21!

My 21st birthday was Saturday!
I had a great dinner with a smaller group of friends at a pub, then a large group of us hung out in my dorm room to get ready for the bar. We went out to Oxygen Bar, a dance club, and had a great time!!
Picture: Some of the girls (Amanda, Katherine, Sarah, Me, Melanie, Erica, Lindsay, Shayna) at Oxygen Bar

The end is almost near! I've already started packing up my room and getting ready to see my parents and then head home!

Scotland: The Land of Sheep

I spent the last four days in Scotland, and I could not be more in love with the country!

We left on Thursday morning at 11:30 to head to King's Cross station to catch our train to Edinburgh. We arrived at Edinburgh around 5:30, and after checking into the hostel, our group leader from Richmond, Stuart who is from Edinburgh, showed us a bit around the city. He took us to Edinburgh Castle and to the shopping street.Picture: Edinburgh Castle


At dinner, we ate a couple of traditional Scottish dishes...I did not order haggis for myself, but my friend Shayna did, and I had a pretty big bite. It was not horrible, but I don't think that I will ever try it again. We also had Irn Bru with dinner. Irn Bru is the national soda of Scotland, and it even outsells Coca Cola in Scotland. It's an odd mixture of cream soda and orange soda, and while being pretty delicious, is 30% sugar. I couldn't drink it every day, but I had a couple of bottles throughout the weekend. After dinner,we took a trip to a very cheap pub that was showing a football game, and hung out for a bit with the locals and watched the game.

At 10 o'clock, we headed to the Royal Mile (the main steet of Old Edinburgh) for a ghost tour. There are countless numbers of ghost tours in Edinburgh because of the city's very old and haunted history...the modern city is built on the old city. We started off the ghost tour on the surface of the city, but eventually we made our way down to the vaults. That is when the ghost tour actually got really scary. We first saw the torture museum, where the tour displayed instruments of torture used during the 17th and 18th centuries in Edinburgh. These instruments put the torture scenes in 'Saw' to shame. We made our way down into the underground vaults, which were on the show 'Most Haunted Live' in 2006 which found the vaults to be very haunted. The scariest story we head was about a Wiccan temple and the leader who spent the night down there. The leader of the Wiccan coven was friends with the owner of the vaults, and so he was given permission to hold services down there on Wiccan days of worship. However, in the first room that they inhabited, lots of weird things happened, such as the room being trashed and witches feeling lots of pressure on their chests whent they entered the room. So the Wiccan leader decided to spend the night in the room inside of his protective circle. He woke up in the middle of the night hearing shuffling coming down the stairs and approaching his circle, but it stopped once it reached the protective energy. So finally, he heard the frustrated ghost begin to shuffle up the wall and onto the ceiling right above him. Like any normal person, he grabbed his torch and ran. Supposedly, the spirit was then trapped by him inside of the circle. We had the option to stand in the circle, and although I'm a bit unsure about the presence of evil spirits, I did not tempt fate and stand in the circle! Some people in our group did...hopefully they will be OK!Picture: Protective Circle, Paranormal Level 2 Zone

After the ghost tour, we grabbed a drink and hung out in the underground vault bar where there was live music, and then called it a night and went to bed. We had to be up early the next morning (8:30), so we were hoping for a good night's sleep without any nightmares.

The next morning we got up and started on our tour of the Highlands of Scotland and the Isle of Skye. We went with a tour group called Haggis Tours, which was SUCH a great tour company. The guides were young, funny, and the male guide Colin was very cute and had a great accent! We left Edinburgh at 9:30 in the morning and began our trip up Scotland into the Highlands. One of the first places we stopped was the small town of Dunkeld. The first part of the day was gorgeous, so we walked around to the cathedral and then soaked up the sun by the river.

Picture: Dunkeld River

After Dunkeld, we continued our trip North and stopped at Culloden Battlefield. It was the site of an important battle between the Scottish Jacobite forces and the British. After stopping there for a few minutes of pictures and bathroom breaks, we made our way to the most exciting stop of Day 1: Loch Ness!!
Picture: Me in front of Loch Ness

By the time that we got to Loch Ness, the weather had gotten a little colder and the sun had gone away. But it was still super exciting to see the most famous lake in the world, and get pictures with Nessie! We walked around the gift shop and looked at all of the really tacky touristy souveniers.



