small talk

Hokay, let me get this out of my system (or off my chest)... I'm not too good with these phrases. My roommates are DISGUSTING!!! Now I know use that word a lot, but this time I mean it in every sense of the word. They are EWWWW, sick, and just like WTH!?!?! Anyways, I shouldn't be too mean because it's mainly one of them which I have a problem with. The other one's dirty, but at least she's nice to me and we watch our Grey's Anatomy together. The other one is just plain awful. She yells at me whenever she's mad (for things I don't do) and stomps around the apartment. SHE IS CRAZY. So what has she done to drive me to waste my precious time to complain about her? So I go into the bathroom to take out my contact, and lo and behold, there's POOP in the toilet! Not to mention a few minutes earlier I heard her fart roaring from my bedroom (no joke). How is it possible that I got put with the most awful person on the program as my roomate? So when I ask both of them who have used the toilet last, she fesses up, but then counteracts with telling me "Can you take your BLACK hair out of the shower?" I know I'm quite the shedder, but please, didn't your mommy teach you proper bathroom etiquette?

Anyways, I'm so sorry for spending all that time ranting about her... normally I hate it when people use their blogs to whine and complain. I won't write about her anymore, especially since I'm not going to let her ruin my memories of this trip.

On Wednesday, Rachel and I went to this Fresher party for Hillsong London. They call Freshmen at unis Freshers here lol... When we got to the address, it was a bar! What?! A church party at a bar? I guess that's European style for you. We went in and met a ton of people! The funny thing is, I haven't met that many British British people (like white people), I met so many people from Switzerland, Australia, Canada, 2 guys from Ghana, this Indian girl from Hong Kong, Norway... just people from all over the world! It was crazy! One of the guys was in school for art and did installations. His next project was putting up 81 flags on my STREET! What a coincidence! But sadly, it won't be up until next September. I also met these two girls, Claudia and Colleen. Colleen is my TV soulmate. She follows Project Runway (it's Project Catwalk here) and the OC. What's really funny is that she was like "You're from California? Do you live near Laguna Beach?" So apparently everyone here is obsessed with the OC and Laguna Beach. They have this image that California is wonderful and sunny and amazing (which it is ^_^). Which brings me to my latest confessions: 1. I tell people I'm from California, not the states. 2. I'm a neuroscience major, not PSYCHObio.

On Thursday, Danielle and I went back to Covent Garden to look around the boutiques. I must say, Brick Lane was much cuter. Urban is WAY cuter here as well, but again it's much pricier. On Friday, after class, I headed over to the National Gallery. Basically, I was running away from the rain (which comes in every possible direction), and it was free! There are SO MANY paintings in there! Van Gogh's Sunflowers was one of the most crowded paintings, since there was an exhibition called Manet to Picasso. I got to see paintings by Michelangelo, Leonardo, and Raphael (no Donatello though :( ). There's another version of Virgin on the Rocks here.

This is The Ambassadors by Holbein. This may not seem that amazing at first, but what's really cool is the distorted skull on the bottom. If you walk to the right of the painting, the skull snaps into perfect proportions. (I'm trying to rotate my laptop right now, and it semi works... my flatmate must think I'm nuts)

Afterwards, I walked over to First Fruits again and met some more people in uni. We went over to Chinatown again to get some food. You have to pay extra for tea here! It was really coo talking to Will, one of the funniest Brits I've met. He was really into American culture and even asked me how to start a fraternity! He was like "Have you seen Old School?" and when I told him that it was shot at UCLA, he was like "WICKED!" Basically, everything I told him about America was "WICKED". He was also the first Brit I've met who liked American football, better than football football. O_o Now that's wicked.

