Weekend plans

Wow, I almost survived this terrible week! Well, terrible just in terms of school, tests and that kind of stress, besides I still enjoy everything here! :) We just had the last test of the week in afternoon class (which is basically just a "Alibi-uebig", whatever that is in English... ;)).
Since I don't know if I have the time to post anything tomorrow, I'll just quickly outline my plans for the next few days: Tonight, we are going out for dinner because we won't see each other over the long weekend - we, that is to say, Olga, Pascal and me, and Olga's boyfriend who is visiting from Holland. I've never met him so that might be interesting!
Tomorrow morning we have our video shooting - don't worry, it's not Hollywood 2 in Cambridge! ;) No, they're making training videos for future CPE examiners for the oral exams and they need students to take part in "real" Speaking Exams which they can analyse afterwards. For us, it's just a great opportunity to practise and even get a feedback from experts. Of course I'm a little nervous especially because I hate to see myself on screen (that's even worse than hearing my own voice which I'm slowly getting used to as we have to tape ourselves regularly here in the language lab) - but at the same time, I'm really looking forward to it, I'm sure it's a very useful experience for us!
After this, we don't have to go back to school anymore so I guess we'll just have lunch somewhere in the city centre and then go home - I'll have to pack my suitcase, because.... I'm going to London! :) It's gonna be quite a long journey (2h couch and 50min tube) but I'm so looking forward to seeing our friends and be with people I know - I thought about it yesterday and realised that this is going to be the first time since 6 weeks that I see someone I've known before I came here.... weird...
On Saturday, my mum is coming to London as well which of course I'm looking forward to (like a little child to be honest! :)) and we are going to spend the next few days together in London before I return to Cambridge some time on Tuesday.
I guess I'll be able to access the internet at some point and maybe I can even post some of my real pictures, would be fun of course!

I wish you all a nice weekend and I would love to hear from you all - once again, I always enjoy reading comments... ;)

Staying alive!

Hi.... sorry for not posting anything for such a long time... don't worry, neither the weekend nor the mocks have killed me - as they sang in the musical on Friday, I'm "Staying alive"! ;)
Unfortunately I don't have too much time right now to tell you all the details, but I'll make it short: Friday night was really cool! The musical was good fun - of course, it's different to see such a show in a "small" theatre, but still, there was some real good dancing, the music was cool (Bee Gees!!!) and after all, it had not even been expensive! :) Afterwards, Olga, Markus (another swiss guy who had been the only one interested in joining us for the musical! ;)) and I went to this Tapas place in the city centre and had a greeeeat dinner! We ordered way too much for the three of us but it was delicious and they had Sangria!!! :) The fact that Olga now calls me Gueggeli has got nothing to do with that, though... ;)
Saturday and Sunday were just lazy days, sitting in the city centre, doing homework with Olga, drinking too much coffee (as usual) - and Saturday night, we went out again! We are getting this routine... first, we went to the "Rat & Parrot", which has become our favourite pub somehow (although it absolutely wasn't the same without Pascal who was in London with a friend of his) and then we went on to Club Salsa. It was cool, as usual, but nothing special really...

Well, now I'm really exhausted, the Mock Exams have just almost killed me... Monday was terrible, we had Reading and Writing in the morning (no break between the two papers which take 2 hours each!!!) and Use of English in the afternoon - I almost fell off my chair!!! Yesterday morning was the Listening Test and although it was only 50 minutes, I was rather tired again - we didn't even go to the Salsa lessons on Monday... it's really bad....! My Speaking exam will be tomorrow, so wish me luck! :P

What else is there to say? It's already Wednesday again, unbelievable! And we have a long weekend ahead of us! :) And the best thing is: I'm going to London! And what's even better: My mum will be in London with me!!! And guess what: this is reeeeeally bad style of writing now! :P Just kidding...
I have to go to the Bus Station now to book my tickets (I'll take the coach to London on Friday afternoon, takes 2h to get there... and I'll come back on Tuesday evening some time...), I guess I won't be the only one who wants to go to London for the Bank Holiday weekend! At least, I don't have to worry about the return journey, it's just me who doesn't come back until Tuesday! :)
I hope I'll be able to get some pictures from my camera onto a computer over the weekend, I'll try my best!