Picture: Me, Shayna, and Melanie with Nessie!

After Loch Ness, we were pretty much done sightseeing for Day 1. We arrived in Fort Augustus, where our hostel was located, and checked into our rooms. We stayed in the 'Trainspotting' themed room, which was super cool. That night, we went out on the (small) town of Fort Augustus and had a good time sampling authentic Scottish culture.

The next morning we headed out at 8:30 again. On Saturday, we were going to spend the day on the Isle of Skye. The Isle of Skye is translated from Scottish into "The Misty Isle," but the weather that we had was some of the most beautiful I have ever seen. It was sunny with pleasant temperatures and clear, blue skys. My two favorite parts of the Isle of Skye were the Sligachan River and our hike down to a waterfall. The Sligachan River is supposed to bring youth and beauty if you put your face in the water for 7 seconds. So most of our group got our faces wet in hopes of youth and beauty. We'll see how that works out.
Later on the in the afternoon, we stopped at a waterfall/view point on a big cliff. Eventually, unplanned, we all decided to start hiking down to the waterfall. It was so increadibly beautiful and untouched. We spend about half an hour down there just taking pictures, soaking up the sun, and enjoying the amazing view before making the steep climb back up the cliff.

We spent the night in a small town called Kyle Achin right over the Skye Bridge. It was an extremely SMALL town, so the night was pretty slow. We hung out in the hostel bar for a while, before retiring early and watching a little T.V.! We randomly had a TV in our room so we hung out watching 'Family Guy' before calling it an early night.

The next morning, we got up for our last day in Scotland. :( We left the Isle of Skye and started back down the Highlands. It was another BEAUTIFUL day, and I couldn't stop taking pictures of the scenery. Our final destination of the trip was Stirling and the William Wallace Monument. I felt a little homesick for P.C. at the William Wallace Monument because of the obvious connections with Braveheart. I took an awesome picture with an imaginary sword in fron to the monument as a tribute to Cyrus!

After the Wallace Monument at Stirling, we were pretty much finished with Scotland and made our way back to Edinburgh. We hopped on a train back to London, and then five hours later, we were home! I was sad to leave Scotland...it was such a fun place. It was amazing to be in nature and see the stars and breathe fresh air for a few days!

More pictures of the scenery and other places are on Facebook!

G20, the cinema, and Camden Town

As I'm sure many of you saw on the news, last week was the G20 Summit in London. Since we don't have TVs in our rooms, it wasn't really until the protests started to flare up that we realized that this summit might be a bigger deal than we thought. We were supposed to go down to the center of town on the Wednesday that the summit began for a class field trip...but I made the executive decision not to go because the transportation promised to be a nightmare. I didn't want to get in the middle of the Tube and it be so crowded that I wouldn't make it to my class on time (and waste 2 pounds). This was a good call because apparently rioters attempted to break into the Bank of England, and they successfully broke into the Bank of Scotland and began destroying the place. It would have been cool to be in on the action, but not cool at all to be caught up in it all and get arrested! However, I didn't hear anything much about the summit after that, and the rest of the visit went off without a hitch. Apparently, everyone over here was wowed by Michelle Obama and loved all of her outfits. She was all over the free papers that they give out on the Tube, and all of the reporters came to the conclusion that she looked miles better than Prime Minister Gordon Brown's wife. I don't know much about global politics, but I do know a bit abut fashion, and I'd have to agree.

If you know me at all, in any way, shape, or form, you know that one of the foremost loves of my life is movies. If my money would hold out, I could go to the theater every night and see one. So it's been a long, hard three and a half months without going to the movies. This is not to say that I still don't watch movies...as an abroad student, you get very well acquainted with certain websites that have less than legal copies of movies and television shows. But I had not gone to the theater, bought a ticket, some candy, and a drink, and then spent two hours in a darkened theater with twenty other people in three and a half months. So on Friday night, we decided to go to the small cinema (they aren't called theatres over here...those are for plays, cinemas are for movies) in Notting Hill and see 'Two Lovers.' It was a lot of fun to go to the cinema. The tickets at this smaller cinema (2 screens) were probably equal after conversion to American ticket prices, and there was a nice area where you could buy a beer, mixed drink, or nicer food to take into the theatre with you. The cinema was in Notting Hill and owned and operated by a church, the Kensington Temple. I think I may go to see another movie before I leave...although, they have far less movies than there are in the United States...now, there are probably only 10 movies to choose from in the entire city.

