Less than a week...Ahhhhhh!!!

I cannot believe that I will be leaving here on Friday. Six weeks has really flown by. I am not going to lie, I miss America and what it holds. I am ready to see family and friends. We have talked about all the things we miss and here are a few: Ha..

Regular movie theaters
American TV
Air conditioning
Chick Fil A
Manners
The US Dollar
Regular keys
Our cars
Laying out
Beaches with sand
American products, ie groceries, cleaning stuff, etc
Our families
Our friends
Our own beds!
People who actually wear deodorant

I'm sure I will think of more later...but I tell you, I am not looking forward to the humid heat in GA! Yuck!

Okay, so...now, I will update you on the past week.

Sunday:
After much (and I mean a lot) of convincing, Liz persuaded me to go to the dang Burberry outlet with her. Mrs. Selma had been after her to go there. Problem was, it is pretty far from where we live so it would definitely would be a half-day kind of deal. Anyway, I really didn't want to go, but I gave in. Tori decided to go, as well.
We got onto the tube and rode the Jubilee (I think) line all the way to the end, which took about 40 minutes. From there, we tried to get on an overground train, but the freakin' line was shut down for repairs for the weekend. Plan B: We figured out what bus to get on to take us to Hackney Central. We weren't prepared for what followed. Ha. We rode that dang bus for over an hour. Ridic. Thennn--- about half-way through, we noticed that we were beginning to become the minority, if you know what I mean. By the time we got there, we were the only white people on the bus. We rode through some skeetttchhhyyy areas, let me tell you. I was literally tripping out the entire time because we were not expecting such an adventure. We finally figured out how to get to the warehouse. Liz racked up. I didn't buy anything (Mom and Dad should be proud) but helped Liz try on things inside of the store because they didn't have dressing rooms. Straaanngge. After about an hour there, we figured out that there was a bus that would take us straight to Baker Street. Geniuses, I say. We were all tired and hungry and ill by the time we got back. We ate at Zizi's Pizza because that was one place on our list of places to go before we leave London. After that, we went back to the flat. Mind you, after all of our traveling and such, it was already like 4 or 5pm!
Macon got back from Spain sometime that evening. We were all in our rooms on the computers or reading and we heard Macon yell from the kitchen. You see, we have had this dang mouse in the flat. We called our landlord about it a few times...I had never seen it, but Macon saw it once right when we got back from Paris. Anyway, she yelled that she saw it, and I ran to the rescue. Haha. The night before, Liz had seen it and screamed bloody murder. We had kept the doors closed and were hoping that the dang thing would get caught in the mouse trap and be done with. Oh, I should mention here that the genius maintenance man put a tortellini on the mousetrap. Now, please tell me, what mouse is going to go for a big hunk of pasta? I realize there is cheese in the middle, but the mouse doesn't know that! I put peanut butter on top of it hoping that would do the trick, but it really just ended up being a joke. That thing wasn't about to catch the mouse.
Anyway, moving on...I ran down to the kitchen and Liz, Macon, and Tori stood at the door watching it all go down. I saw the idiot thing on the counter and its little face was poking out from behind the cutting board that was leaning up against the wall. I tip-toed over and WHAM!!!-- pushed the cutting board up against the wall and trapped the little booger behind it. I was getting ready to squash him to death, but of course, the three Muskateers were screaming behind me not to kill him! Hahah..puhh--lease. So, instead, I asked what they propose I do with him. Nature lovers had no answer, so I grabbed a paper towel and picked the little nasty thing up by its foot. Lovely, I know. I was going to just throw him out in our courtyard but we decided he probably would find a way back in that way. Sooooo...after all of that, I chunked him in a pot, put the cutting board on top of it, and tramped upstairs to let him go in the street. By the way, I had on PJs at this point and probably looked like a freak to the passerby. I scanned the street and waited for a few people to walk by before I literally dumped him right in front of the Sherlock Holmes Museum. haha... he looked a little stunned for a minute but then scrambled off. What a way to end the day. I probably should get a trophy for that. Just saying.

Monday:
I went to work on Monday and we had appointments, as usual. Even though much of it is similar day in and day out, I love getting to see the excitement on the families faces as they see the screen. Oh, and, a lady came in with her husband, sister, nephew, mother, and grandmother. They all sat down in our relatively small room and watched as Dr. Gibb made a 3D video for them of the baby. This lady had had a miscarriage previously and this was her first viable pregnancy! All of the family was there for the big SEX reveal! ha...They all had bets going on what it would be. It was quite comical, but great to see how supported she was. Anyway, after work on Monday, I can't really remember what we did, soooo..I assume it wasn't that exciting.

Tuesday:
Dr. Gibb had another lady that needed to be induced. Again, we were back and forth from the hospital all day. We also had many appointments that day. I got to see two more CVS procedures. They are so awesome. I am lucky to get to see these things up close! I got back from work around 4 because Dr. Gibb was planning to call me when the lady went into labor. Of course, he called me around 11 to tell me that once she was ready, it came out in a matter of minutes and he didn't have time to call me. GRRRR...Oh well, I am hoping I will get to see one this week. If not, off with his head! Just kidding, but seriously.

Wednesday:
I had a terrible, never-ending headache and thought Liz had passed on her cold. Fortunately, I think it passed me for the most part, but I had one day of feeling quite terrible with the symptoms. Maybe my immune system is stronger than I think!

Thursay:
We had class all day..blah blah. In the afternoon, though, we went to the Imperial War Museum. At first, I dreaded this like the plague. I am not a big history buff, as I've previously mentioned, but this place was truly incredible. We went through an exhibit called The Children's War which detailed how children were affected in England during WWII. It even had a house (literally) set up inside of the exhibit which showed exactly what a home would feel like at that time. It was so neat. I literally felt like I was in a different decade. We also walked through the WWII exhibit and the way the had it set up was so engaging. Lastly, went into the Holocaust exhibit. It was quite extensive. I have been to the one in DC, but this was much more detailed. It also helps that I am 7 years older now and am much more able to appreciate it. Anyway, I am very, very interested in the Holocaust and took my time as I walked through and read, watched commentary, looked at pictures, etc. I was only about halfway through when the alarm sounded at the museum. Apparently, someone had tripped the fire alarm by leaving through a fire exit door but we all had to make our way down three flights of stairs to the outside before they would let anyone back in. After all of that fiasco, we decided to just go on home. Liz and I watched Notting Hill that night..I had never seen it before, but it was cute!

Friday:
Friday morning, we had to watch a movie for class. It was terrible. I forgot what it was even called. It was made in the 60's, but was long and hard to get in to. Instead, I read my book. I think we all have read probably about six books each since we've been here because we have no TV and its nice to have something to occupy our time when we are traveling, in class, bored, etc. No complaining, though. I love to read! That night, they finally gave in. I had been hollering about going to smoke hookah ever since I got to London. I have only done it a few times before, but there are lots of hookah places around, so I figured it would be a fun experience! Liz, Tori, Macon, Savannah, and I all went over to an area around Marble Arch. If I had to give it a name though, I would call it MiddleEastern Town. haha. There are tons and tons of Indian, Lebanese, and Mediterranean places there and people to match. We went to this place called "Salt" and sat outside while we had appetizers and I smoked watermelon hookah! Yummmm. Liz went ahead and ate dinner there because it was "normal" food and she had no desire to eat Middle Eastern food. We had great conversation and it was definitely a good time. After that, we walked down a bit to find somewhere authentic to eat. We found a Mediterranean place and had lamb, falafel, rice, etc, etc. It was good! The waiters were skeetttccchhhyyy, though, and after a little fiasco with Savannah and one of the waiters, we were QUITE keen on getting the heck out of there.

