Tour Guide Laura and Ellyn

My mom is here for the second week of spring break! She is staying with Mrs. Goncer at a hotel near where Ellyn lives.

This morning I took the train to Waterloo to meet them for breakfast. I thought we were meeting at the station, but Ellyn texted me saying they were at the restaurant already. Whoops! I ran through Waterloo trying to find the right tube to get me to Trafalgar Square. I couldn't remember the stop name or what line I was supposed to take, so I guessed. I guessed right! I made it to the restuarant in pretty good time. You know how when people live in big cities and they are running through a busy part of town trying to get to work on time? That's what it felt like. It was stressful, even though I was just meeting people for breakfast!

When we were done eating we went to Trafalgar Square since we were right there. We then made our way to Buckingham Palace (the Queen was not in), St. Jame's Park, the area where Volleyball was played in the Olympics and then saw Big Ben and Westminster Abbey.

I am a HUGE fan of the Royal Family.... I think they're all adorable (especially Will and Kate). The first time I saw Westminster Abbey I couldn't stop thinking about the Royal Wedding. Today, we took a tour of the Abbey. It was just like the other cathedrals with a lot of tombs (including Isaac Newton's). The most exciting part for me was when we got to the part where Kate walked down the aisle for her wedding. I was really excited! I also got a picture by the door she walked in for her wedding. The Abbey overall is beautiful. There were some really pretty stain glass windows and many important tombs there. We even saw Britain's oldest door!

After we toured the Abbey we were hungry so we headed to The Sherlock Holmes Restaurant. I had my first yorkshire pudding, it was good! From there we took our mom's on their first tube ride... it was precious! Who would ever think that I would have to show my mom around London? It's just weird to think that I'm her "tour guide" for the week. Whenever we were about to get on any public transportation Ellyn and I had to make sure that our mom's had their travel cards ready. We took them to Picadilly and then got back on the tube to head to King's Cross station. We forgot about rush hour and the tube was packed. My mom couldn't stop laughing because she didn't know where to put her hands without touching other people.

Speaking of crowds, the line for a picture at platform 9 3/4 was ridiculously long! I have never seen it so long before. So we just showed it to them, they got a picture of the platform, and then we showed them the gift shop!

We got back on the tube and it was not crowded anymore! Hooray! We headed back into the city because we wanted to show our mom's Big Ben and the London Eye lit up at night. It was then we decided to ride the London Eye. It would be cool to see it at night, plus the line was pretty short! It was harder to see all the buildings, but it was still an amazing sight!

We decided to call it a night after that. We had been on the go since early that morning!

Tomorrow is Easter. It is the first Easter I will not be spending it with my family! The past few years we have gone to my aunt's house for an Easter lunch and easter egg hunt. I will miss that this year, but I only get to spend Easter in London once, right?

Abbey Road

Adam has left England :( He actually left on his birthday... spending his 25th going through security and sitting on a plane all day is probably not what he had in mind.

On Thursday we went to Abbey Road!!! I was very excited about this because I have always been a Beatles fan! One thing that Ellyn and I have noticed is that even though London is very big, the main attractions are really close to each other. We have been close to Abbey Road the whole time and never knew it! We took a bus (Adam's first double decker!) and then got off right in front of the studios. You aren't allowed inside, or even on the parking lot, so there really isn't a lot to see. We saw the outside of the studio and, of course, the road. Naturally, we had to get a picture crossing the road. The funny thing is that this road is still used by locals, so while tourists are trying to re-create the famous picture of The Beatles, cars are trying to get to different places. There was also a lot of graffiti by the studios, a lot of it having to do with The Beatles. The only complaint I had about this little trip was that I had a Frank Sinatra song in my head. Don't get me wrong, I love Frank! It just seemed like I needed "All You Need Is Love" in my head.

From there we got a very long bus ride to Kings Cross for Platform 9 3/4. Adam isn't a huge Harry Potter fan, but we needed something quick to do before dinner. He still thought it was cool to see. I'm trying to convert him to be a real fan, it will happen in time.

We went to the O2 for Nando's, round two! It was delicious, as usual. We also stopped at the 1D World store and I was in heaven. We got on the cable cars to head over the river to the Greenwich Observatory! Remember that moment when I realized I had fallen in love with London? This was that spot. And it happened again. I can't go there without being amazed by the view!

Greenwich

On Friday my mom arrived, along with Mrs. Goncer (Ellyn's mom)! So, we went to pick them up at Heathrow. Ellyn and I were just excited to watch the arrivals of other people. There were so many little kids running up to their dads as they came out of their gate, and a lot of grandparents anxiously awaiting the arrival of their grandkids. It was all just adorable. Eventually our mom's arrived!

Random picture of Picadilly

We got on a bus and headed back to Kingston, where Adam and I had to leave to head to a football game with some of our friends from our jobs back home. After a few long bus rides (I'm not just being dramatic... they were really long bus rides!) we finally made it! We were seeing Crystal Palace. I knew football was big here, so I was excited to experience a game in person! Unfortunately, Crystal Palace lost, but it was still fun to watch the game! I decided I am going to start following Chelsea because they are the team in London that many people support. I know that's not the best reason, but I really don't know any other teams besides Manchester United and I feel like a lot of people back home like them. Now if only I had the chance to actually watch these games on tv... 

Tour Guide for the Day

Today was Adam's day of being a real tourist in London. We started off our day by going back to the O2 for breakfast and Frankie and Benny's. When we go off the tube to go to the arena this is what I saw:

It's safe to say I freaked out! Especially because the store is open for a month and closes on my birthday... I know how I'll be spending my 20th! Anyway, breakfast was delicious and we got to listen to some good music! After we were done, we walked down to a store in the arena to buy a pop (I was so tired and needed caffeine ) and then walked a little farther just so I could see where they 1D store would be. Adam found it! The grand opening is tomorrow and I'm dying to go, but being the good sister that I am, I'm not going to go so Adam wouldn't be bored. It's a sacrifice, I know, but once Kaley, Maddy, and Kara are back from their trip and I'm back from mine we can all go together!

