A foggy day in London town...

Goodbye.

2010-05-06T15:48:00.002+01:00

I leave in a matter of hours. All my bags are packed, my leftover food redistributed amongst the scavengers more commonly known as starving college students, and my belly full from my last pub meal at the Dickens Tavern.

The end is bittersweet. I love this city and all that it has gracefully shared with me. But, then how can one start a new adventure if I never draw the exclamation point at the end of this one? I am ready for a new adventure. But I sure have loved this one.

My last night in London I went to the HardRock Cafe with a big group of the friends I've made here. That was the first time it truly hit me that I would be leaving.

After dinner I went to see Lion King with my flatmate Jasmine. It was the perfect way to end my time here. I saved the best musical for last. I was sobbing within the first 5 minutes as the elephants and giraffes walked down through the aisles, embracing me with the Circle of Life.

Today I walked through the park and saw my last London dog party. I just stood there for a few moments, at the edge of the path, gazing out onto the open field, realizing that soon I would not belong here anymore, that this scene of canine bliss would continue on without me. But I smiled with joy as I gazed at the trees hiding the cityscape, listened to the birds sing their song of spring, smelled the fresh green smell of new flora, and felt London penetrating my being.

Writing this is bringing me to tears. I am so happy. Thank you for going on this journey with me. Be blessed and now go out and have your own adventure!

Always Love

2010-05-03T17:40:00.003+01:00

To make a mountain of your life is just a choice
But I never learned enough to listen to the voice that told me
Always love
Hate will get you everytime
Always love
Don't wait 'til the finish line

--Addison Road

I think that message really speaks to me right now.

This semester has been an interesting one as far as living situation goes, and I've learned so much about people and social dynamics. And, I think the biggest lesson I've learned is that when you get upset with someone for the way that they are, then really you are only hurting yourself. They will never change, and so why not just love them for who they are?

It is strange to be wrapping up my time here. I am ready, but at the same time I'm not. I know that as soon as I'm gone there will be things that I yearn for. Like running through Regent's Park, or walking 200 meters to Tesco at 10 pm to get a treat, or watching the dog parties, or going to the theatre twice a week, or AllSouls Church.

Sheesh now I'm getting sad.

Saturday I went with Ginny and Helon, two girls who live upstairs, to a used book fair along the southbank of the Thames and got a book for the plane ride home. Yippee!

Then I went to see the musical called We Will Rock You, and obviously it has all music by Queen. It is one of the most popular West End shows, it has been running for 8 years, and the Brits love it. And, it has never been to Broadway, so I was like "Well, I wanna see this show cause it is uniquely British." Well folks... it was WEIRD. Just as an example... it took place in the year 2300 and it was in the land of Gaga. A lot of the British humor was lost on me and so were a lot of the pop culture references. It was fun though, and of course I loved the music.

Saturday night Linda and I went to the Dickens Tavern for dinner. I am gonna miss that place!!! Veggie Fish and Chips YESSSSS. I am gonna have to go one more time before I leave. Then I came back to another night of sleeping over upstairs and another night of delicious baked goods. BAKED APPLES. My new FAV dessert.

Yesterday was my last Sunday at church, which was another sad goodbye. After church I came back to work on my final for Beatles class. After a good 5 hours of it, I was almost totally fried, and needed a serious break. It was FREEZING AND RAINY AGAIN CAUSE LONDON IS BIPOLAR and so I didn't want to run outside, but my gym membership expired Friday. But, I decided I would go and just pay for an individual session.

Well I get there and my friend Khadija (who is from Kenya and her dream is to move to the United States and be a pharmacist (she already has all the degrees, she just needs to take her exams)) was working. She is the sweetest woman and I told her that I wanted to pay just for the day and she said "no, you cannot pay, you just train and come in tomorrow to train too, I work from 6:45 to 2:45." She was very sad to hear I would be leaving because she loved seeing my smiling face in aa city where it is rare. I went back this morning and took a picture with her after I trained.

Today Linda and I went to the Museum of London and I felt cool cause I already knew loads of the stuff. I guess I've learned a lot about my city in 3 months. :) That was the goal.

Tonight I am watching "Glee" for the first time with Linda and Kathryn as we make dinner.

Three nights left here....

This could be my last entry while in Londontown.

Whoa.

A Good Old Fashioned Sleepover

2010-04-30T22:53:00.002+01:00

I'm 13 again.

I keep looking at my watch. What time is it 12:30. Ok, focus. 2 more assignments to finish.

What time is it? 3. One more assignment.

What time is it NOW? 6. Homework's done and it is Friday night! I rush up to my room, pack up my backpack with my toothbrush and overnight clothes, and head down to the kitchen to pull out my last batch of homebaked m & m cookies and carry them piping hot up to the flat above me for a night of girl filled fun.

Instead of playing truth or dare however, we played "lets bake as many delicious goodies as we can".
The games we girls play have changed in 8 years, but the effect is still the same. The giddy, happy feeling of a sleepover never grows old with age.

So many goodies including lemon squares, brownies and cookies made their way into the pit of my stomach tonight, causing it to light up in flame and angrily yell at me in the way that stomachs do. Tummmmmmy ache! But, Ginny (who is a master chef and crazy ninja) set me up with some ginger tea and my tummy went soundly back o sleep.

Sitting here listening to the rain outside my window, and enjoying the warm feeling of a Friday night with no responsibility makes me appreciate my life.

A Week with the Folks (FINALLY!)

2010-04-30T00:12:00.002+01:00

So.. I know this is delayed, but I had a great time with mom and dad here. Momma said she would do another guest entry (back by popular demand) so she is going to write about the weekend we spent in Cornwall together. So I'll give the highlights starting with last Tuesday, April 20th and going through Friday, April 23rd.

Tuesday- I had class, and while I gained intelligence, mom finished doing laundry for me, and dad worked. It is sooo nice to have a mommy cook for you and do your laundry. After class I came back and mom and I packed a picnic lunch to take to the park while I was at the gym. Mom and dad ate and fed the pigeons and afterward dad went back to work while mom and I went and booked the tickets for the sequel to Phantom, “Love Never Dies” and then to the Victoria and Albert Museum. The V and A is maybe my favorite London museum. It has such an eclectic collection of goods. I loved the fashion exhibit. Wish I coulda worn some of those vintage clothes (especially the flower child clothes from the 60s.)

We ate at a Pret (cheapo sandwich shop… but the food is real good) on Trafalgar Square before going to Love Never Dies. I won’t spoil the plot for any of you, but it was a good production. The technology was prettttttty intense and the performers were all solid. The girl who played Christine was Sienna Boggess, who was Ariel in Little Mermaid on Broadway.

Wednesday- I took mom to the Tate Britain with me for art class. We were going to the Chris Ofili exhibition (he is a African British artist who focuses a lot on racial and gender justice) and it was really cool. A few years ago one of his works titled “The Virgin Mary” caused chaos in New York when the American public became outraged at the pornographic images and the elephant dung used on a religious piece. We saw that piece, and of course it wasn’t as huge a deal as the media and the extreme conservatives make it to be. The elephant dung was artistic, and the porno… well it wasn’t savory, but it made a statement.

We called up papa who met us in Green Park (by Buckingham Palace) for another nice picnic in the sunshine and then mom and I went to the Royal Mews to see if my favorite horse named Monarch was still around. When I was a wee little blond babe we visited the Mews and I boldly asked the caretaker of the horses if I could pet one. He graciously complied, letting me under the restrictive rope to stand in the stall with him and pet the horse named Monarch. The next year I was still a wee little blond with a bond to Monarch, and we went back in search of her, and again I was taken into a restricted area by a kindly caretaker and gave her sugar cubes.

In HIGHSCHOOL we went back to the Mews yet again, and inquired about Monarch to the right person, and this time we were taken into the private stables (much to the chagrin of the grumpy security guards) and I ran along the trotting Monarch while the caretaker explained that he had retired due to his age, but he was one of the Queen’s favorite because of his pink skin, and therefore he was still kept at Buckingham rather than being moved to the country.

This time around I told myself walking in that surely Monarch could not be alive any longer. I was “coming for closure” I told myself. But, even with my mental preparation, it did not soften the blow when the answer to our hopeful questions about Monarch came. I did cry. I cried for the beautiful horse that made a little girl feel special. And, I cried for another door to my childhood that had closed, leaving me to realize more strongly that I am growing up.

GOSH WHY DO WE HAVE TO GROW UP! Sometimes I wish I could be Peter Pan.

Ok, not really, but there are growing pains.

After the Mews we stopped by the Girl Guide office so mom could get some stamps and stalk the little brownies to get their pictures.

Wednesday night we ate at the Hard Rock Café. The one in London is the original. I have only eaten there once before, at the one in Cleveland on some indistinct birthday in my childhood. So, being a chain that is known for its Tshirts, I was not expecting the food to be that amazing.

…Well maybe it was the fact that I haven’t had American cuisine in awhile, but the food was amazing… so much so that we went back there for dinner on Thursday! Woops! The atmosphere was fun, too, and we enjoyed looking at the rock n roll relics and chatting to the people beside us who were stranded because of the volcano. The airline was paying for their meals… sheesh, I wouldn’t complain.

For theatre, my class was going to see a show called Posh, and mom and dad couldn’t get tickets for it because it was sold out, so we parted ways, and I sat through three hours of British upper class students partying and being destructive. Obviously, it was not my favorite of the shows we’ve seen.

Thursday- For Beatles class we went to the British Music Experience (quite similar to the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland) and it was in the O2 arena, which is out near Greenwich, and is this giant dome sort of in the middle of nothing. It has a concert hall, lots of restaurants, a roller rink, and then this museum. It was basically like an indoor village. The BME was very interactive, you could record yourself singing or playing instruments, the exhibit was very “touch this touch that” and you could video yourself dancing and play it back.

We decided that we wanted to see Legally Blond, so we went to get tickets for it, arriving at about 2:20, to find that they were ushering people in for a matinee performance. “Oh no” I thought, “I hope we can still use the box office for tonight’s performance.” We tentatively walked up to the window, and the clerk told us we could indeed buy tickets for that night, but that they were rather full, and so we would be paying 65 pounds for orchestra seats. I turned to mom and told her that seeing Legally Blond for that much money was not worth it. As we were walking away the girl, eager to make a sale, said “I can get you in this afternoon for 22 pounds (she gave us all the student rate) each in the stalls (orchestra)” By this point it was 2:25, so we had to decide real quick for a 2:30 show. We took it, and after wrangling a very startled dad, rushed to our seats just in time. The show was so fun, and I loved the little dog, Bruiser.

After the show guess where we went? Yep, that’s right, the Hard Rock Café. Yummmmmmmmmm.

Friday- Oh my God, oh my God you guys. (Mom and dad couldn’t stop singing this line from Legally Blond. Oh dear) We took the tube partway out to Kew Gardens until the District line became suspended, so we took the bus the rest of the way. I love riding the bus, you get to see so much more.

Kew Gardens was GORGEOUS. It was perfect weather, and the gardens were enormous, with so many different and interesting flora and fauna. There was a rainforest greenhouse, a temperate forest greenhouse, an art gallery, a museum, a treetop walk, a bluebell field, a bamboo garden, and so much more. All of the cherry trees were in bloom and it smelled magnificent. We had fun just wandering around and enjoying the sunshine.

We came back in to central London and went to the Elephant Man museum for papa. The Elephant Man was a dude in the early part of the century (or late part of the 19th century) who had some disorder that morphed and distorted his body so much that he was ostracized from society until a surgeon rescued him and turned him into somewhat of a hero and let him live in the hospital for the remainder of his days. His story is a moving one, and I was glad to learn more about him.

That evening we went on a ghost tour that wasn’t so ghostly, but pretty historic. Took some photos, but no ghosts showed up. Sad.

Afterward we searched for my childhood favorite, Pizza Piazza, but we could not find it, so it must have closed. So, we settled on Pizza Hut instead.

And with the glowing image of warm cheesy pizza floating around in the space between your ears, I will leave you. I hope you are craving pizza as much as I am.

Macbeth Killed the Hippies

2010-04-29T21:11:00.002+01:00

So yesterday I had my last art class at the Saatchi Gallery. Saatchi is this SUPER rich Indian Brit who just collects art and puts it on display in what is said to be the most state of the art gallery in the world and he doesn't charge! I wonder where he got all of his money... because he has thousands and thousands of works of art. He gives a lot of artists their beginnings, including Damien Herst, who is the richest artist alive today. You may know him from the dead animals in tanks (including a cow, a shark, etc) that were so controversial a few years ago.

The exhibit going on at Saatchi currently is Indian art, and the highlight piece of the whole semester was in this exhibit. The installation was a room, and as you walked into the room, you were under the illusion that you were walking out on a ledge that overlooked a giant room with extremely high ceilings and a strange looking floor. BUT, in reality, you are walking out onto an elevated floor that looks down upon a pool of oil that covers the entire room from wall to wall and thus reflects the room above it. It is so incredibly still that it is almost indetectable that you are looking at oil and not an extra large room. It was soooooooooooooo cool.

After art I had my last voice lesson here. It was sad to say goodbye to Ann, I had grown quite fond of her. If I had to think a person that fit the words regal, classy, and elegant, I would think of Ann. I learned a lot from her this semester, and hopefully I'll be able to use her techniques this summer in Nebraska!

THEN....and here is the juicy part (literally juicy... you'll find out soon enough.) Last night was our last play for my theatre class (SHEESH yesterday had a lot of lasts in it!) and we went to see Macbeth at Shakespeare's famous theatre, the Globe. The Globe is the only legal wooden building in London because the city has burned so many times, that the council does not want anything made of wood. But anyway, the Globe is this cool building with a thatched roof along the Thames river, and it is still in the tradition that it was in the 1600s, no roof around the stage, and minimal lights and sets. We got to stand in the yard, and for Macbeth, they had suspended this black drape so that the audience at the front of the yard, had to stand underneath it and stick their heads up through slits in the curtain. All excited, we rushed to the front and put our heads into the holes like little gophers.

Well, as soon as the show started I saw why it is a bad omen to ever say the word Macbeth in the theatre... because well the show was really dark and gruesome with lots of evil and violence. Within the first 5 minutes several men were killed, and one of them was an old man. But before the soldiers slaughtered the old man and spread his blood about the stage, they cut out his tongue. But... they didn't just cut it out and leave it at that, they proceeded to fling it into the audience. And, guess where it landed? MY FACE. Splat! bloody, juicy gel tongue all over my face and arm. Let me tell ya, they did a good job of making it look and feel the consistency of a tongue... goodness I hope it wasn't real!

Standing in Shakespeare's Globe was quite an experience, despite how violent and sick the play was.

TRANSITIONNNNNNNNNNNNN

Today I went to see "Hair" and it was so incredible. For the first time in musical history the original Broadway cast was imported to the West End stage. So I saw the real performance, including Gavin Creel. He stood within a foot of me. I could have reached out and grabbed him if I wanted to. While I am not really into the whole "lets do drugs and be a drop out" thing, I am a hippie at heart, and I wanted to get up there and dance for peace and love and flowers!

So, I know that to talk about one's meal is always like the most boring thing in the world, but I just HAVE to talk about my dinner tonight cause it was so good. I made organic cream of potato soup, organic steamed broccoli, and homemade Irish brown soda bread. Oh goodness it was delicious after a long day of running around and then a good hour long run.

Ok boring food description over... and so is this post.

Thomas Kinkade, a Marathon, and some good ole fashioned TV

2010-04-26T21:41:00.003+01:00

There is huge gap in my blog between Friday the 18th and Saturday the 24th. BUT, do not worry, it will be filled... just slightly out of order.

Saturday, April 24= going back in time to a land before the United States existed. Mom, dad and I hired a car to take a day trip in to Oxford, Warwick, and the Cottswalds.

We arrived to Oxford mid-morning and I was immediately struck by the energy of the place. So collegiate, so vibrant, yet a pyramid of intelligence from hundreds of years of educational history behind the place. We stopped at the TI (tourist info) on our walk in to the town, and the very unhelpful and rude girl told us that most of the colleges were closed for the day because they were sitting exams. (oh by the way… common misconception about Oxford: many people think that it is one university, rather like our universities in the States, HOWEVER, Oxford is a village of smaller universities… 32 to be exact. Each one has its specialties and each was founded by different people at different times, and many are very small, Balliol College, the only one we were able to tour has 400 students!) The Great Hall of Hogwarts in the Harry Potter movies was filmed in Christ Church college in Oxford, and of course unhelpful-rude girl made a point of telling us Christ Church was certainly closed. Well, she lied. We were able to get in to the grounds and look around a bit, but the Great Hall (aka their dining hall) was not going to open until later that afternoon, and we had places to go and people to see, so we couldn’t hover.

