TWO-FER: February 9 - 22nd

Monday, February 9th:

After a couple of Mondays spent not doing anything outside of my flat I was determined to do something today. I made plans to go to H&M on Oxford Street and just walk around and explore the area. 

I left at like 1 and took the bus all to Hamley's Toy Store on Oxford Street which was a long (about 50 minutes) peaceful ride to the other side of the Thames. I walked to H&M first and spent time wandering around their store, I eventually bought a couple pairs of jeans. Afterwords, I walked around Oxford Street, doing more window shopping. 

As I continued to walk around, I found myself on Regent Street and right in front of the BBC building. As someone interested in radio and television production, the BBC is like holy ground for me. For a while I was working on an application to be an intern at Radio 1 and Radio 1Xtra but I had kind of lost hope, assuming it would be too hard to get or too hard to work if I did get it. But, as I walked around the building and semi-creepily peeked in the windows I regained the desire to work for them, so I'm still working on that application, it's due on Sunday. Wish me luck! 

When I came back, it was about dinner time. I had a hearty meal of pancakes before opening the application again and working on it through dinner. Normally, Lauren, Kitty, Cheryl and I go to quiz night on Mondays but I wasn't feeling up for the competition of quiz night so instead Lauren and I went to the O2 to see Big Hero 6 at the O2 cinema. Big Hero 6 was so good, it was hilarious and heartwarming and everything you would expect from a Disney movie and more. I definitely want a Baymax of my own now.

Tuesday, February 10th: 

Today I woke up and got ready for class, wishing for Mexican food, specifically Chipotle. When I arrived I learned that we were going to see a show tonight, with I had forgotten about until I got there! Which means that I was getting Chipotle! 

During class we talked more about the mega-musicals, specifically Les Miserables and Phantom of the Opera. As a part of our class we watch videos of scenes of shows and musical numbers and after seeing a few from Les Miserables I've made it my goal to see the show while I'm here. 

Soon after, the four of us left to see The Scottsboro Boys at the Young Vic. I enjoyed the show, but not quite as much as Miss Saigon. But, it was interesting to see how the Londoners depicted  

Wednesday, February 11th: 

I went to class today where we talked about The Islands. Afterwords, we went to the play You Are Not Alone which was about loneliness in the 21st century. It was very interesting and entertaining. 

Thursday, February 12th: 

Went to class again. Today we were in the classroom discussing marketing and branding--my favorite things. This was one of my favorite lectures. It was cool to discuss the ways that museums market their exhibits.

Friday, February 13th: 

Friday has slowly changed from my favorite to my least favorite day of the week. I don’t like getting up at 10 am for class (I know I live such a hard life), but, like, 10 am class on Friday is a sin I swear. 

So after class I have a 4-hour break that I normally use to sit in my bed and watch Netflix and try not to nap, I usually nap anyway, before heading back to the lab I have at 3. 

The lab also frustrates me because it’s solely time to work on a group project that we normally do for the first two and a half hours and spend the last thirty minutes staring at our phones and waiting for class to end. I just feel like there could be a much more effective use of my time that didn’t require me to have class until 6 on Fridays. 

Anyway, after class I was really excited because Lauren, Carolina and I had tickets to go to this masquerade ball that was a mix between Friday the 13^th and Valentines Day themed. Lauren and I were joking that some part of the universe really didn’t want us to go to this ball because we had problems buying our tickets, printing them out, and getting on the bus to get there but we were determined to make it work. 

The only thing I can say about the Dark Side of Love Masquerade is that it was an experience. Overall, I’m glad I went but I definitely didn’t have the best time while I was there. It was really weird, they had strange string music that I can’t imagine dancing to, most people were in corsets or lingerie and were really drunk. They tempted us with food and the food was good but only bite sized and was fed to us by gold painted people (yeah I know right­), the venue was cold and drinks were expensive. Not my scene. So, we came back at like 1:30 and hung out in the kitchen for a while, we ended up going to bed at like 3 am which wasn’t the best idea because we had a CIEE excursion to Windsor Castle that we had to leave Goldsmiths at 9 for.

Saturday, February 14^th:

So when my alarm went off at 8 am you can imagine how I was feeling. I had planned to look nice but decided against that in the morning so I could get another precious half hour of sleep but at 8:30 it was still so hard to get up. Eventually I made it work and dragged myself out of bed and Cheryl, Lauren, Kitty and I made our way to Waterloo rail to meet up with the rest of the group. 

 

Windsor Castle was beautiful! We walked around the grounds, went on a tour of the state apartments, saw a massive doll house that’s probably worth more than like everything I’ve ever seen and had a fantastic time. One thing that struck me though is the sheer amount of wealth the royal family has here. Like before the state apartments they have sets of china on display that are gold and jewel encrusted that have only been used once, and there are at least fifty sets of china on display. Just imagining that amount of wealth blows my mind. We started calling the Queen “Grandma” which I’m sure isn’t at all offensive to the Brits, and found out that she does occasional “dine and sleeps” where she literally hosts sleepovers at Windsor Castle and my new goal in life is to be invited to one. 

After exploring Windsor we went to have lunch at an Irish Pub that was pretty good, and pretty cheap. We looked around at some of the shops near the train station before it started to rain and we decided it was time to head back. On the way back we talked about how much fun it would be to bake and Cheryl said that she had cupcake ingredients so we recouped before Cheryl and Kitty came back to our flat to do some baking. I only had about an hour and a half before I had to leave for All Time Low and You Me at Six at the O2 so I offered moral support for a while before heading out, thinking that I left myself plenty of time. 

