Hey everybody! Sorry it's been another few days since my last post. The last couple weeks have been busier for me- it is getting near the end of this 7 week term and the assignments and projects are building up now. The end of next week marks the end of the 3 classes I am currently taking and then for the following 4 weeks I will be taking 1 class (it meets 3 days a week) and going on my last few weekend trips before I return home! It's hard to believe how fast the time has gone by so far!
This last weekend was a lot of fun! Mike came to visit me from home and spent 5 days here in Europe. He flew in from Newark on Thursday morning and left Tuesday morning. It was really good to see a familiar face from home, and we had a great time exploring London and....PARIS! Yes, we went to Paris this weekend! I'm pretty impressed with our ability to plan a 2.5 day trip to another country considering we've been 4000 miles apart the last month and a half, but we did it and it was a fantastic trip! There are so many famous sites we wanted to see in the city so we decided to do a Hop On Hop Off 2 day bus tour of the city (basically, there are buses that run between the 9 most famous sites in London including Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, Champs-Elysses, Trocadero, Musee D'Orsay, Musee du Louvre, Opera, the Grand Palais and Champs de Mars) and we also purchased 2 day unlimited metro passes. Both of these worked out great- we used the bus tour primarily just Saturday and then used the metro passes to get to where the tours started from our hostel. Paris was absolutely beautiful and we both had such a great time! I've heard people say before that Paris is overrated but I didn't think so; all of the famous sites were well worth seeing. My favorites were the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame. Here is an 'itinerary' of Mike's visit:
Thursday:
-Mike arrived at Heathrow around 9 am
-Went to Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens
-Ate lunch at Gloucester Arms pub
-Went to Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, London Eye, Westminster Abbey, walked down the Thames River
-Mike walked around the river area while I took a tour of the National Theatre for one of my classes
-We went to the Globe Theatre to see "Love's Labours Lost" for my Shakespeare class
-Returned back to South Kensington to pack up for Paris
Friday:
-Left around 4 am to take a night bus to St. Pancras International rail station for our eurostar train
-Arrived in Paris at Gare du Nord station about 2.5 hours later
-After a little while of not knowing how to get to our hostel, we bought some maps and headed to Saint Ambroise station to the Hotel Garden (really a hostel)
-We dropped our things off and then headed to Notre Dame, where we toured the inside of the church
-Ate lunch at the Cafe de Quasimodo (ate some quiche lorraine, salad and a crepe!)
-Went back to the hostel to take a nap
-Went out at night to see the Eiffel Tower (it was pouring though so we got soaked!)
-Went to Le Coq for dinner at the Trocadero (ate cockerel casserole for the first time- described as "the cock that crows in the morning"..so basically a rooster?)
-Arc de Triomphe
-Took the metro back to the hostel to sleep
Saturday:
-Went to the Cite metro stop near Notre Dame to go to a patisserie for breakfast (I got a pain du chocolat which was delicious!) and then hopped on the sightseeing bus
-Took the bus to each of the following sites but did not go into the museums: Musee d'Orsay, Opera, Champs Elysees, Grand Palais and Trocadero
-Got off the bus at the Eiffel Tower where we stopped to have lunch! First, the elevator in the tower took us to the second floor where we could get out and walk around and soak up the views. Then we walked down staircases to the first floor of the tower to the restaurant in the Eiffel Tower where we ate lunch. I had a chicken caesar salad, macaroni with asparagus and mushrooms, and Mike got a chilled carrot soup, salmon and vegetables. We both had cheesecake for dessert. The view from our table was looking out over the plaza towards the Trocadero, and the food was great!
-Got back on the bus to go past the Champs de Mars and the Louvre
-Hopped on the metro to Jardins du Luxembourg and the Pantheon- really enjoyed the jardins and seeing Luxembourg palace!
-Went back to the Louvre to see the pyramids
-Went back to the hostel to change into fancier evening clothes and then went to the Champs Elysees for dinner at George V where I had duck and Mike had a burger I believe. Mike paid for the dinner which was really nice of him, and the food was very good. I don't think I remember a bad meal in Paris actually.