I cannot imagine going to a college that dates back to the 1200s or going to a college where 13 Prime Ministers of England graduated, or a college where the buildings are so old and beautiful, that you feel more like you are in a book than a real place.

Back in the car: driving full speed ahead, 80 miles an hour, windows down, music blaring. Ok not really… it was more like this : dad driving our car with a dog of an engine that jolted and never really felt like it was in gear, mom with the map, and me in the back eating almonds because I had forgotten that breakfast was something that people sometimes do.

Did I mention that it was a beautiful, sunny, warm day? Cause it was.

At Warwick Castle in Warwick there was a food, drink, and craft festival happening this weekend. So naturally, I was pretty pumped. We arrived JUST in time for the Flight of the Eagles presentation on the lawn. Warwick is home to 8 eagles of different breeds and they were so majestic. What powerful, wonderful, beautiful creatures. I understood why they are such a symbol of power across the world.

We visited the food tent, which had an array of things ranging from jams, pastries, CHEESEY cashews, different curries, and homemade COOKIES ( I got Mars Bars ones.. oh my so good.) The craft tent had some pretty awesome photography that made mom and I drool… too bad it was much too much over our budget.

The castle itself was unique from others that I’ve been to in the sense that Madam Tusseauds furnished it with wax figures of people who had stayed at our lived in the castle. And, they talked and told their stories! It was cool hearing about all the draaaaaama that the wealthy are involved in. This one slept with that one, and that one backstabbed this one, etc.

We left at closing time after walking around on top of the castle wall, and drove to the Cottswald villages. Talk about PEACEFUL. No tourists. So refreshing. Literally, you felt like you were in a Thomas Kinkade painting. And… take note:

We stopped in one of the villages, Bourton on the Water, and ate at a little pub called the Kingsbridge that was along a little stream that ran through the center of town. It was a wonderful last meal with mom and dad.

After returning the car and getting mom and dad to their hotel by the airport, I sadly parted ways with them and took the tube home, getting home not long before the last train came in. It was a lonesome ride, knowing that I was leaving them behind, but I can’t be too sad cause I’ll be in Cyprus in less than two weeks!

Sunday, April 25= an athletically inspirational day. The Bakerloo tube line was down for maitenance, so I took the bus to Buckingham Palace to watch the finish of the London Marathon. I arrived about 10 minutes before the elite men were due to finish, and so I watched the last of the elite women (who started before the men) and the wheelchairs come through. Talk about ripped! I’m not sure what their times were, but since they were elite, they were probably all under three hours. The winner of the marathon overall was an Ethiopian guy, and his time was 2:03 something. He was MOVIN.

I had a great spot for a view of the runners as they came in for the last 300 yards. I saw the first Brit to finish the race too, and of course everyone cheered like mad for him. 36,000 people ran in the marathon this year. Wow.

Then last night Linda and I went to the London Symphony Orchestra, arriving a little late so we had to sit out the first act. But, no big deal, we could hear the music just fine from the lobby. They were soooo talented. It made me appreciate orchestras a lot more, because the only orchestral things I ever remember attending where high schools who should NOT have had an orchestra because they did not have a big enough pool of students or funding to make a quality production. But, the LSO was obviously of highest caliber, and quite a treat.

Monday=wish-I-drank-coffee-day. I got up at 5:30 to go to Bikram Yoga! AHHH. I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to do it because it was so early, but I felt accomplished when I rolled myself out of bed this morning. I went to a yoga studio that was only 2 tube stops from me, which was pretty convenient. It felt so good to be back in class, and I was so rejuvenated afterward. I’m sure my body will be prettttty sore tomorrow, though.

When I was leaving yoga, I arrived at the tube station and RIGHT AS I GOT ON THE TRAIN, they suspended the line, and it was the only line that came into the tube, so I couldn’t just get on another line and do a transfer to get home. So… I took the bus. It felt good to be able to just find my way home without the tube from a place I had never been to. A month ago I probably wouldn’t have been able to, and I would’ve stressed out.

Linda, Brooke and I then left for a 10 o’clock tour of the BBC. Our tour guide was your typical lovely older British gentleman, and I found the tour fascinating! The BBC television building has 8,000 people working in it! They have their own hairdressers, dry cleaners, restaurants, gym, showers, and probably beds, though we didn’t see any. To rent a studio at the BBC it costs 40,000 pounds for one day, excluding any tech crew or dressing rooms. CRAZY. At the end you could be in a game show and so we played and I won a mug that says BBC Tours on it!

We came back and went to Ben’s Thai for lunch with Tim Pinn the Tube Man. Today was the last day he would be working while we are here, so we were all pretty sad. So, we decided to go to lunch as a last goodbye. It was WEIRD seeing him walking down the STREET towards us in pedestrian clothes rather than in uniform. We ate and made merry and then at the end he paid for all of our meals. It was so generous of him. I will have such fond memories of Tim.

So, that’s the London Life as it begins to wind down. I can’t believe how the time flies.

The Vicious Ugly Mean Volcano-Thurs., April 15, 2010

2010-04-17T21:50:00.001+01:00

Ah! I'm so behind....

This is going to be short, but do look out for full updates to come.

On Thursday I woke up bright eyed and chipper in anticipation of my family arriving.... My how the day changed.

In class my friend Taylor was talking about how a volcano had erupted and made people nervous about flying, but that she didn't think it would affect us in London at all, and she was planning on traveling to Italy. Dismissing the thought from there, I called my parents after class and heard an edge under their excitement because...

Heathrow Airport had closed, blocking Marie and Calvin, and cousin Sally from making it in to England. That was alright though, we would just improvise... readjust our plans until they arrived.

Well, it is now MONDAY and UK airports MIGHT open back up tomorrow. But then again they might NOT.

So needless to say, Marie and Cal and Sally did not make it in, and the trip changed from being a blissful family reunion, to being the first trip EVER where it was just me, mom and dad.

After spending basically the full day on Thursday trying to rearrange flights and hotels, etc, we gave up with trying to find a plan b and c and d and left the rest up to mother nature. We headed out to grab dinner, and ended up at an Indian restaraunt in Paddington. It was soooo good! MMMMMMM I love Indian food.

Alright, that is all for now, but Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday were packed full of entertainment, so look out for some guest entries!

Peace, Love, and Molten Lava.

Fancy a crepe?

2010-04-12T15:51:00.013+01:00

Literally, crepes are probably my favorite food. They are just soooo yummy. My new favorite is oeuf et fromage (egg and cheese.)

Ok... so, here goes. This will definitely be a long post.

We took the Eurostar in to Paris, and it was such a smooth and quick ride, it made me never want to fly again. I was all smiles upon arriving in Paris. I have very found memories of the wonderful city.

Our hostel was comfortable and the room newly refurbished (smelled a little like new paint, but thats OK). It was possibly the smallest room for 4 people I have ever stayed in, however. There were 2 sets of bunk beds, with a foot and a half in between them, 3 feet between the base of them and the window, and a small area when you walk in. It was not possible for all four of us to be standing up at the same time. Haha.

The first night we walked down to the Red Light district and took a picture of Moulin Rouge. I did not realize that the Red Light district was still so hoppin' in Paris. So... that was interesting.

After a yummy breakfast of croissants and chocolat chaud (hot chocolate) we got started super early to Versailles on Friday, and had only one minor delay when a pigeon decided to take a giant poopy all over Linda's hair, purse and coat. Woops! Good thing we had just left the hostel and were able to turn around.

Versailles was pretty much as I remembered it to be. Beautiful, extravagant, CROWDED. There was not a single cloud in the sky the entire day and by midafternoon I was wearing a tank top! After being a vampire for two months, it felt so good to be out in the sun. We enjoyed the palace, but we loved the gardens much more. Flowers had not been planted yet, but the grass was green, the sky was bright, and the water was blue.

We walked around the gardens for a good four hours, the highlight being the Queen's Hamlets, on the back of the property. Marie Antoinette had the little farm estate built for her, and once it was built, she rarely stayed in the palace. It was her place of peace and escape from the stuffiness of being of royal blood. We felt like we were walking into an imaginary world.

At dinner that night we went around and shared our favorite part of the day. Mine was as follows...

Little Wilbur Pig grew bored of the lavish lifestyle of being the sole piggy in the pen of the Hamlet farm animals. As I made my rounds through the pastures, admiring all of the sheep, goats, pigs, birds, and bunnies, I noticed dear little Wilbur starting to fidget. He was a small little thing, about the size of a mid-age piglet. As I watched, Wilbur began to wag his little curly tail and the silly stupid sheep began to notice him. As he would walk toward them, they would all run away in fright. Well, being the smart little piggy that he was, Wilbur caught on and began to chase all of the sheep around the pasture. When one group would run away, he would begin to chase the next group. Even if this tiny, mischievious piggy even turned in these massive horned sheeps' direction, they would high tail it as far away as they could. It became a sport for Wilbur, and quite a spectacle for me. I laughed and laughed as the stupid sheep allowed a teeny pig to dictate their actions. Hm... sounds a bit like humanity sometimes, doesn't it? No wonder we are always compared to sheep.

Wilbur became my hero. Here is some photo documentation of his boredom-turned-mischief.

We ate dinner near the Louvre, and I ordered a croque vegeterien (a toasted cheese and veggie sandwich.) The Louvre is free on Friday nights to students, so we did not feel bad about only going there for about an hour and a half. We only hit the big things like Mona Lisa, Venus De Milo, etc. It was cool, but I've seen it all before, and by this time after 14 hours of non-stop movement, I was pretty much dead on my feet. We had fun taking photos outside the pyramid afterward as well.

Saturday morning we took off to L'arc de Trioumpe and made the climb up to the top to enjoy the view of the city. Then we went to the Paris Sewers (not as gross as it sounds) and took a hike through the bowels of the city. 2,100 km of tunnels in the sewers make the Paris latrine system the cleanest and most efficient in the world. Despite this however, the river Seine is still pretty polluted. So here's a tip: Don't drink from it!

We grabbed lunch from a crepe stand next to the St. Michel fountain where we picked up our free walking tour from the Australian girl named Jacqueline who was in Paris learning to speak French. She was quirky and cute, and the tour was an interesting 3.5 hours of all the tourist sites and history behind them. There were two Dutch bankers on the tour who talked with us for awhile. They were very nice, and had perfect American accents. I told them they watched too much American TV. I'm not sure if they appreciated that. Oops.

After the walking tour we headed over the Sacre Couer (famous church on a hill in Paris) where Kathryn got her portrait done in Place Tertre and we walked around admiring the artists. We ate dinner in the square, but it was cheap with bad service. We did love the artists there though.

ALSO. At Sacre Couer there was a break dancing troupe. Check it OUT! They were awesome!

We misread the time on our Eiffel Tower reservations, so we showed up a half hour late and they would not let us up without paying again. So I decided since I've done it 3 times before, that I would pass and go sit in the park instead while they went up the tower. It really was beautiful to just sit there and gaze up at the architectural wonder of the world.

Sunday we started off by heading to Notre Dame and Saint Chapelle cathedrals, and on our way we watched the Paris Marathon runners as they ran along the Seine. It was so moving, I was crying behind my sunglasses. All of that energy and power in one place is really something else. I especially cried as a group of cheering young people ran out from under the bridge pushing a tricycle with a handcapped individual in it. They were all taking turns pushing this person the whole 26 miles. Now that is love.

We got crepes again for lunch, and then headed to the Paris Catacombs, which I had not been to since I was little. It was cool, but eerie, of course. There were thousands and thousands of people's bones down there. Talk about the plague. Down deep underneath the city, I was wearing my Elon hoodie to shelter me from the soggy coldness of the damp Parisian ground, and as we beginning our ascent, a gentleman with a soft southern drawl asked "Do you go to Elon?" Turns out two couples from North Carolina were vacationing in Paris for the week, and they had been to Elon only two weeks ago! One was from Burlington. It was sweet to have the close connection to home. They were typical North Carolinians... gentle and friendly.

Afterward Brooke wanted pictures of La Tour Eiffel in the daylight, so we went and sat in a little cafe and had a plate of cheese and tea while she took pictures. It was nice to relax for what I felt was really the first time all weekend.

Then, we packed up and headed home. I slept basically the whole trainride. We were all pretty physically exhausted.

One thing I was really surprised and pleased with, was the fact that my French really came back to me. I was able to communicate and understand people! One man in line for icecream had the cutest little doll baby for a daughter, and without even thinking about how to say so, I said "Elle est tres mingon." Which means she is very cute. The only problem was I did not turn mignon into mignonne which is the feminine form of the word. However, he understood me and got the point!

So moral of the story is: I love Paris (I know that isn't really a moral... guess I should use the word theme?)

EDIT: Theme of the story is: I LOVE PARIS!

Now... back to work.... lots to do, so little time (the family comes in on Thursday!!!!)

Contrary to Popular Belief, Easter Animals Do Not Crawl, Fly, or Hop

2010-04-07T14:53:00.007+01:00

.... they skate.

Easter 2010: Waking up much too early filled with excitement. Put on my Easter Dress.... but Easter in London doesn't really feel like being warm enough, so grudgingly put on leggings, boots and a coat over my dress.

Church at All Souls which was great. Have I mentioned yet that I love that place?

Walked through Hyde Park to get to the Bunny Fun Skate. Even if it is cold, the trees are blooming beautifully!

It was funny to watch all of the roller bladers dressed in their Easter attire. Some costumes were cute, and some people had STEREO CARTS that they pushed in front of them and blared music down the street.

Some of them were really hardcore and were practicing skating through cones as fast as they could.

We then went off on a quest to find internet, and after an HOUR of searching, we finally stopped at an internet cafe and used public computers. So... obviously we did not get any of the homework done that we had planned.

Easter feast in Flat L: I brought the brownies and salad, Linda made mac n' cheese, Brooke mashed potatoes, Kathryn green bean casserole, and Kristin ham. Haha. Going back and re-reading that makes it look like their names are Brooke Mashed Potatoes, Kathryn Green Bean Casserole, and Kristin Ham. Those would be funny names, wouldn't they?

Yesterday we went to see "The Habit of Art" for theatre class. I am presenting on it next week, and so I was really crossing my fingers that it would be good. And, it was! There were parts that were slow, but it really speaks to artists AND Uncle Vernon and Madame Maxime from Harry Potter were in it. Uncle Vernon was an extraordinary actor, I loved watching him.

Tomorrow Linda, Kathryn, Brooke and I leave for Paris. J'adore Paris et je t'aime la cuisine! C'est Delicieux! (Remnants of my high school French... hope that I can use it! Haha.)

Until next week...

Week of Wonderful West End Wonders

2010-04-03T16:53:00.004+01:00

Now Showing: The God's Weep (starring the guy who does the voice of Scar in The Lion King! INCREDIBLE acting. Best I've seen here in London. Made the show for me.)

Now Showing: Wicked (in British accents! It threw me off at first, but I didn't notice it after awhile. Wasn't as good as the Broadway performance, but still... it was Wicked... meaning it was amazing.)

Now Showing: Billy Elliot (the dancing was AMAZINGGGG and I loved seeing the enthusiasm and energy of the kids in it. LOVED it. Sat in the front row on a stack of books so that we could see the stage. Our bums fell asleep, but it was so worth it.)
Don't miss the final performance of : Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (going to it tonight! AHHH can't wait for a car to fly over my head.)

I've been back in London for a week and seen four shows! I have to get them all in before I leave and I only have a month left! It is sooo crazy how the time has flown. There is still so much I want to see and do.

Due to a fire in our wireless provider's building on Wednesday of this week, our internet has been out, and will continue till at least Tuesday. So it has been an interesting week being disconnected. Right now I am sitting in a Starbucks in Wimbledon, hoping that Venus and Serena will run by my hitting tennis balls to each other across the road. Hmm.... am I dreaming too big?

Yesterday was Good Friday, and I decided to try fasting this year. It was difficult, but I succeeded on making it through the entire day on water and 2 pieces of gum. It was a great experience physically and spiritually and let me tell ya, I FEASTED this morning. Kathryn fasted with me, so we broke our fast together with a breakfast of omeletes, bagels, and fresh fruit. Let me tell you, no omelette every tasted so goooooood.

Tomorrow for Easter there is a parade in Hyde Park where people dress up as bunnies and rollerskate around the city! Yippeee! I'm gonna wear my Easter dress (so what if it's too cold, you only live once right?) and then we are preparing an Easter Feast afterward.

