Ice Bar!

So it has been forever since I posted any pictures so I feel like I need to do that now! Wednesday night we went to Ice Bar which is a bar made entirely of ice! Literally everything: the actual bar, the shot glasses, the chairs, the walls, EVERYTHING. They even gave us designer thermal capes to wear while inside!! I think the pictures tell the story better than I do!

when you put a shot glass made of ice on a bar made of ice...it slides away and cracks on the ground. lesson learned. 

working our thermal capes

the cold makes you do crazy things

bar made entirely of ice!

things got a little rowdy at the ice bar (the other two in the picture are Emily and Dontea by the way!)

   There were 12 of us there in total. I think someone managed to get a picture of all of us but they haven't put their pictures up online yet. When they do, I'll be sure to add one! 

     School is going a little slowly for me - 8 papers is a lot. I've written one about art history and I think it came out ok (I've never written an art history paper before). We read some sample essays in my seminar yesterday and the ones that got A's didn't seem too unattainable. They just write so differently here! The person had headings and subheadings in their paper. I see that in journal articles, but never an essay. Our instructor also said to write a really good introduction because as he put it, "Why would the teacher read the whole paper? That is so long. You usually know what grade you would give it after reading the introduction." Why am I bothering with writing the entirety of these 8 essays then... He also said that grammar and punctuation mistakes aren't that big a deal. Um. What? Karen wouldn't stand for this (that's my mom). Karen is obsessed with grammar. Our other relatives used to call our house "Karen's Grammar Camp." Whenever people start a sentence with "Me and my brother," I respond with "My brother and I" like it's a reflex.  It's a habit that has taken years to suppress (though it hasn't gone away entirely). She also one time said "it was very not good" about a movie, and everyone in the family flipped. They framed a poster that said "We's shocked!" at the top and it had the entire story about Karen's grammar folly "while she was discussing a movie with her fellow Grammar Camp faculty." Family - what can you say? We keep things interesting. I hope my DeForest family stories aren't too boring - anyway, back to London.

    We finally finished booking our entire travel plans for Reading Week (which there will be no reading during). I basically can't do anything besides write essays for the next week (except for Halloween - reunion with Australian friends!) but it's going to be an amazing. Thursday we leave for Rome, where we will stay until Sunday when we go to Florence (which I have been reading all about in my art history class). From Florence, we go to Barcelona (and by going from Florence to Barcelona I mean we have to take an hour and a half bus from Florence to Pisa, fly for 5 pounds from Pisa to Girona, and then take another hour a half bus from Girona to Barcelona). We're flying RyanAir the entire way. I'm not sure if any of you have ever flown RyanAir before, but it is absolutely the cheapest airline I have ever seen. I mean, our flight from Pisa to Girona was 5 pounds (like $7.50). They also find ways to charge you for anything. And if your bag is more than 10 kg (about 22 pounds), you have to pay 20 pounds (money) to get it on the plane. So basically, I'm going to wear the same shirt for a week. Don't judge me when I am wearing the same clothes in every picture - this is how students travel. 

    I'm also trying to plan trips for every weekend right up until I go home. I may not be able to go out during the week anymore but at least I'll get to see more of Europe! We are definitely going to Ireland the weekend of November 18-21. Hopefully I will be going to Budapest for Thanksgiving weekend (more Oktoberfest friends...) and then Portugal and Greece the last two weekends! I also need to get up to Cambridge at some point (but I may do that during the week, Donnie just doesn't know it yet). 

    I really need to get a Halloween costume! I have no idea what to be. I am feeling sick today so I don't think I'll be up for getting something but I'll need to be prepared for tomorrow. We're going paddle boating on the Serpentine in Hyde Park and then getting our costumes! 

     Hope everything is going well in the US! I can't wait to see everyone!