We headed into the city today so Adam could see the usual tourists attractions.... The London Eye, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, ect. We walked out of Waterloo Station and got in line for the Eye. It looks like it would be a long wait, but the line moves really fast, thankfully! We got in our pod and then got to see an amazing view of the city! Since Big Ben is close, we went there after our rotation on the Eye was over. My Grandma use to call Adam "Big Ben" because he use to always tell her the time when he was younger, so he had to get a picture by it! He wasn't surprised by how small it is, though. It still 

shocks me when I see it. 

On the London Eye

Next up was Westminster Abbey! I was excited because I got to show Adam the door Kate Middleton walked in for her wedding. The nice thing about this area of London is that many of the places tourists want to go to is close together, so from here we walked to the area where volleyball was played at the Olympics! It just looks like a giant open area, but who else can say they walked on the same ground where the Olympics was played on? Across the road from there is St. James's Park, which leads to Buckingham Palace! So we took a stroll through the park and made our way to the palace. The Queen was in today! I was a bit more excited about this than I should have been, but I was in the same area as a royal. How exciting! We walked by Clarence House (where Prince Harry, Prince Charles and Camilla live) and made our way to Trafalgar Square. It was very cold, so we didn't spend a lot of time there. We got some tea, and then hopped on a tube to head to Picadilly.

There is a store at Picadilly called "Cool Britannia" that we stopped at because they have good souvenirs. I haven't gotten to many gifts for people back home yet so I picked up some things for my family (except for Adam, of course). From there we headed to the M&M store. There was a pair of pajamas that Kaley and I saw the first time we went there and they are still there... I was so tempted to buy them but resisted. Partially, because the store was ridiculously crowded today! It must be a lot of people's spring break because I have never seen the city so packed on a weekday. We were getting hungry, so we headed across the street to McDonalds, where we told Ellyn to meet us (she had a rough morning getting locked out of her house so she had to miss out on the festivities that morning). It was Adam's first McDonalds in England! Since they are nicer here, we had to make sure he got to one before he left. He got mozzarella sticks.... who knew they served them at McDonalds!

Once Ellyn met us we decided to get on a tube and head to Oxford Street. You know how I took Adam to Topman yesterday? Well, today we took him to the Topshop that is 3 stories. The top floor is Topman, so we found Adam a new sweatshirt. We went looking downstairs at the girls things for a bit. I began to look at hats because lately my head has been freezing! I'm not much of a hat person because I feel like I just can't pull them off, so I had Ellyn with me to tell me her opinion. In the end it didn't matter of her opinion because I chose the hat she said she liked the least.... typical me. Adam had gone back upstairs by this point and when we found him again he had picked up two more shirts. He really is not much of a shopper, so he even said he is surprised by how much he likes to shop at Topman. Just another reason they need to put Topshop and Topman all over the States.

The rest of the night consisted of us walking aimlessly through the stores. We walked into the Disney Store (Ellyn and I can't walk past one without walking inside), Primark, and then we found the Forever 21.... but it was closed due to a power outage. Of course! By this point we were all getting a little tired and decided to get on the tube to head back home.

"Finding Nemo" section at the Disney Store

Tomorrow we are planning on going to Abbey Road! I am a huge Beatles fan and have been looking forward to Abbey Road for a while! Who would have thought I would be so excited to cross a road...

Kingston

Today began my role of a tour guide. It started off with us trying to get back to Kingston. I had only been to Greenwich a few times, so I didn't know how to get to Waterloo from here. The front desk helped us out and told us to take the DLR to a certain stop and then take the Jubilee Line to Waterloo. Sounded pretty easy! But it took us a lot longer than planned because Adam did not have an Oyster card yet. So we bought one ticket for the DLR and then bought what we thought was an Oyster at the Jubilee ticket station. The lady made it seem like it was a good idea to buy a certain type of Oyster, so we bought it for him (when she almost rang us up for another I quickly said I don't need one. When she looked at me I said "I live here." It was so cool to say!). It was working perfect, until we got out of zones 1 and 2. Apparently the Oyster card only works in those zones. We managed to make it work today, but it was quit irritating!

We were supposed to meet Ellyn at the O2 phone store so we could put more minutes on our phones. Well, we were running late. Ellyn sent me a text saying she had already added the minutes and would be in town so to let her know when I got there. As soon as I put the minutes on my phone I called her and we decided to meet at Kings Tun for lunch... we had to show Adam the pub everyone hangs out in! After dinner, we took Adam on the small tour of Kingston. He had said he wanted to buy a nice shirt, so we went to Topman, which is the guy version of Topshop. As you may know, Topshop is on of my guilty pleasures here, so I was really excited that Adam was going to get something form Topman! We found him a nice shirt, a sweatshirt and a new hat (the one he bought in Germany ripped). There was a zip-up hoodie he considered buying, but decided to wait. He mentioned later how he kind of wanted it, so I said we could go to the Topshop on Oxford Street (they have a Topman section in there). I am so excited that he wants to go shopping for clothes while he's here!

Commercial being shot in town

We also saw a commercial being filmed in town today. I think it was for a car company, but I'm not sure. It was cool to see, but it really got in the way of our shopping!


After Topman we took him to another guilty pleasure of ours, Sblendid. It's the milkshake place in town that is amazing. I wish I could put a taste on a blog because words don't do it justice. It's just heaven in a cup. Simple as that.

We walked around Kingston some more and showed him Thames River, too. It started to get cold, so Ellyn headed back to her house to do her laundry and Adam and I headed back to Greenwich. I wanted him to have Nando's so we went to O2 arena since there is one in there. I showed him around the area of the O2 that was open (just restaurants) but I realized it is exactly like Kingston! A lot of the restaurants there are also in Kingston and I just never realized it before, including the Gourmet Burger place.

NANDO'S

We had an early night... we were exhausted from all of the walking we did! We got to take the airline and DLR home. Tomorrow we are heading into the city to do the typical tourist things. Let's hope I can be a good tour guide of the important buildings!

Auf Wiedersehen

We left Germany on Monday, but before we left we had to have a hamburger. We were in Hamburg, after all! So we went to the classiest place we could think of... McDonalds. The real reason we went there was because Ellyn and I want to go to a McDonalds in every country we go to. They're so much nicer here!

