Tuesday, August 7th

Tuesday, August 7th... Home at last! I don't think I could even begin to describe how much I loved the city of London. The pictures don't even come close to showing you guys what I saw with my own eyes. I'm still in disbelief that this whole trip happened to me period. London, the Olympics, time to escape reality. Unreal. It was the best month of my entire life so far and probably the best month that I ever will have. I already miss it. So it's not "Goodbye, London!" it's "See ya later, London!". Here's to all the bus rides, tube stops, taxi rides, lost nights wandering around town, lovely English accents, being called "Love", hearing "Cheers!" instead of please or thank you, new friends from all across the world, kisses on the cheeks from everyone, the amazing sights and sounds that London has to offer, and to making new friends with some of the best people in the world. London was absolutely my dream come true and I can't thank thank all of you who were supportive and encouraging through all of this! Without that, I probably would've never done it. While I do love England and while I might say how much they've got their stuff together compared to US, I will still say that I am proud to be an American! Mushy, mushy. :)

Surprisingly, jetlag didn't set in nearly as bad as I would've thought. I caught up on sleep and woke up around 9am to get back to reality. I got unpacked, took a shower, got ready and headed to Shakamak to see what my work schedule was. Naturally, as I somewhat expected, there was no schedule for me. My less than favored manager hired someone else in my position saying that I was gone for too long... so I can't go back to work there this season but she said "we'll see you next year!" and it took all of my being to be nice and walk out. This had me all fired up at begin with, but I realize how much better things will be without working there during school. It's not worth the stress or the cost of driving from Terre Haute to this job. No one there likes her decision of hiring someone else which wasn't fair at all. She also terminated me stating that I quit with two weeks notice to return to school. Granted, that's better than saying I was actually fired, I still didn't quit. I had all intentions to return after London. Since her reason didn't happen, so I plan to look into seeing what I can do for her fibbing state official paperwork that will follow me forever. I left from there to go to Linton to talk to the Work One office about paying for my school books. Plus number one of the day! They're paying for my books which is nearly a grand! I left to go back to the park to get my stuff out of the gates I worked in. It was piddly stuff but I wasn't willing to leave anything behind. It was bittersweet to leave the park and buildings realizing that I won't be working there any more. But things didn't stay dreary for long.

I made it a point to stop and see my gramps and grandma. I didn't realize how much I had missed everyone! Then me, Becky, and my two favorite little ones made our usual trip to Terre Haute. I went to PetSmart hoping to at least get that job back. Of course, they said they would work me back in the schedule but that I wouldn't get many hours to start off with till someone leaves for school. I was okay with that. I talked to my PetSmart buddies and gave out their London goodies.  After we left, we went to play at Deming Park. I finally got the chance to talk to John and I told him what had happened with not being able to go back to Shakamak and that I had the whole week off till I could start back to PetSmart. Somehow, the stars aligned and we got me an impromptu plane ticket to Minot, ND to visit him for a few days before I go back to school! This is probably the most random, spontaneous thing I've ever done but boy am I excited!

Monday, August 6th.

Monday, August 6th... The worst part so far was saying goodbye to 2 girls who because my best friends after just a short month. Holly and Sam made this trip even more wonderful than what I could have been. They're both from Kentucky, so they're not far enough away to escape me! We plan to meet up in Columbus or Bloomington every so often just to keep in touch. But we unwillingly went out separate ways to board the coaches to the airport. Luckily, Sam and Holly got to fly together but I was a lone soldier. After pulling an all nighter, I don't know how I stayed vertical all day. We got all checked in to London Gatwick airport around 7am, went through security around 7:30, ate breakfast and found out that our plane which was supposed to leave at 10am was delayed about an hour. This was a bummer but it just meant a few more minutes on English territory! Fritz, I'm coming homeee! This plane eventually took off but was late to arrive in Charlotte. The plus was that every meal we had on the plane was delicious and we had tv to keep us company... but I slept for about 6 hours worth of the 9 hour flight. 

Once in Charlotte, that plane kept getting delayed also. We didn't board till around 6pm when we were due to land in Indy around that time. We sat on the plane itself for around 45 minutes not moving. The captain eventually came over the intercom and told us that air traffic control shut down and they weren't letting anyone leave. All of us were quickly losing patience because of being in airplanes and airports all day. Then is started raining really hard, so it made sense as to why we were sitting there. After waiting and pretty much assuming that we'd be staying the night in Charlotte, the captain came over again and said that we were cleared for take off after the 4 planes in front of us. Thankfully, we did finally leave and make it to Indy about 2.5 hours late around 9pm. My dad, Phil and surprise guest Jonathan patiently waited for me to get there. I managed to stay awake on the ride home telling stories of London. I've got a lot of those! I got home excited to reunite with Fritz and the others. All the animals were so happy to see me that they didn't know what to do with themselves! It was cute. But, I was exhausted and hit the sheets ASAP and slept like a dead man.

Sunday, August 5th

Sunday, August 5th... Such a sad, sad day in my life!! The last day in London. :( I slept in and woke up in time to go to mass at Westminster Abbey. Yet another reason why I'd marry into royalty! That's where most royal weddings take place. Either way, the church as absolutely gorgeous. Holly and I got to sit with the choir which is considered an honor to them. It also made me miss high school choir and Ambassadors. We got done with mass, stumbled across our other comrades Becca and Sam and found some lunch. Of course I had my new favorite again, lasagna! Becca went to a play and the rest of us went back to Hyde Park to see what Olympic stuff was going on. Nothing special except we did get to see the official Olympic Torch and get our pictures with it. I've mentioned yoomoo frozen yogurt many times now... So I'll just say that the most exciting part of my day was that me, holly and Sam completely filled up our yoomoo loyalty cards an got a FREE YOOMOO!!! It was so exciting! That's a big deal to us! It's around $5 for a good yoomoo, so we went all out without free one. It was so delicious. 

