New City, New Hair!

Hola! Last night, as you may have heard, I dyed my hair brown! It will only last a month and a half at the longest so it's NOT permanent! I like it, but I definitely prefer being blonde. I've always wanted to see what I'd look like so I thought I'd try it out.

Also, good news! I think I found a gym I can use through a school that is located right down the road from my school, and since my school is so small, we're closely connected with the other school, Imperial College. We can use their facilities and join their clubs and stuff. I'm planning on investigating later today after class.

:)

Jackie

A Day in the Life... of the Beatles!

Big weekend! Katy, Emily, Bess and I headed up to Liverpool and Manchester this weekend. We were so excited because, well, it's exciting to travel, but also because we planned it all by ourselves! And boy did we learn a few things...

We took a bus there through the National Express. It took 5 hours so we left at 8 AM on Friday morning (we woke up at 6 to shower and get there on time! Bleh). We stopped at Caribou for breakfast and hopped on the Tube. We found our way there easily enough, but of course it was raining. When we finally boarded the bus, we decided to sit near the back where there was plenty of room. Clearly, we weren't thinking and didn't think that the emptiness of the back of the bus might be a warning sign. One man used the bathroom right behind us at least 8 times (we counted but eventually lost track) and we smelled EVERYTHING. I never thought I'd be so happy to get off a bus (although, compared to the ride home, that ride was heavenly, but that'll come a bit later). Anyway, we ended up in Liverpool and took a taxi to the hostel. We were in a six-bed room with a bathroom. Our side of the room had two sets of bunk beds whereas the other room only had one set of bunks. We basically just sat our stuff down and headed right back outside to the taxi because we needed to get to Albert Dock, where our Magical Mystery Tour started! Yay Beatles! The tour was really great because not only did we learn about the Beatles and little tidbits of information about their history but we also got to see the city of Liverpool. Here are some highlights:

Ringo lived right down this alleyway.

George Harrison's house

John Lennon lived here with his aunt.

Me in front of Paul McCartney's house :)

Our bus

The bus dropped us off at the Cavern bar, which I can't quite remember its significance, but it was something like the Beatles' manager first saw them perform there or something. It had a display, which was cool. We didn't stay long, though. We ate at a restaurant around there and they had veggie burgers! I mean, I will eat real burgers, but I still prefer the taste of veggie burgers so that was exciting. We did a little shopping afterward and found our way back to the hostel--somehow we ended up right near there! Speaking of which, here are some pictures:

Our side of the room--we were pretty squished!

Gracie's side--she was a little, mid-aged Portuguese woman! So nice!

Anyway, we were in bed by 9 PM. It was pathetic. Gracie, our roommate, came back later than us! We did stay up talking for a while so I guess we didn't actually go to sleep just then, but it was still kind of funny. In our defense, we DID have to wake up at 6 again to catch a bus to Manchester.

That bus ride was much smoother (and shorter--only an hour) than was the first ride. We hopped off the bus in Manchester with no plan, no map, nothing. We asked the Information booth at the station but they had nothing to give us, so we headed out blindly. Apparently, the bus station is in Chinatown, Manchester--who knew that even existed?! Not me. We somehow wandered to the Manchester Art Museum, which opened at 10. Unfortunately for us, it was 8:45. There was a Cafe Nero (a coffee chain here) across the street so we set up camp there for about an hour until it opened. We killed about 2 hours there and found some really amusing pieces. I put some of those pictures up (with nice captions I might add) on Facebook so check them out!

After that, we asked someone to point us in the direction of the shopping district (as we still didn't have a map). We wandered around there for a while (if you haven't caught on, we did a lot of wandering!) and finally settled on the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch. After a late lunch, we hopped on board the ferris wheel that was hanging out in the middle of the city. It was super high up and I tried not to look straight down, but it was really fun! Look:

Me in front of the ferris wheel... obviously

Bess and me about halfway up

View from the top

After that ride, we were all freezing and tired from walking all day with our backpacks so we decided to just find the coach station and wait. It ended up being five minutes away! No idea how we managed to do that! We waited there and looked at pictures from the trip, still freezing. Finally the bus showed up and it was a two-story bus! Naturally, we went up to the second level. We went to the back once again, only because the front was semi-full and there was no bathroom on the upper level! We settled in and were comfortably awaiting the ride home until a huge group of kids, probably about our age, galavanted back to the bus RIGHT behind us. Not too much of a problem until they started YELLING TO EACH OTHER even though they were sitting all together. I am not exaggerating at all. They were literally shouting. This went on for the entire ride. About 20 minutes into the ride, Katy got fed up and moved forward. Bess followed suit and headed downstairs, and I moved up next to Katy. Emily eventually came to sit by Katy and I, too. It was slightly better, though we could still hear their shouting--Bess said she could still hear them downstairs, too. At one point, the bus stopped, which was a bit scary considering it was dark out and no one knew where we were. The bus driver marched up the stairs and told the kids that there were cameras all over the bus so he could see everything they were doing and needed to stop. When I looked back at them, they had bottles everywhere, even the floor. THEY WERE DRINKING ON THE BUS. Alcoholic-drinking. I felt like I was breaking the rules when I smuggled my hot chocolate on the bus... apparently not. It was absolutely insane. FINALLY we got back to the station (during which they all screamed, "YEA! Wooooo hoooooo!!") and I have never been so happy to get off a bus. Oh my goodness. We made it back to the dorm just fine, unpacked quickly, and collapsed into bed. Thankfully no one was too loud that night because I think I would have snapped, which is saying something because if you know me, you know I'm extremely easy-going. On the upside, we have some great stories! Hopefully they'll keep on coming!

:)

Jackie

Notting Hill

This week has been pretty uneventful. Classes were fine, nothing too exciting. Today, since my classes are over at noon on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I decided to take a long walk and explore my surroundings. I set off toward Hyde Park, which is just around the corner from my building. I wandered through the park, following The Serpentine, which is a long, curved body of water in the middle of the park. I was actually following signs for a Peter Pan sculpture and it happened to be right near the water. Convenient because the water was absolutely beautiful, whereas the sculpture was not so thrilling. It was quite small and anticlimactic and I almost got attacked by a flock or two of birds on the way, but worth it in the end as I got some great pictures.

St. Albert's Memorial--There are a ton of things dedicated to him around here!

Inside the park

The Serpentine, close to where it begins

The slightly disappointing Peter Pan sculpture

Fountains that seem to be where The Serpentine begins

When I got past the fountains, which were sooo pretty by the way, I wandered out into the city. I stuck close to Hyde Park because I wasn't 100% sure where I was, but I knew generally where I was headed. I'm still in awe that there can be such a massive, beautiful park in the middle of the city. It's as if there are two completely separate worlds here, though you can move from one to the other in a matter of minutes. So cool.

Anyway, I started wandering along the sidewalk until I came to a point where I could no longer see the park. This happens sometimes so I just continued walking until I decided I should probably turn and try to get back to the Park. I turned left because that's the side the park was on before, and I found myself faced with a long road of flats. I thought perhaps the park was at the end of the flats so I continued walking that way (no, I did not know what was at the end of the street because when I say long, I mean can't-see-the-end long). I only knew that I was in Notting Hill because I found a bookstore called Notting Hill Books (!!!) with, wait for it.... a blue door next to it!! Super exciting. Anyway, I meandered down further and further until finally I came to the end of the road and lo and behold, another road. I had no choice but to turn right (I couldn't turn back because I walked by some people outside and I couldn't walk by them again; at least night right away), so I turned headed down another street. It was much shorter and I decided to turn left when I came to an intersection. As I wandered farther down the road, I noticed a busy road up ahead and decided to see if I recognized the name. As I got closer, I realized it was Kensington High Street, which is right by me! We go there all the time to do grocery shopping and other errands. That was where I was trying to get to, but I had no idea that I was so close! It was quite the adventure.

The bookstore and...

...the blue door! OK, not QUITE the same as in the movie... but close!

I just thought this was cute.

The road on which I was semi-lost

When I got to High Street, I called Katy because she wanted to go get hair dye for herself, so I walked back toward our building and we met on the corner. We successfully found it in a Walgreens-like store called Boots. I bought some light brown hair dye that washes out after about a month... should I do it?? I'm super curious and somewhat willing to color my hair because it'll wash out soon... but I've NEVER colored it before so I'm not sure!

Better get to bed now, we're waking up at 6 AM tomorrow to head off to Liverpool! You'll hear all about that in a few days!

