Sarah in London

Heidelberg blog!

2008-01-12T10:44:00.001Z

So I realized that the website for this includes the word "London", and since I don't live there anymore, I decided to just create a new blog. So the link to my new Heidelberg blog is:
http://sarahrebeccaingermany.blogspot.com/

I haven't added any posts yet, because I've been pretty busy with unpacking, going to orientation, starting classes, and trying to remember how to sprechen sie deutch. But at soon as I get some pictures I will be sure to post them!

Love,
-Sarah

O Ireland!

2007-12-05T12:39:00.000Z

Here are a few pictures from the trip I took to Dublin, Ireland a couple weeks ago!!

On Friday, we walked around Dublin. We saw Christ Church Cathedral and the Dublin Castle (which actually shouldn't be considered a castle...). We strolled through the Temple Bar area. Then, that night we had dinner followed by a show, with Irish music and dancing!
Saturday, we took a tour of the Irish countryside. We visited lakes and waterfalls, and a few little villages. When we got back, we were miraculously able to meet up with a couple of friends from the Switzerland program!

The Millenium Spire (no one knows what the point is)

It was very very windy!

Things from England!!

2007-11-23T00:11:00.000Z

So aside from the weekend trips I've taken this semester, there have been day trips, theatre trips, and many more events I have not mentioned yet!!

South Kensington (the area of London where we live):
Royal Albert Memorial London Eye
A couple of the desserts we eat at group dinner....

At group dinner:

Cast from Mary Poppins!

Cast from Rent!:

The Opening of Parliment:

The Queen!!
Hyde Park:

Portobello Road market!

Halloween in London!
The Cotswolds (English countryside):

Brighton Pier:

The Globe Theatre
Brighton beach
A few of us at one of our group dinners!

The Phantom of the Opera! Judi Dench (one of the biggest British actresses)

The Tower of London:

J.K. Rowling's Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station

Possibly one of the most awkward pictures I have ever taken:

Windsor Castle

Some cast members from Les Miserables (this girl's husband, cousin, or boyfriend-no one can agree which- graduated from Pepperdine! small world!)

Flowers that David sent me when I was sick!!!

Eating at Texas Embassy (the closest thing to tex-mex London offers!)
On the London Eye:

Pictures from looooong weekend!

2007-11-17T20:50:00.000Z

Disneyland Paris

The Eifffel Tower

The Louvre

The Opera house where the phantom is from!

Notre Dame

Rodin museum

BARCELONA:

The park we went to

The church that is built on donations:

Looooong Weekend!

2007-11-16T00:36:00.000Z

So last week we got Wednesday and Thursday off from classes so we could take a longer travelling break! 6 Of us went to Paris and Barcelona. We did so much during 4 days, that we were completely exhausted by the time we got back.

On Tuesday night, 5 of us took an overnight bus to Paris. I would go in to more detail, but I think we all know by now how overnight buses go...not so great. basically.

Anyway, on Wednesday morning we check into our hostel. Then Caroline and I head off to EuroDisney for the day (and to meet our 6th member, who's coming from the Florence program)!! Disneyland Paris was wonderful! Although I'm a little bias, because I think everything Disney is wonderful. Being a wednesday, it wasn't very crowded. We rode 14 rides, including It's a Small World, Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion (yea... they have a lot of the same rides as in California)! We also noticed that the rides here are a little more intense than those back home- a lot involved looops and jerking and darkness... it was fun though! They had things decorated for Christmas already. It was a really fun day. Caroline and I decided that it's hard to be in a bad mood when Christmas and Disney are combined...
That night we went to the Eiffel Tower. It is gorgeous at night! We met up with the other 3 girls here, and had a lovely time taking pictures at the top for a good 30 minutes.

