Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Hampton Court Palace and weekend in Leeds

Hey friends, sorry for the long wait again, nothing really exciting happened last week, so I was just gonna post about my weekend on Sunday, and then I obviously procrastinated until now. Shoutout to the dear Abby Head for inspiring me to write this today. Just trying to keep my fans happy (totally kidding, please don't think I'm conceited). But let's get my horrible memory started on trying to remember the past like, 10 days, (eeek I promise I won't go this long without blogging again).
Last Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday: it rained. I laid in bed and went to class and bought groceries and that was about it. This was mainly due to the fact that it was gross and I am a lazy person, but there were also the tube strikes (straight from satan himself) which caused any sort of getting around London to be completely miserable considering half the lines weren't even running and all the buses were packed, so that was a major bail.
Thursday was when the magic started, as per usual. The only thing I hate about Thursdays is that I have to wake up so freaking early and for everyone who knows me at all, I love sleep and getting up before the sun is not in my list of activities that I'm interested at all. This week, however, there was the most gorgeous sunrise to greet me when I woke up and it was only there for a few minutes, but it was such a sweet little picture. I felt like God was just like, "Good morning Rachel, you're more beautiful than this sunrise." And I was like, "Man, thanks God. You're the best." And therefore my day began in an awesome way.
#nofilter
For my art history of London class we set off to explore Hampton Court Palace which was so dope, y'all! Like, we need to talk about the ceilings for a quick minute because British people are #not #playing with their ceilings. This was probably my favourite trip that I've taken with this class so far. For some reason I just really liked it and my teacher didn't give me an anxiety attack this week and it was just really great. We just walked around this sick castle and I got to light a candle in the chapel and I laid on a bench and looked at the ceilings for a while which was nice.
 This was actually the worst chai tea latte I've ever drank. Don't trust hot drinks that come from a train station kiosk.
Notice the shameless promo to follow them on all social media
 Just picking up British boyfriends left and right
 I know this has historical significance, but I couldn't stop thinking about The Other Boleyn Girl. Scarlett Johansson, anyone?
 This is the dream prom photo spot.
 I'm sorry, are we actually in the state of Alabama right now?
 Sickest parts about castles (besides the ceilings) are the doors.
 Here's a fireplace that I apparently thought was good enough to photograph?
I actually don't know why I take half the pictures that I do.
My favourite part of castles is probably the really awesome chapels that they all have in them. In this one in particular, the cutest old man gave us a whole history of the church and it was so adorable and interesting. Basically, this was where Henry VIII hung out for a time and my all time favourite part of history is the fact that good ol' Henry VIII started a new religion just so that he could divorce his wives. Not saying I truly agree with the policy, but literally, what a baller. I get the feeling that he was the Kanye West of the 16th century.
 There were cushions on the floor, so I had to sit on them. There really wasn't a choice.
 Apologies for the horrible picture, but this was yet another photo that I wasn't allowed to take and so I had to be sneaky (but still got yelled at). These ceilings were just too bomb not to share with the world.
 Stained glass windows are cool and Alex is an actual freak.
 Casual backyard shot.
 #Vogue
 Selfies with the wicked ceilings.
 Bathroom selfies or it didn't happen. Also this was the first bathroom I've used in England that had the flush that you had to pull a chain from the ceilings for. Too cool.
Let us just imagine what it would be like to eat meals in this room because I really want to. Also, this is proof that English ceilings don't mess around.
After we got done touring the palace (by the way they had a maze there, nbd) we just walked around Surrey for a bit trying to find somewhere to grab lunch and we ended up at this precious little deli where I got a toastie (panini) and chocolate cake and it was beautiful. Then we headed to Covent Garden because Yuri had his sights set on this cookie place that was another gift straight from the hands of the Lord, also I had to go to Vodafone to deal with the bs that was my phone plan, so it worked out.
Then Thursday I didn't go out because I had to get up quite early in order to get my train, so I just hung out and went to sleep early.
