Final Moments at 21 PG...

Well, we've come down to my last 3 hours at 21 Pembridge Gardens. I can't believe the semester is over. For the past few weeks it has felt like this day would never come. Now that it's here I'm absolutely dreading it. I am really going to miss this house. There has definitely been a lot of drama (not within my group thankfully), but I am going to miss the excitement. I haven't even missed watching t.v. since this house is more than enough entertainment for me. It's going to be really weird not being able to walk down the road to our favorite pub. I didn't sleep last night. Hanging out with my favorite people and packing were higher on my list of priorities. I already said my hardest goodbye this morning. Paula and I clicked from the very beginning and I'm going to miss our talks. Fortunately, she is the other Chicago girl in the house so we will definitely be seeing each other in the future. We are already planning an East Coast trip this summer to visit all of our other friends.

Yesterday was a really great last day. I took my final final which went surprisingly well. Afterwards, Billy and I went to the Tate Modern to test out the slide exhibit. The Tate Modern rents out a giant space to artists who are then allowed to do whatever they want with it. The current artist made giant slides for everyone to enjoy. We definitely took advantage of this and slid down the tallest one which was 5 stories. It was amazing.

That evening my friends and I had a champagne and cupcake party before meeting the rest of the house at our favorite pub. It was amazing as 24 of the 30 housemates showed up. I'm definitely going to miss this place. After Prince Albert's closed, a small group of us headed over to Kabobs for the final time. We brought our chips back to the house and ended up talking until 3 am. I've been packing since then. It's amazing how much one person can accumulate over a few months.

My Mom just called and she already landed at Heathrow. I can't wait for her to get here. We have a lot of amazing things planned for the next week.

Because of the intense amount of traveling I am doing in the next few weeks, I am leaving my lap top here at the house for safe keeping. This means that I will not be able to update much during my Scotland and Greece trips. I will write everything down in my travel journal, though, and post it when I return. After Greece, my Dad and I are traveling through Switzerland and Austria, and I will have my lap top then.

I hope you all have a great few weeks!!!

Guess what???

IT'S SUMMER!!!!!!

I just wanted to say that really fast before I go out and celebrate this beautiful day. A proper update will come tonight :)

Ok, ok...I know it's been awhile since my last update. Things have just been so incredibly busy here. The weather has been absolutely beautiful, so I just couldn't see staying inside on the computer when I could be out and about enjoying London. So grab a cup of tea and some biscuits, because this will be a long one :)

Thursday, March 8th after classes my friends and I went to the ABSOLUT Ice Bar in Soho. The bar is kept at -5 degrees Celcius and everything is made of ice....even the bar and the glasses! It was absolutely amazing. There are only three of these in the world. It was so great that my Mom, her friend, and I are going to go this Friday!

The next day I left for Adventure Weekend. We spent the weekend in the Lake District in Cumbria doing a bunch of different outdoors activities. On Saturday morning, I went Tyrolean Gorge Crossing. First we went ziplining and then we had to walk across a rope over a waterfall (see picture). It was soooo much fun! I was a little nervous to go ziplining until the moment my feet left the ground. My rope spun me around backwards, but I was too distracted by the gorgeous view to even think about being scared. That afternoon I went Gorge Scrambling. Basically, you walk up a river and climb over a waterfall. This was by far my favorite activity since studying abroad. I can't believe I climbed a waterfall. Unfortunately, since you're in the river we couldn't bring cameras. The only proof I have is the pics of my bruised knees haha. They took a beating. On Sunday we spent sometime walking through town and then spent 7 long hours on a bus heading back to Pembridge Gardens.

