I returned to England on Tuesday 8/23 and headed back to the shire. That week was so bittersweet, I was so glad to be back with Rich and to be back in an English speaking country, it it was also my last week in England for awhile, so depressing. It was nice to just hang out with Rich, since I don't get to see him until next summer, it was kinda crucial. But we didn't do anything crazy, just hung around in Newbury. Luckily I was able to finally work out with a free week pass so that was cool. Later on in the week I got my hair done by one of Sue's ladies and she did a wonderful job! :) Friday, (8/26) Rich and I saw the Inbetweeners movie which was soooo hilarious! And after we went to Grandma's for a nice roast :) We had lamb and veggies and of course, steamed pudding! My favorite. His family is so nice it's ridiculous, and that made it even more hard to say good-bye. Sunday, Sue and Trev came in from the airport from their holiday from Greece and Sue got me some really lovely pressies! That weekend, of course was the whole Hurricane Irene dealio and I seriously wanted my flight to be cancelled since it was on Monday. I even had Sue call up Virgin to ask them if someone else seriously needed my flight on Monday and I could fly out another day because it wasn't urgent that I got back to NYC that day.
Of course they said it would actually be easier for me to fly out on my designated day, but that was THE nicest thing they have ever heard and no one had ever offered that before. So I felt special :)
Going to the airport sucked. It was so hard to realize I was actually leaving England and my boyfriend for a year and it made me realize all the cool things I was able to do while I was in Europe. Luckily when I got to Heathrow, Virgin upgraded me to an window exit seat on the upper level! There was so much room I didn't know what to do with myself.
The good-bye's were really hard, obviously had to do a bit of crying, but at least getting through the airport and security was really easy and there wasn't any difficulty. But after the flight, once I landed at JFK, it was such a weird feeling, I literally didn't want to be there, I wanted to go back so bad. Europe has made me think that the way the country is run in America doesn't really make much sense, and they still have a lot of catching up to do...
Besides the point, I'm still not used to it, I've already left my bank card in the atm on accident because I forgot you need to take it out, or dip it shall you say.
I miss already, Pret, Eat, Marks and Spencer's, percy piggies, Tesco/Sainsbury's 3 pound lunch deals, driving on the other side of the road/car(now it seems normal), fish n' chips, chips in general, crisps, biscuits, puddings, ghetto phones, top-up's, vodaphone, bbc, RADIO 1 and 2, British television, being able to drink legally, CIDER, Sue's food, really good butter and milk/cream, GREEN GRASS, the spastic rain, the tube, the oyster card, sweating out in the tube, cream tea's, tea all together, brown sugar in tea, lemon in tea, full cooked english breakfast, HP SAUCE, English people, english accent and but what I really miss the most is, obviously, Richard.
Thursday, 1 September 2011
The best is yet to come
Starting back off from the 16th of Aug. Tuesday my cousin and I went into Privas, the town to walk around and get some macrons and coffee's. It's such a cute village, something you'd expect in the movies from the late 50's or something.
Wednesday we headed to the beach. It was so amazing! The Mediterranean Sea is so freaking fabulous, so clear and no waves. I absolutely loved it. It wasn't my first time in the Med, I went when I was in Italy. But this time it just seemed better because it was in the south of France!! After getting crispy, we went to my cousin's husband's mom's house for dinner and to stay the night. Later on, we went to this small village to get ice cream, it was served in a giant shell bowl! And it was so deliciousssss! The next day we went to Nimes, which is known for having a lot of Roman architecture left in the city. There's a ton of statues left. We went to the Roman gardens first, and where they had the old Roman Bath's. It's amazing that most of the architecture is still intact. Unfortunately, the pipes are a little clogged, so the water doesn't run as smoothly through it, so it's a bit flooded. None the less, AWESOME. After that little adventure we went to lunch at a cutesie cafe and had a nice frenchy salade. Later on, my cousin and I went to the colosseum like thing in Nimes, it's not as big as the one in Rome, but it served the same purpose. It's so amazing how old these things are and that they are still standing and still in use. This one in Nimes holds concerts and performances still.
On our way back home, we stopped at the Pont du Gard. Which is one of the oldest aquaducts still standing in France, and it's phenomenal! They've now made it more into a tourist attraction where you can go swim and lay on the "beach." But it's really expensive. A few years it used to be free and you could walk up on the upper levels of the aquaduct, not anymore.
The last few days in France were very relaxed. Friday, (8/19) my cousin had friends over and she was cooking all day for them. It's crazy how much effort they put into meals for guests. Everything has to be perfect and organized or the guests will think it's rude. And they eat so much bread it's ridiculous!!! Literally if you don't have bread with a meal, the world will end. Oh, and sliced bread is not an option, baguettes only please. So all day was made for eating basically. Lunch was a full 3 course meal and as for dinner, it was the same. I probably should have gone for a run in between those meals to fit them in!
The next day my younger cousin and I went to the river. We took the quad down to where we needed to go. That was treking! And for the first and last time in my life I wore crocs. We treked to the spot where were going to lay out and on the way, we almost fell into the water, my cousin lost her dress and we almost ruined our cameras. So it was really fun. :) But after we finally got to the spot it was really nice and peaceful. No one was around and it was filled with rocks and streams. Later on we headed back up to the quad, this time we took the less dangerous route. Except for when we decided to get back home we took the long way, and little did we know, no one took that route anymore and it was all covered with trees and shrubberies. Of course we tried to get through it. I tried to rev it and get it over this pile but instead it slide almost down the mountain and I almost went with it. Let me tell you, it was quite an adventure! Finally we survived and got it home. After that I had so many scrapes from the bushes.
Monday was my last day in Privas and my cousin and I went into town. Little did we know that the entire town was shut down for people taking holidays! I wanted to get some macrons and little stuff, but couldn't because literally nothing was open but some cafe's. It was unbelievable! But it was ok, I lived.
I learned so much being in France for 10 days, the way they lived and how the people were. It was so different from the US, people don't have a sense of time, they do things when they want and it really doesn't matter when. They care more about family then they do about making money, maybe America should get some tips about that. They take 2 hour lunches so that they can be with their families. And they eat dinner really late, I'm not a fan of that one. But basically I really enjoyed my time spent there and it would be lovely to go back.
Wednesday we headed to the beach. It was so amazing! The Mediterranean Sea is so freaking fabulous, so clear and no waves. I absolutely loved it. It wasn't my first time in the Med, I went when I was in Italy. But this time it just seemed better because it was in the south of France!! After getting crispy, we went to my cousin's husband's mom's house for dinner and to stay the night. Later on, we went to this small village to get ice cream, it was served in a giant shell bowl! And it was so deliciousssss! The next day we went to Nimes, which is known for having a lot of Roman architecture left in the city. There's a ton of statues left. We went to the Roman gardens first, and where they had the old Roman Bath's. It's amazing that most of the architecture is still intact. Unfortunately, the pipes are a little clogged, so the water doesn't run as smoothly through it, so it's a bit flooded. None the less, AWESOME. After that little adventure we went to lunch at a cutesie cafe and had a nice frenchy salade. Later on, my cousin and I went to the colosseum like thing in Nimes, it's not as big as the one in Rome, but it served the same purpose. It's so amazing how old these things are and that they are still standing and still in use. This one in Nimes holds concerts and performances still.
On our way back home, we stopped at the Pont du Gard. Which is one of the oldest aquaducts still standing in France, and it's phenomenal! They've now made it more into a tourist attraction where you can go swim and lay on the "beach." But it's really expensive. A few years it used to be free and you could walk up on the upper levels of the aquaduct, not anymore.
The last few days in France were very relaxed. Friday, (8/19) my cousin had friends over and she was cooking all day for them. It's crazy how much effort they put into meals for guests. Everything has to be perfect and organized or the guests will think it's rude. And they eat so much bread it's ridiculous!!! Literally if you don't have bread with a meal, the world will end. Oh, and sliced bread is not an option, baguettes only please. So all day was made for eating basically. Lunch was a full 3 course meal and as for dinner, it was the same. I probably should have gone for a run in between those meals to fit them in!
The next day my younger cousin and I went to the river. We took the quad down to where we needed to go. That was treking! And for the first and last time in my life I wore crocs. We treked to the spot where were going to lay out and on the way, we almost fell into the water, my cousin lost her dress and we almost ruined our cameras. So it was really fun. :) But after we finally got to the spot it was really nice and peaceful. No one was around and it was filled with rocks and streams. Later on we headed back up to the quad, this time we took the less dangerous route. Except for when we decided to get back home we took the long way, and little did we know, no one took that route anymore and it was all covered with trees and shrubberies. Of course we tried to get through it. I tried to rev it and get it over this pile but instead it slide almost down the mountain and I almost went with it. Let me tell you, it was quite an adventure! Finally we survived and got it home. After that I had so many scrapes from the bushes.
Monday was my last day in Privas and my cousin and I went into town. Little did we know that the entire town was shut down for people taking holidays! I wanted to get some macrons and little stuff, but couldn't because literally nothing was open but some cafe's. It was unbelievable! But it was ok, I lived.
I learned so much being in France for 10 days, the way they lived and how the people were. It was so different from the US, people don't have a sense of time, they do things when they want and it really doesn't matter when. They care more about family then they do about making money, maybe America should get some tips about that. They take 2 hour lunches so that they can be with their families. And they eat dinner really late, I'm not a fan of that one. But basically I really enjoyed my time spent there and it would be lovely to go back.
