Final Weeks in London (and Greece :))

Well as you can about imagine, the past few weeks have been packed with a bunch of different things as my semester is wrapping up very quickly! I’ll try to catch you up as quick as possible.

- My friends Erica and Jackie put on a fantastic 22nd birthday for me. The day was complete with shopping, a high-end car rally with every high end car you can think of (Porsche, BMW, Rolls Royce, Ferrari, and many many more), then we went for dinner at a place called Roadhouse where a lot of the other students from Vandon joined us for an excellent night!

- I finally went to see the musical Legally Blonde on may 3! It was so good and I even got the leading lady’s (Sheridan Smith) and a few others’ autographs after the show.

- I gave my final presentation and finished my LMU final papers before we headed off for the weekend (which was a huge relief!)

- During last week, we not only had issues with the volcanic ash cloud disrupting flights but more specifically for where Erica, fonzie and i were planning to go for the weekend – GREECE :). Two days before we were supposed to leave, riots broke out in Athens and they turned violent leaving 3 bankers dead. They are in major debt and their government is taking action to get out of it by freezing pensions and cutting a lot of jobs and the people are not so fond of this idea. Needless to say, i was freaking out and wondering if it was still safe to go. Athens airport was closed most of Wednesday so we decided to just wait it out. We ended up going and it was the best trip i’ve gone on yet! We flew into Athens, found the bus that took us to the port, bought ferry tickets and boarded with ease. We then had a 45 min ferry ride to the island of Aegina where we took a 20 mins cab ride to the other side of the island to our hotel. Things could not have gone smoother! Greece is probably the most beautiful place i have ever been to besides New Zealand (they are pretty close though!) We woke up to birds chirping and scooters riding up and down the narrow streets! We had breakfast and talked with the owners of the hotel who were so nice and accommodating and really made us feel at home! We did a little Greek shopping and decided to find the Temple of Afia. We were told it was just up the road and to the left. Turned out it was up the road and about a 2 mile hike up the mountain later, we finally arrived! :) Let’s just say flip flops were not the smartest thing to wear! We spent time admiring the view from the top and taking pictures and then made it back down. We then decided to check out the beach and it just so happened that there was a wave runner race/exhibition going on so we got a little entertainment as well! because technically, if i would have been back home, i would have been graduating, we celebrated by having dinner “on the rocks” overlooking the water and watching the sunset and then walking down the beach to a cute beach bar thing to enjoy Grasshoppers, thanks to Erica :) The next day we explored the town a little more and watched the last day of the wave runner race. On Monday, we got up on time to catch the ferry back to Athens and tried to figure out the transportation system in this city. We had a little trouble! We spent abut 2 hours trying to get to the acropolis and Parthenon. When we finally found it, we took pictures, admired the view and had to get back to the airport to catch our flight home. I definitely suggest Greece as a holiday destination! It is spectacular!!

- We arrived back in London on Monday evening. Tuesday i finished my final paper for my Central Class and handed in the last of my LMU paperwork. We took our final tests on Thursday – i am officially done with college! At night, we had a final farewell at vandon house with a traditional British summer drink, PIMS and took pictures with my new friends. We did a lot of random stuff last night including climbing the lions at Trafalgar square, walking through St. James Park and taking a dip in Buckingham Palace (yep we were soaking wet!)  It was a great last night in London with the best people i’ve met this semester!

- Today I went to bring my friend Benji to the airport for him to head back to Chicago and went with jackie to bring some of her suitcases to storage as she is travelling over Europe with her sisters starting next week. I finished up some souvenir shopping and finished up the endless task of packing up my semester into 2 suitcases! Tonight will be a chill night of watching movies and hanging out!

- Tomorrow Erica and I make our way to Benidorm Spain for 5 nights as one last “Shabang” before we make our way back home! Ready or not!

- I will fly into Minneapolis on Saturday May 22nd. I can’t believe how fast this semester has flown by and how many amazing people i have met along the way!

Another week down…mixed feelings :)

Almost another week almost down! Monday Erica and I went to the Imperial War Museum for an assignment (yes it was due at the end of that day :S) but we got it in on time so its all good! And it was the best museum i’ve gone to so far. It was interesting to see exhibits from a country and city where the wars were fought. We hear about the wars in school but its a different sort of feeling when you pass by a building here in London and you can see holes or cracks that were done during the war. They had an exhibit from the perspective of the children living in England at the time of the war and evacution which was very interesting. There was also a trench exhibit set up for visitors to experience what life was like in the trenches during WWI – this was also where i met a member of the Royal Army who just so happened to run the marathon the day before! But that’s another story. Anyway, we finished with the holocust exhibit – what an experience that was! I will never understand… the exhibit was put together very well and it was very very interesting. Before we knew it, we spent over 3 hours in the museum and decided to walk back to Vandon – a lovely 45 mins i believe! It was a great day!

Tuesday – another day at Hoxton Trust. Today we spent the majority of the time working on updating her contact database and trying to figure out how to import Karina’s contacts into the outlook on the other computers…not as easy at it sounds :) It was Kiley’s last day so we went to our favorite “greasy spoon” where we are known as “their American girls” and had lunch. we attempted to make pancakes for dinner…lets just say our first ones were a little questionable as English pancakes are way thinner than they are back home. But after a little experimenting we mastered it!

Wednesday – class day, went to the library for a while to work on papers and then headed back to Vandon. Tonight was the long anticipated Vandon house ladies night out as we will all be heading back to America soon. We went to a place called Tiger Tiger were we received 50% off of everything! There was also a Groovy Wonderland downstairs where they had disco music playing and a cool lit dance floor. It was a fun time and a great opportunity for us all to hang out as a big group a final time!

Thursday – Central classes in the morning and then I met my LMU presentation group at 1 to go over our final presentation – which we went over time by 3 minutes but we rocked it! Only have to finish 2 papers and write a full one and i’m done for good! My group and i went to the Rocket (the student union place) to celebrate and play pool – I won :). It was fun to talk something other than our presentation topic.

Today erica and i decided to go on a walk with the destination of Hyde Park. However, we got distracted by the Royal Navy. We had never seen those uniforms yet so we weren’t sure what was going on or if we were missing something important. So we asked a bobby and said they were going to st. james’ palace. We weren’t sure where  that was so we walked through the park and eventually caught up with them marching down the street and found out where it is – in the same complex where the princes live (or have lived im not really sure). Anyway, we couldn’t go in…some sort of security something or other…lame! anyway we made our way down picadilly and eventually made it to hyde park where we found out there was a 5k race every last friday of the month – we had to register online though so we couldn’t do it. The rest of the afternoon was spent on homework...i know it was as exciting as it sounded :) But it was worth it cuz we watched new moon – 10 girls in the lounge! Fun stuff!

Time is flying!

Wow! What a week! Tuesday was my internship day so Kiley and I worked on a may newsletter that could be sent out to the local residents compared to the trustees and other stakeholders of the Hoxton Trust. During our lunch break, I had my first official cream tea – tea with cakes. We met one of Karina’s friends who talked about the time she had tea with the queen! It was pretty cool and she was obviously very proud of it!

Wednesday and Thursday was class day…lets just say its getting a little monotonous as we have all the material we need to write our final papers :) I guess maybe there’s a little senioritis involved as well!

Then we get to the weekend! It was absolutely beautiful! Friday Jackie, Erica, Benji, Alfonso and I took the train to a small beach town south of London called Brighton. We walked around the town for a while and checked out a few of the boutiques and then headed to the pier. We spent sometime taking some pictures of the view and then made our way down the stone beach to get ourselves some traditional fish and chips and found a spot to chill for the rest of the afternoon. We were a little disappointed it wasn’t warmer but when we got back that night we discovered most of us got a little sunburnt!

Saturday – very productive morning! I worked on my papers and worked on my presentation information. Days are winding down – my final presentation on charity events is this Thursday (say a little prayer for me on that day please:)) It should go pretty well – my only problem is that i have way too much information for the time i’m given. Things could be worse! Then I have to finish my 3 final papers, finish my internship stuff and take a final for my contemporary Britian exam – Time is flying!! Erica and I rewarded our productivity by spending a few hours in Green park soaking in some sunshine!

