Things I miss about America

Being away from home is hard. There are certain things you get used to that you don't notice until they're gone. Some of these things don't fall into that category (duh, I remember that I have parents.) but others I didn't realize I loved until I was an ocean apart. Here are the obvious, and not-so-obvious things I miss about the U.S. of A. (in no particular order):

• My lovely, wonderful, brilliant friends: who are also hilarious, superb, and magical.
  
• Target and Wal-mart: for when you need to buy shampoo, a cake pan, a basketball, and get photos printed, all in one trip.
  
• Driving my car
  
• Iced tea: against the Brits' religion.
  
• CiCi's Pizza: today I was thinking, "I want pizza. But not, like, a big slice of really awesome pizza, just a million slices of adequate pizza. And cinnamon rolls."
  
• My dorky, yet dashing boyfriend: He is like Indiana Jones meets Ken Jennings meets an adorable koala
  
• You get 4x the food for the same price: whatup, giant portion sizes!!
  
• Flip flops: my feet are dying from the confinement
  
• More sunshine: not that the cool weather isn't nice, but I think I am getting seasonal affective disorder.
  
• Fast internet: Yesterday I tried about 20 times to upload photos before giving up in anger and sadness.
  
• Milkshakes: sure, they have them here, but it's just not the same...
  
• The beach: You just can't beat Florida beaches.
• My mom and dad (and brother, too, I guess...): The longer I'm away, the happier I am when I come home. That's true for college, and it's definitely true for this summer.

Love,
Amy

P.S. I think it is pretty telling about my priorities when you consider how many items on this list are food-related.

Things I DO love about London

I love a lot of things about London. Probably too many to list. And I've done so many fun, new, interesting, (sometimes odd) things in the two months that I've been here. But there are thing about London in general that I just really love. Here are a few:

• All the outdoor markets. (With all the wonderful foods!)
• Traveling by tube.
• The newspapers.
• Muesli.
• Dogs everywhere!
• The parks
• There is always something to do.
• People call me "Dear," "Sweetheart," and "Love," like, all the time.
• The funny words for things. (The garbage can is the rubbish bin? Alright.)
• Better food labels for veg-friendly foods. Also, delicious veg food everywhere you turn.
  
• Primark
• There is something historical about, like, everything.
• I get to send postcards.
  
• Traveling about the rest of Europe is a breeze
• The accents!
• It is waaaaaaaaaaaay nice to not have 105 degree weather with 99% humidity every day.
  
• Meeting people from every corner of the world.
• The tiny melons in the supermarket that I can eat in one sitting.
  
• New foods!
• Being really far from home for the first time makes me realize how much I love home, but also how much I want to explore other countries, and how I want to explore my own country.

Love,
Amy

Things I do NOT love about London

London is wonderful. Yes, I know it, and I will readily admit it. But there are some things I simply don't like about living across the pond. Here are the main ones:

• Almost no crosswalks
• Everything is so small. It's tough for a giantess such as myself.
• They haven't invented air conditioning yet.
• Exchange rate killing me? Um, yes.
• The assumption by some (NOT all) that all Americans are boorish, loud, obese McDonald's-chomping xenophobes. (And the apparant surprise when you aren't. Though the loud thing is true.)
• The lowered drinking age makes people get carried away/annoying/broken bones. (At least, that's true for the people I know.)
• Noise outside my window early in the morning. Why are you jackhammering at 6:30 a.m.? Shouldn't you be sleeping?
  
• Celsius? So that means it's... what temperature? Do I need a jacket?
• The tourists are starting to get on my nerves. Yeah, yeah, I know I'm a tourist, too, but seriously, people, crowding your entire 12-member family and all our luggage around the Tube entrance is just dumb. I am trying to walk, here.
• Being 5-6 hours ahead of everyone I want to talk to is very hard.

But in spite of all these things it really is a great place to be; I'm really happy that I came, and I'm happy to be here, and I'll be happy when I come back some day.

Love,
Amy

It's all fun and games until someone cuts an ear off.

There is only a month left in London for me! Noooooooooo!

Not that I don't miss home, or that I don't want to come home, but really, real life compared to this? I will take fun fantasy time, thanks.

To be honest, I have been having the most amazing time 50% of the time, and the most boring, study-filled time the other 50%. I had two exams this week, so the last few days have been half touristy stuff, half reading textbooks and taking practice exams.

Tuesday I had my management exam early in the morning, then I walked around Regent Street and Bond Street. I went to Hamley's the giant 5-story toy store. It was a madhouse! I wonder if it's always like that. They had some replicas of Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings props that were pretty awesome. I found loads of stuff I wanted to buy for people I know but I a) thought it was over priced, b) wondered if they would actually like it or if I would be the only one playing with the game/toy/arts and crafts. I did, however, buy some pick-n-mix, ALLLL sour gummies thank you very much!

Also checked out Carnaby street, where the mods used to hang out. Not much going on, but pretty cool.

Side of a building off Carnaby Street. Very clever, very clever.

I was really all over town that day. I even ended up in Notting Hill for a bit, where I bought a copy of The World According to Garp by John Irving for just £1. I am very excited by this purchase because it was cheap, is really great so far (Owen Meany, holla!), and is thick enough to last me for a while. I have been reading it at mealtimes and when I'm on the tube.

Wednesday I had to study for my Marketing test, which was today. But I didn't want to do that the entire day, so I went to Islington in the morning, which is a really cute area (kinda suburban...?) and had lunch at a burrito place that is like Chipotle but awesomer. It was called Chilango.

I intended on going to the Victoria and Albert museum for a while in the afternoon, and I did actually end up there, but I was NOT in a museum mood and felt like I was dragging myself all around, so I quit that after about 40 minutes and walked home, where I studied then slept.

Sculpture in the V&A. Most hilarious face I've ever seen on a sculpture.

This morning I had my Marketing exam, which was harder than I expected but I probably got a B. For summer classes I'd say that's completely OK.

I came home, had some lunch, then went to the National Gallery, which is basically a huuuuuge art gallery with paintings from all over the world by all the best painters from like the 12th century onward. They had Van Goghs, Monets, DaVincis, a Picasso, and some Degas (who paints the ballerinas.) All VERY cool. It was a great thing to do today, and it's a great thing to do on your own because you can take as much time as you want, skip what you want, etc.

The National Gallery is in Trafalgar square, which is near Leicester Square, which is near Covent Garden (because everything in London is right next to each other in some respect.) I walked from the gallery northward through Leicester Square to Chinatown, which is only like four blocks, but still fun. Didn't eat Chinese, but did buy a Lotus Moon Cake from a Chinese bakery. Moon Cakes are delicious, dense little cakes that you can make with dried fruit, nuts, beans, loads of different things. Whatever you want, basically. They are extremely awesome. The last time I had one was in 12th grade on the Drama Club fall break trip to New York, where I bought one in the NYC Chinatown.

Yes, that is a full-grown Australian man attempting to pass himself through a tennis racket. Yes, he succeeded.

Then I made it over to Covent Garden Market, which is just shops, but there were tons of street performers so I watched those for a while. I watched an Australian guy fit himself through a tennis racket. It was crazy! I also went to the Jubilee market, which is adjacent to Covent Gardent Market, which was nothing special but they were playing Michael Jackson over the soundsystem so I stuck around.

I just came home for dinner and I'm going to be catching up on homework/blog/RUB stuff tonight. Tomorrow I'm going to Stratford-upon-Avon to see where Shakespeare lived, and Saturday I'm going to Greenwhich on a boat to see the Prime Meridian. Then Sunday my mom gets here! I'm so excited.

I can't believe the summer is coming to a close so fast. Although, I always get excited for a new school year, and this year is going to be crazy, I bet. I can just feel it. But I am just going to enjoy London to the fullest that I can before the summer ends.

