Pictures!

Pictures are up!  For the first part of my holiday look under the original account and for the rest look at the second.

Enjoy!

--FLORENCE, PISA, SIENA

We left Rome on Tuesday morning and took a b-e-a-utiful train ride through Italy to go to Florence.  The Italian countryside sure is gorgeous.  It was about a 4 hour train ride to Florence.  I wish I could've enjoyed the scenery more, but as my mouth and head were still throbbing it was a bit hard to enjoy the views.  

We got to Florence, the others took my luggage and I set off in search of the dentist.  I got lost, of course, in a part of Florence where no one spoke english.  I ended up having to call the dentist and she actually came and picked me up and took me back to her office, all of this..after hours.  Definitely wins the nicest person on earth award.  As it turns out the root canal I had done a few years ago wasn't done right or something so that's why my mouth was hurting so bad.  She couldn't do anything besides give me a prescription for painkillers and an anti-inflammatory, but that has been enough.  My mouth started feeling better within a day or two.  So that's how I spent my first day in Florence. 

 The second day there Alicia and I wandered around the city a little.  We ended up a the Piazza Michelanglo and the Chesia di San Miniato al Monte (a church).  Basically it was a church as piazza on a big hill on one end of the city that gave an AMAZING view of Florence. We also walked by the Duomo (one of the worlds largest Cathedrals).  

The third day in Florence we all went to the Galleria dell'Academia, where Michelanglo's David is found.  And even better, it was free!! All of the national museums were free the whole time we were in Florence for Italian Culture Week or something.  But it meant free free free. :)  We booked our train tickets from Florence to Venice and I booked my ticket from Venice to Paris. Alicia and I tried to go to the Galleria degli Uffizi (where The Birth of Venus is).  However, the line was too long, so we booked a reservation for a few days later.  

Our fourth day there we went to Pisa for a day.  And it was a gorgeous beautiful day.  The train to Pisa was soo great.  And PIsa was wonderful.  It was the only place in Italy where we went that they had grass.  We walked to the top on the Leaning Tower and had some great views of Pisa and the countryside around it.  After looking around Pisa we headed back to Florence and wandered around there some more.  The fifth day we took a day trip to Siena.  And man, was that great.  They were the narrow streets, basically no cars, kinda streets. I liked it.  We went to St. Catherine's Church, where her head was supposed to be (we couldn't figured out where it was though).  We also went to the Duomo there and that was amazing inside and out.  We spent some time just sitting in the sun in the main plaza and climbed the clock tower and again had some amazing views.  Alicia and I had a real meal in Siena and then headed back to Florence.  

Our last day in Florence Alicia and I went to the Galleria degli Uffizi and that was pretty cool too.

The next day it was off to Venice!

My amazing Easter Holiday! --ROME

So, I don't really know where to begin with all of this.  It felt like it was so long ago already!  I guess I'll just start at the beginning.  

Me, Alicia (also from WMU), Matt (from Maine) and Jared (from Kentucky) set off on this little adventure together on March 21st.  We had to go to the Liverpool Airport the night before our flight, so that meant...sleeping the airport!! Woo, how fun!  But it was really alright.  

We had our flight to Rome early on Saturday morning.  We got to Rome...and it was raining...of course.  We had a bit of trouble founding out hotel, we ended up having to get a cab.  As it turns out our hotel was just on the other side of the airport, unfortunately that meant we were no where near the centre of Rome.  We had to take a 15 min bus to the Metro (subway) and then it was 15-30 mins depending on what part of Rome we where headed to.  We made the best of it though.  

On Saturday when we got there we went straight off to the Vatican Museum.  We got in line...the longest line in the world by the way.  We ended up taking an english speaking tour, which is definitely the way to go.  We cut about 4 hours in line, and had a guided tour all for 20 Euro.  Not bad.  The guide was reallly good.  And if we hadn't taken the tour, we probably wouldn't have been able to go to the museum at all.  (it was easter weekend and it was closed sunday and monday).  The Vatican Museum was just amazing! There was soo much beautiful art, statues, paintings, floors.  It blows my mind that all of that is in one place.  The Sistine Chapel was just mind boggling.  It was so full of people, all staring up at the ceiling, kind of a weird thing to see.  But is definitely something that looks so much more amazing in real life. 