Happy Easter everyone! :)

Farewell my Bonnie Ireland

2010-04-03T16:18:00.000+01:00

Excerpts from my journal: Final entry

“I am sitting here in the airport filled with sadness. I parted ways with my U.S. bound friends, fighting back tears the whole time. Being with them made me homesick for the first time since coming here. Hearing about life at Elon and being with people who I have a history with brought a subconscious ache to the surface. But… in this moment, there are people around me who are carrying on with their lives, there are giants in front of me created by man to shrink the world and thus I am reminded that my small world will continue to turn.

This trip was amazing. Truly. I don’t know how I could have had more fun. Here is a catch up…

Our first day in Killarney Michael and I woke up bright and early to go on a run and we ended up running to this fancy hotel called the Lake Hotel that had a castle ruins on its property that overlooked a beautiful lake in Killarney National Park.

We came back to a DELICIOUS buffet at the Woodlawn before heading out to the Dingle Peninsula. It took about an hour and a half to get to the Dingle Loop Scenic Drive. On the way we stopped at Inch Strand beach (recommendation of our gas station friend-man.) It was so beautiful. We ran along the beach laughing as Michael walked behind us like a dad. We asked some lovely British folks to take our picture and chatted with them for awhile. They told us this was their fourth trip to Ireland and the Dingle/Kerry area was the best they’d seen.

We drove the loop. What is an hour drive took us FOUR hours because we stopped so much. We saw ancient beehive huts, forts, monastic sites, abandoned homes from the potato famine in the 1850s, beautiful beaches and mountains, and of course SHEEP. We drove out to the tip of the peninsula, which is the westernmost point in Europe!

We were tired from all the driving when we arrived back to Killarney, so we got pizza from Four Star Pizza and decided to go to a movie! We saw Jackie Chan’s “The Spy Next Door.” It was TERRIBLE in the best way possible. The acting was awful, but Jackie Chan is just so cute and his movies are always fun. Michael said this was his first movie where he didn’t do all his own stunts. So sad. He’s getting old.

After the movie we played Rummy and Michael whooped us! Final scores…. Michael: 285 (smelly winner) Lisa: -5 (+30,000…. TRUE winner) Em: 120 (coolest winner)

Because we’d driven so much the past two days and were going to be driving all the way back to Dublin, we decided to take the next day to stay nearby. We took our time in the morning and then drove to the park entrance (2k away) where we hiked to the Muckross Abbey.

(DETOUR) The weather this whole trip has been perfect. Very un-Irelandy. When you think of Ireland, you think of rain, right? Well…. We had a lot of sunshine. And, Friday was no different. When the sun was shining we all shed our layers and were in t-shirts.

We hiked over to the Muckross House, which is a large Victorian country home where Victoria herself came and visited for two days. To prepare for her visit, the homeowners spent 6 years planning! While we waited for our tour of the house, we walked around the gardens and sat in a little gazebo and picnicked with our usual brown soda bread, peanut butter, and nutella.

After touring the Muckross House that had a set of 10,000 year old antlers found in the bogs…. Along with all the BOG BODIES AHHH) we hiked up to Torc Waterfall. I felt like I was in a dream because the trees and rocks were all covered in moss and you could hear the waterfall well before you saw it. It was a gorgeous hike.

When we finally made it back to the car we figured we’d hiked about 10 k through the diverse terrains from gardens to mountains to lakes, to tropical looking forests, to Lord-of-the-Rings-looking-moss-covered forests.

Directly from the park we drove part of the Ring of Kerry to Kenmare for dinner. The drive was another gorgeous one. It was just before sunset and the sun was peeking out of clouds and shining on the barren mountains. Lisa called them “burnt toast mountains.”

In Kenmare we found a little pub called Foley’s (recommendation of Rick Steves) where our waiter spoke English but for the life of us we couldn’t understand a single word he said. They had a different sort of bread there, and I asked him “what is sweet in this bread?”, because it tasted banana-like, and he replied with something and started laughing and stood staring at me for a reaction, so I laughed too, having no idea why I was laughing. When he walked away, Michael said, “I think he said ‘sugar.’” The food was very good there and we had fun. I’ve loved our dinners on this trip.

We drove home in the dark, which was kinda scary, but also satisfying.

YESTERDAY Michael and I rose early again for another run before another delicious breakfast. Pancakes, eggs, yogurt, fresh fruit, Muesli, scones, and soda bread. FULL FOR LIFE.

We checked out of our hotel and drove until lunch where we stopped to picnic along a lake. The drive consisted of traditional Irish music (thanks dad!) and some sleepy kids. The picnic consisted of feeding the fish our moldy bread and throwing it at each other at which point Lisa lost her shoe while chasing Michael. She screamed so loud and bloodcurdlingly that Michael and I didn’t know what hit us. Of course, when seeing that the bog had tried to steal her shoe, I laughed so hard I had to cross my legs to keep from peeing.

We stopped in a little town called Roscrea that was not too far outside of Dublin where we heard an ice cream truck and flocked like all the children to get treats. The town was another castle town and there was this cool old building we were walking toward, only to find it was an Irish department store called Dunnes. Dunnes was casually chilling in a castle. TYPICAL Ireland.

We made it to our Holiday in at the airport and returned our car. 1000 kilometers later and the car was fully intact and we were fully intact.

We walked the 3 k back to our hotel and watched the end of Harry Potter number two and an Andrew Lloyd Webber reality show casting a Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz on West End! I was appalled, intrigued, and instantly addicted. It was hard to pull ourselves away to go to dinner. But, we were so glad we did.

Noel and Grainne picked us up and took us to a local restaurant called Anderson’s where I prefaced the dinner with a “my treat” and they agreed. So we loaded up on food and a history lesson and lots of laughter. At the end the stinkers said, “Thank you for the offer, but we’re picking up the tab.” Just another sign of their old school generosity. They took us on the same scenic drive I’d gone on with them to see the lights of the city. Lisa and Michael were raving about them afterward.

And now here I am headed to…well I can’t really say the daily grind, can I? Because I’d hardly call living in London “the grind.” So I guess I’ll say I’m headed back to my other temporary and extraordinary world, poised and ready for the next adventure.”

REALLY, what is black pudding?

2010-04-03T16:09:00.002+01:00

Hmmmmmm…..

Chocolate pudding? Maybe some sort of tasty Thanksgiving dish loaded with carbs? Licorice flavored cream? (That would be gross.)

Well…. It’s ANIMAL GUTS and blood mixed in to a little patty. YUM. There is also WHITE pudding which is seasoned differently, and not quite as dead looking…

Excerpts from my journal: Day 7
It is early. I woke up to go on a run before our breakfast scheduled at 8 am. All of us were going to go running, but it’s pouring rain and obviously cold, so none of us wanted to. We are going on a walk after breakfast instead.

So here I am sitting in a cozy lounge, next to an unlit fire, looking out at a drizzly dawn of the Wicklow Mountains. There is really something about this place. I don’t want to use the term “magical” because I feel that it isn’t a strong enough word. It takes the spirituality out it. I guess there is something spiritual about this place.

Peace. Serenity. Still. Safe. Love.

I am grateful for the rain.
I am grateful for the little rainbow (spray painted) sheep outside our gate.
I am grateful for the friends who are sharing this amazing experience with me….”

“After a long, long day of driving I am too tired to put much thought into this tonight. We literally drove across the entire country today! I didn’t get us into an accident! Here is the day in bullets…” (I’ve embellished these for blogging purposes)

“-Breakfast. Michael got black and white pudding and he and Lisa tried both. I was not brave enough for the black, especially because of the whole not eating animals thing. But I did break my vegetarianism for a teeny taste of white. It wasn’t bad if you didn’t know what it was.
-Walk in the rain to see St. Kevin’s church and the sheepies.
-Drive….
-Drive….
-Drive…. But it was scenic! We drove the long way along the coast, on scenic back-roads.
-Stopped in a village called Avoca where we visited a weaving mill. You literally could just walk in to the weaving area and watch how the factory worked.

It was so cool watching the hand weavers. What an art. All the beautiful colors laced through one another as the skilled human hands whipped the threads through. I got a ring here that is the Celtic symbol for the Trinity. For me it carries a double message, the three points are also me, Michael, and Lisa!
-Drive….
-Stopped at a gas station where Lisa and I pretended we were cars and walked through the teeny tiny car wash and made all the sounds and motions of being scrubbed down. I felt like a little girl again.
-Drive…
-Stopped at Blarney Castle to kiss the Blarney stone!!!! It was very quiet here, and we were the only ones up on top to kiss the stone. It is quite an awkward endeavor…

-Pretended to be princesses and nymphs climbing trees and making human sacrifices of each other in the Rock Close garden around Blarney.
Drive… (this segment we got lost and then drove on the narrowest road yet driving RIGHT in to the setting sun.)
-Destination ACHIEVED! Our Bed and Breakfast, the Woodlawn house is the cutest, most comfy place.
-Dinner at Danny Man Pub with a live musician and a 9 year old traditional dancer. She was cute. The music was great and we bought his CD!
-Lisa and I laughed so hard at dinner that we cried and attracted many stares from the surrounding tables…. Oh dear… sometimes I really do fit the loud American stereotype, but it was worth it.
-Germans take our picture and tell us to say (sorry for the improper spelling) “Ahmeinen shitz” instead of “Cheese” and when we say it they all burst out laughing. We thought that they were insulting us, making us say something awful. The next morning they were at breakfast at our hotel! They explained to us then that we said (pardon my French) “rat shit.” Oops.
-We stopped at a little gas station on our corner and got ice cream. We made a friend. The owner of the gas station was an older Irish man who was the most gentlemanly guy ever. For the rest of our time in Killarney we went and bought whatever we needed from him. Bread, water, gas, ice cream, chocolate.
-Warm bedddddddddddddddddddddd……..zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Don’t Fleece the Snappers!

2010-03-31T22:02:00.006+01:00

To be “fleeced”: to be overcharged or ripped off

Snapper: slang word for baby

Noel and Grainne taught me these Irish terms. I love that babies are called snappers, as if they are giant turtles about to snap your head off if you don’t feed them every two hours.

Excerpts from my journal: Days 5 and 6

I woke up not feeling well at all. Too many cookies, Nutella, and junk mix yesterday, I think.
We hit the street bright and early to make the bus to pick Michael up at the airport. We became turned around looking for the bus stop because the directions we had told us that it was right next to the tourist information center. Well…. The T.I. was not in any normal old building. It was in a CHURCH. And, at 5:30 in the morning when the sky is still BLACK, one does not expect to walk by a church and have it be a tourist information center. DOINK.

But….. we found the bus and made it to the airport and the reunion with Michael was salty (He brought me wheat thins, not cookies…). I was so happy to see him. We boarded the bus and began chatting and before we knew it, we realized we’d never stopped at Suffolk Street and were driving farther and farther away from the city center. The bus driver GRUMPED at us and took us around the whole route again to get us back to where we needed to be, putting us on the bus for almost two hours. Oops.

We snuck Michael into the hostel. He was not checked in yet, and at this particular hostel they had a security measure where each guest showed their key as they walked in. So Lisa and I went up with Michael’s suitcases, and then I went back down, gave Michael Lisa’s key, let him go in, and then followed him about a minute later. We all felt so guilty as if we were committing some big crime. But REALLY, all we wanted was a NAPPPPP. So we took a small one and made it down for breakfast before heading out to adventure Kilmanhem (spelling anyone?) Gaol. The 18th Century prison was eerie, but its history was fascinating. When it reopened as a museum in the 1960s, the last prisoner to be released who was the current (or recent) Irish Prime Minister, was the one to “cut the ribbon” for the opening! Crazy, right?

After that we walked to the Guinness Storehouse which was very state of the art and interesting. We tried Guinness along the way and I thought it was NASTY, Michael didn’t care for it, and Lisa really liked it.

The history of Arthur Guinness was cool. Supposedly they use the same yeast that he made back in the day and have a back-up stock in the brewer’s personal safe in case anything happens to the yeast that they're using.

We came home and rested before heading out to St. Patrick’s Cathedral which was closed sadly, but had beautiful gardens around it that we walked through.

Dinner was at the Brazen Head, which claims to be the oldest pub in Ireland, dating back to the 1100's. It had a cool atmosphere, or maybe I should say a hot atmosphere because I sat with my back to the fire. MMMM, yes. It also had money autographed from customers from all over the world. Most were dollar bills, however…. Those Americans. We found one that was from Elon! CRAZYYYYY.

Next Day…

I was up at 6 this morning because we’d gone to bed so early last night. I just rolled around for awhile until the alarm went off and we started our long, long day. I can’t possibly write all that we did and the stories or details that went with, but thankfully we video blogged a 30 minute clip of a play-by-play of the day. (I think it is too big to upload to this, or I would just put it up instead of my journal!)

Quick summary of the video….
We went to St. Patrick’s Cathedral and toured it, to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells, and we went to the National Museum of History and Archeology where we saw BOG BODIES from HUNDREDS of years ago. Some were nearly perfectly preserved, looking like leather people. It was creepy, but interesting. Since they were found in bogs, most of them had met brutal ends and their captors had wanted to dispose of the evidence, so what better way than throwing the bodies in bogs? I won’t give you the gruesome details, but ALL of the bog bodies had been murdered. They became a bit of a mascot for us for the rest of the trip.

Trinity College was pretty awesome as well. The Book of Kells is an ancient manuscript of the Gospels, and it is elaborately scribed. The LIBRARRRRY there was soooo cool. Lisa and I walked in and BOTH of us immediately felt like Belle in "Beauty and the Beast", wooden walls with books piled to the ceiling. I wish I had a picture of it, but no photography was allowed.

After touring we picked up the rental car... ...and drove to a little village called Glendalough. We got into our Bed and Breakfast around 5, and immediately went out to this ancient monastic city on a hill that had hikes around it and the two lakes it was situated on. We basically had the place to ourselves because it was late and drizzly, so the experience was UNREAL. If I HAD to choose a favorite place in Ireland, it would be Glendalough. We hiked for 2 and a half hours, arriving back at our car in the dark.

We were sooo hungry, and since Glendalough was a small town, we did not have much selection… There was one restaurant and a gas station, so we went to the Wicklow Heather Restaurant and SPLURGED. It wasn’t SUPER expensive, but it was upscale for starving college students. But, the food was DELICIOUS and dinner was literally a two and a half hour food festival.

Ok… back to the written word of the day…

So, a few things not mentioned in the video:
I love how excited Lisa and Michael were about the hostel. Both came in with certain LOW expectations that were not met but well exceeded, and they were both a little bummed in a way to find that we would be in bed and breakfasts from now on.

Driving on the left side today was a bigger deal than I thought it would be. Renting the car, I had to put a gigantic deposit on my credit card for insurance.... which did not give me assurance (AHHHH). And, it was a big deal because it was my first rented car!!! I didn’t realize how much responsibility it was. It makes me appreciate my daddy.

Glendalough is unbelievable, and I’m so grateful to be here in this place that looks and feels like another world with my two good friends. God is so good. I can feel His peace here.”

Stay tuned.....

Just say YES

2010-03-30T21:30:00.013+01:00

Our philosophy for the trip was.... when someone asks if you want to do something you answer "yes" and do it. We did so many cool things because we said "yes" to things that we wouldn't normally have thought to do.

Excerpts from my journal.... days 3 and 4

This morning Grainne and I drove to the airport to pick up my dearest roomie, Lisa. As the tiny, sleepy-eyed, blond girl walked through the arrival doors, I broke into a huge smile and we ran at each other with squeals of delight. The reunion was sweet (literally.... she brought me homemade chocolate chip cookies!) and we basically haven't stopped talking. Grainne dropped us at our hostel (most graciously... what a lovely woman) and we then walked around the city for awhile. We walked through St. Stephens Green. The sun was shining and warm. We walked down Grafton Street (the main shopping street). We got coffee in a mall food court that overlooked Stephens Green. We walked to Temple Bar which is the touristy Times Squar-ish area. It isn't a literal bar but was originally a sort of port along the river Liffy, making it a central area of Dublin. We walked around inside Christ Church Cathedral (1000 AD) and saw a mummified cat and rat that had trapped themselves in an organ pipe. We walked back to Temple Bar for lunch at a great little pub where LOTS of Scottish men in kilts were drinking in preparation for the match. I tried to take their photo, at which point they invited us to be in the photo with them, commenting on how "tiny" we were. Hmph. We may be small but we can bite!

The pub had DELICIOUS veggie mash soup, and the most wonderful bread on earth.... brown soda bread. It would become a staple for the rest of the trip.

We also got a photo with the most authentic looking Scotsman around. Lisa was scared to ask him for a photo because he was too authentic looking... making him a bit scary. But he was the cheeriest man and we were so glad we talked to him. He is the old man with the beard in the photo below. On our way back we looked in this little designer dress shop that was SO COOL. The woman was a real artist with crazy hair and skinny legs. Cheapest thing in the store? 1000 euros.