Love,
Amy

When living on the edge isn't enough...

Exhibit A: Me, flying through the air. Europe, what have you done?

Last weekend I did just about the best thing I have done during the entire summer--and probably most of my life. The program I'm with in London organizes optional outings for us that you had to pay and sign up for at the beginning of the term; one of these outings was a 3-day, 2-night trip to Wales, in a place called Pembrokeshire, Britain's only coastal national park.

The trip was called the "Adventure Weekend," and it was with a company called Preseli Venture that owns the lodge and supplies the equipment, instructors, etc.

The train left Friday at about 2pm; we got to Preseli at around 7 (after a bus picked us up from the train station.)

The lodge was AWESOME. It was like 100% eco-friendly, all the meals were home-cooked, the beds were super cozy, the scenery was beautiful... I seriously did not want to leave. They made us veggie lasagne the first night, with salad and apple pie. Yummmm.

So that first night we just played games in the common area (there was a bar there too--that wasn't included in the weekend cost, though, haha.) I took a shower in their sweet bathrooms. The showers had those push-button taps that you see in public restrooms a lot that shut themselves off after 20-30 seconds so you don't waste water. But the nice thing is this saves the hot water (which was heated by solar power) so everyone gets some. Very cool.

Oh, side note, in addition to the group from my program, FIE, that was there, there were about 8 kids from FSU! What a coincidence. I could feel their jealous stares while I was wearing my Gator sweatshirt at breakfast.

Saturday morning we were broken into groups based on which activities we had signed up to do. My first one was hiking. They drove us to the coastal trail, where I and 8 others went on a 7-mile hike. It was really gorgeous, but there was sheep poo everywhere. Luckily, though, this means there were also sheep, and I do love sheep. They are adorable!

My friend the sheep.

After getting covered in dirt my shoes (and the bottoms of the only pair of pants I brought) were disgusting. I tried to rinse them off outside, but it was sort of futile. So I stuck them in an inconspicuous place to dry out a bit.

We had lunch, then put bathing suits on for kayaking, the afternoon activity. Kayaking involves so much gear! Swim suit, rash guard, "long john" wetsuit (which is like wetsuit overalls), cagoule (like a waterproof windbreaker thing), wetsuit boots, "buoyancy aid" (the British term for life jacket), helmet, and this weird plastic-y sleeve thing you fasten around your chest that stretches around the opening to your kayak to keep the water out.

It had started to drizzle by this point, and it was pretty cold rain (Wales was like 65F degrees the whole time we were there ). The two instructors, Dean and Bramble (yes, his real name. Yes, he was a white guy with dreads, and yes, he was hilarious.) taught us how to get in and out of the kayak (on land), what to do if we capsize, how to hold the paddle, etc. Then we loaded the kayaks onto the trailer, hopped in the van and drove to a little fishing inlet.

Kayaking was so fun! It was kind of hard, but I have OK upper body strength so I did fine. I mean, I can't do a pull-up or a push-up, but I am pretty strong. Once we left the different lagoons, though, the wind and surf were really strong so it got tougher to paddle and actually get anywhere. It was raining the whole time, but this wasn't so bad when we were in the water. The wetsuit and kayak keep you pretty well insulated. We explored some of the coast and played kayak-polo with a tennis ball.

Getting out of the kayaks was terrible, as we weren't allowed on the bus until we took all our wet gear off. This means there were eight girls running around trying to take off wetsuits as fast as they could so they could hop in a van to put on dry clothes. Awkward. Luckily I brought my rain jacket and some yoga pants, so I just put those on over my swim suit instead of attempting to change under my towel. Then it was back to the lodge for delicious dinner (chickpea curry and naan! They made vegetarian for me!) and sleeeeeep.

Sunday morning was, by far, the best. It was sunshiny and beautiful, and I was going COASTEERING! Which is basically using the ocean as a playground--swimming in the sea, climbing up the rocks, jumping into the water from high cliffs...

Action shot! I look so graceful, and yet so spastic at the same time.

I don't think many people know this about me, but I love to jump off of things. I don't know what it is, I just always have. Especially diving boards. I can dive OK, but I really just love the jumping part.

Anyway, we got suited up again, this time in regular wetsuits (with sneakers on over the wetsuit socks) with life jackets and helmets. My wetsuit that day fit much better, and it had butterflies on it, so I was happy.

Let me say this: You might think you are a relatively in-shape person. But until you put on a wetsuit you have not really seen your own body. It will make you look all at once muscular, flabby, short-legged and droopy-crotched. And if you are attempting to put on a damp wetsuit, well, good luck. Those things shrink up like nobody's business. It is definitely an experience.

Anyway, coasteering. IT IS AWESOME. I want to go again and again and again, as many times as I possibly can in my life. I jumped off of all the places we could, including one that was over 50 feet high! I was first in line to attempt everything--I was so proud of myself. My swimming skills definitely could be improved, but I did alright in that department. But my height came in handy again when we were climbing up rocks. Long legs for the win.

Ooooh, yeah, makin' the wetsuit look gooooood.

Bramble was one of our instructors again (I think he liked having the all-girl group), along with a very tall, skinny dude named Tommy who did backflips off the cliff. Bramble did belly-flops.

Sadly, after doing that, it was time to go back to the lodge for lunch then catch the train home. I was so sad to leave. I mean, I love London, there is so much to do, but I think I could spend a few weeks in Pembrokeshire trying out more crazy stuff (they also offered surfing and mountain biking.)

Kelsi was the only other person from UF who went on the trip, and I was definitely glad to be there with someone I know. I think we were both relieved to have a weekend away from the dorms. And it was nice to try something different! Kelsi was a great person to go with as she's generally enthusiastic about trying new stuff instead of just asking where the bar is.

So now I am nursing bruises on both my shins; they look extreme, but only hurt a little bit. I just hope they fade soon so I can wear shorts again.

Europe is still great; still miss home.

Love,
Amy

This Blog is Property of the Half Blood Prince

Yesterday was so unreal. I was ACTUALLY in the presence of ACTUAL J.K. Rowling, for REAL. I can't still hardly believe it, but there you go.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince had its world premiere yesterday in Leicester Square, which is only like four tube stops over. Apparently there were people already camped out in the queue on Monday evening, ready to get places inside the square for the stars' arrivals at 6pm yesterday.

Well, another girl from UF and I got there really early Tuesday morning (she at 5am, I at 8:30-ish... yeah, lazy.) and had a pretty good place in the line to get in. At around 9:30 they opened the gates to the... well, corrals, basically, that fans could stand in.

Everyone rushed to line the barricades to be "in front." Where we were standing was, apparently, too far down, so we hustled to one end, where there was basically one row of people between us and the barricades. It was awesome!

Although, it was only 9:30. Meaning we still had over eight hours to wait. And it was supposed to rain.

But I was prepared. I had on jeans, my toughest sneakers, hoodie AND rain jacket, plus an umbrella. And sandwiches, apples, a book of puzzles, textbook, and my iPOD. With all that, the time went by pretty quickly.

It didn't rain too bad for most of the day, just drizzled off and on; I didn't really even need the umbrella for most of it, just put my hood up.

Waiting around with all the people was OK, too. Everyone was pretty nice, chatted with a few people around me, but everyone there was pretty much like us, just genuinely excited and happy to be there.

At 4pm they closed the gates and didn't let anyone else into the corrals (I keep calling them that, but it's what they were, haha.) At 5pm, JUST before all the famous people started arriving, London decided it would be OK to hurricane all over everyone, complete with HAIL.

Yes, freaking HAIL.

