so im done with school. i finished my final essay on wednesday, turned them into my professors yesterday, gave copies to the international office today - so yah, im done. weird! its almost mid december and im not starting to stress out because of finals...i dont have any! its a weird feeling, but nice too

yesterday afternoon i went into central london with mary adn we walked around town, including going to the opera house to try and get tickets for the ballet on saturday (theyre doing sleeping beauty). however, its wicked sold out, except for two seats at the very top all the way to the side. they're "listening" seats because you cant actually see the stage. so instead we got tickets for the nutcracker on thrusday! sweet, so christmasy

we then went to arcadias uk office in nottinghill which was nice and everyone there is so friendly. we got the last two tickets they had for ice skating at the sommerst house for today! so yes, in a few hours i will be ice skating for the first time in years, yes!

that night we went to see 'billy elliott' which was really good. the music is by elton john, so of course it would be good. the kids were cute too - this is the first show ive seen here where half of the cast is under the age of 14, so that was cool. something that wasnt cool though was at the end of intermission while the band was randomly playing stuff, one of the guys playing the trumpet (i think) started playing a little bit of a song from 'spamalot' like their orchestra does when the second act starts. so that was mean of him, because then i wanted to go see ''spamalot''

so its friday today, which means that a week from today = my last full day in england! weird!

count: 11 days till california

its crazy that i only have a week and a half left here! of course im excited to go home, but i also have so much i want to do here in london!

so saturday a group of 5 of us went on a pub crawl through the city. we hopped off the tube at green park and walked to piccadilly circus and hit up our first pub. we then crusied on over to leicester square, and along the way we stopped at a little pub, pub number 2. at leicester square we went to the bear and staff which was the second pub that i had ever gone to in london (i went there my second day here with cailin and mary), so that was exciting to so back. pub number four was punch and judy at covent gardens! which ive always wanted to go to, pluss covent gardens is my favorite. it was there that my friend and i tried 1664's white beer which is super good, all while the pub was decorated festively with christmas trees and crackers hanging from the ceiling. we then went up to the tube to head over to kings cross to go to a cool bar weve heard about called rocket where uni students go (and saturdays = pound pints, aka a pint costs one pound, aka bargain). however our plans were foiled when we saw that the kings cross station was closed for some reason. we then went to a pub (number 5) across from the station for a bit until they closed at 12. we then took the last tube train back to new cross where 3 sketchy guys decided to stare at our gropu of 5 (we then proceeded to walk slower). so to avoid creepy guys we ducked into a pub by the station which is a thai restaurant by day. however by night it is where all of the polish people come and hang out, drink, dance, and listen to a live polish band of guys who are all past their middle age prime. so yah that was an interesting night. my friends and i got the 1664 white beer here again and we basked in polish glory. until creepy guys showed up. so my friend lindsey had her pepperspray in hand as we left (which is illegal in this country by the way)(and they ceased to follow us anymore). so after 6 pubs we went to the kebab/burger/fried chicken place down the street, got some chips (fries) and called it a night!

sunday consisted of jen and i watching greys anatomy and wedding crashers

yesterday i worked on a paper and went to class

today i snapped and went to the grocery store to buy all of the fresh food they had. im really really missing fresh food and 'california cuisine,' espeically fusion food. i want organic food again, wheres whole foods?? so my lunch consisted of a fresh salad with green onions, chives, bell peppers, and a light toasted sesame dressing that i made, and a smoked salmon wrapp with onions, lettuce, and capers. i just want fresh food. british food sucks.

and thats all from me today!

happy december!

so yesterday was quite eventful! i spent the entire day in central london, which i havent been to in over a month because of traveling. so i started off at the national gallery where they have a special exhibit called 'from manet to picasso' and there was an entire room full of monet's works so that was super awesome. after that i walked over to covent gardens (still one of my favorite places in london) and cruised around there for a bit. they have a big christmas tree up in front of that church there (im blanking on the name right now) and lots of decorations up for christmas time! yay! mary and i met up then walked down to the strand to the savoy hotel where arcadia (the program i went through) had set up a time for our group to go have tea. it was super nice, i like fairmont hotels. and they had a christmas tree in the center of the big room where tea was served. and there wasnt a limit on how many times they would replenish your scones, dessert things, and sandwiches. my type of place. after 2 swanky hours at the savoy (which is the hotel hugh grant chases julia roberts down in the end of 'notting hill' fyi) mary and i walked back up to covent gardens and took pictures by the santa area they have set up. although in england santa doesnt have a village - its called 'santas grotto.' grotto?? seriously?
so yes mary and i then took the tube over to victoria to collect our tickets for 'wicked'! we then went and had a drink at 'the stage door' pub which is across the street from teh stage door (go figure) for the theatre that is producing 'billy elliot.' we then went to the same indian restaurant that my parents and i went to before we saw wicked. so yes, this was my second time seeing wicked! and it was amazing! i want to see it again. and again. and again. and mary loved it too, she was freaking out most of the time. so yes, it was quite the successful day.


in other news, for those of you going to DECEMBERFEST: i hope you have a fantastic weekend! i love you all and i hope you have an amazing weekend at the woods! i wish i could be there with you all!!

the fam -
thanks for the little movie thing that you all made on thanksgiving! my dad emailed it to me today so that was fun to watch. of course i was laughing in the very silent part of the library which is kind of embarassing, so good work. yes, thanksgivning in lebanon, er i mean paris, was interesting - i had chicken instead of turkey, but what can you do. anyways, see you all christmas eve!

i am completely caught up on pictures now! the ones from austria and paris are all online at: http://community.webshots.com/user/ashalay23

paris, baby

so on wednesday i almost missed my train to paris, it was a close one. eurostar is quite nice, i like traveling in style by train. when i arrived in paris i took the metro to the hostel we were all staying at (the 3 ducks, on the corner of commerce and entrepreneur, next to the church at the end of commerce), dropped my stuff off, then checked out the shopping on commerce street for an hour while weitzel came back to meet me at the hostel. we then did some stuff which i cant remember right now. that night the whole groupie of stanford kids and i were together and we ate at a posh and trendy resaurant (charlie birdy) which is right by our hostel, then we walked to the eiffel tower, rode the carousel in front of it, and got crepes! later that night we went to le queen - a gay club on the champs! haha it was pretty awesome i guess, it was my first club in euorpe and my first gay club ever (luckily it was 'ladies night' so we got in for free). (Note: gay men, straight women)

the next day (so thanksgiving) we shopped around commerce (weitzel was quite successful at h&m) then john, weitzel, alex and i went to grab lunch in the saint germain area (i think). we then walked along the seine to the musee d'orsay. although we passed it somehow. then we came back to it, waited in line for a bit, then finally went inside. i think the d'orsay is the coolest museum ever because it is in a train station, and i like train stations. and it holds the most amazing collection of impressionism art ever. so yep, we had a good time there. nel, one of weitzels friends who is quite cool, made reservations for thanksgiving dinner on teh champs, but due to a few disagreements within the large group and our smaller one, we ended up bailing as a whole and going to a lebanese restaurant. so needless to say, that was lame. that night we hung out the in smoke ladened air in the bar in our hostel while i tried to not think about the fact that it was thanksgiving and i had a kebab. (although, fridays dinner made up for this one)

