Stonehenge

Saturday was the last day trip that we will be going on with my program. We went to Stonehenge and Salisbury! Stonehenge was AMAZING; I am so glad I was able to see it while I'm here. Its beautiful and fascinating.... did you know that it was being built at the same time as the pyramids in Egypt? Yep, it was. And don't worry, I bought a pair of souvenier socks so I will not forget my trip to Stonehenge anytime soon(By the way, the picture I posted is of me and my friend Sara and we were listening to all of the exciting facts offered by the audio tour guide). Salisbury was great too; we went to another gorgeous cathedral and there was one of four remaining copies of the magna carta here! It was very cool to see a document that dates from the 13th century. AND if that wasnt cool and historical enough, this cathedral is also home to the oldest working clock in Europe- built in 1386! I wish you could have been there to see it!

Today was one of the last (well, maybe) sunny and warm days here, so I spent literally ALL day out in the park. I sat in a little lawn chair in Queen Mary's Rose Gardens and read my book while listening to John Mayer on my ipod. It was so relaxing!

Well, I guess that's about all I've got to report on today. Not much news in the rest of my life. Although I did just take my first quiz in Cognitive Psychology last week, so we will be getting those returned to us on Tuesday...... And unfortunately this class is proving to be just as difficult and boring as I suspected it would be. Yikes!

Visit from Laursie

Sorry it has been a while since I last wrote a blog! This week, literally nothing out of the ordinary happened until Thursday when Laursie came from Italy!! We had SUCH a fun time together and it was so sad to see her go today. I went with her to the Liverpool street tube station and then saw her off to the Stansted express train. I have to admit that I shed a few tears when I got back on the train to head back to Baker street; hopefully I didn't scare the locals sitting near me on the train. But it's not so sad because in one month from yesterday, I will be on a plane to Florence to visit Lauren during my break! I booked my flight yesterday. I am SOOO excited to go there! Its still pretty far in advance but we were talking about doing a wine tasting bike tour around Tuscany among other exciting things. Here is a little synopsis of what we did over the weekend:

Lauren got here Thursday afternoon so that night we went to Picadilly Circus and ate dinner in China Town at a cute little restaurant called Gerrard's Corner. We had so much fun talking and catching up! It really reminded me of how much I had been missing her and the rest of the important people in my life. Sorry so sappy!

Friday we took the tube to Westminster and got pictures of all the fun touristy stuff (Benny, Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, etc...) then went over to Oxford Street and hit up PRIMARK! It was instantly Laursies favorite new store and she bough tons of wintery clothes and we had so much fun shopping together for the first time in way too long! And we each bought a new pair of boots so it was totally worth it. Heres a fun story though.... After we were shopping/ fighting the crowds in Primark, we crossed the street to get something to drink and eat because we were completely exhausted. Right as we were finishing up our waters and Krispy Kreme doughnuts, lo and behold, blood started gushing from my nose. Sorry for the gruesome visual, but I have a chronic cold weather bloody nose problem. I didn't think it would flare up already though! Haha sorry, thats probably more than some of you ever wanted to know about my nasal tendencies.

Saturday we took a bus ride to Warwick castle and toured around. It was so pretty there. Its supposed to be the "greatest Medieval experience in Britain" and there were archers and people dressed as peasants and everything. There was also a part of the tour that was about all of the ghosts that supposedly haunt the casle and it was basically a haunted house. You may not know this about me, but I am EXTREMELY jumpy and cannot handle scary things at all! But this was fun for the most part even though me and Lauren were at the very back of the group so all of the creepy ghost people cackled extra loud in our ears and blowed on our necks and stuff. Oh well, I lived to tell the tale, which the warning signs outside of the haunted house told us we might not be able to do so I count it as a success. After all of the excitement at this castle, we drove over to Stratford-upon-Avon a.k.a Shakespeare's birthplace and burial site. It was the CUTEST little town ever!!! I'm telling you, each person who reads this NEEDS to go there someday! It is the quiantest place, with old cottages (some even have thatched roofs) little Shakespeare themed shops, and little ice cream and sausage carts all over the place. The fences all had vines growing all over them and there were even wild blackberry bushes on the path to Anne Hathaway's cottage. My only regret is that we didn't get to spend more time there! It was adorable and well worth the trip up there. I might even go again!

