Update on Dec. 1st through Dec. 10th

Okay, I’m back! Lindsay and I caught our Eurostar train out of London to Paris in the morning, as I already said :) When we got to Paris, we bought a cartel of 10 tube/bus tickets to use during our two day stay. Once we arrived at Jules Joffrin, the Metropolitan stop (much like a stop on London’s Underground ‘tube’ system) near our hostel, a nice old man told us how to get to Rue Ramey where our hostel was located. Our hostel, Le Montclair Montmarte, was actually very close to the Metro stop, and it had a great homey feel. There were kids playing nearby at a school, bringing a nice warmth to the area. After we checked in, Lindsay and I decided that we should try to find the Moulin Rouge on foot. During our journey, we stumbled across the Sacre-Coeur Basilica, which just happens to be the biggest attraction of the Montmarte section of Paris. Our hostel actually calls the Montmarte quarter “one of the most artistic districts in Paris.” I’m not sure if I found that to be the case, but I didn’t see enough of Paris to really contradict them! Anyway, we found an Italian café across from the basilica where I had Hawaiian pizza and Lindsay had a very rich bacon and egg crepe. After lunch, we decided to get a closer look at the Sacre-Coeur. Our tour book said that if you climbed to the top of the dome you would be at the second highest place in Paris! Although we didn’t climb that high, we did get a wonderful view of the city. It was gorgeous!! (Despite being scammed into getting peace and love bracelets – “Hakuna Matata” [Lindsay almost killed a man] -- we managed to enjoy ourselves.)

That evening we went to the Eiffel Tower. We got off the Metro early and walked the rest of the way along the Seine River. It wasn’t quite as great as the Thames River (considering that feels like home now), but it was still gorgeous. I can imagine that in the summer it has got to be phenomenal there. In fact, I wasn’t a huge fan of Paris overall because I wasn’t feeling the whole ‘city of love’ thing, but now that I think about it, I would absolutely love to take my mom back there in the summer, or at least early fall. It really is a gorgeous city, and I’m sure that with some green it would have been breathtaking.

Back to the Eiffel Tower… wow! As we got closer, it was getting dark outside, and all of a sudden the Tower began to sparkle!! It was awesome, just as Tony is!! (Courtesy of Anthony Freeman) J On our way, we passed the Dome Church among some other things, but we were mostly concentrated on getting to the Tower. Once we got there, we waited in line for at least an hour. I’m actually not really sure how long it was, but it was a good chunk of time. We took a TON of pictures in between chatting about the couples kissing around us :) Finally we got to the front of the line, bought a ticket for the second level and rode the escalator up. Wow! What a great sight!! By the time we reached the second level, it was dark, and the city was filled with lights. La-la-lovely! Lindsay and I went on a photo-taking rampage :) We ended up taking the stairs down because the elevator took too long. On the way from the first level to the ground we almost got stuck and would have had to walk all the way back up!! Luckily, though, we got through!

After the Tower, we went to the Louvre. We actually had to switch lines on the Metro a few times, which was not a fun thing for Linds, but finally we got out, walked around, and Lindsay exclaimed, “Hey, I think this is the Louvre,” and we were there! Another wow moment… This is really lame, and completely clique, and I wish that I hadn’t felt this, but… It was like I had stepped right out of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code. I was picturing in person what he had been writing about in the first chapter!!! Soooo cool!!! That was actually what was so awesome about any part of our travels: realizing that I was experiencing something in person that I had only read about or seen pictures of – AMAZING! It really put into perspective for me that I was in EUROPE! :) Anyway, the Louvre had free admission on Fridays for students from 6pm until 9:30pm, which was the whole reason that we were going to the museum that night. We saw the Mona Lisa (amazing!!), the Winged Victory of Samothrace (wings!!), the Venus de Milo, the Coronation Crown of Louis XV (ohh… jewels…), the Borghese Gladiator (…stretch…), strolled through the gift shop, and then headed outside to take pictures. Sometime that day we also saw the Place des Victoires and Pont Alexandre III (which I believe was a bridge, and at each end there were gold statues atop cement pillars – gorgeous!). Yes, it was kind of hard to determine what we actually saw considering a lot of it was just in passing, but I definitely know I saw those two places!! There was also an arc outside the Louvre that we thought was the Arc de Triumphe, but we saw that Arc later. This was the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel.

For supper we had Chinese food at the Palais Royal Hong Kong. This was my first Chinese food in Europe! I had fried noodles with chicken and plain rice… Mmm… Since then I’ve had Chinese food at least three more times! Chinese food seems to come in clusters for me!

Saturday, Dec. 2: This morning we were so tired! We decided to start our day with trying to find the Moulin Rouge again, since we never actually found it the day before! A nice man, who was either visiting someone at the hostel or worked there, ended up giving us directions. That makes two for two in Paris! We took the Metro to Moulin Rouge, took pictures, and left right afterward to head to the Carmes Market. The area wasn’t very nice; we found out later that it is actually Paris’ red light district! We were glad to have been there at 9am!! Not that we would have been there at night anyway considering dinner and a show at the Moulin Rouge cost 140-190 euro!!! The Carmes Market, on the other hand, was a lovely outdoor food market specializing in meat, cheese and olives. We picked up our lunch: cheese, a baguette, raspberries and oranges. Next, it was off to walk deeper in the Latin Quarter to see Notre Dame and stop by an English bookstore called Shakespeare & Co. On our way, we picked up a Nutella crepe. Mmmm… a Nutella crepe can give you a pick-me-up no matter what is wrong! The bookstore ended up not having what we were looking for, but Notre Dame was gorgeous! There was a Christmas tree in front of it that was lovely. It made the holidays seem so much closer!! To eat our lunch we went to the Jardin des Tuileries. Although the pigeons got a little scary (don’t try to feed them when you aren’t finished eating yet!), we managed to enjoy our meal. I definitely want to see the Gardens in the summer or fall! They were so barren when we were there, but I know that if it would have been the right season, they would have been wonderful! After lunch, we went to the Avenue des Champs Elysees, where all the expensive shops are located. There was one shop that stuck out in particular: Celio. At this shop, they had men of different body types walking around in their boxers. These men were models on which you could try clothes on. You’d pick one that had a similar body shape to your boyfriend or dad or other male friend, have them try on the clothes that you were thinking about buying, and use them to decide what size they needed and whether or not the outfit would work! How cool is that?! Lindsay and I thought that it was pretty darn clever!!! It’s something we decided could only be offered in Europe :) Before we went back to our hostel for a nap, we saw the Arc de Triumphe, which made us all confused as to what we’d seen the night before, as I already mentioned.

Our nap gave us a wonderful break, and prepared us for the rest of the night: dinner, checking our e-mail at the Internet café, and walking around good ole “Parie.” For supper we had the rest of our lunch. At the Internet café, the worker was giving me crap about what language he really spoke, pretty much making fun of my attempts at French. When we first walked in, he pretended that he didn’t understand English. Then, when I went to thank him in French, he said, “I speak English, not French.” Oh… geez… It was funny, but at the same time I knew he was mocking me. I got over it pretty quickly though :) On our evening stroll, Lindsay and I walked from the Concorde Metro stop to the Strasbourg Saint-Denis Metro stop, which we found out later was quite a nice hike. On this journey we found the fancy shopping square with Chanelle and other very expensive shops, a “Batman Statue” that portrayed either Roman or Greek battle scenes along the column (there was a spotlight shined directly on the figure at the top that cast a shadow on the clouds much like the batman logo does), and the Opera Quarter (where we enjoyed a banana Nutella crepe). The Opera Quarter was gorgeous; you could definitely tell that it was a very nice part of the city.

Some things I learned from our stay in Paris:
We need to work at ignoring people and saying no in a strict, even mean way.
Crepes = happy > coffee = happy (crazy I know, but oh so true!)
It’s not a matter of Paris redeeming itself; it’s a matter of me letting Paris be redeemed.

Sunday, Dec. 3: We left our hostel very early to catch the train. On the Metro, we ran into drunks heading home after their Saturday night outings, which was both a little scary and amusing. Once we got to the train station, we were in search of a place to validate our Eurail passes. The first ticket counter we found at the train station was closed, and we kind of freaked out. Luckily we found another counter upstairs and validated our passes. Then we got on a train towards Bern, Switzerland. During our trip, the passport control officials came aboard to, obviously, check our passports. People from claims also came aboard. When the claims officer asked me if I had any alcohol or meats to declare, I thought he was speaking another language. Even though he repeated it in English, I still didn’t understand. I thought he might be asking me where I was heading, so I replied, in a questioning manner, “Interlaken?” Lindsay thought it was hilarious; she understood him the entire time, but was sitting a row behind me. In Bern, we switched trains and accidentally sat in first class! Sadly, we got caught and had to move.

Once we got to Interlaken, we had to ask two different people for directions to the Happy Inn Lodge and were happy to find that most of the people spoke English! Yeah for touristy towns!! We found the Happy Inn Lodge, dropped off our bags, and split up to walk around a Christmas market only a couple blocks from the hostel. During my walk, I tried chesbratel, which is pretty much cheesy bread. So good! Lindsay tried a free sample of mulled wine, fried bread and some chocolate. Lindsay also bought an ornament that they were making over a fire with sawdust right in front of her! I really enjoyed the market overall. It had such a strong sense of community, a fact that has constantly appealed to me throughout my travels, and it really felt like home. It also helps that the town itself is absolutely gorgeous!

We met back up to find somewhere for dinner. On our way to El Azteca, a Mexican restaurant that looked appealing, we saw a couple of camels in the market. This was Lindsay’s first time seeing camels!!! We decided that camels weren’t bilingual (long story…) and Lindsay revealed that she doesn’t speak camel, so she couldn’t go up and pet them. Of course, being the smarty pants that I am so good at being, I replied, “Oh, I do,” and I spit :) Yeah, I’m pretty mature :D Anyway, we found El Azteca only to realize that it was uber expensive to eat a full meal there. Solution: order from the appetizer menu. I had flautas, and Lindsay had some bean soup, which actually wasn’t too bad although I’m not a bean soup kind of gal. After dinner we were really craving hot chocolate, so we went to McDonald’s and watched downhill skiing while sipping on our delicious chocolaty drinks. On the way back to the Happy Inn Lodge, we stopped by the small Coop, the grocery store chain for Switzerland and the surrounding countries, for breakfast food.

Once we had returned to our room, we found that we met our two Australian roommates, Kiera and Hannah, and we chatted with them for about four hours!! They were super nice girls, and we talked about everything: school, food, traveling, Australia, jobs, etc. The girls told us how they were going to try to go paragliding the next day and Lindsay asked to see the brochure. Although Lindsay had been terrified at even the idea of doing some extreme sport, what Interlaken is known for, she ended up very intrigued with the idea of going paragliding, and we decided to check it out as well! At one point, this random Aussie guy stopped by our room to chat. Kiera and I thought that he was pretty brave to approach a room full of girls by himself :) He was from Perth, Australia (I think…) and so we all called him Perth boy from then on. I don’t know if we ever actually caught his real name! Anyway, he was going to see snow for the first time in his entire life the next day and he was quite excited about that fact. It was really weird for me to imagine never seeing snow. I mean obviously there are a ton of people who haven’t, but it’s definitely something I take for granted living in Minnesota all of my life!

Monday, Dec. 4: Lindsay and I both didn’t hear the alarm, so we woke up late! But it ended up being fine because we woke up to Hannah and Kiera getting ready. After we went to Coop for lunch food, we took a train to Grindelwald, Lindsay’s mom’s favorite place on earth. Right when we got there, we found a phone booth, and Lindsay called her mom… although it was 4am in Minnesota!! Luckily she was happy that we called and we were able to tell her just how much we loved it :) We walked around the town, taking LOTS of pictures along the way. As we walked, we also stopped in the stores to window shop. At one point, I convinced Lindsay that it would be a good idea to climb this muddy hill to get a better panoramic view. Well, it was a great view, but our shoes got a little dirty, and we definitely almost fell a few times! We ended up climbing another big hill (this time following a trail) and ate outside a random building on a cute bench. We had tuna sandwiches, apples and a delicious Ovamaltine bar (like Ovaltine, but with a slightly different name and in chocolate bar form). There really wasn’t much else to do in Grindelwald at this time of year—it sure was not summer nor was it cold enough to be winter and snowing—so we decided to check out the sports center for awhile. We ended up finding out that we could ice skate there! Although Lindsay was nervous about trying it for the First Time, I helped convince her that she’d be fine (she’s a cross-country skier and she’s been rollerblading). We had a blast!!! Now we both want to take ice skating for our second gym class :) When we were there, we even saw a girl figure skating like a professional; it was pretty amazing. After our adventure on the ice, we caught the train back to Interlaken.

