Saturday - aka I love London/ there is a WHOLE lotta awkward sitting right here, haha

Katherine and I went on an adventure to Notting Hill Saturday afternoon. I managed to get up around noon, so I had an hour more daylight than Friday, lol... I know... be proud :-)

What we saw of Notting Hill was nice. However, we realized Kensington was pretty close, so we walked in that direction. Shoot... they are only 15/20 minutes apart. I never realize these things until I walk around the city. All of a sudden we hit some great shopping and, there we were, in Kensington.

By the way... Kensington has it's OWN Top Shop. Woah, lol
( the classic phonebooth picture... outside of Kensington Gardens!)

However, by this point we were ready for some caffeine. We stopped at a charming Italian Cafe right near Kensington Gardens (thank god... or we would have had to go to Starbucks... lol). Then we walked around the palace and then through the park.


It's this kind of thing that I can't really describe. Walking through a park doesn't seem that exciting, but in London it really is one of the most entertaining things to do. It's so interesting to watch the people. Also, the birds are always ridiculous. It's just beautiful, in a way you wouldn't think you'd find inside a city.

We walked all the way to the Natural History Museum (went in for about 30 minutes... but we're saving it for Monday) and then headed back. Now THAT was crazy. I have no clue how we fit on the car... I have never been so close to so many people in my life. It was fun :-)

Later that night I met up with William, Lia, and Katie to go see a play. Lol... too bad it didn't start until the 13th...

so we improvised and decided to head to Hairspray. I had pretty low expectations based on the movie. I liked it, but it wasn't anything special.

The theatre production is SOOO much better - I was blown away. It almost hurts to say it, but I liked it even better than Wicked. The singers were incredibly talented, the sets and costumes were vibrant and full of life, the dancing was top notch, and it was really funny. The mother (a man dressed as a woman) and father's 'You're Timeless to me' was a show-stopper. I have not seen a standing ovation at the end of any other London production like last nights.

After that we kept up with the theme and headed to Ed's... umm... well it's a diner, lol. I'm bad with all names. Not only did they have milkshakes... they had Alco-shakes. Brilliant. I had a Bailey's and Oreo flavoured milkshake. It was heaven. It was like being back home, lol, with an alcoholic touch :-) We all hung out there for around an hour.

The main theme from the diner: 'There is a WHOLE lotta awkward sitting right here'

classic :-)

We all ended up talking until around 2AM. Too bad the parks close after dark here though...

Anyways, great day, great night :-)

I love weekends in London, especially when surrounded by wonderful people.

Week after Scotland

Well... after Scotland I did nothing on Sunday. I just got a LOT of sleep.

However, I had Monday to kill, so I deemed it Covent Garden day.

First I stopped by the Post Office to send postcards home ;-) I love you guys! Then instead of taking the tube I decided to walk. I mean, why not? lol

Anyways... this is why not: I passed Holborn tube station and should have turned right. Instead I walked for 10 minutes down Holborn street... definitely the wrong way. But it was ok - I found an amazing french bakery for lunch. After that I took the tube BACK to where I came from. From there... 20 minutes later... I managed to find Covent Garden.

I love walking around Covent Garden. Good shopping, inside there is typically classical music being played (including an opera singer!?), and it turns out it is really close to where I live. I have no clue how I haven't stumbled onto it before.

Later Monday night was our groups cheese tasting night at 8PM. I practiced and read Shakespeare up until this point. I love cheese tasting night though. Good conversations.

Later that night Laura and I went salsa dancing :-) Apparently I actually CAN dance after drinking - and there are benefits, lol, and some downsides to it. With certain people I had danced with before I was "soo much better." But also... for the dancers that try to instruct you... that didn't go well. I was in no mood to completely change my dance style for someone.

Anyways, we stayed for about an hour and it was perfect :-)

Tuesday I read some Shakespeare... practiced... that was about it. Saw a concert of music I'd played in the last year, which was interesting. lol, Anyways...

Wednesday I continued to read Shakespeare. Didn't read as much as I should have, lol. Wednesday night I went to the Court with Tyler, Cory, Tracy, Creecy, Sapna, and Katherine O. Mainly Katherine and I bonded ;-)

Thursday went by quickly too. Gotta love Vosper's class. Haha, or not. Next class I'm talking about Thatcherism. It should be interesting... haha, or terrible... oh well :-)

Friday I slept in until... 1PM. I had stayed up until... almost 4AM watching Heroes. Good show. Heather and I made it the Tate Museums day. We started with the modern. I had low expectations, but I actually enjoyed it. My favorite exhibit focused on 'the absurdities of every day life' - it was different videos focusing on the same scene of a man being tripped by a dog and falling.