Life in London

    So I'm finally starting to feel like I have a little bit of a routine here (and I mean very minimal routine..). I have so little class that it's very hard planning out time but I'm starting to get used to it! They told us right when we got here that British students tend to view school as a 9-5 job and then they relax or go out at night. As strange as this is for me (my power hour for studying is 1-3 in the morning), I'm trying to get in the spirit. It makes it a lot easier to do things at night when you are not stressing about school!
    Let me start with the biggest news - TAYLOR SWIFT'S NEW ALBUM CAME OUT YESTERDAY. I'm a little bit of a fan. So far my personal favorites are "Better than Revenge" and "Mean," but I suggest that everyone takes a listen. I'm not as big a fan of this album as the last, but I've ben listening to it on repeat nonetheless. Speaking of T Swift, she was in London all last week but somehow I missed her! I saw pictures of her at dinner at a restaurant that is 20 minutes walking from here! I wish I had known, I've been wearing my T Swift concert t shirt for a week in case I run into her. I think people are starting to think it's weird. Lady Gaga was also in London, but I didn't think I really had a chance at finding her. I mean, she probably doesn't even know where she is half the time.
    Last week I decided I needed to do more touristy things so I spent a few hours at the National Gallery and really liked it! There is a little bit of everything there. I saw paintings by Michelangelo, Leonardo, Van Gogh, Renior, Monet, Manet, Picasso, Gaugain, and Raphael! It was quite a collection. I was supposed to go there to take some notes for my art history class but that didn't end up happening. My personal favorites were "The Execution of Lady Jane Grey" by Delaroche and "The Virgin in Prayer" by Sassoforetto. Afterwards I just walked around central London a little bit. There is always some crazy performer in Trafalgar Square!
    The next day I walked around Hyde Park with my friend Katie for hours and just talked. We had lunch with our friend Cara from Australia that we met at Oktoberfest (and our other Aussie Oktoberfest friends are going to be here this weekend!!) and then we walked down Oxford Street to Hyde Park. It's giant! I really enjoyed walking around there, it doesn't feel like you're in a big city at all. We were walking around and ran into Royal Albert Hall. For those of you not in the know, Royal Albert Hall was where the Spice Girls had their big finale performance in "Spiceworld." I was really upset I didn't have my camera - such an important moment in my childhood!
     I went back to Hyde Park the next day with my friend Emily and we also just walked around and talked. We're going to go back this week to go out on the paddleboats on the Serpentine. Emily wants to have a wine and cheese party on it but I'm not sure that's allowed...
     This past weekend was pretty boring - a lot of my good friends here were traveling so I tried to get some work done. Saturday was our first girls night and it was pretty fun. We bought wine glasses and decorated them with "Girls rule" stickers we bought at the 99 pence store (which I am SO glad that I found). Mine is actually quite the artistic masterpiece. We went to a local pub, but I think the DJ thought we were at Ministry of Sound or something because he was blasting intense house and techno music. We left and went to a club in SoHo which was much better. They even played a song from Glee!! It was the Sue Sylvester version of "Vogue."The last song was "Teenage Dream" which I have been obsessed with lately (Katy Perry also just got married in India to Russel Brand this weekend - congrats!!).
      The last few days have been a lot of work and class (I have four hours of class on Monday and one is at the National Gallery - it's a long day). I've heard Halloween is a big deal here but I'm not really sure when I'm supposed to start dressing up. I also heard you actually need to dress scary or it's weird. I guess I'll put that spray bottle of glitter away...
    In exciting news, nine days until I leave for Italy!!! Rome ---> Florence ---> Barcelona during our break week. And the next weekend after that is Dublin and Cork!! I could not be more excited to travel. I've found it a little frustarting being here - I really want to travel and see other places but I'm having a hard time doing that knowing I have 8 papers to write for this semester. I'm trying to make my days at the library really count though so that I can plan a few more trips. First trip I need to arrange: Cambridge!   Donnie is waiting for me! Everyone I have talked to has said that Cambridge is beautiful. I also may go to Budapest because I made some friends at Oktoberfest who are studying there (I was really social at Oktoberfest). I've also heard amazing things about Greece and Portugal, and even Croatia so I need to get to work so I can plan these trips! Hope all is well in the US!

Lucas
    
  

Updates

Sorry I haven't posted on here in a little bit - not much going on here. I'm trying to get started on my schoolwork but I'm finding it a little difficult because there is so little structure. Plus, I have 8 essays to do this semester, and only one is due before December! I definitely cannot procrastinate.

I went out for my first nice dinner last night to a restaurant in Piccadilly Circus called "Chiquito" with my friend Emily. She was having an intense craving for Mexican so we basically just wandered around until we stumbled into one. We ate our weight in nachos and churros and made ourselves walk home to work some of it off. Later I went to a pub called "The Rocket" (I may have mentioned it before) and had a great time. I went with a friend, but she was with another friend so I was kind of left to my own devices. I just befriended a group of Indians from LSE and we had a great time! It's so interesting how many different people you meet here. It really is a crossroads- there are people from all over.

