SBXIII

Sooooo, I have to start out with a big ol' apology for not blogging in almost a month. That ten day spring holiday we went on was detrimental to my motivation to do anything....not really. Actually quite the opposite. You can read about the whereabouts of my vacation on the gls2015 blog, so I wont be redundant. But, let's see, I'll catch you up on what's been going on in bulleted list form. Because it is widely known by college students that we love bullets. Paragraph form stinks.

• Thoughts on spring break: it was incredible. I learned so much and fell in love with Europe all over again. London is not as much of a culture shock as so many people need. I think it was good for all of us to get outside of our comfort zones and see what it's like to be somewhere else. My favorite parts of break were the beginning and the end. Liza and I had the most incredible time in Bordeaux, and we had some great conversations and learned a lot about different people. Rome was touristy...that's about it...Budapest was incredible. I love Hungary so much, and probably my favorite part of the break was seeing my friends in Pecs again. All those sweet girls were the same as they were three years ago, and it was beyond incredible. 
• Management was here and gone before I could blink. We went on some great site visits, mostly to some markets, like Camden, Bourough, and Covent Garden. The markets here are awesome, because you can get great food and handmade items for decent prices. 
• Random picture catch up: 

Got a sock bun...had to take a selfie! 

Saw J Beibs. THAT was exciting!!! 

Ate some cupcakes and shit at Camden. Hipster.

My buds Andrew and Liz at ULU

Laying in the middle of the road for no reason!

Visiting Westminster 

....And my roommate back in Knoxville did this....

• I'm learning that living with boys is fabulous. They are so not dramatic, and I laugh allllll. theeeeeeee. timeeeeeee. I love it. 
• Today was the first day in London that was above 40 degrees. I was obsessed with today. I went out to Primrose Hill Park with Carly, Andrew, Speed, and Amanda and just sat and enjoyed the sunshine. Once the sun went down I went with Speed, Andrew, and Liza to the London Eye. It is SO gorgeous to see London at night. The lights are beautiful. 

Primrose Hill Park overlooking all of London!

Giraffes at the park

GORGEOUS London Eye! 

Speed, Andrew and I in the Eye

View of Parliament from the Eye

• We found a great church in London called St. Mary's. We have gone to two services and a small group and it has been amazing to meet some really great locals. They are so inviting and kind at this church and the music is incredible. I'm also getting to know members of my class on a different level now. We are starting to really open up and I love that we can all be such great friends! 
• My birthday is Sunday...so there's that.
  

  

  My sweet roommate Carly got me my fav mango juice yesterday to kick off my birthday week! 

And a beautiful Lilly today! :) 

• Also, Sunday is when my favorite cousin Aimee is coming to visit for two nights. We are going to have dinner and maybe see a show! I can't wait to see her and have a little bit of family familiarity here in Londontown! 
• Tomorrow we head to Edinburgh with the whole class and our program directors, Lane and Andrew. We are really excited to take the train and experience a different part of the U.K. I'm so ready to get out of the city as well! 

 Again, so sorry for the lack of bloggage. I will be better after this, promise. 

Peace, Blessins', and Cheers!

LAST DAY OF STATS

We are trying so hard to contain our excitement....but it's hard when WE ARE DONE WITH STATS IN 6 HOURS!!!!! 

Happy Faces :D

We are all so ready to be done with this class... because that means one more after-test-half-price-marg and a night of packing and preparing for our spring holiday's. I'll be in touch about the adventures to come over the next ten days! 

 

Cheerio!

Chillin' n' Cambridge n' stuff

This week has been so busy. We had a week of Stats on Stats on Stats. There were many moments when I wanted to cry. And scream. And punch something. And sleep. But as fast as it began it ended, and we were done with our third of four tests. I cannot even begin to tell you how fast this month has gone by. Saying that blows my mind, one month...wow!

I'm bonding so much with all of my flatmates, and our whole class. We are literally one big family. I'm sitting at our table right now and we have just eaten a wonderful dinner cooked by our own chef, my roommate, Carly. We are already depressed about leaving and we still have three months. I really love these kids.

