Hi friends!

I've been up to a lot lately. But I am feeling incredibly lazy, so you can find the details here. I'll just leave you with this:

Lizzie and her fans

Hi Friends,

In an unsurprising sequence of events, the weekend passed much too quickly and the school week is in full swing. I'll fill you all in on my weekend while I wait for my next class to start. Wednesday was Sportsnite (Yes, I am starting with Wednesday because that is technically when my weekend starts due to the fact that I don't have class on Thursdays or Fridays. Be jealous.). Anyways, it was a really good time. The school pub was packed, and at one point the entire crowd broke out singing the unofficial, hilariously English and wildly inappropriate fight song (that Lizzie and I are perfectly willing to perform on demand). Everyone then made the trek to the club, which was one big dance party. On Thursday, I met up with some classmates to work on a group project, and that was pretty much the only productive thing I did all day. Well, productive is a relative term. I also caught up on Nashville, which is a feat that some might consider productive (Me being one of those people). That night, Lizzie, a few other friends and I went to Proud, an old horse hospital and stable that was converted into a club. This place was awesome. All of the stables were converted into individual drinking stalls, and the particular stall that we hijacked had both a "dancing" pole and karaoke station. The songs weren't that up-to-date, which was not a problem for us. We jammed to the classics, Sk8r Boi and Mr. Brightside, and the karaoke machine was pretty pointless because we all knew the words by heart.

Ailee, Alexa, Me, and Rachel outside Proud

Friday was a lazy day, and that night Lizzie and I made dinner in our flat kitchen. Well, Lizzie made the dinner. I supervised. Friday and Saturday were two more club nights, but in my opinion not as fun as Proud.

On Saturday during the day, though, we went to the Borough Market. It was a huge maze of stalls with every type of food you could dream of, from Thai to Italian to Exotic Meat (they were literally selling llama and camel burgers). Lizzie settled on pasta, and I had a grilled cheese. Actually, calling it just a grilled cheese is not fair to the perfection that was this sandwich. The stall melted a block of cheese under long metal strips spouting flames, and then scraped the melted cheese onto the toasted bread. It was poetry in food form. Nirvana. Ecstasy. 

The Ultimate Grilled Cheese

That's all for now. Wish me luck, I'm heading into an oral presentation on the theoretical perspective behind the British political system! (Hint: there's not a lot in there about baby George)

Hello friends, it's update time!

The first week of class is underway, and let me start this post with one of my characteristic overdramatic venting sessions. I don't know whether it is the higher education system of the UK, or just UCL in general, but everything seems to be unnecessarily complicated and confusing. I'm not kidding. There are three different websites I had to operate for registration, and the system tells you which classes are approved (because none of them are guaranteed) after the first week of school already starts. I didn't find out that a class I signed up for got rejected until after I had already missed the new class that I got placed in (attendance is mandatory, which is why that matters). After the registration debacle finally got sorted out, and I made it to the rest of my classes, I was presented with a new obstacle: textbooks. All of my professors gave their reading lists with the required textbooks on the first day of class, and by the second day of class all but one of the books I needed were sold out, and wouldn't be restocked until next week. Why were these books sold out, you ask? BECAUSE THE BOOKSTORE ONLY ORDERS AROUND 3 COPIES OF EACH AT A TIME. So now I am forced to duke it out with the 27 other students who also couldn't buy their copies from the store to check out the sole copy from the library. But other than that, school is great! That was only partially sarcastic. I really am excited about the classes I'm taking (which are Comparative Politics, British Politics, Politics of the European Union, and the Welfare State).

Okay. Enough school talk. The Sports Clubs here are the fun ways to get involved in the social scene at UCL. After some research, I discovered that the members of the Lacrosse Club here have the most fun. And so, last Sunday, I attended the Welcome Training Session. After an hour bus ride to the field, three hours of honest-to-God lacrosse playing in all of its humiliating glory, and an hour ride home, I have come to the incontrovertible decision that lacrosse is just not my sport. This means that I am the UCL Lacrosse Club's newest Social Member (you guessed it: all social events, no lacrosse).

The first and last time I will ever wield a lacrosse stick

Every Wednesday here is Sportsnite, where all of the sports clubs get together at the school pub to take advantage of the drink specials, and then later travel to Loop, a club that is rented out every week for UCL sports. I'm guessing my social membership isn't so hard to understand.

Now that school has started I'm definitely starting to get into a routine, and it really does feel like I live here, and not just like I'm on an extended vacation. That's all for now, have to get ready for Sportsnite! (theme is cops and robbers, so obviously I'm getting super creative and wearing all black).

P.S. Here is a selfie of me and Lizzie and our camel friends that we met on our run (in Regent Park which goes past the London zoo). For your amusement!

Hi friends,

Over the past two days I made the venture out of England and into Edinburgh, Scotland. And let me tell you, it was an amazing time. The trip itself was entirely impromptu--Lizzie, Catherine, Ailee and I booked our train tickets the night before, and I packed in about three minutes. We stayed with one of Catherine's friends, Richard, who is studying abroad at the University of Edinburgh, and were warned that our accommodations would be less than ideal (which I later found was a massive understatement). After the four hour train ride there (which I might add was about a million times better than the flight from Houston for those of you who read my last post), Richard met us at the train station and led us back to his flat where we dropped off our things. We then headed straight over to King Arthur's Seat, a hill in the center of Edinburgh whose peak has arguably the most gorgeous view I have ever seen. While the view from the top was stunning, the trek up was miserable. The hike was steep and physically demanding, and we were straight off the train, so none of us were in hiking attire. It was foggy but not too cold, which made the weather what I can only describe as clammy once we started to sweat. I actually think that these conditions almost made the view more beautiful once we got to the top. 

After we took in the view, snapped our pictures, and rested a bit, we hiked back down the hill, which was actually more precarious than the way up, because the combination of the steep incline, loose dirt, and relatively quick pace we were moving at created the perfect atmosphere for me to slip and fall. Once we reached the bottom, we headed straight to a local pub for a drink, and then back to the flat to freshen up before dinner. Dinner itself was really fun, and afterwards we went to a club called Why Not?, where we somehow ended up on the VIP list. There were a lot of locals our age there, and loud music and colorful lights made for a fun atmosphere. 

Lizzie, Catherine, me, and Ailee at dinner

We started the next morning with a coffee at The Elephant Cafe, where J.K. Rowling wrote the beginnings of the first Harry Potter novel on a napkin. The cafe itself looked pretty normal, until I got to the bathroom, where all of the walls were literally covered by Harry Potter themed graffiti. I let my nerd flag fly and etched my initials into the wall. 

This Way To The Ministry

We then walked over to the Edinburgh Castle. It was so cool that there was this giant piece of history in the middle of this bustling city. We walked around the outside, and then headed over to the National Museum of Scotland, where we got even more history after exploring the Mary Queen of Scots Exhibit. The exhibit was fascinating, and I learned so much about the Scottish queen who sacrificed her kingdom and ultimately her life because of her passion for two men.

Outside Edinburgh Castle

We decided to make dinner instead of going out, so we all pitched in for ingredients and had our own Taco Tuesday dinner. I have only known Ailee and Catherine for a week and a half and they already know me well enough to demote me to cheese grater while everyone else did the real cooking, which was it's own perfect storm. Lizzie was in charge of the meat, and that was the meal's saving grace. Catherine tried to make rice without instructions, and we ended up throwing out what became a big blob of white mush. We didn't have paper towels, so we got creative and used a roll of toilet paper for napkins, which was actually a hilarious experience. After dinner, we met up with a friend of Lizzie's and mine from UT, John Melvin, who is studying abroad in Edinburgh this semester. He is a part of the golf club, and we tagged along with the whole group and played Pub Golf, which was essentially a pub crawl with specific scoring rules for the drinking. It was a great way to see a wide variety of Edinburgh night life!

Texas pride in the UK!

After an uncomfortable night's sleep on two chairs pushed together (Richard wasn't kidding about those less than ideal accommodations), my seat on the 8:30 am train ride back to London felt like luxury living. All in all, I had a fantastic time in Scotland--it was a perfect mix of culture, history, night life, and fun memories!

Hello friends who like me enough to read this blog! As you may have been able to tell from the title, I have indeed gone to London to study abroad for the fall semester (with my one of my very best friends, Lizzie Spence). I've been here for about two days, but I feel like enough has already happened to keep me busy for a week. I'll spare you the gory details and just give you the spark note version of the past 48 hours or so:

Phase 1: The Journey

Lizzie and I at the airport before our flight.

The only reason I look even remotely happy in this picture is because it was taken before any traveling had started. For those of you who know me well, this won't come as a surprise, but I am horrendously uncoordinated. This makes me an awful traveler. I spent basically the whole time in both the Houston and London airports juggling my three bags, plane ticket, passport, and phone--actually, juggling implies that these items remained in the air (they actually spent most of their time on the floor). I made the mistake of looking forward to the flight, because it meant that I didn't have to trip over myself through the airport. However, once I sat down in the center seat in the heart of the coach section, I quickly changed my mind. My knees started to hurt after an half hour of sitting down, I wasn't comfortable for more that ten minutes at a time, and time moved at a glacial place. We landed after what felt like an eternity, and surprisingly baggage claim and customs took about 5 minutes each. It seemed like a good omen, and I thought my bad luck might have been reset by a new country. But then we spent an hour and a half in the cab towards our flat and I was put back in my place. 

Phase 2: The First Day

Lizzie and I were dumbstruck when we finally got through student residences and into our flat. It's massive! It is actually the biggest room I've ever had. The pictures don't do it justice, but I am not about to take a new one in the messy state that it is currently in. Living here really makes it feel like we are living the quintessential study abroad dream. 

Our stoop at 119 Gower Street

Lizzie's (much cleaner) side

We dropped our bags off and left to explore the city so that we wouldn't fall asleep and succumb to jet lag. It wasn't too cold when we left, so we made the amateur mistake of leaving our coats in the flat. We quickly regretted this decision when it started to rain 20 minutes later. Nonetheless, we shopped around, ate, rode the tube, met one of Lizzie's friends in Notting Hill for dinner, and after what felt like a year, finally were able to sleep. 

Phase 2: Settling In 

The next couple of days have been spent settling into our flat, running errands, and attending our respective department orientation meetings (Lizzie is studying Anthropology here, and I am studying Political Science). It was surprisingly sunny the second day, so we took advantage of the nice weather and went to see Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and Buckingham Palace. The architecture was beautiful, and being near these landmarks was when it really sank in that I am actually living in London. 

(Side Note: I am stealing a lot of these pictures from Lizzie, who is also keeping a blog, which you can find at http://lizziespence.blogspot.com)

There is a lot more that's happened the past three days I've been here (check out Lizzie's blog for details), but I am late for dinner and everything has pretty much blended together anyways. I promise I will be more punctual about posting from now on so that my posts are a bit more detailed. Until next time!