Chilling at the Royal Chambers

Escaping the cold at The Pump House.

It is Saturday, November 17th, 

and tonight I am staying in Liverpool, England, 

home of the Liverpudlians (with their crazy Scouse dialect), 

Albert Dock, football fanatics, and The Beatles. 

It's a little bit random, I agree, especially if you aren't here to watch a football match (which I'm not). I'm here for the history and for a little bit of fun.

Today in a nutshell:

Julie, Lauryn, and myself at Albert Dock.

James, myself, and Lauryn showing our school pride.
Go Pirates! #BeSouthwestern

At The Beatles Story

You can hardly tell in this picture, but I am trying (badly) to play a giant piano
projected on the floor. Yes, this was supposed to be a children's activity,
but since there were no children around...

A ferris wheel!

Buildings in Liverpool city centre.

Liverpool is quite pretty at night, and in the day time, too!

Christmas lights are appearing all over the UK!

Lauryn and Julie at The Pump House pub near Albert Dock.

Mulled wine! The perfect way to warm up some frozen fingers.
This hot, tasty drink put me in the holiday spirit!

Cheers!

The chandelier above us...
I spilled wine all over my arm while attempting to take this picture.
Let's all take a moment to laugh at my expense.

My hostel is a little hole in the wall ironically named the "Royal Chambers" - but seriously, this place is a tiny door wedged between two stores. If you happened to blink as you walked by, you probably wouldn't even see it. However, I am SO incredibly pleased with it because it is peaceful, relatively clean, and it has awesome WiFi access for its guests, which is something that I go crazy for because I'm used to having pretty poor internet service over here in Europe. I feel like I'm sitting in the lap of luxury.

Besides all the traveling and sightseeing that I've been doing the last three months, a lot of my time is devoted to the incredibly large amounts of schoolwork and reading I'm assigned every week. And what classes am I taking? A total of four, which include:
1) World Civilizations I
2) A History of British Commodities and International Conflict
3) Theatricality
4) Understanding Modern Britain

I'm starting to freak out a little bit about a 6-8 page paper due for my Commodities course on Thursday morning because I haven't started it at all. This isn't too surprising, since I am the queen of procrastination. However, since I will be leaving straight from class on Thursday to catch my afternoon train to Paris (yes, I am going to Paris next weekend!!), I'm stressed about both writing my paper and somehow packing for my trip... Because we all know I will be doing both those tasks on Wednesday evening. For now though, I will just relax and enjoy the rest of my weekend. I like to leave panic sessions for later, too.

So far, this is the effect that Liverpool has had on me:

Awesome, I know. These Lennon-esque glasses have to be the best cheap souvenir I've ever purchased. I got them earlier today at The Beatles Story, which is a museum in Liverpool that tells the entire Beatles story from start to finish. It was pretty interesting. Tomorrow we'll be going back to see a special exhibition put on by The Beatles Story in conjunction with Elvis Presley's Graceland that is all about Elvis and his immense influence on the Beatles themselves.

Anyway, I need to get busy relaxing, so I'll stop writing for now.

As the Scousers would say, 

ta ra, seeyafta*!

*good-bye, see you later!

-Les

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I'm Alive!

Dear Readers:

It is fall break in London for us weary American students, and thank goodness! I needed a break from school, and it came just in time.

Lauryn and I started out our holiday with quite a bang this past weekend, and no, it was not because we hit up any trendy clubs for some crazy Halloween mischief. No, no, instead we braved the cold and tried our hands at sailing for the very first time! 

The Elephant Boatyard. The name reminds me of
the "elephant graveyard" in the Lion King. Tee-hee.

We definitely got our sea legs on this trip, and some really numb fingers, too! A family friend of Lauryn’s can be thanked many times for giving us the opportunity to go sailing, and I can thank Deerest many times for inviting me along! Thank you, Deerest!

Lauryn giving me the thumbs up cause she's a happy sailor.

Point A is approximately where we began our journey, and we sailed over toward
Portsmouth, which you can see on the right-hand side of the map. 

