The buzzing sound of my phone alarm woke me from a deep sleep. I groggily got up to cross my room and turn it off. I got back under my warm covers and lied my head down on my perfectly positioned pillow to sleep till my second alarm would go off. The second alarm did it this time. I woke up instantly without lingering in my bed and routinely opened my door to grab my towel and take a shower. Once showered and semi-ready, I went to the kitchen to make a big breakfast. I ate three eggs on toast, an apple, and a glass of milk. I went back to my room to finish packing and organize my room somewhat before departure. It was fifteen past eight when I made my way down stairs to wait for the coach. Once on the coach, I turned my iPod onto my ‘Wicked’ soundtrack, positioned my pillow to rest against the window and then I put my ‘sea bands’ on and fell asleep. I woke up when we were just outside of Bath. Once at the hostel, we found out that only one room booked was clean and ready, therefore we had to unload all our luggage in room 7. The entire group then got back on the coach to have it take us down the hill to City Centre. A group of us girls and one boy, Von, found a “Pizza Hut,” to have lunch before we started wondering the city. After a very delicious lunch, we found the Roman Baths. We spent about one hour touring the Roman Baths. It was very beautiful and rather fascinating to learn about all its history. Funny story, a group of us were posing for a picture like we were going to jump in the Roman Baths…turns out I almost fell in for real! There is a picture of me falling and my friend catching me! Oops! After the tour, you could try the water from the famous fountain in the pump room. Let me tell you, it was disgusting. It tasted like I was drinking iron. Sick. After the baths, we just walked around the city seeing the Bath Abbey and the Pulteney Bridge. The night most of us just stayed in the hostel and made dinner there instead of going out. I enjoyed a yummy dish of Spiderman Mac n’ Cheese (Thanks MOM!).
The next morning we woke bright and early to make our way to Stonehenge. Stonehenge is Europe’s most famous prehistoric monument. It was very cool to see and a lot bigger in person that I thought! But since it’s a bunch of rocks, we only spent about 30 minutes there. Next we drove to Avebury. Avebury is known for its stone circles…so in other words, we had a day of taking pictures of big rocks. That night we hung out at the hostel for a bit and then the majority of the SIE group walked down a little path to get down to Bath. We went to a posh pub called “Weathering Spoons” or something like that for a Valentine’s pint. The next morning we took off for Glastonbury. Glastonbury was an interesting town…witchcraft and incents were in every window! It’s mainly known for its Tor, people in the town say it’s ‘no ordinary hill: people develop personal, profound relationships with it.’ I didn’t actually develop a relationship with it besides the fact that I’ll never walk up it again. Apparently, Glastonbury Tor is home to Gwyn ap Nudd, King of the Fairies. Yeah…about that.I went there. After walking the Tor, we got some lunch at this organic food restaurant and enjoyed some yummy Guinness Cake! Finally, we left around 2:30ish and headed back home to Brum. It was a good trip but it's always nice to get home. Although we got back around 5...I decided instead of doing homework I'll watch a few hours of "planet earth"...oops.
This Saturday I’m taking a day trip with some of my SIE friends to Stratford-upon-Avon. I’ll let you know how that goes!
Kirsten
Thursday, 19 February 2009
Sunday, 8 February 2009
Saturday Feb. 7th: 'Play Day' in London!
WOW! What an amazing day in London! On Friday, Ashley’s friend who is currently studying in Italy came to visit for the weekend and we ended up doing some baking and hanging out. I ended up not getting bed till 2:30…oops. I had my alarm set for 4am…yup I only got 1.5 hours of sleep. We woke up early to catch the 5:50 train to London. We arrived in London about 15 to 8. Ashley’s friend, Tara, had to catch a 6:50 AM flight back to Italy on Sunday morning and we discovered that the last train from London to Birmingham on Saturday was a 9:42 PM….that was going to be a problem. The reason why wanted to get to London so early was to stand in line for 25 pound front row Wicked tickets! We ran off the train, jumped on the tube to Victoria Station and headed towards a “London Travel Help Desk” to get directions to the Apollo Victoria Theatre were Wicked was showing. We went up to the person behind the desk and asked for directions and he was like “Yeah, I’ve never heard of the Apollo Victoria.” Then he motioned his head behind us and we turned to see a huge sign saying “Wicked” and above it in huge letters was “Apollo Victoria.” Hahahaha! So we apologized for being Americans and dashed out the door. We noticed the line was only 15 people long, but we still wanted to just get there and get our spot. Once in line, Ashley and Tara went into the station to get coffee and some rolls. The ticket office wouldn’t open till 10 AM so we had two hours to sit out in the cold…burr….! After two hours of chit chat, coffee, and reading Twilight, they finally opened the doors! We GOT OUR TICKETS! Woot Woot! We paid 25 pounds each for front row tickets to ‘Wicked!’ It was 10:15 AM and after taking a bunch of pictures outside the theatre we headed to the tube to show Tara around London till the 2:30 showing of ‘Wicked.’ It was an absolutely beautiful day! First we went to Buckingham Palace, then to Westminster, and the Parliament to see Big Ben. After a little bit of walking around, we headed back to the theatre to see ‘Wicked!’ AHHHH! On the way there, I was getting so fired up I couldn’t handle it! The show was SPECTACULAR! It was absolutely AMAZING! I can’t wait to see it again someday! We sat front row and I could see everything and….wow! I’m speechless …it was so good. Wow.
After seeing ‘Wicked’ we went to the National Express Bus station hopefully get information on buses going to Birmingham. We had a feeling that there was no way that we were going to make our 9:42 train because our next show that we were going to would get out at that time more or less. So we ended up just buying tickets for the 11pm 3 hour bus ride home, just in case. If we would wait to buy them till we knew for sure that we missed the train, we’d be screwed. I was really proud of myself as far as spending money, before we left to catch our train that morning I made myself eat two big bowls of cereal and pack a few apples, granola bars, and a water bottle full of apple juice. So with those snacks in my bag, I only spent 2.25 pounds on food the entire day! I bought a huge baguette and ate half for lunch along with an apple and granola bar and then for dinner we went to Sainsbury’s again, and I bought lunch meat and a can of coke to wake me up before the “Three Days of Rain’ performance with yup, you guessed it, JAMES MCAVOY! AHHH! We ran from station to station from tube to tube case we were getting so fired up! Once at the theatre and we had our tickets in our hands, we sat down in our seats with anticipation! I was almost going to faint I was getting so excited!
Then…the theatre went dark, everything went quiet…then suddenly, the lights turned on and focused on the stage as the set door opened abruptly and in stumbled in…James McAvoy! I and Ashley were shaking! Right before the lights turned off, we noticed in the program that there were understudies and we were freaking out that they’d use an understudy for James MvAvoy the night we come! But, we were relieved that it was him who we saw! The performance was outstanding and it was sure something else to see James at is craft. He was phenomenal. The acting was brilliant. The story of the play was deep but with a hint of comedy. Wow. We sat in the stalls, floor, and were only 15 rows back…it was a small theatre and it was like he was right in front of me….!!! Ahh! You’re not allowed to take photos or anything during anytime in the theatre…but we did kind of. Oops…. After the show we lingered around to see if, you know, he would just happen to come out. He didn’t but I didn’t care, it was a fantastic show and I still can’t believe I got to see it! The only way I knew about it was reading an article about it on the train one time! After the show, we made our way back to the National Express Bus Station, got on the bus, feel asleep instantly and woke up in Birmingham.
It was a wonderful day and I’ll never forget it! Wow! As I type this I’m listening to the ‘Wicked’ soundtrack…hehehehe.
Well I better go and get some homework done. Icky.
Cheers!
Kirsten
After seeing ‘Wicked’ we went to the National Express Bus station hopefully get information on buses going to Birmingham. We had a feeling that there was no way that we were going to make our 9:42 train because our next show that we were going to would get out at that time more or less. So we ended up just buying tickets for the 11pm 3 hour bus ride home, just in case. If we would wait to buy them till we knew for sure that we missed the train, we’d be screwed. I was really proud of myself as far as spending money, before we left to catch our train that morning I made myself eat two big bowls of cereal and pack a few apples, granola bars, and a water bottle full of apple juice. So with those snacks in my bag, I only spent 2.25 pounds on food the entire day! I bought a huge baguette and ate half for lunch along with an apple and granola bar and then for dinner we went to Sainsbury’s again, and I bought lunch meat and a can of coke to wake me up before the “Three Days of Rain’ performance with yup, you guessed it, JAMES MCAVOY! AHHH! We ran from station to station from tube to tube case we were getting so fired up! Once at the theatre and we had our tickets in our hands, we sat down in our seats with anticipation! I was almost going to faint I was getting so excited!
Then…the theatre went dark, everything went quiet…then suddenly, the lights turned on and focused on the stage as the set door opened abruptly and in stumbled in…James McAvoy! I and Ashley were shaking! Right before the lights turned off, we noticed in the program that there were understudies and we were freaking out that they’d use an understudy for James MvAvoy the night we come! But, we were relieved that it was him who we saw! The performance was outstanding and it was sure something else to see James at is craft. He was phenomenal. The acting was brilliant. The story of the play was deep but with a hint of comedy. Wow. We sat in the stalls, floor, and were only 15 rows back…it was a small theatre and it was like he was right in front of me….!!! Ahh! You’re not allowed to take photos or anything during anytime in the theatre…but we did kind of. Oops…. After the show we lingered around to see if, you know, he would just happen to come out. He didn’t but I didn’t care, it was a fantastic show and I still can’t believe I got to see it! The only way I knew about it was reading an article about it on the train one time! After the show, we made our way back to the National Express Bus Station, got on the bus, feel asleep instantly and woke up in Birmingham.
It was a wonderful day and I’ll never forget it! Wow! As I type this I’m listening to the ‘Wicked’ soundtrack…hehehehe.
Well I better go and get some homework done. Icky.
Cheers!
Kirsten
Sunday, 1 February 2009
Second Term Starts and York & Whitby Feild Trip...