Once in Interlaken, we stopped by Coop to pick up breakfast and candy, Haribo gummy bears for me and chocolate bars for stocking stuffers for Lindsay’s mom. We met up with Kiera and Hannah in the Happy Inn Lodge, and the four of us decided to go out to eat together. We headed to an Italian restaurant, which happened to be one of the three cheapest restaurants that we knew of in Interlaken (expensive town, let me tell you). I had tortellini, while Lindsay had a Hawaiian pizza. At the table next to us, there was a cute little boy named Thomas whom the girls had met on the train earlier that day. The family was also Australian, and it was kind of cool that the girls ended up running into them again. Thomas was absolutely adorable. He was completely infatuated with us and wouldn’t stop “talking” to us until his food came. After dinner, the four of us headed to the small Coop for a local beer. Then we headed back to the hostel where we planned out the next day and learned that our cheap beer was not all that good! We all went to bed around 10:30pm :) I must agree with Lindsay: that day we had spent the perfect afternoon in Grindelwald!

Tuesday, Dec. 5th: Today was the day that we had to go paragliding if we were ever going to do it in Interlaken, but the weather looked dreary. Just in case there was no way we could take that extreme adventure, Lindsay and I didn’t want to miss out on an entire day of travel waiting to find out, so we took a train up to Bern. Hannah and Kiera were going to check later that morning, and they would give us a call to let us know if paragliding was an option. Once we got to Bern, we simply walked around the shops until we found a Christmas market. We bought some mountain cheese for lunch from a guy our age because we figured that people who are pierced have to stick together :) We bought the rest of our lunch at Coop. Meanwhile, the sky started to clear. After searching for a Swiss army knife (when we didn’t want one, we were surrounded, but, of course, since we were looking, we couldn’t find one!), we couldn’t ignore the bright sky any longer. We decided to take a chance; we caught a train by to Interlaken to see if we could go paragliding.

When we got to the Happy Inn Lodge, it was around 1:15pm. I called the number on our brochure, and sure enough, although the weather was border line, the boss decided that it was safe to fly! They were going to pick us up at the hostel at 2!!!

A white van pulled up to the door shortly after 2pm, with a dark haired man in the driver’s seat. I quickly found out that his name was Marc. He opened the back of the van for us, only to unveil a blonde haired fellow, his coworker named Richie, Marc’s wife, Tracy, their son, and two large furry dogs. Seeing Tracy, their little boy and such sweet furry beasts, I couldn’t help but feel a little less nervous about the whole adventure. Tracy was actually there to drive the van back down the mountain. We headed out, curving our way up a mountain, and got out with the guys to walk about 2 minutes. We came across a roped clearing, whose edge disappeared over a steep drop off. Lindsay looked around skeptically, asking, “This is it? This is where we paragliding from?” You could tell that she very nervous. The guys joyfully replied, “Yep!” and began setting out the parachutes and harnessing us in. I was going to be with Marc, and Lindsay was going to fly with Richie. Before attaching us to the chutes, they both gave us directions on what we were going to do: First, we would start jogging toward the drop off, then our instructor (who would be attached to us) would pull back on our harness, and we would leave forward, increasing to a full out run. The next thing we would know, we would be in the air and we could lean back and relax. What?! We were running off a cliff??? Yet that’s exactly how it happened. I had barely leaned forward to run and all of a sudden I couldn’t feel the ground beneath me. It was the most exhilarating thing I have ever felt! I cannot even explain the feeling of flying over one of the most beautiful places on earth, drinking in the sight of the clear blue lakes, the looming mountains, and the tiny houses beneath my feet. Towards the end of our flight, which lasted about 10 minutes, Marc did a few tricks. I loved it! It was so freaky, but that’s what made them awesome! Now I think I could, and will, seriously go skydiving! I know it’s very different, but now I’m hooked to extreme sports ;)

For the rest of the day, Lindsay and I were emotionally flying high. We found a Swiss army knife for her, on which she had her name engraved for free! Then I bought a deck of cards for myself and a wedding present for Barb and Dad, both from a lovely old woman who had a store filled with antiques versus tourist garb. Then we went to Coop for dinner, breakfast and lunch food. While we were eating, we chatted with Perth boy, who did get to see snow. Then Lindsay went to go shower and the room filled up with other people staying the night! A mother with her soon to be 12 year old daughter and another woman took up 3 of the 4 empty beds. We went to bed pretty early that night. The daughter let me play Mario Kart on her Game Boy. Although Lindsay laughed at me, I was the happiest girl because of it!! I told the young Austrian girl about how I have a Game Boy back home, but it’s huge and old, an original. She thought that was so crazy :) I completely dated myself next to her! Anyway, we ended up reading and then going to bed early despite the loud music downstairs.

Things I learned in Switzerland:
1. Paragliding is to Switzerland what Banana and Nutella crepes are to France
2. Little kids, dogs, and music in markets have MADE MY TRIP
3. Switzerland = Scotland à Feels like HOME!

Wednesday, Dec. 6th: We left Switzerland… *sigh* But the fact that we just beat the rain made us feel a little better about saying goodbye to that gorgeous country. We transferred in Spiez, where we ended up sitting across from two uber friendly Swiss men heading out for a guys’ weekend. They taught us a lot about Switzerland and Europe in general. One of them actually bought us a drink called Jovella to try. It tasted kind of like ginger ale, but is actually made of milk! Crazy stuff!!! Our next train transfer was at Milano Centrale, and it was a huge hassle!! Our train was 30 minutes late to the station, we had to figure out if we needed a reservation on the next train, and we worried about finding a seat that wasn’t already reserved!! The train was FULL due to some holiday that we don’t celebrate! We finally got onto the train and found a compartment (like in Harry Potter!!) with two seats and didn’t get kicked out!! Yeah for not having to sit in the hall!!!

The train stopped in Firenze, but it wasn’t the station we wanted. A bunch of cute Italians were trying to help us, yelling in Italian that we had to get off there and take a different train across town, but we don’t speak Italian!!! Luckily, an English-speaking woman (an angel really) squeezed in and told us what to do. It was a very chaotic situation!!

We finally got to Firenze SMN and made our way to the Archi Rossi Hostel. What a great hostel!!! There was art all over the walls accompanied with signatures and quotes from past travelers. A hot breakfast was included with a TV room/dining hall. They had free detergent for the washers, which were queue free. In our room, we had tons of space, although there were 4 bunk beds and big lockers, which looked like narrow closets, with locks!! Oh, yes, and free internet!! We met an Aussie girl named Siobhan and chatted for awhile with her. She was so friendly and we were going to try to meet up with her in Rome on Friday night. She’d been in the US for four months visiting family and working at a luxurious camp for rich kids. Her mom is Philippine, while her dad is Irish. What a mix! She is off to work in Dublin after a few more weeks of traveling. She just finished university, so she’s going to look for a “real” job.

For supper, we were starving after talking to Siobhan for so long. Instead of waiting at a sit-down restaurant, we decided to just go to McDonald’s (aka: Macky’s). It was my first time ordering from a foreign McDonald’s, and I was a little disappointed in myself for giving in, but the convenience was well worth it! We had to pay 10 eurocent for mayo or ketchup!! After supper, we came back to the hostel, did laundry, checked our e-mail and went to bed.

Proof that we live in a small world: We met one of Katie Julsrud’s best friends from high school, a girl named Julia Reid. We mentioned that we went to St. Mary’s in MN and Julia chimed in, “In Winona?” then asked if we knew Katie!! She ended up staying at the same hostel as us on Sunday, and we actually only saw her in the morning for a few minutes before we left, but it was still cool! Such a tiny world…

Thursday, Dec. 7th: I woke up this morning only to enjoy a free, hot breakfast of bacon, eggs, toast, cappuccino, and fruit! Lindsay and I were meeting with Bob that morning to get a tour of Firenze, but before we met him, we decided to walk around the market at Mercado Centrale. We wanted to buy everything! I was nearly hyperventilating out of sheer excitement!!! There were fun things all around: jewelry, journals, ties, and leather. Fake or real, that leather smelled amazing!!

We met Bob back at the Archi Rossi where he was waiting (so prompt… just like Dad) and he was very happy to see us. Although he’s not a hugger, we received great headshakes :) While walking around Firenze with Bob, we saw: a food market (where we viewed duck heads, cow stomachs, and many pig parts), a Christmas market (which of course had a carousel), the Ponte Vecchio (aka: Gold Bridge, where shops lined the edge, most of which were filled with very expensive, gorgeous jewelry), other expensive hotels and shops, some Martini paintings (Brother Lewis bought one for Bob a few years ago; they all have a plethora of alter boys in them), art galleries, the Duomo and bell tower, and the church where Galileo, Machiavelli and Michelangelo are buried (or at least have tombs) and outside of which stands a statue of Dante (Firenze is his hometown). After our tour, Bob treated us to a nice Chinese restaurant. I had chicken with veggies, red wine, spring rolls, fried rice and Chinese liquor (aka: vodka). Bob and Lindsay both had white wine, so they were sharing a pitcher, and Bob jokingly tried to have Lindsay chug hers so that he could their second glass. It was hilarious! Bob is great :) After we brought Bob back to the Archi Rossi to give him a Swiss dark chocolate bar, we went to a bookstore and then the Academia to see the real statue of David! He was absolutely breathtaking!!! Lindsay and I were in awe of the detail and sheer size of the statue. Such talent…

Although it was getting dark, we still wanted to see Fiesole, so we caught the #7 bus to see if Bob would mind giving us a tour of that small town. Up the hill and overlooking Firenze, Fiesole is where our friends will be studying next semester. We met Bob at La Villa Bonelli Hotel and saw his room, the lounge, and had cappuccino in the dining area where the kids who enjoy breakfast. It is definitely going to be a great place to leave for four months. Bob also showed us the town. Our favorite part was the lookout (“Lover’s Lane”) where we were able to get a gorgeous view of Firenze. We learned where the students rented a room for class, where most students deemed their favorite pub, and the three restaurants they rotated between for supper. It was simply wonderful to spend more time with Bob before we had to move on from Firenze. He is a great man and I will definitely missing seeing him every week. I can understand why everyone rants and raves about him from past years.

We took the bus back and quickly went through Mercado Centrale again. I picked up a Chao Bella t-shirt for 5 euro. Then we ate our leftover Chinese with the 1.20 euro rose wine we bought from the Coop in Fiesole. The wine was in a carton like orange juice! We were amused by that, but ended up not really enjoying the wine!! I finished the night by checking my e-mail and struggling to sleep through the loud, drunken Aussies right outside our window. Luckily they moved down the road after about 20 minutes; kids these days!! :)

Friday, Dec. 8th: We got up early to eat our free breakfast and go to the Mercado Centrale to finish getting gifts. It was a success; we got everything we needed! We finished packing everything and checked out of the hostel by 10:30am. Then we caught the 11:09am train to Roma Termini. Of course the train was 15 minutes late, but that is to be expected in Italy. Although we didn’t have reservations, it ended up being just fine. Once in Rome, we tried to get a taxi, but Laura hadn’t given us the specific Agnelli that her apartment was on! We took the H bus to the 44 bus, nervous the entire time that we had the wrong bus! Finally we found the Ford dealership that we needed to switch at… which was random in itself. Oh yes, and note to self: always get road names with landmark directions, just in case! Once we got to the right stop, we had difficulty finding her actual apartment. We even asked some police if we had the right street. We were both very frustrated, but we finally found apartment building 75! We met three of Laura’s roommates, Kat and two other girls; Laura was at Brandi’s though. Lindsay and I went out to eat at a genuine Italian restaurant where I had a calzone with mozzarella cheese and ham… Mmm… Lindsay had this huge cheese and mushroom pizza. We had a really nice cute waiter, who even brought us free desert! We figured it was because we tried out the Italian language, but who knows! Then we headed back to the apartment to plan out our busy next day.

