The last two weeks have been PACKED with fieldtrips. We've been to Stonehenge (overrated), Salisbury (beautiful cathedral where the Magna Carta is kept), Bath (site of ancient Roman baths), Liverpool (the Beatles) and Manchester (center of the British industrial revolution). All this traveling has been offset by the celebrations of Halloween and Guy Fawkes day. I'll just do a few quick highlights of each place to give you a general idea. Stonehenge Honestly, I was not that impressed. Yeah, it's intriguing to wonder about how they got into that formation and all, considering they're big and heavy... but after seeing the Parthenon, nothing compares. There are, however, some cool myths about the big famous rocks, which are worth mentioning. It is believed to be around 4,000 years old, and some theories claim that it was originally ... read more

We continue to become increasingly educated on the intricacies of British Life and Culture. On Monday we watched a film called Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. It was made in the 60s and, according to our professor, captures the feel of the English working class during postwar Britain... which was kinda ironic to me because it felt like it was straight out of a Tennessee Williams script. For the Art History class, we went back to the National Gallery. That's right- there's so much cool stuff in this museum, we went to it twice. This time, we saw painting that were a bit more modern. Some of my favorites were Degas, Canaletto, John Constable, Turner, and Paul Cezanne. We also saw lots of van Gogh, Renoir, and Monet. The main focus for class was the move ... read more

And nobody in all of Oz, no wizard that there is or was, is ever gonna bring me down! On Monday in our British Life & Culture class, we brought in the goodies we bought at the markets on our shopping adventures. We were educated about the joys of black pudding (look it up- try not to vomit), Jaffa Cakes (essentially Milano cookies), pasties (not the same thing as pastries- it's more like a Hot Pocket), and HP Sauce, among other things. We then were given a large sheet of paper, one per group, and instructed to write down some information about our particular shopping experiences. When everyone had finished, we stuck the papers up on the walls around the room and compared details. There were some interesting variances, from price ranges to the type of ... read more

This weekend was pretty chill for me. Some of the people in our group travelled, but I have yet to leave for a weekend getaway. However, plans are in motion for a trip to France or Italy, and Germany will definitely happen within the next month. The other day I went down to Camden market with four other people from the group - it's so cool! Tons of funky little shops with cute clothes and jewelry and music, even fresh fruit vendors and Chinese food everywhere! I didn't end up buying anything (yet), but it was fun to look around. After the markets closed we decided to go to Trafalger Square, it's beautiful at night. We watched the platform performer, he was juggling and playing an inflatable guitar. There is a huge chess set arranged in ... read more

Last night was birthday dance party night! We got all dressed up and danced the night away at a place called ZOO Club. It was insane! There were two floors, with multiple rooms on each floor, and each room was playing a different type of music. The top floor was pretty crowded but downstairs had more room to dance. It's incredible how many people you meet here; London is an incredibly diverse town. We met guys from Iraq last night, and a few Irish and German people. We even ran into a girl from Washington DC! We were all dragging a little bit this morning, but we had all day to recover so it wasn't too bad. I went running at the park down the road from our townhouse. It's a beautiful place, with several fields ... read more