well two months after ending classes, i am officially done my junior year! finally no more studying for exams! i still think it's odd that my classes ended the last week of march, and yet i had to wait until june to take the exams. whilst in the weeks of studying we managed to go out to a couple of the clubs (elements & sugarhouse) for some drinks and dancing. and of course, we raided cal's blockbuster film collection to help us procrastinate from our revision :) when the sun would pop out kris & i played tennis, but the weather has still been pretty chilly considering that it's nearing summer (in the upper 50s). however, last friday it was actually in the 70s and we went to Morecambe Bay which is only a 20 minute bus ride from Lancaster. it was nice to be in a bathing suit and soaking up the sun! but the place was anything but a beach, i'd call it a cove. when we arrived it was high tide and boats speckled the shoreline, with fells in the background (beautiful scenery!) but before we knew it the tide was going out and eventually the water was completely gone! it was wet sand from us to the far side of where the water used to be...it was definitely wild! you could probably walk from one coast and across to the other, except we've heard it's like quick sand out there. anyway, we managed to get some silly tanlines while we were there. (oh tanlines, how i've missed you).
last night was the last time that kristen and i would see murphy and jobi (they leave this weekend, and we start our 20 day Eurotrip today!...actually it's already begun--we're in Leeds!). so we decided to have one last dinner date and ended up having a lovely chinese picnic on a bench table outside. it hasn't hit me that i won't be seeing them any time soon. i don't think it will until i'm back in the States myself. we then decided to go out last night (to Revs [revolutions]) which i'd never been to before and we had so much fun. we started off doing karaoke (think moulin rouge, ain't no mountain high enough, journey) and i'm happy to say i can cross that off my bucket list!--karaoke in a british club. we then went upstairs to the dance floor and literally were there until they kicked us out.
so now it's time to start the rest of our Europe adventures. we've decided to couch surf (www.couchsurfing.org) in all of our destinations! it was a process trying to find hosts, but i can happily say that we're surfing in all but one city. i can't wait to see what it has in store for us. printing out all of our boarding passes and tix was the next hassle though. kristen and i were making sure we had everything when we realized that we were missing our amsterdam-copenhagen flight information. we realized that we had jake purchase the tix (since our american credit cards wouldn't work) and had never received a confirmation number or email, and my account said we had no reservations! i'll admit i was beginning to panic. but thankfully we called the airlines and got everything sorted. i think i would have cried if they told us that we never booked anything.
and now after missing our first train in Lancaster by a mere 30-odd seconds, and nearly missing our second train in Leeds, we have made it safely to our first CS hosts! then off to Rome we fly tomorrow! :) i don't think i could be anymore stoked. 4 trains, 5 planes, 7 countries, and 20 days crammed into 1 backpack. here i come!
odd experience of the day: we met a mother who asked us if the UK was part of Europe. um. weird.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Thursday, May 5, 2011
athens: the perfect place to stuff your face :)
we arrived to athens and immediately had plates piled with food sitting in front of us (compliments to lauren's godmother, Dolly) as we exchanged our traveling adventures with lauren, maddi, and brooke. we also discussed how wild it was to be in athens together, on top of having visited Edinburgh, Scotland and Oxford, England together. not many friends can say they've traveled to different countries together! we sure are special :) afterwards we headed to town and got to see the changing of the guards. their routine is pretty funny--a bunch of kicks and wiggling of the toes which have little pompoms on them. but the guys are super serious about the act! i could never do it, i think i would end up laughing hysterically. we found out that all boys must serve in the military at some point in their life, and if you're tall enough, you're considered for employment as a guard (they are really tall!). after being entertained by their routine, we climbed the top of one of athens' mountains where we had a spectacular night view of the cityscape. it was beautiful with all the lights glittering from every possible direction. we were even higher than the Acropolis! we then munched on some traditional greek cuisine (yes ate once again which was soon to become our hobby) at a lovely little restaurant on the mountaintop. we then headed to the apartment that lauren's cousin graciously offered us for the next several days. and would it surprise you to say that on our way back we stopped for delicious crepes? as for the apartment, it was awesome. we had the top floor of the complex with a huge balcony and yet another beautiful view of the city. (we would soon find out that the balcony was the perfect place for an afternoon nap).
the next day we went to the market and walked around the little streets of athens where we saw tons of clothes, jewelry, purses, and little greek trinkets waiting to be bartered for. while wandering about, we ran into 2 girls, Jobi & Murphy, who we've become really close friends with while at uni in Lancaster. you never know who you'll run into while traveling! that night we got all dolled up and headed to a club with lauren's cousins. it was a great time until i ended up having to leave due to all the cigarette smoke. even though there are 'no smoking' signs, the greeks don't abide by the rules! apparently, the entire ceiling opened up later in the night which would have been a great star gazing atmosphere. perhaps the next time i'm in athens i'll get to witness it ;)
our last full day in athens we visited the Parthenon along with the Acropolis Museum. it's amazing how evidence of history long, long ago still exists and is standing! that night was Greek Easter and we watched fireworks being set off nearby the church. A procession of people holding candles soon flowed out of the service. The flame is specially flown all the way from Jerusalem, from the Holy Fire, and is distributed to all of the people's candles. It is said that Christianity originated in Greece, which makes sense as to why the Holy Fire would be flown to all of its cities and Greek Orthodox churches. we ended the evening with a traditional greek easter game. everyone holds a hardboiled egg (fact: all of the easter eggs are dyed red in greece) and one person takes their egg and taps it on top of the egg to their left. whoever has the egg that doesn't crack is the 'winner' and goes on to the next person to battle out the eggs. in the end everyone just eats the eggs though.
the following morning, it was time to say our farewells and back to lancaster we went.
out of our entire trip, this is what i'd have to say:
1. the beatles story museum in liverpool, england was my favorite museum i've been to while over here in the UK.
2. paris was by far the most beautiful city. hopefully i can visit there again at some point in my life.
3. seville was my favorite spanish city that we went to--it definitely has the spanish charm to it.
3. athens has the best food, and i now crave it.
4. don't get excited to have your passport stamped... i ended up with only one stamp, and that was when i left Athens.
5. ryanair definitely has the worst landings..i prefer easyjet :)
over and out!
the next day we went to the market and walked around the little streets of athens where we saw tons of clothes, jewelry, purses, and little greek trinkets waiting to be bartered for. while wandering about, we ran into 2 girls, Jobi & Murphy, who we've become really close friends with while at uni in Lancaster. you never know who you'll run into while traveling! that night we got all dolled up and headed to a club with lauren's cousins. it was a great time until i ended up having to leave due to all the cigarette smoke. even though there are 'no smoking' signs, the greeks don't abide by the rules! apparently, the entire ceiling opened up later in the night which would have been a great star gazing atmosphere. perhaps the next time i'm in athens i'll get to witness it ;)
our last full day in athens we visited the Parthenon along with the Acropolis Museum. it's amazing how evidence of history long, long ago still exists and is standing! that night was Greek Easter and we watched fireworks being set off nearby the church. A procession of people holding candles soon flowed out of the service. The flame is specially flown all the way from Jerusalem, from the Holy Fire, and is distributed to all of the people's candles. It is said that Christianity originated in Greece, which makes sense as to why the Holy Fire would be flown to all of its cities and Greek Orthodox churches. we ended the evening with a traditional greek easter game. everyone holds a hardboiled egg (fact: all of the easter eggs are dyed red in greece) and one person takes their egg and taps it on top of the egg to their left. whoever has the egg that doesn't crack is the 'winner' and goes on to the next person to battle out the eggs. in the end everyone just eats the eggs though.
the following morning, it was time to say our farewells and back to lancaster we went.
out of our entire trip, this is what i'd have to say:
1. the beatles story museum in liverpool, england was my favorite museum i've been to while over here in the UK.
2. paris was by far the most beautiful city. hopefully i can visit there again at some point in my life.
3. seville was my favorite spanish city that we went to--it definitely has the spanish charm to it.
3. athens has the best food, and i now crave it.
4. don't get excited to have your passport stamped... i ended up with only one stamp, and that was when i left Athens.
5. ryanair definitely has the worst landings..i prefer easyjet :)
over and out!
