LONDON

HOME!!!!

It feels absolutely amazing to be back in America!!!!  My flight was really good.. no one sat next to me and I just watched movies and TV shows the whole flight. The food was really good too and they fed us a lot and frequently.  There were hardly any lines for customs which was great and I went right through to exit and I was met by my mom, Becka, Draya, and Natalia!! It was sooo great to see them and obviously my mom says, “Now where is the closest Panera?” SO we went to Panera on Boylston and it was so damn good.  We headed home after where I just dumped everything in my room and chilled until I realized that I was actually exhausted.  By around 9pm it started to hit me since it was really 2am.  I decided to go to bed at 10 but I woke up at 6 wide awake!  I’ve been busy all day unpacking and reorganizing everything, which I love doing.  My bed feels like the comfiest thing on the earth compared to my bed in London.  It was heaven getting into bed last night and my shower was amazing today compared to the awful shower head in London with no pressure and water spouting every which way.  Not gonna lie, I do miss London.  It feels surreal to be home right now, it’s like I’m in a dream and I’ll wake up back in London.  

NERJA, SPAIN

On Thursday April 29, I traveled to Nerja, Spain!  It was quite a process getting there but it was worth it! I stayed until Sunday with Hope who just had to take a bus ride from Granada.  On Thursday I took a train to Stansted Airport and then flew to Malaga Airport where I had to get a bus to the bus station, and then a bus to Nerja.  I finally arrived in Nerja around 10:30 pm and hope was waiting for me at the bus station.  We amazingly got upgraded to this amazing apartment at no extra cost! And the location was perfect since it was on a main street which leads right to the famous Balcon de Europa.  We ate dinner near there and then went back to the apartment for the night.  

On Friday the weather was perfect- high 70s and sunny.  We ate breakfast at a cafe, and then headed down to the balcony where there is amazing views of the ocean and the cliffs and houses.  We even saw a bride with her bridesmaids getting ready to walk into this gorgeous white church which was right near the balcony.  We took lots of pictures there, and then walked to the beach where the sun felt amazing after having such rainy weather in London for a couple weeks.  After laying on the beach for awhile, we ate lunch at a restaurant on the beach.  After walking back to the balcony, we got some gelato since there was a couple places there.  Our apartment also had a roof deck with a table and chairs and so we decided to tan some more on the roof and relax.  It was perfect weather and so I wanted to soak up the sun as much as possible.  We then walked around a lot and explored some streets.  At the balcony, there were about 5 stray cats just hanging out and there was cat food at the bottom of this bench and so they were all grouped together there.  I don’t really like cats, but it was pretty cute.  We watched the sunset that night even though it wasn’t over the ocean, it was pretty to see it set over the mountains.  To save some money, we went to the supermercado to buy some sandwich stuff and snacks for dinner.

On Saturday it rained a little bit in the beginning of the day, but then it started to clear up.  Nerja has some amazing caves, and so we took a short bus ride to the Cuevas de Nerja.  The caves were so cool and huge.  It was a good thing to do while it was raining, and then it cleared up when we got back to where we were staying.  We walked the streets and shopped around for most of the day and ate lunch at a restaurant at the balcon de europa.  And then obviously we got some gelato afterwards.  By later in the day Saturday, I started to feel my sunburn pretty bad, but at least it turns into a tan!  We saw a sign for a flamenco show at 10pm and so we decided to go to that.  We arrived at 10pm and we were the only ones there so it was pretty awkward, but the room filled up as it got later, and the show was pretty cool.  We stayed for about an hour and a half and then headed back to the apartment.  We had a nice TV in the apartment and it wasn’t until late that night where I figured out how to take the Spanish dialogue off and have it be English. But it was cool to watch Jersey Shore and other shows in Spanish ha. We watched Adventureland in English until I passed out on the couch, and apparently I talked to Hope in my sleep.  

Sunday it was pouring all day so we went to breakfast at the closest cafe and then checked out of the hostel at noon.  My bus was at 2:30 pm to the bus station and then I had to take a bus from there to the Malaga airport.  So until then we went back to that cafe for awhile to stay dry.  We both got tortilla espanola which was like a thick omelette with potatoes.  It was really really good.  I arrived at the airport in plenty of time and I successfully spent all my euros.  The plane rides both to and from Malaga were soo pretty and on the way back to London I saw the sunset.  I finally arrived back to my flat around 11pm.  It was such a great weekend and nice and relaxing.  I’ve never really been on a tropical vacation before, and so I think this was the closest to it.  It was not fun to come back to finals week and studying, but I’m almost done and I only have one final left!  Then I’m home on Friday May 4th!

