At the boat pond in the middle of El Parque de Independencia

Zach and I at el Banco

At El Kapitol! 7 storie club!

  Plaza Mayor!

Inside the Catherdral.

Ran into a gorilla, roaming the streets...

 Cathedral right to the Palace... 

 the palace!

Lauren and I entertaining ourselves with candy at the airport....crashed eventually from all the candy we ate!

Madrid Continued...

So we got off the plane and it felt oh so good! It was so weird because it was so sunny! We had no idea how much we missed the sun until we got there... we felt like we were on vacation in 50 degree weather because it was so sunny compared to London. Very depressing but the complete truth. Anywho got thru customs and got into a cab to go to Zach's place. One smart thing I did was write down the exact address of Zach's place because we had no idea how to get there andddd didn't speak Spanish. I just handed him the piece of paper and we were on our way!! The cab ride was actually really entertaining. The guy was from Madrid,  born and raised. It was kind of like a game. Surprisingly, I was the one who talked to the driver and was translating for Meg and Lauren and then for the Spaniard. Meg has never taken spanish before and Lauren took it only one year in high school, so me and this guy bonded and made fun of them... at least I think we were making fun of them. haha. Well we got dropped off on a small, small side straight in the centro of Madrid. Zach's place was so nice!!! We had to get beeped in and then climbed marble stairs to his  apartment. There was a really nice kitchen, 4 bedrooms, a living room with a TV and a nice patio in the back. Every wall in the house was a different color too. It made it so European and fun! We dropped our stuff off and Meg, Lauren and I went to search for some food while Zach showered. We probably walked into 7 different restaurants and realizing it was not what we wanted. One place in particular we found a 50 euro on the ground and then booked it out of there!! We decided, instead of staying at Zach's, with 4 guys we were going to splurge and get a hotel room. The hotel room was 70 euros, so we each paid 7 euros in addition to the 50 we found. It was cheaper than getting a hostel and a block away from Zach's! Plus we had big comfy beds and a shower!! Things were looking up... after we checked into our hotel, Zach took us on journey around Madrid. First we went to this BEAUTIFUL palace and then to a cathedral right next door. It was nice because we didn't have to wear coats and it was so sunny!! (we probably said this 80 times haha). Then Zach took us to the "Plaza de Mayor" which is a really famous area in Madrid where there is entertainment and the cutest restaurants and shops. After we walked around there we took the Metro, which is like the underground subway to our hotel and took a 2 hour siesta. Literally, everyone in the city takes a siesta. People closed their stores down for a couple hours so they could go sleep. It was very odd, but well needed for the three of us.  After we napped, we went to dinner right by Zachs, which also was very entertaining because it was an authentic restaurant and the workers didn't speak an ounce of English and the three us were just the entertainment for the whole place... I was trying to go to the bano for insistence, and accidentally walked into the men's and when I realized this and walked out the entire restaurant laughed at me... haha. but anywho after that we went to a cute little bar down the street wear drinks were only 2.50. It was kind of like a hut and everyone was packed in really close together. We learned how much spanish men like blondes. We were standng talking in a group, and Meg and Lauren kept getting their hair tugged on my the spanish boys right behind them... they consider blondes a delicacy and nonstop say "rubio, rubio" whenever they see a blonde, which means "blonde blonde"! I found this pretty funny, probably because my hair wasn't getting tugged on. Anyways after we hung out there for a bit we went to El Kapital which was a club downtown that was 7 stories!!!! It was sooooo crazy. There were thousands of people there. Every floor was different too. There was a lounge one floor, a dance floor on another, entertainers on another, bars and just such a big, awesome place.  It was also entertaining because they played American songs, but in Spanish.  It ended up being a long night and we stayed there till 4am.... I guess that's normal for the people there. Zach said everyone stays out till 6 or 7am. We were being babies haha. That is probably why they take siestas everyday too. The next day we walked to El Parque de Independencia which was so big and beautiful. There were entertainers all around too and people selling things at stands. There also was a pond in the middle of it and a place where you could rent a boat and ride around the river. I wanted to do this but no one else did.... haah a lot of people were rollerbladding around or biking. I loved it. Then we stopped by el Museo Prudo which is famous art museum. Oh oh we stopped and got food and I ordered a banana smoothie and a oatmeal cookie... the lady thought I wanted the cookie in the smoothie so she blended the cookie into my smoothie. Haha she didn't speak English obviously. After walking around for 4 hours we headed back to the metro to go to the airport. Metro to the airport only ended up costing us 2 euros, which is unbelievably great!! No problems at the airport this time and our bus home ended up being there this time... it was a great day all around. I think we walked a total of 25 miles in 3 days and slept probably 6.. exaclty why Saturday night Meg, Lauren and I slept for 13 hrs. As much as it was such a disaster getting to Madrid, I am so happy we ended up going. I loved it and I loved how the city was so manageable and not as touristy as some places we have gone. Time for bed now. Buenos noches to all!

