Home ---to the place where I belong (?)

This will be my last official post. I made it back safely to the states last Saturday, and I apologize for not updating sooner to just let you know I was home. The trip went smoothly and although I didn't get back to Iowa as planned, I have amazing friends who have I didn't realize I missed so much until I saw them again.

It's nice to be back, but it is taking a little bit of adjustment to get used to things here. I've tried to walk in the left side of doorways, or pass people on the left. Going to Target--something I used to love-- was quite painful for me on Monday for reasons I can't really explain, (in fact, the more i go on, writing this blog entry is very hard) so being back in the states will take some getting used to. Fortunately I have a lot of friends who studied abroad who understand and can help me through this period.

I'll always want to reminisce about London, so if you ever make a trip over there and need suggestions of things to do, drop me a line and I'll do my best to help you out.

Cheers, London....

You can't stop the beat

As it's getting closer to the time to go home, I find it harder and harder to tear myself away from London. It really is the most fantastic city in the whole world. I can't believe I was lucky enough to be here for four months, and I can't believe it's time to go home already. I feel I'm literally going to have to rip my heart away from here...the ride home is going to be great, but tough.

Hairspray was great. I didn't think the actors were all that amazing, but the story and the music itself are just wonderful, so I can't complain. The tree lighting was fun...kind of anti-climactic (and if you think about it, how dramatic can flipping a switch on really be?), but they had the Salvation Army band there who played Christmas carols and everyone sang along. It was great. I didn't get to stand by my friends during the lighting b/c I got there so late after Hairspray, but we met up afterwards for a nice dinner in a cozy little Italian restaurant where the pesto was fantastic.

It's the first day in a while that I've woken up and it hasn't been raining, so I'm going to go running and say goodbye to my beloved Russell Square jogging path. Hopefully after that I'm going to make it over to the Tate to see the giant crack that runs the floor in there (I'll explain later), meet up with Andrew for lunch, do whatever with Val (probably shopping), dinner with the roommates, and out with everyone for the evening.

The car comes for me at 7:30 tomorrow morning, so it's quite possible I won't update anymore until I'm back in the states. But, as my previous post reveals, that may take a while. Please pray I don't get stuck in Philly...that would be a terrible end to a fantastic couple of months. But, pending everything goes as planned, I'll arrive in Kansas City at 9:04 p.m. Central standard time on Saturday night.

Adventures in London: Hopefully. Adventures in the Philadelphia airport: Hopefully Not.

Apparently there is a really large snow/ice storm system brewing and set to land upon Kansas City and Des Moines on Saturday. And not only is supposed to snow/sleet/ice/rain on Saturday, but for Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, too. That means I could be stuck in the Philadelphia airport, and stuck there for 5 days. And think about it...by the time a 5 DAY system moves out of the mid-west, it will hit Philly, and I may be stuck there not because the conditions at home are bad, but b/c we're unable to take off from Philly. Not only would I be unable to go home, I'd miss several things in Lawrence I really needed to be back for. I called USAir to see if I could change my flight to tomorrow and possibly avoid all this. On top of the $200 change fee, they want to charge me $800 to change my flight. I looked online at a new ticket...and it only costs $440. Another thing to put that ridiculous charge in perspective-- my round trip ticket from KCI to London and back again only cost $750...including travel insurance. They wanted to charge me $1,000 to change a flight I already had. Ridiculous.

Sara left me a comment about having adventures in London my last few days here...and I'm certainly going to make the most of it. I just hope those adventures come in terms of sleeping on an airport floor for a long time.

T-minus 3 days

Finals are done! yippiee!! I 'm not sure I've EVER been so exhausted. I studied my little patooty off so that hopefully all my grades will be good and will demonstrate that since I worked hard and earned "As"(hopefully) while studying abroad, I will definitely work hard for YOU! (Want to hire me?)

Now that I"m done it means I have TWO days in London without anything hanging over my shoulders. It's wonderful. Tomorrow we got cheap tickets to the matinée showing of "Hairspray". It just opened in London about a month and a half ago, so it's really fun to see the original cast. Then tomorrow evening, they light the tree in Trafalgar Square! This is again an equivalent of lighting the tree at Rockefeller Center, but unlike the Oxford Street lights, there will actually be a (real) tree there. I'm not sure what Friday will bring, but hopefully a lot of goodness and excitement for my last day here.

It's only 9 p.m., but I'm so tired, I'm headed to bed. Cheers!

Almost.....there.....!

2 finals down....2 to go. The hardest one is in the morning. Say a prayer for me...I'm gonna need it.

Things I'm gonna miss...

I've been thinking about the things I'm going to miss in London, the things I definitely will NOT miss, and the things I"m looking forward to at home. By no means is this an all inclusive list...I know there are many things (some probably obvious, some probably important) that I've forgot to put on here. But here it is for now.

And oh, in case you're wondering how I spent my last Saturday night in London, I was studying at school until 1:30 a.m. PARTY ANIMAL!!!

Without further ado....


Things I'm gonna miss about London:
Walking so many places
culture
the feel of the city
night life
shows
walking past the British museum
hanging out with Val
Hanging out with Andrew
People talking in British accents
Being able to travel places for cheap
Running in Russell Square
Bad British Television commercials
the tube
The people that try and attack you with free newspapers
Being able to take the tube and ending up in front of the world's greatest pieces of architecture

Things I'm not gonna miss:
Toilets you have to pump to flush
Getting bumped into all the time
Paying double for everything
My bed that has springs sticking out from the mattress

Looking forward to:
Family
Friends
St. Lawrence Center
Having my own space
Mexican Food
KU Basketball
Text messaging
Singing in my car
Only paying $3.50 for a latte (instead of $7)
Applebees, El Mez, and the Mad Greek
Wings w/ Matt
Nodding my head in disbelief at other Matt
Hugs from my family and friends
Snow
My roommates
The REC center
Watching movies on the couch
Grocery Carts

It's so hard to say goodbye

It's been an eventful 24 hours. Last night, the Tulsa program held a "farewell party" for all of the people in our program. Because we were taking a group picture, everyone came looking nice (with the exception of those of us who are in the Human Rights class and were working on our papers all day), and we celebrated the end of our journey here in London with food and wine. We had a similar reception at the beginning of the program, and it's so interesting to see how things have changed and evolved since then. I'm at the point where I really like the people who are in my program; i feel they finally accept me for who I am, know my boundaries, and are okay with that. I love them equally as much, and it's hard to say goodbye to that when it's taken so long to get comfortable. But that's the way life goes, I suppose.

I hadn't planned on going out last night, but somehow it just happened; it's my last weekend in London and despite the fact that I have 4 finals in 3 days next week, I felt it was something I needed to do. Stacy, Jen D., Val, and I ended up going out to that same Hawaiian type bar that Val and I met my friend Simi at before going to Malta. It was a great time, and it was nice to have a small group of just girls. Many of you know that I'm not a very "girlie" person-- I've just never been in to or felt comfortable with that. But being here has changed that, both because of the people I've met, and because of the people I miss. Don't worry, I'm not ridiculously girlie (I'm not sure I could EVER get there), but it's a little different from before. I think it's where I'm supposed to be.

Anyway, this morning (after only about 4 hours of sleep), I got up and met up with Val, Melissa, Anna, and Nick to go ice skating at a rink that sits inside the moat of the Tower of London. We were the first group of the morning, so it wasn't jam packed (which was oober nice), and it was just blissful. It was a cool crisp morning, but not too cold. I was with my friends, skating (and not falling down) in front of one of the world's most historical structures, with Christmas music playing, and in the best city in the whole wide world. I could not have been more peaceful, nor any happier.

Since I hadn't been actually inside the Tower this visit, I did that after skating. The Beefeaters (the Tower's security guards and queen's official body guards) give free tours, and I took that. Because I needed to get back home and start studying, I gave a cursory glance at the armor of King Henry VIII (who I despise, by the way), and at the worlds largest solitaire diamond in the crown jewels. But it was just incredible.

It's getting close to the end of my time here; this time next week I'll be back in the states (barely), but I'm getting sappy and sentimental because of it. I'm so lucky to have come here. Thank you to all of you who someway made this possible-- from my friends who always knew that this would be good for me, to my parents who supported me regardless of how crazy this decision was, my roommates for accommodating me, and everyone else who has said prayers or well wishes. I appreciate it more than you could possibly know.

