Brief Update

Hi everyone!! So sorry for my absence from my blog. My daily life in America isn't nearly as interesting as the one I led in London, though a few things have happened since I returned.

Rather than take the October LSAT like I originally planned, I decided to take advantage of a Testmasters course in Detroit and rather opted to take the December test. This definitely worked to my benefit, as I received a score that I'm both proud of and should help to either get me a full/sizeable scholarship or into a great school.

I submitted my applications last week. I ended up applying to all Midwest schools, as I ultimately decided that being close my family and friends is of major importance to me. I applied to:

• Michigan State
• Indiana University-Bloomington
• Wisconsin-Madison
• Ohio State
• Iowa
• Minnesota
• Chicago-Kent
• Case Western

So, the waiting game has begun.

Aside from that, I've just mainly been enjoying time with my family. I've been doing things like cooking and running a lot, and I taught myself how to knit. I know, I'm basically a 93-year old woman...but I like it. Our house is crazy and overrun with dogs as usual, but I love that as well.

The next couple of months will be spent doing law school visits to check out the campuses, law schools, and programs of the schools I'm considering...so that should be fun.

I told you all my life is super boring -- I knit and deal with law school stuff. Hence my reasons for not blogging. Anyhow, I'm doing great and I just wanted to send out an update because I still receive emails regularly asking me what I've been up to. :) I'll try and make more of an effort to post here when I can from now on.

Love from Michigan!

Afternoon Tea and Polka Dots

This afternoon, my two best girlfriends here in London and I ventured up to Highgate for an afternoon tea. For those who aren't familiar with the English tradition, afternoon tea is generally more than just, well...tea in the afternoon. It generally involves baked goods, and sometimes champagne. Ours ended up being quite casual, but super yummy and enjoyable!

We went to an adorable little tearoom called High Tea of Highgate, which is up in north London, not too far from where my friends both live. First of all, the place is obviously precious. Second, they hand bake all of their baked goods in-store each and every day...so when they're out, they're out. They have interesting things like lavender cake, as well as traditional options such as scones and cupcakes. They also had a vast assortment of different teas -- it was hard to make up my mind!

I ended up choosing the strawberry and orange tea (which was amazing), along with a mini vanilla cupcake with vanilla buttercream frosting. Buttercream frosting truly is the food of the gods, isn't it? Kate went with the London afternoon blend with a slice of lavender cake, and Paloma had the strawberry and orange tea along with a piece of lemon drizzle spongecake.

Everyone loved their choices. The mini cupcake was perfect for me, because I wasn't very hungry at all, and those three bites were the perfect amount to feed my sweet tooth. I'm never one to turn a cupcake down -- they are my favorite! Not to mention, these were homemade and truly amazing. But I still managed to get the same amount of satisfaction out of it that I would have gotten from one that was three times the size. I mean, look at that face -- do I look upset in any way?? ;) And while I absolutely loved that cupcake, the real star of the show was the amazing tea. I'm a tea lover, and that strawberry/orange tea may be the best I've had. It was loose leaf, unsurprisingly...and sweet enough without being overbearing. And did you notice that it's pink?!?

We also really liked the cream pourer. Is that a word? Meh, if not then I just made it one. We liked it so much, we spotted some for sale in the shop and ran (okay, fast walked) to them. Err...£25. Adorable, but...well, we are poor graduate students. Couple that with the fact that I'm attempting to run my UK bank account dry before I leave (I think I'm at about £20 left right now), and I think you'll probably guess that I did not come home with a patterned porcelain cow.

It was such a nice afternoon with my girls that I'm going to miss so, so much. **tear** Prior to going out for our tea, we met at Kate's flat with another one of my lovely girlfriends, Emmy, and had a pink champagne toast while munching on some cheese and crackers and catching up. It's just so hard for me to understand and accept that I won't be seeing these girls anymore after a few days.../sigh.

Tomorrow should be interesting. In the morning, I'm going to head over to ULU to have my three copies of my dissertation bound, and then I'll make my way to SPP to turn. them. in. Whoa. It's weird to think that, in a way, this whole year had led up to this point...the turning in of the 'big one.'

After I get that taken care of, it's time to commence the packing! I think I have a lot of work to do. I need to get rid of the things I won't be taking home with me (like some books, my toiletries, my sheets/towels/pillows, etc.) and weed through my clothing to see what I do want to take home. I think three days should be enough time to sort through my life in my little room here!

