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!