London 2009

Last Day in Londontown

2009-05-01T02:02:00.001-07:00

Well, this day seemed so far away for such a long time, but it's finally here.... Today is our last day altogether in London. We are going to go all around London today, hitting all our favorite stops together. It's going to be a great day, the weather is beautiful and everyone is in a good mood. However, it's gonna start getting late too soon and reality will set in... we are leaving the best four months of our lives, a dream life in the best city in the world and the people that we have spent every second of the past four months of our lives with.

Reflecting on the last four months, all I can really say is we are the luckiest 26 people ever. Coming here, I only knew two of those people. However, over a span of four months, I have found a new family. There are absolutely no regrets, no moments I would change, nothing along those lines. Every moment was thrilling and life changing and I'm going to miss it every day for the rest of my life.

Over the past few days, two of the guys have walked around London filming different things.... anything from major land marks, to all the tourist attractions, to our favorite unknown spots, to reenacting funny things that have happened. Over the summer, my friend Paul is going to edit it into a movie with music, pictures, and the footage to give to us sometime in the summer. I'm really excited about it, it's going to be a great thing to have to remember everything.

Greg arrived late Tuesday night. We have been going around the city and seeing all the major tourist stuff you need to see in London. Tomorrow, Greg and I go to Portugal with Nick and Steve Rock. We are all afraid to say we are excited because that means the semester is really over. With that being said, we are going to Faro for three days to sit on a beach in 75+ degree weather, then heading over to Lisbon for 2 days. After that, Nick and Rock head home. Greg and I are doing a mini tour of Europe, hitting Barcelona, Prague, Munich, Berlin and Amsterdam within a ten day span before coming home to Buffalo on May 16th. It's going to amazing to say the least.

I'm not sure if I will have time to write in this again, but if not, thanks for reading my blog, I hope everyone enjoyed it.

See everyone May 16th.

the place I call home...

2009-04-27T03:07:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was our last full weekend in London. Everyone leaves on Saturday, May 2. So we decided to make the most of it. We got up early everyday and sat in our courtyard with everyone and enjoyed the beautiful weather (low 70s all weekend). We would randomly get up to walk around the park, which is in full bloom and filled with tons of people all day, everyday. All the ice cream and snack stands are now open full time, which is almost impossible to avoid. It is just the best feeling to be here. Nothing will compare to the feeling of walking around our park, looking at all the beautiful flowers and ponds, with the amazing people I have met here that I now consider family. Leaving here and saying goodbye to everyone will be very difficult. None of us ever want to leave this dream world that has consumed the past 4 months of our lives.

Here's a look at what I'm talking about:

" By seeing London, I have seen as much of life as the world can show "
-Samuel Johnson

" You find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford "
-Samuel Johnson

Brussels

2009-04-27T02:21:00.000-07:00

Most of us on a tour in Leuven

Last weekend, our program directors made the trip across the pond to take us all on a weekend trip to Brussels, Belgium. The trip was included in our program, so all 26 of us got on a train to Brussels. Although the group dynamic with 29 people (including our program directors and academic adviser) was pretty obnoxious, it was a really great idea to end the numerous weekends of traveling with all of us together. The train took almost exactly two hours, and the school provided some pretty disgusting lunches (I got a pickle and prawn sandwich, woof).

The best part of this trip: not having to figure out transportation in Brussels, schedule, tourist things, getting to and from London, etc. For example, we got to Brussels train station and there was a coach carrier waiting to take us to our hotel. The hotel was really nice and included a really good breakfast every morning. Once we checked in, we met our tour guide who was going to walk us around the city and give us some background information. After the tour ended, the bus picked us up to take us to European Parliament. I am taking a British Politics class and we had just finished learning about the European Union, so actually going there was pretty cool. The presentation was boring, since I already knew the information, but it was cool to go in and see the Parliament. Outside the European Union was a piece of the Berlin Wall which I thought was really cool.

We were all absolutely exhausted after the European Parliament (we had all gotten up at 6am to start the traveling) so we got dropped off back at the hotel and had the rest of the night to ourselves. I went to dinner with a few of the guys and hung out until it was time for bed.

Friday we woke up early again to go and visit NATO, which was by far my favorite visit. We got put in a room and lectured by three different specialists. While waiting for the speakers to start, we discovered that there were individual microphones that connected to speakers at each persons seat. Needless to say, we were all pretty entertained. Once the speakers began, we were all very impressed. All three speakers were incredibly knowledgeable and handled our questions with ease. We learned a lot of really interesting things. After NATO, we got dropped off at our hotel for lunch. A group of us went to a place called Quick Quality Burger, which is very similar to a McDonalds, except that the food was terrible, if you could imagine that. After lunch, we all got back on the bus to go to the European Commission, which is the executive body of the European Union. However, after 5+ hours in a classroom each day, another presentation was killing us. We were all getting antsy to get out and explore the city for ourselves. The speaker for the European Commission was not very good, he tried to joke around too much and carried on the presentation for far too long. This was proven when we looked back and saw our academic adviser fast asleep. After this presentation, we got the night to ourselves again. We had a quick group dinner which was really good. The group of us attempted to find a karaoke bar, but to no success. Instead we went to a little bar called O'Reillys and had a great time.

Saturday we woke up early again to make the trip over to a college town called Leuven. We met our INSANE tour guide there who was going to walk us around the city. She was not interesting in any way, she did not try to provide information that would relate to us in any way and she pointed out the most random things in the city. She then proceeded to begin her speech by scolding me for yawning and completely stopped her presentation when someone else yawned. She was pretty crazy. After that tour ended we had some lunch and headed over to Beguinage, which was a community of lay, single women during the medieval period and is now home to apartment housing (picture above). The area included a beautiful church and there happened to be a wedding that day, so it made it even more beautiful. After this tour, we had about an hour of free time, so we went to this public square which is known as the biggest bar in Europe. This is true because there are nothing but bar/restaurants and all the bars are connected. The entire middle of the square, which is a mile long and about 50 yards wide is filled with tables and chairs (picture above). The nightlife here is suppose to be crazy, since all the college students (there are an estimated 60,000) come here to hang out every night. We had a few drinks before getting back on the bus to Brussels. Leuven was by far my favorite part of Brussels. It had the small town, European feel to it but at the same time, it was made for people our age. That night, we had dinner, napped and went out.

