Here's to the end...

Since I was young I have hated the idea of being comfortable, of settling for what is and just living life that way. I truly believe that is when life gets boring. Being stuck in your comfort zone your whole life is no way to live, at least for me. Its for reasons I went to school far from where I grew up. I looked at it like I have four years to do what I want and become a person who I want to be. I approached this situation in a similar way. My mom was surprised when I told her I barely knew my roommates but other than that I knew not one person on this trip. For me meeting new people and pushing myself outside of my comfort zone, like across the atlantic, is what life is all about. New people and how you can find ways to relate to them reveal characteristics about yourself you would have never noticed before. It can be a scary thing but for me it is scarier to stay in the same place your whole life.

London has been quite the experience and since we landed I feel like I have been on the 

fast track to July 31st. To have a city at your doorstep and endless amounts of things to do is an incredible opportunity that I believe I have taken full advantage of. My parents are going to be very upset when I sleep for three days straight when I get home. On June 1st it felt as if we would live here forever but just like that my bags are all packed (kinda) and ready to go home. I can truly say that I have made friends here that I would never have been exposed to in my activities at JMU. I feel that this experience has added on a new dimension to my life that is vital to who I am. I can go home and say that "Oh this one time when I LIVED in London", many people can't say that never mind a 19 year old. 

To sum up London in an online blog or in one review post would be unjust to my complete experience. Every day is something new and no one will ever fully relate to it unless you were one of these twenty-eight people picked to live in madison house. I had the time of my life and I am truly grateful for everyone on this trip because otherwise it would not have been the same. The greatest part of this London experience is that it is not the end, goodbye is really see you later because we will all be at JMU in a short month. I know I will be rushing my arrival. So heres to the next 48 hours, I know they will be insane to be apart of. Happy Birthday to Leslie and Rachel! And peace out 14 Bedford Place Flat A Bedroom 01, it's been real. 

Dublin!

Rushed and anxious are the two words I would describe the beginning of our trip to Dublin. With no time at all during the week I packed in between two classes and for once I was very precise in what I was going to wear. I believe that being abroad in London has made me a very decisive packer

  Anyways back to Dublin. I believe the worst choice we made was to fly Ryanair. The deal with Ryanair is that they make you check in on line anywhere up to 15 days to 4 hours before your flight or you have to pay 40 pounds for them to print your boarding pass. Don’t worry mom and dad, I checked in earlier in the day. But some people like Rob, Rachel and Goose did not follow these instructions, leading to heightened anxiousness and agitation. With a great deal of struggle, we boarded the plane and took an hour-long flight to Dublin.

            Motivated by Forever by Chris Brown, my hostel room (Rachel, Vikki, Elizabeth, SBP, Leslie and myself), the usual boys and Katie T and H plus Rachel Brubaker headed out to a pub. We stayed there long enough for us (my hostel room) to be comfortable enough to belt out Mr. Brightside by The Killers.

       The following day we had our free breakfast, which was pretty much toast and headed out on a free walking tour. We saw many Irish landmarks such as the Castle of Dublin (which was not much of a castle), the prettiest helicopter landing pad, Viking settlements and Trinity College. Lets just say, we walked all over Dublin in three hours…piece of cake. Half our group split up and went to the Guinness Factory while myself, SBP, Goose and Rachel strolled around and eventually took a much-needed nap. Later, the four of us headed to a local cheap pizza place for food and met up with the group in the lobby of our hostel. From there we headed to Temple Bar for a bar crawl with our tour guides from earlier in the day. This lead to RJ’s big night out. That’s all I have to say about that.

            The following day we had a slow start. It was nice to sleep in for nice, we were on our time for once and it was a nice change of pace. Rachel, SBP, Goose and I headed out to the Guinness Factory…which took ages. We ran through it having in mind that we would be spending the majority of the day at the coast. We reached the top, received our four free pints and took photographs of all of our reactions to Guinness. SBP and I discovered we actually did not mind the taste…Rachel on the other hand is a different story. We then proceeded to steal our pint glasses as souvenirs. How do you say? We just walked out like we owned the place, no big deal. We grabbed a cab and rushed back to meet some people in the lobby to head to the coast. We took the longest train ride ever to Bray, a beautiful beach in Ireland. We took pictures in the water…Goose did NOT like that. Then, like usual we saw a mountain and thought how great it would be to climb. Every single girl was wearing flip-flops and Rachel was even wearing a pretty white dress (she managed to keep this clean the whole time). With some difficulty we were up and down within an hour. The views were gorgeous but it was no Edinburgh and we were all hungry. We proceeded to eat dinner with real Irish food and then took the train back home to catch a free Irish step dance. The best thing ever happened at the Arlington Hotel, where the dance was, I ordered a gin and tonic, paid with a 10 euro and then got 43 euros back! I would have given the bartender it back but all my friends made the argument that my laptop was stolen; therefore I should just keep it. So sorry mom and dad but I did. Throughout the dance Goose pointed out how terrible every dancer was (I mean she can do that because she is third in the nation!) so without further a due we left. We headed to the pub we were at the first night but about one or two beers in we decided to leave due to exhaustion. The following morning we woke up, hopped on a bus and boarded Ryanair and headed back “home”. Great success.