Don't stop reading-- that above paragraph isn't a goodbye wish, just a recognition of how incredibly blessed I am. I'll write more in the next day or so. Until then, I've updated my pictures from last night and today. They're again in the "These are the times to remember album..." Enjoy.

I said "Burr!" It's cold in here!

Last night Val and I ventured to the Absolut Ice Bar. Apparently it's one of just 6 ice bars around the world. Some of our friends had gone there earlier in the semester, but we weren't able to go for one reason or another and wanted to go, so we made it happen last night. When I say 'ice bar', I mean that you go into basically a large freezer that they keep at -10 degrees. Inside they have benches (covered in fur to make it warm enough to sit on) and walls sculpted out of ice. They tried to inspire warm thoughts by putting an graphic of a fireplace behind another thing of ice. Before you go in, they give you capes and gloves to wear inside to keep warm. But even then, with a sweater and my regular coat on underneath the cape, it was still pretty cold. Your cover charge includes one drink that they give to you in a glass that is completely made of ice. So cool.(ha ha...no pun intended.) Your ticket allows you inside for 40 minutes which although not all that long, is long enough. It was a lot of fun and a nice study break. There are a couple of pictures here, but check out the "These are the times to remember..." album for more pictures.

Walk like an Egyptian

Last night Val and I went to the King Tutt exhibit at the O2. The O2 is a very large and very cool venue that hosts concerts, has lots of restaurants, has a movie theater, and a skating rink inside; think Mall of America style minus the shops. Anyway, because we took a detour to get tickets for ice skating on Saturday, we were an hour late, but they let us in anyway. It was really cool to see all the artifacts found cleaned up and so in-tact after 3200 years. They showcased a chair from before King Tutt's time that still had the original weaving for the seat. It's incredible to think that something that old is still in tact. But, we walked through all these exhibits, and the mummy of King Tutt was no where to be found! Not only was he absent, but his sarcophagi wasn't there (there were 7!), and none of his wrappings or anything. There were some artifacts of things found with him (right next to him), but he wasn't there. So while it was a fun exhibit, I'm not sure it's worth the price we paid to go without Tutt. Dang. Oh well. Only 10 days left in London.

Just my luck

I took a study break last night to go and watch a replay of the KU v. AZ basketball game. It was initially played on Sunday, but because the owner of the restaurant is a KU grad (yes, here in London!), he shows as many games as possible...even if they aren't live. I"m not a huge fan of watching re-broadcast games, I didn't know the outcome, Nick did and said it was a good one, so I went to watch. He was right...it was a fantastic game. Seeing the shots of Lawrence in the opening scenes made me very excited to get him and be in the midst of all the craziness again. And then Brandon Rush's last second shot that almost won us the game was amazing. But coinciding with my luck on finding out the winner of the football game just before it started, the power (or some of the power, really) went out in the restaurant with 2 minutes left in overtime and I missed the victory. Bah.

Still bleeding crimson and blue

I was so close. I woke up, avoided checking my e-mail, facebook, didn't receive any text messages, no one told me the score, I didn't get on the internet. I made it all the way to Bodean's to watch the game, made sure they were going to show the game before ordering, and found out 5 minutes before it started that KU lost. Nick (the other guy from KU in my program) persevered through the whole game despite knowing the outcome. We didn't play awful...we just weren't at the top of our game. Regardless, here's to the men in crimson and blue who have taught the University of Kansas community that there is more to life than basketball. :)

Tigers are an endagered species; extinction starts today.

The biggest game in college football, and the biggest game in University of Kansas Football history, starts in about 5 hours. (For those of you who don't know, it's Kansas v. Missouri.) Not only is this going to be an epic battle between teams with a historic divide, it's a battle for the national championship. We're number 2, they're number 4. If the winner of this game goes on to win the Big 12 Championship next weekend, they will most likely end up with a spot at the big dance in New Orleans in January. And I'm missing it. :/

They are actually showing the game here in London, but because it doesn't start until 1 a.m. my time, I'm going to have to wait for a replay at 12:30 tomorrow afternoon. That means, come about 2 a.m. my time (8 p.m. for most of you), I will not be available because I do not want to know the outcome of the game until I can watch it for myself. If anyone tells me, I will drop kick them into next week. Until then, I'm going to try and quell my excitement for this game by working on my human rights paper. What a crazy Saturday night....

Smile for the birdy!

I posted a new album on facebook. The link is on the right: "These are the times to remember 'cause they will not last forever" So far it includes pictures from Thanksgiving and the Jamie Cullum concert.

Slap me silly and call me Naomi!

Thanksgiving in the UK wasn't nearly as bad or as hard as I thought it was going to be. Since Americans are the only ones celebrating it, it is actually entirely possible to go through the whole day not knowing it's Thanksgiving--- life just keeps going. But since we didn't have school, it wasn't entirely possible for me. Thanksgiving day mass is my FAVORITE, so to have that feel, I got up and went to mass at Westminster Cathedral (note: This is the same place where I got off the wrong tube stop and had to walk 45 minutes way back in September. I was smarter this time and was there plenty early and in an efficient manner.) After mass, I sat and read a couple chapters of a book in a Starbucks, and then came back home and did a lot of work on my human rights final paper (VERY close to being done, by the way). I received an e-mail saying that this event called "Sparkling Thursdays" was going on a department store, so my friend Melissa and I decided to check it out. They were supposed to be having quite a few give aways and have other beauty related events, but we got there and no one really knew what was going on. Some of the make-up counters were giving away glasses of champagne, and one we stopped at and let them do our make up had sweets, so all in all, it wasn't a bad trip. (The pic is Melissa with her "new" make-up.) Just not quite what we were expecting. We ended the day by meeting up with two other people from our program to watch football and eat BBQ, something I thought was quite appropriate for Thanksgiving. I also was able to video chat with my family. They weren't actually able to see me, but I could see them and we could all talk. I think knowing that was coming and actually having it happen made being away from home bearable.

Today consisted mostly of working on that paper, but culminated with the fulfillment of one of my London goals: seeing Jamie Cullum in concert. Who is Jamie Cullum, you ask? Well, he's this amazing jazz/pop/rock pianist singer guy from England. I became acquainted with him because my roommate Andrea let me borrow a bunch of her music when my computer crashed 1L year. His music sat on my computer until last year when it somehow found its way on to my iPod and, in a glorious twist of fate, ended up playing while I was shuffling through all my songs. Since then, I've been hooked. I could probably sing you every word to most of his songs, and many of my days are spent humming his melodies. I like his music for a variety of reasons. It's in large part due to his amazing piano skills. Another element is his singing voice-- a cross between Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and some other more modern artist I can't really put my finger on; it has the scratchiness that usually only comes after years of singing and smoking and drinking a lot, but the youthfulness to really connect. The third reason is that so many of his original songs have really thoughtful lyrics ("Romanticizing London Skies" comes from one of his songs.) Both my roommates from home and my roommates here and London can attest to how much I have commented on(and tried to get them to share in) his music.

Anyway, I've been trying to get to see him since I came to London. He played the night before we left for Ireland, and since we were leaving at 3 a.m., and no one wanted to go with me, I missed out on that opportunity. Then he played at a free concert in October, but I was unlucky, and despite my calling and logging on to get tickets the moment they went on sale, I missed out. I saw that he was playing at this show tonight, but initially thought I would miss him because of my Thanksgiving break trip plans. When those changed, I seized the opportunity.

I have to admit that this wasn't really a Jamie Cullum concert; he took (an unusual) supporting role in this concert that really belonged to the guy he plays bass with (Geoff Gascoyne). But Jamie was featured on both piano and vocals and it was absolutely amazing. (Melissa went with me to the concert, too. This is her and I there.) He is a lot of fun to watch-- he gets really into it and sometimes you can hear him "tapping" his foot above all the other music. (That fact made it impossible to get a good, clear picture of him playing the piano with the crappy little camera I have.) I can't imagine what In fact, it's probably a good thing he didn't sing more, because I would have completely melted and would now exist only as a puddle on the Cadogan Hall floor. We had amazing seats (we were so close that I could read "Steinway and Sons" on the piano, and see the reflection of his hands on the backside of the keyboard.) It was also really nice to hear some good jazz from good musicians, and re-open my eyes to that genre. All in all...pretty darn tootin fantastic.

