I haven't been posting songs or quotes recently. As many of you know, i keep a book of quotes, movie titles, things teachers and friends have said, etc. This is the quote I started the book with and it is always perfect for all moments of life. Whether you are religious or not, it is about appreciating life each in each moment, in a very "I went into the woods" Thoreau way... I'll share it with you all:
"There is no event so commonplace but that God is present within it, always hiddenly, always leaving you room to recognize Him or not to recognize Him, but all the more fascinatingly because of that, all the more compellingly and hauntingly....Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it is. In the boredom and the pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness; touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace."
- fredrick buechner
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
London Bridges
Good morning Memphians!
Here in this fabulous city it is 11:45 and I am procrastinating a science paper, but in memphis I believe most of you are scurrying around your houses getting ready for the day.
Sorry my post is late this week, I had a very busy weekend that you will read about in a second and was consumed with researching Aristotle and ancient medicine for my paper that I need to finish by thursday so I will be able to enjoy my weekend in Munich. I know, what a hard life I lead.
This weekend I was reminded of what a wonderful life I do lead. It was reunion week in London as all of my friends reconvened in London for the one and only Azzurra Alliata's 19th birthday. I'm incredibly jealous she has almost an entire year of life more than I do. Friends flew and trained in from Switzerland, Italy, Germany, it was a fabulous three days of fellowship and remembrances of times had. New memories and incredible pictures (shown below :) ) were created, something our "group" has become known for in the pepp circuit.
Friday, when everyone arrived, we took an incredible boat tour of the Thames and saw all of the wonderful touristy things like the London Eye, Big Ben, the London Bridge, etc. Then we ate at my absolute favorite pub in the world Trafalgar Pub on Kings Road, I will be taking anyone who visits me there immediately! Then we went to a club in the Oxford Street area called Alta, luckily, Zu, with her great connections had been given a few promoter contacts and we were able to secure a table, the only way to go out as far as I'm concerned. Very fun!
Saturday was the absolute best. We had a huge picnic in Hyde Park and witnessed one of the most hilarious things I've seen in my entire life. There was a group of women celebrating a Hen Party, bachlorette party in "american", near us and they were doing something called Grass Skiing. Its basically exactly what it sounds like. All of the women had helmets and pads on and were "skiing" down many of the rolling hills by the water where we were. Most often they would fall on the way down. Needless to say, it was one of the most entertaining things to witness.
Wee took the group to a few museums they wanted to visit and then we went to The QUEENS RESIDENCE, as its known, and took some great photos in Green Park and outside of the gate. This was followed by an early dinner and back to Zu's friend's, Arabella's apartment to just relax after such a late night on friday. Sunday, we took the gang to a great market and they brought Azzurra a cupcake and a present and we sent them on their way!
At Pepperdine Abroad, we have "free" aka it comes in the tuition bill, meals three nights a week with the group. This is something my friends and I dread, walking into a restaurant with 50 annoying American students who all want their salads without pine nuts and cheese pizza at the Indian restaurant. HOWEVER! Once a month, we are taken on mystery dinners, where the group is ten people and one of the faculty members takes the group to a secret locale. Last night was our first mystery dinner and we signed up to go to a traditional fish and chips place with Jenny, who is the assistant director of the program around 28 and very sweet. IT WAS FAB! I DIE! Better than any catfish I've every had and if you love green peas and steak fries like I do, then this was the place to be! YUM! An excellent change from group dinner if I don't say so myself.
We, by we I mean myself, Claire, and of course Zu, returned to the house and surprised Azzurra with a red velvet cake from Hummingbird's and the pink chiffon dress we saw her trying to bargain for at the market we went to on Sunday :)
Tonight, the most celebratory night of all, we are going to Cipriani, an amazing Italian restaurant that also resides in New York and is opening in B Hills soon. Famous for their desserts, amazing pastas, and known most of all for their bellinis. I am told I will never be the same! Then we are going to see the September Issue, which is a documentary about the creation of the largest edition of the magazine Vogue. Basically tonight= heaven for us :)
Back to reality on wednesday when I HAVE TO FINISH MY PAPER and most of all start a diet that will be put on hold again for the weekend and recommence monday. ugh.
