Leaving London

I wrote this on the plane ride back...

Today I left a city that I have come to call my home these last three months.  I am very sad to be leaving so soon.  I didn’t get to bed until late last night, between saying goodbye to friends, packing, and making sure I had everything ready.  I think I slept maybe 3-4 hours total, but I didn’t expect to sleep much anyway.  I managed to get up and get all my stuff down two flights of stairs by myself, and was very thankful that my cab was able to come to the front door of my building.  I left St. Mary’s in the dark and we headed to the airport.  London decided to give me a proper send off weather: drizzling rain.  I arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare.  I had some breakfast at Pret A Manger (I’m really going to miss that place!) before heading through security.  Then I had to sit in the terminal for an hour waiting for my gate to be posted.  I grabbed some Starbucks and looked around at some of the shops, trying to find something to spend my last few pounds on.  But all I could afford were postcards!  I boarded the plane and was all ready to leave when the captain came on and announced that they were having some problems with the engine. So we had to pull back in to the gate to get it checked out.  So we were delayed in landing by over an hour, and we just had to sit on the plane and wait (as if I won’t be on here long enough!).  But I am glad that I don’t have to catch a connecting flight when I get to Chicago.

On my last few days, I took trips to some of my favorite places.  Tuesday after my exam, I went in to Twickenham to have coffee at the new coffee shop Harris and Hoole.  It was quite charming.  Then I took a stroll over to Eel Pie Island to try and find the trampoline (I didn’t find it, but I did get some great pictures!).  On Wednesday, I did most of my packing and then went to Richmond to have tea at the Tea Box.  Then on Thursday, a few of my friends joined me and we went to Primark in Kingston and went in to central London for a bit, to see Big Ben and the London Eye one last time.  I spent the rest of the night hanging out with my friends and saying goodbye.

This semester has been one of the best of my life.  I have learned so much about myself and about the world.  I met some many great people here and made so many new friends.  London is such an incredible city.  I can barely comprehend how much history it contains, and there are endless things to do.  I love the feel of the city.  Even though it is massive, it still has a small town feel.

I can’t even put in to words what I’m feeling right now.  I feel like I’m caught between worlds.  Part of me is happy to go home, but I am also really upset about leaving.  Going back home is going to be so weird now.  

Mumford and Sons!

Mumford and Sons deserve their own post, because the concert I just went to was AH-MAZING!  I seriously love them so much, and I am so happy that whenever I listen to their album Babel, I will think of my time in London, since I have listened to it on repeat since the day it came out.  Seeing them in concert again was a dream come true.  It was a little different than last time.  For one, I was in the 4th tier rather than close to the stage on the ground, but it gave me a different perspective.  They played all of my favorite songs, and even sang one song (not on their album) completely a Capella.  It was so awesome.  This show was the largest indoor show they have ever played, and it was in their hometown of London.  I am so glad that I spent money on this show.  I thought I was going to cry I was so happy and excited.  Then again, I expect that I will be overly emotion these last few days in London.  I really don't want to leave! But basically, I love Mumford & Sons, like, a whole lot, and seeing them live tonite with friends was the best way to end the semester. <3

And I'm Finished with My Undergrad!

After my exam this morning, I am officially done with my undergrad.  I graduate on Saturday!  It's so weird to think about.  But at least I'm not going into the 'real world' so to speak yet.  There is those fun 3 years of grad school and being even more broke... yay!
But I just have to comment on my exam experience here.  It was like in Harry Potter.  There were 5 or 6 classes all in one big room (the Tennis Hall, like a gym) with desks lined up and marked with a grid.  You had an assigned seat (I was at least in the front of the room).  But I have never taken a test with so many people before! It was also the first time I've taken a test that used a blue book (we're not that fancy at Ambrose I guess). It was very strange.  But I finished my exam in plenty of time, and now I'm free for real!  I just have to turn in some hard copies of my papers today, and then I get to go see Mumford and Sons tonite! I am really excited for that.  Then hopefully I can live it up the next few days before I have to head home on Friday.  I also have to pack yet, and I'm not looking forward to it.  I'm also not looking forward to leaving at 6:45 am to get to the airport on time.  Time here has just gone way too fast!  I can't believe it's time to leave already.  I am so sad! I am going to miss London and all of my friends here so much.

The Last Weekend

Friday: This time next week I will be back in the States!  But I am really sad to be leaving London...  I went in by myself today and explored.  I went to Trafalgar Square to see the Christmas tree and then walked around the National Gallery a bit.  Saw some Monet, Van Gogh, Renoir, da Vinci, etc.  There was a lot to see!  After that I went down to Covent Garden to see the Christmas decorations and look around the shops.  I bought a cute tea cup from the Tea Palace and some Union Jack flip-gloves from the market.  It's so fun with the market and the shops, not to mention all of the performers.  I came back after that to avoid rush hour, but it still took me a while to get home.  It was a beautiful day, without a cloud in the sky most of the afternoon.  It got a little chilly after the sun went down, and walking home from Twickenham, I couldn't feel my toes.  Tonight I'm going to hang out with my friends and watch Pitch Perfect!

Saturday:  Today I went in to London with my friends, and we hit up Camden Town Markets again.  It was Saturday and busy again.  But I did get some fried-Oreos, which were delicious!  Then we started off in search of Abbey Road, which only took us about 2 hours and one wrong turn to find!  (it was cold and a LOT of walking!)  After that we caught a train to Soho.  We were hoping to go people watching and maybe see a celebrity, but it was late by the time we got there and we didn't end up doing much of anything other than walking around.  From there we walked down to Trafalgar Square to see the Christmas tree, and then on down to Festival Pier to check out the Christmas Market.  After a long day of walking, we caught the train back home after grabbing a sandwich at the train station for dinner.  After much convincing, I got a few of my friends to go out with me and some other study abroad students to the George for my friend Patrick's birthday.  It was a lot of fun!  Our group of mostly Americans pretty much took over the pub, and we danced the night away.  It was good to hang out with all of my fellow internationals, and I am really going to miss it!  I have met so many cool people here, and this may be my last time seeing them.  It really is sad!

Sunday:  Today I took it easy, since I was so sore from all the walking yesterday, and had gotten in late the night before.  After brunch, a few of us walked in to Twick-city to run some errands.  Afterwards I watched more Downton Abbey and just relaxing.  After dinner, we had our group Secret Santa Party.  It was a good time, and my person LOVED her present!  We all had a lot of fun with it.  I got a Christmas Starbucks mug with some coffee and candy canes :).  After we had all opened our gifts and guessed our Secret Santas, we watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas.  Overall, not a bad weekend, and I have spent it with all of my favorite people here :).

Coursework is Done! Now What?

Today (I wrote this on Tuesday), I finished my last paper of my semester here at SMUC (St. Mary's University College), but also my last paper of my UNDERGRAD. I can't believe I'm graduating already! This semester has just felt like one big, summer break (minus the weather), and I feel like I should be going back to Ambrose in the spring.  But I'm not! I'm not even going back to Davenport. I'm on to a whole new adventure in St. Louis! After this semester, I feel prepared (and ready) to tackle a new city, though I'm not much looking forward to the whole being a grown-up thing. (ew).  But now that all my papers are done, I'm not quite sure what to do with myself.  All of my friends are busy doing homework, so I have no one to hang out with really! I have 3 classes left (which will be pretty pointless anyway) and hopefully my friends will be freed up enough by the weekend to live it up for our last weekend together.  I may try and go explore some of my favorite places by myself this week if I can, as long as the weather isn't too awful! It has been rather chilly here, and I do not appreciate it, especially because it is so nice at home! If all else fails, I suppose I will have to find something to do in my room to pass the time: packing, sleeping, reading HP, catching up on shows (I started watching Downton Abbey last night in the spirit of British TV), watching movies.... oh yeah, and I guess I could start looking up stuff for January. Like a place to live, a roommate, finances, all that good stuff.  And I figure I should start reviewing some anatomy and science-like things before I start school, especially since I haven't done anything science-related since May. But we'll see how far I get on that... In other news, I also have to think about Christmas coming up! It just never ends, does it?
I realize that this has been a very random and scattered rant, but let's face it, my brain is a little scattered after all of that work I just finished.  Not to mention my eyesight. I think I'm going cross-eyed from staring at the computer screen, and my eye is still twitching.
Now that things are dying down, I am getting really sad about leaving.  Sure I am excited to be home in my own (comfortable) bed and see my family, friends, and animals (and my new car!), but I am really going to miss London.  I have come to think of it as home, and there is still so much of it I haven't explored.  And I never got to visit Scotland or Ireland, and I really regret that.  I guess that means I have an excuse to come back! I will come back, someday.