Today (Sunday) was the day of the London Marathon – and if you must ask, i decided to be a spectator instead of running the race today – i just wasn’t feeling it when i woke up this morning :) In all seriousness it was one of the coolest events ive been too! It started somewhere in Greenwich and ended right past Buckingham Palace so it was just down the road from Vandon. The first guy to cross the finish line ran it in 2 hours and 5 mins! Craziness!! There were so many runners of all ages and countries. Some were dressed up in costumes like Fred Flinstone, super man, babies, bananas, etc. It was so cool to see how the runners helped each other out. When one of them fell down because their legs gave out, there would be two people right there to help them cross the finish line. It was a lot of fun!

Productive Monday

We had the best weekend in london this past weekend! With the volcano that blew up in iceland, there were (and still are no) flights in or out of the UK and the surrounding countries. We could tell, because the tourist level around buckingham palace was way down! The weather was perfect! We even pulled out the shorts and headed to Green park for a picnic. It’s crazy how the atmosphere and attitude changes when the sun is shining! Erica, Benji, Jackie and I decided to put the end of the semester stress away for the time and just sit in the park and enjoy the rays, read a book or magazine, people watch and just chill!

Today was a very productive day. For one of our assignments for British Experience Seminar (BES) we had to interview someone who lived through WWII and hear their stories and experiences. My friend Sadie and I went to the Chelsea Pensioners and were directed to a man named Bill – an 89 year old veteran who fought in Italy. He went through about 5 cigarettes in the hour we talked with him and told us about his friend Willy who he fought and about how he never got seriously wounded. The thing that surprised me the most was his respect and gratitude for America. Usually, the US gets spit on for some of the actions that have occurred in our history. But Bill had nothing but great things to say about American troops! He said “young people forget about the things that happened, but my generation remembers what really happened – I will always remember.” We had such a great morning with Bill!

Then Erica and I went to Liverpool Street to do a required walk around for one of our journal assignments for the same class – after we finished we somehow ended up on Oxford Street…but it was a very productive day overall!

Spring Break – Europe style!

alright a lot has happened in the last 2 weeks and i am way behind cuz i didn’t take my computer with me :) so this is going to be just a brief overview!

Thursday, April 1:

I pick up my parents from the airport and they have their first experience with London’s underground. We walk through Green park where the london weather gives the van’t hof clan a warm welcome – with a nice downpouring of rain :)

We went to see the musical Wicked (and yes it’s just as good the 2nd time!!)

Friday:

changing of the guards and ALOT of walking around (in the rain mostly) but they still saw the main sites including Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, houses of parliament, london eye, trafalger’s square, pall mall, leicester square and even up regent street a ways. We put on some serious miles!

Saturday:

Did the The Original Bus Tour through London where we saw more of the sites including the cathedral, tower of london, tower bridge, and london bridge. We hopped off at the tower of london for a tour of the. It was used for a palace, fortress, prison and one other thing i can’t remember. There were alot of prisoners who died in this place! We then hopped on a river boat that took us up the Thames, we switched buses and walked a bit to get to Harrods – a massive designer department store like place that had $2000 hand bags and the like! A great place to have a wedding registry :) We then did more walking and found a lovely mexican resturant and finished the evening walking to the london eye for a picturesque light veiwing of the city.

Sunday:

Up way to early to catch our flight. To make matters worse i didn’t realize picadilly line was closed so we got the opportunity to experience the infamous london taxis to the airport! Very fun! Check that off the to do list! We arrived in Rome, got talked into taking some shaddy hotel shuttle service but were glad when the guy actually dropped us off at our hotel and not some random other place! We were supposed to have a city tour that evening and we went to meet the elephant statue as we were told to and waited 1/2 hour in the pouring rain in our bus ponchos for our guide to show up. we got sick of it and left to find a place to eat and went back to our hotel.

Monday:

Our tour guide from the night before contacted us asking where we were – apparantly being on time means nothing in Rome :) but we rescheduled the tour for that night. The rest of the day we mastered the bus service and walked around to the coloseum, the republica, the trevie fountain, and a bunch of other historic places that i can’t pronounce. Everywhere you looked there was something beautiful to see! This is something we don’t get in the US because we are such a young country! But Rome has tons of it and it’s so beautiful! We also had a beautiful day and i thing i even got a little pink! We had our walking tour that evening where our London born guide explained the history and other interesting facts about the places we had seen earlier. We had our first gelato when we were finished and it was phenominal!!

Tuesday:

We checked out of our hotel and headed to the vatican today! This time our guide was a minnesota born girl – burnsville to be exact – who came to rome on a one way ticket and never went back home! She was a lot of fun and definetly knew her stuff! We saw a lot of artwork, the sistine chapel, St. John’s basilica. We even took the 365 (i think) steps to the top of the basilica for a beautiful viewing of the city! We then went back to get our suitcases to board our overnight train to paris. This was an experience in itself. Our train attended didn’t speak english, only italian, spanish german and french. He even came in at 8:30 to tell us it was time for bed but saying “Bed.” We had 2 private room reserved for this extravaganza – little did we know, these two room combined were smaller than our bathroom! There was a lot of family bonding going on :) But it was a great experience and i had a lot of fun!

Wednesday:

Arrive in paris at 9:30 and caught a cab to our hotel. We had to wait a little bit to check in so we went wandering around to find a few very cute shops and boutiques and an excellent pizza place for lunch. We then checked in to our hotel and cleaned up and ventured out again for more exploring – the louvre, concord, eiffel tower – yep saw it all! We also stopped at angelina for their famous hot chocolate! When we were at the eiffel tower to took the lift to the top for an amazing view of paris. We then had a few troubles finding a bus to take us back to our hotel, but a very nice american student helped us figure out what metro to take. Let’s just say London’s underground is way better than paris’!

Thursday:

We walked down to Notre Dame to walk through it and after waiting in line for 45 mins to walk to the towers to see the gargoyles we decided to check out the shopping instead before we boarded our on and off tour of paris. The tour was cold, but because we saw alot of it when we were walking the day before, we didn’t have to get off a lot and we could listen to the history and such too! We also went deeper into the city with this and saw the arch and where a lot of the really good shopping is! We saw the part of paris that i thought we were going to see  - like in movies like Passport to Paris and such, ya know!? we also went through the part of town where moulin rouge is and even were involved in an accident. Some guy in a mini van was trying to go around the bus and clipped the corner of the bus at a standstill. Very interesting! Don’t worry though, no one was hurt! We had an amazing american meal at Hard Rock Cafe (tadd was having a craving for a burger :)) and i was super excited to actually have ranch dressing with my chips!! It was a great day in Paris!

Friday:

Another early morning taxi ride to the train station to board the train to amsterdam. This time, it was only 3 hours and there was a beautiful sunrise to make the morning worth it! We checked into our hotel and did a little research on what there is to do in amsterdam. We took the hotel shuttle back to schipol and took the train into the city. We decided to walk along the canal and see where it took us. We ended up checking out the Ice Bar – a bar made completely of ice. It reminded me of a MN winter – way too cold! But there were some sweet ice sculptures!

Saturday:

We did a city bus tour that took us around the whole city and even got us into the Gassan Diamond factory where i learned alot of the different diamonds and tricks to test the clarity and color! Saw a 2 carot diamond – talk about large! we didn’t get to spend as much time as we would liked because our bus was leaving. But we then boarded another bus for our countryside tour! The best part of holland! We went to a dutch shoe making place, cheese factory, the windmills, the village called Marken and a fishing town that i could definetly go back and spend more time in! So cute!!

Sunday:

Traci and Tadd had to fly out today so we brought them to the airport and then the parents and I went back into amsterdam to walk around somemore. We ended up shopping a bit and then watching the tottenham and portsmouth football match. We then headed back to our hotel for a nice dinner and a full night’s sleep!

Monday:

We flew back to London today and our driver, Barry, picked us up from Gatwich airport and brought us 2 hours to an area called the Cotswolds in England. We stayed at a B&B in a small village. The cotswolds are known because most every house has to be built in the limestone brick but each place is built with its own unique style. Very cute!! Today we just walked the streets and visited the church and had dinner at a local pub.

