Pictures from ROME!

Aaaaaaaaalright people, sorry it took so long but here's some pictures from ROME. I'll be posting the rest of the Rome trip as soon as I've got it all typed up but hopefully these will be amusing.

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DAYS 4 & 5

Day 4 (29 March 2008) – Leaving Barcelona, Arriving in Rome

Ah! Days of travel! There really are few things worse than traveling all day. Something that should be relaxing quickly becomes stressful and takes every last ounce of energy right out of you. Plus, being the one who has to organize the trip and make sure that everything falls into place and that you get everywhere on time and all that (as opposed to your dad doing it all for you!) is an added stress! Never would I have dreamed that raveling would take this much concentration and energy.

Anyway, moving on. Check out from our hostel in Barcelona was at 11 am and we had to catch the bus from the bus station around the same time to be in the Girona Airport in time for our flight so sleeping in ceased to be an option. Fortunately we made it out of the hostel and to the bus stop and consequently to the airport in time for all of this. Once again, Ryanair proved sufficient and we made it onto and through the flight with little to no hassle (thank God!).

Flying into Rome over the Mediterranean Sea was again a highlight of the trip. I really can’t stress enough how surreal the whole ordeal truly is. Lu seems to feel somewhat the same way. I feel myself randomly smiling or giggling and when she asks me why, I can’t come up with any better answer than, “We’re in Italy!” Only in my wildest and most hopeful dreams did I ever think I’d be here. But throwing sentiment aside, seeing Italy from the sky was gorgeous, even in the tail end of winter/beginning of Spring. The sun was again shining and I was again thankful. Upon arrival, we were again a bit confused where to go, but found the Terravision Bus (with the help of a nice man who pointed it out to us) and hopped on. On a completely unrelated note, we didn’t have to go through passport control or customs when we arrived in Italy which I thought was a bit odd. I was frustrated I didn’t get an Italy stamp in my passport! Anyway, 40 minutes later after sitting on a bus listening to two obnoxious Americans having a rather loud conversation behind me we had arrived in Rome! And a rather sketchy part it seemed, as well. We were apparently at the big central bus/metro station, but despite the fact that we felt even more than lost we found the metro, bought at 3 day pass, and attempted to follow the directions we had to get to our hostel (which is somewhere north, just outside of Rome).

After another hefty amount of walking carrying my heavy suitcase (why did I buy a bag without wheels!?) through the metro station we finally found our train and got to our station, but the directions said we had to change to an above-ground train, but we didn’t really know where that was, and all the signs were in Italian! Upon leaving the station, we ended up finding the train and got on. 20 minutes later we arrived at our destination but from here we were supposed to catch a shuttle bus directly to the hostel. By this point, its about 6:15pm and the part of town we were now in looked even *more* sketchy! We must have looked really lost coming out of the station though because within a minute or two this chick comes up to us and asks if we we’re British. Without even thinking, I said that I was! So she asks if we’re trying to get to the hostel and she points us towards the bus. Thankful beyond measure we started walking to the bus she had pointed us to, but she corrected me and explained that they (she and her friend) were waiting for it too! Without her help I really wonder if we should have found the place. But we did and the shuttle bus brought us to this campsite/hostel that we were to stay at.

I must admit that after the success of our hostel room in Spain I was a bit apprehensive to see what a room at some campsite outside Rome that was cheaper would be like. We checked in and got our key and were pleasantly surprised. Being situated outside central Rome, the Tiber Campsite/Hostel is quiet and quaint. It’s gorgeous with all the greenery, kept up beautifully, and is actually very safe. There is a restaurant/bar and a little market as well as a swimming pool. Our room is actually half of a portable trailer that’s been split into two rooms. But we each have a comfortable bed and a shower. Its perfect! The only drawback is that we’re a bit far from the city, but I think we’ll make it work.

After getting situated in the hostel we ventured down to the restaurant because we hadn’t eaten anything all day. The restaurant, to our surprise, was both cheap and cute. It feels like a Macaroni Grill except cheaper and more laid back. The pasta was to die for and the wine was tasty as well. Lu and I managed to finish an entire bottle of white wine and the waiter (who was quite cute, I might add) looked impressed. We sat talking for another hour and after some dessert and coffee (thank God for coffee!) we decided to call it a night. We’re off to explore Rome itself tomorrow and I couldn’t be happier!

Day 5 (30 March 2008) – ROME, Italy

Last night might be the first time I can honestly say that I didn’t really sleep. Despite going to bed at a decent time and being exhausted from all the aforementioned traveling, I could *not* fall asleep last night. Literally, I don’t think I actually even dozed off until about 5 or 6am and my alarm went off at 8am! I think it was the coffee. Well, that and our room was quite cold as well. Its lovely and adorable, but really cold. And we’re next to the restaurant/bar so its not exactly quiet until that closes at about 1am. Anyway, I spent the night tossing and turning, so after I’d finally fallen asleep waking up and taking a shower was not something I wanted to do. But alas, I sucked it up and got in the shower by 8:30am so that Lu could take one after me and we could catch the shuttle bus by 9:30am. All went according to plan and we were off on the shuttle, then to the metro which felt considerably less complicated this time.

On the agenda for the day was to see the Coliseum. I know it sounds incredibly cliché, but words truly can’t describe my awe at actually seeing this structure in real life. There it was, a mountain of stone just sitting there with people all crowded around. Again, it was something that I’d always dreamed of seeing after learning about it in school and seeing it in movies but never truly thought I’d get to see it. Immediately the cameras were out and I was snapping my first shots of the Roman Coliseum. But though the outside was incredible, we wanted to go inside.

Almost immediately we were hounded by a tour guide promising to help us beat the queues and gain access to parts of the building that the public doesn’t normally see all for the price of 15 euro! But, it was free admission day so we initially passed on his offer. Again, we were hounded by another this time offering a tour for 12 euro. Not wanting to wait in the queue (which according to the guide would take us about 2 hours to get through) and also wanted information about the place rather than just the sight of it, we paid the 12 euro and went on the tour. In all, it turned out to be slightly useless. I think the only thing we learned from the tour guide (or the only thing that stuck, at least, because she must have repeated it every 4 or 5 minutes) was that not everything that was there was actually part of the ancient structure. Apparently when the Coliseum was slightly restored, some new brick had been added to the old brick, and our tour guide felt that this was the most important point of the whole tour. New brick and old brick. It became a running joke for the rest of the trip. Old brick and new brick. New brick and old brick. Anyway, after the useless tour we got to wander around and take pictures… of the old and new brick.