After that, we returned to campus to catch up with people back home clarifying travel plans and we packed out belongings. I hate packing. This was the worse strike of reality that I've ever had. After we got done with that, we had to make our last night go out with a bang. We floated around to random lobbys and lounges on campus finding stuff to do with the people we spend the legendary month in England with. We played some card games for quite awhile which was really fun. We watched a couple movies, more YouTube videos, and even began to make a video ourselves but ran out of time. We eventually started settling down for the night (and by night I mean like 3am) when Holly finally commandeered me into putting on the god awful banana suit. BUT- I figured why not?! So it goes without saying that we had a good time with that. We all pulled all nighters together since we had to leave at 4:45am on coaches to get to the airport. It was a very fun night with all of the CCSA people, especially the few that grew to be best friends.

Saturday, August 4th

Saturday, August 4th... The harsh reality of the last full free day in London set in. We got up for breakfast after our girly sleepover. We ventured out to Europe's oldest Harley Davidson store out of London. It was awesome and quite different than any of our Harley stores that I've been in. They were so amazed to see an American in there, especially females. After questioning our knowledge of bikes, I realize that they expect every American to know everything about and own a Harley! Their bikes are about double the price of ours... I assumed because of the cost of shipment to Europe. We ventured back into civilization to a souvenir shop and rushed to Buckingham palace for another Olympic event. This one happened to be the walk race. The only way I can describe it is the single most ridiculous, hilarious looking thing in the entire world. The rules are; contestants can only speed walk. One foot must be on the ground at all times. They can't lift their arms or legs past certain points. It basically looks like a big wobbling race. It was quite comical and marked the 3rd Olympic event for me to see. I needed a nap because I could feel grouchiness setting in from the long past few days. So we returned to campus to refresh when I got a short nap then went downtown to explore the London nightlife. 

We met a group of locals and my all-time favorite comment of the night was when I told someone that I was from Indiana and he said "oh, right by Oklahoma. Beautiful southern accent by the way, love." I don't know how I didn't laugh but I also didn't correct him. I just thanked him and wondered how exactly I had a southern accent. Funny Englishmen. Geography must be an optional class in Europe! Europeans do however love out accents- even the ones that aren't southern. I don't know what made him think I had a southern accent but I also don't know the different between northern English and English accents so its fair.

We just kind of played it by ear that and went into random bars and pubs that didn't have cover charges. Then we bumped into some more people in the CCSA group who were looking for someone. We joined teams and ventured around town more. Most places close at 11pm there. Another girl and I had to use the restroom very badly but since everything was closed, we had no option but to ask a local where a toilet was. His statement was "No offense, but Londoners just pee on the street. Go pee around the corner there." and pointed to a VERY busy street corner where people were swarming around. I told him we were Londoners and that we weren't going to pee on the street. We danced around London for another hour before we found a toilet, and of course it was in Burger King. We then found a McDonald's to get some late night supper and then caught a bus back to campus. It was a really fun note to leave London on and I hate that time is running out!

Friday, August 3rd

Friday, August 3rd...  Final exams! I was sooo happy to get that out of the way and to be done with it. I studied a lot but I felt like finals pretty much kicked my butt. So much stress relieved at once. Although it was still sad because this was the mark of the end of our trip. More importantly, I was done with that atrocious psychology professor!! After finals, I left to enjoy the evening in London. Which of course involved more shopping, sight seeing, and touristy stuff. Now that the Olympics are in town, you can easily tell who is American. I've decided that the European's view that we are the most god awful embarrassing, rude, arrogant, stuck up population in the world is correct. Americans there give us such a bad name. Obnoxiously walking down the streets with American flags tied around them. Talking very loud. Not "minding the gap". Even the way we walk gives it away. That being said, me and some fellow Americans (Holly and Sam) went back to campus and had a slumber party! It was probably the most fun I've had in the whole trip! Granted with it being the night after finals, I'd probably be fibbing  if I said we were entirely pin needle sober. We watched more funny YouTube videos and had the typical girly chats. These 2 girls really have made my trip thousands of times better than what it could have been! The last weekend here will definitely be a fun one!

Thursday, August 2nd

Thursday, August 2nd... The last psychology field trip, thankfully. Closer the end of me having to ever see that man again in my life! We went to Chichester. It was a cute little down but an absolute waste of our day. We did not do anything except walk around and eat lunch. It didn't tie into psychology, philosophy, whatever at all. But somehow, even though we did nothing, we were still late getting back to campus. We all missed dinner which is irritating because we have to pay for it ourselves when we miss the campus meal. This man has cost me so much money already. But while in Chichester, one positive thing that I will say is that their pub had amazing lasagna! It was probably the est lasagna I've ever had. 

After lunch, We went to some roman ruins place in Fishbourne where we paid a ridiculous amount of money to see well...ruins. Literally piles of dirt where they claim Romans were. My inner criminology says they're full of crap and that we wasted a lot of money. "And this is the area where we believed that their dining quarters might have been, but we do not have any significant proof of this" .... yeah, I definitely paid the equivalent of $30 to hear about what they DIDN'T know. I could've been more educated by a 5 year old playing in a sandbox and making up stuff that at least made sense. Anyway, us girls kept entertained by playing dress up, cooling and doing kiddy stuff! Fun! Then we had to take a taxi back to the train station. Yet another extra, unnecessary cost due to my professor's unpreparedness. The taxi service was not legit and ended up paying around 12 pounds each... which is about $22. Flames were shooting out of my head by this point, and it just got a little better by having to sit by this man on the 2 hour train ride back to London!! I couldn't have gotten off that train quick enough. Then, Brittany (my neighbor girl) and I went to get cheap pizza and returned back to campus to study for this awful man's final.

Wednesday, August 1st.

Wednesday, August 1st... It's reality that it's now August and that means I'm forced to come home soon. It's very bitter sweet and that's something that I'm not exactly too thrilled about. Today was the last day of classes.  I was VERY happy about that. My 2 classes were very stressful. As a reward, my psychology teacher that I've been cursing so much for the past month had the decency to take us on a tour of Buckingham palace. This confirms my idea of wanting to marry in to the royal family. It was so amazing that I can't even begin describe the inside. We had a rare view that most don't get. Amazing! Of course, this couldn't be a simply enjoyable visit to the palace. We had to consider how the queen felt and how the people who worked for her probably viewed her from a psychology standpoint. Yay, crazy psychology teacher...

