Amsterdam

This past Monday through Wednesday I spent in Amsterdam. Of course for me to get there, I took the "backpackers budget" route to get there (by bus). It was a mere 11 hours each way!! I must say it was a better trip than to Edinburgh because the heaters worked and the seats reclined, but by no means was it painless. On they way there, we crossed the channel on a ferry. We actually got to get off the bus and go upstairs where there were couches to lay down on. On the way home, we were in this creepy cargo-like box on a train under the Channel.
Monday we checked into our dingy, to say the least, hostel and cleaned up a bit before we went to the Heineken brewery tour. Then we went out to dinner and called it an early night.
Tuesday we got up and walked to the Anne Frank house tour. The house is just a bunch of empty rooms. I wish that I had read the Diary before going so I could appreciate the situation more. Needless to say, it is now on my "to-read" list. After Anne Frank we went on a canal boat tour around Amsterdam. It was a wonderful way to see the city and learn a little bit about the city. After the boat cruise we did lots and lots of walking around. We walked through the infamous Red Light District as well as some popular sqaures and shopping streets. For dinner we ate at a terrible tapas restaurant next to our hostel. Everyone was really disappointed. After our tapas we headed to a nearby square that was Christmas themed for a drink at the pub and then dessert at one of the many pastry stands.
Wednesday we were on a mission to find the " I AMsterdam" sign. It actually lead us right to the Van Gogh Museum as well. It cost 14 euro to get in (almost $20) so we opted out and decided to just walk around the city more. The only problem with this was that it was extremely cold out! We were nearly numb by the time we got back to our hostel to catch the train to the bus station.
Our hostel was probably the worst ones i've been to. Not only did everyone just light up a cig whenever they want but the rooms were ridiculously small. The bathroom was down the hall and the shower was basically in the check in room. There was no shower curtain or separation between a shower stall and toilet.
Everything aside, I did have a great time in Amsterdam. It is a beautiful city. I don't think it is on the top of my returning list but I am glad that I went and experienced it!

Done-Zo

YAH! I am finished with my coursework! I printed off my papers this morning and am officially carefree!! Not to mention the fact that it took me 50 minutes to print the darn things off but i suppose that is to be expected at City. Nothing is efficient. haha
Anyway, so yesterday I went to the Victoria & Albert museum. I walked through most of it. It holds worldwide sculptures, tapestries, ironworks, jewlery, etc. By the end I discovered that I am kinda museumed-out. I am getting to the point where I am not appreciating things nearly as much as I should be! I know it's terrible but that's just how it goes I guess.
Today I went to Greenwich with my friend Christina to stand on the Prime Meridian. I have officially been at two places in one time. It is located at the Royal Observatory which was cool because I have always loved astronomy. We had to climb this really big hill to get to the top but the views were amazing once we got there.
Tonight I am going out to dinner with the whole Wisconsin crew. It will probably be our last time all hanging out since we are leaving to go on trips and going home at different times. I am not sure where we are going yet but I will be sure to take and post some pictures!
It's so crazy to think I will be home in 8 days!

Finals Week!

These past two weeks have really been devoted to getting my school work in order. I had two group presentations and projects to hand in last week and this week I had 3 exams and 2 2000+ word essays to write! But I am happy to say that I am DONE! I plan to go to school tomorrow to print off my papers and submit them to the course office!
I cannot believe how quickly my time is flying by! In about a week I will be back home! I have one last trip planned to Amsterdam. I am leaving on Sunday night by bus and arriving in Netherlands Monday morning. It will be an interesting 11 hours. I bought myself a fleece throw after the freezing experience I had in Scotland. But overall I am really excited for the trip!

EATALY

Hope everyone back home had a wonderful Thanksgiving break. I wish that I could have been there but I really can't complain because I spent my weekend in Rome with my friend from high school Morgan!
I arrived in Rome on Friday afternoon. It seemed that one thing after another was going wrong for me. My debit card wouldn't work at the ATM, I stood in line for almost an hour and half waiting to get onto a bus into the city center, and I didn't really know what i was going to do with myself since morgan had class and wasn't flying in until later that night. But I got to the hostel safely, checked in, and claimed by bed.
I did a lot of walking around that evening. I went to the Spanish Steps, Piazza Popolo, Piazza Navona (sp), Trevi,  and crossed the bridge to see the massive court house. Once it started getting a little darker out, I decided to head back home since I was all by myself. I went back and met some really cool kids in my hostel room. We just hung out, talked, and drank a bit. They were mostly from Indiana, and Colorado State. I was SO happy when Morgan finally made it into town! There was a bar underneath our hostel that we went and got a drink and mapped our day for Saturday!
Boy, did we pack A LOT into that day! We mapped it all out on Sunday and we walked 8 miles just on Saturday and then another 5 on Sunday.  Anyway, we did all the hotspots! The colosseum, ancient ruins, the forum, palantino, shopping on National Ave, the Castle, the Museum of Rome, Spanish Steps (again), Trevi, plaza after plaza! We just kept on moving! Of course we made plenty of time for Italian pasta, PIZZA, and gelato.

