Europe 2014 (Oxford and London)

Our flight to London was three hours. Somehow I was more cramped up after our London flight than the one to Iceland. So, England is five hours ahead of New York time. Joy, that took a while to get used to since I still wasn't used to Icelandic time. So when we got to England we went to a Hertz place to rent a car. It took forever, the lady that was talking to us there took forever to do everything and by the time we were done there it was dark out. Oh, here's an interesting thing that makes Caroline laugh every time I talk about it, so on our way to the hotel we were staying at, we got lost. Yeah, getting lost in a different country, that sure is fun. Especially when it's dark and you have yet to have dinner. I didn't get dinner that night. We spent three hours trying to get to the hotel when it only should've taken one and a half. It wasn't as bad for Zia, because she went to sleep, but I was up the whole time, reading (what else was I going to do?) so it was hard to ignore my growling stomach. We finally got to the hotel rather late and then Zia made me sleep on the cot instead of a bed, gee, thanks sis. At least we had adapters this time. The cot wasn't too comfortable and made a lot of noise when I moved. We were all in one room together so it was kind of crowded. Plus, Zia and I don't exactly get along, so...
The next day we went to my dad's friend from college's house in Oxford. Howard is a professor at Oxford University so he showed us around. Oxford is a place where some of Harry Potter was filmed. It was really cool. So I should probably explain a packing thing before I forget. So my dad tells me it's going to be cold on this trip so to only pack like three pairs of shorts and a few short sleeved shirts. That turned out to be untrue so the whole trip I was pretty much rewearing the same outfits every other day. Of course when we visit and I bring a minimal amount of short sleeved stuff the UK magically decides to have only hot days. I mean, it was nice for pictures, not so nice for sitting on top of a tour bus. Also, it seems that not a lot of places in the UK need air conditioning, since it's cool and rainy most of the time. That was a high complaint of mine, I'm hot-blooded so I get hot really easily and not having air conditioning didn't bode too well with me. Another complaint of mine was that the wi-fi in all the places we stayed didn't work too well, and since we were in a different country we couldn't really use our phones.
Back to Oxford, it was interesting to walk around, we stopped at a place for lunch and got sandwiches, I got a tuna melt on a panini. After lunch we went to a bookstore in Oxford. It was so much fun seeing the British version of the covers to all my books. Apparently they don't have hardcovers of Cassandra Clare's books, that would depress me if I lived there. I finished Last Sacrifice while sitting in the room where they filmed The Great Hall in Harry Potter. After walking around Oxford all day, I was really hot and ready to go back. We stayed at Howard's house for dinner, he has three kids, John (18) Sophia (15) and Francesca (11). It was fun hanging out with them, Francesca had a lot of energy. 

So the day after visiting Oxford, Zia, my dad and me took a bus to London. The bus ride was one and a half hours long and unfortunately the 'free wifi' on it didn't work. I slept most of the way since I had nothing to read. Apparently Zia enjoyed taking a bunch of pictures of me while I slept. After we got off the bus, we walked around and found a tour bus, we decided to start off with taking the Big Bus tour Red. Sitting on the roof was hot and it was hard to understand the person commentating since he 1. had a confusing british accent 2. was speaking way to closely to the microphone. We got off at a stop near an area with a blue rooster statue. There were a bunch of money making things there, like one person was drawing incredibly detailed pictures of all the world's country's flags in chalk on the flagstones, there was a dance show/tricks show, a yoda etc. After crossing a few roads and walking around to random places we stopped at a cafe to eat lunch. I got a smoked salmon sandwich, salt and vinegar crisps, and a berry smoothie. The wifi didn't work there either.
After lunch we got back on the bus, except we got on a Big Bus Tour Blue instead of Red because the Red took forever to find. I liked the Blue one better 1. because we got free headphones 2. because we got to listen to a prerecorded voice that was easy to understand. We went past the bank where they filmed Gringots in Harry Potter. I think our next place where we got off was a cathedral because I wanted to go to Blackfriars Bridge and that was the closest place to it. Problem, I hadn't looked up what Blackfriars Bridge looked like so it took a bit to figure out which bridge it was. Blackfriars Bridge really was the only reason I wanted to go to London. Why? Because of a book, obviously. The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare to be specific. Yeah, I was really happy that we went to Blackfriars, though, I was ready to go back right after, haha.
We left Blackfriars Bridge and next went to a Starbucks nearby, I got a grande Caramel Frappuccino, and guess what? The intranet actually worked there, so I bought the first two books in the spin off of the Vampire Academy Series, Bloodlines. After Starbucks we walked around, I bought another postcard (Postcard count 3). Then we got ice cream, and I'm not even kidding I saw a kid with an ice cream cone as long as my arm, that was just gross. Then after getting ice cream we went on a water boat tour down the Thames. The boat tour was definitely my favorite, the guy commenting was easy to understand and it was funny. Also, the wind downed the heat amount. We went to Buckingham Palace and watched the guards for a bit, it was rather boring, do those guards ever get hungry or hot on the job?
We almost missed the bus back to Oxford, my dad lost track of time, imagine what we'd do if we'd missed it. Actually, I did imagine it as we ran to the bus, I'm guessing we wouldn't sleep on benches but the image did pop into my head. I couldn't get into Bloodlines (click here to read my review on Bloodlines) on the bus, so I just slept on the way back too. So when we finally got back to Oxford it was dark but I absolutely refused to go back and not have dinner again, after walking all around London in the sun yeah, I was hungry. So we stopped at a food cart/truck. Have you ever had a gyros sandwich? Those things are amazing, we got something similar to that at the food truck thing. Pita bread, spicy/sweet sauce, lamb, mayonnaise, salad. Yummy. It was delicious. The fries, excuse me, chips, where pretty good too. Zia and I had already eaten 1 1/2 of the sandwiches before my dad actually came out to eat.
See you guys at part three :) 

