I'm Back

This blog is going to be short and sweet:

I'm back from London safe and sound. The flight went well and was only a tiny bit late landing. I am a bit congested, but I'm happy to be back on American ground. I already miss London, Flat D, and everything related to this semester abroad. However, it's been amazing seeing my suite and it will be great seeing my family, too. What an amazing semester! 

This officially is the end of the "Natalie in London" blog. I hope you've enjoyed my blog - I know I've enjoyed writing it! Please enjoy your summers and have safe adventures!

And We're Packing =(

Oh man, today's been kind of a sad day. We've been packing and cleaning up Flat D all day. It's finally hitting us that we're leaving tomorrow. It's absolutely crazy!

In the morning, I slept in pretty late and then spent the morning packing and cleaning. I think everything will fit, which I am proud of. It's been very, very sad, though. In the afternoon, I went to take a walk down the canal and take some last pictures of the neighborhood. It's beautiful out, so the walk was nice.

For tonight, we plan to go to Warwick Castle Pub for dinner, visit Tim the Tube Man, and then stay up all night(ish). We are going to watch all three High School Musical movies starting at 11:30 pm so we will be ready to sleep on the plane.

Ok, so I'm off to do a bunch of little things before dinner. I'm ready to come home, but I'm not ready to leave London. I guess the next time I blog, it'll be to tell you all that I am back in the States. Absolutely crazy!!

Oh! And, of course, Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there!

Time is Flying

Hello, hello! I had a pretty good day today. Story time:

All three of us in our room had a hard time sleeping this morning. Amanda had to wake up early to meet her family, but Kinsey and I had no excuse. However, we were up early and that was that. In the morning, I headed to Lillywhite's to see if I could exchange a jersey. Sadly, no, but I then continued around Piccadilly. I headed back to Hamley's and found one final gift at the toy store. Then, I came back to the flats and ate a bit of lunch. Next, Jordan had the brilliant idea of going to Hummingbird Bakery to get delicious cupcakes. The guy was nice - he said it looked like I wanted to get lots of cupcakes (which, of course, I did). I chose a vanilla with chocolate icing and sprinkles. Yum!

After that, I came back to the flat and packed up a storm. That wasn't so much fun. I think everything will fit, but packing is a bit stressful. After that, Kinsey, Chelsey, and I headed out to a Greek restaurant for dinner. It made me think of the Georginas so much! The food was delicious and we had fun being cultured. After that, we got ice cream and ate it along the Thames River at sunset. So pretty!

After dinner, we headed back to the flats on the tube and chatted with our favorite tube man, Tim. We are going to make him a card tomorrow and present it to him on our last night. We love him! I'm back at the flats now, getting ready for a late night adventure. A few of us are going to catch a bus, head to Trafalgar Square, see Big Ben and Westminster, and reminisce along the Thames. It should be fun! I can't believe I'm leaving so soon. Absolutely crazy!!!

Natalie 500: Playing the Market

I have to thank Michael for this super creative blog title. He helped me make a joke with "markets." Please appreciate it - he was very proud of his creativity.

Today was an exhausting day! Sam, Kinsey, and I went out and did a lot of shopping. We started off at Petticoat Lane Market. It was kind of empty and vendors were still setting up when we got there. We didn't find anything of interest, so we moved on to Spitalfields Market. I like Spitalfields a lot and was able to find one good purchase. I was finishing up souvenir shopping, so I had to get stuff done! Next, we headed back to Covent Garden. We got lunch (I got a jacket potato with cheese) and relaxed a bit before doing more shopping. The weather was really weird and it rained, sunned, and all in between. Anyways, after eating we went to a good many stores. I enjoyed going into Lush, which was a place that sold handmade cosmetics. They like to test products on you that make your skin feel really soft. I had a very nice salesman try to sell me some really cool products. I didn't buy any, but it was fun nonetheless. I got quite a few things in Covent Garden, which was great! After that market, we headed to Piccadilly to do some more shopping.

Finally, after 7 hours of shopping, we headed back to the flats. I am just about done with shopping for souvenirs for people and stuff - phew! Tonight is going to be a relaxing night and I hope to get some good sleep tonight and tomorrow.

What a Day!

Hello, hello! I had such a great, touristy day today. I crossed lots of things off my London lists, which was so cool. I started the day by riding the London Eye which is the largest ferris wheel in the world. I went with Chelsey, Kinsey, Sam, and Megan and it was my first ferris wheel!! The Eye goes really slowly and you ride in these cool pods. You get awesome views of the London skyline. It was so nice!

After the Eye, we headed in the direction of Chinatown. We passed through Trafalgar Square where we went and climbed on the huge lions. It was great! We eventually made it to Chinatown and ate lunch at a Chinese food restaurant. I got fried noodles with chicken. Yum! Chinatown was pretty cool in itself. After lunch, we all kind of split up. I went with Kinsey and Megan to St. Paul's Cathedral, which is absolutely beautiful! It is the church where Princess Diana got married (fun fact). The dome is gorgeous and all the mosaic work is crazily detailed and cool. We walked up bunches of stairs to the Whispering Gallery where you get good views of the interior of the cathedral. Then, we walked even further up to the Stone Gallery where you can walk outside along the cathedral and see great views of the city. It was lovely! After climbing up, we climbed all the way down into the crypt. It is a really pretty crypt and people like Florence Nightingale and Sir Christopher Wren are bured there. We didn't see those graves (private event..boo), but they were there! All in all, St. Paul's was so gorgeous and we had a great time touring it.

We eventually headed back to the flats, where we rested for a bit and did some packing (ew!!). I made quesadillas with Chelsey for dinner and we made Big Dessert for the flat for dessert. Big Dessert is simply vanilla ice cream in hot chocolate, which was so tasty! After dessert, a few of us headed out to this cool key ceremony at the Tower of London. It is a ceremony that has taken place for hundreds of years and it has to do with the locking of the gates at the tower. It was super cool and our guide was so funny. It was really a special thing because you have to apply for tickets for the event months in advance. Thanks to Jordan for applying for us! It was so cool and it was a great way to spend an evening.

Overall, a very touristy and very cool day! Tomorrow is a market day - shopping! I hope to have fun adventures to write about.

Done with Classes..Summertime!

Wahoo! I am officially done with classes today! It's weird that it's technically summertime and that I'm now a Junior (weird!). Today was a great last day of classes though. Let me tell you about it!

In the morning, Amanda, Kinsey, Jordan, and I woke up and headed to Regent's Park. We had decided that we really wanted to go paddle boating (or pedal boating as they call it here) on the lake/pond in the park. After waiting for a little while and watching the birds for a bit, we got into two boats and paddled around the water. I was with Jordan and we had fun finding baby birds, avoiding geese, and paddling through trees. It was a blast and a good workout, too! We laughed a lot and had a good time. 

After paddle boating, we came back, made lunch, and headed off to art class. Today we presented our final projects and fantasy exhibitions. Everyone did really, really well and came up with some incredibly creative stuff! I was so impressed and really enjoyed seeing everyone's work. Lisa was proud of us and she brought us some cookies and champagne to celebrate. 

I just finished eating dinner and I may head out for some fries later. I'm not sure yet, but I do know I want to have a relaxing evening. I'm ready to veg out! 

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Hey all! I had a pretty good day today, so I shall recap it for you!

In the morning, I woke up really early to do art. Amanda was wonderful and let me use her computer, so I worked really hard and got it all done. Yeah! I did a couple errands after that, heated up lunch, and headed off to classes.

Theatre class started today with a really cool rap. Some of our classmates got together, wrote a rap, and performed it for both theatre classes. They did such a good job and we laughed a lot! Then, in theatre, we discussed Tusk Tusk and did some little awards ceremony for the plays we've seen. It was a good way to end class. After theatre, I had a break and, so, I went and made my last visit to Paperchase. I also got Starbucks (much needed sugar). After that, we had Sociology. Class started with an exam that I think went well. Then, our teacher was really cute and had a little multiethnic picnic for us. We ate hummus, cheese, pitas, pastries, and a bunch of other stuff from different countries. We ate out in the park by school and we attacked by a storm of pollen. My eyes are a bit scratchy, but it was a nice picnic.

After that, Flat D plus three others went to eat at Texas Embassy, which is a Tex-Mex restuarant. We celebrated Cinco de Mayo and the end of most of our classes. Hooray! I ate an enchilada for the first time and it was quite tasty. It was a nice dinner! After that, I went souvenir shopping with Kinsey and Sam. I got a couple fun things.

When I came back to the flat, I printed off some stuff for art and then my parents called! Yay! I got to talk to them for a while and, apparently, the conversation was really funny because people kept laughing at me. I'm glad it was entertaining. Now, I am sitting here blogging, getting ready to officially end classes tomorrow. Hooray!

Art.

Hello all! I apologize for my lack of a blog entry yesterday. All I've been doing for all of yesterday and today was art. Yesterday I worked on my art piece entitled "A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words." I definitely like the idea of constructing a picture using 1000 words (I double counted them to make sure) more than the end result. I did the London skyline and I was only decently happy with it afterwards. I had a lot of help and good ideas, though, so it was very much a joint project! Thanks Flat D and visitors! I did have to leave the flat though so I wouldn't go crazy and Chelsey and I headed out to get some Thai food for dinner. It was so tasty! Good choice.

Today, my day was very similar to yesterday. When people were out and about, I used their computers (after asking, of course) to do art work. I got a bit frustrated since I am not on my computer and keep messing up aspects of the project. I feel bad that I have to keep asking everyone for their help and stuff - I feel so bad! However, it will all work out and I will stop complaining. Sorry about that! I took a break out of my day of art today to do some shopping. I got a few fun souvenirs for people which I am really excited about. Eventually, I headed home, made dinner, and organized all my thoughts for when I do work tomorrow morning. Tomorrow is my second to last day of classes - crazy! It should be a good day.

I hope to have more fun things to write about later!

What a Nice Day!

