SPRING and FINALS

It is officially spring time here - today is the first day I have left my flat without a jacket! AND im wearing flip flops! Unfortunately, though the weather has been and will be very nice, I am spending the day in studio working on my final interiors project which is due tuesday. I had my "final" photo project - basically just printing out a couple exhibition prints which were displayed at the end of the semester party yesterday (free food, CHOCOLATE FOUNTAIN, music, people etc in our student lounge) and a final paper and project for my design history class this week. I also have a final multi-design project group project due monday which is DONE - so all I really have to focus on is interiors. 

The past few days have been fun though, during our final Design history class where we presented our projects our teacher, who is basically the image that comes to mind when you think of an older British man (pinstrip suit, tweed vest, suspenders, neckief, cane, bowler hat, cane...), brought in gin and tonics for us. All part of taking in the culture you see. Yesterday I helped my photo teacher hang up prints for the exhibit and while we were working he brought us beer and insisted we drink. Meanwhile this is in school which is definitely not allowed, but British people dont really seem to care about rules. 

Anyways in between the photo stuff and party I was working in studio with a bunch of designers and when school was closing we decided to go grab a drink. It ended up being about 10 of us going to a nearby bar/bowling alley which is stuck in the 60s and really cool - it has old movie theater seats, karaoke, old leather furniture, and 8 bowling lanes. We ended up having a competition between two teams and was really fun. Now most of us are back in studio tryna get our work done! Although we do have a lot of work it is necessary to take a break and have some fun every now and then. Tomorrow I am also taking a day trip to Brighton which will be fun.

Last friday we went to Bath, which was fun but we had really terrible weather - rainy - so we didnt get to see the "beautiful" Bath that everyone talks about. But we did get to see the Roman baths, which were pretty cool. We had these audio guides with explanations including an option to hear audio from Bill Bryson which I thought was pretty cool (and I thought Dad might enjoy that). We only had a few hours but we enjoyed just walking around checking everything out. 

Another nice thing I did recently was go to the symphony with my art history class. I guess it was to see the modern architecture of the Royal Festival Hall but seeing a performance was fun too. My professor, Norman, is ridiculously old and a complete character and most of the time really embarrassing but he wanted to buy us all ice cream which was really cute. 

So I'm looking forward to this next week - finishing up projects and school, maybe seeing a ballet or musical with my friend Sarah, and enjoying my final 5 days of freedom in London. There are a lot of things I want to do - markets, museums I haven't been to, walking around and checking out pubs/bars we never made it to during the semester. Its a bittersweet ending, I'm definitely ready to go home and be back in my comfort circle and not have to deal with public transportation and a musty flat but I will miss a lot of things. Its been really fun hanging out here and getting to know people I only slightly knew before. Next year will be fun when all the design majors are moving into the Warehouse and we'll actually see each other. 

Ok! Back to work.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! 

Well Easter monday at least.. I went on a mission today

 to try to find a chocolate bunny (for half the price of course) but it seems as though they don't really exist here - all I've seen are giant hollow chocolate eggs. I decided that would not do so I went to about 5 stores today to find a bunny. Unfortunately, I didn't find any so I found the next best thing - a chocolate teddy bear (it's just not the

 same eating hollow chocolate if it doesn't have a face). The packaging is clearly designed for someone under preschool age but I don't care it tastes good!

Otherwise today I slept in, took a walk to the big Sainsbury to do some food shopping - it was nice to get some fresh air - and then I went around the corner to the Troubador cafe (pretty cool place - check out the website troubador.co.uk - famous people used to play there before they got famous) where I got a pot of tea and was able to get access to the internet. I just needed a change of scenery from my stuffy apartment and I needed table space so it was great to spend a couple hours there. 

Had a pretty exciting weekend though, went on a Preseli Venture trip in Wales where for 2 nights me and 7 other Syracuse students (along with various of other groups) stayed in an Eco-lodge which had dorm-style rooms, a bar, living/dining area, woodstove and outdoor fire pit. Coffee, tea (and biscuits), juice and water

 were always available for free and we were served all of our meals which were really really good. 