Tuesday, 16 August 2011
en France
Unfortunately Friday was my last day in Belgium, which was filled with packing and train riding. I left out of Brussels to head down to my cousin Leah's in Privas, France. Which in actuality, they live in the middle of nowhere mountains! It's awesome!!! It's really nice being somewhere with no people or sounds and their property is really nice too. France is different than any other country I've been to, the people are not similar to people in the states which is nice.
Anyway, I arrived to Valence Friday evening and we headed to get dinner at a local place, so nothing crazy. Saturday was chillaxing too, later in the afternoon I hung out with my younger cousin and went to a cafe for a drink. After that we went to her friend's house to go in their pool, it was really, really hot out. The time I've spent in France has been my hottest summer yet this year since England doesn't have hot weather!
Sunday me and my cousin Leah went on a 3.5 hour walk/hike! It was lovely weather and it got so hot we stopped at this clear water pool thing in the middle of nowhere too. It was so enchanting the way the water dropped off the rocks into the water. It was sooo cold but I was brave and went all the way in, for like 2 seconds, but it sure did cool me off! By the end of the walk it started pouring unfortunately, but only for a bit. Later on that night we had a nice meal and then watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail! Weird that I had never seen it and it's a British comedy, and I watched it in France haha.
Yesterday, We went to Lyon. My other cousin lives there now so we visited him and had lunch. We walked around the old town of Lyon which is amazing saw the little apartments hidden in the buildings and then finally went to place where they invented cinema! Le Institut Lumiere, a really cool museum that showed everything that started the Lumiere brothers to invent the cinema and cameras. Very very informative! Plus, I think I got a bit of color because the sun was blasting! :)
Today is going to be a chill day too, maybe some tanning, macarons, who knows.
Update, hopefully sooner than last time!! xx
Anyway, I arrived to Valence Friday evening and we headed to get dinner at a local place, so nothing crazy. Saturday was chillaxing too, later in the afternoon I hung out with my younger cousin and went to a cafe for a drink. After that we went to her friend's house to go in their pool, it was really, really hot out. The time I've spent in France has been my hottest summer yet this year since England doesn't have hot weather!
Sunday me and my cousin Leah went on a 3.5 hour walk/hike! It was lovely weather and it got so hot we stopped at this clear water pool thing in the middle of nowhere too. It was so enchanting the way the water dropped off the rocks into the water. It was sooo cold but I was brave and went all the way in, for like 2 seconds, but it sure did cool me off! By the end of the walk it started pouring unfortunately, but only for a bit. Later on that night we had a nice meal and then watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail! Weird that I had never seen it and it's a British comedy, and I watched it in France haha.
Yesterday, We went to Lyon. My other cousin lives there now so we visited him and had lunch. We walked around the old town of Lyon which is amazing saw the little apartments hidden in the buildings and then finally went to place where they invented cinema! Le Institut Lumiere, a really cool museum that showed everything that started the Lumiere brothers to invent the cinema and cameras. Very very informative! Plus, I think I got a bit of color because the sun was blasting! :)
Today is going to be a chill day too, maybe some tanning, macarons, who knows.
Update, hopefully sooner than last time!! xx
A week through my eyes: Belgian Style.
So LAST week was really busy. I know, a week has already gone by and I still hadn't updated. But okay, I'm here now :)
Starting Saturday night(8/7), we went to her friend's birthday party, yeah I partied with the Belgians? Very odd experience though. Of course I'm not in England anymore so English wasn't an option. Luckily in Europe, they start language classes really young, not like America where it takes us to be in high school already to start learning something different. But anyway, it was interesting feeling like the "outcast," by that I mean not being able to understand a bit of dutch. It's not like any latin based language where it's easIER to understand some words. Not here. But I got to understand the differences between American "fun" and Belgian "fun." I got to try their national dish too, which is french fries haha. But they aren't the fries we are used to. They are sooo much better. And they put sauce on the top, depending on what you like. Of course I tried some Belgian beer too, a lot better than other stuff, even though I still don't like it. :P
Sunday was nice, her mom made dinner for the family and some of her other family came over. It was a lazy/rainy day so we didn't do much. Just hung out in Belgium!
Monday we went to Bruges (they say Brugge and pronounce it Bruhhuh). It's the oldest city in Belgium and it's gorgeous! Luckily it was a really nice day, we thought it was going to rain so naturally we wore our rain boots. Most likely we both looked really dumb. Oh well. We walked around the city and saw where the nun's used to live, apparently they aren't nuns but there also isn't an english translation of what they are. So they're nuns to me. We also ate a legit Belgian waffle and coffee. The waffle was amazing! It has sugar crystal's in it to give it a crunch and taste oh so good. And I got my Belgian chocolate fix to take back to the states, if they make it of course...
Tuesday we went to Kortrijk, another old city in Belgium. One of her mom's friends showed us around and told us the history behind some of the old stuff. We went into some very, very ancient cathedrals, after awhile, they all start looking the same, with the architecture I mean. We walked around the old city, went into city hall and at the end, went to a cafe. Kim and I had hot chocolate, so so delicioussssssss! America doesn't have anything this good. That was a good day :) For dinner, we had mussels!!! It's a big thing during the summer, of course near the beaches it's cheaper, but we went into town and I had my first mussel dinner. I've tried them before but it was really delicious there! Glad I'm open minded :)
Wednesday we headed to Gent. This town is more like a college city that's known for the bars and nightlife. Kim and I just went there, had dinner and walked around the city. I love that in Europe everything is really old and the buildings aren't modern. Gent has a tram railway too that goes straight through the city, I've only seen that in San Fran, and it's still different. Later on in the evening we hung out with some of her buddies. Belgian's are really nice but man do they smoke a LOT A LOT. I don't know how they do it. For dinner was simple when we got back into Roeselare, we got frites again but this time with meat and gravy. So good.
Thursday we went to Lille, France. She only lives 30 min from there, it was awesome! We went to the Palais des Beaux Arts, the second famous museum in France, underneath the Louvre, naturally. We walked around the town, it has a lot of shopping and things. We ate a reaaaaaaaaall french crepe too, that was really delicious too. I'm not just eating all the time I swear. But overall it was a great day. Later on we hung out at her house, since it was the last night in Belgium for me. Her mom is so so nice and made us dinner most of the nights too!
Belgium was such an interesting experience but I wouldn't have been able to do it without Kim! I'm so glad I have friends in different countries because it has made my experience 20 times better than just being a traveler on my own :)
Continued on the France Blog :)
Sunday, 7 August 2011
Save the best for last
Tues-Sat(2-6) morning: It was my last week in London and boy was it weird. I had been there for a full 6 weeks and it seemed like just yesterday that Rich and his family dropped me off at the dorms. I didn't really do much this week because I feel like I did so much already from the previous weeks and I was burnt out. :P
Tuesday wasn't too exciting, some of the friends went to Student night at the Sports bar in Picadilly Circus, it was a good night to end off in London.
Wednesday I actually met up with my cousin Colleen who was in town! Such a trip, finally got to see some family since I haven't seen any for a while. We walked from Houses of Parliament all the way to St. Paul's for the Evensong service and then down to the South Bank, it was such a hot day but a nice walk :). Thursday was the last day of my London, culture capital of the world class and we had a "quiz." Basically it was silly questions and the winner got a cheezey golden globe trophy. Guess who the winner was!? MEEEEE! I guess being in London for so long paid off : )
Friday was kinda sad, it was my last day in London. I slept in and worked out. At night I met up with my cousin at Hyde Park to see the Diana Memorial and the Albert Memorial. And we went to Wagamama for dinner, bestttt asian food everrrr! I'm in love.
And Saturday, I caught the EuroStar to Brussels! Which is going to be awesome. I'm meeting up with my friend Kim and staying with her for a week : ). I arrived at Kim's safely and picked me up and took me to her house, which is in the countryside and is really pretty! We ate lunch at hers too and had some really good food. I, of course, can't pronounce any of it. But it's way better than American food. This country is really weird, in some parts they speak French, where Kim is its Dutch and others is German. It's so confusing! I got a bit lost at the train station trying to get here, it was crazy.
I'm loving my European adventure and it's only just started really!
Speak soon. x
Tuesday wasn't too exciting, some of the friends went to Student night at the Sports bar in Picadilly Circus, it was a good night to end off in London.
Wednesday I actually met up with my cousin Colleen who was in town! Such a trip, finally got to see some family since I haven't seen any for a while. We walked from Houses of Parliament all the way to St. Paul's for the Evensong service and then down to the South Bank, it was such a hot day but a nice walk :). Thursday was the last day of my London, culture capital of the world class and we had a "quiz." Basically it was silly questions and the winner got a cheezey golden globe trophy. Guess who the winner was!? MEEEEE! I guess being in London for so long paid off : )
Friday was kinda sad, it was my last day in London. I slept in and worked out. At night I met up with my cousin at Hyde Park to see the Diana Memorial and the Albert Memorial. And we went to Wagamama for dinner, bestttt asian food everrrr! I'm in love.
