Where for art thou romeo...

Stratford Upon Avon and Warwick castle on Wednesay. It was a cool, minus the weather. Absolutely gross.  We saw Taming of the Shrew.  Thank goodness for all of that time spent learning Shakespeare throughout high school...it was confusing. 

Majorly fun news: just found out about my first "work party." Well, at least for all of the interviewees. I have my interview on Monday, so hope that goes well. 

DANNA is here!! We went to Primrose hill, and a random pub yesterday.  Then, ventured out to a club, Tiger Tiger, last evening.  I met this australian/british guy and pulled some fun dance moves on him.  Pretty sure he enjoyed that.  

Today was possibly the best day of my life.  SEX AND THE CITY ...went to see. I def. cried throughout the entirety of the film and loved it.  Danna, Ally and I followed the movie with a Sushi dinner, pleasant walk and gelato.  It was romantic and cute.  

Big weekend plans include shopping, good fun, good friends, and good times.  We miss Emily. She went to Paris for the weekend. Lame --- she didn't wait to go with her fun roommates.  Whatev. 

-Love 

Who knew Germany was so sheek and pretty?!

I did not.  One of my roommates, Megan, and I ventured to Rhineland, Germany this weekend. It was absolutely beautiful.  We took a cruise on the Rhine river and saw incredibly old castles and a lot of great scenery.  Made for pretty pics, which will be showing up soon.  I just have zero time to worry about that currently.  We had a special white whine tasting at a vineyard in Rhineland....actually in Bad Salzig specifically, I think.  I learned a lot about wine making and vineyards in general and now feel kind of like an expert.  Shopping occurred, and also some scary harassing via other members of a different ethnicity that were also on the trip. Scary. We slept with an umbrella between us just in case we needed a "weapon" to defend ourselves.  

On the way back, we stopped in Ghent, Belgium.  Ate wafels.  Very cool.  Megan decided that she classifies me as bohemian sheek. I can handle and actually like that comment.  We had a little issue in Belgium.  Ya see, there were people late for literally every time we had to meet at the bus.  The one time it was important was when leaving Ghent to catch the bus in enough time to get the ferry in order to cross the English Channel.  Of course this was the one time Megan and I were lost and late and on the entire other side of the city.  We ran to the area we thought the bus would be...and made it, no worries.  The shopping in Belgium was gorgeous, and very impressive...and the chocolate was equally as impressive.  As was this touristic cathedral.  

Made it back around midnight last night, which was a great time to start reading a 30 page article and write a summary.  Good times. 

All in all, it was a great weekend adventure.  

Class started up again today.  Our prof., George said "Scotty" around 12 times since I started tallying it up.  After class we walked through Regent Park... beautiful.  My favorite place in the world at this moment. Breathtaking.  

Stopped for a pint of cider this afternoon with Emily and Ally...and am currently getting ready for a night out in London! ...Super excited for Danna to get here!

I got to practice my espanol!

So...after strolling through covent gardens and spending an entire day shopping with nothing to show for it (depressing), we took a gander at the national gallery. I felt special. Saw some Monet, and VanGogh...ahh amazing. 

Awkward as it was at first, after a man stripped off his sweater and joined us at our table at the pub last night...i fell in love.  This man was traveling solo on holiday from Spain, and was adorable! Pure bliss. Ahhh. 

Ryland... we tried the chocolate digestive biscuits. Incredible. Yum. Thank you. 

Leaving right now for Rhineland, Germany with my lover roomie, Megan. So exciting. Back late on the bank holiday, Monday! 

There were riots all over

The girls of flat 5 were stuck in riots in the center of Chelsea last evening, after the game sadly ended. (well not for the fans of Manchester United...) Okay, we actually were not stuck in the riots, but they did happen.  We got to watch the 'football' game in Chelsea, at an awesome pub. We found it by following 3 burly looking men who were wearing Chelsea jerseys and singing loud and obnoxiously songs.  We met some nice older men, who joined us for pints at the pub and then some younger guys who finished off the night with us at a less crowded bar.  The first place we went to could be compared to The Penguin on a Wednesday night, times 10.  It was packed...but so much fun.  I, of course spent today trying to find what I lost last night...my dignity.  Let's just say I had quite a good time.  I ran into a small problem when returning to the flat....thought I was lost while in our dark, small bathroom. I made it out, and realized I was home. So, no worries. It is a-okay.  

