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Well it is about a month after my last post so it just goes to show that I really slacked on writing posts my last few weeks in London. I've been putting off writing a last entry because I knew there would be a lot to talk about. Every day in Europe had some sort of new experience or place that I had never seen or experienced before so trying to recall about 3 weeks is just overwhelming. I chose to finally type this today because of 3 reasons- 1) I just began to unpack my suitcases today and 2) I just took my sim card out of my international phone to send back to the company and 3) I'm finally getting over my cold that I've had since I was in Italy my last week. It has been 13 days back in the US and I'm still trying to transition back to my normal life. It is a very strange situation to be living in a different country so far from home for three months and then to suddenly within a few hours be thrust back into the life i've known in my home country for the last 21 years. It was an incredible experience and it opened me up to a whole world that I never knew existed. To put the trip into words would be very difficult and in some ways I think that only people who have had a study abroad experience like that know what I am feeling right now. I am so grateful for the experiences I had overseas and I acknowledge that 99.9% of people in the world will probably never get to do that. I am very lucky to have had the resources to have been able to truly take advantage of the program and its location this fall. There were many things I liked about the UK and miss, and there are plenty of aspects that I do not miss. I am happy to be back home and engaging in a familiar routine again but I've had some "down" periods since I've been back and I am contributing that to the fact that I'm returning from such an experience. Sometimes I feel like I was here in the US the whole time and never went abroad because nothing really changed here at home. However, I have all of this knowledge and experience that I didn't have before I left and when I think about that it grounds me and reminds me that I was really gone for that length of time.

The last week in the UK was busy as I was finishing up projects for my British Culture class, taking an in-class final and packing up all of my belongings for home/Italy. I had two large suitcases and a backpack. I had to divide my belongings between the smaller of the two suitcases that I was bringing to Italy for the week, and everything else I wouldn't need. I left the other two bags with a girl who was from a different college and studying with FIE until December. I traveled with my friends Amy, Catey and Sachi for six days beginning Nov. 22nd. We took EasyJet to Venice which I enjoyed immensely. Out of the three cities I visited, I thought Venice was definitely the most unique. There are no cars and everyone travels by boat! The city is old and quaint. The sidewalks are narrow and frequently become picturesque bridges over the canals. I was able to ride a gondola one morning and was amazed at how quiet it was. Without all of the traffic sounds it seemed much more peaceful. I experienced riding the water ferry a few times which was their main mode of public transportation. Tuesday morning we took a train to Florence and spent a little over a day there. We did a lot of walking around and sightseeing but I don't remember the names of very many places that we saw. We did see the David by Michelangelo which was really neat and we saw the two replicas of the statue as well. Florence was the other girls' favorite city but I didn't care for it as much as the other ones I saw. The last city I visited was Rome, where we also did a lot of walking around and exploring. We saw the Fountain di Trevi, the Pantheon and several of the piazzas the first night we were there(Wednesday night), went to Vatican City (St. Peter's Basilica & Vatican Museums) Thursday on Thanksgiving and went to see the Colosseum and Ancient Ruins on Friday morning before I left later afternoon for the airport. Our hostel was in a great location, as were our hostels in the other cities, and it was easy to walk to a lot of the major sights. The only time we took the subway/metro was to go to the Vatican. Thanksgiving was a tough day to be over in Italy; we were all a little homesick and missed spending the day with our families and feasting on turkey. We googled "turkey dinners in Rome" that morning but couldn't find any restaurants that were offering feasts. However, we did have a delicious italian meal out that night, sharing a bottle of wine, bruschetta and buffalo mozzerella, bread, and each ordered our own entrees (I ate veal which was very good- just to get the record straight my favorite animals are cows but I try my best to separate eating beef from my love of cows because it is just too good!)

