Old Rocks and Old Baths

Stonehenge

Saturday March the 10th we took a day trip to Stonehenge and Bath! The whole time I have been here, people have been saying that Stonehenge was not worth the trip. It was kind of discouraging, but I booked the trip anyway because it was a packaged deal, and Stonehenge is just one of those attractions you must see when you get to England! The visit to Stonehenge wasn't as much fun as it was astonishing. I have seen pictures of Stonehenge and been learning about its mystery since I was little and it was just really cool to see the stones in person. We walked around in a circle and viewed the structure from different perspectives. We took pictures of the stones and each other and just had a grand time.

The Great Bath

We stayed in Stonehenge for about an hour before trekking on to Bath. Bath is a gorgeous Romanesque city that is home to the ancient Roman Baths. As we drove into Bath we were welcomed by the large cathedral where the Romans worshiped. We got off the coach and started our tour of the Roman Baths. The structure itself was very genius in architecture. The museum was built upon the same foundation and walls that the original baths. The architectures restored new wall around walls that were destroyed with age. As we walked through the museum we learned about how the Romans used the baths and we saw where the different baths were located. There were a numerous amount of Baths, 5 of them we were able to walk around. The two baths that still had water in them were the Great Bath and the Bath that was also the hot spring. It was truly a gorgeous sight, especially since the sun was out and there was gorgeous weather. Once we finished our tour of the baths, we were allowed a chance to walk around the city.

The Royal Cresent

The city felt like little Rome without the language barrier because the buildings were very Roman in architecture. I mean the Romans did occupy Bath for a little way back when.  We walked to the famous bridge called Pulteney Bridge , and it is one of the four bridges that has shops along it on both sides. We then walked further into the city and visited the Royal Cresent. It was a gorgeous building that engulfed this large park. We sat and took in the sight before we had to head back to the buses.

Electronics completely hate me....

So a few weeks back my laptop completely bailed out on me!! Back in November it dropped and the AC Adapter broke off into the computer. I temporarily fixed it with a hot glue gun;  however, a few weeks back the glue came undone and I laptop died shortly after. (Because it holds no charge)

I thought  ehh... might as well get it fixed in London, so I called around and they told me it was going to cost around £85 to fix! So I decided to go the cheap route and buy some super glue and tweezers! Nevertheless, my laptop is now fully functional and I'm not afraid to move it around on the chair! (I still have yet to pick it up!) But that is the round about reason as to why I have not been keeping up my blog posting! But I am back in business now...

Reba Loves Me....Bigger, Better, Clearer!!!

I found an even better video from the Reba concert! The camera is right in her face and you can clearly see what she says!!!! And hear me in the background!! The time is at 2 minutes and 45 seconds!

I know I should be doing more productive things than being on Youtube, but I needed a break! And this is WAY cool!

Reba Loves Me.......

At 2 minutes and 45 seconds finishes her song "Till You Love Me" and I yell I love you SUPER LOUD! Of course she heard and said "I love you too"! You can't really see her saying I love you too, but you can definitely see that she reacted and acknowledge my cry! 

Watch as I Defy Gravity.......

The front of the theatre

THE STAGE

Gina Beck (Galinda/Glinda)

I FINALLY saw Wicked on Monday and must I say it was a phenomenal night. When we walked out of the tube station we were met with the bright green lights from the signage at the front of the theatre. I had to take it all in to keep from breaking down in front of the theatre. We took pictures in front of the theatre before we headed inside the theatre. The foyer was light green creating a Ozian atmosphere in the foyer. There as a concessions area to the right and two Ozdust Boutiques (Gift Shops) to the left where the staircase split, leading upstairs to the dress circle. We walked upstairs to reach our seats the very last row in the theatre, but I was just excited to be there. Once the show started I was overcome with emotions and became so happy I teared up a little halfway throough the first act. I mouthed the words to every song and even recited certain lines throughout the musical. When the time for "Defying Gravity" came I was so amazed. I had only seen the scene on Youtube and it was just extraordinary to watch it live. I did my best to not become emotional throughout the song, but it did not work to well. the second act started and I regained composure and did pretty well until they performed "For Good". It was so surreal and I felt very connected to the show. Of course I did, I've been following the musical for two years now. I know the back history, the book, and all the characters antics in the musical.

