I'VE GOT AN ATLAS IN MY HANDS.

Berlin weekend started out with an almost-missed flight and me offering to kiss our taxi driver if he’d go faster than 50 miles per hour. Thankfully I didn’t since we realized we weren’t that late anyway. Goal for Barcelona: make it through security without any issues. This time they confiscated my face wash because it was “oversized”. Alright so it was my fault I didn’t bring a travel sized one but it’s not like I was wearing a bullet necklace!

Our flight was actually really smooth and we landed in Berlin. It only took us like four hours to get to our hostel (which was great by the way. Citystay Mitte), only to find out they didn’t take cards and we would have to leave again to go take money out from the ATM. There was some scary homeless guy sitting in the ATM Center and I thought we were all going to get mugged for a couple minutes. While trying to take money out, I realized my debit card had stopped working and I pretty much thought I was done for. After checking my statement, all of my money was gone and I had a hefty balance of -$300. We went back to the hostel and checked out the room. We had a 10 person room with five bunk beds and a table in the middle. It was actually really cool. It felt like I was back at camp when I was 13 and on weekend adventure.

While settling in, Jesse offered to pay me two euro to climb up and make his bed (top bunk probz). So I did. And while I was doing so, half of the bed collapsed onto Max, who was laying below. I used my spider-like reflexes to defy gravity so I wouldn’t also fall, and stayed there until I yelled “JAKE HELP ME”, and it was at that point that his instincts kicked in to come and help me down.

After we were settled, we realized we were starving but that it was 2 AM and no one was down for McDonalds (damn). We ended up at this kebab place with a crazy guy who was dancing to Sean Paul. Maggie found bones in her wrap, so I ate mine as quickly as I could before I got grossed out enough to stop.

I can’t remember why but for some reason we didn’t go to sleep until like 5 AM, and we woke up around 10. We tried to go to the Volkswagen factory, but for countless reasons that didn’t work out. We walked to the TV Tower and waited in line to buy tickets, but couldn’t go to the top until 1. Everyone was pretty cranky at this point, so we went back to the hostel for beers and made a gameplan. Eventually we did go to the top and it was really cool but really scary because I just discovered my fear of heights.

When we got bored of the TV Tower, we went to the Berlin Wall. I thought it was sick but everyone else thought it was disappointing because they were expecting a tidal wave sized wall that was six feet thick. Luckily for me, I had no expectations so I was happy to see the graffiti and the art. While we were there, Abba and I got interviewed by some guys who were putting together a story on how there are people who want to tear down the rest of the wall.

We were pretty hungry at this point so we went to some place and got schnitzel. It was delicious but we’re stil not sure what kind of meat we ate exactly. After this, we went to the Jewish Museum. There were some amazing exhibits, and this was probably one of the best museums I’ve been to since being abroad.

We stopped at a liquor store on our way home and got back to the hostel around 7 or 8. We all passed out for a few hours and then split up for dinner. Katie, Danielle, Abba, Jesse, Max and I went to a restaurant and I got the best Pina Colda I’ve ever had. We also all ordered pizzas…really getting in the German spirit, right?

This night definitely turned into an interesting one from here. We were told we HAD to go to this nightclub called Berghain, but that it’s one of the hardest nightclubs to get into like…ever. We tried to split up in groups but they didn’t like us because we don’t speak German (or maybe we just weren’t hot enough) so we obviously didn’t get in. I didn’t care too much because I’d really be happy getting drunk anywhere, so we went to some nearby club. We had to pay 12,50 to get in, and let me tell you about how much that went to waste. This club was a literal 8th grade dance, but we stayed for a while anyway so it wasn’t a complete fail of a night.

When we got back to the hostel, we met a whole bunch of guys from England who were on a 20 person stag party. This is where I met nipple pincher. I ended up talking to him for a long while, we hooked up, and he pinched my nipple so hard it was sore the rest of the weekend. And this is where he gets his name from. All things considered, he was actually an awesome guy. Sad that he never answered my text when I got back to London. #Rejected

The next morning, we all woke up early and went to meet up with a tour guide for a three hour walking tour of Berlin. When we got there, it was just another failure and the tour guide told us they had already reached their limit for number of people. We decided to do our own exploring. We saw Parliament, Brandenburg, the Holocaust Memorial, a Holocaust exhibit, and then went to get food at a place called Brauhas. I got spetzle or something (can’t recall the name. Sorry I don’t speak German) but it was delicious. When I got back to the hostel, there was nipple pincher with all his friends and he asked me for a kiss. In front of his friends. I gave him one only cause he’s super sexy. He told me he’d meet me in the lobby at the same time as last night (what, 4 AM?).

We all went back to our room and napped, and after we got ready we played drinking games in the lobby (We were the loud Americans, once again. Sorry I’m not). We went to a club called Matrix that was awesome and we all had a really good time. It had a bunch of different dance floors, each that were playing different kinds of music. I pretty much stayed in the section that was playing popular songs cause I met this really cute Dutch guy, Erik the firefighter. He was really nice but his friends were not. They kept taking candid pictures of me which is totally fine cause I’m basically a celebrity but then one of them started touching my nose ring and saying something like, “why you wear dees in your nose”. I was unamused. I was even more unamused when the same guy touched the ends of my hair and asked me why it was so dry. Excuse me. Do not touch my hair. I don’t know why but I actually took time to try and explain to this guy that the water is really harsh in Germany and dries out my hair. He scoffed at me so I punched him in the face. Just kidding I didn’t but I was definitely close. I was still dancing with that guy Erik and one of his friends tried to dance with me, to which Erik pulled me away and yelled “She’s mine!”. I knew at this point these guys were weirdos, and it was topped off when the same asshole told me my eyes were scary. He really knows how to win a girl’s heart! I told Erik I was going to go find my friends, pinky promised him I’d be back, and went to find Abba. My only reason for going back would have been to steal the memory card on the camera so I have those candid pictures of me forever in my possession, but I decided they can have them and forever remember me as the girl with scary eyes and dry hair who spent the whole night talking to Erik the firefighter and then did not hook up with him. Sorry that my hair was not moist enough for you.

