Wouldn't Mind Being a Queen in my Afterlife...

           Ello my dearest followers! What a crazy week i've had here in London. Last week were our last classes of the semester! I can't believe it! I kept pretty busy with classes, so I didn't get out too much unfortunately...but I did manage to get out towards the end of the week. Wednesday I went out with our "hall advisor" Jonathan and the tamers. We went to Ben's Cookies and then to a place called The Match Bar for drinks. He ordered us a Zombie to split and thank god because it had 12 shots in it... We had a great time with him though, he's been really helpful over this semester and become a real good friend.
           When we got back I went to the student bar to meet a friend for the Munich Soccer game (they won of course yay!). After the game we came back and hung out for a bit before heading to bed.
Thursday night a group of us headed to the Covent Garden area... we had never been to the pubs here before and it was an interesting experience. We started out at a place called "The White Hart" but it closed around 1130 so we went to a dance club. The club had some creepy guys but our group of friends had a good time sticking together. Luckily we all managed to get out and make it home safely!

                                  Emily, Me, Liz & Hannah                                                      John & I

          

Ping Pong in Park

           Okay now for the exciting part... Friday! I went to the Olympics Stadium with my friends Jordan, Matt & Brett. We went on a 2-hour walking tour of the area and it was really neat. The Bromley-Le-Bow area is very run down which was exactly why London wanted to hold the olympics there. Most of the area is near water which is also really unique.  Luckily we had a nice sunny day so it was really enjoyable walking the new park that was made for show.  The new park used to be a place for sewage and factories but they transformed it to a really nice piece of land.  In addition, there are outdoor ping-pong tables that will be used for the game and continue to be there for the future. I thought that was really neat they are building things that will continue to be used after the games because it doesn't waste the area or waste money.  But anyways....we headed to the stadium after the park and it is still under construction!

Stadium (L) & Aquatics (R)

We knew this ahead of time but it looks like they won't be done in time! Apparently they are ahead of schedule though so I guess we'll see.  My favorite part wasn't the stadium but the unique Aquatics building.  It's architectural structure is very unique, just wait til you see it on TV! I wish we could've gone inside but like you I guess i'll be enjoying the olympics from my couch at home. Its really funny because most Londoners HATE that the olympics are going to be here. Anyone you talk to plans to be out of town for as much as possible. Other than work they don't want to be anywhere near London. I found that really weird because although I know it will be busy those few weeks, the olympics are amazing and for them to be in your city would be awesome! Guess there aren't many sports people here or something- I don't get it! But that was about it for the tour, we walked past the 11 blocks of flats for the athletes and coaches on the way to the final tour site.  The flats have already been sold to real estate agents and property owners which is absolutely incredible. The area will be really nice and there is also a new school and garden inside the blocks of flats.  They are hoping to have the prices more affordable than your average London flat.  But yeah that was about it for the Olympics!

After our visit we headed back and ate dinner on campus.  Of course we went out too! We headed into Camden again and went to Worlds End and then the Monarch again. The Monarch music wasn't as good as last week, but we still had a great time! I couldn't believe it     was our last weekend! Crazy stuff!
          Sunday morning I woke up and went on a student tour to Windsor Castle, Bath and Stonehenge.  THE TRIP WAS AWESOME! Although it rained most of the time, my friends and I had a great time.  Windsor castle was soooo cool! Probably my favorite castle of the trip just because it was so beautiful inside.  There was gold, detailed wood work and paintings all over the state rooms.  The castle itself had over 700 rooms...who uses that many rooms?!?! The King has a room, dressing room and closet (3 separate rooms for himself to get ready! A boy at that!)  Then there was a room just full of guns and swords. This room was super cool, i'm a weird girl but I love looking at old weapons like that, especially royalty as i've found out. They are so unique and each one is detailed. I mean who really needs jewels on a sword? It's definitely more for show but super cool.  In total, we probably were allowed in 30-40 rooms. They were all incredible, I wish I could take pictures to show you guys but I wasn't allowed. Guess it means you'll have to come to London and explore! If you need a partner i'd be happy to come back :)  But anyway...I saved the best for last because not only did we see all of these incredible rooms, we saw the Queen’s dollhouse… a little girl’s dream! The dollhouse literally had real little china, paintings, wooden tables, clothes…you name it, it was there! It was so cute I would have loved it as a kid. Unfortunately I think it was a gift, I don’t think the queen ever actually played with it…so that's really sad. haha. Anywaysssss...

            Our next stop was Bath which was a very quaint, unique town.  It had lots of cute little stores and bakeries.  We went on a walking tour to see the crescent, circus and jane austen’s house… all in the pouring rain. So that was an adventure.  Inside the baths we did an audio tour that took about 45 minutes.  I touched the water even though you weren’t supposed to and it was like bath water! It was really neat that even though it’s outside, it was warm.  It made me want to go swimming as I imagined the romans enjoying the facilities.  I studied the roman baths last year in my imperial Rome class so it was really cool to visually see the area. 

Sam, Jordan, Me & Hannah!

            The last stop was Stonehenge and it wasn’t raining until we walked to the stones and then it was a torrential downpour… We had an hour to spend here but we stayed outside about 15 minutes before heading back to the bus because it was just miserably cold and wet.  I’m really glad I got to see the stones even though everyone was right…it’s really just a pile of rocks and Google pictures will suffice.  At least that’s another medieval wonder of the world down…only 4 more to go! Wooo…

            The tour ended around 7 at the Hammersmith station so we jumped on the tube. At Edgeware Road (one stop before we got off) you’ll never guess who got on. Neil Jackson aka Sasha Belov from the ABC Family “Make it or Break it!” It was super cool…we didn’t say anything because we didn’t want to be crazy fans, but it was definitely sweet. We jumped out at our stop, grabbed subway because the refectory was closed and then all headed to the library to study for finals this week… YUCK.

Y.O.L.O -- Court :) 

toast to London & my friends made here...

"I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you. I love you not only for what you have made of yourself, but for what you are making of me. I love you for the part of me that you bring out." -Elizabeth Browning