To be perfectly honest, while immense and impressive, I had imagined the place to be a bit larger. The arena is big, but not enormous. But looking on it, after a while both Lu and I agreed that filled with people, and in its heyday, the Coliseum must have been truly spectacular and unprecedented. There was a neat exhibit in it as well with a bunch of original Roman artifacts which was interesting as well. To see things (carvings, busts, coins and such) that previously had only been pictures in a book until this point was both amazing and fun.

Following the Coliseum, we ate lunch at a cute little restaurant on the street, getting pizza from a buy who spoke very little English. Yay. I feel like a snobby American at places like that even though I try not to be one. It’s no wonder why Americans have a bad rep internationally… we don’t make the most agreeable tourists. But, moving on! Our tour guide had told us that for the 12 euro we had already paid we could take a tour of the Palatine Hill/Forum at 2pm. Well, Lucy and I had forgotten (or did we just not know?) about Daylight Savings time, so when we an hour late for the tour, we realized we’d been an hour behind all day! Fortunately for us, there was another tour at 3:30 so we took that one instead.

The Palatine Hill and the Ruins of the ancient Roman Forum are really nothing more than excavated ruins, but it is incredible. It was surreal (again) to be standing at Rome’s heart: the Forum, and to see Emperor’s palaces and homes and stone that’s thousands of years old in pillars, busts, arches, and very recognizable pieces of buildings. Again, we took an insane amount of pictures like any (and every) self respecting tourist. I think what I liked most about it was that it wasn’t just stone. Since it had been in ruins for so long, there was grass and greenery growing all around it!

And that was pretty much it for the day. I had made it through the whole day without sleep, and this far into the trip Lucy and I can still stand each other. It was nice to be able to actually stay in explore both the Coliseum and the Forum without feeling rushed instead of trying to pack too much into the day. Wanting to make it back to our hostel before the sun had been set for long, we headed back toward the metro station by about 7pm. It was a great day. It really was and taking pictures of all of it never got old. We started at the Coliseum and finished there as well, and I took way too many pictures both times. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

We made it back to the hostel fine, and got some food and now here’s hoping that I actually sleep tonight. I didn’t have any coffee with my dinner (or all day, in fact) so here’s hoping. I did have wine with dinner though in hopes that that would send me to sleep. I love the fact that you can get a pitcher of the house wine out here for about 4 euros. It’s awesome. I’m going to miss that.

Pictures from SPAIN

Check those bad boys out right here! I'll put pictures up from Italy in the next day or so, so keep checking back. And don't forget to read the most recent post all about the rest of the Barcelona segment of the trip.... 'twas fun!

PICTURES

BARCELONA - Days 2 & 3

Day 2 (27 March 2008) – Barcelona, SPAIN

After a night’s sleep with cars continually roaring outside, when the alarm went off at 9:45 am, neither I nor Lucy wanted to get out of bed! We finally rolled out by about 10:15ish and took some showers, got some toast for breakfast and finally got out of the apartment by 12:30! The best part about the morning, apart from sleeping in of course, was that when I got out of the shower Lucy had blown up balloons and put a little “Happy Birthday” banner up on the wall. She also got me a card which she had signed in eyeliner because she had forgotten a pen. It was great! The whole thing made me really happy. Its really strange to be in a different country for my birthday, especially my 21^st, seeing as how I’ve been in Europe for the past 7 months and buying alcohol (in moderation, of course!) for the entire time! Haha.

Anyway, we made it out by about 12:30 and started walking toward this church/temple thing called The Sagrada Familia. (Church of the Sacred Family). It’s Antoni Gaudi’s (an famous architect who designed seemingly everything in Barcelona) ambitions project that was left unfinished with his death in the early 1900’s. Since then, other architects have taken up the arduous task of finishing the project, though the end seems to be in the distant future at best. Anyway, the part of the building that is finished is incredibly detailed and impressive. The finished project is to have 12 pillars representative of the apostles, 4 more representing the writers of the gospels, another for the Virgin Mary, and finishing off the structure is the massive tower/pillar in the center representing Jesus rising an impressive and imposing 170 meters into the air. Each face of the temple (or façade) tells Jesus’ story also, one side depicting the nativity, the opposite depicting the Passion/Crucifixion, and another depicting the Resurrection & subsequent glory.

Gaudi is quite famous for his work in Barcelona. We saw two other houses by him which were also very cool but we didn’t get to go inside. The remainder of the day was spent walking through this street called La Rambla which has little touristy shops and such around it and also a little covered market in which I found some small chiles! I bought a couple and tried to roast them in the oven back at the flat but I only somewhat succeeded. I put the one chile that I managed not to burn on my pizza that night and it was lovely! Lucy was laughing at me.

Anyway, today has been rather uneventful but because of all the walking, Lu and I were both quite pooped. Tomorrow is our last day in Barcelona so we’re going to try to make the most of it. Lucy said there’s this really cool fountain on the other side of the city that I think we might check out tomorrow night. It’s supposed to be quite impressive.

So we finished off today by trying to find somewhere to eat. After polishing off the last of the pizza we weren’t too hungry, so we went in search of a not too sketchy looking bar/pub/restaurant. What we ended up finding and going to was an Irish Rock Pub. I know, we’re in Spain and we go to an Irish Pub…. Haha I’m sorry. But it was cool because the had some live jazzy/bluesy acoustic music, and the chick who was singing actually sounded pretty good. I got my beer on my 21^st so I was happy.

Day 3 (28 March 2008) – Barcelona, SPAIN

Well, the good news is that Lu and I managed to sleep really good through the traffic last night, but the bad news is that we were awoken this morning by some guy using a jack hammer outside (all morning, I might add) directly in front of our building. Talk about unpleasant. Oh well. We slept in again this morning so maybe we deserved it. Being in Barcelona, we didn’t really have a ton of stuff we wanted to see, so we’ve been sleeping in a bit and then walking around all afternoon. It’s been nice. Plus, we didn’t make t back to the room til late last night, having stayed at the pub.