-Saw the Eiffel Tower one last time and then returned to our hostel to sleep
Sunday:
-Checked out of the hostel and headed back to Gare du Nord station where we took a train around 10 am back to London
-We arrived back in London around 11:30 am and dropped our things back off at the house I live in
-Ate lunch at High Street Kensington at Balans where I had my first full english breakfast
-Headed to Baker Street to see the Sherlock Holmes museum (didn't actually go on the tour)
-Went to Trafalgar Square, and Leicester Square
-Walked around South Kensington
-Went to Piccadilly Circus at night to walk around and ate a a very good mexican restaurant in Leicester Square
-Went back to SK to sleep
Monday:
-Walked around Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens in the morning, and saw the Peter Pan statue!
-Mike explored the city while I had class from 12-4 and then we met back up to go on a walking tour for my Shakespeare class around Southwark
-Our walking tour ended at the George Inn pub (a historical pub dating back to the early 1600s)
-We took the tube to the Tower of London and then headed back along the south bank of the Thames river to Founders Arms to eat
-Went back to SK to sleep
Tuesday:
-Left SK around 6:30 am to take the tube to the London Heathrow airport
-Dropped Mike off at the terminal 4 station
-Came back to SK for my marketing class
That is a pretty abbreviated version of the weekend but it gives you an idea of the different sites we saw! I definitely recommend Paris to anyone (even Mike preferred Paris over London!) Since he left I've been trying to get some assignments finished and turned in. I have one class today from 1-4 pm and then a theatre performance of "Mother Courage" at the National Theatre tonight for my Contemporary British Theatre class. Two days ago was my roommate Catey's 21st birthday and we went out to celebrate at night for that. That is pretty much all that is new here in London!
I hope everyone is doing well! I'm officially half way finished my study abroad in London- another month and a half to go! I'm looking forward to seeing everyone and being at home, but I will definitely miss London!
Cheers!
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Monday, October 5, 2009
More London Pictures + Stonehenge/Bath
Portobello Road Market
Portobello Road Market
The Roman Baths
The Entrance to Roman Baths
Stonehenge!
Chelsea's Pitch
Chelsea Football Club
Kaila, Kelsey and I in front of the pitch
Chelsea's locker room
At the Press Desk at CFC
Fountain in Trafalgar Square
Tower Green at Tower of London
The building that houses the Crown Jewels
The White Tower (the oldest tower in Tower of London)
The Tower of London at night 
Me with a Yeoman Warder (Beefeater)
Jess and I at Buckingham Palace
St. Paul's Cathedral
Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey again
Big Ben
Piccadilly Circus
Trafalgar SquareThese are some random London pictures from my adventure here so far! I've taken several hundred pictures so it is hard to include them all but I tried to pick some that show places I've been to and some of the people i've been traveling with. I'm going to do another post later with pictures from my daytrip to Brighton, and one with pictures from Scotland!
London Pictures
Entrance to Metrogate House, the building I live in
Metrogate House
Looking down Queens Gate Terrace, the street I live on
Street sign for Queen's Gate Terrace
Catey (my roommate) and I at London Heathrow Airport
Amy, Kelsey, Catey and I (My suitemates)My room
Looking across the Thames River at the London Eye
Us in front of the Tower Bridge at night
Watching the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace
Spending a night out at Imperial College
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Deep Scottish Love (DSL)
Hello everyone!
I'm sorry it's taken a while for me to post about my most recent trip to Scotland last weekend. It was such a busy, fun-filled weekend that I felt a little overwhelmed about trying to type it all up in a blog. I have a lot of really good pictures- about 300 to be exact- from the Scottish Highlands which I wish I could post but I'll have to show you all when I get home. The scenery was just beautiful! Everything was so picturesque with the highlands, mountains and rolling countryside stocked with sheep, cows and hairy coos. (Obviously I was very excited about the cows because I LOVE cows!) This was also my first multi-day tour with tour guides and a set itinerary. It was a neat experience and I would definitely try a tour like this again sometime. While there were some times where I wished we had been able to stay longer, we fit a lot into 3 days and I think it was the best way to get a good overview of Scotland. The last night we were there (Sunday night) we spent a few hours in Edinburgh before boarding our coach bus back to London Victoria Station. While it was cheaper than a train or plane, 9 hours each way on a coach bus is extremely uncomfortable and I don't anticipate doing that again if I can help it- especially if I am going to be on a bus for the rest of the weekend during the tour!