We got to the lodge around 6:30 friday night after taking a train from London earlier that afternoon and after moving into our room (me and my roommate Jenni snagged a loft) we were served a hearty meal of vegetable lasagna and bread. After that we hung around the living room playing Jenga, p

ictionary, and card games. There was a stag party there, which was pretty amusing because they had ridiculous games and every now and then we'd look over at them and one would be wearing

 a costume, another one without a chair, and another one standing outside with minimal clothing. We also met a bunch of kids also studying abroad in London. 

Saturday morning we got up around 8:15, had a breakfast of hard boiled eggs, crumpets and toast, cereal, and baked beans and then we split off into our adventure activities. I did sea kayaking with a couple other people from SU while the others did surfing. Sea kayaking was really fun - we got suited up in wet suits and helmets (see picture!) and learned how to secure 

ourselves in the kayak with a skirt before loading up the bus and heading down to the water. Once afloat, we paddled around various rock formations and

 went through a couple swells - 3 people capsized but thankfully I was not one of them! It was really fun though, we had really nice weather and the views were amazing. After a couple hours we headed back for a really good lunch of veg

etable potato soup and bread. 

In the afternoon all 8 of us from SU set off on a self-guided 7 mile coastal hike. We got dropped off at a particular location and then basically 

followed the coast back to the lodge. That was really awesome because we were basically walked across hills, nothing too intense, and occasionally we'd walk through sheep fields (apparently it's not illegal in the UK? they have special fence doors so people can walk through but sheep cant get out). We were right on the edge of cliffs so we had great views of the landscape. (everyone from SU in the pic to the left!)

After a couple hours and couple sheep fields later we made it back to the lodge early enough to shower before dinner, which was chicken curry and very good. Desert was a cheesecake/creamy pie of some sort with jellied berries on top...  yumm. After dinner we hung around, hit up the bar and they made a bonfire outside so we were all able to enjoy that. It was a really nice night, I was in a sweatshirt and was comfortable, and there were lots and lots of stars. After a while we headed inside where there was a woodstove which made us sleepy... so we headed to bed not too late. 

The next morning we had breakfast and then got suited up to go coasteering! Coasteering involves swimming, climbing rocks and then jumping off them! We wore wet suits, additional shorts and vests for extra warmth, socks, sneakers, gloves, life vests and helmets. It must have been a funny site - there were other people on the beach - watching 10 people in wet suit gear striding into the water and awkwardly trying to climb over slimy rocks while not letting the current take you away. It felt like we were on a secret mission and were trying to sneak through the water. It was really fun though, and once we got in we started to swim around the coast and stopped at various rock formations. We started off small - first 5 ft jumps and some small climbs and then onto bigger jumps. I think the highest jump I did was about 12 ft - pretty good, considering I had a hard time jumping off the tower at camp. But it's really hard to do all the swimming and climbing and then not jump off - it's a really strange thing to be in all this gear and a helmet and jumping into turquoise water. Along the way our instructors talked about various birds and where the seals come to lay their pups. We also swam into a little cave opening that is open or closed depending on the tide. It's really cool to be inside a rock and hear the waves crashing and feel the current drag you along. After swimming and jumping we got out of the water and climbed up a big hill that connected to a bath that lead us back to the beach where we started. Again, I think we started 2 hikers who saw us soaking wet in all our gear walking along a field. But all in all it was really fun and something I would never have done on my own!

After lunch (jacket potatoes, corn, cheese, coleslaw, salad..) we packed everything up and enjoyed about an hour of sitting outside before we were dropped off at the TINY train station and began our 7 hour journey home!

And now, back to reality, as I just realized I have 2 projects due next Wednesday....

