what an adventure

our Lancaster crew of 6 girls decided we were going to London in order to celebrate Australia Day on Wednesday with Simone and her friends (she's australian). we all bought rail tix on monday, and then I decided that I really wanted to go somewhere this weekend since Kris and I have a 3-day weekend,  which isn't going to last much longer. I instantly skyped Katie Gaab who is living in Lyon, France and told her I really wanted to do some traveling and thankfully she was all game for having some company. So by Tuesday she had checked with her roommates to make sure they didn't mind us coming, and Wednesday afternoon, 3 hours before departing for London, Kristen and I went to the campus' travel agency to check about flights. Things weren't looking so hot at first- our option was to come back from London, wake up at 2am to catch the 3am bus up to Edinburgh and then take a flight to Lyon and then fly in to a different airport on the return flight and take a train back to Lancaster. I finally asked the travel agent, would it be easier to fly out of London since we're already going to be there? And what do ya know, everything worked out. Since we had already bought our rail tix, the return was flexible up until the end of February so we didn't have to worry about purchasing another. 2 hours prior to leaving for London, I skyped Katie, she quickly gave me detailed directions on how to get to her place (since everything is in French) and we crossed our fingers that everything would work out according to plan. Hurriedly, I jammed everything into my backpack and met the girls at the bus station to catch the train to London hoping that I hadn't left anything behind.

The train was 2.5 hours to London and once we arrived in the city we took a taxi (so cute looking) to our hostel to experience it for the first time. We walked in and it was full of student-aged people hanging out everywhere..on their computers, socializing, drinking at the bar, eating in the caf, etc. I was not expecting a bar inside whatsoever! We went into our room and it was 4 bunk beds--there were 6 of us girls and then 2 random guys. Let me just say that it was one of the worst sleeps ever. One of the guys was the loudest snorer on earth, the room was unbearably hot, and I kept waking up throughout the entire night. But for 12 pounds I guess it wasn't all that bad. We got a free breakfast which consisted of toast and cereal and then Kristen and I decided to do a free 2.5 hour walking tour that visited the main hotspots of London. This tour was absolutely fantastic-- I would highly recommend it to everyone. Some of the main attractions we saw were the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Trafalgar Square, Admiralty Arch, and Westminster Abbey. Plus we learned some interesting and funny facts about the city from our tour guide. It was one of the best history lessons I've ever had (keep in mind that I'm not too fond of history). After all of that walking and a sore back from carrying my heavy backpack, we ate the legendary fish and chips in a cute little pub. We became really good friends with an australian guy and 2 girls who are studying in Spain for the entire school year and just so happen to be from Greensboro and a town right outside of High Point. Go figure! One of the girls goes to NC State and the other attends UNCW. They were lots of fun.

With the help of our new australian buddy, Ryan, we finally met up with Simone, Marissa, Jobi, and Murphy at Walkabouts which is the australian bar in London. It was packed. It reminded me and Kristen of Senor Frogs down in the Bahamas over spring break. Everyone was repping the australian flag and the bar was giving out tons of free gifts: sunnies (sunglasses), tshirts, bottle koozies, hats.. And after the top 100 music countdown (which is the tradition for australia day) a live band performed some great music. Simone was in her glory :)

Kristen and I then left to try to navigate our way to the station where a Grim Reaper tour began at 6pm. We met back up with the girls from NC and walked through the bitter cold, dark city where we saw Tower Bridge, the Tower of London, and learned all about Jack the Ripper and other various murder stories. We then ate at an Indian curry restaurant on Brick Lane with our new NC girl friends. Brick Lane is the little street full of similar Indian restaurants and all these men stand outside and pester you to eat at their place and cut you deals. It was quite annoying, actually! But Alyssa (UNCW) was hilarious and knew just how to get them all to back up and leave us alone for a couple minutes while we decided what to do. We ended up eating at one that was hoppin', and I got prawn curry, (curry is huge over in England for some odd reason). It wasn't bad, but I wasn't that fond of it either. The other girls enjoyed theirs though! After this fun-filled exciting and exhausting day, Kristen and I headed off to the Gatwick airport where we would then take off to Lyon, France. The NC girls made sure we found our way to the right tube/train station and then off we went. We met a crazy guy on the train who was either drunk or just wild, but he was still pretty funny. Thank goodness he got off on our first stop though. A 30 minute train ride, and Kris and I arrived at the airport. We decided we were just going to overnight it there since we had such an early flight--we had to be there at 6:40am and with not really knowing how to get there and how long it would take we figured it wasn't worth staying at a hostel when we probably wouldn't even sleep anyway. So we set up camp on several chairs and attempted to sleep, but it was pretty much a failure. However, all in all, it was the best adventure that had happened so far...simply awesome.

