London!

Back in London! Visitors!

2009-03-23T12:40:00.000-07:00

What an eventful week! I can't believe it has already come and gone...it really flew by. No time for classes.. Terri, Mom and Jessica come to London!!!! I had a blast playing tour guide and tourist...considering I held out on a lot of places until they came. One place being our first stop, which had to be the ever so famous Harrod's, as you can see in the background. What an insane store.. extremely easy to get lost in there. About 10 minutes of looking at clothing was more than enough. The food court was amazing..delicious gelato (which was the most I could afford) aside the $5,000 dessert platter. No big deal.

Mom and Terri rented a little apartment in Notting Hill, which happens to be one of my personal favorite areas. You can see lots of interesting things there.. such as this..parked right outside their place. I'm all for the basket.

I guess they brought the good weather with them. Although, I must defend my city quickly and say that it does NOT rain like everyone said it would. Yes, it is gloomy every day but it hardly ever rains.. and if it does it's for like 30 seconds. Jussst so you know. However, this past week was pure sunshine with a temperature in the high 50's every day. Amaaaaazing. No complaints there. We really took advantage and walked everywhere including around St. James (above) and Green Park which are starting to bloom and are absolutely beautiful. The first day it was warm reminded me of Madison when it gets to be like 40 degrees after a long winter...everyone comes out of hibernation!

Jessica gets in, coming out of her Madison hibernation!

Classic phone booth pic.

Buckingham Palace

We also ventured to the National Gallery where we stopped by the Degas ballerinas and the Van Gogh Sunflowers painting, along with lots of their other works. Very cool.

Only one week in London... so of courseee we had to hit Liverpool(do you know my family at all?!) It was such a cool little placed, fillllllled with Beatles history. We did the "Magical Mystery Tour" and were led by a tourguide who's cellphone background picture is a legit picture of him and Paul....as they are allegedly very good friends. (Sorry dad, I was going to try and steal the phone and get Paul's number but I got scared.)

First stop:
Along the tour we stopped by Ringo, John, and Paul's childhood homes. Then we stopped by the one and only:

Strawberry Fields.
Next stop: the Cavern Club, where the Beatles made their first appearance there in 1961. Over the next two years they played there almost 300 times. It still functions as a rock club today.

very cool standing in a place with so much history..

Back in London, we headed over to the tower of London, which is the castle-like thing above, where mom was really hoping to witness an execution (sorry, maybe next time?). Learned a lot about the torture that took place here...interesting.

We took everyone's advice and arrived at the changing of the guards an hour early to be able to see. There were hundreds of people there, and they do it every other day! Crazy, but very neat. More of a half-time band show then anything. The two guys below kept walking right up to the fence where we were standing, trying their hardest to keep a straight face aha.
Over the course of the week, mom and terri decided they really wanted to take advantage of the reasonable show ticket prices. Sooo first we saw Spring Awakening which was truly unbelievable. The voices were incredible and the acting was amazing. Not going to lie.. I'm probably going to see it again before I leave! Next we saw Dirty Dancing...which...eh...if you feel like going to the play, you would be better off watching the movie. The acting was not so good.. but the dancing was very fun to watch. Last but certainly not least...Billy Elliot. Wow. Never in my life have I seen someone so talented..and at age 12. After 15 years of tapping.. I could neverrr match this kid. Not to mention his ballet skills. AND he could sing AND act. I'm pretty ssure my mouth was dropped in awe the entire show. Truly amazing.

After lotss more sightseeing, tons of delicious meals, and getting a much-needed taste of home, all in all it was a really great week, and I am so happy they were able to come! So I guess now, it's time to head back to reality. Sort of...i'm leaving in about a week for my big two and a half week italy, spain, and france vacation!!! Before then..3 papers.

xoxoxo

My new found love...

