Scotland

At the beginning of April, after my classes had officially ended ( yes, that's correct, class lectures and discussions were done as of April 7), I took a trip north to Scotland. I went alone, and left the night of the 7th, flying from London to Edinburgh.

I arrived in Edinburgh around 11, and found my way to my hostel perfectly, despite it being quite dark out (phones with Google Maps on them are quite useful when traveling in new countries lol). Anyway, I didn't quite realize it due to the darkness, but my hostel was literally across the street from Edinburgh Castel. That's right, a full-blown, centuries old castle was across the street from where I was staying (and it only cost £10 a night!!!)

Anyway, I spent the next day taking a free walking tour (by the same company that we used in Amsterdam) of the city. Before the tour, however, when I walked outside, it was FREEZING. I spent the first 30 minutes of my morning finding a stocking cap that I would actually wear again lol. I was caught quite off guard by the temperature, because London had been rather nice before I left, around 60 degrees. It was another great tour despite the cold, and I learned all sorts of stuff about Edinburgh, dating back to about the 11th century. At the end of the tour, our guide showed us a spot that offered discounts to members of the tour group where we could eat lunch. Feeling quite brave, and decided to try the traditional Scottish dish, hagus. Let me start off by explaining what hagus is, and rationalize my "bravery". Hagus is a meat dish, made of ground up pig heart, liver, and pretty much any other thing you wouldn't normally eat. It is then boiled inside of a sheep's stomach, and served over mashy's (mashed potatoes). That's traditional hagus, at least. Today, most hagus (including what I ate) is made of normal meat and looks and tastes a lot like meatloaf, only with a little extra spice to it. It wasn't bad, but I don't think I'll be having that again any time soon lol.

 That night, with the help of Facebook, I realized that my friend Cori was in Edinburgh with her parents...quite the coincidence! I ended up meeting them for a drink before turning in for the night after a long day of exploring the city. The next morning, again to my (and also Cori's) surprise, my friends Izzy and Ellen texted me saying they were also in Edinburgh! None of us knew we would all be there at the same time, but it ended up being a lot of fun. We Decided to spend the day climbing up to Arthur's Seat, which is a huge hill that offers views of the entire city and the Firth of Forth (the body of water that borders Edinburgh). It was amazing!

We spent the afternoon going on a Scotch whiskey tour, which was quite interesting. I learned, that once scotch is taken out of the cask, it stops aging. So if you buy a 12 year scotch, it was in the cask for 12 years, but will never age any more than that. It is also a law that scotch has to age for at least 3 years.

The next day, I took the train from Edinburgh up to St. Andrews (about an hour away). I got off the train, hailed a cab, and we were on our way to my hostel. On our way there, the cab driver pointed to a crane off in the distance, and said "that's the Old Course"...I immediately had chills. And not like little chills. My entire body was practically numb I was so excited. When we arrived at the hostel, I literally ran inside, checked in, threw my bag down in my room, and headed for the course. You see, the Old Course is closed every Sunday, no one can play. The only time there is play on a Sunday is when the Open Championship is there. This means that the public (literally anyone, including dogs) are allowed to walk on the course, just as if it is any other piece of public land.

With camera in hand, I turned the street corner, and I was in heaven. In front of me was where golf started. Golfing has been played at St. Andrews for over 600 years. It was breathtaking. I walked all over the course. Like honestly EVERYWHERE. Standing on the Sarazen Bridge, the tee box on the Road Hole, Hell's bunker, it was all so unreal. An experience that I will never forget.

After walking on the course, I KNEW I had to play it. So I asked the clubhouse when I was there on Sunday, about what time I would need to be at the starter to be guaranteed a spot. 5am. There are 3 ways to get on the Old Course...Have a reservation with a hotel in the area, but tee times are limited. Put your name in the daily lottery of times. Or show up early as a single and hope to join a game. I chose the 3rd, as that was the only option available to me at the time. So I woke at 430am, got dressed, and headed for the course. I was there by 445am, and was the first one there. This is when it first hit me that I would most likely be able to play. The starter got there at 630am, and told me that the first available time was at 740am, and that it was all mine. That's what I needed to hear. I WAS GOING TO GET TO PLAY THE OLD COURSE @ ST. ANDREWS!!!! Any golfers dream come true.

As I stood on the first tee, I realized that everyone in my group had a caddy...so I asked the starter if I too could have one (great decision in the end). I was slightly worried that I was going to play really poorly, considering the amount of time it had been since I swung a golf club (about 5 months). However, on the first tee, I striped a drive right down the middle, and hit a wedge to about 8 feet. Missed the putt, but was off to a great start. For the rest of the round, with the help of my caddy, I played quite well. During the loop (holes 8-12), the wind picked up and it began to rain. True Scottish golf. Tough, but I made it out alive. I went into the 15th hole only 2 over par. Holes 15-18 are the hardest on the course, in my opinion. I bogeyed 15 and 17 (the road hole), and was sitting at 4 over through 17 holes. On the 18th tee, with my emotions and adrenaline running high, as I felt if I was closing the round at the Open, I ripped a drive greenside high (its a short par 4). I then hit a low two-hop and stop shot to about 1 1/2 feet. I birdied the 18th hole on the Old Course. The perfect end to a literally perfect day. I shot 75 for the round, thanks in much part to my caddy. He knew everything about the course, and after about 4 holes, about my game as well. He told me where to hit it, what shape of shot I wanted, and read the greens with expertise. I'll take a 75 after not having played and with rental clubs lol. (the Old Course isn't actually that hard, if the weather is good, which it was. It's more about the nostalgia of it all that makes it so great). Anyway, my round was over. I think I had a smile on my face the whole entire round, and literally had butterflies as bad as I ever have for about the entire back 9. One of the greatest golf experiences of my life.

