Midterms are here!

This week, it was nice to have time to catch up on studying and assignments before midterms started! I had one midterm tonight, and another on Thursday. The assignments started to pile up last week, so luckily I didn't plan a trip for this past weekend!

On Thursday, our foreign study program planned a karaoke night at school. It was really fun to have everyone together with our advisors outside of class. There is karaoke every Thursday night at school, so we might make this a more common thing. I woke up early on Friday expecting to have a full day of touristing around town. Starting at Piccadilly Circus (the Times Square of London), Ashley and I had a few errands to run and then were going to go sight-seeing. We got slightly side tracked by the shopping and ended up on Oxford Street for the day. I actually hadn't been shopping on Oxford Street yet, so it was bound to happen soon! Saturday, I went to Portabello Market again, because a few friends hadn't been there yet. I saw a lot of things I hadn't seen the first time, and was really glad I went. When leaving, I decided it would be a good time to check something off of my "Must see while in London List". Danny told me about a bridge that rolls up when a boat is going through, according to him, it was something I had to see while over here. I decided Saturday would be a good time to do it, and after getting on the bus in the wrong direction and having to walk at least a mile, we finally found it. The Rolling Bridge was a bit of a disappointment. Turns out, it is only about 20 feet long and we couldn't figure out how to make it roll up. It also is not over the river, only a small part of water that boats can't even go through. It was quite an adventure finding the bridge, but I would not recommend going to see it.

Piccadilly Circus 

Burberry store on Oxford Street

Piccadilly Circus at night

Portabello Market

Since I have two midterms and a quiz this week, yesterday was packed with studying. I studied for the majority of the day, and met up with friends down the road to study as well. It comes in handy that we all take the same classes, makes studying more enjoyable. Today, I had to do a presentation while volunteering. They wanted to hear what life is like in the U.S. and what my family is like, along with where I am from. I also told them about differences I have noticed in living here versus the U.S. The ladies asked so many questions that my presentation lasted about 50 minutes. It was fun to see how much they were interested and enjoyed hearing what I had to say.

The Abbey Centre - Where I volunteer

I have been really busy in the past week trying to get everything ready for midterm break. I actually just bought the final flight for the trip, from Rome to Dusseldorf. This is what my break looks like: Leaving Friday the 19th for Venice. Our flight is at 6am and the tubes don't start running until 5, so I might be staying Thursday night at the airport! I will be in Venice until Sunday the 21st, when I leave for Rome. I'll be exploring the city of Rome until Wednesday, when I leave for Germany. I'll be spending the remainder of my break in Germany with the Werner family for Milena's birthday, arriving back in London on Sunday. It will be a busy week, and I can't wait! Now I just have to pack and plan what to do in those cities!

When can I go back?

After an amazing weekend in Scotland, I am back in London and missing my time off!

Last week, I got a last minute ticket to WarHorse with the foreign study group I am with. They are able to get tickets at a really discounted price. I was in the last row, but the show was definitely worth it! I have never been and really enjoyed it! I had heard beforehand that it was with puppets and was a little nervous, but i was amazed as to how realistic the puppets were!

This weekend in Scotland was so much more than I had expected it to be. I don't think I will be able to top that trip! I went with a group of St. Thomas students and a guide from our foreign study program. Almost everyone came on the trip and I am so glad I chose to go. If it hadn't been for this trip, I probably would not have thought to go to Scotland and it was absolutely beautiful.  There was not one time where I didn't enjoy the scenery. We drove across most of the country and were able to see a good amount of things over the weekend. I was really surprised by how little civilization there is there, especially as we drove further north, which made it even more beautiful. 

On Thursday, we left the train station after class and arrived in Edinburgh later that evening. The train ride was about 5 hours. I had my first hostel experience, which was not too bad.  The hostels were a lot like a dorm, and I am sure over the next few months I will be seeing hostels that are in much worse shape! We spent the first night in Edinburgh, second in Kyleakin and the third in Fort Agustus at Loch Ness. Our tour guides really made this whole weekend. The tour was really informal and I can tell they often have younger groups coming through. If we saw anything along the way we wanted to take pictures of, all we had to do is ask and they would pull over.  All along the way, we were told Scottish stories, not sure if they were all true or not, but it made the time go really fast. I was amazed that we actually looked forward to going on the bus because we were able to see so many pretty things along the way and the guides made it enjoyable.  We also stopped about every 45 minutes along our routes, sometimes for the restroom and sometimes just to take in the views. Literally everywhere we stopped, even if it was for a bathroom break, there was always a cool view or a waterfall within a few minutes walk, which we had to stop and see as well. We also stopped in small towns along the way, which had small shops that I could have spent hours in. I can't believe that so many pretty things could be put into one small country. I was also able to see a lot of castles as well. I wish we were able to go inside some of them, I would have really liked that. Since we went so many places along the way, I have a list of everywhere we went in order. It would take me a few hours to explain all of them, but I will add the list in here. 

