Don Juan in Soho

I went to see the play Don Juan last night. I had no idea what it was about, but had heard that it was funny and definitely worth seeing. Basically it was about a man who's father has a lot of money. This means he doesn't have to work and just drinks and does drugs and has sex with different girls at least 5 or so times a day. It's meant to be a comedy but gets somewhat serious towards the end. It was also in a theatre that sat no more than 100 people, which meant everything was very intimate and up close. All in all I really enjoyed it.
One of the cool things to me was who was actually in it. I have learned that some big name actors often will do plays for a season in London. In this case these actors were not very big, but I did recognize 2 of them. The main guy, Don Juan, was the scruffy flat mate in my favorite movie Notting Hill. And then there was another guy who was in the more recent movie Love Actually. So yes, that was pretty cool.
On Friday I'm going to Stonehenge and Salisbury. Then on Saturday a few of us bought train tickets for an all day trip to Wales.
I'm in the process of attempting to plan places to visit. Other places that are on my "I really want to go here" list are:
- Spain
- Italy
- Berlin
- Scotland (already going here for the first part of spring break)
- Iceland (since it's where my grandma is from, but I'm not sure it will happen)
- Dublin (already going for St. Patty's and hopefully once more after that)

and then a few places I'd like to go but if it didn't happen I wouldn't be too upset:
- Prague
- Netherlands
- Sweden
- Greece (probably not)

Basically I will be broke when I come home. But what better time to do all of these things? There are many independent airlines where you can get penny flights (literally 1 pence) and then taxes are added on to make it 20 or 30 pounds round trip. And then hostels are not all that expensive either for most of them. Some places are even under 10 Euro a night. So yes, I will have to get 8 summer jobs to try and pay things back, but I think it's worth it!

The Tube

One of the very cool things about London is their super easy transportation system. I read a statistic this morning that the underground subway or "Tube" transports about 5 million people every day. The city of London has about 7 million people living here. Pretty impressive. It has I believe 12 different lines that run constantly every few minutes from about 5 in the morning until 12:30 at night (except Sundays it's a little less).
When the Tube ISN'T running there are Night Buses that take you just about everywhere as well (they're just slightly more complicated to figure out).
The atmosphere on the Tube itself is interesting. Although people are crammed on (especially during peak morning and evening times) NO ONE talks. You can be smashed from all sides with your face 2 inches from someone's armpit, maybe crotch if you're lucky enough to have a seat, and it is silent. People stare straight ahead or read one of the many free papers that are handed out around the stops. I actually saw a guy yesterday ask someone if the guy next to him could please stop talking as he was helping a lady figure out which stop she needed to get off of. That was a little extreme. Most of the time people just give rude looks.
Anyway it's an interesting experience. It's absolutely amazing for someone like me who has no other way to get around because the city becomes so accessible with the Tube. I can go practically anywhere in London with all of the different lines and stops.
Yah for public transportation!

Lazy Weekend

I had kind of a lazy weekend. I'm trying to recoup from being sick. I think/hope that I'm almost there. I went to Kensington Park and Hyde Park today to just kind of walk around and enjoy some greenery. The park itself is HUGE. There were a lot of families and kids walking, skating or biking around. A few pick up football games going on. I spent awhile there trying to get some homework done before I ended up getting too cold to sit any longer.
It was nice to get outside though and just relax and enjoy being in London!
I still can't believe I'm here. I'm having such an amazing time!

On a side note. My wireless internet on my computer isn't working. I don't know why, but hopefully it gets better or there is someone here who knows how to fix it.

Wait a minute

So I thought when you get sick you are supposed to slowly get better and then be well again. I seem to be starting to get worse...
What up with that? Seriously, it's been 5 days already!

Stratford Upon Avon

Home of Shakespeare. That's where I've been all day today. It was a neat little trip. Cool to be able to say "I was in Shakespeare's house". Both where he was born and then where he lived later on in life. And also another house where his wife and kids lived while he left them to work in London. We also saw his grave in a little church called "Holy Trinity Church". Literally standing over the bones of Shakespeare.
Then we went to see the Shakespeare play Richard III. I am not a huge Shakespeare fan by any means, but I was entertained. The acting was awesome and the lighting and theatrics were very well done. All of the actors wore modern clothes and carried guns instead of swords, but still spoke Shakespearean language. It took me at least half of the play to fully understand what was actually going on. But by the time I started to get somewhat of a grasp it became even more interesting.
We drove back after the play and just got back, it's about 2:00am. I have class tomorrow at 11:30 (luckily they cancelled the first one at 9), and a 3-5 page paper due that I haven't started writing yet. Not supposed to be hard though... I'm debating whether to just try and get it over with now, or to get up early in the morning... hmmm...