Monday, May 2, 2011
Barcelona
we arrived into Barca and were soon on our way to Danielle's piso where we were to meet up with her flatmate (Danielle was visiting Rome at the time). we had amazing directions but to our dismay, no one answered the intercom "bell" when we rung her piso number. it was getting a bit late and we didn't know what to do, so our first instinct was to find WiFi so that Kristen's ipod would connect to the internet. around the corner we finally got service and immediately messaged Jayne, who had just gotten to Barcelona the day before. Thank goodness she responded in no time and gave us the hotel that she and her family were staying at so that we could have a place to stay while we figured things out. What a lifesaver! It took a bit to actually find the hotel..we even attempted to speak spanish to an elderly couple but it was no use since the people of Barcelona mainly speak Catalon. Since it was nearly 9pm or so once we arrived to the hotel, we ended up just sleeping on the floor so that we didn't have to travel off at nighttime.
the following morning we joined jayne and her family to the museu d'art contemporani de barcelona, which was a contemporary art museum. i love art, but i just don't get the contemporary part of it...not my style. we then admired beautiful buildings designed by architect, Gaudi, which were pretty neat to look at since we don't have anything like it back in the states! pretty soon, our tummies were rumbling and we ate lunch outside where we had a bit of trouble communicating with our multiple servers. i think the first problem was that we had 3 servers, and they all got confused! first we had asked for an ice coffee, but rather than getting what any american would expect, we got a teeny, tiny teacup with a shot of hot espresso. where was the ice?? one of our servers then brought out a glass of ice cubes which we thought was pretty funny. we ended up just pouring the warm espresso over the ice and it didn't taste that bad after adding a bit of sugar! and despite the mixup for my meal's side, the food was delicious nonetheless. i had a thin crust pizza with scalloped potatoes and onions overtop, rather than the traditional sauce and cheese. it was SO good! definitely asking my mom to make that this summer ;)
afterwards, we headed to Sagrada Familia, but just looked at the outside since the line was pretty long and it cost €12 per person, which is a bit expensive when you're on a tight student budget. by that time, it was siesta time! i guess when you've been living in Spain for 3 months, obviously you're going to get accustomed to their culture. While everyone snoozed, I found a hostel for me and Kristen to spend the night at since we hadn't heard from Danielle about whether her flatmate was at home or not. So off we trekked to the other side of the city to find our accommodations for the evening. after an intense staircase that offered a gorgeous view of the city, we made it at last to the hostel. we were greeted with the sweetest girl who told us everything we needed to know about Barca and she quickly pulled out a huge map to show us all of the hotspots and what metro to take to get here, what bus to take to get there, etc.
the one good thing about staying somewhere in spain is that checkout isn't until noon, since they stay up so late. so we took advantage of not having to lug around our big ol' backpacks and got up early to go to Parc Guell before checkout. We saw beautiful views of the city and you can even see out onto the Mediterranean Sea. It was a bit cloudy but you could still tell that Barca is a huge city with so much to offer. Before it was too late, we made it back to our hostel to collect our things and then off we went to the Olympic Stadium where the Olympics were held in 1992. In order to get to the stadium you have to walk through the Museo Nacional de Arte de Cataluña which is probably the most beautiful building that I saw in Barcelona--it looked like a giant castle. After roaming around this part of town for a bit, we then headed to the beach! We saw Port Olimpia which is filled to the max with sailboats. I don't think i've ever seen so many in my life! We saw people kite-surfing as well which reminded us of Alden and Richard out to sea traveling the caribbean on a boat...lucky guys. we watched people play beach volleyball for a while and then headed to a Spanish buffet where we literally stuffed our faces. we got to try paella which is a traditional spanish dish that has rice and typically seafood in it (ours had mussels). after eating more than we could handle, we decided to walk to Danielle's piso to see if her roommate happened to be in. It was getting to be almost 8:30pm so we decided that if we didn't get a response we would just go back to the hostel that we had stayed in the night before. Miraculously, her roommate answered and we were so so grateful. the girl's mom had flown over from the states so they had been out in the evenings which is why we had missed them previously. and to our delight, danielle came back from Italy about an hour after we had gotten to her piso. It was great to see Danielle and catch up on things over a bottle of wine (in Spain, wine is only €2 a bottle, which is insanely cheap compared to England's prices..and the wine is good too!) We were lucky to have a huge comfortable bed that night, giving us an ideal rest before we departed Spain the next morning. We definitely slept sweet! :)
the following morning we joined jayne and her family to the museu d'art contemporani de barcelona, which was a contemporary art museum. i love art, but i just don't get the contemporary part of it...not my style. we then admired beautiful buildings designed by architect, Gaudi, which were pretty neat to look at since we don't have anything like it back in the states! pretty soon, our tummies were rumbling and we ate lunch outside where we had a bit of trouble communicating with our multiple servers. i think the first problem was that we had 3 servers, and they all got confused! first we had asked for an ice coffee, but rather than getting what any american would expect, we got a teeny, tiny teacup with a shot of hot espresso. where was the ice?? one of our servers then brought out a glass of ice cubes which we thought was pretty funny. we ended up just pouring the warm espresso over the ice and it didn't taste that bad after adding a bit of sugar! and despite the mixup for my meal's side, the food was delicious nonetheless. i had a thin crust pizza with scalloped potatoes and onions overtop, rather than the traditional sauce and cheese. it was SO good! definitely asking my mom to make that this summer ;)
afterwards, we headed to Sagrada Familia, but just looked at the outside since the line was pretty long and it cost €12 per person, which is a bit expensive when you're on a tight student budget. by that time, it was siesta time! i guess when you've been living in Spain for 3 months, obviously you're going to get accustomed to their culture. While everyone snoozed, I found a hostel for me and Kristen to spend the night at since we hadn't heard from Danielle about whether her flatmate was at home or not. So off we trekked to the other side of the city to find our accommodations for the evening. after an intense staircase that offered a gorgeous view of the city, we made it at last to the hostel. we were greeted with the sweetest girl who told us everything we needed to know about Barca and she quickly pulled out a huge map to show us all of the hotspots and what metro to take to get here, what bus to take to get there, etc.
the one good thing about staying somewhere in spain is that checkout isn't until noon, since they stay up so late. so we took advantage of not having to lug around our big ol' backpacks and got up early to go to Parc Guell before checkout. We saw beautiful views of the city and you can even see out onto the Mediterranean Sea. It was a bit cloudy but you could still tell that Barca is a huge city with so much to offer. Before it was too late, we made it back to our hostel to collect our things and then off we went to the Olympic Stadium where the Olympics were held in 1992. In order to get to the stadium you have to walk through the Museo Nacional de Arte de Cataluña which is probably the most beautiful building that I saw in Barcelona--it looked like a giant castle. After roaming around this part of town for a bit, we then headed to the beach! We saw Port Olimpia which is filled to the max with sailboats. I don't think i've ever seen so many in my life! We saw people kite-surfing as well which reminded us of Alden and Richard out to sea traveling the caribbean on a boat...lucky guys. we watched people play beach volleyball for a while and then headed to a Spanish buffet where we literally stuffed our faces. we got to try paella which is a traditional spanish dish that has rice and typically seafood in it (ours had mussels). after eating more than we could handle, we decided to walk to Danielle's piso to see if her roommate happened to be in. It was getting to be almost 8:30pm so we decided that if we didn't get a response we would just go back to the hostel that we had stayed in the night before. Miraculously, her roommate answered and we were so so grateful. the girl's mom had flown over from the states so they had been out in the evenings which is why we had missed them previously. and to our delight, danielle came back from Italy about an hour after we had gotten to her piso. It was great to see Danielle and catch up on things over a bottle of wine (in Spain, wine is only €2 a bottle, which is insanely cheap compared to England's prices..and the wine is good too!) We were lucky to have a huge comfortable bed that night, giving us an ideal rest before we departed Spain the next morning. We definitely slept sweet! :)
Thursday, April 28, 2011
¡yo no quiero agua; yo quiero bebida!
we flew into valencia via Vueling airlines, and after flying RyanAir to get to Paris and then to Seville, Vueling felt like a luxury flight, mainly because it was such a smooth landing. (RyanAir is known for their 'rocky' landings which can make you feel a bit uneasy as the plane shakes around). we were quickly greeted by Elissa as we made our way to the metro. it's so awesome how we became instant friends literally within one day (we met Elissa while on a tour in London) and that she was keen on letting us stay with her for the weekend in Spain. it seriously felt like we knew each other for much longer! she took us out on the town that night with several English friends. (it was almost as if we were back in England upon hearing their accents!). the Spanish party scene is so different from what I'm used to though.. typically you don't go to a club (discoteca) until 2am. So that's exactly what we did! and it's nice because there's no cover charge until 2:30am which gives you plenty of time to get there. The club had 2 levels, each playing the typical rap/hip-hop dancing music. I still can't get over how all the countries here in europe basically only listen to American music... whoever created MTV is definitely a mega-millionaire.
the next day we walked into town and had kabobs (this was kristen's first kabob experience). we sat outside and people-watched of course :) afterwards we heard drums being played so followed the beat and stumbled upon a huge crowd of mainly men dressed up in robes and playing a drumline. there were little boys also playing, probably around 4 years old, and they were too cute! we don't really know what it was for, but we guessed that maybe it had to do with the start of Holy Week for Easter. We then walked to the beach and the sun came out and it was just the right temperature for a siesta in the sand. we didn't even have towels or anything, but the beach was such a lovely mattress that we fell asleep instantly. we didn't wake up 'til 6pm! i'd say it was a successful spanish siesta! i dipped my toes in the mediterranean but it was entirely too cold to go in any further. at least i can say i've touched the mediterranean sea!
we then went back to elissa's piso and got ready for a traditional spanish dinner. again we ate outside, but not until around 11pm! there were about 15 of us, all students, and the people were from France, England, and Spain; and it was absolutely amazing listening to them talk because they all could speak at least 2 languages. I was listening to one of the girls talking in Spanish and all of a sudden she switched to English, and pretty soon she was speaking French! it was incredible. for our meal, i can't recall what the name of it was, but we ordered platters of various hams and cheeses and then platters of various seafood and you use them for toppings on bread. (what lots of europeans do is order big platters and then share whatever is on the table). and we had to have our sangria to accompany the spanish aura. we ate and talked for nearly two hours! then to end the dinner, the waiters served us shots. rather than mints, they have an herb liqueur that you take a shot of to wash your palate. yum!
we then all went to a club, again where entrance is free up until 2:30am, and to our delight there was a live band playing! They were from Holland and were pretty darn good! This time the club played indie/folk music so it was a neat atmosphere that allowed us to experience a different vibe from the night before. around 5am we made it back to elissa's.. so i can't say we stayed up 'til 8am which is what most spaniards do... but i'm satisfied with 5am. we actually found out that in order to stay for closing, you wouldn't leave until around 10am, whaaaat?! how wild.
well sunday morning was our time to pack up and say our goodbyes. after eating at a chinese buffet for lunch (whoever invented buffets is genius) we headed for the train station. and to anyone visiting spain, their trains are awesome! you get lots of leg room, the seats recline, and they even play a movie! I felt like i was back on an American airline! the views along the ride were breathtaking since it was all along the Mediterranean coast. there were giant cliffs and hills, and then i could spot people enjoying the sun on the beach, and people sailing. boy, how i've realized that i love the ocean/beach life!