Sunday, we woke up and had breakfast. Steve, Paul and I decided to walk around the city on our own. It ened up being a lot of fun. We got to go at our own pace, find things that interested us and just hang out. We went to the first ever chocolate store, the Manikan Pis and the surrounding areas. We headed back to the hotel around 3 when it was time to go home to London.

Overall, although Brussels wasn't nearly my favorite city I have visited, it was definitely a great way to end our semester. We all got to travel for the last time with the group of people we have grown to love like family. It was definitely bittersweet.

After this weekend, we had our last week of classes and our last full weekend in London.... so sad...

Majorca

2009-04-25T07:51:00.001-07:00

For Easter weekend, I went to Majorca with three of my guy friends, Nick, Billy and Corey. Majorca is a little Spanish island in the Mediterranean. We were lucky enough to find a hotel that was set up in apartment style across from the beach. It was incredibly cheap for the size and location. It included a balcony with a view of the beach and a kitchen. We bought groceries to cook all our meals rather than eating out, so we had pretty much ate every meal on the balcony overlooking the pool and beach. It was a lot of fun, probably my favorite place I have stayed so far. The picture above is the view from our balcony and the picture below are the three boys on the balcony for breakfast.

We arrived late Friday night so we decided to walk around and explore a little bit instead of going out so we could wake up and get an early start on Saturday. We woke up really early on Saturday, cooked ourselves some eggs and toast for breakfast and headed out. The boys wanted to buy speedos for the beach so once we found those, we headed back to the hotel to change for the beach. The weather wasn't the best beach weather, it was beautiful when the sun was out but it got kind of chilly if there were any clouds. Altogether, we got a good 3-4 hours each day of good beach weather, taking breaks to eat and go in the pool at our hotel. There were four other kids from our London group that were in Majorca for the weekend as well. So Saturday night, we went to the area around their hotel (the Chippewa type area) for the night.

Sunday was Easter, so we went to the grocery store to buy food for dinner that night. The other four were coming to our apartment for dinner as well. After marinating the chicken and getting everything ready, Corey, Nick, Billy and I went down to the beach to have a little group prayer since we couldn't find a church anywhere close. After spending a few hours on the beach, we went back to shower up and prepare for dinner. The meal ended up being great. After realizing that this was many of our first big holiday away from our families, we were all really glad we could all share a big dinner together. For the rest of the night, we hung out, had a few drinks and had a great time together. Overall, it was a really nice way to spend Easter, especially since I was lucky enough to call home when my whole family and my Grandma were all together.

Monday, since we had the day off of school, was our last day in Majorca. Nick and I both had 9am class on Tuesday, so we decided to get a flight back as late as possible on Monday night. Our flight took off at 11:50pm, so we got to spend our last day and final dinner in Majorca. However, the traveling ended up being close to a nightmare. We got in around 2am, which meant that unless we wanted to spend a ton of money on a cab home or 8 hours on a bus to make the usual 30 minute trip home from the airport, we had until 6am (when the tube started) on the airport floor. Completely exhausted and with nowhere to go, we tried our hardest to get some sleep on the cold, hard floor of the Gatwick airport. Around 530, it was finally time to make our way back to Regents. As soon as we both walked into our dorm, we headed straight for our beds and passed out until it was time for class.

Regardless of the ridiculous travel time and the so-so weather situation, the trip to Majorca was amazing. We all had a great time, especially since it was the first weekend we traveled and were not on the constant move trying to see everything a major European city has to offer in a span of two to three days. Needless to say, this was one of my favorite Easters ever.

Mom came to Visit.

2009-04-21T08:43:00.001-07:00

My mom arrived in London on March 30th. Her plane arrived bright and early so I was up with the sun to get her from the airport. The week she arrived happened to be the G20 summit in London, so things were pretty crazy and security all around the park was VERY tight (since Obama stayed at the USA embassy located in Regents Park, about a ten minute walk away from us). I showed my mom around the campus before I had class and she went back to rest. Later that day, I walked her around the city to show her Big Ben, Parliament, the London Eye, the Thames and the surrounding area. She absolutely loved it; it's almost impossible not to. We had a quick bite to eat before calling it a somewhat early night because of the jet lag.

The next day, we went to the Portobello Market. Since it was a weekday, the market wasn't as busy and crazy as it was the first time I went, but it was still fun. They still had the stands on the streets which were selling food, souvenirs and everything else. We had a nice lunch and decided that we would go see a play that night. We were lucky enough to get really good tickets for Jersey Boys and since the theater was not sold out, we moved up. The play was absolutely amazing, we both had a great time. Highly recommend it. After the show got out, we had a great dinner in Piccadilly before heading home for the night.

The next day, since I had class, my mom took the tour bus around to get in all the major sights of London. We met up at lunch and walked around. My friend Steve Rock's family was visiting at the same time, so we met up with them to take a ride on the London Eye. We opted for the champagne ride, which ended up being really fun. After the London Eye, Steve and I decided to show our families Gordon's Wine Bar before all going out to dinner. Everyone got along great and it ended up being a really fun day.

Friday, my mom and I left for Ireland. We flew into Dublin early morning. We found a hotel and headed out since we were only spending a day there. We hopped on one of those get-on-get-off tour buses so that we could see all the major sights in Dublin. We got off to go into St. Patrick's Cathedral, which was very interesting. It was not very decorative, but there were some ancient artifacts that amazed us both. For example, there was part of the baptismal well that St. Patrick used so many centuries ago. Next, we got off at the Guinness Factory. Neither my mom nor I are big fans of Guinness, but Greg really wanted us to go, so we did. The factory itself was cool, it gave a lot of history and showed a lot of how the brew is made. One stand allowed you to learn how to pour your own Guinness. The top floor was by far the coolest. It was called the Gravity Bar. The city of Dublin does not contain many sky scrapers. So the 7th floor of the Guinness Factory gave you a great view of the whole city. Later that night, we got dinner and hung out at a pub. Overall, neither of us were very impressed with Dublin. It was very Americanized and you didn't really get the Irish feeling.

Saturday morning we got up early to get on a bus to Galway. The trip took about 4 hours. Once we arrived in Galway, we once again found a hotel and explored. The city is not very big, but it was amazing. There was a main strip of pubs, stores and stands that we walked down. There was a little market set up where we got some delicious crepes. We walked along the river in Galway, seeing the Spanish Arch and the beautiful walkway along the way. That night, we had dinner and went to many of the different pubs to enjoy some live Irish music, talk to some hilarious local people and had some great Irish beer. We had a ton of fun that night.

