A State-side Update

I had so much fun writing this blog last spring while I was in London! I truly miss living in such a fun and beautiful city. As a reader, I hope you enjoyed following my semester experience. Through using his expertise on tracking web traffic, my father was able to conclude that I had many hits each day while I was updating this blog actively - very exciting feedback for me!

I have had a few readers contact me with insightful questions about my trip. I am still (and always will be) happy to answer any questions anyone has about studying abroad/London/etc., so please do not hesitate to contact me!

With that, if you are interested in reading more from me, I have created a new blog where I am currently writing about my senior year at IU! Feel free to check it out: http://elizabethiu.blogspot.com/

Thanks so much for being such a loyal reader!

Cheers,
Elizabeth

What I Did In Italy - Part 2

"Just A Romer"
"Rome if you want to"
...And other cool songs where I can change Roam to Rome



Sorry I never finished the Rome Part 2 entry until now! Better late than never, I suppose!


Tuesday:



Derek and I rode to Rome via a bus from the Siena bus station to a smaller bus station in Rome (the big one has trains, busses, and an airport). When we got to the bus station, we were disappointed to find out that the walking directions were not going to help us because we were literally fenced into the property. So we finally figured out how to hop on the metro and took it one stop to Bologna Square. Our hostel was really easy to find from there, and the hostel was cool because its theme was global travelling.



The guy at the front desk told us some inexpensive places to eat near the university, so we ventured toward that direction for lunch. It started pouring when we were walking, and when we went to the restaurants, most of them were closed for an afternoon siesta. So we ate gelato for lunch. Totally justified.



Next we walked up to the Trevi fountain, and explored that area. We also bought the Roma Pass, which came in handy a lot! It gave us free travel on the Metro for three days and free admission to two museums of our choice. From there, Derek and I started sightseeing around all of Rome. That night we went to the Pantheon and walked around and saw as many ancient ruins as possible. Also, it would be silly if I didn't mention that we chose to eat at a Chinese restaurant we found (instead of eating Italian food for the first time during the trip). Although the restaurant had awesome decor, the food was not up to my standards.


Me, my broken umbrella, and some light drizzle in front of the Pantheon.


Wednesday:


Wednesday we woke up and went straight to the Colosseum. I sang the song from the Arthur cartoon to Derek way too many times (he unfortunately had not had the pleasure of seeing that episode). It goes, "AAAAAncient Roooooome....It's not like hooooome....COOOOOOLLISEUMMMM!" And those are the only lyrics. Here's some pictures:


A picture of the interior. You can see the passages under where the floor used to be.


Me and Derek at the Colosseum. We found another American couple to take this picture.


Then Derek got a hold of my map and decided to start highlighting our route around Rome so that we could see where we had been and what we had seen. Needless to say, by walking way more than I was used to, we saw almost every single landmark in Rome on Wednesday. Here's some pictures:


Me overlooking all of the ruins of Ancient Rome.



Me sitting inside the Roman Forum.


Me at the Trevi Fountain when it WASN'T raining!



Thursday:


On Thursday Derek and I woke up early and went to Vatican City. We stood in line for about an hour waiting to go into St. Peter's Basilica. It was pretty cool inside. Very big church. Lot's of pretty things to look at. The weather had really cleared up by Thursday, so luckily it was a sunny day to stand in line!


To my disappointment, we ended up not going to see the Sistine Chapel (pretty much the sole reason why I wanted to go to Vatican City), because we didn't want to wait in line anymore. So we took the metro back to the center of Rome and went to all of the last tourist sites on our map that we did not hit. I think I liked the Spanish steps the most, because they were such a cool hangout! Derek also bought some paintings for his family from a street painter by the river, and I really enjoyed talking to the man briefly. I think he liked us too, cuz he threw in some extra wood paintings of his with Derek's purchases. Here's a picture of the Spanish steps:


A child playing with his grandfather at the fountain in front of the Spanish Steps. The fountain is really old.



Friday:


On Friday we took the metro back to Florence and I got to have dinner with my sorority sister Rachel and her friend Lauren who also goes to IU! They both studied in Bologna this spring and really loved it. We ate at a fun outdoor cafe, and I had some really delicious pasta and white wine. It was so much fun to see a friend from home!



When Derek and I went back to our hostel, we had a really rare and gross experience. We ended up finding bugs in our sheets and on our walls! So we got our money back and walked to the hostel we stayed at the first time we were in Florence and purchased a room there for the night. It was probably around midnight when we finally got that all sorted out. It was a huge hassle, and also very surprising because the bug hostel had good ratings on hostelworld. But, I guess strange things sometimes happen when you travel! My recommendation is to have the location of a back-up hostel written down when you travel to a city in Europe.


Saturday:


Saturday morning Derek and I woke up and went to the train station, only to find that the train we wanted to take had left 5 minutes before we got there. Because we had an issue with reading the train schedule for that day (remember our language barriers), we had a scare that the trains did not go to Pisa once per hour like we had thought. Luckily, we were wrong and we grabbed a local train that made a stop in every city (Pisa, too, luckily). Even though the train took much longer than we expected, we still arrived at the Pisa airport in time to grab lunch before our flights. (Both of our flights took off within 5 minutes of eachother's.)


There were a couple issues at check-in, though. Derek's line was super long and barely moved, creating a scare that he would not make his flight on time. I ended up convincing the attendants in my line after the London line was finished to check Derek in for his flight, which I feel proud about since they barely understood what I was saying. Also, I got a weird look from my attendant when I checked in for my London flight, since my visa had expired two days before. Thankfully, I brought proof of my return flight to Chicago just for that reason, and she stamped my ticket.


Sunday/Monday:


Before I flew back to Chicago on Monday, I spent a lot of time by myself wandering around my old neighborhood, chilling in Hyde Park, and doing some casual London shopping. I also hung out with Christine and Erin at Hyde Park a little bit too, which was nice because the park was beautiful! Also, I got my bags out of storage, and I recommend to anyone who would think about trying this that they should never try to take two 50-pound bags on the tube. The tube is not always handicapped accessible, and I learned that the hard way by needing to pull both bags up many giant flights of stairs. I really lucked out that I had a man and a women (angels from God) come and help me with the longest flight up the stairs. I had literally sweat through my shirt when I got back to the hostel, and the man at the front desk felt so badly for me that he let me store my bags for free overnight. I really should have spent money on a cab!


Overall, my Italy trip was really great, and I'm glad I'm finally able to document it completely!

Just Keep Your Eye On The Prize

The draft about my trip to Italy is still in the works, and will be published once it is complete and to my liking. Please bare with me, as I have had a very busy past two weeks with flying home to Chicago, flying to Tucson soon after to begin my summer internship, and then flying back to Chicago this weekend to tend to family matters. However, I have not forgotten about my Italy entry, so do not fret! I appreciate your patience with me.

In regards to my last entry, jet lag was a killer. My body was confused for three days after returning to Chicago. I would take long naps in the late afternoon out of necessity. I recommend thinking about and preparing for jetlag both on your flights to and from overseas destinations.

