From London With Love

9th August 2009

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I’m sad to go, I cannot tell a lie….

Well, my month in London has officially come to a close. I seriously would like to know where all the time went? I haven’t really done anything too exciting the past few days -mostly shopping, which makes me happy. Now the real trick is trying to get all my stuff home while minding the 50lb limit. Ugh. I will most definitely be wearing several layers of clothing on my flight home in the morning, which probably will not mix well with the heat and humidity that will be waiting for me in Tennessee.

Meaghan and I went to Westminster Abbey this morning. It is so beautiful on the inside! It reminded me a lot of the cathedrals we saw in Italy a few years ago. After that we went to Camden (I finally got a pair of the sandals I have been wanting) and had lunch at our favorite little Chinese spot. I did a bit more shopping and then headed back to campus. We’re going to have a really quiet night because we’re all super exhausted- Starbucks is the only thing that’s keeping me going at the moment. I think a few of us are going to walk over to Hampstead Heath in a bit and have a picnic for dinner which should be very nice.

Dr. Fischer posted our grades today and I got an A in the class! Woohoo!

Looking forward to seeing everyone upon my return. Prayers for a safe trip home would be much appreciated!

LOVE!!!! <3

Carleigh

7th August 2009

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School’s out for summer…

I just turned in my final. I wrote an essay on Liverpool and Manchester and how they relate to London. Not bad.

Oh, and I should add that they provided us with Coke today at lunch. Wow! It must be our going away present or something?

6th August 2009

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Well, my days here are winding down. Today is my “off” day so I’m going to take a self proclaimed sanity day and go out and about and do exactly what I want to…which means going up and down Oxford St and stopping in any and every store that looks appealing and taking as much time to browse and shop as I please.

After morning class yesterday, Allison, Meaghan and I walked to Hampstead village to find the infamous crepe stand. I had a Nutella crepe and it was fabulous. I think they put an entire jar of Nutella in it. The only thing missing was a glass of milk. Mmmm. I’m fairly sure I went into a sugar coma after I ate it because I passed out for about two hours when I got back to my room…I had really weird dreams about brining back adopted children as souvineres.

We had our departure meeting yesterday. We have to be on the bus headed for Heathrow at by 5:15 am on Monday. Ugh. I’m thinking it’s not even going to be worth it for me to go to bed that night.

We have a finals tomorrow. I’m not worried at all. 3 hours to write an essay? Shouldn’t be too bad. After that, I’m finished! Crazy.

Until we meet again,
mch

4th August 2009

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Hey, hey, hey USA.

This week is going by super fast which I think is really unfair (insert epic sad face). This girl is not ready to come home. Although, I am looking forward to eating some really fantastic Mexican food. Yummy.

Dr. Fischer brought in a guest speaker for class on Monday. His name was Jon Stewart and he used to be in a semi-successful British rock band called Sleeper. They had 8 #1 songs on the British charts and toured with Oasis and Blur. He was really interesting. He’s now a professor at the Brighton School of Music. He told us a lot about the in’s and out’s of British rock music and even talked a little bit about music business. He had some great stories about touring too. I really enjoyed our time with him. I think Dr. Fischer has done a great job with our classes and our fieldtrips. I wish this class could have lasted longer than a month!

We had our last fieldtrip today. We went to the British Music Experience at the O2 Arena (the place where Michael Jackson was supposed to play his 50 shows). The Arena itself was really impressive. We definitely do not have anything like it in the States. It had lots of retail stores & places to eat (including 2 Starbucks). It even had a roller rink in it. The British Music Experience is a museum/exhibit that showcases British music and musicians from the 1940’s up to today. Lots of the displays were interative- lots of memoribilia and great video clips. The entire exhibit was very high tech - we were able to swipe our ticket on most of the displays so that when we log in to their website with our personal ticket number we can see everything we looked at that day. How neat is that? I spent a ton of time in there. We went in a little after 10 and It was almost one when I looked at my watch…and I had barely made it into the 1970’s! Sadly, I had already made plans to meet up with someone on campus at 2 so I had to book it back to campus (on the other side of town) after speeding through the rest of the exhibits. However, I did make time to do the interactive dance booth! Lexie and I learned how to do a dance called “The Rock N’Roll.” It gives you a quick dance lesson then records you doing your attempt at the dance. Supposedly, I will be able to pull it up to view it when I log in to the website. I will most definitely post a link for you all to laugh at ;) I talked to Dr. Fischer on my way out- He said he thought the British Music Experience was way better than the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (which I still need to go to!). I think I may get up early on Thursday morning and go back since I missed out on really getting into a decade or two. I think that would be a good way to spend an off day, right?

I stayed in tonight because I have a presentation to give in the morning and our music journals are due tomorrow as well. I’m not complaining though, this is the only night I’ve actually had to do homework since I’ve been here.

Meaghan and I are going to West Hamstead after class tomorrow to eat at some famous crepe shop. I’m going to get a Nutella crepe and it’s going to be amazing, I already know it. Nom, nom, nom.

Over the past few days I’ve been making a mental list of the things I’ll miss most about London. Here are a few:
- Public transportation - tubes, trains, buses. I love them all. I do not miss driving my car.
-Sainsbury’s - The best supermarket ever! I love it even more than Kroger.
- Seeing nice looking English men on their way to work in their fancy suits.
- British accents *swoon*

Love,
mch <3

2nd August 2009

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Ello! I’m sitting in my kitchen window borrowing someone’s wifi again. I’ve had a semi-eventful couple of days. Friday, Lexie, Meaghan and I went to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards. We waited forever and the changing really wasn’t what I expected. It was kind of weird actually. The band played “Fame” and after that I couldn’t take it seriously, so we left. We spent the afternoon browsing shops in the Camden markets. I love shopping! We decided to go to Abbey Road on our way home. Meaghan and I did the infamous walk across the crosswalk and signed the wall in front of the studio. I’ve now offically seen all of the Beatle landmarks in London. Wow. That’s all I can say. A mouse ran between my feet while I was standing in front of the wall, how gross is that?

We stopped by the US Embassy on Friday night to see some of Lexie’s Marine friends. We had to go through some tight security to get in - no cameras or phones with cameras allowed in, so I don’t have any pictures. It was a bit scary because there was a terrorist group protesting out front, but we made it in and out without a problem.

Yesterday, we took the train to Brighton. Giving that town a name with the word “bright” in it was an epic mistake. It was gray and gloomy and monsooned absolutely the entire time we were there, which made for 4 unhappy girls. We went to the “beach” (I’m using that term loosely because it didn’t even have sand!) and the pier. Both were nice, but we were soaked so we didn’t last long at either.

Today, Meaghan and I went to Old Spittafields market, Portabello Road and Kensington High Street to do a bit of shopping. I got a really neat book of the infamous rock and roll locations around town. Maybe I still have time to visit some of them before I leave? We made mental lists of all the things we wanted to buy today and fully plan on having a very dedicated day of shopping on Saturday - we will be taking no prisoners.

That’s about it on my side. Hope everyone is doing well. I’ll be back in the States in a WEEK! Where on earth has this month gone????????????

love,
mch