Crunch Time

It's the final countdown. Five days from now I will be done with my hilarious, amazing, informative experience at the London Centre and welcoming some family into the great city of London. Only two papers and two finals stand in my way. At first it seems such a bummer that amidst all the fun times and breathtaking sites I have to focus some of my time on studying. However, as they said in class today, this was not just a seven week vacation but a learning experience that will benefit us for the rest of our lives. So I plan on buckling down and doing well. I have it good because most everyone else is trying to cram all the things they didn't get to do yet in this week as well but I have next week too. I am really happy about that.
Last week we went on a week long trip to the Lake District, Hadrian's Wall, and Scotland. I LOVE SCOTLAND. I couldn't understand their accents, ate two fried Mars Bars, saw the Tatoo (a military band concert), saw The Elephant Castle restaurant where JK Rowling started Harry Potter, toured Scottish parliament, went to an Olympic football match, and was lucky enough to be there during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. World famous for its variety and uniqueness, I couldn't help but believe it walking down the Royal Mile, the street all the actors go to advertise their shows. In full costume, employing gimmicks from frozen people to walking around on stilts with noise-makers, I turned down more fliers than I can count. I saw three shows. Sarah, Janie, and I were offered free tickets to Midnight at the Boar's Head (which was actually at 8:15). While waiting for it to start we ran into some Elders from New Jersey and China. They seemed a bit overwhelmed to have three rather energetic girls talking to them. The show was Shakespeare with songs. Weird. The stage was a small riser in the corner of a small room with no more than 20 people. We got some free beer out of it and Janie got to be a part of the show. She was part of the army, named Simon Shadows, and armed with a party hat and a spray gun. Sarah and I busted a gut laughing at her. It made sitting through an hour of the weirdness totally worth it.
The second show we went to was the single best thing I have ever seen in my life. Called Hi-Kick, a Korean company portrayed the story of a rag-tag soccer team earning their right to play at the soccer field with the good team. Picture a Chinese game show plus soccer plus dancing plus slapstick. At one point I was hyperventilating. I'm pretty sure the only English the actors knew was their lines, "I love football" and "pass" and "sorry". Oh it was brilliant. At one point they invited audience members to play volleyball on stage and then we all hit around beach volleyballs. It was the most random, weirdest, dumbest thing I've ever seen but so worth it. The little boys in front of us thought it was pretty funny too. A few girls in my group were a litle miffed that we spent money to see it but I thought it was awesome. Later when we ran into my professor and his family, he congratulated us on really embracing the Fringe. And when we described the hilarity of Hi-Kick, he, in all seriousness, stated, "I really would have liked to see that." Good times, good times.
The last show we saw on our own was some stand-up in a bar. I was a little nervous about the inappropriateness of it (just being me, ya know) but it was actually very funny. And it was free! Three acts went and then the headliner, who was Canadian! And funny! Made me proud to be Canadian. At night we went to the Tatoo. It was so awesome. I took a lot of videos to show the fam. I really can't explain it in a way that doesn't make it sound lame but it was tres sweet. You'll just have to believe me. Earlier in the day we had our first deep-fried Mars Bar. Janie's sister-in-law served a mission in Scotland and told us we had to get them, so we did, and we loved them. The Tatoo started at 10:30. We did not get out until 12:30. As we walked down the street back to our hostel, we noticed our fish and chip place was still open! So in all spirit of that ever popular phrase YOLO we treated ourselves young. Two deep-fried mars bar in one day equals what we like to call Death by Mars Bar. They've already delegated me to bring Mars Bars down to Provo and we are having a deep frying partay. Our hostel in Edinburgh was very nice and each room had private showers and bathrooms. So great compared to some other places we've stayed. The day I just described was Saturday. Sunday we drove 8 hours home on the bus, stopping at Durham Cathedral for the Eucharist service. We made it home by 10 pm and I've just been working on homework, laundry, classes, tidying and gearing up for the week ahead.
I realize I have been slacking on the blogging thing but I have been keeping a great journal! I know, I know, it's no excuse but I would really rather just be out doing things than typing on a computer. And I added pictures to facebok. A picture says a thousand words. So don't expect anything special but I'll try sometime to talk about my trip in the Lake District, Cambridge, and Hadrian's Wall sometime this week.

Crepe Fest 2012

And now, finally, I am done writing about my Paris adventures. Check out my facebook album with a matching name for all the pictures of Paris you could ever want to see. 