 The next day in Rome, Matt, Jared and I went to St. Peter's to try and see Easter Mass.  We got there about 4 hours before the mass was scheduled to start so we were able to get in and actually get seats! And it has stopped raining.  So I saw the POPE!!! That was really cool.  Unfortunately it began thunderstorming as soon as mass was starting, and we left early.  But it was still so amazing to be there with with all of those people all for the same reason, it was great.  After Mass, we went and met up with Alicia, went to the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, the Piazza Navona (where they used to have the naval battle games) and the Spanish Steps.  And of course it just rained ALL day.  

Our 3rd and final day in Rome we went to the Colosseum and got an english speaking tour there as well, we also went to Palatine Hill and got a tour of that (it was included in our Colosseum tour) and walked through the Roman Forum.  It was cool to see where Rome actually began and all of the old ruins. You just don't see anything like that anywhere else in the world.

Unfortunately throughout my time in Rome I began to have some seriously serious pains in my mouth.  My cheek swelled up and I looked like a chipmunk on one side of my face.  When it was clear it wasn't going to go away on it's own, I had to call my mom and have her look up dentists in Florence (our next city) to get my mouth checked out.

I have survived!

So I have completed my european adventure and safely returned to Lancaster.

I'll write about my trip tomorrow...for now I'm just lounging around.

Look for updates through the next few days.

I'm Off!!

I'm off tonight to begin my European adventure!!

First stop is Rome, then to Florence, Pisa, Siena, and Venice.

Then 2 days in Paris.

Off to Dublin, to travel around with mom and dad for a week.

And after they've gone on April 12th I'm up to Galway for 4 days before I return to Lancaster.

I probably won't be able to make any posts or put up any pictures until after I get back on the 16th.  But it won't take long to put them up since I'll still have a few days of break before classes start.

I hope everyone has a happy and safe Easter.

I'll talk to you all in April!

Love,

Aimee

Amsterdam and Mike's Visit!!!

Sorry this has taken sooo long to post about...but Mike was keeping me busy all week!!

I went to Amsterdam on Thursday the 28th.  It was a loooong bus ride.  I have however, now been to France, Belgium and the Netherlands. sweeet. We got to Amsterdam at about 10am and we went to the hostel.  We got our keys but couldn't move into our rooms until about 2pm so I wandered off into the city.  I found the tulip museum, a houseboat museum and the Anne Frank Huis.  I didn't go into the Anne Frank house though, I wish I would've gone that morning because the line was three times as long as it was then alll weekend and the 18 euro ticket price didn't help either.  I met some people staying the same room in the hostel as me and we all wandered off together on Friday night for dinner and went to see the Red Light District (in daylight) and stopped in a coffee shop.  The group that planned the trip had a club booked that we got free entry to so we went to that at night.  It was pretty lame and the drinks were ridiculously expensive. So we went to a different bar and just sat around and got to know each other a bit. That's what I prefer to do anyway..I'm not super big into clubbing. :/ We walked through the Red Light District at night to see if there were prettier girls out at night.  They still weren't that pretty.   Saturday I got up and went and wandered the city with the same folks, went to a pancake house for lunch.  I had a dutch waffle...it was sooooo good. We went to the sex museum and the regular museum along with just see what there was to see on a Saturday in Amsterdam.  We got some chinese food for dinner and then got ready for the bar crawl the group had planned.  We set out and went to a bunch of different bars, all the DJs sucked though.  It was still fun.  Sunday I woke up and walked around a bit before having to catch the bus home.  The ride home seemed sooo much longer than the ride there, mainly because I was actually awake.  And we stopped about 3 times before we even got back to the UK.  I finally got back to Uni at about 1am, only an hour behind schedule.

