This morning we woke up and decided we'd go wait in the lines at Wimbledon. Much to our surprise we got super lucky, got RIGHT in and got FRONT ROW seats! what what! Amazing.. We saw Ana Ivanovic play and she was amazing! Plus the other girl...we were getting ready to watch the Venus sisters play doubles but it got delayed b/c of the rain. So we might get a free refund anyway! Which would be totally sweet because that would mean we would get to go again! It rained sooo much and we were kind miserable but it was totally worth it! the pics can be found here:
http://missouri.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2172474&l=2f4be&id=15919537
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Friday, June 29, 2007
Oh jee what happened today...
Well, no class today. Woke up to news of the potential car bomb at Picadilly Circus which is right down the street from our classes. So good thing for sure. Pretty darn scary though. I'm sure everything will be and is fine. Today Jill and I went shopping across the street from our house and found some cute things. I got a sweater for the cold here and she got some shirts. After shopping we met up with Alissa down by London Bridge and walked across it. Then we went to Borough Market where they sell all of the yummy foods. It was such a huge place!! Cheese, bread, jams, beer, crepes, pasties, fish, fruits, veggies, vinegar, everything. So we ate our lunch there then went to the Tower bridge and walked across that. There were a lot of little rain clouds that would rain on us for like 5 mins then stop. Other than that it was an absolutely beautiful day! Once we crossed the Tower Bridge we took a look at the Tower of London, hopped back on the Tube and went to St. James Park (which is about 5 mins from our house) and walked down to see Buckingham Palace. It was beautiful! We took some pictures and decided we'd go there for a tour and maybe go for a run through the park since the Palace and Park were seriously no more than 5 mins from our house! (Just in the opposite direction we had be used to). After walking back, we all took showers, ate dinner together and now we're getting ready to go out for a night on the town. We are going to the opening of this pub called "Sonny's" they will have free Mojitos! But we have to go back early to catch either the tube or a night bus. Plus we are getting up early tomorrow for some more excitingness. I have enjoyed every minute here. I havn't been homesick at all! There were a couple times in the beginning I felt a little aprehensive but other than that it has just been fabulous. I love it. i can't wait for my mommy to come either!! I still miss youu.....
Airs
Airs
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Ok so I know I've been terrible at this...
I have written 7 entrys in my journal since the last one! I seriously am on on the go all day long. When we stop and have tea or just sit down for a minute i whip out my journal and jot down the bits that I can. I'll try and do BOTH journaling and blogging. I'm just so busy! I thought I was busy with school but we just sat down about 20 mins ago. We had been on the go from 10-3:30 sitting only for about 20 mins for lunch and 10 mins on a bench. Our class has been going really well. Today we went to the South Bank for the first time which is where parliament, Big Ben, the London eye, and all of that good stuff is. We worked on a "Bridge Project" where we were all split up into groups and went to the various bridges across the river. There we took all different shots. Today I used the Nikon we rented which is a pretty lofty yet amazing camera. I'm trying to upload those pictures as we speak. We're still working on coming up for a theme for our project. Each student with have 4 pictures from their theme printed. I'm still not quite sure how i want to narrow mine down. So far what I've really liked shooting have been children, brightly colored urban landscape, people interactions, alley way life, macro shots of still life, and some film stills. So that is basically what we've done today. Later this evening we're going on a "Jack-the-Ripper" walk so that will be pretty interesting. Plus free! If you didn't know already, the British exchange rate is TERRIBLE the dollar only goes 1/2 way here, so for example, the average shirt would cost you about 20 pounds which would equal right at 40 dollars. dang a lang.
Anyway, I guess I'll now catch up on the other exciting things from the past few days.
The night of my last post, some of us went to Nottinghill and took some pictures of the neighborhood. They can be found on that last facebook album. That area was so cute! The weird thing was they didn't have curtains so you could see inside their houses! Especially since they didn't have lawns. It would be amazing to live in London, super fun. But I don't see how anyone could raise a family inside the city. Especially since the tube (underground) is soooo fast paced, scary, and crowded. Anyone riding the tube is in between the ages of 15 and 60. It's definitly the easiest way of getting around and not too terribly expensive.
