Hello France!

Weekend 6: 7/16-7/18

So this weekend I went to Paris and absolutely loved it. Going to Paris ment seeing Louise (after her trip to the states 2 years ago) If it wasn’t for Louise though, I would not have been able to see everything that I ended up seeing. Going to Paris was one of the best experiences that I have ever had, however I was very happy at the same time and hear "mind the gap" when taking the tube home on Sunday night.
I left my room at 5 am, checked in at the Eurostar station by 630 and on my way to Paris at 655. When going through baggage check, they completely tore open my suitcase...they didn't even do that when I boarded the plane to get to England. I was surpised, but was pleasant, because I can only imagine working this type of job you can run into some very unpleasant people. I was so happy that the first man I was checked through told me that I was very pretty and chipper this morning. Another passenger (an older lady) who was in front of me in line turned to look at him, then to me saying "What am I, chopped liver?" Very funny. After getting through baggage and such I had to sit for a short while before being assigned a platform and met a lady who grew up in south central Wisconsin. Small world. When on the train, I found out that most of the people around me were going to Paris for a day through a tour group. I cannot imagine trying to conquer what I did in one day. I don't think it can be done. Before too long I fell asleep on the train and woke up with darkness outside. All I thought was "I must be under the sea" and I was. One thing that made me laugh was that when we were in England the announcements were said first in English, second in French. Once we got through the tunnel the announcements were French then English. I was definitely in the land where France ruled.

Day 1: I met up with Louise and took at 40 minute metro ride to where her flat is. Her flat was really small, as she warned me of, but it was just what I needed for the weekend. I'm not a very high matinence girl after all. The location was great, right in central Paris and according to Louise, we were located in the ritziest areas on Paris...so very safe. One thing that I noticed about Paris is that people do no clean up after their pets…there was a lot of dog poo and that was disgusting. In general the streets and metro systems in Paris were much dirtier than in London. The same smashed TV on the sidewalk was there the whole time I was in Paris (the whole time...I know 3 days) but I appreciate London now for that aspect. We walked to the Eiffel Tower. It was a half hour walk there, but at the end of the block where we stayed you could see it from there. It is HUGE! I mean I knew it was gonna be big, but its not until you are there that you really realize how ginormous it really is. The lines to get up there were also about 3 hours long, so we opted out of that to save time. From the Eiffel Tower we walked toward the Arc de Triomphe. We walked past the tunnel where Diana’s car crash was, and the statue that we re-named “Diana’s flame”. Louise explained to me that this statue was there before the crash for something else, but is better known now as "Diana's flame". Louise then took me to what is the Paris equilavent to New York’s 5th avenue. It was filled with posh shops including, Hermes and Louis Vuitton. I made sure we stopped just to look at Louis Vuitton…a wallet was 350 euro. I’m so glad, and proud, I have a fake one at home. When we arrived at the Arc de Triomphe, it was crazy. That intersection surrounding the Arc was absolutely nuts, I think it was about 5 or 6 lanes of traffic in a round about around the Arc. Louise strictly works in Paris, since her family lives an hour outside of Paris, so there were some things that she had never experienced before, including climbing to the top of Arc de Triumphe. Finding the tunnel that took us under the road to get to the Arc was nice. At the top of the Arc was a great view, all of Paris. Inside the Arc was a mini museum about the Arc including the explanation of the art and monument. Very cool. There were monuments for the unknown soldier, end of WWI, and for the first Republic. From there we walked to the Louve and spent the rest of the afternoon there. I got to see Mona along with a lot of other famous pieces of art. It was lovely. However, I thought it was odd how in the basement there was a mall…where two crazy things occurred to me. Mom publicly popping out her breast to feed her baby, and the toilet store…that is a story in a half. I thought it was brilliant (the store, not the lady breast feeding) and Louise thought it was stupid “I bet that is the one thing you remember from today and nothing else” After the Louve we were both rather tired and headed back to the flat. We rested slightly and then went out to dinner at a café down the street. Very good and I had crème brulee. We just had a chill night, watched a movie, and got some sleep because the next day was Versailles.