Wednesday July 11, I returned from our day trip to Blenheim Castle and Oxford at 11 pm and stayed up until 12:30 packing and readying myself. The whole day I could not stop thinking about how I was leaving for Paris in less than 24 hours!
Thursday

My group to Paris consisted of Janie Jensen, Jordan Cardinal, Kimberly Austin, and Megan Burnett. We clearly weren’t thinking clearly when we booked our Chunnel tickets for 5:40 AM. This required us to wake up at a dastardly 3:30 am and catch a bus with a bunch of other night crawlers to be at King’s Cross with enough time for us to feel comfortable. Not cool. We went through the border to France (still at King’s Cross), which included getting our passports stamped with FRANCE. WOOT. I also decided to exchange some pounds for euros just because I didn’t want to have to deal with it in France. I exchanged for 100 Euros. The Chunnel (officially called the Eurostar) is just like any other train). We all had random seats in different cars so we went our separate ways. I slept the entire way to France, a total of 2 hours. France is one hour ahead of England so we arrived at 9 am. I was mad that I missed the part where we went under the ocean so I vowed then and there to stay awake the whole time on our return journey. Gare du Nord was the station we arrived at and we all were able to reunite. Two other girls, Celeste and Christina, met up with us, too. They stayed at a hostel that was an hour away on the metro though. Boy I am glad I didn’t’ have to do that. Our hotel was only 15 minutes away from all the city center sites. Our first item or business was purchasing Metro passes (equivalent to the Tube). We got 3-day passes for 21 euros. OK, actually first we were all dumb and forgot to go to the bathroom before we got off the train. In France, you have to pay to use public washrooms…so I begrudgingly forked over 70 cents to relieve myself. My initial reaction to Paris, just by the inside of the Metro station, was it was a lot dirtier than London.
Because we couldn’t check in to our hotel until 2 pm, we hopped on a train to see some sites. Boy am I grateful for metro maps, otherwise we would have no idea where we were going. Kim speaks a little French but that didn’t help that much. And besides a lot of the people can speak English too. Our first stop was the Arc de Triomphe. Coming out of the Metro on an escalator, and then BAM. It was right there. I would’ve thought that that was when it became real that I was actually in Paris, but I don’t’ know that it ever did the whole weekend. After snapping some shots, we ventured down the street to find some food. We decided on a cute little café. I, of course, got my first ever Parisian Crepe. And it was the best thing I have ever tasted. I could eat about 5 every day and never tire of them. Celeste and Christina were still with us at this point but we were kind of ready to say goodbye. 7 people is a lot to please especially when two of them love to complain. I really need to work on my patience. They headed off to their hostel and we ventured to Notre Dame. We always mocked Jordan for leading us the wrong way in London and for her horrible pronunciation of French metro stations but she really just got the hang of getting around the city. Notre Dame was beautiful and I had my first run-in with a pick-pocketer. She ran up to me and asked me if I could speak English. I was so happy to be in Paris that I just excitedly said yes! When she held out a paper for me to read I immediately realized her ploy and bluntly recanted my statement. I just walked away and so did she. What was interesting was how quickly she knew that I was a lost cause and became disinterested. Our next stop was Sainte-Chapelle. We met a professor from another American university in line who made us promise we would head to Berthillon’s for some famous ice cream. Sainte Chapelle was awe-inspiring. From now on, I will compare all other stained glass I see to it and I guarantee none will measure up. At 2:30 we ventured to our lovely Hotel Kyriad. We had difficulty locating it but found it with the help of some bus stop information men. We were definitely in the industrial region of Paris, which isn’t really what you  think of what you think of Paris. It’s usually more along the lines of love, romance, twinkling lights…We were all a little sketched out at first but it wasn’t as bad as we first thought. We had 2 rooms: one with two beds, and one with two beds and a trundle. We were mostly just glad our hotel was in Zone 1 on the metro so we didn’t have to pay extra for our metro pass and that we finally got to take our bookbags off!
The Paris metro stations were pretty scary to me. A lot homeless people hang out in them. As we made one of our connections to get back to central Paris, I ran ahead and hopped right on. As I stepped on and turned around, the doors closed behind me. All my friends were on the other side. This was when things, as I look back, seem to go into slow motion. Fear enveloped me. They all started yelling at me that it was the wrong train and that I should get off at the next stop. Their faces were priceless, as I am sure mine was too. I just knew I had to get out of that train. I feverishly punched the open door button and, what do you know, they popped right open. I leapt out and we all had a laughing attack, one of the many to occur over the weekend. All of the people around us were chuckling as well, I’m sure because of my completely overdramatic facial expressions. Kim was basically rolling on the floor.