Saturday, Dec. 9th: Rome in a day! We woke up early because we planned on attending mass at the Vatican. Well… when we went to catch the bus, it was raining so hard that where the apartments were located at the bottom of the hill, there was a flood of water gushing down, making it look like hurricane weather! We walked a couple of blocks, but decided that we should just wait for the rain to calm down. Although we were under umbrellas and Lindsay had on a raincoat and galoshes, we were both soaked! We went out a half hour later, this time with the added issue of where to find a bus tickets, but without the insane amount of water. Finally we took the 44 bus to the Vatican City and waited in a long line (with a mass amount of umbrellas) to get into St. Peter’s Basilica. Once we got inside, we took pictures, but we couldn’t find a mass. Then we stood in another line, which happened to be to climb the cupola and cost 5 euro, so we turned around. Finally we found the line for the Vatican Museum, where the Sistine Chapel is located. There was a Canadian tour guide behind us with a group whom she told it would only take about 45 minutes to get through the line. No such luck. We stood there for around an hour and contemplated just skipping the museum, but the guide advised us not to; she said that the chapel was well worth the wait and that the Coliseum was gorgeous at night. It was only good inside if you paid for a tour. Lindsay and I took her advice, while also taking the advice to grab a gelato for only 2 euro from across the street while we waited. We had half crème caramel and half pistachio. Mmmm… Over two hours later, we made it to the Museum. It was quite impressive. There was so much art there: statues, paintings, furniture, jewels, and coins. Yet it was kind of annoying and a little claustrophobic because the Sistine Chapel was at the end and we had to slowly work our way through with a mass amount of people. At first, the chapel didn’t seem that impressive (both Lindsay and I thought so) but once we really looked at it, it was amazing! There was a lot of detail, with shading that added an incredible amount of depth. Some parts looked like statues on the ceiling instead of part of a two-dimensional painting. I think I discovered two of the worst jobs to have though: (a) telling people to ‘shhhhh’ at a silent museum exhibit that people want to talk about or (b) telling people to not take photos of things they really want to take photos of. Both jobs would get soooo old! I was only there for 10 minutes and I already couldn’t stand it! And I didn’t even have to do it!!! Overall, we spent 5 HOURS at the Vatican; that was not at all our plan. We had lunch at a restaurant outside the museum: salami and cheese pizza with bread.

Other sites we saw:
Campo de Fiori à The market was closed
Piazza Navona à Christmas market, but mostly cheap stuff like you’d see at a fair; we did watch an interesting street performer!
Trevi Fountain à HUGE! Seeing it at night was absolutely gorgeous and there were a ton of people there!
Coliseum à Once we realized that we had to forget our tiredness to really enjoy it, the ruins were great! There was a gorgeous Christmas tree in front of it that absolutely made the sight what it was!!

After walking around the Coliseum, we caught the bus back to the flats and went out to the same restaurant as the night before, called Caminetto. The same cute waiter brought us our “usual” drinks at “our table.” I had bread and cheese and spinach ravioli, as did Lindsay, and we split tiramisu for desert. This time our free treat was some limoncella. It was like alcoholic liquid lemon drop! I had to finish Lindsay’s for her; I took for one for the team :) We went back, packed, and crashed.

Sunday, Dec. 10th: We woke up late because the alarm didn’t go off or we slept through it. We’re not quite sure. Either way, we quickly got ready and called a taxi. They hung up on Lindsay so we had to wake up one of the girls (she told us to do so if calling the taxi proved to be a hassle). The taxi came right away, but we needed cash, so I had to run to the ATM quick while he waited. We drove to Ciampano airport, and it cost us just under 30 euro. This didn’t seem to bad considering it was a whole lot easily and more reliable than the 3 or 4 buses we’d have had to take to get there otherwise! It was also a lot cheaper than the 45 lbs we paid to get to our flat the first day in London. We got through security and waited, only to get really anxious to be home. My chest even got slightly tight, but I got through it. I slept nearly all the flight home. When we got back to London, we took the Terravision to the Liverpool station where we caught the tube to Bayswater. After we checked into our hostel, we headed immediately to Access Storage. Although we had some trouble finding it from the tube stop, we got there at least five minutes to 4pm. Rob or Rod, or whatever the darn worker’s name was, wouldn’t let us in, claiming it was already 4pm. Whatever!!! We were furious. We went to Lloyd’s Wetherspoons for dinner, finally working out our anger over some burgers and “chips.” We went back to the hostel and checked our e-mail. After much prodding, Lindsay convinced me to go to Big Ben with her to say goodbye. There is such an amazing view out Exit 4… breathtaking… It was gorgeous to see that beautiful monument at night. Although it was only kind of rainy, it was really wind, and Lindsay’s umbrella finally broke! It was a little hard to “say goodbye” to a place that I’d come to call home after three months, but I’m really glad that Lindsay drug me along!
Monday, Dec. 11th: We flew home!!! After a frustrating visit to Access Storage, we managed to drag all of luggage to Hammersmith station and ride the Piccadilly line all the way to Heathrow airport. The last half of the flight, we rode the back of a sunset as we changed time zones; that was soooooo gorgeous. Also, I don’t think I’d ever been happier to see my father’s face on the other side of customs. And I was so proud of him: he barely flinched when he saw my lip ring (yeah, my big hoop was in!). What a great feeling it was and is to be back in the States!!

Update on the rest of November

Tuesday, Nov. 7: I’m not going to pretend that I remember in detail what I did a month ago, but I’ll do my best… I have some things written to help me remember, so we’ll see what happens!

Today I went to the British Museum for Art in London class. I was extremely tired, and we were walking around in a big group, so it was difficult to concentrate on what Oliver was saying. I ended up not being all that interested in what we were learning. Oops! Anyway, after we were allowed to wander around on our own, I went with Bryan and Neil and saw the Egyptian exhibit… which included… the mummies!! That was my favorite part :)

That afternoon I hung out in Bryan and Neil’s flat while Bryan did dishes for our lunch. He got on a roll and decided to clean every single dirty dish in the place (which happened to be nearly all of them). After the dishes were clean, I supplied the cheese and the boys supplied the bread and tomato soup for grilled cheese sandwiches! They were delicious!!!

Wednesday, Nov. 8: The day wasn’t too exciting until the evening came around. For Theatre in London class we went to the musical Evita. It was… good, but hard to understand. The dancing was amazing, and the music was great, but again, the words were just so hard to understand. It was a very short musical though, so they difficulty didn’t last too long. Overall it was average. If I would have been able to understand them, it would have been much better.

After the show, a group of us (KP, Mel, Lindsay, Tim, and Matt) went out to Walk About, an Australian pub/dance club. It happened to be a student night, so we got in for a few pounds and got a card for really cheap drinks that we could use any Wednesday night for cheap drinks and free admission. We had a great time. I was supposed to register at 11:10pm (remember we’re 6 hours faster than SMU), but I didn’t want to leave. Lindsay and I left at about 12:30pm, took a bus home, and registered right when we got home. We both got all the classes we wanted, even though we registered later than our start time! Whoop whoop!!

Thursday, Nov. 9: We left for Edinburgh this morning, catching a train for the 4 ½ hour trip. It was a great trip. I sat next two Bryan, Neil and Tim, across the aisle from Lindsay, Andrew, Erin, and Mac. I introduced Neil to the beauty of Sudoku and shared the mass amount of food I brought along (thanks to KP’s huge carrots and celery).

When we finally got to Edinburgh, Bob was waiting for us at the station. He walked all 26 of us (Gabe stayed in London) to our hostel – Budget Backpacker’s. It was creepy, though, because he took us through little alleys and up huge hills in the side streets of Edinburgh, the capital of a country we had never been in! When we got there, we had to wait awhile for Bob to check us all in, then we were able to go up to our rooms. We had a room with 5 bunk beds (holding 10 people) that held all SMU students. For supper, we went to TGIFriday’s. I know that we were in Scotland making that pretty lame, but we had a coupon for 25% off! We just couldn’t resist!

After dinner, we walked around Edinburgh. It was a nice little town, even at night. I was really comfortable there, which is always a great feeling! For the capital city, it seemed very small and homey.

Friday, Nov. 10: The adventure really begins… We went to another hostel early in the morning to catch our tour bus. Our guide, Marty, was completely outrageous from the first moment we met him. His friends call him Party Marty :) He’s signature line is actually: I am a part of the Marty party: one member, one vote, mine! What a great guy! He LOVED his job and loves Scotland, so it was hard not to be excited right along with him!

On the bus today we explored the northern part of Scotland (aka: the Highlands) as we headed to our hostel in Kyleakin, on the Isle of Skye. The most exciting part of the trip was when we went to Loch Ness. Marty told us it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to dive in and swim with ‘Nessy’ (the Loch Ness monster), but we all just kind of laughed at him. Then the next thing we know, Bryan and Neil are stripping down to their boxers to go take a dive in!!! They ran out into the freezing water, dove in, and while Neil started swimming around, Bryan freaked out (it was amazingly cold) and swam back to shore. Neil followed shortly afterward. Oh boys… I touched the water with just my fingertips and I thought that it was freezing! KP and Mel went in with their bare feet and were definitely feeling it, so we can’t even imagine how those boys did it!

We got to our hostel that night, and found out that our tour group (21 of us, an Aussie, a couple from South Africa, and two girls from India) had our own private building! It was really nice! Considering it was mostly our group, it was a great time for bonding as well. The group had kind of grown apart since the beginning and broken up into little groups (which is bound to happen), but this was a great chance for us to remix and mingle with everyone again. I know I took the opportunity!

That night we went to the King Haakon Bar, as recommended by Marty. It claims to be: ‘Skye’s original backpackers & locals pub.’ Perfect, right? Right! It was wonderful! We had a coupon for a free bottle of Tennents Lager (‘Scotland’s favourite Lager’) with our meal. It was definitely a different tasting beer, and I probably wouldn’t have ordered it on my own, but it was great because it was free :) That night there was a cover band starting at around 9:30pm, so most of stayed for that. We took up like half of the bar while we were eating! But by the time the band got there, and they moved the pool table, the locals (and other backpackers) crammed into the rest of the place, doubling our numbers. The cover band was pretty good, or at least I thought so. It was nice to have music and have somewhere fun to be besides our hostel. It was also great because we knew that the following night we were going to be able to enjoy some traditional Scottish music!!

Saturday, Nov. 11: Today was the day that our tour went around the Isle of Skye. We explored the fairy castle, the gorgeous landscape and looked down over miles of rocky/hilly land. It was amazing!!! Although the day was cold and windy with rain and hail (yet again), it was absolutely spectacular when the sun came out! Breathtaking in fact. I wouldn’t have traded this tour for anything!!

The King Haakon Bar enjoyed our presence again that night. It was the night we all tried haggis as well. I just ate some of Skjerven’s, but it was fantastic… especially considering it’s random stuff boiled in a sheep’s stomach… luckily they don’t serve it in the stomach!! It really just looked like ground beef :) Good stuff :D

We were all exhausted after the tour that day, so we all went back to the hostel after supper to just relax. Yet at about 10pm or so, Marty came running into the living room, where many of us were sitting, playing cards or monopoly, and excitedly yelled at us that we just HAD to go to bar and see the live Scottish band. What were we all thinking?? So many of us got up, left the hostel, and ran over to the bar to see a great traditional Scottish band. I danced with a couple people, Bryan being one of them, and enjoyed being twirled around and creating a ruckus! What a great time!!

Sunday, Nov. 12: This was the last day of our tour, and we headed back to Edinburgh. This time we took a route through the lowlands, exploring different battlegrounds. It wasn’t exactly an uplifting day though. Many of the battlegrounds, residing on flat plains (versus the hills that the Highlanders were so amazing at fighting in), were where the Highlanders lost to the British. At one field, Marty couldn’t even leave the bus to come with us because it was too hard for him; so many of his ancestors’ lives were lost there. Although it was really sad, it was great to see someone care so much about his heritage.

A more uplifting part of the journey, taking place near the end, in, I believe, Stirling, was when we learned about William Wallace. In Stirling, we went to a huge monument dedicated to him that looked a lot like the tower for a castle. It rested on top of a huge hill, which you could either take a bus up or walk yourself. Yeah… we walked… actually I was with Bryan, Pat, Neil, and Mel, and while Byran, Mel, and Pat actually ran up the hill (crazy folk), Neil and I ‘felt the burn’ as we walked up it. Once we arrived at the top, the view was amazing, overlooking the entire area, and there was a man playing the part of Wallace, dressed traditionally with a shield and ax, telling Wallace’s story. It was really neat! On the way back down, Mel and I let gravity take over and jogged/ran down; so much fun! The eye-rolling part of this area, though, was the statue of “William Wallace” at the bottom of the hill. It was completely separate from the monument and was carved after the movie Braveheart. You could tell… it looked exactly like Mel Gibson. Ish. Apparently, the residents of Stirling were so upset when they saw it for the first time, they took a blade and chopped off the statue’s face. Although it’s been repaired, it still looks completely ridiculous, and they have to chain the statue so that the locals won’t steal it!