Friday I woke up and had to head to the library to print out my train tickets (most complicated process ever, by the way) and then I headed to King's Cross (call me Hermione) to get my train to Leeds to see Hayley, yippee!! Train journeys are actually the best ever and the English countryside is really so beautiful. However, there were the most obnoxious guys ever seated at the table next to me and they got drunk on the train and were being really loud and rude and they were doing that thing that drunk people do where they think they're really funny, but they're actually so annoying, so I was just like, *sarcastic side eyes emoji* But I sat next to a precious old Irish couple, so they made the journey worth it.
My train got delayed and we were stranded in the middle of nowhere for an hour, so by the time I got to Leeds it was almost dinner time. Hayley and I walked to her flat, stopping quickly in Primark to grab a blanket and some pyjamas for me (British people are so into pyjama sets and onesies though) before getting ready to get food. Leeds was a lot more different than I expected it to be, it was a pretty good sized city and she was right in the middle of it, basically. It was so strange to be able to walk everywhere and not have to take public transportation though.
We ended up going to Wagamama's for dinner before going to her friend's flat for predrinks and then going to the club at their Union. Leeds Uni is actually huge compared to Roehampton (think 3x more students) so their student union was massive. They had multiple clubs, so it was super fun. We danced the night away and it was fantastic even though guys were creepy. I love how much One Direction is played when we go out here, it is definitely what I'm about.
Wagamama is actually where it's at
Yay for besties reunited in the UK
Coolest place ever
Favourite part of the night was when guys would keep trying to put girls on their shoulders and the DJ would just interrupt the song and say, "Get down!" He was also doing birthday shoutouts? Not really sure, but every now and then he'd interrupt some rap with a, "Happy birthday Samantha," so we were just like, okay. Do you.
Saturday we slept in a bit and then just made some food at Hayley's before heading out to do some shopping and explore Leeds. The shopping there was so great, everything we needed in such a close proximity it was amazing. We also had afternoon tea at the cutest place ever. I felt so freaking British in that moment. And we went to this incredible sweets shop! Americans steal a lot of ideas from other countries, so I'm just waiting for the idea of massive sweet shops to make its way over to North America because it is a really important concept. That night we decided to just have a chill night and so we went to the "cinema" which was really really nice, we had assigned seats and the popcorn was really nice. It made me want to go on a date with a boy to the movies (Niall, call me) really badly, but as we all know I will probably have to wait 100 years until that happens. After the movie, which featured a beautiful Zac Efron accompanied by a girl who looked like she wore the same smudged eyeliner for the entire movie, we went back to Hayley's and I forced her to watch "This Is Us" and then we started planning our adventures for the month of April.
 Macaroons are everywhere here and I am not complaining.
Ceilings dude
Sunday we got up and grabbed breakfast at the cutest little deli and did a quick look for penny boards in the skate shop next door before I had to catch my train. This train journey went much smoother (no delays) and besides spilling hot tea on myself, it was grand. When I got to King's Cross I went straight to church which was amazing as always, also I got a sick new Bible. This weekend was so great.
This week has been really boring so far because again it has been cold and rainy, so all I've done is go to class, but today Allison and I went over to Chiswick and explored a bit and got some tea and a snack at the most precious little bakery ever. It was raining the whole time though which was pretty miz, so we didn't stay long. We did find a couple cute shops though including a massive bookstore and a precious thrift store! So we're planning on going back when the weather is nicer.
So that's pretty much all that's been going on over here, I'm really excited for this weekend because Hayley is coming and it's fashion week and Galentine's Day and yay! Luvin lyfe. Well I love you all so freaking much and miss y'all tons and sometimes I just stalk your Instagrams and cry because you're all so beautiful and amazing and I want to squeeze your faces. I'm also super jealous of all the school that y'all aren't having and am gonna need y'all to send some of those cancellations my way. Also I'm officially going through withdrawal from Chick fil A sauce and Easy Mac so if you could somehow find a way to transport a chicken biscuit straight into my mouth that would be fantastic. Love y'all talk to y'all soon, muah!!

