It is almost March! I can not believe it. These past two months have flown by and it kind of makes me sad :( There is so much I still want to do and I feel like I am not going to be able to fit it all in. This week I was looking through my calendar and I am going somewhere or have visitors until the last weekend in April slash my last weekend here.... so odd. My roommates and I booked our tickets to Prague for Easter weekend a couple days ago and I booked my ticket to Florence for the end of March with two other kids in my program who have a friend who is rooming with my friend Erica from Boulder... small small world.
Anywho, I had a pretty eventful week in London. Tuesday Meg and I went to the Natural History Museum right around the corner from where we will. It was HUGEEEEE and it is absolutely gorgeous. We only made it to two exhibits too in the 2 hour gap we had in between classes, the dinosaur and Darwin exhibits. Personally, I liked the dinosaur exhibit better. They had a life size T-REX that moved! I got the chills walking by it. I learned a lot of things too that I didn't know... haha weird but true. The Darwin exhibit was pretty unique too because it was in what they called a "Cocoon" and we had to take an elevator up into this egg shaped section of the museum. Very different, that's for sure. I don't know what is was but I like this museum a lot better than the one in Chicago. Maybe it is just because it's in London and I have learned to appreciate museums more since I go every week in my History of London class. Either way I thoroughly enjoyed it and plan on going back sometime soon to go to more exhibits since we didn't even make it through half of them.
Then on Wednesday, me and this kid, Mike went to the Science Museum just down the street from the Natural History Museum to do a report for one of our classes. Now I expected this to be pretty great and im sad to say that I was not impressed. I think maybe it was because Mike and I were the only one's older than 10 there besides parents. Literally, we did not fit in at all. Most of the exhibits were hands-on and for 13 year olds and younger... this kind of through us off. I felt kind of bad too because we could pick whatever museum in London to do for this project and I made the executive decision to go to this one, purely because I am a science nerd and then it turned out to be a bust. Oh wellllll. We did end up going to the Science of Medicine exhibit and that was probably the only exhibit where little kids weren't running in. I felt at place here. This was really cool because they had different displays of the advances of medicine and surgeries for example in dentist, head surgeries, physiology, naval surgeries, etc. My favorite was the open heart surgery from the 1980s. We will be doing our report on these displays just in case any of you are wondering.... not the launchpad exhibit like I had hoped. haha
Sunday, 28 February 2010
Monday, 22 February 2010
London Fun Facts
Some interesting facts that I have learned since I have been here... just thought some might be interested
- The police officers in London are not armed... thus the crime rate is very, very low. If a crime is committed, it's for things like stealing an IPOD or something minor like that.
- The reason people drive on the opposite side of the road is because back in the day, when soldiers were on their horses, it was easier for them to be on the the left side of the road so they could strike the enemy with the sword in their right hand, since most people were right handed back then (unlike me). Being on the left has stuck ever since.
- The Thames river, is the oldest place name in Britain, and the river is a combination of 4 other rivers
- The London underground, known as "the tube" is the first metro in the world.
- Windsor Castle of London is the oldest and largest castle in the world, and still in use today.
- There are over 100 theaters in London
- London is made up of two ancient cities which are now joined together, the city of London, known as "the City" which is the business and financial heart of the United Kingdom; and the city of Westminster, where Parliament and most of the government offices are located. Also, Buckingham Palace is located here. Together the are known as Greater London.
- The name of streets are on the buildings in London so there are no such thing as street signs. You have to look at the buildings on your sides to see where you are going... very confusing.
- The police officers in London are not armed... thus the crime rate is very, very low. If a crime is committed, it's for things like stealing an IPOD or something minor like that.
- The reason people drive on the opposite side of the road is because back in the day, when soldiers were on their horses, it was easier for them to be on the the left side of the road so they could strike the enemy with the sword in their right hand, since most people were right handed back then (unlike me). Being on the left has stuck ever since.
- The Thames river, is the oldest place name in Britain, and the river is a combination of 4 other rivers
- The London underground, known as "the tube" is the first metro in the world.
- Windsor Castle of London is the oldest and largest castle in the world, and still in use today.
