It's been a crazy week in London since I've posted last, and as promised, I'm trying to keep up on blogging more frequently.

Wednesday night Liz, Emily, Ariel and I had our first football adventure in London. I had heard the Brits love their football, but let me tell you, the Brits LOVE their football. We found cheap tickets for a West Ham United vs Watford game in Upton Park- about 45 minutes by tube from my flat. We got to the stadium, not really knowing what to expect, but the tube and streets leading to the stadium were packed so we figured it was a good sign. There were tons of vendors outside selling all sorts of really cheap food, but we weren't sure if we could bring outside food in, so we kept walking towards the stadium figuring we'd get food inside. Turns out the English aren't like America in that they don't really see food at sporting events. They had hotdogs and potato chips but that's about it. Nothing compared to Camden Yards or anything like that. So since the food was a bust, we figured we'd just grab a beer and head into the stadium. The English aren't like American in another way: they don't believe in beer at sporting events. The minute we entered the actual stadium we were immediately approached by security about having alcohol in the stands and were told we'd have to finish it outside before we would be let in to the stadium. So as a recap- you can bring outside food in, they don't care, but the beer they sell you isn't allowed. SO strange.
The game was a ton of fun. People go absolutely crazy for football. The crowd was mainly middle aged men- we were the only young girls we could see, and every time the fans disagreed with a call, they exploded. I have never, EVER heard some of the words coming out of the 60 year old behind me's mouth in public before. They REALLY like soccer. The security was crazy, every time a goal was scored or a questionable call made, security guards flooded the perimeter of the field, preventing anyone from getting anywhere near the players. As we were watching the game, we noticed across from our seats was a section of people with easily triple the number of security guards in that section than in the other. When the away team, Watford, scored, we realized why. Apparently at football games here, they have an entire section reserved for the away team's fan, and the riot squad is placed in front of their section. When Watford scored, that section went crazy and immediately more guards rushed over to prevent Watford fans from getting out, and West Ham fans from getting in. Absolutely insane. We left before the game ended to beat the rush to the tube, but it ended up being a 1-1 tie. So worth the 20 pounds, and I would absolutely go to another game in my time here.

They have a bubble machine that fills the stadium with bubbles at the start of each half!

About 1/2 of the riot squad that was present when Watford scored.

Friday Hannah and I set off on an adventure into zone 2 in an attempt to find this little calzone restaurant we found online that looked both cheap and delicious. Long story short: we got lost. Very lost, and somehow wound up on the BBC studios grounds- which by the way, are MASSIVE. Their whole "campus" probably takes up a mile or so stretch of road and houses the actual studios, the offices, tons of shops and restaurants, even a few homes. Not what we were excepting, but really neat to see. When we eventually found the place we were searching for, it was closing for the day, so we did our fellow American's proud by grabbing Burger King for lunch instead. In our defense, it was the only other place we could find and by this time is was like 330 and we were starving. We finished up the afternoon at Harrod's- essentially the NYC Macy's on crack here in London. Huge doesn't even begin to describe it. So many floors, so many restaurants, so many doormen dressed in little green uniforms, so many...everything. We entered on "designer handbag and watch" land, before entering the food court. Holy crap. Everything looked amazing...literally you name it, they had it. A cheese room, a chocolate room, a fruit room, a deli room, a bakery room, a sushi room, the list is endless. We even saw a 30 pound bottle of water. 30 pounds! That's nearly 45 USD for a bottle of water. Granted, it was a crystal incrusted bottle of water, but good God. Unreal. We ended our trip through "designer children's clothes" to wind up in "toy land." I guess the same people who were buying that 30 pound bottle of water were also outfitting their kids from Harrod's kids clothes department. Name a designer, chances are they had their children's lines in there. Ralph Lauren, Gucci, Dior, Juicy Couture...all for toddlers. A little bit excessive if you ask me. I don't even want to know how much the people coming out of that store loaded with bags spent, yet somehow everyone seemed to have multiple bags in their hands. Oh the lives of the London elite in South Kensington.