After my round I went back and slept, as I had been awake for quite a long time ha. Well worth it though. I unfortunately had to go back to Edinburgh the next day to catch my flight, but my time in Scotland, specifically St Andrews, was AMAZING!

Sorry for the delay in posts, I'll try to get some more updates soon about Italy, Liverpool, and anything else Dad has been bugging me about :D

Below are some photos of St Andrews...

Beans Comes to London!!!

Hey hey hey!!!

Soo, on Thursday, March the 10th, Brian "Beans" Battista embarked on a journey to London. He arrived around 1pm London time on Friday, March the 11th.

I left my dorm around 10am to meet Beans at Heathrow...it takes a little over an hour to get to the airport via tube. He was due in around 12.30, so I wanted to make sure I was there in time. So I got to the airport around 11.30, only to find out that Beans wasn't due to land until around 1, because of delays in MN. Anyway, this meant that I had some serious time to kill before he got through customs and whatnot. I finally saw on the arrival board that he had landed…then arrived at gate. I thought to myself “Beans should be here in less than an hour!!!” I was quite excited. It’s quite the different feeling waiting to see a family member, the first in more than 2 months. So as I waited, I continuously checked my watch. And phone. And arrival board. 1 hour past..no Beans. 15 more minutes…no Beans. Finally I see some people walk through the doors with Minnesota sweatshirts on, so I know Beans can’t be far behind. As I stood with my “Mr. Beans World Traveler” sign, I’m pretty certain that I was indeed shaking. Finaly, BEANS!!!! He looked around, didn’t see me. I yelled his  name, he turned, we made eye contact, and both smile hugely! He then walked around the barricade and we embraced in a rather large hug. I had just seen my first family for quite a long time. It was fantastic. We then made our way to the tube, and began our journey back to Alexander Fleming halls where I live.

After Beans put all his stuff away, I took him on a “short” tour of London. We ate dinner on Regent Street, walked from Oxford Circus to Piccadilly Circus, on to Trafalgar Square, and finished down The Mall in front of Buckingham Palace. Eventually Beans got quite tired, even though it was only 8pm London time, but we’ll give him a break, it was a long couple of days. We got back to the dorm, and crashed pretty shortly after that.

On Saturday I was going to Stonehenge and Bath with ISA, so Beans was on his own to explore. Stonehenge was very cool to see, but probably only once. It’s quite impressive to think about how they possible stood those rocks up and moved them, but then again, they are only rocks. Bath was also a cool place to visit…we saw the only naturally occurring hot springs in the UK…but nothing that was too very exciting, but a nice place to visit, at least in my mind. During this time, I believe Beans explored much more of the city, and then went to a local pub to watch the Arsenal v. Manchester United FA Cup Match…which was huge. I support Chelsea, so I was indifferent to the result, but he watched the game at an Arsenal bar, and he really got the feeling for how much people here love their football. You’ll have to talk to him about his experience with that…Or ask me about my own experiences, they’re quite interesting and fantastic!

On Sunday we journeyed with ISA to Cambridge. I’m glad Beans got to get outside of the city to see a smaller English town. Cambridge is dominated by the University, and is a very cool place. We started the day off with a walking tour through the rain, which ended in beautiful King’s Church. As we talked with the tour guide inside the church for a while, the rain stopped, sun came out, and it turned into a great day. After the walking tour, we went on “punts” (gondola type boats) on the River Cam. It was a very cool perspective of the university…we got to see Sir Isaac Newton’s Mathematical Bridge…he designed and constructed a bridge that didn’t use nails or screws, only the forces of each board upon other boards to hold itself up. Google it, I’m sure it will explain it better. Anyway, a few years after Newton completed this project, a graduate student asked him if he could take it down and try to repeat what he did. Newton allowed it…but the student failed. So they had to reconstruct the bridge using nails and screws, so its not quite as cool as it once was…but still pretty cool to see. After the punt ride, we went to the pub where Watson and Crick announced they had “found the key to life”…discovered the make up of DNA.  After some exploring in Cambridge, we took the train back to London with everyone, and got ready to go to one of favorite local watering holes…B@1. The drinks on Sunday are 2-4-1, the bartenders are awesome (and always remember us and what we like to drink) and they play awesome music. Saying that, I’m glad Beans was with us on this night at B@1 because it was probably the best one so far. Everyone was dancing and singing and having a great time. After the bar we came home and had a much needed sleep.

