Current State:

Here is a photo about that explains how I can't seem to pack effectively right now. I have probably only a few more hours to go, but I simply don't want to pack! haha I've become increasingly more disorganized since coming to England...

Cool Pictures of People Jumping...

My friends and I got into a habit the first week when we were in England to jump in all of these crazy places! So enjoy...

Northampton St in front of Stonehenge... Let the jumping fun begin

On top of a mountain in Wales!

If you don't recognize this location, then you don't deserve to know!

Roman Forum, so anthropological...

Schunbrunn Palace Gardens: Vienna

This is cool, near St. Vitus church in Prague Castle.

Copenhagen!

Shakespeare's birthplace, haha 

Lara jumping in Vienna! I love this!

A Beautiful Sunset:

When Sam was here, we watched the sunset right on the hill above me. It was beautiful so here are some pictures I took. Unfortunately, I dropped my camera this weekend, and now it's completely broken! AHHH I'm so mad but I'm lucky that this happened at the very end of the semester. Grrrrr, I'm still bitter though. haha well here are some pictures!

A Great weekend in Bath:

     This weekend Sam came to visit Bath! It was so much fun! We walked around and went to the Christmas market, and did some British things, like going to pubs... I felt bad because I have to say, I was tired all weekend because of the traveling I've done recently and I just haven't had a lot of time to rest but I was so excited that Sam came to visit!
     Another cool part of the weekend was that we had an ASE house-crawl, where each night we went to someone's house and had a themed party. Thursday was Christmas and Pirates themed, Friday was Fratty themed, and Saturday we crawled to two houses. It was so fun getting together as an entire group and just hanging out. Because some of us live about 30 minutes away, it's not always convenient to get together. But it was so worth it because we had a great time!
     My house was themed Harry Potter (obviously) and it was AMAZING! We decorated everything in house colors and dressed like it was Christmas at Hogwarts. Ironically enough, the house across from us was American themed so it was like we went from England to America! We also made butterbeer, the yummiest drink ever. We used ice cream, butterscotch candy and cream soda topped off with caramel liqueur. I will have to make this recipe again once I get home. Across the street we drank apple pie shots with whipped cream and cinnamon!
      With that being said, I'm so sad that I only have one week left. It's flown by and I'm not sure I'm ready to return to the U.S. Of course there are things I'm looking forward to like seeing my friends and going back to school and Christmas and driving. But I've learned so much here and it's going to be hard readapting to American life.
Here are some awesome pictures from the weekend!

My favorite view of Bath.

The Abbey at Christmas!

Ravenclaw girls!

house picture: Gabby is the death eater and Allison is Professor Trawleny. She looks amazing!

Sam and I in our living room!

America! Or should I say, Murica?

Best drinks ever!

Alison and Gabby together!

Stratford on Avon: learning Shakespeare makes me feel so smart.

     Last week, as a reward for finishing our classes, we went on a program trip to Shakespeare land! It was certainly.... interesting. I have to say, I was upset that we had to leave Bath because I didn't want to leave my home so close to the end of the semester. But, it was a fun journey!
     The first day, we went to a lecture about the play we were going to see later that night called Written On the Heart. It's about the language of the bible and how this translator became a martyr doing this and years later, they are still trying to figure out how to solve different interpretations. It was pretty dry and I didn't like it. haha But, we did get to see another play the next night that I liked a lot better!
     The second day, we went to a lecture, then walked to see Shakespeare landmarks like Hall's Croft, Anne Hathaway's Cottage, Shakespeare's birthplace, and his grave site. That was a lot of fun and it made me realize how different our world would've been without him. Literature would be so different! So I definitely came to appreciate his influence from seeing all of these sites.

We saw Measure for Measure the second night about the scandalous life in Vienna, where a man was going to be killed for impregnating a girl he wasn't married to. However, He intended to marry her, and as the story unfolds, you learn about all of the characters relationships and how they plot to save this man. It was set in a pseudo modern setting and I actually really liked that. The acting was great and even though it was in Shakespeare language, I understood it all because of the way they acted! So I really enjoyed this play and it was a fun night. 

     Because we were staying at B and B's, we had to get up early and by I was really tired by Thursday night. But the castle we went to, Warwick Castle, was pretty cool! It was beautiful despite the rain, and I enjoyed seeing one last castle on my English trip. Overall, it was a successful journey and I'm glad we got to go to such a historic town. 

Me and Lara outside Shakespeare's house.

Anne's Cottage! (Shakespeare's wife)

The church where Shakespeare is buried. 

Cozy little pub dinner with some great friends!

The inside of Warwick Castle.

I shall miss these girls! :(

A nice view of the castle. 

Gabby and Jamie! 

    

Copenhagen:The world's happiest city!

Last weekend, I was lucky enough to make my final Eurotrip to Copenhagen. It was amazing! I had the best weekend with Margaret and Meimei and we shared many funny moments.

Friday night, I arrived at about 815, and we took the train to the city to get a drink at this little pub. I had delicious Christmas beer and we all caught up on stories about our travels. Then, Meimei and I went to her house in the suburbs! Her house is in the cutest little Danish village called Ganlose, and you have to take a bus and a train to get there. I didn’t mind the commute at all but I can imagine Meimei must get tired sometimes from the hour-long commute everyday! Arriving at her house, my first impression was that it was SO COOL! Its triangle shaped, and bright yellow! After waking up the entire family because their dog-Maggie barked at me for so long, I got to meet Claus, Meimei’s host dad who was so welcoming! We had a really pleasant sleep that night and we woke up nice and early ready for a day of sightseeing in Copenhagen.

