Jellied Eels & Barefoot Cliff Walks.

Good morning/arvo/night, wherever you are! Welcome back to another update from London town. I've been rushed to keep up with everything that's been going on, but I'd like to get back to writing another letter from me to you via the interwebs. Last week was super hectic, I went lots of places, wrote 2 essays & said goodbye to 2 dear  friends that I have made this semester!

I'd like to say a big thank you to both Alicia & Kat for being lovely, hospitable, friendly Americans, for teaching me in your ways & sharing your love of all things fandom & cat related!! You are both wonderful ladies & I hope we see each other again soon, hopefully under those bright Chicago lights. If you ever need a Cadbury or Malteser fix just let me know & a box of goodies will be on its way!


On the 14th of May, Mo, Hannah, Sydney, Maeve, Alana, Meghan & I set out on a day trip to Brighton! It was beautiful, sunny & warm (I definitely should have worn shorts)! We wandered around the beach, soaking up the vitamin D & collecting shells amongst the pebbles before having lunch at an adorable beach-side cafe. Then we meandered through the touristy shops & up to the famous Brighton Pier. We were overly skeptical about a little stall selling 'Jellied Eels' & other questionably fishy things...

Thinking that the Seven Sisters Cliffs were only a 30 minute bus ride away, we jumped on to go out & take a look.... almost an hour later we made it to the visitor centre (which was shut of course) & adventured out onto the cliffs.

It was a lovely afternoon spent with friends albeit the lack of Workplace Health & Safety England seems to have... The long bus ride was worth the view! This week I have a final exam & then I'm hoping to do at least one or two more day trips before Mum (& her merry band of fellow teachers) arrives. Monday night we're going out to dinner together - a real Gilroy reunion - before heading out on a few trips ourselves, & then ultimately to Ireland! More updates coming your way soon from my wonderful weekend in Edinburgh!

Enjoy!

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Currently listening to Touch the Sky from the Brave Soundtrack... ever since we returned from Edinburgh! "IF YEW HAD A CHARNCE TEW CHENGE YER FETE, WOOD YA?" :)  ♪

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Puurrrrrrrrrrfection!

Before I came to London I heard about this wonderful new cafe that was going to open soon, the Cat Cafe! This semester London launched its very first Cat Cafe ~ Lady Dinah's Cat Emporium! (x) These cafes are gaining popularity in Europe after humble beginnings in Japan a few years ago! It's super difficult to get the right licensing papers & takes a long time to set up, but finally, after all of the preparation, Lady Dinah's opened a few months ago & has been flooded with customers every since. I booked at least a month & a half in advance just to get a table for 4 of us!

Lady Dinah's is home to 11 friendly & lovable rescue cats! Kat (hehe), Devyn, Kaitlyn & I visited the lovely felines on the 12th of May for a scrumptious brunch of bagels, cakes & tea. We cuddled plenty of kitties & dined with them for almost 2 hours!

It is a must see in London for cat lovers & skeptics alike! We're allergic to cats, but we had to make the sacrifice to see these cuties!

Enjoy!

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Currently loving A Great Big World who originally featured on an Ingrid Michaelson track before they hit the big time with Say Something! Here's one of my faves: This is the New Year ♪
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Alice Carman.

I've got a lot to catch you all up on from the last week! It's getting warmer & warmer here in London & I hear you lot back home are complaining about the cold!!

On the 11th of May I embarked on a solo day trip through the south east of England. My journey began at the Stratford station where I boarded the (over-priced) National Rail to Dover. It's somewhere that I've always wanted to go, & it certainly fulfilled all of my expectations!

Here is some footage I filmed from the trains:

Once I arrived in Dover, I walked to the town market square & paid a visit to the Information Centre to ask about cliff walks. After some very vague directions, I set out to find the sea & follow it north east to the famous chalk cliffs. What I found was my first pebble beach, some wild horses & a terrifying cliff top hike.

I then raced back to catch the 2:04 to Walmer, which is where my Great Great Grandma, Alice Carman (Emery) grew up. I got a bit lost, made friends with some sheep, found a lone glove at the beach & explored the lovely castle gardens in full bloom!

Although my visit was rushed, it was a wonderful day & the countryside of the south east is some of the most beautiful I've seen so far. Take a look at my vlog from the day:

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Currently listening to & loving Jessie Ware, who features in the Southeastern. vlog! ♫
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I dislike being outnumbered. It makes for too much stupid in the room.