On Monday I had class from 2-4, and during this time, I told Beans he should check out the British Museum in Trafalgar Square. There was one problem…I mixed up locations, and actually sent Beans to the National Gallery (an art museum) for 2 hours. Oh well Mistakes Happen. After that, we went down the Thames and ate dinner (proper fish and chips) while looking over the Thames at Tower Bridge…it’s always an incredible view at night, and I hope Beans enjoyed it!

On Tuesday I don’t have class, and it was a beautiful day out, so Beans and I went to Hyde Park and took a nice leisurely ride through on some rented bicycles. It was quite enjoyable. After that, I showed Beans through Harrods…During this tour, we saw a £300,000 watch. A watch. £300,000. Ridiculous! After we did this, we made our way towards the Houses of Parliament and got in queue to sit in on the debate going on in the House of Commons. We got in, sat in for a while, and then left. I’m glad Beans got to see the inside of this amazing building…for free! We then met up with Chris Brigham and Zak Kaufman (two of our friends who live in London) and went to Brick Lane for some Indian food. Brick Lane is packed with incredible Indian restaurants. We literally stood outside of 3, as 3 different workers tried to lure us in. We decided to go with the offer of “30% off total meal and 2 free pints each”. How can you refuse that? The food was amazing, and it was very cool that Beans was able to meet up with some high school buddies. When we got back to the dorms, we hung out with some of my friends and then made our way to Sports Café in Piccadilly Circus for student night…we didn’t stay too long so we could catch the tube home (which stops running around 1230), but still had a good time.

Wednesday I had class at 11, and afterwards I took Beans to the actual British Museum. I think he really enjoyed seeing some really, really old stuff. After the British Museum I’m pretty sure we went to Abbey Road…I kind of forget, that may have been done on Friday. It was quite the action-packed week!

Thursday was St. Patrick’s Day. I had class from 1-4, and during this time, Beans went and checked out the Tate Modern Art Museum. Before my class, however, we enjoyed the classic Pizza Hut all you can eat buffet for lunch…never gets old! Class ended a little early, so I met up with Beans back at the dorm, and we began making plans. We wandered around looking for an Irish Pub, found a couple in The City that were filled with Suits, and then eventually made our way back to Fleming. We ended up just hanging out there for a while before we went out around the dorm for a while.

Friday was Bean’s last day in London unfortunately. At 12.30 we went to communion at Westminster Abbey…I think Beans was pretty impressed with the Abbey, its quite amazing. After that we went up in the London Eye, which offered a very amazing perspective above the city. After the eye, we ventured over to St. Paul’s Cathedral where we attended the Evensong service…Westminster Abbey is amazing…but St. Paul’s, on the inside, is unbelievable!!! The service was quite good (all male/boy choir) and some of it was in Latin. The sound resonates inside that building incredibly well. After the service, Beans and I came back to the dorm, made some dinner, and Skyped with Mom and Dad for the last time together before he had to head home on Saturday. We laid low on Friday night, got Beans all packed, and went to bed.

On Saturday we woke up, made sure Beans had everything, and made the long, and pretty sad trip, back to Heathrow. We got Beans all checked in, I gave him one last big hug, and through security he went. I headed back to the dorm, feeling both happy that Beans was here and that we had such a great time together, and sad that he had to leave and that that time was now up. No more family for another 2 months…its tough.

I loved having Beans here. It was an absolute blast!!! It was definitely touch seeing him leave, but I’m glad he got to see the city that I’ve come so accustomed to living in, and go to see how I go about everyday life here. It was truly a great experience for us both I believe. I might be forgetting some stuff, so just ask any questions or add any comments…I just got back from a day trip to Liverpool today, so I’ll be blogging about that soon.

Cheers

Amsterdam

Heyyoo

Soo I this past weekend I took a little vacation to Amsterdam for 3 days with Amanda, Sam, Kate, Izzy, Cori, Cori's friend Bryttie, and Izzy's friend Grace. Our flight left London Luton at 6.50 Friday morning, so for some reason we thought it would be smart to leave for the airport late thursday night. We thought we would be better off sleeping a few hours in the airport before checking in rather than maybe an hour or 2 here before we would have to navigate the night busses to victoria and whatnot. I mean we left our dorm at 11.15pm so we could catch the tube to Victoria station where we had to take a bus that left at midnight to Luton. This was a poor decision. Sleep at the airport was uncomfortable and didn't really happen. Eventually, 5.00 rolled around and we got through security and again, sat and waited. We arrived at the airport in Amsterdam around 9...flight is about an hour, with a 1 hour time change. We bought a train ticket to central station, from where we would take a tram towards our hostel. Turns out, we didn't need to buy any tickets, because they never checked for them. Oh well, it was only 3 euro. We got to our hostel around 10ish...it was awesome!! Literally infinitely better than the hostel in Paris. Great location. Very friendly, young staff. It had a large bar and lounge where everyone at the hostel could hang out and just chill. It was very cool. It's called the Flying Pig Uptown...consistently rated one of the top 10 hostels in the world.

