Friday, April 29, 2011

Burnt Toast

Well it is now 4:21am and yes I am awake!  Why might you ask?  Well after I finally took forver to go to sleep 2 hours ago I was awakened to a loud alarm.  The fire alarm.  I grabbed shoes and a jacket and headed to the door with my roommates meeting up with others in our flat in the hall.  As we walked outside and into the street, we were told to come back because it was only burnt toast!  Who is making toast at 4 in the morning!  Anyways now I get to try to sleep again for another few hours when I will be awakened by my own alarm.  Yay!!

The Time has FINALLY come: THE ROYAL WEDDING


 Finally 10am came around and things began to happen!  Bands kept marching around playing songs, which kept us entertained for awhile.
 There were guards and police everywhere!  Even snipers on top of Buckingham Palace, but there were also cameras and reporters everywhere as well.
 I tried to take a picture of Camin and me with the marching band but forgot it was zoomed in.  A commom mistake especially functioning on no sleep.
 The security guard told us we could have the best view by standing on the mound of flowers.  We decided we had better sit there to ensure we had a good standing spot when the Queen and everyone would leave for the wedding.
 I think that the Queen was in the Range Rover.  I hear that is what the Royal Family drives in.  There were three cars before that.  Don't worry I took a picture of every car to make sure that I got the one she was in.  You just can't be too careful with an event like this.  I cannot believe how close we were.  I am so glad my friend Carly got us all here and found us a spot.  Without her we would not have been here with such great spots!  After the Queen drove by other members of the wedding party left too. 
 The bridesmaids drove by and the cute little flower girls in their car.  It was so cute to see them, this is when I learned my camera has a great zoom!
 We got to listen to the ceremony over loud speakers.  It was so nice and lovely.  The sun started to come out and warm us up.  It was so nice to just lay there and listen to the wedding ceremony.  When it ended we quickly resumed our position to wait for them to drive back in the carriage.
 I took a picture of them driving by from my video I got of them!  I kinda messed up in my video because it was hard to avoid cameras and flags, and to try and video tape while watching in real life. 
 But I did get a pretty good shot of them.  They rode by a little fast I thought so I was glad I videotaped it.  I also got a video of the queen driving by and a little bit of the huge marching band.  it was all just so Amazing!  i can't believe I was able to be there.  After the Queen and everyone was in the Palace the police opened the gates and the street in front of Buckingham Palace was flooded with people. 
 This is only one section of the people in front of the palace there were tons of people everywhere!!  We decided it was best to stay in our spot since we had a good view of the balcony were William and KAte would have their traditional first kiss after being married.
William and Kate came out on the balcony followed by everyone else and waved an dhad their first kiss as a married couple.  They looked so happy and amazing!  Kates dress is so beautiful!  I actually didn't see their first kiss but everyone started chanting for him to kiss her again so I saw the second one.  Then airplanes flew overhead as we decided it was time that we rush out of there and try to beat some of the crowd.  We thought it would take us hours to get home because of all the people probably getting on the tube, but we were able to walk right on and be home in 15min.  You have got to love London public transportation.  We then walked to the bus stop and took our bus to our street.  The first thing we all cared about when we got to the flat ws food!  I made a sandwich and watched the news on TV about the wedding while I ate.  Then I took the best shower of my life!  It wasn't really but it felt so good after a night like last night.  Right after my shower I got ready for bed and went to sleep at 3pm here.  I ended up waking up at 11pm feeling like my throat was swollen so I got some orange juice.  I was so happy because I was not the only one awake.  Everyone else that had gone was up as well.  haha  But I do not want to be tired tomorrow so I am going to go to bed now that it is 2:40am.

Our Preparation for The Royal Wedding

Our preparation to leave at 12am for the wedding consisted of chatting, facebooking and a very short nap, then throwing all the sweater I brought in my backpack with magazines and running out the door.

 As we left our building there were people at the bus stop and a guy asked where we were headed so late and we said the royal wedding.  He then said your American! Why do you care!? haha But we definitely care.
 The last ride on the tube before it closes at 12:45am to Buckingham Palace
 After finding our lovely spot behind the planter we all spread out and Casmin and I decided there was no better way to prepare fo rthe next day than read up on Kate and William.
They even have Kate and William scarves!  So cool!  And definitely a neccestiy for how cold last night was, but I didn;t buy one.   When I finalyy made the decision I might want to they man was gone.  After Casmin and I read our magazine we chatted for a few hours then decided it was freezing cold and we needed hot cooc and a bathroom.  Kristen, Camin and I set off for the camp ground of outhouses.  They were some of the nicest ones I had ever used and they even had guys going around in a truck adding toilet paper and cleaning them.  Kristen almost got stuck in one when the truck pulled in front of her outhouse.  All she heard was clear the road and then a truck in front of her, but it was all good.  Then we headed for the only place open selling food and waited in 1 1/2 hour line for a small cup of hot coco, but just being warm for that little bit of time drinking it was worth it.  There were so many people out.  When we got back to our spot drunk guys that had come before and were talking to some of our friends were still there talking.  They pretty much spent the whole time with us.  At 5am police went around and woke up people in tents and had them put the tents away and then made it so no more people could come in the gates to Buckingham.  We all got wrist bands so that we could still leave and go to the bathroom and come back.  One of the girls that was friends with the drunk guys was super nice and very fun to talk to.  She taught us a few things like how to say aluminum and where to shop for the cutest clothes and cheapest groceries.  She also shared some food with us which was nice because I had eaten all I brought within the first few hours of being there and we still had a whils.  The security guy told us that come time for the wedding we could go up on the mound of flowers in front of us and it would probably be the best view.  He was so right!!  So pretty much we spent s few hours failing at trying to sleep, cuddle in little balls freezing wondering if it was really worth it to have come.  Of course it was we were just cold and exhausted.  I could tell I was on my way to getting sick. 

St. James Park

 The lake and birds
 Bird Keepers Cottage
I would be a bird keeper if I could live there
Amy, Me, Casmin, and Chelsea enjoying the park

BIG BEN and House of Parliment





My Shopping Winnings

Cute New shoes!!  Everyone wears oxfords here!
Floral print aviators!!
They have tons of adorable skirts!  And its long enough!!  Thanks to Casmn for allowing the use of her belt.

Exploring London Day 1

We had our first class today.  We talked about the importance of keeping an open mind in theatre and performances and pretty much broke down Shakespeare's play The Tempest.  We are going to see it at a childrens theatre on Saturday night.  We decided that food and shopping were a neccesity after class so a whole group of us headed off to Primemark, a huge inexpensive department store with amazing clothes!  It was so awesome!  They had tons of cute skirts, shoes and dresses!  I had to buy a few things of course.  We decided instead of eating it was more important to rush over to Buckingham Palace to try to get on the morning news but that did not end up happening.  We did discover beautiful St. James Park and that we needed to come earlier than we thought to camp out for the wedding.  Oh I got hit in the head ny a guy carrying a tent over his head.  He apoligized to me though so it was okay.  It was my fault for being taller than evreyone I guess. We took the tube back to our street and decided it was finally time to eat since we hadn't eaten all day.  So we wanted to go to an Indian Resturaunt but we had three options so we decided to find the cheapest one.  As we were looking at the menu of one the guy came and told us to come in and sit down, so we did.  He handed us our menus and we ordered water from the tap otherwise they give you water you have to pay for.  As we looked through the menu we realized it was 7 pounds for just a peice of chicken and you had to buy rice and bread seperately.  The guy tired to make us buy an appetizer and when we said we are ready to order instead he asked if we each wanted our own appetizer and it was way confusing and annoying.  Then the guy tried to tell us we needed to buy the 2 person plate for 40 pounds and buy other plates and share amongst the four of us, but that would be like a $25 meal for each of us.  So when he left to get the waters we got up and walked out.  We found a little take-out place down the street that had Indian food for 3 pounds but I decided to grocery shop and eat at home.  After buying all my very small quantities of food, I realized it was not going to be fun walking back carrying my bags.  But that is what the red buses are for!  Casmin, Chelsea and I hoped on a bus that took us right to our street and we just hoped off and walked in our flat.  Why had we not been riding the bus this whole time!!  We decided since we were leaving to go to the Royal wedding that we should just spend a quite night in our flat and go to bed early, but that didn't happen.  We unpacked and goofed off then it was time to prepare to leave for the wedding!!

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Too Late to Stay Sane

So last night after getting ready for bed we, being my roommates Kristen, Casmin and I, decided it would be a good idea to set an alarm so we could actually get up for class this morning.  We never would have guessed how hard it would be to set an alarm, but it took us probably 15 minutes to set the alarm.  Now we aren't dumb.  We were working with my phon to tell us the time but it hadn't changed time zones, so it was still California time.  So I went to my world clock to find the time in London.  Kristen said it was 12:30 am here according to her computer, but my world clock said it was 11:30 pm.  Mine had to be right though because it was my phone and used the satelite, right? Wrong!  We decided on the old fashioned way of counting 8 hours from California time and it really was 12:30 am.  However it did not end there.  We had to figure out in how many hours we would wake up and add that on to the California time.  which meant we were waking up at 1:00 am California time, but 9:00 am our time.  So pretty much we just decided we were not going to have jet lag.  So new London moto: Sleep when your dead.

My Beautiful Flat

 My building!!
 Flat 37
 The beautiful Kitchen!  We are so lucky because our flat just got finished being remodeled the day before we got here!  Definitely the nicest of all the flats!
                                                      The refrigerators are so classy!
                                                         Our sitting area/front room
                                               Beautiful crown molding throughout the flat.

The street on the way to my flat at Hyde Park





                                           

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

The Voyage To Hyde Park Gate

Finally I made it!!  The flight here wasn't too bad.  I sat next to a lovely british lady that was from Long Beach.  She pretty much laughed at everything it was great!  I watched about three movies before I decided it was time to sleep.  Which I shouldn't have even tried.  I cannot sleep sitting up. It is Impossible!!  I don't know how everyone else on the plane does it but my head falls forward everytime.  But if you try to sleep with your head already forward in your lap it won't fit because your head will hit the controls to the TV screen and turn it on.  So I don't really know how much I slept.  There was an orchestra on my flight that is going to play for the Prince and new Princess this Sunday.  There were old ones and young ones so I don't know which ones are actually performing.  Oh there was also a man like Burt on Marry Poppins.  He had all his instruments on his back and such.  I did not end up meeting Casmin and Camille at the aiport.  The London airport is a lot bigger place than I expected so you have to take a train to the other terminals.  I spent awhile there figuring that out then took the tube to Gloucester and walked the beautiful street to my flat at Hyde Park Gate with assistance from my mom via cell phone and here being online.  She was walking the street with me virtually haha and guided me to my apartment.  My flat is super nice!!  So amazing!  We went on a walk tonight and saw the London Eye and Big Ben, and the natural London Scene of course.  Now I am exhausted and ready for sleep finally!!

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Ready, Set, Go!

In a few hours I will be sitting on a plane flying across the US and the Atlantic Ocean to London!  Casmin and Camille are going to meet me at the airport and the adventure will begin!  We are going to travel like true Londoners taking the tube and taxi to our wonderful Hyde Park flat!!  I can't believe I will actually be in London!  Living there!  Going to School!  Visiting all the wonderful places!