As much as I'd like to claim that title, it unfortunately doesn't belong to me, but to the world's favourite detective, Sherlock Holmes.
Today (currently being Wednesday), Alicia, my beloved twin, & I explored the streets of London from a different point of view. We followed some of the famous routes & visited the favourite nooks & crannies of that very detective & his lovely partner, Dr. Watson.
This entry probably wont be published today, because I'm using it as procrastination & I have a more pressing (but in no way more important) summary due tomorrow for class... Also I have to finish putting together the video footage from today. x
Summary is done! It's now Thursday morning here in London & our Sherlock Day yesterday was absolutely wonderful!
First Stop: 221B Baker St, currently occupied by the Sherlock Holmes Museum.


This is a magical place filled with every kind of Sherlock memorabilia you could imagine! I picked up some gifts for my Sherlock loving friends (Eshwar & Lauren you're welcome!) & bought a small poster of the chronology of Sherlock stories designed like a family tree. It's £10 entry to the museum, but well worth it. Although the front looks deceivingly small, tucked in behind that policeman is 4 stories and even more rooms filled with memorabilia and artefacts that tell the story of everyone's favourite detective. Next door to this is Mrs Hudson's Restaurant!
Second Stop: Speedy's Cafe & Sandwich Bar for lunch!

This is a lovely little cafe beside the door of 187 North Gower Street which was used as 221B in filming the latest instalment of Sherlock by the BBC with Benedict Cumberpatch & Martin Freeman. Alicia & I had lunch there & got some snaps with the door, of course!

Third & Final Stop of the day: St Bart's Hospital. Although the spot is visited many times throughout the series, it is mostly remembered for it's role in the Reichenbach Fall. On each of the ground floor windows there are fan messages and quotes scrawled in the dust. Also beside the hospital is the famous phone booth. This particular booth was the centre of the Sherlock fandom directly after the Reichenbach Fall aired. It is covered in message of hope, favourite quotations, notes from fans from all over the world, & hate for Steven Moffat for making us wait two years between series. Some of these messages are also displayed on a pin board in the museum.

I had only heard about this phone booth from other fans & wasn't sure if it was still a fan meeting point or even used for messages any more - it's been 4 year since the first episodes aired - but I was so happy to finally see it!

These are all great spots to visit & I owe it the blog, Sherlockology, who have mapped out the series across London for all fans to enjoy! (x) As an addition to our Sherlock Day we popped into the London Beatles Store, which is right next to the Sherlock Museum & picked up a few goodies!


Here is my vlog from yesterday!

Along with a video from earlier in the week! Some friends & I attempted (somewhat successfully) to have a barbecue at our local Beckton Park!

"The lowest & vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling & beautiful countryside." ~ Sherlock Holmes.
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Currently listening to British Singer/Songwriter, Gabrielle Aplin's cover of Case of You ♫
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Age is foolish & forgetful when it underestimates youth.

This title quote is of course the wondrous insight of Albus Dumbledore & this time last week my fellow Ravenclaw, Devyn, & I visited the Harry Potter Studios in Leavesden. ALL ABOARD THE HOGWARTS EXPRESS (otherwise known as the London Euston to Birmingham New Street)!!!

We had a truly magical day wandering through the studios, fangirling over that sweater that Matthew Lewis wore (you know which one..) & enjoying some butterbeer!

Here is my video from the day!

There was so much to see & do! We 'flew' around London on broomsticks, walked through Diagon Alley & paid a visit to Buckbeak, before heading out through the gift shop... Oh, the gift shop. They have everything & anything you could possibly want! I indulged & bought myself a Ravenclaw scarf, a remembrall, a chocolate frog & a buckbeak of my own.

I would definitely advise everyone who even mildly like Harry Potter to go for the tour, it's a bit pricey, but absolutely worth it! Some of the activities are extra, but if you have some friends with you it works out cheaper & is so much more fun!

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Currently listening to 5SOS's new single, Don't Stop! The lyric video was released today, Enjoy! ♫
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O Captain, My Captain...

Whoops! Wrong literary figure, wrong era, wrong country...
Let's rewind 301 years to a small village called Stratford-Upon-Avon, half way across the globe from Walt Whitman, a child was born known by the name of William Shakespeare.
I'm going to assume you've heard of him.

On the 23rd of April this year it was Shakespeare's 450th birthday & a I attended a huge festival in Stratford-Upon-Avon on the 26th (which apart from being my Mum's birthday - Happy Birthday Mum, is the date of Shakespeare's baptism in the Holy Trinity Church).

As part of UEL's international program I was on a coach tour to the Cotswolds, an old patch of English countryside about two and half hours out of London. We stopped off for breakfast & chicken teddies (chicken nuggets in the shape of teddy bears, can you get any more English?) at a little place called 'Bourton-on-the-Water'... All of the names are weird, don't ask, I don't know the answer.

