I got to see this summers olympic gold metals
that will be handed out at the British Museum. 

In Honor of the Queens Jubilee this June they have
been hosting different events all year. 

This event happened to be a really cool light
show, in honor of the Queen, projected onto
Buckingham Palace.

Spring Break in Malta!

Charales Dickens described it best, "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times" This quote is the best way to describe my time in Malta. Malta was beautiful, it reminded me of a combination of Italy and Israel. It had the most crystal clear blue water I have ever seen and it was warm enough the I got to spend a couple of days just laying on the beach! However there were some pretty crapy parts too.
If you don't know where Malta is, don't feel bad I didn't either, it is in the Mediterranean just north of Africa and west of Italy and Sicily.
The best way to describe this trip is to simply write out a sequence of events, so here we go....
Wednesday 10am: My traveling partner Hana comes to my room wondering if she should still go because she is so sick and didn't sleep at all the night before. Don't worry she did come she just spent the first whole day in bed.
Wednesday 10:15am: Leave Nido for Kings cross to catch a bus to London Stanstead at 11am.
Wednesday 10:55am: Run out of the station in search of the bus (that we had already bought tickets for).
Wednesday 11:00am: We can't find the bus.
Wednesday 11:05am: A taxi driver tells us we are at Goodge Station on Baker road, but what we needed was Baker Station, which is all the way across town. We defiantly missed the bus.
Wednesday 11:30am: Arrive at Liverpool station in order to pay a ridiculous amount to take the Stanstead Express tain to the airport instead.
Wednesday 12:30pm: We finally get to the airport!
Wednesday 1:30pm: We make it on our flight and are off to Malta.
Wednesday 4:30pm: We land in Malta and get through customs.
Wednesday 5:00pm: We take a shuttle to the Westen Hotel, we weren't staying there but we knew it was right across the street from our Hostel.
Wednesday 5-6pm: Walk around trying to find out Hostel, the problem being there are no signs in Malta.
Wednesday 6:00pm: We find the Hostel only to be told there is no reception area and we have to go find another hotel to get out key! I set out to find the key because at this point Hana is about ready to pass out.
Wednesday 6:30pm: I finally find the right hotel and get our key.
Wednesday 6:45pm: Hana falls into bed while I get some dinner.
Wednesday 8:00pm: We both fall asleep early from sheer exhaustion.
Thursday 9:30am: I go to the store to find some breakfast I can bring back to the room.
Thursday 11:00am: I decide to go explore a little and find the beach!
Thursday 12:00am: After lunch I go through my stuff in order to get my passport to hide.
Thursday 12:15pm: PANIC ATTACK... my passport is not in my backpack.
Thursday 12-1pm: Search the entire room multiple times, everything else is still there, but no passport.
Thursday 1:00pm: Call the airport to see if someone picked it up there.
Thursday 1:15pm: Call the shuttle company to see if it fell out on the way to the Hostel.
Thursday 1: 30pm: Search some more.
Thursday 3:00pm: Call Dad in a panic to tell him my passport in no where to be found.
Thursday 3:30am: Call the US Embassy in Malta to see what I need to do.
Thursday 4-5pm: Find a way to get to the US Embassy the next day.
Thursday 6pm: Hana's feeling better so we go out for dinner, to get our minds off of my passport.
Friday 7:00am: Wake up in order to catch a taxi to the US Embassy.
Friday 8:00am: Find out the security is ridiculous at the US Embassy but I get in and am assorted to the right place and start explaining the situation.
Friday 9:00am: The lady at the front dest tells me I need a police report and passport photo.
Friday 9:05am: Panic again because I really don't want to have to leave and come back.
Friday 9:10am: A nicer lady comes and tels me I don't need the police report and they can have someone come take the photo there.
Friday 9-11am: Wait around while they put together my temporary passport.
Friday 11:30am: Catch a taxi back to the Hostel to find Hanna feeling much better.

This is getting to long, so basically the rest of Friday we spent at the beach trying not to get burned, but of course we did any way.
Saturday we went to Valletta, the capitol of Malta, and walked, ate, and shopped all day!
Sunday we again spent on the beach and by this time I was feeling better about Malta after such a horrible start.
Monday we flew back to London and they let me back into the country with only a few extra questions as to why I had a different passport.

One of my favorite pics!

The US Embassy in Malta

Valletta 

Hanna in Bed sick the first day.

Where we ate lunch in Valletta

We ate a lot of gelato!

It was freezing but I did get in.

Down town St. Jullian where we stayed.

Writing in the sand before it got washed away.

Easter in London!

For Easter I went to church at Westminster Abbey witch was beautiful. I had to wait in line to get in but I got a seat up at the front where I could see everything! After Church I met up with some friends to cook easter dinner. It was really good and we all ate to much, so to get up and do something we had an Easter egg hunt with some of the chocolate eggs we had. I had fun hiding them and Anja and Mareen had fun trying to find them. Anja especially loved it as you can tell, so was so exited when she found all of them :)

On Saturday I planned on going to see the Oxford vs. Cambridge boat race with some friends (Anja and Joao). Unfortunately I was late meeting up with my friends at the tube stop near the Themes so we just missed the boats actually going past. After apologizing several times we decided to head back because we missed all the action. While we were waiting for the train home Anja asked Joao to look up on his phone to see who won. Instead Joao found out that a police boat we had seen flying up the river was going to arrest a swimmer who had stopped the race! Because of the swimmer they were restarting the race at the half way point. Maybe we didn't miss it after all, so we ran to catch the next train to the finish line hoping we might get there in time. We got on the train but while were heading to the finish line we realized there was no way we would never make it in time and the stop was in zone 4, which meant we would have to pay more. We all decided we were too cheap, so after all that we turned around and headed home for real. It was quite the adventure and quite the race because the swimmer wasn't the only crazy thing that happened. Check out this video coverage of the race from BBC.

You will have to copy and paste this link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17645036

A Day in Oxford with Anja!

I thought this really captured
the feel of Oxford.

We stumbled upon a ceremony for British troops
returning from Afganistan.

This is the dining hall that
was replicated for the filming
of Harry Potter.

This is one of the most famous buildings in
Oxford, and is part of the massive library there.

Oxford Street in London is where you go to shop
so we figured this must be the Oxford Street
of Oxford.

The girl who inspired Alice
from Alice in Wonderland
 lived here. So they turned
the sweet shop she used to
go to into a cool little shop.

The tour guild told us this
is what most people know
Oxford by even though it
is one of the newest editions
to the campus.

We had fun trying on the graduation caps

Anja and I next to one of the collages.

Family Time in London!!!

 I was so blessed to have my whole family come visit me her ein London for a week. We had such a fun time seeing all the sights and just hanging out together. It was Andrew's first time in Europe and although he was a bit skeptical in the beginning he admitted at the end that he would move here next year if the weather was more like LA. I don't think we changed his mind as much as the "hot european girls" did :)

The famous telephone
booths.

One of my favorite family photos in front
of Tower Bridge.

We stopped at Queensbury Station first to take the
"confused" photo. Than went on to Kingsbury Station where we took lots of pictures. I have a feeling the people waiting for the tube there thought we were nuts for wanting so many pictures next to the sign.

Big Ben

Abbey Road!

We went to; Big Ben, The London Eye, Westminster Abby, Trifalger Square, Covenant Garden, Windsor Castle, The Tower of London, Oxford Street, Portobello Market, Buckingham Palace, Abbey Road, the Kingsbury tube Stop and so much more. We even sat out in Hyde Park on afternoon since the weather was so nice. It was actually warmer here than in LA one of the days!

Mom and I with our English hats on.

My poor roommate was so nice to put up with the
whole family visiting our tiny room as well as
Andrew sleeping in it.

It was sad to drop them off at the airport Sunday Morning. But when I got back to my room I had an email waiting for me saying that my mom had been bumped of her flight and was staying an extra day. She ended up staying an extra two days, so we had some fun girl time.

Hampton Court

 Hampton Court was home to King Henry the eighth. Known for creating the Church of England just so he could divorce his wife. He had several wives, some of witch instead of divorcing he just beheaded, like his second wife Ann Bolin.
It was a beautiful day witch made the gardens even more spectacular. After touring the castle we decided to just lay in the grass for a while be fore we headed back to London it was so warm.

The flowers were all in
bloom and gorgeous. 

My vegetarian roommate, Skye, in the butchers
quarters. Don't worry all the meat was fake.   

By far one of the most beautiful places
 I have been since arriving here.

Skye and I enjoying the
amazing weather out in
the gardens.

Queen Ann Bolin's bed.

I found my first palm tree over here!

   

     We had a pizza and wine night before we all left for spring break. It was a lot of fun and I found out that German's really love their corn, especially on pizza!