Day 2: I have taken an art history class and a French revolution class…seeing Versailles (all of it) really was absolutely fantastic. I got a ticket that let me go anywhere, so we spent the morning exploring the gardens. All the different sections that were all designed different was insane. I was digging seeing all the green and being in a somewhat countryside. There was also a muscial fountain show where the most famous fountains were flowing and some were moving to music. Very cool to see. Very famous fountains I remember studying in art history I got to see first hand. Found out that much of the original piping is still used and hasn't been replaced. After lunch we went through the palace. I got to see all the fancy and elaborate and gawdy decorations including the world famous Hall of Mirrors. Absolutely spectacular. Mirrors, at the time when the palace was built, were extremely rare and expensive. What a better way to show the wealth of a country by spending money on an entire hallway lined with mirrors. There were alot of art pieces, old furtniture, and a two story chapel. Louise was very tired and rested while I got a few things in the gift shop before we went out on our last venture at Versailles. We finished the day off by going to the estates of Marie Antionette. Her private estates consisted of a petit and grand Trianon (basically a small and big palace) and her own little recreated village so she could play "townspeople" with her other aristocratic friends. I wish I was kidding, but I'm not. This is how disconnected they were, the real people were starving, poor, and dying. On a lighter note, words cannot explain how completely cool this day was. I got to see pieces of architecture that I studied, I got to see the site of where a lot of French history occurred…it blew my mind (in a good way). One of the cool aspects of the gardens were that they had sound system that played music from the era throughout the garden. I feel like this really add the atmosphere of the experience. In the classes I have seen a few pictures and maps of the place, but being here for me was breath-taking. At the same time, I understand why now the country was in debt after the building of this (well, there were other reasons too, but this was a large portion of it). I am still trying to wrap my head around it still. I enjoyed every part that we went to. The estates of Marie Antionette, I’m really glad I got to see those. I heard about the mini village that she created to imitate the common people, but to see it was amazing. I had to laugh while explaining this to Louise, she had no idea that is what we were looking at and why they were built. The day was long, our feet were tired (walking from 10-6 with only a half hour break for lunch was a definition of a long day) we headed home to make a “real” French dinner. We picked up groceries and first feasted on bagette and cheese…4 different types of cheese, and wine. Apparently this is their pre-meal meal. We went out of order Louise told me. Usually they start with some sort of appetizer, then the bread and cheese, then the main meal, then desert. One thing I noticed about the French they love to eat, but how the women are so skinny I do not understand. So we started with bread and cheese, had pasta and salad, and finished up with a nectarine and fraiser. The fraiser was a tiny custard and strawberry thing. Difficult to explain but delicious. We were both still so exhausted from walking around we got some sleep…and lots of it.

Day 3: My last day was the most filling day I had in Paris. Breakfast at 10 was a croissant. We then took the metro the Moulin Rouge and at 11 we had a crepe (mine with nutella and banana) and from there I did some souvenir shopping. After that we went to Notre Dame. I almost cried it was the coolest experience. We walked through there during a Sunday mass. To hear the choir, see the priests, and smell the insense was an experience all in itself. However, mankind continued to disappoint me. Less and less people respect any type of religion. I'm not Catholic, but I make sure that I respected their time of worship when I was still enjoying the beauty of the cathedral. Other visitors were on cell phones, wearing "I'm still drunk, and you're still ugly" shirts, and using flashes. So sad. After that I got a piece of art and then at 1230 we had lunch. For lunch we had quiche, salad, I had a pear/almond pie type of thing, and finished off with what the French call coffee. I like to call their coffee a shot of espresso. Very good food, but alot of it in a little amount of time. Did some more shopping and then walked to the Bastille monument. I had did it. Everything I wanted to see in Paris was finished…with time to spare. Louise then took me to a modern art museum which looked from the outside more like a giant hamster cage for people. Slowing down as the day went on we walked around more, found the Hotel de Ville, and finished up my day packing and getting the train. Overall a fantastic weekend!

Is it the weekend yet?

This is going to be a short entry because I would like to pretend this week did not exist. It wasn't horrible, but definately the low light of my time here.
-Stupid bank
-loads of work (which is good...responsibility) but stressed me out
-job applications
-lack of sleep over all

Random fact of the week....I found out the origin of the word posh
P-ort
O-ut
S-tarborad
H-ome
When ladies would go to India to get them a working man...it was still in style to be pale as ever. So this is was the rule they followed while traveling to and from India to stay as pale as ever. Crazy! I love how Alan has the most random facts. Also was informed by Alan that I bought the wrong colored t-shirt when I was in Cambridge. I bought a Cambridge shirt with Oxford colors...Oxford in their biggest rival. HE was very upset about it, but I just prefer navy blue I guess. Go ahead and say it, typical girl answer...the color is all that matters.


So week 6, was that. no joke. I was ready to run to Paris by Wednesday....good thing it was coming quickly.

Elsenham, Cambridge, and Hertford

Weekend 5 7/9-7/11

Had a later night than anticipated but I wanted to chat...its a Thursday night tradition. I got up and left to go to Liverpool St. Station to catch a train to Elsenham. Now Vanessa kept warning me about how much smaller everything in general is in England (houses, cars, bathrooms etc) Which thinking about it, that is true. The largest car I've seen that wasn't a truck owned by a company was a Chevy Tahoe. 1) The only Chevy I've seen since I've been here and 2) it looked lost because it didn't fit in with all the little sedans around it. So back to my adventure, I think it was her way of warning me about her house. Since I've been here I've become even more simple when I think about what I really need to get by on a day to day basis. Anyway....I took the 958 train and got to Elsenham by 1050ish. Nice non-busy train ride. Slow, but it was good time for me to catch up in my journal. Elsenham is really out in the middle of nowhere...and I LOVED it. This trip has really made me realize how much of a country girl I truly am. I love the wide open spaces. Not to say that I hate the city, I just prefer the country. I got off the train and we walked to the house just down the lane. Small house? PISH POSH! this house is bigger than the one I grew up in and I got a whole bedroom and bathroom to myself. Never thought I would get THAT excited about getting those things again. Vanessa and I went into town to do some errand shopping to prepare for our family BBQ on Sunday. We drove through some of the cutest towns on the way to Bishops Stratford. These houses has thatched roofs...crazy expensive upkeep, or so I'm told. In town we had a lovely afternoon stopping here and there for me to do some shopping along with Vanessa's grocery shopping. We had lunch at a "fuddy-duddy" place as Vanessa called it, but I didn't care...they still served food.