Anyway, after we got settled, we searched for food. We found a place where we could get a proper Dutch breakfast, which included eggs, bread, croissants, ham...it was very delicious. After we got some food in our stomachs, we embarked on a journey to find a place that offered canal tours. Amsterdam is a very unique city, in that the city center has large, navigable canals running throughout, its quite cool. We finally found a spot that offered tours, and it lasted about an hour. It was very interesting and different viewpoint to see the city from the water. After the cruise...nap time.

Everyone was pretty wiped after the day of travel, so we took a longer than expected nap. We eventually went out and got dinner around 7, and after that split up for a little bit. Izzy and Kate didn't get to Amsterdam until later Friday night because Izzy had to work at her internship on Friday, so our group was minus them on Friday. Cori and Bryttie wanted to go out on Friday night, so they did, while Sam, Amanda, and I went exploring. Our first stop...the red light district.

Ok, so right now, I want you to think of what you think the red light district is like. Draw a mental picture. Now, if you had the same assumptions as I did, I ask that you erase that picture completely, and replace it with what I'm about to describe. The red light district is an amazing place. It is lively, safe, clean, and overall very interesting. Prostitution in Amsterdam is legal. It is regulated, and very safe actually. The women are their own bosses, have to acquire licenses (and can only do so after testing for and being clean of STD's). They rent out a room, which includes a window to stand in and attract customers, for 8 hour shifts, for 75-150 euro, depending on the time and location. A standard 15 minute session costs a customer 50 euro (we learned all of this on the walking tour we took on Saturday). The thing I didn't expect, and that struck me the most astonishing, is that the women are gorgeous! at least for the most part. I was expecting dirty, nasty looking women. Not the case. They are young, beautiful, and really, just engaging in a very lucrative business opportunity in Amsterdam. The red light district if bright, organized, and...completely different than anything I have ever seen before lol. I expected the atmosphere to be like the neighborhood outside our hostel in Paris...not at all the case. Anyway, if you ever get a chance to go to Amsterdam, visit the red light district, I think you'll be surprised. Oh, and you can't take pictures of the women in the windows...rumor has it that they will literally come out of the room, take your camera, and smash it on the ground.

Anyway, Izzy and Kate and Grace were now with us, and on Saturday we took a walking tour of the city. The cool thing is, is that it is technically free. The guides make all of their wages off of tips, so they have to be good. Our guide's name was Geert (pronounced with a flemmy H sound instead of the G). He was awesome! He took us everywhere in the city, showed us everything we would want to see, and more. He was very knowledgeable and told some pretty funny stories. There are bicycles everywhere in Amsterdam! Literally, everywhere. So, naturally, one of the stories he told was about bicycles. In the canals, there are literally thousands of bicycles. Yes, you read that right, IN the canals. Its a "joke" in Amsterdam that people play when they get drunk. They walk out of the bar, find 2 bicycles that aren't locked, and throw them into the canal to see who's makes the bigger splash. Mean, I know, but they find it hilarious, until it happens to their own bicycle. But, the funny thing is, is that you can't get in trouble by the police, because Amsterdam law says that there has to be evidence of you committing a crime. And, well, the evidence is at the bottom of the canal. It's said that people trying to steal bicycles will just throw them in the canals if they see police coming, cuz then technically they didn't break any laws. Laws in Amsterdam are funny, I'll touch on that later.

The tour lasted 3.5 hours, so afterwards we were quite tired. Nap time again. This time nap time didn't last as long. After our nap, we went to this Moroccan restaurant that Geert had recommended...it was delicious!! I had some chicken Kabob things, great life choice on my part. After dinner we were planning on doing a tour that was actually a bar crawl, where you go to 6 different bars/clubs and get a drink at each and see what they're like, all for 15 euro. Dinner went longer than we expected, so we missed that, and instead just went back to the hostel and chilled in the lounge area for a while and we all called it a pretty early night.

Sunday we had a lot to get done...first stop, Anne Frank house. The Anne Frank house was amazing! It was incredible to see the secret annex and experience what the Frank's and many other hiding out during WWII went through. Again, if you're ever in Amsterdam, this is a must see place. Of the 8 of use in Amsterdam, 5 bought the Diary of Anne Frank after going to the house...the other 3 are going to borrow it when people are done reading it. After going to the house, I think that we are required to read the book far too early in school. It should be read either in late high school or college. It's too hard to grasp what actually happened and the complex situation that occurred during this time. Needless to say, I will be re-reading the book soon.

After the Anne Frank house we went on a bicycle tour of the city...It was soo much fun!! It allowed us to see a lot of things that are too far away to walk, and we covered a vast majority of the city. It lasted for about 2.5 hours, and towards the end, we had to ride through downtown to get back to where we started. It was such a rush riding in the street with cars zooming past and everything...again, I would recommend this to anyone, if you can ride a bicycle that is.

After the bicycle tour we went towards the red light district because Izzy, Kate, and Grace hadn't seen it yet. There we ate a chinese restaurant, which was delicious, and afterwards went to get dessert pancakes, which were amazing and HUGE!!! Imagine a huge plate, with a huge pancake on it, covered in chocolate syrup, strawberry syrup, whipped cream, and vanilla ice cream...literally amazing. After that we walked back to the hostel and chilled in the lounge for our last night.

