a long long time ago

So it takes me FOREVER to update this thing! I usually spend at least an hour on each entry, since my internet is so slowwww. Anyways, so the ACCENT center, which is the the office that organizes the activities for us, gave us a free trip on the London Eye! This is a big deal, since they normally give us SQUAT. USC gets trips to Paris and goes to musicals, while we walk to the markets around town.

The Eye is the biggest ferris wheel in the world, and each capsule holds about 25 people. We got to in with a bunch of people from our program! Unfortunately, it was cloudy that day (last last Wednesday!) but we could still recognize lots of buildings. The group that went the day before us couldn't even see St. Paul's, so we were really lucky still.
Some of us peering out onto the ThamesDouble Deckers

Courtney and I on the way back down

See the tall building on the rightmost side? That's Centre Point, which is thisclose to my flat!

After, we had a guided walk and tour of the Museum in Docklands for our class. Our professor's name is Alaistair (Prof. Owens) and he is the CUTEST prof! My roomate created a facebook group for him... he wears pink argyle (sounds gross, but it looks good!) On the way there we also passed Borough Market, which only sells high class foods. Jamie Oliver and a bunch of other celebrities shop there too!

Canary Wharf- look at the lime green bridge!

The next day (actually around 3 AM), we left the flat for ITALIA!!! ^_^ We flew out to Rome on Thursday and spent 3 nights there. Unfortunately, it was only sunny for a bit, and we had to bring our umbrellas around. First day:

• Vittorio Emmanuel II Monument- We got to climb up this monument, which is dedicated to the unknown soldier. It has really cool views of the whole city! We asked this couple in Chinese to help us take a picture- it's the only time when Asians are nice to each other. (My theory is that Asians are so mean to one another!)
• The Roman Forum- really cool ruins... I can't believe that some of these tiles and columns are from BC!!!

• Colosseum- SO COOL! We got to take a tour, which helped us get a sense of what the place really looked like. I could totally hear Prof. Purchase (my classics prof) talking about the different animals that were showcased and all the people that came to watch and imagine Russell Crowe out in the center! The bottom of the stadium (acted as the backstage)
  
• Trevi Fountain- at night and in the POURING rain! Kind of sad... Shelley and I threw two coins into it. The first ensures that we'll return to Roma, while the second one is any wish you want!
• Il Gelato di San Crispino- apparently the best gelato in Italia. I had the apple flavor which was SO GOOD! There were little bits of apple and it totally felt like you were biting into one (except it's soft since it's icy)... anyways we had a chat with the Gelato man, who was Philipino! O_o The owner doesn't serve it in cones, since they have 'artificial ingredients'. Kind of a snooty place, if you ask me.
• Hostel peeps- I met Laura and Ben ('Bean' with an New Zealand accent), who were so cool! They were telling me about Oktober fest and all the other places they had been. Hostels are so cool since you get to hear about other people's life stories. There was this weird Asian OLD man that came in later and was freeeeaking out though.
  

Day two:

• The Vatican Museums- Oh my goodness! this was the longest line I have ever seen for anything. We went before 8:30 to wait in line, but there was a HUGE line that stretched ridiculously around... almost to St. Peter's Piazza. We got in eventually though and saw Anar, Jen, and Erin who were in Rome as well! The Vatican had lots of interessting artefacts, but not as much ast the British Museum :) We crowded into the lines and saw the Sistene Chapel, the School of Athens, and lots of other famous works of art.

The statue of Caesar that I learned about in Classics!!! :)

The map room... so LONG

Bad picture of the School of Athens... this was HUGE and crowded with people :(

Staircase exiting the Vatican... I tripped and rolled on my ankle though ._.

Since the Vatican is its own country, they have their own post office!! O_O

• St Mark's Basilica/Piazza- this was FREE! (very exciting) We got to see Michelangelo's Pietas, which was a lot smaller than I imagined. Also, Bernini's Canopy (this wooden Jewish-like wedding thing). My favorite part was hearing a CHIOR sing... it made the whole experience even more amazing. OH, the Swiss Guards, these men in funny striped suits tried to look unnerved by all the tourists.

