World Traveller in Training

4/05/09 - 4/06/09

2009-04-05T10:22:20Z

Tokyo is huge and we have a week until school starts. Obviously, this is the time to explore. On Saturday, we headed to Ikebukuro, a young person's hang out that is actually quite near us (and with our new commuter's pass, we can go there for free!). It was time for exploring and longing for things that were too expensive to buy.

Carina had been searching for that pink DSI since we got here. This was her victorious face.

This was the first of my "creeper pictures" where I take pictures of people who look silly without them noticing. The target here? The man behind the man bending down. As Carina put it, "It looks like his hair exploded!"

We soon ventured into Sunshine City, a gigantic underground mall. This is a fountain inside it. I couldn't look away. I was mesmorized for a good five minutes before the other two had to pull me away.

We were tired and hungry at this point and decided to go get dessert. And the Japanese? Do dessert right. ♥

The arcade in the mall. I love the cat with the monocle.

Creeper Picture 2. That girl has a gigantic see-through plastic green bow. Also, the rest of her clothes.

Later that night, our dorm decided to throw an impromptu welcome party. About nine of us went down to a local bar and rented a room for a few hours. It was lots of fun and it was nice to get to know some people that we lived with.

Amy (from Chicago) and Angela

Amy, Jennifer (from Boston) and Max (from Berkeley)

The Table: Carina, Dutch guy that I forgot his name, Valentin (from Austria), Quinn (from Boston) and the others I have already listed. :)

The next day, Carina, Angela and I were supposed to meet our friend Lidia at school before heading to Harajuku. Unfortunately, we never met up with Lidia. We're hoping she just forgot and we weren't waiting at different places or something silly like that. We did, however, get commuter passes so traveling will now be a lot easier.

The morning commute has girls only trains. :)

The Harajuku station. You know the phrase "a sea of people"? The person that coined that was thinking of Harajuku.

Harajuku has a famous bridge where people dress up in silly costumes and hang out and tourists take pictures of them. Here are my tourist pictures of silly people in costumes:

And the bored policemen for crowd control:

We decided to go down to the shrine since we were so close. We didn't realize at this point that we were, in fact, not very close and walked a great distance to get there. Oh well, it was pretty.

A Shinto Priest:

And a traditional wedding that was going on (more creeper pictures):

Remember that "sea of people" I mentioned?

I got very excited when I saw a giant ad featuring my favorite band so I took a picture:

Then, we saw a street-side version. Of course, I had to take this picture. I felt better because a group of Japanese girls took the same picture before I did:

The holy trinity of awesome stores, all side by side and giant:
H&M

Forever 21

and Top Shop

Oh, Harajuku~

This is exactly what you think it is. It is both amusing and uncouth:

Me and the Yatterman Poster (if you don't know what that is, it's okay):

And I will leave you with your dose of Engrish for the entry (restaurant edition):

3/31/2009 - 4/3/2009

2009-04-04T02:03:44Z

Well, the day started with a bang (literally!) as Mitch somehow got through airport security with a bomb on his hat. This picture was taken in the Vancouver BC airport which is quite possibly the nicest airport I have ever been in, full of food and high class shopping and waterfalls and canoes and giant aquarium walls. New favorite airport.

Those awesome people are Angela and Mitch, my traveling partners in crime. Angela is my next door neighbor/best Japan friend/awesome person extraordinaire. Mitch, unforunately, lives in another dorm and we haven't seen him since we left the airport. Angela and I, as you can see in the second picture, bought matching (well, I have Quatchi the Bigfoot and she has Suri the .. mutant thing) Vancouver Olympics lanyards. We did it to spend the Canadian money we had from lunch. This was actually a really practical investment, though, as we have lots of keys to our dorm and no one gave us anything to keep them on.

On to pictures of my room, Azalea House #405. I'm on the fourth and top floor which is kind of annoying but it's also kind of awesome. Have some pic spam of my room.

Entry Way

Kitchen Area

Actual Room Area

View from my balcony

My bathroom

Angela and I went and got home supplies last night so here is my room looking more lived in, aka taken after I woke up this morning.

The hallway

Looking down from the hallway

View from Hallway

My dorm

The awesome statues we have.

After we first ventured to campus, Angela and I were hungry for lunch. Seeing a Subway, I knew what lunch would be. However, like most things Japanese, Japanese Subway was an improvement in convenience over American Subway. Notice how they wrapped the sandwich. Also, instead of chips or cookies, you can get a "Potato Set Meal" with fry-esque potatoes. And they were delicious.

After Orientation, we each met our "monitor student", a Japanese English major who had two exchange students they were in charge of. Mine is Manami who is adorable and lived in Scotland for nine years so her English has an adorable Scottish accent on it. After a campus tour, a few of our monitor students who were friends decided to go to Shinjuku for fun and we all went with them. That's how I met the group of friends I've been hanging out with the past few days. They are all awesome.

As we were all starving, we went out for Nabe. It was, in a word, delicious. Also, we had two hour all you can drink but only four people ordered alcohol. My new heaven?

Nabe!

Angela (my friend from SMC), Swayze (from South Carolina) and Lidia (from Taiwan)

Robert (from New York who looks EXACTLY like Chris Fallin) and I

Other!Angela (from Texas), Davis (from Kansas) and Carina (from The Netherlands)

Bryce (from Florida), Victor (from Mexico), Katherine (from .. somewhere in America I forget) and Other!Angela again

The next day was the placement test and don't let this gorgeous picture of the entrance to my school fool you; it was the hardest test I have ever taken in my life. It killed me. I'm pretty sure I'm a ghost right now. The good news, though, is that it killed everyone so we can all be in Japanese One together. ♥

Angela and Carina. We all live together and thus, journey out together a lot. This is us killing time yesterday before the Welcome Party which was kind of lame but oh well, free food.

And what would Japan be without Engrish, that delightful mix of English and the fact that a lot of Japanese people can't use it correctly. I will leave you with your first example of Engrish, coming from my two trash cans. Enjoy~

memtracks @ 2009-03-31T12:05:00

2009-03-31T19:06:21Z

I'm sitting in the Vancouver BC airport as I type this, waiting to board the Air Canada flight that will take me to Japan. I know it's been awhile since this blog has been updated but I hope you're all ready to go to Asia, after following me around Europe. :)

12/7/2008 - 12/11/2008

2009-01-26T04:12:19Z

The next day, I woke up early and headed to the Sherlock Holmes Museum. This was the first of my few solo sightseeing adventures, as everyone else complained about having too many papers to write. To that I say fooey because I wrote four papers (43 pages) and did all this sightseeing and was still the only person to return from London with all of her papers finished. Obviously it can be done. ANYWAYS, I set off by myself and explored the Sherlock Holmes Museum which was everything I wanted it to be.

Dr. Watson! He talked to me for awhile. He also knew where Oregon was and that Salem was its capitol. Dr. Watson won major points in my book.

The next floor had mannequins reenacting famous scenes from Sherlock Holmes novels. Obviously, pictures had to be taken.

I have no idea how I got my eyes to do that and I cannot repeat it.

Signing the guestbook.

Next door was a store dedicated to Elvis things named "Elvisly Yours". Obviously, dad's entire Christmas present came from this store.

I ate lunch across the street at the "Sherlock Holmes Diner". They had murals of Sherlock Holmes scenes painted on all the walls. I attempted to take pictures with them. Attempted.

See those men moving the couch in the background? They were laughing so hard at me. How embarrassing.

Is that a park on the roof I see?

The walk back to the tube station. aka the normalcy of London that I miss terribly.

Souvenir!

Later that night, Nushi and I went out to Oxford Street to go Christmas Shopping. We ended up spending two hours in Primark, shopping for ourselves. Oops? I came out of that trip with some pretty pictures of Christmas decorations and a new coat that I am just barely fierce enough to pull off. I love it, though. I feel like Blair Waldorf when I wear it.

The Gap is all wrapped up for Christmas.

So is Marks and Sparks.

My coat! When worn with the hat, I become the ultimate American stereotype of England. Glorious.

A few days later, Nushi and I headed down to St. Paul's Cathedral to visit. Nushi didn't want to go in but thank heavens I forced her to. We spent three hours there. It was gorgeous. You can't take pictures inside but we took plenty outside and on the rooftop (which you have to walk tons of steps to reach but worth it.)

They have this on the way home from the tube station and I laughed everytime. Nothing like defacing a poster about running away because no one listens to you. Sensitivity! Hee.

Later that night, after Nushi ditched me, I decided to go to Evensong at Westminster Abbey by myself. It was the best thing I have ever done. It was gorgeous and just beautiful. It's free, too, so if you get the chance, go. Unfortunately, I have no pictures. However, afterwards, I saw the London Eye across the bridge and decided to go. No regrets, you know?

Christmas Tree at the Houses of Parliament

The next morning, Nushi and I got up and went to the Tower of London because Nushi hadn't gone yet. I had just been a few weeks prior but it was still pretty fun. Also, we went through the one section my parents and I had missed.

It was sunny enough that the sundial worked!

The guards marched by us as we walked in. It was pretty cool.

Remember the first entry when I took pictures of my room and it was all clean and pretty and not lived in? Well, I took the same pictures again to remember my room as it was during the time that it was my room.

And with that, I left London on December 11th. The trip was glorious. And even my ticket home read "Molly Muldoon: World Traveller" (I am not lying. It actually says that. It makes me happy). I really enjoyed my time in London and am looking very much forward to my journey to Tokyo in a few months. And I promise that I won't start my Senior Year of college with pictures of Tokyo still to post.

And so I'll leave London like I began London: with pictures of Nushi and I in Terminal 5 (although eating some lunch in this case).

11/27/2008 - 12/6/2008

2009-01-26T03:37:59Z

After a long hiatus (with no excuse), the travel blog is back! I intend to finish my semester in London in the next few entries today. Hang onto your hats, folks.

This ominous looking pathway was the path into Waterlow Park, a park you must venture through to get to Highgate Cemetery and Karl Marx's grave. Nushi and I got it into our heads that we were going to go and see it. Unfortunately, on this particular day, we left a little too late and arrived exactly as the cemetery was closing it's gates (at 4!). So all we have to show for our efforts are lots of pictures of a kind of dark and gloomy park.

Christmas was picking up steam the longer I was there, so there are quite a few pictures of Christmas decorations. Here are the first few, taken at Highgate High Street.

This statue is of the founder of the Salvation Army, William Booth. It is also at a bus stop down the road from our college. The bus was late, we were bored, Booth looks pretty fierce. Pictures needed to be taken.

A few days later, upon realizing that neither of us had been to Hyde Park yet, Nushi and I set out. We got off at Marble Arch station, entered through said Marble Arch and explored.

We had been heading in the direction of the giant ferris wheel, mainly because I was intrigued by it and wanted a closer look. We discovered the greatest thing ever: a Christmas Carnival! Hyde Park's Winter Wonderland had just started up and of course, who can resist Christmas-themed rides? It was tons of fun and we spent a lot more time than we had anticipated there.

Yes, that IS a Christmas-themed Haunted House. And yes, we rode it.

Apparently, Napoleon is terrifying enough to be in the yard of the haunted house.

The next day, we saw photos of Chris Martin riding that with his daughter. WE MISSED CHRIS MARTIN BY A DAY!

Yes, that is a war memorial to animals. "They had no choice." ...people were giving us weird stares while we took these pictures.

A very fat pigeon on a gravestone at the cemetery on campus. I just loved his face. So cute.

They put a Christmas tree in the quad! You can't tell but it also has shiny blue lights on it.

About a week after the first attempt, Nushi and I made the trip over to Highgate Cemetery again. We left two hours earlier and the weather was much more appetizing. However, on our way out, we discovered one thing. The canal outside our dorms had frozen over!

There were a lot of entertaining adverts in the tube stations on our way there. Too much fun.

Hugh Laurie looks ecstatic to be between those two blondes.

Twilight poster. Hilarity!

It was sunny for once and the walk (who are we kidding? we took this bus this time) to the park entrance to the cemetery was beautiful.

Remember that gloomy park? No more! The sun made it beautiful and nice and everything you imagine an English park to be.

The little pond had half frozen over and all the birds were standing on the ice. It was pretty funny.

We finally reached Highgate and paid our entrance fee. It was gorgeous and we took tons of pictures. Prepare yourself.

It took so much patience to get this picture but look! The bird has a berry in it's mouth!

We turned a corner and discovered Karl Marx's grave. Or rather, it appeared on the horizon. Karl Marx's grave is huge.

For some reason, we was surrounded by graves of other communists. I don't even know.

On our way out, I happened to glance to my right and did a double take. Was that Douglas Adams's grave? Low and behold, it was. I swear, we were more excited about that than Karl Marx. We took pictures and left a stone on his grave, like everyone else before us.

The next week was filled with frantic sightseeing in the morning and frantic paper writing in the evening. There are millions of pictures so I'm going to end this entry here and begin a new one. I will leave you with one last picture of beautiful Waterlow Park.

11/24/2008; 11/26/2008

2008-12-21T01:03:46Z

Paris! Paris was our destination on November 24th. We set off from St. Pancras International at 7:30 in the morning. I'm not going to lie; I was a little sad our destination was not Disneyland Paris. :)

The train ride through the chunnel was actually very enjoyable. I fell asleep towards the end of it but it was a nice, quiet ride and we saw some pretty French countryside out the window.

We boarded the tour bus and off we went. If it weren't for our tour, I don't think we would have had half the fun we did. There were eight of us in our group along with Sami, our tourguide. Considering we were together all day, we all ended up being pretty good friends and had the best time.

I have now seen "Tinkerbell" signs in three different languages.

Even the Metro signs are stylish.

I love that these two stores are next to each other.

Our first real stop was the Eiffel Tour. Due to our being on a tour, we got the very first elevator up. It was also freezing. We looked out for as long as we could bear but with windchill probably being about -100, we weren't out there for long.

After the Eiffel Tour, Sami took us to a little cafe to eat lunch. We were only supposed to stay for about an hour. We left two and a half hours later. Delicious!

In an old house in Paris all covered in vines...

There was a protest going on as we ate. It was pretty exciting.

Our next adventure was a boat tour of The Seine. It was very nice, indoors and thus warm, and we saw a lot of things we weren't able to actually visit.

The Legendary Polar Bear of Paris!

The Louvre!

An adorable, tiny house.

Much to my mother's delight, our next stop was Notre Dame Cathedral. It was beautiful and you could feel the history surrounding the place. Simply gorgeous.

After this, we had some time to walk around a bit and as the sun went down, we were driven back into the center of town. We were taken to a department store to see the view from the roof and it was marvelous.

Us and our tour guide, Sami.

And with that, our tour of Paris was over and we headed back to London. It was quite a nice day.

The rest of the vacation passed well and I know my parents had a great time. I'm glad that they managed to come and visit. My next few weeks were nothing short of stress inducing, however, with four papers to write, a test to take and as much sightseeing as possible to fit in. More to come soon.

11/21/2008 - 11/23/2008; 11/25/2008

2008-12-21T00:19:39Z

It was at this point in my London career that my parents came to visit. This is only the first half of their trip as day four was Paris and probably 1/4 of all my pictures from this semester are from that single day. So, the 24th will be skipped over in this entry and will have it's own entry, which will probably appear right after I finish this entry. Anyways, on the 21st, my mom was awake and ready to explore while my dad just wanted to sleep. Leaving him in the hotel room, we went out to Oxford Street and Picadilly Circus to sight see a bit.

The next day, I took my parents to the British Museum, pretty much the most awesome museum to ever exist, ever. We checked out the Egyptian, Greek, and Japanese areas. They were all really very impressive. I think my dad enjoyed it.

I had to take a picture of the opposite side of the room to not look like a creeper taking this picture but really? Green shoes with a black outfit? Really?

British Museum display or Grandma Roche's house? You decide.

After the museum, I took my parents for a little walk around Central London, pretty much the same walk Nushi and I took in the previous entry. I think they enjoyed it and we certainly had some nice weather, considering it was pouring like none other as we were in the museum.

The next day, we picked up my roommate Nushi and went to Westminster Abbey. I had already decided to skip class. As the tour ended five minutes before our class began, Nushi ended up skipping, too. As this blog will show, that was a most advantageous decision.

Our next stop was the Winston Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms. My dad was really the only reason we went but it was actually a really neat museum. It also had some really cool patrons. A lot of things came together to make this awesome experience: My father wanting to go the museum, my being famished, my parents saying we'd eat after the museum, and there being a cafe halfway through the self-guided walking tour.

Well, Nushi and I decided to stop for food and wait for my parents to catch up. As we sat and ate, Nushi looked over at me with wide eyes and just goes "Stephen Colbert is right there" and sure enough, the entire Colbert family was eating right next to us. After eating a meal in complete silence, as they got up to leave, we (and by we, I mean Nushi as I had completely lost my nerve) introduced ourselves, said we were really big fans, received thank yous and handshakes, and asked to take a picture which was accepted with a smile. Stephen Colbert is pretty much the nicest man ever. His family is also adorable.

Nothing could really stand up after that but later that night we went out to dinner with all of my friends. Here is a picture from that:

The next day was Paris so that will be skipped over for the time being.

Wednesday, my parents and I went to the Tower of London. It was really impressive and I actually ended up going again before my return to America. Just the structure alone would have been impressive enough but they have some really interesting exhibits to check out. If you get the chance to go to London, visit the Tower.

Nothing like ice skating in the moat of the most famous prison in history, right?

A real tourist in the Tower of London. Why does he have the camel head peeking out of his backpack? We may never know.

The next post shall have Paris so check back in ... probably 20 minutes. Until then, I will leave you with what I found upon my return from the Tower: proof of my victory over my loud, obnoxious Russian flatmates!

11/9/2008 - 11/20/2008

2008-12-02T21:37:33Z

Well, I returned from Copenhagen and promptly turned 21. There are, unfortunately, no pictures from my birthday as not much of anything was done on my birthday. I turned the big two one standing in line at the Post Office and the only celebration was my friends going to a nice birthday dinner with me where I scarfed down a bowl of tori domburi and laughed at everyone for ordering too little. No, the true point of this entry will be the two walks Nushi and I went on in November. The first was for my Representing London in the 18th Century class, which I'm writing this post to take a break from writing a paper for right now actually. The walk consisted of going to places of social importance in the 1700s and learning something. That might have happened. We definitely saw stuff, though.

The first place we went was Lincoln's Inn Fields, a famous spot of executions back in the 1700s. Now it's a really nice park and famous only for it's one strict rule: No bicycle riding if you are over the age of 14. That day before you turn 15? Take one last bike ride and kiss the park goodbye.

The next stop was Bloomsbury Church, over by the British Museum. This was once a church right in the middle of the slums, made famous in Hogarth's engraving Gin Lane. Now it has quaint restaurants and cute little shops around it. Notice a theme? You should.

Our next stop was Monmouth Avenue and Seven Dials. This was once a famous den of thieves and pickpockets. Now it's an eclectic mix of shops and cafes with a unique and adorable style. Also, Mysteries? Was this occult bookstore that Nushi and I literally spent like 45 minutes in. It's kind of amazing. Nushi's Christmas present came from there: a book entitled The Wonder of Unicorns.

Our next stop was Covent Garden, once famous for it's illustrious prostitutes and now known for having a cute little market and fifty million street performers. Unfortunately, our theme ends here but I did manage to write a paper on this and get a B on it. Huzzah!

Our last stop was Trafalgar Square. Techinically, it was only a half way point but you can see how dark it was by that point and we had also been on our two hour walk for four hours so we headed back by tube. In the last two pictures, you can see some stupendous tube art we decided to pose with while waiting for our train.

Later on in the week, we decided to go on a walk down the canal across from our dorms. What did we discover there? Swans! They were just floating around and came right up to us. I thought this was new and novel but since then, I've probably seen a swan in the canal every other day or so. Way to take the excitement away, tons of swans.

The 21st of November, my parents came to visit for the week. Look forward to those pictures in the next update. There will be tons of pictures. And it will probably come soon considering I have 4 papers to write and lots of breaks to take during them. Back to the grindstone. 10 days until I return to America.

11/3/2008 - 11/8/2008

2008-11-16T02:38:38Z

As an English college, Queen Mary has a week called Reading Week where you simply do not have class. In theory, it means you spend that week writing papers and catching up on homework. In practice, you travel the world. I followed Mary back to her current town of Copenhagen, Denmark and decided to take a shot at this "to be or not to be" nonsense.

Just a warning, there will be a lot of pictures in this entry. As I type this, 90 pictures are being uploaded on my server. So, if your computer is really slow, maybe borrow someone else's.

Our first day in Copenhagen, we were a little beat, our travel time being leaving my flat in London at 3:20 AM and arriving in at her room in Copenhagen at 11:00 AM. After sleeping most of the day, we went grocery shopping and made dinner. It was quite exciting.

Of course, while we were in Copenhagen, Election Day came and went. The US election would be pretty much decided between 5 and 7 AM our time. The plan was to sleep and whoever woke up first checked and either woke the other up in joy or let the other sleep away the pain. In truth, I couldn't sleep and spent all night refreshing CNN.com.

At 5 AM, I woke up Mary. We celebrated with chocolate milk. You can see the pure joy radiating off our faces.

Wednesday, the plan was to shop, get pastries and maybe do a little sightseeing. Wednesday turned out to be our big sightseeing day. Also, it was amazing.

It was at this point (ten minutes into our journey) that our bus broke down. Yes, yes it did. We waited for the next one as Mary frantically hoped our pastry shop wouldn't run out of delicious wares while we waited. Spoiler alert: it didn't.

Walking around Copenhagen is a trip. It's like walking through a storybook village. It's pretty much the cutest place I've ever been. As such, I took a ton of pictures, all of which I like and probably will be put in this entry. Be excited.

It was at this point (after I almost died of a stomach ache and then miraculously healed) that Mary decided that sightseeing was in order. Our first stop? An adorable little park.

I call this the Postcard Picture:

We next walked down to the Palace, which has a lot of really cool statues and churches surrounding it. Also, Mary is taking a class on the history of Copenhagen so she knew everything. It was a very neat and handy thing. Now, I know everything about everything in Copenhagen.

Our next stop was the Citadel, basically the Danish equivalent of the Pentagon. However, unlike our Pentagon, there is no security and you can literally just walk on the base. Yet another reason I claim that Denmark is the most trusting country ever.

It was at this point that I spotted a fountain, went "Let's see that!" and sprinted off. That is how the day ended: my excitement leading us to place after place. We found lots of awesome statues and the sea this way.

It was at this point that we saw a little dock out in the middle of nowhere. Thinking this a great opportunity, we walked out onto it. Was this a safe idea? No, probably not. The dock rocked like Nessie was underneath, shaking it. Was this best idea every anyway? Yes, yes it was.

Mary, at this point, realized that we were probably close to the "Little Mermaid Statue" which I was all for. We found her (as did a group of Korean tourists) and spent quite a bit of time posing with her. I think she's my favorite part of Copenhagen.

Thus, our walk home began. But, me being me, many more pictures were taken as we went.

And for my father:

The next day, we decided to go to the Danish ballet. We bought twenty dollar standing room only tickets. We ended up with 150 dollar seats. That's why it pays to be two young women when the usher is a young man.

Can you spot the difference between these two pictures?

Our new seats versus our old seats

Danish signs are also my new favorite things:

Actual sign on the bus. What exactly are those middle things? My first thought was banana

Our last day, to finish off the cultured feeling, we went to the museum. It was pretty neat, I can't lie. Also, I can say that I've been to the Danish ballet and the Danish National Museum and who doesn't want to be able to say that?

Probably.

With that, regretfully, I had to return home. After a very pleasant traveling experience through Europe, I arrived back at my flat and discovered that the cleaning lady had had a field day with my room while I was gone. It was more clean than the day I moved in, I'm pretty sure. I shall leave you guys with a picture of how adorable my bed looked upon my return.

10/26/2008 - 11/2/2008

2008-11-09T20:31:13Z

If you will remember, in our last meeting, Tally was visiting and we were waiting on Mary. Well, Mary soon appeared and we took London by storm. When we weren't relaxing in my room, that is.

One of our first tasks once together? Seek out a theater and watch High School Musical 3: Senior Year. We ended up going to the theater down the street after a relaxing dinner at The Hayfield and it was one of the most glorious things ever.

The following day, we decided to head out to Harrods. It was crowded, it was busy, it was still worth it. I got myself the Holiday Bear and he is pretty darn cute.

Friday was soon upon us and what was Friday? Why, the day Quantum of Solace had it's London premiere. We had decided to go years in advance but when we awoke, our poor Mary was feeling sickly so Tally and I had to venture out alone. Mary was sorely missed.

The days in London with the girls passed quickly and we kept forgetting to take pictures so that's why this entry is a little sparse. However, on Monday morning, I venture over to Denmark for the week to keep Mary company. That entry is forth coming and will be stuffed to the brim with pictures. Until then, I leave you with this picture of a classic car we saw cruising around in London.

10/23/2008 - 10/25/2008

2008-11-02T00:08:40Z

On Friday, October 24th, Tally (one of my best friends from highschool/home) arrived in London. After a mess of trying to pick her up at the airport, we arrived back at my place and relaxed. Our other dear friend, Mary, would not arrive until the following day around midnight so we spent Saturday wandering. We expected to maybe see something a little famous. Instead, we inadvertently saw pretty much anything you would ever hope to see on a postcard. This day is so epic, it gets it's own picture post. Dial up users, beware.

After leaving Tottenham Court Road station, we continued walking down until we found ourselves in Leicester Square, famous for being the place movies premiere in London. Unfortunately, nothing was currently premiering but it was still cool to walk around.

We wandered down a ways and saw a sign for the National Gallery. Curious, we wandered down, only to find ourselves in Trafalgar Square.

Seeing Big Ben in the distance, we decided to head towards it. Many picture opportunities presented themselves and we were not about to let them pass us by.

Then, on our way to cross the street, we say some other tourists doing this pose. We shamelessly stole it.

The square across from Big Ben has a lot of statues of famous people. What do you do with statues of famous people? You imitate them and take pictures.

Westminster Abbey wasn't far away and that was our next tour stop.

We kept walking past the abbey, in search of Buckingham Palace which I knew was pretty close. We decided to walk through St. James Park on our way. It was pretty and fall and had so much wildlife, you wouldn't know what to do with yourself.

Buckingham Palace was found! But there's not much to do there but look at it so we didn't stay long.

We walked back towards the centre of town and soon found ourselves famished. Nearby, we spotted a Pasta Hut which is indeed a fancy version of Pizza Hut. Somehow, it managed to class itself up. I don't know. It was delicious, however, and we stayed for about two hours.

Walking back east, we found ourselves in Piccadilly Circus, the strangely Tokyo-esque nightlife capitol of London (or so it seemed). We wandered for awhile.

Eventually, though, we decided to head home and await the arrival of our dear Mary. Tons more pictures were taken with her so that shall be the next update. I will leave you with a photo of our journey homewards.

10/14/2008 - 10/22/2008

2008-10-22T18:53:02Z

It was Carey's Birthday on last Saturday and we celebrated twice. On Friday, we all went out to Hard Rock Cafe. The food there is delicious, by the way. We got seated right away (birthday magic?) and relaxed and ate there for two hours.

Yes, they made Carey stand on a chair and had the entire restaurant sing her happy birthday. It was pretty cute. Also, it was roughly the fourth time we had to sing to someone on a chair that night. Apparently October 17th is a hopping birthday night.

On our way home, during our one transfer, we were forced to evacuate the tube station. I was pretty certain it was just a forgotten shopping bag or something but Vera and Chelsea were convinced that we were within mere seconds of being blown to smithereens. I took a picture of the locked up tube station (because how often do you see that?). Vera yelled at me to run when she realized I was pausing to take a picture. As you can tell, we're all fine and I'm pretty sure some little kid didn't get a new sweater from Debenhams.

The birthday fun continued on Saturday when Carey, Chelsea and I made our way to Covent Garden to see The Lion King at the Lyceum Theatre. It was spectacular. Since we saw a matinee, after the show we wandered around Covent Garden, one of the cutest little areas of London. We got dinner, shopped around, and just relaxed.

That's where we ate dinner at a little crepe shop. They were delicious.

After dinner and shopping, we got a good old Starbucks and made our way back to the tube station. As Chelsea put it, we had a very "Disney Day". It was wonderful.

The rest of the week was marked by a lot of homework and work and as such, almost no pictures were taken. Brittany's birthday was on Tuesday but our lone celebration was getting a pizza and we will do more this weekend.

Today, I had tickets to go see the Jack the Ripper exhibit at the Museum of the Docklands. It was really very interesting. I couldn't take pictures inside, unfortunately, but it was room after room of historical items, facts, letters, diagrams and everything involved in the case. It was fascinating. I loved it.

On my to the bus stop, I took some pictures because Canary Wharf is really pretty. I was alone so the pictures are kind of bad but what can you do?

That building with the little bit of a point at the top? Is One Canada Square, the tallest building in the UK. It didn't seem all that much bigger than the other skyscrapers to me, though.

With that, this update ends. My friends from home, Tally and Mary, are arriving this weekend and will be staying for a week. I'm sure many pictures will be taken at that time. Until then, I will leave you with this picture of the three ducks that were swimming across the canal in a row next to me as I crossed the footbridge. It was adorable.

10/1/2008 - 10/13/2008

2008-10-13T21:26:39Z

There will be many museums in this entry, as we've visited a few in the past few weeks. This one here is the Natural History Museum. Look how beautiful that architecture is, though. It didn't even have to have anything in it to be awesome. Fortunately, the Natural History Museum was ripe to be photographed and all museums in England are free so it was like a smorgasbord of entertainment.

One fun thing about "natural history" is that it means DINOSAURS. They had a huge dino exhibit, including a life size working, moving, and roaring replica of a teenage t. rex. It was basically the best exhibit ever.

Another thing they have at the natural history museum is every animal ever even imagined on earth, including a life size blue whale. Um, amazing.

Sadly, the exhibit on the human body was a little lacking (and a little creepy). They had a room with a eight times life size fetus which was tinted red and had a heart beat playing. Um, no.

After the museum, we ventured around, learning how to eat a new and exciting meal (the terrine) of which they actually had a diagram to teach tourists how to eat it, and discovering that somethings are universal. Things like petty yet awesome television.

Later on that week, we ventured to the British Museum, which I remember first learning about the existence of in the Brendan Fraser classic, The Mummy. Ever since then, I'd wanted to go and it did not disappoint.

That's the Rosetta Stone! Right there! I about had a heart attack of glee. No one else in my party quite loved the museum as I did but that's okay. It was awesome.

Here are some various pictures from the past few weeks that don't have a fun classification:

Pretty building across from the Chancery Lane tube station.

The O2 Dome. Built for the millennium and pretty much fail-tastic. It looks ridiculous and it is ridiculous. Brittany and I headed over there one weekend for a meet-up party for a website we both read. We didn't really know how it was going to turn out but we heard that it was free food and drinks so we were there.

Needless to say, it was very entertaining. Nothing like a gathering of London's finest internet geeks.

And with that, I leave you for the time, dear readers. I've been school-ing pretty much all my time lately but we're going to venture over to the West End later this week and see The Lion King for Carey's birthday so probably more pictures sometime around then.

Announcement

2008-10-02T09:07:46Z

Hey, I didn't realize that I had turned commenting to people using lj only. Sorry about that! I just fixed it so that you can leave a comment without creating a journal of your own (because I realize you probably don't want one). Problem solved!

9/18/2008 - 9/30/2008

2008-09-30T23:37:36Z

We went on a bus tour of London that first week. I took lots of pictures which are vaguely useless as they are taken from a bus and are mainly for my own reference. Only the really cool ones (read: I actually left the bus to take) are included in this, our next installment of Molly in London. Here I am at the London Tower Bridge. It's probably my favorite bridge over the Thames (and yes, I do have quite the selection). You might remember it from our nighttime tour but here it is in daylight and not blurry. A vast improvement.

We went to Buckingham Palace too, or at least, saw it from across the road. The tour wasn't supposed to be more than two hours, anyways. It's really pretty, though, and I'm sure I'll get closer to it sometime. We did, however, have time to investigate those crazy guards.

You could tell he was sick of the tourists taking pictures with him. Oh well. Part of the job description, buddy!

I have hundreds of thousands of more pictures of that day but they are silly and have stickers on the bus windows obscuring visions and such so they will be forgotten to make room for more exciting things. For, that next day, we took a wonderful day trip.

Friday morning, we woke up at 6 AM to make it to Carey's mom's hotel to go on a bus tour of Windsor, Bath, and Stonehenge. It was early, yes, but it was worth it.

I got that awesome shot on our way to the hotel. Is there anything more quintessential London than that picture? I think not.

After a trip to the bus terminal (where I got hashbrowns and an orange juice I snuck on the bus, the first of my many instances of complete disregard for bus food rules) and a 45 minute ride punctuated with an attempt at engaging our interest with a discourse on British kings (which I quickly drowned out with my iPod and Japanese pop music), we were at Windsor Castle.

It's pretty impressive. We only had an hour and a half there and we also were supposed to eat before getting back on the bus but we managed to walk around most of it. And the changing of the guards was going on while we were there!

It was pretty cool for the first ten minute but this takes a full on half hour. We could not waste our precious time.

That's St. George's Chapel. We walked through it. It has the grave of Henry VIII and the Queen Mother in it. You get really hit with history. I loved it.

After grabbing some lunch (including the illegal non-screw cap can of pop), we headed back to the bus and almost died on our 1 1/2 hour journey to Bath due to a lack of air conditioning. When we got to Bath, half the bus complained. I didn't. I had passed out from heat exhaustion. That's what I get for wearing a sweater in England, I suppose.

Even though I knew Bath because of my literary idol, Jane Austen, apparently Bath is famous for having a natural hotspring used by the Romans. Who knew? That, however, was where our tour was headed. And in its defense, the Roman Bath was really cool. No Mr. Darcy but I'll let it slide this time.

Btw, Bath Abbey was gorgeous. I never knew I liked architecture until I saw that place.

Of course, what's a museum without a few silly pictures?

I really enjoyed the baths, though, and it was definitely a highlight of my time here thus far. But our journey was far from over!

This time, I snuck a milkshake on the bus and it was obvious that our tour guide hated our little group. He even yelled at us on the bus. Mind, we were far from the only people on the tour. It would have been embarrassing if we didn't find it hilarious. An hour bus trip later, we had arrived at a childhood dream of mine: Stonehenge.

Yeah, that's years of excitement in that smile. I have always wanted to see Stonehenge. Unfortunately, it's kind of just a bunch of stones on a hillside, off the highway. Not quite the mythic experience I had built up in my mind.

So we had an epic battle. I think it helped.

These children felt the mythic wonder of Stonehenge, obviously. Maybe it's a kid thing? (Does it make me a creeper that I took that picture?)

We came home and ate and since then, have had class and gotten lost in the city and not really taken any pictures. I know. I'm a bad person. And trust me, those aren't the only pictures I have of anything I just described. Let me know if you want to see anything else.

What have I really been up to lately? Our little pack of 6 Americans watch movies every night once everyone gets home. It's a nice tradition and we're going to splurge and get pizza tomorrow night. I don't think I've ever been this excited for pizza. It will be glorious.

Hope all back home are well. I'll update again once I've done something exciting. It may be a month at this rate. I'm a poor, poor student. I shall leave you with my feelings on that fact.

9/14/2008 - 9/17/2008

2008-09-17T23:17:54Z

I'm starting to become used to it now but boats like to cruise down the canal outside my window. It was surprising the first time, though, and I took a picture. Now I just kind of want to join them; it looks like fun.

Remember that carousel I mentioned? Yeah, we definitely took it up on it's free ride offer the next day. I have a lot more pictures but I figured I would spare you. It went surprisingly fast for a merry-go-round. Nushi tried to go no hands, no legs and almost fell off. Our entire journey it played carousel'd versions of Beatles songs, too. When I walked by the day before, it was playing Wonderful, Wonderful Copenhagen.

Later on this same day, we were ran into by a man in a pig costume. He was handing out flyers for a nearby pub (and we still need to use the one for a free hamburger) but of course, who could resist the photo op?

Quite a few more things happened such as enrollment, registration, and various lectures on fire safety (it was an hour long. They kicked a med student out of the college and put a "not fit to practice medicine" note in his file for tampering with a fire extinguisher. This school doesn't kid around with fire safety). However, these things are quite boring and thus, were not photographed.

Tuesday night, though, it was finally time! A boat tour on the River Thames! We were very excited and ended up at our tube station 45 minutes early. Oh well.

Outside Monument tube station. On the left is a Subway, my own personal embassy.

These four are my constant companions. Vera and Nushi (the two on the ends) are my roommates and best friends from Saint Mary's. Chelsea (the blond) and Carey (the brunette) both go to Saint Mary's, too, but we'd never met before Carey and I ended up living next to each other. They're a year younger than us and adorable.

We were very impatient to get the show on the road but we had a lot of cool shots waiting on deck of the Miyuki Maru. That's the London Tower Bridge. It's good luck if you see it raised. Unfortunately, we didn't. We did, however, pass under it twice.

The darkness was making it hard to take pictures. I have a lot of very blurry attempts and I'll post the best ones here. Just ... it was a lot prettier than you will see.

Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. It's all lit up and night and gorgeous.

The London Eye. We've already decided we're going on it at some point, mainly because how cool is that? It's huge and I don't think I managed to capture the scope of how humongous this is but I tried.

The London Tower Bridge, again, as we passed under it again. It's really pretty. I'm a fan.

More pictures to come soon. We're going on a bus tour of London tomorrow and Carey's family invited us to go with them to Bath and Stonehenge on Friday. I'm beyond excited!

9/13/2008

2008-09-13T20:25:24Z

Anushka and I arrive in Terminal 5. Unfortunately, there is no one there to meet us and we have to make the half hour journey to Terminal 3.

There was seriously a carousel just sitting in the middle of one of the squares, with a sign that said "FREE RIDES ALL DAY!" Nushi and I were seriously confused and just giggled. That's our new friend Quinn from Duke on the end. She thought it was as ridiculous as we did.

My flat! It's on the second floor (which is really the third floor in England), right next to the lift entrance. The door is impossible to open.

My door is the first one on the left when you walk in, which I suppose is handy. It means I can hear when someone's knocking on the main door. What does that say on my door, you ask?

Yes, it says "Fire Door Keep Shut". There is a strange fear of us all burning up in a massive fire over here. I have to attend a panel on dorm fire safety on Monday and received like five pamphlets about not catching on fire. I will attempt to do my best.

The view when you walk in. My desk is very clean right now. Heaven knows how long that will be true.

My bed and picture wall. My room is unbearably white. In the student handbook I just read, though, it said we were only allowed to have decorations on the cork-board wall. I'm already breaking the rules with my picture wall. Lame. And if you're reading this right now, there is probably a picture of you up there. ♥

My closet! It's huge and takes up a whole wall. The only problem? It has no drawers. Some hanging space, a sink, three shelves and that's it. I made it work but it is seriously awkward.

Desk and cork-board wall. Once again, more clean than it will be in the rest of it's lifetime.

The view out my window. I actually have one of the nicer views and I'm happy about that. I love the little canal that runs behind my building. I have yet to actually walk down and check it out but it's really pretty.

My bedside table which I am one of few people (that I've seen) to have it bedside. I think it's adorable though and I love it. My desk lamp is brighter than my main light, too. I actually have been using it for light instead. It's like mood lighting 24/7.

Lastly, my favorite part of the room?

My random small window next to my bed! I call it my porthole and it is amazing. It actually opens wide enough to stick your head out of to allow you to yell randomly at passerby and then sneak back into the comfort of your own bed stealthily. It is an amazing invention.

And now I shall sleep because jet lag is catching up with me something crazy.