Monday, November 29, 2010

I Can Believe Anything Provided it is Quite Incredible

You may have guessed from the title that this post has something to do with Oscar Wilde. On Saturday morning, I went on an Oscar Wilde walking tour, which took us around Mayfair, where Wilde lived. As many of you know, I am slight obsessed with Oscar Wilde. Okay, make that majorly obsessed. Plus, I'm currently writing a paper on his use of fashion and clothing to reveal character in his plays, mysteries, and novel.

So, Saturday morning, I dragged myself out of bed and made my way out to Mayfair, despite the fact that it was absolutely freezing outside. Over the past two or three weeks, it has gotten absolutely miserable here. I basically never want to leave my room. Anyway, that's not the point of this story. I go to the Waterloo tube station and went outside where I found the tour guide. He was easy to spot, since he was dressed as Oscar Wilde! Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture, sorry about that. But you can see what he looked like here ---> Oscar Wilde walking tour

The tour lasted about 2 hours, and I was more than ready to get back to my warm bed by the end of it, but it was really interesting and I definitely recommend going if you're ever in London! For the rest of this post, I'm basically just going to show you a few random photos from the tour. Enjoy!

Mayfair, the area where Wilde lived.

The market where Wilde bought his buttonholes, and where a few of his works were published.

One of the many hotels Oscar Wilde stayed at- The Albemarle House.

The shop where Oscar Wilde bought his cigarettes (Turkish tobacco, very expensive) and, bonus fact, Winston Churchill bought his cigars here!

 This used to be a hotel, and Queensbury was living here when he sent the calling card accusing Oscar Wilde of posing as a sodomite. It was conveniently (and purposefully) located right next door to Wilde's club.

Well, that's it for this post. I think you get the general idea of the tour :) It was great and I may do some more of their tours. They're only 6 pounds for students! Back to paper writing now.

Emily

Oh, random fact, I met the cutest lady from Chicago. She's also a huge fan of Oscar Wilde and was a member of Tri Delta sorority when she was a student at the University of Florida. Not Phi Mu, but still pretty awesome! We talked about tuition fees and the fact that when she went to school, it cost (total, including sorority fees) $600 a semester. Crazy!

Friday, November 26, 2010

What I'm Thankful For

I know this is a day late, but I totally forgot about writing on my blog until now. So, as you all know, yesterday was Thanksgiving and, for the first time in my life, I was not in the United States to celebrate. Unfortunately, this means that I missed out on sweet potato puff, green bean casserole, mashed potatos, cranberry sauce, turkey, etc... However, I did get to watch the Saints vs. Cowboys game :) Who Dat!

In honor of Thanksgiving, I have decided to compile a list of all of the things that I am grateful for (or at least, the things I can think of right this minute). Here we go.

1. My family: I am lucky to have a family who loves me unconditionally and who I love in return. I know that no matter what, they will always stand by me and be there for me.

2. My friends: I have been very fortunate in my life to be surrounded by amazing, true friends who I can talk to about anything and have soooo much fun with! Love you and miss you guys! <3

3. London: This semester has been one of the most amazing semesters of my life and I am so glad that I decided to leave New Orleans (as difficult as that was) and head off to another continent. I have learned so much being here and truly love the culture here in London.

4. My teddy bears and blankets: Okay, not quite as serious as the others lol. I don't know if you're aware, but it's COLD in London. Hence, I am so thankful that I am able to curl up at night underneath my puffy comforters and with my teddy bears and keep myself warm.

5. Healthy food and the gym: The reason that I have lost 2 dress sizes and am down to what I consider to be a pretty healthy weight.

6. Chapstick and moisturizer!: For reasons why, see number 4 and add to that the wind, which is not my skin's friend.

I hope you all had an amazing Thanksgiving!
Love,
Emily

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Denmark Part III: Friday night and Leaving

And here we are, finally at the end of my trilogy of Denmark. Are you excited? Because you totally should be.

Ok, so I promised that we would start with the trip to the club. It seemed that the most popular club in Copenhagen was this place called rust/ (yes, that's actually how it's spelled, lowercase and with a slash). On our way out of the hostel, the manager saw us leaving and asked where we were going. We told him, although we were a little confused as to why he wanted to know, and then he shocked us by saying "Oh, I know the manager. Let me get you some free entry tickets." And he proceeded to go to the front desk and pull out some tickets for us. Awesome! We thanked him, and then were on our way into the city.

Once we got there, we realized that there were A LOT of Americans at the club, and that it was a crazy long line, and that a lot of those kids apparently didn't go out very much, because they didn't really seem to understand how clubs worked. Anyway, we got in line and waited. It took awhile, but we have definitely waited longer to get in to a club. So we got through the line, got our free entry, and went down to the coat check, where we handed our coats to the most gorgeous Danish boy I've ever seen.

