No Business like Show Business!

Well, on Wednesday we finally got to sleep in! We headed out for a little brunch at a place called "The Breakfast Club" then got ready for a tour of Wembley stadium! The stadium was interesting, but sort of redundant, thank goodness it was our last one! We came home and got ready for "Peter Pan" that evening! The show was in Kensington Garden, in a circus style tent! It was soooo goood! We loved it! They did an amazing job on theatre tech, and thought of very interesting ways to use the space! It wasn't a very big area, so we had great seats! Afterwards we headed home [in the rain!] and called it an evening! On Thursday we had class in the morning, then ventured to a London BBQ place called Bodean's. We are trying to eat at new places all this week, so we get the most of the city! We came home and had a paper to write about the Tour de France, it took us a while, but we managed to pull through! We had a quick Italian dinner, then went to a pub close by called White Hart for our professor's birthday! There were about 10 kids from our program there, and we celebrated Dr. Heere's birthday in style! On Friday we got to sleep in again! It has been a glorious week! We had breakfast at the deli across the street, then worked on homework for a while! We, on a whim, decided to head to "Dirty Dancing: The Musical" to see if we could snag student tickets to the matinee. And we did! Two shows in Three days! It was a really good show, with of course, excellent dancing! Afterwards we came home and got ready for dinner, we went to a restaurant called The Real Greek. It was greek style tapas, and was of course delicious! We discovered the Covent Garden area was quite close to us, and we have been obsessed ever since! [Where all these things are!] We walked around the neighborhood a little, then decided to do a pub crawl! Our roommate, Dylan, has been dying to do one, so we decided to try it! You have to go to 5 pubs on the map, purchase something, and then get your map stamped. At the end, you trade in your map for a "free" t-shirt!
On Saturday (how is it already August!?!) we worked on homework some more, [see...we really are in school!] then attempted to make a cake for our roommate kevin's birthday! They don't really do baked goods here the same way we do in the States, and our apartment has very few dishes. It was sort of a fiasco, but managed to make a pretty good cake! We had a late lunch at a Portuguese chicken place called Nando's, it was so delicious! We worked around the apartment, and celebrated Kevin's birthday, then headed out to dinner. Jordan and I met up with some of her brother's friends from NYC, Lana and Adair, for dinner in Mayfair at a place called Automat. It is a brasserie, with a combonation of London and New York, and was absolutely delicious! Afterwards we left and met our friends in soho for a night at the Soho Club! It was a great atmosphere and we had a wonderful night! On Sunday we worked on homework some more (this is starting to get old!) then we cooked lunch at the flat, and did some laundry! We decided to try Brazilian food for dinner, and ate at Guavabara. It was so delicious! They host dance lessons earlier in the evening, and the whole restaurant was centered around the dancefloor! We had a delicious dinner and great evening, before retiring home early! We have presentations in the morning, and another busy day planned! We will be home soon! We are excited, but very very sad to leave!! We love it here! anna and jordan.

Another Race!

