Happy Wednesday!

Hello!

Sooo remember how I went to London and to that Ice Bar?  Well, Robert finally uploaded some photos, and here they are!

In other news, I have spent a lot of today and yesterday working on a paper.  Sooo to celebrate my paper (almost) being finished, and because I wanted to spend time with my lovely people here and eat good food, a large group of us went out to a restaurant called Cosmo in downtown Swansea.  What a fantastic life decision that was!  It was an all-you-can-eat Asian buffet for 12 pounds.  Now, honestly, the food wasn't AMAZING --because let's be real, I'm in the UK.  However, there was tons of it, and it was pretty darn good. AND there was an awesome desert area.  So, truly, I was pleased.

Me and my delightful love, Cristen!

Now, OFF TO PARIS TOMORROW!  And - I could not be more excited.

Except a post on Sunday or Monday! xo

A few more photos!

Kate, Nick, Me, Melissa, Caleb, Cristen

Happy Monday, everyone!  I love these photos so I realized I just had to include them in the blog.  The one from above is from Thanksgiving.  The one below is before Laura & I went out Saturday night in Geneva.

 Lookin' like some hot mamacitas!

In other news, Cristen, Melissa, & I went to City Center (of Swansea) today to go grocery shopping.  We also explored Swansea's mini Christmas market!  Although it is BY NO MEANS as good as the others I've been to because of how small it is, I appreciate the effort.  We got lunch and had the freshest of fresh hot doughnuts.  I was pleased!

Now, time to work on my PAPER PAPER PAPER!!!

You Look Really Refreshed...

The title of this post is what my friend Caleb said to me upon my return to Swansea from my weekend in Geneva.  This does not surprise me at all because, well, Laura & I did so very little this weekend! hahaha It was so relaxing, though.  We ate and slept, a lot.

Friday - Traveling went smoothly.  I got into Geneva mid-afternoon, and because Laura was still at her internship, I walked around a bit (AKA I got lost) and finally found myself at a Starbucks overlooking the lake.  It was delightful, and I enjoyed my extremely expensive Iced Chai Tea Latte & free wi-fi.  We eventually met up in the Place du Mulard area (I think it's a square --this is where the Christmas tree picture was taken).  Right next to this area, Laura & I went to dinner at one of her favorite places to get these things that are like flatbread pizzas.  Our's had bacon, cheese, and onion - IT WAS EXCELLENT.  We chatted for a while before heading back to Laura's dorm/apartment.  Now, Laura had envisioned that we go out and meet all these friends of her's.  However, I soon lost basically any ability to function.  The fact that I hadn't slept the night before because my bus left at 4:30am and that I had been traveling for 10 hours caught up with me.  So, Laura wanted to go out, and all I wanted to do was go to sleep, which actually ended up working out nicely.  Laura went out, and I stayed in to Skype with my extended family (who were all meeting at my grandparent's for Thanksgiving Part 2).  I then went to sleep.

Saturday - After sleeping, we eventually headed out to eat a delicious brunch at this department store called Globus.  For food, Globus has this very high-end food court area, which almost feels like a farmer's market.  However, it's too fancy and too expensive to be a farmer's market.  Anyway, we got crepes and then walked around Geneva.  We walked by Lake Leman (below - I think this is what this is called in French), took pictures, saw the Reformation Wall, a large chess board, Cathedrale de St. Pierre, the Old Town portion of Geneva, and lots more.  THE UNFORTUNATE THING, however, was that the Jet d'Eau was not turned on!  This is the huge jet/fountain thing that comes out of the lake, and it wasn't on the entire weekend.  After exploring for a while, we stopped at an outdoor cafe area, got hot chocolate, and sat and chatted for a while.  It was lovely.  We then went back to Laura's place... and took a 3 hour nap. Why we needed one?  I'm not sure!  We eventually got up and went out to dinner at another delicious place (looks like all my money on this trip went toward food).  We headed back to Laura's place once again to get ready.  We had planned on going dancing, but after going to 2 bars, we got ridiculously tired.  So... we went to bed, again!

Sunday - Slept in.  (Sleep + food = major themes!)  We then went out to one of the few open places for a delicious, very French seeming brunch.  We then walked by the waterfront and sat on this cute dock thing and chatted for a while.  I then made my way to the airport and made the long journey back to Swansea!