Edinburgh
Wallace monument stirling
Kilmahog

Tyndrum
Black mount
Glencoe
Spean bridge
Glen Garry viewpoint
Kyleakin Saucy Mary's

Kyleakin
Moll waterfall
Uig
The quiraing
Kilt rock
The old man of storr
Portree
Sligachan river
eilean dovian castle
Fort Augustus Morags lodge

Fort Augustus
Clausman hotel
Culloden battlefield
Pitlochny
Hermitage
Dunkeld
Edinburgh

I found it really surprising that the Scottish actually wear kilts. I know I shouldn't be surprised by that, but I saw a few people walking around town wearing them. I also really enjoyed seeing a group of women all leaving a wedding wearing fascinators, which I am a big fan of. There was a lot of Scottish tales and stories of history I learned about over the span of the weekend.  Turns out that Friday the 13th is unlucky because of a battle that occurred on Friday the 13th in Glencoe. Also, if you hold your face under the Sligachan River for 7 seconds, you will become 10 times more beautiful. It is hard to tell, but I think I might look ten times as good after the dip in the river! On Sunday before leaving, we were able to summon the Loch Ness Monster by doing a dance and waking it up. Glad to say none of us were snatched up by the monster.

Kings Cross Train Station

Castle in Edinburgh

Wallace Monument

Wallace Monument

Scottish Cow

Sporting the plaid

Lake shaped like Scotland

Moll Waterfall

Moll Waterfall

Sligachan River

Kilt Rock

Eilean Dovian castle - the most photographed castle in Scotland

Loch Ness

Mind the gap

This week is the one month mark of being here!
I have been running around like crazy for the past month and the lack of free time is starting to catch up with me! During the week, it almost feels as though I am in St. Paul, running from class to class and trying to get everything done in time. On the weekends, I am trying to fit in as many things as I can because I know that my time here is limited and I will be leaving before I know it!

Sunday was really fun and spontaneous. My friend had seen a picture on Pinterest of a cute area of London that she wanted to check out, so we looked it up and decided to stop by. The area is called Neal's Yard and it is a small cove in the middle of London.  The area is really cute, has markets and malls. In Neal's Yard, there are a few small restaurants and a coffee shop. All of the buildings are brightly colored, it was a really fun way to start the day! Next, we went to Spitalfields Market. This was my favorite market so far. It is really interesting to see how each of the markets have their own personality. Spitalfields had a lot of aspiring clothes designers selling their items. I could have spent all day looking at their items, the clothes were so different than what we have in the US. Along with the stands, there are also small stores and little coffee shops.

Neal's Yard

Fascinators at the market

Monday was my second day of volunteering. It was a little shorter than it would have been because of a meeting at school, but we were still able to get a few hours in. I was at the reception desk this week and with much thanks to ReMax, I didn't have a hard time with it. I am very surprised with how much responsibility they give us. After about three minutes of an explanation of how everything works, I was on my own!

Palace I visited for Art History class

Since I have been here, I have noticed that they pronounce my name different than we do in the US, but within the past week, I feel as thought it has gotten worse.  They usually say it with a z instead of an s. Today in my Art History class, my teacher asked how I pronounce my name and said two different ways, neither of which was correct. I am not used to having a difficult name to pronounce! I have also learned that if the doors of the tube shut on you, they aren't like an elevator and open back up. I was in a hurry on my way to school one day when the doors of the tube shut on me. A man had to come and help by prying the doors open so I wouldn't be stuck in the door.

This week will be another busy one, I am going to see War Horse tomorrow, and headed to Scotland on Thursday for the weekend.

Week Four

I apologize for not updating my blog very often! It is much more difficult to find time now that classes are into full swing.
I started at my placement for community service this week. I have also learned that saying "community service" would be if the service were to be court ordered, but I keep forgetting to say it differently. I guess I keep sounding like some sort of criminal. From my meeting with the coordinator a few weeks ago, I got the impression that we were working at a nursing home and helping with activities.  I was very wrong. Turns out that I am working at a community center, and it is for all ages.  They are really taking advantage of us being business students and giving us a lot of responsibilities dealing with the business aspect of the center.  Over the course of six weeks, we will have to come up with a business plan for their future to show what they could do differently. We already had to sit in on a business meeting for them. Monday was my first day volunteering and I was put in charge of finding speakers to give presentations for the "Monday Club" of 60+ year old women.  I did a large amount of research and will have to contact the speakers soon. The people at the center were really grateful for our work, which made it much more rewarding. To make it even better, we get a free meal while volunteering, which might have been the best meal I have had since I left home. I will be looking forward to that every week!

The rest of my week was pretty much consumed with studying for a Marketing test I had on Thursday.  My Marketing teacher is from St. Thomas and seems like he will be pretty difficult.  I always worry about the first test because it is hard to know what to expect.  I studied quite a bit and think it went pretty well!

