Grockle – A Tourist :)

I’d be lying if I said I just got back from Easter break, because I didn’t, I’m just an inefficient blogger. Prepare yourself to be absolutely overwhelmed by how much I update in the next few days/weeks to make up for it. That statement may or may not be true. Regardless – Megan, Ally, Alex and I spent our whopping four-day Easter break to further explore Europe.

We revisited the wake-up-uncomfortably-early strategy that Friday, and were out of bed and onto the Gatwick Express to the airport at around 4-5am. After the key discovery of caffeine pills in the airport, we were on a flight Berlin-bound before we knew it. Once in the Berlin airport, we made a few vocabulary discoveries (Ausgang – exit!), found our way onto a train, and conveniently stumbled upon our hostel literally steps away. While a really clean, friendly, and comparatively awesome hostel, we happened to be located in the middle of some dusty fields desperate for post-war rebuilding/attention, so it was back on the train to Berlin’s city center to entertain ourselves.

After a delicious authentic lunch of “Berlin’s specialties” – pork sausages, sauerkraut, and meatballs, we decided to take advantage of the beautiful sunny day and hop on a tour boat to see the city from the river that runs through it. Berlin apparently has more water in rivers and canals than Venice, Amsterdam, and Stockholm combined, which was a pretty sweet fact since we have been/will go to two of those aqueous destinations. The river tour wound up and Megan navigated us back through the German public transportation system to our hostel.

That evening, we went out to a popular downtown area and found a delicious Thai restaurant for dinner. After a few different bars and stops around the area, we went to the super chic club, Watergate, which was RIGHT across the river from Universal Studios: Berlin – aww, my temporary employer. I was excited. And I took a picture. The club was really fun and we were very proud of ourselves for getting into such an exclusive venue.

Saturday morning we managed to get up at a very reasonable hour and catch a free walking tour of the city. Our tour guide was really energetic and informed about the city, and told great stories about Berlin’s history. I really appreciated hearing historical anecdotes that had happened so recently – it was a refreshingly different experience from the history from centuries ago in other cities. We saw the holocaust memorial, the site of Hitler’s bunker during the war, Checkpoint Charlie, where the Nazi book burning occurred, the BERLIN WALL (!!!) and tons of other noteworthy landmarks. We did some meandering around buildings that were still obliterated from the war, walked along the river, and then finally headed back to the train station to get on (dun dun dun) the night train!!

That’s right ladies and gentleman, we slept overnight on a train and woke up in none other than Paris, France :) Well, that’s how we thought of it in theory. In actuality we were in the smallest square footage of room, with triple bunked beds, located conveniently RIGHT OVER THE BREAKS… so every time the train stopped we were jolted awake and thought a war had broken out. Luckily, sleeping pills were provided, so over the 13 hour train ride, we packed in a few hours. We woke up with about an hour of travel time to spare, and the four of us awkwardly tumbled around the car trying to get dressed and get ourselves collected. It was okay though – we were in Paris!

Our first order of business after finding and checking into our hotel was to get to the Louve, considering it wasn’t the most beautiful day out. We navigated the Metro system (which made me appreciate our good ol’ London tube), and after a few switches and absurdly long hallways, we made it! Unfortunately, all of our other fellow tourists had had the same idea, so we abandoned ship and headed to Notre Dame; it was Easter after all. We were able to tour the church while the Easter service was happening, which was a pretty incredible experience. See Mom, I did make it to church on Easter! Thereafter we caught a hop on hop off bus down the Champs Elysses and stopped at Laduree for some incredible macaroons and tea, MMM. Our last stop of the day was l’Arc de Triumph, where we enjoyed awesome views of the city, and of course the Eiffel Tower.

That night for dinner, Megan and I were determined to find a restaurant from her itinerary list to ensure that our one meal in the city of lights would be fantastic. Many side streets and a little backtracking later, we found the first place on the list! It appeared to have been closed for roughly a decade. We settled with a bustling restaurant on that street with a delicious menu… completely unaware that we were smack dab in the middle of the gay district of the city. This fact became increasingly obvious to us over the course of our meal, but we were so distracted by our cheese plates, veal, delicious wine, and the hilarious wait staff to mind in the slightest.