I finally booked my flights for my break week and we are going to Italy and Spain! I'm not really sure how many people are coming ( I just booked my flights with two friends and we're just going to tell other people where will be if they want to join). November 4th I leave for Rome with Katie and Jordan (who lives on my hall and also goes to Penn!) and we stay for a few days before heading to Florence for a couple days, and finally Barcelona! I am super excited to see the Sistine Chapel. Words can't even describe. Also, all my readings for my art history class are about Florence so I am so pumped to finally see it in person! I'm going to be so knowledgeable (well maybe a little bit). I'm just going to memorize where a few things are and who built them and try to show off for the other people there (probably won't work). I've also heard amazing things about Barcelona! A friend of mine here studied there for a month and loved every minute of it. I'm just going to have to get used to going out in Spain - the night doesn't even begin until 1. Since I am usually in bed by then I'm going to need to rest up! Hope that everything is good in the USA and will hopefully be doing some exciting London things soon!

Haggis, neeps, and tatties...Oh my!

      This weekend was my first weekend trip of the semester and it was great! I went to visit my friend Hilary (the one who lives in London) in Edinburgh, Scotland. Let me just start by saying - I am not intense enough in any respect to keep up with the Scottish. They are just generally hardcore at everything. Let me go back to where it all started...

     So Edinburgh is sort of an awkward distance from London. It's sort of like the distance from Boston to Washington DC (which probably means a lot more to me because I am from Massachusetts but just trying too give some geographic perspective). This posed a few challenges to the money-challenged study abroad college student. There are definitely flights from London to Edinburgh (less than two hours) and trains (about five hours) but both of these options get somewhat pricy. Naturally I did what any poor student does - megabus! Yes, I thought that a ten hour bus ride couldn't be that bad. I did one in high school to go to DC for a band trip and I thought I could handle it again.

    3 o'clock Friday I get on the bus. It starts out ok, but then I realize that the people sitting three rows behind me are actually the most obnoxious people I have ever encountered. What started as raucous laughter quickly escalated into full scale screaming. I'm talking horror movie, blood curdling screams. Why they were screaming I could not tell you - but I'll just say that it got rid of any possibility of actually falling asleep on this bus ride. In the middle of the bus ride, one of the other passengers actually snapped and started cursing at them and screaming back. They laughed at him.  I actually thought I was going to see a fight. Thankfully, five hours later they got off at Manchester, but I still had five hours to go. It was an extremely long five hours, but some of the scenery along the way was nice (at least until it got back). Finally, at 1 am, I stepped off that bus and saw Hilary! Unfortunately, she had laryngitis so it was tough for her to talk but we had a great time nonetheless.

    We woke up the next morning ready to take on Edinburgh. Our first stop - Edinburgh Castle. Back when Scotland had its own royal family, I believe they used to live there but it seems like all kinds of people had been there at some point. Here a few snapshots:

Why can't we have castles in America?

leading the charge to take over Scotland

Ok, I have absolutely no idea who this is, but she was getting married at a castle so I am convinced she is a princess

moving in soon

We continued our walk through Edinburgh down "The Royal Mile." We stopped for a quick look into the National Museum of Scotland (not going to lie, there's not that much stuff in there) and went to the cafe where JK Rowling wrote the original Harry Potter!!! As a big fan, it was a magical moment. Pun intended.

You're a wizard Harry!

very ugly building

castle that I can't remember the name of

   The middle building in this series is the Scottish Parliament building. When I say it is ugly, I'm talking from a technical standpoint. It was voted the 8th ugliest building in the world in a poll recently. The castle at the bottom is where the pope and the queen hung out a few weeks ago. So I guess it's probably pretty nice.

    We had dinner that night at a pub called "The Green Mantle." Their specialty is "buffalo burgers" which are actually made of real water buffalo (which apparently is more healthy than cow). Pretty delicious! So afterwards we went to Tesco (cheap supermarket) to get some stuff for the night. And by some stuff, I mean wine and cookies (or "biscuits" as they say in the UK). So we walk up to the cashier and put our stuff down and he says "What is going on here?" Being frightened college students we naturally assumed that we had somehow violated the drinking age and that we were all going to Scottish prison. A few seconds later he continued, "Are you guys just going to get drunk and eat biscuits?" Unfortunately, the answer was yes but we somehow played it off as if we were getting the biscuits for someone else. He made some suggestive comments about the names of our cookies (I won't mention what the name was here) and we finally got out of there. It was a strange, but hilarious experience.

