Busy Bee!

Hey all! This week has been insane. I've been so busy doing schoolwork. But, I've only got 3 weeks of classes left! It is so crazy to think that! This week, I had to write a paper for art. I chose to write about portraits of 3 famous monarchs: Elizabeth I, Victoria, and Elizabeth II. Here is a quiz: name the 3 actresses who have played these queen's in these respective movies: Shakespeare in Love (Elizabeth I), The Young Victoria (Victoria), and The Queen (Elizabeth II). Answer in the comments section! Speaking of royalty, on Thursday morning, our history class met at the Churchill War Rooms which is a museum and exhibit dedicated to the rooms in which Churchill and his advisers met in during the Battle of Britain during WWII. While we were waiting outside, we saw a bunch of cops on motorcycles and in town cars drive past, and in the back seat of the awesome Bentley, we saw two older looking ladies who looked like they were Lizzy II's besties. Anyways, it was really cool to see something that you normally only see on the news right in front of you!

The actual Churchill rooms were amazing. A lot of them are still intact, but without their original furnishings. Dad, when you come back to London, you have to go! You would love it. Anyways, after that, me, Liz, and some of the freshman in our class went to grab lunch at a pub, and then we had art class in the National Gallery. We spent the class learning about perspectives and how to draw. I am so artistically challenged, and I found that whole afternoon very embarrassing. But, oh well, that's life.

Other than that, I've just been super busy with school work. I'm about to start working on a paper for history class on David Lloyd George, who was PM during WWI. Thrilling right? I also had a meeting today with the company I'm going to intern for at the end of the semester. It's called B3 creative, and there are only 2 full-time employees there. I was blown away by how much they have on their plates, and they do an amazing job. I'll be working from 10-4ish everyday, and they are super casual. I'm really excited to start there soon! Julia is in Whales seeing a friend from high school this weekend, so I'm going out with Naeem, Mike, Liz, Leslie, and Peter. Should be fun! I also bought a theater ticket to see Les Miserables! I'm so excited.

I'm also really excited to announce that my brother Adam is coming to London on November 3rd! I could literally not be more excited to see him! It's been way too long, and I miss him! Hopefully, we will be able to go to a really high end, and expensive Chinese restaurant and make my parents pay for it hhahahah! Sorry mom and dad. I would also like to wish my cousin Erin a very happy birthday! Love yah!

Here is a quote from one of my fav shows, the Office:
Jim: Does that include 'that's what she said'?
Michael: Mmmmm, yes.
Jim: Wow, that is really hard. You really think you can go all day long? Well, you always left me satisfied and smiling.
Michael: Mmmmm... THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID!

Cheers to the frickin' weekend everyone!