Unfortunately, one choice I made at that meal proved to be a disaster later on. Of course, my “when in Rome/Paris!” attitude led me to order escargots at dinner, which might I add were delicious. The next morning, however, I woke up with terrible food poisoning :( I stayed in bed while Megan, Alex, & Ally went to the Louvre. I met up with them outside the Eiffel Tower, and we drove around Sacre Coeur, but at the end of the day I was really excited to just get home to London and be in my room again. Luckily, I’ve been to Paris and seen those sights before; I was just very disappointed I didn’t get to experience them with my friends. I guess this just means I have to go back? Cheers!

The Smoke – nickname for London, apparently, because it’s so foggy. Oh and one time it burned down.

Hello there faithful readers. Sorry I haven’t updated in, oh I dunno, a few ice ages. For some reason I felt like I didn’t have anything to talk about in this here blog unless I was travelling, but that just isn’t true. I’ve had tons of crazy adventures here in Londontown that I have to fill you in on, just in time for Berlin & Paris next weekend (and thus, another travelling blog) woohoo!

 Maybe I should divide this into categories, since I have lots of ground to cover… gotta stay organized.

 First… Visitors!! Not only am I the triumphant champion of forcing people visit me in the middle of Amish country, I even managed to wrangle some people from the states into seeing me trans-Atlantic style. First, I saw my cousin Samantha (to be fair, she was visiting her boyfriend, not me, but who’s counting) who cooked up a scrumptious feast J In the process we discovered the most hilarious kitchen accessory known to man… a one-piece double handed oven. Or hand-snuggie, as I fondly refer to it. Picture necessary:

We had a great night and I wish we could have spent more time together!

Next, the great Katie Boland arrived on the scene to show us insider tricks of London since she’s pretty much a pro at the city, in general. We jumped on the chance to order in Thai food and hang out in a REAL FLAT, so Saturday night we ended up hanging out in the Boland flat and watching The Departed. Accidentally awesome evening. I also really enjoyed getting tea at the Orangery in Hyde Park (finally!! Real high tea!! We did it!) 

I got a tea called HoosBoos or something (that’s so wrong. I don’t remember. I couldn’t pronounce it at the time, either) and we all piled up on scones with cream & jam, tea sandwiches, éclairs, and tarts. YUM. That Sunday was actually the sunniest most beautiful day to be in the park, so we were all pretty pleased with our London status for the afternoon. Hopefully my friends and I proved that we, too, are becoming London experts.

Now some updates on… Touristy achievements!! Most recently we visited the Churchill Museum & Cabinet War Rooms, which is the underground complex where the British planned their involvement in World War II. I found it really interesting how the day the war ended, everyone pretty much up and left their desks and strolled on out of there, leaving everything in the map rooms exactly how they had been for the past 6 years of war. In 1970 someone remembered about all these subterranean goodies, and started to properly preserve them. Good idea. Even though Churchill only spent 3 nights in the War Rooms, it was still really awesome to see his designated bedroom as well as all the maps and phones used by the British while London was being bombed to bits all around them.

We’ve also been to the British Museum, which contains all these collections of ancient Egyptian and Roman relics that England decided to steal from their rightful positions. I’m glad they did, because I had the best time seeing a bunch of mummies (at different stages of preservation/decay, I suppose. Mmmm.), statues of Pharaohs, and… THE ROSETTA STONE! I didn’t realize how tiny the languages were chiseled onto the actual slab, but like so many things this semester; I’m thrilled that I got to see it, face-to-face. Or, my-face-to-Rosetta. You know :)

 

Okay I’m tired of this post. Stay tuned for more about London tourism and our Easter break! Cheers!

Jammy - Really Lucky

Since we got a whopping 5 days off from classes/interning, the gang and I decided to head to Italy and conquer Venice , Florence , and Rome in that short time. Impossible? Think again.

