march for march.

march for march is this new thing that we are doing in dorm 3.

basically, we walk up all of the stairs at all of the underground stations. and, if there is an escalator, we walk up it too.

you are probably thinking that this is not a big deal, but it is. i mean, it is so easy to be lazy and just casually stand on the escalator and get to the top. where is the fun in that though? also, the amount of stairs that we actually confront is out of control.

this goal for the month of march is much harder than i ever would have anticipated. yesterday we encountered a 320 step staircase. once i got to about step 60 i realized how far 320 steps really is. i endured though, and was the first one to reach the top. my legs are sore today.

last week we went to wales, and it was unbelievably beautiful. we had the best trip. here are some of the things that i absolutely loved about our trip:

•tintern abbey:

we had an english assignment to take 10 minutes and reflect on our surroundings and write them down in the style of william wordsworth. after a few minutes thinking only about the nature and the remarkably kept 13th century abbey, i started to really enjoy the experience.

•the big pit:

when i heard that we were going to be almost 100 m underground for an hour for a tour of a coal mine, i began to feel claustrophobic and stressed. the mine was really cool though, and i am glad i went. also, as a plus, we had to wear these awesome head lamps and helmets:

•museum of welsh life/cymru:

this was basically a welsh version of nauvoo. there were friendly and informative authentically dressed people available to share knowledge and information at all of the little huts and workshops. i learned so much about wales. also, at this same stop of cymru, there was this huge manor house that we saw that had the prettiest gardens. i am beginning to love all of the parks and gardens here so much.

•the hotel:

this seems trivial. but, was definitely at the top of my wales highlights list. having a huge room with giant beds(NO BUNKS!!), a spacious shower and only one roommate was a very welcome change for the night. i went to bed early and had my best sleep of the year.

caerphilly castle.

church history tour:

i loved this. it was so amazing to see all of the places where many prophets and apostles converted so many people and started the church in england. hearing their stories and singing the spirit of god in the first church building in england was one of the best experiences of the trip. climbing to the top of hereforshire beacon was great too, but so so windy.

at herefordshire beacon.

oldest chapel in england. amazing experience.

other exciting things that have happened in the last week include a trip to stratford upon avon. we saw a great performance of king lear and saw many shakespeare sites. it was a great day trip. also, it is almost spring here! it has been pretty sunny all week!! i love it. also, i got to skype with jess and hannah a couple of days ago! also, i went to the tate modern museum. i am trying to decide if i like modern art, i really don't understand it. also, my family and i went to lunch at tortilla today, and we loved it and will definitely be returning soon.

things that i am looking forward to:

jane austen day trip on wednesday and the trip to paris in one week!

seaweed, i'll be yours forever.

hairspray is the most amazingly fun show i have seen in my entire life. i have never smiled so much or been so happy. ever. the songs were so incredible. tracy's parents were hilarious. (i was laughing so hard i cried). the gay dancers were so good and funny. tracy had an amazing voice. basically, i just loved it! if i had to pick my favorite musical so far, it would be hairspray. oh, i forgot to mention that i fell in love with seaweed during 'run and tell that.'

caroline and i at hairspray

for our day trip last week we went to blenheim palace and oxford university! it was a great day. there was surprisingly good and semi-warm weather, so the grounds at blenheim were especially beautiful.

blenheim palace and fountain.

anna and i in the gardens.

being in oxford was such a great experience. there were many different highlights.

first of all: moo moo's. there are over 200 flavors of milkshakes at this little place in the covered market. for me, the most indecisive person in the world, selecting which kind i wanted was one of the hardest choices of my life. after ordering mine, i was really disappointed because i saw at least 10 flavors that i would have liked more. but, my bueno bar milkshake was so delicious. no regrets.

my milkshake was better than hers. much much better.

second: i don't have a picture of this, but i love my new oxford hoodie. somehow i thought that i would be able to survive for 6 months without a hoodie. bad idea leslie. so, i fixed that problem. i wear it everyday now.

third: christ church college (aka hogwarts). i am not an obsessive harry potter fan, but i still loved seeing the school where they filmed ALL of the movies! it was so cool. but, want to know the coolest thing? we had tea in THE great hall. there were no candles hanging from the ceiling, but it was definitely the great hall. we spent the afternoon quoting the movies, practicing our spells and feeling sorry for ourselves for only being muggles! it was such a fun afternoon!