So, not a whole lot was done in Geneva. hahaha.  But I mean, I didn't go to Geneva for Geneva.  I went to Geneva for Laura, and it was perfect!!!  Always good to eat, sleep, and catch up on life with a best friend.    

in front of Lake Leman (or Lake Geneva?)

Place du Mulard (I think) with Christmas tree!

Reformation Wall

Big Chess Board

Looking forward to a whole lot of writing papers this week... & then Paris this weekend!

Off to bed!

Happy Thanksgiving!

(This is an artistic stretch) -- but this is us posing as a turkey - do you see it?

front = turkey head + gobble (use of hands)

me = body of turkey

everyone else = feathers of turkey

Hello!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!  So, despite the fact that I am not with my family - and not seeing my extended family tomorrow - I have to say that I perhaps have had the best Thanksgiving of my entire life.  I spent it with my favorite people, aka my Swansea family.  I was completely unimpressive in my efforts today, as I was only responsible for bringing the drinks, which is actually hilarious because that's always my family's responsibility at all family gatherings.  What was also unimpressive was my choice of drinks.  I bought wine and champagne from the grocery store, which was amazing because that was the first time I bought alcohol at the grocery store.  My choice of wine was terrible, and quite frankly, I don't even like wine.  It was chosen, however, because it was 4 pounds.  So, what made the day actually impressive?  Cristen, Melissa, and Nick made A FEAST!!  (Props to Caleb for also making a delicious desert).  We had turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, that marshmellow sweet potato dish (my fave), scalloped corn, green bean casserole, bread rolls, green salad, 7up salad, pumpkin pie, apple pie, and another desert.  I mean, really, could this be any more amazing?  We all headed over to House 97, where Melissa, Caleb, and Cristen live, and it was just the perfect setting, with Christmas music and a lit baby Christmas tree in the background as the icing on the cake. 

During our delicious meal, we also went around and shared what we were thankful for.  Oh, we also did the traditional Catholic prayer at the beginning of our meal.  (How I miss my Catholics!)  Back to our mini speeches: I am so incredibly thankful for the friends I have made here.  They tell you before you go abroad that it's common to have an upside down bell curve experience while studying abroad - you start out loving it because you're in the honeymoon phase, then you go through American culture withdrawal and start to really miss home, but then you go back to loving the country you're in and then missing it when you leave.  I haven't had that because it's essentially been all positive.  Don't get me wrong - I've met my share of crazy people here who drive me nuts sometimes.  And maybe I would have had a different experience had I been in a non-English speaking country or immersed in a culture that was VASTLY different from that of the United States.  I guess I'll never know.  All I do know is that Swansea, Wales was the perfect place for me to study abroad.  So, I am also so thankful to have had the opportunity to come here.  Besides joining Shaw, it is the best thing I have done while in college. 

Now, aside from that mushy, glorious, reflective speech, I'm off to Geneva tomorrow (actually, in 8 hours) to visit Laura, one of my best friends at BC, who is studying abroad there!  I am more than excited to see her, and I anticipate that we will have a fantastic weekend.     

Enjoy your turkey --and take a moment to reflect on all that you're thankful for! xoxo        

Cristen cutting the turkey!!

Loves --and I'm loving the Christmas tree in the background

Delicious food --nothing better!

Awesome Weekend in London!

Hello!

Soo, perhaps I will describe the weekend here, and then I'll caption the pictures at the end.  Basically, I spent an AMAZING weekend in London with my friend Robert.  We did SO SO SO MUCH, and I really feel like the trip was worth the arm and leg that I spent because we saw so much of London.  I was so exhausted by the end -- accidentally slept through my alarm this morning; WOOPS -- but it was totally worth it because I am now obsessed with London and want to go back again and again (perhaps my favorite city that I've visited?  perhaps one of my favorite cities in the world?).  There is just so much to see and do.  Now, let's start from Friday.

Friday - My train got in quite a bit earlier than Robert's plane so I made my way to the hostel and hung out there for a while.  Once Robert finally arrived, we basically had to drop off our stuff and immediately head out for all our reserved activities.  First stop: London Eye!  The London Eye is like a mega ferris wheel (see below), and it was STUNNING at night, clearly.  Unfortunately, during our trip, my camera batteries died so I was lucky to even get this picture.  After our journey, we had planned to go to this one recommended place for dinner.  Instead, however, there was a lovely Christmas market right next to the London Eye, and we wandered around that for a while and basically ate everything in sight.  This includes doughnuts, a German bratwurst, and some kind of gourmet burger.  After this, there was a fun-looking restaurant near the market, and we stopped there for appetizers and drinks.  After this, we made our way to Soho, which was where the Ice Bar was.  I wish my camera worked so that I could have taken pictures of us in our awesome jumbo-poncho-looking-Eskimo coats.  (Robert had his camera, so I'll upload a few more pictures after he uploads his).  The Ice Bar.. had a lot of ice!  It was quite fun.  We then made our way back to the hostel.  By the way, this hostel was super cute, but  one of the guys was sleep-talking, and I was TERRIFIED.  That's what you have to deal with, though, if you want to be cheap!

