Classy and Trashy All in One Day!

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After spending the morning at the V&A Museum (Victoria and Albert), we decided we'd been classy enough for one day, and headed to Europe's largest street carnival for some mayhem: Notting Hill Carnival.  As a day filled with jerk chicken, alcoholic beverages,  a plethora of reggae bands, about 14,000 bobbies (cops for you non-Londoners), and all around riffraff, it was hard to believe that we were in London's most expensive neighborhood. People watching was highly entertaining, and facepaint proved to be the best idea all day. Although leaving was insanely difficult, the carnival was worth it! Go if you enjoy cheap beer, crowds of ridiculously dressed foreigners, street food out the wazoo, and live music. Here's a picture of what Notting Hill might look like on any other weekend.

The Problem with Writing After a Late Night...

Wow only now am I noticing the mass amounts of grammatical and other errors in that last post. So I apologize for writing when I got home from a night out. Won't happen again!

When London is Truly Alive

Oh the nights in London. And tonight was only our first night out. What a crazy adventure. Started out at a bar called the Court, where you can get a burger, chips (fries), and a pint for 4 pounds. Stayed there for a bit, met some Germans, and then wandered our way to Soho, the young and trendy part of London. Stopped at a few pubs but found ourself at the White Hart, a recommendation by our GC Jacob. This place was AWESOME. The drinks weren't so cheap, but so many cool people. Met a few brits who I'm sure we'll see again, and ran into kids from Notre Dame! Insane. This city is incredibly alive at night, with people everywhere hanging outside of bars with a pint or just wandering the streets. I've never really lived in a city before but I feel like no city can compare to how this place is when the sun goes down. Even now I can hear people singing in the street form my flat. Its like people are hibernating during the day so they can rage all night long. Whats fun about London is that so people who are "Londoners" aren't really from here. We met people tonight from Zimbabwe, Greece, Zambia and all over the UK. With such a mix of people its extremely difficult not to meet someone interesting.  It was a fun night indeed, but I'm exhausted and we have a Bloomsbury walking tour tomorrow at 11! Night!

Longest Day Ever

 It's raining right now, typical London, so naturally we're blasting glee. I live with a bunch of Gleeks and couldn't be happier. Haha and our upstairs shower is the size of a cubby, no joke. Its like showering in a time capsule. Luckily the downstairs one is bigger! I got so lucky that my flat is in the courtyard since about half of them are up 78 flights of winding stairs. Literally. Ok, not really...but I wouldn't want to climb that everyday.  The past 36 hours have been crazy. The flight wasn't too bad, and the bus ride to the study center provided the BEST hour and a half nap. Its still slightly unnerving that people drive on the left, I always feel like we're going to crash, or get hit when I cross the road. Everyones accents are so cute, but now I feel like I'm offending people when I fake a british accent for fun. Oh well, they already hate Americans. Tomorrow I have four meetings in a row, then a walking tour, and hopefully time to buy a cell phone. Yay! Off to bed.

Flat Tour!!

After a crazy 24 hours, probably longer, we thought you should get to see our flat! Its so cute.

!!!!

Leaving tomorrow! I'm going to do my best to keep this thing updated, but I have no idea when I'll be back on the internet. Since my brain has been on autopilot for the past 4 months, hopefully my writing will get better as the semester goes on. I've got to get whatever tiny bit of creative juices I have flowing. Or I need to read more. If you're reading this, thanks! I'm a blog newb so I'll try and keep it interesting. Cheerio!

So Close

Yay for bike rides and textbooks! Still waiting on a few to get here though, cross your fingers for me.

8 Days!!

Only 8 days until I'm off to jolly old England!! I guess I should start packing. I've been spending my days in the Barnes and Noble travel section, attempting to learn all I can about one of the biggest cities in the world, but am too excited to do anything but look at the pictures. I think their staff is starting to get annoyed, I usually just sit in the aisle instead of bothering with a table.  Now that I'm finished with work ( I'll miss my JCP aquatics staff! ), hopefully I can rest up enough to get over mono AGAIN. Frustrating. Maybe I'll catch up on some reading. If you're curious about my semester plans, here's a brief idea of what the Study Center has planned!