A Week in Review

Hi everyone!!

It is Friday night 9:30 pm and I am sitting on my couch watching a movie. Don't feel bad for me, though, I had a hopping week.

It all started Sunday when I BOUGHT TICKETS TO THE OLYMPIC GAMES!!! It seems so unreal that I actually got tickets!! I got very lucky and got reasonably priced ones through the company that commissions all the tickets set aside for US citizens. I am going to two preliminary women's water polo games and the round of 16 beach volleyball games. This happened to coincide with a lecture at school given on the Olympic Games structures and now I am triply excited!!! The water polo games will be in the area of the olympic complex (in Stratford) and the beach volleyball games are in the horse guard parade (opposite Buckingham Palace). This is definitely a once in a lifetime thing and I CANNOT wait.

Woo after that everything does not sam as exciting. Monday was another water polo games, in which we crushed our opponent 8 to 3 to something like that. Afterwards was a unexpected night out in Russell Square where I got to know more of the team and had an amazing time! I didn't even realize it was 2 am and that I should probably get home as I had to wake up at 8 am for classes on Tuesday........


...... and I slept through the first hour of my class. No worries though! Spent all day at school, then went directly from school to the Olympics lecture, then went directly to the London Bridge's bar crawl! Probably one of the most beautiful bar crawls I have ever done. We criss-crossed central London via the bridged from bar to bar. London along the Thames at night is just so beautiful. There were definitely a few bars I cannot wait to go back to because of the view!

Wednesday was all about rest and homework.

Thursday was class all day, work until 1 am.

And now it is Friday. (and its warm! 50+ I am definitely not complaining!)


In other miscellaneous news:

- My flower is still alive!! It officially lasted through winter (aka 5 months). I just got another flower, so here is the real test (my life is so exciting those days...)

- 5 weeks until I visit Chicago!!!!

January in Londontown

Hi! London did not move while I was gone!

The first three weeks of January were exclusively set aside for studying, and nothing else. The only thing of excitement ( though not the good kind of excitement) to happen was my laptop completely dying. After two years of riding the tide, it finally drowned. Unfortunately, the timing was right smack dab in the middle of finals, so I had to run out and buy a new computer.

My Birthday came right after finals, and it was a very chill day of shopping, watching tv, a sushi dinner, and cocktails with the girls! Definitely what I needed after a hard few weeks.

We started classes the Monday after finals (I know... soooooooo horrible!). The past three weeks have been a bit more active than the first couple of the year. I got a job in a pub as a bartender! I work between 6-10 hours a week and it is so much fun! It definitely is adding to my English experience. I also had my first water polo tournament in North London vs. Cambridge, Oxford, and Birmingham. I ended up playing the entirety of all three games, which was definitely a test of my endurance (which, for the record, I failed. By the end of the tournament I couldn't even swim a length of the pool). I had forgotten how much I loved to play water polo.... it definitely made for an amazing weekend. I even got 4 goals! Whoo! And last, but definitely not least, this week our boilder broke... aka. not heat or hot water. It was a bit of struggle, but we survived!


To end this post I thought I would highlight some things I recently found in London:

- Even though I walk past it everyday, I never noticed the V&A is full of bomb hole from WWII. It is crazy to think about, and it made me realize how lucky we were that bombs didn't destroy more of London! There is so much history!


-The English consider 30 F a deep freeze.... they obviously would be shocked if they ever visited Chicago

-As soon as an ounce of snow fall, the entire city freaks out! People can't walk, they forget how to drive, its very interesting seeing as it snow here EVERY year.

-There is a ridiculous amount of palm trees growing in my neighborhood

xx Ana

Australlllia!!

Hi Everyone!

Okay so my New Years Resolution (That is starting in February) is to update my blog more often!

As mentioned beforehand, I spent my winter vacation in Australia. I will try to give a quick summary:

Malaysia
The stopping point of my 24 hours of flying was Malaysia. I wish I had the time to explore outside the airport, but I did learn a bit about the country from the airport. First off, they had a jungle in the center of the airport, which was certainly unique. I had forgotten what humidity felt like. The next adventure was to the bathroom, which had mostly standing up toilets. I suppose it is all about what you are use to! In true american fashion, though, I spent most my layover at the Starbucks. In my defense, It was the only place where I was guaranteed from wi-fi and I needed to study!

