When Living on the Edge Isn't Enough

Easter weekend was my last trip while being abroad. I spent that trip in Wales. I left the US saying, "Why would I go to Wales? There is nothing special there." and I left Wales saying, "This was my favorite trip of them all." Who would have thought?? There really wasn't much to Wales, so I was right in saying there was nothing special there. The trip was put together through the school and about 25 of us went. The weekend included a 7 mile hike, coasteering (cliff diving), and kayaking.

Friday we left for Wales and took a 5 hour train..it was horrible. We got to the lodge and had dinner. All our meals were homemade and delicious! I haven't had an actual meal like that since I left home! We had lasagna and salad which was followed up by apple pie and ice cream. After dinner we took the 20 minute walk to the beach. It was wonderful to see a beach however we had to walk through a field of cows to get to it!

Saturday morning was a 7:45am wake up for breakfast and coasteering at 9. We suited up in our wet suits (which took forever to get on) and headed to the beach. The sun wasn't out yet and the water was freezing! Thankfully we had the wet suits and we swam a lot to keep warm. Coasteering was a lot of fun and so exhilarating. We jumped off 20ft. cliffs, after climbing them. We also went into a cave which was a natural wave pool with waves on both sides that lifted you up about a foot away from the top! It was scary but fun at the same time. I loved coasteering because it made me push myself passed my fears. I just went with it, didn't look down, and jumped. Something I barely could do in Hawaii last summer! After this adventure we went back to the lodge for lunch. An hour later we went kayaking. The waves were very rough and we didn't stay out as long as the morning group. I am glad we had big waves for kayaking because the afternoon coasteering group got really banged up and couldn't do everything we did. Saturday night we had dinner and hung out in the lodge. There was a bachelor party from London there and we talked to them out by the bonfire. The bachelor's fiancées name was Jo King, it brought a lot of laughs to us all. That night I left the fire to go to bed but before I went in I sat on a table outside and looked at the stars. For those who really know me, I am obsessed with stars. While looking up I saw a shooting star! It made me so happy and I made a wish. 

Sunday morning was Easter and I had a hard boiled egg for breakfast! Not many people can say they did a 7 mile hike on Easter morning in Wales, but I can! The hike was long but I made it! It was a good work out and had BEAUTIFUL views! The ocean was on the left of us the whole time. On the right was green and farms with cows and a lot of sheep. That evening we headed home and I had McDonalds for Easter dinner. Not exactly the Drury Lane buffet my family went to! haha. 

Wales was amazing and made me realize how far I have come these past 4 months. I can't believe it will be ending so soon. I feel blessed every day.

-Cheerio!

Whiskey In The Jar!

Ireland, Ireland. How I loved it so much! I truly fell back in love with Europe and this whole experience all over again this past weekend. Lauren and I both had very stressful weeks and Dublin and Cork took all of our troubles away. We actually heard "Yesterday" by the Beatles in the pub and Lauren said, "This will be our theme song come Monday." Sadly, it was very true. We got home Monday around 5pm and we both had 3,000 word papers due Tuesday. Procrastination?...Oops.

First night at the pub

On to Ireland. We left Friday around 3pm (after my LAST creative writing class! YIPEE!!) and we got to our hostel in Dublin around 6:30. We took the walk out to the Temple Bar area, a tourist trap with a lot of pubs. We went to one pub for dinner. We had corned beef and cabbage, of course. It was delicious to say the least. After we finished our dinner, we had a pint and listened to live music. Let me tell you, the live music was my favorite part of the whole weekend. It just made the experience that much better. We decided to go to another pub and see more of Dublin, however we only made it right next door. There was a guy playing the guitar singing Irish songs as well as American songs. He sand "Puff the Magic Dragon" and a few Bob Marley songs. What a guy. It was funny because the bar tenders in this pub were wearing uniforms that were what we called, "Dwight Schrute influenced"(they wore short sleeved button up shirts and ties). There were a lot of bachelor and bachelorette parties out that night. WE met a few guys who lived in Holland. They were funny. It is always interesting to hear what people have to ask us because we are American! After the second pub we headed back to our hostel because we had to be up at 5:30am in order to make our train to Cork at 7. The guy in the bunk next to me snored SOO loud, I was not very happy!