I finally left from Buckingham with the idea that I was going to meet my friend Holly at the O2 center music arena in Greenwich which is where some Olympic events took place. More importantly is the music arena itself. To say the least, Led Zeppelin played there in the mid 1970's so I was game! They had a ramp put over the O2 center where you climb over it and back down. Sounds easy and silly but don't be fooled! It was very steep and also very high. Me and Holly wanted to go together, so I bought the tickets the night before, which was the first mistake. We agreed on a place to meet in the Olympic park, obviously forgetting that there would be hundreds of thousands of people there, mistake #2. We each allegedly waited in the meeting place for an hour each and we never found each other. Since, I paid for both of the tickets up front, the box office wouldn't let her on without me. This was really disappointing that I had to gear up in dorky climb gear and go by myself.  And even more disappointing that she would have to pay for something that she didn't get to do. She didn't get to go which really upset me. Despite having to go alone, it was an awesome view! I could see all of the river Thames, the actual Olympic park, and even saw the Olympic mens rowing team on the river. So unique! I loved it. The climb down was less than thrilling because if you lost your footing then you had quite a tumble, regardless of the wire support holding you up. I made it down without any issues, but not everyone in my group was as fortunate. I did the American thing and got McDonald's before leaving down simply because I wanted some collector Olympic Coca~Cola glasses. Then I returned to campus after this and studied my butt off for upcoming finals. Bummer!

Tuesday, July 31st

Tuesday, July 31st... My criminology class had our last field trip today and we went to the houses of Parliament. We got to go inside and your the house of commons and house of the lord. It was an awesome opportunity. I must say, their government buildings put ours to shame. Although most of the cathedrals and such are beginning to look the same to me. Our class field trip got done early and I had some time to waste. I got off at a random tube stop which happened to be Liechster Square. I glanced over to see none other than the Jersey Boys theatre. Of course I couldn't resist. I bought a ticket to see it again. Yes, I'm enough of a fan that I went alone to see them. I ended up with even better seats than the last time... (I was within wink range of my favorite one ;) ) and I loved it just as much! The only downfall this time was that the main character (Frankie) was an understudy and not the original. Bummer. But he did a good job. 

Ironically, I sat next to an older gentleman who made small talk with me. We both instantly noticed each others accents (or lack of) and realized we were fellow US Midwesterners. Even better, he was just from evansville! I told him Farmersburg and he instantly quite proudly said "cornfields, dairy queen and meth labs." I just laughed and told him he was definitely thinking of the correct town. Anyway, he was there because his wife was president of University of Evansville and UE has a college in London. He implanted it in my head that if I loved London do much then I need to look into a similar program. He said I was the most fascinating young person he's ever met and that I liked music from his generation. Speaking of which, I'll briefly explain what this Jersey Boys hype is all about anyway. It's a musical about 4 guys who are trying to get their big break in music in the 50's. It's Frankie Valli and the 4 Seasons. They sing famous songs like "Walk Like A Man", "My Eyes Adored You" etc. Other than dashing good looks, they're all incredibly talented and put on the best running show for the past 7 years in London. Most shows only run for a couple months. Needless to say, they're the shizzle. I could go on about them for hours obviously so I'll leave it at that. For now. 

After the musical, I just enjoyed the time in solitude. That's something I don't get much of in London and something that I definitely need some of occasionally. It was nice to do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted and not having to worry about anyone else. But I eventually returned to campus for my dear new friends to give me crap for seeing Jersey Boys again. Whatever! After taking the heat, me, Sam and holly went and got our usual yoomoo frozen yogurt and blueberry muffins from the store. I'll miss frozen yogurt and English muffins so much! After yoomoo, my and my new compadres hung out in my room for awhile. Definitely always a good time! I realize how close I've gotten to these girls and I'll miss them a lot when we're gone in a few short days. :(

Monday, July 30th

Monday, July 30th... Potentially bitter blog ahead! Beware! It was just another full day of classes. I can't wait till the day that I can say goodbye to this psychology teacher! He gets on every last nerve of mine and definitely has it out for me. I have literally gotten the lowest grade on everything in that class... and what's bad is that my neighbor helps me with everything and she does great and I get straight C's. This man makes me want to rip my hair out. Days are slowly winding down and I'm very bitter sweet. Or maybe just bitter right now. One somewhat plus to the day is that my psych professor picked the coldest, windiest, rainiest day of the week to make us was to Regent's park for a 3 hour outdoor class session. His class is dreadful to begin with, but this put the icing on the cake for my disliking. He also teaches philosophy instead of psychology. Want to pay for a psychology class and learn psychology? He's the man for you! So irritating. I'm beginning to get lost in all of these philosophy assignments, but I've somehow managed to not lose my mind yet. Finally, I got my stupid, waste of a time psychology philosophy PowerPoint final project over Francis Bacon done with my partner Malorie. I gladly shared a lot of sarcasm in this PowerPoint making it clear how annoyed we were having to waste 2 days in London gather info that didn't even exist. We learned more about Francis Bacon just this weekend that we cared to know. After a very frustrating day, Holly, Becca and I went for a quite necessary drink at good ole wetherspoons.

Sunday, July 29th

Sunday, July 29th... Finally a much needed lazy day! Sam  and I slept till 11:30 am and left just in time to walk to get lunch. We decided on a famous little crepe store for a traditional English crepe. You can't go to England without getting a crepe, a jacket potato, and fish & chips! I had a banana and Nutella crepe which was awesome. It's basically a flat pancake stuffed with goodies. They have sweet crepes (like the Nutella, chocolate, strawberries, etc junk food) and savory crepes (ham and cheese, streak, etc).  After a satisfying crepe, I went back to do psychology homework of course. My psychology teacher is ridiculous! His homework took up a good 6 hours and it wasn't even done. But we went for dinner at the cheap whetherspoon restaurant down the road.  Sam loves that place, so it's where to go most! The women's beach volleyball Olympic tournament was on when we got there so that was a plus for former player, Sam! After supper, Holly felt left out and mistreated since she had been gone in Edinburgh all weekend, so we had to Skype John again so she could "'meet" him. Talk about a pair nonetheless! There's a reason I like them both! It was a great, memorable weekend with Sam. I wish I could have taken one more weekend trip like was planned, but I'm glad the trip to Barcelona didn't work out. Spain began taxing flights shortly after we booked ours, so we ended up cancelling the flight for a full refund. We used that money instead to do some Olympic events that weekend. I'm glad it ended up that way, even though the beach in Barcelona would've been great too!

