Todays Wednesday which means....No class for Kelly ! :)
I was a bit worried about what I'd do all day since Cadence's dad is here which means to Underworlds action, and I didn't want to be inside all day since it's like 55 degrees outside and sunny. After about 2 1/2 minutes of thought though it was clear that I should go to a couple museums. So I looked in my little London guide and saw that The V&A Museum and The Natural History Museum were right next to each other and about 10minutes from CAPA. So I slept in till 11 (it was beautiful) and I headed out, packing a sandwich and a clementine for my lunch.
I went to The Natural History Museum first and was surprised to discover that it was basically a dead zoo. Seriously. I can't remember exactly how many creatures there were but about 90% were all living at one time. I took a bunch of pictures and some video of the T-Rex's for the Fudge so my batteries died by the time I got to The V&A. It was actually pretty cool because when you walk in your greeted by Dippy the Dino. We have this huge statue of the dino outside the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh but these were all bones. Then if you go left there's an entire dinosaur exhibit that I found pretty interesting. The dinosaurs in Pittsburgh are way better, but the exhibit here was much more kid friendly (there were tons of them) and at the end of the museum there's this huge robotic T-Rex that moves around and roars at you when you move. It's supposed to be life size and what an actual T-Rex would look like. Some of the littler kids thought it was real and started crying which I thought was pretty funny because they were all about the bones but when they saw "the real thing" it was time to turn on the waterworks. Fudge would've died. Gotta remember to add that to the list when they come over.
They also had this enormous Blue Whale hanging from the ceiling. That wasn't a real whale it was plastic or rubber or something but again it was as big as an actual Blue Whale and was kinda intimidating. You know how big a Blue Whale is, but when you actually stand next to it you realize that the length of your body is probably about 1/3 of the size of it's head's width. They also had these things to show you the difference between a horses leg and an elephants leg and how they work. What you do is press down on the horses leg (pretty easy) and then you press down on what's supposed to be an elephants leg. I watched this little girl try to do it first but she couldn't because she wasn't even as tall as the leg, so her older brother who was probably 8 or 9 walks up to it like he's the man and can't do it either. I was trying really hard not to crack up. They left and I tried the horses leg, no problem, and then I tried the elephant leg. I shouldn't have been laughing at those kids. I swear the thing weighed as much as I do if not more. I couldn't move it, at all. I felt better though cuz I saw a pretty big dad trying to do it later and he got it to go down maybe an inch.
The building itself was pretty too. I took some pictures of the inside and outside. They have monkey skeletons hanging from one of the ceilings too which I thought was pretty cool. Gross, but cool. They had mammals, and reptiles, and amphibians, and bugs, and birds, and all kids of underwater life. There was this one glass box in the bird hall that was filled with hummingbirds. Seriously there were at least 200 in there. I'll try to get a picture up. I really had a good time. I probably spent close to 2 hours in there before I left.
When I got to The V&A (which stands for Victoria and Albert, NOT vaginal and anal like some smart-ass Brit told me) Museum I sat on the steps outside and ate my lunch and watched the people walk by before going in. Man you see some crazy-looking people over here, forget the South Side that's mild. It really is gonna be weird going home after all this.
I liked the V&A too, not as much as The National Gallery or The Natural History but more than The British Museum. They have this out of the ordinary art exhibit going on right now which was pretty interesting, it made me think of Reenie. My camera died after that though so not really any pictures from there. When you walk in there's this huge glass art piece/chandelier hanging from the ceiling. It was really beautiful, I had a good time. They also had this really big wing filled with sculptures an statues that Queen Victoria collected. There's a cast of Michelangelo's David in there and a bunch of other crazy stuff. There's also a lot of cast iron which i thought was kinda out of place. But hey, whatever the queen wanted, the queen got. A lot of the stuff that was in there came from Victoria or Albert, although there was a lot of stuff from the Middle East, Asia, and Japan too. It was pretty cool, I'll let them decide if they wanna go when they get here, I'm not gonna make them go like I will to The National Gallery.