christ church college

other than that i have been busy with homework, camden market, nando's, dr. johnson's house and the lovely bones. if you haven't seen the lovely bones yet, be prepared to be creeped out. i came home with nail marks in my hands from clenching my fists and i was also very tense throughout my entire body. the movie stressed me out. so intense and so scary.

kopenhavn

last weekend i went to copenhagen, denmark and absolutely loved it! the girls that i went with are so much fun! we had the best weekend, ever. so many funny things happened and we saw so much i loved it.

wednesday:

after some delays in london we finally made it to copenhagen pretty late. we were so lost, and it was dark, but everyone was really eager to help us - including this very drunk old man. our hostel was sort of sketchy, and on wednesday night we had to share a room. we were unsure if there were men or women in our room because of an ugly pair of huge man boots and some of the loudest snoring that i have ever heard. i didn't fall asleep until 3, i was so scared. it turned out to be girls though. another scary part of our hostel was the creepy facebook man in the lobby. he was always there and always on facebook. hello megan davis.

if you saw these boots by your bed, you would be scared too.

thursday:

we woke up to a new roommate! she was staring at us when we woke up and was literally insane. after listening to her talk about castles, white trash american girls and driving across america for 20 minutes we escaped. later that night we requested to switch rooms when we saw she was still there...

here are other things that we did on thursday:

rosenburg castle:

ny carlsberg glyptotek museum: this might be my absolutely favorite museum that i have ever been to.

copenhagen university

cathedral of our lady - where we saw the original christus statue! it was so beautiful.

friday:

illum bakery, and the best cinnamon roll of my life

fredericksburg castle (actually military base) - we thought we were going to the beautiful castle, but when we tried to go in to the building, a many in camoflage came and asked what we were doing. yeah, it wasn't really the castle. there was no tour, no tour guide and no pictures. don't worry. we asked him if there were. hahaha

this is before we knew it was a military base, so of course we are posed.

the REAL fredericksburg castle - it was so beautiful. we saw a lot of carl bloch's paintings, which the church uses. they were amazing. i loved the castle.

denmark temple

christiania - this was a hippie part of town. i have never felt so uncomfortable in my entire life. we left as soon as we could.

saturday: our last day in copenhagen.

breakfast at illum bakery AGAIN! i will really miss it.

we saw the little mermaid statue where we met a group of irish boys. anna held hands with four of them. anna matkin hayes, you are my hero.

roskilde cathedral

viking museum - yes, we dressed up like vikings. it was so much fun.

delays at the airport for 7 hours. i hated it.

the immigration officers in london wouldn't let me across the border. i am seriously not a threat to the country, but he was threatening to send me back to denmark and i was so scared. i mean, what would i do in copenhagen? just live at the danhostel for the rest of my life? after questioning me for about half an hour he finally let me in. but i still hate that man.

we got back to the center at 4:30 AM. if you want to see some really sketchy people, ride the london public bus at 4 in the morning. so scary. we were so scared and pretty much everyone had to pee. not a good combination. yeah, i won't expand anymore.

anyway. copenhagen was great!!! i have never been so cold in my life, but at least london feels warm now. i want to go back to denmark sometime in the spring. i can only imagine how pretty it would be!

i love the girls i went with: anna, laura, arrin and karalyn! they are the best.

farvell! (goodbye in danish)

muggle space

kira and i after the dance. we matched. it was cute.

I seem to attract creeps. I have no idea why. I mean, they seem to pick me quite often, and it is pretty weird. This past week this has happened a few times…

Two of them were found at the YSA dress to impress dance on Friday …

•First. Imagine this: a man (I’d say about 30), from Australia, with a long blonde ponytail, earrings and sunglasses. Yes, he wore his sunglasses the entire night, even though it was dark. Scary. He started staring at all of us the second we walked in, and Kira automatically called him for my “team”. Thanks Kira. After awhile I noticed him staring at me. He finally came over and awkwardly started talking to me.

“Excuse me miss, but you look like Emma Watson. Although, I’m sure that you get that all of the time.”

“Yes, I get that a lot, but thank you.”

“Well, I think that you could model for Burberry. And that is a compliment.”

“uhhhh….thanks.”