I am absolutely exhausted from today, but I wanted to re-cap the day before I forget all the fun details. In the morning, I woke up and headed out to Kew Gardens with a big old group of people. It was a bit of a hike, but extremely worth it! We traveled through Chiswick, which is such a nice area! It was recommended to me by a friend from Elon, so I'm glad I at least saw it. We started out and got sidetracked by a cute little kiddie carnival in a nice park. Lots of cute kids and cute rides - so fun! We brought lunches and ate them in the park. It was so nice! We were close to Kew at this point, so we waited in line to pay and then entered the gardens.

Oh my goodness! The gardens were probably the prettiest place I've seen in London. It was a beautiful day to go out and peruse all the trees and flowers. We got to walk on a treetop bridge and see the gardens from high up. We also saw baby goslings and little birds. We got to see a peacock and it opened up its feathers for us. It was so beautiful! What a cocky bird, though. It was great. After that, we walked around, seeing flowers (azaleas, daisies, etc.) and sporatically just stopping to lie in the grass. We also saw a Japanese pagoda, zen garden, and fields of bluebells. We also got to see glasshouse plants and water lilies. I can't even remember all the cool stuff we got to see. As soon as I can get my computer working, I'll have to post pictures so you all can see.

After spending hours in the gardens, we headed back to the flats. We made dinner, relaxed for a few minutes, and headed out to Wapping. We went there intending to see a cool art exhibition. Unfortunately, we got there and the curator/owner of the gallery told us it had closed (for good) four hours earlier. Darn it! She gave us a personal invitation, though, to the opening of the next exhibition on Friday, which was nice. We decided then to head to a really old pub across the street called The Prospect of Whitby. It was a really old pub - I think it opened around 1540 or something? Crazy! It was nice to just hang out and talk for a bit. After that, we headed back to the flats and here I sit now, writing this blog. It has been a great day, though I am extremely tired now. I'm off to bed. I'll try to write something fun tomorrow, too!

Greenwich (the W is Silent)

Hey, hey! Since I am on a friend's computer, I will make this blog entry brief. I spent the day with Chelsey and Zane in Greenwich, which was so nice! It's a beautiful area with lots of fun, sciency museums to see. Here's what we did:

1) We traveled via tube and DLR to Greenwich. It was my first time on the DLR - kinda cool.

2) We went to a market and got lunch. I got some sweet and sour chicken from a nice Chinese man. Yum!

3) We went to the Royal Observatory to see clocks and things. Most importantly, though, we saw the Prime Meridian and stood in two hemispheres at once. So cool!

4) Next we traveled through the park, got ice cream, and visited an awesome astronomical museum. I touched a meteorite that was 4.5 billion years old and learned that Earth could fit inside of Saturn 755 times (and Saturn could float in water). It was such a fun museum!

5) We then went to the Queen's House. It's a very pretty museum and it housed fine arts. We went in a room that was a perfect cube and, also, saw people heading to a wedding. Unfortunately, we didn't see the bride.

6) After that, we went to the Maritime Museum. We learned a lot about boats, especially passenger ships. We learned some fun stuff about a certain cruise ship (can't remember the name) that was as tall as the Eiffel Tower. It was so fun to look at the model.

7) Next, we saw the Painted Hall and Chapel. Both were very beautiful.

8) On the way back, we decided to take a river cruise. We sat on the top and, since it was such a nice day, it was a nice ride. We got to see the sites from the boat. It was so nice! (Oh! and we also saw the Cutty Sark ship, though most of it was hidden by walls and rennovation things)

9) We took a bus back home from the river cruise and witnessed a huge fight. This guy ended up screaming at these girls to be quiet and it ended in an even louder yelling match. It was nice to get off the bus.

10) After eating dinner, I started work on my art journal. I'm almost done! I can't believe classes are almost done - it's crazy.

That's it for me! More adventures will ensue tomorrow. I hope my computer works then so I can write about them!

I Need to be Banned from the Kitchen

Hellooo! Are you ready to hear about my lovely day? Here goes. 

In the morning, I had the flat to myself. I decided to do some laundry and a bit of cooking for the week. Things didn't go quite as I planned, though. In my attempt to make chicken, I somehow turned on the smoke alarm! And let me tell you, the darn thing was LOUD! I walked out of the kitchen into lots and lots of smoke. It was bad. Luckily, I ran around and threw open all the windows and doors. I was almost getting frantic, when Chelsey and Mich walked in the door. They helped me out a lot and, even though the alarm went off for like 30 minutes, eventually one of the boys on the trip walked downstairs and helped us turn it off. Oh sheesh - what an adventure! I need to be banned from the stove. 

After that, I was a bit fearful of cooking lunch, but I did. Then we headed off to sociology for presentations. They all got a bit repetitive, but I think we did ok. At least it's over! 

I came back to the flat after class, cooked dinner, and am now hanging out around the flat. I might try to do some art or maybe I'll just hang out more. Who knows? I hope to have more adventures over the weekend to update you on! 

Last Gallery and Play

Oh how sad! We're getting down to the "lasts" of things. No fun!

Today I woke up, did some cleaning, and then worked on Sociology with Sam. We worked until we had to leave for art class. Today, we visited the Saatchi Gallery. It is such a nice space and we saw an exhibition called "Unveiled." It was all about Middle Eastern art and the pieces had great messages. I really loved the exhibition and class was shorter than usual, so that was plus!

After class, we had time to explore the area around the gallery and near our theatre for the night's play. The area was in Chelsea, which is one of the nicer areas of London. We walked into some shops and ate dinner in this adorable pub with fun wallpaper and purple cushiony benches. The food was really tasty, too! After that, we had some more time, so we did even more shopping/looking. We walked into some fun places, like a chocolate shop and a bookstore.

Eventually, we had to head to the theatre for our last play of the semester, Tusk Tusk. It was such a great show! The theatre space was really small and we were very close to the actors. The play was written by a 19-year-old and she was actually there in the audience! So cool! The plot of the story was kind of basic, but the acting was incredible. We enjoyed it quite a bit. It was a great play to end on. I'm just sad that we don't have any left.

Now, Sam and I just finished our 11 pages of Sociology paper (ah!) and I'm about to head off to bed. I hope you all have great nights and I hope to have some fun adventures to share with you tomorrow.

Romeo, Oh Romeo

Hello all! Sorry that I didn't get to update my blog last night. Zane did something to try to help fix/clean up my computer. It seems like it helped, so yay!

Yesterday I started the day with work and classes. We had a discussion in theatre and were given time to work on our projects in Sociology. After class, I went with Kaitlin, Sam, and Chelsey to The Swan for dinner. Then, we headed out to the Globe to see Romeo and Juliet.

I really, really liked the show! We had standing seats, which was a bit tiring, but not at all horrible. Benvolio and Mercutio were absolutely hilarious and Romeo was very good, too. I have to say, though, that I wasn't a fan of Juliet. That was kind of disappointing, but overall the show was really great. I also liked that the cast was multi-racial. It was just really cool! All in all, the show was good fun, well done, and I'm so glad we went!

You Can't Stop the Beat!!!

Oh my goodness, let me please tell you about my wonderful day! In the morning, Jordan, Sam, Megan, and I went to the Hairspray box office to get tickets for tonight's performance. We successfully got front row seats - yeah! When we got back to the flats, I did work and did stuff on my computer (which currently won't turn on..I seriously have a quota of once a day on the darn thing).

After lunch, a bunch of us went to Parliament to see the House of Commons in session. We waited for a while and then actually saw a protest! These four people, we think, we protesting for climate-related things and they had super glued themselves to a statue in Parliament. Crazy! The problem with the protest, though, was that they wouldn't let us stay in the room while they tried to break up the protest. So, we had to back track and wait some more. Eventually, we got in to the viewing room and watched the House of Commons people talk and argue for about an hour and a half or so. They talked about the swine influenza, prison, and the budget. The best thing we saw was a guy give an excuse for being late and another guy refute him and tell him it was a horrible excuse for lateness. It was great!

After Parliament, the five of us from earlier got something to eat and headed to Hairspray. OH MY GOODNESS! The show was absolutely incredible!! It has been my favorite show I've seen in London. It was funny to hear them try to do American accents but everyone was so talented and did such a great job. At one point in the play, one of the characters came down the aisle and needed to get on stage by crossing in front of all of us. She had us stand up and everything as she pushed past it. It was so great! And, since we were in the front row, we were up close and personal with all the actors. It was so fun making eye contact with them and seeing their facial expressions so clearly. Ah!! We had lots of understudies, but they were amazing too. I was seriously awed! I think the best part, though, was after the show. I had bought a poster at the interval (intermission) and we waited at the stage door after the show to get autographs. I got the autograph of my favorite dancer, Wilbur, Tracy, Penny, Inez, Link, Motormouth Maybel, and maybe some more. They were all so nice, too! The lady that played Penny heard that I was from Maryland and she said I was the first person she's met that's actually been from Maryland. It was so great and I'm so glad we got to be like 13 year old girls, all excited to get autographs. It was just such a great night! The show was amazing and I couldn't stop smiling!!

My Throat's a Bit Sore, but for a Great Cause

Today London hosted the London Marathon. A bunch of us went to support the runners and I think we stood near the 3 miles-to-finish line. It was absolutely amazing! To keep my thoughts straight, I will write a list about the marathon.

1) The basics: 26.2 miles long, about 35,000 runners, usually takes about 3 hours or so to complete.
2) Many runners have their names written on their shirts so you can cheer for them by name.
3) Most popular names for boys: Steve, Dan, and Neil. Girls: Susan and Claire.
4) It was the best when you called a name and people smiled at you or said thanks. Amazing!
5) There were so many people dressed in costumes. We saw lots of tutus and wigs, as well as these crazy costumes: Barbie, rhinos, clowns, a tree, Spongebob, Superman, Spiderman, Wonder Woman, Tigger, Bugs/Butterflies, a toilet, men dressed as girls, elephants, Elvis, flowers, and so much more. My personal favorite? Two guys dressed up as Pam Anderson and David Hasselhof in Baywatch - red suits and all. Absolutely hilarious!
6) It was so nice to see how many people came out to support the runners. Some people even came out with candy for the runners. It was so sweet.
7) It was so amazing to see people cheer for the people they knew in the race. There was one lady who ran alongside her son for a bit yelling "Go Sweetie! Yay Michael!" I think she was a Jewish mom and the boy was running for a Jewish organization.
8) So many different charities and organizations were represented. I hope they all got loads of money - they all deserve it.
9) The winner was a guy from Kenya who ran all 26 miles in 2 hours and 5 minutes. Want to know how fast he ran each mile? 4.7 minutes!!! Second place was an Ethiopian and third a Moroccan. The fastest female was from Germany and she finished in 2 hours, 22 minutes. There was also a wheelchair marathon. We saw a couple wheelchair racers. It was inspiring to see how hard they worked.
10) By the end of the hours we spent watching and cheering, our voices were sore and our hands red from clapping. However, in comparison to what these runners were doing, it was nothing.

