the bees nees: It's a hard knock life, but someone's gotta live it

Not that any of you care, but seriously, I need a freaking haircut. My hair goes into a ponytail now (mind you a tiny-pony, like a mini pony, but still, a pony none-the-less).

SEEEEEEEEEEEE.......

Mini-pony Excitment!

But for reals, June 4th can't come soon enough to get my mop cropped. Now, on to less important matters than my hair, *ahem*, I am leaving tomorrow for Ireland! Yay! So excited, except as of now the weather says it's supposed to be rainy/overcast the entire time we're there, so that'll suck. Hopefully it's wrong. I don't mind a little rain, and some clouds, but not 24/7 for a couple days when I'm trying to be a tourist. That's a no go situation. We're leaving tomorrow afternoon and coming back Wednesday evening and then after that, it's only a mere week and a half and I head back to California. I cannot believe it. Crazy crazy crazy. My last week is going to be spent just hanging out in the city and soaking it up while it lasts.

So what's been going on this week, well, other than finishing my coursework and taking my exam, not much. Monday Aubs and I went to Hyde Park to celebrate being done w/ school (since I knew my exam was going to be a joke) and also to soak up some sun.

Rose garden in Hyde park

Yay! Freedom!

Love this archway walkway thingy

I don't know if this is like some sort of mini-stonehenge or what, but it was pretty.

What's better than enjoying a sunny day in the park? Doing it with ICECREAM!

Princess Diana Memorial Fountain, which was really cool.

I was pretty much a bum most of the week, until Thursday when I decided I should do something of some sort of substance (that was a lot of s's there... wow). Anywho's, I decided to hit up my two remaining museums, the Tate Modern and the Imperial War Museum. I don't have many photos b/c you can't take pictures in the TM (lame) but I totally took some before I knew that :) and the Imperial War museum is not something you photograph. They had the most amazing 2 floor exhibit on the Holocaust that had me on the verge of tears numerous time. So heart wrenching and saddening and every other adjective out there.

GIANT dining room furniture. Look Sara, your table set is famous! and huge. I could walk under this sucker. If you look under the chair on the left, you can see a person, that's how big this thing is.

Monet's Water-lilies

The TM was kind of lame actually. I don't love modern art, but I can appreciate some of it. I love MOMA in SF, but this one did not impress me.

Imperial War Museum

A piece of the Berlin Wall outside the IWM

The main hall inside the IWM

Me after spending the whole day in 2 museums.

Thursday evening wrapped up with a Study Abroad event. The international studies office had us all out to dinner at Pizza Express and then we road the London Eye (again) and we didn't have to pay! (Oh wait, we already paid for it in our fees, seriously, they told us that. Which would be why I rode the eye again.)

Aubs and Dana at dinner

On the eye (again)

Today I had to go to campus, a trip that will likely be my last to that area of town, so I decided I should take some more photos.

This is the Tower Building, which is huge and confusing but this is the area where all of my classes were.

Another part of the Tower Building.

Shell gas! Ok, now I know it looks like they have super cheap petrol, but let's do some math. It's 96.9 pence (almost 1 pound) per LITRE. There are 4.55 liters in a gallon, so that's 4.41 pounds. With the current conversion rate between pounds sterling and US dollars, thats basically $6.70 per gallon. Yeah, Hellloooo public transport.

Walking home from school, this is a shot of Islington, the area where I live.

Cutest window display meant just for me. Seriously, banana's, a bee rainsuit! Sweet! minus the stuffed spider, ew.

My tube stop, lets hear it for the Angel yo.

I love these buildings, and I see them everyday as I hike up the little hill towards Angel.

Just to illustrate how in the middle of the city I am, as in Zone 1, this is the street I walk to get to my flat, I'm about 4-5 blocks away and from here you can see the tip of the Gherkin (the weird egg building) which is in the financial district of The City.