research....I need to know what my key demographic is

2005-11-09T14:54:00.000-08:00

So...the Shakespeare walk was really nice, but It contained much of what I had discovered on my own. It was nice to read some Shakespeare lines though...even if Joe had to be my Romeo....
After that I went back to Alison's for another home cooked meal...shes so much fun to just sit and talk with and eat good food with...good times!!!!
I came back here to school, hung out for a little bit and had a nice little walk home with my good friend Shaun who had his first cold weather in London in experience (he was wearing shorts the silly boy!!)
This morning we got up and trekked over to the Tate Britain Gallery where we had a nice little tour/lecture on the history of British art....they sure like their portraits.....it was really cool though.
After that I broke off from the group and decided to have my first DLR experience (thats the Docklands Light Railway for you) That thing is pretty nifty, what with its no driver and what not. I rode that bad boy all the way to Greenwich where I visited the National Maritime Museum (I've decided that I'm going to go on a cruise.....who wants to go with?) Also...i learned here that among the spice trade..Ginger was a valuable spice used to cure indigestion AND a broken heart! SO next time a boy breaks my heart, i'm not going to bust out the ben and jerrys, i'm going to go for the Canada Dry Ginger Ale!!!!
After that I went to the Queen's House which was decent....had some pretty cool paintings (more portraits!!!) and some interesting info.
After that I trekked up the hill to the Royal Observatory where I stood on the Prime Meridian. Yeah, its all good....i took pictures of it. There is a Laser that goes all over this park marking the meridian for 15 miles. I had to make some phone calls from the meridian...it was fun times. Then I explored the observatory for a bit and talked to this cute older couple from Annapolis. On my way back to London, I got a call from Alison who scored sneak peek tickets to "In Her Shoes" so I left Greenwich and went to see the movie. I really liked Greenwich...definately a cute part of London and surrounding areas. The movie was good...slightly chick flickish....and about shoes... This is the second movie about shoes i've seen while i've been here (the first being Kinky boots).
Tomorrow: Meeting with Ryan then...IRELAND!!!

2005-11-08T04:43:00.000-08:00

OH my goodness.....what a day yesterday was. It will probably go down as one of my top five days ever....like EVER!!!! According my friend Bruce, yesterday I was in the 'Finding Nemo' wave and I just rode the wave of awesomeness yesterday. I concur.
I bet you are all dying to know what made the day so awesome?
Well....i COULD be mean and not tell you and keep it all to myself to treasure forever and ever, but that would just be rude....so....
It all started off with me going out to lunch with my good friend shaun. We went to a really cheap (but good) pizza restaurant where we just sat around and played with snapple caps and discussed the random facts on the caps. It was lots of fun
After that I went to school to check my e-mail and try to book a trip. It turns out that the trip I booked to Ireland was full, so now i'm kind of on my own.....I NEED to go to Ireland. I've been planning and scheming and I think i am going this weekend (because...well I wanted to go to Paris....but then again, I also want to live). Its going to just be me...exploring the whole of Ireland....I think for sure I'm going to Killarney and Galway (i ahve a free bed in Galway!!!) and either dublin or Cork. i'm getting there via train and ferry (i think it will be cool to see the Irish Sea. Any suggestions would be appreciated...i'm booking everything tonight. So anyway, the great day wasn't so great then because I was very frustrated with people saying that they wanted to go and then bailing out, so finally, i said sod it...i'm doing this on my own...i seriously think it would be a crime against nature for me not to go to Ireland...like i'd be denying my heritage or something....

Anyway..after that I met up with Stef and Niki and we trodded off to TRL. I was really nervous because they don't let everyone in....depending on studio capacity. Well we got there and we were number two in line....primo spots. We made our way to the studio and because of our awesome seats, we got to sit at a cool little table, while everyone else had to stand through the whole thing. Now bear in mind, when I signed up for tickets, I had no idea who was on...it turns out.....because their movie premiere was going on right below the studio....the guests were Toni Collette and Cameron Diaz!!!!! They have a new movie coming out called 'In her Shoes' it was soo soo soo cool to see them (mostly cameron) in real life...craziness. I almost got hit in the head by a crane camera and cameron saw it and kind of laughed....i was just thankful for my life. Anyway, during one of the commercial breaks, the stage manager was like...are there any green day fans here? These girls across the studio screamed and screamed and so he gave them these ticket things. He then asked if there were anymore and i kind of yelled (i felt like i was in high school/junior high again) and he was like, I only have two tickets and there are three of you....but then niki was like...i'm not a fan so he gave me and stef these tickets to the Green Day World Premiere of their live concert DVD. ...later that night. Anyway afterwards we watched the In her Shoes Premiere for awhile from the studio and then made our way down the street for the Green Day premiere.....where we actually got to go in. There wasn't much of a fuss there but the theatre was closed off and we got primo seats right in the middle so we could see beautifully. At this point, we just figured it was a screening or something...with no hub bub. Then all of a sudden...a writer from Kerrang magazine came out and started introducing the film and then he was like....and here to further introduce the film is the Band...And out came Green Day. Yeah that's right, I saw Green Day...up close and personal. Then they stuck around and watched it with all of us. It was so so so cool. I hope I got some good pictures....you weren't allowed to bring a camera to TRL...so I left it at home, so upon getting the tickets, me and stef bought disposable cameras...to capture the moment. It was....quite an exhilarating day...yet me tell you. BUT its not over!!
After that we met up with the rest of the DU Crew who went out for some jazz music for our friend Grant's Birthday. We went to this little jazz club where this brazilian band was playing and sat and enjoyed some excellent music. Then...they gave me some bongos to jam out on....that was cool for awhile. THEN our friend Joe got up and played drums with them.... it was pretty darn cool.
Finally we called it quits and went to bed.
Today: We had a lecture on British Politics and in an hour we're all meeting up with a Shakespeare/Dickens walk about the city. YAY!
Stefanie are going to try and get tickets for Guys and Dolls tonight...lets hope the wave is still going.

2005-11-06T14:22:00.000-08:00

Oh man oh man...there is so so so much to talk about about. I think this has been one of the best and most expensive few days that I've had whilst here. SOooo....After I wrote to you on thursday....Stefanie and I got together and went to Sainsbury's to pick up supplies so that we could make Alison dinner. In exchange we got to sit at a real kitchen table and watch MTV... We put together one of hte best meals ever! We made chicken with a cranberry-apple-mint glaze and Olive Oil Saute-ed Sweet Potatoes, as well as cranberry-chestnut stuffing. It was super delicious...i think we out did ourselves.....perhaps it was the cooking show earlier in the week. After that we watched Bridget Jone's Diary. I might be betraying my womanhood...but i've seen the movie before and even now, i don't really like it. Oh well, i had fun identifying london landmarks....when i get back, that's all i'm going to do: watch London based movies. You're all free to join in. Stefanie and I took the bus back and packed for our trip the next morning...
Bright and early the next morning (actually quite late because the bus was late) we headed off to Warwick Castle.
Warwick was very cool, a little commercial feeling with all of the wax figures, but I have to say that Joe and I took some hilarious pictures with all of them. Then Joe and I climbed all the way to the top of the towers which as always was well worth the climb. We then decided to be rebels and I jumped across the rope barrier to get a picture on a pageant wagon. I'm such a troublemaker for theatre history. After that we hopped back on the bus and high tailed it to Stratford-Upon-Avon. Now for those of you who don't know, this is the birthplace of William Shakespeare and me being the theatre major that I am....was in heaven. I went to his birthplace which was awesome....litttle known fact: Thomas Jefferson and John Adams visited the site together when they were in England....I was walking in the footsteps of giants....let me tell you. After that we all went to see a play at the RSC (royal shakespeare company)'s Swan Theatre. The play 'Believe What You Will' was not actually Shakespeare, but one of his contemporaries....still very good. I think i really like Elizabethan theatre.....cool beans. Anyway, the swan theatre is exactly and I mean EXACTLY like the Chicago Shakespeare theatre. I seriously forgot where I was for a second. After that a few of us went across the street to the Dirty Duck pub which is like the most famous pub in Stratford. All the cast was there. We stuck around talking about music with our director Ryan....Certainly lots of fun.
I have to add that between the Shakespeare's Birthplace gift shop and the RSC gift shop I bought WAY too much Shakespeare paraphenalia.....darn theatre majorness......
The next day we were off to Oxford to tour the colleges that make up the prestigious university. We went and visited one of Stefanie's friends that is studying there and who works at the Gap and walked around a cute french market. Again with the more spending I bought two shirts...but they are quite cute, so its worth it.
After that we made our way home just in time for....BONFIRE NIGHT!!!!! also known as Guy Fawkes day. It was so much fun!!!! Stefanie, Grant, Jess, Brian and I hopped on the tube all the way to Alexandra Palace where we and 80000 other people watched the fireworks. The cool thing was we didn't just see the main display...we saw every firework display in the city...and they were everywhere!! It was like a pretty version of what war must be like, with explosions everywhere. It was really undescribable...SO SO SO SO much fun. It was one of hte most amazing sights i have ever seen and I'm sure it will be hard to match up to.
As we were leaving that, I got a call from Alison who was at the other director, Leslie's house, which is apparently pretty darn close to the Ally Pally...soooo.....off we were to a party at leslie's where we met all of her british friends and had a grand old time singing jazz standards and what not. I braved the bus system and led everyone home and it was a good time had by all.
Tonight was the Harry Potter World Premiere and it was CRAZY!!!! There were so many people all around Leicester Square. We ended up right where all of their cars drove in, so I got to see all of the people coming in....SO SO SO SO cool...and i'm not even a big harry potter fan...i mean, i've never read any of the books and I've only see one movie. It was cool to say that i've been there. After that we warmed up by having the lovely holiday offerings of Starbucks and I learned a long hard lesson about my bodie's inability to handle caffeine...i'm so so so so jittery/hyper right now...i dont think i'm going to sleep tonight. After that, Stefanie and I went to see the Corpse Bride...not a bad movie. Not as bad as my mom played it out to be. Definately not comparable to 'Nightmare before christmas' though. Anyway....This weekend was amazing!!! Its sad that I dont have that much time left in London......its certainly ticking. Tomorrow, me and some people are going to TRL London because I snagged some tickets and then we are going to go out for our friend Grant's Birthday. We're going to a jazz club....should be lots of fun!!!!! I guess i have to fit some contacts (meaning museums) in there somewhere......

2005-11-03T05:07:00.000-08:00

So yesterday was a big ball of homework....seriously i was changed to the computer desk working working working.... Why you may ask? Well because today I had to give my study tour report on Stratford upon Avon, which was actually already done, but I felt needed a little spicing up. Spicing up like adding detail such as Shakespeare got married to Anne Hathaway who was 7 years older than him AND three months pregnant! SCANDAL!!!! anyway, i had to finish that. I also had to get a bunch of research done because today after class I had to meet with my tutor (he was the lecturer today so it was nice and convenient) and I had to show him that I did something worthwhile! Also, the neverending process of logging my trip here. not Blogging which is fun and you can be all witty and use pictures and hope that people comment (hint hint!) no no no...Logging or Journaling is having to regurgitate everything you learned somewhere and then write your reaction to it. My problem is that I learn and retain too much and then I end up writing a novel about each contact experience I've had....I will write pages and pages of history on a pub!! and then talk about how the lighting and the decor effected my experience there...its just crazy!!!

Today's lecture was really really entertaining and engaging. This was probably just me because well, it was on theatre and most of it pertained to my project (hence my tutor giving the lecture) plus it was something that I got to be the expert on, BUT I still learned a lot. It was nice to meet with michael, i'm not as far behind as I thought I was, so this is good...and we're going to meet up again in under two weeks where I present the skeleton of the paper...hoorah! Time is ticking away..its kind of sad that I leave here in a month and four days.....its been a good run.

Anyway...my next point...i need to send out postcards, but i don't have any addresses SO...if you want a little picture of London with a nice handwritten sentiment from me.....e-mail me at adamstephanie@gmail.com and let me know your address so i can send you a goodie.

2005-11-02T13:40:00.000-08:00

This is me and James Martin, one of the chefs on "Ready Steady Cook" and also a contestant on "Strictly Come Dancing" During one of the shooting breaks he was showing us part of his routine for the next show!!!

2005-11-02T13:29:00.000-08:00

I'm hoping this picture works...this is me on halloween.
Sarah P is Bart and Becky is Homer
They were the hit of the night
I was wonderwoman!

2005-11-02T06:47:00.000-08:00

So monday was a little holiday that us in the States refer to as Halloween where everyone old and young dresses up and everyone has a good time. During the day Mel and Aimee and I went out to go purchase the final touches for our costumes on Oxford Street. I decided I was going to be wonderwoman.... because well....i'm actually an Amazonian Princess.....couldn't you tell? well a bunch of us dressed up and we decided to go hit the town. Conclusion: People don't dress up for halloween here. Their idea of dressing up is throwing on some black eyeliner and fake blood....and that's going all out. Quite sad. Oh well...it was a good time had by all. I conversed with an irish mandolin playing, russian speaking, scotland yard worker and an aussie. Fun times! I'll have to post some of those pictures as well...they are HILARIOUS!!!

Tuesday....(wow..i'm only a day behind!!!) was the first day of classes after our break where we had the same lecturer who gave us our last lecture before the break come and talk to us about the 18th Century....well he kind of did. He spent a lot time talking about the transition from the 17th to the 18th and then rushed ahead to the "American War for Independence" AKA the revolutionary war....i guess it wasn't so revolutionary for them....Goodtimes. After that...Stef and Alison and I went to a taping of the show "Ready Steady Cook" on the BBC. Its a really awesome show where 2 contestants pick the ingredients that 2 chef have to cook with in 20 minutes. It was really cool and the contestants were actually people from another BBC show: "Beyond Boundaries" where disabled people trek across nicaragua. One was blind and one was in a wheelchair. One of the chefs is on another british show called "Strictly Come Dancing" which the Americans stole and made "dancing with the stars" its a lot bigger here than in the states. Anyone the show was really cool and i will have pictures of that as well. After that we went to a
round chinese buffet in leicester square. All in all a really good day.

OH MY GOSH!!! I'm now officially caught up with my life!!!! How awesome is that?

2005-11-02T06:23:00.000-08:00

All right, so I failed to mention one key fact about my trip to the mall: I got my hair cut! Like chopped off half of my hair. It was quite the therapeutic experience for me and the lady that was cutting it. She was giddier than me for getting rid of all of my hair. It seriously needed it folks...i had a lot of hair and it was getting out of control. Any longer and I think my hair would have seceded from the union and set up an embassy in London....I shall have pictures soon. I promise.
Saturday night I went to a play with my friend Shaun. Actually I kind of dragged him along. You see, when I was at Alison's I found this flier for a play at the SoHo Theatre company starring Martin Freeman.....if you don't know who martin freeman is, watch: The Office, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, or Love Actually. He's in all of those and I love him. So anyway, i became determined to go see the show and i ordered a ticket. Seeing shaun in the computer lab and not really wanting to go alone i was like...do you want to go? Meet me in the lobby in an hour. The seating was unreserved and i had ordered my ticket no problem so i figured that he could just easily get a ticket and sit next to me. Well it turns out that the show was sold out, BUT he could get a standing ticket! poor guy. Anyway, he ended up only having to stand for a few minutes and then he got a seat but we had to sit apart. The show was really really good! and Hilarious in a dark comedy sort of way. Like a really good movie on stage...with Martin Freeman. We had some delicious chinese food and shaun had his first experience with Duck...delicious! When we got back, we found that Stefanie had returned to Poland, full of lovely polish food....yay!

The next day Stef and I decided to have another Contact filled day so we embarked on a trip to do every museum off of the South Kensington tube stop. There's three in case you are wondering...the Natural History, The Science museum, and the Victoria and Albert. Our time at each one was increased as soon as we had the epiphany that Daylight Savings Time had happened without us knowing so we had an extra hour to explore.
I have decided that my shoes are magnets to have things dropped on them. In line at this little cafeteria thing, a kid dropped a chocolate cake on my foot......oi! The museums were really really cool. I highly suggest the V and A...it rocks plenty of socks.

2005-11-01T05:34:00.000-08:00

That day I pretty much slept after my mom left. The next day was much the same but i finally got out and did something after talking to Allison on the phone. We decided to go see a movie and go out to eat. We went to see Broken Flowers at the Screen on the Green in Islington. Charming little place with the most comfortable seats in the world. Beforehand we had some awesome Pizza Express...i got to have artichokes on my pizza (my favorite!!!) and all was right with the world. Afterwards ,we did what me and allison do best: Grocery Shop! We then ate some brownies and ice cream and called it a night.

