SIXTEEN.

While trying to think of new ways to procrastinate, I realized that I could return my attention to the world of blogging seeing as I'm behind a couple of weeks. So what's been happening over here?

Well, the weekend of Thanksgiving I was lucky enough to have my mom and two brother visiting me from Wednesday- Monday. I stayed with them in their hotel which was really nice and awesome because it was bilingual in French- tres chic. We had a jam packed weekend filled with tourist bus tours, the tower of london, countless pubs including the dickens inn and the george inn, a christmas carol, oliver, the british museum, greenwich, the hyde park winter wonderland, and of course shopping. I loved having all of them here it was the perfect way to break up the semester and give me just the amount of home I needed to get through it! Even though we would have loved to have Thanksgiving back in New Jersey, all that really mattered was that we were all together! I'm not sure about how the pilgrims would feel about us having Thanksgiving dinner in a British pub, but hey, at least we were celebrating.

Starting right after they left came the dreaded rush of work for final projects, papers, and exams. As stressful as it's been it's definitely worth it considering the little amount of work I had during the rest of the semester...I also keep reminding myself of the little grading system called pass/fail which means...I don't have to try quiet as hard as I think I should.

The following weekend my flatmate Emily and I went to Venice, Italy for a long weekend. We left Thursday night and didn't get to our hotel until about midnight but it was worth it not to have to wake up early on Friday to catch a flight. All day Friday it rained which was kind of a bummer but we explored as much as we could and figured out really fast how small Venice really is. We also experienced first hand how Venice is really going to sink because of all the massive flooding that happened because of the rain. All of Saint Mark's Square was under over a foot of water...all of the shops had to close and risers were put out so people could walk through. Friday night the rain let up enough for us to venture to the Rialto Bridge where we had dinner in a Blues bar/restaurant which was veryy entertaining. The entire ceiling of the place was filled with dangling bras...Im assuming most of which were donated by American girls. There isn't much nightlife in Venice so we kept it pretty low key on Friday night...even though we may have shamefully stopped in at the Hard Rock Cafe. Saturday was jam packed with loads of wandering and siteseeing...mostly churches and buildings that we didn't actually know. What we DID know was Saint Mark's Square and the Basilica (part of which was still flooded from the day before) and places like the house where Marco Polo lived and the two oldest buildings in Venice. We took a gondola ride lead by a wonderful guy named Mark. He chatted our ears off and gave us loads of fun facts about Venice like that there are 420 bridges. He also sang Born in the USA to me which made my trip complete. We spent the rest of the day wandering without direction...but never actually getting lost. That's the great thing about Venice, just when you think you've ventured into the most desolate alleyway you find that it's really leading you to just where you wanted to be. Sunday was great because we were able to sleep in and not rush to catch the water taxi to the bus stop. Everything was timed perfectly and we made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare for some duty free shopping and lunch. We were back in London before we knew it and lucky for us were greeted by loads of papers and projects.

Well, I guess that is enough procrastinating for now. Next time I need a distraction I'll be back writing about Paris : round two!

FIFTEEN.

Sorry for the delay and for neglecting my blog! Here's my long awaited entry ( # 15 Big Baloo!) about my trip to Paris!

13-15 November 2009 Paris, France- Oh, the city of love! C'est magnifique! Paris is such a wonderful and beautiful city. You can't help but feel that anything can happen while you're there and you can just be swept away! I loved how well the culture and language is preserved considering its such a large tourist city. It was pretty nice actually practicing some of the french I spent all of those years studying!

Friday morning a big group from my school departed from Kings Cross/ St Pancras Station (yes like from Harry Potter) and rode the Eurostar for 2 1/2 hours. The hostel we stayed at was called St. Christopher Inn which, although the location was a bit on the outskirts, ended up being a really nice hostel. The rooms were nice & clean so no complaints there. There was also a bar and a club in the hostel so if you didn't want to go out into the city you don't have to sit in your room all night. Once we settled in we ventured to Montmartre and ate lunch consisting of baguettes crepes and REAL french fries. After lunch my girlfriends and I rode a carousel at the bottom of Sacre Coeur, carrying on the tradition of going on every carousel I see. We then, well equipped with a bottle of wine, walked up the many many steps to Sacre Coeur (Sacred Heart) a huge cathedral ontop of a hill that overlooks all of Paris. The sight was absolutely majestic. We sat on the steps with our wine and enjoyed backround music of a French man singing Bob Marley. As sunset approached, we wandered down the road to see if we could catch a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower hidden behind a tree. Sure enough we found it and it was an incredible sight. I know the French despise la Tour Eiffel but I have to say it is really amazing on the skyline.