The funny thing is, I don't find Jamie physically attractive -- it's solely his musicianship. The lack of attraction predominately comes from knowing that he's 5'3" and me being 5'10" doesn't really work (although last I knew he was dating a supermodel who was about my height...). I also make a point not to get caught up in the lives of and obsessed with celebrities; its really not necessary for me to know what's going on with them, and often they glorify lifestyles and make choices with which I 100% do not agree. Plus, they are just people. But something about this music has completely circumvented every resistance I have to that.

I think my "Ode to Jamie" is sufficiently long. Seriously, do yourself a favor and get some of his music. "All at Sea", "Mind Trick", "Photograph", "Next Year, Baby", "Frontin'" and "What a Difference a Day Made" (from the Live at Ronnie Scott's Album) are my top picks.

Thanksgiving

"It being the indispensable duty of all nations, not only to offer up their supplications to Almighty God, the giver of all good, for his gracious assistance in a time of distress, but also in a solemn and public manner to give him praise for his goodness in general, and especially for great and signal interpositions of his Providence in their behalf; therefore the United States in Congress assembled, taking into their consideration the many instances of divine goodness to these States, in the course of the important conflict in which they have been so long engaged…do hereby recommend it to the inhabitants of these States in general, to observe, and request the several States to interpose their authority in appointing and commanding the observation of Thursday, the twenty-eighth day of November next, as a day of solemn thanksgiving to God for all his mercies; and they do further recommend to all ranks and testify their gratitude of God for his goodness, by a cheerful obedience to his laws, and by protecting, each in his station, and by his influence, the practice of true and undefiled religion, which is the great foundation of public prosperity and national happiness."

Thanksgiving Day Proclamation of October 11, 1782, 23:647. The Journals of the Continental Congress 1774-1789, ed. Worthington C. Ford, Gaillard Hunt, et. al., (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1904-1937.

Happy BirthdayThanksChristmas!

Last night, in an effort to bring Thanksgiving to London, our program coordinator (Val- not to be confused with friend Val. In this post, I'll say "friend Val" if that is who I am referring to. Otherwise assume Val program coordinator.) set up a Turkey dinner for us at a local pub. Despite my hesitations, it was wonderful. Val hung Thanksgiving decorations all around the room for us, decorated the tables with birthday confetti, and bought British holiday poppers for all of us. The British holiday poppers are kind of like tug of war type things: it's a tube covered with foil wrapping. One person gets on either side of the tube and pulls, and just like with a wishbone, the person with the majority of the tube after it separates gets the prizes inside! The prizes consist of very valuable gems such as a mini stencil, a joke, and a paper crown. If you weren't lucky enough to get a stencil, you might have gotten a spider ring or a fake mustache. (My joke was very clever. Q: What athlete at the winter games stays the warmest? A: The long jumper!! -- A jumper is a sweater in England.)

Then it was time for the food, and we had a feast. There was turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, corn, salad, bread, AND pumpkin pie. After dinner, we had a raffle drawing, and one of our professors who does stand up comedy on the side did part of her act for us. Several of us were still feeling festive after the dinner officially ended, so we went out to a club in Piccadilly. I had fairly low expectations about all of this thanksgiving hullabaloo, but I don't think it could have gotten much closer to home...it was really wonderful.

Most everyone else is off on Thanksgiving trips starting tonight or tomorrow. I'll be here working on my human rights paper (hopefully finishing it) and studying some other subjects. I don't really have a whole lot planned for this weekend simply because I don't have anyone to do things with: people have either scampered off to different places around the world, or those that are here have friends coming in. But I'll make due...and hopefully get to see some other things in London I haven't done yet. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Torn

Last night I went to Shepard's Bush, a borough of London just outside the center, to have dinner and go see a movie with some of the people in my program. (We saw "American Gangster" with Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. If you like mobster movies, this one is very good.) A couple of the girls live out there and always come in to central London to hang out, so it was time to go out there for once. Many of us also have some weird gloomy feeling, so while Spiderman was calling me from the comfort of my couch, it was necessary to get out.

I, too, am experiencing some of that gloominess. Some of it comes from this being Thanksgiving week, not being home with family, and having so much to do. (That one is pretty universal, I think.) I know others are struggling with missing boyfriends and girlfriends (not applicable to me), and some are just down because of the weather (we are experiencing the stereotypical dark, damp, gray London rainy skies and it's supposed to remain that way all week.) I know part of my gloominess is being completely excited to come home and see all my family and friends, and a complete and utter desire to hang on to this city I love so much. I love everything (well, almost everything) about London, and if I were English and my family lived in England or continental Europe and my friends were relatively close, I'd move here in an instant. There is always so much to do and see, there is history, culture, pop-culture, counter-culture, and life. But there is also something to be said for the much simpler life that Kansas and Iowa provide. There is also a LOT to be said for the people that I love and miss so much. I think part of my wanting to "stay" is also because I know that returning means the real world is calling me very soon. And although I'm happy to be done with the education portion of my life, I'm not all that excited to enter the other part. I know I don't really have a choice, but it still makes me nervous.

I'm going to do as much as I can in the next few weeks to have loads of fun, and still get everything done. You'll probably see a few more posts like these that aren't really insights about London, but more about the study abroad transitional experience.

Being a little bit impulsive

So, I've taken an unintended break from studying the past couple days (okay, really just a day and a half) to do some London-y things. The first of which was last night..I met up with Andrew for a drink at a fun little pub, and then went over to a party on a London rooftop. One of the guys in my program (Conor) has a friend that is works over here from the states (Ryan). We've met Ryan on several occasions, and last night he invited us all over to his sweet flat to enjoy the London skyline. It was loads of fun; Ryan's brother was visiting, so we got to meet him and some of his friends. There also a few Brits there, so it was fun to interact with them. The other people at the party provided a nice break; I love all the people in my program, but we've been with them, and basically solely them for the past 4 months. It was nice to shake things up a bit with a few new personalities. Despite the bus ride home with some creepy guys trying to take pictures of Val and I, it was a good evening.

This morning Val and I went a took a tour of one of the 7 great cemeteries around London. It may sound morbid, but this was actually really cool. The cemetery from the 1830s, and was everything I think an old cemetery would be. It had huge, elaborate headstones, with engravings dedicated to the people who had passed. The trees and ivy swept in and out of every crevice, the the changing fall leaves provided some beautiful background scenery. Today is also pretty dreary-- no sun and a little bit drizzly-- so all in all it made for a perfect visit. I know some of you probably think I'm a bit crazy, but honestly, it was really cool.

I don't know whats' on the agenda for tonight, so the only other thing I have to report is that Thanksgiving plans have changed substantially. Althouhgh my classes are only pass/fail, (meaning any grade I receive doesn't factor into my GPA) I'm pretty sure that the grades themselves still show up as "A", "B" or (hopefully not) "C". That being said, I have a lot to do and a lot to start understanding before finals come in two weeks. So instead of traveling to Prague, Vienna, and Salzburg, I'm staying here, and I'm happy with that. Not only do I have a lot to do, I'm pretty tired, so not traveling is okay. This also means that I'll get to (hopefully) watch the KU/Mizzou game in some fashion or another. And the thing that makes it 100% okay is that my all time favorite musician -- Jamie Cullum--is playing in London on Friday night. I've been trying to see him all semester, and now because plans changed, I'm able to. I cannot contain my excitement!!!!!! So, Thanksgiving will be quiet, and probably a little bit lonely, but that's okay. :)

On a sad, but happy note, I fly home 3 weeks from today. Holy cow has this gone fast.

Bright lights, Big City

Last night, I took a break from my regular nightly ritual of studying to be a photo nerd and wandered around taking pictures of London at night with Andrew. There were a lot of factors going against getting really good pictures: the freezing cold (that prevented our hands from being out of gloves for more than a minute or two), not having a tripod to stabilize the camera, and most predominately the fact that both of our cameras are simple point and shoot contraptions that really aren't designed to take the take the type of pictures we wanted. Nevertheless, I got a couple good ones that I've posted below.

Call me!

So, I just set up this new fun thing where you can call a phone number and leave me a voice mail that I can listen to from my computer. I would love to hear all of your shining voices. The number is 651-780-7850. Woot.

Today was a catch up day from being gone for the weekend, and then studying again. Wow..exciting.

All of my Malta pictures are now posted. You again have two options-- pick whatever suits your fancy for the day! :)

They are prostitutes whose boats have holes in them, and don't have life jackets!