It was an absolutely beautiful day - perfect for a marathon. I'm so glad we went to support the runners. I had a blast! It makes me want to do a marathon myself, though probably not one 26 miles in length. We'll see...

I Haggled! (Well, Kinda...)

Aloha! Thought I'd switch things up with some new language. I hope you all are having fabulous Saturdays. My day was pretty great, so I'll tell you about it. 

I woke up this morning and did some work. I printed off my paper for theatre (even though I hate it) and started work on a Sociology presentation. In the afternoon, Kinsey, Sam, and I headed to Camden Market. It was SO COOL! The area is kind of punk-rockish with lots of people. The market itself is huge and we had a great time looking at jewelry, clothing, crafts, and books, amongst other things. I bought a couple souvenirs, which was good. 

My favorite purchase of the day was actually a present for me, though. I bought a hat! Not like a baseball cap, but a cutesy hat. I tried it on in the store and the salesman said "As a friend, I'm telling you the hat looks good." He also said he would cut down the price. I told him I still had to think about it, but I decided to go back and retry it on later. Another guy was there and he told me he'd cut down the price even more. Awesome! I decided I would take it for his offered price. I ended up talking a bit to the salespeople, who thought I was Spanish. When I told them I was American, the guy said "I'm giving you a good price because I like American girls." Haha - he was really funny. But anyways, that was a very long story about my haggling skills (though I really didn't haggle) and my new hat. 

Before we left, we got some really tasty Chinese food. All the food at the market looked absolutely incredible. Earlier, we had all gotten huge cookies which were awesome. The Chinese food lady that served Kinsey and I was really funny because she was all sneaky. She whispered to us, saying that she would throw in an extra spring roll for free if we bought the main course. I am proud of myself because I tried the spring roll! Though I still don't like them. 

Anyways, after about 5 hours out and about in Camden, we returned to the flat. For  some reason, we decided to try our hand at breakdancing in the flat. I can't say we were very good, but it was funny nonetheless. After that, we all went back to work. I've been art journaling - super fun. Tonight, Chelsey is going to teach us some fun dances and I am super excited. I'm just in a dancing mood! 

Anywho, I better be off. Time for art. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!!

Shopping!

Hello all! Today was a pretty good day! I woke up this morning and finshed my theatre paper. Woohoo! I'm quite happy. After that, I headed to Carnaby Street with Amanda, Jordan, and Megan. I needed to do some souvenir shopping for people. We had a lot of fun searching around the shops. Jordan and I bought some fun-looking, colorful candy cupcakes. After we finished Carnaby Street, we split groups. Megan and I headed down Oxford Street. I hoped to buy some shoes and/or a dress. No luck, but we had fun looking.

After we were exhausted of shopping, we came back to the flat. Megan and I played a really funny trick on Zane and Chelsey and I was very proud of us. I also finished the book I was reading, which I was happy about. Now, I'm playing on my computer, getting ready to do some work, and eating dinner. Fun stuff!

Playing Sociologists Pt. 2

Hey all! Ready for blog #2 of the day?

I woke up this morning and played on my computer for a bit. I also worked more on my theatre paper and was quite productive! I can't wait to actually finish it.

After that, I headed to school to meet Sam and Kinsey for lunch. I got there a bit early, so I read in the park for a bit. It was a lovely day again! When their class was done, we headed to a pub called The Swan for lunch. After that, we all headed to a park in Waterloo. Sam and I had to do some researching, so we people watched and wrote notes for soc class. After that, Sam and I continued on to Stockwell and Brixton for more research. I was glad it was sunny out, though I felt a bit creepy doing so much people watching.

Now I'm back at the flat, getting ready to do some work, and then going out for pizza. Not a super busy day, but enough to keep me busy. I'll have more adventures to write about this weekend. Yay!

Wednesday

Hello everyone! So, I am writing my blog for yesterday this morning because, while my computer wouldn't turn on last night, it is on this morning! Yay! Let's hope it keeps up this good streak. I'll keep you posted.

Anywho, yesterday was a pretty ok day. I woke up in the morning and did a bit of work. I started my paper and tried to get as much done while my computer was on. In the afternoon, I left to go to art class. We went to five different galleries. We first went to a gallery that had no sign..it was in a big black building with huge black doors. It was so weird. The gallery was fine. It was paintings and sculpture that I liked ok, but didn't love. The next gallery was a bit weirder. The paintings were very bright and showed a lot of green people. I didn't love them, really. After that, we went to a gallery that showed very interesting sculpture. They were made of cement, wood, and paper mache and had absolutely no shape. I didn't like those pieces. The fourth gallery was my favorite. The artist had taken things like cereal boxes and postage stamps and cut them up and re-mosaiced them into new pictures. It was so tedious and so, so cool. The final gallery confused me. The main piece had these old-fashioned, standing microphones plastered to the floor and to these headphones that were making unintelligable noises. Kind of strange.

After art class, we got to go to the Angel tube stop and ride the longest escalator in all of the tube stops. It was kind of neat to do that. Then, we got dinner in the Angel area before the play. I loved the area - it was very cute and friendly. We ate dinner at this friendly pub/bar place called Walkabout (it was Australian themed). After that, we headed to the Almedia theatre to see Parlour Song. It only had three actors in it, one of whom was in the movie Love Actually. They all did a great job and I really enjoyed the play. It was quite funny and pretty short, so it kept our attention.

After that, we came back to the flat. I wanted to do some work, but my computer wouldn't turn on. I ended up doing some cutting of words for my art project and reading instead. Not a problem! I guess you'll get a second blog post tonight if all works well with the computer.

Classes and Gorgeous Weather

This will be very, very short because I am not on my laptop. Mine actually won't turn on at the moment, which is a bit frustrating. So my day in a nutshell: wake up, beautiful and sunny out, went to the store, packed lunch, ate in park by school, had theatre class w/ very cool guest speaker (Shakespeare themed - awesome!), had break, walked to Paperchase to buy paper, had sociology, got to hang out in the park, came back to the flat, cut out words for art, checked email on Megan's computer. That's all. Let's hope my computer is fixed soon. Have a good night!

My Kids were Good Today!

Today was a bittersweet kind of day. I spent my last day at Wilberforce for practicum and my kids were SO GOOD! It was an awesome day, even though I'm sad it was my last. I'll tell you a bit about the day.

So first, it was their first day back from break. I expected the kids to be rowdy and crazy. I really think they were just sleep-deprived because they were so quiet and well-behaved. In the morning, we had assembly, literacy, and break. They started reading a book about the Amazon River and were so smart when predicting stuff in the story. After break was some maths. I worked with a different table today and they were more of the higher achievers. It was neat being at a table that got their work done correctly without my prodding them to do so.

At lunch, I talked with my teacher about my evaluation. She said it was a pleasure having me in class and I assured her that I had a phenomenal time, even though the kids weren't all perfect angels. It seems like she respected my opinions on her class and the students, which I thought was great.

After lunch, we did handwriting and then Emily let me have some time with the kids so they could help me with an art project. (To sum it up, I'm doing an art project called "A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words." What I'm doing is having people write words -1000 total- that mean something to them; I'll cut them up, and then I'll make them into some kind of picture.) They were so helpful and wrote some great words. My favorite was the paper that said "PS1, PS2, PS3, PS4, PSP, love, family." Oh gaming systems...After that was more lessons and then saying goodbye to everyone. So sad!

I went to my last seminar after the last day in schools and gave a presentation on Wilberforce. It has been such a great time working in London schools. I have learned a lot and am going to miss my kids so much!

Sun on a Sunday

The sun has been loving us Londoners this weekend. It shone its beautiful face once again today, which we were quite happy about. Unfortunately, the morning didn't start out so sunny for me. My computer wouldn't turn on and, since I have numerous projects on it, this worried me a lot. Eventually, I gave up trying to turn the thing on and went on to have a nice day.

Kinsey, Sam, and I went out to Hampstead, which is about 20 minutes or so away on a bus. The area is absolutely gorgeous! It's more residential, but very cute and nice. We spent a while getting lost around the area (which was fine because exploring was cool) and eventually making our way to a huge park called Hampstead Heath. It has definitely beat out Hyde Park for my favorite park (that I've seen) in London. There were little ponds of water, lots of birds, beautiful green trees and grass, adorable kids, and great views of the city. We walked up and down hills, just taking everything in. Eventually we made our way to a high hill, where we sat watching people fly kites and looking out over a beautiful view of London. It was very relaxing. I wish I had time to go back and enjoy it even more (I, unfortunately, also had a bit of a headache, so inside I was feeling a bit blah).

After exploring the park, we went to a couple shops in the town of Hampstead. We found our way back on a bus, stopped into Tesco for groceries, and came back to the flat. I once again tried my computer to no avail. I decided to cook dinner to get my mind off the darn computer and then got on Kinsey's computer to get the number to call HP. Just as I got on to the website, my computer decided to jump to life and turn itself on. Hallelujah! I am very happy. Tonight will be a night filled with some work and then I don't know what else. Last night we ended up watching a movie and then talking until 3 without realizing how late it was! It was really nice, though I can't do that again because I go see my year 5 class for the last time tomorrow. I am so excited to see them!

So the Sun Finally Came Out

Yes, the sun did in fact come out today. This was a huge disappointment because, thinking it was going to rain, we cancelled our trip to Bristol. Very disappointing. We will have to reschedule that, but it kind of was sad that the weather people lied to us.