I had my Jack the Ripper walk last night too. That was a lot of fun. Our walking tour guide got really into in and walked us to each murder site and told us all kinds of stories and conspiracy theories. We went down a couple really narrow alleys with lots of pubs on either side and it kinda gave us the feeling of what it would've looked like in 1888 when it all went down. There was even a picture of Jack the Ripper spray painted on one of the alleys, pretty scary... We went past the 10 Bells too which was the pub that all the prostitutes that were killed went to back in the day. It's called the 10 Bells because it's right next to this big white church that was built in the 1770's that has 10 bells in the steeple. It was kinda chilly out last night too which helped add to the effect of what London would've been like during the murders. He also told us his theory and that this one artist, I think he said his name was Walter Sickley, I could be wrong, left clues to who the real Jack the Ripper was in his paintings that are still hanging in Tate Britain. According to this artists it was Dr. Gull and his clues include tiny seagulls in all of his paintings and grapes because he loved grapes and a couple of his victims had grapes in their hands. I really liked it, and it only cost us £5. I don't know if Mom and Chal will be into it but Fudge and Ankita probably will be, maybe I can talk them into going.
Well that's all for now, I have a g-mail date with Ankita soon that I must make so until next time
Peace
Wednesday, 13 February 2008
Monday, 11 February 2008
What's good this week
I was criticized for not being detailed enough in my last entry so I'll try to be more descriptive this time. :P
I'm not joking, I did absolutely nothing this weekend except work on school stuff (yes I do that occasionally over here) and watch really bad British television. It was kinda good though after being in Barcelona last weekend just being able to relax and chill and sit on my ass and do nothing. I did some work on Thursday but not really, I wrote my art paper and started the underworlds paper. It sucks because even though I don't necessarily not like my professor for that class she's kind of an airhead and fails to mention a lot of vital details when we need to write a paper or something. I found out this morning from some of the other girls that she had breast cancer so now I feel like I'm a bad person if I complain about her. Oh well.
I feel like I totally kicked ass on my art paper though, I got a B- on the last one which needless to say kinda upset me, so this one is now four pages long and answers every question in much more detail. Hopefully it doesn't have the reverse effect, if it does and Q gets another A on his paper which is sloppily handwritten and he didn't even show up for class today I'm gonna be really upset. Art was beyond boring. It was painful, Q definitely had the right idea in not showing up. The class ends at 1:30 and when she finally let us have our break at 12:15 I was pissed because I thought class let out at 12:30. THAT's how bad it was. It's bad, thank God we alternate back and forth from museum to classroom each week. If I had to sit in that classroom for three hours every week, I'd probably get mono and skip....a lot!
I worked on my child development project almost all day on Friday and I have no idea what to expect on it. We had to give a 10 minute presentation of our topic, 5 to present and 5 for questions. I decided that if I went first not only would it be over and done with, but maybe she'd feel bad for me if it sucked and give me pity points for going first. It kinda sucked though, because even though I presented everything I had written, I forgot about mentioning getting parental consent, and the teacher was the only one who really asked my any questions. I don't think my topic really needed me to get parental consent though, so hopefully it went okay. This other girl went right after me though and she basically asked the same question. She asked what classroom desk arrangements had on student on-task behavior and learning and I asked how much of a effect classroom set up had on student learning. It was kinda funny though because she had a Midwestern accent and she seriously sounded like someone hit the fast forward button on her.
Saturday I did some more of nothing and finished my underworlds paper . It was just your basic analytical essay so I think I'll be okay on that too. I called Ankita and talked to her a little bit too, which was nice. :) Sunday was pretty awesome though *eye roll*. We went on this 2 1/2 hour group tour of Kensal Green Cemetery for my underworlds class. It was kinda cool because we got to go down into the catacombs and you can't do that if you go by yourself. I feel like I could've done it on my own though and had a better time, and it definitely didn't need to be two and a half hours either. Cadence brought her dad with her on the tour though cuz he's here visiting until Thursday and she kept yelling at him and calling him a child, but I was laughing at him because it was sooo boring and he was acting how I imagined Fudge would if she was with me. When we left the catacombs he kept poking her and whining and saying stuff like Caaaadence, this is boring! I have to pee, I'm hungry, can we leave? Where's McDonalds? I was cracking up and Cadence got mad because I "was encouraging him". I couldn't help it though, he's been to London tons of times though so he's pretty much done everything there is to do here already. After about an hour of us nagging her to let us peace she finally gave up trying to pay attention herself and grabbed us and we booked it. Best decision I've made since I've been here, seriously. I can't even complain about it to Kellie Robertson though because she had breast cancer and probably thought it was the coolest thing ever.
After we left and finally got back to Islington at 5:30 (tour started at 2), we went to The Arc to get some food, and Cadence's dad treated us to dinner. I told him I had cash and I could pay but he said what good is me being here if I can't hook you guys up with a free meal. Thanks Jeffery! (He doesn't let anyone call him anything but Jeffery, even his kids). When my Mom and everyone come over I'm definitely taking them to dinner there one night because you get 241 pizzas from 5-7 everyday and all day Tuesday. Plus 241 cocktails on Thursdays. Get ready Fudge-o ;) It had a really nice laid back atmosphere, and the staff was really nice too. It was a good time.
