I’ve Been Here a Month! WOW!

So I’m not the best at keeping up with blogging. During the week we don’t really do anything that is to excited, basically lots of walking to class and back.  This last week was my first week that I had all of my classes.  My classes are okay, my Fashion Forecasting class is probably my favorite.  I really love London as a city but I am a little disappointed in the school.  I though when I was coming here my classes would be mixed with students that are from but they aren’t its only study abroad student.  Actually the school has been quite quiet this whole month because the full time students don’t start their classes until next week.  Hopefully the vibe in the school will be more exciting once all the regular students and will help me to get into my classes more.  I have been talking to, and reading blogs of other MCAD study aboard students talking about how they are somewhat disappointed with the manor that their classes are taught.  We are all getting a reality check…. it is making me realize how wonderful and individual MCAD is.

Friday we (girls in my flat) went to a bar/lounge for 60′s motown night and had a great time dancing.  We were the youngest and then the next youngest were probably 5 years older than we were but we still had a blast. Saturday night we went Chinatown for dinner.  The food was amazing, I got kung pow chicken.  I can’t wait to be back in Ashland to have Chinese food there though….  their food is

incomparable.  After that we when to McDonald’s and got McFlurries.  Yes, I went into a McDonald’s and bought something.  AHHH!!! Sunday morning we headed to Brick Lane.  Brick Lane is known for people bring there old clothes or whatever and selling it on the street, kind of like a garage sale.  The only thing is its illegal so whenever the police go by the sellers get yelled it so they pack up, once the police gone they just open up there suitcase full of clothes again and go on like nothing happened.  I ended up getting a navy tank top with a bow on it for 1 pound! There were many markets in this area of the city and many had food so I tried something new, its called Arancini balls, basically rice and cheese balls deep fried.  So amazing and the place I had them gluten free!

Last night we went out and had Mexican so good.  We all like eating a lot and trying new food.  We went to a club later that night and did a little dancing and came home around midnight.  Today was a day just to relax and start to work on some homework.

Over this past week we have planned a bunch of the trips that we are going to be taking.  In a few weekends Allie, Danielle and I are going we a tour group to Edinburgh, Scotland to see the highlands, loch ness, some castles and whatever is exciting there! A few weeks after that we have a two week break from school when I’ll be going to Paris with school and then continuing on to Greece for the second week with Allie, Danielle and Kitiya.  After school gets done I am going to head to Germany to visit Felix for two weeks and then on my way back to the United States I am stopping in NYC to visit Derek and Sara.  I will finally be home December 14th.

I can’t believe that I have been here already for a month.  Everything is going to go by so fast, and I’ll be back home in no time.  I have added some more pictures for you to look at.  I will keep them coming and hopefully will be blogging more often.  Miss everyone and if you are feeling adventurous you should come visit me, flights are pretty cheap now and when other time are you going to be going to visit a friend in a foreign country.

LONDON!!

So its been 2 weeks since I got to London.  I don’t really know where to start, but I love it here and at the same time miss everything at home.  I am living with 6 other girls, all from the USA.  Allie, Kelly, Lauren, Danielle, Whitney and Kitiya.  The first few days that I was in London I just unpacked and slept a lot to get over my jet lag.  After that I has been a whirlwind of events all across London which entailed lots and lot of walking.

Saturday and Sunday August 29th/30th were Carnival, in celebration of the Caribbean culture.  Monday was a bank holiday or a day for everyone to recover from Carnival.  We went to Carnival for a little bit but it was very overwhelming and at points there were  so many people where you couldn’t move in a direction. Since I am very claustrophobia this was kind of terrifying for me and I didn’t want to be there long. The music and food were amazing and it was a great experience but just too many people for me to handle after just being in London for 2 days. We ended up going to a market afterwards near our flat and bought some really good/cheap fruits and veggies. I had been living off of cereal for the last two days and thought I should finally get some really food.

