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So I know it's been awhile but I've preoccupied since i've been home. Here are some pictures of my trip with Sean which was amazing and so much fun. Thanks so much for reading my blog, and I am glad that I was able to share my trip with family and friends!

Cliffs of Moher - Ireland

Duguare Castle - Galway, Ireland

Guinness Brewery - Dublin, Ireland

Vatican City

The Colosseum - Rome, Italy

Rome, Italy

The Colosseum

Trevi Fountain - Rome, Italy

Heineken Brewery - Amsterdam, Holland

Amsterdam, Holland

Amsterdam, Holland

Final Days in London

My program officially ends today, we have to be out of Thoresby House by 1pm. It's been a long week with the final exam on Tuesday, my last days of work, and then my presentation yesterday. Still, it's been a fun one even as people started to leave on their next adventures. On Thursday we decided to do some final touring, catch some of the stuff we wanted to see but still hadn't gotten the chance to in 2 months. We started at Harrods, the fancy designer department store with multiple levels of extremely expensive things (and normally priced as well).I didn't buy anything... except for some delicious pastries in the bakery. Soooo good! After that My friend Nikhita and I went to go see Abbey Road. Granted it is just a street crossing, but there were still people there taking pictures. Since it was only the two of us, we had no one to take our picture crossing the street. However, there was this guy with a polaroid camera who would tell you when to cross, pose you, take a picture with his polaroid camera and your digital camera for 5 pounds. I'm a sucker and I really wanted the cheesy picture... so we did. I have the polaroid so perhaps when I get back to the states I'll scan it in. Until then, you'll just have to enjoy these. In a couple of hours I will be meeting up with Sean to begin our two week trip around Europe. I am so excited to be beginning this new adventure but leaving London is bittersweet. I've had a lot of fun exploring new places, experiencing the locals and the local pubs, and just immersing myself in another culture. Granted it is "just England" and they all "speak English" but the cultural nuances and their beliefs and values are unique and different to me. Plus, if you've ever heard Cockney you would question if they were really speaking English. This might be my last post for the next week (especially with pictures) since I will be traveling, but I should have some time when I'm back in the USA for some updates with pictures... we'll see! Now, the rest of Europe awaits!

Adventure to the South of France

This weekend I decided to meet up with my roommate Anna in Nice, France. Anna is studying in Grenoble (the French Alps) and we thought, why not meet up in Europe at a beach. I live the hard life right?Nice is in the French Riviera between Monaco and Cannes and absolutely beautiful. This was my first experience outside of the UK, since I've mostly been exploring England, Oh and I don't speak ANY French! I arrived in Nice, at around 10am and wandered around the French streets, sat by some of the fountains, just taking it all in. It was so hot that I decided to go lay out on the beach, I was meeting Anna at the train station later. Unfortunately there were massive train delays and Anna came in a bit later then expected. But really, who can complain when you are somewhere like this?
We spent most of Saturday at the beach and then decided to climb up to the top of this hill where the view of Nice is amazing! There are old roman ruins and waterfalls along the way to the top.It would have been nice being there one more day, but Sunday morning I left for the airport. I sat on the tarmac in the blazing heat, inside a delayed plane with no AC for an hour, I guess that's a moment where you get what you pay for when flying discount airlines.

This post is short, I have my final exam today and then my last day of work tomorrow. Then next week Amsterdam!

