Viva La Espana!

Good news! Spain won against Germany! Oh! and I just found out that there's a psychic octopus named Paul! So weird!

Anyways, the rest of the day was whatever though.. More physics.

Random photo of the day.. or actually a video. This is a video clip of part of the 'changing of the guards ceremony.' The part where a band plays and marches to Buckingham Palace and the new shift guards taking charge.

Nun in the Nunnery

So.. Our professor (which I mean to take a picture of..) told us (students) should be like nuns in the nunnery for the weekdays so that we can work on physics in solitude. Intense, huh!?
Even though I wasn't entirely in solitude, I worked on physics the whole day, except when I was distracted with watching the 'futbol' game.

Anyways! The highlights: I watched my first 'futbol' game since FIFA world cup started. So sad that it's almost over when I just started watching! OH well.. at least I will watch the important games.. the semi-finals and the final. Holland beat Uruguay, 3-2. HOORAY! Usually the team I root for always lose, but today Holland actually won! Good for them!

Ok, that was all my highlight.. pretty lame.. but hey.. it was funner than physics.

Some more random pictures. Here are the dog pictures I took since being here.

Huge dog! Standing up, it was as tall as me! The dog stood in front
of a pub. Maybe it's a guard dog. Sure looks like one.

Haha.. This type of dog reminds me of a detective dog. I don't know why,
But I keep looking at dogs here in London. I love dogs!
I've realized the different breeds of dogs on this side of the world.
Very Interesting... the contrasts!

Physics Day..

Hello chaps!

Today was a boring day! To make the long day short, I basically did Physics h.w. all day. I only high light of my day was that I got to watch Ugly Betty with my sister for our dinner entertainment and break.

No new pictures today.. but I'll put some artsy artwork I've seen .

1) The Kissing art is pretty trippy. If you stand close, all you see are holes.
If you stand back, you see the art. It's pretty cool! Near Brighton Pier
2) Graffiti on this one street... haha. A street near Brighton Station.
3) Paintings sold in Camden Lock.

Ok, That's all for today. Forgive me if there are no more pictures for this week or longer.. Traveling and venturing might slow down a bit now that school is picking up. But we'll go with the flow.. :)

Greenwich!

Happy Independence Day! There's no fireworks on this side of the world. haha.
Today marks my 1 week arrival to Sussex. Even though the program is only 8 weeks, this whole week went by pretty slow. It's all good because I get to soak in all the culture.

Today, the crew went to Greenwich! We ate a traditional breakfast meal at Wetherspoon for brunch and it was quiet lovely!

See that triangular black thing on my plate?
That's called 'black pudding.' It's actually a a piece of
fried pig's blood and rice sausage. Sounds gross, but it actually
tasted pretty good.

This is a traditional breakfast that people eat in Greenwich and I think
Brighton. I'd say the best item on the plate was the hash brown
and the black pudding. The beans were really good too.

Greenwich is a quiet town, not too far London. The cathedral and the painting hall are soooooooo magnificent!

1) Rows upon rows of columns surrounded the building.
The outside reminded me of Mr Darcy's estate from
Pride and Prejudice.
2) Interior of the cathedral. Look at the detail! Amazing, right?
3 & 4) Painting Hall? I think that's what it was called.
Everything detail was painted. See the columns in picture 3?
It's all painted. Everything in the hall was flat surfaced, but
the depth and detail of the hall were painted to look 3D!

Although the Greenwich is a small town, this is where the dateline/ time zone is set up. Did you know that GMT, the time zones of the world means Greenwich Mean Time? This is a Big deal because the times of every country and state is synced with the time in Greenwich!

The Royal Observatory of Greenwich is literally where time is invented!
Sooooo cool, right?! This is also where the West Longitude and the East Longitude meet!
I can say that I was in two Longitudes at the same time!

Today, by far, has been the best cultural day I've had since I've been here. I mean, London was great. Seeing Big Ben and all was great, but I feel like all those are already over played. Greenwich, on the other hand, was something I didn't expect!

Besides tourist sites, I love the market live! We went to Greenwich market! Markets here aren't like farmer markets. Vegetables or fruits aren't sold here, but there are a lot of unique artsy, random things. It's more like a vendor fair. Oh! There are exotic foods sold here too. Like yesterday, at Camden Lock, I ate Turkish food. Yum!

1) Greenwich Market. I love markets! I experience the most culture here
because there's creative artwork and there's a variety of
different cuisines.
2) The silver bracelets are actually made out of
utensils! Neat and very creative!

Today is Sunday.. so Like every Sunday, since I've been born, I went to church. We went to a church on a boat!

St. Peter's Barge. It was a small church with about 50 people.
Cute setting and cute boat!

This is the surrounding buildings near the church. This is
the river on which the church floated on.

I'm not going to lie, but church was alright. Actually.. I found it boring. The service was a traditional service in which the music was from a piano recorded piece and the songs were conservative. But! The community were nice.