Tuesday thru Friday we had orientation.  We found out our schedules, got our school ID’s, toured the campus building, and took tours of the area and found out the best places to shop.  During one of our tours we when to a sample sale, I bought a super cute purple dress.  Most of they nights after orientation we just when home and slept we were all still getting used to walking a lot and the time change.  Friday we had welcome drinks (champagne), bunch of english candies and snacks, and had time to get to know everyone in the program. One of the nights during the week I attempted to make tatter tot hotdish.  They don’t have tattertots here so I made it with french fries instead, it was still pretty tasty.  Really miss being at home and having a fridge and pantry always full of food.  It also has been a little difficult finding gluten-free foods and for that matter any other food because all of the brands are different then back at home.

Saturday morning we got up kind of early and when to Portobello Market, the world’s largest outside market.  It was amazing so many things to look at.  The market was split into sections by categories.  We only had time to do the Antiques, Food and some of the New Clothing Sections. Later on that night Lauren, Allie, Danielle and I went and saw The Time Traveler’s Wife at the cinema.  Such a good movie if you are into a sappy romance chick-flick!

Sunday, was also an early morning Kelly, Whitney and I went to the Columbia Road Flower Market.  This was the first time that I had taken a bus here and I like it much more than riding on the tube (underground subway) you can see where you are going and what is happening around you.  I bought a nice bouquet of flowers for my room and some bulbs to send home for my mom to plant in here garden.  Not really sure if they are going to bloom but we’ll find out in the spring time.

Monday Sept. 7-First Day of Classes! Not really sure if I was really ready to get back into the swing of things but here we go.  Everyone else in my flat are design majors so it is going to be different not having them in my classes with me.  There are a few mandatory classes that everyone has to take, one in which was our first class of the week, Theoretical & Social Fashion Studies.  After that I had a break for lunch and then had Range Planning and Buying.

Tuesday- my classes for today don’t start until the next week or the week after so I slept in today.  Allie, Lauren, Danielle and I went to Regents Park that afternoon, rested in the park, read a book and shared a bottle of wine.  It was such a nice day, in the park I felt like I was out of the city and able to catch up on my thoughts.

Wednesday-I didn’t have class until the afternoon so I cleaned up around the flat a little.  We have a washer/dryer in one and I was the first to use it today, nervous because I didn’t want to ruin any of my clothes.  This machine takes FOREVER I don’t know why but it takes like 4-5 hours to do one load.  I had Marketing this afternoon, which was okay but not too exciting.  For every class here we had to fill out a form of our expectations for the semester of the class.  A lot of the basic principles that we have talked about in our intro classes I have already learned but I want to learn it from a fashion standpoint.

Thursday-last day of class.  I don’t have any classes on Friday which is nice!  I had European Apparel Studies with a crazy teacher. It hopefully will be interesting.  All of my classes so far are all very similar and I am hoping in the weeks to come that they become more one of themselves.  For each of my classes they have given a schedule to us of every week and what we are doing but I still am kind of confused of what we are doing in each class.  We are only given one or two assignments for the entire semester, which is much different then MCAD, but hopefully very thought provoking.

Friday we were supposed to go to Brighton but didn’t because ticket prices were like double unless you bought them ahead of time.  So we bought tickets for the next day.  All of us headed home, and just had a very relaxing day.  I ended up reading The Time Travelers Wife that Lauren let me borrow and taking a long nap.

Saturday, up bright and early! Allie, Danielle, Kelly,Whitney and I headed to Brighton, which is on the ocean, about an hour train ride south of London.  We spend the day laying on the beach, wadding in the water (which was warmer than Lake Superior in July) reading books and then exploring Brighton Pier.

Sunday…. today, finally all caught up.  I slept in today and now am writing this post.  I am probably going to go through my school stuff and see if there is any homework that I need to do.  Sorry that it took so long to get the post up.  If you have any question for me let me know, its hard to put 2 weeks of London in a blog post.

Here is my weekly class schedule:

Monday- 10:15-11:45 TSFS   and    1:30-4:30 Buying & Range Planning

Tuesday- 9:00-12:00 Forecasting  and   1:30-3:30  European Cultural/Historical Studies

Wednesday-  2:00-4:30 Marketing

Thursday-  9:00-11:00 European Independent Project  and   12:00-2:00  European Apparel Studies

Time Zone Changes ( I am 6 hours ahead from the central time zone.)

