She's Country

Today was an amazing day! The group went on a hike in the countryside of Surrey. Completely at home here, definetly reminded me of Wisconsin.. finally! It was a really nice hike, through some fields and woods, with some great scenery stops...



It was beautiful! Surrey, if anyone remembers, was where part of the movie "The Holiday" with Cameron Diaz, Jude Law and Kate Winslet took place. I love being in the country, and walking doesn't bother me at all. But clearly some people were definetly out of place.. the dirt and the bugs and the walking did not settle with some people...Weird?

But besides that, the view from the top of the hill at the end of the hike was GORGEOUS. You could see for miles. It was a trek up there, let me tell you, but it was definetly worth it!

Everyday America

As lame and boring as Elk Mound and the surrounding areas are, I would give almost anything to be able to go home. I know I know, what am I thinking, blah blah, but really.. I've never appreciated my life more than being out of place of it. This is an opportunity of a lifetime I know, and not many people get to ever have the same experience, but I miss my life! I miss sunshine every day, and hanging out with my dog. The only even remotely close things that remind me of home here is the American music thats played in every club, the Subway a few blocks down, and the cows that live next door at the vet school-at least they still smell like cows!

Me and the flatmates spent the day wondering the fabric stores of Shepherd's Bush, and the luxuriousness of Oxford Street. Lots of good things at both places. In Shepherd's Bush I got some knit fabric, possibly will turn into a dress? TopShop of course.. got some cute jewelry. I have come to the conclusion that you can get away with wearing literrally ANYTHING here in London. I mean ANYTHING. Some of the strangest things have walked by, worn by some rather strange looking people. It's quite inspiring and somewhat admirable but something tells me that high waisted chiffon palazo pants, and a half shaved mohalk wouldn't fly on the campus of Menomonie, especially in the winter. I have also come to the conclusion that there is to much money flying around London. Jeez. Designer, designer, designer.

Apparently, soccer ("futboll") is HUGE here. The world cup is currently being kicked in South Africa and England is in their.. second round? I havent figured out who wins, or what the point system for each game is, but England is still in a pretty good running. We went to a local pub called World's End in hopes of catching the game, but there was so many people that we left before the first half even ended. I'm not much of a soccer fan anyway...

Always Late, Worth the Wait

So clearly, I'm not very good at keeping up with this blog thing. I've been here for 2 weeks already, time is flying to incredibly fast! I've had completely full days everyday since I got here. But here's a mini recap:

The first like, 4 days were absolutely horrible. I hated it here. Everything was COMPLETELY different from back home. I hated how the city smelled, I hated the food,I hated all the people, I hated all the walking,I hated the time change, I hated trying to figure out the transporation system,I hated being away from everything that was familiar. I cried every night for those first 4 days. BUT, thankfully things got better after we had more activities to do...

I've gotten into my classes: Fashion Styling and Journalism for Fashion. Both are fun and interesting, I'm learning new things. But they are different. There aren't really any due dates which with all the exciting things in the city I want to see, make its very hard to sit down and actually concentrate on homework...Classes are 6 hours long at a time, with lots of little coffee and lunch breaks in between. And our professors like to take field trips to strange places: art galleries and exhibitions that don't make any sense to me...?

The first weekend was basically an orientation to... everything. The school, although helpful with suggestions and many maps, basically threw us into the city. It was up to us to figure out transporation, in finding where the best places to eat where, etc. We had some walking tours,but even those made us lost! A brightside of that weekend though was shopping on the renonwed Oxford Street. Two words: retail heaven. Topshop, Urban Outfitters, H & M,Zara, Selfridges,Anthropologie just to name a few. Not to mention the Chanel, Dior, Louis Vuitton & D & G boutiques a few blocks over on Bond Street. On Sunday, we took a boat tour down Shakespeare's Thames river to the town of Greenwich. It was an hour boat ride, guided by a man with quite the personality. Now, London is a city of 7 million people, kind of like New York City with "bouroughs"; Greenwich being one of the older ones. In Greenwich, Greenwich College and the Prime Meridian at the Royal Observatory where the highlights.



Greenwich is also known for it's incredible vintage and antique markets. I was able to find a vintage bracelet, and an "Indian Motorcycle Parking Only" sign for my dad, pretty cool actually! It was a quiet area, with a somewhat small town feel...

On Wednesday, we participated in a "Hidden Pubs of London" tour. Basically, bar hopping. The pubs are different here than they are back home: instead of individual drinks, a round of drinks is ordered. We had "cider", basically a sweeter tasting beer. I don't like beer at all, so.. this was even to much of a beer taste for me to like. The pubs are all in old buldings with nocks and crannies, and super high ceilings. One of the pubs- "Old Bank of England", actually housed the barber shop of the notorious Sweeney Todd and his meat pie mistress (check out the movie with Johnny Depp for the gory story!)

Friday was another day of touring. We went to Stonehenge and the small town of Salisbury, about 3 hours out of London. Stonehenge wasn't exactly what I thought it was going to be- it's definelty hyped. But it was cool to say I've been there in person. Theres only so many times you can walk around and only so many pictures you can take before it really does look like a bunch of rocks.



In Salisbury, we went to the Salisbury Cathedral. That was something. It has the tallest "spire" (steeple) and is the tallest Midevil structure in Europe. It's really cool inside. The best part was that the cathedral housed the "Magna Carta", basically England's version of the Constitution, but drafted in 1215. There's only 4surviving copies left in the world, so that was pretty cool.

I think Saturday has probably been the best day of my trip so far. Me and my flatmates went to "Trooping of the Color"; the Queen basically says hello to the country, and "inspects" her troops-they just line up and put on a fancy show for everyone. We got there super early and managed to get a pretty good view of the queen.



The second week has definetly gone better. I'm getting used to traveling around by both the "tube" and the bus, as well as walking almost everywhere. This place is definetly a retail queen's dream: literally every brand name I've ever heard of is gettable in London. I can't tell you how many times I've been tempted by Chanel, Louis, and Dolce.. besides TopShop, Anthro, and this amazing store called All Saints. Have definetly done some damage...

My flatmates are AMAZING.. love them to death. Kelsey and Tiffany are both from New York and Danielle is from Michigan. Me, Caitlin, Kelsey and Tiff have been going out and exploring the town together, and thats been a great time.

That prettty much sums up the past 2 weeks, and this time, I PROMISE theres more to come!