GOING HOME TOMORROW.

I can't even believe it. It isn't real. My emotions are all over the place. But no regrets about my last week. This has been such an amazing last week.

Monday: Kew Gardens
Tuesday: HARRY POTTER WARNER BROS. STUDIO TOUR
Wednesday: Thorpe Park (amusement park outside London)
Thursday: Changing of the guards, frolicking around Central London
Friday: London Eye, Thames boat cruise, last supper at a pub

Every single day was filled with amazing things. The Harry Potter studio tour was absolutely amazing. Literally any set or prop you could ever think of from the films was there. They filmed almost everything there, it was truly unbelievable. We spent the entire day there and I still feel like I could have stayed longer. Theres a whole new album on Facebook with all the pictures from it, YOU HAVE TO GO LOOK AT THEM. I was never much of a HP fan until I lived in London... its everywhere here. I can't wait to have an HP movie marathon when I get home and reread all the books.

Joanna, Sophie, and I were together like every day, all day. Going to miss them so much. I have met such amazing people this semester and this entire semester has surpassed all of my expectations. If you had told me even a year ago that I would live in London for half a year I would never have believed you. Study abroad really changes lives and these are by far some of the best memories of my entire life. I just have to tell myself its only goodbye for a little while. I'll be back London. You'll always hold a special place in my heart.

Fun-filled days

From today, I only have 6 days left!! We are not wasting a single minute of our time left here. We got back from Ireland last Tuesday. Wednesday I went to the London zoo in Regent's Park. The park itself was really beautiful, with tons of flowers and fountains. It was somewhat rainy/cloudy that day, so the zoo wasn't as crowded. Not all of the animals were outside, but I still loved it! I absolutely love zoos, I'm not sure I could ever not like one. Inside the reptile house, a scene from the first Harry Potter movie was filmed there (the one where he talks to the snake and it escapes). So that was pretty cool to see! They had some different species of animals than the ones I'm used to seeing in zoos in America. I really enjoyed it!

The next day my group of friends (Sammy, Sophie, Laura, Joanna) went out to eat at Greedy Cow (our favorite delicious burger place here!) one last time before Sammy left the next day. Then we decided to go see Epic at the cinema. Epic was SO GOOD. My favorite movie I've seen in a long time. Everyone should drop what they're doing and go see it right this second. It was so cute and really funny. That night, we went to our usual pub, New Globe, one last time with Sammy. On Thursday nights, only Queen Mary students can get in, so its always really fun.

First thing Friday morning, we had to say bye to Sammy (really very sad but it still doesn't feel real). After she left, Joanna and I toured St. Paul's Cathedral and climbed the 528 steps to the very top of the dome. Theres an amazing view of London from up there. The cathedral is also so beautiful! Then we met everyone else at Borough Market (my favorite in London!) for lunch and walked the short walk to Shakespeare's Globe. We had groundling tickets to see A Midsummer Night's Dream. The show was at 2, exactly the same time they used to do shows back in Shakespeare's day! The show was really so well done, I loved it! It was hilarious and all the actors were so good! If you're coming to London, I would definitely recommend seeing a show there! The standing tickets were only 5 pounds!

Yesterday Joanna, Sophie, and I went to Brighton, on the coast in Southern England. Its famous for having one of the best boardwalks ever. The train from London to Brighton was only about an hour long! It was a beautiful sunny day. We walked along the beach (it was a little strange cause it was a rocky beach, no sand) and walked along all the shops. There was a beach volleyball court (I'm DYING to play) and tons of ice cream and fish and chips places. We walked along the boardwalk, which was super nice. I guess I haven't been on many boardwalks but this one was so cute, with lots of doughnuts/crepes places, an arcade, food, shops, and tons of rides. We went on two of the rides and they were SO much fun! We got some cheap dinner and slowly headed back towards the station (definitely got some ice cream on the way back). By the time we got back to London that night, it was almost 11:00! It was really quite a lovely day by the beach :-)

Today was a nice relaxing day at Brick Lane (for the last time!). We've gone to Brick Lane almost every Sunday this semester. They have amazing food and tons of shops along the street. It was another nice sunny day, so full with people and things to do. What an amazing day to spend a Sunday! I'm going to miss Brick Lane. Tonight the plan is to have a girls night and watch Titanic with Joanna and Sophie since we just visited the Titanic exhibition in Belfast, yay! (And drink my favorite Kopparberg strawberry & lime cider one more time!)

Ireland ;-)

After me last exam last Friday, I began packing for my last trip.... IRELAND!! On Saturday, we flew to Dublin first and got in at about 7 pm. Our hostel was pretty easy to find. We stayed at Isaacs Hostel, which was pretty nice, but we were in a 16 bed female dorm! Lots of people in one room! That first night, we went on the Dublin Pub Crawl. At the first pub, we got a free pint of Guinness. I drank it... but did not enjoy it in the least bit. Not a fan. There was a huge football match on that night, so the pubs were full of men screaming and cheering. We went to 4 pubs and ended with a nightclub. There was live music at each of the pubs and I absolutely loved the atmosphere! Everyone was so friendly and everyone was dancing to the Irish music and singing. We definitely saw a guy dressed as a leprechaun walking along the street at one point too. One of the pubs we went to, called Whelans, was used to film a scene for PS I love you. Need to watch that movie now! On the dance floor, they had a big screen that was playing ET... a little strange and creepy but at the same time kind of cool. By the time we got to the club (called Dandelion) it was pretty late. We stayed for a little while, then left and got some chips (aka fries for the Americans) on the way back to our hostel.

The next morning, a free walking tour picked up from our hostel, so we decided to go on that. It was really good, we got to see all the major sites of Dublin: O'Connell Street (with the Spire), Dublin Castle, Temple Bar District, Dublin Wall of Fame, Trinity College. I learned that there is in fact, an Irish language. Irish Gaelic is the same as Irish. Theres also a Scottish form of Gaelic. He spoke a little to us, it was really interesting! All the signs in Dublin have both Irish and English. But everyone speaks English. They have to learn Irish in school, but everyone kind of grows up hating it (like how we all hate learning Spanish in school). Theres apparently a few parts of Ireland that regularly use it, but overall everyone speaks English. Later that afternoon we went back to Temple Bar to do some shopping and check out the pub. It was huge, with several rooms and live music pretty much round the clock. We walked from there to St. Stephen's Green, a huge park. It was such a sunny, perfect day we just laid in the grass next to a lake for hours. We may or may not have fallen asleep for a while.... woops :-) There were baby swans in the lake! It was a really relaxing, lovely day.

