I've got a lot of catching up to do!

Hey guys,

So I have been slacking on these posts, but I promise to make it up right now! So my last post began talking about the first week of classes and now classes have ended so I will try to do a recap of my educational experience at King's real quick. It is crazy to me how the classes here are only a few days a week and only last for 3 MONTHS! I still have some essays to write that are due at the end of April until I'm completely done, but I don't have anymore classes and Easter break here is from March 28-April 26! A MONTH LONG SPRING BREAK I KNOW IT'S CRAZY! Overall, I have enjoyed all of my classes and have learned a great deal, especially from my American Underground Cinema class. Although this class has positively been the strangest experience with cinema I have ever encountered and the topics were not at all what I expected, I'm glad I was able to broaden my knowledge of film as a whole and the varying topics and genres that the industry encompasses. It has given me a better understanding of the artistic meaning behind each individual film and how much meaning and depth every scene or roll of film can hold. Anyway, all of my other classes were great overall, this one was just the most interesting and also the most challenging.

I think the last event I talked about was going bouldering. So for a solid two weeks after that I was sick as a dog. I learned a lot about the differences in British and American medicine. For instance, acetaminophen at home is called Paracetamol here and it's in everything!!! So i basically OD on Sudafed one day because I had no idea that I was taking so many meds in each pill. Anyways, so while I was sick, my friend Kelsey Wuensch and a few of her friends that are all studying in Dublin came up for a visit. I was of little help because I barely moved from my bed but they stayed with us and had a good time visiting London. I did manage to meet them one night to go on the London Eye, which was AMAZING and I highly recommend going at night, and to a little pub called The Sherlock Holmes.

The next weekend we went to  Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard. There were so many people I think I need to go back just to see the palace again. I can't even imagine how many people would be going there now that it's getting warmer because I can already see how the amount of people in Trafalgar's Square and on Oxford St. and such have at least doubled since the weather has improved.

The following Monday I believe, my days are blurred together, Katie, Teresa and I went to the Natural History Museum in Kensington, which is my favorite place in London so far, probably because it's very posh and has all the rows of typical white flats with black fences that personify London on TV. The museum itself was huge and had a good bit of dinosaur fossils, which is what I wanted to go see. I still need to go back to Kensington and go to the V and A museum (fashion museum) and to see the house where part of The Parent Trap was filmed!!! I only have a short amount of time left to explore London before I leave for my eurotrip, but I feel that there is never enough time to explore everything London has to offer and all the secret historical facts that can be found right around the corner. For instance, we found out that part of Madonna's Hung Up video was shot in Elephant & Castle basically right across the street from my flat!!!

Fossil of Giant Sloth!

The weekend of the 15-18 of Feb we went to Amsterdam and Brussels. It was pretty cold and windy but both were amazing cities. We began in Amsterdam and stayed just outside the city because Sarah's mom, who frequents Marriott hotels, got us a deal for $20 a night. We also got an upgrade to a family room that slept 6 instead of 4 once we got there so I GOT A WHOLE BED TO MYSELF! We began our visit just walking around a getting a feel for the city. We went to Dam Square, the main square of Amsterdam and there were tons of pigeons. It reminded me of all the pigeons we I went to Venice with People to People in high school. Well, I was like a kid in a candy shop and I want to go mess with them. As we got closer, we realized that they were randomly landing on people looking for food and before we knew it we were surrounded by pigeons! It was a fun spontaneous thing that made the trip even more fun! 

Next we made our way to the Anne Frank house, which was totally worth the long line we stood in. I haven't read the book in a very long time but the experience was so humbling and such a reality check to what happened here not very long ago. The house itself was even mind blowing because in each room they had pictures of what the room looked like when it was used for a hide out and there were so many relics behind glass. I guess it was so real and I have never experienced that with any museum or historical place I had visited before. It blew my mind how the original bookcase that they used to move in order to access their hideout was still there and all of the books and you could see how worn it was from where people would place their fingers in the same spots each time. Then at the top of the house that had a brief history about the holocaust. I thought it was going to be the same stuff that we have seen and discussed in school, and for the most part it was. But there was this one picture of when the Nazis invaded Amsterdam and they were all standing in a group with Hitler at the front in DAM SQUARE. That's when it hit me how thousands of Nazi soldiers stood just where I was standing not half an hour ago and how it was not that long ago that Anne and her family were taken from this house. It was truly the most touching thing I have ever been too. Amsterdam is a beautiful city with all of the canals. It is really the Venice of the north. After Anne Frank we had pancakes (crepes) at this place called the Pancake Bakery. They specialized in Pancakes and I got a pancake with BACON IN IT! and let me tell you it was delicious! 

Anne Frank House

The second day we concentrated on the main strips of the city, mainly the tulips & shopping strips, chinatown, and the Red Light district. We went down the oldest street in the city, Zeedjik street, which is now the Chinatown of Amsterdam. From there we walked to the Heineken Experience, which was interesting but just confirmed that I DO NOT LIKE BEER! After the exhibit, we got a free boat ride on the Heineken boat along the canals to their gift shop. We then went to an Italian restaurant for dinner where I had a delicious pizza with spinach and prosciutto. It was a very big restaurant with 3 floors and you got a hotel type of card that the waiters would swipe when you ordered your food and then you would hand it to the cashier at the end to pay for your meal. I wish they had one of the restaurants in the US. I loved how fresh all of the ingredients were and how the pizza was not greasy at all. We need to open more places like these! After that we went to the Ice Bar, which sadly was a huge disappointment. It was very cheesy and not even a bar it was just a freezer where we sat in a smelly blue poncho and watched a very poorly done 3D video about a penguin and a key. However, we wanted to do it somewhere and we thought 'Why not Amsterdam' haha. 

Wall of Bottles at Heineken Experience

Oh, I forgot to mention that on our way to the Heineken, we walked through the Red Light District and went to a prostitution museum. I know that sounds weird, but it was a museum about how many of these girls are forced into the business because men tell them they can help them become a model, actress, dancer, etc. and then they steal their passports. We also learned that the windows and rooms that they occupy during their shifts they have to rent so most of the money the make that day is going towards their daily rent. One confession we read in the museum was how one woman said she had made well over a million dollars but because of rent and daily living costs, she had no money left. It was very sad and we saw a few women in windows but not as many as you always here about. However, it was a different story when we went back through at night. Everything is really red and the street is packed and almost every other window has a woman in it. It was very sad and we, being 4 girls, didn't know how to react in that situation so we did not stay long. It is definitely not a family place, although we did see some children walking with their parents, which was disturbing. Our final day we spent walking to Vodelpark and to the famous I AMSTERDAM sign, which was harder than you might think to climb on top of, but Teresa and I did it! 

Red Light District at night.

We then took the train to Brussels and arrived and night on Monday the 17th. Our hostel was awesome and very clean. It was kind of like a warehouse that had been converted into a hostel. The next day we did a 3 hour walking tour of Brussels which was amazing and was a great way to see the city in so little time. We got to see the main square, Mannequin Piss (the famous peeing statue), and the house where Karl Marx wrote the Communist Manifesto, among other things. 

Mannequin Piss

After the tour we basically did a food crawl in Brussels because Belgium is famous for so many foods and we had a very short amount of time. First, we went and got true Belgian waffles, which were very good but not as sweet as American waffles. We then went a got a traditional Brussels dish that our tour guide recommended. It was basically mashed potatoes with brussels sprouts mixed in and a giant sausage on top. It was amazing and I don't usually like brussels sprouts. We then went to go get mussels for dinner, but not before grabbing a piece of Belgian chocolate on the way. After all of that eating we had a very pleasant and sleepy trip on the Eurostar (the train that runs through an underwater tunnel connecting England and Europe) back home to London. 

giant meringues...bigger than my face!

Well that's all for now because I need to go to bed. Tomorrow I will work on March and hopefully get caught up soon! For now, all of my pictures are up on Facebook so have a look! Cheers!