I really should keep on top of this. I said I would. So there.
So it's been what two weeks, three weeks (ish) since coming to London and the novelty has not yet worn off. I finally got to go horseback riding today and that was a blast. A nice sunny day in Hyde Park, riding around with friends, definitely the best way to spend the morning. And before that, my day was brightened by English, where for once we did not read a confusing play (they didn't punch/stone/kill a baby in this one thank gawd). I have yet to go out to a club, and prob should at some point. I mean cmon it's London, even though I'm not really a clubbing type of person. Oh well.
Late night snacks are the best thing ever invented, especially when that snack involves experimenting with pasta. It was Aaron's fault; he totally started cooking and got me all hungry. But after throughing together some lemon garlic sauce thing i must admit I am a genius. Sooo delicious. Now if only I can remember what I put in there....
Exams are coming up, yuck, and its time to put those study skills i developed to good use. I shall not procrastinate! I will be good and get things done....in a few minutes. Oh for the good ole high school days when you could write a paper the period before it was due and still get an A... ahhhhhhhh. Oh well. Lion King tonight with the gang! Gonna be a blast. and I think this Tuesday we go see Ghost Stories for english, which is essentially a creepy horror movie only in play form. Should be fun!
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Friday, September 17, 2010
Day "I-Lost-Track-And-Don't-Want-To-Bother-Finding-Aforementioned-Track"
Wow, it's been what a week? gotta keep up with this thingy. Well more discoveries, more fun, and done with my first week in London. Can it get better? I think yes.
Discovery #1: Time Slows in London
I swear it feels like I've been here a month (and this is definitely a good thing).
Discovery #2: Recorders are awesome
So I found this nice cheap recorder and started using it for notes; suffice to say my time spent drudgingly taking notes has been cut in half, nay a...... 3/4th??? Anyway point made.
Discovery #3: Apparently my British accent is better than I thought...
cause I totally fooled this group of other Americans on my way to the noodle place tonight. Must try this on some British people (not Jenny tho, she'll just laugh at me and call me a tourist. darn saucy british people haha)
Discovery #4: Beirut Express
Lebanese food is the bomb to begin with. This place was amazing. Had dinner with the law students so got to meet some cool people over probably the best humus I've ever tasted.
Today was fun, got to go to Stonehenge, took some pictures, longed to kidnap a sheep from the neighboring field for a pet (we could totally hide it for a year right?) Then took a lil side trip to Salisbury and had my first fish and chips in England. Amazing. Beer battered cod which, when bitten into did what can only be described as liquefying in my mouth. Top it off with HP sauce (some mysterious mixture of malt vinegar and other secret ingredients) and some awesome chips (not french fries, chips people. get it right we're in England here....at least i am). Anyway, then we went to the cathedral and saw the Magna Carta (definitely very cool, I guess there's only 4 surviving originals).
Well, ready for my next week to begin. Gotta start searching for Harry Potter tickets (hopefully premiere?? pleeeeeeaaaaasssseeee!!!!!!), plan a trip to Italy soon, go see Shakespeare, learn how to vanquish the evil powers that be (i.e. learn to work the microwaves in the house kitchen, which to this very hour continue to defy my will! aarrrrgggghh i will best thee, villainous curs!), and get me an alarm clock.
Discovery #1: Time Slows in London
I swear it feels like I've been here a month (and this is definitely a good thing).
Discovery #2: Recorders are awesome
So I found this nice cheap recorder and started using it for notes; suffice to say my time spent drudgingly taking notes has been cut in half, nay a...... 3/4th??? Anyway point made.
Discovery #3: Apparently my British accent is better than I thought...
cause I totally fooled this group of other Americans on my way to the noodle place tonight. Must try this on some British people (not Jenny tho, she'll just laugh at me and call me a tourist. darn saucy british people haha)
Discovery #4: Beirut Express
Lebanese food is the bomb to begin with. This place was amazing. Had dinner with the law students so got to meet some cool people over probably the best humus I've ever tasted.
Today was fun, got to go to Stonehenge, took some pictures, longed to kidnap a sheep from the neighboring field for a pet (we could totally hide it for a year right?) Then took a lil side trip to Salisbury and had my first fish and chips in England. Amazing. Beer battered cod which, when bitten into did what can only be described as liquefying in my mouth. Top it off with HP sauce (some mysterious mixture of malt vinegar and other secret ingredients) and some awesome chips (not french fries, chips people. get it right we're in England here....at least i am). Anyway, then we went to the cathedral and saw the Magna Carta (definitely very cool, I guess there's only 4 surviving originals).