¡adios, valencia!
the next day we walked into town and had kabobs (this was kristen's first kabob experience). we sat outside and people-watched of course :) afterwards we heard drums being played so followed the beat and stumbled upon a huge crowd of mainly men dressed up in robes and playing a drumline. there were little boys also playing, probably around 4 years old, and they were too cute! we don't really know what it was for, but we guessed that maybe it had to do with the start of Holy Week for Easter. We then walked to the beach and the sun came out and it was just the right temperature for a siesta in the sand. we didn't even have towels or anything, but the beach was such a lovely mattress that we fell asleep instantly. we didn't wake up 'til 6pm! i'd say it was a successful spanish siesta! i dipped my toes in the mediterranean but it was entirely too cold to go in any further. at least i can say i've touched the mediterranean sea!
we then went back to elissa's piso and got ready for a traditional spanish dinner. again we ate outside, but not until around 11pm! there were about 15 of us, all students, and the people were from France, England, and Spain; and it was absolutely amazing listening to them talk because they all could speak at least 2 languages. I was listening to one of the girls talking in Spanish and all of a sudden she switched to English, and pretty soon she was speaking French! it was incredible. for our meal, i can't recall what the name of it was, but we ordered platters of various hams and cheeses and then platters of various seafood and you use them for toppings on bread. (what lots of europeans do is order big platters and then share whatever is on the table). and we had to have our sangria to accompany the spanish aura. we ate and talked for nearly two hours! then to end the dinner, the waiters served us shots. rather than mints, they have an herb liqueur that you take a shot of to wash your palate. yum!
we then all went to a club, again where entrance is free up until 2:30am, and to our delight there was a live band playing! They were from Holland and were pretty darn good! This time the club played indie/folk music so it was a neat atmosphere that allowed us to experience a different vibe from the night before. around 5am we made it back to elissa's.. so i can't say we stayed up 'til 8am which is what most spaniards do... but i'm satisfied with 5am. we actually found out that in order to stay for closing, you wouldn't leave until around 10am, whaaaat?! how wild.
well sunday morning was our time to pack up and say our goodbyes. after eating at a chinese buffet for lunch (whoever invented buffets is genius) we headed for the train station. and to anyone visiting spain, their trains are awesome! you get lots of leg room, the seats recline, and they even play a movie! I felt like i was back on an American airline! the views along the ride were breathtaking since it was all along the Mediterranean coast. there were giant cliffs and hills, and then i could spot people enjoying the sun on the beach, and people sailing. boy, how i've realized that i love the ocean/beach life!
¡adios, valencia!
Saturday, April 23, 2011
soaking up the sun in seville
we landed in seville where it was hot hot hot! the hostel we stayed in was really nice, and it even had a kitchen to cook your own meals. they know we're on a tight budget! and the upstairs had roof access where there were hammocks so we could take a siesta! as soon as we got settled in we met jayne, and she is SO SO tan. it was great to see a face I hadn't seen since the start of December. we made plans to meet up later which at first was a bit of a disaster since we couldn't find each other. but after running around downtown for an hour we finally ran into each other and it all ended great. we didn´t get back til 430am and jayne even had an exam the next morning! on our walk back to the hostel, we witnessed the "street sweepers" who hose down the streets every single night. apparently sometimes they mess around with the girls and spray them too, but thank goodness that didn't happen to us! the next morning we went to a museum that was dedicated to christopher columbus and it had his journals/maps from his trip from when he discovered the americas. he actually sailed out of seville's port which is why he has a museum dedicated to his findings. he's even buried in seville. later in the afternoon, after taking a siesta on our hostel's rooftop, we went on a walking tour around the city and learned tons of interesting facts--for example, seville's streets are very narrow with tall buildings/pisos (flats) lining the streets and this is to block the sunlight and cool the air that travels down the streets. they attempted to keep cool in a variety of ways. i guess this is necessary when it reaches 115 degrees daily in the summertime! that evening, we met up with jayne, rachel, and israel where we had giant mojitos and drank them in the streets which were packed. i felt like i was in new orleans for mardi gras! and you could hear the roar of voices a couple blocks away. we then went across the river (which is gorgeous) to triana where we found a glass of a beer with a shot for only a euro, not too bad! the following morning we met up with jayne and went to the palace of alcazar. it was beautiful and had tons of gardens and even a maze that was alice in wonderland style. kristen and i then went to seville's cathedral, which is the largest gothic cathedral in the world, and the 3rd largest cathedral in general. lots of gypsies stand outside carrying rosemary where they try to get tourists to take the herb and then the gypsies bless you and proceed to tell your fortune (the typical "you will live long life, happy, 1 baby 2 baby...") and of course ask for money in the end. kristen and i got bombarded but eventually shooed them away. afterwards we lounged in a park and enjoyed the warm, sunny weather before heading to the airport for our next adventure.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
je ne parle pas français
kris & i started our euro adventure in liverpool, england. after a delayed train causing us to miss our switch in preston, we eventually made it to liverpool. we went to ´the beatles story´which is a museum dedicated to the beatles, since liverpool is where they grew up, started the band, and became famous. it actually made me want to stay in england forever. if ever you get a chance, definitely check out the museum. it was by far one of my favorites. the commentary was funny and interesting and at times even gave me the chills. after learning the history of the beatles, we flew out of liverpool and headed to paris, the city of love!
since we flew in so late the airport was pretty dead, which was nice because i´ve heard it can get pretty hectic with lots of pickpocketers. kris and i found our hostel and went off to bed to rest up for our exploration the next day. we decided to do another free walking tour, and kris and i ended up walking from 9am to 10pm. we started off the day with bread and jam at the hostel for breakfast (the french love their loafs of bread..think italian restaurant style). we then followed the map to the meeting place for the start of our tour, and let me just say kris and i are getting to be quite the map readers! on the way we realized what a clean city paris is! for as big as it is, there was not a bit of trash, and all of the trees were perfectly trimmed, and the flowers were all in bloom. we also noticed the cutest boutiques, shop after shop. their window displays and all of the clothes were so cute..too bad it´s so pricey! anyway, back to the tour...our tour guide was from scotland and she did an awesome job. of all the free tours, paris was by far my favorite. we saw buildings such as the Louvre, the arch, the Eiffel tower, and bridges while learning the history of Paris. It´s such a lovefest that there is a bridge dedicated to lovers who put a lock on the fence rail and then toss the key into the river, locking their love forever. there are hundreds upon hundreds of such locks, some engraved, some just written in marker with names and dates, of all shapes and sizes. another bridge we saw was the first stone bridge built in Paris. the king at the time was humiliated by friends because they didn´t think the stone bridge would stand and instead they thought it would collapse just like how all the wooden bridges rotted away. well, after he had it built, he hosted a party to celebrate the completion of the bridge. he invited tons of guests, many of whom were the ones who thought a stone bridge was a pathetic idea. he served wine and champagne which apparently isn´t a good combo. they got plastered and the king had an artist sketch a picture of them all after they were ´well pissed´ (english term for really, really drunk). he then had a sculptor sculpt out the heads of all of these faces, and he had them placed on the side of the bridge, in revenge to humiliate them. there is not a single duplicate of a face, and some even look goblin-like. a bitter revenge? i think so, since the whole world can now view them!
we ended the tour at a restaurant that had outside seating (literally every single place has outside seating with the chairs all facing the sidewalk/street so that you can people watch, how brill!). we had a view of the eiffel tower while we ate croque monsieur, a typical french sandwich, and sipped on some lovely white wine. the sandwich is like a toasted hot ham and cheese but it also has cheese toasted on top as well. i´m definitely going to start doing that at home! a grilled cheese with a twist...
my absolute favorite part of paris was of course the eiffel tower. we were advised to go at dusk to get the best of both worlds and see the tower right before the sun completely sets as well as when it´s silhouetted against the black sky. to my suprise there was no line to climb the 669 steps to the 2nd floor, so up we went! the views were spectacular, and as we climbed, the skies became dark and we were greeted with a lighted tower that sparkles every hour on the hour for 10 minutes. the sights were great, but did you know the empire state building is taller? once we descended all 669 steps, we gazed once again and waited for the tower to start its glittering. we felt like we were waiting for fireworks on the 4th of july. Once the time approached, the sight was beyond beautiful. i couldn´t take my eyes away from the tower. no wonder an american woman literally fell in love with it, got married to it and even got married on it (well i guess how else would you marry someone (or should i say some ´thing´) without ´it´ being there?) that´s a true story too, look it up!
