So now I am in my last two weeks of school : Finals time! Yippee. Right now I'm actually working on 3 papers that are due for one class. I'm trying to finish it all today so that I have tonight and tomorrow to study for my first final on Thursday. Unfortunately I have to study my ass off for each and every single final I have. Who would've thought? Haha.
After that I get to pack and continue my travels! I'm so excited.
I'm also excited to come home. The past month I've been counting down the days so to speak but this past week I've been questioning it. Why? I mean I know I miss my family, but why am I not caring about each precious day I spend here and using it to its fullest? My mind is occupied with things from home. Are things going to work out? Will they be worse off than when I came? Stupid things but I can't control it. I am excited for the summer time, and swimming in my poooooooool. I don't know what much else I'm excited for. Obviously I miss some of my friends.
The experience of being away for this much time is a good experience because it really helps you weed out your true friends. It sounds so cliche to say it but it's true. I'm not saying you have to talk to every single person every day in order to make sure that they're your friend but some of the people I called friends before I came here didn't contact me once. It just helps put things in perspective.
I'm not sure all of my crap is going to fit in the two suitcases I arrived here with, unfortunately. I have bought too much stuff since then! Thank God I was able to give Sanaz some of my things to take back. None of my other visitors took anything back which kinda sucked because it would have really really helped.
I am looking forward to the days where I can sleep in my comfortable bed with my arms stretched out and not have to worry about spring popping out of my mattress. haha. I'm also looking forward to food with flavor. Can't emphasize enough how nothing (ESPECIALLY school food) has any flavor! I know a lot of people have issues moving back home with their parents after they've been out for a while. I'm looking forward to seeing how that works out for me. Honestly I've found that when I live "on my own" I don't go out as much/as late as I would most times when I'm home. Strange? Yeah. Or at least that's what my memory jogs up.
I would say I can't wait to go home and cook some food BUT my parents are having the kitchen remodeled and apparently we have no kitchen right now. So sad. =/ So feel free to cook for/with me. =)
I guess now is the time to stop distracting myself and get these next two papers done! I have to finish them by 8pm. That is my time limit I have given myself. Let's see if I can do it.
Thanks for reading!
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Monday, April 19, 2010
Volcano
So I don't know if any of you have heard of the volcano in Iceland that is spewing ash. It's pretty bad because no one really knows when it will stop. A bunch of us are supposed to go to Rome this weekend but it might not happen. A lot of students are stuck in other countries throughout Europe and unable to return to the UK! One girl had to go back to the U.S. for her grandmothers funeral and is now stuck there. How horrible.
In the mean time everyone has so many papers due. After these papers are done, it's finals! Then we're done with school. Yikes.
A lot of people are saying that we might not even be able to get home on time! How freaky. Haha. Other school programs are finished this week and students are taking ships back to America. This is insane! Haha.
AIFS already sent us an email telling us not to worry and that if we booked our flight through the school they will find a way to get us back. How? They don't know yet, but they will figure it out. Hahaha. Good times!
So I might be sailing back home. We shall see. Hopefully this clears up by the weekend so I can see Rome and get gelato!!!!!
mmmmmmmmm
In the mean time everyone has so many papers due. After these papers are done, it's finals! Then we're done with school. Yikes.
A lot of people are saying that we might not even be able to get home on time! How freaky. Haha. Other school programs are finished this week and students are taking ships back to America. This is insane! Haha.
AIFS already sent us an email telling us not to worry and that if we booked our flight through the school they will find a way to get us back. How? They don't know yet, but they will figure it out. Hahaha. Good times!
So I might be sailing back home. We shall see. Hopefully this clears up by the weekend so I can see Rome and get gelato!!!!!
mmmmmmmmm
Oxford
On Saturday my schoolmates and I took a day trip to Oxford. It took roughly an hour and a half to get there by coach bus. I signed up for the trip alone, and wasn't quite sure who else would be going. Thank goodness Jessica was there! She's my other neighbor. We decided to walk around together.
When we first got off the bus we had a tour guide that was going to take us around and show us the sites for an hour and a half. We saw many colleges. We ended the tour at Christ college. In the main hall of Christ college is where the dining hall of Harry Potter was filmed! UNFORTUNATELY, the hall was closed for the day!!!! Just our luck of course. I guess there was a wedding there or something? Anyway Rachel went another day and took pics of it. She said it's not as large as it appears in the movie. I still would've liked to see it. =/
Jessica and I walked across the street to a store called "Alice's Shop". It was pretty cool. Everything was related to Alice in Wonderland. I bought some "Mad Hatter Tea". haha. They had lollipops, watches, key chains, cups, pillows. When I say everything I mean everything.
As we continued to walk down the street, we saw groups of people dressed in costume. They would gather around in an area and perform. It was pretty nice. I'll post videos later. We asked around and I guess it was a beginning of Spring dance? They weren't completely sure.
Anyway, we went to the pub where C.S. Lewis and J.R.R Tolkien "hung out". Haha. Thought that was pretty cool!!
Around 4pm we headed back. I'm missing a lot of detail in this but eh, i'm tired and have a paper due tomorrow! Just wanted to give you a bit of an update.
=)
When we first got off the bus we had a tour guide that was going to take us around and show us the sites for an hour and a half. We saw many colleges. We ended the tour at Christ college. In the main hall of Christ college is where the dining hall of Harry Potter was filmed! UNFORTUNATELY, the hall was closed for the day!!!! Just our luck of course. I guess there was a wedding there or something? Anyway Rachel went another day and took pics of it. She said it's not as large as it appears in the movie. I still would've liked to see it. =/
Jessica and I walked across the street to a store called "Alice's Shop". It was pretty cool. Everything was related to Alice in Wonderland. I bought some "Mad Hatter Tea". haha. They had lollipops, watches, key chains, cups, pillows. When I say everything I mean everything.
As we continued to walk down the street, we saw groups of people dressed in costume. They would gather around in an area and perform. It was pretty nice. I'll post videos later. We asked around and I guess it was a beginning of Spring dance? They weren't completely sure.
Anyway, we went to the pub where C.S. Lewis and J.R.R Tolkien "hung out". Haha. Thought that was pretty cool!!
Around 4pm we headed back. I'm missing a lot of detail in this but eh, i'm tired and have a paper due tomorrow! Just wanted to give you a bit of an update.
=)
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Brussels, Belgium
Yesterday I went to Brussels! It was a day trip organized through the school. I signed up by myself so I didn't know if I'd know anyone else going on the trip. (Good thing I did). We had to meet at Gloucester station at 5:30am, which means I had to wake up at 445 and get ready. ughhhhh. For those that know me, you know that I don't function at that hour. Sanaz was still staying with me too. We ended up packing and talking until about 1am when we decided to sleep. I woke up at 445 and got ready, said bye to Sanaz and headed over to Gloucester station. There was one girl there already waiting, and soon after Victoria and Jessica arrived. I know them! woo. So they allowed me to tag along with them for the day, which was nice.
We took the Eurostar to Belgium. I must admit, I like it better than flying. It's much safer and MUCH MUCH more comfortable. It only took us 2 hours to get to Belgium. Oh yeah, and our "group" (of 4 people) met up with the other campus students which had like 15 students. So pretty much 15 freshman and sophomores, and 4 of us... yay. I sat next to one of the kids from the Richmond campus. I am not even kidding when I say this kid talked THE WHOLE ENTIRE WAY. I don't think there was one second of silence. I was telling Jessica and Victoria afterward that I'm so glad I brought my ipod or I would've killed myself.
We arrived in Brussels and the person in charge handed us all maps and said "have fun". Great... haha. So we just started wandering around. Immediately I noticed the ridiculous guy to girl ratio. It seemed like it was only the men that were out and about. Of course they noticed girls (especially two blondies) and began commenting. They're pretty aggressive over there. One of the most famous things in Brussels is this statue of a small child peeing. It's quite strange. We asked around at the significance of it and no one really knew. Also this child statue has a costume change once a day. They put a lot of time, money, and effort into this thing. Crazy. You could not imagine what they sold with this statue on it. Everything from a deck of cards, to a wine opener (with the child's wee wee as the cork screw), bottle opener, chocolate lollipop, soap, postcards, etc. Once we're near the square, we decide to get some street waffles. MMMMMMM. I got mine with strawberries and chocolate. It was so yummy. Belgian chocolate is delicious. I couldn't finish it all, it was too rich for me.
