Thursday, April 22nd, 2010

We slept in a lot later than we planned, but it felt so good to get a goodnight’s sleep. We had a balanced breakfast of milk chocolate covered digestives, and then headed out into the city. We stopped by Duman Chocolatier, a highly recommended chocolaterie. Allyson and I bought a 250g box of chocolate to share. They are amazing! So far I am off to a healthy start today!

We headed to Market Square and went to climb the belfry, but it is closed this week for refurbishment! Lame! Super bummed that we can’t climb it. We walked to Burg Square instead, which is supposed to be fantastic, but I was not impressed, and like Market Square much better. We then followed our itinerary we made last night, and walked to the Chocolate Museum. There are so many chocolate shops lining the streets here. It basically goes chocolate shop, chocolate shop, lace shop, chocolate shop! So, as if we haven’t gotten enough chocolate in already, we decided to go to the Chocolate Museum. Upon entering they let you sample pieces of dark, milk, and white chocolate. I was in heaven! The museum takes you through the history of chocolate, starting with the Mayans thousands of years ago, through Cortez’s crusades, Europe’s upper classes drinking chocolate for social status, and all the way to today. The lower floors had statues made out of chocolate, including a life size chocolate statue of Barack Obama (although there was very little resemblance). Got more samples of chocolate on our way out and also bought some chocolates! Bruges is really chocolate heaven!

Afterwards we walked to the Groeninge Museum to see the old Flemish masters. I liked this museum so much more than Accademia in Venice. It only cost us €1 to get in, because we are students. It usually costs €8!

After the museum we went to the Church of Our Lady, where Michelangelo’s ‘Madonna with Child’ is. The statue is one of the few Michelangelos outside Italy.

We then went to the Begijnhof nunnery. A rough history of ‘Nuns and Pretty Flowers’… Feminism in Flanders was born around the year 1200. A group of religious women got a bit mystical in their beliefs – getting married to Jesus and things like that – and the Catholic Church wanted the bury them alive. The women, called ‘Beguines’, thought otherwise. They started their own communities all over Flanders, and became tolerated as more or less independent women helping the poor. Today 26 beguinages still exist in Flanders, but there’s only one beguine alive. Today, the beguinages are part of Unesco World Heritage, just like the Egyptian pyramids. In the center of the small community is an inner courtyard/park filled with beautiful trees and tulips. The buildings are all white and are very pretty. It was such a serene, beautiful place!

We sat on a bench outside the nunnery and ate chocolate as we soaked up the sun. It was such a nice day. We walked back to our hostel, because we were so close, and went to the bathroom and relaxed.

We went back out and got dinner at a small snack bar. I got a cheap veggie burger that wasn’t half bad. Poor Allyson, they put mayonnaise on everything here, so she did not like her chicken burger very much. This would be her personal hell. I’ve decided that my mom would really like Bruges, because they refer to most food as ‘snacks’, and only list expensive meals and dinners otherwise. It is a snacking city, although their ‘snacks’ are the size of regular portioned food.

We got ice cream again at Da Vinci. It is pretty much the only store that is open at night. We then went back to our hostel and hung out in the bar and socialized. We played beer pong to win a free beer, but don’t worry mother, because I didn’t even come close to winning. I showered tonight – first shower in a hostel! It was nice and warm. I am so exhausted. I need to remember to go to bed earlier. Tomorrow we are waking up to catch a train to Amsterdam!

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

We said our goodbyes last night and caught a cab this morning to St Pancras station. We departed on the Eurostar at 8:30am from London to Brussels. It was about a three hour train through the Chunnel to Brussels. I was so tired that I slept through most of the journey. All I remember is waking up, looking at Allyson and saying how much my neck hurt, then turning over and falling back asleep.

We arrived in Brussels and took the Metro into central Brussels. We walked to Grand Place, or Grote Markt, the main square in Brussels. The buildings surrounding the Markt are beautiful. We spent a little bit of time there taking photos, and then we found our way to Manneken Pis, the statue/fountain of the little boy peeing. It is just one of those things you have to see when you are in Brussels. Apparently they dress it up in different outfits everyday, so today he looked like a matador, or some kind of army official. It was pretty weird. I would have rather just seen the statue in its nude glory, instead of in some stupid getup. We walked to the Kathedraal (Cathedral). Haha our backs were absolutely killing us from carrying our backpacks around the city, so we didn’t actually go in the cathedral. We collapsed on a bench outside and took pictures from there. We headed back towards the metro, first getting a chocolate covered waffle from a stall. Belgian waffles in Belgium! We took the metro back to the train station, Brussels Midi Zuid, and caught a train to Bruges. We had a hard time finding the train we needed to get onto, because ‘Bruges’ wasn’t listed on the Departure boards. Luckily we saw a sign in a window that said that Bruges departures were listed under Burgher and Knokke. Weird names, but they got us to Bruges!

We arrived in Bruges! We walked out of the train station to find the sun shining and all of the trees covered in flowers and new leaves. We found our heading and made our way through Bruges to our hostel, Lybeer. We checked in with the man at the counter and he told us that they had upgraded our beds from bunks in a dorm room to a private two person room! Yippee! He also gave us maps of the city, as well as Bruges City Passes, which give us discounts at different attractions. Our room is pretty nice. We are on the third level, up 63 stairs (3 short of the Centre). The stairs are very narrow and rickety. Our room has a sink in it, which is nice, and the view is really pretty. The houses in Brussels are all very beautiful.

Haha so we had no idea what the language spoken in Belgium was, but apparently in Southern Belgium it is French, and in Northern Belgium it is Flemish, but most people are bilingual or trilingual (most people also speak English). It is really fun to wander the streets here and try to pronounce the street names. We mainly say them using lots of grunting and heavy German accents.