We woke up nice and early on Wednesday morning to catch our flight to Venice . On the plane, I woke up just in time to spot the Alps outside the window :)

We landed and navigated through a system of both land and waterbuses to get to our hostel. Venice is unlike any other city I’ve seen, because the buildings are so tall and the streets are all very narrow alleyways, making it virtually impossible to get an idea of which direction you’re headed or what lies more than a block away from you. Then you get a break from the claustrophobia and cross a bridge over a canal, and then it’s back into the maze! First on our agenda was the Piazza San Marco, which contains the majority of important city landmarks and is considered the center of the city. Upon reaching the square, we were greeted by a giant fruit-covered lion, and a whole lot of confetti – we had just missed Carnivale (a huge celebration ending with Mardi Gras) by one day. Great timing. It was still amazing to see the Basilica and Doge’s palace, and I personally couldn’t get enough of the canals and gondolas everywhere. In the afternoon, we snacked on our first Italian gelato, and browsed all the shops for their famous Murano glass pieces. Being the tourists that we are, we went on a gondola ride before a great authentic Italian dinner, and then bedtime. Oh, and thank you hostel for forgetting to tell us that the heat was broken. We barely noticed. Not.

Thursday morning, it was back on the waterbus to catch a train to Florence. It was drizzling, and we were glad to move onward on our Italian adventure. Our hostel in Florence more than made up for our Venetian one – we had a great room overlooking a courtyard, and free breakfast in the morning and pasta parties every night! After dropping off our things, we tracked down the Duomo, the giant dome on top of Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore. It was absolutely amazing, but a few of us couldn’t escape comparing the Basilica to parts of Disneyworld … embarrassing. After exploring the inside of the cathedral, as well as learning a bit about the Battistero di San Giovanni (with beautiful golden doors) right next door, we set off on a mission to find Michelangelo’s statue of David. There was a little navigation confusion, and some waiting in line, but once we were inside this random gallery, all our efforts paid off. The statue is huge!! – Way bigger than I pictured it, and definitely worth seeing.

On our way back to the hostel, we walked through the San Lorenzo leather market. Reggie fell in love with a leather jacket that she talked down to a reasonable price, and the rest of us found leather treats in the market as well. That evening, we went out for “aperitivos” with Lauren’s friend, meaning we bought cocktails at a bar and got free reign on the various dishes they put out. Good news since we love eating. Afterwards, we enjoyed some wine as we walked along the River Arno, and then headed back to our awesome hostel for some shut-eye.

We were lucky enough to have all day Friday in Florence, without worrying about catching any trains or planes. Naturally, this was the day that it drizzled on and off all day. Also, Megan woke up feeling very sick, so we had to leave her in the hostel while we explored the city :( First we went to Ponte Vecchio, a bridge of shops with crazy expensive gold jewelry.

We then explored the palace where the Medici family lived, saw the Santa Croce church (where Michelangelo and Galileo are buried), and finally ended up back at the Duomo – this time to climb to the top of it. 463 steps and a questionable fear of heights later, we made it to the tippy top, and got to see the most incredible views of Florence . Despite the drizzly conditions, it was amazing to see all the landmarks from above, and the Tuscan hills in the background. We had one more fantastic dinner in Florence at the recommendation of the hostel staff, and went to sleep.

We took a train to Rome on Saturday morning. Both train rides we took were very comfortable and easy – a big part of what made our expedition to three cities in five days possible. Our Rome hostel was again very convenient and close to the train station and we spent only a few moments there before rushing to Vatican City before it closed. The Vatican City museum was very interesting and had tons of religious artwork, but all of us were anxiously rushing to get to the Sistine Chapel at the end of the tour. After a few confusing hallways covered floor-to-ceiling with paintings (that were not, in fact, the Sistine Chapel – Ally, put your camera away) we finally made it into the real deal! The chapel was absolutely incredible, and we stood staring upwards for the longest time. Thank god Reggie knew a ton of useful information about each of the ceiling panels, as well as the giant fresco on the back wall of the chapel. My favorite anecdote was that Michelangelo was not Catholic, and decided to stress this fact through a depiction of Noah, drunk, in a strikingly similar pose as Adam, in the “Spark of Creation” panel, just a few meters away on the ceiling. After the Sistine Chapel, we saw St. Peter’s Square and Cathedral, which I immediately recognized from Angels & Demons, the movie (at least it’s not a Disney reference). We left Vatican City just as it was closing, and I was so glad we made it to this country within a city.