The choir that was singing

• Wandering- this is what we did A LOT of. We wandered over to the Piazza Navona, which was rainy again, so all the artists were covered up :( We basically walked around that area to the Trevi again! I saw this cute calendar of Roman Holiday, but I was good and realized it was a tourist trap for desperate girls like moi.

The really cool wood store! They had pinocchios and this WALL of clocks!The fountain at a more lovely time... this is my FAVORITE part of Roma!

• Pantheon- AMAZING!!!! What was so cool was that I watched a show on the telly the night before we left for Rome about this place and the Colosseum. It's weird how all of these ancient ruins are right near modern hotels and cafes. Prof. Purchase would have been soooo proud of me! ^_^ We had a free tour of it (I had found it online the night before), and got to see Raphael's tomb and the Oculus!! There was water inside, since it had been raining before :)
• Gastronomia- we had gelato (again), which is cool since you can always pick two flavors and mix them. also, bruschetta and some other calzone-like thing :9

Day three:

• The Spanish Steps- There had just been a film festival here, so everything was all under construction. The obelisk right in front of the main building was in scaffolding, so we couldn't take our Roman Holiday pictures :( Right around this area is the Rodeo Dr. of Rome! I waited in line to get into this fancy menswear store... they let only 5 people in the store at a time! O_O
• Wandering- We saw the Boca de Veritas (the mouth of truth), which is supposed to bite your hand if you are a liar! We also got better views of the Roman Forum, and saw the Piazza Navona not rainy! We ate lunch at the Trasevere area, which is less touristy and on the other side of the Tiber. BTW, the Tiber is SO GROSS. It's like a swamp! We ended the night eating at another Piazza and having cappucinos! :9 It's so nice because there's ALWAYS live music (accordions, jazz players)!

So that concludes ROMA!!!

Sorry about the lack of pictures, Blogger is horrible about these things. I'm currently in the computer lab, since I thought the internet speedwas the problem, but nope! It's blogger >:l Pictures from the rest of the London skyline and the rest of my Italia/South of France holiday coming SOON! :)

razzle dazzle 'em

It seems like October is a busy BUSY month! No time to rest, but I like this fast paced life... we'll see if this causes me to just become a bum in November.

First Cream Tea!
So our prof for British Museum class got sick, so we had no class on Tuesday! She was also sick on Thursday too, so our paper and midterm got pushed back! Not as good for me, since I didn't procrastinate that much... The girls from Flat 12 (Anar, Erin, and Jen) and I went to Covent Garden for Cream tea (scones with clotted cream and strawberry conserve)! It was sooo good! I'm drooling just thinking about it :9

Anar and I, Erin and Jen with our scones!! YUM (the ovens were SO HOT in there, that's why i'm shiny)

Visitors from Madrid
Jeanette from D9 last year, Sara, and Naomi came to visit! They got in on Thursday from Dublin. I showed them around (using the same path that Enqin took me on that first day in London), and they went to see Spamalot that night. Actually, they saw a musical every night they were here! :) Naomi kept saying every building looked like Kerckhoff, which made me miss UCLA :( One thing I don't miss are the large hills! But I do miss the company, especially since I get a lot of crap for going to my bubble of a school. What's wrong with having great dorm food, name brand food (Jamba Juice how I miss thee!), and a beauuuutiful campus? I'm not sure if it's having a lot of school spirit or that my mostly nonUCLA friends here get tired of my almost-bragging. (Besides, if they think that I do live in a bubble, how come they're the ones that never leave their bedroom and talk on skype all day?!?!) On Friday, we didn't get to hang out, since I had class and they basically saw London in a day. On Saturday, we went to Westminster Abbey, King's Cross for Harry Potter pictures, and Covent Garden Market. It was really sad to see them go, but I'll be visiting them in Madrid in November!! :)