Saturday:
Liz and Tori left early on Saturday morning for Scotland. I didn't go because I am trying to save money for dresses for Recruitment and figured I would have some time to do some shopping while they were gone. Boy, was I right! I went to Primark and found six dresses, one shirt, and a pair of shoes! It is an experience in itself because it is HUGE and extremely crowded. You can only take 8 items in at a time so I was certain to pick those wisely because after waiting in line for thirty minutes, you have to rejoin the queue if you want to try on more than 8 things. It is quite a pain in the rear. Anyway, almost everything fit (amazingly) and I waited in the queue for about thirty more minutes to pay. I bought more dresses than I need because I need second and third opinions as to what I should keep. I will take the rest back before I leave London this week.
Anyway, last night, Macon and I went to see The Proposal. It was soooo cute! I loved it! I was worried that it might be a bit cheesy, but I didn't think it was at all! By the way, at the theatres here, you have assigned seats. Isn't that strange???? Even in a huge movie theatre! I couldn't believe it! It was just like going to see a play, but not! Ha!

Sunday:
So, currently, nothing to report. I stayed up until 4:30am last night after talking to Mama and Shellie and Josh and so I slept reaaally late. I didn't wake up until like 1pm! Ahh! I am still in my PJs and am trying to muster up some energy to do something. Haha..pathetic, I know.

I VOW to do better this week. Since I have less than a week left, I promise to update everyday.

I can't wait to see everyone!!!!!! Yay!

Kisses and hugs,
Abbie

Long Overdue

Okay, I'm skipping the pleasantries. I know I've done a terrible job these past few weeks. No excuse, really. Oh well...Here goes:

Wednesday:

On Wednesday, we had appointments all morning at Dr. Gibb's office. At around 9, we went to the hospital to induce labor for a Russian woman. Her water broke two nights before, so she had to be induced. She was a very calm, sweet lady. She seemed to have the upperhand with her husband, but anyway. We went back to check on her at 1pm and she was well into labor with the contractions and such. She was wrenching with terrible pain and couldn't get comfortable. We met with her and I observed her, the midwife, etc. She was planning to have the birth without drugs, but I just didn't see how she was going to do it. Later, at about 4, we went back and she still had not made enough progress. She was literally exhausted and still having terrible contractions. She finally decided to have an epidural. Good for her. I decided right then and there that when I have children later in life, they better be ready to pile the drugs on. Ha. No pain for me! It looked horrible!

Anyway, we went back to the office in between each visit to the hospital (it was a lot of walking!) and had appointments on and off all day. At about 7, we went to the hospital again. That baby was in no mood to visit us. Dr. Gibb checked her and she still had a ways to go. I ended up going home at 8:30pm and I heard the next day that she delivered at 1:30am! Poooor lady! At least she had drugs! I was a little miffed that I didn't get to see the delivery, though. Oh well, maybe next time.

Thursday:

For the most part, today was boring. We had class from 9:30am until around 5pm. We did have an awesome speaker at the end, though. His name was Graham Brady and he is a member of the Conservative Party of Parliament. He told us the general ins and outs and compared and contrasted our two countries. He then answered all of our questions. It was quite interesting. I enjoyed hearing about their socialized medicine and what he thought the best idea was for our future healthcare. He did have this one annoying hair, though. It was just hanging around his forehead and was totally misplaced. He kept pushing his hair back and always missed that piece. Ugh. Haha..

That night, we decided to go out. Tori, Liz, and I met Spencer in the tube station and we all headed to a place called Sports Cafe. We heard it was a fun, hot spot. Apparently, not on Thursday nights when it is raining. It was pretty empty when we got there. They had some cocktail specials going on so we sipped a few(?)--haha-- and left. We weren't ready to go home so we thought we would just walk around the area and find another bar/pub. We stumbled upon a CLUB called Tiger. Tiger. Tori had gone there a week ago with her man friend, but didn't really have much to say about it. Soooo, we ventured in. It was a 5 pound cover, which isn't too bad, so we tried it out. I have to say that we weren't really mentally/physically prepared for a club. We weren't dressed to the nines and weren't quite sure what we were getting ourselves into. Let me just say, it was quite hilarious really. I can't exactly describe with words what all we saw, but the crowd was interesting to say the least. We walked around a bit, people watched, had a few drinks, danced for like 2.5 seconds, were manhandled a tad more than we wanted to be, and then left. Finding a bus that would take us to Baker Street wasn't an easy feat, so we stopped off at McDonald's. Woopsie:) It was de-lish. We waited outside of Mickey D's until the next bus came that we needed. We got home safely and made sure that Spencer did the same.

Friday:

In the morning, we had to watch some dumb movie that Dr. Hardin had picked out. We were all exhausted from getting in late the night before so we struggled to stay awake for the movie. I'm pretty sure Liz clapped at the end because she was so thrilled that it was over...not because it was good. We slept alllll afternoon. It really was blissful. We woke up and almost croaked when we saw that it was 5:30pm. haha..I guess our bodies needed it! I'm not one to fight my own self! haha...So...here comes the fun part.

You see, our landlord STILL had not gotten our washing machine fixed. Therefore, I was running out of clothes -- fast. I am pretty sure that I wore what I slept in to class on Friday. Real classy, right? I couldn't help it! AND I was afraid Liz was about to start digging in my underwear drawer. We were desperate. We finally got word back from our internship/trip director and she said that the landlord was going to pay us back if we had to go to a launderette (laundromat). Great. Just what I want to do. Lug two weeks worth of clothes to a coin-laundry. Not to mention, the closest launderette was a tube stop away --- meaning that we stuffed all of our clothes into suitcases and had to ride the tube and walk for a total of about 25 minutes. We also stopped and got 20 pounds out of the cash machine (figuring that was a gross overestimate of what we needed). Boy, were we wrong. I ended up having 4 loads of laundry for a cool 4 pounds each to just wash. Then, it was 50pence for 7.5 minutes in the dryer. It ended up costing roughly 20 pounds (aka $36) for us to do laundry. RIDICULOUS! Needless to say, we were not in the best of moods when we left so we just went home and passed out.

Saturday:

We still had plenty on our list of things to do in London, so we thought we would try to tackle a few. First, we went to the Camden flea market. We had heard good things from a few people about it, so we were excited to go check it out. I'm not sure if those people were on drugs at the time, or if we happened to go on the wrong day (doubtful), but it wasn't all that it was hyped up to be. We were surrounded by emo/punk teenagers and hippie looking people. It reminded me of a weird version of China Town -- minus the Asians. Nevertheless, I was able to find a purse, ring, and a pair of sunglasses. They were all very cheap and cute! Liz bought a few things, as well. Tori was just ready to peace out as quickly as possible.

After Camden, we went to the Natural History Museum. It is gigantic. There are tons of exhibits and each of the exhibits are extensive. I really had been wanting to go there to see the Human Biology exhibit, of course. Tori wanted to see the Dinosaurs and Liz, well, Liz hates museums and made sure we knew it the whole time. She was a trooper, though. The biology exhibit was pretty neat but after you have seen the real Bodies Exhibit, nothing quite lives up to it. It was very informative and would be great for teaching purposes. The dinos were a different story. It was soooooo crowded and it was hard to even get a good look at the skeletons. Oh well.. We got home rather late in the afternoon so we cooked a yummy dinner and watched a movie together. Hoorah for a summer of girls nights!

I will pick back up with Sunday tomorrow! Or maybe later tonight! At least I got a few days in....

Peace and love,

Abbie

Braving Paris in Heels

Weekend in Paris!

Friday:

Tori, Liz, and I woke up Friday veeerryyy early after staying up quite late. We had about three hours of sleep. (Tori maybe less because she went out with a cute friend of her sisters --- gettt itttt).We made it in plenty of time to the train station for our journey. We grabbed some coffee/diet coke and a pastry. I fell asleep for half of the train trip, but Team Argentine (a group of high schoolers from Argentina - our nickname for them) was being too freakin' loud and quite annoying. We booked our Paris trip through a tour company so that we could bundle the train trip, a guided tour, and the hotel stay all together. It was a great deal!