2009-03-10T14:53:00.000-07:00

What an incredible weekend. Being someone who has never really seen mountains before.. I didn't really know what to expect. It was dark when we got in so really the snow-topped mountains look like a bunch of clouds. The second I stepped outside the next morning to find mountains surrounding me, I was in awe and could literally not stop smiling. Interlaken (Switzerland..) is surrounded by mountains on all sides, and is the cutest, quaintest...not to mention absolutely beautifulll little tourist town. Despite the small fact that every single thing is extremelllly expensive... I must say this is a trip I will never regret and for sure never forget.

Unfortunately, I have never been skiing before, but I am very interested in learning. So I looked into taking lessons...which ended up being outrageous and out of the question. Luckily, we met up with a couple of my friends who are studying in Prague, and I went around with a couple of them who didn't ski as well to little towns in the Alps.

We took the train up a mountain and went to two different little towns. The two pictures above are from a little town called Wengen. I believe it's around 4,000 feet up the mountain...and is truly the definition of a winter wonderland. Being lugged around by sled instead of stroller? What a life. There were people skiing down the streets to the local grocery store.. it was like nothing I've ever seen before.

A view from the train on the ride back down from Wengen.

I was a little upset I couldn't go skiing, but the great thing about Interlaken is there are a bunch of alternatives. Two of my friends were going paragliding the next day which, having been parasailing in Mexico, is something I thought I could consider/do. In spite of my awful decision making skills I decided to go for it...and I am soooooo glad I did! I was strapped into a little backpack with a man behind me (who knew what he was doing) and literally ran off a mountain to find myself flying amongst the Swiss Alps. It was soooo beautiful and an amazing experience.

The mountain we ran off of..

My feet! Gliding over Interlaken

Someone else gliding below me

The view

Survivors picture...me with my friend Michael back on the ground!

We had heard that the thing to do in Interlaken is "nightsledding" so of course we signed up. Of course when you think of sledding you think...down a steep hill.. climb back to the top a bunch of times.. call it a day. Not quite how they do it here. We took a train up the mountain to one town...where we sledded down a super intense path to another town. And when I say sled.. I mean you are zooming down a path where there are turns and huge bumps where you just fly with the sled (or wipe out 10 feet in front of the sled in my case...) and if you dont stop yourself you can end up going like 20 mph. It was insaneeee...it can take 30 minutes to get down if you go slow and 10 if you go fast. I ended up extremely bruised and wiped out several times...but it was SO fun and really gave a new meaning to sledding...and a new appreciation for those people in the olympics who do those fast sled..like..things...

pre-sledding..

Dad, how would you like this for your next bike?? These people were zooming past us on these bike sleds..so crazy!

Aside from these adventurous activities.. I'd say I spent a good amount of my other time (and money) in chocolate shops...aka. my heaven. Swiss chocolate is just too good and these shops are everywhere.

delicious.

Amazing trip.. I would loveee to go back one day in the summer.

Last but not least..I have to add that right before Switzerland I saw Wicked for the 3rd time. Got there 45 minutes before the show..4th row seats..25 pounds. Loveeee the student discounts. It was so great..even with a english-accented Glinda.

Mom and Terri come in TWO days!!!!!!!!!!! and then Jessica comes!!!

YAY, I CAN'T WAIT! :)

I'm transferring to Oxford..

2009-03-02T03:46:00.001-08:00

St. Bride's Church, a baker was inspired by this church to make his wedding cakes tiered, which is why wedding cakes are as they are today!

Temple Hall-in the 1600s it was a popular spot for performances, and Shakespeare's 1st recorded performance of "Twelfth Night" was performed here.. It is unchanged since it was built in 1573.

It's been awhile but things are going great!

As you can see from a couple pictures above..I've done a little more exploring around London with my class and some visitors, so that's been fun...it really is unbelievable how many things there are to do and see in this city! Saw Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew" with my performing arts class.. Fun fact: 10 Things I hate about you (with Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles) is based off of this play..crazy I know.. and honestly I would have rather watched the movie then the play. Shakespeare's english in thick british accents is not easy to follow...and I honestly couldn't tell you what happened in the play..because I could hardly understand what they were saying (i guess it's worth mentioning that I was always the one in highschool with the "Shakespeare for Dummies" books.. just not my thing) oh well. So.. that was interesting..

anyway.

