So close.

It's really weird to think that I'm almost done with my semester in London.  It only really sunk in a few days ago that in a very short period of time (two final exams, one final paper, one weekend, and a few goodbyes from now) I will have to go back home.  It's actually a mixture of good feelings and bad feelings about leaving the UK.  While I am very sad to go, I am very happy to go back and be home and see my family and friends and eat my American (and REAL Mexican) food and have Christmas and all that fun stuff.  But I am sad to go.  I will definitely miss London.  A LOT.  I wish I could go back home for a little while, and then just turn around and come right back here.  But that is silly.  Here's a preliminary list of things that I will miss when I leave.  In the ACCENT Center Departure Guide (the actually very useless guide for how to leave the program...), it says that we may experience "Reverse Homesickness" upon returning to the states.  This might be true, because even though it sounds really cheesy, I have sort of in fact created my own little home here over the past four months.  Oh yeah, here's my list:

Things I am going to miss when I say bye bye to London...(version 1)

1.  Pret, and all pre-packaged sandwiches in general.

2.  Flavoured crisps, especially the salt and vinegar ones.  

3.  Good white bread.  It's better here.

4.  Teatime in the mornings with B&M.

5.  Riding the tube with my iPod on.

6.  Riding the 73 by myself, after a lovely afternoon of shopping at Dorothy Perkins.

7.  Realizing that I know exactly how to get home on the tube without even looking at the map of the underground.

8.  Super Noodles (and yes, I do realize a lot of the stuff on this list is food...I really enjoy food)

9.  Cider

10.  "x" at the end of text messages from Ann

11.  The pound.

12.  Primark

13.  The cold.  I actually really like it.

14.  Walking home from class when it's just getting dark and cold and I'm all bundled up and warm and know I'll be home soon to my warm room

15.  BAM! (but I'll see them again soon I know)

16.  Mike  (but I'll see him again soon I know)

17.  Going to the Angel with the girls and drinking Rose wine.

18.  Tortilla burritos

19.  The London Paper and The London Lite

20.  More to come...

I will make this list longer later, I am sure.  But, for now, I'm tired so I gotta go to bed. :)

Piglet and Giblet in London!

So last Tuesday while I was sitting in Starbucks, trying to focus and get work done on my paper that was due on Thursday...I was met with a very special surprise.  I was sitting there, minding my own business, when all of a sudden I looked up and Mike was standing there smiling at me. I was soo surprised because he should have been at work, but I just figured that he took the day off to surprise me. Then, after I finished hugging him hello, I looked behind him and was even MORE surprised to see my little Piglet standing right there! In Starbucks! In London! And she was laughing sooo hard, because I looked like a total idiot, because I thought that I must be dreaming or something.  And all of my friends were sitting there laughing, and Mike too, because they ALL knew! They all knew that Annica was coming...everyone except me of course!! hahahahah. Because I'm very slow and totally and completely and totally oblivious. But it was a very very wonderful surprise, and apparently Annica had been planning it for about a month now, and everyone kept it from me. It was sooo lovely. She left on Saturday, but we had a wonderful time frolicking about London. I miss her. I love my Piglet.

Chelsea Football Match!!!

On Saturday, we all went to the Chelsea Football Match because Mike was actually able to find us all tickets!!  It was really really fun, and we actually had pretty cool seats, like right behind the goal.  It was even better because even though it was raining the whole match - we were under an awning, so we didn't even have to get wet.  Then, the only thing that sucked was when the tube was closed after the match and we had to walk soooo far in the rain to the next closest tube station and got totally and completely soaking wet.  But it was really very much fun...so I didn't care. :)

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. :)

Day to Day Life in London

I realized I have not updated this in awhile, and I noticed that I only seem to be updating this when I travel somewhere...which really is just silly because my blog is supposed to be about my time spent in London, and I'm only writing about my time spent outside of the city where I'm living.  Also, I am in the middle of writing my British Cinema midterm report, so I need something to do while taking a break from writing.  And what better to do whilst procrastinating than update my blog for all of you!!!

Things are really good.  I'm feeling almost completely settled in, and it's such a great feeling.  Classes are very easy, which is nice but also bad in a way because the easiness leads to boredom really.  But, I'm trying my best to stay focused and take good notes and study the material and do the coursework - I turned in a paper for my Ancient Civilizations class on Tuesday, I have my British Cinema report due on Wednesday, and there is a Drama in London paper due a week from tomorrow.  Woo hoooooo!  Hahaa.  