Tuesday:

Barry picked us up this morning for our 4 hour driving tour of the cotswolds. This is one of the most beautiful places in england!! There’s a lot of sheep and a lot of green grass! It was a great tour and we saw alot of things. If you want more detail of what we saw just email me or talk to my parents :) We headed back to London with another guy Paul who dropped us off at mom and dad’s hotel. We did some last minute shopping on oxford street and finished up with dinner at nandos (the closed thing to b-dubbs i’ve found thus far) We then headed back to vandon and then i walked them back to their hotel, had a pint at a pub and then i took the bus back to vandon. As much fun as travelling europe has been, it was defintely a relief to be back home in london where most people speak our language :) i now can empathise with people who don’t know english – it’s really hard!!

Wednesday:

I met my parents at their hotel and then we went to victoria station to take them back to heathrow airport. After a little confusion we finally to our parting point – hammersmith, where i go one way to class and then go the other to the airport. You’'ll have to ask them how the trip to the airport was – sorry mom and dad :)

recap of the week

This past week was not too eventful. Spring break is approaching very fast so we are all anxiously awaiting leaving for our trips and more even anxious for my parents, traci and tadd to get here!! Tuesday I had a very productive day at Hoxton Trust. We put the april newsletter together and took new spring pictures of the garden to put in the newsletter. This was quite an experience. Karina didn’t have the cord to upload the pictures right to our computers. So, we went to buy a cd put the pictures on that and then upload the pictures to the computer from the cd. Well, we get to the “chemist” (like our pharmacy) where they have the photo kiosk. We have no idea how to use it, so we ask the lady to help us. She said that the cd burner doesn’t work. But she says we could try something else. Long story short – 45 mins later i finally politely cut in and suggest we just go through the steps that the machine tells us to do. It works. Funny. The lady says we are the first people to ever get it to work – we can’t believe this because the machine looks like it had been there awhile. Karina took us out for lunch to a cute little sandwich shop where we had our first experience with jacket potatoes. They are similar to our bakes potatoes but apparantly they are pretty popular in London.

Wednesday was class day for me at LMU. This was the last class before spring break so the attendance was terrible. Jackie and i both agreed that going to class was pointless because all the lecturers do is read through the slides. But in order for us to keep our visas, we had to actually go to class :) But the upside to this is that LMU’s spring break is 2 weeks so next week will be a breeze! After class, i worked on homework. For my Contemporary Britain seminar, we have to each give a 5 min seminar discussion starter. So i pulled some stuff together on British consumer and travel trends. Interesting huh? If you would like more information on this, just let me know and ill be sure to help ya out. That night jackie and benji got 2-4-1 movie tickets so kim and i went with them to see alice in wonderland in 3D. I didn’t really know what to expect from it but it was a pretty good movie!

Thursday was another class day. We watched London’s bid for the olympics in my events seminar and talked about the impacts it will have. Then erica, benji, fonzie, and i went out for indian with jackie because she was leaving the next morning for her spring break to china!

Friday erica, benji and i went up to notting hill and portabello market. It’s a market that has a lot of antique things so it was different than the other ones i had been to. Most of the shops/vendors were legit, but there were others where it felt that i was at some crazy lady’s garage sale! But it’s in a really cool part of town so it was fun to see something other than Westminster :) We later got caught in the rain but it was ok because when the rain stopped we saw a rainbow!!

We have had some really sunny weather lately! So we went for a few walks through the parks and just enjoying the sun! I honestly don’t think it’s going to stay this way – just have a feeling i guess. This is NOT typical london weather :) but if it stays this way, i will not complain that’s for sure!

Luck of the Irish? I think not!

Well Erica and I went on our first journey outside of the UK this past weekend – to IRELAND. The place I have wanted to go to since I knew I was going to be studying abroad! We were both really excited and we got a really good deal on our flights as well. Our Ryanair flight was scheduled to leave 9:55, gates close at 9:15. We left Vandon at the right time cuz as we were walking out the door, the power goes out cuz the construction that gives us our wake up call every morning hit some line so they had to shut the power off for fear of shock. So we left to take the train to Gatwick airport plenty on time so we wouldn’t have any problems. We checked in online so we had our printed boarding passes, checked in when we got there and headed through security. Things are going well and we have plenty of time before we have to make our way to the gate – the gate wasn't even up on the board yet so we checked out the duty free stuff. Finally, they put up the gate number and we make our way to the gate to board the plane. We get to the place where they tear our tickets and the guys says, “you were supposed to go through a passport check before you went through security because you are a non-EU passport holder. You will have to be escorted out to the bag check and get your ticket stamped. We can’t let you on the plane. You won’t make this flight.” WHAT?! are you kidding me? we just spent 2 hours messing around the airport and we had to get a stupid stamp? Apparently it was on our ticket, but we thought that’s what we did when we ‘checked in.’ apparantly not! So we book it back to the desk where we were supposed to be escorted out. Of course there is no one sitting there, so we have to call them and they tell us they will send someone down. 20 mins later 3 people finally show up – we are about in tears and very frustrated. We get escorted out to get the stupid stamp and they tell us there is no way we will make the flight so we will have to book another transfer flight but “unfortunately our flight was the last one to dublin that night’ and we will have to wait til tomorrow morning. Interestingly enough, Erica was talking with a guy and he said that’s what Ryanair does…even if we would have made it back to the gate in time (they close the check in gate 40 mins before the plane departs) they would have sent out someone to “randomly bag check” us so we would have missed the flight anyway so we would have to pay for another ticket. They more than likely had already sold our seats to someone else. Talk about being very upset and very angry!

Well, from here we had two options – book a transfer flight for 100 pounds or check out what we could find online. Well, we would have just went back to Vandon house to check our online sources but since the power was out we had to use the internet at the airport. The flight prices were outrageous so we decided to head back to vandon and figure it out in the morning. We heard from our friend that since the power was out Vandon was compensating us a meal for dinner so we found the only open place on Victoria street we could find at midnight and got ourselves some mcdonald’s as we talked about what just happened and what our next step would be. We walked back home…yep lights still off. We walk up the 3 flights of pitch black stairs with the only lighting from my phone, throw our bags down and go to bed.
The next morning, i go downstairs only to find that the power was still off. Reception said that it will be figured out by 2 and to just go out for breakfast and hopefully they know what's going on when we get back. So we did that and went to starbuck’s to use the internet and find that we can get to dublin by taking 2 trains across England and Wales and then a fairy from Holyhead to Dublin. So we go back to Vandon, grab our already packed bags and go to the train station. Awesome, we can still get there and spend some time in Ireland!! Things are looking up! The trainrides when really well! The ferry was really sweet as well! It was like a mini cruise! There was a buffet-style restaurant available, a bar, slot machines, arcade games, a movie playing, shopping and even a VIP lounge you could upgrade to if you wanted. 7 1/2 hours later we arrive in Dublin. We find out we just missed the last bus into town so we’ll have to take a cab. Thats what we do – except we have bigger problems. We don’t have a place to stay tonight. We call a few places and they are completely booked. There’s a concert going on in town and tomorrow there’s the big Ireland v Scotland rugby game. Everything is full! SWEEEEEET!! So our driver drops us off a hostel where they would be able to point us in the right direction.

We get rejected by the first 3 – fully booked. But they told us to check out Gardiner Street cuz it was lined with a bunch of places to stay. So we checked out i don’t know how many hostels and b&b’s but at least we had some options. We went into one and the guy showed us the room he was trying to sell us for the night – it was just mattresses on the floor, the bathroom was outside the room with the sink falling off the wall….yeah it was that bad!! So we said, “yeah we’ll think about it…” We were discussing our best options on the street when a guy came up to us and asked us if we needed a place to stay. He then brought us back to one we had been already which was one of the cheaper options we had and somehow talked us into giving him the money without seeing the room first. Let’s just explain the atmosphere in this terrifying experience shall we?!? we walk in and there was a group of 5 or 6 guys just sitting there looking like they were part of the maphia. Then the guy takes us through another room that had about 20 guys and one girl – eyeing us down and talking in whatever language they were speaking…we then proceed down a few steps to our room where the guy “unlocks” our room by pushing a few buttons on the door and saying the key code outloud for all to hear. Talk about feeling safe?! we walk in the room – half of the beds weren’t made from the last people who stayed there, the window is being held open with toilet paper rolls because it stunk so bad! The guy leaves and Erica looks at me and my eyes had to be about as big as ping pong balls with the most terrified look i have ever had in my life. I felt like we were going to be the next stars of “Taken” part two Dublin city centre style – and we were not going to take the part of liam neeson! Needless to say, we did not stay here long! Erica went back and told the guy were were not comfortable here and they sent us up to another hostel they owned up the road. It wasn’t great but it was a whole lot better than the first one! We ended up meeting another one of the owners ( a family with like 7 siblings own a number of hostels in dublin) and another guy who was with him. They were playing darts before we arrived so they taught us about the game of darts. It’s pretty big in Ireland i guess! I am not very good at all! but i think i made a little improvement!