Sunday, we got up early in order to get on the day tour for the Cliffs of Moher. The ride was amazing because the Irish countryside is breathtaking. Along the way, we made a few stops for picture breaks and such. However, nothing compared to the Cliffs. We were nervous about the weather, but luckily, it held out long enough for our tour. We walked around for an hour, taking some great pictures. After seeing so many pictures, we thought we knew what we were going to see. However, pictures will never justify the beauty of the Cliffs. Once we arrived, there were a few times that we stood in disbelief. After taking in every moment, we headed back to the bus. We were exhausted from the day, so we had a late dinner and went to bed.

Monday, we spent around 9 hours traveling, since Galway doesn't have an airport. By the time we got home we were so mentally and physically exhausted that we just went to bed. The rest of the week, my mom did more sight seeing, while I had classes and work, leaving us to meet up in the afternoon. We met up with the Rock family for dinner again on Tuesday night. Wednesday, my mom's last day in London, we went to St. Paul's Cathedral and the Camden Market. Since Portobello Market was not as crazy as it usually was, I was excited to show my mom the constant hustle and bustle of Camden. That night we had a nice meal before saying goodbye.

Overall, we had a fantastic time together both in London and Ireland. It was really nice to see some family for the first time in months and I get to see everyone again May 16th :)

Londontown

2009-04-21T06:21:00.001-07:00

Sorry it has been so long since I have updated this thing, I have not had a chance to breathe in a while.

The last weekend of March, three of the boys and I stayed behind while everyone else went to Scotland or Barcelona. Corey, Zach, Paul and I hung around London all weekend and we had a great time. Friday we got up and decided to just walk all around the city. We walked around Parliament, Big Ben and the London Eye and continued to walk down the river. Saturday, we decided to go to the Portobello Market which was awesome. It was a street of small, unique shops that sold everything from antique jewelry to scarves to artwork to sweets and everything in between. The food stands were awesome, the fruit and desserts were very cheap so we all bought something and shared. Around five, the market started closing up so we decided to walk back through Hyde Park. However, it suddenly started hailing so we jumped in a cab quickly and headed home.

Sunday, all the other people got home from traveling early in the morning. That afternoon, we went to the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race. It is a HUGE event in London and luckily it was beautiful weather. There are millions of people that collect along the sides of the Thames while the crew race flies by. Everyone brings beer and drinks along the river, cheering, relaxing and enjoying the nice weather together. We didn't really understand all the hype, since crew isn't a huge sport in the United States and you stand along the river and see about 5 seconds of the hour long race. However, the environment was fun and everyone was in a good mood so we all had a good time.

That weekend I tried to get all my work done for my mom to come the following Tuesday.

Wales!

2009-03-28T05:21:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, a group of nine of us went to Wales for what is called the Preselli Venture Weekend. It is in southwest Wales, which was like a 5 hour train ride away. We left on Friday night and arrived around dinner time. The facilities were very nice and the food was very good. The weekend included three outdoor activities: sea kayaking, hiking and coasteering.

Saturday morning we got up around 8 to start our first activity, sea kayaking. We geared up in a full wet suit, got a mini crash course in the basic safety tips. We took off from a small, rocky beach and kayaked our way through St. George's Sea. The instructors were great, they took us along the coast, into caves and through rock formations. Along the way, they would stop and give us random facts about the places we were kayaking through. Overall, we ended up kayaking for about 3 hours, at each point we were all exhausted and headed back to Preselli for lunch.

After eating, the nine of us headed out for a seven mile hike along the coast. The views were absolutely beautiful. Luckily, both activities on Saturday were just the nine of us, so we all had a lot of fun spending a weekend together outside the city life. We stopped for a lot of pictures. There was also a running bet going at Preselli that you won a prize if you rode a sheep (which there were hundreds of along the coast). So of course, all the boys had to try. Everyone was unsuccessful (they are a lot faster than you would think), but it provided some good entertainment. That night, we all had dinner, then shared a few drinks around a bonfire. The perfect ending to an amazing day.

The next morning we got up again around 8 to head out for our third and final activity, coasteering. Coasteering consists of swimming, climbing rocks and jumping off cliffs. We got really dressed up in a lot of wet suit gear since we would actually be swimming in the cold water. Once we arrived at the beach, the first thing our instructors made us do was to get into the water and go under. At the time we were miserable, but we realized that it was the only way to get in without wasting an hour easing into it. The water was beyond cold, it immediately took our breath away. But our instructors didn't give us anytime to focus on that, thankfully we started immediately swimming out towards the cliffs. Your body got used to the water pretty quickly thanks to the wet suits, but your hands FROZE (until they went numb after like 10 minutes). But once we actually started climbing and jumping, any thoughts of being cold left your mind. Climbing the rocks was very cool because you knew that not many people have been there, because it is only accessible through this type of activity. Towards the end, our instructor finally found a spot for us to cliff dive. We started out small, jumping off at a spot only ten feet high. We gradually increased the height, our final jump was around 30 feet high. We were all kind of bummed out because the tide was too low to jump from any higher. After everyone jumped the two instructors did some cool tricks before we swam back to the beach. Overall, this was all of our favorite activity. It was a great end to the weekend.

We got back to Preselli, we ate lunch, showered and packed up to head back to London. We got dropped off at the train station and all passed out the minute we hit our seats. Overall, it was definitely one of the favorite weekends for the nine of us.

Spring Break: Germany

2009-03-25T06:55:00.000-07:00

Well after some trouble with the security at the Venice airport, we finally made it into Cologne, Germany on Thursday night. Steve's friend from high school, Alex, moved to Germany with her family a couple years ago. So she picked us up from the airport and drove us 45 minutes back to her hometown of Grefrath. Their house was very cool and her family was very excited for our visit. After settling our stuff down into our room, her mom had a home cooked (!!!) meal of chicken quesadillas and some various German finger foods. The food was very good. After we all ate, showered and emailed our parents, we went to bed for a busy day the next day.

On Friday, we woke up and had another incredible home cooked meal. The breakfast was absolutely amazing before we headed out for downtown Cologne. First we hit a Nazi Museum, which was a Gestapo Jail while Hitler was in power. The entire building just gives you the chills. The audio guide first took you downstairs to the cells. As seen in the picture, the cells were only suppose to be used for one or two people, but the Nazis would shove up to 30 people into one cell at any given time! There were scratchings all over the walls, some of which were translated, making the suffering of these people even more painfully obvious. These notes were about their terrible experiences, goodbye notes to loved ones and people expressing their deepest regrets. The upstairs of the building gave a history of the Nazi regime. It was a very sobering experience.

