Hampton Court, Oxford, and Windsor: Days 6,7,&8

Sorry it has been such a long time since we have posted! We have been very busy and have so much to tell you all about. Let's begin where we left off...

Day 6: Hampton Court

On our first Friday in London we traveled with the London group on our first excursion to Hampton Court Palace.  We started the day with a hearty meal in the Refectory (the British version of a cafeteria) and took a hour long train to the palace. When we arrived we were given an audio tour device, dress capes and were sent off to explore the grounds. Although it was raining everyone really seemed to enjoy majestic castle. Both Allies' favorite part of the palace was the beautiful royal gardens, which just started to bloom!

The entire London Group outside Hampton Court Palace in the rain.

The great dinning hall in King Henry's Apartments.

Giant tutor kitchens.

Complimentary cloaks for the tour.

Leah, Mullen, Scott and Masi posing with statues in the court yard.

Allie^2 in the royal gardens.

One of the many BEAUTIFUL gardens!

Mullen, EJ, Masi, Morgan, and Caroline walking through the gardens.

Everyone truly enjoyed the palace, even in the rain and the cold (and thats saying something!) When we arrived home late that afternoon we all laid down and fell into a deep sleep.

Day 7: Oxford

After a full nights rest, we woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed for our next adventure to Oxford! We started our day with a Double-Decker bus tour of the town, which was an excellent source of information. After our tour we stopped at the famous Eagle and Child for lunch. For those of you who don't know, The Eagle and Child is most notably known for being the favorite "hang out" spot for J.R.R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis.  Our next stop was to see Christ Church College. While visiting the college we saw a glimpse of a wedding party precession into the Christ Church Chapel and walked through the dinning hall which was the inspiration for the dinning hall in the Harry Potter movies. After a little window shopping, we got back on the bus tour. Masi, EJ, Leah, and Chandler all ended up falling asleep on the bus so we decided it was time to throw in the towel and bid the town Goodbye!

Masi and Chandler at Christ Church College.

Christ Church Dinning hall

Allie & I trying London's famous Pimms at The Eagle and the Child

Beautiful Christ Church College at Oxford

Day 8: Windsor

On Sunday, we took our last excursion to Windsor! For the third morning we woke up at the crack of dawn 8 am and headed towards the train station. When we arrived we went to straight to Windsor Castle (aka Masi's future home). Masi went with a guide through the grounds, while Mullen took an audio tour. After viewing the state rooms ( you were not allowed to take pictures :[ ) we went to a spanish tapas bar and then headed home.

 Mullen and a gaurd

Windsor Castle

Windsor Castle

Days 3-5

First day of school!
Monday was the first day of school. Masi took Topics and Media and Mullen took Fundamentals of Communications and PR. Masi quickly switched out of her class and is now enrolled in Literature in London. Mullen believes that the PR class is the best class that she has ever taken. These are both Regents University classes taught by Regents teachers (with accents) and meet on M/W. On T/R, we take Auburn classes: Masi taking British Lit and Mullen taking Creative Writing. Both very exciting and fun!

On the 3rd day, we started our classes which last a long 3.5 hours, but the time actually goes by pretty quickly! After that, we went to check out the student bar that is located on the university's campus and was hosting "welcome drinks" that night. We met a few new friends are from America but spending 6 weeks at Regents.

After that, we tried to find a fun pub to go to, but we ended up just taking a walking tour of London because we had no idea where we were going and couldn't find anything. Even though we walked a lot, it is true what people say about London: everything is closer than you think!

The next day, we went to our prospective Auburn classes (Brit Lit/Creative Writing) and then traveled with a group of enthusiastic super-fans in our group to see the filming of the British TV show, Sherlock. Neither of us had ever seen the show, but it was still cool to see everything! We did get to see Martin Freeman who has starred in a number of films including Love Actually and recently, The Hobbit.

After that, we traveled to a magical place called Harrods. We spent a large amount of time walking around, oo-ing and ah-ing at all of the gorgeous clothes (hats, shoes, and everything else you could ever want in life) that were FAR from our price range. It was so much fun! 

Next, we traveled to Kings Cross Station and almost made it to Hogwarts (not really)! Despite Masi's fierce hatred for Harry Potter, we had a grand time visiting Platform 9 3/4 because the guys that were working the photo-op, were absolutely hilarious! (I did not enjoy it -Masi) They gave us scarves that on the count of 3, would throw them up in the air to make the photo look more real? I'm not really sure, but it was pretty funny.

That night, we went to Regents Park for a picnic and duck feeding. We got some wine and sandwiches at the local grocery store and sat in a circle, enjoying the picturesque setting. We even got to watch a guy do a personal training session with 2 women that were hilariously struggling while he yelled in their face. I would have definitely been struggling as well because he was INTENSE.

The next day, we discovered the city of Camden, which is pretty close to Regents Park, to a drink milkshakes at a restaurant named Byrons & they were delicious. It was a normal restaurant, but we showed up with a group of around 20 just for milkshakes, but the host was very nice about that, thankfully.

Today, we took a field trip with our Auburn classes to the Museum of London! It was so fascinating and cool!