Today was Lauren's last day so we just took it easy and slept in a little so that she wouldn't be too tired on her long journey back to Italy. We actually returned to our little English version of the Village Wok (our favorite Minneapolis Chinese hot-spot), Gerrard's Corner. Then we took our time getting ready to trek through the park and back to the train station. It was sad to see her go, but like I said before, it just makes me more excited to go to Italy in less than a month! Well, I guess that's all I've got for now. Cheers!

Thames Festival

Hello! Today I only have one class, at 1:30, so I decided to take it easy by sipping some tea and writing a blog this morning. This weekend, my roommate and some of my friends went to Ireland for a bus tour (I didn't go because I have friends that are studying there and I plan on going later, maybe November, to visit them. Plus I didnt want to miss the day trip with school to Leeds and Canterbury which I'll tell you ALL about in a second).

One of my other good friends here didn't go either, so we spent the weekend together doing tons of fun things. Friday we went shopping on Oxford Street. There is a store there called Primark that has pretty much everything you need and has REALLY good prices. I bought a shirt, a dress, and a huge purse for 20 pounds. But I might return the purse.... Im not sure yet. This store is kind of like a mixture between H&M, JC Penny and Petter's Warehouse (Uncle Petie and Mom: It would be like dying and going to heaven for you) On Saturday we went to Leeds Castle and Canterbury. It was about 2.5 hours away again but we had a huge detour because our bus got hit by a car and lost a mirror, so our time there was cut a little short but it was fine because we still had a great time. I swear I'm going to figure out the photo posting situation soon so that I will be able to show you what it looked like. The castle was gorgeous and so was the surrounding area. And it was a PERFECT day on saturday. We also drove out to Canterbury which was about 30 minutes from Leeds. It was a nice little town which lots of shops and old houses and stuff. There was also a very pretty Cathedral where Henry IV and his wife are buried.

Yesterday Erin and I walked up to the Camden Market (a HUGE open air market on the north end of Regent's Park- its huge and you can find some really good deals). Its about a half hour or forty minute walk but yesterday was another perfect day, not a single cloud in the sky. We spent a pretty long time there getting lots of great stuff; I got a dress and a soccer/football jersey. After we got back, we went on a huge adventure around the city trying to find the Thames Festival parade that was supposed to be happening but we didnt find it (sadly, you would think that a parade is a hard thing to miss but I guess we just struck out) but we did find the other fun stuff in the festival, like a big concert and a street running performance (for those out of the loop, street running is basically a fancy urban-gymnastics thing where people climb around buildings and do flips and jump on railings and stuff). All in all it was a fun weekend..... Cheerio!

Jolly Good!

Hello everyone! Today I got some GREAT news from my best friend Lauren!!!! She is flying here to visit one week from today! She is studying this semester in Florence, Italy so it will be so incredibly great to see her. I've been brainstorming as to what we should do while she is here and I'm thinking that it would be fun to go shopping in Picadilly Circus, take pictures of the major sights like Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Tower of London, etc... and maybe even take a ride on the London Eye! It will be wierd to be a "London tour guide" in a way since she hasn't been here but I guess that just means that I'm getting the hang of the city (even if it is little by little- hopefully I don't get us lost in the city again like I did by myself.... Nightmare!).

Week two, and my classes are going well. I really like Abnormal Psychology. I'm starting to like Intro to film more and more each session.... we have been watching snippets from tons of old movies and I am creating a huge list of old films I need to see when I come home. Cognitive Psychology might be a drag. I guess it's interesting content but the teacher is pretty monotone and hard to understand. Plus the room setup is like an old 19th century school house- there are wooden pews and plank "desks" that are too slanted soall your stuff falls off. Oh well, at least I can pretend I'm Laura Ingalls or something. Maybe it will all become more exciting after we finish talking about and memorizing the neural basis of cognitive psychology (among other topics just as "exciting"). Anyways, sorry if that all sounded really depressing, I like my other classes alot and I think it will be a good semester. Speaking of class, I've got to head to Human Development! Cheerio!

PS.... today in the cafeteria they were serving lamb liver for lunch!! I think thats about the last thing you would EVER imagine seeing in the Bethel dining center. HAHA!

Road Trip!

