Paris, Venice, Greece.

Well, I leave on Thursday for Paris. I won't be updating for a few weeks as I won't really be around a computer. I may be updating in about a week or so before I leave for Venice but i'm not sure. I hope you all are well, and I will be back in touch before you know it! =)

A few random pictures =)

Above: Self- explanatory.

Above: This makes me laugh a lot because it was a still taken from a video but it looks like Elle is yelling at me or something and I have my hand up going "No, not right now, I can't handle this" and i'm walking away but that is clearly not the case, haha.

Above: Me and Elle at Cosmic Bowling, haha.

Above: Notttttt really sure, lol.

Above: SNOW! This was a while ago, haha. But it was lovely <3

Above: Alissa and I were out to eat and there was a creepy old man w/ a Pussycat Dolls World Domination Tour t-shirt or something.

Above: These ketchup bottles are everywhere, they're amusing.

Wicked & Bowling.

Last Wednesday, Alissa and I went into central London after our British Life and Culture class to go see Wicked. It was truly spectacular. It's definitely top 3 musicals i've ever seen. I think part of what made it so amazing was the quality of the set and the special effects, it made it seem so real where as in other musicals i've seen, it's been kind of.. not necessarily unrealistic but it's definitely not comparable. I've never seen Wicked before but somehow I knew 2 of the songs, and by knew I mean they sounded familiar, so who knows. It was really long though, and I just wanted to go home and crawl into bed! If anyone's into musicals it's definitely a must see. Even though Alissa said this was better than the production in NY, you should still go =)

Now.. on Thursday I went bowling with other study abroad students. The study abroad faculty rented some lanes at the bowling alley in town. It was a lot of fun. Next to our lane were the study abroad faculty and our professor Philip. Now.. he says he has never bowled before but I don't believe him. He was doing really well. I on the otherhand bowled a solid 58 on average per game, hahaha. It's terrible really, but I don't bowl, at all, and it's just bad news, but I started to get better at the end of each game. It was a fabulous night of bowling, drinks, music, and yes.. air hockey. Once vaca ends i'm planning to go back with some friends.

Can't believe I leave for Paris on Thursday!
Hope you all are well =)

Paris and The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Hello everyone =)

It's been a while but I have lots of exciting updates! First of all, I finalized the rest of my spring break plans. I will be going to Paris April 2nd to April 6th. And Alissa and I decided to take The Chunnel instead of flying because, there are too many steps involved to get to the airport, and it's just really not worth it. Then on April 9th I am leaving for Venice till the 12th and on the 12th (Easter Sunday as it is) I will be leaving for the cruise around the Greek Islands for a week. I cannot wait for the warmth... this cold English weather is getting a little old. So those are my spring break plans, I think they're mighty fine. Once I come back from break there are 2.5 weeks of classes left, they end on May 8th (Happy Birthday Mom!) and then we have to stick around another month till June 6th for finals. Why are they spread over the course of a month? Beats me. I'm sure i'll be doing some more traveling during that time. I know Ireland is definitely on the agenda.

Last night, I had tickets to the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra's Classical Spectacular show. Last time, tickets were only 5 pounds but our tickets this time was free. It was the last show for the season and my friend's friend who is in the choir had 6 tickets so we were invited back. I went into the city w/ Alissa and we grabbed some dinner before hand and met up with 3 of our friends at The Royal Albert Hall. It was definitely an experience being there by itself and on top of that going to see The Classical Spectacular.. surely something i'll never forget for the following reasons:

1. It was a light show. Did I forget to mention that? It was a light show and lazers and cannons and wonderful things of the sort.
2. The conductor was a cute man who was extremely amusing and interacted with the audience, making jokes and whatnot. (Compared to the Requiem, this show was quite "informal").
3. It turned out to be a very patriotic show. Almost everyone had a Union Jack and during certain songs waved it about and sang along as if their life depended on it, it was very amusing to my friends and myself.
4. Going along with the theme of patriotism.. there were guards at the very very top who stuck Union Jack's in their uniform and were waving them about, it was absolutely.. just tops, it was brilliant. I watched them during those songs instead of the light show.
5. The music was excellent of course, and there were Opera singers and the whole bit to sing solo's on stage.
   
6. I think best of all, I knew a lot of the music so it was a lot more enjoyable.
7. Oh, I can't forget that while you think the real finale is coming up next, you're wrong. There are about 5 encore's before the end, and at the end of the last encore the balloons in a huge net above the hall fell and it was glorious, people were swimming in balloons.

The following links are short video clips that my friend Elle took last night and I don't think filming was technically allowed, but that's okay =)

• Opening-ish- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7lDM0dbfXU
• This is a taste of patriotism, haha- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drBkINVQLs8
  
• Canon's! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nU2v8rafeL8
• Finale! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKP0EH3T3rw
  

RICHARD AND JUDY'S STAR BAR!!

Well folks, my friend Elle directed me here where Lee Mead is being interviewed on Richard and Judy's Star Bar.. i'm behind the bar =D Enjoy!

I'm wayyy overdue: Pitmen Painters, Oxford & everything in between!

Above: Christ's Church Cathedral.