And Saturday, I caught the EuroStar to Brussels! Which is going to be awesome. I'm meeting up with my friend Kim and staying with her for a week : ). I arrived at Kim's safely and picked me up and took me to her house, which is in the countryside and is really pretty! We ate lunch at hers too and had some really good food. I, of course, can't pronounce any of it. But it's way better than American food. This country is really weird, in some parts they speak French, where Kim is its Dutch and others is German. It's so confusing! I got a bit lost at the train station trying to get here, it was crazy.
I'm loving my European adventure and it's only just started really!
Speak soon. x
Tuesday, 2 August 2011
So much info, so little time!
Alright, here I go with one of the larger posts I've done so far:
Monday 25 July: Monday one of my friends and I went to Notting Hill and Portobello Market again to wander. It was such a nice day and the markets were actually fully open this time. Before going there we made a pit stop at the BEST cookie shop in the world. Ben's Cookies. No words can even describe the gooey yummy deliciousness of these creatures. You get the point. But just a note: My peanut butter cookies are STILL BETTER than theirs. So ha. Anyway, at the markets we wandered into a shop while they were filming The Apprentice! (UK version of course) And it was awesome! We had nooo idea they were even filming that until I noticed Lord Sugar's right hand woman in the background, so cool. Oh I also bought a cute hat :)
Tuesday 26 July: This day was really sick. I met up with a few friends at about 2pm to get in line at the London Dungeons and didn't even get in the place until 5! It lasted an hour and a half with a bunch of stories about the olden days of London and a couple rides. I actually was burned at the stake when Bloody Mary was queen, no big or anything. The ride at the end was exciting too! It took you up in the chair then did an unexpected drop out of no where! 2 of my friends and I bought the photo it took because it was so funny.
Wednesday 27 July: That day I went to class and then for class, we went to the Globe to see Marlowe's Faustus. It's a very funny and witty play about a doctor who starts refusing in the most common of things and starts getting advice from the Devil. I liked that it had a funny twist to it, not just serious. Then later on Rich picked me up to take him back to his house :) I'm so lucky to have such a wonderful boyfriend and to be able to spend time with his family! They took me to a nice Indian restaurant to have some fabulous curry! Gosh I love them so much. It was a really good night :)
Thursday wasn't anything special, mostly just hanging out in the house, it was a bit cold.
Friday was when the good stuff started happening! Rich and I left early to head up to Alton Towers, a well known theme park near Derby. The rides aren't as crazy and thrilling as they are in the US but still very very fun! The weather was really perfect too, not too hot, not too cold. On the plus side, there wasn't a wait on anything. The longest was on the Flume, which by the way means artificial water channel, oh the Brits and their words. I got soaked on that ride too, but nooo not Rich! But it was so nice. Later that night we headed to Derby to see Rich's friend for the night and had dinner and breakfast with her.
Saturday we headed to Warwick Castle, which is such the touristy thing but had to :) It's sooooo overpriced but it's a really interesting place. They set up the place like a little town and have little boutiques that are set up like they are in the medieval ages. We went into the Castle dungeons, a mini version of the London dungeons then saw Medieval Jousting! That was sooooo coooool! It was a little show they put on. After we went to Merlin and the dragon, not gonna lie, that wasn't too impressive unfortunately. Luckily it was such a nice day and I got a little bit of color : ).
Sunday was soooo sooo nice. We went on a warm walk around Andrew Lloyd Webber's property, it's grossly huge but gorgeous. Rich and I found a wheat field and ran through it, that was funny. Later that afternoon we headed to Grandma's for a BBQ, yes, the English have BBQ's. We had some nice grilled chicken, sausages, pork, you know, the usual. We played darts and petanque as well. That was such a blast. Unfortunately, the Brit's seem to be better at darts than I am. Boo. It was such a great evening though!
Then yesterday, was a nice day too. Rich, Sue and I went to Hungerford for a really nice pub lunch and a country walk afterwards. We walked along the river and canal and stuck our feet in the clear pond nearby. It was a sad day too though because I won't be back to Penwood until later this month :(
This summer has really flown, I know I still have a month left in Europe but it goes by soooo fast! This week is going to fly by and then I'm off to Belgium to visit Kimmy! Then to France :) So many exciting things to come, and I can't wait!
Update sooon xx
Monday 25 July: Monday one of my friends and I went to Notting Hill and Portobello Market again to wander. It was such a nice day and the markets were actually fully open this time. Before going there we made a pit stop at the BEST cookie shop in the world. Ben's Cookies. No words can even describe the gooey yummy deliciousness of these creatures. You get the point. But just a note: My peanut butter cookies are STILL BETTER than theirs. So ha. Anyway, at the markets we wandered into a shop while they were filming The Apprentice! (UK version of course) And it was awesome! We had nooo idea they were even filming that until I noticed Lord Sugar's right hand woman in the background, so cool. Oh I also bought a cute hat :)
Tuesday 26 July: This day was really sick. I met up with a few friends at about 2pm to get in line at the London Dungeons and didn't even get in the place until 5! It lasted an hour and a half with a bunch of stories about the olden days of London and a couple rides. I actually was burned at the stake when Bloody Mary was queen, no big or anything. The ride at the end was exciting too! It took you up in the chair then did an unexpected drop out of no where! 2 of my friends and I bought the photo it took because it was so funny.
Wednesday 27 July: That day I went to class and then for class, we went to the Globe to see Marlowe's Faustus. It's a very funny and witty play about a doctor who starts refusing in the most common of things and starts getting advice from the Devil. I liked that it had a funny twist to it, not just serious. Then later on Rich picked me up to take him back to his house :) I'm so lucky to have such a wonderful boyfriend and to be able to spend time with his family! They took me to a nice Indian restaurant to have some fabulous curry! Gosh I love them so much. It was a really good night :)
Thursday wasn't anything special, mostly just hanging out in the house, it was a bit cold.
Friday was when the good stuff started happening! Rich and I left early to head up to Alton Towers, a well known theme park near Derby. The rides aren't as crazy and thrilling as they are in the US but still very very fun! The weather was really perfect too, not too hot, not too cold. On the plus side, there wasn't a wait on anything. The longest was on the Flume, which by the way means artificial water channel, oh the Brits and their words. I got soaked on that ride too, but nooo not Rich! But it was so nice. Later that night we headed to Derby to see Rich's friend for the night and had dinner and breakfast with her.
Saturday we headed to Warwick Castle, which is such the touristy thing but had to :) It's sooooo overpriced but it's a really interesting place. They set up the place like a little town and have little boutiques that are set up like they are in the medieval ages. We went into the Castle dungeons, a mini version of the London dungeons then saw Medieval Jousting! That was sooooo coooool! It was a little show they put on. After we went to Merlin and the dragon, not gonna lie, that wasn't too impressive unfortunately. Luckily it was such a nice day and I got a little bit of color : ).
Sunday was soooo sooo nice. We went on a warm walk around Andrew Lloyd Webber's property, it's grossly huge but gorgeous. Rich and I found a wheat field and ran through it, that was funny. Later that afternoon we headed to Grandma's for a BBQ, yes, the English have BBQ's. We had some nice grilled chicken, sausages, pork, you know, the usual. We played darts and petanque as well. That was such a blast. Unfortunately, the Brit's seem to be better at darts than I am. Boo. It was such a great evening though!
Then yesterday, was a nice day too. Rich, Sue and I went to Hungerford for a really nice pub lunch and a country walk afterwards. We walked along the river and canal and stuck our feet in the clear pond nearby. It was a sad day too though because I won't be back to Penwood until later this month :(
This summer has really flown, I know I still have a month left in Europe but it goes by soooo fast! This week is going to fly by and then I'm off to Belgium to visit Kimmy! Then to France :) So many exciting things to come, and I can't wait!
Update sooon xx
Sunday, 24 July 2011
Garden Party
Wednesday 7/20, I went to the Museum of London and St. Paul's Cathedral. Unfortunately, I couldn't take photos in the church. The Museum was interesting, the time frame started when the Roman's first originated in London and called it Londinium all the way to present day London. St. Paul's is beautiful and my friend and I walked all the way up to the top of the dome, aka 600 steps up to the tip top. The stairs are old and extremely small so getting up there was a bit of a challenge! But a wonderful view at the top!
Thursday was mellow and Rich picked me up from London to head to his house for the weekend :) and had nice meals with his family! Today I left to head back to London so I didn't miss going into Buckingham Palace! So a bit after the ISA group headed to the Summer opening of the Queen's official residence. It was BEAUTIFUL! And it was such a nice day today also, it made it a lot better. After viewing the Palace a couple of friends and I went to have afternoon snacks in the Queen's garden, no big deal or anything :) Overall, it was a good Sunday!
This week is going to be short but sweet though, Globe Theater, Alton Towers and back to Newbury!
Speak soooooooooon x
Tuesday, 19 July 2011
My childhood is now over.
Yeah, I said it. That just means the Harry Potter saga is OVERRRRRRR. and I'm so DEPRESSED. Saturday after my 3 week friends left, Rich came up for the weekend and Clauds, Auds, Rich and I went to see the oh so sad, last HP movie. It was extremely brilliant. Considering that I am in England for the movie makes it 10 times better. :) After we went to this awesome Asian Fusion restaurant called "Wagamama," DELICIOUS. And it has a silly name. Finally, Saturday ended with attending a legit British "young people's" party. hahaha Sounds so cliche. But it was fun and I experienced real British young folk. Sunday, Rich and I went to get a full English B-fast in the Morn and then watched Bad Teacher. The weekend weather was pretty bad so going outside wasn't really ideal. Welcome to England I guess! :D
The week began with a free lunch at Westminster for the new session starting that day. This next 3 weeks I'm taking the course "London: Culture Capital of the World." The professor is really interested in what he talks about and he gets very excited. After class my friend and I went to the Victoria and Albert Museum for a little bit and then had a very nice tea and scones :) Just being more British everyday.