Okay, time for some more LSAT studying. I haven't been as disciplined this weekend as I need to be. For that, I will now be up for the next 3-4 hours doing work. Party animal.

Last Night

Last night was my last Friday night, and the beginning of my last weekend in London.

We had an IPAS get together up in Camden.

I saw lots of friends.

I cried.

The end.

Harry Potter!!

It's been brought to my attention that I did not sufficiently cover the one fun aspect of my weekend: going to see Harry Potter!  As I alluded to before, Friday was a busy day. This is mostly good, because I got a LOT done -- I worked on my dissertation for a few hours, I made it to the gym (which is an achievement in itself lately), and I did a practice LSAT test. That last one might not sound like much to those of you who may not be well versed in the nuances of the LSAT...but a practice test done correctly will take a good 4 hours out of your day. And it's not fun. And it's tedious. And after doing one, it's not uncommon to want to just flop in your bed and watch re-runs of The Real Housewives of New Jersey all night.

But luckily, I pulled myself together after all of that and headed up to Tufnell Park to catch up with my favorite girls Kate and Paloma at Kate's adorable new flat. First of all, her flat is amazing. She's going to have a perfect little year there. It made me kind of excited to think about how in about a year, I will be moving again into a new apartment, location yet to be determined. Anyways, we had a nice catch-up chat session, since we hadn't seen each other for a week. Lots happens in a week here, ya know??  Kate provided the sausage dip and chips, and Paloma provided the cookies 'n cream ice cream. Perfect combination? Sure.

Around 9:45 or so, we headed over to Camden to go see HP! I won't say too much about it, but I LOVED it. I think it was, by far, the best movie of the 8. Definitely a nice ending to the series (though the epilogue was a little creepy/very humorous to us). Of course movies very, very rarely accomplish everything that the book does, and this was no exception...but it was still a well done flick. I liked that there was focus and closure on a lot of the supporting characters (Neville, Luna, Hagrid, etc.) as well as the main ones. Of course my favorite aspect was a glimpse into the amazing character development that J.K. Rowling achieved with Snape, my favorite character.

Okay, okay, okay...that's enough. Just know that: a) Friday night was a great night with the girls, and b) HP was amazing and you should go see it if you're a fan of the books or movies, or both.

Now, onto another busy day of the same old, same old. Dissertation, LSAT, gym. Oh life.

Change of Plans

I'm super busy today so I'll just be short and straight to the point -- instead of flying back home to Michigan on 22 August, I am now leaving on 11 August! There are a few different reasons, but those are unimportant. I will say though that I am thrilled to be going home soon. I don't think it's necessary to reemphasize how much I do love London...but just in case: I LOVE LONDON! I think I'm just ready to be home. It's bizarre for me to think about the fact that I haven't seen my dad (or my dogs...CRY) for 6 months now, and by the time I do see them it will have been 7! It's only 11 days sooner than my original flight, but that's 11 days more of Michigan summer, boating, the beach, and rooftop wine and sweet potato chips at the Vintage. It will also allow me to be home for my sister's birthday on the 18th, which I'm very happy about. Oh, and let's not forget the Britney & Nicki concert IN GRAND RAPIDS on the 17th! Somehow, I blanked out on the fact that it was going to be at Van Andel...I just assumed it was going to be in Detroit. So yes, that's a must-see. Van Andel is such a great venue for concerts because it's small -- Kel and I (and a couple of her friends) saw John Mayer there the winter before last. Amazing.

I've got lots of good stuff to look forward to, and I'm a happy girl. But now the next four weeks (well, now it's less than four weeks!) are going to be super crazy. I'm now looking to finish up my dissertation in three weeks, and I'm also trying to stay on a somewhat regular LSAT studying schedule. I'm in a pretty decent position regarding my dissertation -- I have about 2,000 solid words done (out of 10,000). About half of the paper can't be done until I close my survey and analyze the findings. Once I do that, I can type up the findings section, as well as the conclusions and discussion sections. Right now, I'm mainly focusing on the literature review and methodology parts of the paper. On top of all that, I have lots of fun to have with my friends before I leave. It's going to be a quick and wild four weeks, I'm sure. 

Okay, that is all the updating I have time for. I am now off to the gym, and after that is more dissertation work. Later on, Kate, Paloma, and I are getting together for drinks and food before going to see Harry Potter in Camden. Yay! 

The end of June and July, thus far...

Yet again, I find myself having to apologize for my absence the past few (er...nine) days. I'm sure you all understand -- I'm busy with my dissertation and living it up in London since my time here is winding down!