Arrribaa

This weekend was unbelievable for two reasons. Unbelievable because getting there was a complete disaster and unbelievable because once we got there it was SO MUCH FUN!! I love Madrid. But anyway this is how it started.... Thursday morning while we were printing off our boarding tickets and figuring out how we were getting there and the hostel situation, I realized that I had booked only breakfast at the hotel and not a room. I have no idea how I was even able to do this but it was so cheap because it was just breakfast. Naturally I started freaking out and going crazy because everything was booked for that night and the next day. Luckily some time later in the afternoon, we came across a decent priced hostel for Friday night and Zach said we could stay with him Thursday night since we were getting there really late anyways. Phew... Now later the plan was to leave for the tube station right after Meg and I got out of class so we could make it to the bus stop because we pre-ordered tickets for a bus to take us right to the airport for pretty cheap. Walking to class, Meg and I realized that we were cutting it pretty close leaving right after class so we decided we were just gonna leave class early and run to get our bags and Lauren. Of course the one day we wanted to do this, we were watching a movie in class and the teacher plops down right next to me, making it way more difficult for us to sneak out. We did it anyways and literally sprinted to our room, grabbed our bags and Lauren and ran to the tube station. The bus stop was a couple towns over, thats why we had to take the tube. After hustling to the bus stop, we luckily got there 20 minutes before we were scheduled to leave....50 minutes go by and no bus. To make it even worse, it started to  rain. We really had no idea how else we would get to the airport if we didnt get on this bus so we were freaking, yet again. Some lady at the stop said our best bet was to take the tube to Victoria, which was on the other side of town and get off and go to the train station and take an Express Train, right to the airport. Right when she finished telling us this we took off... got to the train station and the teller told us the train was leaving in less than 10 minutes and the next one wasn't leaving for another half hour...if we hadn't have made it , we would have missed our flight. The train took 30 mins so right when we got to the station we took off again because we only had 15 minutes before the gate closed. We rushed to the check-in, got to security, Lauren got fiercely padded down, made it thru and looked at the screen to see that our flight was delayed 45 minutes. Joke. Soooo we hung out at the gate till it was time to board and when we eventually tried to board, the lady tells us we were unable to board because we didnt get some stamp on our boarding passes. Our faces droppppp. We asked if we could run back really quickly and she said, " no way, u wouldnt have time. We are taking off in a minute." There was a total for 7 of us who had the same problem so you would have thought they would have waited but no. She also said that we would be able to get on a flight that leaves the same time tomorrow for 100 pounds. No way. It was so sad and depressing and we had no idea what to do. This older guy, who we later decided to call Heath, was in the same position as us and convinced us to still go tomorrow morning on a different airline, that was 90 pounds and we would get in at 11am as opposed to 12pm at night. We decided what the hell, spend the money because we already had a flight home and we would probably be even more sad if we didn't even get to go. The only issue with that was that it was 11pm at night when we decided this at the airport and we had to be back to check in at 530am. We decided just to have an adventure and sleep there because it was not worth going allll the way back home and spending money when we had to be back in 6 hours. Oh how adventurous it was.  We got soo much candy, and a deck of cards and planned on staying up all night but that didnt really work out. We couldn't do it and found some couches to crash on. There were other people sleeping there too and I woke up to an old man laying on my shoulder ha. Not the best sleep I have gotten but got really excited when it was finally time to check in.  MADE IT ON THE PLANE wooo hooo and we didnt leave the gate for 35 minutes.. soooo stressful but thankfully we left and made it safe and sound to Madrid 10 hrs later than we planned.... TO BE CONTINUED. too tired to write the rest but i will!!