The next day was much more catching up on sleep and what not until i got a text from Robin, of Katie Hodges fame. We have been trying to hang out sometime and talk about the Dominican and what not...or something like that. So i met up with him and his mates and we had a few pints. It ended up being just me and him and his friend Elliot by the end, but good times were had by all, I'm sure.

Next day, more sleep and then I met up with Allison for a day of shopping. We went to an honest to goodness mall and went halloween costume shopping. I found a delightful Wonder Woman ensemble...which you shall hear about more i'm sure. It was a totally fun day all around and it ended with us watching the movie 'closer' back at her apartment and us cooking dinner. I love movies about london now, because i know where things are....yay!
Well thats a good portion of whats been going on....i shall update more in a bit, but at least i'm closer to being completely caught up...only 3 or so days behind...right? Bye!

2005-11-01T05:28:00.000-08:00

So....On my mom's last day we decided to make it kind of an easy one. We went shopping for a little bit and then headed over to the National Portrait Gallery where we walked around a little bit and looked at a bunch of people's faces. There was a new exhibit up so we didn't get to see "the world's most photographed" oh well...i should her the book that had the same pictures in it. After that we had a delightful little tea in the crypt of St. Martin in the Field's church. It was a really cool place with quite possibly the best gift shop in town. Check it out. After that we made the journey home. After of course, my mom got her one double decker bus ride in...even though it was just down the street.....
We then gathered up all of her stuff and got on the tube to go to Paddington station to get her on the Heathrow express. I made sure everything was secure and she had her ticket and was on the right train and then said goodbye. It was a really really really fun trip for her to be here.

I do have to say that our trip was somewhat sponsored by Pret a Manger, because every single day we stopped in one to get our caffeine fix. I don't usually drink coffee or anything but after hanging out with my mom, i started getting headaches when i didn't have any. Thanks for getting me addicted mom!!!!!

So thus concludes the mum portion of the log

2005-11-01T05:10:00.000-08:00

All right. So sunday of my mom's visit....
Well lots of things aren't open here on Sundays so we decided to hit up the British museum and all of its massiveness. I showed my mom the Rosetta Stone and all of the statues that that fine place has to offer. We examined some 'interesting' artifacts from ancient Egypt and really just kind of explored the museum's massiveness. After that my mom had to get her British food flare by getting some pub fish and chips.....oh how long john silvers is going to pale in comparison when i get back...not that its anything to rave about anyway. Moving on.....we decided to take a little walk to the closed inns that i had discovered the other day, so we decided to head down towards the river and the tower of London. We had perfect timing for getting our tickets and hopping on the tour led by the Yeoman Warder. He was quite the cheeky fellow, what with his passes made at young lasses in the crowd. Afterwards we talked to one of the warders about the place being haunted (he didn't buy it) and all sorts of little things about the place. We then of course went to see the Crown Jewels. It's quite dangerous to go see the crown jewels with someone with experience selling the stuff (yes...i'd like to say that the fine quality of Howard Jewellers is akin to that of the Prizes of Britain!) Anyway, we took a few trips down the little conveyor belt discussing the clarity of stones and what not.....very very stunning those jewels.
After a spot of walking around the grounds we watched the Raven master try and herd the Tower's ravens into their cages for the night. Those cheeky little ravens....
After that there was a quick trick back to my flat and then off to go on a Haunted London tour...oooooh!!!
We were late getting there because the tube decided to stop on the tracks for awhile and wait. So we of course made an impression and were referred to as 'those people from Chicago' the whole trip. Oh well. We got to see the Tower Bridge open up at night (but of course didn't have a camera!!!) and hear all about the ghosts that haunt various London churches and other places, but it seemed like the majority of them were churches. After that a quiet pint at the Rising Sun pub, the only one open in the city of London on a Sunday (or so it seemed). And then back on to home.
The next day, Monday was my mom's last full day here in the country so we decided to go and do some walking. I took her into the open Inns of Court where we tried to get into Middle Temple (Davinci Code) but unfortunately it was closed) After that we decided to get into Westminster....for free. I've got connections. Anyway we explored Westminster Abbey for a while and gazed at its beauty. After that we decided to be posh and go to Harrods for some shopping. My mom bought some perfume and what not in order to get all of this free stuff and then we gazed in wonder at the food halls and all that they had to offer (like £11 sundaes!!!). That was exciting, but we had had enough. After that we decided to indulge in some Chinese food so it was off to Chinatown. We had probably the longest meal of my life with several courses and lots of digestion time. there was a wedding reception going on at the same time in the restaurant and they were causing quite a ruckus. After that we decided to opt out of watching a movie or seeing a play and decided to retire to another pub called the Rising Sun where we contemplated on our day and my mom's trip... Did i mention how great it was for her to be here?

2005-10-31T10:30:00.000-08:00

The next day we slept in a little bit and then decided to see what a saturday had to offer. We started off by going to the Portobello Road market to wheel and deal. We actually haggled for the price of a stamp with the family crest on it....haggled and didn't even know it! I got some gifts as did my mom and we had some awesome crepes. After that we decided to go to Westminster Abbey, but it was closed for the day. My mom did however get to see Big Ben. That was one of the most hilarious parts of the trip. We were walking out of the tube station and she was like...where is it? and i pointed straight up and she was like! WHOA! we were just under there!!! You get really close to Big Ben when coming out of the tube. Lots of big ben in the background pictures were taken.
After that we decided to cross the river again and go on the London Eye. There was an old bagpiper playing on the bridge...that was funny. There was lots of queuing for the Eye BUT we did get 2 for 1 with my oyster card...go deals. In line we were entertained by King Tut performing on the pathway....nice. Once up in the air we got to take in the whole city. It was quite cool. Half an hour later we were the only ones who posed for the group picture. We did not buy it however.....what a racket..just like Great America.....

On the way back we stopped for a cheerful pint at the Sherlock Holmes Pub. We then wandered through trafalgar square where they were having lots of hub bub for the anniversary of the battle of trafalgar. We couldn't quite figure out what exactly was supposed to be going on. Seemed like a dress rehearsal or somtehin.....lots of fog though.

We then wandered to Leicester Square where we had some delicioius Wagamama food. After that, I recreated the pub tour that I went on, showing my mom the Astor House and all of the pubs. A few pints in the Cheshire Cheese and the George Inn were good fun. It made my mom's day to go to a Samuel Smiths pub where she could get her Oatmeal Stout. After that lovely day of walking it was back to the flat.

2005-10-31T10:10:00.000-08:00

All right, I've gotten complaints/comments that i havent told you about my mom's visit yet, so here i go. This one's for you mom!
So my mom decided to make the most out of her trip and get into London at 5:55 am. And i decided to be the nice daughter and meet her at the airport. Anyway...i kind of slept through my alarm and didn't wake up until 6:30. i Met up with her...where she had been waiting for almost two hours (how was i supposed to know her plane would be early and that she would breeze through customs??? I guess the Heathrow express wasn't express enough!) Well it made me super happy to finally see my mom! We hopped on the Heathrow Express again (seriously, best £14 ever!) where my mom seemed a bit travel worn....as in sick. We got her into some fresh air after her first tube experience. and we watched through the drizzle to my flat. I know its against the rules of jet lag, but we were both tired, so we took a small nap...I figured it was okay because she didn't sleep at all on the plan. After that I took my mom on the most exhausting tour of London ever...don't believe me..ask her. I think I walked the most that i have walked in a really long time and i dont think my mom knew what she was getting into. First we walked through Covent Garden and then to the river. We walked across the Waterloo bridge so she could get her first real view of London. London as is portrayed on postcards. We walked along the Southbank for a bit ( i love it!) and then we found ourselves in the Borough Market. The only way i can describe it is Whole Foods Alive...its amazing and I think my mom was in food heaven. In case you're wondering, a pigs head is only £5....i'm sure i could have thought of some use for one with halloween, but i failed to think of anything. We grabbed some good food and sat in Southwark cathedrals grounds to enjoy our finds. We then went into Southwark cathedral...apparently anyone who's ever lived in London has a connection with this church.... Dickens, Shakespeare and the founder of Harvard University. The Shakespeare window is really cool and I had fun with my mom trying to pick out what plays were represented. After that we decided to go to the Bramah tea and coffee museum. Not bad, a little small, with some....interesting. tea pots. Those chinese are kind of interesting....thats all i have to say about THAT teapot. We walked across the millenium bridge and then peeked into st. pauls. We tried getting into the Tower of London but it was too late so we walked across tower bridge and got ourselves a bowl of chips from a cute little pub. Then we walked around the area taking pictures of cute houseboats and just enjoying the scenery. It was then back across the river to meet up with our London Walks guide to go on a Jack the Ripper walk. Our walk was huge!!! We were being led around by the guy who wrote the book on jack the ripper...my mom got to be the stand-in for the third victim of the ripper...way to go mom! On our tour we were down this little alley right next to a car park (parking garage) and all of a sudden this guy comes running down one of the levels and then scales the side of the building and takes off running again. He then goes to climb up the other side..it was something out of a jackie chan movie....quite distracting while you're trying to learn about this man who brutally murdered women. We ended up buying his book and called it a day. I thought my mom was going to die on the way home, so we went grocery shopping to buy food and she had her first pasty experience....oh the pasty. So much better than a hot pocket!
Thus concludes our first and very busy night. whoo hoo!

2005-10-31T09:53:00.000-08:00

So next came the moment of truth....the Mid term. It was an essay test and we were given 8 question and had to write on the 3 of them...our choice. I ended up writing on the Roman influence on British Life and Culture, The Differences of the American and British Educational systems, and the influence on Britain being an island in its development. I had two hours which was hard for me because i can get quite verbose at times and i had a lot to say. It was up to the wire on me finishing and my hand hurt a lot from gripping the pen and writing furiously.... I know, thats a lot of drama for one test. It wasn't really that bad.

After that....I embarked on an adventure after realizing it was my Half Birthday. I know, thats not exactly that exciting, but it was just like a "oh....i'm halfway to 21" moment. So...in 6 months, i'lll be able to drink in the USA. I celebrated by going for a walk and ending up at the Staple Inn, a super old building that survived the great fire of 1666 (its OLD!) that led me through a little archway into a courtyard, through another archway into a garden with a fountain and then through more gates. Anyway, I ended up in Lincoln's Inn, very pretty. I ended up walking around there walking past the silver vaults and i eventually ended up in Lincoln's Inn Fields, a really cute park where I decided to be artsy and sit and write surrounded by greenery and serenity. Too bad they were running the woodchopper and my cell phone kept going off...thats peace. Anyway, i decided to give up on that and i'm glad that I did because on the way back to my flat...who drove by? THE QUEEN!!!!!

OH yeah, that was really cool, but you already know about that.

After that Stefanie and I embarked to Picadilly Circus to go to see a lecture by David Starkey on the monarchy. Quite interesting. I had a nice half birthday glass of wine and then we set off to find some sort of sweet....cake-esque. Since it was only my half birthday i settled for a bagel and some frozen yogurt....classy!!

It was a fun day of not wanting to go home and celebrating our freedom from school.

After that it was go home and try and clean/sleep for a bit. Because guess who was coming the next day???
MY MOM!

2005-10-31T09:23:00.000-08:00

Okay, so this is going to be a halloween marathon of updating because i'm tired of being behind and so i'm going to update you to the minute.
So I last left you at Aimee's festivities. The next morning we all convened on St. Paul's Cathedral for the "super tour." That place is massive and it was very cool to go through doors that were locked and what not...it was cool to be like..."yeah thats right, we get to go in here and you don't" to all of the tourists and what not. If you want to know anything about the history of the place, let me know. I got a good dose of it. After an overpriced piece of carrot cake to provide me with energy, stefanie, tasha and I embarked on climbing all the way to the top of the place. Yeah, thats right, if you don't have a problem with vertigo and you're not too wide to fit through the small passages you can climb up to the three galleries which are each higher than the other.
They are:
The Whispering Gallery- Coolest thing ever! You can whisper against the wall and someone on the other end of the massive dome can hear you perfectly. Kicks the butt out of two tin cans and a piece of string. New plan for engagement: I want my future husband to ask me to marry him from across the dome...it'd be cute. Watch i'm sure it will be in some romantic comedy someday. Maybe i'll write it.
up more steps and now outside of the dome is the
Stone Gallery- its at the bottom of the big dome and you get quite the view of London, slightly obscured by cement pillars. BUT! no fear because higher up is the....
Golden Gallery-the top of the dome. You can see the whole city...its crazy! and beautiful. its crazy/beautiful. There was a man up there having to take a breather, turns out he had some heart problems...the steward was quite concerned, but the guy seemed to think there wasn't anything wrong with him...just out of breath.
After St Pauls, Stef and I decided to embark on a journey of procrastination. We didnt want to start studying for our Mid-Term so we decided to do a contact or two. We ended up having lunch at the Anchor pub (its historic...contact 1!), then we found a charming little place called The Clink Prison Museum, apparently its where the leaders of the Mayflower met....today its a museum where they have all sorts of information on torture and what not. Stef and I were the only people there , so we had free reign to take some hilarious pictures. My favorite is the one of stefanie cutting my head off with an axe. Later the director of the museum told us that it was really used in executions....ewww.. anyway contact 2....After that we wandered around the Southbank, finding the original site of the Globe (contact 3!) and then we went to the George Inn, the last galleried coaching inn in London (contact 4) and then the Tabard Inn where Chaucer had his pilgrims set forth to Canterbury from...it was really just a scary little alley way...oh well. i do believe we're up to 5 contacts...we're just that cool. We decided to unwind by drinking ridiculously priced coffee at Starbucks while studying for our test. It was really nice to sit and relax in the big comfortable chairs and the Thames was rough that night so you could hear the waves break and it was like we were on the ocean......splendid!
Back to the flat for more studying and smart sleep!

2005-10-29T09:28:00.000-07:00

I have now found why some people want to hang out with me....
so then they can be like "are you going to put this in your blog?"
you know who you are :)

2005-10-27T09:13:00.000-07:00

Okay, so after a lovely time in Manchester, my adventure had to come to an end when I had to leave on Monday. David had a job interview in the morning (he ended up getting the job at Urban Outfitters!) so I wandered around Manchester, making clothing purchases and what not, nothing beats good cheap clothes! I caught a train that was a half an hour earlier than I was supposed to and got back to London. I had enough time to sort of settle and take a shower before I found my way to Leicester Square for the premiere of 'Tim Burton's The Corpse Bride'. Okay the one of the real reasons that I went (and i'm sure that 3/4 of the people were there) was because the main character in the movie was Johnny Depp. But he was a no show. No worries though, I got to be super close to one of the coolest people in Show business today: Tim Burton. Okay, I have to say that I'm a major Burton fan, anyone who's been around my house around Halloween can attest to my very burton-esque upbringing. I mean I absolutely adore anything he's ever done and that's been a lot. Even frankenweinie....pure genius. Anyway, I snapped some good pictures of him and Aimee got his autograph. I tried, but I instead just got pictures. Oh well, he was one of the nicest people ever, making every attempt to try and meet and greet and sign stuff for all of his fans. Equally nice was his girlfriend Helena Bonham Carter. Now Fight Club happens to be my favorite movie and she of course is the love interest in that plus she's done everything from period films to Big Fish to Fight Club, she's equally as cool. After that me, stef, and aimee were all super pumped so we kind of just floated around on a cloud, wandering through SoHo and Chinatown settling for some delicious Chinese buffet and lots of hilarious pictures.
The next day we had a lecture on the English Civil War and Oliver Cromwell, etc. Educational as always. Its really funny because most of the movies we're watching (or watching clips of) I watched my freshman year of high school in World History. I'm definately getting a lot more out of watching them now, especially when I can say that I've actually been to a lot of the places!
After that Stef and I went to go pick up supplies/presents for Aimee's suprise party. We were in charge of chips and dip and we got her a really cute etchasketch pen because she always gets bored in class. After the party in the triple we set off for a few pubs where I revelled in the video jukebox...i got to listen to /see the video for Sic Transit Gloria...Glory fades by Brand new (i LOVE that song). All in all it was a very fun night despite me getting two drinks spilled on me. Oh well.....

