brighton

My beloved Fran took Elana and I to Brighton today where we shopped and ate the day away.  We had a marvelous time.  The shops in Brighton are different from the ones on Oxford Street where Fran and I went shopping last Saturday.  Brighton's shops are far more quirky though there are mainstream stores as well.  Our lunch consisted of positively delicious paninis and ice cream.  And of course, we went and sat on the beach for a bit as well.  The beach is different than Florida beaches.  I think that I will use that topic (Brighton beach vs. Florida beaches) for one of my projects - perhaps my digital film.  In any case, I took a picture of Fran with my little sheep on the beach:

After relaxing on the beach for awhile, we strolled up to the Brighton Pier where we made sure to get some rock (a type of candy similar to a candy cane but straight and varying in flavors and sizes) for our favorite FSU Study Centre security guard, Elvis.  From the pier we returned to the beach for a seaside drink then ventured on to Jamie's Italian for dinner.  The restaurant is owned by the famed chef Jamie Oliver and it was fantastic.  We ate so, so much food!  Then we returned to our flats stuffed and pleasantly tired.

black & white

On this Wednesday, the twenty-first day of July, in the year of our lord 2010 we ventured to Stonehenge and the Salisbury Cathedral in the English countryside.  Our assignment for the day was to capture black and white photos.  I took all color photos and later transformed a few of them into black and white pictures.  Tomorrow, we will learn how to create a photo that is mostly black and white but has touches of color.  It was really neat to see Stonehenge and hear the history and various theories about its mysterious existence.  I must say, I am quite fascinated by curiosities throughout history.  After seeing Stonehenge, we drove to the nearby town of Salisbury where we had lunch and toured the Salisbury Cathedral.  Our favorite tour guide Hugh was unable to officially give us a tour of the cathedral because there were volunteer tour guides eager to show us around the building.  However, Elana and I were rather bored by the volunteer tour guide so we caught up with Hugh and asked him to give us the tour anyway.  Hugh is the best.  Everything is better when he says it.  And he is quite funny as well.  He has also toured us around Bloomsbury and Westminster Abbey and he had definitely become our favorite tour guide.

Another person we have come to love is Elvis who works in the reception area at the FSU Study Centre.  Tara, Elana, and I hung out with Elvis for quite a bit last night just talking about how certain terms and customs vary between the UK and the States.  It was quite insightful.  We also found out that Elvis is apparently a Kool-Aid lover, so we might have to send some to him a few packs of it when we return home.

getting ready...

So I'm actually pretty nervous about this trip.  At the moment, I am more nervous and stressed about it than I am excited.  This will be the first time I travel alone (the whole plane ride to London part) and the longest I will have ever been away from home (I mean, not my parents' house, but away from my hometown of Gainesville).  I'm trying not to think about it, though.  I've started packing in the form of opening up my suitcase in my closet and throwing stuff in there that I don't want to forget.  I've also started a list of things to remember; things I don't want to pack quite yet since I use them all the time. 

I've got my little mascot in there, smack-dab in the middle of this picture.  It's a little sheep (hence the blog title).  It took me forever to decide on a mascot but I finally chose this little sheep I've had for a couple of years.  She doesn't have a name but I'm open to suggestions....

Ok, so I've explained the random sheep that I packed.  The other stuff tossed in there: paperwork, windbreaker, motion sickness/sleep-inducing pills for the flight, textbook, flip videocamera, London tourbooks... but Twizzlers?!  And two rather large packs of them at that?  Ok, I have an explanation.  So, I have a friend who lives in London, Fran.  We met because she was a foreign-exchange student at UF (where I got my Bachelors) and we lived in the same dorm the year she was here.  Now, I've been asking all of my friends here if they want me to bring them anything from London, so I thought it was only fair for me to ask Fran if she wanted me to bring her anything from the States.  She requested that I bring her some Twizzlers and Diet Mountain Dew.  Well, I don't want to risk the soda exploding in my suitcase but I will certainly make room in my suitcase for Fran's Twizzlers!