So anyway, after Nottinghill we went back to our house and went to sleep. The next day we went to the Westminster Student Graduate photography show. It was in this run down store house but it was amazing. Each person put their stories and a postcard with a sample picture that the viewers could pic up. Definitly made me want to know who was behind all of those cameras and photos. The photography assistant teacher is this lady named Eileen. She is sooo passionate about what she does it radiates.
The next day (26th) we went the the Harrow campus of Westminster which is just north of the city. We got a tour of the photography department and looked at slides of past student's pieces. After lunch at the campus we headed back to Oxford Circus, looked around at the shops then went to this comedy show. The comedy show was a live television deal and i guess is a pretty famous tv show in England. It's called Edinberg Live or something. It was great though and the host even talked to us from the stage! He asked each of us our name and when he came to my friends Lindsay and Jill and I, he asked us where we were from in the States and what we were studying. When we came back we booked our plans for PARIS! We are going friday the 13th of July and are taking the "Chunnel" under the water over to Paris. Yeah, amazing...and we get to have lunch on the Eiffel Tower, a cruise boat tour, bus tour, see Notre Dame and go to the Lourve! YEAH SWEET HUH! All for about 178 pounds....yeah its a lot. But totally worth it!
Ok now i think we're almost caught up
On the 27th, we were sent out on a project for class where we walked through the West End and SOHO area where Leicester Square and Carnaby St. are. The area of Soho was kinda shady but it has some GREAT alleys which is perfect for my theme. Leicester square is surrounded by all the best cinemas so I think we will try and go there to see Harry Potter. We tried to focus and find one shot of each of the following: urban landscape, portrait, still life, documentary shot, and film still. Once we got through Leicester Sq we were right at Trafalgar square. There we went to the National Gallery and will hopefully go back there saturday or sunday. There we saw some of the most famous paintings in the WORLD! Such as paintings by Erasmus, Raphael, De Vinci, Rembrant, and Jan Van Eyck. So awe inspiring!
So after that full and busy day we went back to the flat to get ready to see my now favorite musical...WICKED! This musical was absolutely breathtaking! I got the chills from it like 20 times from the music. I can't believe i hadn't seen it by now. But it's soooo cheap to get tickets here so we jumped on the opportunity! I still just get chills thinking about it. The music, dancing, effects, comedy, everything. VERY well put together.
Well I think it's time I sign off for now. I know this is just the stitching of the quilt that I'm making here but there really isn't any more i can do for the time being. I'm going to refuel and take a nap.
I'll try and write sooner! I miss all of you guys!
xoxox,
Erica
Anyway, I guess I'll now catch up on the other exciting things from the past few days.
The night of my last post, some of us went to Nottinghill and took some pictures of the neighborhood. They can be found on that last facebook album. That area was so cute! The weird thing was they didn't have curtains so you could see inside their houses! Especially since they didn't have lawns. It would be amazing to live in London, super fun. But I don't see how anyone could raise a family inside the city. Especially since the tube (underground) is soooo fast paced, scary, and crowded. Anyone riding the tube is in between the ages of 15 and 60. It's definitly the easiest way of getting around and not too terribly expensive.
So anyway, after Nottinghill we went back to our house and went to sleep. The next day we went to the Westminster Student Graduate photography show. It was in this run down store house but it was amazing. Each person put their stories and a postcard with a sample picture that the viewers could pic up. Definitly made me want to know who was behind all of those cameras and photos. The photography assistant teacher is this lady named Eileen. She is sooo passionate about what she does it radiates.
The next day (26th) we went the the Harrow campus of Westminster which is just north of the city. We got a tour of the photography department and looked at slides of past student's pieces. After lunch at the campus we headed back to Oxford Circus, looked around at the shops then went to this comedy show. The comedy show was a live television deal and i guess is a pretty famous tv show in England. It's called Edinberg Live or something. It was great though and the host even talked to us from the stage! He asked each of us our name and when he came to my friends Lindsay and Jill and I, he asked us where we were from in the States and what we were studying. When we came back we booked our plans for PARIS! We are going friday the 13th of July and are taking the "Chunnel" under the water over to Paris. Yeah, amazing...and we get to have lunch on the Eiffel Tower, a cruise boat tour, bus tour, see Notre Dame and go to the Lourve! YEAH SWEET HUH! All for about 178 pounds....yeah its a lot. But totally worth it!