Sunday was our last day in Italy , and also our most productive/touristy. Lauren decided that a hop-on/hop-off bus tour would be the most efficient way for us to see all of the sites we were interested in despite their big distances from one another. This was a great decision, and a relatively inexpensive way to take care of all of our transportation for the whole day. First we went to the Spanish steps, which I admit I hadn’t heard much about, but they were pretty impressive. To be honest, I was the most excited by the awesome, warm, sunny weather in Rome – I didn’t even wear a jacket WOOHOO that’s never an option in London ! Next we bussed on over to the Pantheon, Circus Maximus (where the Romans held chariot races), the Trevi Fountain, and the Colleseum. I think the Trevi fountain was my favorite, because we got to spend a lot of time there, throwing coins in and making wishes. We read somewhere that 3,000 euro are thrown into the fountain daily, and that throwing one coin in will ensure a trip back to Rome (GREAT!). There are a bunch of different stories about what will happen to your love life if you throw in two versus three coins… I’m glad we stuck with just one. Sunday night we had a few airport obstacles, but successfully got on our plane and safely back to London , all of us (including Megan) in one piece. Florence was probably my favorite city because it was so beautiful, but we heard that it’s overpopulated by students and it’s hard to find a real Italian person there (that made me glad to be in London – definitely no shortage of British people). After being in Venice for a day, I feel like I saw the most important parts of it, so Rome would be the city that I’d most like to go back to in Italy .

Last night we watched Angels & Demons in our building to spot all the scenes of Rome in the movie that we just visited. I just started my internship at NBC Universal yesterday, which I’ll blog about soon, but I know all of your eyeballs are probably exhausted at this point.

Love & miss everyone! Cheers!

Chinwagging - Chatting

Looks like my blog entries are becoming a weekly tradition… woops! I should probably try to update more frequently. My friends and I have all been swamped with work recently, because we’ve been off gallivanting and now that our first set of classes is coming to a close, we actually have papers and finals, etc. to deal with. What a bother.
Last weekend we decided to stay in London, since the shadow of homework was looming in the near future. Plus, we wanted to cross a few more touristy attractions off our list. Here’s a little rundown:

On Friday afternoon Reggie, Ally, Megan, and I decided to embark on an adventure to Westminster Abbey, only to discover that we had arrived about 15 minutes after it had closed. We snapped some pictures of the area, before relocating our trip to Oxford Circus, which just so happens to be one of the hugest shopping hotspots in the world. I personally wasn’t aware of this, but it appears that the hoards of Friday afternoon shoppers were, and they were on the loose. We snooped around a few stores, but the aggressive shoppers, enormous stores, and SUPER long lines quickly discouraged us! At that point it was early evening, and we had about an hour to kill before our stomachs would start rumblin’ so we headed to the tube to hunt down the infamous Brick Lane. After an outrageously long line to top up my Oyster card (sorry friends), a few accidental tube changes, and a two-minute cab ride (amateur) we found the glorious street lined with Indian food restaurants- YUM! We had been told to haggle with the men outside of each restaurant, but the first one came up to us offering huge meals and two free bottles of wine for ten pound each. Easiest haggling known to man. We were sold in about 30 seconds, and ate a delicious Indian feast of chicken tikki masala, samosas, nan, and rice, washed down with some pinot, of course.

Saturday afternoon we explored Borough Market, which is essentially dozens of stalls housing all kinds of scrumptious treats to munch on. We did a lap around the entire market just to get a feel for all of the sections/categories of offerings. Although we were tempted by various hot lunch foods, I wasn’t satisfied until we finally found the stall with WORLD FAMOUS GRILLED CHEESE. MY PRAYERS HAVE BEEN ANSWERED.