Okay…Malta! Val and I flew into Malta and finally arrived at our hotel at around 11 p.m. that night. It was late and we hadn’t eaten yet, so we immediately went to found food. The nearest place we could find was an American Sports Bar and Grill. We ate, drank, and had a jolly old time, and that should be the end of the story. However, at this restaurant, we noticed the beginning of something that consistently happened throughout the trip: people were looking at us funny. We were obviously not Maltese- neither of us have the beautiful olive skin and although our hair is brown, it’s not nearly the color that the Maltese women have. But we at least look European, and although Americans don’t visit Malta all that often, there were loads of Europeans there. We never quite figured out why they all looked at us a little funny (and yes, we checked out all the usual suspects: something in the teeth, smelling bad, dressing funny, etc. and none of those were the culprits), but the extreme double take the man serving us at the restaurant did that night was reminiscent of those only seen in the movies.

Before Val and I left, we met up with a friend of my friend from KU who is Maltese. She filled us in on things to do and places to make sure we see, which was so wonderful. Saturday we pretty much followed her advice to a tee. We started in Valletta, the Maltese capital. There we visited the church of the Knights of St. John the Baptist, toured Casa Rocca Piccola (the house of a noble Maltese family that is about 400 years old), walked through the grandmaster’s palace, and saw the Malta Experience. The Malta Experience was an hour long documentary about the history of Malta. Since neither Val or I really knew anything about the country before we visited (except that it was the only place in Europe you’re able to visit and still sit on the beach in November), this was a great thing. To sum it up, up Malta has been occupied by everyone from the Romans, the Turks, the Arabs, the French, and the English. The really cool thing is that nearly all of these occupations are reflected in the Maltese language, housing, and the rest of the culture. They only gained their independence from Britain in 1964 (I think). This was beneficial for us because while they have a language, most everyone is at least bi-lingual and speaks English. :)

After Valletta (but later that same day), we made our way to Mdina. Mdina used to the capital of Malta, but I’m not quite sure when that changed. Mdina is also the highest point on the island of Malta (the country of Malta actually consists of four islands), so it provided some pretty great views. In Mdina, and it’s neighboring city Rabat, we visited some catacombs, went through an exhibit about the Mdina Dungeons, and enjoyed a slice of delicious cake at a tea garden. Malta is a country that is at least 90% Catholic, and contains 365 Catholic churches, so there really is no excuse for me missing mass. So, I again asked one of my non-catholic friends to sit through a mass that ended up being in a language they didn’t understand (Andrew in Belgium and Val here). We were exhausted from that incredibly busy day, and had another one planned for Sunday, so after we got back to our hotel (and finding pizza to fulfill a craving we had both had for about 48 hours), we crashed.

The plan for Sunday was to get up and go and visit another Maltese island: Gozo. However, when we got to the place we were told we could take the ferry there, we found out we actually missed the ferry. In the alternative (after being practically manhandled by competing companies that aggressively approached you for their business) we took a tour of all the harbors around Malta and got to see the country from the sea. Malta is tiny, so we could get to most any of the cities on the main island by bus and within an hour. Because of that, we made our way to the town of Marsascala that afternoon. There really wasn’t a whole lot to do in Marsacala, but we found a cool little spot where we could wander kind by the ocean and take pictures.

Since Gozo didn’t happy Sunday, we made it happen yesterday. After a bumpy start, we met our tour guide who took us up to the ferry and we made our way across a very bumpy sea. I don’t know the names of a lot of the places we visited, but suffice it to say that it was beautiful…I recommend you look at my pictures (after I upload them later on). There was, however, one place I want to point out….since the Maltese are so devoutly Catholic, they have statutes and references to the bible and Jesus and Mary everywhere (literally, everywhere). One of our stops today we just outside of a site with life-size marble figures of the stations of the cross. The path led up a hill and ends on top of a huge plateau. I only had time to get a shot of the first station but I can only imagine what it’s like at Easter time. Since the waves were so rough, it created for some awesome rock crashing pictures. The sea was an incredible color blue and the temperature was just about perfect. There was quite a heinous wind, and my hair in all the pictures reflects that, but for the most part, I’m not going to complain. That Gozo tour took all day, and since our flight left at 9:25, we had to quickly make our way to the airport.

Malta was a great place and I recommend it to anyone who wants to go. Be ready for public transportation out of the 1960s and to receive some funny looks, but all and all, it was great. It wasn’t NEARLY as warm as we hoped…in fact I wore a fleece, jacket and scarf most of the time, but it was certainly better than London this time of year.

Checking in!

Hello from Malta. It's awesome. That is all. More when I return home on Tuesday. :)

P.S. ROCK CHALK!!!! 10-0!

Time flies when you're having fun

Yesterday marked the one month mark until I come home. Who knew this semester would go so fast? I'm looking forward to coming home for a lot of reasons, but I will also be very sad to leave the UK.

I'm going to Malta for the weekend. Should be fun. :)

Chestnuts that have been roasted on an open fire aren't really that good.

Rock, Chalk, and some lights

Okay! So...Bath and Stonehenge. Truth be told, it wasn't all that exciting, but I'm glad I went. Stonehenge was our first stop and basically you get out and walk in a path around the stones and that's it. The stones are cool and it's interesting to think how pre-historic people put them together in the formations that they are and marvel at how they actually did so, but other than that, there's not a whole lot goin' on there. I was surprised, however, at the size of the stones. For some reason, had it in my mind that they were only waist high. (I think that idea came from this game I used to play as a kid called "World Wizard." One of the challenges was to match the world's most famous sites with their proper names. Stonehenge was on there, and the picture was really small-- as of course it had to be-- but somehow from that I got that Stonehenge itself was small.) Anyway, whoope-dee-doo. Rocks in formation....at least marching bands change formation. :)

Then it was on to Bath. We really didn't have a whole lot of time there and the majority of it was spent exploring the Roman Baths. Those were also interesting to see and marvel at how they were used. Some of the methods they used are still in place today in modern plumbing and many of the springs they used to fill their baths still flow; one spring in particular gives something like 6 million gallons of water a day! Like I said we didn't have a lot of time in the town of Bath itself; after touring the Baths we ate lunch and it was basically time to go. I would like to go back...it's an incredibly charming and beautiful city...but time is running out. Maybe someday.

The most interesting thing since then was tonight: the lighting of the Christmas lights on Oxford Street. I think it's probably akin to the lighting of the Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center...they bring out famous people who dance and sing and perform...and then in dramatic fashion count down and turn on the lights. Truth the told, it was nice, but the lights weren't as pretty as I was expecting (this could be because there were a lot of "other" lights that really took away from the Christmas lights themselves.) And there were SO many people there that the pushiness of the people around us really dampened the spirit. But honestly, that's okay with me. It's not time for Christmas yet...it's much too early. I love Christmas almost more than anyone, but it takes away from the magical feeling it really can have when you commercialize it too much (which is what this event was all about....getting people to buy. In case you don't know, Oxford Street is one of the biggest shopping streets in the world.) I'm glad we went--- it was certainly something "Londony" to do---but I don't think I'll be venturing back to London next year JUST for the lights. :)

Just some small town girls (and sometimes a boy, too), tearing up a lonely world...

Holy cow...what a couple of days. I'm exhausted, but I've got to write now or forever hold my peace. :) (You can see all the pictures via the "Jayhawks Invade London" link under the photos heading.)

Thursday: I had class until 2, but after class Rhonda and I hit the town. We first got sausages from the vendor outside of the British Museum. Then we walked along Oxford street for a bit, and made our way down to the National Portrait Gallery. There was a painting there that I really wanted to show Rhonda, and an exhibit on Pop Art is now open. The exhibit, although kind of small and pricey, was spectacular. I love pop art b/c it really is art (compared to modern art where there is just a line of paint on a canvas that is called "art"); the artists combine their skills with modern clippings and happenings to really say a lot. An entire section of the exhibit centered on Marilyn Monroe and how she lost her personal identity when she became famous. Who know pop art had so much to say!? After that we went to Westminster Abbey for the evening service. We wanted to go and see the boys choir, but again, they weren't singing (that was my third attempt to see them). Regardless, the choir that was there was fantastic and it was cool to go to yet another service at Westminster. After that, we headed to the sports cafe for £3 wings. We went earlier than I had been before, so the service and the wings were much better this time. (Sports Cafe, you are my friend again.) Then we explored Leicester Square a bit, played some air hockey, and stood outside the Odeon Theater where a new movie was premiering...and saw Adrian Brody leaving the red carpet! Woo hoo! We ended Thursday by meeting up with Andrew for a couple of drinks.