since we flew in so late the airport was pretty dead, which was nice because i´ve heard it can get pretty hectic with lots of pickpocketers. kris and i found our hostel and went off to bed to rest up for our exploration the next day. we decided to do another free walking tour, and kris and i ended up walking from 9am to 10pm. we started off the day with bread and jam at the hostel for breakfast (the french love their loafs of bread..think italian restaurant style). we then followed the map to the meeting place for the start of our tour, and let me just say kris and i are getting to be quite the map readers! on the way we realized what a clean city paris is! for as big as it is, there was not a bit of trash, and all of the trees were perfectly trimmed, and the flowers were all in bloom. we also noticed the cutest boutiques, shop after shop. their window displays and all of the clothes were so cute..too bad it´s so pricey! anyway, back to the tour...our tour guide was from scotland and she did an awesome job. of all the free tours, paris was by far my favorite. we saw buildings such as the Louvre, the arch, the Eiffel tower, and bridges while learning the history of Paris. It´s such a lovefest that there is a bridge dedicated to lovers who put a lock on the fence rail and then toss the key into the river, locking their love forever. there are hundreds upon hundreds of such locks, some engraved, some just written in marker with names and dates, of all shapes and sizes. another bridge we saw was the first stone bridge built in Paris. the king at the time was humiliated by friends because they didn´t think the stone bridge would stand and instead they thought it would collapse just like how all the wooden bridges rotted away. well, after he had it built, he hosted a party to celebrate the completion of the bridge. he invited tons of guests, many of whom were the ones who thought a stone bridge was a pathetic idea. he served wine and champagne which apparently isn´t a good combo. they got plastered and the king had an artist sketch a picture of them all after they were ´well pissed´ (english term for really, really drunk). he then had a sculptor sculpt out the heads of all of these faces, and he had them placed on the side of the bridge, in revenge to humiliate them. there is not a single duplicate of a face, and some even look goblin-like. a bitter revenge? i think so, since the whole world can now view them!
we ended the tour at a restaurant that had outside seating (literally every single place has outside seating with the chairs all facing the sidewalk/street so that you can people watch, how brill!). we had a view of the eiffel tower while we ate croque monsieur, a typical french sandwich, and sipped on some lovely white wine. the sandwich is like a toasted hot ham and cheese but it also has cheese toasted on top as well. i´m definitely going to start doing that at home! a grilled cheese with a twist...
my absolute favorite part of paris was of course the eiffel tower. we were advised to go at dusk to get the best of both worlds and see the tower right before the sun completely sets as well as when it´s silhouetted against the black sky. to my suprise there was no line to climb the 669 steps to the 2nd floor, so up we went! the views were spectacular, and as we climbed, the skies became dark and we were greeted with a lighted tower that sparkles every hour on the hour for 10 minutes. the sights were great, but did you know the empire state building is taller? once we descended all 669 steps, we gazed once again and waited for the tower to start its glittering. we felt like we were waiting for fireworks on the 4th of july. Once the time approached, the sight was beyond beautiful. i couldn´t take my eyes away from the tower. no wonder an american woman literally fell in love with it, got married to it and even got married on it (well i guess how else would you marry someone (or should i say some ´thing´) without ´it´ being there?) that´s a true story too, look it up!
lazy days in lancaster
well the jogging/walking every day did not exactly work out. but hey, i´ll be walking so much once my euro trip starts, so no big deal! instead, i attempted to study while literally getting a bit burnt. who would´ve thought, tanning in england in april? it actually reached 70 for two days, which was amazing. apparently that´s about as hot as it gets here in northern england in the summertime. i´m glad i have much warmer weather at the beach :)
during our 2 weeks of boredom, kristen & i became good friends with the guys who were also left in lancaster. one night kristen and i decided we should show them some american drinking games (you know, beer pong, flip cup, chandelier, screw the dealer, kings, and up the river down the river). they definitely had a great time, and we became best friends with a new guy, cal, who lives on the top floor of our complex. he also has the most amazing movie collection ever--shelf after shelf of dvds, so of course we managed to watch several films and borrow more than just a few. cal also loves to go down to the pond to feed the ducks so we did that a couple times too. the baby ducklings were adorabe, and the nests that the other birds/swans sat on were HUGE. they were like dinosaur size.
another night one of the chinese boys on our hall cooked us a hot pot, which is when there´s a large pot and it has spices and chilli and beans in this piping hot liquid broth. you then throw in a bunch of random food, and it cooks in the heated pot in the center of the table. we were eating beef (which looked like strips of bacon), lamb, lettuce, japanese noodles, fish eggs, fish sausages, mushrooms... and it was so good! there were 13 or 14 of us and we would all rotate seats after about 20 minutes. and the boy said typically the chinese eat for 5 hours; we only ate for 2, but there was still food left! i learned how to play poker (or maybe it was texas hold ém?) with all of the boys after the dinner. sad to say i didn´t win, no surprise there!
the day before kristen and i left for our euro trip, dom (a boy on our floor) wanted to have a proper barbeque, american style, you know burgers and what not. well, it turned out to be an all day attempt! the boys went into town to buy the burgers (and we´re in england so of course we needed to have sausages as well), and kristen and i went down to the pond where the grills are located, to snag a table. we thought we were all set, until realizing you need a key to use 1 of the 4 grills. 1 was in use, the other 3 were vacant, but we found out that 2 were broken and the other key was already taken for the day and it hadn´t been returned in order for us to use it. our only other option was to wait for the one in use, which was being occupied by chinese students, and if they take 5 hours to eat, we weren´t going to start cooking til after sunset. so we all moved everything back inside, and after the failure of the first kitchen, the second kitchen had working grills and we ate outside in the courtyard...so it turned out to be a modified bbq. oh, one thing, they don´t know how to have proper burgers. they think a burger and a bun will suffice. no no, if only they knew of the bacon cheeseburger with lettuce tomato and pickles!
during our 2 weeks of boredom, kristen & i became good friends with the guys who were also left in lancaster. one night kristen and i decided we should show them some american drinking games (you know, beer pong, flip cup, chandelier, screw the dealer, kings, and up the river down the river). they definitely had a great time, and we became best friends with a new guy, cal, who lives on the top floor of our complex. he also has the most amazing movie collection ever--shelf after shelf of dvds, so of course we managed to watch several films and borrow more than just a few. cal also loves to go down to the pond to feed the ducks so we did that a couple times too. the baby ducklings were adorabe, and the nests that the other birds/swans sat on were HUGE. they were like dinosaur size.
another night one of the chinese boys on our hall cooked us a hot pot, which is when there´s a large pot and it has spices and chilli and beans in this piping hot liquid broth. you then throw in a bunch of random food, and it cooks in the heated pot in the center of the table. we were eating beef (which looked like strips of bacon), lamb, lettuce, japanese noodles, fish eggs, fish sausages, mushrooms... and it was so good! there were 13 or 14 of us and we would all rotate seats after about 20 minutes. and the boy said typically the chinese eat for 5 hours; we only ate for 2, but there was still food left! i learned how to play poker (or maybe it was texas hold ém?) with all of the boys after the dinner. sad to say i didn´t win, no surprise there!
the day before kristen and i left for our euro trip, dom (a boy on our floor) wanted to have a proper barbeque, american style, you know burgers and what not. well, it turned out to be an all day attempt! the boys went into town to buy the burgers (and we´re in england so of course we needed to have sausages as well), and kristen and i went down to the pond where the grills are located, to snag a table. we thought we were all set, until realizing you need a key to use 1 of the 4 grills. 1 was in use, the other 3 were vacant, but we found out that 2 were broken and the other key was already taken for the day and it hadn´t been returned in order for us to use it. our only other option was to wait for the one in use, which was being occupied by chinese students, and if they take 5 hours to eat, we weren´t going to start cooking til after sunset. so we all moved everything back inside, and after the failure of the first kitchen, the second kitchen had working grills and we ate outside in the courtyard...so it turned out to be a modified bbq. oh, one thing, they don´t know how to have proper burgers. they think a burger and a bun will suffice. no no, if only they knew of the bacon cheeseburger with lettuce tomato and pickles!
Monday, March 28, 2011
spring has sprung!
the past 2 weeks have been nothing but sunshine! (for the most part). now if only it will warm up a bit! the daffodils are in bloom and the students are playing in the fields. i never realized how many fields/turfs/courts we have until i jogged around campus. kristen and i have decided to attempt to get into shape (summer is right around the corner), and today we're going to walk into town. last week we finally ended our lectures, so now we just wait until our exams in may/june giving us quite a bit of free time. i really need to start studying, considering that the exams are weighted 50-60% of the entire grade, yikes! but to end our semester us girls went into town on friday and had a nice dinner at an italian restaurant and then celebrated later that evening.
