I'm Still An Animal...

For those of you who know me well...you'll know that I have a slight obsession with finding new music. On Sunday Jen and I went to see Sara Bareilles at Liberty Hall and had an amazing time. Through a crazy turn of events we were able to meet her! She was so down to earth and chill. (There's a point to all of this I promise).

Jen and I with Sara!

While we were with Sara, we met her band, including her guitarist. Little did I know, that this same guitarist would be blowing up the blogosphere the next day.

Javier Dunn's (In the AC/DC shirt) cover of Miike Snow's "Animal" was on the homepage of every single music blog I follow. You can listen to it here.  It's pretty amazing.

Here is a vid of Sara singing her hit "King of Anything."

On some other notes, I have recently discovered breadpeople. Hilarious. and it's exactly how it sounds. 

Since burlesque,  I haven't gotten any new nail polish so I felt obliged to grab some of the new Essie Winter 2010 collection. I opted for Smokin' Hot and Luxedo. Perfection. 

Until next time...

cb

My Moon My Man...

This week I was set on attempting a nail challenge. I saw this photo in Glamour magazine and knew I had to try it.

I've seen this "moon manicure" or "reverse french manicure" before, especially on one of my favorite sites, All Lacquered Up. 

Here's a how to on how to do it, which I vaguely followed. My result?

It's just ok for now, but I want to keep trying at it until it looks perfecto. I used Essie Mademoiselle for the base and OPI Here Today, Aragon Tomorrow for the half moon.

On the new music front...

I'm trying out soundcloud for the first time to share with you a song I cannot stop listening to.

From Rihanna's new album, Loud, "Cheers (Drink to That)" is a stand out to me. I personally love the Avril Lavigne "I'm With You" sample, and it is a song that relaxes me, but gets me pumped up too!

Cheers (Drink to That)-Rihanna by cbatt

enjoy!

Introducing: Trends to Try

I'm gonna start up a new little section here, with trends I am dying to try. My first adventure will be Over the Knee Boots.

This style has been popping up all over campus lately and every time I see a good pair I feel myself getting jealous! Maybe this will have to be my treat soon. The hard part is finding a good pair for less than $400!

On my new music kick...

Check out this amazing mash up of Taylor Swift's "Mean" and Wiz Khalifa's "This Plane"

Listen here.

Oh, hi there

Well it has been FAR too long. I often contemplated finishing out my study abroad posts but then I realized, who would read it... I'm already back!

I also thought long and hard (well maybe not that long) about what to turn this into now that it no longer needs to serve as a diary. So I thought about what I like, what I care about it, and what I'm thinking- and that's what I'll blog about!

1) Halloween
Pretty deec this year, went as Rachel Berry from Glee and then as double rainbow on Saturday. It was fun to not really care if people recognized my costume and just have fun!

Rachel Berry on the show:


Me as Rachel Berry!


2) New tunes

"Love The Way You Lie Pt. 2" Rihanna ft. Eminem.

The follow up track to Eminem's hit song featuring Rihanna, the roles are now reversed, with Rihanna on lead and Eminem providing those rap lyrics we know and love


Although Disney's upcoming movie Tron doesn't reach out to me personally, I am excited for one thing- the music. The entire score to the movie will be written by Daft Punk and they will even have a cameo in the flick.

Check out one of the songs featured in the trailer here.

3) Mid-Term Elections
To be honest, I am just glad those awful commercials are over. But I did enjoy the more ludicrous commercials, but Kansas/Missouri didn't have anything like this

Welp, as I am in the library right now supposedly filling my brain with information about star clusters, black holes, and pulsars (ie; astronomy is awful) I guess I should get back to that!

that's all for now! And for those of you who read this solely during my study abroad time...keep reading!
cb

brrrrr

Yesterday at work I went from having no plans at all to being busy all night! After dinner, a group of KU girls and I went to Abbey Road! It really is funny when you get there because there are cars and traffic. Because of this, groups of four usually are standing at the famous cross walk waiting to walk across and take their picture and it is very stressful. Eventually the traffic lulled enough for us to get our picture taken! We then walked by Abbey Road Studios where the walls outside are covered with writing. I brought a marker for just this reason.