When we got to Paris, we all boarded a coach and had a tour of the city. It highlighted most of the major touristy points and gave us a good, general overview of what we could see and do. We stopped as a group and split up to have lunch/look around. We had our first experience with speaking French to someone who knew no English. We ordered baguettes and were so unsure of ourselves that we didn't even get anything to drink. Bahah. Liz marched up to the menu board and pointed to what she wanted. Ha. I guess that works, too :)

We then got back on the coach and unfortunately, sat next to these two girls. One of them had on winter tights (idiot) and ballet flats. She slipped off her ballet flats and for a minute or two, Liz and I tried to figure out what had died on the bus. We literally had to cover our noses and breathe through our mouths to make it through the rest of the ride to the hotel. Lucky Tori had a cold so she couldn't figure out what the big deal was. I swear, I have never smelled feet that foul in my life. Eww.

Soooooo...we got to the hotel and discovered that they had put Tori in a room by herself...gay! The hotel was nice enough. No Ritz Carlton, but better than Motel 6. There was not much around it since it was in the business district, but was only a short Metro ride a way from the big attractions in Paris. We tried to take a 30 minute nap, but there was construction presumably in the rooms right above us. To no avail, I tried beating a wooden coat hanger on the ceiling but got no response. They kept right on beating above me. Anyway, we freshened up a bit (wasn't worth it because we still looked pretty rank) and met downstairs with the tour guide for a walking tour. We went to the Montmartre district and saw Moulin Rouge (rather unexciting from the outside), the last operating winery in Paris, and generally just strolled around the famous area. It was great! We ended the tour at Sacre Coure Church, which was absolutely beautiful. It is the most "homey" church that we have seen so far. Sacre Coure is situated on a very high point in Paris and has one of the most beautiful views of the city. Tons of tourists were hanging around and there were a few bands playing. There were even Brazilian guys with no shirts (and mighty fine bodies) doing dances and acrobatics for a large crowd.

Okay, I must tell you...our tour guide pretty much sucked. He read from note cards for our tour and even smoked during it. We have been spoiled by Russell and this guy just didn't even compare. I think he needs to keep his day-job. ALSO, there were these three guys from Australia who were on the same tour. They weren't cute, but one of them wouldn't be too terrible if he didn't have the most jacked up teeth I've ever come across. I am not kidding. They basically looked like all of them had gotten very confused and crossed each others paths and stuck there. I think some teeth were even doubled up in one place. It was heinous. He kept flirting with us and we all just cringed at that grill of his. Hahahaha..

Last, the tour guide showed as all a really great cafe/pub where we had dinner and cocktails. It was yummy! We sat with jacked-up teeth boy and his friends and an old man with a lisp. Quite interesting, I tell you.. After that, we went back to the hotel and rested up for Saturday.

Saturday:

We got up pretty early and had some delicious chocolate croissants. They were to die for. We left for Versailles and felt proud of ourselves because we THOUGHT we knew how to get there. Wrong. Everything was in French and we just couldn't figure out what train to get on. Luckily, we overheard a Middle Eastern lady ask someone if they knew how to get to Versailles. We heard them say that they were going there to and that they thought they knew the way. We decided it was best to just follow "the lady in the pink shirt" as well :) We got there a little over an hour later. Versailles is HUGE! I didn't realize how big it was. We waited in the queue for about 45 minutes and luckily, the weather cooperated because it wasn't too hot and didn't rain. We finally got tickets and walked through the King's Chamber, The Queen's Chamber, and the Hall of Mirrors. They were definitely a sight to see. Absolutely stunning. Every "nook and cranny" had intricate, immaculate detail. The ceilings were all painted (Josh laughed at me for not knowing what its called-- but I still don't know) with motifs of angels and such. I loved looking from floor to ceiling in every single room. All of the rooms were different colors and were just amazing. I can't say enough. The Hall of Mirrors was wonderful, as well. You know I liked the mirror part..Bahahaha. Again, my eyes were just stimulated from wall to wall with paintings, statues, lights, mirrors, etc. After we finished touring inside, we went to a cafe outside near the gardens and grabbed a sandwich and a diet coke (of course).

We left Versailles and headed straight to a boat tour of the Seine River. It was so relaxing and perfect. We had great views of the Eiffel Tower, the Grand Palais, the Louvre, Hotel de Ville, La Grande Bibliotheque, Institut de France, and much, much more. The bridges over the river were all beautiful and we were able to see lots of different architecture throughout the city. Of course, Liz fell asleep. She began to bob her head and finally rested her chin on her chest. haha. Lord, help her. She is a tired girl.

After our boat cruise, we went back to the hotel and had a quick nap before we got ready to go out. I felt like being a diva, so I teased my hair and put on leopard print and heels. Good thing Liz and Tor were there to calm me down, because I might have even gone for the red lipstick. Ha. So, we had seen a great French restaurant on our way home from the cruise, so we decided to go back there for dinner. We ordered some fabulous wine and had an excellent meal with a view of the sparkling Eiffel Tower. The waiter loved us, by the way. Also, there was a table of guys behind us and as I got up to go to the loo, they handed me a business card with their names, phone number, and USA on the back. hahahaha. Nice work.

We walked from the restaurant over to the Eiffel Tower. We stopped along the way at a food store and grabbed a bottle of French champagne. Yum. We sat down in the grass under the tower and drank out of the bottle while looking up at the stars. Pure bliss. It then began to rain. Bummer. We didn't let it ruin the moment. I had an umbrella with me. Genius, right? Almost...it was actually leopard print so I had to give it over to my friends. Leopard shirt and umbrella? Definitely a faux pas, as the French would say ;) Instead, I just soaked up the rain. A few guys heard our accents as we were talking and walked over. Two were from Colorado and one from London. They had met in a hostel and were out on the prowl. Minutes later, the guys we saw at dinner walked up with champagne in hand. Greaaattt.. they guys all sat around us and chatted it up. Liz, Tori, and I got bored with them all and were feeling pretty good by this point, so we decided to pack it up and head home. We rode the metro back and climbed into bed. A decidedly PERFECT night in Paris.

Sunday:

We woke up and had more deliiissh chocolate croissants. First, we walked down the Champs Elysee and headed to the Arc de Triomphe. It is so massive! Wonderful to see up close! We walked a bit more and sat down to people watch. So very interesting, I tell you. Probably one of my favorite pasttimes.

Next, we went to Notre Dame and stood in line for just a short while. It began to rain a bit, but we made it inside before we got too wet. The cathedral was so serene and dark, and they were actually having a church service while we walked around. It was kind of strange. We felt a bit like we were imposing, but it was lovely nonetheless. After we left there, we went in 1.4 million souvenir shops looking for Parisian tea towels for Mrs. Selma, but we never found any that she would care for.

We stopped for lunch at a cute little cafe near Notre Dame. We had a plate of cheeses and sandwiches and of course, diet coke. Yum. We people watched for a bit and sat next to these obnoxious tourists. They bought those typical Parisian hats and drank tea and coffee. All the while, they were documenting it on video and were commenting on the fact that they were doing all of these "Parisian" things. Lame!

After that, we walked to Lord Rogers' first brilliant building, the Pompidou Centre. It is just like the "inside-out building", but better -- because it is all painted in primary colors so it stands out even more! We walked by the Hotel de Ville and really got to see a great area of Paris while walking around. Liz demanded that we go and find Rue LaGrange. Blah. So, we walked there -- wasn't too far from Notre Dame -- so she could take a few pictures and represent L-Greasy. By that point, it was time to head back to the hotel to grab our things and get on the coach. We rode the train back to London and slept the whole way. Needless to say, we were exhausted from the weekend, but, boy was it worth it. It was wonderful.