 

We waited in line for our cheesy slices of goodness and munched on them in a churchyard while a wedding party caroused by – all of my senses were entertained. After drinking hot apple and pear cider, eating delicious brownies, and getting some avocados for the road (5 for 1 pound!!) we strolled onto London Bridge to take some more touristy photos before heading home after a successful afternoon of tourist madness.

Saturday night out on London was a bit of a disaster, especially because we decided to continue our tourist vibes into going out to the most populated, skeevy clubs in town. After that disappointment, we took a daytrip to Cambridge to visit our friend from high school. Unfortunately, it was misting/raining all day, so while the campus was beautiful and green, it was cold and gross outside :( We also couldn’t partake in the traditional activity of “punting” because of the inclement weather plus bad timing (i.e. the punting rental place was closed, oops). We did score some great fudge and nifty sweatshirts, plus Megan and I kicked some British butt in a game of pool. On our way back to the train/bus station, Reggie and I put our SHOES ON THE GRASS (big no no) so, take that Cambridge.


Nothing too exciting has been going on this week, since finals are next Monday and Tuesday, and we’ve all retreated into our rooms for a little bit. After exams are over, we’re going to ITALY from Wednesday – Sunday, YAY!!! We’re hitting Venice, Florence, and Rome, so I’m sure I’ll have tons of pictures and stories to share.
Miss & love everyone! Cheers!

Luvvly-jubbly - Lovely

Hi there! Sorry I haven’t written in a while – we just traveled to MADRID this past weekend and I had to jump right back into schoolwork & projects that I, of course, didn’t work on while in Spain. Here’s a quick (nope, not so quick) overview of our trip…

Our journey started when we got up unbelievably early on Friday morning (4am) to get picked up and driven to Gatwick Airport for our flight. I think we all planned on sleeping in the car for the hour drive, but that plan died as we were all so excited to travel/giddy due to lack of sleep that we talked the whole way and rolled up to the airport before we knew it. Checking in and boarding was pretty easy, although Lauren and I got our bags basically turned upside-down and scoured for God knows what… after re-packing and some muttering we were good to go.

We all slept for the flight from London to Madrid, and Megan and I woke up in time to see the Spanish countryside as we flew over it and puzzle over some mountains in the distance (Pyrenees?).
Next we found our hostel, which ended up being in a great, central location, which allowed us to completely avoid the scary metro for our entire weekend, yay! There were a bunch of prostitutes wandering around the street, but we were reassured that they were harmless, and there was a police station on our block. No one could tell us if prostitution was illegal or not in Spain… guess we’ll never know. We quickly got on the move and visited Porto del Sol, a square right down the street from our hostel. There we found all kinds of Disney characters and street performers, as well as a Mariachi band, which delighted Reggie. The fact that there was abundant sunshine was an awesome change from London :) We ate lunch in Plaza Mayor, the biggest plaza in Madrid. While our meal was expensive and we encountered more than a few language obstacles, we enjoyed our lunches and Sangria in the sun. As an added bonus, a random man named “Marco from Gambia” (jury’s out as to if Gambia is a real place) tossed us some friendship bracelets, even though we didn’t have any euros to give him to “visit California.” Sorry, Marco.

Afterwards, we continued to the Palacio Real de Madrid & Cathedral. The palace was beautifully decorated and it was exciting that we could actually get inside and see the bedrooms, throne-rooms, and the like – au contraire to our experience at Windsor Castle. We noticed lots of shops and restaurants closing up as we walked back towards our hostel and realized it was time for Siesta! So we napped for 4 hours. Woops. We woke up and meandered around the downtown area, unsuccessful seeking a restaurant that fit our budget and had room for us. Eventually, we found a restaurant whose main appeal was it’s Italian food offerings and English-speaking host, and decided that in the future we should better plan our eating plans. We quickly visited a bar before heading back to the hostel to end our first day in Madrid. Despite the freezing room and scratchy “monkey fur” blankets, we all eventually fell asleep.