Later in the night: “So, why don’t you come to institute? I think that you should come. It’s every Thursday at 7:30. I hope to see you there!"

As I’m leaving. “Why are you leaving? You are missing all of the slow dances!”

Well, that didn’t sound as weird as it was at the time. A picture sure would have helped. But, that was just not an option.

•Second: I see this elf looking kid (he was really short and had elf ears), moving to the middle of the floor through everyone to come and talk to me. He awkwardly asked me to dance and then walked me to the remote corner of the dance floor – so weird. After swaying at me and having to yell to try to make a conversation, he asked me if I could get two of my friends to meet his two shy friends. I eagerly grabbed Kira and Brittany, who were so confused at why I was even talking to him in the first place. Then we met his friends. I think that they each said one word, seriously. It was so awkward. The best part was right when we all got there the first slow song of the night came on, and the elf said “well, this is embarrassing.” Yep, we just stood there. They didn’t even ask us to dance. It was so funny. Anna soon came and saved us by announcing that we were leaving. Anna is the best.

These were mostly funny because they only talked to me! And no one at the dance talked to us, it was so funny. I am still trying to decide if I will go to Institute on Thursday. Haha.

The other creepy thing happened yesterday while I was skyping at McDonalds. I noticed this man staring at me from the opposite side of the restaurant. I was getting nervous, especially when he came and stood directly behind me to see who I was skyping. He finally left, or so I thought. Nope. He came back downstairs about five minutes later with a tray of food for me, sat down directly across from me and tried to have a conversation. Okay, this really was a bad situation. I learned when I was four to never talk to strangers. Also, there was NO way that I was going to eat the food he bought me. I mean, he could have drugged it and then abducted me. Also, I was already talking to someone else on skype! It was the weirdest thing ever. I was getting nervous, and thought that he finally left. But, no. He was waiting for me upstairs. Ahh. On the way home I walked faster than I ever have in my entire life.

Well, everything other than those hilarious/horrifying experiences, the week has been great! We took an amazing field trip to Windsor Castle, Runny Mead (where they wrote the Magna Carta) and Stoke Poges (site where Elegy in a Country Churchyard was written) today. It was a fabulous! Everything was so beautiful, educational and historical and I loved the castle!

Tomorrow I am going to Copenhagen!! I will blog about that when I get back. It will definitely be an adventure.

stoke poges. i want to live in a house like this.

stoke poges

windsor castle gardens

mom, caroline and i at windsor castle.

roommate picture at stoke poges.

windsor castle

“Kira. Can we switch teams?"

Also, please say olive, Jess.

i'd do anything

saturday was the most culture filled day i have ever had in my life. we went to the community of southall for the day, which is only a fifteen minute train ride outside of london. it was the strangest experience ever. when we got out of the station, i seriously felt like i was in india. it was crazy. all of the people around us were indian, there were no tourists and it distinctly smelled like curry, everywhere. the purpose of us going to southall was to visit the sikh and hindu temples. it was a very interesting experience, i did not understand anything that they were doing. we had to take off our shoes, wash our hands to cleanse ourselves, put scarves on our heads and then observe the people worshipping there. being in kind of india for the day was really fun though! the day included visiting temples, bollywood music, bindhi and a unique indian meal!

so... the problem with seeing musicals is that the songs are stuck in your head for the rest of the week.

however, the good thing about musicals is that i LOVE them.

on monday night, our entire group had tickets to see oliver! it was amazing. the little boys in it were unbelievable cute and talented. when i was little i would watch the movie, and i had forgotten how much i loved the songs! also, after reading oliver twist for my english class here, it was extremely cool to see the musical. but, back to the problem. these songs keep running through my head. there have been several instances when i have been with roommates and we unknowingly, coordinately start whistling songs from the musical. also, whenever i am hungry i think "food, glorious food"... and then it starts all over again. it seems like these will be stuck until my next musical, which will hopefully be soon.

caroline and i at oliver!

day trips are probably my favorite part of the week. today we went to dover and canterbury, and i loved them both! in dover we saw the castle, the white cliffs and these cool underground wartime tunnels. the tunnels and castle were basically a maze, it was so fun. we then spent pretty much the entire afternoon in canterbury. after recently reading both the canterbury tales and murder in the cathedral, we were all very educated about canterbury. the cathedral was beautiful, as expected, and the town was really cute! i think i'll probably move to england when i'm older. i love everything about the towns. i could stay here forever.