Now we're back at the hostel (Lisa brought me WHEAT THINS, CHEEZ ITZ, AND Girl Scout cookies.) and she is snoozin' off some jet lag before we hit a pub to watch the match. I am so happy. Lisa, Ireland, and new experiences add up to a very content Emily.

Next day....

A few things I forgot to write about!

On our drive back from Howth, Noel and Grainne drove me up to a lookout to view the lights of the city. They told me to "look straight ahead because there might be some steamy windows and love's sweet embrace being experienced" on either side of us. Sheesh.. I guess not everyone goes up there to look at the beautiful lights of the city. Oh well. Their loss I guess.

Also on that drive they told me about U2. Noel said Bono was a part of his father's chess club when Bono was young, and that in recent years the club's funding dropped so low that they wrote to Bono and the money that they needed came quietly and swiftly.

Ok, so back to the present. Last night after Lisa woke up, we went out and found O'Connell Street and walked up it exploring. We walked in "The Best Value Rugby Stop" only to find it was a LIEEEEEEEEEE to entice people in and was actually just a junkie tourist shop. We walked over the river on the Ha'penny Bridge (It used to cost 1/2 penny to cross it.) and then wandered back to Temple Bar to search for dinner..... DUDE. Ireland is EXPENSIVE. Every menu we looked at was like 15-20 euros! When we were just about to give up we found a great little pub a little off the beaten path. Lisa got her first fish and chips while we watched rugby (not Ireland sadly because the match was already over... they lost) and then wandered home. We walked by Christ Church, all lit up and peaceful, and Lisa noted that churches were eerie at night because they were so still. So.... we spooked ourselves, turning our little tails around and booking it back in the other direction to Spar (convenience store) and bought some Nutella to eat.

When I think of Dublin on a Sunday morning this is what I'll imagine:

Baby blue skies, church bells chiming from all directions, and the smell of fresh bread. Glorious.

After our meager hostel breakfast of toast and OJ we wandered in the direction of the park but ended up at Trinity College instead. You walk through the entrance and all of the sounds of the city disappear and there is serenity. It was so moving.

We headed back to Christ's Church for a Eucharist service. The girls' choir sang as beams of sunlight streamed in through vaulted windows and tears left streaks of salt along our cheeks. After the service we had tea and biscuits (cookies) in the crypt where we met a sweet old man who told us that the church had 700 members and then introduced us to an American girl named Cathy who was studying in Dublin. We went to lunch with her at the Queen of Tarts afterward. She was a sweet girl from Iowa and had an internship at the Natural History Museum. The Queen of Tarts was YUM YUM and so adorable. OH EUROPE AND YOUR SCONESSSSSSSSS.

We went to the Dublin Castle and got there before it opened so we got trigger happy and took some artsy and not-so-artsy photos in the courtyard...

The castle was really interesting. We learned a lot about Irish history. We also learned that Dublin is the compilation of two Irish words that mean "black pool" for the body of water behind Dublin Castle, and the invaders named the town Dublin because they didn't know better.

We walked around the back of the castle and saw that it was painted like a Dr. Seuss book and took lots of pictures and then laid on a helicopter pad/garden behind it and looked at the sky while some French or Italian or Spanish guys tried to show off for us.
We walked around for awhile before going to Tesco to get some dinner to make at the hostel. We found out that the Irish version of Primark is called Penney's. Lisa loved it.

We played cards for a bit and then went to bed for a FIVE AM WAKE UP. Ew. Michael betta know how much we love him."

Eire Land Part I

2010-03-29T12:31:00.003+01:00

Ireland in Gaelic (Ire being spelled Eire) literally means land of never-ending winter.

But winter graciously bowed out on the Irish stage as three American explorers dirty-ed their feet in the rich Irish soil.

Our adventure was extraordinary. 10 days, 1,000 kilometers, 500 photos, and countless laughs later, a heart saturated with the mixed emotions of joy and sadness left Ireland with only the vivid imagery on one's mind that is known as memories.

Excerpts from my journal: Days 1 and 2 (March 18th and 19th)

"I am falling in love with Ireland and its fierce people. The day I flew out from Gatwick Airport, I took the train from Victoria Station. Walking up the stairs from the tube into the bright atrium took me back 12 years and 2 feet lower to a time when a little girl was first experiencing this city that she now loves so much.

When we visited London when I was young, we stayed in a suburb called Red Hill in a Bed and Breakfast named the Ashley House with its very own ghost named Albert who lived in the painting at the top of the stairs. Every day we would commute an hour into the city and our train took us to Victoria where we'd ride the escalator up to the food court for a glass of fresh squeezed orange juice and then we'd ride back down the escalator for a pain chocolat (chocolate croissant) from the bakery stand and a pack of rolos from the convenience store before heading out to adventure.

It was funny how I still knew exactly where everything was. The bakery had changed names but was still there selling pain chocolat (so of course I got one for memory's sake.) The fresh OJ place had been replaced by a Bagel Factory. I ate my packed dinner while I watched the people carry on with their daily routines.

I accidentally jumped on the Gatwick Express train rather than the normal Southern line, so I ended up paying 18 pounds rather than 11. Oh well, now I know better.

At the airport the man at the Ryanair (the CHEAP Irish airline that prides itself on no customer service) tried to tell me that I hadn't checked my bag and wanted to charge me AGAIN for it. NU UHHH I was not gonna have it.

Sitting at the gate reading I about had a heart attack when all in one swift motion the crowd stood and ran for the door as the boarding announcement was made. Two Irish business men behind me saw how frightened I was and laughed saying, "Run for your seat!" They continued to talk to me, and asked where I was from. When I replied near Chicago, one went, 'Oh Chicago! Half me family lives in Chicago but I've never been. It's always been a dream of mine to show up at me auntie's door one day and say, 'Fancy a spot a tea?' I think she might drop dead.'

After a short one hour flight, I landed expecting to be met by one of my dad's old colleague's wife, Grainne. But, the colleague Noel, who was supposed to be in the Zambia, was also there to greet me! British Airways is going on strike so he had left a day early. It was so nice to have such friendly faces there to greet me and take me home rather than have to find my own way to a hostel late at night.

Noel (pronounced Nole) and Grainne (pronounced Gr-on-yay which means Grace in Gaelic) fed me toast, tea, and lindt chocolate balls and introduced me to Grainne's younger sister, Orla, whwo had just gotten back from Irish dancing. Their home was so wewlcoming and I slept in a DOUBLE bed with down blankets!!! I haven't slept so well in a LONG time.

The next morning Grainne dropped me off at the Mespil Hotel on her way to work so that I could pick up a tour to Newgrange neolithic tomb. I pulled another dumb tourist move.... It's amazing how you can be so experienced in one city and think you'd be able to get it anywhere, and then as soon as you're in a new place you go right back to being a dumb tourist. What I did was walk across the street to Starbucks to get a muffin for breakfast. After eating I still had a good hour to kill, so I walked back to the hotel only to see they were serving breakfast fro 8 euros buffet style. So, I got that too, feeling silly for paying for a muffin when I could have just had a well balanced breakfast. I filled up enough so as to not need lunch, which was good because there wewre not many places I could have gotten some on the tour.

On the bus I met an American girl majoring in costume design at NCSA who was there with her mom. Small world! There was also a Scottish family who was here for the Scotlad vs. Ireland rugby match that is happening this weekend.

Newgrange was stunning. Dating back almost 6,000 years it is older than Stonehenge and the pyramids. The tomb looks like a giant mound of earth with white granite stones framing the entryway. As you get off the bus that takes you out to the site, you hear a song. The lyrics go like this.....

Baa baa
Baa Baa BAAA
BAAAAAAAA
baa baA bAa
baaa

With farms surrounding on all sides, the sheep sang a constant chorus for the wwhole hour we were at the site.

Inside the tomb was very small but so cool and mysterious. How did these people build it? The stones that made up the ceiling had never leaked after thousands of years! Incredible.

The tomb was designed around winter solstice-so that for that one day out of every year the sun would rise to shine through the entrance, illuminating the passage and chamber. The people were astronomers.

In the tour they turned all the lights off and shone a fake winter solstice sun down the passage. Now while it was only pretend, the effect was still strong. I got emotional, feeling the power of the place.

Upon arriving back in Dublin Noel was at the hotel to pick me up. After hearing that Lisa would not be arriving until Saturday, he and Grainne offered for me to stay another night with them and take me out to see Irish dancing and music.

Noel picked me up from the hotel and took me on a short walk down the Grand Canal to a statue of one of Ireland's most famous poets, Patrick Kavanagh. He then took me on a little drive around the city, pointing out famous and obscure landmarks. Noel loves his city (6 generations of his family can be traced back to within 2k of his house!) and his passion was contageous.

He and Grainne drove me out to Howth, a little fishing village on the tip of the peninsula right outside the city. We ate at the Abbey Tavern with its roaring fireplaces and the lovely, homey smell and feeling that go along with.

After dinner, we were taken into the back room to listen to traditional music and see the dancing. The fiddle player was amazing, the songs fun, and the dancers made it look much easier than it was. I had a great time."

Thus ends entry number 1 for Spring break 2010.

Choir Boys

2010-03-17T22:31:00.004Z

A little off topic... BUT, My childhood collie named Hugo (after the cute boy in Bye Bye Birdie... yes Marie and I were obsessed) was nicknamed "Choir Boy" because whenever he went to obedience class he would whine and howl the whole time. He wasn't unhappy or anything, he just liked to do it. He wasn't the brightest crayon, but he was a GREAT dog.

Yesterday I had class and studied for a midterm I had today in Art History/appreciation. Art sure requires a lot of brain cramming. But the test went well I think. Afterward Linda and I celebrated by picnicing in the park where my gym is located. She loved the dog parties, too.

I skyped with Jesse which was sad because we'll be out of touch for almost two full weeks due to spring break.

Linda, Kathryn and I went to an Evensong service at St. Paul's Cathedral then this evening. They had a boys choir, which was SO good and of course adorable. The discipline it takes for those tots. Some of them looked like they were 5 and 6 years old! I woulda thrown tantrums sitting still for so long at that age. The service was cool for St. Patrick's Day today though. They had a special sermon on him and lots of beautiful singing that echoed all around us, taking me back in time hundreds of years to when the songs were written.

Now that it has gotten warmer, I've taken to walking at night.... tonight was my third in a row. It is really nice to go for a walk after dinner. I love walking along the canal and looking at the lights reflecting on the still water and enjoying the peace of a city in the evening that is so chaotic during the day.

So I leave tomorrow for Ireland, and I'll be staying with a friend of my dad's named Noel. Friday I have on my own, and then Lisa, my best mate from school, arrives Saturday morning, and then my friend Michael arrives Monday! I am going to have to put this blog on hold most likely until the end of the month. Look forward to lots of pictures and stories! 'Gbye Loefs! (Loves in Irish)

Here Comes the Sun...

2010-03-15T22:30:00.006Z

...was written by George Harrison, not the common writing duo of John and Paul.

...and the sun has surely come. I went out yesterday without a coat, and it never felt better.

I have a lot of catching up to do on here! Mom's blog post was pretty detailed, so apologies that mine won't be as thrilling.

Here is how our Saturday started. But, counseling our President wasn't exciting enough for me for one day, so I got my celebrity fix too, teaching my favorite comedian everything I know about cracking jokes.
Mom got jealous that I was having all the fun, so she decided to go and ask Patrick Stuart if she could have a guest appearance on Star Trek. He turned her down, but invited her in for tea instead. I was not invited however, so I had to snap this picture at the door.For those of you who don't know, Madam Tussauds has the most lifelike wax models in the world, making it one of the most famous and visited museums in London. While corny, I still love cruising through and learning about famous people throughout history and what they looked/look like in person. Creating the models truly is an art.

After Madam Tussauds we went back to Oxford Street to see if we could finish what we started at TopShop the day before, but being the avid shoppers that we are (and by that I mean AREN'T) we got frustrated fast and came home instead and stopped by the Tesco Express to get mom a croissant. She loves them here cause they are "real" croissants, not posers. On our way in this is who we found.Daffodil lady was selling pins for the Marie Curie Cancer Association, and she was the sweetest grandma. Her bright persona and colorful flowers reminded me that spring was coming.

Later, back at the hotel, I accidentally sat on mom's thumb and cracked it so bad she thought I had broken it. :( I felt so terrible... what a GREAT Mother's Day present.

We took the rest of the day pretty easy... well if you call mom writing 25 postcards easy. She IS a nutter. We went to our same little Pub, The Dickens Tavern, and we sat at our same little table but did not order the same dishes.

After eating ENTIRELY too much we went for a walk down the street on a quest for rolos chocolates in reminscence of my childhood when we would come in on the train from Red Hill to Victoria, get off and make our way to the little coffee stand to order fresh squeezed orange juice and rolos. But.... they really hard to find now. Finally, after the fourth little convenience store, we found them. Victory was on our lips as we popped the little chocolates in our mouths, waiting for the bliss of melting chocolate.... only to discover they were STALE. But.... it still brought back childhood memories, so imagining that they tasted as good as they always had was enough.

Sunday we got up and went to the early service at church. The sermon this week was What is the Meaning of Life? Well what do you think?

It was a brilliant day yesterday as I've already stated that I went without a coat. We went to the park to eat our lunch and it was teeming with the life of the weekend.

We went to see Jersey Boys as our British Mother's Day celebration, and we had a big scare that we weren't going to make it in time. Our tube stop was down, so we waited at the bus stop for the replacement bus to come... and we waited... and waited... for what seemed like forever, but which was probably about 10 minutes. I went around the corner to ask some of the Public Transpo workers, and the send me down to Edgeware Road to pick up the replacement bus. That is HALFWAY to the next tube stop, so why have the bus come in down there rather than at the tube stop it is supposed to be replacing?

By the point we realized we were at the wrong stop, it was faster just to walk to the next tube and get on there, so we booked our little tail feathers as fast as we could down the street, and we made it to our seats 2 minutes before curtain. It set up the mood for the performance, we were ready to be rewarded for our physical journey, and let me tell you, we were.

The voices were unbelievable, and the show was just beautiful. I don't want to be a spoiler in case you ever see the show, but I will just say that I HIGHLY recommend it. It has so much energy and the music is just fun.

At the end of the performance the lead made the announcement that basically half of the original cast had given us their last performance and were moving on. Two of the four main guys who had been together for two years were leaving, and they were all sobbing, and so I was sobbing too. It made the performance that much more special.

For dinner we ate at Cafe Rouge, which mom said was "fake" French food. It had a nice atmosphere though, and so we had fun at our last meal together.

We stayed out by the airport last night, and I fell asleep early, and when I woke, I felt that I had been transported back to Elon by some aliens while I was sleeping. This was because I did not wake in the morning to the sounds of birds outside my window, but instead I woke at 2 am to the sound of the fire alarm threatening to explode my eardrums if I did not roll out of bed. I could have sworn I was back in Oaks F where the fire alarm goes off every other day (ok exaggerating, but still)

It was sad to say bye to mom this morning, but I'll be seeing her again in April!

I ran over 7 miles today! Personal Record.

As for now, I am ready to fall asleep in my own singularly cramped and half broken bed, dreaming of comfy down blankets and the spring break that is waiting for me to visit it in 3 days...

Beginning with a British Breakfast

2010-03-12T22:59:00.005Z

So....Emmy is being a bum in bed. This is her mum making a guest blog contribution tonight.

Today we awoke to Emily's annoying cell phone alarm. I kept asking her for just 5 more minutes of sleep. She kept oking that for 25 minutes then she became insistent and started to pull me out of bed by the legs. It's been a bit of a mother/daughter role reversal here in London, she thinks. I like it. I can put myself in auto control and be a follower.

No showers. No hot water yet.

We went down to breakfast which was very British....toast, sausage/ham, an egg and baked beans. (Em exchanged ham for granola.) Sometimes there will be a tomato and a mushroom included in the morning platter. Needless to say, we're not used to such a big breakfast and definitely not used to white bread. But, it was filling and kept our sugars levels under control for a good five hours.

Off we went to Em's apt. where she dressed for working out at the gym and we hiked to the park where her gym is located...a 2o minute walk or so through a quiet neighborhood with old brick apt. buildings. Many occupants left their curtains open for us to snoop inside at their home decorating. We seemed to see lots of filled bookcases. Our favorite was the couch with 3 doggies piled on it asleep. Now when Em calls during her hike to the gym, I'll have a picture of her route in my mind. There are 2 postboxes along the way. The second she says is her backup for when she forgets to mail cards in the first one.