We then continued wandering and found our way to Moulin Rouge, which we took pictures outside of and quickly moved on. By this time it was about dinner so we miraculously found our way to this restaurant my friends Alex and Nicole recommended to me called le Refuge des Fondues which is this hilarious hole in the wall where you drink wine out of baby bottles and eat a bottomless pit of fromage and bread and potatoes and lots of other little things. Dinner was so much fun, especially all of the French people just getting an absolute kick out of the Americans who could not use the fondue pot for our lives. The one waiter said to the table next to us in french: "where did they learn to cook? le courdon blue?" Needless to say after dinner we were all full and exhausted so we made our way back towards our hostel and just strolled along the canal and took in more of Paris.

Saturday morning we were up earlier than anyone wanted to be so we could catch the free walking tour. We trekked our way through Paris with our Australian tour guide Jacqueline and saw sites such as le Louvre, the burning site of the Knights Templar, Notre Dame, the alleged place where the revolution REALLY began, la champs d'elysees, jardin des tuileries, and most importantly sites from Sex & the City and the Devil Wears Prada. After the tour we headed to the Eiffel Tower and rode up to the second level because it was too windy to go all the way to the top. It was so windy and cold but worth the trip and I got to indulge in a cup of mulled wine on the Eiffel Tower so thats pretty sweet! After all the excitement we ate dinner at a delicious french restaurant and headed back to the hostel to get ourselves ready to go out on our pub crawl! The pub crawl ended up being a bit of a rip off because half of the pubs wouldn't allow us to come because the big Ireland v France football game was on. We ended up watching the game in a small bar but it would have watched it in a crazy pub! The crawl ended at a club on the champs d'elysees but we were exhausted and didn't stay long.

Sunday morning my friend Caroline and I ventured out for a shopping trip only to realize that all the shops are closed on Sundays!! We just ended up wandering some beautiful neighborhoods and exploring a lot. Our train back to London was in the afternoon so we grabbed lunch and headed to La Gare du Nord.

The trip went so fast but I loved Paris so much and was bummed out enough about my lack of shopping the Caroline and I booked a trip back to Paris for a day and a night! So my ideal Paris experience will be fulfilled after next week!

I promise I will update very soon on everything that's been going on since my trip including my family's visit and my trip to Venice which I leave for TOMORROW!

FOURTEEN.

Since my trip from Greece things have been pretty busy around London. Halloween weekend my good friend Garrett from Randolph visited since he's studying in Cork for the semester. It's always fun to meet up with old friends in new places so we had a great time. Halloween is not as big of a deal here as it is in the states but people do still get dressed up...they're just not as creative. To play it safe, Lauren and I wore dresses and our friend Mike wore a suit so if anyone asked he was James Bond and we were Bond girls. Luckily, nobody thought it was strange that we were wearing dresses!

Monday night a few girlfriends and I went to see our friend Steve's band play a show in Camdentown. It ended up being a blast - the band was great and very entertaining and it reminded me of all the shows I used to go to at home...so it was the perfect way to spend a Monday night.

Tuesday was the street lighting of Oxford Street and Regents Street. They were decorated in the theme of a Christmas Carol to promote the premier of the new movie! I went to the stage at Oxford Street and watched a few live British music acts and saw the Mayor Chancellor and the Mayor and most importantly JIM CARREY! He was invited to light the street because he's Scrooge in the movie. After the street was lit they had everyone sing Oh Come All Ye Faithful which was precious and made me extremely happy and giddy. Later that night Lauren, Caroline and I went to see the band 3OH!3 (from colorado) play a concert in Camdentown. It was so so so much fun and just a huge dance party.

Wednesday on my way back from school Emily Cassandra and I had a fall photo shoot in Regents Park and did corny things like play in the leaves and pose on benches- we didn't care though we loved it! Wednesdays are my dinner date nights with Emily where we cook dinner and whoever is around eats our leftovers. And if no one is around? WE eat our leftovers. We made Vegetable Curry and Noodles with fried pita and it might have been our best Wednesday dinner yet!

Thursday morning I left at 8am to pick up MADISON! from the airport. Madison has been one of my closest friends since 6th grade and our reunions tend to be a little crazy! Our first stop when she got here was obviously to a Starbucks to get our first red Christmas cups- its tradition! We explored and did a little shopping on Oxford Street and then stopped in to a pub for a pick me up since she was dragging from jet lag! We ate dinner at the pub across the street and Madison was immediately pleased with the relaxed pub culture and how acceptable it was for us to sit at the same table as strangers without it being rude. After dinner we went to a bar called O'Neills which is always fun with great live bands playing popular songs.

