Hi, everyone!
Sorry about not updating! I am alive and well :] But I didn't want to post about my trip to London this past weekend until I have pictures up on Flickr. And since I only have minimal space left, I'm going to wait until tomorrow to do that. So then you guys can see pictures and all that.
:]
I can't believe I'm only here for five more weeks! Crazy stuff, eh? Lots of papers and all that to start working on as well. Hope everything is going well back home. Love you all and miss you!
-Sam
Sunday, 28 February 2010
Saturday, 20 February 2010
Haggis?
Got back into England today, a little earlier than we had planned. But after a few days of walking around, we had all gotten too tired to spend the day in Edingburgh and took a sleeper train back to Canterbury from Inverness. There aren't as many pictures as I thought I had on my flickr, but at least you all will get an idea of what we saw.
First was Glasgow and we got there a little after 4 or 5 and only really got to walk around the city center. It was really pretty and a fantastic place and everyone was so nice! A man gave us directions to a hostel that pretty much spoiled us (especially compared to other hostels) and we had some great food in a place called Drum and Monkey. Didn't do much but kind of walked around and just hung out in Scotland that night.
The next morning, we took an early train to Inverness, which was absolutely gorgeous. A smaller town but so quaint and pretty up in the mountains! Really, really far north. The furthest north I've ever been, ever. We walked around for a bit, found a hostel and then kind of meandered around the town. Went into the tourist building and booked a tour up to Loch Ness, where we went the following day. But before that, we walked around and had some dinner at a place called The Phoenix. Everyone was so nice and accommodating, even if our hostel wasn't the best of conditions and we were a bit cold. But that's alright.
Loch Ness was absolutely gorgeous. And no, other than the statue I got a picture with, I didn't see Nessie, which was sad. But the castle and lake itself was just... so pretty. The tour was only about 2 1/2 hours so we came back to Inverness and had lunch, walked around and ended up having dinner as well... and decided to come back to England instead of heading onto Edinburgh that night. Which was fine by me so we took a sleeper train back into London, which wasn't too bad, even if the trip was about 11 hours! Crazy, but worth it and I'm glad I'm back in Canterbury.
The trip was awesome... now I just have to figure out the fussy flat... because I turned on the dryer and I think I blew a fuse.
Hm. Must go figure that out.
Love you all and miss you!
-Sam
First was Glasgow and we got there a little after 4 or 5 and only really got to walk around the city center. It was really pretty and a fantastic place and everyone was so nice! A man gave us directions to a hostel that pretty much spoiled us (especially compared to other hostels) and we had some great food in a place called Drum and Monkey. Didn't do much but kind of walked around and just hung out in Scotland that night.
The next morning, we took an early train to Inverness, which was absolutely gorgeous. A smaller town but so quaint and pretty up in the mountains! Really, really far north. The furthest north I've ever been, ever. We walked around for a bit, found a hostel and then kind of meandered around the town. Went into the tourist building and booked a tour up to Loch Ness, where we went the following day. But before that, we walked around and had some dinner at a place called The Phoenix. Everyone was so nice and accommodating, even if our hostel wasn't the best of conditions and we were a bit cold. But that's alright.
Loch Ness was absolutely gorgeous. And no, other than the statue I got a picture with, I didn't see Nessie, which was sad. But the castle and lake itself was just... so pretty. The tour was only about 2 1/2 hours so we came back to Inverness and had lunch, walked around and ended up having dinner as well... and decided to come back to England instead of heading onto Edinburgh that night. Which was fine by me so we took a sleeper train back into London, which wasn't too bad, even if the trip was about 11 hours! Crazy, but worth it and I'm glad I'm back in Canterbury.
The trip was awesome... now I just have to figure out the fussy flat... because I turned on the dryer and I think I blew a fuse.
Hm. Must go figure that out.
Love you all and miss you!
-Sam
Tuesday, 16 February 2010
Off to Scotland!