Taking a Break from Homework

I just finished my third paper out of five I have due before the end of the semester. Yay! I'm feeling good about my progress.  I have been trying to get all of it done as early as I can so I can enjoy my last two weeks in London! I'm going to miss it so much! There is so much more I want to do and simply don't have the time (or money) to do them all!  But I did get one thing checked off my list on Friday!  I went with some friends to the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park.  It's the biggest and most popular Christmas themed amusement in London.  They had everything there.  Santa, German-style Christmas markets (including German-style food, and mulled wine and cider. yum!), carnival rides, a ferris wheel, and even a zip line.  And of course, they had an ice-rink. So I went ice skating, and it was a lot of fun!  I was a little shaky at first, but I was a lot better off than some of my friends that clung to the wall almost the whole time!  I started getting the hang of it after a few minutes and was skating around with no problem! I did fall once, when I was talking to my other friend and got distracted. So my bum hurts a bit, but it was worth it! After we went skating we went and explored the rest of the park.  I have never seen so many (or any) Christmas themed rides! One of the coolest things we saw was The Carousel Bar, which had a rotating platform like a carousel with a bar in the middle.  The horses of the carousel were high tables to stand around.  That's pretty creative if you ask me!  After we had finished exploring, we took a walk down Oxford Street, admiring all the pretty Marmite-themed Christmas lights.  We went into the MASSIVE Primark, which was just nuts.  We explored a few other stores and I set off to find the store we went to last time to re-buy the shoes I lost.  I also found a Starbucks that had London-themed gift cards and I got a few. :)  By then we had lost the other half of our group, only to find out that they had wandered down almost to Trafalgar Square, so we just hopped on the tube to Waterloo to catch the train home.  We actually ended up being on the same train as our friends, though we didn't find out until we got back!  By the time we got back, we were all tired and frozen.  My face was bright red from cold or windburn.  Nobody was feeling up to much, so I came back and relaxed in my room.
Saturday and Sunday has been all about the homework (or so I intended).  And now I must get back to starting my next paper, for philosophy (ack).  The countdown to the end begins! 12 days to go!

My Week With the Fam, and Thanksgiving in England

Well, the 'Fam' being Mom, my siister Allyson, Alex (mom's friend that I visited in Finland), and my cousins Kaitlyn and Brynn.  Alex, Mom, and Allyson got in on Thursday night.  I went and checked out the Ripple (aka the Mumford house) on Eel Pie Island with a few friends.  We made dinner and watched a movie and I started some laundry.  Then I took the bus out to the airport to meet them (and I think I've finally figured out the fastest way!).  I found Alex (since she had landed first) and we had a beer while we waited for the other two to land.  They ended landing early and we went to greet them. Mom was crying (aww she missed me).  Since they had landed early, the cab was not there yet, so we went and got another beer (Allyson was so excited to buy hers legally!).  But then the cab driver called and we had to go find her.  We made it back to the island and got some Pizza Bella, and spent the night (and wee hours of the morning) relaxing and talking.

On Friday, we ventured in to London Waterloo and got lunch at a pub in the station to get some fish n' chips and a beer.  Then I gave them a little tour of the Southbank, London Eye, Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster, and Trafalgar Square.  Then we were cold and tired and headed back and had another chill night.

Saturday morning, Kaitlyn and Brynn arrived, with their diva-sized suitcases in tow.  It took forever to get back from the airport because there was a rugby game in town, and traffic was horrendous! Once they got somewhat settled, we went out to lunch at the York Street Cafe.  Alex discovered that the owner was Finnish, and we had a nice conversation with her!  Then we went in to London again to do some sight-seeing.  We saw some of the same stuff again, as well as Buckingham Palace, Regent's and Oxford Streets.  I bought a sweet pair of leather high tops with fur which I loved! Then we went to see the Tower of London.  We took some pictures of it and the Tower Bridge.  There was also some red carpet fancy event going on (which we think might have been the Twilight premiere? we aren't sure...).  We got hungry and found a nice little pub nearby and had fish n' chips and a beer (again).  Then I realized that I did not have my shopping bag with my shoes in them.  Panicking, I rushed towards the Tower where we were taking pictures, and it was closed off.  I asked a guard if they had found anything and he said they had swept the area and not found anything.  I wanted to cry.  Did I mention that these shoes were real leather and cost me $90?? Yeah.  I was really upset.  What a stupid, expensive mistake.  In the dark, on a Friday night, in a busy area. #facepalm Combined with crowded trains and line closures, it was a stressful and depressing rest of the night.

On Sunday we went to have Sunday roast at a pub called The Fox in Twickenham.  It was really good! Then Alex had to leave us. :(  It was a beautiful day, so we decided we would try and do the London Eye.  After some delay in getting out to the house and getting tickets online, we made it into London.  We ended up going up a little after 4, so we got to see the views during sunset.  It was GORGEOUS.  We all got some really neat photos (I took quite a few...) and we were really glad we went!  Then we came back and went to The George, a local pub.  We met some interesting British guys, along with a New Zealander and an Irish man.  We had a fun time with them (mostly) and they were pretty entertaining (mostly).

Monday we got up early to get to the Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace.  We got good spots on the statue-island in front of the castle.  We saw them parade in and march around, and heard the band play a few songs.  Then we left a little early to avoid the crowds and since we were cold.  We stopped in one of the gift shops to warm up and shop a big.  Then I took them to explore Camden Markets.  Luckily, it was much less crowded than last time I was there.  I think we all bought at least one thing, and we even did some haggling! Then we were starting to get tired and we had planned on going for tea.  We went to the Kensington Palace Orangery for a "proper" afternoon tea.  And it was proper!  It was quite fancy (and $20 per person!).  But we all got a three-tiered serving platter with finger sandwiches, crumpets, and deserts with a tea of our choice.  I had the classic London afternoon tea.  That was a fun experience!  We tried to go to the Palace afterwards, but it was closed, and we got a little lost trying to find our way out of the gardens!  We hopped a train back to Twickenham and stopped at the grocery store to get some food for dinner.  We made spaghetti with french bread and salad! And the salad we got came with DIRT. Weird, right? We weren't expecting that.  But I was happy to have a regular, home-cooked meal. :)

During the day on Tuesday we ventured to Kingston to shop.  I introduced them to Primark (we spent a while in there!) and I got a sweater for three pounds! We strolled through some of the other shops like River Island and TopShop and went to the Bentall's Centre (like a mall).  Mom and Kaitlyn bought London Starbucks mugs.  We had lunch at a Pret a Manger, and we have decided that there needs to be more of them in America, so we are going to open one in Des Moines. (plans still pending).  After stopping at home for a little bit, we headed back in to London to attend an evensong service at Westminster Abbey.  It was AWESOME.  The church is so beautiful, and the choir sounded amazing.  Especially with the acoustics!  It was a really neat experience, even if I couldn't take any pictures!  We were done in 40 minutes, so we went back to Waterloo and had a beer to wait out rush hour.  And we got these cool burlap bags with a union jack and heart on them!  When we got back we went out to eat at the George, and Kaitlyn, Brynn, and I hit up one other pub, The Bear, before heading home.

On Wednesday, I had class, so Mom, Ally, Kaitlyn, and Brynn went to the Tower of London (in the pouring rain), and I stayed home to work on my paper that was due Thursday.  I loved being able to do my homework in a house instead of my cramped dorm room or the library.  The girls came back cold and soaked, and we opted for Chinese take out that night.  Then we all got ready and the young girls (no Mom!) went over to campus to meet some of my friends for a birthday party.  We were going to go out clubbing, but decided not to.  We ended up going to the SU bar (student union, on campus) for one drink, then to the George to finish the night.  We were getting frustrated with everything closing so early here!  But it was a fun night!

