..Back in London (for a few hours at least)

I'm back from Istanbul! I thankfully survived a hellish week...I wrote 8,000 words with in five days! AMAZING. But, I never ever want to do it again. I promise to write about it later, but don't get TOO antsy...I didn't do anything too exciting. And I'm going to try and do a picture post. I know I keep writing that, but I think that I've figured out how to without losing the post multiple times! I'm going to Brussels tomorrow for a class trip! I plan on eating lots of waffles and chocolate...and learning lots about NATO and the European Union :)!!! AND most importantly, NOT GOING TO CLASS!!!!

“The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.”
-Ayn Rand

“I know God won’t give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish He didn’t trust me so much.”
-Mother Teresa

I have officially written about 8,000 words since Sunday. I can't tell you the last time that I slept in my actual bed. BUT, the good news is that the hell week is over and I'm going to be on a plane to Istanbul tomorrow!!! :)

I still have to do laundry and pack....but I can't believe that I'm going back. I know that I haven't slept for a while, but I think I might be too excited to sleep.

AND the mysterious Model UN paper that I have been working on since May is now finally finished!!! YAAAAY.

AH. The fire alarm has been going off for the past hour and a half, and it shows no signs of stopping. I just want to write my paper in peace!

In other news, nothing has really happened lately, especially sleep...that definitely hasn't been happening lately. Just paper writing and presentation-giving (I had two presentations last week an I have three papers this week), but the good news is that its all over on Thursday! And then I get to go to Istanbul :)! Trying to keep looking for that silver lining....

A glimpse of Paris and the past week

Nothing really has happened this week, I really have been in the computer lab or some other study haven before and after class. bleh. Yesterday, I did get out for a bit though. I met up with an Assistant Director from the Model UN conference I do. Her name is Viven, and she is a student at LSE (soooo jealous!). We had a LONG lunch; she was really interesting...and a lot different than I expected. Afterwards, Aaron, Charla, and I went to Hyde Park to study. After an hour or so, we all agreed that we were starving, but didn't want to go back to the study center to eat (because we had been cooped up for a week!). We decided the best plan would be to get on the Tube and just get off at a random stop....and we all jumped on the subway and got off at Camden Town. It was different than the parts of London we were used to. It was definitely a younger, less touristy part of town. It was filled with tiny market stalls with shop keeps selling cheap food, clothes, home goods, etc. It was pretty neat to see another facet of London.

In a few minutes, I'm going to go see Hamlet! I'm really excited...to take a break...and because the show is done in a peculiar way: The audience chooses which actor plays which part, and an actor can be chosen to play multiple parts. I'm pretty interested to see how it turns out!

Other than that...OH. I forgot to tell y'all about Paris (Par-eeee)!

Um, well...I'm not really sure what to really say because those four days basically involved a lot of getting lost, riding the metro, attempting to speak bad French to find the RIGHT place to be, and then finally settling on some place completely different.

I did go to Louvre...which was unimpressive to me. I do like to look and admire art, but it was just like any other art museum in the world. But, I went to another museum called: Musee d'Orsay...which was AWESOME. It was a mix of modern art and classical art (because it was the museum that got all of the stuff that didn't belong in the modern art museum OR the Louvre). I also got to see the café were the film, Amélie was shot....pretty cool! And while we were walking around the city, we met a group of young French students. We spoke to them for a while; they were really excited to practice their English and test their knowledge of American pop culture. I also got to see Oscar Wilde's grave (I DID give him a kiss) and Jim Morrison's grave, too! OH, my favorite part of the trip was when a group of us had a picnic of wine, cheese, and crackers below the Eiffel Tower at night. We got watch the beautiful tower "sparkle" while eating REALLY good, cheap cheese. :)

The internet is still AWFUL and deleted my post a few times...so I promise to be patient and post an entry full of pictures SOON.

Countdown to Turkey: 12 days.

HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY, GRACIE!!!

"I don’t know how many years on this earth I got left. I’m gonna get real weird with it."

Frank Reynolds, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Back from a fantastic voyage to Paris!

I will write about it later, but I just want to say that it amazed me that I longed for the comfort of London while I was there. I'm hoping that's a good sign and not an indication of my lack of the French language (I learned quite a bit there though).

Catching up

Oh my goodness. I'm so frustrated with this internet. I have been trying and trying to type this stupid blog for about about two hours now and every time I click publish, it gets deleted!!!

I'm going to try and post pictures in a separate post because I think that's what slowing this process down.