We got up at 5am to find out our gate and then after a 1.5 hour flight, we landed in Lyon! If it hadn't been for Katie's wonderful directions, we would have been lost birds, since like I mentioned previously, everything is in French. After almost 2 hours of finding our way around, we ended up at our meeting spot which just so happened to have WiFi and I was able to txt Katie to let her know that we had made it safe and sound. She met us and off we started our french adventure. After dropping off our backpacks at her apartment, (which is adorable!) we had our first lunch experience where Katie translated everything for us. We then sat in on one of Katie's classes (she has 12 overall) at the elementary school and watched as she taught them English. They were so excited to see us and hear us speak English which was super cute. And then they sang us "Oh Mr. Sun" after they reviewed the different types of weather. After the English lesson, we visited the Basilique Fourviere which was a beautiful church (that looks more like a castle) which sits up on the top of Fourviere Hill overlooking the city. We viewed the Theatre Romain originally dating back to 15BC, went into Cathedrale Saint-Jean, and then ate at a little cafe in Viuex Lyon where I tasted a tarte de praline and a galette de roi which is a scrumptious pastry only available in France during the new year. For dinner, Katie cooked up a tasty pasta dish and we also had 2 different cheeses, chevre and comte. Fact- there are around 400 different types of cheeses in France!

The next morning we went to Musee des Beaux-Arts which is a fine collection of Impressionist works, old masters and antiquities from all over Europe. We saw several more churches, the Opera House, a Louix XIV statue, Hotel de Ville where City Hall is located and where a fountain statue is located along with all these huge white balloons produced by artists that are to promote awareness and prevent city pollution. We saw amazing painted murals known as the trompe-oeils on the sides of 2 buildings in croix-rousse-- they looked so real that it was unreal. We walked across the bridge overlooking the Saone River and continued down a little shopping area where we tried our first original crepe, which was so good! Mine was full of nutella, yum! We went into Vieux Lyon where there were hidden passageways called traboules that lead either to apartments or the next street over. And there were plenty of sales going on in Rude de la Republique which is their modern shopping area. There are only 2 sales out of the entire year, so tons of people were making purchases, including Kristen. We ate at a little French restuarant, L'epicene, in Rue Mercier where we had tartine. Mine was toasted bread with brie cheese, honey, and walnuts. Kristen's was more of a pizza with tomatoes, mozzarella, and pesto.. mm! the place was so packed that we sat with other people as well (like it is on a cruise). To end our night we went to a french club where they solely play american music which is so weird assuming that a lot of them don't speak english. but we danced the night away til nearly 3am!

and finally we're on to this morning! we woke up early and walked around a flea market, Marche des Minguettes in Venissieux, which sold everything and anything you could imagine- fruits, veggies, meats, cosmetics, jewelry, clothes, appliances, and the list goes on and on. Then we made our own crepes which is one of my new favorites. Once we fueled up, we went to Parc de Tete D'or which I think either Rehoboth or HPU needs to invest in. First of all, it was huge; and second of all, there were so many people putting it to use! Plus, it even had a free zoo. And there were free bikes, velo'v bikes, that we rode around, even though our toes were numb by the end. Now as I type, I'm sipping on some tea to warm up and we're about to cook a french-style dinner.

after skipping only one day of class (parents, don't hate us!) I'd say the trip was well worth it.