The plan was to get up at 5:45 to meet the guys from our program (who were couchsurfing or at a different hostel for the night) to catch a bus tour to the cliffs of moher. Well, we looked online and it was too late to book online so we were just going to find an atm and pay for it before boarding. We get up on time (getting about 3.5 hours of sleep) and make our way through the drizzle to where we thought we were supposed to get on the bus. We called the guys and we were in a completely different part of town and still had to find an atm. Well, we didn’t make the bus and we were soaked. Great start to the morning, right? So we made our way to Mcdonalds for a little breakfast and a regrouping session. We decided to do different bus tour that some of our friends did when they came to dublin. We thought we were supposed to meet the bus at quarter to 10 but we get a phone call around 9:30 and we were supposed to meet them at quarter after 9. Oops! But our luck changed cuz we told them where we were at and they came to pick us up in the red van right there! The tour was so amazing and definetly the right tour to take! It went through the Wicklow Mountains on the back roads that aren’t used much :) We saw many lakes, an old monastery from the time when Christianity made it’s big spread throughout Ireland and also, my favorite, to places where they filmed bits of PS I love you and Braveheart! it was really laid back tour where we never stayed on the bus more than 15 mins so we could take pics and stuff. We had a great time!! I thought England was pretty, and it is, but nothing like Ireland!

When we got back we booked a hostel for Sunday night so we would be sure to make it to the airport on time. Then we went back to an internet cafe to check out a relaxing/chill/ safe place to stay that night so we could shower! We found a place online in a coastal suburb of dublin called swords that served breakfast and had a private room. We had a slight mix up with reservations but they sent us up the road to another place with open rooms and it all worked out fine! The place was super cute and quiet and Erica and I agreed it was probably the best shower we’ve had since we got to England (which says alot about Vandon’s plumbing… :)) We finally started to chuckle about the night before and how amazing Ireland was. however, it didn’t take long before we were both out cold from exhaustion! We got up on for our full Irish breakfast and got ready for the day wondering what the day held for us.

We took the bus back into dublin and dropped our bags off at our hostel. It’s crazy how heavy those bags can get when you carry them around all day! Then we did the most touristy thing we could have done in dublin – the hop on hop off bus tour! It’s like the big bus company tour in london where it takes you around the city to see all the historic and popular tourist sites. We saw trinity college, the largest park in England, Guinness brewery, the cathedral and a lot more. There was like 20 different stops! we didnt get off too much because we were a little pressed for time but it was a fun way to see the whole city! After the tour, we went to walk by the river Liffy and found a bench and just watched the river until one of our friends came to find us and we walked around for 2 hours to find a restaurant “off the path.” We didn’t find one. We ended up an Eddie rocket’s – a very american diner type restaurant. Then Erica and I went back to the hostel(the good one! an amazing one comapred to our past experience!) to clean up a bit before we went out to check out temple bar. We walked around temple bar for a while trying to find a chill place with come live irish music. We found one, got a table and took in the atmosphere and did a lot of people watching. There was a big rugby game that day, where Ireland lost to Scotland, so there were a lot of guys in kilts walking around! We never got a picture with one of them but it was still really sweet to see! We even met a few guys who were born and raised in dublin who told us about “lady guinness.” We didn’t know what they were saying half the time but their accents were really cool! That was our last night in Dublin!

We got up the next morning, boarded the bus that took us to the airport, went through the PASSPORT CHECK! and waited at our boarding gate. There was no way we were going to miss this flight! and we didn’t. We slept most of the way and we were back in london in no time! We really did have a great time in ireland, but we were glad to be back home in London - despite the fact that when we got back, they were tearing apart the Vandon House dining room and working on the electric so the downstairs had no power. They are remodeling our dining room – which when it’s done it will be nice, but until then its a pain in the butt! but o well – there are worse things! It was great first trip outside of the UK! and things can only get better i’m sure!!

Another gorgeous Monday!

Friday we had our “free” Indian meal with anyone in the program who wanted to go. 2nd time with Indian food, 2nd time absolutely loving it! We started off with some big round tortilla looking things that we dippped in a few different dips (sweet, spicy, mango and one other one). We then moved on to the onion baaji’s – so good! Out came the naan next! Wow – it’s a big slab of the most amazing bread ever i think! Then we shared a mango chicken curry, a lamb curry and 2 different vegetable dishes with rice! It was a fantastic meal and we ate so much that we didn’t have to make dinner that night! :) We were supposed to go on a tour of parliament after this but because of something with the upcoming election here, they had to reschedule it. So instead we were given 15 pounds to use on any touristy attraction we wanted. Erica Jackie and I decided we wanted to check out a show that night so we went online to see what we felt like going to. We found STOMP – a combo of theatre, dance, comedy and percussion where they use pots, pans, garbage bins, matchboxes, lighters, anything you can think of to make music. It was really good and so funny! We laughed the whole time!

Saturday, Jackie and I went up to Oxford street to check out a few shops and make some returns. It was quite the experience to get there though, as the 2 major tube lines we usually use to get everywhere in the city were down for routine maintenance. Talk about frustrating! But we eventually found the right bus to take us to Marble Arch! The rest of the afternoon was spent on homework/chilling out at Vandon.

Sunday there was St. Patricks Day  festival at Trafalger’s Square so Erica jackie and I decided to go check it out. It was crazy! They had the whole area enclosed and they had live Irish Music playing, vendors were selling traditional food (including a hot dog that jackie got and she said it was disgusting :)) and beverages – guiness and such;) Then there was a parade that went through part of central London and ended at Trafalger. It was not a parade like we have back home – no candy. But from what i gathered, each county in Ireland was represented and different groups of people just walked through. There were a few bands, a few groups of bagpipes :) (loved it) and even a few group of Irish dancing! There were people of all ages – from little toddlers holding teddy bears in front of bands to elder couples smiling and waving at everyone watching. It was very different from back home, but it was cool even so!

We then walked through St. James Park where we stop to take  pictures in the newly sprouting flowers! Erica does some pretty cool things with her camera (she’s an art major) so we had a little mini photo shoot! When we got back to Vandon we decided it was time to get some “pub grub.” We went to a pub called Strutton Arms – a very popular place for people to go to watch football and rugby games! Jackie and I ordered our Chicken and Chorizo pies and erica had the fish and chips. It was pretty good! Jackie and I headed to Hillsong for the 6:00 service and a group of others decided to check out the London Eye at night. yet another great service!
Monday, oh monday! So gorgeous out! I  decided to take advantage of the weather and go for a walk around the parks. I came back and broke out the capris! We definitely hit 50 to mid 50’s today. Spring has finally sprung (knock on wood:)) Another plus, I finished my Media Review for one of our Central Classes. A big burden out of the way! We leave for Ireland thursday night so i gotta get as much done in the next 2 days as possible! We had our “family dinner” tonight. I was in charge of this one (kinda) and people voted for a breakfast for dinner theme. What better breakfast than an eggbake right?! So i emailed mom for her recipe and we dominated the eggbake! It was a huge success with our bacon and red, green and yellow peppers served with fresh fruit! Team Vandon won yet again :)

Week gone by…ending with the bounty hunter!

Well it seems i have been slacking on updating my blog. I apologize and will try to catch you all up! Last thursday we had our usual BES and Contemporary Britain classes for Central and then I went to meet with my events presentation group before seminar. The researching for this presentation is getting really old and there is very little information on my subject so we just decided to do the best we can with what we have:) That was about all the excitement for that night, aside from a chill night spent with friends in Vandon House.

