Summery of 18 January to 14 February 2010

I'm sorry I've failed so far as a blogger, I hope you have enjoyed the photo updates at least. In honor of Poppa's birthday I am going to see how up do date I can make this blog today. Happy Birthday Poppa :]

So last we heard from our heroin she came back from France...

London is fantastic! There have been a lot of ups and downs, but I'm still sure I'll have the glorious life changing experience everyone tells me about. When I arrived it was beautiful and snowy, but now it goes between being grey and gloomy, and being clear blue skys, with random snow fall. Extremely cold, but I like the cold so it's all good.

The weekend I came back from France I mostly went out dancing with my international friends. Some clubs were better than others, but we had a lot of fun. Then the next week classes started. I have two classes a Shakespeare class and a theater core class. My Shakespeare class meets on Tuesdays and Fridays and we read Shakespeare plays, have discussions and lectures and for homework we memorize monologues and perform them. It’s pretty fun, but I always get nervous before performing my verse memorization. We have read As You Like It, Richard the Second and Hamlet, and this week we are reading our last play, which is The Tempest. My other class is a core class that meets Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. In this class we read about a play a week and have a discussing about it on Wednesdays with our professor and Mondays and Thursdays we use as rehearsal times. The end result of this class is to write a paper, present a design portfolio and to put on a play. We are putting on a play called Machinal by Sophie Treadwell and I'm assistant stage managing,, head of set design and construction, and a lighting assistant. It shall be most excellent. Classes are fun for the most part. The teachers are pretty good, but aren't as involved/don't lead as much as I'm use to. They give us exercises and open up discussions, but for the most part we do all the work. The students slack off a lot more here. People are always late, or don't even show up, and even when class is going on they are quite rowdy. Not rowdy in an obnoxious way, but in a fun British humor sort of way. We also have very little class time, and a lot of outside work, which is hard to adjust to. I've been having far too much fun for my work load (it will get done though and the experience is much more important anyways).

After the first week of classes I got really sick. On 26 January my teacher sent me home because I wasn’t well enough for class and for that entire week I was just alone and lying in bed sick with the flu feeling homesick. The next week I went to my Shakespeare classes, but my core class was canceled till the 3^rd week of February so I continued being alone and sickly. Then on Friday I decided no more, I have to go out and explore London again so I accepted an invitation to go to a classmate’s house party. I was having a fun time until at the end of the night I realized my wallet and keys were stolen. I lost 30 pounds, and my driver’s license and mysteriously contracted pink eye, and since it happened on a Friday, I had to wait till Monday to get a new set of keys, register with a doctor, and set up a bank account. I fixed everything, but it was all a bit much at the time. If I learn one thing from studying abroad it’s that nothing is too big to overcome. After the bad luck coming in threes everything started looking up.

I’ll wrap up this massive post with my most glorious Valentine’s Day. I thought I was going to feel sad and lonely since my Valentine s all the way in California, but I actually had a really nice V-day. It began with getting my first letter which was exciting. Evan’s grandmother sent me a nice thoughtful Valentine’s card. I also received a lovely e-card from Auntie Kim and e-mail from my mom which both made me smile (since then I have also received glorious packages from both my dad, Hannah and Diana, and from my mother). I then went on a exciting adventure with my friend Andreas, his girl friend Paula who came to visit from Germany, and my friend Angie. Andreas, Paula, and I started off by going to the top of a huge arch with houses on top, and then continued by walking through Hyde Park. Hyde Park is beautiful and huge! There is a large lake with lots of ducks and assorted birds, and many beautiful statues and fountains. The most known sights I saw were the Peter Pan statue and The Princess Diana Memorial Fountain. Then we walked through Speakers Corner which is this area where every Sunday afternoon everyone carries out soap boxes and says whatever they want without police interference. Then Angie joined us and we walked through lots of really cool stores and ate at this delicious Italian restaurant called Vapiano. After all my fun times with friends, I went back and eventually talked with Evan, and everything was wonderful!

Day 6-7 France (12-14 Feburary 2010)

The five of started out the day by going to an excellent Vegetarian restaurant (I can’t emphasize enough how much better the food is in Europe then in the US). It was an all you can eat with so much amazing vegetarian food to choose from! So Good! Then Ani dropped Evan and me off at the bus stop and we took a short ride to Toulouse, which is a large city right near Blagnac. We then walked all around. We walked through an open air market, briefly saw the capital building, saw some beautiful statues and founts, went to a cool museum which had ancient marble statues, models of the original creating of Toulouse, and a dig of some old structures found underneath the museum. We also continued eating wonderful bread, had glorious nutella crepes from outdoor vendors, and ate at a pasta bar (Evan and I want to start up our own pasta bar). We went into many cool shops that reminded me of whole earth, walked next to the river, played in parks, explored, went into a bar, and just basked in each other company.

The next day we walked through Blagnac again and ate more bread. We then explored more of Toulouse for the rest of the and then I had to leave. It was extremely hard to leave after having such a lovely time being with van and his family and eating yummy foods. Evan, Ani, and Michael dropped me off at the airport, we rushed over, because we cut it pretty closely to the time I had to depart. Then after rushing my plane was delayed for two hours, figures. I miserably sat in the airport, just wanting my flight to be cancelled so I could spend more time with Evan. We finally took off and than the train I took to the airport wasn’t running any more because it was so late, and I figured out another way home after talking with the crabby ticket seller. After taking the train I found my bus stop, and then transferred to another bus, and then took a taxi, and then by 3 am I was in bed. I had such a wonderful time with Evan. It was simply magical meeting him in France. I have to wait three months till I see him again. It’s going to be difficult, but it will all be worth it when I’m in his arms again in May.

Day 5 France (12 January 2010)

Before I start talking about this trip- the day before I met up with my gaggle of International student friends at the university bar and we socialized and went outside and made a snowman together (I also made a snow angle and had my friends think I was crazy).

So as I was saying, after not sleeping a wink the night before I set off for my mission to the airport so I could meet up with Evan in Toulouse France. I had only been in the UK for 4 days and only used the buses once and the tube once, but I used their transport through London sight to find my way to the airport. I walked down this sketchy dark road at 3:30 in the morning so I could catch the night bus. It’s nice that the buses run 24 hours, the tube should as well, but it is closed from 1am-5am (it would have made my traveling easier). The night bus was mostly filled with tired people and drunk people. I got off the bus eventually at Kings Cross Station (yes the same station where platform 9 3/4 is located) and I took a train to the airport (my version of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles/night buses).

Oh my goodness! It was an amazing three days! When I arrived at the airport I was confused and lost, but when I found Evan and saw him walking towards me I thought my heart was going explode I was so happy. I never wanted to stop holing him once we had are first embrace, but my first continental Europe experience had to commence. We headed over to the car and he drove back to his mother’s house. She lives in the adorable village of Blagnac across from the elementary school she is a teacher and vise principle for. The house was spectacular as well, cute and space efficient, with lots of natural materials, and filled with warmth and coziness. After putting all my stuff down and looking around a bit in the house we walked about the town. There was still snow on everything (not as much snow as in London, but still a decent amount) and we threw it at each other for most of pleasant walk. We stopped at two boulangeries (or bakeries) and ate delicious croissants. Oh my goodness! The bread is soooooo gooooood! I want to live in a boulangeries! We explored and looked into the local church and I took a ton of pictures of all the beautiful architecture. It’s cool looking at buildings older than your country. Everyone was quite friendly and I felt sort of bad but I couldn’t stop humming the beginning song of Beauty and the Beast, because of all the friendly French folks we came across.

We then continued to rush home, because Evan’s mother was coming home soon for her lunch break. It was funny meeting Evan’s mother in a quite awkward way. I went in to hug her as she was leaning in to kiss me on the check, but she avoided my hug and tried again, but I also tried hugging again, which she again avoided (Evan some how missed this whole hilarious ordeal). Evan and his mother Ani continued the lunch break speaking in French which was way above my French ability to understand, so I was quite lost. Ani is quite nice and friendly, and laughs a lot- all things I enjoy. I didn’t feel quite acknowledged, but it’s probably because my French isn’t good enough to hold a conversation. Then after Ani went back to work, Evan and I ate lunch and then because I was so exhausted from not sleeping the night before we snuggled down for a nice nap.

We woke up when Evan’s sister Ariadne came home from school continued by Ani and her boyfriend Michael coming home from work. I was super excited to see Ariadne, because I really missed hanging out with her with Evan and my sister throughout the previous summer. Evan and I were then given a grocery list for food to get for dinner. The grocery store was beyond huge and we were in there for a very long time looking at all the lovely food. We then came back and had a scrmdidlyumptiose dinner with the five of us. I was lost for most of the conversation, because again I must emphasize my poor French, but I still enjoyed our dinner together. They are quite a fun and lively bunch. We had a French champaign vs. California sparkling wine off and the real champaign won hands down. We also had a plate of all sorts of wonderful French cheeses and ate delicious galette (or King’s cake) and Evan ended up finding the toy (which was a cool Astrix character).

~Cherrio

Day 4- Information (11 January 2010)

Well I bought the adapters for my plugs so my computer and camera charger work, yay, but unfortunately my tooth brush needed an actual converter and my alarm clocks tongs were too large to fit in the adapter so I was unable to set my alarm clock. I was able to set my alarm on my phone on though, but when it went off I turned it off and fell back asleep so I missed a meeting, but I ran off and made it to the important session about when and where my classes were going to be held. I have a class everyday of the week. I have a design class Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and a Shakespearian Acting Tuesday and Friday. Here is my schedule:

Monday 2-6
Tuesday 10-1
Wednesday 9-1
Thursday 10-1
Friday 10-1

It’s going to be a sweet schedule. I don’t have any classes ridiculously early, and the classes aren’t that long. I wish I had Monday or Friday off, but it’s a pretty sweet schedule. After I had all that sorted out I had a library tour and for the rest of the evening I tried to figure out a way to get to the airport. I decided that I was going to visit Evan in France while he was still there so I bought tickets from Gatwick Airport in London to Toulouse, France. The only problem was that I decided that I needed to have the first flight which happened to leave at 7:45 in the morning, so I would need to be at the airport at 6:00 and I had to go to the airport that happened to be the furthest one from where I live. After hours of looking through all my options I finally found the easiest way (which was made even more difficult by the fact that the tubes don’t run that early in the morning). Andreas came down to visit for a while and we continued talking and I learned more about German politics and how much English has infected the German language. I then stayed up all night packing, finishing Evan’s Christmas present, and leaving my dorm at 3:30am.

~Cherrio

Day 3- Tourism (10 January 2010)

So today my friend knocked on my door to wake me up so I didn't end up missing the begging of this most excellent event. We went on a bus tour of London. I took sooooo maaaaaany pictures We saw many of the exciting sights such as Buckingham Palace, St. Paul’s Cathedral, London Bridge, Tower Bridge, London Eye, Big Ben and so many more. The ended up letting us all lose in Covent Gardens, which is this huge outdoor shopping mall. I mostly hung out with Lari and an Australian girl named Adelle. I bought my adapters and my British pay as you go phone. I felt quite accomplished. We ended up eating in a McDonalds, because all the food was hellza expensive. They sold sandwiches and one of them was vegetarian and it was not too bad. We were almost late to the bus, but everything turned out just fine.

After we got back from campus I ended up going grocery shopping with Adelle, Maisie, a German guy named Andreas, and a girl from Kenya named Angela. I took the tube for the first time and it was quite exciting. My tube stop is Oakwood and I ride on the Piccadilly Tube (isn’t that a fantastic name!). When I’m coming home it’s always the Piccadilly towards Cockfosters. I bought an oyster card, which is the card you can use for all the transportation in London. You just press your card on the censor and you’re on your way. We went to this huuuuuge discount grocery store called ASDA and it’s pretty cool (which is nice since I’ll have to go weekly to buy groceries since I don’t have a cafeteria anymore). We all bought many groceries and was super excited to find out Andreas was also a vegetarian. I’m mostly going to live on cup of noodles, peanut butter nutella sandwiches, pasta, cheese, and pickles. After an hour or so of shopping we all headed back. We decided to meet up after words to hang out, but it ended up being just Andreas and me, which was just fine by me. We had a loverly evening and talked for hours about ourselves, German culture, our significant others, our countries stereotypes for each other countries, and much much more (he even taught me some German. I can count to 10 and say a few useful phrases). We are going to be very good friends =D.

~Cherrio

Day 2- Orientation (8 January 2010)

I'm so sorry for being a bad bogger. I'm going to try to catch up this weekend. I was without my computer for about three days, but I'm back and ready to write.


So remember how I decided that I would magically wake up for Orientation so I would make the carriage ride to a larger campus? I didn't. I woke about 2 hours late and rushed out the door. I caught the bus that takes us from our campus to the bus stop/tube station with my bus map and decided to try to find my way to the Hendon campus. That's right, first full day in another county and I decided to try to use the bus. I remembered that the school gave us a vague description on how to get to the other campuses so I caught a bus and figured out how to pay in pounds and then got off the bus and went on another bus. My first try going on the second bus was the bus going in the opposite direction, but luckily I asked the bus driver before sitting down and switch which side of the road I was on. On my second bus I apparently missed my stop by two bus stops so I had to follow the bus drivers directions to the campus. It's surprisingly difficult to understand English English. But I found the campus and was quite proud of myself.

Orientation was not very informative, but was okay. I soon found some fellow study abroad folks and learned I missed all the boring stuff and was just in time for lunch (I was quite pleased). I mostly hanged out with an Italian girl named Michela, an Indonesian girl named Yashinta, two Chinese girls named Wong and Doris and my friend Maisie from Chapman. It was really fun talking with Michela and helping her with her English. Translating what British people are rapidly saying is entertaining. After lunch we went into an orientation meeting which told us everything we had already read in our packets and had none of the answers we had for our questions about the packet such as when classes are (which is slightly important). I almost bought a phone, but then I remembered I didn't bring my credit card with me so I couldn't. We then went back to campus together. I went to a take away restaurant in the nearby town (take away is there word for take out food and those are restaurants where you don't eat inside). I got a most excellent cheese sandwich and diet coke. The bottles are tall and skinny here. I was quite home sick that night since I had no computer, and was quite discombobulated since I had no way of telling what time it was. I calmed myself down though by eating my sandwich and sewing Evan's Christmas present (black flannel house shorts with rainbow peace signs on them). On my things to buy- adapters and a cell phone.

~cherrio

Day 1- Traveling and The Arrival (6-7 January 2010)

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I’m sorry everyone for not updating sooner. I had some technical difficulties. My computer died and I didn’t have any adapters to charge my computer so I had to wait. I have had so many adventures already so I’ll just start from the Begging:

After having an awesome semester with my amazing Chapman friends and needing to relax from a heavy workload I came back up to NorCal and did just that. I relaxed and caught up with my loverly Davis friends, my fantastic family and my wonderful boyfriend. I had such a great break I left all my packing to the very last minute and rushed to pack everything the night before departing for my London Adventure. Dad and Diana drove me to San Francisco International Airport for my first international flight/first time leaving the America’s. We actually got to San Francisco in record -breaking time even though we were sent on a scavenger hunt around Vacaville to set up my international banking account (Thank you Holly!!!). The SF’s airport is huge and absolutely gorgeous! The plane ride was pretty good. Virgin Atlantic has pretty nice food for airline food, and they have a very large selection of movies to watch. I watched Jennifer’s Body, Cloudy with a Chance for Meatballs and part of Star Trek (this was my second attempt to watch the Star Trek movie and fell asleep yet again. I watched more of it this go around though). The sets were rather cramp though. I couldn’t put my legs fully in front of me because my knees hit the back of the seat in front of me. Everyone hates long leged folk I swear. After ten hours of flying, time spent mostly sleeping, watching movies, being uncomfortable, and excited to be in London, I finally arrived.

Customs was a long ass line, but I eventually got through, picked up my luggage, and immediately found my Middlesex red shirted folks (yes they let me into the country miraculously, and yes they wore red shirts and didn’t die). They gave me a huge packet and put me on a huge bus (or carriage as they called it). Once I could yet again relax in my nice roomy/cushy bus seat I was able to see the wonder that is England. Oh my goodness! I took soooo maaanyyyy piiiictuuuures! Snow is a beautiful thing when it’s covering everything outside your window. It was funny watching snow covered cars driving next to me. England is so much different such as their traffic signs/symbols, license plates, driver seat, and side of the road they drive on. It’s all quite fantastic. I especially liked all small compact cars and brightly colored cop cars. Driving pattern are different as well- they actually obey the speed limit, the streets are tiny, and they drive crazy like not staying in their own lane and just weaving around everywhere. After going to the two other Middlesex campuses they finally got to my campus in the far North West section of London (Heathrow, the main airport in London/the one I came from was in the South West). My campus is named Trent Park and it is simply gorgeous! Trent Park is the oldest of the campus and the architecture is just splendid. Trent Park is in the middle of nowhere, but there is a tube station right near campus so it’s easy to go anywhere in London (the tube is the London subway station). From as far as the eye can see there are just snowy fields and wooded lands. I also hear there are many animals such as squeals, foxes, and a large selection of birds around these parts but I have yet to see any. They dropped me off at my dorm, which is named Grubbay hall and I’m on the East end. After signing in and having some tea and biscuits I brought everything to my room. I have a room that faces into the area betweens the east and west wings and can just step out onto the rough. I also for some odd reason have one of the largest rooms in the dorm compound. Lucky me =).

My room is quite nice. I have a large desk next to the window and heater with shelves above, a single beg with a place too put things at the head board. On the other side of the head board are more shelves and that is right nest to my sink and mirror. Next to my bed is a huge armoire with drawers and large cubbies on top and next to that is a decent sized closet. I also have two chairs and everything is just dandy. Down the hall is the kitchen (where I store my food) and a bathroom with toilets and showers. I’m on the first floor up out of four floors. I missed the trip to the shopping mall, but I was fine with just unpacking. I had a box dinner with the other International students. We were somewhat awkward, but I hit it off with a girl from Greece named Lari. She was very friendly and enjoyed coloring her hair, watching/reading anime, and had a few facial piercing (because of those qualities sort of reminded me of Hannah, which was nice). After dinner I went back to my room to finish unpacking and was sad to realize that I had yet to buy adapters so I had limited computer time and could not hook up my alarm clock. I was a tad worried not having my alarm clock since I had an event starting at 9 the next day, but I just hopped I would wake up on time. Took a short, but enjoyable walk around the then dark campus and had a short chat with the night security guard. I actually ended up going to bed at a normal hour and did not feel jet lagged at all.

For those interested in my address while I’m here it is:

Sophie Landau

Gubbay Hall

E108

Trent Park

Bramley Road

Snakes Lane

Barnet

Herts

N144YZ

I noses! It’s hella long, I suppose they are just uber exact here. I do enojy letters, but I know postage is expensive so I understand. You can also e-mail me at sophieL42@gmail.com, aim me at randomthought623, googlechat me at sophieL42, skype me at sophieL42, or, if you have an international phone plan you can call me at country code 44 (7570-064642). Yes I am quite contactable and would love hearing from all the people I love and miss from home =). I am 8 hours ahead of people in California, but I stay up too late in England as well as when I’m home so I’m awake all hours of the night. Comment on my facebook event or on this post with your address so I can send you post cards!!!!

~Cherrio