Day 3

[my music: L.O.V.E. ~ Ashlee Simpson]

Today was awesome... started off with a decent class. MaJo ((the professor's new name according to some of us girls here)) has such a chill way of teaching and this real soft voice so we were all kinda dozing off. It's rough having class at 9 am yo!
After class I ate the rest of my left over pizza from the night before... awesome. Then Betsy and I decided to take a nap cuz neither of us slept too well the night before. What an amazing nap it was.
The we trucked our asses down to the British Museum where we went on this tour that was extremely overpriced... the woman knew a lot, but we did not get to see more exhibits than we would have had we not gone on the tour at all. The museum is awesome, some pics will be up soon hopefully, but it's not air conditioned. How is it that London claims to be so up to date and modern, yet NO ONE HAS AIR CONDITIONING?! wtf mate? which reminds me, "cheers mate" has become quite the saying around here, we're crazy.
Good times were had by all today, funny jokes, good sightseeing, learning London pretty damn quickly too! Stef, Amanda, me, Natalie, Brittany & Betsy went to Pizza Express for the 3rd day in a row and it was just as good as day 1. We had the Chocolate Glory for dinner and that was sick... "We walked so much today that we died, and i tripped into heaven." we were delirious after dinner laughing about everything and anything.
Well I gotta run... tomorrow's post will have the rest of today's events & junk! Tomorrow is the Tower of London! Should be good, it's only 3.7 miles from Harrods!! Holla! which reminds me, i bought a sick sick hippo key chain today that says British Museum on the back! How sick is that?! ok loves! I'm out...

hugs & kisses

Day 2

Location: still Campbell House, UCL in London, UK

[my music ~ Déjà vu ~ Beyonce ((just cuz it was on the TV in O’Neill’s today))]

Today has been awesome! I woke up this morning at 8 to get ready for class at 9. The class went pretty smoothly, didn’t start too much, but all 8 of the girls were falling asleep… oh well. We were supposed to go to the British Museum today but that got postponed until tomorrow. I’m ok with that. Professor Johnston did assign reading and a few writings due tomorrow, but it’s nothing too harsh.
After class we came back to the rooms for like 5 minutes then 6 of us headed out for the afternoon! We walked around, tried to eat at The Rocket but we don’t know what was going on there, then finally wound up just eating at O’Neill’s. Brittany and I had our first legal under-21 alcoholic beverage! It was good times. We are so not used to European tipping styles at restaurants so we leave such a huge tip for these people. Oh well, if they’re cool servers, then we’ll be nice.
After lunch we walked around and found this little public square area where they had foosball tables and a huge version of jenga and a huge version of connect four just out in the open! It was sick! we started playing then got distracted by a sign that said “mall” and went in search of a mall… but I guess the British have a different definition of mall because we just did not see one ANYWHERE! There were a few shops & a sick gym, but that was it! Sorry Brits, but that does not constitute a mall!
We then walked through Regent’s Park and had so much fun just walking around and such. I had a pretty good milkshake, then Brittany and I almost got killed by a psychotic killer bird and then some older British man comes up behind us and is all like “it’s just a pigeon you know.” I was ready to say “dude, I’m from New York! I know what a pigeon is!” It was good times.
There is a sick fountain in the middle of the park that we played with for a few minutes like we had never seen a fountain before. It was intense. We then kept walking, found the London Zoo and realized that was too expensive, and then started walking back. Since I was in pain cuz my shoes cut into the back of my heel and Amanda had shinsplints like whoa, we decided to take a taxi back. It was so spacious and inexpensive that I was amazed!
Amanda, Stefanie and I then went out looking for ice to ease our pains, plus a few more groceries. Let’s just get it out in the open that there is no place in this freaking city that sells plastic bowls, plates, forks or spoons! We had to steal sporks & clear plastic container things from a salad line! It was awful. But we did get some nifty ice bags! It’s a plastic bag that you fill up with water, put in the freezer, then when it freezes you take the bag out and shake the ice-cubes free of the bag! How sick is that?!
Went out to dinner with Betsy ((pizza express again)) then went back to the room, ate, chilled and laughed a lot... then we got to cracking on our Billy Shakes homework. That went late into the night, but it's all good. I'm happy.

hugs & kisses from London!

