more old stuff from my journal that i’m posting now since I never got a chance to:

1/15: Today we had class from 10-1, which was long and drawn out.  We presented our London Secrets project, and I really think my group did a great job.  We made a graphic novel with real pictures.  After class, Becca, Chalyn and I grabbed sandwiches and took the tube to Camden Town, which was awesome. Everyone working there was gothic, it was very odd. pLus all the stuff the store sold was really different and alot of gothic clothing/stores (kinda weird).  There were tons of flea markets and outdoor places where you could haggle. it reminds me of chinatown but way cooler.  I got a really cute black and white tote bag w/pictures of dogs on it and a really warm sweater jacket.  We also went to Camden Lock which was cool and we got noodles for a pound from this creepy little outdoor chinese place.  Though it was an odd part of town, it was really fun, minus the 500 homeless people that were out on the street and my encounter with this drug addict 14 year old homeless girl who was begging us for money and wouldn’t stop.  After we got back, we showered/changed and then navigated our way to Southwark to the Old Vic theatre to see Taming of the Shrew, which was a great play but i accidentily fell asleep during it for like 5 mins and when i woke up there was a guy in a thong on the stage. I wish i’d read the play in my Shakespeare class before seeing it, because it is really hard to understand a lot of what they’re saying.  Later on that night we went up to Zeal and Daves flat and watched Man on the Moon and did hw.  I feel incredibly disconnected for home even though it’s only been a week and a half and I’m almost dreading going back and having to live in reality again. It makes me realize how im in my own little dream world here, especially when i go online to facebook or read emails and realize the world is still going on at home.  It’s funny how when you’re in another country you feel so far away, even though you still have internet/phones/etc.  It was definitely great not having a cell phone or a laptop on me though, because it made me really feel less connected to america and more free.

1/16: Went on a tour of the National Theatre at 12.  We got to see Fiona Shaw (Aunt Petunia from Harry Potter) rehearsing for her new 1 person play- “Happy Days”, where she’s stuck in this giant sand dune.  After the theatre tour, Becca and I went to London Dungeon which was way too overpriced and not nearly as scary as i expected it to be.  It’s basically a huge haunted house tourist trap, but it looked so cool we couldnt refuse it.  The only scary part was this boat ride they take you on where there’s an unexpected drop backwards and you get wet and stuff.  We met these 2 guys from California there and went to a pub afterwards w/ them and got their contact info so we could meet up with them that night.  It was nice talking to some americans for a change.  After the pub, we went back, changed and then saw Seafarer at the National Theatre, which was a great play–reminded me of Dr. Faustus. We got delicious ice cream during the intermission as always. That’s my favorite part about the theatre here, sadly…the ice cream at the intermission.  After that, we went to Leicester Square to go to this nightclub called The Zoo, because it was student discount night there.  We met up with the 2 Californians, plus Adam and stayed out pretty late.  Took the nightbus back and hung out in the flat for awhile.  The only bad thing is I can feel myself getting sick and that’s the last thing i want to happen here.

1/17: Skipped class this morning because I felt horrible and couldn’t even get up.  I have a terrible cold and cough, plus my neck feels sore and I felt nauseous this morning.  It’s really worrying me bc going on a plane when you feel sick is the worst, so hopefully I’m better by then.  After the girls got back from class, i forced myself up and got some food from our Snack Bar.   After that came back and took a nap with Jenna in hopes of making myself feel better.  Did nothing all day- then at night we went to see my favorite play, “All Wear Bowlers” at the Barbican, about 2 silent film stars who literally fall out of the tv and do all these funny things before finding their way back.  After the play there was a group talk with the 2 actors who wrote the play, they were actually americans and one of them even went to Vassar!  After that we went home and I packed all my stuff since we were leaving the next day and the bus was coming at 10am to Burton. I am not happy about leaving at all especially since the weather is not good at all in NY and it’s supposed to be snowing upon our arrival!