My friends and I are still having a lot of fun going out to pubs and exploring around London bit by bit.  We're actually trying to plan what we want to do for our week-long fall break in late October.  Meghan, Bridget, and I think we just want to do some sort of short trip to Geneva, Switzerland as well as possibly somewhere in Germany.  But we don't want to go away for the whole week.  We've decided that we'd rather just come back by Tuesday most likely and use the time to rest and explore more of the London area that we have yet to see.  We also have tentative plans to go see a football (ie. soccer) match in early Novemeber, which is SO exciting!!!  It will be a Chelsea match, because we're currently obsessed with Chelsea football, and they are our favorite team so far.  

Ummm...don't know what else to say right now...but I'm really really really happy here still, the happiest I've been in quite some time, and it's so nice to feel so comfortable here and to have such great friends around me as well. :) :) :)  Until the next time!!  Love and miss you all very much!!!  Come and visit me!!!!! :D

How exactly do you say EDINBURGHHH?

This past weekend, the girls and I all travelling to Edinburgh, Scotland.  I've been there once before, when we stopped there on our way to Venice to go meet the cruise ship two summers ago.  All I remember about the city was that it was beautiful and green and had a pretty castle and that Annica fell in love with Scottish people as a whole.  Pretty funny actually.  This time, we all booked a tour group with Anderson Tours because we figured that it would be easier to travel to a new place if we had someone to plan everything for us.  So, we left from the King's Cross Station with the rest of our tour group at 8am on Friday morning, made it all the way up into Ediburgh around 1pm that afternoon, went on a guided coach (bus) ride around the city, and then were taken to our hotel to check in for the weekend.  

Now, the Peace and Love Hostel in Paris that Ann and I stayed at was pretty good (for a hostel), but this was a real hotel!  It was pretty nice to have a big room, with people that you already know, a big bathroom with towels provided, and yummy yummy breakfast every morning we stayed there (complete with HAGGIS...ew.).  

After resting a bit at the hotel, we all got up and dressed to go out in downtown Edinburgh for dinner and a few pints at a local pub that Bridget had read about online.  It was a nice place, just what you might imagine a Scottish pub to be like.  Lots of students actually, because the University of Edinburgh is right nearby - so there were both a lot of Scottish students, as well as International students who study there as well.

Saturday morning we woke up, ate YUMMY breakfast (eggs, sausage, ham, HAGGIS, toast, little mini pancakes, and coffee), and then went out for the day to explore the city a bit.  We wandered around for awhile, and then managed to find our way up to the Edinburgh Castle which is a pretty neat site to see there.  Then, we were pretty tired after all our walking around so we caught a bus back to our hotel and napped for a bit before getting ready to go back downtown for dinner.  After a delicious FISH&CHIPS dinner (my first time eating that here actually), we hung out at the pub for awhile, and then came home to sleep.

Sunday was just spent packing and then grabbing some food for the train ride home.  We all had enjoyed Scotland, but I think we just wanted to get back home to London as quickly as possible.  I love London the best.

A Whirlwind Weekend in Paris

I feel so lucky to be here.  I just keep pinching myself because it still feels totally pretend: I'm studying abroad in London and if I want to I can just hop on a train and in two and a half hours I'm in Paris.  For Ann and my first trip to Paris, I think we did pretty well for ourselves actually.  We left super early Friday morning to go down the street to the St. Pancras International train station, and left London at 5:25 am.  After a very smooth ride (we slept the whole way in fact) we arrived in Paris and somehow managed to navigate our way to our hostel (called the Peace and Love Hostel, actually not too terrible, we only had one roommate who was a very nice girl from Italy who used Spanish to communicate with us...hahaha).  Then, our friend Eddie who we met last weekend (who had already been in Paris for four days, and therefore had agreed to be our "tour guide") met us at the hostel and we all set out for our crazy tourist day in Paris.

