week 8,203935,2039 haha just kidding

so this past week has been really busy! but now my AUNTIE DEE IS HERE :-D i am very excited to have another visitor because it makes the city so much more enjoyable to have a familiar face around! I met her at the train station at 9:30ish and then we dropped off her bags and had some breakfast. then we went to see my room at school and then to Shakespeare's globe theatre! it was sooo cool, the season doesn't start till the day before i leave but i might try to get tickets because it would be so amazing to see a shakespeare play in the actual real theatre! then we had some fish and chips for lunch (of course! my fav!) and headed to st pauls cathedral, which was sooo beautiful. it was a great day, and i think one of the best we've had weatherwise! maybe she brought the sunshine with her :-)
this past week has been really busy because i am trying to check things of "the list" which is a two page list of things i want to see in london before i leave! i realized that i am really running out of time so this week i saw a ridiculous amount of musuems!
on wednesday i went to the "Sir John Soane's Museum" which is bascially this guys house that he turned into a gallery to collect his art collection but also like redesigned the rooms, reminded me of the Gardner museum in Boston, it was really neat. Then I went to the "Hunterian Museum" which i thought was just a medical museum, but its actually one of the largest collections of SPECIMENS / ORGANS / BODIES in jars. i didn't believe they were real at first but the lady told me they were, very gross but also kind of cool. they had a seciton on pathology with all the organs and what happens to them with each disease.
On Thursday I went to the Wallace Collection which is another just a rich persons collection of art, pretty cool as well. Then I had to watch a movie for one of my final papers- Yojimbo. Leah, if you are reading this, its by the same guy who did RASHOMON from freshman year! haha yes it was that bad too. :-)
On Friday I hit the Victoria and Albert museum which is a GINORMOUS art museum, it felt like i had walked like 7 miles just going around the museum! And then i went to the Brompton Oratory which is one of the biggest Catholic churches in London. Then that night I went to see the Odyssey for my flim / theatre class, it was really good but didn't relate to our class at all!
So yes i have been extremely busy! But I only have 36 days left (not that i'm counting or anything, haha) I was getting pretty homesick so i am super glad that my aunt is here this week! Ok well tata for now, love and miss you all tons!
I'll update my pics next weekend when my aunt has left and have a bunch to add!

SCOTLAND!

so this weekend I went on a school trip to Edinburgh, Scotland for the weekend. it was SO beautiful! its a really small city surrounded by amazing scenery and cliffs and a bay / the ocean. i took a million pictures and am going to have to open ANOTHER webshots account soon! we left school friday morning at 6:45am, and took a train to Scotland, we arrived around 12:30pm-ish, so yes it was a loooong train ride. we thought that maybe the school had planned out stuff to do for us but they basically dropped us off at the hostel and were like see you on sunday. the rooms were for 14 people but they were all from our school so it wasn't that bad, but still kinda annoying at times. when we first got there we just walked around the city for a while and went to the national gallery of scotland because it was crappy weather and we didn't want to be outside! on saturday we walked at least 100 miles, haha just kidding, but we did walk A TON! first i went to the edinburgh castle which was cool but not as good as the castles in england i didn't think, but the views were great. then i went to this scotch whisky heritage centre, where i got a tour of how whisky is made and this neat ride through the history of it, and then i got a free sample and was taugh how to "taste test" whisky. granted i hate whisky but it was still really cool and i got to keep my glass whisky glass! then i met up with courtney and rachel at the museum of scotland and they gave me a tour that they had went on, saw a lot of cool stuff. then i saw greyfriars bobby, basically this little dog that became the mascot of the area somehow and then everyone took care of him, i don't really know the story but there are lots of childrens books on him and i saw his statue and grave. then we went into st. giles cathedral which was relally nice as well. we walked the "royal mile" from edinburgh castle to holyrood palace where the queen of scotland / now maybe the queen of england stay sometimes, i'm not really sure because we didn't go in we just took pictures of it. then we hiked up this giant "hill" which i think was more of a mountain to get some amazing views of the city and the area around us, it was SO pretty! then we went to a garden called princes street gardens but nothing was really blooming so it wasn't too exciting. by the end of the day we were EXHAUSTED! on sunday we had to check out at 10am and and then just walked around the city some more until our group left at 1. it was a great weekend and i definitely want to go back to scotland to see more of the country when i am older, like loch ness and the mountains and stuff. it was SO pretty and it made me very excited for my trip to ireland at the end of april because i am sure it will be even prettier!
i can't believe there are only 6 weeks left of the semester, and technically five of classes and then one week of finals! so crazy! i'm starting to try to figure out how the heck i am getting all my stuff home, because i have tons. i'm also realllllly realllly excited for my sisters wedding when i get back, and of course going back to troy and seeing everyone and getting to see dan again :-) ok well adios for now, i actually need to get work done tihs week because my auntie dee is coming on saturday! YAY for another visitor :-) i am very excited!