We walked around for quite some time seeing the sights and taking pictures. Then we stumbled upon a tour bus. On the side of the bus said it takes you to all the popular sites and it's a hop on hop off experience. So we think.. 'COOL'! We go over and ask the bus driver how much it is and he tells us 18 Euro for students. Expensive but we did it nonetheless. So he hands us pamphlets and headphones and we sit inside the bus. An hour or two later we're still on the bus because we decided not to get off at any of the stops thus far. I asked Victoria "how do they know once we get off the bus that we already paid and we need to get back on?" She said that she didn't know and he didn't give her anything. So we decide to wait until we actually want to get off in order to tell him about it. We decided to get off at the spot we got on at to get some lunch. Victoria goes over to him to tell him about our ticket and I see a slight argument going on with them. First of all.... I have a lot of built up anger right now, don't make me mad. Second of all.... poor poor guy. hahha. So anyway... I go over to him and i'm like.. what's the problem? He's like.. I already gave you guys your tickets. Right then i'm thinking he's an idiot. I continued to tell him that he was so flustered that he couldn't give us the right change, he told us to just go and sit and that he'd give us our change later. We figured he'd give us the tickets when he'd give us the change. He's like.. "No, no. you are wrong. I mean I don't want to argue because the customer is always right." I was like.. clearly the customer isn't always right if you're telling me i'm lying. He was telling us that if we want we can just stay on the bus. I'm like.. no. we paid 18 euro and we want to be able to hop on and off. Honestly we argued for about 10 mins... I was going to do the whole give me your name and the company's number thing but the other two girls kept saying leave it let's go. Passivity bothers me. It really bothers me. So I told him "you're lucky that we have to leave today and that they don't want to get back on the bus, otherwise I'd make this a real big problem for you", and we left. I mean i'm sure the guy probably didn't deserve so much attitude but I have a lot of built up crap that is just dying to come out. And he was being a douche, so he probably deserved it.
Anyway, we ate lunch at this square. They had outside seating next to the cathedrals and stuff. It was very nice and veryyyy expensive. A soda (which came in the smallest class) was 3.50 euro... reallly? So the waiter came over to get our drinks. He told us they don't serve tap water.. they're really trying to get every penny from you. So the two girls ordered drinks and I said I don't want anything to drink. Then he looks at us and he's like.. you guys are ordering right? This is lunch time. You have to order. And in that exact second I want to stand up and start saying some not so nice stuff to him. Instead I sarcastically said "REALLLLLLY??? I didn't realize it was lunch time. Thanks for that"
Don't get me wrong, I loved Brussels. I'm just not sure how much I loved the people. All of our interactions were either people trying to rip us off or trying to get us in bed. Like really?
On the way back of course I was sitting next to the same kid. He moved his seat though which was great but the two girls he was talking to on the way there didn't seem to like that he moved away from them. They began cursing up a storm pretty loudly and he came back over and told them to be respectful of the other people on the train that aren't part of our group. Then out of nowhere one of the girls slaps him. And I don't mean a little tap tap on the face... I mean probably the hardest slap i've ever seen anyone receive on their face. My mouth dropped. He just looked at her for a second and went back and sat at his seat. At that second I wanted to give her a piece of my mind and say a few not so nice things, but I figured I argued with people enough for the day. I could not believe it. I'm still in shock. Poor guy... I mean he talked a lot but he didn't deserve to get slapped like that. haha.
I guess that was the jist of my day. We got back at like 1030pm. I was exhausted and passed out pretty soon after.
We took the Eurostar to Belgium. I must admit, I like it better than flying. It's much safer and MUCH MUCH more comfortable. It only took us 2 hours to get to Belgium. Oh yeah, and our "group" (of 4 people) met up with the other campus students which had like 15 students. So pretty much 15 freshman and sophomores, and 4 of us... yay. I sat next to one of the kids from the Richmond campus. I am not even kidding when I say this kid talked THE WHOLE ENTIRE WAY. I don't think there was one second of silence. I was telling Jessica and Victoria afterward that I'm so glad I brought my ipod or I would've killed myself.
We arrived in Brussels and the person in charge handed us all maps and said "have fun". Great... haha. So we just started wandering around. Immediately I noticed the ridiculous guy to girl ratio. It seemed like it was only the men that were out and about. Of course they noticed girls (especially two blondies) and began commenting. They're pretty aggressive over there. One of the most famous things in Brussels is this statue of a small child peeing. It's quite strange. We asked around at the significance of it and no one really knew. Also this child statue has a costume change once a day. They put a lot of time, money, and effort into this thing. Crazy. You could not imagine what they sold with this statue on it. Everything from a deck of cards, to a wine opener (with the child's wee wee as the cork screw), bottle opener, chocolate lollipop, soap, postcards, etc. Once we're near the square, we decide to get some street waffles. MMMMMMM. I got mine with strawberries and chocolate. It was so yummy. Belgian chocolate is delicious. I couldn't finish it all, it was too rich for me.
We walked around for quite some time seeing the sights and taking pictures. Then we stumbled upon a tour bus. On the side of the bus said it takes you to all the popular sites and it's a hop on hop off experience. So we think.. 'COOL'! We go over and ask the bus driver how much it is and he tells us 18 Euro for students. Expensive but we did it nonetheless. So he hands us pamphlets and headphones and we sit inside the bus. An hour or two later we're still on the bus because we decided not to get off at any of the stops thus far. I asked Victoria "how do they know once we get off the bus that we already paid and we need to get back on?" She said that she didn't know and he didn't give her anything. So we decide to wait until we actually want to get off in order to tell him about it. We decided to get off at the spot we got on at to get some lunch. Victoria goes over to him to tell him about our ticket and I see a slight argument going on with them. First of all.... I have a lot of built up anger right now, don't make me mad. Second of all.... poor poor guy. hahha. So anyway... I go over to him and i'm like.. what's the problem? He's like.. I already gave you guys your tickets. Right then i'm thinking he's an idiot. I continued to tell him that he was so flustered that he couldn't give us the right change, he told us to just go and sit and that he'd give us our change later. We figured he'd give us the tickets when he'd give us the change. He's like.. "No, no. you are wrong. I mean I don't want to argue because the customer is always right." I was like.. clearly the customer isn't always right if you're telling me i'm lying. He was telling us that if we want we can just stay on the bus. I'm like.. no. we paid 18 euro and we want to be able to hop on and off. Honestly we argued for about 10 mins... I was going to do the whole give me your name and the company's number thing but the other two girls kept saying leave it let's go. Passivity bothers me. It really bothers me. So I told him "you're lucky that we have to leave today and that they don't want to get back on the bus, otherwise I'd make this a real big problem for you", and we left. I mean i'm sure the guy probably didn't deserve so much attitude but I have a lot of built up crap that is just dying to come out. And he was being a douche, so he probably deserved it.
Anyway, we ate lunch at this square. They had outside seating next to the cathedrals and stuff. It was very nice and veryyyy expensive. A soda (which came in the smallest class) was 3.50 euro... reallly? So the waiter came over to get our drinks. He told us they don't serve tap water.. they're really trying to get every penny from you. So the two girls ordered drinks and I said I don't want anything to drink. Then he looks at us and he's like.. you guys are ordering right? This is lunch time. You have to order. And in that exact second I want to stand up and start saying some not so nice stuff to him. Instead I sarcastically said "REALLLLLLY??? I didn't realize it was lunch time. Thanks for that"
Don't get me wrong, I loved Brussels. I'm just not sure how much I loved the people. All of our interactions were either people trying to rip us off or trying to get us in bed. Like really?
On the way back of course I was sitting next to the same kid. He moved his seat though which was great but the two girls he was talking to on the way there didn't seem to like that he moved away from them. They began cursing up a storm pretty loudly and he came back over and told them to be respectful of the other people on the train that aren't part of our group. Then out of nowhere one of the girls slaps him. And I don't mean a little tap tap on the face... I mean probably the hardest slap i've ever seen anyone receive on their face. My mouth dropped. He just looked at her for a second and went back and sat at his seat. At that second I wanted to give her a piece of my mind and say a few not so nice things, but I figured I argued with people enough for the day. I could not believe it. I'm still in shock. Poor guy... I mean he talked a lot but he didn't deserve to get slapped like that. haha.
I guess that was the jist of my day. We got back at like 1030pm. I was exhausted and passed out pretty soon after.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Long Awaited Post!
Soo.. I have been horrible! I can't believe it has taken me nearly a month to write in this thing. I guess it could be a combination of things. I really just haven't been 100% there. I am coming home pretty soon! I can't believe it. Time is flying by. Right now Sanaz is staying with me. She's leaving on Saturday, and Saturday I head to Brussels, Belgium for the day. Yeah, I'm definitely going to get some street waffles. Yum. I am very excited!
Last week my mom, Hydeh, and sisters were here. The week before that Jasmine was here. I really enjoyed seeing my family. I wish my dad could have come. I really miss him. I try to skype with my parents often but the time difference is a killer. I also feel like i'll really be leaving here knowing myself much better and knowing who I care about/who cares about me. I'm really fortunate for those who continue to keep in touch with me, and make sure I'm still alive! haha.