Saturday was spent writing a paper for one of my classes, with a quick trip to Pinkberry and my new favorite Thai restaurant thrown in. First ate Thai food in Paris...love it. Look at me eating more than just bread and chicken. I'm patting myself on the back for that one. On Sunday I finished my paper, but only after Liz and I went to my new favorite place in London- Brick Lane Market. Brick Lane is in East London- an area that is very up and coming, but not too long ago was considered the run down slums of the city. The market was amazing. The artist Banksy got his start in Brick Lane, so if you know anything about him and his graffiti art, that describes the area pretty well. It really didn't feel like we were in London at all. The mile or so stretch of road was covered with beautiful graffiti, artists playing music, picnic tables with chess and checker games set up, and tons of food and clothing vendors. I walked home with a new leather jacket and dress for less than 20 pounds total, but not until after Liz and I grabbed some lunch. We got fresh fruit smoothies from a little vendor (you actually watched them juice the fruit) and bagels from the uber popular Biegel Bake. This little bakery, open 24/7 was poppin'. We got there and the line was out the door, but it moved fast, and when we got out we could see why. 1 bagel toasted with butter and a slice of cheesecake...1 pound. Absolutely unreal. Our lunch in Brick Lane cost us a whopping 3 pounds each...roughly the price of a soda at any pub in town. I didn't think to bring my camera with me, plus even if I did, my hands were full, so sadly I couldn't take any pictures. I have every intention on going back soon though, so I'll be sure to come prepared. In the mean time, I found some pictures online to show you guys. Seriously words don't do the place justice, so I figured maybe a few Google imaged pictures might help a bit.

Finally, today capped a crazy week with a trip to the Olympic site for my Olympic Cities class. Unfortunately we couldn't actually walk through Olympic Park- it's closed off because there is a LOT of construction still going on (like to the point where I have no idea how they're supposed to finish in time) but luckily our professor actually wrote multiple books on the 2012 games, and knows all the inside outs so he was a great tour guide. Seeing the site was really cool but not at all what I had expected. We entered right near the main athletics stadium and the observation deck which was really cool- they're definitely the two most iconic images for the 2012 games, but as we walked around seeing other parts, I was less than  impressed. I think part of the reason is a lot of what we learned about in class. The actual Olympic Park is in East London (as I said earlier, an area much in need of regeneration) and is on land occupied by five different boroughs of the city. Since land was taken by the government from each of these areas, all the boroughs have been in discussions with the Olympic Organizing Committee to ensure that after the games, their borough will still somehow benefit from the Park's presence. As a result, there have been lots of promises of interconnecting the boroughs to the Park and ensuring that after the games, there will be some sustainability in the area in terms of jobs, recreation structures, businesses and restaurants etc. The area is home to a bunch of small canals, and right now, there are zero bridges connecting the boroughs to the park land, and a huge fence blocking it off. The committee plans to build a series of bridges to improve access between the Park and boroughs, but with 3 months to go and none of them built, it will be interesting to see how that works out. If they fail, there will absolutely be some very upset Londoners. After having been to the site just before the games when everything was still a work in progress, I'm so excited to watch the opening ceremonies and see how it all comes together. All we could see were the exterior structures, nothing inside of the Park, so it'll be really neat to see what the inside looks like, and to see the places where we were standing today be filled with athletes and visitors.

The main stadium

The observation deck with a restaurant in the top of the dome

Basketball court (white building on the left), Athlete's village housing (in the middle) and the aquatic center (all the way on the right)

The very unfinished park

One of the canals that acts as the border to one side of the park

Graffii along the canal

The new soon to be home of the largest McDonalds in the world. On the Olympic site. Irony at it's finest.

The 2 press, production and broadcasting buildings in the Park

This week continues to be busy as I have another paper to finish up, lots of errands to do, a bit of a stomach bug, and lots of packing for Barcelona this weekend! Hopefully whatever I've caught that's prevented me from eating a real size meal or staying up past 11 the past two days will disappear quick cause I have lots of tacos to eat, sangria to drink, and beaches to visit in the next few days. We leave Thursday night and return Sunday morning, so by Sunday night I'm sure I'll have lots of pictures up from the trip! Fingers crossed for sunny weather in Spain!