So the name of the tour we went on was "Skye High" Haggis Adventure, and it was led by our guides, Matt and Debs. We drove a bright yellow bus with "Wild and Sexy" written on the outside of it and our guides were pretty cheesy but very entertaining! We were almost late to the tour because our coach bus was late to the station but we hopped on a taxi there and made it in time. "We" refers to Catey, Jess, Amy, Shari and I (all from Drexel). So just to make it easier since we did so much and it is hard to include every detail, I'm just going to write an outline of each day. Here is a map of the route we took in Scotland during the tour:
Friday:
- Arrived in Edinburgh at 8:30 for tour
- Dunkeld- shimmering River Tay and the ruined Cathedral. Back to the Lowlands!
- Through the Cairngorms National Park to Kingussie for lunch (venison burger)
- Drumochter Pass- the highest road in Britain
- Inverness- meaning ‘At the mouth of the River Ness’
- Culloden Moor- where Bonnie Prince Charlie led the Highlanders in the doomed final Jacobite
uprising, and changed Scotland forever
- Clava Cairns - prehistoric burial chambers
- Past Perth- an ancient capital of our nation
- Forth Road / Rail Bridges
- Drove the full length of mysterious Loch Ness, past ruined Urquhart Castle
- Talk and demonstration of authentic scottish dress, bloody history of clans, weapons at The
Clansman Centre in Fort Augustus
- Dinner at Morag's Lodge hostel (haggis! chili)
- Stayed the night at Morag's Lodge
Saturday:
- Breakfast at hostel (toast, porridge, OJ)
- Loch Garry- affectionately known as “Scotland’s Loch”, and on to ‘The Road To The Isles’
- Eilean Donan Castle on Loch Duich
- Lunch at MacKenzie's Cafe (chicken and sweet corn bridie, macaroni pie)
- Isle of Skye & Cuillin Mountains
-Glen Shiel & the Five Sisters of Kintail
-Broadford and ‘Beinn na Caillich’
-Sligachan Glen
-Portree and Trotternish
-Glamaig
- Kilt Rock
- Dinner at Scot Kitchen in Fort Augustus (Local scottish-caught salmon)
- Quizzo and 'toga party' at hostel
- Stayed the night at Morag's Lodge
Sunday:
- Ate my own snacks for breakfast
- Glencoe- site of the infamous bloody massacre in the winter of 1692
- Fort William and Ben Nevis- the highest mountain in the UK
- Great Glen- Lochs Linnhe, Lochy, Oich, and.. Ness! & where Harry Potter Quidditch scenes
were filmed)
- Lunch at the Green Welly Stop in Tyndrum (Cullen Skink - the finest Mallaig peat smoked
Haddock, with onions, tatties, fish stock and cream & sticky toffee pudding)
- Visit to see Hamish, a famous hairy coo
- Through the Trossachs- Rob Roy MacGregor country
- Rannoch Moor- the largest expanse of uninhabited wilderness in Europe!
- William Wallace Memorial
- Stirling passing by Linlithgow Palace
- Arrived back in Edinburgh
- Went to Elephant House for hot chocolate (where JK Rowling wrote first two Harry Potter
books)
- Dinner at Whiski (Steak and ale pie, raspberry and currant cider)
- Bus back home at 10 pm
I think that is all pretty accurate- I'm not sure all of the times are right (before lunch, after lunch,etc.) but those were the places we saw each day. It was a VERY busy trip but I had so much fun and I would love to go to Scotland again! The Scottish Highlands are just beautiful and it was a nice escape from the hustle and bustle of London for a few days!
I am going to head to bed but I'll post tomorrow with updates about London! Cheers!
P.S. The name of this post is "Deep Scottish Love (DSL)" for the strong emotions the guides told us we would inevitably feel about the highlands and about our tour-mates while we were there.
I'm sorry it's taken a while for me to post about my most recent trip to Scotland last weekend. It was such a busy, fun-filled weekend that I felt a little overwhelmed about trying to type it all up in a blog. I have a lot of really good pictures- about 300 to be exact- from the Scottish Highlands which I wish I could post but I'll have to show you all when I get home. The scenery was just beautiful! Everything was so picturesque with the highlands, mountains and rolling countryside stocked with sheep, cows and hairy coos. (Obviously I was very excited about the cows because I LOVE cows!) This was also my first multi-day tour with tour guides and a set itinerary. It was a neat experience and I would definitely try a tour like this again sometime. While there were some times where I wished we had been able to stay longer, we fit a lot into 3 days and I think it was the best way to get a good overview of Scotland. The last night we were there (Sunday night) we spent a few hours in Edinburgh before boarding our coach bus back to London Victoria Station. While it was cheaper than a train or plane, 9 hours each way on a coach bus is extremely uncomfortable and I don't anticipate doing that again if I can help it- especially if I am going to be on a bus for the rest of the weekend during the tour!
