Week 2

So, I have concluded that every week in London is going to be pretty crazy. After all, I only have Monday-Thursday to unpack from my last trip, grocery shop, catch up on sleep, go to class, do all my homework, explore London, and pack for my next trip. I guess I can't complain.

We got back on Monday from Paris and went straight to class at 11 am from the airport. We got a little bit more info about the project we are going to be doing for Event Design. We are acting as if Jordi, our professor, has commissioned us to do an exhibition about water.

Anything about water, which pretty much makes our options endless! We started researching past exhibitions and trying to focus our interests into a particular idea of what our individual exhibition will be about. I am thinking something for children? An interactive exhibition that incorporates water conservation, sustainability consciousness, and environmental education? We'll see.

Tuesday we went to the London Eye. It was cool to see the city from so high, but kind of freaky to be suspended up in the air in a giant glass bubble. London looks so gray from above. EVERYTHING is gray or brown. It was a huge contrast to Paris, where everything looked so white and clean! After the London eye we went to this Cuban place to get a few drinks.

The Frozen Strawberry Margarita Cubana was fabulous! Then we ordered what we thought was chips and salsa and chips and queso. We were very wrong. It was essentially a biscuit with salsa. Not what we had expected or were looking forward to. Oh well. The fresh fruit in the margaritas made me happy.

Wednesday after class we went to Harrods to go shopping (really just look around. We weren't buying anything, unfortunately). Harrods was crazy huge! It included 7 floors, 4.5 acres of shopping, a grocery store, and a pet store (ever seen the YouTube video of Christian the Lion? They bought him at Harrods) all in one building! We had fun walking through and seeing all the famous designers collections: shoes, purses, jewelry, home-goods, wedding dresses, etc. Mostly looking at things we couldn't afford, but wished we could! They had a memorial to Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed. In front of their pictures was the ring he was supposedly going to give her. Describing the diamond as "huge" is an understatement.

My online class, which we thought was going to be simple, is causing us all much more stress than we thought! This week's assignment is a group project. How are we supposed to do a group project for an online class, you ask? Good question. It doesn't work at all really. My group has yet to participate, so my professor just gave me the "okay" to do it all on my own. Great! What a HUGE headache! I guess I will be writing a 5 page paper before I leave tomorrow morning.

In addition to Paris and Ireland, we finally booked the rest of our trips (with the exception of our Santorini hotel and our train from Venice to Florence). We are officially going to Italy (Venice and Florence), Barcelona, and Greece (Santorini and Athens).

Tomorrow we leave at 4:30am for Dublin. We are spending a day in Dublin and then we are going to Galway, on the west coast of Ireland. This trip should be so fun and beautiful, but definitely different than Paris!

Now I really need to start writing this paper! Cheers!

PARIS!!!

We made it! Our first interesting task was attempting to get from the airport to central Paris. Eventually we figured out the french signs and were on a train. We made it to Paris and really didn't have too much of a plan. We were starving, and looking for crepes. We didn't find any crepes, but we stumbled upon a boat tour that was about to leave. So we hopped on and took an hour tour up and down La Seine. It was perfect! Such a great way to see the city!

Paris was beautiful and fabulous- better than I ever imagined! After the tour, all we want was food! We decided just to get lunch instead of breakfast since it was about lunchtime. We started walking towards out hotel and found a cute cafe right by the Louve, La Corona (i think). The food was great, especially compared to the food in London! After lunch we made our way to our hotel, which was located one block from the Louve. It was perfect, clean, and (relatively) cheap. After putting out stuff down, we made the most of our time and starting immediately exploring.

We first went to Sainte Chapelle. What a breath-taking sight. The stained glass was amazing! Next we went to Notre Dame, The Pantheon, and Palais du Luxembourg. All so amazing! Notre Dame is HUGE!!! This was the first place that seemed really "touristy". As far as the crowd, especially compared to London, Paris was so refreshing--and empty! We made it back to the hotel after getting stuck in a down pour (and running into the family on TLC's Little People Big World) ha! My feet were in so much pain. The blisters were only getting worse. It was going to be a LONG weekend at this rate.