2005-10-26T07:26:00.000-07:00

There is more than a week delay on me updating, i'm really really bad at this game. Anyway, the next day up north in Manchester was a fun one. i had my first home cooked english breakfast including black pudding which, frankly they can keep in England. it wasn't bad, but just not my cup of tea. We drove back to David's house a little too early for my liking, but I did get to take a shower and a little nap, so that was nice. Of course I got a cup of tea upon awakening. After that we went to his friend Jane's house. Jane is a 50 year old housewife they call Lady Jane and she is one of David's best friends. We sat around and talk and she made me some of hte best food I've had here. She made quiche!!!! Now if you don't know me that well let me let you in on a little secret, known as the secret to my heart: QUICHE!!! i Love it! anyway, we sat down and talked (and drank tea of course!) and David's other friend decided it was best to attack everything that is america and apparently it was all my fault. no worries though, I handled the situation with wit and poise, which I thought to be the best way. After eating (i swear david was trying to fatten me up on this trip!) we all went for a stroll around the park where we people watched for awhile and I also met David's friend Esther. lovely. After that, we went back to Davids where I watched Wallace and Gromit for a bit and then we went back into Manchester with Sophia and her boyfriend where we went to 'curry mile' which is a strip of road known for its overabundance of curry restaurants. After some delicious curry and naan...oh how i love naan bread I got taken on the nickel tour of Manchester, ending at the Manchester Wheel, which I suppose is their version of the London Eye, only a whole lot smaller and cheaper. (David did say however that Manchester is just like london and has everything it has only smaller!). We all went up in one little pod and i got quite a nice view of the city. After that it was back to nana's house for lots of late night conversations consisting of us talking about how David's not coming back to work at camp this summer and who's going to visit who in the future...good times.

2005-10-25T14:56:00.000-07:00

okay. 2nd day in the city of manchester.
Apparently David thought i was in need of a lie-in (translation: sleeping in!!!) that was lovely seeing as I really didnt have a lot of sleep the night before packing and what not. After that I had the lovely experience of my first "bacon butty." Now when I told everyone that it was my first I got looked at as if I had just said I had never taken a shower or something. A bacon butty consists of bread buttered on the inside, english bacon and tomato sauce (ketchup). not too bad. Not something I could eat everyday but not too bad. Apparently I'm supposed to try a chip butty next....Something that I need to mention here is the amount of tea I ingested on this trip. By this time in the trip I had tea when I first arrived at davids, when i got to his nana's house, when I woke up, etc. I would continue this trend throughout the rest of my trip, every new house I stepped into, the first question would be "do you want a brew?" or "would you like a cuppa?" followed by "do you take sugar love?" followed by "how many?" Oh how i love the English!!! Sidenote: Do you want a brew? has total different connotation than in the states. I don't think i would have accepted the offer of a brew at 10 o'clock in the morning in the US. brew=tea here, not beer as you might think (silly americans!!)
After that lovely english culinary experience, David's mom met up with us and his grandpa drove us all to the city where we shopped and what not and then went out to eat... here i realized how much I miss American Lemonade. I don't drink pop and so if i go out in the States i'll order an Ice Tea or more often, a lemonade. I caught myself almost ordering a Lemonade until I realized I would have been brought a sprite. no fear though, after a call to my mom, she brought me two huge containers of country time lemonade mix....delicious!!!!! Lunch was really nice, I had a duck salad which was great (i've found my eating habits/content have changed a bit while here. For instance, there are periods when i seem almost vegetarian and I have been eating a lot more duck and rabbit and no beef at all......)
We split up from David's mum and then continued to shop around a bit more and wander around before we went back to David's house where we got ready to go to his friends Ali and Sam's house. David's friend Amanda picked us up to go Bury where they lived and I learned where David got his crazy driving skills from...it was like nascar, except on the other side of the road.
Ali and Sam have an amazing house and Sam had cooked a beautiful sit down dinner of bread and this pasta that was amazing and lots of wine. For dessert I think we had the most amazing and simple thing ever, strawberries and cream...mmmmm....After that we played trivial pursuit. Now i'm usually a master at this game (my brother Larry and I are the reigning Y-Camp Family Camp Champs) but I found myself useless in the ways of British trivia. I did get all of the America questions though!!! A fun night of playing games and talking and what not we called it a night. Good times. Good People.

2005-10-25T14:31:00.000-07:00

So other than my super exciting adventure of seeing the monarch (who as Robin so accurately pointed out doesnt serve much of a purpose other than tourism) I have been quite remiss in updating this little thing. Sorry about that! I guess i've just been too busy having fun!!!!
I guess I will start by telling you about my trip to manchester/salford: home to the lovely David Leith!!

I left my flat quite early in the morning on not a lot of sleep to go and sort out all my train business. Everything worked out hunky dory and I got myself a paper (how english of me!) and a water and settled in for the lovely 2.5 hour train ride. I got to see quite a bit of the English country side and listen to a group of women who were apparently secret shoppers going to work/spying on costumer service! Thats a job I want!

I got off the train and right there was david with much longer hair than i'm used to (like an inch-inch and a half, not really much) and his friend Sophia....good times. My first experience in Manchester was trying to wade through the crowds and clothes at Primark....which is an experience, let me tell you. Its cheap clothes galore and crowds!!! And I had a big back pack which resulted in me getting knocked around by the masses. I had my first experience with getting looked at like i was an alien. I was talking to David and this little girl looked at me in amazement at my accent....manchester's not exactly as touristy/non english as London.
After that lovely experience I went all around Manchester, to david's university, the Lowry (the theatre that david works at and I now envy!!), I rode on my first tram (a street car basically), i saw the stadium where Manchester United plays as well the Salford Quays which were fun to walk around and what not. We took a bus to David's house and the little bakery where his mom works....so much fun. I got to relax AND partake in Music Videos!!!! David has satellite which equalled at least 20 music channels!!! HEAVEN!!!!! Then David made me a complete dinner, which crackers and cheese and jam as an appetizer....i got to see quite the domestic side of him.

We then decided to go to his nana's where we were staying for the night. There was quite a bit of confusion in regards to his nana's allowance of us to both stay there (we had to explain that we were sleeping in separate beds and that we were just friends, and get permission from his mom!!!) Good times. After that it was back into Manchester Proper where we went to the Royal Exchange to see Romeo and Juliet. It was an all right production, but someone needs to explain to me how swordplay and swashbuckling were still in vogue in 1950s italy. The theatre itself was really cool, it had the appearance of as if the lunar module landed in the middle of an old stock exchange. It was good to see some theatre in the round though. After that we went to the Oyster Bar, quite the historic pub where I had myself my first Mancunian pint AND learned that I can take black and white pictures on my camera!!!
David's dad came and picked us up and I got to drive in a car in Manchester...the whole driving on the other side still gets me, I always feel like we're going to hit the oncoming cars....I'm sure it goes the same way when they come to America.
1 day down. Next day, next entry

2005-10-20T15:03:00.000-07:00

So today, after wandering around the city, I was on my way back to the flat when who would drive by?

THE QUEEN!!!!

yeah thats right, I saw the Queen of England, like I saw her with my own two eyes.

I think my trip to the merry land is complete.

ps I saw Tim Burton, Helena Bonham Carter, and Christopher Lee earlier this week.

OH yeah...and in less than 8 hours my mom is going to be here

Oh Yeah YEah!!! It's my half birthday, in 6 months i'll be legal to drink in the United states

Oh happy day!
i'll update more later.

2005-10-17T15:43:00.000-07:00

Thursday shall be known as: Dominican Day. The reason being, we were dominated by Dominican's planning all day. First off was a community meeting about whatever and the handing out of new syllabi....After that was a lecture by Dr. Robert Faltynek who actually teaches at Dominican. Apparently there's a bid every year for who gets to come and give a lecture to the study abroad kiddies. He won and gave us a lecture on British scientists. It was nice because I thought there was going to be a lot of theory and what not, but it was more history than science...yay! It was really cool and it turns out that him and his wife are both graduates of Augustana....go home town (Or region) schoools! Anyway I think I impressed Ryan with my strange knowledge of science. Little did he know I was the nerdy child who wanted to be a scientist when i grew up and used to play with microscopes.
We had a lunch break that included me and stef going to sainsbury's and getting all sorts of goodness in the forms of prepackaged foods and wandering around FSU making friends with people because they had Chicago on their t-shirts.
After that we went to the Royal Institution and the Faraday museum where we had one of the most enthusiastic tour guides (i guess we've had a lot of those around here) who was very adamant that we see these portraits lit up.....crazy. It was cool to see things like the first electric motor and the first transformer and all sorts of scientific firsts. I'm not going to lie, i'm kind of a nerd when it comes to science and I really like it. It brought back memories of building electromagnets for my dad in grade school (i know, just say it, i'm a nerd) Oh well I'm a nerd who could build a buzzer out of a hack saw, some wire and a nair...so there.
After that we all departed for a lovely Dominican paid for dinner at the Texas Embassy. Yes there actually used to be a texas embassy here in London. Now its a semi-cheesy Tex Mex restaurant. Of course there was lots of filling up on chips and salsa and lots of good free food and i think a fun time was had by all. After that we just kind of wandered around a bit and did some interesting shopping.
I went home and did some laundry/napping whilst packing for my lovely trip the next day to Manchester!!!!

2005-10-17T15:29:00.000-07:00

Okay!!! So the next day (that would be Wednesday I do believe!) I got up early to meet with my tutor and for the first time i was right on time (the first time i was super early, the second late...i felt like goldilocks!!) anyway, we delved into my project and i'm now at the time that I have to start e-mailing people and getting interviews. This makes me nervous!!! but hopefully i'll get some information for my project. Why can't i just watch plays and get credit for it?
On my way back from that lovely meeting, I got a text (the British are big into this whole text messaging thing!!) from my good friend mark's friend who is also studying in London, we decided to meet up for some sort of Luncheon goodness. We met up at his school (which is literally 30 secs from my front door) and me, him and his roommate went out for some delicious and cheap 'za. It was good to have some conversations with different people other than my DU friends. Plus it was nice to talk to boys that are from Dominican (there are only three on this trip and I find that I relate better to guys and enjoy the pleasure of their company). Anyway, I dropped them back off for class and went back to take a nap. Lail woke me up for some bread and then i basically just vegged until stef and I decided to pull an all nighter at school doing homework. That was pretty much it seeing as we were up until 7 AM the next morning. Thus concluding the funnness that was Wednesday.

2005-10-17T14:39:00.000-07:00

I know its been quite some time (a week) since I last updated you to what i've been up to so I'm going to break the days into separate entries so that you can digest them a little better.
Tuesday we went to Hampstead Heath and Kenwood House. Hampstead was a gorgeous little town with all sorts of delights and history, as every British town or village. This one had a really neat church cemetary where I learned about people being buried beneath their headboards instead of gravestones. Hampstead also appears to be celebrityville. I saw Jamie Oliver's house, H.G. Wells' house, 2 of the spice girls (Baby and Sporty) and a host of others. One of the highlights was the Admiral's House. Now, for those of you that have seen Mary Poppins the movie. This was the house that was the location for the guy that entered things in his log and shot off cannons......I SAW THAT HOUSE!!! better yet, you know who lives there now? Russell Crowe...right down the street from Ridley Scott. I don't know why but i'm getting sucked up into this whole British obsession with celebrity, drat it all.
After a lovely romp through Hampstead Heath (it was hard to imagine being that close to the city but having these lovely woods to meander through) we passed by a pond that had ducks. Now I was being quite the motherly figure and therefore had a ziploc baggie full of cheerios to snack on and to sustain my fellow travellers and I thought that the ducks and geese and swans would appreciate a little multigrain goodness and so i fed them. All was well until a loose dog decided to take this time to attack the fowl by running through my legs! Scared the beejeebies out of them and me!!!! Its on video as well. Later whilst walking I continued my tradition of falling down as I have on every walk we've been on.
We stopped the official London Walks tour at the delightful Spainard's Inn. Apparently its haunted.....food was good but expensive. I devoured a lovely wild mushroom pasta....it seemed like everything had mushrooms in it....crazy wooded areas...
After the Inn we went to Kenwood house, where I continued my crazy Notting Hill journey. Kenwood was the place where they filmed the scenes where Julia Roberts was filming a Henry James movie. It was pretty cool. I took a lot of pictures and did a cartwheel in the huge grassy area in front....good times...
After that we waited a good amount of time for a bus that would have been faster to walk to get to where we needed to go. I think at this point it was more a matter of laziness than speed though. After that I decided to go and see some theatre because, well thats what i do. I went to see "The Aristocrats" by brien friel. Good old irish plays...Anyway, it was really good and there were some FSU kids there AND to continue the Notting Hill business, one of the actresses, Gina McKee ,was in the play (she played Hugh Grant's wheelchair bound friend). Oh how life comes full circle.
I'm convinced that whenever I leave the National Theatre it rains.....because it did that night. I wandered around the South Bankish area for a bit and then caught the tube home.
This is the end of Stephanies Week Part 1. Please go to the next entry....DING!

2005-10-10T14:56:00.000-07:00

Okay okay, here is the condensed version of a very fun past few days that have left me utterly tired (such is the life of a social butterfly such as myself). Anyway....so a few days ago I get a message on facebook from my good friend Jenni Wyffels who was like "hey...i'm coming to England! Lets hang out" so I messaged her back and we went on and on. Turns out she was coming to London and bringing another former classmate, ryan browne, with her....oh yeah and 4 of her friends from Spain. Anyway we make plans to meet up at their hostel which I found only after wandering around Paddington/hyde Park for a bit. The reason: The wonder that is the british street naming system. In a 3 block area there was a: Craven Hill Road, Craven Hill Gardens, And a Craven Hill Terrace....crazy!!!!! There might have been a craven hill mews in there as well...oh i know there was a craven hill square too......oh man, why do you ahve to be soooo confusing. Anyway we finally met up and decided to go find some vittles.
We ended up in this little pub in Paddinton where all of these kids decided that they wanted fish and chips...every single one of them. Except me...i've had my share. Anyway the pub was packed so we ended up sitting at this table with this older guy. Who then proceeded to hit on one of the girls in our group....for two hours. He told me i was the quick one because I was the only one who was picking up on half of the stuff that he was saying...i guess thats what i get for living here for a bit. Anyway, then he turned his attentions on me after insulting all of the boys in our group. I like to think that my razor sharp wit kept him at bay however and finally he left...after getting a call from his wife (apparently he also had two kids or something....weird). After that we decided to give the spanish study abroad kids (who were actually all from Chicago) a taste of their temporary home, so we went to a spanish bar that happened to have live music and gave them the ability to order in espanol.
By this time it was late and i was all gunho about hopping on my bus home but the group was against it for the interest of my safety so I ended up crashing in their hostel with them. The next morning I got them all situated sightseeing wise and went home to work on homework (i know i'm so exciting!) later on they came and suprised me at my flat. I ended up cooking them some dinner and what not and it was one of their birthdays so we had cupcakes and sang happy birthday and had a very fun time. It was nice to have a little flavor of Geneseo here in London for a bit. Plus we have an experience that we can rub in our friends' faces (hey! remember that time we were all together....in LONDON!!!) yay!
This morning, I got up bright and early (so so so early) to go meet up with the DU group at Waterloo station to meet for a London Walks tour of Hampton Court Palace and Richmond. It was gorgeous!!! The gardens were simply stunning and there were lots of fun little anecdotes about everyones favorite King of England: Henry VIII, really who doesn't love him? I got a really funny ghost christmas card, you'll all have to see it¬. Also included was a stunning ride on the Thames in a cute little boat, complete with sandwiches for a picnic lunch. I seriously think bribes were made for the beautiful weather we had. It was gorgeous. Thing I'm going to miss when we get back to the states: Corn on my sandwiches. SOunds weird, tastes delicious.
After that I booked it to get onto the train because I had designs to go see: HAIR!!! That's right everyone's favorite hippy musical. Here's the deal about hair: The entire run at the Gate theatre is sold out. BUT!!! they have this wonderful thing called "Happy Mondays" where, they have a limited number (20) of tickets that they don't sell and then at 6:30 they dole them out to those that are standing in line for a price of: Pay what you can. that's right....cheap theatre. It was truly a happy monday.
The show itself: AMAZING!!!! Seriously, there were tears coming out of my eyes at the end. It was so so so so so so good. If someone wants to get some christmas presents early: get me the soundtrack. I loved it. They updated it totally to make it modern and what not. No longer Vietnam, the show was based around the war in Iraq and they weren't hippies, they were street punks. It was very very cool though. I really can't say how amazing it was. On the tube home we were in the same carriage as one of the actors...yummy!!
So...there you have it. my weekend in a very small nutshell. Tonights plan: Homework, Tomorrow's Plan: Homework, hampstead heath, and more shows!!!
Stay out of trouble, i'll be back with more updates before you know it.