Greenwich, overall was a lovely town. I would definitely recommend this place to visit.

Happy 4th of July from Brighton, everyone!

Discovering London!

What a long day of exploring London! A bunch of us booked a tour of London with Discovery tours. I recommend them if you want to go anywhere. They definitely took care of us from train to train and tube to tube.

We hit soo many sites! Better to show in pictures. :)
First stop: Brighton Train Station

Inside the station. The interior of the was small compared to
the London Station, but it was beautiful.

Inside the actual train. We all feel asleep. It was 7 in the morning.
Way too early for college students. haha.

Buckingham Palace and Queen Victoria's Memorial statue (I hope I'm getting all these sites right. haha.. too many to remember!)

The crew in front of the Queen's palace!
Everything to the finest detail was grand.

The famous, funny looking guards! Apparently
the queen takes guards from different countries too.
Last time, the Jamaican military guarded her palace.
They play Reggae for changing of the guard ceremony. haha!

This is a great view of both the palace and the statue.

The guards are part of the tourist attractions with their funny hats and statue persona. The queen even has ceremonies for changing guards!

Changing of the guards. Pretty fancy for guards to change shifts.
2) Apparently if you slip your name and number on a piece of
paper in the guard's high boots, some of the guards will actually
call you. haha.. says the tour guide.
3 & 4) The band leads the new guards to the palace and leads
the old guards on shift back to the Barter hosue? I think
that's what it was called..

Trafalgar Square and the National Museum

1) Lord Nelson's memorial. He was a great hero
who lost his eye and arm in battle. He lost his life
on the day he won his victory again France.

The National Gallery. I saw Van Gogh's

paintings! How cool is that!

Apparently, there was a gay pride concert and parade
event at Trafalgar square. People here are sooo not
afraid to express themselves.

Other well known attraction sites include: the London Eye, the Big Ben, and the Parliament.

The tour guide said that people have exchanged vows
at the highest point of the world's biggest Ferris
wheel. haha.

The Big Ben is not the clock, but it's actually
the name of the bell inside
the clock tower. Did you know there was a little Ben?
I didn't. haha. Because there's no such thing as a little Ben
I can't believe I fell for it.

The Parliament. The right side is the House of
Commons and the left side is the House of Lords.

Last stop: Camden Market, street, and lock

Camden is the place to be! Everything
here is less expensive that London and there are pretty
cool clothes, styles, and souvenirs. I definitely recommend this place!

Finally! This blog was pretty long. More to come tmrw because I'm touring London again. Til then.. Need some rest!

h.w. and grocery day

Today was chill.. Very chill. After the long night last night, I had a great sleep! Not because I got drunk or danced my butt off, but because it was just a very long day.

H.w. and grocery day! That's basically what I did today.

Mi tarea. Physics is quiet hard. I completely
forgot everything I learned in high school.
But good thing I have a study group to work with!

My stash! This keeps me awake doing my h.w.
For some reason, I constantly feel like I'm hungry.
I think it's all the walking around. haha.

Weekend already?

School here runs from Monday through Thursday. So every week is a three day weekend!

Since I've been here, I've come across r@nD0m things. I saw a police car that had 'Police' spelled backwards on the hood of the car. I guess the officers like to read it when they're in the car. haha! Other things included:

A random sign i found funny. I think humps are
bumps. It's a bumped crossing. haha.

A statue with a traffic cone on it. ha!
It's either a really good prank
or a really weird artwork.

A car covered with grass! Going Green to the max!

Today was a pretty chill day. I had morning classes and I got to skype with my mom! :)
Dinner! Was the best meal I've had since being here. We ate Japanese food! It was the bomb!

1) Looks like there's a hand grabbing at my food. lol
2) The crew, Amanda, my sis, me, Sally, Iris, and Phil,
at Pompoko in North Laine!
3) The tori chili don was delicious! Everything was 5 pounds or less.
Not bad!

Thursdays are know for their night life. People here go all out to get drunk, to party, and to club. Today I had the experience to take part in the night life. Mom and Kevin, if you're reading this.. Don't worry! Just keep reading. :}

So I went to three pubs and a club, an event called 'Pub tour.' I got to order my first drinks ever! I tried '___ on the beach' (you can fill in the blanks), I tried pimm, and Ice Smirnoff. I tired a couple of sips of different beers too. Don't worry, I didn't go wild! I don't think I got even buzzed. Drinking to socialize is ok for me, but to get drunk is dumb. So it's all good. After the 3 pubs, we went to a sea side club called 'the honeyclub brighton.' Dancing is fun, but clubbing is not my scene. This was all to experience the night life. I've experience enough to know that I'm just not into that stuff. So no worries. :P

The Mash was one of the pubs I went to.
Thursday nights are about the only night everything stays open late.
Great for midnight snacks!