Wednesday was my 21st Birthday and it was SUCH a fun day.

The celebrating started at midnight when Sally brought me a delicious chocolate cake and ice cream. Not to mention Natalie had already given me my gift, tickets to The Lion King, Caitlin got me a really cute apron and oven mitts with the British Flag on them, and of course you already heard about Lindsey's gift, The Wedding Show! My friends here are all so nice and I am so lucky to have gotten to celebrate this special birthday with them.

Ashley called me at right at midnight to say happy birthday, as did Allison :]] Anyways, after we ate cake and ice cream we all went to sleep so we could wake up early and start the day.

Everyone else has class on Wednesdays so I met up with Lindsey and Natalie at Primark to buy the party favors for my birthday party, and then we went and got lunch. Lindsey got me two yummy cupcakes (peanut butter and red velvet) which we shared after lunch, it was so much fun. From there I wanted to buy 'Scrabble' so I knew there was a toy store near where we were so while Lindsey and Natalie went back to school, I set off in search of Hamleys (the toy store).

After walking around lost for about an hour it finally came to me to use my iPhone to look up where the store was. I had actually walked past it like 3 times, it wasnt on the main street but a cross street, so yeah..that was FUN. When I got to the toy store, which is basically London's version of FAO Schwarts, I went right up to get the game and what did I find, A Build-A-Bear Workshop!! I had to make one so I made St. Patrick, a really cute green teddy bear specially for St. Patricks Day, hes adorable.

I headed back home to hang out before getting ready to go out. There were 13 of us who went to dinner at The Texas Embassy, and it was so fun and very yummy. I got lots of flower, a beautiful orchid plant, and two boxes of chocolate so over all it was successful. I even had a drink, a very tasty strawberry margarita. I was somehow convinced to do some sort of shot with rum, pineapple juice, and pomegranate juice. It was so good, but i only did one cause I defiantly did not want to be anywhere NEAR drunk. And I never got near drunk, not even tipsy (ashley thinks i look drunk in my pictures, but i tried to explain that that is just how i look...how nice of her to think that, lol).

After dinner we all headed back to Nido so I could show my friends that don't live here where I live and go out for after dinner drinks. We went to a place right across the road from where I live called The Big Chill House. I like it because it reminds me of listening to the soundtrack to The Big Chill on car rides when I was little. The music they play is nothing like that music, but still. I got a white russian there. I love white russians, they're just like milk shakes, but better. Once again I had one. According to my friends I wasn't even tipsy because my lips weren't going numb. Of course I'll just have to take their words for it because we all know I have nothing to compare it to.

We got back around 11:30 and went our separate ways around 12:15 after playing some gin rummy with Lindsey and Sally. I am lucky enough to be allowed to sleep in on Thursdays since I don't have class until 3:30, so there I am, in bed, reading a book around noon when the fire alarm starts going off. I didn't really think it was a real fire, so I grabbed my room key and looked into the hall to see if anyone was leaving. There was a guy going down the stairs so I figured I would just go down, find out it was a false alarm, and go back to bed. Boy was I wrong. So I get downstairs in my pajamas and socks, NO jacket, NO shoes, and I'm told that there really is a fire and I have to go outside and around the block. They wouldn't even let me go get my shoes. Luckily it was't very cold out, maybe the upper 40s, so  I wasn't very cold, not for the first 20 minutes any way. All together we stood outside for about an hour, were told we could go back in, and that was that. I didnt get any details of where the fire was or how it got started, I'm going to ask today thou. I think we should get to know. I would put money down that some stupid person was trying to smoke inside and their fire alarms went off, it always smells like cigarette smoke in the halls, even thou the building is non-smoking.

Anyways, I'm off to find some food and get ready for my day of running errands before I go to class at 4. Its sunny and so pretty out today, yay!

-audrey

Today is my birthday. I'm officially 21 years old, and technically at this moment in time I am older than Ashley, by 6 hours. That wont be true at 6am my time, but for now I am not the youngest. My friends here are absolutely AMAZING.

