6.12.15

This was my last week of my first class in this program! I took my final today and now its goodbye Historical London, hello British Fantasy Writing on Monday. This week absolutely flew by, I can't believe it is already Friday. I feel even more settled here than I did even in my last post, I think leaving and going to Paris made me appreciate my little routine in my part of the city.

On Monday after class, Hannah and I took the tube out to Shoreditch, which is one of the most hipster neighborhoods in the city. There's graffiti and record stores and art shops everywhere, and so that was cool to see and just walk around in. We didn't end up staying very long because we had to get back to Kensington and work on some things for class, but at least we crossed it off the list of things to do here!

So Monday was pretty chill where Tuesday was just completely hectic. We had class for three hours in the morning, as per usual, and then we were off and running literally for the rest of the day. We, first, went out to High Street Kensington, which is one of the best shopping streets in the city because it has all the stores of a Piccadilly or Oxford Circus but less than half of the crowds, so it's nicer. We went to H&M, Topshop, Zara, Urban Outfitters, New Look, Boots, American Apparel and Zara Home, all in total taking us about three and a half hours. Me. Shopping. For three and a half hours. Can you even imagine the size of the headache that was occuring in my brain at that time? But I did manage to get some good stuff at a couple of the places, so I'm not complaining (too much). We then went to Waterstones, which is much more my cup of tea, and spent some time in the cafe there! For dinner that night, we took the tube just one stop up to Notting Hill, which is famous for the Hugh Grant/Julia Roberts movie of the same name, but is also an adorable neighborhood just north of us. It is famous for its pastel colored houses and the food, which is there in abundance and quality. There are even entire bookshops there just dedicated to cookbooks!

Wednesday, we had our last field trip of our class, which was bittersweet in some ways! After our time for lecture, we headed out for the last time, this time to Southwark (pronounced suh-thahk) and the Borough Market. We got off the tube right at London bridge, so we again at the incredible view of the city from the middle of it. We then passed one of the dragon statues that mark the one mile radius that is the Historical City of London, which to this day has its own mayor. Our professor showed us the Southward Cathedral and the replica of the boat of Sir Francis Drake that is moored nearby, as well as this awesome cafe where all the seating is mismatched and outdoors. Then we got to eat lunch at the Borough Market, which is one of the coolest places that I've seen so far in the city. It is basically this enormous open space underneath an overpass where hundreds of vendors set up tents and sell the most delicious looking food you've ever seen. I saw tapas and a knee high mountain of rice, Italian gelato, Swedish meatballs, falafel, burgers, curry and even an entire pig roasting on a spit, just in the short amount of time that I was wandering about. It smelled incredible and so many people are passing out samples as you walk by, its like Costco time a million. I ended up having some amazing tapas there.

just a small glimpse of the Borough Market

Yesterday, Hannah and I, after our lecture and exam review, went to Covent Garden in search of burgers from Shake Shack, since we both had coupons for free milkshakes from there. We also went into Burberry and the Moleskine store while we were over there, and I got a limited edition notebook from there. From Covent Garden, we walked over to Trafalgar Square where we were able to get the tube from Charing Cross station over to Bond street, which isn't far from Oxford Circus, and is where some of the best and biggest shopping in the city is. After Hannah dragged me about in the stores for a bit, we went down a small alley and suddenly popped out into the cutest little square ever, with restaurants almost completely lining it, pennants hung from the buildings, and tons of people just sitting out in the sunshine, eating and enjoying the day. I love that we could walk for thirty seconds off the main road and find this little gem of a place on a random Thursday afternoon. It makes me happy. Inside the square there was a small coffee shop called Workshop Coffee Co., and we stayed in there for a few hours, studying for our final, which was today.

 Today we had our final, and after that was over with we took the day to have a nicely deserved break, which was a good thing because today was the first day since I've been here that it has well and truly rained. It has been gloomy and sprinkling before, but today it was refreshingly stormy, and so we spent most of the day indoors. However, tonight we are going for Italian food in a nearby restaurant, which I should probably actually go get ready for now. Until next time!

view of our street in the rain

Caroline

Paris Weekend

On Friday afternoon, I had the amazing opportunity to hop on a train across the eastern countryside of this country, under the English channel and into France, eventually ending up in Paris. It has been a dream of mine since I was about eight years old (when I read Eloise in Paris for the first time) to go to this city, so it was kind of a pinch-me moment.

We ended up getting there in the late afternoon, and after settling into our hotel in the northern part of the city, our group met up to go on a sunset sightseeing cruise on the Seine. It was honestly one of the coolest experiences of my life, seeing everything at sunset, from the river. It gives you such a different perspective on everything, and it was so unreal to me to be seeing things like the Eiffel Tower, the Musee D'Orsay and Notre Dame in real life. Plus the sunset made everything look even cooler than it already did. We got some amazing pictures of some of the most famous sights, and the sun honestly didn't even set fully until after 10pm, which was wild.

 After the cruise, it was pretty late, so we ate dinner in a small Italian cafe nearby our hotel. We had to be up and ready at 9 the next morning, for more sightseeing. We got on a bus this time, which is a great way to see any city, because you're above the cars and have a good view of everything. We saw all of the most famous buildings in the city. The opera house, the national hospital, the obelisk, the seat of the French parliament, the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, the Champs Elysées, the Arc de Triomph, Notre Dame, etc etc. We got to get out and take pictures at a couple of the stops, but mostly we were just rolling through the city. It was amazing to me how wide the streets are in Paris, and how beautiful and uniform the architecture is throughout the city. It's so different from London, but both of them are beautiful in their own ways.