That night, we got back to Edinburgh at about 4:30pm. After we checked into Budget Backpacker’s, a group of us girls walked around the city to get some souvenirs, then went to a pub to meet up with Marty for supper. Although we didn’t really talk to Marty, we said goodbye to him, received his sincere bear hugs, and took a funny picture with him :) What a great guy :D

The rest of the night was spent as a ‘girl’s night’ in our 6 person room, including Erin, Mac, Lindsay, Brookly, myself, and Missy. Good times :)

Monday, Nov. 13: We left on a train back to London. I worked on my International Business case summary on the way home, needing to finish it so that I could type it up in the 2 hours I had between getting back to the flat and our classes meeting time! I ended up getting it all done just fine (with 4 hours on a train, I should have been able to finish it!) and went to class with KP, Brookly and Pat on time. This was the beginning of our second week of International Business, at least the second week that Mr. Huegel was in London. Although we were hoping that we could get the test moved back because we hadn’t received the study questions until that day, we had no such luck. What does that mean? I spent the rest of the night either procrastinating or studying :)

Tuesday, Nov. 14: For Art in London class, we went to the Somerset House, which got me interested in Dutch paintings again. They are so detailed and gorgeous and filled with seaports. I love them! I strongly considered writing my final essay on Dutch painters, but then I decided to just stick with Claude Monet. I ended up writing about The London Parliament Series that he did in the early 1900s. I had actually painted a replica of ‘Sun Breaking through the Fog’ on a bottle for my acrylic painting class senior year, so I was very interested in learning more about the series.

The first part of the afternoon, after class, was spent cramming for my test in International Business. I was really nervous that I wasn’t going to be able to answer the questions that he picked for the test, but once I got there, I was golden. I cruised right through the test and was actually able to catch up a little bit on this journal. After class we went out to eat with Benji (Mr. Huegel) because we hadn’t been able to go out with Dr. Highland (the provost of St. Mary’s University) when he visited London because we were in class. It was great! The five of us (Brookly, KP, Pat, Benji and myself) went to the Wetherspoon’s attached to the hotel where we meet for class and had a great supper. It was fun not only because it was free, but also because Benji is a really cool guy in and out of class.

Wednesday, Nov. 15: I had Theatre in London class in the morning, and I spent the rest of the day trying to get ready for Germany. Our coach bus (bad idea…) left at 9pm, and I was doing laundry at 5pm!! Yep, cutting it close, but that’s how I like it ;) I ended up getting everything ready in time, and Andrew, Katie Simon and I were out the door with little trouble. I had to run back to my room to grab something once, but otherwise we were fine. Or so I thought… it turns out that I had forgotten the Victoria’s Secret perfume that I had bought for Tamara (it was way cheaper for me to buy it and bring it over to her than for her to buy it and have it shipped to Germany). It turned out okay, I just mailed it from London when we got back, but it was a huge let down when I first realized that I had forgotten it!

The bus ride was… LONG! We took a coach bus from London all the way to Braunschweig, Germany. Not only was this bus ride supposed to take 18 hours, including a ferry across the English Channel to France, but it ended up taking 2 extra hours because of a hold up at the Channel. The passport control people much have been cracking down on the bus in front of us because it took them a long time to get through while we got through very shortly. That was interesting: waking up at 1:30am on the bus to have to go to a group of passport control people, foggy brained and all, and manage to convince them you were who your passport said you were. Good times! No, it wasn’t that bad, but it was very blurry in my mind! After passport control, we boarded a ferry with the bus. The bus remained parked in the bottom and we all had to go to the top area to (a) shop (b) eat (c) sleep, but mostly (d) simply leave the bus while we crossed the Channel. We decided to check out the very top of the ferry and walk around outside. It was very chilly out, but it was fun to ‘ride the high seas.’ It was so wavy that walking around we all felt like the stereotypical drunk, unable to walk in a straight line no matter how hard we concentrated! Inside the ferry wasn’t too bad, but we spent most of it sleeping anyway.

Thursday, Nov. 16: We had another passport check to get into Germany. We all passed again! Yeah!! We finally got to Braunschweig at 6pm, two hours after we were supposed to arrive. My cellphone didn’t work (stupid Mobile World sim card… I should have brought my Virgin one), and I could not get the payphone to work, so we went across the street to a Subway to use their phone. Nice people! I got ahold of Tamara and her and her mom came to get us very shortly.

Once at Tamara’s house, about a half hour away from Braunschweig (partially taking the Autobahn!), we got to settle in before having a traditional German meal. It was delicious! Tamara and her mom made us all the German favorites: two types of sauerkraut (one with pineapple, one with meat), roasted ham, lots of bread, salad (which we all kind of forgot about in the midst of all the other food), two types of potatoes (one that was in a ball shape and sticky, one half raw mixed with one half cooked, funny sounding but very good, and then regular baked potatoes). There was probably more, but I cannot even think of it right now! Long story short: it was delicious!

Oh, and back to the Autobahn… it’s not at all what people make it out to be. Yes, there is no speed limit, but people don’t go as crazy fast as you’d think they would. It’s actually just like a normal highway; people still need to think of their safety! If you had no idea it was the Autobahn, you’d probably not even notice!

We spent the night relaxing and watching German TV. They had satellite or cable, and they actually had MTV, but of course it was in German. We walked South Park for a little bit though, it was the Halloween special, and it was amazing how we actually knew what was going on! Katie and Andrew got to meet Jon (pronounced Yon), Tamara’s boyfriend, who spent the evening with us. After exploring German television, we put in The Emperor’s New Groove – yeah for English speaking movies! I was exhausted though and fell asleep right away. I’m pretty sure I snored too. Ooops!

Friday, Nov. 17: We got up bright and early to go to class with Tamara at her university in Braunschweig. She usually doesn’t live at home, but while we were there, she did. Her apartment is closer to Braunschweig, but we actually never got to see it, now that I think about it! Anyway, we went to her Chemistry class with her. Wow… first of all, we were super tired, second, the professor had a monotone voice, and third, he was speaking German! Not to mention it was an advanced chemistry class related to engineering. Uhh… sweet! We made it through by trying to figure out if we knew what any of the words meant. Let me tell you: German words can get LONG! When they have description before them, they add it to the word, making it compound, and the letters can definitely can add up! Oh, and it wasn’t like we could just close our eyes and nap; we were in the front row! But anyway, we got through it. Tamara had one more class, but we went into Braunschweig and looked around instead of sitting through another foreign class. She completely understood! It was fun looking around town. After a couple of hours, we met back up with Tam and she showed us some places we had missed.

Oh, yes, and when we were in a mall in Braunschweig, I went to go put my camera back in my purse and it fell between my purse and the bag I was carrying, hit the ground just right, and broke! I snapped it back together, but it’s not together close enough to connect the battery to the camera… Darn thing… Long story short: I have to get pictures from Andrew and Katie from this trip.

On the way home, Tamara took us to a castle, and we had fun exploring that. Then we went past the VW plant where her dad and most of the other people in the area work. It’s a huge part of that area’s economy, as you can probably imagine.

P.S. It was wonderful to ride in a car!!

That night we were going to go out for ‘cocktails,’ like Tamara wanted to do with me since we first started talking about me coming to visit her, but we ended up staying in. We were all very tired and all of her friends were busy. Jon didn’t even come over because he was playing video games with his brother :) While we were just hanging out, Tamara’s mom came down to share a whole bunch of things with us. First, she took us into the other room to show me the different glasses that they have, knowing that I was interested in getting a beer stein. She ended up giving the three of us each a brandy glass. Andrew ended up getting a smaller glass than Katie and I, but Tamara’s mom made up for that later; she ended up giving us all a set of home-made candlesticks!! Andrew’s was bigger, though, since his glass was smaller! She was so adorable! Next, she had us all try a shot of German liquor (if we wanted), and it tasted like a mix between Smirnoff and Bacardi; it was pretty good. Last, Tamara’s mom gave us each a little gift to take back with us, either some chocolate or biscuits. It was so sweet!!! What a wonderful woman!

Tamara’s mom tried really hard to speak English for us, with the little she knew. Tamara’s dad didn’t know any English, but he was quite the character, and communicated with us well through gestures and jokes. Tamara’s sister knew English, but she really didn’t like using it. She was pretty cool though. I was so glad to get to meet her entire family! Finally!!

Saturday, Nov. 18: Today was the day to explore what we could of the area. Tamara’s mom took us around in the car. First, we went to the Berlin wall. That was amazing!! In the country side, about 20 minutes from their house, was where the wall originally was. Think of that: if her parents had been born just a few miles to the east, they would have grown up in East Germany!! And you could definitely tell that they were not an East German family; they had a gorgeous country home. I completely loved it!! Anyway, there was an area dedicated to informing people about the original wall. In this area were pieces of the different types of walls they had set up all through Germany: the cement one in Berlin and other big cities, the original wall that was wood or had just a huge section of barbwire that you could still see through, or the final method which was a wire fence that was uniform with small holes that you couldn’t climb. On the east side of the wall they would have an area of grass, followed by a ditch filled with water, then a black dirt pit that they kept smooth so that they could see any tracks in it. If that wasn’t enough, the dirt pit also sometimes had landmines, and then there was a much bigger area before you came to the towers that we about 1 km apart along the entire wall. Lights were shined at the wall at night. It was phenomenal to see… and probably my favorite part of the history we saw in Germany.

After the wall, we went to a few small towns, looking for little museums, but they all seemed to be closed for the day or until later in the afternoon. We saw a bunch of traditional houses – cute! That evening we went back into Braunschweig to finish up our gift purchasing.

That night, I planned on going out with Tamara and her friends to a club, but Andrew and Katie weren’t all that interested and Tamara was a little bit sick. Yet Tamara really wanted to bring me out (another one of the things she’d been planning to do with me the moment I got a chance to visit), and Andrew and Katie just stayed home. Tomas picked us up and brought us to Jon’s. Then we picked up one of Tamara’s girl friends; her name is very German and I cannot remember it!! Anyway, the five of us went to the club that Tamara’s parents used to go to. I guess this club has been around for a long time. In fact, it’s in what I think was a printing press at one point. There were even different areas for different genres of music: the big ‘popular’ music area, the alternative section, the reggae and not as popular hip hop, and the hard rock. Very, very cool! I had a great time just dancing with Tamara and her friends. I think we got home (after dropping everyone off) at about… oh… 4:30am!!! A normal night out at the disco!! It was wonderful!

Sunday, Nov. 19: Our bus back left at 12:30pm. It was hard to leave Tam, but okay because I knew that I’d see her again. Now that I’ve been to Germany once, and to six other European countries I haven’t seen before this semester, I know that going back will be easy. Slowly but surely I worked on my one assignment for my European Business class. I got it done after probably 4 hours of working and napping alternately.

Oh, and when we were in Germany we had a fun little friend in the bathroom: a big black spider whom we named. I cannot remember the name though… Anyway, she stayed right where she was the entire time we showered, so it was okay. We took pictures :)

Monday, Nov. 20: Our bus got in at 8am, two hours later than it was supposed to, but that was okay because Katie didn’t have class until 9am. We got back to the flats in time for her to go to class and for Andrew and I to go back to sleep. I took a couple hour nap, then got up to go to European Business. It was rough, but I made it through with my caffeine and candy!! I’m pretty sure I just took it easy the rest of the day, trying to catch up on my lost sleep.

Tuesday, Nov. 21: Before class, Erin and I ran to the internet café and printed off five people’s (including our own) final essays for Art in London. For class, we were supposed to meet at this special exhibit, but it had closed the day before!! Oliver ended up taking us across the river back to the Portrait Gallery. Although I had already been to it once, there were some new things, so I looked around at them and then left. Best part of class though: Oliver gave Matt and I our London Exiles rugby jerseys!! He gave Matt a long sleeved jersey with Matt’s number (15), and he gave me a short sleeved jersey with his number (10). It is humongous on me, but it has great memories tied it :) I love Oliver!! (I had my dad put it on when I got back to the States and it fits him perfectly, but he won’t let me give it to him. Yeah for new pajamas :)!!)

After lunch, Lindsay and I went to the Natural Café and used their free wireless internet, drank tea/coffee and planned out our traveling plans for after school was done. We booked all of our hostels! It took us quite a while, but we did it together, and that is what mattered most!!