Granted, it was small hail, but still, seriously? And I was standing behind these people with a statue of Dobby (which was pretty cool) but they were trying to protect him from the rain, but when they put their umbrella up it was poking me in the face so I offered to hold it for them, meaning that only my front half was covered so my butt got drenched from a combination of straight rain and runoff from other peoples' umbrellas.

The only lucky thing was that we were under this giant tree, so it could have been much, much worse.

At this point, the press people were setting up, getting establishing shots. (I'm on TV in pretty much every country going "WOOOOOO!" probably. They had my section do that a lot.)

Then, around 6 (still raining), Daniel Radcliffe arrived! Basically, he rain through the rain with a useless umbrella, up the stairs and into the theatre. Lame.

But then the rain started to slow and he came back out, started in the press section giving interviews. He didn't make it over to my section (right by the theatre entrance) until basically right before the movie started (I assume) because he was there for about 20 seconds. But I got good photos so it was alright.

In the meantime, Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy) came by. Girls around me swooned; I didn't find him all that attractive, but whatever. He was quite nice and signed basically everything within reach.

Oh, by the way, I did not get any autographs because I did not try. I did not try because a) I wanted to get good photos and I needed control of my camera, and b) what am I going to do with a signed piece of paper? I've never been thrilled by that, I guess.

I saw so many people, I can hardly remember. Alfie Enoch (Dean Thomas; much taller than you would think), Oliver and James Phelps (the Weasley twins; they have dark brown hair!), Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood, totally adorable), Devon Murray (Seamus Finnigan), Natalia Tena (Tonks, super friendly and wearing an insane dress.)

Uhhh, who else? Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy, who I don't think is actually in this movie. But still, awesome!), Michael Gambon (Albus Dumbledore, didn't really sign anything, but he can do whatever he wants... he's Dumbledore!), Alan Rickman (Snape, looks sooooooo old in person.)

Just to let you know, I had to look up about half these names because I forgot/didn't know who plays whom, but the cast is huge so sue me.

Matthew Lewis, who plays Neville Longbottom, signed pretty much everything, was really nice and kind of hilarious, much better looking in person.

Dame Maggie Smith just walked by, again, looking much older than you would assume, but she is allowed to do whatever she wants because she's a Dame and she's also an amazing actress.

Gordon Ramsay was there. No, he has nothing to do with the movie, but he brought his kids, and he was looking all angry, just like on TV!

Tim Burton was also there, dressed like Bob Dylan and looking cool/insane (which he is.) Although he wasn't with Helena Bonham Carter, who plays Bellatrix Lestrange. I thought they were married, but IMDB says they're just dating (and they have a son together...?) Still, weird that they weren't together.

Helena looked like a crazy bag lady meets Dolly Parton meets every character HBC has ever played, which is why everyone loves her. She's like this adorable goth sweetheart. So cool.

Rupert Grint (Ron) was there, looking quite sharp and not at all like he just got over the swine flu. When he got to our section he was still really upbeat, though I would be exhausted if I was him. I said "Hi," and he said "Hi" back. Success!

Emma Watson didn't have time to go to our section since she arrived basically last and had to go right into the theatre. But she was looking quite pretty; I loved her dress and her hair. And, actually, I was amazed at just how skinny she was! Her upper arms looked about the size of my wrists (and I have really skinny wrists...)

Actually, I was amazed at how small everyone was. Dan Radcliff is like a toddler, y'allz. He is about 5'5 and doesn't look a day over 15. So much for that "sexy grown-up wizard" all the magazines are trying to push. He is miniature. And Rupert isn't much taller. 5'8, maybe.

This one news crew (made up of two women in identical floral dresses, black leggings, and brown leather calf-high boots) came up to us asking about how "the movies are getting darker, but the wizards are getting hotter" and who we all preferred out of the cast. They put the microphone up to this girl by me and she was all, "Actually, I find Snape rather sexy," and well all just about died laughing.

Anyway, last of all was J.K. Rowling! She didn't come up to us, and from the people near me who had been to several of these things, she rarely signs anything. She did take photos with some people in wheelchairs in a special area by the theatre walkway, and I got some faraway pictures of her, but she never came up to us. I think if she did, though, I might have cried a little. Not to be dramatic, or anything, but I was feeling a little overwhelmed when I saw her to begin with, like, "Oh, my gosh, it's her. She's the one who came up with all this. I should say thank you, or something." But she didn't come over, so I didn't have to worry about making an ass of myself.

So all the stars went in to watch the movie, and all us riff-raff went home. The back of my pants were still drenched, and once the throng of people was gone from around me I realized how cold I actually was (it was kind of painful) so we rushed home as fast as we could on the tube, and when I got back to the dorm I got in the shower faster than I think I ever have.

I survived! (Nice hair... not.)

Today I'm trying to finish up my Media paper, but it's slow coming. It's due tomorrow at 10pm, but I'd like to finish tonight, tomorrow morning at the latest.

I also went to High Street Kensington to Wagamama, which supposedly has delicious noodles for cheap, but it wasn't so cheap so I got some dumplings instead. Then, on the walk home I stopped by Buttercup Bakery (which is legendary and has beautiful cupcakes and is painted all lime green and yellow and it is adorable!) I had a chocolate cupcake with peanut butter icing (my favorite flavor combo) and it was absolutely amazing.

I'd love to finish my work tonight, but I know I won't. Plus, the internet has been sucking so getting all my research has been a pain.

I'm leaving for Wales on Friday! Three days of hiking, swimming, jumping off cliffs, kayaking, etc. I'm so excited!

Lots of love,
Amy

The weekend I (almost) went to Liverpool

Class ended this week! Hooray! I still have two online classes, and I still have two papers to turn in for my UK classes, but I don’t have to go to class for the rest of the summer!

For my last Media in Britain class we had a two-part field trip on Thursday night. In the afternoon we went to the British Film Institute at the National Film Theatre on the South Bank and played in the Mediatheque, which is basically a room with big computer screens and headphones where you can watch tons of archives of British film and television. I watched some of a program called 28 Up, which is a documentary that follows this group of people and revisits them every 7 years to see how their lives have changed. It stated with 7 Up when they were 7 years old, and 49 Up premiered a couple years ago. But it is a cool show. I also watched some Monty Python.

Then, we had some time to take a break and get dinner so I went to Eat and got a delicious bean salad thing (and when I was done I peeled off the ingredients label off so I can make it for myself at home) and some Greek yogurt with fruit and muesli.

We met back at the National Film Theatre for a screening of the newest film by documentarian Kim Longinotto called Rough Aunties about the women in South Africa who run the organization Operation BobbiBear that fights for sexually abused children. There was also a Q&A with Kim after the showing. The film was absolutely amazing, so well-made and very moving, I teared up a few times. And Kim was very cool—friendly and genuine.

Friday after my last British Life & Culture class Allison and I had planned to go to Liverpool, stay Friday night, and come home Saturday evening. We had booked a hostel and everything. But we failed to look up accurate ticket prices and when we found out how expensive the train would be we said, No Thanks, and went to the movies instead. We lost the money for the hostel because we didn’t cancel at least 24 hours before, but it ended up being less than $30 (yes, dollars) per person and considering the huge amount we saved by not going it was OK.

We saw My Sister’s Keeper which was sooooo sad. Really good, but heavy, and I don’t think I could watch it again. But it was very good. That night, Allison, Nancy and I tried to go to this bar/club I read about on Time Out London that was having its “One Year Anniversary Party” with free entry and free drinks and cupcakes! We got alllll the way there (took forever on the Tube) and it turns out you had to be on a list that we didn’t know about and that wasn’t mentioned on their Web site. Lame. So we went to Leicester Square and got McFlurrys.