This past Saturday I ventured to the infamous Oxford.

on the list of Oxford Alumni:

2 British Kings

12 Monarchs of ten other states

25 British Prime Ministers

35 presidents and prime ministers of 19 other countries

34 dukes

25 princes and princesses

188 barons and baronesses

291 members of Parliament

12 Lord Chancellors

9 Lord Chief Justices

10 US Senators

10 US Representatives

4 Associate Justices of the US Supreme Court

the list goes on...

First of all. Really?! this place is insane.. wow. If you've seen Harry Potter...imagine the Hogwarts setting minus the wizards (although they actually might have wizards at Oxford I really wouldn't be surprised.) It was absolutely beautiful. And I can't even imagineee what it will look like once all the flowers bloom! Even to study abroad there the minumum GPA you could apply with was a 3.7...just a little intimidating. It is truly historical. Most of the college buildings date back to the 1400s. I don't know that the pictures do it justice but here are a few! Definitely worth visiting...it is really an amazing place.

some of the living quarters...

went on a walk around a running path which surrounded beautiful gardens and streams and such.

Oh you know.. just a reading room...

The Divinity Hall, which I believe was the first lecture hall at Oxford. It is absolutely beautiful, and was actually used as the infirmary in Harry Potter!

along the long nature walk there was a massive deer park...

Needless to say, it was a beautifullll place.

And.. last but not least, to continue the Harry Potter themed post.. if you've seen the movies you would know that in order to get to Hogwarts you must go to the train station (taped at King's Cross.. one of the main stations) and go through the wall. So this is a plaque they put up there so people can take pictures, gotta love it.

I'm off to Switzerland this Thursday!!! I'll let you know if I survive skiing for the first time ever...or if I chicken out! Regardless, I will definitely be enjoying lots of Swiss chocolate!!!

Cheers!

Continued adventures...

2009-02-16T08:36:00.000-08:00

Wales

First off... I found two amazing discoveries.

One: A DANCE STUDIO!!!! I found the most amazingggg dance studio in Covent Gardens which is a beautiful area only a tube ride away, and I couldn't be more excited. It is huge with TWELVE different studios offering different classes seven days a week.The classes range from normal Jazz which is what I took all the way to..."sensual salsa," "Michael Jackson style," "Street Flava," and "Egyptian dance". I think I'll stick to the jazz and ballet classes. Everyone there is around my age or mid 20s and it's at a good challenging level for me...needless to say it's exactly what I've been looking for (for the past three years!). So although I am extremely sore and can barely walk since I've taken the class last Thursday.. I'm going back tonight and plan on going a few times a week, and I'm very happy about that!!

Two: A Whole Foods. Although it's a little bit of a commute, the second I walked in I was in gluten free heaven. I've searched high and low at grocery stores all over and have yet to find a cereal I can eat, but here I had four different options!!! It's huge, and is worth going to just to eat at the cafe. So that was very exciting and I will be making my way over there (in Kensington) often.

Last Wednesday I went to my first play for my performing arts class. It was part of a "Young Writer's Circle," which is putting on a bunch of plays written by...you guessed it... young writers. I was wrong to judge the show upon entering the theater when I saw it was just three rows of seats on each side of the stage, probably seating no more than 75 people, which is something I have never experienced before. The show was called "Shades" and really shed light onto a new side of Islam that I had never thought of before. You must know that my school is probably half Muslim. The city of London has a huge population of Muslims and you see primarily religious Muslims with the head-wraps (not to mention only one side to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict). Anyway...the show was about a young non-religious Muslim woman who falls in love with a religious Muslim man. It talks about the difficulties of being non-religious in a primarily religious atmosphere. She talks about how she doesn't believe you should have to wear a head scarf to show you are religious, and fights for her beliefs although she is willing to change them to be with a more religious man. Also in the show her roommate is a young gay Muslim man, who refuses to talk about it, scared that his family will not understand. It was very interesting... extremely radical, very entertaining (it was actually pretty laugh-out-loud funny at times) and a really good experience overall. Next week we are seeing Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew," which is supposed to be great!

