HELLO! It has been a LONG time. And I have been very busy. But I will attempt to update you on my whereabouts.... starting with this weekend and working backwards.
This Past Week (June 17-25th)
Last week was pretty eventful, It started with me receiving my first Olympic tickets (!!) in the mail to the Women's Soccer Gold Medal Match! Here is hoping that the the USA is in the finals! Although it will be very exciting either way! My aunt is in town, so we were about to go out to dinner and watch Billy Elliot during the week.
Friday was by far one of the best nights I have had in London thus far. As class rep, I helped organize our departmental party. It was beach themed and complete with 6 ft blow-up palm tree coolers (amazon it... so great). Afterwards we (my classmates and I) headed out to a nightclub, Cargo, which was a pleasantly surprisingly amazing time! It was definitely one of the most fun I have had in a nightclub in London, and number of times I have seen the sunrise in London has reached an alarming rate (see May section later on).There is no sleep for the weary, however, and the next day I went to Trafalgar square where West End Live was on. West End Live (pictured) is where all the West Endm 3-4 numbers for free in Trafalgar. It was pretty great! Afterwards, my roommates and I went and got Mexican (like real mexican ... in London! it is sooo hard to find a good Mexican place here) and then went to go see Phantom of the Opera. All and it all it was a very musical day.
The Rest of June
So I will start from the beginning here. The first weekend of June was the Queen's Jubilee! I am sure you guys in the States heard all about, but basically it was a four day weekend (#winning) to celebrate the Queen's 60th year on the throne! Sunday, we (my classmates and I) went out to the Thames and watched the "Queens Jubilee Flotilla". Unfortunately it was raining the entire time (typical London) so we just watched the beginning of the parade and the Queen and the left for a pub (typical London). Monday we went to Hyde Park to watch the Queen's Jubilee concert on the big screen. To have watched the concert from the Mall (the street leading up to Buckingham Palace) we would have had to basically camp overnight- so crazy! The atmosphere in Hyde Park was great, though, and its very close to Buckingham Palace so we were able to watch the fireworks at night! Finally, Tuesday the Queen took a carriage to the Palace. I was not planning on going to this event, however I happened to be out shopping and look who whizzed by!
So that was an exciting start to June! Unfortunately after that I started my thesis, which made the month of June decidedly less exciting. My topic is basically comparing the US and European Structural Codes on their provisions on accidental loads (aka terrorist attacks). It is pretty cool because I am doing a lot of research into the twin towers and how they collapsed and what can be done in the future to prevent such collapses.
The only other exciting this that has happened this month is Eurocup! With Soccer games on everyday, how can you be bored? I spent the better part of the last two weeks in a pub from 7:45-10:00 pm watching them. Its even better when they are on when I am working because I have something to do! Unfortunately England lost last night, so I have to find another team to support... I am thinking Spain or Germany! Oh last exciting thing, I went with my aunt to a DELICIOUS restaurant in Primrose Hill if anyone is visiting London soon- It is called Lemonia and it is a Greek Restaurant!
May
The beginning of May was spent intensely studying for finals. I did one, and only one fun thing. I went to the Olympic Park to watch the test even for Water Polo! It was soooo exciting to go and see what everyone has been talking about! After the Tournament (Australia won) we went and walked around the park- I cannot wait to go back in a few weeks!
The architecture is really exquisite and unique (well everything except the temporary Water Polo arena... which looks really temporary). 
So I will breeze over the 3 weeks of finals (The only thing of any consequence that happened is I had lunch with my cousin and his girlfriend at "Lobster and Burger" a sought after restaurant in Mayfair where they serve, you guessed it, just Lobster and Burgers. I don't really eat Burgers, so I had the Lobster roll and it was delicious!!) and end up on a Monday in the middle of May after my last final! To celebrate, we went out to O'Neil's in Leister Square (which is definitely our normal hangout lately), which had live music until 3 am on a Monday! So great! Made even better by the arrival of my mom and sister the next day at 6 am!(I was glad to see them but 2 more hours of sleep would have probably been best). I showed them around the London that day, and the next day we headed off to Edinburgh for a night!
We boarded the first train out (7 am) and it took about 5 hours to get up to Scotland. I was sooo happy to be back for a third time! (See previous blog for a more detailed decription of Edinburgh). We took the free tour of Edinburgh and low-and-behold our tour guide was from Palatine and went to the same High School I did! Things like that just make you realize what a small world it is. After the tour, we went to a great dinner at a small French restaurant called Maison Bleue. It had some of the most delicious Calamari and Fondue I have ever had! We had a quiet night in (see picture for the view from our hotel room!), then spent the next day at the Edinburgh Castle, before grabbing lunch on the royal mile. It was a short trip, but I am so glad my mom and sister got to see one of my Favorite cities!
So my two-week design course was, well, intensive. I had a great group of guys who I have known all year so we managed to pull it out in the end. There were a few late nights, but it all worked out okay! We designed two bridges (a deck-stiffened arch bridge and a through arch bridge) and I think they were pretty great - hopefully our teacher agrees.
The only other exciting thing that happened this month was my friend, Maureen, with one week left at her apartment, got a text at 10 pm from her landlord saying she had two hours to move out (which is illegal). So she went home and the landlord had stolen her passport from her underwear drawer as collateral until she got out- It was absolutely horrible and illegal and ended with her moving into my apartment at 3 am. Luckily some of our friends were around to help out! So that was the first of my aforementioned sunrises. The rest after were mostly due to fun events!
April
I was back in the the US the month of April! I will not bore you with the details, but basically I ate a lot of food, went on a LOT of walks with Meghan and Chloe, and maybe studied a tiny bit. Nothing too crazy but it was certainly nice to be at home for a bit (It had been 7 months!) and have people dote on me. If only everyone was that excited everytime I came home!
March
And back to where we left off! Again nothing too crazy occur in this month, mostly just coursework. I ended up watching a ton of rugby with the guys with my class, and now I feel like I know the game enough to at least understand it. St. Patrick's Day was probably the highlight of the month- I went out with one of my Irish classmate and his friends. We were at an Australian Pub (Walkabout for those who are familiar) but it certainly felt Irish on that day!
So that is all for now! I promise (I swear to it this time) that I will update more. And I will try to add things I forgot in this post. Now that it is summer I don't really have more time, but I do have more exciting things to talk about! Hope everyone at home is doing well!
-Anastasia
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