STRESS!

I have one week until I leave for Northern Ireland.
One week until I get reunited with one of my best friends.
One week until I start the next leg of my adventure here in Europe.
One week is not long at all.
Especially when I look at everything I have to do...
I don't have anything due between now and then, but I do have two essays due within three days of returning to England, and I would feel much better getting them done now.
Looking at one of the essays I have to do sent me into a panic attack. (First one in a long while, so I'm pretty happy about that) I went and asked Ella for a hug and worked on calming down. I know I can do it and I know I will get it done. Even if it feels a little stressful right now. And once I get it done, I will feel so good knowing I can travel without that stress on my back!
Now, I just need to focus my eyes on the end goal and not get overwhelmed again.
Wish me luck!

When I'm in need of a break, I'll post about my trip to Birmingham this past weekend!

Tea and Toast

When the Student Union has big parties planned and it is common for a lot of people to go and get drunk, the Christian Union holds something called Tea and Toast. What is this you might ask.
The CU sets up in the chapel, which is right next to the SU building. Inside the Chapel, a ton of volunteers do just what it sounds like - make a ton of tea and toast. Volunteers stand outside and direct people towards the chapel to go inside and get some free food.
The CU held this event this past Wednesday and I went to help out. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it turned out to be a lot of fun! I don't think I have buttered that much toast in my life if you added it all up! It was pretty slow until about 3am when the SU kicked everybody out. At this point I was buttering toast like a mad woman and trying to make sure everybody got a piece.
I loved being able to show kindness to the other students here at Keele in a way that wouldn't happen on an everyday basis.
Such simple things can make huge impacts!

Edinburgh, Scotland

This past weekend I went to Edinburgh up in Scotland. When planning the places I wanted to go in Europe, Scotland didn't make the cut, but when Keele put together a trip for the international students I became a bit more interested. All I had to do is pay the ISS office and they organized the transportation and the hotel. Which was really nice now that I'm working on planning things for my trips in April. I seriously think I could be a travel agent by the end of this!

 

Anyhow, on to my trip. On Friday morning we all piled onto a bus around 8:00am and started heading north. Something interesting I have noticed about the UK is how nice their rest stops are. Each one has a restaurant or two, a grocery store, one of those magazine/sweets stores you see in airports, super nice bathrooms and lots of seating. I assuming it is because so many tours go up and down England, but it certainly is surprising!

 

We made it to Edinburgh around 3:30 and after putting our things in our hotel rooms, Amanda, Trista and I went exploring. We didn't have a plan, we just wandered around the streets. We found some cute shops and I bought a scarf because the wind ended up making the 50 degree weather feel much, much colder.

 

We weren't going to dinner until 7:30 so around 5 we found The Elephant House to warm up and have a snack.

 

Not only is The Elephant House an awesome cafe, it is also where JK Rowling spent her time writing the first Harry Potter book. How awesome is that? The bathrooms were covered in messages from fans (now including myself) to JK thanking her as well as quotes from the books.

 

This is one of my favorites. I agree, the world does need more magic.

 

If JK saved this person's life, imagine how many more she saved. Just because she had an idea in her head and wrote it down. The Harry Potter books were a huge part of my growing up and I still love them now. I really is mind blowing to think how big an impact one person can make on the world.

 

I got a coffee and an elephant shaped shortbread cookie. So cute and so yummy!

 

After The Elephant House we went back to the hotel and freshened up for dinner.

 

The hotel we stayed in had the most comfortable beds ever. I honestly have never slept better!

 

On Saturday morning we went of to tour Edinburgh Castle. We paid 16 pounds each to get in and it really wasn't that worth it. You win some and you lose some.

 

After the castle we looked at some street vendors then found ourselves back at The Elephant House for lunch. I love the atmosphere in there and I hope I can find a cozy little place like that on my future travels.

 

After lunch, I changed shoes and we went off to climb Arthur's Seat. Arthur's Seat is the highest (251 meters) of a group of hills (that were once volcanoes)  next to the city.

 

Some neat buildings we passed on the way.

 

The view part of the way up.

 

We made it! It was SO windy at the top! I had never experienced anything like it before. We had to stay crouched down not to get blown over! Which is pretty scary when you are on the top of a very high hill.

 

The view was spectacular. It was free to climb up, but I would have paid 16 pounds to do this in a heart beat, which makes up having to pay for the castle I suppose. The hike was difficult at times, and I was exhausted by the end, but I am so glad I did!

 

After a nap we all went out to dinner. I had chicken breast stuffed with haggis. If you aren't sure what that is, I'm sure google can help you out:) I really enjoyed it!

 

 

 

On Sunday we wandered around some shops together, then we split up and I went to the National Galleries Scotland. I cannot tell you how nice it was to walk around an art museum on my own. It was pretty small, but they still had some great pieces. Degas is one of my favorites and there were about 5, which is quite a few for a museum their size.