2005-10-07T15:39:00.000-07:00

Yay for today!
It started off with me getting up at a reasonable time and having a delicious brunch of quesadillas, my new specialty and having delightful slumber party esque conversations with Stefanie while we avoided homework. we alternated talking and reading, her Pride and Prejudice (for the umpteenth million time) and me a Bill Bryson book. He's Like the Wayne Brady of Americans in British relations...that analogy made sense to me..I promise. After that we decided to be productive. And we were. Off we went to the British Library.
The British Library is a great example of why I love this country and why i think i have already learned more and acquired more culture in one month than I have in my entire school career. I'm not dissing my previous education at all, it was very good, it's just that here I get to actually see the things that I've learned about in all of my classes. In one gallery of the British Library (which is a working library as well!) I got to see (and I kid you not): The First Folio (the original), The first copy of Alice in Wonderland, The only existing medieval copy of Beowulf, The working copy of Finnegan's Wake, the original score of Handel's Messiah, The Lindisfarne Gospels, The taxing stamps that started the Revolutionary War, Leonardo DaVinci's notebook, the Magna Carta, and original Beatle's lyrics written on things like napkins and greeting cards. IT was crazy!!!!!!!! Seriously there was so much stuff I could hardly contain myself. All in one room!!!!! Stefanie cried. I just kept running around like a school girl.
After that I decided I was going to head over to the Lyric Hammersmith to see me some Shakespeare. It was equally as amazing. It was Julius Caesar at its best with fog machines, strobe lights and lots of loud noises. Seriously though, it was really good. The tube home was flooded with middle aged women clutching their Donnie Osmond programs wearing shirts bearing his likeness. That's right mr. puppy love himself had played a show in London and it was driving his maternal fan base crazy. and they were so cute, like little school girls talking about how fantastic the show was. I talked with some of them about how they got lost on the way there, they were very funny AND the first real londoners i've met and talked to in London!!!!!
Things I'm excited for/made me excited:
Having a mini Geneseo reunion tomorrow with my good friends Jenni and Ryan when they come to London!!! Getting to see David in a week!!!! Getting to see my mom in like two weeks!!! yay!!!

2005-10-05T15:17:00.000-07:00

So i got back from another one of the best nights here in London. It started off after I left you guys with me going to visit Allison in her office because she was bored and I had to tell her about a UK movie release date (they are sooooo behind here with US movies! The Exorcism of Emily Rose-Which I really want to see comes out nov. 29th almost two months after the states!!!) Anyway, I was discussing my theatre options for the night with her and she was like "that one's right by my house!!" I called about tickets, they had them and she was like, you can come have dinner at my house before you go to the show. So I waited for her to finish work (consisting of us looking up movie info online and me reading a book on London while she was on hold) and we took the bus back to her house where we whipped up the tower of nachos using imported ingredients from the US while I gazed in wonder at the fact that she had cable TV in her kitchen (i haven't seen more than the five terrestrial channels in a long time!!! and there were MUSIC VIDEOS!!!!! do you know how much I've missed MUSIC VIDEOS??!?!) Then we watched the Simpsons and Hollyoaks whilst finishing our meal with: S'MORES!!!!!! I would just like to say that 2 out of the 3 ingredients in S'mores are unavailable in the UK (good marshmallows and graham crackers of any kind) but yet again: Imported food! (import =her cousin brought it upon visiting) Okay, I know I talk about food a lot on this thing but this was american food and i've missed s'mores so much!!!!!! Anyway, above my gastronomical conquests the night was just fun because I got to chill with Allison and relax and watch cable TV and just have fun and joke around and take fun nacho related pictures anyway, it was just good times.
After that I hopped on a bus and headed to the King's Head Theatre. I was a little confused at first because the King's Head theatre happens to be in the back of a Pub. Yes thats right, if you didn't know it was there, you could walk into this pub and have no idea that through the double doors on the back, there's legitimate (and darn good!) theatre going on. It was a little strange with the woman at the door with a cash box for tickets, but the show was amazing and high quality. The show was "Misery" as in based off the book by the same name by Stephen King. It was really really good and I highly suggest it to anyone, that is if you are in the area and you want to eat or drink while watching your theatre. I met some more Americans there who knew the Asst. Stage Manager which was kind of cool. We talked about movie premieres and are probably going to see the corpse bride (just to see Johnny Depp!!) The plan for this week is Theatre, Theatre, Theatre. I have a whole list of plays I need to see before the end of this trip and I have to catch up for my time being gone from the London area. Plays plays plays.....yay!!! I missed seeing the band "the academy is...." tonight at the Barfly. I was planning on going but then totally forgot about it and saw some real theatre instead. It's all right though...they are from Chicago so I'm sure I will see them again......perhaps in their hometown, where I happen to go to school. What a novel concept. Misery was worth it.
It was so cool because the theatre itself was so small, it only seats 60 people and we were in the front row. That intimate of settings always makes the show better if there are good actors and there was. It's still weird to see what you can get away with here, like having lots of open fires onstage, after dealing with the fire marshall on many a show at Dominican, I was suprised at them having a bucket of flaming paper just sitting on stage. Crazy Brits.
Anyway it was nice AND i had my first solo bus navigating experience....I didn't do half bad....it got me closer to my flat that I originally thought I could get...go me for being all city smart and what not.
Well thats it for now, i'll talk to you all later when i have more exciting stories to tell.

2005-10-05T07:13:00.000-07:00

So last night I had my second brush with the papparazzi/celebrities....kind of. After a lovely day of wandering around this city (really that's my favorite thing to do..just wander) I remembered that a bunch of us were meeting up with Allison to go to a movie premiere, if we so wished. The movie premiere was in Leiceister (I know i keep spelling this wrong!!) Square and it was for this British movie called "Kinky Boots". Its about this shoe factory that was going out of business until they discovered a new demographic: Drag Queens! We stood in line to try and get a view of the celebrities. Well seeing as it wasn't exactly a star studded film there weren't that many celebrities that I recognized (plus there were lots of British celebrities, so I was completely lost). Those that I had a brush with were Kelly Osbourne (who's super skinny now), Sadie Frost (Jude Law's exlover of some sort-the 2nd of which i've seen while here in london, jude law sure has a way with the ladies...), and Jimmy Carr (who in the States hosts the show distraction) I was probably 1 foot at most from Jimmy Carr and he looked right at me (the people to both sides of me got autographs but i was paperless, alas). So not exactly a star studded affair. I DID learn however of the premiere of "The Corpse Bride" which would equal Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and Tim Burton....i do believe thats what I call a dream come true. I know where I'll be that day!
After that we all went at again tried what the english call mexican food....not really the best I have to say. Walking home we ran into two of our lovely fellow DU-ers who I guess were off to see Revolver. Jess and I had nothing else to do, so we decided to go see it too. Guy Ritchie, why do you have to be so darn confusing??? I swear, that movie is more confusing and "what the just happened??" than anything I've seen in a long time. I still don't really understand what I watched. After that I came home and fell fast fast asleep and woke up this morning to go to the National Portrait Gallery.
The National Portrait Gallery was amazing, I think it will most certainly be a repeat visit. We only did the Tudor and Stuart exhibits and really only discussed 4 different paintings. It certainly felt a lot more like an art class than a tour. It was very interesting though, just to sit on these little padded stools and discuss what we thought were key points of the painting. I think I could discuss art all day....I like to make things up and try and give them meaning...
They have this exhibit there that is called "The World's Most Photographed" and they have all these rare photographs of famous people like elvis, marilyn monroe, james dean, and JFK....i most certainly have to go back and see that. Well I'm off....hope you all are having some sort of good times wherever you are. Peace OUt!

2005-10-04T06:20:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I left you hanging on my experience this weekend...but alas...there was more. After recovering from the hike (well kind of...I still have quite the sniffles and well, I seemed to have misplaced my voice..) A group of us went to some french esque restaurant where apparently my fishcakes were the hit (jess kept stealing them). The highlight of the night there was this incredibley overserved group of 30 year old women coming in and being quite loud. Apparently it was one of their birthdays so they went all out and made shirts and apparently each had to consume 30 drinks in the night...I must have seen them around 15, i'd have hated to been around at the end of the night...they were laying all over the tables and being quite loud. The restaurant apparently refused to serve them food, but would serve them drinks (a brilliant plan). Anyway, once they were gone down the street with the football/rugby hooligans our waitress came and apologized, even gave us free vegetables for our trouble. Nothing smoothes over anything like free veggies. Afterwards we all headed to Safeway to buy junkfood...I bought Welsh Cakes/cookies because, well we were in Wales. Those things are my all time favorite and I usually only get them once a year at the Highland Games and they are ever so good and I figured I might as well have the real thing. I liked them so much that I called my mom to inform her of my being in Wales eating welsh dessert...I hope she liked the message. After that lovely adventure, we all piled into this tiny little cottage where one of our people was staying. This place happened to not have an overbearing hostess and a VCR! and! movies! so we watched everyone's favorite movie on Catholic dogma: Seven!!! Man, I forgot two things about that movies (no i did not forget the ending!) 1. How hot Brad Pitt is and 2. How creepy Kevin Spacey is. I'm supposed to go see him in Richard III and now all i'm going to have going through my head is how creepy is was in this movie...no joke. That was fun, what was even funnier was Joe scaring Stefanie with his "ninja outfit" (really just a scarf wrapped around his face). It was scary to hear her blood curdling scream, but once we realized she was okay (only did we know this by her swearing at joe...while on the phone with her dad by the way...) I really would have liked to know her dad's reaction to hear his sweet daughter letting out some pretty weighty curse words in joe's direction. Upon getting back, stefanie and I were drilled as to everyone's whereabouts, even though we had no idea and then went to bed.
The next morning, we went to Bath...thats right home of the roman baths and the 18th century rich resort. We went in the Roman Baths (the big one) and it was awesome. Those romans really knew what was up and how to relax. The spring was really cool and in the pump room you could buy a glass of water from the underground spring for only 50p. I decided to be adventurous.....whoooie....first off it was warm, like bathwater warm, secondly it was....mineral rich, or so it tasted. I'm quite certain that i've had similar tasting water that came out of the tap in Geneseo...(Sidenote:we now have a Brita water filter). It was an experience nonetheless. I had a fun time after that just wandering around Bath, taking in the sites and seeing the lovely architecture that John Wood jr and sr created such as the Circus and the Royal Crescent..very posh. After that we came home to our lovely flat and slept.
and slept
and slept
in fact yesterday I was feeling so sick that the greater portion of my day was spent sleeping. I know it seems like a waste of my time in London but I was feeling really sick (still am what with no voice...) so i thought it in my best interest.
This morning we watched Elizabeth as our class for the day (I love this program) it was actually a really good movie, full of historical content and of course drama and romance...lovely. Tonight: THe movie premiere of "Kinky Boots" in Leister Square. Should be a good time. Well I'm off. Au Revoir...wait...i'm in London, not paris.....Cheerio!!!

2005-10-02T13:33:00.000-07:00

Well well well everyone. I have returned from my adventures elsewhere yet again and I am here to report what I've done so that all of you might live vicariously through me yet again...if that is your purpose for reading this. Anyway...here we go
Thursday night: was the pub social for all of the groups that Ryan, our director, overseas. There were people from Binghamton, Marymount, and ALEXIA (some weird program) as well as Dominican. We rented out the top room of a pub on grays inn road and had ourselves a shindig. The thing about it is that it was supposed to be a "mixer" where the other groups met each other and socialized. We kind of just sat in little bubbles talking and what not...until the food came. And then there was a mad dash to the bar to swoop down upon the munchies. Afterwards some BU and some DU kids decided to go find something to do. That basically meant wandering the streets for awhile and then sitting in a Lounge/bar/club where there was music. Not too bad. I got told that I do a really good shooter mcgavin (from happy gilmore) finger shoot thing with accompanying noise. I'll have to do it more often. After that it was head back to the flat and pack time.
Friday: Stefanie and I woke up on time this time and got to the bus, packed and ready to go with time to spare (and the ability to get seats of our own!) I pretty much slept the entire bus ride until we got to Stonehenge. Okay....seriously, I know it's an important, impressive place, but i wasn't very impressed. 1. the road was right there which totally detracted from the whole ancient feel of it. 2. You couldn't get anywhere near it, because it was roped off, you basically did a giant loop around it at a distance of 30-40 feet. There wasn't a whole lot to see. I mean, i was glad that I went and now can say that I've seen stonehenge but it was a good thing that we were only really there for an hour. I smashed a penny...that was kind of cool....
.Later that day we checked into our bed and breakfast, not before i got very sick from the bus ride....VERY sick. Alls well now. Anyway our b & B was away from the others (we were all divided amongst 4 different ones) so we got to drive in the owner's car. So i sat in the passenger seat and it was one of the weirdest experiences for me, i was expecting to find a steering wheel but there was none...it was a crazy experience!! Our hostess served us tea and biscuits and was very nice to all of us...or so we thought. This is the section where I discuss the B & B:

It was in a person's house, like honest to goodness, it was their house, we had tea in their dining room, one of the rooms had their son's name on it!! That and there were only three rooms!
So upon arriving from our night out of playing games in one of the other B&Bs and eating dinner, we find our hostess waiting up for us at a little past midnight....that seemed sweet enough until she informed us that we had a curfew of midnight and that she waited up for all of her guests!
Our hostess woke us up for breakfast in the morning, after we agreed that we were having it at 8:30.
She chastized those who decided to sleep in that day after eating breakfast (not me)
Upon coming home the next night, she grilled me and Stefanie on the whereabouts of the other girls, to which we had no clue, she sat there on the phone with her friend relaying what we were saying to her for about 15 minutes...crazy
While grilling us she used quite derogatory terms to describe people...such as the colored girl and the big girl....
I can't even begin to talk about how confusing it was figuring out where our luggage and our bodies were going this morning. The old guy actually drove up to find us to tell us that we had to go meet the bus somewhere on the other side of town....just as the bus was pulling up.
It was over all craziness!!!! We'll just blame it on them being welsh.

Whilste the others in our party were sleeping the day away, a handful of us decided to go on a Ryan-recommended hike. I decided to go because all of the horse riding places were booked. Wow....thats all I can say about that hike and I'm not sure if that is said in a good way.... The hike seemed like a good idea up until we started on the trail. Then as we started to ascend straight up, it started to rain. You knew it was bad when Allison, one of our leaders decided to turn back. We scaled the first hill, things cleared up and it looked like smooth sailing. Then crossing a creek in a valley, i got my foot quite wet, still nothing bad though. Plus there was a rainbow and it was just so pretty! (we actually saw quite a few rainbows in Wales, maybe theres a Welsh leprechaun or two at work...) Once we completed the first little hill we looked up to see the bohemiath hill, with its peak in the cloud. I naively wished that I could go in the cloud because I thought it would be cool. Well once we started hiking up, the rain started coming down....yay for being a wet rat!!! You see, I HAVE a rain jacket, but guess what i forgot as I was running out the door? Yeah thats right...the jacket. So i braved the elements and the very steep path, and the wind to make it to the top, where I was told I would have the most spectacular view of the Brecon Beacons National Park...instead, I got my cloud. Yes thats right it was pure white, only about 40 degrees F and there were about 60 mph winds. It was craziness, but very very cool....literallly. After that exhausting and soaking hike, we booked it back to the b & B for a hot shower and curled up into our beds with warm comforters and took a nice nap...yay!

More shall come later, but i'm tired from all this travelling and i'm falling asleep at the computer and I have to walk back now. I'll update more I promise!!1

2005-09-29T05:04:00.000-07:00

So I might not have mentioned it, but this whole trip I've been making plans....not that these are real plans, but they are most certainly plans, more like the fun little fantasies that little girls make up. These include getting proposed to (by some mystery man I guess) on the bridge over the Aira Force waterfall, getting married in Kew Gardens or at Castle Howard and having my reception in York, while wearing a wedding dress I found in Edinburgh while my husband to be (still a mystery as to who) wears a kilt also from Edinburgh. All totally realistic right???? I think there was also something along the lines of my fantasy husband being british, I could really dig an english or scottish accent and his family owning lots of land in the country (preferably on a lake) and us going around living the perfect british life, drinking tea and going to theatre, etc. I'd of course drive either a land rover (the jeep of britain) or a mini cooper, or go old school and get the Morris Mini ( mr. Bean anyone??)

Well anyway, yesterday I added to my plan...I'm going to have cute little children with British accents and They will go to schools where they have to wear smart little uniforms. If i have boys...they WILL go to Eton...where I went yesterday. Seriously, nothing is cuter than the site of these high school aged boys running around town in coats with tails on them!!!! Seriously, they dress nicer for school than I've ever seen my friends dressed up for anything, even prom!!!!