What else? Papou hung up on me last night too, that was fun. I tried to go to bed at like 11ish and then the fudge called to complain about certain individuals who are seriously lacking in the intelligence department, so that woke me up and then I got to hear Suki screaming into the phone (miss her!) and then Yiayia came on for a minute. I was excited to hear from everyone until Papou tried to get on and just hung up on me. I waited by the phone for about 15 minutes and then decided they weren't calling me back so I went to bed. By this time is about midnight.
Then my phone goes off and I think it 8am already and I have to get up, nope, its 1am and I had just about fallen asleep. I answer the phone and it's Q. "Oh My God, are you sleeping?" "Are you serious? We both have to be up in 7 hours, NO I'm not sleeping." "OK good, can I come grab the child development book?" You have GOT to be kidding me. He comes and grabs it and I spend the next 45minutes trying to get back into the same dream. Didn't work. Cue to this morning: 7:55am phone rings AGAIN. It's a text from Q saying he's sick and not going to class, can I print out his stuff and turn it in for him? Sure, why not? I swear to God, I'm way too nice sometimes.
I have my Jack the Ripper walk tomorrow, I almost forgot, now I'm excited :D. On Thursday I'm going to the West End with my pop culture class too, hopefully it's more exciting than the British Museum was. On Monday I'm going to two museums, I'm going to the Royal Academy for art and the Freud Museum for child development. Monday is gonna be long. I'm pretty sure that's all for ow though, no definite plans for the weekend yet, definitely trying to go meet some brits though! ;) Till next time
Peace
I'm not joking, I did absolutely nothing this weekend except work on school stuff (yes I do that occasionally over here) and watch really bad British television. It was kinda good though after being in Barcelona last weekend just being able to relax and chill and sit on my ass and do nothing. I did some work on Thursday but not really, I wrote my art paper and started the underworlds paper. It sucks because even though I don't necessarily not like my professor for that class she's kind of an airhead and fails to mention a lot of vital details when we need to write a paper or something. I found out this morning from some of the other girls that she had breast cancer so now I feel like I'm a bad person if I complain about her. Oh well.
I feel like I totally kicked ass on my art paper though, I got a B- on the last one which needless to say kinda upset me, so this one is now four pages long and answers every question in much more detail. Hopefully it doesn't have the reverse effect, if it does and Q gets another A on his paper which is sloppily handwritten and he didn't even show up for class today I'm gonna be really upset. Art was beyond boring. It was painful, Q definitely had the right idea in not showing up. The class ends at 1:30 and when she finally let us have our break at 12:15 I was pissed because I thought class let out at 12:30. THAT's how bad it was. It's bad, thank God we alternate back and forth from museum to classroom each week. If I had to sit in that classroom for three hours every week, I'd probably get mono and skip....a lot!
I worked on my child development project almost all day on Friday and I have no idea what to expect on it. We had to give a 10 minute presentation of our topic, 5 to present and 5 for questions. I decided that if I went first not only would it be over and done with, but maybe she'd feel bad for me if it sucked and give me pity points for going first. It kinda sucked though, because even though I presented everything I had written, I forgot about mentioning getting parental consent, and the teacher was the only one who really asked my any questions. I don't think my topic really needed me to get parental consent though, so hopefully it went okay. This other girl went right after me though and she basically asked the same question. She asked what classroom desk arrangements had on student on-task behavior and learning and I asked how much of a effect classroom set up had on student learning. It was kinda funny though because she had a Midwestern accent and she seriously sounded like someone hit the fast forward button on her.
Saturday I did some more of nothing and finished my underworlds paper . It was just your basic analytical essay so I think I'll be okay on that too. I called Ankita and talked to her a little bit too, which was nice. :) Sunday was pretty awesome though *eye roll*. We went on this 2 1/2 hour group tour of Kensal Green Cemetery for my underworlds class. It was kinda cool because we got to go down into the catacombs and you can't do that if you go by yourself. I feel like I could've done it on my own though and had a better time, and it definitely didn't need to be two and a half hours either. Cadence brought her dad with her on the tour though cuz he's here visiting until Thursday and she kept yelling at him and calling him a child, but I was laughing at him because it was sooo boring and he was acting how I imagined Fudge would if she was with me. When we left the catacombs he kept poking her and whining and saying stuff like Caaaadence, this is boring! I have to pee, I'm hungry, can we leave? Where's McDonalds? I was cracking up and Cadence got mad because I "was encouraging him". I couldn't help it though, he's been to London tons of times though so he's pretty much done everything there is to do here already. After about an hour of us nagging her to let us peace she finally gave up trying to pay attention herself and grabbed us and we booked it. Best decision I've made since I've been here, seriously. I can't even complain about it to Kellie Robertson though because she had breast cancer and probably thought it was the coolest thing ever.