Today after class, we headed to the Tate Modern, which was really large. After that we went to King's Cross to find Platform 9 3/4! Weirdly enough, they moved it? So the little wall of platform is now outside of the station, now that was funny.
The rest of the week is going to be fun, off to St. Paul's, Museum of London and then Penwood on Thursday! Speak soon xx
The week began with a free lunch at Westminster for the new session starting that day. This next 3 weeks I'm taking the course "London: Culture Capital of the World." The professor is really interested in what he talks about and he gets very excited. After class my friend and I went to the Victoria and Albert Museum for a little bit and then had a very nice tea and scones :) Just being more British everyday.
Today after class, we headed to the Tate Modern, which was really large. After that we went to King's Cross to find Platform 9 3/4! Weirdly enough, they moved it? So the little wall of platform is now outside of the station, now that was funny.
The rest of the week is going to be fun, off to St. Paul's, Museum of London and then Penwood on Thursday! Speak soon xx
Friday, 15 July 2011
The Week of Goodbye's
So this week went by really fast. Obviously, it's not the weekend yet but that'll be a different beast :)
I ended last week's post on Monday, so it's time to start on Tuesday!
I had class(like usual), but then it was time to wander and try a new ethnic dish! Since we had, so far, Vietnamese, Thai, Indian, English cuisines so far, it was time to go to China Town and get chinese. Unfortunately, it was pretty expensive, but pretty good. We were already around that area because our program I was with set up going to a London show. We went to "We Will Rock You," which had songs from Queen. Luckily, I have to say, I'm glad I didn't actually pay for it. I didn't enjoy it too extensively. Don't get me wrong, I love Queen, but this was just weird. It was set up in the future where people didn't actually know what real music was and everyone was called "Gaga girls and boys." Anyway, glad it was paid for already.
Wednesday was pretty exciting. I studied at night because I had to ace my final the next morning! Woop Woop! So Thursday I took my final, luckily it went well. But before that my friends and I went to Westminster Abbey to go to the Evensong service. Otherwise going in during the day it would be 13 pounds. No wayyyy. But the service was amazing. The choir was probably the most beautiful thing I have ever heard. Most of you know I'm not a church go'er or anything of that sort, but it was very inspiring and lovely. Then off to dinner on the southbank after!
Thursday I had my final and just hung out after I finished. That night we had the Westminster summer school River Thames boat dinner. The food was awesome! But we were on the boat for like 3.5 hours. A tad long. Also, Americans wonder why Europeans or I should say, the rest of the world hates us, well I'll tell you. A good example was all the "children" on the boat who think that getting absolutely PLASTERED is the right way to say Hello to being legal to drink here in the UK. Welp, it's not. Most of the people on the boat were sooo immature and grossly drunk that it made me not want to be associated with anyone in that group ever. Plus, I want to blend in, not stick out when I'm in a different country. I love being able to adapt to different cultures and get rid of mine, whereas some think they are high and mighty and AMERICA is the best country to exist.
Today was a lot better. This morning all of my new friends went out to brunch, which was SOOOOO SOOOO good. After that me and a couple of my friends headed to Covent Garden's to go to another Cath Kidston store. Aka we've been to a ton. But this time I got myself a wallet :) Finallyyy. After, we headed to the Olympic park site, which was pretty phenomenal. The reason London got the site was because where the site is, is a really poor area. They are trying to build up the area, so that after the Olympics, they'll have a bunch of sport structures to have events and housing available. And they're going GREEN! :) After we headed to Greenwich to see the Univ. of Greenwich, which used to be a Palace where King Henry VIII was born, which used to be a Royal Navy Academy :) and then walked up a HUGE hill to see the Royal observatory and stood on the Prime Meridian, aka was in two different hemispheres!! I felt invincible. Then we had a delicious Mediterranean meal and to finish it off we took a boat on the Thames back to our dorms, well close enough, to the London Bridge.
It was a fun filled day, but unfortunately, most of my friends I made are leaving in the morning :( So today was probably the last day I'll see them. But REUNION TRIP TO NYC SOON. Anyway, off to a pub for one last goodbye. Hopefully it's not the last good bye though!
Speak soon! xx
I ended last week's post on Monday, so it's time to start on Tuesday!
I had class(like usual), but then it was time to wander and try a new ethnic dish! Since we had, so far, Vietnamese, Thai, Indian, English cuisines so far, it was time to go to China Town and get chinese. Unfortunately, it was pretty expensive, but pretty good. We were already around that area because our program I was with set up going to a London show. We went to "We Will Rock You," which had songs from Queen. Luckily, I have to say, I'm glad I didn't actually pay for it. I didn't enjoy it too extensively. Don't get me wrong, I love Queen, but this was just weird. It was set up in the future where people didn't actually know what real music was and everyone was called "Gaga girls and boys." Anyway, glad it was paid for already.
Wednesday was pretty exciting. I studied at night because I had to ace my final the next morning! Woop Woop! So Thursday I took my final, luckily it went well. But before that my friends and I went to Westminster Abbey to go to the Evensong service. Otherwise going in during the day it would be 13 pounds. No wayyyy. But the service was amazing. The choir was probably the most beautiful thing I have ever heard. Most of you know I'm not a church go'er or anything of that sort, but it was very inspiring and lovely. Then off to dinner on the southbank after!
Thursday I had my final and just hung out after I finished. That night we had the Westminster summer school River Thames boat dinner. The food was awesome! But we were on the boat for like 3.5 hours. A tad long. Also, Americans wonder why Europeans or I should say, the rest of the world hates us, well I'll tell you. A good example was all the "children" on the boat who think that getting absolutely PLASTERED is the right way to say Hello to being legal to drink here in the UK. Welp, it's not. Most of the people on the boat were sooo immature and grossly drunk that it made me not want to be associated with anyone in that group ever. Plus, I want to blend in, not stick out when I'm in a different country. I love being able to adapt to different cultures and get rid of mine, whereas some think they are high and mighty and AMERICA is the best country to exist.
Today was a lot better. This morning all of my new friends went out to brunch, which was SOOOOO SOOOO good. After that me and a couple of my friends headed to Covent Garden's to go to another Cath Kidston store. Aka we've been to a ton. But this time I got myself a wallet :) Finallyyy. After, we headed to the Olympic park site, which was pretty phenomenal. The reason London got the site was because where the site is, is a really poor area. They are trying to build up the area, so that after the Olympics, they'll have a bunch of sport structures to have events and housing available. And they're going GREEN! :) After we headed to Greenwich to see the Univ. of Greenwich, which used to be a Palace where King Henry VIII was born, which used to be a Royal Navy Academy :) and then walked up a HUGE hill to see the Royal observatory and stood on the Prime Meridian, aka was in two different hemispheres!! I felt invincible. Then we had a delicious Mediterranean meal and to finish it off we took a boat on the Thames back to our dorms, well close enough, to the London Bridge.
It was a fun filled day, but unfortunately, most of my friends I made are leaving in the morning :( So today was probably the last day I'll see them. But REUNION TRIP TO NYC SOON. Anyway, off to a pub for one last goodbye. Hopefully it's not the last good bye though!
Speak soon! xx
Monday, 11 July 2011
"LOOK I CAN SEE FRANCE!"
The last week has been very busy! It was week 2 of classes and it went by pretty fast. The group of people I hang out with are mainly leaving next Saturday too, so quite depressing. Anyway, we started off the week by going to the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum. All of them are free which is really nice. The science museum was the most fun, they had a bunch of little activities in one of the main sections we went in. One changed your face to make you look older or like a baby, that was hilarious. For most of the week we didn't do much, just went to class, looked at shops and wandered.
Thursday was pretty awesome. It was the Harry Potter movie premiere for the last movie in Trafalgar Square. People literally were camping out all week to get a peek at the stars. They had a big screen that showed all the stars when they showed up and rolled the trailer over and over again. My friends and I wanted to see what all the excitement was and headed over there to see the amounts of people that were there to see it. The stars didn't show up until 4 and we were there around 3. Luckily, youtube was streaming it live which I thought was better. Even though we were there in the Square, I was still in LONDON! Better than anything anyone else can say :)
Friday we were off to Canterbury and Dover with ISA, the group I signed up with. Canterbury was really historic. We mainly saw the Cathedral, most of them look the same. But this one was different because it was home to the people who took a pilgrimage out to Canterbury in the olden times. Hence The Canterbury Tales, which tells the stories of all the different types of people on their journey to Canterbury. Luckily I'm taking a class on the Tales so I'll be able to learn a bit more about it! :) It also has a lot of meaning because when King Henry VIII changed the country from Catholic to Anglican, this Cathedral had to as well, and Sir Thomas Becket didn't agree with the King and he was actually killed in the Cathedral.
