photobook

Click below to check out my photobook!

home

I made it back home.  I have spent the past few days recovering and tomorrow I must go back to work.  I am not terribly excited about that, but I do have to pay my rent from time to time, so I have no choice.  The plane ride back was fine but very long.  I was stopped at security in London and a guard went through all of my things in my carry-on.  A little nerve-wracking even though I knew there was nothing of interest in there.  But once Darla, Crystal, and I got on the plane and found out that we were by the emergency exit and thus had lots of leg room, we settled in for the 9-hour flight.  I watched Alice in Wonderland which was really neat to see after having been to Christ Church.  After that, I watched She's Out of My League and Iron Man 2, both of which passed the time nicely.  When we reached the airport, I was anxious to see my mom who was picking me up and I cried a bit when I finally found her.  I'm a big baby, what can I say?

I slept a solid 12 hours Thursday night.  That was fun.  I have actually been a bit busy since coming home, with only a little time to relax.  I had to go grocery shopping, bake my mom a belated birthday cake, hang out with people, unpack....  My friends and family keep asking about my trip and all I can tell them is that I had a good time but I am glad to be home.  I feel like I should have more to say, but I guess the fact that I have been keeping this blog has gotten it out of my system perhaps. 

digital story

My digital story of my favorite art in the museums of London and Paris:

size: 6.30 MB

Filipič, M. (2008). Stories from Emona II.  On Between two worlds. Location: http://www.jamendo.com/en/track/196221

i almost forgot!

I almost forgot to post the things from home that I miss...and some I don't:

Things I miss:

• Hot water
• My big shower
• My own bedroom
• My huge kitchen
• The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
• Henry, my car
• My friends and family
• My big bed
• Free refills
• Target
• Baking
• Not having to walk up 4 flights of stairs to my room
• Having my phone on 24/7

Thing I don’t miss:

• Work
• Florida summer heat and humidity
• Paying for gas
• Paying for rent

contrasts

Today is my last full day in London.  It is bittersweet.  I will miss it but I am very ready to go home tomorrow.  I have been slowly packing up all of my stuff.  Somehow, I have accumulated a large amount of chocolate (for myself and for gifts) which I will need to take in my carry-on.  However, I have been unable to pack my carry-on just yet as I want to put my laptop in the very bottom and clearly I cannot pack that just yet.  I am on the same flight home as Darla and Crystal and Elvis has booked us a cab for tomorrow morning. 

As for the day's travels, we had a tour of Buckingham Palace this morning where I noticed there seemed to be a disproportionate amount of old people touring.  Not like older-than-me old, more like easily-old-enough-to-be-my-grandparent old.  I think that most of us agreed that the palace is neat and all, but some of the stuff is just ridiculously gaudy.  One super cool thing I learned about was the secret door in the White Drawing Room, which can't really be much of a secret if they practically advertise it on the official website of the British Monarchy and in the audio guides offered at the palace.

After our tour of the palace, we trekked over to the Illustration Cupboard, an art gallery dedicated to displaying art and illustrations from children's books.  I'm usually all over art galleries, but I'm not really all that interested in children's books, so...yeah....  Anyway, we then had our last meal together as a group at the Hard Rock Cafe.  It was lots of fun and lots of food.  So much food.  But delicious food nonetheless. 

For most of our trip, we have had lovely weather, but today, our last day, it was rainy and cold.  And it would just happen to be the one day I decide not bring my wind breaker jacket.  Ah well, I did have my umbrella so I didn't get soaked or anything.  The rain wasn't all bad, though.  While Tara and I were doing some last-minute souvenir shopping and trying to spend our last few pounds, we saw a few people taking pictures seemingly randomly looking down Great Russell Street.  Then we noticed the beautiful rainbow that was perfectly framed by the buildings lining the street.  What a nice way to end our trip on a high note.

water

We're in the home stretch here in London and I am getting ready to go home.  Tomorrow we are going to the Hard Rock Cafe here in London which I have learned is almost like going to an American embassy.  The last time I came to Europe, we went to the Hard Rock Cafe in Barcelona at about the same time in our trip: a day or two before going home when we were all tired and nearly ready to be home.  The best part is the huge glasses of soda with free refills.  I am going to drink so much Diet Coke - I can't wait.  Yeah, I'm kinda going crazy.

Today we went to Hyde Park.  We saw the Peter Pan-inspired playground and lots and lots of ducks and swans and more ducks.  We moseyed around the park, eventually stopping at the Princess Diana memorial fountain which we could actually go into.  The water was really cold, but we braved it anyway.  After a while we got used to the cold and our toes got numb.  We lunched in the park near the river/lake that runs through Hyde Park.  I brought my kite with hopes of wind so that I might fly it, but there was little wind worthy of kite flying.  Today was quite mellow.  We are all rather tired and winding down in our travels. 

I have started really looking forward to going home.  I have begun a list of things I do and don't miss from home, which I will probably post tomorrow.  The chief thing among the things I miss is hot water.  To all of my people back home, you know I love you and miss you, but it really is harder than you think to be without consistent hot water.  Lately, it has just been shutting off at the most inopportune time, such as last night, when it stopped altogether just as I was about to rinse the shampoo out of my hair.  Readers, be grateful for your hot water.  Enjoy your hot showers tonight or tomorrow morning.  If not for yourselves, then for me. 

motion

First and foremost, I must say, Happy Birthday Mommy!!  Today is my mommy's birthday but obviously I am unable to see her and tell her happy birthday in person so I shall say it here.  I will be baking your cake as soon as I get home!