Roma and Firenze

March 27-29: The adventures began thursday night when my 2 roommates, my friend from interior design, and I decided to not go to bed because we were leaving at 2am to catch a night bus to catch a shuttle bus to the airport. Needless to say I felt asleep right away on the hr and a half shuttle to the airport. We took an early flight to Rome and got in around 10 and then took a bus to the main city bus station. Our hostel wasn't far away and we were able to walk there in about 15 min. When we got there we first thought we were in the wrong place - the reception, covered in marble and nice wooden furniture, was way to nice for the 12 euro a night we paid! But it turns out that it is both a hostel and 3 star hotel. 

Since we only had a day and a half in Rome, we wanted to do as much as we could the first day. After getting pizza (of course) we decided to head over to the Colosseum first, which was really cool, and we paid to get inside which was a little pricey but worth it. (me and my interiors friend to the left)With our ticket we also got into this huge park that has tons of Roman ruins, including this strange cat cemetery which at first just looks like ruins and then you start to notice 1, 2, 5, 10 and more cats hanging around. We saw very little because it was so big, but we had a nice time outside and got some great views. 

From there we continued to walk around and saw the other main sites: Trevi Fountain (we threw in pennies backwards), sat on the Spanish Steps (apparently that's the thing to do), walked by the gigantic Victor Emmanuel monument, and we went to the Pantheon but couldnt go inside because there was some type of service happening. So instead we got gelato! First I tried Macedonia, which was like a fruit mix, and Zuppa de Inglese which kind of tasted like eggnog. By this point we were pretty tired so we headed back to the hostel to change for the night. We had gotten a bunch of flyers for pub crawls at the Colosseum so we decided to do one of those. We got dinner (gnocchi) and then headed back over to the Colosseum. The pub crawl was fun, we met some students from the US (Minnesota I think?) as well as these 2 girls in the Airforce! We also had to take a bus to the second bar, and we found out that paying for public transportation in Rome is optional, you can just get on and get off wherever. So of course we did that without feeling too bad, as they say "when in Rome..."

The next day we headed over to the Vatican. When we got to St. Peters, the line was hundreds and hundreds of people long, wrapping around the whole inner pavilion. St. Peters is free, but you have to spend hours waiting in line to get in. We wanted to go but simply didn't have the time, so I suggested we just walk around the Vatican walls to see if there was anything else interesting. Luckily, we stumbled upon the entrance to the Vatican Museums and Sistine chapel, which we didn't know had a separate entrance, and  there was no line so we went right in and the ticket man was very nice and gave us a student discount (most of the tourist attractions in Italy only give student discounts to those in the EU). There is a nice big courtyard right before the entrance after you pay and there are rooms literally full of old sculptures of busts and heads. You walk through room after room of sculpture, paintings, some old some modern, some rooms are very lavish with painted ceilings, and the floors are beautiful marble patterns. I really liked walking through all of the rooms, but some of my roommates didn't appreciate it so much so they were constantly waiting for me. 

After a while we finally got to the Sistine chapel which was smaller and much dimmer than I thought, but still pretty amazing. People fill the room, all looking up (I would love to see a picture from above of everyone looking up) and there are various guards standing around to make sure you don't take pictures (of course I did - but you have to be discreet and I just kept hoping I was aiming in the right direction). It felt like a place I could spend hours just looking up, but we were on a time schedule and people were getting antsy so we left. From there we decided to head over to Campo Dei Fiori which is an outdoor market. We grabbed slices of pizza and of course, more gelato (this time I had nutella and straciotella (spelling?) which was a really good compination). We walked around the market which had vegetables, fruits, spices, pastas, flowers, pestos which we got to sample (so so good) and wine/spirits we could also sample - basically anything you wanted was there. It was around 2pm so we had to run back to our hostel to catch a 3:00 train.

