Berkley Castle and strange cheese fries

I woke up late. Class starts at 10 and I wasn’t up until 8. We have to catch the 9:26 bus to school everyday so I only had an hour before I had to leave for UWE. Today we talked about international business and globalization. It was kind of boring. Lunch was a basket of fries. It cost me £2.60 because I added cheese. The cheese was different…I expected a side of melted cheese but I got un-melted shredded cheese on my fries. It was ok but I wish I would have know that before hand. It’s just another thing that is done differently over here.


At 1:15 we caught a coach to Berkley Castle. It was really cool. It was built in the 12th century. We were allowed to take pictures of the castle which was nice because a lot of places won’t let you take pictures. We heard how a King was murdered at the castle. I forgot which one. Anyways he was a homosexual and he was playing favorites between his barons and there were people who were not too pleased by this. So one night they took him from his bed and in order to kill him without leaving a mark (evidence) on his body they used a bull horn to hold his bum open and stuck a red hot poker up his bum and burned his insides. This didn’t kill him quick enough so they smothered him to finish him off. Crazy huh?

After the tour I found my family code of arms at the gift shop and bought the post card that explained it. I also found my best friend Nicole’s so I picked that one up too. I talked to Paul about Belgium and how I should get to London on the 15th. I think I am going to buy a plane ticket. It just seems like the easiest way. I also found out that we have to feed ourselves while in Belgium (which sucks). I still need to make some last minute plans for Italy. Lots to do! I decided to sit home and type up some journals tonight while Ashley, Amy, Robert, and Audrey went out and I am headed to bed now (1:30am).

Back to Bristol!

Happy Birthday Amy! It is our final day in London and our bus leaves at 4 so we have to try to get as much in as possible. We have to meet back at the hostel at 2:30 to collect our bags from the closet (£1.5 to store each bag for the day at the hostel) and head to the bus station. To start we are going to Westminster Abby to beat the lines. Westminster was very cool. I thought it was amazing. I was much more impressed by the architecture, the history, and the statues rather than the art, but I still loved it. The Abby was located just across the street from Parliament and so when it was bombed in the 2nd world war everyone was amazed that the only damage done from the fallout was a small ole in a window about twice the size of my palm. They keep a gray colored glass piece there to remember. After that we went to the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace at around 11:30am. I will admit that I found that a little boring but at least I can say I saw it. After that we headed to Harrods to see the store and the strip of shops. Princess Diana was engaged to the owner’s son so she was a frequent shopper at Harrods. There is a special memorial in the store for her and Dody. We walked around the store for a bit and I saw a Chanel purse that had a price of £1,325 which is like $2,600.

It started out as Amy, Ashley, Allison, and I but Amy dipped out after Westminster to do her own thing so it was just the 3 of us for the rest of the time. After the shopping we stopped for lunch at McDonalds before headed back to the hostel for our bags. When we arrived at the bus station I was freaked out because Mike had bought another ticket to Bristol. He asked me to buy him one last week and I reminded him 3 times that he owed me £17 but he had the nerve to say he didn’t know who or if anyone had bought his ticket. He tried to sell back his ticket but they wouldn’t let him. I told him that I was sorry but I needed that money. He promised to give it to me tomorrow. Lets hope he does! I feel bad but it was not my fault that he is absent minded. The bus ride wasn’t too bad. I was able to sleep for almost half of it. It was only a 2 hour ride and then we took a local bus back to Zetland.

We were home by around 6:45pm. At dinner we had gifts from the family. It was a little coin purse with a sequin British flag on it. It was very sweet. We also got cards (Amy and I for our birthdays and Ashley just because). Amy wanted to go out for her birthday and we were not sure what everyone else was doing so Ashley, Amy, Robert and I went to Bishops to have a pint. Ashley and Amy had 4 so they were funny to watch. I didn’t drink much. It was fun. We played pool and hung out. We got home around 11:45 and went to bed around 1:30am.

Me, Daniel, and Jack the Ripper!