School is going very well and I am enjoying all of my classes, especially English where we have been reading plays, four so far, and will start attending them shortly. In a month or so, we are supposed to take everything we have learned and write our own, one act play, I AM SO EXCITED, I love doing that sort of thing! Humanties is great, we are learning about the Black Death, more in detail than I did in high school. The most interesting fact so far is that many believed the Jewish community was responsible because so many of the Christian leaders were dying and the townspeople began burning entire communities of Jews. This was on such a large scale that it is estimated more Jews were killed during this time than the Holocaust, three fold.
I am loving learning history over again from a different perspective, it is making my world view much more succinct.
The most exciting thing is my Poly Sci class. Even though that man makes us read billions of pages of billions of different books and articles and nonsense, I am learning so much AND we will be touring Parliament soon :) WOOHOO. So into that!
Something else that I will share is the London fall program also has a Law section. The students are here for their classes and in the library, but don't live here; however their director, a fab woman named Coleen something, has her office here. I STALK HER. She is always on the BBC doing conferences and she worked in Washington for a number of years with Condleezza Rice, gag me. BUT I love her, even though she wears suits. My goal is to strike up a convo with her and become BFFS. Definitely a great connection, maybe she can lead me in the direction of what I want to do with my life, when I figure this out. SO that is my goal for the semester, besides making good enough grades for grad school and seeing the world, blah blah blah. :)
Love to you all! Here are some photos of what I've shared with you!
xoxo and CHEERS from London,
Carson
The London Eye
Big Ben
The "new" London Bridge, because the original is just a straight across cement, ugly bridge.
Our picnic in Hyde Park
Chelsea, Zu, and I at the river after our picnic
Chelsea and I on the boat tour!
Full length, because I'm vain :)
from the left: Me, Hanna, Chelsea, Azzurra, Claire, and Jordann out on friday night
In the beautiful Green Park, with Chelsea and Zu
I'm so happy that I amma Kappa Kappa Gamma...
Jordann, Chelsea, and I KKG LOVE!
roomie love! Zu and I
B'ham palace
Chels and I at the palace
standing on the gate of the palace.
from left: claire, myself, jordann, chelsea, julianne, kelly
and then we dance...
on the steps of our beautiful house, Sunday, before chelsea had to leave
"London by night, is the most beautiful sight."
still loving LONDON!
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
a quick hello!
Hi! Just popping in to make everyone aware of a few things that I left out of my blog from sunday because I was rushing of course :)
1. I am allergic to horses. Who knew, not me! My face became a giant splotchy red ballon, my eye became blood shot and glassy, and I sneezed for about an hour. On a positive note, I went straight to the doctor AND I was immediately seen. IT WAS ALL FREE! Free visit AND free allergy medicine. Look at that, how cool! So being the person I am I went home and researched the UK healthcare system. Here is what I learned: -It is known as public healthcare, this is different from universal healthcare because the hospitals are ALSO owned by the government.
- It is incredibly easy to get seen at the emergency room or at any doctor's clinic; however if you have a serious disease or a need for a surgery, i.e. cancer, hip replacement, IE anything that would cost around 20,000 pounds or more, then getting treatment is much more difficult.
- I loved my experience, hopefully the only one, with the UK healthcare industry, but its obvious that it would not work in the US because we first need to get everyone on health insurance aka 45 million individuals. Good luck America, I might stay across the pond.
Now, on with the blog.
Other wonderful news. Azzurra, my roomate's, birthday is next monday and seven of our closest friends are flying in from Switzerland to celebrate this weekend! It should be a fabulous time!
We got blankets as well as a YUMMY smelling diffuser for our room. I wish I could send the fragrance over the blog because IT IS INCREDIBLE.
Back in the bu, Kappa Kappa Gamma just got the most incredible new pledge class and I am so proud of them! I cannot wait to meet the amazing new girls, one is even from Tennessee, woohoo! I'm a proud Kappa this week! I sent them lots and lots of love and congratulations from London as did all of the abroad girls!
In other news, I just finished writing my first paper of the year on Torture for my political science class, it was a real downer. I have enjoyed reading all of the plays for my Modern British Drama english class. It is a nice change from Crime and Punishment and other gigantic books that I had to read in my high school classes.
I thought I would share with everyone my schedule for the month so you know where I am planning to go!
September 25th-27: EVERYONE COMES TO LONDON!