Ok now i think we're almost caught up
On the 27th, we were sent out on a project for class where we walked through the West End and SOHO area where Leicester Square and Carnaby St. are. The area of Soho was kinda shady but it has some GREAT alleys which is perfect for my theme. Leicester square is surrounded by all the best cinemas so I think we will try and go there to see Harry Potter. We tried to focus and find one shot of each of the following: urban landscape, portrait, still life, documentary shot, and film still. Once we got through Leicester Sq we were right at Trafalgar square. There we went to the National Gallery and will hopefully go back there saturday or sunday. There we saw some of the most famous paintings in the WORLD! Such as paintings by Erasmus, Raphael, De Vinci, Rembrant, and Jan Van Eyck. So awe inspiring!
So after that full and busy day we went back to the flat to get ready to see my now favorite musical...WICKED! This musical was absolutely breathtaking! I got the chills from it like 20 times from the music. I can't believe i hadn't seen it by now. But it's soooo cheap to get tickets here so we jumped on the opportunity! I still just get chills thinking about it. The music, dancing, effects, comedy, everything. VERY well put together.
Well I think it's time I sign off for now. I know this is just the stitching of the quilt that I'm making here but there really isn't any more i can do for the time being. I'm going to refuel and take a nap.
I'll try and write sooner! I miss all of you guys!
xoxox,
Erica
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Monday, June 25, 2007
From my journal
I havn't had internet until now so i'll write what I put in my journal.
6/23/07
Now in London! Well, just outside Heathrow. Yesterday I left Springfield at 6:20 am in the morning, flew to Chicago then to JFK. JFK was crazy once I got into the 4th terminal where Virgin Atlantic was. There were so many random airlines but the planes were all double decker 747s! Our Virgin flight was seriously just like Austin Powers meets an Orbit commercial. There were 17 flight attendants and 380 passengers. All of the attendants were 6ft skinny beautiful british blondes in pencil red skirts. I got so exited and the trip started to feel so real once I heart their pretty accents!
I entered H.P. land for sure! Bloody Hell! Supposedly you can go to the castle, great hall, and random other places where the HP movies were filmed We're goin for sure! So far I have met 10 girls from sussex university and then 4 from Westminster where I'll be going. Today we landed the plane and went to our Hotel. I thought I was going to die of sleepyness. I had some coffee and it perked me up a bit once I got in my hotel room for orientation. The girls were all really sweet and fun. (there is only one guy in our group!(so far) and he's cool too.
On top of all this I had the BEST orange juice called JUICY fresh squeezed and amazing!
6/24/07
Last night (first day in...the hotel) after a long dinner in the hote some of the girls and I took a train to Richmond and walked around. It reminded me a little of the Plaza in KC meets the riverwalk but bigger wider. When I woke up today I felt still so tired even though i went to sleep at 10:30. We then met in the conference room for a safety orientation from Butler. We then had to say goodbye to the Sussex kids and the westminster kids jumped a bus to London. On the way we saw lots of pretty parks and beautfiul white apt. flats. We then arrived a the Wigram House. My room is absolutely beautiful! It's really small but has super high ceilings, 2 ceiling to floor windows and a little balcony. I'll post a pic of it asap.
We walked around once we unpacked and and took a 30 min walk after dinner to a pub to a welcome party hosted by our program director. He bought us all drinks and I had NO idea so he told me to buy a "London Pride" beer...yeah it was DISGUSTING. First legal drink was a serious let down. oh well i wont count it b/c it was BANASTY! First night of sleep after that went surprisingly well.
25/6/07
Orientation for school was this morning. We jumped the tube from Victoria Station to Oxford Circus (amazing area reminded me of Chicago) and went to our orientation location on the Regent St Campus of Westminster. I switched into the Photo class b/c the Fashion one TOTALLY was not me. I felt sooo uncomfortable and all these kids knew just about EVERYTHING there is about fashion and i had NO idea. So I talked to the photography teacher about my tragedy and he said he'd take care of it and switch me in! So for the rest of the day I had his class and then his assistant took us to the Undergrad grad's degree shows which were AMAZING. He said that these were some of the world's best... which was sooo sweet. Now some gals are sitting in my room and we're going to plan exciting adventures... so until then! LOVE YOU ALL! I'll put up pics asap!
6/23/07
Now in London! Well, just outside Heathrow. Yesterday I left Springfield at 6:20 am in the morning, flew to Chicago then to JFK. JFK was crazy once I got into the 4th terminal where Virgin Atlantic was. There were so many random airlines but the planes were all double decker 747s! Our Virgin flight was seriously just like Austin Powers meets an Orbit commercial. There were 17 flight attendants and 380 passengers. All of the attendants were 6ft skinny beautiful british blondes in pencil red skirts. I got so exited and the trip started to feel so real once I heart their pretty accents!
I entered H.P. land for sure! Bloody Hell! Supposedly you can go to the castle, great hall, and random other places where the HP movies were filmed We're goin for sure! So far I have met 10 girls from sussex university and then 4 from Westminster where I'll be going. Today we landed the plane and went to our Hotel. I thought I was going to die of sleepyness. I had some coffee and it perked me up a bit once I got in my hotel room for orientation. The girls were all really sweet and fun. (there is only one guy in our group!(so far) and he's cool too.
On top of all this I had the BEST orange juice called JUICY fresh squeezed and amazing!
6/24/07
Last night (first day in...the hotel) after a long dinner in the hote some of the girls and I took a train to Richmond and walked around. It reminded me a little of the Plaza in KC meets the riverwalk but bigger wider. When I woke up today I felt still so tired even though i went to sleep at 10:30. We then met in the conference room for a safety orientation from Butler. We then had to say goodbye to the Sussex kids and the westminster kids jumped a bus to London. On the way we saw lots of pretty parks and beautfiul white apt. flats. We then arrived a the Wigram House. My room is absolutely beautiful! It's really small but has super high ceilings, 2 ceiling to floor windows and a little balcony. I'll post a pic of it asap.
We walked around once we unpacked and and took a 30 min walk after dinner to a pub to a welcome party hosted by our program director. He bought us all drinks and I had NO idea so he told me to buy a "London Pride" beer...yeah it was DISGUSTING. First legal drink was a serious let down. oh well i wont count it b/c it was BANASTY! First night of sleep after that went surprisingly well.
25/6/07
Orientation for school was this morning. We jumped the tube from Victoria Station to Oxford Circus (amazing area reminded me of Chicago) and went to our orientation location on the Regent St Campus of Westminster. I switched into the Photo class b/c the Fashion one TOTALLY was not me. I felt sooo uncomfortable and all these kids knew just about EVERYTHING there is about fashion and i had NO idea. So I talked to the photography teacher about my tragedy and he said he'd take care of it and switch me in! So for the rest of the day I had his class and then his assistant took us to the Undergrad grad's degree shows which were AMAZING. He said that these were some of the world's best... which was sooo sweet. Now some gals are sitting in my room and we're going to plan exciting adventures... so until then! LOVE YOU ALL! I'll put up pics asap!
Thursday, June 21, 2007
I'm leaving tomorrow!
Freakin' out yet so freakin' excited!
First flight leaves at 6:20 am out of Springfield
Springfield to Chicago
Chicago to JFK
(insert 7 hour layover before bording.......)
flight leaves JFK at 7:30p.m to London Heathrow~
First flight leaves at 6:20 am out of Springfield
Springfield to Chicago
Chicago to JFK
(insert 7 hour layover before bording.......)
flight leaves JFK at 7:30p.m to London Heathrow~
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Summer Address
Erica Embry
Wigram House
University of Westminster
Media, Arts, and Design and Liberal Arts
84-99 Ashley Gardens
Thirleby road
London SW1 1HH
England, U.K.
Wigram House
University of Westminster
Media, Arts, and Design and Liberal Arts
84-99 Ashley Gardens
Thirleby road
London SW1 1HH
England, U.K.
Monday, June 11, 2007
My camera broke
Playlist today:
Roll To Me Del Amitri
Please Turn Red Andy Davis
Save Tonight Eagle-Eye Cherry
The Special Two Missy Higgins
Tell Her This Del Amitri
You're the Ocean Teitur
Austin Blake Shelton
Roll To Me Del Amitri
Please Turn Red Andy Davis
Save Tonight Eagle-Eye Cherry
The Special Two Missy Higgins
Tell Her This Del Amitri
You're the Ocean Teitur
Austin Blake Shelton
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