The last night in Rome was an adventure- I was supposed to take a British Airways flight back to London Heathrow airport but there was a Ground Handling crew strike and my flight was cancelled and not able to leave the airport. Originally the woman at the BA customer service desk told us that buses might be picking us up and taking us to the Pisa airport where we could get our flight; however, they eventually switched our tickets for new plane tickets on an AirItalia flight leaving just about an hour later than the one I had previously booked. They were switched for free and I was so relieved it had worked out so well because my flight back home was the next morning at 10:30 or so, out of London. I was really tired when I returned to London but I took the tube all of the way back to South Kensington, picked up my luggage from my friend and sorted everything out back at the hostel. The hostel was ok considering I only slept about 3 hours there that night but I am pretty sure I saw cockroaches in the bathroom and if I hadn't been so tired and desperate for sleep I would have been freaking out pretty bad. The next morning I somehow got my two large suitcases, backpack and large bag of souvenirs to the airport and checked in and 8 hours later I was sitting on my luggage at the Newark airport waiting for my family to pick me up (they ran into some traffic coming from Williamsburg where they spent Thanksgiving). All in all it was a great trip and although I did miss Thanksgiving I am glad I spent an extra week traveling without having to worry about any schoolwork back in London. I was happy to finally be going home and not have to live out of suitcases anymore. Although I have sort of been doing that the past 13 days because since I have been too lazy to unpack, I've just gradually picked clothes and items out of my suitcases when I have needed them. But I'm finally getting organized today!

So to wrap things up- this is the final blog entry from my Eurotrip. Thank you all for tuning in to this website and keeping tabs on me during my adventure. I was happy to discover that a number of my family and friends were reading these entries. I enjoyed writing them on here especially since it wasn't as easy to communicate with people as much as I wanted to while I was in London. So this is it! Drum roll pleaseeee. Signing off from my computer in my parent's home office in NJ- Cheers! (or as they say in Ireland- Slainte!) :-)

Ireland and Wales!

Hello! I'm sorry it's taken me so long to write another blog post. The past two weeks or so have been pretty busy with traveling, school work and trying to see the last few London sites on my list before coming back home in 2 weeks! Last weekend I took a trip to Ireland with 9 other friends from Drexel who are studying abroad with me. We flew out of London Gatwick and arrived in Dublin on Thursday night. Our hostel, the Abraham House, was pretty close to the bus station (we took a bus from the airport in Dublin). The hostel was alright but probably the dirtiest I've stayed in so far in Europe. All 8 of us girls stayed in one room and the bathroom smelled like mildew the whole time we were there and we found hair ties and random things around the room, so we assumed it hadn't been cleaned all that well. The first night we went to Burger King for dinner (I know, so European right?) and then we went out to a nearby bar off of one of the main streets in Dublin, O'Connell Street. Friday we all ventured out into Dublin but because of the size of our group we decided to break into two groups of four. My group walked around for a little while and then headed over for a tour of the Jameson Distillery. We had heard good things about the tour and I enjoyed it. There was a brief movie of the history of the distillery and then a tour guide took us around the building and showed us the different stages of the process of making whiskey. Cassie, Shari, Amy and I all volunteered to be whiskey taste-testers so at the end of the tour, they set up little glasses of Jack Daniels, a Scotch whiskey and Jameson and he taught us the right way to drink it and then asked which one we liked best. I liked Jameson the best. Then we also were given a free drink. At the end, each of us received a certificate for being master Jameson whiskey-tasters! Next we headed out to lunch and I had a delicious tomato and mozzarella panini. We then met up with the other girls and went to the Guiness Brewery for a tour there. Different from Jameson, this was a self-guided tour of the 7 story complex explaining the history and process of making the beer. On the top floor there is a bar that has 360 degree views of the city of Dublin which was really neat, and they give you a free pint of Guiness. Now before everyone thinks I'm some kind of alcoholic for going to both of these places in one day, let me remind you that I was only in Dublin for a day and a half and both of these places were recommended as top sites to go to! After this we went back to the hostel to rest for a while and that night went out to a famous bar called the Temple Bar, which is a pretty touristy bar but still fun to go to anyway. I paid a ridiculous 8 pounds for an irish coffee but I figured I'd better try one if I'm in Ireland. We hung out for a while in the Temple Bar area and then came back to the hostel. I woke up pretty early to do a "Wild Wicklow" Bus tour of the Wicklow Mountains which was probably the highlight of my trip to Ireland! I was most looking forward to seeing the Irish countryside and the scenery but since we only had a weekend there I had to pick a day tour fairly close to Dublin. Our bus tour took us through Glendalough to an old monastery, Ennis Kerry, along the coast and through the mountains. One of my favorite movies is "P.S. I love you" and we saw where a lot of the Ireland scenes were filmed. It was just such a beautiful area! I wish I could have spent more time out of the city, even though I liked Dublin as well. It is a very walkable city! The last morning (Sunday) I woke up early and toured around myself. I saw St. Stephens Greene and St. Patrick's Cathedral. I ate lunch at an authentic Irish restaurant and had a delicious corned-beef omelette, and then shopped around for a while. I went to this one store that specialized in the history of Irish names. I decided to see whether they had anything on Crossan and they did! So I purchased a sheet of paper with our family's history which I thought was cool! It was a little pricey but I thought it would be a neat souvenir since the Crossans came from Ireland. At around 3 pm or so we went to the airport and then flew back to London. We took Ryan Air for the first time which I was a little concerned about since it is so cheap! They give you the very basics- no free drinks & you have to pay to use the bathroom on the plane. You also don't have assigned seats so it is first-come-first-serve.