For supper, Erin and I were going to go to China Town and have Chinese food for the first time in London, but we couldn’t find the darn place! We had to have been only a couple of blocks away, but we gave up (we were so hungry) and just ate at Pizza Hut. I cannot get over how good it was in London! The sauce, the cheese, so much better than the States! Erin and I also had a wonderful chat that night. I am so excited to live with her and Lindsay next semester!! Old Village 115!! Whoop whoop!

That night, as I was getting ready for bed, cleaning my room, something, my lip ring fell out! The ball twisted off, fell and I had to put in my old one! It was crazy… I was really sad, thinking that I wasn’t going to be able to get it back in, but I persisted and finally got it in.

Wednesday, Nov. 22: After Theatre in London class, where we got our final essay prompt, I went to Camden Town and had Arthur (one of the guys at Cold Steel) put a hoop in my lip. We tried to see if my belly button was still open (my ring fell out this summer, but it still has a hole on top thanks to my ‘thick navel’), but the center is definitely closed. I’m fine with it; I’m just glad that we checked. I thought about getting it re-pierced, but… no. I’m over my belly button ring!

Larry Gorrell, St. Mary’s Dean of Arts, was in town for the holiday weekend, so he took all of us (not just the theatre kids) out for dinner at a nice Italian restaurant called Azzuur. It was amazing! I had a delicious calzone, and the friends that were visiting (Walt’s friend, Mike, as well as the three boys who were staying in our flat – Pat Audette [graduating from SMU this year, went to London two years ago], Aaron [graduated last year] and his friend Andy) got to eat with us as well. It was a great last hurrah! I was sitting near Erin, Lindsay, Tim and Pat Mikkelson, which was absolutely wonderful :)

Thursday, Nov. 23: After Global Issues, I went grocery shopping, got supplies to send Tamara’s package, and then picked up Andrea at Victoria with Erin. The three of us ended up going out to Pizza Hut again. It was delicious once more, and nice to be at a chain from the States on Thanksgiving. It was hard being in a country that doesn’t celebrate one of our biggest holidays! Near the end of our dinner, a man came up to us and asked if we were Canadian or American. We replied American, almost downtrodden, thinking that he’d bash Bush or something, but he simply said: ‘Well, happy Thanksgiving!” It was wonderful!! We all came near tears, or at least thought about crying :)

Once we got back from supper, Andrea and I went out to Kavanaugh’s with Pat A., Aaron and Andy. It’s a bar more for older people, and as we were getting a pint, Pat, Andrea and I actually met three business associates. The one guy ended up talking to Pat for a long time, while Andrea and I talked to the younger guy until we noticed that KP, Bryan and their friends that were visiting were there too! We went and talked to them, with our free pints from the ‘associates’ until they left. We ended up leaving shortly after that and running into them at the bus stop! What a fun trip home. I ended up talking to Dalen, one of KP’s friends from home, for most of the trip. I love that girl!! KP has great friends!

Friday, Nov. 24: Today began the two day tour of London for Andrea. In the morning we went to Abbey road with Pat A., Aaron and Andy, took some pictures, then headed to Camden Town where we split up. Andrea and I went to Cold Steel were she got a piercing. It looks so cool! I love it! While we were waiting for her appointment though, we found a pizza shop behind Camden Lock, where we split a large pizza. It was delicious!! I loved the lady who served us. She owned the little place, and she was very friendly. She also knew everyone that passed, making me love Camden even more because she made it feel like a real neighborhood. Amazing!! After her piercing, we walked around Camden Town more. We actually found some presents for her mom, dad, and brother! It was great!! After Camden Town, we stopped at the huge Top Shop so that I could show her my experience with the store compared to the one in Dublin. The we met the boys at the British Museum, which was one of the places that Andrea had been told to go. It was fun to be able to show her what we’d seen for class, and be able to find the mummies right away!!

I was supposed to go to Avenue Q that night, but it got all messed up and I ended up missing the show by about 15 minutes. At least we hadn’t bought my ticket yet!! Andrea and I ended up going out to Lloyd’s with Skjerven, Walt and his friend Mike. What a chill night. It was really fun!

Saturday, Nov. 25: Today we hit up the market on Portobello Road, where Andrea found a cool ring and I found one of the presents that I had been looking for. Then we went to the Thames river where we saw Big Ben, Parliament, the London Eye, the Globe, etc. You know, the typical Thames River attractions. That night we went to Settle Down for Brookly’s 21st birthday. It was quite the experience. We’d never been there on a weekend, and it was filled with youngens! I mean… 16 year olds at the oldest!!! Uhh… sweet… But we stayed because Brookly wanted to (she didn’t really notice all the youngens because she was in a different room. Anyway, it was kind of amusing the feel the tension coming out of all of them; they knew they weren’t supposed to be there and it was awkward! And amusing :)

Sunday, Nov. 26: Andrea flew home this morning. I brought her to Victoria to catch a bus to Stansted airport at around 7:30am. We had stayed out kind of late the night before, so that was rough, but I managed :) I came back to the flats, went back to bed, and then woke up only to study hardcore for my European Business final. I was really nervous for it. I had to keep reminding myself that I wasn’t in London to get a 4.0, I was there to learn all that I had learned. Hehe… I did what I could to prepare.

Monday, Nov. 27: After studying more in the morning (or at least re-reading my notes), I went to my European Business final. Surprisingly I couldn’t seem to write fast enough. I knew enough to do the required four questions, and decided to just keep it at that. I knew that I had done my best, and I was satisfied. As I was leaving, Paul (the professor) showed me my homework assignment (that I’d been working on during my return bus trip from Germany) and it had an A+++ on it! Cool!! I think I’m okay grade-wise in that class.

Tuesday, Nov. 28: We didn’t have Art in London class today! We had our last class the week before. I am trying to think what I did all day… I slept in… and finished my Theatre in London final essay… and studied for Global Issues.

Wednesday, Nov. 29: I’m pretty sure I aced my Global Issues test, or at least did well. I hope so! It was the one class I was semi-worried about, but I knew what I was talking about on almost all of the questions. I love that feeling!

After class I packed. I didn’t pack everything, but I did start packing.

That night we went back to Walk About (Australian bar/club with free admission and cheap drinks for students). A big bunch of us did actually: Pat, Tim, Mac, Erin, Lindsay, Brookly, me, Michelle, Ashley, Katie, Mel, KP, Bryan… I’m sorry if I forgot anyone!! Anyway, it was a great going away bash that we had! I am glad that we got to have one last hurrah besides Thanksgiving dinner (although that was wonderful too)!

Thursday, Nov. 30: I did laundry, and started packing. Pretty much it… it was an emotional day! Leaving London, but not going home yet, so many conflicting feelings!

Friday, Dec. 1: We moved out of the flats! Lindsay and I headed to the train station early in the morning to catch our 9am train! Off to Paris!! I’ll write about my travels afterward later… I need a break from typing!

Update on Oct. 22 through Nov. 6

Sunday, Oct. 22: Well, it’s been a long time since I have updated, and to be honest… I really do not remember what I did this day. I know that I wrote my last update, and I’m pretty sure that I just stayed in, working on homework and reading. I bet that’s it actually… I must have read a ton :)

Monday, Oct. 23: I went to European Business class and managed to not sleep through the majority of class. No, just kidding, I did well :) That night was a relatively relaxing night (I think) and I am pretty sure that I just stayed in.

Tuesday, Oct. 24: We went to the Wallace Collection for Art in London class. Each member of the Wallace family, throughout the last several generations, had acquired the collection. The biggest attraction was the plethora of armor, swords, daggers, pistols, bows, axes, maces, and other military and hunting equipment from the last few centuries. It was amazing!! I thought of different people from Princeton who would of loved to see all of those medieval shiny objects :) Another memorable piece of art was this gorgeous painting telling the, I believe, Greek mythological story of the man who made his son wings out of wax. The son got ambitious and flew higher and higher, until he was so high that he was too close to the sun, and the wax began to melt. The painting portrayed the sun with huge, gorgeous wings, fallen upon a rock with angels trying to comfort him in his last moments. I remember that the wings initially caught my attention across the room, and so, of course, I had to go investigate! There was also a famous painting of two little girls playing with Japanese lanterns that Lindsay really liked. Even with those two marvelous paintings, and the armor, I still found myself attracted to the Dutch paintings overlooking the sea with wide, expansive skylines fading off into the distance. Uh ha! A topic for my final essay!! It’s not due until Nov. 20th, but that’s creeping up pretty fast, so I’m going to start doing research soon.

That afternoon I began rereading the United States of Europe paperback we’ve been reading for Global Issues to prepare for the midterm on Thursday, Nov. 26th. The fact that it was my first time having a test with Bob, whom I’d heard from past students has hard tests, made me really nervous!!

That evening we went to The Last Kiss at a cinema near the Stepney Green tube stop. Tickets were a mere 4.50 pounds! Still pricey, but what movie isn’t nowadays? What an amazing movie. I highly recommend it. I thought that it was very natural. The cute scenes were heart-wrenchingly cute, the awkward scenes made you feel awkward for those involved, and the issue was real. Also the ending wasn’t concrete, making it even more real. It was one of those movies that you couldn’t talk about directly following it because your mind just had to process it before you could discuss it, but it was wonderful.

Wednesday, Oct. 25: Considering I had a midterm in Global Issues, I spent the day attempting cram as much information in my head as possible. Although I felt like I hadn’t a ton of concrete information, I soon found out that we had covered a lot of information (four chapters in The United States of Europe by T.R. Reid – interesting read, I recommend it to learn more about the European Union – four day trips – and, therefore, the history of four locations – and supposedly many current events – oops, none of us have really been keeping up with that…). I ended up studying with KP and Lindsay, which helped a ton. Oh yeah, and I had Theatre in London in the morning.

Thursday, Oct. 26: I had my midterm in Global Issues. It went okay. I didn’t know everything, but I think I pretended well :) I left feeling fairly confident about the test. Although it’s been 2 weeks, I still haven’t found out my grade (I didn’t stay after the following week because I didn’t realize what was going on, and we didn’t have class last week due to our Scotland trip). I’m quite interested in knowing what I got. When I know, you’ll know :)

That evening, Brookly made supper for the flat. It was DELICIOUS: spaghetti with meat sauce, garlic bread, and chocolate deliciousness for desert! I think that these are my favorite meals of the semester, with their great food and flat bonding time. I’m sure I’ve already said that once before, but I just need to reiterate the idea!

After supper, Brooks, Mac, and Erin went to Kavanaugh’s while KP, Linds, and I joined Bryan, Mel, Pat and Tim at an improvisation Whose-Line-is-it-Anyway-style comedy show. It was relatively funny, so the 5 lb ticket was worth it. Also, I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with that group. I haven’t really spent much time with the boys from Flat 14, so that was a great change.

Friday, Oct. 27: In the morning we had a two hour lecture on Northern Ireland. It was actually at a pretty perfect time considering I flew to Dublin shortly after the lecture! It was nice to learn the issues behind the country’s conflicts. I feel like I hadn’t really known much previously, but having the history behind the conflicts laid out helped a ton.

My flight to Dublin wasn’t my most favorite flight ever, but it wasn’t bad. I got through security about an hour before the flight left, so I spent the entire time reading The Devil Wears Prada (great, fun book!). I was exhausted, but I managed to convince myself to wait to sleep until I got on the plane. Although I was at the right gate, and I didn’t fall asleep, three other people and myself almost missed the flight! We had all missed the announcement that our flight was leaving from a few gates down, but luckily one of the other three asked a security guard to clarify which gate we were supposed to leave from and informed her that it had been moved!!! We made it in time to get into line and laugh at ourselves for not listening to the announcements more carefully.

Once on the plane, I found myself sitting to an Indian woman and her daughter. They were very sweet. The mom asked me if she could use my cell phone, which I gladly let her use. I guess her flight had been cancelled, and she was on her way back to her husband in London, but he didn’t know about the flight cancellation yet. She thanked me repeatedly, pretty much making my day with her happiness at my simple gesture. The rest of the flight wasn’t as wonderful though. Considering I hadn’t had much to eat for breakfast and it was 3:30pm, my stomach and my head weren’t very happy with me, and I got queasy with the turbulence. Although I was so tired, I had to force myself to sleep so that I could get through the flight and just get off! I made it :)

I bought my Freedom Pass (a ticket that gave me access to the buses, the City Tour, and reduced admission into some tourist attractions for three days) and caught a bus into City Centre where I met Andrea. We headed to Temple Bar where we ate at the actual Temple Bar (some nummy soup with nummy bread… mmmm…). Afterwards we headed to a bar for good locally brewed Guiness. This bar was huge! It was at least three floors, if not three. Each had a different feel, whether it was designed for dancing, eating, socializing or simply relaxing. We ended up nursing our Guiness for a good two hours, I think, on big comfy couches. The Guiness was delicious, but I was too busy catching Andrea up on current issues. We headed to another pub to finish the night, but didn’t stay there long because it was crowded, there was no place to sit, and I had my backpack still.