I still don't get the crack exhibit, lol



Anyways

Then we took the boat to the Tate Britain. We were pretty overwhelmed by this point so we went and got tea... and I had clotted cream with a scone for the first time. I'm a big fan. By the time we had finished eating the museum was only open for 50 minutes. We went and checked out the modern works there which were a bit more tame. Then we found the Pre-Raphaelites. I love this group of painters. They have the bright colors of Monet, but also tell stories of love and loss. *Sigh*

haha, anyways. That night I got back and Katherine and I split a bottle of wine. Haha, that was all we needed... we hung out with Patrick and Todd and played cards. I am pretty freaking awesome at palace - I won 3 times. Yup, I'm awesome.

Haha, I was too tired to really learn rummy. Oh well... maybe next time.

Overall it was a really great day.

Scotland

Welp, I'm really glad I went to Scotland.

As far as liking Scotland... it's nice... I liked the highlands the best. But what really made the weekend was going with Jiwon, Scott, and Brian. Jiwon and I were exhausted most of the trip. Apparently I'm very good at falling asleep sitting up, but despite this we managed to have a really good time. Haha, also... the reason I was exhausted was because of no sleep from Halloween and then having to get up at 4AM to leave for Scotland... so at least I had good reasons :-)

By the way... my flute lesson was absolutely amazing. I actually found a professor who has renewed my interest in practicing. It's a miracle.

Back to Scotland...

We all sat at a table on the train and hung out/ talked for the ride. The UK countryside is lovely (at least what I saw when not sleeping). Once we arrived in Edinburgh (pronounced Edin-borough) we were put on a bus tour of the city. Our tour guide was rather awkward, but he played the bagpipes which was amusing. Most of the day was cloudy, but when they took us to the hill on top of the city it was a gorgeous view.

After that it was up to us to walk around. We ended up in a pub for lunch and relaxed there for around an hour or 2 (since they seemed to forget us, lol). Then we went shopping. And when I say shopping, I mean we went to all of the stores on the main street. By the end of this excursion it was dark, since everything gets ridiculously dark around 5PM now... thanks a lot daylight savings time...

So we got some dinner and sat for a while with coffee. After dinner we realized the only real thing we wanted to see in Edinburgh was Adam Smith's grave. He is the father of classical economics, aka, he is one of my heroes. We asked 2 policeman if they knew... they didn't know who Adam Smith was. Fortunately they guessed the right graveyard to send us to. They may have not known, but at least they were friendly - later we ran into them and they looked at our pictures proving we went :-)

We started on the right side of the graveyard. I'm not gonna lie... it was creepy. The graveyard is connected to a church, so it is also sacred grounds. However the drunk, emo lesbians we met didn't really care. They were doing something near a gravestone... and I horribly interrupted them... gosh... lol. Anyways, we searched this whole graveyard for at least an hour.

We were about to give up (and I was getting annoyed with that group of strange drunk people) when Scott found a brick on the ground with Adam Smiths name on it. We followed the Adam Smith bricks and... golly geepers... we found it, lol


If it had been day we would have found it in... 5 min, lol. Oh well... better late than never :-)


The next day we were up at 7 to head to the Highlands. This tour guide was great. The Highlands are also gorgeous. We passed the William Wallace monument AND the castle used in monty python's the holy grail (where the french throw cows, lol). At our coffee shop... I met Hammish... an ADORABLE Highlands cow. I love the cows. Our bus trip featured plenty of obnoxious, yet charming bagpipe pieces. In the end we arrived at Urquhart castle on Loch Ness. We road a boat and looked for Nessie. The best part was the gift shop at the end. I have a little Nessie doll with a bagpipe that plays music... it is now one of my most prized possessions.


That night we went and got dinner at Pizza hut... speaking of that... Pizza huts here are soo much better than the states. Then we went and got a pint. The pub was mainly older people, lol. Honestly, we were still pretty worn out so we headed to bed early. The next day the train ride back was lovely. My cell phone has a radio and I spent a good part of it listening to a station that only played love songs (typically after some endearing request by a husband or friend of a couple). When I got back to London, I really felt like I was coming home. I did my laundry and layed around... it was perfect.

