Soundtrack

I've created a playlist, or MixPod, and placed it on the sidebar of the blog (right below the Twitter feed). It has songs that I listen to a lot on this trip so far. Enjoy!

Here's also a link to the playlist.

Oldie but a goodie

So since I've been in the UK, I've learned a lot of popular songs are from American artists. There's a few ones native to the area, but I was generally disappointed with the lack of new music I'd be bringing home. Until I heard on a Top 40 countdown...

Joining it on the countdown...


That has to be a record of some kind. But, needless to say, I'm ok with the music selection here now. These Brits are so darn cheeky...

PS I've now watched all 5 past seasons of It's Always Sunny in Philidelphia, and the first season of Glee. I get out more than that makes it sounds like though.

Things that make you go PMP

Even if I lived through an encounter with a shark, if it was one of these, I think I might just kill myself once I got to shore anyway. Buhghghghghhghg.
Thanks to Digg.com for the link. About freaking creepy sharks.

Somehow this reminded me of the other day when I talked to Sarah about this video...

He's still got it

Shirt.Woot.Com

If you can't find one thing everyday that makes you laugh, well that's no life to live. So atleast check today's woot shirt and the many more to come.

We'll "beheading" to the next tower now

:) Barney. What a great tour guide.

This weekend Alex, Nic and I took a little trip to London where we stayed 2 nights. We met up with Caitlin, Alex's friend from Canada who came to visit her for a few days (ahem. Hint.) We tried to get last minute tickets to a show in West End our first night but the only ones cheap enough were to Avenue Q...I didn't know how much I cared to see it. So we just got dinner and went back to the hostel for the night. Which was SO nice! 2 sets of bunk beds, lockers for all our stuff, bathrooms one way down the hall, and a room with shower stalls at the other end. Clean, well kept, friendly staff, DELICIOUS breakfast, and no torture chamber in the basement! It met all the requirements :)

Next day Alex and Caitlin wanted to go to Windsor so Nicole and I took off to see the market in Camden.
And by that, I mean the entire city is like 900 acres of market. We got lost trying to just do one section at a time, it was sooo cool. We pet a baby kangaroo!

That night we went to a club called Cargo and dance dance danced. Met some Italians and paid 50 pence for a stick of gum from the kiosk lady in the bathroom (?). That day just really had it all. I got to sleep at 5 am.
Only to wake up at 8 am to adventure some more. Had another wonderful continental breakfast (flaky pastries and chocolate spread...mmmm...) and went to see the Tower of London.

It's where Henry VIII lived with Anne Boleyn and also had her beheaded, were the crown jewels are kept... (this guy in the Royal Scepter was my favorite--second largest diamond in the world)
...and other historical events and artifacts were/are held. Neat place, but I was VERY hungry so I was happy to leave and find lunch. We came home *not without making a very necessary stop*
and went to trivia where our team got 8th?!! Very disappointing. But, we love the trivia team, so a fun night and very fun weekend nonetheless.

This morning around 10 I looked out and saw about 3/4 inch of snow on the ground. I then checked my email (I had a hunch) and had a new message from my Conditioning professor saying class today was canceled due to "adverse weather conditions". Bahaha, England you crazy!

Here are all the pictures from the weekend

DO you know me?

I made a quiz, it's about me. Inspired by no one knowing what "Kinross" is.

So take it and see how ya do!

not creative

I slept around 11 hours last night, got up and went to the gym for the first time. I loved it! Normally working out is an annoying chore, but since I haven't done it in soo long it felt great! I can't wait to go again tomorrow :) (I watched a Rugby game on the machine)

Well, besides that I haven't really done anything today. Watched some videos on itunes, cleaned my room, and ate a lot of things. I'm deciding to opt out of trivia night, I'm just too cold (I'm going to buy a space heater soon) and tired (?). So Valentines Day was sort of a bust, but it was still a nice day. And hopefully everyone else had lovely V-Days as well! I may be off to sleep again real soon ;)

Valentines as a single 21 year old

Well, it's only 2 1/2 hours into Valentines Day so far. And so far, no input. But I have noticed that coming to England doesn't change the fact that people either hate or don't care about Valentines Day more often then not. I shant judge...until tomorrow night. Then I probably will lay the law down on these people--blogger style. Gosh darn it I just love it :) (However, I won't be able to make it to Target the morning after for clearance valentines day towels and candles and all the other merchandise that gets me through the rest of the year. Bahhhh)

Windsor Castle

Today was the trip to Windsor Castle. We took the audio tour through the Castle and then walked around the town the rest of the day. Holy cow, the tour was awesome! The interior was beautiful, all the art and design that's gone into it...it's crazy to imagine all the time spent on everything in there. I guess this is where the Queen spends her weekends too so that's fun. I was a little skeptical before I went because I didn't know anything about it, but I am SO glad I went. I'd recommend it to anyone visiting or even living in England.
This is the castle:

This is St. George's Chapel

And this is a fine specimen of the veggie burger cuisine here. They sure don't make 'um like this in America.