Today, we took a leisurely stroll through Hyde Park, around the round pond.  I experienced some very strong and unpleasant smells in the red telephone booth while attempting to take fun pictures and look like a serious tourist.  This evening we went to the British museum.. beautiful, amazing, made me feel intellectual and all that jazz.  I was thinking that there is so much stuff in there, that if I decided to go back and secretly take a little gift with me when leaving, like a small rock, old gold bracelet or piece of a statue.. they may not even notice.  

Our one roomate, Megan, had an incident on the Tube tonight.  She began going down the escalator and we all thought it was the wrong one, so what is the reasonable thing for her to do? Run back up, of course! It was impressive and we now have reason to call her James (as in Bond, James Bond).  

The British seem to be major fans of sandwiches. It's a good thing I like them, because that is what I will be living on for the next 3 months.  I feel like Joey from Friends...experiencing with the different, and sometimes strange sandwich varieties (which all contain butter).  No complaints here.  I am doing surprisingly well with the beer, a shocker to everyone.  Well as in, I like it...not as in I can handle the 5% alcohol content.  

More to come later, we have this painfully boring article to get through and write yet another horrible summary which will most likely be torn apart the next day.  Oh, and also flat 5 has decided that London has never seen a better group of study abroad students. We are out and about all the time, sparing no moments.  London is loving us, and all of our money.  

Tate and more

Rhineland. Ever heard of it? Me neither. But guess who will be there this bank holiday? Me! My roommate, Megan, and I are taking a trip to Rhineland, Germany.  It is a three day excursion and consists of a wine tour and tasting, a cruise, a stop in Belgium, and beautiful castles, etc.  We booked our trip this morning, and after commenting on how romantic it sounded the nice Londoner may have gotten bad/weird/wrong ideas, and offered to give us a room with one bed.  I was unaware that he was being sarcastic and then later realized I should try to do a better job at learning English humor.  

After a really exciting and exhilarating lecture this morning on freedom of the press, we made our way to the financial district and had lunch amongst many stockbrokers in an adorable cafe.  They were all dressed to the nines and very British.  We, on the other hand had no idea what was going on and stuck out like a sore thumb.  

The group met at the Museum of London, which was historical and interesting but only for while...we decided to head to the central market and ended up making a fantastic detour to Tate Museum Gallery, and tried our first glasses of Pims and Lemonade.  While some pieces of art I find difficult to appreciate, thinking that I, too, could splash some black paint on a canvas...Tate had a bunch of really beautiful and interesting exhibits.  

We had a busy tube ride home and later tonight had a really relaxing and beautiful walk to get Gelato.  Mmmmm, delicious.  It just reinforced my love and obsession for ice cream.  Some rando's offered to take our pic and then took one of us with their phone (i thought they maybe found us pretty and attractive but then was reminded they probably were just making fun of us.) That's okay with me...

Hmm fun things we have found out...our flat, number 5, has a reputation of being the worst for rats. Cringe. I keep telling myself I just have to wash everything right after it is used and they will have no reason to come find us, unless we let some trashy random we meet out stay on our couch (oh wait, we can't have visitors...) Whatev. I guess that means no rats for number 5 this time.  That reminds me..number 5, top floor, a lot of stairs, I better be sporting some pretty sexy legs by the end of the summer.  

I am currently having an issue with sleeping. I don't want to do it. My philosophy is that I can stay awake all day and then work on my correspondence throughout the night...with a few (or on "good news days", a lot) of little breaks for my celebrity gossip fix.  

unlimited energy

I thought I would mention my fantastic roommates.  As I said before there are 6 of us.  Below is some info. I have gained so far. 

Allison - a chi omega sister of mine, who appreciates my love for popsugar, enjoys shopping trips to TopShop with me, compliments everyone on their choice of clothing, uses her time wisely (like writing in her journal during class time), sleeps on the top bunk to avoid the rats (like me) and has red hair...so it's easy to find her in a crowded Primark or on a busy street, gracefully broke her luggage in the airport and calmly recovered the fumble, speaks very quietly which allows for her to fit in to the british lifestyle with ease and not appear to be too "American" and loud 