Monday:

Ahhhhhhhh!! Dr. Gibb has the swine flu!!!! I went into work at 10am and the clinic manager informed me that Dr. Gibb was sick with the flu. He called his GP and they discussed whether or not it was the swine flu. Since he did not have a high enough fever, they weren't completely convinced that it was swine flu, but it may very well have been. They are not doing swab tests over in the UK so it really is impossible to tell if you actually have it or not if you have the symptoms.

Anyway, I was able to leave by 12pm. I cleaned the bathroom (ew) when I got home and tried to get our room a little bit neater. Our dang washer/dryer is messed up and our clothes have been accumulating since last week. I usually wash clothes once-twice a week so its freaking me out. I am really running out of clothes. Uggghhhh. Annoying. We have been in touch with our landlord to fix the washer, our broken drawer, and the possible mouse (double ew), and he has been slow about doing anything at all.

Moving on....Liz came home around 2:30pm so she came home and went to sleep rather quickly. Ha. I, however, had some ADPi stuff to attend to, so I didn't fall asleep until later. She slept for four hours! Hahahah..she woke up and thought it was morning.

Tori, Liz, and I went to the grocery and then had dinner at home. I am beginning to eat like a real college kid to cut costs. We have had canned ravioli more than I ever thought I would...:) Oh well...It's worth it!

Tuesday:

Dr. Abbas was in for Dr. Gibb since he was sick. We had appointments all morning and I was able to leave around 4. When I got back to the flat, I piddled around a bit with Lizzie and Tori. We started to watch Marie Antionette but I began to fall asleep. Oopsie! That is what getting up too early will do to you! I don't think I'm made to get up early. I like to sleep late. All in all, Tuesday was pretty uneventful.

I will be back to fill you in on yesterday and today, but quite frankly, my hand is about to fall off and I think I may have permanent nerve damage from all of this typing. I can't believe we only have two weeks left. Ahhhhh..we have a bunch of plans for this weekend so we can fit it all in before we leave.

Lots of love,

Abbie

Photos

New Photos!

I updated these two albums, so there are some new ones at the end..

People

Places

Here are the new photos from Paris! Enjoy!

Bonjour, Paris!

I will update later today with all of my stories from Paris!

Love,

Abbie

Oui Oui

Okay, so...39 Steps was great! The show is based on a Hitchcock film and was turned into a comedy. There were only four actors in the show...it was absolutely hilarious. They all played about 15 roles each and were sweating and spitting by the end of the show! Ha...we were in the 2nd row in a quaint theatre and I literally had to shield my face from the fluids at one point!! No kidding! Dr. Hardin was right behind us and his sides were probably split by the time we left because he laughed harder than anyone in there. It was quite entertaining on top of the show itself! Haha.

This morning, we had class (blech) and then stopped at a little shop on High Kensington Street and bought some accessories :) before heading back to the flat to get ready for our big afternoon! We went to Harrod's around 2:30pm and shopped around a bit before we met the Gores for High Tea. I bought a few little things in the chocolate and coffee area..Excited about those purchases! I literally was in LABEL HEAVEN. I can't wait until I'm filthy rich. I will come back and buy out the store. Gucci, Versace, Jimmy Cho, Fendi, Prada, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany's -- you name it, they had it...We are certainly going back so that we can lust over all of the shoes, bags, jewelry, clothes, etc. High Tea was excellent. We had an assortment of little sandwiches, scones with jam, strawberry kiwi tea, and pastries. YUM! It hit the spooootttttt. Annndd -- Lizzie didn't even get in trouble TOO many times for her lack of table manners. Baha. Tommy either!

We stressed Mrs. Selma out after High Tea because we were in a rush to get to Westminster Abbey for the Evensong service. She literally ran 75% of the way so that we would make it in before the service began. Thankfully, the stars were lined up in favor of Mrs. Selma because we made it in time! Whew! The service was lovely. I just loved listening to the beautiful choir while studying the exqusite detail of every inch in the Abbey. It is just stunning.

After church, we stopped by a pub. Hahahaha. Ironic? Just a tad. That is what the Brits are all about! We had a few Pimms (rather quickly, I might add) and then went on to the show. The show is called We Will Rock You and it is basically a silly plot line with all of Queen's greatest hits. The acting, dancing, and singing were all phenomenal! Mrs. Selma, Mr. Tommy, Liz, and I were all rocking along in our seats. It is one of those shows where there never is a dull moment and you have a constant smile on your face. I almost wanted to stand up and cheer a few times! Ha...Elizabeth would have been mortified, just so you know. She is embarrassed by me pretty easily. I am surprised she hasn't quite gotten over it even though we have been friends for almost four years now. Oh well...she'll learn, won't she family? Y'all have finally learned to deal... :) Anyway, I would DEF recommend this show to everyone! It is absolutely a guy-friendly musical, too. I even think my brother, Adam, would enjoy it! Hehe...

OKAY, sooo... Tori, Liz, and I are leaving for Paris in the morning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you can't tell, I am freaking excited. We have packed (for the most part) and will be leaving the flat at 7am! I am taking my ear plugs so I can sleep on the train. We have a full weekend ahead and are tickled to death that we are finally getting to go! Yay!

Will surely update when we get back. Don't miss me too much ;)

Kisses,

Abbie

Mum, Could we please build a rock-castle??

So, let's see... I officially suck at this. I keep forgetting to update and get too tired to think and be creative. Here I go:

Saturday, we went to Brighton via train bright and early in the morning. We got there by about 9:30am and were settled on our beach chairs by 10am. Problem: it was cloudy and freezing.. Greeeaatttt. Luckily, I had brought my UGA blanket and my crappy shower towel so we bundled up and took a nap until the sun came out. Okay, let me just tell you...this beach had no sand. None. Nada. Zip. It had rocks instead. There were pebbles from the sidewalks all the way down to the shoreline. Crazy, right? I have never heard of that before! We saw some poor kids with buckets and shovels, but I sure hope they weren't planning to make a rock-castle. Haaa... Anyway, I went down to test out the water. I got in about half-way and decided that I was going to get frost bite if I didn't get out ASAP. I ran back up the hill on the freakin rocks to our chairs. Ouch...I also fell off of my trusty beach chair and sustained some serious injuries. Haha.

The sun came out at about 1pm in full force. We lovvveed it! I fell asleep on one side so I am definitley more tan on that side. Sweet. Macon, poor thing, got seriously burned. The sun didn't seem so potent, but it totally tricked us! All in all...we had a wonderful day. We found strawberry cider and caramel digestibles, so when the sun was out, we were in heaven! Had a Happy 4th in London!

Sunday morning started out slow, but I think we needed that. We had been going strong and needed a little break. Lizzie and I took a walk and went and bought some DVD's at a store about 30 minutes from our house. I have never seen Harry Potter and so Liz bought all five of the older ones so that I could get caught up. Oh joy! We also got some other oldies, but goodies, for pretty cheap. We then went to Regent's Park and laid out our blanket and brought out the books. We read, napped, people watched, and soaked up the sun for a few hours...perfection!

Lizzie made me watch the first Harry Potter movie. It was cool to see the places in the film that we had actually seen in person, but I am just not a fan. Sorry HP lovers...y'all are losers. JK. But, seriously...

Work was great on Monday. Nothing too out of the norm, but it is just so cool to me to meet patients from South Africa, France, Spain, Lebanon, America (!), Australia, etc... Two ladies came in that are very close to their due dates. Dr. Gibb talked to both of them and they both gave permission for me to come for their births! Woop woop! I told Dr. Gibb that he must call me -- even if it is the middle of the night -- so that I can come and watch a natural birth. One of them even wants to deliver in a water pool. Its going to be amazing to see and I cannot wait! On a more somber note, we also gave terrible news of a miscarriage to a lady this day. It broke my heart. She handled it rather well, but now I see that he doesn't always have happy endings with every patient.

