caught up in the london life

sry its been a few days

sunday night dad and i ate dinner in the hotels italian restaurant and it was sooo good.  We got garlic pita bread to start, i got gnocchi and dad got spaghetti. Monday I went to BBC Studios with my graphics class. It was pretty cool, they gave us a tour of some rooms, we saw the main news room, a set of a show, and a dressing room where the stars go (beckham?!?).  They told us J.Lo was the most difficult guest they ever had...requesting them to paint the walls white and flying in her couch from paris .... to simply be in the room for 45 min tops...lady gaga always requested a fridge for her wigs hahahah. Then I went to my art class then met up with dad at Harrods!  Never been there before, it was so perty.  We bought some shoes of course hehe...dad made me walk a million miles everywhere because he doesn't believe in public transportation....I convinced him to take the tube one time.  We went to dinner in Shephards Market right near the hotel...cute little back alleys...we ate at a mediterranean place...hummus and bread...tomato cucumber salad...steak & lamb chops...tiramisu and rice pudding... who lives better than me?!  Then i had to say goodbye to daddy :(  we had such a good weekend together... but now he is off to florence and then maybe i will see him in Paris this weekend!

Tuesday went to my museum class.... we are learning about allegory and i am really enjoying it.  My favorite painting was by an italian artist Bronzino. It was about the allegory of love and its consequences. Who knew I would actually be interested in art.  We also saw a painting of a god breastfeeding herculeus and the excess breast milk going into the sky creating the milky way....yaaaa idk.

Tuesday night I went out to eat at a mexican place for my friend Sams 21st....too bad she is already legal here..hahah... we had a good time but then soph and i came back to do work....and today i had 6 hrs of classes ughhh.... but tomorrow  PARIS. I have a 7 o clock train outt and cant wait...ill update you all on monday : )

oh and i put up new pics on fbook for everyone to check out.

Ouch Charlie.

(Enter cheesy cliche about life going on here)

Oh what would we do without Karen Karl constantly keeping us on our toes....

after all the hectic commotion I met dad at the Park Lane Sheraton when he arrived. We walked around a little looking for a bite...stopped at an italian place where he got some pizza and i got delicious pesto soup. (just a warning my whole weekend revolved around food and so will this entry)

Next morning dad and I met in Hyde Park for breakfast on the beautiful Serpentine Lake...dad attempted to pay in euros...we had a great egg breakfasts with some coffee...I then walked him to Oxford street where he would begin his day of work/shopping.  I met up with the roomates and we all went to Borough Markets. FOOD FOOD AND MORE FOOD  it was crazy, just booth after booth of free samples of cheese, bread, oils, spreads, etc. and millions of people.  We spent a few hours there, then saw the London Tower Bridge.  We also saw The Monument (202 feet hight) by coincidence.  It was all really pretty.. I wanna go back another day and actually explore the tower bridge up close.  We then went back home..shower, clean up, blah blah.


Met dad at the hotel and walked around Piccadilly and Covent Gardens for a bit...it's such a fun place to explore at night.  Ended up stopping for dinner at a traditional english restaurant called Porters.  We of course had to have pot pies...my first one ever! They were really good, we both enjoyed them and of course topped them off with some ice cream for dessert. There was a crazy group of english people celebrating a b-day next to us and they were more than entertaining. We were both exhausted and parted ways for a good night sleep.