Thursday was Thanksgiving, and I had class on Thanksgiving for the first time ever! (and it was my long day of classes, to top it off!)  So the girls went to the Harry Potter Studio Tour (they were pretty excited).  Then, later that night, the school was hosting a Thanksgiving dinner for the American/International students in the area.  We were the first to show up, and it was way fancier than I was expecting.  We even felt a little underdressed, as people showed up in suits and dresses, and we were in jeans and nice tops.  They had free champagne for us before we were seated, and the tables were immaculately set.  We socialized a bit and met some of my friends before dinner started.  There was free wine (always a plus) and rolls at first, then the first course was served: some sort of squash soup.  The main meal included turkey with gravy, stuffing, green beans, and sweet potatoes.  I was pleasantly surprised with the food.  It was pretty good!  Not exactly like home, but it did the job.  For desert, we had this almond-caramel "pudding" thing that kinda tasted like cornbread, but it was tasty.  We were then served coffee or tea and some mini mince pies (which I had never had).  We were a bit upset that there was no pumpkin pie.  Then after dinner, they threw us an "American" party at the SU Bar.  They had it all decorated in red, white, and blue with stars.  It looked more like the Fourth of July! They even had beer pong especially for us, and a DJ.  We got to mingle with all of the other international students and some of their guests.  It was a really fun night, probably one of my favorites here.  And we got to dance and play Flippy Cup, which is one of my favs!  After the party, we had to walk home in the rain because the next bus was a long wait.  I told them we do that walk all the time, but they aren't used to it!  Overall, it was the strangest, most interesting Thanksgivings I have ever had.

On Black Friday we slept in a long time (no shopping for us!). Even Mom!  After finally getting moving, we headed to Greenwich for the day.  We ate a a pub there called The Lost Hour, and played Uno, just for Grandma K!  I had my first 'bangers and mash,' and there was, of course, someone with fish n' chips.  After that we walked up the big hill to the Royal Observatory to stand on the Prime Meridian, and got some awesome pictures.  The Olympic park was pretty much torn down, so we didn't get to see that this time.  We wandered back down to the river to see the Royal Navy Academy and the Queen's house, and the Cutty Sark.  We went to the Greenwich Market and looked around a bit and finished with a souvenir shop (though one of the better ones in my opinion) and a candy shop, where we found our souvenir tea tins and TWINKIES! So of course we bought some, because who knows? It could be my last.  When we got back to Twick-city, we went to 'spoons (a pub called Weatherspoons) and had our last supper together.  I think we all got fish n' chips (except Ally, she doesn't like fish).  We met up with a few of my friends and chatted for a while, then decided to go home so the Carpenter girls could pack and get ready to leave in the morning.

Saturday morning we sent the Carpenters on their way (after some creative packing and praying that everything would fit under weight limit).  I got a text from Kaitlyn after they made it through security, "There is a God! After some rearranging and flirting with the airline and security men, we are in!" Oh, funny girls!  After we had grabbed some lunch at Cafe Zizou in town, Mom and I spent the afternoon running errands and finding another piece of luggage so I could send some of my stuff home with them (I'm worried I won't be able to fit it all!).  It was a rainy, cold day, and Allyson had stayed home to do homework (though when we came back, she was watching Harry Potter/napping).  Mom and I had stopped at my room and packed up a few of my things that I won't need my last 18 days here. Only 18 left!!! It's gone so fast!  Then Ally was too tired to go out, so Mom and I went to an Italian pizza place in Teddington (recommended by my Italian friend) called Canta Napoli.  We got a half-meter pizza and some vino, and it was quite good! (though the leftovers weren't nearly as good).  We came home and watched the UK version of the Hallmark Channel, which was playing Christmas movies.

On Sunday, we slept in again and chilled out in the Mumford house, getting everything ready to leave and making beef stew for dinner for a few of my friends.  We had to clean up the house and get everything organized.  We watched the "Hallmark Channel" again and listened to Mumford & Sons. :)  Then my friends came over for dinner (yum!) and they brought some wine and "British Christmas Cake," which we decided was fruitcake.  Needless to say, we threw the rest out.  I went back to school with my friends to take back my suitcase of laundry and came back for one last night at the Ripple.

Today (Monday) I went with Mom and Ally in the cab to Heathrow and helped them get all their luggage checked and secured and followed them up to security before saying goodbye.  But I will see them in three weeks!  I found my way back to the bus station to head back, went to the grocery store, and came back to campus to unpack and reorganize.  Then I went to a coffeeshop in Twick-city to do some homework with friends.  I am determined to get all (or most) of my papers done early so I can enjoy my last week in London!  I am already missing the couches, kitchen, big bed, open space, windows, and peace at the Mumford house.  It's hard to go back to my dorm room after that!  But only three more weeks I guess... Bittersweet!

Sorry for the long post, but there you have it! My week with my family and Thanksgiving in England! :)

Recovery Week

This week has been a little rough, trying to catch up on sleep, work, and laundry after reading week.  I have been so tired! I finished one paper, but still have one more to do for this week, and another for the week after.  I have only done one load of laundry.  I just want to lay in my bed and do nothing!  But I press on...
Oh! I almost forgot! When I got home on Monday night, my friends had tagged me in a post of Facebook about a Christmas lighting at the Westfield Mall in London, and Taylor Swift was guest starring! Sooo we made plans to go. Unfortunately, the writstbands were free, but were first come, first serve, starting at 7am... So we got up at 5am to catch a train in to wait for a wristband.  We were tired but we made it and we got our wrist bands!  After we got coffee and breakfast and headed back.  We had to be back by 5pm to get a spot, so we left campus at 3.  Our train ended up being delayed, because someone got hit by a train a few stops away! So we had to switch to the tube, and luckily we made it there on time.  The lights were switched on at 6, and Taylor sang three songs afterwards.  It was pretty great (even though I think she was lip syncing).  And the lights were beautiful! I want to go see all of the Christmas lights in London. So pretty!  Afterwards, we hung around for an encore, but there was none. :(  So we got frozen yogurt instead and walked around the mall.  Apparently it is one of the best in the country, with over 300 stores and 30 restaurants.  And it was huge, with lots of designer shops also.  Then we headed back to campus, because we were all exhausted!  It was definitely a YOLO (you only live once, for the oldies reading this) experience!
On Thursday night, I went to see Skyfall with a bunch of friends at the theater in Kingston.  (before everyone in the US, I might add!)  The cinemas here are a bit different than at home.  For one, they snacks they serve are different.  They have your usual candy, popcorn, nachos, and drinks, but they also serve hand-dipped ice cream!  The seats in the theater were very steep, and there was no room to walk through the aisles.  My knees hit the back of the seat in front of me.  They also have "priority" seating, which are nicer seats in the prime seating areas that you have to pay extra for.  Anyways, the movie was good, but very long.  It also seemed a bit different than the other Bond movies.  It seemed more like a superhero movie to me, and the main villain reminded me of the Joker. I liked it, but others I was with weren't impressed.
This weekend I have been sleeping... a lot!  On Saturday we went to nearby Kingston to go shopping.  It felt like Christmas season, with some decorations already up, and all of the people out!  Plus, Starbucks had Christmas cups.  We had fun window shopping and walking around.  Sunday we went to nearby Richmond in the afternoon for a spot of tea and to enjoy the gorgeous weather.  And now I really need to stop procrastinating and write my papers, since my family will be here at the end of the week!