Lindsey already gave me my gift when we went to the wedding show, it was SO much fun and I love her so much for that. I got my gift from Natalie tonight - she got us tickets to go see The Lion King!! I am so excited, I CAN NOT wait to see the show in a week and a half, we're going to have such a good time. Then there was a knock on my door and in walked Sally with a birthday cake and ice cream, candles and singing took place as well. While we enjoyed the yummy dessert I felt so happy that I have such great friends here to celebrate such a special birthday with. Ashley and Allison both called me right at midnight to say happy birthday, it meant SO much to me. I love them both more than words can say.

I can't wait to wake up in the morning and start my day getting ready for a super fun night eating mexican food with all of my new friends and one really great old friend. I'll blog more then!

-audrey

national wedding show

Yesterday I received one of the best birthday presents EVER from Lindsey. She got us tickets to go to the National Wedding Show. Anyone that knows me knows that I am completely obsessed with all things wedding, I even have a wedding book at home with pages of magazines ripped out. So we got to the show and there are so many different vendors for every imaginable thing you could possible need at your wedding. We're pretty sure that you're not actually supposed to go unless you're GETTING married but we didn't care about that.

The best part of the day had to be the fashion show. I love fashion. Considering I wear jeans and t-shirts a lot I really do enjoy fashion so for me, wedding fashion is the end all be all of fashion shows to see. That lasted about 40 minutes and it was FABULOUS. Words can not describe how much I enjoyed myself.

Afterwords we were in a shopping mood so we went to Harrods, a store that is quickly becoming one of my favorite places in London. I got the CUTEST pair of shoes (and they aren't even heels) and a new dress. I wanted to wear the dress for my birthday BUT they wanted me to pay 80 pounds just to hem it. That is almost 1/2 of what the dress cost, which is RIDICULOUS. I happily bought the dress and tomorrow I will try to find someone to alter it for cheaper, so it might not be ready to wear by Wednesday, we'll see.

Thats all I did this weekend, today I slept WAY too late, until 2:30. I can't tell you when I last slept that late, if ever. It's pretty nuts. I hope I can fall asleep tonight since I have class tomorrow.

-audrey

Yesterday was such a fun day. I got to sleep in until 10 before getting ready for my day and going to class. I had developmental psychology. You see, last semester at UH I took child development, which is different because the course here spans the entire life, not just childhood. Basically my course here is going to be a joke. We went over such basic information my Mom could have probably answered the professors questions (my mom went to the first 2 weeks of school last august with me after my surgery so she knows stuff). Class got out 30 minutes early which is always enjoyable.

I met up with Lindsey, Sally, and Caitlin at Kings Cross to decided where we wanted to go for drinks and dinner. We originally wanted to go to South Kensington but the Piccadilly Line was completely insane, not running in some spots even, so we couldn't go there. We decided to go hang out by the river which turned out to be tons of fun.

Caitlin, Sally and I left to go see the movie Precious. Wow. The film was so hard to watch, so sad, but very good.

Got to go now, love you all!

-audrey

I was so productive today. I actually didn't do much today but I got done what needed to be done so yay for that. Caitlin and I went to Primark this afternoon, and it was INSANE. All of the kids are out of school this week and I swear to you, they all decided to go to Primark. NUTS. After that we came back to Nido before going to the grocery store to stock up. It seems like all I do is go to Tesco, but when all you have is a mini-fridge that you share with a roommate you cant exactly stock up. I cooked potatoes tonight...I can't call them mashed potatoes because of course I forgot that I had nothing to mash them with...so I ate boiled potatoes with cheese. Not the best meal every by any means but it was edible. Tonight I'm just uploading some new pictures so go check those out.

-audrey

pictures

here is the link to all of my pictures so far, i'll be updating the album as i take more pictures. enjoy!

London Pictures

rainy day

Sorry I haven't written in a while, i've been busy with class. Today was very uneventful. I slept in and it was amazing, then I went to lunch with Caitlin and Natalie. Afterwords I just came back home and watched 24 and hung out in my room. Pretty boring I must say. I booked by room for Spring Break in Dubai! I can't wait, my friends Lindsey and Sally are going with me and it is going to be such an amazing experience :]]

I found out that my dog Skye who is 11 has cancer today so I was pretty sad about that. The prognosis isn't good, only about 6 weeks left at best. I obviously don't want her to be in any pain but I'm so upset that I wont get to say goodbye to her. We got her when I was in the 4th grade and I cant believe that when I get home in June she will be gone.