October 2-4: Munich, Germany with Claire and lots of my abroad friends for Oktoberfest
October 9-11: Rome with Azzurra for Orsini Ball
October 11-15: Field trip to Athens, Greece and cruise of Greek isles with the program :)
November 4-8: Fall Break, undecided.....send me an email of ideas. So far honorable mentions are Scotland, Venice, Prague, Copenhagen. We will see.
November 13-15: MY BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION, florence and montalcino Italy. We are going to Azzurra's cousin's vineyard in a region of tuscany. Zu has promised me I can jump in the grapes like Lucy.....I am holding her to this. It is my birthday wish.
November 26-29: Parent's Weekend, MOMMA BYRD IS COMING FOR MY 20th BIRTHDAY!!!!
These are the scheduled plans as of now, I will notify everyone as more plans emerge!
I have been listening to Uptown by Prince and Its Hard to Live in the City by Albert Hammond Jr.
They are great.
Love you all, Cheers from londontown!
1. I am allergic to horses. Who knew, not me! My face became a giant splotchy red ballon, my eye became blood shot and glassy, and I sneezed for about an hour. On a positive note, I went straight to the doctor AND I was immediately seen. IT WAS ALL FREE! Free visit AND free allergy medicine. Look at that, how cool! So being the person I am I went home and researched the UK healthcare system. Here is what I learned: -It is known as public healthcare, this is different from universal healthcare because the hospitals are ALSO owned by the government.
- It is incredibly easy to get seen at the emergency room or at any doctor's clinic; however if you have a serious disease or a need for a surgery, i.e. cancer, hip replacement, IE anything that would cost around 20,000 pounds or more, then getting treatment is much more difficult.
- I loved my experience, hopefully the only one, with the UK healthcare industry, but its obvious that it would not work in the US because we first need to get everyone on health insurance aka 45 million individuals. Good luck America, I might stay across the pond.
Now, on with the blog.
Other wonderful news. Azzurra, my roomate's, birthday is next monday and seven of our closest friends are flying in from Switzerland to celebrate this weekend! It should be a fabulous time!
We got blankets as well as a YUMMY smelling diffuser for our room. I wish I could send the fragrance over the blog because IT IS INCREDIBLE.
Back in the bu, Kappa Kappa Gamma just got the most incredible new pledge class and I am so proud of them! I cannot wait to meet the amazing new girls, one is even from Tennessee, woohoo! I'm a proud Kappa this week! I sent them lots and lots of love and congratulations from London as did all of the abroad girls!
In other news, I just finished writing my first paper of the year on Torture for my political science class, it was a real downer. I have enjoyed reading all of the plays for my Modern British Drama english class. It is a nice change from Crime and Punishment and other gigantic books that I had to read in my high school classes.
I thought I would share with everyone my schedule for the month so you know where I am planning to go!
September 25th-27: EVERYONE COMES TO LONDON!
October 2-4: Munich, Germany with Claire and lots of my abroad friends for Oktoberfest
October 9-11: Rome with Azzurra for Orsini Ball
October 11-15: Field trip to Athens, Greece and cruise of Greek isles with the program :)
November 4-8: Fall Break, undecided.....send me an email of ideas. So far honorable mentions are Scotland, Venice, Prague, Copenhagen. We will see.
November 13-15: MY BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION, florence and montalcino Italy. We are going to Azzurra's cousin's vineyard in a region of tuscany. Zu has promised me I can jump in the grapes like Lucy.....I am holding her to this. It is my birthday wish.
November 26-29: Parent's Weekend, MOMMA BYRD IS COMING FOR MY 20th BIRTHDAY!!!!
These are the scheduled plans as of now, I will notify everyone as more plans emerge!
I have been listening to Uptown by Prince and Its Hard to Live in the City by Albert Hammond Jr.
They are great.
Love you all, Cheers from londontown!
Sunday, September 20, 2009
"Just Waiting 'Til the Shine Wears Off"
"Every chance that you get is a chance you seize" - Coldplay
What I'm Listening To:
Green Eyes - Coldplay
Life in Technicolor - Coldplay
The Scientist - Coldplay
Lost - Coldplay
The Hardest Part - Coldplay
Viva la Vida - Coldplay
Fix You - Coldplay
Well, I have now successfully completed my first week in LONDON! It's been the best time I have ever had!