Paris, A Hawaiian Paradise

I am a pretty lucky person to have been in Paris twice in the less than 6 months; actually it’s barely 3 months. I signed up for this trip truly believing it would be a different experience than the one I had in March with my mom, aunt and younger sister. Granted my sister Britt would not be walking around Paris with a fake French accent for the weekend, which was probably the number one thing I would miss. All in all Paris is not far from London; it was a two hour train ride and a one hour time difference. I slept the whole time, having it be 8:15 in the morning when we got on the train.

Ten of us were staying at the Aloha Hostel, four boys; Dylan, Ryan, Sean and Chris and six girls; Goose, Mave, Cougar Cub, SBP, Rachel (mom) and I. We checked in but had to leave our bags in the luggage room because we were not allowed in our rooms from 11 – 5 everyday. This didn’t matter because why would I want to be sitting in a hostel when I am paying butt loads of money to be in Paris? So we were off to find lunch, which was a challenge in itself to order and the headed to then Musee D’Orsay. I was happy that we were headed there because it was a museum we had skipped in March. Our group headed by RJ and Mave arrived first, obviously. Other groups started to trickle in slowly. One group had trouble trying to locate one girl who had gotten a hostel by herself and then got loss (not going to name names), so understandably they were late. I mean how mad can you be at nice people for trying to help a lost girl out? The last group arrived an hour after we were suppose to meet, which you could tell irritated a lot of the group. They had their reasons, which as always people chose to believe or not to believe. On a different note the museum was amazing, I really love Monet and somehow I always forget how much I love Picasso. Overall it was a nice beginning to the afternoon of outings. We then headed to Notre Dame, which is always breath taking. I walked around with Lawler and we discussed how when you over study something and then go and see what you have been studying all these years, it is not as great as everyone makes it out to be. Over analyzing and hyping landmarks up, seem to take the winds out of its sails. Anyways we enjoyed it and then sat at a café for some much needed coffee. Our waiter kept offering us champagne and when we turned the offer down, he stopped enjoying our company. Our next stop was the Louvre, where our culture by design teacher took us around to look at paintings and sculptures. It was interesting to go a second time and see paintings from an academic perspective. Afterwards we completed Goose’s ultimate dream of eating Mickey D’s, drinking wine and smoking a cigarette while sitting at the Eiffel tower. Mission complete. One of the funniest moments was when a man selling champagne, wine and beer out of his backpack approached our group. Goose bartered with him that the bottle of champagne was only worth only twelve euro compared to the fifteen he wanted. After that purchase, in the next five minutes Rachel got the bottle of champagne down to seven euro for Lawler to purchase. Same guy, same champagne but a different price, it was quite funny. After, Rachel Brubaker as social director had arranged for all of us to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower. Sorry Rachel, A for effort but I hated this idea and activity due to be terrified of heights We were only at the bottom when I started to get really anxious and feel a slow panic attack coming on. Keep in mind; I am terrified of heights, already crying and yet I am still fully on the ground at this point. Bennett, my hubby, I am sure with no intention of pissing me off, started to make fun of me for being so scared. Anyways as I cry on the elevator with plenty of strangers, wouldn’t be the first time, Bennett attempted to propose….with no ring, for comic relief? I was also asked strange questions like would I like to stand on the perimeter of the elevator or in the middle? Mmm there was plenty more but I just focused on breathing. Sam was nice and offered to stay on the second tier with me and not go all the way to the top. Which, I really appreciated. We had a nice time and were up there for probably an hourish? Went back down, made sure everyone met up with their prospective hostel groups and Team Aloha headed back to the headquarters. Mave, the boys and myself went out for another drink at a pub near by and had really great conversations. After the boys had two bottles of wine, we called it a night.

The following morning we woke up late and rushed to the CBD outing that started at the Pompidou, which is often compared to the Tate Modern here in London. We didn’t go in because they said it would be costly to us, which is fine by me. We then took the longest tube ride possible to the Eiffel Tower and discussed how it really has no importance. I was tired and pretty much just leaned on Bennett the whole time. Our next and final stop was Musee Branly. It had artifacts from the Aztecs, Africans, Chinese and many more cultures. Bennett and I walked around together; I personally enjoyed the masks that various people from the community would wear. After this outing the Aloha team decided to be French and go to a grocery store to buy baguettes and wine to eat in some park that Dylan knew of. The journey was long and the one weakness of Team Aloha is that when we are not properly fed, we tend to get very cranky so it was a struggle. Being French was quite the success with all of us sitting in a park and once again enjoying each other’s company. Eventually, we headed back, to buy more wine and headed out for a nice dinner. It was absolutely delicious and we had multiple servings, it was almost as if eating in your own kitchen.

Originally, our group had discussed doing numerous activities such as going to a discoteca or a pub after dinner but we decided on picking up more wine and champagne to enjoy in front of the Eiffel Tower. We not only saw the Eiffel Tower light up multiple times, we were there until it turned off. We saw the Eiffel Tower turn off! After a great night, possibly one of my favorites, we headed back to Hawaii. The next morning Team Aloha split up into three groups. Goose, Mave and RJ went to Versailles. Dylan and Ryan had a very much-needed man date. Leaving SBP, Rachel, Chris and I up to do whatever we wanted. Hence, Rachel’s big day out. We ate crepes, took a picture in front of the Notre Dame, went on a riverboat ride, the opera house and went to Sacre Coure. Sacre Cour was BEAUTIFUL! Rachel took plenty of illegal photos and I personally enjoyed falling asleep on the front lawn. We then shopped for souvenirs. I have bought a shirt in every country that I have gone to this summer, so of course I bought one in Paris. I also replaced shot glasses I broke from the first time I was in Paris for my friends that got the short end of the stick. Sorry mom.

