Sunday, February 28th, 2010

I can’t believe that February is already over! Time is flying by way too quickly.

I was worried about getting to church on time today, because the lines I use to get there were closed down. Luckily I found an alternative route, and made it just in the knick of time. Church was pretty crazy today. Sacrament meeting went by pretty uneventful, but primary was chaos. The kids were pretty well behaved in the beginning, but as time went by they started to go crazy. My primary lesson was rather small today, only four kids, but they would not settle down. One boy would not stop hitting, kicking, and pushing the other children. I was teaching alone, so I couldn’t take him out of the class, but sitting him away from the other children was not working either. Insanity, I tell you! Sharing time was very rowdy and out of control. I was exhausted after primary, but couldn’t make my way home just yet, because I had agreed to meet with a guy after church to interview him for my religion class. I interviewed a man who was baptized into the church a little less than a year ago. Before being baptized he was an Atheist, and comes from a long line of Atheists. It’s a pretty extreme conversion. His story was very interesting. He told me about his difficulties with his family accepting his new faith, the challenges he still faces, and about what triggered his initial interest in the church. It was pretty fantastic hearing about his life.

Time needs to slow down, now!

Saturday, February 27th, 2010

Allyson and I slept in a little today. Then we got up and headed for Brick Lane. We had heard that Brick Lane has a million different Indian restaurants on it, so we were dying to check it out. We had a harder time finding it than we planned, because all of the underground lines we needed were shut down for repairs. We ended up taking the bus, but that took us forever. When we finally got to the area, we had a hard time finding the street, as nothing was very clearly marked. We wandered around for a while, finally finding it when we turned around and started heading back. We ate at a random Indian restaurant, and it was okay. I got lentil soup that was amazing, and a vegetable curry that was not very good. Overall I was kind of disappointed, because I love Indian food and was looking for a good deal. The place near our house is much better and has better prices. After lunch we took a bus to Tower Hill, and walked across Tower Bridge. We thought it would be easy to find the Tate Modern from there, but we were wrong. We walked for a long time, but eventually we reached it. Should have taken another bus. Tate Modern, Britain’s national museum of international modern art. The building the museum is housed in was the former Bankside Power Station. I had mixed feelings about the museum. I liked a lot of the paintings by Miro, Dali, and Picasso, but there were other forms of “art” that did not resonate with me. I don’t understand how some things are called “art”. I look at them and think, “Well, duh, a two year old could have smashed that together.” Well, my almost two year old Zach could do so much better than a lot of the artists in that museum. There were also quite a few disturbing pieces, particularly videos of self mutilation, blood, gore, and sex. I did not enjoy those, because I do not see any element of art, only the artist’s need to get a shock from their audience. Not art.

We left the Tate Modern pretty late, and made our way home. It was raining as we left. We walked across the Millennium Bridge towards St. Paul’s Cathedral to catch a bus home. The view of St. Paul’s across the Thames was beautiful. I love that cathedral. It is spectacular.

We enjoyed one of our famous Tesco dinners tonight. Oh boy!

Friday, February 26th, 2010

Had a great sleep in my warm hotel bed. Woke up, got ready, and had breakfast at the hotel. After breakfast we drove to Caerphilly Castle, a medieval castle in the center of Caerphilly, Wales. It is the largest castle in Wales; second largest in the UK after Windsor Castle. The castle was damaged in the English Civil War, when the Parliamentary army fired a cannon at it, causing the tower to lean 3m out of the perpendicular. That’s comparable to the Leaning Tower of Pisa! We explored the castle, going through different passages, and seeing spectacular views of the surrounding city from the top.

We stopped for lunch at Subway afterwards. This was frustrating, because our directors said we had about 15 minutes to buy lunch and get back on the coach. Well, Allyson and I do just that, only to find that the directors have not returned yet. They came at least another 15 minutes after that! So frustrating. Subway was good though; I had been craving a good tuna sandwich.

The rest of our day was spent going to different LDS history sites. Not my first choice for an adventure. I would have much rather seen more castles and sheep! Haha, sheep are everywhere here!