friday we woke up, grabbed a baguette for breakfast from teh hostel (fresh french bread = sooooo good), and headed to the eiffel tower. we paid the €3.50 or whatever it was, and took the stairs up to the first and second levels. which was fun since it was raining and really windy. but i actually went up it! unlike last time i was in paris when we kinda walked by it...lame. anyways, weitzel, jordan, and i took the elevator up to the top where there was pretty much no visibility through the clouds and rain. weitzel and i took our pic at the top then booked it back inside since we were getting soaked. inside was grrreat because it smelled really bad (brushing your teeth and using deoderant isnt such a bad idea....oh well, these people are french...). we came down adn our group of 6 (john, jo, weitzel, alex, jordan, and i) went to montmartre, my favorite part of the city since its on a hill and it has personality. we walked past sacre coeur (weitzel started singing the sacred heart song which is in french, so that was a little weird to hear. she also had to memorize it for st joes, whereas i only know the fun little part since in high school they know they cant get students to actually sing that song), and then down to the main area where we had lunch which was yummy. we then took the metro to the champs to check out the arc de triumphe. weitzel, john, and i went back to the hostel for an hour to take a quick nap. we pretty much passed out and it was good. at 6 we arrived at the louvre because they had a special deal where if youre younger than 26 you can get in for *free* after 6. which was great! so we ran around the louvre checking out the winged victory and mona lisa in the denon wing, then we cruised on over to the richelieu wing because weitzel wanted to check out the vermeer paintings (of which there are 2 aparently). we also walked through the napoleon apartments which were....hmm...a little overkill? there was a bit too much gold for my taste. after leaving the louvre we were supposed to meet jo at chez clement in saint michel for dinner. however we could not get a cap. we tried for 35 minutes. it was amazing, and stressful. we then took the metro which has a stop right outside of the restaurant (?!?!) and then had a great dinner. with great wine. its nice being able to order a couple of bottles of wine and have a nice time at dinner. soon enough i will be able to do that in the states.

so yes, thats pretty much my trip in a nutshell. although i can say that most of the stereotypes towards french people (at least parisians) are true: they are generally rude, they smoke a lot (its amazing theres still anyone left), they dont like anyone who isnt french. so yes, those are my generalizations of an entire country. oh something else i noticed - the other euorpean countries have things in english around town, like on signs and stuff. in france, there is french. unless they have to have english. oh well

this trip also made me fully realize how important it has been for me to study at an enlish school (one where i go to class with brits) and travel around london, enland (like oxford, bath, and brighton), and across euorpe. ive always known taht ive wanted to study in london, even looking at colleges we looked at their study abroad programs in london. and now that im here i see how important it has been for me to live with other british students in a flat, to get to thouroughly know london (its pretty dang big), and to go to other countries (italy, spain, austria, and france. im also going to try and fit ireland in there somehow....)

anyways, its crunch time now. im coming home in 3 weeks! but that means that within that time i have to finish up all of my schoolwork, do more things around london that ive been meaning to do (there is so much to do here!) and try to go to dublin. we'll see how this all works out! home in 3 weeks! yes! and ps its officially christmas time!

so i have put up a bunch of pictures: all from florence and spain (there are about 90 pictures from the alhambra, so watch out), but i still havent put up pictures from austria (my computer's battery is about to die). in case you want the site its http://community.webshots.com/users/ashalay23 (i hope it works, sometimes its moody)

anyway, im off to paris tomorrow morning till saturday! i hope you have a fantastic thanksgiving! i really wish i could be there

<3

yes, i am still alive. and due for a long update on my european life! so im going to start with this past weekend in austria, then go back to spain and finally to florence. so here we go...


on thursday mary and i almost missed our flight to salzburg because i cant read military time and i was incredibly tired from writing an essay over the past two days (an essay which my entire grade in the class is made up of, so yah i was a bit stressed). i saw that our flight left at 13:40 and got into salzburg at 14:40 which is interesting because of the hour difference between england and continental europe - so thats the same time. i knew something wasnt adding up. then it hit me and i freaked. once i was able to breathe again i scrambled for my phone, called mary and told her we had to leave, since it was a little before noon. luckily we made it with 10 minutes to spare! yep, we know how its done. i would just like to tell you that i found amazingly cheap flights online to austria when we were in spain - £20 round trip (£10 each way, and there werent any taxes on flights, winner!). so yes, we arrived in the alps at sunset and we fell in love with the place, although we were kind of worried about the whole not-speaking-the-german thing. we hopped on the train to vienna that night and got in around 11, went to our hostel (the wombat - if you go to vienna, stay here), then went out for dinner and we both had our first wiener schnitzels! neato! which were nothing like we thought they would be, but whatever, we were emmersing ourselves into the culture.

friday morning we woke up and took the subway and tram systems to get to the huge cemetary in town. something about people in vienna - they like to be burried nicely. so theres this HUGE cemetary (along with other smaller ones around the city, well theyre not small, but compared to this one...) which you definitely need a map to navigate around in. we looked at a map to find where composers (ehrengraber) are buried, then got to that general area and wandered around for about an hour. by this time mary and i were cranky in our own ways, but luckily right before we had given up hope we found the section and took pictures with beethoven, strauss, liechtenstein, schubert, and brahms' graves. we got back onto the tram to ring road (a road that goes around the center of the city) and walked part of it, including past the winter palace, various museums, and parliament. we had lunch (a poor excuse for a lunch) at the cafe central - "Cafe Central is one of the most famous coffeehouses in Vienna. It was originally opened in 1876 and during its heyday was a meeting point for writers, politicians, and intellectuals. Viktor Adler, Theodor Herzl, Leon Trotsky, Josef Stalin are just some of the names that used this cafe at the start of the century. Adolf Hitler used to come into the cafe and try to sell his paintings before he was rejected by the art school." that evening we went to the schonbrunn palace (a nice baroque palace) to check out the gardens (although it was dark when we got there; gardens are boring when you cant see them), grab dinner and go to a mozart and strauss touristy concert. in front of the palace there is a big christmas tree(!) set up and around it there are little stalls for the christmas market! people were setting up, but that didnt stop me from taking part in christmas shopping! yay christmas. so the thing we went to that night was made up of an 8 piece orchestra and during some pieces two opera singers would sing (the man was horrible) and during a few other pieces two dancers woud come on stage (they were horrible, especially the guy who didnt spot. who does that?? the choreography was bad too, just like their form). in the end i wish it was just something that focused on the music alone, but oh well.

saturday morning we woke up and took the early train to salzburg. the three hour journey was awesome becasue we went through the austrian countryside which is beautiful. when we got into salzburg i instantly liked it more than vienna - salzburg is tucked away in the alps, its clean, and unlike vienna it doesnt feel tired or overused in a way. its so cute! ive now decided that if i were to study anywhere else in europe, it would be salzburg. so we went to our hostel which has lots of annoying middle school boys who think theyre awesome (im guessing they were on a field trip) then walked around the old town (so cool!). then we took the sound of music tour!! which consisted of cruising around in a bus with the soundtrack playing and checking out where they filmed the movie. sometimes we would stop and get out to take pictures (like where the gazebo is set up now, the palace on the lake which they used for the interior of the house and the back to use the lake). we also went up into the lakes and mountains district (so pretty!) to see some of the shots they took of the mountains and the church that they used the interior for the wedding scene (although it looks like its part of the abbey in the movie...tricky). after that we went and had dinner then watched the sound of music at our hostel (the show it there every night at 8:00)! sunday morning we caught our flight back to london, and then i took a very long nap, watched some greys anatomy (you cant stop this obsession), and went to bed.