So the name of the tour we went on was "Skye High" Haggis Adventure, and it was led by our guides, Matt and Debs. We drove a bright yellow bus with "Wild and Sexy" written on the outside of it and our guides were pretty cheesy but very entertaining! We were almost late to the tour because our coach bus was late to the station but we hopped on a taxi there and made it in time. "We" refers to Catey, Jess, Amy, Shari and I (all from Drexel). So just to make it easier since we did so much and it is hard to include every detail, I'm just going to write an outline of each day. Here is a map of the route we took in Scotland during the tour:
Friday:
- Arrived in Edinburgh at 8:30 for tour
- Dunkeld- shimmering River Tay and the ruined Cathedral. Back to the Lowlands!
- Through the Cairngorms National Park to Kingussie for lunch (venison burger)
- Drumochter Pass- the highest road in Britain
- Inverness- meaning ‘At the mouth of the River Ness’
- Culloden Moor- where Bonnie Prince Charlie led the Highlanders in the doomed final Jacobite
uprising, and changed Scotland forever
- Clava Cairns - prehistoric burial chambers
- Past Perth- an ancient capital of our nation
- Forth Road / Rail Bridges
- Drove the full length of mysterious Loch Ness, past ruined Urquhart Castle
- Talk and demonstration of authentic scottish dress, bloody history of clans, weapons at The
Clansman Centre in Fort Augustus
- Dinner at Morag's Lodge hostel (haggis! chili)
- Stayed the night at Morag's Lodge
Saturday:
- Breakfast at hostel (toast, porridge, OJ)
- Loch Garry- affectionately known as “Scotland’s Loch”, and on to ‘The Road To The Isles’
- Eilean Donan Castle on Loch Duich
- Lunch at MacKenzie's Cafe (chicken and sweet corn bridie, macaroni pie)
- Isle of Skye & Cuillin Mountains
-Glen Shiel & the Five Sisters of Kintail
-Broadford and ‘Beinn na Caillich’
-Sligachan Glen
-Portree and Trotternish
-Glamaig
- Kilt Rock
- Dinner at Scot Kitchen in Fort Augustus (Local scottish-caught salmon)
- Quizzo and 'toga party' at hostel
- Stayed the night at Morag's Lodge
Sunday:
- Ate my own snacks for breakfast
- Glencoe- site of the infamous bloody massacre in the winter of 1692
- Fort William and Ben Nevis- the highest mountain in the UK
- Great Glen- Lochs Linnhe, Lochy, Oich, and.. Ness! & where Harry Potter Quidditch scenes
were filmed)
- Lunch at the Green Welly Stop in Tyndrum (Cullen Skink - the finest Mallaig peat smoked
Haddock, with onions, tatties, fish stock and cream & sticky toffee pudding)
- Visit to see Hamish, a famous hairy coo
- Through the Trossachs- Rob Roy MacGregor country
- Rannoch Moor- the largest expanse of uninhabited wilderness in Europe!
- William Wallace Memorial
- Stirling passing by Linlithgow Palace
- Arrived back in Edinburgh
- Went to Elephant House for hot chocolate (where JK Rowling wrote first two Harry Potter
books)
- Dinner at Whiski (Steak and ale pie, raspberry and currant cider)
- Bus back home at 10 pm
I think that is all pretty accurate- I'm not sure all of the times are right (before lunch, after lunch,etc.) but those were the places we saw each day. It was a VERY busy trip but I had so much fun and I would love to go to Scotland again! The Scottish Highlands are just beautiful and it was a nice escape from the hustle and bustle of London for a few days!
I am going to head to bed but I'll post tomorrow with updates about London! Cheers!
P.S. The name of this post is "Deep Scottish Love (DSL)" for the strong emotions the guides told us we would inevitably feel about the highlands and about our tour-mates while we were there.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Going to get me some Haggis!