Blarney Castle's Park

UCC's campus

Saturday we took the train and headed to Cork. Our hostel was a bar as well, so needless to say a group of guys were there at 10am to great us at the door and kissed our cheeks. What a great welcoming! We headed to Blarney Castle which was beyond gorgeous. The country side of Ireland is breathtaking. If anyone wants to rent a house in a secluded area in Ireland's country side, I will gladly take the trip with you! =) Anyways, the castle was surrounded green lands and it was very pretty. We climbed the steps to kiss the Blarney Stone and good luck is now on my side! After the castle we headed back to Cork and we talked to UCC, University College Cork, where Lauren's older sister went to school when she studies abroad. Wow was I jealous!! It was a campus that looked like a park, not fair! We had a chill night and just went to a restaurant and shared a pizza. In our hostel room was a couple from Australia. They are backpacking across Europe for 8 months. Think about that. Backpacking across EUROPE for EIGHT months. How fascinating! It takes a lot to be able to do that, I'm not to sure I would be able to.

Luck of the Irish!

Lovely day for a Guinness!

Sunday morning we took a train at 8am and headed back to Dublin. That day we went to the Guinness Storehouse. It was kind of boring, not as exciting as Heineken was, however the view from the top was very pretty. We got to see all of Dublin while drinking our lunches..that is what I think of when I drink a Guinness...It is like eating a meal because it is thick and it tastes like coffee and bacon. After Guinness we walked around Dublin and made our way to St. Stephen's Greens. I can't thank Kristyn enough for suggesting it! It was another large park that took my breath away. Everything was so green and colorful, I couldn't believe it. We sat on a park bench for about an hour just watching people in the park. After we bought souvenirs and had dinner at Eddie Rockets...Johnny's brother ; ). That night we met up with Lauren's friend who was studying in Dublin. We went to a few pubs then called it an early night for our flight home on Monday.

Lauren with all the pretty flowers

And now I am here, wishing I could go back. It was a great, must needed weekend. The Irish have such a laid-back, easy going lifestyle. They can be hard to understand at times, but that makes it even more fun and interesting. One more trip and it's to Wales. It will be a lot of fun!

-Cheerio!   

Going With The Flow

Ah. Classes are officially over! First final is tonight from 7-9, shouldn't be too bad. Heading to the pub after to celebrate! The topic for one of my essays on the test is on Taoism and their belief of "wu wei" which I am IN LOVE with! Taoists remind me of hippies in a way. Wu wei means "without action" meaning to think things through before acting upon it. They feel that it is important to go with the flow of nature rather than constantly trying to fight situations and having the need to control everything. I love this just because it is so true and London has taught me that! It taught me to just go with the flow of things and not have great expectations for everything. Life isn't perfect and we don't get everything we want, if you don't make high expectations, you won't be let down all the time. You also have to life with everything thrown with you, prove your strength to yourself.

Just a little piece of my mind and a way to use what I have learned in my class all semester. I can't believe I am 3 finals, a trip to Wales, the Royal Wedding, and 15 days in between me and home. My feelings are so up and down, just like they were the few weeks before I came here. Every day here confirms how happy I am that I took this opportunity and it is having a wonderful effect on me. I love London! But I love you all to. Bittersweet...Bittersweet.

Oh, it is another beautiful 70 degree day in London. I officially have a tan and it keeps getting darker, how amazing? Who would of thought that would have happened in London. Where is the rain? Oh ya, it's back home with all of you =)

-Cheerio!

Keep Calm and Carry On

I just got home a few hours ago from Ireland and I absolutely LOVED it! People in Ireland have such a laid back lifestyle it amazes me. More stories to come, obviously. The weekend was must needed because both Lauren and I had a very stressful week. There is so much school work there is not enough time! I don't think I have been out in London since my parents left!