We left our hostel and headed to the center of Bruges, Market Square (Markt). In the square is the Belfry that we plan to climb tomorrow morning (366 stairs to the top). It is supposed to have the best view of the city. Right in front of the Belfry were two French fry stands. We bought French fries. I got mine with mayonnaise. I know gross sounding, but it is the way they eat them here! It actually wasn’t bad. I felt like I was clogging all of my arteries, but they sure were tasty. We walked around a bit more and explored. So apparently, fries were invented in Belgium, but they are called French fries because the Belgian commanders during World War I spoke French when they baked fries and their Allied colleagues remembered “French fries”. Voila!

After traveling on foot for a while, we rented bikes and rode around the city on two wheels. Bruges is a biking city. There are bikes everywhere. I have seen more bikes than cars. It is hard to tell roads from sidewalks apart, but it doesn’t seem to matter much, because bikes can go all over, and the cars seem to do the same as well. It is kind of hard to navigate while you are riding, because you go by street signs too fast. We eventually found our way to Minnewater (park). It was a beautiful park, and had a pretty section of canal running through it. Close by was another small park that was full of swans and ducks. There was a mama duck with a bunch of adorable ducklings quacking and waddling around. They were so cute! The mama duck was super alert the entire time, and watched her babies closely. There were also a lot of nesting swans, sitting in their massive nests. I say some swan eggs, but no babies yet. We continued our biking adventure and rode along the canal past the windmills that lined it. So many pretty flowers, trees, and windmills. It was such a good decision to rent bikes! They were so much fun! Haha the only problem is that the roads in Bruges are mainly cobblestone, and cobblestone hurts your butt to ride over on a bike. It was very bumpy and my butt is killing me! Super sore! Haha. We headed back to drop off our bikes, and then continued our adventure on foot.

Bruges is so beautiful. I like it so much better than Brussels. The buildings are beautiful, the roads are beautiful, the flowers and trees are beautiful, and the people are beautiful. I love it!

We got dinner at a recommended family run cheap eat – Medard. I ordered €3 pasta. I got a small, but it was the biggest portion I have ever seen. The spaghetti noodles were really good, but it was the sauce that was amazing! The tomato sauce was filled with chunky vegetables (mushrooms, zucchini, carrots, tomatoes, onions, peppers, etc). So good! It was super filling; I couldn’t even finish it. Allyson got some really good homemade tomato soup! Delicious!

We wandered around some more, but by that time most of the stores had already closed. We found a gelato shop still open. We weren’t aware the Da Vinci was the most recommended ice cream shop in Bruges. It was so good! I got tiramisu flavored. It was amazing! It was freezing when we left, so we hurried back to the hostel. I have no concept of time here, because it doesn’t get dark until 10pm! It is crazy!

We hung out in the bar at our hostel and checked email for a little bit. We met a girl named Sea. She is from Australia and has been traveling since November. She is traveling for an entire year, and has spent quite a bit of time in Africa, as well as four months in Oxford. She is also part Egyptian! We had a good time chatting with her, then went up to our room around 11pm and planned for tomorrow. So exhausted!

Tuesday, April 20th, 2010

Allyson and I woke up at 8:40 to get to the Rail Europe office before it opened. We arrived outside the office at 9:45am, fifteen minutes before it opened. The line was already around the corner. We got into line. About an hour later a lady came around passing out numbers. We were number 88. Apparently they could only take about 145 people in a day. That is about 20 people an hour. Insanity! We were there for exactly five hours. We spent only 20 minutes or so in the office with an agent, so that means that the rest of those five hours were spent waiting outside in line. It was ridiculous. We did meet some really nice people in line. We met an elderly couple from Scotland. They were very friendly, although it was very difficult to understand their thick Scottish accents. They have spent a lot of time in San Diego, because one of their children owns a time share there. We also met two girls from Boston University. Time passed fairly quickly while we waited in line. When we finally got to the front of the queue and explained to an agent what we needed to do, his supervisor overheard us and told us that we wouldn’t be able to book any tickets today because they were only serving people in emergencies and who needed to get home. I wanted to slap her. She was such a b*tch to us. I looked at her and wanted to scream, but told her that we had waited in line for five hours like everyone else and were not going to be turned away. She told us that because we were only buying tickets to go on holiday that they wouldn’t help us. Ergh! She made me so mad! I told her that we were from the States and that with the airports closed, we couldn’t get home, and that rail travel was our only mode of transportation. Such a B. The agent was a saint. He ignored her and helped us. He was the biggest help. He booked all of our night trains for us, as well as advised us on what trains needed reservation and which ones didn’t. He was such a help and such a stress reliever.


Now we have all of our train tickets! We are ready to take on Europe!

Headed back to the Centre, but first took a final stroll through Kensington Gardens. It was so funny! I was walking and eating some roasted soy nuts, when this puppy starts jumping all over me trying to get my food. I calm her down and start petting her, when her owner comes over and apologizes. We reassure him that it’s no big deal, and continue to pet the dog. Then some teenagers nearby start squealing. We thought they were making a fuss about the puppy, but it turns out the man was Alan Carr, famous British comedian. It was pretty funny actually. They were all obsessed about getting his autograph and photos with him, while Ally and I were a little ways off playing with his dog. He must have forgotten, because he looked back at us and apologized and made like he was going to take the dog away, but we reassured him that it was fine. I could have cared less about getting his autograph, but playing with the puppy was so much fun. Finally saw a celeb in London though. That was pretty cool! Fed the birds the rest of my soy nuts then went back to the Centre.

We spent the rest of the day at the Centre getting ready for our backpacking adventure! We said goodbye to most everybody, and made reservations for all of our hostels we will be staying in in April. We did take a dinner break and go to Tuk Tuk Thai Noodle with Calvin and Cameron. I am going to miss Calvin and Cameron so much. They are my favorite people at the Centre. I love them so much!

