Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving Family and Friends!

Joel and I missed everyone a lot...but we did get to celebrate a bit here. Our celebration officially started on Wednesday night when we went to see a play called the The War Horse.



It was very interesting an unlike any play we had ever seen before. The puppeteers working the horse were absolutely amazing.

Joel had to be in class all day and I had the traditional Thursday and Friday off. So Thursday morning I woke up early and made traditional stuffing (the kind my mom does at home) and put it in the oven. The house smelled like Thanksgiving all day which was nice. This is Joel Thanksgiving morning looking SUPER cute with his new haircut. (Sarah where were you when we needed you??)



Then we left to join the Pepperdine crowd for a traditional dinner in Imperical College (just across the street from the Pepperdine campus). We had a feast. We spent the evening chatting with friends and watching football on the big screen. After dinner a few friends came back and enjoyed an evening of hookah on our patio.















Friday we set off early with the Pepperdine crowd again, this time for a day trip to Windsor. Apparently the Queen really feels the most at home at Windsor and treats Buckingham Palace like an office. Before getting to Windsor we were taken to a JFK memorial. London gifted the US land to use as a memorial. There is a step for every year of JFK's life leading to a stone plaque in his honor. In the same area we also got to see where the Magna Carta was signed! Then we boarded the coach (not called a bus in London) and headed to Windsor. Windsor is both a town and the castle. We toured the castle starting with the Queen's doll house (which is a miniature of Windsor!) you cant take pictures but it was so amazing we did buy the souvenir book so we can share it will everyone when we get back. Next we toured the rooms of the castle, the most impressive being the Hall of Battle (where all the weapons are displayed so an enemy entering would be humbled by the power of the Queen). Other than that I really like Buckingham Palace and Versailles as far as castles go better. We then walked around the town and stumbled upon a place the served Turkey, stuffing and cranberry sandwiches (which was amazing since we were all a bit bummed that we would not get these this year) and the best part was they had no idea that it was the day after Thanksgiving (they always have it on their menu).

Here is Joel enjoying his sandwich.



Saturday and Sunday have been mostly spent around the house as it is pouring down rain and Joel is studying for finals! Tomorrow we may venture out to see Tower of London (which houses the crown jewels!)

See you all in 3 weeks from tomorrow!

Christmas World at Harrods

Last night Joel came home and said we should go to Harrods and pick our annual Christmas ornament. I thought we would find ornaments in the Harrods gift shop downstairs seperate and small compared to the rest of the department store. Just to make sure we asked where we would find ornaments, and were instructed to Christmas World on the second floor...Harrods does not disappoint.



This Christmas, Harrods is celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Wizard of Oz and Christmas World is divided into special areas, each echoing different themes from the film.

Peruse 2,000 decorations and festive gifts, including a selection paying homage to the Yellow Brick Road, Ruby Slippers, Emerald City and Somewhere over the Rainbow, plus traditional décor.

Joel and I will be headed back with the camera to show you how amazing it truly is. Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukah.

The Ceremony of the Keys

The Ceremony of the Keys is the traditional locking up of the Tower of London and has taken place on each and every night, without fail, for at least 700 years. The importance of securing this fortress for the night is still very relevant because, although the Monarch no longer resides at this royal palace, the Crown Jewels and many other valuables still do!

Nicole, a student at Joel's school wrote in for a group of us to do this, as it takes about 6-8 weeks to get tickets. We were at The Tower of London on a night with a full moon. It was an unforgettable experience to watch the ceremony and be a part of the history.

Here are some pics of the tower, and me with a beefeater.

Puttin' on the Ritz

The Ritz is just 2 short tube stops from our house, but upon site seeing our first weeks in London we were denied entrance to even look inside, as you had to be up to their dress code to even enter. So try try again...



Several of the girls Joel goes to school with had mentioned doing a high tea in London in those first weeks here. So we decided once everyone was back from traveling we would arrange it. Last weekend was the last trip for us, so we returned our thoughts to high tea in London. Sasha (one of the girls) looked at The Ritz and booked us into the last spot the Ritz had available for while we were in London.

Saturday Hannah, Sasha and Stephanie and I all dressed up and met at the Ritz for tea. It is extremely proper so you much check your coat before being seated. Once seated in the golden inlaid dining room we were brought our tower of treats and given our choice of array of teas.






We tried, Lemon and Sage tea, Passion Fruit and Orange Blossom, Rose tea, Darjeeling, and the house special. The tower of goodies started with four different finger sandwiches for each, all on different bread, then we were brought fresh scones with jam and clotted cream and finally we were treated to two platters of mini desserts which we all shared. There were fruit tarts, napoleons, raspberry glaces, chocolate layer cakes, and fresh raspberries Chantilly cream on a pistachio cake.



Everything was lovely. We chit chatted and enjoyed out afternoon. Once we left we completed the day by doing some window shopping. London is all decorated for Christmas and we saw the most beautiful street all decked out.

Iceland

Friday afternoon we took off for Iceland on a 3 hour flight with 8 other Pepperdine students. We arrived in Iceland and took a taxi to our hotel. The cab driver played tour guide for the entire hour drive, which was very amusing but he did have a good bit of advice on a restaurant for us to eat at. So we dropped off our bags and headed out to see the city walking into the main square for dinner. Dinner was fabulous, everyone trying different Icelandic delicacies. There was puffin, whale and I kid you not rotten shark.

Saturday we slept in had breakfast at a hotel and walked the harbor of Iceland. We got back to our hotel just in time to change to go the Blue Lagoon. The Blue Lagoon is a man made lagoon attached to a spa, which is pumped full of natural hot spring water. The water is constantly replenished and runs between 100-110 degrees at all times. Iceland was sooooo cold this was an excellent way to warm up. Our pack of 11 got into the Blue Lagoon and quickly painted our faces with white silica mud masks (hey in Iceland...) anyway everyone was roaming around the lagoon together, neck deep in water with white masks on (boys included) it was sooooo funny. There was a steam room which we all enjoyed as well as we got to watch the sunset (as it sets at like 4pm there was only generally about 6 hours of daylight per day). We finished at the Blue Lagoon and got back to our hotel to catch the Northern Lights tour. Seeing the Northern Lights takes a bit of luck the atmospheric conditions have to be just perfect. We were very lucky and were able to see the Northern Lights that night. The light changes shape and moves; it's incredible. With the naked eye it looked like a bright blue/gray cloud, however Joel's camera was able to capture the slime green and vibrant purple colors. Joel really worked hard to capture the light as it takes a special technique with the camera and it was soooo cold and windy you could hardly stand, but the trooper he is stayed out there for an hour taking pictures.

Sunday we caught the golden circle tour. We started at a power plant, Iceland is completely green using the natural hot water springs as a power source. We left the power plant to see amazing waterfalls. It was extremely cold so we took all the pictures we could before hopping back on the bus. The next stop was to see that natural geysers. These geysers put Old Faithful to shame (I am told as I have not seen Old Faithful). They erupt about every 5 minutes or so shooting high into the air. The water is boiling hot, but it is soooo cold outside when it lands it would freeze on the ground. Finally we went to see where 2 tectonic plates are separating Iceland (actually causing it to grow 2-3cm per year). The area is quite beautiful and really looked like fall, trees with bright yellow and orange leaves, ponds, and of course the mountain-like plates on either side of us. Again a local suggested a Tapas place for dinner. So a group of us went there to again experience the amazing seafood of Iceland. The lobster was the best I have had. We finished the night hanging out together before having to get up in the morning to fly home.

Iceland is never a place I would have thought to visit but it was sooo worth it. That is our last official trip while we are here in London. We plan to spend the rest of our time site seeing around London and enjoying the amazing city we live in. Everything is decked out for Christmas, including Harrods with their amazing window displays set for Christmas with the Wizard of Oz theme. They have even gone so far as to change the white twinkle lights to green twinkle lights.

We are trying to stay in the moment, but looking forward to coming home to see everyone. I am sure Thanksgiving will be especially hard, but we will be with Pepperdine for a traditional dinner, a day trip to Windsor and to see a play.

Sending you all lots of love

Bonjour

We took a train from London St Pancreas Station to Paris. It took a little over two hours. Once we got there we checked into our hotel and dropped off our bags. Joel and I wanted to see the Eiffel tower first so we hopped on the tube and took it to a viewing point of the Eiffel tower. It is absolutely breath taking.


We decided to go ahead and climb the tower. You climb 2 levels of stairs (major killer) and then take a lift to the top, over 900 feet above ground.

From there we went to the Arc de Triumph sooo amazing, you can see it from everywhere.

We walked from their down to Champs Elysees (the shopping is amazing- good lord what I could do with some money to burn). That walk took us to the Louvre gardens, and to the outside of the Louvre. It was getting cold so we left and headed back to the hotel. We got in and just really warmed up and headed back out to dinner. We ended up having a great meal at this Japanese restaurant-it was a total laugh watching Joel and I try to order Japanese food in french!!