Anywho, I woke up this morning and finally finished the book I was reading. I did a bit of proofreading on some journals and whatnot and submitted those. I also did some laundry and made lunch. After that, I wanted to go somewhere to enjoy the sun. Kinsey, Sam, and I ended up heading to the Covent Garden area. There is a market there, as well as some cool shops. We spend a couple hours meandering, seeing street performers, and shopping. My favorite store was Lush, a place that makes all-natural, vegan cosmetics. We got to test some lotions and stuff. I still smell all nice from that store!

After spending some time in Covent Garden, we headed back to the flats. Kinsey and I tried our hand at making quesadillas on the stove - the result was not too bad! Now, we've all decided to have a working night. I'm not sure if we're up to anything else, but for now it's time for work. I hope you all are enjoying your Saturdays!

Let's Play Sociologists

Hello everyone! Today was a pretty cool day. Again, it was a bit cloudy and rainy, but we're all getting used to that. This morning I woke up to our flat being buzzed by the mail man. After I went to sign for something (I felt so grown up!), I couldn't go back to sleep. I got to read for a while, which was nice. Then, I researched for Sociology.

After lunch, Sam and I played sociologists and went to explore a London borough called Lambeth. We went to see Brixton, Stockwell, and Waterloo and it was neat just observing and looking around. I felt like a reporter with my little notebook, taking notes on everything. Sam and I got some good stuff, though, so I was happy. After 3 hours of exploring, we came back and typed up some reports. It was a lot of Lambeth, that's for sure.

A little while ago, Kinsey, Sam, and I went to see 17 Again. We expected it to be really corny and stupid, but it was actually really good! Very cute and with a good message. I also couldn't help but notice some similarities with High School Musical. Oh Zac Efron... (and P.S., Mom, there is a new Fame movie coming out that has Kherington in it! Just FYI)

Anyways, now we're in for the night and brainstorming what to do for tomorrow. We were going to head off to Bristol, but it's supposed to rain so we scrapped that plan. I guess you'll have to read my blog for tomorrow to find out what we do!

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Today was a very rainy day. I was not a huge fan of the rain, but I still had a good day regardless. I woke up, played a bit on the computer, and did some of my art journal. After getting ready, I headed to the school to meet Kinsey for lunch. We went nearby to a Thai place called Banchoo. I had some chicken, rice, and cashew dish with vegetables. Yum!

After lunch, we headed to the British Library. It was so neat! We saw an exhibition with lots of old books and manuscripts. There were handwritten books by the Bronte sisters, Lewis Carroll, Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy, and many others. We also saw historical documents written by Elizabeth I and other kings and queens. Two copies of the Magna Carta were also there! I also liked seeing different music by composers like Handel and Beethoven, as well as haphazard Beatles lyrics. Some of my favorites, though, were Shakespearean documents. There was a copy of the First Folio and a document that is said to have been written by Shakespeare himself. The whole place was just really, really cool!

After that, we braved the rain once again and headed back to the flat. I got to talk to Dad for a bit, which was a nice surprise! We were excited to change into warm clothes and just hang out around the flat. I have been working on my art journal and am now all caught up. The rest of the evening will be spent indoors, hopefully reading. Reading is best on rainy days. I hope you all are having nice weather back home!

A Little Work, A Lot of Art

Hey all! I'm quite tired from today, even though I feel like I haven't done all that much. In the morning, I finished up a paper (yay!) and worked a bit on my fantasy art exhibition. If I haven't written much about it, its called "Black, White, and Read" (read as pronounced like the color red) and is newspaper themed. I think it'll come out as a cool project, so it has been fun to work on. Anywho, after working on that for a while, I decided I wanted to be done with work. It was a beautiful sunny day out, so Kinsey, Jordan, and I headed out to Green Park. We all read books and enjoyed the sun. Ah - so nice!

Unfortunately, we couldn't stay at the park forever because we had to go to art class. Today in art we went to see an exhibition at Tate Britain. It was called "Altermodern" and was very, very modern. On a whole, I found the exhibiton to be really bizarre. I didn't "get" a lot of the pieces and it kind of frustrated me. Some of the pieces were flat out weird and indecipherable. I did like a couple pieces, though, and I appreciated the aims of the exhibition. It was exhausting going through all the artwork, though. I am beat!

I'm back at the flat now, just vegging and getting ready to make dinner. I'm getting ready to start another long weekend. Sociology class got all messed up for tomorrow so no classes, yay!

Back to Classes

Today officially ended another long weekend. I woke up this morning to head to the Globe Theater for theatre class. I was so excited to go! I thought the exhibit was a bit text heavy, but I learned some cool things. I was so proud that I knew so much of the info because of my Shakespeare class. After exploring a bit on our own, we had a guide take us around the theatre. There were lots of construction workers in the theatre space because they were making props and scenery for Romeo and Juliet, which opens in a couple weeks. We bought tickets for that today!! Our guide was pretty cool and he taught us some fun things. My favorite part of his tour was when he told us some of the dumbest questions they've ever been asked. A couple good ones were "Does Shakespeare ever come visit and see shows here?" and "What is Shakespeare's last name?" So funny! All in all, I'm glad I went. Even though this theatre is just a replica and isn't exactly in its original location, it was so, so neat.

After the tour, I ate lunch with Chelsey and Sam on a ledge by the Thames. It was another gray day, but the temperature was night. Afterwards, we had lots of time before Sociology. We headed back to the classroom and played crosswords and word games until class started. Class today was a bit useless, like always. We talked mostly about our final project in that class. We are researching different London boroughs and analyzing different aspects of diversity in them. Sam and I are researching Lambeth. I hope it's a good borough with lots of diversity!

I'm back at the flat now, getting ready to (hopefully) finish my Education paper. I want to be done with it so badly!! I hope you all have a fabulous night =)

Windsor and Eton!

This morning, Kinsey, Jordan, Chelsey, and I went to Windsor Castle. It was such a fun day! We went to Paddington and caught a train out to Windsor. We got to the castle a little before 11 and, after a long security line and a hold up because of Changing of the Guard, we made it inside the walls. We walked around the outside first and everything was so pretty! The sky was finally blue and everything was in bloom. It was so nice to spend time outdoors! (Oh and side note, we saw a girl with an Elon sweatshirt. It was so weird! We didn’t get to talk to her, but I was surprised to see an Elon hoodie.)

After spending time outside, we waited in line for the royal apartments and Queen Mary’s dollhouse. We saw the dollhouse first and it was absolutely incredible. The house, first of all, was huge and seriously had electricity and running water. Everything was realistically proportioned and so quaint. My favorite rooms were the ones with crowned jewels and the huge dining room. I also liked that the sitting room had thrones in it. It was so much fun to see!

After that, we went through a Henry VIII exhibit. I feel like I am learning so much about this man! We saw lots of drawings and portraits, as well as a sword and knife he used for fighting. I learned that his favorite wife was Jane Seymour because, as the audio guide told us, she was the only to give him a son and “she died before he could grow tired of her.” It made me chuckle.

After the exhibit, we finally got to go to the apartments. We walked in rooms that are used for special functions and up stairs that lots of important people have walked up. The rooms were absolutely gorgeous and incredibly ornate! Each room was so beautiful and huge. We learned a little about the fire in the castle in 1992. We also learned a bit about the castle was remodeled after the fire (my favorite was a floor that was scorched and, to fix it, they just turned the individual wood pieces upside down). All in all, we just were really awed by the grandeur of everything.

After the apartments, we went to take pictures with one of the guards at the castle. He was traditionally decked out in the red coat – so cool. After that, though, we were all a bit hungry so we went to a Japanese food restaurant called Wagamama’s. We had heard, from Jordan, how great it was, so we were all happy to go there for lunch. It was very tasty!

Once we were all full, we headed back to the castle. We stopped into a couple shops and then made our way to St. George’s Chapel. It was really cool because that’s where Henry VIII, Jane Seymour, and Charles I are buried, as well as the current queen’s parents. In the audio tour, we heard that the queen usually visits her parents’ graves on special holidays, like Easter. That means she was in that church yesterday!! How cool is that? After seeing that, I went to Henry’s grave, which is so easy to miss. It is in the ground with nothing special marking its place. It was funny, after I found it, to watch all the people walk over the grave and not realize it was there. In the same room, though, I saw some really neat headwear and swords belonging to current knights. There were two headpieces that were more simplistic than the rest and I asked a lady about them. She said they were for ladies – specifically Margaret Thatcher and Winston Churchill’s daughter. It was so cool!

After the church, we were pretty done with the castle. We decided to walk a bit around Windsor and nearby Eton, both of which were absolutely adorable. We walked past the Thames and down to Eton College, which was very cute. It is the school where Princes Harry and William were educated. We couldn’t go very far, but the school is so nice and has great views of the castle. It was nice to visit!

After that, we got some ice cream and headed on the train back to Paddington. I’m back at the flat now, doing some work and getting ready to have class tomorrow (how strange!). I hope you all have a great night and good end to your weekend, if you had a nice, long one!

Oh, oh, oh! I almost forgot to write something cool. There was a flag flying over top of the castle today and it was the queen's personal flag. That means she was actually at Windsor today. Ah! We thought that was just the coolest thing. Sadly, no queen spottings or meetings, but just knowing she was there was super cool. Ok, now I'm really done.

Easter Festivities

Happy Easter, everyone! I hope you all have been having a great holiday weekend. I’ve had a great Easter with my flat. Let me tell you about my lovely day!

This morning I woke up early with every intention to get some work done. I got very side-tracked, though, when I saw that our flat was lacking significant Easter decorations. An Easter Bunny (named Jordan) had left some candy for us and that inspired me to do some decorating of my own. So, instead of doing that super enticing Education paper, I made little paper eggs for each of my flat mates. I decorated them and laid them on our dining room table along with the flowers, bunny, and chocolates from Mamu. Everyone was excited, I think, to come back and have a cleaned off and decorated table. It made me happy!

At around 2:00, we headed to Hyde Park to see a huge crowd of people dressed up as bunnies (or carrots or birds) roller skating around the park. It was so much fun! We only saw them for a couple minutes, but there were quite a lot of people and it was really funny. After that, we walked around the park and took pictures in front of flowers. Everyone was really cute and happy to take some pictures. Caroline York had sent some bunny ears in a package to me and we took plenty of Easter pictures donning the ears. So funny!

