SNOW SNOW SNOW

what a time for the heat and hot water in your apartment to go out....

well lets go back to last week. All the parents left and life was back to normal schedule.  Classes are winding down and finals are coming up :(  For art we went to the Tate Modern... on the way to the museum we got to see st. pauls cathedral and the millenium bridge (featured in harry potter).  The museum was pretty neat considering it is the first contemporary museum our class has visited this semester so it was a big switch from bronzino and titian.  Our teacher only took us to see two or three displays, they were videos that were kinda disturbing... i didn't like them...the whole point was to decide whether or not specific things are art and why or why not.  One display that was really interesting was a sunflower seed display.  A man made a display of millions and millions of hand craft sunflower seeds that took up the flower like gravel.  It was really interesting to learn about the process and made me appreciate it more than just seeing it.  Tuesday it also started to snow! My first snowfall in london wooohooo.  It didn't stick too much considering we are in the heart of the city but in the suburbs it stuck a lot....teachers were unable to get into the city for classes because they were snowed in.  This would have been a lot cooler and exciting if i were able to go back to the apt. for a warm shower....but we had no heat or hot water. fun.  Our apt. building is under construction and it was supposed to be fixed in 24 hrs..but ended up being more like 72.... our landlord got us space heaters and we cuddled up for warmth oh and had hot coco of course. Wednesday I had classes all day then thursday i ran some errands and went to class..nothin special.  Thursday night alex and i went to see harry potter ...number 7 part 1? idk i'm not a huge harry potter fan but guess its just somtin you gotta do in london...the movie wasn't too bad...but basically just a tease for part 2.

Crack of dawn friday morning Alex and I were off to Amsterdam...7 am flight, oy.  Good thing we flew out of Luton airport and not Gatwick because Gatwick closed their entire airport b/c of the snow...o boy. First time we didn't fly out of gatwick thank god.  After our whole planes trains and cars routine we arrived at our hostel.  We had a few hours to kill before our friends from florence came so we wondered the streets for a while.  Found a great bagel bakery for brunch.  Didn't know much about amsterdam before going but it was so cute.  It is a canal city like venice..but they still have other types of transportation too.  Trams and bicycles zip through all the tiny streets..no exaggeration, they are crazy.  Cyclists will run you over if you are in their lane. Everyone met up later that day as their flights trickled in.  It was good to see everyone again, seen caitlin so many times hahah i love it.  Next morning we woke up and it was blizzarding outside.  I felt like i was in a snowglobe...or a birdget jones movie. hahah. We went to a pancake house that was amazing...their pancakes are really crepes..they are huge..i got a banana and peanut butter pancake ..so delish.  Reminded me of the apple pancake from the Ritz.  Afterwards we headed to the Anne Frank House.  It wasn't as I expected on the outside, looked like a simple museum.  On the inside it was more of what was expected, it was pretty intense.  Quotes everywhere, stuff still on the walls that she wrote/drew.  Learned more about why it looks as it does on the outside and about the remodeling and how her dad (the only one in the fam that survived) took part in the museum.  Pretty intense stuff.  Afterwards we trekked the snowy side streets and went to the van gogh museum, loved it.  I saw the painting of the shoes that we have in our house!!! Didn't know that was his woops.  Anyways i really enjoyed it and there was a monet exhibit that was great too.  Also found out that Amsterdam is famous for their waffles and doughnuts :  )  We saw the I Amsterdam sign of course and took pics of it...not sure of the significance to be honest.  All the dutch people were really nice and spoke english perfectly.  Probably because they need to because their language is so goofy.   Got back here to london safely with no delays yay easyjet.  Slept the rest of the day...literally...thank god the heat and hot water is working again.  The rest of this week will deal with finishing up classes and getting finished with finals/papers.   But tonight.... going ICE SKATING!!! wooo can't wait haha ill let you all know how it goes!

Barcelona!!!!!

In love with this city.
I know I say that about all my trips..but really Barcelona was amazing.  It is probably my second favorite after florence.


Alex and I arrived thursday night, checked into the hostel (great location right in the gothic quarter) and went straight for tapas.  We went to a place called Taller de tapas and it was sooo yummy. We got artichoke shavings, tomato bread, fried calamari, and spinach with chickpeas. I love tapas.  Then Caitlin arrived from Florence!! So happy to see her.  We all crashed early that night so we could rest up for the weekend to come.  The room in the hostel was like a blackout room...the blinds totally blocked out all light BUT in exchange for that the walls were paper thin and we could hear everything outside and throughout the hostel. no fun.

