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.

My Arms Hurt: February 2 - 8

Monday, February 2nd: 

I normally like to spend Mondays getting out and exploring London, but, after getting back from Scotland I was so tired that I wanted to sleep for about two more weeks that I just didn't feel ready to get out and explore. 

Instead, I spent the day catching up on the homework that I missed on Friday. Exciting stuff, I know. Living the high life in London. After dinner, the squad, Lauren, Cheryl, Kitty, Tanner, and I went to quiz night at New Cross Inn. Once again, the team was doing really well until the song category came up. We ended up being 6th to last, I think we got about 7th place. It was such a fun night, I love going to quiz night, one day we'll win. After quiz night, we were all feeling really hungry and wanted Dominos so Lauren, Tanner and I walked there only to realize they were closed. Such a disappointment.

Tuesday, February 3rd: 

Today was a weird day because I remembered that I actually had to go to class. Going to Scotland made this trip seem more like an extended vacation so having to go back to class was a really weird experience. But, nonetheless it was fun to go back and talk about Miss Saigon after we had seen it among other musicals. Now we are starting to get into the ones that I know more so I'm finding the class to be a little more relatable than it was before. Not that it wasn't to start out with because I've heard of everything we've talked about but we are getting into more of music that I've heard or shows I know the plot to, etc. etc.

Wednesday, February 4th:

On Wednesdays I don't have class until 4:30 so it's easy for me to get out and do things in the morning. So I took the bus to Deptford High Street to get some cleaning supplies at Poundland. I'll tell you, having your own space is a glamorous life, especially when you get to clean your own bathroom. When I got back I had just enough time to run to Sainsburys to get some groceries for a quick dinner before class. 

In London Theatre we talked about the show we saw last week, Peeping Tom, and honestly I didn't understand anything about that show so I wasn't very active in the discussion. But, afterwords I had a lot to think about on the way to our next show, Islands. Islands was a play about the rich people who get away with paying taxes by putting their money in offshore tax havens. This was shown very well in this play and I really enjoyed it, even if at points I felt uncomfortable or the show felt over the top. 

Thursday, February 5th:

 I woke up a little early today to get ready for my entrepreneurship class at the Tate Modern. Lauren and I got on the train a little early so we had time to stop for lunch and walk through a really pretty part of town with a market that I definitely want to go back to. Class was alright but once again we go right up until the museum closes so we don't actually get to look at any of the art. 

Afterwords Lauren, Tanner, and I ordered Dominos and it was excellent. 10/10, would recommend.

Friday, February 6th: 

I have class pretty much all day on Fridays, and after missing last Friday I definitely had to go and learn some coding. Overall it was a pretty uneventful day. Went to class, took a nap, went back to class. So exciting.

Saturday, February 7th: 

Today Lauren and I woke up a little early (12:00, super early right) because we had booked a taster session at a rock climbing wall in Mile End at 2. It was so fun and so tiring. My arms still hurt from it. It's definitely a workout but still extremely fun. I'm looking at maybe buying a monthly membership and trying to go to the rock wall as much as possible.

Afterwords, Lern got in from her day at Stonehenge so I met her at the underground stop near Goldsmiths and we went to dinner with Lauren and Tanner at the Big Red Pizzeria, which was good, but not quite as excellent as I remembered. When we got back from dinner Lern and I watched Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist as a part of my attempt to watch 365 movies in 365 days, a challenge I stole from one of my friends here. The movie was pretty good, I enjoyed it for the post part.

Sunday, February 8th:

Lern had most of the day here but she had to leave for Cardiff again at 6 so we didn't have an infinite amount of time for activities. I made pancakes for everyone in the morning (I make pancakes every morning, it isn't that much of a feat) before Lern, Lauren and I headed out to the British Museum. The British Museum was really cool! They had a lot of interesting exhibits featuring mummies and vikings and money and clocks (oh my!) and it was fun to walk around the building. I saw the Rosetta Stone in real life which was so cool to look at seeing as it was the way that we learned how to read hieroglyphs. Lauren and I got masks for a Masquerade Ball we are (hopefully) going to later. For dinner, we came back to New Cross to eat at New Cross House. I had wings and chips which were excellent. Then I watched another Netflix movie and went to bed.

