Back in the States!

Hey everyone!  I am back in the states now!  The flight was long and uncomfortable.  I miss Europe, but I am somewhat excited to get back to my life.  I know I have not yet posted my pictures from Dublin.  It was a hectic week last week with exams and packing my bags.  And since I've been home I've been unpacking, catching up with friends, and taking care of things at home.  I promise to get Dublin pictures up soon!

Plans for Dublin!

Hey everyone!  I just wanted to let you know I have officially booked my trip for Dublin, Ireland!  My friend Ashlyn and I are going together!  We were told by other friends that Dublin could be done in one day so we are departing on 12 May at 10 am and returning 13 May at 8 am.  As college students with no current income, we will be spending the night in the Dublin airport!  It's going to be quite the adventure.

Some attractions we would like to see are the Guiness Factory, Dublin Castle, and the Blarney Stone!  I can't wait to tell you all about it! 

* For future study abroaders:  if you come here and are looking to travel during your stay you can visit a few cheap airline companies:

• Ryan Air
• Easy Jet

Easter/Spring Break

Hey all!  I know it has been weeks since my last post, but it's mostly because I've been a busy girl!  I'm apologising in advance for my lack of photos with this post and possibly further posts as I have lost my memory card reader to update the photos from my camera.

On 29 March my mom, stepdad, and sister arrived in London to visit me for 2 weeks.  We spent 2 nights in London then headed to Euston Station in London to catch a train to Glasgow, Scotland for 4 days.  We stayed a friend's gorgeous 3 bedroom house in a small countryside town called Kilearn.  We spent a day up in Stirling at the Stirling castle.  We also spent some time touring the countryside and taking in the mountains that surrounded the area.  We had beautiful weather the entire stay in Scotland.  On the 4th day we returned to London via the Virgin Trains.  We then spent the next 7 days seeing the sights of London.  We went on the London Eye, to the Dali Museum, The Churchill War Museum and War Cabinets, Buckingham Palace, Tower of London, The National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, and Greenwich (where we were able to stand in two hemispheres at the same time at the Royal Observatory).  They then departed London to head back to reality in Maryland on 9 April.

I spent a week in Guildford after they left.  It was a ghost town!  I did laundry, watched a few movies, and spent some time researching for my term paper.  Then cam Friday 17 April and my dad, stepmom, and brother finally arrived in London!  We spent the week in London seeing even more sights that I never got to see while my mom was here.  We went to the Science Museum, Natural History Museum, British Museum (home of the Rosetta Stone), St. Paul's Cathedral, saw the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, and strolled the streets of Notting Hill.  We found a cute little street off the main path that led us to some fantastic restaurants.  We had an amazing dinner at La Tasca which was a beautiful Spanish Tapas restaurant, and I tried my first sangria!  

I promise to post pictures of Scotland as soon as I possibly can!  Until then I apologise again!

My Trip To Paris!

Hey!  I am finally home from a long but amazing weekend in Paris, France!  I did so much and had so much fun that I don't know where to begin!  We took the Eurostar Train (The Chunnel) on Saturday morning and arrived in Paris around noon.  We went straight to a friends apartment which was where we were staying, dropped off our bags and headed for lunch.  I enjoyed my first French meal at a fantastically delicious creperie!  We then walked less than half a mile to the beautiful Notre Dame!  We walked around on the inside and outside.  After Notre Dame, we made our way to the Eiffel Tower!  We decided to make the trek up to the second level of the Eiffel Tower which is about half way up.  It was 3 Euros to climb up the 668 stairs!  But let me tell you, my butt and legs look great after that hike!  Haha!

After completing the Eiffel Tower, we made our way back to the Latin District which was right around the corner from our friends apartment and had a fantastic 3 course dinner!  French Onion soup, Steak and Potatoes, and the best Chocolate Mousse I've ever had!  If there is anything you cannot avoid in Paris its the food... absolutely delicious!!!!!!  We then walked around the Latin District for about an hour before heading to our place of stay to go to bed.  We climbed the 107 steps up to his apartment and went to bed! 