Let's see...I went and saw the play Equus with my theatre class. That's the play with the naked Daniel Radcliffe (aka Harry Potter). It was pretty good. It had a ton of psychology in it, which I obviously enjoyed, and the set was really creative. I also went and saw Mary Poppins which I LOVED. It was the cutest musical I've seen here so far. The music was brilliant and the kids were adorable. I wish I could take a couple of British kids home with me :)

My London in Literature class went to the Sherlock Holmes Museum which was really fun. I had never read Sherlock Holmes before this semester, but I think I'm going to add Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's books to my summer reading list. I even got to sit in Holmes' chair! We also went to Regent's park that day and our teacher taught us how to play cricket. It was hilarious. He said I'm a natural...maybe I'll have to join the games that go on at WSU haha. I also took second place in our cricket position quiz. Not only did I take 2nd in the class, but I took 2nd place overall for all of the classes that he has taught. Cricket is a fun game and Regent's Park was such a pretty place to play it in.

My boyfriend came to visit for spring break. It was nice to finally be able to spend some time together. We didn't do anything too exciting...just a lot of walking around. Unfortunately, this was the one week in March that the weather was awful. We had hail and sleet storms and the temps were freeeezing. Oh well...I guess that just means we'll have to come back together sometime :)

Since I finished most of my work a few weeks ago, I've been trying to take advantage of London's nightlife. Last week I went to the world famous Zoo Bar. It was great fun. The only down side was that someone broke my camera. So unfortunately, I have been unable to take pics. No worries though, my Mom is bringing my new camera on Thursday. Until then everyone has been kind enough to take pics of me...I have great friends :)

On Friday I took my first final. I think it actually went well. In order to celebrate, 10 of us went to a bar afterwards that of all people my MOTHER suggested haha. Apparently one of the best mixologists in the world has a bar in Soho that my Mom knew of off the top of her head and told me to check out. LAB was brilliant. The drinks menu was over 15 pages long...a little overwhelming. I finally settled on a Blanc Martini (Skyy vodka, fresh coconut cream and creme de cacao, shaken and served straight up, dusted with coconut flakes), a Bon Bon (Stoli Vanilla vodka, Limoncello, Butterscotch schnapps, homemade vanilla sugar and fresh lemon juice), and a Tiramisu (Patron XO cafe Tequila with Mozart white and dark chocolate liqueurs, mascarpone cheese, charged with espresso and garnished with chocolate). Wow. They were all amazing. The Tiramisu tasted exactly like tiramisu. I may have been $50 poorer, but it was totally worth the experience. Thanks Mom.

This weekend I spent some time filming areas of London. My boyfriend was kind enough to bring my camcorder over, so I filmed Green Park, Picadilly Circus, and all of Portobello Rd. Billy, Maura, Meg, their friend from Rome Angie, Paula, and I hit up Covent Garden to do some much needed shopping. I ended up buying a ton of stuff. I finally got boots! I've been wanting some very European outfits and I think I've succeeded. I can't wait to take them back to the oh so fashion forward Wichita haha.

Yesterday, Paula and I went to Kensington Palace for tea. It was adorable. I had cinnamon tea, a scone, and orange cake. If anyone ever wants to do tea in London I really suggest Kensington Palace (where Princess Diana lived). It's very atmospheric and extremely affordable as opposed to places like the Ritz, Savoy, or Claridges.

Today I took my 2nd final. It was the easiest one so far. Tomorrow's is definitely my hardest. Everyone is going out for one last night at Walkabout, but unfortch, I will be staying in like a little student and studying the night away.

Inspeaking of which, I should get to that. This will be updated again before Thursday...no worries :)

Cheers.

Warwick Castle, Stratford-Upon-Avon, & Oxford University

Yesterday was an amazing day. I signed myself up for a tour of Warwick Castle, Stratford-Upon-Avon, & Oxford University. I love London, but I can not get over how gorgeous the English countryside is. It's like Ireland...Dublin is nice, but you have no idea how beautiful the country is until you see the smaller areas. We started the day off with Warwick Castle. The 1st castle on this site was constructed in 1068. This was made of wood and over time, it was replaced by the current stone castle. It was completed by 1468. The Earls of Warwick lived here until 1978, when it was purchased by the Tussaud's Group (Madame Tussad's). Warwick Castle is beautiful! Once again, I was blessed with yet another gorgeous sightseeing day this month. I managed to see one of the smaller gardens, the royal weekend party rooms, the dungeon, the torture chamber, the ramparts and towers, and the mound. The only thing I didn't like was that Madame Tussad's filled each room with wax figures in order to give tourists a clearer picture of what the castle used to be like. I found this a little cheesy and would have preferred to use my own imagination. The only thing I was slightly disappointed with was we were only there for an hour and 45 minutes, which was not enough time.