Saturday, July 28th

Saturday, July 28th... Another early morning! Sam and I got up, took advantage of our free breakfast and headed out for the day. We went to the London Bridge Experience which is like a year round haunted house. We got in 2 for 1 thankfully because it probably wasn't worth that much. I know it isn't what the common Londoner would've done with a Saturday afternoon, but it was fun nonetheless. After the Bridge Experience, we rushed down to Camden markets which I'm not a big fan of. It's way too busy, too many questionable shoppers and too make pushy "salesmen". It's basically one huge flea market. You can't simply walk through and get what you want because there's always that one annoying shopper who stops right in front of you taking up all of the crowded aisle... or the one annoying shopkeeper who will try to bribe you into buying their product for double what it's worth and double what you could get it for down the road. It's quite possible the biggest market district I've ever seen. We finally got what we needed and got the heck out just to rush to Buckingham palace so we could see the Olympic mens cycling event. 

Basically, we stood in a huge, pushy crowd (which I've already stated that I don't enjoy) for around 2.5 hours just to see nothing besides 20 seconds of bikes blowing by. And shoving crowds. "Rushed" is the key word in London. Everything  and everyone is such a huge hurry. There's no leisure time! So much to do in so little time. Anyway, regardless of how grumpy I was at the race from the crowd and feeling like we wasted half the afternoon on it, it was still cool to be able to say that I did attend an Olympic event!  It was heavily guarded by the British military, which is another thing I have a bone to pick with shortly. Some Olympic officials opened a gate and let people through to watch the winner's ceremony on a big screen. Apparently they were not supposed to because the British military quickly formed a human barricade around us and wouldn't let us go any further. Which is when I discovered the bone that I need to pick with them. These men (and yes, they were all men and no women) are technically on leave from deployment. They all took their leave to go home and be with their family, but they are now having to do security for the Olympics. Yeah, that's part of being in the military life. But the fact that they're giving up time with their family and are standing around for 16-18 hours a day and then sleep in a huge room, many without beds, are rarely get the required meal or rest times. I guess this is just a soft spot for me because of John, but I think it's crap. Again you're probably thinking "Please tell us how you REALLY feel!"... that's enough of that.  

After the race, we went back to the British museum yet again to try to find my info for the psychology project. It still didn't work. I got to prove it to my teacher by taking him a signed letter that they indeed do not have the display that he says was there FOUR years ago. Frustrating! Sam then wanted to go to a pub that was feature in the movie "Shaun of the Dead" which of course had to be in the most ghetto part of England that we could've stumbled across. Of course, we got out there (borderline scared for our lives) and there was no pub in existence. Another few hours of the day wasted on said "pub" but oh well. We defeatedly ate at a China buffet in China town before returning to campus. A fun fact about restaurants there...  they can and will charge you if you waste food! We returned to campus a few hours later than planned and then Sam finally got to meet the infamous John via Skype and of course we also stayed up a lot layer than planned! Interesting day to say the least.

Friday, July 27th

Friday, July 27th... this was the day that Sam and I were originally scheduled to go to Barcelona. Thankfully, this trip did not work out becuase Spain started taxing flights so we decided to save money, get a refund, and spend the weekend in London for Olympic festivities. Let the games begin! We had a very early morning to go out to Big Ben to hear the bell ring. This is the first time the bell has rang except for time in over 50 years! Likewise with everything else, that was an awesome experience! Then we walked around searching for a traditional English breakfast. We ended up at the Cat & Cucumber for some tea, eggs, sausage, beans, chips (fries) and bacon (ham). It was quite delicious but I still miss the states bacon and pancakes! We got to walk across Tower Bridge a couple times which is another thing off the bucket list. We toured the Tower of London for about 4 hours. It was pretty cool but got boring after awhile. We had an extra pep in our step for some reason and decided to take on the fire memorial which was 311 steps up. I definitely got my workout for the day. We made it to the top for a few minutes and then went to find Pudding Lane where the fire of London started in 1666 which destroyed nearly 5/6 of the town. Enough with the history lesson. We also ventured down to Drury Lane! Yes, I do in fact know the muffin man! After that excitement, we returned to campus for a short 20 minutes just to get at it again. We were back to Tower Bridge to scope out seats for the fireworks of the opening ceremony for the Olympics. We gave up said spots to go supper and a drink from Wetherspoon. As I've said before, it's good cheap food! We walked so much that day and was exhausted. But we went back to the bridge to see the fireworks. Honestly, the fireworks were slightly disappointing but still an awesome experience. Some English guys told us that it was only a small taste of fireworks and that would would be happening a little later.... then he walked away most likely thinking "dumb Americans..." because no more fireworks ever went off! Thought we did have a bit of a bonus by seeing the boat with the Olympic torch on it and supposedly David Beckham was on that boat as well! We returned to campus after a long day of walking and went to bed. 

Big Ben during the bell ringing.

 Walking over Tower Bridge

 At Tower of London in a guard hut.

Tower Bridge and part of Tower of London

 The fire memorial and certificate

 Muffin Man!

 Fireworks at Tower Bridge with Olympic Rings

Sam and I after the Olympic ceremony fireworks.

