St. James Park

Today turned out to be an amazing day. I woke up and was on my way to class and it was just another gloomy day in London. What a surprise. As I was sitting in class the sun came out and I figured it would come and go. Go, it did not. So as I walked out of the building, the sun was still shining. On this momentous occasion, I decided to go to St. James Park and do some reading. It has become my favorite place in the city.

From there you can see Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, and Big Ben. It is an awesome park. It is pretty small with a small lake going all the way through it. Although the past times I have been there it has been pretty relaxed and a few people here and there, today was not the case. Apparantely this week is the London public school system's Spring Break. So it was packed.

Even though, it was still nice. There are some trees and flowers blossoming which makes me excited for the fact that winter is obviously coming to an end. Not only the flowers were signaling that it was coming to an end, but on my walk home I considered taking my jacket off. I literally have not thought that since I have gotten here, so that is a step in the right direction. Considering I am now on Spring Break, I hope that weather continues, but mostly in Spain since that is where I will be for the next 7 days as of Saturday. Here are some pictures I took from St. James Park.

Buckingham Palace

The London Eye and Big Ben

St. James from Buckingham

Here comes spring

View from where I was enjoying Harry's company

Paris

So this past weekend a couple of my roommates, neighbors, and I went to Paris for about 48 hours. It was full of amazing food, sights, and just amazing times. It was my favorite weekend here so far. I only had three bad things to say about Paris. It stunk. It was dirty. Last but not least, I don't speak French. But seriously, it was one of the coolest places I have ever been to.

The day we left to go there was a nightmare. Instead of shoveling out a few extra pounds to take the train under the English channel, we decided to fly there. BIG BIG BIG mistake. We actually probably ended up spending no more than we would have to take the train anyways. We had to travel about an hour to our airport and then once we got to Paris it was about another hour train ride. So the girls that were taking the train left an hour after us and ended up getting there about 4 hours before us. Like I said, big mistake. Oh well, we were not going to let this hinder our weekend in Paris. That night we went out to a bar which was kind of a dud but it wasn't that big of a deal.

The next morning we decided to get up early and travel down to Versailles. It was the most unbelievable thing I have ever seen and my pictures are not going to do it justice in the slightest. We wandered around there for a few hours and then we went out to lunch at a little creperie where I had possibly the best meal I have ever had in my life. It started off with a nice cup of French cappuccino, which was delicious. Then for the entre. My friend Jack and I both got a flat bread pizza. It had tomato, cheese, basil, and a whole bunch of amazing things. It was was essentially a giant piece of bruschetta. It may have been very well the best meal I have ever eaten in my entire life. Hands down.

After that, we went to the city and walked around. We went down to the back of the Louvre and just explored. We then walked down the river to Notre Dame. At this point it was pretty rainy so that was upsetting but not terrible. We went inside for a while and it was amazing. It was a very cool experience to be inside one of the most famous churches on the planet. I took tons of pictures of it but it did not do it very much justice. Later on that night we went out for a fancy French dinner. We decided we wanted something where we could get an appetizer, entre, and dessert. Everyone was talking about how they wanted to try escargot, but I was not having it. I decided to order a French onion soup. I regret my decision. I decided I wanted to at least try the escargot since everyone was raving about it and it was actually amazing. I am excited to get it again one day. I then had a filet mignon and a creme brulet for dessert. We all shared a couple bottles of wine. It was a perfect way to really experience the French culture.

After that, we made our way over to the Eiffel Tower. It was awesome. I knew it was going to be cool, but it was definitely more than I expected. We took the elevator to the top, because I mean come on, you can't come all the way to Paris, and not do that. I really wanted to do it during the day, but seeing the city all lit up was probably just as amazing. After that, we got back to our hostel at about midnight so we were exhausted and went to sleep.