Friday we slept in and took the morning slow. In the afternoon we got on the big bus tour (im so ashamed!) and got off at Trafalgar Square and went into the National Gallery. I had never been so it was a new experience for both of us! I loved the National Gallery and seeing originals from one of my favorite artists- Monet. Friday night we made sure to eat at one of the million Indian restaurants on our street since its a huge part of our lives here! After we went to our friends flat in Camden and socialized with new people and a lot of Brits from Cambridge which was intimidating but exciting!

Saturday we woke up early and headed to Camdentown Markets where we browsed the market and enjoyed mulled wine. So comforting on a cold day! We headed down to the river thames and saw the London Eye, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, and Marble Arch. We made another trip to Oxford Street since the first time around was a little overwhelming. At one point we stopped in our tracks when we smelled something delicious. Turns out they were roasted chestnuts so we figured it was worth our while to invest in some and it was! I'd never had them before but they were sooo good. The whole moment was very Christmas- we were walking in London on a street decorated with lights for the movie A Christmas Carol and eating roasted chestnuts....too good to be true! Saturday night a group of us headed to our favorite pub The Rocket and we had intentions to head to a club after but we just always have too much fun at the Rocket and never want to leave! Our friend Trisha from Randolph met up with us there which was so nice and always fun!

Sunday morning we woke up early again and headed across the street for Sunday roast with a traditional English breakfast. We made a last minute trip back to Oxford Street just in case there was anything we missed- but we definitely covered it all. So sadly we headed to the airport and I dropped Madison off and then headed back to the flat. It was such an amazing weekend and I loved every second of Madison's visit! It was just the amount of home that I needed!

This week should be pretty low key and then on Friday morning I'm taking the EuroRail into PARIS!!

THIRTEEN.

Apollonia Hotel : Crete, Greece

Lauren, Emily, and I docket in the Heraklion port in Crete at what we thought was 6:30am but was actually 5:30 am- just the first of many times we confused the time. We took a cab to our hotel and at 6am checked in about 8 hours early. Thank God its the low season so they could get a room ready as soon as they could so we didn't have to wait around too long. The first whole day there was rainy so we explored around the resort and the all inclusive buffet and bar and napped.

Monday we were SO happy to wake up to sunshine and headed to the beach. We tanned and swan in the Cretan Sea (which was beautiful) and we played beach volleyball with our new friend who worked at the resort, Adnen, and a ton of Germans. We stayed on the beach all the way until dinner time and enjoyed traditional Greek food (they served other food too though). We went to the music trivia night after dinner and even though we walked in half way through I still managed to come in 3rd place. I'm glad I know where my gift is- useless music recognition. The music trivia night turned into a discoteque after so we danced with our worker friends and our little German friend who followed us around.

Tuesday was another beautiful day filled with suntanning and swimming. We found out that a few of our worker friends had been fired and for some reason they believed we could help them since we're American. They asked us to go complain and make up stories why it was wrong they were fired because apparently we're untouchable? They seemed to believe we had some absolute power because we're American... they seemed to forget that we're also 20 year old girls. Tuesday night we enjoyed a four course meal at the Italian restaurant at the resort as a part of our all inclusive package. After dinner we hung in and watched across the universe in our bungalow so we could avoid all of the workers!

Wednesday we originally intended to head into the city centre of Heraklion to explore but apparently it was a holiday so everything would be closed! It worked out for the best because Wednesday was the most beautiful day we had the whole week. The three of us went for a long walk on the beach and I collected sea glass. We passed so many empty resorts and hotels which made us realize how lucky we were that we had such a great resort to stay at and that there were other people at it too! We also saw Greek men riding on horses on the beach which was a pretty sweet sight. Wednesday night we had dinner at the Asian restaurant, also a part of all inclusive, and right after we sat down one of the loudest and strongest downpours of rain came. We actually had to yell to talk to each other.

Thursday was our last day so we woke up really early so we didnt miss a single ray of sun. Lucky for us, the hotel let us stay in our room until 5pm instead of the normal check out time of 12 pm. Thursday was so beautiful and the perfect last day in Crete. We checked out of the hotel and headed to the port to load our bags onto our ferry. We got there early so that we could walk around the city centre until it was time to leave. We walked around and saw the Arab Bzantine wall and the lions fountain among other historic sites. While we were looking for a place to grab dinner I guess we lingered too long in one spot and a lovely, warm drop of bird poop landed on my chest. About 30 seconds later one dropped on Lauren's head. We better have a lot of good luck coming. The owner of the restaurant we were by ran over with napkins and since he helped us so much we ended up eating at his crepe restaurant. It worked out wonderfully because we all had delicious crepes and split a nutella and banana crepe for dessert! We walked back to the ferry after this and stayed on the deck until it left the port and then went to our cabin. We were exhausted so we relaxed and listened to Mitch Hedberg's standup and then went to bed.