So sorry this is a pictureless entry... and about the huge rant in the beginning. By next week, I've have a super entry since my flatmates and I are ditching school (only two classes) and going from Geneva to Avignon to BARCELONA!

rules of life

First some pictures of Wings + Wicked night! :)The Sex and the City flatmates- a night on the town (in painful heels)

Pheobe and Me with wings! (look... NO NAPKINS!)Shelley and Danielle yummmm

How I've been surviving...
1. If there's no cars on the street (or if they're at a far distance away), make a run for it! There's no such thing as jaywalking, and if you don't, you'll never get to your destination. It helps when there's at least another person too- my theory: cars can't run over 2+ pedestrians.
2. Toast and muffins. + nutella. I've also branched out to strawberry conserve too :)
3. Eat only when hungry. This is so hard to do for me, the ultimate snacker. Living in London's the best diet in a way... but not to worry, when I make it on to the continent, I'll be pigging OUT.
4. Have a coin purse, otherwise the ridiculous amount of coins will make your wallet burst. They have £1 and £2 coins and 2p coins.
5. Don't look confused and people will mistake you for a local... until you open your mouth. I fool one person a week (they ask me for directions!?)
6. Carry your umbrella at all times! It's begun to rain :(

This Thursday, our class went down to South Bank for a field trip. Anar and I took the bus to London Bridge and met up with our class at Southwark Cathedral. Europe has so many cathedrals/abbeys/churches! Edward Shakespeare, William's brother, is buried there. Some of the graves were really creepy to look at. Then we headed of to Shakespeare's Globe, which was actually built only 9 years ago! We got a tour of the building and got to look at the exhibition. Apparently, tickets to the pit only cost 1 penny, and people would go to the bathroom right where they were standing! :X People would also yell and throw orange peels at the actors... really different than modern theater. We ate lunch at one of these sandwich places- all the rage here in London, then took a walk across the Millenium Bridge! :)

The Millenium Bridge- It used to wobble O_O

On Friday, our class had a field walk which started at Picadilly Circus. Unfortunately, it started to POUR! We walked around for a bit around the West End: St. James' Square, Berkeley Square (actually pronounced BARKley), which is basicall the Rodeo Drive of London. Celebrities come out and walk around, but no sightings. :( In the afternoon, I decided to check out some of the the exhibitions for the London Design Festival. This has been going on for the past couple weeks, and explains all the design showcases we saw down at Brick Lane! Let me just say, the design, architecture, packaging...everything is so amazing here! It's clean and simple, yet still unique and different. I'm not sure how to describe it. So this is really nerdy, but I love the fonts and graphic design they even use in the supermarket or the tube map! I'm not sure I can really explain it until you come over here... While wandering, I found this kind of secluded street with cobblestone roads and little shops (Carnaby Way). One thing I love about this city is that you can walk anywhere and you never know what places you'll find! At night, I went to the First Fruits Fellowship that Charis told me about. It was really fun (I still can't get over the fact that there's Asian people with British accents! O_o) We went out to Chinatown for snacks at night, like most Asian people would do. I got this red bean float thing with ice cream! It was 3 pounds :( The boba there is 3.50 pounds = $7!!! And I thought Westwood was expensive.

I met up with Arcadians on Saturday!! (Henry and Erica) It was so good to catch up with them! I haven't seen both for such a longggg time! We went to Wagamama for lunch and caught up! They're actually at Queen Mary's College together, but that's wayyyyy outside. Once again, I was reminded of how lucky I am to live in CENTRAL central London. I'm pretty spoiled! On the bus, these little old ladies asked me where I lived, when I told them Russell Square, they said it was "quite posh". LOl.... We walked outside the Tower Of London, which had long queues (lines), so we didn't go in. We walked across the Tower Bridge and then to the Tate Modern! OMG amazing!!! I can't believe how many great pieces I saw- and the museum's only been open for 6 years! I saw Picasso's Weeping Woman (and lots more Picassos), a LOT of Dali's, a hugeeee Monet's Waterlilies, Miros, Calder (?)'s mobiles, one of Andy Warhol's Marilyn Monroes, a Diego Rivera, my first few Mondrians, and a few Kandinskys. I did feel a little bad, since I go through art museums really really slowly, but they went quite fast. Henry was tired, so he went back home, but Erica and I went over to Parliment and the London Eye to catch it at sunset. I love walking around the city (or any other city) at night! Everything's so pretty with the lights! :) We sat at Trafalgar Square for a bit to eat our pastries then walked on Charing Cross Rd (where there's lots of bookstores- any genre you want, and they've got a store for it).