We caught a bus back to her dorm and hung out there the rest of the night, actually going to bed shortly after we got back so we could wake up nice and early the next morning.

Saturday, Oct. 28: We work up in the morning, putzed around (okay, I putzed around), and then headed into City Centre so that I could catch the City Tour. The bus tour was nice, but I really wasn’t in the mood for hardcore tourism. Although it was a jump-on, jump-off tour, I liked my tour guide and stayed on his bus the entire ride. I decided not to get off at the Guiness factory because the line was way too long (and I heard later that it’s mostly videos anyway, so it’s not really worth it). Everything else was pretty, but, again, I wasn’t in a tourist mood. I met Andrea after I picked up some souvenirs, and we went to St. Stephen’s Green, the most gorgeous park I have ever seen. She showed a great little nook she found while she was waiting for me (in which she sat and read), and we walked through along the path with me in complete awe. I loved the trees, the green, the colors, and the water. It was wonderful!! I wish I could have spent all day there!!

Then I showed Andrea Top Shop and promised to bring her to the way bigger and better one in Oxford Circus (London). We ate supper at Jack O’Rourke’s pub (for lunch I had a Dr. Pepper and MINT chocolate digestives; I know, real healthy, but they were really good). At O’Rourke’s I had to try the fish and chips, and I scarfed the whole thing down! I guess I was hungry :) That night we were thinking of meeting up with her Irish friend, but we decided to just stay in, have a girl’s night, and watch episodes of Sex and the City. It was wonderful :)

Sunday, Oct. 29: Our goal for the day was to find Kilmainham Gaol (aka: jail) by finding it with the map I had from the City Tour. We stopped at Penny’s first (much like Kohl’s) where I ended up getting a warm, poofy jacket for only 13 euro (about $17). I also got a thick, wonderful sweater for cheap. I was so pumped to have proper outdoor wear for Scotland!

After shopping, we headed out on our quest. No such luck. We got horribly lost. We knew where we were in terms of City Centre, but had no idea how to get to the jail!!! At one point we found ourselves near one of her Irish acquaintance’s house, and sat on the bank of the river playing with the swans. Okay, we didn’t really play with them, but it was great because they approached us immediately when we sat on the short wall by the bank, obviously hoping we’d give them food. They didn’t like what we had to offer (some milk and cereal bar much like Co-Co Puffs) though.

Once we found our way back to Andrea’s dorm, we ate supper and got ready to meet some of her Irish friends (everyone else was gone traveling for the weekend because they had a bank holiday, and therefore no school, on Monday) at a pub for a ‘fancy dress’ Halloween party. Fancy dress applies to any themed gathering. Anyway, we both went as white trash. I was the normal trashy girl (tight panks, bright bar, white wife beater tank top, outrageous make-up, high pony tail) while Andrea wore a garbage bag and painted her face white. Get it? White trash? We had a great time. We got in without a cover before the line even formed. It was hilarious to see the different costumes that appeared that night! We had a blast and stayed out until late, taking a cab instead of a bus back for convenience :)

Here's a link to some pictures of my trip to Dublin: http://smumn.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2007488&id=173300088. There are pictures from Stonehenge as well :)

Monday, Oct. 30: That morning I flew back to London. I had to dish out fare for a taxi to get to the airport because the bus wasn’t showing up and I knew that I’d rather pay the driver than have to pay for a new plane ticket. This flight was a lot better. I slept the entire way, waking up 10 minutes before landing. I got back to the flat, slept for an hour, and went to European Business. I caffeine overloaded to stay awake. It worked okay. The whole day absolutely did not feel like a Monday! That afternoon I went costume shopping with Lindsay and found a headband for my bee costume (in Dublin I found footless tights and a pair of simple dangly earrings I’d been wanting since week one). I took it easy that night and tried to catch up on sleep, which actually was a success!

Tuesday, Oct. 31: I went to Art in London at the Tate Britain. It turned out to be worth the trip, although I’d previously decided against going there on my own when looking at what I wanted to do in London. The museum had a good mixture of art, which was refreshing. I was worried it would all be boring portraits of people who thought that they were important enough to have themselves painted as high and mighty looking :)

When the evening came around, our flat was amuck with Halloween celebrations. Not only was Tim coming down to borrow clothes to be a rock star (wow, did he pull off girls’ clothes freakishly well), but Lindsay, Brookly and I were also throwing our own costumes together. I went as a bee; it was so awesome! I had a yellow and black striped dress (well, a long sweater thing that totally in right now in London to wear as a dress) with black footless tights, a bright pink/yellow/orange headband with make shift black antennas, and a make shift black stinger taped to a black belt around my waist. A big group of us went out to the Sports’ Café in Piccadilly Circus where they were having a Halloween celebration. We had to wait in line for what seemed like forever, and just went Lindsay ad I were going to give up and head home, we made it quickly to the front and got in. There was a dance area, which allowed us to let loose all of our built up tension (“I just wanna dance” – yes, Dane Cook can understand).

Oh, the other costumes that night:
Brookly—Vixen (or something of the sort)
Lindsay—Baseball player (what, Cubs? We all thought she was a Twins’ fan…)
Pat—Freddie Kruger (or some other scary movie killer with a mask)
Nina—Punk (I think…)
Zak—Loser (ha! Just kidding! He had been Tesco man, with Tesco bags covering him, but took them off right before we left :( )
Michelle—Cat (with her hair in buns like ears, black nose/whiskers, and black clothes; simple and classic)
Renee—Leopard (complete with ears and tail)
Becky—Purple Devil (purple IS the new red)
Walt—Dexter (Skyjerven’s character in this semester’s play)
Simon—came, but didn’t dress up in a costume
Schares—Queen of Hearts (from Alice in Wonderland)
Jess—Masked Beauty (she may have had something specific, but I don’t remember!)
Gabe—came, but left before we got in and wasn’t dressed up
KP—Halloween spirit (much like school spirit)

The best costumes among us though:
Mel as the Big Bad Wolf and Bryan as Little Red Riding Ho (yes… Bryan had fake blond braids with his thigh length, red poncho as a cape and dress combo, complete with black belt and tight shorts hidden by the poncho—most of the time)

Wednesday, Nov. 1: After theatre class, we went to the British Theatre Museum in Covent Garden for the same class. We weren’t all that interested in it at the time, though, so we quickly went through the exhibits and then left. We were supposed to have a tour, but they stopped doing them the day before because they didn’t have enough money coming in to keep doing them. Actually, the entire museum (small, but helpful) is going to be closing soon because they don’t have enough money to keep it open. I guess the exhibits will either be moved to another museum or be stored where they are now. It’s pretty sad either way, though, that they cannot keep it open. I’m actually going to go back before I leave because there is an essay question on our take home final exam about a certain time period that was very influential for British theatre. Although I could probably answer it just fine without going back, I want to go back anyway :) After we left the museum, I walked around Covent Garden—another thing to check off my list of places to go before I leave London.

That night, our theatre class went to Moon For the Misbegotten. It was a long, but interesting production that starred Kevin Spacey, a famous London actress, and Collin… something… who used to be in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine! Once I knew that he had acted in that series, I completely understood why he looked so familiar! (Thanks to my mom and dad :)). I really enjoyed the entire production, but many of the other people with and around us, thought it drug on. I was completely captivated the entire time. It was only when people around me rustled around a lot in their boredom that I noticed the length, but then it quickly sucked me back in.

Before the play even started, though, we noticed that Natalie Portman was sitting in the audience!!! It was super excited! We were in the balcony, and we could see her in the stalls, surrounded by three friends on each side. She was completely adorable. At intermission, KP, Pat, and Mel followed her out to the lobby to see if they could see her up close. It worked! I guess she had on absolutely no make-up, but still looked gorgeous. She was really short and totally adorable. I guess that the next night when the other theatre class went to Rock and Roll, Skjerven was only four seats away from Natalie!! Earlier in the semester, when Neil was working at the venue where he’s interning, he actually talked to Natalie. She didn’t have a very good view, so he moved her to the front of the balcony, where he stayed and watched the show with her. They talked for at least a half hour! Yeah, we’re all about hanging out with stars here in London :)

Thursday, Nov. 2: Simple day: Global Issues class, grocery store, made supper for the flat, and watched Seven with Brookly, Erin, Lindsay, and Mac. For supper, Lindsay helped me make sausage links, French toast with French bread, and some eggs. It was my first time making French toast, but it turned out to be really good! We put cinnamon in the egg and milk mix, which definitely gave it a Christmassy taste! The eggs that we made were simply from the left over egg and milk mix, but it was awesome with the cinnamon! They are something I’d like to make as part of a holiday breakfast :)

Friday, Nov. 3: In the morning, I went to a special lecture for Global Issues on the devolution of Scotland from Britain. It was perfect to prepare us for our trip to Scotland the following weekend! The rest of the day I ran around London doing errands: I got bus tickets to Germany for Andrew, Simon and myself to visit Tamara, went to Camden Town to get a shorter bar put in my lip piercing, and stopped by Café Nero (my next drink is free!), and read for Global Issues. It was great to get those things out of the way. I felt so productive! Not to mention that I couldn’t play with my piercing as much because it was more out of the way, and that felt soooo much better.

Saturday, Nov. 4: Brookly, KP, Erin and I took a day trip to Stonehenge. It was great to see a historical “must see” sight like that. I took a TON of photos. Erin and I took an adorable picture together; it looked kind of like a couple picture :) There’s not much else to say about Stonehenge… but I have now seen it!

Here's the link to Stonehenge pictures: http://smumn.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2007488&id=173300088. There are also pictures in the beginning from my trip to visit Andrea in Dublin.

When we got back, KP and I had supper, and then headed out to see the most spectacular fireworks show in London for Guy Fox Day at Alexander Palace in Wood Green. Although we missed the fireworks specifically at the Palace, we were able to look across a good chunk of London, on the hill the Palace was on, and see many different firework presentations all over the city! It was gorgeous!!! In the Palace, there was a big celebration going on: ale garden, beer garden, food (massive burgers and hot dogs!), jazz band, carnival (complete with carrousel and small rollercoaster), ice rink, etc. It was a great time! The best part, though, was sitting and talking with Kris. We hadn’t done that since the play ended, and it was wonderful to just talk. I cannot help but LOVE that girl :)

Sunday, Nov. 5: In the morning, KP and I went to St. Paul’s Cathedral for church. If you go to a service, you get to see part of the Cathedral for free, and we were definitely up for that! The Cathedral was gorgeous, and the music resonated beautifully. They had an all male chorus, covering all of the parts (they old men and young boys). It was also interesting to see how the Church of England ran their services. (Surprise, surprise, they were not so different from Catholic or Lutheran services.)

That afternoon, I worked on my field study paper on British American Business Inc., and that evening, Lindsay and I went to a fringe production in Camden Town called Frozen. It was a great production! We loved it! It was crazy though; it was in a black box theatre above a pub!! Here’s an excerpt from my review for class (before I shortened it) to describe to you the plot: The production opens with an awkward entrance by both Tom and Laura into Tom’s hole in the wall apartment. The first minute is complete silence, depending on the actors’ body language to get across the plot, until finally Laura asks if she can stay over. Tom simply replies “No,” before exiting behind a curtain in the back of the cozy black box stage. The story of the night’s recent happenings begins to unfold in pieces: Laura’s drunken fiancé, Danny, had found out that Laura had cheated on him with a man at the bar. When Danny learned this, he tried to hit the man and was soon kicked out of the bar by the bouncer. Outside the bar, Danny is outraged, yelling at Laura and making a scene that soon draws the attention of Tom, a complete stranger. Tom steps between them, only to get hit by Danny, and takes Laura out of the situation, back to his apartment. Laura confesses to Tom that this was not the only time that she cheated on Danny. Tom cannot comprehend why Laura would let herself hurt Danny like that, continually asking her to explain. But she dodges the question, asking Tom why he can allow himself to live as he does, working in a toy store and living in a ratty apartment, obviously spending a lot of time alone. They get into a heated argument until Tom abruptly grabs her, falls on top of her on the bed, calling her a “dirty little girl.” Then the phone sitting on the floor next to the bed rings, snapping Tom out of his episode. Laura wants to leave, but outside it is snowing too hard. Although this would have been a good moment to learn more about what exactly sparked Tom’s violent reaction, the dialogue slowly comes back to Laura. She reveals why she cheated on Danny so many times, listing numerous reasons, including that things weren’t as they used to be; Danny didn’t know how to love her anymore, becoming a workaholic who also partied hard; and the only thing that seemed to fill the cold, empty space, even if just for a moment, was sleeping with other men, an action that soon became a kind of game and addition. Although we never learn much more about Tom, he helps her realize that Danny finding out that she was cheating is not the end of the world; reassuring her that Danny is not the only one who will ever want her. The production ends with Laura calling Danny to tell him that she is sorry for what she’s done, and she hopes that he finds someone else who can treat him the way he deserves to be treated. After she says good-bye to Danny, she looks out the window and says, “It stopped snowing. It’s beautiful. Everything looks new.” After this pivotal line, Laura says good-bye to Tom, leaving the apartment filled with optimism. Yet Tom is not so optimistic; the phone rings again and he only stares at it, unable to answer it for yet again.