- There are over 100 theaters in London
- London is made up of two ancient cities which are now joined together, the city of London, known as "the City" which is the business and financial heart of the United Kingdom; and the city of Westminster, where Parliament and most of the government offices are located. Also, Buckingham Palace is located here. Together the are known as Greater London.
- The name of streets are on the buildings in London so there are no such thing as street signs. You have to look at the buildings on your sides to see where you are going... very confusing.
If I learn anything more I will for sure add some more! Cheerio
Thursday, 18 February 2010
Amsterdam
Well... Amsterdam was amazing! Favorite place I have been so far. It is also so different from any other place I have been, which is why I think I liked it the best. It's a manageable city that had the best architecture and so sooo many things to do! I wish I could have been there for longer but it gives me all the excuse to go back again!
So the adventure all began on Friday morning. We woke up early and met the rest of the Amsterdam goers at the main parking lot. There were 4 rental cars and 20 kids so there were 7 or 6 to each car. Older degree students were the drivers.... three were from Germany and the other one (my driver) was from Ukrania. It was his first time driving in England... on the other side of the street so it was a very interesting experience for him and us. Of course he didn't tell us this until we dropped off Sunday night, which was probably for the better. Either way he was a PSYCHO DRIVER!! He was glued to the back of the car he was following and if he lost them, he would pull every maneuver possible to get right behind the other car... pretty much like James Bond style. Definitely thought I was going to die on numerous accounts, especially when we cut a bus off. Im alive now so it doesn't even matter. Our driver, Segei, also was all about the french techno music on the radio. Apparently he didn't get a lot of sleep the night before and needed his techno on full blast to keep him awake. Towards the end of the trip, my ears were ringing and I begged him to turn it off. He said he would fall asleep without if so I convinced him to let me sing to him so he wouldn't fall asleep. Naturally I sang Michael Jackson to him for a good ten minutes, until people starting throwing things at me to try to get me to stop. I don't even care if I made a fool of myself bc we are alive now right? I did happen to catch a little smile out of him in the review mirror. Made me feel pretty good about myself ha.
Anyways, Friday morning we drove two hours through East London to Dover where we got on a ferry to go across the Atlantic Ocean. Dover was really pretty with the snow mountains, right on the water. The ferry was unbelievable too, definitely not what I expected. The cars were in the basement of this hugeeee cruise ship, like a parking garage and then we hung out on the top floors for the hour and a half ride. The ferry was literally like a cruise ship. There were numerous bars and restaurants, along with arcades and a grocery store. To pass time, a couple other kids and I played cards at one of the restaurants. It was actually a lot of fun.
Once we docked in Calais, France we were back on the road. Our car was the first car in the garage so we were the first to exit the ship.... we thought we were following another one of the Amsterdam cars but we were not. Twenty minutes later we finally realized it when the cars called us to ask us where we were. Of course we were the only car without a navigation system too. Luckily, we had mapquest directions to the hotel, but it was in Dutch. It was quite entertaining trying to follow the directions, actually a lot of fun. We were too far away to wait for the rest of the group so we were on our own to the hotel which was 4 hours from France. It was really cool though because to get to the Netherlands we went through France, Brussels and Belgium... 4 countries in one day!!! Not once did I see a cop either. Seriously driving in Europe is like a free -for -all, no one cares and everyone goes there own speed limit. Another thing that was really entertaining was that now we were back on the right side of the road so Sergei was yet again really confused because we had just been driving on the other side in London and now we were back on the normal side. haha
Car ride was for sure the best road trip I have ever experienced. We played so many games, made fun of Sergei a ton because he never really talked to us but if he did say something it was so ridiculous, and had to crack the Dutch code on the directions to find our way to the hotel. We decided that we were going to make getting to the hotel a race and which ever car made it to the hotel first won the race. Sergei loved this idea and drove even more crazy than before. Somehow, we managed to get there 45 minutes before any of the other cars and never got lost, even though we had no idea where we were going haha. WE WON THE RACE!!
