Regent's Park

After indulging in anything I could get my hands on this week (the food's a lot better in London than people say), I decided it was time I go for a run. I knew there was a park pretty close to my flat, so I followed my map to Regent's Park. Turns out, this is my favorite place on earth.

At the beginning of my run, I found myself in some weird flower/fountain garden. It was really long and narrow, but running by it and the people sitting on benches was beautiful. Continuing on, I ran through the middle of a giant, open field, with two football pitches on either side of my path. Only one field was being used though, and it looked like a rugby team doing practice drills. The path continued, and I was running next to the London Zoo. I saw multiple school field trips, camels, giraffes, and zebras! Not a typical run! I went around a bend and came across another field, but this one was much, much bigger than the last. Tiny British boys were practicing football everywhere and I was immediately brought back to my own soccer practices as a little girl. They were adorable and they all were wearing football jerseys of professional teams.

Later, I walked through Queen Mary's Gardens. I could tell the plants were already starting to die a little since fall is setting in, but it was still beautiful. There were different colored roses everywhere, hundreds of other flowers I didn't know the names of, multiple ponds, waterfalls, basically anything beautiful you can think of was in this garden. I spent probably twenty minutes just walking around and looking at everything. It was incredible.

After that, I ran to the park exit and down Euston street, right back to my flat! Easily the best run I have ever been on. I think it's safe to say that will not be the last time I go to Regent's Park. Here are some pictures I took on my run/walk!!

x
lizzie

Everything's Funnier... In Scotland

Our first adventure- Edinburgh, Scotland!

I don't really know what I was expecting, but Catherine, Hailey, Ailee and I decided VERY last minute to take a trip to Scotland, bought train tickets, and left the next morning from King's Cross Station! After a short four hour train ride (I slept the whole way), we were in a different country. It's crazy, that's how long it takes to drive from Houston to Cleburne, and you don't even leave the state!!

But back to this whole 'not expecting much' thing. I'm not very versed in Scottish information, but I had no idea how beautiful Edinburgh is. All of the buildings are made of giant, old stones and everything looks like it was made hundreds of years ago... which it was. We dropped all our stuff off with Catherine's friends at the University of Edinburgh and went to grab a quick lunch. We learned of new language barriers- Scotland does not have grilled cheeses or pickles, they have cheese toasties and gherkins (not the little ones). The trip started out with lots of laughs, and they didn't end there.

Moving to a much less comical adventure, the four of us plus James and Richard (two of Catherine's friends) walked out of the bustling city and climbed up Arthur's Seat to get a better view. It was one of the most breath-taking scenes I've ever seen! From the peak of the mountain, you could see the entire city and how it was built to wrap around the mountain. And beyond the city, the North Sea. So, so cool.

After the hike, we went to The Pilgrim to collect ourselves and have a drink. This bar was really cool because everything was made from recycled materials, like the couch was made out of different denim pieces sewn together! Later, we went to Revolution for dinner. The food here was great and the entire table couldn't stop laughing throughout the entire meal, who knows why. Then we went to Why Not, a bar that a lot of local students go to. As we were waiting in line, a very over-served guy told us to tell the bouncers we were with John Allen. With those magic words, we were granted VIP access to the club. The place was filled with college aged kids and the music was loud, which made for a great night.

The next day, we tried to do as much as possible. We first got coffee at The Elephant House, which is the coffee shop that J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter in. The bathrooms were covered in Harry Potter graffiti and we probably spent a good fifteen minutes in the bathroom. Kind of gross, I know.

With our coffees in hand, we walked along the worn streets to the Edinburgh Castle. It's so weird how something built so long ago is still standing in the middle of the city. I can't even imagine what it was like living in the castle. We didn't want to pay the £16 to go inside, so we walked around the outskirts taking pictures for a while. You could get a really good view of the city from here too. Then we went to the Scottish History Museum and saw the exhibit about Mary, Queen of Scots. She was one cool girl. I went in not knowing much about her, all information from previous history classes forgotten. But she had such an intricate and exciting life, all to be taken from her because of her boy troubles. Go figure. If you don't know much about her, I highly recommend looking her up on Wikipedia or something, because she is so interesting. Her life would make a great TV series.

Edinburgh Castle

We went home afterwards to cook dinner- tacos! We got all the ingredients necessary at Tesco (who knew they had guacamole!? Except.. it didn't really taste like guacamole). I was in charge of cooking the taco meat, which I made to perfection. Thanks for all the practice, Dad! Hailey and Ailee were put on salad duty, and Catherine and James made the rice. To be clear, in the picture below, James is holding the rice in the bowl because neither he nor Catherine knew how to properly cook rice, so we ended up with white mush in a bowl which no one ate. Except James. We also had no napkins or paper towels, so we had to resort to using toilet paper, another comedic occurrence that had us doubled over for fifteen minutes. Definitely one of the best/worst dinners I've ever had.

The classic study abroad home cooked meal photo

After dinner, we all met up with John Melvin, a friend from UT, who is also studying in Edinburgh. He is on the club golf team, so we took part in Pub Golf with him and his teammates. It was a great night, and we got to see a lot of the pubs by doing this with them! When 8:30 AM rolled around, none of us were ready to get on our train and we had a bit of a hectic morning. However, we all concluded that Edinburgh was incredibly fun, but we were ready to head home (which is London.. weird, right?!).

Classes don't start until Monday, so hopefully I will do something blog worthy in the next couple of days!

x
lizzie

Palaces and Parties

After eating out all over the city and shopping way too much, we all decided it was about time for some culture. We set our alarms and after a hectic sprint to Buckingham Palace, we queued up to tour the palace! It was amazing how much gold was inside this place. I swear, if I had a penny for every gold object I saw- silverware, walls, ceilings, tables, jewelry- I would be loaded. But it was especially cool because it was the 60th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation, so there was a giant exhibit on her coronation. We got to see her crown and robes and lots of footage of the event. It would have been cool to be able to see the rest of the house, but it was still nice to be able to go inside!

After learning a little history, it was time to put on our dancing shoes again! UCL held an orientation party at a HUGE club in London, KOKO. It is an old theatre that has been transformed into a club, and it's unlike any other place I've been before! It was a little weird because everyone there was a fresher (what the British call freshmen), but it was still fun to dance with my friends!!

x
lizzie

Trivia, Mexican Food, and Opal

So I know I left you on a bit of a cliffhanger last post, so I'll just start from there.
Two nights ago, Hailey and I decided to meet up with a girl Ailee (like Hailey, but without the H. I know, confusing) at the Trivia Night that UCL's student union put on in the bar on campus. We went into it thinking that it would just be a bunch of people sitting around, answering questions about pop culture while drinking beer. We were wrong. We got there a little late and immediately ran into Ailee, who was with two girls we had never met before, Rachel and Catherine. The four of us grabbed a beer and headed over to the tables, where teams of people were crowded around answer sheets. Since we were late, we were assigned to an existing team of two boys who were sitting toward the front. They were Alex and Jack, two local boys who are a year below us at UCL. After introductions, we quickly learned that this trivia was about Europe- politics, history, art, literature, sports, food, everything. Needless to say, the two British boys were very unlucky to have just teamed up with four American girls. We knew NOTHING except for the four questions that had something to do with America. I did, however, nail a question about the London Underground, which made me feel a little better.

When the questions were over, all the teams exchanged answer sheets and checked the answers, then turned them in to see which team answered the most correctly. As it turns out, Alex and Jack were incredibly smart and our team ended up winning £96! For those of you that don't know, that's $153.94. So all seven of us split the winnings (I'm sure the boys were super happy about that), and Rachel, Hailey, Catherine, Ailee and I went to a restaurant called Zizzi Ristorante and dinner was on Jack and Alex! Afterwards, we attempted to go to a club, but every place we came across was closed. Who knew London wasn't open on Wednesday nights?

The next day, I went to 3 hours of Anthropology meetings. At the introduction meeting, the girl to my right was named Anna, and she was from Finland! She was super cool and very interesting, so I hope we get to hang out more while we're here! Then, on my left, was Anna from Switzerland. Extremely confusing, but at least I only had one name to remember.

Hailey and I then explored London a little bit. We chose a new tube stop to go to for dinner. Hailey had never seen Covent Garden, and I knew it had a ton of restaurants, so we ambled through the small, winding streets until we found a fun restaurant that had a reasonably priced menu. We ended up picking Benito's Hat, a Mexican restaurant. I know going to a foreign country is all about trying new things, but I've always been very curious about Mexican food in other countries, so we decided to give it a go. Turns out, it was happy hour and they were serving two margaritas for the price of one. We liked it already. The restaurant was tiny with bright colors everywhere. Once again, it looked like a lot of locals on dates (why is this country so obsessed with dating??). Hailey and I grabbed two stools and sat at the bar by the window, which provided for excellent people watching. One guy passed and made completely ridiculous faces at us all the way across the street, which was highly entertaining. Overall, good food, great drinks, and an excellent atmosphere!

After dinner, Catherine, Ailee, and Rachel came over to get ready for UCL's first big party at Opal Bar. It's right on the River Thames and the place was so cool! There was a giant disco ball over the dance floor, with interesting glass structures hanging down everywhere. It was for the international students, so I met people from all over the world! The only downside to this party was that the drinks were ridiculously expensive.

Me, Hailey, Ailee, and Catherine outside of Opal

We made it home after running into a boy who was too drunk to remember his last name (we got him in a cab and sent him home, no worries) and after enviously staring at people eating french fries on the late bus. Overall, two great nights in London.

x
lizzie

We made it!!

It's day two in London and I'm already OBSESSED!!

It was an easy flight, only spent 5 minutes in the customs line, and Hailey and I got a taxi with no wait. We didn't expect it to take an hour and a half to get from the airport to our flat though. Traffic that could have easily competed with Houston's 610 rush hour. But then we got to move into our flat and it's incredible! All of the walls in the building are painted a cute pink/purple color with bright royal blue doors! We got a corner room, which is basically triple the size of all the other rooms. It has a really intricate white crown molding around the ceiling and two floor to ceiling windows behind each of our beds. The community bathrooms aren't as bad as I thought they were going to be, but then again, no one has moved in yet except one exchange student from Japan. We've only run into him once.

My side of the room! Don't worry, I didn't pick out the bedding

Hailey and I spent our first day looking around our neighborhood and running errands, nothing too exciting. But being two girls who have never really lived in a cold climate, we made the rookie mistake of thinking a sweater would be enough to walk around in. Thirty minutes later, when it was raining and windy, we were definitely regretting our decision. We escaped the rain and ate lunch at Nando's (favorite restaurant ever), did a little shopping, and then went home until dinner.

We met up with one of my friends who I've known for twenty years (wow that makes me sound old) (so basically my whole life), Marshall Shaffer. He suggested we eat at The Rum Kitchen in Notting Hill and it was great! Tons of locals on dates and friends meeting up for dinner. It was so good to see him!

After Hailey and I passed out (hello, jet lag!), we had an International Students Orientation meeting where we quickly realized that almost every International Student is from America. We did meet one Australian and one Italian though. We also let some of our inner tourist out and went to see Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and Buckingham Palace. I LOVE how Big Ben just towers over you when you step out of the Westminster Underground stop. It's literally the most exciting feeling in the world. We took our obligatory photos in front of the landmarks and headed home, and now I'm writing this!

We made some plans with some other Americans the Australian we met so we'll see what ends up happening tonight!

x

lizzie