London

Title says it all...took me quite a while (sorry Laetitia!), but I've finally found some time to write a blog entry about my trip to the amazing city called London.

I'm not in the mood for any creative writing, so I'm gonna stick to lists:

What I've seen: (in no particular order. or well, no order that anyone but me can understand.)

• The Big Ben (duuuuh...:p very nice, very big, very...hard to get a decent picture of)
  
• Tower Bridge
  
• Trafalgar Square (also hard to get a decent pic, but very cool)
• Leicester Square (my favourite place in London! Not exactly sure why, but I love it)
• Houses Of Parliament (see Big Ben, would really like to go in there one day. the houses of parliament that is)
• Buckingham Palace (Nice, the big statue in front of it is very nice as well! Didn't see the changing of the guard here, we went to Whitehall instead)
  
• Harrods (impressive, but nothing too special. That's probably cause I didn't go in.)
• Shakespeare's Globe Theatre (was on my wishlist, only saw it from outside, but was cool nonetheless)
• Tower of London (A classic of course. Very cool, bigger than I thought)
• King's Cross (I gotta admit this was one of the highlights for me. Hey don't blame me, I'm a Potterfan! Took quite a while to get there, since i was going to take mom there, but got us to the wrong station XD. Seeing Platform 9 and 3/4 was all worth it though! I also saw this place where they have been filming scenes for the Order and the Phoenix movie)
• Downing Street (Too bad about the fence...I would have really loved to get a closer look)
• Whitehall, the Horse Guards... (was really cool to see, horse guards are funny, well some of them, but the changing of the guard there wasn't what it used to be, according to my mom)
  
• St. Paul's (The part of it that was visible, was nice. They were working on it though...and it was raining while we went there...and i was tired...so basically don't remember too much of it :p)
  
• Chelsea Football Stadion (well we basically went there to buy stuff for my bro, but was cool nonetheless)
• Oxford Street (The Disney Shop!!! =) Very cool other stores as well, and a lot of Pizza Hut and McDonald's restaurants (all at the same side of the street! lol...joke between me and my mom))
• Hyde Park (niiiiiiice! We did this on Sunday afternoon, so I was pretty much exhausted, but it was still cool! Kept looking for the Diana memorial...which was quite a disappointment (i'm talking about the "fountain", not the memorial at Kensington Palace, i (read: my feet) didn't make it there))
  

Of course i've also seen stuff like Westminster Abbey, the Tate Modern,... Oh and I walked on Millenium Bridge... but the list above was what I really wanted to see.
Oh, something that was not on my list but really nice: Piccadilly Circus! It's like a mini Times Square (New York)...It's brilliant! The road between Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square on a Saturday night was one of my fave moments.

Impressions:

• The Tube is brilliant...gets you everywhere you wanna go sooo fast...I wish we had an underground service like this!
  
• The people: very nice, friendly and polite!
  
• General atmosphere was really good, I can well imagine myself living there one day :)
  
• Can't imagine you could ever get bored when you live in London :p
  
• Travelling with Eurostar: very comfortable and fast
  
• Security: very very tight in the UK! No luggage lockers or bins in Waterloo station, and my bag got searched when we left. In Belgium, however, no security whatsoever, you can just walk in really.
• Cars driving on the left: weird feeling in the beginning, but you get used to it soon :p the "look to the right!" signs on crossroads are very useful!
  
• Food: very international.
  
• Supermarkets: lots of "put it in the microwave and eat it"-food.
• Magazines/newspapers: looooooots of them!
  
• Expensive.
  

Oh, and Kettle ships are the best...we need those in Belgium!

Conclusion: I wanna go there again!


I don't seem to be able to upload pics right now, so i'll keep those for a later entry.

Love, Actually.

I'm in love with this brilliant British movie called Love, Actually. I watched it when it was shown on tv months ago, and had been looking for the dvd ever since. Last week, during some sales-shopping, I finally found a copy. Been watching it almost every night since then =)



It's a real "feel good movie" but with a very good story as well. Or stories, rather, since the film tells the stories of different couples who are all somehow connected. The humour is brilliant too. Hugh Grant is just hilarious. As always of course. Actually, the rest of the cast are very good actors as well. There is Colin Firth, Alan Rickman, Emma Thompson and lots more.


Except for watching Love, Actually I have spent most of my time studying, or at least trying to. I had my first exam yesterday, and I think I did well. Next up is Hungarian... for which I am going to study right now. *sighs*

Oh, btw, yesterday I got my tickets and travel documents for my trip to London! I'm really excited about it now =) Only 22 days left!

2007

Here we are, another year has passed. I think 2006 was one of the most interesting years so far. I feel like I can honestly say that I learned a lot over the past 52 weeks. There've been highs and lows, but overall, I'd say 2006 was okay for me. However, I have a feeling that 2007 is going to be even better.

Flashback:

Jan 1st 2006 I made the following New Year's resolutions:

1. learn to drive
2. meet some special people
3. be nice(r) to my family
4. see anastacia live for the fifth time
   

Well...

1. Working on it :p
   
2. Hmm, well, I'd say "done", but of course there are many more people I want to meet face to face.
   
3. Well...:p I'm trying, and will try even harder this year.
4. Done. Even though it wasn't a concert, I got to see her. =)
   

Reading the old resolutions, I realised that a lot has changed. I do feel that I'm at a way better stage in my life now than I was back then.
Starting college has been a really great thing for me. Even though at the moment I'm fed up with studying (or rather, the attemps to), I really love college. I love the people and (most of) the classes. I've fallen in love with Hungarian and everthing that has to do with it. (Except maybe the liver-pate-thing). And overall, I just feel a lot better. I guess this was a change I really needed.

I realized the days before New Year that I was actually excited about the year coming up. I look forward to learning new things (personally as well as academically), meeting more people, travelling and finally getting my driver's licence.
I'd say...bring it on!



(But of course, for now, I'm stuck to studying. I really hope I'll pass all 7 of my January-exams.)