Days 86-89: What Up, Newport?

Monday: 

Oh, Monday, Monday, Monday… the last Monday of this semester. I woke up to my alarm and I did not want to get out of bed- I was so fast asleep. Ugh. So, I got up, rather grudgingly, woke Kalie up (who apparently was having a weird dream and tried to swat me… haha), and got ready for my Modern Middle East final. And… well, let’s just say my studying went a long way and I finished writing 3 essays in an hour and a half and felt very, very confident about them. So, let’s hope my grades reflect the work. After that? Well… I was DONE! No more finals. Just hanging around and packing until I go home. Woohoo! So I watched a Christmas movie with Kalie, then relaxed a bit before going out for some last minute trinket shopping with my roomie, then returned home, socialized a bit, went downstairs for dinner (I actually ate pizza with sauce and enjoyed it… what has the world come to?), and then proceeded to hang in the kitchen and socialize with a bunch of people for 3.5 hours. And it was awesome. I like this whole not having anything to do thing, especially when other people are free as well and not all-consumed by studying and procrastinating. After chatting for a bit, I headed back upstairs for a little relaxation and movie time before bed. All in all? A lovely Monday. Never thought I’d say that…

Tuesday: 

So, after being unable to fall asleep until 3:30 in the morning, I passed out and ignored my alarm this morning. I finally got out of bed around 11:15, feeling a little more refreshed than my slightly delirious moment at 3 am when Kalie came in. At least I was coherent when we spoke last night… Anyhow, having missed my gym hours due to a desire to sleep in, I decided to get packing so I didn’t have to deal with it on Wednesday. Good news? I’m bringing a bunch home so I should have a lighter suitcase coming back. And I should be able to pack everything up at the end of second semester without a problem. Bad news? My suitcase is freaking heavy and I couldn’t get all the stuff I wanted to bring back due to the amount of space that xmas presents took up. Oh well. Hopefully it won’t go over the weight limit… that would make me cry a little inside. After packing, I hung out with Kalie in the room while she continued packing up. Bah, craziness. I couldn’t imagine packing everything up right now. No thank you. After packing, or almost finishing up Kalie’s packing, we took a breather and relaxed before going to dinner (and braving the cold) at Byron’s for the second to last group dinner this semester. Craziness! But, at least we got delicious burgers. And I am continuing to add to my waistline with crazy amounts of food. Ugh, salad time when I get home, thank you very much. After dinner, we headed back to the house, where quite a few people continued studying and I bounced around the house and socialized, and then watched a movie because I really had nothing better to do with my time. At least tomorrow I’ll get some last minute shopping in and keep myself occupied and get out of the house. Woohoo! 

Wednesday: 

I got up early today to go out shopping with Diana and Katie. We split up when they decided to go back to the house after getting all their souvenirs. Me? Well, I had a few little adventures I wanted to have first, so I hopped on the tube and dropped by Piccadilly Circus to get my final souvenirs for people, and then walked to Leicester Square to get a picture of the Christmas tree before it’s taken down. After battling the bitter cold, I headed back to the house, finished up my packing and last minute things, made a list so I wouldn’t forget anything Thursday morning, relaxed a bit, and then got ready for the group trip to the London Eye and dinner. The Eye was quite fun at night with the group, and then dinner afterwards wasn’t half bad.  I didn’t have high expectations, so it was way better than I figured it would be. After dinner and good conversation with a group of people I didn’t normally hang with, we got a huge group (finally!!) to hit up a bar. We ended up at the new favorite, Trafalgar, and it was quite a bit of fun with everyone there. And the bartender rememebered me… I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, but at least I’ll have a friend when I get back next semester. Wow… that’s so weird to say. We’re done with this semester! Walking back was so strange- I can’t believe I’m leaving London. This place has become a home. I can totally understand how people fall in love and stay here… Anyhow, at least I get to come back in a month and fall in love again!

Thursday: 

Leaving London... of course it was sunny.

After an eventful night and very little sleep, I growled at my alarm when it alerted me to the time. So I put the finishing touches on packing, stripped my bed sheets, cleaned up a bit, grabbed a really quick breakfast and consumed it in a slightly monstrous way when I realized I was running behind, and finally made my way to the Tube station with Craig and Sarah. 50 pound bags and lots of stairs? Not really my thing. But whatever. We managed it, got through the airport, dealt with our bags (I had to remove 3 shoes from mine to get it underweight, and it was still slightly over but I think the woman was so exasperated with me that she just let it slide), got through security, enjoyed a quick breakfast at Giraffe, and then got some snacks for the plane. As Craig was purchasing his, I realized that our gate was closing (that would happen, considering we’d given ourselves adequate time), so we dashed to our gate, and hopped on our bus. I have to say, I think we were both delirious that it was just a hilarious moment. Well, Craig was stressed… I was cracking up. Oh well, we made it onto the plane, I had a window seat and the middle seat was left open, leaving a bit of space between me and the Athenian guy that smelled funny and was looking at naked girls in a magazine. Brilliant plane partner right there. After consuming my sandwich and a couple glasses of wine, I managed to nap intermittently until the last 3 hours of the flight. I passed those with a few tv shows (including my absolute favorite episode of How I Met Your Mother- too bad Elise wasn’t there to share it) and the movie Big (Tom Hanks is so young!).

And home! Nothing really changed :) But I got flowers...

As we began descending, the Greek guy started making casual conversation and took the middle seat before finally asking for my number. I informed him that phones were too expensive and that I didn’t have one. He moved back to the aisle seat. After landing, I went through the intense amounts of security and customs checked, got my bag, and met my mom and sister, who were waiting with flowers! Such a lovely welcome. The ride back was filled with traffic and it was so strange because it was as though nothing had changed and that I had never left… it was all so familiar, like London had just been a really good dream. So glad that I get to go back. Anyhow, I reached home, enjoyed some conversation with the family, changed, and then hit up a dinner of real Mexican food, followed my some champagne with the family, and then a beautiful crash-out in my own bed, in my own bedroom. What up, California? I’m back. 