Europe 2014 (Iceland)

I went on a two week trip to Europe this summer, going to Iceland, England and Scotland. It was a new experience. Honestly, I was more interested in my books than the sight seeing, but I'm always more interested in books. We first went to Iceland, staying in a bed and breakfast in Reykjavik for two days. Actually, the first place we went was New York City, surprisingly enough, that was the first time I'd ever been to NYC. We stayed with my mom's friends from college, Neal and Jane. It was fun going around New York for the day, even if it was really hot out. My sister, Zia and I, went in our first taxi, it was interesting... We got dropped off by where Neal and Jane live but, uh, we walked the wrong way for a while before realizing that we had to walk the opposite direction to get to the apartment... For dinner Neal and Jane took us out to their favorite Italian restaurant, it was cool, especially since we got to sit downstairs in the basement to eat, it was a very authentic Italian restaurant, too. For the sleeping arrangements I slept on the top floor because Zia would probably like to be closer to our parents when we sleep, it was nice, except for it was storming for the first twenty minutes and since I was on the top I heard it. Very loudly. While we were in New York I visited the Strand bookstore, getting a book box set which is still, unfortunately, in New York, I really need to go back and get that some time. I also went to Times Square, around the statue of liberty, and walked around New York for a while. We went on a Water Taxi, too. Sitting on the top was really hot and I'll admit that I may or may not have almost fallen asleep quite a few times. The next morning we were driven to an airport and surprisingly enough security didn't take too long. Though, the plane ride to Iceland was a long six hours. 

