a productive day

well. I did six hours of work today. It was a relatively productive day actually. in a weird way I didn't get a huge amount done, but what I did, I did well. I have ten more days of increasing hell, four days of torture, a brief rest and then one day of hell, six days of UK travelling, two days off, and home. ARGGG!!! Today a friend of mine, travelling through London to Bulgaria/home for summer, stopped by, we ate at a great indian restaurant in covent gardens. My Favvvvvvvvvorite, and she liked it, took a walk around picadilly and the theatre area and then a pint at ye olde cheshire cheese. the weather was lovely today and it looks nice tomorrow. Good times, will miss much :)

One Month

Oh my god. I have one month before I leave the UK. June 21st to be exact. It's ridiculous. This week and next are still all about studying. Two of my classes are on semi good footing right now, so the other two will get lots of love and devotion today. Including a study group. Then the gym and then a friend of mine from Midd is traveling through London and staying over night and I'm meeting up with her around six and we're going to do the LSE tour thing, grab dinner go to a pub and so on. I met up with a friend yesterday morning at heathrow airport for a few hours as she was flying home to munich. gosh i love being in an international city :)

Not a huge amount to report here, minus the still off/on weather, lots of kids being under stress, me maybe fighting off some kind of cold like thingy (success so far), and then of course the pigsty state of my room. Sigh again*

I won't even pretend to know when the rest of the pictures from Italy are coming. Maybe when I'm doing random stuff this summer (evil lack of internship).

Right so shower, and cafe until like, 3?
cheers one and all

Spring, 21 and all that Jazz....

Spring pictures from regent's park, joseph nye from harvard university giving a talk on "the powers to lead" and I got his new book to read after finals :) and finally birthday pictures. I turned 21 yesterday, freakin' crazy. I'm legal round the world really and truly. So anyways, we went to this italian restaurant, ciao bella. Standard place for birthdays. Last time we went and I got a huge calzone, I purposefully didn't finish. However then I was mocked by our crowd of boys so this time I said I would finish and I did and wow, bad choice. uggg. At the beginning they totally got me when they sang happy birthday, I was like hide me* Then at the end they sang full out and I had a cake with candles :) Oh goodness it shocked me. I also got chai tea (how they remember what I like I'll never know) and a tea pot that comes complete with a bottom that serves as a cup (its detachable), it is so beautiful and the perfect English gift to remember them all by.

After that we went to a pub, which was relaxing. It was really crowded though because Friday and summer weather = holy shit. Then we headed back, grabbed some booze and went to play poker until all hours of the night. It was kind of awesome. At the end of each round we all went "all in" and I won both times with trip somethings/2s/4s. See picture below. All in all it was a very enjoyable birthday, not as big a deal as at home, but none-the-less celebrated with great friends (going to miss them sniffles). So pictures are below. Italy ones are still being uploaded slowly. Time is counting down, 41 days left here. And it's going to fly by. I'm also planning a trip to Prague and hopefully I'll get to Oxford, York and Brighton within the UK as well. Gotta fit some more traveling in. Sigh* Good times. Righto, off to work/dinner.

Venice

For a short time in Venice, we saw a lot of awesome shots and if you've ever watched Chasing Liberty, they have an evening there and go over all the same places we did. Awesomeness!!

I managed to get the right bus into Venice and meet up with friends, we then took our river boat down the Grand Canal to San Marco's piazza, incredible. Actually in Florence, when we were (sidenote but relevant I promise), we saw a painting from the 1500s, from the river bank opposite the piazza and it was STILL THERE. As in we were at a place that was in a painting from 1500 and something. ARGG, so cool. So we did that, and we had gelato, and wove our way through the city, bought pretty, and not expensive, venice glass necklaces. Then we took a train to Ferrara, had pizza and pasta and wine for dinner and crashed preparing to head to Florence the next day.

Pictures from day 1, or afternoon 1. I had so many and had to make decisions. Scan at your leisure.

a cool sculpture outside one of venice's many museums

river scene, but the window was dirty sniff

canals are the trademark of the city

Across the river from the piazza side

classic gondala
St.Marco's

ibid
Gotta love those pink laterns

that would be tiny me

check out the detail on the panels

and the famous clock

and more detail

from more of distance, the whole facade

tower
gondala all lined up. too expensive to take though

entrace to a canel from the main water bay

and more stunning-ness
masks, lots and lots of them everywhere

on a bridge, in the beautiful afternoon

the famous venice market (where we bought our necklaces)

this guy made famous masks for famous movies see below

case in point
another famous bridge, near the train station

and me on it, shortly before heading to ferrara in the evening sun

our dinner :) or part of it
Florence to come....over and out

The Itinerary (spring 2008)

So, Italy. This was just intense and so intense. Essentially my friends and I started planning all of this probably in mid February for the end of March which was okay. However, we were all quite busy so it was done in and around other stuff. The plan was as follows for the four of us: myself, Andy, Sam and Sam's friend Ikumi. We're midd kids, minus Ikumi who was made an honorary one for this trip (she's from Bowdoin and is at York with Sam for the semester).
1) Sam and I were in Paris together and she remained there while I went to Denmark.
2) Ikumi met up with Sam in Paris and they traveled together to Italy a few days before I got there to meet up with Andy and stay there.
3) I joined them all and met up with them in Venice. That night we went back to Ferrara where Andy lives for the semester and then Sam and Ikumi stayed in a really nice hostel and I was staying with Andy.
4) We headed to Florence at eight the next day, arriving around 10. That night we headed to Rome arriving around eight pm and got to our slightly sketchy hostel.
5) The next two days were spent in Rome doing tons of sight-seeing
6) Sam and Ikumi headed to Slovenia and Andy and I headed south to Naples/Pompeii for a day and a half
7) Andy and I left Naples and headed to Bologna for a few hours, then back to Ferrara
8) One day in Ferrara, low key, touring around the city in the morning, and then I napped and read while Andy was in class. We had a great dinner and early night in
9) I made my way to Venice and then the airport to take plane back to London.
10) After dinner in London and boot shopping with friends, I packed while eating ice cream and watching grey's anatomy with them and then the next morning after breakfast I headed to Heathrow airport to fly home on a 2:00 virgin atlantic to Boston where my godmother and her husband picked me up and we had american bbq for dinner, visited some friends of theirs. I went home with them and met up with my best friend who drove out to pick me up. We left for Smith the next morning and then she played her lacross game and we headed HOME!

Again with the weather

Weather is fairly rainy, off and on. I certainly am ready for real spring, i.e. no random showers/more hail. Finished the sociology paper, three minutes to spare. Well a few more, but stupid military time confused me and I had a few hours less to proof. wooops. Anyway so editing the last paper with tutor tomorrow, the outline i did anyway, from the paper. I figure if I hate the way she "gives me feedback" then I might as well ask first. She's willing so that's nice. Now I have exactly 29 days to study. That's a long time and I think tomorrow as I buckle down that will be awesomely fine. Minus sociology. Gags.

Went to the boat party last night. So much fun. It wasn't as crowded and it was a nicer boat. And this time I went with my friends. Horray! Dancing, free drinks, like four....just hanging out, goofing around, admiring London on a rainy spring evening from the river. It doesn't get much better than that.



Okay so a few spring pictures here from birthday dinner at home (21!!!) and then pictures from my spring walk around the city with my friend Tessa who visited from Middlebury...and finally two or three from the boat party thanks to Chloe:)

And off to bed. Tired*