By the time we got to the hotel, it was 10pm because we lost an hour. The hotel was super nice, but it was kind of unfortunate because it wasn't directly in the city. In order to get to the city of Amsterdam, we had to take the hotel shuttle to the airport, which was 10 minutes away and then from the airport we took a 15 minute train to the city. It really wasn't that bad but we had to plan according to when the shuttle came and when the train was running. Oh well. That night we just went to the city for an hour or two and walked around because it was already so late. It was so pretty at night. Everything was lit up so nicely and there were so many people out and about. Somehow we managed to walk through the "red light district" which is where all the ladies stand in the window, hoping to get a customer. I was legit frightened when walking through here. People are so perverted and the girls are not attractive at all. There were also many sex museums and disgusting shops in this district. It was almost like a fantasy land that seemed unreal to me. How could this be allowed??
The next morning Meg and couple other people on our trip went into the city for our bike tour!! It was FREEZING out but we still wanted to do the tour because we heard so many good things about it and bikes were mean way of transportation there. Our bike guide was really really funny and from Minnesota! We road around the entire city and it took us 3 hours!!! My hands were definitely numb at the end of it and my face was frozen but it was well worth it. This was by far my favorite city. It wasn't too big either and really easy to get around. Also SOOO pretty and the architecture was incredible. A certain area of the city was called "Crooked Houses" because the buildings weren't perfectly alined... kind of confusing, but it looked amazing. The canals also were gorgeous. I didn't realize that so many people have boat homes either. A lot of people do and I found out that having a boathouse is an equivalent price to having an apartment... it is not cheaper to live in a boat. We road over a bridge that apparently James Bond jumped off onto a boat in one of the James Bond movies.. it is the most famous bridge in Amsterdam purely for this reason haa.
After we warmed up for a little bit, we made our way to the Heinekein Museum. By far my absolute favorite museum I have ever been to as well. It was so interactive and we got up and did so many things. We saw the brewery where they made the beer, learned that 90 percent of the beer is water too. Also saw the Heinekien horses... went on a mini rollercoaster to learn how they made the beer... watched different kind of Heinekein commercials, dating back into the 70's, sampled the beer, and made a Heinekein music video in Dutch. At the end of the museum, there was a green bar area where each museum goers got two free beers and socialized with other people! So so so funnn. You could even personalize a bottle with your name on it for 5 euros.
Once we were done with the fabulous museum, we walked around and found a Mexican restaurant to eat at. Meg and I have been graving mexican food since we had gotten here and they don't have mexican food in London either! Dinner was wonderful and our group got the whole upstairs area to ourselves. After our delicious meal, we walked around a little bit more and stopped in a couple coffee shops that our tour guide had recommended to us. It was just interesting to see what it was like. Again I felt like I was in a fantasy land, seeing people smoke so openly and ordering different kinds of weed. haha.
We only walked around for an hour or so after dinner because we were exhausted from our tour and walking around all day. We went back to the hotel around 9pm and took advantage of our pool at our hotel. Kind of fun, but yet again tiring and we were probably in bed, asleep by midnight. Meg and I also wanted to wake up early Sunday morning to go to the Anne Frank house because we had to leave to go back at 1145am that day. I am so happy we did wake up early to see that because it was incredible. I had the chills the entire time inside, seeing where the Frank family hid for two years or whatever and seeing everything they did and just the living conditions the family dealt with. I read the book in 7th grade so everything pretty much came to life for me, which is kind of weird to say but it really did. It was so soo sad but I am happy we went.
Once we made it back to the hotel, we piled back into the same cars and made our journey back to France. Not as thrilling as the way there because we stuck with the group, but still pretty fun. By this time I was used to the techno and pounding in my ears that we kind of just danced for the whole four hours. We had an hour to kill when we got to Calais before we got on our ferry so we just roamed around the port city. Kind of a dead area but interesting to see.
That's pretty much all that happened after that.... happy that I am done traveling for awhile now. We had traveled three weekends in a row and now I am not traveling again for a couple weeks, when I go to Scotland with my mommmmmy and then Dublin for St. Patty's day!!
Tuesday, 9 February 2010
Pari!