We had a relaxing afternoon and when we got back to the house it was almost time for dinner. Vanessa was getting a surprise before dinner though....a new sports car. She is such a riot, getting a blue sports car. When it arrived I decided that is suited her well. That night Jim and Vanessa took me for dinner at the Fox Inn at the "prettiest country town in all of Essex" aka Finching Field. I had chicken and was thoroughly stuffed by the end of the dinner. At the pub later that night a man was was to perform "a tribute to Michael Buble". Now call me crazy, but usually when there is a tribute, it means the person has passed away, hopefully I haven't missed that news. After dinner we enjoyed a leisurely stroll through town to take advantage of the lovely summer evening weather and to soak in the town. Finching Field is tiny and quaint. It has a hill, stream, normal small town look, and a windmill. Ice cream for dessert while chatting and watching the ducks in the stream was a lovely way to end day one. We started to make the desserts for Sunday that night (I'm bringing the recipe home to wow you all) That night I slept well. I haven't slept that good in a while....it was a fantastic night's sleep.

On Saturday Vanessa took me to Cambridge. I absolutely loved it! If any of you reading this are planning on going to England....go to Cambridge. Cambridge is a college town (they have 11 I think) and is just full of cool things to see. Don't plan on driving all the way there, you will have to go to a p+bus (signs for park and ride) and take a bus into town. The city does not have alot of room for parking and like to keep the streets generally not that busy unless its buses. First thing we did was go on a site-seeing bus around Cambridge. We stopped at a few spots, the Botanical Gardens. I don't know what it is with me and gardens here. I just love them. It's probably because I miss seeing green in my everyday life that I just soak in these experiences to have the illusion of nature and the outdoors. At the gardens I saw carnivorous plants...and a sign that asked for people not to feed the plants....that was an odd experience to have, but I loved every minute of it. After wandering a little bit more we hopped back on the bus and got off at the American Cemetery. Yes, American...no mistake. This was a cemetery was for Americans who lost their lives during WWII. The list of names and crosses was haunting. The amount of names and a sea of crosses is not necessarily the happiest moment to experience, but it really is a beautiful spot to reflect on alot of things. The piece of land that the cemetery was on was given to the US by Cambridge college. Its a nice calm country area just north of the city and has a breath-taking country view. I think it was a very fitting resting place for the soldiers. We then hopped back on the bus one more time to get back into town. On the way we passed by Cambridge University...I learned some fun random facts (my fav kind). Cambridge is one of the 4 colleges worldwide that have a copyright license meaning that any book that has every been published, or will be published a copy of it will be in the library at Cambridge. The library at Cambridge has 100 miles of book shelves that will continues to grow and over 6 million books. That is insane! We hopped off the bus at the River Cam where we had sandwiches and ice cream for lunch. After lunch we went punting up the river. Vanessa had been talking about it all weekend "punting"...I had no idea what she was talking about. Punting to me is kicking a football, but she was very excited about it, so I figured it can't be bad. It wasn't bad....IT WAS AMAZING! Punting is a riverboat ride up and back on the river. We get a tour of the "backs" (since all the colleges in Cambridge, their backs face the river) with all the architectual history about the colleges and the bridges. The weather was wonderful and it was a gondala like ride too. So our gondalier (?) was our tour guide...very nice guy, name was Jake and looked like Robert Pattinson but better. It was a fantastic tour. Learned about all the stories surrounding each college and the city itself. Wonderful time. The problem is that they let ANYONE rent the punting boats, so with the nice weather...everyone (experience or not) was on the river that day. People were falling in left and right. "If you're happy and you know it clap your hands...if you're happy and you know it rock the boat!" After the tour we just walked around, had tea at four, and were heading home by 7. A fantastic full day at Cambridge. The day was hot hot hot (for England standards) so we had a light dinner of salad and ham, finished it off with tea and got another fantastic night of sleep.

On Sunday I was ordered to "lie in late" and that they did not want to see my face before 9...so I made an appearance at 915. I actually slept really late which is what I needed. We left for Hertford at half past 10. We had a relaxed afternoon at their cottage with the whole Reed family. I got to play with the girls and watch them. I've never watched kids like that before and see the differences between the two sisters. One is not better than the other, but they are different and similar in their own ways and it was interesting for me to observe that. but the BBQ....SOOOOOO much food. Lamb kabobs, chicken kabobs, pasta salads, garden salads, burgers, sausages, corn on the cob, bread, potatoes...for the main course. For dessert we had chocolate fondue with fruit and merranges. YUM! Met Charlie....he is tooooo cute and has the best hairdoo in the world. he is 9 months old and has Shirley Temple curls up to the wazoo. SO CUTE!

So I got home to London by 930 that night and had a fantastic weekend in the north with the relatives. I hope to see them once more before I leave for home.

