Ireland!!!

Friday we FINALLY left for Ireland!!!  We flew over at 10 pm and got there around 11.  Our hotel in Dublin was MUCH better than the hostel in London.  It was actually cheaper per night and close to city centre, plus we had our own bathrooms and didn’t have to share a bedroom with 15 other people.  Becca and I shared a room, and we had some mishaps (such as the hairdryer catching on fire and breaking the handle off the bathroom door…long story lol, but I promise neither was our fault) but overall the accommodation was pretty good. 

On Saturday morning we set out bright and early.  We stopped and got breakfast at a little place called Café Sophia, which was delicious!  I hadn’t had a home cooked breakfast in a very long time, so I was pretty much in heaven.  We bought 48 hour tickets for a hop-on hop-off double decker tour, which was nice because it took us to all the major attractions and we only had to pay once.  While on the tour we went to Trinity College, the Parliament House, Christ Church Cathedral, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, MOMA, Dublin Zoo, the Jameson Distillery, Four Courts, and much more.  After we went around the city once we got off at the Guinness Storehouse.  It was SO COOL!  I know it doesn’t sound that interesting, but it really was.  They had 7 levels and each talked about a different part of the brewing process or Guinness. On the top level they taught you to pour the “perfect pint” and you got a free glass of Guinness which was delicious.  They also had a 360 view of the city which was really pretty.  After Guinness we walked around Temple Bar, did some shopping and hit O’Connell Street.  By the end of the day we were exhausted, so we grabbed dinner and went back to the hotel to relax.

Sunday we got up nice and early again.  We decided that although the city was awesome, we wanted to see some of the country too, so we went to a little town called Howth on the shore.  I cannot even begin to describe how gorgeous it was!  There were boats docked near the shore, beautiful hills with house on them and even small light houses.  While we were walking we saw and fed cute little seals that came up to the docks, which was very cool.  I loved being able to see some of the country.  When we went back to Dublin we walked around Temple Bar again then went back to our hotel.  On the way we saw something amazing.  Most of you (well, at least the girls) have probably seen P.S. I Love You.  Well, we actually went to Whelin’s…THE BAR THEY GO TO IN IT!!! Both in the flashback where she hears Gerard Butler singing “Galloway Girl” and when she meets Jeffrey Dean Morgan they are at that bar, and I was so stoked to see it.

Monday Sarah, Becca and Chelsea had to go back at 5 am because they had class, but Hannah and I stayed until the evening.  We walked to Dublina, a museum attached to Christ Church Cathedral about the Vikings and the history of Dublin.  Then we went to the Dublin Literary Museum.  Both were really interesting and I enjoyed spending my last day seeing them.  On the way to the Literary Museum we saw a memorial to Irish men and women who had fought for the country which was gorgeous as well. 

The whole weekend was fantastic and I saw some incredible things.  I had great company, great weather and an overall great experience there.

A trip to York!

This week started out pretty typical, I went to class, wrote a paper and hung out with all my friends.  On Thursday, though, we went on another day trip to York.  It was incredible!!!  I know I say this about everywhere I go, but everything there was extremely beautiful.  I still cannot get over the architecture here, especially when it comes to churches and cathedrals.  Many of you have probably heard of York Minster Cathedral, which we saw while in York while we were there on Thursday.  For those who haven’t heard of it, it is the largest Gothic Cathedral in Northern Europe.  It was so amazing!!! 

If someone had told me before I came here that I would love going into churches and actually looked forward to seeing them, I probably would have taken it with a grain of salt, but they are so incredible and beautiful!  I can’t even describe how impressive they all are, even the small ones.  We also saw a bit of the castle and the Viking Festival while there, and walked around the market in town.  The day in York was sunny and fun and I would love to get to go back again while I am here.

V-Day, Chester and Wales :)

This was another great week J  It started out with Valentine’s Day, when Becca and Chelsea cooked us all a delicious dinner.  It was the best food I had eaten for a long time and it was nice to have a home-cooked meal again.  We all watched P.S. I Love You and ate dessert together, and it was the best Valentine’s Day I had had in a very long time thanks to the awesome people here with me and back home. 

Then the week got even better when I booked tickets to Madrid to see Ann.  I am beyond excited for it!!!  I miss all my friends from BG and it will be nice to see her again before she goes home. Here at Keele they have a month long “Easter Holiday.”  Everyone who is from England either travels or goes home for it.  I am flying to Madrid on April 6 for four days, and then heading to London to start my Contiki tour with Ellen and Sarah.  On the tour we go to all over Europe and I am so incredibly psyched for it!

On Thursday we went to Chester.  I wasn’t that excited about going because I didn’t know what was there, but it was a lot of fun.  The streets in Chester look like the ones in Beauty in the Beast and are incredible.  They have tons of cute little shops along them that were fun to go in.  There is also an amazing cathedral there that was so cool on the inside and outside.  The architecture here is so fantastic and nothing I have ever seen before.  Even small towns like Chester are beautiful and fun to visit.