Bonjour! Got back from Paris Sunday night, and unfortunately it was not as eventful/chaotic as Madrid. It was all organized through the school so we just had to follow and pay attention pretty much ha. Friday afternoon we took a double decker bus to the the EuroStation to get on our chunnel to Pari. It was kind of unfortunate leaving because it was super nice out and really sunny... of course the day we aren't going to be here but oh well. Can't win them all. Well we made it to the train station and I am really sad to say but it was not like Harry Potter going to Hogwarts.... at all. It was just a normal train but with comfier seats. On our bus ride to the station I asked our tour guide if it was like that and she laughed and told the entire group what I had asked, on the loud speaker. Grr. Yah so it was not how I expected at all and you couldn't even tell we were underwater at all either. Not as cool as it is made out to seem, let me tell you. But at least we got there safe and sound.
By the time we got there it was night time and our leaders had scheduled us to take a night boat cruise through Paris and see all the buildings lit up. It was AMAZING! The Eiffel Tower is so so sooo pretty at night. There were other boats and museums lit up to and it was incredible. A bunch of us bought little baby bottles of wine and drank them as we went up and down the river.... so romantic but super cold. Paris is for sure a romantic, woman city. I learned this weekend that Paris is a woman city because of all the romantic things one can do and London is a manly city because it is the only place in the world where the guys dress better than the ladies, ha. I thought that was a fun little fact. Anyways after our little tour we got a bite to eat and just hung out at our really really nice hotel. It was super late when we got done and we had to wake up at 730am to go on a bus tour of London so all of us just hung out in each others rooms.
So we woke up the next morning and got on our bus. It was muggy and rainy but still so unbelievably gorgeous! Our first stop was at Notre Dame! I pictured it to be way bigger but it was a normal size cathedral. I was a little upset though, there were like two gargoyles and I always imagined it completely filled with them. Oh well. It was still amazing. The inside was very dark and sacred. There was actually a mass going on when we walked it so it was kind of creepy. Not that the mass was creepy but I felt like I was intruding and going to be taken to the dungeon for sneaking in... thankfully I didn't. After that we drove around Paris for a couple more hours because it was raining and we couldn't really get out. We saw many, many cathedrals, Musee de Lourve (which is the biggest museum in the world), Muse de Madelena (which was my personal favorite), the Academie Nationale de Musique (where the Phantom of the Opera lived), and Palace de Luxembourg and much much more. Lastly, we stopped at the Eiffel Tower to ride to the tippy tippy top! It started down pouring right when we got there, so we waited in line for an hour and got soaked. By the time we got to the top, we were frozen and didn't end up staying for long because we were so cold. It was sad because it's a big dealll but it was so cold, no one could stand it. The view was absolutely amazing though and I want to go back when it is nicer outside. We took the elevator up, which was kind of frightening and then took the stairs down. 1665 stairs to be exact.
After that we had free time and Meg and Lauren and I went to the shopping area in Paris to see what it was like. Kind of like a typical mall but way more fancy. We took a taxi there and luckily Meg spoke French and the driver apparently told us that he thinks British people are pretty but Americans and very veryyy pretty. haha. Boosted our self-esteem for the rest of the day. Once we were exhausted from shopping, we tried to find a taxi home... we were roaming the streets and ended up walking right into a protest. It was actually pretty frightening. It was a revolt for world peace for the Israelis'? I think. We quick turned onto another street and ended up on "prostitute lane" we decided to call it. It was unbelievable seeing these girls in broad daylight, roaming the streets in their mini skirts. Ew. We quickly booked it out of there and finally found a cab back to our hotel.
That night we got dressed up and went to dinner with a bunch of people in our program. It was so fun just walking around trying to find a restaurant. Did you knowthat you can drink in public in Paris? Just have a bottle of wine, in hand and drink while walking down the street. Welp you can, I still felt like it was illegal so I didn't do this but everyone else did. Also, there were street performers everywhere and music playing. I tried lamb for the first, and didn't really think it was that great. After dinner we went to some underground bar and danced the night away. haha. Meg, Lauren and I decided to call each other french names for the whole trip and Meg was Maaag, Lauren was Laron and I was Madeline. fun fun times.