After we left and finally got back to Islington at 5:30 (tour started at 2), we went to The Arc to get some food, and Cadence's dad treated us to dinner. I told him I had cash and I could pay but he said what good is me being here if I can't hook you guys up with a free meal. Thanks Jeffery! (He doesn't let anyone call him anything but Jeffery, even his kids). When my Mom and everyone come over I'm definitely taking them to dinner there one night because you get 241 pizzas from 5-7 everyday and all day Tuesday. Plus 241 cocktails on Thursdays. Get ready Fudge-o ;) It had a really nice laid back atmosphere, and the staff was really nice too. It was a good time.
What else? Papou hung up on me last night too, that was fun. I tried to go to bed at like 11ish and then the fudge called to complain about certain individuals who are seriously lacking in the intelligence department, so that woke me up and then I got to hear Suki screaming into the phone (miss her!) and then Yiayia came on for a minute. I was excited to hear from everyone until Papou tried to get on and just hung up on me. I waited by the phone for about 15 minutes and then decided they weren't calling me back so I went to bed. By this time is about midnight.
Then my phone goes off and I think it 8am already and I have to get up, nope, its 1am and I had just about fallen asleep. I answer the phone and it's Q. "Oh My God, are you sleeping?" "Are you serious? We both have to be up in 7 hours, NO I'm not sleeping." "OK good, can I come grab the child development book?" You have GOT to be kidding me. He comes and grabs it and I spend the next 45minutes trying to get back into the same dream. Didn't work. Cue to this morning: 7:55am phone rings AGAIN. It's a text from Q saying he's sick and not going to class, can I print out his stuff and turn it in for him? Sure, why not? I swear to God, I'm way too nice sometimes.
I have my Jack the Ripper walk tomorrow, I almost forgot, now I'm excited :D. On Thursday I'm going to the West End with my pop culture class too, hopefully it's more exciting than the British Museum was. On Monday I'm going to two museums, I'm going to the Royal Academy for art and the Freud Museum for child development. Monday is gonna be long. I'm pretty sure that's all for ow though, no definite plans for the weekend yet, definitely trying to go meet some brits though! ;) Till next time
Peace
Friday, 8 February 2008
London
hello again,
So I got back from Barcelona on Sunday as you know, and it's really kinda weird because I'm thinking of London as home already. I must say I missed London as amazing as Spain was, I was ready to come "home". I'm listening to my Fudge song right now and I'm really starting to miss the little nutball. You should all know who the fudge is, but just in case you don't she's my little sister who is turning 18 next Monday. It's crazy. I'm listening to "No Woman, No Cry" by Bob Marley and every time I heard it I would just think of her because she used to play, not even that she cries a lot (which she kinda does), but now I always think about the time I made a mistake and told her that on the way to Robinson with my Mom. Like I said, that was a mistake, but now every time I hear it I'll either text her the lyrics or call her up and start singing it and it kinda became our own little inside joke. Well I'm listening to it now and all I wanna do is call her, but its like 10:30 in the morning where she is and shes at work so I can't :( Lame.
Since I've been back though, I've pretty much just been chillen and takin it easy and trying to get some school work done for a change. Q just left a little bit ago, we were workin on our child development stuff for a few hours, but I still have an art paper to perfect and an underworlds paper that could probably be better but she's kind of an idiot so I'm not too worried about it. Wednesday was pretty eventful though, I met up with Cadence to go to The Barfly in Camden for our underworlds class around 1 or so, but its more of a night time bar that constantly has bands playing so it was closed. Were almost 2 weeks ahead of everybody tho so it was no biggie. i think were goin back next Thursday night. Then I had a really good conversation with Ankita when I got back for about an hour but it only felt like 15minutes. She had to go make an appointment to get her hair cut and I had a walking tour of Tower Bridge at 6.
I thought it was gonna be a tour of London Bridge AND London Tower. It was just the bridge. It was alright, interesting, but kinda boring. Plus I couldn't get a single good picture of the bridge or the tower or the view from the top of the bridge because it was dark out and the pictures kept blurring. I want to go to the tower tho, really bad. Maybe Ill go once everyone comes over.