The Globe, Cambridge, and more World Cup

The Monday after my mother left, I remembered that I had tickets to see Henry the IIX at the Globe theater. Now it isn't the Globe theater that Shakepeare himself used, that one burned down, but it is a recreation and mighty fine one at that. Or at least it's exactly how I pictured it would be. We had seats, but most people just go and stand in front. Appealing... but when the plays last about 3 hours, I think I'll take the seats. It was fun... but Henry the IIX is probably Shakepeare's play that I am least familiar with. Top that with their British accents and I was pretty lost. The seats we had were hard wooden benches so after an hour and a half of sitting uncomfortably, I was ready to go. Still, it was really cool to imagine that people would come here and watch what I was watching back in the day.
Fast forward to Wednesday... Spain vs Germany semifinals. Everyone thought Germany was going to win, I wanted them so they could bash it out against their rivals the Netherlands. Still the Oracle Octopus was right (google it if you haven't heard about him!) and Spain won. Well it was so crowded we didn't actually get into a bar - I guess we still haven't figured out that arriving late during the World Cup doesn't work. However, after the game ended we found ourselves smack dab infront of... a Karaoke bar! I didn't sing, but it was so entertaining and something I've been wanting to visit... forever. Awesome.On Saturday we woke up nice and early for our trip to Cambridge. It was probably my favorite city in England. It was so old and historical and of course, like most of the time here so far, the weather was perfect.The program had set us up with and air conditioned private bus (Yes!) to take us the 2 hours outside the city. I guess I didn't realize (what's new?) that it was such a touristy spot. Hundreds of people in tour groups were wandering around the campuses. All speaking different languages.
We started off with a walking tour of Royal Cambridge. Cambridge University is actually made up of a bunch of different colleges. We went past Queen's College, King's College and Trinity College. In front of Trinity College there is an apple tree that is a direct descendant of the apple tree where Newton discovered Gravity!Because of course, he went to Cambridge. We also went past the pub The Eagle, where that historic conversation about DNA was discussed. After the walking tour we had some free time, so we tried to go find a cheap place to eat. We found this yummy Asian fusion restaurant that had an outdoor terrace and a large portion of food for only 5 pounds. Score. After Lunch, we made our way back to the river because we were going Punting! Punting is where flat boats are steered by people on the back with long poles. It was so hot out that I was definitely ready to be close to the water. Here is a picture of Jenni and I waiting to go punting!
Punting was so much fun. We had a tour guide that was a student (although ironically, he went to Oxford) and he told us the history of the canals, bridges, and the colleges. It was fun to be on the water, but since it was such a nice day the canal was really crowded. That, and you can rent small boats and punt (?) on your own, but these people clogged up the canal because they had no idea what they were doing. Needless to say there were quite a few accidents. As we headed back to the dock where we started, we passed under a bridge where people were jumping off into the crowded canal. One of the guys in my program, Bill, asked our guide if it was ok for them to jump off, the guide said yes and Bill instantly knew that he was going to jump off the bridge. We got out and went up to the bridge which was crowded with 14 year old local boys jumping off and into the water. However, they had to wait until someone below gave them teh go ahead since there were boats and people everywhere. They were so excited that an American guy wanted to do it with them! Bill did a backflip into the water, and not a minute went by before all the boys scattered. There was police woman on her way over. She intercepted Bill and asked him if he had went for a swim, Bill (not knowing that it wasn't ok) told her all about it. She whipped out something official and started asking Bill for his information. Right then about twenty 14 year old boys swarmed her, and she let Bill off the hook. Word for the wise. it is not ok to go bridge jumping in Cambridge, no matter what the locals tell you.

We got back to London fairly early, played some ultimate frisby, and geared up to write our papers the next morning. Sunday was the final game of the World Cup, but by this point I was already over it. All my teams were out of the competition. In case you didn't watch it, Spain won in overtime.

This week I finished my final paper about the Carbon Market, which I think is pretty good, let's see what my professor says! I wrapped up my second to last week of work... only 2 more days next week. And after I post this blog, I am going to try and get a few things because I leave for Nice, France early tomorrow.

So hopefully, another post early next week. Things will probably get busy, but I will try my best!
Have a wonderful weekend!

Mom's Visit Part 2. Bath, Hyde Park, and Wicked.