Em described to me the student groups and the dog parties that take place in the park. She lead me into her gym to show me around. Well, basically I had to stop in one spot and look at a room about the size of our dining room and kitchen together filled with dated equipment, but neat, tidy, and bright because of wonderful windows looking out on parts of the park. It's a huge contrast from Marie's American health club with all of the latest. That's not to say that bigger is better. Just different.

I went out on a park bench to read, but of course was captured into people and dog watching and experiencing all of the things that Emily had portrayed. First of all, the dog parties. It truly was a dog party. Dogs were not on leashes. They were out in the middle of the green playing together having so much fun while their masters chatted. Every so often a new dog would arrive and come running into the dog party like a bullet, and then was welcomed with some romping and rolling. It was unbelievable. In the States the leashes would be tight and everyone paranoid of a dog fight. One newcomer was a little more rambunctious, jumping up on everyone and every dog. Tolerance was high and it didn't matter that he was a bit of a pain in the "tail." I wished people could be so tolerant of each other.

There were big dogs and little dogs. Actually it was kinda like Go Dogs Go and their party on a tree. The dogs were missing their hats though. There was the little chubby, chub pug that I found especially interesting. He wasn't getting enough exercise. I felt the master or dog sitter was just biding time and didn't really enjoy walking him. There was a fenced area in a cafe where owners would take their dogs to join them for tea. Mr. Puggy Wug didn't want to go in that area. I felt like his walker sorta wanted to dump him in there. He certainly wasn't as wild as Petey Weety Woo, my grandson pug. I could just imagine Petey attending this dog party and it terminating in total chaos.

I also watched people. One old man that walked round and round was interesting. He was short, stooped over, covered in a long dressy coat that was 2 sizes too big and hat that covered his head so you only saw his crooked old pasty face and wire-rimmed glasses. He talked to himself a lot and seemed to be minus a focus or direction. It made me wonder what kind of life he'd lived that had turned him into a bit of nutter.

Then there were 3 stocky men in their 30's or so. They definitely weren't there for the exercise as they were meandering at a snail's pace with cigarettes hanging out of their mouths. I think I would have to label them as loiterers.

Mothers came in with their dogs and children. One woman with bright maroon-dyed hair was using this time to loudly vent to her friend about this and that as the kids rushed excitedly into the playground.

I saw a school group of girls come in with what looked like miniature hockey sticks. Em says it's field hockey. It was fun watching them as some were so animated with their cheeks glowing. Others were grumpy like their next event would be a drag and they didn't want to be there. I decided I'd rather be the happy, smiling child.

Finally, I felt it was time to see how Emily was faring and she had just finished running. She did a few stretching exercises while I read Catcher in the Rye. The catalyst for reading or rereading this novel was the death of JD.Salinger recently. And, coincidentally Em had been wanting to read it because of the many references to it in the play that she had just seen called Six Degrees of Separation. Ok, so Em ended her exercises in the Chinese splits. Ya know, I used to be able to do that and as a young 14-year-old girl I remember promising one of my friends, Sue Rohrer, that we would still be able to do the Chinese splits when we were 95. I was such an idealist back then. I'm a realist now. As I looked at Emily I felt some cracks and creaks and pains run through my body.

Back we went to Em's apt. for refreshing showers and packing lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, carrots and fruit. That tasted very good as we sat on a bench in Regent's Park. Nothing like pb & j for a picnic. When it came time to get rid of half a loaf of moldy bread, the geese waddled in for the feast. How they sensed it was coming, we don't know. But they looked like they owned the sidewalk as they wobbled towards us. Feeling guilty, I tried to remove the moldy parts. The geese were so funny thinking they were the kings over the seagulls and pigeons. The runners probably were perturbed at our pack of pigeons which blocked them and made them break their stride. The surprising part were the GBH's as Em called them. These Great Blue Herons came in and waited majestically for crumbs which they captured perfectly in their mouths. A couple couldn't believe the GBH's were there, so they stopped and Em shared bread with them. They appreciated joining in the fun of feeding the birds. 2 photographers took advantage of our bread-crumb enticement of the birds. It was sad to leave our new bird friends.

The Goose Brigade
The Ol' Coot

As we walked out of the park enjoying the purple and white crocuses popping through the ground, we kept noticing all of these groups of young boys speaking French. As we passed one group of little boys, they thought they were very clever and would speak to us by practicing their English. Their leader said, "Hello" to us with a slight French accent. Emily and I responded at exactly the same time, "Bonjour." The look on these boys' faces was hysterical. Emily and I were laughing for 10 minutes. Their eyes popped wide open and thier mouths dropped and then they all burst into laughter. They hadn't expected that. And it was a bit freeky how quickly Em and I responded exactly the same time in the same manner. I asked them how they were in French. Our only regret is that we didn't stop and visit with them, being in motion with a mission kept us moving. Should have stopped and smelled the roses.

We did stop for a photo shoot of a semi-cooperating coot. My friend Charmi had just been talking to me about coots, the birds not old coots. She told me how their feet weren't webbed, which I never remember noticing. So, I had a good look at the cooties feeties and sure enough, each toe looked like 3 pieces of jointed snakeskin. They were bizarre little dinosaur feet. A coot photo for Charmi tomorrow.

Off we went to Madame Tussaud's where we joined the queue. After at least 1/2 hour we arrived at a sign that said another 1/2 hour wait for tickets. A group in front of us turned around and said, "Mission aborted." We'd waited too long not to continue. But, we discovered my camera battery was dead. So, we knew we couldn't go today which in the big picture was better because being in that line so long with all of those people had sucked the enjoyment energy right out of us. So we purchased tickets for the next day, pretended like were Sherlock Holmes walking down Baker Street, solving the mystery of where the post office was. There the clerk loved us 'cause we were interested in her commemorative stamps.....British mailboxes, the Tudors, the dogs and cats of Battersea, mythical creatures, and yea yippey the 100 years of Girl Guides. An old man in one of the lines was correcting one of the clerk's language. He told her to say "alright" rather than "OK" because "alright is British and Ok is American." She responded then, "Alright. OK." We thought it was funny he was correcting her because he wasn't speaking with a good British accent and sounded and looked Dutch.

Off to St. Paul's cathedral..........across Millennium Bridge.............snack of sugar coated roasted peanuts whose vendor was grumpy to Em...............to the Tate Modern Art Museum. Ok, I noticed that there was a postcard of Rodin's sculpture The Kiss inside. I couldn't believe that the French would give up The Kiss. It's one of my all-time favorite sculptures. What was it doing in London? It belonged in Paris. So, I told Em that it had to be a copy. The French would not do that. Em said she'd seen it so it was there. So we went in search of the answer to this puzzling phenomenon. We discovered that there are 3 sculptures of the Kiss. I guess Rodin wanted to mass market them.

I was enraptured by a modern piece encased in glass. Em knew all of the scoop on that one. This cloud like thingy was representing the bride and these cone like things were her nine suitors and these little bullet holes were these guys trying to get to the bride, their pheromones or somethings and only one hole made it into the cloud so he was the lucky buzzard who got to be the groom. That was a short version. I concluded with a brief synopsis of what Em had told me and she replied with the best quote of the day. I won't repeat that line unless you want to know badly enough to ask me personally. Visited some Andy Warhol and left only to trip on the steps and fall because I was looking at the nut seller to see if he was still being grumpy and not watching where I was going. After Em saw that I was ok, and the people I'd silenced around me began chatting again, she laughed hysterically for about 5 minutes. It wasn't that funny.

We walked to Shakespeare's Globe theatre, but didn't enter. Em will be seeing Macbeth there later and will have to tell us about it. Watched street gamblers losing 20 pound notes at a time with the guess which-of-the-3-shells-is-hiding the nut. It was so weird seeing people lose 30 bucks just like that.

Home via the Tube... up a subway entrance of 125 steps because we tired of waiting on the elevator... stopped at 2 groceries...made Aunt Susan's chili bean soup for supper along with baked potatoes, salad, fruit plate, rolls, and Em's choice of cookie dough ice cream. We shared this meal with Em's friends Brooke from Maryland, Linda from "North" Virginia, and Kathryn from Winston-Salem. What fun to meet the friends Em talks about. They deserve more time and space here, but it's 1am and I've rambled on too long. Sorry. Emmy is lucky to have such good friends experiencing London with her.

As we entered the subway to return to my hotel, Emmy was happy to see her friend Tim who works down there. She loves to talk to him because afterwards she is smiling for 10 minutes. He makes lots of travelers feel that way she says. He told a story about something nice he learned from other Elon girls about Em. He credited me because he said the fruit doesn't fall from the tree. I told him I was a nut tree. So, Em is just a little acorn. hahahahahaha I was so glad to meet him because Emily really appreciates him taking the time to talk to and make weary travelers smile or do something kind like help them carry their luggage up the steps.

More later..........

Mum

2010-03-11T23:34:00.005Z

Yesterday was one of those days where you pinch yourself.

In the morning I went to an art exhibit that was an audio tour around an area called White Chapel in East London. The artist, Janet Cardiff, created the piece by studying the area for about six months and then layering up to 300 sounds on top of each other as she commentated a walk through the neighborhood. There were sounds that were so real that I would turn around suddenly as I heard an ambulance that did not exist outside my headphones.

I had a voice lesson in the afternoon and she worked with me on "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" in preparation for the summer! I was so excited. My voice teacher took me then to a CD release concert of one of her friends. I walked out of the tube station and had my breath knocked out of me as the first thing in my sight was the Tower of London all lit up with the twilight in the background. And, I was not looking for it as a tourist would. I was just on my way to life and stumbled upon it.

The concert was interesting. It was classical obviously, so it wasn't my absolute favorite, but it was in a beautiful little church called St. Olave's and the atmosphere was cool.

I left early to go see the production called "Money." Money was set in an empty warehouse where you walk in to a gloomy bar area and directly in front of you is a giant machine that is humming slightly. It was all very ominous. I felt much like I was standing in line to a haunted house, or a Disney Ride.

The sensation continued as the play began, and we were ushered inside the machine, into a dark room where the walls were actually sheets with air blowing on them from the opposite side, giving the illusion that the walls were closing in on us. In front were two television screens with a rapidly dropping number that represented a Paris stock market crash and into our ears pounded raging sounds of a humming machine. People were frightened by it and screaming, but I rather liked it because again, I felt like I was on a ride.

Once the play started however, I quickly began to lose interest and the Disney illusion faded. It was very abstract and violently in the audience's face, and altogether much too difficult for anyone to follow. I did like the artistic value that it held, the set was pretty creative and there were moments in some scenes that were intriguing, but for the most part I was uninvested because while the fourth wall was broken often it was not about involving the audience at all... it was a very self-centered piece focusing on the creative teams egos in creating it.

This morning I got up at FIVE to make it to the airport to pick up my mum! YIPPEEEE! I greeted her with a sign, and we hit the tube home during big time rush hour. We got home later than expected due to a delay in her flight, so I didn't go to class (woops!) and instead we made a yummy breakfast of eggs with feta and spinach (thanks to Mama Lee who showed me the delicious trick to scrambled eggs) and walked to the market and grocery for bread and fruit.

We checked into our hotel (that has no heat or hot water at the moment... HMMMM) and then took a nap. Of course my poor mum who hasn't slept but 6 hours in the past 48 had a bit of a hard time waking up, but after 45 minutes of trying to budge her there was success and we took the tube to Oxford Circus and went... where?

Topshop.

It was wild. So many people. So much fashion. You wouldn't know there was a recession going on. I needed Barrett Weed with me (for those of you who don't know who she is.... imagine 5'9" fashionista consisting of 90 percent legs and 100 percent quality.) Anyway... we bought some cute things that I hope Barrett would be proud of.

Coming out of the store an hour or so later, the streets were twice as packed as before and we noticed a giant horde of people around the tube station. I went up to a woman and asked if the station was down or closed, and she said, "No, it is just so crowded we are all waiting in line." The line stretched all the way from the platform, through the entrance gates, up the stairs and into the streets! I am surprised they did not close the station due to fire hazard. They do close them for that reason sometimes.

So that obviously kept us from getting on the tube, so instead we walked in the direction of Picadilly Circus. It was a fun walk through the hubbub of London life as we chatted and chatted. We ended up in Trafalgar Square and guess what?! JOAN LAUDEMAN climbed the Lions! I gave her a boost and she posed at the rump of the lion (she couldn't get up onto them... I can't even do that without assistance) and made a giant leap back down onto the ground. I was so proud.

We took the now-less-crowded tube back to Paddington where her hotel is located and on our walk back we found the coolest little pub called The Dickens Tavern. We walked in and instantly knew it would be a success because it was crowded with that "I'm-a-good-pub" sort of atmosphere. Mom got her fish and chips of London and we just sat enjoying the Pub culture. We also found out March is National Vegetarian month here! Cool, huh?

I have 4 papers due tomorrow, and so we came back to edit them and mum started falling asleep while she was reading. She would read a sentence and invert the beginning consonants of words and slip farther down her pillow. It was soooo funny and took me back to the days when she would be helping me with my homework by "pointing to the answers with her nose" after she had fallen asleep but insisted that she wasn't asleep and was still "helping."

Tomorrow we are planning on a trip to the park and gym in the morning together, then some Madam Tussaud's in the afternoon, and we're going to make dinner for my friends Linda, Kathryn and Brooke.

Thought for the day: Being with family makes me more joyful.

Strawberry Fields

2010-03-08T17:16:00.007Z

What famous Beatles landmark was I standing on?

Answer: The exact spot where the Beatles played their first concert (minus Ringo, who did not join the Beatles until they were already established)…. The place where it all began… The Casbah Coffee Bar in the basement of ex-Beatle Pete Best’s home.

Alright… so now let’s rewind…. We’ll start from the very beginning… a very nice place to start…

Day 1- Friday morning we all packed up into the coach and drove off for Liverpool with our cheerful, punk, and spunky tour guide for the weekend, Jackie. I wrote postcards basically the whole bus-ride. Andrew and I had packed our lunch and ate it in the highway rest-stop that was just like any at home, only instead of McDonalds and Starbucks there was Wimpy and Costa Coffee. Wimpy?! Who names a burger joint that? It’s like advertising “Hey! Want to be a big muscular man? Well… eat at WIMPY and you will get fat and become a wimp.”

As soon as we arrived in Liverpool we deposited our bags at our hotel along the dock of the River Mersey, and took a walk down to The Beatles’ Story Part II. There are two Beatles museums in Liverpool, and this second one was quite small with just one exhibit that focused on Julian Lennon’s life and his thoughts on his father. It was an interesting display in how history repeats itself. John Lennon lost his mother once at a very young age (five or six) when he was sent to live with his Aunt Mimi, and then when she died when he was 17. At five, Julian lost his father to Yoko Ono when Cynthia and Julian came home from vacation to find Yoko living in their house with John. Julian was 17 when John was murdered. It’s a little uncanny really.

A short walking tour around central Liverpool after the museum took us around to the Cavern Club, where the Beatles played almost 300 times while they were based in Liverpool. We broke for dinner and Andrew, and a large group of silly girls went to… get this folks… the HOGS HEAD for dinner! I was looking around for witches and wizards, and well, to be honest the two randos behind us in this photo may have been just that.

The Hog’s Head was CHEAPPPP (6.95 for a GIANT plateful of food) and the ambience was fun, and of course the dessert was AMAAZING and we ended up going back the next day for dessert as well.

We tucked in early as we were getting up at 7 the next morning for a full day of Beatles touring.

Day 2- Kathryn and I were the first to arrive at breakfast the next morning. We were actually slightly early, as the door was still locked when we walked up. We were approached by the server and asked if we wanted the buffet for 6 pounds or the hot English breakfast including the buffet for 8.50. “Well that would not do!” I thought. We were told our breakfast was included with our tour. So we informed the server of this, and he told us that we could have whatever we wanted. So of course we ordered it all. I have to say it was the best meal I have had since I’ve been here. The croissants were so fresh that they were still warm. There was yogurt and fresh fruit, fresh, warm, baguettes, chocolate and regular croissants, an array of cereals, juices, and then the hot English came with eggs and hash browns, mushrooms, tomatoes and meat (for the carnivores.) I ate so much that I skipped lunch.

We took a coach tour around in the morning and saw the childhood homes of George and Ringo. This nice little old lady that lives in Ringo’s home invites people in to her private home to see it FREE OF CHARGE. All she asks is if you would donate any spare change to the cancer society in town. Since she has started doing it she has raised 5000 pounds just from spare change donations. She was so cute. She told us that she was Ringo’s neighbor when he was a boy, and she had memorabilia all over the walls. She had lots of letters and gifts from people who had visited. She particularly loved this squirrel, and was tickled when I told her both of my parents went to Indiana University!