Fridays we get our room cleaned (so nice!) so we have to be out by 11. Erica and i decided to finish one of our British Experience Seminar assignments. We started out at Sir John Soane’s Museum. It’s a house museum full of a whole lot of random trinkets that a guy (sir john soane) had collected over his lifetime. He was a very skilled architect who designed the Bank of England and other buildings. The museum was…interesting and very cluttered. Not my favorite. But there was an Egyptian sarcophagus and it had hieroglyphics written all the way around it – inside and out. We then made our way to Lincoln Inn’s Park where we found a plaque that faced the Canadian headquarters during the war. right behind it was a maple tree planted to commemorate something or other. It was a very small park but it was gorgeous out and the sun was shining, people were playing frisbee and just relaxing in the sunshine. It was great!

We then walked to the Holborn area – an area where most of the London barristers (the hot shot lawyers who step in when other lawyers need assistance) work. People like Oliver Cromwell and Margaret Thatcher are on the rosters outside of each hall. It was so pretty and well kept. There was a park with a fountain and the area had a wall all the way around it so it was like its own community. We walked around the narrow pathways and just checked it all out and it was pretty cool. Although we wondered how hard being a barrister must be cuz apparently one of them had time to check their  facebook account:) After we finished walking around we made our way to the rounded Temple Church. It was the headquarters for the Knights Templar in the 10th century. Interesting fact, this church was used in the film The Da Vinci Code. I’ve never seen the movie, but for people who have i bet it was cooler!

That fulfilled our assignment but instead of taking the tube back, we decided since it was SO nice out, to just “take the Thames back.” We just walked along the river and did some people watching! Since it was a Friday, there were loads of tourists and a very large amount of school kids. If i was a teacher, taking my class to central London would NOT be a fun day for me! Stressful! We took a few pictures of things we saw along the way including the sphinx things next to Cleopatra's needle and pictures in front of Big Ben (where one guy decided to sneak up behind me and get in on my picture!) It was a very lovely leisurely walk!
Sunday we worked on homework most of the day and then headed out to Regent’s park for a little afternoon break. This is the largest park i have been to yet! There were like for sure 9 different football (soccer) fields and also gardens and other things to walk through. Very cool. It was a little chillier today tho so we decided to go for a short walk and find a coffee place. Well, we saw some sweet looking houses so we went down that street to check them out. However, the street in london are not…straight or grid-like. We got a little lost and ended up walking around for 45 mins. We finally found a tube station and went to Tottenham Court Road to get to Hillsong Church. Another amazing service!
Nothing too exciting for Monday and Tuesday – just the usual student stuff. Yes, i know its hard to believe but i do have to go to class and complete the coursework in order for me to graduate in May :) But Wednesday night we had a group activity – a “ghost tour” around St. Pauls Cathedral. We heard many stories of suspected ghosts who people claim to see once in a while in certain places and also went to a few courtyards where public executions were held. Things were way more grotesque back then by the way! seriously! It was chilly, but still very interesting with a different twist on touristy tours.

Today, was the excitement of the week. Started out with the usual Central classes in the morning. But this afternoon, we decided to go check out the bounty hunter premier in Leicester square. We only waited 3 hours for this one instead of the 5 for Valentines day, but we still managed to get great front row spots for some great pics! O yeah, and autographs of Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler! we even got a picture with Gerard! We had a nice little conversation about who spit on him and who was going to take our picture! He was so cool and very good to his fans! They both were actually. They took time to go around to the whole gated area to sign posters, books, pictures and even my friend’s magazine with Jens picture on the front that i helped him out with! It was a great time!

The night I saw and touched Robert Pattinson!!

So, yesterday was Wednesday – aka class day. We were sitting in lecture when Jackie asks me if i want to go to a concert that night. I really was not feeling a concert on a wednesday night. But by the end of seminar, she had me convinced – i would go with her to see Bobby Long. I had never heard of him before but she said that it was at a place called relentless garage and there was a festival called Howdy Do. This was the closest thing that sounded like country music since ive gotten here so i thought it can’t be too bad. She’s got excellent taste in music so i knew we would have fun!

We headed over there on time so we could pick up our tickets and grabbed a table. There were 8 groups performing that night – 4 in the minibar room and 4 in the main room. Bobby long was 3rd in line so we just chilled at our table while the first band did their thing (the lead singer wore a purple headdress on her head but she had a very good voice) and then the 2nd group was actually from North Carolina. It had been awhile since i’d heard the american accent so it seemed a little out of place here :) but they were very good as well. The music was awesome!! I would put it in the folk/rock group. Kinda random pair but if you heard it you would agree. Anyway, then it was time for Bobby Long. Now jackie is a huge fan of him so we gave up our table to move closer to the stage. I had done a little “you-tubing” before we left so i would have somewhat of an idea of who i was listening to. He wrote a song that Robert pattinson performed called “let me sign” for the Twilight film! Very good song, if you haven't listened to it, you probably should! Anyway, apparently Rob and Bobby are good friends! His concert was awesome! For not knowing any of his songs before, i decided i could definitely listen to him more often!  When he was finished we decided to make a few rounds to see who was all around. There were people of all ages at this festival enjoying the music and having a good time.

We were getting ready to leave but Jackie decided she was going to get one more and chill. I waited for her behind the crowd at the bar and when she returned she had a shocked smile beaming on her face. “Dude!” she said. “Robert Pattinson is at the bar right now!” “WHAT?!” i said. “Robert Pattinson is sitting at the bar getting a drink right now. Check it out! Go get drink!” Sure enough, like 7 feet away from me i see him leaning on the bar ordering a drink. I made my way to the bar and asked some girls who i think were with him and were talking right next to him if i could squeeze in and get a drink. “Sure! Of course"!” they said and let me pass. I was literally standing right next to him; he had his back to me and was deep in conversation with his friends but we definitely glazed shoulders! I made my way back to jackie and we just stood there chatting it up like it was no big deal :) and of course occasionally (maybe more than occasionally) glanced over to see R-pattz making his way around his circle of friends until he was standing right behind us. We were so tempted to pull out my camera and ask for a picture. But we decided to be mature. He was obviously out for the night with his friends to watch Bobby and we thought if we were in his shoes, we didn’t want to be the girls to ruin his night by asking for a picture. No one else was making a big deal about him being there, so we didn’t want to start something either :( however, we have the memory, right?!  We felt like junior high girls on the way back home! but it was such a great night and i am so glad Jackie convinced me to go out! Great music and seeing Robert Pattinson in person (correction – touching!) made for one of the best nights in London yet!

Spoiled with sunshine! Are we still in London??

We have been so spoiled the past two days! With temps near 50 yesterday and today, it would be a shame not to be outside! Yesterday morning after breakfast i made my way over to Hyde Park where i spent the majority of the morning just taking random trails and seeing where they led! This is one very large park. When i decided to head back, I noticed the group of guards on horses coming down the road and followed them back to Buckingham Palace where I watched a little bit of changing of the guards again. It’s interesting listening to the tourists talk about what’s happening knowing that i said some of the very same things! :)

The rest of the day was spent on reading for class and working on my Events Industry presentation stuff. Erica and i decided to head back outside for a bit to run a few errands. The the most annoying thing happened when we came back to Vandon. We were ready to finalize our Dublin trip and see what other trips we could plan for the semester. We were all into it and making progress when the only thing we needed to make the reservations stopped working. Yep, that’s right, our internet was down for the rest of the night! Talk about frustrating! It’s kinda hard to book a trip online when you can’t get online or even do research on key impacts and ethical concerns on charity events :) I guess we found out how dependent we are on our technology. Then to top it all off, the Vandon Cooking Club was not able to cook their traditional Monday Family dinner because the stoves decided to stop working. No tamales for us :( However, there is a good side to every story! the upside to this one is Erica and I figured out our tv and watched tv in our room for the first time. 10 things i hate about you was on! Yay heath!

Today, also a fantastic day! Not only was the weather amazing but i had seriously amazingly fun day at my internship! We finally got to interview the ESOL (English as a 2nd language) class today! It is a class strictly for women from all over the world who are looking to learn english to improve their lives and work their way to getting a job to help support their families. Most of the women were from Turkey, some from France, India and few other countries. They all have different backgrounds and joined the class at different times so they are all at different levels. This is a very crucial time for them as they will be taking an exam next week to test what they have learned throughout the course: Reading, writing, listening and speaking English. They also learn about health, how to fill out different forms (i.e. employment) and how to make an appointment. Many of the women we talked to said the class was more than just learning english, it was about making friendships. They said that by not knowing english, they couldn’t communicate with other so they didn’t have many, if any friends, so they felt very alone in London aside from their families. I met so many amazing women today! One really touched my heart. She was the first one i saw today when i came into the office where she greeted me with her loving smile. She came here from India 27 years ago and has since then raised 3 children who are now grown. She is a child of 9 and in India, girls don't to school because it’s too expensive. When people asked her why she didn’t take the class before, she said that she didn’t want anyone else to raise her kids; her kids are her life! She said when someone asks about who she is she responds with “I have two eyes – my sons, a heart- my daughter and my husband is my body.” It was so sweet! Throughout the whole interview she was smiling and asking me questions about myself and my family. She wants to get a job in a nursery school so she can work with kids – so full of love! (Mom, she reminded me of you!)