Can I talk about that for a minute? Without getting yelled at about it later? Ankita wants to come over to see me a couple days before my birthday so we can hang out and take over for a few days before my Mom, Chal, and The Fudge come over. Awesome right? Nope not anymore. My mom decided to change the tickets from the original date of May 12 to 9:30am May 10. May 10 is when I turn 21. See the problem? Plus now Ankita might not be able to come before they do. So considering how much of a buzzkill this is, I decided I'm gonna say screw it and meet them at the airport with a beer in my hand and just be totally belligerent all day. Hey I'm only turning 21 once I was planning on partying it up. Surprisingly enough my Mom was fine with that but I figured it out, its because she knows Ankita will be the one yelling at me all day for being that dumb white girl and calling me a dumbass. Fudge is gonna love it.
What else is new? I went back to the National Gallery on Monday too so I can write a paper about Monet and Van Gogh and why one of them is an impressionist and the other one isn't. So far its 4 pages of extremely well written bullshit. To be perfectly honest I have no idea why Van Gogh can't be an impressionist. Whatever Liz Mundle, as Fudge would say "I'm over it". I also went to The British Museum yesterday With Mo Dodson aka worst combover EVER. I really don't know why he does it, he doesn't even need to. I like him tho, he's a little nuts but nice. I wasn't too impressed by the British Museum tho, probably because I wasn't feeling so hot, but I'm sure Ill go back.
The sun is out today too which is nice, its sucks I have so much shit to do tho cuz I kinda feel like going out and having a picnic or something. Tried doing pictures again but all I managed was the one I have up with me and Laura. Ill try again later maybe.
Peace
So I got back from Barcelona on Sunday as you know, and it's really kinda weird because I'm thinking of London as home already. I must say I missed London as amazing as Spain was, I was ready to come "home". I'm listening to my Fudge song right now and I'm really starting to miss the little nutball. You should all know who the fudge is, but just in case you don't she's my little sister who is turning 18 next Monday. It's crazy. I'm listening to "No Woman, No Cry" by Bob Marley and every time I heard it I would just think of her because she used to play, not even that she cries a lot (which she kinda does), but now I always think about the time I made a mistake and told her that on the way to Robinson with my Mom. Like I said, that was a mistake, but now every time I hear it I'll either text her the lyrics or call her up and start singing it and it kinda became our own little inside joke. Well I'm listening to it now and all I wanna do is call her, but its like 10:30 in the morning where she is and shes at work so I can't :( Lame.
Since I've been back though, I've pretty much just been chillen and takin it easy and trying to get some school work done for a change. Q just left a little bit ago, we were workin on our child development stuff for a few hours, but I still have an art paper to perfect and an underworlds paper that could probably be better but she's kind of an idiot so I'm not too worried about it. Wednesday was pretty eventful though, I met up with Cadence to go to The Barfly in Camden for our underworlds class around 1 or so, but its more of a night time bar that constantly has bands playing so it was closed. Were almost 2 weeks ahead of everybody tho so it was no biggie. i think were goin back next Thursday night. Then I had a really good conversation with Ankita when I got back for about an hour but it only felt like 15minutes. She had to go make an appointment to get her hair cut and I had a walking tour of Tower Bridge at 6.
I thought it was gonna be a tour of London Bridge AND London Tower. It was just the bridge. It was alright, interesting, but kinda boring. Plus I couldn't get a single good picture of the bridge or the tower or the view from the top of the bridge because it was dark out and the pictures kept blurring. I want to go to the tower tho, really bad. Maybe Ill go once everyone comes over.
Can I talk about that for a minute? Without getting yelled at about it later? Ankita wants to come over to see me a couple days before my birthday so we can hang out and take over for a few days before my Mom, Chal, and The Fudge come over. Awesome right? Nope not anymore. My mom decided to change the tickets from the original date of May 12 to 9:30am May 10. May 10 is when I turn 21. See the problem? Plus now Ankita might not be able to come before they do. So considering how much of a buzzkill this is, I decided I'm gonna say screw it and meet them at the airport with a beer in my hand and just be totally belligerent all day. Hey I'm only turning 21 once I was planning on partying it up. Surprisingly enough my Mom was fine with that but I figured it out, its because she knows Ankita will be the one yelling at me all day for being that dumb white girl and calling me a dumbass. Fudge is gonna love it.