After the photos, we kept walking around the park. Even though it was a gray day, it wasn’t rainy, so it was nice to be outside. We watched some squirrels and pigeons for a long time. We saw this man who was feeding the squirrels and one ran up his leg. Scary! I was freaked out for him. After a bit of animal-watching, we headed back to the flats.

When we got back, many of us started cooking for our flat Easter dinner. We decided to have a big dinner with just the 8 of us. It was so great! I busted out my cooking skills with a very difficult…Caesar salad! It was actually a very funny salad. I had to put my lettuce in a pot because we don’t have any big bowls and the pot was too small to fit anything other than lettuce. So really, I made a “create-your-own-salad” dish. Other people made green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, ham, mac and cheese, fruit salad, corn, bread, and brownies. Yum! We were all in good spirits and definitely enjoyed each other’s company.

After dinner, I played this silly computer word game with Chelsey, Kinsey, Jordan, and Bo. We are addicted! It’s awful. Now I should really try to get some work done, but I’m feeling incredibly unmotivated. We’ll see how that goes. I hope you all have a great Easter with friends and family!

P.S. I should also tell you about my great night last night. I watched High School Musical 3 (for the third time since being in London) with my flat. My favorite part was listening to music afterwards, though, and dancing along with Chelsey to “The Boys are Back.” Oh man – did we ever make a great Zac and Corbin! After that, I managed to Skype with Stacey, Caroline, Elise, and Katherine. It was wonderful! I even got to see Mrs. Peckels and one of their cats. Ah! I miss all my suitemates SO MUCH! But it was an absolutely wonderful night.

A Gray Day

Today is a gray and rainy day in London. I miss the sunshine! I set today aside to do some work. I have been somewhat productive, but I don't have much to show for it. Oh well! Around 3:00, Amanda and I went to do some errands. We headed out to Paperchase to get some paper for our art projects. When you go into Paperchase, though, you have to be ready to find a million and one things you have to have. I found a few other fun things to buy, though I had to limit myself to just those. After art shopping, we headed to Piccadilly Circus. When we got out of the tube, we saw a massive protest! People were all in the streets, protesting for freedom in Sri Lanka. It was madness! Luckily, there were police officers everywhere and it was a friendly protest, but it was crazy nonetheless. Anywho, in Piccadilly, Amanda was looking for London prints for her art project. We headed to a lot of different souvenir shops and found her some useful things. At the end of our trip, we stopped into McDonald's for a little ice cream snack. I had a free little Monopoly piece, so I was happy to use it up. After that, we headed back to the flat. I cooked some dinner and am now sitting here knowing that I should work on one of my numerous assignments, but really not wanting to. Hopefully I will be able to Skype with most of my suitemates tonight, too!

Hampton Court Palace

Hey everyone! Today was a pretty great day, even though it was a bit rainy. I woke up early and went to Hampton Court Palace with Kinsey. Hampton Court is a palace where Henry VIII lived for a while and wed his 6th wife. Before I talk more about the palace, I think I should describe our adventure in getting there. As usual, the journey began on the tube. We had to go to the train station to buy a ticket and the ticket man gave us some directions. We ended up needing different directions, though. So we got on this one train to get to some train junction. We got off there to get on another train, only to find out that the only helpful platform was closed. Sad! We then got on a coach to get to another train station, where we caught another train to get to Hampton Court Palace. Whew! What adventures we had. We finally got there, though, and we were so proud of ourselves!

When we got there, we decided to start by walking around the gardens. It was a bit gray and cloudy, but no rain yet. We saw gorgeous flowers and huge fields of daffodils. It was so pretty! We also did a hedge maze and are proud to say that we didn't get too, too lost. Yay! After that, we went to see the Royal Gardens. They, too, were absolutely beautiful. There were lots of colored tulips and these huge trees that look like mushrooms. There were also lots of geese/duck-type birds. It was just a beautiful, beautiful space. And it was refreshing to see green grass!

By the tail end of our garden walk, though, it had started to rain. We decided to head indoors and do some exploring. Without going into exorbitant amounts of detail, I'll briefly re-cap what we did. We saw Henry VIII's apartments, other king's apartments, queen's apartments, the Royal Chapel, a garden exhibition, an exhibition on Henry VIII's women, and an exhibition on Katherine of Aragon, a young Henry VIII, and Cardinal Wolsey, amongst other things. The palace did this very cute thing that kind of celebrated the 500th anniversary of Henry's rule. They decided to give every visitor this wedding invite-type thing that had a schedule of wedding events for the wedding of Henry VIII to Katherine Parr, his last wife. Kinsey and I went to see the pre-wedding event, but there were so many people, it was crazy! Some people got to wear dress robes and stuff and the actors were really funny. However, there were just so many people, it was hard to see and focus.

On a whole, it was a great day. We probably would have spent more time at the palace had the weather been nicer. I loved seeing all the rooms and the palace was just really pretty (though it had a confusing layout). What a great way to spend the day!

Art, Shopping, & Science

I woke up this morning to an alarm that I did not remember setting. My plan was to sleep in as long as I could, but that didn't work out. Oh well! Once I got up, I worked a little on my final art project. I had a decently productive morning, though I still have tons of work to do!

A little bit after lunch, Sam and I decided to head out for a fun-filled day. We started by going to an art exhibition that I needed to review for art class. It was at the Jill George Gallery and we saw an exhibition called Stills by a Norwegian artist called Gro Thorsen. I was expecting it to be photography arranged in a really cool way. Unfortunately, it was not photography and the layout wasn't quite as cool as I had hoped. However, I felt very cultured going to a small art gallery in the middle of Soho. The exhibition wasn't awful, but I hoped there would be more to it.

After art, Sam and I did a little souvenir shopping. He found some good things for his parents who are coming to visit in a couple days. We traveled down like one street in Piccadilly Circus and went to at least four souvenir shops. It still amazes me how many souvenir stores there are!

Last on our list was "something fun." After brainstorming for a bit, we decided on the Science Museum. Even though I'd been, I was more than happy to go back and see all the exhibit we didn't go to. This time around we saw exhibits on household items, plastics, technologies of the 21st century, genetics, and much more. My favorite was this place called the Learning Lab where you could do hands-on experiments on a variety of different topics. I enjoyed seeing all the little kids enjoying science so much. I also was really proud of myself because, on the first try, I correctly wired a burglar alarm and light. Yay me! The little boy ahead of me was so cute - he spent like 5 minutes explaining what to do to Sam and me and asking me if I'd like a go. Too cute!

After the museum, Sam and I headed back to the flat. I just finished dinner and am hoping to have a really productive night so I can have a fun-filled weekend. Wish me luck on being productive!

Some More Art

As usual, I don't have all too much to write about. I woke up this morning to do work. I finished my sociology journal for the week and got a good start on my final art project/exhibition. Not too bad for a morning's work!

At about 1:45, we left for our art class. We started class at a gallery called White Cube. It was a very white room filled with some incredibly creative artwork. The artist did a lot of cut-outs and used really bright colors. I was a huge fan. After that, we went to a smaller gallery to see a video exhibition. I had never really seen video art before, so I was excited to go. I was also impressed by that exhibition. The third gallery we visited was huge. We saw an exhibition called Mythologies and it was very bizarre. I liked it because it was very different, but I did not understand a lot of pieces. My favorite piece, though, was one where the artist posed the question 'what is beauty?' to blind people. She photographed the people she asked and took pictures of what they described as beautiful. It was really moving. All in all, the galleries were really fun and I'm so glad we were exposed to them.

Now I am back in the flat, ready to spend the night being productive. I have another very long weekend (starting tonight), so I have lots of fun things planned. I'm excited!

People in London CAN be Nice

Hey all! I have just a couple updates today - nothing huge.

I woke up this morning and did some chores. I walked up to the store and was amazed that two people smiled at me along the way. It made me so happy to find nice people in London! I did some shopping and the cashier was very nice to me. He said I had nice eyes (it wasn't creepy, don't worry). After the store, I came back and felt very domestic. I cooked some chicken for a couple meals, cut up some strawberries, and cleaned up the kitchen and common room because the cleaning lady came unexpectedly.

After that morning, I packed a lunch and planned to eat it in the park near my school. Sam, Jordan, and Chelsey were there, so I chatted and ate with them. Then, we headed to theatre to talk about Dancing at Lughnasa. After that, I had a break and then Sociology. Sociology, as usual, was fairly repetitive and we didn't learn much. Our teacher was nice, though, and brought us hot cross buns. She also let us have the last 15 minutes of class out in the park.

Now I'm back at the flat, getting ready to do some art things and probably some journaling. Very fun!

My Weekend is Officially Over

Hello all! Here's a little update on my day. I woke up this morning and did some art journaling and computering. I also went with Amanda to do some grocery shopping. It was much needed - I was down to cereal and peanut butter. After that, I made some lunch and just hung out for a bit. Then, 8 of us decided to go to St. James' Park near Buckingham Palace. The original plan was to go to Parliament, but it is in recess so we had to change plans. The park was really, really nice, though! It was a sunny and warm day, so we enjoyed time outside. Everyone layed around, listening to music, reading, or playing with a koosh ball. It was nice and relaxing, for sure. Unfortunately, time at the park was kind of short because most of us had to head to seminar at 5. Seminar today was about Religious Education and Faith Schools. It was actually very interesting to hear about the curriculum and how the programs should be implemented. I learned a lot. After seminar, I headed to dinner with Kinsey and Sam. Then, we made our way to the Old Vic theatre for Dancing at Lughnasa. The play was alright. I'm not a huge fan of the written play itself, but I thought the set was very cool and the actors did well. Now, I'm getting ready to finish my art journal for the week and head off to sleep. Have a great night, everyone!

Sunday

I don't have too much to report today. This morning I woke up later than I normally do, which was surprising. I did a lot of stuff on my computer - emailing and researching and whatnot. I also did work for a tiny bit. I only got a little done, but it was something.

