Update of the Century

First paper was turned in Monday, First test is the second week of November. Things are moving along at a gallop! There is so much to do and so little time to fit everything in. I still have trips planned but basically every weekend I will be somewhere besides Edinburgh. I love this city, with all of its vibrant life. There is just so much to do and see that I never get tired of exploring more and more. This past week has been a busy week full of working and actually going to all of my classes. I applied and was voted in as President of Union Board for the next year at my home college, Albion College. I also pre-registered for classes for next semester (now if only I could figure out my time to actually register I would be golden).

On Friday my flat mate Emily and I went to Glasgow for round two of seeing the amazing city. It took us an hour by bus to get from one side of the country to the other, which amazes me. Glasgow Round 2 was so awesome, I kept pointing out places to Emily of where my Mom and I had explored. We went to George Square and walked around and were amazed to see the Holiday lights were already put up! Glasgow City Hall offers tours of the building and when my Mom and I were in Glasgow we were not able to go. So this time I made sure that Emily and I were available to go on the tour. This was one of the best decisions ever! That building is amazing inside, with mostly marble everywhere. There was just so much to see and so much history that I could never remember it all. The most amazing part of the building, in my opinion, was the Banquet Hall. This was no joke, a spitting image of where Beauty and the Beast danced in the Ballroom. We didn't go to Glasgow just to see the sights, we also went to shop at a big department store called Primark. Everything was so cheap here that there was no stopping Emily as we worked our way through the store, only passing over the tiger suit as we shopped for almost 2 hours in 3 levels of department store. After shopping we were tuckered out and decided to go back to Edinburgh and chill for the night instead of spending money on dinner in Glasgow.

On Saturday, I climbed the Scott Monument for the second time, all 289 steps up and back down. I plan on taking my brother on this adventure when he gets here in 40 days just to see if he will fit through the little space they have for the stairs. It will be very interesting! We also decided to go to a village called Duddingston. This quaint little village is at the bottom of Hollyrood Park and is only a square block. The Sheep Heid Inn is one of the oldest pubs in Scotland, founded in the 14th Century its very cute and has a lot of character in the knick knacks that they have sitting about. Emily and I also explored Dr. Kneal's Secret Garden. Good thing Karen called right when we were looking for it because if not we would have never found it. This secret garden is behind the Kirk and Church graveyard, the only way to get to it is through a door in a wall. But to get to this wall you must walk through what looks like someone's private property. But inside the door is the most beautiful garden I ever did set my eyes on! It was a magnificent sight to see, my pictures just don't do it justice. For the Halloween Party at one of the University of Edinburgh Dorm halls we were given the theme of Famous Killers...with about 2 hours to come up with costumes. Needless to say we were pretty creative. Emily cut zodiac signs out and taped them to herself to become the Zodiac Killer. I on the other hand was Mrs. Weasley from Harry Potter (she killed people!) but sorry, I have no pictures from that night.

I hope you enjoyed this epic update and will come back next time to read more of my blog!

Hard Times Ahead

Don't get me wrong, I have been going to classes and my internship whenever they come up. But classes here are less demanding than at Albion. I have two classes, one in business and one in history. I have reading for both weekly but other than that I only have a paper and a test for each classes. My first paper is coming up and it is becoming hard for me to get into the groove of writing it because I have not done "work" since my summer classes. Although this paper only needs to be 1200-1500 words it needs to be good because its my only assignment of the class. This is probably why I have been procrastinating, the pressure of making this one of the best papers I have ever written so that it gets good marks is pushing down on me. I hope I can focus soon because I need to turn it in Monday afternoon. Wish me luck!

Stay Classy America!

Homesick Yet?

Food shortages, dirty dishes, dirty counter tops, British TV, Friends re-runs, Scrubs re-runs, pedestrians that just stop in the middle of the walk way, electric tea pots, accents, kilts, old buildings, dirty buildings, hills, castles, stairs, heels, washing machines but no drying machine, drying racks, Facebook, two hour skype dates <3, missing people, missing things, peanut butter, mac and cheese, receiving letters, sleeping the week away, finding things to do to pass the time, finding time to write this, wanting to see the sun, wanting to be done traveling, spending money I don't have, riding the bus, missing Lady Silvia and Master Bruce, waiting patiently for KB to be done with CS so she can update me on her life, wanting to actually be in CS, waiting anxiously for letters that don't come, Scotland, my passport, missing out on awesome UB activities, imaginary games with Cat, trying on random dresses in the oldest department store in Edinburgh just because we can, wishing Kris was here to experience this ridiculousness, loud school children on the bus to class, skiving, working at the internship, writing a 45p report complete with 28 tables just because the computer crashed and the work could not be retrieved for a couple days, filing, filing, filing, making food every night, figuring out whats for supper, figuring out whats for lunch, whats for breakfast, savoring the last piece of cheesecake, not being able to bake, being given meaningless tasks to complete, which take less then 10 minutes, window shopping, watching sports, missing all of the Michigan games, Pandora is blocked, Bones is blocked, having to go through back alleys to find episodes of Bones, not being able to watch sports while doing homework, (can't believe I'm saying this) needing some ESPN in my life, missing my PIC, movie time, Albion time, Gilmore Girl marathons, OC marathons, Jeffery and Halie time, Black Sheep family time, Jules family time, PSA girls, these are a few of my favorite things, I miss you, I love you.

Sunday Church Exploration #4

Buccleuch and Greyfriars Free Church of Scotland.
This was one of our advisers of the EPA programmers church and we were excited to see how the service was conducted. Because we had heard that it was unlike the other churches that we had been to thus far. This is from the pamphlet we received when we got there "We sing from the Psalms of David. The blue psalm book contains both the modern Sing Psalms and the older Scottish Metrical Version. We stand to sing all of the psalms and we also stand for the first prayer and the benediction, but sit for the second prayer. Offerings may be placed in the collection plate situated in the hall on the way to service." This church service was interesting and new. There was no piano, organ, or musical instruments of any kind. Just a music director that would start the songs off and then the congregation would take over the song. Prayers were long and "by the end you forgot what you started praying for and just started praying again" which was not an ideal thing to do. I liked the service and how the scripture that was chosen for the sermon was delved into. How each word was picked apart and explained in hand so that we could better understand what the Bible was saying. However, I had not slept all night and was very very tired, so the long prayers and the in-depth sermon did not help my tired eyes stay open. Hopefully, I can go back and experience it again after a good night's sleep, because after the sermon all the people we meet while having coffee (to keep us awake on our walk home) were very nice. Some were even from America and wanted to hang out and see how things were going for us in Edinburgh. I liked this church experience and hope to attend again before my time is up here.

Dublin Weekend 7/10 - 10/10

Thursday night we got on a bus around 19:30 to go to the airport. Everything was looking great for our weekend in Dublin. The plane however was late to leave the airport (the flight was only 45 minutes long) meaning we got into Dublin around midnight. We caught the bus into Dublin and had an adventure trying to find our hostel. Great place by the way, I could tell the second we got there it was going to be an interesting stay because you had to be buzzed into the building. Keys never left the building, you were given them at the front desk, and there was also a buzzer to be let into the stairs to walk to the room. This place was a maze of corridors and doors with doors behind them. It was a hopping place at 1:30 in the morning. We finally found our room and decided to just make our beds and go to sleep. The 20-bed mixed room was an interesting experience that I would not wish on my worst enemy. People coming in at all hours of the night, snoring, lights, constant chatter, and to top it off only one toilet and one shower. Spectacular (the second I got back to my Edinburgh flat I showered off all the disease that I could have received there).

            Friday, our first day in the city, found us slightly groggy from the awkward beds and little rest that we had. Breakfast at the hostel got us awake for the most part and after breakfast Emily and I decided we were going to go find a Hop On Hop Off bus and see the city! There were 20 spots to see and with a 2-day pass we decided we could go to every single stop. First stop, Guinness Storehouse to see the process of making draught. Guinness makes lots and lots of pints a day, and Arthur Guinness signed a 9000 year lease for his business so Guinness will be around for a while. Four ingredients of Guinness are barley, hops, water, and yeast and you can smell the roasting process from miles around the storehouse. Here we discovered that there was a big futbol game happening that night in Dublin. The world qualifiers for the Euro 2012 Cup of which Ireland –v- Russia were playing. Souvenir shopping, hitting up more of the stops on the bus, and getting off at all the stops that look awesome was the majority of Friday.

            Night life in Dublin is pretty laid back; we stopped at a pub where they had the game promised to play the qualifying game. Emily and I people watched until the game started. This included observing a blonde haired guy with a 1984 high school varsity jacket, seeing that was priceless. We met a bunch of guys from Denmark who were making a huge ruckus instead of actually watching the game, which was very annoying. The game was intense but Ireland lost 2-3 to Russia. Going back to the hostel was not okay with me; I disliked that hostel a lot.

            Saturday, back on the Hop on Hop off bus, Emily and I went to the galleries around the city. We also went to Kilmainham Gaol Museum, this €2 tour took over an hour and a half and was really interesting. Our guide had lots and lots of stories to tell about the people that were imprisoned in the jail. There was a man that was in charge of the jail that pretended to be a doctor so that he could find war secrets and sell them to the government. All the stories included war because the jail had 7 wars during its history. The jail was one of our favorite stops in Dublin. We also went to the National Gallery of Ireland which was a maze of long hallways and corridors filled with paintings with artists I have never heard of. Even thought the gallery of Scotland was smaller there were cooler paintings there then in Ireland’s gallery.

The fact that we had 12 hours to kill before our flight (which was at 6 in the morning but we had to catch the bus around 415 am) was killer. We walked around the shopping areas, window and tourist shopped. Staying up all night was slightly a bad idea but it happened. We hung out at pubs in the Temple Bar area until approximately 130 am and then we couldn’t stand watching sports anymore so we decided to just head back to the hostel. Having 2 hours to kill in the middle of the night was absolutely boring. We found a television in the hostel that was working and I watched Bear Grylls and Comedy Central for the duration of the time before we had to leave to go catch the bus.