Later that night our group barely made it to the train and once we were on it, every single one of us passed out. We arrived home late on Sunday night; exhausted I went straight to bed. Team Aloha!

This may or may not have happened...Shakespeare

All I have to say is thank God Stratford and Oxford did not take up our actual weekend. It was like a Shakespeare rollercoaster that you couldn’t get off. With that being said…it all started around three in the afternoon on a Thursday…

Being around twenty-eight people all the time has made me really appreciate the time I have with my Ipod. The bus ride to Stratford was no exception. Although my Ipod, like all the rest of my belongings, is somehow falling apart it did the trick. I am pretty sure the whole bus managed to pass out until we safely arrived in Stratford. I did ask RJ a few times if he knew where we were (I mean he always does), but he wasn’t so helpful this time. Anyways we arrive at our inn, which the twenty-eight of us took over. I mean every room was filled; the poor innkeepers had no idea what they were in for. When Lawler and I went into our room, I immediately thought it was adorable and very homey. However, after returning from Romeo and Juliet, I came to the conclusion it looked like some interior decorator threw up in our room. Lawler had no choice but to agree.

Anyways due to traffic we did not have a sufficient amount of time to get a full meal. However, this did not stop us from ordering one. I mean how could you turn down dinner for two for seven pounds! Anyways just my and Rachel’s meal came two minutes before the play starts. Great. But of course nothing stops me from inhaling my fish in chips and then proceeding to run to the theatre to make it on time. Romeo and Juliet was interesting. Out of the whole cast only Romeo and Juliet were dressed in modern day dress. Which I thought was just to make them stand out as young children. (I mean they are only 14). However, we ended up talking to an actor from the play afterwards and he pointed out there are two ways to split the play; family versus family or Romeo and Juliet against the world. This particular director chose to portray the play as Romeo and Juliet against the world. Which I thought was interesting and I had personally never thought of before. Having him say that made me like the play much more. 

The following day should have been called “Shakespeare may or may not have ever existed”. We went to his wife’s home, where they may or may not have lived during their first few years of marriage. We also went to Shakespeare’s birthplace where he may or may not have born and where they had possessions that may or may not have been his. What a joke. The highlight of that afternoon was that we went shopping on the way back to the bus.

 After the tour of what may or may not have been, we hit up Oxford. Now Oxford was legit but it is no JMU. I did not realize that Oxford is not just one school but rather multiple. However Chris and I just walked around wondering where the block parties would be or where we could hold a tailgate. The answer is nowhere.

 We hopped back on the bus a few hours later, rested up and roughly 12 of us went on the Westminster pub-crawl. The motivation was a free t-shirt. Holla…its really ugly. But the best part was that Chris and his frat-tastic homeboy showed up in matching attire. You go frat stars.

Borough Market

As a lover of food, I was disappointed when I thought I would never be able to experience Borough Market. Fellow residents and flatmates of 14 Bedford Place had raved about how great and fresh the food really is. Therefore, when Dietrich announced the market as a class outing I was more than thrilled. The only downside being we would be going on a Thursday when only a small portion of the stalls are actually up and running. But have no fear followers, I did go back and experience Borough to the fullest.

The group of us walked in accompanied by a few non-bloggers who had been to the market before. Sarah Hagan was one of these people. As we approach our first stand and awed in amazement, Sarah, Rachel and I started to sample every single chocolate covered nut. Sarah warned that buying from the first stand you see is always a dangerous idea in Borough Market because there is much more to sample. However, this did not stop her and Rachel from buying a bag and sharing it with the rest of the group. Hey, I didn’t hate it.

We ventured around more, finding a small cider place that had plastic cups claiming not to be plastic cups.

Rachel and I also stumbled upon a store that sold Ostrich meat. As a lover of food, I will usually try anything but Ostrich? In reality, if I had no idea what I was eating and it was cooked well enough I probably would have enjoyed it. But that is not what happened, so therefore I found the stand rather gross, for lack of a better word. With further exploration there was a very fresh seafood stand. I mean it literally looked like they had caught the fish and put them immediately on ice in the market to sell. The smell of fish, I really have never enjoyed in large amounts however, unlike Ostrich meat I would eat it. It reminded me of Fjord Fisheries, a Norwegian fish market/store, around

the corner from my house. Now, Fjord is bomb and I love it when my parents pick up salmon tartar and the likes for dinner.

With further walking around we stumbled on more strange items for sale such as goose fat. I have no idea what that would be used for. However, overall I truly enjoyed Borough Market and all it had to offer no matter how strange. I mean c’mon I liked it enough to go back…right?

Update on life

In case you're wondering why it took me so long to put up blog posts...my laptop was stolen from my bedroom via the window on Tuesday. Real Cool. So you will see pictures when I go buy a USB. The end

Art or Vandalism?

I had been looking forward to going to this graffiti museum since our professor Jay had told our class. My dad would be jealous. (Bennett and I cannot figure out how to form this sentence so I am leaving it random. Sorry bout it.) Every family trip we take, if there is graffiti, my dad loves to have one of the four kids pose in front of it. If you don’t pose, it will not make it to the living room display. Sorry not sorry.