Final Stop Five: Munich, Germany

We arrived in Munich and easily found our hostel. It was the biggest one we had stayed in yet!  Our room was on the fourth floor and up a spiral staircase.  It was nice because the beds were more spread out into a few connected rooms, so it was a little quieter and more private (as private as a hostel room can be!).  After we settled in, we headed out to one of the local brewery restaurants for dinner.  We had our first brews and I had traditional Bavarian sausage and sauerkraut. Afterwards we went and hung out at the hostel bar before heading to bed.  The next morning, we decided to take advantage of the "free" tour offered by the hostel.  Our tour guide was quite interesting. He was a tall, black guy that sounded amazingly American (but he wasn't).  He said he had lived in six different countries and he spoke four languages!  But he was a very good tour guide, and you could tell he loved his city of Munich!  The tour was one of the best tours I think I have ever been on.  It was very informative, and had a lot of history! I feel like I actually learned something, because he repeated things a lot and made it interesting and relatable.  So we did the walking tour for 3-4 hours (which included an authentic brautwurst!).  We visited the central catholic church (and learned that Munich is very catholic), the Marienplatz, Viktualienmarket, Haufbraus (including the room where the Nazi party was formed), Residenzplatz, etc). After the tour we tipped the tour guide (that's how "free" tours work) and wandered back through the shops of the market and the city center.  We got some souvenirs (I got a little shot-glass sized tankard!) and some hot roasted almonds (delicious!). We then went back to the hostel to relax a little bit.  That night we went on a pub tour (with the same tour guide) to get a taste of local night life.  We got pork-knuckle sandwiches and went to a few different types of pubs and tried a different type of beer at each.  In between, we got to try some Bavarian schnapps.  It was all very fun, and a really cool experience!  One of the pubs was very cozy, with a live musician playing accordian.  All the people were sitting at long tables, swaying to the music and singing along, and included us also! They were all very friendly (and ok, maybe a little drunk!).  We also went to a beer hall, which is just like a giant cafeteria full of long tables with benches with everyone drinking beer.  

We spent the next day in Rothenburg (see separate post), and when we got back, we made our way to the city center to find some food.  We went to another beer hall because we were cold, and it was very warm in there! I had traditional Bavarian pork roast and some sort of potato dumpling.  It was very filling.  Then we just went back to the hostel and hung out at the bar before going to bed early after a long day.

On Sunday we went to Dachau Concentration Camp.  It was very somber, to say the least.  I don't even know if I can write anything about it.  It had been cleaned up quite a bit, and much of it was torn down.  We went with a tour guide, who offered some interesting information, but we didn't get a whole lot of time in the actual museum part.  There were multiple sculpture memorials from many different groups, but one of the most overwhelming ones was a mass grave, atop of the mounds of ashes from the crematorium.  It was called the "Grave of Thousands Unknown."  It was all very chilling to see, but I'm glad we went.  It was a good way to remember the terrible events that happened during that time, and isn't something I will soon forget.
After our visit there, we hung out in the hostel, as we were all exhausted.  We went to an Italian place nearby, which was strange... It was an Italian restaurant, in Germany, but the waiter spoke English with random bits of French.  It was just funny!  Additionally, they played the same song almost the entire time we were there. It was just ridiculous.  But the food and wine was good, and it was fairly cheap.  After that, we hung out at the hostel bar with some new friends we made from Canada, the UK, and Brazil.  They were a fun bunch, and we enjoyed playing pool and swapping stories.  The Brazilian was particularly amusing.  He had on a University of Illinois shirt, and I asked him about it.  He told me his ex-girlfriend (who he had met while she was studying abroad in Brazil) went there and got him that shirt.  I told him I was from Illinois, but he must not have properly understood, and assumed I went there.  He then asked me if I knew his ex-girlfriend.  I had to explain to him that it was a rather large school, and even if I did go there, it was unlikely that I knew his friend.  After we had closed down the bar, I then discovered that my Brazilian friend was sleeping on the bunk above me.  It was a fun last night in Munich.

On Monday, we slept in a bit before packing up and checking out.  But after that we hung out in the hostel, charging all of our devices and taking advantage of the free hammocks!  My friend and I went out to try and find me a dirndl (traditional Bavarian dress), but sadly I couldn't find one that I liked for a reasonable price.  :(  But we did find some cheap Oktoberfest souvenirs, and I found my keychains.  We stopped to get lunch at the train station, and as we were standing around eating, we saw a man stop by the giant Munich lion statue, put his bags down, and get a camera out.  I figured he wanted his picture taken, but no one stopped to help him.  So I volunteered, and he was very grateful. I walked back over to where my friend was, and when I turned around, the man was walking towards me with his camera again.  I started towards him, but he held up his hands and pointed the camera at me and took my picture, smiling.  It was a little strange!  We then headed back to the hostel to pick up our stuff so we could catch the train to the airport.  That bit was confusing!  We weren't quite sure how to get tickets or if we had purchased the right ones.  But we got on the train and made it to the airport alright (even if we might have paid a little more than necessary).  Once we got to the airport, I was surprised at how dead it was.  I was expecting something a little busier for an international airport, but we had no wait at check-in or security.  So, since we were there 2 hours before (like good little travelers), we had 2 hours to kill.  There was only one place for food near our gate, and it had limited variety.  We browsed the giftshops, and I found a tiny container of Nutella that was so cute I couldn't resist.  Then my one friend and I (who's family is also from the Mid-West) taught our other friend to play Euchre.  Soon enough we were boarding and finally headed home.  The flight was interesting, and I think we were flying very low.  It didn't seem like we climbed too high.  Flying back on British Airways was a relief.  We got a small dinner (Chicken Caesar Wrap) and of course free beverages.  It was much nicer than our first flight on EasyJet, and I didn't have to pay extra for my second bag! We landed and got in line for border patrol.  When I approached the desk, she asked for my visa and I gave her my St. Mary's documentation, and she got very confused when it said I was arriving Sept 11, and she asked if I was 2 months late... Yeah that's right.  But I explained and got through, with another stamp on my passport!  We then had to catch the bus back to campus and were riding for another hour.  We finally arrived to campus and were very much relieved to be home!

Side Trip to Rothenburg, Germany

On Saturday, we woke up early to catch a train from Munich to Rothenburg, a small, medieval town about 3 hours away.  Figuring out the trains was interesting, when the announcement were all in German, and I had to figure out where we needed to get off to switch trains, since we had 3 connections.  We almost missed a few of our trains because they were late arriving and we had very little time between trains! But we made it, and when we got there it was turning out to be a beautiful day.  We walked through the cobblestone streets to find lunch.  We went to a little restaurant that very much reminded me of my grandparent's house, for some reason! I'm not sure what it was, but it felt very homey!  I just had some soup, and my first apfelstruedel with ice cream. It was very yummy. :)  We had found a map, and after we ate we figured out what we wanted to see.  We started to wander around and explore a bit.  We found out that they were setting up for some type of run later on in the day in the city center, so it was quite busy!  We went into one of the famous Christmas markets, and it was insane! So much Christmas! I'd say we spent the better part of an hour in there, just looking!  They had anything and everything Christmas related, such as Nutcrackers of all shapes and sizes, giant decorated Christmas trees, the largest selection of ornaments I've ever seen, AND a German Christmas Museum!  We just wandered around taking it all in.  We decided against going in to any of the other ones, since they were so huge!  After that we wandered down and found a park with a great view of the countryside and part of the city.  We walked atop the wall and watchtowers that surrounded the city.  We found a sweet little park with an AWESOME swing (see my pictures!) and we played some.  We spent most of the day wandering around and finding some sweet secrets passageways and little courtyards.  We even found some cats!  It was a very pretty city, but there wasn't a whole lot to do (that was free anyways), so we headed back into Munich in the late afternoon.