Being a Tourist

Yesterday Kristen, Simone, and I took advantage of our no-class-Friday and we went downtown and toured the castle in Lancaster! After stopping to ask someone where it was located, we were told that we were headed in the entirely wrong direction. But we managed to find it! The castle is actually a prison and is the oldest one in England (800 years old) that is still used (although they are closing the prison in about two weeks and sending the prisoners elsewhere). Unfortunately we were not allowed to take any pictures inside since it's against the law. It has two courtrooms inside, one of which has its walls covered in shields of the people who were/are deputies dating back to a long long time ago. It was really neat learning about the symbolism within the shields. I wish I knew what mine looked like! But if you don't have one, then you get one made by an artist whose job is to create them! There's actually a name for his job but I'm blanking on what it's called... Anyway, we saw jail cells that were several hundred years old. We actually got locked inside and boy was it ever dark! Entirely pitch black. Prisoners were sent to these cells for up to 24 hours for punishment. We didn't get to see the ones that are actually used now. The one "good" thing about being in prison though was that you got breakfast, lunch, and dinner everyday. And the menu wasn't half bad. We also saw actual handcuffs/chains that were used and where people were hanged. Lots of times the people who were sentenced to death still pleaded innocent--so sad. There were several witches in Lancaster who were sent to jail and hanged. Seventeen deaths within the same neighborhood happened in twenty days* (I think it was days, but don't quote me on that). One lady made a clay figurine of a neighbor and she crumbled it and a day later the person died. Many of these "witches" pleaded guilty, so apparently they believed they were magic! There were hundreds of convicts who were sent to Australia as well. I think that's why their accents sound a bit similar. Also, going off on a tangent here, but I think that the New England region's accent in the U.S. (and I'm mainly referring to Boston, Mass) can sound like the English over here since they don't pronounce their "r" and say "ah" instead. Anyway, back to a bit of history.. the majority of convicts who were sent to Australia were thieves. If you stole a silk handkerchief, you were sent to jail. The youngest boy on the ship to Australia was only 9 years old. How little! Some convicts were also sent to America. But enough of our history lesson! After touring the castle we browsed through some shops, such as TKMaxx (their TJMaxx), ate some lunch served with "chips" (Kristen and Simone had the legendary fish and chips), and then we did some grocery shopping. Grocery shopping is definitely a process! I find myself standing in the aisles staring at the shelf, debating what brand to buy and which is cheaper. You can actually grocery shop online and get them delivered here on campus which is what two of the boys on my hall were doing today. It's a $3 service charge, which is about the price of a return bus ticket ("return" is the word used for "round trip") so maybe one day when I'm lazy I'll try it out. After our 6 hour adventure downtown, we dressed up for our college's bar theme: Back to School. I felt like I was getting ready for a mixer! The bar then took a bus of us into town to Sugarhouse which is the university's club. It was a fun time. But enough fun for the weekend. Basically everyone who we were with last night has decided to stay in tonight and lay low to get some work done. We're celebrating 2 girls' birthdays on Monday anyway, so I have to save some energy for that!

aaaand i'm out.

sunshine for 3 days straight.. seriously?!

classes started on monday and unfortunately they require a lot of reading, whereas at HPU, you simply listen to the lecture and you're golden. but on the brighter side of things, my chemistry class doesn't start for another 4 weeks so no classes on wednesdays or fridays until then! i feel as though i should get some traveling in while i can! any suggestions on where to go first??

monday after my first day of classes, kristen and i went along with some of the boys on our corridor and witnessed our first bar crawl on campus. Lancaster University has 9 bars! we played pool, but their version is a bit different- the table is smaller, the balls are smaller, and the balls aren't striped or numbered- there's a set of yellow balls and a set of red balls. simple as that. and as the title of this post claims, it has been sunny for 3 days straight! something that i was definitely not expecting. the students around here tend to think it's warm when the sun is out, so our bar crawl was summer themed. and the boys all wore bathing suits! to end our night, we watched the lion king, and the guys were all singing along and reciting bits of the movie. they sure are a funny bunch.

wednesday night we kept the tradition of HPU's infamous "going out" night. why not celebrate hump day when you're halfway through the week? we showed the english people how to play several american drinking games. although i wouldn't exactly call all of them american since our australian friend knew "flippy cup" and beer pong. one thing that they don't sell over here though- red solo cups!  i think it would be safe to call it a successful night nonetheless :)

now off to do some more reading. i feel like i'm in academic challenge all over again!

