speed demons

Ok so this is a little out of order because I haven't shown you York or Fountains Abbey yet.. but to be completely honest I took soooo many pictures at Fountains Abbey (it was gorgeous and will be worth the wait) that I don't want to take the time to sort through them right now and pick out the cream of the crop for yall to see. Sooo instead, I'm entertaining you.. and my slight obsession with posting, by giving you something a little more recent.
The Cambridge Oxford Boat Race!!
(i'm going to be completely honest and tell you that I stole this from the website.. so if you happen to google "the boat race" and click on theboatrace.org and happen to see this somewhere on the site, just disregard it and say 'heck maddie told me all that')

On 12 March 1829, Cambridge sent a challenge to Oxford and thus the tradition was born which has continued to the present day, where the loser of the previous year’s race challenges the opposition to a re-match.

The Modern Boat Race still runs along the same lines but has now become a major international sporting occasion drawing millions of viewers from around the world.

On Race Day up to 250,000 spectators crowd the banks of the Thames from Putney to Mortlake to witness the action.

Cambridge currently lead the series since 1829 by 79-73. Cambridge won the most recent encounter (2007) but Oxford won the previous two encounters (2005 and 2006).

The 154th Boat Race takes place on Saturday, 29 March 2008 at 17.15

AAANNNNYWAYS I totally went. I went by myself.. and didn't really know what I was doing. I decided to head to the tube stop near the part of the river near the beginning of the race was. And I just got off and followed the people.. Then as I walked along the river facing the masses of people I scoped out a spot big enough for a little woman about my size. So I took it! I didn't really notice what was behind it.. just looked like some scaffolding. Well, when I crawled in and got situated I realized that I was indeed on some sort of scaffolding-ish thing.. holding up a GIANT tv for the spectators on the other side of the river. But it was sweet, cause I could stand up on the ledge and instead of holding on the the railings I could lean back and make maybe a 10 degree angle with my body and lean on this scaffolding-ish stuff. Sweet spot maddie! But then it gets better.. so, I didn't really know where on the river I was in relation to the race I just knew that I'd see them zoom past me at some point. So I was hanging out there until the time I knew the race started, so that I could be on the look out. But while I was waiting I noticed this loooong boat appear out of no where, with 8 guys in it all wearing white (turns out that was Cambridge).. then another boat all in blue (Oxford) I had picked an almost straight shot across from the starting line!! I amaze myself sometimes..
Go to the site I mentioned above and check out the photo album they have on the right.. some great shots!
mine don't compare.. but I'm going to prove to you that I had amazing skill at choosing a place to stand.
Oh and I've got some videos.. I was standing next to some Oxford students.. you'll hear them in the background :)
AND AS AN ANNOUNCEMENT - i'm doing this as a reward to myself because I finished 3 papers today (still a few more to go, but still!)
oh oh and today I got my very own British Library card with my picture on it and everything!
ok ok pictures

Starting Line yo!

oooh got him with his shirt off!

and all the boats go chasing after them...

oh yea! Oxford won!!.. unfortunately, it's the slowest winning time since 1947... ya can't win em all.

I COME HOME RIDICULOUSLY SOON!
but not before I go to romey rome!!

just a lil bit

a feeew pictures from cambridge.. we went.. well, a while ago but I'll share a few of the exciting ones with you.

exciting #1 WOOOOOOOO!!

inside one of the colleges..

Francis Aston! look em up.. if you have to ;)

Newton went here too

most massive hot chocolate of my life

heilan coo

So I got home from spring break Tuesday night (a lot of Tuesdays ago) and had kind of forgotten that we had planned a weekend in Scotland for that next friday.. oii vey. it was a lot of traveling, in a short period of time. but completely worth it! Edinburgh was beautiful.
BUT i'm in the middle of typing a paper right now.. so you're just going to get pictures. check back in a few days, i might add words. ok maybe you'll get a little words, i just can't resist.

looking towards our hostel.. you can see the small teeny tiny sign in the window

looking across the street from our hostel.. Edinburgh castle!

then the same view from hanging out the window in my room..

in front of the castle

a little closer now

St Giles' Cathedral.. couldn't take pictures inside.

down the royal mile.

up the royal mile

cemetery

coolest bike rack i've ever seen

the group.. sitting on something in front of the Scottish parliament.

scottish parliament.

we saw a hill.. so we went up.

view from said hill.. the building closest.. with the big white roof is the parliament.

group on said hill

dinner

night

maddie bethany josh walt brian. (walt is a guy who lives in our building.. goes to school the same place we do.. but with a different program. we share our building with a group from north carolina.. he happened to be in scotland the same weekend, in the same hostel and we ran into him!)

each of these 'night' pictures are from somewhere different, i just realized.