The first church history site we went to was Hill Farm. Hill Farm is in Castle Frome and is the site where Elder Wilford Woodruff preached and baptized many of the United Brethren, including John and Jane Benbow who lived there. Elder Woodruff brought all but one of the six hundred members of the United Brethren into the Church. He baptized many of the converts in the farm pond, which we also visited. We also visited Castle Frome Church, which had no LDS church history significance other than that it was an Anglican church that protested against the Mormons.

We went to Herefordshire Beacon, the most prominent hill in the region and a favorite place of Elder Woodruff’s, where he often went to pray and to think. Elder Woodruff led Brigham Young and Willard Richards up to the top of the hill for an important meeting, where it was decided that the Book of Mormon and the hymnal would be published in Britain. We hiked up the hill. The view was spectacular. The clouds seemed to glow. We could see the entire surrounding town and land far beyond. It was super windy on top of the hill. I compare it to The Pali Lookout, the windy cliff side on Oahu. The wind was so powerful, loud, and cold. I lost part of my hearing for a little bit. Beautiful up there!

Our final stop on our church history tour was to Gadfield Elm Chapel. This quaint chapel was the first British chapel of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

We got back on the coach and headed home. Another upsetting meal tonight. We stopped at a crap truck stop, which had three fast food options. Gross! Didn’t want to eat any of it. Ended up wasting £5 on some not very good soup and a cheese sandwich. They gave us an hour tonight, which was ridiculous, because we neither needed that much time, nor wanted that much time. We just wanted to be on the coach sleeping. They said the only reason we were stopping was because we would be getting back so late. Load of crap, because we got home an hour later, and still had plenty of time to get dinner. Not very cool of them.

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

We had to wake up at 5:00am this morning! Insanity! No one in my dorm went to bed before 2:00am. Needless to say, we were all exhausted. We packed breakfast and lunch, then boarded the coach at 6:00am. Slept for most of the three hour bus ride as we drove to Wales. The signs are very cool in Wales; they are in both English and Welsh.

Our first stop was Tintern Abbey. We walked around the ruins of Tintern Abbey, which are some of the most spectacular ruins in the UK because the Abbey was built in 1131. We stopped there because we are studying William Wordsworth in Brit Lit, and he was inspired by the Abbey to write one of his poems.

After Tintern Abbey we drove to The Big Pit: National Coal Museum. It is a museum dedicated to the Welsh heritage of coal mining. This mine was in operation until 1980, when it was shut down. It then opened to the public as a museum in 1983. The pit was first worked in 1860. Surprisingly, we had so much fun at Big Pit. The shaft goes down into the earth about 300m. Our guide was Wayne Cooper and he was hilarious. They split our group into smaller groups for the tours, and my group got the best tour guide. He was informative, but more importantly hilarious. He was so funny. He used to be a miner, but retired and became one of the tour guides at the museum. Wayne took us down inside the mine. We had to wear hardhats with lights attached. The light was attached to a special battery that was belted around our waist. Also on that belt was a CO2 gas mask for emergencies. The belts were pretty heavy. We looked hot! We got to go down the lift into the mine. Our tour was so much fun! He led us along different paths, cracking jokes the entire time. It was pretty hard to understand his accent some of the time, but he was still freaking hilarious. It was a good thing we were given helmets, because everyone kept smashing their heads against the low ceiling. I never banged my head! I was talking to one girl, telling her about climbing up the narrow and steep passages into the heart of the pyramids, and she was telling me about a time when she went caving and how narrow it was, when all of the sudden she smacked so hard into part of the ceiling. Everyone stopped and stared because it was such a powerful hit. It was really funny though. We started cracking up, and Wayne made so much fun of her. Wayne taught us a lot about the mine. Big Pit is the largest mine still in use today. It is also the biggest with a shaft. He told us some sad stories about young children having to work in the mines before there were laws forbidding it. Really young children (too young to work) were brought down with their parents, but tied to doors in the mines by a ten foot string while their parents worked. They were left in complete darkness with rats and stale air. It would have been terrifying. We experienced this darkness when we all turned our head lamps off. It was pitch black. You can’t even see your hand in front of your face. Horses and ponies were also used in the mines to pull coal carts around underground. This was a very sad bit of history to me as well. These horses wouldn’t see daylight for 50 weeks of a year. They would often go blind because of this treatment. So sad. We also learned how to read an oil lamp flame to detect the level of methane in the air. Too much methane and BOOM, the entire mine would explain. That’s why they used to have canaries in the coal mines. Because a canary is so small, if there was too much methane in the air it would pass out, alerting the workers that they needed to evacuate soon. They have moved on to much more modern equipment since then. We made our way out of the mine safely.