Second term started the Monday the 12th. I’m enrolled in 5 classes:
Journal and Memoir
Advanced Writing: Arts and Letters
Organizational Behavior and Management
British Short Stories
British Art and Museums
I love my class schedule! I have class everyday from 9-12:30 and its perfect! I’m usually home by a little past one, and then I have the entire day to go to the gym, get work done, and work for MJ. Speaking of MJ Catering….I worked two weeks past at the Darby Football Game and this time I was in charge of a ‘box.’ They asked if I’d ever worked a box before and I was like “sure I have!”….NOT! Anyway, it was a good day’s work and I enjoyed it very much! Now with MJ I can be a Bar Supervisor and in charge of a Box. Nice.
On Wednesday the 29th for my Arts and Museums class we met at the “The Barber Institute of Fine Arts” on the University of Birmingham campus for class. Before our hour tour of the art Institute, we had time to go through the “Jack Kerouac” exhibition. Here we got to see the original manuscript scroll of Jack Kerouac’s seminal novel. “One the Road,” is displayed here in Britain for the first time! I got to see one of the most iconic literary manuscripts in existence. In April 1951, Kerouac taped together eight twenty-foot strips of teletype paper to form a single scroll some 150 feet long. Feeding it into a portable typewriter, he began composing the work that was to become the bible of the post-war Beat Generation. He completed the novel in only twenty days or rapid. Continuous typing, fuelled chiefly by caffeine! It was very cool!
On Friday the 30th we left Tennis Courts at precisely 8am to make our two hour journey to York. We first stopped at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park before dropping out stuff off at the York International Youth Hostel. Naturally I frolicked around the park and imitated the various sculptures. It was rather windy and cold but still a fun time! From the Park we when to the youth hostel to get unloaded and situated. We had about two hours to just relax and hang out or wonder through York till the group would meet at the York Minster at 3pm for a guided tour. The York Minster was absolutely beautiful! York Minster is a Gothic cathedral and one of the largest of its kind in Northern Europe. The Minster is the seat of the Archbishop of York which is the second-highest office of the Church of England. Its formal title is “The Cathedral and Metropolitan Church of St. Peter in York.” It was constructed in 1338 and contains the largest expanse of medieval stained glass in the world. In its existence, it’s been through three fires but still stands today as beautiful as ever!
After the tour, we got the option to stay for “Evensong” at 5:15. Evensong is a liturgy in the use in the Anglican Communion and is celebrated in the late afternoon or evening. It’s commonly known as Evensong when the pray is rendered chorally, where most of the service is sung. It was the boys and men’s choir singing this night and it was beautiful! I could listen to them sing the “Lords Prayer” forever!
After evensong we went back to the hostel to make some pasta! We decided to bring pasta, sauce, and food form home and cook in the hostel instead of spending money to go out and eat what a fantastic idea! The next day was a free day! We slept in a bit and then at one met up with the group to go to the “Jorvik Viking Centre.” “Jorvik’ is the Viking name for York, and this museum is actually the site of a number of 10th century Viking buildings which they are still excavating. The ground is very moist and spongy, which has helped reserve wood, leather, and cloth artifacts that would have normally disintegrated by now. It was very interesting! They had this ride that you took through a ‘wax’ set up of how it would look and SMELL (icky) like during that time. From the skeletons discovered in there excavations at this site, they made the wax people from the profile of their skulls and what they would have looked like through the use of amazing technology…..WOW! After the museum a few of use wondered around York for a few hours before going back to the hostel to make another cheap dinner. After dinner, the majority of us were pretty tired from the long day and we watched “Underworld” in the TV lounge. It was fantastic!
This morning we woke up bright and early for some full English breakfast provided by the hostel and got on the coach for a two hour ride to Whitby, in Northern Yorkshire. There was an OPTION to take a 7 mile hike along the coast from Robin Hoods Bay to Whitby…it was snowy, windy, and really really cold…I opted out thank you! About 25 people from the group took the hike and the rest of us wandered around Whitby. From the people on the hike, they said it was a good time and they got some beautiful pictures, BUT it was REALLY REALLY cold. Yup, I made a good decision. Once we dropped of the crew stupid enough to hike, we went to the Whitby Abbey Ruins and it was really cool! Did I mention we kind of jumped the brink fence and snuck in….. A few of us just wondered around Whitby for a few hours before catching the coach to go back to Brum. In Whitby I found a good sized, not too big and not too small, backpacking backpack for Spring Break. WOOT WOOT! Whitby is known for is yummy fish n’ chips, so naturally we just had to get some! Hehehe! They were right, it was delicious! After fish ‘n chips we went to a small café and got some hot coca cause we were really cold! Burrrrr…Then it was time to get on the coach for a four hour trip back home. As I type, a good chunk of my SIE group is at the “Bar One” a mile up the road watching the Super Bowl….no thank you. It’s 12:23am and I’m soooo tired! The game wouldn’t get done till about 4am my time and they aren’t even showing the commercials…well, it makes sense…we are in England and the commercials they play are American commercials, but still!
Well I best bet to bed! I have a long week ahead of me! Oh yeah, this weekend my and Ashley are taking a day trip down to London on Saturday to see a matinee of “Wicked” and evening show of “Three Days of Rain,” which is a NEW play with, yup you guessed it, JAMES MCAVOY!! AHHHHH! I’ll let you know how that goes! I’m getting so excited!
Goodnight!
Kirsten
Journal and Memoir
Advanced Writing: Arts and Letters
Organizational Behavior and Management
British Short Stories
British Art and Museums
I love my class schedule! I have class everyday from 9-12:30 and its perfect! I’m usually home by a little past one, and then I have the entire day to go to the gym, get work done, and work for MJ. Speaking of MJ Catering….I worked two weeks past at the Darby Football Game and this time I was in charge of a ‘box.’ They asked if I’d ever worked a box before and I was like “sure I have!”….NOT! Anyway, it was a good day’s work and I enjoyed it very much! Now with MJ I can be a Bar Supervisor and in charge of a Box. Nice.
On Wednesday the 29th for my Arts and Museums class we met at the “The Barber Institute of Fine Arts” on the University of Birmingham campus for class. Before our hour tour of the art Institute, we had time to go through the “Jack Kerouac” exhibition. Here we got to see the original manuscript scroll of Jack Kerouac’s seminal novel. “One the Road,” is displayed here in Britain for the first time! I got to see one of the most iconic literary manuscripts in existence. In April 1951, Kerouac taped together eight twenty-foot strips of teletype paper to form a single scroll some 150 feet long. Feeding it into a portable typewriter, he began composing the work that was to become the bible of the post-war Beat Generation. He completed the novel in only twenty days or rapid. Continuous typing, fuelled chiefly by caffeine! It was very cool!
On Friday the 30th we left Tennis Courts at precisely 8am to make our two hour journey to York. We first stopped at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park before dropping out stuff off at the York International Youth Hostel. Naturally I frolicked around the park and imitated the various sculptures. It was rather windy and cold but still a fun time! From the Park we when to the youth hostel to get unloaded and situated. We had about two hours to just relax and hang out or wonder through York till the group would meet at the York Minster at 3pm for a guided tour. The York Minster was absolutely beautiful! York Minster is a Gothic cathedral and one of the largest of its kind in Northern Europe. The Minster is the seat of the Archbishop of York which is the second-highest office of the Church of England. Its formal title is “The Cathedral and Metropolitan Church of St. Peter in York.” It was constructed in 1338 and contains the largest expanse of medieval stained glass in the world. In its existence, it’s been through three fires but still stands today as beautiful as ever!
After the tour, we got the option to stay for “Evensong” at 5:15. Evensong is a liturgy in the use in the Anglican Communion and is celebrated in the late afternoon or evening. It’s commonly known as Evensong when the pray is rendered chorally, where most of the service is sung. It was the boys and men’s choir singing this night and it was beautiful! I could listen to them sing the “Lords Prayer” forever!
After evensong we went back to the hostel to make some pasta! We decided to bring pasta, sauce, and food form home and cook in the hostel instead of spending money to go out and eat what a fantastic idea! The next day was a free day! We slept in a bit and then at one met up with the group to go to the “Jorvik Viking Centre.” “Jorvik’ is the Viking name for York, and this museum is actually the site of a number of 10th century Viking buildings which they are still excavating. The ground is very moist and spongy, which has helped reserve wood, leather, and cloth artifacts that would have normally disintegrated by now. It was very interesting! They had this ride that you took through a ‘wax’ set up of how it would look and SMELL (icky) like during that time. From the skeletons discovered in there excavations at this site, they made the wax people from the profile of their skulls and what they would have looked like through the use of amazing technology…..WOW! After the museum a few of use wondered around York for a few hours before going back to the hostel to make another cheap dinner. After dinner, the majority of us were pretty tired from the long day and we watched “Underworld” in the TV lounge. It was fantastic!
This morning we woke up bright and early for some full English breakfast provided by the hostel and got on the coach for a two hour ride to Whitby, in Northern Yorkshire. There was an OPTION to take a 7 mile hike along the coast from Robin Hoods Bay to Whitby…it was snowy, windy, and really really cold…I opted out thank you! About 25 people from the group took the hike and the rest of us wandered around Whitby. From the people on the hike, they said it was a good time and they got some beautiful pictures, BUT it was REALLY REALLY cold. Yup, I made a good decision. Once we dropped of the crew stupid enough to hike, we went to the Whitby Abbey Ruins and it was really cool! Did I mention we kind of jumped the brink fence and snuck in….. A few of us just wondered around Whitby for a few hours before catching the coach to go back to Brum. In Whitby I found a good sized, not too big and not too small, backpacking backpack for Spring Break. WOOT WOOT! Whitby is known for is yummy fish n’ chips, so naturally we just had to get some! Hehehe! They were right, it was delicious! After fish ‘n chips we went to a small café and got some hot coca cause we were really cold! Burrrrr…Then it was time to get on the coach for a four hour trip back home. As I type, a good chunk of my SIE group is at the “Bar One” a mile up the road watching the Super Bowl….no thank you. It’s 12:23am and I’m soooo tired! The game wouldn’t get done till about 4am my time and they aren’t even showing the commercials…well, it makes sense…we are in England and the commercials they play are American commercials, but still!