I got back and Mike was here so that was great to come back to.  We didn't do anything the first night we were together, it was late and I was exhausted from being on a bus ALL day.  Monday we attempted to make a proper breakfast but the university didn't have power...again.  so we just had cereal.  I took Mike into town and we walked around a bit enough to show him the town. We were waiting to see if his luggage would show up (it got lost when he flew in, someone else took his luggage and then brought it back) and it didn't. So we got dressed up as best we could and headed back into town to Marco's and had a grown up dinner with wine and everything.  After dinner we walked up to the Water Witch, a pub on the canal.  It was a great night.  Tuesday I spent the morning and afternoon in class and then we went for a walk around campus a bit.  We went down to see the ducks and roosters that hang out down by the water on campus.  

Tuesday night is Real Ale and Cider Club, so Mike and I went.  It was good fun. We went to two different pubs and Mike had a bit of food at one of them.  

Wednesday we went into town again after I was done with class and walked to the Ashton Memorial and the Lancaster Castle. We made some tasty dinner and just stayed in because we had a early morning planned on Thursday.  

We went to Liverpool on Thurs!! We went to the Albert Docks, the Maritime Museum, The Beatles Story and went to see where the Cavern once was.  The Beatles museum was very impressive.  We also tried to ride the ferry on the Mersey River but they were having engine problems :(.  We headed back to Lancaster and got a late dinner in town and watched part of a football game.  We still don't know who was playing but I was interesting to watch.  The food was good and cheap too.  They were out of fish and chips though, that made me a bit mad. We went to the library when we got back to campus and got some books on walks through the Lake District and planned out what walk we wanted to take on Saturday. 

Friday we slept in and did a lot of nothing all day, it was nice.  We were preparing for our big hike! We went to a restaurant on campus and got dinner.  Mike got free chips (fries) because they burned his pizza a bit.  

Saturday we woke up early and set off to Ambleside (in the Lake District).  It was raining when we left but it cleared up by the time we got to Ambleside (the Lake District).  So we set off on the hike as planned.  We got a bit lost for the first hour or so of the hike. We missed a hidden gate near the waterfalls and walked out and around the whole park.  After that it was pretty much smooth sailing...sort of.  The walk was basically straight up hill, there were stone steps in the side of the hill. It would've been a beautiful view if it hadn't been cloudy.  The weather was nice and warm until we reached the cloud line and walked into a cloud.  It got cold, rainy and VERY windy, FAST.  We were soaked before we knew it and nearly got blown off the mountain a few times.  We made it up over the peak and were making our way down on the other side being nearly blown over and pelted with evil cold rain.  It took much long to walk out of the cloud then it did to walk into it.  Once we were out of the rain we got bearings on where we were (which was on the right trail!) and continued our walk down the mountain, cold and wet.  We walked through a very small farming village, through sheep fields, and right next to cows to make it back to Ambleside.  We had just enough time to get a hot drink before we caught the bus back to the train station to head back to Uni. We had grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner, warms the soul.  

We spent the last night in just enjoying the time we had left together.  Stayed up pretty late, it was more like a nap then sleep.  We had to be up at 5:30am to go the airport in Manchester. A girl on my floor was kind enough to drive us to the airport since there were no trains early enough.  At the airport we parked on the complete wrong side on the airport and had to walk through the whole thing for Mike to check in.  He wasn't checking luggage so we didn't have to worry about that.  After it got lost for 3 days he wasn't taking the chance of having it happen again. haha. 

 As far as I know his flight set off just fine.  Although while I'm writing this he is still in the air.  It was so amazing to have him here for a week.  We both wish he didn't have to go.  But that's life.  It was great to share this experience with each other. 

 Only less than 4 months til I'm back.  Right now I am working very hard on my papers that are due next week. Then I get a nice long break from school work.  Going to Italy, France and Ireland. I just booked my flight back to the UK today.  After that it's one more paper and finals.  Hard to believe time has gone by so fast here.  

that's all for now.  