This is for you, Dana. I was nothing but happy this weekend. It feels good to just let the wind blow through my hair and to not have problems or emotions way me down anymore. Out of anyone,  you are the one who supports my happiness the most. You said that knowing that I am truly happy and that I changed my attitude around while being here makes you happy. It means so much to me to always have you by my side. I can't wait to see you in 19 days!

Time to work on my 3,000 word paper due tomorrow! I have another one due Wednesday. LAST WEEK OF CLASSES! Time is flying by and I must quote Ferris Bueller, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."


-Cheerio

Sweden: The Land of Lazy Kings and Boring Castles

Me & Josefine back in Junior year of high school

This weekend I traveled to Stockholm, Sweden. It was very different from every other weekend I have traveled. My friend Josefine was an exchange student at Hinsdale South my Junior year. This time I was the one visiting her and she got to show me her home! It was a nice and easy going weekend. All the people I met this weekend were so interesting and brilliant to me. They all had their own story and outtake on life, it really opened my eyes to some new things. It was really nice that everyone knew how to speak English (they start learning at the age 6).

look how mature we are now :)

Friday I went to classes with Josefine. The education is different in Sweden. They go to a mandatory school for 9 years and then high school and university are optional. All of the schooling in Sweden is free, very different than the states! Josefine is studying dance, so I went to her jazz and ballet classes. These were very interesting and fun to watch. I miss dancing myself, the art is just so beautiful and it amazes me. I always loved dancing and you can see the passion in all of the dancer's. After classes we met up with Josefine's boyfriend and he took me around Stockholm (aka babysat me =) ) while Josefine was at work. The city was so pretty in its own way. It was full of shades of orange and it was very authentic. There weren't skyscrapers built in the middle of it or anything. Robin and I went to a pub and hung around until Josefine got off of work. Friday night we went to Cornelia's apartment for sort of a "girls night in". We had wine and made dessert and just hung out.

Stockholm

Saturday Josefine had to go to a conference for work (she works at Curves) so I had even more babysitters, Cornelia, Olivia, and Sara. We walked around Stockholm and we saw the castle...where the title of the blog came from. It was funny because since they lived there, they didn't know much about the touristy sites so they guessed what the statues were and they weren't very impressed by their "boring" colored castle. Needless to say, the girls showed me a lot of the city and I had a fun day. They are very sweet girls. We had dinner with Josefine's family. Her sisters Julia and Jessica were so adorable, I just loved them! Saturday night we went out to the club with Sophia. We got there early and we had our own little VIP room. It was a really fun night! Swedish boys are SO cute! =)

Cornelia and I with the Swedish guard

Sunday morning before I left, Josefine had to go to her conference so her mom took me to the Vasa museum. The Vasa was, in the words of Wikipedia, "Swedish warship that was built from 1626 to 1628. The ship floundered and sank after sailing less than anautical mile (ca 2 km) into her maiden voyage on 10 August 1628." In  the 1950's the ship was found and recovered and now there is a museum for it in Stockholm. It was a very interesting museum and it was mind blowing that they found so much of boat and were able to put it back together.

My weekend in Sweden was a lot of fun. It was unfortunate the time I had with Josefine was limited, however I loved every minute we were together! We talked about so many things, it was interesting how even though we live in two different cultures and countries, we can still relate to each other in many ways. All of Josefine's family and friends were wonderful and interesting people. I would love to go back and visit again some day!


Next stop, Ireland! Home in 23 days!


-Cheerio

Welcome to London, Mum and Dad!

I will take time this morning to procrastinate my paper and write a nice long blog about my parent's visit to London. Yes, this is going to be a long blog, (there were here for 10 days) so prepare yourself. For starters, it was a really great week. We had a great time, saw a lot, had new experiences, and enjoyed our time together. My mom even admitted that she never had the urge to visit London but after visiting me, she really liked the city.