Packed and finished getting ready for backpacking. Have to wake up early tomorrow in order to catch our 8:30am train. Went to bed way too late though! I did scratch my name into my bed and wrote a message to future Londoners!

I am going to miss London so much!

Monday, April 19th, 2010

Slept in… again. I love getting to sleep in. We did sleep in too late though. We went to Piccadilly Circus to go to the Rail Europe Tourist Centre to buy train tickets. We found the office, but there was an insane line of people out the door. We found the end of the line. It wrapped around the building, down the block, and then down another block. It was ridiculous! Hundreds of people! We left, and plan on returning tomorrow morning. Didn’t know what else to do, so we walked around the area. We spontaneously decided to buy tickets for Hair tonight. Didn’t really know much about it before hand. Still excited to see another show!


We went to the Tate Britain. I am not in love with this museum like a lot of people are. I still like the National Gallery a lot better. We then took the tube to Westminster and took photos in front of Big Ben. I am going to miss London! From there we walked to Trafalgar Square. We went to the National Gallery for an hour, and then got dinner at Little Frankie’s. Little Frankie’s is an Italian American restaurant that a couple of our friends love. I now love it too! I ordered their Californian Pizza. It was so good! Super good thin crust, tomato/pesto sauce, mozzarella, bell peppers, tomatoes, olives, and the best sautéed mushrooms. It was such a good pizza. I am sad I only just discovered it.

After we ate dinner we walked to Piccadilly Circus and went to the theatre to see Hair. Hair just opened in the West End, and features the original cast from Broadway. I loved it! Loved it so much! Haha I totally embrace the crazy hippie culture now. Peace. It was insane! Raucous! The plot is mixed in with all the crazy hippie love, drugs, and sex. The songs were great, and the actors were hilarious. My favorite part was how the actors interacted with the audience. During numbers they would come out into the audience. Some guys would climb over people and chairs, women would pet people as they walked by… it was so funny. During one scene, they came out and passed white daisies to people, as well as flyers for the be-in. The play was high in sexual energy. It was very suggestive and perverse, so it is not for the weak minded… haha I still loved it though! So Ally got to see her first live naked man (and woman). All of the sudden, right before intermission, somehow all of the actors and actresses got undressed and stood naked in the center of the stage in a straight line. I still cannot figure out how they all got naked so quickly, because I barely blinked and then they were all just standing there. Poor Allyson and her fragile, innocent mind. Haha innocent my ass! She still was a bit shocked haha, as was I… of course. At the end of the show, as the audience started to applaude, the cast went out into the audience and started taking people onto stage with them to sing “Let the Sunshine In”. I grabbed Allyson’s hand and attempted to drag her up there with me. She refused. I even asked an elderly couple to watch our bags. She still refused and was super stubborn. I don’t know what got into me, but I left her and ran onto the stage by myself. We were sitting in the Dress Circle, and the lead actor was up there getting people to come onto stage. He took me by the hand to get me to come up! He was so hot! But apparently he is also extremely gay. Oh well! I was super confused as I ran out the doors and down the stairs, because I couldn’t find the door to get to the stage. I found an usher who opened a door for me, and then I was running onto the stage. It was awesome! People were up there dancing and singing along. It was so cool to be on stage and have hundreds of people staring down at you. It was so freaking hot one stage. All of the super bright stage lights make you start sweating instantly. I could barely make out Allyson in the crowd, because the lights blind you. It would be crazy to be a stage actor. Got a sort of hug by the other hot lead! I am so becoming a hippie now! After the show ended I met Allyson back up in the Dress Circle. She was super jealous of me and disappointed that she didn’t just go up with me. I wish she did! When is that girl going to learn to listen to me!? Haha so when I got back to the Centre I learned that one of the two male leads in Hair is the same actor from Singles Ward and The Best Two Years. I will never be able to watch those movies again without busting up laughing because I know that I have seen him naked. He was such a good actor, but it is really sad that he is no longer LDS.

Sunday, April 18th, 2010

Well I should be in Lisbon already, but that isn’t going to happen anytime soon. Allyson and I slept in. We couldn’t go to church because we had already sent all of our clothes with Melinda. We didn’t really go out today. We watched She’s The Man in the classroom with Katie and Calvin. Such a funny/silly movie.


After dinner Allyson and I bought Eurostar tickets to take the Chunnel to Brussels! We are getting out of here! We leave Wednesday morning. So now we are doing our entire backpacking itinerary in reverse. Totally fine, we just need to start planning, getting hostels, and rebooking flights. So we are starting in Brussels, then Bruges, Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Salzburg, Munich, Florence, Siena, Rome, Barcelona, Madrid, and Lisbon. It was really confusing to reverse our trip. It is not as easy as it sounds, because the amount of days we stay in each city changes as we organize/plan our night trains. I am super excited!

Saturday, April 17th, 2010

Well, my flight to Lisbon has been canceled. The volcanic ash in the air has caused all of the airplanes in Europe to be grounded. Everyone is stuck. The airlines are losing so much money. People in the Centre are going crazy. The girls in my room are raising hell. They are so annoying and think that they are each the center of the universe and that their own “tragedies” are greater than anybody else’s problems. I am so tired of certain people in the Centre. Sad, but true. Macfarlane woke everyone up early for a meeting in the lounge. He basically told everyone to calm down and to stop telling parents random things like they are kicking us out. Some girls are such drama queens. So tired of the Divas.

Slept in, then went to Portobello Road Market. This is our third last time there. I just love it so much. I can’t seem to say goodbye. After Portobello we stayed at the Centre and researched ways to get out of London. I called and rescheduled our flight to Lisbon for Sunday evening, but that is not looking like it is going to happen. So far we are thinking about either taking a ferry to Spain, or else waiting out the ash clouds. Don’t know what to do.