On Thursday we headed off to the Louvre in the morning. Definately could've stayed there all day, slept over, and stayed there the next day as well! Unfortunately, we only had 2 hours. I'm proud to say I did some pretty fast walking during those 2 hours! First thing I saw was the Mona Lisa. It was cool. But they had this huge block of glass in front of it, plus it was kind of roped off, which made it hard to get a good look. I also looked at the Statue of Venus, the Egyptian Zodiac (which we learned in Egypt was stolen and brought to Europe!), some jewels from Britain, and so much more. The architecture of the Louvre itself was unbelievable!
Next we went to the Opera house which was the inspiration for the Phantom of the Opera! It was so neat to look at everything and see how it was incorporated into the movie/play.
We went to Notre Dame. It's so huge. It was very dark inside, I assume out of respect to those who come to worship. I love looking at the architecture in these Cathedrals, especially the Gothic ones.
We went inside the Musee d'Orsay and looked at the art in there. Next to the Louvre, it's the most famous museum in Paris. It was SUPPOSED to have Starry Night by Van Gogh, but we sadly learned once there that it is currently in New York.
We went to Montmarte, which is the home of the Moulin Rouge. It was a little sketchy walking there by ourselves, but it was one of our "must see's", due to the amazing movie!
We climbed the stairs of the Arc De Triumph. After catching our breath, we took pictures at the top and walked around admiring the view of Paris at night!
We probably went a few more places, but those were the main ones!

Friday, 3 of us stayed in Paris, while the others flew to Barcelona. This was an incredibly relaxing day. We walked along the Champs Elysee (I think I spelled that right) for some high-end shopping! It was actually more like high-end looking... We also went to the Rodin museum, home of the "Thinker" statue. And the Picasso Museum, to look at some very different art than is housed in the Louvre. That night, we flew to Barcelona. After arriving at our hostel (and fully stocked with the typical "i hate airports. i'm never using this airline again" stories) we wasted no time in falling asleeping to rest up before our final (and first) day in Barcelona!

Saturday morning, the 3 of us who flew in late went searching for a particular clothing store that was apparently everywhere in Spain. An hour and a half later, we found this store! yay.
Later, we met the rest of our group at Barcelona's Arc de Triomph, then found a little restaurant to have lunch in. We then went to this really neat park, which had an amazing view of the city. It had these cute structures that resembled Dr. Seuss houses, plus some other mosaic-like statues.
We went to this Cathedral, which is built entirely on donations. So basically, it's always under construction. Whenever they get more money, they just add more to it. It's a really cool idea. The church itself looks very modern, in the sense that it's not your typical church.
We also went to the beach. O... here's a bizarre story!:
So these people come up to us to talk. Turns out, they are Americans! Keep talking to them, and find out that they just so happen to go to the University that literally right across the street from our London house! Talk a little bit more, and find out that this girl in their group knows a professor that two of us had! Talk some more, and realize that she actually knows quite a few of the people we know at Pepperdine! She lives about 15 minutes from Pepperdine in Malibu. How wierd is that???
Later that night, we visited one more Cathedral before returning back to our hostel for a good night's sleep before waking up at 5:30 in the morning to fly back to London.

What a busy trip! I never would have thought a year ago that in one week I would be seeing as much stuff as I did this past week. It really is unbelievable.

Roma!

2007-11-12T20:50:00.000Z

A group of us went to Rome a couple weeks ago! here are some pictures from that weekend. We saw so much in such a short period of time, but it was definately still the smoothest trip we've gone on so far! No problems finding hostels, or with the metro/bus system, or with airports!

This road was right by our bed and breakfast!

From the Sistine Chapel:

St. Peter's basilica

The Vatican

Natalie and me

St. Peter

We THOUGHT this was the Roman Forum...

St. Peter apparently has a marching band.

The Colosseum!

Pictures from Egypt!

2007-10-24T11:49:00.000+01:00

Valley of the Kings

Me with my donkey- I named him Frederick

they had some pretty tall columns in Luxor...

Luxor Temple

A few of us with Thomasina!