I was woken up this morning by Katie snoring. She sounded like a cross between a kazoo and a lion. This was at like 6:30am and I was not a happy camper. Shannon, Katie, and Jenny were out until after 4 in the morning so they had not been asleep long. I tried to take a video of the whole situation because it was one of those things that you just have to hear to truely appreciate to horror of the sound she was making. lol

Teresa B., Lauren, Allison, Ashley, Amy and I went to Camden Market to do some shopping. It was a lot of fun. There were a lot of cute stuff and some great deals. I bought some really cool pictures to frame when I get home. I plan on giving some away but I like them so much…it will be hard to give them up.

I had to leave the group around 11:00am so that I could meet Daniel at Paddington station at noon. I having been planning to meet up with him in London for about a month and it was a little scary because he doesn’t have a phone that I can call him on so if we missed each other there was nothing we could do about it. I really started to panic after about 45 minutes. I started calling everyone at home to see if I could get his brother Steve’s home phone number. See Steve is one of my best friends and his brother Daniel is stationed over hear. I figured, Daniel and I could be each others little taste of home. He finally got there at around 1:10pm. I was so glad to see him (he had some rain troubles) if we wouldn’t have found each other I would have been alone all day. And being on my own all day in London did not sound like a good use of my day. Plus scary! lol

Daniel and I went to Big Ben and walked across the Millennium Bridge. We took pictures by Westminster Abby. We went to lunch at a little pub near the Abby called The Silver Cross. We both got burgers and a soda but it took almost 45 minutes for him to get his burger and when it came it was wrong so we got free refills (they are not normally free over here....weird) and had to wait longer for his correct burger. It tasted ok despite the service issues. Luckly over here you dont tip so HA take that bad service! In your face lol!

After we ate we headed to the London Eye. I offered to go up in it again if he wanted to but he decided the line was too long. Daniel and I took the tube to Piccadilly Circus which was cool. It is kind of like a very small scale Times Square. I saw my first pay toilet (.20p) at the mall. We went to T.G.I. Fridays and snuck in to use the bathroom for free. After walking around for a while we hopped back on the tube and headed to the the London Bridge as well as Tower Bridge and walked around Tower Hill. You know you remember that song London Bridge is falling down? Well I kind of expected some grand bridge since the song was so famous but it is just a ordinary bridge with a little plague nearby explaining its history. It was a little anticlimatic if you ask me.

 

We had to take a break after that because our feet hurt. All this walking is a killer.  I was really nice to see Daniel, he really did reminded me of home. Kind of quenched my homesickness for a while. At this point it was about time for the Jack the Ripper tour so we headed over to that. It was really close to Tower Hill so we didn’t have to walk far. The tour was really neat. The area is still called Whitechapel and we walked around and were told about the murders and all the suspects and evidence. The guide was one of the guides from Tower Hill who I had spoken to yesterday so I was pretty confident that he knew wht he was talking about. The tour was really long though. It took about 2 ½ hours. We even had to leave early so that Daniel could make his 10:00pm train. I felt bad leaving because you are suppose to pay after the tour if you liked it and I did but we HAD to leave. It was only £5 so I guess it isn’t that big of a deal but still I felt bad. (Funny thing I saw on the tour was a place called Snatch that sold Adult Food…..anyone else confused??? lol).

After saying goodbye to Daniel I headed back to the hostel to see what everyone else had been up to that day and to find out what was going out for the night. Everyone was going to go out but when we got the bar it was closed. I am not used to place closing so early. We all just came back and went to bed. I tried to get food first b/c I hadn’t eaten since lunch but everything was closed so I had a coke for dinner and was asleep around 2am.

Feeling a little under the weather...

