Sisters, Sisters

Well after a significant amount of effort on my part to redo the bad work submitted to me by one of my marketing group members (for our project installation due TOMORROW I might add), part 4 is now complete. One more part, some edits, updates and revisions and a presentation and we'll be finished with the project and semester. Only one more month and the semester will be over! Yay!!

Things are kind of crazy this week since we have fall parties this weekend, but then we'll get a little bit of a break until January. This week is Sisterhood Week, and is definitely a reminder of all the wonderful ladies that have been put into my life through ADPi and how lost I would have been without them in my life the last 2 years. I'm sooo excited to get to spend a little bit of time with Kristen and Brittany this weekend during Silence.

Advising last week definitely put a few holes in my very thought out plan for the rest of my college career, so I'm still trying to figure out my classes for the next 3 semesters, as well as what I want to do about my minor. I'm still trying to figure out if getting it will be worth killing myself the next 3 semesters in the long run. We shall see.

<> love,

Julianna

"Sisters, Sisters, never were there such devoted sisters."

Homecoming

Well, Homecoming has come and gone and I must say, it was an unusual one. First, we missed most of the bonfire due to the Rangers game. Disappointing....but apparently for the best since the fire started burning really fast and they had to scoot everyone back and evacuate the rides and such. I didn't get to watch the parade since...well I was in it instead. The game was eventful...and wet. Rain delays...sudden downpours...it was interesting. But on the bright side we are now BOWL BOUND.

Float hours are over so I actually have some free time...for a couple of months anyways. I think classes are going to try to make up for it though. We shall see.

Happy Homecoming,

Julianna

Time flies

Well....my time in London is coming to an end. Sorry I haven't kept up very well recently.

The Lake District was fun, we did some hiking, it definitely looked nothing like England but was gorgeous. Brittany and I had alot of fun and ran nonstop from the time I got back until the time she had to be back at the train station to leave. lol And yet, we still didn't manage to accomplish at least half of the things on our list. Unfortunate. Paris was great. I saw so much in the 2 short days we were there!

Today was our last field trip and at this time next Tuesday I'll be on a plane headed home. The time went by slowly and yet quickly at the same time. I'll miss Europe and I'm sad I haven't managed to do and see everything I wanted to, but I'm not too worried because I know I'll be back one day. As crazy as it sounds, I'm ready for the 100 degree weather of Texas. This just hasn't seemed like summer. I'm doing my last minute things and seeing what I can and the things I know might not be here whenever I get around to coming back.

Yesterday I went to the British Museum and saw the Rosetta Stone and a bunch of the other stuff they have there. I went originally on a mission to take my extra credit picture and see the Rosetta Stone, but I made the mistake of starting to wander so I got tired and came back and napped instead of going anywhere else. Today after our field trip I went to the National Gallery to do another extra credit assignment and the National Portrait Gallery to see the portrait of Jane Austen they have there. After that I just wandered around in some souvenir shops and second hand bookstores then came back and worked on a bit of homework until dinner, and now I'm working at it some more for the rest of the night probably.

Tomorrow I'm not really sure what's going to be on my agenda yet. I'll figure that out either later or in the morning. lol

Julianna

Field trips and Museums

Tuesday was our trip to Burberry. It was kind of interesting, we got to talk to the CEO and the person in charge of Merchandising for non apparel and menswear. They let us go through the showroom as we were leaving so we got a glimpse of next spring/summer's accessories.

Wednesday after class I went to the Victoria and Albert museum and wandered around for a little while. I got a ticket to go see the Grace Kelly exhibit but got an offer to go get Wicked tickets about an hour before I was supposed to get to go in, and the ticket didn't cost very much so I abandoned my plan in favor of Wicked. (which I get to go see on Wednesday!!! :D :D)

Thursday was our trip to the Bank of England, which was kind of disappointing because they just took us into the museum part of the bank and made us listen to someone talk while we froze to death. After the bank I went back to the V&A and wandered most of the museum. I realized when I got back that I missed an entire section of exhibits so I have to go back...plus Grace was sold out for the day. lol

We leave for the Lake District in about an hour and will be gone until Sunday, when Brittany comes in town for a few days!! :D I'm so excited to see her! There's nothing like roomie bonding in London.

Class is going pretty well, we have lots of extra credit opportunities which is nice because it increases my chances of getting my A. We finally caught up to where I was in the workbook, so I'm not ahead anymore, but I have a 3 hour train ride to the Lake District to change that. lol We aren't taking computers with us, so there won't be any more pictures up until Sunday, then there will probably be a bombardment of them.

Julianna

"Please look after this bear. Thank you."

Well, I suppose I've left you in suspense long enough. lol

Saturday's trip to Wales was wonderful, though freezing most of the time. We took the 8:45 train out and got to Cardiff around 10:45 so we had most of the day. After wandering in and out of a few stores we eventually headed to Cardiff Castle. So awesome. The castle is nearly 2000 years old and was used for everything from Roman times to shelter during WWII. We spent probably an hour and a half to 2 hours just wandering around inside the castle and exploring the different parts of it, taking pictures. As you've probably all seen from my pictures by now, we also picked a great day and time to go because they shot off the catapult while we were there, which they said they only do about once a month. After the castle, we went into a souvenir shop across the street to find some souvenirs from Wales and to get advice as to a good place to get fish and chips (well, for everyone else to get fish and chips lol). We were directed to a place in Cardiff Bay which apparently holds the record in the Guinness Book of World Records for best fish and chips. I must say my chicken and chips was quite wonderful. :) The others said the fish and chips were awesome too. After lunch we walked the pier a little bit and wandered some more shops, then decided we were out of things to do and headed back early. Have I mentioned this was all in 68 degree weather with winds of 10-20mph? It was cold!! I think I wore 2 jackets most of the day. lol Sadly, one of the things I was probably most excited about didn't end up happening on our journey. We had to come and go from Paddington Station, which is home to a statue of Paddington Bear, and I was hoping to get a picture with him.....but he wasn't near where we were (or if he was I couldn't find him...) and we didn't have alot of time, so no picture for me. But that just means another journey over to Paddington for me to hunt him down. :)