ok so spain...where did i leave off?....
ah yes, so we got up really really early to go to granada. when we got there our hostel didnt have our room ready, so we walked around the town for an hour. after we came back and put our stuff in our room, we started to wander in the general direction of the alhambra. we ended up stopping at an moroccan restaurant which was freaking amazing. probably the best meal in spain that i had at that point. we then took a taxi up to the alhambra and walked around there for a few hours. the alhambra was the best part of the trip and really made all the other lame spainish stuff worth it, it was sooo cool! ill put up my pictures tomorrow so you can see how amazing it is :) that night we went to a flamanco show in a cave! which was neat as well, and they had good sangria which made it better.

friday was lame because we couldnt book a hostel in madrid (not that we really wanted to go back there, but oh well), so we booked another hostel in granada for the night up in the hills overlooking the city. when we got there they said there wasnt any room at the inn (haha i feel like im telling the story of baby jesus), so mary and i had to stay in the barn in the back (weird, mary is actually my friend, not jesus' mom). oh wait, no. they called their friends at another place and hooked us up. this place was in the same residential area up in the hills (lots of white houses with blue doors) but it looked out to the alhambra, which was sweet. we decided not to go into the city anymore because it was peaceful up there which is soemthing we hadnt experienced in a while. i even took a nap. something you should know: you know youre in spain when the city is under construction and cranes dot the skyline. its nice too, because they have chain link fences up to protect you from the construction, but things can come flying through that at you. yay shrapnel! the spanish really think things through, dont they uncle frank? anyways, that night we hung out with other kids at the hostel, went to a cafe in the area and had a bunch of sangria and dessert.

the next morning we took the 6 hour train to madrid then took a taxi to our hostel. oh wait, theres a story here. so we booked this hostel the day before in granada because it said it was a few minutes away from teh airport and it was cheap. so after our 50 euro cab ride out to the middle of nowhere (or rather, the town of daganzo) we realized that the hostel lied. and we were mad. we told the old lady who owned the place that their website lied, and she said that the airport is close, its only 30 minutes away. liar! not close! no matter how hard we tried, spain didnt like us. and we're not too fond of it either anymore. once we cooled down i took a nap. of course i was woken up by a circus. seriously. there was a circus set up for teh weekend outside of our hostel. lame. that night mary and i werent happy campers, so we went to the burger place a few blockes down (we reached our breaking point, all we wanted were burgers. tapas? no thank you). we woke up around 5 to take an expensive taxi to the airport and thankfully fly back to our beloved london - a multicultural city where you can get anything and enjoy so much, all while you speak the language and engage with nice londoners.

monday and tuesday should have been spent recovering, but i wrote that essay i told you about before. then wednesday i went to class. adn thursday mary and i went to austria!

ok so florence. before i had mentioned that weitzel was going to write up where we went, which she so nicely did, so im just going to copy that directly into my blog now


you stayed on via dei conti. lol. heads up. (which is 2 blocks from the duomo)
we went to the restaurant the first night called i ghibellini on via degli
albizi
the bar, Rex, is on via fiesolana
vivoli the gelateria is on via isole delle stinche
the good shopping i.e. zara and the market where i bought scarves is on via
roma
sasche is on via porta rossa
the san lorenzo market is err in san lorenzo.. several streets- near santa
maria novella
mercato centrale where we ate lunch that day doesnt have an address either i
dont think- its called piazza mercato centrale
festival del gelato (!) is on via del corso
chiaroscuro is too- tho we didnt go there, anyone who goes to florence
should go
moyo is on via dei benci, right near the arno/ponte delle grazie
the place we went on sat night for dinner should not be mentioned.. horrible
err and the stanford center is in piazza santa maria sopr'arno! woo!
dinner sunday was at gilli where we also grabbed dessert the other night


phew! ok im going to put pictures up tomorrow hopefully (wireless at school has been rather sketch lately, something about a powersugre messing it up a week ago). im off to paris on wednesday!

on monday i flew out of florence airport in the morning to madrid, and then i spent the rest of the day in the airport in madrid waiting for mary´s flight to get in. after an hour of trying to find each other, we left the airport at 9 (so i had been there for 8 hours, im so glad i had a book). we finally made it to our hostel in the center of madrid, and it was very cool, except for we were in a room with 14 beds, 10 of which were filled. the room didnt have any windows so it became really hot, suffy, and muggy really fast. and some drunken frat boys came in at 5 and decided to talk and hang out (way to go guys, i think you have sucessfully woken everyone up). a few hours later a few people started waking up and turned on the lights, which was a nice finishing touch. we decided to stay in madrid another night, and requested a different room (with 4 other peope and a huge window!).

yesterday mary and i met up with mary´s flatmate tags who has lived her life in madrid and beruit. shes super cool and she showed us around the center of the city. the only lame thing was that it rained all day (london came to madrid). we ate at random times (which is fun for hypoglycemic me), but when we did eat we ate rich food. when dinner rolled around we were hungry but we were tired of eating out. we ended up asking our friend (really awesome, funny, gay guy) at the reception desk where we could go. we went to VIPS, which is a chain and the food looked like it was reheated. we had bland chicken and rice. it was amazing, exactly what we needed.

this morning we woke up early and caught the train to seville, where its sunny and quite warm! its such a beautiful city. at the train station we hopped in a taxi to take us to our hostel, but the driver had never heard of the street. in the end he called the hostel, and it turns out its the one i booked in granada (where we´re headed tomorrow). so that was fun. we wandered around with our bags looking for an internet cafe to look up a hostel, but luckily we found one - where we get our own room! its been an interesting trip because its not like things go really wrong, but everything of inconveince has happened.

we met up with mary´s friend alicia and her friends, including emma feeney - who i did ncl with in high school. so that has been awesome to hang out with her! after lunch we walked to alicias neighborhood which is really nice. tomorrow mary and i have to be at the train station a little before 7 to catch the train to granada - we´re going to see the alhombra tomorrow afternoon! neato. and we have a place to stay, even better.

im getting tired but im hanging in there, its weird to think that ill be getting up around 6 tomorrow - so 9 pm in california (i wish i had money on my phone to call people, that would be convenient)

whatup. im in spain! and i spent the day in the airport waiting for marys plane to arrive, but im chilling at an *awesome* hostel with cool people and a cool atmosphere. and i think im off to bed soon bc im hella tired.

paz

Remember remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder, treason
Should ever be forgot...

yep, its guy fawkes day in england! go see v for vendetta if you dont know who taht is. anyways....

ciao! so little known fact - "ciao"works the same way as "aloha"because it means hello and goodbye...oh the things you learn when you are in italy!!

so yes, i am here in florence for the weekend and it is freaking sweet. so much culture, old buildings, and goooooood food. italians know how to do food, brits know how to cover bad food in mayo.

i am here with weitzel (aka laura, aka tall blonde) and soon she will write down everywhere we have been because i want to document everything and i dont know exactly where we have gone. my hotel is right by the duomo (seriously, maybe a minute walk along a side street), so pretty much im staying right in the center of the city. we have hit up a few markets in the past 2 days, been to a number of restaurants and gelato places (gelato = one of the 7 amazing wonders of the world), and hung out a bunch which has been quality. i will have a very detailed update of my trip soon.

tomorrow i leave for madrid and meet up with mary there (who is flying in from dublin)! although i am still bummed we arent making it to lisbon, we are planning on going to madrid, sevilla, granada (hopefully we will see the alhombra or however you spell it) and maybe have a few othr stops along the way. we dont really have plans, we just know the train we want to get on and general cities we want to go to. luckily we both know people who are studying in spain so they can help us out with which hostels to stay at. we're totally winging it which is exciting!