Starstruck... by dead people
At Westminster Abbey, we saw the AMAZING stained class windows, ceilings, and architecture. It's one of the grandest churches in England, if not THE grandest. We got to see the chapel where all the funerals are held- I remembered this from Princess Diana's funeral. There was also the Coronation Chair, which every king has sat in (it's ancient!!) The best part was seeing SO MANY famous people's graves! Queen Elizabeth, Queen Mary, Mary Queen of Scots, King Henry (don't remember the number), Jane Seymour, Geoffrey Chaucer, Lord Byron, T.S. Elliot, Jane Austen(!), Robert Downing, Rudyard Kipling, Charles Dickens... I know I'm forgetting some. Jeanette, who's an English major, was in heaven! Then we walked over to the other side of the church and saw... (drumroll) Sir Issac Newton, Michael Faraday, Kelvin, and Charles Darwin! (the sciency party) One of my favorites was James Prescott Joule's grave, since it said "the theory of conservation of energy and the mathematical equivalent of heating one gram of water" (paraphrased) The nerd was coming out in me... I'm so glad I got to see it with Sara and Naomi, fellow South campus majors, because if I had gone with my London friends, I would get made fun of. We also saw memorials to other famous figures and the grave of the unknown soldier.
*Naomi has all the pictures (sorry!)

And All that Jazz
So one of my roomies saw Ashlee Simpson in Chicago and said it was amazing. So, being tempted and giving into our guilty pleasures, Phoebe, Danielle, and I went to see if we could get tickets. We got £20 tickets for seats 10 rows from the front! You could practically spit on her if you wanted too :X She wasn't too bad... her singing was shockingly pretty good, but her acting couldn't be saved. She overacted way too much! Velma's blonde hair was pretty distracting, since I kept picturing her as Catherine Zeta-Jones. Overall, the music was SO GOOD! The 14-man band was on the stage the whole time, so even the band was a character! There wasn't any set, since the company performed in front of them the whole time. They didn't really leave the stage, but just sat on the sides. It was sooo different, but good from any other musical I've ever seen. Must see list: Phantom, Avenue Q

*pictures aren't on my camera :(



The River Cam and many many bridges

Rachel and I went out to visit Emily at Cambridge today. Emily's a Chemical Engineering student, so she has a hugeeee brain! We met her at church before she had to start school two weeks ago. Her boyfriend, Danny, is also from the church and was visiting her too! Before leaving London, this uber CREEPY man had a coversation with me at the bus stop. His breath reeked, and he was like "I only date Japanese and Hong Kong women". EWWW I totally made up a boyfriend who's 25, British, and graduated already. European men are just sometimes sooooo EWW. Anyways, the bus took us there 30 minutes early, so Rachel and I explored for a bit before meeting up with Emily. It was SO COLD! Thankfull, the sky cleared up and we got a big of sunshine later :) We had lunch at Teri-Aki, where I stuffed myself. I told them how cheap sushi was back home too. (I miss cheap food!!) We visited St. John's, King's, and Trinity Colleges. (no Pembroke, Lisa :( ). Emily was like "Don't look like a tourist", so we just walked straight through the booth where visitors had to pay. We fooled them! ^_^ They have really strict rules about not walking on the perfect grass- only fellows are allowed to walk on them, and Emily said that they totally strut and show off that they can step on the grass. Cambridge totally felt like Hogwarts and was 1000x more beautiful than any campus in the states. It reminded me of Yale, since the students live in different colleges, but go to lecture together. Their term is only 8 weeks long too, and they get 6 weeks of break! LUCKY! It also costs the same as any other university, not lots more like a private uni here. We got to go punting (pushing a boat with a stick on the River Cam). Emily's friend Andrew got us Trinity College boats for only £1! He got us the boats and dropped him off near King's College. We went out on the river for a while and picked him up later (so it looked like he had been punting with us the whole time). It's so beautiful riding along the river. They let me do it for a longgggg time. I finally got the steering down and was able to go straight for a while. I ran into a willow though and nearly lost my balance. It is hard work! My arms are going to feel it tomorrow. We had a little snack at Starbucks after going to the Market Square. We talked about teeth for a really long time for some reason lol... then back onto the bus where I'm home right now! Must finish two more papers before midterm break next week!!!