Next, we headed over to the huge Cathedral in Cologne. The structure was stunning and the inside was beautiful too, it was very Gothic. We paid an extra euro to climb over 500 stairs to the top of the Cathedral. The view was not as good as in Rome and Florence, but it was still very cool. You crossed the Cathedral bells, so we waited for the bells to ring. It was insanely loud, but cool to witness. We headed down from the Cathedral to meet up with Alex to make our way to Hamburg.

To get from Cologne to Hamburg, we drove on the Autobahn. And I always knew that cars didn't have speed limits, but I was amazed that cars really do go scary fast. Alex let Rock drive for a majority of the time. We maxed out at around 170 kilos/hour (which is about 105 mph). I thought I would be really nervous about the fast driving, but drivers are very respectful of the rules or the road and follow them very closely. I never felt unsafe in the 5 hour drive. When we finally arrived in Hamburg, we went grocery shopping, settled down in Alex's apartment and made some dinner. The next day, we took a bus tour of the city to learn about it. We learned that Hamburg was not only beautiful, but has more bridges than both Amsterdam and Venice, that it has the second biggest port in Europe and that the Beatles were"discovered" there. For the rest of the day, we just walked around and got ready for the night.

That night we went to the street of bars in Hamburg, called the Reeperbahn. It is full of clubs and bars that you can just walk in and out of. It was a lot of fun, German night life is crazy. We went into the bar that the Beatles were supposedly discovered. They played something like 700+ hours of concert at this one bar. They have the Beatles figures outside the bar that you can stand in, as you can see in the picture. Hamburg also has a red light district, so of course the boys had to see it. This was VERY different than the Red Light District of Amsterdam. I held both boys hands and still got very insulted. The girls would swear at me, call me crude names and even spit on me. At the end, one of the "pimps" told me very harshly to get out. We quickly obeyed and I had the boys stay at my immediate side for the rest of the night.

The next day, we were headed back for London. Although it was an amazing trip and every second was filled with fun and excitement, the three of us were glad to be going home. We made one final trip around the city, had some dinner and headed home. Overall, spring break was some of the most amazing ten days of my life.

Spring Break: Venice

2009-03-23T13:40:00.000-07:00

Once we got on the train, my stomach got really upset so I tried to sleep it off. However, when we arrived around dinner time, my stomach was still upset. I tried to make it to the hostel, but after getting lost a bunch of times, I knew it was going to be a while before we got there. I headed into the closest shop I could find and begged to use the bathroom using the few Italian phrases I knew, even offering a few euros. However, the owner did not take me seriously and told me to wait. I ended up just grabbing his garbage can, which the owner obviously was not too appreciative of. Steve came in to help me, so as soon as he walked in I decided to just run to the bathroom. When I got out the owner was screaming "Bafangula! Bafangula!" (I'll let you use your imagination to translate that one). We finally got to the hostel with the help of an old woman who witnessed my little episode in the shop. I slept for the rest of the night.

The next day, I was still feeling pretty lousy, but I couldn't let that stop me from enjoying my short time in Venice. So I stopped at a drug store to pick up some medicine and we headed out. Luckily, Venice is a very chill city. We mostly just walked around, stopping at various cafes for spritzas (their native orange drink), capachinos, and in my case, a little gelato. It was very relaxing, walking along the canals, enjoying the nice weather and each others company. We made our way to St. Mark's Square. We bought a piece of bread to feed the pigeons. The boys told me I had to do it, so I held out my hand so the pigeons could eat it. It ended up being a really funny experience, as you can see from the picture.

We decided to grab (more) gelato and find a gondola ride. It was pretty expensive (twenty euros each for a half hour ride) but it was one of the few things you couldn't go to Venice and not experience. It was cool to get a ride around the city in a gondola. Our driver would stop to point a few major places along the way as well.

After we got off, we headed back to our hostel to wash up for dinner. We went to this little pub for some paninis and a futbol match. Manchester United (a UK favorite of ours) was actually playing. We stayed for the whole game, chatting with some random people that were also watching the game. One of my favorite parts of traveling is meeting new people and hearing all the crazy stories and different experiences everyone has. After the game, it was pretty late so we headed back to our hostel and went to bed.

The next day, we didn't leave for Germany until around 4, so we woke up around 11, packed up and headed out. We found a great little cafe along the Grand Canal. Once again, we all sat in amazement on our incredible fortune to be lounging in Venice along the Grand Canal waiting for our flight to Germany. There were a lot of dogs along the canal so we played with them for a while. We took a water taxi to the bus station which is outside of the city. It was cool to end our visit to Venice with a water taxi. We made our way to the airport for our flight to Cologne, Germany.

Spring Break: Florence

2009-03-23T13:12:00.000-07:00

On Sunday night, we finally arrived in Florence. We got out of the train station completely exhausted from our crazy weekend in Rome and immediately started searching for our hostel, which was very nice and spacious. It was about a fifteen minute walk from the train station. That night, we were all pretty cranky so we just had dinner and went to bed very early to catch up on the sleep we didn't get in Rome.

The next morning we woke up early. We decided to rent bikes to travel around the city on our only full day there. It ended up being an amazing decision. The bikes were a ton of fun to ride and made seeing all the sites in one day very easy. This is a picture of Rock and I riding our bikes down an alley towards the Duomo.

First we hit the Duomo, the famous Cathedral in Florence. The outside of the church was beautiful, with a colorful exterior. However, the inside of the church was very dark and plain. We didn't spend much time looking around because there wasn't much to look at. However, there was a beautiful dome, so once again we decided to pay a few euros to climb to the top. Seeing the dome up close was amazing, bringing you face to face with the paintings, which depicted a view of heaven vs. hell. If you weren't scared of hell before seeing this dome, you definitely were after seeing this painting up close. We then headed to the top of the dome. Once again, the view was very cool. You could see the entire view of the city from the top. We walked around for a while before heading down to move on to our next destination.

We then headed over to Michelangelo Hill. The walk up was pretty brutal. However, at the top, there was an amazing view accompanied by a gelato shop. So we got some more gelato and enjoyed the view. However, the wind picked up and it got pretty chilly so we headed back down.