    That night we went to Hilary's union's club. Now, my union has a couple bars but they are pretty small. This was place was actually a nightclub and their student union. It was pretty amazing. The Scottish people are crazy! Hilary and her friends warned me that people invent their own theme nights but I didn't realize what she meant until we got there. One group was dressed in trash bags, another was all boys dressed in women's clothes, another was 80s. When we finally got inside, it got pretty rowdy. Let me also say this about Scotland's youth - they are about 10-15 years behind on popular music. Song after song came on from the mid-90s and EVERYONE besides us knew the words (including to a random Irish folk song). Finally "See You Again" by Miley Cyrus comes on and Hilary, her friends, and I jumped up and down screaming the words like 10 year old girls while everyone else stared at us like we were crazy. Whatever, they just don't know good music. Also, they didn't do the cotton-eyed joe dance to the "Cotton Eyed Joe." They just jumped up and down. Three countries I've heard that song in and no one yet has known the dance! Probably because it came out 13 years ago - too recent!

    So after a long night of dancing (or more like roughhousing with the Scots), we headed to bed. The next day we got up bright and early to begin our trek up Arthur's Seat, a mountain/hill right in the middle of Edinburgh. It is actually right outside of Hilary's dorm (she has a great view). The hike wasn't too bad but it was very windy and cold at the top! I guess that's what you get in Scotland. If not for the clouds the view would've been truly spectacular! 

beginning of our trek!

Hilary + Scotland!

owned that mountain

conquering Scotland!

Hilary also conquering Scotland!

Firth of Forth in the background (weirdest name ever)

castle from a distance

     We decided to make this the most authentic Scottish day it could possibly be. Naturally, I had to have haggis, a Scottish delicacy. I'm not sure exactly where from inside the sheep it comes, but I'm almost positive it is the stomach or the intestines. They make it with neeps (turnips) and tatties (potatoes). To be brutally honest, it was disgusting. We also had this soda, Ironbrew, which is made with an ingredient that is illegal in the US. It tastes like a liquid creamsicle. Here is the haggis in all its glory:

ew

   So after finishing the haggis, we had to find something just as Scottish to do. Naturally, we went on a whiskey tour! The Scotch Whiskey experience starts with a barrel ride telling you how whiskey is made, followed by an explanation of the different kinds of whiskey from Scotland and then a tasting! The first part, the barrel ride, was hilarious because it was just so ridiculous. How many rides are barrels of whiskey?

Scotch Whiskey Experience!! IN A BARREL!!

illustration of yeast that eventually becomes whiskey obviously

    After the ride, we had a woman tell us about Scottish whiskey. They gave us a little scratch and sniff card with the different scents that you get from different regions of Scotland. That scratch and sniff card was EXTREMELY inaccurate. So we finally get the whiskey ( I picked the one that "smelled" like banana) and she told us to take a few whiffs before we tried it. I took one whiff and felt like I was going to hurl. I'm pretty sure that this whiskey was 70% alcohol (140 proof). I took the smallest sip I have ever taken in my life, and could barely get it down. She told us to try watering it down if we were having trouble. Hilary and I dumped the entire bottle of water into our cups, and still could barely take a sip. Most of it ended up in a bin. There was NO banana scent. But we still got to see the largest whiskey collection in the world so it was all worth it!

pre-tasting

enjoying the whiskey collection (because we don't have to drink that)

someone had a lot of time (and whiskey) on their hands

Scotch Whiskey Tour survivors!

    After the Scotch whiskey tasting, we decided to go for something a little less traditionally Scottish and go to a place called Choco-Latte. It was so delicious and inexpensive! I got a brownie with a Mars bar in it for 69 pence! Scotland apparently is just as overweight as America (actually a little bit more), and now I see why. According to Hilary's research, they invented the deep-fried Mars Bar. Artery-clogging fun right there.  For dinner, we continued to avoid Scottish tradition and went to a Nepali place. It was my first food of this type in the UK and it was pretty good! Definitely made me excited to go to Brick Lane (where all the Indian restaurants are in London) this week. Sadly, it was then time to go back to London. My bus ride back to London was just as miserable as the first. It left at 10:30 pm and got into the station the next morning at 7:30 am. I may have slept for two hours. Needless to say, Monday was not a fun day. Two hour art history class walking around the Victoria and Albert Museum was tough! I thankfully caught up on sleep on Tuesday (no classes, yeah yeah) and feel pretty rested today. We're starting to plan our trips for our break and it looks like Italy and Spain!! Details to follow!

