Sorry

Apparently, I'm not allowed to say "doucher" in my blog. Sorry, Mom. 

Four days left!

Catch Up

Who knew that the next time I would be writing I would be engaged!?!?! Not me, that's for sure.

Since I last wrote, my classes have ended, Joe came, I went to Paris and York, and am almost leaving London. 

I haven't gotten any final grades other than my Design class, a B+. Which is fine, but honestly kind of bullcrap.. the class was really easy and she was a very picky grader. Each of our classes here counts at 4.5 credits, which weights more into our GPA. The other kids from other schools that are here get graded Pass/Fail. Oh, Drexel. Even though it's only been two weeks, I feel like classes ended forever ago. 

Speaking of forever ago, I can't believe Joe only left a week ago! Our week together went by so fast. We did a lot of typical touristy things, and traveled back and forth between hotels & my dorm, so we could get internet. One of the things that we did that I haven't done yet was the London Eye (huge ferris wheel thing). It was really cool and a little freaky.. it never actually stops. When you get on and off- it's moving.. but it's moving slow, obviously. We also got margaritas at a mexican place with our dinner and saw a movie (Valentines Day) in the premiere theatre I have been outside of. It was an expensive night.. too expensive, but reminded me of our nights at home. We were in Paris for 2 days and that's when he proposed, if you haven't seen the pictures! Other than that, Paris was only okay.. I know, that sounds so stuck up and crazy, but really. I think Paris is overrated. You couldn't walk 5 minutes outside without someone trying to get money from you. Although we had a good time because we were together, we were so happy to be back in London. I cried when he left cause I'm a big baby but I'll see him and be home soon. 

I realized on Thursday just how much I cared that Joe was leaving, and all of the Drexel girls had trips planned. My mom found train tickets for me to go see my friend Sara who is at a Calvary Bible College in northern England. The weekend was nice, but doomed because I lost my wallet Friday night!!!!!! My Drexel ID, my Oyster Card which allows free transportation in London, my FIE student card, my medical insurance card, my Starbucks card, my license, my debit card & 50 pounds. I'm still bitter. Luckily Sara spotted me money for the weekend and gave me some extra cash to come home with. Then my lovely mother Fed Exed me a new debit card so I could go food shopping and survive the last few days here. That would happen to me the week I get engaged!! 

Second bummer of the week was that I found out the doucher who gave me a job at FDR was a substitute! So I'm back to square one for Co-op. Which reminds me-- if anyone knows a job opening for when I get home (not co-op related) let me know!!

I only have 9 (well, 8) days left in London. I had my last Friday here today, and my last Saturday is tomorrow. Then this is my last week! I'll be in Dublin next Thursday- Saturday, ad we depart Metrogate on Sunday at noon- my flight leaves at 4pm. 

As excited as I am to come home, start working, redo my room and celebrate in person mine & Joe's engagement, I'm actually really sad to be leaving London. I wish I could break off this piece of the UK and move it across the ocean. I'll save the rest of my sappy post for when I actually leave. For now, I'm enjoying an "Elyss weekend" as everyone is in Dublin or Paris and I'm in London still. I've taken this time to go to Ikea in Croydon, and for the rest of the weekend hit up places and things I want to do before I leave.. I'm sure there will be tons of that next week also. Not to mention I still have 3 papers to write. Oops.

Scotland

Scotland was amazing! If you saw my pictures, I'm sure you would think so too. It's easily the most gorgeous place I've ever been and probably will be in a loooong time. I'm definitely a beach girl, but the snow covered mountains, lakes (or lochs), and hills of Scotland were absolutely beautiful. 

Me and two other girls, Lisa and Teresa booked this trip with a travel agent in January. It was a little pricy, but we got what we paid for. We flew out of the main airport, Heathrow, so we had to take the tube. It may sound annoying carrying luggage (and it is, a little) to the tube station, on the tube, then through the airport. However, flying out of Heathrow is way easier. Instead of a hostel, we stayed in a triple hotel room. Granted, the hotel isn't anything compared to what we would get in the states, but it was a nice change from the hostel in Wales or my double room in London. And the day trip, was absolutely worth it.