On Saturday, Katherine, Rachel, and I went to Camden Town and explored the markets. Camden Town is essentially a couple of large markets, along with lots of established stores. I feel like Camden is the London that we have missed living in Kensington. Kensington is such a nice, safe, POSH area of London. Camden Town has the punks, the Rastafarians, the goths, and all of the hipsters. There were lots of really funny T-shirts, cute dresses, jewelry...but also lots of leather, bongs, pipes, and inappropriate body jewelry. I would compare certain parts Camden Town Market to gigantic Hot Topics. But there were also amazing vintage stores that we spent a lot of time looking through. There was a really exciting and unique food market...with food fromMe xico, China, India, etc, crepes, and freshly squeezed juices. Sadly, we ate before we got there, and could only walk through and enjoy the smells. I made one purchase at the markets...it is a really unique leather bracelet with a key charm and beads. It was only 3 pounds!

After the market, we went out to eat for a friend's 21st birthday at Texas Embassy. The food there is not the best (nothing compared to the Mexican food of Barberitos or Senor Garcia's) , but they have good chips and salsa and margaritas, so it was a fun and chill Saturday night. Since we had such a large group, we sat upstairs and listened to the musical act that was performing.

A Week Full of Things I Love

After a great Spring Break, I figured it would be only natural that the week back would be a downer. On the contrary, this week has been a lot of fun!

Tuesday night, we had a fun St. Patty's Day. Everywhere downtown was so crowded, but we actually took a nice break from everything and sat on the Trafalgar Square monument for a while.
Picture: Left to Right--Amanda, Ashley, Katherine, Me


On Wednesday, with my History of London class, we went to the reconstructed Globe Theater. It has hands down been my favorite trip of the class. We took a fairly brief tour of the inside of the theater by a Globe tour guide. It was a pretty day, so it was not difficult to imagine seeing a show in the roofless theater. Although, shows are staged there no matter what the weather. We also had time to go to the giftshop, and I bought refrigerator magnets of Shakespearean insults and a graphic novel of Hamlet. If they have a more detailed tour, I would really like to be able to go back.Picture: Me in front of the Globe Stage

After seeing the Globe, we walked around the South Bank a little more to see the original sites of The Rose Theater and The Globe Theater.

On Wednesday night, we attended a concert at Scala, a venue near King's Cross Station. We saw GirlTalk, which consists of a man and his MacBook. He makes remixes out of beats and lyrics from Top 40 and classic music, rock, rap, everything. For example, he might make a remix out of the hook from 'Tiny Dancer' and then throw Lil Wayne rap over it. The concert was one big dance party, and we danced for two hours straight in a jam packed room!

On Thursday night, I went to see Avenue Q with Rachel Weinthal. It was such a funny musical and the way a lot of people describe it is an R-rated Sesame Street. Hilarious! It was not really like any musical I had seen up until this point. I'm used to Rogers and Hammerstein musicals or classics such as Phantom or Les Mis with clear morals, simple songs, and clean cut characters. This was definitely not one of those shows, and it was refreshing. Some of the things were a little questionable...but when the puppets said inappropriate things, it was only funny rather than offensive.

My roommate and her friend that has been visiting for over a week went to Paris for the weekend, so Friday was a really nice day for me. I was able to catch up on all the sleep that I had missed from Spring Break and this past week, and then do a lot of homework. We went to dinner at Da Marios, a great Italian place in our neighborhood. It is the same restaurant that we saw Dustin Hoffman a few weeks ago, but we didn't see him again this time.