We went to dinner with Calvin, Cameron, Jake, and Katie. We were all craving Italian, so we went to Bella Italia. I ordered simple pasta with tomato sauce and buffalo mozzarella. It was so good! The sauce was amazing. It had bell peppers and onion in it, and the mozzarella was so fresh! Delicious! We went to Tesco afterwards for a treat, but I didn’t buy anything! I was so proud of myself for not buying anything. I never do that!

Friday, April 16th, 2010

Well I am stuck on this godforsaken island. Thank goodness it is London and I love it! The volcano in Iceland has grounded all airplanes in the UK due to all of the ash in the air. Apparently if a plane flies through the ash, the ash will enter the engines, turn to glass, and then stop the engines. The plane will then plummet towards the earth, but the engines usually will turn on once they are cleared of the ash. Yeah, that does not sound like fun to me. So my flight is on Saturday morning… who knows if it will be cancelled. Some of the girls here are freaking out; it is ridiculous. Everyone is going through the same stress, but they feel that their particular case is worse than others. Ridiculous! It really makes me appreciate Allyson and myself. Most of these girls would not be able to go backpacking and do all of the traveling that we are about to embark on. I have also been very impressed by Allyson… she usually stresses too much about everything, but I think she is much better than usual. Still worrying too much, but she is handling it better than a lot of the crazy girls in the Centre.


Allyson and I slept in, then went to Buckingham Palace and saw the changing of the guard. I think it is funny that our last day here we do one of the most touristy thing possible. Allyson liked it a lot, and we both had a good time. We headed back towards the Centre. Since I had already done most of my packing last night, I went to Primark to return some of Allyson’s clothes for her. The lines were super long and it was very crowded. Headed back and stopped by Vodophone and Orange to look at cell phones. I bought a pay as you go cell phone and topped it up. Then I went back to the Centre and finished packing with Allyson. Her half-sister, Melinda, and her family came to the Centre at 6pm to pick up our luggage. Melinda is so nice. She and her husband were down near Bath for the week, and came up to London to pick up our suitcases to keep while we are backpacking. They are lifesavers. We chatted with them at the Centre for a while. Their kids, Clare and Jonas, are so cute. We all went to Nando’s for dinner. Afterwards we went back to the Centre. I sat behind the steering wheel of their car! So weird being on the right side of a car! It is such a relief to not have our luggage anymore. I keep worrying that I forgot to pack something, or that I packed something that I need. Well, I am officially a backpacker now. I am living out of my backpack with only five shirts, two pairs of jeans, four pairs of socks, and five pairs of underwear. I have a question… why are they called pairs of underwear?

Thursday, April 15th, 2010

Got four hours of sleep last night. Felt awful waking up, but I had to get up early to study for myth. Woke up at 7am and studied until the test started at 11am. This was another painful test. I felt confident in the short answers, but there was a section where you write the child of a myth couple, as well as a section where you list the lover of a myth character. Yup I failed that. There was a final essay at the end of the test that I thought I answered really well, until I asked someone about it later and I realized I wrote about the wrong thing altogether! I was so stressed! I still think I answered the prompt really well and backed it up well, even though I wrote about the wrong myth. Oops. I think that I will still get some credit for it, so that’s good, but I was so annoyed with myself. Ergh! After the test I had three hours until my final final. The London walks/culture final was a complete waste of time. It covered things that we never learned. Such a complete joke of a class. But now I am done with finals! I am so brain dead.


Spent all night packing. Can’t remember what else I did.

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010

First day of finals. Let’s see… I got one hour of sleep last night. I studied all day and all night, and then went upstairs to go to bed around 5:30am. Took a quick shower, and then got in bed. I was about to fall asleep when I heard some very loud rustling in the corner of the room. I could not figure out who else was up so late, and why they were making so much noise. Then I heard some very loud squeaking that sounded more like shrieking. I jumped up and went over to the corner. Yup, we have mice in our room. Too much adrenaline and I was freaked out, so I could not fall asleep. That’s why I only got one hour of sleep. That and because I had to wake up to take an 8am final. It was so hard to wake up. I literally fell out of bed five minutes before the final started, threw on some pants, brushed my teeth and stumbled downstairs. I have never had a final so early, or a class so early for that matter. Waking up to take a test was not fun. It sucked. My Classical Traditions test was so hard. It was ridiculous. It wouldn’t have even helped if I did do the reading for the class. It was so hard. Two hours later and I was completely dead. I had an hour to cram/study some more before I had to take my religion test. It was another two hour test. It wasn’t too bad, but his tests are way too hard given the circumstances of London and the nature of the class. Then I had six hours until my British Literature final. I was planning on studying for all six of those hours, because I didn’t have time to study before, what with two earlier finals and all. Well I went and got lunch, then screwed around. Only got two or three hours of studying done. Took my final from 7-9pm. It sucked. It was really hard, and I left more than one question blank. Ended the final a little before 9pm. It would have been nice to be done with finals for the day, but I had to go back to studying. Studied all freaking night for mythology until my eyes wouldn’t stay open any longer. Aiming to get more sleep than last night.

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010

School, school, school. Today was a reading day; basically I did homework, studied, and drank diet coke. Made a couple of runs to Tesco for chocolate and diet coke, but otherwise I was studying nonstop. My life sucks.

Monday, April 12th, 2010

Last day of classes! Only had mythology… what a blast. This week will basically be a non-stop school week. Don’t remember much of today, other than I freaking worked my butt off. Did so much pointless busy work for all of my classes. I have so many assignments to finish… I don’t even know when I will be able to start studying for finals.

Sunday, April 11th, 2010

Yup I’m sick. It sucks.

Saturday, April 10th, 2010

Slept in today a little. I definitely needed to sleep in, because I feel like I am catching a cold. It sucks, because this is not what I need right now with finals and backpacking.
Went to Portobello Road Market and got lunch. It was such a beautiful day today! The sun was shining and it was warm! The trees are starting to bloom! I love it!
Other than Portobello I really didn’t do much today. I came back to the Centre and did homework/studying. I hate that I wasted such a beautiful day indoors. Sucks!
Went to dinner with a group of friends to Kahn’s for dinner. Love it as always. Now I am back to studying… sort of, because I am also watching Hitch.
One week from now I will be in Lisbon!