To see pictures from Amsterdam and of all the stuff Mike and I did look at my Flickr, the original one.

TO AMSTERDAM!

I'm going to Amsterdam this weekend!!!

Look for pictures and a new post Monday or Tuesday!!

It's the middle of February??

I can't believe that it's already almost the end of February...time has flown by!

  I finished writing and proofing my first essay last weekend.  I am VERY happy that it is over and done with.  Unfortunately I have two more I have to write before spring holiday.  Bummer.  I am beginning research this weekend and hope to have an essay started next week.  I am really looking forward to my trip to Amsterdam on the 28th and Mike coming to visit.  It turns out that Lancaster is having a Beer Festival while Mike is going to be here and we are both excited to go!  

I have to say I've grown tired of class already, I'm starting to see why so many Brits skip class all the time (I haven't skipped a single class..just fyi).  Having a lecture for two hours once a week really doesn't spark a lot of interest.  There isn't the bond between students like there is in the states.  I suppose sitting in a large lecture once a week doesn't exactly foster friendships.  

I'm beginning to feel like spring lasts a long time over here.  Someone in my seminar last week said there was one "hot" day last summer, what the Brits idea of "hot" is I don't know. I could be Michigan hot or it could be like Texas hot..they think that 45 degree F is cold, so I don't exactly trust their judgement of temperatures. 

 I think I may be starting to get sick :(  I hope not though, I have a busy few weeks ahead and then break!  I am drinking lots of water though and washing my hands, food and dishes REALLY well.  I think that sharing a dirty kitchen with 20 or so other students is detrimental to my health!  I don't keep my dishes or my non-refridgerated or frozen food in the kitchen for fear of someone sneezing on it! haha.  It is life as usual around here.

  I wish I could travel more right now.  The only place I've seen so far is Edinburgh.  I hope to be able to travel more in May and June.  It depends on when my finals are though.  I'd still really like to go to Stockholm (two girls on my floor just went and loved it), London, Stonehenge, Spain possibly.  I'm also going to see about joining up with the hiking club this week.  I haven't done it yet because I didn't have a student ID (aka purple card...which you have to PAY for!), but now I have one and I'm going to see if I can still sign up and do a few day hikes in the Lake District after break.

  I have to say I am missing home lately, I'm a bit over life and school here.  But it is still exciting and I still have a lot left to see, so I'm sure it's just a lull of life.  Hope everyone is doing well! 

I've been here for over a month now..

I've been here for over and month now, it's kinda crazy to think about.  On one hand it still feels like I just got here, and on the other it feels like it's been ages. 

 I'm sorry about not updating very often, I've fallen into a "school routine" and not much exciting has been happening.  I've spent most of the past week doing some reading so I can start my sociology essay, not very thrilling. 

 I did however make it out on Friday night to have a proper night out.  The campus hosted Friday Fury, which is when all the pubs on campus open and have drink specials.  For every pub you go to and buy a drink you get a card with the college logo on it (i.e. bowland, county, pendle..etc).  With 3 cards you get free entry into Sugarhouse (a club in town) and they have free buses that run.  It was a pretty good night, Sugarhouse smelled of liquor, sweat and vomit in some places (not very nice). I don't think I'll frequent there. haha.

  I got a really amazing package from my Mom today filled with some great stuff and now I'm decked out with a Kalamazoo t-shirt, water bottle, 2 pens, pencil and bumper sticker.  How cool!  I also got some cards in the mail, some of which were very unexpected!  So Thanks Mom, Dad and Joanna! 

 Other than that, not a lot going on.  Just working on my essays, my goal is to have my sociology essay done this weekend so I can start on the others.  I'm looking forward to going to Amsterdam in a few weeks and for Mike to come visit. 

 Ok that is all. Tah

Another week has already gone by!

It's hard to believe that another week has already gone by.  

Not a whole lot new has happened.  It has been very cold here the last few days (like normal michigan cold, but not as cold as it is there right now I suppose).  So that has been nice and bad.  It is just so much windier here that it almost seems colder! 