"you're pretty fashionable for americans."

friday night consisted of going to a "pub" that used to be a church (how ironic) and then off to a dance club that reminded me of daytona beach spring break. and all of the songs except for two were our good ol' american jams. we went with two english girls who live on our hall- one is from oxford and the other lives 30 minutes away from london. they have the more "posh" sounding accent, and the northern brits make fun of those who have it, and instantly ask "where are you from?!" and start imitating the accent when they hear it. and this one girl that we met on the bus did just that. she then proceeded to tell me and kristen that we had a good sense of fashion for being americans. she claims americans just don't know how to dress and have no sense of style. some of the outfits that the girls wear over here would make many heads turn if they wore them over in the US though!

on saturday i finally got to hang up my pictures (yes i found them!!!) and i got my room situated. and then kristen and i decided we were going to skip the social scene downtown and instead hang out with our floormates. i think there is a total of 6 girls living on our floor and then the rest are guys, yes all 30 some of them. quite different than at high point! they are really fun though.

after about 5 hours of sleep i woke up and a bunch of the international students went to the lake district today. tons of streams and tiny waterfalls flow down the "fells" (mountains) into this freshwater lake. we walked around several different villages and even took a ferry ride. the mountains are beautiful! and all of the houses are much more classic looking than american homes. and the sheep grazing in the pastures are numerous. aside from the landscapes, i also went into the original gingerbread house, which was the tiniest room i've ever seen. the gingerbread was fantastic though. the secret recipe is locked in a vault. peter rabbit is also famed in the lake district. since the author, Beatrix Potter, grew up around here she placed the setting in the lake district. William Wordsworth is another famous person who is very well recognized in the lake district for being a romantic poet. we visited his graveyard where his entire family is buried. i also managed to buy a pillow and do some grocery shopping while on the trip! i obviously took advantage since i didn't want to have to pay the bus fare to go into town later tonight. but what i found funny was that the cashier lady said to me after hearing me speak, "oh you must be from australia!" i honestly think australians sound more british than we do!

with lack of sleep and an adventurous day, i am off to get ready for bed. classes start tomorrow and i have yet to figure out where they're located, yikes! looks like it will be another early morning for me.

a little side note while i'm thinking of it- sarcasm is huge over here! in a good way though :)

it's the weekend :)

yesterday i took a tour of the city, and it is absolutely charming! the cobblestone streets, the buildings, and just the town in general is quite picturesque. while i was downtown, i finally got a phone for 5 pounds (how cheap! and it's not one of those "crappy" phones either). it's pay-as-you-go, and for 10 pounds i got unlimited txting (maddi and lo- once you get your phones we can txt awaaay!). afterwards i went shopping for essentials and here is a word of advice- carry a backpack because your hands will get so full of many heavy bags and trying to manage them can be a struggle! also another little fact- there are some of the same shops here as back home: starbucks, texaco, BP, blockbuster, domino's, subway, mcdonald's...

after some tomato soup and a bagel for dinner (i still need to get used to this cooking thing), kristen and i went over to a friend's flat which is on the opposite side of campus as us. we thought we had the campus pretty much all figured out until we realized that we hadn't even seen half of it. so it's going to take longer than a week to figure out.

this morning i registered for classes and let me just say what a nightmare! lots of the classes i wanted clashed and didn't work out and i was the very LAST person out of the hundreds of international students left in the room. and all of the professors even left so i had to trek around campus trying to locate offices. after being redirected numerous times, i am now signed up for 3 courses and still need approval for 1 more (apparently i had just missed the man i needed to talk to by several minutes).

also, i finally unpacked today! yay! except i'm highly upset that i can't find my pictures from home to hang up. my walls are still so bare. and i'm still without a pillow since the store ran out!

anyway, time to enjoy the weekend! (and attempt to cook some dinner).