This morning (sunday now) we met at the Marble Arches.  Went to breakfast at a little cafe, Toast (no we were not in Montclair).  Then back to the apartment to show dad around my 'hood' and drop off some goodies mom packed for me : )   Dad met the roomies and all then it was back to Oxford street for some Lindsey shopping time.  We went to selfridges and topshop...busy,busy,busy.  Before we knew it it was 2 o clock and time to go...we didn't purchase anything but got good ideas for purchases tomr hehehe...this European fashion is a lot for me to take in, idk if i'm quite ready to try and pull it off.  We had to go at 2 because.....TEA TIME.  Dad navigated his way to Browns Hotel which he gets a lot of credit for cause i didn't trust he truly knew where he was going..he proved me wrong and we arrived early.  Tea for 2 was delish.  Place was nice and cozy and there was a pianist...we ate sandwiches, scones, and pastries.  Dad got a traditional afternoon tea and I get an oriental sweet tea (they gave us samples to take away so Mom will get a chance to have them in Jersey and feel like she was still with us..and we stole you some sweet-n-low from the table).  Dads favorite part of the meal was the jam that went on the scones.. it was fresh and delish.  We felt so proper. As we left it was drizzling, of course, and we stopped by Fortum & Mason...bought some tea..but the weird part was when we were on line we saw chocolate covered giant ants, oven baked tarantula, scorpion vodka, and many other bugged foods...and they were legit ?!?  We were gonna buy some for Cory to eat but ended up being too weirded out.

We are now resting at the hotel...I have some pics but my connector is back in my apt. so they will be uploaded later.
 Cheers

Actually Learning

The father is sick with sniffles, the mother has TB. They have 4 children. the 1st is blind, the 2nd is dead, the 3rd is deaf and the 4th has TB. she finds she's pregnant again. Given the extreme situation, would you consider recommending abortion? 


I was presented this question as I walked into my personality psych class...this weeks topic was ethics....think about it....

Going back to yesterday... I went to the National Gallery , round 2.  This week we were learning about religious iconography...saints, jesus, etc...I actually learned a lot and was interested in the different attributes of all the saints. I now know St. Gabriel the annunciate, St. Francis the saint of animals monk guy who has stigmata in his hands and feet, and St. Peter the gatekeeper.  Those are the three main saints we concentrated on and I was able to identify them in multiple paintings, I felt so accomplished! haha.  We also looked at the last supper and learned how to tell who was christ and who was judah in various different versions of the painting.  We then looked at the different stages of christ...being born with mary,being circumcised in a temple, being baptised by st. john (as an adult), and then of course the crucifix scene.  We also saw the three births... Mary, John, and Christ.  Christ is always in a stable...the only way to tell the difference between mary and johns births are by looking at the sex of the baby or by looking closely for inscriptions.... i feel so intelligent... we then talked about the difference between the main altarpiece and the predella ... the main is the large piece with a character painted on it in which you pray to.  The predella is the story of the character shown in multiple smaller paintings.  The main must be a character and not an action while the predella is always an action.....pretty cool.


After all that knowledge I felt accomplished for the day...then went grocery shopping and for a run...then went out with a bunch of people to a place called sports bar cafe...really american...tuesday is student night.. we met a bunch of kids who are abroad here through different programs which was cool.


Today I had class all day... hate wednesdays.... nothing too special except in psych when we discussed ethics...we went over several "what if" situations...the one at the beginning of this entry was one...it was a real life situation and they decided to have the baby... the baby is now known as ...Beethoven !!  I found that really interesting...who woulda thunk it?!


btw updated the pics on the posts below if you have no life and wanna check backk : )

The pope, the queen, and yom kippur all in one weekend

So Saturday Laura and I went for our run and there were huge amounts of people and security...we knew the pope was coming to london but we didn't know he was coming down the street from us.  We asked a security guard for details and he looked at us like we had ten heads.  Ends up the pope was coming right to hyde park to give mass.  Oy.  Guess none of those poeple were fasting....

I attempted to fast... I made it till 330 but we were at portabello rd. You can't go there and not eat. It was amazing and you all would love it.  Antiques, collectibles, junk, food, etc..... We got paella...and nutella strawberry crepes... it was phenom but i wish i was at jills eating a toasted sesame bagel with egg salad and some noodle kugel mmmmmmmmmm... i could really go for that right now. Sophs boyfriend dan is here for the weekend, from madrid...everyone was happy to see him here : )

On my run I took the time to think about yom kippur...my own kind of temple/sermon.  Kinda felt guilty about not being at a temple and not planning to really fast.  But I do believe that if we observe the holiday in our own way and somewhat acknowledge it than it is almost just as good.  Yom Kippur is the holiday to acknowledge our mistakes of the past and an opportunity to move on from them. We cannot take back the past but we can make an effort to change the future... on Yom Kippur we can take the chance to realize we can make the future better for ourselves and those around us.  The idea of fasting on  Yom Kippur is to clear our minds as we go through these deep thoughts of the past and future....With this in mind on my run I realized that me thinking about how hungry I am and how much I want food was not helping me or making this holiday any more meaningful. What makes it meaningful is me simply thinking about it... going out running and making a healthy future for myself... talking to my family and hoping for a healthy future for them... and going out and experiencing this chance of a lifetime I have here in london.  It has been a long year and I know we are all ready for a new happy and healthy one.