If you can't tell, Windsor and Eton were pure delights. Windsor Castle was AMAZING! If I can manage it somehow, although this is asking a lot, I could be Queen...I could live at Windsor castle, pull up in my carriage and ride my horse through the grounds....I could so do it. We were kind of on our own yesterday, so I wandered around Windsor, grabbed a bite to eat and meandered around the Thames for awhile. It was nice to just walk and observe. I saw some kids doing crew, which was fun, I also found my way into a boatyard, crazy public footpath......That was cool as well. Then I went to Eton, traipsed around the museum there, watched a video on the daily life of Eton, wandered through the chapel there and called it a day.
Came back to London, and collected on my free ticket by going to see "Playing with Fire" at the National Theatre....good times. Then I braved the rain and wind (almost losing my umbrella!!!) and made it home...yay!!

Funny little things that made me happy: The St George Chapel at Windsor Castle: There was an orchestra of sorts warming up in there which totally added to the ambiance. Talking to one of the guides and him telling me all about the royal catacombs (I really want to go...see Henry VIII and everything!!!!) Seeing the cool dollhouse that has running water and real wine and a playable piano that gets tuned twice a year...getting a back rub on the train ride back, SUBWAY (it was my first time having subway across the ocean....it just reminded me of camp and our obsession with Subway...mmmm although they didn't have anything to make the sandwich that I usually get, but they did have 1.99 subs...thats muy cheap in london terms....), Going to the store Paperchase, because they have everything you can imagine and they have all this mad crazy paper and what not, I kind of wish I was crafty like leah and could make stuff like scrapbooks and cards, because this stuff was uber cute. I think it's reason enough for Leah to come and visit....hint hint!!!

I met with my tutor this morning and laid out more groundwork for my project...he says I need about two more weeks of research before I can start interviewing people...yay! I'm going to go hit up the town of London right now for some resources and what not, French's Theatre Bookshop, here I come!!!! Tonight: Either a show (The Big Life which is based off of Love's Labour Lost) or the Pub Social for all of the schools that our director directs....one would cost me around £10, the other: free food and whatever I spend on drinks...which won't be much.....hmmm......these are times that try women's souls....okay not really.

Tomorrow holds a lot of promise as well: we're shipping off bright and early (too early again....8 o clock eegad!) to go to Breacon (wales!), Bath (Roman??), and Stonehenge (no one knows.....) Highlights of this trip are looking to be a lovely half day of horseback riding (putting those Y-Camp skills to work) and overall coolness. I'm sure I will have lots of stories to tell and lots of pictures taken.

Well I'm off to go conquer the world. Starting with London. Bye!

2005-09-27T15:42:00.000-07:00

Okay...i just totally had an awesome night and the thing was it was completely me. It was something I wanted to do, I got there by myself, I met people on my own and I did it all by myself. I know this sounds weird but up until this point I'd been doing a lot of stuff with the group. Even when I did stuff on my own (like the ghostwalk that I got stood up for..) there were people waiting for me afterwards and it started out as a group planning event. What did i do you may ask? Went on a London Walk....i know, how touristy.
Today before it got dark wasn't very eventful. We had a bunch of meetings at school and talked about our trips to Windsor and Eton (tomorrow) and to Bath, Breacon, and Stonehenge (this weekend). There were some study tour reports and all that jazz. Then we watched the movie Northanger Abbey....sorry Jane Austen, I still don't like you.....After that Ryan (the director of DU in London) came and was like here are your Oyster cards for the tube and by the way I have these three tickets to the theatre tomorrow anybody want them? Well my hand shot up, so tomorrow I'll be heading down to the National Theatre....for free...if only I could do this all the time...i need more free theatre!!!! Anyway...after that Stefanie and I headed back to the flat for some lunch. We went crazy shopping at Tesco the other day, so we were well fed. After that I decided to get domestic and make a peach cobbler....so i did....and it was delicious. Then I got lazy and took a nap...making up for all that bus sleeping on the trip this weekend.
After that I decided to get myself out of bed and go on one of these London Walks. I'm saving the ghost walk and the jack the ripper walks for my parents, so I decided to go on the Historic Pub walk, supposedly finding hidden pubs....all the pubs happened to be on main streets however. Nevertheless it was wonderfully historic and the tourguide was superbly hyperactive just like me. We got along quite well. He told me that I was a traveller, not a tourist, which made me feel good. He said that the difference between a tourist and a traveller is that a tourist just checks things off as being done and takes some pictures, a traveller observes and lets the area change them in a little way. Very philosophical, but I appreciated. The pubs that we went to were very cool though, one of them was right next to the alleged home of Sweeney Todd, everyone's favorite demon barber (i swear he's been haunting my trip, everywhere I go there's something about Sweeney Todd!) it was actually an old bank which was quite cool. Most of the places we went were in the financial/law district so there were lots of cute boys in suits...yay!
Afterwards I sat and talked in the last pub to these cute older ladies from the Lake District, where I had just been. They were so nice and we just sat and talked and talked until they kicked us out. It was really nice conversation and what they had to say was very interesting, we talked about everything from tea to christmas to pride and prejudice.....afterwards they were so cute and were very adament that I knew I how I was getting home. It was nice because they were so concerned. I got home (well...school first I guess, because thats where I am>...) quite safely, by actually knowing my way around the city...i know..its weird. On my way back there were all of these kids coming out of this building soaking wet and shivering...I in my new sense of boldness and confidence to talk to people (for some reason I was afraid to in London...don't ask me why...) I asked one of these shivering kids what they were up to. Answer: FOAM Party....that's it, i'm going to find one of those and go...and bring a towel. Anyway, I'm going to go because i have to be up dreadfully early so I can go trompse around and then go to some theatre...yay!
PS...I think I solved the random people commenting thing. If you haven't noticed I get a lot of Comment Spam as Leah calls it. I think you have to do one extra step but it should still be easy to comment. So please do so I know that i'm loved and what not. Better yet you can send me a package with pretzels and sneaker cleaner...two things i'm in desperate need of....and twizzlers! And tootsie rollls!!!! All right bye!
-S

2005-09-26T15:45:00.000-07:00

Just so you know, i've reached the point of photo site #5....address coming soon. Check out what I added to number 4 while you're waiting.

Also as a note to the pictures, I started playing around with the different settings of my camera, AKA exposure times and what not, tell me what you think. The nighttime and the darker ones are the ones that need to be addressed most i guess.

2005-09-26T15:01:00.000-07:00

All right, two cities down, one more area to go. I say area because well, theres a lot going on in the Lake District. After leaving Edinburgh we arrived in Pooley Bridge, a tiny little town with not much going on besides a row of B&Bs where we were staying, apparently we were staying in 2 different ones, everyone except the bus driver and 2 people in one and then the bus driver and 2 lucky students in the other. Well...who were those lucky people to stay in a different B & B? Why me and stefanie of course. No worries though, we had the bus driver down the hall from us, which meant the bus was parked at our place, which meant that everyone had to walk to meet up with us whenever we went anywhere....convenience!!!! Upon getting there Ryan, our director, said that whoever wanted to could go on a hike with him up to the Aira Force Waterfalls. What a hike!!! It was massively uphill and we were on asphalt for quite awhile and then we meandered through a bunch of sheep pastures for over 5 miles. Suddenly we were in the woods and more suddenly that that there was a creek with all of these waterfalls. We all jumped the creek and played around on the rocks and took pictures and what not...good times. The funny part is we all thought that those were the waterfall......No way Jose. The real waterfall was down aways and it was amazing, it was huge and the pressure it was coming down at was amazing. Not to mention the weather we hiked up in was Amazing!!! We got to view it from the top and the bottom and it was simply gorgeous..... definately worth the hike to get there. It might have edged out Arthur's Seat for most gorgeous. After that we all hiked back to where the bus was waiting for us (it had dropped of some people who wanted to see the waterfall but didn't want to hike.....wimps...). We went back, had a quick shower and hopped on the bus to go into town. There is one of two pubs in the town of Pooley Bridge and we went to one of them, apparently the more popular one because it was packed. A saturday night in Pooley Bridge....nothing better to do than go to the Pub. Good thing we had reservations. I had some delicious soup and we chatted it up and had a great time. Afterwards Stefanie and I, with all intentions of doing our homework went down to the bar/parlour area of the bed and breakfast. It resembled a living room and we thought it would be a nice place to do homework. We found three other guests sitting there and talking, so we joined in. It was really nice talking to them and we made fun of each other's ways of driving and the layouts of our roads....smashing!
The next morning, we met up and went to Castlerigg Stone circle, a neolithic stone circle that is said to be older than stonehenge!!! It was awesome......very cool. It was funny because apparently it's also used as a pasture, because in the same field as these ancient stones is a herd of sheep. I wrote a song memorializing the occaision, it's called "Sheep Poo" look for it in record stores soon. After that we ventured off to Dove Cottage, home of William Wordsworth, the poet. The cottage was quite quaint, and warm which was nice, because by this time, it had started to rain. We learned all about William's life at dove cottage, read some poems and then were set loose on the town of Grasmere. It was a gorgeous town and every other store was an outdoor clothing/camping store, which was nice. What was not nice was the absence of ATMs or Credit Card worthy restaurants. I was hungry and had no cash, I had flashbacks to my biking trip this summer where I was stranded in towns that didn't know what a Debit card was. I finally found a place that accepted credit cards and sat down and had tea and soup with some charming old ladies. After shopping for a little bit I met up with the group and we headed to "the big city", of Kesswick. which isn't really a big city, but there was certainly more to do than Pooley Bridge or Grasmere. Ryan proposed another hike, promising that this would be less strenuous than yesterday....well he lied. It started off easily enough, walking right along the lake. At Frisr's Crag I decided to get adventurous and climb down some rocks to get closer to the water. Well I got close enough...I slipped and in my foot went.....soaking up to about my knee. Well we continued on the hike, me half my feet wet and muddy. We kind of got lost in a parking lot and decided to blaze our own trail, pretty much straight up this very large bluff. It was certainly a workout, but worth the work in the view we got. All the way up we were along a waterfall which trickled down the mountain. Turning around as we ascended lent itself to a very pretty view of the lake and the mountains behind it....gorgeous. We rested a bit in a pasture of sorts, sheep on the hills in a very funny sight by the way. We finally made our way to the summit and holy man what a view!!!!!!!!!! You could see way off in the distance the little town of Kesswick, you could see 2 of the lakes and just beautiful amazing scenery. We all had a celebratory swig of whiskey and made our way down the hill another way, this way going down what appeared to be an ancient slip and slide......or at least thats what I mistook it for as i planted my butt on the ground ever so gracefully. The walk back was scenic and met a shetland pony who was friendly enough to come close to us and let us pet his nose, i had flashbacks to this summer and working in the horse barn with the horses...loved it, won't ever do it again though!!! Anyway....The pony actually just wanted to scratch its butt on the fence as we discovered as it turned around and offered us another view of the countryside....his bum!!! We wandered into town looking for vittles and found them to be delicious....mmmmm filling pub grub. Cheap too! After that we called it a day in Kesswick and headed back to our humble B & Bs. The whole group met up to hang out in the parlor of the other b and b and play a game of psychologist.....fun times. Afterwards, Stefanie and I had to walk down the lane to our bed and breakfast, in the dark, in the middle of nowhere. Stefanie wasn't too keen on this idea, so she coerced Joe, one of the boys on the trip to walk us home.....we made it safely and I fell straight into bed....only to be woken up by Ryan knocking on our door, wondering if we were going to get up for breakfast....we weren't. The sleep was too good and the bed was too warm and cozy. After that we put our stuff on the bus, and embarked on a 7 hour journey back to London. Thus ending our lovely study tour.

2005-09-26T13:32:00.000-07:00

Well....now this brings us to the Edinburgh section of the trip. As you may or may not know, Edinburgh is in Scotland, where if its not scottish...its CRAP!
I started my stay off right and scottish with a heaping portion of: HAGGIS!! the national dish. I braved and it was delicious. This was how the food was arranged: the haggis was in a sort of patty type thing on top of which which were nips or neeps and then on top of that was mashed pototoes, they were all in a tower that somewhat resembled that tower in "close encounters of the third kind, all topped with a whiskey sauce because after all we are in Scotland. I also discovered a new drink that is slightly up there in the old lady scale: Baileys and Hot Chocolate....mmmmmm. I got it because everyone thought that I deserved a drink after braving the Haggis.
After that we wandered around the city exploring and getting lost. We wandered and looked at all of the touristy things and then got solicited by a monk trying to sell a monk rock band cd and to get our money. We didn't get the money but he made us take a book. I don't think i'll convert to Hare Krishna anytime soon though, sorry.
After that we all decided that we were going to meet up for a literary pub tour where they went around and talked about Edinburgh's writers, I was stoked about going and Brian got directions for all of us and we all agreed to meet up......little did we know, the directions were wrong and there was a massive scramble to find the place and each other and so we missed it. Oh well, thats when I wasted some time in a little internet cafe and updated you last. After that we all agreed we were going to meet up to go on a ghost tour of Edinburgh. Well it was just me and Niki walking around and so we go to the rendevous point and no one is there, the tourguide comes and still no friends, the tour moves and we havent heard from them. On the way to the cemetary, Niki decides that she's too scared and says that she'll meet me at the pub afterwards. Leaving me alone with a bunch of strangers, wandering around a graveyard....kind of scary.
The tour was of Grey Frier's Cemetary. The name's famous because of the story of Grey Frier's Bobby, the story of this little dog who came and sat on his master's grave. Our tourguide said the story was a load of crap....which started off the evening well. We also learned about the graverobbers who provided the University of Edinburgh with fresh cadavers and then delved into murder. The punishiment for the one who got caught was to use his body for science and his hand was made into a business card holder that I had since earlier in in the day!!!! How gross is that???? The finale of the tour was getting locked into the Black Mauseleum in the Coventor's Prison of the cemetary. It's supposedly home of the Mackenzie Poltergeist and supposedly off this stuff happened. Well nothing happened that night and I was disappointed. Nothing except a guy jumping out in a mask at the end of the day. Whoot. After that I met up with everybody who missed it, apparently they were like 10 minutes late and tried calling my cell phone and what not, crazy scottish no service. Anyway, we sat in the pub listening to Scots play american music (Man of Constant Sorrow...) and eating peanuts.
The next morning we got up and had breakfast in a large kitchen where it felt like we were all part of a family gathering for family breakfast, how quaint. That day we went to the Hollyroodhouse Palace, where the royals stay when they are in Scotland. A little disappointing as there were only a few rooms open to observe. After that...we went to: THE CASTLE! Edinburgh Castle that is. It is quite dark and scary looming all over town as it does. Anyway, we went up there, and apparently they shoot off a cannon at 1 oclock, which is actually pretty cool, they do it very ceremoniously. After that we wandered around for a little bit, saw the scottish crown jewels, met some Americans, and had tea.....and Scones. Seriously, I'm going to have scone withdrawl. After that we went to the museum of Childhood where they are all these crazy old toys and what not, including a Sweeney Todd amusement (he was the demon barber of Fleeet Street.) You put 10p in and the lights came on and you watch sweeney Todd murder someone and then get baked into a pie...a Great Children's Toy!!!! Post that, Stefanie and I decided to scale Arthur's Seat which is this huge bluff/volcano thing on the edge of town where apparently King Arthur would go to watch the seas. It was amazing, horribly windy but amazing. At the top of the main hill we met some American students and we shared the view, you could see the entire town and the sea. I took some Panoramic Video of the top, so you'll all have to see that when I get back stateside. It was simply breathtaking. I literally cried because the view was so amazing. On the way up we saw people mountain biking and bouncing from rock to rock, we also someone mountain unicycling, which was crazy. There were also people bouldering, which is like rock climbing but over not up, if that makes sense. I decided to climb up some rocks and put my camp skills to use......later I found a sign telling me not to do that,oh well.....
After that amazing experience, Stefanie and I went and warmed ourselves up with some Pub Grub, good ol' Fish and Chips will fill you up everytime. Upon reading the menu however, we discovered that apparently....the Pub was Haunted....geez what on this trip isn't haunted????
After that we headed on home, singing rounds the whole way....which was suprising because well, we really didnt have anything to drink. I think we were just that high off of our awesome experience. Good times. I most certainly slept like a baby after that long hike, in my nice warm B & B bed.
The next morning we woke up and got on our coach and headed out of lovely Edinburgh, thus concluding the Scottish leg of the trip.....

