The Lost Blogs: Adventures with Emily!

My friend Emily and her mom have come over from the states to visit me! Emily has come for the last two weeks of my time here and will be my flying buddy on the journey back! Her mom is here for the first week and then will fly back leaving Emily and I tie up all my loose ends!
One of the best adventures we went on was to Dover Castle. This is my fourth time visiting Dover but only my second time going into the Castle. For those movie buffs out there, Dover Castle was the main filming site for The Other Boleyn Girl. One of the coolest things about Dover Castle are the “Secret Wartime Tunnels” which were used during WWII as a defense against German forces who had taken over France from invading England. But Dover Castle is full of history from all different eras of English history. Another adventure we went on was to Herne Bay which is very different in warm weather then it had been on my previous trips there! We played on the playground and had a grand ol’ time! This week has proved to me, however, that I would not make a very good superhero because it is really hard to live a double life! I have been a tourguide/tourist by day and a collage kid by night! This schedule does not lend itself to much sleep, but I am getting enough and I really want to soak up every minute I has left!!!

On Saturday night we had my going away party (I had it on Saturday even though I don’t leave til the next Thursday because I didn’t want to disrupt my housemates studying for exams). It was a lot of fun and I was glad to have almost every one of my friends abroad there with me to celebrate! Aubrey got me a British flag and a sharpie for everyone at the party to sign so that I could have something to remember everyone by (such a great idea)! It was also fun to have Emily there because she was at both of my going away parties (going away to England and then going away from England)! Now I only have a few days left and I’m starting to feel overwhelmed! I need to pack everything up, clean everything up, turn everything in, all while trying to spend as much time with my friends as possible! It should be an adventure!!!!

The Lost Blogs: Back with the Gang!

These next three blogs are my last blogs and were not posted at the time of these events but I want to finish my blog properly! Once you read them you should see why I did not have time to blog at the time!

Well, I’m back from Germany and starting the last two weeks of my study abroad experience! Its weird, I feel very torn. Part of me is ready to go home. I miss my family and my home and that homesickness is manifesting in strange ways. The other day I had a craving for Eggo waffles, the little round ones. I haven’t eaten those since I was like 7 but I really wanted them! On the other hand, I can’t imagine leaving here! I have been trying to soak up every last minute of my time with my friends here. The weather has been really pretty these past two weeks (let me clarify that by really pretty I mean mostly sunny and upper 60s)! In England you have to take advantage of pretty weather because it doesn’t stick around very long, so everyone has been hanging out on the hill overlooking the cathedral. We take blankets out there and relax in the sunshine! Not only is this a fun, but it’s a great way to meet new people because EVERYONE is out on the lawn! I have met some really good new friends from sitting out on the lawn! Through Will AJ and Lewis I have been introduced to Vicki – a very sweet girl from just outside London, Carly – an energetic and sweet girl from Ireland, Matt – a funny guy from Wales, and Becky – a fashionable and wonderful girl! This group of friends and I (along with my friend Jenna from New York) have been hanging out almost everyday! On Thursday nights we go to Karaoke at K-bar which is a lot of fun because the whole group picks songs to sing together! And on Friday nights we go to Magic Mungos which is a night of cheesy songs and dancing! Its been really bitter sweet getting to know these new friends because I know I will be leaving them in a little over two weeks. I have a feeling we will be keeping in touch though!

Kite surfing and kinder

Tonya and I are now spending about a week in Germany with some family friends of ours. It is really nice to be with a family again! Christiana and Arne are my dad and stepmom's next door neighbors who live about half of the year in Germany and half a year in Florida. Tonya is also the Godmother of Lucas who is the adorable boy in the pictures. He will be turning 2 on Sunday! Leoni is the eldest child and she is 4 almost 5 years old. We arrived in Germany on Tuesday night around 11 at night and Arne and Christiana had kept the fact that we were coming a secret from the kids. So the next morning we rang the door bell to the house and waited for Leoni to come answer the door. I wish I had a picture of her face! She was very surprised to see us and very excited! So we ate breakfast together and then we all piled into the car and went to an island off the coast of Germany to a wind surfing competition! It was really nice to be by the coast and we had a lot of fun! The wind was not strong enough for the competition so we explored a bit and then left. We drove to the other side of the island and had a snack at a local coffee house, which was very nice! Then we came back to the mainland and went to a Greek restaurant for dinner! It was delicious!!! I am really enjoying playing with Lucas and Leoni! They are really sweet children and I love watching them grow! I also enjoy learning two year old German! Lucas likes to repeat words over and over which helps me learn the words! But they do wear me out! Leoni is full of energy and loves to play tag and run around! So on that note, I am going to go to bed so I can be ready for another day of playing hard!