Doing these interviews was such an eye opener. The women were so determined to learn english because it opened up so many new opportunities for them. Most of the women knew more than one language and yet they still were disappointed when they were not perfect with english. I couldn’t help but feel out of it when the only language i know is English and a little spanish! They were so happy to be able to communicate with us and so excited to talk to us! The interviews were a great for us to do but also very good practice for the women before their exam next week. I was very impressed with their progress and I hope they all do well next week!

Karina had a conference to go to in Manchester today so we got to leave early, which meant more time in the sun and more time to cover the other half of Hyde Park! Since the stupid internet was down (STILL!!) i couldn’t work on any homework so it worked our great! After a long, beautiful stroll through the park, I headed back to Vandon where I was very productive on catching up on journaling (which does not need the internet:)). Then it was time for our rescheduled Vandon Cooking Club family dinner of our make-shift tamales! Yes, we are very creative with our dishes. From shredding the beef and chicken to making the polenta, we did it all! Although the presentation struggled a little tonight, the flavors were fantastic! The texture was a little like grits i was told…but like i said. They were still fantastic! and we have plenty leftovers! We wrapped up the night watching Slumdog Millionaire. If you haven’t seen this film, definitely go see it! It was so good! and an excellent way to spend the night without internet!

Fashion Weekend & Westminster Abbey Service

Good news! I figured out How to post pictures!

Even though i didn’t get out and travel this weekend, as many groups in my program chose to do, it was full of fun and exciting events! The main one being attending London Fashion Weekend! The week before was Fashion week where all the bigtime London designers and celebrities attended such as Kristin Stewert, The Olsen Twins, Sienna Miller, Janet Jackson & Pixie Lott. So we decided this was a good opportunity to do a little shopping so we wouldn’t look like fools :) Erica and I each found an outfit (I found a pretty good deal i might add!) that we thought should work!

The night started out with our voucher that got us into Buddha Bar, a very high class place we found out! I realized that the random red door we found a few weeks ago on Australia Day was actually this place! Crazy! Anyway we also got a free drink here, so in honor of our first experience with London Fashion Weekend, we each got a glass of champagne (when we left, we found out it would have cost us about $18.50!) After living the high life for a while, we decided to head over to Somerset house we received our show bags with little goodies in them. It was nothing that extraordinary but the bag was pretty cute! Then we got to walk around and look through the designers collections they had available for purchase. Almost everything was 50-75% off but most things, like a handbag, was 50-450 pounds! It was rediculous! But still very fun to look through! There were some jewelry places that had reasonable prices and very pretty necklaces and bracelets! The finale was what came next, my very first catwalk! We got to sit in on an actual catwalk for 4 collections that were shown the week before at at fashion week! It was so sweet! Think of Project Runway…then take that times 10! We even got to take pictures throughout the whole thing! Some of the clothing was a little…well crazy and out there! There were bright sorbet colored socks with floral prints, nerdy glasses with jumpers, very elegant evening gowns and even a collection that included gowns from the 70’s and handbags from the 1950’s! Very very awesome! We had a fantastic time!

Saturday was going to be a catch up day until Britta and Jackie decided today was a good day for Indian food. When they heard i had never really had Indian food before, they said they were going to change that. We went for a late lunch at Paradise. We had naan, bahjii, chicken and lamb curry, and another chicken and a lamb dish. It was seriously some of the best food i have ever had! We wandered back to Vandon taking roads i had never taken. We found a street with a few really neat restaurants we might have to check out sometime! The rest of the day was a do-whatever day. I decided to get my laundry done (much needed task to get done!:)) and then went to St. James’ Park and Green Park for a little while to get some fresh air. At night, we met some students studying in Belfast, Northern Ireland. One of the girls knew one of the girls in our program and came to visit and she came with about 9 others! I met people from the netherlands, germany, belgium, boston, oregon and of course some Iowa natives as well! They were really cool and we had a great time!

This morning, Liz and I decided to check out a church service at Westminster Abbey, where the queen goes to church :) The service was very traditional where we would read out of the program and sing hymns with not very many notes. But the message was surprisingly down to earth and very easy to follow. I was expecting a message full of big old words, but he used a few personal stories to deliver the message. He spoke really slow, but i assumed this was because of the echoing factor of the Abbey’s size. Makes sense to me anyway. There was also a time where we could greet each other. Again, i didn’t know what to expect but the president (like our pastor) went into the congregation and shook hands with us as well.  We were then given the opportunity to take communion also a little different than back home where we went up to the priest to receive bread and wine. I had in my head that it was going to be a very traditional, impersonal experience, but it was the opposite! We were greeted with smiles and left with handshakes and goodbyes from the clergy. It was pretty cool!

Spittafields, Wicked, football = lessons learned!

Sunday we went to check out yet another market. This time it was Spittafields. This one is my favorite one so far! It's not as compact and the fashion there is much more...things i would wear! Plus, a few vendors had a few good deals going on this sunday! But there was much more than just clothes, there were homemade handbags, made to order leather belts, gourmet cupcakes and other sweets!, smoothies, cards, lots of really cool jewelry and hats and so much more. Spittafields is also covered! so we didn't have to worry about getting rained on, just cold :)

We then made our way back to Vandon so we could make the 6:00 service at Hillsong. Another great experience! The pastor talked alot of the power of prayer. He said something that really stuck. He said somethng along the lines of, some people pray because that's their last resort, others pray because they have so much faith and trust that God will provide everything we need and will not abandon us! He said it in better way, but that's the jist of it. Always a great reminder!

Monday was an unexpectedly exciting day! I went down to breakfast and one of my friends Michelle, said they were going to get student priced best available tickets for Wicked! Apparantly if you go the day-of a show for wicked you can get tickets for super cheap. So i went along with them and we ended up getting front row center!! I had never seen it before but had heard repeatedly that it was a great show to see! And it sure was!! Everything from the singing, to the orchestra, to the costumes and sets, were absolutey breath-taking! It was a great monday!!

Tuesday was another full day! Kiley and I had our first normal, full day at Hoxton Trust. We were supposed to be interviewing the English as a 2nd languge ladies, but there was a little miscommunication between Karina and the teacher. So we didn't do much that morning. But after Lunch we went to work on the March newletter including current news and an interview that the last intern had done.

We had to leave around 5 so we could make it back to Vandon in order to catch the train to Charleton for our first official “football” (soccer) game. They were playing Brighton. We made a train stop and we could hear a group of probably 10 or more guys singing random songs. It kept getting louder and louder until the group boarded our train! Not something I was ready for. We were not expecting such boisterous fans when we boarded and no one said anything to each other. The group was a bunch of Brighton fans singing songs that always sing before a game and even throughout the game. They never made much sense but it was really loud and in unison and very funny! Lets just say English sports fans put US sports fans to shame. The game was very cold! but very fun!

The trip back on the other hand as not so pleasent. You see, our oyster cards cover zones 1 & 2 of London. If you want to travel outside of these zones, you have to “top up.” So as Beth told us, we put 3 pounds on our cards so we could make it to the game. Well on the overground trains, the card readers aren’t as visible and some people tend to forget to tap out. But the machine recognizes if you don’t tap out and charges you more because it thinks you haven’t paid for your whole journey and it get mad at you and won’t let you through. So, after we left the game, we got on the train, got off and walked through the gate where we thought we were supposed to go, and never tapped out. So when it came time to get on the tube, it wouldn’t let us through! So we walked back to the train station, and of course it was closed. So we pleaded our case with one of the workers and he let us try to tap out. It didn’t work and he said we had to put another 1.80 on our cards. So we walked all the way back to the tube, put the money on our cards and went through the gate. We come to realized the next underground won’t be there for 10 mins. We are getting very tired, cold and frustrated! The train finally comes and we make it back to st. James Park (our “home” tube station) and we begin to walk back to Vandon. Well, apparently, the alley we usually take was put under construction that afternoon so we had to walk all the way around! What a night! However, we finally made it up to our rooms and went to bed. Lesson learned today? Always tap out and never go through an open gate! We will laugh about this one day I am sure of it!