Funny story about that. Leicester Square is mostly clubs, so there are promoters everywhere trying to reel you in to their particular venue by offering drink specials, etc. They usually come up to you on the street by saying, “You girls going to a club tonight?” Well, plenty came up to us, but to one of them I replied, “No! But where can we get some ice cream?” and he said “I don’t know” in a mean voice and walked off. Jeez. But I couldn’t stop laughing about it; it was just too funny.

Saturday I went to Camden Market again for most of the day; bought a pair of sunglasses for £5, almost bought a fake Chanel bag (reaaaaaally wanted it, but the price was just too high for me so I had to walk away. It was one of those cute little quilty ones with the chain strap, too!) But I did buy some grapes, a cantaloupe and a pineapple for £3 total—what a deal.

Since yesterday was the Fourth of July (happy bday, Amurrka!) there was supposed to be this big thing in one of the parks organized by Americans Abroad, or some organization like that, with a barbecue all day and fireworks at night. Most of the other people wanted to go all day, but Allison and I decided we would go for dinner and fireworks.

Well, the fireworks got canceled for some reason, and the barbecue was full (I don’t know the details.) So the other people in our group bought potato salad, chips, etc. and Whoppers from Burger King to take to a local park and have a picnic. Since that appealed to neither Allison nor me we decided to go out to dinner in the cool area we were in the night before, and would meet the rest of the group at the Rocket (a bar they frequent and that I have been to once before) for dancing. (Free entry always, and a DJ on Saturday nights!)

Dinner was pretty good, nothing special, and we made it to the bar at 9. The rest of the group, however, wasn’t going to be there until 10:30 because Liz had to meet her friend at the train station. The bar was pretty dead, so we went back to the Euston train station and bought a £2 book of puzzles (crosswords, word searches, etc.) to share, got the man at the info desk to give us a free pen, then went back to the bar where we did puzzles for an hour and a half.

When they STILL weren’t there at 10:30—turns out lots of crazy stuff was going on, including someone breaking a bone—we decided to make the best of it, stashed the puzzle book in a corner of the bar, and hit the dance floor. It was tons of fun! I was getting all chatted up, asked to dance, offered drinks—there was even a girl standing next to me at the bar (I was trying to get a glass of water, I promise. It was like 800 degrees on the dance floor and I needed hydration.) who said, “You are SO.SEXY.” Then she told me that she wasn’t a lesbian, and I said, well, thank you and okay.

I don’t know what it is about London, and I know I haven’t gotten any better looking since arriving here, but for some reason I am MUCH prettier in London than back home. Back home I consider myself fairly girl-next-door, probably a 5 or 6 on the looks scale. But here! I get checked out in the tube, in the grocery store, at the pharmacy, in the market, and even when we go out. I don’t know what it is! Either I am much more attractive to Londoners, or I am more attractive than I originally thought and Londoners are just more vocal about telling me. It is nice, I guess, to have people think you are pretty or whatever.

Anyway, three other friends of ours made it, finally, at like 12:45, and we all danced until the bar closed and took the bus home. It was so fun; Allison is definitely a good clubbing mate, and Jessica (who showed up at 12:45 and regaled us with the whole story of the day’s craziness) decided that we all need to go to clubs in Gainesville so we can all dance together. I agreed wholeheartedly.

Today I went to the East End again and walked around, explored all the different markets they have. Found a cool vintage dress from the 70s that had purple clouds all over it and fit great, but it was too expensive, plus it was really long and I’d have to have it made into something knee-length at a tailor if I could ever wear it out. Other than that I just ate an empanada and some ice cream (not together) from the different stalls.

I’m trying to get some work done, but I am just really enjoying relaxing, blogging, and eating cereal out of the box. I am going to get soooooo fat.

Joe is in Mexico and can only use the internetz once in a while, and doesn’t have a phone there, so I can’t really talk to him and it makes me miss him more than usual. Lame.

Tomorrow I am going to finish one of my papers; it is on the BBC. My other paper is pretty much done because the outline itself is 2500 words and the paper only needs to be 2000, so to put it all together should only take maybe an hour at the most.

Tuesday is the Harry Potter London premiere! Another girl here and I are going really early in the morning (everyone else has their internships—she does, too, but she’s taking a sick day, haha.) to camp out so we have a good spot to see all the stars arriving. I am so excited!

Then next weekend I’m going to Wales to kayak and jump off of cliffs into water! Hooray!

The internet in this building needs to stop sucking so I can watch videos online.

Love,
Amy

Crazy days

I know it has been absolutely forever since I blogged, and I am ashamed of my neglect, but to make up for it I’ll write entries covering all the cool stuff I did over the few weeks I haven’t written and we’ll get all caught up, yeah?

But I just HAVE to write about what happened this last weekend as it was too crazy not to have recorded somewhere. Saturday, four other UF kids and I decided to go to Dover to see the White Cliffs. If only it was that simple.

We should have known the day was going to have some hang-ups when we went to Victoria Station to buy our train tickets. They usually give us a group rate if there are four or more people and everyone can pay separately on their credit cards or by cash or whatever. Apparently we got the one woman who didn’t want to be nice and split our bill so that was really annoying. But we got on the train just in time for our two hour ride to Dover.

And, actually the train didn’t actually go TO Dover. We found out later that the Dover station (last one on the route) and the station before it were closed for work on the tracks, so we had to get off in the middle of absolute nowhere (“Shepherd’s Well,” to be exact.) Then we hopped on a rickety rickshaw of a bus to take us over to Dover. There were, for some reason, a lot of Korean people on this bus. With babies.

So finally we get off the bus in Dover and we try to find the white hills. “But they’re huge,” you may say. “How hard could they be to find?” Well, pretty hard, actually. We started wandering around following brown historical signs. When that didn’t work, we tried following the sounds of seagulls to the water. Also, not a good idea.

So Jaime and Nancy stopped on the side of the road and asked some people sitting out front of their house for how to walk up the cliffs. They looked at us funny said, “Why would you want to walk there? It’s REALLY far.” Then they offered us a ride in their car, to which I refused because, A. there were five of us and only four seats in the car, and B. I’m not getting in the car with strangers. That’s Rule #1, obviously.

But we wandered around for a while and, after asking two more people for directions, we finally were headed up the hill.

Then, I understood why the people thought it was so absurd to walk.

It was FAR, and uphill all the way, and there wasn’t a footpath so we were walking along the road the whole way. (Also, following a hobo by accident, but oh well.) It wasn’t too hot outside, but the hike was still a pretty steady workout.

But we finally made it up, and when we looked out over the water we saw… a harbor full of big ass cruise ferries. Lame. But it was still a pretty nice view and it there were loads of trees and countryside on top the mountain (I keep saying “mountain,” but I don’t know what it is.)

We decided to take a ferry from Dover to Calais, in the north of France, so we found a footpath down the hill right to the ferry port. We bought tickets (fairly cheap, actually.) and, after a brief wait for the tram from the ferry terminal to the boat, we were on the ferry. It was a really nice boat, actually! Huge seats, lots of room, lots of FOOD. We bought lunch on the ferry—I got a huge plate of fish and chips, yummm. But ketchup was 20P a packet. Laaaame.

We asked this French woman working at the French ferry terminal when the next boats were and she told us at 6 and 8pm, which sucked because if we took the one at 6 we would only have about 45 minutes in France, but if we took the 8pm one we would miss the last train home to London. But after asking someone else at the terminal we found out there was one at 7 and that would be perfect.

Anyway, off the boat and into France! Calais is a pretty quiet town, just a marina basically with some shops, nothing too fancy. We walked around a bit, then went to the beach which was totally beautiful. The sand was so soft and nice and cool even though the sun was out all day. The water was freezing, though. We just hung around there for a few hours, then I bought two croissants and two pan au chocolat for only €2! I had to speak in mangled French to get them, but it was wonderfully worth it. My only French language experience was one semester Freshman year of college, so the conversation involved the mention of many numbers, some gesturing and face-making.