 I got some great news this week, Mike (my boyfriend for those of you that don't know him) is going to be coming to visit me for a week! It was a total surprise and an amazing one at that!  

Other than that I went to Manchester yesterday to do some shopping and see the city.  We found a store that had HUGE sales called Primark and I got some things I had been looking for since I got here.  

Besides that, not a whole lot is going on.  I have papers that have due dates coming up and I will be spending a great deal of time working on those.  My shortest paper is 1500 words and my longest is 3000!!!  So I have begun working on them and will be until I leave for easter holiday.  

Other than that..life as usual (kind of).

This week

This week has been the calmest so far!  I'm starting to get into the swing of classes here.  

So the big news this week? I'm going to Amsterdam in February and I'm super excited out it!! 

And I'm starting to plan my big spring break!!  The tentative plan so far is..I will be going to Italy with Alicia, going to Rome, Tuscany, Florence and Venice, all in about 10-12 days.  Then, hopefully, I'll go to Paris and stay with one of Joanna's friends for a few days.  After Paris I'm going to fly to Dublin, where Mom and Dad (or just Mom depending on how it works) will join and we'll tour around Dublin or Ireland for however long they are going to be over.  After they leave, I'll have about..5 days left..so I'll go over to Galway, Ireland and spend some time before I have to be back for classes on April 21st.  

How exciting! My very first european adventure!!!

Pictures from Edinburgh

Go to the link "Aimee in the UK 2- MORE PHOTOS" to see my photos from Edinburgh.  

The website has a monthly limit of how much data you can post so I made another account. When I put up photos I'll let you know which one to check.

A Weekend in Edinburgh, Scotland!

The weekend began very uneventfully.  We caught a train from Lancaster to Edinburgh around 5pm on Friday.  Unfortunately it was pitch black outside for our ride, we were told that you see some of the most beautiful countryside going up there.  When we arrived in Edinburgh we set off to find our hostel.  It was just around the corner and over the bridge from the station (how convenient!).  The hostel was a bit of a hole in the wall but very nice and good people worked and stayed there.  We payed for our weekends stay put our things in our lockers and headed out to eat.  We all couldn't decide where to eat so we ended up splitting up.  Alicia and I ate in a really great little restaurant and she had the biggest sunday I've ever seen.  After that we tried to all meet up but the other people in our group were still eating.  Alicia and I set off in search of a pub that had live music.  And we found a great one.  The girl playing was from Ireland and was great (we even bought her CDs).  We headed back to the hostel after the band was done playing and hung out with some of the people that worked at the hostel and were staying there.  We met a few guys who were from New Zealand who were very nice.  

We woke up early on Saturday to get a good head start on the day.  We headed off for the castle.  We stopped at the Whiskey Experience on the way up and I got a little Scotch Whiskey trial pack.  I haven't tried it yet though. Maybe this weekend.  We went up to the castle and spent about 3 hours walking through it.  The view was amazing! We even saw the shooting at the gun at 1pm that they do everyday.  After the castle we spent the day looking for a kilt for Alicia (she's part scottish and wanted her clans kilt and scarf) which we found and continued to wander around old and new town.  It is such a beautiful city!  But there were tons of tourists! We headed back to the hostel and some of our group went out on a ghost tour, I was not interested and stayed at the hostel with a few of the girls that came with us and the guys from New Zealand.  After everyone was back we went out together to get a drink.  We walked to a bar called Frankenstein, we didn't stay, it was quite crowded and hot.  We headed out and found a nice small pub to have a drink and get to know each other.  After a few drinks we headed back to the hostel and I called it a night.  

Sunday we woke up early again (we had to check out by 10:30am) and set out to explore more of the town.  Alicia and I went off to see the Botanic Gardens just outside of new town.  It was about a 30 minute walk and the park was amazing and free!  We both decided we are going back when the flowers are in bloom.  I saw the first squirrel since I got here.  It was soo cute!  After the park we went to a pub that was Dr. Jeykell and Mr. Hyde themed, it was pretty cool.  We walked around a bit after lunch and then headed back to the hostel to catch our train.  We all met up and headed to the train station.  Our train was on time when we got there but ended up being almost 2 hours late.  We didn't get back to campus until almost 10:30pm and man was I tired!  