New Pictures Page!

Hi all, just to let you know that because Dan and I took over 100 pictures, I had to open a new webshots account! So half of our trip together can be seen at Pictures 1, and the other half at my new Pictures 2. From now on all my pictures will be posted on Pictures 2.
:-)

dan's come and gone :-(

so its Saturday morning and Dan Yanklowski is already gone. :-( booo. it was soooo awesome to have him here but it stunk a lot to have him leave. I brought him to the train station at 5:00 this morning and he should be back in rochester in a few hours i think! its crazy that spring break is already over and i am more than halfway done with the semester! i can't wait for this summer! we had an amazing week, and did SO MUCH STUFF! here is a recap, and i'll have pictures up soon, we took something like 185 haha.

Sunday - Dan got here around 6:30am, yay to waking up early haha. Then we took a train to Wimbledon, which was wicked cool. We took a guided tour and got to see Centre Court, First Court and the private press area and more. Our guide was really good, I don't know much / anything about tennis but he was really interesting and informative. Dan has decided that this summer he is going to teach me how to play tennis, so watch out! haha.

Monday - We went to Buckingham Palace to see the Changing of the Guard, not as exciting as we thought it would be! There were a ton of people and basically all that happens is the guards change positions and then a band plays some music. But I guess you have to see it if you come to london! Then we went to the Tower of London, which was way cooler than we thought it would be. We went on a guided tour and had for a tour guide the "Raven Master" Derek who is in charge of taking care of the official tower of london Ravens, apparently there is a legend dating back to when it was first built that if the ravens ever leave then the tower and england will collapse! basically this was where people got their heads chopped off, but it was also a mini town with a church, the crown jewels (which were so cool!), and lots of armour and weapons.

Tuesday - We went to Westminster Abbey and did an audio tour thing, basically like every famous dead english person is buried in the walls or floor of this place! it was really pretty though. then we went to see big ben and walked around a little, and got an amazing Cadbury Mini Egg McFlurry from McDonalds. Then we had tickets to see the musical "We Will Rock You", the BEST SHOW i have ever seen in my life. We were 4 rows from the stage and could basically see the sweat on the actors faces haha! not that i've seen many, but it was amazaazing! Dan loved it too, it was all great music and it was so much fun!

Wednesday - We woke up at the crack of dawn and took a Eurostar train through the Chunnel to spend a day in Paris! We did SO MUCH this day - Arc De Triumphe, Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Sacre Coure and Monmarte, and Notre Dame, and we walked in the Tulieres gardens. We both decided that London is WAY better than Paris because Paris is stressful since we don't speak the language, and we were bombarded with people trying to sell us stuff who got a little too close for comfort! We got back around 11pm to London and definitely fell alseep qucik from a looooooong day!

Thursday - While in Watertown Dan had seen a special on Windsor Castle, which is the Queens preferred residence and where she goes on weekends. So we took an hour long train to it, and it was definitely worth it! This place was HUGE and wicked old, we took a tour around it and saw the cathedral and the state apartments, definitely a cool day.

Friday - We were lazy because the week of walking all over the place was finally catching up to us, so we just went to the Science Museum and walked around for a few hours, then went on a crazy simulator ride!

So thats about it, we were definitely VERY busy and we have some great photos, Dan's camera unfortunatley broke but mine is ok so we still have alot to show for our week! It was soooo great to have him here but it went by way too fast! Hopefully the rest of the semester will too! Next weekend I am headed to Edinburgh Scotland with school, and the weekend after that my auntie Dee comes!

dan's coming SOON!

