The Latest

Well yesterday marked two months until I'll be back home in the states. Being the debbie downer I am, I kept emphasizing this to Claire, Kara, and Miraya who repeatedly told me to stop talking about it. I've been in London for little over a month and I have this contrasting feeling of having lived here my whole life while still hardly knowing it at all. It's a beautiful Thursday morning which means my week-END(as the Brits say) has already begun. After rolling out of bed, I walked to Pret to get my usual 2 pound soy cappuccino. Pret-a-manger is a chain in London that's perfect for high quality food and coffee at a frugal student's price. Their sandwiches can be as cheap as 1 pound 99 pence and it still beats Panera in my opinion. After getting my soy cap, I sat and people watched at the window while I drank it. For those of you who truly know me, this took a good minute 30 seconds. I then went to Sainsbury's to start my "Frugal Study Abroad Student Challenge."Traveling, alcohol, food, and shopping has started to diminish the money I'd saved up this summer much quicker than I had originally hoped. So it's 95 pence ravioli, 85 pence soup, and cereal from now on...so I'm telling myself. I finished blogging about my weekend trip to Brighton. Considering I'll be blogging about Greece soon, it's good I finally did that. My friend Molly invited me to go to this mega shopping sale in Brick Lane, and it's been at the back of my mind even as I blog now. About my friend Molly though!Her name is Molly Young and she's from Maine. In my study abroad program, the majority of the people attend University of Westminster where I am. There are a few others in some random schools throughout London though. The Westminster group just recently met the other students, Molly was one of them.

Kara, Molly, and I at Ten Bells, the bar where Jack the Ripper supposedly killed one of his victims!

Molly and I at the Ides of March Premier

Speaking of the Ides of March Premier, this past week has been the BFI(British Film Institute) film festival. All the big stars are in town promoting their new movies. Yes, I was one of the star gazed fans that waited outside to see George Clooney and Ryan Gosling walk on the red carpet. Unfortunately Ryan wasn't there, but it was fine. I was pleasantly surprised to see Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Evan Rachel Wood, and Ron Howard.

Evan Rachel Wood. Even more stunning in person

"I bet that's just some rich London person who feels the need to ride up in a fancy car....holy cow!!That's  Ron Howard!!!Where's your camera??!!!"

Phillip didn't seem too happy to be there

E.R. again: )

Then there's George; )Asked us if we were keeping warm. I was too in awe to say anything. 

There's a candid shot for ya

So although we didn't get in to see the Ides of March Premier, Miraya and I did get tickets to see Terri starring John C. Reilly. He was not at the premier but both the producer and director were. They had a Q and A at the end but, Miraya and I couldn't really think of any questions. The movie was a bildungsroman-esque indie movie about the relationship between Terri and his principal, John C. Reilly. Miraya and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I highly recommend it for anyone who appreciates realistic yet hopeful Indie movies. 

Here's the link to the trailer:

http://isabelleinlondon.blogspot.com/2011/10/brighton-day-3.html

I've been periodically checking the website in hopes to get tickets to see the new movie, A Dangerous 

Method, with Viggo Morttensen, Keira Knightley, and Michael Fassbender(one of the greatest actors of all time and my new celebrity obsession). During one of these hourly checks, I saw there were some tickets available for George Clooney's OTHER film premier, The Descendants. So Claire and I will be walking the red carpet with George Clooney tonight and viewing the new film in the same theatre as him. Words can not describe my excitement. We will see if I can get as close to him as I did last night. Here's the link for the movie trailer. Love you guys. I'll post soon I assure you. 

The Descendants Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWHNXJ1K4yA

Brighton Day 3

After waking up from some much needed sleep, we packed our bags and headed out of our hostel. Scared of showering in the bathroom, we all were pretty gross by this point. Kara was the only one who was brave enough to not wear something to cover her hair. Our first stop was food...typical. Yesterday we had passed Jamie Oliver's restaurant and decided to "brunch" there the next day!The food was insanely good to say the least. I helped myself to a pancetta, mozzarella, basil, pesto panini(with a slice of lemon cake.....). Miraya got the French Toast while Claire and Kara went easy and got toast and eggs.

