All Smiles

I am all smiles today! There isn't a cloud in the sky and it is sunny and 72 degrees. I don't know what it is, but today is just my day. Nothing great has happened, I am just nothing but happy! I went on a walking tour with my British Art and Architecture class this morning. We FINALLY did work on architecture! I have been waiting all semester for it. I really enjoyed it and it was great to be out in the sun walking around.

Jenn, Me, and Lauren in Kensington Gardens

I usually have a field trip for History of London after Art & Arch., however today a few of us decided to ditch, can you blame us? Beautiful weather > museum field trip. A group of girls and I went to the park for about 2 hours and soaked up some rays while people watching and relaxing. It was a really great time. I got sun burnt, of course! The first actual day out in the sun every year ends up with me looking like a lobster! I knew that going into it and I am now embracing my heated shoulders and chest.

I don't know what it is I am just in love with today! I am sitting on the edge of my bed and the sun is shinning on me. I can't get enough of it.
Ashley is back in town and Trista and I are getting dinner with her tonight, I can't wait to see her! =)

I am going to listen to music now and just enjoy the spring breeze and the sun on my skin. Exactly 1 month until I am home!


-Cheerio!

Children's Hour

My parents just left this morning =( I know I missed everyone back at home but saying good bye to people I love a second time, it was just as hard as the first. I always miss everyone but I put that to the side because as of today, I only have 32 days left! That is crazy! Can  you believe it? Because I can't! I feel like there is not enough time!! My mom asked if I was anxious to go home and be back in America, but honestly...I am not itching to go home like Justin was. London is similar to America and the lifestyle I want to have in Chicago. I miss everyone so much and that is the only reason I want to go home.

ANYWAYS! I will post plenty of blogs about my parents' visit later on when I have more time and pictures, but for now I want to talk about the play we saw, "Children's Hour." It was wonderful! Keira Knightley (from Pirates of the Caribbean Trilogy),  Elisabeth Moss (from Mad Men), and Ellen Burstyn (from the Exorcist) starred in the performance. For those of you that don't know the plot, it is about an all girl's boarding school in New England. There is a very bratty girl, Mary, who gets into a lot of trouble and believes the teachers are "out to get her." She spreads a rumor to her grandmother (Ellen Burstyn) who has a lot of power within the school. The rumor is that Keira's character and Elisabeth's character are lesbians, which back in the 1930's was not very acceptable. The rumor causes the school to close down and the two teachers to be out of their jobs. The story ends with Elisabeth's character committing suicide due to all the talk going around town and her true feelings for Keira's character.

Elisabeth Moss and Keira Knightley

Ellen Burstyn

"Children's Hour" was one of the first plays I have seen on a professional stage and I really enjoyed it. All the actresses were brilliant. I am now a huge fan of Keira Knightley, she has her own way of being beautiful and she is a very good actress. You can tell she put a lot of effort into her acting and it is very hard to go from screen acting to stage acting, there is no room to re-film if a line is forgotten. Aside from the acting, I also enjoyed the story line. It sent a message that how one lie can lead to many horrible things. Yes, I will admit I hated the character Mary because she was a huge brat, but her character proved many things. Another this was that I still can't wrap my mind around how homosexuality was such a horrible thing not even 100 years ago. In the modern day of today, homosexuality is accepted by many more people that it has years ago. Being a teacher in the making, I just can't believe a school would close down from such a scandal. If it were true or a rumor, I don't think that someone's sexual orientation should take them away from a job they love. I did like that the characters still stayed together when everything happened, they didn't feel the need to go away from each other in order to prove that the rumors weren't true.

I highly suggest this play to anyone who can see it in London and if not, anywhere that is it showing.

I Love Visitors!

I have a few moments of down time to write about Gabby's visit! Last week was crazy with school work. My roommate and I were asleep by 11-11:30 every night because we both had 3,000 word papers to finish this week, we felt like old people! We were going to bed when we heard people drunk stumbling in our hall way to go out. It was a little sad : / Oh well.