Pyramids of Giza

And the Sphinx

Inside the mosque

Cairo

The Nile

Egypt Part 2

2007-10-23T09:53:00.000+01:00

On Thursday, we went to the Temple of Hathor and looked at many Egyptian carvings. Magic, our tour guide, told us the more about the layout of a temple, and what parts each needed to have. Even the layout of the temples were based on religious beliefs. After we finished this tour, we had a few minutes to explore the rest of it. After escaping from a few random Egyptians who wanted us to give them money for leading us to a picture of an eye, we returned back to the bus and headed out for the airport. From Luxor we flew to Cairo, approximately a 1 hour flight.
Friday was Pyramid Day!! We went to the Pyramids of Giza where we had a little too much fun taking pictures in front of all 3 of them. Magic told us about how and why they were made. Then, we took a lovely (and by lovely I mean bumpy) camel ride down to get a closer view of the pyramids. We explored the tomb of a queen which was under a smaller pyramid. We essentially had to crawl in order to get down to the burial chamber itself. Afterwards, we walked around the Great Pyramid, took some more pictures, and left for the Sphinx. The Sphinx was a cool site to see, like the pyramids. I've seen so many pictures of it, but seeing it in person was incredible! Following this, we returned to our hotel for a very relaxing afternoon and evening.
Saturday was our last full day in Egypt. In the morning we went to the Citadel of Salah El Din and the Coptic Disctrict of Cairo. Here we saw mosques, churches, and synagogues. Supposedly, one of these synagogues is built over a room where Mary, Joseph, and Jesus hid for 3 months right after Jesus was born. After this, we went to one more market, where I bought the last of my Egyptian souveniors (including a very cool lamp that looks like the genie lamp from Aladdin!!!) We ate lunch at a beautiful park with a breathtaking view of the city. Our final destination was the Egyptian Archaeological Museum. This place was very crowded, with both people and artifacts. Magic had told us earlier that plans are underway to construct a new museum, because the current one is too full of stuff. He was right. We saw things from the time of King Tut, as well as some jewelry, and many other things. We returned to the hotel after this, and were suprised to find that dinner that night included an outdoor show, goats, and camel rides!
Sunday morning we left the hotel at 6:30 for the airport. After many crazy incidents, including 3 almost-fights, and me being questioned of my true ethnicity by the visa lady, we boarded the plane and headed back to London! While I am glad to be back home, I'll certainly never forget this amazing trip. I experienced so many new things, learned so much about Egypt's culture and history, and got to know many people in our London group a little better.

Egypt: the land of Pharaohs, Sphinxes, and Sand... a lot of sand

2007-10-21T22:32:00.000+01:00

Well, we made it back safe and sound from Egypt!! All in all, it was an amazing experience. Egypt has so much culture and history behind it. Even though we were there for an entire week, I felt like there was so much to see and so little time to see it in. However, I have to admit that I am so glad to be back in London. A week was definately enough time for me!
While it was a great trip, it was also an exhausting trip, both mentally and physically. I'm all for a good bargain, but I got tired very quickly of having to haggle for everything I wanted to buy and ignoring Egyptian men and children relentlessly trying to get me to buy something from them. As for the culture, wow is it different. People try and get you to tip them for everything from letting you take a picture with them (and by "let" I mean forcing their way into your picture then demanding money for it) to using public restrooms to showing you a "special hole in the wall possessing magical powers". It did seem pretty ridiculous at times, but I just had to keep reminding myself that this is their culture, not mine. And in Egypt, many men have to rely on tips to support themselves and their families.
We arrived in Luxor, Egypt on Monday and were already a little tired by the time we arrived at our hotel. We split up into 2 groups, so we could each have our own tour guide for the week, since 40 people is kind of a large group to deal with.
On Tuesday, we set out for the Valley of the Kings. We went inside a couple of the tombs, which were very smelly and very interesting. Having never seen real hieroglyphics before, I was amazed at how intricate they were for this ancient time period. Immediately after this, we rode donkeys to another tomb. It was about a 45 minute ride! I think we all looked a little silly on them, but it was so much fun nonetheless. We also visited a temple of a goddess (I think). Then, we saw Karnak Temple, which is the largest religious site in the world! They had these huge columns supporting the ceiling, and I have absolutely no idea how they built them that high! We saw some old ruins and climbed around them for awhile... Last, we visited Luxor Museum, and saw mummies!!! yea I know... pretty gross. They also had jewelry and writings and other ancient Egypt stuff.
Wednesday, about 15 of us woke up at 4:30AM to go on a hot air balloon ride along the Nile!! We got off to a rough start, with one of the balloons taking about 1/2 an hour to stay up in the air (yea... glad we weren't on that one!). It was cool to see part of the sunrise from the sky, and the landscape of Egypt. You could really tell where the fertile land with trees and plants and villages stopped, and the desert began. Everything went very smoothly... until the landing. You see, the pilot had failed to mention that it is typical for the basket to tip over and slide a good 100 or so feet before coming to a stop. So it came as quite a shock when we fell over on our backs, then proceeded to keep moving along the sand and dirt. It did, however, make for some good stories upon arriving back at the hotel just in time for breakfast with the rest of the group. We took a bus tour through Luxor in the morning, where our guide explained a lot of Egypt's history to us. We stopped at a market and had our first haggling experience. We were able to have some free time at the hotel afterwards to relax and swim in the infinity pool, which was designed to give the effect that it connected with the Nile. Pretty amazing if you ask me. That night, we went to Luxor Temple. It is illuminated at night, so it looks gorgeous. We saw the different areas of a temple, and looked at how it was built and how you can determine what period in Egyptian history something is from. Outside the temple were 2 rows of sphinxes with probably 10-15 in each row. These things are really amazing to see in person, looking at how much detail they put into each carving. Not to mention how well it has been preserved!