As for right now, if you have any questions for me about studying abroad (especially in London or even about my London program), feel free to comment and ask me. I will address them as best and detailed as I can.

What I Did In Italy - Part 1

Saturday, April 25:

On Saturday morning I left Palace Court at 6:30 am to take a cab to Paddington station. I got there about 6:45 and waited around the station for 15 minutes for the Left Luggage office to open with everything I owned in tow. Finally it opened, and I easily stored my two massive suitcases. From there, I took the tube to Liverpool Street. At Liverpool Street, I got on the Stansted Express train and took it to Stansted Airport. When I was checking in at Stansted, I realized that I had signed up for online check in when I ordered my tickets, so they charged me a large fee for checking in at the airport instead. Budget airlines are so tricky with the ways they decide to charge more money.

Since I woke up so early that morning, my flight to Pisa Airport was pretty uneventful. I slept most of the way. The only cool part was when we were descending, the pilot flew over the Mediterranean Sea, which was a gorgeous turquoise color. We could see sail boats and the shadows of underwater reefs from the air. Also, we could see the Tuscan coast and the Leaning Tower of Pisa during the descent. The views were absolutely stunning!

When I got to the Pisa Airport, I just followed a group of three older British couples, because I heard they were headed to Florence as well. It was slightly complicated, since there are only two direct trains from the Pisa Airport to Florence each day. Either I had to wait four hours for the train, or I had to catch a bus to Pisa Central Station and then take a train to Florence from there. By following the couples, I found out how to buy a bus ticket, where the buses picked up, and how to get to Pisa Central. I went to the ticket counter right away and bought my ticket to Florence for 5.60 euro. Shortly thereafter, I tried calling Derek, and started to freak out that my phone didn't allow me to dial his number. I probably tried 30 times.

Somehow I got on the train to Florence after some wait at the station, and I spent the first half of the train ride desperately trying to find a way to contact Derek. I even called Talk Mobile's customer service internationally, and they were absolutely no help. Then I called two of my friends as well as my parents. I was really nervous about having used up most of my talk credit and not having a way to "top up" while in Italy, and finally Derek called me to see where I was. I told him that I had been freaking out because he hadn't sent me the name of the hostel or directions how to get there like I had asked him several times to do (since he had made the reservations), and I was really insecure in a foreign country by myself with no way of contacting him. He re-assured me that he would pick me up from the train station and that I didn't have anything to worry about anymore. (Of course he was 20 minutes late picking me up from the station due to him getting lost, and I yet again freaked out for a little while.)

After we found each other, we walked around Florence for a while enjoying the city. It's really pretty, and my favorite place we went that night was a pizzaria in the Piazza Signora. I ordered my meal in Italian courtesy of the handy-dandy Italy guidebook that I borrowed from my uncle Frank.

On our way to the hostel from the restaurant, we stopped at a delicious gelateria where I had my first taste of Italian gelato! Needless to say, it was devine.

That night we stayed in an 8-person hostel room at the Hostel Santa Monaca (which was pretty nice). It was interesting because everyone else in the room spoke English, even though everyone else was from Holland, Italy, and Japan. I really enjoyed learning about their reasons for travelling in Europe.

Sunday, April 26:



On Sunday, Derek and I wanted to get a head-start on sightseeing, so we woke up early and started walking around Florence. We stopped at a coffee shop along the way, where I hoped I could find a mocha. No such luck. That was the beginning of my disappointment in finding out that Italy did not invent the mocha, and that it must have been Starbucks. Also, Starbucks does not exist in Italy. Another interesting tid-bit about Italian breakfast is that it's not big, and includes just a small cup of cappuccino with foam and a "sweet" such as a donut or glazed croissant.


As for sightseeing, we went to El Duomo, the outdoor market, the Ponte Vecchio, and outside the Ufizzi. We didn't go in that art museum because the line was estimated to take 3 hours. It would have come in handy if we had reserved tickets in advance. With that, it was raining off and on the whole time, which means my pictures are kinda drab-looking. However, we did go inside the Accademia de Arte and saw "The David" as well as other cool statues! That was an amazing cultural experience, for sure.


Then, around sunset, we followed what our guidebook told us to do and we went to the lookout point (Via de Michaelangelo???). Even though it was really cloudy, it was a cool climb and had pretty views!


For both lunch and dinner we ate at El Dante Pizzaria. At lunch, Derek spilled water all over the table at lunch. We had the same waiter for dinner, who was very nice and recognized us as the people who spilled water during lunch. During our dinner trip we ate with our roommate named Lincoln from Singapore. Then the three of us went and got gelato before heading back to the hostel to go to bed.




Monday, April 27:


Monday morning Derek and I woke up very early and took the train to Siena from Florence. It was a pretty cloudy day with the occasional rain bursts. When we got to the Siena train station, we didn't know which bus to catch. Also, I was pretty hungry so I decided to get some food from the grocery store in the train station. However, when I took the apple up to the register, they started talking to me in Italian about how I needed a ticket for it. So I told them in English that I just didn't want it anymore. Needless to say, they didn't understand me, and I basically made a fool out of myself. The woman behind the counter went to the other side of the store for me to get a ticket for my apple, holding up the line. I felt so badly.





Anyway, after that we went downstairs and couldn't figure out the bus system because there was no bus map and the timetable was in Italian. After trying to figure out the bus system for about a half hour, we decided just to take a taxi to the hostel.





The hostel was very simple, but fine for just the night. It was kinda far from the city, but I hear it's the only hostel in town with linens. So we took a bus to the city and then started walking around. We ate at a restaurant that some friends of Derek's recommended, which was near the Duomo. Then we went and checked out the Duomo, the Piazza Central, and the big fort near the bus station. Siena is very old, and all of the buildings are an earthy reddish brown color. Also, the city is very historical, because back in medieval times it used to be a huge rival to Florence.





For dinner Derek and I went to a local pizzaria near our hostel that ended up being very delicious. I had learned how to say sausage pizza in Italian by then, so I had the sausage pizza and Derek and I both had the house wine. By the time we were done with our meal, the entire restaurant had totally filled up and there were people waiting out the door. It obviously was a good place to go according to the locals. The only downfall about that night was that after we were done with dinner (around 8:30) there was literally nothing for us to do around our hostel. I tried to go to the combination McDonalds/gas station to get something to read, and even the gas station was closed. I recommend bringing a fun book to read when you're travelling for times like that when there is literally nothing to do.

Sleep

I am suffering from jet lag. Please be patient with the Italy update. It will come. I am giving you my word.

Greetings From Rome!

Buon Giorno! I'm not sure if I spelled that right. But I hear just saying ciao is pretty informal. I wanted to be fancy.



Anyway, I'm sitting in my hostel right now in Rome typing this blog post. Derek and I have been having a crazy week. I will give a lot of details later, but for now I just wanted to type a brief update.



I am already done with my study abroad program. Last week I had finals. On Friday I had a really busy day because I finished my final paper for the equivalent of IU's Z302, went to City University to turn it in (very long commute), ate Chinese with Haley and Christine, and then I had to pack for home and get all of my stuff together for Italy.

On Saturday morning I woke up really early to take a cab at 6:30am to Paddington Station to leave my giant suitcases at the left luggage drop off. (Hopefully they are doing ok there.) Then I flew Ryanair from Stansted all the way to Pisa. From the Pisa airport I had to take a train into the city, and then another train to Florence. I had a slight freak out because my phone was not letting me call Derek, but he finally called me and we figured out how to meet up.

So far we've been to Florence, Siena, and Rome. Today was our last full day in Rome, and we are waking up early tomorrow to take a train from Rome Termini to Florence SMN stations. Tomorrow night is our last hostel stay, and then we are both flying out of Pisa (I have to take the same complicated route to get back to the airport) at the same time, but I'm going to London and Derek is going to Seville. Crazy planning was involved, but it's been a fun week.

Well, that's my update for now. I will write with fun details later!

Apparently, I am a hayfever sufferer

It is becoming hayfever season here in England, and apparently I am one of those afflicted with the allergy. I've been taking a Boots-brand hayfever pill once a day in the morning, which helps for about the first 12 hours, and then makes it challenging to sleep. I looked at the prevention tips online for hayfever (at medinfo.co.uk if you must know), and prevention is not in my favor. Here they are, accompanied with why I am suffering so much:

1.) In the summer stay inside between 5pm and 7pm, when pollen counts are usually high. Keep windows and doors closed, especially at these times and when sleeping. I am always outside during this time due to commuting. Also, my roommates and I basically have to keep our windows open at all times or else it gets unbearably hot in our room.

2.) Use an air conditioner or filter when possible, at home, work, and in the car, to remove pollen and other allergens from the air. There is no air conditioner or filter in any building that I frequent.

3.) Damp dust and vacuum your home regularly, to minimise the presence of pollen and dust. My roommates and I have discussed how the Palace Court cleaning lady never vacuums our room thoroughly. I also do not have individual access to a vacuum.

4.) Airing bedclothes in direct sunlight is also helpful. I do not have direct sunlight to air my bedclothes.

5.) Be aware of the pollen count (usually broadcast along with the weather), and avoid areas of high pollen concentration, eg long grass, lawn mowings, and trees if allergic to these. If you need to work in these environments consider wearing a mask and goggles. I live next to a giant park called Kensington Gardens.

6.) Avoid unnecessary extra irritants such as smoke and chemical fumes. My sole mode of daily transportation is the polluted underground tube system.

As you can tell, I have all factors against me. Sleeping has become difficult, because now I have nose, eye, and throat problems along with an unfathomably uncomfortable mattress.

I also just got home from taking my only written final exam this week - marketing. We had two hours to choose five out of ten questions that he asked, and form detailed answers. I studied a lot, but I do not know just how detailed he wanted me to be. Out of seven people in the class, I was the last finished, though. Pretty typical of me. It has been very difficult to transition from being graded primarily through multiple choice exams at IU to all essay exams at City/Arcadia.

Now for some fun blog topics that I jotted down as they came to me while I was at Starbucks studying for my marketing exam (it's air conditioned so it was good for my health...that's my defense).

First, customer service at Starbucks is very different here in a negative way. They do not ask for anyone's names, and using a credit card slows down the process instead of speeds it up. No one is accustomed to "swipe cards" here, because the Brits use a pin number like a signature.

Second, if you are a big ziplock baggie and full gallon of milk fan, you should probably not study in Britain. Instead of ziplock baggies, they have baggies that stick together at the top like stickers/post it note glue. It's extremely awkward, and makes it much harder to put food into the bag and seal it perfectly. My best description of my attempts would be if you peeled off a really long piece of scotch tape to use on something very high, and the tape just flaps in the air and sticks to itself instead of staying straight.

Third, the Body Shop is much bigger here than it is in America. You will see a Body Shop in every city in Britain.

Finally, I find it strange that expensive cosmetics are sold in Boots - the equivalent of Walgreens or CVS. For example, the Boots store near me has an large, all-inclusive Lancome counter. There are some Boots stores that have every high-end cosmetics brand inside the store, just like you would see in Macys or Dillards back home. Why do the cosmetic companies place their products in Boots as a distribution outlet? I have yet to find out.

Ok that's it for my thoughts this week. I move out of Palace Court on Saturday, which is starting to get really depressing. I've loved living with all of the people in my program, and I'm going to miss them a lot when I go home. Only three of us who live in Palace Court go to IU, so it will be weird saying goodbye to so many people.

By the way, I think I already mentioned that I'll be in Italy next week before I fly home. I will try to update from internet cafes as best as I can.

Just A Roamer

I've been quasi-sick since Monday, which I'm trying to get over. I can't diagnose the problem, because it's like a cold with some extra weird symptoms. I'm stuffy, have extremely irritated eyes (in a way that's never happened to me while sick), and I'm very achey. Today after I got home from work/class I took a 3 hour nap, and still woke up feeling as achey as I did all day. Wish me luck that my health improves!

So tomorrow is my last day at work. I'd have to say that I feel ready to end work, only because I'm sick/tired where the manual labor is more difficult this week and because I need to start studying for all of my finals next week. Yesterday was the first and only day that I skipped work all semester, and I did so in order to work on my internship dissertation.

Speaking of my internship dissertation, it's all done! Thank goodness. I turned it in this morning. It ended up being 43 pages single-spaced including a four page bibliography and lot's of appendices. I ended up writing around 8300 words, which my supervisor said was fine despite the maximum word limit of 7500. My big concern, though, is that UPS printed it so that the page numbers got screwed up, and I didn't have enough time to re-print it because I would have been late for work. I let the Arcadia office know that it was UPS' fault, so hopefully it's not a big deal.

On a happier note, it was like an English summer here in London today! It was around 70 degrees and partly cloudy. The entire day I was sweating because it was so humid and I didn't realize it was supposed to be so warm.

The tube was extremely hot today, especially the central line. I'm not sure why the central line always seems to be the warmest. I've finally determined that the Northern line consistantly smells like pollution, while the other lines do not. I'm not sure if that's because the Northern line is older or the deepest (which I've only heard because someone told me that people hid out in the Northern line during the blitz because it's the deepest). Regardless, it is not pleasant and I'm glad I only take the Northern line twice a week. I take the central line every day, and I'm glad that it's usually a nice experience...especially since it's warm in the wintertime when it's cold outside.

Oxford Mission: Find The Gatsby Bridge

It has been rainy and cloudy all weekend here in England, but Derek and I decided to go to Oxford today after not doing much of anything yesterday.

We went to Paddington Station around 10:45, and just missed the 10:51 train. We stood in line to buy our tickets, and they ended up being 20 quid...which was definitely more than the 14 quid I paid to go to Cambridge. Then we planned to catch the 11:21 train, and went to get breakfast and wait. For some reason, when we came back to the platforms at 11:18, the platform that the Oxford train was leaving from was already erased from the board. So we missed the 11:21 train as well. We hung out and went to some of the shops at Paddington such as The Body Shop and Boots to wait for the 11:51 train. Finally we got on that train and took it all the way to Oxford.

When we got to Oxford, we went to the tourism booth at the train station, and I grabbed a free advertisement for the hop-on-hop-off bus tour only because it had a map of the city in it. The Oxford campus was an extremely easy walk from the train station. Derek and I decided not to take the bus tour, and instead just walked around ourselves using the map as a guide to where we were. We had fun just seeing everything, but if you want to learn the significance or history behind any buildings, I don't recommend doing it our way.

Almost all of the buildings at Oxford cost money to enter, so we only really walked around the outside. There were tours from the Oxford information center, but we did not want to pay to get in on one. The only landmark that was truly important to me was seeing the bridge that is mentioned in the book The Great Gatsby. In the book, Jay Gatsby shows his friends a picture of him under the landmark Hertford Bridge at Oxford, and wrongly convinces them that he actually attended university there. Now I have a picture just like it.

We also passed by the college that C.S. Louis and other famous authors studied at. The Christ Church college is famous for having some of the scenes of one of the early Harry Potter movies filmed in their staircases. Derek and I did not get to see where it was filmed because, again, it cost too much money. Seriously, we felt every building cost 3 quid to get in to and it wouldn't be worth spending all of that money for each individual building. I honestly do not know how Oxford gets away with charging that much to tourists. Perhaps they do so in order to keep the number of tourists to a minimum...and allow only the truly dedicated to roam around. Pity I'm not wealthier, because I really wanted to see what a classroom looked like.

We also walked by the Oxford Castle because it was 6.50 quid to get in and we didn't know what attractions lay inside that would be worth the expense. There was a giant hill next to the castle that cost money to climb, and there were small children just swarming all over the hill. Also, people dressed in period costumes manned the entrance to climb the hill, and I saw a man at the top dressed in a scary black hooded robe. I took a picture because he reminded me of a dementor.

A dementor on the hill at Oxford Castle

Tourists lined up to see where a few scenes were filmed in Harry Potter

Christ Church College at Oxford

Oxford Castle

Derek and I thought there would be nothing cooler than to be able to tell people your school was called University College

*Side Note*

Finally I just want to quickly put to rest a rumor that you may have heard. Before I left for England, I was told that "you can't find peanut butter there." This statement is not true, because Marks & Spencers sells their own store brand creamy peanut butter. However, if you are a chunky fan, you are potentially out of luck. I hope this sooths any worries that may have been keeping you up at night.

And My Reward Was Half A Chocolate Easter Egg

Last night I had to work at a store event for top customers, where Stella McCartney came and helped style the women. Christine and I were in charge of the coat check and handing out goody bags when a customer left. All of the top customers were very nice and very pretty. Also, I got to wear Stella clothes from the spring/summer collection. For the first half I wore a light blue blazer and seagull printed dress. For the second half I wore jeans, a blue and white ship passenger list print top, and the light blue blazer. I really liked the second outfit.

However, the key thing to remember is that I got to speak to Stella briefly! She was walking down the stairs to go to her waiting car, and I handed her a goody bag. She laughed happily and said, "I get one too?" I assured her that she could take one. She looked like a regular person, who just happened to be very skinny. It was cool that I got to see her smile, too, since she never smiles with her teeth in pictures. It's not an ugly smile, so I don't know why she hides it.

I worked from 9am-9:45pm last night, and now I have to go get ready to go back to work at 9 this morning. Then I'll be working on my internship dissertation this afternoon since I have no classes due to spring break.

We Conquered London. It Is Ours Now.

This weekend Derek came to visit, and we did SOOO much in two days. I'm going to write it as a list, because there are too many landmarks to simply chat about.

Friday: Tower of London, London Wall, Tower Bridge, Tower Hill, The City, walked down The Mall, Buckingham Palace, sat on chairs in St. James Park, Parliament/Big Ben, Number 10 Downing Street, walked by Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, walked by The National Gallery, and saw a movie being filmed with an actor that Derek recognized from the movie Rome.

Saturday: St. Paul's Cathedral, Millennium Bridge, Tate Modern, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, Borough Market, Southwark Cathedral, London Bridge, Monument, walked by 3 churches designed by Sir Christopher Wren and another small market, Royal Exchange/Bank of England, and ended by walking the entire length of Portobello Road.

Today we've stayed in. Derek is out right now purchasing his ticket to Edinburgh at Kings Cross Station. My word of advice with that is to not go to Europe without a credit card.

I Don't Feel In Any Real Danger Because The Archive Is Basically A Bomb Shelter

Today was the first meeting of the G20 Summit in London. Christine and I joked that this was the second time that the entire city shut down since we've been here (the first for snow).

Because all of the top world leaders are meeting in London right now, a large number of anarchist groups flew in to protest. Basically, I read that it was like a parade, where they started at Moorgate and walked by a lot of the major landmarks of London to show their distaste for the recession. Apparently part of the parade was supposed to walk right past the Stella McCartney store/my office! I cannot confirm whether that happened, because Christine and I left for class at 12:30.

Many Londoners were freaking out that instead of a peaceful protest, it was going to turn into a riot. I never once felt scared for my safety, though. Perhaps it was because I knew I'd be somewhat out of harms way, but I also never once passed a protester. A girl I work with named Kate said that her friend had seen some protesters on the tube this morning wearing dark masks over their faces. Also, I was told that people who worked in the banking industry were told to dress down in order to not look like a target. I believe most of the protests were about capitalism, wealthy people during the recession, and the banking system. There are a lot of photos of the protesters in Trafalgar Square. Here's a photo I found online from BBC.com of some protesters:

On another note, there's two more things I want to mention.

First, I began thinking this week about how different the tube experience would be if I were a foot taller. At 5'1'', I struggle to reach the highest rail to hold on to near the doors. However, I've noticed that really tall men and women are constantly tilting their heads down on the tube because the tube actually has very low ceilings. I feel that would be very annoying when the tube is very crowded in the morning to not only squeeze in with a lot of people but also to have to tilt your neck constantly. Despite being more confined, I still feel that the tube was much better than the Metro in Paris, though.

Finally, I thought I'd run through my Monday - Thursday schedule to give my readers and idea of what I'm doing:

Monday:
8am-9am: Wake up and get ready for work/school
9am-9:30am: Commute to work. Sometimes pick up Starbucks or Oi (bagels) at the Bond Street station
9:30am-1:30pm: Work at Stella
1:30pm-3pm: Commute to City University/Buy & eat lunch
3pm-5pm: International HR Management class
5pm-6pm: Commute back to Palace Court from City University

Tuesday:
8am-9am: Wake up and get ready for work
9am-9:30am: Commute to work.
9:30am-6:30 or 7pm: Work at Stella (Usually home by 7:30pm)
Usually home by 7:30pm

Wednesday:
8am-9am: Wake up and get ready for work/school
9am-9:30am: Commute to work. Sometimes pick up Starbucks or Oi (bagels) at the Bond Street station
9:30am-12:30pm: Work at Stella
12:30pm-2pm: Commute to my Arcadia University marketing class at Thoresby House
2pm-5pm: Marketing class
5pm-6:30pm: Commute from Thoresby House to City University/Buy & eat dinner
6:30pm-8:30pm: Arcadia University's Working In The UK sociology class at City University (mandatory if you are in the internship program)
8:30pm-9:30pm: Commute back to Palace Court from City University

Thursday:
8am-9am: Wake up and get ready for work
9am-9:30am: Commute to work.
9:30am-6:30 or 7pm: Work at Stella

I managed to have Fridays off as well as Saturdays and Sundays, but not everyone in the internship program was able to schedule it that way. I definitely recommend getting Fridays off if possible, though, in order to have a long weekend for relaxing, homework, and travelling.

Plaid Party?

This weekend I stayed at Palace Court and tried to get some R&R while I cought up on homework. On Thursday night I went to a local pub with many girls from my house + Spencer (who also lives in Palace Court), and I went home early when the pub closed to go to sleep. Friday I worked on my to-do list and went grocery shopping/H&M shopping (since H&M is right next to Marks & Spencers in Whiteley's mall). At H&M I bought some clothes for Italy/Tucson, since I realized I did not bring a lot of warm-weather clothes that I can take to Italy at the end of this month. I'm really missing my sundresses. I literally only brought two pairs of shorts to London - one of them are Soffie cotton shorts. I may be sweating a lot in Italy, we'll see.



Speaking of Italy, I'm not sure if I've mentioned this, but Derek and I are planning to tour Italy for a week after my program ends on April 24th. We had to cut out some cities in the north due to his time constraint, since he won't be done yet. But we plan on flying into Florence, then heading to Siena -> Rome -> Naples. I haven't decided or looked at my funds yet, but I might want to visit Rachel in Bologna, too, if possible. We'll have to see. I really wanted to go to Greece while I'm abroad, but it's not looking like that can work out. Also, since I won't be going to Germany or Amsterdam due to my lack of time and people to travel with, hopefully I'll be able to return to that region and hit up Brussels, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Zurich, Bern, Munich, Berlin, and Prague all in one second grand European adventure.



Anyway, Saturday morning my roommates and I woke up and went to Portobello Road market. Even though it was raining slightly, it was still PACKED with tourists. I feel more like a local than a tourist these days, so I felt really embarrassed about my American accent. My roommate Audrey and I started saying "pah-den" instead of "excuse me" in order to cover up our accents when trying to maneuver around slow walkers (a great pet peeve of mine in crowded places). Speaking of the word pet peeve, they don't call it that here. I forget what it's called but my marketing processor looked at us like we were crazy when we said that phrase. But anyway, I ended up buying a metal sign at Portobello Road that I think I'll hang up in either my bedroom at home or my room in Tucson. It is the sign for Notting Hill Gate, which is really close to my house. Also, the three of us bought cupcakes from the famous cupcake store on Portobello Road, and mine was very delicious (chocolate with chocolate frosting and silver sugar ball sprinkles).



The rest of the weekend I hung around the house with my roommates and worked on homework, etc. Nothing to report, but it was fun to be able to relax. It's so weird that I'm nearing the end of my stay in London! I'm going to miss it sooooooo much.



P.S. I'm in the market for a fringe/tassel key chain for my purse and also a pair of metallic shorts to create an outfit like this that Ashley Olsen wore in Teen Vogue several years ago:


If you know where I can purchase either item at a relatively low price, please let me know!

I Really Like Your Music

Last weekend was so much fun! My friend Carly visited me from Wales, and her friends Michelle and Dominiqe stayed with me too. Michelle is also studying in Wales and Dominique is studying in Sevilla in the same program as Derek. All three girls go to University of Iowa.

Thursday night I went to Paddington station to pick up Carly and Michelle. We went straight back to Palace Court and hung out for a bit before going to Old Swan (a pub near by). We ordered Strongbows at about 11:40 without realizing that the pub closed at midnight. As the slow and inexperienced drinker that I am, especially when it comes to carbonated beverages, I was not finished with mine by the time they kicked us out. I needed Carly to help me out.

Then we went back to Palace Court and just talked and went to sleep until Dominique came. The only flight from Sevilla to London each day gets in around midnight at Stansted airport, so anyone visiting cannot use the tube once they take the Stansted Express to Liverpool Street tube station. So I guess Dominique took a bus and then a cab...which I'm sure was pretty chaotic.

Friday morning we woke up and went out touring. They wanted to do the hop on hop off bus tour, but I convinced them that I could navigate well enough that using the tube would save a lot of money. So we went to Harrods, Buckingham Palace, Parliament, inside Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London, and Tower Bridge. It was a really fun and touristy day.

Dominique, Carly, Michelle, and me at Tower Bridge

Friday night we met my friends Conor and Brian at a pub called Hayfields over on the east end of London by the Stepney Green tube station. The neighborhood was not as nice as Notting Hill (but really? what should I expect?), but the pub was awesome! It had karaoke, pool, and couches to sit on. It was a very relaxed atmosphere, and I think we were the only non-Brits there. I really wish we had a pub like that around where I live. I'd definitely go back if it wasn't a 45 minute commute to get there. We left the pub at 1am when it closed and we didn't get home until 3pm because of trying to figure out the bus system. But I'm actually really proud of us that we figured it out all on our own!

The four of us at Hayfields pub

Saturday we woke up and took a 10am train to Cambridge from Liverpool Street. Cambridge was so pretty! We decided to walk from the train station to the campus, even though we didn't know where we were going. We just started following the people in front of us, who we assumed were headed towards Cambridge. During a walk, we found Zizzi and decided to eat lunch there. Little did we know, we were able to sit next to a giant window overlooking a Cambridge athletics field. It was a really cool location to eat. Also, our waiter, Neil, was really nice. He said he was in Cambridge law at Trinity College and gave us all of these tips on what to do while we were visiting. He kinda reminded us of Kevin the bad-ass mathematician and DJ from Mean Girls.

We walked to the campus after lunch and saw a graduation ceremony taking place. There were a TON of tourists there. I bought a Cambridge sweatshirt and a Starbucks (typical...but I was tired from waking up early). I am in love with my sweatshirt, though. I'm wearing it right now.

After walking around and exploring, we stumbled upon the Cam river punting tours that Neil had told us to do. So between the four of us we paid 35 pounds to get in a boat tour that is sort of like a gondola, where a Cambridge student stands and drives the boat. Our guy was really nice and knowledgeable, I think his name was Sip. The best part of the tour was watching four people on four different occasions fall into the river because they were inexperience punters and had just decided to rent a boat. Also, there were students dressed as pirates who were punting down the river, who we tried to befriend from our boat. Overall, I definitely recommend that experience if you go to Cambridge.

The dock where all of the punters were

Our tour guide punting us through the river Cam

The pirates we tried to befriend

The four of us on in the boat

Saturday night after we took the train back from Cambridge we took a nap and then went to Redcliffe Gardens to have the girls meet my friends. Basically we all just hung out in the lounge in the basement for a long time before deciding to go to Troubadour. Unfortunately, when we got to Troubadour it was closed because of a cockroach infestation (gross!!!), which was really weird because it is one of the nicer pubs that I've been to. So Evan, me, and the girls went to McDonald's since I hadn't eaten dinner and then took the last tube home for the night.

Sunday I woke up and said goodbye to Michelle at 10 and then did some homework. Then Dominique left at about 1:15. After Dominique left, Carly and I walked around Hyde Park for a little bit and then came home and hung out/I did homework for the rest of the night. For dinner we went to Zizzi (again...this time the one by me), which was delicious yet again. All in all, it was a very fun visit from Carly and the other girls, and it let me experience what being a London tourist would be like.

He Was Getting Rather Shirty

Hello! I've been very busy this past week, hence the lack of posts. My friend Carly came to visit me this weekend from Thursday to Monday morning. I will write more about that later, because it includeds touring London and a trip to Cambridge.

Also, I had a paper due in Marketing yesterday that was worth 35% of my grade! On top of that, I took my first final exam! I can't believe I have less than a month left for my program. I'm going to miss London so much!

The final was for the required sociology class I have to take as part of my program. It was a two-hour-long written exam that lasted me almost the entire two hours. My hand was extremely cramped by the end. We had to write answers to three questions at approximately 500 words each. I felt well prepared since I had made outlines for the answers, but very rushed.

Also, yesterday I decided that Gucci's summer line is my favorite of all of the top designers. I like how casual it looks, how it involves fun colors, and how it looks classy. Here are three of my favorite "looks" in their collection:

If I Had Fallen Through The Floor I Would Have Squished A Beatle!

Literally...Paul McCartney was at the Stella McCartney store today. Of course I didn't get to meet him because I was upstairs in the office. But how cool is it that I was so close to Paul!?!

Also, I forgot to mention, last thursday Prince William was across the street from my office!!! He was attending a charity event at the art gallery. I got a picture of his Jaguar on my phone.

Additionally, Christine and I were told to make a delivery to Stella McCartney's house today. We got to go in her living room! She lives pretty close to where I live. I pet her dog. We stood in her sitting room. We talked to her nanny. We heard her kids playing. We're so freaking cool.

To finish with my awesome day at work, our boss told Christine and I to take a picture of two pairs of jeans. One didn't fit on the mannequin because it was too small, so our boss said that I would need to model them. I laughed and told her I'd probably have to grow five inches, but she told me to put on heels. So I am now the one wearing a pair of Stella jeans and Stella heels in a picture being sent to New York. I'm almost 100% certain that it will just be used internally, though.

So that ends my cool day at work.

You Brought A Guidebook To A Party?

This weekend I went to Swansea, Wales to visit my friend Carly from my hometown who is studying there through a program sponsored by the University of Iowa. She is studying at Swansea University, and lives in the university’s student village in Swansea. It takes about 2.5 hours to travel to Swansea from London via a First Great Western Train. Swansea is on the southern coast of Wales adjacent to Swansea Bay. It is the second largest city in Wales after Cardiff.

I left London at 8:25am on Friday morning, and arrived in Swansea around 11:30. Carly picked me up at the train station, and we walked about 15 minutes from the train to City Center. There, we walked through a mall that had some good shopping and went to Tesco to pick up some food (The Tesco was enormous compared to London’s grocery stores – potentially even bigger than Jewel or Kroger would be! I informed Carly about how lucky she is to have so many food options.). Then, we caught the bus to the student village, which we picked up right by Tesco. It was nice because the bus stopped directly outside of Carly’s dorm.

Once we arrived at Carly’s dorm, we decided to take a walk around her neighborhood and explore. We were told that if you walked up the hill you could see Swansea Bay. So the two of us meandered up some windy roads, making sure that we were always walking up hill. Needless to say, by the time we got back to Carly’s dorm, I was exhausted, so I took a three hour nap. When I woke up, Carly had fixed me fish and chips for dinner! She is such an awesome friend.

We both ate dinner and then began to get ready to go out. Our plan was to invite some of Carly’s American friends over and then go to the club in the basement of Swansea University’s student union. So we get dressed for the night and head out. However, we ended up getting to the club around 11:30, and the line was RIDICULOUSLY long. They were saying that the club was at capacity, and they were using a one-in-one-out policy. We knew we would never be able to get in, so we decided to leave. Then, the bus that was supposed to come to pick us up and take us to the bar district did not come. So, we ended up just going home and hanging out in Carly’s room. Although I think Carly and her friends were disappointed, I had fun because it allowed me to get to know them better.

The next morning, Carly and I woke up early and took a train to Cardiff. From Cardiff to Swansea is about an hour and fifteen minutes on the train. So we arrived in Cardiff in the late morning, and I wanted lunch. We walked around at first joking about going to McDonalds. We walked into O’Neill’s pub and they weren’t serving food yet. Then I walked around trying to find a mocha because I was feeling tired. After exhausting three coffee shops, I ended up having to buy a mocha from Starbucks (ugh…I can’t escape my addiction). However, I was much more impressed with the service at Starbucks in Cardiff than any of my London Starbucks experiences. They actually asked for my name! Good job, baristas.

Ok back to business. So Carly and I decided to hold off on lunch while we drank our Starbucks and went to Cardiff Castel. The Castel was a fairly short walk from the train station, and it was really cool because it was such a historical monument smack dab in the middle of the city. Admission for students was 7.5 pounds, and we picked up an audio tour guide. We roamed the grounds of the castle ourselves, exploring where we wanted to. It was really cool, and we were able to climb up into a big tower with very steep steps. Also, I hit up the gift shop and bought some Welsh memorabilia. Overall, it was a very fun landmark to visit.

After the castle, Carly and I went to get lunch. However, by then we had joked around so much about staying true to our American brands that we actually started craving McDonalds. So we went to McDonalds for lunch. Shame. It was pretty much just like McDonalds in London – same menu and everything.

After our McDonalds visit, we walked around the shopping district and found many quaint shops and alley ways to explore with a lot of cool shopping opportunities. I ended up buying two new tops that are for spring, since most of the tops that I brought with me to London are warm.
After our shopping, we got back on the train around 3:30 and went back to Swansea. It was a long trip home, but I felt like I had a great experience in Cardiff!

When we arrived back at Carly’s dorm, we took a short nap and then Carly fixed me dinner again (pasta, bread, and wine…yum!). She spoiled me. Then we got ready to go out for the night, since our plans were to go to Wind Street with her American friend Tom and her Welsh friend Ben.