We took the train to Florence where we met up with my old roommate Kate who is studing there. Unfortunately it was raining, and continued to rain the WHOLE time we were in Florence (see me and Kate, left), but having Kate there made it all better. She took us around to see some of the sites, including the Duomo which is absolutely beautiful - the colors are amazing and the patterns are great. I really liked it, but we werent able to stay inside. We walked along the water and down the little streets, and saw some more important buildings but I honestly can't remember what they were - it's really weird seeing a city for the first time in the rain. After a while we got hungry so she took us to this great restaurant called Yellow Bar. Apparently they have 2 seatings in Florence - one around 6 or 7, another around 8 or 9. We got in early and got a table right away. I tried a spicy spaghetti with homemade pasta, which was really good. (Oh, chicken was hard to find in Italy - when I asked for it in Rome they said they had a grilled chicken dish and when I asked what came with it they just looked at me and said it's just plain chicken - so not worth 10 euro). It wasn't a huge portion but it was just right - I noticed that I subconsciously slowed down my eating and enjoyed all of it, and it filled me up. From there, we were pretty tired and we didn't feel like checking out the nightlife, which is limited according to Kate so what else to do but... eat more gelato! She took us to a place that I thought had the best gelato where I tried chocolate orange which was really good. 

The next day we met up with Kate early to go see the David. It was at this point, when I pulled out my wallet to pay, that I realized the £40 and €50 I had were gone. I was completely shocked and had no idea what happened - but we thought it might have been the girl we met who was traveling by herself and checked out before we were even awake. So that kind of sucked, but everyone was surpised how calm I was, but there was nothing I could do so I didn't want to dwell on it. From then on I felt like I shouldn't spend any money which kind of put a damper on the experience, but I was able to take out more cash and just keep going. So we finally got into the David which was cool - it's very big and just as amazing in real life. Again, pictures were illegal but I was going to take them anyway - until my camera died right as I was about to take a picture. But I walked around it a couple times and just enjoyed it without a camera. There are several other rooms in the museum which we walked through, but clearly the main attraction is David. After grabbing a quick pizza and pasta lunch we walked through one of the main markets and did some haggling. There are lots of stands and you're supposed to talk them down. Good thing Kate was there to help us out. After that we took a bus up to a place which I think is called San Michelangelo? or maybe Santa ? Not sure but it's a place on a hill that has an amazing view of the city - so we heard, but it was still pouring and hazy out so all we saw pretty much was... white. So I'm sure Florence is beautiful but I haven't really seen it! After that we were feeling pretty wet and hungry so we found a restaurant where I tried this Florentine dish that is basically like a minestrone soup, without the beans, with bread in it. It kind of looks like mush but it tasted pretty good. 

By this point it was almost 6 so we headed back to the hostel to grab our stuff. We caught a shuttle bus to the airport and made it back to London by midnight  and back to our flat by 1:30am. 

It's Been a While... Kates Visit and Spring Break

So it's been a while since my last blog - whoops! It's crazy how caught up one can get in everything that's happening. After my weekend in Berlin my roommate from Syracuse (who is studying in Florence) came to visit London. That was fun - I took her around to the touristy sites including the changing of the guard, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and Parliament, and we walked around the Thames. Friday night some of my design friends had a potluck so we brought a fruit and cheese platter over and had a good time hanging out with everyone before we headed out to a club in the trendy and slightly alternative Shoreditch area. Saturday we checked out Borough Market which is an outdoor market with tons of food vendors selling anything you can imagine - fresh meats, cheese, dried fruits and nuts, candy, fruit and vegetables, as well as prepared foods from all ethnicities. After sampling from several of the vendors she tried fish and chips and I got a falafel. 

The next two weeks went by pretty fast, I can barely remember what I did! My school had discount tickets to a football game one night so me and my roommates took advantage and ended up having seats pretty close up to the field - Fulham vs. Hull City. 

After that we had another week of classes before spring break. Classes ended wednesday but we didn't leave until Sunday so I had a couple days to relax and get ready for the next week. The weather was really nice so on the night before we left we sat outside in our little "garden" and just relaxed. 