We all showered and got cleaned up. Next we went to the Louve because Friday nights were free for students from 6-9. We didn't stay too long. My god, you could be there for weeks and still not see everything! We made sure to see the Mona Lisa though! Next we went to dinner and this fabulous cafe that had such yummy bread and pasta and salads. We split a bottle of wine and ate so much, but it was so good! After dinner we went to the Latin Quarter (St. Germain) to go out. We split another bottle of wine and then went to this crazy bar that was recommended to us by Caroline. It was a good time. We were so tired from getting up at 3:30am, that we didn't stay out too late. After all, we had such a busy day ahead of us!

The next day we decided to get breakfast on the go. We stopped at this little bakery and got croissants, pastries, etc. Everything was so yummy! We walked to Musee d'Orsay where we spent a while looking at all the amazing impressionism work (including pre and post impressionism). We then proceeded to walk to the Eiffel Tower. We waited in a line for about an hour and walked up to the second "story", which was really like 700+ steps! We waited in another line for another hour or so to take the elevator to the top. We realized that we didn't have the right ticket to go to the top, so Sara ran to get in another line. Unfortunately they closed the ticket office for an hour! So we decided not to wait another hour plus! We were sad that we didn't make it all the way to the top. The view was wonderful though. You could see so far, and everything

looked so clean and white! Well worth the calf workout!

Next we went to Tour Montparnasse, a skyscraper south of the Eiffel Tower. This view was awesome too! We got lots of pictures of the city with the Eiffel Tower! We grabbed lunch at a sandwich shop near the metro stop. On the way back to our hotel we stoped at the Jardin des Tuileries, got slushies, and took quick naps sitting in lounge chairs by a fountain. The weather was PERFECT: 80 degrees and sunny! We were in heaven!

We went back to the hotel to shower and get cleaned up. We were planning on going to a club right by the Arc de Triumphe, so we decided to go see that, and find somewhere to eat dinner around there. We cam upon this cafe that ended up being the best food and wine! Everything was so good! We proceeded to make friends with some young Parisians, another american, and the waiter. We waited until the cafe closed to go out from there.

The following day, we were going to take it easy and go shopping and walk around Des Champs-Elysees. We tried to get some lunch at this old Hemingway hangout, but they weren't serving food on Sunday. In fact, almost everything was closed on Sunday! So we found this other place to eat.. nothing worth going

back to! We then took the metro to the Concorde stop and we were going to walk from there. We were coming out of the subway and that is when mass chaos began. There were police, army, national guard, etc in the subway screaming (in french) and people everywhere! We had no idea what was going on. At first it was kind of scary. We thought that there was some sort of disaster or demonstration going on.

We got above ground and there were thousands and thousands of people everywhere. Everyone was yelling and cheering at what seemed like a parade. We still couldn't tell because everything was in French, and none of us could speak or read French.

We finally got down to Des Champs-Elysees and realized

what was going on, and how lucky we were! It was the finish of the Tour de France. How exciting! No wonder there were thousands of people every where! We didn't have the best view, and couldn't understand what the announcers were saying, but it was very cool to see. There were so many bikers and they were all going so fast! And the caravans behind the bikers were huge! It was really cool to see.

After the finish, we went to the Grande Arche near La Defense. Very cool to see, especially the contrast between the Arc de Triumphe and how they lined up perfectly! From there we decided to pack a picnic and go to Sacre-Coeur, the church on the hill. We got baguettes, a bottle of wine, cheese, and desserts

to share. We sat on the hill, watched the sunset, took pictures of the city at night, and made our way back to our hotel around 12:00. We packed everything up, scheduled a taxi for 4am, and went to bed for a few hours.