Sunday morning and we are ready to take on Paris again!  We split up and did different things that day.  I wanted so desperately to go to Musee Picasso (Pablo Picasso Museum).  Over 300 pieces of Picasso's famous artwork on a permanent display in a very old and architecturally detailed hotel!  Unfortunately, I could not take pictures in the museum.  After that we proceeded to meet up with the rest of the group to get some lunch.  We ate some more crepes and baguettes and then walked from Musee Du Louvre through the Jardin des Tuileries (the Tuileries Gardens), then on to Place de la Concorde, and then to Champs Elysees which is an extremely ritzy area with expensive shopping such as Louis Vuitton and Mercedes Benz.  At the end of Champs Elysees, was the Arc de Triomphe!  This is located on a massive roundabout which has 12 roads dumping into it.  We then took the metro (subway) to the red light district!  We got off the metro near Moulin Rouge and could practically smell the STD's and prostitutes!  We walked from Moulin Rouge to Sacre-Coeur (Sacred Heart), a basilica built as a memorial to the 58,000 French soldiers killed during the Franco-Purssian War and took 46 years to build being completed in 1923.  After Sacre-Coeur we headed back to our part of town.  We had some amazing French Red Wine that our friend had brought home for us that night to try.  We then had crepes for dinner and went to bed in hopes of getting a good nights sleep for Disneyland Paris on Monday!

So, on Monday morning we took the 45 minute train ride to Disneyland Paris and spent the day there.  There are two parks there, the main park Magic Kingdom and another park MGM Studios.  We were lucky to have amazing weather and short lines for the entire day.  I think the 6 of us behaved like a pack of 5 year olds in Disney for the first time! 

Here are some pictures!  I hope you enjoy them!!!!  Thanks for reading!! xx

Me

One more picture I didn't add from yesterdays London adventure!  Here's me at Piccadilly Circus!

Another Trip into London

Hi!!

Just got home from my third trip into London since I have arrived to England.  I saw some of the same things I had seen before, because we had a friend with us who had never been to London before.  However, we did get to see some new things!  We came across Picadilly Circus!  For those of you who don't know what that is, it's pretty much a miniature Times Square!  It is a large intersection of several streets with some huge advertisement screens and shopping areas.

I also got to walk across the Tower Bridge!  I got some excellent pictures of the bridge at night all lit up!  I have posted them here.  We walked around the Tower of London as the sun was going down so we could see that lit up as well.  Upon walking around the Tower of London, we made a friend!  The red fox seen in the photograph!  He was extremely friendly and posing for all the tourists cameras!

Well, I hope these pictures look good!  I will be going to Paris in 2 weeks and cannot wait to show you pictures of the Eiffel Tower, The Louvre, Disneyland Paris, a true French pastry, and The Picaso Museum!  I will be in Paris with 7 other people for 3 days.  We depart from Guildford to Waterloo Station in London around 6 am on Saturday 21 March.  We will then catch the tube from Waterloo Station to Saint Pancres station to get on the Chunnel!  Our train departs London at 8:32 AM and arrives in Paris about 2 1/2 hours later!  We will be staying in Paris until 24 March, when we depart to head back to London at 7:43 AM!  After this trip I am hoping to being the planning for my trip to Dublin, Ireland!

I miss everyone very much!  Can't wait to share more of this amazing once in a lifetime opportunity with you!

See you soon!

xx

School

Hey everyone!  I know it has been a couple weeks since my last post.  I have been extremely busy with schoolwork.  On Monday I have a project due for my Gastronomy class.  Myself and 2 other students (the other two also from UCF), have to create a 7 to 10 minute video podcast on the cuisine of a particular region.  We have chosen to research the Eqyptian cuisine, both modern and past.  I am heading over to my partner's room to work on the video.  Maybe I can post the video on here once it has been submitted to my professor!

I also have an exam, and 2 essays due over the course of the next 3 weeks so I will be pretty busy.  I might be heading into London next Wednesday to see Harrod's and Picadilly Circus!  I'll post pictures if I do!

Hope to talk to you all soon!

xx

Stonehenge!

Hey Everyone!  I know it has been over a week since I have posted anything.  The week was pretty uneventful.  Just full of educational stuff... class.  Haha!  Well, yesterday we finally did something requiring us to take pictures!  We took an hour long car ride to the grassy lands surrounding Stonehenge!!!  Here are some of the pictures we took!  It was a lot bigger than I expected it to be.  My friends and I had a great time!  Hope you enjoy the pictures!

xx

London Trip!

