Title of post: So today I had the realisation that I have been in London for exactly a month now. INSANE. Def does not feel like it's been a whole month--maybe more like a couple weeks? Where is the time flyingg? so crazy.
Back to post..
Basically life has been crazy. In every sense of the word. I'm still constantly running around, trying to fit everything I want to do in while attempting to maintain my studies and academic obligations at the same time, which has been proven difficult to accomplish. Let's just say, when they say you can only pick two of the three social, studies, sleep I'm def not picking the latter in this case. lols. So a tad sleep deprived? perhaps. But it's fun. I did catch up on some sleep over the weekend, so it isn't quite as bad as it could be. (averaging 4-5 hours a night last week, wahahah I have no idea how I survived. guess I'm getting used to it?) But overall, life is just amazingly amazing and thus life > sleep. And that is where my priorities lie. hahah. I've been so busy I still haven't really had time to explore London--thank god I have a whole year here, cause I'd be in trouble if I was only here for a semester sinceI have so much I want to do while here! But yea, enough of this fluffy lack of information Diane rambling bit and on to the juicy stuff. hahahhaha.
Anyways, here are some brief thoughts on some of the major events of my previous few weeks:
St. Paul's Cathedral/British Museum
(8-9 October)
My Dad was visiting London these couple of days (stopped over while on a business trip) so he came to see me/bring me my winter jackets (yess). We took Friday to go over to St. Paul's Cathedral, which I believe is the largest Cathedrals in London with one of the largest domes in the world apparently--basically this place is huge. It was really nice inside, and you could climb up the 600+ steps to get to the top of the cathedral where there were spectacular views of the London skyline, def worth the trek up. Saturday we went to the British Museum, which is cool becuase there is so much to see there and it's all free to get in! woot. haha. But that was really interesting-I'm def going to have to return at some point to see more of the museum and see some more of the items in greater detail.
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| View from the top of St. Paul's Cathedral |
Brighton Beach
(Sunday, 10 October)
Bright and early on Sunday morning, a couple of my LSE friends and I headed off to Brighton Beach. And by bright and early, I actually mean dark and early. It was still pitch black outside when I woke up at 5am to catch our 7am train. hahaha. But anyways, after about an hour train ride we arrived at Brighton Beach! It was soo nice there--Brighton Beach is a big touristy, vacationy town where everyone from London heads to when they want to hang out at the ocean/away from the city etc. It was so beautiful because after a day of foggy, rainy London weather we got to Brighton Beach that was full of sunny (yes, the sun was out!! felt so goood. lols) skies and relatively warm weather. Since we got there super early we hung around the beach for a while while it was still deserted and then had breakfast at this restaurant on the beach. Brighton was basically a big beach town--lots of stores near the water, a big pier (complete with multitudes of fried food booths, actual rides, and lots of free beach chairs to sit in), and lots and lots of visitors. Such a nice and relaxing day, we ended up taking a couple hour nap (ahahah how I love naps) on the beach chairs on the pier. I also got pretty addicted to this gambling game where you put in money to try and push more money out. SO GREAT. I'm def going to be in trouble once I turn 21 and head over to Vegas..lolsss. Had some realllyy greasy fish and chips (we shared one order between the 3 of us and still felt sickly from it. hahah. ohh british food. you are not my greatest friend) and then chilled on the beach to watch the sunset before heading back.
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| Early morning yoga by the pier |
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| The beach |
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| Chilling on the pier (like the color accent? :D heheh) |
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| Fish and chips |
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| Brighton sunset |
Went on a group excursion with a bunch of people who are also General Course students here at LSE up to Cumberland Lodge, which is a big lodge in Windsor Park (right next to Windsor Castle, where the Queen lives) and about an hour outside of London. One of my favorite parts of Cumberland--GREEN. I forgot how nice grass is! and real trees! and clean air! ahahah. But it was such a nice weekend. The main point of our program this weekend was the many speakers that they brought over to the Lodge to talk with us. There were like 5-6 different people that came to talk, including the head of London Transportation, the woman who was the head of the London Stock Exchange for the previous decade or so, the head of the Royal Parks of London, etc. Some of the speakers were especially interesting (ie the London Stock Exchange woman) while others not so much (ie the one who spoke early Saturday morning that I don't even remember the name or occupation of..hahah yea I was totally awake for it) but overall it was very interesting. We also had some free time Saturday afternoon to explore Windsor, so I walked over to Windsor castle to check it out. It was pretty cool on the way becuase to get there it was about a 3-4 mile walk from the Lodge through the parks of Windsor, and the parks are littered with deer EVERYWHERE. And apparently it was deer mating season. So all the male deers were going crazy. HAHAH. actually not that crazy, they were just loud and a tad obnoxious with their weird mating calls. lols. But they were all chillin out right next to the road which was super cool, so you could get pretty close to them, except not that close since it was mating season. hah. but anyways, after the long walk over to Windsor Castle I went inside the castle and explored a bit, though couldn't see much since the public is only allowed in a few rooms of the enormous castle. And the Queen was in residence! Exciting. After, headed back to the Lodge for somemore talks etc. Ended the night chilling in the Lodge's bar before taking a midnight stroll in the pitch-black woods outside the Lodge to stargaze. The next day, we were invited to attend service at the Royal Chapel, which is the local Chapel on the grounds of Windsor that the Queen attends service at! So of course I took advantage of this opportunity, mainly to see the Royal Chapel which in the end was an amazing little Church--I loved the home-y architecture on the inside and the very personal feeling it had. Much better than my hugemungous Church that I attend back at home. So I sat through service (shorter than Catholic Mass too--only about 40 minutes as compared to the 1+hours of Mass) which was very interesting in itself, and as we all headed outside afterwards we were standing outside when no other than the Queen strolled outside! So we were all standing around and the Queen came up to us and the small group of people I was with were able to talk with her! It was beyond exciting. She told us how beautiful the weather was and there was a conversation about how international all of us were. And then she walked over to her station wagon car and drove herself off (yes, she drove herself!). It was so amazingly amazing--almost beyond words. Still a little surreal. But yea, after that we ate lunch before returning to London. Great weekend full of great food, great people, and great times.
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| Green! |
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| The Long Walk (literally) |
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| Stag |
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| At Windsor Castle |
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| Windsor Castle |
Ice bar
(17 October)
Later that Sunday night, a bunch of people and myself went out to this Ice bar to celebrate one of my friend's 21st birthday. It was pretty crazy. Basically a bar made entirely of ice. Meaning EVERYTHING is made of ice--from the bar to the walls to the glasses the drinks come in. And we all had to wear these big parka type things to get in and then got some really yummy drinks in the below freezing temperatures of the bar. Reallly fun. Overall really interesting night--and by that I mean of what I can remember of it. aaaaaaahahahaahha. yea you know what I mean. Fun times.
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| Tic-tac-toe board made of ice |
Gym
Sooo I'm going to be in excellent shape by the time I get back to the States. Just had to share. HAHAHA. Well I have started going to the gym on a more regular basis, so I'm trying? lols. I'm hoping that by revealing my goals to the blogging world I will in turn motivate myself to actually stick to them. We'll see how that goes. Though I did attend my first pilates class at the gym last Saturday! And thus yesterday (Sunday) was pretty painful as I couldn't even laugh without my abs hurting. Sort of hilarious. hahahha.
Camden town
(24 October)
Finally, I have done some more London exploration! On Sunday went over to Camden town which is basically an area of London that is completely full of random flea-market type booths and stores galore. There was so much cheap food everywhere there, and so delicious. I treated myself to a nutella and banana crepe and a hot apple cider. yummyy. (this is why I need to go to the gym. hahah.) and just walked around the hundreds of booths checking out everything that was being sold. It was really cool, though a little overwhelming with the insane number of booths and the HUGE crowds! I don't understand where all those people came from, but you could literally not walk because there were so many people around all the time, everywhere, and granted it was a big area too. Will def be back at some point, if anything to get more delicious, cheap food! yess.
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| Crepes! |
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| Shops |
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| Camden Town |
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| Sunset view out my dorm window-def my favorite time of the day. (: |
PS: I think my new love is going to the grocery store. I legit go there every other day. IT'S SO MUCH FUN. I love wandering around all the aisles, imagining what I could cook myself to eat. so so great. :D I absolutely love this whole having a kitchen to use thing.