On Tuesday, I got to see my second C-section! It was very straightforward but even so, it was so different from the one before! I love watching surgery --- future career maybe?? We also had a patient that is a member of the Royal family from hgdfhgjhg...I can't exactly tell you where because I couldn't understand her accent. I asked Dr. Gibb after but I couldn't understand his accent either. Ha. Oh well. She was dressed to the nines and had an hour long consultation with us. She had a BMI of 45 so unfortunately, he would not be able to deliver her at the Portland Hospital. They are very wary of high risk pregnancies and births since they do not have an ICU. Blah blah. Anyway, Dr. Gibb is beginning to give me a lot more responsibilities and I LOVE IT! I hate sitting around and watching. I love the hands-on experience that I am now getting. I am testing urine, entering numerical data from the scans into the computers, helping with the scans, sending off lab samples, sitting in on all of the appointments, etc, etc....

Liz's parents got into town yesterday and they took Liz and I out to dinner and Sister Act! It was incredible. I seriously think that it rivals the performance of Wicked that I saw in New York on all levels. The scenery changes were stunning, the choreography was excellent, and we just thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish. Thanks Selma and Tommy :)

Today, I got to work super-early. Okay, 8:30 isn't that early, but it felt like it. We had appointments all morning and then went on rounds at the hospital for a bit. We met another lady today that is to deliver soon and she also gave permission for me to come to the birth! Geettt ittt...haha.. I am hoping that none of them occur while I am Paris this weekend! That would be a bummer.

Sooooo...we are going to a show called 39 Steps tonight with our entire group. Fun, fun. I don't really know what this show is about but Dr. Hardin seems to think that it is going to be great. Ever the optimist, I am eager to see how it goes :)

We have class tomorrow and then will probably pack for our weekend trip to Paris. Yay!

I will try and update tomorrow afternoon. Don't keep your fingers crossed, though ;)

Love,

Abbie

Two favorite things in London = caramel digestibles and cider

Work on Wednesday went by pretty quickly. We had scans pretty much all day and I was able to get home by 4pm so that I could relax a little before getting ready for Romeo and Juliet. After Macon, Liz, & I got ready, we went to meet Tori and the rest of our large group at The Globe Theatre. This is an exact replica of what Shakespeare would have seen waaayy back when. It was awesome! It is an open air amphitheatre and had beautiful architectural detail and luckily, the weather was lovely! Romeo and Juliet was great! The actors were all excellent (except that it was hard to understand them at times -- that accent mixed with the Shakespearean language!). I must say that Juliet was not my favorite. Other than that, though, the show was top notch! Our trip advisor purchased our tickets and we were ever so lucky to be "groundlings" during the show, which means that we had to stand for three long hours (yes, you heard me right) while we watched the show. I was not a happy camper about that one. It reminded me of my terrible JROTC days (barf) when we had to stand at attention for the dumb parades (double barf). I think I may have enjoyed the show much more had we been able to sit, but I guess I needed the experience! Ha..

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that Caroline, Christen, and Lizzy had had a few too many ciders and they kept Liz and me entertained when the play was slow. Christen and Caroline were swaying, and Lizzy said quite loudly, "Why don't you just kill yourself already?" Hahahahha. I sure hope Romeo didn't hear her ;)

On Thursday, we had two lectures for our class. We were supposed to watch a movie but it didn't work out. So, Liz and I went to the school to talk to our AIFS supervisor to see if they could help us book a trip to Paris. We found a good deal and waited to talk to our parents, etc, before we booked it. After that, we went shopping so that Liz could get a swimsuit (she found one at TK Maxx...green with gold detail..hahaha) and I could get some shorts and stuff. I found a pair of shorts, two shirts, and a cotton dress -- all for 24 pounds at H&M! Ballin'!!! We then went to pick up our tickets for Brighton and went back to the flat.

We ate in again and then cleaned up. Spencer came over and we all played card games and enjoyed some wine and cider. I am pretty sure we probably kept the neighbors up with the yelling we were doing -- okay, the yelling I was doing. I get so dang competitive..haha..but no worries, Lizzie keeps me in check.

Today, everyone is at Leeds Castle and Cantebury. I am having trouble with my stomach (again, boo!) and I needed to just take some pain meds and try to rest up a little. I am at home alone now and am ready for the girls to get back. I think we may go to the grocery tonight so that we can get some stuff to take to the beach tomorrow. I can't wait to get out in the sun! I'm so looking forward to it. A little cider, cheese, and caramel digestibles (haha -- okay, thats really Digestives which are a certain type of cookies here that we have fallen in LOVE with) will just round the day out just perfectly. Not to mention, of course, that we Americans will be celebrating July 4th!

Hope all is well with everyone!

Peace,

Abbie

"Children, there are 51 American states!" - Miss Isabelle aka Lizzie

New photos!!! Click the link! They are from Wimbledon and Rollerblading.

I have been very negligent of my poor blog lately. Sorry for that! I don't know what has gotten into me..

Saturday was quite uneventful. I was still feeling sick so Lizzie was my nurse (imagine that??!!) and we stayed in all day and rested.

Sunday was quite the opposite. Ha. We slept kind of late and I had come up with the brilliant idea that we should all go rollerblading aka "blading" in Kensington Park. I had seen an advertisement for rollerblades "for hire" so I talked all of the girls into going with! We paid 10 pounds and rented them for three hours! Not bad! The store clerk offered knee pads and elbow pads to us but we refused gracefully. Or rather, I said, "I'm too cool for those. Thank you anyway." :) I knew we were in for trouble when Liz and Tori had to hold onto Macon's arms to cross the street to get to the other sidewalk. The girls finally gained some confidence so we all bladed across cobblestone (made for a bumpy ride, let me assure you) around the park. We went by Kensington Palace, former home of Princess Diana, but weren't able to go in since we had on our blades. Long story short -- I am attaching Liz's video description of the happenings -- Liz had a huge wipeout, Tori fell on her butt, and I ran into a tree in a matter of thirty seconds. Tori and I were fine but Liz fared much worse. She has some serious battle wounds. Fortunately, she took it in good stride and was tripping out the entire time. She was too embarrassed to turn her blades in (she was sure that everyone who passed by was looking at her knee), so she waited outside as we paid and such. We stopped by the pharmacy and picked up some supplies to nurse her wounds. She took a bath to clean it out right when we got home and I got the pleasure of pouring alcohol onto her legs and arms. I am sure it sounded like I was slaying her at that very moment. Ha. It happened almost three days ago and the pain hasn't subsided much at all. I feel terrible for her, but she won't let me love on her much. Booo..Thank goodness for Tylenol PM! I think thats the only way that she is able to sleep.

Monday morning, we all got up and readied ourselves for our first days at our internships. I arrived at The Birth Company around 9:30am and by 11am, Dr. Gibb and I were on our way to Portland Hospital to deliver twins via Cesarean section. I was pumped!! We changed into our scrubs and headed right into the operating room. It was incredible. I will save all of the gory details in case you don't have a strong stomach. If you do, however, please ask about it. I love sharing stories!!! Basically, though, it was unlike anything I have ever seen before. Beautiful and disgusting all at the same time, to be honest. The babies were absolutely perfect. The boy came first weighing in at 5lbs 3.5oz and the girl came less than a minute later and weighed 5lbs 3oz. The parents gave me THEIR camera so I was responsible for taking photos the whole time! Ahhh! The poor daddy was sitting up by the mother's face and had to breathe very deeply at even the thought of what was going on below the screen. After they sent the new family to the recovery room, Dr. Gibb sort of threw me for a loop and said he had to hurry back to the office so I basically had to fend for myself to get changed, leave the hospital, and get back to the office. Now, I know that doesn't sound too difficult, but when you don't have an employee badge in and around an operating room, it can prove to be quite challenging. I finally found my way around and figured out how to get back to the office. I took a quick lunch break and then went back to the office for the afternoon appointments. Most women that came in had scans to check for abnormalities, growth, well-being, etc, of their babies. We had a range of patients come in and I was so intrigued by the different backgrounds, medical histories, and stories of each of the women. I got to see scans of pregnancies from 7 weeks to 10 days overdue! Dr. Gibb delivered all good news yesterday so it was a very inspirational day for me! Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed my first day.