Thursday, July 26th

Thursday, July 26th... today was by far my favorite field trip yet! My criminology class went to Windsor Castle and Runnymede. Windsor Castle was exactly what every little's princess dream would include. It was beautiful! The weather was also perfect so it worked out well. I also met a guard and got to see changing of the guard!! We all ate lunch together a a delicious pub with more great lasagna! Then we found our way via bus to Runnymede. This wasn't that exiting to me because it was basically just a big field to me. Although we did get to walk a trail and get out of the city for awhile. We saw a JFK memorial placed there by Americans and also a Magna Carta memorial, also by Americans. Then yours truly heard that there was a Royal Air Forces memorial "slightly up the hill" from the Magna Carta memorial, so I drug my dear classmates up what ended up being a 6 mile long hiking trail.Good thing I get along well with them or they probably would have been upset with me. The views up there were gorgeous and the best thing I've seen yet. We made our way back down through a cow pasture (literally... I wish I could have recorded the little Chicago girls whining abot cow manure) and made our way back to the bus and train to London. A few classmates decided we did not want to be good students and do our homework, so we went to see the Lion King musical instead. This was awesome! Jersey Boys was my favorite still, but the way the portrayed the animals and the amount of talent that Lion King required was awesome! 

 Windsor Castle

 Changing of the Guards at Windsor

 I made a new human friend!

 And then it shouldn't surprise anyone that I spotted a cat in the garden at Windsor and became instant friends too.

 A view from Windsor.

  Windsor Castle

 JFK memorial

 Magna Carta Memorial

 Air Forces Memorial... note the awesome blue sky!

 AF memorial

Views from the Air Force memorial.

Wednesday, July 25th

Wednesday, July 25th... BEST DAY OF MY ENTIRE LIFE!!!!!! Hands down. I had class all day... but after class I went to see the Jersey Boys musical with a friend/classmate Ashley. I am absolutely in love with it! I was lucky enough to stay by the stage door the the genuine stalker fan that I am... and I met 3 of the 4 Jersey Boys! I loved it so much that I will probably see it again before I leave. I could go on and on about how much I loved it... but I think the pictures speak for themselves

 

 Ryan Molloy who played Franki Valli

 My new hunk of a celeb crush! John Boydon who played Tommy DaVito

 I can't remember his name to be honest, but he's still a Jersey Boy!!!

Tuesday, July 24th

Tuesday, July 24th... my psychology class had a field trip to Cambridge. It was really quite fun! My teacher decided to be relaxed for a change and let is go punting. Punting is basically a big, flat bottomed boat that you have to steer and row with one large pole. It was really fun! Our punting guide was a young English guy our age. My favorite thing about punting was being about to see the colleges, churches, and animals of course!

 

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I also got to see the pub called the Anchor where Pink Floyd met up and wrote many of their songs while in Cambrigde. We returned from the field trip relatively early. Then I went on a determined shopping "spree" to get a dress. I succeeded and then had English Pizza Hut! Even better than US Pizza Hut!!

Monday, July 23rd

Monday, July 23rd... I was so exhausted from my weekend in Ireland that I had no desire to go much. I went through the nearly agonizing 6 hours of class and just wanted to sleep so bad! Later that night, me, Holly and Becca decided to see an impromptu musical. We decided on Sweeney Todd becuase we got tickets for under $40! Cheap! It was an alright musical as far as acting... but it's definitely not know for it's music or cheerful plot! After the musical, we went down to take in the views of Tower Bridge. It's almost a must when you're in downtown London at night... you see why!

Sunday, July 22nd

Sunday, July 22nd... most importantly, my dad's 50th birthday!! Happy birthday, dad! I woke up in Ireland around 10am which is the latest I've gotten up while being in the UK. It was so nice after a long day and night before. We all decided that we wanted to go to the Kilminham Goal (pronounced Killmainam Jail). Being the weird criminology major that I am, I really enjoyed this. It was creepy and eerie and packed with history. Famous Irish people were imprisoned there in the past and it had lots of stories to tell. 

Small part of Killmainham Goal

After the jail, we found a little cafe for lunch which was a mistake. We wasted a good 2 hours of the day just waiting for everyone to get their food. It was hit or miss whether we got what we actually ordered, but we were taking whatever we could get at that point. Although they had hands down the best lasagna that I've ever had! We went to a couple small tourist shops but quickly ran out of time. We had to get back to our hostel to get our stuff to meet the bus to the airport at 5:15pm. Everything went quickly and easily at the airport. We got all checked in and through security without any issues and ended up leaving Dublin about 10 minutes early. I really enjoyed Dublin but I was also ready to get back to London to "my own" bed! Also, I found my favorite little keepsake! :)

Saturday, July 21

Saturday, July 21... probably the longest day of my entire life. A group of about 8 of us decided to go to Dublin, Ireland this weekend. We booked a very early flight forgetting about the fact that it meant we would have to find our way to the airport in the middle of the night. I was up all night on Friday finishing homework so that I could go to Dublin without any worries. We met up to go to the bus stop at 2 am. We waited there for about an hour when no buses came so someone called the bus company. They told us several different times that a bus was set to arrive in 2 minutes, 5 minutes, etc. but apparently English minutes are longer than American minutes. Time was closing in on us, we were tired, and we getting to wit's end. So we had to call 2 taxis. We paid around 60 pounds total which is about $80, mind you. I was no too happy about this, but we got er done regardless. We made it to Victoria train station around 3:30am and had to catch an express train to Gatwick Airport. Don't worry, the bus incident was the only tragedy for the rest of the trip. We arrived at Gatwick on time and got checked in quickly and easily without any issues. We ate a quick breakfast at McDonalds (which Europeans LOVE) and boarded the train about 6am. Our plane was set to depart at 6:40am and I was so tired that I just passed out instantly on the plane. I woke up to a service announcement from the plane who said that we had waited so long for take off in Olympic traffic that we were under the required amount of fuel needed to make the trip. This wasn't a pleasant note to wake up to and I nearly had a stroke. Of course, with hundreds of lives on the line, they refuled the plane and sent us on our way. I somehow slept through the entire thing. We didn't leave Gatwick until the time we were supposed to land in Dublin-  8am. We ended up in Dublin at 9:40 am. 