Anyways, Jay had been really mysterious about the whole thing, refusing to tell us much. I think this only made it a bigger deal of where we were actually going. We ended up on Leake Street behind Waterloo Station, an old train system use to run down there and it has more or less turned into a graffiti museum. Street artists approached those who owned the tunnel and asked if they could take it over as a self-governed place to display graffiti. Surprisingly, the owners handed the tunnel over. Famous street artists such as Banksy and Team Robbo came for the first opening to make their mark, some of which is still up today. The tunnel will blow your mind with how talented these artists can be. I think I looked at the walls with my mouth dropped open the whole time. It is a different class of art, but it is truly amazing how talented people are, even if they are just writing tags. I ended up spotting some left over Banksy that no one had yet touched. We ended the outing with a discussion on whether graffiti is art or not.

I believe it is, but there are two sides to every argument. I would say that art is a way of expressing yourself and graffiti is just that. People are not going to universally appreciate or like the same art however, who says they have to? There are different art forms out there for everyone to enjoy, why degrade what someone else enjoys just because you don’t like it?

**pictures to come**

Iceland

So I was anxious travelling by myself to Iceland, but I had to go for my mom. In the end it wasn’t as complicated as I thought, just crowded. After I finally understood why three hours prior to my flight I didn’t have a designated gate and successfully passed through security, I turn up the jams and continue reading The Girl With A Dragon Tattoo in some random airport lounge. However, as my boarding time approached my gate number still hadn’t shown up. Nervous? Well, yes I was. With roughly fifteen minutes till the designated boarding time, my gate finally showed up and was announced fifty times over the speaker system. Rushed, I forgot my rain jacket in the airport lounge… which I didn’t realize until I was in Iceland and it was raining. Winner!

My brother was the first to hug me, followed by my dad snapping multiple repulsive photos of myself. Typical for my dad, he was extremely proud. My mom was the happiest to see me and very thankful I could come and see them. My sisters were nowhere in sight…surprise, surprise. I thought I would be exhausted landing in Iceland but with it looking pretty much like 6 o’clock at 2 am, I was surprisingly awake. For the forty-minute ride, my mom and brother drilled me with questions as my dad made me look through the 200 photos he had already taken. He was most proud of his latest project, capturing the Smith family while asleep. I believe Greta, my youngest sister, takes the gold for this new photo album. As we pull up to the apartment my family had rented out for the last few days they were in Iceland, my family goes on and on about how much better the other one was because it was so close to town. However, I didn’t really mind, we had no time to go into town anyways.

Unfortunately, those that rented us the apartment lied when they said it could sleep six, resulting in my mom and I had to sleep on the living room couch. That night my dad and I stayed up pretty late chatting and making fun of my mom. The thing is, the sun is out twenty-four hours a day. My dad and I had the kitchen light on and chatting and my mom, who may or may not have been a little cranky, asked us to turn off the light. We did as she requested, however it made no difference. Haha

The following day I woke up early with my mom to go into town with her, my aunt and my cousin. My grandmother had passed away in October and the trip was mostly to have a service for her family. I had missed it on Monday, but I wanted to go see the gravesite and just in general be with my mom. It was interesting to be there because I haven’t been to Iceland in eight years. At the gravesite owned by my family I saw my great, great – grandparents and other members of the clan my grandmother had talked about while we were growing up. For the rest of the day we were Blue Lagoon bound, which is a pretty cool place. However, Icelanders have a pretty weird custom of having open showers where you have to shower butt-naked before you can put on your suit and go into the pool or lagoon. Not an American thing by any means. My sister and I remembering this from our youth, were not soo happy. My sister begged my mom to tell us how to say, “We are American. I am not showering naked.” My mother refused, leaving Britt with a strange Spanish accent attempting to be Icelandic. Needless to say, we survived and found private showers. We spent hours there with our cousins and their children. I started the “who can be the pruniest person”, my cousin Kirk, who is nine, was the most competitive. However, in the end I won...as usual.

That night we had a family dinner at one of our cousins homes, where I saw family from both Norway and Iceland. It is funny to remember how I have a selective memory of who these people were when I was twelve years old. It was nice to catch up and really nice to enjoy delicious foods that I have grown up with. Also my cousin Dora is engaged! So EXCITING!!

The following day I woke up at what felt like the crack of dawn, however it was really 7:30 am. We were horseback riding bound which was a lot of fun. Mostly to see people mount a horse or watch Britt's horse trot and her body bounce around uncontrollably. It was quite the sight to see.

That night we went to my great aunt's home for dinner. She made Swedish meatballs which were absolutely delicious! We took out old photo albums and found pictures of my mom and aunt when they were young, which was hilarious to say the least. My great aunt, Sigrun was telling us stories of our great-grandparents and from what I already know they sound like incredible people. My great-grandparents were Sigrun's foster parents after her mother had passed away when she was only seven. The majority of their children were already grown up, but they took her in, no questions asked. Iceland has such a different culture. We would walk into places and my cousin would just start chatting up anybody as if they were old friends even though they had just met. It was a relaxed atmosphere where everyone seem just genuinely nice.

After Sigrun's we headed to a rock sculpture garden where me and my siblings went on to climb and romp around like five year olds. My mom managed to get some Christmas card photos but in the end was only impressed with the ones she managed to capture of the sun. My dad and brother were leaving early the next day to go salmon fishing in a large river for a "men" outing, whatever that means. So before I went to sleep, resisting to say goodbye I asked my dad to wake me up in the morning before he left. Big mistake. My dad woke me up at lets say 5:30? Maybe? If that late? When my mom and I ignored him, he just sat there complaining how boring we were.