( Sorry for the rant )

Sunday we took a tour of Buckingham Palace...I loved it...think i can move in? The tour took about an hour, we went on the video headset tour.. we went through the state rooms and the garden.  I would show you guys pics but for some reason this website is messed up and i can't get anymore to load... its in the works.

Today was classes..nothing out of the ordinary...then me alex and laura went to a body conditioning class at the gym.. i can't move.  My butt and legs are dead.

I had such a cultured weekend...

Billy and Brewery

hmmm ok well wednesday i had class allllllll day. Psych then advertising...nothing special...went to our favorite sandwich shop in between the classes..so yummy.  Thursday I woke up went for a run and ran some errands.  Felt good to have the morning to myself and not be in a rush to do anything or see anyone, I got a lot done and made a phenomenal salad. I then had my soc of sport class 2-5...came home real quick...made some eggs over easy...got dressed..and went to the Victoria Palace Theatre. BILLY ELLIOT!!! It was so so good, I really enjoyed it.  There were some parts that were hard to understand...the second half started with 10 minutes or so of british humor but o well other than that it was so good.  It made me want to see the movie.  At intermission all the british people get an alcoholic beverage and ice cream hahah.

This morning we woke up and traveled really far on the tube to go on a tour of Chiswick Brewery.  It was a lot of fun... we looked around and learned about the process and machines.  Then we got to have tastings at the end   : ) after that I had my first fish and chips meal !!! It was so fried that i could barely taste the fish and actually liked it haha..my stomach is now hating me for it.

Well I hope everyone is doing well and that you have an easy fast tomorrow.
 Missing you all on the holidays, lk

School week 2

hello hello hello.

Had graphics and art history on Monday.  Learned about the history of TV broadcasting in the UK in graphics and in art we talked about Giorgio Vasari and Giotto and their techniques in the 1500's.  After class Laura and I went for a run in Hyde Park again..it was a little rainy but not too bad.  Home, shower and dinner.  Grilled cheese and salad..not too shabby.  We then booked Paris!!!! woooo...weekend of October 1st...a little stressful planning but we did it.  I vid chatted with Emma and Jill this past weekend yay hehhe.. sorry about my poor Internet.  I was also able to catch up wit mom and dad in sunny Sarasota! Nothing like your own parents to talk some sense into you and make you feel at home even when you're in another country.

Tuesday I had my class visit to the National Gallery, it is right in the heart of Trafalgar Square.  We got assigned our first paper, oy. It's not too bad though, we have to compare and contrast the displays in two different rooms in a museum or gallery....lighting,color, architecture, frames, etc. Afterwards Kylie and I explored the area and got some lunch. It is so nice over there...markets, cafes, street performers, and shopping! Mom- we saw the All Saints store and it was amazing!!! But don't worry I didn't purchase anything.  

Just resting up now...possibly out tonight...class all day tomorrow.

sunday funday!

Woke up and went for a run in Hyde Park again...loved it, so nice and relaxing...hopefully I can keep up this running thing.  Then Soph and I went to Oxford Street!!! Wooo...bought some essentials..and some non-essentials : ) oh how the pound killllllls me.  Soph and I then made our first real dinner!! yaaaay us we are so proud of ourselves.  Chicken and veggies, delish! (any other meal suggestions please let me know thank you)  We also did our first load of laundry here...two milestones in one day!  Now we are reading for our class tomorrow..ughh so many pagesssssss.  I just vid-chatted with erin..finalllyyyy..i miss her...short post today, not much goin on...gotta go flip the wash!

adjusting...

