City of Blinding Lights

London 2010. I find it's hard to sit down and write a closure to this trip. But then that means it really is over. It's hard to believe. These past 2 months have flown by, even thought that sounds cliche. I look back now and realize the first three days here feel like way more than a few weeks ago. These days have been filled with amazing places, people, and memories. I am so grateful for the chance to come here and study, and remember the place I used to call home. Here are the things I'll miss most:

1) Pret A Manger

2) Seeing old architecture everyday

3) English accents

4) Caramel Shortbread

5) Scoop

6) Walking everywhere

7) the rain

8) Scenic views

9) Parks

10) Mueller yogurt

11) Hanging out at the pub

12) Cider:)

Things I won't miss as much:

1) 2 pence (why do they have those anyways??)

2) Dirty dishes

3) the Tube

4) Vendors

5) Pigeons

6) Buses (so close to death by bus at least 8 times)

7) Pubs closing at 11:30

8) Sunrise at 5:30 and no curtains

Things I miss in America:

1) Water fountains

2) People saying God bless you when you sneeze

3) Split checks

4) Salads

5) My car

6) A comfortable bed

7) My family

8) Ice

9) Air Conditioning

10) Bathroom surplus

Overall, I have had a great trip, as I've said multiple times before. I can't tell you my favorite memory, I have so many. I can't tell you my favorite place I've been, I liked them all. I can't tell you if someday I will live here, I can't see into the future. But I can tell you you HAVE to come to London if you haven't. It is an amazing, spectacular city with so much to offer. I have been blessed by God for this unforgettable experience, and I hope someday he can do the same for you. Cheers.

Song of the Day: "City of Blinding Lights" by U2 (written the first time Bono saw London)

Celtic Moods

LAST WEEKEND IN EUROPE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I got to spend it in Ireland!! I'll open with a few words from Legally Blonde's Ireland:

"Isn't that relaxing? It's called CELTIC MOODS!

When I'm lonely or feeling dejected

I play this and it never fails

I pretend like I'm in Ireland

With Enya and the whales

When my telephone gets disconnected

Or I spend every night alone

I pretend like I'm in Ireland

Where the Irish bagpipes drone

In Ireland they know how to love you

You embrace in the misty Irish breeze

And if your Irish boy tires of you

You're allowed to shoot him in the knees

The Irish fear nothing and no one

They keep fightin' 'til everyone's dead

You go out there and you get some Ireland

The country of whiskey and love"

Woohoo okay so I wasn't listening to Enya the whole time and I didn't see any whales, but I still enjoyed my time immensely. 18 of us from the group took a flight on Thursday night after our classes. We found a cheap airlines that could fly us to Dublin for less than 50pounds called RyanAir. NEVER will I take RyanAir again. They. Are. Crazy. If you miss one step, one stamp, one thing in your check in process, than you're screwed and too bad. Where is the customer service in Europe?? But it was fine, we all got there okay, some more stressfully than others. Jackson drew me a picture of Irish penguins, MaryRuth and I gazed at clouds, and we took our first picture of Katie sleeping over this weekend (we had multiple, that girl can sleep anywhere). Upon arriving at Dublin, we took a bus into the city center, but since it was dark, we couldn't really see anything yet. We were all staying in the same hostel this time, unlike Paris, called Jacob's Inn, and it was a really great place. We had a room of ten, and the bathrooms were WAY better. Wasn't in the most safest areas but it was still convenient. We were a bit tired, but we went out anyways to a pub for a bit, and tried an amazing drink that tasted like butterscotch:)