I found Abba in the next room talking to a bunch of guys from Scotland, also on a stag party. While she was talking to him, I talked to two other guys on the stag party who told me “I was a lovely girl but they’re both in long term relationships so if I’m trying to hook up with them I’m wasting my time.” I explained that I was not trying to hook up with them at all, just enjoying the conversation. One of them said something like “You are so lovely and if I wasn’t married…” It was perfect timing that my friends wanted to leave at this point, but we had a big problem with trying to round up drunk Abba. She was trying to get the ginger from Scotland to come back to our (9 person room) hostel and for some reason he confided in me to ask if I thought this was a good idea. His exact words: “Should I go back with your friend Abba? I feel like she wants to talk about life…and philosophy…and religion…and all I wanna do is shag!” I laughed for about ten minutes straight and then told him to stay with his friends and made Abba get his number.

When we got back, a couple of us stayed in the lobby of the hostel and ate pretzels that the hostel dubbed “Abby’s Preztels”. I was secretly waiting there for nipple pincher who never showed up because he was probably still out partying and brb crying about him not answering my text.

We went to sleep aka took naps and woke up a mere three hours later to go on a tour of Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. Turns out we almost had another fail because the tour guide who was supposed to give our tour was sick. Luckily a woman met up with us and brought us to another tour group. The tour was amazing and I’m really glad I got to go, even though our tour guide was a little pretentious. At least he knew his shit. He also told us we didn’t look emotional enough. I’m not sure if he uses that often but telling your tour group how they should feel is not usually a useful strategy. #P100forlife

After the concentration camp, we got an actually delicious kebab that totally made up for the one we had the first night, and then everyone took naps while Katie and I drank in the lobby. Later, we all went to dinner and I asked for a beer and for the most German thing on the menu, to which the waiter replied, “We are a Bavarian restaurant”. Like Okay, then give me the most Bavarian thing on the menu whatever. At this point I had too many beers before dinner so I was already wasted. I couldn’t even tell you what I ate, I have no idea what it was, but I can tell you my stomach hated me afterwards. After dinner we sat in the lobby and drank a bit, and I passed out around 11. We all woke up at 3:30 AM and headed for the airport. I got home around 10:30, had class at 12, and after class I slept all day. Even after all of the mishaps, Berlin was definitely my favorite city!

A warning to my readers about the next post: this is my boring, undetailed Paris post. It’s not that Paris wasn’t awesome, it just absolutely nothing overly exciting happened and I wasn’t motivated to write this until now, three weeks later, solely due to the fact that I want to write my Berlin blog but this one has to be done first.

We took the Eurostar to Paris. It got delayed and our bus to our hotel took fucking forever. When I got to the hotel, I don’t think Abba has ever gotten ready so quickly in her entire life. We had tickets to Moulin Rouge and we had to be there a half hour before the show. After Abba introduced me to the beauty of fake eyelashes, we left and got a quick dinner at a sketchy French fast food place in some alleyway. Me, Abba, Jake and Danielle completely confirmed every stereotype that any non-American has about Americans being fat in how we each devoured a full pizza in a matter of six minutes. The worker had the audacity to ask me, “ha, did you enjoy that?” Yes, clearly I enjoyed it. Bye.

The Moulin Rouge was awesome and was more than just a lot of cold nipples. There were acrobats who were flinging their blodies through the air and some crazy bitch who swam with a bunch of snakes.

In the morning we all went on a bus tour around Paris. I saw a whole bunch of things before I fell asleep on the bus (Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Champs Elysees, Place de la Concord, US Embassy…if only I could remember all the history I learned about these things in Honors French. Sorry Madame Mandel) and I PROMISE I will extend this and post pictures here since I know everyone’s favorite part of my blog is the pictures but Berlin was seriously awesome and I’m trying to get this Paris blog done as quickly as I can and tumblr is not picture-uploading friendly.

After the bus tour we went to the Louvre, searched everywhere for the epic Mona Lisa to finally find a like six inch painting in a glass cage. Just kidding it wasn’t six inches but it was not as big as I was expecting. It really was cool to see it in person though and to be in the Louvre in general, even though there were things everywhere it was super overwhelming.

Abba and I met up with a bunch of other people on the Paris trip and we all got on the metro with no real destination. We ended up going to the Sacre Coeur which was seriously amazing. We climbed all the steps to the top where we could see all of Paris, and then sat on the steps and watched a street performer sing a bunch of classics. And then I got up with Jenna and sang with the street performer. We sang Hit Me Baby One More Time. And Price Tag. And Hot n Cold. And then he asked us to dance while he sang Twist n Shout. Sure, why the hell not?

We all got hungry and went to a pub on the street somewhere and I had an official crepe. It was a lot like the pancake I had in Amsterdam, only not disgusting. We headed back after this, and Abba and I showered and got ready and while everyone pregamed by playing that stupid counting game where you can’t say multiples of 7 in someone’s hotel room, Abba and I went to the hotel bar and convinced the bartender to pour the entire bottle of Gin into our drinks. Jean-Baptiste, you rock my world.