On the agenda today was to go to El Poble Espanya, which is a small village type thing of old Spanish buildings that have since been converted to shops and restaurants, but it shows off old architecture in a compact space. It was a bit away from where we were staying though, but as we didn’t have much else to do today and as the metro was going to be slightly expensive, we walked! It really is incredible how much walking we’ve done since we got here. But the weather was decent and we were able to stop in a Spanish book store and get some food along the way.

We made it to El Poble Espanya by about 5pm and spent the next two hours wandering around in and out of shops and galleries some of which were adorable and others very interesting, like the glass blowing workshop, or the modern art exhibition where we were able to see some of Picasso’s (lesser known but still original) work.

By about 7pm, the sun was threatening to set so we began walking to this massive fountain in front of the art museum. We amused ourselves by sitting down and watching the fountain do an impressive light show (complete with loud music) from the steps. With all the colors of the lights and the shooting water and the music it truly was spectacular. Both Lu and I were quite mesmerized, along with a few thousand other people all crowded around the museum and the fountain.

There’s quite a few tourists here. It’s interesting walking around on the streets because you can hear a variety of different languages and see countless numbers of people holding maps, guide books, and cameras all looking confused. Oh to be a tourist… there really is nothing like it! Its also interesting to see and experience a different culture, though, and to notice the little things that are different. For instance, you can buy beer in McDonalds, or a sandwich at Starbucks! Fortunately for Lu and I, the language barrier in Spain isn’t as large as it could be. I think both of us are a little nervous to go to Rome, though, because neither of us speak Italian!

Well, being tired from all our walking, we started to head back to the hostel but stopped at The Happy Bar & Grill for dinner. It was tasty, and it reminded me of a Chile’s or an Applebee’s. After dinner we came back, quite tired but happy for our final day in Barcelona, and trying to get ready to head to ROME tomorrow.

"Take a Holiday in Spain, Leave my Wings Behind Me..."

Hey Everyone! Well Lucy and I made it to Spain & Italy and back safe and sound. We had an amazing time, took an incredible amount of pictures, attempted to sleep enough, and saw a bit of Europe neither of us had seen before. Overall, the entire trip was one of the most amazing experiences of my life and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. Anyway, I kept a journal while we were out there, so I’m just going to type it up and put it up here over the next week, one or two days at a time. I apologize as it’s fairly long, if you don’t want to read the whole thing, then don’t! Haha, but seriously, the trip was a ton of fun, and hopefully I can put pictures up in the next few days.

Day 1 (26 March 2008) - Barcelona, SPAIN

Well, I must admit that I am, in fact, writing this on my birthday (March 27), but its still in the morning and we haven’t actually left the room yet, so I can tell you all about yesterday without having to spill into today. Anyway, getting to Spain was relatively easy. After fighting with Ryanair’s ridiculous charging policies, where you pay a fee for EVERYTHING, we finally had our tickets booked, and as the day for departure drew near, we realized that we still didn’t have anywhere to stay! So we got on HostelWorld.com and began our search for cheap and clean accommodation. After a bit of searching we found two places (one in Barcelona and another in Rome) each where we had a room to ourselves. Thank God.

So the night before leaving found Lucy and I packing at midnight, despite the fact that I had to be up by 4am to take a shower to leave by 5am to be at the airport no later than 6:15am to catch a plane that left at 8:05am. Honestly. Anyway, I finally made it to bed at about 1 am, and didn’t do more than doze in and out of sleep for the next 3 hours when my alarm went off and I found myself up once again and in the shower. So 5am we leave and Lucy’s dad drops us off at the London Stansted Airport at 6am, we check in for our flight, go through security, and board the plane (after getting coffee and breakfast!) without hassle. I was thankful for an uneventful trip.

Well, we finally made it to Spain, and I have to go through a different passport control than Lucy because I am not a citizen of the EU (European Union), but she is. So the man at passport control was a bit grumpy, but I’m sure dealing with incompetent foreigners who don’t speak your language all day can’t really be the most fun job in the world. But nonetheless we made it through, got our bags, and attempted to find a way from the airport actually *into* Barcelona. Ryanair, being a budget airline, flies into tiny airports outside of big cities, but they usually have a shuttle service that can get you there. SO we hop on the Barcelona Bus and begin driving across the Spanish countryside. Even in the end of winter with all the trees still dead Spain is lovely. And Barcelona has mountains! They reminded me of home. In fact, it looked like Spain was a mixture of New Mexico and England… however that works. Anyway, besides the mountains, the best part was that the sun was shining which was especially appreciated seeing as we had left a particularly dreary England that morning!

Well, an hour and a half later we pull into the bus station in Barcelona, but as we’d never been there before, and see as how everything was in Spanish/Catalan, we didn’t have a blessed clue where we were or where we were supposed to go from there! So shouldering our bags, we began walking figuring that if we could find a street, then we could figure out where we were on the map. Meanwhile, we’re trying to call the guy at the hostel to let him know we made it so that we can get the key to our room. With the hostel not actually having a front desk, and basically being no more than a rented out apartment, instead of checking in, we were supposed to call the hostel when we got there and then they would meet us in front of the building and then they give you the key. After fighting about who was going to call, I made the phone call (telling Lu she then had to do the calling Italy, which didn’t make her too happy!) and fortunately, the guy spoke English. Also, the hostel wasn’t far from the bus station and we had no difficulty finding it. We had to wait outside for a few minutes because we were early, but then this hot emo Spanish boy came and let us in, showed us around, we paid for the room, and we were set.

The room was perfect. For the price we paid, I didn’t think we could have found anything better. There were two incredibly comfortable beds in a very clean room in a flat in an apartment building on the 5^th floor. Also in the flat is a kitchen, a sort of common room, and two bathrooms, all of which were in great shape and very clean. The only drawback was that we were on one of the busier streets in the city so we could hear loud traffic all night. But hey, you take what you can get, right? Despite the traffic, we still managed to sleep just fine.