Classes

     So I actually started classes this week...and I'm already totally lost. It's not that the material is too hard (though it does seem pretty difficult) but they are just so vague about what is actually required! I know I'll just be writing a couple papers in each class, and there are no recitations or discussions, so I'm not sure what I actually have to read. They just "recommend" certain readings. It's hard to tell what is actually required! I have to start reading this weekend but I don't even know how to access these readings! No class really has a textbook and the readings are just pulled from random sources. I'm going to Scotland in three hours so I have a funny feeling that I will just end up reading some of my James Patterson book. Oh well.
    I'm currently getting ready to go on my first weekend trip! I'm going to Edinburgh to visit my friend Hilary who is studying there. She has laryngitis right now, but I'm hoping the trip is ok anyway! I am pretty exhausted, but I should be able to sleep on my TEN HOUR BUS RIDE. Oh, the life of a college student.
     I finally got to hang out with Katie and Garrett last night and we had a great time! It's nice to see people who really know you well. As much as I enjoy making new friends, it's always comforting to talk to someone who knows a little more about where you're coming from. We went to a pub called the Rocket. It's always full of students because it is right by UCL so it was really fun. Cider is delicious! They had a strawberry one that I loved. I love strawberry anything. The three of us are also going to Ireland together in November! Gonna kiss that blarney stone! I just read an article calling it the most unhygienic tourist attraction in the world. We're going to bring some Lysol.
     More pictures to come after this weekend!
    

Almost caught up!

     I am determined to get to today so I'm going to keep going here! Saturday I was absolutely exhausted and there was no way I was going to try and do anything besides eat and go to the gym. The gym here is pretty nice - not nearly as big as Penn's and more expensive, but compared to other gyms in the area it is a decent deal. Saturday night no one really goes out because that is when people go out (and they actually have money unlike us poor college students). We ended up going to a pub and it was probably the most fun night I have had yet! I went with Matt and Bari and ran into my friends from the psychology reception! Dont'ea, Romy, and I worked that dance floor like no one in London has ever seen. We even finally made a British friend, sort of (well she said she liked us but we'll probably never see her again - that's about as good as it gets).
     Sunday was another cold and rainy day (like pretty much every day here has been so far), but the rain managed to hold off so that I could go see a play at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre! The Penn Centre abroad got tickets and we got them at a discounted price. We also have a "cultural bonus" (aka a handout from Penn out of our "study abroad fee") and that went towards my ticket. We saw "Henry IV, Part 2." Having not seen Part 1 and not really being able to understand some of the heavier British accents, I had absolutely no idea what was going on the entire time. All I know is that someone died. I think it was a comedy though. Either way, the theatre was really cool! It's an authentic reconstruction of Shakespeare's theatre. We couldn't take pictures during the performance but I will go back and get some when it is not a performance.
    The tube went on strike Sunday night so we've been laying low since. I finally had my first class yesterday! It was called "Renaissance Art in London." Thankfully, almost all the students in it are study abroad students who know nothing about art history (like me) so we can all help each other. For our first class, we walked to the British Museum and our teacher told us about the background of the Renaissance based on Roman and Greek works there. Coolest. Class. Ever.  I'm going to bring my camera to class because they are all taught at the Victoria & Albert Museum or at the National Gallery! I've never been more excited for a class. I signed up to a project on Boticelli's The Adoration of the Kings. Hopefully I get it! I signed up for an earlier presentation because I'm doing a lot of traveling in November and want to have everything out of the way before then.
    Last night we went back to the nightclub Heaven and it was so much fun! Best dance music I've ever heard since I've been here. There have been a couple dance songs I have heard repeatedly since I have been here and I thought I would share. Definitely make a good addition to any running/workout playlist and are excellent to dance to!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1EOGzzLy8U&feature=channel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD4BWXKSgSA