On Friday, we had a mini breakfast at the hostel, then went on a 3+ hour walking tour of the city. Our tour guide's name was Fiona, and she REALLY loved Dublin. She was very animated and told plenty of stories which was nice, but sometimes a bit overdone. The first thing was saw was City Hall then Dublin Castle, which only had a 5th of what the original castle was. The rest was rebuilt, and it looked like odd, mashed up legos. The old part was pretty though, and that circular section to the right was a prison with 4.6 meter thick walls. Yikes. Next we saw a giant helicopter pad that was decorated in Irish River Eels and Jonathan Swift's (Gulliver's Travels writer) birthplace. Apparently they are coming out with a new movie of GT, the lead played by Jack Black. Hmm. Next we saw Christ Church, which was another pretty church full of fun stories about mummified cats and such. Other things we saw:

~remains of a Viking settlement (aka rocks)

~Temple Bar area (where U2 was discovered and the nightlife center)

~Rory Gallagher's guitar

~the Dublin Wall of Fame

~Trinity College (wanted to see the Book of Kells but not enough time)

~St. Stephen's Green

This park is where we ended the tour. It was like Dublin's Central Park, and it was gorgeous. The Katie's and I waited around in here so that Sarah could catch up with us. She was spending an interesting weekend with her aunt, who seems slightly crazy. From there we went on a leisurely walk, stopping only to grab some souvenirs, to St. Patrick's Cathedral. We didn't want to pay to go inside, so we viewed the beautiful church from the outside on the lawn, and took a mini nap in the Irish sunshine.

That night, I went on my very first pub crawl. We got a discount on our entrance free since we had gone on the tour earlier! We started out at the Purdy Kitchen, then went to a really awesome bar called the Porterhouse. It had five levels and Strawberry beer that was surprisingly good. I also met a guy from Conroe there! Small world. The third and fourth bar were fun too, but Katie and I bailed on the club since we had a long day still to go. We couldn't stop laughing while we were brushing our teeth and woke a few people up:)

Saturday we went to this cute little breakfast place we found the day before and had delicious breakfast bagels. Then Sarah, the Katie's, and I took the train out to the coast of Ireland, to a town called Bray. It was soooo gorgeous! I was initially upset I wouldn't get to see much of the countryside while we were there, since none of us had a car, but the coast definitely made up for it. As soon as we got there we went onto the ferris wheel (there was a mini carnival on the beach) to get a full view.

There was this beautiful mountain just down the coast with a large white cross on the top, and we really wanted to climb it, but we didn't have enough time. So we climbed onto the rocks on the beach and took a bunch of cool pictures, then laid on the beach. I read

"The Time Travelers Wife" and it was so relaxing! We stayed there for about 2 hours before we walked to get some lunch at Katie's (seemed appropriate since the two girls I was with were Katie). Katie T and I had Ireland's version of fish and chips, which is basically the same thing except mashed potatoes, not chips. While we were eating, there was this trick plane that was flying around doing a whole bunch of stunts. It went upside down, straight up into the sky, flipped, and at one point looked like it was headed straight for the ferris wheel, but changed course at the last minute. It was really cool to watch, even though the policemen nearby looked a little annoyed.

One the train back to the beach, we took picture #4 of Katie T sleeping. I'll put up one, just don't tell her:)

Anyways, after those fun times, we got back to O'Connell street and began our trek across the city to the heart and soul of Dublin, the Guinness Factory. The actual factory was alright, but a bit boring. But at the top of the factory, which has the shape of a giant Guinness glass on the inside, is the Gravity Bar, which gives a breathtaking, panoramic view of the city. We each got a complimentary glass of Guinness, but I must confess, I'm not a huge fan of the dark beer. For dinner, we grabbed some quick pizza, than headed off to Arlington Hotel. We got to listen to an Irish band (two guitars and one accordion), and watch some Irish dancers perform. All while drinking some Bailey's traditional Irish cream. It was a nice closing night in Ireland.

In the morning, we had a traditional Irish breakfast from these really nice old Irishmen down the street (Katie was a bit freaked out by the 'pudding'). Then it was back to the airport to fly home. Sarah and I split a bag of peanut m&m's to hold us over. It was now the LAST WEEK IN LONDON. I can't believe it's already here.

