december.

well december has come and gone. so let me give you a quick review of my month. school and my internship have been busy. (did i mention i got an internship about 2 months ago?) we had several days of snow. and let's just say when it comes to snow, london is worse than the south. not even kidding. all it takes is 3" for all the airports, trains, schools, so basically the entire city, to shut down. i think a lot of you across the pond heard about the chaos that ensued with the pre-christmas snow here in london.

D, my youngest brother, came over to celebrate christmas with me in london. he arrived in london just a mere hour before the crazy snow happened in london. soon after his arrival, we headed to the train station to catch our train to liverpool. we so relieved that our train left during the blizzard. the second our train left, we found out the 'football' game were going to liverpool to see that evening was canceled. strike one, uk christmas. it made for a long train ride. upon our arrival in liverpool, there was absolutely no snow. there was some ice on the sidewalks, but nothing to warrant canceling a game. our 3 days in liverpool turned out to be quite long. with the trip getting off to a bad start, we didn't really have much hope of picking up. we hoped the game being rescheduled while we were there, but alas we found out it takes weeks to reschedule games. oh and our tickets couldn't be refunded. strike two, uk christmas. the highlight of our liverpool visit was the beatles story museum. we also saw the cavern club, where the beatles began. otherwise, our visit consisted of walking in the cold, sipping lots of hot chocolate, and lingering in stores to warm up.

this was all we saw of anfield, well that and the gift shop. thanks winter weather.

mathew street, where the original cavern club was located.

replica of the stage at the cavern club in the beatles story museum.

so thrilled to be in liverpool.

we hoped for brighter prospects for the remainder of D's visit. tuesday morning we ventured out to do some christmas shopping and show D the sights of london. first, we ventured to abbey road studios and up to the camden market. next we headed down oxford street with all the crazy shoppers and then to the christmas market in hyde park. that evening we went to see lots of the london landmarks...trafalgar square, big ben, parliament, and westminster. wednesday we had to fully tackle the christmas shopping. it was off to see buckingham palace, oxford street part two, and chinatown.

thursday morning we headed up to kings cross to catch our train to scotland, where we were going to spend christmas snowboarding. due to the previous snow, and the usual christmas travel traffic, chaos ensued. we boarded our train, only to find that we did not have reserved seats and every single seat was filled. our options were to stand in-between two train cars, amongst everyone's luggage for 7 1/2 hours, or to ditch all of our plans and stay in london. we opted for the latter. strike three, uk christmas. and then we still got charged for our hotel. strike four, uk christmas. feeling disheartened after our christmas plans unfolded, it was time for one thing...mcdonalds, the ultimate cure for any upset american. that evening we found a good indian restaurant and had a delicious curry meal.

and then came christmas. no christmas eve is complete without baking. my day began with some homemade chocolate chip cookies with real nestle chocolate chips. the chocolate chips made all the difference. afterwards we went to borough market and walked along to the thames to see the remainder of london's landmarks...globe theater, tate modern, millenium bridge, st. paul's, the tower of london, and the tower bridge. we headed back home to watch it's a wonderful life, our christmas eve tradition. to celebrate christmas, D and i went to our first ever midnight mass at a church near my flat. after putting on our new pair of christmas pajamas, we awoke to our first christmas away from home. needless to say, christmas was slightly anticlimactic. we opened our few presents and began our all-day marathon of movies and how i met your mother. we had a nice christmas dinner thanks to my flatmates.

merry christmas tree in covent garden.

our meager christmas spread.

opening christmas pajamas!

the day after christmas, or boxing day to the uk, proved to be chaotic. D and i had not finished our christmas shopping so we decided to partake in the sales. boxing day also brought a tube strike. during a typical tube strike (which usually happen once a month) all of the lines usually run, but several of the stations are closed. for this particular tube strike, all the lines were closed. we took a bus into the center of the city on a very crowded and tourist filled bus. the next day we decided to venture out of london. we took a day long bus tour that visited bath, stonehenge, and salisbury. bath is famous for it's ancient roman baths, and is where jane austen lived for sometime. she actually wrote pride and prejudice while living in bath. our visit was very short, so we only had time to tour the roman baths. it was very interesting and the town was beautiful. i will definitely be making a trip back to see more of the city and do all the jane austen stuff. we did a quick, and very cold, visit to stonehenge. after, we went to the small town of salisbury to see the cathedral. bath was definitely the highlight of the day. stonehenge was pretty awesome, but there's only so much to do and see with some monolith stones in the middle of field in the cold english winter.

roman baths. that water is 1500 years old.

stonehenge.

salisbury.

the last few days of D's visit were spent finishing up seasons one and two of how i met your mother, briefly visiting the british museum, eating curry, and watching 'football'. it was good to have a familiar face in town. all in all, i learned the hard way that the holidays are best spent at home. it was especially disappointing when greenville had it's first white christmas in my lifetime and i missed it. i also learned never to plan to travel in uk over christmas. it's too depressing to total up how much money we lost due to our thwarted travel plans. i can only hope that 2011 holds better weather and more successful traveling for me and any visitors!

goodbye 2010, hello 2011!

the first snow.

as you can tell by the title, it snowed here today. i woke up early to a little dusting on the ground. my walk to the tube was a wet snow/rain. around 9 it really started to snow. however, it was that mushy wet snow and the lack of proper footwear made for a miserable time walking to various galleries, etc. today. during my lunch break, M, an italian girl in my program, (who was also ill-equipped for the weather) and i broke down and bought our first pair of rainboots. something tells me i will be getting my money's worth for those boots! the rest of the afternoon and into this evening it's been snowing quite hard. i just looked out my window and there is probably one or two inches of snow on the ground now. i think it's still coming down. the evening standard today says it's going to be a nasty winter. i can't wait to see what december, january, and february have in store!

the view from my window.

the backyard.

outside my flat.

my street.

happy thanksgiving!

today marks the first time i've really been away from home for thanksgiving. i was studying abroad in 2007, but i was with americans, and we had a banging thanksgiving feast. it wasn't quite the real thing, but pretty darn close. ok back to thanksgiving 2k10, today was just like any other day. i had to go to my internship, work until 7, blah blah. no macy's thanksgiving day parade, or being lazy all day, or spending half the day in the kitchen, before stuffing my face and taking a nap. D and i managed to find a restaurant, the breakfast club, that was serving an american thanksgiving meal. it was pretty traditional, ok well there were lots of things i never eat on thanksgiving, but it's the thought that counts, right? the meal started with fried feta and cranberries. the main course consisted of turkey, mashed potatoes, a few sweet potatoes and roasted potatoes, and then a bunch of stuff i didn't eat. for dessert, there was no pumpkin pie, but a pumpkin cheese cake. it was pretty good. all in all a successful day, but nothing to write home about. the highlight of my day was when i returned home and the front door was decorated for me!

see, mom and dad, i am in london!

the feta and cranberries.

see, lots of questionable items.

the door to my flat!

hope all of you back in the states had a wonderful turkey day!

remember, remember, the fifth of november.

so it's guy fawkes day or bonfire night here in the uk. basically, in 1605 guy fawkes tried to blow up the parliament building and kill king james the first. well, he failed and to commemorate the british now hold bonfire night. there are several big fireworks shows around the city. and lots of fireworks going off everywhere else. think 4th of july in the states. currently, i can see some of the fireworks, from the show at clapham common, from my window. due to the cold, rainy weather, and a traumatizing crowded tube experience, i opted out of venturing to the common. it's pleasant enough to hear and see some of the show from the comfort of my room.

happy fall y'all.

happy halloween from across the pond!!! (or the same side of the pond, depending where my readers are.) halloween here definitely isn't celebrated to the same level as it is at home, sweet home. with that being said, last night D and i manage to round up a group of north americans to celebrate one of the great fall holidays. i was surprised that there were quite a large number of people dressed up and out and about last night to celebrate. we found a bar that had a 'fancy dress' night. (yes, over here it isn't called a costume party, it's referred to as a fancy dress party.) the whole pumpkin carving, pumpkin flavored treats, halloween decorations, insane amounts of halloween candy, and trick-or-treating haven't quite caught on over here, but the dressing up has. while in the states, many people try to come up with more clever costumes, over here most of the costumes tend to be along the more traditional blood and gore, zombie, witches costumes, etc. i also watched hocus pocus to get into the holiday spirit. halloween wouldn't have been complete without listening to a few cult classics including 'the monster mash', 'i put a spell on you', and of course 'thriller'. sadly, this year i didn't have a pumpkin to carve. but, thank you to all of the wonderful people who sent me cards and candy to put me in the halloween spirit! my window sill has been quite festive the past week or two. see?

my window sill and the view from my room.

along with halloween came the annual 'fall back'. gaining an hour is always a nice feeling, but i'm not sure that i'm ready for everything that goes along with it. rumor has it that it gets dark here around 4 pm...so that should be interesting. in honor of apple season, and to satiate my cravings, i baked an apple pie. and i've been talking about this for weeks! last week i bought some fresh fall apples at the borough market. i bought a prepared crust from the store. it's not the best though. i'll have to do some shopping around next time. homemade crust is always the best. i don't think i'm brave enough to attempt it here though. i am definitely missing the kitchen aid mixer at home! i baked cookies a few weeks back. i forgot how long it takes to mix cookies by hand. ah, the luxuries of home!

before.

after. happy halloween!!!

oh yes, i finally got a replacement battery for my camera. there will be more pictures coming soon!

oxford.

today, i escaped from london for the day with C and C, two new canadian friends! we took a bus to oxford and spent the day touring the old universities and the small little college town. the bus took about 45- 1 hour to get there. it was nice to see rolling hills covered in the yellow, orange, and red leaves of fall. after the bus ride, our first stop was christ church college and cathedral. the harry potter dining hall was modeled after the dining hall of this school. and hogwarts in took some inspiration from the place as well. it was very pretty, but we didn't see very many students, which i was somewhat surprised by. we wandered around the town. saw lots of pretty old, gothic inspired buildings and churches. for lunch, we found an old, typical english tavern, tucked away in a little alley. after lunch, we briefly visited the natural history museum. after a quick lap around the city again, we caught the bus back to london. the bus ride home was less than enjoyable. it took forever (over 2 hours), and it was packed. i also suffer from motion sickness and sitting on the top of a stop-n-go double decker probably wasn't a good choice. i'll spare you the details, but suffice to say i've never been so happy to get off a bus!

anyways, here's a few pictures for your viewing pleasure!

inside christ church

stairwell up to the dining hall, so harry potter.

inside the dining hall. the enchanted ceiling is way better.

the alley to the tavern.

fall in oxford!

british-isms

so tonight i had my first major american-british language mishap. K and i (both greenville natives) set off in search of mexican food, which is hard to come by here. not only is it hard to come by, but it's not corona's prices either. in a moment of not thinking, we ordered a side of chips. obviously, we have to take it in stride that an endless basket of chips and salsa isn't immediately brought to our table upon our arrival. that aside, you can only imagine the disappointment that spread across our faces when a basket of fries was brought to our table. rather than fill up on chips and salsa before my enchilada, we downed some ketchup and fries. not the same effect. next time i know to specify for tortilla chips. don't try this at home kids, stick with the usual chips and salsa. and eat a few extra for me!

...but if i get a real hankering for tex-mex there's a (drumroll, please) CHIPOTLE in london!!! you have no idea how excited that makes me!