Fish can play soccer too

Week 5 (sorry for the delay) 7/5-7/8
On Monday we had class and for some reason Alan was not on top of his usual game and this week sooooo the best I can do is “Did you know at this exact spot, exactly 5 years ago, the bombings happened on buses just like these?” We had our in class lecture and this week we all (well minus the few who missed it but made an epic/movie moment effort to run) took the bus to Hampstead Heath. Ironically, we were just here the day before for our 4th of July celebration. Alan was right though, five years ago at Russell’s Square (where we caught the bus) is where the semi-coordinated attacks occurred. It was a sad moment but that was not going to ruin my first REAL double-decker bus ride. When we arrived in Hampstead I kinda zoned out. Even though I got a lot of sleep the night before, I was so exhausted that day for no reason. There were a few cool aspects to Hampstead besides the beautiful hill. We walked around the city and got to see the old and new architecture of the city. As we walked we came across an old church and a cemetery. Cemetery doesn’t seem like such a big deal, but it is. Underground graves are not allowed within London so we were out of the city limits enough to have bodies under the ground! Weird but kind of interesting. The graveyard that we visited had some famous people there, but the ones that stood out to me the most was the Llewelyn-Davies Family. They were made famous because many of the main characters from Peter Pan were based off and named after members of this family. The child inside of me will never die I guess. Other random things I saw and learned about Hampstead. For the neighborhood watch sign, their mascot of choice was the meerkat…very cute and funny. I saw the house where the author of “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” lived and wrote, I also saw the house where the idea of the crazy admiral from Mary Poppins may have spurred up. If you don’t know what I’m talking about…watch Mary Poppins. Our goal for class was to climb up the Hampstead hill all the way. Once we reached the top, Alan decided to share stories of how gross the water was back in the day. There is a water source on top of the hill that everyone coming and leaving the town would use (and so would their animals-in multiple capacities, use your imagination). There was a contest when microscopes were invented to see where the cleanest and dirtiest water was…oddly enough, Hampstead won the prize for the cleanest. Disturbing.

On our way down the hill Alan pointed out “cute” zig-zag chimneys and the fact that people have pride in using buildings with weird history. Finally, we learned about the window tax. They tried to tax the rich more because the bigger the house, the more windows it would have. The bigger the house, the wealthier you were. Well, there are ways around this…it’s called bricking up windows. We saw an example of that first hand as well. When I got home, I did laundry, mailed letters and postcards and just had a chill night.

Tuesday I had a rather slow afternoon at work. My supervisor was out for the week so I had to search for things to do that day. I did however do my new reports and they went smoothly. The tube this week was awful. I almost didn’t get to work on time. Not that it really matters, the sense of time and promptness is very different here than back home. I’m a very on-time type of person and here it is much different, very relaxed. If you are an hour late, then they start to think that perhaps something went wrong. Not like that has happened to me, but I have learned not to panic as much if I am close to being on time (since I am usually 5 minutes early). But the tube was PACKED on the way home. At one point I was being touched by 7 other people…that is how much I hate the tube sometimes. It is very convenient, but when there are delays and people are packed on I just close my eyes and think of wide open places of back home. Heard from my Orchard relative, Vanessa and she is going to be in town on Wednesday and wanted to meet up and take me out for dinner after I got off work on Oxford Street. On Tuesday I also got the long awaited mail package from Aaron. I love getting mail! Good day overall.

Wednesday I shadowed Matt in the afternoon and he…get ready for this…LET ME EDIT A VIDEO! That was awesome! I didn’t get to just sit there and got to have my editing hands get dirty. I was nervous about how he would like it, but he thought I did I good job and then both he and I worked together to finish it up. The piece was about fish in a Japanese Aquarium “playing” soccer. Not exciting, but so cool none the less. I was planning on meeting up with Vanessa after work and she was going to call me after I got off….guess who forgot her phone in her room? ME! Worked late and got home at about 545. I just caught her and we met up at Oxford around 6. She spoiled me rotten! Took me to a nice Italian place a few streets south of Oxford street station where we had a wonderful dinner. Two and a half hours later after pasta, dessert, coffee, loads of conversations, and a bottle of wine I was VERY content. We planned for me to come out to Elsenham that weekend and get some country air. I have needed that very badly. Getting out of London will be a nice change of pace. Got home around 9 and was kinda tipsy from the wine. I chilled, took a shower, and then climbed into bed.

Thursday was a rough day. I was up late that night because I forgot that we were going to have a visitor for the night, oh Kyle. So we were all up and chatting and such until 130. That on top of me being kind of tipsy made for a rough Thursday, made it through though with help from people I work with. I worked on a Justin Beiber piece called “the world according to…” so when we saved the project, it was titled “TWAT Justin Beiber” that made my day better. Funny thing happen around 1030 though, the internet went down. More than half of our office needs the internet to get their job done, so we were just sitting around shooting the breeze unable to work. We didn’t hear anything from our server until almost 3, at that point all but 4 of our office went home. Funny how much power the internet now has in our daily life and society. Needless to say, I went home early that day. It didn’t get fixed for a while.