Stop Five: Salzburg, Austia

We arrived in Salzburg in the dark and cold, and had a bit of trouble finding our way to the hostel, since the directions were a little vague. We found WiFi at a McDonald's and figured out where we needed to go. We checked in to the hostel, and it has been the best one we have stayed at so far. It was pretty big, but the people were friendly. We even met some Americans, Canadians, and Aussies we could talk to. There was one guy in our room who was particularly talkative, and he was interesting. The next morning we set off to explore the city. The hostel has a really nice map with suggested walking routes and sights to see. We started with the Mirabell Gardens (where parts of the Sound of Music was filmed). Then we crossed the river, which had gorgeous views. I wasn't expecting so much scenery and mountains. We found Mozart's birthplace, then wandered down some of the old streets and plazas. We saw a few churches and horse drawn carriages. It was so cute! Then we bought tickets to take the funicular up a mountain to see the fortress. The view from up there was spectacular! And the skies were clear and bright. It was really awesome. We walked through the fortress grounds and through the exhibits inside. It was a lot like the Tower of London. The view was defiantly the best part for me. After we descended, we found some lunch at a cafe. I had hot ham and cheese (served with ketchup!). We then wandered through a few more markets and shops and headed back to the hostel to regroup. We decided to try out a coffee shop the hostel suggested and do some homework. We went to the coffee shop, but it was not what I was thinking. It was a lot nicer of a place,but the coffee was super fancy! My cappuccino had a mountain of foam on top of it! We finished our drinks and went next door to another cafe that had vegan food for my friend. This was more of a homework place. I had another cappuccino (I was exhausted), but it was a "Mozart Cappuccino" and had his face in the foam on top, and caramel. It also came with a famous "Mozart-ball" which is a chocolate and pistachio truffle created in Salzburg. It was delicious. I also had some apple cake, which was like a cold apple cobbler. Then we (tried) to do some homework before heading back tithe hostel for happy hour and the showing of the Sound of Music! We got a beer and settled in to watch the movie. The bar tender was a strange man, and would come in randomly and make funny comments about the movie and talk to us. I ordered wiener schnitzel and fries for dinner while we watched. It was my first time actually watching the movie all the way through. After the movie was over, we got talking to some other American girls and a girl from New Zealand. We shared stories from our travels and were talking about Halloween, since it was Halloween. Austria was strangely not in to Halloween. Others European countries seem to celebrate it, but not Austria! We decided to go out to the Irish pub, since surely they would be celebrating. And they were! But it seemed that everyone's idea of a costume was just blood on their face and bodies, like a bunch of zombies. Not very creative! It wasn't the same, but we still felt better having celebrate Halloween somehow! The last day we slept in a bit (as much as we could, considering there were two Fins talking to each other in our room all morning!). We checked out, stored our luggage, and got some breakfast. We left to catch the bus out to Hellbrunn Palace and the trick fountains. It was a ways out of the main city and was very pretty. The palace was yellow and had some cool rooms inside. We got an audio tour, but I didn't use it much. Then we got a tour of the trick fountains. They were really cool and fun! They are a series of fountains that all have some sort of "trick" to them, and make include you getting sprayed with water (a few times). It was a lot of fun, except when you got wet, and it was chilly out! We explored to grounds a bit and found the pavilion used in the Sound of Music (seeing a theme here??). We headed back to town, got some last minute souvenirs, picked up some lunch and our luggage and made way to the train station. The ride to Munich was also very scenic and pretty. And we got to ride on the top of a double decker train! Next stop: Munich!

Mini Stop Four: Venice

Venice was absolutely BEAUTIFUL. The sun was shining and there wasn't a cloud in the sky! The water and the buildings were sparkling, and it smelled like the sea. :) We were glad for the nice weather after our past few days of cold and rain. We had a two hour layover there, so we explored a little bit around the train station, took some pictures, and got some lunch. We sat on the steps of the train station soaking up the sun. I got a keychain and one last cup of gelato. Then sadly we had to board our train to Innsbruck which would take us to Salzburg. This train had coaches with individual rooms (like on the Hogwarts Express!) and that was pretty cool, until we got kicked out of our seats (we didn't have specific seat reservations) and we didn't know how that worked. So we were seatless for a while until we found some open seats. But the ride to Innsbruck was really pretty as we entered the Alps. Once we got to Innsbruck it was dark and cold, and we switched to our last train that would take us to Munich. It was a really nice train, and very roomy. After almost 12 hours of traveling, we made it to Salzburg.

Stop Three: Bologna

Bologna was probably my least favorite stop so far. It was a lot less tourist friendly than I had heard, and it was freezing cold. We stayed in a hotel though, and it was nice to have our own room and bathroom. But the hotel was in a sketchier part of town and was pretty far away from the center of town. After watchings She's the Man in Italian (with me dubbing everything), we made the trek down to the city center, checking out the gobs and gobs of shopping there was! So I guess it is a good place to shop rather than tour! We got to the main piazza where most of the sights were, and the medieval town. We roamed around a bit, exploring random alleyways and shops, while taking pictures of the churches, towers, and other old buildings. My day was made though when we found a cafe that had vin brûlée (aka HOT WINE!) Yum! So we stopped and had some and it was delicious. Then we checked out a place that my friend had wanted to try for dinner (that had gluten free options for her) but we discovered that it didn't open until 7:30, which we found was common for most of the restaurants in the town. So we wandered around some more and tried to find a way to kill almost three hours. It was hard, and it didn't help that it was really cold outside. We ended up siting in a McDonald's (which were everywhere there, which was strange) and entertaining ourselves with our iPods. Finally it was time for dinner, and we headed over to the restaurant. We stopped at a neat bookstore along the way that had three levels, with a restaurant on each floor. By then we were hungry and we went to dinner. We walked into the restaurant, noticing it was pretty fancy. The waiters all had on nice clothes, and they asked if we had a reservation. They took our coats before seating us and handing us menus. But the menus had no prices... Which is never a good sign. Randomly one of our menus had the prices listed, and we all about had heart attacks! Of course by this time we had already been served water and some biscuits (that we didn't touch). We didn't know what to do! Luckily we were the first and only people in the restaurant, so when the waiter disappeared, we put some coins on the table and made a run for it. As we were grabbing out coats and rushing out, we could hear our waiter calling behind us "What's wrong? What's wrong?" So laughing and feeling quite embarrassed we rushed out of the restaurant. What an adrenaline rush! We couldn't believe what we had just done! It was quite a memorable experience. We decided to go back to the bookstore and just eat at one of the restaurants there. The food there was still good and I finally had some moscato d'Asti! So with that we made the journey back to our hotel to hang out and rejuvenate. We got up early the next morning to make sure we got to the train station on time for our train to Venice. We got there with time to spare, and hung out at a cafe for a while. Then we went to find out train and said goodbye to my friend Chelsey, who was flying back to London as leaving us. Our train to Venice was late and we ended up standby around for quite a bit. But then we boarded and were on our way to Venice!

Second Stop: Florence!

We arrived in Florence early Saturday night.  We found our hostel pretty easily, but it's a lot different than the one in Pisa.  The one in Pisa was very 'homey', small, and welcoming.  The hostel here isn't unwelcoming per-say, but it's kind of out of the way and tucked back in a block of buildings.  The main floor is one hallway, with a main desk, a few rooms on either side, bathrooms, and a kitchen/lounge/patio at the end of the hallway.  But we have a room to ourselves (4 bed dorm), so it has been nice to not have any strangers around.  After we settled in and relaxed a while, we walked over to Dante's Pizzeria, a place my friend Rachael (who studied abroad here last semester) recommended, mostly because students get free wine!  So we ventured out across town, seeing some of the sights along the way, and across the river.  I got my first Italian pizza, and it was delicious.  The wine was pretty good also! We got 2 bottles between the 4 of us!  After we ate, we wandered around down my the river and the bridges, and explored the Ponte Vecchio, which is the oldest, most beautiful bridge in Florence.  We made our way back up town, wandering past the famous Duomo (the third largest cathedral in the world) and got some gelato there as well! I had caramel gelato, and it was delicious! We wandered and explored some more before heading back to the hostel for the night.  We did some research for the next day and watched "Tangled" on my computer before falling asleep.
The second day, we woke up and got ready to head out for the day.  When we ventured out to the kitchen to find some breakfast, a little old Italian lady hugged us and told us to sit down and she would make us breakfast! Granted, it was only toast and coffee or tea, but it was sweet!  We ate and finalized our plans for the day.  Our first goal was to make it up to the Piazza Michelangelo, which is up on a hill on the southern side of the river, and offers a great view of the city and surrounding area.  It was a hike up there! We were all breathing hard and sweating by the time we made it up there.  The view was gorgeous though, and it was a shame that it was so rainy and cloudy, because I bet the view is even better then.  We headed back down the hill to the river and walked past the Santa Croce, the Museo Galileo, the Uffizi (which had a ridiculously long line), the Piazza del Signoria, the Duomo (again), and the Accademia Galleria (where the real sculpture of David by Michelangelo is located)).  We also had some wonderful pizza at another pizzeria right by the Duomo, and the restaurant was pretty cool.  We saw a lot of good sights, but the bummer was the rain!  It rained almost all day, and it got colder as the day went on too!  I thought I was coming to warmer weather in Italy, but it has been unusually cold! I feel like I'm back in the Midwest!  We came back to the hostel damp and freezing and hung out for a bit while deciding what to do for dinner.  We decided on a local favorite called Il Portale, which was nearby.  I had spinach and cheese ravioli with meat sauce, and they had some really good bread! We also got some wine again (you just have to in Italy).  It was very good.  I am loving the food here. (so much better than the UK, unfortunately).  After dinner we went to a microbrewery/bar nearby our hostel and hung out for a while.  I tried some Limoncello, and it was like liquid lemon drops! But it was also very strong.  We came home a little early because we wanted to get up early the next day to go check out some of the markets (hoping for no rain) before we leave for Bologna.
The next morning we got ready and packed up, had some breakfast, stored our bags, checked out, and headed out to the Central Market!  The market was really cool! It was endless though! Booths and booths of genuine leather, souvenirs, scarves, glass and ceramic work, jewelery, etc.  I was really in a shopping mood and bought two keychains, a pin for Emily, an owl wine cork, a scarf, and a genuine Italian leather purse (my favorite purchase)!  We went to the indoor market to look around at the food and got some cappuccinos.   Then we had to get back to our bags to catch our train to Bologna.  So far, Florence has been my favorite part of the trip! (minus the rain).  More to come on Bologna next!