heres a quick update on my week:
- monday i went with a bunch of my friends to see 'the history boys' which was good and had the original cast in the film from the national theatre. when we were taking the bus back someone set off a little popper which made a loud sound and everyone outside ducked and ran for cover. so yah, that was fun.
-last night i went with my theatre class to see kevin spacey in 'a moon for the misbegotten' by eugene o'neil at the old vic (which spacey actually owns). sitting a few rows behind me was sir ian mckellen(!) and natalie portman(!), although it didnt look like they were together. ian is really cool and natalie is so freaking pretty
-my lovely cold has come back in full force today
-november = things get cold in england (seriously, all of a sudden it got cold here, but luckily is sunny, so its kind of like boulder)
- its time for all of my flatmates to get out before we snap (at amy)

thanks jill and sarah from rocklin for the letters! and ashley thanks x2! youre a letter writing machine! i love it!

im off to florence tomorrow! peace out!

so heres the plan for november:

~ florence ~ november 3-6 (to visit weitzel and noelle)
~ spain ~ november 6-12 (unfortunately no portugal)
~ vienna ~ november 16-20 (of course this isnt booked this yet, so ideally we're going to vienna)
~ paris ~ november 22-25 (traditional thanksgiving....in france, hmmm)

so yes, every weekend in november i will be abroad! neato!

today during my european politics class my teacher spent the entire hour going over how to write a formal university essay. which was a beautiful waste of everyones time. im pretty sure we're all in college and everyone knows that you have to have an intro paragraph where you state what youre going to talk about. and yes, you have to research (since some would call this a 'research paper') and reference those books and have a bibliography. and of couse it must be typed (really? are we actually talking about not typing an essay??). im pretty sure i wrote a 14 page essay, references and all, in 7th grade, thank you. just thought i would share my sentiments with you, it kind of made me bitter earlier (i think a nap would have been more productive).




and to those of you going to the woods this weekend for NOVEMBERBASH - i know that you will have an amazing time! i hope you know that even though i will be eating delicious italian food nonstop in florence, i am really jealous that you get to go to camp. i know that this short weekend will be a much needed break from school and the rest of the crazy aspects of college life to simply stop and play in the forest. you have a large number of jr high campers anxious and excited to be back at camp - so create for them a welcoming, fun, energetic, and genuine atmostphere which you all can thrive in. you get to spend time with awesome jr highers that i had the pleasure of working with over the summer and i hope you take advantage of this opportunity to give them the best weekend they will have all fall!

go sit out on the bgf with a hot chocolate and sing extra loud at campfire for me!
<3 ashley with red hair

so its almost 5:00 pm and its getting to be about dusk already. i dont think england should partake in day light savings time since it can already be pretty dreary here (although the weather was nice today)

so wednesday i actually went to class which was good. and after that i met up with the parentals to go on the london eye which was cool except it was cloudy, but whatever. heres a pic of it i took on the big bus tour we took on saturday. that evening as we were trying to find somewhere around leicester square to eat dinner we ended up walking into a movie premier - and it ended up to be the one for 'borat.' so we watched the small parade of people for sasha cohen/ali g/borat - there he is! its nice!

after that excitement we had tapas at a spanish restaurant then saw 'phantom of the opera' which was good to finally see on the stage. the next day my mom and dad came to new cross to check it out and all. after a brief tour of my flat and school we headed back into central london and went on a tour of the globe theatre, the one where shakespeare's company performed his plays. it was really cool especially how they tried to build it in the same way that it was originally built in the 17th century. after that we took the tube over to westminster to go to the cabinet war rooms and the winston churchill museum. it was a really cool museum full of high tech exhibits. we then wandered around victoria where we had indian food for dinner (suprisingly this is the first time that i had indian food here, it was good though). then we went and saw 'wicked'! which pretty much owned my life. and im going to see it again. every night.

friday we met at westminster abbey and went on our own little tour of the buildings - pretty much its a really cool old church that about 900 years old that has a million people burried in it. and again, its really old. we ate lunch at a little italian place in green park (near the palace) which was nice. we then went shopping in knightsbridge for a bit then got ready for tea at the lanesborough hotel at hyde park corner. tea, well it was really nice. we had champagne as well as tea, and sandwiches, strawberries, tea cakes and all. we also went to a really good restaurant for dinner in knightsbridge. so pretty much, that was the nicest (and most expensive) food i will ever eat in london, now i will go back to eating pasta. also, i would like to add that knightsbridge is a weird area because on the way to and from dinner we kept on walking by ferraris - theyre just sprinkled around the area (along with bentleys)(and the more common bmw and mercedes). knightsbridge makes atherton/woodside sane.

so on saturday the parentals arrived here in england and i met them at their hotel in knightsbridge (a very nice area in central london, its the area where harrods is). so yes, we went to lunch at the fifth floor restaurant at harvey nichols (which is a very nice department store, somewhat like neiman marcus (needless markup) in the states). we had champagne with lunch which was quite nice. we then went on a double decker bus tour of the city, checking out the major sites and all.

on sunday we ventured up to oxford for a day trip outside of the city. oxford is such a cool town with about 40 different small colleges that make up the university. the only problem though is that the rainy season has fully set in now so it was pouring a lot of the day. but still, its a beautiful old city with amazing architecture.

on monday my mom and i hung out while my dad did business stuff at lloyds of london (the home of insurance.....oh how exciting). we went to kensington palace which used to be the royal residence until buckingham palace was taken up. its fairly recent residents include princess margaret and princess diana. we then went shopping (well we looked around different shops seeing where the good places are) in kensington and knightsbridge.

yesterday my dad went to germany for the final leg of his business trip and he will be back in london within a few hours (so around noon today, wednesday) and my mom and i slept in, unintentionally. so instead of going to the globe theatre for a tour and all yesterday morning, we went to leicesters square to check out the cheap theatre tickets. we got tickets for mary poppins and phantom of the opera (for wednesday night) (and we're going to see wicked(!) on thursday). we then went to covent gardens andd cruised around there until i went on the backstage tour of the royal ballet and opera house (it was the actual tour unlike when i tried to go last week...). some fun facts of the opera house: its on about 2.5 acres of land (its huge), the entire time we were there the orchestra was practicing for 'sleeping beauty' which was fun to listen to, the building has burned down three times, and it was a dance hall during WWII. the only thing was that we didnt actually go 'backstage' which is huge (we looked at it through windows) and we didnt check out the costume department, but oh well. after that my mom and i stayed around covent gardens, went back to the hotel, had dinner, then went to see mary poppins which just opened here and its the first time its ever been done on stage. since my mom is here and paying for the seats, we had really really good ones, like orchestra seats. and the show was really great too!

on a side note: every kid in england has this week off so there are children all over this city, which is weird. until this week london was made up of people in business suits and tourists, but now there are kids *everywhere*

after i go to class in a few minutes for two hours (the only class im going to this whole week) i am meeting up with the parentals to go on the london eye (the worlds largest ferris wheel, true story) then we are going to see phantom of the opera tonight

peace out girl scout

so i havent been able to kick this cold - people who have it or have had it say it lasts for a week and a half. lame. it mainly consists of a cough and being exhausted. but last night i wasnt able to sleep because of drunken people running through my flat until 3:30 and the alarm from hell going off in claire's room. i was even drugged up with nyquil and benadryl to help me sleep, but to no avail.