Miraya and Claire in front of Jamie Oliver's Restaurant

The lovely window display

Miraya and Jamie Oliver

Miraya's French Toast...tasted even better than it looks

After brunch, we decided to go to the station to take a fun day trip somewhere close. Our train from Brighton didn't leave until 9 p.m. that night so we had some time to kill. Considering we hardly knew where we were or what was close by, we asked two men at the information desk for a good place to go. They suggested Lewes, a small medieval town only 15 minutes via train. 

Miraya and Kara before our train to Lewes

Claire and her half ton backpack

After arriving in Lewes

Isn't she cute?;)

Home of Thomas Pain, Dad!

View from William the Conqueror's Castle

The view of the cutest town ever!This was by far my favorite day of the trip!

Beautiful View with a Beautiful Girl

William the Conqueror's Castle. I liked the ivy.

Lewes, England: )

The cute little couple we stalked on top of William's Tower

Walking around looking for high tea!

Still on the hunt for high tea!

The fascinating cat we found

Finally found a place to have high tea!Some hotel

Our scones

My peppermint tea

My avocado chicken sandwich with potato salad

Brighton-Day 2

Sorry I had to only blog about Day 1 in Brighton. It's been a pretty busy week here. Thankfully, it's Thursday and the weekend for me: )Yesterday started the BFI Film Festival. Tons of stars are in town walking the red carpet for new movies this year. Miraya and Geoff actually got to see to go one of them and even saw Jude Law!!!I'll be sure to be blogging about this event much more. 

ANYWAYS, we woke up in our hostel the next morning with two of us each in a bed. Yes, we paid for four beds and only slept in two for the whole weekend. After getting something to eat, we headed to the Brighton Pier, only a ten minutes walk from the hostel. 

Miraya and I on the Brighton Pier

Claire fell in and Miraya jumped in to save her

Brighton Pier arcade games

After leaving Brighton Pier, we walked through the Lanes full of shopping and bars. We actually went there the night before. It had a much different feel during the day. Next it was the Brighton Natural History Museum. It was very quaint and small, comforting considering how exhausted we were from the whole trip so far. 

Stopped at a cemetery along the way

Right before we all started talking about ghost stories

Finally at the history museum!This was the model they used to create the badger in The Chronicles of Narnia

Look!The fossil is smiling!

After gorging down some Indian food, we all went back to the hostel to take a nap. After a lot of motivation from Claire and Miraya, Kara and I finally gave in to go out our last night in Brighton. Needless to say, it was much more fun than the night before. 

Claire Bear and I

Our weekend trip to Brighton!-Day 1

Sorry for the blog delay. Every time I try to get around to it, I somehow end up getting distracted. This weekend was my first time away from London since I've been here. So I have much to inform y'all on. Last week, Claire, Kara, Miraya, and I decided to book an 8 pound round train ticket to Brighton for a weekend getaway. All we really knew about our weekend destination was that it was on the beach(a good enough reason for us regardless of the fact it was way too cold to swim.) We left around 2ish on Friday, took the tube to Victoria, and had approximately twenty minutes to print our tickets out and board the train.

Kara and Miraya on the tube

Myself and Claire on the tube

Claire was worried we would be pushed for time

Kara and Miraya's "Are we going to make it faces?"

Turns out we had plenty of time to get our tickets and even a little extra. So Miraya and I got coffee. Then it was off to Brighton!

A pleasurable one hour train ride

Miraya pondering life while viewing the English countryside from the train

After the train ride, we took a ten minute walk to check into our hostel

Our hostel- Seadragon Backpackers

After arriving, we checked in. Apparently the reservation had gotten mixed up. Instead of getting a four bedroom hostel for all four of us. They put three of us in one room and one of us in another. They also told us that three of us were staying in a room with a very nice Italian girl who had recently come to Brighton to work....how wrong they were. 

Our bunk beds

After we dropped off our stuff, we went to explore Brighton and search for food!

A view of the water

The Italian restaurant we ate at on the beach

Aren't they cute?

Red wine vs. White wine

My honeycomb gelato: )

After dinner, we went back to the hostel to discover the nice girl from Italy was indeed a boy named Francessco. 

Francessco(pictured right back corner)

After finding our roomie was not at all who we had pictured, we pub crawled for a bit then went to bed. 

It had been a long day.