Monday our class took a trip to Greenwich where I got to stand at the 0 degree longitude line. I also went to Brick Lane with my Shakespeare class to get some Indian food and learn about Jack-the-Ripper since he was from that area. Harrod's is now all decorated for Christmas and I went there on Monday as well to look around. The store is just huge! It's incredible.

In about a half hour I'm leaving to go to the coast of Wales for the weekend! It's an "Adventure Weekend in Wales" and was organized by FIE (We still had to pay for it though). I signed up to do different activities including mountain biking and sea kayaking. We're also all doing some hiking. I really have no idea what to expect so I'm excited! I'm going to get going since I have to finish packing my bag but I'll write more when I return on Sunday night! Cheers :-)

Halloween in London!

So even though it is not yet Halloween, my friends and I went out to a club called "Walkabout" last night for a Halloween-themed night and we all wore costumes! I'm not a big Halloween person (I haven't been since trick-or-treating came to an end); however, I put together a cheap, last minute costume and this is it! Enjoy!

My homemade Jack-o-lantern halloween costume!

My snazzy leaf hat (made from leaves found in Kensington Gardens)

Jenny, pleased with her work!

Jenny-o-lantern!

Danke! - My trip to Bavaria to see Julia!

"Danke" means thank you in German, and was pretty much the only German word I could say properly in Germany this past weekend (although Julia was a very good teacher and I learned a few other words!) After a long and stressful week of final exams and final projects, last Thursday night I left for Nuremberg, Germany. I had my contemporary british theatre class and left from the class to catch the tube to Liverpool Street station where I took a Stansted Express train to London-Stansted Airport. This whole process took about 2 1/2 hours. The Stansted airport was actually very nice I thought. It is much smaller than Heathrow and easy to navigate as well. There were barely any lines and since I had checked in online a head of time I wasn't as stressed. I flew on AirBerlin which I was very happy with too. Usually I get assigned a seat at the very rear of the plane; however, this time on the way to Germany I was in the 4th row and on the way back I was in the 2nd row. Therefore I got my food (twix bars) and drink (waters) right away and was able to get off the plane sooner! The only thing that was kind of weird was on the flight back, we had to take a shuttle bus from our gate our to the plane which was located in the middle of the runway area with a staircase going up to the plane. It was like when the president climbs into Air Force One and ascends the stairs. Weird! Anyway, the plane ride was about an hour and a half and Julia met me right after I got out of the baggage claim. We took a subway from the airport and then a train to the town she is living in while going to college, Bayreuth. Her apartment was just a street or two down from the train station and we went to bed pretty quickly- we were tired!

