Okay, Okay, I'll write again. I'm awful at these blogs things. I'm bad about journaling too- I have to do 2 separate journals for 2 classes which is basically torture, and I never have any time to do "personal journaling" whatever that is! Wow, I guess it has been a while! The group went to Paris a couple of weekends ago, we went to the Louve, climbed the Eiffel Tower (720 steps!) and we took a bike ride in the pouring rain to Versaille.
Then, another week of class. We had a lecture on British politics and British architecture. Both were very interesting. The politics lecturer went around the room and asked each of us to give one word we thought of when we thought of Parliament. We got answers like "old, stuffy, high class, outdated.... blah blah" and then he asked what we though about the American political system and he was quite surprised to hear our words were "Counter-productive, contradictary, unaffective, corrupt, inefficient." He could tell we were all conservative republicans who are a little apathetic and turned off by the US primaries.
Spring Break: I felt like a kindergartener set loose in the mall. I had a huge backpack on my back and I was going out on my own... kind of. We started out in Prague, Czech Republic. We met an American study abroad student on the metro on the way to our hotel who was so helpful! She taught us a little Czech, told us about the exchange rate, and oriented us around the city. I don't know what we would have done without her! After she left we got a tad lost and Gena was on the phone with the hostel guy trying to find out how to get there and these boys walked by and came back and circled around the rest of us 5 girls. They said, "Have you seen the movie Hostel (*the world's scarriest movie...!*) We said, "No... and we don't plan on it!" I think they said some other things, but they said, "If we give you some euros, will you come with us?!" hahaha... Let me think about that one... NO! They left us alone, but it was really wierd!
Our hotel was nice- 6 beds and a kitchenette, perfect for our group of 6 girls! Prague was nice and walkable. They had a huge easter festival, so we felt like we were at Epcot the whole time with all the crafts, open air food stands with amazing crepes and cinnamon roll things that aren't quite what you think a cinnamon roll is. The Charles Bridge was really cool with all these different bands and artists set up along the way. We passed a filming sight on the way up to the castle- but it looked like a low budget movie, probably no one famous. One night in Prague we got tickets to the Royal Czech Orchestra or something like that in this huge music hall that was gorgeous! They played Pachabel, Vavaldi, and some others.
Venice was next! We were in Venice less than 24 hours and about 3 of those hours were spent finding our way through the rat mazes! There are no cars in Venice, its a pedestrian city or water taxi, which was cool! I had to stay in a different hotel from the other girls b/c I booked separately from them, but my place was really cute and had a balcony w/ roof acces (No, I didn't go on the roof... sketch). We did a gondola ride on a gondola named Frederick! Venice was nice, but there isn't a whole lot to do there.
Hannah, Grace, and I took a train to Florence, and apparently I was in the wrong seat....7 cars down from where I was supposed to be! So I had to move down 7 cars, through about 3 cars full of middle schoolers! It took me about 30 minutes to get through the 7 cars, and of course, no one I passed spoke English so you have to guess wheter you're going to say "Excuse me" in Italian, French, or Spanish!
Florence was great and relaxing. We pretty much had gronola bars for breakfast, fruit for lunch, and gelato for dinner... yeah, I know, pretty well balanced diet, but hey, its cheap! Florence had a ton of markets, but the vendors were kind of rude, they didn't really need your money, and it was obvious. The vendors in Cambodia and Thailand dreaded seeing people walk away from a sale so they practically grovelled at our feet to get us to buy stuff, but the Florence vendors had bad attitudes and could care less if you bought their stuff, so I didn't! The second day in Florence we went to the Uffizi and the Academy to see Michelangelo's David. We stood in line for the Uffizi for 2.5 hours in the freezing cold, and we only had about 20 minutes to see everything, so we saw the most famous works. The Academy didn't have much other than David, but he made up for it! It was incredible! He's supposed to be the "perfect man" but he has a lazy eye, or a crossed eye. Something about his eyes aren't right, but other than that I think Michelangelo did a pretty good job!
After Florence we went to Rome, but stopped at Pisa along the way. The leaning tower of Pisa wasn't as leany as I expected it to be, from some angles you couldn't tell it was leaning at all- I think they're fixing it too much. We didn't go up in it because we had to catch a train to Rome (which was the hottest train I'd ever been on! It was Harry Potter style!) The cutest elderly Italian couple shared a car with us. When we all pulled out our sandwhices for lunch the man said "Bon Appetite!" They didn't know English, and we didn't know Italian, but we still communicated pretty well, which I always think is a lot of fun.
When in Rome.... do as the Romans do. What does that mean!? We took the bus like the Romans and ate pasta and gelato like the Romans! When in Rome, I was reading Francine Rivers' "A Voice in the Wind"- great book- which is set mainly in Rome and one of the main character is a gladiator, so it was really cool to be in Rome and get to see the Colleseum while reading that book! We also saw the Roman Forum, Adrian's column? (somebody's column), a lot of statues, a lot of Roman ruins, Vatican city (but no pope), Trevi Fountain, the Spanish steps, and a lot more! Phillip told us we HAD to go to this one gelato place that was just to die for, but it was just okay... so so. We found one that was absoluetly incredible- Della Palma! They have one in NYC too, so if you're ever in New York or Rome you have to go to Della Palma- they had over 120 flavors of gelato, including yogurt and soy gelato, and a whole window of just different kinds of chocolate gelato. I got the strawberry and mango gelato and I wish it never ended! The mango was so good, better than any mango I've ever had!
I had a flight back to London alone- my first solo international flight. We got to the bus station to get a bus to the airport, which are supposed to run every 20 minutes, but we waitied 40 minutes before one came. Tons of people crammed onto the bus; I had to stand in the isle. Grace and Hannah's flight left about 30 minutes before mine did, but they went to Gatwick and I went to Stansted, which is a bit further away. When I landed in Stansted it was snowing!
When I left Rome the man at the ticket counter kept my confirmation paper for some reason, and he kept my bus confirmation to Victoria station too! But the man with the bus company was really nice and let me on without a confirmation- thank goodness- It was 11:05 pm by this point and I was an hour away from central London! I was really worried the underground would be closed for the night by the time we got to Victoria and I'd have to take a nightbus home (which I'm really scared to do!) But I was able to catch THE last metro home!
It snowed Friday night, Saturday, Easter Sunday, and Monday! Hopefully that's all- everyone says "It never snows in London!" But it did. I saw it.
Easter I went to St. Paul's and heard the Bishop of London speak. I didn't get to see the Pope in Rome, so I guess I'll settle for the Bishop of London. He was a really great speaker. The service wasn't in Latin or so stuffy I only heard, "wah wah wah wah wah". It was really good! Of course, I didn't really know the songs, but it was ok. They had a mens/boys choir which was gorgeous! I think St. Paul's makes all music sound amazing- I bet even American Idol auditions could sound half way decent in that buiding- its such a beautiful church!
Yesterday for class we had a walking tour in East London- the 2nd poorest bourough in Britian.... and ironically, the location of the 2012 Olympics! It doesn't look too great now, but I think they're working on fixing up the area, so maybe in 4 years it will be decently presentable to the world.... maybe? They have a LOT of work to do!
