Hello March, come so soon?

          AH! Cannot believe it is March already! Where is the time going!?!?!

          Was talking to my Mom about it the other day and since I have already booked my flight home it is now less than 6months until I am back in Canada and on the 17^th of March I will have been in England for 7months!

          I remember being in school last year and the time going by so slowly, so I guess that saying is true. Time files when you’re having fun!

Neat lights on Canterbury St. in London

          The weather here has been beautiful this past week, highs of 12 everyday, no rain and just a touch of wind. I actually wore my spring jacket into town and wasn’t cold after leaving the theatre last night, which is a first since September. Anyways let me fill you in on my week.

          On March 6^th all around England (maybe other places as well but I’ve recently just heard about this) was “World Book Day” where the school kids and teachers dress up as their favourite character from any book genre.
          Isabella dressed up as Hermonie from the Harry Potter Series, Georgina dressed up as Veruca Salt from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Francesca dressed up as Matilda. They all looked so cute! Fran didn’t want her picture taken so just Izy and Georgie are in the picture with me.

          Yesterday, the 8^th, Lina and I went to see “The Lion King”. It was so amazing! The way that they portrayed the animals was so neat. They had a little girl as a baby elephant and they way they made her costume around her was like a wooden silhouette elephant, it was so pretty.

          The giraffe was my second favourite, they had a person on stilts for the legs and used their hands and stilts for the front legs with an attachment for the head. It was beautiful how each thing was made, and really gun hoe to the movie so Lina and I were singing along to all the songs. 

          The play was really well done and the acting done by young Simba and Nala was amazing! They looked like they were just about 10 years old but the confidence they had and their acting was just amazingly well done.

          "The Lion King" is number 7 on my list of "Plays/Musicals I've seen since being here". Honestly it's one of my favourite things to spend my money on. I love going to the theatre and being apart of the story and reacting with an audience, it's a great feeling.

          At the end of the month I will be adding number 8 to the list, Matilda! And because the girls saw it with their StageCoach group back in November I hear the soundtrack all the time so I'll know all of the songs even before I see it!

          Hope all is well back home and that the snow starts to melt away soon! I'm really glad I missed this winter, even though I've had my fair share of rainy and crummy days nothing beats snow.

The end of yet another half term...

Well half term ended on Feb 23rd but I didn't want to do two blog posts within a couple of days of each other. So know that you are done reading about Paris read about how I spent the rest of the half term.

So after getting back late Monday night I slept in Tuesday, which was much deserved :)

The rest of the week was spent watching the Olympics and lounging around the house. Felt so nice to just relax and not have as many responsibilities (love my job, not saying that I don't, but everyone deserves a break every once and a while.)

On Saturday (22nd) I went into London for the majority of the day to go to The Royal Albert Hall to see the orchestra preform "Pixar Live in Concert". That week I started in Disney and ended with something else Disney :)



They preformed medleys from Toy Story 1-3, Monsters Inc., A Bug's Life, Brave, Up, Finding Nemo, Cars 1&2, and The Incredibles. The way they had it set up was that while the orchestra was playing a medley from the Pixar movie scenes from the film would play on the big screen behind them. For "Up" they played the first 5 minutes of the movie, the montage of when Ellie & Carl are together, and it was so beautiful. The announcer told us to have our hankies at the ready and he wasn't lying! The whole thing was just amazing to be a part of. If it comes to any of the major towns/cities around you I suggest you go. All Pixar fans will love it!

On Sunday (23rd) I met up with a fellow Canadian, Jenna, and her friend Louise, from Wales, to watch the Gold Medal Hockey game at a Sports Bar. We had our own little section to watch the game, along with fellow Canadians and supporters of Canada. Have to say this is defiantly the way to watch a big sports game! The environment in our section was just pure Gold (see what I did there? Cause you know Canada won gold, obviously)! This was my first time going to a Sports Pub/Bar to watch any type of game and I would do it again. So much fun celebrating with people who cheered with you and had the same reactions as you, it was kind of funny too.