On the way to Iceland, I finished Frost Bite by Richelle Mead and started Shadow Kiss also by Richelle Mead. It was a really long time on the plane and since Iceland is six hours ahead of New York, I was pretty jet lagged for the two days we were in Iceland. Well, technically one day and two halves. After renting a car and driving maybe an hour to a half an hour to the bed and breakfast it was already around two in the morning, Icelandic time. Meaning it was like ten in my head. By the time we were all settled in in the apartment we were staying in, it was three Icelandic time. I couldn't go to sleep for a while, actually I'm pretty sure I fell asleep after the sun rose. Needless to say it was really hard to get up before breakfast closed at 9:30 (Or was it 10?). The Icelandic breakfast seemed a little bland to me, maybe it's just because none of the flavory stuff appealed to my taste, because I had some meats, which would be deli meats in America, and some cheese for breakfast, the meats were pretty bland. It was rather disappointing. So anyway on the one full day we had in Iceland my parents decided we should go do some sightseeing, go around the golden circle or something like that. Zia and I weren't as interested but we went along because we had to.
You could probably tell from the name that Iceland was colder than America, I got pretty cold sometimes, especially because the whole time we were in Iceland it was wet and rainy. So we visited a geyser place, a place where there were two tectonic plates and the strongest waterfall in Iceland (or was it the world???), it took a couple hours actually to get around. The lunch was really expensive, too, it was like $50 US for two personal pizzas and a sandwich. the geysers had hot water and smelled somewhat of sulfur. Anyway, by the time we got back to the bed and breakfast we were all tired because we were really jet lagged plus we'd been out sightseeing and it was tiring. I think we just sort of rested for an hour, well, everyone else rested while I read Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead. Oh, I shouldn't forget to mention this, so my dad bought adapters before we came, for the English plug, but he didn't get one for the Icelandic one. -_- My kindle fire is the first generation, and I didn't bring my kindle. My kindle fire, being the annoying picky reading tablet that it is, will not charge on the USB thing in the plane, I don't know why, I think if we travel more I'm going to need to get a new reading tablet. So after reading it for like seven hours straight the night before, it was dying by day 2 of the trip. Luckily the bed and breakfast had adapters so they lent us one. I was sitting in the kitchen reading my kindle a lot during my time in Iceland.
After resting for a while we went out and walked around Reykjavik, there was a really cool cathedral right behind where we were staying. We went to a restaurant that one of my parents' friends recommended to us. It was really good, and like everything else, pretty expensive. After dinner, my dad walked Zia back to the bed and breakfast, while I pulled my mom into the nearest bookstore. In a different country? Let's buy books there in a language I don't speak. Yeah, I have good priorities. Well, some of the books were in english, but most of them weren't. It was really interesting seeing the book covers of my well-loved books in a different country. Except the books here were really expensive, maybe $30 US for a paperback book. Yeah, I never did end up buying any books in Europe.
 Anyway, after my dad came back to the bookstore, my mom walked back to the bed and breakfast while my dad and I went to a different bookstore and I got a postcard. We then went to the small, I don't know what to call it, food store, I guess. There we picked up a container of ice cream, for those of you who didn't know, ice cream is a vital part of my existence. The ice cream in Iceland (Yes I did insist that we get ice cream in Iceland, it's practically required if you visit Iceland to get ice cream) is different, it has a slightly more ice-y feel over creamy. It was good none the less. If you've never been to Iceland, you might not know this, but during the summer it stays light out day and night and during the winter it stays dark. So it was rather hard to fall asleep with that much light, not to mention our curtains sucked and there was a light shining through the window. So the next day, we got up, got breakfast, packed up and left the ned and breakfast. Though, before we went to the airport we visited The Blue Lagoon, a giant hot spring. Mmhmmm, I really liked it there. Especially considering how cold it was in Iceland, the hot spring was even more amazing. So we checked in and got bathrobes, towels, a take home gift, and these bracelets. The bracelets were really cool, they were water proof and were the keys to your lockers in the locker rooms where you changed, also, if you bought a drink or a face wash at the bar in the hot spring, then they would take a device, tap it to your bracelet and it would charge you so you paid before you left.
There's something in the water that really dries out your hair, so you're told to put your hair up in like a bun and put conditioner in it so it won't dry out, they provided soap and conditioner in the bathrooms. So my hair looks really oily in all the pictures, also, if you've seen my hair, you'd know that there is A LOT of it, it's really long so the bun kept falling out. Luckily for me, though, it didn't fall out while we were in the hot spring, otherwise I probably would've flipped out. Getting pictures for this was REALLY gold because standing outside, in Iceland, in a bikini is obviously going to be cold. Plus my dad can't take pictures with the IPhone so we had to take a bunch. Finally getting into the hot spring was a relief, especially because my sister was being picky about the pictures and made me pose for about a bijillion. So with the thing we got to get in we all got one free drink, face scrub and face mask from the bar. I got a strawberry smoothie, it was delicious, Zia and my dad got blueberry and I don't remember what my mom got, you see, I'm typing this like two or three weeks later so I don't have the perfect memory of this trip, I guess it would help if I looked in my vacation journal but I'm too lazy to do so. I definitely enjoyed The Blue Lagoon, though, if you've ever been in a hot tub during the winter, it's a similar feeling, you overheat after a while. Also, since I'm so short, I almost sunk under in some places. After leaving the Blue Lagoon we went back to the airport to fly our three hour trip to London.
I decided to split this blog post up, because if my part on Iceland is that long, we stayed in the other places for longer, so I don't want to make these posts WAY to long, so this is part one :). 

Homemade Simple Mac-and-Cheese

Hey guys, sorry I haven't posted anything, I haven't been able to come up with something to post. Lately I've been eating a lot of mac and cheese, and I've been trying to perfect a quick recipe for homemade mac and cheese. So far this is the easiest and best flavored mac and cheese I've made:
1 1/2 cups of dry pasta
shredded cheddar cheese
1 T margarine
milk
salt
pepper

Now, my favorite pasta to use for this is shaped pasta, I love shaped pasta. I'm weird, okay? I like to use the Elk Pasta you can buy at Ikea for $2.99, I'm obsessed with this pasta, it's ELK SHAPED! Haha, like I said, I'm weird. Any pasta will work fine, though, noodles may not be the best, more like bow ties or elbow macaroni or something in small shape. Cook that. Right after you drain the pasta while it's still hot dump it into a medium microwavable bowl. Next add 1/4-1/3 a cup of milk into the bowl along with about half a cup of cheddar cheese, or how ever much cheese you want in it. After adding the margarine, stick in the microwave and cook on high for one minute. Now all you have to do is just thoroughly mix the content of the bowl together until it's well blended. Add salt and pepper to taste and enjoy.
(Remember this is a really simple and easy recipe so it's not made to taste gourmet)

2013-14 Official Movie Trailer

This is just a fun video I cut an edited together from the years 2012-2014, you know you want to watch this ;)

Staring

Fiona Spring Hogan

Emma Joy Reuter

and

Ursula Hope Friesen



Edited and Directed by:

Anji Cooper ;)

New Website

You know you want to check out my new website!! 

anjicooper.weebly.com 

Updated a lot, I just made it ;) 

Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins booktalk

Opposition by Jennifer Armentrout Booktalk