Fun fact: St. Patrick scaring all of the snakes out of Ireland? It's a myth. There were never any snakes in Ireland, too cold. They think the myth might have been a mistranslation, since the word snake and pagan are very similar in Gaelic. St. Patrick was trying to rid the country of paganism, and he was successful in that, no snakes involved.

Oh and Ireland? Give my love to the leprechauns.

Dreaming Awake

Getting back from Paris was a bit of a reality check. I kind of forgot we were taking classes here in London, and that this was our last week of them. Then next week was finals. Great. On top of that, I am trying to cram in a lot of stuff last minute before this weekend and before leaving for good. Lots of stress, especially with being the social director, but I am still enjoying my time immensely. Tension is pretty high within the group since we've all been together constantly for the past two months. I'm not ready to go home yet.

Yet, here's to the second to last week! Monday, I woke up a bit late since I, umm, took Nyquil the night before and that stuff makes it difficult to get up. Went to theatre class for the last time, which was somewhat bittersweet. I have enjoyed Sheila's crazy stories and all the shows we've seen. That night we saw "The Beauty Queen of Leenane", by Irish playwright McDonagh. It was a great production, with four very talented actors, realistic rain, deadpan humor, and intense twists. We did get there about a half an hour late though...since we got lost trying to get to the Young Vic. It was pretty comical running around downtown London singing can-can and looking like idiots. After the show, we had a wine and cheese night in the downstairs flat to discuss the show, which was quite nice:)

Tuesday, Mo sent us on a random walk of the West End, which would have

been nicer if we had done it earlier in the semester. By now we had seen most of what the tour guide talked about. But I did get to see Jude Law's handprints:) Sarah and I took a detour to McDonald's because I had to go to the bathroom pronto, and ended up losing the group. Later we, along with Jackson, went to the school to do some work. I finally tried a Mars bar, one of the most popular candy bars here, and it just tasted like a Milky Way. Then I ran home to go meet

up with Shelby (a friend from home) in Covent Garden at Jack Wills. I showed her around my flat, then we grabbed some dinner at Hummus Bros (delish), grabbed some unforgettable gelato at Scoop, and spent some time at the Weatherspoons pub. Overall, a nice chill night!

In the morning, I met up with Shelby again, this time with the 9-year-old girl she's au pairing. Her name was Maddi, and she could talk for days and never get tired. It didn't take much to keep her entertained at the London Zoo! There were tons of animals (not as many as Houston has). I liked the gorilla in a bucket and the pelicans the best. The butterfly garden was also pretty neat. Maddi got her face painted like a pink tiger. We also saw the reptile house, another HP dork moment. But it was really nice to escape for a morning with the girls, and kinda get away from school and such.

In blog class, we quickly visited Hampstead Heath and Kenwood House, which had a beautiful view of the city.

That night I saw Inception with Rachel, Genevieve, and Laura, and it was sooooooo good. It was a bit confusing and you really had to pay attention to what was going on, but overall it was great to see a movie with incredible actors, an original story-line, and unpredictable ending. The boys of the movie made it really wonderful to watch: Dicaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and the Spanish guy:) Ellen Page and Marion Cotillard also did a fabulous job. Fave line: "Dreams feel real while we're in them. It's only when we wake up that we realize something was actually strange." (Dicaprio's character Cobb)

Song of the Day: "Time" from Inception

"Oooh, Champs-Elysees"

Last weekend was spent in the beautiful city of Paris. A city of grandeur, of history, of fashion, and of passion. The weekend was a bit more stressful than I would have desired it to be, but looking past that, it was a weekend of memories and bathing in the pulsing energy France offers.

