Adventures in Europe, Spring 2010

Goodbye England.

2010-06-02T14:27:00.000-07:00

So, this will be the last post that I make in this blog. I can't believe how fast 5 months went by. As of tomorrow (two hours from now) I will have only 11 days left in the UK. It's crazy how much I've learned. Unfortunately, as far as academics go, I have to say that I mainly perfected the skill of cramming last minute. That's just how it's set up here...one week of work, and zero work for 4 months. I was talking to an English guy who just got back from studying abroad in America, and he says we work way harder in the US. Go us! I guess we are better for something than McDonalds and obesity.

Kidding. I love America and being here has made me realize it so much. But, I will always have a really special place in my heart for England and all of the places I was blessed enough to visit while over here. Coming here has given me the need to visit so many more places in my life. I have a running list including Greece, Egypt, Japan, Morocco, and SYDNEY to visit Joanna. Something I've been reflecting on a lot in the past few days is what the most important things I have learned over here are. Even though I'm not sure who reads this anymore, I figured I would make this list for myself so that I can look back and appreciate these things. A lot of these things are simple things that I find myself learning, forgetting, and then relearning again in different stages of my life.

There is more to life than Rochester, New York.
I love my home and family and everything that has contributed to who I have become-- but I think that moving to a foreign country across the world for 5 months and living with people who come from cultures that do not particularly like America is a very testing experience. I did not exactly get what I bargained for in terms of flatmates. However, I don't regret that I ended up where I was. Living in this environment taught me that there really is a lot more to the world than I generally focus on in my day-to-day life, and that knowing about what is going on and being educated is a lot more important that I realized before. All of this may seem really self-explanatory, and I thought I had it all figured out before I came here. Meeting people from all over the world made me realize that there is so much to the world and so much to be explored.

I am 20 years old, not 90.
I realized (recently, actually) that sometimes I live if the rest of my life is to be lived in the next 5 years, not 70. Before I came here, I spent so much time analyzing the minute details of every aspect of my life, worrying, analyzing, and trying to micromanage and plan everything. I won't lie and say I've stopped doing this-- I will probably always do this. I will say that I have recognized more than I have before than all of this planning is somewhat fruitless. We have the rest of our lives to do so many great things, and I have really realized for myself that anything that prevents me from focusing on my goals and doing what I need to do for myself in this life is not something that I should spend time on.

I love Le Moyne college.
I have always loved Le Moyne, and I have developed the same kind of love for Essex. Essex has been an amazing home away from home to me, but Le Moyne is my home. Le Moyne is where I have really grown up into what I would consider (I guess my parents are the real test of this) a real adult. I walked into Dablon Hall freshman year on the first day of the semester as a complete baby. I had no idea, my head was up in the clouds and the world was so fresh and new and scary. I can honestly say, even after overlooking Paris from the top of the Eiffel at night, throwing a coin in the Trevi fountain in Rome, stumbling upon Big Ben by accident, and drinking a Guiness in the top of the Guiness factory in Dublin that I have had the best times of my life in Syracuse, New York. LMC is where I have made the best friends that I have ever had in my life and will ever have. I am absolutely dying to see anyone who has the link to this blog, so this all refers to you!! I by no means have any regrets about coming here, and I have loved everything about this place and the people I have met. However, with that said, I have realized that I would rather be no where else in the world for my senior year that at Le Moyne running around downtown with all of you guys.

No matter where you run, you're going to end up running into yourself.
My original intent for studying abroad was for a complete fresh start and a renewal. I can most definitely say that I got that here with a group of new faces of all different cultures, new campus, new country, new everything. However, as time goes on, fresh starts stop being fresh and you are left with the person that you were before you left your home. I wouldn't say this is a bad thing, because I would say that I'm proud of the person that I have become, no matter how many idiotic mistakes I have made. I guess I can say that coming here and realizing that you are the same person with the same past wherever you go was kind of refreshing to me in an odd way. This realization made me want to continue to work on being a better person in any way that I can as I progress onward to the next stages of my life.

Well, I am one exam, twelve days, and a lot of really sad goodbyes away from returning home and starting the next chapter.

Cheers England, I'll be seeing you.

REVISION

2010-05-18T08:24:00.000-07:00

I think I am going to experience death by caffeine. Studying for finals is murderous.

