The goal.

I just want to announce to the world, ie the ten of you that look at this, ie probably only my parents, that I am going to finish two essays tonight.

Now I have to do it.

xxx (proof that I am now angleterrian)

Lauren

Expert advice

There are a few things, which after three weekends of visitors, I am now an expert. I am not sure where these skills are going to take me in life, but they’re there.

I know exactly when to go to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard. The best spots to get pictures, the order of the ceremony, what time to arrive so that you don’t get bored but you can also see the fun stuff. Lets be real. Ive seen it three times. Surprisingly the Pomp and Circumstance isn’t all English pride and nationalism. I have heard the band play “Uptown Girl,” “Singing in the Rain,” “On my own” and countless other classics. Its been a great cultural immersion.

I am in Love with Big Ben. Even if I have seen it three weekends in a row. I could probably see it every day and not get tired of it. Facebook is a testament to that.

I know my favorite stalls at Borough market.

I know where and how to get relatively cheap theater tickets.

I know where the cupcake shops are.

I know where everything cool in Harrods is. Including the Pet Kingdom.

Maybe I should be a tourguide?

Completely separately – I watched Love Actually the other day and didn’t realize that it is now 2 weeks until Christmas until the movie mentioned that time period! Wahoo! It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Love and Best Wishes for the Holidays!

Lauren

Thanks for trying

I love my tube line. It is grey and it is fast and it gets me from Finchley Road to Westminster in twenty minutes. Jubilee, it’s where it’s at.

The weekends are a completely different story. I do not love my tube line on the weekends because more often than not it is closed on the weekends. The tube also closes at midnight but that’s another story. On the weekends, when the tube is closed, I generally take buses and make do.

This past weekend, when my family was visiting, four tube lines were closed. Not any four tube lines, but four MAJOR tube lines. Needless to say – it took ten hours to get where I needed to go.

So here’s a note to London, I know you want to get ready for the Olympics in 2012, but don’t close four tube lines (major ones at that) at one time.

Love,

Lauren

Bella Vita

Time has just flown by! I’m going to break up the last few weeks into sections for easier consumption.

This is Venice: Five girls. 118 islands. 160 canals. 420 bridges. 100 churches. 60,000 people.

Venice, in my opinion, is a beautiful city that just happens to be rotting. Even the most disgusting food (I overreact, but there was some bad pizza) is overpriced. That being said, I ate amazing sandwiches and gelato. The buildings (despite mold and floods) are gorgeous, and the bridges are idyllic. The museums are manageable and fantastic. I recommend the Peggy Guggenheim for anyone Venice-bound (though the Academia is not well organized). San Marco’s Basillica is stunning. The pigeons are scary. Gondola rides are fun.

Florence 2009, take two.

I eat the best when I eat in Florence. I am not a fan of the city itself, but I love the surrounding countryside and gardens (love the Boboli). Great gelato. Great food. Great museums – the Uffizi still ranks as one of my favorites in the world. Great friends. The Duomo is fun and so is Santa Croche.

Madre comes to London.

Mother and I went to theater. We saw galleries. We ate yummy foods.

Okay short and sweet! That’s what I got for you. It's officially official winter now (in my mind) and today was officially a blustery day!

I’m sending you all love.

Love,

Lauren

We'll always have Paris

This past weekend I met up with a bazillion UNC friends in Paris!

A quick narrative: I stepped off of the underground and onto the Eurostar early early early Friday morning. At noon local time I arrived at Gare du Nord. I immediately left and went to Versailles (minor shambles due to lack of telephones). It was all that I had ever dreamed and more. Saturday sights included Sacre Coeur, L’orangerie, the bakery, the Louvre, the Seine, and the Eiffel tower (1652 stairs and an elevator ride to the top). Sunday sights included Notre Dame, Shakespeare & Co Bookshop, Saint Chapelle, RAIN, a café, musee d’Orsay.

That is the brief version of the adventures of Paris. There was also a lot of bread, cheese, and chocolate involved. I saw “Princess Bride” for the first time. A lot of things my family says make more sense now.

It is now November and it feels like it is fully Autumn. My knee (from my Amsterdam tumble) is still swollen. I fall more in love with Yoga every time I practice. I am slowly eating my way around London – coffee shops, restaurants, cafes, I am pretty indiscriminate.

I wish I could be more funny.

With love,

Lauren

I’m gonna write you a letter, I’m gonna write you a book, the Amsterdam Experience

Here are my thoughts and musings on my first trip to the Netherlands! Quick summery: the dam is an interesting place.

AESTHETICS: It is stunning – reminded me of Hampstead Village (where I live here) combined with Georgetown but with more canals. It is SO old – there is history everywhere, on the small roads, the bridges, and the buildings. It is odd – the red light district was absurd and more than a little depressing. Scent – Im sure you can imagine what it smelt like. In all, it was gorgeous – I loved the neighborhood called Jordaan (your-dahn).

EATS: I ate wonderful foods – a lot of chocolate (Puccini, Albert Hijn brand and Galler were favorites), French fries, stroupwaffles (!!!), pancakes (my favorite was a savory – mushroom, spinach, onion, tomato and pine nut).

ART: Vermeer, Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Dutch painters in general…do I need to say more? Basically, I spent a LOT longer in the museums than either Kesley or Katherine (Hollis, you were missed).

XXX Bikes: My favorite part of Amsterdam, however, was the prevalence of biking. As one astute study abroad student put it “the dutch were born better bikers, we can never be as good as them.” And lets be honest. It’s true. The dutch people riding on bikes could ride in and out of traffic with no problems, with two children positioned in seats on the bikes or in wagons, with so much ease that it made me embarrassed to try. Even when I felt confident, I still felt clutzy in comparison with their deft skills. I saw a parent biking with their YOUNG (under 3) child standing on the back of the bike, holding onto the parents shoulders. And no one was worried about this? No one even wears helmets!

In the interim, while I loved biking around Amsterdam, clearly the roads weren’t so pleased with my presence and I absolutely wiped out after day one of biking. (Slipped on a tram track to the amusement of drunk Dutch people – I hope their guilt complex freaks out.) With my own deft skills, I managed to bang up my knee and scrape my hand, but biking after that was a little too adventurous. While I love biking, and I love that Amsterdam loves biking, I would love Amsterdam and biking a lot more if they could get some bike safety laws. Helmets for instance, and maybe seatbelts for children under the age of 5? And maybe the coordination-challenged?

CASE AND POINT: Amsterdam is amazing. Everyone should go. Everyone should rent bikes. Everyone should deftly avoid sliding on tram tracks. Eat chocolate. Eat pancakes. Look at beautiful things. Trust me.

In love,

Lauren

Random MISadventure: Almost didn't get let back into the UK because I forgot my documentation. WHOOPS. Luckily I found forms that worked. Oh visas.

Shivers and Sweatpants

I think I just took the second most cold shower of my life. By just, I mean two hours ago. The water was not as cold as it was in Mostar. A KEY difference, however, is that the horribly freezing shower in Mostar happened in July. It is now October, and cold, and raining outside, and my heater does not work.

Cold water is not conducive to anything but shivers in the winter. Luckily I have many layers of sweats.

Why they (the UK) don’t have hot water is beyond my comprehension. I think I got unlucky.

That’s all I got.

Lauren