We then went to St. Fagan’s National History Museum. It is an open-air museum in Cardiff. It features the historic lifestyle, culture, and architecture of the Welsh people. The grounds around the museum are beautiful. There were some very pretty ponds and fountains, as well as lots of greenery. We visited an Elizabethan Manor House/castle, explored a wool mill, saw a man weaving beautiful shawls, and went through the museum. It was pretty, but not very thrilling, as we spent too much time there.

We drove to our hotel in Cardiff. Everyone was frustrated that they assigned us roommates to our hotel rooms. We stayed at the Mercure, which was a fairly nice business hotel. I was worried, because apparently previous groups had stayed in some real dumps. We had two people per a room. My roommate was Michelle Erickson. I like Michelle. When we got into our rooms we were very happy to see two large comfy beds. We then jumped on the beds, turned on the TV and were happy to hear a Mika song playing. Had a brief rock out session. Haha, so on my key packet they gave me a new name. It is a new spelling that I have never seen before. I will now be going by Ali El Eardani. I like it. After getting settled, we walked to the center of Cardiff. We came to a cross walk that went across a free way entrance/exit. We waited on the corner forever. It was impossible to cross. Finally we all ran across screaming! We explored for a while and looked for food. Our small group decided to go to Chimichangas, a Mexican restaurant. I did not want to go to a stupid Mexican restaurant in Wales. Not cool! Lame people. My food was not very good, and it was all over priced. Lame! After dinner, though, we went to a little café and I got a delicious chocolate mousse cake slice. It was so good! I have tasted a piece of heaven! We headed back to the hotel. I decided to take a shower, and boy am I glad that I did. The shower was amazing! There was tons of hot water, great pressure, space to move around in, and most of all privacy! After my shower I went upstairs to hang out in Allyson and Kalyn’s room. We watched Crimewatch on TV, which was the most interesting thing on. It was slightly disturbing. It was a show discussing current crimes, murders, and missing persons in the UK. After each segment they give their phone number and ask people to call if they have any information to help solve the case. After the show we played a few sleep over games, and reminisced about the good old days. Went to bed too late. I was dead tired and should have gone to bed early, yet I waited up until 12:30am. Have to wake up early tomorrow. Oops!

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

Happy Birthday Mum! The big 5-0!!! Woot woot!
Only had Mythology today, so that was nice. Afterwards, Allyson and I went to the huge mall here. Surprisingly it is a Westfield mall. I should have brought my gift cards. It is a giant mall. It is filled with designer stores though, so not like I would buy anything there. We went there to get milkshakes from this store that we heard was like Moo Moo’s in Oxford. After searching forever, we finally found Sblended. I ordered a Ferraro Rocher shake. Loved it! Allyson wanted a Bueno Bar shake, but they were out, so she got a Kit Kat Senses shake. She didn’t like it as much.

We then went to Leicester Square and saw them setting up for the premiere of Alice in Wonderland. I am so sad that we are not going to be in London tomorrow for the premiere (we are going to Wales tomorrow). I am soooo sad!!!

We went to Primark before dinner. We bought lots of fun accessories to go with our outfits for the Mika concert on Monday. Let’s just say I will be wearing hot pink leg warmers. Pictures to come.