 

My beach towel

Rachel Tucker (Elphaba)

The musical ability of Glinda and Elphaba were outstanding. There were moments where Elphaba's charactersang way to low, but the notes that she did belt were beautiful. As a souvenir I purchased a Wicked beach towel, because I promised myself when I saw the show in London I was going to buy myself one and that I did.  I also stage doored the performers. I didn't know the actors, but this was the first time I saw Wicked and I really wanted the actors/actresses signatures. Overall. I had an amazing time and I fell in love with the musical all over again.

Sunday Night adventures in a Country World....

Reba and her back up singer

On Sunday, London held the first International Festival of Country Music for the first time in 20 years.  The headliner was Reba McEntire and she hadn't performed in London for over 20 years and it was amazing to watch her perform. I have been trying to find a ticket to one of her concerts in America, but when they are in Texas they are really expensive.  But I was very excited to see her in London because the tickets were really cheap and I sat in the 5th row. 

Last picture i took

For the most part  the festival wasn't bad, but it was running an hour and a half late. The other artists performed really well and two of them were apparently a big deal. I was anxious to see Reba get on stage though so I wasn't very engaged in the other artist's performances. 

One of many eye contacts

When Reba came on stage the audience erupted, as well as I. She was a great performer and kept the audience engaged. I'm pretty sure she made eye contact with me on five different occasions. There was also a moment where I yelled "I love you" very quickly after a song and she looked at me and said "I love you too". That was the best part of the whole performance (for me at least). The worst part of the night was that I had to leave early because the tube (subway) closes at midnight, so I was not able to stage door her like I would have wanted. But I did only miss one song of the whole performance so it wasn't the end of the world. Overall it was a great experience to have while I was abroad.

Geocaching: Jack the Ripper Style

On Monday we did a Jack the Ripper series that led us to the six locations where Jack the Ripper's victims  were found. 

Ripper's Corner: The fourth location

I introduced everyone in our group to the wonderful world of geocaching. Geocaching is basically a cross between a scavenger hunt and hide and go seek. After we visited the six locations and collected clues from each one we solved formula given to us for the GPS coordinates to the last location, Jack the Ripper's supposed hideout. This series was a lot of fun as a first cache in London.

We found it!! 

Each site had a detailed story of how each girl was found and how her body was mutilated. I recited each story to the rest of the group as we journeyed through East London. Some of the sites still resembled 19th century London whereas others have been completely modernized. It was great exploring the different areas of East London and imagining the gruesome story of Jack the Ripper. 


   

SUCCESS!!!!!!!

Can I just talk about how excited I am for this week!! I am seeing Reba in concert and Wicked!!! I am really stoked for both of them and have been wanting to see both for about 2 years now!!!! 

                            

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Whitechapel Market

For starters, the ONE day I decide to go to a food market is the first day that it decides to rain hard in London since I have been here, but I survived. 

I have been wanting to get to a food market for the longest, but we hadn't quite made it there until today! We walked down to the Whitechapel Market which is about a 15-20 minute walk from campus in the direction of Central London. East London is a very ethnic section of London and mostly occupied by Western Asian cultures so there is a lot of Halal restaurants along the market stalls and many Western Asian inspired clothing. But the steal of the day were the fruits and veggies. We found tons of stalls that were selling bundles of fruits and vegetables for only £1 ($1.60). I bought 3 bunches of bananas, 8 oranges (with the green stem still attached), 5 bell peppers (2 yellow, 2 green and 1 red), and 11 onions for £4!!!! I think I won the fruit and vegetable lottery!! They were clearly picked recently and aren't that perfect grocery store shape or too big because of nasty pesticides pumped into them! Just regular old fruits and vegetables! 

Two Dimensional Life of Crap

Pretty sure I saw the biggest piece of a sorry excuse for theatre a few weeks ago. It was another assignment for my Theatre class and it was such a waste. I mean I don't go to plays all the time,  but it doesn't take an expert to figure out this does not belong in a theater. I almost went to sleep during the 40 minutes of torture. It was practically an £11 nap! There was no plot and the only actress showed up 35 minutes into the show and said a few lines then left. (What the what?) The only thing I gained from this play was the fact that I have a really short attention span and possibly ADHD.

Cabaret

I'm taking this class where we have to go see theater productions in London every week as a part of our course assignment. (I must say this class is way better than Introduction to Theater, but so much more work.) This week we were assigned to see a cabaret. I was very excited to see a cabaret 1. because I had never seen one and 2. because this era of music and dance is my favorite.