Hello! My second weekend here has been pretty eventful. Well up until now I guess since I'm just relaxing and posting blogs and pictures. Yesterday we went on a road trip to Bath, England which is about 2.5 hours away. We saw the ancient Roman Baths and went through the museum. The bath just looked like a huge swimming pool with stairs going into it. It is basically a big hot tub but the water looks so mucky and nasty that I felt incredibly brave to dip the tip of one of my fingers into it. I heard that the only person since ancient Romans to jump into it was an American tourist.......figures. But he probably caught hepatitus or something so I guess thats punishment enough for being so stupid! After our tour of the baths, we wandered around the town and did a little shopping and sightseeing. The Bath Abbey was beautiful; not as big as Westminster of course, but it was big and had ten bells which kept going off throughout the afternoon. As with most of England, the buildings here were all old and the architecture was so cool. If I can figure out how, I will try to post some pictures on this site. The only downside to the afternoon was that it was pretty rainy. But hey, what should I expect? I was pretty much asking for it by coming to England.

After we got back from Bath, my friends and I decided to go out for some Chinese in Whitechapel. We were looking for a specific place called Ten Bells but we couldn't find it and none of the locals had heard of it... so we settled on another place nearby. Let me just start by giving you a picture of the area of Whitechapel that we were in: First, this is the original site of the Jack the Ripper murders. If you have ever been to North Minneapolis at night, you might have an idea of what this area was like. It was a little run down, or "up and coming" as we decided to label it. And to make matters more interesting, after our Chinese dinner, we passed a hobo peeing on a building. Needless to say, we may not go back to Whitechapel for a while. But it was an adventure to say the least!

This week I will be starting my Cognitive Psychology class so that should be good. I'm beginning to feel a little more settled here and I am eager to get past the "intro" stage of my classes and get into the actual material. Wish me luck keeping all of my Psychology courses straight! I'm sure they will be good though. Well, I'm off to start my new book: The Rossetti Letter (I finished The Other Boleyn Girl- so good! everyone should read it). Have a good day!

Squirrell attack

Hey all! Today was a pretty good day, the weather was nice and I only had one class, Abnormal Psychology. After class Erin and I decided to go to sit in the park to read for a while. It was pretty cold and windy, though, so we mostly just chatted and watched all of the millions of pidgeons flock around the people throwing birdseed. The parks around the college are sooo beautiful! this one has a great pond in it with a big bridge going over it with TONS of trees everywhere. The one downside however, was the fearless little creatures that came inches away from our ankles when we were trying to have a nice sit in the park. One squirrell in particular was honestly out for blood or something, because he litterally jumped up onto our bench and chased after us when we ran away. It was crazy! Not all the animals are this vicious though so dont worry.

So far my classes seem pretty good. Tomorrow I have Intro to Film, Cognitive Psychology, and Human Development. I like them so far and lukily I was able to check my books out in the library instead of spending my hard earned pounds to buy them. Although I did buy postage stamps today and they were SUPER expensive (7 pounds for 8 stamps... thats almost $14!!). Lets just say email will be my primary form of communication.

I guess not too much has happened since Monday..... but this weekend we are taking a trek to Bath so expect some great pictures and much more interesting blogs soon! I hope this one didnt bore you to tears!

Week 1... Getting settled

Hello! The rumors are true: I really am in London for the next 3.5 months! I thought maybe a blog would be good so that people can check in as they want as opposed to me sending millions of emails. Well.....today marks the 5th day that I have been here, which seems crazy because I feel like I've been here for weeks! In a good way, though. I've already done so much.

On Friday we went for a "Jack the Ripper" tour of the city. Totally gruesome, but it was really interesting. We saw what the murder sites look like now.... wierd that we were standing right where some axe murderer was about 120 years ago killing people. Hmmmm...... After the tour, I actually had a little bit of an adventure of my own not by choice, however. Some of the group decided to stay out in the Jack the Ripper area after the tour but I decided to head back. Long story short, I got seperated from the group and ended up alone searching for my way back in the dark in a strange city! Yikes. It was scary! But, fear not, I found my way back safe and sound. 30 minutes later.

On Saturday we went on an open-air bus tour around London where I was able to see EVERYTHING! It was really cool because you can get off the bus whenever you want and then just get back on whenever you are done exploring for a while. Me and a few friends (my roomie Brooke, and two other girls from my program Sara and Erin) walked around taking pictures (I already have like 200 or something) and we stopped for a tour of the House of Parliment. It was soooo cool and it was even more interesting because I am currently reading "The Other Boleyn Girl" so the story matches up with the stuff they talked about on the tour, which was fun.

Anyways, I guess thats pretty much the short story re-cap for everyone. Here are some details: I bought a new planner with cupcakes on it, I have started watching Gossip Girls which is really addicting and good, I accidentally lost one of my earings down the drain in the shower yesterday, and next weekend I'm going on a group excursion to Bath! Should be a real good time. I hope the USA is fun!