hi hi hi! so i just uploaded some new pictures, of my parents visit and my trip today. today i went to this place "Hampton Court Palace" with Courtney, Rachel and Courtney's sister who is visiting. Its where William and Mary lived and also where Henry the 8th lived! it was really cool, soo pretty, i want to live in a palace! The gardens were really nice too. We took a half hour train trip to get there but it was worth it. And the man that sold us our train tickets was really helpful and helped us saved a ton of money!
Yesterday I took a 2 hour walk to the "Museum of London". It was not worth my walk. haha the museum was just the history of london and it was pretty boring / reading intensive. i like when i can just go to museums and look and be entertained. then on my walk back the weather decided it would be a good time for a MONSOON / HURRICANE and i had to duck into a tube station to avoid being blown away! the weather has been reallly crappy lately. hopefully it clears up because
DAN YANKLOWSKI is coming on SUNDAY! i am going to get him at the airport and he will be there at 6:30am sunday morning. i am SO siked. we got a really nice hotel and have a ton of plans, its going to be amazing. Also, I am meeting up with MEGHAN GAUL tomorrow, she will be in London to see the Lion King so we are going to get some dinner afterwards, so siked! Two great people in two days!!!
I am so glad midterms are over, but i still ahve a paper to write and a 30 minute powerpoint presentation to make before dan gets here...yuck! ok time to switch laundry, love and miss you all! less than two months till home!

midterms = stupidest idea ever!

so at this school, i have a midterm in every single subject, whether it be a paper or a test. which is STUPID. haha, so far they haven't been horrible though, i thought i was going to do really bad on my adolescent psych midterm test but it was actually good. spring break starts this thursday :-) and dan yanklowski is coming on SUNDAY! we have so many great plans already, and i just can't wait to see him!
yesterday i went back to Portobello Road with Courtney and Rachel, its in Notting Hill which is soo pretty. the main market day is saturday so it wasn't as busy as it was last time i went, but they still had a ton of stuff! we walked there, and then it started to snow so we took the tube back.
the weather here has been SO random lately, it will be really nice in the early afternoon so that you are sweating when you're wearing your coat, and then a few hours later its still sunny but its snowing and freeezing! its supposed to get warmer this week so hopefully it will be nice for dan.
i am finally all caught up on greys anatomy and the OC :-) i watched the first season of greys too. a very good way to waste time / be emotional, haha. i miss watching it with my favs though!
today i took a walk to the British Library. it was SO COOL! they have this "Treasures Gallery" and i did an audio tour thing, some of the highlights of things in their collection are:
** the Magna Carta (which i didn't get to see because it was getting restored, BOO)
** the original lewis carroll hand drawn alice in wonderland - which was SO neat, it was all done in pencil and the illustrations were great
** one of only 30 surviving orignal Gutenberg Bibles - it was huge!
** original scores of music HANDWRITTEN by mozart and beethoven, which was sooo neat, you could see where they made scratch outs and changed things
** the original writings of a bunch of beatles songs - like the napkin that they wrote "all my life" on and a card that they wrote "a hard days night" on, so cool! again lots of scratch outs so you could see what they were thinking
** and the oldest known bible in the ENTIRE world. its from 300 ad, yes thats only 300 years after christ's death, and its written in greek.
i spent a good two hours there and it was definitely worth the two pounds i paid for my audio tour! unfortunately you aren't allowed to take pictures, but just take my word that it was really neat! tomorrow i am actually going to CHURCH! gasp! Courtney and Rachel pointed one out to me on our walk to portobello road thats not that far away. then i might check out another museum, but i also have alot to do for more midterms this week.
ok well adios muchachos, miss you all! i can't believe the semester is half over already!

parents come and gone

so my week with my parents ended yesterday, but boy was it a good week. it was so nice to have them here and be able to spend time with them. we did SO MUCH! i think they were staisfied that they saw almost all of what London has to offer! some highlights - me and Mom went on the London Eye - its like this giant ferris wheel thing where instead of two seats per thingy they have these pods that hold up to 30 people! you take a 30 minute trip and go VERY high and can see a whole lot of London below you. Also we went to see Fame which was soooo good! We went to the London Zoo and saw cute penguins and monkeys, to the Science museum, the British Museum, and of course Harrods! It was also nice to get to eat at restaurants instead of in my crappy dining hall. But they left yesterday afternoon so now its time to focus on midterms, YUCK. midterms start tomorrow for me (i still can't believe its already the halfway point!). but Dan is coming in less than two weeks which is SUPER exciting and i can't wait! i really miss my girls but i know i'll be back in Troy before I know it :-) now i am off to go see a movie for my film class, and then later i have ot meet with the professor and watch ANOTHER movie with him for the same class, YUCK!
love you all!