We also drove by the studio where the first Beatles’ demo was recorded, we drove down Penny Lane and listened to the song along the route, we stopped at Strawberry Fields (which was actually an orphanage that no longer exists), we stopped at the church where John and Paul first met, and we saw the grave of Eleanor Rigby (Paul did not know there was an Eleanor Rigby when he wrote the song… weird, right?)

In the afternoon we went and toured the childhood homes of John and Paul. Both John and Paul’s homes are owned by the National Trust, so they are very much in the condition they would have been in the 1940s and 50s. John was the most middle class of the bunch, and so his house was named…. Mendips.

Both homes had live-in custodians, and when the custodian of Paul’s house came out to greet us I turned to Kathryn and said, “Oh, my gosh, it is Paul McCartney himself coming to meet us.” Well, obviously he wasn’t, but I’m not convinced that it wasn’t Paul posing as a custodian so that he could lead a double life. What do you think?

It was cool seeing these places and imagining the Beatles as young boys, with Paul climbing up the drainpipe to the bathroom when his dad would lock them out of the house during the day to keep them from wreaking havoc in the house and John drawing with his sketchpad and ignoring everything his aunt would say to him. Really, they were children just like the rest of us. While Paul and John had such a volatile relationship, they were more alike than they would have liked to admit. Both were deeply affected by the deaths of their mothers at young ages and both of them wrote much of their music to their moms. “Let it Be” is a tribute to Paul’s mother, Mary McCartney who would always tell Paul to “let it be” when he came to her with problems.

With our free time in the afternoon a group of us went to the Tate Art Museum branch in Liverpool and looked at the Seagram Murals by Rothko, the last paintings he did before he committed suicide. They were really beautiful, but dark, full of the mood that reflected his life. It’s tragic when geniuses lose themselves and find no escape.

A group of us went to dinner with our professor and his son, Dante, and the Philharmonic Pub, that has super-fancy men’s restrooms. Andrew took a picture. It was a lot of fun there, we laughed a lot, and the food was delicious. I had a bowl of fresh tomato soup and it was FREE because Elon paid for it since we were with our Prof!

On our walk home we went down to the piers and took photos in front of the Ferris wheel. We were having loads of fun.

Day 3- Another coach tour took us to Brian Epstein (manager of the Beatles) gravesite. He died of a drug overdose, and with his death began the breakup of the Beatles. We also went to the club where Paul and John first played together. At the end we went to the Casbah Coffee Bar and we were given a private tour by Pete Best’s sister-in-law. It’s WILD to think of how close of connection we had, we were getting first-hand accounts of things! The family has kept everything the way it was, and has not tried to preserve or treat anything. The ceilings were painted by the Beatles and she told us that the National Trust is mad at them for not taking more measures to protect them, but what she said was “well, it seems to be doing just fine, so I don’t think we need to fix what isn’t there.” As we were leaving the quiet residential neighborhood, the police pulled up because our lovely tour guide’s car had been robbed while we were in there. Her window wwas shattered and the GPS stolen. We all felt so bad for her, but her attitude was one of “well, these things happen.”

In the afternoon we toured the Beatles Story Part I and I felt pretty cool because I knew the basic gist of everything in the museum already. We had just been overloaded with every Beatles landmark in Liverpool and have been taking the class for a month, so there was a lot of repetition. Good way to study for the midterm.

Right before we left Kathryn, Andrew and I walked up to the Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral and the Liverpool Cathedral, both so cool in such different ways. The Metropolitan was built in the 1960s and is very futuristic with brilliant colors on the interior and twisted metal.

The gothic style Liverpool Cathedral is the largest in England and 5th in the world. There was a service going on while we were in there, and it was truly awesome to hear the gorgeous choir singing as we looked at the colors of the stained glass windows reflecting on the wall.

We left refreshed and totally overwhelmed with Beatles trivia. It was a great weekend, and I truly love Liverpool.

It was sad seeing Andrew go this morning, but it is nice to be home in Foggy London town.

Tantalize

2010-03-07T23:48:00.004Z

I know you all are out there just sitting at your computers... staring at the screen... bloodshot eyes...redbull in hand... hitting the refresh button every five minutes and just WAITING for my next post about Liverpool.

Well... I'm sorry to disappoint but this is not it.

After a very long day and SO much to say, I will have to wait until tomorrow to post about the weekend.

But, just to settle your nerves, here is a picture from the weekend. What famous Beatle site do you think I am standing on?

STAY TUNED: THE REST IS YET TO COME.

Bever in da House!

2010-03-04T23:40:00.002Z

Well folks, I have my first visitor! That's right... the infamous dorky cousin.... aka Andrew Bever.

Tuesday unfolded as an ordinary day full of sunshine and class, and yesterday was much the same. Something worth writing about yesterday's class however, is that we went to the Tate Modern for Art class. The Tate is the most visited modern art museum in the world. It opened in 2000, making it super young. It is in an old powerhouse, so the atmosphere is really cool. The biggest exhibit is one by a Polish Artist called "How It Is" and it is just this big giant steel box that is ominous from the door, but stunning from the back wall as you look through meters of darkness out into the light and people of the main atrium in the museum.

When Andrew arrived last night Kathryn, Linda, Brooke and I took him to Cafe Rouge, a little French chain restaurant that I had received a 50% off coupon for! SCORE..... cause the bill would have been through the roof for college kids like us. It was a lot of fun, and I think Andrew and I both realized how alike we act at times. The friends definitely noticed.

Played a few games of spoons in their apartment before crashing for the night.

Got up early to go to class... can you guess where it was today? You're right! The Tate Modern! Did I mention it is the most visited.... Just kidding I won't finish the schpeel. Today we went for the Beatles class though, so we learned different things about some of the same paintings.

I got home from my voice lesson around 8 and made Andrew and I some dinner. It reminded me so much of backpacking after my Freshman year and how I would prepare us some meager dinner while Andrew read or showered or emailed. Dinner usually consisted of steamed vegetables and if we were really feeling flashy some CHEESE. Tonight was probably still meager by carnivorous Andrew's standards, but it brought back good memories. Grocery shopping for our lunches for the weekend in Liverpool also seemed like old hat for us. Oh family. Gotta love them.

So, we leave early in the morning and will ride the coach 4 hours to Liverpool and jump immediately into walking tours. Hooray! I'll be a'bloggin on Sunday.

Why Does God Allow so Much Suffering?

2010-03-01T21:20:00.004Z

What do you think? That was the theme in church yesterday. Church was cool because they mapped the service out as if it were a tube map and each stop on the tube was a different way of exploring the topic. The service was so thought provoking and emotional, I was crying sporadically throughout.

At the gym yesterday I met a woman named Adella who is a working actor in London! Originally from Portugal, she moved to London to get her drama degree, finished, went back to Portugal to train (for a marathon I think) and got injured, and so she came back her to get more in touch with her body and get her personal training certificate. She took her final exam for it on Saturday and is now at a crossroads, not knowing if she wants to pursue London theatre, go back to Portugal and act, or move to California. She was really sweet and told me she wanted to get my email before she left. That is something that I really love about my gym. The people that work at the gym are so friendly, warm and helpful that it makes you just want to hang around there.

Today was the most magnificent day. I woke up really early on my own accord (7:45!) and went on a walk to the gym, enjoying the fact that I did not have to hide under my hood from the wind, or my umbrella from the rain. The birds were pretty excited about this too, for when I got to the park there was a jolly morning chorus happening and it put a spring in my step as I listened to their song, and watched the dancing of the dogs as they chased after their masters. Music is surely in everything.

I came back to do homework, but I simply could not stay inside! So, instead I walked down to the market and went to my favorite fruit stand man who remarked upon my arrival “Where have you been? I haven’t seen you in awhile.” I love how the people here know you. I wish we would bring back the local businesses and the neighborliness to the United States. Depression would surely diminish.

When I got back Linda and I decided to go to Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens (the two parks are side by side, one flowing into the other) and walk around. We walked for almost 3 full hours! We stopped for pictures at Peter Pan’s statue, and Princess Diana’s Memorial Fountain, and we just enjoyed the beauty of the day. Happy dogs everywhere, old people feeding the birds out of their wise and wrinkled hands, children singing Mandy Moore while racing on scooters, young couples jogging together with the baby in a stroller, and us, walking along, grateful for life and for such wonderful experiences.

God is good.

I'm Henry the VIII I am I am...

2010-02-27T20:05:00.006Z

If you couldn't tell by the title, I went to King Henry VIII's home, Hampton Court today.

It was really pretty, but not as cool as Windsor. It was really geared toward kids....They had actors going around the grounds as King Henry, his sixth wife Kateryn, and some other randos. They also had a rack of Noble's clothes as you walked into the Kings apartments that kids could get dressed up in.

The gardens were gorgeous and huge, and already some crocuses were growing in the grass.

There was also a maze that is in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the oldest maze in existence, dating back to the 1600s. We had a lot of fun racing through it, and it made us feel like we were in the Triwizard Tournament, so we rented Harry Potter VI to watch tonight! We got to the center of the maze and I was the first to touch the Triwizard Cup....

No graveyards though.

Interesting note about King Henry and British culture... the Brits are SO proud of him, and hate the stereotype that he was a fat, tyannical, powercrazed fiend. At the beginning of the exhibit today, and at Windsor they had a short piece saying that he was not that at all. But then you go through the exhibit and they say all these things about his history that clearly showw he wwas a tyrannical power hungry fiend.. and well you can't ignore the fact that he was fat. During his reign he signed 72,000 death warrants! That isn't tyrannical? I really do appreciate his history though. He fascinates me. He truly was a majestic figure who was cleary capable of being a great leader. (Not in the sense that he was a kind, generous leader, but that he was a powerful and strong leader.)

Yesterday we went to the Olympic site for 2012. We couldn't see anything walking around in the Stratford area because there was so much blocked off for construction, but we took the Overground train back and were able to see the construction out the window. It was cool. The roof for the aquatic center is done, and a big chunk of the stadium. Linda got pictures, so as soon as she posts them I will steal them and post them.

Watching Harry Potter soon!!!!!!!!!! <3. I should probably start reading the series again... for... what the 6th time? I lost track but its at least 5.
:)

Are Coincidences Real?...

2010-02-25T21:27:00.003Z

...I don't know if I think they are. But if you believe in them or instead believe in fate, then you will find the accidental occurrence I experienced today to be a cool story.

All the weird and unexplained seems to happen to me on route to or from my voice lessons... there must be something about the air around there. Anyway, it was pouring down rain by the time the hour and a half lesson was up, and so I called a car to come pick me up and take me to the train station. The van pulls up, and I get into the back seat only to realize that I have only got 1 pound on me! No credit card, no debit, nothing. So, of course immediately I say to the man, "I'm so sorry, I'm going to Catford Bridge Train Station, but I've only got a pound, so you only need to take me as far as the pound will go. He starts laughing at me in disbelief. "Are you serious? I can take you to the stop sign with a pound! But what can I do with a pound? Maybe get a soda if its a cheap place? Are you joking with me? Do you have a hidden camera that you're gonna pull out to get my reaction?" This was all in jest, he wasn't really upset with me, but he really could not believe that I was indeed not pulling a prank on him. Finally after a few more apologies and my insistence that he only drive me as far as a pound would go, he smiled and said, "no, I'll take you this once." He proceeded to tell me he was a musician and that driving a car was just the job to pay the bills. So I told him I was a musician, too and he FREAKED OUT. He got so excited I thought he was gonna pop a bloodvessel. He asked me what I played and where I was from and if I was studying here. Then he told me all about the duo he was part of with his sister who sang. He played the demo for me. The girls voice was sooo rich and low, I thought it was a guy. But she just had one of those voices. It was so cool t listen to and to listen to his passion. He was sure that they were going to make it big. He told me that there was a reason why we met today, and he gave me his email, and address and told me to email him and no matter where I was in the world I would hear from him about his progress as a musician. "If I inspired you today I hope you follow that inspiration. You inspired me." He took my pound and said he was going to put it into the lottery. He said he puts a pound in a week, and he said mine might win him a million dollars. It was such a cool exchange.

Yesterday was a long day... I had class and then I met Brooke and Linda at the travel agency (we booked our trip to Paris in April!) and I grabbed a ready made sandwich at my favorite Mark's and Spencer.. which I realized afterward was my first time there since the second day I got to London. We then went to the Natural History Museum that was a little bit outdated, but was under a lot of reconstruction (probably again for the Olympics.) The dinosaur exhibit was cool, there was a giant live T-Rex at the end that moved its head and growled at you. I was scared enough as an adult, I woulda peed myself as a kid.

There was also a human exhibit that went through information about body and mind. Let's just say that the Europeans are much more open, and there was a lot in that exhibit that would have embarrassed the public in any American museum.

We went to dinner in Chinatown. It was a buffet and it was bad food and terrible service. There are only like two permanent buffets in Chinatown, so just don't eat at them if you come to London!

We had a play last night called "Disconnect" that took place in India and was about a debt collecting company. The workers pretended that they were Americans living in the U.S. and calling from nearby to collect debts, when really they were leading a double life. It was actually REALLY good. My favorite thus far. BUT...

during the most intense scene, one of the actors who was an older gentleman just walks offstage while the other actor is in the middle of his monologue and we see him bent over and he is speaking in a British accent (he had had an Indian accent the whole time.) Then all of the sudden the stage manager comes on and says they need to stop the show. Of COURSE everyone starts chirping to each other about what happened, and then 5 minutes later the house manager comes out and says that an actor wasn't feeling well but that they were going to start the show up again. The scene started over, but the mood was killed. The poor actor looked terrible, I felt so awful for him. He finished his scene and then was gone, he didn't come back for the bows or anything. I know that if the situation had been critical, they would have stopped the show completely, but it was still worrying. Props to that guy for being so darn professional... as an actor you know.. the show must always go on. WAY TO GO DUDE!

Anyway, most of my roommates are gone for the weekend, so I have the flat to myself for the first night! YAY. So... probably time for some icecream and a book.

Blooging

2010-02-23T23:00:00.001Z

It has been 3 days since I blooged last! Oh bloog… I like that word way better than blog. I think I’ll adopt it.

So…. Quick update on the past few days.

Sunday- A larger group of us went to church and the orchestra played. AHHH it was so beautiful! At the end of the service they did a traditional hymn, and by the end of the piece, every instrument had crescendo-ed to full blast, including the gorgeous organ, and the sanctuary itself seemed to be singing with the music. I know I over-use this word, but it was truly awesome.

That night a group of us went out to explore the Chinese New Year celebrations, but we got there a little late for most of the exciting events. It was rainy, and VERY CROWDED. I got a littttttle claustrophobic smashied into a big mass of people in which there was no escape. However, the decorations in Chinatown were SUWEEEEEEET and the fireworks that ended the celebrations were also pretty sweet.

Monday- During the day I had the flat to MYSELF!!!! Yippppeee! I got up early and started laundry…. Ugh our washer takes 3 hours on one load, and it is about half the size of our washers in the States, so no matter how much laundry you have, it is a full day event. I took the morning to myself and then Linda and I went on an adventure to Battersea to visit the giant animal shelter there. Battersea Dog Home has been around since 1860!! It was started by a woman named Mary Tealby in North London, and since then has been written about by Charles Dickens and has had a documentary film series released on BBC. It is home to over 300 dogs, and also houses cats, although not nearly as many.

Well, Linda and I are kindred spirits when it comes to animals, and therefore we were both heartbroken by the sad faces staring at us through the bars. So so so many pit bulls…..I know that in the States our shelters are full of pit bulls, but I was a little surprised the same rang true for here. I have seen many more pit bulls on the streets with owners than in the U.S., so I guess I figured they were more accepted here.

While I cried over the dear sweet souls that were separated from love by steel bars and antibacterial lotion, I was so impressed with the state that the animals were kept in. So many of our shelters in the U.S. are run down, or cramped for space. The dogs had so much space! Each had a bed, and toys as well. The stalls were immaculately clean, and the dogs all looked well cared for and for the most part healthy. There were funny signs on some of the cages, too, that really gave the dogs personality. One sign read “I spread my food all over the floor on purpose, it keeps me occupied.” Another touched my heart with the words, “Please don’t be mad if I am slow in responding to you, I am deaf.”

On our way down the halls we ran into a volunteer who was walking a sweet little doggie named Bruno. She let us love on him (you are not supposed to touch any of the dogs in the kennels because of the spread of parvo, kennel cough and other diseases) and told us about the volunteers. To be a volunteer there you have to commit to six months with six weeks of training. There were so many volunteers around, and their job was literally just to love the animals so that they would not get depressed, or go “kennel crazy.”

After that we went to TopShop and looked around. Oh. My. Gosh. So overwhelming, but on the opposite end of the spectrum than Primark. There was a nail salon, two restaurants, a bingo area, and TONS of designer clothes spread across four floors of glitzy poshness.