Friday, April 9th, 2010

Last excursion together as a program. We took a scenic boat tour down the Thames to Greenwich. The boat tour was great. The weather was perfect. There wasn’t much to do in Greenwich. There are a couple of maritime museums, but I wasn’t interested. The only thing we did was go up to the Royal Observatory, home of the Prime Meridian of the World. Pretty much we walked up there, took a photo, and then left. I suppose it was pretty cool to stand in two different hemispheres at once, although I didn’t much care for Greenwich. I like Greenwich Village in New York much more.

Headed back towards the Centre, but first stopped at Primark. We went back to Primark to get more jeans, because we hadn’t gotten the wrong sizes. Came back to the Centre and did homework. I feel like I am setting so much time aside for homework that more of it should be done by now. We did take a well deserved break and run to Whitley’s for a waffle.

Thursday, April 8th, 2010

Last day of A classes, including Civ, Religion, Brit Lit, and Culture. Thank goodness! Still have one more day of classes on Monday.

After dinner, Allyson and I went to Billy Elliot! Allyson had been dying to go to this show all year, so we finally bought tickets. We bought the cheapest tickets available, with a somewhat restricted view. We were in the stalls in the 4th or 5th row on the side, so we couldn’t see the actors’ feet all of the time, but we could still see all of the show otherwise. The show was really good! I had never seen the movie before, and wasn’t really clear on the plot, but I really liked it. It was a lot of fun. Haha the actors all had Northern English/Geordie accents, which I sometimes found almost impossible to understand. There was one point in the play when a Londoner and Billy’s dad make fun of each other for their accents. My favorite character was Michael, Billy’s best friend, who is a cross-dressing, budding homosexual. He was so funny and talented. The show was lots of fun and had lots of laugh out loud moments.

After the show Allyson and I planned a little bit for our backpacking adventure. And by plan I mean we made two hostel reservations… and that’s about it. We made reservations for hostels in Lisbon and Madrid. Have I mentioned how excited I am!?

Wednesday, April 7th, 2010

Today we went with the program to tour Parliament. Parliament is actually going into session today, so there were lots of “severe” level security risk warning signs. I found it really interesting to tour Parliament, and I really enjoyed it. I found it especially interesting that their government is slowly moving towards becoming more like the U.S. government. They just recently established a supreme court, and our making changes to make their House of Lords more like our Senate. I found it really interesting to learn all about their government and the changes taking place. I also think it is funny to hear them scorn their own government.

After, we went to the Cabinet War Rooms and the Winston Churchill Museum. Both were very interesting, and I really liked the Churchill Museum, because it was very detailed and interactive. The museums are really nicely put together. I was impressed.

I have spent the rest of the day at the Centre getting things accomplished… sort of. I am super stressed right now, because I have so much homework, studying for finals, planning for backpacking, packing, and wandering in London to do. I am so stressed. Not good!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

I have new cousins!!!!!!!!!!  Gavin and Nathan Kunz are here!

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010

Classes… always a bore. Today was a really good day. Allyson and I finally made it to Primark. I bought two pairs of cheap jeans to wear while backpacking, as well as two sweaters that I absolutely love, a blouse, some zebra socks, and a glitter umbrella. I am very happy with my purchases.


We rushed back to the Centre to drop off our purchases and change, because we had a date with the Cuban Ballet! We got dressed up, and then went to Zizzi’s for dinner. We had a fabulous dinner. We ordered a bread board appetizer (yum). Allyson ordered some kind of chicken pizza that looked really good. I ordered Ravioli Di Capra – golden pasta envelopes of goat’s cheese and spinach with a fresh Santos tomato sauce and pesto. It was amazing! So good! To finish off our really good meal, we shared a cinnamon gelato. Yum!

We were bursting as we hurried to the tube to get to the London Coliseum. We had great seats in the dress circle to see the Ballet Nacional de Cuba. We saw Ballet Nacional De Cuba’s Magia De La Danza, a mixed bill which highlights extracts from seven of the company’s most famous ballets. It was a great taster. We say scenes from Giselle, Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, Coppelia, Don Quixote, Swan Lake, and Gottschalk Symphony. My favorite was Don Quixote, because the male dancers were dressed as matadors and had red capes that they incorporated into their dancing. It was very well done. The other two that I really enjoyed were Sleeping Beauty and Coppelia. The dancing was phenomenal. I really enjoyed it.

Monday, April 5th, 2010

Classes today… boring. Allyson and I were planning on going shopping at Primark today, but when we got to Oxford Street we remembered that it is Easter Monday, and that everyone was off of work, so it was a nightmare. We did not dare venture into Primark.

So the program is “generously” allowing us to purchase tickets for a “suitable” performance that they will reimburse us for, up to £60. How nice of them… considering IT IS ALREADY OUR MONEY YOU THIEFS. The shows have to come from an approved list. I honestly would rather just have the cash. Give me my money back! Well, they aren’t going to give us our money back, so Allyson and I bought tickets to see the National Ballet of Cuba. We are really excited. It is Allyson’s first ballet and she is super excited.

Sunday, April 4th, 2010

Happy Easter! I got to sleep in today because it is Conference and it is not aired until 5pm. We had brunch instead of dinner today. It was nice; omelettes, pancakes, quiche, tarts, cakes, etc. Yummy. The bummer was that we didn’t get dinner. We got dressed up for the brunch, because we had our own little Easter service in the classroom afterwards.

After, Allyson and I packed some bread and went into Kensington Gardens to feed the ducks and swans. It was so pretty outside. Although it is still quite cold, the sun was shining and all of London was out to enjoy it. I brought my camera, so we took some photos in our Easter outfits. I think they turned out really well!

