Whoops, It's been awhile again!

Sorry everyone! Here's a new update on my life here :) Things are really good, I can't believe I actually come home one month from today! It's insane how quickly everything went. And I know this month is going to fly by, I have 2 trips planned, one to Amstardam and one to Rome and Milan. Also two more weekends in London. And then I'm home! So weird. Also crammed in there is a few finals, papers and presentations, so it's starting to be time to actually buckle down and do work here. I haven't really done much this semester, the classes don't seem as challenging as back home, but then again I haven't had much assessment, most of them are structured so that the only factors in the grade are the paper and final. So that's a little scary!

Last weekend, I went to Scotland to visit my roommate at Clark, Hadley. I took a train there, which took about 5 hours. I probably should have spent that time working on all of these projects I have coming up.. But I didn't. It was really amazing to watch the English Countryside go by, So beautiful and different from anything we have in the States. I tried to take pictures but it didn't really work. Saturday in Scotland we woke up to Snow! Not really pretty snow like I've been missing, more like wet rain/snow. Oh well! We still walked around her town, Stirling, for awhile, got soaked and freezing, and then hung out in her flat. Her life is so different from mine here, because she is in an actual University, and she's kind of just thrown in with everyone else. Where as I take classes and live with all Americans, she has roommates and classmates from all over Europe. It was really cool getting to meet all of her friends! Sunday, We took a train together into Edinburgh, which is an amazingly beautiful city. We had about two hours there before my train home, and we spent it wandering around just looking at everything, the sun was out and it was absolutely incredible.

Back in London the weather is getting nicer too, this week we have had multiple sunny days! That's pretty much a first since I've been here. On Thursday another friend of mine from home, Allie, came to visit. After work on friday I went shopping and wandering with her, but that day was not one of the nicer ones, so she didn't get to see London in all of it's beauty. Yesterday though was a perfect day, by far the best weather since we've been here. It was warm and sunny! I met up with a friend in Camden Town, which has this huge market area with stalls selling souvenir-y things. We walked around there for awhile, and then went to Regent's Park which is not to far from me to explore that area. From there we walked to a few more parts of London, we pretty much walked around for four hours straight. It was really fun though! And I started to understand how areas I know in London are connected- Since I don't drive here I know how to get to the places I go on the Tube obviously, but I'm not always fully clear on where they are in relation to other places I go. Really I should just look at a map.  

So that's mostly it for now, it looks like it might be another nice day today, but I think I'm finally going to spend it on homework and things.


Love and Miss you all!! <3

Copenhagen!

This past weekend, I made my first real European excursion, and went to Copenhagen! It was really fun and incredibly beautiful, but also really really cold. I didn't mind that too bad though, as a lot of people know I've sort of been missing the snow. I guess I'll go through the day by day of our trip! 

Friday, after a kind of long journey, which started at 2 am, we got to Copenhagen! We first found our Hostel, which luckily ended up being really really nice! It was very close to the center of the city, so we could pretty much walk everywhere. The guy who worked there was super helpful in telling us where to go, and we set off to wander the city. Walking past a cemetery right near the hostel we accidently stumbled upon Hans Christian Anderson's grave, that was pretty cool!  We then found this shopping area which is supposed to be the largest pedestrian thoroughfare in Europe- it was pretty crazily huge. It felt like you could pretty much walk forever, it was like an outdoor mall the size of a city. Very cool. For lunch we ended up finding a falafel place, which I have to say was the best falafel I've had since I was in Israel, we were very impressed!  After crashing for a bit in the afternoon, we found ourselves dinner and hung out in the Hostel. We played pool for awhile with some Australians who were really nice, and then went out to a bar. 

Saturday, we decided to check out the Carlsberg Brewery. Carlsberg is really big in most of Europe, but people in England kind of give it a lot of crap. Anyways, we thought it would be fun to take a tour as none of us had really done it before. We also got to see a lot of the city on the walk there, including a protest (for something we couldn't really figure out) It was kind of funny watching to protest because it was around 2 and everyone marching had beers, including a man pushing a baby carriage. The Brewery was cool, but it was more of a museum than a guided tour. 

On Sunday, we decided to go check out this place called Christiania. It's a neighborhood which was settled in the 70s, it's supposed to be separated from Danish Government. I think this is mostly self-proclaimed, as the drug trade which is very prevalent there has recently had to move underground. You're not allowed to take pictures inside, according to my guide book this is because of said drug trade. Anways, it was cool to see and walk around in, there were lots of kiosks selling various paraphernalia (No jeremy, I didn't buy anything) 

After that we walked to the Citadel, which is a preserved military fortress from the 1600s. It was amazingly huge, it's still being used by the military today. (more for living than for defense) It's surrounded by these big, steep hills that slope down on either side, I can only imagine how this was created. It's a gorgeous place to walk around, and I was very jealous of the many locals who jog there. 

Our last activity in Denmark was a visit to the Jewish Museum. I was really excited to see this because of the protection Danes provided to Jews during the holocaust, but surprisingly there is very little mention of this in the museum. Still it was interesting to see some very old jewish artifacts and prayer books and things, the museum actually had 4 Torah's on display. 

Returning to London turned out to be a bit difficult as our plane was delayed and then had to be de-iced (see everyone back home? I deal with it too!) We ended up getting back to our flat at about 1:30am, but it was worth it! 

Life in London's pretty good, Today was my first day in the new location of the school I work at, so I did a ton of unpacking and decorating. My own schoolwork is beginning to pick up, and I'm starting to realize that I do actually have to do some homework here, which is a bummer! I just planned two more trips though, Scotland in 2 weekends to visit Hadley (my roommate at Clark) and Rome and Milan at the end of my trip! 

The entrance to the Citadel

Protest

Gorgeous tree lined path near Hans Christian Anderson's grave

Leaving Christiania, the sign says "you are now entering the EU

Miss everyone! 

Mackenzie