Days 38-51: Naked Man Running?

Excuse the belated nature of this, and it's lack of exciting language. I realize it's more of a "what I did" kind of post. I'll make next week's far more interesting. 

Monday: woke up early after a good sleep, went to class, major technical difficulties so we got out early, hit the gym, came back, did sit ups and had a V-day “high tea’ with scones, went to my last class, then Indian food for dinner on brick lane

Tuesday: woke up early, went to gym, convo, had lunch and did situps, had class, went to dinner at Da Marios and got a delicious pasta and garlic bread, wrote in the evening for a bit

Wednesday: gym, museum visit, wagamamas, chill evening

Thursday: typical day of gym, situps, catching up on some shows, figured out dinner at the house, and then decided to go out with the girls to Rocket, where we had a fun evening, all dressed up.

Friday-Sunday: I woke up early, hit the gym, and then grabbed the tube to Heathrow to meet up with my mom and sister, beginning a very, very epic week of awesomeness.

So, upon arriving at Heathrow, I found my mom and sister and we grabbed a cab (which I bargained the price down 75 pounds) to Woodstock, which is about 20 minutes outside of Oxford. It’s a quaint little town that literally took about fifteen minutes to walk, and also the home of Blenheim Palace (birthplace of Churchill). 

The first day/evening there, we explored, got settled in our hotel (which turned out to be unbelievably amazing and beautiful), and then hit up one of the local pubs for a quick drink. That evening we dined at a great restaurant, although we were seated at a four-person table. Being that there were three of us, our waitress settled a stuffed bear in the seat next to me. It was kind of cute. And then hilarious when she mentioned that he got drunk fast. But, such was noted. His eyes were definitely glassy by the main course. Obviously a diet of honey doesn’t do well for one’s alcohol tolerance.

After a fairly early evening, we got a great sleep in our hotel, and then woke up early for a legitimate English breakfast and then a trip into Oxford. We met up with James, a student at one of the Oxford colleges, and he dedicated his day to showing us around the area. We got into multiple colleges for free and saw amazing places, including a few areas where the Harry Potter films were shot (totally necessary places to visit, right? Right.). After walking around Oxford for a bit, we ducked into The Eagle and Child pub (a place where legendary writers CS Lewis and Tolkien often hit up), then continued our touring around until we decided to head back to Woodstock. It was an amazing day – we saw colleges, walked around the area, got into an exclusive debate club, saw the oldest tavern in the area (Turf Tavern) among so many other things. That evening we dined at the pub again and tried our a variety of pub foods, including a steak and ale pie, venison chili, and macaroni duck. All were delicious and consumed with a lovely amount of delicious champagne. All in all? A great night.

The next day was followed by a good four or five hours at Blenheim Palace (after eating another delicious breakfast at the hotel, of course). The place was beautiful- we got inside tours of the place, some history, walked through the gardens, took pictures with naked running men statues (I mean, why not? We're mature), did a labyrinth maze, and were able to avoid the London rain. It was a great finale to our time in Woodstock, and after our touring we grabbed a train headed back to London. I met a guy studying in another part of London and hit if off with him and chatted all the way back, so that made for good conversation and a quick travel time. Once arriving in London, I got my mom and sister Tube cards and we headed to High Kensington stop and I introduced them to the most amazing city in the world!

Seriously, though, London is fantastic, and although Oxford was unbelievably great, there’s something awesome about coming home. And London has definitely become my second home. So, we walked down High Street, grabbed a bus and took it to Queen’s Gate and then walked our way to my mom and sister’s hotel (The Gore) on Queen’s Gate, right by Hyde Park and a five minute walk from my own house on Prince’s Gate. It was absolutely perfect placement and a great hotel. They got situated, we checked out the bar, and then I headed back home in preparation for early class on Monday.

Monday: I had classes all day, as per usual, and then ended the day by meeting up with my mom and sister for dinner at an Italian restaurant that ended up being rather delicious, and then Billy Elliot. It was an absolutely AMAZING show. Seriously. Anyone who comes to London needs to see it. Wicked, too, obviously, but Billy Elliot is now my other favorite show. The talent in it was beyond great. We finished the night by heading back to South Kensington, where I went home and my mom and sister returned to their hotel.

Tuesday-Friday: My mom and sister got to enjoy touring around the city while I was in class, however when we met up the fun continued. We managed to get in lots of touring time, visiting places like Liberty, Savile Row, Camden Town, many, many pubs, doing walking tours from Covent Garden to Oxford Street (quite a decent walk, but great for site-seeing, as it passes through Leicester, Trafalgar Square, China Town, a bit of Soho, and Piccadilly Circus). We got in three shows: the aforementioned Billy Elliot, Dirty Dancing, and finished with Chicago when one of my best friends, Jillian, visited from the Germany program. Each night was filled with merry making and lots of socializing. I got to introduce my mom and sister to a few of my friends in the house on Wednesday night at our favorite bar- Trafalgar, where I was also asked out by a bartender. Funny how these things happen. Anyhow, all in all? A fantastic trip. Friday ended with drinks at the hotel for my mom’s birthday with Jillian and Andrew, and then we joined up with our friends back at Trafalgar.