Overall I had a great break and now it's back to work! Next week I'm going to "The Lion King" and at the end of the month I'll be seeing "Matilda" so look forward to posts about those. In the Spring I'm planning on taking day trips outside of London to see more of the countryside.

And as of today, March 2nd I have 6 more months in England! It's crazy! On March 17th I will be here 7 months...I just cannot believe it!

Bonjour Paris ♥

          Bonjour everyone!  I have to say that my weekend away was not what I expected it to be. Yes I knew I was going to Paris and all the information the tour company had for us but I didn’t know that I could still get that rush when seeing something for the first time.

          Now I know this sounds corny but the first time I saw the Eiffel Tower my heart stopped. I could not believe that I was actually in Paris and seeing this with my own eyes, one of the most beautiful sites that I have seen so far in my life.

          Alright so Saturday morning started dark and early, I say dark because it was 3am when I got up and the sun hadn’t risen yet. The family had to get up at 2am to get ready for their week away skiing in France so of course I woke up because the girls were yelling down the stairs to one another. Oh well, I had everything all ready to go a bit earlier so not a problem for me.

          My friend who came with me, Heather, slept over the night before so that it would be easier to get to the pick up point for the coach. We arrived at the coach on time and picked up everyone else on schedule as well. I guess a lot of people go to Europe during the half terms because on our way to Dover to catch the ferry we got stopped, not stuck stopped, in traffic for ONE AND A HALF HOURS! It was ridiculous!
We caught the 3:40pm ferry over to Calais and were finally in France after 5pm. We didn’t get into Paris until 8:30-9pm however so no river cruises on the Saturday (we did it on the Monday before leaving). We stopped for dinner and were at the hotel by 10:30pm.

          Sunday was another early morning, we got to Disneyland right when it opened and had a pick up time of 6:30pm (after the parade and a few stops to make sure we did all the shopping we wanted to.)

          The weather was beautiful for Disneyland! Sunny all day and only a little bit of wind, it was great for walking around and going on rides. Heather and I chose to go to the official Disney Park rather than the Studios because there was more to do in the Park itself, and also that’s where all the Princesses and Mickey Mouse live :) 

          We went on “The Tea Cups”, “It’s A Small World” (Canada in the ride is a mountain with people skating and playing hockey at the bottom, in the middle there is a Mountie standing beside a moose and at the top there is a Polar Bear beside an igloo), “Pirates of the Caribbean”, “Star Tours” (a Star Wars ride where you are at the Sat Wars airport and are waiting for your ship to take you somewhere and the ride itself has you boarding a starship and taking lots of sharp turns), and “The Haunted Mansion”.

          I had a blast in Disney! We watched the parade at 5pm and then made our way to the coach for our night tour of Paris. Basically we drove around Paris looking at all the famous places and arches. We stopped by the Arc de Triomphe (top left in picture), Palais Garnier (The Opera House) (top right in picture), Roue de Paris (bottom left in picture), the Louvre Museum (bottom right in picture) and then of course the Eiffel Tower. 

          On our last day we visited the Eiffel Tower and afterwards went on a river cruise to see more of Paris. We got to the Eiffel Tower right when it opened and joined the queue to get our tickets, over an hour wait just for the lifts to the second level. So instead of waiting for the lifts a couple of us decided to take the stairs. Yes you read that right, I walked up to the second level of the Eiffel tower. All 670 steps!! It only took about 20minutes to do so, with a little break in between to look around, but it was an amazing feeling to be able to say that I walked to the second floor.

          To get to the third level you have to take a lift so after we got our tickets for that up we went. We get to the top and bam all we can see is fog!
          If we had gone a hour or so later we would have been able to see but timing wise we couldn’t and I’m alright with that, I still went to the third level and I’m happy with that.

          After the river cruise it was time to head home. We caught the earlier ferry home so after taking the ferry, the coach, a train ride, the tube, a bus and then walking I was finally home from Paris around 11:30pm Monday night.

          It was such an amazing weekend :) Paris is absolutely beautiful! 