We ate dinner at this little pub called the Camel and Artichoke that was down in Waterloo close to the theatre where we were going to see Six Degrees of Separation. It was a little off the beaten path and definitely local. We loved the atmosphere and food, and then spent the next hour and a half talking about life. It made me realize how much I love long dinners where you don’t focus so much on the food but the company.

The show was GREAT. It was a blend of comedy and drama, commenting on racial issues, social classes, and greed. It was an entertaining night that was a great ending to my day.

Today has been full of class and homework. Hmph. Oh well, I can’t really complain because I AM in London!

Queen Emily II

2010-02-20T22:21:00.004Z

Yesterday was a very long and great day. We were bummed because the figure skating for the Olympics wasn't on at 1 am but at 3:30, so we went to bed and missed them. But, that meant that we got up early and went to Windsor Castle! It was a PERFECT day for it. Sunny, not too crowded, and since Parliament is in session, more of the castle is open to tour because less of the castle is being used! So we saw the state apartments that are always open and then the rest of the apartments that are used for entertainment when the Queen is around. One of the gift shop women told us that you will always know when the Queen is coming because the smokestacks from her wing of the Castle will be going. Also, if she is there her flag will be flying rather than the British flag.

We had a great time walking around and taking entirely too many pictures. We saw Queen Mary's Doll house, which was a palace in miniature with such attention to detail that the dishes on the dining table were silver, there was electricity and fully functioning plumbing! It is the only part I remember from when I visited as a little girl. I wonder why the only thing that would stick in a little girl's memory would be a giant doll house mansion?

The chapel, St. George's Chapel is an EXCELLENT example of the mixture of church and state. Like... I guess there is no way to avoid it when it is used just for the sovereignty. King Henry VI is there with his third wife, Jane Seymour. After having read The Other Boleyn Girl, Henry VI fascinates me. Here is a pic of the chapel.

On our way back Tim was working at the tube and we got so excited to show him our find, Paul Weller. But, he told us we were wrong! Our sleuthing was terrible. He said that he saw him later this week and used us as an excuse to ask his name and the dude wouldn't TELL HIM! The only clue he gave was, my friends call me JD. So... if any of you know who this mystery rocker could be, let me know!!!! We are still on the prowl.

We came back and Linda and I did our weekly grocery run, and went to the market to get fresh veggies and fruits. One of the guys told us the price as 30 "bobs".... we were like waaaah? But, apparently it is a cockney term, and then he told us in pounds that it wwas like 1.50 or something. He liked playing tricks on us.

Linda, Kathryn and I went to the international student's group at the All Souls church. It was Chinese New Year night and there was lots of trivia. For example, give mandarin oranges as a gift with the leaves still attached if you want your friend to know that your friendship is strong. If you don't think its as strong, don't do the leaves.

We sat at a table with a guy who was from England, but his parents were Indian, a girl from Northern Ireland, a girl who was a British citizen but grew up in Paraguay and went to college in Illinois (she had an American accent), a man from Italy, and a girl from Brazil. PRETTY international I would say. It was fun.. I think we are all excited to go back.

Today my friend Taylor was playing Rugby in Regent's Park so a group of us walked there and watched for awhile. Rugby is pretty violent with too short of shorts! EEk!

Have a super fantastic day!

Screaming Heads and Bloody Girls….

2010-02-18T23:22:00.000Z

…actually I switched the adjectives around to make the title more of an attention grabber.

Yesterday we had our first gallery visit for art. Guess where we went? You got it… the National Gallery. It is such a huge museum though, that it wasn’t a repeat visit. For maybe the first time in my life I made it for three hours WITHOUT getting sleepy!! I LOVE art, don’t get me wrong, but there is just something about warm, quiet museums filled with pretty colors and really old objects that make me drowsy after about the first hour. But, our teacher made it so interesting that I didn’t even realize that the time disappeared. Of course my favorite paintings were the impressionists... Monet, Seurat, etc.

THEN…. At the end of the class, our teacher took us next door to the National Portrait Gallery to view a certain piece that the gallery had just purchased. It was a self portrait of Mark Quinn, a modern artist. He makes a self portrait every 5 years. The reason it takes him so long is because he makes a mold of his head, and then he fills the caste with EIGHT AND A HALF PINTS OF HIS OWN BLOOOOOOOD( roughly the amount circulating through the human body at one time). He then freezes it, and puts it in a specialized unit to keep it frozen at all times. It is meant to show the fragility of life, because if the external unit that the sculpture is dependent upon were to ever fail , the sculpture would melt and disappear, symbolizing human dependence on so many external factors. I felt very fragile as I left the exhibit, like I had lost all my blood.

I had a voice lesson after class, and lets all thank the Lord that there were no more incidents. I took a cab from my teacher’s house to the train station, but unfortunately the cabbie misheard me and took me to Catford Station rather than Catford BRIDGE station, meaning that I got on a train that I had no idea how to get home on. But I used my brilliant internal compass and found my way home via an alternative route. Mom, you can be proud of your daughter’s 180 in directional skills.

Today in Beatles we watched “A Hard Day’s Night” and saw lots of screaming girls fawning over the Beatles. Were all you old fogies really all gooey ooey like that? I mean… I guess MAYBE I was a little obsessed with N’Sync, but I can’t imagine picking the grass that they walked on and holding it close to my heart for the next 20 years.

Fun Beatle Facts for Marie:
-The song A Hard Day’s Night was written after Ringo looked out the window after a long day of rehearsal and goes “It has been a hard day…” and then realized that it was no longer day and added on the word “night.” John raced home to beat Paul to writing the song and it was recorded the next day.

-The Beatles were the first to hold the #1 spot for album and single in both the UK and US and would be the only until Simon and Garfunkel in the 1970s.
Tonight my friend Brooke made us dinner (yummy quesadillas) and then Linda and I went down to the blockbuster to rent a movie to keep us awake until the men’s ice-skating is on TV at ONE in the morning…. The guy hated his life, and when he went into the back to enter in all Linda’s details for her newly issued Blockbuster card, we hear him say, “I’m so sick of this job!” We smiled at him and got him to smile back.

Tomorrow… Windsor Castle hopefully? I will post pics!

Vomit and British Rock Stars

2010-02-16T22:52:00.002Z

So, rather than doing my homework right now I figured I'd blog instead. It's much more exciting than reading about how to look at a piece of art. I love art, but come on, I KNOW how to look at art. I HAVE eyes and I do use them.

Yesterday the group of us without internships decided to go to the Natural History Museum, but when we got there, the line wove from the main doors all around the front garden. We realized at that moment that it was "half term break" for all of the schools, so mummy and daddy were taking them all to the museums and therefore it was much too crowded for us.

So we went to the National Gallery instead. It was still pretty crowded, but not as bad. Howwever, I am going to the gallery again tomorrow for Art Class, so I wasn't too disappointed that we didn't tour all the exhibits. I will be back.

At home, I had just enough time to make dinner and change before heading to see "11 and 12", the Peter Brook show that was to be our first in London and was about the number of prayers of Muslims in West Africa causing conflict. I decided it would be a good idea to wear my 4 inch heels. I mean... I was going to the London theatre, I had to be "posh." Well, I now have lovely blisters on both feet that are constantly reminding me that "posh" does not always mean 'cool.' The show was alright, but it wasn't the best. I appreciated it, but I didn't enjoy it, if you understand what I mean. We discussed it in class today, and I understood a lot more of the symbolism of violence and racism, but it did not change the fact that I did not really LIKE the play.

On our way home, Kathryn, Linda and I stopped at our tube stop to visit with our favorite Tube worker, Tim Pinn. He is literally the coolest Brit we have met here, and just genuinely one of the coolest people ever. He is ALWAYS wanting to help, always smiling or offering a kind word. Last night he told us that the first day we used the tube, he knew instantly that we were Elon students and knew exactly how to help us. He said he loved Elon students because they were all so open to new environments and really wanting to interact with people and learn about other cultures.

He has worked at our tube stop for four years, and said that there are people he sees every single day on the tube, and that he has looked them in the eye and smiled and said hello, and that not once have they ever looked at him or acknowledged him. He said the class system is still so much more prevalent in Britain than it is in the States. Never would some of the people that live in our rich neighborhood lower themselves to speak to someone in a servant position like Tim's unless they needed something. It was sad to hear really, because Tim is the COOLEST (like I've already said)

While we were talking to him this middle aged, spunky guy walked by to leave the station and commented to Tim on the "three beautiful girls" he had with him tonight. They exchanged smiles and pleasantries, and as soon as the man was gone Tim turns to us and goes, "You know, that man is a rather famous rock star, but I couldn't tell you who he is. You see, I don't have a tele, so I am never up to date on these things." So we all freak out and go, "Tim! You should ASK him who he is." and this was his response, which I found quite entertaining.

"Well, I've been talking to him every day for two years now, and I'm rather sure he thinks that I know who he is, so wouldn't it be quite awkward to turn to him one day and say, 'by the way, who are you?' I think it might terminate the friendship that we have."

Our lovely chat with Tim ended abruptly when he realized that someone had vomited all over the floor on the other side of the ticket counsel from where we were standing. None of us knew how long it had been there as we had been standing there chatting, oblivious to all going on around us for at least 20 minutes. YUCK!

So, of course being the curious Elon students that we are, we went home and googled, "British Rockstar, Maida Vale." Maida Vale is our town, and this guy Paul Weller pops up as the first on the search. Sure enough it was him! He was with the band The Jam in the late 70s to early 80s and now is a solo recording artist who is quite well established in Britain. We felt like cool detective Nancy Drew's and can't wait to tell Tim/Ned of our discovery.

I had class all day today, and it poured down rain, leaving me soaked on the way to class, on the way back, on the way to the gym, on the way back, and on the way to the grocery, and on the way back.

I'm ready for some spring sunshine!

Madonna's Valentine

2010-02-15T00:04:00.004Z

Well... 1. Happy Valentine's Day! My Valentine was off on a beach retreat this weekend in Costa Rica, so my daddy phoned from Egypt to be a substitute. It was funny being in the city for Valentine's Day because you see people everywhere pulling off some romance. In my walk to church today I saw two different men carrying roses and chocolates looking lost as they stared at the facades in my neighborhood, probably checking numbers.

I attended church with my friend Tayler (who wants to go to seminary after school) and we went to this church called All Souls Church. It was right downtown on Regent's Street, which is the big shopping street in London. It was funny seeing this big beautiful church right down from the big Topshop.

Anyway, the service was super international, and they cater to international students, so I might start going to activities there. The music was great, with a big choir and a 5 piece orchestra. We sat in the balcony, and we were surrounded by people of so many ethnicities. Black, Indian, Asian, White. Every race was represented. It was really cool to be worshipping with so many people from so many different backgrounds, all with the same thing in common.

For dinner I went to Chinatown since it was Chinese New Year. The celebrations and parades are all next weekend, but Chinatown was still CRAZY busy with people. On our way back to the tube we saw Madonna!!!!! Well, not really, but ALMOST. We're walking through Picadilly Circus and as we go by the Mamma Mia! theatre we see this huge mob of people surrounding it, and a news truck and flashing bulbs everywhere. One of the guys, Russell, lifted me to his shoulders to see if we could see, but all I saw was a camera man, so I nestled my way into the centre of the crowd and asked the woman next to me if she knew what was going on. I didn't bother to ask the people in the back, cause I knew they were all just lemmings that had no idea what they were looking for. The woman next to me excitedly replied "It's Madonna! It's Madonna." I don't know if y'all know, but Madonna lives in London and really wishes she were British, so she often puts on a fake accent.... my brush with the famous fake British popstar, prettttttty memorable.

2010-02-13T22:30:00.006Z

Today was Stonehenge and Salisbury day.

Wake up time: 7:45 am

Scheduled departure: 8:45 am

Actual departure due to a no-show coach: 10:15 am

Amount of sleep lost: 1.5 hours

Was it worth it? YES.

This entry is better spoken through pictures. I will commentate when necessary.

1. Cute little British boy in the prayer candle area behind the alter of Salisbury Cathedral. Isn’t he cute? I don’t think he knew I was taking this photo.

2.The medieval Salisbury Cathedral reflected in the modern sculpture fountain.

3.The core four in front of Stonehenge! Folks… it is SMALL but it is still so amazing and worth it.

4.When we got close to Stonehenge the traffic started getting thick, which we realized on our way OUT was because cars literally stopped in the middle of the highway to take photographs. Marie, our guide told us she did not think they were going to make a fake Stonehenge, but that they were going to move the highway and bus people in.

Cool point about the Cathedral: There was a tomb of a man who was an illegitimate child of Henry II and was married to a wealthy heiress. When he was shipped off to war, everyone thought him dead, and a sneaky gentleman tried to marry his wife for her money. But, she refused, and eventually her husband turned up again. However, he mysteriously died and no one ever really knew how until hundreds of years later when his tomb was opened and an extremely well preserved RAT was found in the tomb, leading historians and archeologists to believe that he died of arsenic poisoning. Crazy how they can figure that out so many years later isn’t it?
Homework has begun to become an issue. Alas……The real world does still exist. On the bus today I did some reading for my Beatles class, and have some trivia for Marie again. :)

John Lennon lived with his aunt Mimi, who was strict and detested John’s “Teddy” clothes and friends. John visited with his mother every day, but never lived with her. She was hit by a car and killed instantly when he was a teenager.
Paul McCartney’s mother also died when he was a teenager, but she died of breast cancer.

That is all that is super interesting from today’s reading. The book is called “Shout” and is a biographical timeline, and obviously I am still in earlier stages of their lives.

Tomorrow is Chinese New Year! Happy New Year y’all.

Welcome to East London, Em!

2010-02-12T21:46:00.003Z

If you are looking for a thriller, then look no further than my lowly little blog. For while I knew my adventures would be many, I did not expect the events that unfolded yesterday afternoon.

I attended class in the morning, only slightly different from my routine because we went on a field trip to the Imperial War Museum. As many of you probably know, war is not my specialty, nor do I find it thrilling in the least. However, I appreciate relearning everything I’ve been learning since primary school about the different wars. There was a Holocaust exhibit, which I had just had quite my fill of considering I’d spent Christmas in Germany. So by the end of the visit, I was thoroughly ill to my stomach and ready for something happy…. Like MUSIC! My first voice lesson was yesterday and I left right from the museum to meet my teacher. I allotted about an hour and a half for the commute, and while it was a long one, I arrived a half an hour early to my lesson. Bugger. I walked up to her door at 1:30 and heard the piano singing from her front room, and remembered that she had a lesson before mine and told me she wouldn’t be able to answer her mobile if I called. So, I figured it would be distasteful to interrupt her lesson by knocking a full half hour early.

I decided I would walk back up the street to a little café I had seen on the corner and sit there and write while I waited. I ordered an orange juice and was finished with my writing in 20 minutes, making the time just shortly before 1:50. I packed up and walked back down the street, completely misjudging time and realizing I was still standing there 10 minutes early and the piano was still singing beautiful melodies out the window to me. This time, I figured I would walk a few minutes down the road and then back up to arrive just on time. As I turn around to walk back down the street, I hear this whistle coming from the direction I was just facing. Directly next to my voice teacher’s house was a house under construction. The construction men had been up on the roof working, and thinking that maybe one of them needed my attention and not really thinking in terms of “I am a young girl I need to be on my guard”, I looked over my shoulder. Standing between My voice teacher’s house and the house under construction was a man staring at me.

Now, I am going to take a short detour to explain where I was, and also for suspense purposes. My voice teacher lives in Southeast London. I mentioned in an earlier post that East London has traditionally always been the bad area of town. Well, being the wise old bird that I am, I didn’t really examine the directions I had been given to fully understand that I would be in East London until I arrived doe-eyed on the train platform. But, it was midday, a busy area, and many people were around. I felt completely and naively safe as I trudged the 10 minute walk from the train station to my final destination. The houses on the quieter residential street were nice enough, looking as if they belonged to middle class citizens. There were people walking along this street and there were construction men acting as eagle eyes, looking down on the whole area from a rooftop. So naturally all these factors gave me a false sense of safety.

The man staring at me was doing something strange with his hand, and when he looked down, I began to walk in the opposite direction, my instincts telling me something was wrong before my brain caught up and told me WHAT was wrong. Was he exposing himself?... I paused 50 meters down the road and deliberated. On the one hand, if this man WAS exposing himself to me, then there was no way I could walk back to my voice teacher’s house, because he was feet away from her front door. On the other hand, maybe he was a construction worker from the house next door and I was being paranoid and maybe he wasn’t doing anything suspicious at all. Plus, I couldn’t just stand there AND I couldn’t just leave because I had a voice lesson in 10 minutes. So I decided I would turn around and walk back cautiously and hope that he was gone.