Gabby and I in front of Big Ben

Anyway, Gabby was here for a week and it was a lot of fun. We went to Portabello Road Market, St. Martin in the Fields (saw a concert of composers) shopping on High Street, bowling, walked the 311 stairs to the top of the Monument, Westminster Abbey, Parliament, Ice Bar,Tea, Ghost Stories (play), Harrods, and the oldest wine bar in London. Gabby did a lot by herself as well when I went to classes. It was a fun week that flew by! We kept busy and saw a lot. I think Gabby enjoyed herself. She is lucky that she gets to come back and study in the fall. 

Gabby and I at Ice Bar

She was also here on St. Patty's day which was a lot of fun! Jenn, Maureen, and I headed to our favorite Irish pub, O'Neils at 4:30 in the afternoon and we only had enough fuel to last us until 11 that night. We were exhausted but had a really great time. Many people from all over went there to celebrate. The pub is three levels and every floor was packs from corner to corner, it was a really great time. And don't worry to my family, I kept Justin's tradition and didn't try to claim I was Irish, I wore a hat that said "Kiss me I'm Irish" but I wrote in NOT on it. =)

I'm NOT Irish!

Rufus Sewell

My parents got in yesterday afternoon and we are heading out for packed day of fun today. Yesterday I took them to see my dorm and then we stopped at a pub in the Kensington area. And guess what we had for dinner!! Yes, that's right. We has Giordano's deep dish pizza! It was delicious! They were so great for bringing me my ultimate favorite pizza! We are doing a lot of tourist-y things this week, I can't wait. We will start off with taking a hop-on, hop-off bus tour all around London and then we are getting tea at the Ritz. Sadly, last week's weather was GORGEOUS with 60 degree weather and sunny all week...now it is cloudy and gross, they just missed it! More to come later this week, I know I will have a lot of stories! 

Another fun thing we saw/learned...When we went to Harrods, Trista spotted Rufus Sewell, from A Knight's Tale and The Holiday. Later this week we found out that his kid goes to school down the street from where we are! How cool??

-Cheerio

It Smells Like Spring

Today was a BEAUTIFUL day in London! The sun was shinning, there were barely any clouds in the blue sky, everyone was out and about...it was all around just a lovely day. Days like this make me miss home and my car! Just being able to drive through Chicago or Peoria with the windows down and maybe even wear flip flops!

Today made me really miss Justin and our mini road trips to Goodfield. Those trips were my favorite part of last semester and I can't wait to make more of them! Drive around on the country roads and end our adventure with a delicious piece of pie and potato skins! Miss you Justin!!

Today/tonight I also miss my APA girls: Kelly, Amber, Katie, Maxie, and Shaylyn. This shout out to you girls is WAYYY over due! Life here is crazy and I miss the nights of playing Jenga and going to our favorite frats or just watching a movie or the OC. I can't wait to be back with you girls and live it up at Bradley! I hope Katie is having the time of her life in Prague, just like I am here. Miss you girls!!

Only 48 more days here over seas and there is still so much to do and see! Gabby was here this week and it was great, a blog is soon to come. My parents will be here in a week. It is all flying by! It is a bittersweet feeling! How about everyone just comes and moves to Europe? That sounds better than me going home =)

Cheerio!

Royal Wedding Walk

Being without a tv makes me know nothing about the Royal Wedding, which is a little upsetting since I live in London. Wednesday my history of London class went on a "Royal Wedding Walk" and it was very interesting! We started in Green Park and made our way to Westminster Abbey. Our teacher's daughter was the tour guide and she was so cute and petite, a little ball of fire. The walk included many different things about different royal marriages and the one that is about to occur. We found out little details we normally wouldn't and we found out raunchy details about Prince Charles and previous princes/kings..some things we could have went without knowing!!

The British, especially royalty, are very big on keeping tradition. Most marriages dealing with royalty are for political reasons, not for love. I think it is so great times are changing and that William and Kate are getting married for true love and Kate was a rags to riches kind of girl, not someone of high power. All of the family love and respect Kate and that shows a lot, whereas Prince Charles couldn't marry Camila at first because she wasn't a virgin. 

The walk ended at Westminster Abbey, where the wedding will take place. A lot of the traditions aren't being kept, but some of the important ones are. Prince Harry is setting up Prince William's stag (bachelor) party on the river and going to pubs you can only get to by boat, in order to keep the press away.

One really interesting stop we made on the walk was right in front of a club that my friends and I usually go to every Monday night, Mahiki. We were all on the walk together and we were laughing and saying, "look it's Mahiki!" and it turns out Prince William went there when him and Kate broke up a few years ago. Yeah, I go where royalty goes.. =)

-Cheerio!