one coin to return to Rome and another to one day get married

Sunday we woke ourselves up early to go stand in line for the Vatican Museum.  It is free on the last sunday of every month so we had perfect timing but we knew we had to beat the crowds. We actually only ended up waiting for an hour and half. Not too bad!

Famous Adam & Eve inside the Sistine Chapel

I also saw the Pope! He gives a prayer every Sunday at noon in St. Peter's Square. After the prayer we went inside the basilica and climbed the 321 steps to the top of the coupe! It was raining out but I still got some awesome views of Rome.

After the Vatican City, we did a lot more walking around Rome, stopping at some plaza's and eating amazing pizza! 

Monday morning I had to wake up at 630 to get back on a bus to the airport. It was hard getting off the plane to snow after spending a weekend in chilly but sunny Italy. I think that we went at the perfect time of year. It wasn't nearly as busy as in the summer months. The weather really was perfect (minus some rain on Sunday).

week of Nov 15

I had just arrived back from a wonderful trip to Madrid but I was looking forward to spending the next week and weekend in London.
Monday and Tuesday were my typical busy school days.
Wednesday I had my historical london class at the Tower of London! It was very very cold out but I did get a very though tour.  I have interesting stories about the Ravens and their personalities if anyone cares to hear. The crown jewels are also found in the Tower and are so impressive! They look fake. It's hard for me to believe that I looked at a diamond that size!!
Wednesday night Sally and I went to the England v France football game! It was very exciting. I am not a huge soccer fan but I still had a great time at the game. It was at Wembley Stadium, which is the largest football stadium in Europe. There were 85,500 people at the game!

England did end up losing 1-2 but it was a friendly match so it only hurt their pride not their rankings.

Friday was my last Performing Arts course performance. We went and saw Hamlet at the National Theatre. The play was not terrible. They had the scenery in modern dress and spun the play to a modern theme BUT it was FOUR hours longgggg. I just cannot be entertained by Shakespeare for that length of time. 

Friday night we all needed to let loose after Hamlet so we headed to a club called Fabric. Things get pretty crazy there. It is supposed to be one of the most famous clubs in Europe where a lot of DJ's come and play. I didn't know any of the music or dj's because I am not into techno much but it still was a lot of fun!

Saturday afternoon Christina and I went to Stamford Bridge to tour the Chelsea Stadium. I know it seems like a lot of football in one week but that's just the way things worked out.  The stadium was very nice and newly renovated. It was nothing in size compared to Wembley. I think it was about half the size. 

Sunday was devoted to homework and preparing for a presentation that I had the next day. (It went very well by the way).

Monday and Tuesday were my busy school days but I did take a little weight off my shoulders by presenting a presentation, handing in one group assignment, and 2 final exam papers.

I now only have 2 final exam papers and 3 exams (I did my other group presentation today 11/30) before I am home free.

Wednesday the 24th my historic london course met at the British Museum. We saw some of the highlights including the Rosetta Stone but only got in a small portion of the museum. I think that you would have to devote an entire day (maybe two) in order to see everything that the BM has to offer!

After my class I had a finance midterm that I think went pretty well. I spent the rest of the day preparing for my trip to ROME!

Thursday I woke up and went to Petticoat Market. It's a market about 3 tube stops away that offers mostly clothing. I didn't find much that I wanted but it was interesting to see a variety of fabrics and discount clothing.

Thursday was Thanksgiving and it was sad to be away from home. I did get the chance to talk to everyone at home, which was very nice! It sounds like everyone was doing well and they were excited to feast together. It just made me that much more excited for Christmas and the wonderful dinner that I have to look forward to!

My next blog I will talk about my awesome trip to ROME!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my favorite sister Erin and best friend Becky!! Miss you two!!