Classes started on Monday and we went to the British Museum for one of my science classes and the National Gallery for one of my humanity classes. My humanities professor, Rachel Barnes, is very well known throughout London and the fourteen of us sit around a painting each week as she spends thirty minutes explaining everything about it. A crowd usually gathers because they want to hear Rachel's interpretation of the painting. It is incredible to be a part of such a unique experience each week.
We have been eating at some lovely restaurants this week. Aubaine was a great French/Italian place and Jaks, I mentioned it in my last post, is homey food, like lasagne. Also i have discovered a wonderful frozen yoghurt (English spelling) shop called Snog that makes it feel a little more like LA as well as a great cookie shop, Ben's cookies. I already told you about Hummingbird's, the cupcake shop, YUM YUM!
We are starting to get very well accustomed to the city and I can now say I know how to navigate the tube perfectly. Still working on the bus, its a little tricky.
The grand finally of my week was Saturday. We went shopping on Oxford Street and took the bus. There was a bomb threat on one of the bus queues way ahead of us so the buses shut down and we walked down oxford street looking at twenty to forty red buses just sitting in the streets as the bomb squad arrived. Typical london I'm told, and in typical London fashion, everyone continued their shopping because nothing was wrong.
THEN, we hopped on the tube and headed to Wimbley Stadium for the Coldplay Jay Z concert. IT WA THE MOST AMAZING SHOW EVER. We only bought our tickets two days before the show and were in the general admission standing room only section. Somehow we managed to move our way all the way to the front, about four people from the stage. AMAZING!
Both Jay Z and Coldplay were the best and they performed all of my favorite songs. It was a lifechanging performance. Wimbley is an open air stadium so at one point, of course, it rained. It was during two songs. One called Fix You and the other, Life in Technicolor. I can honestly say this was more than a concert, it was an experience. I laughed, I cried, I sang my heart out and danced in the rain with my girlfriends and 17,000 other people all feeling the same thing. This was as close to Woodstock as I will probably ever get. BLISS.
This morning we went to grab breakfast at le Pain Quotedian, a great little cafe if you are ever in L.A. or New York, and came back to the house where I just completed some reading for Humanities and Political Science. Azzurra and I are about to read "The Birthday Party" aloud for our English class.
A lazy Sunday is nice for a change.
Claira, Azzurra, and I out for Scott's birthday
its raining!
the Rosetta Stone
cool street
the national gallery
Stonehenge
Us at the henge of Stones :)
Salisbury Cathedral
pretty flower market
I LOVE LONDON!
Aren't I a great photographer?
CHEERS!!
xoxo,
Carson
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
It's Raining, It's Pouring.
It's not Sunday, however I thought i would update before the homework gets ridiculous and we start traveling. ITS FINALLY RAINING TODAY! So exciting, maybe not in a few weeks, but today it is :)
Yesterday I went to the British Museum with my science class and we saw the Rosetta Stone, woohoo!
Lots of other wonderful things of course, but he wanted to show us the basic layout so we only spent a few hours and didn't see everything.
In about twenty minutes I am headed to the National Portrait Gallery for humanities and hopefully will not get lost! Sunday night we discovered a wonderful restaurant named Jaks, yes Jaks, not Jacks, via getting lost, so I don't mind it very much!
Tonight is my friend Scott's birthday so we are going out to celebrate somewhere, YAY finally some down time!
I start equestrian tomorrow at eleven my time five AM your time so say a prayer for me. They only teach riding english, typical, so I'm nervous! I hear you have to have good balance and that is not a strong point of mine, thanks mom.
I PROMISE PHOTOS ARE ON THE WAY, i just need to start taking more!
LOVE TO YOU ALL, CHEERS!
xoxo,
Carson
Yesterday I went to the British Museum with my science class and we saw the Rosetta Stone, woohoo!
Lots of other wonderful things of course, but he wanted to show us the basic layout so we only spent a few hours and didn't see everything.
In about twenty minutes I am headed to the National Portrait Gallery for humanities and hopefully will not get lost! Sunday night we discovered a wonderful restaurant named Jaks, yes Jaks, not Jacks, via getting lost, so I don't mind it very much!
Tonight is my friend Scott's birthday so we are going out to celebrate somewhere, YAY finally some down time!
I start equestrian tomorrow at eleven my time five AM your time so say a prayer for me. They only teach riding english, typical, so I'm nervous! I hear you have to have good balance and that is not a strong point of mine, thanks mom.
I PROMISE PHOTOS ARE ON THE WAY, i just need to start taking more!