Well I best bet to bed! I have a long week ahead of me! Oh yeah, this weekend my and Ashley are taking a day trip down to London on Saturday to see a matinee of “Wicked” and evening show of “Three Days of Rain,” which is a NEW play with, yup you guessed it, JAMES MCAVOY!! AHHHHH! I’ll let you know how that goes! I’m getting so excited!
Goodnight!
Kirsten
Thursday, 8 January 2009
Birthday, Christmas, Munich, London, and Paris!
Yikes! It’s been a long time since I wrote about what’s been going on in my life! Sorry about that! I’ll do my best to catch up to the most recent ‘experience.’
November 28th 2008: Day Trip to Oxford (the last SIE group field trip till second term)
What a beautiful place! We woke up bright and early to jump on the coach to make our way down to Oxford for a pretty short day trip. When we arrived our group got split into two for the separate tours that would take place throughout the day. My group first toured around the city of Oxford itself. We saw some beautiful architecture, but mainly focused on Oxford University and the colleges that make it up. It was rather fascinating learning about the Oxford University system. There are 38 colleges of the University of Oxford and 6 Permanent Private Halls, each with its own internal structure and activities. Undergraduate teaching is centered upon the tutorial, where 1-4 students spend an hour with an academic discussing their week’s work. Oxford is the oldest university in the English-speaking world. It is also regarded as one of the world's leading academic institutions!
Next we toured the famous Bodleian Library! The main research library of the University of Oxford and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. The Bodleian Group now cares for some 8 million items on 117 miles of shelving, and a staff of over 400. Over 1.5 million items are currently stored in locations outside Oxford! Dang! When you enter the library you have to leave your bags and jackets in lockers or have to go through security where they have to go through everything you’re bringing into the library. They also don’t allow you to check out books, you have to read them there! I noticed as I toured the library that some books were chained to the wall; this is to prevent people from stealing the older books and most precious books in the library.
We also saw the room that was used for all the hospital scenes in Harry Potter. After touring the library we had a few hours to kill till the bus would depart. So a few of us went off on our own to do some shopping and explore. Well….some of us really had to use the bathroom and we didn’t want to pay so we walked around for a bit till we saw an open door into some huge building….looked legit. We walked in the huge double doors and discovered it was one of the many colleges! One thing that we learned from our tour is that unless you go to the college or are on an actual tour, you are not allowed in the college…oops. In a very sneaky way we found another door that lead downstairs. This huge building was shaped as a rectangle and a garden was in the middle. We found the loo and left as quickly as possible…phew! We stopped at the markets to look around in some shops and next to a shop where I bought a cute black hat was dead animal’s hanging above the meat market….rabbits, foxes, birds, you know the usual. Since one of my friends who I was with is vegetarian, we left ASAP. One our way to the bus we were walking down a busy shopping street and I could hear a group of boys singing, naturally I told the girls that we needed to pursue in that direction. We listened to the group of boys singing; known as “Out of the Blue,” while they finished the song they were on before heading back to the bus. My day in Oxford was a very interesting and I learned a lot! I’m defiantly considering making another trip down there…
December 5th 2008: My 20th Birthday!
Yay! I’m 20! Woot Woot! So this day started with my friend Jared taking me to my favorite place, Selly Sausage, for some yummy full English breakfast! Then Katie and I went down to City Center to do some shopping for my birthday party that would take place that night. Katie also bought me a Coldplay mug and Troy HSM3 poster…YEAH! Ashley left the night before for a trip to Sweden! After some shopping we got ready for my birthday party! So about the size of my flat…very very small, but we managed to have just over 55 people show up! Daaaang! Good times!
December 7th 2008: Carol Singing at Nursing Home and SIE Christmas Party
For my Marriages and Families Psychology class, our teacher asked if a few of us would be interested in earning some extra credit by volunteering at a nursing home to do some carol singing! Naturally, I was all about that and my friend AJ and I decided to sing a duet for it. We sang Christmas Shoes as a duet and with the choir we sang all the usual fun Christmas songs to a bunch of people at the nursing home. It was a fun time, especially when some of the older ladies started singing with us. My Professor brought us Santa Hats, but naturally she found one that she thought suited me better! Hehehehe!
After singing at the Nursing home, I hurried back home to get ready for our Study in England Christmas Party. This would be the very last get together till second term! Crazy! It was more of snack party with mince pies and Christmas crackers! We also did Secret Santa which was a good time! After a few hours of chit chat with our first term professors who also came to the party, Greg who is the director of the program came into the room dressed as Santa and it was fantastic!
Thursday 11th December: Last day of first Term in England!
Wow! I can’t believe how fast this semester has gone! It feels like just yesterday when we got off the plane. Time sure flies, but it feels as though here it’s on high-speed! Stop it! I had a wonderful first semester here in England filled with wonderful experiences and meeting some wonderful people! Academically school went great! Which of course I can’t forget is the reason I’m here! Hehehehe! I’m very excited for what is in store for me second term but hoping it doesn’t come and go so fast!
Since my family was coming the 21st of December, I decided to just hang out at the flats the first week and just relax and save some money! It actually turned out pretty good that I did that because I was terribly sick the first 4 days! In bed all day…ick. Unfortunately, so was Katie. The good thing about staying here the first week, not only saving a lot of money, but Katie and Ashley were here as well. Katie left that following Tuesday for her flight back to the states for Christmas and Ashley didn’t leave till that Friday to go meet her family and head of to Ireland. Throughout the first week I read the first 3 Twilight books, therefore you can come to the assumption that I’m in LOVE with Edward Cullen….and I am. Just about to start the fourth today!
So it came the night before when my parents were suppose to be getting on a plane to come see me…..there was a snow storm taking place in Nodak. Yay. I get a call from my mom saying that they were going to head into town early and try to catch the earliest flight they can to get to Minneapolis to catch their flight to Heathrow. So I’m in my flat pacing around and very anxious. I go to bed leaving my laptop on so my Dad or Jill can call me and let me know if they made their flight or not….2 am England time rolls around and I’m awaken by the sound of my Skype ringer. Crap. Turns out my parents missed their flight by 30 minutes to Heathrow. Of all the flights that day out of Minneapolis, the one that they missed was the only one that left EARLY! What the heck! Just my luck. So I already had a train ticket down to London that day and my parents had a hotel book, I decided I would just go down and spend the day in London on my own since they were to arrive Monday at the same time they were expected to arrive that Sunday. I took a noon train down to London, a taxi to the hotel to freshen up and then made my way down to the theatre where “Lion King” was to be performed. We bought theatre tickets about a month ago to see Lion King, but since they missed their flight I wasn’t about to NOT go! So I saw the performance with 4 empty seats to my left but I still had a fantastic time! The musical was amazing!
After the show I went across the street for some dinner and then headed back to the hotel. The next morning I hung out in the lobby of the hotel for 2 hours waiting for them to walk through the door….tick tock tick tock. I decided to go upstairs and make a quick cup of tea and just as I walked into the door I got a call from the front desk…it was Steve! Crap! So I ran downstairs and AHHH! There they were! It felt so weird having them in England! After they settled a bit, we went out to eat at Pizza Express and then made our way to Central London to show them Big Ben, Westminster Abby, and other neat places around London. The next day we headed off to Munich! We stayed at a friend of my mom’s while they were in the States and it was a wonderful time! We made German Stew in Germany and slept in till noon! The day after Christmas we drove to Nurnberg, where my mom was born! Although a lot of places were closed due to holiday, we still had a great time! We came back to Birmingham the next day for a few days before making our way to Paris. The best part of them seeing Birmingham…..GROCERIES! We left Birmingham the 29th to fly to Paris for New Years! New Years Eve day my mom, Steve, Molly, Barb, and I stood in line at the Eiffel Tower for about two hours in the bitter cold, but it was worth it! The Eiffel Tower is a lot bigger and more elegant that I ever thought! After the Eiffel Tower we took a taxi to the Louvre! We waited in a long line for a bit only to realize we were in the wrong line. Oops. By the time we found the right line, they had signs up saying it was closing and that no more people could go in. Sorry Mom! We left the Louvre to go back to the Hotel where Katie and Ashley were! They were meeting us in Paris because when my parents left, I would stay with them and we’d travel France a bit. New Years Eve my parents stayed in a the hotel and Katie, Ashley and I made our way back to the Eiffel Tower to meet up with some people on the program who were also in Paris! We stood on the Balcony of Palais De Chaillot across the bridge from the lit up Eiffel Tower! It was beautiful and such a fun night!
The next day my parents left bright and early to catch a flight back to London. Katie, Ashley and I slept in as long as we could before we had to sneak out since they weren’t supposed to be in our room! Hehehe! From the hotel we walked about 45 minutes to the nearest train station to catch at train to Strasbourg. So we made it to the station to find out that the train left from a different train station across town…crap. We took the Metro to the station and waited in line yet again for tickets. We found out that it would cost each of us a little under $300 for a round trip to Strasbourg! Um…yeah no thank you. So with that plan falling through we got back on the Metro to find a place to stay for the night till we figured out what we wanted to do with our lives. Keep in mind we all had return tickets for Friday the 9th of January back to London. The night before, New Years Eve, we remembered one of our SIE friends saying that they were staying at the “Peace and Love” Hostel near the Le Blanc Metro stop. So we took the metro there and decided we’d just try to find it. Once we finally found the hostel, it had already been a long long day with walking and jumping Metro’s with all our huge backpacks. We walk into the Hostel, obviously looking tired and desperate. There was a lady sitting at a table eating her lunch and when we asked if there were any rooms available for the night she just shook her head very slowly with a sympathetic expression on her face. She told us No, but to sit down and talk to her a bit. We told her about our day thus far walking around Paris and that our friends stayed here the night before, which was the only reason why we knew of this place. She gave us a plate of Salmon and a baguette to eat…we must have looked hungry too…. She said she knew of a lot of different hostels around the area and people she knew who might be able to give us a place to stay. She was making a few phone calls when a man came down the stairs with all his luggage. She looked at him in surprise and said “Leaving already?” He told her that he needed to leave a day early in order to catch the right train to where ever he was going. She looked up at us and said, “Can you girls wait an hour?” A sudden relief washed through us knowing that we had a place to stay! We had no problem waiting while they cleaned the only room available…a two person, one bed room with us three girls…that was going to be interesting. Although we didn’t really car, we were just so relieved to have a place to stay.