          

London ➞ Edinburgh: January 26 - February 1

Hi everyone! Sorry for the late post. I'm still recovering from getting no sleep in Scotland but I felt if I waited to post this another day I wouldn't ever do it so here it is!

Monday, January 26th: 

I didn't really do anything today, which is a little bit of a disappointment because I usually spend Mondays exploring the city. But, instead I stayed in and worked on some homework and my CV and researched switching from a student visitor visa to a tier 4 student visa. After dinner, Lauren and I went down to New Cross Inn, a pub close to campus, to participate in Quiz Night that they have every Monday. We were doing pretty well until they played a round where you had to name the title and artist of a song from a 10 second clip and then we moved down the rankings significantly. One of us brought up wanting pizza so we ordered Dominos at like 10:30 which was an excellent decision. I ate pizza in bed at 11 o'clock and it was amazing.

Tuesday, January 27th:

I spent the morning catching up on homework (nerd alert!!) before heading to my British and American Musical Theatre class. Today we talked about concept albums that were turned into musicals which I enjoyed. What I like most about the class is that we watch clips of songs or parts of shows/movies and discuss them afterwords, it's a good way to break up the lecture from just being talked at.

Afterwords, we got tickets from our class to see the show Miss Saigon which I was extremely excited about. We got to leave class a little early so our class had dinner at Chipotle (the promised land) before the show. I couldn't wait to see the show after I had seen a preview of it when Lauren and I saw Into The Woods at Greenwich Picturehouse last week. It looked like such an amazing show and I was not disappointed. The staging and performers were amazing and I loved the story. All I wanted in my entire life was for Kim and Chris to end up together. My favorite part was the immigration scene with the helicopter OMG IT WAS SO INTENSE. If you are in London looking for something to see on the West End that isn't, like, Wicked or Les Mis I would highly recommend Miss Saigon. 10/10, A+. 

Wednesday, January 28th: 

After the amazing show yesterday I was excited to see how the show we see for London Theatre would compare. This class is interesting because we see more fringe theatre it's less commercial and usually a little more avant garde than I was expecting when I signed up for the class (and when I say usually I don't really know what I'm talking about because this is the third show we've seen). We spent the class period discussing the show we saw last week, The Chronicles of Kalki, and when we finished discussing I ended up liking the show a lot less than when I started the discussion, which kind of stinks but I think that I understood parts of the show that I just kind of relaxed through the first time.

After the show we went to the Barbican Theatre to see a show called Peeping Tom. Our professor basically set it up as "you might not like this, it's kind of out there" so I didn't have that high of hopes. Overall, the show was really weird and confusing and I didn't know what was happening most of the time. I felt like I needed someone sitting next to me telling me "ok now they are doing this which represents this" in order to know what was going on. Overall, I didn't really like it, wouldn't recommend. 

Thursday, January 29th: 

Today I woke up and pretty much stayed in bed before Lauren and I had to leave for Cultural Entrepreneurship class at Tate Britain. It's an exciting life here in London. We went to class and talked to the head of Visitor Experience which was interesting. I wish we had gotten more time to walk around the exhibit because by the time we finished class the museum was closed and so we just went back home. 

Fun story though, we went to the Victoria station in order to take the national rail home to New Cross Gate, but we got there so late that the train was about to leave and Lauren got on the train but then the doors closed before I could get on so I was abandoned at Victoria station and had to wait for the next London Bridge train, which wasn't for another 30 mins. So moral of the story is don't try and beat the train because one of your friends will be left behind. After I (finally) got back to Goldsmiths I had dinner and then started packing because I spent the weekend in SCOTLAND!

Friday, January 30th: 

I'll still tell you what happened each day, but, I filmed a video chronicling the weekend which is this:

I woke up this morning at the ungodly hour of 7 am because we had to take the tube into Kings Cross and be there by 9:15 which means we had to leave at about 8 due to the fact that we were leaving at rush hour. When we got everyone down to New Cross Gate and the London Bridge train came Lauren and I forced ourselves on it hoping to not repeat the incident that happened yesterday but, in the process, we left the rest of the squad behind (oops). The underground to Kings Cross wasn't terrible, I felt bad though because my backpack was so full it could have literally been used as a weapon (and probably accidentally pushed a couple people

over) so trying to allow people onto the underground when you were taking up the space of two people was awkward, but we got there. 

Our train left for Edinburgh at 10:00 and we got there with plenty of time to get some food and prepare for the 4 hour ride north before we boarded. The train was really nice and the ride was beautiful, I think it really made me realize that I was spending time in another country because we passed over rivers and cute towns and farmland and saw the sea and everything was beautiful. 

Once we got to Edinburgh the first thing I realized was that it was A LOT colder than London is. I was shivering with my hat and mittens, I was having war flashbacks to the Minnesota weather. Soon, we were on our way to our Hostel. Now, when they tell you Edinburgh is a walkable city, they mean for those used to climbing mountains, not for someone who's farthest walk is a flat walk across the street to the tube station. The trek from Edinburgh Waverly station is basically a long incline up windy paths and by the time we got to the top I could literally taste blood. It definitely made me appreciate the 4 flights of stairs I have to my flat. 

selfie @ edinburgh castle

After we checked in to the Castle Rock Hostel we had some free time to explore so some of the squad walked up to Edinburgh Castle. I love the fact that they have castles here because that isn't something we have in America so basically any time I see something about castle I'm like foaming at the mouth excited. I was not excited when I realized that we had to pay to explore the castle, but I was informed that we were getting tickets tomorrow which made me excited. Then we walked down to St. Giles Cathedral which was beautiful and one of the only churches in Edinburgh that hadn't been converted into a restaurant which I think is funny. 

hot chocolate @ elephant house

We continued our walk and stumbled across The Elephant House, which is where JK Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book. Obviously as president of the Harry Potter club it was necessary to go and get something there. I got a marshmallow hot chocolate and it was divine. If I could marry a drink I probably would've married that hot chocolate. 

We headed out to dinner at about 5 at a traditional Scottish restaurant and wine bar. I tried haggis and despite trying to keep an open mind about it I just couldn't eat it. Plus I wasn't a fan of the texture. For dinner I had a burger which I wasn't a fan of either. But the chocolate torte I had for dessert was very good. 

Later everyone was excited to get out and explore Scotland so we walked around and found a club we were looking at online called Liquid Room which was SO FUN. One of the things I'm not a fan of here in London is that the clubs play all electronic/techno music with all beats and no top 40 white girl music, like I don't know about you but I like to sing along when I dance and that can't happen if there are no words. But, Liquid Room played all my faves including Taylor Swift and Fancy and Ignition and it was excellent. 

After I got back to the room I was feeling less than excellent though because my room had 12 people in it which made it literally the temperature of the sun. I sat in bed sweating so much and I couldn't sleep because I just felt so gross, it was not nearly as fun. 

Saturday, January 31st: 

We had a walking tour scheduled for 10 am so I got up at like 9 with pretty much everyone else in our room and got some breakfast before heading out. The tour guide was informative but he talked so much and it was cold and we just kept walking downhill and I kept thinking about walking back up. In the video above you can see exactly how far away we were from Edinburgh Castle and then we walked back up to it and I think by the end I had walked a marathon. 

After the tour we had the rest of the day free so we went to Nando's were I had a chicken sandwich on pita bread which was great but I was tired and everyone was tired so we went back to the hostel to take a nap before dinner. The squad ate at Greyfriar's Bobby which was named after a dog that after it's owner died used to come and eat where they used to eat lunch together and sleep on it's owners grave which is the saddest story I've ever heard. I had a stake that was cooked through and wasn't that great. 

Afterwords we had made plans to on a pub crawl but apparently the pub crawl they were advertising in the hostel hadn't been going on for a couple years so instead we had squad bonding at a local pub before we came back and played heads up before going to bed where, once again, it was literally what it must feel like to burn in hell.

Sunday, February 1st:

Today was almost completely a travel day. We got back at like 5 and then some of the squad went to Whole Foods and then Tesco to get food for dinner which we ate together before I went to bed super early. I was hoping to stay up for the Superbowl but that was definitely not happening because I was so exhausted from being out and about all weekend.

4/5 of the squad @ edinburgh castle

Throughout the weekend I fell in love with Edinburgh and even grew to not despise the stairs (even though I'm still sore from walking so much) and I can't wait to go back hopefully very very soon. I hope you all had an outstanding week and I'll be back posting at the regular time next week!

          

Scotland: Jan 30 - February 1

Hi friends! For those of you who are looking for the weekly recap I do every Sunday, I'm sorry to inform you that I won't be posting today because I spent the weekend in Scotland and am so tired right now that writing that post seems impossible. But, in an attempt to satisfy your craving of an update on my life I made a vlog from my weekend in Edinburgh that will hopefully tide you over. I'll post the week recap tomorrow. Hope everyone had an excellent week!

Still Getting Used to This Blogging Thing: January 19-25

Ok I might be slacking a little at this blog. But, in my defense, I've been having trouble thinking of other posts to do because I only really do things on the weekends and I don't feel like I'm enough of a London aficionado yet to really give you guys advice on what to do here or what I've learned so if you want to give me advice on what to do for another post throughout the week my ears are open!

I love the brightly painted buildings of Shoreditch

Monday, January 19th:

I use Mondays to get out and explore the city. So when I was deciding what to do I realized I hadn't been to Shoreditch yet. There was a street art tour there that some of my flatmates did but I couldn't go because I had class and they said it was cool so I decided to go there. 

Shoreditch definitely didn't disappoint. It's lined with cute vintage shops and street art that I wandered around for a while until my feet hurt. While I was wandering around I found a CAT CAFE which made my entire life. I make lists of things that I like in places that I find and Lady Dinah's Cat Emporium is pretty much number one on the list. Although you have to make reservations to actually play with the cats so I didn't get to experience the beauty of the cafe, I can only imagine. I think I'm going to wait until Lern comes back to go because it'd be a little sad to sit in the cafe by myself playing with cats. Not that I didn't seriously consider it the day of. 

found a peaceful area in the middle of the city

As I continued walking I found a street filled with these beautiful brick buildings with a park in the middle. I sat there for a while contemplating life before I realized I was cold and went toward the Underground to explore a different area. But as I got on the train I realized I was cold and a little explored out so I decided I was just going to go home and have dinner. This would have been easy if I took the right train from London Bridge but I got on the wrong train, not just once, twice. 

Needless to say, once I got back I was tired and hungry so I hung out in the kitchen for a while before Lauren got back and we decided that we wanted to go see a movie. If you live relatively near Greenwich and want to go to a movie I highly recommend the Greenwich Picturehouse. If you bring your student ID you can become a student member for 15 pounds which gives you two free movies, five pound movies on Mondays (student tickets without the membership are 11 pounds) and 10% off concessions. I think Lauren and I are going to make Monday night movies a regular thing, which I'm super excited about. 

Tuesday, January 20th: 

I always feel bad when I do these Tuesday - Thursday days because most of the time the only thing that happened was I had class. This Tuesday was a little different. I did have class, British and American Musical Theatre, where we talked about the evolution of early British Musical Theatre. We got a list of the four musicals we are going to see as a part of the class which is exciting because, similarly to London Theatre, I like that we get out of the classroom and explore the city. I'm also excited about the shows we are seeing: Miss Saigon, The Scottsboro Boys, Assassins, and Beautiful. All four look like excellent shows and I'm excited to see them (count the number of "excited's" in the last two sentences). 

After class when I went to make dinner one of my flatmates came in and asked if I wanted to join her and her friends at a club called XOYO in Shoreditch for students night. It sounded fun and I don't have class until 4:30 on Wednesdays so I went in a big group of people. The club was alright, they really liked the fog machine and more electronic music with beats and no words which I wasn't a fan of. As a white girl, I like to sing along to top forty music at the club. I had a fun time otherwise! I was exhausted afterwards from dancing.

Wednesday, January 21st: 

advert of my fave on the way to the Gate Theatre

Today in London Theatre we discussed the show we saw last week, A Series of Increasing Impossible Acts. The discussion opened my eyes to some of the things that I missed about the show. The one thing I don't like about the class is that we go from class to another show, so it's hard for me to keep some of the discussion straight because I have to remember what happened in the new show and the discussion in class and write two separate reflections. It isn't a big deal, I would just prefer some time in between to write what happened in class. 

Anyway, today we saw The Chronicles of Kalki which was about the Hindu god Vishnu being reincarnated as a teenage girl and her two friends having to retell the events of what happened the week she was with them after she's reported missing. It was interesting and starred someone who was also in Game of Thrones which was amazing. 

Thursday, January 22nd: 

Thursdays are days where I feel like I don't do anything particularly exciting. I went to class at 4 where we talked about the entrepreneurship of the Tate Britain and Tate Modern. We discussed our final project, creating a museum or gallery with the a list of the art you'd like to display along with an entrepreneurial plan of how to make it successful. The way that they do course grades here for most of my classes is that you submit a final essay and that is your entire grade. This is both extremely frightening (MY WHOLE GRADE IS BASED ON ONE THING WTF)and good because instead of cramming for tests and then forgetting the information right afterwards I have to understand and interpret in order to convince the grader that I actually learned and can apply the information from the class.  

For dinner I made pancakes (I can make three things, grilled cheese, green beans, and breakfast so if you notice a lot of grilled cheese and breakfast foods that's why) only to realize that British pancakes are different than American. They were still really good! The taste of a pancake but the consistency of a crepe, would recommend.

Friday, January 23rd: 

Today was the first day that I had a full day of class and the lab for my Computing class. The only thing that annoys me about this class is that the lecture is from 10-11 and usually the seminar directly follows so you have a long class period but you're done early, for example from 11-2 and then you are done with class at 2. Instead, this class' seminar is from 3-6 so I have 4 hours free but that really isn't enough time to do much and then I have to go back to class from 3-6. It's annoying that I essentially can't do anything on Friday until after 6.   

Lauren, Cheryl and I made plans to go out for dinner. We originally had planned on going to this place called The Barnyard because they had warm cornbread on their menu but when when we got there the wait was too long so we looked for somewhere else. 

steak tacos on the left and rajas tacos on the right
just looking at this picture makes me want
 more of their chips and guac

Across the street was this cute restaurant called Wahaca which served Mexican food, as this is my favorite kind I pushed for this one. There was a little bit of a wait so we went upstairs to the bar for drinks. I had one of the best Mojitos ever and as we waited for a table to open I couldn't stop thinking that I was going to have chips and guac soon. The anticipation was killing me. When a table opened we ordered and the food was delicious and relatively inexpensive. We shared chips and guac, I had steak tacos and vegetarian rajas tacos (the steak tacos were better but they were both good).  

We headed back to new cross for one of the orientation leader's birthday party at a pub down the road my flatmates went to go celebrate for a while but Lauren and I weren't really feeling it so we left at like 11:30 and went to bed like the party animals we are.

Saturday, January 24th: 

Lauren and I made plans today to tour the Tower of London and go on a ghost walk which we were both super pumped about. For me, the Tower of London was something that was something that I knew I for sure wanted to tour because I am fascinated by the history behind it. I also weirdly know a lot of facts about it? We got there at like 3:30 and when we bought tickets we were told that the tower closes at 4:30 which I think is so weird because you'd think it would have been open late on a Saturday? I don't know the businesses in London confuse me. Lauren and I still had plenty of time to see everything that we wanted to see. Mainly the world's biggest cut diamond (which we weren't allowed to take pictures of). The Tower was amazing and so interesting. I most definitely want to go again and am seriously considering becoming a palace member which is 46 pounds for unlimited yearly access to the 5 London palaces (Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, Banqueting House, Kensington Palace, and Kew Palace). I love the history behind that stuff though and just walking through the palace made me feel like I was in Game of Thrones or something. Also I've decided that I officially want to move into a palace, preferably the Tower of London.

tower wall featuring London Bridge

the ravens of the tower were so cute

looking down upon the peasants from the tower

When they shuffled us out of the Tower promptly at 4:30 Lauren and I were starting to get hungry but we didn't want to find something right away because our ghost walk didn't start until 7:30 so we walked around tower hill until about 5 when the hunger became unbearable. We ate dinner at this place called All Bar One where we ordered 5 small plates for 25 pounds. We ordered amazing breaded chicken, calamari, pomegranate hummus beef, cauliflower, and some cheese bread that had a weird name I don't remember. It was a great meal for 12.50 and I was stuffed afterwards! 