America I'll see you in 27 days!

Who knew volcanos actually mattered?

2010-05-10T09:14:00.000-07:00

The last time I consciously thought about volcanoes was 5th grade when we learned about them. Since then I am pretty sure that word has been 100% nonexistent in my vocabulary. Now I have developed a very strong dislike for them, seeing as the volcano in Iceland caused both my Greece and Barcelona trips to be canceled. Bummer of the century in my book. However, I did get to spend an amazing three days in Rome! We had to once again pull an all nighter to get to the airport in time for our 6:10 am flight. After arriving in Rome, we took an hour bus to the city center and walked for a while attempting to find our hostel. This was my favorite hostel yet. It actually was somewhat visually appealing, had really comfy beds, a hot shower, and friendly owners. I also enjoyed that they had candy out on the front desk all the time...not kidding I probably ate at least 20 jolly ranchers by the end of my stay, it was pretty much my breakfast every day. Our location was really great too. Rome is actually a very small city. We walked the entire time without taking the metro at all to save money. I actually found that walking was a better way to see all the little things that aren't on a map-- amazing gelato shops, tiny side streets filled with mopeds, and amazing architecture. I threw a total of four coins in the Trevi fountain during my stay...hopefully this will bring extra good luck. They say that if you throw a coin in, you are destined to come back to Rome. Here's hoping, because I am in love with this city. Part of me wishes I had studied abroad there, even though my Italian speaking ability is nonexistent.

The first day there we visited the Trevi, Spanish steps, and walked and saw lots of different monuments. One of my favorite places was the huge garden in the north of Rome. If you look at a map, it's actually shaped like a heart...of course, it's Rome, why wouldn't the gardens be shaped like hearts? In the middle of the park there was a small clearing with a fountain and some benches, and sitting there, it honestly felt like we were smack in the center of the universe. It was so quiet and amazing. The quiet was, however, ruined when a creepy man came up to us trying to sell us roses. When we declined he said, "No no! A gift!" So we all reluctantly took the roses he handed us...seconds later, "Now you give me some money for my sister?" When we refused to pay him, he tried to insult my friend Joanna by calling her Japanese...really, that's all you've got? That night we went back to the hostel and fell asleep at 6:30 pm because we were SO exhausted.

The other people staying in our room were all so nice and normal, which is a change! Two of the boys were American, one German (who looked like Jake from the Bachelor, seriously twins) and then an Italian businessman who was around 30, I would guess. He was SO nice and helpful, and circled everything we should see on our maps for us. The way he talked about Rome was amazing because he loves the city so much and has so much pride for Italy.

The next day we went on a guided tour of the Colosseum, Roman ruins, and the hill where Rome was founded. It was pretty surreal to be standing in the center of the place where so much history has happened. Later that night we attempted to find real Italian cuisine, but as our tour guide informed us, you can't get the real deal Italian food in Rome. For that you have to go outside of the city or to a place like Venice. The food was good, but I can honestly say I like my Dad's spaghetti and meatballs better.

Day three was supposed to be our last day in Rome and first night in Venice. We walked to the Vatican and took some pictures, and then said goodbye to Rome before heading back to our hostel. Just as we were gathering our things to go to the airport, Jelyse checked her email and found that our flight to Barcelona had been canceled due to the ash. We tried calling the airport with no luck and couldn't figure out what to do, so we decided to go to the airport and figure something out. After an hour ride, we waited in line for another three hours only to be told that there were no flights to Barcelona until Monday, which would have been pointless as our flight home from Barcelona was Tuesday. We decided the safest thing to do would be to fly back to England. In all honesty, we all shed some serious tears over this one. After booking our flight for the next day, we decided we were going to stay at the airport over night, but had to go get our luggage first. So we took the bus back and then had to sprint through the street to get to our hostel in time to make the last bus of the night. We unfortunately didn't make it in time, so we stayed in the hostel for another night and got on our plane in the morning.

SO, here I am, back to lots of studying and anxiously waiting for exams to be over (not until June 5), my trip to Germany June 8-10, the End on the 11 (big celebration party on campus), and summer ball the 12th. THEN I go home June 14!! One month from today, I can't wait to see everyone.

