Time decided to fly away from me this semester. I cannot believe I have a week left until I leave. It is sad, but I am looking forward to experiencing the life in Greece and Turkey. This past weekend I stayed in London and had an enjoyable time of writing five papers and just hanging out in the city. We went to an amazing Indian restaurant on Thursday and I have decided I must find one in Marysville, because I love it so much. If I haven't mentioned this already, in South Ken we have the best cookie shop, Ben's Cookies. I have never had a better cookie in my life. I mean nothing can beat my mother's chocolate chip cookies, but they have like 20 kinds including triple chocolate with chunks of white and dark chocolate melted inside. So yummy.
Aside from eating, I did do other things this weekend. On Friday, I went to London Fashion Weekend. To our advantage it was about a block away in front of the Natural History Museum. It was INSANE. I have never seen so many designers, clothes, bags, shoes, jewelry, and models in one place. All the clothes are extremely new, nice, should be pricey, but discounted so I had to pick up a few things. We also got this really intense tote bag filled with random samples. All in all, my head was a little overwhelmed, but it was fun.
Another highlight of my weekend was Sunday. As I am sure you read, I attend Hillsong church which is a branch off of the Sydney Hillsong. This past Sunday was vision and album recording day. So we not only had the whole service professionally recorded, but we had to get there almost an hour early, just to get in. This church is huge and there are three services! There was a lot of energy and it was an intense feeling of worship and love for God all over. It was also fun to hear about the vision of the church from the overall head pastor in Sydney, Brian Houston. This church has been a huge blessing for me and encouraged me to grow spiritually while I am over here. I feel very fortunate to go every week and really sad to leave it.
Well, I must get back to work, since next week is finals! I hope you all are having a great week. Cheers!
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Sunday, February 17, 2008
The city of love on the weekend of love!
Who misses their boyfriend? I do! :) Paris was amazing. I thought it was going to be grungy and filled with creepy men, but I was so wrong. It has become one of my favorite cities. Luckily for us, we took an overnight bus from London to Paris on Thursday night. It was long, but not too exhausting and we were in Paris, France the next morning. We stored our bags into our hotel. It was adorable about 3 blocks from the Eiffel Tower. Our breakfast was amazing and we loaded up on energy for the day. We had a 'typical' French breakfast? with two pieces of bread, ham and tomatoes in the middle, cheese melted on top, and a fried egg on top of that. Really delicious. We also tried some French coffee, pretty much a straight up shot and it was intense.
So after that we went to the Louvre. This place holds so many painting, sculptures, and other artifacts. You can really see history through art. It was also fun, because many of the paintings and sculptures we saw we recognized from discussing in our humanities class. Our next mission to complete brain overload was the d'Orsay. Because of time limits, we mostly looked at the paintings on the top floor but glanced through the sculptures. Another place that our brains and eyes were just exploded with color, light, and information. We completed both museums by 2 pm. Isn't that insane? Some people take multiple days for each one! We only had two however, and had many other things on our list.
After lunch we headed to the Notre Dam Cathedral. We actually got to go inside and listen to a Gregorian chant service thing. This church was one of the coolest things I have ever seen. The alter was so grand. We walked through the church around the alter and then walked around the outside. It was literally freezing. So, what do you do when you're freezing? Buy a crepe. I had the most scrumptious crepe ever. Duh...we're in France. But, anyway it was wonderful. We walked around that area for a while and then headed back to our hotel. We 'accidentally' took a 3 hour nap and then Elizabeth's friend from another Pepperdine program arrived and there were four of us! We went to dinner near the Eiffel Tower and took a short walk to see it at night. That is a must see if life! We crashed as soon as we got back.
Our second day began with breakfast and then a walk to the Eiffel Tower. We were thinking about climbing it but the lines were longer than the Finding Nemo line at Disneyland. So we opted out, took tons of pictures, and went to the Champs Elysees. This is a major shopping street which leads down toward the Arc de Triomphe. We also got Starbucks, a must in foreign cities. Just so you all know, it still tastes better in Seattle. Then we boarded the Metro for Versailles. We explored the castle, grounds, and Marie Antoinette smaller house and little village. It was huge. I will hopefully get pictures uploaded this week so you can see how large the grounds were.