Thankfully, there was a bus that came to the airport and picked up us to take up to the city enter. This same bus also had a hop on/hop off service which would take us around the city and we could "hop on and hop off" at any stop that we wanted to. We "hopped on" the bus and found our hostel. We couldn't check in but we did leave our stuff there while we navigated. We got off at nearly every stop from the bus which was about 20. We got to see the big scenes and landmarks in Dublin. The country itself is GORGEOUS and it's quite possible that I loved it even more than I do London! We went to the Guinness Storehouse to see how Guinness was made. I realized why I don't drink beer but I at least gave it a shot.. gross! We stopped at some huge random mall where I got my authentic Irish caladdagh ring! It might not be the prettiest thing ever but it has a lot of meaning... "Love, friendship, and royalty". After the mall, we returned to the hostel around 5:30 to get settled into our room and freshen up. We then left an hour later to go explore the night life. I found a Hard Rock Cafe but it was hardly anything to even look in to. It didn't have any cool memorabilia like London Hard Rock does. But oh well, another one marked off the list. We decided to eat at a cool American place called Thunder Road Cafe. I was probably partial to it because of the Grease reference (Danny Zuko and Kenickie race at Thunder Road...) but the food was great! We all needed a very legal drink from being up all night and stressing over the bus situation. What better to enjoy than a Strawberry Daiquiri?! Yum!

 

 Hostel

A small taste of the inside of our hostel... 12 beds total.

Guinness

 

We then aimlessly walked around Dublin to scope out some pubs and Irish nightlife. We vowed to have a drink at each up that we went to... so of course we couldn't handle many pubs and still be in our right minds. So we settled down at the Temple Bar where there was an amazing live band. I met several Irish people. Most of the Irish men thought I was an Irish lady on the prowl (due to the way I was wearing my caladdagh ring facing out without realizing) and were quickly disappointed. I did meet an awesome gay man names Charlie who taught me an Irish folk dance. Everyone there was so nice and I hardly got the creepy vibe from anyone. There were all kinds of awesome street performers and random acts everywhere. We were all tired and nearing grouchiness, so we returned to the hostel around 11pm to hit the hay. Our large group was split up into 2 but were each in large 12 bed hostels. Everyone in my hostel was from the US (mainly Chicago and us CCSA students) and they all had awesome stories to tell. 3 of them were backpackers who have been all over the world. This put all kinds of ideas into my head! But I crashed completely from the lack of sleep the previous night knowing I had another long day ahead. 

My meaningful Caladdagh ring!

Friday, July 20th

Friday, July 20th... oh what a night! I went on the CCSA sponsored trip to Stonehenge and Salisbury. Stonehenge was awesome, creepy, and amazing all at the same time. It's so weird to try to come up with the difference scenarios of how ancient people (or aliens?!) made that rock formation. It was surrounded by farmlands and sheep! I realized just how cute sheep are... and yes, I do want one now. We broke off for lunch after Stonehenge where I had my first British tea. Luckily, my good pals Sam and Holly went so we had a ball doing Jenny/Sam/Holly things all day. I also got to go on a tour of  Salisbury Cathedral. At this point, most cathedrals are beginning to look the same to me but it was still pretty. I also got to see the best remaining copy of Magna Carta out at Salisbury. We returned from Salisbury later than expected of course... nothing with CCSA is ever on time. But after returning, my friends and I went to Wetherspoon for a cheap drink and dinner. That seems to be the common thing this month! When we returned, I pulled an all nighter to do some homework before I left for Dublin the next morning!!! Guess what's coming next?! YES! The wonders of Ireland!

Thursday, July 19th

Thursday, July 19th... my only free day in London and it was wasted! My psychology professor is out of his mind. He made all of us go on "history hunts" through London. Our assignment was said to be at the British Museum. We thought we would have it easy by going to the museum, taking notes on  Francis Bacon and having a free day. Of course, the museum staff said they do not have an exhibit on Bacon any more and that it was moved in the early 1990's. They sent us to the British Library to check for some manuscripts. Of course, we got the same answer there that they do not have anything on him. Me and the other girl messaged our professor. Apparently because we didn't get to the museum at 8am (mind the fact that it didn't open till 10am anyway) that we didn't try hard enough. So now we have to waste ANOTHER day to go back to the museum to get the same answer again I'm sure. I'm beginning to despise this teacher becuase he's the one I've had trouble with all along. Jerk! He leaves every weekend but we have assignments due over the weekend. Cool. ANYWAY! I'm in London, so I'm not too worried about his class. After we went on a wild goose chase for the lack of Francis Bacon info, I returned to campus for a full night of this professor's homework of course. Speaking of bacon.... they do not have bacon here. That's the first thing I'm eating when I get back in the states!

Wednesday, July 18th

Wednesday, July 18th... 6 hours of classes! But somehow, my first class got out 2 hours early. I could've passed out with excitement! I spent this time wisely working on a paper that was due at 9pm. My lovely friends wanted me to eat dinner with them and then I got beckoned to go out with them. I rushed to finish my paper so we could get out before the pubs close (at a ridiculous 9pm or something) but of course, Murphy's Law had something else in mind for me. I came back to my room to get my paper printed off and turned it and it was gone! My professor had somehow put a block on it to where if we left it open for so long then it would close. Of course, I didn't know this and I completely lost my entire paper. Entirely his fault. Who does that?! I was less than thrilled about losing my 8 page paper that I worked on for so long.

I went to Cedric, one of the RA's, almost in tears telling him what had happened. Thankfully, he could revive at least the rough draft of my paper. Time was closing in on me and I didn't have time to edit or anything I had previously e-mailed my professor to tell him what had happened. I got a very nasty response implying that I'm another no good, partying college student who should prepare better and not procrastinate and not pay this much money to come to London to party. Of course, I was LIVID. I had to get off campus before I knocked on this fellow's door and gave him a piece of my redheaded mind. I told one of the coordinators about it and they requested to see the e-mail and said it was entirely out of line of him and that they would handle it. So to relieve some of the crap I had put up with today... we went out! 

We went back downtown of course and ended up in Soho. We jumped around to a few places and met some cool English people, starting at a bar called "Be @ 1". What I learned new today is that when a male bartender asks me "Single or double for the beautiful American?" always say single! I ended up with a Jack Daniels and Coke that had more whiskey content than an alcoholic's dream. Naturally, I did not drink it. 4 pounds down the drain! We went to another place where it was a really fun atmosphere. Anything to get the whiskey taste out of my mouth, I got a really girly drink. The rest of my night went smoothly with lots of fun, friends, sobriety and laughter.