Friday morning we landed in the Athens port- confused once again about the time until we realized that it was daylight savings time... I don't want to talk about it. We had perfect timing catching the metro to the airport and getting to our gate. The flight back was smooth and once again British Airways pleased us with a full breakfast and tons of in flight entertainment!

After a wonderfully relaxing week we were all refreshed and happy to be back in London!

TWELVE

Fall Break: so far so great. I finished my last midterm on Thursday morning followed by a large sigh of relief and lots of lying on the couch-watching Friends with Emily. I went back to school for dinner in an attempt to save a few pounds before the trip but then cancelled that out by stopping at the Green Man on the way back to the flat. I didn’t start packing for the week until about midnight but I work better under pressure anyway!

Friday morning Lauren Emily and I got up and headed on the tube towards Heathrow Airport. We flew with British Airways so the ease of getting there and boarding was such a luxury already compared to RyanAir the budget airline. British Airways even served a half decent lunch, free drinks and a movie. The flight was about 3 and a half hours and Greece is two hours ahead of London so it seemed even longer once we landed. It was easy enough once we landed to navigate to our hostel we just took the metro to the Monastiraki stop and walked about a block to our hostel. The hostel was incredible and was definitely the nicest I’ve ever stayed in let alone seen. It’s been rated the best hostel in Greece every month so far in 2009 and is one of Europe’s famous hostels. So if anyone is traveling to Athens and only wants to spend 18 euro a night I 100% recommend AthenStyle – it’s a perfect location steps from a large market and by the acropolis, it has a rooftop bar looking over the acropolis, artwork all over including in the rooms, comfortable beds, and a genuinely helpful staff. It’s also very secure considering its in Athens- you need a swipe key to get into every room pretty much and there are lockers to keep your stuff in. ANYWAY Friday night we met our friends who were also in our hostel- completely by chance- for dinner and enjoyed a variety of Greek salads- mine was the restaurant’s specialty salad and it was scrumptious. They all came in pita bowls. We basked as we sat on the balcony next to the Greek flag enjoying the house wine and learning key Greek phrases from our waiter. After dinner we wandered in the direction our new friend Christian from Sweden told us was really cool at night. It was right on the side of the Parthenon and there are a lot of restaurants around.

Saturday we got up in time to get our complimentary breakfast before trekking out on the path that Christian mapped out for us. We started walking in to the Acropolis and saw The Temple of Hephaistos and lots of ancient war ruins. We climbed higher and higher up with more beautiful views of Athens with each step we took. Eventually we climbed up a mountain esque hill with rocks that were so slipper you almost had to crawl. There was a large group of Greek school children up on it singing in Greek while facing the Parthenon. Once we took a sufficient amount of pictures we continued on our trek to the Parthenon. It was quiet a hike but completely worth it. Pictures absolutely do not do justice to these ancient Greek buildings and how awe-inspiring they are. The history within their crumbling walls is absolutely humbling. I did not think I’d be as moved by these buildings as I was. I think my favorite building was an ancient theatre- one of the oldest in the world. It’s so fun to think that the ancient Greeks went out to sit and watch theatre just like we do today. After all of this we went to the Acropolis Museum for a surprisingly cheap meal that was SO delicious- I had tomato feta and olives on olive bread and split a tomato salad with Lauren. I completed my meal with espresso – so good. We continued our journey through the museum, under Hadrian's Arch, and through the National Gardens. It started to pour at this point but we all had umbrellas and stuck it out. We went to the markets where all of the stores were open but not that many stands because of the rain. There were still enough to do some damage shopping though!

After this we parted ways and Lauren Emily and I had dinner at another Greek restaurant and headed to the port to catch our ferry. After about a 25-minute ride on the metro we were there and could see our ferry in the water right when we walked out to the street. We boarded the Anek Ship, checked in at the desk and made our way to our room where we danced around to the Mamma Mia soundtrack for a while and explored the boat. If it wasn’t the off-season it’s clear this would be a very lively ride but there’s hardly anyone here! Oh yeah, I’m writing this entry on the boat as we speak. Lauren, Emily, and I have had so much fun going out on the deck and watching the water on the side of the boat and fighting the ridiculously strong wind- it’s so exhilarating to be out there!! Seeing as our boat docks at 5:30 am, we’re going to try to get some shut-eye since we have a full day of exploring CRETE! Tomorrow!! I have more pictures than I know what to do with already and its only been a day and a half!!! Talk to you all in Crete!! Ya Sas!