Having a hamburger in Hamburg

After we had our hamburger we decided to make our way to the airport. We took a train to get there. I never realized how many other cities have public transportation. I always think the big cities that are known for it... NYC, Chicago and London. But Hamburg's public transportation is similar to London's... they even have a tube (the underground)! We had a while to wait at the airport, so Ellyn and I walked around trying to find German shirts while Adam sat with our luggage. We eventually found some football (soccer) shirts and bought them because they were really soft. We don't even know what team it is, but we think it is the team that nobody likes because they did not have very many shirts for sale for that team.

Leaving Germany

We boarded our plane and headed back to London... home sweet home! Ellyn asked me a really hard question: If you could get any song lyric tattooed on your body, what would it be? Tough, right? Well, my favorite song is "Lego House" by Ed Sheeran so I told her probably something from that song but nothing really stuck out at my. I always love "Your Song" by Elton John, so maybe something from that. It was just a tough question, and that is what I thought about the whole way home.

Our plane was being very british! When we boarded and when we were getting off they were playing classical music. It was actually very relaxing, expect the fact that I had a horrible headache and was really hot. Once we got off the plane we went through customs again. My guy was really chill, which was good since I wasn't really in a mood to get asked a lot of questions. He looked at my Visa and asked what I was studying. When we saw my passport he looked at it, thought for a minute and said "27." I said "excuse me?" and he said "I was 27 when you were born... but I don't look that old, right?" He was such a delight to talk to! And just like that, I was stamped back into England! Ellyn had a bit more of a tough time, though. Her lady kept asking her questions on why she left, how was she paying for the trip, and other questions like that. Adam got done before her and he was a few people behind her in line.

O2 Arena at night

Once we all made it through we figured out how we were all going to get home. Adam had a hotel in Greenwich and I decided to stay with him so we could travel easier together. We helped Ellyn find the bus stop and then Adam and I made our way to the underground. It was a very long trip (almost an hour and a half) but eventually made it to Greenwich! We got off the stop where the O2 arena is, so I showed him that lit up at night. We then asked a worker which bus we should take, and he told us a number but not a stop to get off, so we just decided to take a taxi to make sure we got to the hotel.

Adam is awesome at picking out hotels. I thought Ellyn and I did good job with having bunk beds in Germany, but the hotel in London is super classy. I don't even know how to describe it, so here is a video of it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk0l9_hi7MU

Fancy, right?

We were tired from the flight so we decided to go to bed fairly early. Since Adam is only in London for a few days we had to start exploring right away!

Sprechen Sie Englisch?

Today was our first official day in Germany! We decided to sleep in a little since we were all so tired from the night before. It is also my moms birthday today and I had planned on being the first one to say Happy Birthday to her (the time change is great for things like that!) but we only have 24 hours of free wifi at the hotel so we decided to save it till tonight. But Happy Birthday again, Mom :)

Before I talk about today, I mostly remembered three phrases in German: Ich bin mude, Ich habe hunger, and Ich bin ein berliner. They mean I am tired, I am hungry, and I am a jelly doughnut. Two of those would be kind of helpful! The word I've been using the most has been "Danke" which is "Thank you."

We started our morning at a restaurant for breakfast.... and what a breakfast we had! Anywhere we go we have to ask "Sprechen sie englisch?" to ask if they know any english. Thankfully, everyone knows enough that we can easily communicate. We told the waitress that we wanted something for breakfast, so she told us what she had and we said that sounded good! We sat down and our food was brought to us pretty fast. I didn't realize we had ordered so much! Each of us had 2 plates full of food, plus another basket of bread was brought out.

Our breakfast

We went back to the hotel after that because we had left the map of Hamburg and bus schedule in the room. When we got to the room we realized it was being cleaned, but since we just wanted to grab 2 things I decided to go in and get them real quick. Lesson of the day: if you ever have the chance to make a German boy scream, do it. I walked in and saw the guy cleaning the bathroom so I said "Hi, I just forgot something1" and he went "AH! Oh... sorry. You just scared me!" I had to quickly leave the room so he wouldn't see me laugh. It was just so funny!

Adam and me

Anyway, we took the bus to the shopping area of Hamburg. The buses here are not double deckers like in London, but they are two buses combined. When we got to town we just walked around for a long time. We wanted to find a "tourist-y" store but they don't have them anywhere! If they do, it was not where we were looking. We had heard of a chocolate museum, so we took the Underground to the stop that was right by the museum.





Adam stood in line to buy the tickets while Ellyn and I looked at all the chocolate. Once Adam bought the tickets he found us and told us the whole tour would be in German. Oh... this was going to be interesting. We didn't realize it was a guided tour. We thought it would be a self-guided tour. Oh well! Might as well do it.... there were free samples at the end.

My chocolate bar!

We could not stop laughing over what we were doing. At one point we were given instructions on how to make our own chocolate bars. Since we could only understand bits and pieces of what the tour guide was telling us, we just watched what everyone else was doing. We thought we were doing a good job of fitting in. Another part in the tour we were given two "waffles" (it is what they called them... it is kind of like a wafer in a way) and we were supposed to tell the tour guide if we wanted milk chocolate on them, dark chocolate, or one of each. Well, we panicked. What were we supposed to say! Adam decided he didn't want any because we were given chocolate earlier in the tour. I just said I was going to point at the milk chocolate. Ellyn said she would point at the dark chocolate and then we would give our second one to each other. Perfect! We decided by this point they definitely knew we didn't speak German. The tour was hilarious but it is really hard to explain in words. I took videos of it so I'll post a link later!

The most German-looking building we could find

We decided to make our way back to towards the bus stop to find some dinner. We found a pizza place, but had trouble reading the menu. When our waitress came over, we asked if she spoke english and she did! We asked if she could explain the menu to us, and then she flipped the menu over.... the other side was in english!

We got on a bus back to our hotel and got our 24 hours of free wifi code from the desk. Finally we had internet access!! We leave tomorrow to head back to London, so we just have one more day of trying to figure out what everyone is saying. Probably should have studied my German a little more before I came here.

Guten Tag!

We made it to Germany!!! But it was quit the journey to get here....

I met Ellyn at the bus stop for the bus to take us to Heathrow Airport to pick up Adam around 11 am. Well, we got off one stop too late, but it ended up not being a big deal! Since the stop was at Heathrow, we ended up being able to take a train to the terminal 4 to meet him. These trains are so much nicer than the ones we use to get around London!