Independence on Parliament Hill

Weekend 4: 7/2-7/4

On Friday we got woken up, like we do every week, by the 3 tests of the fire alarm. Can't they find a different day...heck, a differnt time (instead of 830am) to do this? Ah well. It goes off 3 times a row and after that we all just lay in bed. I have this feeling we are all up, but just dont make the motion. Well I got up and got ready for the day. The rest of my roommates went to a synagogue (our out of class assignment was to go to an abbey or synagogue). After they left I wrote some more postcards and made plans with others. We went to lunch around noon, and from there Erica, Maragret, Hailey, Val and I went to St. Pauls Cathedral...Jake went to a used book store to explore and meet up with us later. We went got to St. Pauls, I have been there already so I just walked around the area and explored. I wanted to hopefully mail my postcards and such, but no luck in finding international stamps. That didn't work, so I bought I dress instread. I need to get to the post office today to get that sorted out. We met back up around 230 and took the tube to meet up with Jake at Westminster Abbey.

Random story! There is alot of road construction happening around the St. Pauls area, as I was walking back to sit in the courtyard and the road to cross only one lane of traffic open. So it's no secret anymore, everyone jay-walks in London...I--and this older gentlemen next to me are no different. The man was slightly ahead of me and began to walk...there was a bicyclist coming and what does he do to the man? Almost punches him in the face! He puts his fist out to hopefully hit him. Why? Perhaps because the bikes are as demanding as car drivers here...idk. Withing a foot of this man's face no joke. So weird.
We told Jake to meet us at the Westminster station at 3. There are at least 4-5 different entrances/exits at that station. Ha. When we found each other we went across the square, that was full of war protestors, and saw Westminster Abbey. We did not go inside, perhaps a church service is in order, but we did lay on the dead grass outside of it. Just the outside of it was beautiful. We took a rest because by that time it was 430 and we had been on our feet all day and dehydrated.

After a short rest we went to Trafalgars Square...there are two festivals happening this weekend in London. 1) On Thursday was Canada Day and 2) this weekend is gay-pride celebration. In the square there was a mix of the two, so the people with me who hadn't been there before, didn't get the whole affect. Luckily the National Gallery (on side of the square) was open until 9 that night so we decided to have a look see. One more thing is crossed off my bucket list....I have now seen original Monet, Degras, Renior, and van Gogh. If you need to know something not alot of people know...I love impressionism art. I could get lost in it....that is why when I saw the original "The Lily Pond" by Monet my heart stopped for a moment. Here I thought I still had 3 more days (this is a joke. I am NOT dying) Random story of our day--We stopped by a coffee shop because it's still so hot here, and got smoothies. a sticker got on me and I didn't even realize it. I'm rotten in 3 days hehe. So back to Monet....it was wonderful. We also stopped at the Hogarth exhibit, he did multiple paintings to tell story (kinda the beginning of comics)...very good. In the gift shop they had the weirdest things though. They had finget puppets of the famous artists like Monet, DaVinci, van Gogh....but my thought was why? The puppets were definately a funny gift and idea, but Im not about to buy one.

We left and went to find someplace for dinner. We found a random pub Waxy O'Connors. I'm glad I had a drink or else I would have probably exploded at someone. The place was an awesome style (tree house like), feel (fun pub), and music (shake that ass...omg) to it...however, horrible service and in my case...ridiculous pricing made me mad. Vent session start here: Their menu consisted of small plates (not appetizers) and large plates. I wasn't starving so I had a small plate of brushetta. However it took them forever to recognize the group of us and decide to take time to take our orders...and then to figure out where we were sitting (even though we told them about 3 times we would be upstairs). My brushetta, I'm paying 6.45 for it....I'm expecting a plate that is consistent with the price. LIES! It was two small pieces of bread with brushetta and cheese around it/on it. I was so ticked. I could have upgraded to a large plate for 1.50 more and actually gotten a meal. bugga. By that point I needed a drink. The most expensive, but strong, rum and coke I've gotten since I've been here. I'm thankful for that and that Jake shared his french fries with me.

On Saturday I finally got to sleep in a little. a good solid 9 hours. However, I feel like my body has been getting to not getting this much sleep and I was tired until after lunch. Today Erica, Hailey, Val and I wondered around the city again. We started by going to Millenium Bridge. This is my first Harry Potter stop. Woohoo. Luckily we made it across the bridge with no sign or attack by death eaters. hehe We may have taken a few goofy pictures "acting" that the bridge was wobbling because of "death eaters" but it was completely staged. When we reached the other end of the bridge we walked to the Globe Theater. To be honest, if not inside for a tour or play, not that epic...I probably would have walked right past it. I'm sure the inside is cooler, but that will be another day perhaps. We continued down towards Tower Bridge. On the way there we saw what was left of Winchester Palace, the Golden Hinde (an old wooden ship that has nothing to do with diversity) and alot of random art pieces. One of them looked like a large black egg that was about to start rolling. So I took a picture that looks like I'm pushing it and Val was going to get crushed by it. Very funny. We finally ended up at Tower Bridge. It is HUGE! Not that I thought it would be tiny, but seriously...very cool thing to walk across. Throughout the day the breeze was nice, but also seemed to like my dress skirt. There were a few close calls earlier that day, but when on the bridge, London got a free but quick show. I could have gotten away with it because no one ever people watches at Tower Bridge because...it's Tower Bridge, but my automatic reaction was a loud "WOOOOO!" and then people stop what they are doing. Ah well, it happens to the best of us. Val went to an old toy museum and the rest of us really wanted ice cream. We found frozen yogurt. My new favorite thing. I had strawberries, granola and almonds as toppings....so worth the money. That was like a meal in a cup. We then traveled to the northern part of Camden and found a firework place to prepare for our celebration tomorrow night. I picked up TWO packs of sparklers. Wonderful! We then went grocery shopping (yay for having food again!) and went home. I chilled in my room, had two skype conversations, and then went out with the girls. It was crazy. Between gay pride and meeting two guys from Texas, it was fun. Did not get home until 4AM though....down side.

