27.11.08
Happy Thanksgiving
happy thanksgiving everyone!!! wish i could be home to celebrate. going out to dinner for thai with the flatmates...very traditional, i know. haha
26.11.08
relaxing evening
So today I came home from work and just felt like taking it easy. I put on my headphones and doodled for a few hours. It was really nice. I haven't taken an art class since middle school and I'm really excited for my figure drawing class and beginning printmaking next semester. Anyways, thought I might as well post tonight's doodles on here.
23.11.08
Oxford, again
This weekend Amanda and I didn't end up getting together. She cancelled on me last minute becuase she had a lot of work to do. We're going to try and go to Blenheim next weekend, and regardless of whether or not she can go, I am planning on going.
I did go to Oxford anyways this weekend and I visited with Shanna. She absolutely loves Oxford and really doesn't want to leave. It was good talking to her and hearing how her experience has been. She lives in the house literally right next-door to the one Sharron's husband lived in while he was at Oxford. How weird is that?! I only spent one night with her but it was nice. She has been getting involved with the Oxford dance team and gymnastics groups so she has had the opportunity to meet a lot of people and she doesn't seem as stressed about the work as Amanda. It was funny because even though she gets out a lot more than Amanda in Oxford I think between all of us, I probably know my way around Oxford better than they do. I really really like Oxford.
Saturday Shanna and I went to a little tea room for lunch. I had a delicious sandwich with goat cheese, semi-sun dried tomatoes, red caramelized onions and some green leafy things. It was so0o good.
Getting home from Oxford was a bit of an adventure. I got the train back no problem but when I got into Paddington the circle line was completely closed (which is the line I usually take back since High Street is only about 3 stops away), the distrcit line was also closed (only between the locations I needed) and the only line I could therefore take was the bakerloo which takes me wayyyy out of the way. I obviously had no choice so instead of my ride home being 6 mins it became 46 mins, and as we were riding along they kept announcing the closure of more stations due to overcrowding. So I don't know if there was some big Christmasy event or something but it was definitely an interesting ride home. It's also been freeeeeeezing the past few days. It's been a lot more windy than usual.
It's funny that grandpa sent those pictures of London at night because my flatmates and I have been talking about going out and taking some of our own. I think we're going to do that tonight.
I can't believe how fast this semester has gone by! I was looking at my calendar last night I realized I barely have any time left here! This coming weekend I am going to go to Blenheim, the week after that is my last week at work and then I'm off to Sweden then the week after that I'm home. Wow. Time sure does fly.
I did go to Oxford anyways this weekend and I visited with Shanna. She absolutely loves Oxford and really doesn't want to leave. It was good talking to her and hearing how her experience has been. She lives in the house literally right next-door to the one Sharron's husband lived in while he was at Oxford. How weird is that?! I only spent one night with her but it was nice. She has been getting involved with the Oxford dance team and gymnastics groups so she has had the opportunity to meet a lot of people and she doesn't seem as stressed about the work as Amanda. It was funny because even though she gets out a lot more than Amanda in Oxford I think between all of us, I probably know my way around Oxford better than they do. I really really like Oxford.
Saturday Shanna and I went to a little tea room for lunch. I had a delicious sandwich with goat cheese, semi-sun dried tomatoes, red caramelized onions and some green leafy things. It was so0o good.
Getting home from Oxford was a bit of an adventure. I got the train back no problem but when I got into Paddington the circle line was completely closed (which is the line I usually take back since High Street is only about 3 stops away), the distrcit line was also closed (only between the locations I needed) and the only line I could therefore take was the bakerloo which takes me wayyyy out of the way. I obviously had no choice so instead of my ride home being 6 mins it became 46 mins, and as we were riding along they kept announcing the closure of more stations due to overcrowding. So I don't know if there was some big Christmasy event or something but it was definitely an interesting ride home. It's also been freeeeeeezing the past few days. It's been a lot more windy than usual.
It's funny that grandpa sent those pictures of London at night because my flatmates and I have been talking about going out and taking some of our own. I think we're going to do that tonight.
I can't believe how fast this semester has gone by! I was looking at my calendar last night I realized I barely have any time left here! This coming weekend I am going to go to Blenheim, the week after that is my last week at work and then I'm off to Sweden then the week after that I'm home. Wow. Time sure does fly.
Belgium
Belgium was AMAZINGGG!!!