ZAC EFRON

Zac Efron’s movie premiere for “The Lucky One” was last night in Chelsea!  I went right after I got out of class at 2 and he did not show up until about 6:30 but it was worth it!  The red carpet and media interviews was at a restaurant outside in a patio area and then the cinema where the movie would be shown was about 5 minutes down the street.  I got there around 2:30 and waited in line outside the restaurant and they let us in at 3:30 to stand behind the barriers.  While we were waiting they rolled out the red carpet and cut it all up to make it all fit the weird shape of the walkway area and then put up the movie posters on all the barriers and the press companies.  It was cool to see everything being set up and put into place.  It was cold and rainy and miserable, but I knew it would be worth it in the end.  I was in the second row of people and there was a little step up because of the barriers so I still had great views.  The press was right in front of me and so I knew we would see Zac perfectly as he went down the line doing interviews.  The press and photographers starting showing up at 5pm and they all got into their positions.

Taylor Schilling was the first to show up and she signed and posed for pictures and went down the press line.  It seemed Zac didn’t show up until forever but when he finally did it was crazy!  Immediately I thought he is so short and small!  But his smile is amazing and every chance he got he would turn around and smile and wave.  I just watched him do interviews the whole time and even then he would turn around and look right at us.  The girls in front of me were sobbing crying which I thought was hilarious.  

When he finally made his way down to where I was, I just stared in awe and took some pics while he took pics with the people in front of me.  He was so nice to the girl who was crying and took a couple pics with her.. at first he looked so concerned for her haha.  I didn’t have anything for him to sign but I didn’t care I just took a few pics but just mostly enjoyed the moments he was closest to me :)

Other people who attended were mostly all British stars from TV shows I didn’t watch, but Nicholas Sparks attended and he was super nice and talkative with all the fans.  Honestly when it was over I was so glad to get out of there and get warm.  Some people were waiting at the cinema when I rode by on the bus, but I just could not stand in the cold anymore.  

Weekend 4.19-4.21

This weekend I attended the Avengers Assemble Premiere, the Harry Potter Studio Tour at Warner Bros. Studios, and went to Brighton! It has been a great last weekend in London since next weekend I’ll be in Spain!

I got to the Avengers premiere about three hours early on Thursday and got a great view from the second floor looking down.  It was in a mall and it had a big red carpet and stage set up with lights and screens.  All the actors made a big entrance when they came out and then proceeded to meet the fans, do press, and pose for pictures.  It was great to see everything at once from above and observe everything.  I didn’t feel like being squished and on my tip toes the whole time trying to see so how I was happy having a clear view from up above.  I saw Scarlet Johansson, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jr, Tom Hiddleston, Clark Gregg, and Cobie Smulders.  Chris Evans was missing though :( Definitely the biggest premiere I’ve ever seen.

On Friday, I took a train to Warner Bros for the Harry Potter Studio tour! It was soo amazing to see all the sets and props used. Other than the sets and props, everything that was involved in the process was displayed such as designs, models, hair, make-up, masks, etc.  Basically all the sets and characters were designed on paper or made “white card” models before it was put to life so it was interesting to see the models especially the Hogwarts model which was incredible.

Then today, Saturday, I went on a school trip to Brighton! It’s a town right on the coast with a beach, pier, rides, and lots of great shopping.  The ocean was so beautiful and  the pier was fun.  It was cold and windy and it kept switching from sunny to rainy, but that’s typical England weather.  It was sunny most of the time though and we had a nice meal on the pier.

I LOVE PARIS

Over the weekend (3.29-4.1) I went to Paris, France!!!  I never thought I would love Paris as much as I did.  I really don’t like the French language and I just kept hearing people talking about how dirty the city is and how rude people are.  But I had a great time!

However, before heading out, I had a little camera crisis.  I realized my camera battery charger was missing the day before and I just didn’t worry that much thinking I’d find it eventually.  But I started freaking out just a couple hours before leaving realizing it was nowhere to be found and my camera was dying.  So I went to the store and bought a universal charger that the lady said would charge it. Well when I got home and put it in, it didn’t charge.  SO I had to leave for Paris with a dying camera.  LUCKILY my flatmate had an extra digital camera and so she let me use that since she has an amazing professional canon one.  I used hers for most pics, she took pics of me in front of the major sites, and I managed to get about 40 pics from my camera before it finally died.  So I guess it worked out.  Still need to find a charger though.