Us on Abbey Road!


With the Street Sign:



It was really fun to see what other people had written and see how many people do really love The Beatles!

Afterwards we had booked our evening at the Absolut Ice Bar!It was surprisingly difficult to find even though it was off of Regent street which is huge. As our time inside began, we each got a huge parka and gloves to wear inside. It really was freezing, at -5 Celsius or 27 Fahrenheit I was glad I wore boots and long sleeves. We claimed our drinks which were in glass cups, and my drink glowed in black light! All of the drinks were really strong as they were made with Absolut Vodka but they were yummy! We spent our remaining 30 minutes or so walking around and taking pictures and shivering in general. It was really funny and cool and I knew I would regret not going while I was in London!

So Cold!



Today during lunch I went on a mini-adventure to go vintage shopping back in Soho. It was a bit of a trek but I was determined. One shop was all really retro stuff but one thing really struck me. In the US I love going to vintage stores to find cool t-shirts and I was looking forward to getting some from the UK. Little did I know, that what is considered a 'cool' vintage shirt are things like Hard Rock Cafe Las Vegas, Busch Gardens Florida, Everything's Bigger in Texas, YMCA, etc. All of the shirts were American! I gave up on finding some type of cool shirt from the UK and tried the next place. This place was more like designer clothing and shoes second-hand and I ended up buying a pair of jeans for £2! I hurried back to work and finished up the day.

We had big plans tonight! Molly, Kelsie and I were set to go to The Globe to see Henry IV Pt.1. I didn't know that much about but I assumed what could be better than watching a Shakespeare play where they were meant to be acted. Molly and I met for dinner before and grabbed some yummy tapas near the river, then went inside. We splurged for the upper gallery, as seats are opposite at the Globe- cheap bad seats at the bottom, the higher up the more expensive. The show was so amazing! I feel like now that I've seen Shakespeare performed at The Globe, nowhere else can be as good. Our seats were perfect and the show was better than I could have ever imagined it. Busy week but so glad we're fitting everything in!

View from our Seats!


View of everyone who stood for 3+ hours!


More exciting London things to come this week...

cb

Lasts of London

This week and weekend my roommates and I tried to squeeze in the last bits of what we wanted to do in London!

On Thursday Rachel and I visited Molly's work to have a going away Barbecue! They made traditional hamburgers, although not the same as in the US. Molly and I had made Puppy Chow to surprise everyone with. The Brits went crazy for it! They kept asking how we made it and why it was called Puppy Chow. It was just as good as at home but the ingredients were SO hard to find. No chocolate chips, we got 'icing sugar,' not powdered, and we could only get wheat Chex or 'Shreddies' as the cereal is called here. Peanut butter is also not the same, it's much more grainy and less sweet. We decided to just hangout at our building with some other kids Thursday night to save our energy for the weekend.

Friday began with our lecture, and in the afternoon we took a trip to the Victoria and Albert museum!The museum is huge and beautiful, very overwhelming. We started first with the fashion area, which houses all kinds of beautiful clothing and shoes from world famous designers. We wandered around through sculptures, architecture exhibits, and through the medieval exhibits. I wish we were able to spend more time there because there are just so many things to see. Definitely one of my favorite museums!

Fashion



Hall with Sculptures


Afterwards we headed to high tea at the Mandeville Hotel. This was one of my favorite things we've done yet! The tea was amazing and the food was incredible. The tea had the famous scones, tea sandwiches and sweets of all sorts. We were so full by the end of the meal but we had a great time.

Tea:


From there we went extremely tourist and stopped at the London Eye before going home. We were lucky in that only four other people were in our little 'pod' on the ride up. Although Molly wasn't a fan of heights at the Eiffel Tower, this wasn't too bad. The view was awesome and we were at the top just as the sun began to set. I would definitely recommend it to anyone visiting London.

The Eye:


Hey London:


View of Big Ben!