Definitely a great weekend.

finally updating

well... my compy broke...

and it took 2 weeks to get a new one and the internet working, lol

and then this past weekend was mainly spent working on my Politics Paper. Anyways, as far as that crazy night... the sum of it is absinthe = good times :-)

Since then I have had soo many fabulously crazy nights. I really have fallen in love with this city. I'm actually in a bit of withdrawal from walking around due to the fact we actually started to have to do some work... *gasp* lol, I honestly can't complain.

Anyways... some of the best memories from the past 3 weeks are:

#1. Dublin

There isn't much to do in Dublin other than drink... lol... but we certainly embraced that idea. We stayed in a crappy hostel with a great location. Hanging around Sapna, Lizzie, and Katherine L was soo much fun. I'm so glad I went. The first night I won a contest... the second night I kind of got some negative points. Overall, I found a new appreciation for Guinness and Jameson (good grief, lol) and fell in love with Bailey's. Gosh... I could go for some now (I'm sitting in British Politics... )

also... 3 words: ham and cheese!?

#2. Rugby World Cup

London may have lost, but darnit I had a great night. I started off pretty early and hung out with the group. I discovered The Court, which is a pub that aims towards college students. Earlier that week Patricia and I had finally met up, so I called her and she was going out... and I wasn't about to stay in another night, lol.

So we went to this really interesting club called The Roxy. It played a mix of everything - from punk, to a mix of Grease, to Eye of the Tiger (soo great), etc. It was also great meeting Patricia's friends - they are so sweet.

#3. Salsa dancing on Monday night

Sheesh... we found this great free club... it was a heavenly experience. I really hope to make it back before I go. Great music and really great dancers

#4. Jiwon's 21st birthday (tuesday night)

lol, now this was one heck of a party. I didn't even get to stay out the whole time because of a test the next day and it was still freakin' hilarious. Jiwon was a trooper in terms of her list, we started a quarrel with the bouncers at Sports Cafe, we almost got kicked out of Sports Cafe, and apparently Carrie was offered money for sex... talk about a classy night :-)

btw... I did really well on that test the next day too... bada**... i know... lol

#5. well... that Thursday night I went out dancing with Mary, Laura, and Heather... it was sketchy but fun

that Friday was a whole lot of fun :-) Andy and Cory had been talking about going raving and we found a great place for it. Definitely a classic techno joint and we danced the whole night. Good times

by Saturday I realized I had gone out a ridiculous amount and was ready to chill a bit. Jiwon and Carrie met me for a pint at The Court.

Sunday was spent actually getting work done. It was rather depressing actually trying to be productive. However, not having a compy was really good for my academics. It was 2 weeks that I actually had to pay attention in British Politics... sheesh... I'm amazed I did it.

By Monday I was becoming well aware I had a lesson this week and started practicing. We had a class fieldtrip to the HMS Belfast. Nothing too exciting... I'm not a huge fan of battleships... but it definitely had nice views of the Thames.

Sheesh... I can't believe it's already Thursday.

Tuesday was the usual Music course - except we heard a brass band which played a rather terrible choice of repertoire. Tuesday night we went to see fringe theater at the King's Head - it's this small room that holds around... 60 people. The play was really interesting, about a terrorist group fighting for environmental policy. Getting to the play was absolutely hell and coming back I lost my Oyster card, BUT somehow I made it back in one piece :-)

after that I was planning to just stay in bed in order to avoid being klutzy and hurting myself, but Sapna, Andy, and Cory were going out and I just couldn't resist.

We went to a Brazilian club. Good times :-)

Wednesday I was exhausted and no one had read for Shakespeare. Fortunately she didn't mind. WWII was the usual. Our Professor is charming. I practiced a bit and then... you guessed it... went out for Halloween :-)

it's tradition

the ULU (University of London Student Union) was a really cool place to hang out. I sang karaoke... Twist and Shout by the Beatles.

We were freaking awesome

Then today I had a lesson with Wissam Boustany which was absolutely wonderful. I learned more in those 2 hours with him than I have in... a year. He had me thinking a completely different way about my playing. I'm definitely looking forward to meeting with him again.

And that brings me to now... British Politics...

I'm not paying attention. I figure I'll cram for the exam at the end. Plus I do know a lot... I hope... :-)

tonight Cory and I are having dinner with Professor Oehler and his wife and then I'm packing for my trip to SCOTLAND!!!! I'm super pumped.

So things are really going great. I just hate my time here is flying... but I can say I'm living it up :-)

I should update about my weekend on Tuesday - until then I hope all is well!