After dinner we went with the Centre group to Twelfth Night. Our seats were pretty crappy. Everyone’s ticket said restricted. I was lucky enough to see the stage, but a lot of the students couldn’t see a thing. They tried to make them feel better about it by saying that it is better to just listen to the lines being recited. Not true! Such a lame attempt to cover up their cheap purchase of tickets. The worst part was that all the professors and their families got clear view seats, leaving the students, who paid more money to be in the program, with the crappy seats. Half of the class slept through the performance, because they felt that it was a waste of their time and money. I did like the performance though. I couldn’t see a portion of the stage, but from what I did see, the stage activity really did add to the performance. The actors were good and there was a lot of humor in the play. I had previously seen Twelfth Night two or three other times, but this was my favorite performance. Good fun.

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

Today we had a full day of classes. After classes, we went with our Civ class to the V&A museum. We had a stimulating conversation about the male anatomy in art. In the evening we tried to see Valentine’s Day at the Coronet, but it was sold out. Came home and organized my photos instead.

Monday, February 22nd, 2010

Only had Mythology today, so that was good. Would have better if I used my time better afterwards though! I procrastinated a little, then started my paper for Mythology that was due at 5pm. Finished my paper and submitted it a few minutes before the deadline… go me! Dinner was shortly after. I didn’t actually leave the Centre until around 8:15pm, when I headed to the Coronet Theatre to see The Lovely Bones. I liked the movie, but didn’t love it. I felt that it went along pretty well with the book, but the “in-between” scenes were a little too surreal and abstract for what I thought should be in the movie. Otherwise, I really liked the acting and suspense. The villainous character was very creepy/scary, and the actor and director did a great job to make his scenes very suspenseful. I did enjoy it.

Sunday, February 21st, 2010

Church today. Taught primary. Bishop asked to talk to me after church. I was really nervous that he was going to ask me to give a talk. Instead he just was doing a little “checkup” and was making sure everything was going okay in my life. It took about two minutes total, but I had to wait over half an hour to meet with him. All of the girls I go to church with had left already, so I had to go back to the Centre alone. Sad day.

After church, Allyson and I headed towards Chinatown for the Chinese New Year celebrations. We stopped at Covent Garden to see the red carpet for the British Orange Awards (British Oscars). I would have loved to stay and watch, but Allyson has no patience for my interest in celebrities/movies, so we continued on our way to Leicester Square. Well… the celebrations were a complete bust. It was super crowded, but otherwise completely uneventful. It was very disorganized and there was nothing of interest going on. We pushed our way through crowds for a while, then realized that it was totally pointless to be there, so we left. Lame!

After dinner we had a fireside by President Phillips in the classroom. He was young, nice, and very funny. After, Allyson was very disappointed to find out that all of the Nutella was gone, so after eating some other source of chocolate, we sat down to do our Mythology papers. Found out that our papers weren’t actually due until 5pm on Monday, so I didn’t get very far with that! Hahaha, so while Allyson was in the kitchen, I jumped onto her computer and changed her screensaver to a giant jar of Nutella. When she came back and turned on her computer, she burst into hysterics. She completely lost it when she saw the picture of Nutella. We were laughing so hard. Completely lost it! Tears were streaming down her eyes. She was truly crying… not just from laughing. She had to excuse herself from the library. Some of the girls were concerned that something was actually wrong. So funny!

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Allyson and I went to Portobello Market this morning. Shortly after we got there, I bought a necklace! I love it! The pendant is an old domino. We wandered around some more and looked for lunch. I bought a spinach and sun dried tomato quiche. I was looking forward to eating it, but as soon as I bit into it, I realized it was icy in the center. Very disappointing. I didn’t finish it. Later I found a small vegetarian restaurant and bought a vegetarian schnitzel. It was so good! I loved it, and can’t wait to go back to try some other things! On our way out I also bought a small smoked salmon and cream cheese bagel. Yum yum! The best part was the hot chocolate that we got as we were leaving. We have fallen in love with this little café that sells the best hot chocolate ever!!! So good!


