Family visits London!

I apologize that it has been a long time since I have updated my blog, life in London has been crazy busy!

My parents and aunt and uncle arrived in London just over two weeks ago, and we had an amazing time! I loved being able to show them around my new home and they were able to see what my life is like over here. We had a very full week! Before the Voissems arrived, I was able to show my parents around a market, went to the British Museum and saw the Rosetta Stone and parts of the Parthenon, and went to Covent Garden as well. Once the Voissems arrived, we went to the first British Pub and saw both Harrods and the Oxford Street lights. Throughout the week we toured many places including: the Prime Meridian, Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, went on the London Eye and the Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace and saw Les Miserables. I was able to do things I haven't been able to do this semester yet, including riding bikes through Hyde Park. By the end of the week, I think they had the hang of the tubes down and were learning to love the city just as much as I do. 


For the weekend, we rented a car and headed for the Cotswolds, which is about a two hour  drive west of London. Both my dad and Uncle Dan were brave and volunteered to drive, which I can imagine would be quite a challenge. I am actually pretty scared to go back and drive, even though it should come back to me, I am nervous I am going to get confused with the sides of the street to drive on! The Cotswolds were beautiful! every little town was fun and filled with cute, small shops. My favorite part of the countryside was all of the beautiful homes. The Bed and Breakfast we stayed at was a 50 year old home, but it looked like it was hundreds of years old. The details in the home were beautiful and the grounds it was on were very cool. They had 8 other small cottages, a pool house, an arboretum and an opera house all on the grounds. The breakfasts were also delicious and quite large, I saw my first traditional English breakfast, which I actually didn't know what it was before that. It surprised me that every "traditional English breakfast" consisted of the same things, eggs, beans, mushrooms and sausage. It also confused me why they put the toast on stands, which made them cold before they were served. On Saturday, we visited Stratford upon Avon, where Shakespeare was born. We saw the home and town he grew up in, and also saw the pub Mr. Harvard sold to get money to come over to the states and build a library where Harvard is now located.

The week was filled with traditional English food, and it was so nice to see my family! I had a wonderful time. It was sad to see them leave, but was nice to get back to my normal schedule and I know that i will see them in a few short weeks.

Since I had been really busy the past few weeks, I was unable to plan a Thanksgiving trip. I tried to start planning one last week, but it didn't make sense to stress myself over going somewhere when I am in an awesome city that I haven't even fully explored yet. On Thanksgiving, I went Christmas shopping, and thankfully got lots done! For dinner, I went to an Italian restaurant with two friends and got dessert nearby as well. 


Friday, I went on a small day trip to Windsor with a friend. It was about an hour train ride from central London to Windsor. The city was really cute and small, and the Castle was amazing. There is a State Event happening this Tuesday, and we visited the castle just in time. Because of the state event, we were actually able to see more than we normally would have, and were able to see the exact rooms the event will be taking place in. In one room, they will all be eating at one table, seating 168 people. The table is to be set absolutely perfectly, using a ruler. The Queen has been visiting Windsor almost every weekend for the past 60 years and arrived on Friday morning, making our experience even cooler. She arrived by helicopter  which has only happened a few times before. I would have been very cool to see her arrive on Friday morning! Both the flag flying and the smoke coming out of the chimney in her sitting room showed us that she was in the Castle. We were able to look across a court yard to where the Queen's apartment is and in that courtyard, jousting used to occur. We were able to have both audio guides and a personal guide as well, and we were able to ask all the questions we wanted. At the Chapel at Windsor Castle, there are a lot of past Kings and Queens buried, including the parents of Elizabeth II, George and Elizabeth. 


Although I was unfortunately unable to travel this weekend, I did a lot of homework, which will be much appreciated in the busy weeks ahead. I will be arriving in the states in just under three weeks. The time I have here has flown by and I will be really sad to leave London! I have had an amazing semester so far!

MI6

The Prime Meridian

Parliament

London Eye

London Eye

London Eye

London Eye

Changing of the Guards

Hyde Park

Inns Court & Lloyds of London

Last Tuesday, the group went to an American bar to celebrate Halloween. I knew before hand that Halloween wasn't celebrated much, but the only people I saw in costumes were from the U.S. Even on the day of Halloween, I only saw a few kids dressed up. Halloween was a very exciting day for me, I got two cards and a package in the mail! 