So Thursday after our weekly half-price-after-test-margarita-night, my friend Andrew and I hit up the theater and saw Matilda the Musical. Matilda is my favourite movie of all time, so this was a special treat. I LOVED the play, it was incredible to see all the young children act so well. I can't imagine how hard they work each day, but I know they've prepared so much for this show. It's been playing for 14 months, so this is a major commitment for children that young!

Friday, we got up early and went with FSU to see the Tower of London, where Henry VIII murdered his wives. This was a very interesting site to see, and it was a beautiful day as well.

Tower of London

My girl Sydney and our boy Paddington Bear

Some precious kids I had to creep on..

Tower of London 

He was stompin' up a storm, guarding the Crown Jewels. 

So now, these pics are gonna get a bit artsy. We headed to Cambridge on Saturday with our professor, Dr. Mee. I got a bit excited with the beautiful buildings and picturesque town of Cambridge. Did you know that Cambridge was named after a bridge crossing the river Cam...get it...Cam-BRIDGE?! A group of us left at 7:15am to see the Wren Library, where some original Winnie the Pooh and Shakespeare literature is kept. Unfortunately, the librarian was sick and we weren't able to go in, so instead we wandered around the market, ate brunch, and waited for the rest of the group to get there.

Beautiful Bikes along the colleges of Cambridge 

Path along the river 

Gotta give the boots some love. 

Everywhere in Cambridge has these gorgeous vines growing on all of the buildings. 

Me and Baby D (Luke Dyson) 

Louis ruining our pic. With Louis and Sam 

So after we farted around for a bit, we went on a tour through a bunch of different colleges. We had a few hours before we needed to catch a train back to London, so we did something Cambridge is famous for, we punted the river. I say "we" but I mean "I sat in the boat while the guys punted the river and was scared for my life and hypothermia-free health". This was SO much fun and I'm so glad I risked my life to hang out with these guys, we had some good laughs. We had to go down the river for 15 min then had to turn back around and head back upstream for 45 min because we only had the boat for an hour and the current was SO strong. We got turned around so many times, that we ended up grabbing the wall and pulling ourselves back to the punt rental place. I felt like a little kid holding on the side of a swimming pool. We made it back in time, and headed back to the train home, exhausted and ready to be out of the cold! 

Louis getting us started down the river, Rob and Sam

Relaxing on good ol' Lucy 

Jordan, Luke, Sam, Louis, and Rob. 

 We have one more week of Stats before I'm off to Spring Break!!!! Liza and I are heading to Bordeaux, France, meeting up with Amanda and Sydney in Rome, then going to Budapest, Hungary, where I will stay with my choir friends that I haven't seen in three years. I'm SO excited for this week! It's going to be a blast.

Cheers!

BRB, IN PARIS

Oh my goodness, where to even begin. This weekend was our first adventure on our own outside of the U.K. Twelve of us ventured to Paris, France on Friday morning at about 3am and hit the ground running as soon as we got there. We left with no knowledge of where we were staying, how to get there, what to do, nothing. It was so. much. fun. It was incredible to watch our group navigate a foreign country perfectly and be so productive. We accomplished so much in the first day it was insane. When we stepped out of the Metro station we were slapped in the face with the beautiful Notre Dame, then we ran over to the Eiffel Tower, hit the Louvre, and by the end of that day were zombies. We decided to celebrate Ashton's birthday at a really great place called McDonalds. That's right...we ate McDonalds in Paris. I think this is a trend with me and birthdays in Europe. Last year my cousins and I ate McDonalds in Italy for my cousin Aimee's birthday. Ooopsss...GLS has now made it a goal to eat McDonalds in every country we visit. Challenge accepted.

BRB exhausted at 3am. 

Notre Dame with the girls 

Stunning....

Tour de Eifel 

The Louvre is spectacular, it is one of my favorite things we saw. I would have loved to spend a whole day there.  

After a full, exhausting first day, we made our way back to our hostel. Now, let's take a second to talk about hostels. I have to say, every time I've been to Europe I have been so incredibly spoiled it's not even funny. A hostel is a WHOLE different story. None of us showered for 3 days, we slept in a room with some random Turkish men, I slept with TWO eyes open all night, and tried to push the "Taken" scenes out of my head. Other than that, the hostel was great.........