Around 2:00, Amanda, Kinsey, Jordan, Sam, and I went to a Chocolate Festival. It wasn't exactly what we really expected or hoped, but it was fun to check it out nonetheless. Mostly it was vendors selling their chocolate products. A couple people got some chocolate treats, but we didn't spend too much time there. After that, we went to a little park near the London Eye. There were some crazy kids jumping and doing flips off of brick walls. It was really cool, if not a little scary. One guy had a fake arm that another guy pulled off after he did a flip. The audience freaked a little bit, but I felt bad for the poor guy. After that, we saw a row of street performers. We stopped at this one guy who was hilarious! He had audience members tie him up in chains and padlocks and he got out of them all in 2 minutes. His little shindig lasted longer than 2 minutes, though, because he talked and joked and stuff for long before the trick. There were tons of adorable little kids running about, which just added to the fun.

After that, we went to Tesco (the grocery store) and headed back to the flats. Now, I'm sitting here after just having eaten dinner, getting ready to do some work. High School Musical fest ends tonight with the third movie. It should be a fun time! Enjoy the rest of your weekends =)

Insects and Bodies and Dinos..Oh My!

Hey everyone! I started my day today by sleeping in just a bit, which was so nice. I then woke up and tried to do some work, but I wasn't into it. So, I decided that I wanted to go to a museum. I opted for the Natural History Museum and Bo came along with me. We had a great, great time!

We started in a human bodies and biology exhibit. We learned about babies, learning & memory, and child development things, amongst other stuff. There were lots of optical illusions, which were also quite cool. After that, we went to a Creepy Crawly exhibit and learned about bugs, spiders, and crustaceans. So much fun! I don't remember the order after that, but we learned about eartquakes, ecology, birds, planets, rocks, minerals, and so much more. We ended our trip by seeing the Dinosaurs exhibit. It was SO COOL! I'm usually not a huge fan of dinosaurs, but the way this one was layed out and organized was really neat. Dinosaurs are fascinating, seriously! Oops, technically dinos weren't the end. We also ran quickly through the Mammals exhibit before the museum closed. We saw stuffed mammals and a huge replica of a blue whale. Oh my gosh, I know those darn things are huge, but I was amazed. We also saw the largest recorded elephant trunks. They were huge!

All in all, the museum was super fun and Bo and I really only did about a half or 3/4 of it. There's just so much! Two fun facts from the museum: 1) You can tell a millipede from a centipede because centipedes float and millipedes sink in water, and 2) If a T-Rex were to fall when running, the fall would probably kill it. How fun are those facts?

Tonight should be fun. We are continuing our High School Musical fest (which began two nights ago). We are watching HSM2, which is not the best movie, but it will be fun. I hope everyone is doing well back in the States!

A Great Day

Hey all! I had a very fun Friday today. The day started with Kinsey, Amanda, Sam, and I going to Kensington Palace. We looked at some of the historical exhibits, as well as an exhibit on Princess Diana and another on debutantes. Princess Diana is really fascinating and inspirational and her clothes are beautiful. I loved the lay-out and info in the debutante exhibit, though. They taught you how to waltz and how to properly curtesy and walk nicely. So fun! The palace itself was quite nice and I learned a lot. We also saw the gardens, which were nice even though the flowers weren't all in bloom yet.

After that, we ate packed lunches in Hyde Park and people watched for a good couple hours. It was a sunny day and it was fun to see everyone outside. Unfortunately, it was a bit chilly, so we felt the need to travel indoors after a bit.

We decided to head to the Science Museum and see what we could see there. We ended up seeing an IMAX movie called Fly Me to the Moon. It was a cartoon about these flies who travel with Armstrong to the moon. I thought it was super cute and I actually learned some fun things! After the movie, we only had like 20 minutes, so we went to this interactive genetics exhibit. We all tried this machine that took your picture and showed you how you would look when you got older. It didn't work super well because I ended up looking like an African American woman with tiny teeth. Interesting...

After that, Amanda, Kinsey, and I met up with Jordan and Chelsey at a restaurant called The Sway for dinner. We got a deal where we got dinner and show tickets for 20 pounds - not bad! Dinner was good and we were all very excited to see Spring Awakening again. It moved theatres and it was absolutely amazing! We got upgrades on our seats and ended up in seats 6 rows from the stage. It was so nice seeing the show when I didn't have to pay attention to little details for class. All in all, it was so good and all the songs are currently stuck in my head. Afterwards, we all were a bit stalkerish and waited outside the stage door. Unfortunately, none of us were brave enough to talk to any of the actors, though we saw all of our favorites!

Now I am back blogging and am about to hang out and head to bed. It was a really fun and busy day!

Fruit Kebabs

Today I slept in a bit (or at least tried) and spent some time to myself when everyone was away in class. I did a bit of work and cleaning. Then, I decided to take a little walk up Edgware Road and look for shoes and strawberries. No luck, so I headed back to the flat. Soon, everyone got back and we just hung out a bit. I finished my Sociology journal and then went with Chelsey, Jordan, Sam, and Kinsey to Chelsey's practicum school's little cake and fruit sale. Her class was raising money to buy a couple acres of rainforest. They were so cute! I bought a Nutella-covered fruit kebab and a little cupcake. I supported the rainforst!

After that, I went with Chelsey and Kinsey to the National Portrait Gallery. It was very, very cool to see what some famous scientists and historical figures looked like. My favorite was a portrait of Shakespeare that is said to be the only picture of the poet painted from life. Ah! How cool is that? I saw lots of writers and scientists that I recognized from textbooks and such. It was a great way to spend the afternoon.

Now, I've just finished dinner and am spending the night just relaxing and maybe doing work. We have all just realized how little time we left in London, so we are packing our weekends full of fun things. This weekend should be great!

Art & Thai

Hey, hey! Just a couple fun things to write about today. I woke up this morning and spent the morning putzing about. I did some work, did some nothing, and tried to do more work. I am seriously just trying to put off this one sociology journal because it makes no sense. Ah - I hate unclear instructions. Anyways, finally it was time to leave for art class. We started art at The Photographer's Gallery and the exhibits were pretty cool. There is like a contest for a special prize (I forgot the name, sorry) and the four finalists were shown in the gallery. Each had very different subjects and visions, but all were impressive. After that, we went on to a second photography gallery. I don't think any of us liked this one as much. It was a bit unimpressive, sadly. The third gallery was the coolest, in my opinion. It was a rooftop gallery and the people in it were getting ready for the opening of an exhibition. The artwork was really neat and colorful, often with bunnies in them representing time. We had been invited to the private viewing, but many of us couldn't stay. However, we did get to meet the artist (Marcus McAllister) and he was so nice and down to Earth. It was really cool hearing about his visions and inspirations.

After art class, I had dinner with Jordan, Jenna, and our faculty advisor, Jimmie. Jimmie does this thing where she takes a group of students out to dinner or lunch to get to know them better. Tonight was our turn and we went to a place called Ben's Thai on our street. It was my first experience with Thai food and I really liked what I got. It was nice chatting and getting to know everyone a bit better.

Now, I am still putting off doing my darn sociology journal, but at least you get a blog out of my procrastination!

Back to School

Hey everyone! I don't have much to write about today. I woke up this morning to do some emailing, journaling, and organizing. Then, I headed to theatre class. We discussed our play from last night. It was a really great show and most people had good reactions to it. After theatre, the people in Sociology sat around and did crossword puzzles. It's our new favorite pastime. In Soc class today, we finished watching Breaking and Entering, which we deemed quite unrealistic. Then, we seriously talked for the 50th time about bridges and walls and what divides us. It was very repetitive. We got good news, though, that we don't have class on Thursday. That pretty much means a 4.5 day weekend for me starting on Thursday - crazy! After class, I came back and cooked some rice for dinner. I also successfully made chicken for the second time. It was even better this time, if I do say so myself. I was so proud! Now, I am just getting ready to do some work. I hope you all have a good evening!

"What I like about fish is...chips!"

Today was quite a day! I had another practicum day today and it was a bit crazy. I knew it was going to be an insane day when I got to class and Emily, the teacher, was feeling very sick. She called for a supply (substitute) teacher even before school started and he came after just about an hour or so. It was interesting because all the troublemakers in the class were absent today but two arrived seconds after Emily left. Ironic, for sure.

So we had a great literacy lesson today on fables, folk tales, etc. I can tell the kids are really going to like the unit - thank goodness! After that, was break where I got to help one student finish some of his work. It surprised me because he is very ill-behaved but great to work with one-on-one. After break was math. That was the start of craziness. Clearly students are worse behaved when a different teacher is in the classroom. And I realized that they cling to adults that they know. Therefore, I got questions up the wazoo! It was great feeling like students wanted me to help them, but it was difficult nonetheless. After maths was lunch, followed by reading groups. I got to lead my own group today due to lack of adults and it was a very interesting experience. My group read about Henry VIII and his many wives. (The word "adultery" appeared in the story and that got my group in a very confusing state.) Apparently, my students really like to read aloud, they just hate writing. I had lots of complaints and not great behavior. I, unfortunately, had to kick into disciplinarian mode, which is tough because I don't quite know the rules of the classroom and don't want to cross any boundaries. However, a couple of the boys in my group did very well, so I was proud of them. After that, I finally saw a Religious Education lesson. It wasn't super interesting and the kids absolutely detest RE. However, they were fairly well-behaved during the lesson, which I am sure was a relief to the supply teacher. After RE, the kids had a bit of time to play a game. They were having a lot of fun until the last two minutes of school. Two of the boys in the class got into a fist fight in the middle of the classroom! They were insulting and cursing and being awfully rude. It was atrocious! The teacher had to pull one student off the other and I had to take the other one into the hallway. It was quite an incident and not a great way to end the day.

The practicum day, on a whole, was pretty ok, though. The supply teacher was really cool. He was fairly young and from South Africa. He is going back to South Africa in like 4 days because his London work visa expires. He was very nice and we definitely had quite a day together with 5T. Also, a couple of my kids were really cute today. One girl asked if it was my last day and, even though it wasn't, asked me why I had to leave and if I could come back always. It was so sweet. My second story involves one of the little boys that got into the fight. Pre-fight, I was helping him with some work. I was wearing a long heart necklace and he starts playing with it, trying to open it like a locket. I was confused until he asked me, with a little devilish grin, "Who gave this to you? Was it your huuuusband?" I told him no and changed the subject quite quickly - as is evident from reading groups, romance and fifth years just doesn't work.