It SNOWED!

Last night it snowed! The cars and bushes this morning had snow covering them.

I'd really like it to snow again while I'm AWAKE next time though!

Still Sick

Well I missed out on Westminster Abbey and Antony and Cleopatra from being sick. I have sexy raspy man voice right now. I know, HOT.

Anyway... I went to the Globe Theater yesterday (next to where Shakespeare used to live, and where many of his plays were performed). That was interesting, but I couldn't pay all that much attention because I was kind of dying. And I almost passed out a couple of times. On Thursday we're taking a full day trip to Stratford Upon Avon (where Shakespeare is from, kind of a Shakespeare week). That should be fun. I booked a trip for Dublin for St. Patty's day. How cool is that?

Oh and I signed up for a 4 day Liverpool trip in a few weeks... you know, home of the Beatles and all that. Should be fun :)

And right now I'm trying to figure out somewhere to go in England this weekend. Maybe just a day trip...

Sick

Eww, like really sick. I'm all achy and congested and coughing and I can't really talk. Yah. But here I am right before classes start cause I can't miss them. Plus today we're going to go visit the Globe Theater. Then tonight we're going to go see Antony and Cleopatra. Needless to say, no time to be sick. :(

Oh yes... School

I started classes a week ago. I'm taking British Life and Culture, Gender and Communications, and Black Family (comparing British to American). The classes don't seem too difficult, which I'm pretty sure they do on purpose. But I do have a fair amount of reading and 2 papers due next week. So today I'm taking it easy and working on those! Then tonight I'm going to church with a few people at Westminster Abbey. :)

Whoa! The Sun is Out!

On Thursday it was so windy I literally almost blew away. At one point while I was walking it knocked me to the side and I almost fell. I saw a van tipped over, and heard 2 windows break. Later I heard that some people actually died from the winds, but I'm not sure how. It has been fairly mild weather besides that so far though. Right now is the coldest it's been. 28 degrees Fahrenheit. It supposedly might snow within the next couple of days. That would be AMAZING! I'm so excited!
The Football Match was so much fun. The fans were going crazy! Singing tons of songs (which we couldn't understand most of them) and jumping up and down when a goal was scored. We were rooting for the home team Fullam, and they won 4-3. High scoring game meant wild fans!
Yesterday a few of us went to the Tate Modern Art Museum. It was fun, but I want to go back since we didn't really spend that much time there. Then we went out dancing at night. That was a ton of fun! I was dancing with a bunch of different British, Argentinian and Australian people. Good times.
This morning we went to see the Changing of The Guard in front of Buckingham Palace. It wasn't all that exciting, but it's cool to say we went to see it. Oh but the band started playing disco music at one point. That was pretty funny.
And now I am doing laundry. We have one washer and dryer in our entire building. It costs 3 pounds for a small load to wash, and 1 pound to dry. So I am handwashing. Not too fun, but whatcha gonna do? :(

Oh by the way. I uploaded all of the pictures I have so far. Well that's a bit of a lie. I have more I need to put from my camera to my computer. But there are officially London pictures up now!

http://homepage.mac.com/laurab5110

Shopping and Football

I'm leaving to go to a Football match in a few minutes. I'm excited! I don't even know who's playing but it should be fun :) A friend and I went shopping pretty much all day on Oxford Street today. We bought a few things but did a little more "window licking" (as they say in Paris) than actual shopping. It was so amazingly fun though! No wonder they say London is one of the biggest shopping cities in the world!

Finally a chance to write!

Well, London is an AMAZING city. I have been doing and seeing so much already and I've only been here for about 5 days. I started classes yesterday (not all fun and games I guess). I have met many amazing people that are on this trip with me. It's so cool because everyone gets along and meshes so well with everyone else. Plus most of us are on the same page of "I want to get out and go do things and explore and see everything possible of London and Europe." So yeah, that's fun as well.