Ok, let's glance at the past few weeks of my journey here in London:

Three weekends ago: My class took a trip to Canterbury and Dover. Nothing too interesting to really tell you about it, most of it was history that I can't remember :( (But, I thought it was super cool at the time!!!) I got to see churches, castles, the English countryside, and the infamous white cliffs of Dover:) It was pretty excellent...mostly a picture-taking opportunity. We woke up pretty early and took a coach out to Canterbury. Our tour guide, Sean, told us awesome stories that obviously didn't stick...but I was pretty tired. Like I said, the sites were BEAUTIFUL.

Two Wednesdays ago: My class took a trip to Parliament!!! YAAAY. I felt giddy once I stepped inside the building. My heart started pumping quickly and my pulse sped up. It was a nerd-overload. The building has so much history (it has been around since Queen Victoria's reign) and is STILL functioning. WAY cool!!! We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but I will relish the photographic images I took with my brain....haha. Seriously, it was worth every pound I spent. And there is an awesome park outside Parliament with statues of Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela, and one of the only statue of a standing Abe Lincoln. Way to go, Brits!

Last weekend: Nothing but work really. Aaron and I went to Notting Hill to the Portobello Road Market on Saturday morning....it was chaos. But, tremendous. I bought a camera! One just like the one that my mom uses for her photography! (A Canon AE1)....its really awesome. I have already taken a whole roll of film. Later that day, Aaron and I met Natalie for tea at a cupcakery!! It was so filling...but delicious. Come to think of it, Saturday was a GREAT day for food...and my stomach. The cupcakery, Bea's, gave us a brownie, scone, crumpet, blondies, jam, clotted cream, a cupcake, and tea (of course!)....so so so mouth-watering...and a serious sugar overload. On Sunday, more homework...but Aaron, Natalie and I rewarded ourselves for our productiveness with fish and chips from a local place called Rock N' Sole Plaice. We walked in and immediately heard Turkish. It was the best combination of my two favorite cultures! (It turns out a Turkish family runs the place). The fish and chips were well-worth every penny. They were salty, hot, and crispy. Yummmmm.

Thursday/Friday: Workworkwork and too much coffee...

This weekend: I took a trip to Wales!!!! Part of my program went to an Ecolodge called Perseli near the coast in Wales. After two long train rides, we were picked up in a small Welsh town by a staff member (from Perseli) named Libby. She greeted up so warmly, I knew it was a good predictor of the rest of the weekend. My suspicions were confirmed when we actually arrived at the lodge and we were given the absolutely BEST vegetarian lasagne.

In the early morning, after a full breakfast, we went kayaking! I got to wear a wetsuit (I've never done that before!) and enjoy the coastline...we even saw seal pups! After lunch, my group went on a seven mile hike along a trail that followed the coastline. We walked through fields with sheep, cows, and plenty of wildflowers (I made a flower crown!) It was so relaxing....even though it was seven miles. That night the staff made a bonfire for us, and we got to eat dinner enjoy hot chocolate outside :)

The next morning, my group went "coasteering", which is a combination of swimming, rock climbing, and cliff jumping. IT WAS AWESOME. Very cold, but awesome. I was climbing on cliffs, swimming in the freezing Atlantic, watching seals play in the water, and jumping off rocks. It was a little bit outside of my comfort zone, but definitely worth it. Sadly, then I had to ride THREE trains back to London...only to have to confront more homework.

Anyway, that catches me up. I promise to do better! I'm going to Paris on Wednesday for five days and four nights, so I should have plenty to write about when I get back. I promise to try and post pictures before I leave. This internet is driving me CRAZY.

Sidenote: I got an assistant director for my Model UN committee that I have been working so diligently working on. She seems really awesome and I can't wait to meet her. YAAAAY. And check out my committees: http://www.imuna.org/committees.asp?cID=2&p=nhsmun

Work, work, work

I found this quote today that captures my life currently (being spent in the FSU 24/7 computer lab):

"Actually, this seems to be the basic need of the human heart in nearly every great crisis- a good hot cup of coffee."
-Alexander Key

ok, ok. I know that I haven't posted in a while. The internet here has been really shoddy and I haven't had a connection for more than a few minutes at a time...and now that its "fixed", I have lots and lots of work due. I promise to post after I finish this presentation. I'll put up pictures from Dover and tell you my uneventful weekend here in London.

BUT I do want to tell you about one of my professors, Tancred. One: he wore a black and white pinstripe suit today...with a white/blue/red striped shirt and a red and black houndstooth tie. And birght red Christmas socks. haha. And he called Mexican food "peasant food" and asked the class what a burrito was. hahahaha. Ok, I have to go to work! I promise to update soon.