Friday night after much debate we took the tube to Soho with no plans. Almost immediately we were befriended by some very fabulous men who insisted we accompany them to a bar called G-A-Y. We had such a fun time talking with them as we waiting in the ridiculous line but eventually we all gave up on getting in. We parted from our new friends and went into Bar Soho which looked really fun. We grabbed some drinks but the dance floor was really crowded so we went upstairs. Little did we know we had interrupted a 'Stag Do' or as we know it a Bachelor Party. Nothing crazy like you would imagine, just a group of friends drinking and making the bachelor collect ridiculous things while wearing a tutu and a fanny pack. Regardless, they were very entertaining and we had a lot of fun in Soho!

In Soho:


Rachel with the Groom-to-Be (Check out the tutu)


Saturday it was a struggle to wake up so early, but we were determined to make it to Windsor. After a quick train ride, we arrived! The castle grounds are huge! We stopped for lunch at a funny little place- The Crooked House of Windsor, which as you can imagine is crooked. Then it was off to the castle! The tickets came with an audio guide so we were able to learn about everything while walking around. There is so much to see inside between the State Apartments where official business is done to the Drawing Gallery which houses many famous drawings by Da Vinci and other famous works. We waited in quite a long line to see Queen Mary's doll house at the castle which was insane! A full sized person could stand inside the doll house, and it has full plumbing, electricity and even tiny paintings that were completed by famous artists!Further inside, we saw the halls where banquets are held by the Queen and lots of other amazing rooms. Afterwards we walked around in a market in Windsor and I tried a Cornish pastry- delicious.

Me with Guards:


Castle Grounds (No Pics allowed inside!)


The train back made us a bit tired but we had to wake up since we had planned on going to Mahiki! Like Boujis that we went to a few weeks ago, Mahiki is a very famous club in London, apparently frequented by many celebrities. If we saw any however- we didn't know it. All of the bar staff wear Hawaiian shirts and the drinks are as tropical as can be! One of Rachel's drinks even came in a pineapple! At first it was a bit awkward since in order to sit down, you had to have booked and paid for a table. As it got more crowded we headed to the dance floor downstairs. We had so much fun and the DJ played crazy music, from Twist and Shout to Sweet Child of Mine, and then the obvious club music. Although it was rather expensive, it was a blast!

At Mahiki:


Word to the wise; Make friends with those who have bought a table:


Sunday we had another trip planned to Oxford! This train experience wasn't as pleasant but eventually we arrived. One of Rachel's coworkers supplied us with a list of musts in Oxford so we started off at The Vaults, a restaurant inside St. Mary The Virgin Church. Since Oxford University isn't just one school, we didn't know where to start so we picked up a self-guided walking tour map from the Tourist Information center to begin. It was a pound very well spent. The 'tour' took us all around and I proclaimed myself tour guide, reading the info to everyone. All of the colleges have a different background and we were able to walk through a few of them during the tour! We got our typical Oxford University shirts and souvenirs and went on to Christ Church College and Cathedral, the big ticket stop. Many scenes in Harry Potter were filmed here so it was ridiculously busy with other tourists. The school and cathedral are beautiful and huge! Before we left, we went up into the extremely difficult tower of St. Mary the Virgin to catch a view of the city! Our trip to Oxford was so fun and I'm glad we spent our last weekend going on these day trips.

Lincoln College:



Harry Potter Great Hall


Actual Great Hall


Getting a great view of Oxford!



This week will be extremely packed! Tuesday we are seeing a show at The Globe, Thursday is our 'Farewell Party' and then Friday we are going to go out to a final dinner! I'm sure we'll find other little bits to squeeze in to make the most of our last week.

Some Things are just a Mystery...

While we didn't spend this weekend in another country, it was still extremely busy.

Saturday we woke up very early to head off to Canterbury. This time, students from KU, Texas A&M and Chapman were all together. Our tour guide was amazing and we learned so much about London while we were driving through. On our way to Canterbury we even saw the brand new 2012 Olympic stadium! Canterbury is such a cute small town and very historical. The Medieval part of the city is surrounded by cement walls covered in sharp flint rock. We walked along this route into the heart of the city. The biggest tourist point seemed to be the Canterbury Cathedral. It was absolutely huge and had several giant gates surrounding it. We started off here and went through the cathedral, which included several gardens, and a crypt. We had free time for lunch so we grabbed some fish and chips that were better than our first try at the traditional food. During the rest of our free time we shopped and walked around.