Anyway, we got all situated and dumped our stuff in the room and decided to explore the city (after taking pictures of our Spanish room, that is). It was only about 2pm, so we had plenty of daylight left. We didn’t go anywhere in particular, save the beach, but we walked around the side of town we were staying in, in and out of little streets, finally arriving at the beach. Seeing the Mediterranean Sea, even if it was only for 10 minutes in cold weather with cloud cover was AWESOME. Lucy was laughing at me, but I took my shoes off immediately and ran to put my feet in the freezing water. It was surreal; the Mediterranean (and Spain for that matter) is one of those places I’d learned about in school, always wanted to see, but never really thought I’d find a chance to. And yet here I was, running away from the tiny wave, which still somehow managed to get my jeans wet! But Lucy, who despises sand, didn’t appear to be having near as much fun as I was, and it was cold, and my jeans were wet so we sat down on a rock so I could de-sand my feet and head back. As we were walking back it started to sprinkle, but it never properly poured down, which was nice as neither of us had umbrellas.

Making it back to the flat, we were both quite exhausted from the day and lack of sleep, but we needed some food so we set off to find a grocery store and had a bit of a hard time finding one. Finally, we found one, got some pizza, and came back to the room to eat, talk, and sleep. Having no TV and being far too tired to go out, we fell asleep reading by about 10:30 pm feeling like rubbish tourists for going to bed so early!

Easter Just West of London

I’m rubbish at blogging. I know I say that every time, and every time I vow that I’m going to do better, but to no avail. Ah, such is life, right? Well, I think its safe to say that not a lot has happened. We are currently enjoying Easter Break which is awesome, especially as we get FOUR full weeks of school off, so I’m again at Lucy’s house trespassing on her parent’s (and her) abundant hospitality. (Sorry, I’ve been reading too much Charlotte Bronte, and my syntax and diction is taking a beating…). Anyway, the last week of school proved rather uneventful, yet again. I didn’t do much work, as I was in anticipation of Easter Break, but I got my essay finished, attended all my classes (aren’t you proud of me?), and had fun hanging out. We had a fun night at the flat near the end of the week with most all of us, Fred made an *amazing* curry, and I think its safe to say that I’ve been officially converted to curry now. I know that’s terrible, and its taken me nearly 7 months, but hey, I like it now, don’t I? I want to learn how to make a Korma too, but I don’t know that I’m that talented yet.

Well, school wrapped up and within a matter of days the flat was almost completely deserted. It’s really strange to be living in a flat where that’s almost empty, in a country that you’re still not 100% familiar with. I spent most of my time in my room on my computer, watching movies, and reading. It was actually sorta nice, but solitude is only so great after the first day or two. I did, however, make excellent progress on reading Villette by Charlotte Bronte, and I’m sure Erin is proud of me for that one…. I promised her that I’d read it about a year ago, and now I *finally* have fulfilled that promise. Good book too…. Sad though.

Anyway, I hopped on the train on Thursday night to head over to Lucy’s house. 4 hours later I had arrived with little trouble, thank God. I’m getting used to the tube system in London now, a little more at least. Hopefully I’ll be able to navigate me and my parents through London when they come. Anyway, Friday morning we went to a Good Friday service at Lucy’s church which was nice. On Saturday, Lucy bravely cut my hair, and now my shaggy mane doesn’t look quite so bad any more. Her cousins thought I was brave to let her do it, although I wasn’t too worried. She’s cut my hair before. My mom wanted to see a picture, but its really not that exciting. Haha, I’m sure you’ll see pictures in my next post because we’ll take an incredible amount of pictures in Spain and Italy I’m sure. But that’s a different topic.

Ok, so Easter was really fun. I woke up and there was a light dusting of snow on the ground. Talk about weird. Church was nice though, and after church we went to this really nice restaurant called Biggles with Lucy’s dad’s side of the family. It was super good too, and her family is a lot of fun to hang out with. They all came back that night to Lucy’s house and we hung out there chatting and drinking tea. (It really is incredible just how much tea I drink when I’m at Lucy’s house. Its great!) That night though, we went to the Anglican church for their Gospel Choir service. That was fun… especially seeing as it was a bunch of English people singing like a Gospel Choir! They actually sounded pretty good too. Anyway, so far it has been a really nice weekend. I really like hanging out with Lucy’s family, and it really is a blessing that they are so amazingly welcoming to me.

But alas, the time will be cut short. Lucy and I are headed off to Barcelona, Spain tomorrow! I literally can’t wait. We booked our hostels last night, so we’re all set for where we’re staying, and we’ve got to be at the airport at about 7am tomorrow morning, so I think we’re leaving here at 5 am! There really is no better way to start out a trip than waking up and leaving before the sun rises, right? Anyway, we’re spending 3 nights in Barcelona, and then flying to Rome on Saturday where we’ll stay for 4 more nights. We watched the movie Gladiator the other night and it was really strange to think that I’m actually going to be able to SEE the Colosseum, even if it isn’t in great shape anymore.

Still, I can’t believe that I’ll be spending my 21^st birthday in Barcelona. I don’t think its really hit me yet. Unfortunately, reality is going to hit as soon as we get back. I’ve still got that drama project to get finished before we go back to school. Woohoo. Then its all work work work for the next month until school’s out. I almost can’t believe that my time here really is winding up. Only 3 months til I head home, and only 2 ½ months until my parents and brother come out here! I can’t wait to see them!

Oh, and on a completely unrelated and uninteresting note, I almost hit the roof with excitement yesterday. Perhaps I should start at the beginning. Ok, one of my favorite bands is The Counting Crows (who aren’t exactly that popular out here), but I listen to their music a lot while I’m cooking in the kitchen so the whole flat has now heard their music in abundance. Well, I’ve only seen them in concert once and ever since then I’ve always wanted to see them again, so when I heard that they were doing a European tour, I was thrilled, right? Well it turns out they’re playing in London about 3 days AFTER I fly home. How awful is that? So I complained to Lucy, naturally. Well I found out that they are touring this summer in the States, after I get back, and they’re actually playing in ABQ with Maroon5 and Augustana. And I know most of you don’t care, but I was absolutely thrilled. I came running down the stairs to tell Lucy, and she didn’t seem to excited, but her dad laughed at me. Haha, I would have laughed at me. Oh, and they’re new CD got released today so I’m listening to that now. Awesome.

Alright, well that’s pretty much it that’s been going on. I’ll be blogging as soon as I get back to tell you all about the trip, but I won’t have a computer out there, so don’t expect anything for at least another week.

Miss you all!

So Much Time, So Little To Do!