My Mom and I woke up Thursday morning excited and ready to see the roman baths in Bath, England. We took a 2 hour train ride to the English country side and arrived in Bath around 11am. The map we got at the train station makes the town seem WAY bigger then it really is, everything is pretty close together. We made it to the Roman Baths and they were so cool. They are built over these hot springs that are still there today. Different parts of the baths have been excavated and revealed massage rooms, changing rooms and places where you can even throw in your grievances. They also had these really cool statues of important people during the Roman ages like Caesar.The hot springs are still the source of the water in the Roman Baths, but I have to admit I would not want to get in there. The water looks eerily green and the thought of bathing in it grosses me out. I'll just tell myself it wasn't like that in its hay day. After wandering around the baths and soaking up all that history, we decided to go see the other thing that Bath is known for. The Royal Crescent. It's this interesting half circle of townhouses that is seen in lots of photographs of England. The designer tried to make it so that the front facade of the townhomes all look the same, but then each of the original owners could do whatever they wanted to behind that. So if you walk behind them they all look really different, some are huge and others more humble.
The next day we wandered around Portabella Market which has a lot of vintage clothes and jewelry. Then we ate a delicious lunch at Nandos, which has really flavorful and spicy chicken burgers, wraps, and sandwiches. Flavor is rare in English food from what I can tell, so I get really excited when I find restaurants that are not bland. We were pretty close to Hyde Park so we decided to go and see Kensington Palace, where Princess Diana lived. Unfortunately, they are trying to redo the ground outside of the palace, so there were a lot of barriers. We still managed to get some good pictures.That night we went to a show in London's theater district. We got appetizers and wine at this little french restaurant near the theater in the the West End of London. We saw the musical Wicked, about the Wicked Witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz. It was so much fun to get dressed up, even if most people were not. I tried to take pictures of the theater but none of them turned out!

My mom left early on Sunday, it was so much fun having her here. London is amazing and has so much to do, it was nice to do some of the touristy stuff with someone from home. I have definitely been taking my time checking out the tourist stuff. I only have 2 weeks left in London! Next weekend (the 16th), I'll be meeting up with my roommate Anna in Nice, France on the French Rivera, and then the following weekend Sean arrives in London and we start our trip to Amsterdam, Rome, and Ireland.

These next two weeks will be jammed full with writing my final paper, final exam, and finishing up with my internship. As always, I'll make the empty promise to update more frequently... :-)

Harry Potter, the Beach, and Part 1. of Mom's Visit

I apologize for being so behind in the blogging, I though I would be better. Alas, you'll have to settle for the long posts instead of the more frequent ones.So after my lovely night walk around the South Bank of the Thames River, the next day was back to work. I believe the Spain game was on Monday night and a bunch of us went to watch it in the Spanish bar that happened to be right next to my office. It was way too crowded there for me, so a few of us went around the corner where we were able to sit and watch the game from multiple flat screen tvs. After that we decided that since we happened to be 20 feet away from Kings Cross Station, we had to indulge our childhood fantasies and see Platform 9 3/4 (from Harry Potter). We went to the station, running past platform 5, platform 7, and then in between platform 8 and 9 we felt highly discouraged. However, one of the employees pulled me and my friend Jenni aside and asked "Are you looking for Harry Potter?" Of course! So he led us through a shortcut (we had been on the wrong side) and a photo shoot ensued. I'll only post one though :-)That Wednesday was the English and American games at the same time. Most offices, including mine, ended the day at 2:30 so that we could go to the pub and watch the game. It was so much fun! Even though I wasn't able to see the USA game, hanging out with my work and seeing everyone enjoying themselves and root the English to victory was an experience I'll never forget. Oh, and they never let my pint glass go empty which didn't hurt either.
On Friday I went to Brighton a beach town in the South of England. Jenni, Megan, and I took the train about an hour and half outside the city and ended up what seemed like a cross between Atlantic City and Venice Beach in California. There was a huge pier where our hotel was supposed to be right across from.However, we walked around asked for directions, and no one seemed to know what we were talking about. Megan called up the hotel and she said that they were right across from the old pier... There was more than one? This was news to us. We saw a long shape in the distance and decided that must be the old pier, so we started walking. an hour later we came up to what we thought was the "old pier." Unfortunetly it was the Marina. We asked a man if he knew where we were supposed to go since the lady on the phone was not very helpful. He laughed and told us that we had walked for no reason. It was indeed by the original pier we had been at. He told us to take to beach trolley and head back that direction. Tired, we agreed and had a nice leisurely ride back to where we started. A minute walk in the opposite direction of the pier we found the "old pier" that the lady had been referring to.