Cathedral Gate:


Inside:


Molly and I:



After meeting back up with our tour guide, he began to take us through and show us different sites. Some of these included where the Magna Carta was signed, Homes of famous writers like Geoffery Chaucer (author of Canterbury Tales) and even a place where Queen Victoria was set up on a royal date! We made our way back to the bus and headed back to London.

Beautiful Canterbury:


I'm glad we were able to go to Canterbury because I don't think I would ever go there for a day trip if I had been on vacation because there are just so many trips to take from London!

Saturday night the four of us met up with our friends from Chapman who live in a different building. Since we had so much fun at Angel a few weeks ago, we decided to try it again. Rachel's friend from elementary school was in town so we all met up at The Bull. The bar was packed but a fun place to start out. After a drink we headed down the road and a small bar playing some serious oldies caught our attention. It was so fun to hear all this music and everyone was dancing. We ended the night at the same bar we had been to several weeks prior, but had never learned the name of. On Saturday nights however, they give you a stamp with the bar's name so you can't forget! Keston Lounge was similarly packed but we remembered why we liked it so much when we all got our amazing cocktails.

Rachel and I:


Molly and Kelsie:


On our way home I discovered a delicious end of the evening meal- mac n' cheese for 2 pounds. amazing.

Sunday we woke up a bit late and were ready to call off our plans when we realized we only had about 4 more days to do fun day trips so we got ready and left for Brighton! It was an hour train ride to the south of England and a very popular tourist spot for the English and basically everywhere! As we walked out of the train station we could see the ocean! Brighton is an adorable town with lots of shops and restaurants. We made a b-line for the beach (which is all pebbles!) and took in the view of the south side of the English channel. Rachel and I were even brave enough to put our feet in the freezing water! The sea was beautiful and although the beach wasn't the most fun to walk barefoot on, it was an interesting change to beaches in the US. Brighton has a huge pier with food, shops, arcades and rides! Feeling a bit famished, the group went to a restaurant down on the beach to share some snacks and drinks. We walked around the town a bit to see the shops and other attractions afterwards.

Brighton!


The Beach


Grabbing drinks


Tim and Kelsie were feeling adventerous so they wanted to try the crazy ride that swings you around over the water! The rest of us attempted the "crazy mouse" roller coaster that was surprisingly scary. After the ride-fest we looked for a good dinner stop. We settled at Bar De La Mer and while they didn't have the selection some of us might have liked, it all worked out. I split scallops with Rachel and had my first steak of the summer! Stuffed, we headed toward the train station but not without stopping to pick up some donuts that we couldn't resist.

Kelsie and Tim!


Bye Brighton


Once we arrived back at home in London, I discovered that I was bright red on my arms, back and chest! A cold shower helped and we all just passed out after an amazing weekend in England!

This week is our second to last week of work, and we are going to try and pack in a lot of activities in the week! During the weekend we are planning on heading to Windsor Castle and Oxford.

cb

Molly Takes a Tumble

This week went by pretty fast at work! I spent my time doing a variety of tasks from buying reviews of completed campaigns to collecting competitor information for a new pitch. I'm still enjoying everything and I'm just hoping I'll be able to really get inside some of my coworkers heads before the end of my time at MEC.

Tuesday night the roomies went to see Eclipse! It was quite hard for me to wait so long to see it as it came out June 30 in the US and July 9th in the UK, but we were in Dublin! We were interested to see if seeing a movie in the UK would be different than the US...and it was a bit. After finding the theatre, we bought our tickets with assigned seats! Movie food was standard but we were surprised to find that the theatre wasn't stadium seating like most theatres nowadays. Regardless, I loved the movie and will probably go see it again back in the US.