Next up was Stratford-Upon-Avon. This is one of the cutest little towns I have ever seen. I would love to stay at a B&B for a couple of days and explore the area sometime. We saw the home where Shakespeare was born at and lived until his 20's. It was amazing to see. The floor is the original, and I couldn't believe I was walking on the same floor that William Shakespeare walked on. We also didn't get a lot of time here, so I quickly ran off on my own and managed to snap a picture of his school and his daughter's home, as well as a few of the area. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough time to see the church where he was baptised, got married, and is now buried at. To be honest, I think it's a little unfair to bring people to such a historic place and not allow them time to see his grave.


After Stratford-Upon-Avon, we went to eat at a cozy Inn dating back to the 15th Century. The White Hart has been serving meals and drinks to people for hundreds of years! I had beef with Yorkshire pudding (not a dessert, but batter molded into the shape of a cup and filled with gravy in this case...but it can also be served with icecream or fruit for dessert) and a free glass of champagne, compliments of our tour. Dessert was a Bailey's Chocolate Torte...yum.


Finally, we made our way through the Cotswolds (this cute little area of England that I MUST go back to) and arrived at Oxford. We were extremely rushed and didn't have a great deal of time here, but we managed to see Christ Church College (basically the most famous one). Lewis Carroll went here (author of Alice in Wonderland) and it was said that this story was based on the Dean's daughter. In 1856, Henry Liddell became Dean at Christ Church. He moved in with his wife and 4 children, one of them named Alice. Alice was fascinated by the secret gardens at Oxford and desperately wanted to go into the President's garden. The President didn't like children and refused to allow children access. Rumor has it that one day, Alice's cat escaped into the President's garden and she ran after it. Supposedly, this is how Lewis Carroll came up with the idea for his book. The tour promised we would see this garden, but we didn't. We did get to see the Great Dining Hall that was used in the Harry Potter films though! I totally got my picture taken in there. I can't imagine eating all of my meals in that room. They were setting up for dinner as we were leaving...I wish we could have stayed.


After Oxford, we returned back to London. It was a long day, but it still wasn't over. It was one of my roommates' birthdays, so we all went out to celebrate. We headed over to a roller disco and got our skate on haha. Let's just say the night was entertaining. Some of the people there were incredibly talented...but not us of course haha. I can't even dance sans skates as good as these people were "skate dancing"!


I don't have too much planned for today besides some essay writing. The end of the semester is getting closer! My last essay is due in 1 week! I am going to try and upload all of my pictures (I have a TON) tonight and tomorrow, depending on how far I get on this essay. Have a great Sunday everyone!

March: In like a lion...

Wow. 2 months down...a few more weeks to go. Well, with the semester at least. Then I have quite a bit of travel ahead of me before I return home.

As soon as March came around, the weather suddenly became BEAUTIFUL. The past 2 days have by far been the prettiest days I've seen here. I took advantage of this on Thursday and went for a morning run in Hyde Park. This was my first run since being here (tsk tsk!), and let's just say it wasn't pretty. Oh well, it's a starting point. Hyde Park is one of my favorite spots in London. There are no leash rules in the park, so you constantly have dogs running past you. This morning I returned to the park to walk around and take some long overdue pictures. We received a bit of rain on Wednesday, so there are a bunch of mud puddles along the pathways. A few of the bigger dogs decided to roll in these much to the horror of their owners. I haven't laughed that hard in awhile...it was great fun.

After Hyde Park I went over to Portobello Road's famous market. It was a lot of fun. I didn't see anything worth buying this time around, but it was great fun nonetheless.