So we rushed to get back to the ferry so we could make the one that could get us back in time for the last train. We ran to the counter and asked the woman (same one who told us the wrong ferry times) if we had to check in, and she said no. So we went through security, got our passports stamped and got to the waiting lounge right on time.

BUT. The ferry was running late and they wouldn’t let us on the tram to take us over. So we didn’t get on the bus until 25 minutes or so after the boat was supposed to leave. BUT. Before we could get on the bus we had to give them our tickets and the same stupid woman wouldn’t let us on because “We didn’t have the right passes” and when we tried to explain that SHE was the one who told us we didn’t need anything she said, “Don’t waste your time!” But she said it all snooty and French.

So we ran back to the counter as fast as we could, got the right passes, ran back through security (who made us go through again) and the passport man (who yelled at us and made us show him our stamps) and got on the bus.

Well, we were on the ferry, but it decided not to leave until AN HOUR AND A HALF after the scheduled time, which as all the time we had budgeted to get back to the train. So we were like, what are we going to do? Stay in Dover overnight?

When we get back to Dover we decided to see if we could just make the train so we took a cab to the Shepherd’s Well station (with cabbies who were absolutely crazy drivers) and found out that, because of the construction, the trains were actually running later than expected, so we caught a train no problem.

I think all in all we spent eight hours in transit. There were many more crazy things that happened. But these are just the highlights.

Tonight I saw Wicked on the West End. I loved it! It was a great show, but I think I just really enjoyed the plot/story because it’s very clever and interesting, plenty of twists. Plus the performers were amazing.

It has been so hot here! And by here, I mean inside every building in England. They do not believe in A/C. As a Floridian, I am a firm believer in A/C. The dorm doesn’t have it, so we’ve had the windows open, but that doesn’t help, it just lets the bugs in. I tried to buy a fan today but the store was sold out, so I reserved one and I can pick it up tomorrow. I HAVE NEVER BEEN MORE EXCITED FOR ANYTHING. A fan!

Last week and this week weren’t very exciting because I’ve had a ton of schoolwork. My classes here in London end Friday. I’ve got a presentation to give in class Thursday and two papers due in the next week, but after that it’s just online classes!

Plus, my mom is coming for 10 days in July! We are meeting my Aunt in Paris for five days. It will be epic.

Joe is in Mexico, climbing ruins, swimming in the Caribbean, chatting with locals, learning Spanish and winning titles of some sort. I miss his guts.

I have too much junk to do but I’m feeling lazy.

Goodnight! I plan on writing some catch-up entries about the cooler stuff I’ve done in the past few weeks. Look for then soon-ish.

Love,
Amy

Punk rock prom queen.

This weekend, as I said before, my roommates were all in Paris. Saturday, I went to the British Museum for a little while. But Sunday I went to Camden Market to explore all the shops and the nonsense.

Camden is a community known for its humongous market and for its... diverse crowd. Punks, hippies, Bangladeshi and Pakistani people, ravers, hipsters, Japanese and old people alike all gather in the hundreds of market stalls.

When I got off the tube at Camden High Street, the first couple shops around me were definitely punk-oriented--loads of spikes, neon fishnets, and things to pierce yourself with. I was a bit out of place in my cardigan sweater but it was fun so I carried on.


There are different markets of the three or four main streets; I found myself in the Stables, which used to be actual horse stables under the Camden Lock bridge but were converted into an outdoor market years ago.

It was vintage every-which-way! I was overwhelmed; were just those vintage markets there by themselves I could have spent all day browsing, but they were just one of the many, many awesome things I had to look at.

I finally bought a vintage dress from Berty & Gerty, which I love. It's blue, knee-length, fits me like a glove and was only £s;15. When you see something you really like, it fits like it's made for you, and it's that price, you HAVE to buy it. I'm just saying.

I also bought a birthday present for someone, but I cannot divulge because it's a surprise. But it's gorgeous.

AND! I bought a giiiiiiant doughnut! Chocolate and almond-covered with Bavarian cream inside. Fresh and homemade. Mmmm. AND! I got an adorable little panda pin from this store that exclusively sold items with adorable cartoon animals on them and phrases in badly worded Engrish.


There was also a store called Cyberdog that you'd have to see to believe. Four phrases: Robots. Blacklights. Rave music. Go-go dancers. And this was all in a store. You couldn't take photos inside but I got one of the outside which would probably give you a good enough impression.

So all in all a good day. I came home exhausted, which is (sometimes) a sign of a very productive day.

Love,
AMY

The Ancient Commonsense of Things

Me with a giant scarab beetle in the British Museum.

This entry is dedicated to Joe-seph because he has put up with dating me for 7 months (as of today.)

So this week hasn't been too exciting--I had three tests over Wednesday and Thursday, so I didn't have too much time for fun on those days.

My Management test on Wednesday was a fiasco. They accidentally (or correctly?) gave us the same exam already posted to the class Web site, so we knew all the answers already. I told the proctor, and I guess they contacted UF, but I have no idea what we're going to have to do about it or when we're going to take the test again.

Thursday night I went out to a very American-like sports bar with most of the UF group; it was kinda fun, but I was tired (as were most of the people there, I think) and we came back to the dorm by midnight.

Friday my BLC class took a field trip to the East End of London. It was cold and rainy, which is what everyone says London's usually like, but we'd had such good weather over the past two weeks that I sort of got used to the sunshine.

Anyway, the East End was kind of neat. We saw where the Jewish immigrants used to live during and after WWII; it's where a large Bangladeshi population lives now. It's really interesting to see the area with all the old buildings butting up to modern ones, with Skyscrapers in the background.

We also went to the Women's Library, which I loved; it's where they keep all the documentation of important things in women's history, like the suffragist movement. Some people from the program were being kind of... well, ass-ish, I guess, but that's not unexpected.

Then, we had lunch! Which was pretty much the best part! FIE used our tuition to pay for a giant group lunch at Tayyabs, a really well-known and respected Indian and Pakistani restaurant. SOOO MUCH FOOOOOOOD. I had only had Indian food (or Asian food, as they'd say here--China, Japan, etc. are known as the "far East") a few times, but I really liked it. Plus naan is like the best thing ever.

The best lunch of all time.

So I ate a veggie Smosa, basically a whole loaf (??) of naan, chickpea curry, eggplant/potato/veggie curry, rice, and tons and tons of mango lassi. I think it's the best food I've had (and the most I've eaten since it was already paid for) since I've been here.

After lunch we went to Bloomberg, which is in this very unassuming-looking building from the front, but inside it's all glass and neon and funny-shaped cushions to sit on and load of windows everywhere. The whole operation was kind of over my head, at first, and I started having a mini-mental panic when the guide was talking about what it takes to work for Bloomberg. But, then she started talking about their news channel and all the journalists they employ, and she said, "We want people with journalism backgrounds for that; you can teach someone about the market and about finance, but you can't make them a good writer." So that gave me some hope that my college degree wouldn't be a waste were I to work for a place like Bloomberg.

Not only was the building awesome, but there was also a free canteen that we could eat whatever we wanted from. But I was so stuffed so I just took some candy and Nutella packets for later.

My roommates are all gone until Tuesday night; they're in Paris. I'm excited for them, a little bummed they're gone, wondering what I'm going to do with hardly anyone here, and also kind of excited to explore by myself and have some alone-time. Meaning I can go to bed at 8 p.m. and no one will judge me.

Outside the British Museum. I had to ask strangers to take my picture all day.