First Stop: Pisa!

So we started our journey in Pisa, Italy. We landed around 9pm, and though it was wet, it was warm! It was a nice change from the wintry-like weather that is taking over London. We got through customs no problem (they didn't even ask me anything) and left the airport to find a taxi. We loaded up and headed to our hostel. The cab driver pointed out the train station and a few other landmarks to us along the way. I loved seeing the town! It was also weird to be driving on the right side of the road again! We got to our hostel, which was right by the leaning tower! We were greeted by the hostel dog, Biro. :) After we checked in, we took all of our stuff up to our room. We turned on the light and accidentally woke up a man sleeping! We felt bad, so we turned on the reading lights and finished making our beds and getting our stuff situated. Then we went downstairs to the common room to use the wifi and plan out our day. We talked to some of the other guests for a while and then headed to bed. We all got into bed and drifted to sleep... Except me. I could not fall asleep for the life of me, for a few hours. Then one other man came in and turned on the overhead light at 2am! So he woke me up just as I was falling asleep. Then I was awake most of the rest of the night because of all the snoring going on in my room, and some VERY loud thunder storms! It was a long, tiring night. I think I got about 2-3 hours of sleep total, and morning was not pleasant. But I got up and got packed up, checked out, and stored our bags for the day. Then we ventured out into the rain to explore. We walked down the main street of designer shops and stopped at a cafe for our first Italian coffee! I got a cappuccino that was delicious! We went down to the river and took some pictures and walked through a market. After that we started to walk back through town up the the piazza dei miracoli, where the Baptistry, duomo, and leaning tower are. We saw some other churches and buildings along the way, but then somehow got a little lost... And then it started to DOWNPOUR. We were soaked! By the time we got to the piazza, the rain key up enough for us to get some classic touristy pictures with the tower before the sky started falling again. It was ridiculous! We took cover against the duomo wall until it lightened up. Ten we went to a restaurant nearby called Il Tuscano, where we had to sit outside (under cover, but still chilly and wet$ and had some hot tea and spaghetti. It was delicious! After lunch we went back to our hostel to get our luggage and to warm up and dry out a bit before heading to the train station. We hung out with Biro and researched our next adventure. Then we said goodbye and walked to the bus that would take us to the train station. Then we were on the train to Florence, exhausted and relieved to be out of the rain (though it seemed to be clearing up as we were leaving, of course). So now we are in Florence. More to come on that later!

Operation Reading Week

Well, I've been spending a lot of time the last few weeks finalizing plans for our trip to Italy, Austria, and Germany over reading week.  We are flying in to Pisa tonite, then going to Florence, Bologna, Venice, Salzburg, and Munich.  It has been a lot of stress, and I've been feeling it.  I think I am pretty organized and that everything is all ready to go, but I am still feeling anxious (imagine that).  I am praying that everything goes according to plan, or if it doesn't, that it will be an experience or easy to fix.  We are leaving campus in about an hour to take a train to London Gatwick Airport, then we are flying out at 6pm! We arrive in Pisa at 9pm local time, then we have to find our hostel somehow.  That's the first adventure! I'll let you know how it goes when I get internet!
Other than that, I've been pretty sick this week, with some kind of viral sinus crap that is making me cough uncontrollably all the time.  I went to the nurse and got stocked up on meds so I can hopefully make a quick recovery so I can enjoy my trip.  I also got to see my daddy again last night for dinner.  I took a cab out to the airport, careful to give the driver the exact address of the Holiday Inn I was going to, since Dad had a mix up when he arrived.  When I got to the hotel, I went to call him to come down, but he said he couldn't find me.  Come to find out I had STILL gone to the wrong hotel.  So I had to take another cab (a more expensive one too, and I had no money after the first cab) to the correct hotel 10 minutes away.  I found my dad and he paid the driver.  I dropped off my suitcase for him to take back home and we went to a pub nearby called The Plough.  We had a few beers (cider for me) and both got burgers (which were interesting).  We chatted for a while until I decided I should try to get home.  I was taking the bus, and I was a little nervous because I have not always had the best experiences on buses (I get lost a lot) and I was having trouble figuring out which buses to take.  Luckily the bus stop I had intended to go to was right outside the pub and the bus came every 15 minutes.  It was hard to say goodbye to Dad, especially when I've had such a rough week, and it was good to get to hang out with him for a while.  But I got on the bus, a little tear-eyed as we waved goodbye.  I got off a little while later to switch buses, but when I looked at the board for the next bus, it said it would be 25 minutes.  I about lost it.  It was cold and I was tired and sad already, but then it changed and the bus came in 5 minutes.  It was a long ride after that, but I was able to find my way home easily after that.  I got home and started to feel sick again (mostly from the stress of today) and I skyped with my mom for a while, then went to bed.
So today I've spent my time triple-checking everything and trying to keep calm by watching How I Met Your Mother re-runs.  And now it's almost time to go! So I'm going to go through my stuff one more time and get packed up. Italy, here I come!!

I Get My Care Packages Hand-Delivered!

Yesterday, I got a care package, delivered by my very own Father!  He had some other business too I suppose, but he really just came to see me. :)  Sunday morning, I kept hearing the planes overhead and thinking, "My papa's on one of those!"  I waited anxiously to hear from him.  I checked that his flight had landed, but I still hadn't heard anything from him.  A few hours later, my phone rings and it was Dad telling me he was at the main reception in front of my school, and that his phone wasn't working.  So that explains the lack in communication.  So I made my way across campus to find him and gave him a BIG hug (I miss my Daddy hugs).  We took his luggage back to my dorm and tried to figure out why his phone wasn't working.  I ended up finding out that I can call US numbers from my computer via Google voice (a nice feature) and we were able to get customer service on the line to see what the problem was.  Turns out that the representative he talked to before leaving had put down the wrong date for his traveling, so his international plan was not supposed to turn on until Tuesday!  So we got that sorted out and got his phone working.  By then it was far past lunch time (and Dad had slept through the in-flight meals and was starving) so we headed in to Twickenham to grab some grub.  We went to the Three Kings and had a beer and some traditional British pub food.  Then we went to Starbucks to have coffee (Papa was tired), chat a bit, and get out of the rain.  After that we ventured down to the Thames to try and scope out the house that my Mom, sister, and cousins are renting when they come to visit over Thanksgiving.  We couldn't figure out how to get back to it (the path was very covered and confusing) but we got a picture of it!  It was getting a little chilly and it was "misting" a bit, so we walked back to campus.  I opened my care package to find lots of goodies, including peanut butter, Easy Mac, Great Harvest pumpkin chocolate chip bread, mini muffins, fruit snacks, popcorn, hot apple cider, soup, whales, new jeans, my wool coat, shoes, cold medicine, and a few others.  Yay! Dad had a look at my computer (since it's been acting up) and tried to fix it (sadly, it is still acting up).  We hung out a bit longer and then had to go meet his car that would take him to his hotel.  But I get to see him again for dinner before he leaves on Thursday! :)

And now, I have a lot to do to prepare for my big 10-day, 3-country tour in Europe that I leave for on Friday!  We are going to Pisa, Florence, Bologna, Salzburg, Rothenburg, and Munich (Italy, Austria, and Germany!).  It's going to be crazy, but I am excited!  I've been busy all day making hostel reservations and trying to figure out schedules and trains.  I have been avoiding my homework (which I need to get ahead on so I'm not swamped when I get back), but hopefully I can be more productive tomorrow.  My room was just sweltering today, and I didn't feel good, so it was not a good homework environment.  But in the afternoon, a few friends and I went to Richmond and had Tea Time Tuesday on Monday at the Tea Box!  I had Ms. Saigon tea, which is a black tea with passion fruit and ginger.  It was very good, and made me feel a little better! But I got a lot of planning done for my trip tonight, so I feel good about that.  I also found this awesome website called TripIt, which searches your email and automatically puts all of your confirmations and reservations on to one convenient itinerary! Very cool.  For now I should probably get to bed so I can get some work done tomorrow!!