A lot, I know, but I love the show, and I want to be able to remember it! The show was only 45 minutes long too, so it was cool to see how they developed characters in such a short time. After the show, we came right home, I wrote my review (which I got 15/15 on!), and was in bed by 11pm.

Monday, Nov. 6: I woke up at 8:30am and began working on my field study essay (due that night at 6pm). I was actually awake!! It was amazing! I had energy, and I was ready to go! I wrote the first half of my paper, after a little push from Mac do ‘just do it; it’s a one credit class.’ Then I took a glorious shower and finished my essay with an hour left before European Business!! I got to go to the grocery store to get my weekly food, and still return in time for a quick bite before class. It was a very productive morning!! During class, I managed to stay focused—you seriously will never understand the willpower that takes! Paul is a great man, and he knows a ton, but he can be slightly hard to follow and his voice is quite soothing. Bad combination!

Tonight KP and Lindsay made supper. It was a new concoction I’ve never had: cous cous, sautéed peppers, mushrooms and tomatoes, beans, fruit salad, and brownie bits. Mmm…

Don't Worry!!!

Hello all! Don't worry! I am still alive and having a fabulous time in London! I went to Dublin two weekends ago, Stonehenge last Saturday, and will be heading to Scotland this weekend! I will be sure to tell you all about it when I have time to finish writing a new entry! So... sorry about not giving you any details! I hope that you are all doing well!!!

Update on Oct. 6 through Oct. 21

Friday, Oct. 6: We went to Bath for our last day trip. What a great place. We took a tour of the Roman baths with virtual tour guides (aka: a phone on a string into which we’d type numbers from plaques on the wall and learn more about an area of the museum). That was actually really nice because you could go at your own pace, explore, and not have to struggle to hear a tour guide. It was really interesting to learn how they found the baths (residents were complaining about hot water flooding their basements – it was from a natural hot spring!), and how the Romans built it so well that it still works today, with most of the original piping. They worshipped Minerva at this bath site, believing that she was the reason the water was always hot with a never-ending supply. They worshipped her as well as the sun and moon. The whole bath area was about the size of a football fiend, with a place of worship, the bathhouse, sauna-like areas, the courtyard, and of course the sacrifice altar in the center of the courtyard. Quite the interesting place.

After the museum, we went to eat at a pub. They had AMAZING food! I had the best Caesar salad I’ve ever had (the croutons were more bread-like than crunchy), and I ended up ordering this massive tray of garlic bread. They took a long thin loaf of bread, cut it in half, then cut it in half the other way, giving me four foot long pieces of garlic bread! It was heavenly!

Once we’d had our full, we met up with our people down by the waterside park. It was gorgeous there. There were ducks, a couple of geese, and, of course, pigeons. I actually saw a couple pretty pigeons, so I had to take pictures! After walking around for a bit longer, it was time to go and we headed back to the bus.

Check out my Bath pics: http://smumn.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2006721&id=173300088&l=c1acf

That night I went out with Walt’s parents. It was so wonderful to be with adults! I love meeting people’s parents and seeing where they come from. I really miss my parents right now too, so it was nice to have parents of some kind to spend time with. We went to a pub down the road from their apartment, and then out to an Indian cuisine restaurant. Walt and I just shared an appetizer because we weren’t that hungry, but his parents had full meals. His dad is a crazy spice lover type of guy, and I guess his meal was even a little too spicy for him, but he enjoyed it all the same. They were such nice people; I’m glad that I got to meet them. It was also really cool to see the difference in customer service at the restaurant. Most of the places that we have all gone out to eat at have not been huge on customer service, but here they waited on us hand and foot. It was pretty fun to be looked after like that :)

Saturday, Oct. 7: In the afternoon, I went to The Seafarer for class at The National Theatre. I was soooo tired, and I felt bad because it was a really good show! I pulled a Mom and closed my eyes while simply listening to the dialogue for a little bit. Anyway, the actors were so great at their characters. They were older men, who were amazing at acting like older men :) It all flowed so naturally. I am definitely reading the script later.

That night, a big group of us went to the After Skool Klub. It is a club on the London University of Engineering campus, where all students are welcome. There is free entry until midnight and half price drinks until 11:30pm. It was amazing to be able to dance with everyone again. Although I can’t handle going out to dance all the time, every once in a while is such a release! There were a lot of gothic/punk students there, which provided for some entertaining people watching. Overall, I had a great time! We will probably go back at least once more. I know some people went back this past Saturday (Oct. 16th), but I stayed in.

Sunday, Oct. 8: A group of us (a bunch of girls, Bryan and Skjerven) were supposed to go to a London Wasps versus another London team (I can’t think of them right now) rugby game, but many complications arose. First of all, the ticket booth lady gave us directions to the ticket booth, but this is not where the game was actually being played. The practice field was there, but not the game. Anyway, after searching for about 20 minutes for the entrance to the field, we finally realized how off we were. We stopped in a convenience store only to find that the field the game was on was completely outside of London! To make a long story short: we didn’t go to the game. We ended up deciding that we would find a nearby pub and watch it there. We found a great place called the Red Back (or something along those lines), an Australian pub, where they also happened to be having a FREE barbeque and 1 lb. bottles of Foster’s (the local big name imported beer). At first we thought that possibly we were crashing some private event, exclusive to the locals students (which would have been quite exciting!), but soon realized that this is something that they do every Sunday! It was a great deal: two huge turkey burgers with fixings and pineapple slices (I know, Chris, that doesn’t sound all that great to you)!! I joked about the fact the burgers tasted different so they must be kangaroo burgers, but Skjerven shot down my idea and told me the truth. It was sad realization ;) After 6pm, the barbeque ended as did the drink special, but we ate quickly at a grease spoon across the street, and came back for dancing! That’s right! Two nights of dancing in a row!! I was definitely feeling it later, but it was so much fun. OH! There was this guy there who looked like a cross between Brad Pitt and another actor with a mullet looking hair cut with a chin strap that totally made him look like he should be a character in the musical Cats! Don’t worry; I’ll put a picture of him up!!

Monday, Oct. 9: Since I haven’t been keeping up with this update very well, I cannot really remember what Monday entailed except that I had European Business from 1-4pm and slept during it for a good 20-25 minutes before the professor decided that it was a good time for a break! With only 8 people in the class, I was so shocked at myself that I fell asleep, but I was feeling horrible and I didn’t even want to be there, and so I just put my head down. The best part, though, was that when I woke up, I looked down at my notebook to find a nice little puddle of drool… how embarrassing! I guess I didn’t snore, though. Thank God!

Tuesday, Oct. 10: This was a very exciting day! We went to the Tate Modern for the second week for Art class, and went around the Surrealism section to explore questions that people had about modern art. It was very educational to hear Oliver speak about the pieces, and I really feel like I learned a lot. For our final paper in the class, we can write about anything we want to, as long as we show that we’ve done some research and put some thought and effort into it (okay, Oliver!), and I think that I may end up writing about Surrealism just because it really interested me, while at the same time completely freaked me out! I think that it would just be an interesting thing to explore.

When I came home that afternoon, I found Bob in our flat with another man, setting up a broadband ‘wireless’ connection! I was sooooo excited that I gave Bob a hug. The problem: Bob hates hugs. He saw me coming with my arms wide open, and he laughed, turning away, and said, ‘No, don’t hug me! Don’t hug me!’ …but alas… I hugged him. He didn’t burst into flames or break out in hives, though, and I will be sure never to do it again. I mean I thought he was joking because of the way he was smiling! I guess it’s just difficult for a hugger like myself to understand anyone’s dislike towards hugs :) Anyway, the point of that story was: now we have Internet in the flats!!!

Wednesday, Oct. 11: Theatre in London class… KP, Zak, and Renee presented. What a great presentation! So well put together and entertaining!! Renee had to present on Posthumorous (the play that [Mr.] Dr. Flanagan wrote and we are putting on here), and she reported on an ‘exclusive interview’ she had with him. What a hilarious moment! They all better get an A!

That afternoon, Mackenzie and I tried to book our flight to France (for the next day) to go visit Mrs. Willis, our freshman year women’s choir professor, but we found out that it was WAY too expensive. We also realized that we really don’t have any extra weekends open to go see her, so we won’t be visiting dear Mrs. Willis in France after all. I also tried to book my flight to visit Andrea in Dublin (Oct 27th to the 30th), but my credit card AND debit card were both being dumb! It was very frustrating!! The next day I called Wells Fargo, though, and he reset my cards or something like that, and now they work! Yah!!! And I’m going to Ireland to visit Andrea! Yah!!!

Thursday, Oct. 12: Bob flew back to Winona Tuesday or Wednesday to interview students wanting to study abroad in Italy, so we didn’t have Global Issues class. This free morning was spent at Harlem, a wonderful restaurant in the Paddington/Notting Hill area. I had pancakes and an egg and bacon, and it was amazing!! It was also great to spend time with KP and Lindsay. I really love those girls! I relaxed for the rest of the afternoon, taking it easy and pretending to work on International Business. (I didn’t get much done.) Late that afternoon, I took the long tube ride out to The New Wimbledon Theatre to help out with the show that the theatre students are putting on called Posthumorous. It was my first time seeing the show. I thoroughly enjoyed finally being able to understand all the little things the theatre students had been making comments about for over a month. The show itself is creative, but the jokes are definitely head shakers. In other words, it’s a find of stupid funny. I couldn’t help but laugh though; as we all know, I am quite easily amused.

The whole premise behind the show is that it’s the night that man first walks on the moon and so anything is possible. It’s also the night before the funeral of Dexter (Skjerven’s character), and Mo (Missy), the funeral parlor owner, and Earl (Walt), her assistant, are making sure the final arrangements are in place. Dexter has left little notes for everyone (all starting with NB) to ensure that his funeral goes exactly as he planned before he died. Francis (Nina) comes to the parlor to see her brother and is immediately freaked out because Dexter made sure that when people touched his casket, his bowtie would begin to flash and a recording of his voice would go off. Jack Ditty (Andrew), Dexter’s lawyer, comes in soon after Francis, shaking uncontrollably because he is incredibly afraid of dead people. The rest of the first act is about all revealing many of the little things that Dexter planned, one of them being that Mona (Kris) would meet Francis, who you find out in Act Two are actually twin sisters. Something that Dexter doesn’t plan is that his wife, Ramona (Katie Schares), also dies and planned to have her ceremony at the same parlor as him. Act One ends with the parlor closing and Dexter and Ramona stepping out of their caskets only to see each other.

Act Two is about what happens after the funeral parlor is closed: the bodies get out of the caskets and hang out. Dexter’s parents, Toots (Michelle) and Stringer (Mike), show up to greet Dexter as he enters Vita and before Post-Vita (i.e., something like heaven). They share with each other what has happened in the past 20-odd years. Then, Dexter shares what he knows about Francis and Mona (that they are twin sisters) and the fact that he has set it up so that they will find out in the morning. This brings about some conflict due to the fact that Toots had no idea that she’d had twins; Stringer know how apprehensive she’d been about having one, and when she was beginning to go into labor, she reacted unpredictably to the anesthetic, and ended up unconscious before, during, and for forty-eight hours after the birth of Francis and Mona. Wanting to protect Toots, Stringer decides to give one of the twins away before Toots can find out. He chooses to keep the one on the right. After Toots dies, he leaves a note for Dexter, telling him the truth about his sister’s twin. Although Dexter is supposed to tell Francis when she’s older, Francis is constantly teasing Dexter about the fact that he cannot keep a secret, so waiting until after he dies to reveal the truth is his chance to show her that he really can keep a secret. Later in the act, Ramona reveals that she had wanted to surprise Dexter with a man that she had found to look very much like him, whom she hires as her lawyer. We soon learn that Dexter is actually also a twin. Stringer was away when Toots gave birth, and she couldn’t handle the idea of twins at that point either, so she gives away one of the twins as well, choosing also to keep the one on the right, who happens to be Dexter. Since Dexter’s twin, Lester (also played my Skjerven), is going to be at the parlor the following day, the dead decide to pass a message to those who will be in the parlor, so they all understand that Lester is Dexter twin by making them all have a ‘gut feeling.’ Also, early in the act, Jack, Dexter’s lawyer, shows up in his pajamas, wondering why he’s in the parlor. It turns out that he overdosed on tranquilizers (because he was so riled up over seeing Dexter’s dead body and wanted to just go to sleep) and had been brought into the parlor that night. The act ends with Jack, Dexter, and Ramona ‘transmitting’ the message that Lester is Dexter’s twin.