That night we hung out with our SIE friends who were still staying there. Actually their train ticket for that day actually didn’t exist so they had to stay an extra night. Bradie, a boy in my SIE program, didn’t have a place to stay so we let him sleep on our floor in the Hostel…..that was also very interesting. We had to be out of the Hostel by 10am the next morning so we packed all our things and left them in the closet of the hostel till we figured out what we were going to do. They weren’t sure if they had room for us that night either so we just had to wait. We ended up doing our make-up in the upstairs of the McDonald’s across the street while we waited for news of a room being available as well as for the boys to meet us. Ashley, Katie, me, Bradie, Andrew, Andy, and Mike, all SIE students besides Andrew’s friends from home Andy and Mike, decided to spend the day together around Paris. We went to ‘Cimetiere Du Pere Lachaise’ where James Morrison from The Doors is buried. Next we walked to the “Bastille” and from there we decided to just walk around Paris for the rest of the day. We saw a lot of really cool architecture! We ended up staying at the Peace and Love Hostel that night as well, this time Ashley and I were in a two person room and Katie was in a dorm style room with two random boys but we didn’t care, as long as we had a place to stay. The next day we also could stay at the Peace and Love, although this time we had a three person room! It was a three person bunk bed! That day we took a tour from the Hostel! The hostel does tours for 10 Euro and we meet a lot of really cool people from all over the world! Here is a list of everything we saw on our tour: Notre Dame, Napoleons’ Tomb, Pont Neuf (Oldest Bridge in Paris), Comedie Francaise, Opera House (Phantom of the Opera!), Ferris wheel, Louvre, The Grand Palasis, The Arc de Triomph, La Madeleine, Petit Palais, Palais Royal, Place des Vosges, and the Pantheon. It was a fantastic day seeing so much and learning so much fascinating history about Paris.
That night we meet two boys from South Africa who were staying at the Hostel and decided to go to the Louvre with them the next day. I have been to the Louvre twice now, but only on the outside! Sunday it was going to be free admission, therefore the perfect time to go! We meet them in the lobby of the Hostel at 9am to make our way to the Louvre! The inside of the Louvre was amazing! I got to see the Mona Lisa and when we saw it, one of the South African’s was like “Nice Frame.” We walked around a bit in the art portion of this huge museum and I saw paintings in front of me that a few years ago were pictures in my English book! It was so cool! I saw real Picasso’s! Ahhh! After the Louvre we were so hungry that we found a little shop and got something to eat. After that we walked down to Angelina’s which apparently has the best hot chocolate you’ll ever have…..it was true! It was thick, warm, melted chocolate almost, with almond whipped cream on top….yum! After hanging out there for about an hour, we walked around the Jardin des Tuileries and then went back to the hostel. The South African’s hung out with us a bit at the hostel before they had to go check in to their new hostel on the other side of Paris. We were sitting in the lobby area of the Hostel and Karin, who works at the hostel, asked if Ashley could go downstairs and lock the closet door where all our luggage is in because some guy walked down there a long time ago and was acting suspicious….When we went down to grab our luggage and take it to Karin’s house to stay, our bags were open and some of our stuff were out of our bags! I man went through our stuff but didn’t take anything! How lucky! Turns out when Ashley went downstairs, it spooked him and he dropped everything and left. Phew. Lucky Lucky Lucky! Although there really wasn’t anything to steal besides come dirty clothes and shampoo because we all kept all our money, credit cards, and passport with us at all times.
The next day it snowed and it was so very cold but we still had stuff to see before we leave the next day for home! We first went to Sacre Coeur Basilica which was beautiful! It’s the highest elevation in Paris and you see the entire city, although when we were there it was snowing and foggy! From there we walked down Moulin Rouge and then took the Metro to Notre Dame to go to the Shakespeare and Company Bookshop to look inside a bit. After that we stopped for some hot cocoa at a little restaurant nearby, we then made our way back to the Farris Wheel to meet up with the South African’s again. We went to the Arc de le Triumph and then to the Latin Quarter to have some dinner and hang out with Diederick and Gary for a bit.
So now I can tell you a little bit about the stress that was taking place throughout our travels thus far…..
Our flight got cancelled on Friday and changed to a different time that same day. Since our Strasbourg plans feel through, we decided it would be too expensive to stay in Paris till Friday so we decided to go online and change our flight to Monday. We were online for about 2 hours trying to find contact information and we found a few numbers for which we had to walk down the street to use a pay phone to call them at and NONE of the numbers worked! There was always a message saying that the number for “Easyjet Airlines was no longer in use and to please call this number….” Well long long long story short, none of the many many numbers that we called worked and there was no way of contacting the airlines to switch our flight and everyday online the price got more and more expensive. It was very frustrating to be in the middle of Paris trying to get a hold of someone to get us on a plane out of there to get home! We decided to just pay the money to leave on Tuesday because it would be cheaper than paying to stay and buy food. We actually ended up staying at Karin, our hostel tour guides flat, for the last two nights in Paris, she charged us 25 Euro each, but it was still cheaper than the hostel. Okay, so by this time we HATE Easyjet and aren’t very happy with their customer service. We started our long day of travel at 7am Tuesday morning. First we took two Metro’s to the Airport, about an hour long journey, then waited in line at Security for about 30 minutes to enter a locked room with no TV screen of what’s going on with our flight or a loo. 11:05 rolls around, the time where our flight was suppose to leave and everyone was clumped around the front desk asking questions about what’s going on…..Apparently the flight from Paris to London Lutton doesn’t exist…um????? After a bit, we all get herded to yet another security line to the plane that they finally FOUND!
After security the second time, we go down a staircase that leads us outside to the freezing cold to stand on a crowded bus with all the doors open to take us to the plane. After about 20 minutes on the bus, we finally move towards the plane. Once on the plane Ashley, Katie and I fell asleep right away to wake up an hour later thinking we already landed to find that WE HAVEN’T EVEN LEFT YET! I HATE EASYJET! Once landed in London Lutton we grab our luggage and head to EasyJet Costumer Service desk. Sorry EasyJet, but a storm is coming! Once there they give us yet another number to call and after a little over an hour on the phone mixed with being on hold to some yelling……Ashely, Katie and I got a full refund for our plane tickets to get switched from Friday to Tuesday. Yeah, that just happened.
Ashley, Katie and I at this point are very happy about our refund but then suddenly hit by that fact that we are in the London Lutton airport and we still have a long day to go to get back Birmingham. We had to walk to the Holiday Inn Express to pick up the luggage that they left before heading to Paris for New Years so we walked to the hotel, picked up the luggage, walked back to the airport, jumped on the bus to the train station, got our tickets for the train to Birmingham, jumped back on the bus back to the airport cause that is where the bus to take us to the right train station would be. Once on the right bus, we had about a 45 minute drive till we could catch our Train to Birmingham. We arrived in Birmingham around 7pm Tuesday night. Took a taxi home. Went to bed. Yikes. Definitely was a day of “Planes, Trains and Automobiles.’
Paris was a fantastic experience and we learned a lot! It was a beautiful city and I would go back in a heartbeat! Although, maybe when I have more money! We meet some wonderful people and I could probably write about our Paris adventure for ever….but I’ll stop here!
Miss you!
Kirsten
November 28th 2008: Day Trip to Oxford (the last SIE group field trip till second term)
What a beautiful place! We woke up bright and early to jump on the coach to make our way down to Oxford for a pretty short day trip. When we arrived our group got split into two for the separate tours that would take place throughout the day. My group first toured around the city of Oxford itself. We saw some beautiful architecture, but mainly focused on Oxford University and the colleges that make it up. It was rather fascinating learning about the Oxford University system. There are 38 colleges of the University of Oxford and 6 Permanent Private Halls, each with its own internal structure and activities. Undergraduate teaching is centered upon the tutorial, where 1-4 students spend an hour with an academic discussing their week’s work. Oxford is the oldest university in the English-speaking world. It is also regarded as one of the world's leading academic institutions!
Next we toured the famous Bodleian Library! The main research library of the University of Oxford and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. The Bodleian Group now cares for some 8 million items on 117 miles of shelving, and a staff of over 400. Over 1.5 million items are currently stored in locations outside Oxford! Dang! When you enter the library you have to leave your bags and jackets in lockers or have to go through security where they have to go through everything you’re bringing into the library. They also don’t allow you to check out books, you have to read them there! I noticed as I toured the library that some books were chained to the wall; this is to prevent people from stealing the older books and most precious books in the library.
We also saw the room that was used for all the hospital scenes in Harry Potter. After touring the library we had a few hours to kill till the bus would depart. So a few of us went off on our own to do some shopping and explore. Well….some of us really had to use the bathroom and we didn’t want to pay so we walked around for a bit till we saw an open door into some huge building….looked legit. We walked in the huge double doors and discovered it was one of the many colleges! One thing that we learned from our tour is that unless you go to the college or are on an actual tour, you are not allowed in the college…oops. In a very sneaky way we found another door that lead downstairs. This huge building was shaped as a rectangle and a garden was in the middle. We found the loo and left as quickly as possible…phew! We stopped at the markets to look around in some shops and next to a shop where I bought a cute black hat was dead animal’s hanging above the meat market….rabbits, foxes, birds, you know the usual. Since one of my friends who I was with is vegetarian, we left ASAP. One our way to the bus we were walking down a busy shopping street and I could hear a group of boys singing, naturally I told the girls that we needed to pursue in that direction. We listened to the group of boys singing; known as “Out of the Blue,” while they finished the song they were on before heading back to the bus. My day in Oxford was a very interesting and I learned a lot! I’m defiantly considering making another trip down there…
December 5th 2008: My 20th Birthday!
