Blog Bonanza Time!!!!

yes it has been a while. a LONG while. way too busy with stuff i shall get into later. seeing as i have had a couple advendtures since paris (i would hope haha) i shall split them up into separate posts to appease my organizational desires. so i think this will be prague...


prague in one word: GORGEOUS. it is by far one of the most beautiful places i've ever seen. a river running through the city, hills which give great views, A CASTLE/CATHEDRAL which is just really cool, and yea, i could go on and on. its nice and calm there. the city is relatively tiny compared to say london or paris. you dont feel rushed because you can literally walk from one end of the city to the other in a day. it was nice to slow down and walk around, enjoy the beauty around me and just breath. the first day we were kinda tired so just went on a little hike up one of the many hills around the city and took pictures along the way of the view. very relaxing. good thing i brought my umbrella though because it started to rain on the way back. and here we come to a sad spot: my poor umbrella died. the arms just broke. i admit i shed a tear or two. that thing was awesome!! you press a button and POOF umbrella!! but now its dead ;( and i will eternally miss it (what happened to the whole swiss army durability thing?!?!?). anyway, then just went back to the hostel and slept, ready for another day.

day two was a bit more packed. woke up and went to the square but were too early to see the astronomical clock, so we stopped by a little place lyns told me about: bohemia bagel. AWESOME!!! it doesnt beat my beloved bagel mania back home in hb, but it sure comes close. a nice little bagel/coffee cafe place with essentially college age people and college prices!!! (in the good, cheap, affordable sense, not the outrageously expensive textbook sense, mind you). delicious, homey, and definitely a place to hit up. i dont care if it isnt oustandingly czech, GO THERE. I COMMAND YOU!!! anyway, finished there and meandered back to the square just in time for the clock to go off. now granted if you go to prague you must see the clock. but at the same time..... it is the single most underwhelming thing ive seen. actually kinda lame, but it is just one of those sights you have to visit. my advice, look up when you want to go (i believe it goes every hour on the hour past a certain time) and get there like 5 minutes before. you may not be right in from of the thing, but trust me you wont miss much haha. but the square is a great place to go becuase right next to it are the FREE!!!! guided tours. which actually was pretty good. they have tours in multiple languages, so we hopped on the english ones and headed out. walked around the old and newer parts of town, saw the jewish quarter, an old cathedral with a mummified hand on the wall (the story being a theif tried to rob the statue of the virgin inside, the statue came alive and grabbed hold of him, then when the priests came they sawed his hand off, u know cause the statue was the important part hahaha. then when they had almost finished the statue let go. dont ever say catholics lack a sense of humor hahaha). last but not least we trudged up to the castle at night, which was a mized blessing. on the one hand: OOOOHHHHH GOD THE STAIRS!! SOOOOOOO MAAAANNNY STAAAAAAAIIIIIIIRRRRRSSSS. but on the other hand the view was FANTASTIC and sooooo worth it. you cant get mad at prague, im telling you. its like a cute puppy. you look at it all angry that you had to climb some hill, and then once you regain your breath from all the gasping at the beauty and everything, you just go "im sorry prague, i could never stay mad at you." split up with the group, they went to get ready for a pub crawl and i went to find food cause i was starving. wanted to go to this cool looking cafe, but turned out to be pretty expensive. i ended up getting myself lost in the city, which was albeit really fun. i actually stumbled along this thai place on my way back (who knew!?!?!) and ate there. and it was actually really good. though the woman did give me a weird look when i asked for rice with my meat. idk what the big deal is but i may have committed thai social fopar... missed out on the pub crawl tho was just wayyyyy tooo tired to do anything but sleep that night haha (my fault for schlepping a backpack everywhere right?)

the last day was very mellow. went to bohemia bagel again :) took pictures at the bridge, and ended the day with a boat tour on the river (for which the wait was terrible, despite the low price). nice and relaxing haha. then got back to the airport and ready to head back to london. funny thing at the airport tho, we had to wait there for a while before boarding, so wer tried to find a place to sit by the gate info screens, but the only place we could find was a little pub-ish place. we sat down, but they wouldnt let us stay unless we bought somthing (you know, cause were taking up valuable table space. THERE WERE TWO PEOPLE IN THERE FOR CRYING OUT LOUD) so to pacify the abnormally snappy waitress i ordered the cheapest thing i could find, just some bread, but (again in a rude, snappy voice) "they were out." so i grabbed the nest thing, a pretzel. she started to say they were out of that too until i pointed to the rack on the counter with pretzels hanging all over. she just scowled and got it for me. so partially to keep out seat and partially to spite her, i ate that terrible pretzel as slowly as physically possible (making sure she was looking when i tore off the tiniest bites you've ever seen XD...) anyway got on the plane finally and made it back to london town. i would say i have awesome pictures, but the terrible circumstances leading up to this lack of photographic documentation wil be left for another post.