Later, the girls had a nice brunch with Icelandic pastries and tea. My mom later took me into town to buy a few things and we were off to the airport. For some reason, I thought I would cry. But shocker, I didn't. I finished my book while in transit and then proceeded to get lost trying to find the tube in Heathrow (not so easy). Whatever I made it and had time to relax until the rest of the rowdy crew of 14 Bedford Place got home from Amsterdam.

**pictures to come**

Updates on life

1)We are more than half way through with our visit. waaaa

2)I leave for Iceland tonight and I am stoked to hug my mom andd that I no longer have to take a bus into Reykjavik cause my uncle is coming to pick me up!

3) The group is going to Amsterdam this week, it sounds like it is going be crazyyy

4)Dave is leaving the London Pub. (wamp. wamp wamp.)

5)Nothing to exciting happened at Wriglesworth this week

6)Lawler is getting a pupppyyy!! (I am going to play with da puppy errday. This probably should have been number 1)

7) We are officially Spain fans after America and England lost this weekend (You still can't bring this topic up to Sean, so don't try)

8) I miss gtown girls....haven't spoken to most of em since

being here.

That is pretty much all I have got for now.

"No Child Left Behind"

So we went to Harrodss

Harrods is a large department store with just about anything you can imagine in it. Dietrich had told us it would not be a shock to find people paying in wads of cash or by items over $15,000. Hi, give me $15,000 or do you have a son my age?! Just Kidding.

I absolutely hate being overwhelmed, and Harrods was just that; overwhelming and extremely busy. We were asked what our first impressions were. I didn't bring any money with me because I knew in reality all I could afford was a piece of bread. You walk into the overly decorated, over the top department store and you immediately feel lost and out of place. When I first walked in I wrote down: expensive, overwhelming…CAN’T AFFORD. It is definitely an experience to remember. When I think of department stores I think of Macy’s, Lord and Taylor, Nordstrom…maybe Bloomingdales. However, nothing compares to Harrods. It is almost a museum but you can actually buy what you are looking at and take it home with you.

When you walk into the food hall, it is breath taking because a) I love food and b) the food had such a wide variety. There were many elaborate and open stations to purchase food from. While being in a food coma I found two extremely unusual foods.

1) Chicken Mcharmel Tasine

2) Beef Bitong Sticks

The Chicken Mcharmel Tasine contained chicken thigh, olive oil, onion, corianoter, garlic, tomato, ginger, paprika turmeric cumin, green olives and lemon…delicious? Well it looked like this:

The Beef sticks looked like pretty much dried out beef as seen here:

All the food in Harrods was definitely over priced, I could not find an outrageous priced food but it all seemed just a little like “Well you bought it at Harrods so you should pay twice as much”.

After Leslie and I searched all over for the wedding department (have to prepare for the big day with hubby duhh)…only to find it roped off and by appointment only. Some serious bull. Anyways, I found this…eh I don’t really like it but it is pricey dress (6,000 pounds):

As for Harrods I do not think I will be back till I am a millionaire and/or a successful businesswoman, my parents will be proud to hear that. But for those visiting London it is quite the experience.

Brighton

Toes in the water, ass in the sand. Not a worry in the world, a cold beer in my hand...life is good today.

After being a lifeguard for the past four years and spending 95% of my summer by the side of a pool or on the beach front, I was a little sad to give that up this year. I can't really complain cause I am living the life in London, but it is a reasonable thing to miss. It is also the time I actually don't look so pale and pasty, but I always lose that tan within weeks of being at school, so no real loss right?

Originally I had planned on missing the Brighton trip and using it as a free weekend to travel somewhere, however, I am happy I didn't do this. It was an hour and a half ride outside of London but we were lucky with beautiful weather, so I do not think anyone minded. Half way through this adorable old couple got on the train with canes, the train was crowded and although you had a ticket you weren't necessarily guaranteed a seat. As a nice American and a good person, Lawler hopped up and offered the woman her seat. The look of gratefulness on her face was priceless. I offered my seat to her husband, although grateful he said no thanks. Which is fine.

After a tour of the royal grounds, which I believe was made by King Henry IV, we were beach bound. We all had very american food for lunch, except for Mave and Goose who got fish and chips. The thing about Brighton is that it is a pebble beach, and while hot sand sucks to walk on, just imagine hot rocks....not so fun. We set up camp not too far from the water and enjoyed laying out and hanging. SBP and I attempted to run down to the water...by the time we got to the water our feet hurt so bad. Don't believe me? Check out SBP' s bruises on the bottom of her feet. Luckily, I do not have that problem. We ventured out waist deep, but the water was freezing so we hurried back to dry up in the sun. Right before we left, Lawler, SBP and I tried one more time to go into the water. We managed to wade out there despite it being freezing. Once we were out pretty deep, we all dared each other to go under at the same time. Not only did we do this once, but twice. The water is much salter than I thought it would have been. But the refreshing temperature was well worth the dare.