More pictures to come...

I'm gunna have to teach Allyson how to use my camera, because I didn't realize how few pictures I have of me... that are in focus.

Saturday, April 3rd, 2010

Didn’t get to sleep in like I wanted to because we had a special Easter breakfast at the Centre. We had the most amazing waffles with fresh strawberries, homemade chocolate sauce, and whipped cream. I was stuffed. It was so good.

First thing Allyson and I did this afternoon was buy tickets for Billy Elliot. It is the one show that she wants to see. We got some decent cheap seats for this coming Thursday. I am looking forward to it.

Went shopping afterwards. We shopped all along Oxford Street, focusing on buying a few things for backpacking. I bought a sweatshirt and small travel purse from H&M. I also bought myself a souvenir purse with the union jack on it. Cheesy I know, but I love it!

We went to Tuk Tuk Thai Noodle for lunch. I was sadly disappointed, as I didn’t like my dish very much. It was kind of gross. We stopped by Marks and Spencer and bought some soup to have for dinner. I love their soups. I got spicy lentil and tomato.

Blogged and did some homework the rest of the night. That’s it folks.

Friday, April 2nd, 2010

Woke up in Liverpool today. Had a good nights sleep, but would have loved to have slept all day. We had breakfast, loaded up the coach, and then met our professors on the dock. We had a brief and pointless talk, and then were set loose on the city of Liverpool. We spent most of our time in The Beatles museum. It was probably the best part of the whole North trip. I was kind of bummed though that they didn’t have much information on how they formed, their personal lives, or why they broke up. There was a lot of information about random people in their lives that I didn’t really care about. Still, it was a nice museum and was fun. I do love The Beatles.

Allyson and I left the museum and went in search of lunch. We only had an hour until we were to be back on the coach. Gotta love Subway.

We got back to the coach on time… wish everyone else did. Three girls were over half an hour late. Macfarlane was furious. Because they were late, we missed our appointment at Coventry Cathedral. Instead of getting food in Coventry, we now had to stop at some crap rest stop. They only had fast food, so I didn’t get anything. Waited until London. Went to Nando’s and got a veggie burger. Still don’t like Nando’s.

I am so glad to be back in London. I absolutely detested the North Trip. It was an awful waste of time, and now I am stressed about school and my limited time left in London.

Poor Creature...

Thursday, April 1st, 2010

April Fool’s Day… this entire trip should be just one really bad joke. Too bad it’s not.

Today we had the option of either walking 45 minutes to Hill Farm or taking a coach there. Hill Farm is Beatrix Potter’s property. We took a tour of her house – I still hate touring authors’ homes – then we went back to Hawkshead. We had another 45 minutes until the coach left, so we explored the area and grabbed lunch. We went to a little café for lunch. We ordered take away lunches, which turned out to be £2 cheaper than eating in, so I got a delicious tuna melt for only £3 – such a steal!

I am so glad that I brought my pillow on the coach with me, because it makes napping on the coach so much more comfortable. I still hate sleeping on coaches/cars/planes. Guess I’ll have to get used to it… for backpacking. I fell asleep on our drive to Preston. Today is a day of church history… oh boy (sarcasm)! We met some Mormon tour guide and he led us around Preston. It was awful. First, they gave us these ridiculous headsets, so we looked like an idiotic American tour group. Then, we got to walk all over Preston going to places that the very first missionaries went to when they preached in Preston… not interesting. The worst part was when we were walking through this huge park. Swarms of bugs would descend upon us without warning. It was awful – all of the sudden we would be surrounded by dark clouds of bugs. I hated it! I hate bugs! I finally lost it towards the end of the tour and could no longer even pretend to pay attention. I found this super long stick (more like a branch) and ran around poking Allyson with it. Don’t know why I found this so funny/amusing, but I was practically crying with laughter. I guess I had snapped. Ally and I weren’t the only ones who were going insane. Haha at one point Allyson told me she would give me £1 to run through a flock of pigeons, so I did. I got a lot of strange looks, but it fit my mood. The best part of the tour was the end when we got to get back on the coach.

We then drove to the Preston Temple. The grounds were pretty, but the temple itself was grey and dull. It only had one spire. I like when temples are white and not square. Didn’t stay there very long, just long enough for people to take photos and walk around.

Now we are in Liverpool. On the drive in, the professors tried to pull a prank on us by announcing that our Wuthering Heights papers were due as we got off the bus. Not very funny. I almost fell for it, until I realized that there was nothing assigned and it would be impossible to have time to write a paper. Not like I would have cared even if there really was one. We are staying at the Ibis hotel. It is better than the first Ibis we stayed in in York. My room isn’t freezing and the shower has water pressure. Haven’t really seen much of Liverpool. Went to dinner with Allyson, Cameron, and Calvin. We got fish and chips at some little store. They were pretty good. I was stuffed. Walked back to the hotel, watched Liverpool lose a football match, and then took a shower. Uneventful night. Cut my fingernails and toenails – that’s about it. Can’t wait to get back to London!

Wednesday, March 31st, 2010

Crap time is going by to quickly. Ergh! And the North is definitely not where I want to spending my last remaining days in London.

Not surprising, but today also sucked. This trip is awful. They did not plan it very well, and we do not use our time very efficiently. We spend hours on the coach, hours doing absolutely nothing, and hours at pointless author’s houses. We waste so much valuable time!

Today we left Durham and went to Hadrian’s Wall at Housesteads. Yup, this place really sucked. It was awful! The weather was horrible. It was snowing, and everything was covered in snow and slush. We had to hike up a hill in it. They did not tell us that we would be hiking in snow and slush. No one had good shoes. So many people fell and slid. I am so lucky that I did not fall; I was being very careful. Cold, wet, and miserable is not a fun way to start a day sitting on a coach.