Tonight some of us girls went to see Valentines Day. It's a little along the same lines as Love Actually, so if you liked that I'd recommend it. If you didn't, well this is different enough you might like this. So whatever, you know if you're going to see it or not. I enjoyed it though!

He took a real piss out of it

I think that either means he thought it was funny, or he made fun of it. Sometimes context clues don't help that much.

Last night we (Nic, Sarah, Hanna, Coral, Megan, Tim--Sarah's flatmate--and his friends Lee and Alex)went to the Forum. You know, imagine that. We danced, same old story. Still lots of fun but I feel like these must be beginning to sound the same.

Left an hour early though so Nicole and I could get some sleep before Windsor Castle this morning.

To see all the pictures on Facebook from the night, follow this link.

Jump on it

This guy, Noah Cato, is a rugby player that maybe my conditioning professor used to train? Or maybe had as a student? Some kind of connection. Anyway, watch this. It's super short and even cooler.

Dance duel for love

We went out to Bonk last night at the Forum (that's when they play music from the Top 40), kind of a big night there. A girl in line sold me her spare ticket for 3.60 rather than me paying 5 pounds, I'll take it! I mean, I took it!

We went again with Hanna and Sarah and her flatmates, plus Dan and Tim (I hope by now you've defaulted to "we" meaning "Nicole and I"). And we met up with Alex, Megan, and Coral! Plus the trivia team, gosh darn it I love the friends I've met this far :) Just LOOK at Sarah dance!
They had a fire alarm around 1:30 am, so we all had to go outside without our coats! Ahh it was freeeezing. The boys made a wall around us though, bless their hearts. x

To see all the photos from Bonk night, follow this link.

I also got a hair cut today, drastically shorter, but still not that short. HUGE pile of hair on the ground though. I don't get how all this is still left!

Hardstyle

Will posted this video on my facebook reminding me to learn this while I'm in Europe. Yes PLEASE!

Looks like I just need to get some sweet slicky tennis shoes and a nike hoodie. Cool though, huh?
This is the Melbourne Shuffle. I'm not entirely sure how it differs from HardStyle, except it looks like you need crazy striped pants and bright suspenders for this one. About a minute in is where it gets crazy.


It looks like Poland is headquarters. 15 hours away...I think I can make it!

Are you interested?....In the SuperBowl

Best unintentional-almost-pickup-line I've ever heard from a Norwegian. Erik sure knows how to passively work the ladiezz.

Saturday afternoon I got to Skype during Nette and Nicole's baby shower at Irene's :) I'm glad I atleast got to be a bit of there.

Saturday night Nic, Hannah, Sara, and I went out to the forum with three of Sara's flatmates. And Simon, my flatmate, found us! (The one on the far right) Doesn't he look like Rod Flanders?? I would say he looks it more once you since him IRL, but when he talks he sounds like Ron Weasley! What a celeb.
Baio from Vampire Weekend was DJing...I didn't hear any Vampire Weekend songs but I guess it was still pretty cool. That night was alot of fun and a LOT of dancing, which gets a definite two thumbs up from this gal.

And then there was Sunday night. Ooooh Super Bowl Sunday night. After trivia, of course, we had to re-enter the Elehouse in order to pay the cover. Virage really took one for the team and saved us great seats and we watched the Saints do what a large portion of NFL plans were hoping they would. That game was seriously good for the soul. WHO DAT!

It was so much fun watching the game there, everyone got really into it. All of us in our group were going for the Saints, so you can imagine. But the real treat was the in between coverage of Cecil Martin's face and some british guy talking very broadly and vaguely about the game. Oh Cecil, as if the Super Bowl wasn't already special enough :)

This afternoon I got into my cupboard and my flatmate Meera had left me some cookies called Jaffa Cakes. VERY sweet gesture...but they aren't very good :S It's ok, she said it herself. Apparently it was one of those nostalgia things that gets ruined when you grow up and realize that bubblegum ice cream is awful. But gosh darnit that was nice of her!

For my Conditioning practical(lab) we basically had PE. Stood in lines and two or five at a time did lunges across a gym, grapevines and what have you.

Nic and I ate dinner with Dan, Virage, Tim, and Bo tonight then I came home to do laundry. And by do laundry, I mean get it (my clothes AND all my sheets) into the dryer and have to wait til morning because the place closes at 10 for the night. O.M.G. I should really just get more sleep, I feel that would solve many problems.

A link to photos from Propaganda night

I found him!!

I'll be honest, it took a little internet stalking and lots of googling, but I found him.

Who?

That cute Australian/Moved to London/Moving to New York to be in La Cage Aux Folles with Kelsey Grammer. Atleast I though Kelsey...but I don't see his name on the cast list now. Oh well. To finish, I met him in the Newark Airport and we flew to London on the same plane. He was a very charming young man...that's tasteful. Here's the most of a website I could find for him. His name is Nicholas Cunningham.
It appears he plays a crossdresser (in the play)? I'm not too familiar with the musical. But I met someone who's on Broadway. NOW who doesn't have a music video?

