Hello, hello! Long time no see. I am back at TCU now! I have been through RA Training and finished my first week of classes. Through all the chaos of getting home I have not found time to write my final blog post! Soooo.... Without further ado, here is my final week in London:
Friday, July 31:
Today Alyssa and I toured BUCKINGHAM PALACE. 'Twas glorious. Photos were not allowed inside, but I did get to take pictures at the Royal Mews.
This is the Glass Coach. Princess Diana rode in this coach on her wedding day!
Despite what you'd think this carriage was made just last year for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.
The Gold State Coach is only used for coronation ceremonies. The coach weighs four tons!!
After the very long tour we had lunch at the temporary cafe in the Queen's Garden!
I had a baguette sandwich and strawberries and creme. Mmm.
This is the backside of Buckingham Palace. The Queen's Garden is essentially a park in her backyard for her own personal use.
That evening I headed to the theatre to see War Horse! The show was so good and my seat was great!
I tried very hard to take an illegal photo.
Saturday, August 1:
Today I went to my favorite place for the last time... Portobello Market!
Portobello Market is in Notting Hill, so there are lots of fun colored buildings!
It's a bit hard to see, but Portobello Market is 150 years old!
Lemon and sugar crepe!
This is how they make the crepes!
Sunday, August 2:
I spent today in the flat working on my final video project with my partner Alyssa! For all who are curious, here is the finished product. The video outlines everything that we learned during our time in London.
Monday, August 3:
Today, Alyssa and I headed over to the Tower of London and London Bridge until it started raining on us!
We walked across the bridge along "the Queen's Walk" before popping into a pub for lunch.
Here is the view from the South side of the Thames River!
I had a steak pie with mashed potatoes and cabbage. YES.
Alyssa bought this beefeater guard hat for her younger brother, so naturally I had to test it out first.
Tuesday, August 4:
For class today we headed to The Museum of London to study life in London in the 1970s, the time period in our novel for the week The Buddha of Suburbia (a novel that I highly DO NOT recommend. Seriously, it's terrible).
The museum tells the tale of London's past, from prehistoric times to present day.
My favorite thing in the museum was the small exhibit on the London Olympics. Here is the massive Olympic torch!
After class, I headed over to one of my other favorite places in the city: Covent Garden! I was on a special mission to get an order of macarons from Laduree for a friend at home.
Precious cargo.
Wednesday, August 5:
Today was officially my last full day in London! First, for class we headed to the Victoria and Albert museum, the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design. We were there to study the theatre exhibit, as the main character in our book was an actor!
Here are some of the neat costumes from shows on the West End that we saw:
War Horse!
Lion King!
After the museum, I went to ride the London Eye with my professor. The London Eye was technically supposed to be the final day's activity, however I was leaving a day early in order to be back at TCU to start RA Training on Friday!
The London Eye is the giant Ferris wheel on the South Bank of the Thames River.
This definitely is not your typical Ferris wheel. You ride in a large glass "pod" that you can walk around in rather than a sitting in a seat.
Here are a few pictures of the view of London from about 440 feet in the air!
'Twas the perfect ending to my time in London.
Thursday, August 6:
Today, I woke up early to finish up getting all my things together to head home! I honestly was not sure I was going to make it onto the plane without paying extra baggage fees...
Nonetheless, with my backpack stuffed to about three times my weight, a deer shaped pillow (oh, the things I do for people) and cowboy hat from Disneyland Pairs in hand, and TWO questionably heavy suitcases I took off for London Heathrow Airport.
After sitting in traffic for over an hour and standing in line for what seemed an eternity, I got my bag checked. Either my charming allure evaded the overweight baggage fee, or my excellent packing skills just barely made it under 50 pounds (the scale was in kg so I will never know...)!
One short 10 hour flight later, and I was home Thursday night just in time for Mexican food for dinner with my family!
Hello! Hello! A lot has of exciting, fun things have happened in the past week! Here is a little recap:
Wednesday, July 22:
For class today we headed to the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square, which is a HUGE art gallery that houses everything from Monet to Van Gogh.
After class I went to St. James's Park for a bit while I waited to go have lunch with some more friends from home! St. James's Park lies right in front of Buckingham Palace.
I found this little cottage hidden in the midst of the park!
Buckingham Palace
A grand view of the London Eye!
Why hello Steve and Susan! I'm glad we got to spend a little time together.
The gates of my future home. Oh, I mean Buckingham Palace.
Thursday, July 23:
We went back to Tate Britain for class today to study more art (we tend to do that a lot...), and then rode a water taxi down the Thames.
After class I headed straight back to my flat to write the rough draft of my paper that was due on Friday and packed for our weekend trip to Paris!
Friday, July 24:
This morning was rough. I woke up at 3:00 am to walk to the train station to catch my Eurostar train that left at 5:40 am!
This is the terrible selfie I took on the train and sent to mom for fun. She then proceeded to post all over social media.
We got to Paris about two hours later, shamefully ate a quick breakfast at McDonald's across the street from Gare du Nord train station, and dropped off our bags at our hotel so we could go explore!
Notre Dame!
The back of Notre Dame...
Love lock bridge... Alone.
The Arc de Triomphe on Champs-Elysees, a famous shopping street!
Galleries Lafayette! This is a huge, fancy department store in France. It certainly looks a little different that Dillards.
Saturday, July 25:
TODAY IS THE DAYYYY! We spent the entire day at Disneyland Paris, one of the happiest places on Earth! My mom's friend's friend, Shawn, works in the Wild West show at the park and got us the VIP treatment (def my style).
And let the abundance of pictures commence...
First we went to Disney Studios!
The gate to happiness.
Our first stop was the Tower of Terror!
Clearly Aubrey was lovin' it.
I had a sugar crepe for breakfast!
Singing in the rain!
After a little while Shawn took us over to the main park!
This is what it feels like walking in the entrance. You can't help but smile!
New goal: learn Let it Go in French.
Sleeping Beauty's pink castle!
Here we are riding the carousel by the castle! (You can just barely see Alyssa and her Go Frogs sign behind Aubrey's head!)
Fairy floss to fuel me through till dinner!
Because who doesn't want "It's a Small World" running through their head for the remainder of the day?
Spinning teacups!
After hanging out in the park all day, we headed over to Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show with Mickey and Friends and got a backstage tour from Shawn!
Our VIP Treatment came with a personal photographer (named Shawn).
Texas meets France.
"Give me your best warrior faces..... That is pathetic."
Shawn and Alyssa wearing a buffalo hide from the show. Classy.
Right before the show Shawn came out to show us his costume and take a picture!
Then came the biggest surprise EVER...
Shawn brought out all the characters AND he had taught them all to do to do the TCU Frogs sign! It was the coolest thing that has ever happened to me.
Thinking that experience would be hard to top, the night kept getting better and better!
The area where the dinner show was held! Looks like Texas. We also got a hearty Texan meal of BBQ and cobbler! Yum.
The foreigners in the audience did not understand ya'll and yee haw! It was too funny. They could definitely tell we were Americans with all of our yelling.
We're pretty sure that everyone in the cast loved us because we yelled to much. Not to brag or anything, but we made that audience.
Alyssa then got picked to shoot a rifle with Annie Oakley. She was a little too good of a shot because she took off a chunk of the target... and I don't think that was supposed to happen.
And then Shawn started looking for a volunteer from the audience. This could either be a good thing or a terrible thing. Needless to say, he picked me...
Turns out, it was a great thing! I got to be in the show and ride in a stage coach!!!
Overall, Shawn made our Disneyland Paris experience my favorite day from my time abroad. I cannot thank him enough for the magical experience.
Pure joy.
Sunday, July 26:
A little exhausted from the previous day, we moved a bit slower this morning! Aubrey and I took our time getting up and heading over to the Arc de Triomphe to see the Tour de France set up. Yes, we just happen to be in town on the final day of THE TOUR DE FRANCE. Is that lucky, or what?
The road was all blocked off for the riders and people were already lining up to watch the race that wasn't until late afternoon!
The riders loop around the Arc to finish up the race.
Afterwards, we headed over to see the Eiffel Tower! I would not let Aubrey go to Paris and not the Eiffel Tower. That is shameful.
Not a bad view for a morning stroll.
Then we headed to have a final lunch with Shawn before our train headed out that afternoon!
At Shawn's recommendation we went to this swanky restaurant on the canal called Panama Brewing Company.
The food was glorious. Two good meals in one weekend?! We are so spoiled.
The rainy sky matched our attitude as were left behind a great weekend and headed back to London.
Monday, July 27:
We had a paper due on Tuesday, so we spent the entire day in our flat getting that all done! I also took some time to look through all of the treasures I have been acquiring.
Well. This is a problem.
Tuesday, July 28:
Class this week focused on the novel Atonement by Ian McEwan, which tells the tale of a young girl during WWII seeking atonement for sins she committed as a child. It's a sad book.
For class we went to the British Library to see a Magna Carta exhibiiton. How does that tie in with a WWII book? I'm still asking that question myself. At least I got to see one of three copies of the Magna Carta from the year 1215! We couldn't take pics though... You'll just have to trust me on this one.
Afterwards, my flatmates and I headed to an Indian Buffet called Chutney's for lunch!
I had no idea what I was eating, but it was delicious (and all vegetarian... so no strange meats. I checked!).
Wednesday, July 29:
Today we headed to the more fitting Imperial War Museum! It housed lots of artifacts most of Britain's most important wars, particular WWII.
Lots of planes and war stuff. My dad would love this place!
Have you seen the movie The Imitation Game? This is an enigma machine that was used to crack Nazi codes!
I spent the rest of the afternoon searching for a new... larger.... carry on suitcase! My checked baggage is severely at risk of being overweight. HA. Imagine that!
Thursday, July 30:
Today we headed to the Florence Nightingale Museum at St. Thomas' Hospital. In the novel, the two main characters, Briony and Cecelia, become nurses during the war.
Behind the hospital is a secretly great view of Parliament!
After class Alyssa and I went to lunch! I had a tasty omelette! Lately we have been severely slacking on the London Diet, haha!
The countdown to going home is now in the single digits! I've got lots to do in a short time!