Saturday - Woke up bright and early.  First stop: Buckingham Palace.  We were there long enough to watch the beginning of the Changing of the Guards ceremony, but we then left so that we could make our way on our hop on/hop off Double Decker Bus Tour.  We found the stop near Buckingham Palace, got  on, and essentially had the best time ever!  It was an extremely pleasant day in terms of weather, the tour guide was hilarious, and we rode around for about an hour.  This was an extremely effective and efficient way to see a ton of London, and I totally recommend it.  We got to see all the major sites and eventually got off at the stop near Borough Market, which is one of London's most famous markets.  We then got various delicious pastries and Fish and Chips, which was fantastic, and a smoothie -- looks like a lot of my money went toward food!  We explored the market for a while, walked by the River Thames, saw Shakespeare's Globe, walked across the Millennium Bridge (featured in the 5th HP movie), took pictures of St. Paul's cathedral, went to a gourmet candy store, and then found the bus stop, where we got on the bus again.  We got to see more parts of London, before stopping at a stop near Harrods.  In case you don't know, Harrods is an extremely nice and expensive department store.  Obviously, we were not going to buy anything like clothes, so we bought cup cakes.  We then had to quickly make our way to the Tower of London underground stop, where we took a free walking Jack the Ripper tour provided by our tour bus company.  Apparently, I was the only person who didn't know who Jack the Ripper was, so in case you don't:  in a period of 10 weeks, he murdered 5 women in East London in extremely brutal and grotesque ways, and they never figured out who he was (although, there are royal conspiracy theories, which actually seem very believable).  This... was kind of a joke and extremely hilarious.  The tour guide was very dramatic and theatrical, and although Robert and I were kind of confused as to why this tour came so highly recommended, the guide kind of made up for it by the end when he explained the conspiracy theory -- who Jack the Ripper is thought to be: the doctor to some member of the Royal Family.  After the tour, we made our way to an area of London called Piccadilly Circus, which totally reminds me of Times Square.  We explored that for a little while and then went to a delicious Indian restaurant.  After this, we met up with my friends Courtney and Yushi, who also happened to be in London that weekend, in Soho, and we went to a bar and chatted for a while.  It was a fabulous time indeed.  Many thanks to Robert for humoring me by meeting up with my friends. hahaha          

Sunday - Up early again.  We started our day by going to a nearby cafe to get a full English Breakfast.  We clearly wanted to do as many "British" things as we could this weekend.  We then went to the Tower of London and spent quite a bit of time there.  The Tower of London is quite large and had so many uses!  So that was very cool.  My favorite thing there was probably seeing all the royal jewels/crowns/etc.  They are pretty darn impressive!  After that, we went to a delicious pub near the Tower of London to have a classic Sunday Roast, and that was fantastic.  By then, we had to head back to the hostel, where we had locked our stuff up, and Robert had to make his way to the airport.  I then headed to the train station and took a RIDICULOUSLY crowded train home!

Soo that was that!  And I can assure you - that will NOT be my last time in London!

Now for some pictures:

View of Big Ben/House of Parliament from the top of the London Eye

In a park next to Buckingham Palace

In front of Buckingham Palace

We asked a nice lady to take a picture of us in front of Buckingham Palace -- thanks for getting the palace in the picture!!

Notice the crowns?  In the Queen's gift shop type thing next to Buckingham Palace

London Eye!

Harrods!  LOVED the Christmas decorations

Me and my wonderful girl Courtney

Me in front of the Tower Bridge

Robert in front of part of the Tower of London

That is all.  Tata for now!

Still Alive

Hello!

Can't believe I haven't blogged in over a week.  I guess I really haven't had much to report, and I still don't have much to report.