Since I last wrote, a few things have happened. 

There was a going away party/drinks gathering combination event for a couple of my friends -- one who recently moved back to Ireland, and one who is old (but fun!). I'm just kidding...he's only a couple of years older than me. The gathering took place at Proud Camden, which is where we had our Valentine's Day event back in February. You know, the place that used to consist of horse stables that is now converted into a pretty cool bar?

(These photos were borrowed from another friend, because I'm a photo failure sometimes.)

So that was a good night. I initially planned on just going to say hi to everyone, and not drinking, since I had a ton of work to do. Weeelllllll, that didn't work out as planned, and I drank far too much wine with my handsome friend Dylan (in the first photo above). It was a lot of fun though, and needed.

The next night, a few of my friends and I had a little nighttime picnic-ish in Hyde Park to listen to the Arcade Fire concert. Mumford & Sons opened, so I was pretty excited about that. We stayed in the park for a few hours, since it was such a nice night. Eventually, we did get kind of cold and found our ways back home.

Then, on Friday, it was Canada Day! I have a few good Canadian buddies here, and they were pretty excited to celebrate the anniversary of their country's independence. Who am I to deny them that? The main festivities were held in Trafalgar Square, so that's where we headed first.

There were vast amounts of poutine, beaver tails, curly fries, and Molson to go around. Canada was certainly well represented on that day.

Somewhere along our journey, we came across this sign, which Dylan and I loved and giggled over for a minute.

Oh, if only. I eventually separated with Dylan and Charlotte and met up with a few of my other friends later on that evening, which resulted in a late pub night with lots of good conversation, bad singing, and cheap beer. In other words...the best kind of night possible.

Since I had a pretty social Wednesday-Friday, I took it relatively easy on Saturday and Sunday, and tried to focus on getting some work done for my dissertation. I did manage to spend some time with a friend on Saturday, so as not to go completely dissertation crazy. 

Finally, this week has been all business so far. I have been super focused (for me, at least) on all the 'not always fun' kind of things: my dissertation, working out, and my future. Right...so, not always fun. However, these past three days have been pretty productive -- I've finally got my official survey up and running for my research, I've been doing a bit of LSAT studying and now have two of my 'bibles' on the way to me here (thanks, madre!), and I feel like I'm making some genuine progress on figuring out my plan for what I'm going to do when I return home in a couple of months. Wow, not even a couple of months...time is flying. Sidenote: I did get together with a friend for a while on Monday to celebrate the Fourth of July. I must say, it's not nearly as much fun here. We joked that we wanted to put on bikinis and drink a lot of booze to make us feel more like we were back home. We still had a good time though.

In other news, I'm sure you've heard or read or seen that Casey Anthony was acquitted on murder, child abuse, and aggravated manslaughter charges yesterday. I can't begin to describe how sick it made me feel to hear the court clerk announce the jury's decisions. I've pretty extensively watched and covered this trial from day one. I didn't know much about it before going in, which was actually ideal as it made me objective to all the internet rumors and miscellaneous evidence that the state chose not to present. I truly felt that the prosecution did an adequate job of proving her guilt in the death of her daughter. I thought the jury would come back with a verdict of guilty on felony murder, though not necessarily murder in the first degree. However, they also had the options of lesser charges second and third degree murder, as well as manslaughter...but did not feel she was guilty. My mind was blown. I have no doubt in my mind nor heart that Casey killed her poor little girl, whether or not she planned in. It just breaks my heart that she will now be getting what she wanted all along -- her 'bella vita' (meaning 'beautiful life', which is the tattoo she got while Caylee was "missing", though according to Casey's story, this would have been while she was grieving the accidental drowning death). She'll be free to do all the partying she wants to now...just like she originally wanted. And on top of all that, she'll be making bank with the book, movie, and television deals she'll be getting. The thing that makes me sickest is the thought that she may decide to start a family again someday. ARGH -- the thought makes me violently mad, to be honest.

Okay, sorry for that tangent...I have a lot of anger reserved for Casey Anthony, and truthfully I'm still a bit in shock that she will likely be walking out of the courthouse tomorrow after her sentencing a free woman (due to time already served). Sickening.

I probably should have saved some kind of good, light news to end on, huh? Umm...we're more than halfway to the weekend? Right. That is good news. I'm looking forward to spending some time with my friends this weekend, after a couple more days of hard work tomorrow and Friday. 