“It’s easy to believe in magic when you’re young. Anything you couldn’t explain was magic then. It didn’t matter if it was science or a fairy tale. Electricity and elves were both infinitely mysterious and equally possible — elves probably more so.”

—	Charles de Lint

The Florida Department of Education didn't allocate me enough loan money to cover my International Programs tuition. I'm so worried. How am I going to pay for this??

“By seeing London, I have seen as much of life as the world can show”

Although I had a pretty rough week (classes AND finally finishing my model UN background guide), my weekend definitely made up for it! WOOP!

Friday: That afternoon Aaron and I decided to go book shopping. We started out at the British version of Barnes and Noble, called Waterstone's...I should probably not describe it as a Barnes and Noble because it is SO MUCH BETTER. They have floors filled with textbooks (good ones that I would like to read...) Aaron and I spent a good part of an hour on one floor filled with International Affairs/Political Science/Social Science books. We're big time nerds, but that's ok. Then we tried to find a used book store that was supposedly really close to our flat, but we walked around the area for a while and couldn't find it. So, we stopped in a park nearby and read for a while. Then we took the tube to Oxford Circus; we wanted to walk around the area before it got engulfed by the weekend crowds flowing in and out of the thousands of shops on the mile-long shopping street.

Later that night, my roommates (Jade and Natalie) and I went across town to see a free showing of Medea. The show was in an outdoor amphitheater (who knew that word was spelled like that?!) right across the water from the Tower of London, and right next to the Tower Bridge (The bridge in the picture). The scenery alone was AMAZING. The play was so-so...but worth the price. hah.

Saturday: Aaron and I decided to try again and find the used bookstore because we had heard great things about it. After looking at a map this time (great, great investment if you ever want to come to London, we discovered), we set off on our journey. We found the bookstore amidst a weekend street market! It was SO cool.

There were lots of food stands; everything smelled so good. The scents of Japanese, Portuguese, Moroccan, Turkish(!!), Thai, etc. etc. are mixed together; it was heavenly. Aaron attempted to avoid all of the food temptations and walked directly to our beloved bookstore. The first book that I pick up is "Oryx and Crate" by Margaret Atwood, which I have looking for! I was so excited, I put the book in my hand and I picked up another. It was "Trainspotting", which I have ALSO been looking for. It was a very nice (and cheap) blessing :)

After a filling Portuguese pastry (prawn and some garlic/scallion sauce), Aaron and I went to investigate a carnival ride that we spotted behind a building on the way to the bookstore. We walked behind the building and found an annual street carnival that a neighborhood was holding!

There were mini-carnival rides, a clown, a puppet show, a band, more street venders and food :)!!! It was really cool to stumble upon. Aaron and I walked around for a bit and then decided to head to Soho.

Aaron was on a mission to find the street (Berwick Street) where the photo for Oasis's album cover for "What's the Story, Morning Glory?" was taken. We found it pretty easily (everything seemed to be going right yesterday!), and we found a Hare Krishna band chanting and dancing in the streets on the way.

On Berwick, we discovered the best used CD/DVD/Vinyl store in London, as far as I'm concerned. It was decently priced, and it had everything. EVERYTHING: Indie/alternative/rock/hip-hop/bluegrass/blues/etc. etc. etc. SOOO HAPPY. MUSIC HEAVEN. Aaron and I both bought CDs. (I bought Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Wallflowers, and Primal Scream [some band that Aaron recommended])

Sunday: Aaron and I headed out early to go to church!!! We went to service at a church (apparently known for its congregation of visitors) in Oxford Circus called All Souls. The sermon was really good and the people were inviting and warm. We met a old British black woman named Janet and her husband, Paul. It was a good start to the day. The rest of today has been spent napping (soooo tired), doing homework, and going to the gym! (Boring, lazy Sunday). First day of Monday classes tomorrow, I'm pretty nervous about it! We'll see how these new classes go...I'm afraid that I'm going to be overwhelmed!

And I wanted to share this quote from C.S. Lewis (Four Loves) that has been on my mind lately:

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket — safe, dark, motionless, airless — it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside of Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell."