Yay! I’m 20! Woot Woot! So this day started with my friend Jared taking me to my favorite place, Selly Sausage, for some yummy full English breakfast! Then Katie and I went down to City Center to do some shopping for my birthday party that would take place that night. Katie also bought me a Coldplay mug and Troy HSM3 poster…YEAH! Ashley left the night before for a trip to Sweden! After some shopping we got ready for my birthday party! So about the size of my flat…very very small, but we managed to have just over 55 people show up! Daaaang! Good times!
December 7th 2008: Carol Singing at Nursing Home and SIE Christmas Party
For my Marriages and Families Psychology class, our teacher asked if a few of us would be interested in earning some extra credit by volunteering at a nursing home to do some carol singing! Naturally, I was all about that and my friend AJ and I decided to sing a duet for it. We sang Christmas Shoes as a duet and with the choir we sang all the usual fun Christmas songs to a bunch of people at the nursing home. It was a fun time, especially when some of the older ladies started singing with us. My Professor brought us Santa Hats, but naturally she found one that she thought suited me better! Hehehehe!
After singing at the Nursing home, I hurried back home to get ready for our Study in England Christmas Party. This would be the very last get together till second term! Crazy! It was more of snack party with mince pies and Christmas crackers! We also did Secret Santa which was a good time! After a few hours of chit chat with our first term professors who also came to the party, Greg who is the director of the program came into the room dressed as Santa and it was fantastic!
Thursday 11th December: Last day of first Term in England!
Wow! I can’t believe how fast this semester has gone! It feels like just yesterday when we got off the plane. Time sure flies, but it feels as though here it’s on high-speed! Stop it! I had a wonderful first semester here in England filled with wonderful experiences and meeting some wonderful people! Academically school went great! Which of course I can’t forget is the reason I’m here! Hehehehe! I’m very excited for what is in store for me second term but hoping it doesn’t come and go so fast!
Since my family was coming the 21st of December, I decided to just hang out at the flats the first week and just relax and save some money! It actually turned out pretty good that I did that because I was terribly sick the first 4 days! In bed all day…ick. Unfortunately, so was Katie. The good thing about staying here the first week, not only saving a lot of money, but Katie and Ashley were here as well. Katie left that following Tuesday for her flight back to the states for Christmas and Ashley didn’t leave till that Friday to go meet her family and head of to Ireland. Throughout the first week I read the first 3 Twilight books, therefore you can come to the assumption that I’m in LOVE with Edward Cullen….and I am. Just about to start the fourth today!
So it came the night before when my parents were suppose to be getting on a plane to come see me…..there was a snow storm taking place in Nodak. Yay. I get a call from my mom saying that they were going to head into town early and try to catch the earliest flight they can to get to Minneapolis to catch their flight to Heathrow. So I’m in my flat pacing around and very anxious. I go to bed leaving my laptop on so my Dad or Jill can call me and let me know if they made their flight or not….2 am England time rolls around and I’m awaken by the sound of my Skype ringer. Crap. Turns out my parents missed their flight by 30 minutes to Heathrow. Of all the flights that day out of Minneapolis, the one that they missed was the only one that left EARLY! What the heck! Just my luck. So I already had a train ticket down to London that day and my parents had a hotel book, I decided I would just go down and spend the day in London on my own since they were to arrive Monday at the same time they were expected to arrive that Sunday. I took a noon train down to London, a taxi to the hotel to freshen up and then made my way down to the theatre where “Lion King” was to be performed. We bought theatre tickets about a month ago to see Lion King, but since they missed their flight I wasn’t about to NOT go! So I saw the performance with 4 empty seats to my left but I still had a fantastic time! The musical was amazing!
After the show I went across the street for some dinner and then headed back to the hotel. The next morning I hung out in the lobby of the hotel for 2 hours waiting for them to walk through the door….tick tock tick tock. I decided to go upstairs and make a quick cup of tea and just as I walked into the door I got a call from the front desk…it was Steve! Crap! So I ran downstairs and AHHH! There they were! It felt so weird having them in England! After they settled a bit, we went out to eat at Pizza Express and then made our way to Central London to show them Big Ben, Westminster Abby, and other neat places around London. The next day we headed off to Munich! We stayed at a friend of my mom’s while they were in the States and it was a wonderful time! We made German Stew in Germany and slept in till noon! The day after Christmas we drove to Nurnberg, where my mom was born! Although a lot of places were closed due to holiday, we still had a great time! We came back to Birmingham the next day for a few days before making our way to Paris. The best part of them seeing Birmingham…..GROCERIES! We left Birmingham the 29th to fly to Paris for New Years! New Years Eve day my mom, Steve, Molly, Barb, and I stood in line at the Eiffel Tower for about two hours in the bitter cold, but it was worth it! The Eiffel Tower is a lot bigger and more elegant that I ever thought! After the Eiffel Tower we took a taxi to the Louvre! We waited in a long line for a bit only to realize we were in the wrong line. Oops. By the time we found the right line, they had signs up saying it was closing and that no more people could go in. Sorry Mom! We left the Louvre to go back to the Hotel where Katie and Ashley were! They were meeting us in Paris because when my parents left, I would stay with them and we’d travel France a bit. New Years Eve my parents stayed in a the hotel and Katie, Ashley and I made our way back to the Eiffel Tower to meet up with some people on the program who were also in Paris! We stood on the Balcony of Palais De Chaillot across the bridge from the lit up Eiffel Tower! It was beautiful and such a fun night!
The next day my parents left bright and early to catch a flight back to London. Katie, Ashley and I slept in as long as we could before we had to sneak out since they weren’t supposed to be in our room! Hehehe! From the hotel we walked about 45 minutes to the nearest train station to catch at train to Strasbourg. So we made it to the station to find out that the train left from a different train station across town…crap. We took the Metro to the station and waited in line yet again for tickets. We found out that it would cost each of us a little under $300 for a round trip to Strasbourg! Um…yeah no thank you. So with that plan falling through we got back on the Metro to find a place to stay for the night till we figured out what we wanted to do with our lives. Keep in mind we all had return tickets for Friday the 9th of January back to London. The night before, New Years Eve, we remembered one of our SIE friends saying that they were staying at the “Peace and Love” Hostel near the Le Blanc Metro stop. So we took the metro there and decided we’d just try to find it. Once we finally found the hostel, it had already been a long long day with walking and jumping Metro’s with all our huge backpacks. We walk into the Hostel, obviously looking tired and desperate. There was a lady sitting at a table eating her lunch and when we asked if there were any rooms available for the night she just shook her head very slowly with a sympathetic expression on her face. She told us No, but to sit down and talk to her a bit. We told her about our day thus far walking around Paris and that our friends stayed here the night before, which was the only reason why we knew of this place. She gave us a plate of Salmon and a baguette to eat…we must have looked hungry too…. She said she knew of a lot of different hostels around the area and people she knew who might be able to give us a place to stay. She was making a few phone calls when a man came down the stairs with all his luggage. She looked at him in surprise and said “Leaving already?” He told her that he needed to leave a day early in order to catch the right train to where ever he was going. She looked up at us and said, “Can you girls wait an hour?” A sudden relief washed through us knowing that we had a place to stay! We had no problem waiting while they cleaned the only room available…a two person, one bed room with us three girls…that was going to be interesting. Although we didn’t really car, we were just so relieved to have a place to stay.
That night we hung out with our SIE friends who were still staying there. Actually their train ticket for that day actually didn’t exist so they had to stay an extra night. Bradie, a boy in my SIE program, didn’t have a place to stay so we let him sleep on our floor in the Hostel…..that was also very interesting. We had to be out of the Hostel by 10am the next morning so we packed all our things and left them in the closet of the hostel till we figured out what we were going to do. They weren’t sure if they had room for us that night either so we just had to wait. We ended up doing our make-up in the upstairs of the McDonald’s across the street while we waited for news of a room being available as well as for the boys to meet us. Ashley, Katie, me, Bradie, Andrew, Andy, and Mike, all SIE students besides Andrew’s friends from home Andy and Mike, decided to spend the day together around Paris. We went to ‘Cimetiere Du Pere Lachaise’ where James Morrison from The Doors is buried. Next we walked to the “Bastille” and from there we decided to just walk around Paris for the rest of the day. We saw a lot of really cool architecture! We ended up staying at the Peace and Love Hostel that night as well, this time Ashley and I were in a two person room and Katie was in a dorm style room with two random boys but we didn’t care, as long as we had a place to stay. The next day we also could stay at the Peace and Love, although this time we had a three person room! It was a three person bunk bed! That day we took a tour from the Hostel! The hostel does tours for 10 Euro and we meet a lot of really cool people from all over the world! Here is a list of everything we saw on our tour: Notre Dame, Napoleons’ Tomb, Pont Neuf (Oldest Bridge in Paris), Comedie Francaise, Opera House (Phantom of the Opera!), Ferris wheel, Louvre, The Grand Palasis, The Arc de Triomph, La Madeleine, Petit Palais, Palais Royal, Place des Vosges, and the Pantheon. It was a fantastic day seeing so much and learning so much fascinating history about Paris.