To be honest I wasn’t feeling to well today. I can’t figure out why. I guess the schedule is starting to get to me. Late nights and non stop agendas may be the death of me. Oh well...I did a lot of walking around today and saw a lot of the sites. It was mostly the things that I saw yesterday only today I had a little more time to take it all in.  I think because I wasn’t feeling well the best part of my day was when we (Amy, Teresa B., and I) went to see X3. It was really good. I mean what Hugh Jackman movie isn't? Right? I am going to bed at a fairly reasonable time because tomorrow will be a big day for me. I was meeting Daniel at noon at Paddington Station. We dont really have a major plan, just whatever comes to mind! Good night!

London here I come!!!

We had to be at the bus at 9am to head to London for the weekend. We made it just in time. The bus ride to London wasn’t so bad I was able to see Windsor Castle which is where the queen lives. They fly a flag whenever she is at home and the flag was flying this morning. We passed a lot of cool building on the way to Parliament. I didn’t really know until this trip that Parliament was in the same building as Big Ben. We had an hour before the tour to walk around London so me and Amy spit off and did our own thing. We walked around to see the London Eye and cross the Millennium Bridge. We got some really good pictures. Before we knew it it was time to head back to Big Ben for the tour.

The tour was cool. We were able to see the House of Lords as well as the House of Commons. Some interesting tid-bits: the queen is not allowed into the House of Commons. She has to have someone retrieve them whenever she needs to address them. Also the members of House of Commons have a special line they are not allowed to cross when then come into the House of Lords. We were not allowed to take any pictures which sucked but oh well. After the tour we grabbed our stuff and headed to the hostel. The Smart Hyde Park Inn was not too far but it took like 45minutes to check in. I was also not too pleased with our rooms. After we got there we see sites. Lauren, Allison, Amy, Teresa, Ashley, and I ventured out to go up in the London Eye. The wait wasn’t too bad. It takes about a half hour to go all the way around though but you can see all of London. After that we walked to the Hard Rock Café. There was an hour wait which sucked because I hadn’t eaten since breakfast. Once we got to the table it took about an hour to get our food because they were only using one kitchen for two floors. Once the food came it was so good. I was so tired alone with everyone else so we went back and went to bed.

Bus issues and the Bristol cathedral

Ashley and Amy went to school early so that they could use the computer lab. I ended up getting up at 12:00 which was a problem because I had to be to school (UWE) at 1:00pm. I was lucky to get to the bus in time for the 12:26 bus but it didn’t come. Katie and Jenny were sitting there too so I was glad I wasn’t going to be the only one late. Then when the bus came a few minutes before 1 I felt even better when I saw that Dr. Hunter was on the bus as well. I mean who can yell at you when the teacher is late too. I turned out that the bus had never made it to any of the last stops so everyone had been sitting at their stop for a while.

In class we discussed the government which was not very interesting to me but it was nice to know since we are going to parliament tomorrow. After class Ashley, Amy and I went to the centre and ventured to the Bristol cathedral. It was so beautiful. We walked around outside for a bit. Then we decided to go home for dinner. While waiting for the bus back to Zetland we saw two buses wedge themselves together. The y both thought they could fit past each other and obviously they were wrong. After dinner Amy and I went with Daphne to play badminton at a church. She plays every Thursday. It was really fun. There was an old man that Amy thought was making fun of my serving so she laughed when he served but the funny thing was that he looked at her funny and later she realized that he always did it that way. She felt bad for making fun of the old man. I thought it was hilarious especially when he gave her the evil look. We got home around 11pm and began packing for London I can’t believe I got everything into one bag. Time for bed, it’s already 1:45am.

Class and the theatre

Today we had more culture class. We watched an interesting video about a teacher that tried to teach children about racism by segregating by eye color Blue eyes vs. Brown eyes. It was very interesting to see how these kids reacted when told they were better/worse then their blue/brown eyed friends. After class I went home with Amy to get ready for the night. We were suppose to meet up with Caitlin, Amber, Kevin, and Ashley at the centre at 2pm but there was no way we were going to make that because when we got to the bus I realized that I had forgotten my bus pass at home so we had to walk all the way back. I know I suck! We didn’t get to the centre until 3pm and by then they had gone shopping without us. So Amy and I headed over to Subway to get drink and a snack (picture of me enjoying said drink and snack to the left) before the tour of the Bristol Old Vic Theatre.