When we got to terminal 4 we had some time to kill before he was supposed to land so we were looking at the store right there. I happened to find the magazine of my dreams... it had Olly Murs on the cover as the main story, along with shorter stories about One Direction and Loveable Rogues. I had to get it! I needed something to read on the flight and the few hours we had to kill before we got on the plane!

Well, we kept waiting and waiting and watching people come out of customs but had not seen Adam yet. We were looking at what people were wearing to see if they were from Michigan... let alone America. Once we saw girls carrying Vera Bradley luggage and guys wearing sweatshirts with a sports team on it we knew the Michiganders had arrived! A few minutes we saw Adam walk out.... obviously concerned about March Madness because he had his Michigan hat on. That's another thing I love about London, they're not involved with March Madness! I'm not a basketball fan so it's perfect! Now, baseball season is starting soon and that is another story. I will be keeping up with Tigers games while I am here.

We had nothing better to do than to go to our terminal for our flight to Germany that night. We took the train to our terminal and again got excited over how nice they were! Adam didn't seem as excited but once he see's the trains in London he will understand. Once we got to our terminal we printed our tickets and were about to check in Adam's bag, but found out we were too early to check it in. So we found a Caffe Nero and got some lunch! We sat on the ground for about 3 hours waiting to check in. Adam took a nap, Ellyn was playing a game on her computer and I beat 3 levels on the game on my phone (for those of you who know how I struggle with this game you understand how big of a deal this is!).

Adam likes his new pillow!

It was finally time to check in! The first thing we did was scan our boarding pass to even be allowed near security (it is kind of like the subway in New York City... or an Oyster card in London!). Once we got through security we realized we didn't have a gate printed on our ticket and our gate wasn't on the screen. We still had some time before our plane was supposed to leave so we decided to get Adam some British things. First, we got him a Lucozade. He said he didn't mind it and that it reminded him of Sunkist! He had bought a Galaxy Caramel bar so he had part of that and liked it! We told him to get that caramel bar over a Cadbury caramel bar... we'll give him a Cadbury milk chocolate bar later. And last but not least, I gave him part of my bueno bar and his eyes literally lit up. So far he is liking the things I like in London! I just can't wait to take him to Nandos...

Anyway, I also found little dolls of One Direction and Little Mix at the airport. The funny thing about it was that there was one doll left of each member of each band. So weird! Also, they have so many high-end stores at Heathrow! Basically any designer possible, even a Harrods and Hamley's toy store!

Well, it was getting close to boarding time and our gate had still not been called. Eventually our flight got delayed and 15 minutes before our flight was supposed to leave the gate FINALLY got called. As we were boarding I began to hear a lot of people speak German and it threw me off guard. Obviously people on our flight would be German, but in my mind they were all just like me going on a holiday.

Our flight was quick and good! Once we got off the flight everything was in German. We went through customs and got another stamp in our passport! I don't understand why everyone worries about customs. The only question I got asked was if this was my first time in Germany. That was it! I got stamped in! We got Adam's luggage and then went to find some food. There was a little shop on our way out of the airport so we stopped in there to get some food. We were looking at the sandwiches  but everything was in German. Adam took 3 years of German in high school and I took 2 years, but that was a long time ago! Thankfully the more we heard it started to come back to us. The worker there thankfully spoke a little english and helped us get what we wanted. When he rang our order he asked where from the States we were from. He said he really liked LA and kind of knew where Michigan was. Before we left he put chocolate by the sandwiches we bought and said "Happy Easter." Free German chocolate!

The Bathroom area is a full hallway... say hi to Ellyn!

Bunk Beds!

We took a taxi ride to our hotel. We're pretty sure he drove us in circles for a while so he could get more money, but we didn't know how to argue with him. We made it to our hotel and it has bunk beds. So cool! The hotel is kind of like a hostel in a way because it looks more "young." I don't know how else to describe the room. It is just so different than any hotel I've been in! We were all exhausted so we went to bed right away. Adam had a reason to be tired.... he'd been on 3 planes that day! Ellyn and I had only been on 1. I guess sitting in airports is just as exhausting!

One Week Of Zero Concentration

So the week before spring break is just like any other... long. But since we have a three week break and it's filled with traveling, the week before seemed even longer! But surprisingly, it was bearable.

On Wednesday we saw the play "This House" with my British Life and Culture class. Now, the night before I couldn't fall asleep so I stayed up to make a video of what has happend so far with the little videos I had taken (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ci5Rr-9b9cc) so I was exhausted! The play was much better than I thought, though. Since it wasn't a musical I wasn't expecting to like it, but I did laugh a few times! There was also a band that would play randomly. Twice it made me jump because they were so loud. Kaley was just laughing at me and would warn me "Ok, the band is about to play." so I wouldn't jump again.

"This House"

One Friday at 2 I was officially on spring break! The thing is that it really didn't hit me yet. I was leaving the next morning to pick up my brother, Adam, from Heathrow and then we were heading to Germany that night with Ellyn. I had not idea what to pack yet because I didn't think about it yet! I did make a small list of travel size things I had to get, so after class I went to Boots (like a Rite Aid, but fancier) with Kaley, Kara and Maddy. They are leaving on Monday for a two week trip through Scotland and Ireland. After we bought everything we needed we had dinner and then went to the pub to hang out a little longer since we wouldn't see each other for three weeks.... so sad!!! While we were at the pub Maddy looked at me at point and said "You're going to Germany tomorrow!" and was so excited about it. I just said "Yeah..." like it was no big deal because it still hasn't sunk in. Once she said that, though, I realized I should go back to my house to pack.

I went back and packed everything into one backpack and a large purse. Pretty good for me! Now I'm just worried about how I'm supposed to pack a full week into one backpack in a few weeks for Scotland and Ireland.

The Luck of the Irish

British people on twitter are awesome. The grocery store that I go to here is the one that supports Red Nose Day. On Friday, which was Red Nose Day, I stopped by on my way home from Uni to pick up some vegetables (I was actually craving them.... I don't even like vegetables!). While I was there I noticed a lot of the workers were wearing red onesies. They got to wear pajamas in public and no one cared. They were so lucky! So I tweeted how I would want to work at Sainsbury's because they get to wear onesies in public and not be judged for it because that's my dream. Well, Sainbury's tweeted me back saying they would love to have me on their team and sent me a link for a job application. What?? I got offered a job in London?! Who else can say that? I politely decline. I told them that I was just a study abroad student and would only be here until June, but if I ever moved back I would keep them in mind. They said deal. So there! If I ever want to move back to London I have a job! At least a part time job...