2005-09-26T12:31:00.000-07:00

Okay, so i have a lot of ground I need to cover because well...i've been away from this lovely thing called the internet and I want to keep you all abreast as to what i've been doing. So I'm going to break areas that i visited this past week into different digestable entries, both for mine and yours sanity. When I last left you a speed version of an entry I was in Edinburgh telling you about York. So York I shall begin:
So the ghost tour we went on in York was crazy. We went to the site of the world's oldest ghosts: Roman soldiers that walk along a Roman road that goes through the Treasurer's House right by the Minster (you might have seen shows on it...I know I have!!), we also went to the Minster and heard about a ghost dog trapped in the walls...spooky. There was a plethora of stories about all sorts of gruesome forms of torture and what not, very historical. The worst was the story about the children's workhouse where children were buried in the floorboard. The tax office was also haunted but are tourguide said that they deserved to be haunted.
One of the stops on the tour was this house that was claimed to have been the home of St. Margaret Clitherow, The "pearl of York". She was crushed to death for her faith. Well as she was a martyr someone thought to cut off her hand as a relic. This hand still exists, and you know where it is kept? The Bar Convent!! Where I was staying. Thats right, right down the hall from my small doored living space, stored in a little cabinent was: A SEVERED HAND!!!! And it was kind of cool, I got to see it....Sr. Agatha was oh so kind to bring it out for us right after breakfast.
After our adventure with the uncorrupted limbs of saints we went on more.
After the Ghost tour we walked spooked outedly to our B and B and went to bed.
The next day we went to Fountain's Abbey which are the ruins of quite a prosperous Abbey for cistertian monks.It was so weird to walk into the nave of the chapel and be standing in grass with no roof over head. The place was huge and old (we walked over an 800 year old bridge!!!). The grounds of the place were amazing....there was a river running right through the whole thing and there were water gardens and a mill and the weather could not have been better. Our tour guide was this cute old gentleman who got so excited about everything, he was running and hopping around and pointing out things. He was cool. While we had free time, a group of us walked down the river and went through one of the tunnels that the river went through, it was fun to walk from rock to rock through a tunnel. Yay for being a kid.
That night we went to Pizza Hut (I know, that was a cultural experience) we got the feast!!! MMMMMmmmmm. After that we went to a pub that had accoustic music and never closed. Listening to british guys play american pie is hilarious!. Anyway, i tried a bitter because I've been told to lay off of the cider, it was good and smooth, but i have not yet acquired a taste for beer....sorry.
The next day we went to Castle Howard which is situated on 10000 acres of gardens and woods....they were filming Garfield 2 when we went. So look for me when it comes out. I'm walking in front of the house i'm sure. Castle Howard is where they filmed the movie "Brideshead Revisited" in case you were wondering, it was Brideshead. I've never seen it, but I might have to after being there. The place was gorgeous!!!!! Stefanie and I got lost in the woods after coming back from the temple of the four winds. oh well, we made it in time to have tea on the lawn and get back in time. I did get to go to a glass blowing museum...the was pretty stellar.
Drawback of the visit to Castle Howard: My bookbag broke....I had just been telling stefanie how much i liked having my bag and how convenient it was (its a one shouldered backpack) and then it just broke....the zipper's completely trashed......a moment of silence please for the loss of a good friend.....
Tidbits about York that also happened: Open Mic Night where this horrendous girl decided to perform, Getting kicked out of Borders a half an hour before closing, Sitting on the lawn of the York Museum watching a drunk get arrested by the police in the middle of the day, the York museum in general, watching little kids learn crew/rowing on the river, good times all around in York.
Well thus concludes the York section of the Study tour.

2005-09-22T12:25:00.000-07:00

Okay, I know I haven't written in awhile, but thats because well folks, I've been and still am out of the London area. When I last left you I was still in London, but the days that I didn't update consisted of me doing homework, lots and lots of homework...But i mean, that's the reason I'm here isn't it? Anyway...Sunday I did go down to the Lord Mayor's Thames River Festival. That was really cool and there were fireworks, even if they were only 4 minutes long (America does waaayyy better fireworks) Now I have to wait until November 5th to get my next dose of the gunpowder (Guy Fawkes anyone???). Anyway, after the fireworks the crew headed back to our lovely home and started packing. Stefanie and I however were entranced by the wonder that is Bollywood movies and stayed up watching the Best Movie ever: MAIN HOON NA... if anyone wants to find it and buy it for me for Christmas (or the soundtrack) I would love them forever!!! too bad it didn't get over until 5 am. Luckily we packed during it.
Bright and early on Monday morning (tooo bright and early for me and stefanie apparently-we slept through our alarm!!!) we all loaded up unto a coach and headed to York. There we checked into our lodgings:A CONVENT. Yes mom, your dreams of me becoming a nun almost came true. I stayed in a convent. All of the rooms had Saints names instead of numbers...I was in St. Cecilia, the patron saint of musicians. Goodtimes. Also, apparently nuns are extremely vertically challenged because I had to duck everytime I went into a door and I almost hit my head on the ceiling a couple of times....crazy!!!
After that we set off on a walking tour with the sweet old lady as our tour guide, We saw some roman ruins and all sorts of places and The York Minster which was very cool! After that Stefanie and I went out to eat and then went on a GHOST TOUR.
Appparently York is the most haunted city in the world......More on that later though. I'm in an internet cafe in Edinburgh right now and my time is up. BYE!!!

2005-09-15T13:42:00.000-07:00

I know you guys are sick of looking at pictures of me, but i've been taking a lot.....so many that I had to start ANOTHER photobucket site (it's gotten to the point where I've had to start making up e-mail addresses!) that one can be found at:
http://photobucket.com/albums/b4/duinlondon4/
Tomorrow i have my first meeting with my tutor for my project. I have to somehow find where im going tomorrow morning...should be interesting. Then I'm meeting up with some people that I met from FSU so I can show them the ISH....Should be good times. Who knows what will happen after that? I bought chocolate cake mix so perhaps I will bake that and then go see a show.

A note about the FSU computer lab which is my base of operations: Its full of college students. Therefore at any given moment you can look at a computer screen and they will be at: Facebook, Myspace, Xanga, Livejournal, or any assortment of E-Mail sites. Like thats all these computers are good for. (I have no room to talk, i do the exact same thing!!!) These two guys next to me are talking about how hot this girl on the internet is and its hilarious!!!!

Anyway....about my day: We went to Kew Gardens. Originally it was going to be me, stefanie, lail and melanie. Lail and melanie came to the door right as stefanie was getting into the shower and they wanted to leave right away so it ended up being two groups going. That place is huge!!! and beautiful. Unfortunately I got a lesson in English weather as it was rainy and gray...or grey as they would spell. Right when we got there, we sought refuge in the palm house. It's this huge victorian green house with all sorts of cool plants, mainly, you guessed it...palm trees. But all sorts of different kinds. You could also walk up and around them, which was quite a sight to see. Underneath that whole complex was a marine exhibit with seaweed and other stuff.
After the palm house we went on a ride on "The kew explorer" which is a tour of sorts on a little train/car thing. In front of us, there was the cutest little kid who was playing peeka boo with me the whole time we were waiting to start...darling...After that we walked around the massive grounds....There was a massive flagpole made out of a singular trunk of a douglas fir, there is a pagoda, all sorts of houses containing plants and just gorgeous gardens. There are also lots of trees, including those trees that are quite conducive to climbing. There are pictures of all that fun goodness. I think i scared Stefanie when I kind of slipped and saved myself, but all in all ended up falling out the tree....completely unscathed though...thats skill. We also watched a video on this glass designer who created a ton of sculptures all around the gardens. Those sculptures were beautiful and also really made me want to be an artist.....glass blowing looks kind of fun..maybe i can take some classes or something....
Our final quest for the night was to try and find the world's largest compost heap. I was going to take a picture for my mom (the self-proclaimed queen of compost) but our search was unfruitful. Somewhere on the grounds of Kew Gardens is the worlds largest compost heap (so our tour said...) But seeing as it was closing soon, i was unable to find it. Oh well...
So that was pretty much my day.....i really think the pictures will best convey what its like.
This weekend is the River Thames Festival and they are having a circus!!!! i'm really excited. plus theres going to be swing dancing.....and I think i'm going to the Jane Austen festival with Stefanie. I'm not a huge fan of miss austen but i enjoy a good festival...and stef needs someone to go with her.
Cheers!

2005-09-14T15:49:00.000-07:00

Okay.....so I forgot to put the site for the new picture site, Here it is:
http://photobucket.com/albums/b54/duinlondon3/

go there and partake in photos galore and don't forget about:
http://photobucket.com/albums/b285/duinlondon2/

or:
http://photobucket.com/albums/b324/DUinLondon/

In other random news:
3 Songs that have been in my head and why:
1. Come on Eileen by Dexy's Midnight Runners Why: Because walking back from the Globe last night there were some very drunk girls with very little clothes on getting out of a limo singing it...needless to say, we sang it all the way home....and i had to explain it's meaning to stefanie.

2. Careless Whisper by George Michael Why: There was a girl with a guitar at Canterbury that sang it.....both times I saw her she was singing it.....and these times were quite a bit spaced out but not enough to justify it being sung/played again. Oh george michael...you sound so serious when being played on accoustic guitar.

3. You can ring my bell by I don't remember Why: Allison was singing it as we got off the train and it's been in my head ever since...i have infected everyone who has come within a 3 feet radius of me with my singing of it. Catchiest Song EVER!!!!

Thats it
Cheers!

2005-09-14T15:03:00.000-07:00

Well hello....few random notes first and then what i've been up to:
-I forgot to tell you about the pirate Stefanie and I encountered in Brighton. We were walking down the sidewalk and there was a gentleman with an eye patch wearing a robe. Stefanie and I were very confused until we walked on further and discovered: The Nude Beach. Yes that's right, said pirate was departing from swimming in buff. There are pictures of me at the beach (no not that kind!!! I'm fully clothed thank you very much!) Actually...there's only one of me and the rest are of the signage that accompanied such a place.
-Speaking of pictures, I apparently have been taking a lot. So much that I filled up another photobucket album and have since started a new one....at least I'll have a lot to remember this trip by. So you need to see the ones i added today to photobucket 2 and the new album at:

To see what i've been up to.
-Speaking of other things that involve people that read this (katie kinney and my mom most specifically) but really anyone who wants to leave me a comment...i fixed it so you should be able to post a comment on this without having to jump through the hoops of setting up an account and what not...go ahead....try it......i dare you....leave me a comment. Someday i'm going to do a comment roll call to see who's actually reading this....something to the effect of: if you read this leave me a comment so I know you exist....someday.

Finally: The part that I'm sure keeps you guys up in anticipation, wondering what I happened to do today (sorry...i've become quite smarmy here...don't know why). Anyways. This morning, there was a mad dash to get ready, get on the tube and meet up with everyone at Charing Cross station to go on our trip. Just a note: Charing Cross is kind of a big station and there are lots of entrances and exits and this task of finding everyone was kind of hard. Needless to say: we were a little (ten minutes) late. no worries, we hopped on the National Rail and were on our way to Canterbury. Once getting to the fine town of Canterbury we were let loose to wander the city for an hour, and wander I did. Me, stef and Allison our chaperone (who's only a year older than us and super rad) wandered around and enjoyed Pasties ( i love 'em) and Crepes (which rivaled my mothers, but only because they were chocked full of Nutella and Bananas and you can't mess with Nutella....) We found some cute little shops and wandered around the streets....Then we met every body and moved onto the cathedral. This place was beautiful. I still think westminster abbey had it beat, but this place has quite the history. A history which we learned about from a video complete with lots of pillaging and burning scenes. After that we met up with our tour guide (i'm convinced that the only tour guides that exist in England are either scholarly old gentlemen or sweet little old ladies) Ours fell into the former category. he even had a cane. This he had because his knee got hit with shrapnel from a bonfire last week...the details were shady. Anyway we took a tour that lasted about 2 hours wrapping all around the cathedral, each stop sitting down (which was nice, because i have a tendency to get faint in churches...I most certainly did at Westminster). It was really cool seeing the transition from Norman to Gothic architecture as well as going into the crypt and seeing where Thomas Beckett was murdered. The memorial is quite striking with its deadly looking swords and what not. We also saw the black prince's tomb...again..what is it with Cathedrals being full of dead people?!? Anyway, it was lots of good fun. Afterwards we had more time to kill around town so more shopping..this time vintage shops. After that we had to wait for all these people and almost missed our train. Good thing we didn't because i think that it was quite possibly one of the most hilarious rides ever.

The Train:
So we finally get onto the train going back to London and all seems well and good. Allison and I are sitting in this seat when all of a sudden this little British boy asks: are you American? and we're like yes. Are you from Chicago? welll kind of.... (i've just been saying i'm from Chicago because it's a whole lot easier than trying to explain where I'm actually from to someone who has no idea about AMerica, even those that do know it struggle with where i live) This cheeky little boy had some of the cutest insights about America, he said he wanted an American Accenct until we told him that Americans want british accents and that if he ever came to America he would be swarmed by girls (he liked this a lot!!) Then he was asking where he should go, then he asked where he could find girls with big boobs!!!! This boy was only 13!!! It was crazy. Sitting by him was this very attractive Mancunian (as in from Manchester...) who was like, oh you're American...i'm afraid of Americans... To which I replied "okay David Bowie" That thoroughly impressed him that I was down with the former Ziggy Stardust.....He was talking about all of the places that he lived and what not and was a very nice young boy who runs a bar in Manchester. I'll have to look him up while i'm there....
After that, things had settled down abit until the girls in front of us starting screaming and jumping out of their seats...apparently there had been a bee...a big bumble bee...all of us jumped around trying to kill it much to the delight of the Britons in the carriage with us. They kept saying "good sport!!!"and what not.....i do believe i heard a "jolly good" in there somewhere. After that i kind of fell asleep sprawled out over three seats and awoke with a backpack print in my cheek...oh well.

After that it was decided that we should see a show. I was too late to go see "The Tempest" alas...another time. So we decided to go see Stomp! I've always wanted to go, what with me being a percussionist all those years and what not. We got really cheap and really good standby seats (like 4th row) IT WAS AMAZING!!!! Really, i mean i could go on and on about how fun it was. I just wanted to tget out of my seat and dance but I was too in awe of what they were doing with household objects......it was mad crazy. On the way home, stefanie and I annoyed Joe and Lail with our recreation of everything we saw, complete with lots of stamping, clapping and snapping. We're going to put something together for the talent show 2nd semester at DU...its going to be called Steph(f)omp...get it? combining our names? We could just refer to ourselves as the Stephanies....thats what everyone else does..... Anyway Stomp= Greatness!!!!! It was a percussion dream come true.

Tomorrow: Kew Gardens, and possibly the Sherlock Holmes museum.
Monday: I'm off to Scotland!!!!!

2005-09-13T15:22:00.000-07:00

Well I have just returned from being a groundling at The Globe. Seriously, it was like a theatre dream come true. I mean, anyone who's involved with theatre has to have a reverence for that place (even if this one is just a reproduction). Despite the having to stand through 3 hours of the Bard's words, the experience was amazing. Half of our group left 20 minutes into it and the rest at intermission leaving me and Stefanie and the two military school boys victorious in our battle against fatigue and the Queen's English. It was well worth it. We went to see "A Winter's Tale" and it was amazing. The second half was significantly more entertaining and it certainly had all the workings of a Shakespeare work what with the intrigue, lost children, disguises, and lots of humor. I wish I could have taken pictures, but I would have faced quite a heckling from those onstage (it happened¬ but not to me!). In fact I enjoyed it so much, I think I might go see "The Tempest" there tomorrow...get the good leg exercise and what not....Plus, its the Junior Year Seminar Common Text...so when we discuss it in class I can be all hoity-toity and be like...well when I saw this show at the Globe, you know, the place where Shakespeare intended it to be performed...blah blah blah. That's me, always looking for ways to appear better than everyone else....hehe.
Tomorrow prior to my possible Globe Trotting (get it...its the Globe Theatre....hahaha....) We're meeting bright and early...that could serve to be a bit tricky...to take a Train to Canterbury and see Thomas a Beckett.....or at least see where he was martyred.....something everyone wants to do. So I guess tomorrow I'm making a medieval-esque pilgrimage...maybe I can pick up some indulgences on the way...Perhaps after this, Chaucer can write some tales about my adventures...in Olde English or something to that effect.
Well it is off to home where Stefanie and I shall indulge (haha..indulgences...) in some tea (PG Tips.....with milk and sugar...huzzah!!) and some of our lovely discovery known as Jaffa Cakes, they're cheap, they;re good, and they are the perfect compliment to tea.
That last paragraph was to serve as my food paragraph for this entry because it seems that every entry I've made has seemed to had some sort of food focus...seeing as all I've eaten today has been bread, butter, and apples....Jaffa cakes seemed to be the most fitting and exciting. For those of you who don't know. They aren't actually cakes persay...more like little cookies that are semi-spongey. They have a dollop of orange something or other in the center and then are filled with chocolate. You can buy a box for something like 48p at your local Tesco.
Cheers!