at st. augustine's abbey in canterbury

interior of canterbury cathedral

well, other than that i have been busy with reading for all of my classes. it is sort of depressing when there is so much to do in london, but i have to stay at the centre and do homework. i try to get my priorities straight and do my homework in the middle of the night so that i can do fun things, though. oh, and i have good news - but jess already knows all about that. also, i am going to copenhagen next week!! i am super excited about it. too bad i don't speak danish! i will try to learn some while i'm there!

on my own.

we are on a harry potter kick. i mean, being in england automatically causes us to speak in british accents. and obviously, this relates directly to harry potter. so... after quoting harry potter all week we decided it was time to take a trip to king's cross station in an attempt to go to hogwarts. sadly, this plan failed. we plan to dress up and try again in a few weeks. hopefully it works.

monday night was a life changing experience for me. i have no idea where les miserables has been all of my life. like, i read the abridged novel in ninth grade, and i had friends that were pretty much obsessed with the musical, but i never really thought much about it. i have no idea why because i absolutely love musicals. we decided to try our chances at standby tickets, and ended up with eighth row seats. it was AMAZING. i have been listening to the songs non stop ever since. it was a wonderfully complete night with les mis, ice cream, running up the escalators and being embarrassing on the lift.

roommates at les mis (well, plus karalyn and minus brittany and kira)

"one day more" - one of my favorites

the revolutionist in the picture is also a favorite.

on wednesday we went on another great day trip. we started the day off by going to brighton and seeing the royal pavilion. it was such a beautiful and ornate building. i loved every second that we spent looking around there. the architecture is indian and the interior is decorated chinese. a beautiful and intriguing combination.

royal pavilion

brighton pier

we spent most of the afternoon at battle abbey, the site of the battle of hastings. it was freezing, muddy, and there were a lot of sheep. nevertheless, it was interesting and very cool to be there.

i love anna, matching, and pink backpacks.

the last place we went was the cutest little town called rye. we just walked around for like an hour, but i loved it! it was SO adorable. i would love living in a small, quaint town like it.

favorite cobblestone road.

what a lovely place for a cup of tea.

today i went to see a play called nation with my family. i didn't know what to expect when i went because i had never heard of it before. but, it was so entertaining, i LOVED it. caroline and i are obsessed with mau, the beautiful, ripped, gorgeous black man who played the lead. i am pretty sure that we both spent the rest of the afternoon looking him up on the internet. ahhhh. MAU!!!!

it has been such a great week. seriously, every day has been great. i love london!

"will. not. happen." - daphne and mau

the young victoria.

i am obsessed with the movie 'the young victoria'. okay, well i don't know if classifying it as obsession is appropriate since i have only seen it once, but it is an amazing movie! after hearing only incredible things about it, i looked forward to seeing it pretty much all week. and let me tell you, i was definitely NOT disappointed.

there are several reasons why i love this movie.

first: i am staying pretty much half a block away from kensington gardens and kensington palace, where princess victoria lived.

second: prince albert.

third: unrealistic hopes for love and relationships. but, seriously. guys need to watch this movie so that they know what girls deserve!

fourth: knowing that royalty have real lives and real relationships.

fifth: victoria became queen when she was eighteen, and i am eighteen.

sixth: it was absolutely the cutest movie i have pretty much ever seen. seriously, i can't wait until i can watch it again.

i suggest that everyone see this movie. you will love it.

kensington palace

my obsession with queen victoria grew when i went with my family to see inside of kensington palace today. seeing the palace is definitely one of my absolutely favorite things that i have done so far on the trip. i seriously loved it so much!

at the palace they are having an exhibition on the last debs. oh my goodness, never before in my life have i wanted to be a princess so badly.

i tried my hardest to learn their five etiquette lessons:

very useful. if the picture were clearer you could read the 'polite' way to decline an invite.

surprisingly, i balanced the book on my head.

since there were no handsome guys there to dance with me, my dad eagerly became my dancing partner.

Most favorite part of the entire exhibit. The deb dresses!!!

evening wear:

love, love, LOVE the one on the left.

afternoon party dresses:

again, the one on the left is my favorite. why don't they make dresses like these anymore?

so many accessories for one weekend!

Arguably my favorite part of london so far.