Overall the trip to Paris was amazing. So much better than I anticipated. I knew Paris would be beautiful and old, but I had no idea! If I am ever lucky enough to go again, I will make sure I go to the top of the Eiffel Tower, go to the Pompidou, and make it to Versaille. Other than that, we saw a lot and did a lot! It was a jam-packed weekend but well worth it! We survived not knowing any French, and luckily everyone was so helpful! We didn't have any rude encounters with Parisians :) My computer is still not fixed... It takes forever to get an appointment at the Apple store here! So i just stole some of Carol and Sara's pictures. Enjoy!

The LONG pre-Paris week...

Sorry it has taken me so long to post! I wanted to make one more post about my crazy week before I left for Paris, but like I said, it was a crazy week! Let me try to go back and recap.

Last week was rough. Really rough. The first full week of classes was definitely an adjustment for me. I haven't been in a classroom in almost 8 months. So the whole idea of homework, studying, and reading was a bit foreign. Tuesday, after walking 2 miles in the rain to class, Sara and I found out it was cancelled. GREAT. Apparently our professor is from Germany and he comes in every Tuesday. If there are complications or delays with his flight he just cancels class. So, we decided it would be a good time to figure out what all we had to do for our online class. Seeing as we didn't have a classroom to go to or a teacher to ask, we figured we should start the process sooner rather than later. Good thing too because we ran into hours (and I mean hours) of complications with our schedule. Oh well. We finally got it all figured out.

My online class, Business Ethics, has 2 assignments per week. One discussion board about a different topic each week and one paper per week. Both assignments have to be completed on Sunday at midnight (CST). I have class live chats with my teacher twice a week. Unfortunately they are at 7pm CST, which is 1am GMT... not sure how many of those chats I will make. Since our assignments are due every Sunday, and we are traveling on the weekends, we basically need to have everything finished by Thursday. So, that is part of why my week was so crazy. I had to read 4 chapters in a textbook and write a paper (among many other things) before leaving for Paris.

We went on a Old Pubs of London Walking Tour on Tuesday night. It was a lot of fun. Very cool, old, hidden places with lots of history! My blisters were getting worse by the minute (gross right? and this isn't even the worst blister). I had to stop multiple times to buy more "plasters" (band-aids) because I was just bleeding through them all. Not fun. At all. So much for thinking I was smart by bringing flats.

Wednesday I had my second Event design class. There are all Americans in my class. 6 are from California and then 4, including me, are from Cincinnati. My teacher Jordi is from Spain, and seems like he is going to teach us a lot. Our homework was to go to the London Design Museum and go through 2 different exhibitions. One was about the history of design in London, and the other was by Javier Mariscal's Life

Drawings. Both very interesting and very different. I started forming more blisters on this trip to the museum. It doesn't matter what shoes I wear. I just can't win!

Thursday comes along and I have my first Perspective Sketch and Rendering class (since the first one was cancelled). Wow. It was not what we expected or what the course description had said. It was very elementary... and pretty much everything we had already learned (in three different classes in fact). We got the syllabus and schedule, and Sara and I both thought that we wouldn't really be learning anything new. So we decided to drop the class. That opened up entirely new can of worms. We were leaving for Paris in the morning, had to get approval from our advisor at UC, get all these forms signed, and turned back in.... What a headache! We ended up picking up another business class that runs in an accelerated 5 weeks. Luckily, it doesn't start until my last 5 weeks. One less thing to worry about for now.

Next, I started planning out Paris trip. Yes, just hours before we left. Trying located recommended places to go and eat and where we were staying because I knew I wouldn't have access to a computer while we were there. Speaking of computers.. I went to upload my pictures from the week, and my computer won't save a thing. So I will have to make a trip to the Apple Store when I get back from Paris. Just what I needed. Nothing is ever easy here...

I couldn't worry about my computer at that point though. I was leaving in about 4 hours! I threw some things in a backpack, loaded my purse up with homework and reading material, and I tried to get a few hours of sleep. That didn't go very well. I was way too excited (and the party going on above me didn't help). Next thing I know my alarm was going off at 3:30am. We got to the airport, checked-in, and were off to Paris! So exciting. I will make a post about my Paris trip as SOON as I can get my pictures working...