Baguette is my newfound love

k, not really, i have always loved the stuff. anyway, had long weekend last week and went to paris, which was a blast. went with a small group, we had a lot of fun, took many wacky pictures, and ate baguette like the world was ending. btw, i have pictures on facebook, and i believe everyone who would read this can access them so i'll just keep putting them on facebook.

anyways we went to paris and saw some sights and it was definitely awesome. we went to the louvre and covered, what, 1/8 of A wing? the place is huge!!! half of the museum is below you as you walk up. we saw a lot of the classical greek and roman sculptures and some medieval/neo-medieval paintings (u know, the androgenous people with the halos?). got to see the mona lisa, which was definitely an experiance.
1)the room it's in is almost hidden lol
2) the walls are covered with paintings of all shapes and sizes, while it just sits on its own
3)its tiny, especially compared to the other painting across from it, which covers the whole wall

afterwards we headed out to this little park area and got into all types of shenanigans from failed jumping pictures to leaf fights to stopping katie from molesting becca haha (dirty birdies). took a nap then went to the eiffel tower which was definitely an experience. the thing is huge, way bigger looking when ur right there. took some bomb pictures, lying on the floor as still as possible to get the whole thing exposed properly with no flash and no tripod to help me haha. and then it was dinner time!!!!!!

we went to this little cafe right by the tower and i had THE BEST boeuf bourguignon ever. u touched it with ur fork and it fell apart, it was soo tender and delicious. only thing better would have been with nana's rice! well, we finished up there and headed back and discovered that the eiffel tower has hourly seizures where random lights just start flashing for a couple minutes. really cool to see.

next day we saw notre dame, which was amazing. that whole seen in the disney movie where they sing about the eyes of notre dame really hits you. there are A BOATLOAD of eyes. statues, gargoyles, busts, etc etc etc all staring at you. the place was incredible and beautiful.

also i found what can only be described as heaven on earth. i spotted this little store called shakespeare and company from across seine, behind bushes, while focused on notre dame. i saw "ake" out of the corner of my eye and immediately thought shakespeare. i found out its this little book store which i immediately fell in love with. the smell of old books hits you as you walk in (best smell in the world, no arguments. its scientific fact). the place is covered, floor to ceiling, with books. literally floor to ceiling. even the stairs had shelfs along the edge with books on them. and it was all in english, and the two clerks there actually knew about literature and were english nuts themselves!!!! i found my people! i could've spent hours in there but katie and alex and becca wouldnt let me, so i had to leave it behind. may go back during christmas just to spend time there. soooo cool. i mean, cmon, they had a shakespeare wall!! u cant beat that! (unless you had a shakespeare room!!!!! i may swoon now) btw lynsey, the clerk at the register was a jane austen nut too!

anyway, last day we went to the northern part of paris to these little shops and a cathedral up on a hill which had the most amazing view of the city. the eiffel tower was just out of the view, but still, it was a really cool sight. we meandered through the shops and then i headed out for my flight back. it was fun but i love being back in london, definitely chose the right city for the year. and i was greeted by the ice rink by the natural history museum which is finally up!! still need to go but should be fun.

prague is this weekend which should be great! and then thanksgiving week and my parents come over for the week. going to phantom, windsor, thanksgiving day service at st. pauls, horseback hopefully, and eat some wagamama's and da'marios!!!!! and then time to buckle down for finals. i can't believe the first semester is almost over, it feels like i've only been here a couple weeks. time has literally seemed to slow, which is wonderful because i love it here, but at the same time its going by so fast. and adjusting really hasnt been bad. europe is just awesome, and definitely this is the most incredible experience i've ever had. still need to go see stratford, but not until i have picked my soliloquoy to recite at his grave (maybe edwards in act 1 scene 2 of king lear? or there's always hamlet's many speeches.... maybe macbeth?? soo many choices, lynsey help me decide)

finally booked my tickets for harry potter 7!!!! im going to see it the first day in LONDON! soo cool. cept that the uk doesnt have midnight showings :( what kind of crap is this?? THIS IS WHY YOU LOST THE WAR ENGLAND! NO MIDNIGHT SHOWINGS OF HARRY POTTER BACK THEN, AND NONE NOW lol at least i get to see it. should be fun, specially cause all the harry potter junkies from the other programs are coming in that weekend (we're hanging out allie kirk i miss your quirkiness) anyways, time to go find food

Im Back?!?

I should feel terrible for not posting anything in forever, but I'm listening to Don't Stop right now and it's not possible to feel sad when being serenaded by Steve Perry's amazing vocals.... so sue me.

k, i think im going to forgoe punctuation because its really bothering me. this is not an essay. im fighting the power. haha. and i think i will post in updates like i should have to keep things organized. hahaha. so here we go.

lion king was amazing btw, even though ive seen it already its only one of the greatest stories of our time (how could i not love something based on hamlet???? i ask you?) oh wait, dont stop is ending.....and now its back!!!! my itunes nows what i want (i have probly 5 copies of the song in my journey folder, can you tell its my favorite song of all time???) anyway was fun to see. ghost stories was shocking! not scary, just shocking. i cant reveal more than that (they made me promise). but it was definitely entertaining. it was really cool to because you know all those times in horror movies when u want to yell "DONT GO IN THE DOOR!!!!" but they cant hear you??? well now they can hear you...... though they still dont listen, and the ushers will kick you out lol.

we had our weeklong educational field trip in greece which was, in a word, FANTABULOUS! i love greece. i love greek food. i am greek. i love me! (narcissus aint got nothing on me lol). but honestly what is better than a pita full of the juiciest, tenderest, best cooked meat and freshest vegetables ever??? nothing, thats what (cept for italian pasta, which will be my next happy experience hopefully)........YES! straight from dont stop to faithfully! thank you itunes....... where was i? well saw the acropolis and the new museum, went to delphi and a monastery, went to aegina and had a beach day, got rained on, went to corinth and WATCHED the other lunatics bungee jump in the corinthian canal from a safe, reasonable, sturdy, place..... heights and me dont mix. at all. whatsoever. no. not happening. (odd that i have a loft bed then....) but it was sooo much fun, full of bonding over not wanting to trudge through more museums lol.

came back to london and had midterms, which was not fun, definitely not at all. oh well. next up: PARIS

I Am A Horrible Blogger <:(

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!

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.

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.

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)