OH YEAH!!!! And while we were walking out of the last place back to the Tube, I SAW A JERSEY BOY! I almost cried! I yelled "OH MY GOD! IT'S A JERSEY BOY!" and everyone looked at me like I was insane. For those who don't know, Jersey Boys is my favorite musical right now and I want to see it sooo bad! Which I will be doing once! After all YOLO- "you only London once!" hehe :)

Tuesday, July 17th

Tuesday, July 17th... Field trips! My criminology class went to see a court hearing again like last week. There's not much to say about that besides it was dull and I understand why I want to try to fix people and NOT defend them. So frustrating to take stand in front of a convicted murderer and say they're not guilty!  Anyway, after the dreadfully boring court hearings, we broke for lunch. Me and a group of 3 others went to Pizza Express. Silly Americans didn't know anything, so we ended up spending a LOT of money on a LOT of food. And they didn't offer carry out boxes of course. It's a nightmare to get checks in an European and they never split the check. So we tried handling that and missed meeting up with our class for the second part of the field trip. You can just imagine 4 Americans running through the streets of London trying to find the City Police Department.

Jenny to the rescue! Amazing things happen when you're the only criminology major in the group who actually knows how to follow directions or where to look for a police department. So anyway, we found the police department AND our classmates! All in one swing! We met up in perfect timing and got to go through a tour of the station. I was in awe the whole time (and it had nothing to do with police uniforms or accents combined). I probably would've taken a job on the spot! We learned all kinds of stuff, messed with their uniforms and utilities, and got to see the horses! They still have mounted patrol where horses are out walking around! This made me realize how much I miss animals because I spent quite a bit of time playing with the horses whereas everyone else was standoffish and afraid of the horses because they were "too big". Wussies! As I promised myself, I got done with this field trip and returned to campus to finish yet another paper.

Monday, July 16th

Monday, July 16th... such a down day for me! I had my typical 6 hours of class (yuck!) and then tried to do homework. I couldn't concentrate, so my dear friends were only a step away to come to the rescue. Holly had the idea that we should craft to get over the slumps that we've been in. So we went to the store and got stuff for crafts! We tried the crayon melting thing to make cool designs on cardboard with a hairdryer but I think all we did was look like insane pyros. Feeling sad and sappy (and defeated because of the craft), we watching some cute engagement videos like all girls should occasionally. 

After this, like normal classy college students, we split a bottle of wine and watched funny YouTube videos. I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard! We had an all around great time and only spent around 5 pounds all day for so much fun! I started missing people back home, especially since John was home that week and I wasn't. But my newly found friends are goofy enough to cheer anyone up!

Sunday, July 15th

Sunday, July 15th... I went to mass like a good little girl! I drug myself out of bed earlier than what I have since I've been here just so I could make it to mass at St. Paul's. This place, like most others in England, is also indescribable. It is huge and absolutely gorgeous. I have seen plenty awesome cathedrals, but none that hold a candle to St. Paul's. We had really good seats too. Unfortunately, we weren't supposed to take pictures of the inside. And yes, I've already been wondering if I bought myself a ticket to hell for taking pictures anyway. Oh yeah, and for the month of July is when St. Paul's does their singing mass. Nearly everything was sang by an all mens/boys choir. I was in Jenny Heaven (no pun intended). It was awesome.

When we left St. Paul's, there was an interesting little acrobat show going on outside in the courtyard. There were 8 people and a 20' ferris wheel. For lack of better description, they're insane. They clipped themselves to the inside of this wheel and let it spin them and while they flipped around hands-free. They're a heck of a lot braver than I am.

We returned to campus to meet up with fellow comrades. One of the highlights of this day was getting a dominos pizza and a coke for under $5 USD! Impressive if you ask me! After our fufulling pizza, we navigated our way to Abbey Road. I couldn't have made a trip to London without going here. We walked across Abbey Road a few times. There's a website where you can go watch people walk across in real time...I recommend it for anyone who enjoys people watching as much as I do. You'll see some pretty interesting people- that's for sure.

After Abbey Road, we ventured around some more. We ended up in Camden Market. It was quite unique. Almost like a huge flea market. And yes, I did buy something fro twice as much as what it was worth just to learn that it was regular price right down the road. Camden is rather scary and I'm not one to be easily intimidated! Police patrol is everywhere because it's just a bad part of town. We didn't waste much time there.

Saturday, July 14th

Saturday, July 14th the rain spoiled most of our plans! This probably isn't a surprise for here, but those in my Indiana home would probably like some of this rain Believe me, we'd give you a few days worth if we could. So what's a girl to do on a rainy day?! Of course we went shopping. Me and Holly went to Stratford Mall. It was about a 30 minute tube ride. So worth it! Stratford Mall is the biggest in Europe. Take Honey Creek, multiply it's current size by about 10 and stack it on top of each other 5 times. Literally. It was huge. We resisted the urge to buy much. My personal favorite was the Mini Cooper store! Little cars everywhere! The mall was mostly indoor but there was a lot outdoors too. It was ridiculously, unbelievably large.

We attempted to go in the Olympic Park and almost accidentally slipped in. Olympic Park is right by the huge mall, so it was easy to find. Not that the entire city doesn't have step by step directions up everywhere. At this point, only athletes practicing and officials are allowed in. I don't know how I looked like an athlete or an official but hey! 

We got bored with Stratford because most stores sold wallets that cost more than our entire month in England. So we went downtown to Piccadilly circle and walked around. We found M&M's World! I've got a new goal to go in all 4 of the M&M's Worlds in the World. 2 down, 2 to go! We stumbled into Hyde Park after this. It made me miss home! Hyde park was like Shakamak on a VERY large scale! We spent some time there and then returned to campus to get a start on the homework that has been awaiting me.

Friday July 13th

Friday, July 13th. Another awesome day on the books!!! Me and some newly found friends (Kate, Katie, Julita, Matt, Becca, and Holly) all got on the BritRail and went to Brighton, England. This was such a cute little town! There were little shops lining the roads. As soon as we stepped out of the train station, you could smell the ocean and hear the seagulls. This was such a relief after being rained on in London all week. We walked around, solved some wardrobe malfunctions (as expected with multiple girls... Matt is such a trooper!) and finally made way to the beach. Of course, it was windy and quite chilly on the beach. But it was so pretty! I loved it there. I could imagine myself sitting there when I'm old and grouchy(er) and just taking it all in. We walked up and down the shore for awhile and then decided to brave it out on the pier. The pier had an amusement park on it, but it was nothing too special or worth the money they wanted.