Week 1 :)

I think I am officially settled. I am learning my way around my flat, and learning more and more about the city. It is more confusing to get around and to orient myself because there are very few straight streets here. It’s not like NYC where you have 5^th street, which is next to 6^th, and 7^th, etc. There really is no real organization of streets or easy ways to learn them. It will just take time.

London is a really cool city. EVERYTHING is a little bit backwards. It just takes some slight adjustments. The first grocery shopping experience was interesting. The nutrition facts are different, they don’t have a lot of the same food, and nothing tastes the same. Everything is so bland. Even the bread is bland- even though I am not sure how that is even possible! The last few days I have been trying to cook or eat in to save some money because I know I will be eating out non-stop on out weekend trips. Also, the whole driving on the other side of the road thing is weird. Luckily the streets say “look left” and “look right” on them at all the cross walks. The words and symbols they use for everything are so weird too. Just trying to work the oven/stove top was a challenge! The “hob” is the stovetop and the “cooker”, which is the oven has to be turned to a little symbol that looks like a shark tooth. Who knew? Also the normal printer paper size is a little off. An 8.5” x 11 is really like 8” x 12” and they call it A4 here.

Orientation was Friday and I had my first day of classes today. It went very well. I am in a combined furniture design and event design class. It sounds like I am going to pair up with a furniture design student and do a project where we pick the event, location, etc. It sounds like fun. Our professor, Jordi, is nice and young. There is a bit of a language barrier, but it will be fine.

School is 2 miles from our flat in Camden. We have decided that we are going to try and walk to school as much as possible. It is a really pretty walk through Regents Park, and takes about 40 minutes. We can take a bus or the underground, but we figure it is a good way to get some exercise and save some money. So, as long as we aren’t rushed for time, we will most likely walk. Even in the rain… Today, I had to drop some forms off at school at 9am, so I decided to run to school, run home, shower, and then walk back to my 11am class. Then we walked to Oxford Street to check out the “touristy” shopping area (and that it was), and then we walked home. So, so far today I have walked about 9.5 miles. If we go out tonight, it will probably add up to11+ miles just today. Hopefully my blisters will go away soon!

The weather has been much cooler than I expected. Actually I didn’t know what to expect, but I wish I would have packed more jeans. It has rained every day, except for today. But it has yet to rain all day. It usually just rains for a few hours, and then it is usually always party cloudy. I wore a tank top on my run this morning hoping I would get some sun (because there wasn’t a cloud in the sky for once), but I wasn’t very successful. It is pretty shady in the park. Oh well. During the day it has been about 65-75 degrees, and at night it has gotten down to 50-55. BRRRR!

Oh Saturday we went to Primrose Hill to check it out. Unfortunately we did not see any celebrities. It is a beautiful area! Then we went to Camden Market, which was cool. The market was HUGE and you could spend days there. We just stayed a couple hours.

We planned our trip to Paris (next weekend), Ireland, and Greece. Just a few more trips to finish booking. It takes SO long to plan and book everything for 6 people. There are multiple trains/flights/buses to each weekend, several different hostels and hotels, and everyone has different schedules, so multiple different to and from flights! It is so confusing, and causes a huge headache! That’s why we can only manage to plan one a day.

On Sunday, we went on a bus tour of the city. It was so fun to hear about all the random stories, facts, and history about the city. We briefly saw/visited a lot, but I cannot wait to go back to most places. The list of things to do here just keeps getting longer and longer! We only have one class a day, and because we will be traveling most weekends, we are going to try to do some stuff on the weekdays. We are hoping they will be less touristy (and maybe less expensive) too.

We have been out every night but last night, because we needed to catch up on sleep! We have met a lot of fun local people who have showed us a good time. There is a very informative magazine/website called timeout.com/London. It lists the places to go and things to do for the week.

I am (surprisingly) adjusting to not having my iphone on me at all times. I wish it worked because the GPS feature/internet would be awesome! There are so many times that I wish I could just use UrbanSpoon to find a place to eat, or the Map to find out where I am! I got a phone here, but it is a joke. It looks like my first cell phone, and it is so hard to text with! I forgot about T9. My cell number is 07542183379. It took me forever to memorize! I got a pay as you go plan, which included 100 min to the US per month. I get free incoming class and texts and it is free for my friends and I to talk (as long as we are in the UK). Disappointingly Skype hasn’t been working very well because the Internet in my flat is terrible. Someone said something about upgrading the internet, so I need to look into that!

If you are friends with me on facebook, you can see some of my pics. If not, or to look at ALL my pictures, go to...

http://kristenepage.myphotoalbum.com/view_album.php

DAY ONE!

I made it! It is still so surreal that I am even here. I am very excited about the next few months.

The flight went well, and I arrived in one piece WITH my luggage on the same plane! I flew standby to Cincinnati, met my friends, and then took off about 8:00pm EST. The flight from Cincinnati to London was just under 7 hours. Needless to say, I was happy to land and get off the plane! The first couple hours my friends and I were catching up, reading magazines, choking down the (nasty) dinner they served, and trying to tune out the Zac Efron movie playing. Eventually I put in my earphones, eye mask, and tried to sleep for a few hours. That didn’t go so well. I was in and out of sleep and severely uncomfortable for the duration of it all. Not to mention, it was probably 50 degrees on the plane. I attempted to stay warm by putting on my winter sweater, drape my north face jacket over my jeans, and wrap up in the see-though thin blanket provided by the airline. I woke up as I was being served breakfast about an hour outside of London. For the remainder of the flight, my friends and I intently studied our London guide books.

We went through customs after waiting for about an hour (partially because the line was so long and partially because Sara had to go on a scavenger hunt for her laptop that she left on the plane). We bought our Gatway Express Train ticket, and then the real fun began with

our luggage. We got down to the baggage claim and our luggage was all lined up waiting for us. We immediately just started laughing at the ridiculous amount of luggage we had. I mean, at this point it was about 3am CST, so what else could I do but laugh? Not sure how we made it to the opposite end of the airport to catch the train, but we did…it just took us a while! The scenery was so beautiful! Everything looks so old, and all the houses look like they are straight from Mary Poppins! London is so huge, but there are not really tall buildings.. its weird, but very cool.

After we sat down on the train it hit us how tired we were. After virtually no sleep the night before and after dragging 150+ lbs of luggage around the airport, I was ready to go to sleep! However, after the train, we had to transport all of our stuff again into 2 cabs who then delivered us right to our door step. We went and checked in our rooms to find our less than ideal flat. I didn’t realize that “linens included” meant they would provide a fitted sheet and a nasty duvet cover. So I started making a list of things to get, with actual sheets, pillowcases, and towels being on the top of the list! At least we are all together, and really, I can’t complain.. I am in LONDON!!

Next, we decided to go out and grab some food becausewe were starving! We ate at a pub named Camden Bar just a few blocks away on Camden High Street. I just had to enjoy my first Stongbow in England!

After lunch we met a few other students in our complex for an introductory walking tour of Camden. The guide pointed out the grocery stores, bars, shops, places to eat, etc. He had lots of helpful tips about public transportation, interesting history facts of the area, recommendations of how to saving money, and fun legends about the local pubs. The area we are staying is very cool. It is super young, trendy, and artsy with a bohemian flair. It is the music central of London, and it seems like there is a lot to do!

We came back to to the flat to unpack (which is tough without any hangers and hardly any storage space), and now everyone is taking a nap except for me. I am trying to stay up and get in the groove of this whole time change.

We are planning on eating dinner, going out tonight, and most likely calling it an early night. We have a LONG 9 hour day of orientation ahead of us tomorrow! I can’t wait to explore London even more!

Cheers!

8 days!!