Sunday I was going in search of flats to wear to my business casual field trips, but was derailed when I ran into a couple of Baylor girls who were headed for the Toy Story 3 premiere (yes in the middle of the day) and said that Tom Hanks and Tim Allen were supposed to be there. lol So I headed off with them on our celeb hunt, but we were disappointed when they didn't show up. We DID however get to see Woody, Buzz, Jessie and their new friend, Lotso, who is pink and supposedly in the movie smells like strawberries AND is a boy (sound familiar to anyone?) lol After the premiere, I hit the shops and found my flats. Have I mentioned I love London? Little shoes everywhere!! :D

Today my class didn't meet because of our field trip, which was exciting because it meant I could sleep in a bit. We headed out and went to the Jaguar factory where we were educated on the correct pronunciation and learned that Europeans call Americans "door slammers" lol. Watched some cars being put together, and eventually headed back.

That's about all I've got for today, I'll try to do better about updating.

Julianna

Just when you thought nothing else could happen....

You know that saying "Everything that can go wrong, will"? I think this trip has thoroughly proved that to me and, though I thought we'd already experienced everything that could possibly happen to us, I was sadly mistaken.

Due to the fact that I a) was already falling asleep and b) have to be ready to go to the train station at 7:30am for our Wales trip, I went to bed at 11pm tonight (crazy I know). A little before 1 (probably around a quarter til if I had to guess), I woke up for whatever reason. A minute or two later, BAM!: fire alarms go off. Epic fail.

So like a good girl who's half asleep and thinks its early morning, not the middle of the night, I grab my phones, jacket and flip flops and go out the door to go outside. As soon as my door closes behind me, I realize that my key is, in fact, still inside my room. Again, epic fail.

At this point, there's obviously nothing I can do about getting in my room, so I follow the rest of the herd downstairs and outside (with no contacts or glasses). We end up standing around outside for about 20 minutes or so, with me still thinking it's early morning for most of that time, until the people I was standing with said something about having just gotten back and I looked at my phone and realized it was nearly 1am. So they finally let us back in and I have to stand around for awhile longer waiting on the guy at the desk to come back and let me in my room. So, after much standing around and about 30 minutes or so, I finally managed to get back in my room and shall soon be heading back to bed.

once again, adieu,

Julianna

"If we could bottle your luck, we'd have a weapon of mass destruction on our hands."

A rainy day in London town

I've now been in London for about 2 and a half days. This is probably at least one of my favorite places I've ever been to, if not my favorite.

I guess I should finish up on Denmark before I start with London though. lol Copenhagen is very much like NYC, and, while I enjoy NYC, it definitely was not what I expected out of Copenhagen so I was a bit disappointed and not really a fan. The castles we went to were really cool and pretty. One has been turned into a museum now and was gorgeous and really cool. The other one was funny because it's still in use and they made us wear the little shoe cover things that are kind of like shower caps on our feet in order to go in. We got a bit of rain in Denmark, but that helped to cool off the temps a bit so we didn't really complain. lol I think that about covers all there is for Denmark.

On to London. My group got here around 1 or so on Wednesday so we had a bit more time than the others before we had to meet up for dinner and our meeting. Mostly, we just went and acquired our phones so that we had a contact method (I think most people were just secretly dying from being cut off from their cells lol). One of the girls managed to get the guy that worked there to say both "y'all" and "awesome" which was hysterical.That was about all there was to the first day other than unpacking.

Yesterday Dr. Weaver (co-director and psych prof) took a bunch of us on a walking tour around London to show us how to use the tube and buses and give us our bearings a little bit. It was really nice and helpful. We lost most of the group after lunch, but there were a few of us who stuck it out for the whole time. Today we and Dr. Weaver went by Westminster Abbey, Parliament and Big Ben, then walked down the south bank of the Thames past the London Eye and St. Pauls and a few other places. We had a very small group, just my usual little travel group, Dr. Weaver, and Dr. DG (the other psych prof) and his wife and kids, which was really nice because we could go a bit slower/faster and play things by ear a bit more than we could when we had the whole big group. Tomorrow we're off to Cardiff in Wales for the day so I should have some good stories and pics to share.

Class is going well, I seem to be the only person that's actually looked at any of this stuff before going to class, much less done any of the homework ahead of time, so I'm kind of the main talker. My class has 9 boys and 2 girls, so it gets pretty interesting. lol

The London weather is wonderful, but a bit chilly at times because of the winds. It drizzles off and on alot, but not enough to bother messing with an umbrella. Like I said, I could totally live here quite happily.

Anyway, that's all the news from across the pond for now.

Adieu,

Julianna

"Winds in the east, mist comin' in, like somethin' is brewin' and 'bout to begin..."