We walked toward St Paul Station to meet up with the tour guide and we were a couple minutes early and we didn't know who exactly our guide was so we walked around the station looking lost before eventually we found the tour guide. The tour was pretty good, very interesting and informative, my only problem was that I wish that we could have gone into places and gotten a little more scared, we talked outside of places about the hauntings going on inside which wasn't immersive enough for me. Also, online it says that apparitions are guaranteed and I didn't see any. But for 7 pounds it was an entertaining tour. 

After the tour Lauren and I were going to meet up with my friend from home, Maggie, who was in London for orientation before she leaves for Spain. But, the genius with directions I am, directed us to the wrong hotel twice. At 11 the tube starts closing so we gave up trying to get to the right hotel and decided to get something to eat. Lauren had never been to a casino before and there was one attached to one of the wrong hotels we went to so we decided to go in there for a little while. I was underwhelmed by the selection (Nowhere near Mystic Lake standards) and they had this weird thing where you could reserve a slot machine and all of the slot machines that didn't have people at them were reserved so we played roulette for a little while before Lauren realized that gambling isn't that fun. We were still hungry so on the way back to the bus stop we were on the lookout for something to eat that was still open (it was about 11:30 at this point) and we found a diner! We had midnight shakes and fries and it was amazing before heading back home to bed after a long day of walking (over 6.5 miles).

Sunday, January 25th:

Today I actually have homework to do. Yuck. It's almost like I'm actually going to school in London. So I'm going to get that done and watch something on Netflix. It's going to be a pretty uneventful day featuring some grocery shopping, typing reflections, and attempting to understand a coding assignment I got on Friday, so I'm going to go ahead and publish this before the day is over so that the people that want to read it and are badgering me about not posting things on this blog (Hi I'm talking about you Mom!) can read this. But if something eventful happens tonight none of you will know until next week. It's something you'll have to live with.

I hope everyone back home is having a fantastic week! I know Drake starts spring term this week so if you're someone that starts school tomorrow good luck to you! Have a good semester and I'll talk to you for sure next Sunday, hopefully earlier!

          

First Week of Classes: January 12 - 18

So I might have been a little too ambitious about the whole two posts a week thing, but this was the first week of classes so I was figuring my new schedule. Hopefully I'll get back to the two posts a week thing next week. But I thought I wouldn't leave you completely hanging and tell you what I've been up to this week.

Monday, January 12th:

I originally was supposed to have class today but I decided that I didn't want to have class on Monday so I spent the morning wandering to different departments to switch from a history class into a drama class and a different history class. Afterwords, I decided to have some lunch and went to Piccadilly Circus. I walked around for a while, went to a bookstore, ate a donut, got some postcards that I keep meaning to send out to the tribe but haven't yet (sorry tribe, look forward to those kind of soon). It was raining and typical me has an umbrella and always forgets it, so I returned damp and cold at like dinner time. Afterwords, Lauren and I hung out for a while and then I watched the Vampire Diaries before bed.

Tuesday, January 13th:

Today was the first day of classes omg so scary. I don't have class until three so I spent the day just hanging out and getting ready for class (more Vampire Diaries heyo) before I left at like 2:45. Something that I don't get about classes in the UK (or maybe just my school) is that if a class starts at 4 people normally don't show up until like 4:05 and class starts at 4:10. I don't get it and I don't like it because I always show up to class way too early but I don't want to be late and it's very frustrating. But, when my first class, British and American Musical Theatre, finally started I really enjoyed it! In this class we discuss different aspects of musical theatre, it's origin and techniques. We see four musicals throughout the semester, the only one we know that we are for sure going to is Assassins, which is currently starring Catherine Tate (I won't get to see her in it though sad day) but it looks really good. My class goes until about 6 so afterwords I did dinner and Vampire Diaries before I went to bed (This is an exciting week if you didn't already notice).

Wednesday, January 14th:

This morning I woke up and had breakfast and hung around waiting for my class to start and at 10 to 4 I walked over there only to realize that it actually started at 4:30 so I waited in the hallway with a couple other confused people for a while. This class was London Theatre which is similar to British and American Musical Theatre. We talk about the theatre in London (shocking!) and it's effect on society. After every class we see a show. On the way, we stopped at Nando's but we only had time to get chips to go which was a disappointing because it smells really good in there. After 'dinner' we saw A Series of Increasingly Impossible Acts which was an interesting show, I didn't really get most of it, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Afterwords I was pretty tired I just went straight to bed.

