"Is that, like a for real, jellyfish?"

This past weekend was wondeful!! Friday, we all took a trip out to the southern shores of England to Brighton! It was a bit stressful getting out there, since we missed the first train, but playing music hangman on the train made up for it. The streets of Brighton were lined with old vintage shops, new contemp shops, street vendors with crazy shoes and amber rings. But we didn't stop then, since we had a tour of the Royal Pavilion, this gorgeous and intricately and overly ornate building made by King George. There was incredible detailing in the wallpaper, creative disguises, beautifully colored rooms, and dragons holding up the chandelier's by their claws.

After the Pavilion we walked down to the Pier and had a greasy lunch of fish and chips and milkshakes. Then Laura, Katie, Ryan, Sam and I all headed to the beach. The Brighton beach was way different than any I've been to. It wasn't a sand beach, but a pebble beach, and it could actually be kind of painful if you tried to walk on it. But it was nice and relaxing to just lay there on the warm stones and chill for the afternoon. Before getting back on the train, I bough a green amber ring and cute dress for only 12 pounds. Good day:)

Saturday, Sarah, Katie, Katie T (and her dad), Ryan, Rob, and went somewhere I've been dying to go back to since we've been here. Windsor Castle. It wasn't going to be a group activity, but I really wanted to go back and see this memorable castle. In the morning, we had to flat out sprint in order to make it to the train to get out to Windsor. But we made it just in time, and again, got to see the beautiful English countryside from the train windows. Upon arriving in the little town of Windsor, Sarah and I explored a

bit, while the others grabbed a quick breakfast. Near Windsor Bridge, there was this huge flock of swans, probably the most I've ever seen in one place before!! And it was probably due to the fact that

there were multiple people feeding them...but it was really cool to see!

Windsor castle was majestic, elegant, and historically awing. In line to get our tickets, Katie, her dad, and I talked about whether we would want to be cremated or buried...kind of random. The we had these really dorky audio tours to walk around with, but it was nice to not have to walk around with a tour. We saw a Queen-sized, or excessively large, doll house (even the miniature wine bottles were filled!), St. George's Chapel (another beautiful ecclesiastical building), and lovely views.

We returned to London, after a wonderful lunch of BLT bagels, and went off to an American supporting pub to watch America in the World Cup!! Which was fun for a bit...until we lost... but overall it was a great day! Sunday was the Paul McCartney Concert in Hyde Park (with guest Joshua Radin eekk!!) that I really wanted to go to but money was an issue..:(

Harrods Halls of Food

This past Thursday, for our Blog class outing, we went to the infamous Harrod's in London. Let's just say this place is a bit intense. It's like the world of shopping, with Willy Wonka's factory, a pet paradise, and even fossils galore. Walking into the Food Halls was a bit overwhelming. Each room was it's own supermarket, with elaborate chandelier's hanging everywhere. This place has every type of food you could imagine, wish for, try. From Passion fruit from Brazil to lamb samosas from India, this place was insane. I wanted to try everything, but my wallet was a little empty compared to the amount I needed to pay for any of it. The strangest thing I saw was Octopus Sushi, which still had the skin of the octopus on the sides...yuck...

But there were beautiful fruit cakes, cupcakes, sugar fruits, and dutch chocolate that made the weird stuff bearable. The most elegant food was at this ice cream parfait bar that was 16 pounds..just for ice cream...Professor Maune also bought us each a truffle, which was absolutely delicious:):)

We explored other parts of the store, but couldn't get around to too many, this place was huge. We walked around the furniture section of the store for a while, finding extremely creative chairs and whatnot, including a beautiful white kitchen with gold embossing. The most expensive thing i saw however was downstairs, and was a watch that was 92,500 pounds. That's almost two times the amount of my dream car...