After the Cathedral we headed to Dover, which was the best part of the day I thought! It's on the coast of England and you can see France over the 17 miles of water, the English Channel. It reminded me of Catalina a little, just being able to see the peaks of the "island," but in this case, the country. We saw the white cliffs of Dover, amazing, and then went up to the Castle. Everything is ridiculously old. We walked about 5 staircases to the very top to get an unrealistic view of the seaside, France and the original cell towers. After that we went to the secret underground tunnels, not so secret anymore though if I can go in 'um. But basically, it was rad. The guide took us to all the places they used to have to look out and incoming enemies, and showed us clips of WWII videos about the Dunkirk problem they had over in France during the war and how they had to rescue troops and Dover was the closest to help. History lesson! That was the end of that day, and it was back to London.
Saturday we headed off to Brighton, famous beach spot for the English. We took the train from London and it took an hour. Unfortunately it was so packed that no one had seats and we stood for an hour. It was a bit cold and windy, but overall the pier reminded me of Santa Monica and they had a bunch of shops, fish and chippy's and an arcade and rides! We had fish 'n chips for lunch at a proper fish and chippy also. It was pretty good and cheap. After that was all done, we headed over to the Royal Pavilion, which kind of got the idea replicated from the Taj Mahal in India. King George IV had it constructed to have it for his beach home, although, when Queen Victoria was living there, her room was small and didn't even have a seaside view. The palace wasn't very ideal for the Royal families because of how many kids they had and including everyone that helped them in everyday living. The Pavilion has a different style, it's very oriental and not Westernized at all. We couldn't take pictures, so that wasn't nice, but considering it is a Palace and it was extremely small.
Sunday we headed to the Tower of London, where a majority of King Henry VIII's wives were murdered. AND where the crown jewels are housed. That was really something. The largest diamond in the world is on the current Queen's crown for the coronation and for other really important events. Other jewels were in their such as the septor, Queen Victoria's mini crown all made of diamonds and other stuff. We also saw the Bloody Tower and the White Tower. The White Tower is the largest and the main one. Also we saw the place where Anne Boleyn and others were murdered under false pretenses. After that we headed to St. Katherine's Docks to have a nice Sunday Roast :) Overall, it was a great weekend!!
Now that the week has started, I'll be studying! I have my first International final for Finance! Wish me luck, it shouldn't be bad though :D
Today, I had class then went off to the Bank of England to see all the different currencies and what not. And for dinner I tried Indian curry for the first time! And I don't know why I never tried it before! Now I can eat it with my Parentals. :)
Anyway, this week is going to be fun! A broadway show, 2 going away dinners for the 3 week people and a final exam!
Talk soon :) xx
Thursday was pretty awesome. It was the Harry Potter movie premiere for the last movie in Trafalgar Square. People literally were camping out all week to get a peek at the stars. They had a big screen that showed all the stars when they showed up and rolled the trailer over and over again. My friends and I wanted to see what all the excitement was and headed over there to see the amounts of people that were there to see it. The stars didn't show up until 4 and we were there around 3. Luckily, youtube was streaming it live which I thought was better. Even though we were there in the Square, I was still in LONDON! Better than anything anyone else can say :)
Friday we were off to Canterbury and Dover with ISA, the group I signed up with. Canterbury was really historic. We mainly saw the Cathedral, most of them look the same. But this one was different because it was home to the people who took a pilgrimage out to Canterbury in the olden times. Hence The Canterbury Tales, which tells the stories of all the different types of people on their journey to Canterbury. Luckily I'm taking a class on the Tales so I'll be able to learn a bit more about it! :) It also has a lot of meaning because when King Henry VIII changed the country from Catholic to Anglican, this Cathedral had to as well, and Sir Thomas Becket didn't agree with the King and he was actually killed in the Cathedral.
After the Cathedral we headed to Dover, which was the best part of the day I thought! It's on the coast of England and you can see France over the 17 miles of water, the English Channel. It reminded me of Catalina a little, just being able to see the peaks of the "island," but in this case, the country. We saw the white cliffs of Dover, amazing, and then went up to the Castle. Everything is ridiculously old. We walked about 5 staircases to the very top to get an unrealistic view of the seaside, France and the original cell towers. After that we went to the secret underground tunnels, not so secret anymore though if I can go in 'um. But basically, it was rad. The guide took us to all the places they used to have to look out and incoming enemies, and showed us clips of WWII videos about the Dunkirk problem they had over in France during the war and how they had to rescue troops and Dover was the closest to help. History lesson! That was the end of that day, and it was back to London.
Saturday we headed off to Brighton, famous beach spot for the English. We took the train from London and it took an hour. Unfortunately it was so packed that no one had seats and we stood for an hour. It was a bit cold and windy, but overall the pier reminded me of Santa Monica and they had a bunch of shops, fish and chippy's and an arcade and rides! We had fish 'n chips for lunch at a proper fish and chippy also. It was pretty good and cheap. After that was all done, we headed over to the Royal Pavilion, which kind of got the idea replicated from the Taj Mahal in India. King George IV had it constructed to have it for his beach home, although, when Queen Victoria was living there, her room was small and didn't even have a seaside view. The palace wasn't very ideal for the Royal families because of how many kids they had and including everyone that helped them in everyday living. The Pavilion has a different style, it's very oriental and not Westernized at all. We couldn't take pictures, so that wasn't nice, but considering it is a Palace and it was extremely small.
Sunday we headed to the Tower of London, where a majority of King Henry VIII's wives were murdered. AND where the crown jewels are housed. That was really something. The largest diamond in the world is on the current Queen's crown for the coronation and for other really important events. Other jewels were in their such as the septor, Queen Victoria's mini crown all made of diamonds and other stuff. We also saw the Bloody Tower and the White Tower. The White Tower is the largest and the main one. Also we saw the place where Anne Boleyn and others were murdered under false pretenses. After that we headed to St. Katherine's Docks to have a nice Sunday Roast :) Overall, it was a great weekend!!
Now that the week has started, I'll be studying! I have my first International final for Finance! Wish me luck, it shouldn't be bad though :D
Today, I had class then went off to the Bank of England to see all the different currencies and what not. And for dinner I tried Indian curry for the first time! And I don't know why I never tried it before! Now I can eat it with my Parentals. :)
Anyway, this week is going to be fun! A broadway show, 2 going away dinners for the 3 week people and a final exam!
Talk soon :) xx
Sunday, 3 July 2011
The city of LOVE.
PARIS, Je t'aime. Friday, 2 of my new friends took a day trip to Paris. It was so amazing! We got up at 430 in the morning to catch the Eurostar from St. Pancras station. We arrived in Paris at 10am, there's an hour time difference too. The first thing we did was hop on the Metro to the Notre Dame, which is unbelievable! Since I had been in soooo many cathedrals in the last month, we opted out to go inside, and the line was miles long. But I thought the outside was the best anyway. After seeing the Notre Dame, we were starving so went to a cafe for some LEGIT french crepes! Which was probably the best thing I've ever eaten. Then that was over, and we walked on the Seine to the Louvre! Everything is pretty close together so walking wasn't toooo bad, but we did get an unlimited metro card for the day with our tour package! We arrived at the Louvre, which was packed with people, and personally I think the coolest part of the museum is the glass pyramid on top and that was all we saw anyway. The line to get into the museum was extremely long too, and we were on a tight schedule! We only had 9 more hours to do stuff for goodness sakes. After the Louvre, we walked along the Seine again towards the Eiffel Tower ou le Tour Eiffel. The walk was really nice, and luckily the weather was too! On our way, we stopped at a boulangerie (a place where they sell sandwiches and pastries) to grab some lunch. I felt very proud of myself because I spoke to the lady in French the entire time without speaking English when I was ordering my food :) I paid for a delicious sandwich and a french macaron, which was to DIE for. The baguettes are sooo tastey and deliciousnesssy, must be the water.
Anyway, after that we were at the Eiffel tower! It's amazing, one of the most amazing landmarks I have ever seen anyway, and I get around Europe! And for 3 Euros we could take the stairs to the second floor! WOOHOO you bet we did it. 668 LONG steps to get up to one of the most amazing views I have ever seeeen in my LIFE. And yes, my calves are still killing me. And after all the walking we went on our free River cruise to see all the cool landmarks of Paris, it was nice to sit, and to see all the sites of course :) hehe
The next part of our journey took us to le Champs Elysees and le Arc de Triomphe, amazing. 8 lanes of chaos! There's a tunnel to take you to the Arc so you don't risk your life trying to get to it from the street level, otherwise we'd all be dead. From one street all the way down you can see le Grand Arche also. Which by the way is MASSIVE, it looked way closer to the Arc de Triomphe because it is so huge. When we got to La Defense to see the Arche, you can see the tiny Arc and then we realized that trying to walk from the two was probably a mistake. (we attempted to walk it).
Our day was almost done, but first, we had to get souvenirs! Aka a bunch of bread. I bought some macaroons for Rich and his fam for letting me stay, and I bought some sandwiches and croissants for myself, so delicious!
That was basically the end to our Paris adventure, I saw everything I wanted to, although I would have really liked to see Versailles, but another day. We started off to the train station to head back into London on the Eurostar, which is the fastest train in Europe going about 150 mph. So crazy to think that!
