Stonehenge!

Hello!

We woke up early this morning then sat un the bus for two hours to reach STONEHENGE! haha It was amazing! It's in the middle of grassy fields. The stone cirle of Stonehenge was built between 3,000 BC and 1,600 BC. It is aligned with the midsummer sunrise and midwinter sunset, but its exact purple remains a mystery. On the summer solstice, many people are supposed to go there and worship and celebrate. Kinda crazy huh?


Yep! that's Stonehenge! It's a lot bigger than it looks in this picture. :)

Me and Julianne :)



We decided that we wanted some fun pictures to remember Stonehenge! So naturally, I wanted to jump in the air. :) After that, we saw a lot of other tourists start jumping around taking pictures. YES. I love starting trends haha.

This is Julianne, the Jolly Green Giant ;)

Welcome to Stonehenge! :)

After Stonehenge, we had lunch in Salisbury. Julianne and I split a delicious Rustica Pizza at Strada. Then we walked around the cute town square and made our way to the Salisbury Cathedral. This cathedral has Britain's tallest spire (404 ft!). It is also the home of one of the four survicing original Magna Carta which dates back to 1215! We also saw the world' oldest mechanical working clock from 1386... I didn't even know that they knew how to make mechanical clocks back then! Overall, it was a beautiful cathedral filled with much history and impressive architecture.

This was on the way to Salisbury. If you look closely, you should see two sky divers wearing parachutes! :)


This is right outside the cathedral. Everyone just sits outside in the glass and enjoys everyone's company. I love this about the parks in Britain! Everyone is so relaxed. :)
There's me standing in front of the tallest spire!


This is inside the choir stalls of the cathedral. Only the very noble and wealthy were allowed to worship in this area.

This is the courtyard within the cathedral. It was sooo pretty :)

Just being a tourist around Salisbury... haha

The end!
:)
Hope you're enjoying all of the pictures! There are many more on facebook.

Happy Birthday Queen Elizabeth II!

Today was Queen Elizabeth's formal birthday. She was crowned queen 58 years ago! They had a huge parade in honor of her. They had all of the royal soldiers, band, and horsemen march through The Mall and into Buckingham Palace. We were able to see the Queen and the royal family wave from their balcony!

It was quite an event... There were canon shots in St. James Park and an air show at the end! Thousands of people flooded the streets hoping to get a glimpse of the parade and the Queen.
I love how London is filled with living traditions and history!


The air show!!! Everyone stood in awe :)
This is where the parade started. All of the stands and streets were filled with people.
They have such ornate uniforms... even the drum gets a special cloak. haha
Entrance to Traflagar Square :)
It still amazes me that they use horses all the time.

Here's part of the parade with Buckingham Palace in the background :)

Later, we went to Tower Bridge! Most people think that this bridge is the actual London Bridge. It's probably my favorite bridge I've seen in London. :) We walked across the Tower Bridge and the London Bridge! I was soooo exhausted after all of the places we went today.


I love the colors that all of the metal is painted.

There's me eating icecream on Tower Bridge. It was delicious :)


This guy cracked me up... He kept directing a random asian guy to take his picture. I don't really know what he's supposed to be. haha

We also went to the Tower of London! I had no idea how big it actually was... I was expecting a single tower and a moat. It had an inner and outer wall, and it has 20 towers total!

There's the Tower of London. There are so many different buildlings within it that date way back to 1077. It is also the oldest building used by the British government today. Here we saw the crown jewels!!! I didn't know that there were real diamonds that big! It was bigger than an egg! haha The crowns were so detailed and sparkly. I think one of the crowns had over 6000 diamonds on it. These crowns are still used for crowning the queens and kings of England.


The guard in front of the Crown Jewels Tower!


Between the inner and outer walls.

This was our tour guide. He is an active Yeoman Guard at the tower. The E II R on his uniform means, "Elizabeth the II is Regina" (regina is queen in Latin)


Last shot of the Tower of London!

Tomorrow we are going to Stone Henge! I can't wait!

Looking out from the London Eye

Hello again! It's been another exciting day here in London... I don't want to go home! There's so much to do here! Today we went to a huge museum! We didn't even go through a third of it. My favorite exhibits were the jewelry, fashion, and modern art. I love seeing the different styles and creativity of other people. It's pretty inspiring. Later, I had Thai food at a restaurant close to our house. delicious!

Julianne and I went to the London Eye!!! IT'S SO COOOOOL. Our tour guide told us that some people decide to get married on the London Eye. We were able to see almost 25 miles of London from the observatory pods! It took about 25 minutes to go all the way around. I think I managed to get some cool pictures! Everything looks so minature from way up there. It almost seemed unreal.

After the London Eye, we walked everywhere! We walked to Trafalgar Square, then to the Mall, (where the Queen's 58th crowned birthday will be!), around Westminster, and finally to Piccadilly Circus.

We went to Phantom of the Opera tonight! It was so good! The sets and costumes made the story even better. My favorite scene was when they did the masquerade. :)
When we were walking back home, we kept singing all of the songs haha.




On the London EYE!
This guy was playing the national anthem on the bridge :)
This is in Her Majesty's Theatre where we watched Phantom of the Opera.
Big Ben! :)
Big Ben again from the London Eye!

We were matching ;) haha

Here's the view from the very top of the London Eye!

London is HUGE!!! :)


I decided that I would want to live in this building because the door is my favorite color!

The clouds were perfect that day!


That's all for today! :)

Around Kensington

Hello again! Here's a picture of our neighborhood! It's a little confusing sometimes because all of the houses look almost exactly the same! I am still getting used to walking everywhere. We probably walked 10 miles going everywhere.


Some of my favorite shops are on High Kensington Street! :) I bought a couple of hair accessories and a necklace. They have H&M, Urban Outfitters, TKMaxx (which is the England version of TJ Maxx), and many other amazing shops. I wanted to go in every store, but there are just too many to choose from... good thing it's only a 10 minute walk from our dorms. haha

We had dinner at this cute restaurant called Olives. We had ravioli with bacon and clams. It was different but delicious! :) In London, you have to ask for your check... we learned that after sitting there and waiting almost 30 minutes. haha


They have public water closets (bathrooms) in the middle of the streets! That's something I've never seen in the U.S.

London!

London is so amazing! I could seriously live here.
After a our plane flight being cancelled... and staying over night in the DFW airport, Julianne and I were soooooo excited to finally reach London! We missed orientation, but we made it to the city tour of London. Westminster Abbey was beautiful! We also saw the House of Parliament, Big Ben, Tower of London, London Bridge, Thames River, and the Harrods department store.
Here are a few pictures from our tour! :)

This is the House of Parliament. They have the original velum scrolls of England's history.




There's me and Julianne in front of Big Ben. Also, Big Ben is the bell inside of the clock tower, not the actual clock tower. It rings every hour, and it can be heard all over!


There's Westminster Abbey! I love the ornate and detailed architecture! :)

Here's my study abroad group in front of the House of Parliament and Big Ben! :)
It's so fun to meet people from different parts of the world!


So those guards have to stand motionless infront of the gate. So many tourists come by and take their picture by them, and they don't even smile or laugh! I don't think I'd be able to do that!

I love it here!

LeeAnn - Senior

This is LeeAnn! She is such an amazing ballerina! She's so sweet and silly and sooooo cute. :)