One tired cookie

I'll write more about Belgium later, but suffice it to say that it was a great weekend to one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. To keep you content until I'm able to write about the weekend, here is a link to my pictures. (Know that a lot of them are "artistic" type pictures I tried to take, so while they may seem boring right now, after a little enhancement, they will be amazing. :)).

I don't discriminate agianst any form of carbohydrate.

Off to Belgium for chocolate, beer, and waffles this weekend!

I'll be back with plenty of pictures and stories on Tuesday.

GGRRRRR sports cafe. You are not my friend.

Somehow someone in the Tulsa program got the hook-up with the British Olympic Committee and set up a meeting for people in my program to go and listen to the head legal council of the 2012 Olympics speak. The presentation basically gave us all the background on the different committees/ organizations that are working together to put on the games in London in 2012. This included discussing everything from the Olympians themselves, to copyright infringement/ brand protection, to acquiring the land and getting all the buildings built in time. I know that probably doesn't sound too interesting to all the non-lawyer folk, but for us nerds, it really was. We also got information about how a city puts in a bid to get the Olympics and got to watch a video about the London process. The Olympic spirit is really amazing...I could feel it through all the videos... and I hope that they are able to recreate the spirit from the video when the 2012 actually rolls around. I don't have any pictures b/c 1) there wasn't that much to see (we didn't get to tour anything...just sat and listened to presentations) and 2) we weren't allowed to take pictures of the building where LOCOG is located...it's top secret. SHHHHH.

Tonight, however, was not nearly as fun as the Olympic thing. We FINALLY made it back to the Sports Cafe for wings. But this time, it was awful. No one actually got the flavor of wings they ordered, the service was awful, and the wings were cold. They told people in my group that there were no more bottles of a certain kind of beer to be had anywhere in the building, only to see them bringing more not less than 5 minutes later. The worst part was this: my favorite drink at home is diet coke with a flavor shot of grenadine in it, so I ask for that here. Well, apparently grenadine here is a liquour, and so they not only charged me £1.95 for the coke (keep in mind, that's $4), they charged me for the grenadine as well. And they decided the nice fair price for that shot of what is apparently alcohol (but tasted just like at home) is £3.10. Yes, my one glass of pop cost me $10. I don't think I've been so pissed off...ever. I tried to talk to the manager about it, and well, lets just say I don't have any nice adjectives to describe him. Because of that I had to come home, sit down, and cool off. I'm just now going to bed (12:30 a.m.), when I should have been there an hour ago. GGRRRRR sports cafe. You ar enot my friend.

Show me those pearly whites!

New Photos!!!!

Day Trips (including the latest from Oxford and Blenheim)

Around London (Notting Hill Market and stuff with Kristen)

Everything else should be contained in the "London Photos" link to the left. (I had to start sending you facebook links b/c I ran out of free space in my picassa web album. That means you have to look through multiple albums if you want to see the pictures, but I suppose that's just the way it goes sometimes. :)).

How long does it take to decide where to go for a weekend trip? Us: nearly 12 hours...

I can tell that I am finally feeling settled and comfortable here in London....rather than having to tell myself that the days have been good, they just actually are. A large part of that (I think) is founding a good friend in a girl in my program named Val. Yesterday was her birthday, so we did a bunch of random fun stuff to try and make it special over here. She's been looking for a coat, so we spend the first part of the afternoon doing that (she found one! Woo hoo!). After that, we made our way out to Kew to go and see the botanical gardens there. Unfortunately we got there when there was only an hour left for it to be open, and it cost something like £13 to get in. So, we walked around the town a little bit and then headed back home. The town was absolutely charming...although technically still in London, it felt nothing like the city. There was an inner peace discernible from every corner of the town and I would definitely chose to live in that part of London.

We got back from Kew and Val's roommates had cooked up a tremendous Italian dinner for her. It was spectacular and delicious; a feast for both the eye and the palate. After that cake, and then to a sports bar to watch the Colts/Broncos game. It was just a really great day with really great people and was really a lot of fun.

On our way to Kew, we found out a water main broke outside of our apartment. It actually flooded a bit of the girls' room in the bottom flat, and ultimately caused our water to be shut off. Val's roommates actually made the entire meal w/o running water, substituting bottled water from the store where necessary (which makes the feast all the more impressive). We didn't know when it was going to come back on, so I took my toothbrush to the bar where we watched the game (and went the bathroom about a hundred times...I just didn't know when we were going to have water!). Fortunately it was back on this morning, so no more worries. :)

That's all I have for now except for two things: 1) church yesterday was amazing. I loved it. It was at the simple little church near my house, but they did it up right with an amazing organ, a children's choir, traditional hymns and lots of lovin' for the big guy. 2) My friend Andrew and I are going to Brussels this weekend. I had a minor freak out last night/ this morning realizing that there are only so many weekends left here and I haven't really taken advantage of the travel mecca that London is. So, I had a moment with a spreadsheet and a few search engines to figure out where to go and when, and here we are! Woo hoo to a weekend of chocolate and waffles. :)

Oh chocolate gelato day...you make my world.