A few happenings: I went to a delicious restaurant last Thursday called Vietnam with some friends and my friend Melissa's mom and boyfriend.  Um.. what else have I done..?  Well, schoolwork.  I actually went to the library for 4 hours yesterday and basically cranked out a paper.  I've also been doing some good cooking!  Made a vegetarian chili & some teriyaki chicken tacos with pineapple.

I registered for classes yesterday.  In case you wanted to know, I'm taking Counseling Theories, Adult Psychology, Cognitive Psych., Achievement Motivation, and Independent Study.  Honestly, not my favorite schedule, and it doesn't work as well with my work schedule as I wanted it to.  The Independent Study is recommend for doing the Honors Thesis so hopefully that works out nicely.

Yup, other than that, just sleeping a lot, doing work, a quiet couple of weeks -- which has actually been quite nice because the next 3 weekends are filled with traveling.  London, Geneva, & Paris!  Hahah no complaints there.

Shout out to my little brother: HAPPY 11TH BIRTHDAY, CHRISTOPHER!!!

Ta ta for now!

One more Amsterdam photo :)

My friend Caleb took this picture - I thought it was cute.

Sickly

Helloo!

So, unfortunately, yesterday morning, I woke up with a bad case of Pinkeye and overall feelings of horribleness.  This was poor timing because I have 3 out of 4 classes on Mondays, and I didn't go to any of them.  WOOPS.  Swansea is apparently is pretty strict about attendance -- but I'm just going to hope that this isn't an issue.  So, I spent most of yesterday in my bed, and then I just slept for 11 hours.  Despite feeling a bit drowsy, probably from sleeping for too long, I'm feeling a lot better!  And the Pinkeye is incredibly minor this morning - last time I got it, it lasted for days.

So, that is all.  Class this afternoon, class tomorrow morning, then it's paper writing for the next week.

Oh, and it might add: everyone has been sick, often for long periods of time, while being here.  We call it the American plague.  My immune system has held up pretty well, I guess - and this should pass in no time.

All my love!

I AMsterdam

(awesome sign)

Hello, hello!

This past weekend was spent in Amsterdam, which I must say, far exceeded my expectations.  I would assume that people have a variety of associations with Amsterdam: weed, coffee shop, legalization, Red Light District, prostitute, etc.  Yes, all of that exists, but it is honestly such a beautiful city!  It might be my favorite (non-UK) European city thus far?  It was also beautiful weather over the weekend, even though I was definitely told that it was going to rain.  The weather was sunny and cool, but not cold.  I also absolutely loved the stunning architecture and canals.  Finally, I have to say that it didn't hurt that most of my closest friends were on the trip with me :)  It made for a fantastic weekend indeed.

Me with 'a' for Allison :)

So, I might as well start by explaining the crazy trip of how we got to Amsterdam.  We left Fulton House on Swansea Uni's campus at 7pm.  By the way, this was a school-planned trip so, for a nice fee, transportation and accommodation was taken care of.  Therefore, we took a coach/bus & ferry to get there, rather than planes.  We drove until about 1am, where we reached Dover Dock in England.  This took us across the English Channel, where we arrived in France and drove through Belgium to finally get to our Amsterdam hostel around 9am Friday morning.  We couldn't actually check into our hostel, so we dropped off our luggage in storage and immediately began to explore.    

The picture above is one of the canals with nice houses all around.  The two pictures below are from this stunning park.  Most of Friday was spent exploring, which ranged from simply walking around to shopping to seeing a famous flower market (Amsterdam is known for their tulips - maybe all of Holland or the Netherlands is too?).  We got breakfast at this restaurant called Pancake Corner, which was delicious.  We then went wild with souvenir shopping.  I haven't been inspired to buy so many gifts since being abroad.  I won't share what I bought, so that the family can be surprised when I get home!  My friends & I also went back to the hostel Friday afternoon and took a nap.  I barely slept from Thursday to Friday on the bus because I was actually in severe pain.  I think I ate something bad on Thursday, and my stomach really did not appreciate it.  So, basically, we decided that we were not going to make it through Friday night without a nap.  After our snooze, my friends - and by friends, I mean Caleb, Nick, Melissa, Courtney, Katie, and Cristen - went to an Irish Pub called Hole in the Wall, which was delicious!  I got a traditional Dutch meal and enjoyed it very much.  We then got desert at this outdoor desert food stand.  My favorite was this funnel-cake-like-thing, which was a fried ball of Heavenly goodness with powdered sugar.  I think some of my friends ate at least 3 in one day?  AMAZING!  Then the group split up, and some of us decided to go to a notorious Amsterdam coffee shop & the Red Light District.  I won't be going into detail about that, but I mean, when in Rome, right?  ;)  I will say, however, that I wasn't scandalized by the Red Light District, as I totally thought I would be.  I think my expectations were far too extreme.  

