It's snowing in October!!!

Omygoodness.

So today I heard rumors around in my classes that it was supposed to snow tonight in London around 10 or 11.  This was actually pretty easy to believe, since it was already significantly colder than it has ever been since I've been here...plus, it was already sort of sprinkling rain outside.  But I had to see it to believe it.  Then, when I got back home after dinner with the girls, I was on the phone with Mike and he told me that it had snowed earlier this evening up in Milton Keynes, and I was really really jealous because I wanted snow too!  Then, while I was still on the phone, someone knocked on my door and it was Ann and Meghan and Jessica and they were yelling that I had to hurry and come outside because it was snowing!!!  I quickly told Mike I had to go see the snow, threw on my boots, grabbed my camera, and we ran downstairs and outside into the courtyard behind our building....where snow was already falling from the sky.  I love snow.  I love snow in London.  I love living in London in the winter because it's cold and pretty and soo magical.  I'm so cheesy I know.

Fall Break '08

So, I got back to London last night after five days of travelling since we have a week off of classes for our "Fall Break."  Meghan, Bridget, and I went to Berlin for three days and then flew out of Berlin Monday morning for two days in Geneva.  It was a really nice trip, but I'm glad to be back home in London for the rest of our time off...just to rest a bit.

We left superrrr early for the Luton Airport on Friday morning, since our flight to Berlin left at 6:30am.  We flew on EasyJet, which is one of the really cheap airlines that they  have over here that fly almost everywhere you could ever want (or need) to go all over Europe and the United Kingdom.  Once we arrived in Berlin, we spent almost three hours trying to navigate the underground system there in order to get to our hotel, check-in, drop off our bags, and finally get some food to eat.  By the time we found our hotel, Meghan and I had already given in and bought 1euro pastries to hold us over (we were sooo starving) and then we got to our hotel around 12:30, and they let us check-in early...so we were able to get up to our room, push our double beds together, shut the curtains, and sleep for HOURS. It was wonderful and amazing to be honest, because none of us had gotten very much sleep the night before.  We eventually woke up around 6:30 that night (having slept for pretty much six hours...), and left to walk around the area to find some dinner. We ended up eating chicken and chips (french fries, of course) at this random place called the "Irish Pub" (typical, and definitely not very German), and then went and bought some chocolate bars (yummmy) and milk to eat back at the hotel, because we decided to have a slumber party because we were wayyy tooo tired to go out and be social. :)

Saturday, we woke up pretty refreshed, because we'd gotten a fair amount of sleep the night before. We ate the breakfast at the hotel (pretty good spread...rolls and cold cuts and cereal and coffee and hard-boiled eggs...), then left to explore and try to figure out what we were going to do with ourselves all day. We finally were able to find a tourist guide to Berlin - complete with a map - and decided to make the trek over to East Berlin to see where the Berlin Wall used to be. That was what was so interesting to me about Berlin, and really about Germany as a whole: the fact that they have this really intense history of violence, struggle, and the like that is still so very recent.  Very intriguing to see and explore this type of a place. So yes, we went to where the Berlin Wall used to be, and it was really interesting to look and read more about it. Then, we went see the famous Bradenburg Gate, as well as a Holocaust Memorial that was built very recently - which was really haunting and thought-provoking to see. Then, on a completely different side of things...we went to The Hard Rock Cafe for dinner, because we were really pretty hungry, and decided that it might be a fun thing to do. That night we went out to this dance club called "Weekend," which was a very hipster and pretty fun place to go and dance the night away at. :)

Sunday morning we woke up on the more early side in order to go meet with our tour group for the day, because we were able to find a group that gave tours of the concentration camp located just a 45-minute train ride outside of Berlin.  I was really nervous as to what to expect about the tour, but we had a very good tour guide, who was able to give us a lot of information, without being too intense, or sounding fake in any way. Overall, the whole thing was just very thought-provoking. Yes, it was horrific to hear about what had happened there not so long ago...and yes, it was very saddening to learn about all the terrible crimes that were committed to innocent people...but it I feel as if it is so very important for these types of tours to be given. They help to allow people to see what this really was. History does have a tendency to repeat itself, and on a very simplistic level - the more information is given to the general population about these sorts of things, the more aware people will be, and the more unlikely it is that people will let something like this happen ever again.  That's my bit of intense thinking for this entry.