Overall it was a great weekend!  I'll have pictures up in the next day or two.  I have some good ones!

Week 1

So I have been here for a week, and this week has been fairly uneventful.  

Classes begun and they are going to be a lot of work.  My sociology class is very...different.  We are talking about technology and sociology...kind of a weird place to jump in on.  My history class is going to be very interesting.  My professor seems very understanding of being new to the class.  My peace studies class is cool.  I feel like I'm already learning a lot here.  I know how to print things at the library, find and check out books!  Which doesn't sound like it would be too complicated but it is.  I was done with classes yesterday.  So I have a four-day weekend! 

Yesterday they had a mini freshers fair (a bunch of clubs had tables set up in the Great Hall to sign up new students). There are a few I am definitely checking out.  There is a Real Ale and Cider Club, they go to different pubs that are more 'hole-in-the-wall' to taste different ales and have some good company.  I'm pretty excited for the first outing on Tuesday.  There is an Ultimate Frisbee club, I'm thinking about joining it not too sure yet.  And of course the hiking club.  I don't really plan on doing any of their weekend trips (due to my a. lack of experience hiking and b. lack of equipment for the cold weather.  They have Sunday trips though, mainly to the Lake District, which would be fun to go on.  There is also this other club that is all about kiting.  Kiting is like kite-boarding or windsurfing on a mountain skateboard.  The first lesson is free and my friend talked me into trying it.  So that should be interesting. 

 Today, I spent the day mostly at the rec (or as they call it, the sports centre).  I had an induction class, well two.  One was for the weight room and the other for the life fitness room (where the treadmills and similar machines are).  After the induction I worked out for a bit.  The gym here is nothing like the one back home.  The one at WMU is WAY bigger and nicer.  But the one here will due.  I did laundry for the first time every in a coin operated machine!  I don't think I shrunk anything but boy was it expensive!  1.6 pounds (or $3.20) for the washer and 1 pound ($2) for the dryer.  But I now have clean clothes!  

This weekend will definitely prove to be exciting! I am going to Edinburgh, Scotland with a few girls from America.  We are staying right on the Royal Mile in the heart of Old Town.  The rail tickets were reasonably priced and the hostel is pretty cheap.  I have been staying in all week so I can afford to enjoy Edinburgh to the fullest!!  

Well that's all for now.  I'm off to do some more reading.  I'll post another update on Sunday or Monday.

A busy weekend!

It's been a busy weekend! 

Saturday I went into town with a group of international students. I finally got a mobile (cell phone).  So I'm pretty excited about that, it's a cool phone too (a sony ericsson k550i).  After I got my phone and another student from Maine got his phone we all broke off into smaller groups. Alicia, Matt (the guy from Maine), Pako and another girl all decided to go check out the Ash Memorial.  We learned about it in our orientation.  Alicia had an AtoZ guide of Lancaster so we followed the map and headed east out of downtown and walked about 30 minutes (uphill the whole way!) to the Ash Memorial.  It was quite beautiful. We certainly don't have anything like it back home.  There are photos up on my photo page, you should really check it out.  I'm going to go back again in the spring when the weather is better.  There is a great park that surrounds the memorial.  There were two little Bichon's running around that looked just like Marshmellow! They were so cute!  We went up to the balcony of the memorial and could see all the way to the Isle of Man (even thought it was cloudy).  It was amazing to see how big Lancaster really is.  We aren't too far from the bay that separates England from Ireland.  After exploring the memorial we headed back into town to meet up with the rest of the international students we came to town with.  They had already eaten so we went to a restaurant called The Penny Bank.  It was pretty tasty.  Alicia, Matt and I went off to find the superstore after we finished dinner.  I picked up a few things the other grocery store didn't have and then we headed back to campus.  I didn't go out on my first Saturday night here, pretty lame I know.  We had a long day, we walked for a good hour straight let alone wondering around town.  And we had a big day planned for Sunday.  