We headed home and the majority of the group had decided to go out to a club called Roxy. Lawler dressed the boys in stunnaa outfits, dressing them in what was acceptable for a club and what would attract the ladies. The club was in Soho, fairly close to our house so it was a nice easy walk. We all danced like there was no tomorrow...even the boys, like RJ, who I thought couldn't dance were out there. We had one casualty, Rob, who somehow attempted to get in without paying so the bouncers unfortunately dismissed him. The boys that were left watched out for creepers for the girls, which I thought was really funny/sweet. My favorite example is a boy that apparently was creeping on Goose (she had no idea), RJ intervened looking at the guy, "Dude she doesn't want to dance with you". The creeper replied with a "she can decide for herself", which only got a stronger response from RJ basically telling him to eff off. When the creep attempted a few minutes later, RJ started to roll up his sleeves...giving the guy a much needed message. Needless to say I don't believe Goose will ever be creeped on again. I had so much fun and around 2 we all made our back to the house, all of our feet were covered in dirt. Lawler and I ended up hanging out with the boys in their flat for awhile longer. We played hot seat, which may be my new favorite game. Basically one person out of the group is in the "hot seat" and everyone in the room can ask them any question they want and the person has to answer. It was a lot of fun, my main question to the boys was if I fell asleep would they carry me downstairs to my bed. Although, I am sure I would have been left on the couch, they all said yes. Which apparently was comforting enough for me to fall asleep. When I woke up they were all still playing hot seat, when I asked Mave what time it was she said "I don't know but the sun is coming up". Realizing this I asked my hubby (refer to earlier post) to carry me downstairs, which he kindly did and then he tucked me in! Haha and saturday was the first day I have slept in since the first few days we got here. YAY!

Scotland

This past weekend our group ventured to Edinburgh, Scotland. This is the first time I have seen a large body of water since leaving home, I made a huge deal about it. Dietrich was also amazed I had never seen a running cow, which I managed to get way too excited about. However, as a group of 28 we managed to conquer Scotland within 48 hours. It is a beautiful city with a lot of history. But my personal favorite part, besides providing entertainment at karaoke night, was our hike to King Arthur’s seat.

It wasn’t a group outing, for we were free to romp around Edinburgh as we wanted; yet most of us ended up going. Terrified of heights, I was a little anxious about going but I am never one to miss out, so I knew I had to make it to the top. The first plateau we arrived at was disappointing; while it was high it took us a mere 20 minutes on a boring path to get to. Not ones to be let down we soon found our way to a massive stone staircase, which seriously whipped my butt into shape, and were well on our way to thousands of feet above sea level. With a close call to an anxiety attack saved by Bennett; who walked beside me assuring me if anything bad were to happen it would happen to him first. This was somehow comforting and we finally made it to a breath taking view. Any words I use to describe the scenery would not do it justice. Bennett, SBP, Lawler and I were the first to make it to the top. Immediately carving our names into King Arthur’s seat as many have done before us. Conquering my fear of heights I only find it appropriate to write this:

Lawler also made sure Topgun 2k10 was sufficiently written on as well. The entirety of the group made it up soon. I became a professional photographer for all those that had the courage to sit or stand on King Arthur’s seat, which I could not personally do myself. We all stayed up there for as long as we could, before getting hungry. Thankfully, the hike back down was much easier than going up. However, before we left I had to take a picture on the top. While I am not sitting on King Arthur’s seat I am sitting on top of some sort of significant marker that I believe to be just as tall. Great Success!

Exposed

At this time in my life, I constantly admit if I could be one person in the whole world I would be Beyonce. Now she may not write her own songs but I personally believe she has amazing voice and is an incredible dancer. She also defines herself as an independent woman who does not depend herself on anyone, which I admire.

However, being Beyonce is unrealistic. Growing up I was always an athlete with little to no interest in art. However, as I grow older I have found a deep appreciation for it. My parents have always discretely made photography a large part of our lives. It is in our living room, our fridge, hallways and our rooms. I have always looked back and appreciated whoever was there to capture the moment.

On June 16, 2010 (yesterday) for my Culture by Design class our teacher Jay took us to the Exposed Exhibit at the Tate Modern Museum. It is an exhibit on voyeurism and surveillance photography. One man everyday would pick a random person to follow and take pictures of them, note what they did and would eventually stop following them when they entered a private building. Another woman named Sophie Calle took a job as a hotel housekeeper, she would go into specific rooms everyday and take notes of what was there and make suggestions of what those people were like. She would then take pictures of various belongings in the room. Creepy? Yeah I would think it is a large invasion of privacy, however, it intrigued me more than scared me. My teacher Jay said when he first saw it he was outraged and appalled. However, he soon realized that when you go to a hotel that stuff happens all the time; you leave for the afternoon and then a person comes in cleans your room and gives you fresh towels. The same woman also hired a private investigator to follow her one day, she had no idea which day he would follow her. At the end of the day the investigator would deliver his notes to a friend or family member of hers, thinking they were the ones who requested the investigation, and then she would get to see the results.

Some say, photography like this isn’t art. However, the whole exhibit is about capturing life as it is, isn’t that art? If I could take on another hobby I think it would be to take on photography and capture life as it is. Kodak moments and things people want to remember; who they are with, where they went and where they are going. Photography is a large part of our history, capturing it one frame at a time. It is also a little more realistic than Beyonce, cause lets face it I can’t sing.