On Friday night we got dinner at the restaurant/pub/bar/club attached to our hotel, and then went on a mini pub crawl on The Royal Mile (basically their Market St or Main St). The live music in the pubs was awesome.. especially the second place. Two Scottish boys with acoustic guitars singing rock songs (sorrrrrrry Joe!). But they were so good and everyone was singing along. It felt like the way movies portrayed it: small town, swinging beers, live music and a good time. For me, minus the beer, I just got waters.. honestly. 

Saturday our day trip was from 8am-8pm, which was a surprise to us. We traveled northwards halfway through Scotland to Fort Augustus where Loch Ness is. We paid 10 extra pounds for a Loch Ness cruise trip, but it was worth it. The bus driver was informative so we got to learn along the way. For example, the jerk in Braveheart, Robert the Bruce, didn't actually betray the king. And he himself, actually became the king. And he's my relative. Sooo basically, I'm Scottish royalty. 

That night we went to the pub/bar/club (it's called Three Sisters) next to our hotel for drinks. It's so funny the music that they play. I fell in love with a song called Galway Girl, which is in PS I Love You. Once you know it and love it, you feel like you belong in Scotland.. or Ireland since it's Celtic. But it was actually written in America. Anyway, after that song they played The Cotton Eyed Joe. I'm pretty sure they also played S Club 7. 

Sunday we checked out of the hostel, but left our bags there. We walked around the city, got souvenirs, and went up to the castle to see the view of the city. At this point we were running low on money, especially after I spent too much money on gifts.. so we didn't actually go inside the castle. However, it was just as gorgeous from the outside and the views were amazing. Our flight on the way home got delayed about half an hour, and we didn't get home to Metrogate until midnight. Monday I had an 8:30am class, field trip, then had to write a paper that was due at 5pm. I was exhausted, but the weekend was worth it.

I'm done classes (other than the last one) in two hours, and Joe (hopefully) gets here tomorrow, snowicane pending. Only 23 more days.

Wales

Last weekend four other girls and myself ventured to Cardiff, Wales. I had found cheap bus tickets and a really neat (and also cheap) hostel to/in the city, about $100 for the weekend, so we decided to go. The bus took around 3 and a half hours but it felt like an eternity. Amanda, one of the girls who came, had printed out directions to the hostel from the bus station. But we all know what happens when you are somewhere strange at night.. you get lost. We ended up lugging our bags around the city for a while until we found the hostel. 

The Riverhouse Backpackers was the first hostel I have ever stayed at, which is unfortunate because it spoiled me. The hostel was SO nice. It is run by a brother and a sister and they are so welcoming and nice. Since there were five of us, we had a six person room, so there was one other girl with us. That part was pretty awkward. In the mornings, the hostel had a continential breakfast which was great. They had toast with peanut butter, jellies, nutella, cereals with different kinds of milk, 3 different kinds of juices, croissants, yogurts, granola, and apples. One day we even premade PB & J for lunch later that day. Saturday night Charlie (one of the owners) made "soup" which was tomato soup with pasta with bread & butter.. for FREE. Awesome.

There was a day trip on Saturday that unfortunately we didn't end up doing, but this did give us a chance to explore the city in the daylight. We went to Cardiff Castle, which was in walking distance from our hostel. I have a feeling this castle is smaller compared to other ones, so I want to check out another one before I leave (the UK, not Cardiff). We tried to learn the history of it, but the introductory video was RIDICULOUS and completely non-educational. We basically laughed the whole way through. Cardiff was a big dock city, so we went down to the bay after the castle tour. The bay was gorgeous and there are shops and museums all around it. The plaza area is called the Roald Dahl Plass, which is obviously named after Roald Dahl, the author of the BFG, Charlie & the Chocolate Factory and James & the Giant Peach. Dahl was born in Cardiff.. hence the memorium. We got to take an aqua bus back which was awesome.. not quite as cool or exciting as I hope the Philadelphia Ducks will be, but still pretty cool. 