Being touristy in front of the Tower Bridge
Big Ben at dusk :)Trafalgar Square at night! There were also two men in chicken suits holding lightsabers (a sentence I never thought I'd say)

On Sunday, I headed out to church again. It's really nice having local friends- which I don't think many people on this program have. It's actually really hard to find them without going to a pub or a club. We at this really cheap Chinese food place, where the takeaway boxes are extra! They also take away your bottled water, just in case you drink it! WHAT!? Anyways, Rachel and I then went for a little shopping afterwards. She's the American student from Texas who's studying at London College of Fashion. Oh! We also got to ride in one of the boy's car, which was a trip since he was driving on the right side of the road!

Sad story: So I guess I'll never be able to ride the bus on one take from Hyde Park home to Russell Square. This time, I was sitting on the top, resting my eyes when we hear this big THOMP! and the bus shook. We ran over something. This lady was screaming on the floor, so I thought OMG we ran over a person!? It was her poor dog who ran in front of the bus! :( :( SO SAD! People on the bus were really shaken too, this one lady was in tears. They kicked us all off the bus and told us to take another one. I still have that horrid image of the poor dog in my head :(

Just today, we watched this HORRIBLE D film called For Queen and Country. It had Denzel Washington in it! Oh gawd, I can't believe he's connected with such a dreadful film. It's absolutely rubbish (the people at church always correct me when I say "trash"). It's like one of those godawful 80s movies they show on UPN at 3 in the morning.

east enders (not the trashy soap on bbc) and one second of fame!

I'm still listening to the Wicked soundtrack ._. Everytime any one of my roommates comes in, I'm utterly embarrassed since this loud, crazy musical music is on (all the time). In other news, Clay Aiken is not gay! or so he says lol... I just thought that was funny, since it was the top story on People.com. Thankfully, I've gotten rid of my Pink is the New blog addiction :)

Since we didn't have class today (woohoo!), Danielle and I decided to go down to Brick Lane (east end of London), which is dodgier (right Vanessa?) to check out the vintage/thrift stores. I borrowed this book called the Bargain Hunter's London, which is amazing! Especially since I'm saving up my money for faboulous clothes and trips. ^_^ So the main goal was to go to Beyond Retro, a retro clothing store that Kiera Knightly shops at. But when we got there it was so overwhelming, especially since I've never been thrift store shopping before. I found some stuff, but I'm not too comfortable with blingin' 80s garb, used shoes, or crazy prints. It felt like going through my mom's closet actually. I don't have a really good eye for these quirky stores, but when the clothes are on a manniquin, it looks so cute!

Anyhoo, we walked around Brick Lane and found SO MANY vintage stores! :) The best part is that these places washed the clothes for you already and hand picked special pieces. I found this pageboy hat that was so cute, but according to Sarah, hats always seem like a good idea, but end up in the closet. Lots of stuff was so cute, but I realized lots of the same cute stuff doesn't fit me. Okay, so the point of this whole entry was to lead up to my new favorite store... The Laden Showroom!!!!!! OMG amazing! :) It's like the Musee d'Orsay of clothes... basically, it should be illegal for all the great stuff to be there in one store. It sells independent designers, so there's like only two of each item in there. Posh spice shops there :) Every pair of shoes I tried on was SO CUTE and SO COMFORTABLE (which is sooo hard to find). I found these heels for 30 pounds and flats for 45 pounds. (cringe!) Danielle and I found so many cute tops and skirts and dresses and capelets... AHH!

Brick Lane is also famous for its Indian/Bangladeshi restaurants, so we had some curry for lunch. There's 50 curry restaurants within a one mile stretch! O_O Sadly, we went back into the Showroom and tried on more cute stuff, BUT we were good and didn't buy anything! I think we're probably going back on Saturday to actually get the stuff because we couldn't stop thinking about that store :( My poor bank account...

