Weekend of Adventure

Jordan and I in front of the Eye

Sorry about not posting a whole lot this past week. Our internet in our flat acts up a lot and prevents me from updating all of you! It is very aggravating, but the company refuses to answer our calls!

This past weekend was action packed and Saturday started out with Jordan, Elise, and I heading off to the London Eye. We couldn't of picked a better day, the sun was shining and it was really warm out. We ended up purchasing fast track tickets and got to by pass the two hour line and only waited 5 minutes! Definitely a smart move, if you ever go to see it. The eye (picture a huge ferris wheel) takes you around for an hour and gives you a great view of London. Since it was a beautiful day, we got to see everything clearly!! There was Westminster Palace (where I went the previous day),Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, all of the parks, St. Paul's Cathedral, the Tower Bridge, the Tower of London, and many more sights! It was beautiful and of course we were the typical tourists taking pictures of everything!!

Me with Big Ben in the back

St. Paul's Cathedral

Buckingham Palace

The River Thames

After we got off the Eye, we had to wait for Lucy (my other roomate) in order to head into the aquarium. Since we had some time to kill, we decided to go to a cafe and have some drinks!! Kumar, the bar manager instantly became our best friend and decided that he would like to be our tour guide for the rest of the day. We told him we were headed to the aquarium, but he said it just closed for a private event! We were disappointed because we waited about an hour and a half for Lucy to get there for nothing!! Kumar quickly made up for this though and took us into all the backstage areas of the Eye. We got to see 4D videos, meet employees, and take some fun, amazing pictures!! He even got us some free food from all of the concession stands!! It was really fun, but we had to get going to go meet our friends at another pub! It was a nice laid back way to end our night and big adventure!

Jordan, Elise, and Me in front of the Eye

Us Again!!

Roomies in front of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament

Again in front of the Eye

Going into the 4D movie with Kumar

Field Trips: Brand Museum and The Houses of Parliament

Pictures of Big Ben and Westminster Palace/ Houses of Parliament

So this past weekend was probably the best and most jammed packed one I had thus far!! It started out by having a field trip on Friday and that brings me to this post about my past two trips I had. Last Thursday I went to the Museum of Brands, Packaging, and Advertising in Notting Hill for my Marketing class. It was pretty small, but it had over 12,ooo original items from the past; covering the Victorian era til today. The exhibits reflect how daily lives have changed over the years, the unimaginable revolution in shopping habits and the things we buy. There was stuff from the star wars era and of course the Spice girl items and Ninja Turtle products were on display too!! It was interesting to think that a guy started collecting these items twenty years ago and has created a museum with it. It makes you think that you can really collect and do anything with it! (not that I'm endorsing becoming a pack rat) After the museum visit, my friend Leandra and I decided to go shopping!!! We went to a bunch of boutiques and then to the best store in all of London.....Primark!! It is the most inexpensive good store ever. Think about combining the cheapness of Gabes, but the products of JC Penny, it was that amazing!! I managed to buy about 8 different things for about 40 lbs!! I will definitely be going back in the future!

The next field trip I had was this past Friday to the Palace of Westminster/Houses of Parliament and Big Ben for my European Government and Politics class. The Palace of Westminster is the home of the United Kingdom Parliament. It has been a royal palace for around 1000 years and home to Parliament for nearly 500. It was granted to the politicians as a permanent home in 1550. It was a special trip because they don't do tours in the winter and you have to be invited to come visit. Luckily our professor has some connections and he got the whole class in to visit. When you arrive, you have to have your picture taken and go through security. It is really intense, but my picture is my little souvenir!! After that, you are taken into Westminster Hall to meet your tour guide. The Hall was built in 1099 and it is the only building to survive the fire that burnt down the rest of the old Houses of Parliament in 1834. It was once used for feasts and entertaining but has recently been used for coronation banquets, ceremonial events, and a place for monarchs to lie in state here after their death

s. It is a beautiful place to see and the structure is very ornate with intricate beams and and angel statues. Here are some pictures:

Sadly, I could not take pictures of the rest of the Palace, but believe me, it was spectacular. You were able to see how it developed over the centuries and were given the background of every room by the tour guide. We already knew a lot about it, because we have been studying the history of it the past few weeks, so it was interesting to see it all in person. We saw the Central Lobby, St. Stephen's Hall, the House of Commons, and the House of Lords. My favorite part was the House of Lords. It was covered in gold and there is a huge throne chair where the present king/queen gives the yearly address to Parliament. It is a huge ceremony in November when the monarch comes to give the address and I hope I get to see it take place one year! After the tour was finished, we briefed on our tour and then went out to see Big Ben by ourselves! It is a very packed touristy area, which made it even more exciting!

