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.