Okay...now that I've officially put off blogging for two weeks it feels like a chore. Warning this will probably be long!

Last Thursday: I had a walking tour for my London class...in the rain. We walked all over the City district, we learned about how the Great Fire spread and at one point looked at an old rock that survived the fire...weird. I then went to my Modern British Society class and then to the gym. We went to a bar in Camdentown that was 20s themed.

Christopher Wren Fire of 1666 Monument

Friday: After getting some extra sleep, Emily & I met up with Tara and her parents at the Tower of London. Which I obviously loved! I got to see Henry VIII's armor, Anne Boylen's execution site, and the Crown Jewels...aka I was in history heaven. After we went to this really really nice Italian restaurant in Knightsbridge with Tara & her parents. After we tried to go to a new bar but it closed at midnight so we went to McDonald's and called it a night.

Me & The Tower Bridge

Execution Site Memorial

The White Tower

Tower Bridge

Saturday: Woke up really early and took an hour long bus trip to Hampton Court. It was so cool, there was all this historical stuff about Henry VIII and I got to see his apartments and kitchens. The building itself was also magical and the gardens and even the trees were like something out of Alice and Wonderland.

Hampton Court!

Being royal and stuff :)

Back end of Hampton Court

Alice and Wonderland Gardens

So pretty!

We then traveled from Hampton Court to Windsor Castle where we got lunch at a pub. I traditionally got fish & chips, it was wonderful. We then went into Windsor Castle and explored, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside but I of course had to sneak one of Henry VIII's toomb site haha. It was really cool going here because I went when I was 9 but didn't really appreciate the history of the building. It also made me miss the fam a little because we went here for Mom's 40th birthday! After exploring the castle we had to run to catch the bus and traveled back home. The rest of the night we just relaxed and hung out, it was nice.

Henry VIII & Jane Seymour are buried here!

Windsor Castle on a SUNNY day!

My friends outside the castle in the town of Windsor

Sunday: We got some much needed rest and then Emily and I went to the library, gym, and then went grocery shopping. We then relaxed the rest of the night by watching the Tudors season 1...so basically it was a Tudor-filled weekend, and I loved it.

Monday: ...Valentines day. Okay, so I'm not a hater of Valentines day by any means. My issue, people here think that public displays of affection are okay. Old people, young people, it doesn't matter, they all love "snogging" everywhere. On the tube, on the escalators, even on the sidewalks...its weird. I thought the English were supposed to be all cold and stand offish and they make me feel so awkward. Anyways, I was really scared to go out on Valentines day because I didn't want people making out everywhere and Valentines day essentially "threw up all over London" according to my friend Tori. Either way, I had work and class. My class was at Hampstead Heath...aka in the middle of a forest. We went to Kenwood house, and it was a nice 45 minute walk through muddy paths but it ended up being pretty cool.

...wait this is London? And I thought this was art class?

Kenwood House in the middle of Hampstead Heath

I got home from class to an email from my roommate Emily trying to convince me to go out to the bars because Valentines day is the "day to go out" since everyone thats single goes to bars. So...I napped and we went out. I didn't feel like drinking so I instead used my money to get some KFC after haha.

Tuesday: I had work from 9-5...lame. And then went to the gym, had dinner and went to the Sports Cafe where all the American college kids go on Tuesday nights. Emily and I played in the beer pong tournament and we had a blast. Its really fun going out with all my housemates, we always have funny times back in the kitchen eating after and on the bus home.

Wednesday: I had work from 9-5 and then did laundry. I stopped by the Notting Hill Gate Arts Club for one of the girl in our house's 21st birthday.

Thursday: I had my London class and we learned about the Georgian Era, crime, and executions in London which was really interesting. I then had lunch with the girls and then went to Modern British Society where we learned about social classes and watched the last of the Andrew Marr BBC video series. After class I went to the gym and then we had dinner with our housemates at this Mexican place that we discovered the week before. I had quesadillas and an enchilada with this Blue Hawaiian drink, it was great haha and we then tried this bar around the corner from our house but it was a bust so we just went home early.

Friday: We slept in, because we could (getting up at 8 Monday-Thursday takes a toll on us haha). We went on an adventure to find the Parent Trap house, it was a success!

Where's LiLo?

After we went for a walk on Tour Bridge and I was determined to find this restaurant I went near the bridge with my family when I was nine that had really good pizza. After jogging my memory we stumbled upon it and made sure that was the place (with the help of Bob's memory to verify). It was really yummy and it had such a cool view and we had window seats!