The Dam Weekend Trip

So I didn't realize that it had been so long since my last post until I just signed on to write another update. I'm gonna try to go back to a once a week thing if I can, just the past few weeks haven't been too exciting or out of the ordinary. March is full of weekend trips, birthdays, football games, visits from people and a ton more so I hopeful I'll be updating more this month.

Anyways, this weekend was our school sponsored trip to Amsterdam. I wasn't really excited for the trip when we left Thursday, I think mostly because we had a 12 hour bus ride ahead of us, but I was so pleasantly surprised by the city- I absolutely loved it! Our trip started at 930 Thursday night when all 300 Westminster students on the trip loaded onto a bunch of buses and headed out towards Dover. We got into Dover around 1, went through a non-existant stop at customs, and loaded onto the ferry for our 220 AM departure time headed towards Calais, France on the other side of the English Channel. The ferry ride was great, it almost reminded me of a cruise ship. It was full of shops, restaurants and lounges to pass the time. We took advantage of a bunch of couches and slept nearly the entire hour and a half ferry ride. From there, we loaded back onto the bus, and drove about 5 hours into Amsterdam. Luckily Lara and I were in the back row of the bus, where the seats reclined all the way back so I was able to at least get a few hours of shut eye before getting into the city.

We got into Amsterdam at about 930 in the morning on Friday, unloaded the bus and took our stuff to our hostel before heading out for the day. Our student reps who organized the trip jokingly referred to our hostel as "Hans Brinker: the shittest hostel in Amsterdam." They weren't kidding. At least they embrace it's terribleness. We left our hostel right away, around 1030 to grab a bite to eat and head over to the Anne Frank House. We were warned that the lines get impossibly long, so we wanted to get over as early as we could. Luckily, the line was pretty short and we were inside after only 20 minutes or so of waiting. It was amazing. We went room by room through the office that was the cover for the secret annex the Frank family used to hide in during the Nazi raids in Germany until they invaded Amsterdam as well. After going through the office space, we were allowed to go through the moving bookcase and actually into Anne's very tiny room and the rest of the secret annex. It was absolutely incredible. We weren't allowed to take pictures, but honestly, I don't think they would do it justice. Otto Frank, Anne's father, was the only one who survived the Holocaust, and when he decided to turn the house into a public space after he published Anne's diary, he decided to leave the annex just as they left it- completely devoid of any material possessions and furniture, so all the rooms were left empty. Since they kept everything in the same condition it was when the Franks left, the walls of Anne's room as covered with magazine posters and advertisements she glued to the walls, and in the kitchen the wall that is covered with pencil marks and dates, showing Anne and her sister's growth in height during their stint in the annex. The rooms were impossibly tiny. I have no idea how 8 people could live in such conditions, but somehow they did. One fact I learned is that til this day, they don't actually know who it was that betrayed the family and ratted them out to the Nazi police. There are hunches but no actual suspect. At the end of the tour you get to see the actual information cards used for all members living in the annex at their arrival to various concentration camps, pictures of most of them actually in the concentration camp, their approximated dates and causes of death, and lastly Anne's actual diary. Such a cool place to have been. I've always been really interested in the Holocaust, probably from 5 years of taking German and watching countless German made movies about the era, but it was absolutely unreal being in there.

Outside of the obviously refurbished entrance to the Anne Frank House

The actual house containing the secret annex.

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the beautiful canal ridden streets of the city before grabbing a bite to eat at an Italian restaurant and heading out to a club that was included in the price we paid for the trip. We didn't stay very along as it was really crowded and we were still exhausted from the trip, but we figured we'd give it a try since it was free. The streets are very story book- almost like Dr. Suess-ish. All the buildings are small little townhomes in various colors along different canals. The streets are very bumpy, and so as a result, a lot of the houses were obviously crooked and off kilter which just added to their charm.

Saturday was filled with lots of walking and sight seeing. We wandered through an adorable flower market- so beautiful and so cheap with lots of wooden shoes and tulips everywhere. We found our favorite place in Amsterdam- the best cheese shop in the word. You walk in and there is cheese everywhere, and they practically throw free samples of cheese and chocolate in your face. DELICIOUS. We literally went to multiple cheese shops of the same chain to keep getting samples, they were unbelievably good. You know that scene in She's the Man when Amanda Bynes says her favorite cheese is gouda...well officially my favorite cheese is handmade Dutch gouda. I'm actually upset at myself for not bringing any back. Not even embarrassed to say that cheese shop was my favorite place in the city. #fatgirlproblems

Ariel in the delicious pasty/chocolate shop we found our first day.