Days 79-85: Study, Study to Party, Party

Monday-Tuesday:

Bday dinner (yes, the picture is early in the blog)

 So, this update probably will be severely lacking in any sort of awesomeness. Why? Because we have reached home stretch, people! We've got less than 2 weeks in the semester here in London before "London Calling" turns into "California Love." Yes, I know, just referenced two polar opposite songs. The world will get over it eventually. Anyhow, this week... Well, let's just say it's pre-finals week, with the added bonus of actually having a final on Friday... a day that we don't normally have classes. Yeah, gotta love that nonsense. So anyhow, the week began, Monday, early morning, with a severe lack of breakfast foods (thank goodness I have developed a fondness for small bowls of cornflakes), then an hour-late teacher for Modern Middle East, in which we were alerted to our 3-essay final to be completed in 3 hours. Yeah, that sounds like a grand load of fun, now doesn't it? Please, note the sarcasm that develops at 1am in the morning (since I'm writing it now so I don't forget the extraordinary amount of awesome things that occurred this week... again, sarcasm). 

Anyhow, after Middle East, I hit the gym, came back for a small lunch of leftover food, then Fine Arts class in which we visited "Treasures From Budapest", which was actually a pretty cool exhibition with this quirky little British guy that led it- a bit lengthy, and man, could that guy talk, but it was interesting. We battled the cold, and a bunch of people for places on the buses, on the way back since there was yet another Tube strike, and I grabbed a sandwich on the way home considering my severe lack of food items. Yes, I have become extremely lazy in the whole buying-food aspect of my life. I'd rather scrounge around or eat people's leftovers that actually battle a 15/20 minute walk in the cold to the most reasonably-priced market. Sue me. Anyhow, that night concluded with a complete lack of motivation (since I spent all of Sunday working on Humanities notes) but after a little persuasion from my mother via skype, I was coerced into sitting down and actually getting my Modern Middle East preparation out of the way. Yeah, I have to say that I am slightly happy with this forced bout of productivity, because honestly, now I have a little less to stress over later this week. 

Tuesday was nothing remarkable- it FINALLY snowed, so that was a fun way to wake up, and then fall back asleep. I got up for a breakfast burrito made my Sinjin (see, look at me being awful and stealing people's food. I really should learn how to contribute...), then hit up our last convo of the semester, and then proceeded to "forget" about the last museum visit for Humanities and go to the gym and study instead. I consider it a fair trade. While some people were battling the cold, I was running on a treadmill reading about the Council of Trent and comparing Renaissance versus Baroque versions of the statue David. Welcome to the rest of my week- it's going to be lots of studying. After the gym, I ran back up to my room, watched a movie, did some more studying, watched another movie in parts while studying and doing sit-ups in between, went down to Taco Night dinner as prepared by our house family (yum) then ran back upstairs for some more studying, a little chatting, followed by even more studying, and then a warm shower to get away from the awful coldness that is Kalie's and my room (thank you badly-sealed windows). I have a feeling that I'm going to get to know my desk and chair very, very well this week. Oh well- bring on the studying! 

Wednesday:

So, Wednesday began with a slightly larger breakfast than Monday, some reviewing in Middle East (thank goodness I already got those notes done- it made adding to them during class so much more efficient and stress-free), then I took the break between classes to hit the gym and study Trent and the Davids some more (I like this whole gym and studying thing- I feel super productive, although it sucks when the guy next to me has God-awful BO. Seriously, it's called deodorant. Bring it to the gym if you sweat that much.). This was followed by a quick lunch of apples and almonds, a little more studying for the humanities final, a review for my humanities presentation, and then Humanities class itself where I gave my presentation with Kelsey on Holbein and the Dance of Death engravings (actually very interesting, albeit dark, pieces of art). Last project- DONE. Beautiful thing. Anyhow, Humanities was followed by a short breather and dinner, before, yes, you guessed it- more studying for the humanities final essays on Friday. Geez. Long week already? Yeah, you're telling me. But I am going to get these subjects memorized so I don't have to stress when writing the essay at all. My goal's to make the information flow seamlessly from brain to pen to paper. Yeah, watch me rock that eloquence. Again... midnight blogging = probably not the best idea. Oh well. At least I got to watch a movie or two in-between study sessions... That's always the nice thing about starting the studies early. Lots of break times, especially once the info is ingrained on my mind. I'd better do well on this thing. I'm actually ready for Friday to come around just so I can be done with it... and then start studying for Middle East essays. Ugh. Whatever. Time to hit the warm bed in preparation for an earlier morning of gym and studying. Woohoo? I think not, but we can pretend. 

Thursday:

Putting the birthday pictures earlier in this account
so I can post more...

So, I actually woke up a decent hour (probably due to the fact that I've been going to bed a decent hours when the studying bores me too much), and I was all for getting out of bed and going to the gym until I saw the lovely ayer of snow covering the ground. My reaction? Way to pretty to tromp across in running shoes. So I enjoyed the warmth of my bed and about 20 interruptions from people in the house who were trying to get together a massive snow ball fight. Yes, I was slightly antisocial and decided not to partake, but I actually needed to get up and start some more studying. Why? Because I want to do well on my finals. I'll have all of January when I come back to this amazing place to build the greatest snowman ever. And it shall be built. Possibly. I might just make a smallish one and say it was the greatest. We'll see. Anyhow, after starting my day, I realized my ipod wasn't charged and I'd have to wait for the gym to reopen (they have awful hours for us Pepperdine people) anyhow. Awesome. So, well, I just began studying again. I swear, "study" defines my life today. But at least I've got another movie buffering for a nice break.... haha. Whatever. I'm going to own Humanities from all this preparation! But seriously, the council of Trent has literally become my mind. And don't get me started on Renaissance versus Baroque Davids. Anyhow, after a bit of studying I headed downstairs, realized I had no food, came back upstairs and ate half a bag of goldfish, came back and took a small break from the studies and watched my movie while doing situps (cause I decided that I didn't want to brave the cold and go to the gym), reviewed a bit more, had a late dinner of a bagel I found (super healthy, I know. I wear I'm buying apples tomorrow), and once again made it to bed by a decent hour. Final tomorrow? Totally ready! Let's go! 