Friday: Phew! Busy day. I had class until noon, so soon after we made our way to "Neal's Sandwich Shop" for the highly recommended (per Daniel Stover) cranberry, bacon, and brie sandwiches. I'd actually had them before, but they were just as good the second time around. Then we explored Covent Garden a bit, got some delicious gelato from Scoop, and made our way to St. Paul's. Rhonda has been here before, but St. Paul's was apparently completely hidden by scaffolding, so we went to check it out (really just the outside...it costs $16 to get in, and because its an Anglican church, the draw to explore isn't as great as some other churches.) Then we made our way over to a cute little market called the Borough Market. This market was only food, and if you want an idea of what it looks like, think of the scenes in the Harry Potter movies where they try and enter the Leaky Cauldron....they shot those scenes right near the market. We picked up some food for dinner, and came back and made some AWESOME mushroom, garlic, white wine chicken.

The big event of the day, however, was finally getting to see WICKED. It was absolutely fantastic. For those of you who aren't familiar with the show, it's the story of how the Wicked Witch of the West (from the Wizard of Oz). The music is incredible, the actors were incredible, and everything about it was just incredible. It was also incredible how they tied all the little elements of the Wizard of Oz together, filling in pieces of the story that you never thought about before. You leave seeing the characters in the story in a completely different light than before; nothing is as it seems. For those of you who aren't musical theater people, my testament to you is this: several of the people who went with us were skeptical of musical theater for one reason or another. All of them came out with huge smiles on their faces and really enjoying it. In other words, if you ever have the opportunity, you should go see Wicked.

Saturday: Since Rhonda and Kristen had both been to London before, we were able to do a lot of little random things that you don't necessarily do on your first trip to London. We started the day at the Portobello Road in Notting Hill. We saw "The Travel Bookshop" from "Notting Hill" and grabbed some lunch there, but didn't stay too long b/c it was REALLY busy. So then it was time for Abbey Road (yes, THE Abbey Road.) Of course we attempted to re-create the album cover (Andrew even took his shoes off to imitate Paul), but a lot of photoshop work needs to be done before it will look anything like the album. (Expect that around Christmas.) Kristen wanted to get some Christmas ornaments (and I wanted to visit), so we made our way to Harrod's. Before leaving Abbey Road, we thought it would be a good idea to make our way there via a walk through the park to see all the colors. Because of all the colors (and we're all picture freaks), we took a bunch and had fun doing so; We took a picture where we were jumping in mid-air when the shutter clicked. The picture turned out awesome, but Andrew's pants took a beating, ripping in the crotch. That whole situation was one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time. :)

We eventually made it to Harrod's, explored a bit, got a few gifts for people, and then made our way to Greenwich (with a detour for the loo and cookies in Covent Garden). The Prime Meridian (the line where longitude begins and separates the Eastern Hemisphere from the Western Hemisphere) is in Greenwich, and of course, we straddled to technically be in two hemispheres at one time. :) Then it was time for church and after that, fireworks in Victoria Park. Monday is Guy Fawkes day, and to celebrate the man who unsuccessfully tried to burn down Parliament, the whole country puts on some pretty amazing fireworks displays. This one used more than $2,000,000 worth. We were exhausted at this point, but we still had a few more things to accomplish: Kristen and I tried to to a Harry Potter tour around London every time she was here and always ended up pushing it off. Because of that, we knew we couldn't push it off again (and because of the fact she won't be back here), we had to do it. But we decided to truncate the tour; we already visited many of the spots, but just didn't ID them as HP spots at the time. The main thing we needed to do was get to platform 9 3/4 in King's Cross Station, and after fireworks, we finally made it there.

And just when we thought we couldn't do anymore, I took them to a place where we could eat American food (BBQ in particular) and watch football. When we arrived, we found out KU had stomped all over Nebraska with a 76-39 win. It was a great ending to a great weekend with great friends. (Kristen and Rhonda left this morning, and I headed to Stonehenge and Bath with my program. I'll write about that later.)

BOO!

Yeah! Rhonda is here! She got in late last night (okay, well, about 8:30) and we went straight to the University of Tulsa London Program Halloween Party! The way I wrote that makes it sound like that it was a sanctioned by the school itself...the definitely wasn't the case. :) The party was a lot of fun. The people in Flat A of my building really went all out. They decorated the house amazingly, and EVERYONE came dressed up, and people made lots of food and snacks and we just had a really good time. Here are some of the pictures...

Thinking of you, EN...

I've been trying not to write about anything other than London related news, but this necessitates commenting on. A woman in my law school class at home has had the worst "luck" since coming to law school: two brothers have passed (both at finals time), a fire decimated her parent's home, dealt with some pretty serious personal health issues, and now I just received word that her father passed away. This is all within the span of just over 2 years...less actually. And keep in mind she's trying to go to law school and raise her family at the same time. Please keep her, her son, husband, and everyone else affected by the terrible events that seem to relentlessly plague her family in your prayers. Thanks.

Sound of Music Pictures and Videos

I took some (probably illegal) pictures while I was in the Sound of Music Sing-a-Long on Friday. The pictures have been added to the "Popping in and Out of Chalk Drawings" Album. Links to the videos are below:

Sing along Video 1- We were told to make goat and sheep noises to make the 4 minutes of Alpine Scenery go faster. It was hilarious.

Sing along Video 2- It was a sing a long...so everyone sang along. Literally. I was pretty impressed at how well most everyone stayed on beat even though we couldn't hear the music because we were all singing so loudly. Go ahead...say it...I'm a nerd. :) (NOTE: I can't get the second one to upload. I'll try it again later, and then update the link if I'm successful.)

Sometimes the couch is just so nice

Don't have a whole lot to say: Saturday night's birthday party was fun. We ate Mexican food (yummy) and my cake turned out pretty good. Some people went out, but I wasn't feeling good, so I stayed in and "watched" the KU game on ESPN. ROCK CHALK! Sunday morning I definitely wasn't feeling good, so I pretty much stayed on the couch the whole day. I tried to get some school work done, but when it took me 20 minutes to read a paragraph and didn't understand what it said, I gave up and gave in to bad British TV.

As a result of Sunday, yesterday was a catch up day. Fortunately I was able to do so because I woke up feeling a ton better. I have a final paper coming due fairly soon, and since my next couple weekends are going to be busy, I needed to get started on that. This week is also going to be busy, so I needed to also get a bunch of my homework done so I can have fun with Rhonda when she comes. I also got to go running, and got the finishing touches for my Halloween costume. All in all, a productive, but relatively quiet Monday. Today will likely be the same because the next 5 will not. :)

And oh, in case you're wondering, Britain DOES have the an equivalent to daylight savings time. I don't quite remember what it is called, but we "fell back" last weekend. That means, for this weak, I'm only 5 hours ahead of you (central standard time). Crazy!

Ah! You're in a grave situation now, aren't you!?

I've been kind of absent this week, and for that I apologize. But, I do have some good stories and excuses as to why. The primary of those is that I had a final yesterday for the class I was in that spanned the first half of the semester. I spent a lot of time studying in the library this week which subsequently meant that there was nothing to write about. But, I had some fun the past couple days, so I do have info to fill in.

On Thursday night (yes, the night before my final where I should have been studying. It's okay....I know I passed the class, and I studied a LOT before that night. Anyway...) Andrew and I went on the "Jack the Ripper" walk around London. The walk took us to various spots significant to the famous serial killer and his 5 victims. We purposely went on Thursday because it was dark and misty, and being almost Halloween, we thought it would add to the ambiance of the whole thing. Despite my nerves about the walk, it really wasn't scary at all. It was really cool to see and hear about London-- how it was and how it has changed since then--but not too scary. In fact, I found myself being more of a legal nerd than anything else; there was a witness who found one of the victims lying on the ground with her garments over her upper torso. He, thinking she was passed out drunk, moved the garments back down to cover her lower torso. When our guide told us that, I thought "Oh no! You are ruining the crime scene! Stop!" (Insert ridiculous "you are a nerd" moan here.) They also talked about the autopsy's conducted on the victims and I thought, "hey! I know where that goes and what it looks like!" (For those of you who don't know, I got to witness an autopsy through my job this past summer.) All in all, the walk was good (not great), but definitely worth doing because it only costs £5 (one of the more economical attractions here in London.)