Mock exams and Saturday Night Fever

Wow, another week is already over, I tell you, it is almost scary how fast the time is passing! Sometimes, I already think about what it will be like when we have to say goodbye to everyone here and I know that this is going to be tough as well... But we still have another 8 weeks to go, so no worries! ;)
Our teachers surprised us with exams this week (warnings one day in advance - but basically we couldn't prepare anything specifically for it, so...), giving us the chance to already experience the test situation for English in Use, Reading and Listening even before the "real" mock exams next week. We already have our results back and I'm really surprised at how well I did at everything - I would have already passed these three papers!!! :) I'm sooo glad about this, because it shows me that I don't have to worry or be nervous (of course I will be nervous in June, but at least not scared...) for the real CPE! Now it's just my ambition that keeps me studying even harder - sounds like a maniac now, but I really want to score a grade A! :) We'll see..
In the meantime, I have to make sure that I really get the chance to study English - I am more convinced than ever that this is the right thing for me to do, but with this change in the university system, I might not be able to combine it with the roman languages which makes it a tough decision for me... help! :) I just sent an e-mail to the Kanzlei of the UniZH, hopefully they can help me...

Today we are going to see Saturday Night Fever!!! Hooorray! I'm soooo looking forward to it! and afterwards (the show is at 5.30 - the British are weird, what kind of time is this???) we are going to have dinner in a Tapas place, that might be fun, too! I just have to be careful if they sell Sangria (Steffi, you know the possible consequences... ;))!
We don't have any big plans for the weekend, no interesting excursions this time, so we might just spend a lot of time in some coffeeshop or another, maybe revising some vocabulary or just talking... and I want to finish The DaVinci Code - this book is just soooo good!!! :)

Well, that's it for now, I wish you all a very nice weekend, enjoy the spring weather (it's nice in Switzerland, isn't it? It's even a little warmer here now!) - ou ja, and enjoy the Saechsiluete!!!!! God, that's really too bad that I miss that... :(

Rest of Easter and "real news"

Just to quickly finish off my report about Easter: Monday was another lazy day, I met Olga around lunchtime in the city centre and we enjoyed some first spring sun shine!!! Can you believe that? we were actually sitting outside with only one jacket on!!! :) No, seriously, it was just great to finally feel a little bit of spring here! Then we did the most stupid thing in this weather: we went to the cinema! :) But we had planned that and we really wanted to see this movie... it was worth it! "Take the lead" really is a great movie! Antonio Banderas plays a ballroom dance teacher who starts teaching kids at a poor highschool how to dance and in doing so teaches them manners, respect and many other values that they lack in their violence-dominated environment... it's another dance movie, the story is nothing new but it's still worth seeing it! :)
Afterwards, we went back to the city centre to spend some more time in a caffe nero. In the meantime, Olga had looked at her Tarot cards so that she could now tell me my future and answer my questions (which are not repeated here...) - it was great fun!

So, now that I've finally caught up with the time which is flying here, just some news:
- had a first "mock exam" today, just the Use of English part, was quite tough but a good exercise before the big mock exams next week (we are going to have the real exam situation with all the papers on one day etc)
- the situation with my host family is really muuuuch better, I get along very well with Barbara, I think she understood that I somehow need a little bit of a "family home" and she does her best to make me feel alright...
- on Friday, we're going to see the Saturday Night Fever musical, I'm sooo looking forward to that!!! :)

That's it, I gotta run... school and homework is back...! :)

P.S.: leaving comments is not forbidden.... I'd love to hear from you or get some feedbacks when you read it! :)