Above: The top left candle is my prayer candle =)

Above: Staircase from the 2nd Harry Potter Movie when Harry gets sucked into the diary of Tom Riddle and Harry sees Tom Riddle asking Dumbledore about the dead body they are carrying out.

Above: Me on said staircase (In the Christ Church campus)

Above: My friend Elle said her hands were cold like vampires. But she meant to say "My hands are as cold as a vampires" so I made fun of her and named my right hand Jean-Claude and my left Sophie.

Above: The Great HALL!

Above: Alice from Alice in Wonderland .This stained glass can be found in the Dining Hall aka The Great Hall for you Harry Potter enthusiasts.

Above: The White Rabbit and The Mad Hatter.

Above: Ridiculous staircase in the St. Mary Cathedral.

Above: Same.. and you can see that the only hand-rail is an awkward rope attached the wall! Scary!

Above: Great Hall aka Dining Hall again (my pictures are clearly out of order a bit, sorry!)

Above: View from the top of St. Mary's Tower.

Above: Standing in front of the vistor's entrance to Christ's Church!

Above: Christ's Church field.

Above: My professor Philip telling us something interesting i'm sure.

Above: Archway.

Above: I do not know.. but it's pretty to look at!

Above: St. Mary's Tower.

Above: Radcliffe Camera

So, above are pictures from our trip to Oxford. It was an awesome trip from the beginning because we had a double decker COACH bus so it was all decked out and fabulous. My friends and I sat in the first row on the top so basically we saw EVERYTHING which was fun. It took almost an hour and 1/2 to get there from Kingston and the first thing we did was divide into groups for the two different tours. So my tour set off right away, our professor for British Life and Culture Philip was the one who lead the tour, and he showed us all the different colleges and their buildings. I believe Oxford has about 30 something different colleges that make the university because they are very specific. There is a whole college dedicated to medival studies. We walked for a while and ended up at Christ's Church where we later went to get a tour of inside.

After our tour my friend Alissa and I went off in search of lunch. We decided to go to a pub that our professor pointed out to us. It is actually hidden behind an alleyway and very narrow winding passage. There are no tourists there because it's a hidden gem so to speak and not visible from any streets as it is hidden away. This place was tops in my book because first of all, I despise fish but I got the fish and chips and actually liked it! So that's saying something. I also decided to try their house cider but I must say.. it tasted like fermented apples and yes yes, I know that's basically what it is, but it's the strongest I have ever tasted. It tasted like the smell of the apples that fell from the old apple trees in my Oma and Opa's backyard, haha. (HI OMA AND OPA!! I LOVE YOU GUYS!!)). So then we decided to visit St. Mary's Cathedral specifically the tower because you can see over all of Oxford from the top of the tower. So we finally get to the tower and the actual tower staircase.. 1- there is only one way up and down, so we started up the tiniest staircase I have ever seen and were 1/2 way up when another group started to come down and we had to climb all the way back down to let them down. So we start up again and get up successfully (after I nearly have a panic attack because I didn't think we were ever going to see daylight again) to find that there is only a foot and 1/2 walking area around the tower, so anyone who wanted to pass ended up touching you inappropriately but not on purpose. After snapping some pictures we made our way down (even scarier) and finally headed over to Christ's Church for our tour.

Our tour basically was we just roamed around ourselves. We made our way to the Dining Hall which is used in Harry Potter as The Great Hall. We then went to the actual church and walked around.. it was really beautiful and breath-taking. After that we attempted to find our way out because it was just so confusing and met up with another person from study abroad. Someone I had actually talked to on Facebook but until that time hadn't talked to him face to face. Only took us a month and 1/2! Haha, anyway, we walked around Oxford and went to a souvenir shop to get some postcards and things, it was good times. I want to go back to Oxford sometime to check out some other places, so.. hopefully that happens!

Now.. let's go back a few days.. A week ago from tomorrow my class and I took another field trip to the National Theatre to see "Pitmen Painters" which was a play about a few coal miners who were taking classes amongst themselves and specifically became interested in art and became artists. It's based upon a real story and was actually a heart-felt and funny play. I will admit that I, along with the rest of the study abroad students had a hard time at some parts to understand because two of the characters had a cockey accent which means.. you catch about maybe 10% of what they're saying =P But they showed paintings actually painted by the real Pitmen Painters and I was shocked by the quality of the work.

Yesterday I went back on "Richard and Judy's Star Bar" with my friend Elle and Paddy Considine was one of the guests (he's been in The Bourne Supremecy, Hot Fuzz, and some other well known films). It was fun. Also, on the way back we stopped for dinner in Leicester Square and stumbled upon the world premiere of the movie "Duplicity" with Julia Roberts and Clive Owen and I saw Julia Roberts!! It was amazing, she's beautiful. And it made me want to watch Pretty Woman for some reason.

Sorry it took so long for an update, i've been busy busy busy! And as an ending to this REALLY long blog.. today in class my professor wasn't here so his friend, another professor of drama came in to teach us about British Theatre and at the end a few of my classmates volunteered and did a skit from a play and they had to try and do a cockney accent and well.. it was a lot of laughing and good times.

I hope all is well with everyone back home. LOVE YOU =)