So on Thursday we met the group at the train station to catch the 5pm train to Paris.  The journey was only a little over 2 hours, and then Paris is an hour ahead so we got there around 8pm.  We took the metro to our hotel and got settled and immediately headed out to get some food at…. wait for it…. MCDONALDS. I know, so American but we were all so hungry, and it was getting late so we just settled for something fast and familiar.  We were panicking for a little in line realizing not everyone spoke English, but we managed.  We just used a lot of hand motions.

The hotel had great breakfast- croissants and assortment of breads. Sooo good!  Each morning we departed around 9am for a packed day.  On Friday we got onto the coach and drove by a bunch of sites like the Arc de Triomphe and just a bunch of amazing buildings that I didn’t know the names of.  Our first stop was in the financial district of France where the Grande Arche is which was a very cool building.  We stopped at a lot of architecture related buildings since this was a “Paris through Architecture” trip.  Another stop we made was to the Palace of Versailles!  It was absolutely beautiful inside and out.  Definitely one of my favorite stops.  This was also where we all had our first crepe.  We were all sooo hungry we booked it through the Palace taking it all in, and then went across the street to get crepes since we were pressed for time.  After that we went to Napoleon’s tomb which used to be a church, but now it is just a hole in the building with his huge tomb in the middle.  It’s still beautiful inside though.  Our last stop was the Eiffel Tower around 5pm!  We climbed the steps to the first floor, then to the 2nd floor.  The view was amazing since it was a PERFECT day.  The weather was 70s and sunny that day.  It could not have been better and we spent a lot of time up there.  We could have paid 5 more euros to take the lift all the way to the top, but we didn’t and I really regret it.  After coming down and looking up to where we were, it didn’t even seem that high!  We walked across the street where we could climb some steps and take some good pics far away from a ledge over looking beautiful fountains and a grass area.  We were soooo exhausted so we headed back to the hotel before meeting other people for dinner.  

The next day we took a walking tour stopping at the Pantheon, Notre Dame, and the Louvre.  The Pantheon was where a lot of famous people were buried in the Crypt including Marie Curie.  I felt like Notre Dame was more beautiful on the outside than the inside.  It was free to get in and apparently there was a mass going on so we walked on the sides and observed.  From Notre Dame we took a boat on the River Seine to the Louvre which was nice and when we entered the Louvre we were so overwhelmed because we had no idea it was so huge!  We went to the food court/shops entrance because we all wanted to eat first.  We had free time from then on and so we went inside the museum area after lunch and of course went to see the Mona Lisa.  Don’t see what the big deal was but whatever.  We looked at other things along the way, and then took the metro to go SHOPPING!  We were recommended to go to the Galeries La Fayette because it is Paris’ greatest department store, and had a beautiful dome and eating area on the top floor with a great view.  I really wanted to buy myself something, but I just didn’t see anything I loved and we really only stayed around the cosmetics and handbag area.  My friend bought 5 Long Champ bags for her and other people.  I kind of wish I bought one but oh well.  There were lines for almost every store so we spent awhile there.  It was also a Saturday so it was madness.  We went to the top floor to relax and look at the view and we ate some delicious gelato.  Our feet were basically about to fall off so we headed back to the hotel.  Shopping fail on my part.  

My mission for that night was to see the Eiffel Tower at night, so after getting frustrated with an overpriced, slow service restaurant, me and Christine left the group we were with and headed to the Eiffel Tower around 9ish.  We got crepes and waited for it to sparkle.  It was sooo magical I could have stayed there all night.  Luckily I got one last pic of the Tower sparkling on my camera before it finally died :(  We then explored a bit and walked to the Arc de Triomphe since we were told the street leading up to it has good bars/lounges.  We stopped at this restaurant/bar and got a couple of mojitos before heading back.  Definitely an exhausting day and that mojito put me right to sleep.  

On Sunday we put our packed bags on the coach and made a few stops before our train at 230.  We went to the top of an Arab Institute which had a great view of Paris, a world famous cemetery, and this beautiful Park, but because of traffic, we didn’t get a chance to walk to the top of this cliff in the middle of the pond.  It was a really pretty park I wish we had more time.  We got to the train station and I got one last croissant and a typical Parisian sandwich- ham and cheese on a baguette.  Sooo yummy.  

Overall it was an amaaaazing trip and I really want to go back one day.  I really liked the people that went on the trip too, and that definitely made the trip really fun.  

Drake Concert at the O2!

Just got back from the Drake concert!!! Decided to post about it now when it’s fresh in my mind (not that I’d ever forget it).

So I’ve literally been listening to Drake’s album “Take Care” since it came out in November.   Every time I listen to it I understand it more and more.  His songs are really deep and it’s based on real people in his life and his life stories.  I know all rappers have deep meanings in their songs and they tell a story, but I feel like Drake really makes the connection to the listener and writes amazing music.

ANYWAYS.  I knew he was coming to London as part of his Club Paradise tour and I remember checking about a month ago, but no tickets were showing up.  I randomly decided to check again last week and I got some results and they were good seats!  I was sitting the first level from the floor on the side and about 11 rows up.  They were perfect.  I was sooo excited and I was also excited to go to the O2 arena and see inside.  It was really easy to get to from where I am just one transfer on the tube- about 30 minutes.  So I get there and I’m not surprised the O2 arena is the world’s greatest venue.  Not only is there an arena, but there’s TONS of bars, restaurants, shops, a movie theatre, and other various rooms/lounges on the outside and surrounding the arena.  It was the most amazing place.  

Drake went on around 9:15 and performed a mixture of his old songs and new songs off his album.  He talked a lot and joked with the crowd and in the middle of the concert he did “shout-outs.”  He did the cliche- I wouldn’t be on this stage if it wasn’t for you so instead of this being about me, this is all for you and I want to thank you- speech.  And so all the lights came up and he looked section by section- left, right, center, and back- and pointed out certain people in the crowd by saying “girl with the pink shirt, in the red dress, in the striped shirt, with the purple hat,” etc.  He did this for awhile making jokes and just really connecting to the crowd.  I thought that was really cool.  

I was hoping Rihanna would make a surprise appearance because I know she just arrived in London, and she sings in one of his songs.  Well she didn’t and I was realllly hoping she would.  But when I got home, I found out she attended the concert!!!  Wish I saw her.

So it was a GREAT concert and I’m so glad I decided to get a ticket.  I love him even more now if that’s possible.

Week 3.19-23

This has been a great week.  I was nervous about getting my mid-term grades back because for most of my classes it was the first graded assignment I had.  Well I got A’s on all of them! I was so happy.

The weather has been absolutely gorgeous every day.  It really puts me in a good mood.  On Wednesday I decided to go see 21 Jump Street in the morning before class because it’s cheaper during the day.  It was HILARIOUS all the way through I loved it.  Then in cinema class we watched The Secret In Their Eyes and it’s an Argentinean film and it sounded familiar to me because I’m pretty sure it won the Oscar for Foreign Language Film a year or 2 ago.  I loved it.. it was soo good.

THEN I decided to look at Drake concert tickets again because I just thought I’d see if there were more tickets available and there was!  I bought one and I am SO excited and the concert is this Tuesday night.  I have been listening to his album non stop since it came out in November and I have not been this excited for a concert in awhile.  It’s at the O2 arena which is such an iconic venue in London.

On Thursday night I went to see the ballet of Romeo and Juliet at the Royal Opera House!  The school had discounted tickets and so I decided to sign up.  Inside was absolutely beautiful.  There was a whole floor with a big fancy bar in the middle with tables where you can have dinner before going in for a show.  The ballet was so beautiful and amazing - I’ve always wanted to see a professional ballet performance.  The dancers were of course extraordinary and since I was so high up, you could see straight down into the orchestra and the music was great all the way through.  The cool thing about this performance is that it was taped and it was being viewed live all over the world in cinemas and theatres!

Today I went on the school trip to Dover Castle.  However, we only spent an hour at Dover Castle because the cafe was closed and we were all starving after the 2 hour ride. So we took a quick one hour tour. The castle was beautiful and it was right on the coast so it was great to see and smell the ocean.  The views were amazing.  We then went to Canterbury to get lunch and spend some time there.  It was such a cute town and it had great shopping and cafes.  It’s most famous for their Canterbury Cathedral and it looked gorgeous on the outside but we couldn’t go in because we did not book ahead of time.  We then went to Dungeoness which was a random town I’m not sure why we went but it was a creepy area with a lighthouse and nuclear power plant.  There were random little abandoned houses and boats on the coast.  After all these stops we headed back to London.

Next weekend- PARIS!