Friday:

So, I got up early, did a quick review while eating a deliciously nutritious breakfast of a bagel, and then hit up my Humanities exam. All that studying? Excellent. I flew through the 2 essays, felt confident in my writing, and was able to hit up the gym after I finished with an hour and a half to spare. Lovely. I’m going to remember this whole don’t-procrastinate on studying tactic. Anyhow, after the gym I enjoyed a quick snack-food lunch of whatever I could find, a little relaxation, before Kalie and I braved the snow to mail a letter and check out some souvenir shops. We got back to the house and I finally ran to the convenience store to get myself more food (Ritz crackers and apples, anyone? Oh yeah.), then settled into my freezing room, wrapped the covers around me, and watched What Women Want until dinner at the Mexican cantina we found! Yum yum carne asada. After that delicious and extremely filling meal, most of the group went out. Surprise, surprise. I went out with a smaller group to a new bar that I hadn’t yet gone too, and Jenny came with us! Finally, we got her to go out. We didn’t stay at the bar very long, because most of us wanted to get back and study a bit more, which kind of happened once I got home. I got one round of looking over my notes in before I was distracted by conversation, then realized it was 1 am in the morning. So, deciding the studying could wait til tomorrow, I crashed out in my lovely, warm bed.

Saturday: 

I actually set my alarm for a decent hour today, and due to the fact that I’ve been getting adequate sleep, I woke up before it at 9. So I got to relax in bed for a bit before I got up, grabbed some breakfast and then hit up the gym for a workout and some studying. I came back, realized someone forgot to put the breakfast food away, got a free lunch (woohoo! Free food!), had some nice conversation in the kitchen, then headed upstairs for a quick mental break before I hit up the studying again and basically got my Middle East stuff memorized! Well, actually, I’m feeling very, very confident in it, yeah… very happy about this. Again, the whole not-procrastinating-and-study-at-the-gym thing? Fantastic discovery. It works extremely well. It’s got this whole lovely no-stress thing about it. Anyhow, after my second round of studying I took another study break and watched Jungle 2 Jungle (oh old Tim Allen movies), got ready for tonight, had another quick study session, then hit up dinner for some American BBQ. So good. After dinner? Well, we hit up the park for some mimosas in the cold weather, then made a move to Trafalgar bar to ring in my birthday! Cosmos and champagne! I feel like such a girl, and I’m loving it. It was a fantastic night! The whole ringing in 20 years thing? Well… let’s just say I can’t believe I’m not a teen anymore. And we’ll leave it at that.  But the night itself was lovely. All the guys were gentlemen and bought me drinks, as did my roomie (who also put up a lovely sign on my wall wishing me happy birthday). After Trafalgar we ran around London for a bit, got back to the house, climbed up on the roof and chilled there until it got too cold, then I went back inside and had a lovely skype date with one of my best friends, and then bed! All in all? A lovely way to ring in number 20!

Sunday:

I got to sleep in until 10:30 today, which was absolutely lovely. I spent the morning in a very lazy manner, staying in bed to watch a movie. After the movie I went over my notes, realized that I had my 3 essays for tomorrow memorized… which means… I’m done studying! Gotta love that. Anyhow, after the movie I uploaded my photos from last night (thanks to Nick for being a fantastic documenter of the evening, although he did drop my camera…). And I have to say, they are a fantastic bunch of photos. This took a while, because facebook decided to be a little jerk and take forever, so I chatted with my friend Emily for a bit while it had it’s temper tantrum, then I ran downstairs for a little socializing, which was followed by a run back upstairs to skype the family! This was followed by, well, another movie. Because honestly- everyone else in the house is studying so I just decided to give myself a super lazy birthday. It was weird. It didn’t really feel like a birthday, probably because of how calm and quiet this place was- but no matter. I’ll be home soon… and maybe the parents will have an ice cream cake waiting… just a thought… After my movie, I decided to forgo the gym, went over my notes again just because I felt like I needed to study a little, and then had dinner- carne asada prepared by Sinjin.Yumyum. I’ve got such amazing friends here. After that? Well, some more laziness, actually. Whatever. I can go out tomorrow and be productive after my final. 

Days 72-78: In Which Music Rings and the Literary World Returns

Monday:
So I'd just like to say that I'm very proud of myself for keeping up this blog. Seriously, though, I haven't been this consistent with any sort of writing since earlier in the summer when I locked myself in my room each night for a week straight and finished writing a novel so that I could send it off to my friends to edit it... and then I forgot to send it off. So even that bit of continuous productivity ended on somewhat of a major fail ("Major fail"... sorry, How I Met Your Mother moment). Anyhow, with that aside, let us come to Monday! I was very, very excited for this date. Not, as anyone scholarly might hope, because it was the start of a new week of classes, but because of what was happening after the classes. That was... Anberlin concert! Now, I have to give a little background. Anberlin was the first band I ever saw live. When I saw them, a good 7 years ago, they were this no-name band with one album out and opening for Hawthorne Heights at the OC Fairgrounds. I was absolutely blown away by their performance- and they quickly became my absolute favorite band and remain so today. So, when I heard that Anberlin was coming to London, and then when I heard that Hawthorne Heights was opening for them, I decided that I had to go and see them. When I realized how unbelievably reasonable the ticket prices were, I was sold. I got together a group of 5 other people, we purchased our tickets, and eagerly waited for Monday to come around.

So, I went to my classes on Monday, hit the gym, then went to my other art class, and with the concert group we made it to My Old Dutch a bit before the main group in order to get our food quickly. Yeah, My Old Dutch kind of fails on the whole "fast service" thing. After waiting a good amount of time for our takeaway, we finally got it (now running way behind schedule) and ran after a bus. Seriously... ran after it. It was one of those that still has the open back, and we literally bolted after it and jumped on as it was stopping, then jumped off at our destination and booked it back to the house to drop off our food. I haven't had such an exhilaratingly fun run in a long time. It was hilarious dashing through London streets to our house, gaining the astonished (and sometimes disapproving) looks of those people we flew by. So, after this mad run we got our stuff and headed off to the tube, got to our destination, found the venue, and hopped in line to get our tickets. We really only missed the opening band, and they were definitely an opening band for a reason... I bought a glass of wine while I waited for the screeching to cease.

After the opening band, Hawthorne Heights came on and gave a typical performance. I'd seen them a few times before- they've got some good songs, some okay songs, but they put on a good show due to an abundance of charisma. So, they were entertaining to watch, and it definitely brought me right back into junior high when I was way more obsessed with the band. After HH, we squished further in and actually got right up against the railing and in front of the stage (I had to, of course, for Anberlin!). We waited here for the set change, got a picture of the set list (and danced happily when we realized how many fantastic songs were going to be played), and then cheered along with everyone else when the band finally came onstage. Seriously... I love that band. They put on such an amazing show, and the lead singer is probably one of the most down to earth people I've met.