We decided to go to the Eiffel Tower first.  Honestly it was soooo amazing to see it in real life.  I'd never imagined that it would live up to all the hype.  haha!  We rode the elevator all the way to the very top and the views were incredible!  You can see the whole city and it makes you feel very very small.  After the Eiffel Tower, we were all totally starved, so we went on a hunt for some place to eat.  We ended up at this quaint little cafe on this street that Eddie had read about in his very important Paris guide book and wow...it was DELICIOUS.  After somehow managing to get the rude waiter's attention (most French people that I interacted with all day were terribly rude) so we could have an English menu (very touristy, but I couldn't understand what on Earth I was ordering otherwise) I ordered the fried duck with potatoes and green salad.  And OH MY GOD it was quite possibly the best meal I've ever eaten.  And it wasn't even that expensive at all.  We must've looked ridiculous, because we just kept eating and eating and going on and on about how delicious it was.  So good though.

After lunch, Eddie navigated our way through a bunch of different streets (honestly, Ann and I would have been totally lost without him, we had no idea where we were going at all) and we got to go to the Musee d'Orsay which was incredible and amazing, but by this point, we were all TOTALLY exhausted.  We basically had to drag our feet through the whole museum, and ended up forcing ourselves to get to the pieces we really wanted to see and then get out as soon as possible because otherwise we would've passed out on the floor of the museum.  But it was pretty incredible to see a bunch of the pieces that I've always heard about by some of the big names: Monet, Matisse, Degas, etc. etc.  :)

After the museum, we decided that we could probably pull up enough energy to go to see the Arc d'Triumphe and the Champs Elysees.  I must say, the Arc is pretty darn impressive.  It's just such a powerful structure to look at.  After a quick cappucino on the Champs Elysees, we hopped back on the Metro, and Eddie helped us find our way back to the Peace and Love Hostel so we could nap before going out later that night.  

Our train left at two on Saturday, so after checking out of the hostel at 10am, we somehow managed to find our way on the Metro over to the train station (because Eddie wasn't with us anymore, we had to navigate on our own, which was quite difficult because we both have zero sense of direction and zero knowledge of how to speak French).  We ate a pretty disappointing breakfast and then wandered about the area a bit, until we just went back to the terminal and waited for our train while eating our delicious almond croissants and writing postcards.

A Day Trip to Bath!!!

This has been the most excellent weekend!!!  Saturday night Bridget and I met up with two of the guys we met on Friday night because they were in town all weekend doing touristy things.  Mike lives here, about an hour north of London and his friend Eddie is visiting from the states.  They were both really nice, and we ended up having a very fun time Saturday night as well, and they invited us to come with them on Monday because they were doing a day trip out West to Bath.  Bath is a small city that is really well known for its, yup, you guessed it: ancient Roman BATHS and natural springs.  Bridget and I have been wanting to do some day trips around England anyways, so we figured it would be perfect just to join the guys because that way we'd have a ride there and wouldn't have to pay for the train.  

So, Monday morning, we took the National Express coachlines (fancy term for a big bus) up to Milton Keynes, where Mike lives and they picked us up at the coachway station - and we started the two hour long drive out to Bath.  It was a beautiful day for a drive through the English countryside...however cheesy that might sound, it was totally true.  There were these amazingly green fields all around either side of the highway, as well as actual sheep grazing!!!  Just what you'd imagine when you imagine the "english countryside."  

Once we got nearer to Bath, the weather started getting a bit more foggy and rainy-looking, but it was fine still, because as you drove into the city it was so quaint and adorable that you didn't even mind the weather really.  We parked the car and headed off to find the Roman Baths, which are the main tourist attraction in the city (obviously...) and took our time listening to the audio-guided tour through the whole thing.  It was beautiful, but mostly just because of all the history behind it.  It's amazing to think about how long this structure has been standing for.  

After the baths, we went to the supermarket to pick up some lunch food for a picnic.  The lady at the flower stand outside of the store told us that there were picnic tables down around the corner by the water.  So we followed her directions, and were led to the most picturesque picnic site ever!  Eddie remarked that it was the best picnic he's ever been on, and I'd have to agree!!  Even though it kept sprinkling on and off the whole time we sat there, it didn't matter because we were so content.  I had a smoked salmon sandwich with cream cheese on malted bread, like usual!  It was so tasty.  :)

We spent the rest of the afternoon just walking around town, exploring the pretty parks, the Botanical Gardens, and something called the Great Dell, where there was a small Shakespeare monument.  Not very exciting, but still very pretty.  Eventually we were all wayyyy exhausted and wayyy windblown from the wind and light rain so we went back to the car and got back on the road again so they could take us back to London again.  What a wonderful way to spend the day!!!! 

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