One Month Left - Lists and Reflections

So it's official, I have less than a month left in London, 27 days from today (Sunday) to be exact. And I realized that my blogs have all recently been about all my trips, which are amazing but I feel as if I am abandoning London and all its amazingness. So I am thinking this post will be about some of the great things I have done in this amazing city. The thing I have come to love most about London is how different each part of the city feels, you can take the tube for 20 minutes and be in a completely different world (ethnically, socio-economically and even just culturally). I have also been to so many amazing markets that I will miss dearly, Borough Market is probably my favorite (all food -- a foodie heaven) but I love Brick Lane, Portobello Market, Greenwhich Market and the awesome vintage market Rachel and I found in Islington that I dont know the name of. I have also been to some incredible museums and my plan to cure the Thanksgiving homesickness next weekend is to go to more but some of my favorites have been the V&A Museum of Childhood (so many dollhouses), the Museum of London, the science museum and the National Gallery. I feel like this blog entry is not doing this incredible city justice but really I love everything.
And in terms of classes they are basically incredible, I have one class where we literally only see a play each week and then discuss it in class. I have two other theatre classes, one acting which has been surprisingly interesting as casting is done so differently here and from a potential directors point of view its good to be exposed to. And my second theatre class, theatre industry is amazing my final paper has the thesis: theatre in elementary education is as important as math. My other class, the non-theatre class is actually one of my favorites, its called Women in London and its a history/womens studies class and I love it. We wander around London and learn about the suffragettes, etc and our professor is amazing, she has written plays and curated museum exhibits.
And my internship is pretty incredible to. Even though the work I am doing is more often than not busy work,  typing things up, etc. the actual work done by Quicksilver Theatre Company is the sort of work I hope to be doing one day. Not only do they produce and write plays, they also have amazing educational programs. My favorite thing they do is this program called Primary Voices, where 10-11 year old kids write plays and the winning plays (2 from each participating school in the area) will be put on in January by professional actors. I love everything about this program, first of all it makes theatre accessible to kids who would normally not get access to it (lower income families). Other than the obvious self confidence boosters this program treats kids as equals, allows them to interact with adult, professional actors as if they are real professional writers. The thing as an education major I love the most though is the fact that this program allowed kids to address real issues in their lives, many of the plays were about divorce and a few were about poverty and being in foster care (so touching). Quicksilver also puts on amazing shows for 3-5 year olds, like Upstairs in the Sky a show about storytelling and also about death -- (dealing with a dead grandparent). They aren't afraid to address real issues with these kids and they are using theatre as an educational tool in a way I hope to do one day.
But in general this week before Thanksgiving has been a really weird time for me. This is definitely the longest I have gone without going home, the longest I have gone without seeing Joey and even though I did see my family not going home for Thanksgiving is definitely the hardest part thus far. Seeing everyone at Beloit's facebook statuses about Thanksgiving break and knowing my family is getting together is really strange. But at the same time I am not ready to leave London yet, there are so many neighborhoods I haven't been to, so many museums and plays and so much ethnic food to eat. I would love to go home for a few weeks but then I would love to come back here, I have officially fallen in love with this city. And I have met the most amazing people here this is the first time in my life I have been an school environment where I honestly like and am friendly with the majority of the other students. And my girls, my friends I have made here, this experience wouldn't be half of what it was without you guys to go on epic adventures with me.
But since I am here for a theatre program I thought I would finish this blog with a list of all the plays I have seen so far.

