ill.

The past few days I have been nursing a completely wicked sinus infection that has left the right side of my face in miserable pain and my nose looking something like a coked-out Rudolph. Obviously, this has been an incredibly pleasant experience.

However, in order to reduce myself from feeling entirely useless, I have still tried to be a little bit out and about these past few days, or at least as much as I could.

Thursday was my first day at my internship. Obviously, my charming coughing/sneezing/noseblowing from 10-6 made a completely wonderful first impression. Regardless, everyone was really nice (one of my co-workers even gave me a sachet of cold medicine tea that I think helped a little bit) and I like the job a lot. I'm working for Traffic Marketing, which is a music marketing firm that also plans this huge music festival in May called the Camden Crawl. It's really nice because there are only five or so people who work there so even on my first day they let me have a decent amount of responsibility. There will be more details about this as they come but for now I think I will really like working there and it will be a good opportunity for me.

Friday was what I will call Lazy Friday. In the morning, we went to this place called Asda. Asda is Wal-Mart's British offshoot that is more of a grocery store but still has a lot of the cheap things that make Wal-Mart so wonderful. Sarah, Keetin, Jason, Nick, Mallory, and I went, and we all got LOTS of stuff (my things ranging from school supplies to alcohol to food to a duvet cover to use as a mattress pad to candy that comes with a hippo toy...come on, did you really expect me to resist that). While paying, everyone got in the same line, I figured to maximize productivity I would choose another line that had nobody in it. I got in this line only to realize that the one woman paying had the entire conveyor belt covered (two feet high, I might add) and she also had an overflowing basket of goods after it. At this point, my energy, strength, and patience were dwindling so I was moderately to extremely annoyed while I waited for her food-pantry-worth of goods to be checked out and paid for. Then, we got to ride on an escalator that was designed for people AND their carts (so exciting). But after that we had to carry our things back to the bus stop. My lack of energy caused by being sick was making me move at a depressed snail's pace, and when we finally got home I resolved that I would hang out in bed for a while at least. Keetin cooked us dinner later, and while everyone got ready to go out for the night, I sadly retreated to my bed to watch V for Vendetta, an episode of Community, and read 50 pages of a book before calling it a night.

Saturday morning I knew something was up because the sun was shining through my blinds. I assure you, the rumors about London's weather are absolutely true, and even though the rain doesn't get to me like it does at home (probably because I'm still doing cool stuff even in spite of the rain), it is nonetheless completely thrilling when we have a day of sun. I took a hot shower, hoping the steam would clear my sinuses a bit, took a Zyrtec D and some tylenol, and decided that I would make the most out of the 12 hours of sleep I had and spend the day outside. Sarah, Keetin, Mallory, Jason, and I decided to go to Portobello Road Market in Notting Hill. This market is HUGE and literally spans for miles and miles. I didn't buy anything (tear...) but there were lots of cool things from antiques to clothes to food and I will definitely be going back in the near future (Mom, you would've really liked this even though there were a lot of people there). Also, I bumped into Eliza Richman there (a friend from Chi O) in the middle of millions of people, which was too weird, but always nice to see a familiar face. After we walked what felt like 8 miles, we found a different tube station to get us home. Unfortunately, the Circle Line which would've taken us straight home wasn't running, so we had to take 5 different trains to get home, where we decided that the best route would be to forego the 15 minute walk home and just take the bus. It was a great decision.

Anyway, I got a good night's sleep again yesterday and my face isn't throbbing quite so much. Plus, the sun is shining (again...unheard of!) So I am going to get dressed for the morning and start adventuring for the day. Sarah and I are going to meet her friend Fiona and possibly do some shopping which should be fun. I'll write more later, just figured I'd fill you in on a little bit now. love from overseas xx

sister act, sightseeing, scotland, and st. paul's

I'll start off once again by apologizing for my lack of recent posts. I wish I could explain how being in London has redefined the word 'exhaustion', but I think the only real way to explain is just to say that I've been having to wake up early to fit in showers, literally, that's how strapped for time I have been.