That's all for now, lots of love.

5 May 2010

2010-05-05T10:52:00.000-07:00

Off to Rome for 3 days then Barcelona for 3! I'll make some wishes for everyone in the Trevi Fountain!

6 weeks to go.

2010-04-26T04:09:00.000-07:00

So today is the official first day of summer term. I really don't get what the point of this term is. We basically have an entire month to study for finals with one revision class for each subject. I guess I'm not complaining, it's just weird!

In light of not being able to go to Greece because of the volcano, I went to London from Thursday until Sunday. Thursday night Liz and I went to the Kate Nash concert, which was amazing! It was at a really small venue, so we were literally 10 feet away from her. Friday Liz went to Beligum for the day with her family friends who were visiting, so I met up with Jelyse, Joanna, and Chris and we went to Hyde park and laid out for the day. Friday night Christie and her friend Sara and I went out to dinner at this AMAZING Italian place. Sara almost got mugged before we went into the restaurant and it was so scary. While she was at the ATM people came up waving around newspapers and yelling and then managed to try and withdraw 200 pounds from her account, but she took it and ran. Yikes. Friday night we somehow made it into one of the notoriously elite clubs in London...it was INSANE and not real life. One of the girls in Christie's program met these guys from Nigeria who like hanging out with Americans, so they took about 10 of us out for predrinks at a place where one small champagne glass of a drink was 11 pounds! So the equivalent of about 16 or 17 American dollars. We then went to this club called Runway, where you usually have to be on a guestlist and pay a ridiculous cover, but we all somehow got in without paying anything. We knew we were out of place when we had to do a fingerprint for the coat check. The place was really cool and fun, but I don't see why anyone would pay that much money to do the same thing you can do at any other normal club.
Saturday Liz and I went to Regents park and took a nap in the sun until dinner. For dinner we got Mexican, which was amazing also. All the restaurants in London are soooo good but so expensive!! My meal cost about 17 US dollars. And that's on the lower end in terms of cost. At night we met up with Thomas, Brendan, Michael, and some of there friends and went to a small pub for a few drinks. I've known those boys since kindergarten...who would have guessed in our St. Louis days that we would be in London together 15 years later? It's so weird how time flies and how small the world is.
On Sunday I was scheduled to leave London with a prepaid ticket at 12:20 pm. I left Liz's flat at 11 am...and didn't make it back to Essex until 5 pm. It should be a 50 minute train ride. Apparently my train was canceled because of construction, so I had to take a combination of 5 different buses and trains. The bus I took went through a terrible neighborhood and I was pretty scared. I have definitely gotten the hang of traveling by myself and figuring this stuff out on my own, but I definitely did not enjoy having no idea where I was going and just showing up at another station with no clue what train to get on next. After being away for the weekend, I always feel so relieved to get on the bus from the Colchester train station, going through town, passing Tesco, and seeing the towers in the distance. Colchester feels like home after running around big and busy cities.
I can't believe I'll be home in six weeks. I am SO EXCITED. This has no doubt been the best experience of my life, but I will be so ready to come home to the most amazing friends and family. I was going to try to surprise my parents by coming home a week early, but there are no flights for when I would want to go. And I think that my Dad might have had a heart attack if I showed up at the door unplanned. My Mom would probably just start laughing and crying but I really think my Dad would actually go into shock and possibly be mad that he didn't know I was flying across the Atlantic Ocean. I know that time is going to fly, and I have another trip planned for Rome and Barcelona! Should be a really good time. In the meantime, my thoughts are seriously always with everyone at home, and I cannot wait until I can see you all and hug you for hours.
LOTS of love from England

10 April 2010

2010-04-10T18:01:00.001-07:00

"To find the balance you want, this is what you must become. You must keep your feet grounded so firmly on the earth that it's like you have 4 legs instead of 2. That way, you can stay in the world. But you must stop looking at the world through your head. You must look through your heart, instead."