2005-09-13T05:44:00.000-07:00

Hello lovelies!
So yesterday we took a trip on the tube to visit another American university over here in London. Ithaca College has a center, much like the one Dominican is studying at, basically a really nice old town house or something converted to a school....it makes for a comfortable atmosphere, and lots of stairs....lots of narrow little stairs....I'm getting quite adept as not taking up as much space as I used to. It's really a necessary skill here because everythings about 3/4 the size of their american counterparts. No complaining here though, they are just being more efficient with their space....Rock on England.
The reasoning for going to Ithaca College in London? For a lovely lecture on a mass amount of British History in a small amount of time. I learned all about the different invading groups of England, then all about the world of england and its rulers from 1066 (the last successful invasion) to 1215 (the signing of the Magna Carta).....good times.
We also got to meet 3 people that will kind of be piggybacking on a lot of the Dominican programs. Two of them go to Norrich (or something to that effect) College, a military school, and one of them goes to Illinois College, she's originally from Fulton and now lives in Byron so she and I were talking Quad Cities.....yay!! Not even Dominican people (other than Davenport Grant) know about the QCA.
After that, we did some grocery shopping, I love Tesco!!! Made some dinner and got ready for the fun of the Wine and Cheese party that the girl's triple was hosting. Stefanie and I brought White Stilton with Apricots and Brie, I know, we're high class. After that a handful of us went to a couple pubs where we met some Aussies, a guy from Mozambique/Toledo, Ohio, and some transplanted Americans. You'd be suprised how hard it is to actually meet Londoners. After that we went dancing in Leiscester Square. All in all a good night.
This morning, I woke up a little late and had half an hour to get ready and be at FSU. Once getting here (and not having any laundry, because its all in the wash right now!) I found I was the first person here, and I was right on time...crazy tardy Dominicans. Anyway, we watched "A Lion in Winter" and called it a day. Tonight: "A Winter's Tale" (i know...so much Winter!!!) at the Globe Theatre. We're in the pit, so it should be interesting....like a rock concert but with shakespeare. Well...i'm going to go now.....so much to do in the fine city.
Hope you guys are enjoying reading this as much as I enjoying doing all of the stuff and then writing about it.

2005-09-12T05:30:00.000-07:00

Well here we go again....My second day of real London classes, I'm just chilling in the computer lab waiting for class to start, and thought I would update you on the spectacular time I had yesterday (but really, isn't every day I've had here spectacular? I think so...) So yesterday, Stefanie and I decided to leave the city of London for a little excursion to Brighton. Brighton is like a little seaside resortish town...so we thought it might be fun. Our main reason for going was the Royal Pavilion, this extravagant (if not at times, tacky) palace built by George IV, he was a little crazy. The outside was an attempt at recreating an Indian palace, but the architect had never actually been to India....Slightly a problem. It was quite gorgeous though on the outside. The inside however was done up in a Chinese motif. Although the interior decorator had never been to china. It was quite hilarious...but seriously stunning at points. The banqueting hall had a massive 9 m high, ton weighing glass chandelier that was suspended by this huge dragon. The whole place is most certainly a site to see. Afterwards we had a delightful tea in the tea room of the pavilion and got suprised because they were running a special- so it was on sale...go us. After that we walked down to the shore and the Brighton Pier which reaked of carnival atmosphere....we had a good round on the bumper cars (which had their steering wheels on the reverse side!!!) and then walked along the beach. It was kind of gray and cloudy out so we didn't go swimming but we did dip our feet in, just to say we did. The whole beach is made of rocks, not sand, so that was really weird. After that we started walking towards the Brighton Marina when we noticed that there were quite a lot of motorcycles. Apparently there was some sort of motorcycle festival going on....the highlight of which (for me at least) was the motorcycle hearse and the pastor who drove it!!! (he also does weddings in case you're wondering). We talked to him for a bit and got our pictures riding on the bike (not sitting in the hearse side car). He told me to save up my money so that when I die, he can take his bike over to America and drive me (i know....kind of a morbid thought) More walking and lots of lamenting over how early everything closes down.....especially on a sunday. After getting some chips (as in fries..) we decided to walk back, not before checking out the pavilion at night. Getting back to the Brighton station we found we had to wait and then we decided to get back on another train...good thing too, because as we were transferring onto the tube, there came an announcement that that was the last tube leaving out of that station....but then we had to transfer, only to find that the connecting station had already closed down for the night, so we had our first taxi ride in london.... not too bad. After another deliriously hilarious night, I fell asleep watching Baseball. Apparently all the channels play some sport or another after 1 AM. I was happy to come across MLB...even though we concluded that it was a really old game that they were just showing a tape of. Oh well...it was American. And I discovered my favorite baseball player: Coco Crisp. Go him. Well thats it for today. Check for uploaded pictures of this excursion soon¬

2005-09-10T16:35:00.000-07:00

Random observations about London: Not to be whining at all, just casual observations on the differences.
-The speedof light must be slower, because everytime I flip a light switch it takes 5 minutes for the light to appear.
-Their keyboards are different....and its going to screw me up
-You know you're in England when: the spell check on word underlines "color" and makes you replace it with "colour"
-The Tube: so much more efficient than the El
-Come on guys.....the three prong plugs??? Ridiculous
-Theatre=Amazing!!!
-There is no such thing as a rainy day....maybe a few hours where it rains, but then clears up....not so much an entire day
-I know its just the nature of my trip, but I have cards for everything: Membership cards for FSU and ISH, Cards for the tube and bus, cards for National Rail, my ISIC card, Cards with people's numbers on them, cards for restaurants and coffee shops, cards galore!!!! I don't have enough pockets for all of them in my hanging wallet.....its card overflow!!! Pretty soon I'm getting my oystercard too!
-Addition of my list of american things to send me in a package: Ice Cube Tray!!! I like cold drinks....they do not.
-Another addition to the food list: Grape Jelly, I had a hankerin' for it today.
-Sometimes they are left side domininant, but the sidewalk is a free-for-all of direction.
-The city makes you paranoid of pickpockets, i'm so over protective about it, I protest everytime someone bumps into me because I think that they are trying to pick pocket me.

Thats all for now...Ta!

2005-09-10T14:59:00.000-07:00

Okay.....In an attempt to break up the length of my entry i have decided to make a part 2. Where I describe what I did today, because, frankly I did a lot and if I tried to tack it onto the other post, it would have been epic. So today. After playing the snooze game again....stefanie and I like our sleep, we woke up, took a shower and got ready. We watched some more "top of the pops" and decided to head out for our adventures. Today was going to be deemed: Market Day.
We decided to hit the Borough Market and the Portobello Road Market...who knew what adventures would lie between!
We took the tube to the Borough market, all the way across the Thames. The market was amazing!!! it's been around since 1756 and there was so much, I didn't know what to do. Everywhere there were delicious morsels such as cheese, bread, wine, fruit, dessert, meat, seafood, any kind of food you could imagine (as long as it was fresh!). Stefanie and I bought some cheese, bread and juice for our flat and then bought ourselves chicken burgers for lunch.... covered in hot mustard, salad greens...and salsa! it was so so so good though. After that, and after the rain that had started (its okay, its a covered market.) ended, we decided to take our spoils back to the flat. Speaking of spoils, in between rounds through all of the stalls at the market (and all of the delicious samples!!! mmmmmmm). Stefanie and I happened upon the Golden Hinde. That good folks was Sir Francis Drake's ship. for £3 we got to go on and play pirates. There was much swashbuckling to be done and many fun pictures to be taken. At one point I crawled out of a hole on a cannon to take a picture from the outside of the ship. Speaking of pictures....I filled up the first album on photobucket. Look at the first one for a few new pictures as well as at:
http://photobucket.com/albums/b285/duinlondon2/
There are many fun pirate-esque pictures as well as pictures of the Winchester cathedral that we also happened upon.
After our flat we took to the Portobello road market. The largest market in London. It was HUGE! and they do this every saturday! There were clothes, food, antiques, anything you could think of....it was awesome.
In case you don't know Portobello road market is set in an adorable little neighborhood known as Notting Hill. As you may know there was also a movie of the same name. So post market, Stefanie and I set out on a quest for things we could recognize from the movie. We found: The Travel Book Shop (Hugh Grant's place of employment), The coffee shop where Hugh buys an orange juice that he spills on Julia Roberts, and the park that they break into. Pictures were taken....it was quite a lovely adventure.
After that, we went to Cafe Nerro, a little coffee shop and sucked down Ice Mochas and did homework. Stefanie worked on her outline and I finished off Great Expectations...it was actually really really good. Way to go Dickens!
That brings me to now where I'm burning picture cds and what not. Tomorrow: Its off to Brighton to frolic on the beach and eat candy floss and check out the Royal Pavilion. All right. I'm off!

2005-09-10T14:09:00.000-07:00

Sooo....i'm sure you all have been waiting in anticipation (again, I always address this crazy audience that I'm not sure even exists...) as to what I did Thursday. If you survived the Bible of an entry I made last time, you know that I was leaving you all hanging as to my fun adventures... I will try and make this entry a tad shorter and more digestable (although I have to admit that there will again be mention of food...sorry in advance!)
Anyway, Thursday began as most of our days have began...with me and Stefanie having a battle of the snooze button and getting up later than we usually plan to. After getting up, getting a bite to eat and doing a little bit of shopping we met up with the crew at the FSU centre (pretty much base of operations for everything we do). From here we hopped on our friend the tube and rode out to meet up with Anton Powell. Quite a distinguished British professor if I do say so. Dominican hires him to come down/over from Wales to give us (just us!) a walking tour of London. He is a professor of Greek and Roman history and his tour around London showed us all of the old evidence of Londinium and ended at the Museum of London where we saw the oldest use of the name London and the coin that helped archeologists determine how old there has been a settlement in London of some sorts. Seeing these ruins really gave me an appreciation of how much older of a city and a country this is as opposed to our thoroughly modern country that I normally call my home. Theres that whole appreciation of a different culture that study abroad is supposed to instill.
During this tour it was decided that we should see a play later that night. Allison, our kick butt coordinator said that she would take me, Stefanie, and Nekesa to the half price ticket booth in Leicester Square to go get tickets to "As you like it" starring Sienna Miller because it was closing next week. On the bus ride over there, Ryan, our director calls and says that he has extra tickets to the show....3 to be exact. So, we got to go for free. Since we had time to spare and we were uber hungry, we decided to gorge ourselves at Pizza Hut with copious amounts of greasy food (but we did have fondue there AND I got to eat marshmallows which made my day...) Anyway, back to the show Not only did it star mrs. jude law, it more importantly starred Dominic West, you might remember him from "Mona Lisa's Smile" and "Midsummer Nights Dream" Anyway....he's super dreamy. The show was awesomely hilarious, and I remembered why I love Shakespeare so darn much (Hence me being a theatre major I guess....) Anyway...
Afterwards we were standing around waiting for stefanie to go to the bathroom when I noticed across from me:Papparazzi!!! So I decided that I was going to be ironic and funny and take a picture of them. I don't know if they were joking with me or what not, but they returned the favor and took a picture of me (thats right, the papparazzi took a picture of me!!) They were waiting for sienna miller to come out. All of a sudden, there was a huge rush as she ran out of the front of the theatre and hopped into a car and sped away. The papparazzi was trying to get into the car with her! it was crazy! After that we decided to linger outside of the stage door and meet various people as they came out.....no major stars...but some HOT ones! (see my photo album!) It was so much fun. Stefanie and I were so hyper the whole night. We went back to FSU to check our e-mail (our nightly custom) and were having fun meeting people in the computer lab. After that we went back to our flat and had a giggly good time.

UNTIL.....
Two of the people that are on our trip knocked on our door (it was 2 am) and said that they think someone broke into their apartment while they were gone and wanted us to go into the room with them. I threw on a sweatshirt and some shoes and went with them. On the way I grabbed a fire extinguisher (it seemed a likely weapon......if the occaision should require one.) We walked into their room....well actually they unlocked it and then I kicked it open cop movie style. To find their window open and their blinds messed up (they live in the basement). Upon making sure the room was clear of people, the damage was assessed. It turns out that 2 digital cameras and a wallet were stolen and there was a huge muddy footprint on the bed. There were many tears shed. It was really a scary moment for everyone. I feel very lucky and fortunate that Stefanie and I have a room on the 3rd floor. Nevertheless we lock our window anyway (that was the problem....their room's window lock was broke). Stefanie and I stayed up with them while they waited for the police and the housing people. We dealt with problems the british way, that is...made a cup of tea. Despite the circumstances, there were some good conversations had by everyone involved as we waited. Finally at 4 or 5 am, Stefanie and I went to bed, but offered the two girls our room to crash in so that they could be safe for the night. In the morning we woke up to them bringing us breakfast in thanks...and flowers to brighten up our room. Needless to say, due to the lack of sleep, Stefanie and I didn't go Brighton on Friday like we planned.
Instead I slept in, got a stomach ache from the grease fest and the late hours and read a sizeable portion of "Great Expectation" 2/3 to be exact.
This entry is long, so i'm going to cut it short and inform you of today's events in another entry.

2005-09-09T01:08:00.000-07:00

hello all!!! Everything is still going smashing here in the UK (they keep talking about how we're all in the 'honeymoon' phase of homesickness and what not but I feel I'll never come out of that stage!) It seems that I'm able to pack so much more into one day than I do at DU.....thats going to make for a nice transition come December. Anyway, you don't read this to hear about my homesickness or lack there of (although, everyonce in awhile I miss talking to my mom! and its so darn expensive) So I shall continue with the play by play on what I've done. Let me tell you , this is hard for me to do because we cram soooo much into one day that its hard to remember what day we did what. This will certainly come in handy later, once alzheimer's sets in or something like that.
Tuesday morning I had a meeting with Ryan, the London director where we talked about questions I had (most of which were actually about cricket...a sport I'm trying to understand because of all the hype on the Ashes and what not) After that I decided to explore the city so I wandered around for a bit first going to the British museum which is right down the street from school. That Place is HUGE!!!!! I was only able to do 2 sections of it...the enlightenment and the egypt section. I got to see the actual Rosetta stone...>THE rosetta stone. I also got to see all sorts of egyptian statues and mummies, quite cool. I really used to be into that stuff around 6th grade so it was really cool to see all of the stuff that I saw in books in real life. After that I had lunch in the pub across the street with some friends and had quite an experience. So, when I went up to the bar to order I noticed that they had this beer on tap that my mom had suggested called: Old Peculiar. As is customary in this country, I decided that I was going to have a Pub lunch with a pint (i know....its really strange!!!) when I ordered that drink, the bartender looked at me and asked me if I've ever had one. I hadn't so he asked me if I'd like to try it first....I did and then he goes, that's the strongest one we've got!!! Needless to say it was a pintless lunch. And this is from my mum who says to stay away from the cider because it's for soccer hooligans!
After that, I went on what I like to call: The Quest for the Cookie.
I was fancying a cookie post my meal of jacket potatoes covered in chili (chili-now there is a thing they do MUCH differently, jacket potatoes are pretty much a baked potato by the way). So I decided to go for a walk, determined on finding a little bakery or something to satisfy my cookie jonesin'. I walked all the way to Covent Garden (probably my favorite spot in the city). Along the way I walked down all of these small little side streets discovering the beauty and charm of the city and seeing what sort of goodies awaited me around each corner. Leah, you'll be pleased to know that there is a MAC store here in London and I now know where it is...more reason for you to visit..... Anyway, I'm in Covent Garden now, watching the same street performer who was here the day before riding atop a 10 ft unicycle juggling a pin, an apple and a machete (quite a feat, let me tell you!). Anyway upon wandering, I discover the answer to my prayers....a cookie mecca if you will. Tucked away in a corner of one of the markets is: Ben's Cookies!! It's a very tiny store, but they pack a punch! I got the milk chocolate cookie, which was like a chocolate chip cookie which contained a melted milk chocolate core!! It was amazing! and most certainly filled that cookie void in my stomach...and my heart!
After that we had a lecture for three hours in this really small, dark room.....it was quite a battle to stay awake post cookie nirvana, but I managed AND I managed to learn quite a bit about British architecture. I would like to thank my Theatre History for providing me with quite the background on it as well, I actually recognized names and places from the slides that accompanied this lecture (see mom and dad? the education that I'm getting IS applicable to daily life.....in London....)
After the lecture we all went to see the play, "The U.N. Inspector" at the National Theatre. On the way there I just happened to walk through Covent Garden again (it really is my favorite place) This time on the hunt for dinner. I happened by: The West Cornwall Pasty Co. where they sell: Pasties!! that delectable cornish treat. Now...my only experience with pasties was in Alaska when kyle and I made post Thanksgiving pasties with leftovers which were quite delicious and quite warming and filling for those cold alaskan nights. Here in London I had a Chicken Balty (Indian food) pasty which was delicious! It kept full all through the play that was full of social commentary and that ever lovable British sense of humor. The play was a loose adaptation of the play "the government inspector" by Gobel.....check it out. More wandering around followed the play.
The next morning we all met up to take a walk (we do quite a bit of that!!!) to the International Student House (we call it the ISH). This is a place where students from all over the world can convene and they have a gym and a bar and a coffee shop and a little shop that sells food from around the world (in case you're feeling homesick and want some 'real' food) For us Yanks they had Oreos and Jif Peanut butter, two rarities on the UK front. If anyone would like to send a care package...it could contain the following items (this is by no means a hint.....welll actually it might be.):
Marshmallows
Graham Crackers (so i can make s'mores)
Jif peanut butter
Chewing Gum
Thats about it....the British do some of our food quite differently (don't get me started on the Milkshake I had the other day.....) but I'm adjusting to that quite nicely. I think it was the abundance of s'mores materials this summer that has caused the longing for them now when I can't have them....oh well. Any way, the ISH was a really awesome place, they put on different events and also plan trips to go on...definately a good resource (plus they have a massage therapist who does cheap deep tissue massage, which would feel nice after all of this walking!!!).
After the ISH house we all skedaddled out of there to go to Wagamama...this amazing Japanese noodle bar (Time out....i just realized that I sure do talk about food a whole lot on here.....I really do more than eat...its just that the food is so good here. And I don't eat out all the time....I promise, really I live off of french bread and butter (the danish kind mom that we have at home...except the spreadable version!!!) I apologize for all the food comments guys!) Anyway, us being the thrifty students that we are, went to Wagamama with 2 for 1 coupons that we got from the magazine Time Out....go saving money...food was really good! After that I had my first real london public transit experience on a double decker bus. We were riding out to Westminster Abbey. I would just like to say, that that place is full of dead people!!!!! You can't walk without stepping on someone's grave...seriously! there are 3000 people buried beneath the church in its vaults...and I don;t think that counts the tombs that are above ground.......creepy!!!! It is a beautiful church however..>AMAZING actually. Its so big and so old. Lovely. I also got to see poet's corner and really a ton of famous people's graves. PS: Chaucer was a very very very short man....I saw his tomb. After that I had my second London public transit system experience getting to ride the tube......It's like the EL+ On the first line that we got on (which happened to be the wrong one...oh well) there was a group of people playing instruments....a mandolin and a violin to be exact....and they were playing irish music. I wish it wasn't the wrong train so I could have stayed to listen. The destination our of tube ride: Notting Hill and Portobello Road. I really think this trip was inspired by A. Trying to find the Travel Book Shop from the movie 'Notting Hill' and B. the movie 'Bedknobs and Broomsticks' (Theres a song about portobello road). We got there at the tail end of the market but we did find some pretty groovy (do people still use that word?) retro clothing stores as well as some super cheap stores to buy all sorts of wares....there will most certainly be some return trips to that spot. The night was finished off with some (of course) delicious food at this cute little mediterranean restaurant where I had some spinach, feta, and olive pizza/pita.....
After that we went to Tesco to pick up some stuff for our flat (yay toilet paper!!) and then called it a night.
Well I really want to tell you about what I did today, but......this is super long and I'm starting to get tired, so you know what? It will just have to wait, it'll be suspenseful....Tomorrow the roomie (or flattie??) and I are going to hop onto a train and go to Brighton to partake in its lovely beaches (yeah, thats right, no school on Fridays!!!!). I will update you all later!!!
God Bless!!!