The next morning, we got on our train from Dublin to Belfast. The countryside was so beautiful from the train, everything was so green. Note: Dublin is part of the Republic of Ireland and Belfast is part of Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK. They're two different countries. We got to Belfast around noon and walked to our hostel. The hostel was adorable, I think my favorite one all semester. It was like a cozy house with several hang out rooms. The staff were all so friendly and everyone in our 14 bed dorm was really nice. It just felt like a little community! They told us about a Mexican place that we went to for lunch, kind of like a Chipotle, but it was better and THEY HAD QUESO. First time I've had queso in months. Later at the hostel, one of the ladies that worked there asked me what queso was.... what a sad life. After eating, we went on a black taxi tour. Its actual taxi drivers that take you around Belfast in their cars. They were all taxi drivers during the conflicts only about 20-30 years ago. Our guy took us to the giant wall built to separate the Protestant and Catholic sides of Belfast. The Protestants are in favor of British rule, while the Catholic would rather be part of the Republic of Ireland. The tour was really interesting, I had no idea these things happened so recently! Our guide dropped us off at City Hall, where there was a big market set up for the bank holiday. Tons of food and shops! We wondered around there for a while and the nearby shopping centre. On our way back towards our hostel,  a bird somehow managed to poop on all 3 of us. It had kind of been raining on and off so I thought it was water, then I look down and I was like OH NOOOOOOO!! So we hurried around trying to find a bathroom until we found some guy who gave us some napkins. We went immediately back to the hostel and took showers. I guess its good luck right? We went to a nice, nearby pub for dinner. Back at the hostel for the night, we were hanging out, watching a movie, when the fire alarm started going off at about 10:30. We all huddled in the quietest room (there was actually no fire). It ended up taking like an hour to turn all of them off. It was actually kind of hilarious (once they turned off the alarm in the room we were in). It turned out there was some dust or something that had set them off and kept re-triggering them. We went to bed once they turned them off and got a wonderful nights sleep :-)

Next day we set out for Titanic Belfast! The new museum, the largest Titanic museum in the world, opened only a year ago on the 100th anniversary of the Titanic. The Titanic was built in Belfast and then shipped to England to sale from there. The Irish always say: "An Irishman built the Titanic, an Englishman sunk it."The building itself was really cool, it looked like an iceberg. It was the best exhibition/museum thing I've ever done. There was a ride that took you through a shipbuilding yard and showed you how they built it. There was a CGI tour through the Titanic that surrounded you on 3 sides (so cool!). There were full size replicas of first class, second class, and third class cabins. There were only 2 bathrooms for all of the third class passengers... and there were hundreds of them! They had original documents and records of the passengers. It was crazy how much the actors in the Titanic look exactly like the people in real life. It got really sad when we got to the part about the sinking. On display were all the messages sent to and from the Titanic asking for help. At the same time, there were voices playing over the speakers describing the sinking by actual survivors. There were 713 survivors out of 2,999 total people on board. Most of the fatalities were third class people, but their stores go untold. There was a life size lifeboat there, which had the capacity to hold 65 people. Most of the ships were not filled. The first lifeboat only had 29 people in it! They talked briefly about the movies made about the Titanic (theres actually a ton of them!). James Cameron came up with the character of Jack Dawson from his imagination, but later discovered there was an actual J Dawson on board. He was a third class man who drowned in the sinking... The last bit of the museum had actual footage of the wreckage of the Titanic and they had an interactive exhibit where you could explore the debris field around the sunken ship. Overall, the experience was absolutely unbelievable!!! Afterwards we walked back and ate at the Mexican place again :-) We ventured to the Botanic Gardens nearby and walked through the greenhouse, rose gardens, tropical house, and fields of flowers. We found a nice patch of grass to lay in and I fell asleep again for a bit... That night we headed to the airport and flew back to London (for the last time!).

I absolutely loved Ireland, it was so beautiful and everyone was so friendly! People are friendly in London too, but typically are more reserved and don't openly talk to strangers. They don't make eye contact or talk to strangers at all actually. When I first got here, I was so used to smiling at strangers that walked by and they thought I was a total creep. Ireland was much more open with strangers and especially in Dublin, there was such a lively atmosphere. I can't believe that was my last trip of the semester! I have 9 more days here in London until I head back home...

Tick tock tick tock.....

Less than 3 weeks left here! Hard to believe! I still have one more exam this Friday, but I have been trying to do one thing on my London list every day. Last week, I was able to go to Wimbledon and went on a tour of the grounds. So unbelievably cool! I love watching the Championships and walking into Centre Court was stunning. We got to see areas closed off during the championships like the main interview room, the members club area, and where the players would spend time. The museum was pretty awesome too, they had autographed outfits from several champions... Navratilova, Sampras, Serena Williams, Nadal, Federer, Murray (from the Olympics), Djokovic... And a ton of other really cool stuff! And of course the championship trophies (so beautiful!)! The neighborhood around Wimbledon Tennis (and Golf) club was so fancy. The houses were adorable with all kinds of flowers and vines. They had a small cabin feel, but they were actually huge mansions! Super fancy area of London...

The next day, Joanna and I walked to Victoria Park, only about a 15 minute walk from campus. Its such a cute little park in the East End. Two days ago, Sammy and I went to see Marble Arch and explored the area around it. Its such an amazing area (we may or may not have gone shopping on Oxford Street...). Its right next to Hyde Park and we got some Chipotle for dinner! Last night, Joanna and I went to Her Majesty's Theatre in Piccadilly Circus to see Phantom one last time! Of course, it was AMAZING. And walking out into Piccadilly Circus at night afterwards made me so sad to be leaving London soon! That area really comes alive at night and it is such a fun place to be.

Today, a group of us went to Kensington and Hyde Park (the fancy West London areas). I got to see the place where my cousin/best friend Kaitlyn will be living this fall! Its in a super fancy area with lots of food, grocery stores, banks, and a tube station like a 2 minute walk around the corner (Gloucester Road on the district line)! Hyde Park (the biggest/nicest park in London) is only about a 5 minute walk away. We walked to Hyde Park (on the way being stunned by how rich/fancy west London is). We saw the Prince Albert Memorial (a really beautiful gothic memorial) and the Royal Albert Hall right across the street (where they had Phantom's 25th anniversary performance for 3 nights). Hyde Park is GIGANTIC, but we managed to find the Princess Diana memorial fountain, the Peter Pan statue, and the Italian gardens. Hyde Park is so beautiful and all the flowers are so pretty right now!

I have exactly 16 days and 6 hours left...so bitter sweet. I have been on such an emotional roller coaster about it. One minute I'm excited to be home and the next I'm completely in a panic that I have so little time left! These last few weeks are going to be jam packed with fun-filled days, so I'll be going out with a bang :-) Leaving for Ireland (Dublin and Belfast) this Saturday for a few days! And by then my last exam will be over with.. but for now, back to revising!

Harrods

It felt like I had stepped out of my life and into some fairy tale movie.... I have never been any place like it. Harrods is the largest department store in Europe. But its not just any department store, its an upmarket department store. Which means I cannot afford a single thing in it. Every single item was in display cases and nothing had price tags. Each room had its own title and label above the entrance. "Luxury items 1" or "International Designers 4." It had 5 stories of anything you could possibly dream of. Pet spa, sporting equipment, Disney store, children's designer clothing, international designers clothing, make-up, gourmet groceries, perfume, technology, designer purses, furniture, bedding, luggage, candy, toys, tourist shop, ANYTHING. The swimsuit room was "by appointment only." We walked right in and back out. Each room had its own scent and music to give its own atmosphere. When you walk into the swimsuit room, it smells like vanilla and sunscreen, its crazy! My favorite room was the evening dress room. I can't even describe it. Looking back at the pictures, I don't know how I ever left. It was one after another beautiful evening gowns... straight off the red carpet. There were several just in display cases. Most of them didn't have price tags, but one did and it was 10,000 pounds!!!!!! Several of them were 100% silk and so soft. They had stunning fur coats that were the softest thing I'd ever felt. There was a princess dress I fell in love with. I think I was just so in shock I didn't know how to react. Otherwise, I never could have left. Throughout the entire place, it just felt like I couldn't even walk on the carpet. In case you were looking for diamond covered iPad/iPhone cases, those were available in the technology section. I can't even imagine going shopping on a regular basis in a place like that. New life plan: camp outside Harrods until I meet the man of my dreams and then I take him inside to buy me that princess dress. ;-)

