Tuesday:
On Tuesday, the only thing that I did worth noting is that I made a really delicious dinner and it had lots of yummy things in it like cheese sauce that I made from scratch, chicken, carrots, broccoli, pasta, and basil.
Wednesday:
Wednesday was a bit more interesting. I went to class as usual, and it was pretty interesting (the lecture was on the book Waterland by Graham Swift). Then that night Maggie, Meghan, Marissa (all other study-abroaders) and I went to Christine's flat and headed out to The Lash, which is the club at the Student Union on Wednesday nights. It was very exciting. People were supposed to dress up like golfers (I didn't because I don't really own any golfing clothes...), but there were also lots of people dressed up like carrots, patients in a hospital, and Tarzan. Very exciting.
Thursday:
Thursday is my lots-of-classes day, so I went to class. I also went to a youth group type thing for college students at the church I went to on Sunday. It was pretty fun. I had to leave before they all went to the pub (this country is weird...), but it was all good because I had to get ready for my exciting weekend, which brings me to...
Friday:
On Friday I woke up and got packed. I had to take a later train than Maggie, Steve, and Christine because I booked my tickets later (my card wasn't working), and I enjoyed the part of the bus ride where I slept instead of reading like I had planned to do. Also, the guy next to me kept rubbing his arm against me by accident, so I had to sit very close to the window and be very small.
When I finally got to London, it was dark, but luckily all the buildings were pretty and lit up. I quickly found Maggie, Steve, and Christine, and obviously they were super excited to see me. We set off to find our hostel.
We ended up taking a taxi because we couldn't figure out the buses or trains and there were tons of people around so we felt lost and stupid. Then the taxi was expensive and didn't really know where we were going, so we just had him drop us off at a random street corner that he thought was close to the hostel. We called the hostel, and luckily it was right nearby.
The guy at the hostel accidentally charged us too much, but we got it all figured out and got our key cards. Instead of being in a huge 24 person room, we ended up in a smaller four-person room, which was great. Except that it was a little creepy. Overall, the hostel was pretty creepy, but also cheap, which is always nice.
We were all starving, so we headed out to find food... and that's when we found the Waffle House. Everyone, if you are EVER in the Hyde Park area, you should definitely go there. In fact if you don't, you will regret it for the rest of your life. It's on Queensway St., right near the Queensway Underground stop. (If you take a left out of the station and walk straight, you will find it.) If you can't go, you probably should still call them and congratulate them on making the best waffles ever. Their phone number is 020 7243 85. Here is a screenshot I took of it from Google Maps:
After our exciting waffles, we went back to the hostel and got ready to go out. We went to a club and danced for a really long time, then walked back to the hostel... except we walked for about an hour and a half because we didn't really know where we were going. (We also walked right past Buckingham Palace and didn't realize it until the next day, and we got lighted for walking to close to a big castle-like building.) Steve and I also almost froze to death because we didn't have coats. We are probably the smartest people in the world.
Other important things we did:
1. We took a picture with a phone booth.
2. We drank milkshakes.
3. I bought some mochi at an Asian supermarket.
4. Steve bought some doughnuts.
5. Took pictures of ourselves acting dead because our hostel was so creepy we feared being murdered.
Saturday:
On Saturday, we did a lot of exploring. We saw the following things:
1. The underground. VERY exciting. That was not sarcastic. I was very, very excited about the signs.
2. Two exhibits in the Museum of Natural History. We would have looked at more except we were super hungry and couldn't find a restaraunt nearby.
3. Platform 9 3/4.
4. A nice cafe with yummy fish and chips and funny posters.
5. Big Ben.
6. Westminster Abbey, which Maggie couldn't find even though we were standing right in front of it. She asked a police officer where it was. It was awesome.
7. Buckingham Palace.
8. A guy playing the ukulele.
9. A pug dog who couldn't put his tongue in his mouth. It was very unfortunate. He looked silly.
10. The Sherlock Holmes restaraunt.
11. A really fun 4-D movie about London.
12. The London Eye (and a lot of London from on it). We went at night, so the city was all lit up and beautiful.
13. Lots of buses.
14. A guy who posed volunteers in funny positions (like they were boxing, etc.) and then would pose himself (like he was being punched, etc.) Here's a picture:
Basically, the whole day was amazing. We had a lot of fun just wandering around taking pictures and being good little tourists.
We stopped at a restaraunt semi-near the Eye and ate dinner, and then we headed back to the hostel area. When we got there we went into a Spar and bought lots of junk food and then made a trip to the Waffle House and ordered a bunch of waffles. We went back to the hostel and had a great night just hanging out, talking, and laughing.