                                                     

The Arrival

We are here!

"Getting There" (Mary Kate & Ashley reference)
Masi:
The experience getting here was.. interesting (not in a good way either). My long journey began with a flight delay because the internal cabin temperature was 100 degrees, not figuratively but literally 100 degrees. Once we bored the sauna airplane we found out the entertainment system was broken. So we were all forced to entertain ourselves. I opted for Tina Fey's "Bossypants" and the back of my eye lids. We landed 10.5 hours later. I made it through security and customs with out any problems (Thank goodness!) After, I met with the three other students in our group that arrived before the preferred flight that held the rest of our group. I waited with the three other kids for about three very long hours in the platform for the Heathrow Express. We had a lot of trouble finding the other group because of the lack of the phone service and wifi ( I now refer  to this experience as the dark period).  After two of my new found friends tracked down the rest of the group we learned that their flight had been delayed. When we finally met up I ran up to the rest of the group with arms wide open, so thankful we had reunited.

Mullen:
My experience of getting to London was quick and easy. Our flight was delayed an hour because of a sick flight attendant and our "in-flight entertainment system" was broken, but I just took a few sleeping pills, put on my sleeping mask, turned on some Bon Iver and went to sleep. I had an incredible amount of leg room (exit row), so I was super thankful for that. Once we arrived, we took several different trains to get to Bakers St, lugging all of our luggage around...which was rough.

We have arrived!
The legacy of the "Allie-way" has continued to London at Regents College in Reid Hall, Room 111. Here is a picture of our room! After spending one night sweating profusely, we walked down to the store and bought fans which have been incredible. We have a great view (see other picture) and are having so much fun!

Day 1:

We woke up at 7am, which was great because we have adjusted to the time difference! We decided to wander around Regents Park for a while. Regents College is located right in the middle of this park and in a few weeks, will be filled will a hundreds of gorgeous flowers and the ever so famous Queen's Rose Garden.

         

After our walk, we got breakfast at the on-campus dining facility called the "refectory." We were pleasantly surprised by the large selection of breakfast foods and it quite delicious. Next, we attended orientation! We got to meet several other students studying abroad at Regents this summer and they were all really cool. Auburn most definitely took over the group (with a total of 21), as other groups had 1-5 people in them. They did a presentation, we wrote letters to our future selves, met Lady Sofie, who is the Academic Advisor and may be related to the Queen. We also got a campus tour from Johnathan -- our hilarious RA/concierge. Soon after that, we gathered a group to take the cliche tourist double decker bus 3 hour tour.

Masi took great notes on the map we were given by circling and starring all of the places that we wanted to visit. We were so thankful for this tour because it gave us a good idea of the layout of London. We hopped off the bus and took the Tube by ourselves for the first time! We ate a delicious spaghetti dinner at the refectory and just hung out during the night.

'Til next time,

Allie & Allie

Adios America

Masi:

T-minus three hours and I have finally finished packing (better late then never, right?) I couldn't have asked for a better last morning in the good ole USA. I was taken to Brooklyn Bagel by my two very favorite friends and watched Superstar with Lucky, my cat.

I am so excited for this adventure to finally begin! Watch out Prince Harry, Hannah and I are on our way.

Adios America! See you in July!

Mullen:

As I sit in the LAX airport (with my dream & my cardigan), I am overwhelmed with excitement. Seriously, I can't stop smiling, that's how exited I am. I have such high hopes for the next 7 weeks. I hope to learn new things, meet wonderful people, see the world, and have as many adventures as possible. I am so fortunate to have this opportunity and I cannot wait for this adventure to begin. 

 I've got my black & white sweater on for good luck (inside joke with friends) and my 68lb bag checked...a new record! So, here we go. 4.5 hour flight to ATL and then an 8 hour flight to London.

Hannah Doll

Allie^2:


Meet Hannah!

Hannah is not only our sorority mascot, but also a former "Allie-Way" resident. Hannah loves to travel and has gone on many adventures with us including our trip to Destin, Florida for Spring Break. Hannah will be traveling across the pond with us to London this summer! Keep posted for pictures and updates of Hannah's adventures!

Welcome!

Allie^2:

Welcome to our blog! We are so excited to share our amazing journey with you! As the days wind down (9, but who's counting?!), we have begun to prepare for our adventure by packing (not really, maybe just thinking about it), getting our papers in order, daydreaming about all of the fun that we are going to have, browsing through Rick Steves' guide to London, practicing our British accents, and making this blog.

I hope you read the "About Me" section, but here's a little bit of information "About Us:" we are both named Allie. We are sorority sisters that met on Bid Day. We are both from Texas. We both share the frustration that people in Alabama don't understand that "cheese dip" and "queso" are very different things. We have both survived sharing a hall and bathroom together this past year and called it the "Allie-way". People refer to us as "Allie Squared" or "The Allies." We are both #FTK and love Dance Marathon. We can spend hours watching Pinterest wedding films. We love watching the TV shows "New Girl" and "Nashville." We are both SO incredibly excited to experience London together.

We hope that you keep up with this blog as much as possible as we hope to write, post photos and post links to videos as much as possible during our 6 week adventure.