Well, ready for my next week to begin. Gotta start searching for Harry Potter tickets (hopefully premiere?? pleeeeeeaaaaasssseeee!!!!!!), plan a trip to Italy soon, go see Shakespeare, learn how to vanquish the evil powers that be (i.e. learn to work the microwaves in the house kitchen, which to this very hour continue to defy my will! aarrrrgggghh i will best thee, villainous curs!), and get me an alarm clock.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Day 3: Scavenger Hunts are the Proving Grounds for the Tube
K so it's kinda day 3. I should probably be sleeping but that doesn't seem to be working so I will write instead.
Sleeping in is probably the best thing in the world let me tell you, especially when your still bogged down with jetlag. Gotta snap outta that before classes start tho haha. Well we had a scavenger hunt today which was very interesting/fun/exhausting/idk what other adjective I should use to describe it. I got to see the city with Aaron and Craig, found out that McDonalds is actually pretty decent in Europe, and learned to naviagte the Tube in a Trial-By-Fire-esque experience. Saw the palace, National Gallery, Lighted Sign in Trafalgar Square, the ORIGINAL half-price ticket booth in covent garden, and the London Eye (which I need to ride again because last time I was huddled in a corner trying to think happy thoughts. I am deathly afraid of height by the way..... yet airplanes dont scare me how weird is that??). Anyway we also got our typical touristy "crammed in a phone booth" shot and other things so all in all a pretty productive day.
**SPOILER ALERT** AMAZING DISCOVERY!
Europe does every food better than the USA (I know shocking right?!?) K I wimped out on cooking tonight cause I was too tired, so I swallowed my pride and got Pizza Hut. This was one of the funniest experiences ever: Pizza Hut is like a sit-down fine-dining experience here. There are waiters and wine and everything. So I get my take-away pizza for Craig and I (Pepperoni Feast=pepperoni heaven), traipse back to the dorm, and take a bite. It was delicious. The sauce was awesome, the pepperoni was actually meat!?!?! instead of processed... well lets face it, crap... and the cheese was definitely less than 75% plastic (I know I ate cheese?!?!? Still didnt have that much but hey its Europe I had to try).
Side Note: Water is impossible to find when you have no money. I had like a pound and 30 pence (like $1.30 in the US [though not really cause its more thanks to exhange rates, but pence=cents and pounds=dollars comparatively]) Usually water is about a pound and a half. After frantically searching for some H2O I finally found a cheap 1.10 pound water. Never appreciated a beverage so much. Btw if you couldnt tell, it's still hot here. I'm begining to wonder about the whole rainy, cold, blistering thing. Oh well, tomorrows.... today's (i mean) another day...... hopefully a colder one filled with me finding a rice pan cause there is not a satisfactory pan in the house to make nana's rice with. And I may die without that. Hopefully I get school shopping done tomorrow and hopefully it won't bleed me dry like book sales did lol
Nuther Side Note: I may now be a Tube-ninja, but I am definitely still Bus-Bait. The bus system scares me, not gonna lie.
Sleeping in is probably the best thing in the world let me tell you, especially when your still bogged down with jetlag. Gotta snap outta that before classes start tho haha. Well we had a scavenger hunt today which was very interesting/fun/exhausting/idk what other adjective I should use to describe it. I got to see the city with Aaron and Craig, found out that McDonalds is actually pretty decent in Europe, and learned to naviagte the Tube in a Trial-By-Fire-esque experience. Saw the palace, National Gallery, Lighted Sign in Trafalgar Square, the ORIGINAL half-price ticket booth in covent garden, and the London Eye (which I need to ride again because last time I was huddled in a corner trying to think happy thoughts. I am deathly afraid of height by the way..... yet airplanes dont scare me how weird is that??). Anyway we also got our typical touristy "crammed in a phone booth" shot and other things so all in all a pretty productive day.
**SPOILER ALERT** AMAZING DISCOVERY!
Europe does every food better than the USA (I know shocking right?!?) K I wimped out on cooking tonight cause I was too tired, so I swallowed my pride and got Pizza Hut. This was one of the funniest experiences ever: Pizza Hut is like a sit-down fine-dining experience here. There are waiters and wine and everything. So I get my take-away pizza for Craig and I (Pepperoni Feast=pepperoni heaven), traipse back to the dorm, and take a bite. It was delicious. The sauce was awesome, the pepperoni was actually meat!?!?! instead of processed... well lets face it, crap... and the cheese was definitely less than 75% plastic (I know I ate cheese?!?!? Still didnt have that much but hey its Europe I had to try).