So tonight is a VERY exciting night. Why is that? Because I'm leaving at 11 pm to take a coach bus to Edinburgh, Scotland!! It is currently 6:15 pm here, and I still have not packed for it. I am currently doing my laundry down here in the basement of my building, and I'm typing this from the computer lab. Back to Scotland, basically I will be going with 4 other girls on a 3-day tour of the Scottish Highlands with the Haggis Adventures Tour group in Scotland, which leaves tomorrow morning around 8:30. Needless to say tomorrow is going to be a very long day, and I hope I can get some shut eye tonight! We're going to see Edinburgh, Isle of Skye, Lochness, Eilean Donan Castle on Loch Duich and Glencoe! To be honest I really don't know too much about Scotland so I am looking forward to learning and seeing all that I can. We will be getting back around 6:45 am on Monday morning.
This week has been a pretty good week. I'm having a momentary lapse on what I did on Sunday, I'm assuming it wasn't anything too significant. Monday I just had 6 hours of class, Tuesday I had 3 hours of class in the morning and then Catey, Jess and I decided to go to Trafalgar Square to see the National Gallery and a life-size chess board that contenders are playing daily. It was pretty neat! We wandered down through Leicester Square (where a lot of the theaters are located and the 1/2 price ticket booth), and over to Chinatown. It was a lot of walking but a nice walk! Tuesday night Cassie, Catey and I went to what was Princess Diana's favorite pizza place, right down the street from where I live. It was the second time I have been there and it was delicious!!
I've been trying to be more productive this week, and so I decided to start walking to get more exercise and hopefully tone up a little bit. I went for a "power walk" in Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens two days, and finally saw the Peter Pan statue! I also saw the Princess Diana Memorial and may have seen the Queens horses in an exercise yard there. I can't be sure those were actually them though. There were also two nights where I walked down to Knightsbridge and to Earl's Court. The area I live in is a great place to take walks. I feel like there is always something new I haven't seen.
Yesterday I made a very exciting purchase- a brown corduroy blazer! I've been looking for one for a long time now and finally found one at H&M, so I feel compelled to announce that! I had class until 8 pm last night and spent the rest of the night back here. This morning Kelsey and I went to the Science museum for about an hour and a half and then I had Contemporary British Theatre class from 1-4 pm.
I apologize for not posting a new entry in a while, but I will definitely post one once I get back from Scotland! Until then, cheers!
This week has been a pretty good week. I'm having a momentary lapse on what I did on Sunday, I'm assuming it wasn't anything too significant. Monday I just had 6 hours of class, Tuesday I had 3 hours of class in the morning and then Catey, Jess and I decided to go to Trafalgar Square to see the National Gallery and a life-size chess board that contenders are playing daily. It was pretty neat! We wandered down through Leicester Square (where a lot of the theaters are located and the 1/2 price ticket booth), and over to Chinatown. It was a lot of walking but a nice walk! Tuesday night Cassie, Catey and I went to what was Princess Diana's favorite pizza place, right down the street from where I live. It was the second time I have been there and it was delicious!!
I've been trying to be more productive this week, and so I decided to start walking to get more exercise and hopefully tone up a little bit. I went for a "power walk" in Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens two days, and finally saw the Peter Pan statue! I also saw the Princess Diana Memorial and may have seen the Queens horses in an exercise yard there. I can't be sure those were actually them though. There were also two nights where I walked down to Knightsbridge and to Earl's Court. The area I live in is a great place to take walks. I feel like there is always something new I haven't seen.
Yesterday I made a very exciting purchase- a brown corduroy blazer! I've been looking for one for a long time now and finally found one at H&M, so I feel compelled to announce that! I had class until 8 pm last night and spent the rest of the night back here. This morning Kelsey and I went to the Science museum for about an hour and a half and then I had Contemporary British Theatre class from 1-4 pm.
I apologize for not posting a new entry in a while, but I will definitely post one once I get back from Scotland! Until then, cheers!
Saturday, September 19, 2009
The Scottish Presbyterian and the Pub Psychologist
So I'm trying to make it so each title is an inside joke based off an experience, or just some funny memorable moment. Last night, Catey, Kelsey and I decided we wanted to go out somewhere. After a long time of searching through our London travel books and the internet, we found this place called Portobello Gold, the oldest bar in Notting Hill (Yes, the place where the movie with Julia Roberts was based off of). We took the tube down 2 stops to Notting Hill Gate and then roamed around down there trying to find this bar. We finally get there and notice that everyone else there is at least in their 30's, so it definitely wasn't a college student scene. However, we decided to each get a drink and sit down at a table to talk and relax. We met some very interesting people at the bar who decided to approach our table. First, the Pub psychologist. He was a drunk older man who came over to us and asked "Are you depressed? Are you feeling low? Do you feel like you're going to lapse? Because I am the pub psychologist. It's what I do..free of charge!" We all looked at each other not knowing what to think but we told him no, and he kept talking about I don't even know what. Over the course of the night he came back about 5 or 6 more times, each time asking if we were okay. We finally decided to play with him a little and told him our friend Catey was feeling a little low to see what he would do. What a funny guy. Next was this scottish man who came and sat down, offering us about 20 minutes worth of wisdom. Some of his takes on life: 1) Worth is more important than love 2) You meet people when you need to meet them 3) Have faith and confidence in yourself 4) Don't be irish - apparently his wife is irish and she gives him a splitting headache. It was just hilarious meeting these people and quite an experience!