The majority of the houses in the Cotswolds are made from Cotswold Stone, which is a type of creamy golden limestone. The area is also known for the construction & craftsmanship of dry stone walls made out of this limestone. All of the paths are directed by these dry stone walls which reminded me a lot of my uncle's place in Stanthorpe. Each time he mows he uses the stones he finds to create small dry stone walls in the hope that one day his own miniature railway will run through the entire block of land. Every time we've visited Dad always adds to the walls. The Cotswolds in general is a very beautiful place & each village is skirted by a patchwork of yellow canola crops.

Our next stop was Anne Hathaway's house, (no not the incredible actress who proved her vocal prowess in Les Miserables - Shakespeare's wife!?) which is just outside Stratford-Upon-Avon. The cottage has since been expanded & converted into a museum surrounded by beautiful gardens, but the original structure is still there. You can walk through the house & see the 'possible' second best bed, mentioned in Shakespeare's will.

Stratford-Upon-Avon itself was impressive & the four main streets had been cut off for pedestrians only in light of the festivities. There were Shakespearean characters roaming the streets, one group of American boys had travelled all the way here for a camp & were volunteering their time to quote entire monologues of their desired characters.

As a tour group we visited the Holy Trinity Church, which is surrounded by an old church cemetery & covered in green. It has the most impressive church organ I have ever seen & visiting Shakespeare's grave on the 450th anniversary of his baptism was quite special. Truth be told, I never thoroughly appreciated his plays in the beginning, but I always felt they were better taught & understood from a theatre point of view. Every play I studied in Drama, I adored. Maybe introducing Shakespeare to a class full of teenagers who can't read Old English with a story about two kids who fall in love in three days & in the process kill six people (including their stupid selves??) isn't the best idea.

Alicia & I (being nerds, & more creepily twins, in almost every aspect...) found a 'Time Warp' shop full of Star Wars & Doctor Who memorabilia - life size Dalek included! Then we stumbled across a Beatrix Potter shop. If you grew up without the stories of Beatrix Potter, I pity you! I was completely enthralled by this shop & walked out with three new soft toys for my bed after joking with the shopkeeper that yes, they were indeed for me & there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. I bought myself a Peter Rabbit in his pretty blue coat, & a Little Nutbrown Hare & matching Big Nutbrown Hare which are from a story called "Guess How Much I Love You".

Sorry to drag this out, but it was a really wonderful experience, & also the last of my organised school tours. So I will leave you with the video footage from the day which is accompanied by a rather interesting Shakespearean TedxTalk. Enjoy!

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Currently listening to Aaron Tveit's incredible live sessions including his cover of She's Always a Woman by Billy Joel ♪ Aaron Tveit also starred in the aforementioned Les Mis, as Enjolras.
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Vacanze di Pasqua!

Welcome back! I apologise for being so slack with my updates, but I've passed the halfway point of my time here & I will definitely be writing more regularly now!! For the Easter Holidays ('Spring Break' according to all of my American friends) Hannah, Maeve, Sydney & I ventured to Italy to enjoy the warm Tuscan sunshine.

Sydney & I have both been to Italy before & it was wonderful to be back! I forgot how great gelato is & how bad the streets of Florence could smell. We arrived in Pisa on Sunday the 6th of April & caught a bus to Florence where we spent a wonderful three nights in a beautiful apartment we found via Airbnb.

We loved every minute in Florence (except for the ones spent hungover after a night out with Limoncello...)! Every day we explored the city on foot, almost got run over crossing the street, & of course ate plenty of pasta, pizza & gelati! The four of us got through a few bottles of wine at lunch each day, & then a couple more at dinner & thoroughly enjoyed all of the markets we could find! I bought some gifts for friends & family back home... & found some for myself too.

Does Dwayne Wade get dwunk at the Duomo??

Next we headed to Rome on the train & loved seeing some of the Tuscan countryside on the way. In Rome we stayed at an even more beautiful Airbnb apartment, complete with an entirely glass loft! After all of the stairs in Florence to the top of the Duomo & back, we took on the steps of the St Peter's Basilica, Vatican City for more stunning views.

551 Stairs... ONE WAY!!

Needless to say we spent the short amount of time we had in Rome visiting all of the most tourist-y places possible & making Lizzie McGuire references at least 5 times a day. It was great to hear (& speak a bit of) the language again & I was surprised at how much of the cities I remembered. I found the hotel, Pensione Pendini, in Florence that I stayed at 6 years ago on a school trip! Even on the last day in Rome I spotted the tiny little gelateria that Mr Parry insisted was the best in Italy. We all enjoyed that thoroughly!

By the end of the adventure Sydney & I both got a little sunburnt on our faces, something I doubt would happen back here in London! Here is the Italy vlog ~ Enjoy!

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Currently listening to John Legend's 2013 album Love in the Future ♬
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Green Grass & Friendship!

Before the Easter holidays, the gang & I went on a few missions to some of London's famous green spaces. I can't say I've missed 'the outback' but I have missed seeing expanses of green grass & trees. AND animals! Hannah, my American roommate had 2 friends visiting from home, so we thought we should get out & do some more sightseeing.