So we hike up this godforsaken piece of land to these ancient Roman ruins and wall. They were pathetic. Just stone outlines on the ground. Not impressive and very uninteresting. So mad that they made us climb up the hill in that weather. Such a waste of time. The top of the hill was so windy, it would cut into you. It was freezing. I feel so bad for everyone who fell. It was one girl’s birthday, and she was being really careful when all of the sudden a huge gust of wind knocked her from the ledge she was standing on. She bounced down on the ground, and then fell face forward, hitting her face in the snow. So sad! Then on the way down her best friend fell down. Not a very happy time. Surprisingly I was helping people walk down, even though I am the clumsiest person when it comes to walking in the snow. Allyson also had an awful experience. She couldn’t even make it up to the top, because her boots have so many holes and ripped seams that her feet became completely soaked almost immediately. Not fun to have frozen, wet feet. I felt so bad for her. Would have been better just to wait on the coach.

We watched Miss Potter on the way to our next destination, the Wordsworth properties at Dove Cottage and Grasmere. Great another place I don’t care about at all! The movie was good. My mythology class has got me catching myth references everywhere now! As we were watching it, there is a scene where Miss Potter and Millie are complaining about men and how it is better to be single, when the camera distinctly focuses on a painting of The Rape of Europa. Don’t have a strong mythical allusion thought out yet, but pretty sure it’s referencing a strong disdain for men.

We got to Grasmere early, so everyone got off the coach to wander the little city for a while. I didn’t want to be tempted to spend money on something pointless, so Allyson and I didn’t bother to get off the coach. Too cold outside. Half an hour later we drove to Dove Cottage. What a waste of time. I don’t care about where the poet William Wordsworth lived for a portion of his life. We looked through a museum for a bit, and then took a tour of his home. Lame! I seriously don’t understand how anyone can find that interesting. And to top it off, we then drove to where he lived until he died. We spent over an hour there. I spent most of that time with a lot of the class in front of a radiator. Then spent the rest of the time sitting on the coach waiting for the coach to leave. Blown away by the stupidity of it all.

Now we are in the Lake District. It is beautiful here, I won’t deny that. We are staying at Hawkshead Youth Hostel, a YHA hostel. Had dinner at the hostel; nasty “chili” on white rice. It was the nastiest, blandest meal ever. The peach cobbler was ok, but the custard with it was much better. Too make a bad day even worse, we had classes tonight. I had to sit through two hours of mythology and then English, while freezing my butt off in a little classroom. The classes were pointless; hardly even focused. Allyson and I attempted to plan our backpacking itinerary, but we only got through like two or three cities. We need a lot more time. Today sucked, simple as that. And my hair is gross.

My favorite part of the North is all of the sheep.  No joke!  There are so many lambs everywhere!  I love them!

Tuesday, March 30th, 2010

We checked out of the hotel and walked through York to the York Minster. I’ll be honest… I would much rather have been sleeping than walking through cold and rainy York. The cathedral was fine, I just felt like they dragged us through it forever. Our guide was really nice; our tour was just too long. After our tour we were free to wander York for an hour and a half until our coach departed. Allyson and I went straightaway to find a McDonald’s so she could email her parents about her class schedule. Luckily the fast food nation is vast and plentiful, so we quickly found what we were looking for. We were there for a long time, and then had to hurry to get to the coach on time.

We watched Pride and Prejudice on the coach. I love that movie! All of the girls (so basically everyone on the coach) were so into the movie; it was hilarious. The professors would pause it to make announcements, only to receive loud roars of disapproval from disgruntled girls. Very funny.

We next went to Fountains Abbey. No one was happy to be here. One, we all wanted to finish Pride and Prejudice, and Two, it was raining. Fountains Abbey is just like Tintern Abbey, old ruins of an abbey. Not my favorite. It was also really muddy, so that sucked. They gave us too much time to spend there, as there was really nothing to do.

Next we drove to Durham Castle where we are staying the night. Durham Castle is now used as a school, and since it is the Easter Holidays, we get to use the dormitories. That’s right… I’m sleeping in a castle. Doesn’t really seem like a castle in my room, but the doors are all really neat, and the hallways are all stone. So they made some mistakes with the room assignments, so a few of us are in single rooms instead of with roommates. I am in a room all alone. It is kind of lonely. This is my first time being in school and having a room all to myself. Crazy! Haha not like it matters though, because I have spent the entire night in Allyson’s room. She is rooming with Alyssa. Alyssa was hanging out in someone else’s room, so Ally and I were going to plan backpacking. Instead we talked for four hours. It was a really good talk and we had a lot of fun. I love that girl! She’s the best! Haha so when Alyssa knocked on the door around midnight, we had planned that I would hide in the closet when she entered. So I hid, Ally opened the door, and then once Alyssa walked in, I started shaking the wardrobe. Ally then screamed “For Narnia!”; although she was laughing so hard (because we scared Alyssa) it didn’t really make sense. I then burst out of the wardrobe screaming “I found Narnia!” Ya, it was a really lame moment, but it was still really funny!

Earlier in the evening we went to Durham Cathedral for Evensong. This was my first time at Evensong, and it was really nice. I really liked it. Afterwards we went with a group to Pizza Express. I had a yummy vegetarian pizza. Stuffed afterwards. Then we headed to Tesco to stock up on snack foods for the coach. Allyson and I managed to stay in Tesco longer than anyone else in our party. That certainly is an accomplishment. We were there for so freaking long! Didn’t spend very much, so that’s good.

Now I am exhausted and have to wake up at 8am again… oh boy!

Monday, March 29th, 2010

Beginning of our five day North Trip. I will be honest… I am not looking forward to this trip. I feel like we have such little time left in London that I don’t want to spend it going to writers’ houses and church history sites. The only cool thing is The Beatles museum that we are going to in Liverpool on our last day. Until then we will be stuck on a coach for long periods of time and staying in crappy hotels/hostels.