I honestly can't go through everything I've done since I last posted. That would be ridiculous, and my memory isn't all that great. Also these past few weeks I feel like I've been doing the same thing over and over since new people keep coming to town. Haha.
The pictures will all be shown when I get back. I need to create a slide show or something.
There are SO many pictures, my hard drive is almost full! haha. I was full before but I had to delete Itunes off of my computer (which was okay because it wasn't even working in the first place). So hopefully there's enough room for the rest of the pictures I plan on taking during my stay here.
I have so many papers due starting in 2 weeks all the way up to finals week (first week of May). I told myself that right after Sanaz leaves I'm going to start them. I don't want to leave them to the last minute and have to bs it all. Procrastination gets tiring, believe it or not. Haha. And I promised myself after my last paper that I horribly procrastinated, that I would start my papers earlier.
I really love it here. I'd say if I could live in America for whatever reason, London would definitely be my second choice. At the same time I'm happy that I'll be coming home soon. I just have so much on my mind, and so many things that need to get done when I get back (personal and otherwise).
While my family was in town we saw wicked. Our seats were in the second to last row, but I must say this show was AMAZING! I had seen it before with Greg in Hollywood but I feel like this one was even better. I'm glad I could buy these tickets too because Orel and Odie had been dying to see Wicked.
We also ventured into Harrods mall while my family was in town. I had heard of it but going there is a whole other thing. That mall is sooo big. We walked around for hours and I feel like we didn't even see half of it. They had a gigantic food hall that was divided into three sections: food, fruits and vegetables, and candy/chocolate. The food area had food from all over the world. Apparently their cheese selection was one of the widest in the world. The candy area was so cool. I felt like I was in the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. They had huge ice cream sundae's that were decorated with chocolate and sprinkles. mmmm.
Oh and there's a Starbucks down the street.... a friend of mine from here saw and sat next to Rob Pattinson!!! I thought that was pretty cool. He's spotted at this particular Starbucks quite frequently. His favorite pub, Gloucester Arms, is right down the street. My family and I got fish and chips from there and it was pretty good.
Also, is it pathetic that I'm already planning what I want to eat when I get back to the states? haha. Maybe on the next blog I'll post my list... oy. Food, how I love thee. Apparently I've lost a bit of weight while I've been here. I'm sure it's been all the walking around. I'd LOVE to lose another 5-10 pounds before I come back. We'll see. Hopefully I don't gain it all back right when I get home.
Everyone here is talking about how sad they are that there's only a month left. It's very bittersweet for me. I'm going to miss a lot of things here (mainly the people I met), but I am excited to go home.
That's all for now!
Last week my mom, Hydeh, and sisters were here. The week before that Jasmine was here. I really enjoyed seeing my family. I wish my dad could have come. I really miss him. I try to skype with my parents often but the time difference is a killer. I also feel like i'll really be leaving here knowing myself much better and knowing who I care about/who cares about me. I'm really fortunate for those who continue to keep in touch with me, and make sure I'm still alive! haha.
I honestly can't go through everything I've done since I last posted. That would be ridiculous, and my memory isn't all that great. Also these past few weeks I feel like I've been doing the same thing over and over since new people keep coming to town. Haha.
The pictures will all be shown when I get back. I need to create a slide show or something.
There are SO many pictures, my hard drive is almost full! haha. I was full before but I had to delete Itunes off of my computer (which was okay because it wasn't even working in the first place). So hopefully there's enough room for the rest of the pictures I plan on taking during my stay here.
I have so many papers due starting in 2 weeks all the way up to finals week (first week of May). I told myself that right after Sanaz leaves I'm going to start them. I don't want to leave them to the last minute and have to bs it all. Procrastination gets tiring, believe it or not. Haha. And I promised myself after my last paper that I horribly procrastinated, that I would start my papers earlier.
I really love it here. I'd say if I could live in America for whatever reason, London would definitely be my second choice. At the same time I'm happy that I'll be coming home soon. I just have so much on my mind, and so many things that need to get done when I get back (personal and otherwise).
While my family was in town we saw wicked. Our seats were in the second to last row, but I must say this show was AMAZING! I had seen it before with Greg in Hollywood but I feel like this one was even better. I'm glad I could buy these tickets too because Orel and Odie had been dying to see Wicked.
We also ventured into Harrods mall while my family was in town. I had heard of it but going there is a whole other thing. That mall is sooo big. We walked around for hours and I feel like we didn't even see half of it. They had a gigantic food hall that was divided into three sections: food, fruits and vegetables, and candy/chocolate. The food area had food from all over the world. Apparently their cheese selection was one of the widest in the world. The candy area was so cool. I felt like I was in the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. They had huge ice cream sundae's that were decorated with chocolate and sprinkles. mmmm.
Oh and there's a Starbucks down the street.... a friend of mine from here saw and sat next to Rob Pattinson!!! I thought that was pretty cool. He's spotted at this particular Starbucks quite frequently. His favorite pub, Gloucester Arms, is right down the street. My family and I got fish and chips from there and it was pretty good.
Also, is it pathetic that I'm already planning what I want to eat when I get back to the states? haha. Maybe on the next blog I'll post my list... oy. Food, how I love thee. Apparently I've lost a bit of weight while I've been here. I'm sure it's been all the walking around. I'd LOVE to lose another 5-10 pounds before I come back. We'll see. Hopefully I don't gain it all back right when I get home.
Everyone here is talking about how sad they are that there's only a month left. It's very bittersweet for me. I'm going to miss a lot of things here (mainly the people I met), but I am excited to go home.
That's all for now!
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Lisbon!!!
Thus far Lisbon has been AMAZING! Although we havent had much luck in certain areas. Just a warning: i dont know how to use the apostraphe sign on this keyboard so dont mind my grammar.
On thursday around 1pm Punya, Rachel, and I left to catch the bus to take us to the airport. We were running around, and definitely rushing because we thought that we were super late. We ended up getting to the airport at 3pm when our flight was at 430. None of us checked our bags because we figured theyd be small enough to take onto easy jet. Riiight. So first I get by the checking place.. then Punya gets stopped for her bag. They tell her its too big and she has to check it. She was clearly not happy about that. Its about 18 pounds to check a bag. Then they tell Rachel that if she shoves her bag into the luggage check, it will be okay and she can bring it on board. We had lunch at this place called Amarillo. It was pretty good. Mexican food! Helped start us off for the trip. I had a burrito. It had some yummy sauce on it that was slightly spicy but kinda not. Does that make sense? Haha. We kinda ran into over-time with lunch so we had to dash over to the terminal. After 5 minutes of running we made it!!! At the gate, the easy jet employees told me and rachel we had to fit our bags into the luggage check to see if it fit. At this point I was thinking holy crap. I tried to put it in earlier and it didnt fit. I put it in one way and the evil lady told me `no no no you have to turn it around`. Ugh. So somehow I ended up fitting my bag in. I dont know how they accepted that because it was in a very weird position. Next, Rachel tried fitting her bag in. Right when she put her bag on top, the lady said `no no, you need to check your bag`. Rachel told her the other people told her that it was acceptable and she can squeeze it in but of course they didnt accept it. They were quite rude actually. So we get all excited and sit on the plane. Of course since this whole thing with Rachel happened, we were the last ones on the plane and as a result couldnt sit next to eachother. After about 20 mins we realize we havent moved. Whats going on? They made an announcement that there was a problem with the plane. Apparently the light wouldnt go on and show that the doors were sealed. Another 20 mins later, they told us to grab our stuff and exit the plane. We rush to the next terminal to find out that the plane wont be there for another hour. At this point it had definitely been about 2 hours. People were getting pissed off and I dont blame them. We ended up waiting for more than 3 hours and 30 mins! In order to reimburse us in a way, (and make us shut the heck up) they gave us a free drink on the plane! whoaaa there easy jet.. whoa there. Dont get too fancy with us. We had to buy food on the plane because we were dying of starvation. It sucked. We are definitely going to end up writing a letter or something to them complaning about the situation.
We arrived in Lisbon around 11pm. We took the public bus to this main square. Of course with our luck it started raining pretty hard. We couldnt find out hostel for a while because it didnt even look like a hostel. We saw window from the street that sort of looked like a club. It was playing loud music and had blue, red, and pink lights. We walk up to it and find out that its our hostel! Pretty nice place. They upgraded our rooms to a triple which made us feel a lot better about our belongings. We have a bunk bed. The bottom is a full bed, and the top is a twin. I like our room.