National Portrait Gallery

Today I went off on my own to the National Portrait Gallery. Its connected to the National Gallery, so I went by Trafalgar Square on my way. There was some cool basketball event going in the square! When you first come into the National Portrait Gallery, you have to go through the bookstore first. I finally got myself a Henry VIII mug. It listed all his wives and everything he did and then says "became so fat he had to be winched into bed." Hahahaha it was too good. I continued on into the gallery and headed straight for Kate Middleton's first official portrait on the ground floor. It was STUNNING. She looks so unbelievably beautiful in it. Its cool that I even got to see it since its only on display there for a few months! Next, I headed upstairs to the Tudor area. Now I really started freaking out a little bit. I got to see all these portraits I have been seeing for years in pictures. It was so amazing to be seeing the real thing. I got to see portraits of Henry VIII, Katherine of Aragon, THE Anne Boleyn portrait, Katherine Parr, Mary Tudor, Elizabeth I, Sir Robert Dudley, Mary Queen of Scots... it took a lot of self control. We weren't technically allowed to take pictures but...... I may or may not have snuck like 20. After the Tudors, I got to see Shakespeare, William Pitt, Jane Austen, Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, Charles Darwin, Princess Diana, Margaret Thatcher, Winston Churchill, pretty much any king or queen or anyone of any importance to Britain had a portrait there. SO COOL.

After I left the gallery, I walked to Leicester Square around the corner and found a Chipotle! Very successful day :-) I fly back home exactly 4 weeks from today... bittersweet :/

Roma!

No, I was not mistaken as an Italian pop star (Lizzie McGuire movie). A bit of a disappointment. BUT Rome was still pretty awesome. The first night we arrived, we figured out the Roman metro system and found our hostel pretty easily. To put it nicely... this one was not quite up to the same standards as our past hostels... Only one bathroom, not very clean, semi-broken shower, creaky bed, no clean towels half the time, no breakfast (even though it promised breakfast online). Anyway, after checking in, we set out to find some dinner. And after roaming (hah!) around for some time, we stumbled upon a cute little Italian restaurant down one of the streets. They gave us free bread and an appetizer (first time I've gotten free food pretty much all semester! Usually they charge you for bread and even water). I had some spaghetti al ragu (spaghetti with meat sauce). I think it was the best meal I'd had so far! So delicious! It was a really nice dinner, the three of us got into a laughing fit at some Spongebob quotes... haha don't ask.

The next morning, we headed straight for the Colosseum. Unfortunately, it was a bit of a rainy day (again! Isn't Italy supposed to be sunny?!). We had to wait in line for a bit, but when you first walk into the Colosseum it is truly stunning. I have never seen anything like it. Even through the rain and umbrellas blocking our view, it was so cool!! The centre area was not covered with a stage (as it would have been back in the day), so you could see everything that would have been underneath it, where they kept the animals and where the mechanics of the stage worked. Its crazy they had this fantastic architecture and mechanics so many years ago! We spent a good 2 hours wondering around the Colosseum, going to the top level too. Theres an exhibition on the top level with all kinds of information about the Romans and emperors at the time of the Colosseum. We took A TON of pictures.  And the entire time we were singing This is What Dreams Are Made Of (Lizzie McGuire movie again)! Eventually, we left to go find some lunch. We found a cheap place close by and I had some spaghetti with egg, cheese, and bacon (it was bit weird). Then, we walked to the nearby Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. They're basically just a giant collection of Roman ruins. It was so unbelievably cool to be walking around in ancient palaces, gardens, and cities. We walked through streets, houses, shops that stood 2,000 years ago. Unbelievable experience. After about 4 hours, we left to go find the famous Trevi fountain (I think most girls my age know this fountain from the Lizzie McGuire movie... its where she throws in the coin, makes a wish, and turns around to find Paolo!). It was quite an adventure finding the fountain, but we got there eventually. It was STUNNING. A hugeeeeee beautiful fountain that took 30 years to build. It was magical. We took lots of pictures there (and yes, made some wishes and threw in coins). There were tons of restaurants around, so we had dinner close by (4 cheese pizza!).

The next day was our day for the Vatican. We got there a little before 11 and noticed the line wrapping around the Vatican walls. Once again it was raining and we were hoping the line wasn't too long. After waiting in line along 3 different walls, Kelsey finally went to see how long the line is. We still had 2 long walls to go. So 2 of us went to get some lunch and we ate while standing in line (thankfully there was a brief break in rain at that point). Finally a little after 1:30, we got through the Vatican walls (THAT WAIT WAS MISERABLE). We went through metal detectors and bought our tickets (which were pretty cheap since we got the student discount!) and explored a gallery with some works of Leonardo da Vinci. Then, we went towards the Sistine Chapel. Of course they know everyone goes there just to see the Sistine Chapel, so they led us through what felt like hundreds of other museums and rooms before we finally got there. They were all beautiful, but it was so packed full of rude people that we were just ready to see it. We finally got to the Sistine Chapel and it did not let down, I couldn't believe my eyes. It was so beautiful and enrapturing. I just stood there and stared for several minutes (I also snuck a picture or two or the famous Michelangelo ceiling). But because there were hundreds of people inside the chapel, we didn't stay too long. We got a quick snack and exited the Vatican Museum. We got some more gelato and then headed for Saint Peter's Square. The square was pretty cool. I had seen it in so many movies, so it was cool to finally see it in person. We went through a second set of metal detectors to get inside the Basilica of Saint Peter. The church was probably the most beautiful I've ever seen. There were all kinds of beautiful colors and high, vaulted ceilings. It seemed so gigantic, with all kinds of tombs for different popes. It was such a different style than the English churches I'm used to, like Westminster Abbey. Mass was going on while we were there, so there was a choir singing in the background. Really an amazing experience. When we left, there were guards in crazy looking outfits and we got there just in time for the changing of the guard (EXTREMELY lame changing of the guard compared to Buckingham Palace of course). We left the square and took the metro back to the area around the Colosseum because there were a ton of good, cheap restaurants around there! We found a place that had spaghetti and meatballs. It was definitely the picture perfect Italian meal any tourist dreams of: spaghetti and meatballs with a glass of (nasty) wine all in view of the Colosseum. Perfect last supper for our last night in Italy! On our way back to our hostel, we stopped in at the gelateria by our hostel for the third night in a row.... :-)

On our final morning in Italy (sad!), we went to Piazza Navona. Since there was some weird stall in the Rome metro system (their transportation system is really bad... we had several problems with it) we had to get off a stop early. But this actually turned out fine because we stumbled upon seeing the Capitol building and the Pantheon on the way to the square. Both super cool! It took us a while to find Piazza Navona, there are a million squares. You turn the corner and think it might be it and then you're like oh wait... this is just another square (Joanna actually had a nightmare of never-ending squares haha!). But we DID find it. The movie Angels and Demons (with Tom Hanks) has a part filmed in the square, so that was cool to see. There are 3 beautiful fountains along the square and a basilica in the middle. We found a cheap place for lunch a little away from the square and my last Italian meal was delicious (4 cheese gnocchi). We walked back towards the metro and on the way, walked by the Spanish steps (also in the Lizzie McGuire movie, where she does the cartwheel!). Back at our hostel, we picked up our luggage and then made our way to the airport. It was a long day of traveling after that... we finally got back to Queen Mary campus a little after 11 pm. Every time I come back to London I get so excited, I really love it here! It is such a special city and I am so blessed to be able to live here for half a year!