Living the true English life

Hey everyone! Hope you all enjoyed the week. I've been very busy with schoolwork (blahhhhh). It's really hard for our teachers because they have to condense a 14 week semester into 10 weeks because we have 4 weeks for an internship at the end of the "semester", so the work has been piled on a bit. But, I can handle it. Anyways, this week was pretty uneventful, except for Friday. We took a field trip for the day to Oxford and Stratford. This was a ton of fun! We took a tour of Oxford, which is an amazing college town. The buildings are so old, but the city is full of young people. It's a little odd. And for all the loyal Harry Potter fans out there, this is where they shot some of the scenes from the first film. We saw where they shot scenes in the infirmary, and this is also the building where they got the inspiration for the Great Hall. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see that (boo!). Leslie and I were very disappointed. But, after that, we had some time to wander, so I wandered into the school bookstore, and bought some Oxford gear. Now, whenever I go somewhere, I can tell people I went to Oxford, and I wouldn't be lying. I really went there. Get it? Haha. After Oxford, we got on the bus and rode an hour to Stratford. For those who don't know, Stratford is the birthplace and resting place of Shakespeare. He was that guy who wrote some of those plays and stuff. Honestly, I had never heard of him before going there (HINT: SARCASM). What was that one play he wrote that was really famous? Romeo and Ethel the Pirate's Daughter? Name the movie reference in the comments section! Anyways, we saw the house he was born in, which is pretty much still standing. Then we walked through town a little, and made our way to the church where he is buried, but we couldn't go inside (bummer). Then, we went to grab dinner, and then went to see an adaptation of Romeo and Ethel the Pirate's Daughter (a.k.a Juliet) at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford. It was really sad because the adaptation was of an old married couple, and the character of Juliet is suffering from a stroke and is slowly dying. I have to admit, I did fall asleep through 10 minutes of it (thanks Mike for not waking me up), but it was good. The 2 actors who played Romeo and Juliet were very good. I recognized the woman who played Juliet, and when I researched her, I discovered that she was in a Harry Potter movie. I said to Leslie that I have an amazing HP Radar haha. She played the character Mrs. Figg in the 5th movie. She helps Harry escape the Dementors that attack him and Dudley in the alley near Privet drive. I know, I'm a dork. I promise I will stop. But, it really is hard to escape the madness of Harry Potter when people in England love it as much as I do. After the play, we made our way back to London, and went to bed. On Saturday, I went to Camden Town, which is a very hippity-hoppity neighborhood in London. I had to buy some new jeans, and then I went to Muswell Hill, and got a lot of work done. Last night, Julia, Audrey, Naeem and myself went to grab a drink at a pub, but it was pouring rain, and a bit of a miserable night because of it. But, today, I slept until 11:30, which was awesome. I'm currently back in Muswell Hill at the Starbucks I was at yesterday doing more homework. I'm almost done, which is why I took a break to talk to you nice folks. Anyways, that's all for now. Going to go back to work so that I can watch my beloved Bills tonight!

Here is a quote from one of Shakespeare's Sonnets, 116:
Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds.

Cheers guvnor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Berlin and Stockholm!

Guten tag (Hello in German), Hallå (Hello in Swedish)!!!!!!!! I made it back to London safe and sound yesterday, but I never got to post about Berlin and Sweden. 

Berlin was a little boring for me. Can you believe that an amazing city like Berlin is boring? Well, after being there nearly two weeks earlier, it was a little repetitive, but still incredible. We saw a lot of the stuff that me, Liz, Alex, and Leslie saw on our study tour, and we ate like kings yet again. The rest of the group seemed to like Berlin more than Paris, especially Mike, who adopted a pretty good German accent haha.

After our Easy Jet experience from Paris to Berlin, it was nice to fly on a real airline like Lufthansa. The flight was half empty, and I had an entire row to myself! As we came into our descent into Stockholm, the sun was setting and we were flying right over the Swedish countryside, which was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen. It was one of the best flying experiences I had ever had. When we landed, we went to our hostel, which was one of the coolest things ever: IT WAS ON A BOAT! Now, the boat was docked, but it was still amazing. I'm not joking about this. You may think that this was silly, but it really was awesome. 

On Friday, we all took a bus tour of Stockholm because we didn't really know what cool things there were to see in the city. Our first stop was at the royal palace, which was beautiful. I promise I will post some pictures on Facebook as soon as I have time! Funny enough, while we were at the palace, we were right in the middle of the changing of the guard, which was really cool! After the palace, we went to the Nordic Museum, which is basically a museum of Swedish culture. But, in the lobby, the museum was hosting something called the Chocolate Festival. Again, THIS IS NOT A JOKE! There were hundreds of people and hundreds of booths where you could try free samples of a ton of different kinds of chocolate. This was probably the greatest thing ever! 

Friday night, Leslie and Liz showed up. They spent the week in Falun, which is where Leslie's family is from. On Saturday, I walked around the city by myself for a while, which was nice. I met up with Leslie and Liz for a bit, and Leslie and I spent a while looking at all the ski equipment in the sporting goods stores. It really made me want to go skiing! I know I'm going to miss it this year, especially if it doesn't snow in Collingwood this winter. Saturday night we all went out for a nice dinner at a restaurant on a boat. I'm assuming by now that you are discovering the theme of Stockholm. I ate Reindeer. For the last time, THIS IS NOT A JOKE! It was soooooo good! Then, we went back to the hostel to get ready to go out.