At dinner, you can see the Tower Bridge behind me!

After we got ready and went to get Kelly Murphy who left Galway to grace us with her presence, at her parent's hotel in Knightsbridge. We then took her to our favorite bar O'Neil's. It was so fun and great to see Kelly, all the girls loved her and we had such a fun night.

Me & Kel at O'Neil's

Saturday: Clearly slept in again. Then went to the Victoria & Albert Museum in South Kensington. It was really cool they had some awesome exhibits from sculptures to theater stuff and jewels.

V & A Museum

The Courtyard of the Museum

Me, Tara, & Emily then went for our epic, most anticipated meal of the week: TGIFriday's in Piccadilly Circus. We missed American food so much we waited 45 minutes to get seated. I had buffalo wings, sizzling chicken and cheese, and we all split a brownie obsession aka I felt like a pig but it was so worth it.

Sunday: I went to the National Gallery in the morning with Emily who had to study a painting for her art class but I just wandered around and took in the paintings that I didn't see in class yet. After we went to the gym and then picked up some food at the grocery store.

Monday: I had work in the morning and then my art class was at the National Gallery. We focused on Van Dyke and Royal Portraits, it was really interesting but a lot of information. After class I went to Gourmet Burger Kitchen with some girls in my house because they had a friend from SJU who is studying in Madrid visiting...and we found out its 40% so my meal was great and cheap. After I wrote a paper outline for my internship credit...boring.

Tuesday: I had work from 9-5 and then went to the Sports Cafe with the housemates, typical Tuesday I guess haha.

Wednesday (Today): I had work from 9-5, sat in on a Strategy and Development team meeting which was cool and interesting. I then came home to pack and finalize all my travel plans for tomorrow to Italy! Woo! I'm going with Tara, Emily, Carolyn, Tori, and Lauren and we're staying with various friends in Florence and Saturday we're going to Venice on a day trip. I'll blog after my return! Ciao :)

London Living!

Last Wednesday: I worked from 9-5 at my internship, came home and had some wine and cake with the girls in the house and we all watched gossip girl and relaxed, it was really nice!

Thursday: I had my London class followed by lunch in the student union and then my Modern Britain class which has turned into watching BBC Andrew Marr documentaries which I enjoy haha. After I went to the gym on campus with Lauren and Emily and we took a class after running for a little called "Legs Bums and Tums"...needless to say I couldn't walk for basically tho whole weekend. I also was very weirded out by the gym because the Brits apparently don't care about changing in public and I saw way more nakedness in the locker room than necessary. They also wear the oddest clothing to the gym...girls wear leggings and rarely wear shorts and they wear basically whatever shirt they wore to class so its an interesting mix. After we came home and went out to a new bar for a little but called it an early night.

Friday: I finallyyyyy got to sleep in which was great! My roommates and I then made our way to Oxford Street for some shopping which was fun. We then got dinner at this place called Wagamamas which is an Asian chain that blows Pei Wei out of the water, it was sooo good. After we went and explored Harrods, its such a magical store! I also got a teddy bear from Harrods haha. After a bunch of us went out for drinks around the corner from our house.

The Most Magical Store Ever!

Juicy in Harrods for Ashley & Kelly

Bar 128 with our Mango-tinis

Saturday: We ventured to Portobello Market which is only a 5 minute walk from our house, we walked up and down the road and it was really nice. We got cupcakes at this place called Hummingbird that was fabulous! After we went to Kings Cross station to find Platform 9 and 3/4 from Harry Potter and took pictures. We then went back to the house and laid low for the night.

Om nom nom :)

Trying to get to Hogwarts!

Sunday: I relaxed a little in the morning and then Emily and I decided to go to the British Museum. We saw some cool stuff like the Rosetta Stone! After we went to the library at school and did research for our paper that's due this week.

"I could teach you how to speak my language, Rosetta Stone"

Monday: I had work from 9-1 and then class at the National Gallery but my teacher called class early because his wife was in the hospital. I used my free time to get a haircut. I was really nervous that I was going to come out with some freaky British hair style but I lucked out, I only got a few inches off and it looks fine haha. After I worked on my paper and called it an early night.

Tuesday: I had work from 9-5 and after got tea with my manager Molly which was nice. Then I went to the gym and then came home to work on my paper. I know, wild day.