My friends and I went into London today to watch the Six Nations game.  However, we never actually got to watch it!  We were too busy sightseeing and being interviewed for French TV!  We had a long night last night because we were up until 5 am.  We got about 4 hours of sleep before getting up to catch the train into London.  We took a taxi from Waterloo Station to a restaurant on the other side of the Thames River called The Little Bay.  My best friend back home, Katlin, sent me an article about a restaurant that was eliminating charging a price for the food.  Instead, the manager was allowing the customers to pick the price of the food they consumed.  Very cool concept!  When we arrived at the restaurant, we were approached by a french woman who asked if she might interview us for a news piece she was doing on the restaurant and its pricing concept.  So, we agreed to take a few humiliating minutes to give her a good story!  After that we went into the restaurant and had started to look over the menu.  Once we ordered our food the camera crew wanted shots of us actually consuming it.  The food, by the way, was OUTSTANDING!  We finally finished our meal and got to pick our price!  Then we walked to Houses of Parliament and did some sightseeing in that area.  We walked just a few short blocks from Houses of Parliament to the Buckingham Palace!  We took loads of pictures and walked through the park.  We then went to watch some guards in front of a house and we met a man who was from the area who gave us the headsup on a great 400 year old pub and shared loads of information about the royal family!

I finally just returned home and thought I would share some of the amazing pictures from today!  I hope you are enjoying looking at them and reading my blog!  I'm trying so very hard to keep you interested!  Enjoy!

xx

Pictures of Guildford

Hey everyone!

Here are some pictures from my first trip into London.  We have me in a phone booth, near Big Ben, in front of the Tower of London, and Waterloo Train Station!  I hope you enjoy!  I finally have a card reader for my computer so I will be able to upload photos more often!  I will be spending this weekend in London to cheer for England in the Six Nations game!  My friends and I are trying to make arrangements to stay in a hostel over night so we can spend more time in London!  Look for the pictures come Monday!

I miss everyone!

xx

Snow Day 2 Picture!

This is the view from my flat!  This is after 2 days of snow falling!

xx

Snow Day #2!

So, yesterday was my first official snow day, and how lucky am I to be able to get a second one!  As I was walking around in the snow yesterday with my friends, I realized how truly lucky I am to have this opportunity to be here.  At first, I wanted to throw in the towel and go home.  I hated it here.  Although, I think more than anything I was just scared of being out of my safe zone.  Now, I am making friends and having the time of my life.  

My friends and I are going to walk to the grocery store today following that we will probably eat at the campus pub, Chancellor's.  Then maybe spend a couple hours playing in the snow.  Being from Florida, we are trying to take advantage of the winter wonderland out there!  I thank these friends for making it more enjoyable.  I also thank my family for being jerks and pushing my buttons until I stay!  Thanks guys!

Well, the snow is melting, and I'm not missing out on this!  See you guys later, hopefully with more pictures!

xx

Snow Day!!!!

I had my first official SNOW DAY today!  Classes were cancelled for Monday and Tuesday.  So this week I will only be attending 1 class and that is Friday afternoon.  What am I going to do with all this time off?  Well, tomorrow we are planning to have a snow ball fight and go tubing down a huge hill on campus!  We walked into town today.  Everything was closed and shut down except for Subway.  Damn corporations are just money hungry!  Well, I'll tell you what! They are smart for being open, every student in town was in that Subway!  

Anyway, here are some pictures of me and the girls enjoying the snow!  The most snow that England has seen in 18 years might I add!

My Room!

Hey Everyone!  

I should have posted these earlier.. But I just realized I could take pictures of my room using my laptop's built in camera!  I know.. I'm a genius and it took me over 2 weeks to figure that out!

Anyway, This is my room and bathroom.  Enjoy!

xoxo

2 extra pictures

Hey Everyone!

I have a couple extra pictures for you.  First off though, the previous post from this, there are pictures from Guildford.  1 of those pictures is of a restaurant called Giraffe.  That is the restaurant I got food poison from.  In case you were wondering!

The two pictures shown here are of a typical England Breakfast (notice they serve baked beans with breakfast!!)  The other picture is of Katie (Canada), Christina (UCF), and myself standing on High Street in Guildford.  High Street is the main street in town.  It's basically a HUGE hill that you have to hike your ass up every time you want to go anywhere significant in town!

I'll update again soon!  Although, starting Monday I will probably be in the library a lot, doing my readings for class.

Talk to you soon!

xox

Pictures of Guildford