reminiscing

A year ago Natali and I were jamming out with this this man, best night of my life.

Weekend Recap

It has been so nice to be out of school, although I am only giving myself a week of complete relaxation.  I have three 3500 word papers awaiting me that are due the first week of Term 4, boo!

This weekend was extremely relaxing however. Taylor came to visit in Egham and we spent most of our time at Great Windsor Park. We've been spoiled with amazing weather lately, the sun has come out almost every day this past week, that's epic here! We packed a delicious picnic and headed out to the park on Saturday, we found a nice patch of grass next to my favorite daffodil area, it was beautiful. We headed out to the park on Sunday again, this time we went on a bike ride. I suffered quite a bit though, my bike had flat tires but I was a trooper and rode it there.  I took a marvelous Sunday nap on the grass, so nice!

I headed out to London on Monday and did some shopping for the family, (Yes Natali, I bought you a birthday present that I'm sending next week!) I fought my way through Primark. Has anyone been there?? It's heaven/hell! I was mindblown by the cheap prices and the awesomeness, but why must it be so packed? I felt like we were all fighting for the clothes, not fun. I ended up with several beauties though, I'm excited. We also went to go check out a comedy club on Monday night, we had some good laughs and found ourselves understanding all the "British" jokes, claps for us! Today, Taylor and I made our way back to Brick Lane, we're obsessed. It's delicious, cheap and pure awesome. We're finally learning our curry language and can manage the menu now, I was mindblown by my Malaya curry and garlic rice today, delicious.

I'm kinda dreading tomorrow, I'm forcing myself to make a trip to the library tomorrow to start my essay reading, lame.

guest post

Hey guys! My lovely friend Lauren invited me to do a guest post, head on over to check it out!

Spring

Spring is in the air here, finally. My first term at Royal Holloway is officially over, I cannot believe how fast time flew. We celebrated the day with a nice day out in the courtyard in Founders. We've been having very sunny weather lately and I am in love. It's been amazing being able to sit outside in the sun. 

Afterwards, Mandy and I had a relaxing afternoon out in the sun.

Now, let the month off break begin! 

Title Tuesday: Slaughterhouse Five

This week's Title Tuesday is 

Slaughterhouse Five 

Written by Kurt Vonnegut. This book is in my top 5 favorite books of all time. Throughout his career, Vonnegut wrote amazing novels and is known as one of the most influential American writers. 

Written in 1969, Slaughterhouse Five is a science fiction novel depicting the experiences of Billy Pilgrim, a soldier during WWII who experiences the bombings of Dresden. The book is also a semi-biographical story, influenced by Vonnegut's own experiences during his time in the war. I know a lot of you may be thrown off by the novel upon realizing that it is science fiction. But, I assure you, you will not be disappointed. Upon hearing this information myself, I was immediately concerned I would not like it (I highly despise science fiction novels), but my Senior composition teacher assured me it was beautifully written and encouraged me to try it regardless. I cannot believe it took me so long to discover this novel, it is amazing. Although it does illustrate some strange events; such as time traveling and extra terrestrial activity, Vonnegut's philosophy about life and his humanitarian ideals shine through every word. 

I highly encourage you all to pick up this book!

Here's one of my favorite excerpts:

Billy licked his lips, thought a while, inquired at last: "Why me?"

"That is a very Earthling question to ask, Mr. Pilgrim. Why you? Why us for that matter? Why anything? Because this moment simply is. Have you ever seen bugs trapped in amber?"

"Yes." Billy, in fact, had a paperweight in his office which was a blob of polished amber with three ladybugs embedded in it.

"Well, here we are, Mr. Pilgrim, trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why."- Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five

Slice of Heaven

I've been working on my video-taking skills. While on my jog, I sat down and put them to good use. Keep in mind, I live down the road from this, frikin awesome, I know. 

Enjoy!

Jogging Adventures

Every time I go for a jog around here, I end up getting extremely distracted and the whole situation turns into more picture taking and less running, which my body really is not benefitting from. However, it's just too hard to not get distracted! I ran to Great Windsor Park today and took an new path. And BAM, I found a slice of heaven. Spring time is here and the flowers are blooming everywhere, it's beautiful. I eventually just gave up running and sat down by a tree and just sat there. It was much needed. Enjoy the pictures! 

TED Talks

I've been obsessed with TED talks for a while now. TED is a conference put together that brings amazing people from all over the world to share stories with everyone. People include famous scholars, scientists, common-day workers, you name it. You should definitely check out the website, they have something for everyone! Anyways, during my daily TED stalking, I came across this newly added talk, and I fell in love with it. Check it out!

Home Sweet Home

This is sort of a horrible attempt of showing my new home here in England, I promise I will work on my video taking skills! But, this is part of what my daily walk consists of, enjoy!

Weekend Recap

I must say the weekend had a horrible start this week. I had a huge presentation for my Shakespeare class on Friday that I had been working on this whole week. Guess whose alarm didn't go off Friday morning?? I was extremely upset and it threw my day off. After yelling at myself for a while and sending an extremely apologetic email to my professor, I headed off to London to go see Taylor, we had planned to celebrate my presentation being over that night. However, we ended up celebrating how much I rock at life... But he showed up with chocolate in hand, he sure knows how to cheer me up. London decided to have horrible weather that day though, and it rained for most of the day. However, Saturday was beautiful and it made me extremely excited for Spring to start. We headed out to Southbank that day, we read online that there was a book market underneath Waterloo Bridge every weekend. We hit the JACKPOT. Not only was there a food market that day with delicious food, but there were books! Tons of books! Vintage books, vintage maps, it was amazing. We bought a delicious slice of devil's food cheesecake and relaxed by the river and soaked some sun in. Southbank was busy with people that day, it was nice to go out and see everyone enjoying the weather. After, we headed off to Hyde Park, we figured we had to enjoy every second of the beautiful weather. We walked around and found some very interesting people, I fall in love with London more and more each time I come here. We made our way  to the lake and just sat and enjoyed some bird/duck watching. Afterwards, we quickly headed over to Camden to watch the big rugby game at the pub (We're becoming super British, we know). It was a packed night and people were rowdy, but it was a good night. Unfortunately, England lost :( but, I understood about 75% of the game. That's an improvement! 

Of course, we both forgot our cameras... so I had to stick with my awesome ipod.

our wonderful cheesecake is in the box, it was delicious and it was an "american" portion. and by that I mean super big. 

Book junkie me was extremely content!

Proof that the Thames can look appealing at times:

Hyde Park:

see those grins? It was a good day.

This week is my last week of Term 2, I cannot believe how fast the past 10 weeks have gone. It makes me really sad, I am no where near ready to go home!