Well, so much for consistently blogging this term. Sorry about that. I wish I could say that it’s been a busy week and yadda yadda yadda, but I suppose to a big extent, that wouldn’t be true! Don’t get me wrong, its been a bit eventful, but nothing too out of the ordinary. I have a decent amount of homework this week though, and I have successfully put it off all day. Unfortunately, that means I have to work twice as hard tomorrow. I told Emma that the plan was to wake up early tomorrow and go spend the day in the library, but she didn’t believe I could do it. I think she might be right. Anyway, I’ve got to keep working on this Drama Project, and right now I’m at a bit of a standstill. I think I may have had too much faith in my writing ability, so now I’m strained. Call it writer’s block, if you like. On top of that, I’ve got an essay to write for a play I don’t really remember, so I should probably reread that play, which will take up a good 2-3 hours of tomorrow, then research, and then writing the actual thing. Eh, should be a good day.

But enough about that, I suppose I should give you my cooking update. I’ve tried two new dishes. First, I asked my mom for her Red Chile Chicken Thighs recipe, and I was able to bake them in the microwave, and I think that may be the best meal I’ve made since I’ve been out here. My roommate agreed. We partook of the wonderful food together, and that made it more exciting. Also, feeling high on life with the success of the chicken thighs, I called my brother to get his Brazillian Stroganoff recipe as well. That one didn’t turn out quite so well, possibly because Jotham’s recipe had directions like, “add some ketchup” (and how, may I ask, am I to interpret “some”?). But all things considered, it was still tasty, and skeptical Emma even said that she’d gladly eat it again! So there ya go, I’m 2 for 2.

Along the same lines though, we went to this pub on Sunday for a proper English carvery (think thanksgiving dinner), and my was it tasty. There was loads and loads of food and you just got to pile it on your plates. And the place was called the Dun Cow… honestly, how un-appetizing is that? Haha, but still, it was very very good and I’d gladly do that again. Nikki said she’d cook me another roast dinner before I left. That made me feel special!

Anyway, there’s more to life than cooking (not much, though, as I’m learning). Easter break is coming up soon, so I have to do all this work before that comes. I’m going to be spending Easter with Lucy’s family. Her mom is so sweet, every time I go over there she invites me to come again whenever I like. I really like Lucy’s family, they’re all very sweet and have been extremely welcoming, and it truly is impossible to express just how thankful I really am to them for that. It has made this experience all that much more enjoyable. I was actually over at her house last weekend, and it was just nice to be hanging out somewhere besides the flat for a weekend. I couldn’t even imagine what it would be like to come home to NM for the weekend, only to go back to uni again.

But, besides going to Lucy’s house, since Easter Holidays are a full month long, Lucy and I are actually going to go to Spain and Italy for a week! I’m so excited; I’m going to be in Barcelona, Spain for my 21^st birthday!! How cool is that? I really couldn’t be more excited. Although, I must say that budget airlines, while cheap as all get out, are still able to give you the biggest hassle! Trying to book these flights and figure out this trip has been a royal nightmare. They charge you for EVERYTHING. Literally. There’s a charge for “taxes & fees”, a charge to use your credit card, a charge to check a bag, a charge to check-in at the airport, and I’m sure there’s more! So what was going to be a cheap flight, is still a cheap flight, but now it’s just doubled in price. Amazing. Still, its cheaper than it would be with a different airline… just more of a hassle. But I shan’t complain! Or at least I’ll try not to. I’m just excited that I’m going to actually see Spain and go to Rome after that and see all these places that I heard about in history class. It truly is a dream come true (as cheesy as that sounds).

Oh, but the highlight of these past few weeks is something else entirely. First, let me just preface this story by saying that we put far too much faith in technology. Well, I do at least. So, I’m sitting in my room, minding my own business (for once), and I’m sitting at my computer like I always am, and all of the sudden, Emma comes bursting into my room telling me that there’s snow or hail outside. So naturally, she opens my curtains and I join her. Well I had forgotten that I had a pint of water sitting on the windowsill, and as I tore back the curtains, the pint of water spilled, quite accurately I might add, ON TO MY LAPTOP! I freaked out. I started yelling, so loud that Lucy heard it down the hall and came running in.

So the screen goes blank on the computer, so I’m unplugging every cord imaginable, Lucy’s run to get towels from the kitchen, Emma’s in my showerpod looking for my towel, I’m trying to pull the battery out of the computer, Emma hands me the towel, and I start yelling at her to turn my hairdryer on and to start blowdrying my laptop! So all this is happening in a matter of seconds, and I’m in a complete panic/anger attack. I couldn’t believe that that had just happened. But there was literally nothing more that I could do than try to dry everything off and hope and PRAY that my computer turned back on. So we finish drying everything off, and I grab my computer from Emma, and I hold my breath, send up a quick prayer and hit the power button. Thank God up in heaven, my computer turned back on! And every single key on the keyboard still works as well. It honestly is a miracle. A complete miracle. Emma told me I have to keep that hairdryer forever now. I think she might be right.

Well, that’s not the only thing that’s broken. I successfully snapped the handle off my frying pan today, as well. That was upsetting. I had almost the same reaction to that as I did to my computer! Except, this time it was while I was washing dishes, and all of Lucy’s friends were hanging out in the kitchen! Oh well, I guess I have to buy a new one now. I was really hoping all this stuff would last me for the full 10 months that I was out here, but that may have been expecting too much from that cheap frying pan. Oh well! Everything else is holding up pretty good… knock on wood, at least.

Well that’s pretty much it. Although, I suppose I should mention one more thing. I’m addicted to the TV show Survivor. Its terrible. A new season started, and now Lucy and Kara and I (I got them all hooked too….) watch it on my computer on the internet every Saturday. It’s really slightly amusing. Its pervading my poor life. Glad that writer’s strike is over though, now REAL tv shows will be back on the air (yay!).

Ok, well its 1 am and I think I should probably sign off and go to bed or do some homework. It’s a shame I’m not more tired. Oh well. Oh, one other thing. I went running. Well, more like I went jog-walking-out-of-shape-“running”. It hurt.

Cooking Extravaganza!!

Mema, I do think you may be right… this blog has turned into my cooking brag outlet. I suppose its just because I didn’t actually think that I’d ever be able to cook properly, and yet here I am, 5500 miles away from home turning into a competent cook. Well, “competent” may be going a bit far. Perhaps I should explain. I tried Sopapillas again, and this time I had proper measuring spoons and measuring cups (thanks to the European equivalent of Wal*Mart: ASDA!). Anyway, they turned out absolutely fantastic, and everyone loved them. We stuffed them for dinner with mince, beans, potatoes, lettuce, tomato and Cholula sauce and they were excellent! I think they may have even given my mom’s Sopapillas a run for their money… haha, I’m sure she probably wouldn’t agree. Anyway, I was so excited that they had actually puffed up this time that I started screaming and Lucy (who was assisting me in this endeavor) started laughing at me. I then called my mom and dad to inform them of my success, and they (I’m sure) thought I was crazy. Which I am, so it’s no big deal!

Right, so those were great, and then I made breakfast burritos with sausage and potatoes the next morning for the whole flat. I think I’ve gotten them addicted to my American cooking! They seem to enjoy it… especially since they’d never heard of things like breakfast burritos or stuffed Sopapillas. And then tonight, I attempted an English meal. I was starting to get tired of all the things that I’ve cooked multiple times, so I made a sort of Cottage Pie (or is it Shepherd’s pie? Whichever one has beef, not lamb) and it actually turned out quite nice. I was so proud of myself that I took a picture. And I made enough so that I don’t have to cook tomorrow night.

Right, so enough about cooking, as I am sitting here writing this blog you will never guess what just happened. So I’m sitting here on my bed with my computer in my lap and its about 1am, and all of the sudden I feel the walls shake, so I just assume that my flatmates are banging against the wall or something, but then the floor and bed starts to shake too. So after it got a bit worse, and kept going, it finally stopped. I was so confused though, so I went out into the hallway to see if anyone else had felt it only to find everyone else in my flat coming into the hallway as well! I think we just had a small earthquake/tremor! I didn’t even know they had those in England! Maybe I’m overreacting, but that was really strange! And don’t freak out, it wasn’t big at all, it was more just a little shake. Haha…. Weird.

So I stayed up until about 5am on Sunday night watching the Academy Awards because I’m a movie dork. I spent the whole of last week trying to find someway (any way, really) that I would be able to watch the ceremony live. Something about watching Hollywood give itself a big pat on the back appeals to me for some reason… I have yet to find out what that reason is. Anyway, after a lot of searching I finally found a website that was streaming ABC, but the ceremony started at 5pm in LA, so that’s 1am England time. I had fun watching it though, even though it didn’t end until 5am and I had class 5 hours later… ah, but that’s the price that is to be paid, right? Kyle appreciates it too… so I’m not *entirely* alone, just *mostly* alone. (After all, “there’s a big difference between being mostly dead, and all dead. Mostly dead… he’s slightly alive!”)

Anyway, nothing else really new to report except that I think I may be going to London again this weekend to hang out with Lucy’s family again for the weekend. I’m excited to get out of Norwich for a couple days, so that should be nice. I’ll be able to do a fair bit of homework and reading on the train too. Yay for 3 hour train rides. This really isn’t that interesting, but I’ll tell you anyway, Lucy and I were talking about distances today and how because of the size of the different countries that each of are from, our concept of how long is a “long” distance and how short a “short” one is are completely different. She said something about an hour and a half train journey like it was a long thing, and I couldn’t help but think of the fact that I drive 3 hours to get to Colorado to go snowboarding and then drive back the same day like its no big deal. Its weird, I’ve been here for almost 6 months now, and I still feel just as American as I was the day I stepped off the plane. Sure, I’ve picked up some British-isms and stuff, but I’m still horribly American… I’m trying to figure out if that’s a good thing!

Well, at least we appreciate some of the same stuff. We’ve been having fun watching Survivor online every week. I got Lucy hooked, and I think Kara as well. Its like a bonding experience or something. We’ve also found some amusing videos on youtube… I just have to share this one because its so darn cute! It’s a 3 year old little girl explaining (surprisingly well, actually) the plot of the original Star Wars movie. I still can’t stop laughing!

Alright, well that’s it for now. Can’t wait to see you all again, although it hit me the other day that in 4 months I’m actually going HOME… and consequently, I won’t be coming back to England anytime soon. That was a strange thought.

Mas Fotos!

AQUI!

http://unm.facebook.com/album.php?aid=29157&l=3e67b&id=545464971

This One Is For You, Ellie!

Hi Ellie! I just got your comment, and I think I entirely agree with you, that I need a new blog. Again, (you must be tired of hearing me say this… oh well) I’m sorry its been so long, I again have no good excuse but I’ll just try to fill you in anyway. Once again I’d like to thank all of you who read my blog…. You make me happy!

Ok, so I think we left last time with Pancake Day and all of us sat around the kitchen table playing Squeak. I can’t say much has changed, except that my losses in Squeak are becoming more frequent. Emma, Irene, and I all played a few nights ago for about 3 ½ hours straight (5 games in a row), and out of the five I won three, and Emma won the other two. Yesterday, I lost for the first time since we started playing to Lucy, and that was a blow, haha. Anyway, Squeak still continues to be one of the things that the entire flat can get into… although I think it may be getting progressively more competitive… even violent!

Besides Squeak, we haven’t been doing much. Squid and I got bored and played Frisbee in the corridor yesterday though. We were having a good time banging the thing against everyone’s doors, because the corridor is far too thin to actually throw a Frisbee, and we were having a great time until I accidentally hit the ceiling light! It actually fell down and broke! Lucy gave me the disapproving mother look, but I couldn’t stop laughing! I couldn’t believe that I was the one who’d knocked it off… if it was going to be anyone, I would have thought it’d be Squid! Anyway… now I’ve broken the hall light and my wardrobe… I should start making a tally of all the things I break. Not really.

So Jimmy came from Germany last weekend. That was fun to see him and hang out with him. He came for four days, I think, and we had a good time just kinda bumming around in England. We weren’t able to go to London because it was sort of a last minute trip, and it would have cost too much to get a train ticket that late in the game, but we just hung out in Norwich instead. It’s hard to entertain guests for a few consecutive days, especially when you’re both staying in a single dorm room and you don’t have a car. But, nevertheless we had a good time. We tried out this pub called The Fat Cat, which is supposedly one of the top 5 pubs in Britain (I think…. I could be lying…), and it was actually really good. I tried this horribly overpriced Belgian Peach Beer, which was to die for, and I also got some of this chocolate beer that they had which was pretty good too. It was nice to get out of the flat that night.