Most of the week was filled with homework, my family will be visiting starting next weekend, so I have been trying to get everything done ahead of time. On Friday, we had a two mandatory academic tours. In the morning, I visited Inns of Court, which is a school of law and an association. Every lawyer must belong to an association similar to Inns of Court. It was similar to viewing a college campus, but larger. It also has the oldest church in London within the premises. 

In the afternoon, I got a tour of Lloyd's of London, which is an insurance marketplace. Companies or individuals have areas where they share risk in other things. Lloyd's started out as a coffee shop in the same location, where ships would be insured before they went off on their journeys. The Titanic was insured at Lloyd's. The building was all metal, a very modern structure. The elevators were outside of the buildings, made of glass, and they showed a great view of London from the top. They had a few documents that were signed by the Queen that I was able to see. 

On Saturday, I went to Grenwich, where there is a market and the Prime Meridian. The market was small, but covered and there were really nice things there. The whole area near Grenwich was really nice! The walk to the Prime Meridian was a little longer than expected and we weren't quite sure how to get to it, but ended up finding it fairly easily. It happens to be on top of a high hill that overlooks much of London. I had never seen London like that and it made me realize even more of how big of a city it actually is. Even though there aren't many extremely tall buildings, the city just keeps going. I was able to recognize some of the major monuments from the hill and they looked much farther apart than what I know them as. 

Yesterday, I had planned to get up early and do some tourist things during the day, and do homework at night. When I woke up, it was raining and the forecast said it would be raining the majority of the day. I decided to stay in and try to be productive. It had been quite some time since I had time to sit at home without a plan and it was nice not to go anywhere! Since I arrived in London, there have only been a few rainy days. From what I hear, I have been really lucky. Sunday was the first time rain intruded on my plans to do something outside. 

Today was my last day of volunteering at the Abbey Centre. It was definitely bittersweet. I really enjoy helping the center out, but I will also be very happy to have my Mondays open from now on. I did about 45-50 hours of work with the Abbey Centre, from working reception, giving presentations, or coming up with a business plan. The employees were extremely grateful for our work over the past 7 weeks and were sad to see us go.

Venice, Rome and Germany!

Over the past 10 days, I have been to two countries and three cities.  I have done a lot and seen so many beautiful things during the break.  I am really glad we have a break and had the opportunity to explore Europe! I was really nervous leading up to the trips because this was the first time I was traveling without school. I booked flights to places I had never been and it ended up being an incredible experience. I have been keeping a journal throughout my trip to London so far, and wrote 37 pages in the journal just during break alone, along with 1500 pictures. I apologize for the long post, a lot has happened in the past 10 days!

I left last Friday (October 19) for Venice. My flight was at 6 in the morning and the airport was really far away, so we had to leave at 2:30 am. A taxi picked us up, and I had only got 2 hours of sleep. Arriving in Venice wasn't an issue at all, but finding where we were staying was much more difficult. We had printed out detailed directions with how to get there from the airport. It would take two buses and a 10 minute walk. When trying to get the bus, the number did not exist, so we asked for the correct directions. After asking three different people, we got three different answers, and two of them in opposite directions. Apparently Camp Jolly, where we were staying, was a popular place and we only had to ask how to get there. The campsite was much nicer than expected. We had our own small cabin with a private bathroom. It was also surprisingly clean. In the afternoon, we took a bus into Venice and decided to meet some friends at San Marco Square. After finding a few maps and beginning our journey, we realized it would take much longer than originally planned. We wandered around the island for a few hours before finally finding it, needless to say, we never ended up seeing our friends. San Marco Square was really cool! I have seen it in movies before, and didn't expect to see all of the pigeons that are there. It was interesting to see them, but gross at the same time; I fed them which was  much scarier than I thought it would be. Turns out I don't like when 20 birds are flying at me. 
On Saturday, we decided to get a 12 hour pass for the water taxi. With this, we were able to take the taxis within Venice, and to the three other islands as well (Murano, Burano and Torcello). It was really cool to be able to see the city by boat as well as by foot! Each of the islands were very unique. Murano was my favorite, they are known for their glass making. Almost every shop had glass and they had a wide variety of things made from the glass. Burano is known for lace making. I wasn't as interested in the lace, but the buildings in Burano were very vibrant and beautiful. Torcello is known for having the oldest church in Venice. It was really interesting to see, but there about three other buildings on the rest of the whole island, making it much less interesting. Venice in general was amazing. It is like nothing I have ever seen before, and is really beautiful. Many people have told me it is the prettiest city in Europe,  and I can believe that! I really would have liked to go on a gondola ride, to get the real Venician experience, but the rides are extremely expensive and very short. The trip to Venice was short, but I am so glad I was able to go. So far, Venice is my favorite place I have visited. 