LOVE TO YOU ALL, CHEERS!
xoxo,
Carson
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Getting Settled In!
Today Azzurra, Claire, and I have finally been able to settle in. Luckily, Azzurra was somehow able to get us the best room in the entire house! Room Eleven over looks the beautiful garden and while everyone else is stuck in a room with five other people we are all by ourselves :) Today we went to BOOTS, which is a combination of Walgreens and Sephora, to buy shampoo, etc. Then we went to Whole Foods to buy groceries and Whole Foods DELIVERS the food to our "flat" so we do not have to shlep through the streets of London with packs of water and lots of food. I LOVE IT!
Tomorrow classes start....bum bum. I am taking Humanities, Science as a Way of Knowing, English Modern Drama, American People and Politics, and Equestrian. I'm very excited about the way they have the classes set up because most of them are a lecture the first class of the week and then we go to museums for further reinforcement of the text the second class of the week. I am most excited about my English class because we have 8 plays that we are reading and four of them we are going to see the play in a theater here in London!
This friday we are taking a group fieldtrip to Stonehenge and I am VERY excited for that! So far the weather was been sunny and not too cold although I'm having to get used to the wind. I hear the rain is on its way and here to stay by the end of the week so I am enjoying the nice weather while I can.
So far the absolute best part of London is going to Harrods food emporium. Basically think of Willy Wonka's factory but with not only candy but meats and breads, cheeses, and amazing pastries. It is heaven!
I miss you all and hopefully this time next sunday I will have some photos to share!
Things I am discovering about London:
1. Eggplants are called Aubergines
2. Lebanese food is actually pretty good
3. Cupcakes are just as posh here as in L.A. aka Hummingbirds
4. You have to look at the OPPOSITE side of the street when you cross, very confusing
5. When you are going to South Kensington by bus you need to get on the one that says Kensington instead of South Kensington, which makes complete since.
xoxo,
Carson
Tomorrow classes start....bum bum. I am taking Humanities, Science as a Way of Knowing, English Modern Drama, American People and Politics, and Equestrian. I'm very excited about the way they have the classes set up because most of them are a lecture the first class of the week and then we go to museums for further reinforcement of the text the second class of the week. I am most excited about my English class because we have 8 plays that we are reading and four of them we are going to see the play in a theater here in London!
This friday we are taking a group fieldtrip to Stonehenge and I am VERY excited for that! So far the weather was been sunny and not too cold although I'm having to get used to the wind. I hear the rain is on its way and here to stay by the end of the week so I am enjoying the nice weather while I can.
So far the absolute best part of London is going to Harrods food emporium. Basically think of Willy Wonka's factory but with not only candy but meats and breads, cheeses, and amazing pastries. It is heaven!
I miss you all and hopefully this time next sunday I will have some photos to share!
Things I am discovering about London:
1. Eggplants are called Aubergines
2. Lebanese food is actually pretty good
3. Cupcakes are just as posh here as in L.A. aka Hummingbirds
4. You have to look at the OPPOSITE side of the street when you cross, very confusing
5. When you are going to South Kensington by bus you need to get on the one that says Kensington instead of South Kensington, which makes complete since.
xoxo,
Carson
Friday, September 11, 2009
Across the Pond.
"There is no moment of delight in any pilgrimage like the beginning of it." -Charles Dudley Warner
What I'm Listening To:
London By Night- Greg Laswell
I'll Be Seeing You- Billy Holiday
You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go- Bob Dylan
In This City- Iglu and Hartey
I'm finally in Londontown! I'm so excited to take all of you along for my journey by way of the written word :) In order to get you acclimated with my new life in London, I thought it would be important to introduce you to my favorite girls that will be accompanying me throughout the experience this year!
The culprits:
Azzurra, the roomie
Chelsea, the bestie
Chelsie and Spencer, the duo
(brunette) (blonde)
Taylor and Jordann, the blonde swiss beauties
Lauren, Kelly, and Julianne, the brunette swiss beauties
I could not ask for a better group of ladies to spend a year with in Europe! As the year progresses I'll be sure to include photos of the people who will become great friends along our journey and, of course, all of the incredible places we will go!
So far the house is AMAZING! I hope to add some pictures next week as we are currently in orientation OVERLOAD for the next two weekends.
GET READY LONDON!!
xoxo, Carson
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