While Jimmy was here, we also had some absolutely gorgeous weather! It got to the point where I almost didn’t even have to wear a jacket. It was sunny for about 4 days straight, and then Valentine’s Day hit, and it was cloudy, cold, and gross all over again. (My guess is God doesn’t like Valentine’s Day either…. Just a guess though.) But the temperature has since dropped. We’ve had some really foggy nights (which looks really cool, btw) and then we wake up to frosted mornings (if you’re awake that early, that is). But I don’t think we’ll see snow again. We might though. Lucy told me it won’t be warming up until the end of March/beginning of April. That’s a long time. Although, maybe it’ll be warm for my birthday. I’m all excited because I’m turning 21 in five weeks!

Spring break is coming up soon too. We have a month off, and I think Lucy and I are going to try to travel, but we’ll see. Emma and I were thinking of going to Liverpool too, to see the Beatles’ Museum and all that stuff. It should be cool. I’m excited to meet Emma’s family also, they seem like they’re lots of fun. Plus, it’ll be nice to go visit northern England, as I haven’t been up there yet.

School, on the other hand, is a bit of a bore so far. I like my creative writing class though, and my drama projects class is starting to pick up. I get to meet with my project supervisor every Friday to give him a sort of progress report, and I only had my first one last week. The 15 minute show I’m supposed to be working on isn’t written yet… unfortunately, so I don’t have a lot to tell him at this point. I’m still trying to keep up on my reading though, and stay busy, although I’m having issues doing that. I’ve been watching a handful of movies though, trying to catch up on what I’ve missed out on not being in the States, especially with the Academy Awards coming up! (I know… I’m the only one who cares, but still.)

And finally, I don’t think this would be a proper blog if I didn’t talk about my cooking situation. Mema told me in one of her letters that I should start calling my blog the cooking show because I seem to measure my weeks by what I’ve cooked! And she’s probably right… although, I must confess that cooking is becoming more and more of a chore. I think it’s because both my resources and my cooking knowledge are limited, and therefore my cooking is limited. I’m getting a bit tired of cooking the same things every night, so if any of you have any good and SIMPLE ideas for cooking, email them my way (iamthejoey @ hotmail.com). Although (this is entertaining), we made smores last night in the grill. Yes, that’s right, in our grill thing. And they were actually really really good! We didn’t have ghram (sp?) crackers so we had to use tea biscuits (still good), and not having an open flame we cooked the marshmallows on chopsticks in the grill! All my English friends seemed impressed, only Lucy’s sister had ever had one before. We got marshmallow stuff all over though! That was fun to clean up this morning.

Well, I think that’s about it. I’ll try to get some pictures up here in the next day or so, and I’ll put a link to them up here on the blog. Anyway, I miss you all terribly and can’t wait to see you!

Pancakes!!

Well, this is officially the longest I’ve ever gone without writing a blog, and I’m not sure why that is. So for the 900^th time, I’m terribly sorry! Although, not all that much has been happening. I told you all about my school schedule and how not demanding it is, so that has been nice to just sit back and relax, but its getting a bit old! How sad is that? Isn’t it every college student’s dream to not have a lot of homework? I suppose if I had a job, it wouldn’t be that bad, but sitting in the flat for hours on end doing absolutely nothing is getting old. SO, I decided that I would start reading again. I used to read books like nobody’s business when I was in middle school, and then it dwindled in high school and almost disappeared when I started college. Anyway, I’m turning over a new leaf. I read Catcher in the Rye and The Picture of Dorian Gray (both VERY good, I would highly recommend both), and now I’m reading The Case for Christ, also good so far.

Well life hasn’t been too bad out here, just hanging out more than anything. We’ve recently developed an addiction to the card game Squeak. It’s like a community version of speed Solitaire. And it all started when I taught Lucy how to play about a week ago, then everyone else, one at a time, wanted to join in too. Its gotten way competitive, and Lucy absolutely slaughtered me the first night we played, but since then I’ve been unbeatable. Unfortunately, last night was the end of my Squeak reign. Emma beat me last night. It was a sad day in the world. Well for me; everyone else seemed pretty happy about it. Oh, but the good news is, Dan decided he wanted to put money on one single round of Squeak, so we put a fiver on the game, and I ended up just barely winning. That was fun.

Besides Squeak though, I have been doing *some* school. My creative writing class isn’t too bad, my Intro to World Dramatic Literatures is still a bit boring, and my the proposal for my 15 minute show is due in my Drama Projects class on Friday. So I think, like I said in my last blog, that things are going to get a bit busier here in the next few weeks. This weekend should be fun though, Jimmy’s coming from Germany to stay for the weekend and a few days after. His semester is finishing (the German school system is even weirder than the American or English one’s), so he’s going to come visit out here, and hang out with me and my roommates.

Oh, on a different note, we’ve (all of us in the flat) have all been getting along really well this term. Its been fun, what with playing Squeak and all, and we’ve started doing a group dinner every Thursday night. Heather made enchiladas last week, and those were way good. A bit different in England than New Mexico, but still very good. I think Anna’s cooking tonight, some Thai soup, but its just nice to not have to cook once a week. (I think I may have already told you all of this before… so I apologize if I’m repeating myself…) And even better than someone cooking for you once a week, was today: Pancake Day! Yes, it’s a national thing. Everyone makes British Pancakes (think crepes), and then you eat loads and loads of them! Lucy’s been perfecting her pancake mix since we got here, and we made 4 batches to feed all 9 of us! The kitchen got all smoky, and we had fun flipping them in the pans… we didn’t even drop any of them! Although… some ended up a bit wonky, still tasted good though!

Well, I think that’s pretty much it, I’ll write more in the next few days, and I’ll try to do it a bit more regularly. I shouldn’t like to go another 3 weeks without a blog! I do apologize. Ooo, but it snowed! IT SNOWED! For the first time! It was awesome. We made snowballs and threw them at each other and froze our hands off. It was fantastic. I’ve had my fix now, so I can go another year without snow if I have to… even though I don’t want to.