TOP GUN

The kick off of the World Cup was a pretty big deal to the group of 28 of us. Yet, the majority of us can barely name a futbol player outside of Beckham. We followed Sean back to the Friend At Hand, where I did not get food this time, we camped out in a huge booth right in front of the TV. We blocked most Englishmen's views. A few pints in we were approached by another man named Sean. Now Sean, was really excited we were American, I mean VERY excited. So much so that I think he announced it to the whole pub. Sean is a man probably mid-forties, with braces. One of the first things he did was ask to see our teeth, and then he admired and went on and on about how American teeth make everyone else look bad, hence why at 45 he has braces. He then proceeded to ask the girls which boy out of the eight we thought was the best looking. IT was also when Rob and Katie T where announced by Sean to be dating. Needless to say we didn't watch that much of the game.

We then made it to the place that all the boys hate, The London Pub, mostly because all the bartenders look like backstreet boys. Personally we don't hate it. From there it became announced we were each other side kicks. Therefore, only natural to think of Top Gun. And although Iceman indirectly kills Goose in the end, Elizabeth and I have chosen to see past that minor incident.

Elizabeth dubbed herself as the official sidekick to the three of us; Lawler, Vikki, and myself. So here is the breakdown:

Elizabeth: Goose

Lawler: Maverick

Vikki: Cougar (But we call her cougar cub because she isn't old)

Me: Iceman

Our theme song

Speaker's Corner

Being dragged out of bed to watch a man talk about religion and the difference between American and English Muslims was not particularly the way I would have liked to spend a Sunday morning. However, things turned up as SBP, Lawler, Katie T and myself hit up Pret, possibly the reason while I will be eating sandwiches on baguettes for the rest of my life, grabbed some needed food and headed to have a “picnic” in Hyde Park. Well this is when things got very interesting. There was an American, shocker, more or less speaking his mind. We found a few familiar friends in the crowd and watched on the other side of the fence as the man went on a rant about how Elizabeth is on welfare because of school loans and there she was touring in London and watching him speak. When in reality she is on some weird scholarship for being one-eighth Native American. He also said a few more vulgar things but they are more or less inappropriate.

After he left Elizabeth stunned with lack of a response, he turned on his next victim; a fat man who he told should go run laps and find a neck before he could speak to him. Rude. He then turned to a poor old man who he yelled obscenities too, but the old man had no problem putting the speaker back in his place. The four of us, as seen above, watched in awe for the next more or less two hours and made our own commentary. Which was probably the best part.

In the end we ended up talking to the guy, he made commentary about all of us. Some were offended…some just walked away. In the end he made for good entertainment. As we were leaving he called us rich white girls with our dad’s paying for our school, as an obnoxious person I turned and stated “You don’t know me!” Lawler on the other hand walked right up to him and asked him what is his trick to staying so fit and young, and then commented on his grey hairs. (The man was mid-forties, a beer guy, but acted as if he was 15). He joked with us and then tried to embarrass us in any way possible and gave us advice on men. My personal favorite was “Women are trained to be loyal like dogs, men are trained TO BE dogs”. Most of his advice was to the girls in the group who were in a relationship, encouraging them to believe that whoever she was dating was not being faithful. We all laughed and in the end he was sad to see us leave for our next outing.

Hubby

This is my hubby Bennett. With any luck we will have 3 kids, 2 dogs, an apartment in NYC, a house in Hawaii (He loves Hawaii), and a few properties around the world. Obviously, we would have a home in London. I will be converting however, its apart of the agreement (or proposal). He is jewish ((Don’t worry mom and dad, none of this is for real. But if he becomes President you would wish it were!)

Kew Gardens

First Thursday of the first week of classes, and I realize maybe I didn’t make the best schedule of my life but nonetheless I am enjoying every moment I am here. Our first outing for my blog class would be Kew Gardens. Now I swear I thought the skies were going to open up and pour on us all day. But fortunately that did not happen. However, after it came apparent that my fear of heights would be put to the test I was seriously considering a rain dance. My whole class, which is four people, had their hearts set on going up in the trees and walking from treetop to treetop courtesy of some ramps. Not one to sit out, I was willing to give it a try and if it was really unbearable I would just meet people at the bottom.

After what seemed like a never ending tub ride, and a strange encounter with a people-friendly peacock (Sarah Hagan had never seen one before so we were all camera happy), we arrived at the base of the staircase that lead us up to the tree. Might I add that on top of being afraid of heights, a thunder storm was not too far away and you are not suppose to stand under trees during storms let alone be in the tree tops in a metal walkway. Fortunately for me when I got to the top Dietrich’s daughter, who is seven, is much braver than me. In my state of vulnerability, she looks at me and goes “do you want me to hold your hand?” I gladly accepted and was once again conquering my fear, even in the tiniest way. As my peers made jokes like “Ingrid, are you holding Gretchen’s hand or is she holding yours?”, everyone was proud of me at the end.

I manage to walk the shakes off from being so nervous and found myself actually loving the park. I find although it is always fun to be seven and fearless, I appreciate much more as I get older. As we walked along the way the four girls, two had tagged along for the outing, took pictures and laughed when Dietrich asked us “Is this what girls really do?”

Katie Hibson and I managed to somehow lose the group and when we were questioned if we were lost, we instinctively said no. Because are Americans ever REALLY lost? (Just kiddin’). However, a cute old British man who knew better pointed us in the direction of a beautiful green house “we just had to see”. We ended up walking through a beautiful butterfly garden that instantly took me back to my third grade butterfly garden, which was not as successful. We finished the day with the rock garden, which only made me miss home and my dad’s “creative” rock sculptures.