Pretty much everyone in the house except me has family/friends visiting this weekend. Therefore, I am hanging out with me, myself, and I for a few days. It's a weird, yet nice, feeling to be alone for awhile after being with people 24/7 for 2 months. I almost don't know what to do with myself. I originally considered a trip to Belgium this weekend but decided against it. I'm now kicking myself over that decision. Oh well. Tomorrow I booked myself a tour of Warwick Castle, Oxford University, and Stratford-Upon-Avon. It should be fun!

Prague

I have returned from Prague a much happier person. I was definitely beginning to get stressed out because of all of my papers that I have due soon and because the semester is almost over and I have barely seen London. Prague completely changed my perspective though. It is an amazing city. It is one of the prettiest cities I have ever seen, the buildings all look like dollhouses, and it is in my top 3 favorite places I have ever visited (Ireland, Hawaii, and Prague). I'm no longer concerned about getting straight A's here. If I get them that's fine, but I'm not going to spend the rest of the semester studying. I'm learning so much more outside of the classroom anyways, so if that means going out and experiencing London, yet getting B's then so be it.

Friday we arrived in Prague, checked in to our hostel, and met up with some of our friends who had arrived earlier in the day. We went out to a wonderful dinner where I was able to try banana, lime, and sour cherry flavored beer. I really hate beer so I didn't like them too much, but they were interesting. Dinner and dessert were delicious. Dinner was Pivovarský dům which is roasted pork, bohemian dumplings, and sauerkraut. The only thing I liked better than my blueberry stuffed dumplings with cream cheese sauce dessert was the price. Dinner, 3 beer samples, and dessert was under $10. That evening we simply meandered through the city and crashed fairly early.

Saturday we woke up early to take a walking tour of Prague. It was the best thing we could have done. We saw the Old Town, the Jewish Quarter, we took a cruise down the Vltava River, and then visited Prague Castle. It amazed me how old everything in Prague was. I mean in London you hear about buildings being built in the 16th or 17th century. I saw buildings in Prague that were built in the 10th century. Workers started building the castle in the 9th century. The Jewish Quarter was especially interesting. I never realized how everywhere in Europe was affected by World War 2. 80% of Prague's Jewish population did not survive this time period. In fact, a vast majority of Prague's synagogues are no longer active because they do not have enough members. Jews were confined to a small living area in Prague and it was so full of disease that it was destroyed and completely rebuilt in the 19th century. The Jewish Cemetary was unbelievable. The space allotted for a cemetary was so tiny that they were forced to bury people on top of eachother...in some areas 12 people occupy one grave. It is estimated that over 100K people are buried here...yet there are only 12K gravestones. We also saw the famous Charles Bridge. Built in 1357, it is the oldest bridge in Prague and the 2nd oldest in all of the Czech Repub. The river cruise was really nice. It was cold, so we sat inside and sipped on hot chocolate. Lunch was at a cute place where I was able to try another traditional Czech meal...svickova which is beef in a cream sauce accompanied by cranberries and whipped cream on top of a slice of lemon. This was by far my favorite meal. The Castle was breathtaking. That evening we went out to the largest nightclub in middle Europe which was great fun. It was 5 stories and each floor was a different music genre. We actually hung out on the Oldies floor and listened to Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson for a few hours.

Sunday was an extremely busy day. First, we climbed the Old Town Hall Tower to witness brilliant views of the city. Next, we wandered over to Charles Bridge and enjoyed looking at paintings vendors were selling while listening to some music. We also climbed Petrin Hill which is exactly what it sounds like...a hill. On top of Petrin Hill is a replica of the Eiffel Tower. When combined with Petrin Hill, the lookout area is comparable in height to the observation area of the actual Eiffel Tower. It was gorgeous. Next we visited the Loreto, which is a beautiful church, and then we revisited the castle to see Golden Lane. Golden Lane is a very cute little alley next to the castle with very old and tiny homes. The famous author Kafka once lived here. Dinner was a wonderful beef goulash that I am going to try and make when I get home. That evening Paula and I said goodbye to Billy and my roommates Maura and Meg and then went souvenir shopping. When the owner of the store realized how much we were buying, he kept exclaiming, "I love Chicago! Such friendly people live there and friendly people have lots of friends to buy souvenirs for!" haha.