So, we got shoved around in the bit as the crazy Londoners moshed behind us, and sang along (well I did) to every song like the crazy fan I am. Yes, I realize that sentence was grammatically "special" but you get the gist. This was the first show I've been to in a while and it was kind of nice listening to some live music again, especially considering the fact that I knew every song and really, really enjoyed seeing the band. They played a nice list (although didn't play my favorite song...) and then came on for a finale that was unbelievably beautiful. It's this one song where they have a choir singing in the background (so of course they just had this playing) but it sounded brilliant. After the concert I was filled with such an unbelievable contentment. Seriously- there is something amazing about going and seeing a band that you love. I ran into the lead singer of Hawthorne Heights as I was leaving and we bonded over the fact that we were American. I think he was pleasantly surprised when I mentioned their concert (7 years ago) was the first show I'd ever been to.

After the show, we waited in the cold for a bit to see if Anberlin would come out and chat, but apparently they were having a beer before doing so (I don't blame them- it was freezing), we we left to make the Tube, still on an excitement high. We got back to the house at a fairly decent hour and I spent a bit of time looking over pictures, skyping, before falling into my amazingly warm bed. I swear, those beds are made of Heaven. But really...

Tuesday-Wednesday: 
I decided that my Heaven-made bed was way too comfortable for me to get out of on Tuesday, so instead of going to the gym like I normally do, I turned my alarm off and slept in until Convo instead. And it felt fantastic. This day was met with a museum visit for class in which I did a small presentation, then came back, relaxed, and then had group dinner. The evening was finished off with some laziness and a movie. Gotta love it. Wednesday... well, honestly, this week is blending with last week. Way too much repetition. But seriously... I went to class, gym, group dinner (although I don't remember where), and then I did something that night. I don't really remember what, though. I just know it was cold and I didn't go outside. I think I might have started my writing on Wednesday night... Wow, memory fail, much? But yeah... I'm pretty sure that I sat down and just started writing again, and it was absolutely fantastic!

Thursday:

I remember this day much better. I got up early and went to an American service at St. Paul's Cathedral, which was absolutely beautiful. It was an amazing experience, although being in that church was SO COLD. I swear, we were sitting there with teeth chattering and chills running through our bodies because of that crazy London wind running through the church. Definitely time to break out the big jackets. After church I headed back to the house, and enjoyed an extremely lazy afternoon glued to a chair seat working on one of my novels. It felt so good to be back in my writing mode. I can't even explain how much I wrote that day. I almost completely forgot to eat because I was so immersed in my fictional world and characters. But I loved every minute of it. So, I wrote for hours and hours, got a few chapters out, and then realized it was time to get ready for Thanksgiving dinner.

As I was getting ready, Kalie got to open her birthday present early, so we got extremely excited over the large amount of food that came out of the package. After such, we went to the group dinner (which also included the law kids, families, invited friends, faculty, etc). It was quite fun, I got to see one of my Theta sisters who was visiting, I met my cousin's friend, met some other law students, and then enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner with my friends. Obviously not as great as being with my family (and my aunt's jello thing... haha), but it was still fun and decent enough food. I can't complain. After dinner (and taking a large amount of dinner mints from all the tables... I couldn't help myself), a group of us headed back towards the house in preparation to get ready to go out for the evening. We ended up hitting up a bar called Trafalgar, which has now become a new favorite due to a pretty cool atmosphere and very fun drinks. I got my first Cosmo, and yes, I did feel very girly and just like I stepped out of Sex and the City. After this bar, we jumped over to Janet's, and were happy to see that Janet herself wasn't there (because apparently she's kicked out multiple Pepperdine students) and hung out there for a bit until we headed back home. Oh, and I received a chocolate turkey in the mail this day. Greatest turkey surprise ever.

Friday:

I got to sleep in on Friday (finally), and made it a lazy morning, with a lunch of convenience store food before I made it to the gym. After getting back, what did I do? Oh, right, I made friends with my desk again and started writing. Ah! I swear, once I get into a writing mode, there's no stopping me. And of course it would happen to me during finals. No motivation to work at all, but that's okay, cause even my mom encouraged me to be creative and postpone the humanities that lurked. I had all weekend, anyhow. So I once again introduced myself to my characters and chugged along, popping out a few more chapters, developing some more plot twists, and making notes on a few other story ideas that I've had over the past few days. I had forgotten how much I loved writing. But I am no longer ignorant to the fact- I am once again in love and motivated and possibly becoming a hermit because I am writing so darn much. Oh well. I guess this is what happens when one wants to become an author. Now I just have to be more consistent about it. And get a more comfortable chair...

After quite a bit of writing, I decided that it was time for an old favorite- so I called up Peter and Diana and we got comfy on my bed and turned on The Italian Job. Can I please say how much I love that movie? Yeah, it's kind of my favorite, and it was a great break from writing. Some fast-paced MINI chases, Venice heists, and a great cast of characters? You can't beat it. After finishing the movie I let my friends run off to actually be productive and I got in a little more writing before realizing that I should probably eat dinner and be a little less of a sweats-wearing monster. I finished the night off with some more writing inspired by good rock music in the background. Definitely one of my laziest, and yet most fun, days.

Saturday:

Before bed on Friday I decided to sticky-note Kalie's side of the room with birthday stickies, so when she came in she'd have a little bday surprise. Apparently one got stuck to her head the following morning. Happy birthday? haha. What a way to wake up. While she was downstairs, I hit up the gym and then dropped by the convenience store and bought some balloons. I hastily blew them up and threw them around the room, so while I was showering she came back to another small surprise. Why not? We can't make birthdays as extravagant here, but we might as well have a little fun with them. Before we all decided to go to Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park, I dropped by Ben's cookies and got a non-white-chocolate-filled 2 cookies for my birthday girl roomie and dropped the third surprise of the day (although I got one of my own when I walked into the room and was unintentionally mooned. We had a good laugh over that one). Hopefully it helped make the day a little more special, considering we're away from home and all. After this, we headed off to Hyde Park, all bundled up against the London cold.