Last night, however, has probably been the most enjoyable night I've had in London. It is again evidence of my musical theater nerdy-ness, but I don't care, it was great. "Tell me what you did
already!" you say? Okay! Val and I went to a sing-a-long showing of the movie "The Sound of Music." (Yes, they showed the words to the songs on the screen, but no, there was no bouncing ball to keep you all together. Surprisingly enough, most of the time, we did okay staying with the soundtrack even though we couldn't hear it over our own voices.) Many places in the US do similar things for "Rocky Horror Picture Show"; people dress up and come to the show, singing all the songs and adding their own commentary to various parts. This is exactly what happened last night. I've never seen so many nuns in one place at one time, and I've been catholic my whole life! There were also people dressed like Maria, and Uncle Max, and one dressed like a goatherd.

Before the show started, a drag queen came out and got the audience excited (like we really needed to be jazzed up...). She also instructed us on different sounds to make throughout the show, and showed us how to use our little baggies of goodies. For example, the opening shots of the movie are all the Austrian countryside. Apparently 4 minutes to be exact. In order to make this time pass, we were all instructed to make goat, or sheep or cow noises. Then when we saw Maria, we were to start waving and say hello. And anytime the words 'The Hills are Alive!' were said throughout the show, we were to stand up and "illustrate" the hills becoming alive using our arms. We hissed every time the baroness came on screen, and barked every time Rolf came an (although I don't quite understand the catalyst behind that action.) We booed the nazi's and "awed" at the children. Included in the goody-bags were little cards with a "?" and a picture of Maria that we held up when we sang "How do you solve a problem like Maria?" We also had invitations to the Captain's ball, and (my favorite of everything we did), were party poppers that we were to use when the Captain and Maria finally kissed for the first time.

People added their own commentary, too. One woman would scream "SEVEN!?!" every time they discussed the number of children, and we all threw our snotty little comments in at appropriate places. (I think I got a laugh from the crowd when I told Maria not to be sad when finding out the Baroness and Captain were getting married b/c the Captain really loved her, and she would get him back!) My favorite audience "add-on" was the scene where the Von Trapp family is hiding in the abbey graveyard and the nazi's come looking for them with flashlights. You can certainly see the beams of 4 or 5 flashlights on screen, and 4 or 5 members of the audience popped up with their flashlights and shined them around the room just like the nazi's would have. And everyone but one went down at the same time the beams died to one on the screen. It was perfect. If anyone ever has the opportunity to do that, I 100% recommend it.

Tonight we're celebrating yet another birthday. This time, I got to bake the cake! (Yeah! My first time baking in London!) We're also having Mexican food. YUM YUM.

Having fun and taking finals

I'll update tomorrow...I promise.

They really do roast chestnuts over an open fire

So, it's October 24...you know what that means...HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! Well, kind of. But not really if you're in the UK. It's October 24 and CHRISTMAS (yes, my favoritest of holidays that comes every December 25) is already in full swing in London. Stores have had their holiday displays up for a couple of weeks, the government is putting Christmas decorations along the streets, street vendors are selling roasted chestnuts, and coffee shops are playing Christmas music. Even I, lover of all things Christmas, think this is a bit excessive.

Despite my skepticism about all this Christmas jazz, I'm very excited to expereince Christmas in a big city, and in London in particular. Our program coordinator sent the following statement about what's going to happen in London for Christmas:

Towards the end of November Christmas events begin. (Notice she says "events"...not decorations or music). There will be carol singing in Trafalgar Square under the Christmas tree, and numerous church carol services. Ice Rinks will open at Somerset House in the Strand and outside the Natural History Museum if you fancy a spin (skates can be hired). Also the capital’s largest ice rink is now being constructed in Hyde Park which will be part of a Winter Wonderland which will include cafes, bars, a toboggan slide, a carousel and helter-skelter and a Winter Wonderland Wheel which will carry people 200 ft above Hyde Park. There will also be a traditional German Christmas Market.

I'm soooo excited. Expect a lot of pictures. :D

Speaking of pictures, my pics from Leicester/ the Robin Hood festival have been posted...or you can just click here. There were lots of adorable kids there and subsequently I took a lot of pictures of the adorable children. Hopefully I'll get to play with them on photoshop sometime and really make them look how I want them to look. :)

On a completely different note, we have no hot water OR heat in my flat, and haven't had for about 5 days. Fortunately its not that cold...yet...but it's getting to the point where its necessary. I've been able to shower in the other flats in my building (they're other kids from my program), so that's not a huge problem...just a mild annoyance. Someone came to look at our heater yesterday and apparently there was a minor explosion. We've been assured that we should have space heaters and extra blankets by later tonight, but our landlord company isn't that reliable. So, when you're enjoying your nice warm heaters and sweaters and blankets at home, remember me shivering in London.

Last completely random thought....I was in the computer lab the other day printing something off and the girl next to me was writing a paper. Our school building is a building owned by Florida State and a bunch of American schools host their international programs here. I think we're the only grad school program which in itself creates a divide (and immediate distaste) between us and the undergrad students. Anyway, the paper this girl was supposed to be an 4-5 page analysis of one of five plays there were supposed to see by now....and THIS GIRL WAS USING SPARK NOTES TO WRITE HER PAPER! Keep in mind, we're in London, one of the theater capitals of the world. I know that at least 2 (and I suspect all) the plays are playing here right now. You may be thinking "Oh give her a break...plays are expensive." Um, no. That is not an excuse. I know she could have seen at least one of them for £5. The rest probably have cheap student tickets. Plus, you're in London. When you come here, you know things are going to be expensive. As you can tell, I think this is an absolute abomination and is completely unacceptable.

Okay, I'm done with my high horse. :) Cheerio!

A monk is a bald chap who works in a church

So, I'm now back in London for a while and trying to get back into the swing of things here. But before I do, I'll update on this weekend in Leicester. Kristen and I had a lot of fun. First, let me comment on how awesome she was and prepared for my visit: her roommate was headed to Scotland for the weekend, so she asked if I could 1) borrow her bus pass, 2) borrow her meal card, and 3) sleep in her bed. The answer to all these questions was "yes", so I (should have) left Leicester well rested and fed. But we did so much, and the food wasn't all that great, that the best work for the weekend in general was just fun.

Kristen joined the Ultimate Frisbee team at U. of Leicester and on Friday night, I got to participate in practice. It was a lot of fun. I had forgotten how fun team sports can be, and although I'm not head over heals about ultimate, it really was a great time. After practice the plan was to figure out what to do on Saturday. Lucky for us we stumbled upon the OFFICIAL Robin Hood Festival that was taking place in Nottingham this weekend. So, Saturday we made our way there. It was great...it reminded me a lot of the madrigal dinners we used to put on; everyone was in costume/ character. There were little kids running around dressed like Robin Hood, there were a variety of different artists/ guildsmen selling their items, and a lot of really cheesy shows that each had it's own spin on the tale of old Robin Hood. It was also a gorgeous (although slightly chilly)fall day, so it was a picture taking feast. The trees and colors are what I expect New England looks like in the fall (but since I haven't been there in the fall-- or ever really for that matter-- I don't know for sure). BUT, I haven't had a chance to upload my pictures yet, so while I can talk about the colors, I can't share them just yet.

England was in the finals of the Rugby World Cup Saturday night, so we spent the evening enjoying the festivities there. For those of you who haven't been to Europe or who aren't all that familiar with Rugby and how popular it is over here, think of the excitement of the Super Bowl and the Olympics combined and you have your Rugby World Cup Finals. The Brits didn't pull it off-- they lost by a fairly big margin to South Africa-- but it was a lot of fun. A lot of Europeans can't understand why we like football so much better than Rugby- they thing it moves too slow and that the padding is silly. Well, I think the padding = safety. As for the flow of the game, I actually thought the rugby game was fairly slow. Although they don't blow the whistle as much as we do in football, they set up plays over and over again in the middle without a whole lot of action in between. Also, we play EVERY minute (or close to every minute) on the clock while they let the clock run during all the penalties, etc. I think I also thought it a bit slow because there was such little scoring. I would think it fair to say that in most games, there is scoring, or at least the excitement and apprehension of scoring, at least once a quarter; in contrast, most of the rugby action took place in the middle of the field. Now, all of my comments are not meant to say that rugby isn't a fun game to watch-- it most certainly is. However, I think I'll stick to my pigskin. :) (Speaking of...ROCK CHALK..KU is 7-0, ranked 9 in the BCS and 12 in the AP polls!! Who knew!?)