Today was my full class day. Nothing too exciting in either class. We are working on a presentation for my Events industry class where we were split up into group and each given an industry. Mine is non-profit/charity events and will be presenting on the impacts and ethical concerns that go along with this. If anyone has any idea what that means let me know  No, it will be fine just have to do a lot of research.


Tonight is my friend Alfonso’s birthday we are heading to one of the local pubs for free wings. Not exactly sure what or how that works out but we are going to find out! Hope all is well back home!!

Time for and update! Class, Intern, Windsor, Stonehendge & Bath!

So i'm a few days behind on blogging! Sorry! :) I'll try to catch ya'll up on the goings-on the past few days! Thursday was a class day. We had my Central classes in the morning. Well one of them because Mark was sick. Then I had my first seminar for my "Events Industry" class. I was super nervous because it was in another part of London Met and I was by myself. Anyway, i went like 2 1/2 hours early to find where my class was and i had to talk with the lecturer about getting the material i missed. Finding the room took quite a bit but eventually a really nice lady could tell i was lost and directed me in the right direction. Then i still had about 1 1/2 hours til seminar so i found a little cafe place in the student union place and read my book til it was time to go. In seminar, we were all split into groups because we have to do a group presentation in Week 6 or 7 or something. There was a music, arts, sports, charity and one other group i can't think of at the moment. I am the Charity Event group with 3 other girls, 2 of which were in seminar that day. They both live in London and I'm excited to get to know the more! At night Jackie, Erica and I decided we had waited long enough - it was time to go see Valentine's Day! It was a great girl's night out movie!

Friday- my first full day at my internship! 10-6:30! Kiley and I did alot of computer stuff. The major accomplishment was finishing our info leaflets on the Hoxton Trust. Then Karina took us out for lunch at one of the "greasy spoons." We would call them cafes. It was very reasonably priced and very tasty! Then we went back to work and worked up a bunch of interview quesions. Next week we are going to interview the current ESOL (English as 2nd language class that the Trust provides) ladies in hopes of finding out the impact the class has on them. It should be very interesting! I didn't get home til 7:30ish so the it was a pretty laid back night. Erica, Fonzy and myself decided on watching Leap Year cuz Erica and I had to be up early the next morning.

This morning we had a day tour on a bus to Windsor Castle, Stonehendge and Bath! We had to board the coach at 8 where we were then dropped off at another point where we waited in line for 1/2 hour until our coach arrived. We went to Windsor first which was about 1/2 hour drive out of London. It is one of the queen's favorite castle and was used as a fortress back in the day. Our crazy tour guide led us through the entrance and told us a whole lot of information about the castle. For example, back then there were a lot of superstitions like witches being able come through the mortar between the bricks. So when the castle was built, smaller stones were stuck into the mortar to keep the witches out. She also informed us that most moats did not have water in them, just earthen ditches because of the gravitational advantages or something like that. Only castles right next to a water source was filled up with water. Interesting huh?
The round tower, the highest point, had a flagpole at the top and when the Queen is onsite, the flag is put up and quess what? She was there! We obviously didn't get to see her but apparantly she likes to spend the weekends at Windsor. We then moved on to check out the State Apartments. There were chandeliers everywhere sparkling up the rooms! Definetly my favorite! Even over the gold that was everywhere! We saw a lot of famous drawings/ paintings of past kings, the King/Queens bedrooms, drawing rooms, and many other rooms that had huge paintings, lots of gold and other castle-like items. We got to walk through a room where "Queen Mary's doll house" was. It was a little over 23 feet tall and included replica items from Windsor Castle itself. It was created by a host of top artists and architechs during the 1920's and all items were created on a 1:12 ratio. It was really cool and very detailed! We finished our time at Windsor with a speed tour through the chapel where most of the late Kings and Queens were buried. If we had more time, we would have spend a lot more time here but we were already cutting the time close to make it back to the bus in time.

From Windsor we had about an hour drive to Stonehendge where our crazy tour guide talked the whole time about the history of Stonehendge and different theories about how and why it was created. I didn't really catch alot of it because i was looking out the window in serious awe of the countryside! I am in love - no doubt about it! There is an artillery training facility quite close to Stonehendge so there were signs on the side of the road that said "Tank crossing." We never saw any tanks cross the road, but it was cool to see them. We got about 45 mins to spend at Stonehendge. Most of this time was spent taking really sweet pictures (we thought so anyway! We got a few funny looks and even a few laughs. But then a lot of people joined in!) Check them out on facebook if you are interested! There were also random mounds scattered throughout the country. They are called boroughs, but our guide called them "green pimples" at one time we thats the name we picked. They are burial mounds where 6 people were buried in a borough during the Roman times.

After Stonehendge, we had another hour or so bus ride to Bath, again the guide filling us in on historical information and also random facts about the land, culture, even other useless stuff. We appreciated her knowledge, but her continuous talking was a little overbearing :S In order to get to bath, you have to pass through the most beautiful valley I've seen yet, Avon Valley I believe it was called. I could't get a picture because of all the trees, but it was gorgeous! Plus we had blue skies, so it made it even better! Then we arrived in Bath...(insert WOW here!) So awsome! One of the founders wanted to make it look like Rome, even though he had never been to Rome. So most of the building are built with the Georgian archetecture and look very similar! It was very cool! We made our way to the Roman Baths, where the English Romans bathed and believed it had healing power because of the hot springs throughout the whole year. It was not like I expected at all, but it was really sweet nonetheless! There were numerous baths including the Great Bath, East Baths and West Baths (i think one was for guys and one for ladies?) I was hoping to get into the Pump Room, where the water is pumped out (who would thought?!) and we could taste the water. But by the time we got out of there, it was closed because there was some event going on in there tonight. Bummer! We got some great pictures!

We left Bath at sunset and exited the city with a very beautiful view of a sunse behind the city skyline. We had a 3 hour bus ride back to London where our guide finally gave our brains a rest and enjoyed the silence. It was a long day, but very well worth the time and money! Maybe we will have to head back to Bath so we can spend more time exploring the actual city!

Oh what a beautiful morning, Oh what a beautiful day!

Well I hate to rub it in, but today was a gorgeous day! Bright blue skies from sunrise to sunset! Walking to Green Park Station to catch the Tube to class was a perfect way to start the day! Class was, well class. Talking about distribution channels and the role of Travel Agents in today's internet-driven environment. Then in seminar we split into 2 teams and debated over whether Travel Agents are still needed or not. Jackie and I pretty much dominated our argument! Yes, that means I actually talked/argued in class! Big steps for Tiff! My lecture for The Events Industry got cancelled this afternoon so I decided it was too nice of day not to be outside. I changed and headed to the parks! I didnt even need a coat this afternoon, just a long sleeve shirt! I really hope this means spring is very close and will stay!

Endless rain, pancake day, and homemade refried beans?

Today was the first day where it rain all day...with zero breaks! Kinda puts a damper on the exploring you were going to do today! But deal with what ya got I guess right? Today is Pancake Tuesday here in London, from what i gather, it's the equivilent of Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gra back in the states. The day before Ash Wednesday. In celebration of this day, the MPs (Members of Parliament) where supposed to have a pancake race where they would flip pancakes in a fry pan as they ran. Sounds pretty entertaining doesn't it? I thought so to. So after breakfast a group of us walked over to the Parliament Green in the rain and found no such race! Disappointment! So we walked back. I guess the rain did have some upsides to it. I got mega caught up on my journals, internship project and laundry! Blessing in disguise i think that's called!

Yesterday Erica and I decided to go walk around. We walked pasted Buckingham Palace, through St. James Park (my fav park so far!), past the place where the Olympic sand volleyball will be, passed Prime Minister's house, around to Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, Parliament, London Eye, down to the River Thames and through another park place and somehow ended back at Vandon an hour and a half later! Each time we walk around we are putting more of the city together!