Yesterday we took a day trip to Cardiff, the capital of Wales.  It was awesome but it took 3 hours to get there and we only had 5 hours to see everything, so I wish we would have gotten more time to explore the city.  Cardiff was a beautiful city.  While we were there we saw lots of stuff that had to do with rugby, because Millenium Stadium is there.  There was also a really cool castle in the city but didn’t go inside because it was expensive and we thought it would take up too much time.  Instead we took a double decker tour so that we could see everything at least for a little while.  On the tour we went to Cardiff Bay which was really pretty.  We also saw town hall, the history museum and many other things.  We left Cardiff at 5:30 and got back to Keele around 9.  Me, Chelsea, Becca and a few of our other friends went to Hijack that night, which was essentially a pub crawl to all the bars in Keele.  Since we started so late we didn’t get to go to many of them, but it was still a blast.  I have a feeling this next week will go by slowly because I am SOOOO excited for Ireland this weekend!!  We leave on Friday and are spending 3 days there, which should be tons of fun. J  Love and miss you all!

Ann Marcella Heyward comes for a visit :)

This weekend was tons of fun.  One of my best friends from BG, Ann (who is studying in Madrid this semester) came to Keele to visit Ellen and me.  I was beyond excited to see her!  Our friend Chelsea’s sister is also studying in Madrid, so she and Ann flew over together on Thursday.  They got to Hanley at 1:30 a.m., so Chelsea, Ellen and I took a taxi to go pick them up from the coach station.  Everyone was so happy to see each other that we ran across the station screaming to give them a hug when they got off the coach .  Everyone else in the station probably thought we were crazy but oh well, it was just so exciting to get to see someone from home again after almost a month of being away.  It was fun to talk in person about our study abroad experiences so far and catch up with each other.

On Friday we explored campus and showed her places like the music building and Keele Hall.  For dinner we went to Sneyd’s with a bunch of our friends which was a blast.  I absolutely love Sneyd’s.  It has great food and a homey feel to it, and I’m glad we got to go there while Ann was here.  That night there was an international student’s talent show in Lindsay Bar which we went to see because our friend Simon was in it.  Later we went back to our friend Becca’s with a bunch of our friends and just hung out all night.

On Saturday Ellen, Ann and I went to Birmingham and Cadbury World.  Cadbury World was so much fun!  It was basically bunch of families and us, but we didn’t care and still had a blast.  They gave us tons of free chocolate and the “world” had 14 really cool sections within it.  When we got home from Birmingham we ordered Chinese food and skyped with all of our friends from back home.  It was fun having everyone together again (well, sort of) and I loved talking to them.  Saturday night we went to an 80’s party at K2 in the union that was a blast, but we left kind of early because unfortunately the only coach Ann could get back to the airport in Liverpool left at 4:15 am, so she had to call a cab around 3.  It was sad seeing her go but I absolutely loved spending the weekend with her, and I’m thinking of going to Madrid to visit her in April before I start my Contiki tour. 

This week we are going to Chester on Thursday and Wales on Saturday, which I’m really looking forward to.  I cannot believe that I have been here nearly a month already!  It’s true what everyone says about how quickly it goes by.  It seems like only yesterday that we were moving our stuff in and starting classes.  I guess I will just have to make the most of every minute while I’m here, which shouldn’t be hard since we have trips  to places like Chester, Wales, Liverpool, York, Ireland, a Manchester United game and Bath planned for the next month.  Happy Valentine’s Day everybody, love you all and hopefully I’ll talk to you soon! J

London!!!

London. Was. AWESOME!!!!  Although the trip was amazing, the weekend started out a bit shaky.  Our friends Sarah and Chelsea accidentally missed the bus and had to take a later one (that unfortunately cost waaaay more) which really sucked.  Becca, Ellen, Hannah and I arrived in London around 8:30 but they didn’t get there until almost midnight.  When the four of us got there we took a taxi to our hostel.  The only hostel I had ever stayed at before was in Chicago with the HLC and it was actually really nice, so I thought this one would be decent as well.  Umm, I was wrong.  On the plus side it was in a safe neighborhood in Waterloo, cheap, and really close to Big Ben and the London Eye (about a ten minute walk if that).  Other than that, I would never, ever stay there again.  I know I’m a poor college student and shouldn’t be picky, but when you are used to staying in clean hotels it was quite a shock.  The lobby wasn’t bad; it had a pool table, a few couches and big TV, but the rooms were NASTY.  I spent the night on the highest level of a triple bunked bed with questionable sheets and a nice view of a ring of black mold growing around the edge of the ceiling.  We were in a musty smelling room with 15 other people, most of which were 20 something men that we had never met before (even though we thought we had booked an all female room).   Since we weren’t fans of the hostel, we tried to spend as little time as possible there, so right after we locked up our bags we went to a pub and relaxed there while we waited for Chelsea and Sarah, which was really fun.