Then came along Saturday.  We woke up pretty early, as we didn't want to wait in a super long line to get into the Anne Frank House.  I was honestly so incredibly impressed.  I think it might have been my favorite museum of all time.  I feel like whenever I go to a museum, I get sad because I'm not looking at  the real thing.  Portions have been redone, something isn't real, etc. etc.  Or like when you go see an old building, but they've had to rebuild it... it's not the real building, then!  But this just seemed to be the real deal.  You walk through the house next to the actual house before you actually get to the bookcase that hid the opening to Anne Frank's family's hiding place.  The hiding place was actually so much bigger than I expected.  I'm kind of confused as to how it took so long for people to realize that they were there. Although you can't actually see their area from the front - as you can tell by the picture immediately below - I imagine you can definitely see this massive part of the house from the back?  No one knows who eventually ratted out Anne Frank's family, but I wonder if it was a neighbor.  Once you entered through the bookcase opening, you then walk up the ridiculously steep stairs and are able to walk through the entire house.  The windows were still completely boarded up, and everything that Anne Frank had put on her wall was still there.  There was no furniture, which I liked.  Nobody's fake furniture was in there!  It also allowed people to walk around the room.  Honestly, I was clearly so incredibly pleased.  An excellent choice for the morning.        

After the Anne Frank House, we went to this famous market and then went out to lunch at this DELICIOUS Turkish restaurant.  I think they were so happy that we gave them business (it was kind of a hole in the wall) that they gave us some stuff for free.  Then we decided to do a canal boat tour.  The pictures didn't turn out incredibly well, but here are some pictures of my awesome friends.  :)  After the boat tour, we made our way back to the hostel for another nap. hahaha.  We knew we needed a nap because during the boat tour, there was a good 10 min. in which all 6 of us may have fallen asleep?  It was so beautiful, but we were just too tired to fully appreciate it.  After our nap, we then went out for Italian food and walked around town.  We decided to return back to the hostel a little early, watched TV, and went to bed.  

Left to Right:

Allison, Melissa, Courtney, Cristen, Katie, nick

Me and Cristen

Sunday morning came along, and we actually didn't have much time before we had to be at the bus pick-up area at 9:30.  There was some passport drama that happened along the way with a couple of girls, which was so so so sad.  (WORD OF ADVICE: NEVER EVER FORGET YOUR PASSPORT!)  On a brighter note, though, we stopped at a Belgian Chocolate  Factory in Belgium on our way back.  IT WAS GREAT!  Naturally, I bought sour gummies, in addition to chocolate.  Melissa & I (below) appreciated it thoroughly.

So, overall, it was a fantastic weekend.  It was more relaxed than other trips, but I still feel like I saw a lot and totally had a worthwhile weekend.

Excited for a weekend of non-traveling coming up, though.  Actually, that's a lie.  But papers need to be written, and Swansea needs to be enjoyed.  So, that's it for now!

xoxo

Happy Belated Halloween!

Just one more picture that I wanted to include in my last blog post.  Here is my friend Nick at me at the American Studies Society Social - we carved a pumpkin!

Leaving for Amsterdam at 6:30 tonight.  Agenda for the day: laundry, pack, nap (think I might finally be getting sick - everyone else has been sick so much since being here) and book tickets to see the Anne Frank House!  Exciting stuff!

Be back on Sunday!

Happy Halloween!

Hello, hello!

Here's a recap. of all the Halloween festivities, which actually is celebrated here!  The main difference is that it's all about being bloody, scary, or dead in the UK.  In the US, it's just about dressing up as something else.  For example, if you were to dress up at Britney Spears or somebody in the US, you'd dress up as a zombie Britney Spears in the UK.

So, naturally, a lot of my friends went the American route, and a group of us dressed up as the Flintstones.  I was Pebbles.  I think my costume turned out pretty darn well!

Meet the Flintstones (everyone - including Dino - except BamBam)

There are a few other pictures that I want to post, but they're not working.  My friend Nick and I carved at pumpkin at the American Studies Social, which was delightful.  If I can, I'll post a picture of that later.

Excited for Amsterdam this weekend!!!