Italy is definitely my favorite trip so far... really a dream come true! Amazing food and places to see! We had some weird recurring themes of the trip... Lizzie McGuire and Spongebob. Lizzie McGuire came from the Lizzie McGuire movie being in Rome (such a good movie!), but I'm not quite sure where Spongebob came from... At night when we were exhausted and lazy, we watched episodes of Lizzie and Spongebob and they were, of course, quite entertaining :-) My favorite city out of the 3 we went to (Venice, Florence, Rome) was Venice. It was such a peaceful, beautiful city. I really liked Florence, I wish we could have had some more time there. Rome had some awesome things to see in it, but it was also a crowded city full of rude/smelly people. The people we met there were not very nice... Surprisingly, the Vatican was the worst. The other people visiting were rude and the people who worked there were even ruder... But it was all worth it. Couldn't be happier to have gone! I think I had enough gelato to last me a life time :-) (or maybe just a couple of days..........)

Firenze

Part 2 of our Italy trip was in the beautiful city of Florence! We only had about 24 hours in the city, so we tried to make the best of it! When we first arrived at the train station on Friday night, we walked the short distance to our hostel. It was called Leonardo house and was very nice! We had a room to ourselves. We set out to find some gelato and explored a little bit. We found the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore. I think it was the biggest church I'd ever seen! It had beautiful colors and seemed to stretch on forever! We got lost for a little bit and eventually found our hostel.

The next morning we got up and walked by the Basilica of Santa Maria again and continued on to Piazza della Signoria, a beautiful square with several statues and fountains. There's a copy of the famous statue of David made by Michelangelo there (the original had to be moved to a museum, but the copy is in the same place and is completely identical). We then walked to Santa Croce, the church where several famous people are buried, including Michelangelo, Galileo, and Machiavelli. We had a bit of a bad experience there. Joanna and I were wearing very cute dresses and they singled us out and made us pay extra for robes to cover our shoulders (they weren't even spaghetti strap dresses!). We thought it was fine until we got inside and saw several other people wearing the same outfits. They clearly singled us out and were not nice about it. But we soon moved on to cross the river and climbed to the top of a hill to have a beautiful view of Florence. It really was so cool!! Then we walked to Pitti Palace and had lunch and gelato. We crossed Ponte Vecchio, the famous bridge with shops on it, and made our way back to Piazza della Signoria (with a brief stop in a Disney store!). We toured through Palazzo Vecchio, a really beautiful palace! After leaving the palace, we relaxed in the sunny square for a bit. It was such a nice sunny day! We eventually made our way back to the hostel and picked up our stuff to go to Rome! It felt like we could have spent several more days in Florence, but we got a nice taste of the city and I'm glad we were able to see it!

Next stop: ROMA! (To be continued...)

Viva Venezia!!

We flew out of London early Wednesday morning and arrived in Venice in the afternoon! It was a beautiful sunny day and we quickly learned venice is pretty much impossible to navigate. There are a ton of canals and there aren't any streets, it's just like a maze. Very narrow walkways and not many street signs. After a very confusing adventure finding the hostel, we eventually got there. He actually led us to our own little house right on the canal! We had our own bedroom and bathroom and shared a kitchen and living area with 2 other French people. We dropped our stuff and headed back out to have our first Italian meal. All the restaurants are usually cute little cafe looking places with tables outside. We found one on the canal and I had some four cheese pizza, yummy!! We then decided to do a gondola ride and FOUND THE MOST ATTRACTIVE GONDOLIER EVER! Afterwards we realized we should have asked his name. But since we didnt know it, we just named him Michelangelo. The gondola ride was so cool!!! The canals of Venice are beautiful, I can't imagine living there. Lots of houses and doors are right on the edge of the water. After the ride, we wandered around until we somehow found our hostel again. We wanted to watch the Lizzie McGuire movie since well be in Rome soon but couldn't get it to work. Instead we just watched some Lizzie episodes! They are so hilarious and cheesy, but so wonderful.

Yesterday morning we woke up and after wondering around the maze of walkways and canals found a fish market. We shopped for touristy things around there and then crossed the famous Ponte di Realto. It's a huge bridge with shops on it. After getting some lunch (Margherita pizza) and gelato, we went to the Basilica dei Giovanni e Pablo. So beautiful inside! The Italian churches feel and look so different than the English ones. I'm not even sure how to describe the differences, but they really are so different. Then, we went to the major square of Venice, Piazza San Marco. It has the beautiful Basilica di San Marco and Doge's Palace. We went through the palace and saw the state rooms and the prisons in the basement. We crossed the Bridge of Sighs and walked along the sea outside the palace. On the way back to our hostel, we stopped for some dinner (Spaghetti with meat sauce... Yumm). We played some cards back in the hostel and were all so exhausted we fell asleep a little early!

This morning we woke up and I decided to wear my new long dress! We went back to Piazza San Marco and rode the lift to the top of the Campanile San Marco. We had some amazing views over all of Venice from up there! Then we waited in line to see Basilica San Marco and it was so beautiful inside. Again, so different from English churches. It was striking in a different way, not as showy and it had more of a medieval feel to it. They seem to use more mosaic and marble. Joanna and Kelsey fed some pigeons in the square (I politely declined). Some random Chinese girl came up to me and asked to take a picture with me. I'm just going to assume she thought I was someone famous. We found some lunch on the way back to the hostel (lasagna). I got tiramisu for dessert, it was DELICIOUS!! On the way back to our hostel some guy in passing told me I was bellisima. This new dress must be a hit. Wearing it everyday. Back at the hostel we picked up our bags and headed to the train station. We were on the train for about two hours before we arrived in Florence! So far, it's beautiful and we've already gotten some more gelato! Florence update in a day or two!

British Education system

I took my neurobiology exam today (worth 75% of my grade!). So happy to be done with it. The entire process was actually pretty unorganized. I'm used to taking finals in the normal classroom with the professor there. Here, they separate all the classes into different exam rooms, which made it so much more complicated. I found my exam room and desk and once I started, I realized I was missing a whole section of my answer sheet. The invigilator didn't speak very good English and it took me like five minutes to get him to understand I was missing a piece of the exam. Finally, I got it and at the same time all this was happening, there was a group of guys who thought they were taking one exam and then when they showed up, were told they were taking a completely different portion of the exam. Throughout the entire two and a half hours, the people running the exams kept coming in and out of the room. I guess its just such a different process than what I'm used to! The exam went pretty well, I'm just glad its done!

I think I've come to the conclusion that I like the American education system so much better. At least at Southwestern, every single one of my professors I've ever had is so passionate and truly wants to help their students learn. They all know me personally and are willing to spend extra time with me outside of class. Here, I feel like I didn't learn near as much because I only had class once a week and all the professor did was give a brief background on the subject. Everything else they would tell you what to read and they expect you to learn everything else on your own. I definitely feel like everything I've learned here was self-taught. I'm sure British students are used to learning everything on their own, but it was hard when you're used to the American system to adjust. Not only do you have to learn everything yourself, you don't have much time to figure it out. All my classes only had two grades. Two of my classes had 2 exams (each worth 50%), one class had an essay and an exam (75%), and one class coursework and an exam (worth 75%), so you better hope you understand it the first time! And other than my drama professor with a smaller seminar, none of my professor even have any idea I exist. I have loved every minute in London and have learned so much about the world and myself. I would never give up this experience for anything, but it definitely makes me appreciate SU and how much I love it there!