Sunday morning Lauren, Meg, Raya and I went to the famous flea market in France. It was an experience for sure. Some French guy almost got me to buy a 200 euro leather jacket.... they are amazing at persuading. Thank god I didn't buy it though because then I would have to say goodbye to Amsterdam this weekend. One part of the flea market, you could tell was not the best because people pretty much just had a pile of old junk on a blanket and they literally would pull you to their station and speak so fast and and hand you their items. I had issues with this just because I didn't speak any french. We ran through this part pretty fast though and then took a cab to THE LOURVE. I can not even describe how big this place is. It is incredible. It's shaped like a U too and in the middle is a beautiful courtyard with green grass and flowers. Since it was Sunday though, it was packed and really overwhelming. We pretty much just went in, saw the Mona Lisa and a couple other exhibits and left. Too much to handle. Oh and Mona Lisa.... not as cool as it's made out to be. It's tiny. Maybe I am just bitter because I didn't get to see it up close because so many people were in front of it but either way I was not impressed. Just a forewarning. I mean it does have a lot of history, and it is very pretty but I don't know. I still took a picture.
Once we finally got out of the Lourve we went back to the hotel and met our group to take a bus back to the EuroStation. Oh ohhh we saw where a scene took place in the Bourne Supremacy, which I thought was preeetttyyy cool. Then took the upsetting chunnel home and went right to bed. There was a SuperBowl party in another dorm but we we were way too tired. The game started at midnight here and went on till 3am. Some people were able to stay up, somehow but my roommates and I definitely did not. Pretty successful weekend overall and excited now for next weekend in Amsterdam! In one month, I am going to have been in an English speaking country, Spanish speaking country, French speaking country, and Dutch. pretty exciting. That's all for now. Toodles.
By the time we got there it was night time and our leaders had scheduled us to take a night boat cruise through Paris and see all the buildings lit up. It was AMAZING! The Eiffel Tower is so so sooo pretty at night. There were other boats and museums lit up to and it was incredible. A bunch of us bought little baby bottles of wine and drank them as we went up and down the river.... so romantic but super cold. Paris is for sure a romantic, woman city. I learned this weekend that Paris is a woman city because of all the romantic things one can do and London is a manly city because it is the only place in the world where the guys dress better than the ladies, ha. I thought that was a fun little fact. Anyways after our little tour we got a bite to eat and just hung out at our really really nice hotel. It was super late when we got done and we had to wake up at 730am to go on a bus tour of London so all of us just hung out in each others rooms.
So we woke up the next morning and got on our bus. It was muggy and rainy but still so unbelievably gorgeous! Our first stop was at Notre Dame! I pictured it to be way bigger but it was a normal size cathedral. I was a little upset though, there were like two gargoyles and I always imagined it completely filled with them. Oh well. It was still amazing. The inside was very dark and sacred. There was actually a mass going on when we walked it so it was kind of creepy. Not that the mass was creepy but I felt like I was intruding and going to be taken to the dungeon for sneaking in... thankfully I didn't. After that we drove around Paris for a couple more hours because it was raining and we couldn't really get out. We saw many, many cathedrals, Musee de Lourve (which is the biggest museum in the world), Muse de Madelena (which was my personal favorite), the Academie Nationale de Musique (where the Phantom of the Opera lived), and Palace de Luxembourg and much much more. Lastly, we stopped at the Eiffel Tower to ride to the tippy tippy top! It started down pouring right when we got there, so we waited in line for an hour and got soaked. By the time we got to the top, we were frozen and didn't end up staying for long because we were so cold. It was sad because it's a big dealll but it was so cold, no one could stand it. The view was absolutely amazing though and I want to go back when it is nicer outside. We took the elevator up, which was kind of frightening and then took the stairs down. 1665 stairs to be exact.
After that we had free time and Meg and Lauren and I went to the shopping area in Paris to see what it was like. Kind of like a typical mall but way more fancy. We took a taxi there and luckily Meg spoke French and the driver apparently told us that he thinks British people are pretty but Americans and very veryyy pretty. haha. Boosted our self-esteem for the rest of the day. Once we were exhausted from shopping, we tried to find a taxi home... we were roaming the streets and ended up walking right into a protest. It was actually pretty frightening. It was a revolt for world peace for the Israelis'? I think. We quick turned onto another street and ended up on "prostitute lane" we decided to call it. It was unbelievable seeing these girls in broad daylight, roaming the streets in their mini skirts. Ew. We quickly booked it out of there and finally found a cab back to our hotel.