Thursday night we saw London Assurance in the Olivier Theatre!! That theatre is truly incredible and was remarkable to actually get to see a play in. The show was very funny, and Aunt Petunia from the Harry Potter movies was in it (and she was the best)!! This themed our fun night afterwards, Harry Potter meets Abbey Road night:)

Song of the Day: OMG by Usher

Park Hopper

These past three days, we have had absolutely B-E-A-UTIFUL weather! It's been sunny and warm with a spot of cool in the shade. We tried to convince one of our teachers to have class outside it was so gorgeous. So let's just say I have been taking advantage of my free time and been going to parks, just reading, doing some homework, or just people watching. One thing I love about the people here is they love their parks. They just sit, eat lunch, chat with friends, drink, sleep, smoke, play football, do whatever they want all times of the day. If I don't live close to a park like one of these when I grow up I will be very unhappy. The picture I took above was so adorable in Remembrance Park, and it had the two old ladies on a bench, and the boys on the other, just like middle school:) Tuesday I spent three hours in the two parks that are located at the ends of my street, Bloomsbury and Russell Square. When I got to Russell Square, there was this group of 5th or 6th grade boys, all playing with wooden swords or really big pencils. I thought they only did that in Peter Pan. I guess now it's just an upscale version, with the boys dressed in their dockers and white button up shirts and ties and using hand sanitizer when finished playing.



Walked all the way from home to Hyde Park today, which consisted of me dodging people for 35 minutes on Oxford Street, one of the most crazy shopping streets in England...And most of the park was actually covered up due to the set up for the Paul McCartney concert this weekend (really really want to go, but 60 pounds is kind of a lot...). But it was just nice to sit and eat my tuna mayonnaise (the Brits love their mayo...) in the sun and read. There is also this Elephant Parade going on here in the summer, where artists come in and paint these cute elephants to raise money to save the dying Asian elephants in India. Here's only three of them, and there's more than 200 all over the city.



As for actual things that I've done this week: Monday we had this great tour of the incredible National Theatre, and got to see backstage and all three theaters. That space was the god of all theaters. It was unbelievable! Working there must be surreal, or at least I hope the people there are grateful. Tuesday night we went to BFI and watched a famous movie called Rashomon, and it was kind of boring, okay it was really boring, but I can see why it was an inspiring and pivotal movie for film. Love my classes, except for Media & Society..where our teacher ditched us at some random museum during our outing??

In Art History today, we were missing both the USA and England final game of this round of the World Cup. So finally, our teacher decided to let us get out early, and we ran to a close bar and watched the rest of the game outside the window with other engrossed England fans. And both of our teams ended up winning:) Come on, Eng-GLAND!

Awkward Story of the Day: So when you glance out of our kitchen window, it's a gorgeous view right? Or so I thought.... After these few weeks, I think we are living behind a hotel, and I have begun to notice that many of the shades of the bathrooms, or toilets, as referred to here, are open. I will be standing next to the fridge, enjoying my morning cereal, then get a glance of someone just passing time on the toilet. One lady was there tonight when I started making dinner, and was STILL THERE when I was nearly done eating. Awkward much? Note to self: close the shades in the bathroom.

Song of the day: Chevaliers de Sangreal from the Da Vinci Code, in honor of studying Da Vinci today in Art History

"Everyone sounds like Shrek"

This past weekend, the group got to go to Edinburgh, Scotland. It's someplace I've never been, and the excitement I had about getting to go there might have been a little unnecessary. And yet, Scotland, or the tiny amount of Edinburgh we actually got to see, completely met and surpassed my expectations. The city was a little bubble of history in both it's New Town and Old Town. The Edinburgh Castle and Arthur's Seat rise above the city and give it a breath-taking view and respite from the bustle of the city. Even though it is small, way smaller than London, there was a jillion things to do, we just didn't have enough time to explore everything in this amazing, peaceful city.
Even the train ride there was really relaxing and gave us a chance to see the beautiful landscapes of England and Southern Scotland. I saw sheep:):) Our hotel was super cute, even though Sarah, Leslie, and I were on the fourth floor... The spectacular view made up for it however. I took some time just sitting in a chair by the window looking out at that view.