Our next destination was food. The food is good in France. London food does not even compare. They use such simple ingredients but it’s just fundamentally better. I’m pretty sure all we ate was paninis, croissants, pastries, omelettes, and crepes. We happened upon a little stand by St. Michael’s Fountain, where nutella crepes were only 2.70. So we basically went back there 5 times. And every time the same little Asian boy was working there. We’re basically besties now. 
Paris was very rainy while we were there. And I wore sandals anyways. We decided to go on a boat cruise on the Seine. On our way, as we came out of the metro again, BAM there was the Eiffel Tower in all her glory. We were literally right underneath it. We all took pictures and then got on our boat. Luckily it was covered. The tour was very interesting.  However, I was so tired…I may or may not have taken a little nap. After we went home in the rain and slept like babies. I volunteered for the trundle and realized after everyone else had gone to bed that it had no pillow and only a thin polar fleece blanket. So I froze but I still slept well because I was so tired. WE went from 3:30 am to 11:00 pm that first day.  I’m tired just thinking about it.

Friday

I sprang out of bed in the morning and winced with pain. My feet and ankles were ridiculously swollen because of how long we had been out and about the day before. Being in even a group of 5, I had to wait around. I really just wanted to get going but everybody was pretty tired. We made it to central Paris by 9:30 and went to another little café. We all got omelets. So good. In Paris they barely give you any water. We made it to our first stop, The Louvre, by 10:45. The Louvre was amazing. You enter through the glass diamond in the center. The line wasn’t too bad but inside it was madness. We let Kim, the humanities major, take charge and lead us to all the great works of art we should be seeing. The Mona Lisa room was insane. So many people were all fighting for that front row spot to get the perfect picture. The actual building was as amazing as the art inside. It was a palace built for Louis 14^th but he thought it too small and had Versailles built. The ceilings were unbelievable. Most of the art we saw focused on Christ. It was so amazing to see His life, ministry, and Crucifixion from so many perspectives.  We spent a good 3 and a half hours in the Louvre and then made our way to get some more crepes. Because the rain had subsided we made a beeline for the Eiffel Tower. It is amazing and bigger than I thought. It is very bizarre to finally see things in real life that I have known about basically my whole life. We paid 3.50 euros to climb stairs to the first two levels. I was crying a little on the inside. The stairs were grated and there was only a chain link fence so I could see how high we were getting. I’m really surprised I made it to the 2^nd level. I had made up my mind that I would just wait for my friends while they rode the elevator to the very top. But as we looked around I decided on a whim to go up there with them. In the line we met a bunch of awesome Australians. In the elevator I had to stare at my ring, wiggle my toes and try not to focus on the fact that I was shooting up to an insane height. It did not help that I could see out all the walls of the elevator. I got to the top and after a couple of minutes really warmed up to looking over the edge and I think I may have conquered my fear of heights. We quickly spotted where our hotel is because of the smokestacks beside it. We took pics, enjoyed the view, and then made our way down. On the way down we met a Norwegian girl and her family. She just got her placement to be an exchange student in Missouri so we tried to answer all of her questions about the US. There really is something magical about being on top of the Eiffel Tower. The way down I was surprisingly fine with the heights and we sang and just lived it up. After getting down we headed over to the field behind it to snap some more pictures. And who did we run into? None other than Katie, Christina, and Celeste, the three other girls from earlier. Both the groups caught up and told each other what we had been up to. I am so glad I went with the girls I did. The other group took a nap on the first day they arrived. A NAP. I really could not believe that! And they weren’t even planning on climbing up the Eiffel! Katie, one of the girls, came with us and we ventured to find the best ice cream in Paris. We stopped at City Hall on our way over and had a 2 minute dance party without any music in the rain on the huge courtyard. We got some weird looks and smiles. It was such a hoot. We found the island, and got some delicious ice cream. I got strawberry and salted caramel. The only downside was the portion sizes are tiny in Europe. After that we walked in the rain again to the train station. We were all just high on life and to spare you the gory details, as we waited in the tube station, Katie put her bag down on the ground because the strap had broken. As we readied ourselves to get on the train, Katie realized her bag was gone. Just down the station Megan spotted a lady going through Katie’s bag. They all ran up and grabbed it from her. Katie started going through her bag to see what was missing. They all confronted the lady and asked her to give over the iPhone, which Katie realized was missing.  At this point, I just walked in the opposite direction down the station. They didn’t need another person over there and, to be frank, I don’t do well in these types of situations. Megan took control and even made her start crying but to no avail. She had the iPhone in her bra but they couldn’t grab it and she got away. It was a rough day after that. Jordan and Katie ran off to find the Police Station. Janie, Megan, Kim, and I tried to find them and couldn’t. We met some nice Canadians in the Metro station. By 11 we ended up back at the Eiffel Tower, hoping that we would locate Christina and Celeste so we could tell them that Katie would not be going home with them because we didn’t actually know where she was. We were all pretty worried and said a quick prayer on our metro ride over to the Eiffel. We sprinted up to the Eiffel (literally sprinted) and found Christina and Celeste within 30 seconds of yelling their names. Tender mercy? I think so. If we hadn’t had found them it would have been so bad because Celeste and Christina are the type of people that would freak out over the smallest thing. Strangely enough they were both on top of the world happy because they decided to go up the Eiffel. We were all so stressed and serious and they were just laughing at everything we said. Our favourite quote was “Did you see how happy they were?” Haha. At 11:30 we parted ways and headed on the Metro home. Our last hope was that Jordan and Katie would already be at the hotel. Sadly they weren’t there. We spent the next hour trying to contact them and then our director back in London. Just as we were about to have Janie’s mom call from America our director (because we didn’t have a working phone) they walked in. We all wanted to punch them for not telling us where they were but we were so happy to see them again. They were perfectly fine the whole time, just chilling in the police station. I know I was very overtired and at this point as we relayed our stories to each other, everything was ridiculously funny. Finally we got to bed at 3 am. We pushed the two beds together and I slept between them. I had the best night sleep ever.