Thursday, January 15th:

I once again don't have class until 4 so I just hung out for the morning again. I got some food and then watched some more of Vampire Diaries before heading over to the library where I hung out and wrote my review of the play I saw yesterday. At 4 I walked over to Museums and Galleries as Social Entrepreneurs. This class is really interesting as it explores the ways the museums and galleries here in London have to be entrepreneurial because most of them here are free. We spend a lot of class time at local galleries like the Tate, Tate Modern and National Portrait Gallery which I think will be really fun. A couple of my friends were planning on going out but I have class tomorrow at 10 and seeing as all my other classes aren't until 3 I am a little worried I won't wake up on time.

Friday, January 16th:

I made it to computing class this morning--score! My morning lecture is only and hour (10-11) and I usually have a lab following from (3-6) but today there was no labs so I had the rest of my day free. 

Lern and I on Trafalger Square

that typical tourist thing
at King's Cross

Lern came into town today for her orientation before she leaves for Wales so I met up with her at about 1. We did all the touristy stuff from Piccadilly Circus to Trafalger Square. 

Then, we went to Kings Cross to stand on platform 9 3/4 before she had to head back to her hotel for more orientation. So I went back to my flat where a couple of my friends and I went to another friends flat and hung out for a while before I came back and went to bed.

Saturday, January 17th:

My uncle is here on a layover from Chicago so we met up for lunch at a tavern off Piccadilly where I had a club sandwich, which was ok, not the greatest thing I've ever had. Afterwords, we wandered around near Piccadilly Circus and Green Park before we hopped back on the underground toward home. It was really nice to see him and catch up. I accidentally missed my stop (of course) so I made an unexpected detour around the stop of Canary Wharf. 

Canary Wharf is beautiful

Canary Wharf was beautiful, but very under construction (like all of London) so I expect it'll be even more beautiful when it's finished. There's a very pretty view of the London skyline where you can see all the major buildings from the shard (tall one on the left) which is the tallest building in eastern Europe. and the Gherkin (middle with the different colors twisting around it) which I don't really know what exactly that is but apparently it's important. They also had a shopping centre which I spent some time at buying some more necessities before getting back on the tube toward St. James Park to meet up with Cheyenne and Matt for dinner. 

We went to this tavern where I had a strawberry and lime cider which may have been the greatest think I've ever tasted. Afterword, we hung out for a while before I rode the train back to my flat.

Sunday, January 18th: 

 Today was a productive day. I didn't actually leave my flat until 4 and was in my pjs until like 3. I went to get groceries at like 4:30 and was there until well after Sainsbury's closed at 5 which tells you how bad I am at grocery shopping. It's kind of sad to watch my wander the aisles mumbling to myself trying to figure out not only what I need but where things are, except this is extreme because I walk around like "I need sour cream, does England have sour cream? In America it's next to the cottage cheese. Where is that? Does England have cottage cheese?" Turns out that England does have cottage cheese but I gave up on trying to find sour cream. Every day is it's own struggle. 

After that I pretty much left right away to get on the tube to meet Lern at her hotel so we could walk together to meet two of our other friends from home, Nick and Ethan, at a restaurant about 10 minutes away. 

Nick, Lern, me, and Ethan. Photo stolen from Nick

We went to this place called the Byron on Wardour street which was the best burger that I've had here so far and I ordered a chocolate and bailey's shake which was amazing. Lern, Nick, Ethan, and I were there for like 2 or 3 hours just catching up and then we decided trying to find a pub that was playing the Packers-Seahawks game. We eventually found one and watched up until the last five minutes because the pub was closing and the Packers intercepted the ball, basically it looked like the Packers had won. It wasn't until I got home that I learned that the Seahawks beat the Packers in overtime--go hawks! Now I have some stuff that I wanted to do today that I never got around to because I was too busy laying around in my pjs to get done so I'm going to finish that and go to bed.

I'm hoping next week I will actually get two posts in but we'll see how that goes. Having one class a day and watching The Vampire Diaries is exhausting. I'll see you next week!