Friday we went to Munich! We took a train (we took a whole lot of trains over the weekend) to Munich and it took about 5 hours to get there. During the day, we went to Marienplatz, the town square; Hofbrauhaus, a famous beer house; the Royal Gardens and palace; the Women's Church; and the Olympia Park, where the 1972 Munich Olympics were held. I really enjoyed seeing the Olympic stadium and the swimming hall, and we even went up into the Olympic Tower which had some really nice views of the city! At 5 pm we went back to Marienplatz to hear the bells from the City Hall. There are also figurines in the tower of the City Hall that dance when the bells chime which was cool. For dinner we went to a really good German restaurant called Donisl. I had a potato dumpling, bread dumpling and roasted pork- it was delicious! I also tried a Radler which is half lemonade and half beer. It was refreshing!

We finished up in Munich and took a couple hour train ride to Passau, where Julia's Mom's boyfriend, Albert, picked us up and drove us to her home in Waldkirchen. It was really nice to be driving in a car for the first time since I got to London! When we got to her house, I met her Mom, who is so nice! I wasn't able to communicate with her too well because she doesn't speak much english and I don't speak much German but Julia translated for us. Her Mom had made a really delicious cheesecake and opened a bottle of wine, and we sat and talked for a while. It was nice and in the morning (Saturday) we had a full German breakfast with sausages, and German bread (including a Bavarian pretzel!) I really like German food!

Now I must make the distinction- I am saying "German" this and "German" that but really I was in the state of Bavaria the whole time I was in Germany. So I really enjoyed the Bavarian food and country while I was there. Bavaria was taken over by Germany a few hundred years ago but they still have a lot of pride, and I got to experience that pride too. I have a new found love for Bavaria :-)

After the breakfast, we picked up a car from a family friend and she drove us around Waldkirchen, her hometown. I was able to see her old school, the town and the department store where her Mom works. Afterward we stopped at a supermarket and I picked up a bunch of German chocolate, and we headed back to her house. We said goodbye to her Mom and then drove to Passau, the neighboring city to Waldkirchen. We were on a tight schedule because Julia had planned for us to take a ride on a boat, translated as "Crystal Boat." It was a two-hour boat cruise to Austria and the boat was decked out completely in Swarvoski Crystals (the chandeliers, stairs, statues, side of the boat..). It was a beautiful boat and I thought it would be the perfect place to have a wedding reception it was that nice! Julia and I both got Apple strudel and ice cream which was really good. It was a little cold out so we stayed inside most of the time but the top deck of the boat offered some really nice views. After the cruise, we walked around Passau and I found myself a Bier Krug (the beer mug with the cap on top). I thought it would be a nice souvenir and it even says "Bavaria" on it with the crest and flags so I can remember my time there. At night we took a very long train ride (3 different trains) back to Julia's apartment in Bayreuth, where we stayed.

Sunday morning Julia drove us to see her university in Bayreuth. She took me on a tour of her campus and showed me the law building where she has a lot of her classes. Afterwards we went to the main city area of Bayreuth to see a castle and some beautiful gardens behind it. We went to a restaurant for lunch called "Oskar" where I finally got to try some authentic Bavarian sausages, cheese-noodles and sauerkraut. Did I mention I love Bavarian food? Also, one of Julia's friends, Lisa, joined us for lunch which was very nice. After lunch we went to a Castle a little further away that was covered in beautiful colored stones, and had a maze of hedges that led you there. It was a beautiful park area with walking paths and gardens. I enjoyed being out in the country a little more.

After the park, we headed back to Julia's apartment where I picked up my luggage and we took the train to the Nuremberg airport. Overall, I had a really fun weekend visiting Julia (thank you so much again for your wonderful hospitality!) and I enjoyed touring around Bavaria. It was especially neat because I was shown places I probably wouldn't have known about since Julia is from Germany (Bavaria) and can educate me more about the area and some of the interesting places to see!

After going strong during the weekend, I was very tired once I returned. Yesterday I had my first British Culture and Visual Media class which seems interesting but more work than I expected it to be with several papers and presentations. We went to the Houses of Parliament for the first part of the day and then had class for a few hours. Then I went to Sainsbury's to pick up groceries and last night I just stayed in. Today Anna, Jess, Catey and I went to St. Paul's Cathedral where we got an audio tour. The structure outside is huge, but the inside is simply magnificent! I really enjoyed visiting there today and I ended up spending several hours there. There was a choral concert midday and there was also a half-hour Christian church service in the space at the front of the cathedral near the alter, and I went to receive communion. I hadn't been to church in a while and although it was a shorter communion service, it was nice, and pretty neat to be doing that at St. Paul's Cathedral. Also, part of the tour of the cathedral took us up to the Whispering Gallery, Stone Gallery and Golden Gallery which are three more levels up in the dome that give you great views. The Golden Gallery was located at the top of the dome, very high up! We had to take hundreds of stairs to get up there! It was worth it though.
That has pretty much been the last few days in a nutshell. I hope you enjoyed the update and pictures!