The next morning we left the hostel at 6.15, caught a bus to the airport, and ended up getting back to the dorms around 12.45. I had to leave for class around 1.30, so I wasn't home much. I didn't get back until about 8.30pm...it was a long day. But hey, the sun has now been out 3 days in a row!!

Yesterday I went to Hyde Park, fell asleep for a while there, and then rented bicycles with Amanda and Jordan, and biked through the park for like 3 hours...so much fun. I'll put up photos on facebook soon, it was a beautiful day!

Beans comes to London on Friday!! SO EXCITED :) The Battista brothers will be reeking havoc in the streets of London for 8 days! No, actually we'll be doing a lot of site-seeing and giving Beans a feeling for what life in London life is like...should be very fun.

Cheers

Paris

Wow, I can't believe I just took a little weekend trip to Paris!

This week is known as GIS week (guided independent study). Instead of midterms, we get the week off to read, relax, and catch up on anything if need be. It's a fantastic system :)

I'm going to start by saying that I thoroughly enjoyed every part of my trip. The good, the bad, and everything in between. It was a fantastic experience and really put me out of my comfort zone and made me learn how to adapt and live and have a good time in a place that is totally different than I am used to.

I went to Paris with my friends Ellen, Izzy, and Kate (all from ISA) and then Mike (from Kentucky, hence him being referred to as Kentucky from now on), and Brendan. Our trip began at 4am on Sunday morning with catching the night bus to Victoria Coach Station where we would pick up our coach bus to Luton (about 1 hour from downtown London). We caught the first leg of out city bus trip just fine, and made it to Oxford Circus around 4.36am, where we then needed to catch the N73 to Victoria. Unknown to us was the fact that the N73 left Oxford Circus at 4.35 and didn't come again until 5.05, meaning we couldn't wait otherwise we would miss our coach to Luton. As most of you probably know, I HATE traveling. Everything about it is horrible to me. Once I'm actually on the plane I am fine, in fact I love flying, but everything else about traveling stresses the hell out of me. For this reason, it's safe to say that I was freaking out internally (and it was only 4.45!). Any way, we got 2 cabs to Victoria, and caught our Coach in plenty of time. We got to Luton, and Izzy and I were the only people who had printed off boarding passes beforehand, so the others all had to wait in line. We go there about 1 hour and 45 minutes before my flight, but the fact that we didn't head straight for security (Like I would have done on my own) freaked me out even more. So anyway, by the time we got through security, we had about 30 minutes to spare, and walked to where we had to wait for our gate.

The flight was fine and we go to our hostel in Paris around 1pm. That afternoon we went to Montmartre, which is a huge church on top of a hill that over looks all of Paris...about a 10 minute walk from our hostel. It didn't take long for things to get interesting, let's just say that.

As we walked towards the stairs leading up to the church, there was a group of African men standing near the bottom of the steps, almost creating a wall, which people needed to walk by in order to reach the church from the front. As I walked towards the stairs, one of them men put his hand against my chest fairly forcefully and requested/demanded that I put my hand out. I sternly told him "No Merci" (no thank you) and tried to continue walking up the stairs. He didn't like that. I pushed me in the chest harder a second time, and demanded that I put my hand out. I put out my hand (luckily my right, and not my left which had my watch on my wrist), and he began to make a bracelet on it. As he finished I pulled 30 pence out of my pocket and tried to hand it to him, to which he replied "no change, paper money only". At this point I was slightly flustered and pretty annoyed, so I told him I had just gotten to Paris and that I didn't have any money, and pushed my way past him. He tried to say that I had to pay for the bracelet he had made, so I took it off, tossed it back to him, and walked confidentially up the steps. I wish I felt as confident as I looked ha, because as we continued up towards the church I could feel that I was noticeably shaken by what had just happened. Anyway, we went into the church, which was beautiful, and then stared out at the view before we went to search for food.

Before I continue, I need to explain a couple of things about Paris. First of all, there are refugees everywhere. They come from all over Africa mostly, and peddle goods on the street. As well as refugees there are gypsies (nomadic people that also peddle goods). Another thing that I noticed that is different between London and Paris is that Paris is very dirty and crowded...overall, Paris is unorganized compared to London (I know part of this has to do with the language barrier, but I'll explain everything more later).

We went to this small cafe type place near Montmartre, where I ordered a Croque Madame. This is pretty much an open-face ham and cheese sandwich with a fried egg on the top...it was so good! Before the end of the trip I think everyone in the group had at least 2 of these. Anyway, after that we went to see the Eiffel Tower briefly as well as the place where Napoleon is buried. We went to the hostel around 6, got reorganized, and went out in search of a place to eat. We went towards the Louvre and Notre Dame, and ended up at another small restaurant. It was delicious again...I had salmon with green beans and rice (this was our splurge meal, about 20 euro). After dinner we took some night time pictures around Notre Dame, which is absolutely amazing. We went back to the hostel pretty early, as we were all exhausted from being up so early and traveling.