No really, it was okay, I just don't know that my nerves could've taken another night in one, the paranoia was kicking in, but hey...it was cheap! 

So our second day, we woke up early and made our way to the Catacombs...nope....it was closed. We were super bummed. So what did we do next...RETAIL THERAPY and FOOD COMAS. This....this.....this FANTASTIC restaurant is called Cafe Saint Regis. THE most incredible food I have ever put in my mouth came from this place, and came with a big ol' price tag that I didn't even think twice about. I ordered a traditional French dish called Croque Madame, which is a slice of bread with ham and baked cheese with a fried egg on top. It was absolutely wonderful. Megan suggested this place after her trip to Paris and we decided to try it..we never looked back. 

Eating at St. Regis Cafe with Rob and Ashton, or Rashton. 

 OMG.....this Creme Brûlée...I can't even.....OMG...It was the perfect amount of crispy and smooth and sweet and literally SUPERB.

I had to take a moment to come back to earth when I put the first bite of this Creme Brûlée in my mouth.

Not a bite was wasted.... 

After lunch we headed to the river right down from Saint Regis to take some pictures. This was probably one of my favorite things, because we were just strolling around with no agenda, and having a blast in Paris. Sydney and I made some impulse purchases the first day and found these bad boys. These boots have been a life saver in Paris, and will continue to be in London. I'm obsessed with them, however I never imagined I'd ever wear combat boots. I DO NOW.... You should buy some.

AWKWARD SHOES

I made another semi-impulse buy. This AWESOME backpack was half off, and I needed (and by needed I mean I wanted to look legit for spring break) a pack for spring break to fit all my clothes in for the week. This was a must have.

Embracing my inner "College Kid Backpacking Anti-Tourist, Hipster, Hiker chick, European" self

After messing around for a bit, we headed back to the hostel to drop off our purchases and went to eat dinner at another great restaurant. We went during happy hour and had fabulous Sangria and Mojitos. Some of us tried escargot as well....but not me :) After dinner we ran to see the monuments lit up. The Arc de Triumph is so beautiful and HUGE! The Eiffel Tower has a light show every hour for five minutes, so we saw that twice. The lights flash and it is amazing!

The Arc de Triumph 

So beautiful lit up at night. 

So, the ride home was long, and exhausting. We walked this ENTIRE weekend and were just pooped. I've said this a few times, but the ride home was probably one of my favorite parts of the trip :) We were so excited to come back to our beloved London, that we had some different opinions about what would be the fastest way to get home (London really feels like home now). Alan and Rob were adamant about their way being the fastest, and everyone else had our minds set on our way. I suggested we split up and see who gets there the fastest........This brought out our competitive GLS sides, and we immediately started making a complete list of rules and scheming. The boys tricked us and RAN out of the tube at the next stop..it was game on. 

When the boys left we had several stops to plan our course. Much to our dismay, the speaker came on and said that the Northern Line was CLOSED! We all had these distraught looks on our faces and had to quickly come up with a new plan of attack. We were sprinting up the escalators and out of the tube stations. Of course my team won. 

Team Losers...

BRB WINNING...Tired. Ready to be in London. Greasy. and GAME ON

The annoying part of all of this is that the boys never had a plan to play the game anyway....they were going to get lunch cause they knew our way was faster but didn't want to admit it....QUITTERS. 

So now we are all relaxing back in the flat after eating homemade meals and enjoying smelling better after showering. Paris is beautiful, but we were all so ready to back in Bloomsbury. We all agree that after this trip, London is our home and we couldn't have been more ready to get back. Lane Morris picked the most amazing city for this program to take place in. The U.K. is so fab. I'm in love :)

Tomorrow starts another week in stats....blehh....ps I made a good grade on my last test. I'm SO RELIEVED! We are looking forward to hanging out in London this week and maybe seeing a play, it should be another wonderful week here. 

Au Revoir!!! 