In the evening we went to Zizzi’s for Sarah Shepard’s birthday. Today was definitely a day of good eating! I ordered two appetizers – calamari and mini pizzas (goat cheese & caramelized onion, pesto, and mozzarella pomodoro. Amazing! Zizzi’s is a fabulous restaurant. We had so much fun together. There were about twenty of us celebrating in the restaurant.  Yay!  Good times!

Friday, February 19th, 2010

Today we went with our culture and community class to the London Central Mosque. We met with Omar, who taught us all about Islam and what it means to be a Muslim. He asked if anyone had ever traveled to the Middle East, or if anyone knew any Arabic. I was the only one who raised my hand. He asked me what words I knew. I told him I knew “Inshallah,” then I spaced and told him I knew some not very nice words, as well as fruits, and a few little phrases and exclamations. He was very nice and very funny. He was a pretty young guy. I really liked learning more about Islam, and was glad that more of my peers were able to learn about it for the first time.

After the Mosque we went to Kahn’s, the best Indian restaurant! Love it so much! Haha and as if we were not full enough already, we went to Frog, a frozen yogurt store after. Delish!

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

Today was another day of being spoiled. We went to Middle Temple, one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers (lawyers). It used to be the headquarters of the Knights Templar until 1312 when they were dissolved. We had a fabulous and very expensive lunch in the Middle Temple Hall. We had to dress up and be on our best behavior, because we would be dining along side many prominent lawyers and their guests. The hall was magnificent. It has a double hammer beam roof, which was very cool. We got to sit at the High Table, which has an amazing history. It was a gift from Elizabeth I to the Middle Temple. It was cut from a single oak tree in Windsor Forest, then floated down the Thames to be cut and built in the building. It is 29 feet long. Many royalties, footballers, celebrities and other prominent people have dined at that very table. I sat across from the chair that Prince William had recently dined in. I kept telling the girl who was sitting in it that he probably farted in that very chair, and that they shared a special bond now. Above the High Table are oil paintings of Queen Elizabeth I, Charles I, Charles II, James II, William III, Queen Anne, and George I. The largest, and therefore central portrait, is of Charles I. He is painted on a horse, but the portrait is an optical illusion, because the horse’s head is not proportional to its body (it is smaller). By painting its head smaller, it makes Charles I (who was 5’3”) appear taller than he really was. I found this very funny.

We had a wonderful multi course lunch. First munched on a yummy sun dried tomato roll, and then we started with a mushroom, leek, and tomato tart with hollandaise sauce. It was so good! Mouthwatering! Then the main course was a pork loin medallion with bubble and squeak and green peppercorn sauce. Obviously I didn’t eat this, so they allowed me to go over to the gourmet lunch buffet and grab a plate! So many options! I got a broccoli quiche slice, couscous, mashed potatoes, mozzarella salad, and a baked brie and cranberry tart. It was so good! I especially loved the brie tart and the mashed potatoes. I didn’t get the jellied eels though… blah! For dessert we were served apple and sultana crumble with lemon sorbet and raspberries. It was really good, but I thought the lemon was too tart. Originally we were supposed to be served cinnamon ice cream instead of the lemon sorbet, so we were all slightly disappointed with the change. Everything was so good though! We were served herbal tea after. Yum! So good!

After Middle Temple we went to Charles Dickens’ house. This place was fairly uneventful. He wrote some of his books there. We didn’t stay very long.
After we went Primark :). I bought a cheap sweatshirt that is very colorful. When we left it was raining a lot, and we were very cold.

So tonight we started planning Secret Mission #38139 and Secret Mission #90724. Commence missions.

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

Day Trip 5! Today we went to Blenheim and Oxford. Such an exciting day!!! :) Loved it! Blenheim was very pretty. Blenheim Palace is the home of the 11th Duke and Duchess of Marlborough and the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill. While the Palace was beautiful and full of history, its extensive grounds were my favorite. It was a little drizzly today, but I really liked the fields, fountains, gardens, and lake that surrounded the Palace. I would love to see it in the Spring, when all of the flowers bloom. There was a large rose garden that would be beautiful then.