xx

P.S. If you want to see my video documentation of my weekend in Leeds with Hayley, you can click here.

Also, I'm trying to win a free ride to the airport at the end of my program so I don't have to carry all my bags on public transportation and be a sweaty mess all over the city of London. Basically, all I need is the most Instagram likes on all my pictures with #CISLondon, so if you would like to help me out with that you can do so here.

Monday, February 3, 2014

Chinese New Year and lots of miscellaneous-ness in London

This past week was extremely scattered, and so I'm just warning you that this blog post will probably follow suit. I decided that I was going to try to update on here twice a week, Wednesday or Thursday with whatever boring stuff I did during my week, and then again on Sunday with my (hopefully) more exciting weekend adventures. However, this past week was really rainy and gross and I didn't really do anything noteworthy until Thursday, so I just decided to lump it all together, but now that I've procrastinated until Monday night it's kind of stressing me out because last Monday seems like a long time ago and I hope I can remember all the things I did (actually not that much).
I was so excited because Sophie (aka the sweetest person ever) was going to be in London for a couple days at the beginning of this week before heading off to work at the Olympics, no big deal (I'm going to brag for her because she refuses to). Sophie and I met at a First Friends (Honors College name drop) event at Alabama this past fall, she had shown up without a first friend so she was looking for someone to adopt her and I saw that her name tag said she was from London, so Georgia and I introduced ourselves and the rest is history (basically we just become friends. Not much history), but I (and the rest of my friends and entire sorority) am obsessed with her so I was excited to experience London life from a true Londoner.
After my first class she picked me up and we hunted (for 30 minutes, no lie) for parking, we ended up cheating the system and parking in a Sainsbury's and headed to Pizza Express. Wow, I forgot how great pasta was and it was such a cute little restaurant. Also I found out there was a Nando's in Putney. Holla. It was good to catch up with Sophie too. I liked feeling like I had my first visitor even though she actually is from London, but whatever. She's a horrible influence though, and pushed me into ordering cake after I destroyed my pasta, but it was delicious so I can't be mad. Also she may or may not have retained a concussion, but we're just gonna go with the blanket statement that a good time was had by all.
Excuse the horrific photo of me and the fact that my right eye seems to have completely gone missing, but I was just really excited to see her.
Monday and Tuesday were probably the laziest days I've had since I was here. I was still getting over being sick and it was rainy and gross, so besides going to class, my biggest accomplishments were finding a link to watch Modern Family online and eating an entire pizza by myself (not the first time I've done that). Then Wednesday, I don't have class, but it was still raining, so I woke up with big plans of exploring more of the city, but I looked outside and just said, "No." So I think I did something insane (not really) like watch 15 episodes of Modern Family or something. I'm not sure. Those three days I was so lazy, it's kind of a blur.
Wednesday night though, we had our first organized excursion with our study abroad program. It was a tour of historical sites around the city that were involved with Jack the Ripper murders. To summarize, Jack the Ripper was a murderer who targeted prostitutes and was just super gross and violent and would cut them open and steal their uteruses (rude) and throw their intestines over their shoulders and all kinds of horrific stuff like that. It was freezing and raining the entire time though (did I mention this was a walking tour?) so we ended up not seeing many sights and instead just hopping from one shelter to the next, finally giving up and sitting in a pub and having the tour guide just talk to us for the last hour of the tour.
 The churches here are insanely beautiful. This one was interesting because it's where prostitutes used to stand outside and try to pick up customers. No judgement, I was gay once, all God's children, etc.
Hopefully someone gets that reference.
 Huddling under a office building.
So after the tour was over, we ran (literally) to the nearest Nando's and took shelter under the loving arm of Peri Peri sauce and free soda refills. I fall in love with Nando's the more I eat there. It's just so great and spicy, but not too spicy. Also, I feel really connected to Niall when I'm there because it's our favourite restaurant now. 
 Literally could eat it forever.
Free refills are my love language.
I signed up for this Art History of London class or whatever because it started at ten and I thought, "Hey, that's reasonable. That's not bad at all. Let's do it." (Actually, let's not). The past two weeks, we've had to be ready and at the bus stop before 8:30 to meet and travel with the group, and this week was pushed even earlier. No. Not okay. I'm not a fan of traveling on public transportation with large groups of people because it gives me (real) anxiety, so we ended up bailing and going on our own and getting breakfast (bagels, hell yeah) and stuff and just meeting everyone at the Tower of London.