We then got a drink and forced our way onto the dance floor. It was all techno music, so it took us awhile to figure out how to actually dance to it, but after we got it figured out, it was so much fun! Once all the drunk American college students left to get more drinks, the dance floor got way better and stayed that way pretty much until we left. It ended up being a really great night, and we didn't get back to the hostel until about 5am.

The next day, we slept in until about noon, as we were exhausted (obviously), and didn't have any real plans for the day. At noon, we got up, folded our sheets and packed up our bags. We then went downstairs, left our bags in the luggage area, and went out to the city for the last time. When we got there, we realized that they had started setting up the artist trees in preparation for Christmas. I had known that they would be going up soon, but I thought it was going to happen after we left, so needless to say I was really excited to actually be able to see them. Here you can see a picture of half of the trees and me in front of my favorite tree :)


Pictures of most of the trees are on my facebook page. There were some really neat ones, like one that was set up at a hospital for kids to decorate and one covered in $1 bills, yes American dollars. We also decided to do a little shopping that day on Stroget street, which is the major shopping street in Copenhagen, and I discovered that I am two sizes smaller than I thought I was, which is fabulous!! Although, of course, it means that I have a bit of a shopping trip to make when I get home, since pretty much everything I own is now too big.

And then it was time for us to leave. The trip back to London went ridiculously smoothly considering the hassle we had getting to Denmark, until the last leg of the trip, which was supposed to be the easiest. We took a shuttle bus from the airport to a tube station in central London. From there, I was supposed to get on the Victoria line and go 3 stops, straight back to my dorm. However, we failed to take into account the fact that we were getting in during the weekend, when the tube is notoriously unreliable, and so the Victoria line was completely closed. Instead, we had to get on the District line and go a couple of stops and then get on the Northern line and go a few more stops.

Now, a quick explanation about my dorm's location. I am pretty much right in the middle of two tube stops, Warren Street and Goodge Street. Warren street is very slightly closer, and so is generally the one I take, but to be totally honest, there's not much of a difference in distance. While we were on the Northern line, I was debating whether I should just get off at Goodge since we reached that stop first, but I decided to be lazy since Warren St. is slightly closer. Well, surprise surprise, we passed Goodge St. and they then announced that Warren St. was closed. So, I got off at the next stop, and went back in the other direction to Goodge St. and finally walked back to my dorm. Oh, the Underground. How I love you <3

All in all, it was an amazing trip and I am so glad that I went! I hope you have enjoyed the saga of my journey into Denmark. And now, I'll have to figure out something else to talk about lol.

Love,
The Princess

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Denmark Part II: Thursday and Friday

Wednesday night, Molly and I managed to get a much more significant amount of sleep and so we were actually prepared for the day ahead. Thursday, the major event planned for our day was visiting the Carlsberg beer factory. Carlsberg is a Danish beer that we can't get back in the US, hence why most of you will not recognize the name. It's actually pretty good, although not my favorite. Anyway, the point is, they have a touristy factory that we decided to go to.

It took us awhile to get there, as the train to our stop wasn't running, so we had to figure out the bus system (keep in mind that everything is in Danish and neither Molly nor myself speaks Danish or German, which would have helped a little bit). We eventually made it to the town and proceeded to wander around a really creepy parking lot and then walk down a random street before finally finding Carlsberg Ave. or whatever it was called. I have decided that Denmark only wants dedicated tourists, who are willing to be lost for awhile in order to find the places they're going to. Once we made it onto Carlsberg Ave and were within a few meters, signs started appearing everywhere and it was really easy to find. We also found gorgeous archways, such as this one.

Since you can't really read it, the sign above the arches says Carlsberg. So, we went on our tour, which was self-guided, and towards the end when the tour took us out into a random garden, we discovered, much to our delight, that the factory has a replica of the Little Mermaid statue!!!! We got to see it! Well, sort of. You know what I mean. And honestly, that replica was close enough for us.


We also got free beer included with our tour, so we decided to try the new Christmas beer, which was really pretty good. I'm also kind of a sucker for holiday-themed alcohol, so I'll probably end up getting it again sometime. Anyway, that pretty much concludes our trip to Carlsberg. We then ended up getting hopelessly lost in Copenhagen, trying to find Rosenborg Palace, which houses the crown jewels (notice the theme of us being lost). We did manage to find a 7-11! Apparently they're really big in Denmark. Who would've guessed? So, we got slurpees and then managed to find the palace. Unfortunately, it had closed at 2PM. Seriously. Things close sooooo early in Copenhagen. It was so bizarre.