After practicum, we had education seminar. It was cool today because we had a guest speaker who talked with us about creative writing. We wrote some fun poems and got some ideas for great lessons. The title of my blog comes from this lesson. The speaker told us about a five year old who was asked what his favorite food was. He responded with "fish." The man asked him what he liked about fish and the little boy said "chips." I thought it was the cutest story! It turned into a great poem, too, so that was very fun.

After seminar, a few of us got dinner and then headed to another play. This time it was Pitmen Painters and I really enjoyed it. The message was about the meaning of art and changing the world through art. I liked it a lot!

Anywho, that was a long re-cap of my long day. I'm quite exhausted, so I'm off to bed. Hope you all have a great night!

End of Break

Today I woke up earlyish to take Katherine to the airport. It was really sad to see her leave. I kind of realized how much I am missing my suitemates at school. It's ok, though. I'll be back in the States sooner than I'll realize.

After that, I spent the day doing odd tasks like grocery shopping and homework. I also emailed up a storm and looked at my schedule for next semester. In addition, I uploaded bunches of pictures to Facebook, so feel free to look if you so choose. (I hope you enjoy this picture of the Eiffel Tower from our trip to Paris.) Tomorrow I go back to a normal schedule, starting with practicum. I hope I have more interesting stories for you tomorrow!

Another Busy Day in London

Today was Katherine's last full day in London, so we had to make the most of it! We started the morning kind of early and headed to Westmister Abbey. It was absolutely incredible. We had a little audio tour and we learned so much about the church. I was amazed by all the tombs of important people housed there. All in all, it was such a beautiful place with such amazing history. I'm so glad we went! We then headed to St. Paul's to take a peek in. It was absolutely beautiful, as well, but we didn't do a whole tour of it. After that, we planned on going to Petticoat Lane to do some shopping at the market. Unfortunately, the guide book and things we read were incorrect and it wasn't open! Huge bummer. Then, we tried Spitalfields Market and it, too, was closed. A second bummer. By this time, the weather was also going crazy. After raining in the morning, then turning sunny, the weather turned to hail. Ah! It was so strange. After that, we headed over to Tower Bridge and climbed to the top. We saw a pretty cool exhibit and the views from the bridge were pretty cool. After that, we stopped in Piccadilly Circus and then headed back to the flats to change before heading to dinner and a show. We went to a pub-esque place for dinner so Katherine could order fish and chips. I tried some and it was very fishy but, hey, at least I can say I tried it. After that, we went to see Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty's Theatre. I was very impressed with the sets and costumes, though the show itself wasn't extremely wonderful. It was good, but not great. I'm glad we went, though, since Phantom is such a great story. After the show, we decided to go see some of the major sights at night. We saw Parliament and the London Eye and they were very cool. It was freezing, though, so we didn't stay out long. Now we're back and sadly getting ready for Katherine to leave in the morning.

Oxford

So two posts in one day - I hope you're not sick of me yet! This entry will be much shorter than Paris', I promise. Just a quick re-cap of our more relaxing day in Oxford.

The day started with a bit of panic, unfortunately. We were planning to take a train from Paddington to Heathrow and needed to validate online tickets. Unfortunately, the machine didn't read my credit card and we had to wait in line - with 6 minutes until our train left. We were cutting it close. We somehow managed to get tickets and dash to our platform, getting on the train just in time. I was amazed! We then had a short ride to Oxford. When we got there, we decided to walk around and get some info and pamphlets first. We first went into this enclosed market that had some very fun stores and food vendors. It was a neat little find. After that, the second stop was Christ Church. It was incredible! We were sad that we couldn't see the dining hall (where scenes from Harry Potter were filmed), but everything else was so gorgeous. We got to walk around a meadow and canal by the church, which was so pretty since the daffodils just bloomed. After that, we did more walking and got to Blackwell's Bookstore. What a great bookstore! We could have been there for hours. We also explored different parts of Oxford University (which is broken up into 39 separate schools) and the city itself. I bet it's even more beautiful when everything is in full bloom. We saw a couple different schools, all very quaint and pretty. Unfortunately, most places began to close after that, so we headed to an Italian placed called Zizzi for an early dinner. Then, we headed to the train station to see if we could change our tickets for slightly earlier ones. It wasn't allowed, so we spent a bit of time at this magazine/book/convenience store. We found some very fun things to read and amused ourselves greatly just reading exerpts from books. After that, we headed on a train back to London.

After coming back, Katherine and I headed to our little neighborhood pub, Warwick Castle. We just hung around and talked for a while. It was nice. Now, I am just finishing up blogging so we can head to sleep and have a crazy last day in London tomorrow. It should be fun!

Deux Mademoiselles en Paris

Get ready – this blog is going to be LONG. You all know how verbose I can be, so expect paragraphs and paragraphs. I hope you have a while!

Day 1
On Tuesday, Katherine and I took the Heathrow Express to the airport to leave for Paris. The flight went smoothly and we got from the airport to our hotel’s neighborhood with no problem. We navigated a few tricky streets and eventually got to our hotel (Hotel Les Jardins de Paris) in Montmartre. It was a cute, simple place kind of tucked away on a street. Our room was very small and simple, but it had what we needed and we were happy with it. All the people that worked at the hotel were also very nice to us. We left the hotel afterwards and headed to the Eiffel Tower. We decided just to walk down the park leading up to it and take some pictures during daylight. It was absolutely beautiful, though it is kind of a strange structure in itself. After that preliminary viewing, we went on a river cruise down the Seine (we fortunately got free tickets from our hotel). It was so cool seeing all the main sights and just getting oriented with the gorgeous city. After that, we decided to climb to the second floor of the Eiffel Tower. That would be 680 steps on the way up, for the record. Needless to say, our legs killed after that. Regardless, it was absolutely worth it. The views of the city were wonderful and we met a couple Moroccan guys who were fascinated with the fact that we were from America. After spending some time there, we decided to get a picnic and eat back in front of the tower. We felt very French with our cuisine of strawberries, cheese, and a baguette. What a delicious dinner! Luckily, we were able to sit on a bench with our meal and watch as the tower lit up. So pretty! After that, we headed back to the hotel for a night of rest before our next big day.

Day 2
Talk about a marathon day! We started our day by getting breakfast from a patisserie (bakery) and little fruit market by our hotel. Apples and chocolate croissants – yum! We took our food on the Metro and headed down to the Louvre. We ate in some bushes by the museum and had a little flock of birds (and by little I mean many birds) join us because I dropped crumbs all over the place. That was fun. Next, we spent quite a while at the Louvre. It is kind of overwhelming with there being so much art and so many people, but we picked our must-see places and enjoyed every minute of it. We saw the “Mona Lisa” and other classics. I think some of my favorite rooms were Napoleon’s Apartments. The rooms were gorgeous! The architecture of the museum itself was absolutely beautiful. All in all, it was a great way to spend the morning. After that, we walked through the Tuileries and took a little break. Unfortunately, nothing was in bloom yet, but it is such a nice little area. After that, we continued down the stretch to the Place de la Concorde to see the Obelisk. Next, we ventured to see the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais, both of which were beautiful. We didn’t get to go into either, but were impressed with both nonetheless. After that, we branched off our main path and walked to the Musee de L’Armee. We peeked into the church where Napoleon’s tomb is located. We also passed some protestors along the way – two separate groups. Very interesting. After that, we took a nice walk down the Champs Elysees. That street had some very nice stores and restaurants, but it wasn’t nearly as quaint as other parts of the city. We walked down to see the Arc de Triomphe, but decided to walk down Victor Hugo Street to a park instead of climbing it right away. The park was a bit of a hike and we were a bit tired/cranky, but it gave us a place to rest for a tiny bit. After we exhausted the park, we went to walk around the Latin Quarter, which we both loved! Talk about a fun area! We ate dinner at the cutest little place. I am proud to say that I tried French onion soup and cheese for dessert (though the latter was accidental). It was a great dinner with a good atmosphere in the restaurant. After that, we both got Nutella crepes from the nicest vender across the street. He was impressed that Katherine ordered in French and told me that I needed to practice. After being officially stuffed, we decided to head back to the Arc de Triomphe and climb to the top so we could get a view of the city. Oh my goodness, was it ever gorgeous! The city is so beautiful and we had clear views of so many different sights. The best, I think, was around 10:00 when the Eiffel Tower started glittering. It was beautiful. After that, I think we could say we thoroughly saw the Eiffel Tower in every way possible – in the day, at night, from the ground, from the river, climbing it, lit up, and sparkling. Way to go, us! After that fantastic day, we finally headed back to Montmartre for a shower and sleep.

Day 3
Our third day in Paris was also absolutely wonderful. We got breakfast from the same nice baker and market. We ate it on a bridge overlooking the Siene. We began the morning by visiting the Musee D’Orsay to see some Impressionist works. The museum itself is awesome, having been converted into a museum after being a train station. Then, the collections themselves are really fun and comprehensive. I was impressed. After that, we headed over to Notre Dame Cathedral. We climbed to the top and got a nice view of the city. It was a little gray and cold out, but it was still nice nonetheless. We also got to see the famous bell, which was so cool. After that, we intended to go see St. Chapelle church, but there was a huge line so we bypassed it and headed to the Centre Pompidou. There, we saw modern art. I was so excited to see works of artists I just learned about in art class – Duchamp, Pollock, Rothko, Picasso, etc. The building is so neat, with the elevators and whatnot on the outside. Very cool, but also very exhausting. After that very intellectual morning, we were drifting a bit. We needed a pick-me-up, so we headed to a little crepe stand. Katherine tried a banana and sugar crepe, while I accidentally ordered a coconut and sugar one. Not as good as the night before, but still a nice snack. After that, we decided to head back to Montmartre. We got off the Metro to take pictures of the Moulin Rouge and then walked to Sacre Coeur, which was on top of a hill. We climbed more steps (man, were our muscles tired) and got to take a quick look around the church. From the hill, you get an incredible view of Paris. It was raining by this point, but it was still nice to be able to see everything. After that, we sadly had to go back to our favorite little hotel for our bags. We then began our adventure to the airport. After having our credit cards not work at the ticket machine, meeting a ticket seller who loved Obama, being told to get on the wrong RER train to the airport, trying to back track and having to take a bus, and then having to nearly sneak through the turnstile, we finally made it to Charles de Gaulle! We were very early for our flight, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Anywho, we made it back to London and the flats safe and sound.