The first morning we woke up around 830 (ughhh) and decided to walk around. I think it was a bit of a mistake because people dont wake up here until pretty late. We walked to this store called Polloco or something... It had an amazing view of the city! After we went to the castle. It had some pretty nice views as well. We had a nice big lunch, that was made by a little old lady. It was delicious. We came back, took a nap and went out clubbing at night. We went to this place called Bairo Alto. Its just a bunch of streets with bars and clubs. Everyone gets drinks and stands outside in the street. Its a good place to meet new people and talk and hang out. We found this cute little place that had a guy singing and playing the guitar. He was pretty nice.. liked Americans. Afterwards we went to a club. Met a big group of boys who were also pretty nice. They recommended a bunch of places for us to go see. It was a great night.
Today we woke up a bit later... 10am. We bough an all day train ticket and bus pass for Sintra. Sintra is BEAUTIFUL! Just out of a story book or something. We went to 2 palaces and pretty much spent the day there. Cant wait for you guys to see pics!
Tonight we are gonna go out to dinner and possibly to a club. Although tomorrow we have to wake up at 530AM in order to catch a bus to the airport and head to MADRID!
Im sure theres a lot im forgetting but this is just the jist of it. I can add details later.
Miss you all!!
On thursday around 1pm Punya, Rachel, and I left to catch the bus to take us to the airport. We were running around, and definitely rushing because we thought that we were super late. We ended up getting to the airport at 3pm when our flight was at 430. None of us checked our bags because we figured theyd be small enough to take onto easy jet. Riiight. So first I get by the checking place.. then Punya gets stopped for her bag. They tell her its too big and she has to check it. She was clearly not happy about that. Its about 18 pounds to check a bag. Then they tell Rachel that if she shoves her bag into the luggage check, it will be okay and she can bring it on board. We had lunch at this place called Amarillo. It was pretty good. Mexican food! Helped start us off for the trip. I had a burrito. It had some yummy sauce on it that was slightly spicy but kinda not. Does that make sense? Haha. We kinda ran into over-time with lunch so we had to dash over to the terminal. After 5 minutes of running we made it!!! At the gate, the easy jet employees told me and rachel we had to fit our bags into the luggage check to see if it fit. At this point I was thinking holy crap. I tried to put it in earlier and it didnt fit. I put it in one way and the evil lady told me `no no no you have to turn it around`. Ugh. So somehow I ended up fitting my bag in. I dont know how they accepted that because it was in a very weird position. Next, Rachel tried fitting her bag in. Right when she put her bag on top, the lady said `no no, you need to check your bag`. Rachel told her the other people told her that it was acceptable and she can squeeze it in but of course they didnt accept it. They were quite rude actually. So we get all excited and sit on the plane. Of course since this whole thing with Rachel happened, we were the last ones on the plane and as a result couldnt sit next to eachother. After about 20 mins we realize we havent moved. Whats going on? They made an announcement that there was a problem with the plane. Apparently the light wouldnt go on and show that the doors were sealed. Another 20 mins later, they told us to grab our stuff and exit the plane. We rush to the next terminal to find out that the plane wont be there for another hour. At this point it had definitely been about 2 hours. People were getting pissed off and I dont blame them. We ended up waiting for more than 3 hours and 30 mins! In order to reimburse us in a way, (and make us shut the heck up) they gave us a free drink on the plane! whoaaa there easy jet.. whoa there. Dont get too fancy with us. We had to buy food on the plane because we were dying of starvation. It sucked. We are definitely going to end up writing a letter or something to them complaning about the situation.
We arrived in Lisbon around 11pm. We took the public bus to this main square. Of course with our luck it started raining pretty hard. We couldnt find out hostel for a while because it didnt even look like a hostel. We saw window from the street that sort of looked like a club. It was playing loud music and had blue, red, and pink lights. We walk up to it and find out that its our hostel! Pretty nice place. They upgraded our rooms to a triple which made us feel a lot better about our belongings. We have a bunk bed. The bottom is a full bed, and the top is a twin. I like our room.
The first morning we woke up around 830 (ughhh) and decided to walk around. I think it was a bit of a mistake because people dont wake up here until pretty late. We walked to this store called Polloco or something... It had an amazing view of the city! After we went to the castle. It had some pretty nice views as well. We had a nice big lunch, that was made by a little old lady. It was delicious. We came back, took a nap and went out clubbing at night. We went to this place called Bairo Alto. Its just a bunch of streets with bars and clubs. Everyone gets drinks and stands outside in the street. Its a good place to meet new people and talk and hang out. We found this cute little place that had a guy singing and playing the guitar. He was pretty nice.. liked Americans. Afterwards we went to a club. Met a big group of boys who were also pretty nice. They recommended a bunch of places for us to go see. It was a great night.
Today we woke up a bit later... 10am. We bough an all day train ticket and bus pass for Sintra. Sintra is BEAUTIFUL! Just out of a story book or something. We went to 2 palaces and pretty much spent the day there. Cant wait for you guys to see pics!
Tonight we are gonna go out to dinner and possibly to a club. Although tomorrow we have to wake up at 530AM in order to catch a bus to the airport and head to MADRID!
Im sure theres a lot im forgetting but this is just the jist of it. I can add details later.
Miss you all!!
Monday, March 1, 2010
Almost Spring Break!
So the weekend is finally over and in a few days it will be SPRING BREAK!!! How exciting.
Before that though, I need to keep my head in the game. I have 3 midterms on Wednesday, in a row! =/ Not fun. The first one should be alright, second one I honestly have no idea what is going on in class, and the third one will hopefully be alright as well. I guess this means I have to study.
Kristy is coming back tonight! She went to Madrid for the weekend to visit her friend. I'm sure she had a good time. It'll be nice having someone else in the room. You would think you'd want some alone time but it's kinda scary going to sleep by yourself. Haha. Also I tend to sleep in a lot more when she's not around. She helps me get up a bit earlier than usual.
So this is the plan for spring break:
Thursday March 4th-Sunday March 7th- Lisbon, Portugal
Sunday March 7-Tuesday March 9- Madrid, Spain
Tuesday March 9-Friday March 12- Barcelona, Spain
Friday March 12-Monday March 15- Dublin, Ireland
March 15- HOME!
Busy week! It's good though. I need to be more busy. When I come back I want to try to go out more throughout the week too. Jasmine is also coming the week I get back! I gotta figure out how to get to the airport on the tube. Haha. The following week my mom, Hydeh, and my sisters will be here!!! I'm so freaking excited. It'll be nice to have people from home here. Sanaz is coming the week after that. I'm going to be pretty busy.
I can't believe it's already March. Time is flying by here. I'm not sure if I want it to slow down or speed up. I guess it depends on the day.
Rachel and I found this club right next to Whole Foods the other night. I think it's called Amika. Looks pretty nice. There's a line outside of it every night. I think we're gonna check it out after spring break. Apparently if you put your name on the guest list and get there before 11:30pm then you get in for freeee.
Anyway.. I should pay attention in class. Oh yes, I'm in class.
Good day.
<3
Before that though, I need to keep my head in the game. I have 3 midterms on Wednesday, in a row! =/ Not fun. The first one should be alright, second one I honestly have no idea what is going on in class, and the third one will hopefully be alright as well. I guess this means I have to study.
Kristy is coming back tonight! She went to Madrid for the weekend to visit her friend. I'm sure she had a good time. It'll be nice having someone else in the room. You would think you'd want some alone time but it's kinda scary going to sleep by yourself. Haha. Also I tend to sleep in a lot more when she's not around. She helps me get up a bit earlier than usual.
So this is the plan for spring break:
Thursday March 4th-Sunday March 7th- Lisbon, Portugal
Sunday March 7-Tuesday March 9- Madrid, Spain
Tuesday March 9-Friday March 12- Barcelona, Spain
Friday March 12-Monday March 15- Dublin, Ireland
March 15- HOME!
Busy week! It's good though. I need to be more busy. When I come back I want to try to go out more throughout the week too. Jasmine is also coming the week I get back! I gotta figure out how to get to the airport on the tube. Haha. The following week my mom, Hydeh, and my sisters will be here!!! I'm so freaking excited. It'll be nice to have people from home here. Sanaz is coming the week after that. I'm going to be pretty busy.
I can't believe it's already March. Time is flying by here. I'm not sure if I want it to slow down or speed up. I guess it depends on the day.
Rachel and I found this club right next to Whole Foods the other night. I think it's called Amika. Looks pretty nice. There's a line outside of it every night. I think we're gonna check it out after spring break. Apparently if you put your name on the guest list and get there before 11:30pm then you get in for freeee.
Anyway.. I should pay attention in class. Oh yes, I'm in class.
Good day.
<3
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Saturday
Just another random day in London...
Kristy is in Madrid for the weekend! How exciting. I think today I'm going to a French restaurant for lunch. Apparently they have a 3 course meal for 3 people that's 15 pounds. We'll see about that!!!