The cabaret only cost us £1($1.60) and was totally worth it! The venue was called the Proud Cabaret and was located in a well to do part of London. To get to the stage we had to walk down these really steep stairs to be met by straight darkness. I felt as if I was walking down to a upscale nightclub and I held the secret code to get in. (Not like I would know what that feeling is! :/) The club had a very 20s feel to it which made me really excited about the performance. It was the sight that you only see in movies. Where the guys are all wearing makeup and the girls are dressed scandalous! 

The restaurant/Cabaret from the back

The show itself was amazing!!!! There were 8 acts with a 20 minute intermission. The acts were the typical singing, striptease and flirting with every man in the audience! And I LOVED it! I laughed, I cheered, and I sang! The only part I didn't like was when one act came out the Beyonce "Single Ladies", I didn't pay money to hear that trash! But the host did sing two numbers from "Cabaret" (with Liza Minnelli): they were Mien Herr and Life is a Cabaret! That really put the performance over the top because I love both of those songs and the movie! I really wish I had it so I could pop it in my DVD player and watch it!

The restaurant/Cabaret from the back

The 20s, 30s and 40s have always been my favorite time in history and this show just strengthened my love. It's so sad that these decades have negative associations because they music and fashion were genius! We are definitely going back to watch another performance! 

Accents and Dialects...

So, unknown to me, I have this really strong southern accent/African American dialect! And apparently it's hilarious!!!!! I don't get it!! For instance "pen" and "pin" sound the exact same to me, but they have a distinct sound and are supposed to be pronounced differently! Oops! Also whenever I say the word "bench" everyone laughs because it sounds the same as the word I shall no type (rhymes with snitch). I feel as if I say them two completely different ways, but I guess I don't make much of a distinction with the word "bench". As you can tell all we really do is sit around in our kitchen and talk about each others accents and dialects! But those are some darn good times!

Snow!!!!!!

It's snowing in London!!!!!!!! Doesn't get much better than that!!!!!!!

Getting Around and New Friends

How could I have forgotten to mention the American friends I have met??? #blasphemy (yes I just used a hashtag in my blog, get over it) All but one are from up north and you can definitely see the differences in culture. We communicate via Facebook messaging so we only use text messages and minutes when necessary! We get together every now and again during the week and every night during the weekend and chat it up about the awesome time we are going to have and all of the some countries we are going to visit and the musicals and plays we are going to see. I think I'll just describe how I met each of them !

Jen I meet on the bus coming to university. When we got off the bus I really didn't think that I would see her again because we didn't exchange information or anything. Liz is my flatmate and I met her while we were both moving in. Later that night me and Liz were walking her mom to the buys stop where I again saw Jen. Me and Liz were on our way to dinner and asked her to join us. She said she would come later! Me and Liz were eating and had small talk with the two guys at the table next to us who happen to live in the first above us . Then Jen and Lorraine showed up (which is where I met Lorraine), and Darci asked to sit down at our table. Yaaay!!! The next day at breakfast I met Amanda and we all say next to each other at orientation. Unfortunately during orientation we had a fire drill, while we were waiting to get back in the building me and Liz met Joel. He goes to Texas Tech, but we forgive him. That's basically it!

The first Friday we were here we decided to go into central London and explore the city! The plan was to early rush Hamlet which was playing at the Young Vic and then walk around cereal London! When we arrived at the Young Vic there was already a line waiting on tickets. Were still waited only to be told there were no more tickets available for that nights showing. So we just started to weak around theatres and look for student tickets, but we came up short. Some told us to come back later that night.  So in the city we were, we stopped in Picadilly Circus and it was a wonderful site. When I stepped out of the tube station it was a mini New York City. Since I've never been to New York and I know nothing about architecture I didn't know that New York mirrors Picadilly Circus. We walked down towards the theatres and saw the theatre where Phantom of the Opera was showing. I'm still deciding if I want to see that musical, because the are others that I HAVE to see! (i.e. Wicked which I just bought my ticket for!!)

We came to The National Art Gallery and went inside. It was an enormous exhibit, but I found myself getting bored after awhile because I can find art to be boring after awhile. The museum reminded me of global/world and Spanish in high school because we looked at art as a part of our curriculum and went to an art gallery at SMU. Once we were done we took pictures in front of the art gallery. (I think it has some fancy name, but I don't remember it!) There were lions that sat on this really high pedestal that we had to climb to take a picture with the lions. Now it's about lunch time and I'm starving.  We ate at this cute little restaurant that I think was a public.  Actually that's what I'm going to call it because they have more pubs than restaurants. It seemed really fancy on the inside, but the servers clothing didn't look like something you would wear if you were working in a fancy restaurant.  I ordered honey glazed gammon (ham), fried egg (very well done), and chips. It was really tasty, and reasonably priced.