Winter Wonderland was like a winter fair... lots of food, rides, lights, people, and the likes. We grabbed some hotdogs from one of the German huts, cider from another, and walked around for a bit until he got dark and became so ungodly in the coldness that we were all purple and shivering and decided to peace out before we froze. We made it back to the house, warmed up a bit, Cameron made paella for dinner, and then we finally got re-bundled up, hit the park for a little pregaming, and then headed back to Trafalgar for Kalie's birthday celebration. It was quite a fun night, with lots of silly drinks, good conversation, and finally the bar staff asking us to leave because they were supposed to have closed 15 minutes prior. We headed back out into the cold, grabbed some snacks at the 24 hour convenience store for the boys, and then got back to the house. I got some mac'n'cheese from Nick, who was making a 1am snack, and then I headed up to bed and had the most hilarious time putting my birthday roommate to bed. Seriously, one of the greatest experiences ever. And we've got birthday round 2 next week!

Sunday:
Today was a very lazy, but at least slightly productive, day. I slept in once again, made myself a small lunch, and then stopped my procrastination in order to get my humanities out of the way. I swear, I got distracted so easily for the many hours that I worked on it. I finally took a break and went out to dinner with Sinjin and Cameron, then came back to the house, finished up my outline for the final, and heaved a huge sigh of relief. It was actually slightly painful working on that day. But at least it's done! Afterwards, I uploaded pictures (only a week or two late... oops), and then wrote up this pretty thing. Now? Well, now it's time to crash out, because I want a good night's sleep before this last full week of classes. What a crazy thought...

Days 65- 71: Wicked Witches and Magic Wands

Monday- Tuesday:

I think this was the first time that "getting back into the groove of things" wasn't as nice. After all my other trips, I had a kind of yearning to return to the London house and see everyone and jump back into "school" but after Switzerland I definitely had a sense of longing for home and a complete lack of desire to go to class or do any sort of work. So, naturally, when all of our assignments were, well, assigned, this new mentality wasn't the most helpful. Regardless of such, I managed to comprehend the massive amount of papers that were due (we finally were given work- craziness. It's like we're in school or something...) and go on with the day, finishing up with group dinner, gym between classes, and some hanging out. Tuesday was met with a little bit of sleeping in, a trip to the gym, purchase of a few apples (because I have absolutely no food in this house and really need to run to the market and buy some), convo, a museum visit, an early trip to Byron's for dinner before Wicked! Yes, a large group of us decided to see the amazing musical, and although I saw it with my family a few years earlier it was still absolutely fantastic to see again. I can't wait to get a few more shows in next semester!

Wednesday:
Wednesday was probably my most productive day this year. Of course, that's not saying much considering the fact that I rarely have any sort of work to do... but let's make it sound like it's an accomplishment. Again, class, gym, more class, and then a veto on group dinner since I've been to Beirut Express a few too many times this semester. Instead, I made a delicious dinner of... well, scrounging around and eating whatever food I could find. I'm pretty sure it ended up being something along the lines of an English muffin, an apple, and some almonds. Right... maybe I should have gone to group dinner. Oh well. Dinner was followed by that large bout of productivity I mentioned earlier. Earlier in the week, we were given most of our final assignments. For me, that meant a paper/quick presentation comparing and contrasting a medieval piece of art with a renaissance piece of artwork, some intense questions on the movie Paradise Now, a 1500 word write up on an artist of choice (within the given eras of study) and a piece by him/her, a 1000 word write-up on an art exhibition we've seen this year (I chose the Grace Kelly one), and a project in which we choose an art piece and make a presentation on how it was inspired by religion or politics. So, Wednesday night, I sat down and decided to just get everything done and finished with so I would only have to worry about my finals come the last week of classes. And, I actually accomplished such a feat! I'm kind of excited about this factor- it wasn't even that painful writing on everything, especially considering many of the papers were based on topics of choice, so I had some interest invested in the pieces I was writing on. Anyhow, got all that work done, finished rather late, but I finished!

Thursday:

Thursday I got to go riding in Hyde Park once again with Carrie. And it was a lovely day! Rainy in the morning, but the sun was out by the time we began our walk over to the stables. I swear, we've had such good luck with our riding days. Anyhow, once I got to the stables I was assigned my favorite horse in the barn- Zack, once again, who is normally ridden by the trainer. Yes, I did feel special being given the trainer's horse. What can I say? Anyhow, Carrie and I were allowed o go off on our own once again and trotted and cantered the trails of Hyde Park. I swear, it's still kind of surreal... I can't believe I'm doing all these amazing things this semester! I've definitely done more in the last 2.5 months of my life than in the past 2.5 years. After riding, I got back to the house, took a small break, hit the gym, then relaxed in the house until a few of us decided to go back to the Rocket. We were only there for a bit until the Lausanne kids arrived, and so we left the Rocket and met up with them at their hostel. It was kind of cool seeing a bunch of people (that I normally meet up with in other places, such as Paris of Barcelona) in my own home city! We ran around for a bit that night, showed them the London house, and then retired for the evening.

Friday:

Harry Potter with my Twin!

Friday I got to sleep in for a bit, until some of the Lausanne kids appeared at the London house and I was assigned a your guide position. So, I took them through Piccadily Circus and the more touristy areas (which are really quite a fantastic sight to see) before we headed off to the Odeon theater for Harry Potter! Yes, Harry Potter in London... such a fantastic thing. It was great standing in front of the theater and seeing the crazy amounts of people from different programs that arrived. I got to see so many friends that I haven't seen since I left Pepperdine last April! And the movie itself was absolutely wonderful! All in all? A fantastic experience!

After the movie, some of the groups split up to do a few museum visits. Considering that I visit museums on a weekly basis, I headed back to the house and got in my gym visit. When the Lausanne kids arrived at the house again, I took a group of them our to dinner, which ended up just being a random trip our where people bought food from a variety of places (the pub was way too crowded to get our large group in for Fish and Chips). After this, we met up with the rest of the group in the park, where they'd been hanging out for quite a while already. So, the groups split again as group 1 decided to head off to a bar and the group I'd taken out wanted to chill in the park for a bit more. We hung out here for a while before we headed out to meet the other group at Freud's. Here we split off again, me going home with a few people (and losing my scarf. So irritated that this happened... I swear, how does a scarf fall off without me noticing?!). Apparently the rest of the group did some massive bar-hopping and didn't get back til about 4 in the morning. Honestly? Woo, way too late for me after all the moving around we'd been doing the past two days.

