I wrote this but forgot to post....whoops

back to london.....
Easter weekend was long and relaxing but I didn't end up getting anything constructive done....whoops.
So every year Time Out has an Easter treasure hunt that gives you clues to go and find these places around the city. I spent a good portion of Friday working on that before losing my oyster card and calling it a day.
Sat + Sun consisted of basketball (yeah lame i know) and an amazing easter dinner chez nous.

In real news, my internship is FABULOUS! I am working for an event management + concierge company in Ladbroke Grove and its been pretty sweet so far. I am getting lots of exposure to different things and getting to learn a ton about London. In hopes of spreading their name I'm working on a myspace and facebook account for the company so more details to come once those are up and running!
Last night we went to a show for a band who is good friends with my boss and it was pretty chill. We enjoyed a fabulous dinner and then some fun music and dancing.

mmm fish heads

so as I said earlier when we were in portugal we ate fish heads...anna took photographic evidence:

It started with just the tails....

Then someone decided to say "Dare me to eat the head?"

So we did it...

This Is Anfield.

so another update from the last few weeks....

Brandon showed up on Friday morning for his week in London for spring break but SURPRISE not just London but also a trip to LIVERPOOOOOOOOOL!

Saturday morning we got up bright and early to catch our 530 train from Euston...but OH WAIT a freight train had spilled stuff all over the tracks so no trains were leaving the station. merde. So after traipsing back and forth across london at the crack of dawn we finally ended up catching a train to birmingham to connect to liverpool. (^^ I got kinda bored and decided to play with the camera)

We arrived in Liverpool several hours later than planned in hopes of joining one of the beatles tours.....no luck. So we wandered around the city (SO CUTE!) and discovered some Beatles hot spots on our own.

Sunday was the big day though! A trip to Anfield to see the home of Liverpool FC. Brandon was like a kid on Christmas morning....so cute! We went on a tour and got to check out the museum before heading off down the street to catch the game. We ended up at a pub full of locals and us....how cool is that?













It was a pretty sweet trip I must say.

till next time

Vespas to Jesus

so its about time I update about Portugal!

It was beyond amazing! We fell in love with the country even if we couldn't understand a single word of Portuguese. We arrived in Portugal on Friday night to discover the cutest hostel I've ever seen! There were candles and a beautiful terrace outside which we took full advantage of. Bobby even came to meet us on the first half of our trip in the city of Porto.

We spent the days exploring and visiting two different port lodges where we enjoyed some beautiful sweet goodness. After our first port visit we went to lunch on the riverbank where we enjoyed lots of seafood. We concluded our meal by trying fish heads..... not bad but nothing to rave about. We spent a few more days in the beautiful sunshine enjoying chorizo and vino verde before heading to Lisbon.

We took an afternoon train to Lisbon and were again greeted by an AMAZING hostel. It was just like a real world house! The first day we conquered the major Lisbon sites including a few cathedrals and the amazing custard tarts in Belem.

Day two we traveled to they mythical land of Sintra! The book was completely right in describing it as Sleeping Beauty meets Lord of the Rings. There were ruins of an old Moorish Castle that just seemed like a giant play land. Then we went up to the pink and yellow castle on the hill. It was like spending a day in a fairy tale.

Our last day was spent checking out Barrio Alto which was full of lots of bars and some pretty cool tags on the buildings. Sadly we had to leave our warm weather and return to a rather windy and dreary london town on thursday night.

But then BRANDON CAME!!!!

more to update soon!

bisous!

You say thanks, I say cheers.

Okay so I figured it was time for a real update.

Oh the things that have happened....
Major things:
-Dublin:
Two weekends ago now Laura and I took our trip to Dublin. Since planning my semester abroad I knew a trip to Ireland was part of the plan. Dublin did not disappoint. We enjoyed some lovely irish music on our first night there to ease us into the weekend away. Saturday was a full day of site seeing with St. Patricks Cathedral and the Guiness Brewery. YUMMM. When you reach the end of the tour you are rewarded with the most wonderful pint of stout goodness you will ever consume. I recommend it for everyone.The trip continued through sunday night with some amazing irish food with some baileys on the rocks. Overall Ireland: A

-Scotland:
Last weekend Anna and I made the trip up to Edinburgh with two of the girls from my flat. We took the train from Kings Cross and of course enjoyed the chance for the Harry Potter photo-op at platform 9 3/4. I mean we were basically taking the Harry Potter train anyway with our destination of Edinburgh!
After a beautiful train ride through the countryside we arrived in Scotland hungry and ready to explore. Thursday night we checked out the castle and spent Valentines day watching the top 100 love songs of all time countdown on british VH1-type TV.
Fridaywe explored Edinburgh castle and made the trek down the royal mile and up to Arthur's Seat. We discovered that we took the longest most treacherous way up to the top but were rewarded with spectacular views.


Saturday was filled with a 12 hour coach tour up through the Scottish highlands! Here I got to meet my new bff Hamish McHaggis (Anna added the last name). We also enjoyed beautiful sites at Glencoe and Loch Ness and I had a wonderful lunch of Venison Bangers and Mash. YUM! I have concluded that I think Scotland is my favorite place that I have visited while being in Europe (not lived of course because Paris is hands down number 1). Overall: A++

Other News:
--I bought our family tartan in Scotland
--Anna and I went to a fashionspace release event during fashion week where we discovered that apparently all the skinny bitches in London really are Bitches.
--I have become obsessed with British music.

This week has been insane with final exams and the 5 essays I had to compose for my tourism class. YIKES! I am finally done though and feel pretty confident about the results.

Tonight we are leaving for Portugal for our spring holiday. We start in Porto where Bobby is joining our adventure and moving south to Lisbon Monday until Thursday when I return to London for Brandons arrival!

Adeus!

ps-here is ewan mcgregor for your viewing pleasure:

'Another Mama for Obama" (sign at the primary)

so number one in a series of updates:

last tuesday was the first time in history that Americans have been able to go in person to cast a vote abroad. The Democratic Party has created an organization known as Democrats Abroad who have made it possible for the americans living/studying abroad to vote in person for the primaries! woo hoo

so around 7pm tuesday night Jessie and I went across hyde park to the voting location and along with lots of other ex-pats cast our votes! It was such a great atmosphere! There were people lined up around the building to get in to cast their vote then upstairs there were areas for obama and hilary including cookies, beers and of course a stage where you could cast your vote infront of everyone if you chose to do so. It was an awesome opportunity and im pretty proud i got to take part in it!

On the subject of Dinner and Dessert

so when talking about the adorable-ness of Aube's babies this is what bobby had to say:
focs19 (01:06:31 am): well i don't like babies
focs19 (01:06:34 am): except for black ones
focs19 (01:06:44 am): *her babies are not black
focs19 (01:07:02 am): actually, they remind me of vladimir putin
focs19 (01:07:28 am): so they instill a sense of fear in me

so very random but it made me laugh.

in other news: way to go VA with Obama for the Democrats.

finally: i went to dublin this weekend. real updates later.