Neglect.

There has been some major neglect to the blog.
I apologize.
So.
Just to catch you up to speed:

We went on our first overnight trip to Stratford/Oxford.
Birthplace of Shakespeare.
Saw Taming of the Shrew.
Went to the college (Oxford is AMAZING).
Saw some cute men.
Went to Warwick Castle.
And stayed at the cutest B&B ever.

We celebrated our one month anniversary of living in London by attending an Oscar Wilde play.
Too great.
Time is flying by so fast here I can't even stand it.

Travel week came and went! (FYI: Travel Week = Spring Break)
Our destination was beautiful Switzerland.
If you ever need a vacation, I suggest going there.
AMAZING.
We spend a day in Zurich,
Then headed up to Interlaken, (a town at the base of the Alps),
Grindewald, (a town IN the Alps),
And then back to London Town.
I loved every day of it.
We stayed in the sketchiest hostels,
Got 3 hours a sleep a night,
And LOVED it.

Theatre Monday continued with Madness of King George.
So good.
Great play with great people.

Valentine's Day.
Usually my least favorite day alive.
I had A BLAST this Valentine's Day.
We spent it at the Tate Modern Art Gallery in the afternoon.
And then headed off to The Vow for our V-Day date.
That's right.
24 girls taking over the Vue Shepard's Bush theatre.
Channing and I had a great night.

Wales/Bath/Stonehenge was our second night getaway.
Rainy the entire week.
Seeing some hot springs since the 1700's were great.
Climbed some rocks.
And had a great getaway.

I promise I'll be a better blogger...
Next up:
Phantom of the Opera tomorrow.
Midterm week.
And in 5 days, this girl is PRAGUE BOUND.
..chelle..

Dover.

This week consisted of:
Walking the Whitehall: the administration area of the UK Government and British royalty. Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street are located here.

Trotting the Temple: considered "Legal London," this area is a justice and political center of the city. It also is home to the Temple Church, modeled after the Holy Sepulcher.

Dover Day: Saturday trip to Dover's white cliffs, Dover Castle, and good old Canterbury and the cathedral, where my main man Thomas Becket was martyred (European Studies 336 paper holla!).

Watchin' the Wicked: enough said.

Next up: Stratford and Oxford.
..chelle..

Hampton.

Hampton Court.
Location: Surrey, United Kingdom (about an hour train ride from the center of London)
Palace: still today of the Royals in London.
Originally designed by Cardinal Wosley for the Catholic church, he offered it to King Henry VIII when he wanted to divorce Catherine and the church said no.
It was built with the intent to rival Versailles...it didn't quite make it there, but the gardens are amazing.
Because it took so long to build, there are two major architectural design periods in the castle: Tudor and Baroque.
It survived two major periods and kings: The Tudors (Henry VIII) and the Stuarts (William III- Glorious Revolution guy).
So pretty.
Such a blessing to go there.
I loved it.

First train ride of the program.

First gate. There are 4. No worries.

View of the side gardens

Center Court of the Palace

Appropriately imitating good old King Henry and all of his wives. Or just a few.

That palace is huge.

Possibly the best place visited so far.

..chelle..

Tourist.

You gotta get the touristy out of you when you're living here during the first two weeks right?
Thames River:

Princess Diana's engagement ring:

Parliament Square and Big Ben:

Westminster Abbey:

I promise, I'll give you a super informational blog post later on our big trips.
But we haven't one for awhile....
Until then,
PEACE.
..chelle..

Quiet.

London is so quiet sometimes.
Even though there are cars always driving around on the streets,
And the city is busy and full of life,
If you pay close attention, you notice how quiet it truly is.
How the people don't speak,
And if they do, not loud at all.
It's changing me too.
When we go out in public, we sit.
We observe.
We don't talk at all,
But if we do,
It's in hushed tones.
I think it's good for me.
My loud, in your face personality is toning down.
And I notice I'm more observant,
And reserved out there than normally.

The tube has become our best friend.
I can navigate myself pretty well on it.
We spend a lot of time going back and forth and changing over lines to get where we go.
We get so bored.
Obviously.

I still can't get over the fact that going out to McDonald's is fine dining over here.
People get SO dressed up.
And they have attendants(who are in skirts) constantly cleaning and clearing people's spots.
Yes, peeps.
It's a sit-down restaurant down below.
It still cracks me up.

Tower Bridge. These be the girls I spend my life with.

Saint Paul's.

We've been to SO many historical sights,

Like Saint Paul's,

The Tower of London,
The Magna Carta

And of course,

Windsor Castle.

Seriously, the castle has been my favorite part about London so far.
It was so pretty.
And so big and old.

Here's the reason I will come back 20,000 pounds heavier.
Obviously an exaggeration.
But.
The food as meals here isn't so hot.
But.
The eat out and the pastry/bread shops,
AMAZING.
I love them all.
Even if they aren't good for you.
One of my favorite activities here is to go to the markets on Saturdays.
They have all these open air markets with like food and cute jewelry and other trinkets.
And you can just walk around for hours just taking it in.
It's so great- and a good way to spend the morning too.

People are constantly asking me how classes are,
In reality, they suck.
NO ONE wants to be in class while we're here.
The teachers know that.
They try to give us as little homework as possible.
We have class from 9-noon, Monday and Wednesday
And from 9-10:15 and 2-3:30 Tuesday and Thursday.
No class Friday.
And it's all good.
I'm learning more here than I'll ever learn in my life.
Just by interaction.
So I feel like I'm getting the most out of it...and maybe a 4.0?

We are constantly going from about 9 am-10 pm.
And later if we go to a show.
We don't stop.
We do all our homework late in the evenings.
We stay up talking until 3 am or when we all fall asleep.
We're tired.
Our feet hurt all the time.
Half of our tube rides we spend with our eyes closed.
Classes are meaningless since we just sleep through them...
But honestly, things are looking up.
It's been getting better and better every day.
I still am in a HUGE daze.
I can't believe I'm here.
But.
I'm falling in love.
Like I said.
More and more everyday. 

..chelle..