Saturday

We got up even later today, which I believe was warranted. We got out the door by 9:30 with all our book bags to carry for the day. Our first stop was Sacre Coeur aka Sacred Heart. It’s a cathedral located on a hill. It had a fabulous view of the city and we sat in on a bit of mass. We were definitely in a different part of Paris. On our walk up to it we walked past at least 10 weave shops. Then we went and got ice cream again at the same place. To get there we had to walk past Notre Dame again. As we did, we ran into Haley, Erin, and Suzette, three other girls from our program. They had a mishap too. Erin left her purse on a train, which included her passport, wallet, Eurostar ticket…she wasn’t going to be able to get back to England. Miraculously, they managed to get it back. For ice cream this time, I got coconut and pineapple. Sooooo gooood. At 2 we met back up with Celeste and Christina to drop off Katie. Then we went shopping for the first time our trip. I got a pair of earrings, a scarf, and a headband. People in Paris shops were much friendlier than London. At 5 we headed back to the Eiffel after getting crepes again and chilled until we had to leave to catch the metro back to the Chunnel. I took a bunch of pictures and ate more food. The field was packed as it was Bastille Day. We wished we could have stayed for the fireworks. But alas, our magical time in Paris was up and we begrudgingly made our way back to Gare du Nord.  Our ride back to London was uneventful. I stayed awake the whole time and the part where we went under the ocean was so short and dark. You really didn’t even know that was what happened. We got back to London and after Jordan reuniting with her passport after leaving it on the train, we got on the tube to head home. We all felt so safe. It was so great to be back in a place where I could understand what everyone was saying. We all ended up on a Tube car by ourselves and basically went crazy. As in hanging off the ceiling bars, running up and down it, crazy. Good times, good times.

Well there you have it. Wow, that took me way too long. But I’m glad to have that off my plate. Tonight, one of the professors and his family made us chocolate chip cookies tonight. They are so sweet. And now I am going to get started on some more homework, and hopefully some more blog posts. 

CATCH UP

This blogging this is stressing me out so I have finally come to the conclusion to focus on writing my adventures down rather than trying to add pictures. Maybe I can add pictures later. The Internet is so ridiculous that it takes an hour and a half to add half a dozen pictures. I honestly feel as though I have been in London for a year with how much I have already seen and experienced. I’m going to do a quick recap of the past two weeks. Mostly this is just for anyone who cares a lot a lot so I am not getting my hopes up that anyone really reads the whole thing. It’s going to be long...

Wednesday June 27

This was the day we took our first “coach” trip, coach being a fancy word for tour bus. Up at the butt crack of dawn (aka 6:30) I packed my lunch with the goodies Alvaro (one of the Brazilians who manages the center) laid out for us, which even included a Snickers! Luckily I snatched a window seat on the bus and was able to see even more of the city as we headed east to Dover. Dover Castle was our first stop. Nestled right on the coast, this castle had different buildings built in different centuries. The oldest I found was 12^th century. I wandered through and saw a lot of cool views. At 12 we got to go through the secret tunnels located under the castle. They told us we probably only had time for one of the two but a bunch of us (including my profs super cool wife Kindra) secretly planned to go through both of them and go through both of them we did. The tunnels were amazing. We were 15-30 meters underground. They were first used during the Napoleonic Wars. They then used them during WWII as a hospital and to get 300,000 English people out of France and back into England, otherwise known as the Dunkirk Invasion (Operation Dynamo). The tunnels were full of what it really would have looked like during WWII. They even had period newspapers that I looked through. I really love learning about WWII.