24 hours and feeling great!

so no jet lag has been experienced yet.. i'm assuming it will affect me on the way home?

anyway, last night there was a dinner for all the international students, and let me just say that there are a TON of kids from all over the world.. name a country and it's sure to be represented. after dinner we stopped at one of the campus' bars and a popular drink here is hard cider, my favorite! we ended up going over to a table of girls and introducing ourselves and now we have 6 good friends! two of the girls attend University of Colorado and are awesome; one is from PA who goes to St. Joe's in Philly but studied in London last semester and is now in Lancaster; one is from Australia and she's hilarious; and the other two are from Montreal up in Canada, one of whom is Jewish so she can speak Hebrew, Yiddish, and some French, whereas the other is completely French and speaks with a very thick accent.

today consisted of informational seminars and a tour of campus, but i was already a bit lost to begin with. it's not like at High Point where there is one strip full of class buildings, instead it's a bunch of squares all jumbled together. by the end of next week i should be a pro at finding my way around (hopefully). this evening we went to a local eatery where all pizza and pasta dishes are 5.25 pounds, which i thought was a great deal. oh and that reminds me, there is no currency equivalent to the american $1, so it's lots and lots of coins! one of the student ambassadors who was showing us around said that the american dollar is "rubbish", one of their popular terms here. another favorite of theirs is the word "brilliant", so instead of saying "great" or "awesome" they say "brilliant". and i've noticed that instead of saying "okay" they say "right". but with the accent you can imagine it sounds way better. another somewhat strange thing is that all the shops close super early over here. around 5/5:30pm is when stores shut down.. so unfortunately we have yet to go try to find a phone or buy dishes, hangers, etc. but we did manage to find a grocery store that stays open until 10pm so we stocked up on several goodies. and thank goodness they had comforters for half price because let me just say that last night was absolutely freezing. i was bundled up and even threw my heavy peacoat over me so that i could stay warm. i'm not sure if the heat is not turned on in my room or if it's just cold in the building in general. but the weather outside is not that bad at all! it's been in the mid to upper 40s and no wind-- of course there is rain, but it's definitely tolerable. the australian wants it to snow so bad because she's only seen it once as a little girl. i would be fine without it haha :)

we made it!

as some of you may know, the trek across the pond was my 3rd trip on a plane... ever! (yes, we tend to drive everywhere). needless to say, I am completely clueless about knowing where to check in bags and what garments to take off for security purposes, etcetera. as soon as I send my carry-on luggage through the machine, the guy monitoring the screen asks if I have a laptop in my bag. I told him yes and that it may be a struggle to get it out. (obviously my bags were packed to the max.. my life for 6 months crammed into 3 bags). and of course I didn't take out any of my 3-1-1 liquids. I guarantee he didn't even want to try to open the suitcase where he would find that. I did warn him!

As we made our way down the terminal, I realized that Kristen and I were up for a workout as we hulled all that luggage around until we finally reached our destination- the very last gate possible. With the way us lower slowers walk you can imagine it took up a good bit of time!

maddi- you'll like this little sidenote: the first thing I notice as we enter our gate is an asian guy with a huge long, skinny backpack (i'm banking on a dooder) slung over his shoulders with a Canadian flag sewn on it. I instantly thought of you.  I didn't take any of Kelly Norton's advice and brought a North Face bag :)

the flight all in all was not that bad- thank goodness we left before the snowstorm hit up the mid-atlantic. (although I am jealous that HPU already had delayed classes due to an inch of snow!). It was fun listening to the accents of various people on the plane.. and we even got a huge dinner along with a little breakfast croissant this morning! there was slight turbulence but the sunrise this morning made up for it- it was beautiful! we were high above the plethora of clouds and we figured it might be the last time we saw the sun for a while.

anyway, we caught the train and met several other american students who will be studying here at Lancaster as well. the taxi dropped us off outside our "college" (dorm) residence, and here we are! Kris and I each have our own bedroom right around the corner from each other, which includes a sink and shelving/closet. it's a pretty good size too! a bit run down compared to High Point, but I'm not complaining. i can't wait to decorate the walls though! pictures will be up soon enough.

today is the day!

the day has arrived! I have less than 12 hours left in the country!

hello england, goodbye america- see you on 4th of July!

I have two days left in the US before venturing over to the UK... and what am I doing? Procrastinating on the packing, of course! I decided I would start this blog for family and friends to read, so hopefully I will find the time to keep it updated! Enjoy :)