i have been told by a friend, who shall remain nameless, that i need to post a reminder to you all about commenting. this is the best place for people to comment about my blog so i dont have to read 500 emails from all of you. as much as i love you, i have limited computer time. since i do want all of your feedback and input, please feel free to utilize the commenting space provided. :)
more actual posts to come soon!
xoxo
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Sunday, May 16, 2010
well hello london!
It is day 2 here in London, and so far, I am IN LOVE! lets start from the beginning shall we?
After much delay in the JFK airport, we arrived in London at about 8 o'clock on Saturday morning. Although we were advised against it, we took the tube into town. Let me just tell you that I handled that luggage on the crowded tube like a pro! After making it to the BEAUTIFUL campus, we threw our luggage down so we could walk the streets for a bit. We live literally a few meters from Sherlock Holmes flat on Baker Street. It is a huge tourist attraction, complete with hundreds of trinkety Sherlock Holmes tourist trap stores. We walked down a ways and were confused by the HUNDREDS of people in blue football jerseys until we ran into a local pub that was overflowing with these loads of yelling and chanting Chelsea fans. i guess there was a huge match going on, and to say that people get really into it would be an understatement. You could hear them singing from blocks and blocks away. There was one moment when a bus full of fans passed the pub, and i am surprised there wasn't a riot! There were police surrounding the pub just in case, and i'm sure they were needed at least once!
After we got lost at least twice, we decided to get some lunch. Now you may want to sit down for this next bit of news. For lunch we went to this really divey place (i mean REALLY divey. they shouted our order into a hole in the floor)but get this, i ate fish and chips... i know what your thinking right now, and it's ok if you don't believe me. But it happened. and don't be surprised if it happens again! like most people have told me, the fish here is not anything like what i have tried back home. thank goodness!
after a few adventures around the city (we went down leiscester square to see a few sites and to eat dinner)i finally made it into bed around 8. i was so proud of myself for staying awake for so long!
i woke up this morning after a good 14 hours of sleep, and i felt refreshed and ready to take on Camdon market. It is so great! i could have easily spent all my money in about 2 hours there, but i resisted, and only bought one thing. next, we tried to find a store called primark. you would think finding a HUGE store right on a main road would be easy, but no. it was a joke. There were hundreds of people on the street with bags from there, but finding someone that spoke english was hard enough, let alone someone that could give us directions. (we had one man tell us to walk 60 minutes in the wrong direction) luckily we just kept walking towards where the people with the bags seemed to be coming from until i looked up and oh so dramatically pointed at the sign and yelled 'it's RIGHT THERE!!!' at least 20 people turned and looked at me funny, but after 40 minutes of walking around, i was really excited.
Once inside, i realized that i will never again enjoy shopping in America. Primark is the best thing i have ever seen. There is everything there you could ever want. ok not food, but everything else. and it's CHEAP! like sunglasses that only cost 1 pound! if you know me at all, you know that this kind of a thing could be extremely dangerous to my bank account. luckily, i made it out with only a few things, some of them were even presents for other people. get excited friend, i love shopping for other people almost as much as i love shopping for myself! When we left the store we came out to our first london rain storm. i was only semi-prepared, and went out in flip flops and no jacket.. but i did have an umbrella! i slipped and slided all the way back to campus where i immediately put on actual shoes.
We were supposed to go on a tour of Westminster later on, but with the rain and all, we decided to postpone it until another day. Now it is just another evening of trying to stay busy so i stay awake!! i have not allowed myslef to take any naps, and want to get accustomed to my new time zone as soon as possible!
Tomorrow brings the first day of class, and i'm sure more amazing adventures! Stay tuned!
xoxo
After much delay in the JFK airport, we arrived in London at about 8 o'clock on Saturday morning. Although we were advised against it, we took the tube into town. Let me just tell you that I handled that luggage on the crowded tube like a pro! After making it to the BEAUTIFUL campus, we threw our luggage down so we could walk the streets for a bit. We live literally a few meters from Sherlock Holmes flat on Baker Street. It is a huge tourist attraction, complete with hundreds of trinkety Sherlock Holmes tourist trap stores. We walked down a ways and were confused by the HUNDREDS of people in blue football jerseys until we ran into a local pub that was overflowing with these loads of yelling and chanting Chelsea fans. i guess there was a huge match going on, and to say that people get really into it would be an understatement. You could hear them singing from blocks and blocks away. There was one moment when a bus full of fans passed the pub, and i am surprised there wasn't a riot! There were police surrounding the pub just in case, and i'm sure they were needed at least once!