Afterward we're planning to go to Portobello marktet. It's a flea market/farmers market that's over a mile long. They have anything and everything. I'm so tempted to splurge!
Tomorrow i'm supposed to hit up a Buddhist temple so I can write a 5 page paper about it before spring break. Yippee. After that I think i'm going to try to find this Hillsong church and see what it's all about. Also I want to check out Herods (mall), but I've been told you need to dedicate a full day to it. It's huuge.
I need to start getting ready, considering it's 1:50pm. Yeah.. bum times.
<3
Kristy is in Madrid for the weekend! How exciting. I think today I'm going to a French restaurant for lunch. Apparently they have a 3 course meal for 3 people that's 15 pounds. We'll see about that!!!
Afterward we're planning to go to Portobello marktet. It's a flea market/farmers market that's over a mile long. They have anything and everything. I'm so tempted to splurge!
Tomorrow i'm supposed to hit up a Buddhist temple so I can write a 5 page paper about it before spring break. Yippee. After that I think i'm going to try to find this Hillsong church and see what it's all about. Also I want to check out Herods (mall), but I've been told you need to dedicate a full day to it. It's huuge.
I need to start getting ready, considering it's 1:50pm. Yeah.. bum times.
<3
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Edinburgh, Scotland!!!
Alright so I've come to the conclusion that I need to update more. I keep hearing it from everyone but more importantly, I forget a lot of stuff! I need to write it down before it leaves my mind. I got back from Edinburgh, Scotland about an hour and a half ago. This weekend felt pretty long actually. Let's see, where to start...
Diana, Rachel, and I decided to take the megabus on Thursday night in order to save $ on a hostel. Our bus was leaving at 11:15pm and was to arrive in Edinburgh at 7:30am. Another thing, before I get deeper into my weekend. Edinburgh is pronounced E-DIN-BRA. Haha. Anyway, so we packed our stuff and rushed to the bus station. While we were waiting at the bus station we noticed a homeless man that seemed to be waiting for the same bus as us. Strange. He appeared to be drunk. A couple minutes later I look over at him and notice that his hand is in his pants.... he was pleasuring himself. I wanted to throw up. He did not care about hiding it, or who was looking. Nope. Then we soon noticed he was staring at 2 children while doing this. Everyone was in shock. We then loaded onto the bus. This homeless man came and sat on our bus! Every single seat was filled. Naturally we were all exhausted and trying to sleep. A woman with two tiny children had a horrible time trying to keep them quiet. They were crying for a good 3 hours non-stop. The sleep was very uncomfortable. No foot rest, the chair tilts back about half an inch, and the bus was FREEZING! I'd wake up about every half hour thinking we were almost there. Around 5:30am I woke up to a loud BOOM. I looked around and saw that the bus driver had run the front of our bus into a bus stop. The front windshield had cracked, and as a result we had to get out of the bus and stand around for half an hour in 20 degree weather for another bus to come pick us up.... Horrible. It felt like forever. The next bus came and i'm pretty sure we left a rabbi behind. He ran into the hotel to go to the bathroom. These buses really could care less if they leave people behind. We arrived in Edinburgh around 7:35am. We were cold, hungry, and tired. Oy. The walk to the hostel seemed like forever, although it was very beautiful. Edinburgh is such an old and amazing city. Our hostel was called Castle Rock Hostel. It was literally right next to Edinburgh Castle. The hostel was very cute and quite big (I will post pictures later!). I had this idea of what a hostel will look like, and this was nothing like it. Diana said that this was definitely one of the nicer hostels. Each room had a subject written on the door. For example our room was called "Nuts Nuts Nuts". Then each bed has a plaque next to it with a type of nut on it. I was a peanut, Rachel was a brazilnut, Diana I think was a hazelnut, and the other beds were titled cashew and Michael Jackson. Hahaha. Michael Jackson, 'cause he's a nut! I thought that was pretty funny. Check in time wasn't until 2pm so we got breakfast from the hostel and decided to go on a free walking tour. The walking tour was 3 hours long. We went to a lot of places and learned a lot of pretty interesting things. Afterward we came back, checked in, and took a nap. We went to dinner at a place called Alabanch. It was very yummy. I got a pesto pasta, Rachel got a salad, and Diana (the brave one) got Haggis. We all tried some of course. I think it tastes like lamb. After that we went on a "ghost tour". We went to all the creepy areas including a cemetery and learned the history of murders within the town. This tour was about 2 hours long. When it was over we went to The Bank Hotel and got some drinks. There was some pretty good live music there too.
On Saturday, we woke up around 9 and had breakfast. We ran down to Highland Tours to get on some tour. Unfortunately all the tours had left at 830 (even though online it said 930). We then planned to take a train to Glaskow. While we were walking to the station and all of a sudden saw about 50-70 police officers rushing towards us. We asked around and they told us that there was a march. We got excited and decided to stay in town and watch the march. Of course we figured we'd see a band of sorts with Scottish men in their kilts.... riiiight. No. It was an anti-fascist march. Haha. We ended up getting sucked into it and the police told us we couldn't leave the march since we were already in the middle of it. Diana was talking to a police officer while we were walking and asking him questions and all of a sudden a lady from in front of us turned around and said "SHUTUPPPP!!!!!" in a really horribly evil voice... like I will stab you if you don't shut the heck up. We all looked at each other like what the hell? A couple seconds later she turned around and said "sorry, we were just having a moment of silence in this peace rally. You're not supposed to talk during it". Quite the bipolar lady. I was like.. "yeah. way to go peace and love!!!!" Stupid. Anyway. We then decided it was too late to hit up Glaskow and went to the National Museum of Scotland. After spending a couple hours there, we came back to the hostel. We got some dinner and did a pub crawl. After 3-4 pubs we went to this club called The Hive. It was pretty nice. Of course we danced a lot and had fun and then came back and went to sleep.
Sunday morning we woke up, packed our stuff and got back on the bus. I thought that the bus ride to Edinburgh was long.... the ride home was ridiculous. We stopped somewhere a couple hours in. The bus driver told us that we had 15 mins to go get food and stretch our legs. While we were leaving to continue home, we saw a girl running towards the bus. Everyone started screaming to the bus driver "wait!! hold on!!" and he just kept going... that girl was definitely left behind. Sucks.
Anyway that was my weekend in Edinburgh... or what I can remember at least. The place was soo beautiful. The air was so clean and crisp. Amazing. I could have easily studied abroad there. I truly recommend anyone and everyone to go visit. It's a very beautiful place for a honeymoon!!! Haha.
Pictures will come soon.
Thanks for reading!
<3
Diana, Rachel, and I decided to take the megabus on Thursday night in order to save $ on a hostel. Our bus was leaving at 11:15pm and was to arrive in Edinburgh at 7:30am. Another thing, before I get deeper into my weekend. Edinburgh is pronounced E-DIN-BRA. Haha. Anyway, so we packed our stuff and rushed to the bus station. While we were waiting at the bus station we noticed a homeless man that seemed to be waiting for the same bus as us. Strange. He appeared to be drunk. A couple minutes later I look over at him and notice that his hand is in his pants.... he was pleasuring himself. I wanted to throw up. He did not care about hiding it, or who was looking. Nope. Then we soon noticed he was staring at 2 children while doing this. Everyone was in shock. We then loaded onto the bus. This homeless man came and sat on our bus! Every single seat was filled. Naturally we were all exhausted and trying to sleep. A woman with two tiny children had a horrible time trying to keep them quiet. They were crying for a good 3 hours non-stop. The sleep was very uncomfortable. No foot rest, the chair tilts back about half an inch, and the bus was FREEZING! I'd wake up about every half hour thinking we were almost there. Around 5:30am I woke up to a loud BOOM. I looked around and saw that the bus driver had run the front of our bus into a bus stop. The front windshield had cracked, and as a result we had to get out of the bus and stand around for half an hour in 20 degree weather for another bus to come pick us up.... Horrible. It felt like forever. The next bus came and i'm pretty sure we left a rabbi behind. He ran into the hotel to go to the bathroom. These buses really could care less if they leave people behind. We arrived in Edinburgh around 7:35am. We were cold, hungry, and tired. Oy. The walk to the hostel seemed like forever, although it was very beautiful. Edinburgh is such an old and amazing city. Our hostel was called Castle Rock Hostel. It was literally right next to Edinburgh Castle. The hostel was very cute and quite big (I will post pictures later!). I had this idea of what a hostel will look like, and this was nothing like it. Diana said that this was definitely one of the nicer hostels. Each room had a subject written on the door. For example our room was called "Nuts Nuts Nuts". Then each bed has a plaque next to it with a type of nut on it. I was a peanut, Rachel was a brazilnut, Diana I think was a hazelnut, and the other beds were titled cashew and Michael Jackson. Hahaha. Michael Jackson, 'cause he's a nut! I thought that was pretty funny. Check in time wasn't until 2pm so we got breakfast from the hostel and decided to go on a free walking tour. The walking tour was 3 hours long. We went to a lot of places and learned a lot of pretty interesting things. Afterward we came back, checked in, and took a nap. We went to dinner at a place called Alabanch. It was very yummy. I got a pesto pasta, Rachel got a salad, and Diana (the brave one) got Haggis. We all tried some of course. I think it tastes like lamb. After that we went on a "ghost tour". We went to all the creepy areas including a cemetery and learned the history of murders within the town. This tour was about 2 hours long. When it was over we went to The Bank Hotel and got some drinks. There was some pretty good live music there too.