On Monday we woke up with no real plan in mind as to what we wanted to do. We decided to head towards the Arch de Triumph, which is very impressive. It is situated in the middle of the Champs Elysees, which is a prestigious street, and huge, street that leads up to the Louvre. The round-a-bout here is insane, and cars just weave in and out of each other like madness. It's mental. After looking at the arch for a while, we walked down the length of Champs Elysees towards the Louvre. It was similar to Regent Street in London, except everyone was speaking French lol. At the end of the street there is a large ferris wheel which we stopped at and took a ride on...it offered great views of the city (as well as a much needed sit). After the ferris wheel we decided we were going to go to the Louvre...we got inside and got in line to buy tickets, only to find out that it closed in about 2 hours. 2 hours is not near enough time to spend at the Louvre, I'll touch on this later, however. Instead we went to Notre Dame, and this time went inside. This place is, like a lot of things I've seen, amazing. It is huge, majestic, beautiful, literally indescribable. After spending a good amount of time in the cathedral, it was time for dinner. We found this small hole-in-the-wall restaurant off the beatin trail...fantastic idea! One of my favorite parts of Paris.

The two women working there must have been around 60, and were soo nice! We spoke almost completely in French to them, and they appreciated it so much. I had an Omelette Complete (egg, cheese, potatoes, homemade tomato sauce, and ham). It was sooo good. And huge, I was sufficiently stuffed. After dinner we decided to try and find a place where we could take a river cruise/tour of the Seine. Our search lasted about 2 hours, and we finally found what we were looking for at about 2145 (9:45pm). The last boat took off at 2200 (10pm), so we were just in time. The cruise was very relaxing and beautiful, and took us past things such as the Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Notre Dame, as well as a lot of other things not normally seen from land. Well worth the 10 euro. Again, after a long day in a new city, we retreated to the hostel and went to bed at a reasonable hour.

On Tuesday we had a plan...We headed straight for the Eiffel Tower (around 11) and were going to make it to the top! The lines were long, refugees were everywhere, but it was well worth every second of waiting. We decided to walk to the first 2 levels of the tower, which was very cool. We literally walked up through the center of the Eiffel Tower, which is HUGE! On the first level there is a small ice rink, restaurant and cinema. As our journey continued to the second level, I began to feel a little nervous and thought that actually going to the top might phase me a little bit. However, as we stepped out of the elevator on the top of the tower (more than 1000 ft in the air), I was fine. The views...AMAZING!!! It was such a cool experience. Whilst we were up top, a little girl ran into a cabinet type thing that she didn't see, and I sprang to her rescue and managed to coral some ice for her from the champagne bar using a combination of French and English...what I like to call Frenglish. We also saw an Italian man propose to his girlfriend (she said yes) which was very cool. We must have been up top for a good 45 minutes ha. When we got back to the bottom, we took some classic tourist photos in front of the tour, and then headed back to the hostel for a much needed nap.

Tuesday night was the only night we really went out while in Paris, and we just went to a bar that was near the Louvre and hung out. Wednesday morning we had to be out of the hostel by 9, which was really early! We wandered around by the Louvre looking for a place to eat, and finally settled and had our last delicious french meal around 11. After that, we headed for the Louvre (I forgot to mention, on tuesday we went to the Louvre first, planning on doing that, but it was closed). The Louvre itselt (the building) is massive. I mean absolutely huge. You could literally spend days in there. We focused on the main pieces of artwork (as art doesn't move me as much as it does for other people). We saw the sculpture "Winged Victory" (Ellen's favorite piece of artwork), the Mona Lisa, "Madonna on the Rocks" (my favorite), "Lady Liberty Leading the People" (Kentucky and Izzy's favorite), and the Venus de Milo, just to name a few. It was definitely cool seeing some of the most famous pieces of art in the history of time. After the Louvre we headed back to pick up our bags from the hostel, and headed to the airport earlier than we originally planned (Thanks God!!).

Our flight ended up being delayed about 30 minutes, and we got on the bus at Luton airport in London around 2300 (11pm). By the time I walked into my room, it was around 0030 (12.30am). I was super tired, and crashed right away.

Paris was a fantastic experience. I'm very glad I went. However, saying that, I have no burning desire to go back any time soon. In Paris I almost constantly felt uncomfortable (which is fairly normal when traveling in a very different and new place), but it stressed me out a little bit. Going to Paris made me realize how great London really is, and how comfortable and at home I feel here. Everything seems so much more perfect for me here, from the tube to the people, the atmosphere to the lifestyle, it fits me very very well. Like I said, Paris was one of the best experiences of my life, and I am very thankful to have had the opportunity to go and visit, and to be able to compare first hand two of the most iconic cities in the world and say "yeah, I think I like London a lot better, I'm glad I can call this home".

That's all I have for now, let me know if you have any questions, as I could have very easily left something out.

A very, very appreciative "Cheers"

I'm Running Out of Titles...