Everyone met at the theatre at 4pm for the tour. It was fun! I was asked to demonstrate the wind and rain sound effect makers. I miss being in the theatre (high school) so it was neat to be back stage again. The theatre is almost 240 years old (end of May). After the tour the whole group went to Zero Degrees for dinner. Everyone got a beer and a personal pizza. Paul bought the whole meal since we were unable to eat with our host families. The total was over £350 which is like $700 to us. Mike V. had a seafood pizza and he sat across from me so I was kind of freaked out with his dead crawdad in front of me. I mean just look at that thing. Could you eat with that thing staring back at you? I think not. After dinner we went back to the theatre to see the Taming of the Shrew. I didn’t really like it too much. I thought that the interpretation of how Katrena was “tamed” was very bad. She just gave up all he viewpoints (the sun is the moon if her husband says it is). I liked the 10 Things I Hate About You version…lol. I almost forgot my brolly at the theatre. I had to have someone let me back in to the room after they locked it up so that I could get it.

Almost everyone went out to the Chicago café after the play and Teresa B wanted to go home so I decided to go home as well so that she would have to go home lone and I live really close to her. I was glad that I went because it gave me a good chance to call my friends and family without any distractions. Ashley came home before Amy and I chatted with her until Amy got home around 2am. I am going to bed now…its about 3am.

Campus Tour and my first international movie experience...

Today we had our campus tour. The campus doesn’t seem to big but it was a little confusing to get around after we were turned loose for lunch. Katie, Teresa, and I had lunch at a little café on campus. The fries (called chips in Europe) are not salted over here. I am going to loose my mind. Also, there is a pub on campus. So you can have a beer in between classes. Crazy huh?! The gift shop was not quite what I expected. It was small and there was a shortage of UWE merchandise. I guess it is not like ISU were everyone must own at least 4 University hoodies… Today after lunch we had a lecture on culture and acceptance. Some of the exercises were cool. We were given characteristics of other cultures and then asked to interact with each other. It was kind of hard not to laugh during the exercise. Another exercise involved us grouping off and deciphering Arabic Math problems. This was harder than I thought but once you caught on, it got easier. The most difficult part was seeing a number that we use in English like 0 and having it mean a different number to them and ∙ being zero.

I went home after school. A lot of people went shopping but I needed to get ready for the movie (DaVinci Code) and have dinner. Oh and we had cheesecake at dinner it was so good. It was quite expensive £5.50 for one ticket and £2.60 for a coke (no ice). They don’t really use ice over here either. The previews were really long (25 minutes) and then unlike in the U.S. after the previews they closed the curtains and turned the lights back on so that people could go buy concessions. So even though the movie was suppose to start at 8:45pm it started closer to 9:20pm. I don’t get it??? The movie was really good. Afterward Amber, Caitlin, Dan, Kevin and I walked home. The theatre was close to the centre so we decided we would walk home and it was kind of a long walk. I would never do it again either because we walked through the ghetto of Bristol. It was a little scary. I was very glad that Kevin and Dan were there because it really wasn’t a comfortable situation.

We were on our way to meet the group at Hobgoblin but when we got there it was closed so we all decided to just head home. Then by sheer coincidence we ran into the group at another pub on the way. I was glad because that meant I had someone to walk home with. Amy, Ashley, and I went home shortly after I got to the pub. It was a little after midnight. Even tough we had an early class me and Amy stayed up an talked until 2am. Needles to say I will be tired tomorrow.