Firstly, we ventured to Kensington Gardens to watch the sunset. It is so pretty & green and such a nice breath of fresh air from the city. I captured some great footage of us hanging around & having a laugh.

And here is us walking into the sunset like a scene from a badass action movie.

The next place we knew we had to check out was Primrose Hill. It confirmed our expectations (& also how unfit we have become). We packed a picnic & got some great shots of the London skyline. It was another beautiful day, with plenty of fellow picnic-ers & their puppies.

Today is Easter Sunday though, & I am relaxing with some chocolate after setting up a bowl of mixed goodies for the whole flat. :) HAPPY EASTER to everyone who celebrates it! Enjoy the day however you wish. Tonight Hannah, Sydney & I are going out to dinner together, but until then I just plan to chill out. Also Happy 4/20 to all of you Londoners braving the weather in Hyde Park this arvo. x

P.S. Thanks to Sydney for taking me to my very first manicure! Haha, so many new experiences.

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Currently listening to some CHVRCHES, a lovely electronic group from Glasgow, Scotland. ♬

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Super Rich Kids.

...(some of whom may not have 'nothing but fake friends')

I'm sitting in my kitchen writing up this blog post, my quiet, clean kitchen!! It's the second week of the Easter holidays here at UEL, & I am thoroughly enjoying the solitude! A couple of weeks ago now, (I know, it's been a while!) my friend Sydney & I spent a day exploring North London. It's an interesting area, both geographically & historically & there are many areas which have been redeveloped into luxurious apartments for the 1%. From the tube stop, we took a wrong turn (of course) & stumbled upon a beautiful cafe with cheap brekky & tea. After a reorientation pit-stop we continued (still going the wrong way) & wandered amongst the pretty hillside houses until we finally discovered our end point.

Princess Park Manor.

Originally named Colney Hatch Mental Asylum, then changed to Friern Hospital due to introduced Anti-Discrimination Laws, this estate was commissioned in 1849 & opened to patients in 1851. This particular asylum was very interesting for its time, so I'm going to give you a short history lesson...

Colney Hatch was the most expensively built asylum of it's time & was the largest & most modern in all of Europe. To walk all of its wards would have taken five hours. Colney Hatch had it's own water supply, well, cemetery, chapel & a 75 acre estate. In 1903 there was a serious fire in a temporary building that was erected as one of the many additions to house more patients & 52 patients & nurses were killed. It is also said that many of the patients housed there escaped as some remains were not found & patients were not accounted for. During the Second World War 12 wards were requisitioned for use as a temporary war hospital & during the bombing of London four separate villas were destroyed killing civilians, patients & staff.

These days the estate is much smaller & some wings of the building could not be salvaged during the restoration, but it is still one of the most impressive castle-like structures I have ever seen! Friern Hospital only officially closed in 1993 & was abandoned for a few years before the estate was purchased by Comer Homes, a redeveloping & real estate company owned by two wealthy Irish brothers with an interesting history of their own. They transformed Friern Hospital into one of the most expensive & beautiful places to live in London, Princess Park Manor. Some current occupants include the five lovely lads of One Direction!!

Enjoy! I will be writing more, & more often hopefully as I have a fair bit to catch everyone up on! xo

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Currently listening to & loving Ed Sheeran's new single SING ♪ I have also pre-ordered his CD album, 'Multiply' & a copy of the vinyl, to be released June 23rd.

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I'll go where the music takes me, travelling around the globe.

While I've been living here in London, I've had the opportunity to meet some wonderful people & I've been lucky enough to go to some incredible concerts! As many of you will know, music is a big part of my life, & I love going to live gigs. In the last three weeks I've been to a few, so this is going to be a strictly music update. Also concerts are SO cheap here compared to Australia! I have no idea why, & this seriously annoys me. Yes, I know "life's not fair", but there is no logical reason that I can think of to why Australia would sell tickets at more than 100% the price in comparison to here!? Whenever I have been to concerts back home, they were in Brisbane, & although it's our capital city, it costs a bunch just to get there & back, not even factoring in the ticket prices... I haven't paid more than $50 Australian, for a concert here!! So basically, being a teenager in London would have been wonderful.

On the third of March, after returning from Paris that morning, I went to see 5 Seconds of Summer (x) headlining their own tour at the Shepard's Bush O2. I couldn't have asked for a better way to cap off my weekend. 5SOS are Aussie boys, I've seen them live twice back home, but only ever as openers, so to see them here, on their own tour meant a lot to me. It blew my mind to see all of the fans waiting out in the streets & in the rain for over twelve hours to see our boys! IN LONDON! I've lined up for standing tickets/mosh pits for concerts for twelve hours before, but it was insane to think that all of the people were here to see these four Aussie guys. I met girls from Spain, Italy and Switzerland who had flown to London just for the concert, & I could not be more proud of 5SOS. They have come so far in the last three years, & this year is going to be huge for them.