Easter

2010-04-06T04:47:00.000-07:00

I went to London on Sunday afternoon for Easter with Christie, which was a nice escape. After a two hour train ride to get there, we walked around Kensington Park for a while and enjoyed the sun. Before dinner we went and got the most amazing gelato, mmm. Then we made chicken for dinner and just hung out with her flatmates. Later that night we went out, which is definitely a first for Easter. The next day we went to the Victorian and Albert Museum and looked at some amazing photography, then went on to the Natural History Museum and saw the dinosaurs, rawr. It was actually really cool. I feel as I get older and have traveled more I have become a lot more interested in history and museums. I wish I could have been this interested when I was actually taking history classes and it mattered. I took the train back at 7 last night and it took me three hours to get home because of all the construction on the tube and railways.

I just did my taxes, hooray for not getting hunted down in England by the IRS! Today I am going to go for a run, take out some books for my sociology paper, attempt to pick out my Le Moyne fall classes, and then go to the reading room tonight and attempt to bang out this paper so it can be over with. GREECE two weeks from today, yay!

Paris

2010-04-03T14:21:00.000-07:00

I just returned from Paris two days ago, which was amazing. Although I had heard this many times before, I didn't realize how truly rude the Parisians can be. At first my French was extremely rusty, but by the end of the trip I was able to have several meaningful conversations, including how to get somewhere on the metro and where I could find a cash machine and umbrella. I understood a lot more than I could speak. Surprisingly, a LOT of people speak English there. Every restaurant we went to had English speaking waiters. (Especially McDonalds, which is the only thing open on Sundays in Paris).

We hopped in a cab at 3 am on Friday morning to go to Paris, which was a little early for my liking. We were all totally exhausted. The cab ride was two hours to Luton Airport in London. We lucked out and only had to pay 80 pounds instead of 140 because the people I talked to when I called in advance gave me the wrong price. Hooray! When we first arrived at our hostel we definitely did not get a warm welcome, but we made the best of it. At least we got free internet and croissants in the morning! Although they did hide them behind the counter near the beer and I had to everything short of beg them to have two instead of one. The first day we walked around the area nearby our hostel and stumbled upon the Eiffel tower, which ended up being about a 15-20 minute walk away. We realized quickly that you had to be careful of gypsies and hagglers around the Eiffel, including a man who drew the most hideous caracature of me...I refused to pay him for it because it was so ugly. And he still gave it to me for me! After walking around for the day, Joanna, Jelyse, and I all met up with Katharine and her friends and went out for dinner. (A 30 euro dinner, might I add....with TINY PORTIONS! But soooo delicious). Joanna and I were both struggling with a terrible cough, no sleep, and PINK EYE! From wearing our contacts too long and fake eye lashes the night before at Jo's burlesque themed birthday party. But we made the best of it because we were so excited to be in Paris. All the rest of the 5 days seem to be a blur, but to summarize, we saw the Sacre Coeur, Eiffel tower in daylight, night, and went halfway up at night, Champs Elysees, Luxembourg Gardens, Concorde, the square where Marie Antoinette was killed, Versailles, the Arc de Triomphe, Moulin Rouge, Saint-Michel fountain/square, the Notre Dame, the bridge where the first pedestrian sidewalks were created/the oldest bridge in Paris, the Seine River, the Louvre (Mona is tiny!), and the Opera house that the phantom of the Opera musical was based off of. We took a map and literally walked or took the metro to all of Paris. For the Versailles tour we had to take the train there, and although the gardens were AMAZING, it rained the whole time and we were soaked. The thing I loved about Paris was that every where you went there was some fountain or monument popping up. Everything was extremely beautiful and I felt like I learned a lot on the free tour we went on and from Joanna's friend living in Paris who took us around on the last day. I realize that you have to have a thick skin to live in Paris, as amazing as it is. I found myself desperately missing Colchester and the small town friendly vibe here. It is an amazing city though and I felt really blessed to have the opportunity to travel there and do as much as we did. Looking out from the Eiffel tower at night at the city made me feel so small in a good way- like the world is this huge, amazing, infinite place where anything is possible.

Unfortunately my blog won't let me post pictures right now, so those of you who don't have me on Facebook will get emails with the pictures :)

Tomorrow I am going to London to spend Easter with Christie, then I have two weeks of essays and studying before GREECE!

Love from England xxx

Have I really been here for 2 and a half months?