On a random note, I almost went to Switzerland last week... My friend was going to visit a friend and invited me to come with... free room and food. I was sooo tempted, but it ended up being to late to book the flight after we got back from Paris. It's too bad! But now I've got a travel bug, and I may have been looking up flights for the next few weekends... oops. 

Ah, Paris!

Thursday night I could barely sleep because I was so excited and anxious about going to Paris for the weekend.  We had to catch the train from school at 5:38 a.m. and change trains once in order to get to St. Pancras International Rail Station, where we were to meet our tour guide by 7:15 a.m.  We stopped at Starbucks once we got to the station and waited for the grocery store inside to open so that we could grab lunch for the train ride.  We met our tour guide, Eric, and the rest of the students from other schools going on the tour.  The group was all girls, except for our friend Sean, and the tour guide.  He referred to us as "ladies... and Sean" all weekend.  There was also a fairly large group from St. Mary's that went.  After a quick orientation and ticket distribution, we made our way through security and border patrol (more stamps for my passport!).  We then waited to board the train to Paris! The train ride was about 2 hours, and it made my ears pop. A lot.  We were in the "chunnel," or the channel tunnel for a while (but you couldn't really tell) and emerged in France!  Most of our group slept on the ride there, but I was too excited to sleep, and was having a nice conversation with a few of my friends.  Once we arrived in Paris, there was a coach arranged to pick us up for an overall all city-tour, so we could get acquainted with the city and see a few of the most famous landmarks.  We drove down the Avenue des Champs Elysee, the famous Arc de Triomphe traffic circle, la Place de la Concord, and then stopped at a viewpoint for la Tour Eiffel (the Eiffel Tower).  We got to take some pictures and get a beautiful view of the tower and the city.  We got back on the bus and drove past the Louvre, Musee d'Orsay, and stopped at the Invalides for a glimmering picture of the gold dome, since it was such a nice day.  We saw a few other landmarks before we made our way through some awful traffic to our hotel.  We checked in and went to explore our rooms, which were interesting.  The hotel was very modern looking and had very bright colors.  The rooms were small, but comfortable, and we each got our own twin sized bed, which were SO comfortable.  The bathroom was orange, and had a fake stone vinyl floor, and the shower had no door and the side of the tub was really tall.  It was hard to get in and out of, even for me!  After getting settled, we met our tour guide in the lobby once again and he showed us how to use the metro.  It was actually a very easy system to use (much like D.C.) and I felt pretty confident navigating it by the end of the weekend.  He took us to the Louvre (and showed us some things along the way) and helped us figure out our plans for the evening.  So we got some macaroons from one of the shops in the museum (delicious, and famous apparently) and went in the the Sully wing.  We mainly tried to see the major works, like the Mona Lisa.  The Louvre was HUGE. It would have taken a full week to see everything in there!  We spent a good few hours there and didn't even get through the one wing!  It was just massive.  After a while we were getting tired and hungry, so we got a few more pictures of the glass pyramids and headed back to Bercy, where we were staying.  We had to hunt to find a good place to eat, that wasn't crazy busy (there was a Radiohead concert going on at the nearby arena) and eventually settled on a small Italian place.  I had bruschetta, spaghetti, and a glass of wine, and it was delicious.  I forgot that food could have flavor! Then we all went back to the hotel to sleep after a long day.
Saturday morning, we met for breakfast (which was interesting) and then set off for a walking tour of the City Island and Notre Dame.  We crossed the bridge to the Island and went over to Notre Dame, where Eric told us some history about it and about some of the sculpture work.  We went for a tour inside, and it was beautiful.  The stain-glass windows were absolutely incredible.  And we were allowed to take pictures!  After that we did a small tour of the Latin quarter and then headed down to the Seine for a boat tour.  We started off sitting on the open top, but it started raining and it was cold and windy, so we ended up going down into the enclosed area for most of the tour.  It wasn't a very exciting tour, though I did get some good photos.  When we returned, there was a slew of riot control policemen by the main square, which we heard was because there was supposed to be a demonstration that afternoon!  We never saw anything, but it would have been cool to see.  We went to dinner at a restaurant recommended by our tour guide called Le Bistro 30.  They had a lunch deal where you could get a 3 course meal for 10 euro! I got French onion soup, steak with peppered sauce and a baked potato, and tiramisu.  I also got Sangria, which was delicious.  The whole meal was by far the best meal I have had in Europe thus far.  It was AMAZING. So good.  It was a nice experience and a cute little restaurant as well.  After we ate, we explored a few of the tourist shops and I got my souvenir key chains, including a little Eiffel Tower (I had to).  Then we tried to find le Jardin du Luxembourg, and it was raining hard at this point.  We got a little lost, but eventually we were able to find it.  And just when we got there, it stopped raining and the sun came out! It was beautiful.  The park was quite large, and included a palace as well.  We only saw a small portion of it though.  We also saw a wedding dress photo shoot going on in the park, which was neat!  As we were leaving, we walked by a giant pavilion filled with people who were all singing.  I had no idea what they were singing or why, but it was cool. We then made our way to the train station, and when I tried to put my ticket in, I wasn't allowed through the turn-style! We are guessing that somehow my ticket got de-magnetized. Sooo I had to jump the turn-style (aka-walk through the exit).  Oops.  But then I bought a new ticket so I wouldn't have any more trouble. Once I got to the train, we headed to the stop "Charles de Gaulle Etoile," which stops right by the Arc de Triomphe.  We had to make a few exchanges to get there, and I swear that one of the places, we walked a few city blocks to get to our next train! But when we finally emerged street side, the traffic in the circle was crazy! In fact, when an accident occurs on the circle, the insurance companies automatically split the cost, because there is no traffic rules when it comes to the round-about and there is no way to really know who was in the wrong!  I thought this was interesting.  Anyway, we figured out that you have to take a tunnel underground to the island where the Arc de Triomphe is (because you would probably die like Frogger if you tried to cross the traffic circle), but we decided to just take pictures from the edge of the road.  We then took a stroll down the Champs Elysee and saw all of the huge designer chains, including many car companies, Louis Vuitton, H&M (which we went into), Sephora, Chanel, and my personal favorite, Abercrombie & Fitch.  I say it's my favorite not because I like the store (I don't really), but because there was a legit GATE to the store, and a queue of a good 50+ people waiting to go inside.  And all of the employees outside manning the gate were all dressed the same in A&F clothes... It was just ridiculous!  Anyway, I made a purchase at H&M, so I can say I officially have a dress from Paris, and that I have shopped on the Champs Elysee (the bag even says so!).  After a bit more browsing, we decided we were hungry for some real French crepes.  We found the nearest Metro station and made our way to the Eiffel Tower area to find some.  When we arrived, it was just starting to get dark.  We found a little cafe that served fresh crepes, coffee, and pastries.  I got a Nutella and banana crepe, and it was divine.  Then we started to make our way towards the tower and the park, taking pictures the whole time.  Once we got to the park in front of the tower, we walked around looking at the bear statues.  There was one painted for each country (idk how many exactly).  Then we found a good spot for some photos and for the light show that happens every hour.  The light show was really cool! It looked like a giant flashing Christmas tree, and the twinkling got faster and faster until it was over.  We then walked towards the tower to get some close ups.  We decided to not go up in the tower, because we did not want to pay and it was rather cold to be waiting for the elevators.  So we went back to Bercy to find dinner and a drink.  On the train ride back, we were entertained by multiple street musicians, including one guy who played the accordion! I thought it was pretty cool and may have taken a video of it... :) Dinner was not as good as lunch, but it was decent.  I had Quiche Lorraine and a salad, and it was pretty good.  We got a drink at the bar next door before heading back to the hotel for the night.
On Sunday we got directions from Eric for our planned trip that day.  Some of the girls went to Versailles, but we decided to stay in town so we could meet up with Eric later to do a walking tour of Montmatre and Sacre Couer.  So we tried to go to the Catacombes, only to find out (after not being able to find them for a while) that they were closed until further notice, due to ventilation problems.  We were upset and wet from the rain, and decided to go to the Musee d'Orsay instead.  We did get to take a double decker TRAIN to get there though, which was cool.  But once we got to the museum, there was a line out the door, winded up and down the street, and we decided it was not worth the wait.  We decided to go then to the meeting point for the tour later (which was by the Moulin Rouge) and get lunch before the tour.  I had a croque monsieur, which was alright, but I've heard that they can be better.  We then hit up Starbucks for some warm beverages, since it was cold and wet.  The workers found us interesting because we were American, and they couldn't spell our names when they asked for them!  I ended up being Cassie instead of Kelsay, and from then on, she just handed the marker and the cup over for us to write our own names.  I swear one of these days I'm just going to say my name is Rose to make it easy and uncomplicated!  Eric then took us up the hill and toured through the town, which was really cool! It was an older part of town and had a very medieval feel to it, much like Tallinn, which I love.  After some serious hill hiking, we finally made it up to the top where Sacre Couer church sits.  The huge, white dome was incredible, and there was so much detail!  We went inside (and unfortunately were not allowed to take pictures), which was just as impressive.  There were big domes and arch ways, with art on the ceiling and windows at the top.  If you paid, you could go up to the bell tower.  There were also some incredible views of Paris from the top of the hill.  It was unfortunate that it was such a rainy/dreary day, because I'm sure the pictures would have been much better.  We then explored the area a big (there was a wine festival going on with loads of tents of vendors) and went to a creperie for one last crepe.  I also tried some "vin chaud" or hot wine, which was AMAZING. Like I have a new favorite drink.  It reminded me of wassail from madrigals, with the orange slice and all! But it was very good, and the lady selling it was speaking to me in French the whole time, not realizing I wasn't entirely sure what she was saying! (My French knowledge was just enough to get me by, luckily there was a guy in our group who was a little more fluent than I).  After our crepes, we took the Funicular down the hill back to the main part of town.  There were some gypsies down there trying to sell friendship bracelets by tying them to your wrists, and we witnessed one guy get dragged away by his friends before he could get cheated.  We found the train station and went back to the hotel to meet up with the group to return to England.  The train ride home we were all ridiculously exhausted.  By the time we got back to London, it was almost 11:00 p.m.  Then we discovered that the train we were planning to take was out of service due to construction on Sunday, so we had to alter our route.  And long story short, it took an additional 40 or so minutes to return to campus, and we got back around 1:00 a.m.
Overall, it was a great trip and I really enjoyed it.  It would have been nice if the weather was a bit more agreeable, but we still had a lot of fun.  My friend Sean and I were dubbed the navigators of the trip, being the only ones who spoke French and had enough sense to read a map.  Not to mention that even today, I'm still getting used to people speaking English, and have had to catch myself from speaking French to the caf workers at dinner... The metro stations (and some of the streets) smelled really bad, and the city was rather dirty overall.  We all decided that as much as we loved Paris, we all missed London.  It really is becoming home to me. :)