It's been a long day, so I'll have to continue this tomorrow. Stay tuned for more stories and pictures from Egypt!

Busy, busy, busy!

2007-10-14T20:21:00.000+01:00

Hey guys!

Sorry it's been awhile since my last post. "Mid-terms" were last week, so things were a little hectic. So I'll try and sum up the past 2 weeks as best I can:

Last Thursday we went to the Globe Theatre and saw Shakespeare's Love Labour's Lost. It was pretty neat to watch a Shakespearian play inside his famous theater! They have rebuilt it, so it's not actually the original, but it was cool nonetheless.

Friday we took a day trip out to Brighton. It was basically a really cute town with a pier on the beach, a ton of little shops and cafes, and some pretty amazing views! We walked around on the pier and through the town for most of the day. We also went inot the Royal Pavillion, which is where one of the princes lived. He built this palace for the purpose of displaying his wealth to the people, so you can imagine how extravagant it is!

As I said, we had exams in all of our classes this week. They went okay overall I suppose. Luckily, I get to wait at least another week before finding out how I really did.

This Thursday we saw Phantom of the Opera!! It was a great show. The only negative thing I have to say about it is that I was a little disappointed by the chandelier. If you've ever seen this musical performed, you know what I'm talking about. Afterwards, we stayed near the stage door to meet the cast. We took pictures with Meg, Christine, and of course, the Phantom.

Friday, we went to Oxford for the day. It is such a wonderful town! It's a college town, so there are a ton of cool clothing and coffee shops. AND the colleges themselves are amazing to see. We walked around one of the colleges along a little river for awhile, and ate lunch outside. It was a very relaxing day, which is just what I think everyone needed after mid-terms week.

Saturday we had to go to Charles Darwin's house for our science class. Inside the house, there were exhibits on the top floor dedicated to different parts of his life. On the ground floor they had rooms set up exactly as he had them back then. There was also a tea room, where we had lunch. Outside, we walked down the "sand path", which is where Darwin used to walk when he needed to gather his thoughts. Supposedly, it is where he came up with the theory of evolution. We also saw his greenhouse/laboratory. I actually enjoyed this trip a lot more than I thought I would. Even though I don't believe some of his "theories", it's still really interesting to see how and why he developed them.

After Darwin's house, we went to Abbey Road. This is the famous area where the Beatles had their recording studio AND where their last album cover picture was taken.

Today, a few of us went to Hillsong London. Hillsong church is based in Australia, and they put together a lot of Christian worship cd's. The churches are huge, consisting of thousands of people. This one is so big they have 3 services, each of which are held in theatres! Like, HUGE theatres. It was an amazing experience, probably a little too large for me. However, the speaker was wonderful.

Well, that's a shortened version of the past couple weeks. I've been having some trouble posting pictures, but I am aware that those are the main reasons many of you probably read this blog, so I'll try my best to get some more up!! I probably will not be updating again for about another week at least, since we are going to Egypt tomorrow, and won't be back until next Sunday. Until then, have a great week guys!