Back to Leicester-- well, there really isn't a whole lot else to say. Sunday was pretty relaxed...we played cards, hung out, met some of her friends and walked around the AMAZING botanical garden that is in Kristen's backyard. That was yet another opportunity for a feast of picture taking, but my camera batteries died, so I only have Kristen's pictures. I got back to London last night around 9 after a bus ride that was vaguely reminiscent of the bus ride into Cork.

Now, like I said, it's back to work here in London. I have a final on Friday that ends one of my classes which has caused me to put in more work today than I have put in all semester (okay, not 100% true, but not that far off either.) I don't have any more travels planned (as of now) until Thanksgiving weekend, but there will certainly be adventures around London. I'll continue to write, so continue to check in. I already have some "discussion" topics in mind. :)

The window needed washing anyway!

So I suppose I should update before I head off for more adventures. France, more specifically Angers and Saumur, were lots of fun. First, Angers--Rhonda had class in the morning, so it allowed me some time do to some exploring myself. Really, I just wandered around the Angers Cheateau (castle) and had a lot of fun taking pictures (if you look at my France pictures link, you'll see there are multiple shots of pictures I took of myself trying to be artsy...sorry. :)). It was also nice to just spend some quite time with my thoughts...I don't get to do that a lot over here. Then we met up again to discover Angers. We went and saw a beautiful cathedral, enjoyed a pastry, sipped a cup of coffee, explored the little shops, and were enchanted by the town that is Angers. That evening we had dinner with Rhonda's host family. It wasn't quite as "French" as I thought it would be, but it was wonderful (and challenging) to have dinner with them. Because dinner didn't start until 8 p.m., and didn't end until about 9:30, by the time we were finished, it was time to go out! (yes, on a Monday night). We made our way to a Cuban Bar (remember we're in France) that served Tapas (typically Spanish food) and had pictures of Che (Argentinian) all over. I think the pub is going through an identity crisis. Fortunately that didn't affect the quality of the sangria we had.

The next day we hopped on the train to spend the day in Saumur, a smaller town about 1/2 an hour away from Angers. We pretty much repeated what we did in Angers the day before, with a few exceptions. We played in the leaves a little bit, and also took a tour of a wine cave. During the tour we got to learn a little bit about the wine making process, and see all that is done to go from grapes to you. A small wine tasting was included with our tour, and as a result we ended up buying a bottle of their specialty sparkling wine (funny side bar...we must have done a pretty good job of shaking up the bottle on the way home...when I tried to open it later, I nearly broke her host family's window b/c the cork shot off so fast. I also gave the walls a nice sparkling wine wash. Oops.) We found some delicious chocolate to go with our wine and spent the evening much like we would back in Kansas...watching a movie, drinking wine and eating chocolate. It was wonderful. (By the way, we watched "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I'd seen it before, but forgotten what an absolutely fantastic movie it is. You should watch it. Right now.)

My plane back to London flew out of Nantes. My friend Jenna (who goes to Wartburg, but I know more so from Ankeny) is studying abroad there, so I met up with her for lunch. Then I wandered around Nantes a little more, not realizing that it is apparently the 5th largest city in France. Who knew!?

I made it back safely to London at about 8:30 last night. Of course that was only after our plane circled the airport for about 15 minutes, nearly touched down and went right back up because another plane got in our way, circled the airport for 15 more minutes, and then waited on the plane for 20 minutes because there was no ground stuff to greet our plane and let us off. The flight cost me 16 euros, so I guess you get what you pay for. :)

Since it is still fall break, I decided to do a couple of things I've been waiting to do since getting here. (I have no good reason for waiting, just hadn't done them.) This included a long awaited trip to "Neal's Sandwich Shop" for a cranberry, bacon, and brie panini, and going to see the play "Shadowland,"-- the story of C.S. Lewis and how he came to know and marry his wife. The play was absolutely amazing, and lucky for you, apparently there is a movie version starring Anthony Hopkins. If you're looking for another good movie to rent, this one is also fantastic (and I think it won a couple of Oscars, so I'm not the only one with this opinion)...

Sorry if the details in here are sparse...I'm lacking motivation to write tonight, but know i needed to update. There is a new link to my France pictures on the side, and also here. The"highlights" version is to facebook where some of the pictures are captioned. The "full length" version includes all the ridiculous pictures I took of myself (mentioned above) and all my artsty stuff. You can choose...or choose both.

Tomorrow I'm off to see Kristen in Leicester for the weekend. I'll update again when I return on Sunday.

People who snore should not be allowed to sleep in hostels.

Bonjour from France!!! Rhonda has scampered off to classes for the morning, leaving me in her cute little French house with her computer. Thus, I will update! The basic summation of the weekend is that we conquered Paris. Now for a little more detail...

I got into Nantes on Friday evening, and I met Rhonda, we found some food, found the train to Paris, checked into our hostel, and passed out. Not too exciting, I know, but we knew Saturday was going to be a big day, so it was necessary. The plan was to get a lot of sleep, but one of the guys in our hostel, who we affectionately named "Johnny Snores-a-lot", did just that-- snore...a lot. Where as the plan was to get about a good 8 hours of sleep, I ended up getting about 3-4. We did everything, within reason, to get him to stop snoring: I would flash the light for a couple of seconds, or ask him to roll over, and I even resorted to throwing a pillow at him a couple of times. Every attempt would work for about 20 minutes, then he'd start up again. It's not worth elaborating anymore on here because the sounds he made just can't be captured via words. But ask me sometime in person, and I will do my best to impersonate Johnny snores-a-lot.

Nevertheless, we got up the next morning and set out to discover Paris....and discover Paris we did! We started off at the "Sacre Couer", a beautiful Byzantine church very near our hostel. It is the highest point in Paris, so it also provided a great view. There was a celebration of something or other going on this weekend, so after the church, we wandered around the area for a bit looking at the different vendors and shops that lined the streets. Then we visited the Monamarte Museum. We thought there were going to be paintings from different impressionists there, but unfortunately we were wrong. There was some cool stuff-- original posters advertising different Cabarets (including the Moulin Rouge), and Renoir did live there at one point and time -- but all in all it was a disappointment.

Then it was on to the Louvre. We spent about 4 hours at the Louvre and only saw a portion of what was there. We, of course, saw the Mona Lisa, the Wedding at Canna, and Venus de Milo, but there was a lot left undone. A hard part about Louvre is that the building itself, once a palace, is also astonishing to look at. So, by the time we took in all the beautiful paintings, some sculpture, and some egyptian art, it was time to move on.

After that we made our way down the Champs Elyeisses (sp?). It's (according to Parisians) the most beautiful street the whole world. I have to give them credit because it is pretty incredible...trees, with their leaves changing colors, line both sides of the street. Right in the middle at the end of the street is the Arc de Triomphe. It was nice to stroll and just to watch people going about their ways.

Then we made our way to the Eiffel Tower. Its really weird to finally see something in person that you've seen in pictures your whole life; it didn't seem like it was any big deal to be there, but at the same time, I was astonished that I actually was seeing what I was seeing. We decided to climb up to the highest point you could reach by stairs. I'm not sure what this is in feet or meters, but I estimate it was about 1,000 stairs. Fortunately, the view was worth it.

Because we were only in Paris two nights and this was the second of the two, we decided to stick around the Eiffel Tower until dark so that we could see it both in the day and at night. Because we're Americans and have no rugby radar, we completely missed that the semi-finals of the Rugby World Cup were taking place in Paris this weekend. (To be fair, we noticed that a lot of people were walking around with Rugby jerseys, there were some dudes at the nantes train station handing out rugby stuff, and because we've been in Europe for a while, we knew it was going on. But, it's been going on for a month, so neither of us knew it was STILL going. Only after we figured out it was still going did we notice the giant rugby ball in the middle of the tower and the jumbo-tron that was strapped to one side.) So, not only was the Rugby World Cup going on IN Paris, but France was playing England that night (it's big like KU v. Mizzou or K-State, and IA v. IA-St. big). So, in our waiting time, we stumbled upon a beer garden for the rugby world cup and decided to join in the party...sort of. We got in there and pints of Heinken were 7 euro each. Not cool. So, we each had one can (at 3.50 euro), sang "The Gambler," "Country Road," and "Piano Man," with a bunch of Brits and French, and then carried on our merry way.