That night we meet two boys from South Africa who were staying at the Hostel and decided to go to the Louvre with them the next day. I have been to the Louvre twice now, but only on the outside! Sunday it was going to be free admission, therefore the perfect time to go! We meet them in the lobby of the Hostel at 9am to make our way to the Louvre! The inside of the Louvre was amazing! I got to see the Mona Lisa and when we saw it, one of the South African’s was like “Nice Frame.” We walked around a bit in the art portion of this huge museum and I saw paintings in front of me that a few years ago were pictures in my English book! It was so cool! I saw real Picasso’s! Ahhh! After the Louvre we were so hungry that we found a little shop and got something to eat. After that we walked down to Angelina’s which apparently has the best hot chocolate you’ll ever have…..it was true! It was thick, warm, melted chocolate almost, with almond whipped cream on top….yum! After hanging out there for about an hour, we walked around the Jardin des Tuileries and then went back to the hostel. The South African’s hung out with us a bit at the hostel before they had to go check in to their new hostel on the other side of Paris. We were sitting in the lobby area of the Hostel and Karin, who works at the hostel, asked if Ashley could go downstairs and lock the closet door where all our luggage is in because some guy walked down there a long time ago and was acting suspicious….When we went down to grab our luggage and take it to Karin’s house to stay, our bags were open and some of our stuff were out of our bags! I man went through our stuff but didn’t take anything! How lucky! Turns out when Ashley went downstairs, it spooked him and he dropped everything and left. Phew. Lucky Lucky Lucky! Although there really wasn’t anything to steal besides come dirty clothes and shampoo because we all kept all our money, credit cards, and passport with us at all times.
The next day it snowed and it was so very cold but we still had stuff to see before we leave the next day for home! We first went to Sacre Coeur Basilica which was beautiful! It’s the highest elevation in Paris and you see the entire city, although when we were there it was snowing and foggy! From there we walked down Moulin Rouge and then took the Metro to Notre Dame to go to the Shakespeare and Company Bookshop to look inside a bit. After that we stopped for some hot cocoa at a little restaurant nearby, we then made our way back to the Farris Wheel to meet up with the South African’s again. We went to the Arc de le Triumph and then to the Latin Quarter to have some dinner and hang out with Diederick and Gary for a bit.
So now I can tell you a little bit about the stress that was taking place throughout our travels thus far…..
Our flight got cancelled on Friday and changed to a different time that same day. Since our Strasbourg plans feel through, we decided it would be too expensive to stay in Paris till Friday so we decided to go online and change our flight to Monday. We were online for about 2 hours trying to find contact information and we found a few numbers for which we had to walk down the street to use a pay phone to call them at and NONE of the numbers worked! There was always a message saying that the number for “Easyjet Airlines was no longer in use and to please call this number….” Well long long long story short, none of the many many numbers that we called worked and there was no way of contacting the airlines to switch our flight and everyday online the price got more and more expensive. It was very frustrating to be in the middle of Paris trying to get a hold of someone to get us on a plane out of there to get home! We decided to just pay the money to leave on Tuesday because it would be cheaper than paying to stay and buy food. We actually ended up staying at Karin, our hostel tour guides flat, for the last two nights in Paris, she charged us 25 Euro each, but it was still cheaper than the hostel. Okay, so by this time we HATE Easyjet and aren’t very happy with their customer service. We started our long day of travel at 7am Tuesday morning. First we took two Metro’s to the Airport, about an hour long journey, then waited in line at Security for about 30 minutes to enter a locked room with no TV screen of what’s going on with our flight or a loo. 11:05 rolls around, the time where our flight was suppose to leave and everyone was clumped around the front desk asking questions about what’s going on…..Apparently the flight from Paris to London Lutton doesn’t exist…um????? After a bit, we all get herded to yet another security line to the plane that they finally FOUND!
After security the second time, we go down a staircase that leads us outside to the freezing cold to stand on a crowded bus with all the doors open to take us to the plane. After about 20 minutes on the bus, we finally move towards the plane. Once on the plane Ashley, Katie and I fell asleep right away to wake up an hour later thinking we already landed to find that WE HAVEN’T EVEN LEFT YET! I HATE EASYJET! Once landed in London Lutton we grab our luggage and head to EasyJet Costumer Service desk. Sorry EasyJet, but a storm is coming! Once there they give us yet another number to call and after a little over an hour on the phone mixed with being on hold to some yelling……Ashely, Katie and I got a full refund for our plane tickets to get switched from Friday to Tuesday. Yeah, that just happened.
Ashley, Katie and I at this point are very happy about our refund but then suddenly hit by that fact that we are in the London Lutton airport and we still have a long day to go to get back Birmingham. We had to walk to the Holiday Inn Express to pick up the luggage that they left before heading to Paris for New Years so we walked to the hotel, picked up the luggage, walked back to the airport, jumped on the bus to the train station, got our tickets for the train to Birmingham, jumped back on the bus back to the airport cause that is where the bus to take us to the right train station would be. Once on the right bus, we had about a 45 minute drive till we could catch our Train to Birmingham. We arrived in Birmingham around 7pm Tuesday night. Took a taxi home. Went to bed. Yikes. Definitely was a day of “Planes, Trains and Automobiles.’
Paris was a fantastic experience and we learned a lot! It was a beautiful city and I would go back in a heartbeat! Although, maybe when I have more money! We meet some wonderful people and I could probably write about our Paris adventure for ever….but I’ll stop here!
Miss you!
Kirsten
Monday, 24 November 2008
Insch, Aberdeenshire Scotland: UK Host Visit
Ever since we arrived in England, I have been super excited about going on a Host Visit! I finally got my assigned location a few weeks ago saying I was going to be with a family in Insch, Aberbdeen Scotland. It was a visit to see a woman and husband in their late 50’s for the weekend of November 21st. I started my long travel journey to Scotland at 7:20 Friday the 21st of November morning. I walked to the University of Birmingham’s train station to catch an 8:03 train to Edinburgh, Haymarket. Once there I found out that my train actually left from New Street Station! Ahh! Luckily there was a train leaving at 7:47 going through New Street Station that would get me there at 8:01. I jumped of the train and ran to my next train jumping on as the doors where closing….phew! Now I had 3 ½ hours till I’d arrive in Haymarket. I walked up and down the aisle to find that the only seat left was a seat with no window, facing the opposite direction we were heading….great! Now my motion sickness is going to kick in. Luckily to my advantage, no on sat by me giving me room to breathe and since it was so early I slept the ENTIRE time! Waking up to find that the next train stop was my stop…again…. PHEW! I glanced at my cell to see the time only to find that yet again I had less than three minutes to catch my next train to Aberdeenshire, although this time I was lucky because when I got off the train the platform I needed to be on was just across the way. PERFECT! After another 3 hour train ride I was in Aberdeenshire. This time I had 40 minutes to wait till my next train. The train to Insch was only 35 minutes and when we arrived to the station it was SNOWING! A LOT!
I was starting to get really excited by this point not only that I was finally done with trains for the day, but to meet the people I would be staying with! It was absolutely beautiful in Insch with the snow and hills everywhere. It looked like a cute little fairy tale snowy town! After about 5 minutes waiting in the snow, Bron showed up. Bron was the wife and her husband wasn’t there because he was working in South Africa, so it was just going to be and her. Which I didn’t think was a big deal. After stopping at the store to pick up a few groceries we headed off to her house in the country which was another 10 minutes out of town. It was snowing pretty heavily at this time and I was starting to get a bit nervous. Bron kept making short comments on ‘how unwise it was for me to come to Insch in November’ or ‘It’s a shame I’m here.’ Even before we arrived at her home I already felt unwelcome and not wanted. We got to her home and when we walked in her house a friend of hers was there fixing her internet connection so as I stood in the entry way with my things not knowing what to do, she continued to chit chat with her friend for a long while. Then she turned and was like “oops, I forgot. I’ll show you to your room.” Once in my little tiny room, I tried texting Ashley to not only inform her that I was here safe but also to tell her I wanted to LEAVE! But, I had zero reception. Great. I walked down stairs and sat at the kitchen table while she was on the phone and just watched to tube for a bit. She told me that there was internet if I needed it so I first emailed my director to inform him on my safe travels but also to let him know how I was feeling about being here. Once I was done online, Bron left. Um…okay? After about an hour the phone started ringing. I didn’t answer cause I don’t live here. It rang again. Again no answer. It rang again and this time Bron came in and said “it’s for you! You were supposed to answer it!” Well of course! What was I thinking? When you meet someone for the first time you always answer their home telephone. When I answered it was Katie seeing how I was and telling me that Greg, my program director, had contacted her. Once Bron returned from her studio where she was doing work, she made another phone call to a friend to talk about how mad she was that she had to cook and mess up her kitchen. Keep in mind I’m sitting at the kitchen table listening to everything that she is saying. I felt not only unwelcome even more at this point but I also felt that this woman who volunteered to have someone visit her home for a host visit was feeling obligated to cook for me…..um….Finally she got off the phone and started cooking. Dinner was probably the most delicious meal I’ve ever had! I yummy chicken stew, different cheeses on crackers, and a glass of really nice red Scottish wine. Dinner conversation was okay, but we mainly watched “X Factor “on the tube. After dinner we went into the living room to watch a film that I offered as an option to do and she couldn’t figure out how to use it.
After she grumbled about not getting the TV to work I just was just like “Don’t worry about it, I’m kind of tired so I’ll just go to bed. What time would you like me to be ready in the morning?” she responded “9. Then we can see if there is anything we can do.” Alrightythan. The next morning I was down in the kitchen a little after 9 to find a yummy full English breakfast almost ready! YAY! She looked at me and said “if you don’t leave today, you’ll get snowed in.” Oh um, okay that’s fine with me. She did make me a lunch to take with me on the train which was nice but then we took a few pictures around her house in about 3 minutes, jumped in the car and took off into town so I could catch a train to Aberdeenshire. The trains were going pretty well cause I’d have about 10 minutes between each train to get to my next one. But, knock on wood, with my luck something happened when we were pulling into the station at Oxenholm. A woman jumped in front of the train I was on as we were pulling into the station. We all had to stay in our seats for little less than an hour while the police were asking questions and the ambulance where doing their thing. This was not fun. Then they finally had everyone get off the train and move to another. By the time I got to Manchester I missed my train to Birmingham and had to wait an hour till another train would come by. Once I was in Birmingham, Katie met me at the Station and my British roommate Emily picked me up so I didn’t have to take a taxi or bus home. Phew, I’m home. That experience is over. Never again.