:)

Jackie

Adventures in Londontown

Today was quite an adventure. I went for a run this morning around the neighborhood and into Hyde Park a bit, which was nice. After showering and everything, Katy, Bess, and I headed to the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. The paintings inside were AMAZING. We saw almost every room but there were so many artworks that I still feel like we barely touched them. I got to see the ones I really wanted to though, so that was great. Now we just have about 20 more museums to explore and that should do it! Anyway, the National Gallery and Trafalgar Square were really beautiful. I took loads of pictures, most of which are on Facebook. Here are a few:

National Gallery

Trafalgar Square

After that, we headed to Cafe Nero, which is a chain all over London. I had a Chicken Caesar sandwich, a blueberry muffin, and a hot chocolate. Super yummy! The three of us basically just hung out there for a long time until finally we decided to head back to campus. Not too exciting back in the room as we did homework for a few hours :(

Finally dinner time! Katy, Bess, Emily, and I ventured to Notting Hill because I found a postcard for a place called the Boo Bar, and it seemed like it would be a fun place to go. We had quite the time figuring out the tube line to get there, but we finally did and headed down the street in search of somewhere to eat dinner first. We came upon Pizza Express and decided to try it out. Emily and I split a pepperoni pizza with a glass of wine each :) I feel so old. Dinner was really good--may have to go there again--which was a plus because when we got to the bar, it was closed down! A man walked by and said it had been closed for a while! So weird. I even had looked it up online earlier today and it never mentioned that. We basically just headed home after that (with a dessert stop on the way--chocolate cake and gelato for 3 pounds! Yum).

We planned on watching The Hangover but got caught up in making travel plans and never got around to it. We planned out a trip for next weekend to Liverpool and Manchester for Friday and Saturday! We leave Friday morning for Liverpool and get in around 1:30 PM. The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour starts at 2:30 nearby so we'll go to that and then check into the hostel. We'll leave for Manchester the next morning at 7 or 8 AM and spend the day in Manchester until we leave Saturday evening t 6:30 PM. It was WAY cheaper to leave Saturday instead of Sunday so we did it. We have homework to do on Sunday anyway so it worked well. PLUS it only cost us 60 pounds each for everything (not including food). So awesome. I can't wait!!

:)

Jackie

Try not to fall!

Classes are done for the week! Yay! I love not having class on Fridays. Classes were fine this week though--I like them for the most part. We chose our presentation topics in Ethics in Media and my presentation is in 3 weeks! Our paper for that class is due 3 weeks after that! Ahhh busy already!! At least I'll be done though. The only thing I'll have to worry about after those projects (in that class) is my final.

Yesterday night we (Katy, Emily, Bess, our RA Iain, and I) went ice skating at the Somerset House near Piccadilly and it was absolutely beautiful!! (These pictures were taken by Katy.) I don't know that I'll be able to go back to ice skating at Lion's Park after that... although, there were so many people that it was quite a challenge to 1) not run into anyone and 2) not fall down! Craziness. It was great though. We got ice cream afterwards and then headed home where Katy and I proceeded to finish the first half of the season of Glee! I love that show!! We started watching it on Monday and it's so addicting!

Anyway, my internet is not working right now (I'm on Katy's computer) so I apologize for being out of touch. I'm bringing it to the tech center at school today... that is, if I can find it. I have no idea where it is! Wish me luck!

:)

Jackie

And so it begins...

Classes began yesterday and today which was so bizarre because I still felt as though I was simply on vacation rather than actually at school. For some reason, when I started classes at Drake, I didn't have that problem...

Anyway, my classes should be great! They'll definitely be quite a bit of work but aren't they always? I'm especially excited for Psychopathology! It sounds really quite scary (well, I thought so at least; I had no idea what it was about except that it was a psychology class and would transfer back to Drake easily) but it's not at all. We aren't talking about psychopaths and killers or anything but instead, mental disorders. Seeing as mental disorders are what I would like to focus my studies on in the long run, I was very pleased to find out that I have a whole course devoted to the subject! Anyway, all of my professors seem really great. My Ethics in Media professor is a bit boring, and the class seems rather dull as well, but it could be worse!

