What I've Been Up To: Wales, etc.

OK, so a quick update on what I've been up to this past week:

Wednesday I went back to Brick Lane for dinner for a friends birthday where we negotiated down to 8 pounds per person for appetizers, main course, and wine. After Brick Lane we all went to The Rocket which I've already mentioned is one of my favorites. Music was again awesome- still lovin the 90s.

Then Friday was my main adventure for the week, which was a day trip to Wales, more specifically the capitol, Cardiff. From London its like a 3-4 hour bus ride, so we meet at 7 40 (after waking up at 7 20) to hop on the tube and catch our bus leaving at 8 30. Once we got to Cardiff, we grabbed something to eat at what we thought was a Deli. They take us down to the empty tables downstairs amidst colored lights and lounge-style couches when we see posters all over the walls realizing we are in fact in a drag queen bar, for breakfast. hahaha. I would somehow end up in a drag queen bar unintentionally. There weren't shows going on or anything but the food was good even if the server did try to get us to change our mind on all of our orders.

After satisfying our grumbling, empty stomachs my friends (Teena and Sarah) and I headed to Cardiff Castle aka Castell Caerdydd. After going to the wrong entrance and being confusedly stared at, we had to make our way around to the other entrance which gave us a chance to walk around the park. If it had only been warmer I would have stayed in that park forever. It was green and sunny with cute dogs and bikes and runners all around. My freezing hands and feet voted no to staying there forever, however. After making it to the castle doors and buying our tour ticket, we headed inside and the cutest little Welsh man showed us around, including long awkward pauses in his little speeches making him sound like a mix between a flight attendant and a news anchor. The tour was really interesting though and watching this woman and our guide play their little flirtatious game made it all the more so.

Outer Wall of Castell Caerdydd

The Old Part of the Castle

When the tour was over we watched a little movie then toured around by ourselves and climbed the old castle revealing a beautiful view over Cardiff. Check it out-

View of the Castle Grounds and Cardiff

After the castle, we did a little shopping, a little coffee drinking, a little wandering and then... a tour of Millennium Stadium, home of all things Welsh sports, most importantly rugby and football (remember not American football). We got to go see the field, go into the locker room, check out the press room, sit in the President's booth, including both Queen Elizabeth's and Prince William's seats. It was actually a lot more fun than I am currently making it sound. In fact, it was probably one of my favorite things I've done since I've entered the UK.

Holding the Trophy from when Wales Beat Australia

And after a good day in Wales, we had a three hour bus ride home. On the bus ride we proceeded to be the obnoxious American girls who didn't stop talking the entire way back, but our outgoing/annoying antics lead us to meet two really sweet people. First, a girl born and bred in Wales who thought we were absolutely ridiculous for taking a day trip to Wales. She repeated over and over again how intrigued she was by us and our weird accents and day trips. And then a guy from London who undoubtedly wanted all of us to shut up but he was in the middle so he kind of had to talk to us. It solidified to me that people from the UK in general are really sweet and friendly. I could totally move here!

Last update: I finally made it to Borough Market! I have been trying to go since I got here but kept on not going for one reason or another. Over winter break I saw a Barefoot Contessa special about Ina in London. In the show she went to Borough Market so obviously it went on my list. I mean if Ina loves it, then who am I to not go? It didn't disappoint. There were fruits, vegetables, weird meats, pig heads, mulled wine, sweets, baked goods, flowers, and really anything else you can imagine. I will definitely be making a return trip.

A Loud Borough Market Vendor

Oxford: The Ultimate College Town

I am increasingly growing more and more in love with UCL's student union. Why? because they let me do things for cheap. You can organize different events and day trips all at discounted rates but its not like a school field trip where they hold your hand through a boring tour. Nope, they just drop you off and let you do as you please.

Yesterday, some friends and I went on our first day trip through the union to Oxford. As is obvious, Oxford is home to the University of Oxford, but what a lot of people don't know is that University of Oxford is composed of about 38 colleges and Oxford the city has I think 2 other completely separate schools. Thats why its the ultimate college town- it's insane how many colleges they can fit into such a small area.

Oxford is absolutely beautiful, though. The architecture is all intricate and historical and my camera is now probably overheated from taking pictures of things that seemed important but in reality I had no idea what most of them were.

While in Oxford we climbed a tour to check out the view of the city, roamed in to several churches, ate at the cutest pub, tried to check out as much of the university we could without being charged, checked out some museums, and bought the comfiest Oxford rugby shirt that I've pretty much been wearing since.

Here are some highlights:

View of Oxford from above

Covered Market and Camera Building (because of the circular shape)

My new pet at the natural history museum

Left: Christs Church at Oxford

Center: Us in front of the palace? castle? school? who knows

Right: FOOTBALL!

If only it was warm enough I could have rented a bike and the day would have been even better.

And the good thing was I wasn't really sick at all the whole time. I started getting sick monday night, then I'm pretty sure I was dying tuesday through most of thursday, but Thursday night, Friday, and most of Saturday I was fine which worked out great, but by the time I got home Saturday, death struck again and its still continuing.

But at least that gave me some bed/computer time to upload pictures, write this blog post and plan everywhere I want to travel. Want a list of everywhere I want to go, many of which I've already planned/started to plan? Ok, great! (hehe sorry if your answer was no)

Within UK

-stonehenge

-Edinburgh, Scotland

-Brighton

-Cardiff, Wales

-Bath

-Dublin, Ireland (ok not part of the UK but you know what I mean)

And elsewhere

-Paris

-Madrid

-Barcelona

-Italy (like everywhere)

-Porto

-Copenhagen

-Bruges

-Amsterdam

-Swiss Alps

I realize this leaves out a ton of places including pretty much all Eastern Europe but I don't want to eat up my entire savings account so all start with Western and if money/time allows continue onward.

Any other suggestions??? Let me know!

Alright now back to moping on my bed and waiting for Funny Face to download :)

First Weekend of The Semester

Ok, so technically this was the 2nd weekend I've spent here, but it was the 1st weekend after classes started and after I finally settled in a bit and the 1st weekend I didn't have planned orientation activities to go to most of the time. For all real purposes, this weekend was my first weekend in London. Since I don't have work or ESA or Daily Colonial and my last classes is on Thursday, I have a long free weekend.

I'll give you some highlights of places I went. Places I recommend we must go when you come visit me (as I hope many of you will).

(1) The Rocket- its a bar near campus which sounds boring enough but they play 90s rock and hip hop with music videos and everything and they have mini pool tables. I love the 90s. Enough about that.

(2) La Perla- I finally found good food in London. And mexican none the less. Its not the most authentic mexican food in the world, but it tastes like the kind of mexican food you find in Georgia, which is good enough for me. Another bonus- its within easy walking distance of my flat.

(3) Brick Lane- this is the street/area known for its Indian and Bengali food but during the weekends (at least) they also have a market with a bunch of different ethnic food vendors and other weird odds and ends. This place also has a ton of thrift and vintage stores. Needless to say, I'll be making my way back when I have more time to shop.

The gate to Brick Lane...

And this is just the restaurant part of it. The market part was about 24X more awesome.

And I vaguely remember I would tell you the weird things I notice about this place culturally since I already had my list about the quirks of the school. So here are some:

(1) These people eat dinner so late. 10 PM dinner? no thank, unless you want my stomach growling for 3 hours beforehand.

(2) They go out early. Which doesn't make since given the above statement. In the rare event that I actually go out in DC rather than watching movies with friends or knitting or doing whatever lame thing my 85 year old soul desires, we usually leave about 12 or 1am. Here things start closing then.

(3) I have yet to meet many british students. I have met a ton of Americans here for the semester or the year and people from lots of other countries like Germany, Jamaica, Italy, Greece, Canada, etc but barely any Brits. Why? I'm not sure. I think it has something to do with the fact that affiliate (study abroad) students seem to stick together and something to do with the fact that a lot of British students live an hour or so away from campus but besides that I don't know.

(4) As I briefly mentioned, the food is not so great. Not a big surprise.

(5) Everything costs the same as it does in the US except instead of a $ you have the GBP in front. Which makes everything about 1.5 times more expensive here :(

(6) I am a slob compared to these people. Everyone is always dressed up. I need to go shopping...

And if you haven't noticed, I am a big fan of lists.

Oh, also I went on a bus tour of London which rather than making me feel like I knew the city better, actually made me realize how much I didn't know/hadn't seen. I have so much to do over the next 5 months...

That is all.

Much love,

Erica