Saturday: I woke up early and ran back to the Gore to say goodbye to my mom and sister. It was so weird watching them leave. Seriously, I’d kind of gotten used to them being around in London. I enjoyed having my family here, but I’ll see them again in five weeks. Crazy how quickly this semester went by! After saying goodbye, I headed back to the house, made it to the gym, and then went to Portobello Road with Jillian, Diana, and Andrew, where we looked a lots of fun stuff, ate paella, and then found our way back to the London house for a little resting before going out with some of the other Germany kids. We hit our favorite pub, had dinner, and stayed there for a couple hours for some fun socializing and cider consumption. After making it back to the house, a few of us hung out in the park and called it a night way too early in the morning. Oh well. Totally worth it, especially since a bag of goldfish was consumed.

Sunday: I had to say goodbye to my Germany friends. Not fun saying goodbye to two sets of people in one weekend. The only consolation? I get to go to Germany in less than two weeks, so that will be lots and lots of fun. I spent most of the day being lazy, finally made it to the gym for a bit, and then went out with Seth (the bartender from Australia) for a few drinks. All in all? A good way to end the weekend.


Woohoo London! 

Days 31-37: I See Green!

Monday: woke up early, had music class, passed on the gym and took a nap instead, went to other class, studied and did situps, had midterm, went to My Old Dutch for dinner, relaxing evening of hanging and writing

Tuesday: Woke up early to go to the gym (go me!), this was followed by a little relaxing and then situps, then class, then taco night (woohoo! So delicious. Mexican food is just amazing…), then some hanging out and writing (typical evening, but a good one)

Wednesday: Woke up early again for the gym, stayed for almost 2 hours, then came back and did my situps, was social in the kitchen for a bit, and caught up on Glee, then did a museum visit to the Victoria and Albert before hitting up Byrons for group dinner. This was followed by the planning of trips with Diana, some writing, and further hanging out.

Thursday: woke up early again to go to the gym, followed by 1000 situps, then went to my museum visit, followed by going to a church to do a little community service, then some shopping for green tights for our Robin Hood day tomorrow (also found some lovely boots… oops), then dinner at the house and a relaxing evening in preparation for the early morning. All in all- a great day. And we got some lovely London rain!

Friday: Woke up early (no sleeping in this week so far… ugh. Craziness!), did a lot of running to catch trains with people, made it to Nottingham, then more trains and buses to Sherwood Forest (Robin Hood, what up?). All of this was done wearing green tights, by the way. Walked around, saw the Royal Oak, climbed a tree, had an altogether good day and finished it with some fish and chips and cider at a pub before retiring for the evening.

Saturday: super relaxing day- actually got to sleep in, got in my situps and gym, wrote a bit and watched a movie, hung out with people in the house- it was super quiet since almost everyone was gone this weekend, discovered a new Starbucks mango-passion drink, went pubbing with Jessica and Andrew and met their Swiss friend

Sunday: got up early (eww), finally went to St. Michael’s church and enjoyed a lovely service, met some new people, found a later service with a younger crowd to check out, got all my exercise in, took a nap, hung out downstairs with some people, had a delicious dinner made for me, finished up the night with some more writing

Okay, so now an extension of the more entertaining aspects of this week. Actually, it was a pretty low-key week. I stayed up with all my exercising, tried to eat healthy (so hard here in London-town sometimes), got in some exploring time, England travel-time, and some desperately needed alone-time on the weekend. I only slept in one day this week (craziness, I know), so I’m kind of proud about that.

The most fun was probably my Friday-Saturday bit. Jessica and I went out shopping and I found some lovely boots in a color I do not yet have boots in, so, naturally, I had to purchase them since they were the last pair and fit. Oh well, I’ve already worn them so they were a good purchase. This outing was actually meant for green tights searching, so after going into about five different stores, we finally found and American Apparel, found opaque hunter green tights that were way overpriced, but absolutely perfect. So, after rationalizing the fact that we could wear them again for St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland and some sort of Pepperdine Frat party in the upcoming year, we bought them. We got back to the house, found absolutely awesome outfits to pair with the tights, and then were ready for our Saturday trip to Nottingham.

Perhaps this needs a bit more explanation. Nottingham was our first destination, and then another train and bus after that got us to Sherwood Forest, or, Robin Hood’s forest! Hence the green tights. And the strategically planned outfits. We figured we might as well go all out when doing the whole Robin Hood trip, and it was so worth it. So, once we got there, it was a beautiful day, we took tons of pictures, walked through the woods, saw the Royal Oak (as mentioned), climbed a tree (why not?), and finally finished up the day with our train ride home and some fish and chips in a pub. It was a rather exciting day trip. I love the fact that we’re getting some many more of those in this semester! I still have two more planned out, and hopefully Oxford and Cambridge during the rowing competition in March, and Oxford next weekend when my mom and sister come and visit me in London! So exciting!