last night my london theatre class went to go see 'a family outing' which is a show performed by ursula martinez and her parents. luckily it only lasted an hour. this performance was more in the category of 'performance arts' rather than theatre - it was a bit too contemporary for me. it consisted of her interviewing her parents about their lives with little interruptions (ex. her sister calling, the mom doing a dance to 'i will survive,' and her dad reciting act II, scene VII from 'as you like it'). it was like they were trying to pretend it was improv, yet it was scripted. as if they were acting on not acting.

so yes, today mary and i are going to (hopefully) plan what we're doing for fall break (since thats in a few weeks and all) then we're going off into london to do stuff and maybe see the film 'the history boys'. neato

last night i made a mexican crepe. yes, its true. i put nutella (yum!) on a tortilla and then cut up some fresh strawberries and raspberries and made myself a desert quesadilla, or rather crepe-illa. it was delicious.

so today i went to convant garden (one of my favorite places in this crazy town) to go on a backstage tour of the royal opera house set up by arcadia (the group i went through to study here). well it turns out that instead of for the 17th of october, its for the 27th. im not too smart it turns out with the whole reading thing. so anyways, i showed up at 2 because one paper from arcadia said it started at 2, but there werent any college age kids there, so i wandered around for a bit until just before 2:30. i asked an usher (note: weitzel - his name wasnt actually 'usher') about the tour and he said they just started because they thought everyone was there. so he took me into the theatre to where the group was. which i thought would be a bunch of students. nope, there were about 15 couples there who were at least 65 years old. so that was awkward for a little, then i assumed i had the wrong day, told the guide, and left.

so yah, that was fun. i went shopping for a bit and realized that there are only a few places in england that are actually descently priced (ex. h&m, topshop) pretty much everywhere else is really expensive (priced like anthropologie, and some of the shops arent even that cute). on my way out of h&m i was stopped by a woman who works for 'new woman' magazine and a photographer who asked if they could take my picture for a section of the magazine which features everyday londoners in their cute clothes. so yah, thats me, im pretty trendy. well only because i was wearing this really cool jacket i got in new york last summer (its grey with red stitching and a red bow in the middle). so yes, if im in it then it comes out the last week in november!

mary met up with me for a bit and we continued shopping (dont worry, i only bought a few shirts, i didnt go crazy or anything...its too expensive to go crazy) then i headed back to delightful new cross. rumor has it that my flat will actually be getting wireless at the start of next week, but my flatmates have been saying that for 3 weeks now so im not holding my breath (but i hope they prove me wrong!). tomorrow im off to the theatre with my class to see 'a family outing' so that should be exciting :)


ps peanut butter and jenny - thanks so much for the amazing mail! i love the tshirt and letter!

i have officially been in england for one full month today. and ill be home exactly 2 months from today fyi

anyways, yesterday i chilled in the library for a few hours putting pictures online (including ones from camp(!)) so here you go:
http://community.webshots.com/user/ashalay23



ps thanks to my parents, kate from rocklin, gemma, and ashley with blonde hair for mail! mail makes me really really happy :D

hello, so heres an update on how my busy week has been

(the main thing you need to know is that ive been to the theatre 3 nights in a row, sweet!)

last sunday robbie, mary, and i went to camden market to check it out (which i went to last time i was in london). we soon discovered that there were way too many people there - the streets, stores, and market place were a zoo and i dont like being surrounded with strangers pushing me around (what can i say? im a fan of personal space). so we left and went to meet up with my flatmate jen and her sister and friend who were visiting. we met them for church at westminster abby, which is london's notre dame in a way. its really cool and really old (and one of the places they ran around in in the davinci code). we also cruised around that general area up to trafalgar square. so yes, that was fun, then that night robbie and i went to the hobgoblin (the pub next to my flat) for quiz night and met some cool people including this young married couple from nebraska (they were cute and really nice)

so on monday i went to class (english) then i met up with rob and tom(!) whom neither of us had seen until monday, so that was definitely exciting. we ended up going down to toms house in forest hill which is only 2 train stops away from me

tuesday i went to class (history), which, sorry uncle frank, was sufficiently boring but thats ok. i took lots of notes like i always do. that night i hung out with tom and robbie again which was good fun

wednesday rolled around with my anthropology class (including my crazy greek TA) and london theatre, which is turning out to be a joke class that im loving since i get to see plays for free then talk about them with an awesome teacher who realizes that the class in a way is a joke. then i met up with tom and robbie and we went to meet toms girlfriend of 6 years over in putney - a really nice area in south london where people actually live, its not sketchy, its clean and has restaurants, shops and other places you can actually go. so needless to say, i really enjoyed being out of the ghetto. we went to wagamama's, a noodle bar, then cruised around the town only to return to natalie's flat and play cards.

thursday robbie left to go to crew and stay there for a month and i took a nap. that evening i went to see 'piano/forte' at the royal court theater in sloane square which was really good. the set was beautiful and the acting was great. it was pretty intense (you pretty much watch a family implode) but so was the show last week (homestead).

friday i went with mary and her friend alicia (who is studying in spain) to portobello road to check out the market. portobello road is in notting hill (yes we looked for a blue door and a travel bookshop, but were unsuccessful)(if you dont know what im talking about, maybe you should go watch 'notting hill') and it is home to a really big market which consists of vintage clothes at not so vintage prices unfortunately. later that evening we went and saw spamalot at the palace theatre! which was great, and i like to brag that ive already seen it with the original cast in new york because i can. it was great (except for our seats which were pretty bad) and tim curry was in it here too.

yesterday consisted of going into central london again with mary and alicia to hit up the half price ticket booth in leicester square to get tickets for evita. but they only had the really expensice ones, and we're cheap students. so we went to the adelphi theatre on the strand and asked if they had cheap tickets. i think we got the last ones! so yep, last night i saw evita! which is one of my favorites, although, once again, our seats sucked. so i think i might try and get organized and sese it again in the next month or two and get a better seat so i can see it again. the woman who played eva was the first woman actually from argentina to play the part, and seh was great. it was interesting listening to it live and hearing the differences in the music from the movie with madonna and antonio - the part of eva is definitely for a soprano, so they lowered it for madonna. they also cut out some music (just a little bit here and there) for the film. i love the movie though, dont get me wrong

today im taking it easy, i have a sore throat (lame? yes)

on a side note, i would like to share a funny story with you about a short conversation with a guy on the tube. this random man tapped my shoulder after noticing my gamma phi beta bag and the conversation went something like this:
"are you part of that group?"
"yes"
"thats very prestigious"
(what is this guy talking about?) "well, its my sorority..."
"oh. but its very prestigious right? you must be a mathematician"
"um no" then i tried to explain what it was, but really it was no use
i hate math

cheers

well a lot has happened since my last post earlier this week, so i will try and be concise, but with pictures and everything im not sure if that will happen......

so i have class monday - wednesday, leaving a long weekend for me to enjoy. my schedule goes a little something like this:
monday: 4-6 european culture and society
tuesday: 2-3 european politics (and a small seminar for an hour after that every other week)
wednesday: 12-1 religion, morals, and symbols (with an hour seminar after)
4-5 london theatre (and then we see a show either that night or thursday night)

so yes, my politics class mainly focuses on germany since 1945 this term. the teacher speaks slowly and this first class was rather boring, but i have hopes for it. my anthropology class, religion, morals, and symbols, is really interesting and it is taught by an elderly hippyish man from the black country. my TA for that class who teaches the seminar is a greek man named michelangelo! which is exciting and he is very animated when he talks to a rather quiet class. my theatre class is great - its only open to americans and our teacher is really great. we saw 'homestead' on wednesday evening which is being shown at the theatre museum right up the road from where 'evita' and 'the lion king' are playing. my teacher actually wrote and directed the play which features a cast of about 8 women. it was wonderful.