After Dover Castle we headed over to the White cliffs of Dover. I kept singing the song but no one else knew it. Luckily, I took a video of myself singing it there. It was very cloudy so we couldn’t see France but my entire group is really avid picture takers so whenever we stop anywhere we all have to take 17 bajillion pictures. It has rubbed off on me. I think I’ve probably taken 1000 pictures so far.

Next we headed over to Canterbury to see Canterbury Cathedral. The buses aren’t allowed in town so we had to walk 10 minutes to get there. Canterbury cathedral is unreal. Our tour guide was the quintessential English old man. He even had a cane. We saw the ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY aka the HEAD OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. He was there practicing for when they did some ordinations later in the week. Usually he is only there at Easter and Christmas. How lucky are we? At the cathedral, we saw where Thomas Beckett was murdered in 1170 and the tombs of a lot of royalty. I love the stained glass windows more than anything. During WWII part of the cathedral was bombed and some stained glass windows were destroyed. In the 1950s, a Dutch guy was commissioned to redo them. These were my favourite ones. 4 children, each of a different nationality surrounded Christ.  On each of their clothing in conspicuous spots were the words brother and sister. Seriously any thing these days will make me tear up, including this. After we walked through the town center. Canterbury is a quaint little tourist town full of weirdos….there are a lot of grunge people from the 90s who apparently forgot that it’s now 2012...

Thursday June 28

We had class this day. We have quizzes every class for history and, let me tell ya, they cause people some major strife round these parts. I usually just wing it and it all goes okay. Every morning I love eating cereal, nutella toast, or these really weird yogurt concoctions they have here. A bunch of us girls had a hankering for Broadway (which in London is referred to as West End). We attempted to get tickets and decided to wait until after dinner to see for any last minute tickets. Dinner was super weird…half an avocado topped with fry sauce and mini shrimp. Let’s just say I had a lovely dinner of buns and salad. Mostly though our meals are pretty normal. Thursday was an anomaly. In the tube there was a landslide, so our options were slim to get to the theatre. We hopped on a random bus, hopped off at a random tube stop and somehow managed to get off at the right stop for the theatre. I need to start paying attention in the tube so I can do it by myself because I am fairly content to just follow. We got tickets to Wicked! It made our arduous and unsure journey totally worth it. We had great seats right at the back of the first floor. While waiting for the show to start we saw a boy with a BYU shirt so I convinced Janie to ask him about it. Turns out he was from Germany and had no idea what BYU was and he gave Janie the weirdest look I’ve ever seen. At least 30 times a day I die laughing, this being one of those times. I couldn’t help but compare Wicked to when I saw it last summer in Calgary and I must say it was twenty times better simply because of the British accents. Gah.

Friday June 29

So turns out the Tower of London is actually a fortress/castle and not a single tower. Please don’t mind my ignorance. Our whole group was there together but on these type of things I look around by myself so I can go at my own pace. On our way in we saw the Olympic rings on Tower Bridge! The crown jewels were pretty but kind of ridiculous to me. They have 6 giant ravens flying around at the Tower that have been there since the 1200s (obviously different birds now than then). They creeped me out. A giant armoury exhibit filled the interior building that I walked around in for at least an hour. I also saw where they kept prisoners, like Lady Jane Grey, and even where she carved her name in the tower. So cool!

One of the classes I am taking here is called “London Walks”. After the tower we did one as a group through the financial district where remnants of an old Roman wall remain. I also saw the oldest organ in Europe in one the churches we stopped at. Whenever I am in the group my friend Janie always says we apparently spot the most attractive British men in suits and in the financial district my presence did not disappoint. They were everywhere.

We ended at the London Museum, which displayed the history of the city. Interesting stuff.

This whole week we had a guest lecturer from UVU, Tim Slover, who did three lectures on theatre. I was very tired and we all couldn’t help but to sleep through his lectures. Our favourite saying of the week became “and now for naptime, sponsored by Tim Slover”. As I’m writing this now I guess it ‘s one of those things that you had to be there for or we really were just extremely overtired. Anyways naptime was great.