What else is new? I went back to the National Gallery on Monday too so I can write a paper about Monet and Van Gogh and why one of them is an impressionist and the other one isn't. So far its 4 pages of extremely well written bullshit. To be perfectly honest I have no idea why Van Gogh can't be an impressionist. Whatever Liz Mundle, as Fudge would say "I'm over it". I also went to The British Museum yesterday With Mo Dodson aka worst combover EVER. I really don't know why he does it, he doesn't even need to. I like him tho, he's a little nuts but nice. I wasn't too impressed by the British Museum tho, probably because I wasn't feeling so hot, but I'm sure Ill go back.
The sun is out today too which is nice, its sucks I have so much shit to do tho cuz I kinda feel like going out and having a picnic or something. Tried doing pictures again but all I managed was the one I have up with me and Laura. Ill try again later maybe.
Peace
Monday, 4 February 2008
Hello
Hey everybody!
I'm new at this so please be patient with me. I'll start out by saying a little bit about myself:
My name is Kelly, and I'm 20 years old. I go to The University of Pittsburgh and was fortunate enough to be accepted into the Pitt in London Program this semester. I arrived in London on the tenth of January so it's been about 3 and a half weeks. The only reason why I'm starting this blog is so that so of my friends and the majority of my family can keep tabs on me. (My mom has been nagging me about it for I'd say about 3 and a half weeks now, so here it is, get off my back please:) )
So far London is great! It's chilly but nothing next to the weather I'm used to back home in Pittsburgh. There is a lot of rain though, but whatever you get used to it pretty quick. Plus its always drizzling so you don't really have to worry about getting caught in a downpour. The people are all really nice here, the whole Stiff-Upper-Lip thing isn't really an issue. I have seen plenty of bad teeth tho, which I have steered clear of thanks to my Esposo Matt Fuller. He thinks he's funny. I will get pictures up in the next couple days.
Speaking of Esposo, I just got back from Barcelona yesterday. Amazing. Beautiful. Not the guys though which was a bit of a bummer, but the city was really nice and so was Park Guiel (Probably spelled that wrong). I went with a couple of girls who live in my building for the weekend and I definitely could have stayed another 2 or 3 days. Bonus: they use the euro :) My hostel was great! When we got there I thought it was going to be 34 euro a night, but it was actually 34 euro for TWO nights, that was a nice surprise. The location was great, beds were comfy (yes I'm serious) and the staff was AMAZING! They had all kinds of recommendations for where to go, and how to get there. By the way, you could get anywhere in a taxi for under 8 euros, it would cost me 20 pounds (40 dollars) to get from my school to my flat, which is maybe a 15-20 minute cab ride with traffic.
When we got there we walked around for a while looking for someplace to eat but the only place we could find to get a meal for under 10 euro (get ready to laugh) was Chinese food. Yes, my first day in Spain I went to a Spanish-Chinese restaurant. Ever try talking to a Catalonyan speaking Chinese chick? Trust me, it's difficult. Food was decent though besides the half hour we spent trying to read Chinese Spanish. Seriously though, it was an experience. I also had Sangria for the first time there. Found out I really like it.
After that was all done with, we went back to the hostel and relaxed for a bit and played cards in the big common room, and got a recommendation from the one guy as to where to go. He said to check out Spit Churro, and all we ended up doing was walking around and asking every other person "Donde Esta Vallencia?"(the street it was on) some guy thought it'd be hysterical to have us walk the complete oppostite direction of the place when we were only a block away. When we finally found the place, we couldn't even sit down, so all we did was push and shove our way through the crowd to the back and pee. Then we turned around and pushed and shoved out way out of the place. When we got back the guy who worked there was like what are you doing here? you should be out partying! Didn't you find the place? Funny.
Saturday was better. We went to The Gaudi Museum and walked around through it on an audio tour that took about an hour and a half. Dude's insane, seriously. Google him, he basically built the entire city. After that the girls needed their Starbucks (eye roll, I got a coke) and I tried to convert some money but it being a weekend everything was closed, so I was really pissed for about 15 minutes because I had to withdraw money again and get charged, but Cadence made me feel better so I dealt with it and said I'm only here once I'm gonna have some fun.
From there we went to La Sacrada Familia, and I had to throw my Coke away to go into the gift shop. Well right after I did that we watched a gypsy take it out of the trash and put it in her little cart to save for later. Gross, really REALLY gross. It was cool seeing a gypsy first hand though. La Sacrada Familia, is this HUGE church that Gaudi (obviously) started building in the early 1900's and it's still about 60 years away from being finished. It's insane. I'm not going to bother trying to describe it because I can't, wait for pictures. It was really impressive.