I figured I would post here and let everyone know my plans for the next few days! A few friends and I are heading up to Scotland! I won't have my laptop with me because it's too big to lug around, so I won't be able to answer e-mails. But I will update everything and post pictures either on Sunday or Monday. Jordan and I might go into London because they have been celebrating Chinese New Year all week.
Just thought I would let you all know in case I get any e-mails and you think I'm ignoring you!
Love you all and miss you lots!
-Sam
Just thought I would let you all know in case I get any e-mails and you think I'm ignoring you!
Love you all and miss you lots!
-Sam
Sunday, 14 February 2010
To be or not to be...
So the past week or so has been pretty uneventful. Had a major paper due in one of my classes that I'm pretty proud of and have been reading The Scarlet Letter in American Literature. Right now I'm currently on a 'Reading Week', which is for the students to catch up on all of their course work and reading, but really that means a spring break for the American students. Most of them went off to the continent and all that, but a few of us stayed behind. Jordan and another girl named Meghan and I plan to go up to Scotland for a few days, probably leaving on Wednesday, so that will be fun! I'll have lots of pictures to show you then!
Yesterday, Jordan and I went to Stratford-Upon-Avon, where Shakespeare was born and lived for a vast majority of his life if he wasn't in London. There aren't a lot of pictures because we weren't allowed to take any in the houses, but the ones that I have that I uploaded (had to leave space since I only have about 30% of my bandwith for Flickr left for the month!) start here!
We caught a 7:00 AM train... having to get up at about 5:40, because we thought we could make the 6:30 train. That didn't happen and I had some problems getting to sleep. So yesterday I was up at about 4:30, after falling asleep at about 1:30-2 AM, due to one of my roommates having a party downstairs again. Not fun. But I got to snooze a bit on the train up there, as it was about an hour and a half into London and then two hours out to Stratford-Upon-Avon.
Fun!
The town was a lot more modernized than I had imagined, but the houses were gorgeous and we saw a lot. Again, not a lot of pictures and those that I post online are only a handful of what I take. But the history was amazing and so were the houses we went into. It made me want to see a Shakespeare play! But unfortunately the season doesn't start until later on in February, so there wasn't anything we could see yesterday.
We took the 5:40 train back and got home at about 10:00... 10:30, even was pushing it. And when I got back to my flat, I found a package in front of my door. My Valentine's Day present from Dustin! He sent me a red rose in a pretty vase. It's blooming very well now and is so pretty!
I'm currently waiting on the warden to come over to turn on our heat and hot water again. It keeps turning itself off, which isn't fun... after that I need to do a bit of grocery shopping and homework. I want to knock out at least one big paper that is due at the end of March this week, and I think I'll have plenty of time. Especially since the train ride up to Edinburgh is a total of about 8 hours. Long day!
Love you and miss you all!
-Sam
Yesterday, Jordan and I went to Stratford-Upon-Avon, where Shakespeare was born and lived for a vast majority of his life if he wasn't in London. There aren't a lot of pictures because we weren't allowed to take any in the houses, but the ones that I have that I uploaded (had to leave space since I only have about 30% of my bandwith for Flickr left for the month!) start here!
We caught a 7:00 AM train... having to get up at about 5:40, because we thought we could make the 6:30 train. That didn't happen and I had some problems getting to sleep. So yesterday I was up at about 4:30, after falling asleep at about 1:30-2 AM, due to one of my roommates having a party downstairs again. Not fun. But I got to snooze a bit on the train up there, as it was about an hour and a half into London and then two hours out to Stratford-Upon-Avon.
Fun!
The town was a lot more modernized than I had imagined, but the houses were gorgeous and we saw a lot. Again, not a lot of pictures and those that I post online are only a handful of what I take. But the history was amazing and so were the houses we went into. It made me want to see a Shakespeare play! But unfortunately the season doesn't start until later on in February, so there wasn't anything we could see yesterday.
We took the 5:40 train back and got home at about 10:00... 10:30, even was pushing it. And when I got back to my flat, I found a package in front of my door. My Valentine's Day present from Dustin! He sent me a red rose in a pretty vase. It's blooming very well now and is so pretty!