Ah, I have an idea for a good ending. My sister sent me these beautiful photos of our dogs from her Fourth of July gathering. How sweet are they??

The beautiful old girl...Casey

Happy 4th of July from Zo!

Ms. Molly Weasley

All tuckered out after a day of play...

The little Moo Nugget. :)

Okay, I feel better. That's a good note to end on. Until next time! :)

And She Shall Go To The Ball.

Last night was the much-anticipated SPP end of the year ball -- officially dubbed 'A Night at Monte Carlo' due to the blackjack tables that were present. It was held at Opal, a kind of swanky little place down on Embankment. There were 150+ people, and I think a fun time was had by all.

Kate and I started out the day by hanging out at her flat and catching up...so needed. She left for a two week vacation back in Texas early this morning, so we needed some quality time before then! A couple of hours later, Paloma and Harry joined, and we had a grand little time being ridiculous: singing, dancing, eating, drinking, playing games, and finally getting dressed and leaving.

Apples To Apples -- umm, we'll just say it's a fun game. :)

In the middle of our little dance party.

Not sure why we thought this was a good idea but this picture shows pure happiness. I love my Palomy!

She was my date for the night. :)

Keeping it super classy with the huge honking carrots dipped in hummus. And peanuts. And vodka.

Love, love, love my girls. These are two of the main reasons I will miss London so much.

Prom photos!

About to embark on a booze-filled tube ride. Looking back, this was probably unnecessary.

At the actual event.

Overall, I think the event was really nice. It was well-planned (good job, Char!) and I think enjoyed by most, if not all. I, for one, am more than happy to have an excuse to throw on some five inch leopard print pumps, a pretty dress, and red lipstick!

This morning...was a tad rough. I may or may not have stayed in bed until 1:00 p.m. ((You know that means I did.)) Thankfully, I'm feeling much, much better now, and finally feel like I can start being somewhat productive, albeit from my bed. On this evening's agenda is more LSAT studying and possibly a trip to the gym. Rad.

Thank The Heavens Above.

I'm ALL done with final exams for my course. The past couple of months have been completely crazy and flown by, but at the same time it felt like it took a long time to reach this day. Regardless, my focus is now set on working on my dissertation, continuing to work on my running, and to have an amazing London summer. It'll be hard to beat a good old Michigan summer filled with beach days, boating, swimming in the lake, running with my dogs, and Tigers games; but I feel confident that my London summer will be one of the best yet. How can it not be? I'm in the best city and I have wonderful people around me. :)

Yesterday after our exam was finished at 1:00, we all headed to a pub near Liverpool Street and started an extremely long day of drinking that involved tequila shots, many bottles of wine, cider, and drinking games. Oy. It was tons of fun though -- everyone was in a great mood since we were all so relieved to be done.

On a less positive note (at least in the eyes of my poor parents who read this), I may or may not be becoming addicted to the amazing sleep that I am able to get after drinking inordinate amounts of alcohol. And by 'may or may not', I mean that I definitely am. I'll keep ya updated.

Next on my agenda is a meeting with my dissertation supervisor on Friday that I am entirely unprepared for. So, the next two days will be spent trying to come up with some meaningful things to present to him so that he hopefully doesn't think that I am a completely worthless tutee that isn't worthy of his time. Working on that...

Well, That Didn't Go As Planned...

Oh well. The Wings had a great season in which they faced a lot of adversity -- lots of injuries, and a tough road schedule as usual, and they kicked its ass. It does need to be said though: Pavel's shot was an absolute snipe show.

Damn. He's incredible. Watching the playoffs from afar this year has really got me excited to go to as many games as possible next season! Mother, that means that I need a season ticket in addition to the ones you have. K, thanks! And don't act like we wouldn't have a majorly awesome time with that (yes, I said majorly awesome). Greektown, casino, bakery...oh, and of course the hockey too!

Anyhow, I am completely and shamelessly avoiding studying at all costs. I have cleaned my room, gone grocery shopping, read magazines, uploaded photos, and I'm getting ready to go for a run...yet, I've spent about ten minutes looking through a few slides. I'm truthfully not too worried about my exams, but I really do need to put a little more time in to this whole revision deal. Meh, whatever.

Last night, my friends and I went to Opal, which is down on the embankment. It's where we're holding our end of the year School of Public Policy ball, so we went on a semi-secret mission to go check it out. It was great! As I've griped about before, I'm not too into the whole English house music bar/club scene here. My friends know -- I'm a slave to the dance floor. It's true. But, I just can't get into it with the house music. Luckily, on Friday nights Opal plays amazing American dance music...think: Britney, Gaga, Rihanna, Justin Timberlake, etc. Hello, lover! We had a pretty great time.