After that we went to Las Ramblas which is a neat little market that sells EVERYTHING including live chickens and roosters. There were a bunch of tapas bars and restuarants around too. At the market I bought a Clementine for like 25 cents or something, and it was sooo good! I only got to eat half of it though because there was the legit homeless guy standing outside on a crutch begging for money, so I had to give him like 2 euros and the rest of my Clementine. He seriously broke my heart. He kept saying Gracias Senorita Gracias and he kept crossing himself and blessing me and calling me a saint. Mandy saw that and was like lets go buy him a sandwich but Cadence vetoed that because we were in a foreign country and we didn't want him following us around all day or anything. It made me really sad for a minute.
We got some authentic Spanish food for lunch/dinner though. I got chicken and salad and french fries, with more sangria of course. Service sucked, but we think it's because our waiter brought out this 128 euro meal for a table that didn't order it and got fired because he never came back. I felt bad again because all that food got thrown away and the poor homeless guy was right across the street. He'd probably have a heart attack and die if someone tried to give that to him. My chicken was soooo good though. Honestly, it was on the same level as the chicken I had in Greece was.
After we ate we went to another church that Gaudi built called the Gothic Cathedral. Everybody was getting ready for Carnival so there were a bunch of street performers outside that I have a video of if I can figure out how to post it. I also say Edward Scissorhands outside and some freak walking his girlfriend around on a leash. I didn't take a picture though, because I didn't want to get murdered. I wonder if they're the same psychos from London? The Cathedral was the most beautiful church I've every been in, it was quite a spiritual experience. I'm not religious by any means, but walking in there, I seriously considered going into one of the confessionals. It was really moving, it was weird it was like I could feel the holiness and godliness of it all. I never got that feeling at good old St. B's. OK enough of that...
When we got out of the cathedral we were all super beat so we went back to the hostel and relaxed for an hour or so before we went to this really shady taverna up the street and were way over charged for our drinks. So we left after one, and went back and hung out at the hostel and played cards and had girl talk. It was a nice end to the day.
We had to be out by 11 on Sunday so we lugged our stuff around this park Gaudi built. It was really cool, he built this huge park right in the middle of the city with the intention of people living there but no one ever did except him. It had a whole irrigation system in it and everything! Plus theres all these artsy lizards throughout it that the irrigation system drains through. Again really neat, wait for pictures. From there we went and got some coffee and made our way back home. Ryanair sucks too by the way, don't ever fly on it. It was a short trip but we did a lot and had a great time.
Well, I think that's enough for the first blog, I'll do my best to keep up with this and pictures will be up in a few days. Until then
Peace
I'm new at this so please be patient with me. I'll start out by saying a little bit about myself:
My name is Kelly, and I'm 20 years old. I go to The University of Pittsburgh and was fortunate enough to be accepted into the Pitt in London Program this semester. I arrived in London on the tenth of January so it's been about 3 and a half weeks. The only reason why I'm starting this blog is so that so of my friends and the majority of my family can keep tabs on me. (My mom has been nagging me about it for I'd say about 3 and a half weeks now, so here it is, get off my back please:) )
So far London is great! It's chilly but nothing next to the weather I'm used to back home in Pittsburgh. There is a lot of rain though, but whatever you get used to it pretty quick. Plus its always drizzling so you don't really have to worry about getting caught in a downpour. The people are all really nice here, the whole Stiff-Upper-Lip thing isn't really an issue. I have seen plenty of bad teeth tho, which I have steered clear of thanks to my Esposo Matt Fuller. He thinks he's funny. I will get pictures up in the next couple days.
Speaking of Esposo, I just got back from Barcelona yesterday. Amazing. Beautiful. Not the guys though which was a bit of a bummer, but the city was really nice and so was Park Guiel (Probably spelled that wrong). I went with a couple of girls who live in my building for the weekend and I definitely could have stayed another 2 or 3 days. Bonus: they use the euro :) My hostel was great! When we got there I thought it was going to be 34 euro a night, but it was actually 34 euro for TWO nights, that was a nice surprise. The location was great, beds were comfy (yes I'm serious) and the staff was AMAZING! They had all kinds of recommendations for where to go, and how to get there. By the way, you could get anywhere in a taxi for under 8 euros, it would cost me 20 pounds (40 dollars) to get from my school to my flat, which is maybe a 15-20 minute cab ride with traffic.