On Sunday my roommate Jenni and I left for our trip to Croatia and Montenegro. We first went to Dubrovnik, Croatia which is one of the Dalmatia Islands. Even though it was their "winter" and offseason, it was still really beautiful and the weather was a comfortable 50-60 degrees. We stayed in a fabulous guest house that I found online - this older woman, Anka, had about 4 rooms in her small "house" right inside the old city. For about 20 bucks a night, about the same as a hostel, Jenni and I shared room with a queen sized bed, private bathroom with towels and hair dryer, tv, adjustable heat, and we access to a small kitchenette that had tea, coffee, milk, biscuits, and cookies. They were so welcoming and laid back - they didn't want payment until the day we left and they even let us keep the keys for our room and the house for whenever we decided to come back from Montenegro. We mostly interacted with Anka's 32 yr old niece who splits her time between Australia and Croatia. We had a good time talking to her and she took us out one night to experience the nightlife which was a little limited since it was off season. She said there was only really 1 place to go that night to get the real Croatian experience and kept describing it as "ethnic" which we didn't understand at first.  Once we got there we realized that the music was all Croatian sang by a little man with a microphone and the bar was extremely tiny, but it ended up being really fun despite the fact that people just couldn't understand that we didn't speak their language! 

Over the couple days we stayed in Croatia we spent a lot of time walking around checking out the old city which is basically a fortress with really high walls that we were able to walk on. We spent about 2 hours walking the walls and got great views of the city and water surrounding it. We also met several English speaking people up there. We also walked outside of the old city and checked out the surrounding town. We also found a wooded park area and also walked along these rocks on a cliff. 

Since we only booked 2 nights at the guesthouse we decided to pick up and take a 2.5 hr bus to Budva, Montenegro. We got there and had absolutely no plans so we had to ask a tourist office about where to stay and ended up with this lady who spoke absolutely NO english whatsoever! The first few minutes were very amusing and frustrating - we could understand that 1 night was 15 euro a night each and 2 nights would be 10 euro a night each, but we could get her to understand that we were going to stay one night maybe two. After each of us speaking our own languages repeatedly louder and slower (as if that were going to help...) and various hand motions, she bursted out laughing and ended up calling her friend whose 12 year old boy helped us translate. 

After we got our sleeping situation figured out, we decided to check out the city. We had a map and stopped to ask someone for directions by pointing to the map, but it just so happened that the person we stopped spoke English! Turns out he was a soccer player who was originally from Nigeria and used to play for Italy but just got moved to Montenegro. His teammate who was also there was from Serbia and spoke Serbian and a little bit of Italian but no English, so we had a fun time trying to communicate between all four of us. We found this restaurant that had tables right by the water and it was a great day out so we spent a while there. Later that night we had a really good dinner at a restaurant right by the water. Again, it was there offseason, so it was even more desolate than Croatia but still an interesting experience. We walked around the city and realized that it was definitely not as well off and that their lifestyle was totally different. We couldn't figure out why we only saw women working at the supermarkets and quick shops and saw men sitting around drinking coffee all day, and we later figured out that after the war (Montenegro split from Yugoslavia relatively recently) men had to sell their farms and so have nothing else to do! Also, their views on woman are very different - apparently they are viewed as only useful to have kids and so they all have kids young. Great. After staying for two nights (it pretty much rained our whole second day... we spent a lot of time in supermarkets looking at all their weird food) we were ready to go back to Croatia. Still, the 2.5 hr bus ride was worth it because the views were AMAZING. There were no bridges or anything so we literally drove on the side of a cliff around the island and had beautiful views of ports, towns, the ocean, and even snow capped mountains. 

Back in Dubrovnik we had really great weather and at one point laid out on these rocks by the water and got some sun for a couple hours. It was still in only the 60s but there were some older locals swimming getting their laps in. On our last day we bought some handmade lace and embroidery from these old ladies that we kept seeing during the week. Overall our time their was really relaxing and we spent a lot of time walking around and enjoying the weather but we also enjoyed laying around our room and taking naps and catching up on sleep. 

