It has been a month since I have arrived in London. My interent reminded me this morning when it made me sign up for a new month of internet :) In some ways it seems like I have been here forever but it also seems like I just got here yesterday.

I found a small American food store and had
 to take a picture of this for my Mom.
She loves Lucky Charms and if you
didn't notice the price, it would cost you over
10 dollars to get a box of Lucky Charms here.
Who in the re right mind would
pay that much?

     Tony's 22nd birthday party celebration! We went to dinner and than a pub for some drinks. I made some mini cupcakes and found some cute Champaign candles so Tony had some candles to blow out. Than so I could save the candles I started licking the frosting off but apparently thats an American thing because Anne and Joao thought me licking the candles off was the funniest things they had ever seen. Anne who is German even took a picture she thought it was so strange.

The London Eye! It was amazing on a
gorgeous day.

The blue building in the middle
is where I live!

The tall pointed building is the shard.

Amazing view of Big Ben.

           

   Cold but pretty day at Stonehenge. Thank you Mr. Hocker and Lauren for letting me come with you!

My art history book came and it is HUGE!

Happy Valentine's Day!

For how many people here told me that the English do not celebrate Valentine's Day, there were an awful lot of guys walking around on the streets and in the tube today with flowers. So I decided while grocery shopping to to buy myself some half off tulips (my favorite) and a chocolate croissant for Valentines Day. The croissant was amazing and now I'm off to bed early. I would have to say it was a pretty good Valentines day after all. 

P.S. Thank you Mom and Dad and Wes for the Ecards they were great! 

I wish all my friends from home could come explore London with me.

M&M World London.

Its a tape tape dispenser.

This ones for you Dad.

The cutest box of matches.

Abby and I in front
of Big Ben!

The Language Barrier

    My Mother told me I need to post more things, so I thought I would write about the language barrier. Yes I know they still speak English here but there are a lot of differences that I am still trying to figure out.

1. An A4. One of my teachers this week, while reading through the syllabus, told us we should get an A4 and than proceeded to talk about it for quite awhile before I caught on that he was talking about a three ring binder. Don't ask me why they call it and A4 because I have no idea.
2. The WC. I almost gave up finding the bathroom the other day because all there was was a sign above a door that said WC. Than I remembered that the English call the restroom the water closet (WC). And if not that than it is the toilet. If you ask for the bathroom or restroom here they look at you very funny.
3. The ground floor. Not just here but all over Europe they would say that what we call the first floor is actually the ground floor, and the first floor is what we would consider the second floor. So in the building where I live I am on the fifth floor but really I am six floors up, and if you want to go to the basement you must press the button that says -1.
4. F verse C. I was talking to some Norwegian friends the other day and asked them if they were exited for it to warm up this week. They asked how much and I said it is suposed to be in the forties this week! There mouths dropped and than I remembered 40 degrees Fahrenheit is like 105 dagrees Celsius.
5. Pounds. It is very hard to go shopping here because you see the price and it says 4 but thats not 4 dollars its 4 pounds witch is equal to about six dollars. So I keep thinking I'm finding really good deals until I convert it. Plus can I just say they have way to many coins. They have a 1 pence/cent coin, a 2 pence coin, a 5 pence coin, a 10 pence coin, a 20 pence coin, a 50 pence coin, a 1 pound coin, and a 2 pound coin. Do you know how much change you end up caring around and how confusing it is to than figure out how much each coin is worth so you can actually use them.
6. Weird words. The Britts also use just some plain old weird/funny terminology that I some times have truble not laughing at. Such as dodgy witch means kind of scary, or they call the card you use to get around on the tube with an Oyster card. They aslo seem to like the word top a lot, to topup something means to put more money on a card, they are a bunch of shops with the name top including a big chain store thats kind of like Forever 21 called The Top Shop.
Thats all the big ones I can think of for now but i will try to keep thinking of more and keep you updated on any new words I come across.

I ordered steak and this is what came... ham.
I know chips mean french fries here, but I had
no idea steak means ham. 

This is Tony waiting for the bus and although
it may not look like it, that is snow in the
background! Once again I was very exited. 

The Tube

 The underground  here in London is also called the Tube. And yesterday I learned you should never try to take the Tube during rush hour on Friday afternoon. This picture dose not even come close to capturing the amount of people all trying to squish onto one train. It was ridiculous and all those people made it so stuffy once they closed the doors I really thought someone was going to pass out. Check out the clip of this English Comedian talking about the Tube its really funny and totally true!

I had to post this just because it is the
cutest idea for lights I have ever seen.

      I knew food was going to be different here but who knew it could be so funny. The first plate you see looks delicious and it was, the second time they made it. The first time however the meat was literally as hard as a rock. I couldn't cut through it so I tried picking it up and biting into it. I am pretty sure I would have chipped a tooth before i made a dent. Finally after a friend couldn't even saw through it I asked the waitress if it was supposed to be like this? She apologized and brought me a new one so I guess the answer was no. The other picture is of a can of peaches I bought at the store not thinking about the fact that I don't have a can opener. So how do you get into a can with out a  can opener you ask... pliers! Thats right a stabbed a hole in the top and than slowly started pealing back the metal. I was pretty proud of my self that it actually worked. My roommate thought it was hilarious and thoroughly enjoyed watching me try to get into the can. 

Snow!

The view from my window last night....

And than the side walk this morning. 

   


     It snowed! Its a little hard to see but the snow was really coming down last night. And accumulated to about 2 inches on the ground this morning, unfortunately some of it had already started to turn to slush. I was very exited to see the snow, however getting sprayed with slush by a double-decor bus on the the way home from the store was not as exiting. Now everyone is hoping the slush won't turn into ice tonight and make it a nightmare to get around Monday morning.

"Mints" have a new meaning

From left to right; Nacho Mints, Thanksgiving
Gum balls, Egg Nog Bubblegum, Onion
Ring Mints, and Corndog Mints.

Dill Pickle Mints, isn't that
kind of an oxymoron?

    I found the most unusual candy store yesterday while I was out looking for a warmer coat. I think it was called Tech Candy's. I knew Europe had some candy that the US dosen't, like different flavors of KitKat, I have heard rumor of an orange flavored KitKat and have been on the look out to try it. Any ways the back of this candy store had a wall of the the most unusual and disgusting sounding candies I have ever seen.

I just had to post some proof of how cold it is here and no its not just me. Everyone is freezing even the Norwegians I have met! It has been sunny but when that wind hits you its like ice and its awful. But I am exited because it is suposed to snow this weekend witch would be very fun, if it dose I promise to take pictures.

Bus and Boat Tour....not very exiting but I got some great pictures out of it.

Tower Bridge, not to be confused with
London Bridge.

This is the Gherkin Building
or as we would call it the
pickle building.

The London Eye, I get to ride on it in a
couple of weeks!

Big Ben at dusk was beautiful!

             This was the headline I was met by on the tube today.

Home away from Home

     This is my room, it is really hard to get a good picture of because its so small. The bathroom is attached but as you can tell its just as small. Its about 3x6 feet with a small shower on the left, the sink, and a toilet jammed in on the right. Thankfully it nice and clean so other than the size I have no complaints :)

Bad Hair Day

I tried to straighten my hair this morning and this is what happened. Apparently the adapter I have was not converting the voltage because it got way to hot and fried my hair. That is burt hair seared to the side of my straighten. So the straightener is going away until I find some other way of plugging it in with out it getting this hot.

My very first fish and chips in London in a pub down the road called The Castle.