June in Pictures

Howdy!

Sorry Brandon and I have not been doing blog posts lately.  Seems like every free moment we have is spent writing our dissertations.  Thankfully I am now sitting with around 9,000 words (out of the 12,000 required) so I feel comfortable enough to spend a bit of time writing a post for you all!  Brandon is at 10,700 (out of 15,000)

Since we have missed several updates the past week, I thought I'd just post a bunch of pictures so you can see what we have been up to the past month.  Because, let's face it, a majority of you probably just scan these posts and look at the pictures anyway, so I'll keep the words to a minimum this time ;)

We visited the Sherlock Holmes museum back in May when the Stover Seniors were in town.  Here is our attempt at being Dr. Watson and the great detective.

Another remnant from May with the Stovers - Enjoying a pint on the stage before seeing the musical "Once"

The following pictures are sights from Kew Gardens - a large botanical garden in South West London.  Brandon and I made the trip out there one bright and sunny day to enjoy a picnic lunch!

The Kew Palm House - a giant green house with plants from all over the world

At Kew Palace - a formal royal residence of King George III

The Japanese garden at Kew

A modern tunnel built to look ancient

In front of the tunnel

On the five story high tree top canopy walk at Kew 

Kayla, a lovely friend of mine from Millikin stopped in London for one day as part of her month long backpacking trip through Europe, here are a few of the things we did that day!

On my way to Hogwarts!

An a visit to the Doctor was a must...

Brandon and I took a day trip to Oxford to visit the city, but mostly to enjoy an afternoon at The Thirsty Meeple - the UK's only board game cafe.  Several from the Goldsmiths tabletop gaming society went as well.  Now Brandon and I are making plans to someday run our own board game cafe...

One of the many colleges in Oxford

One of the college accommodations in Oxford - seriously looks like a castle...

The Radcliffe Camera - a round building which is one of the University of Oxford libraries

Another University of Oxford building

The board game cafe!

Lately, we have enjoyed many cultural offerings in London, including an orchestra concert in a car park, a stage version of Orwell's 1984, and Bizet's The Peal Fishers at the English National Opera.

The view of London from the car park after hearing Sibelius Symphony No. 5

The London Coliseum - home to the English National Opera

We celebrated our fourth anniversary on June 25th by going on an impromptu Thames River Cruise (okay, not really a cruise, more of a river taxi...but it was still awesome!)

View of the Tower Bridge from the Thames Boat Taxi

Most people get the "London Bridge" and "The Tower Bridge" confused, but as you can see here, the London Bridge  is actually quite boring...

Tate Modern and the Millennium Bridge from the Thames

And finally, we spent yesterday morning with a friend we met through a geocaching event.  He wanted to climb to the top of St Pauls, since there is a virtual cache up there, so we made it up the 528 to the top of dome and got rewarded with some spectacular views of London!

Almost to the top, here we took a short breather about 3/4 of the way up on a wider outcropping

At the top!

A view of the scary stairs you have to climb in the actual dome

Hope you all had a lovely June!!  July will be taking us to Italy and Greece, before August brings us back to the US, so we still have lots to look forward to this summer!

Pirates, Dinosaurs, and Internships...Oh My!

Pirates
Last week Brandon and I saw Pirates of the Caribbean Live, at the Royal Albert Hall (he found half-off tickets thanks to Groupon!). This is where the movie is played on a large screen while a live orchestra performs the background music.  It was a very cool experience, totally different than a regular orchestra concert.

The Stovers at Royal Albert Hall

Pirates and the Orchestra

Dinosaurs
Earlier this week Paige, a friend of mine from college, visited London with one of her friends, so I got to spend a day with them at the Natural History Museum.  While Brandon and I have been to this museum before, we totally missed out on the best part - the Dinosaurs! 

Rawr!

Paige and I

Interships 
Last Friday was my final internship day.  For the past three months I have been working three days a week for the Communications/Marketing Team at the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (OAE).  This has been a great internship for me to gain hands-on experience working in an arts administration position.  Throughout my time I have:  written and sent-out press releases, promoted OAE concerts and events, contributed to OAE's social media and blog, and other various administrative tasks.  To see some of my blog posts for the OAE click here.