When I came within visual range, I could see the man had not left, and that I should have listened to my instincts because he was indeed exposing himself, and he saw me. “Sweet heeeeeart, where are you goinggggggg” he called and whistled as I did another 180 and walked much more quickly away this time, my heart racing. “Come back!” I heard him command.

I didn’t have to think twice before I had my cell phone out dialing 999. My voice broke as I spoke to the operator, telling her I needed the police and giving her the details of my whereabouts. I knew the street address, but had no idea what town I was in. Thankfully a woman was walking into her house and I asked her the post code. The police were on their way and I was shaking in my boots.

One of the construction workers had been watching me as I stood bewildered in the sidewalk. He probably thought I was a nutter, just standing there staring in his direction. “What time is it?” he yelled. “TWO!” I snapped back, feeling not at all friendly toward any man. Soon, I heard the police sirens and relief spread through me. The police pulled up and as I walked over to them, I noticed that the man was gone. I told them where he had been and they went searching. The shocked construction worker followed and began asking what was happening and telling that they had witnessed nothing.

My voice teacher then came to her door and smiling broadly, invited me in. Pale-faced, I told her to police were here and I wanted to make sure they knew where I was. When I told her what had happened she became distraught and sent me inside while she went to talk to the police.

I was safe. No one would hurt me inside, and the police were here. They came in followed by my teacher and took down my details (I couldn’t remember my birthday) and asked for a suspect description. I was informed that the police were searching for this man and several units were already on the prowl. A crime report would be filed and I would be notified via post.

On their way out, my polite teacher asked if they would like some tea. “No, thank you. But you better make her one,” the thinner officer said while he pointed to me. “She looks like she needs one.”

And tea she made me, along with giving me some caramel biscuits to lift my spirits.

So many things could have gone differently to have made the situation much worse than it was. I was not physically harmed in any way, and I now know how to go about handling such a situation. Next time, I will not be so slow on the uptake. I will laugh at the silly pervo and say “Is that all you’ve got?”

Needless to say, I had a great voice lesson, even if I was a bit distracted throughout.

The Power of Positive Thinking.

2010-02-10T22:50:00.005Z

Alright everyone, major reality check here.

I woke up today and everything was great. Grand, really. The cleaning lady was coming to fix up our apartment all nice and squeaky, and I was off to another first class, Art.

Art is on Wednesdays every week from 10-2 and we do gallery visits normally, but today we just went over the course goals and syllabus, so we were done by 1130, and home by noon.

I got a little frustrated because the cleaning lady was here and I wanted to make lunch, or go to my room and change to run, etc. I was also frustrated because a group of my friends was going out, but they were just going to get books and wander, and I didn't really want to go... and another group was going to the British Museum, and I'm going to that like every week, so I didn't want to go.... And, before I realized it, I was at home while everyone was out exploring, and I felt guilty because it was so cold out and I wasn't motivated to leave. I was being negative about it and feeling like a bum and just being a doofus.

But, I changed my attitude, and went on a run to buy a cell phone and get supplies to make a nice dinner for the core four. The run was beautiful, my endorphins woke up, and I got a phone (finally) which was a scratch mark on the list of "To do's." I stopped at the little Tesco Express on my corner and got some fresh veggies, fresh bread, and fresh cookies for dinner, and on my way out I noticed the homeless woman who sits right outside the door every day, selling a magazine called The Big Issue. London has this great program for the homeless, where you can apply for a homeless "license" essentially, and you sell this magazine to people. It's great really, because when you donate to buy this magazine, you KNOW you are helping the homeless, not feeding a fake beggar who goes home and sits on his arse watching his plasma screen TV while his cat drinks a beer beside him. NOT COOL PEOPLE. Anyway, The Big Issue provides employment to the homeless, too. I think it is a great thing.

So, I see our local homeless woman. She is there every day. She is either Indian or Arab, I couldn't figure out because I'm not an expert. But she covers her hair, and she is not too much older than me. I walked up to her with my grocery bags and change, and asked her "How much do they cost?" She replied timidly, but happily " One pound fifty." So I knelt down beside her, and as I rifled through my change I asked her how she was doing. She smiled and said, "I am very cold today." (It was snowing outside, and she was wearing a thin jacket and a skirt.) I smiled back at her and said "Yes, it is quite cold today." I gave her two pounds, telling her to keep the change, and I reached for my magazine. As I took it she looked me straight in the eye and said "Thank you. You are very beautiful."

You know, God does tell you things, you just have to listen. Here I was doting over myself all day, feeling bad about myself sitting around the house, blah, blah, blah and here was this young woman who probably came to England with bright hope for the future to provide for her struggling family back home, or came because she was desperate, with no other options, and now she was on the street, homeless, watching as hundreds of people walked by her and never even noticed her sitting on the ground. She had the compassion in her to tell ME that I was beautiful. I thought I was helping her, but really she was helping me to remember how fortunate I am and to remember that compassion and love are the most important things in life.

I am truly blessed to be here in London learning such amazing things about myself and about God's good Earth.

Peace, Love, and the Beatles, y'all.

At the Beginning

2010-02-10T22:34:00.004Z

Yesterday was my first day of class!!!

I experienced my first London rush hour.... NOT cool. My claustrophobic genes (thanks mom) started kicking in when I realized I was more than 6 feet under as I got off the first train to transfer to another line and walked out of the door into a sea of smelly, grumpy city folk. We had to wait for a train to pass before we could get on because they were so crowded. One woman wearing a pink backpack (or rucksack) literally contorted her body in ways I didn't know possible as she leaned in over the masses boarding the train. She could have almost gone crowd surfing on top of all the stuffy business men squashed awwkwardly together. A sea of black and a pink backpack (that the doors of the train car just barely missed) went streaking off down the track as we waited for the next train and hoped that we wouldn't be late for class.

The Beatles class was first. Upon request from a very special person (cough cough Marie) I will be including a Beatles fact book in each of my journal entries on class days hence forward. Beginning with today:

The Beatles were virtually UNKNOWN in the USA while there was mania going on in Britain. Stumbling upon the Beatles madness, Americans like Ed Sullivan spent almost 100,000 dollars on promoting the Beatles before they came to the States. By the time they arrived in Feb of 1964, "I wanna Hold Your Hand" was number one in the charts, and the teenbopper girls were going bonkers just like all of their sisters across the seas.

In the beginning Paul and RINGO were the favorite Beatles, not John (common mistake)

Many believe that a major contributor to Beatle success was the JFK assasination, because the whole world was looking for something to lift them up.

73 million people watched the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, an OBVIOUS record for the time, and still one of the largest audiences in history.

More to come after our fieldtrip tomorrow...

The theatre class will be super cool too. The teacher is the eccentric old bird of a lady with a singy song voice who goes to the theatre 3 to 4 times a week. Sheesh. I'm jealous. We are going to see only plays because "we will take ourselves to see musicals. It is her job to take us to things we would never dream of on our own."

After class I came home and went on a run through Regent's Park and it was gorgeous and moving.

Wait.... I LIVE HEREEEEEEEEEEEE!

A Snowy Day in London town...

2010-02-08T22:58:00.003Z

Ok first of all, deepest apologies on the weird formatting for the last post. Bloody blog. :)

Well, yesterday was Sunday, meaning that half the tube lines weren't running because they do their construction on Sundays. The Brits are in mad construction mode because of the Olympics, so they are being quite inconvenient to us poor college students who just want to spend our time riding the tubes from one end to the other. (Not really, but again, I like the dramatic effect.)

So, yesterday, rather than riding the tube, we took a bus out to Spittlefield Markets which is on the other side of central London. The bus ride took more than an hour. But the market was cool. It was indoor (which was good because again with the British drizzle...) and it had everything from clothes, to zip bags (purses that are basically just one big zipper and you can unzip them all the way until they are just a long string. Mind boggling I know), to croissants, to these cool glasses this guy made out of recycled coke and beer bottles. I heckled a guy with a dress and got him to bring the price down three whole pounds. :) I was proud.

After the market we went out for Kathryn's (new friend) birthday. There was a large group of us, and we decided to go to a Mexican place. It was interesting, not quite like American Mexican, but it was good. The servings were obviously smaller, and no refillable chips like at Hacienda (SAD day), but it felt like being at home. Afterward Kathryn, Linda, Michele and I (henceforth I will call the "core four" so I don't have to write out all our names) went to McDonalds and got 99 cent McFlurries. There was a security camera as we walked in and Kathryn and I got so excited waving at ourselves, that by the time we made it up to the counter, the grumpy dude was not at all amused with us silly Americans. Woops.

Today most people had their internships, so I went with a small group and we walked around the city for awhile. It was snowing which was pretty, but it didn't stick sadly. We went to this CHEAP clothing store called Primark which is basically a giant British Walmart for clothes, and it was like Black friday in there, only it was a Monday at noon. SCARY. I felt my blood pressure rising... and I noticed that no one seemed to be enjoying themselves. There were no smiling faces.

After that we went to Kings Cross Station and took turns taking pictures at Platform 9 and 3/4. I really did try to get through the barrier, but sadly I think I'm a muggle through and through.

We walked around Covent Gardens area for awhile, but there wasn't much exciting there, so we all came home and then Linda, Michele and I went out to the grocery after Michele got home from her internship. There was a little outdoor market going on in front of the grocery, so I got some yummy fresh fruit. :)

Michele said that her internship (which is with Parliament, but not in the Parliament building) is in a BAD neighborhood. Someone attempted to rob her, and she saw a woman being held at knifepoint. SO SCARY. She is NOT going back there. The school is going to have to find some way to change her location.

Lesson of the day: Make the most of everything, even the crazy things that you would never enjoy on your own have something positive you can take from them. :)

The City Life

2010-02-07T11:16:00.009Z

Pics.... first is of new friends Linda and Kathryn on the Lions in Trafalgra Square.

Second is in China Town with Linda. Chinese new year is soon!

Third is of my new friend the jack russell on a house boat in the canals! Cute!

And the last is of one of the last true double decker buses in London. Itis from the 1960s and still running!

I didn't blog yesterday, but it was the longest day I've had here yet.

Bright and early in the morning we went on a coach tour of the city. Our guide was the loveliest British lady ever. She made everything seem like it was the most fascinating site or object in the entire world. We hit all the major sites like Big Ben, Saint Pauls, the Tower of London, etc. We also went by the bigger parks and through some wealthhhhhy neighborhoods. Did you know that West London was where the wealthy lived back in the day because the winds came and blew the pollution through to the East? That is why East London is the poor section of town still today, because the population never shifted. Also, London was heated with coal all the way up until the 1980s, meaning it was a DIRTY city and has only recently been cleaner.

We also learned about the Olympics. The stadium will be in East London, and they hope it will help bring the area out of poverty. She called it the next legacy of London.

We had a lunch break, and then we went on a walking tour of our neighborhood. We walked along the canals, and saw some of the backstreets of the area. We also saw the home (hotel now) of a brilliant mathmetician during World War II named Alan Turing. His story is tragic, being that he was a homosexual during a time when it was illegal, and ended up killing himself after the government tried to treat his "illness" with hormones. The government recently apologized for what they did to him.

After that, I went on a run, because I had an appointment to meet with a fitness instructor at the local gym. This gym was in a sports park, and there were children and families everywhere because it was a sunny Saturday.

I then ran down to Regents park which was so beautiful and I can't wait to go back.

Now part II.... I told you this was a long day!

A group of us went to dinner at a Fish and Chips Pub downtown on Baker Street. I looked for Sherlock Holmes but I didn't see him sadly.

We came back to the flats and my flat was full of almost the entire group of Elon students partying before going out. It was a little overwhelming.... But we all went out to the city centre to "hit" a club.

The streets were packed, and there were girls walking around in cocktail dresses... in the freezing London drizzle, with NO COAT. Sheesh.

The club was called Oxygen and it had a basement with a dance floor and poles.. hmmmmmm. It was not my cup of tea at all, so I left with Linda and Kathryn, and we went and took pictures climbing on the lions in Trafalgra Square.

Many new experiences today...

Operation Beatles Stalk

2010-02-05T21:03:00.005Z

Well, I once thought I was a pretty faithful Beatles fan. Ha. I was greatly mistaken. I have only dappled in Beatles mania.

For the past two days we have been thrown headfirst into Beatles History on 7 and a half hours of Beatles walking with a die hard British cartoon man named Richard Porter. He literally knew EVERYTHING about the Beatles, and even got married in the church where Paul and John got married, even though by the time he got married it was a library. http://www.beatlesinlondon.com/

Here are some pics of the excursion.... The first pic is of the building where the Beatles had their last live performance before they broke up. It was on the rooftop.

The second pic is of a really cool mural that was on a building in the Regent area. It was modeled after the cover of the Sgt. Pepper's album. The Beatles are still so influential!

The last is the pic of where the Beatles Mania officially began. Screaming girls had been following the Beatles for awhile before the media picked up on it because there had not been any big gigs in central London yet (where the media was) and so at the Palladium theatre, the reporters got their first taste of the madness of Beatles fans, and the phenomenon wwas front page news the next day.

Can't wait to take the Beatles Class!

Em the Explorer

2010-02-03T22:39:00.000Z

I woke up every hour until 8 o'clock this morning when I finally bit the bullet and crawled out of my warm cozy bed and went for a run through the drizzle. I felt like such a city girl running in my underarmour along the sidwalks. It was nice getting to know my neighborhood a bit. It is quite a happening place with so many other cultures. It's funny but I'd say on the sidewalk you hear other languages as often as you hear English. I like it.

I got back with only enough time to grab an apple and hit the road to school! In the cupboard under the stairs (where we hide Harry Potter so no one else can steal him from us) I found an old Oyster Card from students passed (bless them) and took it to the subway with me on my first journey. Lucky me, it had almost 5 pounds on it from the last user and so it took me all the way to school and back! The neighborhood that our class building is in is a university area, about a 2 minute walk from the British Museum. I liked it a lot. My roomies and I ate at a little fish and chips joint around the corner.

As a group we went on a London walking tour, which I cut out of a little early to come pick up the madre at the aeroporto. (don't think that is Spanish, but oh well!) The tour was interesting, of course I loved going through West End.... I will be back many a time.

Got to the airport about an hour before momma got in... she was running a little late. It was so sweet to see her power walking along with her little trolley and short cropped hair (mine looks too much like hers now, eek! I'm becoming my mother!)

We picked up some sandwiches from Mark's and Spencer (my first time there this trip I was so excited!) and then took the tube to her hotel, where we have now been chit chatting for the past 3 hours.

Oh where does the time go....
Another day, another past, another story....

2010-02-02T20:35:00.000Z

Hi from London, folks!

I departed from South Bend yesterday at 10:30 AM and got in to London Heathrow at 6:55 AM or 1:55 AM Eastern Standard. I then waited at the airport until 10:30 am for the rest of the group, and made it to my flat by 11:30.

So needless to say, I am sleeeeepy, and lying here on my new bed is not the best idea to staying awake.

It was strange traveling internationally by myself. My flight was wayyy empty, and so I sat there in my very own roww with my vegetarian mooshy goo that looked like it could have been many things OTHER than food, and I read a book that Mom had sent home with me from Germany.

I didn't quite grasp the fact that I was leaving the United States for 4 months, and that by the time I came back, Chicago would be green and sunny rather than gray and stinky.

London was raining when we got in, as if to say, "Welcome, this is what I do every day so GET USED TO IT." But it is definitely warmer here than it is in the good ole U.S. of A.

We spent the day just moving our stuff in and meandering around the neighborhood. I have two roommates, Bhriel and Libby. Our flats are super nice and we live literally a block from everything (including a restaurant that serves Halloumi cheese... SCORE!)

Tomorrow Mom is flying through on route to Chicago. I know, we just missed each other..... but she is staying the night in London and I am gonna go out to the airport and stay with her.

Otherwise, I'm just doing orientation things, getting a cell phone (a "mobile" in Britspeak), and discovering new things about the neighborhood.

More next time because I think I'm falling asle

Cheerio darlings!

2010-01-20T02:56:00.001Z

Ok... I'm doing it, I'm starting a blog for when I'm abroad.

So, welcome to my travelogue? Is it standard procedure to welcome people to a blog? Hmmmm....

Welllllllll, this is my first post, and I'm still in the U.S. for another week so, sorry, it won't be exciting.

But, whoever you are, chances are I'm going to be missing you really soon.

Have a lovely day (I'm trying to sound more British, can you tell?) and keep a look out for updates!

Wow Webdings FONT! I LOVE YOUUUUUUUUUUUU
That means I love you in English.