one week later: last week of work. had to say goodbye to everyone. on monday me and a few co-workers went out after work. i had london's best bagel (cream cheese & salmon) and discovered the coolest record store ever called rough trade. later that week i went back and bought a couple cd's of some UK bands. went to the burberry outlet. things were reduced from 500 pounds to 399 pounds. wow. went to absolute ice bar london, random pent house, and zoo bar. went shopping and read for the afternoon in regeants park. went to blues kitchen for lorna (co-workers) birthday. met cool people. oh, tried to go to macbeth at the globe theatre, but it was sold out so we went to founders arms on the thames. beautiful view. interesting people. cant remember anything else for this week. peace out.

picture this: perfect sunny weather on a sunday afternoon in London england. 3 girls carpe diem and travel to shorditch to visit brick lane, spitalfield market, and petticoat lane. (this of course is kicked off /w a morning coffee run to starbucks for iced espresso - perfect for such a warm day) after enjoying the markets and soaking in the culture, an afternoon lunch at nando's is required. bottomless fountain drinks for all. pop on the tube and head to church (hillsong). try to shake of the weird feeling that the guest speaker gave us, and pop back on the tube to go to st.johns wood - home of abbey road. sing beatles songs, remember the good music of the good 'ol days, and of course get some pix to commemerate the special place. pop on the bus to covent gardens...awkward street show. this is where the evening winds down. the weather gets cooler and the girls get hungry. grab a bite for dinner and say goodbye to the setting of the london sun. tomorrow is another day - monday...the start of another week. only a few more left in this lovely city. let no chance go to waste.

life has gotten interesting again.

yesterday i went to greenwich. this is where the prime meridian is, and where the term greenwich mean time comes from. it's where the time everyone sets their clocks to is. pefect, lazy saturday afternoon. we walked around greenwich, the park was beautiful, the prime meridian was cool. went to the pier, visited the markets. beyond perfect afternoon.

earlier this week i went to shortditch. its the "happening" place in london that i've been wanting to go to for awhile. i rather enjoyed it. going back today to go to petticoat lane, spitalfields market, and brick lane. hopefully gonna go to abbey road, and church @ hillsong.

the elk on friday, but tried a new place out called walkabout yesterday. really fun. apparently its an australian bar, so i met a few auzies. haha. oh i also met a kiwi, and it made me think of emily :)

countries i have been to so far in this life:

canada
mexico
haiti
england
ireland
scotland
belgium
holland
france
italy


countries i will be going to in the next month:

wales
spain


grand total of 12...not bad for the ripe age of 19

today i am in leuven belgium. i left london @ 1030am friday (yesterday) and arrived at 6 or so in brussels. the bus was a good experience. it smelled terrible and the people were interesting, but we still took the chunnel. there are trains made specifically for cars/buses to ride in so they can get across the chunnel the same way the eurostar does. tiany met me at the bus station and we went to go see the mennekin pis. :) hehe. apparently there is this tale of sometime during the war that a bomb was placed in the city centre of leuven, and a small boy peed on it and saved the entire town, thus he got a statue made after him. gotta love it. we ate along this cute side street somewhere in brussels and i ate mussels. gotta say, not really a fan. i had to douse them in salt and other crap to get them down. wandered around brussels some more, tiany showed me the sites (like the famous church in the city centre, city hall, blah blah) ... all the notable things in brussels. we took the trian back to leuven, stopped by her friends house to get a sleeping bag, and headed to her place. leuven isnt a big place, but it's beautiful. the city centre is really cool and they have a courtyard similair to the one in brussels, with the large church and stuff. everything is so beautiful. lots of gold detail on the buildings. really cool @ night. her friend wasnt home, but one of her flatmates was there. he was born and raised in belgium, so met a native! she showed me around leuven some more and then we hit the hay. she has her own apartment, which is cool. tiany is so grown up. she lives by herself, pays rent, works all the time. definitaly an adult. very cool. we woke up late (very adult like, haha) and headed to antwerpen. not sure where it is located in the country of belgium, but very cool city. the train station is the old palace where the king used to live - it is gorgeous. we walked around antwerpen for awhile, and then tiany had to head to work. i got some belgium coffee, and went shopping :) shopping here is ridiculous. everything is in dutch/french. in antwerpen it's all in french, cuz it's in the french area of belgium. belgium is basically a mix of france and the netherlands. leuven is in the dutch area of belgium, so everything here is dutch, and that is the language most people speak. i find it interesting. it's almost as if belgium doesnt have its own idenitity - half of the country thinks its french and the other half thinks they are dutch. but i like it. everything is so gorgeous and they have statues/momuments to commemorate everything. tiany has to work tomorrow, so im waking up early and heading to the netherlands with her friend zoe. have to catch the train at 7am, and then we're driving there (one of zoe's friends has a car). pretty excited! :) 2 countries in one weekend. :) love it.