I've obviously been busy!

I know it's been entirely too long! I told myself I'd write all the time, but I've honestly been so busy that it's impossible to keep up. Sit back and prepare yourself...this is going to be a LONG post! haha!

So about three weeks ago I was getting ready for my trip to Wales! Tonight I'm getting ready for my trip to Italy! We'll start from the beginning though...

Monday, February 9th, my Tale of Two Cities class had a field trip to Greenwich. We took a ferry down the River Thames and got to see most of Greenwich. I stood over the Prime Meridian line at the Royal Observatory and got to be in 2 hemispheres at once (cool!) and we toured some of the other buildings in the area. I went to The Queen's House which isn't actually a house at all, but once was. Today it's more of an art gallery. Needless to say, I walked through that pretty quickly. We walked down to a chapel. All of the churches/cathedrals/abbeys here are amazing. They're all decorated so ornately and have so much detail and history. This chapel was of course gorgeous and I took entirely too many pictures of it like always! I was starting to run out of time and my professor had told us we should see the Painted Room; she was right. The Painted Room is so spectacular, I can't even describe how amazing it was when I walked in the room. They say it's comparable to the Sistine Chapel. It seems like every inch of the room is painted (it's not) and the detail is amazing. I can't imagine how someone starts a project of that magnitude. It's truly a special gift to be able to paint. I had to get back to London though because I had night class. Two of the girls in my International Business class had birthdays that week so our professor let us out of night class early! How exciting!

Tuesday, February 10th was April's birthday. We went to Ice Bar here in London. The entire bar is made of ice. When you walk in they give you this shiny blue cape that has gloves and a hood. One drink is included in the cover and I got an Emerald Fizz. It was Absolut raspberry, kiwi syrup, lime juice, and lemonade in an ice mug. It was pretty good, but drinking out of the ice mug was incredibly difficult!

Wednesday was our field trip to the British Museum. I'm not too keen on artifacts and historical things, but I found the museum interesting. With our program, we have guided tours of the museums and other field trips by the most amazing tour guides. They know absolutely everything in the world I think! The British Museum has a lot of Egyptian, Greek and English artifacts. I got to see the Rosetta Stone! The museum is also home to Cleopatra's mummy. I was kind of freaked out when we were in the mummy room though; they're just very creepy to me. After our field trip, me and some of my friends walked over to a tourist/gift shop. I was so excited. They had postcards for 10p (like 10 cents) and other fun stuff. I find it odd that I saw the Rosetta Stone (one of the most influential artifacts in uncovering Egyptian history) but I remember the gift shop we went to after. That's me!

Thursday, we went to see "The Taming of the Shrew" for my Shakespeare class. We hadn't finished reading the play though and the end of the performance shocked me. I had expected it to end like the movie "10 Things I Hate About You" which is a modern production. The live performance did not end like the movie. The end made Kate completely submissive to Pertrucio and he was abusive. I didn't like it, but it's how Shakespeare wrote it. There was one upside to the performance. They had a man act as though he was Jamaican because he was from the "islands" of Italy, where the play is set. It was absolutely hilarious.

For Valentine's Day, some of my roommates and I went to see "He's Just Not That Into You." It was such a great movie! If you haven't seen it (and you're a girl) I'd totally recommend it. Definitely a chick flick though. The movies here are pretty much like back home. They don't have previews really, but commercials before the film. You can choose sweet or salty popcorn. The soda doesn't have a ton of ice which is nice because I don't really like a lot of ice. Movies do premiere a little later here than in the states, but they're still the same. It costs about the same to go too so that's nice.

Fast forward a few days to Wednesday the 18th. For our field trip we went to Dover and Canterbury. It was my first castle experience! Dover was crucial to World War II and has always been a strong military point. There are tunnels on the grounds that were built during WWII, but we didn't have time to tour them. The "keep" was closed for remodeling so we didn't get to see what the prison had been like, but the grounds were nice. It was a pretty foggy/rainy day so it was hard to enjoy being outside. Our tour guide mentioned that if it had been a clear day, we would have been able to see France. That's so crazy to be able to see another country! I know that we see Illinois all the time, but another country?! I thought that was cool...even though we didn't see it. haha. In Canterbury, we toured the cathedral and I was amazed yet again by the beauty of the churches here in England. We were given free time in the town so me and some of my friends walked around a street market. I saw a British copy of Harry Potter and I almost bought it. I think it would be really great to have a set of the British versions, even though they aren't that different, the covers are and I'm such a fanatic that it makes sense to me! haha.

Thursday Mom came to visit! Best idea ever! It was so great! I picked her up from the airport around 6:45or 7...I don't remember. We came back to my place and immediately came up with a plan of attack. We decided to go see the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. The palace is so close to Westminster Abbey and Big Ben and Parliament, that we went to see those too, but just from a distance...we had to get pictures! So we watched the Changing of the Guard. There were bands, people on horses, and parades. They do this every other day in the winter and everyday in the summer. It took at least 45 minutes. Seems a little crazy to me, but it was enjoyable. There were 2 bands and it was almost a battle of the bands because one would play a song then the other would. The bands played Mamma Mia! I couldn't believe it...Dancing Queen, really? The funniest part was that the entire crowd started singing along. After that, mom and I went to High Street Kensington so she could see some of the stores and I needed to go to the library! We walked through Kensington Gardens for a bit and then I had class so mom came back to my flat while I learned all about Shakespeare. Thursday night we went to Covent Garden with my roommates and had Mexican! It was delicious...but we were 8 minutes late for Happy Hour. Bummer. The food more than made up for it though. I have a feeling that La Perla will become one of my favorite places because it was pretty cheap!