Pictures will be up soon! You will die when you see them!

Berlin: Cold Weather, Strange Streets, Great History!

*Pictures of Berlin soon to be posted!* I took almost 300 so bear with me...

Ok so Berlin! I took an excruciatingly early flight at 6:30am (that mean waking up at 2am people...) with my friend Brandon, who is a 4th year industrial design major. We were taking an early flight thursday morning and the other 4 girls who had classes that day were meeting up with us that night. However, they never made it - apparently it "snowed" (and I put that in quotes because we all know snow here is not actually snow) and all flights were cancelled. So, though we were sad our friends couldn't make it, we still had a good time!

First: we got to our hostel and at first we were scared - lets just say that one of the first streets we walked on was called "Karl Marx Allee" and it looked like we were back in communist time. Apparently our hostel was out in East Berlin, where not much is going on, but we didn't know that and we thought Berlin was a wasteland. But anyways - we got there in the afternoon and decided to explore a little, so after strolling down Karl Marx Allee we kept walking and somehow ended up closer to the actual city. We got lunch at a restaurant that had English menu's! It took us a couple tries to find one, but we did and had a pretty good lunch. We ended up accidently finding "Museum Island," the Berlin Dom (a cathedral) and we also were on the street the Brandenburg Tor was on - though we didn't know that at the time. It was pretty cold, and was flurrying - just like being back in Syracuse, actually. Later that night we wandered around and ended up finding this really little pub/bar which was basically a basement and the furniture was a mismatch of kitchen chairs and those wooden spool things for tables. Pretty cool place though, definitely had a "German" feel complete with an old grandpa figure as the bartender. We ended up talking to two students from Norway who were in Berlin for the film festival (there was this big film festival going on at the time), and they absolutely loved the fact we were from America! It's strange to imagine being so obsessed and knowledgeable about a foreign culture, yet that's what these people were. We were tired and didn't know how long the S-bahn (tube/subway) ran, so we headed back not too late.

The next day we were more prepared for the cold as well as exploring. We heard there were some free tours that were supposed to be good so we ended up taking one with Natasha, a girl in her mid-late 20s from Scotland, who led us around the main areas of Berlin for almost 4 hours. We started off at the Brandenburg Tor, talked about the Reichstag building (parliament), walked through the Holocaust memorial, saw where Hitler had his underground barracks (and where he committed suicide) and then headed over to the Berlin Wall. From there was saw old communist buildings, Checkpoint Charlie, Museum Island, the Berlin Dom, the site of the book burnings of 1933, and so much more I can't even remember it all! Midway our tour stopped at a really great cafe where I got a chicken sandwich and a sweet cheese strudel which was SO good - it was served with a tiny scoop of ice cream which made the combination soo good. 

After the tour we decided to find the Sony Center and then make our way to the Bauhaus Museum (we are designers after all...) and along the way stumbled upon a Mies van der Rohe building which was really cool. Oh and at one point I literally almost got run over by a biker. On the sidewalk there is a strip for bikers and it's easy to forget it's there.... 

Oh another thing - Berlin is not like most cities where you feel surrounded by skyscrapers and everything is congested. Instead, the sidewalks are sometimes over 10ft wide, and the skyline is not necessarily crammed with buildings. 

After that we went back to the hostel and grabbed a quick pizza nearby. The company that we took the free tour also offered a pub crawl, so we decided to do that Friday night. For 11 euros we got entrance to 4 bars and 1 club, plus an all-you-can-drink keg for the first 45 minutes. We ended up meeting 3 American students studying in Rome, so that was cool to have some friends to hang out with. The pub crawl was kind of ridiculous - I felt like I was a camper back at camp because we had leaders with backpacks that herded us around the city. But still fun. The first pub we met at was very alternative - graffiti all over the walls, loud music. Next one was smaller and nicer, but crowded. The third one was different - dark cement interior with various cement rooms for dancing.. def not something we would have in the US. Last one was more of a lounge. Oh and they love disco balls! Several of the pubs and the club had them! Last stop was a club which was actually interesting - the S-bahn runs above ground and therefore sometimes runs on a bridge overland. This club was underneath the tracks - seems to be a pretty common thing there, which I guess makes space - might as well use the space for something. It was very club like, but European, which is strange because they dance very strange it's kind of funny. So it was fun to jump around for a while but again we didn't want to stay out too late because we wanted to make the most of our last day.