2010-03-25T08:21:00.000-07:00

Hello all! So I have been extremely busy lately having a ton of fun with a lottttt less work than play. I just handed in my one and only essay of this entire term, and now I'm done with classes until September. My month off begins tomorrow, then I have a month and a half of "revision term..." which is when I will do all the work I haven't done yet and take exams.

Last week was St. Patrick's Day, which was a ton of fun. We decorated shirts with puffy paint which is always necessary for this holiday. Then we went off to Dublin for the weekend on Friday, which was an absolute blast. I only slept from 11 pm until 3 am on Thursday night because our flight was at 6 am. I was really mad because I forgot about the liquid rule when I packed and brought a really nice bottle of Victoria's Secret perfume that I've hardly used and they took it! Grrrrrr. I almost cried and begged on my hands and knees but then I realized that would not really be classy, so I bit the bullet. Still a touchy subject. Once we arrived in Dublin, we met up with Katharine and she showed us around the city. I really love Dublin because it's so easy to walk everywhere, the people are really friendly, and the city isn't as crazy and intense as London. It's definitely my kind of place. We stayed in a really nice hostel with great service, and it was nice because Kath's flat was only a 10 minute walk. She cooked dinner for us the first night, which was amazing, and then we went out in Dublin. The second day there we went to a park in Dublin and went on a tour of the Guiness factory, where I had my first Guinness ever! At the top of the factory they had the Gravity Bar, which was where you got a free Guinness and got to look out over the entire city of Dublin. The weather was great the whole weekend, so it was a really beautiful sight to see. On the second night we went out to a traditional Irish pub that is known for being the oldest pub in Dublin. They had a band playing too. Going to that pub really made us all feel like we were in a movie and experiencing the real Ireland.

That's about it for now, pictures to come soon, Paris this weekend until April 1st!

xox

Amazing

2010-03-15T11:24:00.001-07:00

SO it has officially been over two months since I have been here in England. I have really liked being here up until now, but over the past week I realized how much I really LOVE being here. This past Wednesday was Dirby Day, where all sports teams competed against another Uni in England (UEA). The entire day was basically one huge party and a really good time. We watched the men's hockey team, volleyball, and boxing...which was intense. We ended up winning the competition against UEA...I'm not sure exactly how points were tallied, but obviously we won more games!

Friday we left for our tournament for the Trophy Cup in Sheffield, England. We squeezed about 16 people in a tiny bus for a four hour drive. After arriving on Friday we went to eat at a small Indian restaurant and then went back to the hotel and hung out until 2 am...waking up at 645 was NOT fun. The boys played first and lost, and we played later in the afternoon and also lost. We did, however, get free jerseys and lanyards! And I bought a sweatshirt from the tourny. Saturday night we went out to a party at a club in Sheffield for all the teams that had competed that day, which was a blast. Sheffield is a really cool town, and is a lot bigger than Colchester. Our hotel was unfortunately a 20 minute drive from the town, so cabs were expensive. Once again we had a difficult wake up in the morning, but somehow we played better than ever and won 3rd place in the tourny! I am in love with the volleyball team. Being a part of a team has made me appreciate going to a University that has a campus life instead of being in a big city. It is amazing being able to hang out with people from all over the world and playing with them. On the bus that went to Sheffield we had two Americans, three Germans, one Pakistinian, three Italians, one Brazilian, one African, one person from Japan, two from China, two Norwegians...I know I am missing a bunch but this just gives you an idea of how ethnic it is on this team! Not even one Brit! Now it is completely normal for me to hear Italian or German in the middle of a previously English conversation. I was told by an Italian that the sound of American accents is like a melody...that's a first. It's amazing that people are able to speak so many languages over here, and it makes me feel very uncultured. Each person on my team speaks at least two, if not three or four, languages fluently. People act like Americans are strange, like zoo animals. They are fascinated by us. I had a girl at a club come up to me and tell me she is obsessed with Americans and wishes she was American.