On Saturday, we woke up around 9 and had breakfast. We ran down to Highland Tours to get on some tour. Unfortunately all the tours had left at 830 (even though online it said 930). We then planned to take a train to Glaskow. While we were walking to the station and all of a sudden saw about 50-70 police officers rushing towards us. We asked around and they told us that there was a march. We got excited and decided to stay in town and watch the march. Of course we figured we'd see a band of sorts with Scottish men in their kilts.... riiiight. No. It was an anti-fascist march. Haha. We ended up getting sucked into it and the police told us we couldn't leave the march since we were already in the middle of it. Diana was talking to a police officer while we were walking and asking him questions and all of a sudden a lady from in front of us turned around and said "SHUTUPPPP!!!!!" in a really horribly evil voice... like I will stab you if you don't shut the heck up. We all looked at each other like what the hell? A couple seconds later she turned around and said "sorry, we were just having a moment of silence in this peace rally. You're not supposed to talk during it". Quite the bipolar lady. I was like.. "yeah. way to go peace and love!!!!" Stupid. Anyway. We then decided it was too late to hit up Glaskow and went to the National Museum of Scotland. After spending a couple hours there, we came back to the hostel. We got some dinner and did a pub crawl. After 3-4 pubs we went to this club called The Hive. It was pretty nice. Of course we danced a lot and had fun and then came back and went to sleep.
Sunday morning we woke up, packed our stuff and got back on the bus. I thought that the bus ride to Edinburgh was long.... the ride home was ridiculous. We stopped somewhere a couple hours in. The bus driver told us that we had 15 mins to go get food and stretch our legs. While we were leaving to continue home, we saw a girl running towards the bus. Everyone started screaming to the bus driver "wait!! hold on!!" and he just kept going... that girl was definitely left behind. Sucks.
Anyway that was my weekend in Edinburgh... or what I can remember at least. The place was soo beautiful. The air was so clean and crisp. Amazing. I could have easily studied abroad there. I truly recommend anyone and everyone to go visit. It's a very beautiful place for a honeymoon!!! Haha.
Pictures will come soon.
Thanks for reading!
<3
Monday, February 15, 2010
Valentine's Day
Valentines Day... you think there's romance at home? It's nothing compared to this place. Everyone is so damn cute! Walking around holding hands, kissing, watching couples stroll around the park together. Oy.
So Kristy, Rachel and I decide we're going to have a nice romantic dinner together. We wanted to go on the tube and venture out to find some ethnic food. We ended up finding this sushi place that looked pretty decent from the outside. We were excited to find out that was at a decent price too! Rachel ordered a salmon and avocado roll, and a side salad. Kristy ordered a miso soup, spicy tuna roll, and some other specialty roll. I ordered a Salmon box. It comes with fried salmon, salad, rice, and cucumber rolls. The rolls that came out were SO tiny. There was hardly anything in them. Everything was flavorless. We all confirmed that it was the worst dinner we've had since we've been in London. None of us were satisfied. We quickly got the bill, even though we were still hungry, and ran out of there. Next door there was a thai buffet. It said 6 pounds if you stay there, or 3.50 for take away. We got super excited about that until we realize that the take away box was pretty small. I stuffed that box like there was no tomorrow. I didn't even put the lid on it. I put sooo much food in there. The food wasn't that great, but it filled me at least. This was a pretty horrible night.
After the horror that was dinner, we decided to lift our spirits and go to South Kensington Station to get some chocolate. They have the best chocolate there. We're addicted. Chocolate covered cashews, chocolate raisins, yogurt raisins, chocolate honey bites, chocolate covered bananas. Yum. After getting chocolate, we ran back to the dorm to watch some of The Notebook that was playing in our common room. None of the couches were available so we decided to watch a romantic movie in our own room. We ended up watching Love and Basketball. Some girls came over to the room and we hung out until around 2am. I guess the night wasn't a total loss, but we will never go to those restaurants again. Ever.
I will post pictures of our horrible dinner tonight later on.
Thanks for reading!
So Kristy, Rachel and I decide we're going to have a nice romantic dinner together. We wanted to go on the tube and venture out to find some ethnic food. We ended up finding this sushi place that looked pretty decent from the outside. We were excited to find out that was at a decent price too! Rachel ordered a salmon and avocado roll, and a side salad. Kristy ordered a miso soup, spicy tuna roll, and some other specialty roll. I ordered a Salmon box. It comes with fried salmon, salad, rice, and cucumber rolls. The rolls that came out were SO tiny. There was hardly anything in them. Everything was flavorless. We all confirmed that it was the worst dinner we've had since we've been in London. None of us were satisfied. We quickly got the bill, even though we were still hungry, and ran out of there. Next door there was a thai buffet. It said 6 pounds if you stay there, or 3.50 for take away. We got super excited about that until we realize that the take away box was pretty small. I stuffed that box like there was no tomorrow. I didn't even put the lid on it. I put sooo much food in there. The food wasn't that great, but it filled me at least. This was a pretty horrible night.
After the horror that was dinner, we decided to lift our spirits and go to South Kensington Station to get some chocolate. They have the best chocolate there. We're addicted. Chocolate covered cashews, chocolate raisins, yogurt raisins, chocolate honey bites, chocolate covered bananas. Yum. After getting chocolate, we ran back to the dorm to watch some of The Notebook that was playing in our common room. None of the couches were available so we decided to watch a romantic movie in our own room. We ended up watching Love and Basketball. Some girls came over to the room and we hung out until around 2am. I guess the night wasn't a total loss, but we will never go to those restaurants again. Ever.
I will post pictures of our horrible dinner tonight later on.
Thanks for reading!
Monday, February 8, 2010
Paris continued..
So this past weekend I went to Paris. It was SOOO beautiful. We stayed at a hotel called Mercure gar de lyon (I think). Look that up on google! It was a very nice hotel. I'm surprised that they hooked us up. Haha. Our hotel was right next to a train station (although we took the underground the whole time).
The first night we arrived to Paris around 730 or 8. We had an hour to grab some food and then get on the boat tour. We ran around on the streets and found this nice little shop that sold baguette sandwiches for 2-3 Euros. We ended up getting that. Some of the girls got a bottle of wine to bring onto the boat. The boat tour was amazing! It was a little over an hour long. We sat outside which was freezing but it had the best view. Everyone was drinking their wine and taking pictures. I took plenty of pictures and a couple of videos from that night. Haha. After that we got dropped back off at the hotel. A group of us decided to venture out and go see the city. We walked around and realized a lot of things were closed. We ended up finding this little cute bar on the corner of a street and stopped there for some drinks. Rachel and I were tired/hungry so we ended up walking down the street a bit further and getting a medium pizza for 10 Euros! It was sooooooo delicious. It hit the spot. It was actually colder in Paris than it is in London. Who would've thought? Haha.
The second day we woke up around 830 and ran downstairs for breakfast. My roommate didn't end up waking me up for that so it was a good thing someone else knocked on my door! Also, before I go on... my roommate snored... yeah. I'd say I got about 10 hours of sleep AT THE MOST this whole weekend. It was very frustrating, but I couldn't help but be entertained at the same time. After breakfast we went on a bus tour. The bus took us around to all the big sites. One of the places we went to was Notre Dame. We had an hour and a half to explore. It was beautiful. I was in awe the entire time. I'll post pictures later! At some point I had to just sit and look around. I wanted to just sit and be in the moment. I couldn't believe where I was! After that we continued on the bus tour for another hour and drove by a lot of main sites. Right as we were exiting the bus at the end of the tour to head to the Eiffel Tower, it began to rain. Just our luck! We had previous tickets so we didn't have to wait in line which was nice, but the pictures aren't as nice as they would've been because it was pouring! We spent about a half hour at the top and came back down. That night we went out to the Eiffel tower at night. It was beautiful. We also got some dinner. It was a very nice and relaxing night.
