January 2010 Archives

This has been an extremely eventful week... which is a GREAT thing!!! On tuesday, Blair and I decided to go find the theatre and buy our Legally Blonde The Musical tickets! We wondered in every direction trying to find the theatre (finally, I got lost in London, I knew it would only be a matter of time!).. well, instead of finding the theatre we found Big Ben, Parliament, Trafalgar Square (4 times) and Buckingham Palace! We had the best day wondering around and it was BEAUTIFUL out! We finally found the theatre and bought our tickets!! On tuesday night Blair, Meredith, Paige and I decided to go on a Jack the Ripper Tour! It was awesome! We had a great tour guide who knew so much about this mysterious murderer and he led us to all of the spots where he killed his victims, where they think he lived, and where they all hung out! Definitely CREEPY but worth every penny!
On Wednesday, there was too much rain to go exploring so we decided to hang out at our campus coffee shop and chat! Unfortunately, my straightener blew out this day... I was NOT happy at all and it took forever to find time to go get a new one!!! Only this would happen to me!!
On Wednesday I got a package in the mail! Only the greatest package ever from my sister! She sent me magazines, nail polish, gum, CANDY GALORE, money, and my contacts... (and a few other cute things!!) I was so excited!
On thursday this week I had another class. We learned about learning (hmmm..?) and then learned how to knit! It was actually really fun! after class I got yet ANOTHER package from my mom! It was amazing! I got so many cute dresses and shoes and MORE MAGAZINES AND NAIL POLISH (I think my Family knows what will please me!!!) Lots of other fun things that I needed too which was nice! It was so nice getting those packages and made me sooooo happy! After that we ran to Sainsbury's to get a straightener and some groceries.
While checking out some man left his wallet so of course I volunteered to RUN (literally) through the grocery store to give it back! I think the check out man was impressed because he stopped working entirely and became me and Blair's new Best Friend!!
That night I also found out that Jamie scored her 1000th career point on the last game I saw her play! I was soooo excited for her and of course bragged to everyone that would listen!!  I think this night some intellegent person in our dorm building decided to hold a lighter to the fire alarm to see if it would go off, and it did, at 3 am! So there I stood, in the rain, in my PJ's waiting for the fire bregade to clear the buildings! Not. Happy.

This weekend was really fun too! On friday I went out with three girls that I met during orientation. The flat below me through a "flat party" so that was really fun and a great way to meet people! On Saturday night we learned our lesson with the buses here in London. Lauren ( a girl from Florida) got on without a ticket, thinking she could purchase it on the bus from the driver, and she ended getting a huge fine! Luckily I had enough money on hand to cover it so the fine was reduced! But, now we know for next time!! :)

Sunday was my FAVORITE day of the weekend! Jamie skyped me in from back home to watch the Vikings game with all the girls in our apartment! She put the camera right up to the TV and it felt just like I was there! I loved it! Too bad they couldn't pull through in the end, but we won't talk about that.

Today, Monday, I had another class at 1 pm. My teacher was AMERICAN!! I didn't realize how nice it was to hear him teach and be able to FULLY understand what he was talking about!! Blair and I got some coffee and sandwiches at The Ground on campus and we were off to see Legally Blonde The Musical. It was AMAZING! I had an absolute blast at it and would recommend it to any girl in who likes the movie!! We stuck around at the end and I got all the cast to sign Blairs program! She was one happy girl!

I was excited to watch the UMC bball games this weekend because we GOT A SWEEP! Had a HUGE win over Winona on saturday and I couldn't have been more excited!
Hopefully this next week is just as adventurous as the last!

Lots of Love from London!!!

Jill

Well, I have been here two weeks! That is crazy and by far the longest I have been separated from Jamie! So far we are doing better than we thought apart but I am definitely missing her, and EVERYONE back home!
Anyways, week two in London has been good so far! Classes started on Monday this week, but I didn't have any until Thursday! In the UK you only go to school once a week for each class so I have a lot of free time. You also DON'T have homework!! The professors give out one or two essays at the end for us to do, which is cool but your entire grade is based off that essay, which is kind of nerve racking!

On Monday this week me and Meredith decided to go to Sainsbury, which is a big grocery store, and get our food for the week. You have to walk a few blocks, take the tube to White Chapel station, and then walk a few more blocks in order to get there but definitely worth it because of all the food and good prices! The trip to Sainsbury's turned out to be more of an adventure than we bargained for. We got there and grabbed our baskets and when they got too heavy we decided we needed a cart. WELL... you have to PAY for the grocery carts here, so I was pretty upset but my arms were falling off from carrying all my food so I paid and went on with it. Anyways, we got a TON of food that night without really realizing that we needed to carry it all the way home. We started walking and by the time we made it to the Tube station we figured out that this trip wasn't going to be a good one. After the tube Merediths bags started ripping open and food was falling all over the place! One Brittish kid tried to help her but couldn't find a place to put the food! It was one of the funniest things ever. We had to take breaks the bags were so heavy! I'm not looking forward to going back for the next grocery trip. One thing that I think is interesting is the food here doesn't have preservatives like our food back home does so it doesn't last nearly as long. The local people around here go grocery shopping almost every single day instead of doing one big trip once a week. That is getting hard to get used to but it's part of the culture I guess!
Some of the food tastes a little different here, including peanut butter! I never thought I would miss peanut butter so bad but I'm really hoping my mom sends some in a care package (hint hint)! Blair's mom just sent her 5 jars!