The lady that we are in talks with for the event offered us free admission, a private table, and a bottle of wine. Who are we to say no? The booths had these horribly tacky yet simply amazing rhinestone details.

I was craving a Cosmopolitan...don't ask me why. So I decided to have one. Or four.

And Matt, now that you've told me you read this, this photo simply had to go up. He liked my drink. Isn't he so cute??

Oh, so you've also probably noticed that I chopped my hair off. Well, I didn't do it myself -- but I paid way too much money to have someone who actually knows what they're doing do it for me! I was feeling a little too attached to my long, damaged, un-styled hair, and I don't like feeling too attached to anything aside from, umm...my dogs. I thought I'd come out of the experience with a haircut that was okay; one that would be a lot better for the summer and easier to manage. But, to my surprise, I actually really like it. It's super corny, but it really is freeing to cut ten inches off of one's hair. Plus, my head feels very light now...though that may actually just be my hangover.

**thank you to my graphic designer friend A who has made my blog look a little more presentable...I'm useless with that stuff! :)

My Life...For the Next 3.5 Months:

See, little blog? I'm not neglecting you for poor reasons. I swear, I'm (mostly) doing important stuff.

I'll have a nice, albeit short, break on Friday, when a few friends and I go check out the venue that we will likely be holding our year-end IPAS ball event at. The events director that Charlotte and Dylan are dealing with has invited us down to experience the place on Friday night, in its normal atmosphere. She's giving us free admission and a table, plus some complimentary drinks! How could I say no? I'm sure after this grueling week of revising, I'll more than welcome a short break. 

The Royal Wedding

Yes, yes...it was a week ago. I know I'm late, but in case anyone forgot: I'm both very busy and very lazy. It's a bad combination.

However, I'm here now and I'm going to take you on a photographic journey. Well, not really...the photos truly only cover about five hours or so of my life. And there's not a ton of them. But, they're still somewhat interesting, right??

So last Thursday, I basically stayed up all night in anticipation because I had to wake up at the ungodly hour of 5 bells to get ready and bike over to Hyde Park. Yes...you read that correctly: we BIKED. The one thing I swore I would never do in London is ride those silly looking Barclay's bikes through this city that defines absolute chaos. Drivers are literally insane. Not to mention that everything is pretty much backwards to me, due to the whole 'we like to drive on the wrong side of the road' thing they've got going on here. Bottom line: while I love riding a bike, I really don't feel much urge to here in the land of crazies.

However, I was convinced that bikes would be the best way to go, since the tubes and the buses would be crazy around 6:15 a.m. with the city getting ready for the wedding. Fine.

So off we go. We had to go to four, yes FOUR, different docks to find bikes, since the first three were empty or only had duds left. By this time, my friend and I were already concocting a plan to catch a cab instead, but lo and behold, our other friend found a station. We hopped on, and took off...

And I will say, I LOVED IT! We rode on a backstreet on which there was virtually zero traffic, and only got stuck going the wrong way on a one way street twice! It was quite fun, and I'm glad we did it. Although, we ran into more docking issues once we arrived at the park. We had to cycle around in circles for a while trying to find another station to dismount at, which made us a little late to our 6:45 mimosas and breakfast date at Katelyn's, with all of our other friends.

We finally made it.

After a half hour of pigging out and morning drinking (I did not participate...probably a good thing) we headed over to Hyde Park, which is conveniently about a block from K's flat.

Once there, we found a suitable spot to plop our two giant bedsheets down, and settled in for the morning. We got there sufficiently early, so we got a good spot not too far from the giant screen.

Some of us took naps...

While others anxiously awaited the arrivals of the Beckhams and the Princes...

Some drank their weight in cheap champagne...

While others just focused on what food they brought along in their massive purses (ahem, it may have actually only been me)...

Annnd of course, we've got an assortment of random shots throughout the morning.

The crowd growing larger...

And then, badda-boom, badda-bing...they were man (or Future King) and wife (or Princess/Duchess)! Confetti was fired, cheers were yelled, 'God Save the Queen' was sung...

After all that madness, I decided to head book it home to watch the balcony kiss in the comfort of my tiny little room, without the other 200,000+ crazies in Hyde Park. Best. decision. ever. Hyde Park was fun, but five hours was enough for me!