For the rest of the day, we just rode our bikes around, stopping at the occasional market to pick up some small souvenirs. We had a lot of fun just weaving in and out of traffic, riding down small alleyways and through piazzas. Overall, it was a really fun day. The night was spent hanging out in our hostel, where we met some very interesting people from Australia. We also met an architect from the US; he got laid off because of the recession and decided to pack up and travel around Europe alone to fill up his sketch book. The three of us spent most of the night speaking to these three people, who each had some pretty amazing travel stories. We headed out for a few drinks before going to bed.

The next morning, we went to the San Marco Museum, where the statue of David is located. We waited in line for about twenty minutes, during which we signed the wall with the hope it would be there if we ever returned. Before seeing David, we went to another exhibit, which held ancient musical instruments. It was very cool. Steve is really into music so he was helpful explaining the instruments he recognized. We then headed over to the David, where we sat in awe for a while. The statue is so perfectly sculpted and designed. Once again, I had the boys hide me so I could sneak a picture.

We then packed up our stuff before heading to the train station. This time, we were off to Venice.

Finally... Spring Break: Roma

2009-03-23T06:37:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's been so long since I have updated this thing, but I have been very, very busy. Now that I finally have a minute to catch my breath, I thought I should update everyone on what I have been up to.

Spring Break was absolutely amazing... some of the busiest, craziest ten days of my life. To start off with, we could not have asked for better weather for the entire trip. Everyday was sunny and warm, I almost didn't bring enough clothes to deal with the heat. Secondly, for anyone that is traveling anywhere in Europe, I highly recommend buying the Rick Steve's guidebook. This man gave us detailed tours and facts about everything, from the major tourist attractions to all the interesting little places that are easy to miss if you aren't looking for them. Overall, I cannot describe how much fun I had over spring break. There is so much to write about that I'm going to have to break it up into different posts for each city.

Thursday, March 5th, I headed to Rome with my two friends, Steve McLean and Steve Rock. We got in pretty late, but we wanted to see our John Carroll friends that study in Rome before they headed out for their spring break trip early the next morning. They picked us up from the airport and we headed out to their friend's apartment that we would be staying in. It was in the absolute perfect location, in a little part of the city called Piazza Trilusa. Piazza Trilusa is known as the hip, young part of town, often compared to SoHo in NYC. Her apartment building was hidden, but it was very nice and spacious. We each got a free couch to sleep on so we weren't complaining. We all went out for a few drinks to celebrate Steve's 20th birthday.

The next morning, Steve, Rock and I got up at around 8am ready to explore. First, we hit the Campo Market where we bought fresh cheese, bread and salami to make sandwiches for the day. We then headed out in search for the Pantheon. However, on our journey we stumbled upon the Sacred Area of Largo Argentina, where Ceaser was killed. It was very cool because these ancient ruins are literally right in middle of the city. For some reason, there were cats everywhere. There was even a government sign that warned people that even though the cats were immunized, they should refrain from touching them. The government allows these ancient ruins to serve as a home to hundreds of stray cats.

We continued walking until we hit the Pantheon. The Pantheon was breathtaking. It is amazing that the Romans were able to build all of these amazing buildings without the kind of technology we enjoy today. The inside dome was built perfectly semetrical. The artwork, the altar and the tombs were beautiful. Raphael was actually buried there.

Next we hit the Trevi Fountain, which was probably our favorite part of Rome. We got some gelato and sat on the edge of the water. We each threw a coin in the fountain for some good luck too. We finally just sat on the surrounding benches for an hour just hanging out. It is probably the best place in the world to people watch. The weather was absolutely beautiful, so we decided to take advantage and soak up some sun. We read from Rick Steve that the Fountain was still filled by the Roman aquaducts with clean water. So we decided to try the water, which tasted clean, but we were all a little grossed out when we realized all the change that was thrown in there by thousands of people everyday. Oh well.
When we finally got ourselves to move on, we hit the Spanish Steps. We sat on the steps for a while just soaking in the fact that we were lucky enough to be on spring break in Europe with no schedule or any real responsibility. It was an incredible feeling. We sat there for a bit before climbing to the top and heading in the direction we thought the Colloseum was in. However, we were wrong. We ended up finding this amazing hill filled with gardens. From the top, you could see a bird's eye view of the city. You could see everything, including the government building, the Colloseum and the Vatican. So it ended up being pretty convenient that we took a wrong turn. After getting some good pictures, we headed to the Roman Forum and the Colloseum.

Once we got to the Forum, we were very impressed. This was the area that held the most important buildings in ancient times, from government buildings to royal residences. Nothing with real structure was still standing, but many different parts of the various buildings were still standing. After reading some Rick Steve's facts, we had an even greater appreciation for the amazing advancements of the Romans. We ended up spending a little too much time there before we headed over to the Colosseum. After walking around the entire Colosseum, we finally found the entrance, realizing that we missed the last entrance by ten minutes. So we brushed that off and decided to explore the surrounding area before heading home for dinner. That night we celebrated Steve's actual birthday by going to a night club. The club, called Gilda, actually let American students in for free. We were absolutely amazed, because Americans usually get the highest entrance fees in London. The club was very cool, with lounging rooms, dancing area and a stage. That night, the main event was a dance competition, so there were hip hop and break dancing groups competing. The audience got really into it, it was very cool.

The next morning we got up early again for a view of the Vatican. We got lucky, because usually Saturdays have extremely long lines, but we only waited for about ten minutes. After taking a self-guided tour around St. Peter's Basilica (thanks Rick Steve), we decided to pay the 7 euros to climb to the top of the dome, which is over 100 yards high. It was a pretty crazy walk, which tiny slanted hall ways, spiral staircases with a rope hanging from the ceiling for a railing, and tiny steps. After the brutal climb up, we realized that the view was definitely worth the walk up. It was breathtaking. The three of us stood there speechless for over five minutes before being able to share our amazement. It was probably the best view I have ever seen. Walking around the entire dome allowed you to see the entire city of Rome from every angle. Amazing. After spending a half hour up there, we headed down to see the Sistine Chapel. We moved through the Vatican museum pretty quickly, since we didn't have much more time. We finally got to the Sistine Chapel and were once again awestruck. The ceiling was my favorite part, with the famous picture of God and Adam touching fingers, signifying God's creation of man. Of course, we had to sneak a picture. So the boys hid me while I snook a few photos.

After that, we made our way over the Roman Olympic Stadium for a futbol match. Rome played Udinese, tying the game with a score of 1-1. The match itself was insane. The fans are absolutely crazy, never ceasing to wave their enormous flags and cheering very loudly the entire game. The atmosphere did not allow you to relax for a second, it was so exciting. That night, we met up with around 6 other John Carroll kids from London for a pub crawl. The pub crawl involved one main bar, three more bars and free entrance into a club, which coincidentally was Gilda again. Overall, it was a lot of fun for a group of the London students to go out together in a different city.