This this entry probably was pretty boring (if you got this far), so sorry! But if it's of any interest, I stalked who atually made it to Junior Year Abroad. If you didn't hear me tell you about it, it was this reality show they were recruiting for from NBC. So close to making it, yet so far! The asian girl they picked is going to Taiwan!!! UGH. I guess I wasn't marketable enough, but my life is not as exciting enough for reality TV (ahem Rohini!) Well the lame part of the show is that it's an online show, so it wouldn't have been on TV anyways? haha... but they did put in a blip of my audition tape in the first episode showing the other contestants who I guess didn't make it. So sadly, unlike what Andy Warhol predicted, I got only one second of fame ._.
So if you're bored, watch my one second at:

http://www.nbc4.tv/jya/index.html

A little trivia for the Indians back home... as much as you don't like it, Indians = Asians here, Chinese/Korean/Japanese = Orienta. WTH?

wicked fun and american girls in paris

*sorry if any pictures are repeats from Facebook, but these are my favorites!

Wednesday- decided to go to Paris. Eurostar tickets were expensive because of such short notice, but the hostel (more like budget hotel!!!) was only 20 euro!

Thursday- Went to eat wings at sports cafe again. Lots of football games were on, so lots of men in suits (it's happy hour) were there! Cider's pretty good, beer not so much. (only sipping)... while we were walking, Shelley, Danielle, Pheobe and I felt like the four gals from Sex and the City. It's really funny, since we all have the personalities of one of the characters. I was chosen as Charlotte (obviously)... and everyone else's personality is REALLY like the girls. Weird, eh? Then, off to see WICKED!!!!!!!!!! My new favorite musical, besides Beauty and the Beast (which was my first ever)! I'm listening to the soundtrack as I'm typing. There were no understudies there, Idina Menzel was Elphaba! She's the original Elphaba and Maureen from Rent. Everything from the set, to the music, to the story, was SOOOO GOOD (and it was funny!). The tickets were only $30 too. Adam Garcia was there too (from Coyote Ugly), and the lady who was the nurse from Romeo + Juliet and was Prof. Sprout in Harry Potter. After taking the bus back home, we watched my downloaded Project Runway and ate Magnum ice cream bars. The best night ever :)
pictures are coming soon!

Friday- After class, it was off to the train station! It felt like an airport, and I got more passport stamps! :) We got to Paris at around 8. The saddest part... getting scammed by a creeper within five minutes of stepping foot on Paris. He sold us "passes" for the metro but were just one way tickets :( OH well, lesson learned. We left our bags at the hostel and headed the the Lourve. It's so gorgeous at night. We got to see the traffic go through the Arc d' Triomphe :) :) and the Eiffel Tower. We squealed with delight when we saw it. It was so surreal that night to actually be in Paris... I've wanted to come here longer than I did with London. We decided to follow the light (like flies) towards the Tower. Walking along the Seine was great, except it was really empty along the streets. There were lots of people in military garb holding machine guns, which was unsettling. We finally got to the Eiffel Tower, which was happening. People selling souvenirs kept yelling greetings in every possible Asian language. The rumors are true- the French have bad B.O., and I feel lots of them are a little snobbish. But then again, I'm a stupid American tourist.

Saturday- The hostel had breakfast! SO GOOD! I finally felt full for once. We got baguettes and croissants, and stuffed some extras for lunch. Off the Champs Elysees! OMG the shopping is amazing... since it's on the Euro, you can get more for your money. We walked towards the Arc d' Triomphe, then headed along the avenue towards the Louvre. Took pictures by the obelisk and walked through the park. There were lots of French kids on scooters! At the Louvre, we saw all the masterpieces, including the Mona Lisa, Winged Victory, and Venus de Milo. Boy, was it tiring! X_x Next, off to the Notre Dame Cathedral! It's on an island in the middle of the Seine. It's sooooo beautiful! The Rose Window's so intricite and amazing! We took the metro to the department stores (which are crazy with people and name brands). BTW, the Metro is really dirty. I missed London then. The sky was clearing up, so we rushed back to the Eiffel Tower. The wait was 2 hours! The wait and the elevator ride totally felt like a ride at Six Flags or something, minus the scary drop. It was beauuuuutiful! :) I was lucky enough to see fireworks from the top! We ate at this really touristy (translation: expensive) cafe right near the tower that night.

you're never far from an azn tour group the Eiffel Tower picture everyone hasfountain near the Obeliskinside the Louvre

One of the few sightings of blue sky!