We took the train back in and then went to the Moulin Rouge. Obviously, we did not go in but definitely got some pictures outside. Then we had a birthday dinner for Alexis. And sadly, we hurried back and Meredith and I got back on the bus and headed home. I hope you all get a chance to go to Paris, because it was a truly amazing city! Cheers!
So after that we went to the Louvre. This place holds so many painting, sculptures, and other artifacts. You can really see history through art. It was also fun, because many of the paintings and sculptures we saw we recognized from discussing in our humanities class. Our next mission to complete brain overload was the d'Orsay. Because of time limits, we mostly looked at the paintings on the top floor but glanced through the sculptures. Another place that our brains and eyes were just exploded with color, light, and information. We completed both museums by 2 pm. Isn't that insane? Some people take multiple days for each one! We only had two however, and had many other things on our list.
After lunch we headed to the Notre Dam Cathedral. We actually got to go inside and listen to a Gregorian chant service thing. This church was one of the coolest things I have ever seen. The alter was so grand. We walked through the church around the alter and then walked around the outside. It was literally freezing. So, what do you do when you're freezing? Buy a crepe. I had the most scrumptious crepe ever. Duh...we're in France. But, anyway it was wonderful. We walked around that area for a while and then headed back to our hotel. We 'accidentally' took a 3 hour nap and then Elizabeth's friend from another Pepperdine program arrived and there were four of us! We went to dinner near the Eiffel Tower and took a short walk to see it at night. That is a must see if life! We crashed as soon as we got back.
Our second day began with breakfast and then a walk to the Eiffel Tower. We were thinking about climbing it but the lines were longer than the Finding Nemo line at Disneyland. So we opted out, took tons of pictures, and went to the Champs Elysees. This is a major shopping street which leads down toward the Arc de Triomphe. We also got Starbucks, a must in foreign cities. Just so you all know, it still tastes better in Seattle. Then we boarded the Metro for Versailles. We explored the castle, grounds, and Marie Antoinette smaller house and little village. It was huge. I will hopefully get pictures uploaded this week so you can see how large the grounds were.
We took the train back in and then went to the Moulin Rouge. Obviously, we did not go in but definitely got some pictures outside. Then we had a birthday dinner for Alexis. And sadly, we hurried back and Meredith and I got back on the bus and headed home. I hope you all get a chance to go to Paris, because it was a truly amazing city! Cheers!
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Yay Birthday!!!
I had a great birthday! Thank you to everyone who made it special. I was told to wake up at 7 AM on my birthday by my mother and I was pleasantly surprised to video skype with my family and Brian! Then I met up with Aunt Debbie's friend Froemke and we had coffee, climbed up St. Paul's, and had lunch! It was a great morning. Then class...not the best experience. Our music field trip was canceled so we went to dinner as a group and out to coffee after. We all had lots of homework to get done. Since this was my birthday week I should start with the beginning being last Saturday when ten of my girl friends took me out to tea at the Orangery which is in the Kensington Palace. I also got a lovely birthday cake in our convocation and serenaded by the usual happy birthday. Then the night before my birthday, I got sung to and a cake with rainbow chip frosting ($8 from the American grocery store!) Delicious. So I am a very lucky girl and now am headed off to Paris! Shout out to the new baby girl Kalea! Now, we're just waiting for the Rush baby. Cheers!
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Catch-Up
Sorry for my lack of posts in the last week or so. I not only had busy weekends but I also had TONS of homework and exams. So for starters I would like to share about two weekends ago. We woke up at 4 AM, took a taxi to the airport, and flew to BARCELONA! There were 6 of us from Pep London and then a friend of another girl met us there. This group was fantastic. We had no drama only lots of fun and adventures. You can check out my Barcelona album below on facebook.
We walked down La Rambla. A main shopping street with lots of touristy things, which was near our hostel, Hello BCN. We also saw the Christopher Columbus monument that points toward the Americas, the harbor, and the beach!! We all realized how much we missed seeing the beach. The Mediterranean was beautiful and a few of us couldn't help but put our feet in the sea. Even though it was 5 pm, it didn't feel that cold. We ate tapas and drank sangria for dinner and enjoyed the company of one another in this amazing city. We walked all over and were exhausted by the end of the night.
The next day we went to Sagrada Familia. This unfinished cathedral had the most beautiful stained glass windows. I went inside and they use all of the money you pay to get in to help finish building it, since it has been under construction since 1882. Park Guell was our next stop. An incredible hike with escalators. They had them on the streets going up to the park that overlooked the entire city. Once at the top, it was a pleasant hike down to the street level with lots of fun architecture and trees. From there, we took the underground to the Picasso Museum. He was a very odd man, but painted brilliantly for most of his life. We relaxed in a little coffee shop near the museum. On Sunday morning we left, heading back to the UK.
This past weekend, Pepperdine organized and paid for a trip to Dover and Canterbury. At the Dover Castle we explored the underground war tunnels used throughout the world wars. Then we drove to the beach and got lovely pictures of the white cliffs of dover. We also put our hands in the English Channel. In Canterbury, we saw the cathedral and looked through the little shops. On Saturday, I saw Fiddler on the Roof...WONDERFUL. I loved it and look forward to seeing other shows in London. That is all I have for now. I hope you are all having a wonderful week and I will try and be better about updating. Remember to check out my pictures at the links below! Cheers.
We walked down La Rambla. A main shopping street with lots of touristy things, which was near our hostel, Hello BCN. We also saw the Christopher Columbus monument that points toward the Americas, the harbor, and the beach!! We all realized how much we missed seeing the beach. The Mediterranean was beautiful and a few of us couldn't help but put our feet in the sea. Even though it was 5 pm, it didn't feel that cold. We ate tapas and drank sangria for dinner and enjoyed the company of one another in this amazing city. We walked all over and were exhausted by the end of the night.
The next day we went to Sagrada Familia. This unfinished cathedral had the most beautiful stained glass windows. I went inside and they use all of the money you pay to get in to help finish building it, since it has been under construction since 1882. Park Guell was our next stop. An incredible hike with escalators. They had them on the streets going up to the park that overlooked the entire city. Once at the top, it was a pleasant hike down to the street level with lots of fun architecture and trees. From there, we took the underground to the Picasso Museum. He was a very odd man, but painted brilliantly for most of his life. We relaxed in a little coffee shop near the museum. On Sunday morning we left, heading back to the UK.
This past weekend, Pepperdine organized and paid for a trip to Dover and Canterbury. At the Dover Castle we explored the underground war tunnels used throughout the world wars. Then we drove to the beach and got lovely pictures of the white cliffs of dover. We also put our hands in the English Channel. In Canterbury, we saw the cathedral and looked through the little shops. On Saturday, I saw Fiddler on the Roof...WONDERFUL. I loved it and look forward to seeing other shows in London. That is all I have for now. I hope you are all having a wonderful week and I will try and be better about updating. Remember to check out my pictures at the links below! Cheers.
Monday, February 4, 2008
Pictures!
Hi all! I know I am running behind especially about my last two weekends. Barcelona, Dover, and Canterbury. I hopefully will write about them soon. After I write a paper and a speech. :) Anyway, I am giving you the links to my facebook photo albums.
Life in London: http://pepperdine.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2045557&l=dd4d5&id=8506210
Oxford University: http://pepperdine.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2045559&l=26aae&id=8506210
Wales: http://pepperdine.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2045560&l=274d9&id=8506210
Barcelona: http://pepperdine.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2045563&l=ec9d9&id=8506210
Just copy and paste these in your web browser and they should work to view my pictures. I hope to update you all soon! Cheers!
Life in London: http://pepperdine.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2045557&l=dd4d5&id=8506210
Oxford University: http://pepperdine.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2045559&l=26aae&id=8506210
Wales: http://pepperdine.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2045560&l=274d9&id=8506210
Barcelona: http://pepperdine.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2045563&l=ec9d9&id=8506210
Just copy and paste these in your web browser and they should work to view my pictures. I hope to update you all soon! Cheers!
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