Michelle Enters Harry Potter Land :D

Life has finally gotten a little bit serious here in London, which explain my lack of blogging. However, it's my obligation to keep my fans informed (well at least the few I have)! As for busyness, I had my first presentation this week. It was actually a little bit stressful as I was suppose to lead discussion, along with my other two group members, for the seminar of my International Relations Theory class. Also, as a side note, the British seem to have a problem with the way I say class. Apparently is typical "ditsy American." Oh well! My presentation actually ended up going very well. The professor was very impressed with both the discussion questions we came up with and with our knowledge of the subject at hand, which was Liberalism. The class also seemed to enjoyed discussing the questions we came up with. So, basically it was a win, win.

The week was a fairly quite one in terms of partaays. This was due to a certain incident that occurred the weekend prior. The incident I speak of was when I twisted my ankle when I walked back from a fail at an attempt to go clubbing. I have to say it hurt. A lot. This happened last Saturday, and on Monday I went to the health center to get it checked out because it hadn't really gotten any better. They told me that I had inflamed tendinitis and that there was some bruising on the muscle behind my achilles tendon. It sounds a lot worse than it actually was. They wrapped my ankle up, put something like icy hot on it and told me to "take it easy." Yesterday it pretty much felt back to normal, apart from a little pain when I went up and down stairs. Due to the fact that I was feeling good, I proceeded to go out for a friend's Birthday. Coincidently, this girl happened to go to high school with Joe! What a small world. We went to Roadhouse, a club/bar in Covent Garden and got our groove on. The only sad part was the cover charge, seven pounds, which I guess isn't too bad.

Last weekend wasn't all a lost cause! Before I twisted my ankle on Saturday, I went on a day trip to Oxford. It was a beautiful day, which complimented the little town very well. I pretty much felt like I was in Harry Potter land the whole time. We went to a Castle, Christ Church College, which is where Harry Potter was filmed, a botanical garden and a Cathedral. I learned that Oxford University doesn't really have one main campus but is made up of 36 different colleges!

Christ Church College

The Cathedral

I would have to say the coolest part was entering The Great Hall. That is where they dine in all the Harry Potter films and where the sorting hat does it's magic! We also went into what they call The Divinity Room, which is where the dance scene was filmed for the 4th Harry Potter movie. My real traveling adventures start the coming Thursday when I head to Frankfurt, Germany! Joe has family there, and they invited me to tag along, which, I have to say, was extremely nice of them. I've been to Germany before with my family, but we only went to Munich. So I'm super excited and planned to squeeze as much adventuring in as possible even though I'm only there for three days. :D  

Me jumpin' jumpin' in the Divinity Room

The Great Hall!

Lastly, I have to go on a little rant. In response to Joe Patterson's, AKA smarty pants, know it all's, latest blog post:
I'm sorry if the people in your class are unintelligent imbeciles, but COMM MAJORS KNOW THEIR STUFF. I apologize for the banter, but I have to stick up for myself and fellow Comm majors.

Peace!

Lil' bit of exploring and a lil' bit of reuniting!

Well ... it's been a while since I blogged so everyone better be eager and excited for this post! I'll try not to bore you with all the details of my life since the last post.

Last week was pretty much a waste of my life because I was dying with multiple illnesses. Not only did I have some sort of cold/flu thing, which came along with a fever and the spins, but I soon learn that on top of that I had a UTI. Yes, a urinary tract infection. :( That is probably more information than anyone reading this needs, but all should know that UTI's pretty much blow. But thankfully I had the lovely Joe Patterson to take care of me. He made me soup and watched movies/TV shows with me. It was kind of the perfect weekend for the situation at hand.

On to happier times, last Sunday, even though I was still feeling a little crappy, Joe and I went on a day trip to Canterbury, Leeds and Dover. We explored the Leeds castle, which is absolutely beautiful! For approximately two hours I felt a little bit like a queen as we explored all the rooms in our self-guided tour. Next we went to lunch at this cute little mom and pop restaurant in Canterbury. Of course I had the traditional fish and chips! Then we headed to Canterbury Cathedral, which is masssssive and has amazing architecture. If you think the National Cathedral is big, think again. It was definitely a sight to see. After we headed to Dover which is on the coast. We didn't have very long there, but we got to walk along the beach. Sadly, the fog got in the way of what is suppose to be a beautiful view of France! I even took a neat little pebble as a souvenir. : D

A week ago today, I finally started classes! Here in London, apparently we don't study or go to class. We sleep, eat and drink. But alas, I am a student again, even if I only have eight hours of class a week. My classes are actually pretty good. I'm taking 4, each worth 4 credits. They are International Security, International Development and Public Policy, International Relations Theories and Applied Studies of Anthropology. I will also be doing an internship! I'm not sure where yet, because the university is going to set me up with a placement based on my professional interests.

This past weekend London had some visitors! The infamous Jess Lin and Kyle Contrata. It was awesome seeing them again and reminiscing with them. I've got to say it made me miss AU a little. Kyle arrived Thursday evening and we proceeded to play some beer pong and then go out ... who didn't see that coming. But I have to say that I truly missed the drunken shinanagins that prevail when Joe and Kyle are together.

Jess arrived early Friday morning and was waiting for us when we returned from the club. There was quite a lot of drama with her arrival, but you can refer to Joe's blog for the down low. Friday we went to see some of the sights as Kyle and Jess wanted to explore London a little. That night we played the wonderful game of Nemesis and Joe, Jess and I were quite the team. Then of course we hit up the clubs. Saturday night was almost exactly the same, apart from a little bit of X Factor thrown it, which is the British version of American Idol. Overall it was by far a successful weekend!

Now I'm off to go get some iceeeee creammmm! Woot.