Today I went to the British Museum. Or, I did for a little bit. It was so crappy outside this morning, my shoes got all soaked and my stockings were falling down the whole time I was walking from the tube to the Museum. Then, I got sort of lost so I just wandered around and looked at all the neat shops. I found a nice little area I'll probably never find again, but that's the fun of getting lost. But, I pulled out my trusty map and figured out where I was and found the museum.

Statue of Venus, one of my favorite things I saw in the museum.

A word of advice: when looking for a Museum or some other giant location, don't just look up above the buildings and go, "Oh, that big one looks like it could be the top of a museum; I guess I'll walk in that direction." You will end up at a lot of banks and hotels. Trust me; I know.

Also interesting, to get there I walked up Drury Lane, where the muffin man lives! I didn't find him, though.

The museum was HUGE. I was overwhelmed. And already exhausted by the time I got there. But, I spent about two and a half hours looking at the exhibits on the first floor, then told myself it was alright to come back another day, so I left.

Rosetta Stone!

Highlights of what I saw: loads of sarcophagi, Greek and Roman statues, Native American jewelry and weapons, and the Rosetta Stone. I wanted to get a photo of myself in front of the stone, but people were crowding all around it (as if they could read any of the languages... yeah, right.) and I didn't want to get an elbow to the face.

Wandered about SoHo for a little; tons of bookstores, I found, but that was pretty much it. Then I went down Oxford Street (which is the street Primark is on). Because it's the weekend everyone was out shopping so it was a madhouse.

I walked through a couple stores, didn't buy anything. Then, I found myself in Topshop.

For those of you who don't know, Topshop is fashion megacenter. Not designer-expensive, but definitely too much for my price range. But it's full of the trendiest, hippest, up-to-the-second clothing and accessories. And this Topshop was four stories high and includes a hair salon, nail place, fashion advisor, and candy store, among other things. And don't get confused; it's not a mall. It's ONE STORE.

I think it would have been nice had I just been able to browse and enjoy myself, but if was so full of people, and so loud, and I was starving, that really it just frightened me. And everything was too expensive.

So, yeah, hopped on the tube, came home, had someone ask me for directions (FINALLY. Someone thinks I'm LOCAL. Couldn't help them, though.) Just ate dinner, and I'm considering going to watch Angels and Demons tonight at the movies.

I might go back to the museum tomorrow and see the rest of it since I think it's going to rain again and it's a nice, indoorsy activity. Maybe then I can get a photo in front of the Rosetta stone.

That's it for now; hope everyone is having a nice weekend.

Love,
AMY

"Everyone's a little bit racist, it's true."

Not a ton to report about yesterday. Saw Avenue Q last night; it was pretty good. I enjoyed it, but I didn't love it. I think hearing the songs over and over for a few years without actually seeing it messed it up a little for me, since some of the jokes didn't surprise me. Also, they made some weird choices with casting. But whatevs, it was a fun show and a fun night with five of the other girls from UF. We even got Rolo McFlurrys afterward! (Oh, Britain, how I love you...)

Yesterday morning, instead of studying, I went to Primark, which is basically like a clothing superstore where everything is super-cheap. But, it was a zoo in there, even on a Tuesday morning! Let me describe to you:

Got there around 10:30 a.m., was busy but not too crowded. By 11, it was packed full of people. I was trying on basically every skirt in the place, so I got in the line to get to the fitting room. That line? About 50 women long, took half an hour to get through. By the time I was done with that, I was like, no thanks on trying on new sizes for some stuff.

I guess everyone else felt the same way because there were women trying on stuff on the sales floor. And I don't mean trying on jackets, I mean taking off their pants to try on new pants. It was really surprising and crazy. Also, when they didn't want something, they didn't hang it back up, they just left it on the floor! Guess people go crazy for bargains.

I did, indeed, try on stuff on the sales floor, but I did not remove any of my clothing (except my belt, haha.) I just pulled the skirts on over my clothes so I could check if they fit my waist. Success! Bought 3 skirts, a pair of tights, and a pair of shoes for about £40! What an awesome deal. (I'm wearing one of the super-cute new skirts in the photo above... be jealous.)

So, yes, that was my Primark adventure. It's a store everyone here tells you to go to for super-cheap clothes, but I definitely couldn't make a habit out of going, because 1. I'd spend all my money, and 2. because I was afraid for my life.

Today I have a management exam at 5 p.m. London time, tomorrow a marketing exam at the same time and a BLC test in the morning, plus some homework, so today has to be 100% studying or I'm done for.

Later, friends.

Love,
AMY

Life update: Classes start, fun does not end. When to study?

The Nouvello Theatre where I saw Spring Awakening.

So, when I last left this blog, I had hopped on at Platform 9 3/4 for Hogwarts. It was lovely.

(Actually, sorry to spoil it for you, but it's sort of hidden near platform 6 in King's Cross next to some Dumpsters. But it's the thought that counts.)

That was last Wednesday (wow, was it that long ago? Weird.) On that day, some of the girls and I went tube-hopping until we got to a Mexican restaurant called "Tortilla," which is basically the British version of Chipotle, only there's not a million of them everywhere. It was delicious, and a nice change from my soup or cheese sandwich diet.

That night, the study abroad people had paid for all of us to see Spring Awakening. It. Was. AMAZING.


It had been so long since I saw a real, professional theatre performance. It made me remember why I loved it so much in the first place.

(But, friends, if you catch me talking about doing any plays... stop me, please.)

Anyway, the music was amazing, set and costumes gorgeous, actors were outstanding, plus it was neat to hear everything with British accents. The one male lead with all of the really rocking songs sounded like Morrisey, kinda. Well, not really, but he LOOKED like Eraserhead, which was hilarious.

Thursday: Classes start. Still fun to be had.


Thursday I had my first British Life and Culture class. It was an hour in the classroom going over syllabus, assignments, tests, etc. One class a week is in the classroom, the other is a Friday field trip.

Then we hopped on the tube and went to Parliament! We took a tour with this nice little old woman.

It was all quite interesting, learning how Parliament works and all that. We even saw a couple of MPs! Well, people in suits. But she said they were MPs.

That afternoon I also had my other class, the elective Media in Britain. There are only five people in that class, including myself, but it's not a difficult class work-wise; it's mostly discussion about newspapers, TV, documentary, etc. Right up my alley. And as the only journalism major in the class I pretty much always have something to say or contribute. Fun fact: there comes a time when you realize you're very involved in your major. That time is when you speak using industry jargon, and the teacher has to tell the rest of the class what you mean. Ah, being on a trip with non-J-school students... how strange!

So, yeah, I think I'm really going to enjoy that class. We get to take field trips, too, and we're going to a TV studio and a newsroom. So cool!

Friday: Canary Wharf business-y stuff. Also, I party.

That big iron circular structure in the middle of the picture is the 2012 Olympic stadium!

Bright and early Friday morning we had our first field trip. We started off at the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE). They had just moved into a new building, and everything was super-modern and futuristic-looking. Ridiculously clean. It reminded me of The Devil Wears Prada.

A man there told us all about futures trading, which is exactly as exciting as it sounds. Maybe less so. But, I paid attention as best I could for the early hour, then we toiled on.

Our next stop was in Canary Wharf, which is an emerging financial center of London. We went to the Barclay's bank headquarters. It was huge! Six thousand people work in that building alone. It's like a city. Another guy talked to us all about Barclay's banking industry, credit crisis, bailout, etc. That was WAY more interesting than futures trading. I was quite intrigued, actually.

Then, we took the elevator up to the 30th floor of Barclay's and looked out to this great view of the wharf and the city. We could see where the 2012 Olympic Games stadium is being built. Everyone in London is already excited about the Olympics, from what I've heard from various people with accents. It's all pretty cool.