thursday morning my friends mary and cailin and i were meeting up in front of our flats to go to bath when i received a phone call from my friend robbie - an aussie from camp for those of you who dont know him. he had told me before that he was trying to get a flight into london from brazil (ah yes, quite the world traveler) on friday, but it turns out he was actually coming thursday morning. which caught me by suprise (i know, im a great person). so anyways, he met us at the waterloo station and the four of us took the train up to salsbury, the home of stonehenge. we had to take a bus ride to stonehenge since its a bit out of the city. when we were driving out there we were picturing walking over a grassy hill and seeing stonehenge - oh what a sight to behold! wait, there it is, on the side of the road. yep, way to go kids.

but it was still cool to see dispite the rainy, windy weather. it is the greatest henge in all the world! what is a henge? well first they built strawhenge, then woodhenge, but a big bad wolf came and blew them all down. we then returned to salsbury mid afternoon in search of lunch, however everything was closed. except for dominoes pizza, quality. after we inhaled our food we hopped back on the train for bath.

once in bath we ran over to the roman baths to take the tour (with cool hearing devices). the roman baths were really neat, especially since most of what they built (especially in way of plumbing and all) is still there and in use. its a pretty big site as well, with possibly more areas however its hard to tell completely since theres a huge city built around it. after the baths we went to find somewhere to eat dinner, and we ended up at the pub the litten tree which was cool and we made friends with the dj. after dinner we went to the backpackers hostel there (my first hostel ever!), dropped off our stuff, then went back to the litten tree for the remainder of the evening.

the next morning we went to breakfast then off to the actual baths in bath that people can use. for 20 pounds you can chill there for 2 hours. we went to the rooftop pool which has amazing views of bath - the pools there are all naturally heated or something, so its quite nice. then we went to the hot bath downstairs for a bit. after that we headed off to the steam rooms - there is a big room with a shower in the center and four round rooms in each quadrant of the larger room which make up the steam rooms. they were intense. its weird when your breath is cool and refreshing. but i really liked them - especially the eucalyptus and mint room. we then returned to the rooftop pool for the remiander of our time.

after all of that excitement, we went to grab lunch (i had my first pasty ever, man the english eat healthy....) then we checked out the abby in the center of town which was beautiful and quite big (those catholics know how to build 'em). then we returned to the train to come back to london.



the past few days robbie and i have been hanging out doing cool things, including hanging out with tom - another camp kid (who, it turns out, lives a few train stops down from me, neato). so yes, thats my story. since its tuesday i only have class tomorrow then its the weekend again, sweet! it hardly feels like im in school (although i am, dont worry, tuition isnt being wasted or anything)

anyways have a lovely evening

ps. happy birthday jake!!

my four and a half month long summer has come to an end today with the start of classes. well, i only had one class today from 4-6 today which was cool. the class is intro to european culture and society and my teacher (called a tutor here) just finished getting her graduate degree in something historical at cambridge. there are about 15 or 16 students in the class, none of which are british (there are students from germany, spain, france, norway, america, russia, and maybe a few others). the first hour was spent on talking about the historical periods of europe in which europes identity changed. and the second half was a discussion about current european culture, if the english consider themselves european, what constitutes if you are european and other cool topics. being a cultural anthropology major, i really enjoyed it. although i am still confused on homework, or rather 'recommended reading' - you dont actually get assigned reading, they just list a few books in which you can pick reading from each week...? its weird and im confused.

last night i was able to spend some quality time with 2 of my flatmates jen (american) and claire (british, scottish, swiss, french - she gets around). we watched a few episodes of sex and the city and then we decided to watch a movie, and claire flipped out when she saw that i had wizard of oz in my small collection that i brought, so we watched it and ate lots of food. it was cool to finally have time to chill with some of my flatmates.

anyways, thats me today. i think tomorrow i might try and do laundry (i havent been able to do it since ive been here, gross? yes.) ive heard a rumor that there is a place to do laundry in the building next to mine (one of the dorms) which is good, because theres a laundrymat down the street and it costs £6 for one load in the wash (so thats 12 dollars). later

Happy October

Heres a bit of an update on what I have been up to this weekend

Yesterday cailin, mary, and I took the train down to brighton, which is located on the coast about an hour and a half south of London. And the guy at the train station hooked us up with cheap student and group discounts for our train rides to and from brighton which was great.

So yes, we arrived at 10:30 and walked down to the beach (which was full of pebbles, not sand) and walked along to the large pier. On the pier there are a lot of little kiosks, an arcade, lots of carnival games, and at the end there is a small theme park. The three of us stopped to get something to eat at a Belgian waffle stand which serves waffles on a stick covered in fudge, caramel, or chocolate (I got the chocolate). It was amazing.

After that we walked through town up to the royal pavilion which was “built by the flamboyant george iv.” It was so beautiful and so different. The pavilion is based off of Chinese architecture and it is surrounded by gardens. There is also a small museum there (free admission, yay) which we walked around in and enjoyed the kids room. We ate lunch just outside of the pavilion at a pub and restaurant called ha!ha! and it was super good. And after our somewhat late lunch we wandered around the lanes – an area of brighton hidden from the main streets where there are shops. The lanes are exciting because they are so small and narrow, so like a lane. We each bough masquerade masks there which are from italy and are hand painted, they are so cool! There were other ones there (worth a minimum of $90) which had feathers and more elaborate painting and rhinestones on them, but we’re cheap college student (but they were fun to play with for a bit). We then returned to our flats in new cross quite tired and hungry. But outside of our flats there was a flower stand so I bough some gerber daisies for my room which is quite nice. Yay fresh flowers! The rest of my evening wasn’t all that exciting (except for when mary and I tried to watch grey anatomy on the internet and it wasn’t streaming all that well)

This morning mary and I went to an all souls church off of oxford street. It had been recommended to her by one of her professors from back home or something so she wanted to check it out and I decided to tag along. It was a cool church that was pretty diverse in both age and ethnicity and it has a big focus on students here at uni (including international students). The sermon was alright, it just went on for daaaays. We then went to lunch a few blocks away from the church at a place called EAT: the real food company. As opposed to the fake food companies near it. Its like a prêt a manger, but better and a bit cheaper. It was really good, I even bought a few things to bring home for dinner.

It has rained a lot today. But it will rain, stop, rain, pour, drizzle, rain, stop, repeat. The weather here needs to take a chill pill. Or just go back to the sun and 70 degree weather we were having there for a while (its so obvious im from California)

So yes, im back at goldsmiths now. Its interesting being in an arts college (everyone here is either arty or a theatre nerd, or both) and its also interesting being in an urban setting. New cross isn’t the best part of London – there are sirens going off quite a lot, especially at night (don’t worry, I don’t go out by myself). And apparently there have been a shooting or two in the past few weeks around here in a club or something and the mini mart across the street was held up recently. But where else can you go to a kebab place and also get fries/chips, fried chicken (this country loves kfc and I don’t know why), a burger, and some weird british pie with liver in it. So yes, that’s new cross. im a thug. Right.