Cairns


I spent the first 4 days of my trip traveling by myself around northwestern Australia. My tour included White Water Rafting, a day on the reef, a tour of the tablelands and waterfall circuit, and a day in the Daintree Rainforest (where I got to feed Kangaroos!) . It was really a unique experience, I had never been in a Rainforest before and I was so cool to see all the animals and plants

Newcastle

I flew back down to Sydney on Thursday and met up with Evan at the airport and hopped on a train up to Newcastle. Mitch and Luke picked us up at the train station, VB's in hand. It was so exciting to see everyone again and spend the week of Christmas chilly in Newcastle. Activities included waterskiing (In salt water! A different experience for me), a day at the races, and a day on a Yacht. My friend's families were so inviting and we ended up having 3 full Christmas Meals

Sydney


The last stop on the trip was Sydney! We met up with Emma and Chris and toured the city. We spent our time exploring the city, sailing in Sydney harbor, going to the beach, and the Blue Mountains! The highlight was definitely New Years Eve. Emma pulled out all the stops and we got to be in a private enclosure directly across from the Harbour Bridge (see picture).

I already miss the sun and the beach!! Australia was amazing and I cannot wait to go back! The flight home was a bit depressing as it was back to reality and finals!

Christmas Time

It's Christmas time in London!
Before I get ahead of myself though...
First off is thanksgiving! My friend from U of I came out and we made a homemade thanksgiving meal at my apartment with 2 friends from school (an American and a french girl). It was the first turkey I have Made and it turned out pretty good!
Besides thanksgiving I have not been up to much- thus the lack of blog posts. Beyond homework, I really only sleep, eat, and occasionally shop.


My roomates and I decorated our apartment: complete with a tree! All the Christmas as decorations throughout London are gorgeous... I just wish I had more time to enjoy them! I did go ice skating at sommerset house, which was beautiful (abet raining)

Tonight I head off to Australia!! Hopefully I will be able to upload some pictures while I'm there :)

Blue Skys, Warm Weather

Hello there!

So I know it has been quite a while since I have posted, but I have been very busy! Mostly with school. At least 4 days a week I leave for school at 9 am and get home sometime between 9 pm and 11pm. But keeping on top of my school work allows me to have somewhat of a social life....

Oxford


Saturday (1 month ago...) we (My roomates, their classmates at RVC and I) spent the day in Oxford! We really had nothing in mind, so we wandered around the campus (SO pretty and, well, English), had a nice lunch at an English pub, and than walked through Christ Church College (AKA where parts of Harry Potter where filmed like the entrance to the Great Hall etc.). We then when punting on the canal before heading for a burrito dinner (It is hard to find Mexican food in England, so when we see Mexican us Americans get a bit too excited) and then home!

Bear Down, Chicago Bears


Alas, there is no rest for the weary as the next day we had tickets to see the Chicago Bears vs. Tampa Bay Bucaneers at Wembley stadium! It was quite a breezy day, but that didn't stop us from enjoying the "American" tailgate party where they only served Bud Light (yes. you heard me right. But lets be real, what is American Football without Bud Light?). We got to meet up with my cousin and some of his friend there as well! The game was amazing! Although I think all the English people sitting around us were really confused when my friend and I stood up to cheer and when we yelled at the refs. It was an AMAZING day.... although 6 hours of school the next day was a bit tough.

Halloween



So Halloween in the UK is a bit different than America. I was pretty excited at first because the Brits seemed so excited for the day! But Halloween came and all the British dressed exactly the same: as a bloody zombie. I guess they didn't get the Halloween creativity memo. Nevertheless, my roommates and I had a blast preparing for Halloween. Anna made pumpkin pie while we carved pumpkins and roasted pumpkin seeds. We spent Halloween night at an RVC event. I was Belle from Beauty and Beast! I hope everyone back in the states had a fun Halloween too!


Pedi-Bike and Borough Market



Last Saturday Emily and I met up with some friends to go pedi-biking. Now if you look at the photo, you will see a contraption of sorts with 8 seats with pedals and a counter around the inside. Basically how it works is:
- you find 8 friends
- you sit on the seats facing each other
- You pedal through the London streets while consuming beer and wine (The owner of the company is the sober driver)
It was such fun! We were pedaling through the streets of London next to the big red buses in the middle of the street. While I am sure this is probably incredibly dangerous, none of of got hurt so no harm no foul! We did get a TON of strangers taking pictures of us though.