We spent two days sailing a 40 foot yacht (the Ariel of Hamble) around Southampton Water going toward Portsmouth. Beginning at the Elephant Boatyard on the River Hamble, we sailed over to Portsmouth (I'm pretty sure we were out on the water about 5 hours) and stayed the night there. Portsmouth is notable for being a major naval port for hundreds of years. It is home to the HMS Warrior and Lord Nelson's HMS Victory (his flagship at the famous Battle of Trafalgar!), both of which we were able to see. Portsmouth Harbour was also an extremely important embarkation point for the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944. It was SO exciting to know that we were sailing in the same place that has been home to so many monumental historic events! We also got to witness some yacht racing when we headed out of Portsmouth on Sunday morning, and that was pretty cool, too!

The HMS Warrior

It was crazy cold! I don’t think I’ve made this clear enough: I thought I was going to get frostbite and die… Really. However, once I realized that the cold was simply painful and not fatal, I had a wonderful time! I can only imagine how awesome sailing in warmer weather must be, and now I’m dying to try it.

All bundled up! I was still freezing, but happy.

Our last few hours sailing on Sunday; everything was so serene that you couldn't
even tell the yacht was moving except for the fact that you would eventually
pass landmarks. It was a strange experience.

Once we made it back to London (fingers and toes intact) and had a good rest, we were faced with the prospect of Halloween, no costumes, and no plans. Wonderful. 

I was just myself for Halloween! Well, for the majority of the day...

We did manage to get a little festive and dressed up a bit (We live next to a costume shop… It’s literally across the street from us), but once we ventured out into the cold London night around 6:30 p.m. and saw the massive traffic jam on our street (highly unusual), we called it quits. We threw in the towel. No crazy Halloween parties, no sir. No, instead we stayed warm inside with the help of some popcorn, crisps, and perfectly chilled Peroni and Budweiser… Yes, we stayed warm with ice-cold beer – ironic, I know. 

Halloween!
We weren't sure what I was supposed to be, so we went with "gypsy."
Clearly a gypsy with a taste for American beer.

The Addams Family and The Sixth Sense kept us company... It was actually the first time for me to see either of those movies! Hooray for movie nights, monsters with family problems, and little boys that see dead people. So that was last night… Happy belated Halloween everybody! I celebrated post-Halloween by going to see a wonderful musical, Wicked! Lauryn and I went to the matinee performance at the Apollo Vic, and it really was very entertaining and such a nice way to spend the day.

A fun day at Wicked!

It's red poppy season over here in the U.K.
People wear red poppies in honor of Remembrance Day, which is like
Veterans Day in the United States; you can find these
 little plastic poppies being sold around every corner
as part of The Poppy Appeal to support the Royal British Legion.

Aside from all that, I have done some museum wandering this week as well. I made a return visit to the Victoria & Albert Museum, and I got a real treat when I stumbled into the galleries devoted to Britain. I just love the rich history of the U.K., which is one of the reasons I’m here in the first place! I’m definitely going back for more soon! I am planning to see the Hollywood Costumes exhibition at the V&A very soon, which will be super interesting and fun for me! I also had the chance to visit the Saatchi Gallery for the first time on Halloween, and it was AMAZING. I adored it. I wish I could take this place back to the States with me.

My reflection in a work of art on display at Saatchi.

Little Black Jacket: an amazing exhibition at Saatchi Gallery.

Below are just a few of the photographs I saw at the Little Black Jacket exhibition:

Joan Smalls, Puerto Rican model

Elizabeth Olsen, American actress

Alexa Chung - British TV personality, model, and contributing editor for British Vogue;
Natalia Vodianova, Russian model;
Elle Fanning, American actress

Vanessa Paradis - French singer, model, and actress
This was one of my favorites!

Anna Wintour, English-born Editor-in-Chief of American Vogue

I suppose that's all for now. I'm really looking forward to my weekend - I'm taking a day trip to Cambridge on Saturday, and I am very excited!

I hope everyone had a very 

happy, festive Halloween!

xoxo,

Les