The flower market of Amsterdam

CACTUS! If you know me well, you obviously understand why I was so excited about this find. One day, I will grow a successful cactus. It's gonna happen.

 

So. Much. Cheese.

MY FAVORITE GOUDA!

The rest of the afternoon we got lunch as a much recommended food court- sort of similar to a Wegman's cafe set up, walked through the red light district and saw Centraal Station, and headed to the Rijksmuseum where the famous "I Amsterdam" sign is for the super stereotypical tourist pictures. Half of us went to the Van Gogh museum after. I was in the half that opted out, so we walked around a park, found a bench and ate delicious waffles. Waffles and pancakes over here a) aren't eaten for breakfast and b) aren't served with syrup. It's a big dessert thing everywhere we've been to have a Belgian waffle with chocolate sauce, ice cream, or fresh fruit on it. Later Saturday night, half of the group went on a bar crawl through the city, but Lara and I opted out to go see the red light district and night, grab a bite to eat, and see all the canal bridges lit up. The red light district is something else. In the daytime it wasn't bad at all, obvious sex shops and coffee shops but it wasn't really bustling. At night is a completely different story, you literally turn the corner to get onto the main strip and all you see is neon red lights absolutely everywhere. Windows with girls in them line the streets, alternating with "coffee shops" and various burlesque/strip shoes. There are bouncers absolutely everywhere, encouraging you to come see one of their girls, go to a show, or shooing you along violently if you stand looking at their girls too long or god forbid attempt to take a picture. They are not fans of pictures in the red light district that is for sure. We went around 9 oclock or so, and while it was very busy, it's obvious that the night was still very, very young. Over half of the windows had the lights off and were still covered, indicating that the girls hadn't even shown up to work yet. We very happily left after a quick stroll around not wanting to be two little white girls in the district when it really got busy. In a nutshell, it certainly held up to it's reputation. 

Centraal Train Station in the heart of Amsterdam

Lara, Ariel and I in the sign.

A failed attempt to climb on top of the "t"

...so I settled for sitting on it

Ariel and her "a"

Van Gogh museum

Sunday was long as we had our very tiring trip back to London. We left Amsterdam around 1130, and I passed out as I hoped to do in order to pass the time, and what do you know...woke up to the bus driver announcing our arrival at a Belgian chocolate factory. Honestly, couldn't even tell you where on a map Belgium is, but I now know we drive through it to get back to London and they make REAL good chocolate. Our driver made us all get out to walk around...twist my arm. Fact: Belgian chocolate is as good as it's reputation. My package of milk chocolate disks and chocolate covered cherries and attest to that. After about 5 hours, we arrived back in Calais at the ferry, actually had to go through customs this time (a trend I'm noticing. Other countries don't really care when you come into them, literally didn't go through anything to get into the Netherlands, they have zero record of my presence, but getting back into the UK is just like getting back into the States) and got onto the ferry. We grabbed a seat in the front of the ferry because we knew to look out for the famous white cliffs of Dover. They were absolutely magical to see. Even though it was a rainy, cloudy day, you could still see them a good distance away in the channel, and as we docked they are literally right outside of the window. So neat to see. After that we headed back on the bus for the 3 hour trip to London and arrived at 830, much earlier than the anticipated 10 our itineraries said.

Overall the trip was great, well worth the 125 pounds it cost to sign up. Food, transportation, sight seeing, accommodation, everything included, I spent less than 200 pounds- a job well did on my part, and now I can say I've been to both Holland and Belgium. The city wasn't at all what I expected, but it was absolutely adorable. I'd go back in a heartbeat. This week, and the rest of March are probably gonna go by fast. Monday and Tuesday, a friend from home, Rachel, who's studying in Copenhagen is gonna be in London, and on Wednesday I have my first football game to go to! Lots of stuff coming up, I'll try better to keep you posted!