By the way, I must say that I feel such like a "city girl" as I walk through the crowded streets of London on my way to and from work :)

I went to work for a half-day today. Dr. Gibb is on "holiday" so one of his associates, Dr. Abbas, was there to fill in for him. I got to see a CVS today and that was quite impressive. Again, not trying to gross anyone out here, but it was the coolest thing. CVS's are performed to determine if the baby has Downs syndrome or any other chromosomal disorders. These tests carry a risk of miscarriage and must only be performed if there is significant reason to believe that the child may suffer from one of the disorders. Anyway, Dr. Abbas discussed the risks with the patient and proceeded with the test. Dr. Abbas then performed a scan to see where the placenta was located. Next, he put on some local anesthetic and then stuck a needle about as long as my forearm (no kidding) into her stomach. We watched the scan the whole time and I saw the needle go right into the placenta! What an amazing thing! He then drew up a sample of tissue and blood and that was it! We checked for the heartbeat and it was still there. Seeing the heartbeat means that the risk of miscarriage is reduced from 4% to 1%. Anyway, moving on from the medical jargon.....

We were finished with appointments by 3:45pm so stopped on the way home to buy a much-needed fan for our room. I have been so freaking hot. I packed for chilly, rainy weather and it has been neither since we have been here. It got up to 84 degrees today. Blech. I know that doesn't touch what y'all have been getting in Georgia, but this girl never likes hot weather anyway. Plus -- I wasn't mentally prepared for it, you know? ;) I got the okay from Mama to get some shorts and other hot-weather gear since I foolishly thought I wouldn't need mine. Oh well...it won't hurt me to get a fewwww new things, will it? Haha...

We are all watching The Queen right now. We are all feeling very Brit-ish, I guess! I'm getting sleepy, though, so we will see how long I last. Hope everyone is doing well! I miss the States!

Lots of love,

Abbie

Oxford & Blenheim Palace - Day 9

Today, we rode by coach (aka chartered bus) to Woodstock which is about an hour and a half away. There, we went to Blenheim Palace. It was built by the first Duke of Malborough and is still lived in by the 11th Duke right now. Winston Churchill was born and married there. The palace is stunning and has the most beautiful scenery around it. There are several gardens and a lake surrounding the palace, but we really didn't get to explore as much as we wanted. I hate that we can't take photos inside of these places -- the furniture, wallpaper, paintings, lighting, and on and on are so exquisite! Liz and I just can't imagine having that kind of extensive wealth. How baller would it be if you could wake up in the morning and look out on a property like that and call it your own? Maybe I should be celebrity/royalty man hunting a little more:) Haha..I began to feel really crappy (this stomach stuff is flaring up a little) so I was glad when the tour ended. We had packed our lunches so we ate them in a small cafe right beside one of the gardens.

Next, we headed up to Oxford. We toured some of the colleges at the University and heard a bit about the history, how hard it is to get in, etc. Our tour guide was a 6'3 British/American woman. She has quite an interesting story! She did a one-year long study abroad program at Oxford when she was 20 and met a boy there! After six months, she decided to stay here and ended up marrying the guy! 14 years later, she is still in London and has definitely picked up the accent. No worries, family, you have nothing to worry about with this girl! I love London but I love America more!!

Anyway, I am not feeling so hot so Tori is going to pick up a movie for us and we are going to have a chill night in. Tomorrow, I think we are going to go shopping so Lizzie can get some clothes for her internship and then we plan on going OUT! Woop woop!

Hope everyone is doing well! Would love to hear from you!

Smooches,
Abbie

Oopsie...I slept through Wimbledon ;)

What a wonderful day we had! I stayed up last night until about 1:30am downloading and editing photos that I have taken so far. I cannot believe that it has only been a week -- I've taken about 250 photos and am only getting started :) I feel like we have done so much and have seen a great deal of London in such a short time! Isn't that great?

We woke up at 6am to go to Wimbledon today. We rode the tube to get there and walked a short way to get in line to waaaiiiitttttt. I emphasize that word because that is EXACTLY what we did. I can't be too much of a drama queen, it honestly was not bad at all. We met up with some of the girls from UGA on the tube and so Bess, Spencer, Macon, Liz, Tori, and I all sat in the "que" from about 8am-11:30am. They didn't open the gates until 10:30am and the first 6,000 -- yes, that's what I said -- were able to get in. We just happened to miss that cut off and were 6,700ish in line.

Not to worry, we kept ourselves quite entertained. There is a delicious beer here called cider and it tastes like apple juice with a little kick. As we've learned, their beers have a much higher alcohol content than the beer we are used to. haha. We all brought either a bottle of wine or three 570mL bottles of cider for the morning. I can't say that my body is used to consuming alcohol that early, but hey, new experiences are always great! ha. We also brought some snacks and a blanket so we sort of set up camp for a while. Pikachu (sp?) was sitting right next to us...ha, that is, a teenage boy dressed up as him. Quite strange, really. Also, two representatives for Blossom Hill wine were going around taking photos and handing out canvas bags for promotions, their website, etc, and fell in love with us Georgia girls. The girl just kept asking us to talk and proceeded to perfect her "y'all" for the crowd. Love it! In fact, she was so enamored that when she met a few law students from Georgia a few thousand people away from us, she absolutely demanded that they come and meet us. Sooo-- two law students from Georgia/South Carolina who are studying abroad in Ireland came to talk to us for a bit. They were only in London for the weekend but asked what to do, where to go, etc...

Anyway, we made it in finally and I thought Lizzie's eyes were literally about to pop out of her head because she was so thrilled! She loves tennis and said she has been hoping to go there since she was a little girl. In my mind, I had been expecting something much like the Masters but to be honest, it wasn't that similar. There were far more people and the atmosphere was much more relaxed.

We walked around for a little bit and then found the famous "Hill" where there is a huge big-screen TV where you can watch many of the matches. It was nearly impossible to get the six of us into an actual court but we watched some of them from above/to the side. We sat down and set up our little picnic area again. We grabbed some grub and then watched a few matches. I was exhausted from staying up so late and waking so early, so I thought I may lie back for a minute. I even had my diet coke laying across my chest since I wouldn't be lying there long. That minute turned into about an hour and a half. HAHAHA. Oopsie! I woke up (diet coke still in hand) and was so hot, sweaty, and a little burned. The girls had been chatting it up with two British boys. They weren't cute so I ignored them. hehehe...We had Pimm, which is some sort of alcoholic mint tea drink and it was yummy! We stayed a little longer and left about 4:15pm. Poor Macon, Tori, and Liz are quite burned from the day in the sun. I am just left with a crooked/curved tan line across my cleavage. Real cute. That's what you get for passing out, I guess.

Lizzie is currently napping and I just took a nice bath. We have a day trip planned for tomorrow to Oxford and Blenheim Palace. It should be fun!

Until then --- cheerio!

Love,
Abbie

An Eye for An Eye

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2015616&id=1120860040&l=40514336cb

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2015610&id=1120860040&l=b6973bfab3

Here are some photos that I posted to facebook! There are quite a few, but my memory card ran out of room!

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Day 7 has been long. Along with our internships, we are taking a British Life and Culture class. It really is very interesting, but we had two lectures back-to-back and then had to watch a movie -- all in the same classroom. Liz & another girl next to me, Lisa, both fell asleep during the lectures and the movie. Bahaha. The man giving the lecture was so nice and knowledgeable but yet again, had a speech impediment. He stuttered about every twelve words. Nothing against stuttering, but I have a hard time focusing on anything but that. Liz agreed -- so, she fell asleep. Ha. We watched Brideshead Revisited and it was an excellent movie. I definitely suggest that you see it! It gave us a sneak peek of Oxford since we are going there on Friday.