The really cute street performer- his dogs sang along!!

Rachel and I on the Bridge of Sighs (like the one in Venice!)The Senate House (wow my picture taking is so crooked)
Courtyard of King's College... can you believe students live in those halls?
Riding the boat on the River Cam, that's Andrew doing his best male model poseTrinity College- the biggest and the richestMe trying my hand at punting! (I was much more nervous than I look)Danny and Emily riding in the Fate (our boat!)

One for the road
When I saw this last Monday, I believed it to be true. (we got in from Barcelona at 1 AM, so I didn't know anything). Apparently it was an ad for a documentary called (can you believe this?) "The Death of a President". I'm not sure that that could be shown in the states, but now we know for sure how the Brits feel about him. The inside page was so real too, it talked about how he got shot and had more pictures inside. It was kind of eerie I have to admit.

OH and did anyone see the preview for next week's Project Runway?!?!?! AHHHH! I can't believe Laura did that to Jeffrey. He and Michael were my faves :( She truly is Cruella DeVille! >:l

And I almost forgot... a big GINORMOUS thanks to Carlin who sent my first package (or post for that matter)!!! The ramen is sooo good :9 it really made my day too! If you'd like to send me some post, (hint hint) my address is:
99-103 Great Russell St.
London WC1B3LA
UK
I'd love you forever!!! <3

surrounded by water

Hello again! Sorry for the bit of the delay in blogging, I will get on with my adventure straight away!

My flatmates and I went on a whirlwind trip with 3 countries: Switzerland, France, and Spain. All of the cities had some body of water around it- something I'm noticing in most European cities. I'm not complaining, since I loveeee water landscapes! ^_^

02/10- I got to see Titus Andronicus at the Globe. So much fun (you were right Lisa)... I didn't even think about standing there for 3 hours! The actors came out into the yard so much, and I even got spit on by one of the actors. Titus looked just like Will Ferrell, so much so that I couldn't take him seriously during soliloquies. During some of the more graphic, bloody scenes, 30 people fainted!! WHAT?! Grey's Anatomy shows even more blood than that... I only got 3 hours of sleep because the next day...

03/10- We left for Geneva at 4:45 from our flat!!! It was so dark outside! We flew out of Gatwick Airport and had Mickey Ds for breakfast... SO GOOD. :) Basically all we did on the plane was sleep. Once we got into the city, we left our bags at the hostel and began exploring!!! Geneva's a pretty dead city, and what made our visit worse was the thunderstorms! We got soaked!! The air is really fresh and the city's pretty clean though. There are clocks everywhere, and the train times come to the MINUTE. The train was supposed to come at 15:22, and it DID. We wandered around for a bit, but to hide from the rain, we went into H&M. We played with a bunch of their accessories and wore funny hats. For dinner, I had my first kebab- meat from a spit that's put into a taco with MAYO of course, beets, and lettuce. SO GOOD and warm :) We went to the Britannia pub (how fitting right?) after dinner.

The Jet d'Eau- the tallest fountain in the world- basically like Old Faithful Fuzzy Hats! We sooo wanted to buy them

A swan! :) look how clear the water is!