But speaking of Red Nose Day, it was really fun! I got to wear my shirt to Uni and to the store. I saw some other people wear them, and even saw a few people wearing the noses in public! I saw on Facebook later that Kingston Uni had a Red Nose Day event, but I didn't see it while I was there. That night I got to watch the Comic Relief event online. The skits were pretty funny. In a way it kind of reminded me of Saturday Night Live! They were raising money all night during the event. Singer Jessie J even shaved her head for the charity! What some of the sponsors did was pretty crazy! Louis from One Direction dyed his hair red, Nick Grimshaw (BBC 1 radio host) dyed his as well and held little charity events on his show all week. And just in case you were wondering, One Directions performance during the event was amazing. The charity raised 75.1 million pounds, which is a LOT of US dollars!

Happy Red Nose Day!

Saturday started the raining season in London, or at least in my head it did! Kaley and I had planned to meet in town around 12 because we each had a few things to do. Well, it is never a good idea when just me and Kaley are together because we always end up buying things we don't really need! Thankfully, Kaley told me that she invited Maddy as well! But here is an impressive story: I found a pair of shoes Kaley wanted for just 5 pounds. Such a good deal! And I had found a dress that I could wear to my cousins wedding this summer for just 10 pounds! I tried on the dress and it didn't look good, so I knew right away I wasn't going to get the dress. Kaley was going to get the shoes, but was still a bit hesitant. With the shoes that cheap, it just seemed to good to be true. So we looked them over and they seemed like they wouldn't last long. So, being the good friend I am, I told her not to get them. And we walked out of the store empty handed. We were proud of ourselves! Pretty sure we gave each other a high-five as we left.

We met Maddy after that and got some lunch at Nando's. I had the worst experience trying to order, though. For being in England, not many of the workers here speak clear English! I always get the same thing when I go there so I went up and ordered my usual but she kept asking me these questions and I couldn't understand it... it was a mess. Thankfully, Kaley and Maddy were right behind me in line and they pretty much ordered for me. They're always looking out for me!

Well, we wanted dessert, like usual, so we went to the milkshake place! I normally would't blog about this, expect the fact that now the worker is starting to recognize us. He laughed when he saw us approach the counter because he pretty much knows our order now. In our defense, we only go so much so we can get that free milkshake from using our Sblendid card!

What else are we to do on a rainy Saturday night than go to a movie! We saw "The Guilt Trip." Kara and Rachel met us at the theatre. None of us thought the movie was as funny as we thought it was, but what movie ever is. We went to McDonalds after that to relax for a little bit before heading home for the night.

St. Patty's Day

Top o' the morning to ya! Sunday was St. Patrick's Day and there was a parade and festival in Trafalgar Square that we decided to check out. I met Kaley and Maddy at Waterloo station at 11, and then headed to Trafalgar to celebrate being Irish! But my sad news of the day was that I found out I wasn't Irish. I knew I wasn't, but I was hoping that maybe I was just a tad Irish. My mom said no.... I was quit bummed!

The parade was really fun to watch! There were many irish step dancers, bagpipe players, and random floats. It was a very long parade, though, so after a while we decided to head over to the festival to see what was happening there and hoping it was a bit warmer! There was a stage that had some Irish musicians playing, which was cool to watch. Eventually, we couldn't take the cold anymore and headed to a restaurant for lunch.

We decided that we were too cold to stand outside all day and wanted to go back to Kingston. We just wanted to go to the pub in town because it would be warm there. We pretty much forgot it was St. Patty's Day until Maddy said we might not even get a table at the pub. We always forget that people might be at the same places we are! We still decided to try it, hoping it wouldn't be crowded. To our luck, it wasn't! We were shocked! We had plenty of options of where to sit, including our usual spot upstairs.

Maddy, Kaley and I just talked for a few hours and we realized that we are triplets. One person would say something, and then the other two would freak out because they were thinking the same thing. I'm not joking when I say this. It happened so many times and about the weirdest topics, too. You know how people say they always wanted to find their un-biological twin? Well, we decided that we are un-biological triplets.

This upcoming week is going to be full of homework. Spring break officially starts after class on Friday! But before then I have a lot of homework and laundry to do.

West End

I've had a very successful week on twitter! Loveable Rogues (the band that opened for Olly Murs) followed me on Wednesday and then Nando's tweeted me back on Friday! I was very happy with that, until Marcus Butler, my favorite British Youtuber, favorited a tweet I sent him. Yup, I about died when I saw that!

But other than that, this week has been similar to the others. I go to Uni and hang out with my friends. I really wish I could say we do exciting things every week, but we still need to have "chill" weeks every now and then! Even on our day off we stayed in Kingston. Part of the reason we did this was since we just went into town on Sunday and didn't want to spend the money when we didn't even have a plan for the day. One thing we did realize that is weird is that going into Central London is such a common thing now that it isn't considered "exciting." Trust me, it is still exciting, but it's not a new experience. Isn't that weird to think about? Most people would be so excited to go into the city, but for us it's part of our schedule now.

On Wednesday after Uni I did make my way to West End to see Wicked! I have always been a fan of The Wizard of Oz and have been dying to see this show for a while. I remember watching The Wizard of Oz with my cousin Stephanie when we were younger (she is the biggest Wizard of Oz fan I know!). After our British Life and Culture class, Ellyn, Sarah, Lorraine, Sam, Christie, Alex, Amanda and I hopped on a train (well... ran onto the train, I guess. We thought we were going to miss it) and headed to Vauxhall to get the Victoria line of the tube. Once we got off the tube the theatre was right outside the station... perfect!

All of our seats were next to each other, so we just kept talking about how excited we were to see Wicked. Most of us had never seen it before and had only heard good things about the show.

I don't even know where to begin with how amazing it was. It absolutely blew my mind! I don't want to give anything away to those of you who have not seen it, but it was one of the best musicals I have seen! I already knew some of the songs from the show, but actually seeing it made the music make so much more sense. We all agreed that it was an amazing show.