Sunday morning we got up and went to breakfast. After breakfast a group of us decided to rent some bicycles and ride them down the river to the Louvre. The problem was you had to slide your credit card and none of ours worked ('cause they only accept international credit cards). We took the underground to the Louvre. I cannot even describe how beautiful the Louvre was. First of all, it was GIGANTIC! We spent about 3-4 hours there and I don't even think we scraped the surface. Everything was amazing. I don't quite understand why some people would stand in front of one painting and take 50 pictures of the exact same thing. We get it... Take a couple pictures and move out of the way for other people. It was really busy. Very hard to walk around with so many people but it didn't ruin my experience. After the Louvre,we went to the Arc de Triomphe. It was massive! We spent some time there looking around and taking pics. After that Kristy took us to this place that serves Grek and we got some! Yummmmmmm. We felt fat. You can choose your meat but what the sandwich is, is basically 2 cheeseburger patties in a pita bread, with salad, yogurt and cucumber dill, onions, and french fries. Lots and lots of french fries. It was amazing. Best Grek i've had (and yes i've had more than 1).
After that we had to get back to the hotel and get on our bus to go back on the chunnel. Oh that's another thing, we took the chunnel to Paris! It was cool. Most of the time you couldn't even tell you were underground. I slept most of the way there. It's only a 2hr 15min ride. Pretty cool. On the way there though my ears kept popping. It was pretty painful. The way back, not so much.
Anyway, that was the jist of it! Thanks for reading.
<3
The first night we arrived to Paris around 730 or 8. We had an hour to grab some food and then get on the boat tour. We ran around on the streets and found this nice little shop that sold baguette sandwiches for 2-3 Euros. We ended up getting that. Some of the girls got a bottle of wine to bring onto the boat. The boat tour was amazing! It was a little over an hour long. We sat outside which was freezing but it had the best view. Everyone was drinking their wine and taking pictures. I took plenty of pictures and a couple of videos from that night. Haha. After that we got dropped back off at the hotel. A group of us decided to venture out and go see the city. We walked around and realized a lot of things were closed. We ended up finding this little cute bar on the corner of a street and stopped there for some drinks. Rachel and I were tired/hungry so we ended up walking down the street a bit further and getting a medium pizza for 10 Euros! It was sooooooo delicious. It hit the spot. It was actually colder in Paris than it is in London. Who would've thought? Haha.
The second day we woke up around 830 and ran downstairs for breakfast. My roommate didn't end up waking me up for that so it was a good thing someone else knocked on my door! Also, before I go on... my roommate snored... yeah. I'd say I got about 10 hours of sleep AT THE MOST this whole weekend. It was very frustrating, but I couldn't help but be entertained at the same time. After breakfast we went on a bus tour. The bus took us around to all the big sites. One of the places we went to was Notre Dame. We had an hour and a half to explore. It was beautiful. I was in awe the entire time. I'll post pictures later! At some point I had to just sit and look around. I wanted to just sit and be in the moment. I couldn't believe where I was! After that we continued on the bus tour for another hour and drove by a lot of main sites. Right as we were exiting the bus at the end of the tour to head to the Eiffel Tower, it began to rain. Just our luck! We had previous tickets so we didn't have to wait in line which was nice, but the pictures aren't as nice as they would've been because it was pouring! We spent about a half hour at the top and came back down. That night we went out to the Eiffel tower at night. It was beautiful. We also got some dinner. It was a very nice and relaxing night.
Sunday morning we got up and went to breakfast. After breakfast a group of us decided to rent some bicycles and ride them down the river to the Louvre. The problem was you had to slide your credit card and none of ours worked ('cause they only accept international credit cards). We took the underground to the Louvre. I cannot even describe how beautiful the Louvre was. First of all, it was GIGANTIC! We spent about 3-4 hours there and I don't even think we scraped the surface. Everything was amazing. I don't quite understand why some people would stand in front of one painting and take 50 pictures of the exact same thing. We get it... Take a couple pictures and move out of the way for other people. It was really busy. Very hard to walk around with so many people but it didn't ruin my experience. After the Louvre,we went to the Arc de Triomphe. It was massive! We spent some time there looking around and taking pics. After that Kristy took us to this place that serves Grek and we got some! Yummmmmmm. We felt fat. You can choose your meat but what the sandwich is, is basically 2 cheeseburger patties in a pita bread, with salad, yogurt and cucumber dill, onions, and french fries. Lots and lots of french fries. It was amazing. Best Grek i've had (and yes i've had more than 1).
After that we had to get back to the hotel and get on our bus to go back on the chunnel. Oh that's another thing, we took the chunnel to Paris! It was cool. Most of the time you couldn't even tell you were underground. I slept most of the way there. It's only a 2hr 15min ride. Pretty cool. On the way there though my ears kept popping. It was pretty painful. The way back, not so much.
Anyway, that was the jist of it! Thanks for reading.
<3
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Paris!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm too tired to type up about this weekend right now, but I will do it as soon as possible! Enjoy the pictures and the video in the mean time!
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Avenue Q!
Tonight Rachel, Kristy, Ashley, and I went to see Avenue Q! I hope it's the first of many shows I see! It was hilarious. The singing was spot on. Amazin
g!
g!
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Clubbing!
So it was Rachel's friends birthday last night. We went to this club called Mahiki (my hicky) hahhaa. yeah so.. the club was SO nice. Apparently it's a club that prince William and Henry go to often. I can see why!!! I think last night was the most fun i've had while i've been here. The drinks were very cool and unique. Rachel's friend had a table reserved and they ordered a bunch of drinks. There was one drink that comes in a treasure chest. The open the treasure chest and you see it's full of ice and pineapples and it has a bottle of champagne in it. The pop the bottle open and pour it all into the treasure chest! Then they take about 20 long straws and stick it in the middle and everyone goes at it. It was way cool! Here are some pics:
Friday, January 29, 2010
Oh, you tube...
Tonight felt like the longest night thus far....
Rachel, Kristy, and I had tonight planned all week long. We were going to get ready most of the day, get dinner, and go out to see a play tonight. Ha...
So I curled Kristy's hair, Rachel helped me finish it up. I quickly got ready and we all ran downstairs to eat food. We literally had about 10 mintues to eat. By the time we all got ready and did our hair and makeup we were very late. After swallowing our food, we ran to Gloucester station to get on the tube. Rachel had to buy a new (her fourth!!) Oyster card 'cause she kept misplacing all the other ones. She also stopped at the bank to withdraw some money for the tickets. After getting off, Rachel realized her wallet was missing.
SHE HAD BEEN PICKPOCKETED!!!!!
what the hell.... I was standing next to her the whole time, and looking at our purses. I don't know how anyone could have stolen her wallet. It's crazy. She (obviously) started crying and we talked to security. We sat in their office for a good 2 hours while Rachel was trying to call her credit card company to cancel the cards. Luckily for us, the security officers were SOOOO nice. We ended up buying them a couple slices of cake for their generosity and help.
What a hell of a day.
Tomorrow night we're going to dinner with one of Rachel's friends from home, Aaron. Then we're going to a cluuubbbb for someone's birthday party.
Should be fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That's all. Good night
Rachel, Kristy, and I had tonight planned all week long. We were going to get ready most of the day, get dinner, and go out to see a play tonight. Ha...
So I curled Kristy's hair, Rachel helped me finish it up. I quickly got ready and we all ran downstairs to eat food. We literally had about 10 mintues to eat. By the time we all got ready and did our hair and makeup we were very late. After swallowing our food, we ran to Gloucester station to get on the tube. Rachel had to buy a new (her fourth!!) Oyster card 'cause she kept misplacing all the other ones. She also stopped at the bank to withdraw some money for the tickets. After getting off, Rachel realized her wallet was missing.
SHE HAD BEEN PICKPOCKETED!!!!!
what the hell.... I was standing next to her the whole time, and looking at our purses. I don't know how anyone could have stolen her wallet. It's crazy. She (obviously) started crying and we talked to security. We sat in their office for a good 2 hours while Rachel was trying to call her credit card company to cancel the cards. Luckily for us, the security officers were SOOOO nice. We ended up buying them a couple slices of cake for their generosity and help.
What a hell of a day.
Tomorrow night we're going to dinner with one of Rachel's friends from home, Aaron. Then we're going to a cluuubbbb for someone's birthday party.
Should be fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That's all. Good night
Gifts from home!
So I just got a package in the mail today from my mommy!!! Thanks mom. While I was carrying it up to my room everyone was looking at me and asking "what the heck is in that?" haha. I still haven't even gone through everything but the leggings are super warm and they fit perfectly!
ooo. And I just opened the rest. Thanks Sanaz for all the stuff you sent! Eman, thanks for the chocolate! yummmm. Everything is great. Makes me miss home even more.