Anyway, I went to Borough Market after my exam this afternoon as a reward :-) delicious lunch! We leave for Italy in 1 day and 14 hours!! I have one more exam on May 24 (Abnormal Psychology). Then Ireland in 26 days and 1 hour! And home in 39 days and 16 hours!!

Lovely London :-)

Over the last two days, I've managed to take some nice touristy breaks from all this essay writing and revision! Thursday morning we got up at 5 am (YUCK) and caught the first Tube train at 5:28 to make it to London Bridge in time to watch the sunrise! It was really beautiful with Tower Bridge in the background. From there we walked all the way past Southwark Cathedral, Borough Market, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, St. Paul's Cathedral, Fleet Street, the Strand, Trafalgar Square, St. James Palace, Buckingham Palace, and Green Park. I think it was about 3 miles, but we got to see so much of Central London in those 3 miles! We got on the Tube from Green Park and went to King's Cross (where we had a brief Harry Potter moment at Platform 9 3/4) and continued on to Aldgate east, where we got off to get breakfast at Brick Lane. The American pancake place was closed (sad) but we ate at the famous Bagel Bake! We did all this and got back before 10 in the morning!

Today, we went to Notting Hill Gate. I absolutely fell in love with the area, it is just so adorable!! The market there is called Portobello Market, I think it is my favorite of London's markets so far. They had several unique shops and Friday through Sunday there's a huge vintage market. From the film Notting Hill, we got to see the bookshop and the blue door from his house. (Yesterday we saw the Ritz and the Savoy which are also in the film!). They were some nice breaks encouraging me to get through all this studying and reminding me why I love London so much! So blessed to be living in this AMAZING city!!

We leave for Italy (Venice, Florence, then Rome) in 4 days! I finished my last essay, two more exams to go before I leave June 8. My first exam is on Monday (Neurobiology)... prayers would be much appreciated (AHHH).

Thatcher funeral

Since I got back from the big trip, I have been working on revision and essays before the exam period starts at the end of April. I haven't had the chance to get out and do much around London. But, on Sunday, we went to Brick Lane. Its only about a 20 minute walk from campus and it was such a beautiful, sunny day. It was like 70 degrees and we were actually sweating outside for once! We ate some amazing food and shopped around the markets. I love Brick Lane, its always so much fun! I've finally been able to go to the gym every morning, now that classes are over. Yay!

Today was the funeral of the former prime minister, Margaret Thatcher. We were planning on going until last night when several people had told us there were planned protests and it could be dangerous, so we ended up not going. I was able to watch the whole thing live online and it was really so cool! She was honored with full military honors (excluding the military fly by, at her own request). For the first time in a long time, Big Ben was completely silent the entire morning. Shots were fired from the Tower of London once every minute. The entire procession began at Westminster Abbey and went past Parliament Square, Trafalgar Square, Courts of Justice, the Strand, Fleet Street, and finished at St. Paul's Cathedral. As far as I could tell, there were only a few shouts and posters in protest, nothing too bad. It was very sad to hear booing and shouting at a funeral. But overall, the entire procession and ceremony was really beautiful. The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh were in attendance, which was cool since she hasn't attended a big funeral like this since Winston Churchill. It was so cool to watch knowing it was only a few miles away! (If I look out my flat window, I can see the Shard and from the other side of the building you can see the Olympic Stadium. Such an awesome location!)

Well, now to get back to work :/ Only one essay and two final exams to go for the semester! And Italy in 14 days!

A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes

I just got back from the trip of a lifetime! The whole trip was 9 days, including Prague, Salzburg, Munich, and Brussels. Laura, Sophie, and I began the trip by flying to Prague! We got there around 8 at night and walked to our hostel. The hostel was super nice and still pretty cheap! After checking in, we found a cute Italian restaurant around the corner and ate some tasty pizza! We headed back to our room and got some sleep. The next day, we got up and went on our tour of Terezin concentration camp. The town of Terezin was originally built as a military fortress and then used by the Nazis in World War 2 as a concentration camp. Terezin was not a death camp. Instead, it was used a holding camp, keeping Jews there until they were transferred to a death camp. Hundreds of thousands of Jews went through Terezin and thousands died there due to terrible living conditions. They even ran out of burial space, so began cremating bodies. They had 4 ovens and at its height, each oven cremated over 300 bodies a day. The entire town had an eerie, depressing feel about it. We headed back to Prague after the tour and explored the city a bit. We found the Old Town Square, which is the main square in Prague where everything happens. There was a huge festival going on for Easter for a whole month, with entertainment and tons of food! We hung out there a little bit before heading back to our hostel to get ready for the bar crawl that night. The bar crawl picked up right from our hostel and took us to several bars around the main square. We had free drinks everywhere, so I tried some beer (which I didn't like) and some wine (which again, I didn't like). It was really fun, we met an Australian guy and 3 girls from Dubai studying in England. We hung out with them for the night. The next morning, we decided to go on a 3-hour free walking tour of the city. It turned out to be an amazing tour and we had the best tour guide ever. I think my favorite thing I learned was about name days. In the Czech Republic, on the day you are born, the parents are given a list of about 400 names to choose from and each name corresponds to a certain day. Therefore, there a ton of Czech people with the same name, but its kind of cool because you sort of have two birthdays. On the astronomical clock in Old Town Square, there is a dial with all the names and their corresponding days. We learned a ton about the history of the Czech Republic and walked through the Jewish Quarter. Sophie downloaded an app that allowed us to track how much we walked and since the morning, we had walked over 10 miles! That afternoon, we walked across Charles Bridge and spent more time in Old Town Square (of course, eating more food). The next morning we went back to the square (and yes, got more food) before our train departed at 1:30. We had about a 6 hour train journey to Linz and then a 1 hour train to Salzburg, Austria. It was a really nice train and we even had our own compartment for most of the way!

Once we got to Salzburg, we walked to our hostel and checked in. It was very close to Salzburg Fortress and Nonnberg Abbey (the abbey where the real Maria von Trapp was a nun). The hostel was more of a family place, with lots of high school groups and older people. The next morning, we went on the Sound of Music tour! It was amazing, we got to see several of the sites from the movie and from the true story of the von Trapp family. We even got to ride into the mountains to see the countryside and the church where they filmed the wedding. We listened to the music along the way and it was so beautiful! Afterwards, we went to Mirabell Gardens (also used in the film) and then to the main town centre. There were lots of cute little shops and restaurants. We went through Mozart's birthplace, which was pretty cool! We ate some dinner and went back to the hostel. The hostel played the Sound of Music movie for everyone to watch. It was really cool to be able to watch the movie after seeing everything that day! The next morning, we went to the Salzburg Fortress and back to Mirabell Gardens (it was really so beautiful!). I think out of all 4 cities we went to, Salzburg was my favorite. It was such a picturesque, peaceful city (more of a village actually!)! After leaving the gardens, we boarded our train to Munich. It was only about a 2 hour train ride and again, the train was really nice and comfortable!