Side Note: Water is impossible to find when you have no money. I had like a pound and 30 pence (like $1.30 in the US [though not really cause its more thanks to exhange rates, but pence=cents and pounds=dollars comparatively]) Usually water is about a pound and a half. After frantically searching for some H2O I finally found a cheap 1.10 pound water. Never appreciated a beverage so much. Btw if you couldnt tell, it's still hot here. I'm begining to wonder about the whole rainy, cold, blistering thing. Oh well, tomorrows.... today's (i mean) another day...... hopefully a colder one filled with me finding a rice pan cause there is not a satisfactory pan in the house to make nana's rice with. And I may die without that. Hopefully I get school shopping done tomorrow and hopefully it won't bleed me dry like book sales did lol
Nuther Side Note: I may now be a Tube-ninja, but I am definitely still Bus-Bait. The bus system scares me, not gonna lie.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Day the Second: Orientation, Gnocchi, and Board-Game-Bonanza
Oh how I love jet lag, can I just say that? at one moment I feel totally at home in my brand new time zone and the next I sit there longing for nap-time (actually that probably wont change ever but oh well).
Morning orientation drags on and on, but hey we got to tour around the city some more and went to our first pub of the year. Its this little place called Hoop and Toy, apparently one of the better pubs around (Fred says most of the pubs are like McDonalds, they're just chains claiming they're old an original an changin the name from time to time haha) Well this place was definitely good. I got me some chicken tikki masala (done right XD this was actually one of the first things I attempted when I was learning to cook and boy did I fail). Soooooooo delicious. The we hoppped on over to Harrods and wandered around.
Heres where the fun begins. Couple discoveries at this place: 1) it's not take out in London, it's "take away" (as in take away your scoop of chocolate gelatto and get out of the building before u taste it haha. apparently you can only eat in designated areas) 2) the grocery shopping in there is stocked. They have a whole cheese counter! I dont even like cheese and that excites me (god im a nerd). And 3) they have prosciutto at the meat counter (and different varieties) which of course means I can finally try making prosciutto wrapped burgers (Giada strikes again, i've been dying to try this recipe forever but always lacked me some Italian bacon).
More orientation, then dinner at Da Mario (not before getting teased by Jenny for "being such an American, waving that camera about taking pictures all the time. I think I'm getting known for that. i just walk down the street snapping pics of whatever I see. Craig just laughs at me and Aaron, well he would laugh if he could stop crying since his nikkon just does not live up to the excellence that is my canon camera XD). So definitely had the best gnocchi of my life, with marinara sauce that had some mascarpone melted into it. Kinda tangy, sooo delicious. Loving this trip, need I say more?
Finally back at the house, and ending with some board game fun with the London crew. Apparently I really suck at spoons :( Oh well Cranium was entertaining! Get to sleep in tomorrow and hopefully get school shopping done (maybe get lost somewhere in that mix?? I'm actually dying to just go out and get lost, see what I find haha)
Morning orientation drags on and on, but hey we got to tour around the city some more and went to our first pub of the year. Its this little place called Hoop and Toy, apparently one of the better pubs around (Fred says most of the pubs are like McDonalds, they're just chains claiming they're old an original an changin the name from time to time haha) Well this place was definitely good. I got me some chicken tikki masala (done right XD this was actually one of the first things I attempted when I was learning to cook and boy did I fail). Soooooooo delicious. The we hoppped on over to Harrods and wandered around.
Heres where the fun begins. Couple discoveries at this place: 1) it's not take out in London, it's "take away" (as in take away your scoop of chocolate gelatto and get out of the building before u taste it haha. apparently you can only eat in designated areas) 2) the grocery shopping in there is stocked. They have a whole cheese counter! I dont even like cheese and that excites me (god im a nerd). And 3) they have prosciutto at the meat counter (and different varieties) which of course means I can finally try making prosciutto wrapped burgers (Giada strikes again, i've been dying to try this recipe forever but always lacked me some Italian bacon).
More orientation, then dinner at Da Mario (not before getting teased by Jenny for "being such an American, waving that camera about taking pictures all the time. I think I'm getting known for that. i just walk down the street snapping pics of whatever I see. Craig just laughs at me and Aaron, well he would laugh if he could stop crying since his nikkon just does not live up to the excellence that is my canon camera XD). So definitely had the best gnocchi of my life, with marinara sauce that had some mascarpone melted into it. Kinda tangy, sooo delicious. Loving this trip, need I say more?
