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!

Sunday, July 8th.

Sunday, July 8th.
I didn't get up until around 12:30 and instantly felt guilty for sleeping in while in London... but I really did need it! I got up and got ready, then went on a class tour at 2. We had to take the tube to a station to get our train passes validated for when we go on class field trips. This was sort of a pointless jaunt, but at least I got to know the tube system a little better. Me and a friend broke off from the group after we were done and went to get late lunch. We found an awesome little Italian place which had amazing food for around £6 ($10)... that's cheap for here! And on a side note, the exchange rate is about £1.6 to every $1... so £50 quickly turns into $75 and so on. After our Italian meal, we came back to campus for a few where I just relaxed will we met up at 6 to go on the eye.

No one else had eaten recently, so we went to a place called Whetherspoon in the O2 mall. It was really affordable and where I had my first legal drink! I had a "Sex on the Beach" which was some compilation of peach Schnapps, vodka, cranberry and orange juice. It was actually quite delicious and the taste of alcohol was barely even there. We left there to catch the tube to go on the London Eye to see the sunset. Naturally, us Americans went the wrong way off the tube and went sooo far out of our way and we were really on a time pinch. We did make it to the eye, got everything done and finally got on the eye. It really was an amazing experience. Everyone should do it at least once! I'm really not bothered by heights, but you're so amazed by everything going on that you don't even notice yourself towering over the Thames River. I was sort of the mastermind behind the Eye experience and somehow managed put it together for about 40 of us wanting to go. Awesome!

Then after the Eye, the weather was amazing so we decided to venture a little. We walked down the river taking in the amazing sights and eventually went to Tower Bridge at night. It was all sooo cool! I would've stayed if I could... cuddle up with a hobo! Ha! I would say this weekend in it's entirety, we probably walked a good 16 miles minimum. It's all walking! Everything and everyone here is so different. Accents are wonderful! People are polite, kids are respectful, everyone is nice looking, and there's really no eye sores in the city. So far, it is an amazing place! I also got to FaceTime my favorite fella ever, so Sunday was just way too much excitement for one girl to handle! And I coudn't fall alseep till around 4am... no fun!

Pictures are all on Facebook for those of you who haven't came across them yet.... I'll try to put them on here when I can. :)

Saturday, July 7th.

Saturdy, July 7th.
I woke up way too early for my liking to go to breakfast at 7:30am. Then we had yet another mandatory meeting at 8:30 filled with stuff that I'm certain we've heard at least 4 times. Yes, I know they're only concerned with our safety and us enjoying the trip. After this, we got on a coach again and went on a bus tour from 10-12. This was awesome because it was the first time that we really got to see the "legit" London stuff. Our tour guide was an awesome older woman who reminded me so much of Mary Poppins. I wasn't sure if that was an offensive comparison, so I didn't ask if her name was Mary. "Mary" took us to see the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace which was awesome. She also showed us around a little but let us break off and do what we wanted.

Me and 2 other girls saw Buckingham up close, Queen Victoria's Memorial, Tower Bridge, London Bridge, Big Ben and Parliament, all sorts of Gardens and Parks, and stores. I spotted Hard Rock Cafe and instantly had to go there. When we went, I saw a geniune Led Zeppelin drum set... and yes- I really did cry tears of joy. I made sure to buy a Hard Rock shirt from the gift shop... where I didn't realize you had to wait in line outside of the stores and I just barged in. I'm very everyone was talking about what a stupid American I was. One of the huge things going on in the city that day was Gay Pride. We saw a little bit of the parade but then went to Soho (largest gay district) and saw lots of crazy stuff... and I mean lots. We went through all of the touristy stuff and explored and I bought a new British staightener then made our way back to campus for a few around 8.

We all got back and decided it was a Saturday night in London so we might as well go to a pub around 10. No one told us that pubs AND tube stations close early. Recipe for disaster! We walked around aimlessly for miles trying to find something that was open. We really weren't lost, but we just didn't know the hours or locations of anything. We never did find anything except a McDonald's around 1am then it was a challenge to make our way back. We sat down under a building's awning and ate our foreign McDonald's and ATTEMPTED our way back. After waiting an hour for nearly the only bus running at night, we eventually got back to campus around 3am. I went to bed and slept in entierly too long into Sunday.