Sunday's travelling was pretty easy, other than the fact that the branch of the underground that we need to take to get back to our house was closed, so we had to take the bus. But otherwise, everything went really smoothly. This week is going to be very busy, because I'm going to go to the gym everyday to work off all the deliciously, horribly bad for you food I ate over the break, and also because I have a few assignments due. Besides that, life is treating me well!

Hope everyone is enjoying life! Here is a quote on traveling:

Henry David Thoreau: Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves 

Paris!

Hey everyone! So, right now I'm in Berlin! But, we spent all day Sunday and Monday in Paris! We got to our hostel late on Saturday night. It was in the area called Monmartre, which is very into nightlife, which made it difficult to sleep on Saturday, but it wasn't a big deal. On Sunday, we decided to go to Versailles! That palace is unbelievable! We spent nearly the whole day walking all around the gardens and the inside of the mansion, and it was sooooooo cool! Then, we went back to Paris, and walked around the city! We saw the the outside of the louvre, the place de la Concorde, the champs élysées, and the l'arc de triomph! We ate dinner at a restaurant near the arc, and then made our way towards the Eiffel Tower! We saw it lit up at night, and it was so beautiful! We spent some quality time looking at it and freaking out when it started to flash haha, anyways, the weather was great and it was a perfect day!

Monday wasn't as perfect. It rained all day long, and never stopped. We went to the top of the Eiffel Tower in the morning, but you couldn't see a thing from the top because of the mist. The, we got a little lost trying to find the war museum, to which a nice and very attractive Australian man helped us find our way. We walked over 6 miles to get to the louvre in the hopes that we could go in, but the lineup just to buy tickets was crazy. So, we made our way to the musee dorsay, which was closed. We gave up and went to a cafe, where me Julia and Audrey proceeded to drink some very tasty wine. After getting a little buzzed, we went back to the hostel, grabbed our stuff, and made our way to the airport. At the airport, Audrey and I had some struggles. We were told our bags were too big to be put on the plane, and that we had to check our bags. If we did, we would miss our train and not be able to check into our hostel. I started to get really mad at the lady at the desk, telling her she lost a customer, and that this is no way to treat people who are paying for your services. As we were walking towards the plane, Audrey and I tore the baggage tags off, and got on the plane with our bags anyways. I was not in the mood to take crap from anyone. You would be so proud mom! It was a mad dash to the hostel on Berlin, mostly because there were no trains to the stop we needed to go to, so we took a detour, and luckily someone was still at the front desk checking people in.

Today, we are just going to relax and hang out, and maybe walk around a little bit. Everyone is a little tired from yesterday, so we will see what we want to do. For now, that's it. And again, sorry I can't post any pictures!

Here is a quote from a song by Wilson Phillips:
Things will go your way! Hold on for one more day!

Danka! Enjoy life!

Bonjour Paris!

Hey everyone. This week has been so busy! I had a few papers and a quiz this week, so I haven' had time to post anything new. But, here I am. On Thursday, our history class went to the Imperial War Museum, and it was amazing! We saw a ton of war artifacts from both WWI and II along with an exhibit on the Secret Service and Intelligence agencies in Britain. After that, we had art class at the Tate Britain and the Tate Modern. It was such a long day! Today, me, Julia, Hannah, Audrey, and Mike are going to Paris until Monday, and then we are making our way to Berlin. Our last stop is in Stockholm, where we will be meeting up with Liz and Leslie. I'm going to have my iPad, but I won't be able to post any pictures from my trip. I promise I will post about what we are doing. I'm really excited, and I hope everyone enjoys their mid-semester break, and Canadian Thanksgiving. Au Revoir!!!!!!!!!

Bridesmaids: 

Gil: Well, she can't work. She is here on a tourist visa.
Brynn: Yah, so technically I'm only allowed to tour. I have no way of making money. Unless I just go and prostitute down on the street. "Hello fellas. Here I am. Would you like to put your American sausage in my English McMuffin?"
Annie: No, No, No!!!!!!!!!

Enjoy everyone!!!!!!!!! I'll miss you!

Also, here is a fun video that Leslie made on our trip to Berlin: