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!