breakfast.. in which i tried black pudding (look it up.. some nasty stuff, well the idea of it.. doesn't actually taste that bad) i'm serious. look it up. it's the little black thing sticking out from under the eggs/beans on the left. and THEN i fell in love with soda bread.. the bread with a (single) bean on it

side of the castle..

where we saw this guy.. zeke??

hah!

you can BET i went on this tour :) even got a whiskey glass.

on our way to princes street

i thought the clouds were pretty

FASTEST BLOG POST OF MY LIFE. sorry if it doesn't compare :)
but i realized i'd better get busy blogging if i want to catch up before i have to come home (it's soooo soon)

oh and

This is Sammy. Our favorite bartender in Paris. These are the shots he made us (on him) after the bar had closed! They were long islands.. mom says they look like they are in juice glasses.
I say it was fun!

up next - Scotland

and to the tiger in the zoo..

I went to the train station in Amsterdam and it had the nicest people working it than any of the others I think. My opinion might be jaded by the fact that I walked out with a first class ticket to paris!! woooo hoooo! I am going to do first class more often. what do they say.. once you go first class you never go back..?? well, for reasons relating to my wallet I will have to go back to lowly second class.. but DAMN was first class something sweet.
Then I had to get off of the train.. ha! then France kicked me in the butt, well not really.. it just hid all of it's metro ticket booths from me. I wandered around the metro station for probably 10 minutes not being able to find a kiosk thing.. I even asked the information desk. Until a nice (and pretty dang cute) french man came to my rescue. Ok, so he didn't really COME to my rescue.. I kinda well um, asked him where to get one.. he wandered around with me for a few minutes until he realized that there wasn't a ticket machine and that I wasn't a stupid american. He apologized for the station being so stupid.. then gave me one of his tickets. sweet!
so then I got to my hostel.. at stop République. I got there around 5 (I think) so I just wandered a bit. I walked to the Pompidou Center to kind of gauge how long it would take me to get around the city.

Pompidou Center Foutains.

Then once it got dark I headed back to my hostel to re group. When I was downstairs using the computer I made friends with two guys that were down there. They were from Michigan.. (my two roommates were from michigan too) so I started talking to them, and started to make plans, then my two roommates wandered in.. I introduced them all (look at me being ring leader) but the girls said they already had plans.. well, we told them that they could probably find us with some bottles of wine at the bottom of the hostel (in the kitchen) if they wanted to hang out for a bit before they went out. Long story short, I got myself a bottle of wine they guys brought a bottle and some beers.. and then my roommates wandered down (they ditched their other plans) and an Australian girl we picked up in the lobby. We sat down in the kitchen and had a blast! The stories of what went on in the kitchen are obviously more funny if you were there, but I am guessing that they would be better told in person... so you'll have to wait. But it was a lot of fun.. eventually though, we left the kitchen and went wandering for a bar or club. We found one that had some pool tables (pool and darts.. stink at both, but new favorites for sure!) There are some better group shots.. but not on my camera. (hopefully i'll get them soon)

Somehow, the next morning I managed to wake up and hit the streets by 10. And man o man I had a busy day. In order of appearance..
(well, i walked past the pomidou again)
then
The Louvre!

Hey lisa!

venus de milo

winged goddess of victory aka nike of samothrace

Liberty Leading the People - Eugène Delacroix, 1830

The Wedding Feast at Cana

then when i came out of the louvre.. i saw it for the first time. gasp! (waaay far away)

Then it got bigger..

and bigger...

TaDA!!

yeaaah!

place de la madeleine

on the other side it looked like a normal baguette... have you ever seen so many poppy seeds?!!?! for the rest of the day i was worried they were in my teeth

arc de triomphe

Notre Dame Cathedral... surprise surprise, made it in time for mass in this one too!! waaaay cool.

place de la bastille

Then I walked allll the way back to my hostel. I sat around for a little.. resting my barking dogs.. then I met a new person in our room. I don't remember his name (which makes me very sad.. i didn't even get a picture of him :( ) but anyways, he was from Japan. I was able to hold the first part of the conversation with him in japanese.. then the tables turned and he had to look like the fool with his broken english (i can only imagine what an idiot i sounded like) but one thing led to another... and we were on a mission at 9-or-so pm to get to the eiffel tower. It was quite a sight.. he was well over 6ft.. i'm well, short. He didn't speak english (very well), I don't speak Japanese.. and neither of us speak french. haha.. still makes me laugh when i think about it.. our few hours we spent together was a mix of broken japanglish relying HEAVILY on our non verbal skills. hand gestures and miming galore! but we made it!!

Paris was fun! the weather was amazing.. I got around all day in just a cardigan and scarf! it was such a nice change of pace from living in my sleeping bag of a coat for the past week and a half.. my last half day i was there it was a bit drizzly.. but heck i'm living in london, a little grey skies won't get me down. I put on my skinny jeans and flats and mobbed it with the best of them... until I had to get to the airport... and sulk my way back to london. ;)

<3