On Sunday, our day of independence from good old England. I slept until 1030 (the roommates were up at 9...ah well). Erica, Lisa (now back from Italy), Val and Hailey traveled to attempt to further our festivities by finding a bakery that specialized in American bakery goods which meant cupcake. Unfortunatley although they were cute and festive, they were also 2.95 per cupcake. The idea was good, but I like my money too much I guess...and so did everyone else. We then wandered around Oxford street stopping in random stores and then made it home aroudn 430. I then had some down time in my room, where all I wanted to do was sleep but did not...if I was going to sleep it was going to be a full nights sleep. it was not until 7 that we met up with the others and headed up to Parliament Hill for our all-American picnic. We had hot dogs, chips, grapes, cookies, booze and fireworks. The last two probably dont seem like a good combination but it was fine. I have never been to Hampstead Heath. It is a big park just north of town on a huge hill that overlooked the hill. It was beautiful. It had long meadow-like grass. One side of the hill overlooked the city the other looked over the country. It was a great spot for dinner and festivities. We ate, played with sparklers, and then lit off our fountains....I got worried. None of us knew if it was illegal to set off fireworks in a park. For the second one, I decided to begin to walk home and watched it from afar just incase. I would like to stay for the whole trip, ya know? Over all it was a good night, fun times, and a fantastic night sleep (from 11-9) yyyyyyeeeeeessss!

That is all for now. Have a great week, hope you all had a wonderful 4th and will update on Thursday....bring on week 5

J.K. Rowling...the J stands for Jesus?

Week 4 in London! 6/28-7/1

Monday we had class. It was going to be a good day I could tell, there was a 0% chance of rain...which is just about as rare as a unicorn. The 5th day of lovely summer weather in London. One odd thing that I did see was a man walking to work and wearing a sweat band. It was warm, but not that hot. When getting to class, we had some extra time to sit and enjoy the weather, and I wanted to go get any sun I could (salvage what I could of my tan that I started before I left) When sitting on my sun drenched bench there was a line of budweiser bottles. One cool thing about London, you can walk around without hiding your booze bottle and be drinking it. It made me laugh that this was on the campus grounds...someone had a good night.

To start things off on even a better note...my Alan Hertz quote of the week. We asked him where to find good Indian food. The answer I wrote down but he described it this way "you will love it, its like eating a rainbow" I laughed because of how he said it. Let your imagination go with it. In class we talked about colonization and imperialism. That leads to my second Alan Hertz quote of the week. "Colonization is just sending people to settle a place and imperialism is just screwing strangers from far away." Also found out the origins of the "I'm a little teapot" song came from. George III suffered from an intense mental disease. When hidden away for treatment, he apparently would ask for his tea by doing the little dance (here is my handle, here is my spout). When the public found out...this is how the song started. I digress....

For lunch we went to this place called the Onion and it was fab! I had a spinach, avacado, and feta sandwich. YUM YUM. After that we met up and did the Inns of London walk. Not that exciting we were just on the west side of London and the coolest part for me was to see the city marks where the "real" London border is. It is a gryffin(dor---haha to my HP nerds). At the end we walked to through the meat markets and ended class in a nice little circle park. When sitting there he explained how close we were to Fleet Street (Sweeney Todd anyone?) and that this nice little park is where people were taken to be executed. They found it funny to kill someone in a park between the meat market and a hospital. One of the famous people who were executed there was the one and only William Wallace. There is a memorial to him (see picture) and there is another piece of history there too. The hole in the wall was damage from the Blitzkreig that never was fixed. Yay history! He also explained the story of the scratching fanny ghost...this gets a little graphic. Not in a bloody way, but in a way that I would feel awkward talking to my grandma about it. So the story goes that on Cock Street--which was named after what was sold there (did I mention Monday was also the day of inappropriate/important signs? hehe)--apparently there is a ghost of a woman who scratches her fanny. In England fanny means va-jay-jay and scratching means pleasuring one's self. So Alan pointed out that men did not run from this particular ghost...they tended to run toward it. bahahaha. After that class ended. Hailey and I decided to go find Fleet Street...more important 186 Fleet Street where legend said this horror took place. Oh we found it. It was awesome. The ironic part now is that a church is now next door. Makes me wonder if it was there when this story happened....many people are still arguing if Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett really existed. Doesn't matter I found it and that made me happy. From there we went and found Drury Lane...only a few blocks down. However, most of the establishments on Drury Lane were theaters and not bakeries. If I started a bakery on Drury Lane I would call it the Muffin WOman.

After that I went to Oxford Street to do some shopping. London is much hotter than I anticipated. I was expecting cooler temps low 70s and cloudy. Well it might be like that, but it is HUMID as all heck. So dresses, skirts, and shorts are being purchased so I don't overheat. I have seen people in jeans and long sleeves and I don't know how they do it...even in the tube its worse. Complete dead air.