P.S. GO PHILLIES! I'm tired of all of these Yankees fans telling me that the Phillies stand no chance. We have to prove them wrong- two years in a row!! Cheers!

Bayreuth

Palace near Bayreuth

A park near Bayreuth

Pretty fall colors! (I miss this back at home!)

Julia!

Me!

Pretty palace near Bayreuth with the colored stones!

Little house at Royal Gardens in Bayreuth

Passau

Us in Passau

Statues in Waldkirchen (to protect the corners of the buildings)

Main Street in Waldkirchen

Julia and I on the boat cruise

The inside of the Crystal Boat

The chandelier (made entirely of Swarvoski crystals!)

The Crystal Boat (half covered by the ticket building)

Dumplings and roasted pork (Dinner in Munich)

Hofbrauhaus

Royal Gardens in Munich

Representing our countries!

Hofbrauhaus

The Swimming hall from the 1972 Munich Olympics

Me standing in front of the Olympic stadium

GO PHILLIES!

Wow, this past week has been extremely busy for me! Since last Thursday, I've had a lot of school work to do including a 23-page marketing plan, Shakespeare essay assignment, Contemporary British Theatre journals and a theatre review, an in-class Shakespeare essay exam, and tomorrow I have an essay exam for theatre. At the same time I have had a pretty bad cold so it hasn't been the most enjoyable couple of days! However, that will change very soon! Tomorrow is my last day of classes for this 7 week term, and next week I start my British Life & Culture class. As soon as my class ends tomorrow at 4 pm, I will be heading sraight to the tube to go to Liverpool street station where I will take a train to London-Stansted Airport to go to Germany! I am visiting my friend Julia this weekend. She goes to university in Bayreuth and we will be visiting there, Munich, Passau and the town where she is from and her family lives. I am sure I will have a really fun time and I am looking forward to sightseeing in these different places! I still have more work to do so I will have to limit this post tonight but I will post as soon as I return from Germany and I'll try to put up some cool pictures!

P.S. I'm listening to the Phillies game online right now. They're one game away and currently leading 3-2. Jayson Werth just got a 3 run homer! GO PHILLIES! Let's go to the World Series again!

CHEERIO!

London and Paris with Mike Pictures

Here are some pictures taken in the last few days in London and Paris! I have a more detailed description of what we did/saw on the post below this one. Enjoy!

Big Ben at night

Tower Bridge

Millenium Bridge (the bridge in the 6th Harry Potter movie that the dementors destroyed)

Sunset over the Thames

St. Paul's Cathedral

Piccadilly Circus

Mike and lion statue at Trafalgar Square

Sherlock Holmes House- 221b

Going to Hogwarts! Platform 9 3/4

At Gare du Nord station before taking the train back to London

One of the metro stations in Paris that we went through a lot

The restaurant we ate at on Champs Elysees

Mike and I at the restaurant

Mike and I before dinner on the Champs Elysees

Me in front of the Louvre

Mike in front of the Louvre

The Pantheon

Jardins du Luxembourg

Mike and I at Luxembourg

Luxembourg Palace

Mike filming (he filmed over 4 hours on this trip)

Bridge in Paris

View from the Eiffel Tower

Paris street signs

Mike and I on the double-decker bus tour

Seine River

Patisserie

Arc de Triomphe

Eiffel Tower at night

Mike and I in front of the Eiffel Tower- soaked!

Notre Dame Cathedral

Notre Dame

View across the Thames River in London

Me in front of the London Eye

Mike and Big Ben

Mike and I in front of Buckingham Palace

Mike and I when he first arrived