yesterday we booked our flights to rome, prague, amsterdam, and back to lancaster. we're still waiting to buy our ticket to copenhagen... sometimes it can be such a pain trying to use american cards--they just don't validate which is quite annoying. hopefully we'll get it all situated, and then we'll book our trains to florence, venice, and berlin. it should be a great trip! and we're ending in sweden for midsummer (their biggest holiday) to visit friends who i met at work several summers ago. super exciting :)
last night kristen and i went to a fundraiser called "Love Music Hate Racism" at one of the bars here on campus. one of our friends organized the event so we figured we'd support her.. besides who doesn't love live music? we found out that there is lots of racism towards muslims over here in england. a speaker compared it to the nazis and the jews, because there's a political party that protests about how muslims are 'taking' their jobs and they have been quoted to say 'burn the mosques'. how sad! here's a little excerpt from the event: "Racism seeks only to divide and weaken us. Love Music Hate Racism was set up in 2002 in response to rising levels of racism and electoral successes for the Nazi British National Party (BNP)." so i'm glad we supported a good cause to stop the racism and listen to some good tunes. two of the performances were acoustic guitar singers, my type of music! and the last performance was by a band that is actually signed...a legit rock gig. they looked like they just stepped out of the 80s with what they were wearing! and they definitely knew how to whip their hair back and forth! here's a glimpse of their music: http://www.myspace.com/itseliminator
yesterday we booked our flights to rome, prague, amsterdam, and back to lancaster. we're still waiting to buy our ticket to copenhagen... sometimes it can be such a pain trying to use american cards--they just don't validate which is quite annoying. hopefully we'll get it all situated, and then we'll book our trains to florence, venice, and berlin. it should be a great trip! and we're ending in sweden for midsummer (their biggest holiday) to visit friends who i met at work several summers ago. super exciting :)
last night kristen and i went to a fundraiser called "Love Music Hate Racism" at one of the bars here on campus. one of our friends organized the event so we figured we'd support her.. besides who doesn't love live music? we found out that there is lots of racism towards muslims over here in england. a speaker compared it to the nazis and the jews, because there's a political party that protests about how muslims are 'taking' their jobs and they have been quoted to say 'burn the mosques'. how sad! here's a little excerpt from the event: "Racism seeks only to divide and weaken us. Love Music Hate Racism was set up in 2002 in response to rising levels of racism and electoral successes for the Nazi British National Party (BNP)." so i'm glad we supported a good cause to stop the racism and listen to some good tunes. two of the performances were acoustic guitar singers, my type of music! and the last performance was by a band that is actually signed...a legit rock gig. they looked like they just stepped out of the 80s with what they were wearing! and they definitely knew how to whip their hair back and forth! here's a glimpse of their music: http://www.myspace.com/itseliminator
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Oxford, Stonehenge, & Bath, oh my!
The weeks just tend to fly by over here! I can't believe it's mid-March already! Next Monday is my last day of lectures for the semester--how crazy, less than a week to go.
Since Manchester I've managed to scratch off several things from my bucket list. The first Monday night after Manchester weekend I went on a pub crawl downtown with our college, and hit up 5 different bars with the Bowland crew. We all cut up red t-shirts (our color) and rep'd the Bowland lady (our mascot). I swear it's basically like Greek life over here. Then on Wednesday I had my 1st orgo chem lab--I forget if I've mentioned this before, but labs are so professional over here! We wear labcoats, gloves, goggles, and have lab reports that we have to write up (same goes for bio). And I actually don't mind the labs; they're quite fun. Although this is probably because we only had 3 bio labs total and only 2 for chem this entire semester, unlike HPU where they are every single week, blah. Speaking of HPU, on Friday Kris and I were off to Oxford to meet up with all of our HPU chums :) Candice was the only one already there so she got to meet us at the station, and how lovely it was to see her standing there waiting for us! By midnight we had the whole gang- Kara, Tommy, Eileen, Joey, Candice, Lauren, Maddi, Claire, Kris and me. Saturday Marshall managed to find us so our number grew. We did some sightseeing which included Oxford Uni (which is beautiful), a glimpse of Oxford's castle, and we were lucky enough to see a man playing a violin 5 feet in the air walking a tightrope! We went to the indoor market, Cupboard Market (I think it was called?) where I had the most delicious milkshake, PB & chocolate chip cookie flavored. What a treat! That night we all enjoyed a pasta feast, family style, and boy was it nice being with friends from home. We headed out on the town to a club, and let me just say, we brought the house down. We did not leave til close, and yes, we were the last ones in there dancing the night away. I don't think any of us went to bed til after 6am. And we all enjoyed kabobs on our return home (not kabobs like Americans think of...no sticks with meat/veggies on it.. it's more like a pita wrap) but it's the typical 'drunk food' over here (and in australia too according to Simone). Sunday morning Bristowe arrived to join in on the fun (it was supposed to be a surprise but that little secret got spilled). We all decided to go downtown for the traditional 'Sunday Roast' that England is so famous for.. and you can only order it on Sundays. After missing the bus by seconds (we literally watched it drive away and leave us--note: they do NOT wait for you) we walked who knows how long- over an hour- into the city center. Unfortunately I was wearing heeled boots which was not a great idea. I was definitely feeling sore the following day! After attempting to eat at 2 restaurants, the first place we tried (the oldest tavern in Oxford [1380]) was sold out of the Sunday Roast and the second place didn't have the nicest smell, but our third try was a charm, and the food was delicious. Sadly, Kris and I had to leave mid-dinner to catch our train, and I had such a great time with everyone I didn't want to leave so soon. But I'm so glad I got to see them even if it was a short bittersweet weekend.
Now moving a week forward...Friday night a bunch of us went to a little disco folk party in town. It was fun not having typical club music for once, and everyone was in such a happy-go-lucky mood. LT, you would have loved it :)
Saturday morning, we were up and at 'em by 7:15am to head off to Bath! Kristen and I went with the travel agency right here on campus, so lots of students from our uni went as well. When we arrived in Bath we went straight to the Roman Baths, which was amazing. Hot springs flow underground into these Roman 'pools' that were built long, long ago. The baths used to be social gatherings where people would hang out, pray, exercise, chitchat, etc. I was able to touch the water which was so warm, it definitely felt like bath water, and it totally made me want to just jump right in haha. Afterwards, we visited the Circus and the Half Crescent (a circle and half-circle of a bunch of connected buildings); we saw the Theatre Royal (after realizing we were standing right in front of it); and a bridge where you can take a boat up the river Avon (but it was too cold to do such a thing). We stayed in Bath's YMCA that night, and it was by far the best 'hostel' so far. The beds were already made and we didn't have to strip them the next morning; it was set up dorm-style, 2 bunk beds with a desk, armoire, and sink. Kristen & I lucked out getting the quad, (Murphy & Simone were stuck in a 10-occupancy room), so I guess it was a good thing we signed up early in advance for the trip! The following morning while packing up to head on to Stonehenge I was reading the ticket from Bath and realized that we could have tasted the water from the hot spring. So we hurriedly went back before our bus left so we could experience the taste.. I forgot it was going to be warm, but it basically just tasted like faucet water. Still it was neat. Then off to Stonehenge we went, and as we were leaving Bath our driver stopped to show us the view of the town, and we found out a neat little fact: in the movie Mary Poppins, she actually 'flies' over Bath (not London).
As for Stonehenge, it's located in the middle of nowhere and only takes about an hour to listen to the audio-tour, but all the info is fascinating. It was built sometime between 3000 and 1600BC..so old! And the stones were brought from all over--the farthest was 400 some miles (or km?) away, from Wales. The largest stone weighs as much as 7 elephants combined, imagine trying to carry and move that! The stones are implanted into the ground, so 1/3 of the rock is actually underground- they compared it to teeth inside the gums. The whole purpose of the monument is still a mystery. But it does act as a calendar and would be great to see during the winter and summer solstice. All in all, these past two weeks have been epic.
Now I'm anxiously awaiting our Easter holiday where hopefully we'll get to experience some warm weather. Everyone who just posted pictures from HPU's spring break were in bikinis and soaking up the sun. I think I'm ready for some of that. Spain and Greece can't come soon enough!
Since Manchester I've managed to scratch off several things from my bucket list. The first Monday night after Manchester weekend I went on a pub crawl downtown with our college, and hit up 5 different bars with the Bowland crew. We all cut up red t-shirts (our color) and rep'd the Bowland lady (our mascot). I swear it's basically like Greek life over here. Then on Wednesday I had my 1st orgo chem lab--I forget if I've mentioned this before, but labs are so professional over here! We wear labcoats, gloves, goggles, and have lab reports that we have to write up (same goes for bio). And I actually don't mind the labs; they're quite fun. Although this is probably because we only had 3 bio labs total and only 2 for chem this entire semester, unlike HPU where they are every single week, blah. Speaking of HPU, on Friday Kris and I were off to Oxford to meet up with all of our HPU chums :) Candice was the only one already there so she got to meet us at the station, and how lovely it was to see her standing there waiting for us! By midnight we had the whole gang- Kara, Tommy, Eileen, Joey, Candice, Lauren, Maddi, Claire, Kris and me. Saturday Marshall managed to find us so our number grew. We did some sightseeing which included Oxford Uni (which is beautiful), a glimpse of Oxford's castle, and we were lucky enough to see a man playing a violin 5 feet in the air walking a tightrope! We went to the indoor market, Cupboard Market (I think it was called?) where I had the most delicious milkshake, PB & chocolate chip cookie flavored. What a treat! That night we all enjoyed a pasta feast, family style, and boy was it nice being with friends from home. We headed out on the town to a club, and let me just say, we brought the house down. We did not leave til close, and yes, we were the last ones in there dancing the night away. I don't think any of us went to bed til after 6am. And we all enjoyed kabobs on our return home (not kabobs like Americans think of...no sticks with meat/veggies on it.. it's more like a pita wrap) but it's the typical 'drunk food' over here (and in australia too according to Simone). Sunday morning Bristowe arrived to join in on the fun (it was supposed to be a surprise but that little secret got spilled). We all decided to go downtown for the traditional 'Sunday Roast' that England is so famous for.. and you can only order it on Sundays. After missing the bus by seconds (we literally watched it drive away and leave us--note: they do NOT wait for you) we walked who knows how long- over an hour- into the city center. Unfortunately I was wearing heeled boots which was not a great idea. I was definitely feeling sore the following day! After attempting to eat at 2 restaurants, the first place we tried (the oldest tavern in Oxford [1380]) was sold out of the Sunday Roast and the second place didn't have the nicest smell, but our third try was a charm, and the food was delicious. Sadly, Kris and I had to leave mid-dinner to catch our train, and I had such a great time with everyone I didn't want to leave so soon. But I'm so glad I got to see them even if it was a short bittersweet weekend.