With Sarah and Ellyn in front of the Wicked stage

The Apollo Victoria Theatre

Some of the girls wanted to stay in town for a bit, but Sarah, Ellyn and I were ready to head back. On our train ride we talked about everything! We quickly realized that no one else on the train was talking. No one. That tends to happen to us a lot! No matter what public transportation we ride, whether it's the train, tube or bus, no one else seems to talk expect for us. One this train ride we talked about how none of us are ready to leave (thankfully we don't have to think about that for a few months). We joked that the passengers must know our life stories on our train rides because it's so silent! We always say they must be thinking "Bloody Americans/Australians!" in their head. Fun fact: they really do say "Bloody Hell" here.

This weekend will be quit busy. Tomorrow is Red Nose Day, so I get to wear my shirt! Whoo- hoo!! Since this weekend is St. Patricks day there will be multiple festivities happening in town. I'm not to sure of what is going on Saturday, but I know on Sunday there is a parade in Central London to celebrate! May the luck of the Irish be with us all this weekend!

Red Nose Day

Yes, the way I found out about this organization was from One Direction, BUT I would've found out about it eventually!

Comic Relief is a British organization that helps people in the UK and Africa. Here is how my friends and I found out about the organization:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36mCEZzzQ3o

The day after that video premiered, Comic Relief paraphernalia was everywhere! You can't walk into a Sainsbury's grocery store without seeing the red noses for sale by every cash register! I have always been a huge supporter of fundraisers (Comic Relief calls themselves  Fun-Raisers) so of course I wanted to support in anyway that I could on my budget.

First, the single by One Direction was for sale and all proceeds go towards Comic Relief. Seemed easy enough! Now whenever that song comes on my iPod I just feel good about myself because I know the money went to charity.

Second, while walking through town and looking in magazines I always saw ads for Stella McCartney shirts for sale at TK Max (yes... TK Max. Not TJ Max). These shirts were pretty cheap and at least half of the money went towards Comic Relief. So Kaley, Kara and I went to get shirts one day! And then Maddy ended up getting one a few days later. They all got Beatles shirts, but mine has Tommy Cooper on it (he was a comedian).

And lastly, the red nose. This was only one pound and it is just a cool way to remember London and the charity when I go back home! 

I am really excited about Red Nose Day, which is on Friday. That is the day that everyone wears the shirts and whatever else they have to support the cause. I'm not sure how into it people get here, but I have already seen people wear headbands with red noses sticking out of them. Some stores even sell red wigs, red hair spray, red tutus, red socks.... basically anything red that they can!

There was even a telethon on BBC One and BBC Two to help raise money for the cause. They have many British celebrities that help spread the word and support the cause. I am very excited to be able to see how my first Red Nose Day in the UK goes!

Foxes and Nandos and Palaces... Oh My!

Want to know something weird? Seeing a fox is a normal thing here! It's almost like seeing a deer back home. I see them a lot while walking home at night from the bus stop... I saw 3 foxes yesterday! Really random, but I just thought I'd share!

Anyway, this week was just like the others. I feel like I'm so settled here now that my routine is nothing special. I go to uni, do my own grocery shopping, hang out with my friends and head into the city sometimes. This stuff use to be exciting for me (grocery shopping on my own is something I NEVER did back home thanks to my mom cooking and dorm food). But now it's a weekly routine. Milk and bread go bad really fast here so I have to buy those weekly.

On Friday I saw Oz The Great and Powerful. Since we went to the red carpet premiere it only seemed right to see the movie, as well! I also bought a ticket through Uni to see Wicked on Wednesday... so much Wizard of Oz events in a week! But the movie was good. A lot different than I expected, but still good! Finley the monkey was adorable. I can't get over how cute he was! Seriously, whenever he was on the screen I would just saw "awww" because he is that cute. James Franco is cute, too, but Finley might have him beat (ok that might have been a bit dramatic, but do you get my point?). It was cool seeing the movie and thinking "I just saw these actors last week." Oh, the perks of living in big cities!

Something really exciting happened to me, as well! You know how I love Nando's? Well, they replied to a tweet from me! I know it's kind of a silly thing to get excited over, but here's the story: They tweeted something like "A cheeky Nando's and going to see Oz... sounds like a good night." Right before I saw this tweet Kaley, Maddy, Kara and I had gone to Nando's and then decided to see Oz later. WEIRD, RIGHT?? So, I replied to the tweet from Nando's and told them that was our plan and asked if they were stalking us (I mean they said they were doing the same thing we were so it seemed like a good question!). They basically told me I had a great mind. Thanks Nando's!

To start saving money I have began to walk to the grocery store.... which is about an hour walk. I only do this when I have nothing going on for the day so I don't have to rush. It makes me not feel so bad about not exercising, too! So yesterday I woke up fairly early because it's impossible for me to sleep in here! I don't know why but if I sleep until 10 it's a miracle. I'm usually up between 8:30 and 9:30... not ideal! But since I was up and needed milk I decided to go to the store. So after my hour walk there, 20 minute shopping extravaganza, and hour walk back I got a text from Maddy asking if I still wanted to work out. I forgot I said I wanted to! But I did want to go for a run, so we decided to meet at Thames River to go for a jog.

Well, the jog started out good! We did intervals, just jogging to certain landmarks. But before we knew it, we just started to walk the whole time. We were looking for a bridge to walk to the other side of the river (where we originally started), but there was no bridge. So we just kept walking and walking until we eventually walked into a Hampton Court Palace. Completely normal, right? We walked around the other side to get back and even got to walk around some of the gardens in the palace area. We are definitely going back once the weather gets nicer!

That night Ellyn came over for another Disney movie marathon! But before we watched any movies I had a skype date with my family. They were celebrating some of my cousins birthdays. Happy birthday Micah (13), Bella (5) and Olivia (2)! When I answered the call the first people I saw were my mom and Bella. They were at a bowling alley so they couldn't hear anything I said, so my mom just passed her phone around to everyone and I just waved! Kind of a pointless skype call, but it was good to finally see my family! I'm pretty sure this is the longest I have gone without seeing my aunts, uncles and cousins! A real skype date is in order, soon.