The four of us took the bus to Wind Street and I was immediately overwhelmed. Everyone was young, as if it was a row of bars at a college campus, but everyone was dressed ridiculously! There were people dressed up in costumes for no reason. Some girls were in barely-there dresses and some in tutus. Again, just because they think it’s fun to dress up. I felt too plain in my jeans, heels, and black tank top. Carly and I joked that we were going to go back to America and think that everyone dresses conservatively after spending a night on Wind Street. Even the two guys agreed that it was nuts! We only went to two bars on the row, one was a vodka bar (where Carly and I ordered Strongbows – not vodka) and the other was a regular bar that did not seem very popular. We chose to go to the second one because we saw that we’d be able to sit down. The whole experience of the night was very over-stimulating for me, and I found myself just staring at people instead of engaged in conversation with my friends. That has never happened to me before.

One more thing – I find it very difficult to understand Welsh accents. I couldn’t understand what Ben said most of the night, and then anyone else who talked to me was a lost cause.

This morning Carly and I woke up at 10am and quickly got ready to walk to the beach. It’s about a 2 mile walk, but it was totally worth it. Swansea beach was beautiful! We went at low tide, so we found a bunch of shells. I kept one that looked shiny silver, but I may have squished it in the pocket of my North Face. We’ll see when I get home I guess. On our walk home, stopped for lunch at a restaurant with a Welsh name I couldn’t pronounce and then got some candy at a neighboring supermarket. We finally arrived back to Carly’s dorm around 2, and hung out until I had to catch the 3:10 bus to City Center in order to walk to the train station.

Everything considered, I had a terrific weekend. It was nice to be with an old friend and meet some new ones. Also, Wales is gorgeous, and a truly different experience from London. Basically, I felt I spent the weekend in a suburb. It was not a trip to the country-side, but definitely a break from city life. Also, I joked with Carly that I was actually able to see the wilderness out her window. I feel I learned a little about Welsh culture, too. Such as how they have a well-known song that sings “Always piss on the English side of the bridge.” There’s a lot of national pride in Wales, and I was able to ask Ben about his childhoold, life in Wales, and Welsh cultural traditions.

Now I’m getting excited for Carly and some of her friends to visit me next weekend!

Bonjour! - That's All I Know

Sorry it has been a while since an update. I'm working on balancing my schedule as best as I can.

This weekend I went to Paris with seven of my roommates that live with me at Palace Court. There, I was able to meet up with my boyfriend and three other IU students studying in Sevilla. Also, there were about 20 other students from my program in Paris, too. Basically, the Americans took over the city. Just kidding.

On Friday we left London via the Eurostar at 5:25 in the morning. We got to Paris around 8:45 and arrived at our hostel around 10. The hostel was extremely nice. It's called St. Christopher's, and it is one of the highest rated hostels in Paris. The facilities were very nice, and it gave us free breakfast and 15 minutes in the internet cafe (which I unfortunately did not utilize).

On Friday, Derek and I took the metro to The Louvre, and ate a cafe close by. Then, since the weather was nice, we decided to go to the Eiffel Tower instead of inside the Louvre. Although the wind was bitterly cold, the two of us went all the way to the top! It was a really cool experience, and I love being able to say that I've been to the top of the Eiffel Tower.

Friday night Derek took me on a really romantic date to a restaurant half way in between the Pantheon and Notre Dame. The outside of the restaurant had ivy on the walls, and the inside was a series of dimly lit rooms (because I hear the building used to be a home). We ordered the house wine, an appetizer, and an entree. I ordered the greatest meat I have ever tasted - a duck leg. It was so good that I actually exclaimed at the table that I was going to blog about it. So I am. It was delicious. As were the potatos that came with the meal. The service was also very lovely.

After dinner we walked around Paris at night a little and took some pictures outside of the Pantheon and Notre Dame. I kept singing to Derek the song "Our Last Summer" by ABBA from Mamma Mia because the lyrics talk about walks along the Siene and being by the Notre Dame. He didn't know the song so he had no idea what I was talking about. Very typical.

Saturday we took the Metro to the Arch de Triumph and the Champs E'Lysse (I probably misspelled those because I'm not looking them up). It was very fun, even though I felt extremely poor walking down the street. We decided to walk all the way to the Louvre, which again we decided not to go in because it closed at 5:30 and we got there at 4:30. What a bummer.

Sunday morning Derek left so I carried on my tourist activities with my roommates. After we checked out of the hostel, we went to the Musee D'Orsay. I LOVED that museum because I was able to see soooooo many Claude Monet paintings! I have always been a huge Monet fan, so I took a picture of every Monet painting in the museum. There were other works of art that were very cool to see too - such as Van Gogh's self portrait.

After the Musee D'Orsay we went to Notre Dame, which was cool because we were walking through while they were having their Sunday service. The music was beautiful and everything was very ceremonial. We didn't stay for the service, though. Instead, we went to get lunch at a cafe across the street. Luckily, I had Bita there with me that time to speak French to the server.

After the restaurant we walked around the shopping district, but realized that most of the stores were closed because it was Sunday. That was a bummer, but we decided to go visit the Catacombs instead. We had to wait in line for about and hour before we were let in. It was really creepy, and it definitely freaked me out to see the bones of millions of people piled up as if they were bricks forming a wall. I couldn't get into that.

We took the Eurostar back to England on Sunday night, and did not get back to Palace Court until 11:30pm. I was so tired by then that I basically just passed out on my bed, thankful to be home. Paris was alright, but I definitely feel like I enjoy London better. Maybe it's because I speak the language, but I'm not sure. I truly feel the tube is cleaner and faster than the metro. I had a lot of fun with my friends, though, and I especially enjoyed seeing Derek. No one can deny that Paris is a fun city.

My Fashion Career

I have been feeling much happier with my internship lately. Christine and I finished organizing the archive of magazines last week, which had us both in the basement sorting boxes of hundreds of magazines. We sorted them by country, then alphabetic order, then year, then date. Now, we are very proud that the shelves are totally organized and labelled to make a magazine extremely easy to track down. It was a big project with a lot of manual labor, but it was so exciting to see the finished result.

Lately, we've been working back up in the office. Usually, we begin the day by going through all of the magazines and newspapers that our office subscribes to and tagging any page that has a mention of Stella McCartney or her family. Then, we give any tagged pages to another intern who scans them and compiles the clippings into a bound press book.

Throughout the day, we get several deliveries from different magazines and newspapers returning clothes that we have sent out. When that happens, I go meet the fed ex delivery person downstairs and take the packages up to the office. From there, Christine and I would then check in the clothes into the returns binder by highlighting the item in the send out binder and moving it over.

When we notice that an article of clothing has not been returned, we then may be asked to make a phone call to the news media in possession and remind them to return it. That is called doing a call-back. At first I felt strange that they would be hearing my American accent, but then I got used to it.

Sometimes, when a delivery needs to be made within London, I may be asked to go make it myself instead of Fed Ex. I usually like to do that in order to get out into the fresh air, even though I tend to hurry as much as possible in order to get it done quickly. This past week I made two deliveries.

Another task I worked on a lot this week was to prepare boxes to be shipped to Paris for Paris fashion week. It was kinda cool seeing all the clothes that are going to be on the runway in a few weeks time. I feel like I know a secret that others wont know for a while.