On Saturday, the musical bug hit us again, and we went to the Novello Theater is Covent Garden early Saturday morning to get some tickets for Spring Awakening at a cheaper, day of show rate. We were able to get seats, good ones at that. While we were on that side of town, we walked across London Bridge, explored the South Bank a little more, and then crossed back over to city London on the Tower Bridge.
Before dinner, a group of us (Caroline, Christina Jones, Rachel, and Katherine) went to eat at a Mexican place called Los Locos in the theater district. I didn't know very much about Spring Awakening before going to the show, other than that it was supposed to be amazing and that it won a lot of Tony's. I could not be happier that I went to see it. It was such a beautiful and heartbreaking musical. The staging of the show was very minimal, and musical numbers were very uniquely stage. Even the lights were awesome! Everyone in my group simply loved it...but a couple in front of us left at intermission. I think that they didn't love the themes of the play...eek!

It has been a very cultured week. I don't have anything specific planned for next week, but I know that, in London, anything can come up!

Spring Break '09

This Spring Break has been the best on record.

We started out in Athens, Greece. We arrived on Friday night at the Athens airport, took a cab to our hotel, settled in, and then headed out to dinner. We ate at a traditional Greek place, and I got a Greek omlette with feta and a Mythos beer. There are two native Greecian beers: Mythos and Alfa. Both are very hopsy and good. After that, we collapsed into bed in preparation for a long day of sightseeing.
The next morning, a large group of us gathered together (Katherine, Amanda, Christina Rine, Christina Jones, Caroline, Erica, and me) and climbed up to the top of the Acropolis. It was so amazing. We went up a really neat way, winding up back roads and getting to see some beautiful Greek homes and churches. Picture: Parthenon

Seeing the Parthenon was an amazing experience, similar to seeing the Sistine Chapel or Westminster Abbey. It is something that you read about, see pictures of, but never really understand until you visit it. We spent about an hour on the Acropolis, taking lots of pictures and enjoying the view.
We next visited Hadrian's Arch and the Temple of Zeus. After seeing them, we decided to have a nice leisurely lunch. The restaurants there are very competitive for business, so we were able to finagle free wine and free dessert from one restaurant. They had amazing chicken souvlaki, which is chicken marinated and fired on a grill with peppers and onions.
Later, we went back to the hotel for a bit of a breather and said goodbye to our friends. We rode up Lycabettus Hill, the highest point in Athens. The view was breathtaking, and we could even see the ocean! After the hill, it was time for dinner, and we searched out a gyro place. DELICIOUS. The restaurant gave us free shots of ouzo, and we finally got to say 'OPA!' as we toasted with the other Greek patrons.

The next morning, we had to wake up at 5:00 in the morning to make our 7:30 am ferry. The ferry was very nice, but it got pretty stormy on our way over there. Even through the rain, it was gorgeous passing all the islands. Finally, around noon, we arrived on Naxos. The rain cleared up right as we got there. We really took that afternoon to relax and watch some American T.V. (Friends and Mr. and Mrs. Smith) and grabbed dinner at a great gyro place. Once again we got free shots at the restaurant, this time of a liquor called Citron.

The next morning, we woke up and headed out to the Temple of Apollo. It was up on a rock, and after we looked at the temple for a while, we layed out on the rocks in our swimsuits. It was a beautifully sunny day. I didn't want to get in the water, but I was walking on one of the rocks, slipped, and slid halfway into the freezing water. It was pretty funny, but my tailbone was bruised for a couple of days.Picture: Roommate and I on the beach in Naxos

We were randomly walking around Naxos, looking at shops, when a man yelled to us that we should come to Escoba for a great dinner. Since Katherine is from Texas and loves her Tex-Mex, we were down for that. We went back to the room, took a nap, got dressed, and went to Escoba. The dinner was great, and eventually we started the dancing.
We spent our second day in Naxos in much of the same way, spending time on the beach and laying out in the sun. I even got a little sunburned on my face. We went out for dinner at a very traditional Greek dinner with AMAZING Greek salad. The Greek salads are so fresh and amazing...the tomatoes are sweet and juicy, the cucumbers are refreshing, and the huge blocks of feta are out of this world. We headed back to Escoba that night, as it was the only nightclub/bar open in Naxos during the offseason.
I was very depressed on Wednesday morning when we had to leave on the ferry from Naxos. I am adament that I will go back to Greece again one day.