The next day Rich came up to stay with me for the weekend to hang out and live the London life for a couple days. We went to Houses of Parliament that day too and he was able to go in. And get this, most English have no idea you can even go into Parliament! Even though it's only open Saturdays, luckily we got tix with ISA. It is such an amazing building with sooo much history too and we were able to see places that are actually used when Parliament meets and that goes on TV! I feel so lucky :) That night we went out on the town and met up with a few real Londoners, aka Rich's friends. It was good night!
This weekend was very fun filled and a very busy week ahead! Update soon loveliessss!
x
Anyway, after that we were at the Eiffel tower! It's amazing, one of the most amazing landmarks I have ever seen anyway, and I get around Europe! And for 3 Euros we could take the stairs to the second floor! WOOHOO you bet we did it. 668 LONG steps to get up to one of the most amazing views I have ever seeeen in my LIFE. And yes, my calves are still killing me. And after all the walking we went on our free River cruise to see all the cool landmarks of Paris, it was nice to sit, and to see all the sites of course :) hehe
The next part of our journey took us to le Champs Elysees and le Arc de Triomphe, amazing. 8 lanes of chaos! There's a tunnel to take you to the Arc so you don't risk your life trying to get to it from the street level, otherwise we'd all be dead. From one street all the way down you can see le Grand Arche also. Which by the way is MASSIVE, it looked way closer to the Arc de Triomphe because it is so huge. When we got to La Defense to see the Arche, you can see the tiny Arc and then we realized that trying to walk from the two was probably a mistake. (we attempted to walk it).
Our day was almost done, but first, we had to get souvenirs! Aka a bunch of bread. I bought some macaroons for Rich and his fam for letting me stay, and I bought some sandwiches and croissants for myself, so delicious!
That was basically the end to our Paris adventure, I saw everything I wanted to, although I would have really liked to see Versailles, but another day. We started off to the train station to head back into London on the Eurostar, which is the fastest train in Europe going about 150 mph. So crazy to think that!
The next day Rich came up to stay with me for the weekend to hang out and live the London life for a couple days. We went to Houses of Parliament that day too and he was able to go in. And get this, most English have no idea you can even go into Parliament! Even though it's only open Saturdays, luckily we got tix with ISA. It is such an amazing building with sooo much history too and we were able to see places that are actually used when Parliament meets and that goes on TV! I feel so lucky :) That night we went out on the town and met up with a few real Londoners, aka Rich's friends. It was good night!
This weekend was very fun filled and a very busy week ahead! Update soon loveliessss!
x
Thursday, 30 June 2011
Classes and such
The last couple days have been very good! I'm all settled in London and doin' juuuust fine. :) Sunday was good, we had ISA orientation in the morning then we had a personal double decker bus city tour, which took about 2 hours. SO MUCH TO SEEEEE! It's hard to believe that I'm here still. Anyway, these peeps I met are cooool and we've been doin a lot of site seeing!
Monday was really exciting too. We had University orientation for a few hours, with lunch included, yum :) and a couple hours of class after. At about 4 we headed to Harrods, the world's largest department store, to have HIGH TEA, aka tea sandwiches, scones and cakes. I felt so poshhh. After tea, we all went shopping and a little bit of site seeing!
Tuesday was rough, started class! Luckily it's only 3 hours of being in the classroom 4 days a week, not bad at all :D After class, we were supposed to go to the Camden markets, but it started to poooour, then it was off to the British museum. Some of us went to see if we could get any festival tickets, but everything was sold out :( then we decided to go to the British Museum, and let me tell you you can definitely get lost. I did see some mummies, supa cool, and after, we had a nice English pub meal. After a couple friends and I booked our day trip to PARIS. CANNOT WAIT.
Wednesday was pretty relaxed. I went to class, then took a nice little nap. So nothing really exciting.
Today, finally up to today, there was a strike in all the schools, post people and most of blue collar workers were on strike. SO no school for me today! :) We finally went to Camden markets, and it's THEE largest market place I've ever seen. So huge! And the food is really cheap there too. But it has also been a chill day, which I'm liking :) I'm just so excited to go to Paris tomorrow! Even though it's just for the day, it'll be worth it.
Talk later! xx
Monday was really exciting too. We had University orientation for a few hours, with lunch included, yum :) and a couple hours of class after. At about 4 we headed to Harrods, the world's largest department store, to have HIGH TEA, aka tea sandwiches, scones and cakes. I felt so poshhh. After tea, we all went shopping and a little bit of site seeing!
Tuesday was rough, started class! Luckily it's only 3 hours of being in the classroom 4 days a week, not bad at all :D After class, we were supposed to go to the Camden markets, but it started to poooour, then it was off to the British museum. Some of us went to see if we could get any festival tickets, but everything was sold out :( then we decided to go to the British Museum, and let me tell you you can definitely get lost. I did see some mummies, supa cool, and after, we had a nice English pub meal. After a couple friends and I booked our day trip to PARIS. CANNOT WAIT.
Wednesday was pretty relaxed. I went to class, then took a nice little nap. So nothing really exciting.
Today, finally up to today, there was a strike in all the schools, post people and most of blue collar workers were on strike. SO no school for me today! :) We finally went to Camden markets, and it's THEE largest market place I've ever seen. So huge! And the food is really cheap there too. But it has also been a chill day, which I'm liking :) I'm just so excited to go to Paris tomorrow! Even though it's just for the day, it'll be worth it.
Talk later! xx
Saturday, 25 June 2011
off to my "study abroad" LONDON.
I'm finally in LONDON! After staying with the Clarky's,( who are the BEST PEOPLE EVERRRRRRRRR!) I have made it to London town. Thanks to Treva Clark who drove me here! I'm all settled into my dorm, gots a room to muhhh self :) and I'm in a nice large room with 2 windows, I'm livin' the life. The area around the dorms is really neat, lots of hang out spots and bars and lil shops. I think the next 6 weeks are going to be interesting and FUN.
I met a lot of people so far, and it's been fun. Hopefully it'll be 100 Times better tooooo! I'd put photos up but I don't know how. hahah. Tomorrow we're going on a tour bus of the city to kind of see everything so we don't get lost and that funky stuff.
See ya lataaa <3
I met a lot of people so far, and it's been fun. Hopefully it'll be 100 Times better tooooo! I'd put photos up but I don't know how. hahah. Tomorrow we're going on a tour bus of the city to kind of see everything so we don't get lost and that funky stuff.
See ya lataaa <3
Wednesday, 22 June 2011
Windsor, Winchester, Newbs, Penwood, Oxford....and stuff :)
It's been awhile! Been off doing a bunch of things for the last week with Rich and his fam, so I've been a bit distracted! But it's been very fun and we've done a lot of things. We walked around Newbs for a bit on Monday and had lunch in town, very cutsie little town :)
Grandma left last Wed, but Tuesday we went to Windsor Castle and saw the Castle, obviously, and the lil town and things. Unfortunately, the state rooms (where Queeny lives while she stays there) was closed because the weekend before she came to stay there for the Change of the Guard and her Beedaaayy! It's an amazing castle though, smack in the middle of the town that was built around it.
A couple days later, Rich and I took a walk from Kintbury to Hungerford to get lunch and have a walk down the canal. It was so gorgeous and greeeen. For lunch we went to a cute lil pub and decided to walk back instead of taking the train. Bad idea. It rained the entire time, so I finally got to see the "English Rain" which isn't nice.. Besides that, it was a nice walk!
Last Saturday, Suuuuuuuuuuuuuue, Trevor and Reechard took me to Oxford for a little day on the town and some luncheon. We went to the Pit Rivers Museum and saw a bunch of cool old stuff! Also saw the 42 Colleges Oxford has within the city and Sue snuck us in one, since we weren't allowed because of the graduation ceremonies in all the Uni's.
Later on, Rich and I went to his friends for a hang out sesh because his friend was going back to the US.
Sunday was father's day and since I couldn't spend it with my own daddyyy, I spent it with Rich's! We went golfing, well Sueeeee and I drove the buggy (I'm reallllly good at it :) hehe) It was supposed to be nice and warm, but it was a bit chilly, but of course warmed up after we left. England. Sue made a lovely roast dinner and treacle pudding and custard for dessert, SOOOOO GOOOOODDDD. The best meals I've had here!
Monday Rich took me to the New Forest, only a 30 min drive, and we took a nice walk again. And of course, it was raining again and made the walk awesome :) We walked for about an hour to this pub, but it was closed! But it was all fun because I got to see wild horses and donkeys and cows just hanging out in the middle of the road. One horse thought it was funny to stand in the middle of the road and create a road block for quite awhile, so funny.
Tuesday Rich took me to Winchester to see the Cathedral and the Round Table. The cathedral is massive and is so old. It's really hard to put your head around how old it really is. Next we saw the table, which by the way is on the wall! The legs obviously are a bit old, so it was needed to hang on the wall. It's sooo huge and has so much history. And finally went home from a good day!
It's been such an amazing week at the Clark's and they've been so nice and gracious towards me. And they've dealt with me well too haha. I finaaaally start classes next week so I'll be out of their hair, but I know they'll miss me! xx
Grandma left last Wed, but Tuesday we went to Windsor Castle and saw the Castle, obviously, and the lil town and things. Unfortunately, the state rooms (where Queeny lives while she stays there) was closed because the weekend before she came to stay there for the Change of the Guard and her Beedaaayy! It's an amazing castle though, smack in the middle of the town that was built around it.
A couple days later, Rich and I took a walk from Kintbury to Hungerford to get lunch and have a walk down the canal. It was so gorgeous and greeeen. For lunch we went to a cute lil pub and decided to walk back instead of taking the train. Bad idea. It rained the entire time, so I finally got to see the "English Rain" which isn't nice.. Besides that, it was a nice walk!
Last Saturday, Suuuuuuuuuuuuuue, Trevor and Reechard took me to Oxford for a little day on the town and some luncheon. We went to the Pit Rivers Museum and saw a bunch of cool old stuff! Also saw the 42 Colleges Oxford has within the city and Sue snuck us in one, since we weren't allowed because of the graduation ceremonies in all the Uni's.
Later on, Rich and I went to his friends for a hang out sesh because his friend was going back to the US.
Sunday was father's day and since I couldn't spend it with my own daddyyy, I spent it with Rich's! We went golfing, well Sueeeee and I drove the buggy (I'm reallllly good at it :) hehe) It was supposed to be nice and warm, but it was a bit chilly, but of course warmed up after we left. England. Sue made a lovely roast dinner and treacle pudding and custard for dessert, SOOOOO GOOOOODDDD. The best meals I've had here!
Monday Rich took me to the New Forest, only a 30 min drive, and we took a nice walk again. And of course, it was raining again and made the walk awesome :) We walked for about an hour to this pub, but it was closed! But it was all fun because I got to see wild horses and donkeys and cows just hanging out in the middle of the road. One horse thought it was funny to stand in the middle of the road and create a road block for quite awhile, so funny.
Tuesday Rich took me to Winchester to see the Cathedral and the Round Table. The cathedral is massive and is so old. It's really hard to put your head around how old it really is. Next we saw the table, which by the way is on the wall! The legs obviously are a bit old, so it was needed to hang on the wall. It's sooo huge and has so much history. And finally went home from a good day!
It's been such an amazing week at the Clark's and they've been so nice and gracious towards me. And they've dealt with me well too haha. I finaaaally start classes next week so I'll be out of their hair, but I know they'll miss me! xx
Sunday, 12 June 2011
reeeeeeeeeeading, redding, however you say it....
Part of it was from yesterday so here:
We left Yorkshire district, (SHOUT OUT TO JEMMA'S MUM!) We were staying in Wetherby, which looks to be halfway between Leeds and York, and it was about a 4 hour journey down to Heathrow. The roads in England are superb and beautiful, no potholes :)
On our way down we passed Nottingham, which is known for the Robin Hood stories. Mostly the drive was green and filled with sheep and cows. Other than that, not much around.
After we arrived at Heathrow, we took a bus to Reading (pronounced REDing) and got a little hotel right off the bus since we were just wingin' it for the next couple of days. It's a big/small town, meaning there isn't much to do, but there is a giant mall area thing called the Oracle. Amazingly enough there's a million shops and restaurants to choose from which is fabulous. Rich thinks otherwise and that it isn't exciting. Whatever. For dinner we actually went to Jamie Oliver's Italian Restaurant for dinner. IT WAS SO DELICIOUS. Not a lot of people can say that ;) heheee.
Today, we slept in, FINALLY. After a little roamin' in Marks and Spencer for breakfast, we went to the cinema to see X-MEN First Class. Now that was a good movie, even in England! After the movie, we went to this southern restaurant for dinner and with our movie ticket the meal was basically half off, supaaa! And the food was really good, everything is better in England. Although the butter was better in Scotland, sorry guys.
Tomorrow we're finally DONE staying in hotels and Rich and his parentals are nice enough to let us stay for a couple nights before sendin grammy off to the states. Gotta say, this lil adventure has been rough, yet awesome. I can't wait until school starts, then the stories really start flowin'! :)
Friday, 10 June 2011
DRIVING!
Yeah, title says it all. Just drove for 6 hours today.
BUT, we did stop at a cute little B&B for lunch and tea and continued on our way. Finally we stopped in Wetherby, near York, in Yorkshire. It's so beautiful!
Maybe tomorrow will be more exciting :)
BUT, we did stop at a cute little B&B for lunch and tea and continued on our way. Finally we stopped in Wetherby, near York, in Yorkshire. It's so beautiful!
Maybe tomorrow will be more exciting :)
Thursday, 9 June 2011
The day I tried Haggis and went on a bus.
Okay so the Haggis part isn't all that interesting, but since it's the national dish I though I'd add it in. For breakfast I tried a little with beans, sausage and 'shrooms. Haggis is made of like sheep's innards and oats and spices or something. Unfortunately, it was good. I kinda feel bad haha. So that was that.
Today was tourist shopping day and other cool Edinburgh stuff. We finally got Gma some good walking shoes (only took like 9 days to find some haha) and then went along to get all the Scottish necessities :). The coolest part of Scotland is that a lot of things are a bit cheaper than the US. Like perfumes....I bought one for myself because it's about half price here. And cashmere. Since it's made right here in Scotland it doesn't need to be shipped anywhere so it's about 50 bucks cheaper here than in America! WOOHOO!
After the shopping we hopped on a double decker bus, finally got to ride on one of those babies, and went down to the Royal Yacht Brittania. The funny thing about this Yacht is that it once belonged to Queeny, but in 1998 the United Kingdom took it from her because she was costing them a TON of money. Poor Queen hasn't been up to Scotland since, can't get over it I guess.
We went on a tour of the ship and had tea sandwiches and tea in the Tea Room. It was lovely : )
Finally we took our bus back to the hotel and it had been an exhausting day actually. We started at 11 and ended at 6! Time goes by so quickly!
Tomorrow we're heading back into England and down to London, stopping every once and awhile to see the countryside. Bye loves xxx
Today was tourist shopping day and other cool Edinburgh stuff. We finally got Gma some good walking shoes (only took like 9 days to find some haha) and then went along to get all the Scottish necessities :). The coolest part of Scotland is that a lot of things are a bit cheaper than the US. Like perfumes....I bought one for myself because it's about half price here. And cashmere. Since it's made right here in Scotland it doesn't need to be shipped anywhere so it's about 50 bucks cheaper here than in America! WOOHOO!
After the shopping we hopped on a double decker bus, finally got to ride on one of those babies, and went down to the Royal Yacht Brittania. The funny thing about this Yacht is that it once belonged to Queeny, but in 1998 the United Kingdom took it from her because she was costing them a TON of money. Poor Queen hasn't been up to Scotland since, can't get over it I guess.
We went on a tour of the ship and had tea sandwiches and tea in the Tea Room. It was lovely : )
Finally we took our bus back to the hotel and it had been an exhausting day actually. We started at 11 and ended at 6! Time goes by so quickly!
Tomorrow we're heading back into England and down to London, stopping every once and awhile to see the countryside. Bye loves xxx
Wednesday, 8 June 2011
Tour to Loch Ness and the Highlands!
I forgot to mention in yesterday's post that we took a Scottish Whiskey tour right after the castle. By the way, I'm not sure how these people LIKE to drink this stuff. No matter what the "flavour" is aka Banana, Lemon, Peet or flowery, it still tastes like disgusting. But it still was an interesting tour. Kind of like it's the small world ride at Disneyland but with alcohol. Point: it was fun.
Anyway, today was very long, wet but beautiful. We started the journey really early and it was a total of 12 hours. We went all the way up to Loch Ness, to see the monster, which pretty sure I did ;) By the way, the water is BLACK, which is because of all the peet in the rocks, making it merkey and I didn't want to swim in that. Of course, right as we got on the cruise boat it started POURING and there was no room down in the bottom deck. So Gma and I were chillin' at the top trying not to get completely soaked, although that didn't go down very well. And sandals probably weren't the best choice, but hey, California girl gotta have my sandals.
After that we had fish 'n chips at a restaurant and headed off to look at some more cool scenery and stuff. It's so green in the highlands, it's ridiculous! There's a part of the highlands where no commercial or residencial buildings can be put up so it preserves the land. (And probs the sheep, which are everywhere). We drove all the way to Inverness, which is the capital of the Highlands. Look it up on a map, it's verrrryyyyy far up there. Then turned back to drive on the other side back to Edinburgh.
Finally we arrived in Edinburgh and I'm frozen like a popsicle and ready to go to bed, at 8 haha.
More tomorrow! (For whoever is reading this anyway, let me know so I'm not writing to myself :) Even though I like reading my own stuff) XX
Anyway, today was very long, wet but beautiful. We started the journey really early and it was a total of 12 hours. We went all the way up to Loch Ness, to see the monster, which pretty sure I did ;) By the way, the water is BLACK, which is because of all the peet in the rocks, making it merkey and I didn't want to swim in that. Of course, right as we got on the cruise boat it started POURING and there was no room down in the bottom deck. So Gma and I were chillin' at the top trying not to get completely soaked, although that didn't go down very well. And sandals probably weren't the best choice, but hey, California girl gotta have my sandals.
After that we had fish 'n chips at a restaurant and headed off to look at some more cool scenery and stuff. It's so green in the highlands, it's ridiculous! There's a part of the highlands where no commercial or residencial buildings can be put up so it preserves the land. (And probs the sheep, which are everywhere). We drove all the way to Inverness, which is the capital of the Highlands. Look it up on a map, it's verrrryyyyy far up there. Then turned back to drive on the other side back to Edinburgh.
Finally we arrived in Edinburgh and I'm frozen like a popsicle and ready to go to bed, at 8 haha.