I've saved the best for last so hopefully you're still reading this. On Thursday, Stella McCartney was being interviewed for a magazine in the VIP room at our office, and I got to see her walk down the hall. It was really cool, and I'm so happy that I at least got to see her even though I'll probably never get to meet her.

Well, that about covers it for Stella! I'm really liking the other interns that I work with and getting to know them a lot better. There's probably around 10 of us. Also, my boss Imogen is really nice too, and I write about her great management style in my weekly internship reflections all the time. Overall, I'm definitely starting to enjoy my job more.

Scotland Adventures - Regretfully Without Bagpipes

I've been really busy this past week, so I am finally getting up a post about my trip to Scotland.

Last weekend I went to Scotland with my Arcadia program. To begin, we had to arrive at Kings Cross Station at the crack of 7:30am in order to make our train. The train ride to Edinburgh lasted 4.5 hours, but had beautiful scenery towards the end. There were seven other close friends from the internship program on my trip, and we all were able to sit together on the train. It was a nice ride because I also could access free wifi on my computer, which allowed us to watch some episodes of The Office as well as check email. My favorite part of the train ride was passing through some very picturesque harbor towns on the North Sea and seeing their lighthouses. (I have a secret love of lighthouses.)

A picture of the North Sea at a small harbor town called Berwick Upon Tweed. I took this from the train.

When we got to Edinburgh, our tour guide met us at the train station decked out in his kilt (which he wore the entire rest of the weekend). It was slightly raining for the entire day, but that didn't really put a damper on things. Pun. We arrived at our hostel, which was voted the best hostel in Scotland according to our tour guide, and I was thoroughly impressed with the facilities. It was right next to the Edinburgh Castle and was called the Castle Rock hostel (which I ended up calling Castle Hill hostel for the entire trip probably because I missed Alexa). After arriving at our hostel, Jess, Kristin, Haley, and Christine, and I scouted out lunch at an Italian restaurant that was DELICIOUS! I bought a panini, mocha, and a chocolate/caramel/cookie dessert, and all were incredibly delicious. Then, we had to climb up a million stairs to get back to our hostel and meet up for our tour of Edinburgh.

Our tour guide, Mike, talking in the rain.

Mike, our kilted tour guide that I already mentioned, was extremely knowledgeable about everything to do with Edinburgh and the Highlands. You could tell he really loved his job. Even though we were all standing in the rain for most of the tour of Edinburgh, he didn't seem to mind and was still extremely excited to tell us every story he memorized about every landmark. And honestly, I feel there were hundreds of stories. I was really impressed. This is what the first day looked like:

Me and Evan with a statue of Bobby, the dog beloved by Edinburgh and saved by the city's children.

Where JK Rowling wrote the Harry Potter books - the birthplace of Harry Potter.

Friday night, many of my friends and I decided to do a pub crawl that was advertised at Castle Rock. We got two pounds off the price of the pub crawl through staying at Castle Rock, which was nice. We ended up going to four or five local pubs, the first of which was bank bar. I even got to see a really drunk Scotsman get into a drunken fight with nobody! It was extremely funny to watch. He wasn't part of the pub crawl group, don't worry.

On Saturday, our group departed from the hostel at the crack of 8am to get on a big coach bus and drive to the Highlands. Kristin and I were the last on the bus so we sat in the front seat. I am actually glad that I was able to sit in the front seat for the first part of the trip because I had a great view of the Firth of Forth and its bridges. Then, when we got to the highlands, I had a great view of how beautiful they are as well. However, the bus ride was about 5 hours long and I started getting a little car sick after a while. The bus driver was clearly a local and drove much faster through the mountains than most people would. Needless to say, everyone on the bus admitted to feeling slightly nauseous after those 5 hours...but no one actually got sick thankfully.

My first view of the Firth of Forth!

The places that we stopped on Saturday were at the River Tay and Loch Ness. We were able to see a lot of lochs on the trip and learn all about the loch system and that boats can go through the loch system from the Atlantic to the North Sea in 4-5 hours. The lochs and surrounding mountains were stunning, and I felt like I was in central Colorado. Loch Ness was really funny because Kristin actually decided to wade in the water in order to try to pet a swan. Also, many of my friends decided to try haggis...which I skipped out on with no regrets. They said it was terrible.

Me, Matt, Kristin, Russell, Christine, Evan, and Scott in front of the River Tay (all Kelley students except Evan)

Some beautiful Scottish scenery.

Me at Loch Ness! Never found a monster.

After our trip to Loch Ness, we went to a local distillery called Ben Nevis. In all honesty, I truly disliked that trip. The whole distillery smelled terrible, was really ugly, and the free sample of whiskey at the end was not sometime tasty or calming to my car sick stomach. I'm sure some people would have enjoyed that tour, but I certainly did not.

Me, Kristin, Christine, and Haley at the distillery. I didn't like that whiskey at all.

Before I forget, I also want to add that Scotland prints its own money, so it looks different from the British pound. It still has the same value, but it does not have Queen Elizabeth on it. It's really different, and I wish I could have kept some to show off when I get home to the states.

Anyway, at night we stayed in a hostel in Obin, Scotland, which is on the Atlantic side of Scotland. We literally drove from the East Coast, to the North Coast, to the West Coast in one day. Obin was cool, and is a harbor town. I really wanted to eat fish and chips while I was there, but most of my friends wanted to go to a legitimate sit-down restaurant. We ended up at yet another Italian restaurant, where the food was very good. However, I still have not had fish and chips in Scotland.

After the Italian restaurant, we went to a local pub called the Larne where there was live music playing. It was really fun, except I still wasn't feeling well so I only drank half of a Strongbow (alcoholic cider) and had to call it quits for the night. After The Larne we went to another club/pub down the block, but only stayed there for a little while. They were playing a lot of American music, though, which was fun. Then, when I went back to the hostel, I hung out downstairs with my friends and then went up to bed.

Sunday morning we left the hostel at 9am (which didn't feel TOO early this time) and left to drive back through the highlands and to Edinburgh. We saw a gorgeous church that was built solely by one man in honor of his mother. Also, we drove through Calendar, which is a small tourist town, and Fort Augustus. These places were slightly south of the towns we went through the day before, which included Perth, Glencoe, and Inverness. Also, I got to see a cool castle and pet an old Scottish cow named Hermish. Finally, our last adventure before we caught the train back to London in Edinburgh was to climb up the hill that had a monument to William Wallace (the guy Mel Gibson plays in Braveheart). It was steep and took about 10 minutes to climb.

Hermish the cow.

Some sheep in front of the Campbell Castle.

Me, Kristin, and Christine at Loch Laggan.

The train ride home was somewhat of an adventure because our seats were double-booked so we had to find unreserved seats on a very overcrowded train. I ended up having to move several times, but was able to stay in a seat with a table after a while. That was very lucky because I was able to get some of my homework done.

Overall, the trip to Scotland was amazing and I recommend to anyone who likes beautiful landscapes to visit Scotland at least once in their lifetime.