Fabric!

Last night, the five of us girls all went out to this fun music club called "Fabric" that everyone's been recommending.  We had a little difficulty finding it because the buses that we thought we'd be able to take to get there weren't running for some reason, but when we finally got there everyone was still "queueing" to get in so we were fine.  We ended up waiting in the queue for about THREE HOURS!  It was insane, there were sooo many people trying to get in.  I was worried I'd miss the DJs that I wanted to see, but by the time we finally got in they hadn't even started their set yet, so I was very happy.  

The club was totally jampacked, but it was a really cool place.  It had a bunch of different rooms with different DJs spinning (or whatever you call that, haha), and then some like little sitting areas to just hang out in.  I'm glad that I've found a good group of girls who are fun to go out with, because we all had a really awesome time!!!

Can't wait to go again sometime!! :)

CONSTRUCTION....

One thing I do not like about living here is the incessant construction going on right outside my window.  I have not been able to get a good night's sleep almost this whole entire week because every morning consistently at around 7:30am, they start banging and sawing and knocking and hammering and drilling and who knows what else, RIGHT OUTSIDE MY WINDOW.  And since we have to keep the window open at night so that it won't get stuffy in our room, we end up getting rudely woken up at 7:30 by the stupid construction.  Hopefully, once it starts raining more, the construction will end.  You can't build buildings in the rain right?????  I certainly hope not. 

My first weekend getaway!

I'm very excited because last night Ann and I made our reservations to go to Paris next weekend. We booked our train tickets on the Eurostar train to leave very early Friday morning September 5th, and then we are staying overnight Friday night, and then will return to London Saturday afternoon. It only takes 2 and a half hours to get to Paris from London by train, which is fantastic! We plan on doing touristy type things all day long on Friday, and then packing up and such Saturday morning so we can come back to London to have Sunday to rest/get ready for classes again on Monday morning.

Tuesday Afternoon Adventure

Since we didn't have class today until 3:30, my roommate and I decided to have an adventure around the city.  So, we woke up early and left our apartment by 10am and hopped on the King's Cross Tube and took the Victoria Line (the light blue line on the tube map...seriously i'm turning into a Tube expert now) down to the Pimlico Station and walked from there a few blocks over to the Tate Britain Museum.  On the way over to the Museum, I was SO happy because we finally found a red telephone booth that was not covered in graffiti like they are in the rest of the city - so we took pictures so we could be very touristy and cute like everyone else. :)

I've been hearing lots about the Tate Britain from everyone, so I was really excited to get to finally go.  It's sister museum is the Tate Modern, which (obviously) has all the modern exhibits while the Tate Britain has the older, more traditional artwork.  We got to walk around for a long while, checking out pretty much the whole museum...including some really cool Impressionist pieces that I found in my favorite room there: Room 13.  heehee.  I realized I don't really like the dark and depressing pieces that are mostly of wars, death, destruction, or stories from the Bible.  They are no fun.  I like the pretty pictures.  Obviously, my art appreciation is based on very meaningful factors.  I can't wait to check  out the Tate Modern next, because we ran out of time today, since the Modern is on the other side of the Thames and you have to take a boat to get over there.

Then, the other girls we came with left to go back for their earlier class, and Bridget (my roommate for those of you who don't remember names very well) and I decided to go over to check out Harrod's for the very first time.  We hopped back on the Tube, took the Victoria Line (light blue) up two stops, transferred to the Piccadilly Line (dark blue) and then got off at the Knightsbridge Station which drops you off right in front of the store.  SO.  Harrod's is insane!  It is like a multi-level, over-stimulating, theme park combination of Bloomingdale's, Saks, Nordstrom, FAO Scharwtz, Whole Foods, and Ghiradelli all rolled into one massive department store!  It was wonderful and amazing!!  Bridget and I decided just to skip the clothes and shoes because they would  just be too tempting, so instead we visited the Toy Kingdom, The Chocolate Bar, Christmas World, and the Restaurants downstairs on the ground level floor.  It was amazing!!!  I just can't describe in words how cool it was.  

After our exhausting and overwhelming trip to Harrod's, we got a quick lunch at the supermarket and then hopped back on the Tube back for our class at 3:30 with plenty of time to spare.  Boring class, but it didn't really matter  because I was so happy with my exploration fun!

First day of class

Today was the first day of our classes over at the ACCENT center.  I had only one class today, but we met at two different times.  First part was from 9:30 until 11am, and then we had a three hour break until our next part from 2-3:30pm.  This was my "Drama in London" course of the four courses that I will be taking while I am here.  It seems like it will be interesting: we mostly will just be reading various plays, discussing them, and then going to watch them at theatres around the city.  Which is cool!  And the professor seems nice and funny too, which is a bonus.  Today we learned a little about the background history of Elizabethian theatre in London (the time when Shakespeare's plays started gaining popularity).  The first show we will be seeing though is next week and it's called Fragments, which is pieces of Samuel Beckett's plays all together in one show.  That should be interesting...Beckett seems kind of weird.

In between my classes (during my three hour break), I got a coffee and then sat in a nearby square/park type thing and read for a little while.  Then, spent the last hour in the British Museum (which is right down the street from where my classes are) checking out the American exhibit they have going on right now, with some pieces from Pollack, Hopper, and a few others whose names I don't remember (oops!).  It was pretty awesome.  Mostly just because of the fact that I don't really even mind going to class here because I'm going to class in London.  Everything is made more amazing whenever I remember where I am, and where I am going to be studying for the next four months.  It's still pretty surreal.

Oh!  And another (yummy) discovery was made today: there is this chain restaurant all around the city called "Pret-A-Manger."  I have been hearing good things about it (it's cheap, yummy, and organic)...so I decided to pick  up a sandwich on the way home today from class.  SO GOOD!  I had a smoked salmon and lemon and butter sandwich on whole wheat bread for only 2 pounds 85.  It was delicious!!  My tummy is very pleased with this new discovery.  :)

my first solo walk in the city

Forewarning on this post: it's going to be very cheesy.  

I was finally able to sleep in this morning, and when I finally woke up at two in the afternoon I decided that it was time for me to go out and get myself a UK cell phone.  So, after puttering around my room for a little while, I finally got my things together and left Nido to walk downtown to go to the phone store that is on Tottenham Court Road (?) over by where my classes are held at ACCENT.  See, where I live (Nido) is over in King's Cross, which is on Pentonville Road, but where my classes are (ACCENT) is over in the Bloomsbury area, more specifically on Great Russell Road, which is about a 25 minute walk through town from where my apartment is.  So this afternoon, I headed out, hoping I would not get lost on the way.  BUT, not only did I not get lost, I found my way perfectly on my own.  I was able to get all the way to ACCENT, and then remember my way over to the cell phone store from when we went there the other day.  I was so very pleased with myself.  And I was very happy.  

I am so happy to be here, words can't even really explain it very well.  I can't believe that I finally was able to figure out everything in my life so that I would be able to have this amazing and incredible experience.  And I also can't believe that it's only been four days and I am already able to find my way about (more or less...heehee) and listen to my iPod and get a coffee on the way home (still takes me awhile to figure out the correct change to pay with though) and also to enjoy it the whole time.  The weather is pretty nice here: sort of like typical Berkeley weather actually - meaning overcast and about 60-65 degrees all the time.  Pretty windy too.  But the walk is so pleasant, especially since it is totally flat.  I am so used to having to deal with all the uphills on my walks in Berkeley, that it is a welcome change.

So there is my cheesy moment for the afternoon. :)

My "apartment" in Nido

So those are some pictures of my new living space here at the Nido Student Living/Apartment building.  There are no pictures of my roommate yet, but I do like her a lot.  Her name's Bridget, and she's a third year at UCLA, but she's originally from the Sonoma area.  We get along well so far, she's just been pretty busy because her friends from home have been visiting her since we got here Wednesday.  But I know I like her already because her friends are cool, AND she likes to straighten and blow dry her hair so we are now sharing a UK blow dryer and straightener.  YAY!  Because it was pretty yucky not being able to have lovely swooping bangs for almost two whole days!!  Bridget was funny because when I got all excited about our straightener because it meant I could finally "do" my bangs, she said "yeah, i was looking at your pictures on your bulletin board and i was like wow...she's so cute with her bangs!!"  She said that!!  I did not make it up.  I look like a small child when I have to pin my bangs back.  

I think I may go out to try to buy a phone now.  Because it's getting pretty silly not having one.  Oh!  Another thing I love about London is that even though everything is way expensive because of the terrible exchange rate, they do have pretty cheap groceries at the supermarket.  The one I have been shopping at (Tesco) is great.  I got yummy mini-pita breads only 6 for 24 pence!  I also got yummy and delicious white cheddar cheese (omg, i had forgotten how much i love eating cheese in europe) for only like 1 pound!  Oh yah, and a loaf of wheat bread (they call it "wholemeal") for only 64 pence!  It's great how easily amused I am sometimes.

Dad said I should create a blog, sooo...

While it has only been about four days so far that I've been living in London, I have already figured out that it is pretty difficult to keep in touch with absolutely everyone back home that I want to keep in touch with.  Plus, it gets rather annoying to just write the same email over and over again, remembering everything that happened that day to tell to new people. SO, I am following my father's (thanks father) good advice to start a little blog-type thing so that people can just come and read this whenever they want to! Whatta gas! :D

So, I will try to post on this thing as much as possible, and that includes pictures (the above picture is of the houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey, and Big Ben, viewed from across the river Thames) and fun stories as well. I'm not promising daily posts, because I'm really pretty bad about consistency with this sort of thing, but I will write as much as I can remember to do so. 

Right now, I finally was able to sleep in a little bit more than I have the past three days. I slept in until almost 2pm!! hahaha. Which is fine, because there are no events planned for the students in my program today. At some point, I'm going to call this girl I met (new friend??) Jessica, and we are going out to buy ourselves UK cell phones. Because apparently this is the thing to do. Everyone keeps asking for my UK cell number, and since I thought I didn't really need one, I have been putting off getting one for awhile now. It's the cheapest option actually for calling the states (which I like for calling all of you wonderful people), because it only costs 4 pence a minute (pence are like cents, and pounds are like dollars...except that because of the bad exchange rate it's really like a pound is two dollars...if that makes sense. But I've heard rumors that even just since we've been here the exchange rate has been improving.).  

Ok, so I think I have rambled on enough for now at least. More to come later.

I miss you all and love you all VERY much.

Hope all is going well back home!

Much Love,

Simone