Mari (my flatmate) and I went to Belgium last weekend. It was such a perfect weekend. We left around 4 after our Friday classes. We took the Eurostar (a train) from London St. Pancras to Brussells. The ride was only a couple of hours. We both really wanted to spend more time in Brugge than Brussells so we arranged 2 nights accommodation in a hostel in Brugge. When we got into Brussells, we grabbed a quick bite to eat and then, through a series of pantomimes, pointing, broken English and French, we managed to purchase tickets to catch a train from Brussells to Brugge.
By the time we got to Brugge it was around 11 and we were supposed to be able to take bus 6 or 16 from the station to our hostel. We, however, are not fluent in Flemish, Dutch, French, or German and could not find said buses. We finally got on a bus that said it was going to a word that looked like it resembled the ‘town centre’. It was getting late so we figured we’d take our chances. Well, we made the right decision and the bus did indeed drop us in the town center. The ride was no more than 3 minutes so in the amount of time we took debating on which bus to take, we easily could have walked the distance.
Anyways, we got to the town center and still had to make our way to the hostel. We pulled out the map we, luckily, picked up at the station and found our way to the hostel. Checking in was interesting as there was no reception desk. The reception desk was literally the bar. After checking it we headed up to our room, which we were sharing with 4 other girls. It was nice enough for 2 nights.
Saturday morning we got up around 8:30, put on some clothes and headed down for the free breakfast (which consisted of instant coffee and bread and butter). We then headed out to explore the town. It was really nice traveling with Mari because we are both rather laid back people. We didn’t have a plan as to what we wanted to see or where, specifically, we wanted to go which made it really nice and relaxing. We wandered through all the main streets, went through little markets, moseyed down little side streets, sat by the river and watched the horse carriages drive by. It was just very very relaxing and non-stressful. We stopped in a small café to warm up and grab a bit of lunch.
After finishing my delicious panini, we hit the streets again. We went up the Belfry tower in the centre of town. We had to climb about 366 steps to get to the top but the view was amazing and you stand literally right under the massive bells (which makes it a VERY loud experience).
We spent the rest of the afternoon milling about and we ate dinner in a little Italian restaurant in the center of town. It looked so pretty at night all light up and they had Christmas lights up too. After walking the entire day we were ready to tuck in early so we headed back to the hostel around 10 and we just laid around and read a bit.
Sunday we woke up around 8:30 again and had breakfast. It was raining but we decided it would probably end up taking just as much time to get to the station if we waited for the bus as if we walked, so we opted for walking. We checked out and started the trek. About 45 minutes later we were at the train station on the next train to Brussells. When we got to Brussells we decided the two things we really needed to see where the Atomium and Manikin Pis so we decided to start at Atomium and throughout the day make our way back south west.
We got to the station and, once again, combining our acting skills with our limited knowledge of French we somehow managed to get metro tickets. We jumped on the next train to some city that started with an ‘S’ and from there we caught the metro to the Atomium. The weather was pretty gross most of Sunday but for the most part we were either on a train or standing in line at the Atomium while it rained most heavily. Mom and Dad have a picture in front of Atomium so I made sure to get one of me in front of it. After we climbed to the top, we took the metro back toward the market.
We wandered around, ate waffles and chocolate, and had pitas for lunch. There seem to be a lot of Greek restaurants in Brussells. Mari and I both decided that we liked Brugge better. Brussells was cool, but it felt very much like any other ‘large’ European city. We both liked it better at night. It felt less dirty and looked prettier with all the lights and Christmas lights.
After trekking back and forth across the city for the entire day we headed back to the station to catch our train back to London. We ended up getting there about 2 hours early so we had one final waffle covered in chocolate with haggen das ice cream. Delicious. We were both exhausted after lugging our backpacks around with us all day and having spent the majority of the past 2 days walking walking walking. We got into London between 10 and 10:30 and we went right to bed.
I had SUCH a great time. Belgium is the perfect place to escape to for a romantic and relaxing weekend. Brugge is quite possibly the cutest most picturesque city I’ve traveled to. It looks like it should be on a Christmas cookie tin and the people were all super friendly and helpful and I felt very safe there. All the cafes and pubs were so cozy and had open fires. The streets are cobblestone and you can always hear the horses walking around. Church bells ring loudly throughout the day and big windmills are scattered along the river. It is just so beautiful. I can’t wait to see what Stockholm will be like!