Thursday we were prepped and ready to hit up Boujis to try and catch a glimpse of a celeb.We had to call to get on the guestlist that day! This is the kind of place that will turn you down if they don't like the way you're dressed. A group of us from the building headed down to arrive at 10:45 (early for London!) since we needed to make sure we could get in. After checking us off the list, we entered excitedly. The club is downstairs and it really is beautiful. Boujis has a strict no photography rule so we don't have any pictures but we'll survive. After about an hour the club started getting full, and we even saw a group of students doing the EUSA program there. The drinks were fabulous, especially my passionfruit cocktail! After a long evening, we headed towards our favorite stop; Burger King. After that, Molly took a few tumbles in her new and beautiful shoes.

This morning we had our lovely lecture, but the highlight was our lecturer poking fun at us for being right-wing rich kids. We grabbed a quick lunch and started at the Science Museum. If you don't like kids, this is not the place for you. It was cool but the kids everywhere made it hard for me to play at all the exhibits. Rachel, Molly and I checked out Selfridges (recently awarded the Best Department Store) and I'm glad we did. Selfridges is like Harrod's but a bit less crowded and better organized. It also is a tad more reasonable. I got a few things and we went home to rest for a while.

For dinner we went to Nando's down the street, but for my second visit there I ventured onto getting Hot instead of Medium and it was a bit of a mistake. My mouth was on fire the majority of the night.

We are all having a chill night as we have to be ready at 8am for our day trip to Canterbury! I will be getting the most sleep tonight of the whole time in London!

I'll report back Sunday with more weekend details!

cb

Guinness, Gingers, and more Gingers.

This weekend the four roommates + Courtney from KU headed off to Dublin! Friday we checked out the Tate Modern but unfortunately didn't see all that we wanted to. Since I work ten minutes away from it I will probably go another time during lunch or after work.

The five of us headed to Gatwick for our flight on Aer Lingus. We grabbed dinner at the airport, where I had forgotten how much I missed Mac and Cheese. Surprisingly good meal at the airport. We made the flight and couldn't help but laugh when the airplane had shamrocks on the outside. When the short flight was over, we were welcomed to lovely rain. Our hostel was just as we expected; plain but suitable. We had a 6 female room, meaning there might be one random in the room. We soon met our lovely roommate, a young girl from Germany travelling all summer. Because of the rain, we didn't even bother to get ready before we headed out to the Temple Bar area, which our hostel was conveniently in. We started at The Quay's Bar (Quay is pronounced like Key) which had some amazing live music. It was here I tried my first Guinness! We were all scared to try it for the first time and especially didn't want to our embarrass ourselves. Luckily, the bartender gave us a little sample before we paid for a pint. I really enjoyed it so we grabbed our pints and sat down to enjoy the music. Almost every bar in Dublin has live music every night so it makes for a very fun atmosphere. We relaxed and talked to all kinds of people there before going to meet my friend Brooke who is doing the same program as I am, but in Dublin. We met them at Fitzsimmon's which had a younger crowd because of the club downstairs. I think I would have enjoyed it more had I not been wearing rainboots in the bar. Regardless, it was great to see Brooke and meet the other KU students on her program. We went down to the 'club' part for a little but we knew we had a big day ahead of us so we went home relatively early.


Hostel


The Quay's Bar


Kansan Reunion


Saturday morning we had scheduled a day trip to Cork. We barely made our train at 7am but our tour guide was nice about it. We took a two hour train through Ireland to Cork which was beautiful. Ireland really is very very green. Since it wasn't raining in Dublin, I opted not to wear my rainboots so I was in for an unfortunate surprise when it was pouring in Cork. We arrived at Blarney Castle and we were relieved to find shelter from the rain. We walked through the castle built in the 1400s and began our climb to the top on the steepest spiral staircase I've ever been on. It's so steep that there is a rope to hold onto on the way up. All this just to kiss the most unhygienic tourist site, The Blarney Stone. The view from the top of the castle was beautiful and we enjoyed it as we waited to kiss the stone. In order to kiss it, you have to lay on your back and someone holds your legs, and drops you upside down. Sounds pretty bad, and it was scary but so fun at the same town. Kissing the Blarney Stone is said to give you 'The Gift of Gab.' We had lunch at a pub in Blarney that was amazing. I had traditional Irish Stew and a variety of potatoes as it is only fitting. We finished the meal with delicious Irish coffee (coffee + Bailey's).