Sunday, in Paris, was the Tour De France! We didn't really know what to expect, but we were excited! All the Texas girls (and Dr. Heere, our professor from home) wore burnt orange to show out support for Lance, and I brought the trusty Texas Flag so people would really know who we were supporting! We got to the Champs Elysees around noon, and managed to walk along the route up to the Arc de Triumph, which was really cool! There were lots of souvenier merchants, and lots of different people supporting many different riders! After we finished walking the Champs, we headed to the Place de Concord where our group was stationed. We had nice seats that we a little higher in the air, so you could see more, but we weren't very close to the riders, which was a bit dissapointing! We ate a picnic lunch that we had brought with us and got ready to see the race. And then we waited, and waited, and waiter! It took a very long time for the riders to finally come, but when they did it was so exciting! They made 8 laps around us as the finale of the event! They were lead by police officers and EMTs and some team cars, and then the 3 leaders (lance, of course!) came whizzing by! Then there was a gap, more police and race cars, and the huge group of the rest of the riders would come by! After the 6th lap, we ran down into the park behind us, and managed to get on the garden fence, right on the street where they were riding! So we had a close up view for the last two laps! It was so cool! Boy do they go fast!! After the race was over, we walked through the garden and up to the Lourve for some pictures, and a less crowded metro station! We headed to Notre Dame, to make the most of our time, and managed to get in at the last minute! The security guard shut the gate right behind us! Mass was already going on, so we only got to walk through the back and admire the church as a whole, but WOW. It was very pretty, and so large! It is hard to imagine all of this stuff being built so long ago! Afterwards we headed home, rested up, and went out for a traditional French dinner. We ate at a sidewalk restaurant and had a 3 course meal. Jordan had fish, and I had a pepper steak, and we had sorbet and chocolate mousse for dessert! yum! Afterwards we headed home and called it a night! On Monday, our goal was to get up early and go to Versailles, but sadly, we found out that Versailles is closed on Monday. Needless to say we were dissappointed, but we were glad because there were still lots of things for us to do! We headed to Lourve, and actually went inside! (I, anna, skipped the Lourve this time around because My mom and I are going again in 2 weeks, didn't want to spoil it!) So Jordan tacled the Lourve, and I shopped! She saw the Mona Lisa, and many other famous works, but said that it was very crowded, and super hot! She was sweating when she came outside! I mainly stayed in the shops under the musuem, and found lots of interesting things! It started to look like rain, so we walked down through the garden, through the Place de Concord, en route to the Champs again. It did start to rain, and we had to seek shelter under a tree and in a phone booth! We were not prepared for rain! It let up enough, and we made our way to a restaurant on the Champs where we dried off for a while and had some delicious pizza! After that we strolled the shops on the Champs, and lusted after all the amazing designers! wow! We then decided it was time for an afternoon snack, and tried a crepe! Wow again! We had nutella (our new favorite spread) and banana, and it was soooo good! I don't understand how the French are so skinny with all this good food! We then headed to the Sacre Cour area, where we climbed the steep steps, and saw the beautiful church at Montemarte! The area was fabulous, lots of little cafes and street artistis, it was like a scene from a movie! After dancing down the stairs (A little Chorus Line reprise) we headed to the Moulin Rouge, to see the famous windmill theatre! It was awesome! It made us want to watch the movie all over again (and wish we had the money to see the fabulous show!) We got to peek through the windows and see all the fancy tables set up, and saw the box office getting ready for that night's performance! We headed home, rested up again, ran to the grocery store, and got ready for the Eiffel Tower! We got the tower at dusk, and had a picnic in the park while watching the sun set and the tower light up! It was fantastic, and soooo pretty! We then tackled the insane long lines to go to the top! We took 3 elevators, but managed to make it around 11:15 or so, and saw the City of Lights all light up! It was beautiful and breathtaking, and really cool to think about how old the Tower actually is! Amazing! We made the long journey down then headed home and called it a night! The next morning we checked out of the hotel and stowed our luggage, and headed out to Roland Garros Tennis stadium. The stadium is the home of the French open, and it was interesting to see another venue of a different type! We enjoyed the tour, especially getting to sit at Centre Court! We headed back to our hotel area and had "Indiana Tex Mex" that, although it sounds strange, was pretty good and managed to hit the spot! We had delicious gelato afterwards, then headed to the train station! The Eurostar was a quick trip and we managed to make it home pretty early in the evening! We came home and got ourselves together a bit, then headed to dinner at Ultimate Burger, an American style burger place! Very good food; we left full and tired, came home and spent the evening in! This afternoon we have a tour of Wembley stadium, and then Peter Pan tonight! Exciting! love, anna and jordan!

And They're Off!

