my first visitor!

my friend katie from chapman is studying in perugia this semester and decided to take a trip to visit in london last weekend! and she brought perugian chocolate with her...my new favorite thing ever.

the first day we did some of the typical sightseeing...buckingham palace (yeah, again, ok? i like it!), green park, trafalger square, piccadilly circus, and some things i had never seen before and still don't know the names to!

[us at the queen's house]

[ah!]

[my turn!]

[i don't know what this is...but it's pretty!]

[again, a nameless landmark i probably should know]

after exploring for a few hours, we had dinner with sabrina and her friend at the eagle so katie could try some traditional english food! i had a veggie burger and sabrina had nachos...we're obviously kind of over the whole english food thing. and we are also vegetarians. no bangers and mash for us.

on saturday we went to hampstead to eat and shop a little and then to oxford circus to eat and shop a LOT. after some good japanese food and the best cookie i've ever had (i think ben's cookies deserves its own post someday), we went to this place called the arc near thoresby house with some kids from the program for romanian night! we danced to romanian music and laughed a lot until it was bedtime.

i loved having a visitor...it was nice having yet another person from home to hang out with! it's a good thing i like guests because i have a lot of them coming up!

london friendsdays, week 2

yesterday was sabrina and my second "london friendsday"! these days were formally known as "london wednesdays" until my clever sister chelsea intervened. way to go chels.

this friendsday started off with a trip to buckingham palace again, this time to see the changing of the guards. we got there just as it began and strained on our tippy toes to see over a lot of foreign heads. they marched around for a while and stood there for a long time, so we made our way through the dense crowd to see if we could get a better view.

all of the sudden we were standing front row for when the guards were to march off the palace grounds to wherever they march off to! as we waited for that portion of the show we chatted with a police officer who loved to yell and looked like this:

she kept us amused as we waited for the guards to march by. we watched as a set of puffy-hat-wearing soldiers marched from the left gate around the opposite side of the fountain from where we were, and we knew our side of the fountain was next! but unfortunately the soldiers that marched on our side were kind of boring-looking. no puffy-hats for us.

next on the agenda was to stroll through st. james park and to cross the bridge within it...so beautiful! when i was here in july i lived right next to this park and never managed to peak inside it, which was so silly, but now i know what i was missing!

we were walking down a path towards the bridge when all of the sudden the guards we had seen earlier walked right past us! we started taking pictures and we even got them to laugh and say hi to us! who said they aren't allowed to talk to people?! maybe we were special exceptions...

it was getting to be past lunch time so we headed off to the wolesley, a cafe next door to the ritz, for a bite to eat. holy amazing...the wolesley is beautiful. we probably got the worst seat in the house and it was one of those kinds of places that will only give you 2 breadsticks if there are 2 people sitting at your table, but we still had such a fun time people watching and feeling fancy. sabrina and i decided that it's imperative that we are both rich someday so we can keep up with this lifestyle, so we devised a genius business plan that i will tell you someday after i make my millions.

we weren't allowed to take pictures at the wolesley but i slyly took a couple on my phone. i'm like kim possible or something. unfortunately, i was trying to be really quick and the food picture is the only one that didn't turn out blurry. meh.

[omelette, pommes frites, and fancy water]

after lunch we walked for a while to get to the victoria & albert museum, past harrod's and a trillion other beautiful stores that we somehow found the willpower not to go into (go us!). the v&a is SO beautiful...i was in shock the whole time! i didn't realize how big it was. we only got through about a third of the rooms before the museum closed, but we saw some gorgeous old jewelry, silver pieces, drawings, stained glass windows, little japanese boxes, and a billion other things. we are going back in a couple of weeks to finish off the museum and hit up the gift shops!

[scoping out some really ornate thing]

[the coolest ring ever]

our night again ended at the eagle, where else? unfortunately the eagle changed their menu and i'm kind of bummed, but i still enjoyed my dinner and i especially enjoyed the unbelievable brownie they serve afterwards. the eagle is my third home.

stay tuned for more london friendsdays!

(shout out to mah gurl emilie)

starbucks, what have we come to?

it's no secret that i am in love with starbucks. in fact, i am in a deep, committed relationship with it. i am starbucks' loyal wife, and even when we hit a rough patch, i know that starbucks will be with me wherever i go, for better or for worse.

in england, starbucks and i are for worse.

i knew that when i arrived in london, our relationship would be strained. forced in between convenience stores and often sharing its space with book stores, train stations, or even clothing stores, i knew that starbucks could eventually begin to suffocate me. i need my space. some of my favorite days with starbucks have been when we are relaxing, sitting in comfy green chairs with a book in hand and the aroma of coffee swirling around us. i love that when i am doing homework or chatting with friends starbucks is never imposing or jealous, it just lets me have my space and take my time. however, starbucks in london is small, crowded, and angry. instead of a warm "hello! what can i get for you today?" i am greeted with a "yes?" followed by a cold stare. is this what i deserve, starbucks? why are what once used to be squishy velvet armchairs replaced with cramped bar seating to accommodate the masses of people vying for your attention?

and that isn't all of it: starbucks isn't meeting my needs. starbucks used to selflessly offer me dozens of options. a pumpkin spice latte used to be our tradition! now it is forgotten, nowhere to be found. starbucks once gave me special gifts, like treat receipts and gold card perks. now i am just another girl, paying full price with the rest of them. and i can just tell that starbucks isn't using the same kind of syrups and milks that it does in the states. starbucks is trying to fool me into thinking that nothing has changed with us, but in fact it has drastically.

i know that when i return to california and we are back where we are used to starbucks and i will mend our relationship. hopefully starbucks will learn from its mistakes and make it up to me with good service, free soy milk, and a comfy chair. but until then, i am sorry starbucks, but we're going to have to go on a break.

"this is school, mr. potter, not the real world."

i'm on quite a roll this week in the sightseeing department and today was no exception.

my british art and architecture class met in hampstead today, a section of north london i didn't know existed. it was about a 15 minute tube ride from thoresby and where my professor happens to live, and although none of us were excited about waking up early and getting our butts to the tube, i think we are all glad we went. apparently sting lives in hampstead, and i can't blame the guy.

the purpose for our trip was to see kenwood house, a 17th century vacation home built by robert adams, an architect we are currently studying. we walked for about an hour through hampstead heath, a big beautiful wilderness park surrounding the house, and i was in love.

i forgot my camera, so the few pictures i took with my phone don't do the town justice.

[my little sweet professor at the start of the trail through hampstead heath]

[my class hiking through the fall leaves]

[we finally arrived at kenwood house!

they filmed part of notting hill here]

i am disappointed i wasn't allowed to take pictures inside the house because the interior was beautiful and it housed a great art collection, but you will all just have to check out kenwood house yourselves someday.

everyone was rushing back home after our tour to make it to other classes, but i decided to stick around hampstead for the afternoon. i've been seriously craving to read harry potter since i finished the last book i read (big surprise) and i really wanted to read the last two books before i see the movie in november, so i found a bookstore and picked up the british versions of each.

the area of hampstead is stunning. there are trees everywhere, which you don't see too often in the heart of the city, and the shops and restaurants are built of uneven stones. i explored for a while and found a little italian restaurant tucked in an alleyway, so i decided to eat lunch alone and read of harry's adventures. best gnocchi i've ever had, hands down. and they say the food in london is bad! (it sometimes is)

i continued my date with harry in a coffee shop and then headed back for my next class a couple of hours later. it was nice to have time to myself in a beautiful part of the city, and i can't wait to find more of london's hidden gems.

london wednesdays, week 1

when sabrina and i realized that we both don't have classes on wednesdays, we decided to anoint wednesdays as "london wednesdays" (the name is a work in progress), where we explore a part of the city or somewhere we haven't been to. yesterday was the first official london wednesday of the semester.

we started off at king's cross st. pancras train station, from where the hogwarts express would magically depart to bring harry potter and friends to school at the beginning of each harry potter book. we were a little lost so we went up to one of the employees and asked where we could find the famous platform 9 and 3/4, to which she replied, "yeah, i know where that is and it's crap." so we followed her directions and magically platform 9 and 3/4 appeared. of course, we nerded out.

[obligatory tourist photo]

[totes going to hogwarts]

after we got that out of our system, we decided to go to buckingham palace. in sabrina's london book it says that if there are four guards out front and a certain flag is flying above the palace, that means that the queen is inside. sure enough, her majesty was home! AND we think there was some sort of garden party or something, because all of these ladies in weird hats and men in suits were exiting the palace. on the to do list: get invited to a garden party at buckingham palace.

we walked through green park to get to hyde park, our next destination. you guys, hyde park is HUGE. and we walked through a ton of it.

[we got ice cream before we started the trek. best idea ever.]

[walking walking walking walking walking]

we walked along the serpentine, a river that runs through the park, and saw lots of wildlife! geese, swans, pigeons, and lots of other birds that were funny little things. and then we ate at a restaurant by the same name, which was delicious and had a beautiful view of the park.

it was getting kind of cold so we decided to head into the knightsbridge area. we dipped in and out of the shops and then went to harrod's (yeah, so what, i will go there every day). i actually found sections of harrod's i had not been to before...the pet store (which is insanity), another clothing section, and an entire secret floor i didn't know about! on this secret floor i bought notecards to send home to people and gawked at marc jacobs bags. did you know harrod's has a pharmacy? now i could really live there. we finished up our harrod's experience with coffee at a cappuccino bar while we planned out the rest of our london wednesdays in our planners. organized friends!

[i had a tiramisu cappuccino...WHAT SO GOOD]

our feet were throbbing and we both vowed to stop spending money, so we finished up the night at the eagle with some friends and called it a night.

london wednesday number one: success.

here comes the sun, do do do do

the last three days have been some of my favorite days in london so far, and i'm crossing my fingers that the streak will continue!

on sunday we finally had some SUN! everything changes in london when it is sunny. everyone is out and about, strolling around without coats or umbrellas or a need to be underneath awnings at all times. it was so lovely to wake up to a sliver of sunshine peeping through my window. ahhhh. monique, emily and i celebrated the warmth (it really wasn't all that warm, but it sure was nicer than usual) by going, of all places, to harrod's. indoors. but i cannot complain, for i LOVE harrod's and it never disappoints. if you don't know what it is, it's basically this massive department store that has a food hall and something like 30 restaurants and a champagne bar and all the clothes/shoes/bags/makeup/anything you could ever dream of. after some minor purchases and lots of looking around, we went out for chinese food in the south kensington area and then headed home to watch one tree hill and settle down for the night.

[wish i lived here...everything i could ever need]

[me really excited about purses]

i woke up on monday morning more excited than i am on christmas, because in just a few short hours my parents would be in the city! i quickly got ready, wrapped my mom's birthday gift, and made the trip over to the park lane hotel near buckingham palace. i suppose i was a bit too anxious to see them because i got there 2 hours early. oops. i grabbed a snack and some tea from a cafe my family went to 5 years ago when we stayed at the park lane and brought it to green park. holy beautiful. it was so GREEN! and sunny! i sat in the park and drank my tea and people watched for the next hour and a half. all around me people were enjoying the sunshine, laying in the grass, enjoying every last second of their hour lunch break.

i walked over to the hotel to meet my parents and ah, it was SO good to be with them again. i only saw them a few weeks ago in minneapolis but after a couple rough weeks it was good to be back in their presence. we hung out for a while until i had to go to class, but then met for a delicious french dinner near the park afterwards. i met them again for breakfast and dinner yesterday and said goodbye, for they are off to italy to celebrate their 25th anniversary! i will see them again in london in 10 days, and i can't wait to stay with them in their pretty hotel and eat yummy food and actually get to show them my life here for a weekend.

successful sunday-tuesday, and this week is about to get even crazier.

brick lane + notting hill - hugh grant

today monique, emily and i decided we would suck it up and wake up early (10:30! ha) and get going on our day. we have a list hanging on my wall of all of the things we want to do while we are here, and until today we had yet to cross anything off, so we decided to tackle this saturday.

we started by walking through shoreditch, a really trendy street-arty place near where we live to get to brick lane. brick lane is unlike anywhere in california that i know of. it's this really long street lined with indian restaurant after indian restaurant after vintage shop after indian restaurant. it's pretty empty during the day but as soon as dinnertime hits, BAM, tons of hipsters and indian people. apparently for years it has been a predominantly indian area (kind of like downtown santa ana would be for hispanic people in orange county) but slowly over the last couple of years the punk/indie crowd has encroached on the area, squeezing in vintage shops and coffee shops between authentic indian restaurants. i can't really describe to you what it's like without you being there...it's a very interesting and unique place.

the reason for our visit to brick lane was a secret sample sale we had heard about online. we each spent some time looking through the designer clothes, some things discounted up to 90%! we each walked out with a bag of goods and the satisfaction of knowing that we bought some great stuff for very little money.

[mo and i with our purchases!]

we decided that we would continue our successful day out by heading over to notting hill to peek at portobello market. it reminded me of a mix between the melrose trading post (hey kate) and the antique shops in orange circle...lots of old jewelry, books, and random trinkets. we had lunch, walked around a bit, talked to a very nice british man about the soldiers of the british army (he was selling little figurines), and looked through some vintage shops along the way. i found a gold givenchy shift dress for 25 pounds (!) but it was too big. i'm excited to go back in a few weeks and see what else i can dig up!

notting hill is absolutely precious. it kind of reminds me of san fransisco, but all i could think about was the movie with hugh grant and julia roberts. i kept an eye out for the famous blue door hugh grant lives behind, but all i found were touristy references to the film (a store called "the blue door" and the movie's logo plastered up and down portobello road). unfortunately, we didn't run into hugh or julia, but i had fun exploring an unfamiliar part of london anyways.

[full house? wrong side of the world.]

tomorrow we are going to tackle some homework in the morning and then hopefully make it over to harrod's. i've been before, but there is no way to see absolutely everything in harrod's in just a trip or two, so hopefully i'll conquer yet some more uncharted territory!

my mum and dad

so, if you know me well you know that i love my parents for many many reasons. i call them when i'm stressed, excited, sick, bored, lonely, or walking to class because i know they always have the right thing to say. and not being able to call them every couple of hours while i am here has been tough. i know, grow up ali, you aren't 10. but i have a great mom and dad, and i like to take advantage of that (in a good way).

i should have posted this on my mom's birthday, which was on monday, but i didn't get around to it. i was bummed out that i wasn't able to be with her on her birthday and that all i could really do was send her a whatsapp message and celebrate on her facebook. sad! but i spent the day thinking of all of the ways she has been able to reach ME since i have been here. she sends me packages with notes and little gifts in them, and i hang the notes up on my bulletin board so i can see her handwriting whenever i turn to my right. she even sent me peanut butter because i don't like the peanut butter here! this morning i woke up to an email with a photo of coto de caza drive attached (the street near my house with a beautiful view of saddleback mountain) so i could look at it when i am missing home. and she was up in the middle of the night last night whatsapping me when i was panicking about having the flu (which i do have, and it's really cramping my style this week). how great is she?

and then my dad! he sends me notes all the time, always reminding me that he loves me and is thinking of me. the few times we've been able to skype we just laugh at how crazy it is that we can still talk from all the way across the world! he is so supportive of me, letting me come to london twice this year to study and flying me to minneapolis, knowing that i would have been so upset if i couldn't be at my grandpa's funeral. my dad and i have a very special bond that i don't share with anyone else and i'm so lucky to have a dad that understands me so well, and vice versa.

i can't wait to see my parents in 5 days. i am having so much fun here, but between being sick and just receiving a package with my rainboots and things from my mom, it makes me miss them a lot and i'm so excited to have them next to me!

it's a small world

i'm beginning to realize how small the london really is...and actually, how small the world is.

rewind to three weeks ago. i'm sitting in some orientation thing, bored bored bored. eating a muffin and thinking about what i am gonna do later. i am completely ignoring a speech about how to use the underground or how to get an ID card or something completely uninteresting, but for a second i look up. just one second. and, in a room of a couple hundred people, there is my friend chase, perhaps one of my oldest friends since kindergarten, standing in front of me. random and so fun!

then, fast forward to saturday night. a bunch of us are at the eagle, a little pub that is just a stone's throw from thoresby house. we're there a lot...i always joke that if they had gold cards it would be my new starbucks. anyways, hanging out on saturday night at the eagle, i turn around, and what! sabrina, a friend from chapman, is sitting at a table to my right! of all the pubs in london! crazy. we find out we are practically neighbors. so perfect!

it's fun having little bits of home with me here in london. chase and i met up last week to catch up and sabrina and i went back to the eagle tonight and are having a homework sesh tomorrow! even though everyone is in the same boat, missing home, adjusting to living abroad, it's nice to have people around from MY boat. :)

my mates

to answer many of your guys' questions, YES, i do have friends! there are about 30 of us living in thoresby house and about half are upperclassmen, so us upperclassmen pretty much stick together. there are two houses that people in our program live in as well, palace court and radcliff, so we hang out with the kids from there as well!

i hope this isn't creepy...me showing off my friends...sorry guys...

[tied for first place best london friends: mo and emily @ tiger tiger in picadilly circus]

[katie and em again @ the king's head? one of many pubs with really english names]

[em AGAIN and tall paul!]

[zak attack and i in da club...where's emily?]

i swear i have more friends, but i've really been sucking at taking pictures and just nicked these all off of facebook. oops. stay tuned for more blossoming friendships. ;)