The flower clock was dead! SO disappointing :(

04/10- So basically I've been dying to go the Callier-Nestle chocolate factory for a month, so today we trekked out there! :) On the train ride, we got to see Lake Geneva on a sunny day, which was sooooo pretty. The grass is SO GREEN there, it's amazing. At one of the stops, we got to walk around this small village called Bulle, which was so cute! It's like the Stars Hollow of Switzerland. Back on the train to BROC, where the chocolate factory was. For only 4 SFR, we got to take a tour of the chocolate factory. We ate hazlenuts, cocoa beans, almonds, and as many chocolate samples as you WANT! I'm not that crazy about chocolate, but this was SO GOOD. :) It felt like being in an episode of Unwrapped! ^_^ Needless to say, we ate until we felt sick. Next, we walked around the town for a bit and walked around some of the pastures and watched a cow pee for like 4 WHOLE minutes! O_O So it was back onto the train... we had to switch trains at this one station, but we took the WRONG train once we got there!! YIKES we were there for about 40 minutes in the middle of nowhere. We got to look around at this old cemetary though with real tombstones (ones that stick up out of the ground). So back to the train in the right direction towards Montreux. We didn't have enough time to visit this chateau, so we had dinner right by the lake instead! :) SO GORGEOUS!! the (French!) waiter smelled awful though. We even got to eat ice cream sundaes and dessert! I tried Creme Brulee Montbovon ice cream on the way home too.

Our first local friend... we wanted to take him home :(

The really pleasant train ride

Beautiful view from the train

Sundaes by the lake! (Europeans seem to enjoy a cookie or a biscuit with their ice cream)

pigging out at the chocolate factory

Fake jumping picture in the by the hills of Switzerland!

Swiss Trivia:

• They don't have their own language, they speak French, German, and Italian. The part where we were was French though. Thank God Phoebe could order us food!!
• They're famous for their cows, cheese, chocolate, and clocks. While we were there we also realized lots of other things come from Switzerland: K-Swiss shoes, Swatch, and Swiss Army Knives! LOL

05/10-We caught the morning train to Avignon at the buttcrack of dawn. It was still dark when we woke up again! It took sooo long for us to get to Lyon, so our train was really behind schedule. We finally made it out to Avignon... Provence!! When we got to our hostel, we started cracking up! It was a timeshare and looked exactly like a hotel place in Santa Barbara! We seriously felt like we were back in CA again! We walked along the HIGHWAY! since we didn't want to wait for the bus, and we're too poor. It's not that bad because you get to see the Rhone right next to you. Lots of truck drivers honked at us though, but like Shelley said, "If I had been driving all day and saw four girls, I would honk too." HAHA We ate at this really cheap sandwich cart (the best places to eat while you're out on holiday). I had Orangina for the first time! :) I'm definately gaining all my weight back- I had a chicken sandwich (poulet frite) with fries inside it! Greasy goodness... we went to all these little touristy shops. This region is famous for their lavender, so the stores all smelled so good! We saw the Palais des Papes (not sure if that's spelled right) and the Pont Sant-Bezenet (a bridge that doesn't go all the way across the Rhone). Also shopping at H&M, Etam, Zara, etc.! It felt so good to actually buy things that were reasonably priced. We bought dinner for ourselves at a market called Casino and watched First Knight in French. Richard Gere was soooo young! But he doesn't do it for me (neither does Patrick Dempsey).

Me with the dog at the hostel (Roxy!)

Danielle walking across the highway

06/10- We took the train to Portbou, this really small costal town right on the border of France and Spain. It was soooo beautiful! I can't believe I got to stick my toes in the Mediterranean! :) There were houses on the side of the hill right off the coast, and the streets in the town were windy and empty since everyone was on siesta. We had lunch at this little cafe- I got a spanish omlette sandwich. In Spain I ordered things that I didn't even know, but each dish was a nice surprise. At dinner I got Fruita del Mar (which means it had fish in it), but my Spanish is so malo that I didn't know this! But I was still happy anyways because Barcelona is famous for their anchovies and seafood. We stayed at Phoebe's friend's (Alyssa-the funniest person ALIVE!) place, which was right NEXT to la Sagrada Familia (Guadi's masterpiece). It's a temple that has been under construction since 1882 and still isn't finished yet! O_O We had boxed sangria (classy, right) and walked along the beach. At one of the bars, Phoebe met this boy she had a crush on in 7th grade! What a coinkydink!!! Apparently he aged well too. Charlie, one of Alyssa's friends, lives in the coolest place. We got off the metro (which is AMAZING btw, so clean, has air conditioning, and TVs!! way better than Paris's) and take a few windy alleyways and BOOM there's his apartment door. They live in the coolest parts of Barcelona! They also get decorations and paintings on the walls... at that point we were kicking ourselves for having picked the most expensive city in Europe to live in and for having the ugliest flats ever. :(

