Brussels, Rugby, and Modern Art

Hello All!

Things are going well in London! Work and school are keeping me busy, but I'm still finding time to have plenty of fun on the weekends.

On Friday I added another stamp to my passport by going on a day trip to Brussels, Belgium. I didn't think it was going to be all that great, but it turned out to be really fun day! We ate Belgium chocolate, Belgium waffles, and sampled Belgium beers. There were about three chocolate shops on every corner. We went to one called Chocopolis and it was delicious! Especially the hot chocolate! The waffles, as you can see, were all covered in whipped cream or ice cream and more chocolate! Another thing Belgium is known for is its beers. Every town in the country has its own brewery and some pubs have a choice between over 300 kinds of beers. There were all kinds of flavors like strawberry and peach, and every flavor is served in a specific kind of glass that is supposed to enhance the taste. I tried a fruity-flavored one that didn't even taste like beer at all. One thing we did that didn't have to do with food was visit the Brussels Art Museum. Tony, our AIU tour guide, walked us around and taught us about the history of art in Northern Europe, which was really interesting. Another thing we saw was an interesting 15th century fountain that is famous to Brussels. The fountain, called "manneken-pis", contains a sculpture of a little naked boy... I'll let you figure out where the water is coming from... haha. The most beautiful part of Brussels, however, is a huge square called the Grand Place. It's surrounded by all of these large, intricately detailed buildings that really were outstanding to see.

On Saturday I was introduced to Rugby. We went to a match in Twickenham and saw the Harlequins play the Scarlets from Wales. It took almost the entire match, but I think I understand how the game works now. It's a lot different from American football. After the game, since the home team won, we went to a bar in the stadium where they had a band playing. Lindsay, one of my roommates, was set on getting a picture with one of the players, which we eventually got after a good deal of begging, haha. It was a lot of fun.

Sunday was a little more low key. I went to Tate Modern, which is the huge modern art museum in London. Some of the exhibits were cool, but I honestly don't always get modern art. It was worth it though to see the photography exhibits. After that I walked around by the river and took pictures of the city for my photography class. Then, I went to the Design Museum where they had some cool exhibits on modern pottery design, graphic design, and fashion.

Another exciting thing to mention is that I just bought a plane ticket to Barcelona for mid-February! I cannot wait to see Spain!

Wicked, Stonehenge, Leeds, and More!

What a fun weekend!

It started Thursday night when I went to see the show Wicked. It was really cool, and the woman who played Elphaba was fantastic. I still have some of the songs stuck in my head. I would definitely love to see it in New York sometime.

On Friday I went on a bus trip with some other AIU students to Stonehenge and the town of Salisbury. Stonehenge was interesting, but it was raining and windy when we were there so we only stared at the rocks for about 25 minutes and then left. It was cool to hear about the mystery of the stones and the theories that people have come up with for why they are there. After Stonehenge we went to a town called Salisbury and got lunch in a pub. We also got to see the tallest mid evil Cathedral in the world. It was built in 1092 and had a gorgeous Gothic style of architecture. There were all kinds of tombs inside of Bishops and even Knights. It also held one of the 4 remaining copies of the Magna Carta. I think this Cathedral is my favorite place I have been so far. Unfortunately, my camera was not working that day, so I just took some pics of it from my friend's facebook.

Saturday was another bus trip with AIU! We went to Leeds Castle and Rochester. Leeds was just what anyone would picture a Hollywood-like castle to be. It had a mote, drawbridge, and flags flying from the top. It was built in 1119 and housed many royal women such as King Henry VIII's first wife, Catherine of Aragon. In this picture are four of my roommates (from the left) Faith, Ashley, Lindsay, Alyssa, and Me all in front of the castle. Also on the castle grounds was a maze, which we got lost in for a long time, but eventually made our way out, haha. After Leeds we went to the town of Rochester where Charles Dickens grew up. There was also another castle that we did not go in and another cathedral that was also very gorgeous. We ate fish and chips at a small pub there as well. When we got home that night we were all pretty exhausted, but we went out to a pub around the corner anyway. It was fun to sit around, listen to music, and talk for a while. When the pub closed and we left it was pouring down raining, so we all got pretty wet, haha.

On Sunday Jen, Hannah, and I got up early and went to church at Westminster Cathedral. At the service was an amazing boy's choir who sang all of the songs in Latin. The entire service was very ethereal. After that Ashely, Lindsay, and I went to Trafalgar Square, which is a beautiful area of the city where the National Museum is. There we walked around, and Lindsay and I used our film cameras to take some pictures for our photography class's. After that, we went home and then some of us decided to go to a movie theater across town where the new movie "Revolutionary Road" was premiering in London. Our plan was to see Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet walk down the red carpet into the theater, haha, but by the time we got there (2 hours before Leo) it was already too packed with fans. We ended up getting Ben and Jerry's ice cream instead, which was way more fun anyway. It was the perfect end to busy, but awesome weekend!