Saturday June 30

As a group we did another one of our walks today, starting at Burrough Market, which is full of the most delicious food I have ever tasted. As a bonus, everywhere gives free samples! Woot! I got a tomato pastry thing (soo good) and fudge, which was very chalky. We continued our way down the Thames and stopped at the Tate Modern. I had an assignment to finish so I had to stay in there for an hour and try and figure out what the heck the artists were trying to say. Modern art is weird but I actually liked it because they had explanations or rather a short history about the artist beside each piece, which I enjoyed reading much more than looking at the actual pieces of art. My favourite was definitely the pen and notebook inside of a box…. So weird. I actually did find art that I liked, the impression and modernism stuff. That night I went to Mamma Mia! For some reason in my growing up years I listened to that CD all the time, and I seriously knew every single word to every song and it even so far as me being able to know the order of the songs. Donna’s two friends were hilarious and at the end everybody stands up and starts dancing. It was such a hoot. In front of us were a bunch of old ladies were feather boas that were having WAY too much fun. Being the mature girls that we are, we decided to head to the back stage door to see if we could catch a picture with some of the super cute actors.

Highlight of the night.

A cute boy came out of the door. Emilee asks rather longingly but timidly, “Umm, can we get a picture with you?”

His reply, “Suuurrrreee (said very hesitantly), but I wasn’t in the show though….”

HAHAHAHA

As he walked away somebody mumbled, “Can we get a picture anyways, you’re cute!”

After that debacle we decided it was best to head home. Riding the tube is such an adventure every time. To everyone else on the Tube, it’s so mundane so they all look like they are going to die of boredom but I love seeing all the different people.

Sunday July 1

Happy Canada Day!

Sadly at Mamma Mia I could feel myself getting the sickness that had been going around the Center so I didn’t head over to the Trafalgar Square Canada Day celebrations. Hedley and Our Lady Peace were there though. Apparently last year 80,000 people were there. I did wear my Canada shirt! My day was spent attempting to face time and sleeping.

Monday July 2

I had classes and attempted to get over my sickness. After class Karley and I ventured to Camden Market, which is full of more grunge people. Everything is super cheap. I bought a pair of sunglasses for 5 pounds (or quid, which is the same thing. Like dollars=bucks, pounds=quid). After we headed to primark, aka the frugal fashionable shopper’s paradise. It is so packed. I got a couple things that I love and were really good priced.

SIDE NOTE – funny Tube story

A bunch of us were riding back to the Center on the tube. It was very hot and humid the first week we were here. A cute old man started talking to us on the Tube (which is very uncharacteristic of British people). He hadn’t ridden on the Tube for 10 years and was just coming back from Turkey where he had been giving a presentation on engineering. Anyways, a lady got on dressed in all black leather. He glances at her and nonchalantly said, “Well goodness, you’re hot.” The look on his face as he realized what he had just said was indescribable.  Immediately he tried to backtrack, “Uhh, ohh…I meant…you must be warm! With all those layers…uh…that’s right!” The entire time this was happening the lady just stared at him once and then simply looked into space. As soon as there was an empty seat she was gone. Meanwhile the 5 of us laughed til tears flowed down our cheeks. The man was so mortified, especially when Megan exclaimed, “I’m going to write about this in my journal!”

Tuesday July 3

 We had classes again because we left on Wednesday for our trip and would be gone for Thursday. Again just kind of a catch up day. I headed back to Primark to return a coat I didn’t love and ended up getting two pairs of pants and a skirt for 5 pounds each. Okay, so there is a boy on our program named Paul. And we read Twelfth Night. And She’s the Man quotes are applicable in any situation. So moral of the story is we say “nice work paul” and “come on paul, yeah, come on paul” at least 43 times a day. It rules. Because we were going to be gone on July 4, Thais cooked us steak and potatoes and we got ice cream for dessert to celebrate!

THE WEST TRIP

Wednesday July 4

At 7:15 we left for our West trip! Again an early start and sack lunches. All the Americans put lovely tattoos on their faces in honour of their special day. Our first stop after 2 and a half hours in our lovely bus was Tintern Abbey, where William Wordsworth was inspired. Super cool, super old, took lots of pictures. Off to Wales we went, where our visit consisted of stopping at a random castle to look at from far away and going to Big Pit coal mines. We all got suited up and rode the elevator down 300 ft. I was scared but I made it. The mine was worked for over 100 years. We saw the horses’ stalls and I had to duck to make it through all the doorways. Our guide was a Welshman who said “yeah” as a question after every other word he said. We were all a little unsure whether he wanted us to respond to it or not. That night we stayed in Salisbury. The group was split into three hotels, all of which were super ritzy. I roomed with Nicala. We lucked out and got the nicest room ever! We were seriously living the dream. We went to eat at a pub and I got venison pie. I was feeling daring. It came with chips (fries) and peas. And it was really good though extremely over proportioned.