Act Three is when everything comes together: Mona and Francis find out that they are twins and everyone feels the message that Lester is Dexter’s twin, finally understanding why he looks so much like Dexter. The act ends with a recording of Ramona and Dexter speaking as they leave their bodies for the afterlife. There you go, a long synopsis :)

Friday, Oct. 13: I was back to Wimbledon by 2pm to run through the show again. That night after rehearsal, a group of us (my flatmates [minus Brookly :(], Simon, Schares, Skjervan, Walt, and Renee) went out to a ‘gothic’ pub called the Marlborough Head. They had seven different mixed drinks, one for each of the Deadly Sin: Pride, Gluttony, Lust, Envy, Wrath, Sloth, and Greed. They also had seven test tube shots representing characters from the Adam’s Family. The pub’s décor was so awesome! There were gargoyles, cobwebs, old leather bound books, and different scientific lab instruments thrown about; so entertaining!! The chairs and benches were also high-backed and gothic style. Kris and Lindsay had been there the weekend before when a majority of us went to the After Skool Klub, and we decided that we had to check it out because it was Friday the 13th :) It seemed a fitting place! We ended up all crowding around a round picnic table outside that was meant for only 8 people. It ended up being a fun, chill time.

After we got bored with that pub, we went to the second pub that Kris and Lindsay had checked out the weekend before, called The Old Explorer. It turned out being a sort of dance pub with hip-hop music playing. Renee was in love with the place! Having her and Kris together to dance with was amazing! You cannot help but go crazy when you have a combo like that dancing with you!!!

Saturday, Oct. 14: I slept in late, got ready quick, and was at rehearsal by 2pm again. It was only a cue rehearsal, so it was relatively quick. We found out more things for me to do, though; put down a stool to help Simon get out of her casket at the end of act one, help Michelle into Dexter’s casket before act three (she played the Dexter’s dead body while Skjerven plays Lester for the first show, but now Mike is filling in), and some other things. Now, though, we have become more efficient, and I have been reduced to just checking if a door is unlocked during the interval (known in the States as an intermission) between act two and three and helping Mike into the casket before act three. I also make sure that everyone has everything ready for their costumes, they look nice, change between acts if need be, etc. In other words, I’m costume girl :)

After rehearsal, Erin showed Kris and I a wonderful store called UniQlo. It has a variety of solid color shirts (short-sleeved, long-sleeved, cotton and cashmere sweaters, tank tops, etc.) and other clothes. I ended up getting a variety of shirts for laying, as the weather gets colder, and a fleece vest. Kris and I absolutely loved it there (as did Erin), and we were definitely happy that we got to check it out!

On the way home, I saw the cutest baby boy on the tube. I was at the end of my carriage, and he was at the beginning of his. He was standing on his mother’s lap, next to his father, with his hands on the window, looking in at me. I automatically melted! I started waving at him and making faces to get him to laugh. He was such a happy baby! His parents were actually really nice too. Most people around here with snarl at you if you look at their children (which we all find to be kind of odd). That little boy made my night! I mean some people would have probably said that he was ‘flirting’ with me, and whom wouldn’t that make happy? ;)

That night Kris and I stayed in to work on International Business. Yeah… we procrastinated and ate a lot of food all night, but it was a GREAT time!

Sunday, Oct. 15: I had to actually work in International Business. We were meeting Mr. Huegel (aka: Benji) to discuss how our first week of class would go. Let me explain: I am taking International Business as a half on-line course, half normal course. We read assigned chapters, take quizzes, and write journal entries when Mr. Huegel isn’t here. Then, Mr. Huegel comes for one week in October and one week in November, when we have class every day (around our other class) Monday through Thursday, taking one test each week. Our final exam (which isn’t cumulative, but simply a third test on the last chunk of chapters) will actually be an on-line test because he won’t be here during finals week. Anyway, we were met Mr. Huegel at 4pm to discuss when we were going to meet and if we had any questions about the schedule. Monday I had my first assignment due, though, so I actually had to crack down on reading. Kris and I still procrastinated, but we managed to get our assignment done! There are only four students in our class (Kris, Brookly, Pat and myself), but it has turned out to actually be quite fun.

Monday, Oct. 16: International Business class, European Business class, and first dress rehearsal. Not much else to say.

Tuesday, Oct. 17: We met at 10:30am at the Victoria and Albert art museum for Art in London class. I’m not sure how I feel about the museum. I really enjoyed looking at the casts they had of famous pieces (David by Michelangelo, many Celtic crosses, coffins with intricate replicas of the bodies within, a huge Roman column that depicts all the battles one of their emperors had won, and parts of many Gothic buildings). They looked gorgeous although they were all fake! I guess they made the casts so that students could study these famous pieces without having to go to the specific museums around the world that actually have the pieces. Yes, we went to an educational place for our education :) I always love Oliver’s lectures, though. How can you not love that wonderful Irish man?

After Art, I had my test in International Business. It was all essay questions, with four questions we had to answer (one from each chapter), and a choice of four more from a set of eight questions. He had given us a review sheet with five questions for each chapter, and the questions all came from that sheet. I am pretty sure I aced the test. Whoop whoop! It was a great feeling!!

That night was our final dress rehearsal. It went really well except for the final act when Walt forgot to say his line that he normally forgets, but he’d actually remembered Monday night. It threw everyone off greatly, and although Nina tried to improvise, it didn’t work too well. “Why is she dead?” Oh… Nina… There was a lot of laughter after they finally finished the act. Yet the saying that if the final dress rehearsal goes bad, opening night should go great turned out to be true!

Wednesday, Oct. 18: We had a study session for our Global Issues class in the morning, KP and I gave a presentation in International Business in the afternoon, and opening night for Posthumorous in the evening. Opening night went well; we had an audience of about 20 people. This seems like a tiny number, but the fact that we are performing the show in a black box theatre makes that number seem a lot larger! Oh! One thing that went wrong: Schares’ corsage short-circuited before the show started. There was a tiny bit of light (she had a blinking corsage to match Skjerven’s blinking tie by the way), but not much, and it didn’t last long. Schares did a great job improving through it though; she simply blamed Earl, the funeral parlor assistant who was supposed to ‘wire’ her, for not being a good electrician.

After the show, Michelle, Simon, Schares, Andrew and I went to Pizza Hut near The New Wimbledon for supper. It was amazing!! Gotta love UK Pizza Hut, especially over US Pizza Hut!

Thursday, Oct. 19: I slept until about 11am, got ready for class, and went to International Business. Before I left, I got to see the package that Kris’ mom sent her. It was an amazing package: old pictures, a necklace, Halloween candy, a pair of jeans, and other random things. I love that woman! Mrs. Perkins rocks my socks off :)

The second show went well tonight. There were a few mistakes, but our cast has become very good at showing off their improvisation skills! Tonight Missy missed her cue to come on stage, so they had to add a little blip before just moving on with the show. Then, because it was Mike’s first night in Dexter’s casket, he almost panicked at the line mentioning an envelope one of the characters had supposedly put into Dexter’s coat pocket. All he could think about was: “Oh! I hope that envelope is in this coat!” Luckily we place the envelope on the inside the casket, not the coat, so everything was fine! Now we are halfway done with the performances!!

After we got back tonight, I went grocery shopping for the first time in over a week. It has been one expensive week, with having to put extra money on my tube pass because Wimbledon is outside of Zone 1 and 2 (where our cards give us access to) and because I have had to pay for eating out all week. We actually were just going to go to get a quick meal, but I ended up getting a bunch of groceries. It really made me see how much money I had wasted. I spent less than 10 lbs. on a huge box of cereal, two boxes of granola bars, Nutella, four pizzas, croissants, mini pancakes, and juice. Crazy, crazy stuff! I was going to get peanut butter too, but they were in the middle of restocking the shelves, and they didn’t have the normal peanut butter out, only tiny jars of organic peanut butter that was really expensive. I decided to wait (good job, huh, Dad?). All right, I’m going to go read more of Wicked, before I head to bed.

Friday, Oct. 20: I had my field study with BritishAmerican Business Inc. It was a very interesting learning experience. British American is a non-profit organization that helps British companies get set-up in the US and US companies get set-up in the UK. They have around 700 member companies, including many of the world’s largest international corporations. Sixty percent of the companies are in the services field. They help their members with marketing opportunities, business development opportunities, transatlantic services, and a business profile. They do these things through different publications, member-to-member perks, forums, speakers, networking events, databases and contact lists, event sponsorship, etc. The coolest thing that I found that they do is actually one of the networking events. It’s a lot like speed dating, but it’s speed networking! Experienced business professionals remain seated, while every 2-3 minutes, younger, less-experienced business folk rotate among them. This helps the less-experienced business people have that first encounter with professionals they want to talk to, allowing them to exchange business cards, and some brief information. If they decide they want to have further contact with them, the first encounter is out of the way, making more conversations a whole lot easier! Cool huh? Anyway, I asked our presenter if they had any interns helping with the publications they put out, and I guess they actually have two. They are both part of 8 or 12 week programs. The secretary though actually used to be an intern through the Mountbatten Internship Programme for 12 months, and they loved her so much that they extended her visa and then hired her full-time. I got the Mountbattern.website (http://www.mountbatten.org/) from the secretary, so that I could look more into it. It turns out that they help US students get internships in London and UK students get internships in New York. The programme is relatively competitive, and it would be something that I’d do after I finished my Bachelor’s degree, but it’s definitely something I wan to keep in mind. If accepted, they set you up in really great companies, that many times will hire you after your internship is over. What a great way to get experience and develop references!! Anyway, that was pretty exciting for me, although it is a ways away.

The show went well again. I had fun with make-up and put on hideous green eye shadow and bright pink lipstick :) It was quite entertaining :D

Saturday, Oct. 21: I definitely slept in! I had no motive to do anything besides catch up on my sleep, and it was glorious!! At about 3pm, I finally got out of bed, took a shower, ate, and headed off to Wimbledon. Although I was super involved in reading Wicked, and didn’t change tubes at Earl’s Court and had to turn around, I still got to Wimbledon with enough time to return a belt at H&M and stop by Book etc. (like Barnes and Noble, so you know it’s a new favorite store!) to pick up something quick. Everyone was pumped about it being the last night. After Mike finished act two, he actually began making little noises and jumping around out of joy! Erin and I carried our assistant stage manager duties to the full by going to KFC a couple of times for cast members. I think the KFC workers thought that we were very hungry girls :) After the show, we struck the set, and by struck the set, I mean literally took hammers to it (and screwdrivers, and utility knives). I followed around Andrew and picked up screws as he pulled them out. We finished taking apart the set (one of Dr. Flanagan’s friends was going to take the wood pieces and reuse them), reset the lights, and cleaned up the stage and dressing room area in about an hour and a half. It was nuts!! I was pretty proud of all of us though :) That night was the first night we all left the theatre at the same time. We got some weird looks on the last stretch due to the fact that we were carrying two folding chairs and two stools we had taken from the flat! The girls with the stools actually sat on them during the ride because there wasn’t enough room for them in the normal seats. Yeah, we’re crazy Americans; get over it ;) After I got home, I sat in the living room with Wicked and finished it. What a great book!! I am looking forward to (a) reading it again and looking for foreshadowing and (b) reading the sequel: Son of a Witch. It seemed so different from the musical as I reading it in the beginning, but after I finished it, I realized where they got the different pieces. I can understand that they needed to make changes in order to adapt the story from a 500 page book to a two hour show, and now that I’ve finished I think they actually did a good job of it. Anyway, now I’m going to reread the first four chapters of The United States of Europe for my midterm on Thursday, then move on to the other books Mac and I bought together.