If you ever want to take a trip to Insch, Aberdeenshire. Don’t
Cheers!
Kirsten
I was starting to get really excited by this point not only that I was finally done with trains for the day, but to meet the people I would be staying with! It was absolutely beautiful in Insch with the snow and hills everywhere. It looked like a cute little fairy tale snowy town! After about 5 minutes waiting in the snow, Bron showed up. Bron was the wife and her husband wasn’t there because he was working in South Africa, so it was just going to be and her. Which I didn’t think was a big deal. After stopping at the store to pick up a few groceries we headed off to her house in the country which was another 10 minutes out of town. It was snowing pretty heavily at this time and I was starting to get a bit nervous. Bron kept making short comments on ‘how unwise it was for me to come to Insch in November’ or ‘It’s a shame I’m here.’ Even before we arrived at her home I already felt unwelcome and not wanted. We got to her home and when we walked in her house a friend of hers was there fixing her internet connection so as I stood in the entry way with my things not knowing what to do, she continued to chit chat with her friend for a long while. Then she turned and was like “oops, I forgot. I’ll show you to your room.” Once in my little tiny room, I tried texting Ashley to not only inform her that I was here safe but also to tell her I wanted to LEAVE! But, I had zero reception. Great. I walked down stairs and sat at the kitchen table while she was on the phone and just watched to tube for a bit. She told me that there was internet if I needed it so I first emailed my director to inform him on my safe travels but also to let him know how I was feeling about being here. Once I was done online, Bron left. Um…okay? After about an hour the phone started ringing. I didn’t answer cause I don’t live here. It rang again. Again no answer. It rang again and this time Bron came in and said “it’s for you! You were supposed to answer it!” Well of course! What was I thinking? When you meet someone for the first time you always answer their home telephone. When I answered it was Katie seeing how I was and telling me that Greg, my program director, had contacted her. Once Bron returned from her studio where she was doing work, she made another phone call to a friend to talk about how mad she was that she had to cook and mess up her kitchen. Keep in mind I’m sitting at the kitchen table listening to everything that she is saying. I felt not only unwelcome even more at this point but I also felt that this woman who volunteered to have someone visit her home for a host visit was feeling obligated to cook for me…..um….Finally she got off the phone and started cooking. Dinner was probably the most delicious meal I’ve ever had! I yummy chicken stew, different cheeses on crackers, and a glass of really nice red Scottish wine. Dinner conversation was okay, but we mainly watched “X Factor “on the tube. After dinner we went into the living room to watch a film that I offered as an option to do and she couldn’t figure out how to use it.
After she grumbled about not getting the TV to work I just was just like “Don’t worry about it, I’m kind of tired so I’ll just go to bed. What time would you like me to be ready in the morning?” she responded “9. Then we can see if there is anything we can do.” Alrightythan. The next morning I was down in the kitchen a little after 9 to find a yummy full English breakfast almost ready! YAY! She looked at me and said “if you don’t leave today, you’ll get snowed in.” Oh um, okay that’s fine with me. She did make me a lunch to take with me on the train which was nice but then we took a few pictures around her house in about 3 minutes, jumped in the car and took off into town so I could catch a train to Aberdeenshire. The trains were going pretty well cause I’d have about 10 minutes between each train to get to my next one. But, knock on wood, with my luck something happened when we were pulling into the station at Oxenholm. A woman jumped in front of the train I was on as we were pulling into the station. We all had to stay in our seats for little less than an hour while the police were asking questions and the ambulance where doing their thing. This was not fun. Then they finally had everyone get off the train and move to another. By the time I got to Manchester I missed my train to Birmingham and had to wait an hour till another train would come by. Once I was in Birmingham, Katie met me at the Station and my British roommate Emily picked me up so I didn’t have to take a taxi or bus home. Phew, I’m home. That experience is over. Never again.
If you ever want to take a trip to Insch, Aberdeenshire. Don’t
Cheers!
Kirsten
Sunday, 16 November 2008
England vs. Australia
So I got a job working for a catering company in Birmingham called MJ Personnel. I got the job a month or so ago and I haven’t been called for a job yet till Wednesday afternoon. They called to see if I’ll be able to work on Saturday in London at the England vs. Australia Rugby Match and of course I said “YES!” They called the next day to see if I would be willing to work behind the bar, I said I’m a fast learner and that should be fine. So on Saturday morning I arrived at the office along with 7 other American’s who work for MJ at 6am. When I signed in, the lady behind the desk asked me again if I’m comfortable behind the bar and again I told her I don’t have much experience but could learn fast. She told me to wait a bit by the corner. A few minutes later a call came in and the other person in charge whispered to the lady behind the desk something along the line of ‘he isn’t coming’ and she quickly looked up and turned to me and said “Try on those black suit jackets over there.” I obediently did and was sent to get on the coach.
Once in London, the manager started called out names for the people who needed to get to their positions immediately, I was one of those people. I get off the bus and counted out only 5 of the 40 MJ people who came to London. I started getting a bit nervous. A lady met us as we got off the coach and started assigning locations. She pointed to me and said “Retail Bar” and I quickly responded “Um, yeah I’m American and I’m not so good with English currency yet?” She then switched me to box seats. Phew! Then a woman came up and grabbed my arm to lead me to where I needed to be. After a long walk to get to the new part of the stadium, we took an elevator up to the 4th floor. She led me into a very posh looking room and when I entered there were a lot of people standing around in black shirts, ties and the same apron. As I walked through the room past what I assumed where the servers, I noticed 4 people dressed in the same attire standing patiently behind the bar. I was then introduced to two women who were the managers of that particular room. As I approached they started talking about how happy they are to see me and how much success they have had with MJ Bar Supervisors…..yup I was going to be a Bar Supervisor.AHH!!! They kept telling me things such as the plan for the day, the drinks they wanted ready for when the guests arrived, blah blah blah I couldn’t really hear them because inside I was freaking out. After they were finished I told them in the most professional way I could about how I was more or less a ‘supervisor in training’ and that I’ve ‘never’ worked in a bar such as this, and how if they preferred I could ring up my manager to get someone else more experienced. The two women just stood there for a bit and then the main woman in charged looked at the other woman, then to me and said “You know what, you can’t learn anything till you try it. I trust you and I know from meeting you that you’ll do just fine.” That was it. I put on my big girl shoes and went to work. I was introduced to the 4 bar staff who reported directly to me and they were very nice. One is actually a study abroad student as well, he is from Georgia Tech. I’m a pretty fast learner and I’m a pretty good actress so I played it as if I knew exactly what I was doing.
First off, Sheena who was the main woman in charge wanted me to get 8 trays ready with orange juice, water, champagne and buck’s fizzes. I only knew what a buck’s fizz was because I remember one of my British roommates talking about them and I was like “What’s that” and they were like champagne and orange juice. In America, I believe we usually call them Mimosa’s. So right off the bat I was doing well. We were getting the noon drinks ready and everything was under control. Throughout the day the drink orders were pretty self explanatory. The main orders were beers which were easy enough, although there were a pretty big handful of others as well. When first person who ordered a gin n’ tonic, they asked for a larger, so I thought to myself it must be two shots if it’s a large and for some reason I said “Ice and a slice?” I think I heard that from a movie once and they were like “Please.” Okay, at this point I was like Wow, I’m doing pretty good for never ever doing this in my life. The other drinks ordered simple things like vodka cokes, brandy, wines, whiskeys, port, a few becks shanties and some Red Velvets. I only knew the last two cause I watched one of the people working behind the bar mix one for a guest prior to my order if it. Again, phew. After all the guests were finished and left to watch the game we cleaned up and sat down to eat ourselves. Although since it took so long to clean, I only had a few bites of my steak till I had to get up again for the half period drinks. After that I had to get the pre-order drink trays ready for after the game.
So throughout my ten hour shift I had a few bites of food, a sip of coffee and no bathroom breaks. When the game was over and everyone was enjoying their pre-ordered drinks, the host of the event, some big wig rugby player who I don’t know the name of started bringing up speakers. Three famous alum rugby players, again I don’t know the names and the two captions of the England Rugby team, England lost so the mood wasn’t that great. Just as the host was about to close the event, guess who walks in? Steve Williams, Beijing gold medalist in rowing and Victoria Pendleton gold medalist in Track Cycling! It was really cool! Steve Williams walks up to the bar and orders a coke. I handed him the coke, brushed is fingers and was two inches from a REAL OLYMPIC GOLD MEDAL! So yeah, after all 80 guests left Sheena handed me three sheets of inventory in which I needed to count every bottle, can, and all my supplies. I also had long list of chores like cleaning the bar and fridges before I could leave and let my bar staff leave. So after about an hour or so we were done. All the servers checked out with Sheena and I was the last to leave. She handed me my tips of the night, 20 pounds, which is really good because people don’t tip here and it wasn’t a cash bar. Then she shook my hand and told me what a wonderful job I did and how should couldn’t tell for a minute that I was ‘still in training.’ So I took that as though I did a pretty darn good job. As I walked back to the coach, a few people who I worked with caught up with me and asked a little about me, I found out that I was the youngest person in the room yet the third in command. Hehehe. I was 19 and I was working with mostly 22-26 year olds.
So in conclusion, I had a wonderful experience in London as a Bar Supervisor and I still can’t believe I pulled it off. It was a great learning experience and I’m happy I took the job. Oops, it’s 1 am!