After that, we all rode the tube over to the London Eye. The capsules had room for about twenty people and we had fun taking pictures of the panoramic view of London. It is a great way to see an overview of the city as a whole. We had dinner in again tonight and are just downloading pictures and resting up for our long day at Wimbledon tomorrow!

Oh yeah, I was the one that tripped/leaped today. The girls got a kick out of it. :(

Here is a silly video of us playing around on the London Eye this afternoon:

Xoxo,

Abbie

Peter Punch You in the Face

We definitely just saw a fight break out at Peter Pan between a dad and this other dude. The amphitheatre/arena was fairly small and loud so we saw and heard everything! Crazy! Of course, scaredy cat Lizzie was grabbing my arm and barely took a breath while it was happening..haha...

Anyway, Peter Pan was "cute". I guess I am show snob because I expected it to be more professional. The characters looked like they were flying around and hanging down from coat hangers. They unclipped themselves every time they were done flying. It was strange. Speaking of strange, there were some freaking weird men that carried around animal puppets (Nana, the dog, and some other creature)...They made the sounds for the dog and bird-thing too. I was a little weirded out. Hahaha....I suppose we will have to keep catching the shows until we find a winner. When we walked out, two older British ladies said it was the best production they had ever seen and how memorable it was! I am not sure what rock they've been hiding under!! :)

Liz & I skipped back and sang Wicked songs the whole way home (I really think I'm hardwired to be in theatre...I guess I missed my calling). All of the tubes were closed so we found a bus stop and rode it back to Baker Street. Oh yeah-- we walked 7 miles today! Get it, girrrlllsss!!

Love,
Abbie

Bakerloo & Jubilee

Day 5-
I was the last to wake up since I had the shortest walk to my interview for my internship. I ironed my clothes, took a shower, got ready, and was out of the door within 45 minutes! Go me! I absolutely love being in the city. It is so exciting and refreshing to be right in the middle of the hustle and bustle every day. London is such a pretty city. There are a few boring buildings, but most of them have beautiful architectural design that is so pleasant to look at!

My internship is with The Birth Company. The office is on the third floor of what looks like a townhouse on Harley Street. The office is pretty small, but is modern with clean lines, an aquarium, and bright colors. Dr. Gibb is the physician with whom I will be interning. He started the company five years ago and has two physicians that help him on the side. We sat down and had a short interview and he basically told me that I would "be his assistant". He said that they would teach me to test urine, look through charts, etc, and that I would be able to go in many of the appointments with his patients. Guess what he has set up on Monday?? He is allowing me to go in with him as he delivers twins via C-section!!! I am sooo excited! What a great way to start off my week! The rest of the week should be short because he will be on "holiday", but they will still have me come and watch scans, do odd jobs, whatever. I am thrilled that I am getting this experience!

The rest of the day was really not too exciting, I'm afraid. We are trying to remember that we have six weeks here and although it will be over before we know it, we do need a little rest every once in a while. After the rest of the girls got home, we all took naps, cleaned, blah blah. Tori, Liz, and I rode the tube over to High Kensington Street and found a Blockbuster! I really don't think they watch many movies over here because it was difficult to find a place to rent a stinkin' movie! Anyway, we rented "Baby Mama", a favorite of mine. We live right by a Subway sandwich shop and Liz has had the smell in her nose for a few days, so she decided she HAD to stop. I was a good girl and ate at home! You'd be proud, Mama & Daddy, I only spent 2 pounds yesterday! Can you believe it? Yeah, me neither.

Day 6 -
We had class this morning from 10-12 but just about half of the class got lost coming to the location, so we didn't really get anything done. We basically went over the itinerary and talked Dr. Hardin into letting us push Wednesday's and Thursday's classes together so we could have Thursday off to go to Wimbledon! Oh yeeeaaahhh! Tennis isn't really my thing, but I don't think we can pass this up! Liz is super pumped and I think many of our other friends are going that day, as well.

I have been hollering about going to see a show since we first got here, so the girls finally gave in and we went to buy half-price tickets for a show tonight -- Peter Pan! It is in an outdoor amphitheatre and the weather is beautiful today, so it should be wonderful! Hopefully we will be able to see Jersey Boys, Sister Act, Wicked, Phantom of the Opera, Grease, or any of the other awesome shows that are playing in London right now. BTW, Jude Law is starring in Hamlet here...we are definitely going to line up and try to catch a glimpse after the show. O000hhh weee!!!

I have begun to compile a list of things that we must do before leaving London...I don't want to forget any of it! We walked through Regents Park today and it is absolutely beautiful! The flowers are all in bloom and the grass is as green as it can be. There were a million geese out there today -- I don't think they appreciated me running after them much. I honestly am suprised they didn't turn on me. Liz has a video; will post soon.

Hope you're all well! Peace...

Abbie

Grocery Store Feet

Liz tripped three times today. I am not even kidding you:).

Last night, Tori, Macon, & I went out for dessert while Liz stayed in and watched "Madea Goes to Jail"...Haha...We figured we could find something close by, but I swear to you that we probably burned all of the calories we ate when we walked to and from the Italian place we found to get dessert. I can safely say that I would be forever content if all I had to eat in this world was sweets. They "tickle my fancy ", for sure!

Liz and I stayed up until about 2:30am...we have this wonderful ability to entertain ourselves and each other by using silly voices, making up ridiculous poems/raps/jokes, and just laughing as loudly as we can. Poor Macon & Tori were able to sleep through it all, but I do wonder how they did it.

We all slept late and I didn't get up until 11:30am!! It felt great! We got up, got ready, and rode the tube over to Notting Hill. We had heard about this antique shopping district/market in the area so we thought we would check it out. I first stopped to ask directions from this guy in a Falafel (my favorite word) shop, but he basically stared at me like I was an idiot and said, "a market - there , next door". What great help! NOT! Liz said he was looking at my butt when I walked out (by the way, he had a unibrow---ewwwww), and she literally scowled at him with the worst undertaker look I've ever seen her give. Yay for my bodyguard!

Anyway, we found our way to Portobello Market and shopped in an adorable, quaint area. Liz bought a hat and Tori found an adorable dress! We all bought landscape photos of London for 3 pounds a piece! What a steal! Liz & I plan to frame them and put them up in our new apartment when we get back to Athens..

Cupcake shops seem to be everywhere around here so we all stopped and got one. I couldn't resist today. Oh well...life is too short:) Haha... We rode the tube over to Parsons Green to find Liz and Macon's internship place. It was an adorable area that had a huge park right in the middle of it. After we checked it out, we rode (for about an hour) back to our flat. We ran into some creepers there, but again, I was glad to have my bodyguard at my side.

Four girls have the ability to make a mess pretty quickly, so we already needed to clean a little in our apartment. After we did that, we Skyped for a while and I did a little laundry. Katie was supposed to come over for dinner but she sketched out...we are going to have to break her of that habit. I've been there--- I'm a recovering sketch--- so I'll see what I can teach her. Liz & I ate dinner at the Gourmet Burger Kitchen and stopped by the grocery and bought some strawberry frozen yogurt. Yum! We are now back at our place and have been watching "Madea" again. That and "Clueless" are the only DVDs we have right now so we are working with what we've got.

By the way, the title is a tribute to what my feet look like right now after a day walking around in flip flops. Its gross! I probably should wash them before getting into bed, eh? Haha..I'll try...

Night!
Love,
Abbie

Living Life at a Different Angle

Hello there! I slacked off yesterday and didn't get a chance to update, so here goes:

Needless to say, we passed out pretty quickly on Thursday night and woke up rather early on Friday. Liz & I started off our morning by drinking diet coke out of a two-liter bottle. Cheers!