Apparently the old pier had collapsed and burned and that was all that was left. Still we were able to find our hotel, and we dropped our stuff off and ran to the beach.
Ok so it wasn't the sandy beach we were expecting, and all the rocks did not make for a comfortable place to lay on. Still, it was hot, and there was the ocean in front of us, so no complaints by any means.We wrapped up our day in Brighton exploring the nightlife, which was so much fun. Plenty of stag and hen parties (bachelor and bachelorette) to keep us entertained. They dress up in funny costumes and matching t-shirts. One groom even had on a wedding dress. Hilarious. The next day we spent some time on the beach and then returned back to London completely exhausted.

On Monday, my mom arrived in London for the week. I met up with her at her hotel right by Oxford Street, which is known for shopping and crazy amounts of people. We walked around the neighborhood and then out to a delicious dinner. On Tuesday and Wednesday I had to work so she explored London during the day and we met up after. On Wednesday, she met met me at my work and I took her to the neighborhood pub by my house, The Eagle. After, it was my friend Jenni's birthday so all of us (including my mother) went out to our favorite, very American, bar O'Neils. They had a live band that was playing covers. So funny to watch English people sing along to Sweet Home Alabama. All in all a fabulous time.

I think I'll stop there today, this post is getting a bit long! Yes, I'm still a few days behind but I promise to update within the next couple of days! Until then... Happy 4th of July! (although I have a feeling there will not be much celebrating here) :-)

Work, Ascot, and Football - What a combo

I haven't been great at updating this blog, I always think about how I should, then get distracted with something else... Regardless, where did I leave off?I got back from Wales exhausted, and I had to wake up bright and early for work the next day! I've been trying to kick the coffee habit, and save money by not buying coffee in the morning. However, the coffee at my office is awful and so I usually end up fighting staying awake until lunch time, where I eventually I cave. You think I would learn by now. I'm doing "market research" for my internship which really just entails me googling companies and what their environmental stance is, then writing up a summary on the industry and inputting individual company information into a database. Fascinating I know. Still, the people are really nice, and they hired another intern who is my age. Her and I are now lunch buddies and chat at work which made it instantly more fun.The week dragged in the beginning but once Thursday rolled around it was my weekend. I spent Thursday at the Camden market which was incredible. Thousands of stalls were sporadically placed among streets and down hallways. You're supposed to haggle down the prices, and i was able to get 3 pounds off of a dress which felt like a score (until I did the conversion to dollars in my head). I left with some new clothes and a dress for.... the Royal Ascot!We woke up bright and early Friday morning for the Ascot. It's basically the British version of the Kentucky Derby. Everyone is dressed up and the hats were insane! Of course the people with the best outfits were also the people who got to be by the finish line. Just like everything in England, it was divided by class. We of course were in the "Silver Arena" with the rest of the commoners. There are grandstands and tables, but most people just picnic. It was so much fun, and I got to see the queen!
It was pretty warm out even though it was cloudy. Right as we we're coming back into London it started to drizzle, but all in all the Ascot was a blast! I did make a couple 2 pound bets and came out even. No complaints here.
On Saturday I walked around the Notting Hill area, we were going to go hang out in Hyde Park, but without fail - it started to rain. London and Seattle are very similar weather wise, however I think it is cloudier here in London. There are rarely clear blue skies.It's been "football" madness over here with the World Cup. Arcadia sent out a challenge to all the students in my program to see who could go to the most bars (of whatever country is playing). I was really jealous because some kids went to a Danish bar for the Denmark game. I totally would have shown off my awesome Danish speaking ability. haha. Perhaps Thursday when they play Japan. I've been to an Argentina game and went to a Spanish bar last night for the Spain game. I'm not that into the World Cup but it's still fun to go and hear the crazy songs and watch everyone freak out. Tomorrow my office is ending at 3pm and then we're going to the pub to watch the England game (the USA game is on at the same time, but i'm pretty sure no one will have it on in the whole city).

More next week after I get back from my beach trip to Brighton.These next photos are from a night walk around downtown London on Sunday evening. Enjoy!

Brazilian Festival LightsThe London EyeClose Up!Big BenTrafalgar Square