Interesting Tights

A few weeks ago I bought some black hose with a line going up the back to wear with my skirts and tall boots. I'll have you know, that prior to London I hadn't worn a pair of hose in probably 5 years. This is because I hate that you can't wear open toed shoes without having webbed feet and I hate that the area at the top of your thighs is uncomfortable and restricting b/c the two legs are attached.

Well, the hose I bought ended up being two seperate legs with latex at the top so that they stick to your thighs and don't fall down. I didn't realize this upon purchasing them, and at first was bummed out about my weird tights, but now I LOVE them. They haven't fallen yet, and I've had them on for 6 hours!

I think I'm going to Mark's and Spencer and buy 4 more pairs before I leave.

Oxford, Blenheim Palace and St. Patrick's Day

Oxford - a cute college town. There doesn't seem to be much going on, but maybe that was because we were there in the morning. I don't really have much to say about it - except for I perfer MU. I did get a sweet Oxford University T-shirt though.

Blenheim Palace - a beautiful house. Winston Churchill was born here and he is buried basically in the backyard. Pretty decorating and gardens. The best part of this trip was our guest, Flat Stanley. He is a paper doll that my 7-year-old cousin sent me. It is a school project of hers (funny- I do all the work). Flat Stanley travels around with me for 2 weeks and I take pictures with him infront of cool monuments etc. I also have to send brochures and post cards back with him. To liven things up I made Ali hold him next to a statue in the garden - next to the statues penis. It is hallerious, and you all will have to see this paper doll dressed in a suit with a smile on his face hanging out next to the penis. This picture is not for the 7-year-old, it is for my Aunt.

St. Patrick's Day

What do the English do on St. Patricks? Walk down to the local Irish pub and drink Guiness of course. Since we've been here for 2 and a half months we are now "English" so we joined in. Our Irish pub is Finnigin's Wake. It was super crowded, like Tonic late on a Thursday night. As soon as we walked in the door we were greated with a hearty, "Heeaaahhh!" from our IE friends and the rest of the bar joined in. It was like Cheers but everyone doesn't know your name.

Near the end of the night I went for my final pint and on my way back to my friends I am stopped by a 20 something British guy.

"This is going to sound like an odd question but - which state are you from?"

"How come it is obvious that I'm American," I exclaimed.

"We just know these things," british guy.

"Oh - St. Louis, Missouri."

Excitedly looking over at the table of 15 of his guy friends shouts, "WHO GUESSED MISSOURI?!?"

They were playing a new drinking game- "Guess what state the American's are from". The winner picks a mate to chug his full pint, and then the loser chugs and buys himself and the winner a new pint.

I thought it was pretty funny - and it turns out that they all go to Imperial College and are going to graduate with degrees in medicine three monts from now - I dunno why I didn't strike up a convo. with one of the cute ones. British accent, cute and a doctor.

Saturday Night Fever

Tony, Ali's childhood friend from Iowa, came in town Saturday. To cure his hunger (and ours) Ali, Kenzie and I took him to Benjy's - an all day breakfast resturant down the street from our flat. If you are not familiar with traditional english breakfast this is what it (generally) contains:

Toast
Egg (sunny side up)
Baked Beans
Sasuages
Chips
Ham

This combo sounds gross, but actually it is really good. After filling up we all came home to take a nap because a full night of pubing was on the menu.

O'Neills (an Irish pub around the corner from the flat) was the place to be. It being an Irish pub was decked out for St. Patricks Day - 2 DAYS AND COUNTING! We ordered some pints and soon enough Tracy Behlmann (SMS Delta Zeta from St. L), Pat and Tracy's mom who had just arrived that day met up with us.

Tracy has the COOLEST mom ever - she fit right in with the crowd and ordered us all a pitcher (here they are 4 pints). After this escapade we decided it was time to head over to our favorite bar, The Walkabout. Too many pints later - we ended up on the good ol' N 97 on our way back to Earl's Court.

On Friday I got to go out to one of the National Trust Properties in Kent - Igtham Mote. It is a house that was built in 1330 and people lived in it all the way up until 1985. The Trust has been restoring it since 1989 and it has cost around £8 million. March 28th the whole house will be open to the public. Anyway - I am working on a little piece for the magazine about the restoration process and the Robinson apartments (the last owner, an American business man). I had to take the train to Kent which was about a half hour outside of London - I was gone from 9 am till 8 pm. NOT FUN ON A FRIDAY.
TV Time, some archaeological tv documentary series was finishing up filming and I had to sit through ALL of it. I wanted to die because the house is heated by a fireplace and that is it. I froze all day long. The host of TV Time, Tony Robinson, is apparently famous over here - he was in some comedy that was on TV I'm guessing in the 80s. Of course I have no idea who he is and he comes up to me and rudely asked, 'Who are you?' I was like I'm a journalist from National Trust magazine...Who are you???' I bet I reinforced the rude American opinion because I wasn't too friendy to this short man with a big nose.
I believe I have enough information to write up a little sumpin sumpin on this old house. I wish it wouldn't have rained all day - I could have gotten some really pretty pictures. OH WELL!

Parliment Hangs By The Skin Of Our Teeth

British Life and Culture - the be all and end all of what being a Brit is all about, or not.

Yesterday we took a tour of the houses of Parliment. The ancient guides showed us around the ancient Westiminister Palace until we got booted because Parliment was meeting at 11:30 am. The House of Commons and the House of Lords resemble Congress and Senate. Well - maybe the House of Commons is more like its US friends than the House of Lords. I don't think the United States government would ever have a 24-karat-gold throne for its current monarch.

The coolest thing about this tour was that we actually got to be on the floor of each of the houses -- In D.C. you can't go on the floor, you have to admire the desks from the public gallery. Luckily, when I visited D.C. in 2000 (wow - that is a long time ago) a friend of mine (now turned drug dealer) was a page boy and he was allowed to show me and my friend Tamar the floor and other behind the scenes stuff.

To continue the BLC day we had to go to hear one of the MPs (member of Parliment) talk about his party and the U.S.A's 'special' relationship with the UK. Yeah-I fell asleep.

Later that evening I went to go see The Skin Of Our Teeth at the Youngvic theater. STRANGE play - but I know my drama friends in h.s. would've loved it. Therefore, Ryan Cristian and Kevin Reddy - I endured it for you, because you'd shoot me if I left at intermission.

Espana es muy bueno!

I just got back from a wonderful 4 days in Alicante. Good sun, food and people made for an excellent trip. We stayed with Ryan Hack (he is a DU) in his apartment, which is much larger than our wee little flat in London. He was a great host - he cooked dinner for us three times and it was grrreeaatt. I hope when he comes to stay with us in London he won't be too dissapointed in our digs and our lack of cooking.

Getting there was a bit rough. We had to take a coach to Luton Airport which is one hour and 15 min. away. BUT...we ran into rush hour traffic and our bus ride ended up taking 1 hour and 40 min. The result - we ended up missing our check in time with Easyjet by 10 min. and they wouldn't let us check in anyway. Thus, Ali, Kenz and I spent the next 12 hours on the cold, hard tile floor of Luton Airport. The upside - we didn't have to pay anymore to be put on the next flight to Alicante at 6:50 am.

Upon arrival Ryan and Amy Smith (a Chi O) surprised us with lunch at a culinary school. It was a 3 course meal with all you can drink wine or beer. All of this was FREE! Yummy.

We went out every night to different bars around Alicante. Because of siesta no one goes out until around midnight...therefore they stay out until 6 am. We had a great time staying up all night but I don't think I could do that on a regular basis. I'm currently paying for only getting 2 hours of sleep on Saturday night.

We saw a lot of pretty scenery, went on a long costal cliff hike, shopped and spent time on the beach soaking up the sun. All in all it was a great trip! I have funny memories and good pictures (although I never took my camera out b/c I know I'll drop it when intoxicated).

If any of you are considering studying abroad in Alicante (or London) I say it is a go!