Emily - is good with correspondents to her listserve of friends, is currently just beginning the paper due tomorrow, came prepared with a miniature flashlight in order to write in her journal (which i secretly am planning on stealing to publish randomly in the London Times), is very optimistic about trying new foods and then pretty positive about the effects of the lattes and mayo/chicken..? baps, also along the lines of being prepared (she owns and brought a legit swiss army knife which has her name engraved on it...it was already used, twice), she is a computer smarty pants and might desire to go to MIT, as well as get an internship with me at a tabloid after graduation 

Megan - is willing to travel with the unknown crazy who sleeps above her to the wine vineyards in Rhineland, is also willing to sleep below the unknown crazy (without even knowing if she has a peeing problem or not), occasionally may talk giberish in her sleep while using fresh earplugs, appreciates beautiful castles and rivers and delicious wine, listens to you intently while you are speaking, and never complains even when her roommates are being obnoxious while she is trying to get a peaceful sleep, is cautious about the important things like walking across the street and burning up a computer  

Kaylin - (I think I spelled it right this time...) is a world traveler and is willing to give very helpful advice and ideas about and for excursions, is fun and would want to go to Disney in Paris with me (I think she would take a really good picture with Mickey and maybe I could be on the other side and we could then post it on our frig.), she cooks really good pasta and enjoys parmesan cheese, has pretty and well kept nails, likes bright colors (i think), i have a strange feeling she might like Sinatra (i do too) but she may not even know this yet, has a passion for theater (and played a great hairdresser/stylist in greek week), will be more then happy to see Wicked and Le Mis at the drop of a hat this summer, also like bows 

Jen - is from my home state and helps to represent it well, remembers everything that everyone says (kind of creepily...ha) and will share the crust of her pizza with those who have a strong liking for bread, needs something sweet to satisfy her after every dinner...andes mints will do, will share olive oil and pepper in order to add flavor to the foods we attempt to cook, likes to plan and organize days and weekends in advance, has a new love for cardigans and maybe also for AirIndia

they wanted me to post this ... 

Classes begin

One exciting point about yesterday: we saw the Queen's private priest. Pretty special moment. He looked like a sweet old man.  We had a tour of the college today, Imperial, which is the 2nd best school in London only below Cambridge...it even beat Oxford in the past few years.  

On our break between orientations and class we went to Harrods...a gorgeous dept. store, with super high quality fashion.  It made all of us wish that we had unlimited budgets. Tonight four of the roommates; Ally, Emily, Kaylen, and I went to a Wine Bar a block away from us.  It was quaint, and homey...had a strong smell of body odor at first but it either went away or we got used to it.  

2nd day in the uk

We arrived yesterday, and pretty much went non-stop throughout the day. It was a good time. The flat we are living in, on Hogarth street is a wee bit tiny.  Lets just say if you tried to make 6 girls, with 3 months worth of clothing and shoes, live in an apartment about the size of my home kitchen...things will get interesting.  There is one bathroom, and so far the water has either been ice cold ... like "can not breathe while showering cold", or "could make a plate of pasta" boiling hot.  Our first meal yesterday was fish and chips at Imperial College, and afterwards we ran some errands at the local 24 hour grocery store and then quickly got ready for a pub crawl with the group.  On the pub crawl, we went to 4 pubs... I was very interested in continuing, and once we walked to a club, Mango everyone decided to bail. So.. we got pizza and then came home instead. Jet lag was hitting us all by then.  During the pub crawl, I decided I wanted to meet some locals so went ahead and got 2 nice boys phone numbers.  We figure that they could tell us the cool places to go.  

Today, we started off with a bus tour of the city. Our tour guide was a very special older lady, Trudy. We saw a ton of stuff which I took pictures of and am not really sure what everything even is.  We did see the changing of the guards and Prince Charles' home (aka where William and Harry sleep, live, eat, etc.) We all have innocent crushes.  The bus tour ended by dropping us off at Picadilly Circus.  We had lunch at a cafe, shopped and walked around the rest of the afternoon.  It was a lot of walking... Ally had some issues with her flats.  I think all of our calves are tense and will be super muscular by the end of the summer.  After shopping, we took our first ride on the Underground...successfully! Tonight, the 6 roomies went for an "Italian" dinner. It was special; not the best Italian food, but still good.  Emily, Ally and I went on a walk tonight...I had no clue where we were.  They somehow have great senses of direction so we made it back just fine.  Lucky for me. 

I feel really weird writing this blog, but I don't want to forget anything important that we do, and it would be super annoying repeating everything like 7 times on the phone. Waste o' time. 

-love