So someone on the program is an idiot, because as soon as we boarded the coach at 7:30am they started playing the movie Bright Star. Yeah, I would have liked to watch it, but for goodness sake shut it off so everyone can sleep. They didn’t play a movie during our second leg of the trip, when people were actually awake, but they did play a movie during the third leg, but they turned it off early for some asinine reason. I swear someone at the front of the bus was an idiot.

The first place we went to was Chatsworth House. The only significance of that sight to me is that it is where they filmed The Duchess and the Pemberley scenes from Pride and Prejudice (Keira Knightley version). It was cool seeing all the rooms she walks through in the movie. Loved it! Haha our bad luck! They had a huge Pride and Prejudice exhibit for the past couple of years, but took it away recently. Lame! They are going to reinstall it by the end of the year. And lucky us, we got to go through an exhibit on some old Lady somebody.

Boarded the bus again and went to Haworth Village (aka Bronte Village), where the Bronte sisters grew up. Took a tour of the parsonage they lived in with their father. Then went on a tour of the surrounding moors. Yup, definitely anticlimactic and unexciting.

Now we are in York in our crap hotel, the Ibis. I am rooming with Laura Nielson, which is great! Haha we are sharing the handicap room. The doorway is really big, there are railings everywhere, and there is no tub. I compared our room to Allyson’s, and our beds are ridiculously small compared to theirs. If theirs are twins, ours are super narrow and are for beanstalk people. Weird. We do have a tiny couch though. Ya, don’t foresee having any sad feeling about leaving this place. The worst part is that our heater doesn’t work. Our room is freezing. Right now I am sitting in my hotel room wearing a scarf and my coat because it is so cold in here. I am sitting next to a small somewhat broken space heater that I found in the corner because I am so cold. I feel like an old person!

Dinner was great tonight. So turns out there are no options for food in the area we are staying in, except for KFC and a chain pub called Wetherspoon’s. It has been raining non-stop today, and York is no exception. Cold, wet, and hungry we went to Wetherspoon’s with a rather large group. In pubs, you grab a table, remember the number, and then go up to the bar to order your food. Well there were a lot of people, especially from our group, when I went up there, so had to wait in line. While I was waiting in line an old man taps me on the shoulder and asks where we are from. Somehow I end up talking to him for about half an hour. I loved it! He was so nice and we had a great conversation. It was funny though, because my friends were worried that I was stuck in an awkward conversation so two of them came up separately to rescue me, but I didn’t need rescuing. I was enjoying talking to him. Haha it was funny though, because I was talking with him so much that I couldn’t order because I didn’t want to be rude and turn away. I finally managed to order when Allyson attempted to rescue me and I introduced her to the man. So here’s a little bit about Joseph, but I like to call him Joe. So our conversation started with him asking me where we were from, then I started telling him about our studies. We talked a lot about the U.S. He’s never been. He has heard of places like New York, Las Vegas, California, and knew that Utah was near Arizona. He was surprised to here that California was warm even during the winter, because it is usually raining in York and they have been having their worst winter. I told him about California, and then he told me about York. He told me about the places to see there, and then he talked about the Roman architecture there, and how he doesn’t like it. He wishes they would tear it down. He thinks America sounds better because everything is new there. I was astonished by this because I think all of the architecture and history in Europe is fascinating! We happily disagreed. He talked at length about his grandchildren, especially his eighteen year old grandson who is 6’5” and wants to be an actor, but it is so expensive to send him to acting school. He would love to go to school in the States, but it would cost upwards of £10,000. His grandson just doesn’t have the money, because his mother works at Boots the Chemist and his father is an electrician. Joe then pulled out his wallet and showed me photos of his five grandchildren. He was a very proud grandpa. Haha, so somehow we started talking about music. Oh I know! After mentioning that I was from California he said that he loves the Beach Boys and started singing “Surfin’ USA”. It was hilarious! I asked him if he liked The Beatles. I was very surprised to hear that he does not like The Beatles. We talked about the British Invasion in the U.S., when The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, etc. took over the U.S., and that The Beach Boys were our counter to their music (and that many in the States did not like them). Luckily I like The Beach Boys, so we are still able to be friends. Haha, so while he doesn’t like The Beatles, he does like The Rolling Stones, and loves Queens, although, “it is unfortunate about that queer, Freddie Mercury”. He kept going on about Freddie. That conversation transformed into a conversation about other musicians, and then into American actors. He and his wife really like watching CSI and NCIS. He prefers CSI Miami. He also really likes James Dean, as well as a handful of other actors that I didn’t know. Haha he said “bloody hell” and it was awesome. He also said “pissed off”, and then said “excuse my French”. I guess “piss” is a swear here. I loved him! Such a nice man. I am so glad that I talked to him! Haha he also asked me my age, first saying “I’m not trying to be cheeky…” So funny. We talked about a bunch of random things, and then he started telling me the story about how his son met his wife. They met on the beach in Nice, France. She was from Germany on holiday. He assumed she didn’t speak English, so cockily went up to her and was trying to impress her. She did speak English, which took him by surprise. They ended up dating for four, almost five years, and then she said they better get married because they had been together for so long, so they did. Random. Don’t know how that story started. This is when Allyson came and got me again because my food had arrived at the table. I said goodbye to Joe and thanked him for the conversation. I felt bad for leaving him, because I kind of cut the conversation short. I really liked talking to him! It made my night! He was so nice and so much fun to talk to. He was very funny. He also asked if I grew up on a farm… what does he think CA is like? He did mention produce and oranges in his description. Haha me on a farm? Get real! He also asked if I had any siblings… and if I was spoiled as an only child.

Had a good dinner of fish and chips, checked out some guys at the bar, and then headed back to the hotel. Have to be ready by 9am tomorrow. Better than 8am, but I am very tired and want to sleep!