           Now that my fun weekend is over I don’t have much planned for the rest of my week off, other than the “Pixar Event” at the Royal Albert Hall on Saturday (22^nd). So I am off to watch more of the Olympics and to cheer Canada on. Ttfn!

A Little More About London and Me

So after going through my most recent posts I've realized that I haven't said much about how I feel being here or some of the new things I've learned since being here. So here's my list so far:

1) Tube wise here are my comments on each of the lines I have been on:

Metropolitan Line - very fancy carriages, one of the best looking trains I've seen so far - more space compared to the other trains (my personal favourite line to take), fastest way to get into London (40mins tops to get to Baker Street from my place)

Piccadilly Line - a slower way to get into central London but it has the most frequent stops I make on it so I usually take the Metro line in and then connect to it by the Bakerloo Line

Central Line - a very fast train, when it wants to be. Have had to take this line for the past month because the Metro and Piccadilly are being worked on. Takes about an hour to get to Oxford Circus and from there everything is within walking distance

Bakerloo Line - tying with the Jubilee line for being the loudest train, I usually turn up my iPod if I'm on this line. It's so squeaky and noisy but it's good for connecting to places  

Jubilee Line - as with the Bakerloo Line it's noisy! But the only way to get to Westminister in 40minutes and also Abbey Road (which I haven't been to yet because the line is being worked on)

2) People have different speeds they walk in.

        #1 - very very slowly walking people 

        #2 - speedy walkers who push their way through without even saying "Excuse me" (that could be the Canadian in me though)

        #3 - slow walkers who push around the very very slow people

        #4 - the "I really need to check something so I'm going to stop in the middle of everyone's way to do so with no warning what so ever"

       #5 - and finally the semi fast walkers who know where they want to go but don't push people out of the way to get there and manoeuvre around the stopping people (a.k.a Me)

3) Fashion sense goes out the window, which I am quite enjoying, because if people think I'm weird for wearing a light spring jacket in the middle of "Winter" there are other girls wearing shorts and sandals even!

4) The time difference is still a big deal to me. By time I am half-way through my day everyone back home is just getting up (which works in some favours because I can stay out as late as I want and still FaceTime back home because it's the afternoon there.

5) Meeting new people is easy but also hard. First there are language barriers with some of my friends and me, which I am getting use to but sometimes when talking with one another we get confused because we don't understand what each other is fully saying, but it takes time. Second meeting new people at Pubs or out and about scares me because I'm not as out going as I use to be (new place, still kind of getting use to it) but I still meet people in the end and thats all that matters.

6) Going with the comment above you gotta be able to do things by yourself and not care about being alone some of the time. Some of the time I prefer to go to different places by myself just because I know what I want to see and usually walk faster than some people (thanks Mom for that) so I don't have to wait for my slow poke friends :P

7) There is still lots that I haven't seen in London but that is one of my New Years Resolutions - to see as much of London as possible before I leave.

8) I wish I could do more traveling but as you know to travel you need money and time! With the amount I am saving for other trips, spending money and topping up my Oyster card (which is not cheap) I'll be going to the places on the top of my list to see but unfortunately I cannot see it all. Plus time, I only get weekends off, a week in February and 2 and 1/2 weeks in August. I already have trips planned for the week in February and 2 and 1/2 weeks in August but I am going to try and do day trips in the Spring to places outside of London that I really want to see but I don't think I'll make it to Scotland or Ireland. 

And now for the cheesy bit.

9) Being here has taught me a lot about myself and who I am as a person. What I see myself as and who I want to be in the future. The trip and experience as opened up my eyes to so much that I could not have possible seen if I had not left Canada, and the comfort of home. I now know that I am comfortable to do things by myself, explore new places and not be scared and to meet new people and learn from them.

Hope you enjoyed this post. 6 days until I'm in Paris!! :)

Can lucky even begin to describe my day?