After "biking" we went around the corner to the Borough Market, which is one of the most amazing places I have ever been. It is a HUGE market that has everything you would ever want (microbrews, mulled wine, CHEESE, homemade sweets, Halloumi veggie burgers (well not everyone wants that... but I assure you it was delicious). I fell in love and Emily and I are DEFINITELY going back this weekend to explore further!


Everyday Life/ Misc

On the whole, everything is going great! I hang out with a great group of people at school (Mostly French people, who would have guessed-> Lets just say I now drink a lot of red wine and eat a lot of cheese). My class goes out to dinner every other Friday night at a different nationality restaurant, this week it is Greek food!.

My roommates and I explore a little bit every weekend. A couple Saturdays ago we spent the day at Harrods looking around and eating. That took us about 4 hours we only hit up 2 of the 6 floors. We also explored Convent Garden this weekend and ate at this delicious (and affordable!) Tapas place.

I guess I should also explain the title of this post. The weather has been AMAZING (well, for England at least) It really hasn't fallen below 55-60 degrees F (we have not even turned our heat on in our apartment and its the end of November!) It only rains when I am in my apartment or class which has been VERY convenient thus far.

The next few weeks are also very exciting! Wednesday, my friend Katy from U of I is coming to visit for a week! I can't wait to show her around and do all the touristy stuff. We are having Thanksgiving dinner at my cousins Thursday as well! I am a bit sad I will not be at home, but I am happy to at least still spend Thanksgiving with family and friends! Then the weekend after next, Amber comes for the weekend! THEN just 2 weeks until I leave for Australia!! December is going to be an exciting month :)

First week of School (for the 17th time...)

Hello Hello Hello!

Okay so last week was pretty eventful trying to get into the swing of things! Here are the highlights:

Apartment Life:
Everything in my apartment is pretty swell, except for the internet constantly cutting out. I am really starting to love the area we are in. There is a bakery below me I can get fresh bread from everyday (!!). We have finally gotten everything settled in our apartment, and all I need is one more picture to make my bedroom complete!

School:
Imperial has definitely started to pick up. It is a lot harder and time consuming than I thought it would be, but everyone in my class is so nice! I am basically at school Monday-Thursday most of the day (Mon. & Tue.I have class all day, and Wed. & Thur. I have 1 class and spend the rest of the time in the library).
I also have started playing water polo with the school team and I love it! Everyone is friendly and we have a proper coach and everything.

Misc:
Something that is fairly obvious in England is their OBSESSION with meerkats. No, I am not kidding. Literally in EVERY store (even some classy ones) there is either a statue of a meerkat or something with a meerkat on it. I really don't understand it, and if someone does please leave me a comment explaining this awkward obsession. Thank you.

The Future:
While this topic sounds a bit lofty, I merely mean to inform you about my future plans for travel etc. Well the biggest news is I am going to Australia for Christmas Break! It will be my first Christmas away from my family and snow but I am so excited! (especially to come back to England with a tan :) ) I am staying there for three weeks and still trying to plan the details beyond that.
Before that, however, is this weekend! My roommates and some other friends from the Vet school are going out to Oxford for the day! I am so excited as I have never been there before. Then Sunday is the Bears game at Wembley Stadium! I am beyond excited!! There is even a tailgate (complete with coors light... only the best of american beers :-p) before the game- so stay tuned for pictures from that event!

My First Plant

So I have made a big step in my life, I have gotten a plant. Its a purple orchid from IKEA and it sits in my window sill. It has stayed alive for a week so far.



Besides the plant, my first week has been pretty busy- I spent the first half getting food and my apartment together. I also got to catch up with my cousin, Nate, who lives in London. My roommates' college had a lot of freshman week events, so I was able to partake in their events and hang out with their classmates! It is actually quite funny, because most of their classmates are either British or American. On the other hand, I am one of three American's in my class. My class is 60% chinese and the rest are mostly French and Greek. This week has been orientation at Imperial. It is nice to ease into school... mostly because my school is next Knightsbridge and Harrods so I can use my time off accordingly :)