Tower of London was super dope. Its formal name is, "Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress" (casual). As the name would imply, it's this giant castle-fort thing that's basically a little town inside. It holds the crown jewels (The Most Important) and a bunch of history, so it was cool to see. I just can't get over how old everything is here. So many of these things that we saw have been around since before America was even a country. I feel like I say that every time I talk about being here, but it's true, and I can't get over it. Also I liked it because they had a section catered to kids with games where you got to pick up guns and shoot a bow and arrow and stuff (I'm five, okay?)
 Apparently someone gave King Henry III a polar bear as a present once, so I had to document this for my girl Mabes. #stpb
 I'm really proud of this picture because you can see Tower Bridge on the left and the Shard towards the right and I just really like skyline-esque pics, basically.
 #Vogue
 Churches in London are so old and rad, so I'm gonna really need them to stop having restrictions on taking pictures.
 My British boyfriend, he could loosen up a bit though.
 A giant dragon made of old weapons. Bad ass.
 Tower Bridge.
 Fergie actually should have checked her facts because this isn't even called London Bridge, whatever. The song was still stuck in my head all day.
 You weren't allowed to take pictures in here and it was the stupidest thing I've ever heard.
Okay, I'm still trying to figure out the deal with these guys because I thought they wore red coats and apparently they're soldiers, not beefeaters? My whole life is a lie.
I found this thing in the gift shop and it made my whole entire life. It made clapping noises like you were being cheered on, it was so great.
After we finished our tour, we grabbed some fish and chips because Allison and I hadn't had any since we've been here. Let me just tell you, fish and chips is where it's at. I feel like I've heard about them my whole life, so to eat them in London was dope. They know what's up with the fried food, y'all. Then we returned to campus and I just chilled for the rest of the night and ended up FaceTiming with a bunch of my real life loves (Hi, J babe/kcvickery/Botch/Fig/Conner), so that was grand.
thebomb.com
Friday was another rainy day and all my friends had gone out on Thursday while I stayed in (cLaSsIc), so they all slept in. I ran to Putney in the morning just to grab some groceries and stuff, but we basically relaxed all day long. Then that night we decided to go to Funky Buddha so we slipped our names on the guest list really quickly and then got ready (not so quickly).
We got there, waited for like 30 minutes in the (somewhat) rain. Alex had her umbrella out the entire time even though it was barely sprinkling because she's a drama queen. And Rachel Higg was there!! I felt like a proper Londoner that I went out in London and ran into people I knew, like what even? So we got in and checked our coats and bags and got our wrists stamped, the usual. First thing I noticed, it was awesome. Second thing I noticed, it was so not how I thought it would look. Also. drinks were hella expensive, so the only thing I drank (in true Rachel fashion) were a couple glasses of water. That's one thing I love about London, is that I can actually get water when I go out places, unlike in Tuscaloosa where all they have is alcohol (looking at you fraternities. Is it so hard to have some water bottles around?)
It was an absolute blast though. Aside from the fact that I made the mistake of wearing heels (I hate your dress code for clubs, London) and so my feet were killing me, it was fantastic. They played such good music, like 2 Chainz and Beyoncé and Usher and 50 and Kanye and Drake!!!! And they were having a Chinese New Year celebration!! They had a little performance-parade-thing. I was actually ecstatic. Unfortunately, Niall couldn't make it because he's still recovering from knee surgery (even though he went out the next night and neglected to tell me about it. Rude). We danced the night away and then took an Uber (my absolute favourite) home. I always feel so fancy in those.
 I wore a dress with cutouts because I'm fancy, huh
 Lion Dance Performance
If I don't take a mirror selfie in the bathroom it's like I didn't even go there.
Saturday I again, did nothing. I stayed in my pyjamas all day and only moved to make food, but Jesus decided to start rocking my world. I literally did nothing exciting all day, but by the end of the night I was so pumped and having a freak out and just so freaking happy because I was overwhelmed by the love of the Lord. I read Psalm 16 (which I highly recommend to everyone) and it talked about how the Lord gives us fullness of joy and eternal blessings in Himself, and I was just brought to my knees with excitement about the fact that I need nothing else to satisfy me or keep me joyful besides the Lord, yet He still chooses to give me so many awesome things that make me so happy as like, extra joy! How incredible. I was planning to write a long thing about everything I was feeling that night, but now I can't even find words for it, so...