The next day we started off at the Louvre. The Louvre is really cool, seeing all the famous works-its hard to believe they are real. We saw the Mona Lisa - honestly I would have to say I was underwhelmed...but there was some really amazing work there.






The Louvre is also connected to a mall, where they were opening the first Apple Store, the lines were miles long and the French were screaming and cheering! It was hysterical. From the Louvre we walked through Paris and saw Fauchon which is one of their famous food shops and La Duree, a famous patisserie. We also had Paris' best hot chocolate at Angelina. We made one more food stop at La Maison du Chocolat where we bought hand made chocolates including champagne truffles. We headed to Notre Dame and climbed to the top. The history is amazing there, and the bell tower is just unreal. The bell is over 13 tons. I felt like I was living in Victor Hugo's world. The gargoyles watching over Paris are absolutely enchanting.



We watched the sunset set at the top of Notre Dame and then made a mad dash to Museum d'Orsay which for me the highlight seeing Dega's Ballerina, as well as several of Van Gogh's painting including a self portrait.





After the museum we decided to head back to Champs Elysees for dinner, lets just say dinner was NOT good. When we got back to the room we had our champagne truffles and called it a night.





The next day we decided to take a day trip to Versailles. We took a train to Versailles. The chateau is soooo beautiful as are the grounds. The most amazing part was the hall of mirrors. If you get a chance google it or we will show pics when we can. The gardens at Versailles made the gardens at the Getty museum look like a preschool garden. Its unreal the sculpture and art involved in the landscape there.






Once we left Versailles we headed to the Musee Rodin where we saw The Thinker and Rodins Gates if Hell. To top off our day we headed to Mariage Freres the most famous loose leaf tea house in Paris, that has been around since the 1800s. We grabbed a bite on the street and headed back to the room for a quick rest. Because the Eiffel tower is celebrating its 120 birthday there is a special light show - so we went back out to watch the show. The Eiffel tower is even more beautiful at night all lit up. It was such a site to see it light up with different colors and effects. Of course we had to top off our evening with crepe stand treats, chocolate and banana crepes and fresh made churros.

The last day we were in Paris we decided to shop around the city. We went to some boutiques and walked around shops for most of the day - grabbing lunch in Fauchon before heading back to catch the train to London.

See our facebook pages for all the pictures

Holland, The Hague and Amsterdam

Hi everyone, we are just getting back and settled in from our trip to Holland I thought I would update you on our travels. Pictures will be up soon.

We left on Thursday night for Holland and got in in basically just in time to go to dinner and check in to our hostel. Joel's school had organized the trip so we were in a hostel but had our own room and it was much a like a bad motel, which was fine for one night.

The next day we got up early and went touring around all of the different courts in the Hague with the school. It was interesting but VERY tiring as I was in the process of coming down with a cold. Once we were done there we took a train into Amsterdam and had dinner as well as walked around the red light district. The red light district is unreal, you can buy pot and pot brownies from coffee shops, and get coffee from cafes, so you had to be aware of where you are going. Needless to say we stayed away from the coffee shops. Also there are all these windows lit by red lights with the prostitutes dancing around in bikinis selling themselves! I could not believe my eyes. There are gorgeous girls, fat girls, young and old.

So we left the red light district and headed to our hostel. We were sharing a room with 8 other pepperdine friends, which I guess better than sharing with 8 random people but the hostel was disgusting and I will never do it again. On Saturday we went to the Anne Frank museum which was amazing, the museum is actually the house she hid in and we saw her real diary!!! From there we did a walking tour of the city and grabbed some food. That night was Halloween so everyone got ready and we went out. We had a dinner of dutch pancakes and ice cream, and watched as our friends did a pub crawl. Everyone had a great time. Joel and some friends found a cigar place that sold cubans so they relaxed with a cappuccino and a cigar.

Sunday we went to breakfast for more dutch pancakes and then to the Van Gogh museum. His art was just amazing. He did over 800 paintings in just 10 years before killing himself. To see his original work was breath taking. It was rainy in Amsterdam so we got to the train station and ate and did one more walk around the red light district before heading home. Heading home is a process. We took a train to the airport. A bus to the other side of the airport, a plane into Gatwick, a bus from the plane to the terminal, another bus to the opposite side of the airport, a train to a tube station and a tube to a stop about 4 blocks from our flat. All said we left at 6pm and didnt get home until midnight! It was a long day.

We missed everyone and hope we get to talk soon. Joel and I will again be traveling this week to Paris, which I am really looking forward to!