My address is:

Alyssa Haukaas

5 Praed Street Flat #2

London W2 1NJ

UK

I love to Skype so send me a message or email me whenever and we can set up a time to do that.  If not I can always talk on the phone.  I will be trying to keep this up to date.  Thats all for now miss everyone!

This is marked on every crosswalk…. and its a good thing. I still look the wrong direction.

the Forever 21 of the UK

This is where I buy my fruit and veggies, only a first blocks away from the flat.

Rocky not Sand.

Homecoming, Applefest and weekend in La Crosse

So its been a while since my last blog, I have been so busy and so much has been happening.

Homecoming was two weekends ago, and I decided at the last minute that I was going to be going home. It was a nice change of pace and a relaxing weekend.  Friday afternoon I went to the parade and then to the game later that day. The game was pretty intense, the game was stopped for 30 minutes because of lightning but the we ended up winning 21-20! It was nice seeing my family and some of my friends! Other than that my weekend was filled with homework and laying on the couch.

I left early on Monday morning and headed back to la crosse for classes. Classes seemed like they went on forever the next weekend was Applefest.  Finally thursday came and I left early so that I could meet my mom in superior and watch the Ashland High school boy soccer game. I got in to town and had dinner with amy and then we headed to the game.  The varsity won and the jv tied so they were pretty good games.  I was so tired that night I when to school as soon as we got home.

Friday! Derek and Sarah were coming from Minneapolis, Amy and her Superior were coming, jack from stout, and many other friends! During the day i worked on some homework and that night every come to my house and we all hung out and caught up with everyone.  

Saturday… Rissa came over that morning and Sarah, Rissa and I made pancakes for breakfast! After lazing around for a while we all decided to get ready for the day then go to the black cat for some tasty coffee! Sarah and I ended up taking a long time getting ready so by the time we went to the black cat it was lunch time. I was really excited for pizza and I had my pizza all ordered up and then they told me they were out of pizza crust… i was soooo disappointed because last time I was at the black cat they were out of pizza crust. So we ended up getting some nachos! In the afternoon Sarah and I took senior pictures for Ali, Rissa and Apyrl.  It was really exciting and I think that we got a few good pictures. That night we hot tubbed and then hung out until bedtime. 

Sunday…. We took senior pic of Gustav and Felix foreign exchanges students! Felix is living with my family…. he took over my room! and Gustav is the Kinney’s but pretty much lives at my house! Those two are so funny! After that we headed to Applefest!!! I got my carmel apple! and watched the parade! We meet Amy and her friends there and walked around and got some mini donuts, sprial spud and cheese curds. We then decided we were all really hungry and wanted good food some we (derek, rissa, sarah, and I) to head back to ashland and eat at the pizza pub.  Pizza was tasty but then it was time to say goodbye… Amy and her friends headed back right after applefest and derek and sarah headed back after dinner.  It was an amazing weekend. 

I don’t have class until 1 on mondays so i headed back to La Crosse early Monday morning.  Back to school I had a speech to give on wednesday that I was pretty nervous about but it ended up not being that bad. I did it on Applefest so it was a topic that I was interested in. Then thursday I had an economics test… which was a little harder but I think I did okay. -fingers crossed

Finally friday: no class Today is a day of relaxing and doing some homework.  I headed to Peaberry’s for dinner and had a wonderful hawaiian pizza. This weekend I hope to take some pictures and have some time for myself. 

Treasures!

Yesterday…. I went Garage saleing and to a few antique store and found some amazing finds! Afterwards… I tried to do some homework, but was distracted by the TV… and I watched this movie on Coco Chanel, it was pretty amazing. Then is turned out to be like 10pm and I was tired so I took some cold medicine and when to bed.

Sunday, I got up around 7 to get ready to go to church.  There are like 20 different lutheran churches in La Crosse so I ended up going to the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church on the south side.  I would say it was okay but just not the same as back home.  