Thursday July 5

For breakfast at our hotel, we all ordered our first traditional English breakfast: fried egg, toast, beans (yuck), hashbrowns, and a tomato. Random, filling, and surprisingly delicious. Today is the day I saw Stonehenge! It is right beside a highway and smaller than I expected. We once again had a picture palooza and though we only got to spend 20 minutes there, it was enough for me. The background on the computers here at the center is Stonehenge. I have been to a computer background!

Next we were off to the Roman baths in Bath, a city that is the center of a few Jane Austen novels. Apparently it was graduation for the University of Bath and super classy looking university graduates were everywhere in their cap and gowns. We each got our own handheld listening device and the exhibit was very informative. It blows my mind that all those things have survived. After the Roman Baths, we hiked up to see the Royal Crescent, a giant row of apartment/houses that is the backdrop for many a Jane Austen movie. I ate my first Cornish Pasty at Bath, chock full of steak and potatoes. It was not my favourite. Back on the bus we got to go to Tintagel, which is literally right on the coast. Our hostel was seriously 5 feet away from the coast. The nicest Scottish couple were there volunteering. The other half of the group started hiking from Tintagel while we drove to Boscastle, where we started hiking along the coast back to our hostel in Tintagel. It was literally the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my life. I want to go back right now. You couldn’t see anything but the ocean and the steep black cliffs that dropped off the hillside. The countryside beside it is full of sheep and cows and hedges that partition the fields, exactly like the movie Babe. We hiked for three hours. I bonded with basically everybody in my group. Ask anyone and they will tell you that I was having the time of my life. I was so happy to be out in that beautiful place. It was nice to get out of the city and just be in nature (as cliché as that sounds).  We made it back to Tintagel at 10, got some nice Indian food, and went back to our hostel, which was a 10 minute walk from the village. Our hostel was tiny but just perfect for one night and we got the place all to ourselves.

Friday July 6

The Jacoby family (one of my profs) made us breakfast! They are too nice! Our first stop was St. Ives, which is a coastal village full of art stores. I spent the majority of my time there frolicking on the beach. Surprisingly it was warm and sunny out. We took a lot of pictures and on our way back through the town got ice cream. Yum. My bubblegum ice cream had Smarties in it which was weird… Everywhere I’ve been in England, I always say I am going to move there, so looks like I am moving to a lot of new places….

What do you know, we got back on the bus and drove down the coast to Penzance to visit St. Michael’s Mount, a castle built on a volcanic outcropping. Again we had a picture taking frenzy on top of the castle and in the amazing gardens. There are a lot of palm trees on the West coast because the weather is so mild, which is not ever what I pictured when I think of the English coast. Because the castle is on an island, you can only walk out to it during low tide. All visitors had to be walking back to the mainland by 4:05 when high tide came in. After this we drove to Land’s End, the most southwest point on the island. As we were leaving, two cyclists rode in through a banner and were met with a cheering crowd. We all joined in the applause when suddenly one of the bikers got down on one knee and proposed! We all started whooping and hollering and now the lucky couple gets to have a bunch of random Americans in the back of all their engagement pictures. They had just biked 900 miles in 7 days from the most Northeast tip of the island. As we drove away on the bus, I started waving at them. Mind you, we were pretty far away but I just kept waving my best in the hopes that someone would notice. Well, notice they did and soon I had the entire group of about 20 people waving back at me as we drove away. Ha Ha Ha.

I lucked out and got to be a bed and breakfast called the Beachfield hotel in Penzance that night. I got a single room but was by Sarah, Abbie, Emilee, and Sarah Jane. We ate at the Boathouse Café and came back to our hotel, chilling all together journal writing and drinking hot chocolate with the rain outside and a spectacular view of the ocean. Best moment ever.

Saturday July 7

The last day of our trip we had a great continental breakfast and were on the road by 8:30 to the Eden Project. Nestled in a valley, two giant domes emerge from the landscape. They hold plants native to the Mediterranean and tropical biomes. It was cool and random. We got a great lunch that made me feel very organic.

Our last stop was at Stourhead, an estate and gardens. Because we only had time for the garden or house, I chose the garden. We saw the place in the Keira Knightly version of P&P where Darcy first professes her love to him! The gardens were amazing and huge and I even ran into some Canadian Geese. For the last time, we got on the bus and drove the 3 hours home. Our bus driver was named Kevin and we loved being able to talk about him like we knew him. All in all, the trip went by way too fast and I had so much fun, saw so many amazing things and made really funny and fun memories with the people in my group!

Henry V

All right, first off, this is where I live! It is super ritzy and so nice. I'll have to the inside some other time. 

