Tuesday, June 22, 2010

i left my heart in london....

i must admit i had extremely high expectations for this trip, but i never expected this. i have fallen in love with england, london especially, and had the best 5 weeks of my life. i made life-long friends, and had experiences i will never forget. with that said, i leave you with a quote that sums up just about everything:

"Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."

— Samuel Johnson

farewell foggy london town! i will be seeing you soon.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

photos.

since i can't get the foreign computers to cooperate with my requests to post pictures on my facebook, i thought i would share a few through a more tedious outlet.

so here are a few gems that should give you a peek into my life here at regents college.





my roommate bailey and i at the airport



our first view of england!


took this on the first day. where else in the world would this just happen?





This is the outside view of my dorm. what a cute little building.





my cute friends lauren and bailey on our first day here.




me posing with the lions at trafalgar square. you can't tell from the picture, but it's quite a climb to make it up there. i have the bruises to prove it!




we took a tour of the tower of london, and this man was our guide. he was so funny, we had to get a picture!







us in trafalgar square at night. yes that is big ben all aglow in the background. so perfect!



me being my crazy self in front of St. Pauls Cathedral




bailey and i survived all 528 narrow and treacherous steps to the tippy top of st. pauls. you can see the entire city from there, and it is breathtaking.



One of our favorite discoveries. Snog. it is the pg-13 rated version of Spoon me. and it is delicious



John, Bailey, Lindsey, Lauren and I in Oxford.










Oxford again. so pretty.





One of my favorite images. big ben all lit up and majestic looking.






the british do something really funny, they count all the steps everywhere and post them on signs. we were walking down to a tube station and it told us it was 92 steps to the bottom... so here we are standing in front of The Monument with our written cirtificates stating that we climbed all 311 steps to the top.





John bailey and i in front of tower bridge.



i'm going to be honest, i don't remember the name of this place.. but isn't it amazing that this square is just tucked away somewhere? i mean seriously. we stumble upon amazing places like this daily!!




these are most of the people in our group in the backyard of Shakespeare's daughter's house.




a picture of the clever river boats named after females in shakespeare's plays.




the river that flows though stratford.




the key to my room at the B&B. can you believe they still use keys like this? i loved it and wanted to keep it!



our whole group in front of Ann Hathaways cottage.







rain rain go away!!




shopping in covent garden we found this amazing paella!!! i crave it all the time now. lauryn tell you mother she best be having a paella night when i come home, becuase i must have it!





a very successful shopping day with the girls



a bunch of us eating dinner at Nandos, one of our favorite restaurants. yummy portugese food :)




our guide for the Jack the Ripper tour. spooky!










the road that leads to buckingham palace. love those union jacks!









the most perfectly placed phone booth in all of london.








the city has all of these elephants around to promote awareness about the endangered species. this is one of my favorites!





this one's for you mommy. wish you were here to see it with me!





i took this picture last night. it was one of the most amazing days i have had in the city so far, and this was the perfect end to our perfect day.

ten things i hate about you.

While being here in the U.K. my roommate bailey and i have made a list of the most annoying things that i thought i was escaping when i left america, but actually followed us all the way across the pond. here is the list of the things that made the top 10:

1. Justin Beiber. i thought.. ok, i was hoping that londoners would be smarter than to fall into the baby-faced trap that is justin beiber. the worst part is, they have i heart justin beiber t's right next to the london souvenirs. how embarrassing.

2. Gym-bags. thank you "is she really going out with him" (a wonderfully awful show produced by MTV) who gave me the best descriptive word to use on all gym-rat-douche-bags. go back to the jersey shore.

3. Allergies. i was hoping pollen went on vacation too. no such luck.

4. tacky american chain 'restaurants' (e.g. subway, pizza hut, kfc, mcdonalds)

5. ed hardy. again, you belong on the jersey shore. not in my london.

6. hollister. tween beachwear should be the last thing people are wearing in this wonderful mecca of affordable shopping.

7. Head colds. yucky.

8. Utah weather. either it's hot or its cold. pick a side already.

9. crazy drivers. you thought utah was bad? i can't wait til i get home and the thing i am most worried about is someone not using their blinker!

10. School. i know i know, kind of the reason i am here. but really?? studying in london???? not cool.


of course this post is all in good fun. i loooooooooooooove love love love it here. seriously every single day i have at least one moment where i am completely stunned at the beauty of this city. i will take these ten things any day, because the good outweighs them tenfold.

xoxo
em