   I have heard these both a few times since I've been here and love them. The music here, although not always my favorite, has been better than my experience with America. No more rap! Yay! Not a big fan. Well today I don't have any class so I have basically written this blog and tried to catch up on sleep (the fire alarm was broken and hasn't stopped going off all day). I finally have all my courses together and I will be taking Renaissance Art in London, Language & Cognition, Perception, Attention, & Action, and Psychology of Health Risks. Lots of work coming up but hopefully there will still be time to do the fun stuff! Tomorrow is tennis tryouts followed by a tennis pub crawl. Club activities are so much different here! I signed up for basically everything, most importantly the Chocolate Appreciation Society.
    Other random things about UCL...the dining hall food is actually decent. The people who serve it definitely get up on the wrong side of the bed every single day though. Unlike America, you're not allowed to take seconds and they're very strict about how much you can take. I took fruit and a dessert one day and got scolded. And don't even think about trying to take another dessert - they get feisty. Well I need to start looking at my schoolwork so I better go! Exciting upcoming news - trip to Edinburgh to see my friend Hilary this weekend and just bought tickets to go to Ireland in November! Lots more ahead!

London continued!

     Alright it's time to catch up so that I can keep you fully updated! So I left off with Sunday night at Koko! We went to another club the next week called "Fabric." I went with my friend Emily and some of her friends from American. I had heard that Fabric was really cool. I'm not really sure who the source was of this, but I don't think they went to the same Fabric. We got there and it was giant, there were three different rooms and all were enormous. There was one big problem - the music. I wouldn't really call it music as much as very, very loud noises. There wasn't really a beat, definitely no words, and there was absolutely nothing to dance to. The British people seemed to enjoy just thrashing around to it though. I didn't understand, and we left after about 15 minutes.

 The next night we had another school event at a club called Heaven, but the name of the event was called 'Club Neon.' Basically everyone dressed up in bright neon clothes and brought glowsticks and whatnot. There was free UV paint, but I was too busy dancing the night away to notice. They had a stage on one side, but they kept kicking everyone off and then letting them back on so it got confusing. It was a lot of fun though! We actually went back to that club later, on a normal night, and it is really cool. They have a sort of pyramid in the middle that you can dance on. It was another really big place! 

     On Wednesday, we had our reception for everyone in the psychology department. I'll just say, it was one of the most fun/ridiculous things I have ever done with school. There were two kegs. This was a school sponsored event - and there were kegs. And many bottles of wine. We just couldn't stop laughing at the fact that this was our welcome event. Lots of friends in the psychology department now! They were really impressed with my vast knowledge of all things pop culture.

    We finally got around to some sightseeing on Thursday! Buckingham Palace was only open until Friday so we decided we had to get a look before it closed for the year. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, I'm pretty sure because it would've taken us hours to walk through because we were taking so many pictures. I have never seen any place so extravagant and elegant. Every room looked like it was out of a fairy tale. And to think - someone technically lives there! There really was not corner that was not magnificent. There were even secret passages! I need a place like that.

outside the gates of my future home

back of my future home

front of future home

    I also got to see the throne room! It was pretty intense. That was where people get knighted and where the queen officially opens Parliament. The inside was just so unbelievably beautiful, I wish i could've gotten some photos! At pretty much all the sights in London they give you a headset with information about what you're seeing and they're very helpful. You may see me wearing some in pictures - don't judge.

     We continued our walk through London towards the houses of Parliament and Big Ben. It's not as big as I thought it would be! But I guess everything seems bigger when you're younger. My brother Ben is really excited for me to add these pictures to Facebook because he insists that I tag him as Big Ben. That might give you an idea of what he is like.

    

found him!

Parliament - intimidating looking

me + Ben = bros

Westminster Abbey is across the street so we took some pictures of it. We didn't go inside yet because that was more money and we had already paid 15 pounds for the Palace! Westminster was absolutely gorgeous. I can't wait to go inside - it must be beautiful!

lots of important people in here

can't wait to go inside!

That was pretty much all the sightseeing we did that day but I forgot what we had done an earlier day! We walked around the Thames and saw Tower Bridge, London Bridge, and the Tower of London! I have to say - the London Bridge was a huge letdown. Not only was it not falling down, no one would have even cared if it did (assuming no lives were lost). It is the most boring bridge ever. Tower Bridge, on the other hand, is beautiful! I heard a rumor that the London Bridge from the song is actually in America, but if it is, why even come to this continent?!?!?

Tower of London - will enter later

Tower Bridge - bridge that is actually cool

tower again

this bridge has a song dedicated to it and I don't? whatever

     So that has been the majority of our London sightseeing! Last Friday was out big, ambitious, touristy day though. We did Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Bath all in one shot! It was a very, very long day but I will just start from the beginning.