Friday morning we woke up bright and early.  We walked down La Rambla which was about 4 blocks from our hostel.  Decided the best way to see the sites was to do the hop on and off bus tour.  I didn't realize how big the city actually was... I thought it was going to be more of a florence of prague size but it was pretty big.  The bus brought us to the gothic quarter first..which us smarties realized that our hostel is in the heart of the gothic quarter..like actually right there..hahaha.  After that we got dropped off at the beach...oh how i missed the sand and water...it was gorgeous...a little cold for beach weather but it didn't even matter. We walked down the beach for a while and just took it all in. After the beach off to the Sagrada Familia....the absolutely gorgeous unfinished Gaudi church. Gaudi is amazing and I love his work, I have never seen anything like it.  It reminds me of who-ville from Dr. Seuss.  After that we got some tapas... sooooo amamzing....i loved the sausage and we got a coffee crepe with vanilla ice cream! I dont even know what it was it was just delish.  and of course got some sangria : )  Afterwards we headed to Parc Guell, my favorite place in the city, probably could have spent the whole day there.  It's a huge garden with beautiful Gaudi architecture added into it. His tiles were everywhere and I loved it.  Then back to the hostel for a little yet much needed siesta. That night we met up with our friends Phil, Daren, Dani, and Marley, and Dani's brother for dinner.  We did mexican, i got a burrito yummy.  The place was so packed.  That night we went to a club on the beach that was really neat.  People there eat dinner and go out sooooo late, not my style at all.

Saturday we slept in a little and then went to a market off of la rambla.  Great smoothies and fruit. Disgusting meat and animals hanging...and gross smelling fish.  Then we got paella...I stick with veggie after seeing and smelling that market wasn't too fond of the seafood paella so the veggie was perfect.  Then we all went to the Casa Batllo, another wonderful Gaudi building.  The whole house is about the natural light that flows in and out of every room and the sea like fixtures throughout the house.  We got an audio guide and learned all the neat deets.  After that we attempted to go to the Picasso Museum.  Got a weee bit lost on the way...and then when we finally found it we were informed that more than half the museum was closed so we didnt end up going in.  Kinda frustrating.  o well.   That night we went to a classy dinner at a place called Carpe Diem on the beach.... you sit/eat on beds.  How cool.  So we relaxed in style and then went out for a crazy night on the town.  Next mornin me cait and alex woke up early got a big breakfast then off to the airport back to londontown.

I loved barcelona and learned a lot about the city.  They don't even really consider themselves part of Spain....they are a community of catalonia...they take a lot of pride in it and don't even consider spanish their first language.  It was really interesting, beautiful, and fun.  All in all successful weekend.

Adios.

Turkey day the british way.

ok i know i havent been good at updating so im gonna try and go back to last week and remember.

Last week was a bit hectic.  Got my life back together after prague...monday I went to the national gallery after classes to do research for my art paper...I spent three hours there!!! Who am I?!?! I got so much work done that day it felt really good.  Tuesday I went to a weird museum called the Wallace Collection with my art class.  Wasn't a big fan of it and our teacher did this exercise where we had to sit for a half hour and draw what we saw in a picture... well if you know me you know lindsey karl and drawing do not go together, at all.  After that I went with laura to meet up with her fam who is in town for the week.  We went to the Tower of London.  It was really interesting and cool but we freezed our butts off.  It is getting sooo cold here.  Wednesday I had my full day of classes.. in advertising i had my presentation...I talked about one of the google ads and nailed it...by the way you should all watch some of these google search stories...you have probably seen the parisian love story one but you should check out "graduation" and some of the other ones like the dad and daughter one.  Anywayssss after my day of classes the roomies went out to dinner with flynns family who just got into town. Everyones fams came in these past few weeks : ( made me a little homesick but its ok cause i will be home in less than 3 weeks and get to see everyone wooooo.  It was funny to see everyone and their rents though and see where they come from and what not. One night that week the roomates also went to Winter Wonderland in hyde park.  Its this whole carnival they have set up for xmas...rides, food, hot chocolate, little stands, xmas music, etc.  it was so cute and we had a good time with it.

Thursday morn...TURKEY DAY..oh wait they don't celebrate that holiday here....
My friend Brads family organized a football game in hyde park so that was nice and we all played in the freezing cold that morn....Alex and I left early though because we decided to celebrate with tapas and sangria in barcelona!

Czech me out prague

I have never made so many jokes with play on words in my life.

Prague.