Blarney Castle


Kissing the Stone


Yum


From here, our day trip took us to Cobh (aka Cove, or Queenstown). First we stopped at a historic cathedral, St. Coleman's on the coast. The steeple is so high it was once used by the Irish Navy because you can see it from so far away on the sea. The tour also drove by a mass grave for the Lusitania which was torpedoed by Germany, killing more than 1,000 Irish, and bringing the U.S. into the first World War. Our last stop was a museum about the city, which was the last port of call for the Titanic before it sunk. The museum had a lot of artifacts and exhibits about the famine in Ireland and about the vast emigration away from Ireland. It's hard to imagine that in just three years, the population of Ireland went from eight million to less than four million.

View of St. Coleman's


Titanic:


Molly had an especially fun time finding her 'clan' postcards, plaques, keychains etc. Someone even asked her later that day if she was Irish before she had ever met them!

The tour was so much fun and I'm glad we got to do it. We had planned on doing the Backpacker's Bar Crawl but we got back a bit too late. Luckily, our friends from London were on the crawl and so we were able to meet up with them at the second stop. The bar crawl guide was very nice and just told us to tag along. The crawl offers free shots at every bar, drink specials, and of course the fact that a guide is taking you around and knows everything about Dublin! We started off at Four Dame Lane, then to three bars I never got the name of, and ended at The Purty Kitchen. The bars were all very different, the first being trendy and cool, the second had a Bob Marley vibe, the third with a very traditional Irish live music and beer pong downstairs. The fourth bar was packed and with a rocker kind of vibe (posters for The Rolling Stones, The Doors etc.) and the final bar was a three story night club. Somehow it ended up that everyone I knew in Dublin (friends from London and friends from KU in Dublin) were on the bar crawl! It was such a fun night and I can't imagine a better night in Dublin.


On the bar crawl, London Kids


I spy someone with red hair...


Sunday morning we checked out of the hostel and enjoyed a mediocre free breakfast. Since we really hadn't seen much of Dublin in daylight, we figured doing the most touristy things possible would be a good way to spend the day. We got on a hop on hop off bus tour that picked up near our hostel and went to all the sights. It was actually sunny on Sunday which was a pleasant change from Saturday. Our first stop was St. Patrick's Cathedral. The most famous saint in Ireland, this cathedral is a huge tourist attraction but with good reason. It was very beautiful and historic. We got back on the bus and saw a bit more of the city before hopping off at the Guinness Storehouse. No trip to Dublin would be complete without a stop here. Inside is a 7 story museum that takes you through the brewing process, the history, advertising, and at the top there is a 360 degree Gravity Bar where you can get your complimentary pint of Guinness. We spent several hours at the storehouse checking everything out, and grabbing lunch and souvenirs. We hopped on our bus and got off again at Kilmainham Gaol, a world famous jail. The jail held many famous politicians in Ireland, and several prisoners who were revolutionaries against the British. Every single Irish rebel fighting for Irish freedom there was executed either by public hanging or firing squad. The jail has been out of use for many years, but it has appeared in many famous movies such as The Italian Job (the original), episodes of The Tudors, a U2 music video, and more. We really enjoyed it and afterwards we were exhausted.

Inside St. Patrick's


Guinness


Kilmainham Gaol



Our trip to Dublin was sadly over but I really think we did everything we wanted to do and had an amazing time! I would definitely go back to Ireland for a vacation if I could.

Bye Dublin!


Fun Facts about Dublin and Ireland:
-40% of Dublin is under 26
-Ireland gives more money to food and hunger charities than any other country because of the Potato Famine
-Everyone is nice...really nice
-Everyone goes out at night, from 18-60
-Jokes about gingers aside, so much red hair it's unbelievable.

This week the roomies and I are going to see Eclipse :), attempt to get into a very 'posh' nightclub that is Prince Harry's fave in our neighborhood, and Saturday is Canterbury day trip! It's our second to last weekend so I'm sure we'll pack in lots of fun activities.

cb