Tuesday was a pretty boring day. I just relaxed in my room and skyped my friends and family. I went to bed around 1 am, and right as I was about to fall asleep we had a FIRE DRILL.. seriously? 1 am? So, I got up and went outside with everyone else and stood around for half an hour. Some kids brought their beer and bottles of Vodka out and just drank during it. I think we can all agree London is definitely different than home!

Wednesday I was hanging out in my room and my light fell off of the ceiling, which I am going to go ahead and say that my guardian angel was watching out for me yet again because I could have died! It fell RIGHT next to my head and this is not a small light! So I spent that part of the night trying to put it back together.. that was fun. Also, on wednesday morning I had a little knock at my door and guess who it was... MY CLEANING LADY. Yes, I have a cleaning lady and I officially love London for it. She comes once a week to vacuum my room, take out my garbage, scrub my counters and bathroom. I am thrilled with her!

I went to my first class on Thursday but found out it was at a different time than was listed on the website so I had to wait around for an hour for that to start. It was a three hour class which was split into two parts. The first hour and a half is a lecture and note taking and the second part we split into groups and discuss what we learned. I actually kind of like doing this because it helps put what you learn into examples and makes a little more sense!

Yesterday my friend Meghan and I met up to go shopping with Meredith and Meghan's friend from her school at Oxford Street. The shopping there is UNREAL, I could really do some damage on that street! :)  We ate at a really cute Italian place called Bella Italia and had Margharita pizza (which I found out is really just cheese pizza here).
Last night (Saturday) we decided to go to a bar in Leicester Square called the Zoo Bar. It was a BLAST! They played old school music like Abba and Bon Jovi and a great mix of Greace songs! I was loving my life dancing and singing to these songs!

This morning, my friend Blair (from Arkansas) and I decided to go get some coffee in the cafe on campus! We decided we're going to go see one big musical every month. Next week we are going to see Legally Blonde the Musical, and in February we will go see Wicked! I am so excited! We then started planning our trip to France. I think we decided on going the first weekend in February!
I haven't really figured out how to post pictures on this blog yet, but they are all on facebook in an album for you all to see!

I think that's all for this week! I miss you all back home so much! I was excited to see that our girls almost beat Moorhead yesterday in the game!! Too bad the refs were soooo bad :( But I was still very proud of everyone!

Lots of Love from London!

Jill 

I landed in the Heathrow Airport in England on the morning of January 3rd. It was SUNNY, which I hear is a rare thing for this place...maybe its a sign! I made it through customs with no problems and got my luggage very quickly! One of my bags was HUGE and when I went to pull it down I almost nailed some little British girl... great first impression right? After that I walked with my two suitcases and carry-on through the airport, which is massive, and I did not pack lightly! Finally, I made it to the "meeting point area" and realized no one was there to get me! So I had to get a taxi by myself! Scary! Turned out the guy knew a ton about London and loved "futball" so that turned out to be a good little taxi ride! I made it to my hotel, which was really nice! But of course with my luck, my reservation was made for the next night! Luckily, they had extra rooms so I just bought one for that night, but unfortunately, it was not cheap! I was exhuasted at this point so I just relaxed and watched some tv. The next morning I got up and went down to do some shopping! I found a place called Boots, which is like our Walgreens so I got my hairdryer and straightener! Eventually the rest of the kids from our program showed up to the hotel so I met my roomate and ate a good dinner! The next few days we just went through orientation which was interesting, but got kind of long. We went to a local Pub down the street but found out the Pubs close at 11:00 pm!! I thought that was strange! On Wednesday night we went to a musical called Blood Brothers. It was a low budget musical but SPORTY SPICE, from the Spice Girls, was in it! I can die happy now! I was so excited! We had pretty good seats too!  After that we went to Subway for dinner (the only thing still open). The food actually tasted kind of different, and they didn't have a lot of the same subs as we do back home! We were in there and a man asked me if I was from Australia... which isn't the first time I've been asked that! Our Minnesota accent must sound similar to that! Half the local people don't believe I'm from America right away! Apparantly London is having it's coldest winter in 50 years (it's about 20-30 degrees this week) and has the most snow fall in 50 years! (We have about one, maybe two inches!) I just laugh when they closed down schools and no one could get to work! It is obviously very different from Crookston, MN!
We moved into our dorms on Thursday. I live in a Flat with 7 or 8 other people. We each have our own room and bathroom which is really nice! It took me forever to find a place that sold comforters but I found one at a department store on Oxford Street. I hung up about 70 pictures of my friends and family from back home too! So it turned out pretty cute!  On Saturday I went out and became a tourist! I saw Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye and House of Parliament! It was all so beautiful! At night we decided to go to a club that one of my friends suggested to us. It was definitely different than in the states. It was huge with about 4 different areas you can hang out and 2 different dance floors! The dancing is very different than home too which surprised me! There are a lot of illegal taxi drivers here.. just random men that pick up people from the clubs. I guess they do a lot of bad things to some of the riders... so if a man asks if you need a taxi you are supposed to walk away quickly! It is illegal for a taxi driver to ask you if you need a ride, you have to approach them. I saw a lot of the illegal ones outside the club! 
I LOVE the accents of everyone from around here, but it gets tricky understanding everyone. They have a lot of different words with different meanings, (ex: Pudding = Dessert)! The money is hard to figure out too! I spend more time counting my money than actually doing the shopping... which is probably good for my budget!

School starts tomorrow so today I am going to relax on campus and watch the UMC Basketball games! Good luck to the girls and guys! I will be watching!

Lots of love from London!

Jill