I have taken a TON of pictures and am trying to post a bunch of them up HERE .

I'm almost finished with Paris. I apologize for them not having captions though, it just takes too much time that I don't really have. Hopefully at some point I can go back and change that! :)

Things I need to get adjusted to:
- rain
- driving on the left side of the street. I didn't think this would be that hard to get used to, but looking to the left when crossing the street is something that's a habit, and hard to break.
- Pedestrian's DON'T have the right of way. I have been pretty close to getting run over about 3 times since coming to Europe. As a factor of looking the wrong way or just not being used to the way the streets are set up (different enough than America to make a difference)
- blander food
- bathroom stalls that are actually private, the toilet is basically in it's own little room
- 8 different coins! 1 pence, 2 pence, 5 pence, 10 pence, 20 pence, 50 pence, 1 pound, and 2 pounds. (and the size or thickness of the coin has nothing to do with how much it's worth
- smaller living space
- the very crowded city
- walking walking walking! Hopefully I'll get a little more in shape!
- fast pace! It reminds me of New York in that way. People are always rushing and in a hurry to get from one place to the next.
- fish and chips
- expensive! (the pound is about double the dollar right now, so paying 5 pounds for food is like paying $10)
- the Tube (that is an amazing way to get around!)
- smaller portions
- no free refills, and smaller drinks
- the loo (or toilet), the lift, way out (instead of exit), bill (not check), mobile (instead of cell phone)
- packing your own groceries
- way less water pressure!
- tipping less (only 10% is customary, and if you get bad service it is perfectly ok to not even tip at all)
- people not necessarily being as friendly, you don't really say "hi" to someone you walk by on the street. Basically you don't start up conversations with strangers (I mean you totally could, but they'll probably think there's something wrong with you), people tend to mind their own business
- standing in line or "queing up"
- reading maps
- paying more to sit down to eat somewhere than if you take it out
- paying to make calls

I'm sure I'll be updating the list some more soon! After all I haven't even been here a week :) None of the things above are meant to be negative (well except maybe the money part), just new things to adjust to.

Tonight we're going to a "pub quiz". I'm not exactly sure what that means, but apparently it is a very common thing to do in London!

Hey! I'm Here!

This is stuff I've been keeping so far. I have internet now and wanted to upload what I have! :)

Bonjour! (1/9)

