The end of a long week...

So...good news! I have made a new best friend! :) His name is Ron (yes, as in Ronald Weasley, but not - coz it's Ronald McDonald). Before leaving for Europe I vowed to not set foot in any American chain while I'm here to get the full and authentic European experience (minus the crazy nights out.... ;) ). However, in my desperation to internet that doesn't cost me an arm and a leg, I have resorted to befriending Mickey D. It was either that or Pert a Manger - a coffee shop with free internet. So, why, do you ask, am I still frequenting the fake meat and cheese junk food chain of the world? because as evolved and progressive as England is, they have yet to learn how to make a decent cup of coffee! Sure, ask for tea and you'd probably get the best cuppa in the world - but coffee? you might as well hand me a cup of dirt with a packet of sugar and a dollop of foam...

Much has happened this past week (not even...more like a few days!) and as much as I know you all love me (for those of you who are presently smirking in objection, please let me live in ignorant bliss for a while...) I know none of you will want to read the very detailed and verbose account of my adventures, especially with move-in and the start of SENIOR YEAR!! Wow, I feel old. Anyway, so in order to minimize tangents etc, I'll just list some of the highlights of the week and feel free to ask about the ones that interest you and I'll try to email you back...

• British Museum: really cool! saw the Rosetta Stone!! there were many cool exhibits from Egypt, Assyria and Athens. I can't even get my mind around the fact that I saw marble stones and Egyptian statues that were over 4000 years old!!!!! I mean, that's incredible...
• The British Library: probably my favorite outing thus far. we went to an exhibit celebrating the 500 year anniversary of Henry VIII's rule. What an interesting character...saw some cool things like his love letters to Anne Boleyn etc and a lot of really old and neat documents and portraits. But my favorite part was the Sir John Ritblat gallery that housed some of the most awesome and important documents and books, including the original copies of books by authors such as Jane Austen, Wordsworth, Erasmus, Luther and the original composition of Handel's Messiah and Mozart's Marriage of Figaro - and some of the lyrics to some of the songs that the Beatles wrote on scrap pieces of paper... They even have the Codex Sindai...somethingsomething - basically, the first complete New Testament in Greek, and the Gutenberg Bible (surprisingly decorated and colorful!). I also saw the Magna Carta!!! And, for the few of you who will appreciate this, a letter written by Darwin to his friend (Sedwig?) about his book the Origin of Species. I must say, I'm a little disappointed that I didn't get to see the original copy of that book, but if I had the money to spend to go into the other galleries, that's one I'd definitely look up...
• As far as food goes: I've mostly gotten stuff from the grocery stores for lunch (breakfast is provided) and dinner has been mostly going out: there are some good places around, but they are really expensive. I'm excited to explore some more of the pubs and bars in the area - I've had some good ciders and wine so far, but I haven't had much time to go out yet with homework and being extremely tired (and sick :( i am extremely congested and mostly feel pretty terrible when I wake up in the mornings)

ok, that's all I can think of right now - and I'm getting tired of typing, as I am sure you are getting tired of reading. I'll try to update every week at least...We're going to Birmingham to a Quaker study center on Monday and we're staying till Thursday before coming back to London for another week or so, so I'm not expecting to have internet then. If you wanna talk on skype - late Friday nights work best for me as far as internet and schedule goes (I know, sorry for those of you with a social life...haha!) but if you're busy then or don't really care to talk to me live, then send me an email! I love contact with the outside world :) k, good luck with the new school week - and for those of you with off campus addresses, please send me your addresses so I can send you all postcards!

Touchdown in Londontown!

So, it's been a couple weeks since I've updated this and I guess now is as good a time as ever coz this will be the last time I'll have regular free wireless internet this semester. I flew to London a bit earlier to stay with my cousin for a few days, which meant that I had to make my transatlantic journey entire alone. And wow, what an experience! My flight was prolly as good as it could be - Virgin Atlantic is a great airline and if it weren't for the food and the old Egyptian lady who stole my seat and needed help with something just about every hour, it would have been near perfect.

Of course, the flight was the easy part - after landing in London I still needed to make my way from Heathrow to my cousin's apartment without a phone or very clear directions. But wonder by wonder I made it to the station I was supposed to be for her to pick me up and show me to her apartment - and the Underground is highly overrated, in case anyone was wondering: very convenient, but I really don't know what the hype is...anyway, I had a phone number to call my cousin but since I got it off my cell phone, it had a bunch of unnecessary numbers. The only problem was, I had no idea which ones were unnecessary. So, after trying a few different combinations on the payphone, I gave up, decided to swallow my pride and ask for help at the bus info booth. I went up to the booth and explained that I didn't know which numbers to dial because I was from America and the old man behind the counter kinda laughs and goes, "Really? I would never have guessed!" I didn't know if I should laugh or be offended. All I knew was that I wanted to explain that I'm not American, but a South African with a Dutch passport, who's been living in America for 7 years and yet within minutes of landing in London, I was thinking in a British accent! Man, if anyone ever suffered from an identity crisis, it's me!

The rest of the weekend consisted of hanging out with my cousin and her friends - all from South Africa. It's almost difficult to believe I'm in England - I've been speaking Afrikaans for the past week straight now! We went to go see a SA singer Robbie Wessels at a SA bar called Aardvark and I am completely convinced that South Africans are the Irish of the southern hemisphere! The show was great and even though I didn't know any of the words, I loved being with people my age and from the same culture as I grew up in. This is becoming more and more of a challenge to my identity though, because as much as I'm South African and as much as I've assimilated into the American culture, I'm really not from either anymore...

I've spent some time walking around the neighborhoods of London and if you check out my album, you'll get a peak of what it's been like - I'm not gonna repeat any of the little stories that I added with the pictures, but feel free to check out the album! All I can say is that I'm loving not being a tourist yet. I love seeing how and where regular people live...

That's it for me now - I really haven't done or seen a whole lot (oh, I actually went to Greenwich - such a cute little area of London with a cool market, no pics though...) since I've been waiting to do all that with the Europe group instead of repeating all the tourist attractions. Next time I'm online though, it's sure to be a much longer and much more touristy post - so if that's your thing, then be excited! and if not, well then, we'll see what I can do :)

So here goes...my first attempt at blogging and sharing my thoughts and adventures with the cyberworld. I guess I'm not really a huge fan of blogging but in the name of efficiency I think I will have to let this slide for a few months, considering I'm not really the best personal correspondent...

Right now, I'm just over a week away from leaving the Land of the Free and I have quite a bit of homework to do still. I hear that it's all worth it to do it now instead of over there, but right now my id begs to differ and it's putting up quite the fight...all I really care about is the instant gratification of laying out on the beach and enjoying the good Californian sun one last time before I get swallowed by the clouds of Europe. I should probably hit the books again soon, but just to give all of you that care to read this a little preview of what's to come:

I'm leave from LAX the 19th, which is a little earlier than most. My original intent was to spend some time travel on my own and maybe see Scotland, but after a little research on prices and such, it seems to be a more expensive option than I bargained for. So, instead I'll be visiting more with my cousin who lives in London and get a little taste of the South African life in England!

Then, the 25th it's off to school again - woohoo! So, in case any of you were interested, this is our current itinerary...


British Isles
Hub -- LondonTuesday 8/25 - Sunday 9/20
London: Tuesday 8/25 through Sunday 8/30
Birmingham: Monday 8/31 through Thursday 9/3
London: Friday 9/4 through Monday 9/14
Transition via Rostrever, N. Ireland: Tuesday 9/15 through Sunday 9/20

Northern Europe
Hub -- BrugesMonday 9/21 through Sunday 10/11 21 days
Bruges: Monday 9/21 through Thursday 9/24
Normandy/Paris Friday 9/25 through Thursday 10/1
Bruges: Friday 10/2 through Tuesday 10/6
Transition via Amersfoort Homestays: Friday 10/7 through Sunday 10/11

Central Europe
Hub -- Berlin Monday 10/12 through Friday 10/30 19 days
Berlin: Monday 10/12 through Tuesday 10/27
Poland: Wednesday 10/21 through Friday 10/23
Berlin: Saturday 10/24 through Tuesday 10/27
Transition via Prague: Wednesday10/28 through Friday 10/30

Southern Europe
Hub -- Florence Saturday 10/31 through Sunday 11/22 23 days
Four-Day Break: Saturday 10/31 through Tuesday 11/3
Florence: Wednesday 11/4 through Tuesday 11/17
Transition via Rome: Wednesday 11/18 through Sunday 11/22

Europe Peripherique (Turkey)
Hub -- Istanbul Monday 11/23 through Monday 12/7 15 days
Istanbul: Monday 11/23 through Monday 12/7
Konya: Tuesday 12/1 to Thursday 12/3
Ephesus: Thursday 12/3 to Monday 12/7
Return to London, Monday 12/7

I come back December 8th - you know, in case any of you need an excuse to ditch class and come pick me up at LAX :) jk! but hopefully I'll get a visit in before I see all of you in the Spring!

Well that's about it for now...looks like I'm gonna hit the beach afterall so I gotta run!

PS if any of you tech savvy people wanna help me figure out this blog thing, that'd be great...I'm not sure I know exactly how to change all the fonts and layouts etc.

k, peace out!