Dad in front of the apartment

My parents arrived on Saturday, March 26th. There were a few complications because my dad's luggage was somehow still in Chicago and the apartment that they rented had plumbing issues. Needless to say, it was a rough start, but everything got worked out and they were able to stay in an apartment in Notting Hill, which in my opinion was better than their first option. By time I met up with my parents we settled in the apartment and I took them to my dorm to show them around. We stopped at a pub on the way back and then we had DELICIOUS spinach deep dish pizza. They were so wonderful for brining me that treat..nothing is better than deep dish pizza in London.

Tea at the Ritz

Sunday-We went on a hop-on, hop-off bus tour which was a lot of fun. We got to see all of London and learn a lot of information. Saturday there were riots because of the tax raises and job cuts. As a result of the riots, there was paint all over the city, the Ritz had at least 6 windows broken, statues had writing all over them, and so much more. It was sad to see the city this way. Sunday night we had tea at the Ritz and it was very nice. It was very fancy and the hotel is beautiful.

Monday-It was time for a haircut and of course I changed it again. I went for "fringe" bangs, aka front bangs. I guess after cutting my hair short, I like changing it up every time. We will see what happens next! =) After my hair cut we went shopping. I was exciting because I could finally get clothes here in London, since my friends have been doing so since we have been here! My mom claimed it was "Alyssa's Day" (in a bad way) however her attitude got better after we went to Harrods, which she loved. My mom left the store with a beautiful vase that you can see in our dining room, adding to other purchases from Egypt and Italy. Monday night's dinner was at a British restaurant, something very different. It was a different meal but we really enjoyed it. We tried new foods and had a good time.

Tuesday-I went to classes and my parents went to Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace. My mom couldn't see much because she was too short. After my classes I met up with my parents and we went to Chruchill's War Rooms. This was interesting to see where a good part of Churchill's legacy through the war.

Wednesday-We started off at Madame Tussuads and after we went to London Dungeons. I really enjoyed the wax museum, probably because it would be the closest I would get to meeting any of those celebrities, haha. It was a fun, touristy kind of day. We went to dinner at De Marios, right by my school. It was Princess Diana's favorite pizza place, she even made her own pizza when she went there.

Thursday-I took my parents to Old Dutch Pancake, which I have decided no one can come to London and NOT go there. After we went to Tower Hill and took a "Beefeater" tour. It was interesting and we got to see all of the crown jewels. Like I know I have said before, the life of royalty must be very nice! We went to dinner at Barbecoa, which was probably one of our favorite meals of the week. It had a great view of St. Paul's Cathedral and the food was delicious.

My Old Dutch

Barbecoa

Friday-I had to go to my Friday class, however we got lucky because that day we were going on a field trip to Kensington Palace (where Diana lived and it is Prince Harry's unofficial residence). They are doing reconstruction so now the palace is in a "fairy tale"-like setting. I wasn't a big fan of it, just because I wanted to know more about the history, not find out information through dolled-up stories. After the Palace we went back to Harrods, of course. Friday night we went to Gordon's wine bar, which was REALLY crowded on a nice spring, Friday night.After there we went and saw Children's Hour, which I explained in a previous blog. We really enjoyed this play.

In front of the Waldorf

Saturday-We left our apartment early and headed to Oxford University. Oxford is a town and the college is spread throughout it. Every major has a different residency in the town. The town was old and beautiful, different than what I had expected. I learned that the book Alice in Wonderland was written for the Dean of the college and that Harry Potter was filmed in parts of the college (unfortunately the hall that the "dining hall" in Harry Potter was filmed, was closed for the day). After Oxford we headed back to London and transferred to the Waldorf Hotel where we stayed until Monday. This hotel was very nice and had fun history to go along with it. That night we had dinner at a restaurant called Christopher's which was another meal that we loved.

Christopher's

In front of Buckingham Palace

Sunday-it was London's Mother's Day and we took it kind of easy. We did a lot during the week and we saw everything we wanted to, so Sunday we decided to relax. We had breakfast in the hotel (where they played the Michael Buble CD) and then we went to the London Eye. After the eye we walked through St. James's Park to Buckingham Palace. It was a beautiful day and we stopped and sat on a bench for a little bit to soak up the London weather. Sunday night we had dinner at a Chinese restaurant that was, well..different. I'm sure you have already heard stories or will.