I am sitting in my hotel room where I can see the Eiffel Tower from my window. It’s a bit surreal. We got to Paris yesterday at about 7:00 in the morning, after leaving Washington D.C. at 5:40 the previous night. An uncomfortable plane meant basically no sleep. Talk about jet lag. However I have nothing else negative to say. This city is amazing! I still can’t really even believe that I’m here.
We’re only in Paris for 2.5 days so we’ve been going going going to make sure we can see and do as much as possible.
Yesterday we had some free time after getting to our hotel to explore a little. The language barrier was pretty intimidating at first. Just ordering food when the only French I know is “merci, we, bonjour, and hor voir” was a bit scary.
Anyway after just wandering around a little I took a very much needed couple hour nap before we went on a boat tour of the Sien River at night, which runs all through Paris. It was amazing how much can be seen from the river, we just barely got a taste of the city. Some of us ate gyros (which are amazingly tasty). I’ve also tried crepes… I think we definitely need those in America, paninis, coca-cola light… and a few more random things. Then we went on a night walk around the Louvre. Which of course is cool to see after the movie “The Davinci Code”. But growing up in L.A. area where I’ve seen plenty of Hollywood things made that aspect of it not really seem like a big deal. It was more amazing just seeing the sheer size of the building. It is HUGE! And the glass pyramid all lit up at night is also pretty spectacular.
We called it a bit of an early night since all of us were pretty exhausted. I thought that I would sleep well through the night since I was so tired but that wasn’t the case. I woke up twice, the second time I was awake for about 1.5 hours. So I’m definitely still not used to the time change. Feeling pretty jet lagged, but I don’t want that to stop me.
Today we went on a bus tour of the entire city of Paris. One of the coolest things to me is how intricate the buildings are and how old they are. Architecture today does not pay nearly as much attention to detail. There were some buildings that are 33 centuries old. After the tour we walked through Notre Dame and then up the tour to the very top. I definitely had goosebumps walking through the church. Even though it has become such a tourist place the church is still used for it’s original purpose, and we were able to see part of a mass take place. Candles are lit up all over the place and you could see people praying. Then we walked up the spiral staircase all the way to the top. Let me tell you THAT was scary, and exhausting. But it was an AMAZING view. You could see almost all of Paris from up there. We saw the bell that Quasimoto supposedly rung. By the time we got down our legs (there were 4 of us hanging out together by the way) were literally spasming, strange feeling.
(Gotta go, we’re going on a walking tour of the artsy part of the city… will write more later!)
Ok, I’m back ☺
It is now 1:30 a.m. (which would be 6:30 p.m. California time) and I am wide awake. Really obnoxious considering I have to be up at 6:00a.m.. I should be absolutely exhausted after how much walking we did today! Oh well, at least I can write. By the way we don’t have internet so I am just writing and will upload later. I don’t know if anyone is even reading by this point because it is getting pretty long. But that’s ok cause it’s mainly for me anyway ☺.
So after Notre Dame we ate some sandwiches. I had a panini, which was absolutely delicious. I didn’t know what I was ordering when I got it, but it was amazing so I’m glad. We walked (a lot of walking today, my feet want to kill me) to The Concierge which is a museum that used to be a prison, highly used during the French Revolution. We saw Marie Antoinette’s cell where she was for 2 months before being beheaded. Then we went to Concord Square, where the guillotine was first used during the Revolution and massive amounts of people could come and watch their fellow Frenchmen being beheaded. After that we headed over to see the Pantheon. Then to the Opera house (Where Phantom of the Opera was first played). We didn’t have enough time to go in, but we admired from the outside. Then we came back for a quick break (that’s when I started writing before) and then 2 of us went to see the Eiffel Tower. We went all the way to the top, it was pretty amazing to see basically the entire city from up there. One of the reasons Paris is so beautiful is because of all of the lights, so being so high up and seeing the city all lit up pretty much took my breath away. Then my friend and I got slightly lost on our way back. Not all that fun in a strange city where the French don’t really like Americans (experienced that one more than once) and it’s nighttime and the area we were in was pretty quiet. But we managed to make our way back to the metro (which is an amazing system by the way) and then back to the hotel from there.
A couple of cool things I like about France.
- All of the shops are on the bottom floor (ground floor not 1st floor) of huge buildings and then apartments and houses are on top of the shops.
- So much history here.
Tomorrow is our last day. Morning actually. We are going to the Louvre and have a quick 2 or 3 hour tour inside. Which really is very short considering how extremely massive the museum us. Then we are off to Brussels for a day and then Brughes the next day. Then London on Friday!
How has my experience been so far?? AMAZING.

Belgium (1/11)
Chocolates, waffles, beer, 2 official languages, and the center of NATO and the European Union.
Yesterday we spent the night in Brugge, a city in Belgium. It was a very cute little town and very quite since it’s not really the tourist season. We went on a walking tour of the entire city (which only took an hour with us stopping, shows how small the city really is). There were a few very interesting buildings. I’ll put pictures up later rather than explain everything. One place of note was a church, which I can’t remember the name of, but it is supposed to have a cloth with the actual blood of Jesus on it. And there was another church we visited that had the Madonna and Christ from Michelangelo in it.

Goodbye!

Well I am off! Tomorrow I leave for Paris, and then London 5 days after that. I'll miss you all! Feel free to leave me comments so I know I'm loved! ;)
Goodbye USA for 4 months!

Be Amazed

I got a .mac account. After Dave Macombers suggestion. NOW you can see all of my pictures from London and everywhere else!. I know. Exciting. I put a random album in just to see how it works. Nothing fancy so far. All I've done is a photo album... but BOOKMARK THIS PAGE. Ready? It's

http://homepage.mac.com/laurab5110

Ah!!

People I need to call:

Tim
Katie
Cerise
Josh
Melissa
Emma

I've been out of town the last few days. And then losing my phone charger wasn't good. BUT I found it!! And I'm going to try to get to all of you tomorrow! :-D

Meanwhile... enjoy this :) It's my first attempt at making a video. Not very good, but it works. It's my last Wednesday with the Club 56ers. (I even figured out how to put a song to it... so turn on your volume!)

Club 56ers



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