I'm currently waiting on the warden to come over to turn on our heat and hot water again. It keeps turning itself off, which isn't fun... after that I need to do a bit of grocery shopping and homework. I want to knock out at least one big paper that is due at the end of March this week, and I think I'll have plenty of time. Especially since the train ride up to Edinburgh is a total of about 8 hours. Long day!
Love you and miss you all!
-Sam
Sunday, 7 February 2010
London Fog
It seems like these past few days have been an entire week. I'm sore, kinda tired and definitely glad to be back in my flat. The weekend isn't even over yet and I have so much homework to do in the next couple of days. But I'll do a recap of the past few days, and you guys can follow my flickr starting here! These are NOT all of my pictures and I will gladly share the rest when I get home. I can only upload so many onto flickr a month and since it's only been about a week into the month, I want to preserve a bit of it.
We got up early and left campus at about 8:30 to head into London by coach bus, where we met up with our tour guides. Our tour guide was fantastic and showed us all these small literary references, mainly with Charles Dickens. It was just... it was amazing and we walked around for nearly three hours before even going into St. Paul's cathedral! Now, we couldn't take any pictures inside the cathedral, but I wish we could have. It was... amazing. Breathtaking and so huge! So you guys will just have to take my word for it or see if there are any pictures on google. But it was gorgeous and we spent about 45 minutes or so in there before heading to the Museum of London. That was a big history of London through neanderthal times up until about the fire or so, and the plague. Interesting stuff.
After that, the group of us headed off to our hostel, getting a bit lost but eventually finding the place relatively easy enough. It was a pretty cool place, honestly, and I have a few pictures of the beds which weren't bad. There were so many different nationalities in there. People from France, Spain, New Zealand, and of course America. It just insane! We had dinner at a nice pub. It was one of the girl's birthdays, so we ended up going out to a place called Zoo Bar that was a bar/club. You all know me and what I'm about... so clubbing wasn't the highlight of my weekend, really. Sorta fun, but not the best. Didn't get back to the hostel until about 3:15 in the morning. Bleh.
But the next day was amazing! And I hung around with people that just made my day that much more fantastic.
You guys can see most of it from my pictures and we did so much walking and riding the underground! First we went to King's Cross and found Platform 9 3/4 from the HP movies, which was awesome. Then we went over to the London Eye and Big Ben... and I swear... hearing and seeing Big Ben and the clock tower... it was insane. Most of us were just so stunned by the sight. It's not even that big! Not compared to the sky scrapers back home. But I nearly cried at the sound of the bell... it was just amazing. We decided to save the London Eye for the next time we're in London, which will be in a few weeks.
Then we went past Westminster Abbey... it was about 12 pounds for us to get in, so we decided to skip it for the day and come back. Then it was about lunchtime so we ate at another amazing pub before heading off to Buckingham Palace, which was just... huge and awesome. After that, we went to Victoria Coach station for bus tickets before heading off to Abbey Road!
And yeah, we found it!
It was a bit of a hike, but we eventually got there from the underground station and it was just... we got to see Apple Studios and it was just this pilgrimage of Beatles Fans everywhere! The wall that surrounds the studio was covered in signatures and messages and we wrote on it before recreating the Abbey Road album cover. Needless to say, most of the traffic wasn't pleased about all the tourists doing so... but we managed to get it. I don't have a copy of the girls doing it yet, but when I do, I'll post it.
After that, we booked it back to Victoria coach and got on the bus to head home. My final sight of the night was Big Ben and Parliament all it up... and just made my day complete. When we got back it was epically foggy and cold in Canterbury, but I got back and pretty much crashed!
Overall... an amazing time in London and I can't wait to go back!
Love you all and miss you! Time for homework!