After Blenheim, we boarded our coach for a quick ride to Oxford. I find the English school system difficult to understand. Apparently Oxford is a university consisting of multiple colleges, and there are a bunch of terms they use that I don’t understand. We walked around the city of Oxford for a couple of hours, before we met the group back at Christ Church (a college that is also a Cathedral). While we were on our own, we went to Covered Market, which is a marketplace selling fresh produce, meats, clothing, etc. We bought milkshakes from Moo Moo’s, a highly recommended and even coveted milkshake shop there. It was overwhelming picking a flavor, as they had over a hundred to choose from. I got a Crunchie milkshake. Crunchie is my favorite candy bar here. It is honeycomb covered in chocolate. It is amazing!

We walked around some more, and found the Bodleian Library. We couldn’t go in it, and at the time I was not quite sure why it was significant. All I knew is that a few scenes from Harry Potter and been filmed in it. After checking online, I have learned that the first two films filmed the hospital wing and library scenes there.

I really like Oxford. It is a very pretty college town. I bought myself an Oxford sweatshirt, so now I feel super smart.

We met back with the rest of the London group at Christ Church. A Mr. Philip Tootill, the House Manager, led us on a tour of the grounds and some of the buildings. I was surprised to learn how much Christ Church has been in popular culture. It is the setting for Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”, it is in the film “The Golden Compass”, and it is in the “Harry Potter” films!

Lewis Carroll attended Christ Church Oxford, and gained much of his inspiration for his book from his time there. Alice is said to be based off of Alice Liddell, the daughter of the dean of Christ Church. There is a green door leading into a small garden that Carroll often saw the young Alice peaking through the key hole of, because she was not aloud through the door. This was Alice looking into her wonderland, the garden she was not allowed to enter. Her cat often hopped the wall and would sit in the tree that was in the garden, giving him his inspiration for the Cheshire cat. The Jabberwocky tree is also found at Christ Church. Very cool!

Prepare to be very jealous… We got to have tea in the Great Hall from the Harry Potter films! It was so exciting. First we walked up the staircase that the first years stand on before they are sorted in the first film! Then, we entered the Great Hall and got to sit at the House Tables, just like they do in Harry Potter!!! We had hot chocolate, finger sandwiches, and Victorian cake. The best part was remembering all of the scenes from Harry Potter that took place in the very room we were sitting in! The sorting took place in that hall, as well as owl post, meals, “Troll in the dungeon!”, and when all of the students had to gather there when Sirius Black broke into the castle. My favorite scene to remember, the one that made me the most excited about being in the room, was the scene in the most recent film (6th) when Bellatrix Lestrange strides down the center table shrieking, and destroys all of the glass windows in the Great Hall. So exciting!

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

After class today, Allyson and I went to the V&A Museum (Victoria and Albert Museum). I was pleasantly surprised by this museum. It was not what I was expecting… so much grander. I really liked it, but need to go back, as it is so massive and requires more time.
After dinner, Allyson and I worked really hard… on our blogs, journals, and pictures. School work… what’s that? I know, I know… but blogging is important too! How else would you know about all that we are doing??
:)

Monday, February 15th, 2010

Classes today were a bore… big surprise. I still feel really sick. Last night sucked because I had a coughing fit in the middle of the night that woke me up. I had to get up at 4am and find some medicine. It sucked. After classes, I studied my butt off for my religion test. Everyone has been very stressed for it. I finally took it, and it was ridiculous. It was pretty hard. I knew a lot of it, but I felt that our professor expected us to remember too much for this test, especially since it is for a two credit religion class! Lame! After dinner we had a little Valentine’s Day party and decorated cookies. They were really good. Then we watched Emma. I wasn’t really a fan… And now I am exhausted, tired of being sick, and want to take a shower! Good night!