Saturday we got up around 7 so we could spend all day seeing the city.  We walked to the parliament building first, which was UNBELIEVABLE!!! It was my favorite building I saw.  I couldn’t believe that after watching dozens of movies and TV shows where it is shown, I was finally seeing it in person.  I can’t even describe how beautiful it was, and the best I can do is pictures which really does it no justice at all.   The London Eye was also really cool and much bigger than I imagined. 

 Next we walked to Westminster Abbey, which was also amazing.  It’s awesome to think about the fact that it is where most of the royal family has gotten crowned or married, and where the royal wedding will take place in the spring.  On Saturday we also saw Buckingham Palace, Abbey Road, Oxford Street, Platform 9 ¾, London Bridge, the Tower of London, Shakespeare’s Globe and much more.  By about 7 we were all exhausted, so we went back to the hostel, ordered pizza and played cards.  At about ten we all went to sleep because we were so tired from the day.

On Sunday Ellen and I took a double decker tour through the city which was a BLAST!  It was incredible to hear all about the magnificent buildings we had seen and to view them from higher up.  On the tour we also got to see some things we hadn’t on Saturday such as St. Paul’s Cathedral, Madame Toussad’s, Regent Street, and Fleet Street.  The tour was one of my favorite parts of our trip. 

Around 1 we got off the bus to have lunch and then took the underground over to the Natural History Museum which was incredibly cool.  The building itself was remarkable, as were the exhibits inside.  Unfortunately we didn’t have time to see the entire thing because we had to go back to get our bags and catch the bus home, but it was still a lot of fun.  After an awesome two days we rushed back to the hostel to get our things and made sure we were early to the bus station so no one would miss it again.  Overall it was a wonderful trip and I had a ton of fun with all the girls.  I really hope to go back to London again while I’m here and take my time seeing all the incredible things the city has to offer. I know this one only the Reader’s Digest version of the trip, but hopefully it gives you all at least the basic idea of how epic and incredible London was. J

I LOVE KEELE!!!

So I know it’s forever since I wrote and I’m sorry, but it’s just been craziness lately!  First I want to say that I’m loving it here and feel right at home J  At first I didn’t like things such as having a room all to myself because I felt a bit lonely, but I love it now!  It was strange going from having 6 roommates (well actually more like 10 because our other wonderful friends were always in 469 too haha) to being just me, but I kind of like the privacy and not having to worry about anyone but myself in the room.  I am usually out and about at nights anyways because we either go to the union, hang out at Sneyds or just chill in some ones room for awhile, so it’s nice having somewhere all my own to come back to.  Classes are going well, too, and I think I will really enjoy them.  Also, the British are great and a ton of fun to be around.  Mostly everyone I have met has been super nice and they love asking you about America.  At the union the other night I quoted an entire 5 minute scene from Ace Ventura with some football player which was hilarious, and he said although American football was for "tossers" he liked the Miami Dolphins (which I found very random lol).  The girls in my hall are really friendly as well.  I hear stories about some of the other study abroad students being kept up at all hours of the night by their block mates, but mine are really good about not being too loud during the week, with perhaps the exception of Tuesday night when they went to some rock music society called KRAP.  At about 9 at night some of them were pretty shwasted and they invited me to go with them by yelling “AMERICAN!!!! Come to KRAP with us!!!”  I was slightly confused as to why someone would ask me to go crap with them, but then they explained what it was.  I didn’t go because I had an early lecture the next day, but they came home at 4 am and were really loud but apologized the next day for it so I didn’t really mind.

The girls from BG and I have gotten pretty close, which is awesome J  We went shopping in Hanley on Wednesday which was a lot of fun, and they have some really great Forever 21ish stores that are cheap and have great clothes. We also planned a trip to London this weekend, and I cannot even begin to describe how excited I am about it!!!  We leave tomorrow around 3 when everyone is done with lectures.   We also have gone to the union quite a bit lately for Fresher’s Week events.  I have come to really enjoy going to the union on nights where they have themes.  Saturday night was the Hedfone Disco which was a blast.  Everyone got these big head phones and could pick which DJ they listened to, so everyone was belting out to different things, which was hilarious to listen to.  Last night Jo, Bradley and Paul from S Club 7 were here and it was INSANE!  We got there really early so we were right in front of the stage, and people were so crazy the whole night.  About a half hour before they performed it got reeeeally crowded in the ballroom and it was like a mosh pit.  Everyone was pushing and shoving to get towards the front, and I thought there were about to be punches thrown because people were getting so mad about everyone running into each other.  By the last song I had some girl pretty much on my back and I couldn’t even move because of how crowded it was, but it was worth it.  S Club was awesome (even though I’m pretty sure they were lip singing) and it gave me major 90’s flashbacks of watching their TV show and listening to their CD’s with my neighbors. 

I miss all of you at home but I’m having a blast and I can’t wait to tell everyone about our London adventures this weekend!! J