All in all, it was an amazing trip to Paris! Two lessons learned: granola bars are your best friends when traveling and French people are so nice. Well, at least to Katherine and me. Everyone was very helpful and liked us a lot – it was so nice! We had an amazing, amazing time!

Conquering Cardiff

Today's blog is going to be another short re-cap because Katherine and I, again, had a full day and are quite tired. Here's a brief run-down of our day:

We woke up this morning and headed to the Victoria Coach Station to get on a bus heading to Cardiff, Wales. The bus ride took over 3 hours, but it was fine. When we got there, we first headed to Cardiff Castle. Both Katherine and I found the place to be really neat and pretty, but extremely confusing! It was really eclectic in terms of architectural styles and the uses of the castle. All in all, kind of weird, but lots of fun. The people there were very, very nice and we ran into lots of school children - they were cute. After the castle, we walked about 30 minutes down to Cardiff Bay. It was a bit windy and cold, but the bay was cute nonetheless. We saw lots of other strange buildings (including a visitor's center that was shaped like a tube) and determined that the bay is probably an ideal place to be in the warmer seasons. We found a light boat, carousel, Milennium theatre, Mermaid's Quay, and a few other shopping areas. We ate a lunch/dinner meal at a restaurant that looked over the water. We spent the rest of our time exploring some very cute little shops and getting coffee for the bus ride back.

We got back into London a little after 9:00 and have been getting ready for Paris ever since. We are both very excited to get there!!

Spring Break Day #2

Katherine and I had another jam-packed day today! We're both exhausted and getting ready for Wales tomorrow, but here's a brief re-cap of the day:

We woke up and ate breakfast out of a houseboat on the canal at Little Venice. Very cute! Then, we walked to Paddington and went on the tube to Green Park. It was covered in daffodils - absolutely gorgeous. Then, we saw Buckingham Palace, but unfortunately no horse guard or changing of the guard. Next was Hyde Park (also covered in daffodils) where we saw Speaker's Corner, the Peter Pan statue, Princess Diana's children's playground, and the Prince Albert Memorial. We also saw lots of rollerbladers doing amazing tricks and people boating on the Serpentine water. All of it was super fun and beautiful. Next we went to Harrod's and didn't get past much beyond the enormous food court/grocery store. We did get free perfume samples, which was nice. Harrod's is incredible. After that was a trip to the Victoria & Albert museum. We saw fashion, jewelry, art, and a very cool theatre/production exhibit. Shakespeare's First Folio was there!! Next, we went back to Piccadilly Circus for dinner at a Mexican place where our food came extremely quickly (before we even got our drinks) and to see Duplicity at the movie theatre. It was a fun movie, for sure.

Now, we just finished planning our day in Cardiff tomorrow. It should be fun!

And We're Walking...

So today I feel like I actually started break! I woke up early to get Katherine from Heathrow. It was so good to see her!!

After that, we came back to the flat, walked around Little Venice, did some errands, and headed out for the day. We didn't have anything planned to do, so we did a little walking tour around the city. We started in Piccadilly Circus and moved down to Trafalgar Square. Then, we walked on over to Big Ben and Parliament. It was a gorgeous day, so we decided to take a nice, long walk along the Thames. We saw the London Eye, the Tate Modern, Shakespeare's Globe, and the river. We got sandwiches and ate them along the river, which was nice. Then, we headed back to Piccadilly Circus to see the huge toy store and go to my favorite store, Octopus. Then, we went to Oxford Circus and walked down Oxford Street. I am currently looking for a new purse because mine is ripping, so we stopped in some fun stores. Unfortuntely, in the quest to find Primark, I managed to get us lost. Eventually we found the store, though we didn't purchase anything.

After that, we came back to the flat and cooked dinner. Now, we are planning out our week! it should be fun - though there is so much to do and not enough time.

I also want to thank my lovely suite for the nice presents they sent with Katherine! You guys are SO SWEET and I miss you bunches!

TGIF

Today I woke up to a very quiet flat, since everyone except Casey and me are away on break. I decided to have a productive day and go spend another day in practicum. It was actually a really great day, so I'm extremely glad I went.

So the first thing that happened this morning was that Emily's full-time assistant wasn't there. It was kind of a blessing in disguise for me because I got to do some of the tasks she usually did. I spent the first part of the morning cutting paper on the "guillotine" (aka large paper cutter). Then, during maths, I got to help a lot of different students. I worked with a kid who has autism and more advanced level students, in addition to my usual little group. It was great comparing what each of the students did and what helped them learn or not learn. After maths, was break. I spent the break talking to one of my students about her hamster. It was very cute. After that, I got to witness a history lesson. Today, the class learned about Ancient Greek ampitheatres. I again got to work with a bunch of different students. It made me happy that the students felt comfortable asking for my help. History was shortened today to allow time for the students to make mother's day cards. Some of them got extremely creative with their cards - I was quite impressed.

Following card making was lunch, where I talked to a different student a bit about his card and how mother's day is celebrated in May in America. He thought it was the craziest thing! Then, I went downstairs and talked to a couple more students from my class about The Tempest and things in America. They really only wanted to know about celebrities and how close I lived to Obama. They were quite sweet. One girl even got disappointed that I wasn't staying to teach at Wilberforce. She thought I was coming to the school to train and then work there. How nice!

After lunch was P.E. Students have to walk to a nearby recreation center to do P.E. and today's lesson was absolutely great. They learned a bit about rugby and every child in the class had a smile on their face. It made me so happy! I spend the P.E. time talking to a classroom assistant (she was very friendly) and watching the kids. Unfortunately, I witnessed lots of fighting on the walk back to school and lots of poor behavior (with lots of cussing).

The day finished with an afternoon assembly. Each teacher in Key Stage 2 (grades 3-6) picked a couple students to recognize with Gold Awards. The teacher would go to the front of the assembly room, talk a bit about the student, and the students would be recognized. I didn't realize how connected I was to my class until a couple students got gold awards. I was so proud!

Now, I am in for evening. I'm going to do some work and maybe something fun? Tomorrow I get to see Katherine, which is very exciting!!

First Day of Break

Today was my first full day of break! I did a lot of domestic things today just to get caught up. I woke up early than I wanted and did my Sociology journal. Then, I emailed a bit and played on my computer. Next, I headed up to Tesco (grocery store) and Boots (drug store) to buy a few miscellaneous items. Then I came back and did multiple loads of laundry. Super exciting! After lunch, I played a game on my computer forever. I never play computer games, but Mich was next to me and we played some kind of word game. Gradually, all the people in the room joined in and played. We went so far - we felt really smart! After that, I decided to treat myself to a couple new shirts from Primark. I went to a less crowded one than the one I had been to before. I bought a cute white and blue shirt (sailor-esque), a pack of boys undershirts, and a long necklace with a heart on the end. All for 9 pounds! I was impressed. It was fun to get out of the flat and walk around a bit. When I came back, I did more odd tasks until Chelsey, Jordan, and I made delicious quesadillas for dinner. Now we are all sitting here and vegging a bit. I will probably work on my art journal for a bit and maybe paint my nails? Who knows? I hope you all have a great night!

Mamma Mia...Here I Go Again!

What a great day today! It started off only ok since I couldn’t sleep so well and woke up early. I spent the morning studying for my art midterm. When heading to the exam, our train was delayed quite a bit, so most of the class was late. The exam wasn’t horrible, but I don’t know how wonderfully I did. I am finished with it, though, so I am happy!

After the exam, we headed back to the flat and hung out for a little bit. Then, Kinsey, Chelsey, Jordan, Amanda, and I headed out to the Mamma Mia theatre to get tickets and go out to dinner before our show. We went to a great Mexican place for dinner with a waitress who was a tiny bit clueless. It was a fun atmosphere and the food was tasty. After dinner, we went to see the show! It was kind of hilarious because there were a couple mishaps. First, the microphones were kind of off. It made me sad because my favorite songs were song on the bad mics. Oh well! Second mishap was during the middle of one of the songs with the three older lady friends. In the middle of the song, the main lady says something like “Sorry. We are going to have to stop for a minute. Technical difficulties” and walks off stage! We thought she was joking until stage hands came on stage and started moving things around. It was crazy!! After that, they fixed the problem (broken keyboard or something?) and continued on with the show.

I have to say, I found the cast of the show very ok and the singing also very ok. However, the acting was good and some of the supporting people were hilarious. On a whole, I laughed a whole lot and really enjoyed it. My favorite part was the end where they sang three additional songs (Mamma Mia again, Dancing Queen again, and Waterloo). The audience was standing and dancing – it was fantastic! I loved it!

After the show, we went to get Hagen Daas ice cream and then headed back to the flat. Everyone is getting ready to leave tomorrow for break, so everyone is busy, busy. It has been a great day today! What fun!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Hey all! I hope you are all wearing green and preparing to drink resposibly if you so choose tonight!

My day has been fairly uneventful today. I woke up, did some work, ate lunch, and headed off to theatre class. We discussed that crazy play we saw last week. I watched Rebecca doodle Shamrocks in her notebook and that was probably the highlight of class. After class, I walked outside to go to the post office. It was GORGEOUS out and there were bunches of people sitting in the parks outside. I bought a Diet Coke (in a can..not nearly as good as fountain) and headed back to school. I did a crossword with Chelsey and Sam and then Sociology started. Our teacher was actually really nice today and we just watched half of a movie. It was called Breaking and Entering and it was really good. She let us out like 45 minutes early, which was great.

Now I am here, preparing for an uneventful St. Patrick's Day. I have an art midterm tomorrow, so I'm going to eat dinner, make flashcards, and study up a storm. I will celebrate the holiday with some ice cream. Not super fun, but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. Have some fun for me please!