London, Part II

Sunday
We got up nice and early in the morning in order to make the most of the day! Most people were heading off to the Harry Potter studios later in the day, so they didn't have as much time. We went down to Camden, where there are loads of different markets. We went to three different markets, one of which was mostly food, one was mostly clothing, and one was a huge mixture of everything. There were people selling donuts, food, scarves, jewelry, antiques, clothing, purses, and so many other things. Anything and everything you could think of was at the markets! Thankfully I didn't spend nearly as much money on Sunday as I did on Saturday, but I did buy a lot of food. It just smelled so good! And of course after I bought it I realized it tasted even better than it smelled too! I quickly found out while I was in London that street food is the way to go. After a few hours of browsing and digging through mounds of stuff, the group I was with headed down to the train station around 2PM, since they were off to the Harry Potter studio tours. I originally bought tickets to the Harry Potter studios, but sold them. A girl in the group somehow didn't get signed up for the tour and was really bummed about it, and since I'm not a huge Harry Potter fan anyway, I decided she would have a much better time at it than I would. That was my good deed of the day! Because I'm a pretty intense shopper, and most people don't like shopping with me, I decided today was the best day for me to explore the best shopping streets in London. Armed with an Oyster card and Underground map, I went out in search of the coolest and most unique British stores I could find. I ended up on Oxford Street, which is a few mile long street filled with interesting one-off shops next to ginormous chains. The most interesting thing for me to see was Selfridges. So many people told me that I had to go there, since I'm such a fashion junkie. As soon as you step out onto the street you can see it. The week I was there they had a huge polka dot Louis Vuitton display, since a collaborating designer was working with them. They had decorated their windows with a woman wearing polka dots and even put a blow up version on the top of the building!

As soon as I walked into Selfridges, I realized why so many people loved it. The inside was incredibly huge. The building itself took up an entire city block, front to back and side to side. There were numerous levels, all filled with clothing, accessories and shoes from hundreds of designers. There were even stores within the store! American Apparel and Topshop were just two of the many examples. As I was walking around, I wondered how anyone was able to find anything in the store. You could spend a week inside that store and still not get to see everything inside. I can't imagine what it's like working there! Because it was such an incredibly large building, I started to get overwhelmed after a while and decided it was probably a better idea to start off with smaller stores first. I went into Wallis, Next, New, Primark, and lots of other fun stores, but I made sure not to go into anything that we had back in the States, because where is the fun in that? I found a great bronze metallic faux leather jacket and a sparkly pink case that was designed for an e-Reader, but fit my PlayBook tablet perfectly! I had to limit myself to the amount of stuff I could buy, since I still had another day left in London. While I was walking, I was also able to see the London College of Fashion, which has always been a dream of mine. Just because I'm a business student now doesn't mean I don't still have fashion in my heart! I loved people watching as I walked up and down the street, admiring what people were wearing, things they were doing, and how they were interacting with others. Of course I also watched the street to see just how many Bentleys, Ferraris and Audis I could spot (way too many to count!). One interesting difference between Britain and the United States is how early the stores close, even on a popular street! Everything was closed by 6PM, whereas in the US they would be open until at least 9 or 10. Deciding I did my fair share of supporting the economy (look mom, I'm helping!) I made my way back to the hostel for some dinner and relaxation time. I got back shortly before another group who didn't go to Harry Potter, so I was able to chill in my cubby of a bed for a few minutes. As I looked back on everything that happened that day, I realized how proud I was of myself. I had traveled through London by myself. There was nobody there to tell me where to go, what stop to get off on, or how to deal with closures. For the first time, I truly felt independent. It's such a powerful experience to be on your own in a city as big and crazy as London. An overwhelming feeling of accomplishment washed over me as I sat there and soaked it in. After taking in as much as I could from my overwhelming (in a good way!) day, I headed down to the pub in the basement of the hostel with a few other people from our trip. We ended up meeting more Americans and an Australian, and talked to them for a few hours. After a few beers, we headed back upstairs for our last night's sleep in the hostel!

Monday
After sleeping in a little bit to re energize ourselves from the previous days, we packed up our things since we had to be out by 11AM. Thankfully the hostel had a storage shed available for us to use so we didn't have to tote our luggage around with us all day. We headed back into the city for our last day in London. With so many things to see, we had to make the most of our time! One of my friends has a friend who lives and works in central London, so we stopped over to have lunch with her. We ate at an adorable chain restaurant that seems to be very popular over here, called Pret a Manger. We sat on benches overlooking the River Thames and ate delicious croissants. Then, after a quick goodbye we rushed across the river because we had important places to be! One of the most exciting things that was going on while we were in London was London Fashion Week. If you don't know what this is, please crawl out from under your rock and read the newspaper once in a while. Two of my friends and I decided to stalk the scene and see if we could spot any celebrities, designers or socialites. As we walked across the bridge, we could immediately tell that we were getting closer to Somerset House, which is where the main events were being held. We found an entrance that was mainly for other, less important parts of the building, but easily found our way to the top part, where shows were staged. Everyone was dressed in designer clothes, perfectly emulating the trends of the upcoming season. As much as I tried to dress up for this day, I found my effort was lost among the groups of immaculately dressed men and women. We walked around a little bit, but quickly realized that in order to get into any of the rooms, you needed a fashion week pass, which unfortunately we didn't have. So we decided to do the next best thing, which was sit and people watch. We weren't able to see any big names, but we saw lots of big outfits! There were so many people showing off their style, and in a completely unique way. Looking back on the pictures from fashion week, I'm able to say, "I saw that person! I was there!" This was just another absolutely incredible experience that goes along with being in London.

Overall, London was incredible, amazing, wonderful and overwhelming all at once. There is no one word to describe everything that I experienced while I was there, and I'll never be able to fully explain the things I saw, but hopefully this gives you a better insight into my experiences. Although there were so many things I adored about London, it did have a few drawbacks as well. For example, it has a very unique smell, and coming from someone who isn't used to big cities, it isn't pleasant. It smells like pollution. That is really the only way to describe it! It's also an extremely dirty city. After a few hours of walking around, I washed my hands and blew my nose and noticed both were black! As soon as I got back to Dalkeith I washed my clothes with an insane amount of laundry softener to make them smell and look nice again. One of the most interesting things I noticed as we were coming back on the train from London was that everyone was talking about how excited they were to go home and sleep in their own bed. Of course, we were all talking about Dalkeith. It's amazing how 6 weeks in one place can make you feel so comfortable that you start to call it home. Although this could never be my true home, I know that this is as close as anything could come. The people I'm meeting, experiences I'm having and places I'm seeing are all so wonderful and I truly feel blessed to be able to experience all of it. I promised everyone that I would take advantage of everything as long as I'm here and so far, I definitely think I'm making good on that. Until the day I see you all again, cheers from Scotland!

London Trip, Part I

I'm definitely a small town girl. I grew up in a town of 10,000 people and I go to school in a town of 14,000, 9,000 of whom are students. I've been to big cities before (Paris, New York, Chicago) but nothing that even comes close to comparing to London. London is a bustling city, filled with tourists from hundreds of different places. Before I left I posted on Twitter and Facebook, asking people for recommendations and the response was overwhelming! Everyone had something to say about this incredible city, and were more than willing to share their tips and tricks on how to handle London. It was either someplace to eat, the best shopping areas, the most informative museums or an amusing people watching area. There are so many things to do, places to see and new experiences to be had that of course there was no way I was going to see it all in four days. Seeing as how big the city is, I think I did a pretty decent job of seeing the very coolest things. Here is a rundown of my action packed four days, broken into two parts to make it easier to follow:

Friday
I woke up at 4AM in order to have enough time to get ready before heading out to the train station at 6AM! Train ride for 4 hours, most of which was fairly uneventful. Thankfully all my electronics were charged, so I was all set! They charged for WiFi on the train, so I was more than happy to use my handy BlackBerry/PlayBook connection, and had internet throughout the whole ride. This saved everyone around me from a lot of, "Are we there yet? How much longer? I'm bored." As soon as we pulled into the London station I noticed immediately that you had to be aware of what was going on. You need to be quick to get where you're going and not get sucked into a crowd! We went straight to our hostel, which was so cute! I had a preconceived notion in my head that all hostels were dirty, cluttered, and old, but this proved me wrong! It was called Palmers Lodge Swiss Hostel (you can check it out here: http://palmerslodges.com/swisscottage/hostel/).

After unpacking all of our things and putting them into our own little cubbies, we went off to explore the city. The first stop? None other than Abbey Road of course! We not only got to see the iconic crosswalk, but we also got to walk across it, pretending to be the Beatles. After more than a few failed attempts at taking a picture, due to cars trying to run us over, we decided to reenact the scene a bit farther down the road. Then we had free time until our show later on that night. Deanna took us to a very quaint shop filled with Beatles knick-knacks. Everything in the store was one of a kind and very unique! We bought a few collectibles and then decided to make our way back to the hostel. Our plans for the night included going to see the play Wicked, which I was more than thrilled to see! Naturally, this was a great excuse for all the girls to get super dressed up with full hair and makeup, and new dresses purchased at local stores. The styling process took about 2 hours, a time in which we got yelled at for taking up all of the sink space with our makeup bags, blow dryers and straighteners. After making sure everyone looked acceptable, we had to get pictures, which took another hour. Heaven forbid that all of us girls spend so much time getting dressed up only for it to be wasted by not having photographic evidence!

After all that, we finally made our way downtown and to the theater. The venue itself was extremely nice, which apparently most theaters in London are. Wicked was absolutely incredible. Everyone has been telling me for so long to see it, but I've never had a chance. Now I know why everyone loved it so much! The set was so detailed and over the top, the costumes fit the characters perfectly, and the actors had amazing voices that filled the room. As much as I wish I could describe it, there is no way I would be able to, much less be able to do it justice. By the time the show was done and we had gotten back, it was late and everyone was definitely ready to go to bed.
Saturday

Banksy was one of the main things I wanted to see in London, so we booked a free walking tour to see some of the graffiti around the area. The tour didn't start until noon, but we got up early so we could have plenty of time to find it, and also have time to walk around the area. We found a few cute shops and restaurants, but nothing that really stood out. After a while of walking around, we headed back to the area where the tour was starting, a place called Spitalsfield Market. We were waiting on a few other members of our group to show up, since they knew the exact location of the tour. Unfortunately, their time management skills weren't the best, and by the time we had reached the starting point, the group was long gone. Fear not, though, because we found something even better to spend our time (and money!) on. In the center of the area, there was a market where vendors sold tons of different things, clothing, jewelry, food, vintage items, you name it and it was there. We were so excited to find something that was so unique! I've experienced a few markets in bigger cities like Madison, but this truly outdid anything I've ever seen. This wasn't somebody's junk placed on a plastic table, this was handmade items, creatively displayed. I found so many wonderful things there, including a skull print scarf with the Union Jack flag inside, great vintage jewelry (all of which reminded me of Layne and her wonderful jewelry collection which I desperately miss stealing from), handmade cards, prints of Banksy's work (so even though I couldn't see it, I could see it!), and so many other things. After spending lots of time and money at the market, we made our way down to the London Eye. The underground stop that we got off on was Trafalgar Square, which I was told to just sit and people watch in. Boy are there some different characters there! Tourists and locals come to this beautiful area, where there are plenty of statues. We saw kids on a break from school, tourists looking lost as ever, locals enjoying a beautiful sunny day and became so entranced! After a while of being amused by people watching, we crossed the bridge over to the London Eye. As it came into view, it hit me that I was finally in London! I've wanted to visit this magical city since I could remember, and here I finally was. It truly made me realize how lucky I am to have these experiences. Although the line for the London Eye looked really long, we made it to the front in about 30 minutes. The view from the top was absolutely magical! You could see every iconic building. They even had Samsung tablets on the inside of the Eye that showed where specific places were, and famous things that happened there. After our typical tourist stint, we headed back to the hostel to drop off our stuff. We were off to a pub crawl! The trek there was quite an interesting one. There were 5 girls together, who were meeting 2 guys at the first stop. After a little miscommunication on who was where, we finally got it figured out on where we were supposed to be. Since we were a little late, the group had moved on to the second stop, but thankfully it was just right across the street from the first. We were given coupons for a free shot, which ended up tasting like black licorice. We spent an hour there, then walked to the next stop, which was a really fun club! We danced like no other, and for those of you that know it, did a little Gangnam Style as well. (For those of you that don't, it's a very typical Lauren-like dance that involves a lot of jumping around...check it out on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0) We ended up meeting a group of 3 American guys who were really cool, one of whom even gave me a Sharpie mustache on my finger!

After all the crazy dancing, partying and mingling, we decided to call it a night and head back. Two action packed days in a row exhausts you pretty quickly, especially in a city like London!
Whew, what a post! I've decided to give your eyes (and attention spans) a rest, and I'll post part two very soon! Stay tuned for Sunday and Monday! :)

Old Things I Miss/New Things I Love

Things I Miss From America:

• Mom, Dad, Layne
• Family
• Friends
• Nellie
• Ella (and Buddy I suppose)
• My silent room
• Cheese curds
• Extensive collection of clothes and shoes
• Working at Spa del Sol
• Stout
• Driving
• Verizon
• Living in a log cabin

Things I Love In Scotland:

• New friends
• Host family
• BlackBerry overload
• Volkswagen overload
• European car brands
• European cars in general
• Fashion in Edinburgh
• Castles
• Travel opportunities
• Public transportation
• Landscape
• Cool fall weather
• Colorful money
• Living in a PALACE!!

Although there are a few things that I really miss back in America, there are tons of things here that make up for it! I also know that the distance now will make returning home in November that much more special. :)

Doors Open Day

Today Edinburgh and Dalkeith had their annual "Doors Open Day", which is where private buildings open their doors to the public. This meant that our house, Dalkeith Palace, was open as well. On Friday we didn't have class, so this was our first extended weekend. Most people in the house went on trips, so the house has been much quieter as normal. (Although, as you all know, nothing is ever completely quiet while I'm around!) I decided to stick around the house this weekend, mostly because I wanted to give tours to locals who came here for Doors Open Day. The 30 minute tours took people throughout the house, and into about 10 different rooms. Nikki and I were tour guide partners and gave 3 tours throughout the day. It was such a great experience hearing people talk about how they grew up around the castle without actually ever being inside of it. Hearing locals talk about how much this place meant to them really proved just how special it truly is. As like most people, I appreciated the house for the first few days I was here, then took advantage of it. After listening to so many different people tell me stories from their lives about seeing the inside of the castle after 40 years of looking from the outside made me realize that I can't take this experience for granted.
It also shows how large this house is, but how little of it we actually use. For example, most days the only rooms I use are my dorm, the kitchen/dining hall, library and maybe a lounge. Even with only a few rooms of the house being used, trying to find somebody here is like looking for a needle in a haystack! Most of the time people give up and end up calling that person's cell phone, only to find out they're in the room next to them.
This upcoming week classes are much longer than normal, due to the fact that we're covering about 2 months worth of material in 4 days. We have 6 hours of class a day, and also 2 reports due this week. Thankfully we also have a great treat for making it through the week-we're heading off to London on Friday!! We're going to see the play Wicked, which I haven't had a chance to see yet, but I hear it's fantastic. Most of the girls in the house went out and bought a going out outfit for that night, since everybody dresses up to go to the theatre. I actually bought a dress that wasn't a neutral color!!

(This picture doesn't do the dress justice. I promise to take a better one when I debut it in London!)

There are a few things that they have planned for us, which they're going to talk about tomorrow night at our ice cream social, but for the most part we have free time to do what we want. Naturally my first idea of something to do was go shopping! Does anyone have any suggestions of places to go or things to do/see in London? I would greatly appreciate any tips! :)

Castles, islands and football, oh my!

I know that many of you are waiting on pictures from my trip and believe me, I desperately want to show you! But it seems that no matter how hard I try, fate does not want me to share pictures that I've taken. I've ordered a camera cable and USB adapter, but both of them were the wrong products. I've emailed the companies and I'm waiting on hearing back from them. So in the meantime, I'll just keep stealing pictures off of my friend's Facebook. This is a picture of Nikki and I sitting in the player's chairs at the Celtic football stadium. Keep in mind that football here is soccer! :)

We've learned quite a bit about Scotland and the culture here so far! On Monday we start our third module, which is learning more history and society of Scotland. We have an interesting class schedule, which means that most days this week I only have 2 hours of class per day. This module we also have 3 different professors. They want us to learn about Scotland from the eyes of as many different people as possible, so it will be interesting to hear what they each have to say! I have to say, class here is much easier than at home! I could definitely get used to doing 4 one-page papers in two weeks for 3 credits!
On Saturday we went to Crammond Island. There was a mile-long walkway to get onto the island (yes I walked the whole thing-there AND back might I add!). There were tall concrete pillars next to it that were used to prevent boats from getting onto the island during World War II. The island itself was absolutely gorgeous. We were lucky enough to go on a day when it didn't rain; the sun even came out for a few minutes! From the island you could see the Firth or Forth and Edinburgh. Located on the island was a building that had a "Dangerous Building" sign on it, so naturally I had to go exploring! (It never said don't go in it because you'll fall to your death, so I figured I was fine.) I found out later that it was an old bunker. There were lots of little nooks and crannies with tiny windows, fun to explore!
Today our host moms (Patty and Natalie-Patty is the director of the program and Natalie is her wife) took us out to a car boot sale and breakfast. The car boot was essentially a giant garage sale in the bottom of a parking garage. Everyone had all their things out on tables or display racks. There were a few interesting things there, but since it was basically a garage sale, most of it was just other people's random things. After the car boot we went to Wetherspoons for breakfast, or brekkie. I ordered the vegetarian breakfast and MAN! There was so much food! 3 hashbrowns, 2 pieces of toast, 2 eggs, 1 veggie sausage, 1 portabella mushroom, baked beans, and a half of a tomato. Like a good American, I ate it all! All of that for only £3!! One of the things I have noticed is that unless you're at a very posh restaurant, the prices are much cheaper here for food. After all this, it was time for a tour of the Edinburgh castle. It's less of one building and more of a royal neighborhood. There were tons of different buildings, including a prison! It was a very creepy feeling to walk around where other people had lived, and some probably died. On the bright side, I did get to see the crown jewels! I'm still trying to figure out if they were real or imitation. Probably a very realistic replica.
The weather here has been extremely mild the past few days! We've had lots of sun (by Scotland standards) and mid 60s. We had a bit of a thunderstorm a few days ago, which flooded a few places, but thankfully the palace escaped unharmed. I'm looking forward to a great week full of interesting Scotland information! Until then... :)