Oh, also, finally got my long weekend trip planned, and I am officially going to Budapest, or the “city of baths” with my friend Diana. I’m so excited. It’s going to be a great trip with so much to see, and I’m going with someone just as crazy as me. So it’ll be a good time. Anyhow, that’s it for now, except for my updated travel list which will be posted below this, just so you all can see what shenanigans I’m getting into this semester. And I still have Holland and Italy and Prague so visit during the summer! Ah, so much to do!

Places visiting/visited this semester: Switzerland, Dover, Nottingham, Oxford, Budapest, Germany, Ireland, Cambridge/Oxford, Bath, Istanbul, Ephesus

Kind of awesome, right? I’m excited. 

Days 24-30: Ringing in the New Year?

Alrighty, a quick weekly update before the extensive stuff:

Monday – gross early class that takes forever to get through, got a email saying afternoon class was cancelled, so postponed my gym visit and did 1000 situps instead, watched a show before my noon class, then hit the gym, pizza night in the house (I gorged… again. oops), writing

Tuesday – slept in, 1000 situps, stupid convo (I'll complain about that later), talked about tentative plans for long weekend, gym, class, dinner, writing

Wednesday – no class, woohoo! Woke up for gym, didn’t feel so hot so I took a day off and only did 500 situps, then got pretty and ran some errands, checked out a hotel, bought Phantom tickets, went to dinner, went to theater with Jessica and Diana to see Phantom of the Opera– we had amazing seats (6 rows back, dead center, super cheap, show = win)

Thursday: slept in a bit, got my situps out of the way, had class, tired to go to the gym but it was packed, came back and watched Psych, had dinner, wrote, tried to go to bed early, but it was just a night of heinous loudness and events. Ugh. 

Friday- I got 3 hours of sleep, went to my interview, got the internship (woohoo!), watched a show, did my humanities study guides, hit the gym, rested, went out clubbing- one of the girls knew a promoter so we got into some fancy ones for free

Saturday- super lazy day, ended up finally catching up on sleep, got some humanities studying done and watched The Brothers Grimm with some people in the house that night

Sunday- Chinese New Year in Trafalgar Square, delicious Chinese food for lunch, more studying, called it a night fairly early. Humanities midterm tomorrow- blegh 

Alright, as my most recent blog updated (and from all the recent news) Egypt was cancelled. A huge bummer, because honestly- that would have made for an absolutely amazing trip. However, after a ton of deliberation (and some ridiculously long convocation conversations with the entire London group) we finally came to a conclusion! But first, let me just have a mini-rant about the aforementioned convocation. It was seriously amazing how some people in the group were so unappreciative of all the work that was being put into rescheduling our group trip- I mean, they were treating our program directors like it was their fault that Egypt decided to erupt in riots. I swear, sitting through that conversation in which people kept demanding money back so they could plan their own trips, as opposed to thanking our directors for all the work they put into planning for a new trip… ugh, it was aggravating and plain rude.

Anyhow, moving on. We’re over that.

So, the news? Well, our group is now going to Istanbul and Ephesus at the end of the semester! Seriously, I’m excited. We get to hit the Asian side as well, meaning- 2 continents! During this trip, they’ve packed it full of fun stuff, such as visits to palaces and mosques, a trip to Prince’s Islands, and Egyptian spice bazaar, and boat trip on the Bosphorus, a trip to a Turkish bath, and time in the Grand Bazaar. And that’s only about half of what is planned. Seriously, this is going to be a trip to remember and I can only give massive amounts of love towards our program directors who planned this brilliant trip on such short notice and so quickly. Anyhow, missing out on Egypt and the pyramids was definitely sad, but this is going to be a fantastic trip.

Talking about trips, I’ve got to plan my long weekend. Originally I was planning on just staying in London, but some people have recently planned Madrid and Morocco, which sounds quite fun (albeit a little shady what with Morocco possibly being hit with the whole Egypt-riot syndrome), but it’s an idea. Budapest was also brought up. Now it’s just finding a few people to go with on this trip…  I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I figure this out soon. Any travel ideas? Let me know! I might just stay in London, too, since I'll be coming back for 3 more months... 

Also this week- I had my interview at a literary agency for my internship when I return to London in May. Originally I was looking into publishing companies, but Jenny (basically our program director’s second-in-command) got me an interview with an actual literary agency. That is- these are the kinds of people I need to impress and get in with in order to publish my own books. So, after a horrible night’s sleep (as referenced above), I got ready, made it to my interview, which is in a lovely place called Covent Garden, and… got the internship! Probably one of the most exciting things that could’ve happened to me this semester, so I am extremely excited about this… especially since this will give me background and possibly an in for my own writing career. The agent that interviewed me was completely down to earth and even told me to send my stuff her way when it’s ready. Really… I wanted to do a ridiculous happy dance in the room right then and there. Anyhow, 2011 is looking to be a promising year!

Finally, went to Chinese New Year in Trafalgar Square. It was a fun little outing and a reprieve from studying on Sunday. Saw some fireworks, got some delicious food, saw some cool lion and dragon dances, and the likes. I like having 2 new years in a single year...

Anyhow, that's it for now! Tune in next week.