On Friday morning, we went to the races! On Thursday we had a very long tour of Lord's Cricket ground! It was very interesting (considering we know squat about cricket) and we enjoyed the tour! After that we headed home, and had lunch at a local place called Wagamama, very good Japanese food! After a quick nap, that afternoon we ventured out of London a ways to visit a hat shop, where we rented fabulous hats for the races the next day! On Friday we got up and got ready and took about an hour long train ride out to Ascot. The weather was sort of rainy, and we were not happy about that! But we paid for the nicer seats, Premiere seating, so that we could be under a cover! The rain cleared out about an hour after being there, so it all worked out! The races and racecourse were absolutely fabulous! Lots of older British couples, and young wealthy ones as well! We really felt like we could get used to that type of event! We got to see 6 races that day, and even managed to figure out how to bet on the horses! Jordan ended up making about 1.20 i believe, and I ended up only spending about 4.00 so that seemed like a good effort to us! On Friday evening, we decided since we were already dressed up, that we would find a nice place for dinner! We headed to Leicester square, and found a place called La Tasca that was Spanish tapas. It was soooo goood! We definitely got our fill, and even enjoyed a fancy dessert! We then had to rush home and get ready for Paris! We left EARLY the next morning around 5:30am in order to catch the bus and get to the train station. We took the EuroStar train to Paris, which goes through the chunnel! (Although I imagined a glass tunnel in which I could see all the sea creatures swimming around me, it was still impressive!) We got to Paris and got checked into our hotel, then headed for an adventure! We soon found out that the map scale in Paris is much different from that of London or Rome. The seemingly tiny streets on the map are in fact very long, so we walked a lot!! We had lunch at a sidewalk bistro and we tried the traditional Croux Monsieur and Croux Madame. They are cheese and ham sandwiches, but the Madame has an egg on top like a hat! They were absolutely delicious! We then walked to a busy shopping area and strolled along the street! After having a French Truffle for dessert we headed to the Paris Galleries and Printemps, the Paris version of Harrod's! Never in my life have I seen so many people! There were people everywhere!! It was fun to walk around and see all the fabulous clothing and accessories, but just like Harrod's, things were pretty pricey! Afterwards we headed home, rested, then headed out for an adventurous dinner! We went to the more artistic area of Paris, around the Montemarte, and had dinner at Le Refuge de Fondue. A traditional French fondue restaurant where the wine is served in baby bottles! Strange! The fondue was to die for, lots and lots of cheese! We had fruit for dessert and left very full and happy! The first day of Paris was a success!

[the pictures are: Jordan and I at the cricket grounds, dinner for Jordan's birthday, and the group of girls at the races]

Cornwall and everywhere in between!