We also had our Vandon House Cooking Club meal together last night! Another success! Chicken and Beef Fajitas with homemade guacamole, rice, and our very own recipe of refried beans because we couldn't find any in the store! (this was truely an original recipe put together by our very own Britta!) We used baked beans, rinsed them, smashed them, through in some sour cream, salsa, salt, pepper,onion, cheese and whatever else we could think of. They turned out so good! The whole meal was yet again an art work! We topped it off with some creme things that took the place of Flan!

What a Sunday!

Today was quite an eventful day considering the time I got up (I got to sleep in a little today :D) My roommate and decided we should get a little homework accomplished today. We did the usual procratination for as long as we could and then finally decided to buckle down and get stuff done. Around 4:30 we decided we were going to check out Hillsong Church again (the time we tried before the pipes burst). About 10 mins later, the fire alarms sounded for about 30 seconds. We were sitting in the lounge and didn't think anything of it. We didn't smell smoke and we were on the first floor so we figured we were fine. About 5-10 mins later, our receptionist came in and said we needed to go outside cuz she didn't know why the alarms went off. So, being the concerned fire safe students we are, we went back up to our room on the 3rd floor to get our coats, change our shoes and grab our wallets (good thinking right?) Anyway, by the time we got down stairs the fire truck was waiting outside and the rest of our group was waiting patiently outside for the firemen to give the go ahead to go back in.

To past the time, we decided to check out a starbucks until we could go back inside. Another experience! We were getting in line when some lady came through the back door and cut in front of my friend. We look at each other with questioning looks and my friend makes a comment on the lines of "that happens to me alot, getting cut in front of" The lady whips around and goes off about how she was waiting in line but went to talk to someone outside or something. Then she proceeds to call us "ignorant Americans!" We stood there in awe not really knowing what to say until she ordered and went off on the worker! Obviously she was not having the best valentine's day! Looking back it was sort of comical but at the time we were a little shocked!

We then headed back to Vandon where we discovered the ground floor was dark - somehow a fuse blew out with the fire alarm event and the engineer was on his way to fix it. We left for Hillsong before it as fixed. Hillsong Church was awesome! It is in a theatre with strobe lights and a live band! Very contemporary! We had a great time and will be going back! The rest of the night was spent figuring out our internet (also knocked out with the fire alarms). you dont realize how much you rely on it until everytime you go to check your facebook, this webpage cannotbe displayed page comes up! Frustrating! But we eventually got it figured out so i could do some skyping! That's it for tonight!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Friday was another group excursion to Greenwich (pronounced Gren-itch; i don't think the British like w's) Anyway, we took a river boat/ ferry thing down the Thames so we got the opportunity to stay in the outside part of the boat to take pictures of the touristy sites. I really don't think I will have enough pictures of Big Bed, Tower Bridge or London Eye. It was pretty cold and chilly out there as well. I know I know, its not like MN or IA but it was windy and rainy, typical London i guess. But we arrived in Greenwich 45 min later and made our way through Royal Park of Greenwich (which used to be one of queens favorite homes and was used as Royal hunting grounds back when). Then we climbed a very large steep hill to reach the Royal Observatory where I mastered being in 2 places at once! (ya know from A Walk to Remember?!?!) Anyway, this is the home of the Primeridian. I stood with one foot on the Eastern Hemisphere and the other the the Western Hemishere. It started snowing while we were taking picures so i took out my trusty umbrella and finished the photo taking (i only wished i would have worn my rain boots!) We then made our way back down the very steep walkway and visited the National Maritime Museum. It had so many cool model ships and naval equipment used during the different wars and a few modern models of submarines. I also looked at some of the earliest compasses (and other things i don't know how to spell or pronounce that were used to navigate ships), swords and old/modern scuba equipment. It was very interesting!
After that we walked around the town for a while. It had the small town feel to it -very calm and quiet. They had a small market where vendors were selling a variety of different things from homemade chocolate, to hats and boots to paintings to jewelry made out of recyled jewelry! They were really sweet! Erica got a bracelet made out of an old fork! Then we made our way back to central London on the Tube, had a late lunch, worked on a few things in my room, skyped my brother for a while (:D) and watched Notting Hill with Erica and Jackie!

Saturday was my first Primark experience! Primark is a chain clothing store, sorta like Kohls, but it is a college students favorite place to shop because it is so cheap! It's a great place to "get Londonized" on a budget. So, a few girls decided it was time for me to have the experience! It's a good thing we got there decently on time though cuz when its gets close to noon, you can hardly move and the lines are super long! But i got a few really good buys including a pair of boring black flats i've been looking for since i got here (for 4 pounds!!)

We then went to Camden Town to visit the market. Saturdays are very busy here but you can a meal for cheap! A few of the girls found a discount Aldo shoe store and found some really good buys there as well!The day went a little longer than i expected it to but it was fun nonetheless. We got back, chilled for the rest of the afternoon and got ready for a night out in London.

Today is Valentine's Day, so Happy Valentine's Day everyone! No big plans here yet- hopefully catching up on my internship assignments and assigned journals and skyping. Other than that, that's what's been going on in my life the last few days! I hope everyone is doing well back in the states! I think about you all often! Have a happy Valentine's Day!

LMU, Avatar in 3-D and Ashton Kutcher!!!

Yesterday was the first day of my LMU classes. Tuesday night I found out one of the girls in my program, Jackie, was in the same one! I was pretty pumped. So we made our way over and found the room, no problem. It was a lot easier than it was  on Mon! As we sat down, we noticed another girl from our program sitting a few rows ahead of us! So there we sat, 3 blonde-hair, blue-eyed American girls. A few people asked us if we were sisters. So much for diversity:) The lecture went pretty well; all we had to do was sit there for an hour and a half and take notes. I found it pretty interesting thus far. Then we made our way down the stairs to our seminar. This is where we split up into smaller groups and discuss the material. It was more of a get to know you time for the first time and we talked about tourism trends in our home countries. (the class is called Tourism and Travel systems by the way). From there I went home quick for a bite to eat and then headed to the British Museum for my art class. We are studying the Ancient Greek and into Roman art ages so looked at a few vases from Athens, some sculptures and a lot of ruins from the Parthenon. It was interesting. However I received some great news from Jackie! The lecture time changed for the class “the events industry,” which was my first choice of classes to take at LMU but couldn’t because it interfered with my Central classes. So, hopefully I will be able to get into that class and find a seminar that fits into my schedule as well!

Wednesday night a few of us decided it was time to get out of Vandon and do something fun! Jackie and Benji had 2-4-1 movie tickets through their cell phone providers so we decided to watch Avatar in 3-D. We planned on seeing the 6:45 so we headed over to Leicester Square with enough time to get the tickets and seats, we thought. We got there and the line was way long! So some waited in line and me and Jackie went to find another theatre but we went the wrong way the first time so we walked all the way around the square! It was funny though! Anyway, we went back to join the group and waited another 20 mins. We already missed the first show so we said when we got to the box office we would wait for the 7:45 one. Another 20 mins or so later, Benji and Jackie saw on the sign that said tickets were told at all box office and inside the ben and jerry’s in the theatre! WHAT?!? So we waited out there for an unnecessary long time when we could have gotten right in! yep, that’s how it happened! Anyway, we got tickets for the 845 one and waited the hour and a half at the burger king across the street. The movie was so good, even for the 2nd time I loved it and it was way worth the wait!

Today we had our required courses at Birkbeck and went back to Vandon for lunch. Then I met up with Jackie at the VALENTINE’S DAY movie premier! We got there around 1:30 and waited…the premier didn’t start til 6. We joined a few of the other girls at the gate (they were there around noonish) and waited some more. We were freezing and about 4 we couldn’t feel our toes! All part of the experience though. It was all fine and dandy until 2 really annoying girls, probably freshmen in high school or something, come right up behind me and Jackie and start pushing us. I literally had to hold onto the gate in front of me from being pushed over! We were a lot frustrated and Jackie finally said something. And then every other girl around us said the same thing and they finally stopped and left! Good day! Anyway, we watched them roll out the red carpet and after 6 the stars started to arrive., Jessica Alba, director Garry Marshall, Hector Elizondo, Topher Grace, Emma Roberts and the one and only Ashton Kutcher!!! Most of them walked right in front of us, some got pictures with them or their autographs! It was a fun experience, but I can’t say I will be waiting that long again anytime soon! We just had to experience it once!