I have three class on Mondays and Wednesdays which basically take me from 1:30 until 6 (at least I won't have to worry about snacking all afternoon!), though on Wednesdays my art history class visits museums and places in London, so we have "class" from 10 until noon or so, which means I then start again at 3 and stay until 6. Tuesdays and Thursday, though, I have only one class from 10:30-noon. That should be nice because I have all afternoon to do whatever I want! Well, I suppose I should squeeze some homework in somewhere, too, so I suppose I'll have to sacrifice some explore-London time... starting now: I already have a good amount of reading to get done for tomorrow!

:)

Jackie

Laundry... at least it's free

Exciting day today!

We woke up around 10:15 after staying up (accidentally) until 02:00 AM again. This is getting ridiculous. There has not been one single night that we haven't stayed up until 02:00, and every single night we have no idea what time it is until we look and hurriedly hop in bed so as to get a bit of sleep. Last night we watched Notting Hill because Katy had never seen it and I want to go there quite badly. It was good, although I never get too excited to watch it because Jill and I made that mistake a few years ago when we watched it and the night ended in disappointment. We both remembered the movie being much better than it was. This time it was pretty good, though! Maybe it helped that I could imagine where Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts were wandering.

Anyway, we had a baguette for breakfast and headed to Atlantic House (the main school building) for the Chelsea Football Club stadium tour. After a brief ride on the tube, we arrived and man, was it big! I suppose all stadiums are. We got to see the visiting team's changing room which, they informed us, is "two-star." When we got to Chelsea's "five star" room, the difference was obvious. Chelsea had one room for wardrobe-like lockers, one room for the bathroom, one room for massage tables, one room for tactics/strategies, and one room for showers. The visiting team's room was just that: a room. The "lockers" were little cubbies under benches around the room against the walls. The strategy board was strategically placed behind the door. The (two--compared to Chelsea's five) massage tables were in the center of the room, and the showers and bathroom was in a separate attached room. We got to see the press room and interview rooms as well. Nothing too exciting. The field was gorgeous though. I guess I don't know soccer much, but it looked really nice. They take football VERY seriously around here!

On the way back to the room, Katy, Emily, Bess, and I stopped for baguette sandwiches (I got a really yummy ham and cheddar) and hot chocolate. We parted ways when Katy and I stopped in Whole Foods, the grocery store. We quickly stuffed our food in our mouths outside the store and we ventured inside. It was a bit confusing as it was two levels, but we sort of got it figured out in the end. It might take a few trips to get it down! Downstairs was where we found most everything. We had two criteria for our food: 1) must be on sale or cheap, and 2) must be non-refrigerated. It was a bit difficult finding fruit, but we ended up with basic apples and bananas. We bought pretzels, rice cakes, bread, and...... NUTELLA! We are SO excited for lunch tomorrow! Our program meal plan gives us breakfast and dinner on weekdays only so we bought a few things to munch on for lunch. My plan is to mostly just have fruit and bread (or rice cakes) with Nutella or peanut butter (we found it!) so it won't be too costly. I just munched on the tail end of the baguette we had for breakfast with Nutella--hey, I had to make sure it wasn't spoiled, right?!

After that excellent endeavor, I had a major milestone: I WENT FOR A RUN! I haven't been able to run since the week before Thanksgiving and now that I know what I was doing wrong, I decided to give it another go! It was a very short run--only about 4-5 songs--but I did it! I cannot even explain how wonderful it felt. I felt more like myself--active and free. My knee started to bother me after a bit so I stopped, but I'm planning to try again on Tuesday. I'm hoping it'll go well!

When I got back, we headed to a little Italian place nearby for dinner. I ordered the Napoli penne with a glass of white wine! It was wonderful.

I must say, however, that the biggest adventure of the day was probably laundry (which I really should go get...). I went down to the laundry room with my clothes and detergent right after dinner. I wasn't exactly sure how it worked but I mean, it couldn't be much different here. In the end, it wasn't, but it took a very long time to get there! I tried (unsuccessfully) to open the washer for 15 minutes until I finally gave up. It would not budge!! I finally dragged Katy down there with me and we pushed a button on the other washer (someone's clothes were in there so I hadn't touched it before) and it opened!! After trying that on my t0-be washer, we found that it didn't work. I wasn't going crazy. After some intense pushing and pulling (and laughing) we just took out the other person's laundry and used that one. Wish me luck with the dryer!!

Classes start tomorrow so I'm sure I'll have something exciting to write about.

:)

Jackie