Saturday- Sunday:
We started off this day on a slower manner, considering the late hour that so many people got in. After watching a movie and enjoying the raining morning, some more of the Lausanne people came back and wanted to grab fish and chips and go to Camden. So, why not? Kalie and I got back into tour guide mode and took them to the Black Cap before exploring Camden for a small amount of time. After this, the Lausanne kids broke off to go to their play and Kalie and I returned to the house. We hung out here for a bit, watched a Christmas movie and got giddily excited for Christmas (regardless of the fact that it hasn't even been Thanksgiving yet), and then hung out with the Lausanne kids when they came back from their play. At this point it was already around 11:30, so I stayed and hung out in the kitchen with Nick and enjoyed the most fantastic pasta that he made for a very late dinner while Kalie went back out with some of the Lausanne kids. They all returned and partook in the consuming of Nick's pasta (seriously... that kid knows how to cook), we enjoyed some conversation, before they all left to go back to their hostel. After saying our goodbyes, I decided to crash out.

It was a weird sleep... Kalie came in like an hour later, then some random chick popped in way too early in the morning. I think she must have been a DG from the way she and Kalie were conversing... lots of excitement for such an early hour. We both crashed back out after the girl left and didn't end up waking up until WAY later than normal. After I finally pulled myself out of bed, I grabbed some lunch, headed to the gym, edited my middle east paper, watched the movie 21, did laundry, hung out in the kitchen and helped Nick while he prepared this amazing chicken piccata for a few of us hungry kids, then headed back upstairs to finish off my movie while waiting for a Breaking Bad session with Craig. All in all? A pretty awesome day, and definitely a nice way to finish off the weekend!

Days 58-64: A Taste of Home

Monday- Wednesday:

Monday proceeded like, well, most Mondays. Modern history of the Middle East, followed by a gym visit, followed by lunch and then my Fine Arts class, which was then, followed by dinner at Da Mario’s where I got a delicious pizza. That evening was pretty quite, since my friend and I weren’t actually able to go out, and so I popped in a movie, relaxed, and made it an earlier evening.

Tuesday got a lovely bit of sleeping in, then I hit the gym before convocation at 12:30. After that I went to my museum visit class, came back to the house and relaxed for a bit, before we all headed out to dinner at Wagamamas (they are seriously obsessed with taking us to that place. I mean, I like Asian food… but not that much!) Tuesday night was once again quiet, with some hanging out, some working on my Middle East presentation, and then bed once I realized that it was actually far later than I’d planned on staying up. I know- my life is wild. But not really…

Wednesday I woke up for class, then ran off to the gym afterwards. This was followed by a quick lunch of leftover fried rice before I ran upstairs and got ready for my equestrian lesson. It was a perfect day to go riding, considering that it had been raining this weekend and both Monday and Tuesday. Carrie and I got to the stables, I was put on a fat pony called Troy, who decided that he wanted to be very uppity and silly. So, the trainer (who has started respecting Carrie and me as riders so much more), sent me ahead of the group to just work that little horse until he was sweaty. No problem for me. I took him to the huge stretch, did some warm up trotting, and then let him move into a canter and finally an all-out gallop. It was so exhilarating- seriously- I had a fantastic ride. And that pony could move! When the trainer finally met up with me, Carrie and I did a bit of a slower canter (Troy was still full of energy), and then we finished up the ride through the main Hyde Park trail. After riding, I went to my Humanities class and then we headed out to our Indian food place for a delicious dinner. Dinner was followed by packing and then a quick outing with the group to Freud’s, although I left early as I’m not too fond of the place- loud music, squishy, and expensive drinks. Not really my thing. I kind of want to explore some more, like we did the first month and a half, and find some more fun places! Why not? There’s really no point in returning to the same bar night after night. Let’s kick the repetitious cycle and brave the city, mmk London group? Okay, good. After returning home, I chatted with Sinjin and then Kalie when she got back, and then went to bed in preparation for my weekend in Switzerland!

Thursday:

Cooking soup!

So, in hopes of being a very active and healthy individual, I set my alarm for 7:45 am to go to the gym. Upon that heinous creature going off and pulling me from a very excellent dream about Mexican food (no joke… I was dreaming about food), I sat up, looked outside, and merely glowered at the wind and the rain and the absolute coldness of the weather, rolled over, and reset my alarm for 9. Yeah, laziness totally prevailed. So, feeling slightly more awake the second time my alarm went off, I proceeded to get ready slowly, finish packing up while simultaneously praying to my backpack’s temperamental zipper to be quiet so I wouldn’t wake up my sleeping roommate, and run downstairs to print my ticket and get breakfast. Except… apparently they start putting breakfast away 10 minutes earlier than mentioned. That was kind of a bummer, considering my ravenous hunger and lack of food. Whatever. I printed my tickets out, hurtled back upstairs, and was happy to see that I actually had a decent amount of time before my scheduled point of departure from the house. When 11 came around, I threw the last few things into my backpack, which was packed rather efficiently if I do say so myself, quietly left the room while wishing I was still asleep like my roomie, and left the house on my next adventure: to Switzerland! Correction, to Chateau D’oex, my second favorite place in the world. Seriously, though. 

Thus began a day of extensive traveling. I jumped on the tube, go to the train station at King’s Cross, found my train, hopped on that one, got a shuttle bus to the airport, made it to my plane with plenty of time (go me for good planning. My family would be so proud), and sat through an hour and a half flight with a little napping and some good music on my ipod. After disembarking, I wandered to an ATM, swore at it when it gave me a 100 pound franc note instead of smaller ones, said bonjour to a few people that gave me weird looks (probably for being so giddily happy in the Geneva airport), and found the train station. After talking to a very nice man with a strong French accent who thought I was funny for knowing my train time but not my platform number, I made it to Platform 3, waited a bit, and hopped on my first train. I jumped off at Montreaux, used my 3 minute window to run to Platform 5 (while praying that I was headed to the correct train), jumped on that baby just as the doors were closing, and proceeded to spend the next hour really hoping I’d gotten on the correct train. I’ll admit, I prayed a bit at this point, since it was the last leg of my journey. Of course, I graced the train members with a massive smile when “Chateau D’oex” appeared on the announcement screen, and all was good. I grabbed my stuff, opened my umbrella, and stepped out into the night in one of the most wonderful places in the world. 