Saturday: We got up around 9am and decided to go to Potsdam for the day (we did not originally plan this, but our tour guide Natasha said it was like the Versailles of Berlin... so we had to). It was about an hour outside of the city so we hopped on the S-bahn (oh another thing - apparently the whole subway system is an honor system - there's no barriers or doors that you have to swipe a tube card to get in. You can buy a ticket from machines on the platform and then validate it right there. So we bought one the first day and then when we realized there was no security we didn't the second day. hey we're students on a budget.....) 

But anyways, we get to Potsdam and again are a little scared. Berlin needs to work on their impressions. But as we walked further into the little town we decided we really liked it. There are several large architectural buildings that were under construction, but further in there are cute little streets with lots of shops and food places. We ended up going to this really great cafe for lunch - though there was no English menu we figured we couldn't get in too much trouble so we tried it out. Unfortunately, what we pointed to was breakfast not lunch, but luckily the waitress could speak limited English. She said the words chicken soup and we were both sold - it was cold out yet again. The soup was absolutely AMAZING - more like a stew, with chicken, vegetables, potatoes, and lots of spices including paprika. I also got a really great cappuccino. We both were so happy - it was the best meal of the whole trip! 

Further into the little town, we ended up stumbling upon these gates that ended up leading into Frederick the Great's summer estate. Basically, it was a lot of woods and unpaved roads and there were amazing buildings at every corner. We saw some of his palaces, an old working windmill, churches, gardens, fountains, ruins, literally it just kept going and going and going.... indescribable but I will put my pictures up. It was really great to get outside of a city context and just walk around in semi-nature. 

After a long but fulfilling day of walking around, we headed back to Hackescher Markt (a lively place with pubs and restaurants etc) for dinner, and then headed over to the Reichstag (parliament) because we wanted to go inside. Basically, the old building had a fire and then was partially rebuild by a FAMOUS UK architect, Norman Foster, who designed this modern glass dome to fit inside the old architecture. Inside, there are spiraling ramps that bring you up to the top. Along the way you have a great view of the whole city, and it was designed over where the governmental people meet so that they can always look up and realize who is really in charge - the people. The design is hard to explain but I have pictures. Basically, it's always free to go inside so we really wanted to do that because a). Norman Foster is cool and b). we wanted a cool view of the city. We ended up going at night because it was soo busy during the day, but it was still to cool to see the whole city lit up. After we ended up just walking around for a bit searching for dessert but we couldn't find anything we liked. So, with our trip nearing the end, we ended up at a bar in the S-bahn station (really weird, but they have practically malls in their subway stations. and this one had a bar!) because we had yet to try the traditional drink Berliner Weisse which is a beer with a flavor shot - either rasberry or a green shot that apparently lacks a name. It's served in a wide mouth wine glass with a straw - so weird! But tasty. The green shot tastes like angel food cake! Anyway, after our single drink we decided to head back to the hostel so we could get up early for our flight. 

IN CONCLUSION: We did not get a very good impression of Berlin at first (communist land, really cold) but it began growing on us when we found the populated section! It has really great architecture and sculptures and there are so many neat things to come across. It was interesting to be in a country that doesn't speak your language, though a lot of people did speak English. It would be great to go back, though I suggest going in the summer! We kept saying - this would be so pretty in the summer! 