The trip was originally optional, but who's not going to go to Paris?? So the whole group piled onto the Eurostar, an extremely fast train, and went into the English Channel into the land called France. I keep getting excited whenever I go to a new country here, because that means another stamp in my passport:) Anyways, when we arrived, each mini group broke off to go to their separate hostels, that were unfortunately spread out all over the city. Sarah, Leslie, the Katies and I all headed over to the Rive Gauche side of Paris and dropped our stuff off at the 3 Ducks Hostel. Sounds kinda lame, but the hostel was in great location and was really cheap. The bathrooms were HORRIBLE though. I've never had the feeling of being more gross after I shower than before...the beds were really squeaky, which was more funny than annoying, and the security was a bit sketch. But everything worked out. Even Sam, who was in a hostel alone, got the extra bed in our room. We had a quick, but great lunch at the Cafe near the hostel, and I spoke my first conversation in French. No one else in my group knew any, so it was so much fun actually getting to speak french, in France. It was cool how much I remembered, sad how much I forgot.

The Friday was planned out already for us, since

Jay and Rachel, two professors, came with us and wanted to show us around. So our first stop was the Musee D'Orsay, which we were a bit late for. This museum was beautiful, and breathed Paris elegance both inside and out. We looked at the Impressionist exhibit, where I got to see Claude Monet, Seurat, Renoir, and my childhood favorite, Edward Degas. I also saw the saddest statue I think I've ever seen, called L'esclave by Ernest Christophe. I don't know why, but it just struck me with grief when I saw it, and I've never been overwhelmed with emotion

like that before, since I've never really been

much into art. Other people might not see anything, but for some reason I do. Before leaving the museum,I picked up a bottle of my favorite drink, Orangina!! I swear, I could live on that stuff.

We then walked along the Seine (so pretty!) to get to the world's most famous cathedral: Notre Dame. I found Notre Dame to be big,

beautiful, and emotional. It has been around for hundreds of years, and is still standing. It's a reminder of the devotional that people had all that time ago to built something that could be possibly worthy enough to worship the Lord in. Inside the cathedral, you can still feel that passion, devotion and love. I feel like we're losing that raw emotion nowadays, and it was breathtaking and awing to be in that feeling.
Also, so many of us girls were wearing stripes that day:) Trying to blend in much?

Visiting the Louvre next was just as amazing! It is such a unique building, and is somewhat the definition of French innovativeness and beauty. I was also having multiple Da Vinci Code flashbacks...like the Madonna on the Rocks painting on the right. After taking a bunch of photos, we went inside and saw a Michelangelo

sculpture, a Cupid and Psyche sculpture Ireally liked, Venus de Milo, Winged Victory, the Mona Lisa of course, and others. For dinner, we took the Met over to the Clichy area and had a WONDERFUL dinner (some of the best salmon I've ever had) and wine rose and blanc in these mini pitchers:) L'addition was a bit high but it was worth it. We were also just a 10 minute walk from the Eiffel Tower, so we walked over right after. It would have been nice if there hadn't been vendors shoving Eiffel Tower keychains in my face. Seriously in my face. Rude.But anyways, JMU payed for us to go to the top of the Tower, so we got into line and took the elevator to the second floor. Leslie and I had to go to the bathroom bad. Really bad. So we waited in line for FOREVER and almost didn't make it, because they temporarily closed it for service. But after that debacle, we got to go to the very top and by that time it was dark, but still beautiful. And the lights went off as we were up

there, the perfect ending to night 1.

Saturday we woke up early (I washed my hair in the sink, ugh) and had a quick breakfast, a croissant and oj, then I had hot chocolate a little later. Then we walked

over to the Centre Pompidou. Rachel and Jay talked about this modern art building for a bit. It looked like a giant cruise ship/ant farm. We didn't go in because it was a bit expensive and we're all kind of museumed out. We headed back over to the Eiffel Tower and sat on the lawn on the North side of it and talked about how symbolic it was. I like it, even though it doesn't have much meaning to it. For lunch I had a wonderful omelette; I will miss French cheese at home. Katie, Sam, and I then took a mini nap on the lawn, so nice. When we met up, we got on a boat nearby and went on a boat cruise on the Seine!