First off, now that it is finally confirmed, I can know say that I will be going to Paris on the 15th-17th :)

AND I can finally tell you what I will be doing on the tour. We travel to Paris on the 15th bright and early by coach and ferry to get there. Once there we get to go on an hour river cruise of the Seine River where we will see the Eiffel Tower, Musee d'Orsay, Notre Dame Cathedral as well as other landmarks, palaces and ornate bridges.  I'll have to top up on my Paris landmarks before leaving so I know what I'm actually seeing.
On the second day it's going to be legen....wait for it and I hope you're not lactose intolerant because the second half of that word is - dairy! We get to go to DISNEYLAND PARIS for the whole day! I am so excited for this!!! I love Disney and have been to the one in Florida so this will add to the places I've been too :)
On the last day we get to go to the Eiffel Tower and go all the way up to the third floor. I'm going to be scared the entire time I'm up there but I'll push through that obviously because when else will I be able to do this again? We then get to do some shopping before heading back home.

It'll be a nice 3-day vacation during the girls half term (as they are away skiing the entire week).



Yesterday my friend Lina and I went to go and see the play "Mojo" which is based in the 50's in London Soho at a pub. For a short description it about this Silver Johnny singer who preforms at the pub and the next morning the pub owner is found dead and Sliver Johnny is missing. The rest of the play is trying to figure out who killed the owner, where Silver Johnny is and other problems the pub workers have with one another. It was an amazing play overall, the storyline was great and it was really funny too.

Right so about luck and being extremely lucky.

We went and picked up our tickets at the box office as the afternoon show was ending. We decided to wait around to see if we could see anyone from the show. At the stage door there was a sign that said the cast wouldn't be signing anything after the afternoon show so we went back to the front doors to figure out what we wanted to do. Just then Ben Whishaw and another guy came out the front doors and went into the cafe across the street. I couldn't see the other guy very clearly but it looked like someone else from the play...I was wrong but as soon as I saw his face I knew who he was. Andrew Scott (from the BBC's Sherlock - he plays James Moriarty, as well as other acting roles but I've only seen him in that).

After the show Lina and I went to the stage door to see if we could see any of the actors. We saw Rupert Grint, Colin Morgan (he plays Merlin in "Merlin") and Tom Rhy Harris come out to sigh autographs but we were to far away for that. I got some videos but that was about it. Afterwards we went back to the front door to figure out what to do next and to see if anyone else would come out the front door. We wait about twenty minutes before we left to go home. We walked maybe 5 feet when I told Lina to look in a certain spot....it was Rupert Grint at the pub on the corner with some friends. I have no idea where my courage came from but next thing I knew I was walking up to him, apologizing for interrupting his night but just wanted to say how great the play was. The three of us talked for a bit about the play and everyones acting and we even got a picture :)


Yesterday was one of the luckiest days I've had here so far, as in meeting people.
The next month my weekends are packed! Next Friday (7th) I'm going to see "Dirty Dancing", the weekend after that (15th-17th) it's Paris, the weekend after that (22nd) I'm going to a Pixar Event at the Royal Albert Hall, the weekend after that my friend Erin is coming down and we're hopefully going to see "Wicked" (28th-2nd) and then on March 8th Lina and I are going to see "The Lion King".

My goodness I'll be busy but it's all totally worth it :)

Oh Adventure!

It's been awhile since I posted but I wanted to wait until my one trip plan was more in motion before I posted about anything else.

So as of February 15th I may be on my way to Paris for four days :) Now I saw "may" because the trip is not guaranteed quite yet - we need a certain amount of people to be able to go on it and we haven't reached that goal yet. In two weeks I'll know if the trip is 100% or not, and I am hoping so. My friend and I have our spots and now we are just waiting for others to join up as well.

Once I know if the trip is a go I will write it in a post but until then I'd rather not just because if it doesn't happen I won't get to do all those things that the trip includes. If the trip is a no go my friend and I get our money back and will plan a different trip - somewhere in England for a couple of days so at least we have a back up plan just in case this one does not work.