So the next big thing we did was go to Henry V at the Globe Theatre. It was unreal. The acting was amazing and it was funnier than I thought it would be. We were a little rushed getting there (hahaha) and our seats were what are called "Groundlings", meaning we stand the entire three hours.... I think my feet were about to fall off. It was so worth it though. I couldn't help but feel like as a peasant as a I saw all the people higher up who got to sit the entire show. 

Such a tourist

I am behind on blogging. It takes a very long time to upload pictures so I try to just leave my computer open downloading all the pictures. Sickness has been invading the center. Each week a new group of kids gets it. I was in last weeks so now all I am left with is a nasty cough and a slightly runny nose. I just returned from four days on the Cornwall coast that hopefully I get around to blogging about in a couple of days. It was beyond awesome! But like I said before I am extremely behind so back to my first Tuesday in London. 

I went sightseeing with two sisters: Becca and Kristen. It's fun to be around sisters but it makes me miss mine even more. We took the Tube to Westminster (the name of the stop) and walked around seeing all the touristy things! First, Big Ben. Big Ben is actually the name of the bell inside the clock tower interestingly enough. 

I thought this was so picturesque and English with the red buses and big ben. 

Buckingham Palace

Westminster Abbey where Will and Kate got married!

Check out my hair. ha ha ha

St. Paul's Cathedral

 On Monday the 24th I was so lucky to get to see the London Symphony Orchestra play at St. Paul's Cathedral. We were in a rush to get there otherwise I totally would have brought a loaf of bread and sang "Feed the Birds" on the steps (even though that's the thing I hate most about London...the birds). It was so cool and really long. We had really great seats, the acoustics were insane, and I was sitting by my friends but still I may or may not have slept through the middle of it....

ST. PAULS!

Walking across the Millennium Bridge after the show. Check out that view!

I know, I know,  this is a super great picture of me... 

the ceiling!

Hyde Park

I literally live half a block away from Hyde Park in a really ritzy area. It is so great to just go walking in there. It is huge and has a pond full of swans, fountains, statues, Kensington Palace and bikes you can rent, where the first half hour is free! I love London already. There is so much diversity here!

In Hyde Park there is an art gallery full of Yoko Ono's work. It was super weird but I really liked the wish tree she had outside. Any visitor who wanted to wrote a wish and put it on the tree. 

Hopping the Pond

Well I have officially been in England for 5 whole days and I love it! I'm starting now to recap what I have been up to so far and, let me tell ya, it is a lot. 

This is me, all packed up and ready to go obviously, before making the trek to Calgs. Look at how adorable I am....

Me and the kid. We were super Canadian and enjoyed some Tim Horton's before my departure.

At takeoff on the plane, I almost starting freaking out, but there were small children on the flight. I thought, if they can do it, so can I...and I actually even looked at the window as we went up and it was a hoot!

Somewhere in Canada. The flight was long but not unbearable. I didn't go to the bathroom because I was in a window seat and two large men sat next to me sleeping the whole time. I know, TMI. I watched three and a half movies, including Mirror Mirror which I thoroughly enjoyed and found myself laughing out loud to. 

ENGLAND

The long creepy hallway to the Tube!

I was so happy to have no trouble getting into England and I found my luggage very easily. I got some cash and their money is colourful too! They also have one and two dollar coins. I wish I would've have taken more pics on my way over to the Center but I was just stressed that I would get lost on the Tube. It was surprisingly easy (albeit a little bit sketchy) and I got here by 12:30. As soon as I got here they forced me to go on a walk around London for one of my classes and go get an Oyster card (which is like a bus pass for the Tube).  By the time I got home at 5-ish I was sooooooooo tired. But after that first day I haven't actually been that tired from jet lag, more from just going, going, going all day long! 

Sorry for the letdown...

Okay so I had big plans to blog tonight but the wireless is being too slow so i will have to go and do it somewhere else. At least I tried! I'll fill you in on some other stuff too. So I am 7 hours ahead of home, which really hasn't phased me yet. We get breakfast and supper every day and we can make ourselves a sandwich for lunch or go to a store/restaurant. I have class every Monday and Thursday from 9 to 12. We are going on our first big trip to Canterbury and Dover tomorrow! All of the girls are soooo nice and we are all friends already. I have been eating way too much bread...hahaha. I love London. It's very hard to describe but it's nothing like I expected. Today I hit all the big sites: Big Ben (which is actually the name of the bell inside the tower), parliament, Westminster Abbey, and Buckingham Palace. I also saw the London Eye from far away. Some people from my group rode on it for 18 pounds and loved it! There are so many different people and languages all around and the Tube is a hoot!