Mari (my flatmate) and I went to Belgium last weekend. It was such a perfect weekend. We left around 4 after our Friday classes. We took the Eurostar (a train) from London St. Pancras to Brussells. The ride was only a couple of hours. We both really wanted to spend more time in Brugge than Brussells so we arranged 2 nights accommodation in a hostel in Brugge. When we got into Brussells, we grabbed a quick bite to eat and then, through a series of pantomimes, pointing, broken English and French, we managed to purchase tickets to catch a train from Brussells to Brugge.
By the time we got to Brugge it was around 11 and we were supposed to be able to take bus 6 or 16 from the station to our hostel. We, however, are not fluent in Flemish, Dutch, French, or German and could not find said buses. We finally got on a bus that said it was going to a word that looked like it resembled the ‘town centre’. It was getting late so we figured we’d take our chances. Well, we made the right decision and the bus did indeed drop us in the town center. The ride was no more than 3 minutes so in the amount of time we took debating on which bus to take, we easily could have walked the distance.
Anyways, we got to the town center and still had to make our way to the hostel. We pulled out the map we, luckily, picked up at the station and found our way to the hostel. Checking in was interesting as there was no reception desk. The reception desk was literally the bar. After checking it we headed up to our room, which we were sharing with 4 other girls. It was nice enough for 2 nights.
Saturday morning we got up around 8:30, put on some clothes and headed down for the free breakfast (which consisted of instant coffee and bread and butter). We then headed out to explore the town. It was really nice traveling with Mari because we are both rather laid back people. We didn’t have a plan as to what we wanted to see or where, specifically, we wanted to go which made it really nice and relaxing. We wandered through all the main streets, went through little markets, moseyed down little side streets, sat by the river and watched the horse carriages drive by. It was just very very relaxing and non-stressful. We stopped in a small café to warm up and grab a bit of lunch.
After finishing my delicious panini, we hit the streets again. We went up the Belfry tower in the centre of town. We had to climb about 366 steps to get to the top but the view was amazing and you stand literally right under the massive bells (which makes it a VERY loud experience).
We spent the rest of the afternoon milling about and we ate dinner in a little Italian restaurant in the center of town. It looked so pretty at night all light up and they had Christmas lights up too. After walking the entire day we were ready to tuck in early so we headed back to the hostel around 10 and we just laid around and read a bit.
Sunday we woke up around 8:30 again and had breakfast. It was raining but we decided it would probably end up taking just as much time to get to the station if we waited for the bus as if we walked, so we opted for walking. We checked out and started the trek. About 45 minutes later we were at the train station on the next train to Brussells. When we got to Brussells we decided the two things we really needed to see where the Atomium and Manikin Pis so we decided to start at Atomium and throughout the day make our way back south west.
We got to the station and, once again, combining our acting skills with our limited knowledge of French we somehow managed to get metro tickets. We jumped on the next train to some city that started with an ‘S’ and from there we caught the metro to the Atomium. The weather was pretty gross most of Sunday but for the most part we were either on a train or standing in line at the Atomium while it rained most heavily. Mom and Dad have a picture in front of Atomium so I made sure to get one of me in front of it. After we climbed to the top, we took the metro back toward the market.
We wandered around, ate waffles and chocolate, and had pitas for lunch. There seem to be a lot of Greek restaurants in Brussells. Mari and I both decided that we liked Brugge better. Brussells was cool, but it felt very much like any other ‘large’ European city. We both liked it better at night. It felt less dirty and looked prettier with all the lights and Christmas lights.
After trekking back and forth across the city for the entire day we headed back to the station to catch our train back to London. We ended up getting there about 2 hours early so we had one final waffle covered in chocolate with haggen das ice cream. Delicious. We were both exhausted after lugging our backpacks around with us all day and having spent the majority of the past 2 days walking walking walking. We got into London between 10 and 10:30 and we went right to bed.
I had SUCH a great time. Belgium is the perfect place to escape to for a romantic and relaxing weekend. Brugge is quite possibly the cutest most picturesque city I’ve traveled to. It looks like it should be on a Christmas cookie tin and the people were all super friendly and helpful and I felt very safe there. All the cafes and pubs were so cozy and had open fires. The streets are cobblestone and you can always hear the horses walking around. Church bells ring loudly throughout the day and big windmills are scattered along the river. It is just so beautiful. I can’t wait to see what Stockholm will be like!
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