To be or not to be...

This week might as well have been a Shakespearean festival. First, we had the opportunity to see The Merry Wives of Windsor at the Globe Theater! Then the next day we went to: Shakespeare's wife's home, Shakespeare's mom's farm, Shakespeare's birthplace, Shakespeare's mansion, and Shakespeare's grave! Stratford is a really beautiful little town, and they have a Harry Potter store so I got to drink BUTTERBEER!

Just waiting in line at the Globe...

True Shakespearean experience = standing during all 2.5 hours of the play...

so we all wore our comfy shoes!

olivia, me, kenz, molly, morgan, devri

Inside the Globe Theater!

Lisa, Kaitlyn, me, Molly, Jani, Claire

We were "groundlings"

Jani, Molly, Me, Devri

Snuck an illegal pic during the play...

St. Tate and his minions at Shakespeare's wife's home.

Just working on Shakespeare's mom's farm..

Shakespeare's Birthplace!

Phrases that Shakespeare coined:

• "neither rhyme nor reason"
• "star-crossed lovers"
• "kill him with kindness"
• "a sorry sight"
• "the short and the long of it"
• "what the dickens!"

cool huh?

J'aime Paris

I don't think I've ever been more busy/exhausted/emotionally drained/happy as I was this last week. Paris is soo incredible! And I was there with 36 amazing girls which made it that much better! Here's a short list of everything I did (haha): deep breath...

Sailing on the Seine at night. eating crepes. rooming with molly. eating chocolate for breakfast every morning (the French put chocolate in EVERYTHING). Chartres Cathedral. Versailles. Latin Corner for dinner. Ate some pastries. Champs de Elysees (one of the most famous avenues in the world??). Arc de Triomphe at night (Paris is unreal gorgeous at night). Notre Dame. Ate another crepe. San Chappelle (ALL stained glass church). Gardens. Musee d'Orsay (GG season 4 anyone?). Musee d' Orangerie. EIFFEL TOWER. The Louvre: Mona Lisa. Venus de milo. Rosseau. David. Gericault. Delacroix. I LOVE THE LOUVRE. Molly and I had matching outfits. Ate another crepe. Moulin Rouge. Navigated the Metro (literally I had a sixth sense for it). Didn't get pickpocketed. Got called "Lady Gaga" by the gypsies. Musee Rodin. ate some more pastries. Bought a French vogue (couldn't help myself). Asked some guy for directions IN FRENCH turns out he was American. Ate 6 panini's. Snuck to the top of Paris Opera house Garnier (the one that inspired 'Phantom of the Opera'). Centre George Pompadeau (best modern art museum EVER). Sang in the rain. Ate pizza by a fountain. Ate 26 meringues. sailed across the channel, twice. Dance partied in front of every major site. Amien Cathedral. 7 WWI sites. Tony is our coach driver, he's a champ. Didn't have the internet/facebook for 5 days and didn't really mind. Decided that I'm taking intro to French winter semester with Molly.

I loved Paris.

But now London feels like home :)

Matching

Ferrying across the channel

Hour 1 on the coach

Hour 36 on the coach

Crepe number 1

Big Pappa Crepe. Literally named that on the menu - nutella, bananas, whipped cream!

Hello mr. crepe maker

Arc de Triomphe

Kissy-face peace signs hahaha

Lovely.

Hotel number 1 (aka the spaceship)

Hotel number 2 (aka the penthouse)

Monet's Waterlilies in the Orangerie

I'm thinkin.... I'm thinkin....

Morgan, Mackenzie, Me, Jordan, Molly

I am so in love with this city!

Ice cream at the Eiffel Tower. Does life get much better?

Lisa, Devri, me, Olivia, Jordan, Molly, Morgan, Mackenzie

C'est la Vie

La Ville de'Amour

I'll be spending the next week in Paris my lovelies.

My french consists of "Bonjour!" "Merci" and "Pardon" (pronounced par-done, of course), but I figure with a lot of pointing and elaborate hand gestures I'll be able to get by...

See you on Friday!

Just keeps getting better

Last week, I went to Portobello market and thought I was in Heaven.

Then yesterday we went to Borough food market and I was in food heaven.

But today we went to Camden Market.

It is Portobello Road on steroids!

I am going to have no money when I leave this place! But I'll have some really cute clothes/jewelry/coats/hats. That makes it okay right? Right.

My week wasn't purely shopping though. We went to the Tower of London on yesterday. That's where Anne Boleyn was executed! It was very cool. Then we walked across the river Thames on the Tower Bridge and arrived at Borough Market for lunch.

Dang it, somehow I just can't get away from the shopping...

A little visual aid displayed at the Tower of London... haha. It seems a little ironic don't you think?

Some words of wisdom from the Hard Rock Cafe

Spotted

The crusader of manliness, the master of my heart, the hero of high school musical, He's not 17 Again, but he is really good-looking with a beard.

Say hello to....

ZAC EFRON!

"Our truest life is when we are in our dreams awake."

-henry david thoreau

England is so lovely! I feel like I'm living in a movie most of the time.

Today we travelled to Sussex and went to Bodiam Castle!

It even had a moat :)

This is a little shout out to everyone that reads my blog... THANKS!!

I really appreciate it.

FOOD

This is a post dedicated to a very important part of my London experience: food. Seriously, I never properly appreciated good food until A) I had to buy it myself and in POUNDS, and B) I walked into a grocery store and didn't recognize ANYTHING.

There is graffiti all over my bunk bed and one thing a girl wrote was:

"Go big or go home, or just go home big!" hahaha. So depressing.

But you see, we only get two meals a day at the centre -- breakfast and dinner, so lunch is on our own and snacks are up to you too.

Tonight I decided I should go buy some healthy snacks, So me, Mackenzie, and Morgan set out to Tesco (AKA albertsons... kind of. Not really). I walked out of there with:

• Dr Pepper (best purchase in London yet)
• Cadbury caramels
• strawberry cheesecake yogurt
• Kinder bueno chocolate bar
• frosted yogurt biscuits
• some fruit

hmmm.... not exactly what I was originally going for... can you say SUGAR HIGH??

But hey, we've walked like 8,000 miles in the past two weeks so that counts for something right???

Last meal in the USA!!

HOSS candy cane

HOSS lollipop

Best Thai food EVER: Tuk Tuk

Look how big that meringue is?!

Oh Herrods. We discovered that if you go right when they're closing, they sell all their sweets "buy one, get one free!"

this might be problematic

Lunch on the steps of St. Paul's. It's pretty funny... You can tell when it's almost lunchtime because about 30 minutes before we get food everyone gets really quiet... and somber... and then as soon as we eat suddenly the conversation gets a lot more lively haha.

Devri was way pumped about her sandwich

Me at a bar......

Jordan at a bar....... in a museum

Not eating here ever... gross.

Basically our mantra. Some of the girls wear pedometers and we figured out that we walk like a thousand miles a day. Just kidding, we haven't figured it out yet, but we're going to.