The only other interesting thing that has happened is that we got bored one night and attempted to fit as many people into my wardrobe as was possible. Sounds dumb, I know, but it really was quite funny. We started off fitting three people, and were all proud of ourselves, but we’ve now graduated to fitting five of us in there! It was hilarious, because all of us were squished in there, and then Emma, who was tucked on the bottom at the back, started yelling because she could hear the floor of the wardrobe breaking under our weight! Then, within a few seconds it snapped and we all screamed. So now my wardrobe floor has a crack… I think it was particle board, so I don’t know why we thought it could hold the weight of 5 university students! Anyway, now my wardrobe has character.

PICTURES

SNOW!!!!

Just wanted to tell you all that it is snowing! snowing! SNOWING!





Hehe, I'll write more later, but I just couldn't contain myself. We already went outside and played in it, and made snowballs and everything, and now I can't feel my hands anymore. Oh well! I'm sure we'll be back out there soon to make more snowballs and have more snowball fights!

SNOW!!!!

Umbrellas Are Weird

That’s right, weird. I bought an umbrella just before I left the states and I have used it more times this week than I had in all the months of being in England prior to this week. Ok, that may or may not be true, but it sounded good and it sure is close to the truth. Anyway, I bought it (or rather my awesomeness of a mother did) from Wal*mart (which I miss more than I miss Dion’s Pizza… and that’s saying something!) and its been holding up, today especially, in some nasty wind. That thing is flimsy. The other night Anna and I switched umbrellas just for the fun of it, and I realized just a how cheap my umbrella truly was. BUT, the good news is that it is still going strong, and the rain drizzles day after day.

Anyway, here’s another week gone by. School started, and the rain came, and the sun doesn’t bother to shine, and my bed’s just as uncomfortable as I left it, and my room still gets every bit as stuffy if I don’t leave the window open; all things I miss. Sorta. Hehe, anyway, no I am very glad to be back. It felt a lot more normal flying out here this time. I settled right back in, and was really happy to see my roommates, and we still all get along just fine. In fact we spent a few of the first nights, before classes and homework, hanging out in the kitchen playing poker and stuff. It was quite fun. I lost both times. Oh well. Hehe. Its funny, because I think we were just happy to see each other so we made an effort to hang out. All of us girls went and saw a movie (first time since I’ve been here that we’ve been to the pictures, as they call it, or the cinema rather). We saw PS I Love You which was a cute tear-jerker, and by the end of the film I was the only one in our little group, and the entire theatre probably, who wasn’t bawling. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the movie and even thought it was sad, I guess I just don’t cry in movies. They all thought I was heartless!

Anyway, other than that and school not a whole lot else has been going on. We’ve watched a handful of movies, and poker, and went into town a couple times, even made it over to the Waffle House. But, school is going to be interesting this semester. First, we are in school for 8 (or is it 9?) weeks and then we get a month off for Easter Break. Then we go back to school for 3 (or 4?) weeks before we have our month long assessment period (finals month). So we’re here for a total of 5 1/2 months, but we only have 12 weeks of classes!

So I went to my first class last week and it wasn’t there. Yeah, so Carey and I (another girl from UNM, she’s in my class) spent the next half hour trying to find the class which we later learned (a week later… today) was cancelled, which is why we couldn’t find the darn thing. So we made breakfast instead and then went into town to look for an accordion because Carey wanted an accordion. Hehe, we even found a kid’s one! So the day wasn’t a waste. So Tuesday rolls around and I go to my Theatre and Social Change class. After going to class and reading the first article for it, I decided that I wasn’t going to make it an entire semester in that class, so I decided I’d drop it. The problem is that as an exchange student I have to be taking only 3 classes, so to drop that class I needed to find another one, but the pickings for classes out here are even slimmer than the ones back at UNM! Well Wednesday rolls around and I went to my Drama Projects meeting. Apparently that class just consists of each of the 25 of us writing, producing, directing, everything-ing our own individual 15 minute show! We don’t have weekly classes, we just have to check up with our teachers to make sure that we’re actually working, and go to them if we get stuck or need technical help or something. So that class sounds like a whole ton of fun and a whole ton of work too! So Thursday and Friday I bummed around and didn’t do much, but on Friday I had to go try to change my class and had a bit of a time doing it, because the poetry class I wanted to get into was full, and then the Jane Austen/Bronte class I wanted filled up over the weekend. Anyway, long boring story short, I got into a different creative writing class that’s on Tuesday nights. So we’ll see how that goes.

Saturday was a lazy day. Sunday, Lucy and I went to Calvary Chapel again, which is where I think we’ll be going to church from now on. Everyone is very sweet there; its just such a tiny church that being new is to be VERY conspicuous. And to top it all of there aren’t many (or any?) students, so we’re the only people not under 10 and over 35. But the guy who was preaching that week was from California so we talked to him and his wife after.

OH, I forgot the best part about this week! Thursday night I attempted (with a lot of help from my girls) to make Stuffed Sopapillas and Spanish Rice. Unfortunately I was having issues measuring American measurements with British measuring devices (or no measuring devices at all!) and somehow I screwed the dough up and the Sopapillas didn’t puff when we put them in the oil. To top it all off, the rice wouldn’t cook fully, and the potatoes we’d put in with the beef and beans hadn’t cooked fully either. So after a whole lot of improvisation and frustration, we had flat Sopapillas with stuff all ON TOP of them instead of inside them, we got the potatoes to cook eventually, and the rice ended up being about half cooked. Hehe, but everything still *tasted* right, even if it didn’t look quite right. Almost everyone in the flat partook of the meal and we all had fun sitting down to eat improvised Mexican food a la Joanna (courtesy of Mamma Michnovicz). Having never had Sopapillas before, they all were quite taken with them. I think they felt about them the same way I feel about their amazing British pancakes!

To top all the cooking endeavors off, we had a fun time using this muffin mix that my mother had sent me. We used these weird little tins we had saved from Emma’s Yorkshire Puddings to bake the muffins in the microwave, hehe. And Lucy and Emma were quite amused to see that on the back of the packet with the directions there were additional directions for “high altitude”. They got a big kick out of it.

So anyway, that’s the run down of the week. Its been good, and its been dreary. BUT, I can’t let it get me down, right? Right! Well shoot me an email or leave a comment and let me know how you all are doing. Hope all is well, and I miss you all!