Ps I have my first day of class tomorrow (but I only have one class and its from 4-6, sweet)

hello all! so today consisted of running around campus to various meetings and meeting with different people to switch out of a class. not too much fun but whatev.

tomorrow im off to brighton with some of my friends! and we're taking the train, how quaint.

good afternoon. so i was thinking that i forgot to mention some cool things that i did with my friend mary tuesday afternoon and evening when we went into central london. we were able to get cheap balcony tickets to see avenue q and before the show started we went to the london portrait museum (i love how museums are free!). once we arrived at avenue q they told us that the balcony was closed so they upgraded us to the bottom section right in the middle - the seats were so great! she show was also hilarious.

so yesterday i took it easy and slept. a lot. today i feel a little better, but this cold is still lingering. i have a department meeting today at 3 for the english and comparative literature department (im taking the class european culture and society). after that im hoping to get my goldsmiths id card, however the cue is epically long, so im not sure if thats goign to happen. as for this evening, im not sure whats going on yet, but it should be fun!

it has also been fun to watch my freshmen counterparts this week - theyre all going crazy still. my american friends and i are taking it easier because i guess we got it out of our systems or something (partying hard every night this week and being hungover the next day isnt all taht appealing) (maybe im just getting old or something haha). anyways, thats enough from me. peace out

today has probably been the least exciting day that ive been here. the only big thing i have done today is enrolment, which mainly consisted of standing in really long cues with other students trying to get paperwork in (although the only thing i had to do was turn in one paper). after that i went back to my flat and crashed - this cold is beating me up today. so i took a nap for a few hours which was nice. and now im at my favorite internet cafe in new cross. tonights activities will probably consist of me taking it easy and watching a movie or something so i can try and knock this thing out of my system. cheers

hi all! ok here is a brief update on what i have been up to:

sunday:
i left portland for london in the morning and we arrived in new cross (in east london) around 3 to move into our dorms, or flats rather. heres a little funny story: when we arrived a student from goldsmiths got on our bus to explain things. he said to find a woman in an orange shirt who would give us our keys, then to find a person in a blue shirt to help us move, and finally to direct any questions we have to students in the black shirts. then from the back of the bus came, 'and if a person with a red shirt tags you, you lose the game and have to start over.' hehe my friend mikael is funny.

ok so i am on the 4th (so top) floor of the dorms here. i am living with 6 other people, 4 brits and one other american girl (jen) who is from boston and goes to northeastern. there are two boys (guy, who is goign to be my new george o'mally friend (note: watch greys anatomy hes the friendly roommate) and lucian who is cool as well) and two other girls (amy and claire). its weird because all of the british students are 18 and freshmen. so yah, theyre all going crazy - theyre cute and all but im kind of over it (as are the rest of the international students, but its cool). that night we went to the union (so the student union, not the awesome pizza place in occidental) where there was a big dance party, open bar (what?! at a school function?? neat! ill have a gin and tonic please), and lots of crazy freshmen.

i have to say its fun saying 'im from california' because everyone here gets wide-eyed and a little excited to hear that. i have had a few conversations about 'the oc' and if i go there or see the actors there ('you have family in the oc, woooow')

monday:
some of my american friends (mary and drew) and i met up for breakfast at my flat then we went grocery shopping, yay! we went to sainsburys which is a 3 minute walk away. its like safeway, so you can imagine my excitement. after that we took a double decker bus ride down to try to get to tk maxx (just like tJ maxx in the states) but we ended up at pound slasher. and wow it was cheap.

after that mary and i went into central london (oxford street) to meet up with my friend mike from camp. it was so great to see him! we had lunch, walked around, went to a pub - it was great. after mike left mary and i stayed in that general area and had dinner then caught the tube home. last night i finally had time to unpack all of my stuff and move in to my room. my room is small but thats fine - theres a bed, a good sized desk, small closet, adn a small bathroom complete with a shower (which is almost over the toilet, but whatever). after i moved in mary came over and we had some quality greys anatomy time (since we're both slightly obsessed)
today:
i woke up with a sore throat and a head cold, so im fairly drugged up on sudafed and tylenol cold right now. so that was kindof lame.

i went to my first meeting for classes. this was the politics department meeting where i found out where the good libraries are and when my european politics class is going to be (tuesday afternoon).

mary and i (and hopefully drew is goign to join us as well) are going to go into central london in about an hour and find a cheap box office so we can try and see a show in the west end tonight. we are also goign to take advantage of the free admission here for the museums (im not sure which one we'll go to yet, maybe the tate) anyways, im off to make some lunch with a side of day quil

good evening friends

so i would like to start off by sharing a general item with you: i dont like english food (nothing here is fresh! everything is covered with gravy, mayo, butter, etc). which is unfortunate because i like food, a whole lot - i cant get enough. and if i dont get enough i get cranky, shaky, gross, etc. so yah, 6 days in and thats where i stand. but starting tomorrow i move into the dorms (!) so then i can fend for myself....yay pasta!

so today we were awakened by a phone call from graham (crazy old drunken smoking man with a few teeth) saying that the tail end of a hurricane is coming through so we wouldnt be going out on the boat today (only because the coast guard said so aparently...what do they know...). this opened up my day completely, so a group of us decided to go into the town of weymouth which is on the mainland. and luckily i was able to persuade brogan to accompany our group of american students (she rather quickly became a very popular 12 year old).

we walked around the downtownish area of weymouth which also leads to the beach. dispite the hurricane, the weather was beautiful except for the strong breeze. walking along the beach reminded me of a very posh santa cruz beach boardwalk in a weird way - which made me crave a burrito. woah dang.

instead we went to a cafe where i had a sandwich with prawn and other stuff (i thought i would try and branch out, but it wasnt good, so i pretty much ate the salad garnish on the side). however, i did have an eventful lunch where i learned about synaesthesia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia) which 2 of the girls have here. i also received an education on the gypsy group 'pikes,' aka brad pitts character in 'snatch.' needless to say, if youre in spain (or anywhere else in europe) and you see a baby being tossed through the air, run the other way. dont save the baby (yes, its a real, live baby), run. or else you will get mugged. what the heck? babies are expendable aparently. these people are sick.

emily, brogan, and i caught the bus back to portland and had a bit of nap time which was great then we had dinner (traditional fried chicken). i really like hanging out with this family at meals and all, theyre so entertaining. after dinner we all went to jo and lesleys favorite pub on the island, the cove inn. jo introduced me to having a beer (stella artois or however you spell it) topped off with lime (it was alright). other than that we all have been hanging out and watching a bit of tv. and outside there are the occasional flashed of lightening which is pretty cool.

on a sidenote: you know that feeling after you step off of a boat and you still feel like you're swaying? i've been feeling that for 4 or 5 days now, and i havent been on any boats. fun stuff

ok whatever, i had a great day, i hope you did too!

stay tuned: ashley arrives at uni tomorrow.