The next day we got up early again and headed straight to the Louvre. If you want to go to the Louvre I would definitely recommend going first thing when it opens. We went straight to see the Mona Lisa. I really wasn't that excited to see it because frankly, I think it is extremely over-rated and not even a good painting. Even so, it was still really cool just to see it. Usually there is a line, so if there is a line I wouldn't recommend it, but if not, it is pretty cool. We wandered for the next couple hours and saw some pretty amazing art. After that we headed up the street where the Champs de Elysees is, the French version of Rodeo Drive basically. At the end of the road is the Arc de Triomphe, that we realized you could walk up to the top so we were not about to pass that up. After the eight million stairs, the views were unbelievable. After that we went to another cafe and had some last minute delicious French food before we had to make our way back to the airport.

All in all, like I said, it was an amazing weekend. I would love to go back one day and really hope to do so. If you ever get the chance to make it to Paris, I would definitely recommend it.

On top of the Arc

Closer Up

Arc de Triomphe

Mona Lisa.

View from the top

A picture I took of the Eiffel Tower

My friend Katie and I in front of Notre Dame

My meal in Versialles

The Palace of Versailles

Past Week

Sorry I have been failing so miserably, I wish I could stay on top of it more. I just am never by my computer here, and then when I get to it, I always forget or don't have enough time to sit down and think about what to write.

Last weekend we went to this awesome club called Koko for what was Button Down Disco. It was supposedly a hipster(indie) theme, so all my roommates dressed up. We were probably the only one's that didn't get the "Hey, its themed, but don't actually dress up" memo. We will take note of that for next time. It was AWESOME. Picture in your head a really nice and enormous theater that you would go to see a giant Broadway musical in. It basically looked like that with all the seats taken out. The main floor was the dance floor and then there were balconies upstairs with another bar. It was pretty awesome. There are two more of these nights while we're here so we are all planning on going.

On Sunday we all went to the Portobello Road Market for a few hours. It was one of the coolest outdoor markets I have ever been to. We made the mistake of going into a cafe because we were so hungry. Down the road there was more fresh, delicious, amazing food than you could ever imagine. Some people ended up eating again, but I didn't want to spend the money. Later that night, it was time for the Superbowl. And when I say later, I mean way, way, way later.

The Superbowl here does not start until 11:30. A little messed up if you ask me. I really didn't care who won so I cheered for the Packers because everyone I was watching it with hated the Steelers, so I was not about to swim upstream against that. Another downfall of spending Superbowl Sunday in London is they do not provide the proper commercials. Actually they don't play any commercials at all. It was rather frustrating. During what would have been normal commercial breaks, they jumped two these two Americans and a British guy(who knew nothing about football) who spoke basically repeated all the commentating that already happened. Why would I want to watch that?

Today I had to go down to Portobello Road area again for my Marketing class to go to the Museum of Brands, which was really cool. They had products from back in even the 1800s. It basically showed all the different ways people have packaged, marketed, and advertised different products. They separated it into ares divided up by different eras and then each decade of the 1900s.

Tonight I am going to a play that our school gave us free tickets to so hopefully that will be pretty entertaining. And then tomorrow four of my roommates and three of the girls next door are going to Paris. I am really excited. I could have left a few hours ago but most everyone has class tomorrow so I am not about to go by myself. But we'll leave Friday afternoon and then come back Sunday night. It should be pretty fun so I will try and blog as soon as I get back.

This is a picture of the club that I stole from Google.

Cultural Differences

So far while I have been here, I have really decided to embrace the pub culture of going for a beer to relax at the end of a long day, or just to have a beer. Up until yesterday, I had really been embracing it.

Disclaimer: Sorry Mom.

Up until yesterday, I had at least a beer each day I had been here. It is hard to pass up when I could jump out my window and land on top of the bar of The Queen's Arms. Or walk 60 seconds to The Westbury for some beer and pool or The Old Bell for some karaoke. Or even yet, walk another 60 seconds to The Betsy Smith's, where we decided to go tonight. Not that I am drinking in excess by any means any of these nights, it is just nice to unwind.

Sue me. I'll justify it as a cultural experience.


I told you, that is The Queen's Arms from our dining room.