Moving on, on Wednesday night we decided to go to Imperial again because we didn't have any plans but wanted to do something. We ended up meeting a whole group of British students who bartend at the union bar there. They had a day off but still decided to go there to hang out and joined us at one of the tables. We played some games and then they invited us out with them to Fulham to a club. It was really cool getting to meet some local people and going out to dance for a few hours. We went to a place called Fiesta Havana.
Thursday night after class I went to a play called "Stockwell" at the Tricycle Theatre off the Kilburn tube stop. It was further out of the city- almost out of Zone 2. It was a type of verbatim theatre (similar to the Laramie Project) where the entire performance was quotes from people who were at the incident or involved in the event. This story was about the brazilian man who was killed by the Metropolitan police after the London bombings a few years ago. He was thought to be a terrorist and was shot, even though he was an innocent man. It was a very sad story but very informative to me because I had never heard what happened before. The theatre was small and intimate. We were actually in the front row which I was very excited about. (You could sit anywhere but there just happened to be 3 seats open front and center).
Friday we went on a day trip to Bath and Stonehenge. It was very surreal going to these places I have heard so much about. We had about 45 minutes in Stonehenge, where we saw the rock formation and got cheese scones, and then we went to Bath to tour the Roman Baths. It is hard to believe how old the baths are- it just blows your mind! In Bath, we also went to this little restaurant called Sally Lunn's, famous for its sweet buns. It has been there since the 1400's I believe- really old! It was a long day on the coach bus but still a lot of fun! Last night when we arrived back I just wanted to sleep but I regained some energy somehow and that is when we went to Portobello Gold. I came full circle in this post!
Right now I am doing my laundry and I hope to do something tonight but I'm not sure what everyone else is doing (It is 7:46 here at the moment). I hope everyone is well! Cheerio!
Moving on, on Wednesday night we decided to go to Imperial again because we didn't have any plans but wanted to do something. We ended up meeting a whole group of British students who bartend at the union bar there. They had a day off but still decided to go there to hang out and joined us at one of the tables. We played some games and then they invited us out with them to Fulham to a club. It was really cool getting to meet some local people and going out to dance for a few hours. We went to a place called Fiesta Havana.
Thursday night after class I went to a play called "Stockwell" at the Tricycle Theatre off the Kilburn tube stop. It was further out of the city- almost out of Zone 2. It was a type of verbatim theatre (similar to the Laramie Project) where the entire performance was quotes from people who were at the incident or involved in the event. This story was about the brazilian man who was killed by the Metropolitan police after the London bombings a few years ago. He was thought to be a terrorist and was shot, even though he was an innocent man. It was a very sad story but very informative to me because I had never heard what happened before. The theatre was small and intimate. We were actually in the front row which I was very excited about. (You could sit anywhere but there just happened to be 3 seats open front and center).
Friday we went on a day trip to Bath and Stonehenge. It was very surreal going to these places I have heard so much about. We had about 45 minutes in Stonehenge, where we saw the rock formation and got cheese scones, and then we went to Bath to tour the Roman Baths. It is hard to believe how old the baths are- it just blows your mind! In Bath, we also went to this little restaurant called Sally Lunn's, famous for its sweet buns. It has been there since the 1400's I believe- really old! It was a long day on the coach bus but still a lot of fun! Last night when we arrived back I just wanted to sleep but I regained some energy somehow and that is when we went to Portobello Gold. I came full circle in this post!
Right now I am doing my laundry and I hope to do something tonight but I'm not sure what everyone else is doing (It is 7:46 here at the moment). I hope everyone is well! Cheerio!
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Thames, Fireworks, Camden (better than Jersey!) and SCOTLAND!
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! :-)
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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