so the weather here in england has been beautiful ever since we arrived. in london it was in the mid 70's and that warm weather carried over to portland yesterday as well. as for today, not so much. it rained once i woke up until mid afternoon. which is fitting because old-chain-smoker-missing-half-his-teeth-always-has-a-pint-in-his-hand graham scheduled a 2 mile walk around the east side of the island. we started the walk in the rain and after about 30 minutes we reached 'ye old duncans drainpipe' or something to that effect - a trail leading down to the ocean that is very narrow and steep, with a 400 foot drop or something. most of the group decided to opt for the 15 minute walk back to town and have lunch and tea, myself included.
my friend kat and i went to a little coffee shop and had tea, then we wandered around town for a bit (still in the rain), and then finally ended up in the new inn pub which is across the street from the punchbowl (our sketchy meeting place for everything). after this kat and i decided to go back to my family's home (which is 4 doors up from the pub) so she could check her email and i could take a nap. when we got up to my room, emily and her friend were there along with lewis (the 17 year old boy in my homestay family). the guest room where emily and i are staying doubles as a computer room for the family. kat waited to use the computer from 2-3 while lewis bummed around on the computer listening to gangster rap music (brogan says he wants to be the new 50 cent, then she laughed. a lot.) and checking out cars on ebay then switching over to watchign pointless comedy skits from some website. kat decided to leave since he aparently wasnt leaving. emily started watching lost on her computer and i tried to take a nap (amidst the comedy skits, with the volume turned up)(keep in mind that the only area to walk around in here is about 6 feet by 4 feet with luggage, so with people in here its hard to move) for the next hour and a half lewis kept his post at the computer while i tried to sleep (wouldnt you notice if someone was trying to sleep in the same room??) and emily watched lost. anyways, out of the 2 hours i had to sleep, i probably got 20 minutes. lame. im only complaining because i woke up with a scratchy throat and my energy is shot - i think im fighting a cold (no worries though mommy, im using zicam)
so then we had dinner and lewis had a friend there (the one who was looking forward to meeting american girls) which was entertaining mainly to watch lewis, his friend, and his mom interact (theyre so funny and sarcastic, its great)
after this a group of us went to the local theatre in town to see 'arsnic and old lace.' i dont think i have ever left a play at intermission....until now. it was pretty bad. so there goes £8.
so between the rain, lame nap time, and the theatre today wasnt superb, but its cool. i talked to weitzel (who is in florence being cool) and aaron today on the phone which was pretty fantastic. and simply getting to walk around town today was pretty awesome too.
as for tomorrow we are going on a boat ride along the coast where i might die because its fast and there are big waves. oh and we get to wear water proof suits and life jackets. sweet.

see ya

today our group left the thistle hotel, which is about a half of a block off of kensington high street, and drove for 3 hours to portland. here is a bit of information given to us about the area:

"the isle of portland extends southwards from teh resort of weymouth and is approached by a causewawy running from teh mainland, parallel to the world famous chesil beach...portland, itself, is a large wedge of limestone rising to a height of 500 feet, which has, for centuries, been quarried for its superb stone...the bill has 3 lighthouses (which i visited today, one of which is now a bird observatory."

the homestay program that arcadia goes through it called experiment in international living (EIL) eil.uk.org . our representative here is an elderly man who has half his teeth and chain smokes. hes pretty funny

its really beautiful here - i wish my computer was able to be online so i could put up pictures (luckily the family im staying with has a computer set up in the room im staying in). so anyways, i am staying with the rudds who are an awesome family. the mom joanne has been showing emily (my fellow american friend who is in the same program and is staying here also through sunday with me) and i around all day along with brogan their 12 year old daughter. brogan is hilarious. she is like one of those campers that you get occasionally who has a mature sense of humor and who goes on and on about everything. she speaks her mind (to the point of being terribly blunt) and if she were at camp she would have all of the counselors wrapped around her finger. the fathers name is lesley and the son, who is 17, is named lewis. lewis, being a teenage boy, is very quiet when he is with his family although he has his moments when he comes out of his shell.

so yes, today jo drove emily, brogan and i around to various places (brogan was bored out of her mind since she lives on the small island of 12,000 people, "we're going there, i haaaaaaaate it." then naturally she would show us around) where we took too many pictures of the amazing surroundings. then this evening the 15 arcadia students who are here had a meeting at the punchbowl, a pub which is across the street where our old EIL representative hangs out. jo and lesley couldnt say enough things about the place (oh we never go there, its so dodgy, there are nicer places in town, why does graham take you there??)

and now im back at my family's home (an 18th century cottage which they recently rennovated - its beautiful) and going to bed. i am tired.

peace out

ps probably next week i will start posting pictures on here or on a different website (or maybe both)

a

hello all
so once again im back at the internet cafe.......

we had our last day of orientation with arcadia today at london imperial college which consisted of sessions on our homestays, the different way of teaching/learning/grading here in england, and then we met with the people within the program who are going to goldsmiths. the grading scale is weird here - a 70% is an A, dont expect to get any higher than that, and a 50% is a B (Bri would die here)

im going to the isle of portland tomorrow through sunday for my homestay with a few other goldsmiths kids. portland is about a 4 hour drive southish from london.

tonight we are seeing the producers so that should be great and last night two of my friends and i figured out the tube (the circle line is definintely confusing - which way is east and which west in a circle?) and wandered around leicester square for a few hours.

today i bought a cell phone (!) from virgin mobile and its great - i was able to call my good friend Mike who lives in east london that i met at camp 2 summers ago. it looks like he and i will be hanging out on monday! and soon i will have to call tom (another camp kid) who currently lives in south london.

anyway, that's all i have for you all today, buenos dias!

day count: 2

so yes, i have been in london for two days

sunday i left sfo at 4:30 pm and arrived at 10:30 monday morning. and then i hit the ground running. as i walked out of customs i saw a large group of college students with lots of luggage leaving, so i assumed they were the group i was with and i caught up with them (luckily i was right) we all got on a bus and went to our hotel in kensington. the hotel is practically right in front of kensington gardens (which i was able to have a picnic lunch in and walk around with my new found friends). at 4 we had a brief orientation where they gave us binders full of papers and other useful items. after that a group of us wandered around the park again (we saw the italian fountains, the palace where princess diana used to live, and the royal albert hall), then cailin (from cu actually) and i met up with a few other people from arcadia at a pub down the street and had a pint. i thought it would be more exciting to be able to get a beer and not be carded, however i was so incredibly jet lagged and exhausted i didnt really take much notice. after that i called my mom (after a few problems with my calling card, i think the receptionist doesnt like me because i kept calling and having problems) and went to bed around 11.

this morning we all met up in front of the hotel at 9:45 and walked to one of the colleges in london that is nearby (i forget the name of it right now). there we met the team in charge of running operations for the arcadia london office and a few other british folk. the guy in charge of arcadia here talked to us about culture shock, then we had a policeman from notting hill talk with us about safety. he was hilarious because he pretty much made fun of americans - so all 60 of us. then we had lunch in the cafeteria (which was definitely different then colorado dining halls)(im still not sure how i feel about it). our final session included two people from parliament leading a discussion about the current political sistuation here in the uk and they answered some of our questions. the woman was from the house of commons, she is part of the labor party, and she has been in office for 19 years. the older gentleman (who spoke the 'queens english' quite nicely) used to be in the house of commons for x amount of years, and now he is currently in the house of lords. he let us know that he could say whatever he wants because he cant be taken out of office. they were both entertaining (since we cant vote for them, they could speak freely) and quite intelligent. after orientation ended we all went on a boat tour of the thames, then went off to high tea at the hotel. my friends and i just went shopping for cell phones (we'll be getting phones tomorrow) and now we're in an internet cafe (yay internet!).

and now im off to get dinner, peace out.

"The time has come," the Walrus said, "to talk of many things: Of shoes and ships and sealing wax - - of cabbages and kings."
- Lewis Carroll, "Through the Looking Glass"


Or, rather, the time has come for me to go on an adventure.
Granted, I am a bit apprehensive and nervous currently, although I definitely am excited, it's easier to be nervous though (I guess I think too much). And I think I have good reason to be - this experience (which technically hasn't actually started) is laced with anticipation and it is overwhelming. But I'm up for the challenge.
These are my sentiments this week.

Truth be told, I'm not a big fan of blogs - I feel like they are places for people to openly complain about their lives to other people, in hopes that their friends will comment on their problems. That being said, I am going to try to keep this blog concise and to the point to let you know what I am up to during my travels.

Have a beautiful day!
Yours truly