Wednesday (Today): I had work from 9-5 again but finished all I needed to do by 3:30 so I got to leave a little early. I finished my paper and now I'm relaxing and watching Boardwalk Empire which just premiered over here with some of my housemates.

I'm looking forward to this weekend because we're staying in London and going on a day trip to Hampton Court and Windsor Castle on Saturday! I feel like this week I've really gotten into the groove of things and I'm able to balance the school work with interning and still keep in touch with everyone at home! More to come soon! :)

Baby Guinness'...new obsession!

Wednesday: Had a full day of work and then headed home. Decided to go out with a group of my housemates for 'Australia Day' (which apparently is big here?...when in the commonwealth...?) And the bar was really crowded so my roommate Emily and I decided it wasn't worth even getting a drink and instead came home, I read for a presentation I had the next morning and got some extra sleep.

Thursday: Had my London class (my presentation went real well!), then lunch at the student union with the girls, followed by my Modern Brit class. Then we went to this bar O'Neils that we really liked a few weeks ago and it was really fun once again. We kept drinking our new favorite thing, snakebites, its beer and some sort of wine and...its pink! Haha

At O'neils with our Snakebites

Friday: woke up real early, took the tube to a bus, the bus to Gatwick airport...Emily and I set off the sensors (from our belts/boots) and got 'searched' by this women who basically strip searched us in the middle of the airport...to close for comfort. We then flew and hour to Shannon, Ireland and had a two hour bus ride to Galway. Kelly met us at the bus and we got to see her and the other girls apartments. We then got a little walking tour from Kelly and Hannah and went to dinner and had fabulous pizza (which we've missed so much) and we then showered, got ready, pregamed and went to the bars. All the traveling kicked my ass tho, I was soooo tired and slept like a baby.

Me & Kel by the colorful houses!

SJU takes over Galway!

Saturday: We woke up at 11 and then got bagels (which we've also missed in London) and then the girls took us shopping, which I had a field day! The Euro is already less than the Pound and they had this store Pennies that had skirts for 2 euro and such...soo great! We then walked to their campus and got to see their cathedral. Galway is such a cool city, its beautiful and see easily walkable! It was nice getting a feel for the city with our friends who are all basically locals! We then went to a market and looked around and after went back and watched episodes of Friends and chilled out. We got Mexican for dinner, the food in Galway was surprisingly sooooo good and it seemed more American than British food. We then showered and got ready and went to the bar. I had my first baby guinness shot (there is not guinness in it, and its so good!) and then listened to this live band do real good covers and I found Chrissy Malkinski at the bar since she was visiting Galway with friends from her program (she's studying in Cork) so it was great seeing her too! Then we went to get fries at this place Courtney is in love with (even tho she was only visiting for the week she was obsessed hahah) and it was really good! We then went to bed and passed out!

City of Galway

The Cathedral

Roomies on NUI Galway Campus

I found Chrissy at a bar in Galway :)

Sunday: Woke up at 615...took the bus to Shannon, flew back to Gatwick, to the bus back from Gatwick to the tube station and then passed out for 3 hours upon arrival home. Then Emily and I basically went on a date at a little Italian place around the corner because we had no food left in our house. After that I reorganized my room and cleaned a little and then fell asleep.



Monday: I had work in the morning, nothing too exciting happened. I'm feeling very "London-esque" reading a book on the tube in the mornings now. I then traveled to St. Paul's station because my Art class was being held at St. Paul's Cathedral. It was a beautiful day out and we climbed to the second level but of course the top was under renovation. (Mom be glad we didn't do that when I was younger, the stairs are so narrow you would have freaked out!)

Inside St. Paul's

View of London

Tower Bridge!

Millennium Bridge & The Globe

The Old Bailey

St. Paul's from outside

Sun setting on the London Eye & Parliament

After class I went food shopping, made dinner, wrote a paper for my internship credit about what I do and fell asleep. I know, wild night haha.

Tuesday: Today was a pretty uneventful day. I had work from 9-5. Came home, had dinner, did homework and now I'm blogging. However, due to my boring day at work I'm very up-to-date on the situation in Egypt and British news.


I had a lot of fun in Galway! It was so great to see so many good friends in one place! It was a cool little city and it felt real Irish! And like my mom always said, Ireland is realllllllly green and beautiful! I'm excited that I'll be in London next weekend, school work is picking up and traveling is real exhausting (although this trip went way smoother than our last!). But I realized how much we still have to do in London itself so I can't wait to keep exploring the city :)


Oh and we booked a trip for the end of the month to Florence and Venice! More to come soon!