Hello from London, at least for a short time. We were traveling again this weekend. On Friday we were in London for the day. We went and saw Harry Potter, which was fantastic. The theater was huge and conveniently it was the premier theater. That night we went to this Cuban restarante called Floridita. The food was wonderful and the traditional Cuban band was festive. Saturday morning we headed off to Cornwall on the way there our first stop was Stonehenge. The rocks are much smaller that you think, but it was still a great sight to see. Next, we headed to Bath. It was a cute city where we had lunch in the cathedral's square then toured the roman baths. We really enjoyed this and we even tasted the pure water from the baths hhmm not so good. That night we stayed in a town called Cheddar yes where all the Cheddar cheese is made. Our crazy Scottish tour guide named Fergie told us we were going on a "wee walk" uumm not exactly. We climbed up a gorge that overlooked the whole city and more. It was a magnificent view, but that walk was a little rough since we were not prepared for that. We then headed to the only pub that was open in the town to celebrate our flat mate Dylan's birthday. We had a good time and managed to give him a good birthday in the smallest town imaginable. Sunday we got up and drove to Tintagle and explored by St. Materianas's church on the coast and ventured into the coastal caves. It was raining like crazy so we did not make it to the top of the hill to overlook the whole coast, but we really enjoyed the caves. The English coast is magnificent! The views and high rock structures are breathtaking and much different than any coast we have ever been too. For a break from the rain we had lunch and enjoyed a traditional Cornish Pasty, which was very good. We then headed to Newquay to the beach, which is a surfer's paradise. It was pretty chilly but we rented wet suits and boogy boards and tackled the waves, it was a blast! Then we took a short stop at St. Michael's Mount to look at the sea-bound castle, it was a great sight to see when the sun was setting. We finally arrived in Cornwall and just went to dinner at a local pub then went to sleep in our oohh so cozy hostel. Monday we got up and went to Land's End the westernmost tip of Britain, once again the view was breathtaking. Then we headed off to the Eden Project, which is a huge garden with biomes. We ventured into the Mediterranean and rainforest domes they were so cool. We saw everything from banana trees to olive trees. The domes were the exact climate that the region actually is needles to say we decided living in the rainforest would not be a good idea. This was a really cool place and we had a great lunch here made of all the Eden Project's home grown foods. That night we went to the Minack Theatre where the stage and the seats are carved into a ocean-top cliff. We saw A Midsummer Night's Dream, the play was wonderful! This was one of the most unique things we had ever seen, we really enjoyed this besides the fact that it was pouring down rain for the first act of they play. Tuesday JULY 21 my 21 Birthday!!! We needless to say spent the entire day in a bus. We attempted to go see a few sights but the rain was so intense we barely got off of the bus. We then got stuck in a huge traffic jam. We detoured and ate in Whales and took at picture where we are in two places at once! We finally got home around 9:30 and spent the night just catching up on things at the flat. Anna was wonderful and made it a good birthday even tho it was spent in a bus. Cornwall was great and we got to do a lot of thing we would had never had the opportunity to do. We decided to re-do the birthday on Wednesday. Our flat mate Garrett got us breakfast burritos from this place called the Breakfast Club, they were wonderful. We had class then went and ran some errands and had a leisurely lunch in Soho Square. That night we went to this great mexican food place called the Crazy Homies. We really enjoyed that dinner. We then ventured to a club in Soho and preceded to have an appropriate birthday celebration, we had a great time! After all the birthday ended up being a wonderful success, there is nothing like good friends! We are off the the races tomorrow! We are going to the Ascot horse races, we will blog again after that and Paris. Much love from London-anna and jordan

FORE!! the british open!

hello all! sorry for the lapse in updates, we have just been so busy! On Wednesday we headed up to Glasgow, Scotland for the British Open (known just as "the open" here!) we had to take a combination of the subway, a 5 hour train, and a cab ride, but we managed to get there! We stayed in a youth hostel at Glasgow University. It was very nice, because it was their normal dorm rooms that they just rent out in the summer! We managed to grab some lunch in between the normal Scotland rain, but didn't get to see much of the city! We then headed to try and see the new Harry Potter movie, but it was unfortunately sold out! So, a large group of us decided to try out some of the Scottish pubs around the school! We spent most of the evening in an pub that was located in an old church! It was really cool, and had very interesting decor! When we walked in there was a man with a TV camera, and a female reporter. They approached us and asked if they could video us for the background of a BBC report on pubs. Of course, we obliged, and became European TV stars....well, not really, but we were on the news! It was a very exciting night!
We got up realllly early in the morning the next morning, we had to leave at 5:30 am to head out to The Open! We took another hour train ride, and a bus out to Turnberry. Once we got there we had to check out phones and cameras, because they aren't allowed on the course! It was sort of strange, and very hard to part with our cameras! We got inside and grabbed some breakfast, then headed to the first hole to see Tiger Woods tee off! It was very cool to get to see a legend, especially up close! We followed Tiger's group for a couple of holes, then we headed to hole seventeen's grandstands. We got there right as the first group came through, so we managed to see a fair amount of the players! We saw Sergio Garcia, Vijay Singh, Greg Norman, Adam Scott, Tom Watson, and Lee Westwood. Needless to say it was an amazing experience! We left hole 17 in time to grab some lunch and souveniers, then headed over to hole 18 to see Tiger's group finish! We were very sad that we couldn't have our cameras, but loved the experience! We had a very long train ride home, and didn't get back until really late on Thursday night! Overall it was a quick trip, but definitely worth it! We loved it! Tomorrow we will blog about our weekend in Cornwall! love from london! anna and jordan!

Best Week Ever??