 

 

After the museum it was time to head back to the hotel to get on the bus and head back to Keele. I walked through this park and the sun was shining and I could hear somebody playing bagpipes and I stopped and realized once again how lucky I am to be here. I worked hard all summer as well as over my Christmas break to save money for all of these trips. At times I was so tired and ready to go home, but I'm so glad I put the extra hours in. It really was worth it. And a wonderful reminder that I can do anything I put my mind to.

 

All in all, I loved Edinburgh and I hope that one day I'll be able to go back!

Playing Catch-up

So it has been a while since I wrote a generic what's been going on post, so I figure we have a lot to catch up on.

Okay, first things first, I love England and I never want to leave. Ever. My time here is going by way too quickly and I've been making great friends. I don't want to leave them behind. I definitely miss home, but it sucks that England is so far away.

Second, Erin and I have been planning trips for April and May. There are so many exciting things on the horizon! April 9th I'm flying to Northern Ireland to spend time with Erin. Then on April 18th we are flying to London to spend a few days there. We want to see a play or two, and just explore. We also have plans to go to Stonehenge and Harry Potter Studios where the movies were filmed! I'm super excited for that. On April 23 we are going to Italy!!! I am beyond excited. We will be there until May 2nd. We are arriving in Venice and leaving out of Rome. I am so blessed to have one of my best friends here with me to experience it all.

The past few weeks here at Keele have been wonderful for many different reasons. One of them being the fact that I haven't worn my rain boots since BEFORE I went to London! Yes, we have had rain here and there since then, but nothing so bad that it required rain boots. The past week has been sunny and warm. Today is a proper spring day and I love it.

The week after London I got a cold, but luckily it wasn't too bad and I had some medicine that really helped. Hopefully that was my first and last British cold.

Last Saturday, my friend, Ella and I went into Hanley to go shopping. We went to Primark and Topshop as well as TK Maxx. We ended up getting McDonalds for lunch because we were curious to see if American McDonalds tasted any different compared to British McDonalds. The fries (or chips as they say here!) tasted exactly the same, but my McChicken was different. Not bad, just different. Ok, now American McDonalds, listen up. If you buy a value meal and show your student card here, you get a free McFlurry! How awesome is that?!

On Shrove Tuesday I made American Pancakes for anybody in my building who wanted some. Having never made pancakes from scratch before, I was pretty happy when they were a success! Everybody really enjoyed them, but I was glad when I was done. After four batches you don't want to see pancakes again for a while! I could never work at IHOP!

I've been having some assignments due here and there now that the end of the semester is getting closer. We have 10 weeks before Easter break (which is April 4-May 5) and this is week 7. Why is time flying by so quickly?! All of my essays are due in the first few weeks of May, then I am free until I come home June 12. Erin and I have a few more trips in the works but nothing is set in stone yet.

Whew! That was a lot to talk about! Hopefully I'll do a better job at this in the upcoming weeks.

Have a great day! Feel free to ask me any questions.

London Day 3 with Pictures

This has taken me way too long to get to and I'm sorry guys! I need to pay more attention and actually post things! Maybe if you all nagged me a little bit I would get them written. Anyhow, on to day 3.

 

We started out the day checking out of the Hostel then we went to tour Kensington Palace.

 

 

 

It was a beautiful day so I sat down for a minute and Zoe snapped this picture.

 

Kensington was one of my favorite parts of London. It was so neat and see all the different rooms that the royals lived in. It was set up in such an artistic and creative manner - very unique compared to other tours. There was a part of the tour that looked at the fashion of the princesses and queens over the years and it ended at Princess Diana; they'll need to add Princess Kate soon!

 

After the gardens we walked through Kensington Gardens to the Prince Albert memorial. It was such a nice day and there were so many families and people with their dogs enjoying the sun!

 

Here's Prince Albert Memorial.

 

 

I love the architecture on these buildings!

 

We went to Liverpool Street to check out another market, but this bakery lured us in and we never actually found the market. This was our late Valentines day treats since we didn't find anything this nice actually on Valentines Day.

 

 

I haven't had cake that good in a long time. Next time I'm in London I know where I'm getting dessert!

 

Now that I'm finally caught up on London, I'm off to Edinburgh this weekend!

London Day 2 with Pictures

Okay, I am so sorry that this post took so long to be posted. While yes, I have been pretty busy, I have also wasted a lot of time on Netflix. Oops. Anyhow, instead of Netflix tonight, I am going to get this done!

 

We left the hostel around 9:30, grabbed breakfast at Sainsbury's then hopped on the tube to head to Big Ben to take pictures in the sun! We weren't sure how long it was going to last, it ended up lasting all day!! Just one or two quick showers around lunch time. When we got to the right tube station we went to Exit 3 which was labeled "Big Ben," when we made it back above ground we looked around and didn't see it. Then I looked up.

 

 

The exit wasn't lying. We were AT Big Ben!

