She pours a daydream in a cup, a spoon of sugar sweetens up

I figured I may as well try and be a little better at updating this, I think it's going to be something I appreciate having when I'm home. Which is in a month! The time has really flown by.

Having been back in Norwich for a few weeks now, I've settled into this term quite nicely. I finished my exhausting finals, although I can't really complain when compared to my British friends. They had exams from first term and second, and they take generally take 4 modules (classes) each term, so some of them have eight exams. Seems unreal to me, I couldn't imagine that. I think there are pros and cons to both of our systems though, for example I sometimes have a hard time remembering classes I took first semester by the end of second semester, so maybe a review is good. Then again, I feel like I work harder throughout the semester and don't/shouldn't need as much time to study as they take (their exam period is six weeks, after a month long break, as opposed to my one or two reading days and one week of exams.) I suppose either way just takes adjusting to, and it has been an interesting adjustment for me. 

Since I've been done, I've been relaxing and spending time with my friends in between exams. In Norwich currently there's a festival going on, and last week we went into town for their football team's parade. The city centre was blocked off and packed with people wearing yellow and green, and we bought Canaries flags and wore them around. 

The team coming by in their bus

Their flags say "LET'S BE AVIN YOU!"

I've also been planning a few more short trips. I want to see more of England, so I'm going to Wales for a few days and possibly Brighton for a few. Maybe a day trip to Cambridge. In June I'll be going to Ireland for a few days, flying into Dublin and then spending a couple days in Limerick visiting a friend from home who is studying there. I'm excited for the accents. 

Then I'll come back to Norwich for my last nine days in England. It's too sad to think about, I don't know how I'm going to say goodbye not knowing when I'll get to come back.. 

I'll post again after Wales. All the love xxxx

April travels

"Sort your life out" is one of my favorite things that my British friends say. I think it's always applicable. On that note, it's been so long I owe the update of the century, but as I have a Shakespeare final to revise for and I only want to do a few minutes of procrastination not a year's worth, instead I'll just provide a short highlight reel of my traveling month, place by place...

Venice -  I arrived in the tiny Treviso airport on mainland Venice and made my way using public transportation and lot of lucky guesses all the way to where our hotel was located in what seemed to be a suburb, knowing only the number of the bus I needed to take, the name of our hotel, and how to say "thank you" in Italian. Somehow it was a success, was very proud of myself for navigation skills/luck. Venice is gorgeous, of course, and the weather was perfect to walk around and take it all in.

Florence - We stumbled upon Italy's "Culture Week," which meant free admission at just about everything we wanted to do for the rest of the week we were there. This lasted the whole trip, in Rome as well. We went to the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, the Statue of David, the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, and a host of other monuments and museums for free. Sweetened the experience about a trillionfold.

Rome - We arrived at our hostel dirty and tired travelers, only to discover there was no vacancy for us (they seem to take the idea of reservations much more lightly than we do...) and we were being moved to another location. Despite the initial annoyance, it ended up that we got upgraded from the hostel to an apartment of our own in a much better location with its own kitchen and a terrace off the back, all for the price of the lame hostel we'd been meant to stay in. Win.

Bath & England -  Meeting my family at the airport was so amazing! I made my way to Heathrow on the tube and was looking wildly around for them at the gate when I heard my mom say "Oh there's Lisa!" I got a little teary at first, I have to admit. I've been at university for years, but I've never been so far away for so long, and I hadn't realized just how good it would be to see them.

I think highlights of our week were having unseasonably good weather for England, the tiny village we stumbled upon in search of food, my dad's expert driving despite all the averse conditions, seeing Stonehenge, and having fish & chips at a pub in London. Made me feel so lucky to have everyone visit.

Madrid - using my very limited Spanish successfully, having the experience of ordering a drink and getting continuous heaping plates of tapas free, staying with my freshman year roommate Alana, and seeing a wonderful exhibit with real Frida Kahlo painting. I've loved Frida since I had to read her diary for an art history class I took at Clark, so I really loved getting to see that.

Barcelona -  I loved all of the art everywhere, really enjoyed Park Guell and La Sagrada Familia. Walking along the beach was heavenly, and we had a pretty good hostel experience getting to meet a bunch of new people from all over. Also I met a girl who was from England, studying in France, and she and I bonded over British things that we both love, reminding me of how much I really enjoy England.