The Rose Window inside the Notre Dame

Notre Dame The Seine from the Eiffel Tower Our wonderful Hostel/2*hotel, baby steps in backpacking

Me with the Renoir

The delicious cake at Laudree

The cafe!!

Sunday- On the way to the metro, I saw the cutest French boy. Best hair (see tidbits, had his little brother, and was walking with two dogs!) First stop, the Musee d'Orsay. I love love LOVEEEE this museum! I could stare at these paintings alll day long. I saw lots of my favorite pieces, Degas' dancers, Renoirs, a whole room of Monets, Manet, and Van Gogh. There's so much more that I'm forgetting right now. :) The coolest thing was seeing pieces that I've sketched before in art class. It was sad the painting of Van Gogh's bedroom was traveling :( We took the metro to the Champs Elysees for some shopping, but alas everything in Paris closes on a Sunday. sadness!!!! I guess I saved money. Well, to cheer ourselves up, we ate at this really fancy schmancy tea house on the avenue, Laudree. It rivals Jin Patisserie (my favorite place!). They're famous for they're macroons! Then, it was back to the train station and home sweet home to London. Right when we walked out of Waterloo, there were fireworks! I guess London really missed us (actually, it was the end of the Thames River Festival). We got to walk around the city for a little bit at night :) Big Ben was light up with green lights!

More tidbits:

• The French are so attractive. Women- they're so natural looking and effortless. They don't try nearly as hard to look pretty as Americans. The guys have such good hair!!! I cannot emphasize this enough. Did not see any hairy armpits thank God.
• Paris is definately prettier at night. The fountain at the Louvre was green. ick. But just like people, everything's looks 100x better at night.
• To all at home: I'm not sure if I can bring presents home :( It's so hard to buy souvenirs and lug them back with only a backpack. I will bring food items! But I don't think any keychains or doodads (like the ones you get from the states)
• The patisseries and chocolatiers smell SOO GOOD. I swear they blow that baked bread smell onto the street. *_*
• French bread is better in France.
• The journey on the Channel Tunnel (the part that's actually underwater) only lasts for 20 minutes.
• Story of my life: everytime I walk around with an umbrella, it won't rain, but if I manage to forget it, there's a 100% chance of rain.
• My camera memory is failing me! My picture happiness is returning ._.

a walk in the park, the henge, and the old bath

Sorry for that the pictures are lacking... I do have a lot, but blogger takes FOREVER to upload them! :(
Yesterday, my flatmate and I stayed up trying to get out of this island! England's really nice, but I so want to go to the continent- except any hope of that in the near future is looking dim. Plane tickets, train tickets, and ferries are so expensive on such short notice :( The end of the week was quite nice, since I don't have afternoon class on Thursday, I was feeling insane and took a walk all the way to Hyde Park! It's really nice to do reading right on the Serpentine (big lake in the middle). It's one of the few places in the city where you can actually breathe air that's smoke free and not bump into people all the time. I saw at a bench off the lake, and all these people came and sat next to me... reading and people watching at the same time! Hopefully, this week, I'll make it out to the Somerset House again or Hamstead. Unfortunately, on the way back, the mean bus lady kicked us off at Marble Arch. All of us on the top level were so confused! O_0 so it meant that I had to walk all the way down Oxford Street again...

In front of the Royal Albert Hall

Deck chairs that they put out on the lawn

On Friday, my flatmates and I made it down to the National Portrait Gallery. It's pretty self explanitory, and features a lot of photographs as well. The Beatles on the Balcony exihibit was SO COOL! I really want to go find Abbey Road and visit Liverpool now! Sadly, in the gift shop they decided to print out the weirdest photos! The famous picture of William Shakespeare (black and white one) is there too. I took a few illegal pictures before a mean British man yelled at me :X I swear they blacklisted me throughout the whole museum, people were staring at me where ever I went. I saw him on two different floors too- stalker!