On Saturday, we visited the Reina Sofia museum and saw tons of authentic pieces by Picasso and Dali for free, as students! Then it was back to the hostel to take off on our tapas tour, which provided us tapas and free drinks at four bars for 10 euro, woohoo! Each of the bars had interesting stories that had transpired within, and had original tiling, paintings, and photographs inside that were freely exposed to the smoke and bar elements to the dismay of our tour guide. A few blood sausages and pitchers of Sangria later, we were ready for our second siesta (love them).

Later in the evening, after we had all shivered through showers without a stationary showerhead (we may or may not have been refugees), Megan’s friends from school took us to a great, real Spanish restaurant, a nice change from our faux-Italian meal the night before. I had Croquettas – ham and melted cheese stuffed into a fried ball of bread, YUM. 
Of course, more Sangria accompanied the feast, and we were all thrilled and stuffed by the time dinner was over. As Americans, we were ready to go to a bar right after dinner at around 9pm, which we forgot was far too early for the Spaniards. We learned this lesson by being ushered into a club (lured by free sangria, what else) and promptly finding that we were the only ones there. We headed back to the hostel bar to have some cocktails and wait a few hours before embarking our mission of experiencing Spanish nightlife again. After a few mishaps regarding getting into a huge discoteque called Pacha (and our refusal to pay a 15 euro cover), we decided to hang out at a smaller venue called Idioteque. I was more than pleased because I was able to convince the DJ to play some “Miguel Jackson.” We headed home around 4am (sorry Mom) and caught a few hours of sleep under the monkey blankets.

Sunday was our last day in Madrid, which we started off by heading to El Rastro, the giant market that sold essentially everything under the sun. We had been warned by just about everyone we talked to that it was pickpocket central, so none of us brought purses and we all emerged without any theft issues. After the market experience, we somehow navigated our way through the city with a questionable map, stopped at a chic café for some tostas, and went to the Prado museum. There was a slight issue at the ticket counter when the ticket ladies adamantly refused to believe we were students, but once we got inside, we were able to appreciate some great paintings and statues from different eras and origins. I’m still trying to locate my favorite painting on the Prado website… I’ll post it if I find it.
After the Prado we had to stop for some churros & chocolate before leaving Spain – a very worthwhile and delicious expedition. Then it was back to the hostel to wait for our ride to the airport. We were all so pleased with our first successful weekend adventure, and were contentedly sitting in the airport… and then learned that our plane had been delayed. For three hours. We got to know terminal 1 of the Madrid airport pretty extensively that evening, and finally we made it back to London at around 3am. Despite dungeon-like conditions, monkey fur blankets, and language barriers, we were able to survive in a non-English speaking country and have some incredible, unforgettable experiences in the meantime :) Can’t wait for our next trip!
Sorry this was accidentally a novel. Cheers!

Full of Beans - To Have Loads of Energy

So I’ve received some commentary about how I’m not going into enough detail, so since I just got out of class I though I’d write a little about the academia scene here in Londytown.

We have class four days a week right now (Fridays off, eehee!). The semester is broken into two halves, and for the first half I’m taking two classes and for the second half I’ll be taking one class and doing an internship. Right now I'm taking British Economic Policies and Advertising in the UK. For the second half my class is History of British Pop Culture. Our classes are four hours long since we don’t have them for very many weeks but need to squeeze in a semester’s worth of hours, and after a week of class I’m pretty confident that four hours straight of one subject, two days in a row, is some sort of medieval torture device that has been resurrected for our program. British Econ is interesting but kind of a dry subject in general, and our teacher is crazy and runs on three hours of sleep – she has a really hard time understanding why our eyes are all closing between 9am-12pm. Advertising is a little more manageable because it’s from 1pm-5pm, Alex is in my class, and we watch lots and lots of British commercials and discuss them. They’re very different from American commercials, particularly since British people would prefer to be entertained rather than know what it is they’re supposed to buy. See: Cadbury commercial with a gorilla drumming to Phil Collins music. What?
In terms of my internship, I got an offer from a retail clothing/accessories company that I went on an interview for, but I decided to turn it down and try to do something a little different while I’m here. The company seemed cool and definitely had clothing that I would wear from the looks of things, and my interviewer was extremely friendly, but I felt hesitant about the whole thing. Between working at J.Crew and my past internship working with accessories and such, I’ve done a lot in that area and I think I should expand my horizons. Hopefully I actually get another internship and didn’t just throw away the only company in this country that wants me ☺ Keep your fingers crossed?