Paris - Another win conquering the Paris metro system by myself, and after making it to my hostel I had the best moment wandering around the area by myself: I held the gate for a woman pushing her baby carriage out of a park, and the adorable little boy walking with her yelled back "Merci madam!" melted my heart. Also, had a picnic by the Eiffel tower with two friends from home who are studying in Paris: wine, cheese, baguettes, tomatoes, avocados, and the best strawberries. Napped in the sun and woke up looking at the Eiffel Tower. Perfect last day of my voyage.

So those are some little snapshots of my travels, the highlights, although there's no way I could fit the whole experience into words. It was really the best month of my life, such an amazing chance and I'm so happy I got to do it. All of it; traveling alone, figuring out maps and metro systems, getting to know so many new people and reconnect with a bunch of my friends from home. There aren't words, so I'll try and upload a bunch of pictures of each place a little later. The next five weeks have me in Norwich, finishing up one more exam and then relaxing with my friends, maybe traveling a little more... who knows.

For now, off to learn a few plays.. good old Shakespeare..  xxx

"Edinburgh is a mad god's dream." - Hugh MacDiarmid

I saw that written on the wall somewhere and it's been stuck in my head, such a perfect way to describe the city. I could gush about Edinburgh for days. It's breathtaking from every angle, and I saw many angles of it through climbing monuments and such. I've never been in a city where my view changed so frequently, even just walking around. We'd be in a tiny cobblestone alley sloping upwards and then we'd come out at the top on a huge street with beautiful old buildings and manage to have a view of the dormant volcano and surrounding rolling hills at the same time. And yes, there were men in kilts, and even some playing the bagpipes on most street corners. It's so rich with history, and somehow even the newer buildings still blend in nicely, so the whole place has this ancient feel. As I learned on my trip, it's been the inspiration for a lot of literary works, and being there I could completely tell why. 

I was there from a Thursday to a Sunday visiting my friend Becca. When I left Norwich on Thursday it was gorgeous and sunny here, everyone was laying out on the grass right outside my window and I didn't get any of the work done I planned to before I left, nor did I want to leave my little Norwich bubble, but I'm glad I did. After interesting mishaps on the train, ending up in the kind of town we would refer to as the middle of nowhere, (read: many sheep, few people) I made it to the airport and then Edinburgh finally. 

The first night we were there we stopped by a pub called Biddy Mulligans (great name, right?) where they had some guys playing guitar and singing, and we caught up with a few of Becca's friends. Had a lovely pub feel to it, just the way you would imagine one of those. The next day was full of stuff: we walked up to the castle, we took a tour of Parliament and I got to see Becca's internship office,  we climbed 287 spiral staircase steps up the Walter Scott monument, stopped for a little shopping, and walked up Calton Hill as the sun was setting to check out some more lovely monuments, and then went for burger & a pint deal at a pub. That night, we went for a ghost tour of Edinburgh's old underground vaults. It was a little cheesy, with some parts obviously dramatized for fear factor, but it was also a historical tour so we learned a ton about how the criminal justice system worked (witch burning and torture) and how people lived back in the 16/1700s (including the origin of the word "shitfaced" - from people literally dumping their shit out of the tenement building windows, and drunks not getting out of the way fast enough). I don't usually buy into ghost stories, but down in the vaults where people had actually died, I was definitely creeped out. 

Pictures from Friday:

Just walking around, there's a statue of Scottish philosopher David Hume

Top half of the Walter Scott Monument

Calton Hill

View of the city from Calton Hill

The next day we took a tour of Holyrood Palace, where the Queen spends her summers. We did one of those audio tour ones, but it was incredibly interesting and actually much nicer than a regular tour guide due to the features of pause and volume control. After our tour we spent a couple hours hiking Arthur's Seat, for some of the most breathtaking views of the country of Scotland. It was unbelievable and also the hike itself was pretty fun, we had a view from the entire way up as we hiked a trail on the side kind of spiraling around up to Arthur's Seat, which is a dead volcano so very cool. I took a video of us at the top actually, to prove we'd hiked it. I'll try to add that in...

On the way up Arthur's Seat

The hike ahead of us

Checking out Scotland

The view from the top

St. Anthony's Chapel Ruins (on the way back down)

Our delicious meal of "haggis, neeps & tatties" for some traditional Scottish food

If this works, it's Becca and I being silly at the peak of Arthur's Seat

That's about all the blogging I have in me for now. I just found out my exam schedule and it appears that I have approximately a month's time to do whatever on earth I please after I finish my exams. It means I'll have less time to study but for me, it's for the best. I need the pressure in order to study, and to be fair I'd only put 3 solid days of studying into an English exam anyway. So we'll see how that goes, my next update may not be until after my Easter break, as I won't be bringing my laptop along anywhere... see how that goes. for now, xxxx!