If it wasn't obvious, I'd like to note that he was WAY more fit (that's what they say instead of "hott" over here) as a normally-dressed male.

Holdin Out

Well, I guess I should atleast give the opportunity to view the videos I've been watching/listening to lately. If you are lacking things to do, this ought to kill a few of those minutes.

Love Basketball--This kid is GREAT


Party and Bullshit in the USA Best mashup I've ever heard..If you really love it I suggest you listen to the chipmunk one as well.


"Come On, Come On" The After Party--These guys are from the Manhattan/Wamego area. Some of them are in high school and I believe the singer goes to K-State. I've seen them play a few times and I love 'em!

I don't really get buying the bum's bike but..I don't have a music video. So get at it After Party.

I blog because I'm bored

But I DO feel it's important to update on family affairs, so I lucked out in that I have something to bored-blog about.

My cousin Tara and her husband Dan have been working on adopting a baby for like a year or more. Two days before I flew out from Garden, they tried to do the same thing but to Ethiopia. Unfortunately there was fog and their flight was canceled. Well, I think we can all imagine how flight plans to Ethiopia go, and that's not an easy switch-around. SO Rhonda lent them her van (we had gone out to the airport to see them off at 6 am) and they booked it to DIA where their first layover was. Later in the day we got word that they made it in the knick (nick?) of time to catch that flight.

Some other crazy we're-adopting-a-foreign-baby things happened I'm sure, but when it was all said and done, they ended up back home in Garden this last Monday with one whole new baby. Mason!
Precious. He's going to be a fun one, I can feel it. How exciting! It's kind of baby fever in our family lately :)

Smoking in a track suit...who are you trying to fool?

Nic and I took a nice little bus trip to Watford today. The drive was probably about an hour one way, but on the way there our bus went down a tiny little street and we almost scraped the devil out of a car. The driver went to find the owner to have them move it and turns out it was a lady in a salon in the middle of having her roots dyed. But bless her heart she came out anyway, salon robe and all, and the car was saved.

I saw this on the way (It says "Totally devoted to childcare"):
And this at the shopping center:
I think I'm just having a night in tonight. Tomorrow Vampire Weekend is DJing at the forum, I believe I will make that my scene.

UK Life -- I've been snacking on a bag of these candies called Eclairs for about a week now, very delicious (caramel wrapped around chocolate--Cadbury gets gold stars across the board)

Craig, how's your food? *Muah!* Beautiful

Hello ol' chaps! I've put all my pictures from so far onto my facebook, and here is a link to the albums (please let me know if they don't work):

UK up until the weekend

London Photos

Per Mommy's request, here is a photo on my first day of classes

That day I got really homesick and overwhelmed with my classes. But since then I've hung out with my flat mates who turned out to be alot of fun (one looks like Rod and/or Tod from the Simpsons). I went running tonight around the de Hav campus, but it was kind of rainy and cold so I didn't make it too far. Nicole and I are going to have a look at the gym on campus tomorrow to see if we'd like to get memberships. I think I really need that sort of thing in my life right now.

We also applied for this thing called the HOST program, where you go stay with a family for the weekend and they take you to do UK-esk things. We're going together for this first one to get a feel for what it's like.

Classes:

Conditioning: Seems like a very interesting class, we have a group project due in a few weeks in which we have to choose a case study and make a year-long training schedule for an athlete, a 1,000 word essay justifying it, and a video demonstrating the exercises we've chosen. Our professor said that a guy taking this very class last year is now working for Arsenal's academy: Sweeeeet.

Nutrition: I'll be honest with you. The lecture was very very interesting, but I haven't had the basic Nutrition that these guys have. So I believe what I'll be doing is dropping it and taking it back at Kstate so I can get lower level stuff, into what they're learning here. I'm really interested in this field so I feel it's important I actually learn the stuff instead of squeak by on half way knowing the information. (And thus, the basic email I'll be sending my instructors. Scene.) But on the bright side, I met some girls (who turned out to be in Conditioning as well) who walked with me to lab and asked me to be in their group! Awwwww :)

(^^That day was much better^^)

Philosophy: I had this class today. I was super nervous about it because I'm not one for the rhetoric. But lecture this morning was him just talking about how to write a good paper, and he was an interesting guy. He told me the wrong seminar to go to, even when I said I was pretty sure I was supposed to go to the other one (he emailed me saying he told me wrong--they all seem pretty cool though. I don't think it'll be a big deal). The seminar I DID go to was alright, the instructor had us boil down Humpty Dumpty, which was more for learning to write well, and not quite into the philosophy thing yet. For this class I will have to write something like a 1,000 word paper in the Aristotlean style over a paper I read. ughhhghg...

Intro to Poetry: I have this lecture and seminar tomorrow morning. I'm not very anxious about it, plus Will (one of the trivia guys) is in it too! It'll be nice to finally know a person in a class.

I found a website that lets me stream to the UK and has loads of Always Sunny and Office episodes on it. Whew, I was running low.