The famous Abbey Road (and it's crosswalk)!

Magdalen College of Oxford- where C.S. Lewis taught

Darwin's backyard

Darwin's home.

Pictures from Amsterdam!

2007-10-05T01:19:00.000+01:00

as promised...

Amsterdam has so many bicyclists! they have the right of way, over both pedestrians and cars. And there are entire parking garages just for them!! crazy!

We had to get a jumping picture....

Hard Rock Cafe Amsterdam!!

Our hostel... and where we THOUGHT we were going to be sleeping

where we ended up sleeping!

In front of the hostel... that we will never go back to!

On the canal cruise!

largest windmill in the Netherlands!

at the Diamond Factory

and THAT was Amsterdam.

"Do you know what we've been through?": A weekend in Amsterdam

2007-10-02T00:38:00.000+01:00

And what a crazy weekend it was.

I'll start off by talking about the positive things!

1) We visited the Anne Frank House. This was definately my favorite part of the weekend. Just being inside a place that I've learned so much about since elementary school was incredible. We toured everything, from the kitchen to Anne's room. We saw the original pictures she put up on her walls, and there were portions from her diary in all the rooms to describe it a little more. It was a very powerful place to be in. They had information about each room and the people that lived there. This is something that I've read about and heard about practically my entire life, and I actually had the opportunity to see this place for real.

2) We visited the Rijksmuseum. This is the largest museum in the Netherlands (kind of like their national museum, I think). It had sculptures and paintings and models from different time periods, and artwork from people like Vermeer and Rembrandt. I mainly liked it because of the variety it had. They had a couple of old dollhouses on display which were enormous, and a painting they had just re-touched with the steps they took to do it.

3) We visited the Van Gogh museum. This was great because, well, it was the Van Gogh museum. They had other exhibits, but we mainly looked at just Van Gogh's paintings.

4) We took a canal tour around the city. Obviously, this was very relaxing and pretty to see.

5) We visited a diamond factory and tried on diamond rings.

6) We took a bus tour and saw some more of the city, including a windmill.

So, with that said, on to the more "interesting" part of the weekend. I felt like I needed to mention the positive things first, so you know the weekend wasn't a complete disaster. I bet you want to read more now, right? Well, here it goes:

We arrived in Amsterdam around 9 on Friday morning, after a 10 hour ride on a coach bus. Overall, it wasn't that bad. Unlike last time, we were able to find "our" hostel relatively easily. It was very nice (at least the lobby was). It looked more like a hotel actually. Well we couldn't check in until 3, but they had lockers where we could leave our stuff.

Afterwards, we went to Anne Frank's house, the Rijksmuseum, and dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. And then we went back to the hostel....

We got back around 9 PM. At which time we were told that the hostel was already completely booked for the night. Problem. We had reservations, so it clearly wasn't our fault, as we explained to the manager. So he said this wasn't a problem, and that we could just move to one of the other hotels this company owned, which were supposedly nicer and more centrally located. We were upset, but there wasn't anything we could do, so we said okay. We were then transported to the 2nd hostel. That's when the real fun began...

