Weekday afternoon- Downtown London

sure isn't Chesham !!!!!

Coach Trip pt. Tres- STONEHENGE

The last part of our coach trip was STONEHENGE! It was super cool and we got to see it as the sun was setting. Most of the time there is a huge cord ring around the stones about 10 feet away. On our tour we actually got to bypass the cord and go right up to the stones. They asked us not to touch them though. The history of Stonehenge is pretty interesting, but I guess lack thereof is more accurate. The fact is that nobody really knows why the stones are there, how long they have been there, or where they really came from. Aliens?? They are just really big and really heavy and really old. Unless you are a druid and the solstice days are religious holidays for you, you don’t usually get to get as close to the stones as we did. There is also this security gate and an underground tunnel that you have to pay to go through to even get on the other side of the highway to see Stonehenge up close. A security guard is posted 24 hours a day right at the rocks to make sure nobody does… well I’m not really sure what people would do if they could, vandalize, bonfires,BBQ’s??, I don’t know but there is a guard there none the less to keep them from doing it. All in all it was a wonderful day and we had a great time.

Greatest weekend Ever!!

I had the most wonderful weekend. 85 degrees, sunshine and just happiness. I don't know if its because I've never really had the luxury of doing whatever I wanted, for as long as I wanted, whenever I wanted, but I haven't really every been a big hang out outside type person. If I was playing softball or camping or something it was okay, but I loved being outside this weekend. I spent tons of time just laying on a blanket in the park down the street from the house or hanging out by the river in Town. Everyone else had the same idea and its like life just slows down. Every place there was grass or shade people were hanging out, napping, and having picnics with wine. (yeah you can drink in the open here.) The yard in front of Westminster Abbey, parks, the water front and everywhere with a bench or shade was full of people, including me, just hanging out. I loved it, it was so peaceful and wonderful and all the ducks had babies running around it was awesome! Here are some happy pictures.

1. Westminster Abbey.
2. Parliament
3. Weird ducks and the babies in St. James Park.
4. More ducks in St. James Park
5. View from my blanket in the park.
6. Babies in the Chesham Park.

Coach Trip pt. Dos- Oxford University

After Windsor we headed to Oxford to visit the university. Unfortunately we didn’t spend a whole lot of time there or get to go on much of a tour inside. From the outside it is huge, amazing, and do my dismay only costs about 15,000 GBP to attend. That’s 15,000 GBP or $21,600 for all 4 years not just one. The school itself apparently is the 3rd oldest surviving school in the world and has been around since 1167. When we got there Oxford had just won the annual rowing, yes rowing, competition with Cambridge and there was all this chalk graffiti on the dorms about it. The tour guide said it was there thing to write accomplishments on the dorm walls. I love books and was really disappointed about not being able to go into one of the oldest Libraries, libraries that were opened in the 1600’s and has over 8 million books. I know it’s sort of lame, but one of the coolest things was I got to see the Harry Potter Stairs; the ones where all the kids show up on their first day. The huge HP dining room is also supposed to be based on the dining room at Oxford, but it was just one more thing we didn’t get to see. Bummer. Here is what we did see …

1. The stairs.
2. The ceiling above. Really pretty.
3. Court yard of the Christ Church College
4. Radcliffe Camera. Holds the English, History, and Theology collections of the University’s Bodleian Library.
5. Graffiti wall of the dorms.

Random Thoughts...

Is it just me or do the police over here look ridiculous??



They don't even cary guns!

Epic'est of Fails

SO YESTERDAY I SAW THE FREAKIN QUEEN OF ENGLAND!!!!

...This is the picture I got...



I got off of the Tube thinking I would tour Westminster Abbey, saw a bunch of people lined up, asked, and found out the Queen would be coming out soon in her car. So I waited for 45 min, played with my camera and called my sister. Finally out comes THE QUEEN and I had zoomed in to close. If I had pushed the button a split second later or just slightly zoomed out she would have been in the picture! She is literally just behind where my picture stops to the left. Saddest part… my camera and cell phone both have video. I could have just taped the whole thing. RETARDED.

Coach Trip pt. UNO- Windsor Caslte

Amber and I went on our own little version of Coach Trip not too long ago. Unfortunately we didn’t get to kick people off at the end of every stop, but we had a fun time pretending that we could. It was a really,really,really long day that started with an 1.5 hour train ride into the city, a 9 hour tour including 1 hour detour back to London, and another 1.5 hour train ride back into Chesham. We saw Windsor Castle, went to Oxford University, and ended the day at Stonehenge. Pretty. Amazing. Stuff.

Windsor Castle- This was the first part of our tour. Imagine driving down the freeway on your way to Salem from Portland. Not a big deal, right? Then imagine as Salem comes into view … a Big ass Castle, where the Queen of your country lives, right in the middle of the city. That is pretty much Windsor and the initial view was pretty incredible. Windsor Castle is where the Queen apparently spends most of her time. The Castle is like 900 yrs old and has been the home of William the Conqueror, Henry VII, and Queen Elizabeth I,just to name a famous few. I know most of you who aren’t History Obsessed Nerd Freaks like I am and this may not be as mind numbingly exciting as it was for me, but I felt like a kid in a candy store.

My favorite part was St. Georges Chapel. It was so beautiful and contained so much history that I almost peed my pants, lol. It took everything for Amber to pull me out of there and make me look at other stuff. Including being the Queens private Chapel, it is also the home to the bodies of Henry VIII, one of his wives Jane Seymour, the current Queens parents, and Napoleon’s son!

Inside the Castle was almost as Amazing. It is so hard to imagine being Prince William or Harry. Getting to play in these halls and grow up around this Castle so full of history and know that it would someday be yours. CRAZY. When you first walk in there is this masive grand staircase with a statue of a hourse with and armored rider. The walls are covered in swords and other weapons and are lined with statues also in full metal armor. The craptastic part of this tour was that we couldn’t take pictures inside of any of the buildings so I have hyperlinked some of the words to the web so you can kinda see what we saw.

1. St. Georges Chapel on the Left, Castle on the right. This is all inside the castle walls.
2. View of inner court yard
3. Back in the day when armies tried to invade the Castle this is where the guards would stand and shoot arrows.
4. Same as 3
5. This is a picture of the mote around the big round column of the castle. They turned it into a really nice garden.
6. Same as 5
7. One of the inside state rooms of Windsor (not my pic). I suggest googling Images of the inside. Pretty neat.
8. Changing of the Guard. This Castle has guards like Buckingham. Apparently they are all actual military servicemen many who have seen combat.
9. A view from outside the Castle wall. The city of Windsor.
10. Same as 9

Soaps are Forever

One thing that I thought I was going to love when I got here was British TV. I love period films from old British literature; I love the dry sense of humor and the quick wit, and of course love the accent. British TV is shit!!! Seriously. Amber and Billy have basic cable, which is fine, but the normal programming is so bad. They don’t really have sitcoms, but every day they play about 6 episodes of Friends, 6 episodes of Scrubs, and they throw in a couple Gilmore Girls for good measure, Never Fails.

They also don’t have a lot of scripted drama. What they do have and love are the Soaps!!! The Soaps come on at night however, three times a week and are insanely popular. Like the American ones they have been on for tons of years, but the stranger thing is they have a different one for every region of the country. Like Eastenders is the one tailored to the London folks and Amber’s favorite Coronation Street tells stories tailored to people living in the Manchester area.

The rest of the programming is made up of American shows, Glee, Grey’s, Vampire Diaries, American Idol, the new 90210, Gossip Girl, etc… documentaries, talk shows, old people solving mysteries and the British version of Reality Shows. They have shows where people look for houses, remodel homes, Super Nanny, have dinner party competitions for money, and go on Bus Tours with friends/family in which the group votes a couple off at the end of each day. The Bus Tour show is Called Coach Trip and is like a traveling Survivor.

The talk shows are strange to. They call the hosts of any show a TV Presenter. The TV Presenters on various shows sit around with a panel of comics and celebs and talk about everything from pop culture to politics depending on the show. Some are kind of interesting. I have yet to see the old British sitcoms that I loved to watch in America.

Anyway I thought I’d share a slice of UK TV life and show you some clips. All the clips are from youtube so if you’re at work ladies, sorry you will have to wait til you get home
1.Come dine with me
2. Mock the week
3&4. Eastenders
5&6. Coronation Street

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Street where the Riches of Ages are Stowed...

I don’t know how many of you are familiar with the magical spectacular that is Walt Disney’s 1971 classic Bedknobs and Broomsticks staring Angela Lansbury. Before Dumbledor and better than Mary-feakin- Poppins was the baddest-ass witch/nanny of them all Miss Price. Okay, she actually sort of sucks at magic, but she is still the coolest. This is one of my all time favorite movies and there is a scene where the magic bed which serves and part magic carpet part time machine brings the family to a street market on Portabello Road. As this is a cartoon/musical dancing, singing and general merriment ensues in a 1940’s version of Saturday Market. I love this part of the movie and 3 years ago when I first came to London realized that The Portabello Road Market was actually a real place. I practically flipped my …stuff… I was so excited, but because our time here was so short I missed out on seeing it.

This was the first place I visited this time aground and it is one of my favorite places in the city. It’s not quite as magical as I thought it would be, but there is so much to see, smell and enjoy. I am continually amazed at how old everything is. To go through a marked that has been in existence since the 1800’s is really cool. So for those of you who also love this movie or at least know what I’m talking about this should be interesting and for those of you who don’t, enjoy my pictures of Notting Hill’s version of Saturday Market.

I know this is a long one but the pictures are of…
1.Street sign 2. These are what so many of the houses look like. All built side by side. How much you say?? These go for around 1-1.5 million pounds, Insanity!!!
3. This is Alice’s an awesome antiques shop. 4. People shopping. 5. I love the book cart, just like the movie with some books over 100 yrs old. Hard to not get ripped off though. I know nothing about old books. 6 & 7. A couple of really cool stores. 8. This VW bug turned food cart pic is for you Angie. 9. End of the Road.

and the WORST BLOGGER AWARD goes to...

OKAY… So I am the self proclaimed shittiest “Blogger” ever. Somewhere around my 27th birthday I think I had a mini meltdown and spent a couple of weeks in my feelings, being homesick, getting behind on homework, and completely ignoring all social networking sites, my email and what has turned out to be a pretty lame ass blog… I’m not really sure what happened, but you would think I wouldn’t spend my time, in one of the most amazing cities in the world having a pity party. Well what’s done is done and now I will attempt to make up for lost time. I have seen some pretty neat things and have become a inner-city, underground train riding, map reading expert, if I do say so myself. So following will be a series of post of things I have already done and failed to report on.

P.S. To anyone who tried to contact me before… SORRY!

Happy Day After Easter!!

So… I finally made it!! After leaving Portland at 6 a.m. Monday I arrived in London Heathrow Airport at 7:45 Tuesday morning. Unfortunately my bum luck sort of followed me. I arrived at PDX at 5:10 and barely made my flight, had to pay $200 for my extra luggage, and was grilled by a “lovely” lady from UK customs for about half an hour after an 8 ½ hour flight. She didn’t believe that I was actually here to visit my sister or would go home on time and for some reason couldn’t understand that I didn’t leave school but was just enrolled online. She actually threatened to check my luggage for “documents” and told me if she found anything I would not be allowed into the UK and would not be able to come back. Because of missing my original flight I didn’t have my new itinerary or a return ticket to prove when I was leaving. DAMN!

On the upside I have spent the last week sleeping, relaxing , taking long walks around the most adorable town ever, watching movies with my family and making home cooked meals. Its been pretty amazing . Chesham, the town where Amber and Billy live is BEAUTIFUL. Cobble stone streets, a little market square (that we live in the middle of), a great park, and walks through the country side minutes away. Its pretty cool to be in a place where there are churches that are hundreds of years old right next door. Here are some of the pictures from a walk we took the other day.

Starting at the bottom is a couple of pictures of the town square, then some really cute buildings and pubs.(There is a special pub photo in there for some of you. You know who you are!)The all white building is where amber and billy live in a flat on top. The Others are of the country side that is just a 15 min walk from where we are and the really old church just up the street. The last few are views from a beautiful hillside park with very large, possibly aggressive swans.