We got to Munich in time for a quick dinner and walked to our hostel, only about a 3 minute walk from the station. After checking in, we went to the main city centre to explore a little bit. We discovered the amazing Glockspiel building and then Hofbrauhaus! Because its the Hofbrauhaus I tried some beer and didn't like it much... Sophie had one that was good (only because it was mixed with lemonade) We decided to come back the next night and have dinner and I could get the better one. Hofbrauhaus was really fun and had an amazing atmosphere! The next morning, we walked to the train station and got on the train to Neuschwanstein Castle (only about a 2 hour train ride). Once there, we immediately spotted the castle up on the hill and it was stunning! We bought our tickets and walked up the hill to the castle. The surroundings were snow-capped rocky mountains and just took our breath away! The castle was nestled into the mountains with snow all around it. I have never been anywhere so beautiful! We weren't allowed to take pictures inside unfortunately, but it was even more stunning inside! It truly felt like the Disney castle. I could really feel the inspiration for all the Disney movies. In the King's bedchamber, his walls were painted with the story of Tristan and Isolde. The king's favorite animal was the swan, so there were swan paintings, sculptures, etc all over the castle. The whole castle had a fairy tale feel to it. The king actually died before the castle could be completed. They wanted to get rid of him, so they declared him insane without any medical examinations at all. The next day, he went on a walk with his doctor and neither one of them ever returned. They were found dead in a waist-high lake. Their deaths were never explained and it is still a mystery to this day. Very interesting! After we finished the castle tour, we took a million more pictures of the outside and then walked back to the little town. We went back to Munich and rested for a bit before going back to Hofbrauhaus. We got some dinner, which was actually really good! I got a liter beer (the white beer + lemonade one) and it was actually pretty good. We decided we felt like vikings or something with our very hearty/simple, but delicious meals. The next morning, we got up and explored the town centre a little more before our train left for Brussels in the afternoon. We got lucky and caught the show in the Glockenspiel right before we had to go!

We got to Brussels pretty late at night, so caught a taxi and went to our hostel. Our hostel was really more of a bed and breakfast, it was so nice! We finally had a room to ourselves and A TV!!! We kind of freaked out a little bit when we saw the TV because we really haven't seen one since we left the US!  The bathroom was super nice, with a heating towel rack! Mamma Mia was on, dubbed with French and Flemish subtitles. Weird! But the songs were still in English. The next morning, we went down for our delicious breakfast and then headed out to explore Brussels. We found the main square, which had a TON of Belgian chocolate shops and Belgian waffle stands. We decided to do our own walking tour, so we went to the famous peeing little boy fountain, the Law Courts, a flee market, a park, and the royal palace. It was all so beautiful! Sophie's walking app informed us that we had walked another 10 miles :-) We made our way back to the main square and got our Belgian waffles! They were amazing. The waffle was the smallest part. It was stacked high with strawberries, bananas, whipped cream, and chocolate. So delicious! That night, we went back out for dinner and found a nice little cafe. The next morning, we slept in a little bit (finally!) before finding our way to the coach station to catch our bus back to London.

Over the entire trip, we guessed we had walked at least 50 miles. We really walked everywhere and it started to feel like almost nothing! Its catching up to me a bit now though... pretty exhausted! But it was such an amazing trip. Every single city had such a unique feel to it! All the pictures (theres an album for each city) is up on Facebook!

Should be writing an essay...

This past week has been studying/working non-stop. I only have 3 more days of class this next week and then a month for spring break! Of course there is one more essay and a test standing in my way. Both are for my architecture class, I am getting a little sick of architecture at this point...

BUT 4 days until my family is here and 10 days until I leave for my Prague/Salzburg/Munich/Brussels trip!

I posted a list of British English terms a while back and I've been adding more on since then. Here's the second half of the list:

Jumper = Sweater

Freshers = Freshman

Sweets = Candy

Toastie = Grilled cheese

Lad = Jock or guy that goes to pubs often

Fancy dress party = Costume party

Put it in your diary = Save the date in your calendar

Revision = Review/Study

Pop in = Drop by

Lemonade = Sprite-like substance

Amber = Yellow

Plaster = Band-Aid

Rubbers = Erasers (thats an awkward one)

Parcel = Package

Cider = alcoholic beverage, not anything like an apple cider

Buggy = Stroller

Marks = Grades

If you ever want the full list of British terminology let me know :-)

From Londoner to Tourist in 10 Minutes

Queen Mary is situated here at Mile End in the East end of London. I absolutely love the location for several reasons. One of them is that we can be Londoners on campus, get on the Tube for about 10 minutes, and suddenly be in central London to join the tourists. Laura and I decided to explore London today and first we went to St. Pauls Cathedral and walked around the area there, and across Millennium Bridge towards the Globe Theatre. One of my favorite things about London is how you can stand on any bridge across the Thames in central London and see everything along the river. When you're close to St. Pauls and the Globe, you can see Big Ben, Parliament, and the Eye to your right, and to your left is the Shard, the Tower Bridge, and the Tower of London. So cool! We thought about doing a tour of the Globe, but due to the GIANT group of schoolchildren there, it was closed for the afternoon. No big deal, we went to Green Park instead. We walked through Green Park towards Buckingham Palace, walked around the palace a little bit, and then headed through St. James Park. I had forgotten how absolutely BEAUTIFUL St. James Park is! And most of the flowers weren't even in bloom yet! Walking through St. James Park, you can see Buckingham Palace behind you and Big Ben, the Eye, and Westminster ahead of you. After getting through the park, we got back on the Tube and headed back to Queen Mary and became students all over again. As much as London feels like home now, its so fun to take days off as a tourist sometimes :-)

St. James Park

Dream weekend in Wales!

This weekend was one of the best here so far! And so completely different from anything I've ever done! Friday afternoon, we met at Paddington station in London to board our train to Wales. The event was set up through Arcadia, my study abroad program. There were about 20 people going on the trip and 5 from Queen Mary. One of my good friends here, Sophie, signed up for the trip a few days before we left! At Paddington station, there was a guy walking around with an owl!! He claimed it was to scare away the pigeons, but when I googled about it, there were all these quotes from Harry Potter about Harry in Paddington station with Hedwig... so cool! The train ride ended up being about 6 hours, with one switch in Swansea. Once we arrived in Fishguard Ferry, we got on a bus that took us to our adventure lodge. The company was called Preseli Venture and it included the lodge, home-cooked (AMAZING) meals, and all our activities. We all arrived starving and exhausted and for dinner, they had some homemade delicious mac n cheese with salad and bread. After dinner, a few of us decided to explore the area. We were out in the middle of nowhere and it was pitch black outside, but they gave us a map and we used flashlights on our phone to make our way to the beach! After the beach, we turned back and found the little village and a cute pub. We went inside, met some of the locals and I tried some local cider. By the time we finally got back to the lodge, we were pretty exhausted. We walked for 3 hours, so definitely a few miles!