We also went to the Canary Wharf Group headquarters. To be honest, I have no idea why we were there, only that it's the tallest building in the city and there were fancily-suited men and women everywhere. We also sat in this giant boardroom.

After all that field-trippin' in our Business Casual (or b-caj, as I might like to say.), two other girls and I took the tube to this ridiculously big mall (again, another city. I've never seen a mall this big, except when I was 8 or so and we went to the Mall of America.) I bought tights, that's all, because I had washed-and-worn the same pair three times that week, so I figured buying another pair wouldn't be outrageous. My roommate Liz bought an entire outfit. Girl can shoppppp.

We came home, ate, and four of us got ready to "go out." Now, I never really go "out," so to speak. I'm much more indoorsy. A homebody, if you will. But I decided to be bold because, hey, I'm young, I'm in Europe, and if I have a crappy time at least I tried it and I don't have to go again.

So after many unsuccessful tube stops in places with expensive dance clubs and promoters trying to corral girls inside, we finally ended up at a pub full of football (soccer) fans who were drunkenly cheering about their team that had just won (I guess. They seemed too happy to have lost.) After the first hour, in which we were hit on probably 6 times by every bloke in the place, it had finally settled down.

Nancy saw a boy she thought was cute, so she got him and his (basically mute) friend to come over. Turns out they were French, in London for a few days. So it turned into a night of repeating sentences over and over, doing hand gestures, and them using my trusty reporter's notebook to illustrate what they were trying to say. I think Nancy and her dude had a looooove connection.

Oh! And! I drank a beer! Mom, don't be angry with me. I (again) thought I should try it, at least once, because I'm young, in Europe, and it was legal for me. So I had a Fuller's Organic Honeydew. It was... not entirely repulsive. Still, I think I'd rather have a milkshake, but pat on the back to me for trying something new.

Anyway, a fun night. I may go again, but I'm definitely not up for going out every night of the week like some (read as: most) of the people on this trip.

Saturday: Did not see Hugh Grant


Saturday was an odd day. Woke up and went to the travel agency with the girls to buy train tickets to Paris for the following weekend. I have a class on Monday, so I would have to leave Sunday night, leaving me (theoretically) almost two entire days in Paris. BUT my train ticket was going to be almost $300 American, and we would arrive 1pm Saturday and I would have to take the 3pm train Sunday, so I said no thanks, and the girls are going without me. But, that is alright since MY MOM IS COMING TO VISIT IN JULY! Yaaaaay! We're doing London stuff for a bit, then she had suggested Paris in her original e-mail, but I had said Rome instead because of the trip we were planning, but now it's Paris with my mom!!

After the debacle in the morning, I went walking about High Street Kensington until I was waaaaay far away. Found a tube station and went home, then went to Notting Hill, which has this huuuuuuuge street market on Portabello Road on Saturdays. It's a beautiful, picaresque little area of town. The market must have been at least two miles long. I got a pretty blouse in the vintage clothing area, though I don't believe it's vintage. But I like it anyhow, and it was cheap.

Sunday: Brighton Beach memoirs.


On Sunday, Allison, Kelsi and I took the train to Brighton. It was really fun, and a beautiful sunny day. We walked about the beach and the pier (which had carnival games and rides.)


I also finally got my fish and chips! And on the seashore! That, strangely enough, was one of my to-do things in England: go to Brighton and eat fish and chips on the pier. So I haven't eaten them before Sunday in preparation for this momentous event.


The beach at Brighton was packed! Also, it has no sand, just rocks! Weird. But a very fun day.

Today (Monday): To be, or not to be. That is the quest(ion).

Gators at the Globe.

Today we had a field trip to the Globe theatre (not the original, obviously. That burnt down.) for BLC. Learned tons about Shakespeare. The man who showed us around is a director in the company, and was hilarious.


Also bought a ticket to see Romeo and Juliet next Wednesday. £5 for a standing-room ticket, just like a peasant. I'm excited!

After that, had my media class, where a documentary filmmaker came and spoke to us about his work. Very, very interesting. I think I love this class. My homework last week was to watch TV.

Tomorrow is devoted to studying for my three tests this week. And I'm seeing Avenue Q tomorrow night!

Cheers!

Love,
AMY

Yes, I did it.

I'm leaving for Hogwarts. See you guys later.



Love,

AMY

The past four days, a.k.a. tourist affection/attraction.

Buckingham Palace, where my friend the Queen hangs out.

Well, the past four days have been so long that I've been too tired at night to blog all about it, so I'll give you a nice summary here.

Saturday: FIE Sightseeing bus tour and walking tour.

FIE paid for us (with our tuition, haha) to go on a coach bus tour of the city to sort of orient us with where the major sights were.

We drove all around London, saw the Tower Bridge (which most people think is London Bridge... it's not. London Bridge is way less exciting.) Saw the outside of Buckingham Palace, got out of the bus for the changing of the guard (which I have on video and will post to YouTube when my Internet starts working better.)

Got a nice view of the houses of Parliament and Big Ben (which we're going on a field trip to in a couple weeks), as well as a TON of other stuff around the city. I have a lot of places I need to go back to and visit.

When the coach dropped us off we took a break for lunch, then met back at Metrogate (the dorm) for a walking tour of South Kensington, the neighborhood we live in. Found some great little side streets, plus this tiny bakery between two rows of houses that I might have possibly imagined, but the things in its window look SO delicious. I'm definitely going back there.

At the end of the walking tour we stopped at High Street Kensington, one of the best shopping streets in the city. My tour group was all girls so we were pretty enthusiastic about this. We checked out Marks & Spencer and H&M, the latter of which, if you don't know, is a budget-fashion Mecca. I bought a dress there for £20. Since there are so many stores in London, and I DO love to shop for clothes (second only to shopping for FOOD) I made myself a rule that I'll only buy stuff once in a while, and only things that I really, really love. I'm also trying to limit myself to one purchase (if any) in a store. And I'd like to find more skirts/dresses because those are things I have trouble finding in the states. But yeah, it was my first real personal purchase.

Once I got home I just studied for a bit, watched a couple lectures, and went to bed. Every day here is so packed full of stuff that I just get kinda exhausted.

Sunday: Train trip to Windsor Castle

Question: Why is this the best picture ever? A) The guard; B) My face; C) My awesome new dress.
Answer: D) It is written.

Since we didn't have anything officially planned for Sunday, my roommates, plus one more girl, and I took the National Rail train (yes, a REAL TRAIN) to Windsor, which is a cute little town around Windsor Castle.

Windsor Castle was AMAZING. Seriously. And the best part is that the Queen still LIVES there. Like, it's her HOUSE. That's just too cool.

I got a ton of pictures of the outsides of the castle, but no pictures were allowed inside so you're just going to have to imagine it for yourself. There was also a special exhibit, Queen Mary's Dollhouse, which was built in the early 1900s and is this absolutely massive dollhouse with miniature everything, including electric lights, running water, working cars, even a working vacuum cleaner. It's a doll palace, actually. They built it as a gift to Mary (princess at the time, and collector of miniatures), but it wasn't intended to be played with--it was more a tribute to "the finery of Britain." Still, pretty cool. I wanted to get a photo of it for my Grandpa Larry, who used to build dollhouses and built me a pretty cool big farmhouse one when I was a little girl, but alas, no photos allowed.

There was another gallery with some Leonardo DaVinci sketches displayed; THAT was unreal. I couldn't believe I was looking at something DaVinci actually drew. Apparently, at Windsor there are over 600 of his sketches. Bill Gates just bought 16 of the sketches for $32 million... wowzzz.

But, yeah we did the audio tour through the castle and it was amazing. The rooms were all so beautiful, and I've seen some of them on TV before, including this one which is on TV a lot.