Easter, part 5: Warwick Castle

As they say, the most impressive castle in England... well, it certainly is BIG! :) We had been warned that this place was boring and after having seen Blenheim Palace this would be nothing like exciting - but the truth is, this person (not to be named now but easy to be identified after reading previous posts...;)) had not been to Warwick Castle on Easter Sunday! As most stores and cinemas throughout the country were closed that day, this must have been one of the greatest attractions for british families! There were all kinds of special activities going on, especially for kids - they could join a kids knights' army, play with people dressed up as medieval noblemen and many other things.... The castle grounds were crowded, there were enormous queues basically everywhere, in front of toilets, food stands, the entrance to the Big Hall and the Rampards - everywhere! But somehow we managed to find a back door and without intention found ourselves in the stairways leading up to one of the highest towers - giving us the opportunity to climb up there just like that! It was great fun to stand up there and look down in the courtyard and on all the people who were wasting their time queuing... ;)
We stayed up there quite long, then took a walk around the grounds, had a coffee (I drink way too much coffee here, it's too bad! ;)) and just enjoyed ourselves!
To sum up, we really did have a great time looking at the castle, chatting, laughing - this day was ANYTHING BUT BORING! :)
Sorry to everyone at home, this whole "boring"-thing has become some kind of running gag here... ;)

P.S.: I just had to write this whole post again because the internet connection destroyed it all the first time, so sorry if it doesn't make sense in some parts or if there are any typos... :)

Easter Part 4: Stratford upon Avon

Easter Sunday, another bike ride across the city at 8 o'clock in the morning...
This time it "only" took us two hours in the coach - time to listen to music and read: I started reading "The DaVinci Code" - you were all right, this book is AMAZING! It really took me in from the first page on and now it prevents me from getting enough sleep every evening! ;) But I really want to finish it soon so that I can go and watch the movie which will be on here soon!

Arrived in Stratford, our guide took us to the house you can see on this picture: Shakespeare's birthplace! Although it was ridiculously expensive (6£ for students!!!), we really wanted to see this house and the exhibition inside turned out to be quite interesting! There was a lot of information about Shakespeare's childhood, his parents, his school years, his first experiences with theatre and writing, a model of his Globe Theatre and many other things which really fascinated me - and motivated me to read more of his plays! As a future english student I must say that now, right? ;) But seriously, it felt special to be there...
Instead of 10 minutes (what our guide had told us), it took us more than one hour to look at everything there and we realised that we would not have the chance to look at everything we had intended to - there is some kind of museum called the "Shakesperience" which would definitely have been interesting to visit as it provides a lot of information about Shakespeare's life and work in form of an interactive tour; the problem was that the tour takes one hour and we only had 70 minutes left and still wanted to see his grave in the Holy Trinity Church which is on the other side of the town. So we walked to the church, took some picture of the little metal plate that indicates who is buried underneath the stone floor (Pascal had warned us that this is simply ridiculous...) and then returned to the "city centre" and sat down in the very nice park. It was impossible to resist the temptation so we ended up sharing an Ice Cream (do they sell the Magnum Mint in Switzerland? If yes, go for it! It's sooo good! ;)). This was our "shakespeare easter ice cream" and as we ate it we watched "shakespeare ducks" on the river, a special kind of duck we'd never seen so we decided that they only live in Stratford... they didn't make any sound, maybe they communicate in written form and write sonnets? ;) yes, we're crazy, but that's what makes it all interesting and funny, isn't it?!? ;)
After this nice break in the park we went back to the tourist centre where the coach was waiting for us to take us to Warwick Castle...

