Tuesday, May 31, 2011

day 4.

Sorry I'm a little late on posting this one... but day 4 was Sunday. I finally got to sleep in and it felt real nice! The sun was actually shining for a bit, so I ventured out for breakfast and got myself a nice slice of bread from a cute little bakery down the street. The beginning of the day was dedicated to some self-bonding time, I sketched a bit and caught up a bit on my pictures.
Later on, Andrea, Danielle and I ventured around London and just creeped our little hearts out on whoever we desired to take a picture of. We came across the LDS missionaries and hung out with them for a bit.. (you can see a picture of them on the bottom) and then we just checked out the locals and the tourists. I also got offered a job to work at a little pub/restaurant... all I had to do was "talk to Victor and it would only take 2 minutes!" So maybe when I get desperate for money, I will talk to the man. :) We are beginning to get this area down, as well as the accents. Sometimes we will accidently break out in an English accent when we speak, it is so much cooler sounding than our lame accents. Which reminds me... we asked a few locals what they thought about our accents, they said they liked it. I think they were lying to make us feel better though.
I absolutely love it here!! It's so me and I never want to leave!!!!

Sunday, May 29, 2011

day 3.

The title of the day... lost in london. I will get to that part later, but first I will tell you this morning started off with another late start! We woke up 15 minutes before we had to go downstairs, but don't fear! We used our speedy superpowers to get ready within the time limit and even manage to make it downstairs the same time as everyone else. Andrea and I are still struggling to get our alarm clocks to work correctly, as well as the fact that I am the heaviest sleeper in the world. Somehow I turned off my 3 alarms while I was incoherently sleeping and I don't even have a glimpse of memory turning it off.. oopsy.
Once everyone was together we walked over to the V&A Museum, witch stands for Queen Victoria and Albert I of England. The museum was absolutely lovely, with so much detail and many different nooks and crannies filled with interesting information. It also helped me to look further into the tapestries hanging on the walls, each one tells a story that teaches life lessons and stories of the Gods. It was fun to see the original clothing they wore in the 1800's as well as their accessories, it made me wish i was born in their time so I could dress up in their ornate clothing. The puffy sleeves and clown looking necklaces were worn to show power and great poise in the way they presented themselves. I'm sure you are getting bored of my rambling so here are some pictures! At the end of the day I popped my memory card in my computer and somehow managed to take 497 pictures! I need to calm down a little bit on the camera, but I just can't help it!

I decided I am going to post a small collage of my favorite details of the day so here is collage #2...




This is the front of the V&A Museum isn't that intricacy amazing?!

okay, I am obsessed with this chair(s) I will build one as soon as I get home! haha I love stuff like this.

I spent a lot of time in the modern room filled with many iconic chairs and fun art.

love the repetition and symmetry


a famous chihuly piece hung over the reception desk. It was interesting to see such a contemporary piece of art in this Victorian style building.. but I liked it!



Following after, we had lunch and ventured by the London Bridge and the Globe theater to the tate Modern Art Museum. It was such a cool building from the inside out! Defiantly not what I was expecting when I first saw it, but it sure did grab my attention.
standing in front of the Monument, built between 1671 and 1677, to commemorate the Great Fire of London and the celebrate the rebuilding of the city. You can also climb all 311 steps to the top and see all of London!

just hanging out in front of the Tower bridge


Andrea and I on the London bridge





Here we arrived at the Tate Museum... i loved the art there :) 



I am a sucker for angular shapes, the interior architecture of this building really hit the spot. Simple. Clean. Interesting shapes. Texture... that's all you need.


inside this red shape was a mini theater for the kids. So cool!


Me and Griff checking out the art :)

becoming the art... yup we did.


oh hey guys.. this art made us feel a little crazzzzay!


After Tate, we ate at this fun restaurant called Peri Peri and then decided to check out some of the sights around town... and this is where the adventure began...

we went in about 3 large circles to try to find a place to eat that wasn't too expensive, the first place we went to wasn't serving half of their menu anymore so after we sat down and saw there wasn't nothing we wanted we left (rude I know), then we walked pretty much all the way back towards Tate which was the opposite direction and a little ways distance. Then we went to a Greek restaurant that served the smallest plates of food, so we left there after we sat down as well (the English were probably about to shoot us in the back of the head as we walked out) then we finally decided to come to Peri Peri! It was all about spicy chicken with a cool interior design to it.


after dinner we came to St. Paul's Cathedral, sadly they were closed so we couldn't tour around but the exterior was cool! 

standing in front of the gate

 After St. Paul's we decided to check out the "cucumber", aka the Gherkin building. This skyscraper is a 591 foot high landmark on London's skyline, which is the capital's 17th tallest building. We were destined to find it. And although it was tall, we would see a glimpse of it behind many other tall buildings and then head that direction and get lost again. So we decided to take the tube more in that direction... little did we know,we took it the opposite direction we needed to go, so we defiantly backtracked! By the time we realized this we were already half way there, so we kept walking and walking and walking, winding round different blocks and going in many circles trying to find that dumb cucumber. We tried to ask people for help but they would just guess and send is in other directions that didn't even make sense. Finally after about and hour and a half of walking in circles we saw a glimpse of it again and ran for it! We were so relieved to find that glass and steel skyscraper we ran up and hugged it! Security then came out and told us to stay clear of the front of the building and not to take any pictures of the entrance. After we snapped our shots we were back on the road again.. or should I say sidewalk. The balls of my feet felt like every step I took, was as if I were stepping on little pins, my feet were killing me! But we didn't stop there... no sir! We road the tube back towards Gloucester Road and went to the Apple Market, where they had street performers and musicians on the sidewalks. They were all really good! We then enjoyed some ice cream from The Icecreamists (who by the way serve real breastmilk ice cream!) as we listened to the musicians on the street and barely made it back home on the last tube ride running that night! If we didn't make it home we would have had to walk another 5 miles down the road! I think we walked at least 10 miles while searching for the Cucumber, but at least we got some extra exercise in!