First Friday in London!

Friday: July 6th.
As I said before, we got checked in and ate lunch. After lunch, I went back up to my room and tried to clean up but I fried my hair straightener because of the voltage difference. I'm still bummed about that one! Oh well. I was so ancy to finally see everything after arriving. Most of us wanted to sleep as soon as we got here, but we were advised to stay up for as long as possible so we wouldn't be as jet lagged (which did not work for me!). We went on a walking tour with a faculty member who showed up the tube and the bus system for the first time. Everything was so awesome and I had no trouble at all. After the tour, a small group of about 6 of us branched off and exploted a little on our own. We foudn Tesco which is a decently priced little grocery and O2 which is sort of a mall. O2 has a Sainsbury's in it, which is mainly like an Angell's or IGA to us- except really expensive. It has some other restaurants and stores in it, but nothing special.

We got to wander for a little bit but had to be back to campus by 6 for a mandatory orientation. I really wasn't interested in "orienting" with anyone because I just wanted sleep at this point after being up nearly 36 hours. But after orientation, I found a second wind and some more of us went out walking again. I've met so many people that I couldn't even tell you who I was with when. After we just wandered around a little more to see what the area around campus had to offer, I came back to campus and believe I went into some sort of semi-comatose state around 11 but still didn't rest very well. Probably because my legs were hurting from walking 10+ miles and I was so jetlagged!

Another side note- sorry for any confusing text in this...  A European keyboard is entirely different than ours... £!

Flight and Arrival to London

First of all, sorry I haven't done this for so long! I'm sure you can all understand how insanely busy I've been the first weekend in London. So anyway, I'll do a couple pages about my first experiences in London. :)

I got all packed up (procrastination pack of course) and left the house Thursday morning (the 5th) around 10am. We got everything gathered up and headed toward Indy. We arrived at the Indy airport early around 1pm and I instantly met up with the faculty member going with the Indy group and got all checked in. We went through security without any issues except one of the TSA men got really angry with me because I didn't take my laptop out of my carryon to run it through the security check... oops! It was lots of anticipation and nerves until we boarded the plane around 3:30pm. It went smoothly and I was excited to have a window seat right on the wing. 

We got to Charlotte, NC around 5:50pm. We had a turn around at Charlotte, meaning I barely had enough time to get off the first plane let alone on the second one. I got all checked in for the Charlotte to Gatwick plane, boarded and headed out. The second plane was awesome!! It was huge and had little tv screens in the back of the seats. It also had little plugs in the arm rests of the seats for headphone and USB drives... so I could also play on my phone the whole time! Since it was a long, late flight we were served dinner on the plane. The dinner was quite comparable to prison food (not that I could rightfully compare) but I don't think anyone cared at that point. I had some sort of spicy spinach pasta and salad, which of course ended up in my lap when we hit turbulence.

Despite the food in my lap, I watched several episodes of Family Guy, Extreme Couponing, Glee, and a few movies while on the nearly 8 hour flight. I did, however, manage to make friends with an awesome Englishman sitting next to me named Andrew. He was telling me about his wife and kids because he said I reminded him of his wife 30 years ago. He also told me all about the city of London and what things we should or shouldn't do. So far I've taken his advice on what to check out and it's been awesome. A genuine Londoner knows the city best! He was genuinely harmless and funny.

I effortlessly tried to sleep on the plane but it did not happen. There was no way to get comfortable as expected, so I just gave up and watched tv all night. They also served "breakfast" on the plane... AKA: a random flavored muffin top that wouldn't even fill a chipmunk.We finally landed in Gatwick around 7:30am here, which would've been around 2:30am in Indiana. Of course I was tired and just ready to get to where we were going, but someone's luggage got stolen and we were waiting in the airport for nearly 3 hours trying to find it. I think it eventually got recovered because I haven't noticed any naked people walking around campus. I was waiting not so patiently to just get to the college and be done with the traveling. But then we had about a 2 hour coach ride from the airport to King's College. I was less than thrilled about this but hey- I survived it. We got all checked into our rooms around 11:30am and instantly went to lunch. That ends the flight and initial arrival craziness. :)