Fun Weekend

My first full weekend in London was a blast! On Friday night we all went out to Camden which is a really cool part of the city where there's a lot of night life. We went to a dance club called The Underworld which was so much fun because they kept playing hilarious 80's and 90's music like "Tainted Love" and "Jump Around". We danced for hours! On Saturday a few of us went back and walked around the Camden market, which was filled with local artists, antiques, and vintage clothing. Another thing about Camden is that it is the center of the punk and medal scenes in London. There were a bunch of crazy people and punk stores that were decorated with huge sculptures on the store fronts. After that we went to a sushi restaurant called Hi Sushi and it was delicious!

On Sunday we went to Brick Lane, which has a really cool Sunday market with lots of vintage clothing shops and artists. There were also tons of food vendors from all over the world. I had Moroccan food, which was really good and a Brazilian dessert that was like a custard with passion fruit. Everyone ate something different so we got to try all kinds of things. I bought a mod graphic t-shit for only £5.

Classes started again on Monday and they've been ok so far. Monday night Ashley, Abbey, and I went to Soho and saw the movie Slumdog Millionaire which was SO GOOD! It was seriously the best movie I have seen in a really long time. It totally lived up to all of the hype it's been getting.

My internship at ZigZag productions has been fun, but I had an interview this morning with a company called etv who runs eight TV channels in the UK and produces TV and web programming as well. In a few weeks they are launching a new channel out of one of their London studios so they are looking for help in pre-production and then in the studio once production begins. It sounds like I'm going to get a lot more hands on experience in studio and in the office. The interview went really well and I start there on Tuesday. I cannot wait!

So much to tell!

So much has happened since my last post! I finally have Internet now so it will be easier for me to update this thing.

On Tuesday some of us didn't have class so we went down to the river and walked passed some of the London landmarks. We saw Big Ben, Westminster Abey, the London Eye, and Buckingham Palace. It was really cold! By the time we got to Buckingham Palace we were freezing so we didn't stay long. Plus, not many guards were there so we'll have to go back later and see them.

Yesterday I started classes at AIU and they seem really tough. I'm taking a film class called "World Cinema" and a photography class called "The Art of Photography". They'll both be fun, but a lot of work! I also have a class with my internship adviser once a week. I am definitely going to be busy this quarter. After class I went with a group from school on a pub crawl of historic London pubs. The cultural adviser, Tony, from AIU took a group of us on the tour and it was really interesting. We went to 4 pubs. One from the 1800's, 1700, 1600's, and 1500's. They were all really gorgeous! Dad, you would have liked all the stories he had to tell about them and the other city landmarks we passed along the way. Beth, we walked down the street where they filmed the fight between Hugh Grant and Colin Firth in Bridget Jones's Diary, haha. I tried to take a picture of it, but my camera battery has been acting weird lately. I'm going to call Canon tomorrow to see what I can do about it because it's getting really annoying.

We also passed St. Paul's Cathedral and it was absolutely breathtaking!! It's definitely the most beautiful building I've seen so far.

Today was my first day at my internship and I loved it! I'm working at a production company called ZigZag productions that does TV work around London. They do production work for a lot of big shows in Britain so I'm pretty excited about it. My job is just as a runner, but today they had me looking through old footage and pulling out clips of celebrity outtakes for a new celebrity gossip website that they are developing. Tonight my goal is to research British celebrities since I realized today that I don't know who they are, haha.

So everything is going great so far. All of my roommates are still getting along well and we've been having lots of fun together. I can't wait to start visiting some museums this weekend!

Cheers! haha

Hello From LONDON!!!

Hey everyone! I made it to London and I'm still alive. I flew out on Friday from Cleveland to Detriot to London in about 10 hours. I hopped on a bus at the airport and it took Forever to get into the city because of a car accident. Dad, I've seen tons of Jags and Aaron, BMW's are everywhere! I saw some of the city on the way in and it is gorgeous! The buildings are very old and ornate.

I'm living in an area of London called Bloomsbury and it is really cute! There are 8 girls in our flat and I share a room with Lindsay who's also from OU. All of the girls are really nice. We went on a tour last night and the RA showed us where all of the important local things are like the grocery store and the tube station. Beth, there is so much shopping by us!! We are right near Oxford St. which is known as a shopping street. This could be bad news, but as of day 2 I have done a pretty good job of holding myself back.

Today we went to campus for Orientation and I had a meeting about my internship. I should know by the end of the week who I will be working for. I think we're going out tonight to explore the city more!

I have to cut this short because i'm at an internet cafe and I'm running out of time. There's so much to tell! We should get internet in our flat soon so I won't have this problem.

Miss you all!