Alex Soph and I flew out thurs night easy peasy no problems. Soph went to stay with a friend that is studying there and alex and I went to our hostel, The Emma Hostel.  We stayed in a 5 person room but were the only two there for the first night.  Once we got there we wandered the streets for a little and stopped at a bar to people watch out night away.  Next morning  we woke up and ventured to Bohemian Bagel.  Cinnamon raisin with cream cheese...sooo good and soo necessary.   Then off to see the sites...saw the old town center, the astronomical clock, and the jewish quarter.  The jewish quarter was pretty neat we went into a holocaust museum, and old cemetery, and the old-new synagogue (oldest synagogue in europe).  After that we crossed the charles bridge which has really cool architecture, as does the whole city, felt like i was in batman or the hunchback of notre dame.  Along the bridge are a bunch of vendors and street performers (you cant drive on it).  We headed to the John lennon wall but got lost for quite some time....in the freezing rain.  It was worth it though cause the graffiti is awesome.  It is the only graffiti in all of prague.  The pics of it turned out great too.  We met a family at the wall that lived in san diego but had recently moved to Italy with their fam (delissers?)  After all those adventures we stopped for lunch at a mexican place and got quesadillas. Czech food is not appetizing or up my alley at all so we stayed away from it....beef goulash, sausage, fried cheese, pretzels, dumplings...salt salt salt.  After lunch Alex got her much needed t-shirt that says "czech me out".  The rain started to really pick up so we headed to the hostel for a nap and shower.  That night we had a nice romantic dinner of these huge chicken salads and just sat and talked for like two hours.  After we met soph and her friends at this cave like underground bar.  There were all american students there so it was kinda funny.  The gross thing about prague is that you can smoke anywhere and everywhere, and they do.  We reeked of it from the bar and restaurants, it was awful.  After the bar Alex and I went to an 80s 90s club. It was just too funny, all the music, spice girls . i'm a barbie girl . cotton eyed joe. etc.  We had a good time dancing just the 2 of us.  Then back at the hostel we met out new roomies..2 guys from france and another rando guy.  The french guys were nice and friendly but we weren't too pleased with the other guy who was an extremely loud snorer...I thought alex was gonna chuck a shoe at him in the middle of the night, no va bene.  Saturday morning we trekked to a famous brunch place, Radost.  We got omelets and home fries it was delish, mine was spinach mushroom and cheese.  Then we walked all the way across the city (really only took about 20 m in its a small city) to the prague castle area.  Its up on a hill with a great view of the city.  We saw the castle and the other little castles around it... it was like its on little village up there and a whole different world than the city... we saw a toy museum and were tempted to go in to celebrate barbies 50th birthday but refrained.  We headed back to the center of the city instead and went to the chocolate museum : ) hahaha.  Got a demonstration and free testers as well as a chocolate covered waffle stick yum.  The rest of the day we kinda just walked around and got lost, it was freeezing. We saw the astronomical clock on the hour does this little shindig which is actually really cheesy and stupid. Then back to the hotel nap shower change routine.  Went to italian food for dinner...pest gnocchi my fave...picked the place out of nowhere but must have been good because it was soo packed.  After we went to a pub crawl...ran into some people from our london program there that we didnt even know were in prague for the weekend..legit small world.  But the crawl was fun we started at a bar and went to three different clubs.  Sunday morning we woke up and went to the bagel place again...everything bagel with veggie cream cheese this time : )  Then to the airport and home .

All in all prague was very different from the other cities i have seen, but a good weekend.  Traditional food was not good but the architecture was amazing.  The whole gothic creepy feeling was really neat at night.  It was also nice to just travel with one person and not have to deal with a bunch of peoples wants and needs..it was leisurely paced and we got everything done.  The people in the city did not like to speak english..they just weren't very happy people all in all.  Oh and the currency is actually insane.  One pound in 29 crowns...One dollar is 18 crowns....So a sandwich is like 170 crowns. Took a while to get used to that.

Well one more city i can czech off my list.  hahahah I am just tooooo funny.

livin in a frat house.

So this past week has been quite hectic ..but fun.

Last week I went to the Sir John Soanes Museum with my art class. It was really neat and unlike any other museum i have seen. It is in his old house, which is an amazing house because he was an architect. Every space on the walls is covered with a piece of is art...and the walls open up to more walls behind them with more art.  The halls were so narrow and windy we weren't even allowed to carry our purses around with us.  In graphics we spent the class watching 4 weddings and a funeral...interesting.  It now gets pitch black here around 330 pm. cool. not.

Then the weekend came..the girls came..and the frat party began.  11 girls 1 apartment. Thursday night we took them to our pub down the street for fish and chips and cider..they loved it. Then we went to our favorite bar, O'Neils and had a fab night.  Friday we woke up, went for a traditional english bfast then out to see the sites in the rain.  Showed them big ben and that area then hit up Harrods.  It was awesome to see Harrods all lit up and decorated for xmas. I loved it. You can seriously get lost in that place.

Saturday we woke up and went to Kings Cross Station to see platform 9 3/4 (Harry Potter) ... it really wasn't that cool...not even a plaque there saying blahblahblah. Owell.  We then navigated our way by bus because the tube is under construction, to Abbey Road.  Took the crosswalk picture of course.  Then headed to oxford street for a day of shoppin with the girls...spent hours in topshop...but now worries i didnt buy a single thing!!! That night I had my first Indian food experience... lets just say it will probably be my last as well. After we went to an amazing club Koko and had the best night ever.

The girls left at the crack of dawn this morn :( but it was a great (crowded and hectic) weekend.  Today I went to school to study for the day... for the amount of money i pay to go here you would assume i would have no problem getting internet service there..yaaa. Gotta send that e-mail complaint.  Oh and the construction outside our building right now cut out our hot water. fun. So for now i'm gonna go catch up on some shows cause im so far behind (greys has been amazing)....gotta stay up late tonight because the sorority is re-slating positions so we have to wait up to see if we get called for one..and the time difference makes that interesting. bleh o well .

we are thinkin of maybe doing a family game night... bananagrams?!?! yes pleaseee

Dublin tours London

so tired.

Thursday night friends arrived from Dublin.  We all made a family style dinner...pasta and cuc tomato feta salad....it was quite the scene.  We took them out to our favorite bar in piccadilly, O'neils and had a great time. Next morning went to see changing of the guards but thank you london for deciding to downpour on us, real nice.  The whole ceremony really wasn't that exciting but o well it was good to see.  We all went to dinner down the street at duke of kendall and were going to to go a guy faux celebration.  It's a fireworks bonfire holiday here but it got all messed up because of the weather and we ended up just having a fun night in...pretty much still exhausted from the night before.

Next morning got up to show the girls a traditional english breakfast then sent them off to see the lion king and alex, laura, and i went to check out camden. Loved it!!!! There is a big punk/goth scene which was interesting but the markets there are so much fun...vintage clothes, london stuff, food, paintings/photos, it was so big and windy and there is a canal going through it all. It is def my favorite market so far.  We spent a good few hours there then headed home to meet up with everyone.  Went out to a club called Kanaloa near our school where a bunch of syracuse people all gathered...had a good night and grabbed some late night shwarma on the way home from cafe helen of course (death of our flat).  Sunday morning we gathered the troops to go to Brick Lane, another market that we heard is a cannot miss.  It was on the smaller side in comparison to the others but still very different and cool.  They are known for their vintage shops and.....authentic jewish bakeries.  They have two bakeries that are open 24 hours a day ( you are really supposed to go at 3 am to get fresh bagels ) and have amazing bagels...but they call them biegels.  They are famously known for their salted beef on a bagel? ew. After a good time at the market we went to speakers corner and heard the oddballs argue about everything.  There was one grandma really heated about immigrants...she was soo rude i was surprised she didn't get punched.

We were exhausted from the weekend and walking...made another fam din and hung with the girls for the night... we literally laughed all weekend....it was so good to catch up with the others and show them around "our city".  Back to the real world for now and dealing with classes and work ughhh i am so over work....

went to a work out class tonight...it was amazing and idk if i can move out of bed right now... our instructor was a fat gay guy named darren...he is amazing.

Getting back on track

Sunday was halloween and the crew decided to go to a club called church where you dress up and its from 12-4 in the afternoon....we did not realize how far it was sooo it ended up being quite an interesting day for us around london... o well it was fun... we dressed up as wonderwomen... cute and cheap?

Monday classes began again...ugh not ready for work... got some midterms back and am happy with the results : ) i can't believe we are more than half way done here...crazy. Tuesday we took our last trip to the national gallery with my art class....from now on we visit a different museum each week....as our last class there we learned about conservation and restoration which the ng has some problems with....it was pretty interesting to learn about and then actually see it first hand. After that I came home...Sophs aunt stayed over for a few nights to help her out with everything cause she is still having trouble with her ankle...her aunt lives about 45 min away from london and is hysterical. she played some tough love with Soph and whipped her back into commission (somewhat). I cleaned, food shopped, and did laundry for the rest of the day..gettin my life back on track....unlike the tubes....

wednesday there was a huge tube strike...and half of oxford street was closed down so the busses weren't running their normal routes..awesome. not. So I walked to my 1040 class...it was actually really refreshing, I took a new route, got a little lost, but enjoyed it. Found some new cool places to go to along the way. Now I just have to get my life in order for school in syracuse and internships...gotta do my resume and plan classes for next semester and senior year...SENIOR YEAR?!?!? wtf mate. I hate scheduling classes, honestly the most stressful thing ever.

Off to my last class of the week now, gonna walk again just to get some exercise ( i need it..havent been to the park in a while) then tonight our friends from Dublin are coming to visit for the weekend!!!