I’ve been working on absorbing British culture, starting with Reggie and my excursion to the Royal Opera House to see Sleeping Beauty. We had some difficultly locating the venue, and some trouble locating the tube station thereafter, but the actual ballet was pretty awesome! Reggie was very good at interpreting all the gestures that the fairies were making and how they corresponded to the Disney movie… I had no idea what was going on (I was entertained by the costumes alone) so thank god she was there to go through what had happened in between each act. Towards the end there were some other fairytale characters frolicking about for an extra hour or so, but all in all it was a great night. Reggie, Claire, and I went to see Sister Act, the musical last night, which was hilarious and a pretty close interpretation of the movie. Catchy songs and nun-ensembles dripping with sparkles are clearly the recipe for awesomeness.

Okay, dinnertime now… our kitchen smells like it’s been set on fire. Wonderful. Cheers!

Tickety-Boo - Going Well

Hello there! I’ve been rather busy lately getting into the swing of classes and tourism and all, but I’m progressing in my London-ish abilities. I’ve taken the tube LOTS which is more than I could say last time I blogged, so there. I also learned after two painful evenings that wearing heels out is a no-go. Cobblestone streets aren’t the same as sidewalks in downtown Lewisburg – noted.

We’ve gotten some touristy hotspots checked off the list, although we’re still planning on taking a hop-on/hop-off bus to get a whole bunch of them covered. Last Friday a group of us went to see the Tower of London and enjoyed a tour by a particularly rambunctious beef-eater/drill sergeant. He liked to quiz us and threaten death if we got our facts wrong. It was charming. We drooled over the crown jewels, particularly the Star of Africa diamond (530 clear carats, holy hell) and puzzled over the Great Punch Bowl (actual name. For the Royal Punch, we presume). There was a little British boy on one of the teensy tinsy spiral staircases in one of the towers who was having a hard time getting down and said to his mom, “the stairs are so roundy! I can’t manage!” which I thought was a pretty impressive sentence for like, a 5-year-old. There are little British kids in their preschool uniforms spouting SAT vocab left and right here, I love them. Finally, the day was finished off by a stop at Subway, for sandwiches, because we still are Americans, after all.

On Sunday we took a trip to Windsor Castle, which is nifty because the Queen actually still vacations there occasionally. We took a bus at 9am (EARLY) and our tour guide decided to make an impromptu stop in some fields where the Magna Carta was first signed. Our bus driver almost passed out when Megan asked him what the Magna Carta was (none of us really knew). We made the executive decision not to trek through some fields to behold a gazebo marking the landmark, and stayed on the bus (sorry to disappoint. Like I said, it was early). A rather sizable plot of land that was a gift from England to America was pointed out to us while we were sitting on the bus. We immediately noticed that this piece of American land in the suburbs of London was covered in trash. When we asked our bus driver why it was littered, he refused to acknowledge the presence of the garbage. Even when we cited specific bits, like beer cans, and trash bags. Thanks, England. When we finally arrived at Windsor Castle we got to enjoy Queen Anne’s dollhouse, in which everything is scaled down twelve times and most things are fully functional. Unfortunately we couldn’t go into the famous chapel, because it was Sunday, and we couldn’t see the state apartments, because they were being cleaned. Maybe we should go back there sometime and see, you know, half of the attractions that were closed when we went. Besides our tour guide alternating between either abandoning us or insisting on over-emphasizing random points (“This is the crooked house. As you can see, it’s crooked. It is not straight.”) it was a sunny, mostly successful day of tourism.
Time for bed now, I have class at 9am tomorrow :( Cheers!

Megan, Ally, Lauren, Alex, Reggie, & I got our doorman/security guard (?)
to take a picture of us before going out on...
a night other than Reggie's birthday... The night of heels :(

Wine in our flat!

Aw, what cute tourists. Reggie, Alex, Megan, Me, & Ally in front of the Tower Bridge.

Tower of London!

Knackered - Tired Out

Since I’ve noticed so many so far, I’m going to name all of my posts after a relevant, or irrelevant British term. An educational aspect, if you will. So enjoy that.
Last night we ended up at an Irish/American pub in Piccadilly called O’Neil’s. We thought it was right up our ally and pretty cool, but we were later informed that it was considered trashy and frowned upon by British kids our age. Clearly we have to work on our taste. Woops. The British boys we talked to were pretty informative, and they told me that American accents aren’t grossly offensive, they’re just viewed as more casual than the proper speech used in England. I can live with that. I also learned that the words “fabulous” and “beautiful” are thrown around as often as possible, when describing just about anything. For example, one boy thought that the Arsenal football (soccer) team played “beautiful football.” Don’t know if many American boys describe their sports like that. I promptly told him his adjective selection seemed similar to that of a stereotypical American gay guy. He and his friend then started practicing how to say “fabulous” with an American accent… it was pretty hysterical.
We had dinner with our flat tonight at an Italian restaurant in Kensington, avoiding traditional English food at all costs, thank you very much. Afterwards we roamed around and ended up finding a little shop with a whole American food section, woohoo! Skippy peanut butter was displayed front and center, even though the English grocery store we went to a few days ago did have peanut butter (contrary to my expectations. What I didn’t expect were unrefrigerated eggs, on a shelf). Also available at the store were Better Crocker cake mix, Aunt Jemima maple syrup, and a box of Cheerios for 8 POUNDS. Seriously. I guess some people get desperate? It’s actually pretty difficult to find exactly what you’re looking for most of the time, because literally every single brand is different here, so you have to pay attention to the descriptions and ingredients and all… it makes grocery shopping complicated. That plus the slight language subtleties are definitely the biggest difference I’ve noticed thus far, considering the weather seems pretty similar to Pennsylvania/Connecticut still.
Apparently they call underwear “pants” here. I found this out because I told someone who recently moved from the States to London that I would probably need some dress pants for my internship later in the semester. She said if I asked for dress pants I would get a) laughed at b) pointed to a fancy underwear section. I don’t need either of those reactions. What I do need are dress TROUSERS.
Cheers!

Poppycock - Stuff; Senseless Talk

Hello there. I’ve decided to start blogging because after living at 14 Queen’s Gate, Kensington, London, for approximately three-ish days, I think I’ve acknowledged where I am. Possibly because today we went on a boat tour and saw Big Ben, The London Eye, the Tower of London, and a whole host of other touristy landmarks that confirmed we weren’t in like some random corner of Boston by accident. That and those red double decker buses flying around every other corner (pedestrians do not have the right-of-way, don’t be fooled).
The flight over was all kinds of miserable, between the tiny cramped seat, a total three hours of sleep, and a minor panic attack that my luggage had chosen not to make the trip. Then there was the fiasco at our first official lunch in London, where ordering ice water was the most confusing request our waiter had dealt with in a while, and resulted in some glasses of water along with a bowl of ice cubes and a spoon. Thanks. After that and some other minor obstacles, we’ve finally started to settle in for the long haul (or… four-month-haul?). The initial wave of errands seems to be dying down so hopefully now we’ll have time during the day to do fun things instead of Google-map the nearest grocery store.
We’re off to pub night at Imperial College, right across the street, so maybe we’ll meet some British folk who aren’t shocked and appalled by how we’ve butchered their language? We shall see!
More later, cheers?

The London Eye :)

p.s. From the boat tour- this is a pretty poor quality picture but I didn't want to be boring and post pics of Big Ben and those typical landmarks, so I give you... The Millennium Bridge! From Harry Potter! Anyone?

Lauren, Me, & Reggie at the airport... Bye NYC.