On Day 2, we had a wonderful 20 minute walk to the Hampden House to meet the rest of the group. Liz tripped twice. Bahaha. Anyway, we visited some of our ADPi friends in their flat. It was much different from ours. It was in a building of apartments and had of sort of Victorian architecture which is so different from our modern little nook.

We all walked to our Orientation and heard more about our internships, the city, etc. We are constantly reminded to have an open mind and really soak it all in. Don't worry, I am definitely striving for both! By the way, I just have to tell you...thanks to my mother, I notice tiny details and mannerisms that other people might not notice. These have the ability to drive me crazy at times. Here is an example: our program director, who is extremely nice, had two little quirks that had me reeling by the end of the meeting. She is Irish, so she said "um" like "em" and said it about every four words. About every two sentences, she pushed her glasses up...even if they weren't falling. Haha..it's terrible that I focus on that, but I honestly cannot help it!

Okay, back to things you care about...we had baguettes from a little sandwich shop and during our walk there, Katie (the new friend) informed me that I make the worst impressions of people. I am appalled! I mean, I know I'm not the best, but I loooveee to do my Chinese voice, speak with a lisp, use a British accent, etc...I guess I'm going to have to work on it.

After we had lunch, we were supposed to have a lecture and it was cancelled! So, we went around to some shops on High Kensington Street & helped Katie get a phone. We rode the tube home and then took a short nap. By the way, I have been wearing a pedometer and we walked about 4.5 miles yesterday!

Tori & Macon cooked dinner (rigatoni with marinara, a salad, and bruschetta... yum!) and then we all got ready -- very quickly, I might add -- to go to the pub. As I mentioned earlier, we have a pub above our flat and it has been bumping every time we go by there. It is called "The Volunteer" and is a kind of retro, chill place that has dancing, board games, tables, an outside area, and even played "Sweet Home Alabama???". We shared two pitchers of Sangria and soaked up the atmosphere. Our program director told us that the British usually just out for a few, so that's exactly what we did. The pubs get busy right after people get off of work and close around 12am. We were spent by about 1030pm, so we took the thirty second walk back to our flat and jumped right in bed! Successful night, I must say!

Onto today, we walked the twenty minutes to Hampden House again and enjoyed a nice "cat call" from a few construction workers while we were at it. We jumped on a chartered bus and rode down to St. Paul's Cathedral. We did not go inside, but enjoyed ourselves as our tour guide told us how it was significant to London's history and the USA, as well! Our tour guide was absolutely amazing. Not only did he look like an older Hugh Grant, aka HOT, he was so knowledgeable and great at having us really feel the history and appreciate it. I am not a big history buff, but he made it impossible for me not to be engrossed and enamored with everything he told us about.

Next we went to view a few buildings, ie. the "inside-out" building and the "Big Dildo". Don't ask, I will show pictures and you will understand. We then went on to Westminster Abbey. We had to pay to use the restroom right before we went in (50 pence--ridic!). I still don't understand the stinkin' coins over here so I put about 1.15 worth of coins and finally figured out that I had to push the turnstile to get in. Well, I got stuck in the turnstile because the dang thing jammed me in the leg. After I cursed it, I went on in and listened as the British bathroom attendant blessed out a poor Asian lady who couldn't speak English very well..haha..poor thing.

Okay, so we went into Westminster Abbey for a tour. It was majestic, to say the very least. As I said, Russell (tour guide) was so theatrical and it made the experience even better. We learned about things ranging from modern pop culture to Henry VII to Princess Diana's funeral to Charles Darwin who is buried there. I think that this has been the best part of London so far. I loved it there and hope to make it back for a service..it's the kind of place that can give you chills.

When we left there, a few ADPis (Caroline H, Katie M, Lizzy B, Christen P, Brittany M, Liz, & I) went around our elbow to get to our ****hole and finally found our way to Covent Garden, which is a little district in London with great shopping and food! We were all craving fish and chips -- ironic since I don't like fish -- and walked around forever until we found a true English pub. We savored our fish and chips and then walked down to a cupcake shop. Can you believe I didn't get one? I'm trying not to become obese while over here so I am resisting a feeewww things. We then took the tube home and came home to an empty house, locked up computers with no key, and phones that wouldn't work because we forgot our pin numbers (which were saved on the computer). Soooooo, we took a nap. When we woke up, we made a pizza and salad which Liz drowned with ranch -- so typ..

Sorry these things get so lengthy. I just don't want to leave out any details and am not able to talk to everyone while I'm here so this gives you a glimpse, albeit LARGE glimpse, into what we are getting into over here. Okay, cheerio for now! I will check back in soon!

XOXOXO
Abbie

First Day in London!

Ahhhh!!!! We are finally here! I am pretty amazed that I am actually in London since I had so many issues getting my VISA, i.e. I picked it up on the way to the airport. Crazy, right? It caused so much stress but was well worth it! I packed only one suitcase with a purse and a carry-on. Can you believe it? I was shocked, to say the least. However, when we got to the check-in, my suitcase was 70 lbs (20 lbs over the limit). Thankfully, my mother is a genius and suggested that we bring a small suitcase in case it was overweight. I am sooo glad she did because we would have ended up paying a good bit when we could have avoided it! Snaps for Debbie!
The flight was quite long. I sat between my best friend, Liz, and my new friend, Katie! She is so cute and sounds like she will be one of our pub/dinner/exploring buddies. She & Liz definitely hit it off because they started off comparing notes about boyfriends, blah, blah...Haha. Anyway, I definitely slept a good bit of the trip. Katie, Liz, & Beth (one of our teaching assistants) said that I was curled up in the fetal position and looked like I was sleeping good:) I bought a neck pillow in Atlanta airport and I definitely think that did the trick.
Our landing was rough...I said, "Land much?", kind of loudly and Liz & Katie were embarassed. Oops. I think I will probably end up being that token, loud American..Haha...We shall see. We went through customs without a problem. Well, okay, that's a lie. I took three photos while we were standing right outside of customs waiting for a few of our girls. A customs guy ran over and yelled at me and made me delete them. Rudddeeeee!!! Thank goodness I didn't get kicked out. I better be careful!
We rode on a chartered bus from the airport to our flat. It took about an hour and a half. We drove through countryside, an area that looked like Canal Street in New York, and then through the historic area. We dropped two loads off before we got to our place. Our flat is literally sandwiched between a pub (which is sooo hopping right now...woop woop!) and The Sherlock Holmes Museum. You can barely see our door in between the two. The stairs going down to our flat are ghetto. As I walked down the stairs, I thought to myself, "great, this place is janky....". Anyway, as it turns out, our flat is amazing!! We have two big bedrooms - one for Liz and me and the other for Tori and Macon. We have a huge open kitchen and living room, a great room with a futon and desk, and a big bathroom aka "loo"! All of the appliances are new and I am pretty sure it was recently renovated. We also have a little garden/deck area off the back and it is adorable! There is a table out there right now that Liz thinks is perfect for beer pong. Oh, Lord!
Okay, this is long so I am going to cut the rest short. Basically, after we got here, Liz and I took a three hour nap (she is still grouchy, btw). We then went to Pizza Express and I had a "light pizza". It was delicious! It was a pizza with the middle cut out that has a salad in that middle part! Yum! Less than 500 calories! We then came back and figured out what groceries we needed. We walked 15 minutes away to get groceries, a hair dryer, and a flat iron! They really weren't too expensive, so I'm pumped!
We just got back to the flat and I am getting ready to shower and get an outfit ready for tomorrow. We are meeting up with the group to have orientation and have a lecture in the afternoon (wooopdeeedooo.....).
Anyway, I don't know if every post will be this in depth. Liz just made fun of me but I am "gay" and enjoy this kind of thing. Will check in tomorrow!

XOXOXOXO,
Abbie