1.  The Merry Wives of Windsor
2. Today I Live
3. Pieces of Vincent
4. Clybourne Park
5. All My Sons
6. I Drink the Air Before Me (a dance piece so I am not sure if it counts)
7. Enlightenment
8. Faust
9. Ooook (children's show)
10. Or Am I Alone? (forum theatre -- theatre of the oppressed done in a homeless shelter)
11. Parade
12. Hamlet
13. Billy Elliot
14. My Romantic History
15. Deathtrap
16. Upstairs in the Sky (at my internship)
17. Blasted

I was going to write about each show but I have already been procrastinating for far too long. Maybe another time, or ask me about them.  And I have tickets to two Christmas Pantomimes and Glass Menagerie. I will also see the children's theatre piece at my internship. I am hopefully going to see The Ideal Husband tommorow and quite possibly will try to see a few more shows.  Even though this is an obscene amount of shows the majority of them were through my class and my internship and I really want to see some more theatre on my own.
"Going home broke, its the only way to go out." No more money and my pants wont fit but I will be happy and done everything. -- The only problem is homework, why are you getting in the way of my London time?

How many desserts can I eat in one weekend? And other eternal questions answered -- Paris Style

So as you all know I went to Paris the first weekend of November, again sorry for the late post but life has gotten...hectic.That's right, we successfully completed our first weekend trip that was not IES sponsored, totally on our own. And not only that but it was to Paris, somewhere we had been advised not to go because of strikes etc. But I would just like to make it clear now, it was totally safe in that regard, I didn't see one strike or riot and we had no real problems with transportation. That is not to say the trip was not without struggles, as Jenna put it our highs were very high but the lows were very low. It was definately a learning experience.. but still I had fun...let me tell you about itDay1
This day began with me waking up at about 4 in the morning or something absurd like that our flight left at 8 am and we had to get ourselves to Luton airport.  So after attempting to wait for a nightbus we jumped in a cab and went to Victoria station where we embarked on our bus ride (about a hour). Then we got on our flight to Paris (it was so short) and before we knew it we were there! So we figured out how to take a train and then a metra to our hostel (good job Rachel) and that was surprisingly painless. We got off the metra and there was the Moulin Rouge and street corner crepe men, our trip had begun! We headed to our hostel, met Jenna and then took off.

Anne enjoying the first Parisian crepe of the trip

                                                     
It was a amazing beautiful day so our first item of business was a picnic in front of the Eiffel Tower. We wandered down the street and bought cheese, baguettes and fruit from street vendors (yum). Then we got on the metra to head to the tower. On this metra ride, 2 of my friends got pickpocketed (and the lows began). So after dealing with that disaster and we finally headed to the tower. And it was beautiful. I had been there over the summer but was not prepared for the beauty that is Paris when the leaves are changing. So we had our french picnic under the tower and took millions of pictures.

After that we headed to Notre Dame stopping at our first bakery of the trip along the way at which Jenna and I had delicious eclairs. After exploring Notre Dame, so beautiful and moving (regardless of  the religious aspects.) Then we went on absurdly long walk to find dinner, it was good but not spectacular but the dessert was amazing. I had profiteroles (which is basically my favorite dessert of all time). Anyway when I was younger my dad and I ranked profiteroles in French restaurants around Chicago, so I am somewhat of an expert :) but these were quite possibly top 3.  (And yes this entry will in fact be a running commentary on food).

Pastry number 1

Notre Dame

Profiteroles!!!

Day 2
On Saturday Rachel and I headed to Versailles, something I was super excited about since I didn't go during my last Paris trip. It was only about a 40 minute train ride and then we were there. When we arrived we discovered the gardens were free and spent probably about a hour (in the misty light rain) wandering and taking in the beauty. Once again I was pleasantly surprised by the fall, by how pretty a garden could be without the flowers in bloom. After we wandered and took our amazing jumping pictures we were getting ready to pay the absurd fee to head inside. And we when arrived at the door the man told us because we had student visas (are students in Europe) we got to go in for free! We wandered the hall of mirrors and the rooms of Marie Antoinette. The only downside was the absurd exhibit going on at the time. Apparently the King was interested in modern art at the time so someone thought it would be interesting to juxtapose really bad modern art with modern art of Marie Antoinette's time. Let me tell you, not a good idea.  But regardless the inside was as incredible as the outside. Then we took a train back to the city.