Easter, Part 3: lazy Saturday

Sorry for not finishing my "report" about Easter yesterday! There was so much going on, I couldn't write it all in one afternoon - I'll try my best to tell you about the rest of my weekend now!
this post will be short because Saturday was really lazy - I slept late (was really tired after the excursion!), then got my laundry ready and met Olga in the city centre at 1.30 pm. We first got our usual bowl of fruit at Sainsbury's and sat outside for a moment, before going to the O2-store to get our SIMcard changed - we now have 300 free text messages per month! Not really helpful though because they still charge you for every message that leaves the UK... ;)
Then we went to one of the numerous coffee shops - forget Starbucks, here the Caffe Nero is the place to be! Good coffee, almost as cosy as Starbucks, a little cheaper, friendly staff etc... we texted Pascal if he wanted to join us and since he was in the city anyway, we spent the next about 4 hours the three of us together. As always, it was good fun! Olga had bought Tarot cards in Oxford and wanted to try this with us but before she even had the chance to consult her book and tell us about our future, Pascal took the cards and started inventing whatever things, it was sooo funny! According to him, I will one day have to choose between two men, one of whom looks like Matt Damon and the other one could give me "all I need"... he's always making fun of me!!! ;)

part 2: Blenheim Palace

...quite impressive, isn't it? After a short (but way too warm) drive in our coach, we arrived at Blenheim Palace which is where Winston Churchill was born. It's still owned by some of his cousins sons and daughters (or whatever they are, don't ask me to remember all the information we got there!) but the main building is open to visitors.
We were just waiting outside the main entrance (what you can see on the picture), when the fire alarm went off - don't tell me we don't get action here! ;) We had to wait in the middle of the courtyard before the alarm stopped and they could let us in. What followed next was the most boring (or, to use the funniest phrase we've come across at school so far and which is quite appropriate here: "dauntingly and excruciatingly tedious"!) tour through a building that I've ever experienced... The official guide almost fell asleep while reciting all the information he must have been giving out to tourists for years already and most of it was sooo boring! I don't know how long it took us to walk through the castle, look at the room where Churchill was born, look at portraits of his grandmothers sister-in-law or whoever that was, see the shirt he wore when he was a baby etc etc... outside the weather had cleared up and the only thing we wanted was to leave these "ancient walls" and spend some time outside in the sun - fortunately we ultimately had the chance to do exactly that. The gardens or rather the parks on the grounds are amazing and eating ice cream while sitting on a bench next to water fountains and statues of angels was simply great! ;) it really felt like spring, the first time since we got here! :)
Well, that's about it for our first Easter day - actually we wanted to go out that night, but after the coach ride, the sun in the afternoon and the short night before we just wanted to sleep... :)

Easter, part 1: Oxford

Good Friday, 8 o'clock in the morning - can you imagine Olga and me cycling through the city centre to the police station? Was quite funny...! :) We had been to a pub the evening before and were rather tired (although it had not been that late actually - the weird venezuelan guy had not turned up, after sending us textmessages not to forget him blablabla... so Olga and I just enjoyed some time chatting...).
The coach ride to Oxford took a good two hours which we spent mostly with listening to music and reading girly magazines... ;) We had some rain while on the road but by the time we reached Oxford it was back to the normal british cloudy but dry weather. Our "tour guide" had given us a little map of Oxford with some of the best sights to see, so we knew about what to do in the only 3 hours we had to explore the city. First thing was the Christ Church College, one of the three most famous colleges which is where they shot some of the scenes for the Harry Potter movies. to be honest, I was quite disappointed... I mean, first thing we saw was the board with the entrance fees - 2.50£ wasn't as bad as in other places but still - and then, everything was closed! We wanted to take a look at the chapel but it was closed because of an Easter service, the library was closed because it was Easter, most of the parts where the students live are not accessible for tourists, so we could only look at the "famous" staircase where Harry Potter and his friends walked around and see the dining room - which is tiny in reality compared to this huge hall it is in the movie! But hey, that's Hollywood, right? ;)
Afterwards we went back to the city centre, took a look at the shopping centre (yes, we're bad, I know...) and headed back to the coach - stupid as we are, we thought we had to be back there at 12.45 but when nobody was there we realised that we had another full hour to spend there! This gave us the opportunity to "climb" up the highest tower in the city centre (which you can see on this picture - sorry, I can't upload my own pix, so I have to make do with the ones I find on the internet... with the advantage that the weather's always nice on these pictures here! ;)). We ended up standing up there for almost half an hour, looking down on the city, simply enjoying ourselves - and listening to music from my iPod which had to fulfill one condition: to contain the lyrics "fly" or "flying" or something like that - it was sooo funny! :) To those who've seen Ice Age 2, can you imagine our laughing fit when we listened to "I believe I can fly"??? ;)
In the end we had to hurry back to the coach to make it there by 1.45 - to go to the next stop: Blenheim Palace!