Once our bellies were full we continued our trek through central. We headed to Buckingham palace, because what is a trip to London without atleast one trip to the palace. The palace was really nice, but kind of unnecessary! I mean the was a lavish gate and it literally lead to the other side of the sidewalk. But we still took pictures and acted like complete tourists!  Once we were done at Buckingham Palace we walked through Hype Park. By the time we got here I was bored and tired so I was ready to go home, but we did see the Princess Diana waterfall tribute and the Peter Pan statue. When I got back I crashed in my bed and didn't wake up until late Saturday night!! 

Kool aid!!!!!!!!

My first cup of Kool aid in a week!!!!!!!!

Beginning of a Great Time....

Touchdown in London Town!! I have been in London for a week now and I am having a BLAST!! The first days were were very quick, but filled with lots of activity. I arrived in London on Thursday January 5th at 6 in the morning. The flight was not as horrid as I thought it was going to be and I kind of enjoyed it at some moments. Getting through the airport was not the most exciting thing. I was confused and carrying 4 bags of luggage through the airport. I eventually made it to my destination and on we traveled to the university.

It took around 2 hours to get to the university because of construction, but most of my bus (including myself) feel asleep and didn't wake up until we got to the school. We got off the buses and headed to get our keys and head to our flat. I am living in Pooley House which is situated in the back of the campus with the train traveling in behind it. (Guess which side my flat is on?) The flat is really nice! There are 8 people living in our flat (2 guys, 6 girls) and we share a kitchen. The ethnicity of my flatmates are 3 English, 1 Northern Irish, 2 Americans, 1 Swedish, 1 Korean  and 1 Bangladeshi. Everyone in my flat gets along except for this one chick who plays her music very loud. I don't think that me and my sensitive ears can take anymore of it. -__-  My room is probably one of the largest. I have a mini fridge with a community freezer in the kitchen. The kitchen has two ranges and two sinks so there is ample space for cooking.

I got to the room and unpacked what I thought was necessary to unpack. The majority of my clothes are still sitting in the space saver bags in a corner of my room. I took a "little" nap and when I woke up I went to dinner with my American flatmate. There we met up with one American girl that rode on the bus with me earlier that morning. Later that night we went to the grocery and walked to the grocery store and bought small stuff that would last us for a few day It was a 40 minute walk there and back.s.  That was about it for Thursday. On Friday we had orientation until 2 and after that we met up and took the Tube (the subway in London) to Westfield Way which is the largest shopping mall in Europe and was built for the 2012 Olympics. We went mostly to get our phones, but we ended up walking through the mall just looking at the stores (there are around 300 stores in the mall and it is 3 stories :D) We came back to the University and then walked to a bar across the street and just hung out. On Saturday everyone went grocery shopping at different times. The problem was everyone walked back instead of taking the bus. BIGGEST MISTAKE EVER! It was a 20 minute walk and I was carrying about 20 pounds of groceries on my back! I came back to my room and rested until we went out again to a pub and chilled.

Monday classes started and it has been a very confusing process for associate students (study abroad students). We are not allowed to access the online registration so every class we want to add or drop we have to go to the department head and get their signature and then go to the study abroad director's office and sit with him while he makes the changes in the system. It has been a big pain because you have to catch everyone at their office hour and pray that the class you want to get into is open.

I practically have my schedule made, I just have to get the signature to drop my social psychology course and then go to the study abroad office and have them lock it into the system. My schedule as of now is Monday's I have class from 10-1 and then 3-5, no class on Tuesday, Wednesday 9-11, Thursday 10-2, and no class on Friday. It's a pretty nice schedule. I am taking 4 classes and I have been to three of them. There is a lot of reading, but I do not have to buy books for every class. I just go to the library and read the pages for that week, which is kind of nice.

The Library. The library is REALLY nice! It looks more like a club when you walk it because it has neon lights on the ground floor, but there is a open feeling when you walk in even if you do not know what you are doing.

The rest of the week was filled with me sleeping or learning about British and Northern Irish culture or even learning about myself. All of my American friends are from the North and my flatmate is a linguistic major and I never noticed how southern and accent I had until she pointed certain things out such as "y'all" and the foods I eat. But it's still interesting because I get a chance to compare everything to northern American, Sweden, Bangladesh, Britian, and Northern Ireland so I have loved every minute of it.

Overall the first few days here were really nice. I was/am still getting over jet lag, but it's been a fun experience.