PArty in the UUUKK

When people say birds are scared of people, that is a false statement. Today a bird attacked slash flew into me. He/she didn't seem to mind at all while I anddd the girl next to me freaked out. I also think that more humans are scared of birds than birds are scared of humans...not that I have bird friends or anything but I strongly believe this is true. grrr. Anywho, today was another field trip day for my History of London class.   It was really far away this time though and we had to take the tube to the rail station then to the DLR, which is like the Al. I have come to realize there are many many forms of transportation here. You have the tube, the train, bus, DLR, double decker bus, or simply just a taxi. Oh and a car of course but I feel like it is completely unnecessary to own a car here. When we finally made it to our destination, we realized we were going to a museum right next to the Thames river. It was pretty cool I must say. It was the London Museum of Docklands. It was all about how the river was created and merchants and pirates and  the slave trade..things of that sort.  I thoroughly enjoyed it but it was so big and there was so much text and information that I just skipped the last room ha. Another thing that bugs me slash I don't understand is why Londoners don't use the letter z. For example, they spell recognize, recognise and mobilization, mobilsation or realize, realise. I just don't get it. I noticed that a lot when I was reading information at the museum. The class is pretty cool because our teacher just lets us do what we want. We met him at the last station and then he showed us to the museum and let us go free and stay for as long as we want.  Our teacher also went home after he dropped us off haha. Great guy. And our whole grade for this class is a museum project which we can pretty much do whatever we want I think. He does the tours for "London Walks" and this is his first year teaching this class so I feel like we are mostly going to be out and about. The only thing that bugs me about this guy is that he is bad at explaining. He just tells us where to meet him but then doesn't tell us how to get there.  Luckily the guys that live next to me are in my class and they figure it all out while I just follow along, pretending to contribute. I am going to try to figure it out on my own next week though. That would be awful if I somehow lost them and was stranded somewhere. At least I know the language and can ask for help I guess...don't know what I would do if I went to Italy or some place like that. On the way home though, we got stuck in the tube for 20 minutes I wanna say literally 4 feet from our stop. It was frustrating and kind of scary. Last night a bunch of us went downtown to the SportsCafe again because Tuesdays is cheap drink night for students. Last time when we went, we left pretty early and had no idea that later at night it turns into a dance floor haha. That was fun for us. I actually met some half way decent British people too which was reassuring because I thought they were all weirdos. Before last night I met a guy who straightens his hair... I don't even own a straightener, a guy who was creepy stalker man, but I ditched him finally, and a guy who claimed he knew Richie at Harvard even though he already graduated and Richie is a freshman. haha. Oh well. Oh my goodness. So there is construction going on a couple houses next to ours and the area is kind of a mess. Lauren told Meg and I that there was a man at this site who lives in a box on the stairs. We thought she was kidding but then the other day when Meg and I were walking to class, he popped out of the box and scared us to death! We decided that we are going to collect some boxes from around town and set them next to his stoop so he can build a little house with them. There aren't many homeless people at all here though so I thought that was pretty bizarre. Well I must go to class now and exchange some of my pounds for euros because we are going to MADRID tomorrow! cheerio