But what I've enjoyed most (and will miss the most) are the people who worked in the office with me!  They have been so helpful and friendly and wonderful.  For my last day they brought me lovely flowers, champagne, and a precious silver necklace.  Overall it has been a great experience and I will miss everyone dearly!

Me with the some of the office staff

Carrot Cake Cupcakes that Brandon and I made to bring on my last day

My final day presents, flowers, champagne and a necklace

Close-up of the necklace

Oh My!
Although I am sad to be ending my internship with the OAE, I am looking forward to having a bit of free time again. While I plan on spending most of it writing and researching for my final dissertation, I am also looking forward to more London explorations, now that the weather is brightening up!  London in the spring is so lovely and I plan on enjoying it as much as I can before leaving in August.

Much Love,
Emily

A Beautiful Weekend

At Holland Park

The weather this weekend in London was absolutely lovely!  With bright sunny skies and a high of 68F (20C), it was a great weekend to be outside.  And that's just what Brandon and I did.  We ventured out to the west side of London to the Notting Hill area. We explored the charming Holland Park, which has a giant chess board, Japanese garden and Ice Cream shoppe.  We even packed a picnic lunch and enjoyed lunch on a park bench.

Waterfall in the Japanese Garden

Japanese Garden

Cherry Blossoms in Bloom

Giant Chess

Rose Garden

Following our jaunt through the park we stumbled across an American Food Store.  They had all the items we've been craving this whole year, that you cannot find in the UK.  Items such as: Chex Mix, Velveeta cheese, Kraft mac and cheese, and Ranch dressing.  So we walked out with a nice variety of food to remind us of home!

We also had a special surprise earlier this week.  My friend, Megan, whom I know from college, and her husband Chad visited London this week and we got to have dinner with them one night, before they headed off to Paris!  As you can see, it was quite a bit cooler that evening (my hair being crazy in the wind), but here are Megan and I in Trafalgar Square.  I hope they had a great trip and it was so lovely to see them.

Friends reunited in Trafalgar Square!

Boy, I sure wish more friends would come visit us!  We are great tour guides!!!

Wishing you all a lovely spring!

The Making of Harry Potter (and other things)

Yesterday, the Stovers made a trek out to to boonies of London...Watford Junction which is in zone 9.  London has 6 zones for the tube/overground/DLR trains.  In the far North West of London, they extend the zones to have a special zone 7, 8, & 9.  In other words, it's a long way away from central London.

Why were we out that far you may ask?  The answer to that comes in just two letters.  WB.  The Warner Brothers studio is located in North West London and they have an exhibition on "The Making of Harry Potter".  They had lots of sets from the movie, costumes, props, and videos explaining the making of the movie.  It was very much like the Dr. Who Experience we went to in October in Cardiff.  We walked through the great hall (without it's famous ceiling), walked down Diagon Alley, took a ride on the night bus through Privet Drive (which looks remarkably like the street we live on!), and drank some butterbeer.  This is only a quarter of the pictures we took that day, but take a look at some of the things we saw...

Welcome to the HP Studios!

Harry's cupboard under the stairs at the Dursley Home

The Great Hall

Dumbledore and Snape

Gryffindor costumes, including Daniel Radcliffe's first set of robes on the far left

The Gryffindor boys bedroom

Gryffindor common room

Dumbledore's office

The chamber of secrets door

Enjoying butterbeer in front of the Hogwarts bridge

Butterbeer and the Knight Bus

Diagon Alley

In front of the Hogwarts model

The Hogwarts model covered in snow

In other news, classes are moving right along (already on Week 4!).  We attended 'American Psycho' a brand new musical at the Almeida Theatre featuring Matt Smith (Yes, former Dr. Who Matt Smith). We waited afterwards for an autograph, but he didn't sign any that night as he was meeting a friend for a drink afterwards... oh well.  At least we picked up a prop business card from the show to keep as a souvenir (found it on the ground!).

American Psycho poster

Matt Smith in the musical (pic taken from the internet, as we were not allowed to take any during the performance)

The Stover Sr. family have come back from their trip to Key West and have booked their tickets to come to London so we are busily planning that trip. They will be coming in May.

In a few weeks we head to Canterbury, stay tuned for an update about our trip!