Happy Easter!

Week 4 is officially over. That makes it already one month here! ;)
At the moment I'm sitting in the Public Library of Cambridge (since all the PCs in the schools language lab were either out of use or had already people queuing for...) and enjoying the prospect of 4 free days ahead of me!
As I told you, we have booked our two excursions which I'm sooo looking forward to! I hope I can get into the internet at some point over the weekend to let you know how it was - otherwise, you'll have to wait until Tuesday (is there a limit of words for one post on a blog? That one might be rather long then.... ;)).
Tonight we're going to a Pub (maybe with a guy from Venezuela whom we met on our trip to London - could be fun to speak spanish for one evening! ;)), still thinking if we should cycle or walk and take a taxi! ;)

Well, there's not much to say for the moment, but I can assure you that my little "crisis" is over and I'm totally happy now! Don't know why, but I'm constantly laughing today, maybe just because I'm tired! lol... We had a lot of fun at school today, no one took work too seriously so short before Easter and most of the time we were just joking, chatting and laughing - and eating chocolate!;) Still, I'm not worried about the exam, on the contrary, I feel pretty confident, we already did quite a lot of writing and I'm surprised about how well I did in most of them! Also the speaking shouldn't be much of a problem since we're all so used to speaking english all the time now - the only thing that worries me a bit is this stupid summary writing, but I'm sure I'll get the hang of it sooner or later (hopefully rather sooner than later!) ....Yes, I'm a show-off... :)

That's it for now, I wish you all very happy Easter, enjoy your days off work, don't eat too much chocolate and keep me updated about EVERYTHING that's going on in Switzerland! Love ya! :)

Salsa! and other good news

Okay, here we go again... :) First of all, thanks to everyone who "supported" me over the weekend - it was so great to hear from you all and know that people understand me! :) I really think it's going to be better from now on, had some nice conversations with my host mum yesterday...

Some other good news? Well, I have quite a lot to tell you:
- first of all: Salsa yesterday was GREEEEAT! As I said, we had seen the flyers in the Club Salsa on Saturday and thought we needed to take lessons in order not to embarass ourselves on the dance floor anymore when they play salsa music! So we went to the absolute beginners class yesterday (although I was not what the teacher called a "Salsa virgin" anymore... :)) and it was really good fun! Simple, just the basics, but you have to start somewhere, right? The atmosphere in this club is just great, I love this place! The teacher was nice too (and I don't want to hear any prejudices against dancing men!) and at the end of the lesson we already felt quite confident about going to a salsa club again! :)

- did I tell you that we got tickets for the Saturday Night Fever musical?!?!?! If not, you know it now! Instead of booking a trip to London (which usually is on Wednesday evening) just for a musical and paying 38 £ for the tickets alone, we are going to see this musical here in Cambridge, just about 15 minutes away from our "homes" and for less than 20 £! Isn't that GREAT? I'm soo looking forward to it, we're going on Friday the 21st! :)

- Easter is planned! :) On Friday we are going to Oxford with a school excursion and in the evening we want to check out one of the other students' clubs, on Saturday we want to get some sleep and maybe sit in a coffee shop or something, just lazy... Sunday is another excursion to Shakespeare-town Stratford upon Avon and on Monday, we have another visit to the cinema on our programme... we hope that the movie "Take the lead" will already be out then!