Anyway, I'll drag this post back to last Wednesday. Sarah, Keetin, Madison, Christine, and I went to see Sister Act (the play, not the movie) in Oxford Circus. The play was really cute and relatively cheap (it kind of reminded me of dreamgirls...obviously a good thing), and it was fun to have a girls night. Thursday was my first free day so Sarah and I went to the Tower of London. We went on a free tour (coincidentally, our tour guide's last name was also Callahan), and it was interesting and entertaining. All tours may be like this, but tour guides here have a tendency to speak too quietly. This guy had a thunder-boom of a voice, so I had no trouble comprehending what he had to say. I've always found Henry the Eighth interesting, and there was a lot of information about him and his various conquests, so I was entertained. Plus, we got to see the crown jewels which are just ridiculous, and some other cool things like some graffiti that was left there from prisoners hundreds of years ago. We had a lot of fun playing tourists (it's weird...some days I feel like a total tourist, others I feel like I'm a native.)

Thursday night me, Christine, and some other girls took the MegaBus (pronounced by the Scottish as Meh-guh-boooose) to Edinburgh, Scotland. The bus left London at 11:30 PM and got in to Edinburgh at about 8:30 AM. Thankfully, I was able to sleep for most of the bus ride (I was the only one), but my body was aching when we arrived in Edinburgh. We checked into the hostel but they wouldn't give us our room yet so we found a common room with couches and crashed there for a few hours. We were meeting a bunch of our guy friends, who weren't awake yet...plus, it was really early in the morning so we didn't feel the need to start sightseeing just yet. Once everyone got moving, we wandered around the streets of Edinburgh on the Royal Mile, which is a mile stretch from the castle (right by our hostel) to the palace. Kevin, Christine, Brett, Dolan, and I broke off from the larger group and had lunch at a pub. We walked down the Royal Mile and then up a hill with beautiful views of the city. We walked through an old cemetery and stopped at a pub at the bottom of the hill. Dolan suggested a beer called Fruli, we all got it and it legitimately tasted like a strawberry smoothie. By the time we left the pub the sun was already setting so we headed back and met up with the larger group at another pub to grab dinner. We went back to the hostel after dinner and got settled, changed our clothes and stuff. Me and Christine were in a gigantic room with only one other girl, and the hostel was fun and pretty nice for what I had imagined a hostel to be (nothing like the horror movie of the same name). That night we went to a club where they played good music but wouldn't let you dance if you had a drink in your hand, which I found strange but it was okay. I left early and hung out at the hostel, Dolan brought back amazing noodles from a nearby late-night restaurant and I honed in on those before going to bed.

The next day we all went to get breakfast (Christine and I accidentally checked out of the hostel late...nobody told us that the check out time was 10:30...woops). I ordered (but shared with everyone) a nutella waffle which was literally one of the most outstanding things I've ever eaten. Then we went to the Scotch Whisky experience, which was Scotland's attempt to unite theme parks and alcohol. It started off with a Haunted Mansion-esque ride through the whisky creation process. Then it had a lecture about whisky, a tasting, and a tour of the world's largest private scotch whisky collection. It was definitely interesting, but it was also clear that some of the boys got a much bigger kick out of it than us girls. I mostly found it to be amusing. Informative, yes, but then again I think whisky is disgusting so I guess it's just more random knowledge to add to my arsenal.

The rest of the day was spent wandering around Edinburgh. Some people hung out at the hostel, while Dolan and I decided to go explore some more (I didn't feel like wasting my last hours there sitting...especially with a nine-hour bus ride ahead). We found some more back-street shops and stuff which was fun. Eventually we all re-boarded the bus which was far more treacherous than the first time because apparently the heat on the bus was broken and it was FREEZING (when I asked the bus driver very kindly if he could turn up the heat please he literally BARKED at me and said no. rude). Luckily, we got back at 7 on Sunday morning and I had nothing to do but sleep until noon. Later, Sarah and I attempted to conquer the dorm's laundry facility only to battle with the dryer which kept malfunctioning leaving our clothes soaked for hours. Good times.

Monday I had class from 10 until 5 and then Jason made me pasta for dinner. After dinner, we went with his friends Nick and Mallory to Leicester Square to explore some of the pubs over in that area. This morning I had no class and my internship doesn't start until Thursday so I woke up early to go to St. Paul's Cathedral with Jason. The cathedral itself was beautiful and we decided to walk up all 528 steps to the top of the dome to see the views of London from the top. It was relatively sunny out, and although the journey up was rough and my body is currently in shambles a little bit, it was definitely worth it. After St. Paul's, he had to go to class, so I went to the Tate Modern to walk around for a little bit. I was both sleepy and physically tired though, so once I got to the video installation of a man laughing maniacally wearing a clown mask and wagging his penis around, I decided I'd had enough modern art for the day and would have to come back another time. I took the tube home and grabbed lunch, watched a movie for class, and then took a nap. After which, I made myself dinner, and then hung out and now here I am.

Once again, I promise to get better at posting, I've just literally been drained and having no spare time. Hopefully once I get more into a routine I'll be able to set time for blogging or something? I start my internship Thursday which I'm looking forward to, and then this weekend I think Sarah and I and whoever else are going to take a daytrip to Oxford just to explore. I'll let you know how it goes :)

ice castles

It's been a busy few days here, between classes and day trips and general exploring, it's been difficult to get time to do much on my own. I'm definitely enjoying myself, but if I said I wasn't a bit exhausted, I'd be kidding myself.

Sunday we went to Windsor Castle. Brian, our tour guide, instructed us that this is the Queen's favorite castle, but she was on vacation so we didn't get to schmooze. We did see Queen Mary's dollhouses and the castle itself is absolutely gorgeous, but the state apartments and chapel were closed so it could definitely have been more exciting. The really positive part of the trip was that the sun was shining for the first and only time so far. I thought it would be depressing to be in a cloudy place all the time but the city is so cool that I'm barely fazed by the haze (muahaha). Windsor in itself was such a cute town and it was a lot of fun to go there and see.

Monday was the first day of class, which I'll get into later,  but IES had an event where they took us to the Icebar in London. It's just like it sounds, a bar made entirely of ice. It's -5 degrees in there, the bar is made of ice, the glasses are made of ice, the walls, benches, etc. are all made of ica and they give us these big warm ponchos when you walk in so you don't freeze. Definitely a tourist attraction (very expensive), but worth going to once, and it ended up being a fun night. Yesterday (tuesday) morning I had my internship interviews. I'm still waiting to hear and decide, but they went well. One was in this area called Camden, which I had never been to before but it was really cool, even though it was really early in the morning. I'll have to go back sometime. Then Jason and his friends got here and my friends cooked an amazing Italian dinner for everyone, which was delicious and nice and fun to all eat together like a little family. Then Sarah, who had lost her phone while out for a jog, had to go claim it. Naturally, I went with her and helped her claim it. We had to take quite a tube ride out into Brixton, an area that is literally on the end of the map. It was kind of fun to go on a ridiculous adventure like that. Then we met everyone at a pub (for a change).

Classes started this week. I'm taking British film, British Censorship, British Youth Culture, and London Architecture. I was going to take a class at City University but with the internship and general length of classes I thought it would be waaaay too exhausting. So now I'm taking London Architecture instead. Anyway. Classes here are a lot different, starting with their two-and-a-half-hour length. This is somewhat grueling, but not as bad as I'd expected (so far at least). I'm excited about the subjects too so hopefully that will make the time go by a little bit more quickly. Anyway, I'm sitting in the lab at the IES building writing while I wait for my next class to start. Hopefully it will be tolerable.

Sorry so short, just figured I'd check in quickly because god only knows what my schedule will be for the rest of the week, but hopefully it will calm down a bit after everything is more familiar.

slowly shifting from orientation to real abroad life.

Yesterday we had orientation again which was grueling. During the first presentation my friends, between Dolan passed out face first on the desk, Kevin sitting behind us shaking with laughter at him, and me and Sarah passing notes between each other about how the presenter was sounding more and more like a propagandist (obviously not being able to stop laughing about this...or his front cargo pockets), were apparently disruptive enough that for the second presentation the lady in charge came and sat down with us. Did I mention we were in the first row? Whoops.

The real highlight of the day came when we had a random two-hour break so Keetin, Sarah, and I decided to kill the time at the British Museum, right down the street. The museum was awesome, with so many cool things. I've seen my fair share of museums in my day but never have I actually felt like every single thing was completely fascinating. They had this whole exhibit on life and death around the world, where they had coffins from Ghana which are apparently made to represent what the deceased person did during their life (they had an eagle one and another shaped like a giant camera, plus pictures of more). They also had this giant tapestry that served as the centerpiece for the room, made by some artist using tons of different pills, i think in the hundred thousand range, that was supposed to represent the average amount taken by a Brit during their lifetime. It was really coool.

We didn't have enough time to cover the entire museum but we were able to check out some of the Egyptian stuff. I saw the little hippo figurine that I have two replicas of (both staplers) and reading about everything was so interesting. They had a body that's been dead for thousands of years but was preserved by the sand in Egypt. It still had hair on it, so nuts. We also saw the Rosetta Stone, one of my old-time favorites (hellooo sixth grade social studies project). Overall, I thought the museum was amazing and am so excited that it's less than a block from where I'll be taking classes, so I'll definitely be able to be there a lot in between things and get to really familiarize myself with it.

Last night we went out to a club in the city after pregaming here. Ross Festenstein and Jeff Zohn were in town so they came with. I had underestimated how nice it would be to see familiar faces from home while I was over here, but I was beyond thrilled to spend the evening with them. The club was fun once it got a little more crowded (we tried to get there early to avoid lines, etc.), the DJ was playing a lot of fun music and we were all dancing. I died laughing inside when they started playing Wonderwall by Oasis and everyone in the bar stopped what they were doing to put their arms around each other, sway and sing along (kidding you not). It's fun to go out like that because most of the time (every night but tonight) we just go hang out and have a few drinks at pubs around here, which also close early. Going out in a more Madisonesque setting is fun, plus I always like to change it up a little bit.

Today we went on a bus tour of London. The bus was an hour late because of traffic (pro: got to eat lunch, con: could've slept for another hour) so we couldn't really stop anywhere, but it was still awesome to see the sights. It reminded me how much I still have left to see in the city (I'm so excited!) We were supposed to get a short tour of the British Museum after the bus but I figured I would be there enough, plus it was insanely crowded and I couldn't even hear the tour guide so me and the Kevins went to grab some food and hang out in a nearby pub before hopping a tube home. Tonight I decided to give myself a break and stay in and watch a movie. I was hoping to go to bed early since we're getting up early to go to Windsor tomorrow, but naturally it's 2 a.m. and I'm blogging. Oops. Time to go to bed, since I'm getting up in about 7 hours :-\ goodnight!

vampire weekend on ice

Last night I started to write a post (before deeming myself far too exhausted and quitting) about how me and Sarah had gone grocery shopping and met up with the wisco boys and befriended a ridiculous club owner who gave us free shots of what tasted like cough syrup at this club called zoo. I was also going to write about how we boarded a night bus in chinatown, almost fell up (and down) the stairs of the double decker, and met a bunch of the people in our program who arrived yesterday. I also had my first fish and chips pub experience! But that stuff's boring. You can get the gist that I'm making friends and really enjoying myself without me slaving over every unnecessary detail so I'm going to get into the more important stuff, i.e. today.

Today was a great day.

It started off mediocrely. We had our first round of orientation today, which started at 8:45 am. Yes, this would be 2:45 a.m. Chicago time. ANYWAY. It was raining, and we went on a tour of Chelsea (our borough) that me and Sarah had already given ourselves countless times. The highlights of this part of the trip were spotting a local Vietnamese restaurant called Phat Phuk (think about it for a second) and having my first ever Ben's Cookies experience with Keetin (lifechanging, I tell ya). Overall, this part was boring. We went to the IES Center where we'll be taking classes which is in a cool area called Bloomsbury in a renovated 18th Century townhouse, which was all really cool until it phased into rule reviews and other droning that tended to be a bit boring. We got to go for lunch and then go on a tour of the area, which was also cool.

Here comes the good part, following a brief side note:

I love the band Vampire Weekend. They just released a new album Monday called Contra which is outstanding and they are awesome and fun and great (told you I love them). I'm on their email list because I'm a nerd like that and I got an e-mail yesterday saying they were playing a free show outside of the Somerset House in London. Normally these are the kinds of emails I cry about because nobody ever comes to play free promo shows in Madison. So naturally, I was excited. I spent all of last night and today talking it up to literally everyone I met. It didn't matter whether I knew them or not, I just really wanted to go to the show and wasn't going to go alone. Out of the people I made friends with last night, I was able to recruit 3 (Kevin, Keetin, and Max) to come with me to the show. Along with them were about 20 others from the program (including our Bloomsbury tour guide Sophia...I seriously was making a scene about this show). The major concern was timing. The show was set to start at 5:30, precisely the same time that our orientation was set to end. Luckily, the last part of orientation was just picking up syllabi and eating snacks. wellll fuck snacks, we were out of orientation by 5, hopped a bus, and were over by the Somerset House by 5:15. perrrrrrfect.

When we got there, it was so cool. The building surrounds a giant courtyard on 4 sides (one side is mainly open to walk through), where they set up an ice skating rink in the winter. The band was set up on this balcony (not playing yet) and we figured we would be standing behind the ice rink, which would have been fine. Then we got the great idea...why don't we just pay for skates (12 and a half pounds...roughly 20 bucks, which is expensive for skates but not for a concert) and watch the show from 100 yards closer. Bingo. The four of us bought skates, laced up, and were front row center for an amazing show by an amazing band in an unreal setting. To say that this is why I wanted to come to London is an outrageous understatement, and this was absolutely the perfect way to kick off my semester. Fun people (mostly) free entertainment, it was so great. mmm i'm still buzzing and it ended about 6 hours ago.

Anyway, after the show we explored Leicester Square which was a lot of fun, we saw the members of Blur who were having what appeared to be an album release party, which was at least decently cool (once again, still buzzing from the show. had this happened yesterday it might've been a lot more exciting). We walked through Piccadilly Circus and got on the tube home. The boys and I got dinner at a local Asian place (I'm still burping soy sauce) and then after I got back we went and got drinks at a local pub, I got a cider with black currant which legitimately tastes like juice. outstanding. Then max and I watched 30 rock because apparently we both suffer from insomnia.

To sum up, to say I'm obsessed with every single thing about London (save maybe for the food and the size of my room) is a complete understatement. I'm so excited for the upcoming semester, blaaaaah yay, well I guess that's all for now because my alarm is going off in 5 and a half hours. WOO ORIENTATION. blech.

great day though.

ELLO LONDON (finally here!)

As the title of this post might suggest, I'M IN LONDON! Since I haven't posted for a few days, I'll recap a bit.

Saturday was my last night at home, had friends and family over for dinner which was really nice, but once everyone left i started feeling really overwhelmed. I'd spent so much time feeling nothing but excitement for the trip, but it finally hit me that London and Chicago aren't a two-hour drive apart, and I got real freaked out. Luckily, I've got pals like Jeremy and Krawetz who waited until I was done packing my carry-on, then came over after 3am to watch SNL with Charles Barkley. By the time they left around 4:30, Jer said that the newspaper was on his driveway. I got no more than about 2 hours of sleep, but sometimes that's okay.

I said goodbye to my family and Jason (only for a week) the next morning, and boarded my flight to Raleigh-Durham, where I sat in the obnoxious front row that doesn't let you keep your carry-on within the vicinity. I kept a few magazines close by though and slept for the rest of the time. The Raleigh airport was so pretty and I ate CPK (inspired by Cara and Melissa), and then boarded the plane for London.

We left from North Carolina late, and I sat next to a man named Cyrus who just finished grad school studying national security. I told him I felt safe sitting next to him, and he gave me a piece of Trident. I slept through most of this flight too (Xanax and the lack of sleep from the previous night came in handy). When I got into London I was very overwhelmed. First, I almost faceplanted down the stairs due to the added 40 or so pounds that were in my backpack. Then I realized I left my neck pillow on the plane (woops). Then I got in the wrong line at customs because I followed a huge group of people only to figure out that they were all together on a trip (good one, lex). Got in another line, went through security, and then went to baggage claim. One of my bags came through quickly, the other did not. As I watched the same four bags circle the carousel, I was glad that my mother had strategically split my things up between suitcases, since I was SURE that one was MIA. Luckily, good ol' American Airlines pulled through and I left the airport, both suitcase in hand, after locating my confused car driver. I was supposed to land at 6:55 A.M. and I didn't get back to the dorm until 10:30. Then I walked into my room and burst into tears because it is extremely petite. With my bags in here, I couldn't walk from one end of the room to the other. Luckily, I've got Sarah to a) help me chill out and b) help me figure out how to reorganize my room. Also, my room has a pretty view of the city (I can see the London Eye from my window!!)

(I promise, it goes  uphill from here).

Me and Sarah decided to go do a little exploring and grab some lunch. We walked up King's Road and down and around Fulham Street, both are adjacent to where we live. There are lots of cute shope and restaurants around here (most seem to be very expensive). Then we ended up going for lunch at this little cafe down the street because by that point we were both on the verge of starvation. It was pretty good. We both came home and unpacked, I rested for a little bit, and then we were off on more adventures. We wanted to take the tube to Primark, a store that apparently sold cheap housewares. Sarah went online and plotted directions (with help from a website) and it told us to go to the South Kensington station. We took the bus there even though it was definitely walkable and then walked around that area for an hour or so. Someone even asked us for directions which was exciting since apparently we already appear knowledgeable enough to be shelling out directions. We finally maneuvered back to the tube station and went to our stop, where we assumed it would be a short walk to some Marble Arch, which was right near Primark. About 2 hours later (I kid you not) we arrived at the store, only to find that they were out of hangers and rainboots, two of our main reasons for going there. Oh well, you win some, you lose some. On the way home we decided to forego the walking tour of London and just transferred trains instead. MUCH easier. By the time we got back to the station at South Kensington, we were both completely famished and ate at the first place we saw. Turned out to be horrendous food but we both cleared our plates and enjoyed the MTV-esque video countdown that was on tv, featuring both Lady Gaga and Journey performing "Don't Stop Believin'". We're still not sure what they were counting down.

Anyway, sorry if this is a bit lengthy, but I don't want to skimp on any details, and I figure as long as stuff is new and exciting I should be sharing it with my adoring fans. or not? let me know.  I'm very confused about which day it is and what time it is and whether I should be wide-awake or sleepy (mostly I've been feeling a bizarre combination of both). I guess this just goes away with time. Speaking of which, it's time for me to go change out of the same clothes I've been wearing for 30 or so hours and take a shower. hopefully this goes off without a hitch. This bathroom gives me the creeps though. If anything exciting happens, you'll be the first to know. Well probably Sarah first. But then you guys, definitely.

All my love (even from the other side of the pond!)

packing is the death of me

After countless days of endless errands, things finally started going in suitcases today. First, I will note that this is insanely weird...I've been talking about going abroad for what feels like years (really probably less than one, but just go with it) and it's finally coming. Two more days in the homeland before I start waking up in my TINY room in London. Obviously, this is cause for a shitload of excitement (excuse my French, Grandma), but also anxiety...mostly over packing.

For anyone who knows me very well, you should know that I am one of the world's least efficient packers. I am terrible at it. Every year before I go to school, I essentially clear my closet. All wearable clothes come to school...everything that stays at home pretty much suffers a death sentence (sorry clothes!) ANYWAY....the packing list for London was unsurprisingly meager which I unsurprisingly surpassed after much anxiety and many attempts to eliminate clothes that aren't absolutely imperative to my happiness and well-being while abroad. I brought about a third of the clothes I usually bring to school (yay me!) but still I am overcome with anxiety about fitting my reasonably-packed suitcases into my aforementioned TINY room. Maybe I'll wake up in the morning with a revelation about what I do and do not need to bring. Otherwise, I'll have to keep my fingers crossed and pray that my roommate doesn't need her share of the closet.

Anyway, aside from packing and getting to my dorm in London with all my luggage, I'm feeling surprisingly anxiety-free. I've been craving the UK ever since I was in fourth grade. This was largely in part to my unhealthy addiction to everything Spice Girls, but regardless, when I had to fill out a questionnaire on the first day of school, I wrote that if I could visit anywhere in the world it would be Great Britain (I also wrote that after school I like to have a drink. Seriously. In fourth grade). Needless to say in the 10 years since I was a fourth grader, my motivation for going to London has shifted tremendously (although if I could travel Europe by SpiceBus I most certainly would), but I'm still so excited to be in London and Europe and have this completely new and foreign experience. I guess that's all for now, as mentioned previously, the real excitement is on its way!

8 Days and Counting

I decided to start blogging today, with 8 days left before I board my flight to JFK and then London. There's not too much exciting going on yet, but I'm getting excited to start finalizing plans and getting on my way. Anyway, going to get the computer fixed today and then get some more things for abroad. I promise that more exciting blog posts are on their way, but I figured I would get in the habit of posting, even though now I really have very little to say. Excitement on its way VERY SOON!