When we got there we walked around for a while looking for someplace to eat but the only place we could find to get a meal for under 10 euro (get ready to laugh) was Chinese food. Yes, my first day in Spain I went to a Spanish-Chinese restaurant. Ever try talking to a Catalonyan speaking Chinese chick? Trust me, it's difficult. Food was decent though besides the half hour we spent trying to read Chinese Spanish. Seriously though, it was an experience. I also had Sangria for the first time there. Found out I really like it.
After that was all done with, we went back to the hostel and relaxed for a bit and played cards in the big common room, and got a recommendation from the one guy as to where to go. He said to check out Spit Churro, and all we ended up doing was walking around and asking every other person "Donde Esta Vallencia?"(the street it was on) some guy thought it'd be hysterical to have us walk the complete oppostite direction of the place when we were only a block away. When we finally found the place, we couldn't even sit down, so all we did was push and shove our way through the crowd to the back and pee. Then we turned around and pushed and shoved out way out of the place. When we got back the guy who worked there was like what are you doing here? you should be out partying! Didn't you find the place? Funny.
Saturday was better. We went to The Gaudi Museum and walked around through it on an audio tour that took about an hour and a half. Dude's insane, seriously. Google him, he basically built the entire city. After that the girls needed their Starbucks (eye roll, I got a coke) and I tried to convert some money but it being a weekend everything was closed, so I was really pissed for about 15 minutes because I had to withdraw money again and get charged, but Cadence made me feel better so I dealt with it and said I'm only here once I'm gonna have some fun.
From there we went to La Sacrada Familia, and I had to throw my Coke away to go into the gift shop. Well right after I did that we watched a gypsy take it out of the trash and put it in her little cart to save for later. Gross, really REALLY gross. It was cool seeing a gypsy first hand though. La Sacrada Familia, is this HUGE church that Gaudi (obviously) started building in the early 1900's and it's still about 60 years away from being finished. It's insane. I'm not going to bother trying to describe it because I can't, wait for pictures. It was really impressive.
After that we went to Las Ramblas which is a neat little market that sells EVERYTHING including live chickens and roosters. There were a bunch of tapas bars and restuarants around too. At the market I bought a Clementine for like 25 cents or something, and it was sooo good! I only got to eat half of it though because there was the legit homeless guy standing outside on a crutch begging for money, so I had to give him like 2 euros and the rest of my Clementine. He seriously broke my heart. He kept saying Gracias Senorita Gracias and he kept crossing himself and blessing me and calling me a saint. Mandy saw that and was like lets go buy him a sandwich but Cadence vetoed that because we were in a foreign country and we didn't want him following us around all day or anything. It made me really sad for a minute.
We got some authentic Spanish food for lunch/dinner though. I got chicken and salad and french fries, with more sangria of course. Service sucked, but we think it's because our waiter brought out this 128 euro meal for a table that didn't order it and got fired because he never came back. I felt bad again because all that food got thrown away and the poor homeless guy was right across the street. He'd probably have a heart attack and die if someone tried to give that to him. My chicken was soooo good though. Honestly, it was on the same level as the chicken I had in Greece was.
After we ate we went to another church that Gaudi built called the Gothic Cathedral. Everybody was getting ready for Carnival so there were a bunch of street performers outside that I have a video of if I can figure out how to post it. I also say Edward Scissorhands outside and some freak walking his girlfriend around on a leash. I didn't take a picture though, because I didn't want to get murdered. I wonder if they're the same psychos from London? The Cathedral was the most beautiful church I've every been in, it was quite a spiritual experience. I'm not religious by any means, but walking in there, I seriously considered going into one of the confessionals. It was really moving, it was weird it was like I could feel the holiness and godliness of it all. I never got that feeling at good old St. B's. OK enough of that...
When we got out of the cathedral we were all super beat so we went back to the hostel and relaxed for an hour or so before we went to this really shady taverna up the street and were way over charged for our drinks. So we left after one, and went back and hung out at the hostel and played cards and had girl talk. It was a nice end to the day.
We had to be out by 11 on Sunday so we lugged our stuff around this park Gaudi built. It was really cool, he built this huge park right in the middle of the city with the intention of people living there but no one ever did except him. It had a whole irrigation system in it and everything! Plus theres all these artsy lizards throughout it that the irrigation system drains through. Again really neat, wait for pictures. From there we went and got some coffee and made our way back home. Ryanair sucks too by the way, don't ever fly on it. It was a short trip but we did a lot and had a great time.
Well, I think that's enough for the first blog, I'll do my best to keep up with this and pictures will be up in a few days. Until then
Peace
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