Sunday

This is what my Sunday looks like. It's a classically dreary day in London, perfect for staying in and getting ahead on writing final papers.


But while we are here, I might as well throw in a few random pictures from the last couple of weeks!

I can't decide if this was an accident or an art project....

Big Ben in the evening


Every child's musical career seems to being with Hot Crossed Buns. I finally got a chance to experience the real thing! (this is an older picture, but I thought it would fit in nicely here ;p)

'Football Game'

Last night CIEE took us all to a Fulham vs. Burnley soccer game. It was quite fun! The stadium was at Fulham in a lovely neighborhood butted right up to the Thames River.



It was a well attended game, so we got to see some of the local football fan "charm" ;p For the entire second half, the Burnley fans were chanting something that we couldn't understand, but sounded a lot like "We love Mac & Cheese".....

Against all my good health sense, I gave in to getting the traditional game food, giant hot dogs. How could I refuse?!? It was yummy :)


It was a chilly night, but we kept warm by cheering and clapping lots. Fulham won 2-0, so it was a fun game to watch, and what a perfect English experience!

(Some of the CIEE kids: Valentina, Sam, Cassandra, and me)

Grace's Day Out

This weekend was pretty low key, but I did take some time to wander around the central part of the city and just enjoy the fact that I am here! I made sure to take a few pictures to share though :)


This this cottage is at a small park right in Central London. It is where the maintenance material for the wildlife area are kept, but I think it looks like something from a Thomas Kinkade painting.

A newlywed couple was taking some pictures :)

Some gargoyles at an entrance to Westminster Abbey

Above the doors

This is a little sitting area for taking in all the beautiful buildings in the city and watching the world go by!
Big Ben!
This is part of The Palace of Westminster, opposite the bell tower

A closer view of the above tower. It is hard not to take pictures of every inch of every building here. They are so beautiful and looks different each time you see them.
This is a neat monument along the street. There was a lot of construction going on there so the fence kept me from getting close :\

I love this arched structure

The main statue in Trafalgar Square

The National Museum is right behind the square

A fountain in the square

I really enjoyed my day on the town. I also did some shopping along The Strand which is always fun! I plan to do something similar from here on out, now that I am pretty well settled in. It is amazing how much there is to do and see here for nothing more than the cost of a £5 train ticket. My hope is to be able to spend my Saturdays seeing what the city has to offer since the week is pretty busy with school and life things.

Lots of love!

Edinburgh

This past weekend I went on the CIEE hosted trip to Edinbourgh (officially pronounced Ed-in-bra) Scotland. It was a wonderful trip! We left early Friday morning and took a 4 hour train ride right into the city. Along the way most of us slept, but when we were awake we got to see lots of rolling green hills and fields with sheep!


The group went on a haunted graveyard tour that was very fun. It didn't start until 8:30 so it was nice and dark, to add to the scary factor. The tour was part history lesson and part ghost story so we learned a lot about the history of the city along the way.

Saturday was a fun filled day full of walking and site seeing. Cassaundra and I got up early to get in some shopping in the many adorable stores in town, then in the afternoon we took a tour of the castle there. CIEE provided us with a voucher for a bus tour around the city, so of course we did that. The guide had such a think accent that we could only understand him about half the time, but we got the jist of it and enjoyed seeing the whole city. Saturday night was probably my favorite. A small group of us found a tiny bar, a bit off the beaten path, that had local musicians that played tradition Scottish music every night. There was an old man playing bass with two younger men, one playing fiddle and one guitar. It was so fun to hear the music and be surrounded by locals.

Now for the pictures!


A view from the train

This is our room in the Hostel, 8 girls from the program stayed here

These are the stairs we had to climb to get from the hostel to most of the shops and things.

Just a cute apartment area we found while wandering

Shops!

This is St. Giles Cathedral

The Royal Mile (a road with lots of shops and restaurants that ends at the castle)

We went back to the haunted graveyard in the daylight

This is a building within the castle

We got a kick out of a fancy sports car within the castle grounds!

Me standing next to the one of the castle walls

That is Arthur's Seat. It is the highest point in Edinbourgh, it is free to climb but we ran out of daylight before we could make it there. Reason to go back i guess ;)

We took a walk on a side street, and it had a great view of the castle from a distance




When we first got the the bar, there was only room to sit behind the musicians. We eventually moved so we could see all of them, but back here I was able to take a stealth tourist video ;P


Sunday morning we got up early to catch the train back to London. All in all it was a really great trip and I would love to go back to see the highlands and more of Scotland!