- last but not least: I have signed up for a "Conversation Exchange" organised by our school and today they told me that they've found a partner for me. What it is: they match language students who want to improve their english and get some speaking exercise together with local students who want to learn (or improve) a foreign language! So now I'll have to speak Standard German with someone who studies in Cambridge and she has to speak english with me (this poor girl is going to learn a terrible German with me - imagine this swiss accent she's going to have! :))...

That's about it, it's already late and I should go...

Host family...

It's Monday again - at least this week is only 4 days! :)
So, little update on my dilemna about changing host families, not changing, staying or leaving... at the moment, I think I'll stay. Shocked? Yes, I'm surprised myself because on Friday, a change seemed to be the one and only best thing to do... But in the meantime, I've heard so many different opinions about host families, what they are supposed to do (there is no rule saying that they have to talk to you!!!), what some of them do (terrible things like giving you rules at what time of the day you are allowed to use the bathroom, making you pay if you want to take a glass of juice during the day etc...)... the point is, I realise that actually I can be happy with what I have and if I changed, the risk would be sooo big that it gets even worse! And I simply don't have the nerves to take this risk! I mean, you all know me, I'm not really good at adjusting to new situations and I'm just too afraid of what this change could mean...
Certain people have told me that I really need to grow up and that these 3 months might help me to become an "adult" person... well, maybe that's one way my life is forcing me to grow up now!

Yesterday evening I spoke to my host mother and really told her how I feel and everything (I thought, maybe she didn't "socialize" with me, because she thinks that I like to be alone in my room....), but she completely got me wrong, she even started crying because she thought I was saying that she did her job wrong as a hostmother... it took me quite a while to reassure her that this obviously was my problem, that I had apparently had too great expectations and that it wasn't her fault etc...! I guess I'll get her some Easter chocolate or something with a little card to apologize - I really felt terrible about it all! But after dinner, we even had a "real" conversation and I think it might even be good that we've discussed it and that she knows now what is going on - we still have another 10 weeks to go! No, not exactly, 10 weeks from now, I'll be at home! :)

One good thing to mention: tonight, Olga and I are going to have our first salsa lesson!!! I told you about this club Salsa, right? We went back there on Saturday and they played mostly real Salsa music and we felt like complete idiots because all the people around us were dancing "real salsa", so we decided that we had to learn it - here we go! :) I'll keep you updated!

"empty weekend"

Hi again...!

Well, there's nothing to say actually - it's already Friday again, week 3 is over, nothing special has happened and we don't have any real plans for the weekend... maybe we are going out tomorrow evening, we first intended to go to a pub tonight but after a short night yesterday (homework until 11pm - isn't that crazy??) we decided to postpone that...
I'm thinking about changing my host family, I really don't feel very comfortable - I have to make my decision over the weekend and tell the "accomodation officer" on Monday...
Have a nice weekend! :)

A little homesick? ;)

Hi...
I don't know why, I just felt like posting a picture of Zurich... Olga wanted to know what my hometown was like so I searched the internet and I must admit that, when I saw this, I felt a little homesick!
There are always short moments when I sit in my little room and have nothing to do that I wish I were at home, but basically I'm fine... It's far too early to feel homesick anyway! :) I still have another 10 weeks to go!
It's just that I miss all you guys so much, it's terrible not to be able to talk to you and even worse, not to see you! But I really appreciate all your e-mails and text messages, it always makes my day to hear something from home! ;)

I'm not going to be sentimental now, I better stop writing! :)

Ice Age in real life

My lunch break is almost over (only another 10 minutes), but I have to tell you this: It is HAILING! Can you believe this? I mean, rain is bad enough, but now we have to be careful not to get pieces of ice on our head! :(
It really feels like Ice Age in real life, last night was another nightmare, almost no sleep due to VERY low temperatures in my room and this morning the bike ride was terrible - my fingers were numb by the time we reached school (does anyone know the word for "Chuenagel" in english??), but something inside my head refuses point blank to go and buy gloves in April!!!