Bus Tour and out first day at UWE

We had a bus tour today, of Bristol. We saw the SS Great Brittan as well as the Clifton Suspension Bridge. There were some interesting stories about the bridge that we were told by the tour guide. The first one involved a women that jumped in a suicide attempt and lived because her dress acted like an umbrella and slowed her decent. Another man decided to kill himself as well as his two young daughters after he was left by his wife. He threw the children off 1st but they were so young and they didn’t know what was going on so their bodies were really relaxed. The impact didn’t kill them and a fishing boat came by and picked them both up…the man did die. I thought that these two stories were kind of neat. We went to the school where we had a buffet (it was nasty) and we got a chance to use the internet and buy phone cards. Oh and UWE gave us shirts that are like boys 9-11 size. Chris put one on and it looked so ridicules…lol.


After class we helped Teresa book her flight to Italy with us then came home around 6pm. Ashley had headed home earlier then me and Amy. We had Spaghetti and Carbonara it was pretty good. We also had chocolate chip muffins. Robert got my laptop to work as well as my wireless internet. Ashley, Amy and I decided to go get some ice-cream and watch a movie tonight. A girls night in!! We watched Just Like Heaven. Now we are getting ready for bed. Good times!

First official day in Bristol....

I was probably asleep around 9:30pm and I slept until 11:00am this morning. I had a lot of catching up to do. Today we were dropped off at the Bristol museum for the walking tour with Dr. Hunter at 2:00pm. This was really the first time we were all meeting up since our meeting in prep for coming over here. I dont really count the zombie like state we were in yesterday as us getting together. People who have gone that long without sleep have no business communicating with anyone (or maybe thats just me) lol. Anyways, you can see a pic of most of the group to the left as we deal with the fickle rainy England weather and comence our tour.  We saw the 1st Methodist Chapel in the world (1739). It was called the John Wesley’s Chapel. Then we went to the Motte and Blaise Castle in Bristol and it was built in 1088. Then we saw the acorn with a water thingy around it which, despite my description was quite cool looking. I even thought it was worth a photo opt. (see dashing photo to the right) lol. Then we saw a church that was bombed by the Nazis. It had a memorial plaque by it. We continued our walk and saw the Llandoger Trow which was a bar that Black Beard had a pint in. Then we went to the Queen’s square. It had a statue of the King in the middle (See photo bellow) which I didn’t really understand…lol. I mean it's the Queen's square so why does that dude get a statue?? oh well I wont get into to a political debate over it hahaha.

After that we went to an area with a river (lots of boats) and saw the bar we are going to tonight (Lloyds). We also passed a place called the Chicago Café. We all thought that that was funny. Then we got lunch (I didn’t eat) at a pub along the way. It was on Park St. across from the museum where we started our tour. They had a deal on burger and beer for £2.99. I was getting a headache from caffeine withdrawal so I had to get a drink but I wish I would have gotten a burger as well. After that the group split off and we walked home. We are meeting up at 8 to head back to the bar (Lloyds) so bye for now.

Cue elevator music as I dance the night away in transition to the remainder of this entry!

I am back now and it is 2 in the morning. We met up with Matt, Mike, Katie, Shannon, Teresa, Jenny, Beth, Javier (Spain), Marlena (Italy), and Dan and caught the bus on Cheltenham Rd. to the city centre. We waited about 20 min (until 9:00pm) under the white umbrella thing by the fountain for the rest of the group. We then headed to Lloyds. We stayed there until about 11:30 then went to the Sports Café. While at Lloyds I had two pitchers of Lust (Smirnoff vodka, Anchor, & O.J.) which was so good. I also had a Geck and Lemonade which is suppose to be like Midori. The pitchers were £5.95 a piece and my drink was £2.99. It was a cool bar. The restrooms were on the third floor which was kind of a pain. At the Sports Café I had a shot and a long island for £5. It is so expensive here. The exchange rate is like $1.92 to one pound so I think I spent like $40 tonight…ouch.

Amy met up with some Irish rugby players who had just won a tournament. They were so funny especially Moses. You can see Amy, Ashley, Teresa, and I with some of the players in the picture to the left. Almost everyone played pool at the Sports Café. Those who didn’t sang and took crazy pictures all night. Shannon and Katie were really drunk and met up with some guys. We (Shannon, Katie, and the two guys) snuck into the VIP section. We were almost kicked out by Shannon worked her magic so we were able to stay.