Hall of Mirrors

After arriving back to Paris we headed to largest flea market in Paris. We stopped for lunch at cute bistro,met some fellow Americans and then headed out to shop. Parts of the market were a bit sketchy, selling knock-offs and what not but we discovered the hidden treasure of an indoor antique market (which was especially exciting given the pouring rain and our lack of umbrellas). This market was essentially unaffordable but beautiful and after that we went out the flea market and got our Parisian scarfs, jewelry, Christmas presents and more.Then we went to Champs de Elysee and the Arch de Triumph but since it was raining after getting sufficiently soaked we moved into a cafe for coffee and warmth.

Arch de Triumph

                                                            
After sitting for a while we headed back to the Eiffel Tower area to meet the girls for dinner. This was our splurge meal, 3 course of french food and even wine. It was delicious and very nice to be in a real restaurant. After our amazing dinner we headed back to the tower, to go to the top at night. Since I had been there before I think my favorite part was watching the other girls reactions, the amazement and enjoyment that is seeing it for the first time, sparkling at night. And regardless of the pouring rain the view was spectacular. The only problem was once we got down we realized how wet and cold we truly were. I had to throw out a pair of flats that day but it was so worth it.




Day 3
Our last day in Paris : ( We decided after seeing ht Louvre line that most of us didn't want to wait so I took those girls to my favorite museum in the world the  l'Orangerie. It is basically a museum solely dedicated to Monet's water colors. They are the size of the wall and overwhelmingly beautiful. After the museum we did some more rain wandering and souvenir shopping. After that we went the Cafe the movie Amelie takes place in for lunch, super cute and the french onion soup was amazing. Then we climbed to the top of the Sacré-Cœur, another incredible view. We finished our afternoon with wandering all around Paris, just seeing the neighborhoods, the houses and eating as many pastries as humanly possibly. I had gelato that was to die for and a beniget filled with chocolate (who knew that even existed). But then we were cold and wet and had to take a bus to the airport because of train closures. Also I don't recommend riding a airplane with wet shoes, no fun. But then around midnight we were finally made it back to London.

My favorite Monet

Another favorite

Jenna enjoying one of the many Parisian pastries of the trip

Scotland - The Most Beautiful Place on Earth

So I apologize to my readers, this blog entry has been a long time coming since I went to Scotland on the 28th of October (and its now November -- how did this happen?) But I would just like to take a moment to acknowledge the fact that my lack of updates is a good thing, it means I have been to busy doing amazing things to even stop and write. But since I will be here the next three weekends expect much more regular updates, as I have many things to say lately. But first since I am attempting to write this somewhat chronologically --> Scotland.
Day 1
We left the res hall way, way, to early on Thursday morning (around 6:30am) to take the tube to Kings Cross Station (a giant train station) where we boarded our train to Scotland.  Needless to say it takes 5 hours to ride a train to Scotland something someone like me (with no ability to sit still) was not that pleased with. Basically a normal person would have slept but I just didn't really know what to do with those hours (though the last hour or so of the train ride was beautiful).

First view of Scotland

So then we finally arrived in Edinburgh to meet our guide, a short middle-aged man wearing a kilt. He was driving a bright yellow tour bus with the words "Wild & Sexy" on the side and right away I knew this was going to be a strange trip. He provided us with a running commentary of profane jokes and interesting, at times irrelevant information.

Our bus

  The first place we stopped was the Warren Memorial (some sort of Braveheart reference but I am to movie deprived to understand). So we hiked up to the top of the hill and it was the beginning of the indescribable beauty I witnessed over the next few days.

First view of Warren Memorial 

View from ontop of the memorial

Me on top of the memorial -- after a long climb up the hill

 

Then we drove around the Scottish Highlands, quite possibly the most beauitful place on earth, full of roaming hills and waterfalls. I have never seen this sort of natural beauty in real life.

The first view of  the Highlands

The girls and I in the Highlands

After an entire day of traveling (and unfortunately carsickness) we stopped in our first hostel, in Fort Williams. Weirdly, we went to a Mexican restaurant that night and it was delicious. Then we went back to our cute little family owned hostel (it was pouring rain all night) and curled up by the fire. It was delightful.

Day 2
 Our day began with a train ride on a real steam train, the train that inspired/used in Harry Potter. Unfortunately we didn't set in Hogwarts Express style seats (those were the first class cars). Though I am not a huge Harry Potter fan I did recognize the romance in riding in an old fashioned steam train with a snack car and a beautiful view the whole way.  Scotland is the most naturally beautiful place I have experienced in my life. The highlands are huge cliffs and mountains (something those of us in the flat midwest don't see everyday) all covered in trees with perfect fall leaves in all different colors. I never understood people who loved fall before, and now I do.

The Steam Train

Jenna and I when the train stopped in the Highlands

After the train ride we grabbed lunch in this cute seaside town (but it was raining too hard to really explore) and then we got back on our tourbus. We were prepared for a long ride to Loch Ness when two wheels literally feel off our bus and we had to wait on the bus for two hours watching a movie. Then when we finally got a new bus it was too late and rainy to ride a boat on the river so instead we stopped and climbed a hill to the Viaduct from Harry Potter (another thing I didn't really understand) but it was another incredible view.

Jenna and Anne frolicking in the mountains (I love this picture so much)

The beautiful view

Then more bus riding and we went to a new hostel. This one was particularly cute, owned by a sweet Scottish family who cooked us a traditional meal featuring Haggis (which I was unable to eat), a delicious dessert and they then taught us how to Scottish dance (such a fun disaster).  Then we got to spend another night sitting in front of a fire.

Our Haggis Dinner (eeew -- but I tried it)

Day 3
The first thing we did that morning before embarking on another long drive was stop at the Loch Ness since hadn't the night before.

In front of the loch

Another photo of the loch

Once again we spent hours on the bus riding through beautiful hills amazed my more views. After the drive we climbed another hill, this time to see real reindeer. They were adorable and we got to feed them. This walk to the reindeer was probably my favorite part, we got to climb over little hills, bridges over rivers and then literally frolic in the mountains with wild animals.

Feeding the reindeer

After lunch and more driving we went to a whiskey factory, I think whiskey is gross but unlike the guiness factory this was a working distillery not a museum so that was interesting to see.

Whiskey factory!

After more amazing scenery and driving we went to Edinburgh which is another great city. Its a larger scenery but manages to have a natural feel. Our hostel was fun since we got to choose our roommates, have a big room and there was conveniently a bar in the basement. Since it was Halloween we all got dressed up in our makeshift costumes, I was a gypsy. Then we went on a ghost tour, which I personally didn't enjoy it was just sort of emotionally manipulative and silly but afterward we went dancing!

Make-shift gypsy costume

Going out for Halloween!

Day 4
On our last day in Scotland we woke up pretty early (thank you European early daylight savings time) and Rachel and I went exploring. We did alot of wandering (our first day in Scotland without rain) and then went to Edinburgh Castle (I love exploring old castles).

Photo on the hillside with the Castle and photo of the Castle

After going to the castle we went to a coffee shop which is famous for being the inspiration, the place were many famous writers (one of them being J.K. Rowling) wrote. i just love a good coffee shop, especially one with amazing chocolate cake.

J.K. Rowling Cafe

After this a few of us went to climb Arthur Seat (a hill with the best view of the city) even though we climbed the wrong track we still got the incredible view and a "photo shoot" ontop of the hill. Then after all of this we got on another five hour train ride and headed home to London! All in all it was an amazing trip. And there are a thousand more photos of facebook so please check them out. Uploading them all to this blog would take forever.

Me ontop of Arthur's seat, overlooking Edinburgh