Sunday, February 14th, 2010

Happy Valentine’s Day! We got home from Venice really late Saturday night/Sunday morning, so I was exhausted. Had the worst flight ever…
Slept through church this morning because I felt awful, but last night I left my prepared lesson for my fellow primary teacher. I hate waking up when I am sick… always feel super gross. Didn’t have a very exciting day. Slept, blew my nose, and moaned a lot. That was my day pretty much. Dinner was really good though! Delicious salad, green beans, rice, a chicken dish (that looked good), and cream puffs for dessert!

Saturday, February 13th, 2010

Today’s our last day in Venice. We have to be at the bus station at 6:30pm to catch a ride back to Treviso Airport. Our flight on Ryanair is not until 10:40pm though. We got super chocolaty pastries for breakfast. I felt kind of sick afterwards, because they were soooo chocolaty.

After getting chocolate all over my face and hands (and trying my best to clean it off), we went to the Peggy Guggenheim Museum. It is near the Accademia Gallery. I loved this museum so much! It was in a rather small building (that Peggy used to live in), but was so full of art! There were lots of works by Picasso, Miro, Dali, etc. All of my favorite artists and styles! I am a fan of surrealism and abstract art. We spent a while there, and then went to Piazza San Marco to take more photos.

It was so much more crowded today! The little streets around the Piazza were so packed that often we would be stuck and not moving anywhere. We got more pizza for lunch, then wandered around some more and got some gelato. I love gelato! I had yogurt and mixed berry. So good! I’m really going to miss Venice. I love all of the costumes here for Carnival. Everything is so beautiful.

Eventually we headed back to our hostel to grab our backpack, and then headed towards Piazzale Roma. We found dinner on the way, but it wasn’t very good. I got a rather bland calzone, and Allyson did not like her pizza slice at all. Sad. We kept walking towards the bus station, hoping to find another gelato store, but had no luck. We sadly had to board our bus without having gelato one last time in Italy. However, when we got to the airport and went through security, I was ecstatic to find a gelateria inside! I had the best flavors – chocolate and tiramisu. Delicious! We were early, so we sat in the airport for a couple of hours and played cards. When our gate opened, we rushed down and stood in line because again it was first come first serve seating.

The flight home was the worst flight of my life. I was in so much pain from take off to landing that I wanted to jump out of the plane. It was the 2 hour plane ride from hell. Because I am so sick, my sinuses were super clogged and my head did not adjust to the pressure. First, as we took off my ears started killing me, then I developed an excruciating headache. It was so painful. I was dying. I was trying to read Northanger Abbey for my Brit Lit class, but could not do it. Seriously, so painful. My eyes were tearing up and I was crying. It was embarrassing, because I could not control it. And my nose kept running and I ran out of tissues, so I had to wake the guy up next to me so I could get out. Ergh! It hurt so badly! Once we landed, the pain did not subside. Eventually one of my ears popped, but my right one never gained its hearing back. I was really worried, because by the time we reached the Centre it was 2am and I still had no hearing in my right ear and it hurt really badly. I went to bed in pain. It sucked. I’m just really grateful that it didn’t happen on the way to Venice, because that would have sucked.

Overall, it was a fantastic trip! I loved Venice so much!

We asked someone to take our picture for us... apparently we weren't clear that we wanted the costumes in the photo as well...  I mean who doesn't want a picture of themselves squatting super awkwardly?

So... of course we had to take a few more awkward public squatting photos...

Friday, February 12th, 2010

Today was marvelous! We slept in past our alarm, but that was ok since we hadn’t gotten any sleep the past couple of days, and we were both sick. We had breakfast at the hostel – cereal, bread, jam, etc. We didn’t really have a set plan for today, so we wandered a bit. We were going to take the Vaporetti down the Grand Canal, but it was about €7 for a short one-way trip. So we walked through the city instead. The city is pretty hard to navigate; it’s like a maze. We tried to walk along the Grand Canal, but streets kept taking us away from it. We got pretty lost. It took us about an hour to reach Piazza San Marco. We then went to Gallerie dell’Accademia Venezia. That took such a long time to try and find. We thankfully got a student discount, because I did not think the museum was that impressive. It was kind of a disappointment. All of the art was very similar. I am not a big fan of Christian art. It was also rather small; I think some of the rooms were closed. We eventually found our way back to San Marco. It is a lot of fun to be lost here. I mean, you can’t get too lost here, after all it is an island. Besides, it is very beautiful, and it is exciting to see things you may have missed by following a map.