07/10- Woke up bright and early to go to the Sagrada Familia. It's soooo mindblowing- Gaudi, the famous architect, tried to put all these symbols and details in the facade. There was the navitity scene in the front, while the newer part featured the Passion. Luckily I brought along a guidebook so Danielle and I could figure out what each part meant. It was like playing Where's Waldo! We paid 2 euro to get inside to the top! We got to see all the houses and even the ocean! :) Then we walked to Las Ramblas where we got stopped by a parade! There were soooo many people out on the street. They sell all sorts of animals on the street too- chinchillas, parakeets, turkeys, chickens, pidgeons, chameleons, ferrets, fish, and lizards. CRAZY! We also went to the Boquiera Market and saw loads of produce, fish, nuts, and goodies. Afterwards, we went to the Museo Picasso and looked around. He was SO talented- I have a new respect for him. More shopping afterwards... Zara is SO CHEAP in Spain! ^_^I had the most exspensive dinner of my life that night too. We had tapas (SO GOOD!), paella, and a pitcher of sangria. I ate sooo much! The funniest part was when we were on Las Ramblas again at night (Spanish time is 2-3 later than everything else), and these drunk kids threw water on us. Alyssa said in Spanish, "We don't need to be watered! We're not PLANTS!" well... it was funny at the time ^_^ It started raining on us, so we didn't get to clubbing with Phoebe's middle school friends. Apparently that club is also really dressy too, and you can't wear flip flops!

On top of Sagrada Familia!

One of the parades we ran into! :)

Paella and sangria- delicioso!!

Anything you want, they have it at Boquiera

close up of la sagrada familia

Every city seems to need a phallic symbol (this is just like London's Gherkin!)

08/10- Woke up bright and early to go to Parc Guell, another one of Gaudi's famous landmarks. He tried to design a place where the rich people in Barcelona could live. Sadly, no one liked his crazy style and only two houses were built- one of which was his! There were mosaics everywhere! We also took the metro to Barcelonta one of the beaches right in Barcelona. They have fake sand! It was a little sad, since the weather wasn't cooperating, but we enjoyed the beach anyways. Barcelona is PDA central! O_O Thankfully, it wasn't too sunny, otherwise there would have been topless sunbathers too. It was sooooo SCARY because we missed our train to Reus, this teeny tiny airport that's 70 miles away from Barcelona. Phoebe was like "Uhh, Uhh..." The best thing we could to was go to the train station, where they had buses that left for the airport. We didn't know when the buses left though, so on the metro, I was praying to myself "Please don't let us miss the bus... please don't let us miss the bus" When we got to the bus station, I used my HORRIBLE Spanish (yo busco un bus por aeropuerto?!) to get us on the bus, which was loading while we were running there!! That was enough Amazing Race for me... we got onto the bus (THANK GOD), and rode out to the airport. It was soooo ghetto! They didn't use PA systems or computers... their "organizer" was an old costco-sized kitkat box! O_O We even had to run out to the airplane to get our seats... it was madness since everyone wanted the best seats. We made it back to London and were VERY happy to be back home.

On top of Parc Guell

On the runway at the airport! WTH?

10/10- So the holiday's over, but yesterday, I took Enqin out to see Mary Poppins (one of my favorite movies!!!)! She's Vanessa's lovely friend who picked me up from Heathrow my first day in London. And she didn't even meet me before coming here! It was SO CUTE! The sets were amazing, and the special effects were so cool! I couldn't stop smiling :) The only thing was that was a bit sad was that the songs were all out of order, and they changed the story a little. But it was still a fun night!! ^_^

Enqin and I having a jolly ol' time at Mary Poppins! (once again, let down by people who can't take decent pictures)

WHEW that was a long entry... I'm pretty tuckered out after our long trip. I survived on my one backpack! Now onto midterms and papers! EEK!