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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