PICTURES

Pictures have finally been uploaded - check them out! And I promise I will soon take more pictures with me in them...

http://community.webshots.com/user/aglackie

England + snow = CHAOS

Our snow day on Monday was great, but school opened again on Tuesday. However, there was still lots of snow and ice everywhere, which wasn't so good considering I didn't have snow boots or anything. Wednesday I went on a field trip to the Tower of London with one of my art history classes led by "Stormin Norman." It was cold and wet, but overall enjoyable. We saw the crown jewels which were amazing! You stand on this moving sidewalk that slowly brings you in front of all the crowns, and it was so beautiful that a bunch of us went back and drooled over them again. We also learned about the White Tower and how it has been used as a prison, palace, armory, etc. 

After that I grabbed lunch with some friends at Itsu, a healthy eatery/Asian food chain that seems to be pretty popular with young working professionals. I had "Detox" soup which was miso soup with tofu, noodles, and veggies. Then I headed over to St. Pauls cathedral where we were meeting for my design history class. We didn't go into St. Pauls but we walked all around the area and saw some old architecture as well as new architecture such as the Gherkin Building and the Lloyds Building. We also stopped into the oldest pub in London - apparenly it's not abnormal for classes to end up at a pub? - but by that point I was so cold and wet that it was hard to retain anything he was saying and I just wanted to go home. 

Later that my roommates and I went down to Leicester Sq, a popular place for going out, and ended up at this little tapas bar that was not quite a pub but more like a quiet bar. The interior was cool with dark wood tables and ornate details in the architecture, and it was a great place to just hang out for a while. 

Thursday I slept in a little, worked on some homework, and then went on a Jack the Ripper tour, led by an ex-policeman and expert on the Jack the Ripper. It was an evening tour to add to the drama, and we were brought to the places where the 5 victims were murdered/where there bodies were found. Really gross and creepy! We also walked around the area where the movie about Jack the Ripper ("From Hell") was supposed to be set (it was actually filmed somewhere outside of the UK). The whole story is pretty crazy - how people saw the killer and his victims when they were alive but no one saw them leave or heard screams. It was also interesting learning about the two police corps who patrolled London and how their was an invisible boundary between the two territories, which was influential in how Jack the Ripper got away with so much. The tour was fun, though I am glad I don't have to do it again! 

Friday my friend Sarah and I went to Covent Garden, about 20 min away from my flat but only 5 from school, to take a dance class at Pineapple Dance. They have about 12 studios (!) and tons of classes to pick from every day of the week at all levels. You pay a membership fee - a day, week, month, 3 month, or year - and they pay for each class as you go. We took an all-level jazz class to get back into dance again and it was really fun! The studios are small and there isn't much space, but it has a city studio feel. It's definitely something I would like to do once a week or so, especially since it's so close to school and everyone there is a local. After class we walked around the area and stopped into a Cafe Nero, which is kind of like a Starbucks but not as expensive, to get cappuccinos and croissants. After that Sarah and I split up and I headed down to Oxford Circus, a main street for shopping, to check out the area. I ended up finding a cool pair of wine colored skinny jeans for £9! They also had a student discount which was great. My mission to become more British is slowly coming along!

So far today has been nice - got up around 9:30 and headed to South Kensington, 2 tube stops away, to check out a farmers market I saw an advertisement for. It was on a small street and wasn't a huge market but had a stand for meats, seafood, eggs, vegetables, bread, and some fruits. I picked up an assorted bag of about 10 apples and a bag of mixed greens for £1.50 total. I would definitely go back to get some eggs and fresh bread but I didn't want to carry a ton of stuff home. From there I wandered around the area, turning streets wherever I felt like it. It's a really nice area that's residential but also has really nice restaurants and more high end shops. I stopped into a couple furniture/homey shops and then all of a sudden I was in front of Harrods! So I walked in there for a couple minutes but that place is crazy - you need time to wander around and check it all out - I had already been walking around for over an hr so I didn't stay there long. It was cold this morning but turned out to be a nice day with blue(ish) skies and not very windy. Now I'm going to work on some homework before going out to dinner with some friends. 

Feel free to leave some comments and check out the pics!