Hey everyone,

Another busy few days...more awesome experiences. On Saturday we went to Stratford-Upon-Avon and Warwick Castle (pronounced War-ick). They were about 3+ hours bus ride from London, so it was a long day. Stratford was a beautiful little English town...oh, and Shakespeare was born there. We toured the town and had lunch (fish and chips obviously), and then headed off to Warwick Castle. The castle was absolutely amazing. It's 1000 years old, and is exactly what you'd expect from a castle. Look at facebook pics for my details!

Anyway, as we all know, Super Bowl Sunday was this past Sunday, and I'm not lying when I say that Britons don't care about American football in the least (or understand it for that matter). Needless to say, there are enough Americans here that we had to get to a restaurant/bar at 6.30pm to get a seat for the game (game time=11.30pm). Anyway, the game/atmosphere/result was all fantastic. After the game ended, it was about 4am. The tube was closed, and my 4 friends and I really didn't want to navigate the buses home, so we decided to go stroll around London till 6am when the tube opens. On our walk, we went to Trafalgar Square, which was like a block away, and then down "the Mall" to Buckingham Palace. Outside of Buckingham Palace was a group of 4 guys, mid 20's, throwing an American football around, all wearing different NFL jersey's (one of them being a Rodgers jersey!). So we talked to them, and realized they are from outside of London in a smaller town, and picked teams at the beginning of the year to support. Now they know very, very little about American football, and picked their team mostly off of places in the US they've been, or the mascot. They watched games every week, and for the playoffs they've been taking a train into London to watch at bars here. They were awesome!! we talked about literally everything, from the objective and strategy of American football, to which football club we should support here...it was a blast (you can see on my facebook that Tom is not very happy that I support Chelsea, as he supports Arsenal). Anyway, we eventually got back to the dorms around 630am, and Monday began.

Going back to Saturday now...Saturday night, someone who lives in the flat above us was making a bath, and forgot about it. Needless to say, it flooded...through the ceiling and into our bathroom and hallway. It literally sounded like it was raining inside...is was horrible. We told the dorm people about the problem, but they were caught up dealing with the fire alarms going off in the dorm next door to mine, so they kind of forgot our problem (the kid who flooded the tub cleaned everything up, or so we thought). Then yesterday I got back from exploring the town, and my bedroom lights weren't working...or the bathroom lights...or kitchen...or hallway. The water that came through the ceiling had shorted everything out, so I was left in the dark, with a potential fire hazard on my hands. Not wanting to take any risks, after talking with my dad, I booked a room in the Holiday Inn Express next door, and spend the night there. By the time I got back from class today, everything had been fixed, so it's all good now.

Now today, we got to go tour Stamford Bridge, where the Chelsea Football Club plays. It was soo cool! We got to go all through the stands, in the press box, the press room where player and coach's interviews take place...we even got to go into both locker rooms! The visiting room is shit (pardon my language). It's so small, and has hard, wooden benches. Also, the cubbies are under the benches in hope that a player may injure themselves when reaching down to get things out of their cubby...no lie. The home locker room is soo nice, state-of-the-art, amazing. And the coolest part, all the players jersey's were hanging in front of their locker. I saw where some of the best footballers in the world get ready for a game, including Drogba, Malouda, Terry, Lampard, Anelka...and of course Torres, the man that Chelsea just got through the transfer window from rival Liverpool for £50 million...and they pay him £284,000 a week for the last 13 games! not bad to kick a little ball around the pitch for a while lol. But everything about the tour was great, I'm so glad I went. Pictures will be up on facebook soon, my camera is just charging currently.

Hope all is well, and I will blog again shortly

Cheers

History

Hello,

So last Saturday we go tour the Houses of Parliament (officially recognized as the Palaces of Westminster, because way back when there was a royal palace on the site that the building sits today). The Westminster tube station is amazing. Honestly, the tube station itself is super cool, like straight out of James Bond. But when you exit the tube, the first thing you see is Big Ben, its really cool. So as we're walking up the stairs, looking at Big Ben, super excited to tour Parliament, we realize the road is blocked off from traffic. As we exited the tube station, we asked one of the literal hundreds of police officers what was going on. (we were a little scared that it had to do with the conflict in Egypt, since the President had just fled to London the previous day, which did not make people in that region happy. However, that was not the case.) It turned out that there was a student protest against the increase of college tuition (tax rates here are much higher here than in the US, so when tuition went from £3000 to £9000 it caused a big stir). But anyway, because of the protest, which was entirely legal and peaceful, Parliament had been closed to the public since the morning, so we weren't sure if our tour was going to happen as scheduled. In the end, they opened up the House of Parliament to the public around 2.30pm (our tour was at 3), we got to go in. Just like all the other amazing looking buildings in London, Parliament did not disappoint at all. It was simply AMAZING. I know when people are like "it was indescribable, its hard to believe, but things here are literally indescribable. The building that exists today isn't actually that old, it was constructed in the 1800's, but it was just a designed to look like it was built a long time ago. When it was being planned, there was a contest for architects to design the building in a "gothic" style. There were 92 entries. The building you see today was the winner. But the site it is on has been important to the royal family for thousands of years.