Gypsy give me your tears...

Warning...this is really long...sorry to anyone who plans on reading this!

Tuesday: Had off of working due to a power outage, slept til 1pm (glorious!), went to PoundWorld (aka dollar store) for some little stuff and then did laundry for the first time (not terrible or too expensive luckily). A lot of kids from my house then went out to an American sports bar which, I think all Americans in the city of London also decided to go to. It was actually really fun, some of my housemates had friends from high school there and such and they had great drink specials (the cheapest beer we could find so far).

Wednesday: I had my first full day of work. It was a little rough because the power was partially out so I couldn't use my computer half the day and my boss had to use one across the office so I was randomly bored, but I get a nice hour break for lunch and get reimbursed for it which is cool!

Thursday: My first class was a walking tour of different parts of London, I got to see the restaurant where its dark and the waiters are blind like in Chelsea Handler's book and a bar where Stalin and Lenin met! We finished the class at the museum of London, which I now realize why I loved this museum when I was 9: there is so much archaeological stuff and not a lot of paintings! I enjoyed it a lot but then had to run back to campus to go to my Modern Brit class where we basically watched a really funny BBC video on the Attlee/Churchill years. Then I rushed home and had to eat and gather all my stuff to depart to Paris....

I went with my two roommates, Tara and Emily. Let's just say we learned a lot of life lessons in Paris. For starters:

Lesson #1: Never take a 10 hour bus ride to Paris, no matter how much money you think your saving.

It left at 9:30pm and got to Paris at 7:30am so we thought we'd just sleep on the bus and then have a nice full day in Paris. Welllllll 2 hours in we had to go through customs. Then wait an hour. Then get on a ferry (which was actually really nice, Emily and I got Strongbows and Tara snoozed on a couch) and then we had about a 5 hour bus ride straight to Paris. The problem...the seats were not meant for sleeping, we were so uncomfortable that it was basically terrible and we maybe slept for 30-45min in total.

Friday: Oh, and the bus got there at 6:30 (an hour early) and we then took the metro.

Lesson #2) The Paris Metro really is gross compared to the London Tube.

We then had to find our hostle (luckily I google mapped from the metro to the hostle before hand so we didn't have much trouble and it was only like a 5 min walk) but we got to the hostle at 8am...

Lesson #3: Never stay at a hostle. Its just weird. We were in a 5-person female only room, meaning there were two random ladies...they were nice its just awkward. And its not like a hotel, especially the showers.

Check-in wasn't til 4pm and I already thought I was gonna pass out from exhaustion at 8am. We legit took a nap on the tables there before finding something to do and they guy told us we could come back at 2 (I think he felt bad for us because we looked like death). So we took the metro and exchanged money.

Lesson #4: exchange money before hand, its such a pain, and England has to be annoying use the Pound when the rest of Europe uses the Euro.

We then got tea at this place and relaxed/warmed up on comfy chairs before heading to the Lourve, which we got in for free since we're EU students.

We then walked through maybe one hallway before I thought I was legit gonna die because my back had been hurting so bad. I felt bad tho because Tara and Emily were okay and I just kept sitting down and hunting for tylonol.

Lesson #5) Always carry some sort of pain reliever with you while traveling.

We left the Lourve after like a 1/2 hour so I could go to a pharmacy to get advil and then got lunch at this cute french restaurant and I got lasagna and a waffle with nutella and ice cream

it was then time to head back for our much needed nap so we went back to our hostile and slept til like 530pm.

After regrouping we decided to go to the Eiffel Tower and then get dinner and call it a night. The Eiffel Tower was GIGANTIC! So much bigger than I expected and so much prettier. We went to the second level and took lots of pics

and then on the way out saw it twinkle which was so cool! We then got dinner at this little cafe around the corner and called it a night, got a little lost but made it home and legit, I've never slept so well.

Saturday: We woke up around 9, had breakfast, and then went to Versailles.

Lesson #6) Not speaking the language is so annoying. Most people spoke English but a few times we had issues and we all just felt dumb not knowing French

Versailles was BEAUTIFUL. We were also baffled at the size of the Estate itself. We also got in free with our visas which was really nice. We explored and got to see Marie Antoinette's bedroom and the Hall of Mirrors.