As soon as we got there, we went to grab some lunch before visiting the Scottish Parliament. A friend, Rachel, made me a bit nauseous when she offered to eat the leftover skin from my salmon...she just ate it. Weird. Then after traipsing down the Royal Mile and about 50 Cashmere or Kilt stores, we came to the Scottish Parl't. It was a very different. Okay it was kinda ugly. They tried to make it all modernized and organic, and it just looked terrible. I did like how light and open it was, but otherwise, it was not pretty. Even the people who live there don't think it's pretty. This was its only good side

After Parl't, we got to ride on a double decker for the first time since being here, on a bus tour of Edinburgh. The city has held many famous and intelligent people, many rich (who have keys to their own private gardens), and many who have done wonders in the city to preserve its history and authenticity. The driver also pointed out Rose Street, which had nearly 20 bars on it, and the whole bus got excited. That's where we spent out evening, even though it was quite lame. It consisted of most people being over the age of 45, crazy Americans singing karaoke, and getting carded every three seconds. They let a whole group of us into a bar and no one got carded until I walked in. Cool. Tried wearing a headband for the first time, and that was fun:)


Saturday, we got up bright and early, my shower shut off on my halfway through, and most of us had breakfast at the hotel before we went off to the Edinburgh Castle. Although a bit chilly, it was a beautiful castle and lots of good looking guys. I mean good looking paintings and decor...As a group we grabbed lunch then most of us went off to climb Arthur's Seat, an old giant dormant volcano, and climbed to the top, 832 feet in the air, about a 3.7 mile walk. It was sooooo fun!! A little painful, but a great hike, even though my camera died halfway up. Jackson was nice and took this picture of me at the very top (just had to do a dance pose:)). It was a memorable experience and a gorgeous panoramic view of the city.


We all just kinda died after the giant climb so we just laid on the grass and in the sun for a while which was wonderful. We scaled the Royal Mile again, where we tried to do more things, but everything closes at 5, I bought this really soft dark green cashmere scarf, and we had a cheap but good dinner at a bar called The Tron. That night we went to this outside 'beer garden' called The Three Sisters, where I didn't drink, but danced to the DJ and laughed at Jackson's crazy dance moves that attracted a whole crowd. A fun night beside the fact that I was sick with a cold...

The last day we were there, most of us decided to visit the Scotch Whiskey Experience, which was this fun and interesting tour ride in a barrel (like Disney's haunted mansion ride) that took you through the process of making whiskey, a smelling and learning about the different types section with a hungover tour guide, and then an actual tasting. I tried a pearish kind of whiskey, wasn't too bad, and we got to keep the glass:) There was A LOT of Whiskey in there...

Katie and I also met these two guys who had just graduated from Westpoint, and it was really cool talking to them and hearing their interesting stories during the tour. After, a few of us went by the Elephant House, where JK Rowling wrote some of Harry Potter! We then stopped into the Museum of Scotland, which was a bit boring, beside seeing the real guillotine and playing dress up in the discovery center! We got to have a little picnic in the park which was beautiful and relaxing (apparently we were in Scotland on one of the most beautiful weather weekends of the year). Before we headed to the station, we stopped at Jenners, one of the most amazing department stores I've ever been in. I wanted to try on everything. It was torture. But really good to get to see this historically popular store. After that we headed to the station where our train got delayed by 40 minutes and we were all walking dead....but otherwise it was an amazing weekend and I want to go back already.



Song of the day: "To Sir With Love" (Glee Cast)

Nine Lives

I wrote my mom an email at the beginning of the week, explaining to her all the things we've done so far, and how I love it all and it's all so pretty. Well, she wrote back saying, "Dad commented how you don't seem to remember any of these places you have been. We took you to all of them so far...Kew Gardens IS beautiful. You children used to run around there in the different parts of the garden..." This took me aback a little bit, because I know I did live here and probably already did so much of this but I don't remember. It's like I'm living a second life, where I'm re-seeing everything for the first time. It sounds lame, but it's strange to think how much we do in our lives that we don't remember, or the memory slips away. Also our childhood memories, those days that were so carefree and unlimited, I can barely remember. It's a surreal kind of feeling.