Anyways I just wanted to touch base and let yall know that I haven't fallen off the planet, just been busy. Hopefully next time I write I'll have something interesting to say!

-audrey

dubai it is

I just found out that my parents are going to let me go to Dubai for Spring Break! I am so excited, my friend Lindsey and maybe my friend Sally are going with me and we can not wait to be there :] I'll be staying at the Atlantis property there so I'm sure it will be wonderful. I didn't do too much today, just went to Harrods and I am very proud to say that I only bought the one gift I intended to buy and nothing extra -- yay for me! Well its late here and I'm going to get up early tomorrow instead of sleep in like I did today. I wanna give a quick shout out to Christy and Suzanne, the only people I'm not related to that I know actually read this blog. Hopefully you don't find it too boring!

Lots of Love

-audrey

Day 2 of Class

My school schedule is pretty strange, I must say.

I go on Monday from 10-12 and 2-4 (sometimes i have seminars in between but i only go to that 4 times) and then I don't have any more classes until Wednesday. It's almost like I have a weekend in the middle of the week :] On Thursday I go from 3:30-5:30 most weeks and sometimes I have a seminar from 2-3 and on Friday I go from 2-4 and i have seminars from 4-5 some weeks. Its pretty strange. The way they do it here is that you only go to your class one time a week, for 2 hours, and then you have 4 one hour seminars for each class throughout the semester.

So today i will be going to Personality and Social Psychology. This might be my toughest class simply because its going to be a lot of work. I haven't even been yet and I already know I have 2 papers due this semester and a final at the end. College sure is fun. I can't wait for tomorrow thou because after I have Developmental Psychology, which should be easy since I took child development last semester at UH, we're all going to go see Valentine's Day. This movie looks so good, I can not wait to see it. Some girls are going to the premier tonight to stand outside the red carpet and get pictures of all of the celebrities but it's too damn cold to just stand around for hours to glimpse a few celebrities. It's actually snowing a bit right now, very pretty but very cold. The snow never sticks to the ground thou so that's nice.

Until tomorrow,
-audrey

Avenue Q

Last night Lindsey, Sally and I got super cheap tickets to see Avenue Q and it was AWESOME. We got there and the guy was like, "oh, this section of seats isn't open tonight" and I almost freaked out a little until he told us that because the section was closed our seats had been upgraded. SCORE. Then we got to our new and improved seats, which really really good considering we paid 12 pounds for them and the show started.

It was hilarious and very entertaining. I highly recommend you see it. But the best part was yet to come. So we're sitting there and intermission just started and who comes into the theatre? People selling these really cute tiny cartons of ice cream!!! It was basically amazing, so I went down and got my cookies & cream ice cream and thoroughly enjoyed it until intermission was over. According to Lindsey this occurs at most of the plays in London so I'm pretty excited about that, I must say.

Today I dont have class so I got to sleep in before doing some laundry and working out. Now I'm just waiting for my cloths to dry and hanging out in my room until tonight when Lindsey and I are going to Cirque Du Soleil!!

-audrey

Ready to Start School

Today was my last day of freedom before classes start. I go tomorrow at 10:00 for my first class (Cognitive Psychology) and after that at 2:00 I have Biological Basis of Behavior. Fun stuff. I spent the day running errands and buying school supplies. Afterwords me, Natalie (roommate) and Caitlin (friend) went to find our school. We got to one part of campus ok but because it is spread out over the city we needed to take the tube to another part of town. Well the tube station we needed to go to only has 2 lines that serve it and both of them were shut down this weekend for repairs. We figured we could just hop on a bus and be there no problem. PROBLEM. We defiantly took the correct bus in the WRONG direction and ended up in the projects. By the time we figured out our mistake we had to get off, change buses, get off that bus and onto ANOTHER bus and about 1 1/2 hours of riding on multiple buses we never got to the other part of campus and gave up and went home. Oh the joys of learning your surroundings. 

I have a friend Sally (A&M girl) who is in all of my Monday classes so tomorrow should be fun and we're all going out to get Mexican food for dinner, YUM! 