Day 1

Location: Campbell House, UCL in London, UK

[my music: London Bridge (oh snap!) ~ Fergie]

So after American Airlines flight 104 with nonstop service from JFK airport in New York to Heathrow airport in London was delayed about an hour, the 8 girls and Professor Mark Johnston ((who said he felt like the coach of a girls gymnastics team)) got on to the plane to begin a 5 ½ hour flight. The plane ride itself was fun, Brittany and I were excited to watch Rumor Has It, but it turned out to be Take the Lead, which we were still willing to watch. It was a cute movie, not too much substance… predictable to say the least. Before and after the movie we joked about all of the partying we were going to do and what not. It was fun. Natalie and Stefanie sat together across the isle from the Professor, Nicole, Alex, Brittany and myself, and we were across the isle then from Amanda and Betsy.
After our arrival and piling into 2 vans, we began our journey to central London. This is where we realized that the signs, drivers and just the roadways themselves are crazy over here! I seriously do not want to hear people ever complain about New York drivers ever again! I am not afraid to cross the street in the city, but here I am legit scared out of my mind that some granny or psychotic old man is going to blow me over with their ridiculously ugly “smart-car!” Amanda joked about getting run over and how the last words that she’ll mutter as she lay dying on a foreign roadway will be “fuck you” both to the driver of the car and to the girl that constantly yelled or gave severe attitude when Amanda was about the cross the street. It was funny.
There are a few obvious divisions in this group already, but whatevs. I’m enjoying my time here right now so I really don’t care!
For dinner it was just me, Betsy, Amanda and Brittany. We went to Pizza Express where the girls spent 5 pounds or 10 dollars on a freaking personal pizza! I had a 10 dollar dish of mushroom ravioli… it was delicious! Afterwards we walked for a bit then Brittany and I scoured the town looking for a pay phone to accept American calling cards. We failed miserably! Then we looked for internet cafés so that way we can email friends and family since we can’t call them! That didn’t work either… but it’s all good cuz we found a few cool statues, a few Indian restaurants (too bad neither of us like Indian food), and got around really well without a map! We had fun.
Back at the room I chilled for a bit then passed the hell out. it’s pretty nice sleeping for 11 hours… too bad my bed is uber-soft and I woke up with the worst back aches ever! DAMN YOU BRITISH BEDS!!

hugs & kisses from London!

It's romantic, it's mysterious...

[my music: Will you be around? ~ Platinumweird]

She sat there exhausted with the smell of nail polish fresh in the air. Thinking back on the events that have made this summer what it is, she found herself with a smile on her face. For so long she lived with this chip on her shoulder because of last summer; it was filled with love no doubt, but at the same time so blaringly and annoyingly uneventful. The summer of 2006 has been filled with enough friendship, parties, gossiping, and flirting to put many other summers to shame. Freedom new to this summer has brought about many chances for her to reconnect with countless amounts of people that she had left behind. The last 2 weekends were among the most exciting for her. Not only did she get to hang out and party with her fave local cousin, but she got to pick up a friendship that had seemed to end so long ago with her friendly giant Chad. She always thought that he was a sweetheart despite being seemingly forgetfull of him for the 6 years. Now they are friends again, hanging out and partying like we had only gone a few months without seeing each other. She at first was a little unhappy about him having a girlfriend, but as time passed and she got to know the girl, she and the girl wound up having the best time together. Not to mention she absolutly loved running into a guy that she used to be close with who used to like her and who also apparently grew up to be gorgeous. She and he started talking after their surprising reuinion and she'll just have to wait and see where that goes. Hopefully somewhere, but if it doesn't then she's def okay with it.
She is feeling satisfied with her time spent at parties, time spent chilling, time spent sleeping and time soon to be spent in London. The one thing that weighs heavy on her heart at times is the occasional encounter with a certain older female at Ramaquois. She was not expecting it to bother her, but this encounter breaks her heart every single time because she had tried so hard to get on this woman's good side for the simple fact that she wanted to be accepted by her, but she never made it completely. It took the ending of something so beautiful and perfect at the time to make this woman actually be nice to her. She wondered why, but could come up with nothing more than lame excuses. It's a sad thing, and deep down inside she wants to just go up to that woman and hug her and to be told that it's ok. But she knows that it could never happen.
Oh well... good friends and awesome times keep me happy enough.