Opening for them was a guy called Mike Dignam (x), he's a British singer-songwriter, & I had never heard of him before the gig, but I certainly wont be forgetting about him now! He has an incredible voice & after the show he was handing out his EP for free/a donation, so I gave him £5 & had a chat.

Here is the vlog from the 5SOS concert with clips from them & Mike!

5 Seconds of Summer's first /official/ EP was just released & I am so excited for the album!!

Last weekend my good friend Essi visited me, & we had another wonderful weekend! Essi is from Finland, but is currently studying in Croatia. She got us both tickets to an All Time Low (x) concert on Saturday! We have both loved ATL since we were about thirteen & it was an incredible night! The mosh pit was hectic, over thirty girls got pulled out of the pit by security because they couldn't handle it, one girl got her nose broken & the boys spent the whole night starting up circle pits. 

A lovely Irish band, Only Rivals (x), opened for ATL. I couldn't understand a word they said, but their music was awesome & they were very pretty! Also opening for ATL was Tonight Alive!! Another Aussie band! (x) All of the bands finished the show by playing on stage all together & passing around bottles of Jagermeister & JD... Jack had to be carried off stage...

Alex from ATL also played an acoustic set including Therapy & Remembering Sunday, which are two of my all time favourites.

Therapy.

Remembering Sunday.

In a crazy twist of luck, on the Friday night before ATL, Jamie Campbell Bower, a British actor & musician that Essi & I both adore was playing a pop-up free gig outside the Tate Modern with his band The Darling Buds!! We both first became a fan of Jamie when he was in the Tim Burton musical film, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, alongside Johnny Depp. He has also been in the Harry Potter series, the Twilight Saga & most recently the Mortal Instruments: City of Bones. (x)

So it's been a long & lovely month full of wonderful music! Our next challenge is exploring more of London (there's always more) & then over to Italy for Easter break!! We have everything planned, except for returning flights!?... During the second week, I'm hoping to bus it around the UK. xo

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Currently listening to & loving ALL OF THE ABOVE! 

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Everything in this room is eatable, even I'm eatable! But that is called 'cannibalism' my dear children, & is in fact frowned upon in most societies.

For those of you struggling to understand my frequent pop culture references, this is something Willy Wonka once said to all of the children who won a golden ticket.

On Saturday the eighth of March, I travelled to Cambridge on a trip organised by the university, specifically for internationals. I fell in love! This city is so beautiful & much more my speed, being about the same size as Townsville. As soon as we stepped off the bus we realised that we were all a bit under-dressed... Every boy we saw was riding a push bike, in a blazer?! The architecture in Cambridge is incredible, & it is truly a university town. There are students everywhere, riding around to classes, grabbing Starbucks & dodging traffic. The main thing I have noticed about market squares & smaller towns is that everywhere appears to a shared zone. You might think you're walking on a footpath... until you almost get hit by a car!

The centre, or heart of the town, is it's market square in front of all the colleges which back up onto the river. It is incredible the amount of money that has gone into these universities & how much they are worth. King's College owns the O2 Arena in London, along with 50% of Tesco, the big supermarket chain here, & they own all of the land from their campus to Oxford!?

One of the highlights of the day (among many) was a celebrity sighting!! I was far too in shock to actually stop him & ask for a photo, (also he was on his way to class) but Freddie Highmore x (from the Spiderwick Chronicles, August Rush & Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) casually walked past us!!!

He definitely saw me freaking out & probably decided it was best just to keep walking... but we Googled it & he studies there! He is studying Spanish & Arabic, just for fun?!

So, on that note, we decided we definitely want to come back to Cambridge!



Here is latest vlog ~ punting on the River Cam with the girls.

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Currently listening to Sam Smith ♪ He is an amazing British artist who features in my Cambridge vlog!
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In an old house in Paris, that was covered with vines...

... Lived SIX little girls, in two straight lines.

On an almost spontaneous decision, with a few clicks of a mouse, five of my American friends and I travelled to Paris last weekend! Over three seemingly endless days we walked up 34867 steps (I promise I'm not exaggerating!!), saw countless incredible sights & met many unfriendly glares. I really don't want to perpetuate an outdated stereotype, or generalise French people, but they did not seem to enjoy hearing the English language at all!

Our travelling crew consisted of myself, Hannah (the roomie), Sydney, Kaitlyn, Maeve & Devyn.
We chose to rent an apartment through airbnb because it was our cheapest option, & it proved to be the best possible choice! We stayed at the top of Montmartre just around the corner from the Basilica of Sacre-Coeur. Over the three days we visited most of tourist attractions, only missing out on the catacombs, a ticket to the top of the Eiffel Tower & the Louvre, but we didn't let any missed opportunities disappoint us! We definitely made the most of our time & didn't brush our teeth in two straight lines & go to bed like the good little girls in Madeleine!