And we are off!

Camp Jolly

Our cabin

San Marco

San Marco Square

The journey to Rome was quite easy, since the bus lines were down, we called for a taxi to get to the airport. It was only about a 45 minute plane ride to Rome. I was peasantly surprised by the great weather. It was about 75-80 every day, and very sunny! I was looking forward to Rome because we were staying at a bed and breakfast, and splurging a little to stay at a nicer place. Upon arriving, we figured out the campsite was much better. I am very impressed with whoever put together their website because the pictures on it were very nice compared to the actual place. I was expecting a small house of some sort, but it was actually just an apartment with a few bedrooms. The hallways were filled with random junk, like lawn chairs, and papers were everywhere. The owner spoke a few words of english, not much at all. He knew we didn't speak Italian but continued to talk to us in Italian anyways. His system of checking in was using a notebook and counting how many days we had reserved by flipping the pages. My friend Samantha had booked the reservations, so he would only talk to her, even though she had no idea what he was saying. Every so often, the owner would call his friend for him to translate between the two languages. 

Scary elevator

Part of our hallway

After getting settled in our room, we really had no idea where to start or how to get anywhere. Luckily a student of St. Thomas that is studying in Rome had contacted us to meet up. She showed us around the majority of Rome, it was extremely helpful. She even showed us where she lives and goes to school, around which are small shops and typical Italian streets. She also showed us Vatican City, the Trevi Fountain and the Panthenon. We went to a pub for dinner, and my roommate from freshmen year's ex boyfriend walks in. It was very strange to see someone I knew in Rome, but nice to say hi. On our way out, I was standing on the sidewalk when a man in a wheelchair came and hit me from behind. He then continued to yell at me in Italian, which i presume were profanities, for a few minutes. I wasn't quite sure what to do, so I stood there until he left. He was a few blocks away and still yelling when I got on a bus to go back to the B&B. When we arrived, there were two American guys in the hallway. Turns out one of them graduated from St. Thomas in 2010. 

St. Peter's Basilica

St. Peter's square

Beautiful streets of Italy

The first day of breakfast at the B&B was a little different than expected. His lack of English made us very confused when trying to figure out where breakfast would take place. He led us down the street to a cafe and ordered us a few things and then left. The stay in Rome would have been much easier if there was no language barrier. We started out the day going to the Colosseum. It is really interesting having seen pictures of places like the Colosseum, and then seeing it in person and the surroundings weren't anything like you thought they would be. I wasn't expecting streets to be very close to the Colosseum. I would have liked to go inside, but the line was very long and we had other things planned for the day. Next, we went to the Trevi Fountain. We wanted to go again because the first time was on a Sunday and it was really crowded. Monday was a much better day to go. Probably one of the things I was most surprised about when traveling in Rome is that the city is actually not very big. My perspective of a large city is now changed living in a city with 12 million people, but i really liked that we were able to walk everywhere without a problem. All of the major monuments were fairly close to one another. After Trevi Fountain, we took a trip to the Spanish Steps. I was obviously not as impressed with the steps as I was with some of the other monuments, but it was very cool to see. We also went to the Culture and Heritage Building, which may be one of the largest buildings I have ever seen. From afar, it does not look as big as it really is. Standing next to the building makes the scale seem so much different. I walked around inside and was able to go up onto the roof, where there was a beautiful view of Rome. I am really glad I went inside, because I would have never known this was here. Later, I had my favorite meal of the whole trip. For a flat rate, we had bruschetta, pasta, pizza, carbonara, dessert and wine. The food was delicious and there was so much that we were at the restuarant for over two hours. On the way home from dinner, we decided not to take a bus and got pretty lost. It took about 1.5 hours to get home, but I got to see many sites of Rome I wouldn't have been able to do if we had taken the bus. 