The next morning, our last day in Rome, we once again got up early and went for the Colosseum tour. Once again, Rick Steve came in big, giving us a self-guided tour with very interesting facts. We spent about an hour in there before heading back to our friend's apartment, where we learned that the Pope was speaking that day. So we booked it over to the Vatican just in time to witness the Pope. It was absolutely amazing, we got very lucky because not many people can say they saw the Pope speak. He spoke in about 6 different languages, so we listened closely for the English section. He didn't say much and it was very hard to hear over the crowd's cheers, but we were excited nonetheless. Afterward, we packed up and headed for the train station. We were on our way to Florence. The train ride was absolutely beautiful, we got a great view of the Italian countryside.

Midterm Week

2009-03-04T03:39:00.000-08:00

This has by far been the easiest semester I have ever had and midterms week did not disappoint. I had a short paper due Monday and an exam Thursday morning. Other than that, I have been enjoying the nice weather. It had been absolutely beautiful out, mid 50s everyday. Last Thursday and Friday, we sat in the park, played frisbee and drank some wine. It was very relaxing and a lot of fun. We actually saw a band getting photographed for their first album cover. It was pretty hysterical because they were this long haired heavy metal band getting photographed in this beautiful park.

Taylor arrived on Saturday morning, so I went to pick her up from the train station. We have been having a blast. I have been playing tour guide, taking her around to all the major tourist stuff and the small, unknown cool things to do around London as well. On Sunday afternoon, a group of us went on the London Eye, which is the big feris wheel on the Thames River across from Big Ben. It was 15 pounds and definitely worth the money. You go around once, which takes about a half hour. The view from the top was breath taking, as you can see from the picture of Big Ben and Parliament.

Another girl from Nardin that goes to John Carroll with me was also in London visiting. So the three of us went around London on Monday. We went inside Westminster Abbey and it was absolutely beautiful. It was 9 pounds, but also definitely worth it. We spent like 3 hours in there. Anyone that has ever been important to Britain was either born, married, buried or has a memorial, including every king and queen that has ruled since its construction. Many poets and authors were also buried there, such as Geoffery Chaucer (The Canterbury Tales) and Shakespeare. I lit a candle for Aunt Karen in there.

Other than that, we have just been walking around and hanging out. Taylor leaves really early tomorrow morning. I have a midterm and a class tomorrow. But then I head out with my two friends (Steve Rock and Steve McLean, in the picture) for our spring break trip late Thursday afternoon. We head to Rome for 3 days, Florence for 2, Venice for 2, Cologne for a day, then Hamburg for 3 days before heading back to London. We are gone for almost 12 days but we only have to pay for 4 nights of hostels, thanks to our friends that are studying abroad in those places as well. It should be absolutely amazing, I'm really excited.

I will update as soon as I get back from spring break!

Hope everyone is doing well,

Torrey

Amsterdam

2009-02-25T05:42:00.000-08:00

Well, last weekend a group of around fifteen of us went to Amsterdam. We got up really early and left London Heathrow at 8:15 and got in around 11. Traveling with a large group has its pros and cons which was pretty obvious to all of us from the start. We took a train from the Amsterdam airport to the Grand Central Station. After walking around for a little bit, we found our hostel which was a house boat in the bay. The rooms were absolutely tiny... my one friend was able to stand in the middle of the room and touch both walls. But the beds were really comfy and we never spent any time in the rooms except to sleep so we all got a good laugh out of it. The picture is of our houseboat with the sunset in the back.

After setting our stuff down, we immediately got going. We all had to break up because moving around any European city with more than 3 or 4 people is impossible, you just end up looking like stupid touristy Americans. So I broke off with my two friends Steve and Mike and we started exploring. The most interesting thing about Amsterdam is their obsession with bikes. EVERYONE rides bikes... you actually have to be more careful not to get hit by a moving bike than a car. Every light pole, gate, bridge and railing had a bike locked to it. It was pretty crazy. The city itself was interesting, and VERY easy to get lost in. There were hundreds of canals between all the tiny side streets, so everything looks exactly the same. While we were there, we did a tour of the Heineken Brewery, the Ann Frank House and the Van Gogh Museum.

The Heineken Brewery was pretty cool, and the three of us ended up running into 5 other kids we came with so that was fun. It was 15 euros, which included a two free beers, the tour, a sample of all the different ingredients of beer and this virtual ride. Learning about the beer making process was pretty interesting. It was also interesting to try all the individual ingredients that go into the beer. However, other than that, it was just pushing product in your face. You have to expect that, going on the "Heineken Experience", but it got a bit ridiculous. Every room was basically screaming BUY HEINEKEN! instead of actually showing you the history and explaining the actual product itself. It was cool to do though.

The Ann Frank House was probably my favorite. This was one of the only activities we did as an entire group. We waited in line for forty minutes, but it was worth it. It was bone chilling walking through the house, seeing the bookcase that hid the attic and walking around the actual rooms where the family hid. The father, who survived, didn't want any of the furniture to still be in the rooms, so everything was empty except a few artifacts from the war. They put quotes from the diary all over the walls. The last room of the actual house was incredibly sad; it described how the family was discovered, captured, separated and eventually killed. Each person had their picture, the Nazi's concentration camp registration card, their place of birth and their place of death. They had taped interviews playing all over the room from people who knew the family, who saw them once they got in camp and who knew the father after the war ended when he realized his entire family died. It was heartbreaking. The final room was uplifting though. They had quotes of famous people who had gotten inspriration from reading Ann's diary. They had the actual letters between Mr. Frank and Mrs. Roosevelt about translating the diary to English. It was really, really interesting. (Ann Frank House is the one right in the middle with with blue thing in front of it)

The Van Gogh Museum was definitely worth going to, but I think it was a little over rated. It was a pretty small Museum and kind of expensive to get into. The first floor only had a few of his own paintings. The second floor was by far the best, obviously, because it included Starry Night. It was amazing to see in real life. We all stood there for over fifteen minutes just looking at it. Of course I had to get my camera out and get a picture even though you could get kicked out for doing so. There were other famous paintings by him, like Potato Eaters, but nothing came close to seeing Starry Night.