Finally back at the house, and ending with some board game fun with the London crew. Apparently I really suck at spoons :( Oh well Cranium was entertaining! Get to sleep in tomorrow and hopefully get school shopping done (maybe get lost somewhere in that mix?? I'm actually dying to just go out and get lost, see what I find haha)
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Day The First: Planes, Luggage, and Wagamama
Well, this has definitely been a day to remember. After all the work and anxiety of applying for the program, getting my visa, and packing things up, the day has finally arrived: I'm in London at the beginning of a year-long stay sure to be filled with travel and fun and studying and... yatta yatta yatta. After working out last minute troubles with bank accounts, my parents dropped me off at LAX and ate lunch.
Btw, if your ever looking for a bite to eat there, stop by Encounters: once you find the entrance to the huge structure across from the airport, you enter the elevator where Twilight Zone-esque music accompanies you to the top. But holy bejeezus the food is awesome. I had some jumbo shrimp citrus marinara pasta thing that was sooooooooo good.
Anyways, afterward I checked in and boarded the incredibly long flight to the UK. Two things struck me about the flight: 1) the food was pretty decent for an airline (kudos to you Air New Zealand); and 2) the flight was hot as hell. But otherwise was fun, got to sit with Pepp people and get excited about London together. Tried to sleep, but failed miserably every time so ended up watching the same scene in Iron Man 2 over and over because I forgot where I was haha. Then I watched the flight map like a hawk waiting till I could get my first glimpse of the British Isles. And once I saw the western coast of England, I just did not stop staring. I was finally here! We even flew over Stratford upon Avon, which really gave me chills (I admit I tried to spot Shakespeare's house even though I knew how pointless that is when your thousands of feet up. What can I say, I like the guy). And after what, 16 hours of flying? we touched down in London.
A bus ride to the London House later (after counting all of Craigs bad impressions at the airport haha) had us eating some lunch, getting a tour of the house (which is awesome. The kitchen rules, my room is right next to it and the lounge! And repping Phillips E Suite I got Craig and Aaron as roomies haha. Just like old times...) Orientation stuff somewhat aside, we set off to explore a little and to have our first group dinner at Wagamama, like 10 minute walk or so from exposition blvd. This place is soo good. Japanese style noodle dishes from udon to ramen, quick service, great food. I had me some miso ramen (really nice way to warm up after a London night haha, nice kick to it) and finished up with some chocolate yogurt with, get this, chopped ginger and chili inside! That was a shocker for me, but geez is it good. You get this nice dark chocolate flavor and then some sweetness from the ginger with a tiny lil nip of chili spice. Like I said: DELICIOUS! Time for bed I think. Orientation tomorrow at nine bleh, but what will be will be. Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings.
Btw, if your ever looking for a bite to eat there, stop by Encounters: once you find the entrance to the huge structure across from the airport, you enter the elevator where Twilight Zone-esque music accompanies you to the top. But holy bejeezus the food is awesome. I had some jumbo shrimp citrus marinara pasta thing that was sooooooooo good.
Anyways, afterward I checked in and boarded the incredibly long flight to the UK. Two things struck me about the flight: 1) the food was pretty decent for an airline (kudos to you Air New Zealand); and 2) the flight was hot as hell. But otherwise was fun, got to sit with Pepp people and get excited about London together. Tried to sleep, but failed miserably every time so ended up watching the same scene in Iron Man 2 over and over because I forgot where I was haha. Then I watched the flight map like a hawk waiting till I could get my first glimpse of the British Isles. And once I saw the western coast of England, I just did not stop staring. I was finally here! We even flew over Stratford upon Avon, which really gave me chills (I admit I tried to spot Shakespeare's house even though I knew how pointless that is when your thousands of feet up. What can I say, I like the guy). And after what, 16 hours of flying? we touched down in London.
A bus ride to the London House later (after counting all of Craigs bad impressions at the airport haha) had us eating some lunch, getting a tour of the house (which is awesome. The kitchen rules, my room is right next to it and the lounge! And repping Phillips E Suite I got Craig and Aaron as roomies haha. Just like old times...) Orientation stuff somewhat aside, we set off to explore a little and to have our first group dinner at Wagamama, like 10 minute walk or so from exposition blvd. This place is soo good. Japanese style noodle dishes from udon to ramen, quick service, great food. I had me some miso ramen (really nice way to warm up after a London night haha, nice kick to it) and finished up with some chocolate yogurt with, get this, chopped ginger and chili inside! That was a shocker for me, but geez is it good. You get this nice dark chocolate flavor and then some sweetness from the ginger with a tiny lil nip of chili spice. Like I said: DELICIOUS! Time for bed I think. Orientation tomorrow at nine bleh, but what will be will be. Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings.
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