I got a tweet that night from my brother Aaron. It was a picture of him and Bella with her birthday hat on and the tweet said "Bella asked me to have you wish her a happy birthday." How very Bella of her! I did wish her a a happy birthday when I first saw her, but she couldn't hear me.

Back to the movie marathon, we only watched one movie! The Little Mermaid is such a classic.... I just love Disney! But after the movie was over, we decided to go make some ramen noodles. Remember how in older posts I said I don't cook? That is still true, and ramen is considered cooking for me. But here's the catch, I didn't even use the stove to make them! I used the tea kettle to boil the water (smart thinking, Ellyn!) and then used the microwave. The fact that I had something other than cereal or a sandwich is a big improvement for me, though, so I might be making all my noodles like that!

Today we had planned to go to another movie premiere (The Croods), but when we got there they said it happened earlier that day. You know how people say you shouldn't trust everything you read online? Well, I guess that goes for when movie premieres are as well. We really wanted to see Ryan Reynolds and Emma Stone, but it looked like that wasn't going to happen. I felt bad for Ellyn because this was one premiere she really wanted to go to. If it weren't for Blake Lively, she would be Mrs. Reynolds. Kaley, Maddy and Rachel were at a Travel Expo in town and were planning to meet back with us for the premiere so I broke the bad news to them.

We didn't want to go back to Kingston quit yet, so we headed to Madame Tussauds to see when the Emma Watson figure would be revealed. I don't remember if I said this earlier, but Ellyn is a HUGE Emma Watson fan. There are no words to describe Ellyn's love for her.... she is the ultimate fan. Sometimes the celebrities go the reveal of their figure to pose with it, so if that happens Ellyn will be able to see her. Cool, right?? Since she dealt with all of our One Direction adventures I want to help her see a celebrity she cares about. Mission Find Emma Watson is in full force. But the workers had no idea when the figure would be revealed so it was a pointless trip.

From there we went to Buckingham Palace since I still haven't seen it. I saw it on the walking tour we did when we first got here, but we walked by it so fast that I don't count it. I was so excited to go there! Sadly, the Queen was not in. But it was still so cool to see! It's kind of crazy thinking that my senior year of high school I was watching Will and Kate drive to the palace after their wedding and now I am seeing it in person.

Make a wish!

Buckingham Palace

Another fangirl moment for me happened. And yes, it dealt with One Direction. They filmed their music video for "One Way Or Another (Teenage Kicks)" throughout London and Africa. Part of it was filmed in front of Buckingham Palace. I got to stand in the exact spot. I didn't know what to do for a picture at this spot. I mean, how do you pose where part of a music video was filmed? I eventually settled on just smiling. Kind of lame, right? I think that is all I could handle, anyway.

THE SPOT where the music video was filmed!

I almost forgot to mention the wild hunt for chocolate that happened earlier!!! This was before we even found out the premiere didn't happen! The other girls were at the Expo, but since Ellyn and I had our trips all planned we decided not to go. When we got into London we had planned on going to the theatre and finding a Starbucks near it to sit in for a while. Well, I had heard that Kinder Eggs are really good here and still have yet to have one. We literally went all over the area of London we were in and failed to find it. We'll just have to find it in Kingston some other time!

Went to the Other Side of the Country For the Day

I actually wrote that paper I wanted to start a few weeks ago! Remember the one that isn't due until May but I wanted to get it out of the way? Well, I finished it! I still have to go through and correct things to make it sound better but at least the hard part is out of the way.

Yesterday, Kara, Rachel Maddy, Kaley, Maddy's friend Hannah and I went to Brighton! This city is on the coast, so while everyone from CMU is posting pictures of them in Florida I still get to enjoy the beach! It was a great day to go, as well. The weather was perfect, and since it was a Tuesday there was not many people there.

Right when we got off the train we headed towards the beach. The first thing we noticed when we started to walk towards the water was that the beach was not made out of sand, but rocks. It actually made it really hard to walk through. We spent a while by the water. We put our hands in it (it was freezing!) and then tried to find some good rocks to skip.

We started to walk towards the pier and ferris wheel, but got sidetracked by ice cream. It was a wonderful day by the water and a pier... how could we not get ice cream?? Then we made our way to the ferris wheel! It was a great view of the city and it was Rachel's first ferris wheel! It was a small one though so she has to go on the London Eye at some point... baby steps.

Then we went to the Brighton Pier to let out our inner child (as if the ice cream and ferris wheel weren't enough!). We played some arcade games (had a dance battle with Maddy.... still not sure who won) and saw the different rides they had on the pier. Non of us had pounds to exchange for tokens, so we just looked at the rides instead of actually riding them. We were getting hungry for lunch and decided it was necessary to have fish 'n chips in Brighton! For anyone who doesn't know me, I don't eat seafood. It freaks me out that it was in water (I know, it's a weird reason! But it's true...). Even though we already had ice cream earlier, we wanted something sweet again. We found a cute little gelato shop down the road. They had Key Lime Pie gelato, but the Aussies have never heard of Key Lime Pie before. We noticed that whenever we make them try something they immediately say "Oh it tastes like..." and then say some crazy name. They said the Key Lime Pie gelato tasted like Lemon Spider I think? We're convinced they are just making these crazy names up.

Sarah met us in town after that. The reason we went to Brighton in the first place is because Kaley, Sarah and I had tickets to the Olly Murs concert! Once we met up with her we still had plenty of time to kill, so we found the mall in town. While shopping, Kaley and I just kept mentioning how we wanted to buy everything and life would just be easier if we were rich. We found so many dresses that we wanted to buy but would have no reason to buy them! The only reason we would need them was if we had a really fancy dinner to go to. But don't worry, we're trying to figure out a way for us to get rich so we can go to these fancy dinner parties in the pretty dresses.

Sunset in Brighton

Our group got split up so we met everyone up at the pier again and headed to a pub for a bit before we had to leave for the concert. The venue was nothing compared to the O2 Arena (where the One Direction concert was held), but it was a good set up! Speaking of One Direction, there was a screen playing music videos on it and right when we sat down they started playing "One Way Or Another" by them and it's safe to say Kaley and I screamed. Then, a little bit later they played a preview for their 3D movie coming out this summer.... we couldn't handle it! We were more excited about the preview than for the actual concert (until Olly came on... but I'll get to that a little later).

