Comedy Cafe

Everything has started to calm down a bit around here. Classes have been going on for a few weeks now so I am finally getting on a good schedule. I love the everyday reminders about how unique London is. The best way I know how to describe it is like New York City but in England. There is just a little bit of everything here!

Some friends and I were on the tube a few days ago, and there was this woman wearing a show girl costume! I know the view isn't the best but I just had to snap a picture! We went to Old Street (an area in London) for dinner for a girl's birthday. There was so much graffiti on our way to the restaurant but it was so creative and artistic.... not quite like what we have at home. I love some of it!

Last night, Lauren Britanny and I went to the Comedy Cafe. It is open mic night there on Wednesday nights and most importantly, its free! The three of us girls left with plenty of time to get there but after getting a little turned around outside of the tube station we made it there only five minutes before they started. Upon walking in, we found out that we were supposed to make reservations and that the place was full. Luckily there were some kind gentlemen that overheard our dilemma and let us sit with them! The comedians ranged from boring to hilarious, but you can't complain much when you got in for free. We had a good time and hopefully will be going back another week!

I am going to see Wicked the Musical tonight! I am so excited! A lot of the other students here have seen it and I have been hearing really good things about it. I went this morning to get tickets expecting to have to sit in the very back row, but we actually got pretty good seats for really good prices! We also have a day trip planned for us tomorrow going to Stonehenge and Bath. I and looking forward to that too. I am sure I will have another update in a few days to tell you how that went!

birthday update

It has been getting much colder here in the past few days. The other night is was about 3 degrees celcius (mid 30s in farenheit). It wouldn't be so bad if London wasn't such a windy city! It's so different here. I mean this is like the middle of winter for Texas and it is only the beginning of October! My roommates and I are still waiting for Vandon House to turn on the heat. Becuase if it is on, then they must have forgotten about our room. The three of us all wear sweatshirts and sweatpants in our room and stay in our beds as long as possible in the mornings so we dont freeze! I think it is just one of the cultural differences. I have been told that England is known for cold classrooms and cold buildings in the winter. So I guess I will just have to suck it up and get used to it while I am here!
Since I didn't bring my camera with me on my birthday, here are a few of the photos from the night that I have gotten via facebook.

Sweet Melissa (aka Peaches) buying my first drink! The queue(line) at the Mexican restaurant was really long so we went to the pub All Bar One (really popular bar in England) across the street while waiting for our table.
Only a few of us at Wahaca for dinner. They were able to put all 10 of us at one table but I'm not sure if we ever got a picture of everyone. Still waiting for that one!
Lauren, Melissa and I dancing the night away at the club Tiger Tiger
Me and the girls that went out after dinner (minus Audrey the picture taker)
My mom has put in a request for more pictures, so I will try to post more from now on!

Birthday/Isle of Wight

When I learned that I was going to be abroad on my 21ts birthday, the only thing I could think of that would make up for missing my 21st in the US was to go to Oktoberfest. Sadly, that didn't happen... it simply cost too much.
I don't have classes on Thursdays, and since it was my birthday I was not just going to sit around all day. I slept in of course but then I went to the Sherlock Holmes museum with two other girls while most everyone was at their internships.

(Me at 221b Baker Street, someone thought that the hat was a good idea, they lied! haha!)

Once we got back to Vandon, we got all dressed up and headed out for dinner! We went to a Mexican food restaurant called Wahaca near Covent Garden. It was very busy, but the food was good. Afterwards, we were on our way downtown! I really missed not being able to have my friends and family around on such a special birthday, but these girls were great and we made the best of it! (sorry for not having pics, I didn't have my camera so I am waiting to get them from the other girls with me)
Instead of going to Oktoberfest, Britanny, Lauren and I went to the Isle of Wight for an overnight trip. I love living in London, but it was so nice getting way from all of the hustle and bustle of a big city. We took a coach down to South Hampton and then a ferry to the island. The island was amazingly beautiful and I could not have asked for more perfect weather! We had a tour around the island, stopped at a few of the small towns there, and were on the beaches as much as possible! I even got a little sun! I guess I could say that this makes up for not being able to go to the beach at all this summer since I was at "nerd camp" at Penn State.

We had Saturday afternoon and evening to do what ever we wanted on the island. So the three of us went to the beach! It was probably about 5:00 and we were walking down the shore towards these beautiful white cliffs (first picture below). The beach looked like a family beach so we were just enjoying ourselves, but as we were getting nearer to the end of the beach we saw what looked to be like a girl wearing a skimpy bikini. We thought nothing of it and kept on walking, well a little while later we realized that we were wrong. It was a naked man! We were shocked at first, but then we quickly ran the other directly while laughing hysterically. It was just one of those silly little moments that I am sure I will always remember.

PS- Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who sent their kind birthday wishes to me! You guys are so great!