ELEVEN.

The Homeland: where do I even begin? From the moment Lauren and I stepped out of our flat we had a stress free journey to Ireland. I guess to appreciate this you'd have to travel with us on our past trips where our blood pressure rises every time we need to get from point a to point b...so it was such a relief to travel with ease! We flew from London Luton airport which is my favorite airport we've been in so far and made sure to buy 2 bottles of Baileys in the duty free shop ... it was necessary. While on the queue to board a woman pointed out to her daughter that we were from America and knew Miley Cyrus so I naturally told her we party in the USA with her. Once we arrived in Knock, Ireland the friendliness and amazing Irish humor started immediately. We picked up a bus that took us into Charlestown where we transfered buses to Galway.

About 2 hours on a bus viewing the Irish countryside we arrived in Galway and wandered around looking for our hotel. We bumped into a couple of Irishmen who took a liking to us immediately. They helped us find our hotel and then asked us for drinks, marriage...the usual. We managed to get away from them but ran into them again about a half hour later on the street and they could not seem to let us go...I guess we're pretty charming. We literally had to run away and get cover in a pub where we figured while we're here lets sit and enjoy our first guinness and calm our nerves. By the time we left they were no where to be found and we met up with our friend who's studying abroad in Galway and he gave us a tour.

Lauren and I went out to dinner to a restaurant reccommended to us by an Irish guy who saw us wandering and we enjoyed some authentic Irish food- I had baked potato and Lauren had traditional Irish stew. That night we met up with the Fairfield kids studying in Galway and went to a few different pubs with live music- it was so great. I love the relaxed pub atmosphere it's very similar to what we have here in London but it was ten times greater simply because we were in Ireland!!

Friday we slept in an then walked into Salthill (which is beautiful) with our Fairfield friends and went to a pub that just released its own brew of ale and lager. Oh! and Lauren and I also tried banana bread beer whichhhh was delicious and apparently its from England so we'll be on the lookout for it! That night we went to pubs and a club which were all very enjoyable!

Saturday was our trip to the Cliffs of Moher and it was one of the most breathtaking, incredible sites I've ever seen. We had the perfect weather for it- the sun was shining there were very few clouds and it wasn't windy at all - apparently normally the wind is out of control at the Cliffs. We were on a tour bus that started at 10 am and ended at 5:45 so it was a very full day of viewing all over the Burren and the Cliffs. We stopped at places like this whole terrain of limestone, ruins from the potato famine, castles, tombs, fairie tree rings - which they actually believe has fairies!

Saturday night was our last night, sadly but we made the most of it! We went to a pub called the King's Head and found ourselves in the midst of a bachelor party or a"stags weekend" as they called it...I can't even do justice to how entertaining these people were the sayings and lines they were coming up with were unlike anything I've heard before! We left them just in time to meet up with our Fairfield friends again and move to another pub called Skeff's where you can pour your own beer at the table!

My overall impression of Ireland: its the greatest place in the world. The people are wonderful, the nature is amazing, the air is fresh, the animals are everywhere!! , and most importantly the beer is delicious!

TEN.

The weeks are flying by recently and I have to say I'm not okay with that. It's already the weekend for me! (well because I'm skipping my Thursday class tomorrow) Having only 4 days of class and then 3 day weekends seems to make time fly a lot faster than back at home with 5 days of class.

This week so far I've discovered a venue (Koko) that's only a ten minute walk from my flat that plays live music, been to the British museum and seen the rosetta stone, made my second trip to Harrods, enjoyed a veggie english breakfast during sunday brunch at a pub, gone on an architecture trip to the Covent Garden area and had a tour from my professor about the buildings along the north bank, and seen the play mother courage starring AUNT PETUNIA AND DUDLEY FROM HARRY POTTER!! The play was a lot to handle but it was really amazing - it could have been a tad bit shorter though 3 hours of war is a lot to sit through for me

The highlight of my week is going to be tomorrow morning when I board my flight to Galway, Ireland. This trip is going to be one of the best experience I'll have abroad simply for the destination. I've wanted to go to Ireland for longer than I can remember- I even originally intended on studying abroad in Galway. Let's hope this trip doesn't make me depressed for not fighting for that to work out! I'll be going on the trip with Lauren and so far we have planned to take a tour to the Cliffs of Moher where we'll wave to America- so everyone should be waving back for the next couple of days. Goals for the trip: drink a guinness in an irish pub (obviously) buy a claddagh ring, sing along to some irish songs, and pretty much just never stop smiling.

I'm ready for some great craic!