Just to Clear the Air, I Do Normal Student Things Here...

In case you got the impression that all I do is travel and have fun here (Grandma K!), I'd like to say that I actually do have student-like things to do (they're just not as fun to write about!)  The last few days I have been working away at homework: reading, researching, writing, etc.  So that I can get my paper done so I can not worry about it this weekend when I'm in Paris! :)  I also went to the chiropractor today (my first British chiro experience).  It was a bit different than home, but mostly alright.  He didn't do much manipulative adjusting, which I'm not so used to, but he did do a lot of muscle work, which I liked (and was very thankful for, especially my shoulders!).  He seemed thrown off by my extensive anatomy and chiropractic knowledge, and then I told him my intended career. ;) I'm going back next week, so we'll see how it goes.
But as for studying, I think that next time I study abroad, I'll just do the abroad part.  How dare my studies get in the way of my adventures and fun time!  But alas, I have to actually do work. Which is what I'm going to do now that I've added an average post to my blog.
On a totally random (to you) side note, a plane just flew really close to the ground over my dorm.  It's like living next to train tracks.  There is one like every 15 4 minutes and they are SO LOUD. That is all.

Stonehenge and Bath

Today I went on a tour of Stonehenge and Bath.  We started out early in the morning, taking a coach 2 hours out to Bath.  I got some reading done for class (see, I do sometimes do homework...) and then took a short nap.  The scenery around Bath was beautiful.  The rolling English country side reminded me a little of home, mostly because of the wide open air, fields, farms, and cows.  We drove into town, passing some Rugby matches and the Pulteney Bridge.  We got dropped off and walked into the central focus of Bath: The Roman Baths. And the Bath Abbey (where the first ever coronation was held!).  We got our tickets to go in to see the Roman Baths.  The Roman Baths are filled by a natural hot spring, the only one in the United Kingdom, and have obviously been around since Roman rule in Britain.  They were said to have "healing powers" brought on by the Goddess Sulis, and has been a popular place for people to come bathe and seek healing.  The water of course was steaming, which I thought was pretty cool.  I didn't really know what the baths were until we got there, and then I was surprised at the size and vastness of them!  There were multiple pools filled by the springs, and a whole temple built around them.  It was all very cool.  Unfortunately, we could not drink the water of the spring (it was closed for some reason), but I've heard it tastes disgusting, like sulfur.  After that, we were starving and got some lunch.  We also found this little fudge place where they had caramel apples covered in chocolate chips and marshmallows.  I got one and it was delicious, and one more thing to check off my fall items list!  We tried to visit the Abbey, but since it was Sunday, it was closed until later afternoon due to services.  So we went into a few gift shops and got souvenirs, then explored the more modern shopping district.  When we met back with the tour guide, he showed up the Cross Baths, another set of baths, and the only spa that operates off of the springs.  We saw the Jane Austen house, the Queen's Park, the Circus, and the Crescent, along with many examples of the Georgian architecture and the golden hue of the famous Bath limestone.  The Crescent is one of the most famous attractions in Bath, and is in many movies and books.  We learned that Nicholas Cage once owned a house there (before he had to sell it for not paying his taxes).  It had a beautiful view of the city below, and a giant park in the middle of it.  There was a drop-off part-way into the crescent called the "Ha-Ha," because it was funny when someone wasn't paying attention and didn't see the wall and would fall over it.  The original purpose was to keep animals from coming up onto the main lawn, and I couldn't tell how high it was until we were on the other side of it.  I can see how someone would fall off! After this, we walked back through town to board the coach for Stonehenge.  It was about an hour drive from Bath, and in the middle of nowhere.  Once we arrived and stepped off the coach, everyone was grabbing for their shirts because there was an awful smell of manure.  This again reminded me of home :) but it was quite strong!  We got our tickets and our audio guides and made our way up to the big stones.  It was a lot bigger than I imagined!  I grew bored of the audio tour, which basically told all the theories and stories about why they are there or how they got there.  I mainly took a lot of pictures and just looked at them as we walked the circular path around them.  It was very cool to see, since it is a world wonder and all, but a little anti-climatic in my opinion, especially since you could see them from the road without paying to go in.  Nonetheless, we enjoyed, and hiked up a field across the road to see some of the burial mounds, or barrows.  We even climbed up one!  Then it was time to go and we got back on the coach for home.  It was a long day, and wasn't as exciting as I'd hoped, but I am glad that I went.  When we got back, we went to dinner and had our weekly movie night (National Treasure this time). And for now, I'm tired, and am looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow.  Enjoy my weekend blogs, I'm going to bed!