Back at the RAC

So we are already entering week 4 of 10 for the spring term and its going WAY TO FAST. We're back in full swing and my social calender barely leaves any time for sleep and coursework. There isn't much for me to really tell you that was different than last term in regards to my daily activities. So what am I going to talk about this week then.

Well I did actually do something quite exciting. On Friday (the 29th) I went to see this band/dj called Chase and Status in Cheltenham. It was amazing. We had to do a pit stop on the way there...in the middle of the field/side of the road...entertaining. And me being the klutz that I am ended up falling down the stairs and majorly bruising my legs. Also some girl had a bloody nose and thought it would be funny to use me as a tissue, which was not cool and could be the worse part of my evening. But its all good because the next day we went for a proper meal made by my friend Ondine in her horse lorry, now that was a truly amazing party.

So, what else is there for me to tell you? Not much but this Saturday is the kick-off party for RAG (Raise and Give) week. Which is a huge week long party for the most part, but partying for charities so that makes it all good. They have clothes for sale and eventually a calender (which I might be in) and it all goes to make other peoples lives better. They also have a Rally where in students drive to New Castle, party there for the night, and then drive back and party some more. A tractor pull through town, and not in the traditional tractor pull sense...the students literally drag a tractor from the city center back to campus. So pretty much I should have a lot to tell you...and I do mean a lot.

Dublin

Ahhh I'm so bad at updating my blog. Okay, this is gonna be typed really fast and probably not in too much detail because I'm a horrible person. Now that the baseline of my exisitence has been establish lets move on to my recent activities in Dublin. Once again because I've waited so long to update the blog I'm having some trouble remembering what I did when so I'm gonna to do in on a week by week basis. So here we go Adventure lovers, my 2 weeks in Dublin as told by me.

Week 1

Let's not jump ahead of ourselves here, I was so tired on the first day I slept for about 14 hours. There is just something about flying that drains you of all energy, no matter how long or short it is. And I'm one of those people who can't sleep on planes so when Sam and I first flew over here I'd been up for about 36 hours and was still trying to function like a normal human being. Anyway I did make it to Dublin okay, even though the bus driver yelled at me because I didn't know what I was doing. Found some amazing cafe where I could get a panini and a tea for 5 euro while I was there. I spent some time looking like a typical tourist in Starbucks and went and saw the Christ Church Cathedral and Trinity College. Mostly I just did a lot of walking and most of the times ended up somewhere in the suburbs where I was just a little bit lost. It was way fun! I love getting lost!

Now I did spend New Years in Dublin and it SNOWED! How exciting is that! It actually snowed quite a bit while I was in Dublin. After the snow I went for a walk in Phoenix Park. It was absolutely beautiful. And that about sums up the first week. Except for the fact that I ended up slipping on the ice quite a bit because I didn't have any traction on my shoes.

Week 2

I did more sight seeing during week 2. I went to the National Museum and they had mummified bodies from the bogs and they were awesomely creepy. I also had my first pint of Guinness at the Guinness storehouse. It was definitely different, but no unpleasant as so many of my friends told me it would be.

Most of my time during week to was spent trying to complete a piece of coursework that was due the first Monday back. Yeah holiday homework! And also worrying about whether or not England would be able to cope with their so-called massive amounts of snow long enough for me to make it back to the RAC. I did make it back, but for a while there it looked like I might not.

Really there isn't to much more to tell about my time in Dublin. Except that while in comparison with Iowa standards it is still a large city it doesn't feel that big. I'd say its like Cedar Rapids, it feels big to someone from a small Iowa town but people still run into people they know on the streets. Where as London you rarely see anyone you know unless you've planned to meet them somewhere.

London...Again

So after my first trip to London, where I spent 80% of the time walking, I came back to the RAC and was unable to stop my legs from moving. I couldn't sit still for about a week and I'd only been there 2 days. Now I've been in London for about 4 days and I'd say that, other than sleeping, I'll I've done is walked. And I plan on doing quite a bit of walking in Dublin as well.

What did I do on my own in London? Well I'll tell you. Sunday I went to the West End, Trafalger Square, Leichester Square, China Town, Oxford Street, Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge, and the National Portait Gallery. I went for a walk along the Thames and ended up in the suburbs for awhile away from the tourist traps of Big Ben and Buckingham. Eventually I made my way back into the heart of London and caught the Underground back to Hendon, where my hostel was.

I'm finding it hard to keep this blog exciting and still tell you what I did. I feel like its starting to become like (or may always have been like) I did this and then I did this and then I did this. Is it that way to you Blog Lovers?

Anyway, Monday I was going to visit the Globe Theatre (I know you can hardly control your excitement) BUT I got there around 1:30 and the next tour didn't start until 4 so I went and did something else. I decided to go and visit Big Ben again walk along the Thames some more. I ended up going to the London Film Musuem and getting an amazing deal, they let me in as a child instead of as a student. Pretty much it was a whole bunch of sets and costumes and props from different movies and then history on British studios, actors, actresses, directors, ect. It was quite interesting. They had an exhibit on the new Sherlock Holmes movies, Harry Potter, Star Wars, and...DOCTOR WHO! I got to see the TARDIS and some Daleks (I was excited even if you aren't excited for me).