Sunday:
Sunday morning we woke up earlyish so that we could get everything all packed up (check out was at 10:00). We headed out around 9:30 for a walk through Hyde Park and to find Peter Pan. We found the statue (which I was really excited about!) and took lots of pictures with Peter Pan. Then Maggie left to catch a 10:30 bus back (which she missed, but luckily she could take a 12:00/12:30ish one), and Steve, Christine, and I kept walking through the park to find the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain, which was very pretty.
After our Hyde Park adventure, we got on the tube and headed to the British Museum, where we got to see really awesome things like a part of the Sphinx and the Rosetta Stone and swords and lots of mummies. It was really cool.
After the museum, Christine, Steve, and I got back on the tube and headed to Bond St. I left Steve and Christine there so that I could meet up with my friend Emilka who I haven't seen in about 13 years. (She was my best friend when I lived in Japan.) It was really amazing to see her. It was a little awkward for maybe two or three minutes, but once we got started talking, it was great. It was probably the best part of the whole weekend. I even got to see her sister for about two minutes before I had to leave to head to the bus station. Here's a picture of Emilka, me, and Emilka's sister, Hania:
The bus ride home was pretty uneventful, but I did end up sitting next to another student who is studying abroad at Cardiff (he is from France), so I talked to him for the second half of the ride, which made it much more enjoyable than the ride to London.
When I finally got back to Cardiff, I ate a quick dinner and took a shower to get rid of the hostel germs and rushed over to the UniHall Pub to watch the Superbowl. It was a lot of fun, and the game was really close. Also, it helped that I was rooting for the team that won. Even though the game didn't end until about 3am here (they were showing it live), it was a great ending to a great weekend.
Monday:
After the busy weekend, having to go to my class today was a little dull, but I guess I'm technically here to study and learn stuff. After class I came back to my room and rested because I was exhausted. Then I hung out with Christine. We saw Up in the Air, which was a very interesting movie and made us feel really good about ourselves because we are nowhere near as miserable as the characters in the movie.
If you would like to look at some pictures from this weekend, I have a bunch of them up on my facebook, and you can see them here.
As for tomorrow, I don't have any classes, so I plan on doing some laundry and grocery shopping. Should be exciting.
On Tuesday, the only thing that I did worth noting is that I made a really delicious dinner and it had lots of yummy things in it like cheese sauce that I made from scratch, chicken, carrots, broccoli, pasta, and basil.
Wednesday:
Wednesday was a bit more interesting. I went to class as usual, and it was pretty interesting (the lecture was on the book Waterland by Graham Swift). Then that night Maggie, Meghan, Marissa (all other study-abroaders) and I went to Christine's flat and headed out to The Lash, which is the club at the Student Union on Wednesday nights. It was very exciting. People were supposed to dress up like golfers (I didn't because I don't really own any golfing clothes...), but there were also lots of people dressed up like carrots, patients in a hospital, and Tarzan. Very exciting.
Thursday:
Thursday is my lots-of-classes day, so I went to class. I also went to a youth group type thing for college students at the church I went to on Sunday. It was pretty fun. I had to leave before they all went to the pub (this country is weird...), but it was all good because I had to get ready for my exciting weekend, which brings me to...
Friday:
On Friday I woke up and got packed. I had to take a later train than Maggie, Steve, and Christine because I booked my tickets later (my card wasn't working), and I enjoyed the part of the bus ride where I slept instead of reading like I had planned to do. Also, the guy next to me kept rubbing his arm against me by accident, so I had to sit very close to the window and be very small.
When I finally got to London, it was dark, but luckily all the buildings were pretty and lit up. I quickly found Maggie, Steve, and Christine, and obviously they were super excited to see me. We set off to find our hostel.
We ended up taking a taxi because we couldn't figure out the buses or trains and there were tons of people around so we felt lost and stupid. Then the taxi was expensive and didn't really know where we were going, so we just had him drop us off at a random street corner that he thought was close to the hostel. We called the hostel, and luckily it was right nearby.
The guy at the hostel accidentally charged us too much, but we got it all figured out and got our key cards. Instead of being in a huge 24 person room, we ended up in a smaller four-person room, which was great. Except that it was a little creepy. Overall, the hostel was pretty creepy, but also cheap, which is always nice.
We were all starving, so we headed out to find food... and that's when we found the Waffle House. Everyone, if you are EVER in the Hyde Park area, you should definitely go there. In fact if you don't, you will regret it for the rest of your life. It's on Queensway St., right near the Queensway Underground stop. (If you take a left out of the station and walk straight, you will find it.) If you can't go, you probably should still call them and congratulate them on making the best waffles ever. Their phone number is 020 7243 85. Here is a screenshot I took of it from Google Maps:
After our exciting waffles, we went back to the hostel and got ready to go out. We went to a club and danced for a really long time, then walked back to the hostel... except we walked for about an hour and a half because we didn't really know where we were going. (We also walked right past Buckingham Palace and didn't realize it until the next day, and we got lighted for walking to close to a big castle-like building.) Steve and I also almost froze to death because we didn't have coats. We are probably the smartest people in the world.
Other important things we did:
1. We took a picture with a phone booth.
2. We drank milkshakes.
3. I bought some mochi at an Asian supermarket.
4. Steve bought some doughnuts.
5. Took pictures of ourselves acting dead because our hostel was so creepy we feared being murdered.
Saturday:
On Saturday, we did a lot of exploring. We saw the following things:
1. The underground. VERY exciting. That was not sarcastic. I was very, very excited about the signs.
2. Two exhibits in the Museum of Natural History. We would have looked at more except we were super hungry and couldn't find a restaraunt nearby.
3. Platform 9 3/4.
4. A nice cafe with yummy fish and chips and funny posters.
5. Big Ben.
6. Westminster Abbey, which Maggie couldn't find even though we were standing right in front of it. She asked a police officer where it was. It was awesome.
7. Buckingham Palace.
8. A guy playing the ukulele.
9. A pug dog who couldn't put his tongue in his mouth. It was very unfortunate. He looked silly.
10. The Sherlock Holmes restaraunt.
11. A really fun 4-D movie about London.
12. The London Eye (and a lot of London from on it). We went at night, so the city was all lit up and beautiful.
13. Lots of buses.
14. A guy who posed volunteers in funny positions (like they were boxing, etc.) and then would pose himself (like he was being punched, etc.) Here's a picture:
Basically, the whole day was amazing. We had a lot of fun just wandering around taking pictures and being good little tourists.
We stopped at a restaraunt semi-near the Eye and ate dinner, and then we headed back to the hostel area. When we got there we went into a Spar and bought lots of junk food and then made a trip to the Waffle House and ordered a bunch of waffles. We went back to the hostel and had a great night just hanging out, talking, and laughing.
Sunday:
Sunday morning we woke up earlyish so that we could get everything all packed up (check out was at 10:00). We headed out around 9:30 for a walk through Hyde Park and to find Peter Pan. We found the statue (which I was really excited about!) and took lots of pictures with Peter Pan. Then Maggie left to catch a 10:30 bus back (which she missed, but luckily she could take a 12:00/12:30ish one), and Steve, Christine, and I kept walking through the park to find the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain, which was very pretty.
After our Hyde Park adventure, we got on the tube and headed to the British Museum, where we got to see really awesome things like a part of the Sphinx and the Rosetta Stone and swords and lots of mummies. It was really cool.
After the museum, Christine, Steve, and I got back on the tube and headed to Bond St. I left Steve and Christine there so that I could meet up with my friend Emilka who I haven't seen in about 13 years. (She was my best friend when I lived in Japan.) It was really amazing to see her. It was a little awkward for maybe two or three minutes, but once we got started talking, it was great. It was probably the best part of the whole weekend. I even got to see her sister for about two minutes before I had to leave to head to the bus station. Here's a picture of Emilka, me, and Emilka's sister, Hania:
The bus ride home was pretty uneventful, but I did end up sitting next to another student who is studying abroad at Cardiff (he is from France), so I talked to him for the second half of the ride, which made it much more enjoyable than the ride to London.
When I finally got back to Cardiff, I ate a quick dinner and took a shower to get rid of the hostel germs and rushed over to the UniHall Pub to watch the Superbowl. It was a lot of fun, and the game was really close. Also, it helped that I was rooting for the team that won. Even though the game didn't end until about 3am here (they were showing it live), it was a great ending to a great weekend.
Monday:
After the busy weekend, having to go to my class today was a little dull, but I guess I'm technically here to study and learn stuff. After class I came back to my room and rested because I was exhausted. Then I hung out with Christine. We saw Up in the Air, which was a very interesting movie and made us feel really good about ourselves because we are nowhere near as miserable as the characters in the movie.
If you would like to look at some pictures from this weekend, I have a bunch of them up on my facebook, and you can see them here.
As for tomorrow, I don't have any classes, so I plan on doing some laundry and grocery shopping. Should be exciting.
I love reading about your adventures Justine! I get a bit depressed when I don't see any updates! I am glad you are having such and interesting time!
ReplyDeleteI noticed that you didn't mention that you called your father a few times to ask him questions about the football game. :) MOM
ReplyDelete:P I didn't want to just make up rules when people asked me what was going on...
ReplyDelete