Its elementary, my dear Watson

Tonya arrived last Sunday and we spent three days in London exploring and seeing the sights. It was kind of interesting to be tourist again because now when I go to London I usually just walk around until I go see a show and people watch. But since it was Tonya's first time in London we did the tourist stuff like The Tower of London, Changing of the Guard, St. Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey and Harrod's. One of the things we did that I had never done before, however, was to go to the Sherlock Holmes museum. The museum is located at 221b Baker Street, which is Sherlock lived in the novels. Tonya is a huge Sherlock fan and I have been known to enjoy some Sherlock mysteries in my day! It was a lot of fun! The museum was in an actual 5 story house and the top floor was all wax statues acting out scenes from the novels. There was no one really in the museum and so Tonya and I had some fun taking pictures with the figures....yes I am a 5 year old child when it comes to museums, but it was a lot of fun and probably the highlight for me! Its also really funny when people come over from the states because they point out differences that I have kind of stopped noticing...like Tonya was fascinated by how small our sink in the hotel was....but that's a normal bathroom sink here. It just reminds me of how I felt when I first got here and how far I've come in my four months. It is really, really nice to have Tonya here and now we are spending a week in Germany with some family friends! I will blog about that very soon! I have three weeks left in my study abroad experience....I'm not sure what to think about that...I miss you all very much and I love you!

All the World's a Stage

On April 23rd Lena, Anna, Daniel, Aubrey and I traveled to London to see the Royal Shakespeare Company perform King Lear in The Globe Theater. For those of you who are not Shakespeare nerds, April 23rd is Shakespeare's birthday and it also marks the beginning of the Globe's season. So it was a really big day for Shakespeare fans all over the world. The play opened with traditional music, which I captured on video before the play really started. The play was AMAZING!!! We bought standing tickets and the play lasted about 3 and a half hours. So by the end our feet hurt SO badly, but it was totally worth it (for me at least). The acting was superb, it is the kind of acting that I aspire to be able to achieve someday. This was my first experience seeing King Lear staged and it was a wonderful first experience! At the end of the show the actors did a traditional dance. In the olden days they did a dance at the end of a show to show that no one was really dead and to uplift the audience as they left the theater. After seeing King Lear, which is arguably Shakespeare's most tragic play, I was really glad they chose to keep with tradition because I needed to be uplifted! At the end, as the cast took their bows I looked around and saw the three levels of the audience and it was an amazing feeling that canceled out any soreness from standing! It was an amazing feeling and probably one of my favorites of the plays I have seen so far, and I have seen some amazing plays thus far! I look forward to being able to see a few more plays while I'm here.
That has really been one of my favorite parts of my study abroad experience, being able to travel up to London for a day and see a play. I have really enjoyed every piece of theater I have seen here and learned a lot from each one and this has been a wonderful opportunity to live in a small city but benefit from being so close to a major city! I am now in my last month of my study abroad experience and I am starting to be torn. Some days I can't wait to be back home, back with my family and back to driving and normal food...but other days I can't imagine leaving. I have made some really great friends and memories and I have loved my time here! This last month will be a whirlwind, I have a feeling. I can't wait to see what the next month will bring!

In the Land of the Danes

Well I have returned safely from my adventures in Denmark! I am tired but it was a really fun trip and it was so wonderful to see Carrie! Carrie is studying abroad in Aalborg, Denmark which is a beautiful town in the north of Denmark. It was really fun to meet all of her friends from all over the world! She lives in a big building that’s kind of like a dorm with about 50 students. So the first day was spent settling me in and meeting all her friends. The next day we slept in, as college kids are known to do, and then we went for a walk in the countryside! I’ve included some pictures of our walk. Spring is just now budding in Denmark so there were some beautiful flowers that we took pictures of. Also, the path was lined with frogs wearing crown…so we kissed them to see in they would turn into princes! We also found a playground which was AWESOME!!! We played for a little while but then we had to get back to campus because it was CAKE DAY, which is a day where everyone baked a cake and then we ate pieces of lots of different kinds of cakes from different places! It was really fun! The trip was somewhat disrupted by the fact that my tonsillitis came back which was no fun. So one of our days was spent journeying around Aalborg trying to find the doctor’s office and get me a prescription. But we found the doctor and got me some antibiotics, so it was successful! The next day we explored the town of Aalborg and that night we went to see a production of Shakespeare's The Tempest which was thankfully in English and very good! Now I am back in England for a bit and then I will head to Belgium! I am looking forward to it! I love and miss you all!!!

Oh Hail no!

Yes, another England weather story. I am beginning to understand why weather dominates much of the conversations here because it is always doing something new and unexpected. Before leaving for Denmark I spent two nights at my friend Will AJ’s house right outside London. Will’s family lives about 5 minutes walk away from Kew Gardens, which are beautiful English gardens with green houses and a palace. So Will and I decided to go explore the gardens one day while I was staying there. I woke up and looked outside and it was a beautiful day! I was very excited because the weather can really make or break a trip to gardens. So Will and I got ready to go and ate breakfast and set out on our way to the gardens…..it started HAILING while we were walking! Like you could see the line where it started hailing and still see blue sky in the distance....and so we retreated back to his house and played monopoly. Then, about an hour later it was a beautiful day again so we went to the gardens and spent a few hours there perusing the gardens. The weather here baffles me on a daily bases.

But, it was so nice to be in a house again! I didn’t realize how much I miss couches and common areas, but it was really nice to have them again! My house on campus has a kitchen as the common area but there’s no area to stretch out and relax except in each others’ rooms. It was really nice to be with a family and Will’s Mum and Dad were very sweet to play host to me! I hope that I can play host to some of my friends here at some point in the future to repay their kindness!