Today we had a trip planned by the university to the Lake District.  We set off at 9am on two charter buses to Bowness on Windermere.  There I picked up some postcards to send to a few folks and just poked around the few shops that were open near the docks.  We took a boat to the other side of the lake (to Ambleside).  It was cold, windy and rainy but still a beautiful site to see.  There were two castles on the lake! two! And lots of sailboats, none of them were out sailing though.  We got back on the charter bus at Ambleside and took it to Grasmere.  Anywhere there isn't a city or town, there are sheep. And lots of them! I bought a little stuffed sheep souvenir in a shop in Grasmere, it's cute!  Alicia bought some sheep droppings (chocolate covered truffles to send to some friends back home).  After looking around Grasmere and getting a bite to eat (well I had a beer, it was called Black Sheep Ale and it was delicious!) we got back on the buses to go to Keswick.  It was pouring rain in Keswick and we weren't too keen on exploring the town.  It was cute though.  We looked in a few different shops and then around 3pm we got back on the buses to head back to the university.  We made it back about 4:30, and it was countryside, sheep and rolling green hills the whole way back.  

Since then I made some dinner and met a few other people who live on my floor in the kitchen (I've met one british person now!) and just been writing postcards and uploading pictures since.  I finished my social work essay for my application due on Tuesday back at WMU.  I called my Mom and Mike.  It was nice to talk to them both from the privacy of my own room! 

Classes start tomorrow and I'm bit nervous about it, but I'm sure it'll be okay.  I'll give another update in a few days.  Hope everything is going well where ever you are!!  

Miss you all!!!

Getting Settled

So I am beginning to get settled here in Lancaster.  

On Tuesday it was just more orientation stuff and I did a bit more nesting in the room.  I went to the grocery store in the square of the university and picked up a bit of food to get me through until I could go into town where the food is a bit cheaper.  I stopped in at the Furness College Pub that was open and had my first legal pint!! It was a Deuchar's IPA.  Which was not an IPA in any way as we Americans know it.  It was more like a wheat ale that was a bit more bitter. 

 Yesterday was the last day of formal orientation.  On the break between orientation and the trip into town I spent my time figuring out how to being webcaming with all of you back in the states. I still haven't quite figured it out yet.  Then we went into town.  It is a very cute little British town.  I took some pictures and they will be up later today.  My friend Alicia and I wandered around since our tour guides never showed up (whoops!).  We found some cute shops and picked up some necessities. We grabbed lunch at a restaurant called the Green Ayre.  The cheeseburger tasted a bit like a meatloaf.  I had pint with my meal (it was a deal!) and it was just like a classic wheat ale. Very nice, a bit light compared to some homebrews, but still nice.  

When I got back I finally put up some pictures from back home! Although they make me a bit homesick, it's still so nice to have everyone's faces on my ugly pick walls!  After we went town we came back and I took a quick snooze (accidentally! I had just bought some more pillows and fell asleep while trying them out).  I went down to Alicia's room and we surfed the web for a bit together.  I got to talk to Mike and Joanna online for a bit, so that was very nice.  Then I came back to my room and got my paperwork all set up for today's class registration.  Then I called it a night!  I'm afraid I didn't sleep too well again.  The extra pillows did help a whole lot.  I didn't wake up with a crink in my neck this morning. 

Today was class registration.  It was old school. We had to go to a building and stand in a line for each department and then sign up for each class on paper.  It is such a hassle!  After that I had to go to a department to get assigned a seminar time.  I went back to my room and then realized that one of my classes has a seminar I was unaware of at the same time as another class I'm taking.  So I ran back down to the other end of campus..again...and asked about it, now I have to fill out a drop/add form this afternoon and take it to the department to officially drop the class.  I will still have 16 credits even without this class.  So I'm just going to stick with the 16 credits and not overload myself (they recommend 16-20 credits for the lent/summer term). I'm pretty bummed that a lot of the classes I was interested in taking are on the same day and overlap!! But I will still have some fun classes.  I am taking Sociology 101, History 248 (Men, Women and Warfare) and PCON 233 (Intro to Peace Studies).  It should be an interesting semester.