Other than that, we mostly just walked around and explored. We did walk through the Red Light District a few times. We all got a kick out of it, because it is just so surreal. It's hard to believe that a place like the Red Light District actually exists, let alone being legal. It was pretty creepy all day, especially once it passed dinner time. I always held one of the guys hands to prevent getting crude remarks yelled at me. But it was still wild to watch this kind of place.

Here are some final thoughts on Amsterdam:
1. It is the most surreal, backwards place I have ever been to. Example: My one friend Corey has a very badly bruised heel. He was a trooper all weekend, never complaining of the pain or all the walking we had to do. However, the one time he did take the public transportation system, he put his foot up on a seat for a rest. The next stop, the police were waiting for him, telling him that putting his feet up on a seat was illegal. He explained that he didn't know, that he wasn't from Europe, that he couldn't read Dutch and that he hurt his foot and was giving it a rest. They didn't care, they took him to the police station and gave him a 60 euro ticket. In other words, Amsterdam allows women to sell themselves for next to nothing and they will sell weed to anyone who can pay for it, but you CANNOT put your feet on the seat on the dirty public trams.
2. I have a renewed fear of bikes. After getting over my fear of bikes after my little incident that resulted in two casts on my birthday, I finally was able to love bikes again. However, I almost got run over about thirty times. My one friend actually got his foot run over by a bike and all his toes are bruised. Another kid his clipped by someone's handle bars and dropped the drink he was carrying. Scary!
3. I don't think I will be going back to Amsterdam anytime soon. It was pretty crazy. Two and a half days was the perfect amount of time there, I don't think I would have liked staying there any longer. However, I do wish we went during the spring, when the trees and plants were in bloom along the canals. It is suppose to be absolutely beautiful.

This Friday, my friend Taylor Niceforo is coming to visit for a week. I'm really excited to have a little taste of home. It is also John Carroll's spring break, so we counted 11 people coming to visit this weekend. It will be pretty crazy. Then everyone leaves next Thursday because our spring break begins and we are all traveling.

I will try to update again before I leave for spring break.

Hope all is going well,

Torrey

Stonehenge and the Silent Dance

2009-02-17T02:31:00.000-08:00

Friday night was one of the funnest nights I have had here so far. In Trafalgar Square, there was, as they call it, an organized flashmob event. A flashmob is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public area, perform an unusual action for a brief time, then quickly disperse. This event we found on Facebook was called the Trafalgar Square silent dance, meaning that everyone wears their own ipod, listens to their own music and dances. There were a ton of people there. We ended up climbing up the monument in the middle of Trafalgar Square, jumping off into the crowd to crowd surfing. I crowd surfed a few times and got carried like 25 feet. It was an absolute blast. No one knew each other but everyone was just dancing together and having a good time. If this happened in the US, I think things probably would have gotten out of control and people would have gotten hurt because they took it too far. We went to Gordon's Wine Bar afterwards to talk about how crazy and amazing the night was.

Saturday was our day trip to Stonehenge. We got on a bus at 9am and drove 2 hours to literally the middle of no where. Then all of a sudden, you see the rock formation. It was really cool to see Stonehenge, as it is one of the wonders of the world. However, the entire rock formation is roped off so you cannot come within like 30 yards of it. So you need like 15 minutes to take a few good pictures and take it in.... we had an hour. So as those loud, obnoxious American college students, we decided to have some fun. We tried recreating Stonehenge with people, as you can see in the picture. Everyone, even the workers, found it pretty amusing. After Stonehenge, we got back on the bus and drove another hour to Salisbury, which is your typical small English countryside town. There was an absolutely beautiful cathedral there that holds part of the Magna Carta, but you had to pay five pounds to get in. So instead, we went to a pub for some fish and chips and a few pints. We were all exhausted by the time we got back on the bus due to the lack of sleep from our crazy Friday night.

This week I have two papers due, which is the most amount of work I have heard anyone doing so far. But, this weekend a big group of us are going to Amsterdam so that is acting as my motivation.

Cheers,

Torrey

bronchitis is a drag

2009-02-11T08:48:00.000-08:00

Well, of course with the great luck I always seem to have when I travel, I got sick. I got some kind of chest infection (they don't call it bronchitis here) that has caused me to have a terrible cough for about 3 (out of the 4) weeks. I was finally able to get an appointment at the health clinic yesterday and thankfully was given antibiotics. So I haven't been doing much other than laying around and sleeping.

The weekend was still fun even though I didn't really have energy to do much. We had three girls from John Carroll who are currently studying in Rome come up to visit. They got in late Thursday night so we just hung around the dorms. Friday we walked them around to all the major London spots. It was kind of cool to show people around the city, knowing where you are going, and not be the ones taking all the pictures. It was the first time that I actually felt like a Londoner which was very exciting. We went to this club called Fabric on Friday that was named one of the top nightclubs in the world. It has several different rooms. My two favorites were the hip hop room, which had a floor that vibrated with the bass, and the rave room, which had glow sticks, laser lights and loud music. It was pretty pricey, but one of those places you have to experience while you are there.

Saturday, my two friends and I went to Hampstead, a town in North London, while the visitors went shopping. Hampstead is best known for it's park, Hampstead Heath. The actual town itself is tiny, it only takes about 20 minutes to walk through. However, they have the HUGE Hampstead Heath Park. It was absolutely beautiful, with little ponds and very old trees around every corner. Although the entire park was very pretty, my favorite part was Parliament Hill. It was a tough walk up, a steep hill that took like 15 minutes to climb, but it was definitely worth it. At the top there are benches that you sit on and see a view of the entire city. The view is breathtaking, as you can imagine from the picture.

Other than that, I have been taking it easy. I don't plan on doing much besides resting until Saturday, when we take a day trip to Stonehenge. I heard you only need like 5 minutes there since the rocks are so blocked off and we are in the area for the day, so it should be an interesting day.

Let's hope these antibiotics work out

Torrey

ps-- here is the link to my pictures website: http://torreygrenda.myphotoalbum.com//albums.php
let me know if that works.

4 inches of snow? really?

2009-02-03T07:56:00.001-08:00

So, over Sunday night we got about 4 inches of snow. Monday morning we wake up to find the entire city of London in a complete panic. They do not know how to deal with, move, or get rid of any amount of snow. Four inches is the most they have gotten in about 20 years. The mayor was so worried that he ordered all the buses (over 6800) to be stopped and the tube had like over half of the lines closed. So more than 75% of the city's public transportation was closed. Schools and colleges were canceling classes and tons of stores, restaurants and pubs were closed. I saw people using a broom to clear snow off of a bridge and they use sand instead of salt to melt the snow and get some traction (it doesn't work it just makes the snow look gross). Besides a few inconveniences, it was pretty funny watching such an efficient city absolutely break down. And our park looked absolutely beautiful.