Thurs the last day 1/18: Here i am on the bus driving to Heathrow.  Checking out of our flat was the most depressing thing ever. I’m going to miss this place and these girls so much. We’ve gotten so close on this trip and I really felt at home in our apartment. It’s sad knowing that even if i come back to London, I can never come back to the flat again or live there again.  It’s raining pretty hard here, but I know the weather will be even worse in NY.  I tried to get everyones screen names and contact info so we could all have some sorta reunion once we were all back at NP.  I’m going to miss London so much, I feel like it’s my home here. I know my way around perfectly now and I just love the area.  I still feel really sick, my head feels detached from my body and I’m pretty worried getting on a plane like that because my ears always hurt anyway, and im sure it’ll be extra bad now that i’m all congested.  I guess it’s good that the trip ends now since i’m just getting sicker, but i’d rather be sick in London than sick in ny!  Cheers for the last time,

Lauren

ps: adam owes me 40 american dollars! :p

The plane was delayed a half hour so we were on it for 9 1/2 hours! My ears hurt so much during landing that I wanted to cry, but it was well worth it Oh and Heathrow airport felt so much safer than Newark- they even frisked me! It was so windy though at the gate that the tunnel we had to walk through was actually shaking. We’re lucky we flew out that day, because the next day there was a horrible windstorm in London- so bad that parts of buses were flying away and trees were falling down.

This is the end of my blog, but it won’t be the end of my travels. I am going to Italy in November and I plan on visiting a bunch of other countries after that. This trip really inspired me to want to travel much more. I had an amazing time and it was definitely worth it.

I’m going to write posts based on my journal entries from when I was in London since I never got a chance to when I was still there and I have a huge journal saved for this specific reason.

1/12/07:  Right now I’m on the Thameslink line train from Kings Cross Station (where Harry Potter was filmed).  We seem to be traveling through a more suburban area of London.  The train reminds me of a nicer version of the LIRR, but the view out of the window is much nicer.  Right now there are sheep grazing and green rolling hills.  So beautiful.  We are headed to the St. Albans Museum and the Verulamium Museum (both in St. Albans).  Will update later.

1/13/07: Today we slept in and got breakfast at our beloved Snack Bar down Marchmont Rd.  I go ta chicken sandwich which (sadly) tasted just like the ones from Stacks Deli in NP.  Poor Jenna’s debit card isnt working and she can’t get in touch with the credit card company, so she’s basically mooching off of me for awhile, which is fine.  After lunch, Becca, Chalyn and I went to Knightsbridge to check out Harrods, which was a huge let down and wayyy too expensive.  I actually did buy a Gaurd Bear stuffed animal though, so I can have some sorta souvenoir from London.  We also saw a really cool protest on the way out, a bunch of people with pink hair were protesting the fact that Harrod’s is the only department store in the UK to use real fur.  Made me feel guilty giving them my business but oh well.   Anyway, we came back to the apartment after that, ordered the best italian food ever and then Dave & Zeal came down and we watched Harry Potter on tv.  Tomorrow we wake up at 8am for stonhenge and bath trip. Oh and btw, the trip to St Albans was cool, but the museums were boring.  The Verulamium was cool though because it had real skeletons of Romans in it.  The place we ate lunch at was cool too because it was the oldest pub in the area and had great food.  We also walked through this awesome park with these exotic ducks, plus there were big white geese that we have at NP there and they chased us as well. We went to the St. Albans Cathedral which was beautiful and saw the oldest clock tower that’s still standing.  The town was actually really cute, plus we got to walk through this huge lawn where this woman was training a border collie and it was the smartest dog i’ve seen in my life.

At night we went to Covent Garden to hang out, and wound up in this really crowded pub talking to a bunch of english people and some people from Wales.  After that we just headed back to the flat, hung out with Adam and Zeal and went to sleep.

1/14/06: We took a coach bus to Stonehenge and then to Bath. Stonehenge= slight waste of money. It was cool to actually see it, but all it is is a bunch of rocks. Yeah it’s cool and all but not exactly what i expected. It’s also way smaller in person than on post cards and tv!  The best part of the day was Bath (it was my favorite part of the entire trip).  The views out the window on the ride from Stonehenge to Bath were breathtaking. We even saw a rainbow on the drive home! There are sheep and horses and cows everywhere and the countryside has rolling hills and farms and everything I was hoping to see. It was amazing and made me realize i have to come back to England at some point and explore much more than just London.  In Bath, we went to the Roman Baths museum which was really good and we even touched the water, which was really warm.  After that we stood and watched a street performer for 20 mins, then went for lunch at a Baguette place called “Cornish Pasties”, which was delish.  We walked around and shopped in the boutiques and stores and took some cool pictures until it was time to meet back at the bus.  Driving into the town itself was just amazing, the way the houses are all set up on these giant hills and on mountains is awesome.  It really felt like we were actually in Europe for the first time when we were here, because London is just really reminiscint of NYC, but once you see the countryside, it’s just gorgeous.  We also made new friends with a bunch of art kids (Trisha, Kady, Alicia, the other Laurens, etc).  It was a great trip and overall my favorite day out of the 2 weeks. Once we got home, we were exhausted..ordered pizza from pizza hut with the boys upstairs, watched final destination 2 and just hung around.

Hey all. Right now I’m at a ridiculously expensive internet cafe in Southwark waiting to see the play The Enchanted Pig at the Young Vic theatre.  We’ve done so many things this past week and I’m sorry I haven’t had a free moment to even go on the internet, plus places close super early here.  I’ll write what we did each day:

Sunday: We went to see Big Ben, Parliament, the London Eye, Westminster Abbey.  We walked through the cloisters at the abbey, and took tons of pictures.  I had the best hot dog of my entire life from a street vendor.  Then we took the tube to Tower Hill, and took a guided tour of the Tower of London, which was amazing.  We saw the Tower Bridge, which is my favorite thing so far and also saw the ice skatin rink by the tower of London.  We got to see the crown jewels there and also the ravens that stay on the grass there.

Monday: Had our first theatre class which was interesting and then our first play- Mary Poppins at the Prince Edward theatre. It was amazing but much bleaker than the movie.  After that we met up with some of the art students from Burton (Dave, Adam, Zeil) and went to Moonlighters- a club right on Greek Street in Soho.  We stayed there for awhile and then took the bus back for the first time. It met at Trafalgar Square which is beautiful with huge statues. I want to go back there during the day and ride the lion statues!  We sat on the top of the double decker bus which was really cool. Oh and in class we got our London Secrets group which is going to be our joint project with the art students.  I have Margot, Casey, and Jackie in my group and we’re going to do a photo collage.  Our London secret was that our person hated their hairdryer not working and thought that the stairs leading to the tube were like entering the depths of hell.  I don’t know…we’re going to work something out with it.

Tues: Today we had our group meeting for London secrets at 10 am in Burton.  We figured out a plan of what we’re going to do.   After that my flatmate Michelle’s friend from London (James) came to visit us, so we went to 2 pubs w/him.  I find it amazing how you can walk into a pub at 11 am and there’s tons of people packed in there drinking pints.  After that we got fish and chips again at a snackbar and walked around by the British museum alittle.  Later on, we met up with James again and saw the London eye at night.  We walked along the south bank which is beautiful at night and all lit up.  We got good picture of St. Pauls.  Then we went to the National Theatre to see Therese Raquin which was an absolutely amazing play.  I loved it, it was very intense though.  It’s great because they sell tiny things of ice cream during the intermission and it’s delicious!  We went back to the flat after and caught up with some homework.

Wednesday: Class 10-1, got lunch in a cute cafe, went to Leicester Square to get discounted tickets for Rocky Horror Show, got AMAZINg seats for only 25 pounds, then Chalyn, Becca and I went to the Clink Prison Museum on the South Bank.  It was really cool and had a good student discount.  we also saw the Millenium Bridge and the globe theatre. Later on we saw Rocky Horror show and it was so much fun, everyone was dressed up and dancing. 

Thurs (today): we went to breakfast at a little place near our flat, then went to meet up with the group at the Globe theatre for our backstage tour and workshop.  It was amazing and much smaller than I thought it would be.  We even got to stand on the stage!  Then we went to the Tate Modern which is right next door, went down the huge slides, and walked over to this cute little italian restaurant and got dinner.  Now we’re next door to the Young Vic and about to go see the Enchanted Pig which is a pantomime sort of reminiscint of Beauty and the Beast.  They’re waiting for me so I better go!#

Cheers!

-Lauren   

Hey everyone! I’m officially in London! Right now I am in an internet cafe near Leicester Square and I have to type fast because I am only paid for a 1/2 hr.  The trip so far has been fun, though it’s only the 2nd day.  The flight was completely fine and went much faster than I expected.  We arrived around 9:30 am and went on a coach bus to our flat.  We are flat 32 Burton St near Russel Square.  Chalyn is my roommate, and my other flatmates are Jenna, Michelle and Becca.  We’ve been doing everything together so far.  After we unpacked alittle, we went wandering around outside trying to find a place for dinner.  We met up with this kid Dave and got Indian food for dinner.  Then we hurried to the FSU where we had our orientation.  It was extremely hard to find.  After orientation we went grocery shopping.  The flat is huge and has a kitchen, so we can cook some meals for ourselves.  We went back to the flat after since we were exhausted and jetlagged, had a glass of wine and all talked, then went to sleep.  Tonight we plan on going to a few pubs and hopefully meeting up with some other New Paltzers.

 Today we woke up late by accident, and hopped on the Tube (which is pretty much just a replica of the subway but alittle easier to understand) and attempted to go to Camden Town for Market, however, the NOrthern Line wasnt running from Leicester SQ and we got confused so we just went to Leicester Sq instead.  We saw this adorable little carnival and walked through the square.  We also walked through Chinatown and Soho.  We ate dinner (fish and chips and a pint!) at this adorable pub called Lions Den in soho.  Now we’re in here for 1/2 hr and then we plan on taking the tube or walking to Covent Garden before it gets dark.  I’m really having a great time so far and am so glad that I came on this trip.  I love London, even though the outlets are horribly confusing and we think Jenna’s hair straightener exploded.  Everyone here is really nice and helpful though.  The only scary thing are some of the cockneye men on the street grab your arm and scream ALLO! at you.  It’s kinda funny after awhile though. It seems safer here than in NYC though.

Anyway, I will update when I find another internet cafe though they seem to be in abundance here.  HOpefully i’ll develop an accent by then )

CHeers!!

-Lauren

Hi everyone!  I finally figured out how to use this blog.  I am currently at home on Long Island anxiously awaiting my trip to London.  It is fun being back at home, seeing my family, dogs and friends; but I am anticipating London.  I am in the process of packing and making sure I have all of the important things, like my passport/plane tickets/etc.  I really have no idea what to expect, since I’ve never been out of America before, but I know it will be an amazing experience!  I am relieved because I know who my roommate will be.  Her name is Chalyn and she was a Student Ambassador with me last semester.  We chose to room together since a lot of the students on the trip are all Theater majors and already know each other.  I know which flat I will be in already–32 Burton Street Flat 2! We are staying in apartments at a college instead of hotels because it’s much cheaper that way.  It’s also better because it comes with a kitchen and laundry facilities.  I also know 2 of the girls that will be in my flat- Michelle and Jenna (they are actually my neighbors in Bouton- my dorm on campus in New Paltz).  The study abroad orientation was really informative and just made me look forward to the trip even more.  I also met Anita Gonzalez– our theater seminar professor.  We received the syllabus for the class and it seems like we’re going to be extremely busy, but having a lot of fun. 

I really think this trip will be the best I’ve taken so far in my life.  I am going there with high expectations.  My only fear is that since I don’t know ANYTHING about theater, I might not be able to enjoy the plays or seminars as much as the theater students will, and maybe it will be harder for me to write about the plays since I don’t know anything about acting style/technique/stage design, etc.  However, I think this will be a good learning experience for me and will educate me more and maybe I’ll become more interested in it after this trip. 

That is really all I have to say for now.  I will make sure to update often once I am actually in London!  I hope everyone has a great winter break, happy holidays and a fun new year.  Feel free to leave comments! See you in 2007