We ended up getting some food and eating carrot cake cupcakes in an adorable little bakery and were about ready to call it a night, when we decided to check on the hours at Tivoli Gardens. The plan had been to go the next night, once all the Christmas things had started. We probably weren't going to ride the rides, as it was 75 dkk to get in at all and another 250 dkk to ride the rides. To get the approximate US prices, divide by 5. So, basically, that was crazy expensive and we weren't willing to pay it. We were just going to go in and see the Christmas-y things. However, when we went into the ticket office to find the hours, the lady told us that they had a special deal going on that night. 150 dkk and you could do EVERYTHING. Yes, rides too. The full Christmas event wasn't up yet, but the decorations were up and basically all we were missing was Santa and the elves who would be wandering around, which neither one of us really cared about.

Of course, we took advantage of the deal and went in. It was amazing. Unfortunately, I have no pictures as it was dark and my camera doesn't do well in the dark. Plus, we only had 2 hours to do everything we wanted. The first thing we did was go on the swing ride, which is my favorite ride at any amusement park. This ride, though, was way cooler. Instead of just swinging you around barely off the ground, they lifted you in the air to what was basically the highest point in the city (to be fair, it's a very short city) and swung you around up there. It was terrifying, exhilarating, beautiful, and awe-inspiring all at once. Molly then went on a rollercoaster that I chickened out of (I hate going upside down) while I shopped. We then went on a Hans Christian Anderson ride and wandered through what we termed Creepy Christmas Land, which was Christmas-themed animatronics. It was so funny!

On Friday, we finally made it to Rosenborg castle and the crown jewels, which unfortunately, I was not allowed to take photos of. But it was fantastic. So many sparkly things! As you can imagine, I was pretty much in heaven there :). We also found Christiana, which is basically a hippie town that was sent up just outside of Copenhagen. That was one of the top things on Molly's list. It was pretty cool, although I did feel a little out of place. Most of you who know me are well aware that I am no hippie. We also wandered around Copenhagen and saw the outside of a lot of buildings, like the Round Tower and the church where Hans Christian Anderson is buried.Oh, and here's a pretty picture of the canals for you! P.S. If you want more photos, they're all up on my facebook page :)

Friday night, Molly and I went out to a club, and it is there that we will pick up with Part III.

Yeah, I know, total teaser. Sorry about that lol :P

With all my love,
Emily

Monday, November 15, 2010

Denmark Part I: Getting there + Wednesday

Oh God, I just looked at the date of my last posting and it was two weeks ago. Sorry about that! Well, there's a lot to say about the Denmark trip, and since I don't want to leave anything out, I've decided to divide it into three parts :) I know you're excited. So, part one, which is what you're reading right now, is all about the insanely difficult time we had getting to the airport combined with the activities of that first, severely sleep-deprived day in Copenhagen. Hopefully, part two which is all about the activities of Thursday and Friday, will be up tomorrow, and by the end of the week, I'll have put up part three, our Friday night out + Saturday + getting back home which, although less difficult and traumatic than getting to Denmark, has its own fair share of annoyances and stories.

So, here we go, with the start of my trip to Denmark. Our flight left at 8 am on Wednesday, which meant that, between taking buses to get to the bus to take us to the airport, checking in, and getting to our gate on time, we needed to leave for the airport around 4 in the morning, which I did. (Keep in mind that through all of this, Molly and I were both severely sleep deprived as she was a little hungover and I had been unable to take a nap at all). The bus route was supposed to take me 45 minutes max, so being the cautious person that I am, I gave myself an hour and a half. When I was forced to wait at my FIRST bus stop for twenty minutes, I realized that I might have a problem. Eventually, that bus did show up, and I got on it and got to my next bus stop. Once there, I started checking my watch every two minutes because I realized that I would be cutting it close.

Eventually, the bus showed up, but then proceeded to tell me that he wasn't leaving for another 10 minutes and that instead of the 20 minute ride I was promised, it was going to take around 36 minutes to get to my stop, which would have gotten me there well after my bus to Gatwick airport had left. So, I started freaking out. I called Molly, who was on her bus and well on her way to our final bus stop, and she kept me calm long enough to find a cab. Unfortunately, I then realized that I didn't have enough money to pay the cab driver, so he followed me to an atm, where I pulled out some money, and then he drove me straight to my bus stop (Yay for awesome cab drivers!).

Now that my drama was over, it was time for Molly's to begin. She has this fear of buses not going where she needs them to go and so whenever she recognizes the name of a stop, she gets off. Usually, that's not a problem, but this time it was. The personal she asked directions from sent her in the exact opposite direction of where she needed to be and by the time she was actually on her way to the right place, the bus was showing up. I managed to get him to wait until she showed up, and then we were on our way to the airport.

