Blogs from United Kingdom, Europe - page 2962

Today some fellow students and I ventured to Camden Town, which has the best vintage shops I've seen so far, and to Hampsted Heath. Hampsted Heath is an enormous heath that has a hill called Parliment Hill which was told to me to be the highest point in London. Hampsted Heath also had the largest desk and chair I've ever seen (kind of odd location), I will insert some pictures to explain. Tomorrow some different people and I are going to visit the changing of the guard and back to Camden so that I can actually look around and do some shopping (light shopping, don't worry dad). I miss you all and hope that you are well! Love, Jen... read more

Well here I am less than 48 hours from departure and despite my best efforts to be ruthless and travel light (a new concept to me) I still can't fit everything in my bag. I'm sure this will come as no surprise to anyone that even vaguely knows me! The problem is, I need all this practical stuff like sleeping bag, water purification kit and sleep mat, so there is no room for my hair straighteners! Whose idea was it to go camping?! Well I'm feeling a bit nervous now and sad to be saying goodbye to my family who have been fantastic, putting me up (and putting up with me) since I came back from doing a ski season in France earlier this year. But, there's no going back now and I am excited about ... read more

I had my first "official" class today. I put "official" into quotation marks because I am still not quite sure if I attended a class, a conversation, and informational meeting, or a two hour discussion on inflation. My first foray into Graduate life could be described as any of those things. I shall take this opportunity to explain the University of Edinburgh's own unique and different approach to Graduate life. I have been pretty frustrated with the overall lack of contact I have had with people from the University over the past several months -- so much so that the very fact that I knew where to be to make it possible to attend my first class was something of a miracle in and of itself. From numerous paperwork problems to a complete and total lack ... read more

Well Everyone, Its only 10 weeks now until we embark on our big adventure!! Our official departure date is now set for the 30th November. We will spend nearly a week in San Fran on the way over and land in London on the 5th Dec. Hopefully we will stay with friends in Londn for a night before travelling to Edinburgh to start our new life. We both finish work on the 28th Oct - (Marky's birthday) and want to spend the month before we leave with family and freinds. things will be pretty hectic before we leave - 400m irrigation to lay and 300 trees to plant out at the section then we have to move out of our flat by the 15th Oct. Marky is very busy helping family and freinds out before he ... read more

Today Taylor and I took a walking tour around the Westminster-Trafalgar Sq area. We started off to Buckingham Palace through Green Park to watch the changing of the guard at 11:30am. However, in September the changing is every other day according to the brochure. Ok, so we get there and it’s apparently every EVEN day…which means its tomorrow. Big bummer! So after that hit we went and visited St. James’s Park which is gorgeous and fun to walk around. We then saw the Horse Guards Parade or ceremony (I think). We then walked over past the Cabinet War Rooms to 10 Downing Street which is really hard to see because they have all these gates and police there as security guards. We skipped over the Banqueting Hall because it’s not something special, (at least to me) ... read more