We may be on our way to the best week ever! On Monday we had early morning class full of chapter reviews and sport organization presentations. Exciting stuff, let us tell you! Afterwards we had a short break then headed out to tour the new Emirates stadium, where Arsenal football club plays. The stadium was amazing, more like an American stadium, and the tour was wonderful! We got to go into the president's club area, and their most exclusive seats in the stadium. Then we went into the locker rooms, through the players tunnel, and out onto the team's bench. The final thing we did was go into the press room and got to see their whole setup of a press desk, tv stations, and news stations. It was interesting to see another football stadium, and we are excited to see what the rest of them will be like! On Tuesday we got up early and had to travel a ways to get out to an architecture firm called Populous. It was reallly interesting, and really cool to see their offices. They were in charge of designing Wembley Stadium, the new Miami Dolphins stadium, the new London 2012 Olympic stadium, and the O2 Arena in London. Afterwards we headed to Kings Cross station to take a picture at "Platform 9 3/4s" from the Harry Potter movies, in honor of the new movie coming out! Then we headed to Harrods!!!! Do we even need to explain why this was amazing!? We had lunch at Cafe Harrods, then spent time wandering through all the fabulous clothes and shoes and purses! Then we went to the Chocolate Bar, and had dark chocolate fondue and some Harrod's Champagne! It was to die for! After lusting over beautiful clothes we headed home and got ready to go to the theatre!
We had tickets for a new musical called "Priscilla: Queen of the Desert" which was all in drag! It was soooo fun and so funny! We absolutely loved it, and danced all the way home! Now we are packing for Scotland tomorrow! We get to Scotland tomorrow, and then have the British Open on Thursday! We will have lots to report after the Scotland trip!

We Need A Different Excuse!

Well, we need a different excuse than "time flies when you are having fun!" sorry its been so long since we have updated! Last time we checked in we were headed of to Rome for the weekend! We made it to the airport pretty easily and, for once, our flight left on time! We managed to find our hotel, Hotel Imperio, very easily and called a night so that we would be ready for the morning! On Friday we struck out to explore the city! We bought a 2 day bus pass for a double-decker sightseeing bus so that we could make sure we hit all the stops during our weekend! That day we managed to see the Colessuem, the Palantino, the Roman Forum, Piazza Novona and the Pantheon, and the Spanish Steps. Needless to say, we had a busy day! We took an afternoon nap and then tried a precious outdoor cafe near the Colesseum. It served more traditional Roman food, so that was a change, and we tried some of their local fare! We called it a night and planned to explore the Vatican and more of the city.
On Saturday morning however, Anna got really sick with some sort of 24 hour stomach virus. She felt alright, so we decided to head to the Vatican. We got there pretty early in the morning and managed to miss most of the lines, which was really nice! First we headed to the Cupola, the very highest dome of the Basilica. We paid 7 euro, 5 on entrance and an extra 2 to take the elevator, to cut the trek down to 330 steps. It was a very narrow passageway but once we got to the top, the view was breath-taking! We could see all of Rome, and way off into the distance as well! After that we journeyed down and toured around St. Peter's Basilica. At that point it was getting very crowded and hot, so we decided to skip the Papal Tombs and head to the Sistine Chapel. The chapel is in the Vatican museums, so we had a long walk to get there. Once we were there we were sort of hearded like cattle (so many people!) through the exhibits and passageways. Once we entered into the chapel though, breath-taking again. It was so impressive and hard to believe it had been there for so long! Afterwards, we were very tired and hot, and Anna still wasn't feeling well so we headed back to the hotel. Then Jordan took very very good care of me (Anna :) and went and got food and medicine and just let me sleep! I felt a little better around dinner time, so we headed to Trevi Fountain to see one last sight! The fountain was gorgeous and there were so many people there! We grabbed some dinner and gelato and then headed home to call it an early night! We slept in on Sunday, checked out of the hotel, then had some breakfast! After that we had to spend some time in an internet point to work on a paper and presentation that was due on Monday. After that we did a little shopping in the neighborhood, then headed to the airport to head home! It was a successful trip, but would have been much better if I hadn't gotten sick! Ciao Bella! anna and jordan.