Spanish Steps

Culture and Heritage Building

On top of the Culture and Heritage Building

Tuesday started off with a tour of Vatican Museum. The museum was really interesting and I was able to see many things that the church has collected over hundreds of years. I didn't know what the museum was about before entering, so I was expecting to see more about the history of the church, rather than just art. It would have helped to have a guided tour, but there were no more openings available. The architecture and detail in the museum is very cool. They had turned some of the apartments of prior popes into viewing areas of art, which was interesting to see. I also saw the Sistine Chapel, which was incredible. I can't even imagine how long it took to create so much detail. When the tour was over, we had to get into a different line that was a few hours long to get into St. Peter's Basilica. The wait was much shorter than expected and was well worth it. The Basilica was amazing. Every single inch of it was detailed and elaborate. There were small prayer rooms along each side and each of them were unique and really cool. I also saw the Pieta while in the Basilica. About 35 years ago, people were able to touch the statue but a Hungarian man came in and hit it 15 times with a hammer, which took 2 years to repair. Ever since, there has been bullet proof glass around the statue. 

St. Peters Basilica

St. Peter's Basilica

La Pieta

Vatican Museum

Vatican Museum

Vatican Museum

St. Peter's Basilica

On Wednesday, I woke up early to go to the Papal Audience, where I got a blessing by Pope Benedict XVI. I was able to get a seat pretty close, and he drove on the "pope mobile" within about 20 feet of my seat. It lasted about two hours but only 15 minutes were in English. There were hundreds of people and it was a very cool experience. After, I headed toward the airport to Dusseldorf where Dr. Werner was there to pick me up. We arrived at their home and talked for a few hours before it was time for bed. 

In the morning, we had fresh pasteries from the bakery down the road and then left for Cologne. Cologne was a really pretty city with a famous church called the Cologne Dom. I got my first German beer and a weinerschnitzel for lunch. After going back to their home, Milena's boyfriend, Max, came over and we went to their friend's house for dinner. I could tell they were all nervous to talk English, but a friend of theirs had studied in Illinois two years ago and had really good English.
On Friday, I visited the Werner's pharmacies with Johanne. Their pharmacies are also a lot different than in the US, they present the counter with their perscription and it is immediately ready, no waiting involved. We did some grocery shopping and met her mom back at home to go into the closest town to them, Herdetke. It is a fairly small town, with old German houses and buildings. There are cobblestones all over and many of the streets aren't allowed to be driven on. Later on, we drove an hour to Munster to pick up Milena from school. She showed us around Munster, which has really high end stores and pretty buildings. I had a usual German dinner at an old style German restaurant before heading back.

Cologne Dom

Me and Martina

On Saturday, Milena and I went riding in the afternoon. The stable where Toggur, their Icelandic horse, is kept. Their back yard backs up to the land that the stable owns, so they can often see him from inside the house. It is also only two doors down from their house to the stable. Toggur is much shorter and has much more hair than I am used to, but he is a really nice guy. We were able to ride through the streets and on trails through the forest. I can't even imagine having this right next to their house and they are able to go trail riding every day. The fall colors were in full force, making it even more beautiful. In the afternoon, I went on a high ropes course with Johanne, Milena and their friend. They asked if I wanted to go tree climbing before this, which was their description of what we were doing. I wasn't exactly sure what it was until we arrived. I was scared at first because there is no one watching to see if we were doing it right, but it was really fun! There were also some very pretty views from the top. It was a mixture of zip lining, swinging on ropes, and a variety of ways to get across to the next platform. On Saturday night, about 35 people came over for Milena's birthday, which was on Sunday. I was able to meet many of her friends. I had a really difficult time because it was loud in their basement and many didn't speak clear English. Some of the time, I had absolutely no idea what they were talking to me about, but I didn't want to make them feel bad about their English, and just had to go along with what they were saying. 

Me and Toggur

Me and Toggur

Sunday morning was when we celebrated Milena's birthday. It was really cool to see the difference between our traditions as a family and theirs. It is similar in some ways and different in others. Every member of their family gets a flower and gives it to Milena, and it makes a bouquet of flowers. They also start with family breakfast and later put chairs in a circle to watch her open presents. There were a lot of unfamiliar German birthday songs, which I unfortunately couldn't partake in. Milena and Max took me to the airport at around 11, and I landed in London in the afternoon. 

I had a really amazing ten days, and I also learned a lot. I had never really traveled alone before, especially not in a foreign country. It makes me even more grateful for the trips planned by school, although I did enjoy being able to decide everything I did. I am really grateful that we had a break in classes to allow for this. I am also much more grateful for no language barrier in London. There are many other places I would have liked to see over the break, but am really glad I was able to see three amazing areas. Now that vacation is over, time to start planning for the next trip!