Madrid!!

So I am a little behind with my posts, but school has finally started to catch up to me, so I have been spending a lot of time, writing a LOT of papers.
Backtracking to Nov 11, I left for Madrid in the late morning and got to Morgan (my close friend from high school)'s flat around 3. She is an English tutor and some lessons that evening so I went and did some exploring myself. I went to a nearby park, walked by the palace and palace gardens, then walked along Gran Via (the main drag). I headed back to Morgan's to meet up with her to go out to dinner.
Before I talk anymore, Spainards have a completely different schedule than ours. They wake up around noon, open stores for about 2 hours then at 2 they have 'siesta' until about 5. all the resturants, cafes, and some stores shut down at this time. Then dinner is served around 10 pm. And it is normal to stay out partying until 5 or 6 in the morning. Trust me, it's a whole different lifestyle!
So morgan and i went to dinner early (around 9). We went to a local place she knows about in Puerta del Sol that served 6 euro paella! it sure was good too!! Once we got back to morgan's we shared some 50 cent wine (yes 50 cents for a liter of wine) and talked with her roommates. Morgan has a diverse set of roommates she has a guy from Estonia, a guy from Italy, a girl from Peru, and two girls from Singapore. They were all nice enough to talk english around me so I could understand what was going on.
Friday I woke up and headed to the Prado. It is a very famous art museum in Madrid that houses works of El Greco, Velazques, Goya, and Raphael.  Right next to the Prado is The Retiro Park. I got to see a lot there too. They had this cute little pond with rentable row boats and a rose garden. The nicest part was that it was a beautiful day outside! I appreciated having the sun out (even if it wasn't necessarily warm).

Prado

Retiro Park

Friday afternoon I met up with Morgan and one of her friends Marit (from MN but goes to Marquette). We walked around Madrid some more and made homemade tapis for dinner! They were SO good and cheap ;)

Saturday night we got ready and went out to a jazz bar to meet up with some friends and have a drink. Then we went to a plaza and boutillion (sp?). It basically is like pregaming but out in public and there are like 100 other kids around you just drinking before heading out to the discotecia.  Well drinking in public is technically illegal in spain too, everyone does it. Apparently, you're pretty safe if your American because the police don't want to have to go through the extra paperwork, or if that doesn't work it's pretty easy to sweet talk yourself out or even offer for them to join and you should be fine! The police did come to our boutillion but there were so many of us that we all had time to scurry away! Once we were clear of the police we walked around the nightlife area of town and stopped into some bars. Nothing too excited and were home "early" by 5!

Saturday Morgan and I went to a fashion museum on the outskirts of Madrid. It was free and showcases a lot of clothing from all different time periods. It was all "high fashion" so it was really interesting.  We then went back into the city to stop a Museo de Jamon and do some shopping. That evening we went to a Flamenco dancing dinner show! it was SO fun. the dancers especially the guy were really good and the food was delicious. We actually didn't know what kind of tapas we were ordering and when Morgan looked them up when we got back it was actually baby eels and another was duck liver! haha 

I also got to try some delicious Spanish sangria at dinner! it was so good!! We got back to Morgan's around 1 and her roommates were just starting to get ready to go out for the night! I had to wake up at 6 to catch my flight back so we went to bed right away.

Overall my trip to Madrid was wonderful! I LOVE the city and really wish that I could speak some sort of Spanish. I had a great time with Morgan and all of her friends. I can't wait until I can go back one day!

Performance of the Arts #4

The week before I left for Madrid was pretty standard. I caught up on school work and had some group meetings.  On Wednesday the 10, we went to our fourth performing arts performance. It was a comedy titled, "When we were Married".  It was pretty bad.  I just don't think that it was in appropriate context for the class. If you looked around the theater there were only grey or bald heads.  It was geared to a much older audience and the humor was British humor so no one was really able to catch on.  The accents were very thick. At the beginning of the play, I don't think I caught half of what they were saying but by the end I was starting to get an ear for it.
After the play we decided that we had earned ourselves a drink. We headed to the nearest bar called Zoo Club. Upstairs were TVs and music but a more relaxed atmosphere and downstairs was a dance club.  It's still a toss up if it was a gay club or not, but I leaning towards no.  There was a wide age range present though. I didn't stay out too late though because I had to wake up early to catch my flight to Madrid!

Here are some more Stockholm pics that wouldn't work earlier: