And...I'm home?

After almost six days, I think my jetlag has finally ceased.

And I can't believe I'm home. 

It seems I spent ages prepping myself for this, emotionally and physically. And now it's completely over. It's strange how even the most dramatic things come to an end eventually.

Everyone who kept up with the blog, thank you. I know I wasn't the most frequent blogger and didn't write nearly the way I thought I would, and I apologize for that.

But my goal was that you would gain a sense of my experience, and I hope I accomplished that.

I hope that through my pictures and posts the beauty of the Scottish highlands were portrayed. The city life, the theater life which I will miss and forever adore more than anything. The shops and bistros and tourist attractions. This truly was the most exciting semester of my life. Again, thank you all for reading. My journeys continue at Brandeis where I will begin college life for real...and who knows what surprises that will bring?

Theatre in the West End!

So, I thought I'd do a little play critique of the musicals I've seen here.

As you may know, the West End is London's equivalent to Broadway. TONS of shows are playing right now. You can go see Wicked, The Wizard of Oz, The Phantom of the Opera, Crazy For You, Billy Elliott, as well as MANY others. London's theater district is phenomenal.

The longest running musical in the history of the world, Les Miserables is a show you can't miss, and the London cast does it best as anyone can. Alfie Boe plays Jean Valjean and blows us away with his beautiful voice. Absolutely fell in love. The young Alexia Khadime plays Eponine, who surprised me with her incredible set of pipes as well! Grown-up Cosette is played by Lisa-Anne Wood, Fantine by Caroline Sheen, Marius by Craig Mather, the Thenandiers by Katy Secombe and Cameron Blakely. All incredible, all talented. This show will have you tearing up several times no matter how many times you've seen it. AND I met the cast at the stage door and got autographs :)

Favorite numbers were In My Life, Castle on a Cloud, One Day More, On My Own, Master of the House, and Lovely Ladies (as expected.)

Saw this tonight after probably six years of wanting to see it live. This production starred America Ferrera as Roxie Hart, if anyone remembers her from Ugly Betty, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, or probably six different issues of Seventeen magazine. This was my first time seeing this show live after many people had warned me that you shouldn't see a live version AFTER seeing the movie. But I went into it with the attitude that no one could ever top Catherine Zeta-Jones as Velma (and came out with that same attitude), so for me, it worked.

America was definitely cute as Roxie. Cute, pathetic, and made Roxie a much more humorous character. Needs a couple more voice lessons. Velma and Mama Norton definitely had the best voices, as well as some of the cell block tango girls. 

If you've only seen the movie, I'd say it's worth it to go see a live production. There were some scenes and tactics I actually preferred, although the 2002 movie will always have a place in my heart. Plus the dancing is to die for- Fosse will always be incredible.

Our seats were cheap but fantastic and right up close. Oh yeah, and WE MET AMERICA FERRERA!!!!! 

Her autograph!

Sarah, Megan, Alexandra, and me outside the theatre.

I wanna go to at least one more musical while I'm here. Any suggestions? (:

xoxo emmy

Crossing the border....Weekend in Scotland!

Hellooooo everyone,

Well, seeing as I'd seen just about all there was to see of London, I took a weekend trip to Scotland!

We covered a lot in just a few days, starting in Edinburgh, and heading up to the highlands and down to the lowlands. It certainly doesn't give off that energetic vibe of the city, but if you like mountains, ghost stories, gray skies, and are not a vegetarian then it's perfect for you.

                                         The Scottish highlands! Don't you feel like you could just fall in love here? Yes, you do.

  Loch Ness ! I saw Nessie but no one believed me. Some of the brave (crazy) people on our trip actually took a dip in the 40 degree water.  

 Trying Scottish whiskey at a whiskey distillery! Had a very smoky, strong flavor. I didn't like it, although I imagine it goes better with haggis at dinner than with an empty stomach at 10 in the morning...sometimes I wondered what our tour guide was thinking.

Looking out at a beautiful view of the lowlands. There is something so mysterious and beautiful about the landscape.

Don't leave with the impression that Scottish food is all greasy meat and potatoes! The Scots are also famous for their shortbread...light, sweet, and buttery! 

You can't walk ten feet in Edinburgh without running into a cashmere shop. Taken from the undercoat of a certain breed of goat, this is the softest material you will EVER touch. I just wanted to cuddle with all the scarves! Oops, did that make me sound weird?

Oh, and our tour bus gave us the LOVELY pleasure of playing the same Scottish folk songs again...and again....and again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njUQJIJzFY4  Listen to that about sixty times and you'll be ready to rip your ears off, or at least your tour guide's.



Overall it was a lovely trip. Cold, but lovely. We learned quite a bit about Scottish history, scoped out a few Scottish pubs, and went on a creepy ghost tour in Edinburgh. Still, it was nice to come back to London. What can I say, I'm a city girl.

xoxo emmy

The Country! Ooooh

I am a terrible blogger.

It's been almost a MONTH since I wrote. Come on Emily!!!!

I guess I've just been in a routine. The first three weeks here were all tourist-y things, and then once classes started I got so busy. Don't worry, I will redeem myself though.

Anyway, today was a nice change in scenery. My mom's been visiting me here, which basically means I get lots of good meals and a nice hotel right?!

Hehe..

ANYWAY, today we did a group to Leeds Castle, the White Cliffs of Dover, and the town of Canterbury. That probably means nothing to you, so here's some pics bitchz.

Leeds Castle. It's pretty and fairytale-esque and that's all you need to know.

Pretty pretty gardens

Pretty little orange flower trees.

Birds in love at the aviary. Suddenly I miss all animals.

White Cliffs of Dover. This pic doesn't do them justice- they really are beautiful up against the sea

A chocolate blackberry at the giftshop! Funny little thing. Suddenly I miss my smartphone

A unicorn would fit in well here

Yesterday we went to the Tate Modern Museum, which was cool but a little less than I expected. I got an Andy Warhol poster for my room though (:

Bedtime now. Love you all

xoxo emmy

Classes have begun!

Well, summer's officially over and classes have begun here. We take almost all our classes at City University, which is a five to ten minute walk from Thoresby, which is nice. City's kind of like a Northeastern, if you know that school.

In case you were wondering, which I'm sure you were, I am taking:

Environment, Communities, and the Arts: A class about how we can use ART to save the environment, or rather how art can get people passionate and inspire them about environmental issues. Interesting and a really nice professor but a LOT of reading and work outside class.There's about 13 of us in the class, smaller than any class I had in high school.

Intro to Sociology: Haven't started it yet, I have it for the first time tomorrow! Supposedly there are 200 people in our class..woohoo college lectures!

Film in the City: Class about films set in London. Seems pretty easy although there's a lot of reading outside class. We watched Notting Hill last class! There are only about 8 people in the class.

Creative Writing: 9:30am all the way in Notting Hill..meaning we basically have to wake up at 7, get on the over-crowded tube for thirty minutes, then walk to class. The class itself pretty much consists of short prompts and reading our work outloud, which has been fine so far. There's probably about fifteen people in the class. The professor is not as laid back as I would expect a Creative Writing teacher to be, but he seems intelligent.

So far it's been a heavy workload- we pretty much stayed in all of last weekend just doing work! We only have 11 more weeks here, so the classes move very quickly. The grading system is also completely different here, which I'll have to get used to.

We have a boat party on the Thames river this weekend!!! I have a really nice dress to wear and I can't wait. Hopefully I'll post pictures from it, but now I've got to go to bed- it's 1am!

Still loving the city, the people, the good life

xoxo emmy

Shopping in London

Hey everyone, I decided to do a quick blog about typical shopping in London since many of the stores are different here. Enjoy!

In the US, we have our beloved CVS. In London, we have Boots. Look for the blue signs on any street. They usually have some food and clothes in addition to all your typical CVS goods.

Classier than a Star Market, but definitely not Whole Foods. Good cheap deals. Don't expect to find some of your favorite American goodies though, like Oreos or Goldfish.

Waitrose is the shit. Fruit, meat, vegetables, bread, and cheese are all very fresh and delicious. Not quite at a Whole Foods level but better quality than Sainsbury's and only a little bit more expensive. Kinda like a Sudbury Farms for my Sudbury people.

Mixture between a Target and an H&M. Sells mostly clothes, but I also got sheets and bathtowels there too. The clothes are cheap but still fairly good quality, and you can get really cute stuff.

VERY cool store. Tons of funky vintage clothes, like letterman jackets for girls, huge Christmas pattern sweaters, tutus, 70s style flannels, and lots more. They also play good indie music so you feel pretty cool in there.

Classy clothing store. Tagline is "fashion for the young, urban woman." This store was also pretty common in Spain too. Not too cheap.

An Italian based company that was really big in the 80s. Known for its racy advertising in the 90s. I've kind of always been obsessed with this company so I was really excited to see one for the first time in London.

Take Nordstrom and multiply it by 10. Harrods is probably the most expensive high end luxury department store in London. The clothes are absolutely gorgeous, but it's more of museum than a store. Definitely worth a look though. 

Goodbye Orientation!

Just two days left of Orientation! In some ways it feels like we just arrived here...yet when I think about saying goodbye to my parents and everyone back home it feels like a century. Orientation has overall been great (I have a few complaints with the way Arcadia runs things, but nothing major.) I realized that I didn't share a lot of things from Orientation, so here's a quick summary!!

London Eye at night. This part of the city is gorgeous and all lit up at night- check out Big Ben and Westminster Abbey during this time of day too.

Platform 9 3/4. Now don't get TOO excited HP fans...it's really not all its made out to be although you can take a super cool pic like I did.

Paul McCartney's CURRENT home. You can ring the bell, I doubt he'll come out for you though. If your tall enough you may even be able to climb the fence (but you may get arrested.)

Windsor Castle- just outside of London. It's very pretty and old fashioned, if you're into paying 13.50 for that kind of thing.

Classic Old Fashioned Telephone Booth- you haven't been to London if you haven't taken a picture in this.

Self Explanatory. Lots of books, posters, keychains, postcards, etc. I got myself a nice John Lennon "Imagine" poster for my dorm room.

Pretty part of the Tower of London...perfect for anyone who likes all that 15th century nonsense and/or torture devices.

London's very first underground station! It still has that vintage look which I adore.

Tower Bridge- not to be confused with London Bridge. My artsy little pic :)

Well, that's most of it! Gotta go read for my Environmental class now.

xoxo emmy

British Lingo Dictionary

I'm in love with British lingo so I thought I'd make a little list here:

Lift : Elevator

Queue: Line, as in waiting in line

Trolley: Cart

Biscuit: Cookie

Litter: Trashcan

Rubbish: Trashcan or bullshit (e.g. that 9/11 conspiracy theory is total rubbish)

Quid: Bucks, as in amount of money (that shirt at Primark was NOT worth 40 quid.)

Torch: flashlight

Chips: french fries

Crisps: chips

Trousers: pants (pants means underwear, or sometimes knickers means underwear too.)

Rubber: eraser

Course: Major, as in what you major in in college

University: College

College: High school

Candy Floss: Cotton Candy

Mum/Mummy: Mom/Mommy

Petrol: Gasoline

Dodgy: Sketchy (that area is a little dodgy)

I'll submit more soon!!!

Homestay & 9/11 Anniversary

Hello everyone!!

Right now we're in the middle of our homestay weekend! My family is both British AND Pakistinian...so it's kind of like getting a 2 for 1 deal. We have an adorable little girl in our family (British children seem to be far more polite and mature than American children...she's making me feel pretty bad about my table manners NGL) and our host mother just made us some delicious somosa and tea. So I'm happy.

It's really strange that tomorrow is the 10 year anniversary of 9/11, and I'm not in the US for it. I feel a little bad not being home. We watched this weird British show about government conspiracy theories on 9/11. It was a little awkward to explain to our host family that that's not the general view of Americans. Apparently some people here think that 9/11 was directed by the U.S. government because insurance was going up on the twin towers......

Besides that, there's a lot I love about this country. Everyone is more polite and better dressed, especially the girls. I'm feeling pretty bad about my own fashion style after looking at some of these girls in the city. Everything is so "quaint" as the typical American tourist would say. The accentats and lingo are to die for, and the British TV shows are great (I Love Doctor Who!!!) The city is beautiful and alive. I could never imagine getting bored here.

Downsides? The weather. We're not even halfway through September and I'm already in big sweaters and jeans. The exchange rate (but you can hit  up Primark, similar to a Target or H&M, for good deals.) The fact that not every place has a public restroom...I feel like that's a must-have.

Still really miss you all, although this place is starting to feel a little more like home. It's nice to have home cooked meals on our homestay, anyway!

xoxo
emmy

And we're HERE.

Voila, Abbey Road! Are you jealous??? Of course you are.

I'm kind of kidding...afterall, it's only a crosswalk. It's funny when you anticipate something so much....walk all the way down Garden Road and all there is to see of this famous landmark is a standard, ordinary crosswalk. No flashing lights, no John Lennon ghost. Feel like that generally happens to me when I see something famous in real life, somehow it's never quite the way you imagined it. Still a mini life milestone though, for me at least.

The wall was pretty cool though. Everyone signs their name along with a Beatles cliche like "all you need is love." Kind of a representation of the power the Beatles had over the world. You can look for my name if you visit!!

We also stood outside Paul McCartney's actual current home, which was the most exciting part of my day. We wanted to ring the bell but it looks like Paul's guards thought of that idea long before we did.

London is fantastic. Only a week has gone by but I feel like I'm already turning into a little city girl...navigating the tube, hitting up the nightlife, meeting locals, and generally learning to live on a lot less (I've probably lost about five pounds so far.)

I really miss you all from home though. Skype and Facebook and ridiculously expensive texting can never be enough...I'm thinking of you all everyday <3

Cheers for now! (as the Brits would say.)

Welcome!

Hey everyone!

My name's Emily, and at the end of August I'll be leaving for the biggest trip of my life! I'll be spending my first semester of college studying abroad in London with other freshmen from Brandeis University. I've never really been much of a blogger before, but I figure this is a good way for my friends and family to keep tabs on me and learn about my adventures around Europe!

Check back soon for updates!!! :)

xoxo emmy