We (Ashley, Amy, and I) left the bar with Matt S., Teresa and Mike E to catch a cab back to Zetland Rd. at around 1:30am. Bars closed at 2 so we decided to beat the rush. I really hope that Matt and Mike got home okay. They were both a little confused as to where we were when we got out of the cab. It was raining when we left the bar and it is still raining now. The weather here is really weird. It can be sunny then raining and then back to sunny in like 20 minutes time and this is everyday. Well me and Amy are sitting in our beds and I am tired now so goodbye for another day. Bus tour at 10:00am tomorrow.

Arrive in England and meet the host family!

I am in the London airport and very tired. I took some anti-anxiety medication for the plane and it didn’t put me to sleep but it did make my eyes heavy for the whole flight which was kind of annoying. I only slept for about an hour total. I watched Rumor Has It, as well as parts of Kingdom of Heaven, Cheaper by the Dozen, and Bourne Supremacy on the flight. I met Dr Hunter and Mike Edwards at the meeting place at about 7:15 am (my plane landed at around 6:30 am). Mike and I were the first to arrive this morning. Dr. Hunter has been in Germany for about 2 weeks teaching so he was waiting for our plane (and everyone else’s). It took about 4 hours after I got there for everyone to arrive. I had to get a coffee drink to help me stay awake and it still didn’t work well. I medicated myself heavily on the way here in an attempt to sleep through the long flight and I ended up passing out on the floor of the airport after I get here. Go figure. at least I wasn't alone I was passed out along with some other people while we waited for the whole group so I was not the only person who looked like a homeless person sleeping on the floor in a heap. We left for Bristol around noon by bus. It was a two hour bus ride which I slept all the way through. Again, why could I have slept more on the plane??? Grrrr! We did stop half way for a bite to eat. I had Burger King. It was a little reassuring to see that England had a Burger King. For those of you who do not know we that well I am a very picky eater and I am thoroughly worried about how I can survive for a month overseas.

I am rooming with Amy and Ashley in Bristol. We met our host mom at the Downs around 3:00 pm. We were an hour early which was nice. Our host mom is Daphne Addis (pictured second from left). Her husband is Jerry (pictured second from right) and her 29 year old son who lives here is Robert (far right). I forgot the other brother's name. Maybe it will come to me later. Everyone is really nice, not that I expected them to walk up and say, "Why hello there Anne. Can I show you to your crawl space you will be staying in. Oh and don't worry we will push your food under the door at 7pm and nightly beatings are at 8pm sharp." I know I have a strange sense of humor.

Ashley wanted the single room so Amy and I are rooming together. We have our own beds and I really neat window that opens out to the back yard and you can sit on the ledge and look out onto the yards (our room is on the 4th floor - see picture of Amy in the window to the right). Amy and I decided to explore a little despite how tired we were. Ashley opted not to go which was weird because it was technically her idea. Anyways…we got back around 7:00 pm (we had left around 5:00 pm). Amy and I took a quick hour long nap before supper. Dinner was surprisingly good. Once again this makes me sound snotty but like I said I am genuinely concerned about eating the food here. Chicken w/gravy, garlic potatoes, and veggies were served and clementines were given as a desert. It was at dinner that I found out that Audrey from France was also living with the Addis’s as an exchange student. Only she has been there since September and will be leaving this July sometime. She seems nice, not that we talked much, but that's probably more due to my zombie like state then either of our conversation skills.

Ashley fried her hair straighter so I am scared to plug in my stuff (especially my laptop). We thought about going out but decided that we wanted to sleep more so we were in bed by like 10:00 or 10:30 pm and I slept past 11:00 am. I really needed the catch-up.

Leaving the USA

I am on the plane. I have amazing seats (lots of room). I am the first row in the section so there is extra space between me and the wall in front of me. Things are looking up! The plane is delayed at the gate for an hour but it shouldn’t be too bad because they think the flight will be shorter. Well off I go.