Second Weekend

Hey! Alright so the Beginning of the Term party was a pretty great night. It was at some really high class club and you had to be dressed really really nice or else you wouldn't be let in. They actually turned down a girl who was not dressed up enough who had a ticket... Anywho the dresses were very very expensive and not  even worth it. Everything was so elegant and there were different rooms who nice coaches and sliding glass doors. In the middle of these rooms there was a huge dance floor where most people hung out.   and danced. We were there pretty late so we had to take a taxi home because the tube station closes at 1230 pm. Friday pretty much no one has classes so we were lazy all dayyy. There is a common room with couches and a huge TV that we hung out in because we don't have a TV in our room. Saturday Lauren and I went on about a 2 and a half hour walk around Kensington to find cheap hotels for our families to stay in. We got a better feel for the neighborhood too which is good. Crossing the street is so difficult here. Peopel speed up when they are about to turn and the lights and stop signs are so confusing. I am legitimately scared to cross the street and won't do it by myself haha. Some kid told us that a TON of people get killed each year from getting hit by a car. Its a record I guess for London, so I am not taking my chances. haha. Also the Yield signs say "Give Way" instead of yield... kind of funny. At night we just hung out in our friends room and drank a little bit.  They live a little bit further from us but there room is SO NICE. They live in a flat and have their own kitchen and bathroom. You have to get buzzed into their room and everything is brand new. I don't know how these kids lucked out and got the nice room. The only downside is they have to walk further than us to class and to eat, but I would be okay with that. It is like a high class hotel, seriously. Anyways it wasn't too exciting but then Lauren and I decided we wanted to go to a pub so we went to one that had a club in the basement. We made friends with the bouncer and talked him into letting us in for 5 pounds together when the cover is usually 10 pounds each haha. Being American definitely has its perks. It was not that fun though so we left almost instantly. Sunday was great. We walked about 5 miles to Notting Hill Gate. They have a really cute flea market on the other side of town. They houses were so cute on our walk over there... all different colors and super classy. I like how we walk everywhere because it is too expensive to join a gym and plus with all the traveling we are doing it is not even worth it. Speaking of traveling... Lauren, Meg and I are going to Madrid this weekend and Paris with our school next weekend!! My friend Zach is studying there so he is going to show us around, which is nice because none of us speak Spanish. haha. Should be adventurous. We are leaving Thursday night after me and Meg's class and coming back Saturday night because it is cheaper to fly back on Saturday.. literally half the price actually. Well anywho after our walk to Notting Hill, which by the way is the home to many famous people.... Simon Crowell lives there and we saw his house and so does the singer guy in Love Actually. Unfortunately though we didn't see anyone famous but we are going to go back.  Thats all for now. Talk to you soon!!

First week of school!