Norwich: A Fine City

That's the motto/slogan/whatever you like to call it, of this lovely little city. As an example of just how fine it is:

Puppet Man Lives

Check that out. A far cry from timely warnings of Worcester, Norwich local news honestly rivals the Arlington Advocate police reports. As I've witnessed the puppet man several times on days in town, I was personally distraught by this rumor and was very pleased to hear the truth. 

I'll update about my trip to Edinburgh... soon. Safe to say for now that it's one of my favorite places in the world. I'll add pictures soon, after I finish coursework. xx

Nerves

Bear with me as I sort out my nerves.
This is what April 8-May 5 looks like for me...

Venice-Florence-Rome with Joyce and her friends, potential Berlin with Emily, English countryside & London with my family, Madrid with Alana, Barcelona with Alana and Annie, Paris with Joyce and Danny.

I'm coming to terms with the intense amount of traveling I'll have to be doing, how few clothes I'll be able to bring with me (thanks budget airlines), how much money I'm going to be spending, how the hell I'm going to survive, how carefully I need to plan out all the details of this, and just how freaking excited I am to go. And I'm TERRIFIED! And what's more, after this month is up, it'll only be six weeks in Norwich and that's it. When you split it up like that I feel like I haven't got a lot of time left here. My last three months are going to sliiiiide right by. I can't wrap my head around it.

Oh, and no big deal or anything but I'm going to Scotland this weekend to visit my best friend since second grade. We used to get excited when our parents let us take the bus alone to the mall together, and now we're meeting up in another country.

At our age, everyone's at different levels of independence. And as always, everyone has different comfort levels. So maybe the amount of hype is over the top, but for me, this might be the craziest thing I've ever done. For me, this is ridiculous. I need to take these few minutes to really, fully, totally appreciate this. I am so, so lucky. This is ridiculous!!!

xxx

SPRING BREAK: ENGLAND

I can tell I've settled into life in Norwich for a few reasons. After a completely amazing five day excursion to London, I was totally ready to come "home." I missed it here. I was ready for things to go back to normal for a little while. As if living in a different country where I don't know anyone is normal? But it feels normal now. This is regular, relaxing, real, routine... and even boring sometimes, in a good way. When I first got here I felt so much pressure to have this be the time of my life, this and that cliches about The Study Abroad Experience. I felt like I should have been having new and fantastic experiences every second of every day. Now I'm just enjoying living here, really living. It's like when you settle into your first semester at university. It's something that really amazes me, the human capability to adapt. When I left home two months ago, I didn't fully understand what I was getting myself into. It seemed as though it was just happening to me, just another step. To be honest I'm not sure I took it seriously, which if you know me isn't that surprising. Considering everything, I'm taking this moment to appreciate how wonderful and confusing and satisfying it is just figuring out life here.

As for what I've actually been up to lately, Liz arrived last weekend on Saturday. It was lovely to show her my flat, and have her meet my flatmates who she's obviously heard about over skype and such. Saturday night we went to a pub in Norwich for drinks, then came back here and made dinner. Liz got to witness me cooking, a wild sight. Sunday we had a playdate in Norwich, involving shopping, buying the same pair of shoes (because there was a sale on, alright?), castle explorations and dinner at Nando's - no one loves fried chicken like we do.

Monday I had to leave Liz briefly for my Shakespeare class, very depressing, but then it was an absolutely gorgeous day and I skipped a class for the first time here (scandalous!) and we had a lovely nature walk around the broad and explored a little.

Posing as a couple by the lake

It's beautiful when it's sunny

Elizabeth under a tree

Maybe it's hard to tell what this is a picture of, but we found otters!

And then we found ponies, and this one came to say hi!

Miniature ponies 

Sunshine and birds

We had some excursions out in Norwich for a couple of birthdays -- it seems like it's everyone's birthday recently -- and then spent Tuesday relaxing, watching the Jersey Shore and ordering fantastic Indian food. England does Indian so, so well.

Wednesday we left for London! We had a lovely train ride and met up with Emily. We went to the oldest licensed premises in London, the White Hart, for the most amazing American style bar food and beers.