Picture: Houses on the hill in Naxos

Our trip on Tuesday was exhausting. I think we took every form of transportation, minus helicopters or a Segway. We rode the ferry to Athens, a subway to the end of the line, a taxi to the airport, a plane to London Luton, a bus from the airport to the train station, a train to the Tube station, the Tube station to Gloucester Road, and then a walk home down Gloucester. And in about six hours, I had to be up for a flight to Dublin.
We were back to Luton the next morning and off to Dublin. The flight was only about 40 minutes long, and we arrived in Ireland around 1:30.

We were booked to stay in a hostel, which was quite an experience. We were in a room with 10 other girls, and slept in bunk beds. But the hostel was in a great part of town and only ten minutes away from the center of town. The first night we were in Dublin, we went to a comedy show which was HILARIOUS. I couldn't stop laughing at the comediens, and their accents made everything a little bit funnier.
We explored Dublin and saw the sights that were there...Dublin Castle, Trinity College, Christ Church, and St. Patrick's Cathedral.
We also went to the Guinness Storehouse. I have found that I am not the biggest fan of Guinness. It is a coffee-y beer, and I think that it has t be an acquired taste. But the museum itself was very interesting, and I was able to force down about half of my free drink at the Gravity Bar.
Picture: Teeny Jones and I being skeptical about our Guinness

We were able to get a taste of the pubs in Ireland by walking around Temple Bar. Temple Bar is mostly a nightspot, but there is also a fresh market there on Saturdays with delicous crepes, sasuages, fresh cheeses, seafood, etc. Temple Bar is an area, but the famous pub is THE Temple Bar. It was really crowded, but tons of fun with lots of 80's and 90's music, singing, and drunk Irish men.
By Sunday, needless to say, I was exhausted. But this Spring Break will go down in history as the best one ever, no contest.

--There are more pictures of my travels on Facebook!

Plans!

As of tomorrow at 4:20, I will be done with midterms!
That means that I will be free to go on my Spring Break. I am leaving for Athens, Greece Friday afternoon and after spending a few days there, I will be spending a relaxing 4 days on the beautiful Greek Island of Naxos (Google it!).
After Greece, we are flying to Ireland to spend the weekend before St. Patty's Day on the Emerald Isle.

I will report back with lots of details, stories, and pictures!

Many apologies....

Sorry I've been so slack on the blog. It's been a busy couple of weeks since Paris. This blog is probably going to be a little less "and on this day I went here and saw this and here is a picture." We've been trying to pace ourselves on sightseeing and actually focus a little more on schoolwork.

My friend Katherine and I were walking around Notting Hill on Saturday, and we both came to the realization that we've started to feel like we live in London, rather than merely being tourists or visitors. It was a really exciting and affirming realization.
The best way to see the city is just to walk. The weather has gotten a lot nicer, and if where we are going is only one or two Tube stops away, we will just set out in that direction on foot instead of having to pay a subway fare. People have even stopped to ask us directions. This is kind of daunting, but it is also very rewarding when you can respond, "Actually, yes! In fact, I do know the way to the Gloucester Road Tube station." I had always hoped that I would be able to find a regular pub, must-go-to student night, and interesting new people that I interact with like I've known them my whole life during this semester...but I really didn't really think that those expectations would be this quickly fufilled and in such great supply. I've already gotten so much out of this experience, and I'm not even halfway done yet. (Thank God!!!)

But, I do miss some things about the United States. I've actually started watching the NBC show Friday Night Lights just for the fact that it does give me a (shockingly) accurate potrayal of the life back home. Great show; you should be watching if you aren't!
I miss Zaxby's and Barberritos A LOT. Mexican food is not very popular over here, and that is one of my favorite types of food. I miss having my Blackberry on hand at all times so that I can Google something. I miss flip flops, shorts, and T-shirts. I miss birthday celebrations that I could be having with my friends from home. (here's looking at you, Ace, MH, and Caro) I desperately miss Waffle House.

There are also some great things that I've discovered that make me so happy over here: falafel sandwiches, Strongbow, dancing into the early hours of the morning, Pret a Manger, Dorothy Perkins, H&M, Topshop, the pub atmosphere, a new appreciation of Lady Gaga, and then just about everything that London has to offer.

Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life for there is in London al that life can afford."
--Samuel Johnson