At this point, I wasn’t exactly sure where I was, since I’d never entered this area from this direction, but I was too happy to really care. So, when my mind told me I should go left, I went right because my sense of direction is normally fairly skewed. And, believe it or not, that was the correct direction! So proud of myself for not listening to my first thoughts. Once I passed one of the tourist shops I knew exactly where I was going, and so I pretty much sang and skipped my way down the long street, all the way up the way-too-long hill to our apartment, all in the cold and rain. But honestly… it really wasn’t that awful of a walk, because I was

So. Freaking. Happy.

I can’t explain it… the happiness… just consumed me. I can’t remember the last time I was this happy… but it was probably the first time I skyped my parents after being in London, or finding out that I get to go home for Christmas and see everyone. I don’t know. It was one of the monumental moments. All I know if that I need this break and the appearance of that apartment made my heart dance and sing and probably do all sorts of crazy happy things.  I couldn’t even be angry when the zipper on my backpack decided to jam and made me sit in the rain for a few minutes trying to yank the key to the apartment out of the pocket. Gotta have a few roadblocks, right? So after getting into the building, I found my grandfather’s apartment, unlocked the door, and stepped in. Seriously- it was such an amazing feeling when I walked into that apartment. I hope everyone has a place like this, because this kind of happiness is rare.

I spent the night setting out my stuff, exploring around the apartment and reacquainting myself with it, making some soup and finding crackers since I failed to buy any food on my way up the mountain and there was no way I was walking back into town, showering, and finally crashing out into my bed. Such an amazing feeling… except I was so pumped on adrenaline that I barely got any sleep. Oh well, the whole point of this place is just relaxing and enjoying myself and doing absolutely nothing with one of my best friends. So, lack of sleep? No problem. I can do as much relaxing as I want all weekend! 

Friday:

I woke up to a cloudy, rainy morning, but the downcast weather did nothing for my mood. I got ready quickly, being so excited to run back to the train station to pick up Jillian! Of course, I did get distracted by the multiple closets in the house. Now, I must digress for a moment to explain this. Not only does the apartment have a wine cave/storage thing (although it was empty upon arrival…), but everyone who visits here tends to leave stuff that they don’t really want/need anymore, so we just accumulate a bunch of awesome clothes. I’m talking boots, jackets, slippers, sweats, and the likes. So, having a little bit of time before I had to run down to the station, I might have regressed back into little-girl days and tried on a bunch of stuff. Yeah, it was kind of fun. I can’t lie. I finally settled on a binocular case for a “purse” since I left mine in London and some ugg boots since my own leather boots weren’t really suited for the rain. 

Yeah.... we did that.

Upon this clothing decision (and the decision that Jillian and I were definitely going to have fun trying stuff on later), I grabbed my camera and umbrella and proceeded to hike back down into town and to the train station. I made it to the station just as Jillian was arriving and we had a delightful roomie reunion. Seriously, I love that girl. She’s pretty much another sister. Scratch that- she is another sister. Anyhow, we were both ecstatic to see one another, and we proceeded to jump right into telling stories and venting and it was as though we were right back at Pepperdine. We stopped by the small market on the way down through the town to pick up some light groceries and champagne, and then made our way up the mountain back to the apartment. I was so excited to show off one of my favorite places and Jillian was probably just as delighted as myself by the place. 

We unpacked her stuff, she cleaned up, and then we spent the next 4 hours munching cheese and butter “twists” and chocolate and catching up on everything plus a little bit more. It was exactly what we both needed, it seemed, and by the time 3 rolled around we were ready to go out into the rain again and explore the town a little. We walked up the main street (or, basically, the Street, since the town itself is fairly small), and then found the larger grocery store, which we entered and grabbed some food for breakfast and lunch for the weekend, since why shouldn’t we utilize the fact that we had a small kitchenette at our disposal? After bagging our purchases of eggs, sausage, bread, pasta, more chocolate and champagne, and apples, we battled with Jillian’s umbrella for a bit and then popped into a small café. Jillian got a cappuccino and I opted out of the coffee and in for the white wine. Why not? When in Switzerland… 

After our relaxing hour and a half in the café, chatting some more (of course!), we decided that we might as well head back up to the apartment. We got back, got into comfy clothes, and began cooking up a lovely dinner of sausage and pasta while I grabbed the champagne. After a very anticlimactic pop and a strong smell of apples, we recognized the picture of playing children on the back of the bottle and realized we’d purchased apple cider. Let’s just say we had a huge laugh at ourselves for that one. Oh well, at least we had 2 actual bottles from the second market, one of which we exchanged for the apple cider before beginning our delicious home-cooked meal. I’ve gotta say, I could totally do this every weekend. I’m trying to persuade Jillian to live with my next year, because honestly- we work well together, and if we can get 2 other a-suities from last year together in an apartment… well, let’s just say that it would be epically awesome. 

After dinner and chatting and some silly pictures, we decided to call it an early night. Yes, we definitely fell right back into last year’s “grandma status”, but why not? The beds were comfortable, we were tired, it was dark, and we were in Switzerland! You don’t have to do anything here, and we fully decided to take advantage of that fact. So, before 10 even rolled around, we were crashed out and loving the fact that our roomie status was reinstated, if only for a few days.

Saturday:

So, after a good 13 hours of sleep, we rolled out of bed at 10:30, ready to, well… slowly start the day. While Jillian figured out train times and platforms for us I proceeded to have the most entertaining breakfast-making experience I’ve had in a while. Seriously, the minute I cook for someone other than myself I butcher it. Lovely. After knocking over the freshly-whisked eggs and losing half of the raw mixture to the countertop, I used the rest of our eggs to make scrambled eggs, which actually turned out well enough. I just happened to leave no eggs for the following morning. Oh well. A sausage was reheated, some bread cut up and buttered, and voila! Breakfast! It was actually quite nice having something other than a quick bowl of cereal or a badly toasted half-bagel, or nothing at all, as per usual in London. Breakfast was a nice, lazy experience, and after continuing our roomie chatting, we finally decided to get dressed and head out into the absolutely BEAUTIFUL day. 