Arrival - June 6th 2010

It’s strange to think that almost a week ago, I was sitting in my family’s Toyota, stuck in terrible New York traffic with my nagging mother making sure I had everything and anything I would need for the next two months. I was more anxious than nervous, not knowing what to expect, whom I was living with, where exactly I was living. As a sophomore going into her junior year I felt like I was heading back to the beginning of freshman year. I loved it. However, reaching the airport and finding out I had roughly 25 minutes to get on my plane was less than exciting and being rushed to say goodbye to my parents at security was less than thrilling. Surprisingly I had the urge to cry when I had to scramble to say goodbye to my parents, since this had not happened at any other departures we have had, this was quite a shock and I struggled to fight back tears. I made the phone calls and mass texted all my close girlfriends saying that I would miss them and would bring back good-looking blokes for them since they are hardly any at JMU.

I was surprised by how much I felt like I was off to be on the MTV show “The Real World”, where instead of seven strangers there are twenty-eight. The flight was easy, a quick read, a long nap, one episode of Glee later I was in London; Two am in the U.S. and roughly seven-thirty here (in London). Customs was what I was most anxious about, I’m pretty sure I re-wrote my landing card a few too many times to make sure it was right. However, it ended up being even easier than the flight. Two more dreadful hours and a nap on a coach bus ride later, seventeen of us were dragging on Bedford Place up to our door, number 14. Luckily, I did not have to be one of the girls that had to drag 30lb suitcases up 5 flights of stairs, instead me and three other flat mates were able to throw them down one flight in order to move in. With no time to waste we were rushed off to our classrooms for an orientation, which was torture. Jet lagged and with three hours to spare, one of my two roommates, Lawler, and I unpacked showered and headed yet to another torturous orientation. That night, after being denied a beer at the Friend at Hand (due to being id-less and looking like I am 12) a terrible burger later, we wanted to fall asleep at 5:30. However, Sean, or as we call him Rusty Junior (RJ/Junior), force us out for a preview walk of the Thames. A few miserable hours later, I was out by 9:30 for a twelve-hour slumber.

The next day seemed to blur together with the last but with no boring orientation meetings only one simple orientation that night. That night we had failed attempts to find a place to go out, only for me to get drunk on our couch and call out how lame our “never have I ever” was. Typical for a new crowd.

That Friday the rest of the group showed up exhausted. Unfortunately, for the whole group we had yet another meeting a short break and then a Twilight Thames walk and dinner. Thames was beautiful. Our advisors made it adventurous for us to see our neighbor hood and my group ended up walking over the Millennium Bridge, just up the river from the London Eye, Big Ben and many other cliché London sights. We ended up having dinner at a restaurant called Tas, which was Turkish food. I am always up for a new experience, but I have to say the highlight of the meal was the bread and what resembled a dil sauce dip before we ordered. Our pidas took forever to receive and one table was long done before our table had even taken a bite. Besides the food, the atmosphere of the group in general was hilarious. At one point or another I believe we all couldn’t stop laughing. With that we decided to check out nightlife in Oxford Circus after the meal. It ended up being a small crew of eight but it was a great way to meet each other. We walked down what looked like a busy pub street, only to see that the pub was for a much older crowd. Not a problem we just went to the one across the street where I had my first strongbow. Delicious, cider beer that hit the spot. We (Lawler, myself, Katie T, Elizabeth, Vikki, Dylan, Ryan, and Sean) all took our pints outside and more or less hung out. With closer examination of the bar we passed earlier we all figured out that not only was “The Kings Arms” for an older crowd, it was also a gay bar. Which we only found funny because none of us besides Ryan had noticed that there were no women when we had walked passed. The night was fun because I find with the smaller groups real personalities come out. For example, any guy that slowed down his car or looked at one of the girls the wrong way Dylan would pop out of the crowd nod his head, or stare them down till they drove off. Only to joke about it after the man or “creep” would pass by. It was on this night that Lawler and myself no longer dubbed Vikki and Elizabeth bitches.

Saturday was another full day of orientation adventures arranged by Rusty and our other advisors. In the morning we had a full orientation to the house rules and what is expected of us during our stay in London. We then were lead on another neighborhood game that lead us to find Brunswick Centre, which I think may become our new favorite place to go. Later in the afternoon we headed down to the East End of London to a neighborhood outside of the financial district. Sketchy, or as Londoners call it White Chapel. Let’s put it this way, every girl held onto her bags for dear life. Later that night we all head to Marquis Conwalis, which was fun, it was all of us around the table laughing and getting to know each other. Plus they had fruli which is a delicious strawberry beer. We then head to the London pub a little ways down, where I was disappointed in what I paid for a tiny shot of vodka and then ran in the rain home after last call. We all convened down in the dungeon for some more drinks and laughs.

Sunday was just brutal to get through because everyone was so tired. In the morning we did the royal tour, which was fun, coming here a second time is great, there were a lot of things I never noticed. I also got to enjoy changing of the guards instead of worrying about taking a billion pictures. After a quick lunch break, we had a scavenger hunt around our neighborhood and besides getting lost we tied for first. That night we went out to dinner with the boys at a great place called the Diner, after we picked up a few beers and we all just hung out. I think we all truly enjoy getting to know each other and hanging out. It really reminds me of dingledine and how we just can enjoy being amongst each other.