 I am going back into town today to pick up some food and hopefully checking out the pub tonight!

My Arrival!

So I left the States on Monday.  I have to say it was hard to say goodbye to everyone and everything I have ever known, but I think it will be great here!  My flight was supposed to fly out of O'hare at 5:30pm (chicago time) and we finally took off around 8pm (chicago time).  I did get a window seat! (winner!)  but it was right over the wing so the view was somewhat limited.  And the fact that was already pitch black when we took off didn't leave much to look at.  I slept through most of the flight.  I fell asleep right after the awful airplane dinner and woke up a bit before breakfast.  I have never had my back, neck and butt hurt so bad before in my life..even today they still hurt!  I arrived in Manchester, England around 8am (UK time).  I think even though I slept the majority of the flight I only got about 5 hours of sleep, and not good sleep. 

Customs went fairly smoothly.  I had no trouble getting my visa.  But then came the time to gather up the rest of my luggage.  I am inherently challenged and getting luggage off the conveyer belt, the large crowd standing around didn't help either.  It was quite hard to keep an eye on my carry-ons and find and grab my checked bags.  I got it though.  I made it through customs without having my baggage searched, so that was nice.  I called my parents at the nearest payphone to let them know the plane made it (it was about 5:30am MI time).  

Next I had to try to find the train station, it was, of course, way on the other end of the airport.  And I was not bright enough to get one of the trolleys (the carts for luggage)  so I pushed the 150ish pounds of luggage I brought with me all the way across the airport.  Man was that a work out.  I got a train ticket and went down to the platform.  I got on the wrong train the first time.  I got on and looked at the little map posted and thought 'oh crap'.  Luckily there was another large station stop before the train head south (I needed to go north).  So when I got to the Manchester Pickadilly station I heaved all my luggage back off the train and went looking for another map.  30 minutes later the right train arrived (the platform was of course, all the way at the other end of the station, just my luck).  I heaved everything back on to the train and stood.  There were no open seats and I refused to sit anywhere that I couldn't see my luggage.  After a few stops seats cleared and I took one within 6 feet of my luggage.  

The grass really is greener here.  About 20 minutes outside the city there was endless green grass and sheep grazing everywhere.  It was really beautiful.  I unfortunately didn't take any pictures ( i don't think they would've turned out anyway).  After I arrived in Lancaster I caught a taxi to the university and found the porter's lodge of my college to get my keys and set off to find my room.  A fellow US student lived on my floor so we set off together.  We got a little lost but made it only to find that we were up three flights of stairs and there was no lift (elevator).  We began heaving our luggage up the stairs.  I think it took almost 20 minutes to get it all up there.  I found my room  and open to the door to find a rather gross shade of pinkish peach painted brick walls and a desk, shelf, bed, 2 chairs, closet and sink with mirror.  Somewhat depressing.  I set my things down, collected my keys and set back out to get my bedding pack and to call my parents.  After I called them I returned to my room, made my bed and took a 3 hour nap.  I set an alarm so I wouldn't miss the welcome dinner (free food! and I was starving).  I ran into the fellow WMU student, Alicia, I know here on the way to dinner.  The food was ok, it was soo much better than airplane food.  After dinner Alicia and a Canadian student we met came back to see my room and then we set off to Alicia's to see her's (her's is wayy nicer).  After chatting a bit I came back to my room to unpack and shower and call it a night.  I was a bit too jet-lagged for the pub yet.  I have everything unpacked and pretty organized.  There was plenty of room for all my things.  I just need some thumb-tacks and poster putty to put up some of the pictures I brought.  

So that was my first day here in the UK.  I am really looking forward to what these next few months will have to bring!!