Well, I have a new favorite museum type place in London: the National Portrait Gallery. It's really not as boring as it sounds. The museum, the building which is art itself, contains painted portraits from queens and kings from hundreds of years ago to photographs of today's royalty...both real and celebrity. The oil portraits are cool because so many spectacular artists do a fantastic job of really making the oil paintings look real. I love the photographs because good photographers can really capture the essence of a person and reproduce them on a sheet of paper. I didn't get through the whole museum, but that just means I get to go back. Plus, there is a new Andy Warhol exhibit that is going to open next week that I want to see. (You're not supposed to take pictures in the gallery, but I got this one before they yelled at me. I like it b/c you can see Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles, and me all in one shot. Who knew that would ever happen!?)

The museum was yesterday, and today was a day trip with the Tulsa program to Oxford and Blenheim Palace. We stopped at Oxford first and toured one of the 36 (I think) colleges: Christ's Church. I've visited Oxford before, and ironically enough, Christ's Church. The last time I was there, it was before the Harry Potter movies came out, but after I had read the first couple of books. The way the dining hall was set up made me imagine that if Hogwarts was a real place, that's what it would look like. Come to find out, the sorting hat scenes from the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone movie were actually filled in that room. :) After walking briefly through the college, we had some time for lunch. I have a minor obsession with C.S. Lewis and while he was a professor at oxford, he and J.R.R. Tolkien and several others met at a pub called "The Eagle and Child" to philosophize and discuss things. Because of this minor obsession, we had to go there. :) It ended up being cheap enough and quiet enough where we got to eat there as well. It was lots of fun.

Our last stop of the day was to Blenheim Palace. This is the only palace that doesn't/ didn't originally belong to a Queen or King of England (no one other than the royal family is allowed to have palaces, but they made an exception for this one). It was given to the Duke of Marlborough (formerly John Churchill) in the early 1700s and has been in his family ever since. Today we learned that Winston Churchill's uncle and cousin were Dukes in this line. Princess Diana is also a member of the Churchill line. (Someone Churchill somewhere married a Spencer from which Diana came). I've seen quite a few palaces since I"ve been here, so I wasn't all that excited about going to this one, but I was proven wrong. It is a spectacular palace with even more spectacular gardens....a great end to a great day. (P.S. that's my new coat!!)

I just really don't like when Clark wears that maroon jacket!

Yesterday we got to tour Parliament. Apparently it was originally a palace, so its decorated ornately in accordance with that. They took us through all the different houses where the laws of the UK are made and told us all about the idiosyncrasies of the Parliament. For instance, the way they count their votes. Rather than standing up and voicing "yea" or "nay," each member of the House of Commons (the house made up of elected officials similar to our House of Representatives) must go into a chamber and physically be counted. They only have 8 minutes to get to the chamber, and the time begins when a bell starts ringing. If they aren't there at the time the bell stops, the are locked out and their vote doesn't count. They also have some crazy traditions in their interactions with the House of Lords (the appointed by the queen and of more financially affluent) and their "disgust" for the other side. All in all, the tour was okay..not that informative or interesting (even with me being a nerdy law student). The saddest part...we weren't allowed to take pictures at the really beautiful parts. I did get some at the beginning and the end, so that's what you see here.

Other than that, not a whole lot exciting. Tried Chinese food for the first time here last night. Pretty good. However, in the process of walking to and from the restaurant, I decided I absoltuely needed to get a coat. It is just too cold...and it's going to get colder...so my worn-out dirty North Face fleece won't do anymore. (Side note...I have a nice coat at home that I was planning on bringing. I even wrote myself notes so I would remember it. but of course, I forgot it anyway.) So, today I went coat shopping. After literally about 3 hours and trying on about 50 different coats, I stopped in one last store and of course, I finally find a coat there. It's blue with a pretty English collar. I'm sure you'll see it in pictures here soon, but I'm very excited
to have it and feel very good about what I paid and the coat I got for my dollar. The end. :)


UPDATE: I found a picture of my coat online. And pay no attention to the price...I got a discount! WOO HOO!! Here you go! Emily's sweet new coat.