As if Parliament wasn't enough for one weekend, Sunday brought even more fantastic stuff. We toured Tower of London and went on a "Jack the Ripper" walk. Both were very cool. On our way to Tower of London we walked across the Tower Bridge, which is very impressive. Tower of London is very unique, and is where the Royal Jewelry is held. To say the jewels held inside the vault are impressive is an extreme understatement. It's like looking at a crown in a Halloween store that's cover in huge plastic diamonds...except everything is real. The diamond at the top of the Queen's scepter is 530 carats. literally the size of an egg. Everything looked fake, but it was all real. unbelievable.

After Tower of London we went on a walk that covered areas that Jack the Ripper murdered people in. It was pretty erie but a fun time. The guided night tours are cool here because you get to see stuff you normally wouldn't see, and everything here looks really amazing at night (all the buildings I mean).

Monday and Tuesday were pretty normal days, had class Monday, worked on coursework Tuesday.

Wednesday we went out to see Abbey Road, which was very cool. There were a bunch of TV trucks in front of the studio, but we could still see it and walked across the famous crosswalk. After that we went to the London aquarium which was pretty cool...definitely better than the zoo. They all kinds of fish, sharks, sea turtles, you name it. They couldn't have any mammals because it's illegal in the UK to have mammals in captivity indoors, only if they are in an outdoor sanctuary. Still very cool tho.

Lastly, my mom and dad sent an awesome care package over...it was amazing. It was filled with Kraft mac n cheese, candy, barbeque chips, pop tarts, HOMEMADE COOKIES (literally everything I like from home, mom nailed! :)) Thank you soo much.

This Saturday we have to meet at 7.45 for our trip to Stratford-Upon-Avon...should be fun, I'll be sure to write about it later.

Cheers

Experiences

Wow I haven't written an update in a week, sorry about that.

Ok, where to start...Last Friday I went down an explored Hyde Park. It was beautiful. It's crazy to be in such a huge city and have lush, huge parks all over the place. From certain points in Hyde Park you can see all the way to Parliament and the Eye...very cool. After walking around in the park for a few hours, I went to Harrod's, the department store (if you can even call it that). It is honestly like nothing I have ever experienced before. It has 6 levels, and as the saying goes (the have anything you could want, from a thumbtack to an elephant). And that's not a lie. They have fancy restaurants, a pet store, a bank, a full size grocery store, a travel agency, an optician...and that's not to mention all the clothes, jewelry, accessories, home products ect that the extremely rich may want. I guess that's important to mention. Ordinary people don't shop at Harrod's. I think my favorite department was the "Fine Jewelry and Watch" room. its not everyday when you see £100,000 watches and £80,000 cell phones. You get the point. Its amazing to think that some people are so wealthy that price tags mean nothing to them. While I was walking around Harrod's I saw a man buy two suits for £4200...CASH. Also when I walked outside there were two Bentley's parked next to each other...I took a picture, when all of a sudden a Rolls-Royce followed by a Lamborghini drove in front of them. It was sweet. It only takes money I suppose. Anyway, yesterday we got to go back to Harrod's with ISA for afternoon tea. It was really fun. It cost 30 quid (thats slang for pounds, kind of like how we say "bucks") in advance, but was definitely worth it to do once. How it works is like this:

On the top level of Harrod's there is a full-scale gourmet restaurant. We go to go there for tea. Tea is much more than just tea (although we did get to drink as much as we wanted and it was delicious). Tea also included all you can eat sandwiches, pastries, and deserts. We sat down at a table, and instantly our waiter came over and explained how it works. For the first round, he brought out 3 plates of various sizes all situated on a golden rack...the bottom plate had small sandwiches (salmon, ham and mustard, egg, cucumber and cheese and pesto) all cut into perfect triangles, no crust. The second plate had scones (honey, raisan, and some plain one), and the top plate had deserts (fruit tarts, literal fruit cake, mini cheese cake)...It was all so good. But after the first rounds of plates was eaten, the waiter came back and asked each person at our table if they wanted anything specific, and then brought out whatever we had asked for just for us (along with another full rack of the works). Of course we got to drink tea (the traditional English way- garnished with milk and sugar cubes)...also delicious. Like I said, it was fun to do one time, but obviously the price is steep, so we probably won't be going back.

This past week has been pretty low key...We went to the zoo on Sunday...Not going to lie, for being in the biggest city in Europe and costing £15, the London zoo was a little disappointing. Small enclosures, typical animals...Idk I was just not overly impressed. Classes are going well...I think my investments seminar (discussion) leader may drive me insane. He's a smart guy but has difficulty explaining (teaching) concepts to people when they have questions. Like the other day, someone was asking about bonds that sell at a premium, and why that happens, and I had to end up explaining the answer to the other student cuz our seminar leader couldn't convey what he was trying to say and have the student understand. Oh well, at least I understood already. Other than that everything is good in terms of school.

Today we get to go on a tour of the Houses of Parliament...should be awesome, and then tomorrow we are going to Tower of London and the Jack the Ripper walk...all three things are ISA events so they should be very good (ISA hooks us up)!

I'll be sure to blog about the next two days sunday after our adventures