Once at the airport, we ended up waiting in a line that we didn't actually need to be in, and then finally found our gate after wandering through what is quite possibly the most inefficient use of space I've ever seen in an airport. We found our gate, and then had issues with Molly's suitcase being not quite small enough to count as a carry-on and having to check it. However, after all of that was over, we found ourselves in Denmark. Getting to our hostel turned out to be a relatively simple process, thank God. There will be more on the hostel in future posts. However, I will show you a picture of what would, for the rest of our, be our beacon of hope that we were almost to the hostel and it was nearly bedtime. Witness, the greatest pizza place in Denmark, if not the world.

Sorry it's so dark, I almost forgot to take the picture until our last day and it gets dark really early in Denmark. So, after finally checking in to our hostel, we decided that we were not going to waste an entire day, and so we went out to Copenhagen. On our way there was when we found out some news about the Little Mermaid statue, the #1 attraction that we had been intending to see...

It's not currently in Denmark.

I know, seriously? But the Little Mermaid statue is currently (until the end of November) on exhibition in China. Instead, there is an exhibition by some Chinese artist which, although it might have been interesting, is not nearly as cool. So, we did not get to see the statue. Oh well, we still made sure that Wednesday was a Hans Christian Anderson day. We went to this museum called The Wonderful World of Hans Christian Anderson, which is technically a children's museum, but that was about our state of mind in our sleep deprived state. The best part was that they had displays where you could press a button and it would read fairy tales out loud to you, so we could just sit down and listen for awhile.

That night, we attempted to find the place where the statue was supposed to be, but it was dark and late and we weren't really able to comprehend park maps at that point, so we pretty much just wandered around for awhile until we were ready to go back to the hostel and go to sleep. I know it doesn't sound like it from this, but it was actually a pretty fun day. Denmark is beautiful and it was nice to just walk around and see things, plus we ate the most delicious pizza ever and saw a really cute museum all about fairy tales!

Well, that is it for Part I. I will do my best to have Part II up by tomorrow night, although I have a paper due on Friday, so I can't make any promises.

Love y'all!
Emily

Monday, November 1, 2010

Halloween!

Oh wow, that was the best Halloween ever!

So, there was a lot of group changing that went on, as tickets sold out and for awhile one of my groups didn't have tickets, and then they got some, but we had already decided to go with other people, and then most of the first group backed out, so I invited them to come with the second group, but then not everyone was going to be ready at the same time, etc etc...

Anyway, Zab came over to my dorm around 6pm with a few drinks and we hung out for a couple of hours until Molly came over and we all needed to get ready. First on the list of things to do- fit Zab's fangs. Now, when I went to the costume shop and asked for fangs, I was expecting (as were Molly and Zab when I told them the plan) to get those cheap plastic teeth that just go over all of your teeth. No. What I got were two very high quality fangs and plaster to custom fit them to Zab's canines. The plaster on the one tooth did not want to cooperate, but eventually we got them to fit and then Molly started in on his makeup while I made myself sparkly :)

Eventually, we were all ready. I was a fairy, Zab was a vampire, and Molly was a wind-up doll. Witness our cuteness! Plus a bonus photo of Zab and I together, since I know some of you have been dying to see one.


So, after getting ready, we made our way over to Astor college (another dorm) and met up with Jenny (of jennygoesadventuring.blogspot.com and another Tulane student) and some kids from her floor. Together, we all walked over to Koko, which is one of the most famous clubs in London and quite possibly my favorite place in the city. Once there, we got a few drinks and made our way to the dance floor. The music was a dj mix, which basically meant that they didn't play a full song, but just messed with bits of the song. It kind of got on my nerves, but at least I got to dance so it didn't matter that much. Eventually I ran across the other group of girls from my floor, as well as another girl from my dorm (though not my floor) and her group. It was an amazing night. There was so much energy and we danced just about the entire night.

Quick note, apparently vampire costumes were the thing to do this year. On Jenny's floor, pretty much everyone was some incarnation of a vampire and when we were at Koko, it didn't matter what outfit people were wearing, most everyone had fake drop dripping down their face. I totally could have been a vampire fairy lol! I kind of wish I'd done that, as it would have been easily my most ridiculous costume ever. 

Eventually, Zab and I left around 2:30 or 3, when the club was closing. I spent today sleeping in and recovering from last night. Fortunately, I have no classes until Thursday this week, so I can just hang out and relax. Oh yeah, and pack for my upcoming trip to COPENHAGEN!

So, that's it for now. If you want to see more of the few pictures I took on Halloween (all of the getting ready phase), you can go over to my facebook and check them out.

Much love!
Emily