Last Saturday Michael and I went on a day trip to Cardiff, Wales. We had way too much time in Bath..so we decided to make it a shorter day trip which was definitely not enough time...can't seem to get it right yet. Imagine a big city American football game-day atmosphere and multiply that by like 25. It just so happened to be the England vs. Wales Rugby match that night in Wales, and these people are rugby CRAZYYYY. I put a picture up of the line to one of the bars...and this was how the lines were to EVERY bar from about 11 am on...and this was a 6:00 in the evening game. It was a really cool atmosphere to be in, and although we thought about trying to find tickets, it seemed basically impossible and even so they would have been around 70 pounds. It definitely would have been an experience though...and I hope to go to either a rugby or "football" match in England soon!

We climbed to the top of this castle which is a huge part of Cardiff. The main castle which you can see in a picture above was unfortunately closed for an event . They said that the castle holds big events often..including something a couple years ago for the Queen and Nelson Mandela, and it also holds big concerts. The whole courtyard is absolutely beautiful. It was too bad we didn't have more time, because there are a lot more castles in Wales that we weren't able to see, but this wassss a fun climb up. There are lots of old staircases, windows, and crevices mostly made for protection factors.

Best find of the day: a Neili-sized window in the castle. Michael was jealous, as you can see.

and some more pictures of Wales..

The Rugby Stadium
The line for one of the bars
Inside the Cardiff Castle courtyard

It was a very beautiful city...weird that they speak a different language only two hours away!

Last but not least, I must tell you that today was actually somewhat warm. I know it' s been semi-warm in the US... so warm is really a relative term. But the high was 50 today and I was sweating in my peacoat! YAY.

Cheers!

It snows in London..?

2009-02-07T08:04:00.000-08:00

Yes, it snowed, and one thing this city does NOT have is snow ploughs. Thus, the entire city shut down. No tube, no buses nothing. The city apparently lost some 2 billion pounds, which is pretty funny considering the roads were CLEAR. "Most snow seen in 18 years...?" Really?? because it snowed no more than about 5 inches... although I must admit that a. it was very beautiful and b. I was excited that (unlike madison) classes were cancelled! It really only snowed the one day though.. and I'm being optimistic that the weather is getting better. I think we've hit the coldest, which wasn't even that cold.. so I'm ready for no jacket weather now!!

Okay rewind a little bit...last weekend I went with Michael and our friend Ross to Bath...which just so happened to be pretty much like it sounds. An ancient city marked by lots of Roman baths. They are hot water springs that fell as rain about 10,000 years ago, and are still 115 degrees. There are 40 or so minerals in the water, which in medieval times was helpful for curing paralysis and other diseases. You can see the steam rising which is kind of cool..?

(This is a cute little area of apartments called "The Circus" in Bath)

So, it was very neat seeing the baths themselves, however an entire day in the city of Bath was a little too much...it really is a beautiful place, but in the freezing cold (it just so happened to be the coldest day we've had so far), it was a long day. We were so cold (and bored) that we went to see Milk which was amazing.

I also went to the Borough Market with some friends which was absolutely amazing. I would love to go at least once every couple weeks to buy fruit and things. I loved the atmosphere, and I bought entirely way too much chocolate.

homemade chocolate truffles.. I couldn't resist.

As (I think) I mentioned before I'm in a class called "Historic London," in which every Wednesday we take a different field trip. Last week we had our first trip which was to Shakespeare's famous "Globe" Theater. It is a pretty accurate replica of the original, which unfortunately burnt down. They do have a spring show season, which hopefully I will get the chance to see!

And last but not least.. in honor of my lovely father from when I went to the wax museum...

Cheers!