Im gonna give a run down of my friends that way I won't have to keep putting in paranthesis who everybody is. Here goes:

Natalie is my awesome roommate from California.

Sally is my friend from A&M, shes originally from Dallas and lives down the hall.

Next to Sally is Lindsey, goes to Clemson originally from Baltimore. Shes super cool.

Caitlin lives upstairs and goes to school in Idaho but is originally from California too and down the hall from her lives Jessica. Jess goes to school in Reno, Nevada and I love her hair (its red). 

Thats pretty much everyone I usually hang out with, they're all really nice and cool and it's too bad you don't get to know them. 

I've got a lot to do tomorrow and I still need to do my hair tonight so I can sleep in a bit in the morning.

Lots of Love,

-audrey

Cameden Market

I went to Cameden Market yesterday and it was SO cool. Every weekend this market opens and there are so many different vendors its insane! The food you can buy there is so fresh, authentic, and amazingly tasty and there are so many vintage clothing, home goods, and everything else you could imagine booths. I got a really pretty purple top at one of the vintage "shops" and enjoyed some delicious food! Afterwords I decided a nap was in order so I headed back to Nido and slept for a bit. Yesterday was my friend Sally's 20th birthday so we went out to eat Chinese food. It was super yummy.

I start class tomorrow so that should be interesting, I think today I'm going to go to campus to check out where each building is that my classes are going to be held in. Its different here, each course has a lecture that everyone goes to and then throughout the semester there are seminars that are assigned to each student that we have to go to for each class, but they aren't every week. So even though my schedule says I have 4 classes on Monday most weeks I'll just go to the 2 lectures and every so often I'll go to seminar.

I need to hunt down some school supplies and send some mail today so I'm sure I'll keep busy. Until later, GO SAINTS!

-audrey

morning

Sorry my post yesterday was literally 2 lines, i still dont have internet in my room so i was in the cafe and my computer had 1% life left when i started writing it...i guess i should check the power next time! Today is a day for shopping and exploring around London. I have to go by the apple store to find out why the internet connection on my computer isn't working with an ethernet cord so i'm sure that will be entertaining. After that I guess I'll just explor with some friends and run a few errands that need to get done. That's all for now, hopefully by tonight my computer will let me get online with an ethernet cord in my room! Its the little things in life that count, right?!

-audrey

a day on the river thames

Today my school set up a bus and boat tour of London. We drove past all of the usual tourist stops, most of which I had already seen before heading to our river boat. It was fun.

Sorry this is soooo short but my computer is about to die! More tomorrow!

-audrey

orientation.

We're still in orientation although today was much shorter. My friend Lindsey and I walked around Oxford Circus which is a really cool area with shopping and pubs. Around 6 we headed back to Nido to make dinner and hang out here for the night. My internet isn't connecting in my room for some reason and I've tried 3 ethernet cords so I'm kind of annoyed about it. Im not sure if it's my computer or the outlet in the wall but I defiantly need to get that figured out because I don't want to not have internet in my room for the next 4 months.

My mom went home today, hopefully she had a good flight. I'll miss her but I'll get to see her in a few months and we'll get to skype so I'm sure I'll survive.

Anyways were off to hang out in someones room where I wont have internet so I'm off. Havent taken too many picture the last few days so sorry but hopefully I will the rest of the week!

-audrey

Move In Day

The last few days have been pretty busy.

We went to Windsor Castle on Sunday which was really fun. It's so beautiful and if you ever get the chance to go you defiantly should.

Today I got to sleep in a bit before heading out to Nido Student Living to move in and meet my new roommate Natalie. She is such a sweetheart so that's good! After seeing our tiny room mom and I made a list of things I needed to by and we set off shopping.

After putting all of my new purchases in my room and unpacking we had our housing orientation. This was basically a big huge waste of time but it did allow us to meet some more people. Most of them seem to be from New York or California with a few guys from Wisconsin and one other girl from Texas. Afterwords a big group of us went out to a pub near school and grabbed a bite to eat and got to know each other.

I decided to stay at the hotel one last night with my Mom as tomorrow is her last night and tomorrow afternoon I have more orientation. Off to bed, goodnight!

-audrey