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!!!!