Today is the first day of sun in a little while! I'm actually going to go outside and take advantage of it after this post.
Last night I booked a flight from Ireland back to London on St. Patty's weekend. Which means i'm going to be in Ireland on St. Patty's day!!! I'm thinking about booking Lisbon, Portugal as well but i'll know for sure by later today.
I'm already counting down the days until Spring break! Can't wait to go around and travel and do all sorts of stuff. I think tonight we're going to go see a play. Which play? I have no idea.
I should do laundry.. I haven't done it since i've been here. How gross. Then again I brought enough crap to last me at least a month an a half without doing it. But still.. I should do laundry. That might happen today.
I'm glad my classes are literally a 30 second jog away from my building. I am already late almost all the time! Yikes. I feel like my alarm doesn't go off, but i'm sure it does and my automatic reaction is to just shut it off. I need to start getting on top of that.
Anyway, i'm still alive! yay. that's what matters. haha. My mom didn't have to fly over and drop me off. I made it here myself! muahaha.... yeah
Crap I think it's drizzling now...or SNOWING!!!!!!!!!!
I'm going to go check it out.
Later!
ooo. And I just opened the rest. Thanks Sanaz for all the stuff you sent! Eman, thanks for the chocolate! yummmm. Everything is great. Makes me miss home even more.
Today is the first day of sun in a little while! I'm actually going to go outside and take advantage of it after this post.
Last night I booked a flight from Ireland back to London on St. Patty's weekend. Which means i'm going to be in Ireland on St. Patty's day!!! I'm thinking about booking Lisbon, Portugal as well but i'll know for sure by later today.
I'm already counting down the days until Spring break! Can't wait to go around and travel and do all sorts of stuff. I think tonight we're going to go see a play. Which play? I have no idea.
I should do laundry.. I haven't done it since i've been here. How gross. Then again I brought enough crap to last me at least a month an a half without doing it. But still.. I should do laundry. That might happen today.
I'm glad my classes are literally a 30 second jog away from my building. I am already late almost all the time! Yikes. I feel like my alarm doesn't go off, but i'm sure it does and my automatic reaction is to just shut it off. I need to start getting on top of that.
Anyway, i'm still alive! yay. that's what matters. haha. My mom didn't have to fly over and drop me off. I made it here myself! muahaha.... yeah
Crap I think it's drizzling now...or SNOWING!!!!!!!!!!
I'm going to go check it out.
Later!
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Buckingham Palace, etc
Hello! So i've been slacking recently with the postings. There have been a lot of juicy things happening, but this blog isn't private so i'll definitely have to write those down somewhere else and talk about them at a later date.
On Tuesday I'm meeting up with friends to discuss where we want to travel. Amsterdam is a must on this list. We're going to start booking flights soon. Also Kristy, Rachel, and I have decided to go see a play this week. I think our first one will be Jersey Boys. I really want to see Les Miserables. REALLY!
Last night I went on the London Eye! It was pretty nice, but expensive. They really know people will pay the damn 17 pounds it costs to go around that thing once. But it was a once in a lifetime thing, so it's okay. There were people selling hot dogs and chili really close by. It smelled great. I've been trying to not spend so much money on food. You can get really caught up on that and spend a good 40 pounds just on food for the weekend! I think i've spend about 15 pounds for the whole weekend. I am cheap. Oh well. I can't wait for the food to start back up tomorrow! A lot of people around here hate it, but I love it! And they have something here very close to mast o' khear (yogurt and cucumber). It's freaking great. I can't wait. mmm. I gotta take a picture of my food next time. Hopefully I remember.
Kristy and I found this great place that sells hot chocolate for 1.20 and it's so yummy! I can see myself drinking a cup every night. haha. This could get dangerous. I hope i'm losing weight here. I hardly eat here compared to what I ate at home so I should lose SOMETHING! Maybe...
So we went to Buckingham palace today to watch the changing of the guards. It was alright. One of those things you just do for your check list. There were just so many people that I don't think I got the full experience of it. But the palace was HUGE and amazing.
I still don't feel like I know my way around. I could figure out how to get home from a couple blocks away, MAYBE. The buses are just so complicated. More complicated than the tube, which is still slightly complicating for me. Mostly probably because I just throw my head down and follow my friends whenever we go on the tube. Bad idea. Haha.
I'm pretty content with my classes thus far. It's only been a week but I don't think they'll be too difficult. I still need to order more books on amazon. It's a pretty easy process but i'm still waiting for some of my books that i've already ordered.
Some of my friends said they found a cheap kabob place for only 4 pounds. I want to check that out. I need cheap food places. I want to make a list of the things I should try from here and try to eat all of those things. I don't want anything I could get back at home. Soups are very popular here. The bowls are pretty decent sized. The other day we went to a restaurant and a couple girls got tomato soup. It was sooo yummy. It came with a couple slices of bread and butter. It was great. I've noticed that the portions here are SO much smaller than in the U.S. We went to a Thai restaurant tonight and the pad thai was so much smaller than if I had ordered it back home. Also back home it usually comes with a spring roll and some soup. Here it was 7 pounds for just the pad thai. Granted, it was still delicious but it's very interesting to see the portion differences. Fat times for the U.S.
Anyway, I think i'm going to watch some Pineapple Express before bed.
Good night and thanks for reading!
On Tuesday I'm meeting up with friends to discuss where we want to travel. Amsterdam is a must on this list. We're going to start booking flights soon. Also Kristy, Rachel, and I have decided to go see a play this week. I think our first one will be Jersey Boys. I really want to see Les Miserables. REALLY!
Last night I went on the London Eye! It was pretty nice, but expensive. They really know people will pay the damn 17 pounds it costs to go around that thing once. But it was a once in a lifetime thing, so it's okay. There were people selling hot dogs and chili really close by. It smelled great. I've been trying to not spend so much money on food. You can get really caught up on that and spend a good 40 pounds just on food for the weekend! I think i've spend about 15 pounds for the whole weekend. I am cheap. Oh well. I can't wait for the food to start back up tomorrow! A lot of people around here hate it, but I love it! And they have something here very close to mast o' khear (yogurt and cucumber). It's freaking great. I can't wait. mmm. I gotta take a picture of my food next time. Hopefully I remember.
Kristy and I found this great place that sells hot chocolate for 1.20 and it's so yummy! I can see myself drinking a cup every night. haha. This could get dangerous. I hope i'm losing weight here. I hardly eat here compared to what I ate at home so I should lose SOMETHING! Maybe...
So we went to Buckingham palace today to watch the changing of the guards. It was alright. One of those things you just do for your check list. There were just so many people that I don't think I got the full experience of it. But the palace was HUGE and amazing.
I still don't feel like I know my way around. I could figure out how to get home from a couple blocks away, MAYBE. The buses are just so complicated. More complicated than the tube, which is still slightly complicating for me. Mostly probably because I just throw my head down and follow my friends whenever we go on the tube. Bad idea. Haha.
I'm pretty content with my classes thus far. It's only been a week but I don't think they'll be too difficult. I still need to order more books on amazon. It's a pretty easy process but i'm still waiting for some of my books that i've already ordered.
Some of my friends said they found a cheap kabob place for only 4 pounds. I want to check that out. I need cheap food places. I want to make a list of the things I should try from here and try to eat all of those things. I don't want anything I could get back at home. Soups are very popular here. The bowls are pretty decent sized. The other day we went to a restaurant and a couple girls got tomato soup. It was sooo yummy. It came with a couple slices of bread and butter. It was great. I've noticed that the portions here are SO much smaller than in the U.S. We went to a Thai restaurant tonight and the pad thai was so much smaller than if I had ordered it back home. Also back home it usually comes with a spring roll and some soup. Here it was 7 pounds for just the pad thai. Granted, it was still delicious but it's very interesting to see the portion differences. Fat times for the U.S.
Anyway, I think i'm going to watch some Pineapple Express before bed.
Good night and thanks for reading!
Buckingham Palace/Changing of the guards
My lunch... yummy! 
Buckingham Palace!
Getting ready to go on the tuuuube!
The changing of the guards. SO serious. haha
Me in front of the palace
Rachel, Kristy, and myself
Buckingham palace
Just a really quick video
Friday, January 22, 2010
Private
Anyone know how to make this blog private? I have certain people I (obviously) don't want to read this, but i'm not quite sure how to make it private.
Let me know, if you know.
Thanks!
Let me know, if you know.
Thanks!
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Start of the Term Party
Pictures of the night. Too tired to post about my day, though.
My first ride on the tube!!!
War wound! Got stepped on with 4 inch heels! OUCH
My first ride on the tube!!!
War wound! Got stepped on with 4 inch heels! OUCH
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