Finally on Tuesday I went to the Globe, and it was amazing. Since I had to get up extremely early the next morning (we're talking 4 AM) so that I could be on a train by 5 AM so I could be at the airport by 7 AM for a 9 AM flight I called it a day quite early. To be honest it was kinda a miserable day. It just rained and rained and rained. And I wasn't excatly out of the rain on my tour of the Globe as it's not an indoor theatre.

I spent quite a bit of the day in the hostel keeping dry and warm-ish. And I actually met some people. Of course it was the last night I was staying there and two American girls arrived and were staying in the same room as I was. It was nice to get some human contact that spoke "American".

The Post Christmas Blues

Contray to the title of this blog I am not suffering from the "Post Christmas Blues." I'm currently back in London (and I still don't have internet so as you read this I'm probably in Dublin or I might even be back at the RAC) for a few days and as I have nothing better to do I'm uploading photos from Paris. So I thought I'd tell you what I did since my last update and give you a few more travel trips.

So we were up to Tuesday when last I wrote (stupid internet connections). Naomi and I went on a boat tour to see the sights, only someone (NOT ME!) didn't get up until 1 in the afternoon and we didn't even leave for Paris until about 3:30. We had planned on taking the tour in the day so I'd have a better view of the sights, but by the time we'd gotten their the next boat didn't leave until 8 PM, so we went on a night tour. Unfortunately for us however, it was only 5 so we had a bit of a wait. So we walked around the city for a bit and I did a bit of tourist shopping (although I didn't actually buy anything for myself in Paris) and then most importantly of all we got crepes. I had a delicious chocolate, banana, and whip cream crepe...YUM!

We finally got on the boat tour but we had yet another misfortune. I wasn't able to take pictures because without the flash it was way to blurry to actually see anything but if I had the flash on then all that you could see was the reflection of the people behind me. They happened to be American and I can honestly say that they made me feel very embarassed to be an American. They complained the whole trip about every little thing, now I know not all Americans are like that, but to disassociate myself with them I started talking with a British accent (although several people asked me if I was Russian that so maybe I should have gone with a Russian accent). They were just in general rude and pushy, which leads me to a tourist tip!

TIP #3: If you have made the decision to travel to a foreign country, especially if you are going to were you do not speak the language, DO NOT ASSUME YOU ARE BETTER THAN EVERYONE ELSE. As Americans we tend to have this image that we are awesome and everyone pretty much wants to be us. This makes the local look down upon us and judge everything we do by how our tourists act, and obviously we are not all rude, stuck up, whiney tourists like the ones who were seated behind me on the boat tour, but thats how most people see Americans.

Anyway, Wednesday I went to the Versailles. Naomi and I went to the Palace and we attempted to go to a horse museum, but that was closed (luckily). I was impressed with the Palace, but Naomi, having seen it several times before, was bored and not afraid to show it. Towards the end I was quite sick of my audio guide. 1) It made you look stupid no matter what you did or who you were and 2) while it was sometimes entertaining it was for the most part tiresome.

Christmas Eve was finally here. My family celebrates most of Christmas on this day, but I went to the Louvre and spent some quality time with Venus de Milo and Mona Lisa. Naomi had "stayed home to do coursework" (aka sleeping, facebook, and TV) so Bethany and I went to the Louvre ourselves. We went to Bougival train station and quite literally just as we finished buying our tickets the train to Paris left and we had to wait for an hour until the next one came. We finally made it to the Louvre and when we came out we went to grab some lunch, where I noticed that I didn't have my wallet. I started freaking out, everything (except my passport) was in that wallet. But once again being the genius that I am I'd left it back at Naomi's house.

That night we went to a friend of Naomi's parents for dinner. We had a good time, despite Naomi's warnings of extreme boredum and tedious conversation. Roast pork and venison and 2 helpings of dessert..once again YUM! We ended the night with some trivia and racing reindeer. Nothing like the oyster stew and chili my family should have been eating (they had prime rib instead of our traditional christmas soups and snacks) but no the less delicious.

Finally it's Christmas day. All over the world children are waking up at unreasonable hours to see what Santa brought them. Suprisingly, Santa did find me in Paris and he left the tradition British satsuma in the bottom of my stocking. Most people leave the satsuma until its no longer edible, I ate mine for breakfast. Church was next on the agenda, once everyone was up that is (certain people, mainly Naomi, thought they could sleep in). After church came presents and then the traditional UK Christmas dinner of turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, sprouts, carrots, peas, roast potatoes and parsnips, and Christmas pudding. That over with everyone sat in front of the TV and fell asleep. Sounds a lot like Thanksgiving? that's because it is. You stuff your face full of food and then settle in front of the TV until you fall in to a turkey coma. I even got to see part of my Doctor Who Christmas special. I didn't get to see all of it because we were watching James Bond (which is apparently a Christmas tradition in England).

Boxing day, now contray to the belief of my family boxing day does not mean you punch everyone you see. It's really not anything special, but a lot of sales start on boxing day...making it even more like Thanksgiving. We traveled from Paris back to England, and while I enjoyed Paris it felt like coming back home, even though I was heading towards a hostel in London and not back to the RAC.