I asked a tourist shop worker what he suggested we do with our time there. He recommended the Royal Pavilion. I had no idea what it was (nor do I really know now either) but it was amazing! We couldn't take pictures of the inside, but it was awesome. It's the biggest and prettiest building I've ever been in so far. It was indescribable, but I'll try! Every room had a different theme. One of our usual houses could have fit in just hald of their foyer. The kitchen not including the dining room was bigger than a school cafeteria. The dining room had a table that could accommodate 56 guests at any time plus the ability to double in its size. Obviously, this house was amazing! I do remember that a prince had lived there and got ill and could no longer go upstairs, so the upstairs hadn't been touched at all since he left it. After he passed, Queen Victoria moved in for a few years and then had 9 kids and "didn't have suitable room" in this PALACE for her kids.  Likely excuse! Hence, Buckingham Palace royalty!

Anyway, after that, we ate a popular French restaurant. Cafe Rouge! I remember going to Walmart and seeing posters of this place long before I left! I was dying some real food, so I got a steak. You'd think I was a starving child at the way I devoured that steak after going without anything besides "chips" for the past week. It was awesome! We then caught a train back to London. When we got back, a few of us girls broke off and went to downtown London. Piccadilly Circle in downtown is awesome at night. It's not really the touristy stuff like the Tower or anything, but it's lots of shops and pubs. You can look nearly any direction here and see a pub! We were all tired and had sore feet, so we called it an early night and came back to campus.

Thursday, July 12th

Thursday, July 12th. I had two field trips! The first one we went Old Bailey and sat in on 2 court hearings. The first one was incredibly boring talking about a fraud case handling millions and millions of pounds (their currency here). It was almost impossible to stay awake. So we moved along to the second one which fascinated me! It was a high profile murder trial. This was awesome for me since I want to focus on the big stuff in my career. For all of your sakes, I won't go into any more details on that! But I was sucked in by the proceedings and thought it was awesome. I left very excited to graduate and get a big girl job! Being in the Old Bailey itself was amazing and jam packed with history. We had to go through security and everything of course. Oh yeah, and for the record, judges and some high authoritative people here DO indeed wear robes and wigs in the courts. I don't fully understand their court system but it was interesting. There were multiple defendants in one hearing all on the same case. This is something totally different from the US. 

After the hearings, I definitely needed a nap. So I did just that! Then I woke up for some nasty refectory provided supper and went on the second part of our field trip. We went on a Jack the Ripper tour! Of course, I loved this too. A man named Oliver took us around London telling us the brutal stories and showing us the sites on where everything happened. I got a picture of the pub where Jack the Ripper would have a drink of gin with his victims. I also saw the church where he could meet his victims... who were prostitutes. Prostitutes in front of a church, how ironic? After the tour was over, we returned to campus.

After this, I thought I might go out to karaoke but decided against it. I sat in my room kicking myself for sitting in while everyone was out. So I sucked it up and found someone to go with me. It is an Australian pub called "Walkabout" which has the most fun, friendly atmosphere ever. Surprisingly, hardly anyone was even drinking. It was more a hang out place for everyone. We tried to do karaoke but they stopped it at like 11:30 which seemed very early to me. But there's always a couple more weeks to come! Being typical college students, we wanted food after Walkabout, so we went to some chicken place down the road. It was a good day!

Wedneday, July 11th

First of all, sorry that I am so far behind! At this point, I've found out that the course load in London is much heavier than what should be allowed! I've spent hardly time on campus and when I have, it's been for homework. So anyway!

Wednesday, July 11th. I had my full 6 hours of class. Nothing too eventful! The usual wake up, go to class, eat lunch, more class, and supper. Except there was a HUGE catch! Me and 2 awesome new friends (Holly and Sam) went to see WICKED!!! I was sooooo excited! Let me tell you! Wicked is absolutely amazing! It's everything that I expected it to be and more! We got FRONT ROW SEATS for less than $40 US dollars. That's a heck of a deal. I bought myself a Wicked shirt too. It was so much fun! After that, we returned to campus around 11 to hit the sheets.

Tuesday, July 10th

Tuesday, July 10th
My psychology class went on our first field trip. I wish all of school was like this with 2 days of classes and 2 field trips per week! We went to downtown Oxford by train, which was about an hour and fifteen minutes both ways. We went to the Bodleian Library which is very historic and important around here. Also, I got to be in some of the rooms that the Harry Potter movies were filmed in! That was pretty awesome, even though I'm not much of a HP fan. After this, we had a very long, boring lecture from a man who talked in circles and knew a whole lot about a little bit of nothing basically. This part of the field trip sucked, but it got better. After this, my professor arranged for us to go on a scavenger hunt around the city. I didn't like the idea of this at first, but it ended up being a lot more fun than what I had in mind. Me and my group (we call ourselves "Team Default" because we're the only ones who didn't cry like little babies when we couldn't be in a group with people we don't know) ventured all around Oxford. We ended up finding all kinds of awesome pictures and landscapes around the area. We also climbed to the top of St. Mary's Cathedral where the views were breathtaking. Everything up there looked like it should have been on a postcard! We had an early morning starting of about 7:30am and didn't get back till right at 7:30pm. After that, I ate dinner which was rice and meatballs... I have no idea where they thought to put those together... but then I went to Sainsbury's market and bought food for my room. Cafeteria food is less than delicious! Then I finally got some sleep for a change!

Monday, July 9th.

Monday, July 9th.
I FINALLY went to sleep around 4am and had to be up at 8. Definitely took me back to my ISU days! I had class bright and early from 9-12, lunch from 12-1, and another class from 1:30-4:30. Definitely not the most fun that I have had on these trips. Other than that, me and a few people went off campus to get groceries, came back for supper, then made another short trip off campus. Today wasn't very exciting!