Getting Settled

2009-01-28T15:36:00.000-08:00

I apologize for the delay.. I've been meaning to find a way to get my pictures up (left that little thing at home) and wanted to wait so I could post some pictures, but you'll just have to keep checking back! Crazy, it has almost been two weeks! Things are going pretty well.. I cooked my first successful meal EVER tonight (obviously had mom on the phone the whole time..), but I made my self a delicious salmon, and could not be more excited. Don't forget I'm straight out of the sorority house, so this is new to me..:) I've been meeting people here and there that go to my school through orientation and classes too, so that has been nice. For the international students' first big welcome we had a 'cheese and wine' party, not to be confused with wine and cheese. They claim we say it in the wrong order. Anywayyy. free wine and cheese while meeting people, so it was fun!

Classes started this week and although I was very sick on Monday ( I'm allergic to gluten AND the water here apparently..very exciting) I jumped right into things on Tuesday. Now you must understand classes work a little differently here. In the US there are 2-3 lectures plus a discussion each week for a class. Here..there is one lecture and sometimes a 'tutorial'. Therefore, I have class Monday-Wednesday and am already enjoying my four day weekend, so that is pretty great to say the least. I'm taking a class called 'Performing Arts in London' in which we are going to see about 10 different shows..mostly plays but one ballet and an opera as well so that will be amazing. I am also take 'Historic London'...might as well take the cultural classes while I'm here right?...in which we don't even have class but instead go on field trips once a week. I'm very excited to start learning about this massive city, I haven't had very much chance to explore yet!

Last week I saw Avenue Q which was absolutely hilarious, didn't expect it to be so funny, but I laughed the entire time. If you haven't heard of it, it more or less makes fun of Sesame Street the entire show. So I really enjoyed that. I think the next show on my list has to be either Jersey Boys or Dirty Dancing..or Billy Elliot..and obviously Wicked for a third time. Hey, for the student price of 20 pounds a show you can see like 7 for the price of one Broadway show!

On the day of the inauguration the wax museum let Americans in free which was very cool and extremely impressive. People LOVE Barak here, it's great. It is extremely easy to keep myself updated on American news/celebrities..they loveee it here. Anyway, last weekend I went with Michael to the Portobello Market in Notting Hill which was really neat. Lots of antiques, clothes and jewelry, and we both picked up some delicious fresh fruit. I think I decided I want to move to Notting Hill when I retire.. it really is the nicest cutest little area. This weekend we are going to the famous Bourough Market, which I think is primarily food so that should be good. We are also going to Bath which is supposed to be beautiful so hopefully I will have pictures up by then! Check back in soon!

Cheers :)

Neili

I MADE IT!

2009-01-18T13:47:00.000-08:00

I'm here! Bags and everything!! I am very grateful to have had the wonderful Libby (one of my best friends from high school who is also studying abroad) and Michael drag my giant bags across London, there is absolutely no way I could have done it myself. It really is a beautiful city, and in three days I've only gotten poured on once. I've seen the sun twice now which is good news to me! The people here are SO nice..and more then willing to help with directions which is great.

I met up with the nine other kids in my program in Notting Hill which is where we stayed for two nights. Notting Hill is the cutest little area, and I even passed by Stella McCartney's new billion dollar home...which happens to be about half the size of our house. Last night we saw the show Complicit...if you've heard of it I would be very impressed. Richard Dreyfuss played the main character, so that's kind of cool but I honestly could not tell you what it was about (something about after 9/11...and bashing on the American media for being one sided....maybe?) Of course I would prefer a good musical over a play any day, which I will not be passing up with the amazing student prices they have! Anyway.. that was weird. Then, I went over to where Michael is living which is an absolutely beautiful area a half block away from the London Eye (the big ferris wheel, Big Ben and everything!) They have a market over in that area every day where he found me a delicious gluten-free brownie!

I moved into my room today which is close to an area called Islington. It's extremely old and has lots of neat artsy shops and stores.. very different from the two other parts I've been in. However, there is STILL at least one Starbucks every two blocks...no exaggeration there. It's a little sad, ha. Me and a couple kids from my program spent the entire day today figuring out the bus system, which is wonderful now that I know how to use it! And my room.. I'll just say it will be very very cosy. There are about ten other kids on my flat and I am hoping to meet them tomorrow!

That's all for now!

Love, Neili