We all went to dinner and everone tried escargot for the first time. Get with the program though I’ve been a French food afficianado since ‘92 and duh it’s amazing.

After dinner we took the metro to some bar that we were recommended to go to. Cafe Oz or something. When we got there, the bouncer told us we couldn’t come in because they were closing in an hour. Then he decided we could come in if we paid 15 euro each. Then we realized both of these statements were made because everyone hates Americans. Someone we ended up talking to two sketchy guys outside the bar who told us about some university party we could go to, but warned us that it was an “international night” and he couldn’t tell us what to expect. We decided to follow him, hopped the ticket machine, and were taken miles away to The Middle of Absolutely Nowhere, Paris, and arrived at the party. I mean I know the guy told us we shouldn’t expect anything but we definitely weren’t expecting THIS. It was a Bollywood party with a strobe light disco ball hanging from the ceiling. Nah, no thank you. I don’t think I’ve ever turned around so quickly. We went to some college bar that was playing really awesome music for about 20 minutes until they realized we were all American and started playing Shania Twain and New York State of Mind. They either did this to mock us or to make us feel at home. But really who doesn’t love Man, I Feel Like A Woman?

In the morning we went to the top of the Eiffel Tower where I discovered my fear of heights. Also I don’t think I’ve ever been so cold in my life. We went to the Lockbridge, I took some artsy~ pictures, and me, Abba, Lauren and Jenna got authentic French food, which was delicious. I finally got to have escargot in Paris, and I was excited about that. The rest of the day was spent wandering around for the last few hours we were in Paris, then we went back to the hotel and got on the Eurostar. Jake got way too drunk on the Eurostar and we completely disrupted the entire train, but it was a fun ride home with Jake yelling Bridesmaids quotes.

Amsterdam weekend began with a cancelled class. Everyone was so pissed that they woke up and came to class, but I was ecstatic that I didn’t have to sit through half the class in anticipation and take an absence for the other half. Brooke, Maggie, Carli and I put our backpacks on, made a pit stop at Sandwich World, and headed for the tube. We weren’t entirely sure how to tell which tube went to Heathrow, but we figured we would be fine if we asked around, which we would have been, had the kind sir we asked known he was on the wrong tube. He told us that he too was going to Heathrow and that this was the tube, and about .5 seconds after the doors closed, he realized he was on the wrong one. We had to get off at the next stop, get on another tube to go back to the last station, and then get on the correct one. It was a hassle and I said how pissed he made me and then realized he was right behind me, but I got over it cause it was an honest mistake and I kept in mind I was on my way to Amsterdam!

We got to the airport and I kind of made my way through security. Funny story actually I bought a necklace from Urban Outfitters that’s a pretty hefty sized bullet pendant. Not real or anything obviously, just a cool necklace. I know I don’t have a lot of common sense but like am I serious that I tried to wear it in the airport? Security did not appreciate me one bit. The woman asked me to take it off and she pretty much told me they’d be confiscating it. Then she got some guy of higher power to check it out (probably to make sure I wasn’t a secret terrorist) and he soon realized that I was just a simple-minded girl on her way to Amsterdam. He asked me why I was wearing a bullet when it represented such awful things. I told him that I was against war and that I wore it as a symbol of peace and tried to explain the irony. He did not appreciate this, replying, and I quote, “You are devilishly attractive, yet so daft”. I think he was calling me stupid but I’m over it. I took the chain and put my mom’s old horseshoe and Italian horn pendant on it (needed a chain for it anyway, blessing in disguise ;) ) and bought a new bullet necklace when I got back home. That five pound necklace is now worth ten pounds cause I had to buy two of them, but the new one is safe and sound and I’ll never wear it to the airport again.

After the bullet necklace fiasco, we went to one of the bars to get some drinks. We made friends with the bartenders, Neil and (sexy) Kevin, and talked to them about our travel plans. Sadly, we had to leave to go to our gate, but then happily, we made our way back when we saw our flight was delayed. It was only delayed about an hour but that was another round of drinks, plus the wine on the plane. I think it’s safe to say we were all pretty drunk by the time we got to Amsterdam, and we weren’t really sober until we landed back in London. Standard.

A really nice woman let me switch seats with her to sit next to Maggie on the plane, so the two of us had the back row and ate the most delicious airplane waffles (25% sugar). From our seats, we could watch Brooke “bopping and beeping” to her music. Brooke and Carli sat next to a woman we called “YOLO woman” who told them her goal was to go skydiving without the instructor. Serious yoloing if you ask me.

We landed, walked into the airport, and my only thought was, “welp”. We were seriously winging it. Had no idea where we were, how to get to where we were going, or how we were going to get there. So we took some metro-type thing to some other place and then went on the tram. We also never paid for the tram. I think the conductor was being nice by letting us not pay. Hopefully there’s no CCTV in Amsterdam.

The first thing I noticed about Amsterdam was how unnatural the tram looked. I talked about it pretty much all weekend. I’m not sure why but to me it just looked like a giant blue slug in the middle of the city. On top of it, crossing the road was like real life frogger. There’s the street for cars, tram tracks in the middle of the road, and worst of all, the bike lane. I almost got hit by at least 20 bikers over the course of the weekend.

We got to our hotel called Hotel Iron Horse. Vlad checked us in and showed us to our penthouse suite on the 4th floor (probably equivalent to the 10th floor with the amount of stairs we had to walk up). Our hotel was honestly amazing. Our beds were so comfortable, we had so much space, and there was a free cappaccino machine in the lobby, so we each had a coffee or hot chocolate every single time we either left or arrived back at the hotel. Without fail…every single time.

We settled in and went to get dinner before anything else. We all had the most bland food/worst meal ever and we asked for still water but were given sparkling, absolutely so disgusting I would have rather dehydrated than drink it. But I drank it anyway.

After dinner we went to our first coffeeshop. We had no idea what to do but we eventually figured it out. One bartender selling coffee, one bartender selling weed. We bought coffee, and then bought weed. It was kind of crazy looking at a menu of marijuana. We bought a cute little pipe that would be the (second) best investment of the trip and I smoked weed for the first time…legally. After we got really high we went to a bar and Brooke tried to sleep on my shoulder. I told her she had to stay awake and wouldn’t let her lean on my shoulder, so she fell asleep on her own shoulder.

A little while after we realized we were all exhausted and stoned enough to go to sleep, so we went back to our hotel. It was absolutely freezing in there so I turned the heat up, but it never seemed to warm up. So I turned it up some more, but still it never seemed to warm up. It actually never warmed up all night long. I cuddled with my scarf and anytime any of my limbs would be out from under the covers it was like frozen tundra air was touching my skin.

In the morning we woke up early to go to the Anne Frank House. While getting ready, Maggie decided to check out the thermostat to make some sense of why it was so freezing in our room. I said already that I have no common sense so it shouldn’t have been a surprised to anyone that I never actually turned the heat ON. I kept raising the temperature but never turned it on. Sorry I’m not sorry but I kind of actually am cause I was so cold all night. Woooops.

We went to the Anne Frank House which was really amazing, and a really heavy thing to experience. It makes you feel a lot of sad emotions and really makes you think about your life. The house is set up in a way that takes you through the story of Anne Frank in a fairly chronological order and it is completely silent the entire way through. Your emotions tend to build as the story does. In the last room, we were all at the height of our emotions, each of us verge of tears in the silent room, when suddenly a herd of wild children came stomping down the circle stairs shushing one another. Then they all trekked around the room and continued to make “shhhh” noises. Needless to say, the moment was ruined. Honestly, I have to say that it’s good we’re educating our youth, but there is just no way kids of that age are getting ANYTHING out of visiting that museum.

After Anne Frank we went to this pancake house that we apparently had to go to. We all had such high expectations for this place, and after like three bites of our pancakes we all wanted to throw up from sugar overload. I could have definitely done without the ice cream, whipped cream, and powdered sugar. On my way out though, I ran into my friend from Miami. The one upside of going to this pancake place!

Afterwards ee went to another coffeeshop and then checked out the Red Light District. I’ve really never seen anything like it. It was like window shopping…for prostitutes. They kind of just sit there bored on their phones texting until someone comes by. Very bizarre. We also went to the Sex Museum. Even more bizarre than the prostitutes. Too much to handle.

We went to another coffeeshop after this and split a brownie. We all claim the brownie did nothing to us, but I can’t really confirm that because we were probably way too high to have noticed anyway. We started to get pretty exhausted so we found our way back to our hotel (with no Google Maps!! So proud) and took showers and naps. We went to dinner at the first place we saw (we have a habit of this) and I got a great pad thai until Maggie found a hair in her food and I found some weird raw substance in mine. Needless to say we were pretty grossed out, so we got out of there as fast as we could. I think that night we went to a bar called The Bulldog. It reminded me of something out of a 60s movie, from the way the people were dressed, how they were dancing, the type of music that was playing and the fact that there was weed. Everywhere. It was awesome.

The next day we walked around a little bit more and went to the Van Gogh exhibit at a museum (the actual Van Gogh museum is under construction or something). I absolutely loved the exhibit because i’m a big Van Gogh fan. We left the museum and while we were walking around, we saw this group of kids dressed in pajamas trying to ask people to borrow their bikes. We immediately assumed they were thieves and trying to steal peoples’ bikes, but I decided to ask them about it and it turns out the guy was the leader of an organization that asks people to donate money, so they were training the new members to not be afraid to go up to people by completing a list of tasks. I’m not planning on posting pictures in this blog right now, but I have to post this one so you can see what I’m talking about. Much better than just being thieves!

We wanted to go to one more museum on the last day we were there, but on our  mission to find it, it started hailing in our faces, so we got nutella and banana waffles instead, and headed back to the hotel. We packed up our stuff, said goodbye to Vlad, and then we made our way back home. The flight had a lot of tubulence and normally I’m pretty good about it but this flight was like 30 people max so I was a little freaked out. The guy next to me even offered to hold my hand except no thank you man who I have just met with hair longer than mine I do not want to hold your creepy hand.

Soooo ze boat party. I definitely got as drunk as I intended to. Whether or not that was a good idea is still up in the air. I promise I was not as sloppy as this will sound, but I fell twice. Once on the way to the bathroom and once down the stairs. And I’m not talking one or two stairs. I mean the entire. Staircase. I’m not trying to justify it or anything but I actually slip in those shoes all the time. I’m just usually sober enough to keep myself up. So now I have a huge bruise on my ass and it kind of hurts to walk and sit or like move at all but at least no one can see it.

This next story is something I somehow got involved in and I’m not 100% sure on my permission to post it but it’s too hilarious not to. At about 2 AM after the boat party I was in Ambassador hanging out with my friend. My friend Tracy started banging on the door so loudly that another Ambassador resident came out to tell her she was “knocking too loudly.” Tracy explained that she accidentally brought home an ugly British boy, and by accidentally she means that she needed someone to walk her home and he invited himself in. She asked me to go in and pretend I was her roommate and to kick him out………so I did. I went into her room and told him he had to go because I needed to go to sleep. He explained that “Terri” disappeared, and I yelled at him for not knowing Tracy’s name. He checked the name on the door, and I followed him outside and the door closed behind us. He said he just needed to get his phone, jacket, and keys in the room and he would leave. So I turned to open up the door, and it was locked. And clearly I did not have a key because I don’t actually live in that room. So, I went back upstairs to find Tracy. When I found her, she realized her key was locked in the room. And that we were also locked out of the other room I was hanging out in. And my key was in there. Long story short, we were locked out of everywhere, there was an ugly British boy who couldn’t leave because all of his stuff was locked up…..and I didn’t have any pants on this entire time. When we located Tracy’s roommate, she didn’t have her key either. In the end, a walk to Atlantic to get a key was necessary, while British boy sat in the hallway in disbelief. Poor guy but lol.

Anyway, on Saturday we finally went on the London Eye and it was actually sick. When we got off the eye we saw crazy street performers and weirdo guys dressed up as like monsters. It’s was really entertaining but I had to pay a pound for a picture of one of the monsters throwing the U with me. I’m sorry but that picture is not worth a pound. It is priceless.

On Sunday, we went to see Stonehenge. It was about a two hour bus ride there, and about an hour and a half into the bus ride, Abba and I both woke up from our slumber PROFUSELY sweating basically trying to crawl our way out of the bus. I have no reasoning I don’t know why the bus was so hot. There was heat coming out of every single crevice, not to mention I had my jacket, scarf, and hoodie next to me making me even hotter. We were going to stand up to ask the bus driver to shut it, but the tour guide started talking and there just wasn’t a good time after that. It was so hot that Abba and I considered not wearing jackets to Stonehenge. That would have been a huge mistake.

Stonehenge was really awesome for like ten minutes but then I realized I was just staring at a rock formation and it was like negative 50 degrees when the wind blew. I took a bunch of artsy~ pictures, and I took an awesome picture that some bitch photobombed and totally ruined. Too bad she picked the wrong graphic design minor to photobomb. Girl, prepare to be turned into the plains.Bye.


When we got back on the bus we begged the bus driver to turn off the heat. I wasn’t sure he understood us so we told the tour guide too. Thank the lord it was off for the next hour ride to Bath. Except I got a little cold not gonna lie…

Bath was way cooler than Stonehenge in my opinion. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like the town and I really enjoyed learning about the history from our tour guide who was a little nuts in a good way. We also saw the baths. It was so cold I wanted to jump in. Before we left Bath, there were two amazing street performers playing guitar. They asked for donations, so I donated my phone number. He texted me in case you’re wondering, but he’s from Bath so like see you never.





(Jake bottled the water from the bath. Literally so funny.)
Today for my Museums & Galleries class we went to the British Museum. It was actually incredible and I want to go back on my own to check it out. My teacher is really knowledgable and had all these cool stories to tell us about the art and history behind it all. I got to see the Rosetta Stone!






Since I have some homework to get done, and I’m going to AMSTERDAM tomorrow, I decided to stay in tonight. Unfortunately, so did David Guetta next door to me. I actually Shazammed through the wall before. She was listening to Band of Horses but then she put on some more dubstep, and now I can hear Blue Jeans by Lana Del Rey. Great song if I could hear more than just the blaring bassline.

More updates to come on Monday after my Amsta-adventure!

My first gallery visit for my Museums & Galleries class was fun. We went to Haunch of Venison, The Photographer’s Gallery and one other which I can’t remember the name of, of course. It was cool because when we finished we were in Piccadilly, so Lindsey, Melanie and I went to a nearby pub and got “pints”. I was starving so I got a plate of “chips” (Look guys I’m so British). That night I came home, got ready, and went to Imperial with Katie, Maggie, Carli, Abba, Jake and Jesse. You know how when you go into Tavern on a Thursday and it’s so crowded you kind of fear for your life? That was Imperial, except the lights were on. There was also another side that was supposed to be more club-like, but to me it was more 8th grade Teen Rec. Like I’m pretty sure there were actual 15 year olds in there. Do you think in Europe they make fake 18 IDs? Probably not, considering they don’t even check. On the upside, I saw Mandy! UM reunion in London. Very cool!

(Looking at art…)

(The queue for Britain’s Got Talent! I want to go!)

After Imperial can you guess where we went? Right. We went to McDonald’s. Again. Katie and I vowed that this was the last time and I am 1000% standing by that. Maggie tempted me last night but I stayed strong. After McDonald’s we went to Archangel and met up with Ryan, James, and Andy. And that’s all I have to say about Wednesday night.

Thursday I had my first Reading and Writing short stories class. It’s really not that it was boring…I was just so tired from the night before and my teacher’s voice is so soothing and British that I almost fell asleep. Tinder kept me awake most of the class and then a miracle occurred and she let us leave early. I went straight for bed.

I awoke to my neighbor who thinks she is Beyonce, and my other neighbor who thinks she is David Guetta, and needed to leave my room ASAP. I went to Maggie’s and me, Carli, Maggie, Brooke and Gilly booked our trip to Amsterdam! We’re leaving Thursday and coming back on Sunday. We don’t have any place to stay yet, though, and are taking suggestions on hostels. We’ve heard we should stay in the Flying Pig, but unfortunately it’s all booked. Can’t wait, though! We’ve been talking about our excitement all day.

After we ate dinner, we all went back to get ready and start pregaming for Roadhouse. We pregamed in Ambassador and then took the tube to Covent Gardens and made our way to Roadhouse. We also got half price entry flyers on our way there! Once we were in, I checked my coat for 1 pound, and then went to get a drink. A little while after we got there, a live band started playing! They were a cover band and playing really great alternative rock songs. The first song they played was Last Nite by The Strokes, and some other songs I remember them playing were American Idiot, Use Somebody, All The Small Things, and Good Riddance. They were a really talented cover band—they sounded like the band of every song they played.

Later in the night, a man stopped me and started talking to me. I really couldn’t understand a word he was saying because his accent was so heavy and the music was so loud. Finally I could make out what he was saying. He told me that I walked away from the coat check too quickly—he had been trying to get my attention to give me back my 1 pound. I asked him why, because I thought the coat check was 1 pound. He told me that I was so nice and greeted him with such a big smile that he wanted to give it back to me. I thought this was such a nice gesture and completely unnecessary, but still so nice. When I got my coat at the end of the night, he gave me the 1 pound back, and I gave him a kiss on the cheek. So sweet!

Carli was super drunk and having a blast, and was drunk mad/drunk yelling at me because we wanted to leave. No worries though Carles I forgive you after you “poured your dressing and salad into a bowl” which I think was code for pouring your heart out. Drunk Carli lololol.

After a little bit of walking and a lot of foot pain (still haven’t learned my lesson about wearing heels in London), Jake, Brooke, Joey and I managed the bus home. We thought we’d stop at Archangel, and as soon as I walked in, guess who was there. Right. MARK. And I was wrong, I did recognize him. Fortunately for him, I kept my word and pretended I didn’t know him. He tried to say hi how are you or something like that, but there was some blonde chick nearby and I ain’t no homewrecker.

In the morning, Katie, Abba and I went to Whole Foods and then walked on High Street. Now, I’m back in my room and excited for the boat party tonight. David Guetta neighbor just turned on David Guetta. Looks like it’s time for me to get out of my room and take a shower. Or blast David Guetta back.

I was using my ΣΔΤ bag today and a girl came up to me and said, “Is that a real sorority? Or is it just supposed to look like EAT? Because I realllllllllllly like food.”

Lol

Last night, Carli and Maggie went to a club called Mahiki, which is apparently Prince Harry’s favorite club, and it is therefore my favorite club. I decided I would keep it low key and just go to the pubs in Kensington with Abba and a few guys in our program. We started at Gloucester Arms which closed not long after we got there. I met a friend who loves The Front Bottoms as much as I do which was really cool! After Gloucester Arms closed, we went to Prince of Wales. This is where the night gets a little rocky but I’ve always wanted to write of my bizarre adventures, so, sorry mom and dad. Tucker Max and Chelsea Handler did it, so I’m going to, too (#justified).

There was a guy sitting alone in Prince of Wales and he caught my eye when I went to go buy a pint. He was really cute and told me to sit down. We talked for a while and the bartender gave us free shots. When the pub closed, Abba came to make sure I was okay and then left with all the guys we were with. I stayed with this guy, Mark, who seemed really nice. We weren’t ready to end the night so we went to one more place, but I was so drunk by now I couldn’t remember it for the life of me (I pregamed Gloucester Arms. Judge me). The only thing I can remember at this point was that Mark asked me to buy him a drink. I didn’t actually care, but maybe subconsciously I thought it was off-putting. This is where I had what I like to call the “drunken moment of sobriety” and I realized I did not want this to go any further. I went to the bathroom, came back out, and asked him to direct me how to get home. He was pretty confused (I think he thought he was going to get lucky) but walked me home anyway. The story ends half way to my building where we made out and he proceeded to tell me he has a girlfriend. I promised not to “blow his cover” if I ever see him around lololol. I have this knack for picking the winners and I wish I could say this is the first time a guy has put the “I actually have a girlfriend” line on the table. I probably wouldn’t even recognize him if I saw him so, Mark, this is your lucky day. I will not tell your girlfriend you kind of cheated on her but were willing to actually really cheat on her and may she one day soon realize how much of a dirtbag you are. Xo

said Eleanor, my Harry Potter Tour tour guide. But I think that was just her strategy to try and make us feel better about the fact that we had about an hour and a half left of the tour and already completely satched socks. And satched shoes, satched hair, and satched gloves. And no ski goggles. Snow is special for the first five minutes or if I am watching it from the inside. In London, there are no such laws where you have to clear the sidewalk of snow. They just let it sit there and turn to two inches of slush. Apparently they also don’t know how to salt the ground. I’ve seen countless random heaps of salt all over the city. I guess it doesn’t snow enough for London to realize you’re supposed to spread it all over, though I thought that was common sense.

Anyway, the Harry Potter Tour was both fun and miserable at the same time, like white water rafting senior year of high school. We all thought it was going to be a lot cooler than it actually was. Most of us recognized like three sights total, and each time the tour guide would point out a place that some five minutes of the first movie was filmed, she would follow it with “and then they built their own set to replicate this building for the next seven movies.” I did see Diagon Alley, though, and Platform 9 3/4, which I could have gone to see on my own and avoided the five hours I spent in the snow trying to make Eleanor laugh. I even took a picture of Platform 9 3/4 by itself so I can Photoshop Deanna into it.

(Police ride horses here…not sure how that works in a car chase.)

(Coolest stairs/ramp ever)

Once the tour was over, Katie and I got on the tube to go to the London Eye, which everyone on our program had free tickets to. Since it was snowing and London goes into a state of panic over a millimeter of snow, I was surprised it wasn’t closed. Another freezing cold half hour trek to the London Eye and we finally arrived to find out it was, in fact, closed. We met up with Maggie, Abba, Carli and Carly, and found out that they tried to go to Westminster Abbey today. Closed. So they went to The Crown Jewels. Closed. Not kidding. State of panic. Katie and I were starving at this point having only eaten a chocolate croissant from Cafe Deco at 9:15 AM, so we stopped at the first pub we saw. We got chicken sandwiches with British bacon (Ew, ew, ew. British bacon alone is enough to turn me back to vegetarian) and made a quick attempt to warm up before we made our way back out into the snow and home to Kensington.

(Me, completely mis in the pub)

When I got home, I passed the fuck out. At around 8, I met up with Maggie, Katie and Brooke to go to a restaurant, the name of which I can’t remember. I got a personal pizza topped with goat cheese, zuchini and tomatoes. I’ll find out the name of the restaurant because if you’re ever in Kensington, you should definitely check it out. Afterwards, we walked to the convenience store and bought candy. London is giving me a sweet tooth.

I came back to Atlantic and Skyped with my parents and please forgive me but I Skyped downstairs, in public, because I had better reception there. Not long after, I got in bed, and passed the fuck out…again.

This morning I woke up and got breakfast with Carli, and went to my first two classes of the semester. The first was Cultural Theory and there are 12 people in my class. It seems like it could be really boring, but also very challenging and thought provoking. I’m going to stay in it because if I apply myself (might be hard to do in itself while I’m abroad) I think I can get a lot out of it. The other class was Museums and Galleries of London and I have a lot of friends in it. It seems like it’s going to be an awesome class. On Mondays we have lectures about the museums and art we are going to see, and every Wednesday we visit a different museum. Our first trip is on Wednesday to Haunch of Venison. Can’t wait!

that you would consider unpleasant for a six hour plane ride: screaming baby, guy behind you Irish Step dancing on your seat, the kind of turbulence where you hit air pockets and feel the plane drop a couple thousand feet every thirty seconds…that was my flight to London, and then some. My plane was probably 95% Syracuse students going to London on the SU program, so while walking to my seat I expected maybe I’d sit next to a nice Syracuse boy, we’d have a drink and I could pass out on his shoulder and wake up six hours later in London Heathrow. When I got to my seat, I realized I only had half a seat because the other half was taken up by the 95 year old woman sitting next to me. Not only did we (unfortunately) cuddle the entire time, but I think I had bruised ribs from her elbowing me so much. If that wasn’t bad enough, she didn’t know English. And I don’t mean she didn’t know English but she could get by…she didn’t even know yes or no. She couldn’t communicate one single word because the only language she spoke was Egyptian (the flight attendant eventually figured this out). I spent my entire plane ride trying to help her communicate (the SU girl on the other side helped out too—she was great). I didn’t sleep the entire time, and this woman seriously made me want to cry my eyes out to a point where I shed a few tears on the plane because I felt so bad for her. Things really couldn’t get much worse, so I was pretty excited to land and see how things could start looking up.

When we got off the plane, we went through a huge customs line that moved slower than the Starbucks line across from Richter, but I finally made it through and got my first stamp in my passport. I met up with the girls on my plane from my program and we met the AIFS woman who had us wait with some other girls…for an hour while she frantically searched for another girl, and we later found out her flight was cancelled. I tried to buy a Vitamin water from the vending machine but I soon realized they don’t take cards or dollars or quarters. Finally we got into a bus and made our way to the school. I was running on no sleep at this point so I slept on the bus for a little while, and when I woke up I was in Kensington, London at Richmond University.

(Still not used to them driving on the opposite side of the road!)

We got off the bus and were greeted by the RAs and office staff who directed us where to go and one girl carried my 65 pound (weight not currency) bag up the stairs to the third floor where my room is. I walked in and I’m not really sure what I was expecting, but I’ve been comparing it to a jail cell. I guess all dorms in the UK have sinks, but it just makes me feel like there should be bars on the windows. I’m getting used to it though, having to walk downstairs every time I need to use the bathroom or shower would be even more annoying if I had to do it to brush my teeth or wash my face, too. So far, I haven’t encountered anyone while in my towel walking the stairs before or after a shower—hopefully I didn’t just jinx myself.

I kept myself awake and pretty busy for the rest of the day. I had a few orientation meetings to go to, and I went to the phone store to get a simcard for my phone. This was my first experience of the area, and it’s really awesome. I could do without all the Maseratis though. Reminds me too much of Miami. A few hours later my roommate Carli arrived from California and we figured out how to unpack all of our stuff. It’s definitely starting to feel a bit more homey, even with our makeshift laundry bags and our makeshift fridge—the ledge outside our window.

(The view from our balcony…am I actually allowed out there?)

At around 8 PM the entire program went to a pub a few blocks away from where we’re staying. There was a pub quiz, which we knew about zero answers to, but we sat and I had my first legal drink in the UK. I also had a Snakebite with Black Currant for the first time; thought this would be my new favorite drink.

(Me and Carli and our Snakebites)

We could only make it out until about 11 PM because we were so tired and I was approaching about 30 sleepless hours. We got back to the room and I laid in my bed for the first time. I would say the bed is like sheet rock combined with steak knives, but it’s not so bad now that I purchased a foam cover. The first couple nights were rough though, to say the least.

The next morning I felt…horrible. I only had two drinks so the fact that I threw up everything I ate for breakfast kind of surprised me. It had to be a combination of jetlag, exhaustion, not eating enough, and heavy English beer or maybe the Snakebite. I started the day with a tour of Kensington which was extremely interesting. I learned all about the history of the area and saw the Kensington Palace (Prince Harry, are you there?!) but we weren’t allowed to take any pictures there. After the tour, I had another orientation meeting and got lunch at a really cute cafe with my friends. I ate a croissant type thing filled with spinach and feta. It was delicious and the woman was so nice! We decided we have to become regulars there.

After lunch, we met for a bus tour of London that took us all over to see the main sights. We saw Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, London Bridge, Tower Bridge, Big Ben, and lots of other things.

(Buckingham Palace)

(Tower Bridge)

That night, I went to an Italian restaurant called Da Mario, which was apparently Princess Diana’s favorite restaurant. We all shared a few bottles of wine and nice conversation. The waiters absolutely hated us, so we asked them to take a picture of us since we had nothing to lose. It was at this point I started to realize that even if I am inside, I am going to be freezing cold. I’m wearing my coat in pretty much all of my pictures because it’s that cold.

We left the restaurant and went to our friends apartment. We must have really taken our time because by the time we tried to find an open pub, everything was closed. I had no idea everything would close so early around here! I’m so used to leaving to go out around 11 or 12 at school, but that’s when a lot of pubs close. We ended up back in Ambassador (the other dorm building) drinking in Jake and Jesse’s room with a ton of people. It was really fun for a while, but it got too loud so the RA came in to break it up. Two minutes later he had chugged three beers and had joined the party. I’m not sure what time it was when Carli and I left to go back to Atlantic, but it was late and we were definitely excited to sleep.

The next day we woke up to do some dorm essentials shopping. We ate at Pret A Manger and bought Oyster cards for the tube. We also went to our school’s activities fair and signed up for an adventure weekend trip to Wales and I’m so excited for it! That night, most of the program took the tube to Piccadilly to see the West End play, The 39 Steps. We had an hour to kill when we got there so we walked around and explored the area. In that one hour span, we saw a red carpet premiere for something called House of Cards, and another movie premiere, where we saw Denzel Washington! After the Denzel madness, we found a pub, got a beer, and headed to see the show. It was really great and the actors are super talented, and I now have the biggest fan crush on Andrew Alexander.

(DENZEL!)

After the show was over we decided to stay around Piccadilly since there were some great places to go. We went to a place called Tiger Tiger and we met some really nice guys from Switzerland who bought us drinks and hung out with us a lot of the night. Abba, Katie and I ended up at KFC (shame) and then spent way too long trying to figure out how to take the bus back home. A nice boy on the BU program helped us a lot and walked us almost all the way home. A big thanks to Ethan (was that his name?).

The next day I woke up and it was snowing! It was the first time Carli has actually experienced snow. We met up with Maggie and Katie at Whole Foods (you can take the Americans out of America…but we’re still gonna eat at Whole Foods) and afterwards we just chilled out. This was the first time I had really just sat down and relaxed since I got to London. Later on, we ate dinner in the dining hall, pregamed in Ambassador and then went to Kelly, Jenna and Maggie’s apartment. We ended up getting there so late that we realized we were going to have to pay a huge cover for any place that we went, so we split up once we got to the tube station. Some people went to Aura, but Katie, Abba, Jake, Jesse and I decided we would head for Piano Bar. I made the brave decision to wear heels this night, and I thought I was being so smart by bringing flats in my bag. Flats would have been a great idea had there not been an inch of snow on the ground. I’m surprised I still have all of my toes. I really am not used to this weather!

Piano bar was so full that the bouncer wouldn’t let anyone else in, and told us we probably wouldn’t even want to go in. We had been walking for so long (Jake took us the wrong way) and I was getting so antsy at this point that I would have gone in anywhere to warm up. Finally we made it to Prince of Wales and had a few drinks there. It was fun but my mood had been a little deflated from my cold feet. When the pub closed (early) Katie went to buy more alcohol while Abba and I went to McDonalds (more shame than KFC…please don’t judge me). When we were done devouring our burgers while being stared at by 15 British construction workers in bright orange vests, we went to Ambassador to hang out there and Carli and Maggie showed up after Aura. They had some hilarious stories from the night, and then Carli and I made our way back to Atlantic.

This morning I woke up went to another cafe with my friends. I got an egg salad sandwich on a baguette and it was delicious. I also had the first good cup of coffee I’ve had since arriving in London. After this, I went on a tour of the BBC Television Studio which was really cool, but I definitely expected it to be more exciting. I’d say the best part was our cute British tour guide who I would have gladly given my phone number to if I had the opportunity. When I got back, I met everyone at Top Shop where they were doing some shopping, and we ate dinner at Prince of Wales. I had a chicken sandwich, but I tasted Maggie’s fish and chips which was actually really good! Not sure if I’ll order it for myself, but I had to try! We went to a place called Candella Tea Room for tea and dessert and I had the best hot chocolate I’ve ever had!

(Ze ultimate tourist)

(Me and Maggie at Prince of Wales)

(The Tea Room)

I’m finally back in my room now and was able to Skype with Rachel and Michelle for a little, and with my sister. I’m eating English MnMs (they taste different!) and finally taking off my horrible gels that were long overdue to come off. Now my nails are nicely painted, I’m finishing this blog, and listening to my neighbor’s television show or movie or something that I can hear through the wall (normally she’s playing some rap music but I think she saves that for hours that people are sleeping (2AM-11AM)). I just love waking up to Chingy at 9 in the morning!

Anyway, I know this was a long blog but I wanted to give an update of my first couple days in London. I’ll keep updating and telling stories and hopefully they’ll be a lot less boring than this one. Needless to say, everything turned up from that horrible plane ride and I’m having a great time! Anyone know why birds chirp here at like 3AM? Maybe they’re jetlagged!