Sunday was the best day. Sundays here are always the best days. Allison and I woke up (kinda) early and headed to Chinatown (!!!) for the spring festival celebrations, then we were gonna go to church. The only bad thing about this whole day was that my phone wasn't getting service (thanks, Vodafone) at all, so I felt really stranded. When we got off the tube in Chinatown, I was so excited. It smelled literally so good I could've cried and we started walking around looking at all the shops and stalls and stuff that they had set up for the celebration. One of the first stalls we looked at had giant bao zi and I could've jumped to the moon I was so excited, so I made Allison wait in line with me while I got one and then I ate it so quickly I was sad that it didn't last longer. Then we went to a supermarket where I found jia duo bao (only the best Chinese drink of all time) so I was seriously in heaven.
 ACTUALLY ECSTATIC (pardon the crazy eyes)
This is what 10000% happiness looks like.
We headed to Trafalgar Square after that because they were supposedly having some parade and performances and stuff, but it ended up just being a whole lot of people and a whole lot of me not being able to see or hear anything that was going on, so we ended up escaping into the National Gallery. It was awesome. We saw paintings from rad people like van Gogh and Monet, and we could've waited in a 75 minute long queue to see some sunflower paintings, but we (obviously) didn't do that. National Gallery was cool except (again) you couldn't take pictures. So lame. Also all the rooms were laid out the same and it was like a maze, so confusing, and I kept getting lost because I couldn't remember where I had come from or where I was going.
 Shout out to the guy who felt it was extremely necessary to raise his weird hand at this exact moment, but this was Trafalgar Square
This isn't my best (like I really ever have a best) photography because I had to take it quickly so I wouldn't get yelled at (which I did, anyway), but the ceilings in this city are hella dope. Brits are into ceilings, lemme tell ya. (Also, hey Allison).
After we meandered through there for a while, we walked down towards Big Ben looking for somewhere to eat and ended up getting on a bus to Tottenham where we were just gonna hang and eat before church. We went to this place called EAT. which must be a huge chain because I've been seeing them everywhere, but it was really good and surprisingly healthy-seeming. I'm always shocked at how unprocessed everything is here, but I guess it's not killing me as much as food in America is, so I'm into it. But I still don't really know how to interpret their food labels, so I could be consuming millions of calories for all we know (fingers crossed I'm not).
 I obvi chose something you had to eat with chopsticks.
Then we went to church where we ran into Yuri and his friends and met up with Rachel and the FSU crew and we made a new friend named Dana who was really cool. It was Vision Sunday, which was basically reflecting on how far Hillsong has come as a church and then just laying out and refreshing the vision for the years to come. Seriously such a great service. It's insane to think that just 30 years ago, the two head pastors started this church on their own, just the two of them, and now they have churches in 46 locations in 16 countries. Like, whaaaat? God is so incredible!!
At the end of the sermon they showed a video where they interviewed the pastors from all of their churches around the world and I just started crying because I just love people so much and want them all to know how much God loves them and the joy that comes with knowing Him and He wants me to help Him do that and I just cried happy tears because life is so beautiful and God is so awesome and I'm really so lucky. Then they sang "Oceans" and wow I actually lost it and I was ugly crying and shaking (but still trying to sing like Beyoncé, obviously) through the whole thing because I just love God so much and I really do want Him to lead me where my trust is without borders and I will follow wherever He calls me and I am just so happy that I am His and He is mine. I just can't wait until Heaven where I get to live in moments like that for eternity.
Then I came home and made a pizza and today I bought train tickets to go to Leeds to see Hayley this weekend and wow life is amazing. I love and miss y'all so much and hope everyone had so much fun celebrating the super bowl and let us all just remember how that we are all beautiful and important and special and how much Jesus loves us and that Beyoncé's super bowl performance will hands down be the best one forever and ever amen

xx

Also, I'm trying (AND CURRENTLY LOSING) to win a free ride to the airport at the end of my program so I don't have to carry all my bags on public transportation and be a sweaty mess all over the city of London. Basically, all I need is the most Instagram likes on all my pictures with #CISLondon, so if you would like to help me out with that you can do so here.