Anyways, back to this week. Sunday, we visited a place I know I have been before: Hyde Park. It was very relaxing and nice to sit in beautiful weather (finally!). Also saw the Princess Diana memorial fountain, which I was kind of disappointed by. It wasn't as majestic as I wanted it to be, but then, after seeing all the kids running through it and peeing in it, I thought this would have been just how Diana would have wanted it to have been. Putting smiles on people's faces.

After Hyde Park, which I want to go back to asap, we took a LAME canal boat trip. It was nice for about 2 seconds. Then we spent the next few hours wandering around Camden Town Market, which was crazy. Lots of people, shops, smells, amazing-looking food, weird-looking people. Ate a our FMIR's house that night, which was sooo cute! Really makes me want to live here someday. Playing with Gretchen in the backyard, a very intelligent and sneaky 7-year-old, was so fun and a good ending to the day.

Monday, we saw The White Guard, which was a surprisingly really good but intense play written by Mikhail Bulgakov.



Tuesday we got to go inside Parliament and watch a little bit of debate in the House of Commons. The Hall was beautiful (I'll put up a picture soon) and it has been around for 1000 years. Insane. I really wanted to break out into song and dance to hear the acoustics, but one of the professor's said they might arrest me so I refrained. We also got to see Big Ben up close!

Then last night, went out for drinks with Macki and on of my JMU professors, Wolf. It was a nice break from the group and a chill night to talk about theatre and random things at the Marquis and the Russell Hotel Bar. I originally wanted to see Leona Lewis performing here last night, but I didn't want to go by myself...and guess what. Matthew Morrison from Glee showed up and played a few songs with her. Cool.

Leaving for Edinburgh tomorrow morning bright and early eek!! Bring on the Haggis! Well, maybe not..

Song/Music Video of the day: All The Right Moves (OneRepublic)

God save the Queen

It was the Queen's birthday this past weekend, and we all got up early to go to the Trooping of the Colour, a.k.a. a parade for her outside of Buckingham Palace. It is a bit surreal seeing her, as well as Prince Charles and Prince William, since royalty, to me, seems so fairy-tale like nowadays. All the soldiers, the carriages, the calvary with the funny hats, they all seem a bit out of place in a world where I feel we've moved on from those things. But here, history is so strong, and has such a deep root in the people that I believe them, cheer for them, revere them. Except Prince Charles, who was awkwardly riding in a bus?


We also got to visit and explore Borough Market, this amazing, upscale farmers market in southeast London. You could eat your body weight in samples, which we did, and buy almost anything you wanted, fresh. The locals were all so nice and it was refreshing to be mixed in with the crowd sampling focaccia bread and dodging giant cheese wheels. And guess what I ended up buying? A chocolate croissant and Tipsy Strawberry Jam with Champagne. Yes, I got a souvenir, and it's some of the best jam I've ever had. And yes, it's almost halfway gone.


After listening to a friend's ravings about it, a group of us went over to St. Paul's Cathedral. It. Was. Beautiful. Seriously. I don't know how people in that day and age could create something so breathtaking and detailed. Not only that, but you could walk up 400 or so steps (no big deal...) to three upper levels that showed you incredible views of the inner dome and panoramic view of the city of London. Let's just say it was well worth the pounds. This is Sarah, my roommate and I at the top of the dome, on the third gallery; very high and frightening, but incredible.


That night we went out to Weatherspoons and watched the World Cup! Made my first British-boy friends, and we all had a blast watching the game, even though it was a draw. The energy from both sides during the game though was exciting enough.

Week 1

So since I've already missed blogging my first week here, I'll just try to give quick overview, or else I'll forget everything we did:)

Day 1: After a long, 9 hour, no sleep flight I arrived at 9:30am on Friday June 4th. Took a bus ride with some other students to our wonderful flat in Bloomsbury. Then took a walk around London to get oriented. Met up at the National Theatre on the Thames, and had a lovely river walk with Rustin, the director of the program. Had an AWFUL dinner at this random Turkish restaurant, but it could have been that the jet lag just made it seem really rough.

Day 2: Got up early and explored some more on our four finger walk. Did an East End walk later that day with tour guide Harry who told us lots of random scary stories about Jack-the-Ripper and the war..