Greenwich

Watching the sun set at Hyde Park

Things are finally slowing down a little bit since most classes have now begun. My class at LMU (London Metropolitan University) hasn't started yet, so I had nothing to do last Thursday. Most people have their internships on Thursdays, meaning there isn't much to do around Vandon, so I decided that I was going to go to the Tower of London by myself. On my way out, I discovered that two of the guys here had made plans for the Tower as well. The three of us joined up and headed out. We had a fun time, I got to make new friends and I got to see a castle. :)

I don't think I would have survived living in those days!

On Friday we had a day trip scheduled to see Greenwich, a smaller town in London. Central paid for all of us to ride a river boat down the Thames river on our way to Greenwich. It was cold and windy but well worth sticking it out for all of the beautiful views.

The Tower Bridge during our river trip down the Thames

The Prime Meridian is located in Greenwich so we all had to climb our way up to the top of this huge hill to get the the observatory. We took our pictures and then headed back to town to check out the market.

Me at the Prime Meridian

While walking around I discovered a Tex-Mex restaurant! Needless to say, we ate there for lunch. The food was amazing, almost like being at home! I did however catch a few laughs for being so excited about the place.... I even took a picture!

Cafe Sol- the Tex-Mex restaurant where we ate lunch in Greenwich!

Today I had my Art in London Class, we went to the British Museum. It was kind of like having my own tour guide at the museum. We got to see parts of the Rosetta Stone and remains of the Parthenon in Athens.

Tropic Thunder

Last night was the Tropic Thunder movie premier in London. Mark, my program director, had sent out an email with what was going on in London this week and at the very bottom was on small little note saying "oh yes, perhaps you might be interested in the Tropic Thunder premier in Leicester Square Tuesday".

After class on Tuesday Rochelle and I grabbed a bite to eat and then headed to Leicester Square. When we got there the square was already filled with other fans waiting to see the stars arrive. The two of us found a spot close to the entrance of the theatre and a little while later the stars began showing up. We got to see Ben Stiller, Jack Black, and Robert Downy Jr. They were so close we could touch them!There was a singer there named Sam Sparro, the people around me knew him pretty well but he was new to me. There were a lot of other people that would arrive and the cameras would flash, but I had no idea who they all were.




It is also fashion week in London right now. Once I got back to Vandon House, one of my friends who is a fashion student at the London College of Fashion invited me to an after fashion week party. We got all dressed up and headed out.
When we got there, people were dressed anywhere from jeans and a jacket to formal dresses. It looked like one woman there was wearing a wedding dress! My drink even came in a real pinapple! We did lots of people watching and were quite entertained. We also realized that British guys dance like big goofs!

My weekend with Shakespeare

This weekend my entire London program went to Stratford-Upon-Avon and stayed in a Bed and Breakfast. When I walked into my room for the weekend, I was quickly reminded of our weekend in Canton one year at Rose and Henry's. The walls, curtains, and bed sheets were all green and covered with flowers.

A coach picked us up outside Vandon House early friday morning for our journey to begin.

On our way to Stratford, we stopped by Warwick Castle for a few hours. We toured in and around the castle grounds while it rained off and on.

Once we made it to Stratford we took a walking tour around town to see where Shakespeare lived and was burried. As usual, it was raining the entire time. We went to see the Royal Shakespeare Company put on their version of A Midsummer Night's Dream. One of the main characters in the play was in the Mummy Returns, so that was a neat expereince.

Saturday we went to the Cotswolds (where The Holiday was filmed). We got to see how beautiful the English countryside really is. We spent lunch in Bourton-on-the-Water, another small town in the Cotswolds, and did a little bit of shopping.

Sunday while on our way back to London, we stopped by Oxford. We got to walk around the various colleges in Oxford and see where parts of the Harry Potter movies were filmed.

Classes start tomorrow, that means I have to get up early! I am not looking forward to this!

I have mastered the Tube!

I have gotten the Tube system down! I hear that most Londoners use the tube instead of buses and other kinds of transportation. Yesterday was my first time to use the tube alone. And I made it to the Museum of London all by myself! I find the tube to be an interesting place. There are so many people there but no one talks, no one smiles, they just sit looking very depressed while reading the free newspaper they just picked up on their way in.

On Sunday, a few of us girls went to the Regents Street Festival. We did a little shopping, shocking huh? But we got to see this hip-hop/rap group perform while we were there, they were called Lazy Habits, they sounded good but I had no idea what they were saying! It was so much fun getting to experience a British festival. There were food vendors and rides everywhere in the middle of this street in London. I guess they just do it a little different here. Above are a few of the pictures from the festival.

As part of our orientation, we got tickets to a musical! We saw Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat on Tuesday night. My ticket was in the stalls, so I was really close to all the action. I loved it! I think I am going to have to go some of the other musicals around here too.

Mark, the director of my program, told me yesterday that the class I signed up for at LMU was cancelled. Needless to say I was really dissappointed. I did find a math class to take though. It is an upper level class, but I think I will be working with other students on various project throughout the semester so this might be better after all.

This weekend we are all going to Stratford-Upon-Avon. We leave early Friday morning and return on Sunday. This is going to be a fun weekend, we are even going to see A Midsummer Night's Dream!