More tomorrow! (For whoever is reading this anyway, let me know so I'm not writing to myself :) Even though I like reading my own stuff) XX
Tuesday, 7 June 2011
SCOTLAND Day 2
Scotland tourist day!
This morning we got up and toured the Edinburgh Castle. Which is BEAUTIFUL. I honestly don't think I've ever seen such a more wonderful/exciting/gorgeous city in my life. The city is half old half new, weird, but it's so wonderful to see it all integrated. But anyway, the Castle is the most spectacular piece of architecture I have ever seen. Since I have my Gma with me we had a "special" car ride up to the top of the castle. It plopped us at the top so we were able to see the Royal Crown Jewels, the oldest cathedral and we saw the blasting of the cannon's, which happens every day at 1PM. I actually recorded a video and when it went off, I got scared and the camera shook. After that we took a double decker city bus tour throughout the city to the Palace of Holyrood. Which is the Queens residence while she's in Scotland. SO AMAZING. Finally it started rain. And when I mean finally, I mean that because it's been great weather ever since we landed in the UK, so I guess it was time for bad weather. After Holyrood we hopped back on our tour bus and ended back at our hotel. Grandma was exhausted and so was I. But it was a good ending to a good day :)
Everything about this place makes me think that America isn't that great... Even their butter is like 10,000 times better. I'm tellin' ya. Although I will never try Haggis. That's all for today, tomorrow we're heading to Loch Ness(to see Nessy of course) and the highlands on a bus tour. Should be long, but brilliant :)
This morning we got up and toured the Edinburgh Castle. Which is BEAUTIFUL. I honestly don't think I've ever seen such a more wonderful/exciting/gorgeous city in my life. The city is half old half new, weird, but it's so wonderful to see it all integrated. But anyway, the Castle is the most spectacular piece of architecture I have ever seen. Since I have my Gma with me we had a "special" car ride up to the top of the castle. It plopped us at the top so we were able to see the Royal Crown Jewels, the oldest cathedral and we saw the blasting of the cannon's, which happens every day at 1PM. I actually recorded a video and when it went off, I got scared and the camera shook. After that we took a double decker city bus tour throughout the city to the Palace of Holyrood. Which is the Queens residence while she's in Scotland. SO AMAZING. Finally it started rain. And when I mean finally, I mean that because it's been great weather ever since we landed in the UK, so I guess it was time for bad weather. After Holyrood we hopped back on our tour bus and ended back at our hotel. Grandma was exhausted and so was I. But it was a good ending to a good day :)
Everything about this place makes me think that America isn't that great... Even their butter is like 10,000 times better. I'm tellin' ya. Although I will never try Haggis. That's all for today, tomorrow we're heading to Loch Ness(to see Nessy of course) and the highlands on a bus tour. Should be long, but brilliant :)
Monday, 6 June 2011
On to the best one, WIDNES TO SCOTLAND.
This was definitely a journey. I drove all the way from Widnes (Liverpool) to Edinburgh, Scotland.
By the way, that's about 5 hours. :)
Well not much to say about this lil part of the trip except the countryside is sooo gorgeous and the drive was really simple.
Plus, we only got lost ONCE in Edinburgh! Only because we forgot to turn on a street, oops.
The hotel we're staying at is really nice and we'll be here for 4 nights. Can't wait and more to come :)
xx
By the way, that's about 5 hours. :)
Well not much to say about this lil part of the trip except the countryside is sooo gorgeous and the drive was really simple.
Plus, we only got lost ONCE in Edinburgh! Only because we forgot to turn on a street, oops.
The hotel we're staying at is really nice and we'll be here for 4 nights. Can't wait and more to come :)
xx
Birmingham to Liverpool (Widnes)
Although this already happened I wanna give an update :)
We left Birmingham the 4th (woop!) and traveled on up to Widnes to see Liverpool. Widnes is about 30 min driving away from Liverpool and Manchester. It was such a cute little town, mainly neighborhoods, and the people at the Inn were so adorable. (side note, my grandma had been driving the entire way till now). The guy that owned to Inn took us to the train that took us to Runcorn Station which the train took us to Liverpool and that only took 10 minutes! We stayed in Widnes for 2 nights so we could really see Liverpool.
Liverpool is such a great city, home of the Beatles and who knows what else. My gram and I went to the docks to do some tours of the city and went on this tour called the "Yellow Duckmarine," and it was yellow and it was a boat/car. Considering there are only 60 of those car things left in the world, this thing was so interesting! It first took us around the city on land then 30 min later took us through the docks for another 30 minutes. The weather was kind of dreary, but it was still nice to look around and see the city.
After that tour we had lunch at the Blue Cafe, and I had a traditional Sunday roast and my gma had fish and chips (we're in love with the fish and chips). Afterwards we went to the Beatles Exibit and saw basically everything you need to know about the Beatles. It was very educational too.
As we headed back to our quaint little Inn, we got to see a bunch of the countryside of the North-West of England, so beautiful.
Now also, this is where I finally got to drive in England. And I'm VERY, VERY good at it believe it or not! The stick shift is so easy and driving on the left gets a little scary, but not bad at all. I'm very proud of myself :) And I have driven ever since.
The journey in Liverpool was definitely great, it's a city I would travel to again when I'm in the UK and I recommend it to anyone!
We left Birmingham the 4th (woop!) and traveled on up to Widnes to see Liverpool. Widnes is about 30 min driving away from Liverpool and Manchester. It was such a cute little town, mainly neighborhoods, and the people at the Inn were so adorable. (side note, my grandma had been driving the entire way till now). The guy that owned to Inn took us to the train that took us to Runcorn Station which the train took us to Liverpool and that only took 10 minutes! We stayed in Widnes for 2 nights so we could really see Liverpool.
Liverpool is such a great city, home of the Beatles and who knows what else. My gram and I went to the docks to do some tours of the city and went on this tour called the "Yellow Duckmarine," and it was yellow and it was a boat/car. Considering there are only 60 of those car things left in the world, this thing was so interesting! It first took us around the city on land then 30 min later took us through the docks for another 30 minutes. The weather was kind of dreary, but it was still nice to look around and see the city.
After that tour we had lunch at the Blue Cafe, and I had a traditional Sunday roast and my gma had fish and chips (we're in love with the fish and chips). Afterwards we went to the Beatles Exibit and saw basically everything you need to know about the Beatles. It was very educational too.
As we headed back to our quaint little Inn, we got to see a bunch of the countryside of the North-West of England, so beautiful.
Now also, this is where I finally got to drive in England. And I'm VERY, VERY good at it believe it or not! The stick shift is so easy and driving on the left gets a little scary, but not bad at all. I'm very proud of myself :) And I have driven ever since.
The journey in Liverpool was definitely great, it's a city I would travel to again when I'm in the UK and I recommend it to anyone!
London to Birmingham
So it's a bit late for this but I forgot. Anyway, my grandma and I left NYC the 1st of June and arrived at Heathrow the next day. Gladly, Rich (literally the best boyfriend ever) and his dad picked us up from the airport, thank god, and drove us to our lovely hotel for the night. We toured around Mayfair for a bit and walked to Oxford Street, Picadilly Circus and some other little sites. I decided not to do any crazy site seeing since I'll be in London for 6 weeks anyway.
After resting and being totally jet lagged we went to a pub for pints and fish and chips. SO COOL. (P.S. they call chips fries and crisps are chips, just in case you didn't know :) ) and then Rich headed back home and my gma and I went to bed early.
The next day(6/3), we went to Heathrow to pick up our rental car. AND man, let me tell you, I probably wouldn't recommend driving here. So stressful. BUT I ended up not being able to drive. (up until Liverpool) Since I'm not 25, I couldn't "drive."
Obviously driving on the other side of the road and with a stick shift is difficult, but I actually got the hang of it very quickly.
It took about 2 hours to get to Birmingham, and another 2.5 getting lost. The streets and roundabouts are slightly really complicated here, but after awhile you get used to it. We finally arrived to our hotel and wandered around Birmingham. Which I wouldn't recommend anyone visiting. There isn't anything to do, and plus it's a nightmare to get anywhere.
Anyway, all in all it was a prettyyy hectic journey up to Birmingham, and let me tell you, I definitely would NOT do it again. But it still was a valuable experience.
After resting and being totally jet lagged we went to a pub for pints and fish and chips. SO COOL. (P.S. they call chips fries and crisps are chips, just in case you didn't know :) ) and then Rich headed back home and my gma and I went to bed early.
The next day(6/3), we went to Heathrow to pick up our rental car. AND man, let me tell you, I probably wouldn't recommend driving here. So stressful. BUT I ended up not being able to drive. (up until Liverpool) Since I'm not 25, I couldn't "drive."
Obviously driving on the other side of the road and with a stick shift is difficult, but I actually got the hang of it very quickly.
It took about 2 hours to get to Birmingham, and another 2.5 getting lost. The streets and roundabouts are slightly really complicated here, but after awhile you get used to it. We finally arrived to our hotel and wandered around Birmingham. Which I wouldn't recommend anyone visiting. There isn't anything to do, and plus it's a nightmare to get anywhere.
Anyway, all in all it was a prettyyy hectic journey up to Birmingham, and let me tell you, I definitely would NOT do it again. But it still was a valuable experience.
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