 When our sightseeing tour was over, we had the rest of the day free. We also had tickets into the Louvre included in our trip, so we could decide whether to use them on Saturday or Sunday. My roommate Hannah and I decided to go into the Louvre on Saturday, and we actually just ended up spending the day in and around the Louvre, which has a mall basically attached to it and the Jardin de Tuileries right next door. The amount of things in the Louvre is utterly overwhelming. We, of course, headed straight for La Jaconde, as Mona Lisa herself is called in French, and the crowds in and around her little room were insane. Seeing that painting up close was one of the weirdest things, because you've seen it in pictures all your life, but when its really right there in front of you, you kind of have to keep reminding yourself that its real. Its also a lot smaller in real life. After seeing that, I spent the next couple of hours wandering around the museum by myself, seeing whatever it was that struck my fancy. Some Greek and Roman statues, some French Renaissance Painters, some furniture of Louis XIV... everything was amazing and so interesting, but even though I spent nearly three hours walking around, I still don't feel like I saw even a third of what is in the museum. It was an incredible experience, though.

our new bff Mona!!!

Stumbled upon the Venus de Milo? Wild.

this one was for you mom! pink!

my favorite ceiling in the museum

 We spent the rest of the day after the Louvre shopping, drinking coffee, and having a little picnic (of McDonalds) in the Jardin next to the museum. We also rode the mètro by ourselves, which is always scary the first time!

The next day was completely free, so we slept in a bit, getting the day started at about 10. We only had until 4pm to explore, so we decided to hit the most famous shopping street in Paris, the Champs Elysèes. That day, there were farmers and artisan food and wine companies from all over the country set up along the avenue in a sort of farmer's market, so it was closed to everyone but pedestrians. Which means that we got to walk down the middle of the road, approaching the Arc de Triomphe, with no cars around. It was crazy! We went shopping in a bunch of different stores, including the flagship Ladurée macaron store, Longchamp, the three story Louis Vuitton, Cartier, Zara, Sephora, H&M, and several cafés. This took up most of the day, and by the time we had seen everything we wanted to see on this road, it was time to start heading back to the hotel.

Then we had to get on a train and go away :( It was such a short time in the city, but I really felt like I got to see and experience a lot, and I got to use my little bit of French quite a few times! I really want to go back to Paris one day soon, but I'm so thankful for the short time I got to spend there!

Caroline

6.4.15

I am taking a much deserved break from my schoolwork to bring you this: my third blog post! I honestly can't believe that it has been almost a week since I last posted: the time here is absolutely flying by! So let's start back where we left off last time.

Saturday was a particularly relaxing one for me. My roommate and her sister and our other friend were gone for the day, off on a daytrip to Stonehenge, which I've already seen. I was pretty much alone for the day, which I took advantage of by going to the nearby shopping avenue and peeking around in some of the shops there. I didn't buy anything particularly exciting, just some nail polish and lotion, but I have my eye on some things to get before I leave!

After my shopping excursion, my friend Katie texted me saying that her sister and her were going to Harrod's, and would I like to join them. Of course, having not yet been to Harrod's I was super excited to finally see what all the fuss was about. I ran quickly over there to meet them and then promptly got lost while trying to find my way to the shoe floor. I was in accessories and perfumes and kids fashion and even a seafood market before I finally found my way. It is such an enormous and awe-inspiring store, I couldn't even believe it. We walked around for a while, finally deciding to get some sushi at a restaurant inside Harrod's. The sushi rolls were LITERALLY the size of my fist, and they were amazing. Then we decided to try our luck at the champagne bar, also inside the store, and we sat there having a glass and just generally feeling very posh for awhile.

On Sunday, I met up with Katie and Taylor again, as Hannah was off at a Rugby match at Twickenham Stadium and I had no desire to accompany her to that. We went to the bookstore to do some much needed catching up on homework, which was helpful. I also got the most amazing book I've ever seen: an illustrated copy of a Walt Whitman poem. It is glorious and I love it so much. We got dinner at an Italian place in Piccadilly circus and got to witness this huge party that was going on all in the streets for Magnum Ice Cream Bars, which was cool! On Monday and Tuesday, I had class with no class trips for the majority of the days, and I just stayed in my own neighborhood, going to cafes and working on a presentation for class, so I don't really have any pictures from those two days!

On Wednesday, we had a long trip planned. We were going to ride 3 trains an hour away to the neighborhood of Greenwich, which is very beautiful and famous for its amazing views of the city. We arrived on a perfectly blue-skied day, which is rare but much appreciated when they do come. The first thing we saw was the University Of Greenwich at the Old Royal Naval College, right on the river. It is a gorgeous part of town where they film a lot of movies. In fact, the recent remake of Les Miserables was filmed partially at this college, as well as parts of the Marvel movie Thor: the Dark World. In addition to having a beautiful campus, it also has two chapels which are gorgeously decorated as well.

We then visited the Royal Maritime Museum and climbed up the steepest hill ever to the Royal Observatory, which has an amazing view of the entirety of London.

Today, aside from finishing the paper that I'm supposed to be working on right now, I went to St. Paul's cathedral, climbing hundreds of stairs to reach the very top, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, which is huge and beautiful and is also doing a special exhibit on the work of Alexander McQueen, which you aren't allowed to take pictures of but shh I snuck some because everything was so amazing!

I'm leaving for Paris for the weekend after class tomorrow, so I will have another update on how that goes up probably on Monday!!

Caroline