BRB CRYING

Wellp, tomorrow is our next exam and the title says it all. I wrote on our GLS Class of 2015 Facebook wall inviting my classmates to join me in jumping off Tower Bridge tonight before we have to go through this hellish exam. I thought I'd never felt stupider than when we were taking Economics....nope ....nope...this is worse. This Stats class is so hard and we are learning things so quickly and learning a whole new software program that is vital to this information as we go as well. I needed a 4.0 this semester.....oops.....not happening.

Crying in Stats at 9 p.m. with Andrew

Still crying in Stats at 9:01p.m. with Carly

So since I'm on a roll, I'll talk about what I miss about America and what I love about London.

Miss about America: 

1. Not being broke. Our money amounts to nothing here. I've never been so frugal in my life (kinda), but hey this is a blessing in disguise! 

2. Dishwashers, although I had become quite used to this living in Laurel. However, I can't complain because my roommates are fabulous dish-washers. 

3. Living with 30 girls. I MISS LAUREL! Carly and I have been teaching (or yelling) the boys how to PUT THE TOILET SEAT DOWN WHEN THEY USE OUR BATHROOM...we're getting there. 

4. The politeness of the south. You really don't see just how different the south is till you go somewhere else. It's so strange to have people literally knock you sideways with their shoulders as you're passing on the street and not even think about it or turn to say excuse me. The inner bitch is coming out in me, and I'm starting to do the same...oops. 

5. Saying ya'll....yeah that word doesn't work in the British accent.
6. My family and friends. I miss 'em every day!
7. Going to church with Kirby.
8. Having coffee every day...with good creamer.

LOVE about London:
1. Living with 27 people and getting to know them probably better than I'll ever know any other group of 27 people. You really don't know someone until you live with them, and believe me, we are livingggggg together. Today was the first day I've gone somewhere alone. I traveled to Notting Hill neighborhood to my place of work (emc3) for a meeting with my supervisor, Dan. It was quite nice to be alone for a bit and try to navigate the city, but I was so ready to come back to my fam here in Bloomsbury.
2. Taking public transport and walking everywhere. I LOVE being somewhere where I am not constantly in and out of the car. It is so nice and saves so much time. I really love this.
3. Not having access to my iPhone all the time. This free's me up so much to really see and enjoy this city.
4. Being able to have a margarita at a Mexican restaurant and not even be I.D.'d. It's fabulous.
5. Living where I go to school. This makes the mornings so quick and easy.
6. Cooking and eating less crap. I can't afford it, so I don't buy it!
7. Planning trips like a boss. We have successfully planned 2 major trips, one being to Paris this weekend, and I can't wait to see how they turn out!
8. THE ACCENTS...DUH
9. Cobblestone streets
10. Beautiful buildings everywhere. Sometimes you only see the store fronts, and forget to look up. When you do, it's a whole different place. The buildings that house these recognizable businesses we see every day are magnificent.

THE LIST GOES ON!!!

I'll keep adding! Cheers~ xoxo

dunnhumby shunnhumby

On Friday, our class took a trip to see a company based here in London called dunnhumby. They are a retail media company that does a lot of business analytics work for major businesses like Kroger, Tesco, Panera Bread, and Sonic. I never knew what all was behind these company's loyalty cards, but it was incredible to learn about it.

Pretty much, dunnhumby is hired out by these corporations to do statistical work for them and help them grow. It is crazy, and a little scary, to know that soon these people will know everything about us just by what we buy at Kroger. There is so much information they can gather just from you using your Kroger Plus Card. We were given a presentation by a man that travels all over the world talking to CEOs looking for the next big step in dunnhumby's partnership network. He basically has my dream job.

We have two students in GLS interning at dunnhumby, and I have to say I am quite jealous of them after hearing all about that company. They are going to have a fabulous experience.

On the way to the site visit we got to see a bit of the snow that had fallen the night before. A few of us went out late after the visit and just explored London in the snow. It is so beautiful here. I'm getting used to living here and really starting to not feel like just a tourist. I am so excited for what the semester has to bring still. We are planning some great adventures!

SNOW!

On the Tube all the way to the end of the line looking business cash. 

Jillian, Georiga, Half of Sarah, Ashton, and Caitlin outside dunnhumby. 

Our whole snazzy looking class after our site visit.