That night, as we were getting ready to go out, we met these Irish guys and ended up just hanging out with them at the hostel. I'm kind of glad we didn't go out because the Cardiff nightlife is surprisingly crazy. People are just wasted/high walking around the streets. The streets basically shut down and the cars don't even attempt to drive on them. Girls were dressed up in crazy outfits; neon leggings, short skirts and dresses even though it was freezing, matching tshirts, etc. I have read/heard about hostels and how friendly people are there, but I didn't realize it until I actually experienced it. In addition to the guys we hung out with on Saturday, we met a boy traveling by himself from Alaska, and three girls who were also studying abroad in London. 

Sunday was our last day in Cardiff and we wanted to see the coast, so we took a bus to Penarth Pier/Beach. The beach is different from our beaches- instead of sand, they have pebbles. We were lucky to get gorgeous weather both days. The rest of the day, we hung out at a microbrewery until our bus came. We had a great time just sitting around, drinking, and talking. Unfortunately, there isn't TOO much to do in the city of Cardiff, so the day trip to other sights would have been a good thing to do. Just to give you a taste of Cardiff-- their main attraction is a sports stadium, Millennium Stadium, which was right across the street from our hostel. 

Check.

Trips.

From going on zero trips, to now five trips, boy am I surprised (and broke). Here’s a breakdown for those of you who care about the dates:

 

Cardiff, Wales: February 5- 7^th

Edinburg, Scotland: February 19^th- 21^st

Paris, France: March 1^st- 3^rd

Dublin, Ireland: March 18^th- 20^th

 

And also, I’m going to York, England to go visit my friend Sara who is going to Calvary Chapel Bible College. That will be the first or second weekend of March.

 

Joe will be here from February 27^th- March 5^th, so that is who I am going to Paris with! The other trips is a different group every time, which I kind of like.

 

One of the girls is looking into doing a day trip to Brussels on one of the Tuesdays in March that we have off, so I may be doing that, but probably not. We’ll see how I’m doing moneywise then. 

So that means Wales is this weekend!

Classes pt 2.

So, I haven't updated in about two weeks. Oops. Time has been flying around here, and when I'm on the computer I am usually talking to my mom, boyfriend or trying to keep up with friends from home. Sorry! I will try to make a more conscious effort to update so I don't have to write really long entries all of the time.

My third week of classes is now over. About halfway through the 7 week period. I haven't really done any homework, so these next few weeks will be pretty hectic! 

My British History class, unfortunately, is pretty boring. My teacher's name is Declan (I think I mentioned that before) and he is a sweet man but HE CAN TALK. Of all people, me to say that, you know he's a talker! Monday mornings we meet at 8:30 because he lectures sometimes for about an hour- or we use the time as travel time to our field trips. The museums are cool, but nothing I have ever heard about and probably not places I would go on my own time. Wednesday nights are his nights.. to talk, talk, talk, talk, talk.

My design class is good and definitely different from any class I have ever taken. The teacher reminds me of Professor Trelawney from Harry Potter.. the crazy crystal ball teacher. Same. Exact. Hair. She is very philosophical and always wants us to find paintings (even if the purpose of the conversation isn't paintings) and tell the class why we like it. She's the kind of lady who won't tell you that you are wrong, as long as you can prove your point. We are learning about different designs, the British home throughout the past few centuries and different styles of houses such as neoclassical, gothic, victorian. We also have field trips in this class but she makes them kind of boring.. at least this Thursdays was. It was called the Geffrey Museum. It's sort of like an old Ikea. They have staged homes since the 17 hundreds. I think if I didn't have a visitor in town (SARA!) I may have had more patience.

I love my Music class. The teacher is a tiny Singaporian Brit and she's cute. We went to a classical music concert last week and she bought us all drinks. This Sunday we are going to an Experimental music concert. Eventually we will get to the Beatles, British punk and rock bands, and present day pop. So although the material isn't the most interesting, I have been learning things and the people in my class usually make it fun. We have an Ethnographic Study project that's due pretty soon. We basically are in groups and have to pick a portion of London to study. My group picked Notting Hill. (No, I never saw the movie). We are going to research the population of the town- which is upper middle class people who tend to be a bit older, versus the music scene, which is Afro-Carribean. I'm not a huge fan of projects but I suppose its better than taking a test. 

Classes.

Yesterday was the first day of classes and I had two. Each class is 3 hours long and we meet 2 times a week, for the first seven weeks. I had my British History class and History of Modern Design. 

In my British History class, the "professor" told us straight from the beginning to call him Declan. He also said no cell phones... as he pulled out his pink razor. HAHAHA. Every Monday we have a field trip to one of the museums around London. Sometimes we have a lecture in the morning for about an hour, but we always have a field trip! This means that instead of 9am, we have to meet at 8:30am. Ouch. Don't know if that's allowed but I guess he's getting away with it.. then every Wednesday night we have a 3 hour lecture/seminar. 

My History of Modern Design class meets Monday nights & Thursday afternoons. In that class, for the first 5 weeks, we are going on a field trip also. Between the two classes, I only have one overlapping museum. So, that will be a LOT of museum trips (and not so fun pictures). 

Today I have my Music in 20th Century Britain class, which I am really excited about. 

Sightseeing.

Yesterday we woke up and took the tube to the Tower of London. It sucks because you aren't allowed to take pictures inside most of the towers, therefore I cant share seeing the Crown Jewels, Henry the 8th's real armor, or the headstone of Thomas More, which stinks. The Tower(s) has(have) so much history, much of which I didn't know about. We had a Yeoman Warder tour in the beginning, but because of the weather he just took us inside a chapel to talk to us for a while. I read about the history online when we got back and it's crazy how old the Tower really is. It's interesting to read about, so I would recommend doing that. Some of my photo captions have brief histories if you read them.

The snow here is basically flurries and it barely lays on anything. However, because it's so cold and it's never really sunny, the pavements get very slippery. I fell the other day, that was fun.. and slipping happens a lot, too. No matter what shoes you wear it's hard to walk. Luckily today it wasn't that bad! I guess they don't really salt anything because they aren't use to the snow. All of the British people are freaking out about the snow and the cold, but it is definitely normal for us. It's suppose to flurry a little bit tomorrow, but then it is suppose to start getting warmer. 

Today we went to Kensington High Street which has a lot of shops. Some of the shops are the same as the US, such as Gap, H & M, American Apparel, and Urban Outfitters. There were six of us and everyone got sweaters, hats, any cute piece of clothes. I just got a necklace. I definitely want to save as much money as possible, but it's hard because we've been going somewhere and eating out everyday. I think once we get more settled, and especially when school starts, I'll be saving my money. But back to the shopping- January is a HUGE sale month. Most of the stores have 50%- 70% off a lot of their inventory so it's definitely tempting! With the conversion rate, I don't really think anything is a great bargain. There are a lot of little flea-market-type places I have heard about, so hopefully I will find some cheap & unique stuff there. 

The other students arrived today and it's weird having the dorm full. I'm use to just seeing the Drexel students, and then when the fashion girls left yesterday, just the 10 of us that are still here. I think our plan for tonight is to try to meet some of the next students and head over to Imperial College.

Fun fact: Imperial College is the second most prestigious college in the UK, only second to Cambridge. 

Arrivals.

I write this from a teeny tiny room in the richest borough in London. Crazy, right? 

For those who ever get to go overseas, TAKE VIRGIN ATLANTIC. The seats were uncomfortable but for a 7 hour flight I think no matter what seats you get (unless they are 1st class) they are going to be uncomfortable. But in the headrest of the seats in front of you, they have these TV/computer things that are connected to this remote thats on the chair of your arm.. hard to explain, better visually. Regardless, you can play games (I played Tetris of course), watch TV shows, listen to music and watch movies.. or track your flight. Since the plane ticket was so expensive, I feel like I should have used it more but I tried to sleep as much as possible. It's not that I wasn't tired, it's just hard falling asleep when you are uncomfortbable. I put on 500 Days Of Summer but fell asleep so I mostly just tracked my flight.