Now moving a week forward...Friday night a bunch of us went to a little disco folk party in town. It was fun not having typical club music for once, and everyone was in such a happy-go-lucky mood. LT, you would have loved it :)
Saturday morning, we were up and at 'em by 7:15am to head off to Bath! Kristen and I went with the travel agency right here on campus, so lots of students from our uni went as well. When we arrived in Bath we went straight to the Roman Baths, which was amazing. Hot springs flow underground into these Roman 'pools' that were built long, long ago. The baths used to be social gatherings where people would hang out, pray, exercise, chitchat, etc. I was able to touch the water which was so warm, it definitely felt like bath water, and it totally made me want to just jump right in haha. Afterwards, we visited the Circus and the Half Crescent (a circle and half-circle of a bunch of connected buildings); we saw the Theatre Royal (after realizing we were standing right in front of it); and a bridge where you can take a boat up the river Avon (but it was too cold to do such a thing). We stayed in Bath's YMCA that night, and it was by far the best 'hostel' so far. The beds were already made and we didn't have to strip them the next morning; it was set up dorm-style, 2 bunk beds with a desk, armoire, and sink. Kristen & I lucked out getting the quad, (Murphy & Simone were stuck in a 10-occupancy room), so I guess it was a good thing we signed up early in advance for the trip! The following morning while packing up to head on to Stonehenge I was reading the ticket from Bath and realized that we could have tasted the water from the hot spring. So we hurriedly went back before our bus left so we could experience the taste.. I forgot it was going to be warm, but it basically just tasted like faucet water. Still it was neat. Then off to Stonehenge we went, and as we were leaving Bath our driver stopped to show us the view of the town, and we found out a neat little fact: in the movie Mary Poppins, she actually 'flies' over Bath (not London).
As for Stonehenge, it's located in the middle of nowhere and only takes about an hour to listen to the audio-tour, but all the info is fascinating. It was built sometime between 3000 and 1600BC..so old! And the stones were brought from all over--the farthest was 400 some miles (or km?) away, from Wales. The largest stone weighs as much as 7 elephants combined, imagine trying to carry and move that! The stones are implanted into the ground, so 1/3 of the rock is actually underground- they compared it to teeth inside the gums. The whole purpose of the monument is still a mystery. But it does act as a calendar and would be great to see during the winter and summer solstice. All in all, these past two weeks have been epic.
Now I'm anxiously awaiting our Easter holiday where hopefully we'll get to experience some warm weather. Everyone who just posted pictures from HPU's spring break were in bikinis and soaking up the sun. I think I'm ready for some of that. Spain and Greece can't come soon enough!
Sunday, February 27, 2011
explore. dream. discover.
i'll start off with a quote by Mark Twain:
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sail. Explore. Dream. Discover."
I feel like Kristen and I certainly are living by that!
This weekend we met up with EuroLearn which is the study abroad program that we went through to come over here to Lancaster, England. We went into Manchester which is quite a big city (and it's only an hour train ride away!) We first toured the Old Trafford Football Stadium where we got to see the field, go to the press conference room, see the players' changing room, and learn a bit about the team's history. [[fact- they have UV lights to make the grass grow since it's hardly ever sunny.]] The tour/museum made me really want to see a football game here in England, so it's on my bucket list! Either that or I would be fine with seeing a rugby match as well. That evening we went to Lowry's Theatre and watched the musical Blood Brothers. It was intense--not the typical happy-go-lucky musical theme--but it was an excellent performance. I felt like I actually had money for once, since that is something I totally would not do if it was just me and Kristen on a trip. But this was an all inclusive trip (part of our tuition fees) so thanks Mom and Dad! :) We ended that evening with dessert at a little French cafe, yum. And for some excitement before bed, we witnessed two guys getting arrested right outside our hotel. Police officers had them up against a building, handcuffed them, and put 'em in the cop car!
Saturday we had a guided walking tour of Manchester, and as always, it was freezing. But the sun was out for once so it was okay. I saw a gypsy too which I was oddly excited about since I had heard stories of them but never seen one before. We ate lunch at a Chinese buffet (which I had been craving) in Manchester's China Town. The city actually has the 2nd largest population of Chinese, following London. We had an afternoon tea in the Northern Quarter, which is the more bohemian, artsy, music, and shopping part of the city. I was a bit bummed because they were all out of scones which I really wanted to try, but the way they brought out the tea made up for it. Out came 2 little teapots, one full of loose leaves/herbs that were steeping in hot water and the other with a strainer for when it came time to pour the tea and separate it from the leaves/herbs. The server even brought a little sand timer (one that you use in a board game) and once the time was up, the tea was done steeping and you could pour yourself a cup. How neat! We did some shopping after that, although we were running out of time and I didn't actually buy anything. We went to this one store called Primark, which is like a Forever 21 but basically with Walmart prices. Fortunately (I guess?) nothing looked flattering on me, so no money was spent! Our group then went to a curry restaurant for dinner and I actually liked curry this time! EuroLearn's "leaders/supervisors" decided to order a bunch of various dishes so that we could all try a bit of everything--they call it family style which I've never done at a restaurant. At first I was hesitant to the idea but I'm really glad we did it that way-- everything was delicious! Us students went out on the town for the night, since Manchester is known to have some good quality night life. Overall, it was a good time. Oh! I forgot to mention, one of the girls in the group was from New Jersey..so I say to her, "Oh from what part? Central Jersey by chance?" and she says "yes." me: "Hunterdon county?" the girl, now a bit freaked out, replies "..yes." me: "did you go to Hunterdon Central High School?" her response, "yes." so now she must think I'm a psychic, right? me: "do you happen to know dave mummey?" (one of my best friends who goes to HPU). and she says, "yes! I'm actually good friends with his ex-gf. He's really nice." me thinking: wow, it's a small world after all! :)
Today we went to the MOSI (museum of science and industry).. I felt like I was on a field trip to DC haha. But it was interesting. I learned all about the cotton industry, which was huge in Manchester since it once produced 80% of the world's cotton at its peak. And I saw a bunch of old cars (the 12th Rolls-Royce ever made), bicycles, and aircrafts; and I learned about the history of Manchester's sanitation/water system, electricity, and engines. We concluded our trip with a delicious lunch- I had tuna, couscous, salad, and a SCONE full of clotted cream and jam. So I finally have tried a scone in England...mission accomplished.
ps- doesn't it sound like my holiday revolved around meals? that's my kinda holiday ;)
tomorrow it's a pub crawl with Bowland (my college/residence). and this weekend we're off to Oxford to visit friends from home! :)
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sail. Explore. Dream. Discover."
I feel like Kristen and I certainly are living by that!
This weekend we met up with EuroLearn which is the study abroad program that we went through to come over here to Lancaster, England. We went into Manchester which is quite a big city (and it's only an hour train ride away!) We first toured the Old Trafford Football Stadium where we got to see the field, go to the press conference room, see the players' changing room, and learn a bit about the team's history. [[fact- they have UV lights to make the grass grow since it's hardly ever sunny.]] The tour/museum made me really want to see a football game here in England, so it's on my bucket list! Either that or I would be fine with seeing a rugby match as well. That evening we went to Lowry's Theatre and watched the musical Blood Brothers. It was intense--not the typical happy-go-lucky musical theme--but it was an excellent performance. I felt like I actually had money for once, since that is something I totally would not do if it was just me and Kristen on a trip. But this was an all inclusive trip (part of our tuition fees) so thanks Mom and Dad! :) We ended that evening with dessert at a little French cafe, yum. And for some excitement before bed, we witnessed two guys getting arrested right outside our hotel. Police officers had them up against a building, handcuffed them, and put 'em in the cop car!
Saturday we had a guided walking tour of Manchester, and as always, it was freezing. But the sun was out for once so it was okay. I saw a gypsy too which I was oddly excited about since I had heard stories of them but never seen one before. We ate lunch at a Chinese buffet (which I had been craving) in Manchester's China Town. The city actually has the 2nd largest population of Chinese, following London. We had an afternoon tea in the Northern Quarter, which is the more bohemian, artsy, music, and shopping part of the city. I was a bit bummed because they were all out of scones which I really wanted to try, but the way they brought out the tea made up for it. Out came 2 little teapots, one full of loose leaves/herbs that were steeping in hot water and the other with a strainer for when it came time to pour the tea and separate it from the leaves/herbs. The server even brought a little sand timer (one that you use in a board game) and once the time was up, the tea was done steeping and you could pour yourself a cup. How neat! We did some shopping after that, although we were running out of time and I didn't actually buy anything. We went to this one store called Primark, which is like a Forever 21 but basically with Walmart prices. Fortunately (I guess?) nothing looked flattering on me, so no money was spent! Our group then went to a curry restaurant for dinner and I actually liked curry this time! EuroLearn's "leaders/supervisors" decided to order a bunch of various dishes so that we could all try a bit of everything--they call it family style which I've never done at a restaurant. At first I was hesitant to the idea but I'm really glad we did it that way-- everything was delicious! Us students went out on the town for the night, since Manchester is known to have some good quality night life. Overall, it was a good time. Oh! I forgot to mention, one of the girls in the group was from New Jersey..so I say to her, "Oh from what part? Central Jersey by chance?" and she says "yes." me: "Hunterdon county?" the girl, now a bit freaked out, replies "..yes." me: "did you go to Hunterdon Central High School?" her response, "yes." so now she must think I'm a psychic, right? me: "do you happen to know dave mummey?" (one of my best friends who goes to HPU). and she says, "yes! I'm actually good friends with his ex-gf. He's really nice." me thinking: wow, it's a small world after all! :)
Today we went to the MOSI (museum of science and industry).. I felt like I was on a field trip to DC haha. But it was interesting. I learned all about the cotton industry, which was huge in Manchester since it once produced 80% of the world's cotton at its peak. And I saw a bunch of old cars (the 12th Rolls-Royce ever made), bicycles, and aircrafts; and I learned about the history of Manchester's sanitation/water system, electricity, and engines. We concluded our trip with a delicious lunch- I had tuna, couscous, salad, and a SCONE full of clotted cream and jam. So I finally have tried a scone in England...mission accomplished.
ps- doesn't it sound like my holiday revolved around meals? that's my kinda holiday ;)
tomorrow it's a pub crawl with Bowland (my college/residence). and this weekend we're off to Oxford to visit friends from home! :)
Monday, February 21, 2011
fun times with familiar faces
Jason arrived Thursday, and it was so nice to see somebody from back home! Kristen showed him around Lancaster while I tried getting some homework done before our trip to Edinburgh. (I found out later in the weekend that Maddi and Lauren basically attend "community college" where they only have classes twice a week, barely have homework, and don't have a final exam. can you say lucky?! oh and maddi's professor thought that JCPenny's was a grocery store..) Speaking of food, that night for dinner Jason turned into Mr. Pastry Maker, and he was flipping crepes left and right. We decided he should just set up a stand on the boardwalk in Rehoboth and make mad business haha.
Friday morning we left for Edinburgh and the scenery from the train was beautiful- lots of rolling green hills and sheep. As soon as we stepped foot into the city, we were greeted with a man dressed in a kilt and playing the bagpipes. We soon found out that this is quite common, and saw several others doing the same. It's neat to hear the traditional music every once in a while rather than the typical acoustic guitars being played on the streets. We immediately headed to the flat where we were staying to drop off our luggage, and after first attempting to open a door on the wrong street and wondering why the keys didn't work, we found the flat. It was gorgeous! It had 2 huge bedrooms and a large living room (with cable TV which I haven't seen in years), a large shower room, and a good sized kitchen too. We were so delighted! Maddi and Lauren then found their way to the flat, and we were definitely in our glory being all together. It was as if we were still back in the states.. except not really. We headed off for our free walking tour, and was it ever freezing! Some of the highlights of our tour were seeing the cafe where JK Rowling began to write Harry Potter, the school that people say is the inspiration for Hogwarts, the view of the castle, learning the origin of the term "shitfaced", and tasting the most fabulous hot chocolate ever-- it had honey and cinnamon in it! Allow me to elaborate on how the drunkard word "shitfaced" came about: When there was no plumbing systems, the city of Edinburgh decided to designate 2 specific times when you could throw out your "waste". The times were at 7am and 10pm, with the latter being the time that bars were closing and drunks were walking home. Well when the people would be stumbling back to their beds it was really dark and they could barely see anything so they would grip their way along the walls. The buildings where people lived were so close together and when someone dumped out their waste from the windows above, they would call out something like "watch out!", and the drunks would look up and literally get shitfaced.
We decided we would do a pub crawl with the same touring company to end our night. And that was really fun! We went to 5 different bars where we heard a live band, witnessed another [mini] jager train (but with real shot glasses this time, and Lauren got to start it off!), and we met people from all over- Ireland, Germany, and Australia to name a few.
We decided we would do a pub crawl with the same touring company to end our night. And that was really fun! We went to 5 different bars where we heard a live band, witnessed another [mini] jager train (but with real shot glasses this time, and Lauren got to start it off!), and we met people from all over- Ireland, Germany, and Australia to name a few.
Saturday we ended up having a lazy morning, which was absolutely perfect. I have not had the luxury to sleep in, be with some of my best friends, watch tv, and just dillydally in forever! We finally got a move on in the late afternoon and went to the National Museum of Scotland to see Dolly, the cloned sheep. Her story is so crazy! She was cloned from another sheep's DNA, her egg was put inside the sheep in order for her to be born, and then she even had her own baby sheep a few years later! I also forgot to mention that Friday Jason ordered the traditional Scottish dish- haggis (a mixture of a sheep's stomach, liver, heart, and lungs in meatloaf form), tatties (potatoes), and neeps (mashed up swede or turnip) and so we all took a wee bite. It's actually not bad so long as you don't think of the ingredients!
Sunday we did the Scotch Whisky Experience. It's a tour of the whisky-making process. Did you know that the color of whisky and some of its flavor comes from the oak wood that is used to make the barrels (casks) in which it ages? Also, the different regions where Scotch Whisky is made in Scotland has a distinct smell to it due to what it's made with, so we were each given a scratch & sniff in order to decide what kind we wanted to taste-test. All 4 of us girls chose one that smelled like bananas. Jason chose the "manly" one that smelled to me like a campfire. And it was so weird, because once you finished the sip, the after-smell left in the glass exactly resembled the scratch & sniff. There are 5 steps for taste-testing whisky, although I forget what they are... something to do with if it sticks to the side of the glass when you swirl it around rather than rapidly running down the sides means that it will linger on your palate longer.. anyway we saw the world's largest Scotch whisky collection. The man who started the collection, Claive Vidiz, began with 6 bottles... now there are 3,384! The oldest one is from 1897, and the most expensive one that Vidiz paid for was $1000 in NYC. They don't know what it is worth today, however. Afterwards, we visited a church where an angel with bagpipes exists. Apparently, there are only 3 known statues in the world that are of an angel playing the bagpipes. We literally had a scavenger hunt trying to find it-- Lauren won.
We finally went our separate ways, and headed back to Lancaster. The train was accidentally double booked so it was packed! Luckily I grabbed a seat before it resorted to standing. Kristen and Jason managed to sit up in first class! I'd say our mini holiday (they call vacations/trips "holiday" over here) was simply perfect :)
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
another day in the life
kristen and i finally stayed here at lancaster for a weekend, and it's a good thing because the next four weekends we have trips booked! saturday night we were entertained by "House 7 Bar" as they like to call themselves, and they put on a jagerbomb train. we had never heard of one before so we were a bit confused as to how it works, but once we saw it in progress the title was self-explanatory. basically, a bunch of dixie cups are set up in 2 lines (they can curve or be a straight line) and these cups are filled with red bull. then, shot glasses full of jagermeister are placed on top of them, on the rims of the cups. the whole setting-up process takes quite a long time, depending on how many cups you have.. in this case there were 150. once it's ready to go, a person at the end of the "train" tips over an empty shot glass which in turn knocks the other two shot glasses and it becomes a domino effect. miraculously, there are no spills! the shot glasses just fall right into the dixie cups and voila, 150 jager bombs were ready to be taken! apparently there are tons of youtube videos with nifty designs that have been done, etc. perhaps it will be something i'll take back to america..if i have the patience.
on another note, kristen and i received valentine's care packages full of goodies! i had been craving cookies so it was the perfect little surprise. people around here don't eat many sweets so i was all for some homemade cookies and chocolate. speaking of food, kristen and i did online grocery shopping! i never thought i would become that lazy! although, to be completely honest, it's not a matter of laziness but rather a way of saving money. if you split your grocery list with someone and order together, then the price of delivery is less than taking the bus into town to get it done. and it beats hauling around all those heavy grocery bags! kristen and i never found enough hands to get all the items we needed. and a little birdie told us that the company we shopped through, ASDA, was just bought out by walmart. go figure!
too bad i forgot to buy some tea though-- i have the worst sore throat. hopefully it will get out of my system for this weekend because we're headed to Edinburgh, Scotland (pronounced Eh-din-bra), and we're meeting up with Maddi and Lauren (our friends from HPU). Which reminds me- Candice, Kara, and Tommy are coming to visit in March which I'm totally stoked about :) it will be one giant High Point reunion!
Sunday, February 6, 2011
"everywhere is walking distance if you have the time."
this morning i woke up to my alarm blasting at 5:05am, scaring the living daylights out of me because i thought it was the taxi driver calling to say he was outside to pick us up. thankfully, that wasn't the case and it was simply my alarm calling me out of bed to get ready to depart for Dover Priory and its White Cliffs. we left campus at 6:00am promptly, only to discover that it was raining (we should have guessed) and to find our train delayed by 15 minutes. No one wants to wait at the train station for 45 minutes in the cold (yes, we were actually quite early for once)! but soon enough, the train came and I plopped myself into a seat at a table (I needed to get some homework done despite the early hour) where there was a boy wearing a lei with paint smeared on his face. i'm assuming it was a late night for him as he was surely hungover.
anyway, after 2.5 hours, we arrived in London once again (I almost feel like a local!). Kristen and I figured that instead of taking the tube we’d walk to the next station where we changed trains. Little did we know that the next 60 hours would involve the most walking that I have done since being in the virgin islands- although in the islands we were able to thumb a ride and hitch hike, whereas here it’s illegal. We arrived in Dover, greeted by cloudy skies. When is the weatherman ever right? (it had said that it would be sunny. in England? yeah right). we walked to town center and first visited the Dover Museum and the Bronze Gallery where we learned all about the history of this little town and saw numerous artifacts dating back to several hundred years BC., including pots, glassware, jewelry, coins, pins, tools, even skeletons! And then its main attraction was the oldest boat in the world that the town came across and dug up in 1992. It soaked in a glaze for 16 months and then was frozen in order to preserve it. It was made with four oak planks and beeswax to fill in the cracks. After wandering thru the museum we went up to the top of this gigantic hill where atop sits a large castle. Disappointingly, the main tower and museum were closed due to such high winds, so back down the hill we went and we walked towards the ocean. Dover has an extensive port , and we watched as truck after truck after truck drove off cargo ships. There was even a French cruise ship- apparently on a clear night you can see the lights of France! We walked along the shoreline trying to avoid getting splashed by the rough seas. We followed signs for Dover’s White Cliffs, which is another reason why the place is so famous. Up and up we hiked (this town is a huge workout, no need to join a gym!) and soon we were atop the town overlooking everything that it had to offer- the castle, the port, and the cliffs. I only wish that there were blue skies so that my pictures could show that the ocean really was there, but according to my camera the sky and sea made up one giant grey mass. the scenery was great in real life despite the conditions. The cliffs are a chalky white- and they’re literally chalky. Peering out over the cliffs is a bit creepy, though. With the wind, and the slippery mud, we were a tad nervous as we kept hiking up and up. I really wanted to see the Lighthouse, but it being 4pm already and the national park closing at 5pm with darkness approaching and 2 miles to go, we decided it wasn’t worth it. (The lighthouse wasn’t open to go into anyway, but it is the first lighthouse to use electricity for its main light). So we turned around and lost our footing and got our feet stuck in the mud several times more before we reached the bottom of the cliffs. We made our way to our guesthouse and settled in for the night, calling it quits early after a long, long day. I watched a bit of rugby, and honestly, I think I do like it more than football (American football, that is). Before I fell asleep I prayed that the castle would be open the next day, desperately wanting to explore its grounds.
We awoke the next morning to gloomy weather yet again. We decided to walk up more inclines (seriously, this place is a hiker’s heaven) to the Western Heights. There was wild cattle roaming about, and we had to be careful not to step in any of their huge piles of dung. Again we saw views of the town, but what I was still hoping for was the castle to be open. So we went into downtown to the tourist info center where they gave the castle a ring to see if everything was open. And to my delight, everything was open! We made the hike back up one of the many cliffs and after nearly being blown away, we got to see the Great Tower, which was recently redecorated with 2 million GBP of refurbishments. It was beautiful. Afterwards we went on a tour into an underground hospital and barracks (the castle was turned into a place of defense for the wars). There are 3 underground levels, and it just boggles my mind as to how they built such an extensive underground network! 2,000 soldiers could be housed in them. The tour ended at Admiralty Look-out but due to 70 mph winds we couldn’t go atop for fear of being blown over the cliffs. Next we saw the Roman pharos which was an extremely old lighthouse (or what’s left of it) which sits alongside the church of St-Mary-Castro. Finally, we were ready to head on to the town of Canterbury for the rest of our trip.
Upon arrival, we entered a lovely little park and then made our way to the Christ Church Cathedral of Canterbury, which was absolutely stunning and huge. Its tall ceilings and stain glass windows were beautiful, to say the least. After staring at it in awe, our stomachs were grumbling and we found a busy restaurant where we sat for nearly 2 hours resting our sore legs, feet, and backs. By the time we were leaving, in came the crowd to get the party started. Kristen and I still don’t know how these girls wear dresses in the dead of winter and on top of that, no tights! They must be immune to the cold. Anyway, after warming up we headed back into the windy weather where we met up with a true ghost hunter for a ghost tour. He showed us buildings downtown where murders have occurred, and where the presence of spirits and ghosts have been heard and/or seen. After this spooky little tour, I was wary of walking a mile in the dark to find our hostel, but it had to be done. The whole walk I had the same feeling I had after watching Paranormal Activity (I was told the entire movie was 100% true). We finally found it and when we gathered our key I told the receptionist how we had just got done the ghost tour. Her response? “Oh!, we just had paranormalists come to this hostel a little over a week ago to perform tests on whether there are spirits here or not!” My response? “Oh great, don’t tell me that.”
We settled into our room, (thank goodness it was an all-girls room this time) and soon enough one of the other girls who was staying at the hostel for the night came in and immediately started up a little chitchat. She turned out to be the sweetest thing too! She’s from Northern England, just graduated from Oxford U, and is now living and working in London. (Considering that she majored in history and politics, she was fascinated by the US’s method of voting and how we register with a political party). She is now working for BBC News in the city, and she offered for us to come visit her whenever we wanted, and even said we could stay at her place if ever we needed somewhere to crash. We stayed up talking for a while, and discovered that she had been to America (including the Carolinas, and it’s so funny because she instantly put on a southern drawl), Spain (apparently England’s “Florida”), China (to teach English), and several other places outside of Europe. Surprisingly, she has rarely travelled to the countries within Europe. A couple big cities in Italy and Spain were about it..
Sunday morning (this morning) I was ready to face the “facts” about the paranormal activity within the hostel. The receptionist pulled out a binder titled “The Ghost Files” (seriously?!). We read about the presences that were felt by these ghost hunters just 1.5 weeks ago, and learned of the different methods and tools they used. Somehow, they can “sense” the names of the people too and they had typed up what each ghost looked like and what his/her job was in the house, etc. It was quite interesting! We then made our way to St. Augustine’s Abbey, which was really neat. It’s a bunch of ruins that date back to 597 AD! What English people don’t understand is that over in America we don’t have all of these great cathedrals and castles that have so much history behind them. Afterwards, we found a charming little Indian/Moroccan restaurant that was serving an all-you-can-eat buffet. obviously we hopped right on that bandwagon! Inside we felt like we were situated in Aladdin’s time—the waitresses even wore those little cuplike hats. Then came about the trivia question/answer that I learned several years back: What nationality is Aladdin? If you guessed Arabic you’re wrong…it’s Chinese. Hard to believe, huh? Well, after stuffing ourselves, we made our way back to London where we switched trains to find ourselves back in Lancaster. Home sweet home (for now).
And, that’s all folks!
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
"life is either a daring adventure..or nothing."
after a lovely stay with Katie in Lyon, we headed back to London on Sunday morning where we spent the entire day wandering around yet again. I must say, Kristen and I have pretty much mastered the whole "tube" system :) Once we arrived in the city we went to Kings Cross Station where Harry Potter and all the other wizards go to head off to Hogwarts. The only reason I knew it "actually" existed was from a picture on a postcard that I bought. When we were looking for it a worker told us, "Go back around, turn left, and then left again" before we had even spoken a word to her. Then she continued to say, "I know exactly what you're looking for, go back and turn left and left." Sure enough, we found it! After that we went to Westminster Cathedral (not to be confused with the abbey). The cathedral has a tower that you can go up and see the city scape. It was bright and sunny so I was super excited to do this. The views were amazing! And it's by far cheaper than going to the London Eye. We then did some shopping and made our way to Harrods. Let me just say that this department store is out of control. If I had the money to spend, this store would be the place to blow it all. It's more like a mall than a store. Anything imagined is sold there- from clothing to sporting goods to antiques to furniture to pets to makeup & perfume to shoes to cutlery... seriously everything is sold here. It's unbelievable. And the security made us wear our beyond heavy backpacks in front of us so as not to knock anything over. We looked pregnant! But needless to say, the 5 floors would take hours for someone to go through. It's huge! Afterwards, we made our way to the train station and got aboard 2 minutes before it left- just in the nick of time! After this eventful 5-day excursion I was ready to catch up on some sleep and ease my aching back.
but now it's back to reality where the schoolwork settles in. Kristen and I had our first genetics lab yesterday- we were there for 4.5 hours! It went by pretty fast, but it's much more independent and "professional" than at HPU. All of the students wear lab coats and gloves!
as for today, we went downtown early this afternoon to do some grocery shopping. we were happy to find a market going on! we sure did stock up on food since we were basically out of everything. when we came home I spent the entire rest of the day trying to figure out a trip for spring break. it's in the works so I'm crossing my fingers that everything works out!
Xxx --> the cooler thing to write over here in Europe. I'm not sure why they leave out the o's??
but now it's back to reality where the schoolwork settles in. Kristen and I had our first genetics lab yesterday- we were there for 4.5 hours! It went by pretty fast, but it's much more independent and "professional" than at HPU. All of the students wear lab coats and gloves!
as for today, we went downtown early this afternoon to do some grocery shopping. we were happy to find a market going on! we sure did stock up on food since we were basically out of everything. when we came home I spent the entire rest of the day trying to figure out a trip for spring break. it's in the works so I'm crossing my fingers that everything works out!
Xxx --> the cooler thing to write over here in Europe. I'm not sure why they leave out the o's??
Saturday, January 29, 2011
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.
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.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
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.
aaaand i'm out.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
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!
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!
Sunday, January 16, 2011
"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 :)
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 :)
Friday, January 14, 2011
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).
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).
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
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 :)
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 :)
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
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.
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.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Saturday, January 8, 2011
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 :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)