Up and out early friday morn to go to Stonhenge... it was sooo chilly and a pretty long ride too.  It was interesting but I think if I knew more about the site and what not then it would have been better.  We spent about 40 minutes there then drove to salisbury.  We got some fish and chips (not a huge fan) then toured a really pretty cathedral.  The drive home was extremely long...we all passed out.  Home, shower, dress, and out for a night out on the town with the crew.  

This morning we slept in which felt sooooo good.  I then finally straightened out my phone (only took a week and a half) haha. Then we went to a festival on the Thames River.  It was huge and really neat.  There were stages set up with different bands and performances and a bunch of tents with food, clothes, jewelery, etc.  I then came home and took a 2 hour nap :)

I feel like i'm not only experiencing and adjusting to life in London but the city life as well.  Navigating public transportation (buses, cabs, and tubes) hearing everything from our apartment windows 24 hours straight, not opening windows in classrooms because of the sound outside, constantly holding my purse on the streets, crazy drivers and cyclists, walking walking and more walking.  I guess all of this happens in any city but it is just such a different lifestyle from being in good old Montville.  Same with adjusting to living in an apartment.  Having to buy groceries, cleaning supplies, laundry detergent, toilet paper, etc.  And having to cook for myself!! AHHH. It is all so new but I am slowly getting used to it.  For dinner tonight I sauteed myself some veggies : ) yummy. So proud of myself.  

L'shana Tova

Happy New Year everyone!!!!

Wednesday - I had class 1040-5...womp womp.  I had personality psych first then intro to advertising.  I have psych with Laura which is good and our teacher is legit loopy.  He sounds like the narrator from winnie the pooh, no joke.... seems like it is going to be an interesting class with him.  Then I had advertising with Kylie and two of our guy friends here. The teacher has a really strong accent and is hard to understand... I have a feeling this is going to be one of my harder classes here but I need it for my major... o well.

For dinner Soph, Flynn, and I (the jews of the apt) were supposed to go to Sophias family friends for rosh hashanah dinner.  Buttttttt Soph got a stomach virus so it got cancelled :( we bought her some rice and crackers.  She spent a day in bed and is feeling better now.  A bunch of us went to oxford street to a cute pub for dinner and celebrated the new year with some good food and wine.  Then early to bed.

This morning I decided to start the new year with a nice run around hyde park. It was so nice to be alone and the scenery was sooo nice. It felt good to run too.  Then at 1230 the crew went to Faraday (school) to sign up for love london weekend.  We signed up for billy elliot, tour of a brewery, and bunckingham palace tour. (tower of london got closed out...but we will do it on our own).  Then I had my sociology of sport class.  Kylie is in that class with me too... our teacher is not what i expected...just some short british lady... but the class was still interesting.

After class Kylie and I went to Kensington... got a little lost once we were out of the tube but adventured around and asked for directions.  We went to a wine tasting at whole foods on high street...it was so funny.  We had a good time and then found a really easy fast way to get home.  So that was fun.
Now a night in with the girls... gotta get up at 7am for stone henge.  Oy vey.

Hope everyone had a good holiday. You are all probably eating a phenomenal meal now...jealous. Eat some apples and honey for me and raisin challah.

So we met a Jewish American bartender named India....

Last night we went to a pub called the Duke of York and became friends with the bartender there... we were the only people there, it's a cute small place down the street.  India told us we could come to break the fast there on Yom Kippur and she will have the chef make us bagels and lox! Too funny. It is going to be our local place.  Oh and last night I booked my first weekend getaway!!!  Dublin here I come (oct 7-10) wooo...I think 4 or 5 of us in the flat are going and two of our friends from Syracuse are there.  I'm excited!

This morning we woke up extra early to walk to school.  It took us about 45 minutes but was really easy...straight down Oxford Street to the end.  I had my art history field trip so we all met outside the British Museum and then took an hour tour.  We saw and learned how to identify parts of the Parthenon, the Rosetta Stone, and a family tomb.  While we were outside the museum our teacher explained to us the structures on the top of the building and how at every museum/gallery the outside structures will let you know what is inside the museum/gallery.  Pretty cool.  I also learned the difference between a museum and a gallery.  Galleries are in chronological order (oldest to most recent) and then sorted geographically.  Museums are the opposite and are sorted geographically and then chronologically within that.  Also, galleries are just art while museums can include food, science, etc.... interesting. (There is a good chance I just wrote all that to earn brownie points from grandma...love you!)

Kylie, Flynn and I then went to a cute cafe near the museum, finally time to rest my feet.  I had a cappuccino and spinach quiche, yummm. We talked about life and had a great relaxing meal.  Kylie and I then figured out the bus route home (took a while, stupid tube strike).  After taking a break at home we decided to take a walk through Hyde Park.  It is literally two blocks away and we haven't explored it yet.  I'm really glad we finally did because it's gorgeous. The park is huge...there are lounge chairs set up in random areas...lots of pigeons : / .... and a really nice pond/lake called the Serpentine.  There are random cafe's and tourist areas throughout the park and on the water as well as memorials and structures.  We tried to find the Peter Pan statue but had no luck with that.  We came out on another corner of the park..Kingsbridge...which was kind of near Piccadilly I think.  It was really high end..burberry, dulce and gabbana, and a hotel called the Mandarin Orange which was really nice.  We then trekked back home.  What a day....I will post more pics of the museum and the park on facebook later this week probably.

Homework time....

It's the most wonderful time of the year (karen karl singing voice)

First day of school pic

First day of school...first day of rain...bring it on London.

So 9 am I had my first class...graphics: visual issues in the media.  Sophia and Laura are in my class which is great and the professor seems like a good intelligent guy.  The class is 3 hours long which is tedious but most of the classes here are like that because they are only once a week. I then had a 20 minute break until my next class which was history of art.  It was really interesting! The professor is from Italy and has an italian/british interesting accent...she is a really good teacher.  Going into the class I was thinking that it would be either a hit or miss because I know nothing about art or how to interpret it but as of today I loved it.  I learned more in the few hours than I have learned about art in the past 20 years.  Did you know that Nike is the goddess of victory and that's how the brand got their name? I had no clue.  Tomorrow we take our first class field trip (one every Tuesday) to the British Museum.  We have to walk there because a tube strike starts tonight...ugh.  Laura, Flynn, and Kylie are all in that class with me : ) After classes Laura and I checked out the gym that we can join through the University of London.  I'm not sure if i'm going to do it or not...it's pretty far from school and I don't want to spend the money if i'm not going to take full advantage of it... so we shall see.
Then I came home to eat...soooo hungry. Made a pb and banana sandwich...amazing! Splurged a little bit for organic peanut butter and it was definitely worth it haha. It felt so good to be in the apartment alone for a little bit...6 girls in one place can get pretty hectic. Now just hanging out for the rest of the day, I already have homework to do!  We are also trying to plan our first weekend trip, we are thinking Ireland maybe....any suggestions?!? Oh and this is a two way street here on blogspot...comments are welcome (thank you susan).

It felt good to start school again.  My four month summer is now officially over and I have some sense of a schedule in my life.  I work better that way and i'm excited for the rest of my classes this week.

(oh and I put up pics on fbook so check them out)

Greenwich.

sooo the bus tour .... more like a 9 to 5 day trip... oh man.
Soph and I woke up bright and early after a night out at O'neils (such a good pub) to get to school for the trip and what we thought was one of those sight seeing red bus tours through london was def not.  We ended up seeing a few sights and then going to Greenwich.  There was an open air market which was pretty cool we ate crepes and fajitas and smoothies  : ) and then we hiked up a hill to an observatory.  We some some pretty neat telescopes and a planetarium. The coolest part thought was probably the meridian there was a whole exhibit and of course a line showing you where it was.  We saw the national maritime museum (didn't go in) and a great view of the queens house( which is part of the museum) from across the Thames River.  It was all nice and interesting but a very long tiring day. Now we are back in the flat and ready to crash for the night.  First day of school tomorrow! Hopefully the tube is up and running...a strike is supposed to start monday night, womp womp.

Trafalgar Square and what not

o my gosh im exhausted and it feels so good to sit here in my bed on my laptop...wifi is officially up and running in the park west!  I finally slept in for the first time since I got here which also felt soooo goood.

Got up and went with Flynn and Alex to Trafalgar Square to meet Flynns family friends that were in town.  We took a bus for the first time! easy peasy. They were staying at an amazing hotel right in the heart of everything so we met them there then went to lunch in the covent gardens which was really cute.  (covent gardens info) we then walked around and some some sites...james park, big ben, parliament house, the london eye, and possibly some other places.  Didn't really go into any or see them in detail but it was nice just to know where they are for the future and get a look.  Trafalgar square and Oxford street both have the best shopping! Don't worry though I haven't even entered a store yet.

Still working on phone issues : / 

p.s. elevators here fit max 4 people and are way too close for comfort!

You know you're American when you are the only people walking on Oxford street in shorts...

It's 3 o'clock (15:00) on Friday, Sophia and I just did our first grocery shop!  We finally moved in to our flat yesterday...welll it is quite interesting... i guess we thought we hit the jackpot more than we really did....Ahmen, our landlord, is still workin on cleaning the place up for us....we cleaned the kitchen for hours yesterday and had to insist on new dishes and a new microwave...our wifi is being set up tonight(hopefully)... when we asked the taxi driver from the hotel to take us to our apartment he said "oh, the Gaza Strip of London"....awesome.  It is very interesting and quite an experience seeing the people on our block..but it's ok... we walk one block anywhere else and it's completely normal...my roomate Alex told her dad and he said we should just buy barkas and we will be fine : )

went to piccadilly (sp?) circus last night and it was really cool, kind of like the Times Square of London. The tube stops running at midnight so we took a night bus home.  This morning I verified all of my classes and bought books! I think they are the only thing that has been cheaper here than at home. I also signed up for a bus tour of london on sunday and a trip to stonehenge for next friday !

my phone is still being worked out.. sorry mom thats why you haven't heard from me.. I will have it up and going in the next 24 hrs.

gonna go finish unpacking...so much to do for the apartment ughhhhhh

pictures to come when wifi works!

Pounds, pents, pints, the tube, and crossing the street.

     Day two here in London and so far the hardest thing to do is cross the street.  Other than that everything is on schedule and amazing.  Upon arrival yesterday we drove about an hour from Heathrow to the center of London and checked into our hotel, The Royal National.  We then walked a few blocks down to the Faraday House which is our school building for the semester.  Faraday is really nice and well kept, there is a computer lab, student lounges, and class rooms of course.  After a few orientation sessions we were free to roam for the night.  The girls (Flynn, Sophia, Alex, and Laura) and I went to get our phones which was a bit of a hassle but my blackberry is officially up and working thanks to the Orange Network ( orange hehe it was meant for us 'cuse students).  We then took a nap, got some pounds, and were off to find a place to eat.  We found a nice little Italian place and got pasta and Peroni.  We then met up with a bunch of other people on the program and went to a few pubs around the area of the Faraday House.
      Day Two - Early wake up and down stairs to the free continental breakfast... which included cereal toast and tea..eh.  Then to the transportation and housing meeting, for two hours.  Student guide Elliot then took us 5 girls, plus another girl we met, to find a flat.  They are easiest to find in groups of 4 or 6 so we recruited Kylie who goes to school in Ohio. Once we bought our Oyster cards for the tube and made sure to stay to the right on the escalators we were off to the Marble Arch stop! We fell in love with the second flat we saw and put down a deposit.  Tomorrow we will sign the lease! The apartment building is called the Park West and is on Edgware Road and Kendall Street.  3 bedrooms, 2 full bathrooms, a kitchen, and a living room, with free wifi and utilities included!  Finally stress free we stopped for some falafels and shwarma (kinda felt like I was back in Israel) and checked out our new neighborhood. 
   Hopefully I can keep up with this blog idea, a semester of trying new things..right?