When we got to the airport, it was the LONGEST WALK EVER to get to "Reclaim baggage". Reclaim makes so much more sense because the baggage is ours in the first place.. then we met a woman from FIE or something FIE related to take us to Metrogate (our housing- which you all should look up!). My roommates name is Caley. She has two friends that came with her but they wanted to room with different people so that's nice. Our room is small but it's live-able. I'll post pictures on facebook but basically it consists of two beds (no under bed storage), 1 wardrobe, a desk, two nightstands, and a mini-fridge. There is a built in closet, two baby shelves, and a 8 inch TV. And for those of you who have seen my TV.. 8 inches is rough. And we only have 5 channels. Luckily, there is a common room with a bigger TV and way more channels. Our bathroom is about like 4x2 (okay maybe a LITTLE BIT bigger) but the shower is soooo small. I know, at least I have my own, etc, blahblahblah. I'll live.

We are in the basement, we take the "lift" down. It is absolutely freezing in our room, they just put the heat on.. and it barely works. But luckily my bed is right next to it. There are about 300 other students coming to Metrogate and the other housing, but not until Thursday. Us Drexel students get here really early apparently. So right now it's just us. There are two Drexel programs here- regular Study Abroad & a Fashion program and there's a pretty clear division. The "fashion girls" get to go to Paris tomorrow for a few days, so it will just be 10-15 of us around here. 

So in my 50 odd hours that I've been here, which by the way it already feels like a week, we have seen some pretty cool stuff. They LOVE, i mean LOVE, Diana: Princess of Wales (that's how they say it). She lived in Kensington Palace which is about a 10 minute walk from my dorm and apparently was very friendly in the neighborhood. We (me and my two friends Amanda & Lisa) went to the Natural History & Science museum yesterday. I've been to 2 pubs, 1 restaurant, and I've had fish & chips. I've taken the tube-- London built their tube system when America was having it's civil war!! I've been grocery shopping- but I need to go again. In about an hour we are going on a bus tour of London which I'm really excited about. Lisa's sister & sister's boyfriend are in town and they (well he, his name is Jim) have some friends here. They are mid 20s / late 20s and completely spoiled. They have traveled a ton. One of their friends is actually from Germany, but has lived here for 4 years so he was telling us places to go. We are meeting them tonight at a Piano Bar. I had my first 'legal' drink, it wasn't that exciting. However I don't foresee much drinking due to my monetary funds (or lack thereof) and I really don't like 'pints' or 'spirits'. 

Sorry this is so long, but most of you asked for it, or are use to it!

General Information

So since I haven't posted anything in two & a half months, and I leave in 34 hours, I figured I should post some general information type things.

Most important, since all of you will be sending me mail, is my address:

Elyss Pickenheim

Metrogate House

3-7 Queen's Gate Terrace

London

SW7 5PE

UK

Stalk it at: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?hl=en&gl=uk&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=106767916996834396844.00044ff695be97ee8de14&z=15. And then ask my mom what she was using because she has virtually walked around my future neighborhood plenty of times.  

I will NOT be using my cell phone, including texts. However, this lovely little appendage that I have called a macbook will be with me. I have AIM and Skype, and of course Facebook. My AIM screename is Elyss89, and my Skype name is Elyss.Pickenheim I think.. but if you search Elyss Pickenheim I'm pretty sure I'll be the only one that comes up. 

And about time zones, I will be 5 hours ahead of you (in EST). 

My flight departs from Newark, NJ tomorrow night at 9:30PM. My flight returns March 21st. So it's 11 weeks.  Less than 3 months. 

Then when I return, I go to my six month co-op. Which will most likely be interning with the guidance counselor at FDR. But we'll see what happens with that. Some of you may be wondering what classes I'm taking when I'm there- nothing for psychology. There is one class that will count toward my 55 needed free elective credits which is mandatory for all FIE students, British Culture & Visual Media. The other 3 classes are: 1. British History 1815 - present (which will fulfill a history elective), 2. History of Modern Design (free elective), and 3. Music In 20th Century Britain (fine arts elective). 

That's as much general info/faq type things I can think of for right now. I'm going to spend my last few hours in the country AWAY from my computer now.