     So we were up at 6:30 and at the tube by 7:30 to get our coach bus from Victoria Station at 8:30. We got on the bus and we loved our tour guide! He was an older guy but he was really funny. I think his name was Nick? I forget already, but he was cool. Should have gotten a picture with him. Anyway, we went through London a little bit and saw the outside of some of the museums. AMAZING. The Victoria and Albert Museum looks like a castle (and must have been at some point) and I have class there on Monday! I have so many museums and galleries to go to it's ridiculous! I don't have class on Tuesdays, so I'm going to use that as my gallery/museum day (except for today because the fire alarm has been going off all morning and I need to sleep because I have tennis tryouts tomorrow). 

     So our first stop was Windsor Castle, which is the other official residence of the queen and the longest inhabited castle in the world. Let me just say, this queen has got it made. Buckingham Palace had 600 rooms - Windsor Castle has 950! The place was gargantuan - our tour guide told us we probably wouldn't really be able to get a picture of it because there is really no place where you can see it all at one time. You can't take pictures there either but we got a few shots outside.

let's go!

finally home

the queen is pretty lucky

man with a cowboy hat!

the weather took a turn for the worse

us at the castle!

workin' the headset

     Another stunning place to see! Unfortunately we didn't have that much time to stroll through, but you could definitely get a feel for the castle from the time we had. Our next stop was Stonehenge. Also unfortunately, as you can tell from the umbrella picture, this is where the weather took a turn for the worse. It was cold and rainy when we got to Stonehenge. Like, very cold and rainy. We basically ran around it and then ran back to the bus. Oh, I forgot to mention who I was with! My new travel companions I had met at the local pub one night (everyone on campus goes there). The girl with the man in the cowboy hat is Erin, who goes to Cornell and lives a few floors up.  The boy is Matt, who goes to Delaware and lives nearby, and the shorter girl is his friend from home Bari, who also lives nearby and goes to Emory. 

    Stonehenge was undoubtedly the most random sight I had ever seen. In the middle of nowhere, surrounded by fields (and herds of sheep), is this stone formation. It's fascinating when you think about it. Where did they come from? How did they arrange them? Some of the rock are 50 tons! Due to the bad weather we didn't spend much time thinking about any of this but we got a few pics in!

Where did it come from?!?

loving the weather

important rock

freaky

They sold "rock cake" at the concession stand on site. We got a good laugh out of that. They also had headsets, but it was so windy that we couldn't hear them anyway. We didn't spend too much time looking - it was just so miserable! We were all starving at this point so we stopped at a pub in Lacock for lunch. Naturally, this being an authentic English experience, we all got fish and chips and cider. The pub that we went to was the oldest licensed pub in England. It's something like 800 years old. There was a wheel in there that a dog used to run around to do something. To be honest, I have no idea what that dog was doing running around that wheel because I couldn't keep my eyes open when he was talking, but apparently it's cool.

pub older than time

a dog ran around this wheel. significance unknown

So, full on fish and chips, we were off to our next stop! There was horrible traffic so we barely made it to the Roman Baths on time! We only had about 45 minutes to walk around but we still got to see a lot. I wish we could've walked around  Bath a little bit more because it looks beautiful but we had to make our bus home. The Romans really knew how to build some nice places! I had a hard time understanding exactly how they made this bath but it seemed like a pretty impressive feat. Here is a little look!

people used to bathe here

gettin' ready to go for a dip

more bathing locations

us with the bath!

our tour guide- a Roman with a British accent...funny..

The Bath Abbey was gorgeous as well! I really wish we had had the chance to spend a little more time there. Johnny Depp has a home there I heard!

beautiful churches everywhere on this continent

    Finally, we had hit all of our destinations! We still had a two and a half hour bus ride home though! I have to say though, the beginning of the ride home may have been my favorite part of the whole trip. We had an absolutely gorgeous view of the English countryside. I wasn't sitting on a good side, and a picture could never really show it, but it was breathtaking. Then the rain stopped and there was a rainbow! It was a nice end to an exhausting day.

gorgeous

wanted to spend the whole day here

rainbow!

We finally got back to UCL at around 9:30. We had left fourteen hours before! Here's a little indicator of how I was feeling at that point:

who's ready to dance it out?

I actually did end up going out that night to a club called "Debut." It used to be warehouse and was also giant. I was pretty dead tired though so I was out of there fast! Alright I need to continue this on another post because this has gotten out of control! Hope you enjoyed!