Portaits of the fab four... I wanted this picture of them jumping on the bed in a hotel though

Saturday was Stonehenge and Bath day! We woe up at the crack of dawn (7:30... sad isn't it?) to catch the coach to Stonehenge. We got there in about an hour- and out of the city! Horray! It was really in the middle of NO WHERE! It was flat plains all around, and a LOT smaller in real life! No one told me this before! So to all of you who are going to make it out to Stonehenge someday, don't get tooo excited. It's really cool how it has all these astronomical qualities and legends. Apparently aliens, the Devil, or Merlin brought the stones there. Then we made it out to BATH! This city was gorgeous!!!! There was Georgian architecture and it was supposed to be modeled after a Roman city. We got to go into the Roman baths, which are over 2000 years old! The water was a bit murky, but it's been there even before the Romans were (it was a hot spring). There was also a temple there in the bath and across from it was Bath Abbey! The churches here are amazing... all the detail on the walls/ceilings and stained glass are so intricate We walked along the River Avon and tried to catch some of the rugby game. It's so cool how so many people gather for that event! (Football season is currently right now... Chelsea's playing a game on TV right now- what's funny is that they were praticing at UCLA over the summer, and I had no idea who they were- here they would have been mobbed). We passed by Jane Austen's house too! It's funny that Bath boasts about having Jane Austen live there, but she actually only lived there for a few years (and didn't really even like it). So many authors have lived in England, obviously, I've seen Charles Dickens' house and Mr. Caldecott's (he has children's book award named after him).
On Sunday, I finally met up with Enqin! She and Julie, who I met the day I arrived, and Loretta, met me at the tube station. While waiting for them, I popped into Starbucks. O_O A tall frap is
£2.70- about 6 dollars! I'm going to miss them, but I guess I'll have to wait until I get home to hit up Starbucks. :( Church was really good; the message was about obeying the government, which I found interesting, since the Brits are way more knowledgeable about politics than we are. Afterwards, they had tea and biscuits :) and met a lot of the church people. Most of them have British accents! We went to a Thai pub for lunch, which was pretty cool. Half of it was a pub, the other half was a Thai restaurant. The pad thai tastes the same across the pond. The boys wanted to play football, so we went to a football pitch (Wormwood?) to watch them play. I met Charis, Kristina, and Emily (local girls), a bunch of boys whose names I'm forgetting right now, and an American student from Texas named Rachel. She's at the London School of Fashion right now! It was really cool to hang out with people other than Americans!!

That brings us to Monday/Tuesday... yesterday's film was 28 Days Later- the horror zombie film! I must say after staring at Cillian Murphy for two hours, he is good looking, but still creepy looking. That movie wasn't as scary as I thought, usually I'm a chicken! It's mostly blood, killing, and even nudity. I must say after watching a few shows on TV and the films, the Europeans are quite risque in that sense. British Museum class was today, and we had a scavenger hunt through the museum. Seriously, this is great! Hopefully, it'll continue to be this fun, since I've never written an art history paper before.

I'm not too sure who reads this but:
Oh, to Henry/Mee Ko- I was watching this diet doctor show and "muffin tops" are what the Brits call love handles. You guys were close in naming fatty body parts though!

Gregg! They have a chain of sandwich shops here called GREGGS... I'm not sure if it's that good, but the rival store is Pret A Manger <- Kim's favorite French word :) Thanks again to the Sam and Jon who comment! If you're ever bored, please do, since I really love reading them :) It's great to hear from you all! Hope all is well in CA! It's been SO HOT here... I'm loving wearing my rainbows everywhere.

dirrrrrrtay

I am living in filth. Mee Ko and Lisa (if you ever read this), I can't wait until January!

I'm sorry my entries/photos aren't very interesting... I think the types of people who go to Europe to study abroad just want to get drunk. (and not take cute pictures/go sightseeing :( )

p.s. since one of my >:l roomies wants to watch my sex and the city on my computer, the rest of this entry will have to wait until tomorrow. bye!

humpday

Two weeks in England so far! ...and I'm already getting cabin fever! I think all the crazy sales on flights to the continent are making me a little crazy. Two days ago, I found a flight to Geneva for £1.99! Amazing! Sadly, I'm not too sure about who/when I'm traveling with quite yet. One of the girls who went on the program said not to rush planning trips because you don't quite know who you're/what you're getting yourself into. I HAVE to go Italy (and maybe the south of France) for my long break... but almost everyone I've met so far seems to want to go to Spain or Scotland?! What is this madness?!