Yes, did I mention that it was no longer raining and that it was, in fact, sunny and actually warm outside? Oh yes, we got a brilliantly gorgeous day to explore. So, forgoing jackets and scarves, we headed out into the day and ran all up and down the various streets and side-streets of Chateau D’oex, before we finally found a hiking trail that we decided to brave (I once again borrowed some shoes from the closet. That thing is awesome). Now, this was probably one of our best noncommittal decisions yet. The day was lovely, the trails were fresh, and we had all the time in the world!

As we walked, we pulled out the chicken sandwiches we’d made earlier at breakfast and munched on those. I swear, this place looks unreal at times. If a movie were filmed here, no one would believe that it was an actual place. Pictures don’t do it justice (although, as you can see, I have tried to capture the resplendent beauty). After a mini-hike in which we chose trails based on where the sun was (it actually got a bit chilly in the shade, although we were both still psyched to be running around without worrying about jackets, we headed back to the apartment (after picking an ideal place for dinner) and relaxed for a bit, taking on the whole “siesta” idea from Barcelona. Once dinner rolled around, we headed back into town and found the bar/restaurant/discotheque we’d picked out earlier, ordered some white wine, and then proceeded to decide that a little splurging was in order. So, I ordered steak and Jillian ordered pork, both of which came with amazing mushroom sauce, vegetables, and fries. Seriously… worth every franc. That was a delicious dinner. 

And it wasn’t done yet.

While consuming our deliciously awesome meal, we checked out the residents, and finally decided that the pizza-maker was the best looking of the bunch. But seriously… he was quite a good-looking pizza maker. We contemplated asking if he had a brother… Dinner was followed by another glass of wine for me and some vanilla ice cream topped with whiskey for Jillian. Yes, we really are a classy bunch. So, following dessert, we chatted for a bit, got free discotheque passes (definitely going to utilize those when we go back in January… haha) and then decided to head back up to the apartment. After showering and getting into super comfy clothes, we opened our own bottle of very nice white wine and proceeded to fall back into another of our amazing roomie-chats, eventually finished off the last of the pasta sitting in the fridge (cause, you know, we really needed more food), tried to opened a slightly cheap bottle of champagne to mix with orange juice and failed, and so the party tricks came out! One large knife aimed towards a temperamental champagne bottle later, the cork was out somewhere in the world with one of those fantastic popping noises. Oh, the joy of party tricks, right?

So, we toasted to Jillian’s finesse when it came to battling it out with bottles, finished up the night with some mimosas and further chatting, and then realized that it was actually midnight. I mean, we’re definitely Grandmas when we’re together, so we figured that we’d clean up the dishes and crash out again. Why not? Honestly, this place is meant for catching up on sleep. So we pulled our covers down ,crawled into our amazingly comfortable beds, and crashed out for the last time (at least for now) in Switzerland. What an awesome final evening for our weekend! 

Sunday:

I woke up a bit before the alarm and was able to catch the ending of what looked to be quite an incredible sunrise. After snapping a quick photo of this (again, not at all being able to capture the actual beauty of the moment), I climbed back into bed and slept until 9, when Jillian’s alarm went off. Ugh, that was definitely not a noise that either of us wanted to hear. We slowly (while complaining) crawled out of bed and began getting ready for our day of travel. Once again, it was beautiful in Chateau D’oex, with the sun shining, clear skies, warmth, no signs of rain…. Neither of us wanted to leave, which was actually a big deal, considering we both agreed that we always couldn’t wait to return to our programs on all the other trips we’d taken this semester so far. But there’s something fantastic about this place- why would anyone want to leave? I know that I didn’t.

Jillian and I made breakfast slowly, finishing off our leftover apples and sausage and bread (we did a fantastic job at getting exactly the correct amount of food). We sliced up the remaining bread, pulled our the pre-sliced chicken we’d bought, and made some small sandwiches to take with us on our train rides, successfully finishing off everything in the fridge, other than the second bottle of apple cider… but that was kind of an insult to us so we didn’t care too much about that. After breakfast we cleaned up the rest of the dishes, packed up our stuff, and I hugged one of my best friends goodbye as she left to catch her earlier train.

I had about an hour to wait after she left, and I spent the rest of the time making sure everything in the house was cleaned up and put away, trash taken out, and the likes (I mean, I do want to be able to use this fantastic place again!). It was probably one of the hardest things I’ve had to do. I left the door open just so I could feel the slight breeze and occasionally step out onto the balcony and feel the warmth of the sun, and every time I did this I kind of wanted to cry. I didn’t want to leave Switzerland. I felt like I was home here, and although I absolutely love London, Chateau D’oex has family memories in it, and now another great weekend with a great friend, and leaving it just seemed… terrible. I could’ve stayed there for the rest of the semester, no problems, just relaxing and catching up on sleep… At least I have the consoling knowledge that I get to go back at the end of January for the hot air balloon festival.

Still… I didn’t want to leave. Locking up and turning off all the lights was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do in a long time. I walked back up to the train station, said my goodbyes to the cute little town as I walked, and made my train. This time I was actually traveling during the day, so I was able to look at the scenery as I drove through towns, which was a rather nice way of traveling. I made my connection at Montreux, and spent half of that ride dozing in and out of sleep. Upon arriving at the airport, I realized that I had given myself plenty of time, especially when going through security literally took 2 minutes. It took longer taking my laptop out of my backpack than it did to send the stuff through the x-ray. After I collected my things, I found a small food place and bought an extremely overpriced sandwich (awesome airport- are sandwiches really worth 10 francs?), but at least it tasted good. After food I got severely creeped on by the passport guy, who kept staring and smiling at my awkwardly. Weird. After, I sat down at the table I am currently sitting at, and finished typing this lovely blog up. I’ve still got an hour until my gate opens, but I guess that’s better than rushing like a maniac and being late. So, now…. I relax and I wait to get on the airplane that will be taking me back to London… and reality. Because the minute I get back I’ve got to finish a project that I’ll be presenting in my Modern Middle East class tomorrow. Great. Can we just skip forward to after that class, please? Thanks. At least I had an amazing weekend. That’s something that I can think about when all the stress of final projects and papers comes flooding in!

So, I made it home safe and sound. Such a long day of traveling. 2 trains, an airplane, a shuttle, another train, the tube, and then walking to my house! Wow. Craziness!