The next morning we woke up bright and early, had some nice English breakfast (beans and weird bacon included) and went to our first activity. The way it was set up, everyone did 3 activities and they split us into 3 groups to rotate through them. Sophie and the other girls from Queen Mary were all in my group and our first activity was coasteering! I had never even heard of this before, but it was my favorite thing we did all weekend! Before we left, we had to put on full wetsuits (with multiple layers!) and a helmet and life jacket. We got to the beach and after getting over the amazing view, we headed into the water. It was cold at first, but after a few minutes, the wet suits started doing their job and I really wasn't that cold the rest of the time! We swam a little ways until we reached a cave and went exploring inside of it. There were some eels like the ones from the Little Mermaid! We left the cave and came out on the other side of the island. We climbed our way around until we reached a cliff where we could jump into the water. We steadily jumped from higher and higher points, it was so fun! One of the instructors gave us some seaweed to eat and it was actually not bad... it was kind of just salty and a little peppery. We kept climbing the coast around the island (it was more lateral climbing instead of vertical). We reached a spot the instructor called a washing machine. Basically, the waves were crashing into the cliffs and swirled around like a giant washing machine. We jumped in from there and played in the waves a little bit. We got back out of the water onto the cliffs and kept making our way along the rocks. There were definitely a few times I looked down and thought man if I slip right now... this could be really bad... But according to what everyone said later, I seemed very brave and adventurous :-) (thats a first!). Eventually, we swam back to the beach we started at and changed out of our gear on the beach. They had some steaming hot chocolate ready for us in the vans (best hot chocolate EVERRRR). We headed back to the lodge and had some lunch. It might be the best lunch I've ever had. It was some soup with broccoli, carrots, potatoes, etc and homemade bread and some cheese. It might not sound that good, but after a morning like that it was delicious! In the afternoon, we headed back out to go kayaking. We put on our wetsuits again (different ones this time, not as much covering) and went back to the same beach. I had never been kayaking before, so it was kind of hard to get a handle on at first, but after a while I got the hang of it. We made our way around the coast and a few people went close to the rocks and inside caves where there were some rapids. I kindly opted out of those options, since I had no intention of capsizing. Two people in our group did capsize, but they were fine. The worst that happened was getting cold and wet. It was so cool to just be able to go around the coast... I don't think I've ever been anywhere so beautiful! That night for dinner, we had some chicken curry. We played some Scrabble (which I won) and some cards. They made a campfire for us and we sat around it for about 2 hours!

Our last morning there (sad!), we got up, had our English breakfast, and got ready to go on our 7 mile hike. It was a lot colder outside, but totally worth it. The entire hike was literally on the edge of the cliffs and you could see the coast for miles. It was unbelievably beautiful. There were also lots of sheep up there and of course I loved that :-). Towards the end of the hike, we walked by the beach we had gone coasteering and kayaking from, so it was cool to see all those areas from the top of the cliffs. I was able to get pictures of the cliffs we jumped from and the "washing machine" we played in (they're up on Facebook!). After 3 hours, we made it back to the lodge and had our last delicious meal there... I think I was more sad to leave the food than anything. Its probably the best I've eaten the entire time I've been abroad. The lodge and staff were all amazing too, overall it was just such a good experience. As much as I absolutely adore London, it was a nice weekend away from the city. 

Now back to real life....

P.S. Lots of pictures up on Facebook!

Les Mis!

Monday night, I went to see Les Mis at Queens Theatre! I had been counting down the days! It was AMAZING!! They had this rotating stage that was incredible. They used it in the middle of scenes to make it look like they're walking along a street, they used it with the barricade to show the fighting on both sides, and they would black out the back and rotate it around and there would be a whole new set ready. The use of the stage and the sets completely made the show! The barricade was stunning it was huge! At intermission we got chocolate fudge/truffle ice cream that was so delicious. There is ice cream everywhere in england and it is always so good! I definitely cried at the end and everyone around us was sniffling! It was so good and actually somewhat different from the movie...

Last night, we went to ministry of sound (a famous London club) and Far East movement was playing. They were really good, but it was so crowded it was hard to even enjoy it.

I can't wait to go to Wales this weekend we are going coasteering, kayaking, surfing, hiking, cliff diving, all kinds of crazy adventurous things!

My family will also be here exactly 3 weeks from today!! I could not be more excited :-)

Canterbury and Oxford

This weekend was so fun! My study abroad program, Arcadia, puts on some day excursions for students. Yesterday, I went to Canterbury and today I went to Oxford. Next weekend I spend the entire weekend in Wales!

I absolutely fell in love with Canterbury. It was the most adorable, historical city. There have been Roman traces there for 2,500 years!! The cathedral there was built around 490 AD, so it has an unbelievable amount of history. Canterbury Cathedral is the mother church of England. The archbishop has traditionally lived there and he is the second most powerful person in the government (after the king and today, the prime minister). We went on a little walking tour of the city first, seeing all the adorable shops. Every other building was built around 1500. We saw the ancient decaying Norman walls built around 1050 when they conquered England (1066 is the major date every British person knows. Its the year William the Conquerer came over and conquered England. Thats also when he built the first part of the Tower of London.) Our tour guide told us the story of St. Thomas Beckett: He and the king, George II, were very close friends and he became the archbishop. When he became archbishop, he became a changed man and became very religious. He held his ground and never let the king have his way, so they butted heads a lot. One day, the king gave an indirect order that someone should rid him of the man. Four of the king's knights took the order seriously and rode down to Canterbury and preceded to murder Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. It was a brutal murder and you can still see the spot where he was killed. Thousands and thousands of pilgrims traveled to Canterbury to visit the shrine. This is where the book, Canterbury Tales, comes from. It talks about how each individual pilgrim has their own individual story traveling to Canterbury. Walking through the city, we saw the Canterbury Tales tourist attraction. The cathedral was stunning, it was so huge! While we were there, there was music playing while they were rehearsing for that night. It really gave the place an amazing atmosphere! You can still see the candle burns where Henry VIII destroyed Thomas Beckett's shrine. After the cathedral, we saw Eastbridge Hospital, an old place where all the pilgrims slept safely on their journey and its supposed to be one of the most haunted places in England. There was just a ridiculous amount of history throughout the cathedral and the city! We had about 45 minutes of free time, in which we just walked the streets of the cute little city and I got another Nutella and banana crepe :-)

Today, we went to Oxford. I learned that Oxford University is actually split up into 39 individual colleges. The city is just one beautiful college after another. We saw a memorial where Queen Mary Tudor (Bloody Mary) burned some bishops and archbishops after she was trying to convert the country back to Catholicism after Henry VIII broke with the Catholic church. We saw a pub called the Eagle and the Child, where Tolkein and CS Lewis went for drinks. They made a bet there on who could write the best fiction books and hence, the Hobbit/Lord of the Rings and the Chronicles of Narnia were written. We saw one of the colleges where the infirmary in the Harry Potter movies were filmed. Then, my favorite part of the day, we went to Christ's church, the largest college of Oxford. Cardinal Wolsey originally began building the college, but when he disappeared (he failed miserably at getting Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon) Henry finished building the college. Of course, it was Henry, and he couldn't handle a small place. So he built the giant college and a giant cathedral with its own bishop and everything. Christ's church was the inspiration for Hogwarts and specifically, for the Great Hall. Walking through the halls, it really felt like Hogwarts! It was magical!

My classes are so cool!

I love all of my classes here :-)

On Sunday, I went on a backstage tour of the National Theatre for my Performance in History class. It was really cool, I had never seen anything like it! Then, I was doing some readings for that same drama class and there was a whole section talking about Paris and the Paris Opera House, where we had JUST been. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Paris Opera House. In class on Tuesday, she spent 10 minutes talking about the Paris opera house and how it was known as the epitome of a theatre building and several new theatres were built in the same style (although none can beat it in my opinion). I was almost to the point of tears when she started showing black and white pictures of the opera house stage, architectural plans, and opening night. The essay I have to write for this class will actually be kind of interesting to write (and I think I can work in the Paris Opera House a little bit!).

My Architecture in London class goes on visits every other week and its always super interesting! I am learning so many new things and getting to see parts of London I would never normally go visit. My Abnormal Psychology class is also really cool, a different expert is brought in every week to discuss different mental disorders. I just finished writing my essay on bipolar disorder. Today for my Neurobiology class, I went to a lab (of 100 people by the way... a little different from SU) and looked at slides of mouse brain under the microscope. Stuff like that is always cool!