Haha we had many funny times on Saturday, the first being missing our bus to get to the train station! So while we were waiting, we walked all around the little village and saw the store, the library, and the windmill…basically the whole town. It reminded me a little of Holland and I loved it so much. After finally making it to meet Margaret, we went to see the Opera House, New Hau, Parliament, the Marble Church, Copenhagen Cathedral and the changing of the guard ceremony. I loved seeing everything despite the Hurricane weather that we endured! The colors at Nyhavn were amazing, and the canal was full of little riverboats. Also, the Marble church was cool because it looked so much like the Pantheon in Rome.

One of the craziest moments occurred during the guard ceremony in front of the whole crowd. We were watching the ceremony in the first row and we were all standing. Because of the hurricane winds that were insane, as well as the buckets of rain, we were all very cold, kind of hungry, and all wondering if it was a mistake to sightsee in such conditions. BUT- then, my umbrella snapped in half, flew like 15 yards away to a huge opening where the guards were walking towards. Although we were in a crowd, my umbrella flew just beyond it, making me run to pick it up before it flew away again or the guards walked there. I felt so lucky when I caught it with little problem but, as I was reaching for it, I slipped backwards and fell in front of everyone….You are probably thinking….classic Lauren moment right there. Haha it was so funny that me and Margaret and Meimei were laughing hysterically and it wasn’t even embarrassing. So that made our moods a lot lighter and it was a great morning. That afternoon we did what girls do best, shop at H and M and other stores on the main shopping street! I loved that and it reminded me of when Margaret and I went to the huge forever 21 last summer in NYC.

When the day ended, we all went to Meimei’s house for a home cooked dinner by her host parents! It was the best dinner party ever! We had pork, cheesy potatoes and a yummy salad accompanied by a few bottles of wine. Yummmmmy! I loved talking to her host parents and getting to know about their Danish lives and culture. I feel like I learned so much just over that one dinner and it made me appreciate my weekend in Denmark even more. And I just loved sitting with two of my best friends for the whole night!

The next day, we went to see the old castle ruins under the most amazing palace where the royal family lives! The ruins were very impressive (I love castles/archeology) so it was a wicked cool Viking history lesson. Meimei and I walked around some more and explored Copenhagen by shopping at the Christmas market! It was also a really nice day out so we went back to Nyhavn to take more pictures J

This was such a great weekend and I’m so thankful that I was able to take one more trip and see one more country. Between two great friends, two cups of Baresso coffee (the most delicious coffee in the world) and so many fun times, this trip was well worth it!

With that being said, right now I’m traveling as well and I’m actually on a bus going to a castle after our trip to Stratford (Shakespeare land). I have one week left here and I don’t know what to do! It’s like an amazing dream that I’m trying not to wake up from so I keep pressing snooze on my alarm clock….

We are almost at the castle but I will post about this trip when I get back tonight!

here are some pictures!

A really pretty windmill in Ganlose! 

Royal Palace? haha it's so big!

Me and Margaret bearing the rain at Nyhavn!

Me and Meimei at Nyhavn take two in the sun!

Danish guards looking good....

Me in front of the harbor!

Us at Meimei's house with Maggie- the dog! haha us three had to make a Christmas card, this would be it...

My Last Weekend In London:

     Last weekend, after a big turkey dinner provided by my program, I was lucky enough to take the train back to London and spend the weekend with my family and one of my best friends, Kelsey. Friday morning, I had to wake up and finish a paper...I didn't like that since I couldn't visit the tower of London, but I sat in Starbucks and everything was so Christmasy and cozy. So I can't really complain, because even though I had work to finish, it was a beautiful morning! 

     I was so excited to see Kelsey! She is studying abroad in Grenada Spain and I hadn't seen her in almost 6 months! So Friday afternoon was great because we got to catch up and shop and walk around and it was so nice to see someone from the burg! The rest of the weekend my sister and me and Kelsey just walked around and our parents took us to this amazing restaurant called Hush. Yummmm. Friday night one of the finniest things was that we wanted to find a chill pub to go to because we didn't want to go crazy at a nightclub. So it was maybe..1030 and we thought we had plenty of time. BUT Apparently, pubs close at 11! I thought that was crazy and then we couldn't go out anymore! It's okay because we were really tired and we ended up catching a good sleep.
     Saturday, we shopped more and spent the afternoon at Harrods! Harrods is absolutely wild...There is no better way to describe it because it's so overwhelming. We had a great afternoon snack and then we wandered around for a few minutes and ended up in the evening gown section which was insane. I felt like I was on a fashion runway and you can imagine how out of place I felt in my bright blue northface. But, we also found the Harry Potter section! Now that was amazing and they had wands, and cloaks, and brooms, and dresses! It made me feel like a little kid on Christmas morning and my sister and Kelsey both loved it too.
     Basically, we all had an amazing weekend and I was a little sad to see Kelsey and my family go home. But it's also insane to think that in just 3 weeks, I will be home with everyone. This next weekend will be my last weekend traveling and I'm going to Copenhagen to see Margaret and Meimei! I'm so excited for my last trip and to go Denmark! After that, I'm only in Bath for a week and a half and then shipping off to Boston!
Here are pictures of our family trip and a weekend in London with Kelsey!

Haha My dad posing with...Charlie Chaplain?

The London Eye from the River...Beautiful

The Tower Bridge! 

Kelsey and I on a shopping mission.

In front of Trafalgar Square

This should be our Christmas card!

Having too much fun with some Harry Potter brooms.

Haha Courtney and I dressed up in sorting hats and cloaks.

She's a Knight! Haha well that's what her shirt says at least.

Taken in front of Buckingham Palace!