Ps... sorry for writing a novel today with the billion pictures, I will try to minimize the amount of pics next time!
we were so sad to be lost for so long... we were stuck at the top of this walkway, and couldn't find stairs to go down the streets to continue our journey!

but at least we had some amazing scenery of such unique architecture!

an hour later... still sad and lost

we found it!!!!!!!!!! If you can find me in this pic... I was so happy!!!

you dumb cucumber... you tricked us of your where-abouts far too many times.

a very cool industrial style building!

I found a nice little porta-potty that you had to pay to pee in :) it was cool.


check out those sweet uni's (uniforms)

yum!

oh hi there. 

the end.
(of this day)
...... finally.

Friday, May 27, 2011

day 2.

Well this morning didn't start out too smooth, Andrea and I defiantly slept in!!! We were supposed to be downstairs at exactly 8:30am. When I woke up and looked at the clock it was 8:34, so I woke up in a panic and work up Andrea and we scrounged around the room trying to get ready as fast as possible. Not to mention that I showered the night before and my hair looked like a mix of a birds nest and lion hair. We got dressed and ran out the door, luckily the group waited for us! Then my brain just wasn't spinning right and I was all over the place.. they almost needed to get me a leash because I kept wandering. Whoops! But we went to the local apple market and then went on a little trip to Hampton Court Palace. It was mind boggling how they put so much intricate detail in every piece of the palace, from the stained glass windows to the design of vents in the floor. I couldn't put my camera down, I had to document everything I saw. It was an amazing experience to see it in real life, rather than pictures.


Here are a few details I shot at Hampton Court

Andrea said this is what my hair looked like this morning with the crazed look in my eyes to get ready fast. haha I feel like it's a pretty nice doo!

checking out the apple market!


oh hey there!


look at all of these yummy olives from the market... I wanted to eat them all and they smelled amazing!!


oh... just got out from a very important business call in the phone booth.

the train we took to Hampton Court

the amazing Hampton Court-- home of Henry VIII





One of the King Henry VIII servants :)

so gorgeous!


the gardens

haha I don't know what I'm doing

love this.



Darrin was trying to make me do some America's Next Top Model poses... epic fail.

the last hour in the gardens were spent jumping... 

After H.C. we walked around to some of the little shops around town and found this cute little place called Zizzi. It was such a creative little place! With trees inside and an river boat motif painted all the way around the restaurant, including the windows. The cool thing about it is they choose students to design different things for their restaurant. From the menu to the Motif, if you ever get a chance, I would highly recommend it. Oh and of course not to mention the amazing food.





Thursday, May 26, 2011

day 1.

Well it has been a long journey, but I made it!! After having to be at the airport at 5:30 in the morning waiting on standby until 1:00pm, I finally made it on the flight to Charlotte, NC, then waiting until 11:00pm for the 8 hour flight to London, then traveling on a bus for an hour and a half to Gatwick, London, then riding on the tube for about a half hour to Gloucester Road, I finally made it in at about 3:30pm. (mind you I was traveling alone) I was surprised I made it to Gloucester Road so smoothly by myself... of course by the help of the nice English folk :) The next step was for me to find the flats we were staying in... I circled around all the different Queen's Gate Streets and could not for the life of me find Queen's Gate Terrace. Looking like a complete tourist with my large cheetah print suitcase and duffle bag circling around the town asking people if they knew where it was... and no one did! So finally I gave up and got a taxi, even the taxi man had a hard time finding it.. but we finally made it there! The sweet little taxi man didn't charge me for the ride either! He said it was a "welcome to London present", and he even carried all my luggage up the stairs to my flat for me. Such a sweetheart!


So here I am in London. I arrived a day earlier than all the other students, so I slept in and tried to recover from all the jetlag from traveling. Once they finally arrived we went to the grocery store, which was interesting, Andrea (my flatmate) and I found some lettuce that was still growing in a little carton... talk about fresh produce! Then we went back and showered because it was pouring I mean pouring rain outside, so we were soaked! Luckily I had my trusty umbrella :) Then we went on a little tour around the city and snapped shots left and right... so here are some captured moments of our little outing.

the view from my room


i believe they call this the Eye of London, it is a giant Farris Wheel that are these little 'eyes' a group of people can go into and see the city!




Big Ben, after the clouds began to clear up a bit


Stephanie, me and Andrea


Me and Griffy


Oh hey there.. just the guard giving a friendly hello!


one of the countless cool doors in London

me and griff were just showing our approximate height... even though I'm 5'7. haha


I love this grass wall!!!!