After the tour of the concentration camp, we went back to near where our hotel was in West Berlin, and we ate dinner at a traditional German-type food restaurant. It was really very good actually. We tried sausages, the girls tried Chicken schnizel, and I tried fried salmon with herb potatoes, and then for dessert we all tried apple struedel. yum yum yum.  Then we went home to try to get some sleep so we could wake up in the morning to go catch our plane to Geneva on Monday morning.

We left on another EasyJet flight to go to Geneva Monday afternoon...and our flight was late and then once we finally got on the airplane, we sat on the runway for a whole entire hour...which was fine, because it gave me more naptime. Once we arrived in Geneva, I called my high school friend Rachel, who apparently lives and works in Geneva and we all met up and she took us to this adorable little Swiss restaurant with incredibleeeeee cheese fondue. We ate a lovely dinner of cheese fondue with yum yum bread and white wine, which tasted incredible!!! It was even better because Rachel is pretty much fluent in French, and she was able to communicate with the waiter much better than we ever could have. :) Then, we said goodbye to Rachel and met up with Bridget's friend from UCLA who is studying abroad in Geneva, and who let us stay at her place...actually who let us sleep on the floor of her room. SUPER comfortable. NOT. hahaa.

The next day, we slept in a bit longer in Michelle's bed because we all slept terribly on the floor the night before, and then we went out to have some delicious almond croissaints (a MUST do in any vaguely French country....heehee...DELICIOUS), and then we took the bus up to the United Nations, and ended up wandering around forever trying to figure out our way back to the city. We then ate dinner at a pub (I know, we're London addicts) and had delicioussss cheeseburgers, and then hopped back on the train to go to the airport to catch our plane back home to London. Honestly, I had an amazing time travelling a bit, but I just love London oh so much, and was thrilled to be walking back up the street to my tiny little bedroom at Nido once again. :D

For those of you who didn't know before...

...like MOM and DAD (ahem...).

There are more pictures posted at the bottom of my blog. Like a LOT of pictures. So after you read each blog entry, be sure to scroll down if you'd like to see more fun and exciting photos. 

Love, Simone.

Hyde Park Picnic Afternoon

Thursdays we have a three hour break between our lecture and our discussion, and usually we just sit around near the study centre and waste the time away, but seeing as today was such a BEAUTIFUL day - we decided to try something new. Like really...the sun was shining, the sky was wonderfully blue, the clouds were fluffy and white, and there was no rain anywhere off in the distance. So Bridget suggested that we all go to Hyde Park and have a little picnic. It was soo very nice. Really a lovely way to spend the afternoon. We bought pre-made sandwiches from Sainsbury's market, and just sat on the lawn in the sun and ate and took in all the glorious sunny weather. More pictures are to be found below. 

Annapalooza '08!!! (aka Ann's 21st Birthday)

My friend Ann's 21st birthday was yesterday, so we decided to dedicate the whole weekend to celebrating her turning 21 - and we decided to call it "Annapalooza '08." haha. Thursday night was the kickoff night of Annapalooza, and so Bridget, Meghan, and I bought a ton of fun party supplies and decorated Bridget's and my room with streamers, balloons, a pin the tail on the donkey game, and much more. We also bought a cake, and since we were trying to go with a fiesta theme...we bought burritos and tortilla chips and stuff to make margaritas with as well. We also made Ann a pretty photo collage of pictures of all of us over the last month and a half of adventuring in and around London. Ann was really surprised when she saw all that we'd done for the birthday party, and we had a really fun time in our room before heading out to a dancing club/bar afterwards. All in all, I'd say that Annapalooza was a total success!!! On Monday (Ann's actual birthday), we all just went out to a local pub down the street and had a burger and a pint of cider and some chocolate cake and ice cream. It was fun. :)