On Tuesday was a busy day at work. Learning more things every week. More tasks means the day goes by faster. I broke one rule (my rule that I wasn't going to do) and left the house without the umbrella. Sad morning. The first day without sunshine all day. It was sunny later, but walking to work...I got wet. The down side to my place of employment, no air conditioning. So my office has two windows but each of them dont open that far and there is no air flow. I could feel the heat radiating around/off me. Lots of water drinking...its too hot for tea now. This one guy at work is trying to push me to drink a redzone which is the equivalent to our red bull. I think he wants to see me hyped up on sugar or something. Whatever...that is way too unnatural. After work I went to return the clothes I bought yesterday (from the God-forsaken Primark) and went to another store and experienced the BEST customer service I've ever had. I asked for shorts and she ran around the store, picked out all their styles, and brought them back to me. I was in shock...very helpful and successful, got a pair of shorts. The best part about this store, I get an extra discount because I'm a student. Gotta love it. I also recieved my first piece of mail from a loved one. Grandma and Grandpa Bormann sent me a card. I was so pumped. Who would have thought that a letter would get me so jazzed? Other random things that I encountered during my day.

-Low pants on the tube....apparently belts dont exist here either. seriously. I would feel uncomfortable with that much of my undies showing to the world.
-I was updating websites and a title of one of our videos is "Is Bin Laden a security guard?" and I laugh because I could ask that about my boyfriend. "Is my boyfriend a terrorist?" hahahaha.
-HP trailer came out that day. Now that England is out of the world cup, this was the top/breaking news story of the day. I was excited, but I heard someone say "really? this is the biggest news we have?" Apparently not all England people like HP.

-The word "queue". Pernounced Q like the letter. I am not a fan. The one phrase that I strong dislike it. Worst part if I ask someone if they are in line....the have no idea what I mean. They look at me as if I am speaking a foreign language.

Wednesday was a very uneventful day. I am at the point now where I should start feeling homesick and I'll admit it, there are times when I long for the country air, wide spaces, fishing, and the sound of crickets. But I'm not wishing my time away, I am just truly appreciating Wisconsin...something I never thought I would say. ha. This day was defined by random happenings and a long day of work. I finally figured out the sizing system here which I'm not a fan of. Clothing you go two size up and shoes down 2 sizes. So not only does it look like I have mini feet but the numbers on the clothes make me feel frumpy. Ah well. Another random happening...there has been a summer international conference at our hostel for like a week and that morning I had to do a double take. I thought I saw Nathan...but he has a twin who is French. Hot sticky day at work. But one funny quote. For our entertainment channel we compared J.K Rowling v. Stephanie Meyer (aka HP v Twilight) and someone asked what the J in J.K. Rowling stood for. After a few guesses one lady said, "I dont know...Jesus?" I laughed...to myself...very hard. Yes, Jesus Rowling...that makes sense. Also was a long day at work stayed an extra hour to revise a spreadsheet the boss lady wanted, but the plus side is that her and the managers loved it. Very impressed I guess. Finally my random moment topped off on the tube ride home....where most of my people watching occurs. Best place for it really. I wonder how many people watch me and experience the same thing.

-There was a 14 year old girl witha pin button that said "I <3>

-Some man yelled at me from across the street as I was walking to the tube, "Nice legs" This man was old enough to be my father. The men here do not have filters at all. Everything that happens in their head comes out of their mouth. Disgusting really.

Finally to talk about the "tube rules" There are two rules. If sitting in a seat, watch who enters at each stop because you should offer your seat to 1) a pregnant women or 2) an elderly person. Here are my issues with the rules. How embarrassing would it be if the person was just heavy and not preggers? Imagine if I was attempting to be nice when I ended up insulting the person and then worse yet, I'm stuck in a tiny car with them for goodness knows how many more stops/delays etc. Also the fact that alot of other people in the car would see/hear this and collect mean thoughts about my originally nice gesture. Almost the same thing goes with an elderly individual. When I get older and someone would offer their seat to me I would automaticaly think shoot, I look old. As my mom always reminds me age is only an age, and you don't always have to act it either. So what qualifies as elderly? Grey hair, wrinkles, cane? You tell me. Personally there are some clearly elderly people who probably shouldn't ride the tube. It is a mad house during rush house and they could get trampled if they dont keep up. One lady I saw the other day...it probably ended up taking her 10 minutes to climb the steps, but what could I do?

Thursday. Last work day of the week! I enjoy my internship, just the days get long. Everyday that I'm there they keep adding more things for me to do, so that must be good. They must like me enough to keep giving me more projects and assignments. That is usually a good sign, right?

Anyways I decided to be brave and wore jeans. Bad life choice. HOT. I am now offically the coordinator of our facebook and twitter accounts. That is MY project. Yay for social networking being incredibly popular...and in my case...fun! Not that eventful of a day overall, but I do have a hot date tonight.

Like most weekends, I dont know what I'm going to do yet, but I'm sure it will be fun :)

Cheers until my Sunday update of my weekend!--Heidi

Windsor gvards like Abba

Hello everyone!