We spent most of the second day in Versailles, which was mind-blowing. The entire area of the palace grounds must be the size of Ingham for sure!
Okay, I just looked it up... 
Ingham: 33.14 km²
Versailles: 26.18 km²!!
And like the fascinated, mature, students we are, every time we thought we had found Marie-Antoinette's palace (& when we eventually did find it) we yelled, "Off with their HEAD!"

Sometime soon we're planning on having a French movie night in one of our flats because we spent the whole three days singing Red & Black from Les Miserables in manly voices at each other. Also, most of the girls haven't seen Moulin Rouge OR Chocolat! I still don't know how they've survived so far?!

The main thing that struck me about Paris (sorry, it's not a positive thing) was how dirty everything was. Yes, I've been to Europe before, & I'm living in London which, historically, has a pretty bad rep, but I was horrified! Every time we entered a Metro station my brain was yelling "Yep, that's illegal in Australia. I'm pretty sure that is too... THAT is definitely illegal. Why isn't that light working? Where is security?"
I don't even want to think about the diseases that could potentially be cultivating away on the Metro trains or the organisms growing the piles of decade old dust in the corners of the stairs...

I don't want to ramble, it was a fabulous weekend, as one might expect! Here is my Paris vlog!!
Beware: Slightly inebriated & very overtired girls ahead (& maybe a few choice words here & there...)!

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Still listening to our Aussie boys 5 Seconds of Summer! ♪ Update on their concert coming soon!

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Foodies Unite!

Welcome back to another sadly unimproved instalment of my travel blog. In the last three & a half weeks I've visited a lot of places (& yet still not enough), met a lot of people & most importantly, eaten a lot of food!

In my initial post I mentioned that this is the first time I have had to cook entirely for myself & my dear friend Kayler has also recently chosen to be a vegetarian, so I promised I would help her out with a few of my favourite recipes.


The first Saturday, on our coach tour of London, we stopped by St. Paul's Cathedral for coffee & biscuits in the crypt!

Close to campus there is a great pub called The Reach. We went there for drinks the first night I arrived, after 26 hours of travelling... & we've been there a few times since.

Last week, Maeve, Sydney, Hannah & I went to The Reach for dinner & it was great. We all ordered the same pesto pasta, just like home! Not having Casa's pasta leftovers in the fridge is what I'm missing the most.







Buying my own food, often means buying lots of snack food. I introduced Hannah to Camembert cheese & I've lost track of the amount we've eaten in the last week. Hummus has become another quick favourite.

Of course, living in London we all had to experience a full English breakfast, which in my opinion is not unlike a big Aussie brekky. We went to a pub in the city called The Punch, which is in a beautiful building with a fireplace and stained-glass windows.

Photo courtesy of Alicia!

So far we've been to the Camden markets twice, & the second time was specifically for food. We had Chinese take away followed by hot chips, gormet donuts, bubble tea & of course deep-fried Mars bars! Our front blue shop at home used to make these, so being reintroduced to the loves of my life after seven lonely years without them, was amazing.





Vegetarian Lasagna!

Step 1:  Soak the lasagna sheets in boiling water to soften them BEFORE you start... I have learnt from my mistakes.

Step 2:  Cook up two packets of Quorn* mince in a large saucepan with oil. When they have defrosted & softened add sauce of your choice. I usually use a combination of Worcestershire, Tomato & BBQ sauce, but I slightly changed this time because of the brands & products available here. Also add salt & pepper to your liking, chopped basil leaves & one finely diced onion.

Step 3:  Fry up some fresh veggies, you can also boil them if you prefer, but it's easier to fry them up & add in bits & pieces like sunflower & pumpkin seeds, & edamame beans. For this lasagne I used mushrooms, zucchini, green beans, edamame, pumpkin seeds, onion & broccoli.

This creates the next layer, on top of more lasagna sheets of course!

Step 4:  The final step is to top the veggies with more lasagna sheets, then a white/cheese sauce which can be bought in jars, or home-made. Then add as much or as little cheese of your choice & bake on medium heat for about half an hour. It shouldn't take too long - just until the cheese is brown on top, because the ingredients are already cooked.

Enjoy!
I also recently made a big batch of lentil curry, but didn't take photos, so maybe next time!





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Currently listening to & loving Paloma Faith's 2012 album Fall To Grace ♪  She performed at the Burberry show here in London yesterday! x
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"Hoard toilet paper. You understand me? Hoard it. Hoard it, like it's made of gold."