10:00PM- Once we were all safely inside this 2nd hostel, we went to the front desk to check in. We said that we had booked a private room for 6. Well apparently these 2 hostels weren't as closely related as we thought. This one didn't offer any private rooms of 6. What they did offer, we were told, were co-ed rooms. Oh, and that we were going to have to be split up into pairs and sleep in 3 different rooms. 3 different co-ed rooms. 3 different co-ed rooms in the city of Amsterdam. Well, that just wasn't going to work. So, we explained to the man at the front desk that we had paid for a private room and were simply not going to be split up like that. This did not go so well. First of all, there was a huge conference going on in Amsterdam, so transferring to another hotel for under $150 was out of the question (we know this because we had the man at the front desk call about 8 different hotels trying to find us some rooms). Second, there were already at least 4 other people in every other room at this hostel, so there was absolutely no way the 6 of us could stay together. Not to mention the fact that people who worked there didn't seem to understand why anyone wouldn't want to stay in a co-ed room.
11:00PM- a couple of us decided to go ahead and take one of the rooms. Okay, so 2 down, 4 to go.
11:15 PM- we called Thomasina (one of the one's in charge of us in London) to ask her what we should do. She called the first hostel to try and talk to them, and was basically told that we were no longer their problem because they had already passed us off.
11:30 PM- we began to seriously consider the possibility of going to a train station and sleeping there. Also, man at the front desk was beginning to show signs of frustration....
12:ooAM- we decided to take the only option we had left- stay awake all night sitting in the dining area of the hostel. One of us tells our decision to poor man at the front desk, demands that we have our money back, and informs him that we will also be having free breakfast in the morning, seeing as how we will inevitably be the first ones at breakfast. Man at the front objects to none of this, and just looks pleased that we will be leaving him alone.
2:00AM- man who transported us to 2nd hostel comes into our dining area, to see 1 girl sprawled across a table, another girl asleep on the floor with blankets all around her, and the other 2 playing a drowsy game of cards. He looks at us, then tells us that they do in fact have a room for us after all.
2:15AM- turns out room is quite nice. It has a TV and it's own shower/bathroom. very nice.
9:50AM- wake up and hurriedly rush down to breakfast (which ends at 10AM)... ironic, huh.
10:45AM- finally check out of hostel.

yay. but that's not all!...

3:30 PM- after bus tour, we ate lunch in a cafe. 2 in our group, who like to spend a considerable amount of time in museums, decided to go ahead and go to the Van Gogh museum, which we already had tickets for, and which closed at 6. Since it was only 15 minutes away by tram, we decided to wait about 1/2 an hour and then leave for the museum. We thought we could all meet up at 6 when it closed. Good plan right?
4:10PM- the 4 of us got on a tram headed for the museum.
4:30PM- we got off at the stop we assumed was for Van Gogh, since the bus driver had said the words Van Gogh right before it (we couldn't understand the other words, you see, because they were in Dutch)
4:45PM- after walking down a few roads and turning various directions, we discovered that we were no where near the Van Gogh museum.
5:00PM- managed to finally get on the right tram for the museum
5:15PM- arrived at Van Gogh! had 45 minutes to look at 4 floors of art AND make it to the gift shop!

Then, we went on our canal tour, went to McDonalds, and then to the bus station.

9:15PM- we get to the bus station and check in. The man who checks our passports says "thank you" as he hands everyone's passports back... to me he says "gracias"... o well.
10:ooPM- bus leaves for London!
6:15AM- arrive at the border of France and the sea and are told we have 15 minutes to get off the bus, have our passports checked again, and get back on the bus before the ferry leaves.
6:25AM- everyone gets back on bus (I do, after being asked ridiculous questions such as how am I paying for college and what my parent's occupations are...) and waits for it to move.
6:35AM- bus has still not moved. Some are becoming concerned since we now have a -5 minutes to make it to the ferry.
6:36AM- a man who was on our bus comes back with a security guard, collects his stuff, and then leaves. Apparently he couldn't make it past security.
6:40AM- after racing all the way to the ferry entrance, our bus driver decides to inform us that we have indeed missed our bus, and the next one will be arriving at 8AM.
So we sat on the French border, on a Dutch-speaking bus, for an hour and a half.
10:00AM- FINALLY make it back to London.

And that was Amsterdam. pictures to come later.

plays, baths, rocks, football, and the queen!!

2007-09-26T03:17:00.000+01:00

As you can probably guess from the heading, this past weekend was very busy!

Here's basically what I've been doing (sorry the pictures are pretty random, I apparently still haven't figured out how to add them correctly):

On Friday, a group of us went to Stonehenge. I'll admit that while I'm glad I went to see it, this probably wasn't the most exciting thing I did during the weekend.

On Friday, we also went to Bath. This is a picture from inside the abbey. I couldn't believe how advanced this architecture was for the time period during which it was built! We are studying these types of elaborate cathedrals in humanities right now, so it's very interesting to be able to first read about it, then come and look at it.

This is another view from the back of Bath Abbey.