Friday morning mom and I had a VERY early flight. We left my flat around 4 (I think) and caught a cab (because the tubes weren't even running) to the bus station. There we caught a bus to Luton airport and checked in for our flight. The airport was great, but I know I slept the entire flight to Paris. We arrived and started sightseeing almost immediately. I thought it was really neat that the first thing I saw when I walked out of the metro was the Eiffel Tower. Our hotel was within a 25 minute walk to the tower so we decided to walk there. From the tower we went to a cafe and had the best cup of coffee ever! On to the Arc de Triumph, down the Champs de Elysee all the way to the Louvre. Absolute, without a doubt, longest walk of my life. Once we got to the Louvre, we waited until 6 to go in (so I could get in for free) and walked around for an hour and a half. We saw the Mona Lisa and the Crown Jewels and a ton of other stuff that I'm sure is very interesting.

Saturday we were so exhausted! We decided to go exploring regardless. Usually a great idea, but it wasn't working out for us. We walked along this street that had tons of shops and cafes and food. That was amazing. We tried to find this flea market. We honestly walked around for 2 hours trying to find it and we couldn't. Basically, we failed. We decided to go see Notre Dame. As we walk out of the Metro, I see a church spire so I walk that way. Wrong again. I made us walk around the entire island before we found Notre Dame. Oops. Mom would probably admit that it was better this way because we got to see more?! haha. We made it to Notre Dame and walked through. Again with these European churches. Absolutely gorgeous. We didn't make it up the tower though. We saw the Eiffel Tower lit up at night which was really pretty!

Sunday off to Versailles. We had to catch a train out of the city to get to Versailles, but it was completely worth it. We paid for a guided tour of Versailles and got to see some of the private rooms. There were only 2 other people on our tour because it was English so it was a very private tour which was nice. The palace is amazing. Everything is so elaborate and majestic. We also had a private viewing of the chapel where Marie Antoinette was married. After the guided tour, we got headsets and went on an audio tour of the staterooms. Just as we were getting to the Hall of Mirrors, my camera pretty much died. I was so upset. Hall of Mirrors? Dad would say that's perfect for me! The grounds at Versailles were really nice too even though it's winter and all of the fountains were covered and the grass wasn't very green. It was so cold outside so we decided to head back into Paris. We had a little time before our train came so we stopped in McDonald's across the street. It was 100% the nicest McDonald's I've ever seen. It was super modern and had a little cafe with cakes and cookies and coffees. We didn't get anything, but it was nice to see. When we got back to Paris, we went out to eat at the restaurant next to our hotel. I ordered Gambon?? Risotto. No one knew how to translate gambon to english so I was seriously nervous. It's shrimp, don't worry. It was amazing. Mom had french onion soup and chocolate mousse. I also had chocolate cake with custard. Best meal I've had in Europe, without a doubt. We walked to the Eiffel Tower to see it at night again. It's really pretty the way it "sparkles."

Monday was spent climbing the Eiffel Tower (with no line!) and a river cruise. By climbing the tower I really mean riding the lift. The views from the top were incredible, even though it was really cloudy and kind of rainy. I got to see so much of the city and since I had been to so many places, I could find them and see how far I had walked! The river cruise was neat. The boat was enclosed so that was incredibly appreciated! There were handheld audio guides to help explain the things we were seeing. In my Tale of Two Cities class, we constantly discuss Paris' history. It was nice to see all of the places we've talked about in class about the Revolution and other historical events. That's the great thing about being here. Seeing where the events we've learned about took place is amazing. It really helps me put things into context and get a visual of what's going on in history. Mom and I arrived back in London late Monday night and I immediately started in on all of the homework I had due for Tuesday.

Tuesday I was still catching up on homework so I sent mom off with a list of places, her oyster card (tube pass), and a map. I was in class from 2:30 until basically 8:30 (with a 45 minute break for dinner) and mom had explored so much while I was working hard! She went to Kensington Palace, Kensington Gardens, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and Harrods! She walked around a lot too and found this cute pub not more than 3 blocks from our flat that we had never been to. After night class mom, me, and 2 of my roommates went out for a drink in a classic English pub.

Wednesday mom and I went to Piccadilly Circus (comparable to Times Square) and did a little souvenir shopping. We found some scarves (for me!) and hoodies for Emma and Dad. Around 12:30 mom and I headed back out to Heathrow and off she went. She's somewhere in the air right now, or maybe in customs in Chicago.

This afternoon when I got back, I researched a little for Italy. I walked to the library and met Lynnsey and we got some travel books on Venice, Florence, and Rome. Then we went shopping! I bought some new clothes for the trip to Italy. Our flight is at 7pm tomorrow (Thursday). We're planning on being in Venice Friday and Saturday, taking the train to Florence Saturday night and staying Sunday and Monday, Tuesday we plan on going to Pisa. Then off to Rome Wednesday through Friday. We arrive in London at 11:45 pm on Friday.

I promise to take tons of pictures and not wait so long to post next time! Miss you all!

Love from London,
Ellie