Minutes before my first (attempt) at a skype conference with my parents back home, I will update you all (hopefully more than just Grace) on London life:

On Saturday, my flatmates and I were on a team for a scavenger hunt...we ran around London trying to get brochures and pictures. The six of us (three girls from Missouri, Hannah, Julie, and Elizabeth and Jade, Natalie, and I) did a pretty good job at keeping up with the uber competitive drama kids. We only ended up losing by 9 points :( But, we definitely got a better idea of the city. My night was pretty boring...I stayed in and worked on my Model UN stuff.

On Sunday, we woke up early to go a bus tour of London. I thought that I would sleepily walk out of the study center that morning to meet one of the infamous red double decker buses...but sadly, it was just a normal coach (the funny thing is...we had to buckle up...let me tell you, it was a weird experience to constantly wear a full seat belt on a charter bus). Our tour guide, Sean, was a witty Brit who kept us all surprisingly awake. I definitely want to set aside some days to walk my way through London...or maybe even get off of random (maybe not totally random...I don't want to end up in a sketchy part of town) tube stop and explore!

Later that night, Aaron, our friend, Ashley, and I went to Notting Hill. Once a year, in the last week in August, there is a street carnival held there. Its the second largest street carnival in the world apparently. It was really really really crowded and there was a bunch of trash and drunk people everywhere, but we still had a good time. Reggae and hip-hop music played as the mouth-watering smells of Caribbean food wafted by. There were floats filled with sequins, brights colors, and even more music. We escaped the mayhem after an hour or so...

Yesterday, I slept in (I couldn't sleep until about 3 the night before) and worked a while on school work and my paper. My flatmates and I had a family dinner (grilled cheese and tomato soup, almost fool-proof dinner)...and I joined the YMCA down the street!!! Its really really really nice...I don't have a lot to compare it to, considering I have been going to the dingy Leach center for two years now. And I learned that this Y is actually the first YMCA. EVER. In a weird, nerdy way, I find that really cool.

Today was the first day of classes. I had Terror and Politics in the morning, then Ethnic Conflict, and then we have a third class in which we will be doing presentations on materials discusses in the first two classes. Juliana Fugezi, a firece Hungarian LSE graduate, our teacher for Tuesday/Thursday classes is pretty intimidating. I'm not sure if its her odd intonation (developed from speaking five languages fluently) or her personality, but she is a little frightening in class....I really like her. I know that she will not let our class slack off...and I have been able to get by in my classes back in Tallahassee. I'm glad that I will have her to teach me this semester. As we went over our syllabi today...my thoughts were confirmed. This is going to be tough semester; Juliana is going to kick it into high gear.

We talked about who a terrorist was this morning...it was sooo interesting. We discussed the saying "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter". Juliana brought up the example of Nelson Mandela, who apparently was a leader of a African Nationalist group that endorsed acts of terror before he helped develop the new democratic South Africa. This is definitely going to be a different semester than any others before.

Sorry for the laziness, but I figured that I didn't really have a lot to write about (except class...). I will try to keep up. Here is a picture for the carnival (sooooo crowded!!):

So, today is our first real day in London. Yesterday doesn't count because I was deliriously tired and today I'm delirious enough to think that I'm not jet-lagged.

It always surprises me how much smaller everything is in Europe....with this said, our triple room is definitely the size of my bedroom at home. But, I think the conservative size of everything is what makes everything here special to me....maybe not the small amount of water pressure of our shower. I like the homey feeling of it, but I'm sure that it will wear off soon.

London weather gave a great welcoming ceremony yesterday as we walked along the streets in the rare sunny, 80 degrees (Fahrenheit, of course). I definitely felt like I belonged :)

I also felt lost, thank God I was here for a little while last summer. I'm so used to the American cities planned out on grids, even downtown Tallahassee is logically navigable compared to the streets of London. Streets change names and directions very often....always have a street map, and never think you are making a new short cut because you probably will end up in a different neighborhood...

Yesterday was very uneventful, besides getting lost. We just had meetings, went out to dinner out at a restaurant called Giraffe, and I unpacked...

The first picture is of my bed...this semester my roommates (Jade and Natalie) might just hate me. And the second is a picture of a dollar that Aaron used to pay for coffee.

Ok, here it goes:

Its the day before I leave on the second great adventure of my adult life. I'm so nervous, I think that I might throw up. I also feel a little bit like Julie Powell (from Julie & Julia) right now, I hope that I come across as witty and fun-to-read as she did in the movie. Anyway, I will try my best to write about my adventures out and about in London and the greater continent of Europe. Tomorrow at approximately 10:00, I'm leaving my American phone behind and taking my two overweight suitcases with me to Gatwick airport! Hopefully the next time that I write something I will have some pictures!