Day 3: Woke up early again and took a Royal London tour, where we saw Buckingham Palace, St. James's Palace, Green Park, the changing of the guards, Westminster Abbey, and Parliament. After a great lunch, we had to do a scavenger hunt. Sounds fun, and it was, but our group of four all got sooooo lost and ended up being last:) Team Awesome! But we saw the Royal Academy of Ballet, Jack Sparrow, Covent Garden, and Leicester Square, and rewarded ourselves at the pub across from the British Museum and also fish and chips afterwards, so that made up for the long day:)


Day 4 (Monday): Had the morning off so finally unpacked, then went to the Russell Park near our house and read the play the War Horse in the park. We saw the show later that evening after our theatre class and it was incredible, I loved it!! The story was intriguing, the tech side was spectacular and the puppetry was so cool and intricate to watch.

Day 5: Had Media&Society in the morning, which was great, the professor is funny and blunt, which is going to make the class interesting. Then went to the British Museum, and went shopping for a bit in Covent Garden with Leslie. Then went out to the sports bar that night with a few of us, and took a picture by the statue of Eros!

Day 6: Went to my first dance class here in London, at the Pineapple! Took Classical Ballet with this really sweet old lady for an hour and a half, and it was great to be back dancing again. The style is a bit different, so adjusting to that took a lot of focusing, but the class was still refreshing and I can't wait to go back. Then had Art History with Rachel Barnes, who is just as sweet and awesome as my other teachers. Went to the National Portrait Gallery at Trafalgar Square, and looked at Renaissance and Medieval paintings! Had a safety meeting later that freaked everyone out, then went out again! Crazy: we saw Anne Hathaway in the Covent Garden Hotel Bar, went inside and sat two feet away from her!!!! Katie and I shared a Baileys and reveled in the fact that she was right behind us, we could hear her conversation. But we didn't want to be rude, so we didn't ask for a picture...

Day 7: Went out shopping in Picadilly and Carnaby Street with Katie and Sarah, had a wonderful lunch at Pret, then raced back to go to Blog class. Went out to the edge of London to the Kew Gardens (Audrey, Dietrich's wife and Gretchen, their 7-year-old, joined us!). It was rainy and dreary, but the gardens were absolutely beautiful, and Sarah and Jackson and I took a good thousand of pictures. Saw a peacock, explored one of the world's most beautiful glass conservatory's, walked slowly across the treetop walkway, saw the dead azalea garden, did cartwheels on the vista, and stalked swans.

Day 8 (Friday): Went to the Tower of London today! It was rainy and dreary again, but it was so cool and historical:) Even saw Shelby's family for a few seconds! Also glimpsed the Bridge of London, saw some torturing machines, the Royal jewels (beautiful!!), King Henry VIII's armor, and some other random things. At lunch at a great pub called Weatherspoons, where we used 42 packets of ketchup/mustard between us five girls on five cheeseburgers... In the afternoon, we took our own self-guided audio tours of Westminster Abbey, and I got a little overwhelmed and emotional. So much history, so many famous people, so much beauty and regality, I think I was just blown away by it all. Then we stopped by this CRAZY store on the way home that had thousands of shoppers in it, called Primark, it was kind scary...Then went home and chilled for a bit!


Overall, the first week was a bit crazy, but it was so much fun, and the group I am here with is awesome. Everyone gets along really well, and is outgoing and willing to go out and try/see new things. The rest of the posts won't be like this I promise, I just failed at posting the first week earlier...

NEW BLOG!!

So I've been here now for a week, and I'm just now starting this blog. We've already done so much in such a short time!! But here is my blog that I will be doing for the next two months for a Creative Online Travel Blog class I'm taking here in London. It's an awesome class, with only four of us, taught by Dietrich, our FMIR.

I've never done a blog before, so here goes. If I randomly stop a story, it's because I'm rambling and no one wants to read that, or I just tell really bad stories and I'm trying to prevent you guys from suffering while reading this blog.
Miss you all and know that I'm having the time of my life here.
Cheers!!