Indeed.

I'm going to try to refrain from detailing every meal we had, but London was full of incredible food experiences. We did typical British meals like fish & chips and a full English breakfast, and hunted down  the most satisfying Mexican food ever. We had coffee and croissants at a cafe by Emily's apartment, and an outdoor lunch of wine & cheese accompanied by a string quartet, and unbelievable desert at the cafe at the Tate Modern. I almost forgot the gourmet burgers! I haven't eaten so well so many times in a row ever in my life.

Forgive the over indulgent emphasis on eating, I'm American. I enjoy using that as an excuse for anything that I deem appropriate. As for other fun parts of the trip... Liz and I spent three hours going through the British Museum -- I think we hit every single exhibit except the one you have to pay for. Then we went shopping with our friend Angelica in Covent Garden, got to walk around there a little before meeting Emily after she got off work. 

Covent Garden area

Neal's Yard, a tiny street we happened to find

Thursday night Alana arrived from Spain and we enjoyed the only Mexican food I've found in the U.K. Silly me, didn't realize that we have so much Mexican food at home due to our proximity. Mexican food simply doesn't exist in Norwich. I've tried explaining burritos to my flatmates several times.. they almost understand, but not quite. This place wasn't quite Anna's Taqueria status, but it sufficed to satisfy my burrito cravings and give me a severely painful food coma afterwards.

Friday we had a day of adventures, I'll give it to you in picture form for efficiency. 

Liz, Emily, Alana and I outside of Parliament before getting a private tour from a friend with an internship there -- I couldn't take pictures inside but I saw where the Queen sits in the House of Lords!

Our lunch in Covent Garden 

Our fish & chips experience -- phenomenal 

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre -- Emily got us tickets to a performance of MacBeth through her internship. Since I'm taking a Shakespeare class here and have had more than one lecture on the aspects of a Shakespearean theatre, I felt all cool and privileged. It was a lovely performance.

Saturday we went for a walk basically all over central London, to the Tower Bridge, and then to the Tate Modern museum. We were all a bit punchy from general exhaustion of travel and tourism, so there were many laughs had over my love of horses or quotes from a certain MTV reality show, or other ridiculous topics. I was so cheesy and happy to be with my friends from my home university that I laughed harder than I have in a long time at just about everything. Such a good feeling.

I think that's plenty for you all to digest for now. Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day, but also my younger sister Erin's 13th birthday. I'm a little sad that I won't be there when my baby sister becomes a teenager, but I'll surely skype her and my family. Usually I do St. Patrick's Day dinner with my family and my Nana, who is quite Irish, and we have the typical corned beef and cabbage. I'm sad to miss out, but my flat have been very supportive by including her birthday on our communal calendar in the kitchen. 

My next adventure is a visit to my best friend from second grade who is studying in Scotland! I'm excited to explore more of the U.K. and to see Edinburgh! I'm flying there in a few weeks. I'll be sure to update again after that, and before my month off. 

Love you forever you crazy bloggers. xxx

Real life truths to consider

1. It's March.
2. I am in England.

I keep having moments where I look around and wonder how I ended up here, or just remember that this is my real life, or whatever. Just in the past week when I've been around my flatmates or whatnot. It's a really bizarre feeling. Like dejavu but not at all. Time's just flying by.

Angelica visited me last weekend and it was an excellent, epic time. Not much can even be said really, I'll just post some pictures for your viewing pleasure. Mostly, we reminisced about meeting in Wright Hall back in freshman year.. who would have thought a few years later we'd be hanging out in England, making home made four loko's and playing in a castle?

The Castle

Exploring the dungeon level

out Saturday night, Jelly with her bird ring

Enjoying a beautiful Sunday morning in Norwich

Since the weekend, I've turned in my first bit of coursework. I've decided British people are really much more patient than Americans. It took me an hour and a half to print something in the library, and I was in a line of a ton of people trying to print things or fix other computer difficulties, but everyone seemed to expect the wait. If that ever went down in Goddard where people (me) like to print things out five minutes into the class its due in, I think there would be mass casualties. As it was in the library today, some people seemed disgruntled but generally not panicked or angry. Well done, Brits, you're on top of your game. I'm getting nervous about being graded, since this is the first written assignment I've done. It'll be interesting to say the least to see what comes of it.

My friend Liz from home is visiting Norwich and London on her spring break, arriving Saturday, so there will be lots of good updates to come shortly. xx