            Bus etiquette 101: Snappy McSnapperson her and I would like to let you in on a couple little tiny not so small secrets about bus etiquette. 1) Whoever gets to the stop first gets on first. 2) If there is a group of 14 people do not push your way to the front so that you can make sure your whole group gets on. 3) Singing loudly because you are drunk is annoying to everyone else on the bus. 4) PDA makes everyone else uncomfortable. 5) When getting off the bus let the people in front of you get off first. 6) When getting off the bus don’t stop the second you get off to take in your surroundings, move away from the opening so others can get off too.

            Ireland is officially dubbed weird because of their Customs regulations. When arriving in Dublin we had to go through Customs and get our passports stamped. But when leaving Dublin, I don’t know if it was because it was so early in the morning, but we didn’t have to go through Customs at all. However, the lines for security were redonkulous and a warning to all of you; I don’t ever want to be that close to a stranger that early in the morning, ever again. When arriving in Edinburgh, we didn’t have to go through Customs either, this was weird too, because we always have to go through Customs in Edinburgh when arriving from a different country.

All in all, this trip was an experience, of a lifetime. I’m so thankful to be able to be over here, exploring Europe and the UK, but I also can’t wait to be home for Christmas. I have come to realize that family means more to me then pretty much everything. If I can’t have my family close to me what is there to look forward to. Bugging my brother, having chats with my parents, driving my Grandma around, and listening to my cousins stories are priceless moments that I won’t take for granted. So, this is me from across the pond, giving you a huge hug and saying I miss all of you and can’t wait to see you again.

Birthday Weekend at Oktoberfest

Germany Weekend October 1 through October 3, 2010       

            Getting up at 640 in the morning is not the best thing to do the day before your birthday. But if the end result of the day gets you to Germany for Oktoberfest I feel like it might be a win. Emily and I decided on the way to the Express bus to the airport that this trip would be divided into phases. Therefore I will explain this blog in phases.

            Phase 1: Get to the bus, arrive at the airport. This was completed successfully, giving us an air of awesomeness that the first part of the trip was going good. The airport was a breeze and we got to the gate with plenty of time to spare.

            Phase 2: Get to Memmingen. So this really isn’t something we can control perse but we decided it was legitimate. Getting through customs was almost another phase because of the fact that there was no line and just a mass of people. Getting out first stamp in our passport for this semester (besides our immigration into Scotland) was the end of Phase 2.

            Phase 3: Get to Munich. This was also pretty easy because we had bought tickets for the Express bus that would take us to the center of Munich. Well, to the train station, this is close to the center of the city. Then we had to find Ellen, who was already in Munich and had been for a couple days. Finding Ellen included getting on the S-bahn (subway) and riding it to the other main station. Here we found Ellen and her new friends, but parted ways when she needed to get her stuff to put in the hotel room and we needed to go find the hotel.

            Phase 4: Find our hotel. Turns out the 55 bus only takes you so far, and getting a ticket was useless, no one ever asked to see it. There are two 55 buses on the same route that take you to different locations. Confusing? Precisely the point. The bus driver kicked us off the bus at the end and we found the next 55 bus stop a couple of blocks over. We then took this for a while, into Putzbrunn, where we waited for a bus to take us to Grassbrun where our hotel was. We got off at the wrong stop intead of Hopenhoffen Weg we got off at Hopenhoffen St. Not the same at all, about 3 km from where we wanted to be. Emily and I wondered around the streets til we found someone who could speak English and we explained where we wanted to go, she was nice enough to just take us there because either she didn’t want to explain it to us or she felt sorry for us. Either way we found the hotel around 6 pm after landing at 2.

            Phase 5: Go to Oktoberfest. This requires walking a mile into this really small town to wait for the bus, which doesn’t come but only every 1.5 hour. This makes us search for someone in this small town that knows English and can call us a taxi. Taxi gets there 20 minutes later and we get to see our first signs of civilization and of the festival about 25 minutes later. Walking around Oktoberfest was awesome, it’s basically a big fair celebrating Baravian things. Basically, beer drinking, chanting by the drunken people, and rides galore.

            Phase 6: Get back to the hotel, by taxi, then go back to Oktoberfest in the morning. This is easy enough. But I know have a new found respect for my mother and her nerves. I woke up around 730 or 8 in the morning and had a panic attack. Thinking of all the things that could go wrong, thinking of all the things that we need to do to find ourselves back at the correct airport tomorrow before noon, and not being able to do anything about it. It was scary. My mind wouldn’t stop. I don’t like this being a different country, not being able to speak English, and not knowing how to get around. I am appreciating Scotland, especially Edinburgh more and more.

            Phase 7: Drink. Meet people. Eat bratwurst. Ride the ferris wheel, and the swings. Drink more. Get food. Be done with Oktoberfest. Get back to the hotel.

Phase 8: Get to the train station in the morning so we can catch the early bus back to the airport 100 km away. Go through customs, get a stamp, wait three hours for the flight to get to the airport. Fly ‘home’, land, go through customs, and then actually get the bus back to the flat. This is just an amazing phase because of the fact that we are back in our own flat and we can calmly go through the week. I’m glad to be back and now I’m looking forward to my next trip this next weekend to Dublin!