It was nice and relaxing on the boat, and we got to see a lot of French buildings, the Notre Dame again, and listen to French music. We all got amazing ice cream when we debarked as well:) (Sorry I use so many smiles...I think use them a bit too much..oh well:)) The picture on the left is of us walking again along the Seine, this time to the Met to get to Montemarte. There we saw the Moulin Rouge, the giant red windmill about the cabaret designed by Toulouse!!! There was also a giant vent outside of the Moulin, probably in dedication to Marilyn Monroe, so we had a lot of fun taking pictures on that.

Saying goodbye to the Moulin, we walked over to the Basilique du Sacre Coeur, a gorgeous white temple overlooking the whole city of Paris. We had an incredible panoramic view of the city. The stairs to get up there were a hike, but it was all worth it when we went inside. It was just as moving as Notre Dame; I might have even liked this one better. It was simpler than Dame, and quieter. After being inside for a while, we watched this crazy amazing soccer guy outside, who could kick around a soccer ball while hanging from a lightpost...

We left Montemarte, staying on the Rive Droite side, to go to Champs-Elysees (like the American Rodeo Drive). We stopped to take pictures at the Arc de Triomphe, before Katie and I ran to try to get a reservation for dinner, since it was already 8. We ate at Veslac, this Italian restaurant on the Champs-Elysees at sundown, SO NICE. The food was awesome, (I had this amazing shrimp/avocado starter, then tortellini) and Sarah and

I shared some wine rouge, Saumur Champigny.

Another expensive dinner, which means thank goodness I have a mini job this summer or that wouldn't be happening. After dinner we walked to the Eiffel Tower again (then ran around for 15 minutes desperately searching for a bathroom, kind of the theme for the trip). We sat on the lawn to enjoy a night simply in front of the Tower with friends, but things went a bit downhill...won't get into that but it wasn't pretty. It was almost a good ending to a great day.

Sunday we got to go to Versailles!!!!!!!!!! I have always wanted to see it, and it was so nice to see it for real, and not just pictures in the history book. We saw the palace, State apartments, Hall of Mirrors, sculptures, and incredible paintings. We also got in for free since we're students, so

we waited in line for 45 minutes for no reason to get tickets.....But then we bought tickets for the gardens, which were absolutely incredible!! We had a sweet, relaxing lunch of panini's on a bench in the shade. Can't life be like this everyday? When we were walking around later Sarah and I got this weird pineapple sorbet that made our mouths set on fire...it was strange.

We saw the river, the Trianon's, the Orangery, Bacchus fountain, mirror fountain, tons of groves, the Love temple, and even more fountains (Sarah saw her first fountain show!). Except all the fountains were green, and that wasn't too pretty. We walked all the way out to Marie Antoinette's Hamlet, which was unreal. Living proof of where all the money was going during the French Revolution. It looked so surreal, like it was dropped out of Disneyland. See the picture below:) We grabbed a few souvenirs on the way out of Versailles. We took the train back to Paris and grabbed dinner at another cafe near the hostel. There were 7 of us, and 5 out of the seven got cheeseburgers. Such Americans. Bennett and I got fish that was again amazing. Then some guy said I looked french as we were checking out of the hostel, woo!! And we were all dead on our feet the rest of the day, and passed out on the train home. Au Revoir et Bon Soir Paris.

Quote of the Day: Sarah H~ "What's a fountain show? A show with fountains?"

Hazelnuts & Rainstorms

HI. Sorry I haven't written in forever. Things are getting crazier here now since we're getting closer and closer to the end. This post is of last week's adventures, and I'll try to have France up soon! Oh, and I apologize for my lack of editing and poor sentence structure. I've been going back and noticing it's not that great... I'll try to make it better in the future. Keywords: I'll try.