In other news, we went to Oxford today.  Our photography focus was capturing motion.  First, we toured the Bodleian Library.  Some of the tour was quite fascinating but our tour guide was a bit long-winded making for a rather long, drawn-out tour.  It was fun nonetheless; you know me, books + art/architectural history + religion + history = one happy Katy.  After that tour, Elana and I had lunch at a restaurant called The Nosebag.  Sounds appetizing, huh?  Well, chances are we never would have found it, let alone even consider eating there had it not been for the dining suggestion of Elana's friend.  However, it turned out to be delicious.  And huge!  Elana ate one of the salads included in my meal and I was still full at the end of lunch.  We then ventured on down the street for a tour of Christ Church.  Our tour guide James for this tour was marvelous.  I do believe that we have decided that he is one of our favorite tour guides, second only to our beloved Hugh.  I really love the way we tour because we get to go to all kinds of off-limits places at most of the places we see.  It's awesome.  I'm pretty sure that the other visitors hate us.  But anyway, during our tour of the Christ Church gardens, an adorable cat started following us.  Now, we have had a few tag-along tourists when we tour, but this cat is by far our favorite.  But back to the tour itself...  One of the college's most famous (if not the most famous) scholar was Lewis Carroll who wrote Alice in Wonderland.  In fact, Alice in Wonderland is based on the daughter, Alice, of one of the school's deans and her adventures in and around the campus.  James showed us dozens of real-life details of the campus and told us of the stories that inspired Lewis Carroll and his work.  It was pretty cool.

Earlier, I was talking to a friend who asked if I had gotten what I wanted out of this experience.  I told him that I think I have.  One thing that I am particularly proud of is my ability to navigate through an otherwise unfamiliar city with only a map.  Also, I have learned and gained confidence in using the Tube and Metro (and any subway system for that matter).  For this, I must thank Elana who mentored me in the foreign ways of the subway systems.  I have also made some fabulous friends and had some wonderful experiences.  I also want to give a shout out and thank you to all of my friends and family who have been reading my blog regularly.  I never thought that people would care so much or that what I write would be halfway entertaining enough for people to keep reading.  In any case, I love you all and can't wait to see you when I get back!!

statues, paris, and hot chocolate

Friday we went to Paris.  I was a little nervous about Paris because the pickpockets and whatnot are not fun to deal with, but I made it through the weekend.  First, we went to the Louvre.  In case you were unaware, the Nike of Samothrace ("nike" is pronounced knee-kay and means "winged victory" which is why this statue is probably more often referred to as the Winged Victory of Samothrace; and yes, this is where Nike got its name) is at the Louvre.  And should you just so happen to be wondering, I love the Nike of Samothrace.  Love it.  Seriously.  I also love Classical Greek sculpture.  The Louvre has an absolutely amazing collection of Classical Greek sculpture.  It's amazing how much they have.  I'm speechless. 

Ok, so after the Louvre, we took a lunch cruise down the Seine.  It was fancy.  And of course, it wouldn't be a trip to Paris if we hadn't gone to the Eiffel Tower, which is where we headed next.  We then decided to go check into our hotel and meet back later to go to Notre Dame.  Our hotel was perfect.  Nothing particularly fancy, just simple and exactly what a little Paris hotel should be.  And walking distance to Notre Dame and within a block of a Metro stop.

Saturday, we slept til 12:30pm.  It was marvelous.  We needed it too.  When we did eventually get up, Elana and I made a stop at the Arc de Triomphe before walking down the Champes-Élysées.  We then took the Metro up to a flea market is a kinda shady part of town.  Yeah, we were glad to get back to our hotel after that, though we did have some delicious Nutella crêpes.

On to Sunday....  Kaitlin tipped us off to this restaurant that serves hot chocolate similar to the deliciousness I had in Spain a few years ago.  This hot chocolate is so rich, it's more like melted chocolate than your average hot chocolate from a mix.  It was so good.  Elana and I each ordered a cup and it came in a pitcher.  After pouring a cup for each of us, half of the pitcher was still full of hot chocolate.  I could only drink about half of my cup.  So I could only drink about a quarter of what I was served.  I wanted to take it home with me, but that wasn't really an option.  After that lovely experience, we went to a Salvador Dalí museum for which we saw an advertisement in the Metro.  The museum was very close to the Sacré-Cœur Basilica which we stopped in for a look-see.  From there, the train station was only about half a mile or so, so we walked there, stopping on the way at a pâtisserie to blow some of our euros.  When we got to the train station, however, we found that our train was delayed (as were many others) due to a bomb scare a few hours prior.  Yeah, that was fun.  We finally made it back to London an hour and a half after we were scheduled to, but we made it nonetheless.  It was so nice to take the Tube rather than the Metro as we have decided we prefer the Tube.  And coming out of the Tottenham Court Road Tube stop was like coming home.  It was nice.