Lots of essay writing and reading tonight, St. Patrick's Day Wednesday and Dublin this weekend!
Love from England! xx

Week 8

2010-03-08T15:23:00.000-08:00

Well well, it's been a while! I've been very busy and everything seems to be a blur at this point. Just to recap, we had our first volleyball match last Wednesday, and we won! So this weekend we are going to a tournament in Sheffield, England. We leave Friday, and if we win Saturday, we stay till Sunday. This Wednesday is Dirby Day, which is a huge celebration for all the sports teams all day. Girls vball does not get to play, unfortunately, because apparently every person on the team we were supposed to play is injured...which is weird. But oh well. All day we will be going to all the sports games and then out on campus that night. It's pretty much the equivalent of Dolphy Day at Le Moyne...but obviousssssssssly not as amazing. Oh, and the picture up on the left is of me overlooking my beautiful campus!

Emily came to visit me last Tuesday! Tuesday she came and watched our practice, then we went out to eat. Wednesday we went into town and did some shopping and Em got to experience her first English fish and chips. The owners of the shop we went to LOVED Americans and gave us samplers of some different things. We bought costumes for a "mime" night out in town while we were out, BUT we never made it to town that night because nine of us were trapped in the lift for an hour and a half, which led some people to actually get sick while we were stuck. It was terrible. Thursday we took a walk through campus by the pond, which was beautiful because it was so sunny! Then we made our way into London that night, which was a complete blast. Friday night Katharine came from Dublin to visit us! And we all went out to Sports Cafe in London, which is notoriously an American Bar. Saturday night Colleen and Julie got here, and we went out with most of our friends that went to Mercy and McQuaid in High School...there were about 30 of us that went out total. During the day on Saturday we went to the Tower of London, which was amazing. We got to sit in the church where Henry VIII's wife Anne Boelyn lies and see the spot where many of his wives were beheaded. Sunday we went to see Big Ben (again for me), Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, and then we just walked around Picadilly circus. I got great food while in London and had the best burrito I've ever had. I absolutely love London, but I like having a campus here in Colchester and being able to be involved in school activities.

Tomorrow night I have volleyball practice, Wednesday Dirby Day, Thursday volleyball, then I'll be gone all weekend. I'll try to update again next week! Until then, cheers and love from England.

More pictures to come soon, I can't get the rest to upload now!

Week 6

2010-02-23T12:21:00.000-08:00

First volleyball match tomorrow! Excitingggggg!
Weetos are my new favorite cereal. So much chocolatey goodness.
I find myself saying weird English things now, such as lift for elevator, flat for suite, and things like "in a bit" for see you later, cheers for thanks, and proper...which just sounds really formal. I'm weird now apparently.
I have two ten page papers due at the end of term. Not excited about that. And apparently all of my professors don't find it important to respond to any of my emails!!!
Anyways, just another rainy day in England.

CHEERS x

Just another week in England!

2010-02-19T12:58:00.000-08:00

So this week was pretty uneventful and mostly consisted of me having the cold that all of Uni has right now. Today, however, was the best day EVER. A bunch of us went shopping in Colchester and I got some amazing finds. I have missed shopping so much. I bought some sandals for Greece, shorts, two dresses, and an obnoxiously large pair of sunglasses. We ended the day with the best Thai food ever (spring roll's, how I love thee). This weekend I am going to be living in the library. Next week is reading week, so no class! I'm going to attempt to start my essays. OH. And I topped up my phone today, so for 10 pounds I have unlimited texting to the UK for next month, woo!

Love from England! x

I am so ready for Spring Break.

2010-02-10T10:03:00.000-08:00

So I currently just began week 5 of my time here in England. It's weird to think I've been here that long, but even weirder thinking about how much time I have left.

I officially have three big trips planned!
March 19-21: Dublin
March 27-April 1: Paris
April 20-April 27: GREECE!!

I am beyond excited about Greece. Trip planning takes so much effort and I'm so glad to be done with the bulk of it. Here is a link to the villa we will be staying at in Greece! It is only 70 pounds for the entire week per person, which is amazing! http://www.hostelbookers.com/hostels/greece/santorini-island/3694/

I joined the field hockey team last night with a bunch of Americans studying abroad here. It is really hard and requires hand eye coordination that I don't really possess. The only reason we really want to be on it is for the social stuff that they do. It should be interesting trying to do two hours of volleyball then two hours of hockey on Tuesdays.

I feel like I've finally settled in here and adjusted to all of the changes. It's hard to fully appreciate it now but I have realized this is probably of the hardest things I will ever do in my life. Whenever I heard people talk about studying abroad in the past it just seemed like an amazing fun thing to do. I had no idea how much an experience like this really causes you to evaluate the way you are living your life and what is important to you.