Here is my update from this last weekend. Weekend 3: 6/25-6/27

On Friday a group of us were going to see Macbeth in the Globe Theater. The tickets were sold out, so that was no go. New plan was Buckingham Palace, Green Park, Hyde Park and Kensington Park. The palace was fun, we just chilled out on the memorial. The weather has been so unseasonably warm lately. Ready for this? 80-85. I know. Heat wave. Before this the weather was 60ish and cloudy so not the nicest. The last week has been woooooonderful because I love summer. Anyway back to my weekend adventures. We walked through Green Park and I swear the trees there are so weird, I cannot even explain it but I have my top experts on the case. The picture I have of me and Buckingham looks like I'm more interested about the rear of the man and lion. Jake, who was taking the picture, was supposed to get a pic of me and buckingham, clearly not what he did. Ah well.

From Buckingham we walked to Hyde and Kensington Park. We went to yet another part of Hyde park that I have not explored yet and found an awesome tree hut/house thing. (see picture). We of course went to explore inside. Under the tree it was completely empty....as in no random branches poking around places. It was like a blanket of leaves and branches and inside was a hut. Anyways, it was pretty much the coolest tree ever. I wanna know what type of tree it is actually and how we can get them in the states. I never thought that while I was away I would be wanting to know so much information about trees before. Probably because I was getting "Learning your trees 101" before leaving Wisconsin from Aaron during our random adventures. Under this tree, while we were exploring, a little girl was popping in every 10 seconds and just staring at us. She brought back a dead branch and leaves and then started "sweeping" her "house." I think we may have invaded her space and she was unhappy because she did not invite us in. Too cute. Isaac decided to climb the tree because straight up the center there was no real top coverings. It was a fun time. This tree kinda reminded me of what the lost boys would live in. Very magical and has multiple options for imaginations...it felt like being a dream. I never thought I would be reconnecting with my childlike part of my imagination while in London either. It makes me appreciate the little things in life and what is a tree to one person may be an adventure waiting to unfold for someone else. From there we got an afternoon snack on the lake in the park at a cafe and then wandered down the Serpentine enjoying the sun and water. Rowboats, ducks, swans, and families were everywhere. There was one couple we saw out on a rowboat and they both looked naked. After a while of trying to figure out who had the best zoom, we hoped they weren't. No definate answer. As we walked on we stopped at the Diana memorial and peterpan statue again. We had been walking around London from 130-8.

After a short rest we met up for dinner at a Spanish resturant called Tapas. The idea of this place was that everything on the menu were appetizers, so each person ordered about 3 tapas. I had a pear and cheese salad, potatoes with salsa and cheese, and bread with dipping sauces. It was delicious and only around 10pds. I do however do think next time I have pears I am going to need cheese. At first it was weird, but I got acquired to it quickly and liked it. Another thing I am enjoying on this trip...all the different types of food to eat and that I'm not scared to try them. Sometimes I won't even know what it says on the menu but just try it anyway. Hasn't failed me yet.

On Saturday we went to Windsor and got a great deal on tickets. 10 people round trip was 51 pds which is about 5 per person. We had an epic moment of trying to order tickets and getting to the next possible train...which was leaving 5 minutes after getting the tickets. Very movie-esque moment running through the station and down the platform, engines starting and whistles blowing, conductors yelling.........and end scene. We all made it just in time, I even got to secretly sit in first class. We had a fun day exploring Windsor castle. One thing I got to see was the changing of the guard (or gvard...like its spelled on the sign). In the courtyard the new guard squad and the old guard squad faced eachother. The band then royally marched in across the square. The band then played a mini concert it consisted of no national anthems but of an Abba medley. I immediately started laughing, it seemed really out of place...more than me being in London. I of couse video taped it. These royal men in uniforms and playing Abba....just writing about it makes me laugh. Half way through the medley I looked around and people were either staring or the lady behind us was grooving. Such a cool but funny moment. At Windsor it must be the main path to Heathrow...every 15 seconds a different plane flew over preparing to land.

After the guard was changed out we went to the chapel in the castle. Very cool, learned about knights and this was also where Henry VIII was buried....stubborn, egotistic man....but I did say hi. From there our large group was broken up and so I moved onto the Queen dollhouses with Val. Of all the expensive and detailed things royalty could have, the made a dollhouse that was REAL. Running water, electricity, real tiny plates, paintings, furniture. The guide explained that everthing in this house was real but miniturized. Crazy. No photos allowed. Down side to Windsor, no pictures anywhere indoors. That is convenient for them though....makes you buy postcards for sure. After that we went to lunch in town at Wagamama and I had some sort of chicken ramen soup stuff. Very good, but no room for the actual soup broth. After lunch we went down to the Thames and explored the park. However there was a festival going on and it was crowded with families doing the typical carnie things with kids. Something not so typical...duck races and quakers. Each rubber duck had a number and was purchased for 2 pds. All the ducks were thrown into the river at the same time and whichever duck got to the designated "end" first, won 200pds. Very funny to watch, very funny to listen to commentary, and very nice to know that even in England they have hokey festivals and activities.

Week 4 begins tomorrow. Wish me luck and I will update this in a week!

Much love, smiles, and sunny weather your way!