Overall, the field trips have been amazing and I still have a lot more to look forward to! I have the Globe Theater visit, UK office of the European Union, and a few others. Stay tuned to hear about the rest of my weekend tomorrow!

National Pancake Day

O and Happy Pancake Day to you too!!!

It is national pancake day here and my roommates and I made pancakes with Nutella this morning and they were delicious!! (very diff from the U.S. though)

Camden Markets

On Sunday, Lucy and I went on a visit to Camden Markets!! It is this huge place right by Camden locks that has at least 500 stands of pictures, clothes, jewelry, purses, and anything else you could think of. My favorite stand was the one with Belgium chocolates, they were soooo good! There was this one, called a champagne ball, and it had a bubbly champagne filling covered in milk chocolate!! I can not wait to go to Belgium for spring break in a week in a half! Speaking of spring break, I officially booked all my flights, trains, and rooms for the dates between February 26- March 6!! Lucy and I will spend two and a half days in Brussels, 3 in Amsterdam, and 3 in Berlin. We are working on our itinerary this week and hopefully it will be an action packed week! This next month is going to be so exciting because with my countdown I have:

10 days until Spring Break (February 26-March 6)

18 days until Megan and Katie come to visit (March 6-March 16)

AND, the big one...

20 days until I am LEGAL in the states!!!! (March 8)

I am so excited and this next week will be hard to get through!

London Dungeons

This weekend has been full of exploring London. Yesterday Lucy and I went to a place called the London Dungeons, which is an amusement-like park right by where I work. It takes you through the history of London in 2-3 hours and adds a scary aspect to it. All of the workers are dressed up and have funny little parts. You start off your tour during the Plague and then on to a surgeon who picks a lucky audience member to dissect! You then go through to see Madame Torturer, who shows you a various amount of weapons used in the past. After you are "tortured", you move on to get tried in court. You're immediately sentenced to death and move on to a boat ride. It takes you backwards and places you in the hands of Sweeney Todd!! This is one of the scariest parts because they sit you down and turn off the lights and his voice immediately fills the silence. As he talks, it feels like someone is running their fingers through your hair and its really creepy. The lights then turn on and you are escorted into the history of Jack the Ripper. You visit a pub and an actor tells you all about it until the lights start to flicker. All of a sudden, Jack rushes out with a knife and slashes it around! I never jumped so high until he came out! Everyone was screaming and my heart was really racing! After the scare, you are taken to visit Queen Mary and another audience member is burned on the stake. After you witness his death (he starts facing forward and then is turned to show a burned skeleton!) you are escorted to the platform to be hanged. The platform is a free-fall ride (kind of like the Pitt fall but smaller) They take your picture right when you fall, and ours was hysterical!! Here it is for your viewing pleasure:

Phantom of the Opera

Last night Lucy and I went to see the Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty's Theater! The show has been playing at this theater for the past 24 years! It was a great show and I have to rank it in my top three favorites. I kept on getting goose bumps from all the singing and still have all the songs stuck in my head!

If you don't know what the musical is about, here is a quick synopsis:
The legendary, unforgettable musical, The Phantom of the Opera traces the tragic love story of a beautiful opera singer and a young composer shamed by his physical appearnce into a shadowy existence beneath the majestic Paris Opera House. A newyl installed state ot the ar digital sound system now makes Andrew Lloyd Webber's spintingling score sound better than ever. The combination of opulent sets and costumes, and fabulous special effects creates a theatrical experience not to be missed!

One of the coolest parts to the night was at interval, or intermission, when we met a fellow Alpha Delta Pi sister! She saw my necklace and asked me about it! She went to Arizona University and has been visiting London for the past week with her husband. It was really cool to meet her and I kept on thinking what a small world it is!

Pics from day two in Paris

Me touching the point of the glass triangle at the Louvre!

The Mona Lisa- so small!

View of the Eiffel Tower from Sacre Coeur

The Louvre

Me on the freezing boat cruise!