We had talked about this before while shopping, but Kaley is basically my twin. She likes all the same music I do, we always buy similar clothes and she has the same dreams I do (living in a flat in London, having a ton of twitter followers and being rich enough to go to fancy dinner parties.... doesn't that sound nice?). But really, we always talk about how natural it feels for us to be in London and how we are not ready to leave! She is also just like me at concerts, dancing, singing and taking a TON of pictures! And it works out perfect since we like many of the same artists!

Ready for the Olly concert!

The concert was so good! The first opening act was interesting, though. It was a young girl named Titch. She was barefoot while performing  (gross!) and she kept playing with her hair. Sarah, Kaley and I decided she reminded us of a mix between Rebecca Black and Cher Lloyd. It was a weird combination. But the next act was awesome! It was Loveable Rogues and they were on Britain's Got Talent (apparently they got beat out by a dog). You should go check them out! They almost have a reggae feel to them... it's fun to listen to.

Then Olly came on! As expected, he was amazing. I feel like it is hard to describe how good the concerts are that we went to! We had bought these tickets in the second week we were here, so we had been looking forward to it. Olly really knows how to engage the crowd in his shows. I know everyone says this at concerts, but Olly definitely waved to the three of us. He walked to the side of the stage we were on and we were the only ones standing in our section so we started to wave at him. He waved back and gave his cheeky smile he always gives... he's so charming! And that wave was meant for us. I promise you! When he sang his song "Busy" it was exciting for me because that was the first song I had heard from him. There is a line in the song that says "You only get one life" and Kaley just looked at me when he sang it. She had that look on her face that was saying it was fate hearing those words from him. I promise you, back home I really don't believe in the whole "fate" and "destiny" thing, but here I do! I'm not sure what it is, but here things have been working out so well for us that I feel like I have to.

After the concert we went to stand by his tour bus. We saw that the last train was leaving at 11:45 so we were going to leave around 11:30 to get to the station in time. After an hour of waiting (none of us thought it seemed that long!) we saw that we had to go. We met up with the rest of our group who stayed at the pub to watch the Manchester United football game, then headed to the train station. Then our night got interesting. The last train left at 11:35, not 11:45. So we were stuck in Brighton until the trains started up again at 4 am. We asked a worker if there were any trains going anywhere in London and he said no. We must have looked desperate because he came back to tell us we could take a coach bus to Gatwick airport. How nice of him to tell us! So we were off to find out first bus! From Gatwick, we took another coach that dropped us off in Sutton. When we got dropped off there it was almost 3 am. We were all exhausted. Then we took the normal buses we take in London to Kingston and went our separate ways to our buses back home. One of our bus drivers did stop the bus to talk to another bus driver. Really?? It was 3 am and all I wanted to do was get home, not sit on a bus while the driver is talking to another driver.  I didn't get home until 4 am. I had a 9 am the next morning and would have to get up at 7 am for the class so I decided to pull an all-nighter. I don't function well on that little bit of sleep, and now I'll be able to sleep really well tonight!

I thought I had fallen in love with London, but I think I have fallen in love with England. Brighton was absolutely beautiful (even if the train schedule is messed up). Is it to early to start looking at flats to buy after I graduate?

It isn't all Fun and Games in London

I feel like too much exciting events had happened at the end of last week and beginning of this week to even consider this week exciting. But lets give this a shot...

Well, Wednesday really was boring. I had Uni. That's about it! There are some things I do like about my Wednesday's, though! Kingston has an international lunch every Wednesday for a one pound donation. Much cheaper than eating out! Maddy and I both have classes in the morning so we usually meet at noon and then head to the lunch at one. At this weeks lunch we just looked at our pictures and videos from the concert.... we still can't get over how amazing it was! Kaley joined a little bit later and we looked through her pictures, as well. Also on Wednesday is our British Life and Culture class that I have will almost all of my friends! This week, though, Kaley, Maddy and I were just giving each other our pictures and videos to put on our laptops (we still took notes on the class though, don't worry!). This weeks lecture was all about the media so they talked about journalism for a bit. Next weeks lecture is the one we have all been waiting for.... music and sports!

Michelle Williams

Thursday was exciting.... and annoying. Ellyn, Kaley, Maddy and I went to the Oz: The Great and Powerful movie premiere in Leicester Square. Instead of a red carpet they had yellow brick road... so fitting! This "red carpet" was different than the other ones we've been to. The people there weren't really fans of the actors. They were all collectors trying to get as many autographs as they could to sell online for money. Instead of being genuinely excited to see them, they were just yelling at them trying to get their signature. It got old really fast. We didn't stay for the whole time because we couldn't handle it much longer. But, on the bright side, we did see Michelle Williams, James Franco, Mila Kunis and Rachel Weisz!

James Franco

None of us had seen the London Eye or Big Ben lit up at night, so before we went to Waterloo we made a pitstop. I really need to stop going to that area of London because every time I do it makes me want to stay here even more.

Friday was a homework day! I was hoping the exclamation point would make that more exciting, but it didn't. Homework isn't fun in London, either. The wifi at Uni has not been working all week so Ellyn and I went a cafe to work on our British Life and Culture project. Kaley and Maddy met up with us a bit later and then headed into town to find some lunch/dinner (linner?). From there Ellyn headed home and the remaining three went to the cinema see "Safe Haven." It was our first UK film! In the movie they had a fourth of july scene and I kind of forgot I was still in London. I actually forgot a lot of the time during the movie, it wasn't until Maddy would say something that I would remember where I am because of her accent. Really, seeing an American movie in London is weird!

London Eye

The rest of the weekend I hung out with my friends in town and did homework. I am currently in the library at Uni. It is Sunday night.... this is new for me! Back at CMU I would save Sunday nights for hanging out with my roommates and relaxing before another week of classes start. I was hoping to write a full paper, but when I opened up the articles I was going to write about I realized how horrible they were. So, instead of getting a paper done I had to start all over. I have the two articles read and highlighted and am saving the writing part for tomorrow.

Here is proof that I am doing work here!

Turning in an assignment last week and working on a paper now is making me realize that there really is studying involved in study abroad! Even in London it is not all fun and games.