The week of partying and going out as finally come to an end and classes have begun. I have a pretty nice schedule... Monday's and Wednesdays at 9am I have Experimental Methods in Psychology & History of London at 13:30pm (1:30), that took me awhile to figure out ha. Tuesday and Thursdays I have Childhood Psychology at noon and then Shakespeare and His World at 16:30 (4:30) with Meg. All my classes have a maximum of 15 people in each of them and all except History of London I am the minority. Each one of my teachers is different. My Experimental Methods teacher is  Greek so she has a thick accident, History of London my teacher is from the US but has lived in London most of his life,  Childhood psych I can't remember but he is not from here and has a unique accident, and then Shakespeare my teacher is hardcore British and has a huge accident. He clearly loves Shakespeare too so it should be an interesting class. I really like my History of London class because we have lecture on Mondays for an hour but then on Wednesdays we go on field trips. Like yesterday we had to take the tube to St. Paul's cathedral stop and we walked around for 2 hours while our teacher told us stories and history. We also went into two museums, which was really cool. Also my teacher has a son who goes to Boulder who I knew, ironically. He has three kids and only one wanted to study in America, all the rest are still here.  I like how for all of my classes we don't really have any tests... we just have projects or papers, some even in pairs.  For my Shakespeare class, we also get to see plays every other week. Class is an hour and twenty minutes, which is longer than I am used to but so far it hasn't been too bad. I think being in smaller classes forces me to pay attention more just because the teacher can see if I am doing something else or zoning off... books are still pretty expensive but in all my classes I am sharing books with other kids in my class which worked out well except still expensive because we need 2 or 3 books for each class. Tuesday night Manchester University and Manchester City were playing each other in futbol so EVERYONE pretty much took the tube to the only SportsBar in London to watch the game.  It is so funny how everyone is so into it. There were men in business suits there and little kid all there to watch. It was so unbelievably packed it was outrageous. Immediately after the game was over, the older people left and the kids stayed to drink and play pool. Meg, Lauren and I met some british boys who are going to law school. One of the guys went to Oxford and the other one went to Harvard and played football. I asked him if he knew Richie and he said yes but I highly doubt that because I feel like he graduated a couple years ago and Richie is just a freshman.. oh well. I went along with it.  Last night we went to a pub right down the street because it was a student specials for drinks for 1 pound. There were a TON of British guys who either played futbol or rugby. I learned that the futbol players and the rugby players are huge rivals and dislike one another. It was really entertaining because they each were chanting at each other on the pub. Tonight we have this formal "Beginning of the Term" party at a club downtown. Hopefully it will be fun but apparently it is really expensive to buy drinks which is not something I like considering I have already spent so much money. Apparently it is a really unique place and we got a deal so I am thinking it will be worth it in the end.  Well that's all for now but write again soon!!!

Can't rotate but this is us on the deck riding by the London Eye

My two roommates and I on the boat cruise down the Thames River.

Us again in front of Buckingham Palace!

Me and a couple girls on the steps of St. Paul's Cathedral.. its huge!

Big Ben!! We took a three hour bus ride around all of London!

On this street, all the houses look like this...this is the wealthiest street in London...ironically this house is called the Arundel house.

I just thought this building was really unique.. all of them are different. This building in particular is right down the street from where I live.

Weekend

Heyyyy.
So last night was the boat party... it was really reallly fun. We had this little cruise ship type thing and there was an upstairs and a downstairs and and on the upstairs level there was a little deck for if you wanted to go outside. There were also a bar upstairs with a dance floor. Drinks were soooo expensive though, but of course I still bought them and some for other people. I hate being old enough to buy drinks here because I just love being friendly and feel the need to buy everyone drinks... I am gonna need to get a hold of that asap. Anywho the boat left around 730pm and went down the river till 11pm I think... It was so pretty seeing the London Eye and all the buildings lit up! After the boat docked, a couple of us decided to go to "TigerTiger" which is a really popular club in the city. It was a pretty good time, minus I lost the phone that I had just gotten that day....but I am hoping it turns up!
Today Meg and I signed up for the Tower of London trip so we woke up around 11am and met another group at noon to take the tube to The Tower. It was really cool seeing this because it showed exactly what it was like for them back in the day and its huge!! Unfortunately my camera died right when we got there but I'm going to just make copies of Megs. There were little museums inside the center of the Tower that showed all then actual crowns that the kings and queens wore and there gowns.  Also at the Tower we got to go up to the Bloody Tower which is where they kept all their prisioners! In the courtyard area there are 6 ravens that flock around and never leave. The British believe that if these ravens were to leave the Tower, England will fall! To ensure the ravens don't leave, the Brits clipped one of their wings... I thought that was really interesting.  We were probably there for 2 or 3 hours and probably could have stayed longer because it was so big but it was raining and part of it was outside so we decided to take the tube home and chill for the rest of the day. OHH one of the RA's told us that Robert Pattinson likes to go to the this pub literally a half a block from where I live.... I also walk by this pub to go EVERYWHERE so now everytime Meg and Lauren are creeps and look through all the winds to check out to see if he is there! haha. We are also thinking that he must live near by if he likes that pub.... well that is all for now!!

last couple days...

