Update

So I've been horrible at keeping this updated (busy busy).. I'm going to add a few pictures here and hopefully add more next Tuesday.

We made a trip to Ireland for St. Patty's Day weekend last weekend, and got back just in time for class Monday. We've been busy this week catching up on homework and now we're off to the Canary Islands for Easter Break tomorrow! We'll be back on Tuesday - relaxed, with lots of pictures and hopefully a tan!

Okay, apparently my internet doesn't want me to upload pictures tonight, and Lisa needs the landline for homework, so I'll add pictures next week!

Picture Update

Catching Up

So, as I haven’t been very good at keeping up on my blog, I’ll try and catch up on what I’ve been doing…

Last weekend we (Lisa, Chelsea and I) went to Northern Ireland to visit two families I know there. We flew out of the London-Stanstead airport, so we had to take a rather long hour and a half bus ride to get there. Once there we checked in for the flight and got in line for security. As it would have cost extra to check luggage, the three of us backpacked the trip. Making sure we kept our liquids in a ziplock bag, we waited patiently in line while Chelsea made up a song about making bombs with a Fanta bottle (yeah, probably not a good way to avoid being arrested…).. as our backpacks went through the scanner, they pulled mine and Lisa’s bags aside. We figured they’d pulled Lisa’s because of the blow-dryer she’d brought, but I really wasn’t sure why they wanted to search mine. Oh well, I thought – all that’s in there is clothes… WELL, before I continue this story, let me inform you that when I am not using my backpack for travel, I use it to store whatever I’m not using at the flat and empty it when I need it. Well, apparently I didn’t look close enough…. The woman who pulled my bag aside asked me if I had anything sharp in my bag and I said “well, probably a pair of tweezers in my makeup bag..” and she said “okay..” and began pulling everything – EVERYTHING – out of my bag (I’m sure the comment “you sure have a lot of rubbish” wasn’t completely necessary…)… as she opened the first pocket, she reached in and pulled out, not a tweezers, but a full size SCISSORS. Yep, brainiac me had managed to empty everything BUT the scissors out. Oh, and the sewing kit complete with mini scissors she happened to pull out next… she said “tweezers, huh?”… riiight. Well, believe it or not, I DID have tweezers in there , but I got to keep them along with the freedom of NOT being arrested. AWESOME.

Anyway, we spent the first night with Rachael’s family in the city of Belfast. We were spoiled rotten with home-cooked food and lots of wine (for me J). We wandered through Belfast with Rachael on Friday, stopping at a pub to have fish, chips, and a pint for a mere 4 pounds (woohoo! What a deal!). We spent the evening visiting with her family talking about how funny we find their accents and American politics (haha). David’s family drove into the city to pick us up that night and took us to their home in Dungannon (a smaller town in the countryside). We spent the last two night with them, getting spoiled AGAIN, going out for drinks with the whole family, and being asked to return in April – can’t say it’s a bad deal, since neither family would accept money from us J. It was an AWESOME weekend.

We saw the musical “We Will Rock You” on Monday night for our musical theatre class (I know, life is rough J). It’s a show made entirely from the music of Queen (similar idea to Mamma Mia and Abba). The plotline was really weak because of it, but the music was fun and upbeat, so it made the show enjoyable. Plus, I can’t really say I’m ever disappointed to see a musical!

We finished up class on Tuesday and didn’t have a field trip this week because of spring break. Kind of crazy that I’m already on spring break, but I’m not complaining! Chelsea and I took off for Germany Thursday afternoon – we flew out of Luton airport, so we had another long bus trip to the airport. Chelsea’s been kind of sick with a cold, so she passed out while I enjoyed the scenery. We flew easyJet this time (as opposed to RyanAir for N. Ireland), which we were much happier with. The ride was smoother and the service was friendlier (AND there were no hidden costs!). We landed in Germany and quickly remembered the fact that NEITHER of us speaks German. However (and I’m very proud to say this), we managed to catch a train to the underground and found our hostel in the middle of Berlin without a problem (and with no English!). We checked into the hostel and found our room. The room was a 6-person female suite with its own bathroom – there were only three other people in the room. One girl was from Holland and was going to be staying in the hostel for up to six months while she searches for a place to live. The other two girls were German, but we didn’t see much of them. We got free drink tickets for the bar upstairs when we checked in, so we went and grabbed a German beer, ran down the street for 2 euro hamburgers (awesome!), and called it a night.

My friend Julian (who was a foreign exchange student from Germany at my high school my junior year, as well as my dance partner in the musical Grease), met us the next morning at our hostel with his friend Afra. Afra went to school with Julian, but has been working in Berlin, so she showed us around the city for the day. We saw lot of smart cars (hehe!), a Holocaust monument, and the remnants of the Berlin wall – just to name a few things. When it started to get dark we left Afra and Julian, Chelsea, and I headed for Hannover (which is where Julian lives with his family). It was about a three hour drive, but the highlight of the night was driving on the Autobahn! While most parts have a limitation to how fast you can go, there’s still a stretch where there isn’t a speed limit – we had a good time with that J. We made it to Hannover that night, visited with Julian’s family, and headed next door to sleep. And by next door I mean that Julian’s neighbors were heading out of town, so they let us stay in there house while they were gone, (A lot of trust in people you don’t know!) so we had the whole house to ourselves. We’re still staying there now, even though the couple came back today. We have a room to ourselves downstairs, but we’re really only there to sleep as we eat dinner with Julian’s family and hang out here most of the time.