Jo no parlo català

View of Barcelona from the top of the Park.

BEAUTIFUL beach!

Ahhh Barcelona! I love you! haha.

Hello everyone-It is Sunday morning and it is a rainy day today :( Gabby is still sleeping so I am taking this time to update you about my spring break in Barcelona! It was so relaxing and so much fun. I went with Gemma and Mattie and it was just all around great! We got to our hostel around 9pm on Tuesday so we just went for dinner (I got gnocci and sangria..mmm!) and then walked down Las Ramblas (a famous street in Barcelona for night light and statues, etc).



Wednesday we slept in (Barcelona is on a crazy time schedule) and woke up to a beautiful day. The sun was shinning and we didn't even need to wear jackets. We headed to Park Guell, a park created by the famous and BRILLIANT architect, Antoni Gaudi.

Park Guell

Sagrada Familia

 The park was beautiful and very big. The buildings, the plant life, the caves, all of it was created is such a great fashion, it was a lot of fun and sort of "self-cleansing" for me. I say that because we walked to the top of a hill to a large stone cross and on the way saw so much culture and nature. It felt good to be there and accomplished the walk. After the park we headed back down to the city and got lunch. We went to this little cafe where I got a guava smoothie. Oh, did it make me miss Hawaii! I am obsessed with guava juice and this smoothie made life that much better! After lunch we made our way to Sagrada Familia, a chapel that Guadi designed and started in 1883. It is still under construction and probably will be for a long time. The designs are so delicate that they can't use a lot of modern technology. Hopefully I will some day be able to go back and see the finished product. When we first walked in, I got the chills and my breath was taken away. It was absolutely stunning with so many colors shinning through from the stain glass windows. I was in complete awe. 

so many colors!

After the chapel we headed back for our own siesta, much needed! We then got a free dinner in the hostel and got ready for the night. We went to a shot bar off of the beach, which was a lot of fun. There were over 200 different shots you can take, it was great! We met a few people there from the states who are studying in France. After there we headed back towards the hostel and met two guys from Bristol, England. We sat in the Plaza by our hostel and talked with them for a while, it was a good time. 

Thursday we woke up to blue skies and no clouds, we couldn't wait to get out! We left our jackets in our room and headed towards the beach. On the way we got lunch to-go and sat on the steps of a monument and soaked up the rays as we ate our lunch looking at the harbor. After lunch we made our 20(ish) minute walk to the beach and we were ecstatic, a site you'll NEVER see in London! 
We found a spot on the beach and immediately laid down facing the sun, we couldn't be happier. The warmth felt so good and the waves crashing was music to our ears. We laid there for about 40 minutes in pure relaxation, minus a few Asian ladies trying to offer us massages, which got very annoying. We decided to walk farther down the beach and we did that close to the water. Let's just say it was like putting your feet in Lake Michigan at the begging of the summer, it felt like ice! Of course a wave came in farther and higher than I thought and the whole bottom of my already cuffed pants were soaked and filled with sand. Eh, the compromise you must have at the beach! After about two hours roaming around parts of the beach, we heading back to the hostel picking up a baguette, cheese, and wine for a little snack before our siesta and dinner. That night we met 7 guys from Argentina and we hung out with them before heading out to the club. We had a lot of fun.


Friday I woke up to travel back by myself since the other girls were staying until Saturday. It was my first official time travelling just me and it went pretty well, I was proud of myself to get around a country that I don't know the language and successfully made it back to London. It felt SOO good to hear people speaking English!


Well, Gabby is up now and it is time to show her London! More to come about her week visit here =)
-Cheerio!

Addicted

It's official...After spending the weekend pretty much by myself, I have come to the conclusion I am addicted to How I Met Your Mother and tomato mozzarella toasted sandwiches. Let me tell you, it is bad! I am almost done with season 2 of the show, within 3 days. It is a good thing I am going to Barcelona tomorrow! I can't wait for some true relaxation and SUNSHINE! It is supposed to be high 50s and sunny all week. A very big change from London, however the sun has been out here the past few days..in the mornings.




Sigh, time to do all the homework I didn't do all weekend!
-Cheerio!