 Chapel in Versailles

 Garden behind Versailles

 Us in the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles

 Marie Antoinette's Bed (you can't see it in this picture but near by is a door she used to flee on Oct. 6, 1789)

 Us outside the Palace of Versailles!

We then went to a cafe for lunch and had burgers and nutella crapes (yes, every dessert I've had since I've got to Europe has had nutella in it). We then headed back and went to Norte Dame which is soooooo much bigger than I thought it would be. It was like St. Patrick's Cathedral on steroids.

We walked in during the start of mass which was cool and very pretty. We then went back, changed, and headed to dinner with 3 girls from our house in London who were also in Paris for the weekend. We met them at this fondue place that Tracey recommended to us, it was really good (mainly because I'm obsessed with cheese), they also serve wine in baby bottles haha

It was so nice seeing them and catching up on our adventures even though it had only been like 48 hours haha. We then made the best decision ever - we took a cab home. We were so sick of the gross metro, so cold, and so tired. It was great tho because we got to see beautiful views of Paris that we missed out on the metro and it wasn't even that much. We then slept wonderfully again.

Sunday: We woke up around 9, had breakfast, and then made our way on the metro back to the dreaded bus. I'm currently writing this from my blackberry on our way back, its like noon here and we should be back around 6. We had fun this weekend but we can't wait to get back to London, away from Metros and back to the Tube, away from hostles and back to our own room, and back where everyone understands us (even if we are American).

(I'm writing this part today)...I spoke too soon after writing this...because right after....our BUS BROKE DOWN! Yupp. Just when we thought things couldn't get any worse. We had to wait 3 hours for the next bus to come with the CRAZY Romanian Gypsy family and their 7 children RUNNING around the bus, eating smelly foods, picking up coins off the ground, oh..and BEATING THE SHIT out of their children (I cried...I've never seen someone hit their child, nor been unable to stop it because we didn't speak the same language). We finally made it back to lovely London around 9:30, showered, and ran to McDonalds (in sweatpants, which is a big no-no fashion wise here).

Yesterday (Monday): I worked from 9-1 and then went to Greenwich for Art class where we went to the Queens House which was originally part of a Palace (that burned down...like the rest of London apparently?) but Henry VIII and Elizabeth I were born at said palace, and the Queens palace was really cool and we could see the Observatory built by Christopher Wren from the backyard.

This is where the Prime Meridian is! How cool, two halves of the world!

We then proceeded to stand outside and learn about architecture but all I wanted to do was kill myself because I was still sick and freezing. After trekking home I took a 3 hour nap, ate a bagel, and went back to sleep, woke up for like an hour between 12am-1am...and fell back asleep.

Today: I decided when I woke up for work that I still felt like death so I called in and...slept til 2pm. So I have basically been the biggest bum ever today. I watched "What a Girl Wants" with some of the girls, went to an internship program meeting that was pretty much a waste of my time, and watched some Gossip Girl Season 1 with like half the house. Now I'm getting some rest because I'm working 9-5 tomorrow and I'm determined to go and feel better. Tara's currently dying and not going to work tomorrow and Emily has a nasty cough and I keep feeding her Robitussin. SO...

Lesson #7: Expect to get sick after two 10 hour bus rides in one weekend (one with a crazy gypsy family), staying in a hostle, and walking all over Paris.

Overall: I enjoyed Paris, I wish I didn't feel like death warmed over for the majority of Friday, but hey, it happens. I still got to see the Eiffel tower and lovedddddd it. There was some great art and architecture in the city (my teacher for my art and architecture class would be so proud that I could identify types of columns everywhere we went after 2 weeks haha) but overall, the city of Paris was a bit...gross? Maybe I'm spoiled because London is beautiful, and clean, or maybe Paris needs to pick up their game. They had so much graffiti and homeless, it was not something I was expecting. I'm glad I went, we have some funny stories (like this 40 year old couple MAKING OUT on the elevator down the Eiffel Tower while everyone else looked on horrified because it was so awkward) but if anything, the trip really reaffirmed my decision to come to London for the semester. After two and a half weeks I already feel like its my home and I couldn't wait to get back. This coming weekend we're going to Galway, Ireland to visit Kelly Murphy and I also get to see Courtney Kaska who will also be visiting so I'm really excited to be reunited with them and get a feel for Ireland: oh and we're taking a plane there, thank the lord!!!!! Also, HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAYS ASHLEY CRISO & JESSIKA MAS :)