Saturday Julian took us on a brief sightseeing tour of Hannover, but it was abbreviated because it was pouring and windy. In the afternoon we got to go to a Hannover football (soccer) game with Julian and some of his friends. It was definitely a fun experience! While the stadium isn’t completely covered, it was warmer than outside, the game was exciting (Hannover won!!), and we got German pretzels and beer J. After the game, Julian and his family were going to a show, so we followed Afra home to her family’s (gorgeous) house in the “suburbs” of Hannover and spent a little time out there before she drove us back to Julian’s. Her family has a beautiful grand piano, so I of course had tickle the ivories myself, which made me quite happy J. After we got back to Julian’s, Chelsea and I had a few hours to ourselves, so we watched a movie and got ready to go out on the town. Julian took us out with his friends later, when we went to a cocktail bar and a club downtown – it was a great night.

Sunday was a lazy rainy day. Chelsea and I finally crawled out of bed around 1, and wandered next door to see what the family was up to. Turns out Julian was still in bed, so his sister had a good time going to wake him up J. All of us spent the day lounging around watching movies and youtube, having an awesome relaxing day full of laughs and home-cooked food – mmhmmm.

Which finally brings me to today – Julian and his siblings had school, and his dad left for a business trip, so Chelsea were on our own for the day. Julian’s mom brought us to the train station and Chelsea and I headed for the Hannover Zoo. We must have looked young enough to still be in school here, because we were yelled at THREE times in German on the way there – and each time we heard the word “school” in German – implying that everyone thought we were skipping school. Oh well J, we were just happy that the sun was shining (for the first time since we arrived in Germany)…SO, we finally arrived at the zoo and what happens? The sky opens up and it starts to POUR. Awesome. But we bought our tickets anyway, and found our way to a little restaurant inside to grab some lunch and wait out the rain. However, as we sat at a table, the entire menu was in GERMAN. We were contemplating just pointing at a random item on the menu, when the waitress came over. She greeted us in German, and we must have stared blankly because she said “oooh. You speak ENGLISH. (and she sounded very disappointed I might add)” I don’t think she was very happy to be waiting on us naïve Americans..haha. She found us English menus, we ordered something we could understand, and enjoyed a great meal. Not realizing we had to ASK for the bill, we waited for 45 minutes until another waitress finally brought it to us. Luckily the rain had stopped by then, so we wandered around the zoo for a few hours. Among the highlights were kangaroos, a baby gorilla, Chelsea touching a pelican, and both of us nearly touching an elephant! When we got to the elephant exhibit (there were TEN elephants in it!), one elephant came over to the edge, stood as close to it as he could, and reached out his truck to reach us. As we reached for him, he tried harder to reach us, but Chelsea and I were about two inches to short L. When we decided to move on to another exhibit, he walked away too. Then, about five minutes later we walked past the exhibit again, and he came over again and tried the same thing! We still couldn’t reach him, but we were happy that he seemed to like us! At 3:30 Julian picked us up on his way home from school, and then we met Afra for some sushi downtown. Who’d have thought we’d have sushi in Germany? Haha… which brings me to NOW.. Julian, Chelsea, and I are currently watching Shrek 2, eating chicken nuggets, and having a GREAT (somewhat American-themed) night. Chelsea and I headed back for Berlin at 5:30am on Wednesday by train to the airport so we can catch our flight back to London! The time has gone fast, but it has definitely been a memorable spring break so far!!

Paris!!

A bunch of pictures from Paris!! They're very out of order, so please forgive :-).Chelsea and I played the old-school Oregon Trail game all the way back from Paris on my computer.... Chelsea died a lot :-).
Although sideways, Sarah fell asleep with her mouth wide open.. we found it humorous.
Me at the very top of the Eiffel Tower on my birthday!
Chelsea and I with our "Eiffel Tower" crepes (aka. whipped cream and chocolate!!)
Sarah and I with our passports before the trip!
A service going on in Notre Dame.
The statue of St. Genevieve - the Patron Saint of Paris!
Notre Dame Sunday morning.
Epic picture I took outside Notre Dame along the river.
The Eiffel Tower.
The Louvre!
Drooling over shoes in a store near Montemartre.
Near Montemartre.
Sacre Coeur.
Having my portrait drawn! (at a discounted price for my birthday!) The picture of the portrait is farther down this page..

Chelsea in the box from the care package from my mother.
Chelsea carried the package all by herself - up four flights of stairs!
Notre Dame.

We had bathtubs!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The view of the river from part way up the Eiffel tower.
The view from the Eiffel Tower.


Looking up at the Eiffel Tower.

Arc de Triumph
Lisa and Chelsea - can you see why every time I walk between them I get squished? :-)
The first night in Paris - we were starving and no one at the restaurant spoke English. So when Sarah and I ordered a glass of wine, we got the WHOLE BOTTLE!
Chelsea and the hairdryer :-).
My portrait!!! It says February 8th, 2008, Paris.. in French at the bottom.
Me all dressed up for my birthday dinner in Paris!
In front of the Eiffel Tower!