On a different subject, the Queen visited Queen Mary today! I think it was on a different campus and I had class at the time, but that is a huge honor to QM! Very cool :-) Heres an article on it if you're interested: http://www.qmul.ac.uk/media/news/items/smd/91586.html?utm_source=Homepage&utm_medium=Shoutbox&utm_campaign=Slide1

Paris

Paris was absolutely amazing!! I took about 700 pictures and put about 200 of them on Facebook, so if you want to see pictures, go look there! (This is already a crazy long post without pictures!)

The first day in Paris, we went to the Louvre. I had no idea it was SO BIG. It was the most beautiful and elaborate museum I've ever seen. In some places, I was more stunned with the actual architecture and building than the actual art. The pyramid reminded of the Da Vinci code movie! Pretty cool. There were several famous paintings and statues we saw. The Mona Lisa and Aphrodite were the major ones. It was actually ridiculous to see the Mona Lisa, there were so many people. It took like 10 minutes to push your way up to the front and even then its a small painting and its hard to get pictures with all the people pushing around you. But I managed to get a few good ones! One of the coolest things about the Louvre is all the actual artists painting as you're walking through. Most of them were copying paintings up on the walls, but they looked like exact replicas. After we spent a few hours in the Louvre, we walked through the courtyard and park outside the museum. Then we made our way to Saint Chapelle and Notre Dame and along the way, crossed the "Lovers Bridge." It had thousands of locks all along it, with names and hearts written all over them. It was so adorable. Saint Chapelle was absolutely stunning. The walls of the chapel were lined with floor to ceiling stained glass. We walked to Notre Dame and the line was so long we decided to come back another day. We went to Shakespeare and Company across the street, which is a famous bookstore where famous people like Hemingway would spend their days. I bought a fancy version of Les Miserables by Victor Hugo and had it stamped with the official Shakespeare and Company stamp! Afterwards, we kind of just wondered through the streets until we got to the Latin Quarter, which is kind of a touristy shopping area. We went to a creperie and got some crepes and hot chocolate, yum!

On Tuesday, we started off the day with the Paris Opera House! This was my reason for going to Paris, I had been wanting to go here for years! A lot of people don't know the Phantom of the Opera is based on a true story that happened in the Paris Opera House. I could go on forever about it if you're interested, but for now I'll just say its based on fact. So we got straight off the Metro and I was so excited I almost started crying. It was stunning from the outside and we hadn't even seen the inside yet. We bought our tickets and went in to see the grand staircase. The set from the Phantom musical and the movie actually look like the Paris Opera House staircase! I could actually visualize Masquerade going on around me. Then, we went into this hallway that was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in my life. If you don't look at any of my pictures, you have to see those. The walls and ceiling were covered with gold and chandeliers all along the hallway, it was so ornate! I had never seen anything like it. We got to see the actual theatre from one of the boxes and it looked so familiar! The boxes and stage were almost exactly like the set in Her Majesty's Theatre in London! Then, we found box 5 and you can imagine my excitement when we saw it was labeled in French "Loge du Fantome de L'Opera," meaning something like dwelling of the Phantom of the Opera. I think I actually started jumping up and down. I wanted to go in the box so bad, but we couldn't and I couldn't go down to the catacombs :/ But it was still my favorite thing we did in Paris! After the Paris Opera House, we went to the Musee d'Orsay, where we saw some Monet, Manet, van Gogh, and other famous impressionists. The museum was beautiful! Then we went to the Eiffel Tower and rode the elevator to the very top, which was actually kind of scary! It was an amazing view from the top and totally worth it. It was so cool to see all the major buildings and sites from the top of the tower. We headed back to our hostel and that night, went to one of the cafes close by. Instead of everyone going to socialize in pubs like we're used to, everyone goes to the little cafes lining the street. Everyone sits outside and drinks some wine (and smokes, but obviously we didn't do that). We felt like true Parisians! (Until the French waitress came over and she knew right away we were not French).

The next day, we slept in a little bit and went to Versailles, which was only about a 40 minute ride on the Metro. There was a guy playing an accordion on the train and it felt so French! Versailles was the biggest palace I've ever seen when you include the gardens and everything contained in the grounds. The palace is actually a tiny part of it. We toured the palace and got to see the famous Hall of Mirrors! It was just one room after another lined with gold and paintings on every ceiling. I can't imagine living in a place like that! After going through the palace, we went out to the gardens and discovered there was a tram that can take you around the gardens because they're so big! We got tickets to ride the tram to go see Marie Antoinette's peasant village. She built this whole village a few miles from the palace where she could go and pretend she was a peasant. Pretty ridiculous! But the little cottages surrounding a lake were adorable. They were still much much bigger than a normal peasants house and I'm sure she still had her servants, but I could imagine wanting to escape from that crazy palace life! There were some farm animals too, which of course I loved. There were some sheep, goats, donkeys, cows, and a dog running around. It was such a transformation going from the elaborate, gold palace to a cute little peasant village only a short ride away. Afterwards, we headed back to Paris and went to the Sacre Coeure. It was a beautiful basilica on the top of a hill. We had to climb millions of steps to reach the church, but once we were inside, I fell in love with it. There was a service going on and the choir was singing and the atmosphere was amazing.

The next morning (on our last day), we went straight to Notre Dame to try to get in line early! We got there right after they had opened and we didn't have to wait in line. It was pretty inside, but actually not as pretty as some of the other churches we had seen. You could walk around a little bit, but there wasn't near as many things to do as in Westminster or some of the other churches we'd been in. The lady at the front told me the Crown of Thorns were there in the little museum, so we went to that and then couldn't find them! Later we discovered the crown is only displayed on the first Fridays of every month and every Friday of lent. That was kind of disappointing :/ We left and went to the crypt underneath Notre Dame, where you can see some ancient ruins from an old Roman town. It reminded me a little bit of the Roman Baths I had seen before in Bath. We walked back through the Latin Quarter and had a cute little French lunch, with several different desserts. I had creme brûlée and it was so good! Then we walked to the Pantheon, another unbelievably beautiful place. In the crypt under the Pantheon, we saw the tombs of Rousseau, Voltaire, Victor Hugo, Marie Curie, and many French Revolution heroes. That night, we went back to the area around our hostel and did some shopping around there. The Moulin Rouge is close to our hostel and the Sacre Coeure is only 5 minutes away, so our hostel was in a really good location! For dinner, we were all craving Chinese food and didn't know they sold it by weight, so we ended up with A TON of Chinese food. But it was so good! We each got one more crepe for dessert afterwards and then went into a food coma back in the hostel.

Friday morning we got up early and got on the bus heading back to London. Like on the way there, we got on a ferry in Calais for about an hour and a half when we were able to get off the bus and walk around for a bit. As we were getting closer and closer to Dover, you could see the white cliffs and Dover Castle up on the hill, so cool! Once we got back, we were all so happy to be back in London :-) I love being able to come back home here!

Over the entire 4 days, I don't think I've ever eaten so much terrible (but wonderful!) food in my life! Only looking at desserts, I had 6 Nutella crepes, 2 hot chocolates, 2 chocolate mousse, creme brûlée, and some macaroons. And then when I got back, I had 2 lovely packages waiting for me filled with yummy food from home! I will really need to work out this week...