Hello everybody!
The last few days have been pretty eventful so I have quite a bit to talk about on this post. First of all, Sunday night we went to the Thames Festival, which was being held on the banks of the Thames River. It was a Saturday-Sunday event but we opted to just go Sunday night to the Night Carnival and fireworks. The Night Carnival wasn't actually a carnival- it was actually a parade with really elaborate, unique costumes, dancers and masqureaders! Most of the floats and dancers were glowing in the dark with lights or paint. I'd never seen anything like it before- here is a website with a description and pictures because it is kind of hard to describe:
http://www.thamesfestival.org/weekend/detail/night_procession/
Catey, Anna, Jess, Cassie, Kelsey and I had a lot of fun watching the parade next to the river, which overlooked Big Ben, the London Eye, the House of Parliament and a number of other London landmarks. Following the parade there were some really great fireworks over the river which were very close to us. I don't think i've ever been so close to fireworks before and there were some really loud booming ones since they were literally right over our heads. I love fireworks!
Yesterday in my international marketing class we went to a place in London called Camden Town, which is a huge marketplace (actually made up of 4 different markets). The markets sell pretty much anything you could imagine and there are all kinds of ethnic foods represented. We're doing presentations in our marketing class in a few weeks and each group is presenting on a different attraction in London. Camden Town is one of the groups' attraction, so that's why we spent the afternoon there. I saw a lot of things that I would like to get there, but I had just dropped £185 on an FIE sponsored Adventure Weekend in Wales trip (Nov 13-15!) and a ticket to ride the London Eye (on my birthday, Nov 18!!!!). So all I bought was a lemonade and some indian food, and it was delicious! I definitely want to try to get back there sometime before I leave.
Last night there was a welcome reception for all 300 or so FIE students at the International Student House a few stops down on the tube. There was free nibbles, a bar with 2 free drinks per person, a DJ and dancing, free t-shirts and a raffle drawing for trips and money. I went with a couple other girls and we had a great time! Free anything is good, and there was plenty of it! The nibbles were good (basically just appetizer food), and we had fun dancing to old-school middle school dance music. It felt SO much like a middle school dance it was pretty funny. We had to wait in line to get downstairs to the area with a big dance floor, and then people were pretty much hanging out with their groups of friends. The music was from when we were in 7th or 8th grade, and then they turned on disco lights. I was imagining a slow song coming on and people dancing arms length apart from each other, awkwardly turning the opposite direction from the person or talking with their friends. Oh good times!
Today I had just one class- international marketing. Today was also the first day it has rained in the last week and a half that we have been in London. It was rather depressing really, and it made me so sleepy that I took a nap for a good portion of the afternoon. This evening we went to Sainsbury's to buy groceries and then Catey, Jess and I booked a trip to Scotland for the weekend of September 25-27. It is a 3 day guided tour through the Scottish highlands to see Loch Ness and different sights out there. The brochure is a little cheesy with crazy pictures and funny descriptions but it looks like it is going to be so much fun! Here is the website for it:
http://www.haggisadventures.com/Scotland/Skye-High.html
So you're probably thinking that I am crazy. It seems like every post that I write, I have booked another trip- Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Bath and Stonehenge. Well I'm also planning a weekend in Paris and a week long trip to Italy after my program ends. But that will be all as far as weekend trips go! I want to do some day trips to Windsor, the Cotswolds, and maybe a day or two in Amsterdam!
Well I have class at 9 am and it is currently 12:19 am here in the UK so I'm going to hit the sack. Cheerio! :-)
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