Today….I need to get some homework done!! 

What do you think of my treasures?!

Oh and btw… the shoes are tooooo small for me a size 7. So I thought that maybe Sara, Alison or Sarah would want them, I’ll bring then with me to Minneapolis on Thursday!

Sick!

So this week want a little better than the last.  

My mom came to visit me after my brothers and Felix’s soccer game in Barron.  She got her around 9 on Monday and we headed to sleep after our long days. I had school Tuesday at 7:45 and mom dropped me off at school, it kind of felt like I was back at home! At 12ish my mom and I went to Lindy’s subs and soup…. it was pretty tasty. After the rest of my classes mom and I went to the farmers market to get some fresh veggies. We were both tried so we went to Stinger’s for dinner….afterward we went to kohl’s, and the grocery store.  I got some really cute new gray suede heels!

Wednesday…. we got up and mom took me to Sam’s Club and I got a few things and then Mom headed home because she had to be back to help out at the boy’s spaghetti feed. 

Thursday I woke up to a runny nose, acheyness, and sore throat!!! no good! I made it through my long day of school and then headed home were I pretty much just went to bed. (btw…I wore sweatpants to school, and it was kinda funny I totally fit it) 

Today: woke up, took medicine, went back to sleep, woke up, showered, took more medicine, ventured to goodwill, target, school and then peaberry’s for SOUP!!!, home for nap, woke up, too morrre medicine….a long day of sickness! I am hopefully going to do some homework later tonight!

Weekend: Sarah is here!

Okay….. so first of all the stupid transportation people were like sorry but we don’t have spaces open for you to park and sorry about the inconvenience…. booo, so I just I’ll just have to get used to the hike to class everyday.

I was excited for the first week of school to be done.  Wow…. I changed like my entire schedule, I really, really didn’t like my Chemistry class, I didn’t feel any passion about the topic anymore.  I just think that a person needs to be somewhat happy to be in a class or why are you taking it.  I absolutely hated it, and this made me realize that a job in the Medical field is something that is just not for me.  

So I picked up Ceramics and Economics!!!! I was ecstatic  to take this course! Once I sat down in class I just felt more comfortable and relaxed! I was excited to be there and very ready to learn more about that topic.

So this is my schedule for this semester:

Monday/Wednesday: 1:10-2:05 Pre-Calc

                                  2:15-3:40 Public Speaking

Tuesday/Thursday: 7:45-9:10 English (British Literature)

                               9:25-11:55 Ceramics

                               1:10-2:05 Pre-Calc

                                2:15-3:40 Economics

And no classes on Friday! I really like my schedule even though I do have long days on T/R.

Since I didn’t have class on Friday I did a bunch of errands, worked on cleaning my apartment, did some homework and waiting for Sarah to get here!!!

Sarah got here around 9ish and we were both tired so we just hung out and watched movies!

Saturday we got to a late start but it was nice because it was the first time that both of us had slept in since being at school! We eventually moseyed to Peaberry’s where we spend most of our day: like 6 hours lol! After while Sarah decided she wanted to eat dinner so went when to Applebee’s which was tasty! After we stopped at Micheal’s and Sarah got some artsy stuff and then we ended up going home to be artsy for the night.

Sunday!!!! We were up and ready to go by 9! We decided that it would be a great day to explore La Crosse. We walked around downtown, went down by the river and took pictures as we went! There also was some neat old car thing going on by the river.  TIME FOR SOME COFFEE! So we decided to try a new coffee shop: Grounded! I was okay but from a rating of 1-5 it was probably a 3 and Peaberry’s is still a 4.5! While I was looking through Visitors guide and found some Friendship Gardens that were in La Crosse so we thought we would check them out! They were kinda SMALL… but kinda cute. After that we were still hungry so we headed to Peaberry’s for Day 2! We hang out there for a little while and then Sarah headed back to MCAD about 2! It was a FUN weekend!

After Sarah left I finish CLEANING!!!!!! My apartment is finally looking like mine and it is cute! I will put up some pictures soon!

First Day of School! La Crosse!

So, this last weekend was labor day….. the ending of summer and start of school.  This year I have transferred to UW-Lacrosse.  I drove to Minneapolis late on Sunday to visit some friends and pick up some things at IKEA.  Derek and I went to Joe’s Garage for dinner which was pretty tasty! I had a cobb salad and derek had mashed potatoes with cheese sauce and asparagus.  

Monday morning I woke up around 9 and Derek and I went over to Sarah’s to visit! Her roommate Vanessa(?) made some tasty egg sandwiches for breakfast! We hung out there for a while and then headed to IKEA so that Derek could return a picture frame and so we could pick up a few things for our apartments.  Then one last stop at the MOA to get my sunglasses fixed and say bye to Sara.  Sorry if it is confusing by Sarah with an “H” was my old roommate and Sara without an “H” is one of Derek’s roommates and it from Duluth.

After saying goodbye to everyone, I ended up leaving Minneapolis about 2pm.  I am really going to miss it there.  I made some great friends, had a good time in art school, and love the city.  

I got into La Crosse at 4:03 and just missed getting my parking permit because the place closed at 4pm.  Oh well, so I went to my apartment and moved the rest of my stuff into my apartment.  I had a lot of stuff and it seemed like it took FOOOOOORRRREVVVVVER!!! and it didn’t help that it was like 100 degrees, good think my air conditioning works!! So by about 6 I had everything moved from my car to apartment and I started unpacking stuff which was a task in itself. I set up my TV, so that I could watch The HILLS season 3 while I did this… thanks derek! So about 8:30 I decided that I was super hungry and headed to the grocery store.  I ended up speed shopping because the store closed at 9 which i didn’t know, so hopefully I got everything.  So, back at the apartment, after carrying 4 bags of groceries up to the apartment, I was too lazy to make anything so I just had cereal! I watched some more HILLS and then fell asleep……

TUESDAY!

First day of classes.  I leave the apartment around 8:15 so that I can go get my parking permit and get to class on time which started at 8:50.  So I pull up to the transportation office and see a really long line so I park and wait to get my pass.  I take out my pass and it is for a different lot then the one that I applied for.  So I look to see were it was and of course it is like the farthest one away….. like 4 blocks from the edge of campus… So I emailed the office to see if there was any spots closer that I could get and figure out why I didn’t get the one I asked for.  So hopefully I get a closer space.  So with that drama I ended up being 5 minutes late to class…

Chemistry: Umm well…. I think I learned all the stuff we talked about my sophomore year with Mrs. Lorber. So this class it going to be a little boring but whatever.  We got out about 30 minutes early from a 55 minute class.  

English-American Literature: A class that I really don’t want to take but the last English class i have to!!!! The teacher seemed a little too deep and thoughtful for me, we will see how it goes…wish me luck.

Pre-Calc: Well I love math so this is probably my most favorite class so far. I have learned most of the stuff before but it’ll be a fun course.

So, I don’t know if I am going to like that classes are only like an hour long but it’ll be a change from 5 hour studio courses at MCAD. 

After all my class, I took the hike back to my car which seemed like forever to get to. I don’t have Internet set up in my apartment yet so I stopped at Peaberry’s which is a coffeeshop to have a mocha and use my computer and relax. Time to do a little homework……….

First Post Ever!

So, I am still in Ashland and sooooooooo bored! Amy left like at the beginning of august, Derek left on Monday, Ashleigh is in Chicago, Jack is just Jack never know what he is up to….. and everyone else seems like they are busy getting ready to go back to school.  

I am going to head down to Minneapolis this weekend to visit everyone before school starts and help Sarah, Alisha and Meg move into their apartments. I am going to miss living in the big city but hopefully La Crosse will be great!

Speaking of La Crosse, we start school September 2, so it is getting close! I am going to be living in an apartment off campus about a mile away. I am hoping to be able to move in a little sooner then September 1st, keep your fingers crossed, call back on Friday to figure out a move in date! 

Tomorrow I should start pack some of my stuff that I am going to bring and decide what now to bring……