 

After backing up quite a bit, I could actually get a picture of the whole clock tower!

 

Such a beautiful day!

 

Across the river from Big Ben is the London Eye. Its pretty expensive, so we decided to skip that.

 

Then we went to Westminster Abbey.

 

The old churches are so elaborate and beautiful!

 

And I must say it was neat to see where Will and Kate got married! Yes, I watched the Royal Wedding as well as when Kate left the hospital with baby George. I have no shame:)

 

You can't go to London and not take a picture in a phone booth!

 

 

After Westminster we walked through some gardens to go take pictures at Buckingham Palace. Honestly, the park was more fun than the Palace. There were a ton of ducks and geese to make funny faces at and talk to in the park. The Palace just stood there with people shoving their faces in the fence.

 

Zoe and I.

 

I have no idea who these guys are or what they are doing, but they came by as we were leaving Buckingham, so I did what any other tourist would do. Take pictures!

 

At this point we went to Picadilly (that's just fun to say!) and found lunch then we went to Trafalgar Square.

 

A monument in Trafalgar.

 

After that we weren't sure where to go next so I opened up the guide book I had to see if I could find anything interesting. We ended up going to Camden Road Market to have a look around. I loved it! There were so many vendors from clothes to jewelry to crafts to food and much more. We had plans for dinner so I didn't get anything from the food vendors, but when I go to London again I know where I'm eating lunch!

 

We ate dinner at the oldest pub in London.

 

 

 I can't say that it was spectacular, but my food was good. I think pubs just aren't for me. The ones I have been in so far have all been too dark and too loud for me to fully enjoy my meal.

 

After dinner we had tickets to see a dance performance choreographed by Pina Bausch. It was a very modern piece and I wasn't sure what I would think of it, but I actually really enjoyed it!

 

After the show when we were getting on the tube, I jumped on and the others didn't make it before the doors shut so I rode back to the hostel on my own.

 

There's day two for you and hopefully I'll get day three up sooner than this one.  

 

London Day 1 with Pictures!

London was crazy busy and lots of fun! If I put it all in one post you'd be sitting here for days, so I'm going to break it up by day and actually add pictures within the post.

On Friday morning I got up super early (3:45) so I could be ready to be out the door by 4:45 so we could catch a taxi to the coach station. Our coach was supposed to leave at 5:45 but didn't end up leaving until a little after 6. We transferred busses in Birmingham then went on to London. We arrived in London around 10:15 and made it to our hostel about 10:45.

 

 

The road our hostel was on.
Our hostel was very reasonably priced and the staff was very nice. It was in a great part of town and very close to a tube station. We were also close to the grocery store Sainsbury's and we ended up getting breakfast from their bakery every morning. Oh how I love danishes.

After checking into the hostel we went out to explore the city! Our original plan was to go to the Tower of London first, but in the pouring rain and with a faulty map we got turned around and ended up by St. Paul's Cathedral. Since we were in the area we figured we would go in.

 

 

St. Paul's exterior.
Once we made it inside the Cathedral we weren't allowed to take pictures because it is also a house of prayer. As we explored we realized you could climb up to the top of the dome and look out into the city. Zoe and I were ready to go and Celina decided to come along as well. In total it was 528 steps up to the top, which was brutal on our legs, but wow, what a view.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some pictures from the top.
It was very rainy so the view wasn't perfect, but it still was pretty awesome. I would do it again any day. By the time we made it down all three of us had very jittery legs. Like if you ride your bike for a log distance your legs feel funny when you get off. That's what 1000+ stairs will do to you! 

After St. Paul's we began to walk to the Tower of London in the right direction. It was pouring rain so we hopped on one of the iconic red busses to finish the journey.  Once we made it to the Tower of London we realized it would be a much more enjoyable attraction if it wasn't raining. You'll see that most of my pictures are a little blurry from water droplets getting on my camera lens. We did go see the Crown Jewels which were really neat (and very shiny!).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we cut our losses and went off in search of a more indoor attraction. We ended up walking across London Bridge and towards the London Bridge Experience per request of Celina. Little did Zoe and I know that it was a horror attraction! That certainly isn't my cup of tea, but since Celina went up the stairs with us, we would go to the haunted house with her. Zoe and I clung to each other for most of the time but we made it out alive.

After that we decided to find a place to eat dinner. We ended up choosing Nando's. My dinner was super yummy! I would love to go there again if I have the chance.

 

Me and my dinner. Plus my first soda since arriving in England!

After dinner we went to the Tate Modern museum. I always love a good art museum:)

After we left the museum we went to King's Cross Station to get pictures at Platform 9 3/4!

 

 

So fun!

At this point it was about 9:00 and we decided to head back towards our hostel. Since it was valentines day we tried to find a bakery to get some treats but we ended up at Sainsbury's and got little chocolate pudding things. Not quite what we wanted, but close enough!

That wraps up day one! I'll post day two soon, keep checking back:)