It's 2014, the sixteenth day of the second month of 2014 to be exact, and Chuck was right.
The apocalypse may not yet have begun, but Supernatural fans, be prepared!

It's a Sunday night here in East London & I haven't been to the shops in a bit. Tissues were the first thing I ran out of, then food, & now I'm on my last roll of toilet paper... Oh the joys of adulthood! (SEMI-adulthood - I refuse to believe I have reached a point where I have to worry about impending taxes & career choices) I think we're attempting the trek to Tesco tomorrow, seeing as last time we got half-way & gave up. Food isn't the only thing I'm running low on, fitness is becoming a problem.

Today we revisited the lovely, unique streets of Camden & ate our way around the markets, after last night's clubbing adventures. We left the city last night with sandwiches & at least six litres of water between the five of us, because apparently Macca's in the city closes at 11:45pm - an absolute injustice in my opinion! Second only to the catastrophe that is public transport after a night out. Unlike New York, London does sleep, a lot.

We wandered around the market stalls, looking for the grilled cheese - mac & cheese place, but it was nowhere to be found, so we settled for Chinese take-out & fries, followed by gourmet donuts, followed by deep-fried mars bars & snickers, followed by a quip about rechecking gym class prices...

If I can be a little more organised (I have an assignment due on Tuesday, let's not talk about it), my next video will hopefully be a study abroad check list of sorts. I want to compile snippets of us talking about the little unexpected things we have learnt along the way, things that we still find baffling, & everything else in between. It might be ready for youtube soon, or it might not happen at all, so don't expect too much!

The most incredible rainbow I have ever seen - the photo does not do it justice!

We also visited the British Museum & the Tate Modern this week, which were wonderful! The British Museum is definitely more than just a morning stop & I can see us returning there many times!

I'm off to reheat some vegetarian lasagna - I'll put the recipe up for that soon! xo

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Currently listening to Goodness Gracious by Ellie Goulding, which is the latest single from her awesome album Halcyon Days ♫

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"Red hair, hand-me-down robe..."

"You must be a Weasley!"

At least, I've always wanted to be one!
This week we went out to a casino to watch the Denver Broncos get slaughtered, showed our faces at The Underground Bar (Uni Club) a few times, made many more trips to ASDA, wandered around the city & got our photo taken entering Platform 9 ¾.

Sydney & I showing our house pride.

I only endured one class this week due to a union action strike (seems like lecturers can't escape poor teaching conditions anywhere!), Urban Anthropology, which is a first year class based around the practice of observation & ethnography. My only surprise was my lecturer, who looked like he had stepped out of Downton Abbey. It was like watching a walking & talking version of every posh British stereotype rolled into one. There was a three piece suit, a gold pocket watch, a long black trench coat, a bowler hat & a clay smoking pipe involved, it was an intense introduction to British academia!

All of us internationals are finally adjusting to using public transport, (even though it's ridiculously overpriced) & navigating our way around the city. Vanessa, Alicia & I sat in a Costa coffee shop for over two hours on Thursday afternoon after exploring the city & making a wrong turn on our way back to the tube station. It is really lovely not be on any real kind of schedule (apart from classes of course) & being able to go wherever, whenever, with our wallets being our only restriction... we all agreed we need to marry someone rich if we want to maintain the lifestyle!

Again I don't want to write for hours & bore everyone to death, so I will leave you one of my favourite, tourist-y photos I have taken so far, & my latest vlog!

I had the BBC Sherlock theme song stuck in head all day after this.

I have started to introduce the Americans to vegemite, but it's not going so well, I'll keep you updated!

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Currently listening to: The National's album, High Violet. I used their song, 'England' in my vlog, but the whole record is wonderful! ♫

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Oodles of Noodles & Moodles?

I've reached the seven days checkpoint! One whole week of living in London, which mainly consisted of confusion, excitement & dehydration.

Everyone is well aware that universities are not the most organised institutions, & unfortuantely this is true in the case of UEL. They are always willing to help, which is wonderful, & there are plenty of support systems in place for new students, but all of us internationals are only now, after a week, beginning to grasp basic things such as: where the laundries are, how to apply for an oyster card, finding our in-boxes of ninety seven unread e-mails, class timetables & moodles. (We are yet to understand why the ten pence coin is larger than the twenty...)

Some 'college' things don't change!
Wispa = Areo Chocolate - it's pretty great.

Navigating university websites is like reading a book in an unfamiliar language, a book that was written by a three year old. UEL does not disappoint! Before I left I only had to deal with the UEL main webpage & the UEL portal services, but little did I know, there is a separate UEL Direct for students, UEL webmail & the UEL Moodle where the details for your classes appear. We were not amused.