After the tour (a LOT of walking, as usual) we found a Greek restaurant and I had vegetarian mousaka and it was delicious. I know it just looks like reddish-brown nonsense with cheese on top, but it was chock full of veggie goodness. I love trying new foods.

Took the train back, more studying, then sleep. Seems to be the pattern.

Monday: Stonehenge, Bath, and the City of Bath

Gator Girls take on Stonehenge. Sadly, no aliens in sight.

FIE organized another coach trip for us, this time to Stonehenge (about an hour and a half away) and the city of Bath (an hour from Stonehenge).

Stonehenge was cool! Hearing all the different theories as to what it is was neat. Plus, the rocks are so heavy (some as much as 25 tons!) that it was incredibly impressive how it was built. The prevailing theory is that the ground it's built on was considered a sacred spot by those people, and they spent years and years and years building Stonehenge as a temple to worship in. Although, some people think it's an alien mothership. Make of that what you will.

The drive took use through the English countryside... as a Florida girl, I've never seen lush, green rolling hills like the ones in England, covered in little yellow flowers... beautiful!

The city of Bath was beautiful in itself and the architecture was stunning. All the buildings are built from a stone naturally occurring in the area (known as "Bath stone," haha) so they're all an almost identical color. It's a really cool effect to see from the hillside.


We had some time to explore, so some kids from the trip (myself included) found a little fair in a park (which was run by mostly French people...) and had some lunch. I brought mine with me, so instead I bought some Baklava and two pieces of fudge: mint macaroon and Cointreau truffle. I've been eating them bit by bit every day. It is taking a lot of restraint.

Anyway, we also explored and saw the outside of Bath Abbey and the oldest house in Bath. And we saw where Jane Austen lived! The city was built as an epicenter of society and leisure for the wealthy; they'd go to the baths and show off their daughters during the summer, hoping for an engagement announcement by the end of the season. It started out very tiny around the hot springs, but as it grew in fashionability, it also grew in size.

Of course, the Romans had set up shop many, many centuries before all this. And after some archaeological excavation historians found the original Roman baths. We got to do a tour of this (which was awesome) and at the end taste some of the bath water (which was gross. But I did feel healed! Or, whatever.)

The ride home was long, and most people fell asleep, but we got back to the dorm at around 6 p.m. I ate a bit, then finished watching my lectures, so I was all caught up! What a good student I am...

Today (Tuesday): Natural History Museum

Museum of my dree-ums. (Get it? Dreams.)

Now, THIS was something I was really excited about because it was on my list of must-sees in London. Our dorm is only about two blocks from the Natural History Museum, plus the entrance is FREE. So this morning about six of us ladiez walked over to the museum.

It. Was. HUGE. And one of the most beautiful buildings I've ever seen. And HUGE. And FULL of animals and plants and gemstones and nonsense to look at. Two of the girls I was with lasted about an hour there; the other three, about two and a half hours. Me? SIX HOURS.

But I went through every exhibit (even Dinosaurs) and took tons of pictures and had myself a jolly good time.

There aren't many exciting details to share about this, because I was mainly walking around, looking, asking strangers to take a picture of me in front of a statue, etc. But fun fun fun nonetheless.

Then, once I got home, I went to the grocery store, where a 40-something-year-old British man holding a motorcycle helmet said to me, "Mind if I ask you a bit of a cheeky questions? I was wondering if I might get your telephone number." To which I said I didn't have a local number and them spent the next half hour in fear that someone would try to stalk me/rob me/murder me once I left the store. This was partly because he looked like the villain from an action movie, and partly because I am not used to anyone trying to get mah digitz.

But anyway, this time I was smart and brought a strong reusable shopping bag to haul my groceries in, so the walk home wasn't as gruesome.

Trying to buy groceries in London is an adventure in itself. Hardly anything looks familiar, and things that do (like fruit) is packaged in such a weird way that it's difficult to find anyway. Plus, everything is measured in kilograms, and nutrional info is in kilojoules and kilocalories so I have no idea what I'm putting into my body. (Yes I do... cheeeese. And loads of bread.)

When I returned home everyone was planning trips to Ireland and Amsterdam and Paris and whatnot, but I was a bit stressed out because I'd like to go to Dublin and Paris but my class schedule (for the first half of the summer) is different from their schedules in that I have classes Friday and Monday mornings and can't spend a four-day-weekend somewhere like most people can. So that caused me a bit of sadness since I'd like to travel and experience these things, but I guess I have to just create my own planes that sort-of coincide with their plans.

Took a jaunt to the Internerd café, where I was finally able to call my parents through my online phone. Also, spoke to JPG, mah boyfriennn. It was really nice to hear all of their voices. I'm having fun here, but I'm also kind of overwhelmed and miss home, people from home, etc. It probably wouldn't be so bad if I had more time/ability to speak with these people, but my phone situation is annoying/inconvenient, and I basically have to pay two pounds every time I want an hour of Internet-call time. So talking on the Internet phone will only happen once in a while.

Since I was all caught up with my schoolwork I spent tonight hanging out with a few kids I've never really talked to, playing cards. They were all really nice and we had a lot of fun.

Now I'm going to sleep; don't know exactly what I'll do tomorrow, but it may involve Mexican food(...?).

Love,

AMY

P.S. I've put up ALLLLL my lovely pictures on Picasa (since it's much easier to share with family than Facebook, and the albums are easier to manage). CHECK THEM OUT!

P.P.S.

Admit it: you knew this was coming.

And the hare is... "jugged," you say?

So, another day in London. Second day! Not much to report, and no pictures this time, but here you go.

Woke up at the bright, early hour of 8:30 a.m. because we had to go to a class and res life orientation session for FIE, the program that runs my study abroad (along with UF.) Had a mix-up with my class schedule (the thought I was taking THREE classes at the study center, not two, which, with my UF online classes, would have been a bit... horrible.) But I sorted it out.

Afterward, a few people from the program and I went to the Imperial College student union (we have temporary student ID cards there for the summer). Had lunch (pizza and chips) for less than £4! What a deal.

The other people were supposed to have internship orientation this afternoon, an as I decided not to do an internship I did not have to attend this meeting. So I did not do anything exciting and instead watched lectures for my online class (which I am STILL behind on... nice.) and take an online Marketing quiz, etc.

At 7, my roommates and I met a huge UF group downstairs, and we all took the Tube to Victoria, where we ate at this pub called "The Jugged Hare." What "jugged" means, I have no idea, but I assume it's... good? I don't know.

Anyway, I ate some (extremely British) watercress and spring onion soup, which was weird but kinda good. I had soup for dinner last night two; it's the cheapest thing at most of the pubs and cafés, and it's just the right size for a meal and so I don't have to carry any of it home.

The girls at my table ordered two bottles of wine to share; I did not partake, but it smelled nice. As we were leaving the pub, one of the waiters told the group that good late-night bars to go to were in Covent Gardens, so once we all got to the Tube stop 18 of the 22 people in the group got on a train to go to the bars, and the other four of us hopped on and went back to the dorm.

So now I'm blogging, going to study a bit, and I'm eating a delicious Cadbury Twirl, which is basically chocolate stuffed in chocolate. Mmmmm England tastes delicious.

I'm glad I decided to come back (and that there were people with me!) because we have a bus tour of London at 10 a.m. tomorrow(!!) and then a walking tour of the city at 2 p.m. I'm very, very stoked about that, so it should yield a much more interesting entry than this one (with pictures!)

Also, Monday I go to Stonehenge!!!!!

Miss you, United States of Awesomerica.

Love,

AMY

P.S. Interesting tidbit: Now that I'm on U.K. internet, when I search Google in my browser toolbar, Google.co.uk comes up automatically. Like when I search Amazon, amazon.co.uk is the first entry! What a novelty. [/nerd]