Monday Paula and I strolled around the city. The Czech Republic is known for garnets, so I went to a jewelry store and bought a really nice ring. Other than that, we just walked around until it was time to leave for the airport. We did stop to have a Czech pasty called Kolache. I was so excited when Paula told me about them (she is Czech and her grandmother makes them) because they are what the Polish call Klotchsky (spelled very wrong). They also have Punchsky there (spelled incorrectly as well) and potato pancakes. I remember having all of those things every Fat Tuesday. Yum.

If you ever get the chance to visit Prague, I highly recommend it. I had a wonderful time there. It has been my favorite trip this semester so far. I can't wait to return.

Lately I am feeling so fortunate to have this experience. It is amazing how much I am learning here. Incredibly, most of this learning isn't in the classroom. Not only am I learning about the history of Europe and different cultures...I'm also learning a great deal about myself. I've gained so much confidence in my ability to be independent (I was fairly independent prior to this trip, but now I realize that I can handle any type of emergency situation), I've become more outgoing, and I've learned to stand up for myself. I've also made some amazing friends. I really believe that everyone who can take advantage of an opportunity like this should. If it wasn't for my family and friends, I'd never want to go home.

I will try and get the Prague pics up tomorrow, as well as my Berlin ones and some random London ones.

This Last Week

I'm sorry I haven't been updating lately. Nothing exciting has been going on (except for one really big thing which I'll get to in a minute), so I've been a little embarrassed to update. This week (and next week) prove that I am actually STUDYING abroad. I am hoping to start, research, and finish 3 major papers by next week so that I can go out and experience London without worrying about schoolwork.

This past weekend was amazing. Friday afternoon I was researching a paper when my boyfriend called. I asked him what he was up to, and he said he was walking around campus. All of a sudden, I hear one of my London friend's voice on HIS end of the phone! So I ran all the way down 3 flights of stairs and sure enough, there stood my boyfriend with the prettiest flowers ever! He flew in for the weekend to surprise me for Valentine's Day. Since he got here in the late afternoon, we didn't get to do a whole lot. I showed him around our neighborhood, went out to dinner, and then walked around Picadilly Circus. Saturday we went out to breakfast and then spent the day shopping in Knightsbridge. We did end up at Harrods, which was absolutely beautiful. I was there in 2003 but last semester I saw a program on the secrets of Harrods on the Travel Channel so I appreciated it this time much more. One thing I recommend for anyone going to London is to go to Harrods and eat in their food halls. We had gelato at Morelli's and it was unbelievable! They create these beautiful gelato sundaes that are almost too pretty to eat. I ate mine of course, but at least I took a picture of it. It's totally worth it to wait for a spot at the counter. I felt like a little kid in an old ice cream parlor, when in reality I was in an extremely busy part of Harrods. Saturday night I introduced him to Kabobs. There is this tiny place right down the street from us that has amazing food and is open until 4:30 am (VERY rare around here...even pubs close at midnight). Kabobs is the place that everyone in the house goes to when they're craving chips (fries) or kabobs...which is at least a few times a week. Sunday was a fairly relaxed day. We ate breakfast and wandered around the area a bit more. We ended up back at Picadilly Circus again and ate at a fairly good steak house. We had such an amazing time and I'm so thankful he made such a huge journey to see me for such a short amount of time.

This week has been nothing but classes and writing papers. Last night our Theatre class went to see Corum Boy which was by far the best play I've seen with this class. If anyone ever has the opportunity to see it, I strongly recommend it. It was visually brilliant and the acting was phenomenal.

Tomorrow morning I leave for Prague. I won't be back until around 1 or so Tuesday morning...yes I am skipping a day of class to go, but it's already been preapproved :).

Next week will be busy, but after that I will have time to upload my pics/hunt other people down for pics of me, and actually start exploring the city and writing proper entries on here.

Have a great weekend!