So Sunday was the Regent Street Festival (more free events!), and Shelley and I walked from our flat to see what was poppin. The theme was "A Walk through Spain" and promoted Spanish tourism. There were lots of food giveaways (free champagne, sangria, tapas, etc.), but OMG tourists (or Londoners) who attend these things have no concept of personal space! At the table with olive oil/bread and cheese, this Japanese lady was putting her whole body weight on me! I nearly fell over the whole table of oil. UGH. Everyone wanted a piece of bread, so I helped this old lady get one- not a good idea. Give them a little bread, and they walk all over you! It was impossible to get out! Seriously, the crowds here are RIDICULOUS! Way too close for my taste. That's Shelley and me with our precious cheese that we almost died trying to get. ._.

They brought sand all the way from Spain!

Shelley and I got ambushed by pirates in front of Hamley's (like FAO Schwartz)

Part of the Narnia-themed staircase in Hamely's (5 stories!)
Painting a Spanish mural
Santa Claus decided to get some sun before heading up north
The human tower! No wires or tricks :)
If you look to closely, she has this really long spoon that she uses to serve wine (free!)

In front of the festival banner with our free wine samples!

Today, since we don't have class until 3, Shelley, Pheobe, and I headed over to Buckingham Palace. We arrived just in time for the changing of the guard, since Pheobe hadn't seen it yet. We got to see the band play for a little bit; they played the Star Wars song (when Darth Vader walks around) and the Olympic song! haha... it was quite nice to hear the band. After braving the crowds again, we grabbed a snack from a cafe then bought tickets to see the State Rooms of the palace (rooms that are open to the public). Since it's summer, and the Queen's on holiday, the rooms are open for two months of the year for visitors. We got an audio tour of the palace- SO AMAZING. I thought I knew what a palace would look like, but this was 1000x fancier, prettier, and just spectacular! There were so many paintings, marble scuptures, gilded tableware, chandeliers... the staircases and the ceilings were my favorite part. Too bad we can't take pictures!! :( My favorite part was looking at the Queen's collection of ball gowns and looking out the window to see the gardens and the lake (and get a nice breeze!). Since it's her 80th birthday, 80 of her gowns were on display. SOOOOO BEAUTIFUL! Every square inch of all the dresses had pearls or jewels on it. My favorites were the ones from the 50s/60s... the Queen is TINY! I think I'm taller than her! The window to the gardens were so nice- really different from the hustle and bustle of the city. I could totally image the garden parties they had, and it reminded me of Pride and Prejudice! *_* We got to walk through the gardens and look at the lake for a bit after wandering the palace.

Buckingham Palace from the front... like a postcard!
The back... I can see Mr. Darcy now :)

I'm afraid that's all the excitement for now... today was so HOT! I wore my summer clothes and was still sticky! It sucks how the building our classes are in doesn't have A/C! Everyone I think was dozing off... :( poor Prof! Everyone here's been so nice so far... I'm not too sure who reads this (I don't think anyone on the program reads this), but my roomates are a bit erm... difficult. I guess it's good for me to experience living with different people. The saddest thing: my roomies don't buy toilet paper! And it's not an urgent need for them either O_o. So after being sick of using my flatmate's bathroom, I bought my own secret stash. :X I just can't belive how ridiculous this is! Apart from the TP situation, I get along fine with one of them, but I swear the other one hates me! :( Sad how I've never met anyone who has been like that with me less than two weeks! ::sigh:: I'm sure it'll get better though!

Just some random things:

• The British are obsessed with 9/11. I'm not sure if there's as much talk about it back home, since we're coming up to the 5th anniversary, but over here, I hear about it almost daily. There are documentaries about it everyday (and I think until next week too), and we watched Yasmin, which showed how that event caused discrimination of Muslims in Britain too.
• I miss ice cream! It's incredibly expensive here :( I'm going to pig out in Italy.
• I visited Topshop again (bad idea), and the turnover rate for the flats is amazing! I went on Sunday... only a few days after my first visit, and there was already a new shipment of shoes! They totally rearranged the whole shoe floor! This is not good...
  

As for the cold, no more phelgm (EW), but the sore throat remains! :( I'm trying salt+water now. Cheerio, dearies!