The first challenge we faced, before even thinking about study or moodles, was shopping. Some of the girls had lived in flats before & are reasonably accustomed to 'being an adult'. Myself on the other hand, really had no idea. My only comfort in our shopping disaster was that you can buy vegemite & two minute noodles. Apart from converting pounds to dollars & trying to remember that not only did we need chocolate, but practical things like milk & toilet paper, I found the most difficult challenge was not having my car. I didn't think I would miss my red, Mazda ute, Suzie, for a little while longer, after the novely of the Tube wore off, but it didn't occur to me that an entire laundry basket of groceries, a pack of toilet paper & my handbag would not be that easy to carry all the way back to the flats...
...
Since our first visit to the local supermarket, ASDA, we have returned three times... in the past four days.

That first trip to ASDA, on our very first day in the country, seemed like the end of the earth. Kate, Alicia & I struggled back & found a small kebab shop where we collapsed, ordered hot chips (with salt & vinegar...?) & came to the realisation that we really don't know how to 'be adults'.

As I have previously mentioned there are a fair few of us who are both blogging & vlogging our study abroad adventures, so even though I haven't written about our tour of the City of London on Saturday, here is my first youtube vlog which features photos from Big Ben, The Gherkin, St. Paul's Cathedral, Buckingham Palace & our afternoon visit to Greenich! Enjoy! :)

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Currently listening to & loving: 5 Seconds of Summer - an Aussie boyband who are besties with One Direction. They are currently in London, playing shows in Soho during February & March. Unfortunately they're all sold out, but if there is a single ticket to be had, it will be mine! Today they announced the release of their first official single, "She Looks So Perfect". ♫  
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"Is that person walking a ferret?"

"No! That's Draco Malfoy on a leash!"

Hey everyone!

This initial week at UEL has been crazy. Literally, all over the place! I am so glad I'm not the only one feeling this way though... I have discovered that many of my new international friends love blogging & vlogging alike!
Firstly, I'd like to take this opportunity to promote them, because, honestly, they work harder at this than I do, & we all produce wonderful content for the universe to see.

Alicia (x) runs a youtube account, along with her twitter (x) & documents her daily life, & now her travels while she is living in London. We met at the airport & upon realising we are both shameless fangirls, became instant friends. Alicia is a dance major & when she is at home in the US, she runs a fandom-related Etsy store (crazy talented, I know right!).

Daly, is blogging about all of this from his travel tumblr (x). He also runs a soundcloud account, which is understandable seeing as he is studying audio design & production back home.

Vanessa writes for a college-based fashion blog back home & is now writing articles about fashion abroad (for the same blog). (x) She thinks she's going to take my photo one day, but that day is not today! Vanessa also has some serious photography skills & runs a personal/fashion tumblr. (x)

Hannah & I

So as you may have deduced, most of my new friends are American (including my roomie, Hannah!). I'm hoping to meet many more people here at university & all over the place! There's so many more friends that I want to introduce to you all, but I have promised myself to keep these updates reasonably concise (by my standards anyway). I'll leave you with two lovely photos of our adventures so far!

Devyn & Sydney - navigating the DLR.

I'll be writing again soon about our adventures this week, as well as posting my first youtube video!


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Currently listening to & loving Beyoncé's visual album ♫

Currently reading...well I just finished The Mortal Instruments: City of Lost Souls, by Cassandra Clare, on to the Infernal Devices next! ☯
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Welcome!

Myself & my beautiful Amanda.

This is my first post on my fourth personal blog, published on the nineteenth day of the first month of the year. I've had a wonderful Christmas & new year with all the family & in just seven days I will be jetting across the world on my very own adventure. I am Laura, an archaeology & anthropology student with only one year of her degree left & I am starting my semester in London, England!

I created this blog in the hope that I can hone my writing & photography skills, & also keep a record of all of the antics I get up to while I am abroad. I will aim to post regular updates & gather the best, worst & most interesting of my experiences for your enjoyment! This is just one of many snippets of my life to come.  I will endeavour to keep you all updated with what I'm reading, who I'm meeting, where I'm visiting & of course what I'm eating. My dear Kayler, recently decided to make the change to vegetarianism, so I will inevitably be posting some of my favourite recipes to help her out!

I haven't started properly packing, nor have I bought any warm clothes...that is Friday's mission. I currently spend my Fridays in nearby, Townsville, volunteering at the Museum of Tropical North Queensland (x/x) with the lovely Larissa Vance ♡ (who will be gallivanting around England herself this August).

I am so thankful for both my home university, James Cook University (x), & my host uni, University of East London (x), for this incredible opportunity!! Also cheers to Mum & Dad for helping me fund my trip. ✈

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Currently I am listening to & loving The Weeknd ♫ & The National ♪ who both feature on the wonderful soundtrack of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.

Currently Reading: The Mortal Instruments: City of Ashes, by Cassandra Clare ☯
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