I waited at the New Cross Gate stop for the 177 to Greenwich for 30 minutes I swear which is ridiculous because the buses normally run every 10 minutes and it was so sad to watch multiple 21s or 171s drive by and have to think to yourself that you can’t just get on those. 

But, I got to the O2 eventually and it was glorious. I ended up missing Walk the Moon which is fine because I’m not that big of a fan anyway. All Time Low played first and it was wonderful, the lighting, stage design, pyro, everything was outstanding. I loved every minute of it. You Me at Six played after and it was so funny to see how much the crowd increased which is the opposite of what happens in the states because they just don’t have as many fans in the states yet. They also played a fantastic set. I was amazed by the whole production. Literally no flaws.

Sunday, February 15^th:

I woke up this morning so sore from the day before and probably still from that ball that any sort of anything seemed totally out of the question. But, I had to do work before I went to Wales on Wednesday so I dragged myself out of bed and forced myself to start my entrepreneurship forward plan, which I spent the whole day “researching” but didn’t actually get that much done.

Monday, February 16^th:

Today I spent most of the day working on all my assignments before I left for Wales on Wednesday. 

At 8:30 the squad walked to New Cross Inn for quiz night. There was significantly less amount of people there than usual but the squad still didn’t manage to make it to the top 3but we still had a lot of fun anyway. 

Tuesday, February 17^th: 

Today was PANCAKE DAY!!! Aka the best holiday to ever exist (and it’s a real thing in the UK like it isn’t just IHOP it’s so beautiful. Lauren, Cheryl and I woke up early to meet Carolina and Katey and take the train to Shoreditch to eat breakfast at The Breakfast Club. I had American pancakes with berries and streaky bacon and it reminded me so much of home. It was so beautiful I will cherish it forever. 

After pancakes, we walked around Shoreditch for a while before pancake races started at noon. It was so much fun to watch the teams in costumes run relays with pancakes. 

When Cheryl, Lauren and I came back we were starving for guacamole (I’m always starving for guac) so we made plans to meet back before dinner and make some guacamole, which was excellent! 

Then, I packed for Wales!

Wednesday, February 18th: 

I woke up at 10 in order to get ready to leave and make my train at 12:15. I was so excited to head to Paddington and then to Cardiff to spend the rest of the week with Lauren. My train ride was pretty painless and quick. I finished most of the essay due on Monday on the train. 

supporting Ross during 6 nations 

Once I got to Cardiff, Lern and I had lunch/dinner at Wahaca, I had a burrito which wasn't as good as the tacos I had in London, but the chips and salsa were excellent as usual. We walked back to Lern's flat, which is a lot farther of a walk then I was used to. Props to her for walking that far when she goes to city centre. We started planning our spring vacation before heading out to Tesco to get stuff for dinner.  

Thursday, February 19th: 

Today I was supposed to meet Lern before we went down to city centre for shopping at about 1. I woke up at 1:25 so in typical Shelbie fashion I got ready in about 8 minutes and before finding my way to the student union. I managed to make it there without losing my way. 

We headed down to city centre to look for dresses to wear for the Brits! After a couple of stops at different stores both Lern and I found dresses at a store called New Look. We walked around city centre before heading to a pub for a Harry Potter society meeting


that Lern's a part of. The meeting was so much fun! We played a lot of really cool games. My favorite was Just A Minute where we had to talk about a topic for a whole minute without any repeats, hesitations, or deviations.  

Friday, February 20th:

Poem: "in these stones horizons sing"

This morning I was prepared to spend the finishing up my essay and waiting for Lern to get done with class at 5. But was happily surprised when she texted me saying that two of her classes were cancelled so I met her at the student union and we walked down to Cardiff bay. It was so much fun to see the ocean and explore that area. I saw some Dr. Who stuff I didn't understand and we watched these adorable kids work on their own houses in this neighborhood project for charity. 

We continued to walk around the bay and look at the shops. Lern bought some welshcakes before we sat down to dinner. I had a BLT which was excellent, and then we walked back to her room. When we got back to her dorm we decided to lock down the first part of our spring break trip. We had already made plans to meet Sydney in Rome so we wanted to book up to then. We ended up booking half our trip, Marseille, Rome, and Budapest. We had so much fun looking up places to stay and booking flights and now I'm so excited to explore parts of Europe that I might never get to see again. Booking this trip made the fact that I'm actually living in Europe for half the year.  

Saturday, February 21st: 

This morning Lern, Alyssa and I walked to Cardiff Castle and explored the grounds. There were a bunch of cool rooms each with a different theme. My favorite was the rooftop garden where the owners used to grow food and have parties. The whole castle was amazing and I loved how they also had an exhibit of the wartime shelters in the castle walls so you could see how the castle was used during the Blitz's of World War Two. 

We spent a long time in the castle, but we got hungry for lunch after a while so we ate downtown and walked down to a street fair. We had some street fair cupcakes that were amazing. After we got back to our flat we had a little bit of time before we had to turn around and walk back to city centre so I could catch the train back to Paddington.

Sunday, February 22nd:

I spent today looking over my forward plan and making sure that it's good enough to turn it and recovering from the weekend in Cardiff.