BUT a trip that I am 100% sure going on it what I can tell you all about in this post :)

In August, I know very far away but it's gonna be here before I know it, I am going across Eastern Europe! The family is going away for two weeks which gives me a two week holiday so I decided to do a round trip of all the main places I really wanted to visited before I came home. I know that there is lots that I will not be able to see, due to time and cost of everything, but this trip has everything that I really want to do before I leave.

On the right is the map of all the places I will be visiting on this trip. The trip is 11days and starts and ends in London (so I don't have to travel extra to start this journey). We start the tour is Paris (so at least if I do not go in February I will be there in August) and stay there for two days. After we make our way to the Swiss Alps for two days and then onto Venice for two days as well. After Venice we get to pay a visit to Dachau, a former concentration camp, where we will have time to reflect and pay our respects (this part of the tour really attracted me to the tour overall because I have always found WWII very interesting to learn about and to be able to visit one of the camps will be a hard but yet respecting value with me. On the next stop, Rhine Valley, we get to explore and stay the night in a castle! Amsterdam is next for two days and then we make our way back home to London.

It's going to be a very busy 11days but I am so excited for this trip! I have dreamed about visiting these places and finally being able to will be one thing to cross of the bucket list.

Since being in London I've been to four different plays/musicals and I am not stopping there! Last weekend I saw the play "Once" which is based off of the Oscar nominated movie of the same name. It was such an amazing play! The music they had in it was very folky (like Mumford&Sons) and each actor played their our instrument, there was no pit band - I have never seen a play done like this before so it was very interesting to watch.

In February I am going to see "Dirty Dancing" as part of a group and in March I am going to see "Wicked" with a friend of mine.

I still plan on adding to the list but for now this is what I've got to look forward to :) Much more to come from me in the next couple of months, have to start planning on seeing more around London and check more stuff off of my "To Do England List". Any suggestions?

Welcome 2014!

First off hello 2014, you just snuck up on us there didn't you? Crazyness!

Well welcome everyone to 2014 - just gonna brag that I have five hours more of 2014 than my family and friend back in Canada. Until I go home anyways, I'll be back to normal hours then so not so much bragging then.

For New Years Eve I met my friend at Westminster station to watch the fireworks that would go off at the London Eye. We got there around 7:30pm and thank goodness that we got there then and not any minute later. It was packed! They had started making announcements that they would close the gates to Waterloo bridge and then reopen them after the fireworks so we got in there quick, they didn't close the gates however until about 8:30pm. It was so hard to move our way through the crowd but after many "Sorry's" and "Excuse Me's" we finally got a good spot, a little tight but still a good spot. Throughout the first couple of hours we waited and wondered what the heck we would do for the next five hours standing up, to unsafe to sit down - would of gotten trampled. But of course since you are in such close quarters we met some very lovely and kind people. Cannot remember their names - or even if we exchanged names- but I made friends with people from Egypt, France, Spain and a very nice family from American that my friend and I ended up talking to for the rest of the night.

They started playing music for us and broadcasting live on BBC around 10:30pm. Haven't seen any of the footage yet but if you do see it look for the people standing on the Waterloo bridge and near the horse statue look for red gloves or a colourful umbrella waving in the air, that's me :)

It only started to rain around 11:40pm and stopped just around midnight (of course it rained after the fireworks but at least we weren't standing in the rain for five hours.)

Finally it was midnight! My legs and back were feeling it but I was staying strong, and quite proud of myself for doing so. The countdown began and BAM it was 2014 and fireworks filled the sky. They were amazing! Truly amazing and totally worth it! Watch them at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Jp9_sgJcN0

It was unreal just being there and having this brand new experience that I will never forget. It was defiantly my favourite way of spending the new year, so far anyways. 

I have lots of plans for 2014 so far, adding some new musicals and plays to my list in the next couple of months (Once, The Lion King, Strangers on a Train, Wicked and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) - some of these I have tickets for already but the others I plan on seeing before I leave. I also have a very awesome trip coming up in February, want to put the final touches on it before I say anything though so family members keep quiet :)

Happy New Year Everyone!!!