That night we got dressed up and went to dinner with a bunch of people in our program. It was so fun just walking around trying to find a restaurant. Did you knowthat you can drink in public in Paris? Just have a bottle of wine, in hand and drink while walking down the street. Welp you can, I still felt like it was illegal so I didn't do this but everyone else did. Also, there were street performers everywhere and music playing. I tried lamb for the first, and didn't really think it was that great. After dinner we went to some underground bar and danced the night away. haha. Meg, Lauren and I decided to call each other french names for the whole trip and Meg was Maaag, Lauren was Laron and I was Madeline. fun fun times.
Sunday morning Lauren, Meg, Raya and I went to the famous flea market in France. It was an experience for sure. Some French guy almost got me to buy a 200 euro leather jacket.... they are amazing at persuading. Thank god I didn't buy it though because then I would have to say goodbye to Amsterdam this weekend. One part of the flea market, you could tell was not the best because people pretty much just had a pile of old junk on a blanket and they literally would pull you to their station and speak so fast and and hand you their items. I had issues with this just because I didn't speak any french. We ran through this part pretty fast though and then took a cab to THE LOURVE. I can not even describe how big this place is. It is incredible. It's shaped like a U too and in the middle is a beautiful courtyard with green grass and flowers. Since it was Sunday though, it was packed and really overwhelming. We pretty much just went in, saw the Mona Lisa and a couple other exhibits and left. Too much to handle. Oh and Mona Lisa.... not as cool as it's made out to be. It's tiny. Maybe I am just bitter because I didn't get to see it up close because so many people were in front of it but either way I was not impressed. Just a forewarning. I mean it does have a lot of history, and it is very pretty but I don't know. I still took a picture.
Once we finally got out of the Lourve we went back to the hotel and met our group to take a bus back to the EuroStation. Oh ohhh we saw where a scene took place in the Bourne Supremacy, which I thought was preeetttyyy cool. Then took the upsetting chunnel home and went right to bed. There was a SuperBowl party in another dorm but we we were way too tired. The game started at midnight here and went on till 3am. Some people were able to stay up, somehow but my roommates and I definitely did not. Pretty successful weekend overall and excited now for next weekend in Amsterdam! In one month, I am going to have been in an English speaking country, Spanish speaking country, French speaking country, and Dutch. pretty exciting. That's all for now. Toodles.
Friday, 5 February 2010
Paris week
Good Morning!! It currently is 1130am here and probably around 530am wherever you guys are! Im just saying hello and letting all of you know that I am going to Paris in an hour!! woo hoo. We are taking a chunnel there, which is like a underwater train! I am hoping its like Harry Potter kids going to Hogwarts, at least that's how I imagine it. Lauren's friend studied abroad in Paris last semester so he wrote us an essay of things we should do which is good because we have a plan. We are pretty much on our own for this trip besides the mornings when we have scheduled tours. We shall see how it goes...
Anyways, this week so far as been pretty good, and long. This is the first week actually I started to feel a little homesick. After seeing Zach, and coming back from Madrid I missed everyone! I think it's because school is starting to pick up and I have some reads and papers coming up so I've been bored doing work. School is going pretty well though. The hour and 20 minute classes are killing me though. Oh instead of Shakespeare class Tuesday night we went and saw Twelfth Night at the Dukes Royal theatre, downtown. It was read neat. Everyone here is so into going to the theatre too and I love it! Again at intermission they sold little ice cream cups. So cute. Alright well I have to go exchange some pounds for euros but I will write again Sunday when we get back from Paris!! Love you all!
Anyways, this week so far as been pretty good, and long. This is the first week actually I started to feel a little homesick. After seeing Zach, and coming back from Madrid I missed everyone! I think it's because school is starting to pick up and I have some reads and papers coming up so I've been bored doing work. School is going pretty well though. The hour and 20 minute classes are killing me though. Oh instead of Shakespeare class Tuesday night we went and saw Twelfth Night at the Dukes Royal theatre, downtown. It was read neat. Everyone here is so into going to the theatre too and I love it! Again at intermission they sold little ice cream cups. So cute. Alright well I have to go exchange some pounds for euros but I will write again Sunday when we get back from Paris!! Love you all!
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