So my statement of the day is: I need sun, I need warmer temperatures, I need spring! I'm so fed up with this winterlike weather!!!

Just for fun!

No comment.... :)

London and Ice Age 2

Wow, week 3! Already 1/6 of my stay here is over, unbelievable!

So now, my weekend (I apologize already in advance, if this post turns out to be boring or not as well written as others - I'm terribly tired at the moment, without even knowing why! I already tried chocolate and coffee, nothing helps ;))
But I'll try my very best! ;)

Friday around lunch time, we realised that going out on a weekday (-->Ballare) was not the best idea, we were so tired! Nevertheless, we spent some time in the computer room (yes, we ARE addicted...) and then cycled to the city centre. the weather was great (meaning there was a little sunshine and no rain for the moment), we were even able to take some nice tourist pictures from the city centre!

We did not go out on Friday evening because it would have simply been too much - Saturday morning we had to get up around 6.30!!! But it was worth it! Olga and I met at 7.30 to have enough time to cycle to the police station where the coach was waiting for us. We boarded the coach together with about 60 other language students (these excursions are always organised by all the language schools together) and at about 8.20 we hit the road. There were not many students from the Embassy but it didn't matter - the three of us (Olga, Pascal and I) had quite a lot of fun!
First, we had a little city tour in our coach, which didn't include much more than just our "guide" telling us what we were driving past on our way to the more central place in London where we could get off! this central place was Haymarket and from there we walked a little bit with our guide, across Trafalgar square and then to the Buckingham palace. by then, it was about 11.30 and we had free time until 16.45. Olga had never been to Harrods, so we walked across the park (I'm not sure what it's called...) next to Buckingham Palace and straight to Harrods. Once again I have to say that this is not a Shopping Centre but much more like a museum! At least that's what it feels to me! we had exactly this discussion with Pascal, he would have spent hundreds of pounds in there if we hadn't reminded him that we wanted to see some other places before the day was over! :)
In order to save some time, we took the tube on our way back - ridiculously expensive, but at least fast! :) Pascal got off at Picadilly Circus because he was going to meet a friend of his who's in London at the moment, but Olga and I went on to Covent Garden. This was one of the best things I still had in mind from my London trip with my mum about 4 years ago and we were lucky with the weather! We sat on the terrasse of an Italian restaurant eating a sandwich and just enjoying life, it was so great! :) Then we entered the Market hall (the "apple market") where they sell about everything from silver jewellery (of course, shopposaurus was loose and I had to buy a pair of earrings) to soaps, scarves, paintings - and chocolate (as Olga delightedly noticed! ;)). Out on the street there were musicians, people performing little theatres, clowns - I just love this place, it feels so alive!!!
Then we planned our further route - we had about another 2 hours - and left Covent Garden in direction of Oxford street. On our way, we walked past a little coffee shop called Muffinski's where we had to stop of course - Olga needed her daily muffin! This is how her nickname Muffinski was born (I don't know if she would kill me if she read this now... ;) I hope not!). Oxford street somehow wasn't as exciting as I had remembered it but maybe that's because we didn't really have the time to look at everything... finally we went off Oxford street, turned to Regent street and went back to our coach through Carnaby street! :)
Well, that's already it! I know it's not much but that was everything we could fit into a few hours and it was enough to reactivate my memories of London and to make sure we come back some time in the next few weeks! ;)

Next thing: ICE AGE 2!!! No, I'm not referring to the weather here (although it is rather cold again...;)), but to our first visit to the cinema here in Cambridge! Yes, it is true, I'm not bluffing: we've already seen Ice Age 2! I know it's not even in the cinemas yet, but there was a "preview" this weekend and we were lucky and got in! And all I can say is: Get your tickets, go to the cinema and watch this as soon as you can! It's absolutely hilarious!!! :) I can only recommend it to everyone who's liked the first one, it's at least as good as that!

Well, that's it then! I'm really tired now and given the fact that I still have to cycle home before falling asleep, I'd better get going! ;)