Wednesday woke up, had breakfast went to talk to my counselor, changed my schedule and now I have no classes on Friday!! either do Meg or Lauren and most kids here because its good for when we go on trips because we won't miss any classes since apparently the class size is really small. People are so unbelievable friendly its crazy and I have made so many friends from all over and I love it! After that we had this food tasting thing in the cafeteria to get us acclimated to their food....not very good, not going to lie but it was interesting. Everything u hear about the food being bad is true. It sucks. But oh well. Hmm after that we had a 3 hour bus tour of all of London which was really cool cus we had this tour lady talking the whole time, telling us everything we were seeing.
We saw the Tower of London, London Eye, Notting Hill I really think that you know in Love Actually where WIll Grant is searching for that girl and goes from house to house that all look similar, trying to see if she lived there, anywho we definitely drove by there, Oxford Avenue, which is where the good shopping is, Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace, St. Paul's Cathedral....and sooo sooo much more.
After the tour we took a couple hour nap and then got dressed and went on a pub crawl with our TA just around our little area, which is so cute. It is so weird here though because everyone goes out at like 7pm and then most bars close at like 1030 or 11pm... something we definitely aren't used to . After that we went to more downtown London and went to a club... "On anon" It was pretty fun...not really my seen but it was nice to see what it was like...they played music just like we have in America, will smith, beyonce, black eyed peas, oh and of course MICHAEL JACKSON haha. Clubs are opened to 6am though so if u wanted a late night, we could just go there.
Thursday we woke up at like noon haha then went to an Activity BBQ with all the students to sign up for tours and trips. I have heard from many people that they jip u on this trips so I am thinking we are better off not going on them. I think when Alex and Amanda are here we are gonna go to Dublin for St. Pattys day and Lauren and Meg are going too. Just from Tuesday night to Thursday morning. It ends up only being 40 pounds a person for flights and then hostels where we would stay are like 10 per person, maybe even less. It is so so expensive in London its unreal. But anywho after that Meg and I went shopping down the street for phones, and a mirror and Oyster cards, which are passes for the Tube...underground train. After that we got back to our room and got dressed for Wicked!!! We took the tube to more downtown London and saw it at the Apollo Victoria theatre. It was really cool because all the actors had British accents and it was fun to see and at intermission, the men working there bring stands of mini ice creams out for the people to eat, just like the ones you can buy at Jewel. After that we were just gonna come back here and clean up but we saw some guys on the corner of our house and we got a drink with them at some pub. Friday I am really excited because we have our boat party!! And we are starting to plan trips on our own and the two places we are for sure trying to do is Praque and Amsterdam. I will let u know what we do tho. Loveee u tell me about ur lives too so its not a one-sided relationship

First days!

re is what has happened so far... I already love it!! I am living with Meg and her friend from KU and some other girl supposedly but she still hasn't gotten here yet....our room is pretty big too though which is nice and we have our own bathroom!!!!.... we have to walk thru the courtyard to get to our room and up our own stairs which is kind of cool cus its our own little place. Not much of a courtyard though but still pretty cool. Tuesday we went on a walking tour and saw the palace Princess DIana lived in before she died and where they put all the flowers when she did die. and then we have this mandatory orientation meeting, then dinner then we are going to a pub! I like it a lot so far. Everyone is super nice and a met a kid who knows Elliot and the Lutz family. Going through customs was also really really easy and then finding the AIFS people was easy too. Hmmm what else can I tell you...its cloudy, of course and cold but not as cold as Chicago. Right when we got here we unpacked everything and so it's nice to be all settled in. I was so sos soooo confused about the driving....almost got hit by a car a couple times but I guess that is normal for me hah. But its hard because instead of looking to the right to watch out for cars when u are crossing the street, u have to look to the left haha. Oh My Gosh!! Meg and Lauren and I were snooping around outside in front of our building and next door this is a plague, gold plague and says Ambassadore de Francis or something like that so we think we live next door to the Ambassador of France! haha probably one of his million flats. Area is really nice and everything is walking distant