2005-09-06T02:52:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went on a cruise of sorts down the Thames river where we got to see everything that is along that river, and let me tell you...thats a lot! We saw the Tower of London, the Globe, the Eye of London, Big Ben, London Bridge, all sorts of bridges to be exact. It was a ton of fun and the guides that we had (who weren't actually guides, but crewmen on the ship) were hilarious. Definately gave me a taste of and appreciation for the British sense of humor.
Today I'm experiencing traditional London weather.....foggy and spitting rain. I guess we were quite lucky those first few days when we had a bit of sunshine.
On today's agenda: I'm going to wander around this grey city for awhile, make some purchases, eat some lunch and then we are having a lecture on British buildings and what not....
Tonight: My first taste of British Theatre!!!!!! We're going to the National Theatre to see "The U.N. Inspector" Should be good times~ well I am off....enjoy your days!

2005-09-05T14:11:00.000-07:00

All right...after an exhausting time uploading photos to the internet (for some reason when I was typing/thinking that I was talking in a scottish accent in my head.....weird...) Anyway without further ado....there is a whole lot of picture of my adventures (not captioned or anything yet) located here:
http://photobucket.com/albums/b324/DUinLondon/
Go there...and see what all the hype is about.

2005-09-05T13:29:00.000-07:00

So the thought crossed my mind that you all (i'm really writing to an invisible audience aren't I?) might want to make yourselves visible by sending me some mail....You could also leave a comment on here so that I know someone reads this thing and I'm not just typing for my health. Anyway....any mail (not packages, just mail....) can be sent to:
My Name
Janet Poole House
105 Gower St
London WC1
United Kingdom

If you wish to talk to me live you can call my mobile phone that number is:
7914216877 you have do the international dialing code....44 before calling

Packages can be sent to:
My Name
FSU London Study Centre
99 Great Russell Street
London WC1b 3LA
United Kingdom

Care packages are gladly accepted.
Thanks!

2005-09-05T04:08:00.000-07:00

So...as seems to be the theme, I shall tell you about yesterday.
Yesterday was our first full introduction to the city of London. The whole lot of us met up here at the Florida State University center (where I have run into students from Grinnell college...crazy Iowans....) to take a chartered coach tour of the city. The bus was horribly late and it was hot so we started our tour on the sidewalk. Our tour guide Suze was the most delightful yet sassy woman. She is what I imagine when I think of an English grandmother. She was incredibly well versed in the city of London and offered all sorts of tidbits as to what to eat (and what NOT to eat) as well as where to go and the history of the like. She did not tolerate people talking whilst she was talking to us, she also was quite politically savvy and gave us her views on those issues. We did get to go on the Millenium Bridge or the "Wobbly Bridge" (imagine an accent) that was really cool...I saw the Globe theatre. I also saw Big Ben, Westminister Abbey, Buckingham Palace....pretty much the entire city from a tourists view...in one day. I will most definately be returning to visit those spots.
Once returning, Stefanie and I made dinner....well Stefanie cooked while I went out to go and try to buy more groceries. Emphasis on try. Here in England, groceries stores close at 6 on Sundays. Crazy Brits!!!! The spaghetti was delicious however despite the lack of french bread.
After the movie, Stefanie and I watched some British TV (Top of the Pops!) and then came back down to the FSU center to watch Notting Hill in their lecture theatre. Seriously, I got so much more of that movie after having lived here only 3 days.
After that we walked on home to try and go to bed early only to discover that one of my all time favorite movies, Gattaca was just starting on the TV. One note about British television:I could never feel homesick because there is so much American programming on the TV. This morning I watched Will and Grace and Futurama. Thats right, that was their early morning programming. Another bonus of brit TV.....less commercials. In the movie last night there were only 4 commercial breaks for the whole thing....that I can live with.
This morning we had more orientation and what not and talked about housing and safety....pickpockets are everywhere! or so i am led to believe. better safe than sorry though right luv? Currently I'm on lunch break. I'm going to head over to my local grocer: TESCO! (my good friend David used to work there!) to pick up some lunch. Then today we are going on a cruise type tour of the city...oh to be a tourist, how I love it!! Be forewarned that there will be some massive photo postage coming up.....
Well, I'm off like a dirty shirt, talk to you later!

2005-09-04T14:28:00.000-07:00

Okay....since I left you hanging on what i did yesterday....I shall now fill you in on what I did. Due to jetlag or something or other (i assure you it was not the drinking, because Stefanie my roommate slept longer than I did! and she didn't have a drop) Stefanie and I woke up at 4pm. Yes thats right.....4 in the afternoon. Our first full day in London and we sleep through most of it. Shame on us. Really though, I think we needed it. Everyone in the entire group woke up sometime between 1 and 4 so we didn't feel THAT bad. Crazy jet lag.... Anyway, upon returning from slumberland we decided that since our grocery mission failed the previous night that 4pm was a much more reasonable hour to go grocery shopping. How I love Tesco. A wedge of brie is only £1 so its official...I'm living off of brie and crackers for the remainder of my trip...perhaps I shall throw in a can of sardines..and of course a cuppa or brew (both slangs for tea mind you). Grocery shopping was quite productive but we decided to explore the eating options in our neighborhood. We found a street full of semi-pricey italian and indian restaurants....but i did not feel like shelling over a whole lotta pounds for food....or at least that was the plan. I just happened to sight a Mexican restaurant across the street....thats right mexican in merry olde England....
So yeah....the English...don't do Mexican so well, or so cheap.
Don't get me wrong, the chips and salsa were great. And the Mango, Brie (!) and Jalapeno "quesadilla" was delicious, but totally not filling (four little rolls for £7.50!!!!) Oh well...you live and learn. After that we decided to....explore.
I think originally we were looking/aiming for Piccadilly Circus....which we got to by way of Leiscester Square, Chinatown, Trafalgar Square and the like. It was actually quite a nice little tour of the area. We then tried to walk to Buckingham palace and kind of veered off of our way. Highlights of the whole lost experience: St. Jame's Palace, The Royal Courts of Justice, Walking down Fleet Street while having me sing the entire soundtrack (or at least the title song) of the musical Sweeney Todd (he was the demon barber of fleet...........street, rent the movie), Going into the army/navy club and talking to the man at the desk. Being at Piccadilly at night~gorgeous, going to a pub called "the coal hole", Joe's cigarettes that declared on one side: "SMOKING KILLS" (they are quite direct) and the other side stating "Smoking cigarettes reduces blood pressure and may cause impotence" Best way to sell cigarettes EVER! Sitting at the coal hole was an enjoyable experience, talking about musical tastes and just having a wonderful time. All was great...until:
We tried to get back.
We weren't lost persay, we just didn't know where we were or what direction we were to be headed. We had taken such a wimbly wambly way to get where we were that we didn't know how we got there. Thanks to my fold out map and the London A-Z (pronounced Zed) we eventually found our way back after realizing that we had pretty much done an entire loop around our area of living (we're talking a MASSIVE loop.....with like 5 mile radius) That's right, I got some walking in.
On the way back we got some pizza (our mexican just wasn't that filling) while waiting at the Pizza shop, we got talked to by some Scots (well, one scot and a guy from yorkshire) about American politics and what was wrong with Americans. He was a really nice guy but it was hard explaining to him that not all Americans think the same....definately a good time though.
After pizza, we watched this horribly frightening movie on the BBC called "Fear" it had Reese Witherspoon and Mark Wahlberg in it. Because of that movie, I never want to date someone again...why? because they will turn out to be psycho and try to kill my family!!!!
I shall try to fill you in on today's events tomorrow...because, well tonight...I'm ready to go to bed. tomorrow I start class and I have to be there at 9:30....and I have been having way too many late nights....something about being on a schedule that is 6 hours behind. Well....Cheers all!

2005-09-04T14:18:00.000-07:00

This is the first night. Okay, so it is time for my first real post from here in London. Yes, I know, I had one earlier, but frankly, I figured I could do better than that. Plus that one was on the first day when I hadn't done much besides not sleep and ingest some delicious Greek food (who knew lamb was such a big thing...) Now however I have done quite a bit....well a bit. Friday we moved into our flats after getting picked up at the airport...I live on what they call the 2nd floor, which we actually call the 3rd floor...and there are no elevators...or lifts as the brits refer to them. It was quite an experience hauling a 71 lb. suitcase up three flights of the narrowest stairs possible...oh well...I still had my "I worked in a horse barn hauling saddles for a week" muscles....so I was all right. After settling in and what not and buying phones and what not (my mobile number shall be posted later) we all decided to hit our first pub. Located conveniently 'round the block is the Marlborough Arms, a charming little pub. Stefanie (my roommate who is a bit confused as to the correct spelling of her name) and I were a tad late because we fell asleep and everyone left, a common theme as you shall discover. Anyway...upon bellying up to the bar, I found it time to order my first English drink. What did I pick you ask? Well...unlike my cohorts who were sucking down budweisers and guinesses (safe choices I guess for a Yank...) I decided to order a Cider. I know mom, you told me not to. But upon returning to the table with my delicious apple concoction, I started a trend. For the rest of the night, all the ladies ordered Cider....thats right...the Cider House Rules. Once 11pm rolled around and last call at this particular establishment was rang by bell we moved on to another pub (or this one might have been a bar) called the Pint Pot. Two more Ciders (and one dropped on my foot by someone on the trip) and we called it a night. Upon exiting, I had a sudden urge to go grocery shopping...at 1 AM. But oh Tesco...why must you not keep late night hours??? Oh well....a nice walk down Tottenham Court Road found me and my companions lots of people milling about and best of all....CURRY!!! I had my first English Curry, a moment I was looking forward to. It came in a container much like gladware which was half full of rice and the other half filled with that delicious spicey treat. To top it off I had an Apple Tango soda (thats right, apple pop) which whilst i was walking down the london streets balancing it on my head got knocked off by a cheeky brit (don't worry, his friend apologized for his actions) Once we returned to the action at the flat, we watched an episode of Desperate Housewives....thats right, I've never watched the show in the States but...there's quite a bit of American influence on British TV. The other day I watched the Addams Family Reunion. Good times. Well I'm off to take a Bus tour of the city now. later on I'll tell you about getting lost in the city last night......FUN times. Cheeers!

2005-08-29T11:39:00.000-07:00

Today I woke up and decided I was devoting the day to getting ready. I woke up and read a chapter of one of the books I was supposed to read. So far so good on my plan....then I called the Boone Wal-Mart Pharmacy about my prescription and getting it transfered over. Again, I'm on track. Then I went at got more clothes that I should pack (or at least i think i should pack). After that I made some tea (my idea of getting ready...) and it all went downhill from there. I turned on the TV to take a break and then wandered over to the computer to check my email. Lo and behold its 11:35 and I have things I need to get done, but...here I am. NOT packing. Eegads!
Today is me going to the bank and the Geneseo Wal-Mart Pharmacy day....post lunch and post me trying to pack more.
I did decide today that I'm going to write a book about the process of getting ready for a study abroad trip. Any input from past abroaders would be awesome.
Plan of action for right now: Watch Jeopardy re-runs (good ol' Ken Jennings), eat some food, pack, read a chapter of a book and then go about my errands, then do some more packing and continue the process.....pictures of the whole thing coming soon.

2005-08-27T10:01:00.000-07:00

Okay....so heres the scoop. In exactly 5 days I'll be hopping on an airplane and venturing off to a foreign country where I'm going to live for 3 months! Well....three months and a week to be exact. Luckily, the country is England, where they speak English...just like me. Except that the toilet is the loo, eggplants are aubergines, and a rubber is an eraser. Those crazy brits....
Anyway, this is my first time abroad, this is my first time outside of the country, other than that one time that I went to Mexico when I was like 6 and made the mistake of drinking an Ice Tea (thinking.....I know I'm not supposed to drink the water...but ice tea isn't water) Silly me...it all ended with me throwing up in the Alamo parking lot once we got back on the state side. But I digress....England!! That's where I'm going.
Here's the low down: I've been gone from home this entire summer, thus I must cram a summer's worth of packing and prep work into 5 short days, whilst saying goodbye to all of my friends. It's fun, let me tell you. My idea of prep work: sitting around, watching shows where the host is British, drinking tea (PG tips with Milk and Sugar), talking to David (my houseguest who hails from the land of kings and queens see the picture above..), and spending large amounts of money on clothes and things I need. That and agonizing over all the schoolwork (ie reading 4 books and writing a report on Shakespeare) that I should be doing right now. Packing right now consists of me finding every article of clothing I own and throwing it on my living room floor. I also decided to clean out my purse on said living room floor, creating a nice moat of stuff around the coffee table. My mom loves me right now....she keeps mentioning how nice and clean the house was whilst I was away at camp all summer.]
So....why the blog you may ask?? Because everyone I know that knows I'm doing this (going abroad that is...) has asked me to keep in touch and let them know what I was up to. Maybe this is a cop out on my part, but I've decided that it would just be way easier if I set this up as sort of a journal of what I'm up to on the spot...plus I can upload pictures so you all can remember what I look like...and see some of the british sites that I get to experience. SO....enjoy this as much as I hope I enjoy London.
Goodbye and God Bless

2005-08-27T07:43:00.000-07:00

Me and my "British Tutor" David the Manc