On Friday, there was a day trip to Oxford through my program.  I was really excited for the trip, but it turned out to be quite different than i expected.  I didn't have much knowledge about the school before going, and it has a very interesting set up.  There are 38 colleges within Oxford and each of them have their own small campuses. Oxford is made up of 20,000 students, 11,000 of them being undergrad, so there are not many students in each of the colleges.  I was a little bit disappointed that there wasn't one big gathering place for the school, it seemed very spread out and not much like a real school.  On the other hand, the buildings were gorgeous and we were able to get a tour of the Christ's Church, which is the main church for Oxford. We got four hours of free time after the tour and walked around the town, which is small and really cute.  Even though school hasn't started for them yet, it was really cool to see students walking around. Their athletics basically revolve around rowing and rugby, which was also interesting to see rowing memorabilia everywhere.

The Christ's Church

The Christ's Church

Today, I went to Notting Hill and Portobello Market.  I had been to markets in London before, but this was by far my favorite.  This was a really large market, and isn't as much of a tourist area.  There were lots of antiques, food, and clothes to shop for. I also really liked to see where Notting Hill was filmed.  The area is really pretty with brightly painted houses.  I even watched Notting Hill the other day so I would be able to remember it a little more. The blue door was much harder to find than I had imagined, and the book store now sells shoes and is named Notting Hill. Luckily the locals were able to point us in the right direction.

Hugh Grant's bookstore

Nearly American pastries

The blue door!

When looking back at my most recent post, I realized I had forgotten to write about a funny and unfortunate story at the Eiffel Tower. On Thursday night, our whole group went back to the Eiffel Tower so we would be able to see it at night. A few of my friends and I were walking by a man with two golden retriever puppies, so we stopped to pet them.  The owner for some reason decided to take their leashes off while we were petting them, and they obviously sprinted away, so my friends and I chased after them, while the owner just sat there. They ran straight for a couple having a picnic and started eating all of their food and knocking over their wine. Everyone was yelling at us in French, and we were trying to tell them we didn't own the dogs. This caused a crowd of people to come over and also yell in French. We were finally able to gather the dogs and get away from the people, and the owner wouldn't take his dogs back because he didn't want everyone to know they were his.  Once the crowd died down he took the dogs back, thankfully!

Normandy and Paris

This weekend was by far my favorite part of the semester so far! We were constantly moving and always had something to do, which made the time fly! Someone on the trip did the math and we did almost 24 hours of traveling within four days! This was more than expected because our bus driver seemed to have never driven a bus before. We got lost quite a few times and even got in a small accident.  It didn't help that the driver didn't know a word of English. I ran into a few problems with the language barrier throughout the weekend, it really made me appreciate London more. It became a problem when walking around town and asking a civilian which direction our destination was. Needless to say, we got lost quite a bit.

We started the trip off with a bus tour of Paris.  The tour lasted about three hours and took us to see the major sites Paris has to offer. The city is really beautiful and has a lot to offer. I was surprised to see how different the architecture and buildings were than those in London. Even though the countries are so close, it is like being in a whole different world.  I was also very surprised as to how dirty the city is as well.  It is so beautiful in parts and nearby, it is quite opposite. Seeing the Eiffel Tower was by far my favorite part of the trip, it is really incredible.  I was able to see it during the day and at night. After dark, every hour, the tower's lights flicker for five minutes.  I was able to see it twice, which was really awesome. Along with seeing the Eiffel tower, we stopped to see the lock bridge. I also got a French crepe, of course.

Lock Bridge

On Friday, we got on the bus and drove for about five hours till we arrived at Mont St. Michel.  I didn't know much about Mont St. Michel before arriving, but I wish I had looked it up before.  It is located in Normandy and is a small island which has a small town and a famous abbey. I had a tour of the abbey, which was incredible.  Built in the 8th century, it was used as a prison for years before becoming a monastery. I stayed the night at St. Malo, where we had a group dinner.  We got the full French experience for dinner, where the menu consisted of oysters, duck and creme brulee. I tried the oysters but can say the weren't my favorite.  The duck on the other hand was delicious; it was really nice to have an actual meal, unlike most of my time since I left home!

Mont St. Michel

Saturday was probably my least favorite day, mostly because we had to do a lot of traveling. We started out going to Pointe du Hoc, Omaha Beach and the American Cemetery before lunch. I really enjoyed all of the places we went in the morning. At Pointe du Hoc, I was able to go into original bunkers and see the ruined terrain from bombs. The American Cemetery was also very moving. There were about 9,500 American soldiers buried there, along with statues and memorials. For lunch, we stopped by a small port that had little shops and places to eat. In the afternoon, I saw the Longues-sur-Mer World War II artillery battery and temporary Arromanches harbour that was used to bring allied supplies to shore. It was really interesting to see the actual canons that were used and to see what it would have been like to be there.

American Cemetery

Today was a long day of travel, but I was also able to visit the Caen Peace Memorial, a museum telling details of World War II and the battle of Normandy in particular. It took me a few hours to get through the museum because I really wanted to read all of the information and see all of the artifacts.  I was surprised to see how many artifacts the memorial had. Then after a three hour bus ride and three hours to London, I finally made it home! I was really impressed with the Eurostar, it was really quick and quite comfortable as well. Knowing how convenient it was to take, makes me want to plan another trip to Paris before I go!