Monday-my parents left and it was sad :( We had a great week and they changed my sadness of leaving London and made me excited about going home. I can't wait to be back and see everyone, once I am done with my time here! There is still a few weeks left and nothing is stopping me from enjoying every minute of it!!
I hope this blog didn't bore you too much! If you made it to the end, thanks for reading! =)

-Cheerio!

All Smiles

I am all smiles today! There isn't a cloud in the sky and it is sunny and 72 degrees. I don't know what it is, but today is just my day. Nothing great has happened, I am just nothing but happy! I went on a walking tour with my British Art and Architecture class this morning. We FINALLY did work on architecture! I have been waiting all semester for it. I really enjoyed it and it was great to be out in the sun walking around.

Jenn, Me, and Lauren in Kensington Gardens

I usually have a field trip for History of London after Art & Arch., however today a few of us decided to ditch, can you blame us? Beautiful weather > museum field trip. A group of girls and I went to the park for about 2 hours and soaked up some rays while people watching and relaxing. It was a really great time. I got sun burnt, of course! The first actual day out in the sun every year ends up with me looking like a lobster! I knew that going into it and I am now embracing my heated shoulders and chest.

I don't know what it is I am just in love with today! I am sitting on the edge of my bed and the sun is shinning on me. I can't get enough of it.
Ashley is back in town and Trista and I are getting dinner with her tonight, I can't wait to see her! =)

I am going to listen to music now and just enjoy the spring breeze and the sun on my skin. Exactly 1 month until I am home!


-Cheerio!

Children's Hour

My parents just left this morning =( I know I missed everyone back at home but saying good bye to people I love a second time, it was just as hard as the first. I always miss everyone but I put that to the side because as of today, I only have 32 days left! That is crazy! Can  you believe it? Because I can't! I feel like there is not enough time!! My mom asked if I was anxious to go home and be back in America, but honestly...I am not itching to go home like Justin was. London is similar to America and the lifestyle I want to have in Chicago. I miss everyone so much and that is the only reason I want to go home.

ANYWAYS! I will post plenty of blogs about my parents' visit later on when I have more time and pictures, but for now I want to talk about the play we saw, "Children's Hour." It was wonderful! Keira Knightley (from Pirates of the Caribbean Trilogy),  Elisabeth Moss (from Mad Men), and Ellen Burstyn (from the Exorcist) starred in the performance. For those of you that don't know the plot, it is about an all girl's boarding school in New England. There is a very bratty girl, Mary, who gets into a lot of trouble and believes the teachers are "out to get her." She spreads a rumor to her grandmother (Ellen Burstyn) who has a lot of power within the school. The rumor is that Keira's character and Elisabeth's character are lesbians, which back in the 1930's was not very acceptable. The rumor causes the school to close down and the two teachers to be out of their jobs. The story ends with Elisabeth's character committing suicide due to all the talk going around town and her true feelings for Keira's character.

Elisabeth Moss and Keira Knightley

Ellen Burstyn

"Children's Hour" was one of the first plays I have seen on a professional stage and I really enjoyed it. All the actresses were brilliant. I am now a huge fan of Keira Knightley, she has her own way of being beautiful and she is a very good actress. You can tell she put a lot of effort into her acting and it is very hard to go from screen acting to stage acting, there is no room to re-film if a line is forgotten. Aside from the acting, I also enjoyed the story line. It sent a message that how one lie can lead to many horrible things. Yes, I will admit I hated the character Mary because she was a huge brat, but her character proved many things. Another this was that I still can't wrap my mind around how homosexuality was such a horrible thing not even 100 years ago. In the modern day of today, homosexuality is accepted by many more people that it has years ago. Being a teacher in the making, I just can't believe a school would close down from such a scandal. If it were true or a rumor, I don't think that someone's sexual orientation should take them away from a job they love. I did like that the characters still stayed together when everything happened, they didn't feel the need to go away from each other in order to prove that the rumors weren't true.

I highly suggest this play to anyone who can see it in London and if not, anywhere that is it showing.