Took so many pictures today! It is pretty hard not to! We bought our first masks today! Mine is Purple, gold, and pink. Allyson’s is black and gold. So much fun to wear them around Venice! Finally felt like part of Carnival while wearing my mask! We walked around Piazza San Marco some more. We saw a lot of pigeons, but not as many as I saw when I was there in 2006; there were just too many people walking around now!

We went into St. Mark’s Basilica (Basilica di San Marco)! It is so beautiful! We wandered through it, then went back out into the piazza. We spent a long time looking for food, but somehow managed not to find anything that we were interested in. We went and saw the Doge’s Palace (Palazzo Ducale). I think it was a mistake that we did not eat before we went in, because we were starving, so we kind of rushed through the palace. It was beautiful though! I didn’t realize that we would get to walk across the Bridge of Sighs. Allyson and I both sighed. We also got to go down into the dungeon. Very cool! Doge’s Palace was something I didn’t do when I went in 2006. I was surprised by how big it was. It had so many rooms, and a fabulous, large ballroom! So many wonderful works of art. The Palace had more art than the Accademia Gallery.

After the Doge’s Palace we went hunting for food! We pounced on the first sign of food – crepes! I got a nutella and strawberry crepe! It was amazing! I wolfed it down. We kept exploring; keeping an eye out for more food. We each bought a second mask. Mine is one that I had had my eye on for a long time – completely black with lace, and a flower and feathers on the side. Love it! Allyson had her eye on a red and gold one that she got. Yay! We then went to the Rialto Bridge and got pizza. Allyson claims it is the best pizza she has ever eaten, haha but I was not impressed. I guess she liked it so much because it was just the way she would like it – bread, sauce, and no cheese! We found more gelato! Love it!

We went back to Piazza San Marco and people watched some more. We were so cold, but wanted to stay in the Piazza for the drag queen beauty pageant that evening. We found a little café, and sat in it for an hour or so drinking amazing, rich hot chocolate. We also shared a tiramisu that was amazing! Allyson is obsessed with the hot chocolate. I had to drag her away from the table so she wouldn’t lick my cup clean.

We returned to San Marco and waited in the “garden” area until 9pm for the Drag Queen Beauty Pageant. It was fantastic! So hilarious and entertaining! First the MC did a lip-synch rendition of some Italian song. He was very flamboyant! Then his co-host came out to tremendous applause. After welcoming the judges and talking to the audience, they invited all of the Drag Queens to come up on stage and parade through so that we could see them all. Their outfits and costumes were amazing! So elaborate. It was sad though… most of them could walk better in heels than I could! Some of the costumes were slightly disturbing. After the grand parade across the stage, they individually came on stage and walked down the catwalk for everyone to admire them. Let’s just say, this show was not appropriate for young children, or the faint of heart. After, they came on stage and did individual performances. These were so much fun! Everyone lip-synched, but the dancing and costume changes were the best! Loved it! It was so much fun!

As we were leaving, we realized the Piazza had flooded. All around the stage (in the center of the piazza) was covered in water. Just a few inches or so, but it was still too deep to walk through. We had to surge our way through the crowd to find the only dry spots we could cross at. It was pretty crazy. It was pretty late when we left, around 11pm, so we got back to the hostel pretty late. We were cold and exhausted. The trek home was pretty painful. My feet were killing me… Bloody stumps!!! I was feeling very sick as we walked home, and thankfully found a café still open where I bought an overpriced cup of weak tea. Allyson got her favorite hot chocolate, so it helped to make the trek back a little easier. Well we made it back to the hostel… didn’t get that lost! Went to bed really late, around 2am. So tired! Tomorrow’s our last day here :(. I’m going to miss Venice.