Finally a musical!! Monday we went to see 'Enron' at the Noel Coward theatre. I was hoping it would have been more musical-esque, but it was a straight play with some choreographed scenes and two group songs. It was interesting to see because it was about the fall of Enron, and had British people playing Americans and Texans. Haha :( The acting was terrible; not at all what I expected from a West End show. We had an understudy for the lead and he did alright, but that meant we had two other swings in as well, so maybe the whole show just wasn't at the top of its game. But the two musical numbers were great. The lighting, the electronic projections, the Arnold Schwarzenegger reference, and the monologues were also really good.

This past week for our Media&Society outing we took a trip to the outskirts of London, to a place I never would have thought to go. We went to the London Greek radio 103.3 FM, toured the studio, and talked to the broadcasters and owner. This station is the city’s number one hit music station that does Greek music, events, community news, global news, and more. I thought it was really great to take this quick tour, since I have never seen the inside of a radio station before. It felt like a community inside the building itself; everyone worked together in close quarters to give London an authentic piece of themselves and their culture.

That night we were exposed to more culture with the viewing of the movie 'Four Lions' at the Odeon. It was a funny, thrilling comedy that tells a story about a group of modern jihads. It was pretty funny...until the bird blew up. Then it was all downhill from there.

In Art we went to the Courtald museum, and saw a lot of Impressionist paintings. The one to the left was done by pointillism artist Seurat, who did this piece and many others completely in dots of random colors. We also saw Monet, Renoir, and Van Gogh again. After the group meeting later that day, a group of people decided to go out to Piccadilly Circus to eat dinner and I decided to go with them, even though I'd already eaten. It was a bit stressful finding a place to eat, since there were 8 of us and no one had made a reservation. So we split up into 2 groups, and Genevieve, Katie T, and Katie H went to this wonderful Italian restaurant on Regent Street. I didn't get dinner, but I tried the others, and it was amazing:) Genevieve and I also split Chocolate Hazelnut ice cream at the end too, which was GREAT.

That night there was a major rainstorm. Nice, but I got about 3 hours of sleep. Hooray for being such a light sleeper...Thursday morning I ran a few errands, grabbed a few souvenirs and gifts, and got my old keys back (I temporarily misplaced them and it almost cost me 30 pounds)! I think the guy at Starbucks and I are becoming friends since we are now on recognizing and long chats basis. Then it was off to Blog class, where today we were set to go on an outing to the London Design Museum.

The Design museum was made up lots of innovative creations. There were objects there for design, fashion, saving the world, or new ways of living. Each object had a reason, then a unique form for its function. There were light fixtures, like the above left, that had a repeated design of plastic plates in order to

create one unity of light with multiple reflections. There were modern beehives shape

d like boxes rather than hives, to adapt to the changing need to preserve more bees. Form fits function. The picture up right was a solar-powered stove that was easily transportable and could boil water just by using the suns rays in minutes. The picture on the left was a 'Houdini' chair that was comfortable, although it doesn't look it, and has arm rests, although they aren't visible. Form fits function. The picture on the right is the future motorcycle. There were also glasses that allowed you to draw with your eyes, the first electronic bicycle, insanely high heels, better house designs for those in hurricane areas, creepy stimulated pandas, and a small electronic airplane motor. I was also quite fascinated by this abacus below. Each bead was a light that you could slide across the wire to make up words or pictures. This took me a while and my arm was a bit sore, but it was worth it:)

From there, we decided not to go all the way back home because we were going to be seeing a show at the Globe that night. So Ingrid, Dylan, Jackson, and I walked to Pizza Express and had a great dinner, ending with awesome Hazelnut gelato on the river. Then we became groundlings leaning against the stage at the replica of Shakespeare's Globe theatre.

Henry IV was a comic play and the acting was great! It was different having to stand for so long and be so close to the actors at some points, but it turned out to be a great experience!

Song of the Day: "Let's Get Lost" by Beck and Bat for Lashes