This is my friends, Natalie and Rachel, and me at a football game we went to on Saturday. Even though people have already told me, I never really believed that soccer was so big in Europe until I actually saw it for myself! It is crazy!! Fans were chanting, singing, yelling, fighting, etc throughout the whole game. Quite an experience!

On Thursday night, we saw Wicked! It wasn't directed too much differently from the US version (which I've already seen), but the fact that Glinda and the Wicked Witch had British accents definitely made it worthwhile!

The 2 teams that played aren't even the top London teams, and look at how many fans there are! It was so crowded that afterwards we were prevented from leaving when some guards basically formed a barricade right in front of us for "crowd control purposes"

Sunday, 6 of us toured Buckingham Palace (the queen is currently on her yearly trip to Scotland, so they open it up for visitors). This is a view from the back. Too bad we couldn't take pictures inside...

The gardens of Buckingham.

Look at the little crown on top of the light post! I thought that was a nice touch.

So after Wicked we waited around near the stage door for the cast to come out, and ended up taking a few pictures with some of them. This one is with Elpheba (eventually the wicked witch). She's in the back middle with blonde hair!

Here are some more pictures of Stonehenge...

Okay, so Bath is Bath because this is where some Roman baths used to be. This is a hot springs, so I guess that intrigued a lot of people to the town.
Since we all know how appealing this green water looks, the gift shop was nice enough to let people get a free taste of it (yea... I passed on that one).

This town is called Lacock, AND this is the location of the Potter's house (used in the Harry Potter movies). Also, the abbey here was used to film some scenes for the movie.

So, as you can see, it's been a very eventful weekend! On top of that, I've had a few papers to write for classes. Class is going well for the most part. Humanities is interesting, along with english literature. My communication research class is really boring, but I know that it's something that I need to understand how to do so I'm okay with that. Science is by far my least favorite class. However, I would still much rather be taking this class here in London than back in California. So, I really can't complain too much!

I really appreciate yall writing me e-mails! It's nice to have things to read other than class notes.

6 of us are going to Amsterdam this weekend, so be looking for pictures from there next week!

The grass is always greener.... in SCOTLAND!

2007-09-16T22:48:00.000+01:00

What a weekend it's been! At about 9:30 Thursday night, 15 of us went down to the coach station to get on an all night bus headed for Edinburgh. After trying to sleep on that for 8 hours, I'm actually thankful for my hard mattress here at the house. After arriving in Scotland at 7:30AM, we took another bus to our hostel. Or so we thought... (see below).
Once we got a little more settled in, we went into the city to go on some tours. First, we went up to the Edinburgh castle. This is the first time I've ever been inside a castle! It was amazing looking at everything. We saw the Crown Jewels, a war memorial, the prisons, and so much more. Later that day we took a 3 hour walking tour around the city, and got to learn a lot more about Scotland and it's history. We saw the coffee shop where JK Rowling wrote her first book and places where witch trials were held. The town carries so much significance for various moments in history. I'm so fortunate I got to experience it all! The shopping was pretty good too. I ended up getting a pair of rain boots for free because the lady in the store didn't want to bother getting a few dirt marks off of them herself!
The next day, we went on yet another bus ride touring the Highlands. It was an all day adventure, but well worth it. The tour guide was great- he told us about the wars that took place throughout the centuries there. We stopped in some small little towns for coffee and shopping. Also, we rode the Lochness boat (AND even spotted Nessie... kind of). Our driver took us around the countryside, giving us glimpses of some of the most beautiful places I've ever seen! there was also a girl on our bus from Munich. I talked with her about Germany, and all the places she's travelled around Europe. It was very interesting having a conversation with someone from another culture like that.
Our bus left about 10PM last night. Needless to say, by the time we got back this morning we were all exhausted!

Tonight, we went to HTB (the same church we went to last week). I know I said last week that it was one of the best services I've ever attended, but tonight managed to top them all! It was by far the best worship experience I've ever had. By the end of the service, people were literally shouting and jumping. The pastor asked us to move the chairs out of the way so we could all stand in the center together and sing and dance. And I know that most of you are probably thinking, "what kind of crazy church dares to jump around during worship?". Well, all I know is that I have never been in a more powerful place in my life. I honestly expected to come to London and see everyone acting well-behaved, sharply dressed, and quiet Instead, I found the most passionate group of believers I have ever encountered. It was amazing.

