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.