After we got lost at least twice, we decided to get some lunch. Now you may want to sit down for this next bit of news. For lunch we went to this really divey place (i mean REALLY divey. they shouted our order into a hole in the floor)but get this, i ate fish and chips... i know what your thinking right now, and it's ok if you don't believe me. But it happened. and don't be surprised if it happens again! like most people have told me, the fish here is not anything like what i have tried back home. thank goodness!
after a few adventures around the city (we went down leiscester square to see a few sites and to eat dinner)i finally made it into bed around 8. i was so proud of myself for staying awake for so long!
i woke up this morning after a good 14 hours of sleep, and i felt refreshed and ready to take on Camdon market. It is so great! i could have easily spent all my money in about 2 hours there, but i resisted, and only bought one thing. next, we tried to find a store called primark. you would think finding a HUGE store right on a main road would be easy, but no. it was a joke. There were hundreds of people on the street with bags from there, but finding someone that spoke english was hard enough, let alone someone that could give us directions. (we had one man tell us to walk 60 minutes in the wrong direction) luckily we just kept walking towards where the people with the bags seemed to be coming from until i looked up and oh so dramatically pointed at the sign and yelled 'it's RIGHT THERE!!!' at least 20 people turned and looked at me funny, but after 40 minutes of walking around, i was really excited.
Once inside, i realized that i will never again enjoy shopping in America. Primark is the best thing i have ever seen. There is everything there you could ever want. ok not food, but everything else. and it's CHEAP! like sunglasses that only cost 1 pound! if you know me at all, you know that this kind of a thing could be extremely dangerous to my bank account. luckily, i made it out with only a few things, some of them were even presents for other people. get excited friend, i love shopping for other people almost as much as i love shopping for myself! When we left the store we came out to our first london rain storm. i was only semi-prepared, and went out in flip flops and no jacket.. but i did have an umbrella! i slipped and slided all the way back to campus where i immediately put on actual shoes.
We were supposed to go on a tour of Westminster later on, but with the rain and all, we decided to postpone it until another day. Now it is just another evening of trying to stay busy so i stay awake!! i have not allowed myslef to take any naps, and want to get accustomed to my new time zone as soon as possible!
Tomorrow brings the first day of class, and i'm sure more amazing adventures! Stay tuned!
xoxo
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
and so it begins...
The official countdown has begun and things are getting crazy! I have exactly 38 days until I leave. Can you believe how fast it is coming? Just putting together some final touches on planning, even though I feel like I won't ever be really ready until I am on the airplane. Everybody is always asking me about plans, dates, etc.. so i figured I would just throw out there what I know so far... be aware, this schedule is bound to change. The only thing that is set in stone in my itinerary is my departure and arrival dates!
I leave May 14th in the A.M and am set to arrive in Hethrow airport on May 15th sometime in the afternoon.. just ask me how thrilled I am about an entire day and a half of traveling...
From there I will be staying in the Regents College dorms in London England. While I am there I will be studying all sorts of British History/Literature (things like Shakespeare).
After the program ends on June 19th, I will be taking the rest of Europe by storm. Tentative plans are to visit France, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Italy... but I am most excited about the fairly unplanned adventure I will be embarking on with my new friend, and London roommate Bailey. The only thing we know for sure is we need to be in Rome by July 3rd to catch our flight back to the good old U.S of A.
So there you go, start the countdown!
I will probably not be posting much until I actually get to England in May, but once I get there I will hopefully be updating often with all of my crazy experiences (and yes I'm sure they are going to be crazy since this is, according to Brianne, "confessions of a first time traveler". Wish me luck!!)
I leave May 14th in the A.M and am set to arrive in Hethrow airport on May 15th sometime in the afternoon.. just ask me how thrilled I am about an entire day and a half of traveling...
From there I will be staying in the Regents College dorms in London England. While I am there I will be studying all sorts of British History/Literature (things like Shakespeare).
After the program ends on June 19th, I will be taking the rest of Europe by storm. Tentative plans are to visit France, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Italy... but I am most excited about the fairly unplanned adventure I will be embarking on with my new friend, and London roommate Bailey. The only thing we know for sure is we need to be in Rome by July 3rd to catch our flight back to the good old U.S of A.
So there you go, start the countdown!
I will probably not be posting much until I actually get to England in May, but once I get there I will hopefully be updating often with all of my crazy experiences (and yes I'm sure they are going to be crazy since this is, according to Brianne, "confessions of a first time traveler". Wish me luck!!)