Cheers
Kirsten
Once in London, the manager started called out names for the people who needed to get to their positions immediately, I was one of those people. I get off the bus and counted out only 5 of the 40 MJ people who came to London. I started getting a bit nervous. A lady met us as we got off the coach and started assigning locations. She pointed to me and said “Retail Bar” and I quickly responded “Um, yeah I’m American and I’m not so good with English currency yet?” She then switched me to box seats. Phew! Then a woman came up and grabbed my arm to lead me to where I needed to be. After a long walk to get to the new part of the stadium, we took an elevator up to the 4th floor. She led me into a very posh looking room and when I entered there were a lot of people standing around in black shirts, ties and the same apron. As I walked through the room past what I assumed where the servers, I noticed 4 people dressed in the same attire standing patiently behind the bar. I was then introduced to two women who were the managers of that particular room. As I approached they started talking about how happy they are to see me and how much success they have had with MJ Bar Supervisors…..yup I was going to be a Bar Supervisor.AHH!!! They kept telling me things such as the plan for the day, the drinks they wanted ready for when the guests arrived, blah blah blah I couldn’t really hear them because inside I was freaking out. After they were finished I told them in the most professional way I could about how I was more or less a ‘supervisor in training’ and that I’ve ‘never’ worked in a bar such as this, and how if they preferred I could ring up my manager to get someone else more experienced. The two women just stood there for a bit and then the main woman in charged looked at the other woman, then to me and said “You know what, you can’t learn anything till you try it. I trust you and I know from meeting you that you’ll do just fine.” That was it. I put on my big girl shoes and went to work. I was introduced to the 4 bar staff who reported directly to me and they were very nice. One is actually a study abroad student as well, he is from Georgia Tech. I’m a pretty fast learner and I’m a pretty good actress so I played it as if I knew exactly what I was doing.
First off, Sheena who was the main woman in charge wanted me to get 8 trays ready with orange juice, water, champagne and buck’s fizzes. I only knew what a buck’s fizz was because I remember one of my British roommates talking about them and I was like “What’s that” and they were like champagne and orange juice. In America, I believe we usually call them Mimosa’s. So right off the bat I was doing well. We were getting the noon drinks ready and everything was under control. Throughout the day the drink orders were pretty self explanatory. The main orders were beers which were easy enough, although there were a pretty big handful of others as well. When first person who ordered a gin n’ tonic, they asked for a larger, so I thought to myself it must be two shots if it’s a large and for some reason I said “Ice and a slice?” I think I heard that from a movie once and they were like “Please.” Okay, at this point I was like Wow, I’m doing pretty good for never ever doing this in my life. The other drinks ordered simple things like vodka cokes, brandy, wines, whiskeys, port, a few becks shanties and some Red Velvets. I only knew the last two cause I watched one of the people working behind the bar mix one for a guest prior to my order if it. Again, phew. After all the guests were finished and left to watch the game we cleaned up and sat down to eat ourselves. Although since it took so long to clean, I only had a few bites of my steak till I had to get up again for the half period drinks. After that I had to get the pre-order drink trays ready for after the game.
So throughout my ten hour shift I had a few bites of food, a sip of coffee and no bathroom breaks. When the game was over and everyone was enjoying their pre-ordered drinks, the host of the event, some big wig rugby player who I don’t know the name of started bringing up speakers. Three famous alum rugby players, again I don’t know the names and the two captions of the England Rugby team, England lost so the mood wasn’t that great. Just as the host was about to close the event, guess who walks in? Steve Williams, Beijing gold medalist in rowing and Victoria Pendleton gold medalist in Track Cycling! It was really cool! Steve Williams walks up to the bar and orders a coke. I handed him the coke, brushed is fingers and was two inches from a REAL OLYMPIC GOLD MEDAL! So yeah, after all 80 guests left Sheena handed me three sheets of inventory in which I needed to count every bottle, can, and all my supplies. I also had long list of chores like cleaning the bar and fridges before I could leave and let my bar staff leave. So after about an hour or so we were done. All the servers checked out with Sheena and I was the last to leave. She handed me my tips of the night, 20 pounds, which is really good because people don’t tip here and it wasn’t a cash bar. Then she shook my hand and told me what a wonderful job I did and how should couldn’t tell for a minute that I was ‘still in training.’ So I took that as though I did a pretty darn good job. As I walked back to the coach, a few people who I worked with caught up with me and asked a little about me, I found out that I was the youngest person in the room yet the third in command. Hehehe. I was 19 and I was working with mostly 22-26 year olds.
So in conclusion, I had a wonderful experience in London as a Bar Supervisor and I still can’t believe I pulled it off. It was a great learning experience and I’m happy I took the job. Oops, it’s 1 am!
Cheers
Kirsten
Edinburgh, Scotland
I had an amazing time in Edinburgh! I absolutely loved Scotland! It started at 7:45 am Friday morning. We had a 7 hour coach ride ahead of us and I wasn’t too happy….but, I took some motion sickness medicine and slept the majority of the time. We stopped three hours into our journey in a little town called Carslile. We had a little more than an hour so a group of us decided to eat lunch at this little Italian restaurant. Our food took forever and by the time we got it, we had ten minutes to eat it and still get back to the bus which was somewhat of a hike away. Of course, my food came last of all and it was boiling in the bowl when I got it…yay. I ate it as fast as I could and believe me; I have no taste buds left!
We still had another four hours till we got to Edinburgh, but since there was a lot of traffic when we entered the city, it took longer. Therefore, we had less time to get ready for a Posh Dinner at the Edinburgh University with UMD’s chancellor who made the journey over here to see how everything was going. The posh dinner was a lot of fun and in this really cool building that looked almost like a Castle on the outside.
The next day we toured the Scottish Parliament. It was a newly constructed building and it was beautiful. After the tour, a small group of us took a coach ride to visit Roslyn Chapel. Roslyn Chapel was absolutely phenomenal! After Roslyn Chapel we went back to our 5 star Youth Hostel. After a yummy dinner at a local Chinese restaurant, the majority of our group made our journey across part of Edinburgh for a ghost tour of ‘the most haunted’ place in Great Britain according to the BBC. It was a very freaky tour of the vaults and a cemetery. It wasn’t necessarily people jumping out to scare you but the history of the rooms that we were in was very unsettling. The next morning I woke up bright and early go to with a small group on a walking tour of Edinburgh with Amy, our assistant director of the program. The tour was pretty cool, we saw the National Gallery, some chapels, the castle, and oh yeah how can I forget, we got a cup of coffee at ‘the elephant house’ where J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter!!!
After the walking tour I went off on my own to do some shopping till the time came for me to meet up with Katie and Ashley. I wondered a bit from store to store just enjoying some me time in Scotland. During the walking tour I noticed a beautiful pink wool coat in a store window and as I was on my own, I came across it again. So since I had the time, I wandered in the store, tried it on….and bought it. Yup, I have a bright pink, knee length wool winter coat from Scotland.
The next morning we got up early to make our way back to Birmingham. Three hours into our trip we stopped in the small town of Lancaster. So we had a little more than an hour to eat, we decided we didn’t want to scarf down hot food like last time so we went to the nearest little café by the bus to get a quick bite. Well…there were four of us, three of us ordered cheese burgers n’ chips and one ordered fish n’chips. All of us ordered a glass of tap water. After the waiter took our order, he put his coat on and walked out the door. A few minutes later he came back with a pack of classes, removed the card board and filled them up with water and served it us. Then we saw the cook come out of the kitchen, leave, and run across the street to the grocery store. When she came back she had a box of frozen burgers and breaded fish. Mmm….that’s a bit odd… Then the waiter left again and came back with a back of hamburger buns. Our food came a few minutes later and was horrible. That was my experience in Lancaster and I don’t think I’ll ever go back. Yikes!
Cheers!
Kirsten
We still had another four hours till we got to Edinburgh, but since there was a lot of traffic when we entered the city, it took longer. Therefore, we had less time to get ready for a Posh Dinner at the Edinburgh University with UMD’s chancellor who made the journey over here to see how everything was going. The posh dinner was a lot of fun and in this really cool building that looked almost like a Castle on the outside.
The next day we toured the Scottish Parliament. It was a newly constructed building and it was beautiful. After the tour, a small group of us took a coach ride to visit Roslyn Chapel. Roslyn Chapel was absolutely phenomenal! After Roslyn Chapel we went back to our 5 star Youth Hostel. After a yummy dinner at a local Chinese restaurant, the majority of our group made our journey across part of Edinburgh for a ghost tour of ‘the most haunted’ place in Great Britain according to the BBC. It was a very freaky tour of the vaults and a cemetery. It wasn’t necessarily people jumping out to scare you but the history of the rooms that we were in was very unsettling. The next morning I woke up bright and early go to with a small group on a walking tour of Edinburgh with Amy, our assistant director of the program. The tour was pretty cool, we saw the National Gallery, some chapels, the castle, and oh yeah how can I forget, we got a cup of coffee at ‘the elephant house’ where J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter!!!
After the walking tour I went off on my own to do some shopping till the time came for me to meet up with Katie and Ashley. I wondered a bit from store to store just enjoying some me time in Scotland. During the walking tour I noticed a beautiful pink wool coat in a store window and as I was on my own, I came across it again. So since I had the time, I wandered in the store, tried it on….and bought it. Yup, I have a bright pink, knee length wool winter coat from Scotland.
The next morning we got up early to make our way back to Birmingham. Three hours into our trip we stopped in the small town of Lancaster. So we had a little more than an hour to eat, we decided we didn’t want to scarf down hot food like last time so we went to the nearest little café by the bus to get a quick bite. Well…there were four of us, three of us ordered cheese burgers n’ chips and one ordered fish n’chips. All of us ordered a glass of tap water. After the waiter took our order, he put his coat on and walked out the door. A few minutes later he came back with a pack of classes, removed the card board and filled them up with water and served it us. Then we saw the cook come out of the kitchen, leave, and run across the street to the grocery store. When she came back she had a box of frozen burgers and breaded fish. Mmm….that’s a bit odd… Then the waiter left again and came back with a back of hamburger buns. Our food came a few minutes later and was horrible. That was my experience in Lancaster and I don’t think I’ll ever go back. Yikes!
Cheers!
Kirsten
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