One month down, four to go.

Love from England xx

Here are some pictures from the past few weeks:

All of my American friends at a pub in Manchester at noon on a Saturday!

Amazing artwork on the side of the street in Manchester that got painted right in front of us.

A tavern in Manchester that looks exactly how I would picture a typical pub.

Me, Carly, and Joanna dressed up as nerds for the Geek or Chic night.

It's officially been three weeks.

2010-02-02T14:25:00.000-08:00

I am insanely sore right now! Tonight Jelyse and I went to check out the volleyball team and got to join in on a practice...well to my extreme surprise the coach pulled me aside and asked me to join the team and play in the national championship? I was shocked but super excited. I can't move my legs though. Sunday Jelyse and I will be going to a tournament/getting up at 6 am...rough.

I am finally on a schedule with my classes and actually have been doing reading and work. It's not as hard as I thought it would be, but it's scary knowing my entire grade is based on the final exam in June.

Last weekend we went to Manchester with the travel society and spent a total of 12 hours on a bus there and back. It was a really cute little city with lots of cheap shops. I bought 8 pound pink rain boots and an 8 pound dress. I also took a ton of pictures I need to put up.

Yesterday my English friend Chris drove a few of us into Colchester town, but not the touristy part. We went in the back of the town with lots of little thrift shops where we got some awesome cheap things (including a zebra print umbrella!) I also experienced my first fish and chips, but apparently there are better places to get it so I'll have to try it again. Everyone looks at your really weird when you say the words "french fries."

Also, Josh Redden is coming to visit Jelyse and I Friday! (For the non-Le Moyners reading this, he is one of our friends at school studying in London). It will be so weird to see someone else from Le Moyne.

That's it for now, love from England! xx

London

2010-01-23T15:22:00.000-08:00

So today I experienced my first time in London! I was completely exhausted so I probably could have gotten more out of it, but we plan on going back. Yesterday I tagged a bunch of friends who are studying in London now in a Facebook status telling them I did not have a phone and was leaving it up to fate whether or not I would see them there. As soon as I got to London and made it to the tube, I look over and see one of my really good friends from high school who I had wanted to see! (For those of you who may know him, Thomas Murray). It was insane that we just happened to be in the same place at the same time in such a huge city.

The main things we did during the day were go to see the Buckingham Palace, Abbey Road, Big Ben, and the London Eye. There were unfortunately no police men at the palace outside to harass. Abbey Road was amazing and blew my mind, and Big Ben was seriously the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. Seeing it at night was that much better.

For lunch we went to a small English restaurant which was pricey, a hamburger was 9 pounds!! So I can "chips" aka french fries, and chicken wings (which were TINY! they don't do it like us Americans). Riding the tube around all day was harder work than I thought! If you don't know where you're going, you will get run over by someone walking by you. At the end of the day everyone was on top of each other face to face on the tube because it was so crowded. On the ride home I fell asleep every time we sat down after transferring trains or buses.

I really love being here, but I am already realizing how much I love home and Le Moyne. I wouldn't take a thing back about the experience thus far and I know it will be a great 5 months, but I realize I am such an American through and through. I like being loud, eating hamburgers, and wearing sweatpants to class.

I should probably start thinking about school work?

What a blur.

2010-01-21T14:38:00.000-08:00

So, after much anticipation, I am FINALLY here in England! I have been insanely busy, I don't think I have ever had so much to do so quickly in the span of one week. I figured a blog would be the best way to communicate with everyone so that I don't have to retell stories over and over, and as I am horrible with email, I can update you in an easier way!

Where to begin? The traveling was probably the worst day of my entire life. First we got on a plane to Philly, and from there we flew into London Heathrow, with a delay in Amsterdam because of the "horrible weather." Yeah, try about two flurries in the sky that could only be seen with a large telescope. The weather here really isn't bad at all. A little chilly, but NOTHING like upstate New York! Once we got to Heathrow, we realized we had missed our bus and had to reschedule and wait an hour. Once we got on the bus, we then got dropped at Stansted airport where we had to wait yet another hour. To give you an idea of how long we traveled, I left my house at 1 pm on Tuesday and did not step foot on Essex campus until 8 pm on Wednesday. I was completely exhausted. When we got to campus, we had absolutely no idea where we were going. (And by we, I mean Jelyse and I). Luckily we ran into two nice girls who were also students there that helped us with all of our luggage that we had to drag uphill about two miles. I have never sweat so much or been so sore. We wanted to give up and die. We finally got our room keys and went to drop our things off, then had to go pick up our packages with all of our bedding etc. Which involved more backbreaking carrying across campus. I soon discovered I did not receive any pots or pans, which was what led me to cry for the first time. I had never been so stressed in my life. No internet, no phone, no way to contact my parents. So security knocked on my door at 12 am to tell me my dad had called to see if I was safe. I frantically tried to get my email to work, which somehow miraculously did while nothing else did. I did not sleep at all that night and I wanted to take the next plane home.

The next day we had to go to orientation, which involved pretty boring routine stuff. We ended up meeting a lot of really cool people from all over the place! We all hung out later that night in one of the new people's flats and had a party of sorts. We met several other Americans, Canadians, a lot of people from France, a few girls from Australia, one from New Zealand, and a bunch of other places. The next day we went into Cambridge and walked around, went to the public market, went to lunch at the best Indian restaurant I have ever had, and saw the sites. It was a tiring day because we were all still extremely jet lagged.

As the title indicates, everything after that was really a blur and I usually do not know what day or time it is. But I highly doubt that surprises anyone. We all hung out the next couple of nights, went to different clubs, and went out to eat at different places. As of this point I have already spent about 600 American dollars...I'm clearly going to have to slow down. It is also really weird that I can buy alcohol here, although my hideous ID does get strange looks when I have to show it. OH. And I've already been stolen from. Our first night out in town (Colchester is about 10 minutes from the Uni) I had about 50 pounds stolen from me, and some of my flatmates have stolen some of my lunch meat and a pot....I have no idea who and why. But it led to a minor breakdown on skype with my parents this morning.

My flat isn't amazing like I hoped...almost everyone here is from Pakistan and no one is very interested in having a new American friend. I mainly just stay in my room when I'm here and Facebook and Skype everyone (that is when I'm not out having fun). My flat has 11 people in it, and the two people at my end of the hall are boyfriend and girlfriend, and us three share a bathroom. It's awkward. I learned that I HATE cooking. I burn almost everything I make and I've eaten almost an entire jar of peanut butter in one week. I cannot wait to have a homecooked meal again. I have been pretty much living in either Jelyse's flat or my new Aussie friend Joanna. Her flat is so much fun and there is always something going on there. I love the Brits, they are all awesome. Everyone here tells me my accent is impossible to understand and I have already gotten many comments about how loud I "apparently" am. I also got to speak in French for a while with the Frenchies, which was so much fun. I love that Essex is so international, because I have literally met people from all over the world.

I feel like I have had to grow up so much in the span of less than two weeks. Everyone here is so adult and put together. Finding classes and registering was a nightmare, and although people are friendly when you ask for help, you really have to take everything into your own hands. My professors don't even had out the syllabuses, we have to get them ourselves from the department of the class we are in. I am taking a sociology class on the media, the psychology of depression (and listening to my teacher talk makes me depressed...he is the most unpersonable person I have met here so far), the history of psychology, and death, God, and the meaning of life, which is the best class ever. Classes here are very hard, and I learned that Essex is one of the best schools in England. Our only grade is one final exam at the end, and instead of being given a textbook to buy, we are giving pages of "recommended readings" from which you do your own work and pretty much form your own thoughts. It is going to be really hard. I have yet to open (or for that matter, buy) a book yet; my biggest struggle was getting out of bed to go to class every day knowing I was going to get lost and probably fall asleep because of the never ending jetlag I experienced. I'm going to try to do all of this next week and be a legit student.

I'm really excited for this weekend. Tomorrow is a cowboys and Indians themed night and Saturday we are going to London!! And tomorrow I am finally going to get a cell phone. It is so weird because at home I am glued to my phone, and now I don't miss it AT ALL. It's nice walking around without checking my phone constantly.

That's all for now, more to come soon! xxx (this is the way that everyone in England ends a letter or message, pretty much the same as xoxo)