We were planning on going out Saturday night, but because of our lack of sleep and the fact that we had been going pretty solid since 9:30 a.m., our going out turned into sitting in a little restaurant to 'watch' the England beat France, receiving the worst service ever, and then going back and passing out. (If you're wondering, yes, Johnny Snores-a-lot was there again the second night. However, I remembered I had some Tylenol PM, so I took it and was able to sleep).

We started off Sunday, by going to mass (in French) at Notre Dame. Then we went and saw Sainte Chapelle, got lunch, and then toured the Siene on a boat ride. We finished the day by touring the part of the Champs Elysisses what we hadn't seen yet, and then slowly made our way to the train station to come to Angers.

Because I'm on Rhonda's computer, I don't have any pictures to post yet, but I took a bunch, so when I get back to London on Wednesday, I'll post them. For now, we're hanging around Angers and having fun here! :)

I'll give you Picadilly and Oxford Street for your Trafalgar and Leicester, plus unlimited amnesty.

Last night we played British Monopoly. It's basically the exact same as American Monopoly, but the names of the streets are changed to big streets around London, and you technically pay in pounds rather than dollars (there is no adjustment for the relative strength of weakness of the dollar to the pound at any point, just in case you were wondering.) Those of you who know me well know that board and card games are right up there next to food, water, shelter, and running for things I need to maintain sanity, so playing was very much "needed."

BUT, I've never played with a bunch of lawyers before. We threw elements of contract, business associations, and other various legal elements into buying and trading properties. We granted each other asylum on monopoly colors, and combined places to build houses and ultimately ended up splitting the profits. At least one person had amnesty on each monopoly and for a while, the money basically traveled from one person to the next in a cyclical fashion. We did ultimately end up having a winner (or someone we thought would win) simply b/c she either owned or had amnesty on over half the board. I love board games. :)

Fall break...a week long fall break....starts in about 1 1/2 hours. That means I'm off to meet up with my friends Rhonda, Jenna, and Kristen (all individually). Rhonda is going to meet me at the Nantes airport and we are going straight to Paris. We'll be there until Sunday when I'm going to go back to the town where she is at (Angers) and stay with her and her host family for 3 nights (for free...rock on.) Her host family is also going to make me a traditional French dinner on Monday night. I'm really excited. On Tuesday we're going to take a day trip to some other little town around Angers. I fly back to London on Wednesday, but I'm going to spend most of the day in Nantes and hang out w/ Jenna. I get back to London on Wednesday night and am then going to see Kristen (who was in London a couple of weeks ago) in Leicester for the weekend after that (Oct 19-21). It's going to be a busy couple of weeks, but it will be fun. That being said, don't expect frequent updates over the next week or so, but I'll try my best.

Third time is a charm???

I made another attempt today to go and see the boys choir at Westminster Abbey. If you recall, the first time I went, the boys choir was on summer vacation. Although I checked online to make sure they were singing today, I must not have done a very good job because they apparently have every Wednesday off. Sheesh. Hopefully I'll catch them on my third try...whenever that is.

What? One mussles, two people? We are no snack! We are restaurant! NO! You must leave! *CRASH*

Okay, so finally an update about Belgium. It started off, as every good trip does, with me almost missing it. We had to be at the bus station at 2:30 a.m. to catch the bus to take us to another bus to take us to the airport. The plan was to wake up at 1:30 and be at the bus station in plenty of time, but when my alarm went off, I pressed the snooze button (or what I thought was the snooze button) and didn't wake up until 2:06 a.m. Be proud of me, however, because I was at the bus stop at 2:24 a.m., which included me taking a shower. Phew! We saw our bus about 5 minutes after I got there and it just flew right by us without stopping. So, at that point, we freaked out a little, but another bus came in time to get us to our coach to the airport. (oh...when I saw "we", I mean my friend Andrew and I. I think I mentioned who i was going with in an earlier post, but I figure I'd tell you again just to be safe.)

We flew into an airport that is supposedly "just south" of Brussels, but really takes about 50 minutes to get to by train. (That detail really isn't important except to portray my skepticism of the airport name.) Anyway, we got in and made our way to our first stop: Antwerp. We spent a couple of hours there, checking out the sites and just getting a feel fro the town. Antwerp is a pretty modern town, apparently a fashion mecca, and second in diamonds only to some other town I can't remember. :) The weather was gorgeous, so we also got to sit outside and enjoy a Belgium beer (of which they have more than 700 varieties). The plan was to hang out in Antwerp for a while and then go to Burgge, BUT...we didn't quite ration our time correctly and had to run a good portion of the way to the train station. After going back and forth between thinking we were going to make the train and then miss it, we eventually did make it and made our way to Burgge.

Brugge is now my most favorite city in the whole world. It's a little town-- only 120,000 people-- but it's fantastic. It has all the ambiance of an old medevil central European town, but feels a bit like Italy at the same time because it's a city of canals. Add in the element of fall and the leaves changing, and you can understand why I filled my camera's memory card. We got into town, walked around for a bit, found the hostel and had an amazing dinner there....Andrew continued to comment on how good the ribs were several days after the fact. Then we wandered a little more, found out KU beat K-State, (ROCK CHALK!!) and then hit the sack. (Keep in mind, we had been going since at least 2:30 that morning, and Andrew hadn't slept at all.)

The plan for Sunday was to get up, walk around a bit, head to mass, walk around a bit more, and then head off to Gent. That plan got thrown off because in setting my phone as an alarm, I forgot to adjust for the hour time difference between London and Brugge. We were out the door by 9 a.m. as planned...but that was London time. All ended up being fine...we got some cool pictures of the dense fog that covers Brugge in the morning, went to mass in Flemish (interesting expereince), and then continued with the plan henceforth. I mentioned before that Brugge is a city of canals, and because it wasn't too expensive, we took a boat ride on the canal...probably the best $8 I spent the whole trip. After that we took a brewery tour, walked around in a former convent, and (finally) got the most delicious waffle I've ever had. Its hard to describe the immense joy my tastebuds had from this waffle; it seems the waffle was deep fried rather than made on a griddle, and you could taste the sugar granules in the batter. Plus, we got ones drizzled with chocolate. AMAZING. After realizing it really couldn't get any better in Brugge, we headed out before any of the charm could dissipate.

The next stop was Gent (or Ghent). We spent more time in Brugge than we were planning on, so it was nearly dusk when we arrived. At that point we also weren't sure if we were going to stay there or go on to Brussles for the night, but since it was dark and we JUST made it there, we decided to stay. Gent is also a canal town, so it had some wonderful night shots and some bigger buildings b/c it was about twice the size as Brugge. However, unlike Brugge, it's not a tourist town at all, so it wasn't as "nice" and didn't have as much to do. So..we (again) walked around a bit, and then found the most amazing Thai food I've ever had. (My turn to talk about the food for days.) The plan was to head back to the hostel b/c it was again a long day, but a cute little bar/ pub caught our eye on the way home, so we went in. Both when we entered and left, the people in there applauded, and one of the guys there was playing an accordion. It was delightful. The whole time we were there, Andrew kept saying that he thought everyone in there (which was only about 20 people) knew each other and that maybe we were crashing a private party. I kept saying no, that it was a small town, on Sunday night, and it's probably just a gathering of regulars. Well, turns out he was right...the bar tender told us so as we were leaving. Oops.

Monday morning we went an explored a refurbished medevil castle that was surprisingly able to maintain much of its character (including the smell of the latrine.) We wandered around there for a while, explored a church, ate some delicious fries (Belgians are obsessed with fries as much as waffles, chocolate, and beer) discovered that all the statues around the town had had green rubber balls placed on their noses overnight, and then made our way to Brussles.
Brussels was nice...we were only there a short time, but got to see a fair amount of things. One of the big draws is a statue of this little boy peeing. Yes, peeing, and every stupid tourist shop around town has some sort of commemorative memorabilia so you can take the statue home with you. Weird.

I know this is long, and since there isn't anything too exciting to say about what happened the rest of the trip, I'll leave you here. Of course there are lots of little stories that I can fill in here and there, but I'll wait to tell you in person. Moral of the trip: Belgium is spectacular...go there!