But I braved the "blizzard" and took a tour of the recreation of Shakespeare's Globe Theater. It was for a school project, but it was pretty cool. They did it exactly like the one Shakespeare used so many years ago. It was actually pretty cool to get all the inside scoop on Shakespeare. I was surprised to learn that the movie Shakespeare in Love was actually a really accurate portrayal of his life, the theater and the time period. Also, it's only 5 pounds for a ticket in the "Groundlings" (area on the ground where you stand in front of the stage for the entire performance) and you can bring your own food and drinks. Overall, I thought the tour was more interesting than I anticipated.

This weekend a few of my friends from John Carroll that are studying in Rome are coming to stay with us. I'm really excited to see some familiar faces that I don't see everyday.

Cheers

trips!

2009-02-02T04:53:00.001-08:00

Here are the trips we have planned so far:

Feb 14 - Stonehenge

Feb 20-22 - Amsterdam

March 5-15 - (Spring Break) Rome, Florence, Venice, Cologne, Hamburg

March 20-22 - Wales

April 3-5 - Ireland

April 9-13 - Majorca

April 16-19 - Brussels

Never a dull moment

2009-02-01T08:52:00.000-08:00

Another week of classes has gone by. All the classes seem pretty easy so far, but they are at least an hour and a half long each so it's easy to get antsy and distracted (there is only so much literary London I can take at 9am Monday and Wednesday mornings). We took it easy for the most part. We walk around almost every day but other than that nothing too exciting.

On Thursday, my two friends and I decided to find Platform 9 and 3/4 from the Harry Potter books. The three of us are all really into the Harry Potter series so we were very excited to find it. So we took the tube to King's Cross (the station where the platform is) and finally arrived to find it to be very anti-climatic. It's on some little corner of the station next to construction sites. But It was cool to take some pictures with.

After that, we just walked around the city. We ended up going to Gordon's Wine Bar again for a light dinner and a bottle of wine. After that, we joined the rest of the group for the festivities of the night to begin.

Friday we woke up and decided to explore once again since there is always something new to find. We walked around for what ended up being like 8 hours. At Trafalgar Square we ran into a Gaza Protest, which was pretty interesting. There were thousands of people screaming, chanting and holding signs. We listened to a few speakers, but when they brought up America not doing it's part, the crowd got pretty rowdy. The group of us decided to not give away our accents and get out of there in case it started to really get out of hand.

Saturday we went to Bath. It was about a two hour bus ride north. It was amazing to actually see the Roman Baths, but other than that, it was really touristy. They had really modern structures around the Baths with random artifacts hung on the walls. It was jammed packed so it was a lot of standing and waiting to get through the whole thing. They gave you these big phone like things to type in numbers located next to all these artifacts to hear why they were important. Then we finally got to the Bath and it was really really cool. You weren't suppose to touch the water, but of course we all did. The bath is fed by a natural spring that pours out steaming hot water at around 46 degrees C (aka 115 degrees F) They used it as a place for healing as well as a shrine to the goddess Minerva. We spent about half hour hanging around the Bath before exploring the town. The town basically consisted of little shops, pubs and a lot of row houses. We found a beautiful park that had the countryside in the background that we walked around for an hour. We left around 4:30, the perfect amount of time to see the baths, get some fish and chips at a local pub and wander around the small town.

Today, a couple boys and I woke up and walked to this open flower market which was a lot cooler than any of us anticipated. It was just a street of any kind of flower, plant, tree (orange and lemon trees) and bulbs. All the shops along the street were filled with tea, coffee, bizarre artwork/jewelry and interesting little gadgets. We decided that every Sunday we spend in London we are going to wake up and go to one of these weekend street markets. We walked home through Hyde Park and Notting Hill, both of which were beautiful. But of course, in the rush to meet the boys on time, I forgot my camera.

Tonight is the Superbowl so the pub at school is staying open late and showing it on the flat screen tvs they have in there. It doesn't start until 11:30pm here so I'll only watch a little bit of it.

Out and About in London

2009-01-25T10:56:00.000-08:00

So I decided that a blog would be much easier to update everyone than to keep sending emails to different people.

I have been in London for about 10 days and I have finally seen every major icon in the city. My friend Steve McLean and I took one of those stupid tourist buses around the city on Friday afternoon just to see everything and get a good idea of the lay out of the city, and it actually really helped. Regents College is actually in a perfect central location. Nothing is more than a 20-30 minute walk away (or a couple tube stops) which is awesome.

Saturday was a great day. A group of us woke up to see the changing of the guards ceremony at Buckingham Palace. We got there at 11 for the 11:30 ceremony and it was just still so ridiculously packed. I got some pictures, but if you want any kind of good view, you have to get there crazy early. Oh well. From there, we walked to Parliament (Big Ben), Westminster Abbey and the London Eye area. Big Ben was just unbelievable, no picture will ever do it justice. There was a huge line to get into Westminster Abbey, so we just decided to wait for a weekday sometime to go to mass there. St. Margaret's, which is right next to Westminster Abbey, was beautiful too. We walked around for probably a good 8 hours that day. That area is just so cool, which street performers along the river and just everyone out walking around. We saw someone propose to this girl on what they call the Wobbley Bridge, which is over the Thames River overlooking Big Ben, the London Eye and the surrounding area. Smooth move by that guy.

We found this little wine bar called Gordon's. They have decently cheap wine there and it's the oldest wine bar in London. You go in and immediately climb down the stairs into the bar. The seating is actually in the old wine cellar, it's such a cool environment. I'm going to bring anyone that comes to visit for sure. Here's a picture of the seating area.

Today, we went to the Camden Market, an open air market on the weekends. It is so cool. It's like a way better Chinatown. They set up this big market of vendors and you just walk around bargaining with people. They have clothes, shoes, scarves, purses... pretty much anything you could need/want, and everything looked like it was pretty good quality for the money you were paying. In other words, it's the only cheap clothes you are gonna find. But of course, the minute we get there it starts pouring rain so we didn't stay long because none of us brought umbrellas.

Tomorrow starts another week of classes. This Saturday we have a trip to Bath which should be pretty cool. Other than that, school is easy so far and I'm loving London more than I ever imagined I would.

And in closing, here is the view from the Wobbly Bridge that the couple got engaged on: