Bath.

I loved Bath. it was number 2 on my favorite list. It was the most charming, beautiful, quaint little town I have ever been to. It was in the middle of some green, green hills. It was so so beautiful. I loved it. When the sun came out - it was just heavenly. When we first got there this morning it was cold and raining. We went into Bath Abbey. It was probably one of my favorite churches that we have gone into. It was quiet and beautiful. I couldn't hear the storm that was happening outside. I loved it. Someone was playing the piano, and it was just pretty sounding. Some of the Cathedrals and such that we have gone into haven't been all that impressive to me, or maybe its just that they didnt have any special meaning or significance to me at the time. But for some reason this one did. I loved it.

The Roman Baths were amazing! I seriously was enthralled the whole time. It made me want to be an archaeologist! No joke. I want to excavate things! It was fascinating to me. I loved it. It was originally a huge, huge complex with several buildings and large gardens. It was seriously SO awesome. The remains and ruins and such that they are excavating are so cool. So cool. The water in the Baths hasnt been touched or treated or anything since it was last used in the 1700's (ish...) so it was this nasty disgusting green color. And it was steaming. Just to add an effect. Haha. It was so awesome. I loved it.
We got to throw in pennies (or pences? I guess...) and make wishes!

Now for an explanation of the pictures. At the end of the tour you can taste the water. It is hot minerally, sulfery smelling water. Seriously disgusting.

After the Roman Baths we went to the Fashion Museum, where we looked at tons of dresses spanning hundreds of years. It was super cool. We got to try on corsets and hoop skirts!! So fun.

Next we went to another one of Jane Austen's houses. We met Mr. Darcy. Score. It obviously completed our trip to Bath.

It was a really fun weekend. This coming week we are going to The Tower of London and Oxford! I'm super excited. Wednesday will be our half way mark! So unbelievable. It is flying. But at the same time it feels like we have been here forever. Everything that was once so thrilling and exciting is becoming common place. Kind of weird. But I like it!

I get married in 40 days! So crazy. Absolutely so excited. We finally finalized our honeymoon tonight! I'm quite excited :]

Cornwall weekend

Last night was pretttty fun. We hung out in our hotel room and just acted like silly girls. This morning we went to Exeter Cathedral and walked around a bit. It’s got some beautiful stained glass and painted ceilings. It was pretty. Then we headed to Jane Austen’s house. It was so cute! It was really cool to see the way people used to live. Everything is so small! But at the same time it’s got a beautiful simplicity to it. Then we headed back to London! It was nice to get back. Tomorrow we are heading out to Bath. I’m super excited! It will be a fabulous day!
Lots of pictures to come. :]


night at the pier after our hour long walk in the rain.. :]


polperro! amazing town.




Got stuck climbing up the cliffs at Polperro
Exploring caves at Polperro.

Tintagel. And the deathly stairs carved into the side of the mountain that we had to hike up to get to the top.


King Arthurs Castle? In Tintagel.


Cornish Pasty!
On the coach. Always on the coach.
Land's End.
Porthcurno



These are old pictures from Lion King!
Sad face because of the annoying teenagers in the row behind us.

polperro.

So much for my faithful blogging every night. I'm just too tired when I get home!!

Okay so Tuesday was fabulous!! We had class in the morning (which was awesome by the way. It was British Mysteries. I love it! Our teacher is awesome, and our class discussions are fun. This week our assignment is to read Sherlock Holmes - which I've never read before! And surprisingly - I really like!! Its pretty fun to read) After class we headed to The National Gallery. It was so amazing. I absolutely loved it. I love seeing paintings that I have studied in class and written papers about. I love knowing about the artists lives and the stories behind the paintings and the things that are interesting in each. I really love art - I never really had a huge appreciation for it when I would see it in a text book, but to see it right infront of you is definitely thrilling.

Tuesday we also bought tickets to go to Bath on Saturday! We got a discount because there are 4 of us going. We have to be at the train station a littttle earlier tan I would have liked :] but it will give us the whole day over there. I'm super excited. For lunch we found this cute bagel/sandwich place. It was a TOTAL disappointment. I swear, we have the WORST luck with restaurants. The only good one so far has been Nandos. We always pick the worst ones. So we ordered water - which we have come to find out is pretty taboo over here. The lady brings us mini bottles of Evian water and tries to charge us 2 pounds! Not even full size!! lame. So we asked her if we could just have tap water - which apparently "they dont have". Then she was upset at us and took a long time to bring our food - which really wasn't all that good. Going to restaurants over here is such a weird experience. It's so different. There is no customer service anywhere it seems! And nobody cares about presentation - the food may taste okay but 9 times out of 10 it wont look appetizing or pretty. you can FORGET the garnish. it's non-existent :]

Tuesday night we went to Lion King. It was pretty cool! Not quite what I was expecting...But it was a fun show. The colors were FANTASTIC! I loved them. And the costumes were really interesting as well. I was a little disappointed with Simba...his voice just wasnt powerful and he kind of sounded like a girl..and the choreography was a little off as well...for example in the song "I Just Can't Wait to be King" the little Simba gets down and starts doing the worm...yeah...a little weird. But it was a fun show. We experienced - for the first time - good customer service while we were at this show. It was amazing! we sat in front of this group of teenagers for the first half. They were talking on their cell phones (no joke), talking to each other and just being flat out obnoxious. So we went to the usher at intermission and asked them to tell the kids to be quiet. Not only did they do that, but then they moved us to better seats! It was amazing!

Wednesday we went left for our first weekend trip. Our first stop was Polperro. It is my absolute favorite place that we have been. Before I left, my entire family was telling me how amazing Polperro was and how it was their favorite place. now I can join the club! Its a teensy little fishing village. We climbed all over the cliffs and hiked up the side of one of the hills. It was so so much fun. I'll put on pictures as soon as we get back to London. We were going into all of the shops in the town. At the last shop we went into, these little watercolors int he back caught my eye. They're so bright and cute. I loved them! Of course, I had to buy 4 of them. My first souvenirs! Exciting. They're so so beautiful. I love them. I think I'm going to frame them and put them in our bathroom when we get our new apartment. I'm stoked. When we got back on the bus I remembered my mom telling me that last time she was in Polperro she bought watercolors too!! It made me laugh. I wonder if they're the same!

We stopped for the night at a place called Falmouth. Our hotel is right on the beach. It's super cool. We went for a super long walk last night in the pouring rain. It was fun though - we saw a pier that had a hundred or more yachts and sail boats. There was also a navy ship. It was pretty sweet!!

Today we're off to Tintagel. It should be a fabulous day!!

kew gardens and wicked.

kew gardens. beautiful.

our friend mister bear.
more kew

wicked!! so amazing. amazing seats at student ticket prices. half off. amazing.



still just pictures. the internet at the Centre sucks. so I can never post. plus we're not doing a whole lot that is exciting. but ill get better. :]

les mis & the globe

romeo and juliet here we come. and dont be deceived by how it looks sunny...im not sure what was up with the flash, but it was BITTER cold. it was freeeezing! no good.
at the globe!
on the millennium bridge

hot dogs outside of the british museum :]
they were actually kind of gross...and i have more than half of mine to the birds. haha

china town...where we got gross chinese food. bummer.

les miserables!


i dont know why i always do this silly pose where i make fists and lift my shoulders up. sam so nicely pointed out that i do it in every picture. weird.

anyway, off for another adventure tomorrow!

huge update.

Saturday morning we got up early and walked over to Portobello Road Market. It was so fabulous! It was super fun. We got there a little too early, so things were still getting set up, but we missed the huge crowd, which was super nice. We got delicious pastries and fruit salads for breakfast. SO yummy. The fruit over here is delicious!! Especially the berries. I get them wherever I go. Mmm.

Next we headed to Greenwich for the day. It was really neat. We took an over ground train to get there, and it was cool to see that part of London We walked around the Royal Naval Academy and The Queens Palace – which was LAME! All we got to see was the front entry. But first we had to walk up like 5 flights of stairs, so that we could look down at the floor….like I said, lame. The Royal Maritime Museum and the Royal Observatory made for a fun afternoon. They were both super interactive which was fun!

Coolest part of the day – we took a boat ride down the Thames to get home from Greenwich!! It was absolutely fabulous!!! I loveeeed it! It was cool to see a new view of the city. It was one of my most favorite activities so far. For dinner we went to Nandos – another one of my favorite London places. It is a chicken restaurant! Obviously, it was the perfect restaurant for me. They have a delicious chicken pita that they are famous for –which definitely lived up to its reputation. I loved it.

Saturday night we walked all around the city in search of a treat, as we usually do at night. We heard that a shop by the London Eye had yummy waffles so we went down there, but the waffle place was closed. The Thames and the London Eye and the bridges and stuff was really pretty at night. It was a fun atmosphere. We ended up at this place in Leicester Square called Ciaos. We got the most fantastic ice cream desserts – which you can see in one of my last posts. It was a super fun night.

Sunday we went to our first day in the London wards. there are six other girls that go to the same ward as me. It took us about an hour and a half to get there. most of the way was on the over ground train which was so neat. I love looking out the window. so super pretty.
Sunday night we played games with a bunch of the girls in the Centre. it was a blast.

Monday we had our first excursion to the countryside. it started at the glorious hour of 5:30 am. we got the on the coach and scored with the last row. we drove out to Stonehenge, which took about an hour. we got to go early and go inside the ropes and touch the rocks, which is super cool! no one else gets to do that! honestly though, Stonehenge is totally not all it’s cracked up to be. I mean, its amazing. it really is awesome, but it’s small and cluttered and really doesn’t look like the pictures. but it was fun.

Next we headed to Wells, where we went through the Wells Cathedral. We learned all about how towns and cities and such are classified in London. A “Hamlet” is a place that has either a church or a pub. A “Village” and a “Town” both has a church and a pub, but a town has more people. A “City” is classified as a place that has a pub and a cathedral. it made me laugh that the places were based on churches…and pubs… haha. It was freezing today. absolutely freeeeezing! We got hot chocolate and muffins at a small bakery in Wells. Delicious!

Our last stop was Stourhead. This was a beautiful garden and mansion. It was in this garden that they filmed the famous raining proposal scene in pride and prejudice. It was beautiful. But I might have appreciated it more if it had been sunny. There was a cute little pond in the middle, with a grotto. which was my favorite part of the whole thing. It had little waterfalls and statues of goddesses and secret tunnels. the floors were made out of stones and they had patterns in them. the walls and ceilings were just cut out of the stone. it was awesome. they also had stone forts and bridges all throughout the garden. it was pretty fun. on the way home we made a stop at King Alfred’s tower. you can read about it under the pictures of it. it was over 200 steps to the top, and it was just a tower. in the middle of the forest. for no apparent reason. stupid. but it was pretty. it reminded me of north Carolina. and my boy. :[

Tuesday we started off the morning by getting student discount tickets for Les Mis!! We ended up in the 10 row for 28 pounds. it was so excited. we spent the rest of the day walking around the theatre district. it was fun. we came home and spent a few hours at home before the show started. Our seats were amazing!! no one sat in front of us so we had a straight shot to the stage. it was PHENOMINAL. I had chills the whole time. It was amazing. I loved it. We walked the whole way home singing. it was awesome.

We also got told today that because we have all been such good sports about the lack of hot water, we get to go on the London Eye for free!! Our director is going to pay for us to go. Which is awesome because I don’t think that it is something that I would pay to do. I’m super exited.

This morning I woke up to two terrific surprises. First – hot breakfast! We had amish oatmeal for breakfast – it was basically an oatmeal cookie…baked into a loaf. we put fresh raspberries, blackberries, and strawberries, on top and then dumped cream over it all. it was seriously amazing. the BEST surprise was a bouquet of roses from my boy. Seriously, how cute is he?? It almost made me cry. it was so sweet. I miss him so much it is ridiculous.

We basically spent all day today sitting on the bus. Hah. we had class this morning. After class we went to Covent Garden to do a little shopping :] it was fun. We went to Thortons and got amazingly delicious ice cream cones. We walked around for an hour or so and then we decided that we were too worn out to do much, but we didn’t want to go back to the Centre. So we got on a bus! The first one that we saw. We spent the next 2 hours seeing the city from the top of the bus. it was fabulous. we road that bus until the route ended, then we got on the tube towards china town for lunch. we ate at a so-so restaurant, but it filled the craving that we had. then we hopped on another bus that was in the general direction of home. it was the perfect day. I have the funnest friends. we seriously had the best time, just sitting on a bus talking. my aunt wrote on my facebook wall after looking at all of my pictures and asked me if there were more than 3 girls that came on study abroad. hah. it made me laugh. well, there are. and they are fabulous. but us 3 have so much fun. and I love it.

scenic pictures from the last few days.. :]