I cannot believe I am leaving in 8 days. Crazy. I have been planning this for a year and a half +. And it's almost here! I am (finally) trying to organize my life and get everything together. I have piles and piles of stuff to go through, organize, and purge before I can leave. I have to pack for London, which, for me, is going to be a huge mountain to climb! Two suitcases with a total of 100lbs! What will I do? I also have to get all my stuff together for Fall quarter since I will be flying right back to Cincinnati in September to jump right into classes. I am going through packing lists, reading London books, taking friends' advice, and doing everything I can to prepare. For now, I just have lists (and lists) of things I need to do and get. Nothing actually packed... yet.

I FINALLY have my schedule of classes:) I am taking an Event Design Studio on Monday and Wednesdays, a Perspective Sketch and Rendering class on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and an online Contemporary Ethics

business class (that only lasts for the first 5 weeks!). It will be very cool to get the perspective of professors in the UK. I am interested, excited, and nervous to get started. I have a feeling it is going to be SO different than school (and everything I know for that matter) in Cincinnati.

I am traveling with the following girls (Kate isn't pictured). (In order from Left to Right) Caroline is a fashion design major (along with Kate). Caroline was my roommate Freshman year, and we have been great friends ever since. Emily is an Architecture major, and I met her freshman year because she was in most of my classes. We lived together this past fall, and she is in my sorority. Sara, who is also in Theta, is an Interior Deisgn major with me. We met freshman year when she lived across the hall from me. Carol, who I met freshman year because we had almost every class together, is an Interior Major as well. I lived with both Sara and Carol this past fall. We will all be living together in a 5-bedroom 5-bathroom "flat" in London. We are living at Beaumont Court which is

located in the north-west borough of Camden. We are within walking distance of several amenities and areas of interest. If you are familiar with London, Camden is to the east of Primose Hill and Regents Park, to the west of Kentish Town and Islington, to the north of Euston and to the south of Chalk Farm. We will be very close to the Morning Crescent and Camden Town Tube stations.

We are a 40-45 minute walk (unless you are walking at a Karen Page pace) from AIU's campus. We will most likely take public transportation to cut the commute down to 20-25 minutes. AIU (American Intercontinental University, London) is located at 110 Marlebone High Street, right between Regents Park and Hyde Park.

Yesterday I had a 5-way video chat with all my friends, and we attempted to get some weekend trips set in stone. None of us have class on Fridays. Emily and (maybe) Carol

will only have class on Monday and Wednesday (LUCKY). Sara and I have the same schedule. Caroline and Kate (not pictured) are taking classes and they have an internship! How fun! Here is the (tentive) schedule that we decided on last night:

07.23-07.26 Paris

07.30-08.02 Ireland

08.06-08.09 Jen Hacker and Honors PLUS students come to visit

08.13-08.16 Venice (and maybe Florence? Rome?...not sure yet)

08.20-08.23 Barcelona

08.26-09.02 Emily's Mom, Sharon, comes to visit! Weekend trip TBD

09.04-09.06 Erica comes to visit? Weekend trip TBD

09.10-09.13 Greece (Athens and Santorini)

09.17-09.20 Last Weekend :( So, we are staying in London. A hiking trip in the English Countryside and a Day trip to Cambridge are planned through AIU.

AIU has Cultural Activities planned for the whole summer. They seem like a lot of fun!

We have to sign up for the ones we want to do on the first day. Some events include: Pub Crawls, a Stonehenge visit, castle visits, Broadway Shows, Football and Rugby games, walking and bike tours around the city, day trips to Bath, Wales, and Oxford, various landmark tours.. just to name a few!

So, I am schedules to fly out of Lambert Internation Airport at 5:00 pm Wednesday, July 15. I am flying to Cincinnati to meet the rest of the girls, and then from there we are flying right to London! Our flight gets in around 9:00 am, just in time to get

checked in, moved in, and start orientation!

As soon as I know my address I will post it. In the meantime, my email address is Kristenepage@gmail.com. My Skype name is kristenepage.

Talk to you soon. I need to get back to packing...