Okay, here are some pictures from Scotland!

Lake Lochness

Harry Potter was filmed here!

NESSIE. ooooo.

one of the cannons inside Edinburgh Castle!

This was the inspiration for Hogwarts (Harry Potter)!

some of the girls at one of the stops during the Highland tour!

umm. So the bus driver who dropped us off "near" our hostel said we shouldn't have any problem finding it. He suggested we "just take the cut through the field over there and it won't be too far!"

Too make a long story short, we attempted to take his advice, and as a result ended up at our hostel over an hour later....

the golf course that we ended up at while trying to find our hostel! It was quite an experience...

Start of classes

2007-09-11T00:11:00.000+01:00

Yesterday, we went to the Holy Trinity Brompton church, which is a Church of England. It was a lot different than I expected. They sang mostly the same songs we sing at church back home. The preacher led a really good sermon about evangalism in the world. It was "Vision Sunday", so we got to hear a lot about the different programs going on. From what others have said, they have a pretty big college group. Overall, I think it was one of the best Sunday morning services I have ever attended (not to mention the building was gorgeous)!

Classes started today. The first one I went to is called "Science as a Way of Knowing". I was very pleased when one of the first things our professor said was, "well, we aren't actually going to be doing much science in here". I think this class is going to be more about learning the history of science. For our science lab, we took a field trip to the Science Museum across the street. The last class I had today was English Lit. It looks like it's going to be about British theatre. So I'm definately looking forward to that!

We ate at a place called Beruit Express for dinner tonight. It was Lebanese food, so I was a little skeptical at first. But it ended up being pretty good.

I've booked my first trip out of London! This Friday 15 of us are going to Edinburgh. So check back to see what will be some amazing pictures of Scotland!

Greenwich and Harrods!

2007-09-09T00:59:00.000+01:00

Yesterday we took a ferry to Greenwich Village (below is a picture of some of us standing on the Prime Meridian!). There was a long line (or I guess I should say 'queue') of people waiting to take their picture on the line. But it was still a pretty cool experience. We spent the rest of the day walking around London, trying to orientate ourselves around the city a little better.
This morning we set off on a scavenger hunt around the city. However, we somehow ended up spending most of our time shopping and walking around Harrod's. It's so big! They have basically anything you could ever want in that store, including a pet shop! Their motto is something like "anything for anyone, anywhere". Afterwards we went searching for some school supplies, since classes start on Monday. By the time we arrived back at the house, we had been walking around the city for about 6 hours. After resting, we continued our exploration and found a cute place to eat called The Goat Tavern.
Tomorrow we are going to a Church of England called Holy Trinity. Supposedly they have a good college group there.
Well, it's currently 2 AM (I guess I still haven't adjusted to the time change) so I should probably try and get some sleep!

A few more pictures:

Prince's Gate- The Pepperdine House!
The London Eye

Natalie and me in front of Big Ben and Parliment

Tower Bridge

finally!

2007-09-06T23:47:00.000+01:00

Hey everyone!

We finally got to our house yesterday (after hours and hours of waiting in airports and planes with Natalie)! It's so hard to believe that I'm really going to be living here for 3 months. Even after sitting through orientations about transportation and safety, and going on a 4 hour-long sightseeing trip all around London, it still hasn't sunk in yet that this is now my home.
After arriving at the house, we had a lunch in the library, then a quick meeting to pass out ID cards, class schedules, transportation information, and other things like that. We then toured the house and learned a little about the history of it (it was originally owned by a member of Parliment).
Last night we ate at this noodle bar called Wagamama's. Supposedly they have the best noodles in London. Tonight we ate at a pancake/crepe restaurant called My Old Dutch that was VERY good. Every night that we eat out as a group we are going to a different restaurant!
Even though I'm still a little nervous, I'm so excited about experiencing life in Britain. There are so many places and things I want to see and do! Too bad I have to go to class during the week. :)
Well, that's enough for now!