-Sam
We got up early and left campus at about 8:30 to head into London by coach bus, where we met up with our tour guides. Our tour guide was fantastic and showed us all these small literary references, mainly with Charles Dickens. It was just... it was amazing and we walked around for nearly three hours before even going into St. Paul's cathedral! Now, we couldn't take any pictures inside the cathedral, but I wish we could have. It was... amazing. Breathtaking and so huge! So you guys will just have to take my word for it or see if there are any pictures on google. But it was gorgeous and we spent about 45 minutes or so in there before heading to the Museum of London. That was a big history of London through neanderthal times up until about the fire or so, and the plague. Interesting stuff.
After that, the group of us headed off to our hostel, getting a bit lost but eventually finding the place relatively easy enough. It was a pretty cool place, honestly, and I have a few pictures of the beds which weren't bad. There were so many different nationalities in there. People from France, Spain, New Zealand, and of course America. It just insane! We had dinner at a nice pub. It was one of the girl's birthdays, so we ended up going out to a place called Zoo Bar that was a bar/club. You all know me and what I'm about... so clubbing wasn't the highlight of my weekend, really. Sorta fun, but not the best. Didn't get back to the hostel until about 3:15 in the morning. Bleh.
But the next day was amazing! And I hung around with people that just made my day that much more fantastic.
You guys can see most of it from my pictures and we did so much walking and riding the underground! First we went to King's Cross and found Platform 9 3/4 from the HP movies, which was awesome. Then we went over to the London Eye and Big Ben... and I swear... hearing and seeing Big Ben and the clock tower... it was insane. Most of us were just so stunned by the sight. It's not even that big! Not compared to the sky scrapers back home. But I nearly cried at the sound of the bell... it was just amazing. We decided to save the London Eye for the next time we're in London, which will be in a few weeks.
Then we went past Westminster Abbey... it was about 12 pounds for us to get in, so we decided to skip it for the day and come back. Then it was about lunchtime so we ate at another amazing pub before heading off to Buckingham Palace, which was just... huge and awesome. After that, we went to Victoria Coach station for bus tickets before heading off to Abbey Road!
And yeah, we found it!
It was a bit of a hike, but we eventually got there from the underground station and it was just... we got to see Apple Studios and it was just this pilgrimage of Beatles Fans everywhere! The wall that surrounds the studio was covered in signatures and messages and we wrote on it before recreating the Abbey Road album cover. Needless to say, most of the traffic wasn't pleased about all the tourists doing so... but we managed to get it. I don't have a copy of the girls doing it yet, but when I do, I'll post it.
After that, we booked it back to Victoria coach and got on the bus to head home. My final sight of the night was Big Ben and Parliament all it up... and just made my day complete. When we got back it was epically foggy and cold in Canterbury, but I got back and pretty much crashed!
Overall... an amazing time in London and I can't wait to go back!
Love you all and miss you! Time for homework!
-Sam
Thursday, 4 February 2010
Hair cut!
Last night was the shindig for the American Studies group... got there at about 7:30 to find it a really small pub and the drinks were kind of expensive. I did manage to group with some of the other American girls not from my group and we hung around for a bit, waiting for things to actually start. We decided to go somewhere else for cheaper drinks before things actually got started and went over to a place called Orange Tree. It was pretty cool and we were the only ones there!
Then we went back to the original pub to find that they hadn't put out the free food yet, so Jordan (the girl from Texas who was going to come to Ware with me) and I decided to go to a place where they had coffee and booze... but there was some singer in there, so instead we went to Penny Theatre. It was a pretty cool place. Eclectic and it used to be an old Penny Theatre (hence the name) but also a venue for bands. Apparently Radiohead played there back in 1992. Had my first pint (yeah, it took forever, didn't it?) and found how I'm a lightweight when it comes to that. Ha. Jordan and I hung around for a couple hours and drank our pints and talked. We actually have a lot in common, including the fact that we don't actually like getting wasted or anything like that.
Yay!
And we decided that instead of going to Amsterdam like everyone else for our spring break, we are going to go to a bunch of the smaller places. She wants to go to Ware, so I'll take her there, and we're gonna go to Liverpool and a few other places during the week. It's gonna be awesome.
Today I got my hair cut! And another picture. I like it a lot. After a couple hours of getting my hair done (longest time ever!) I went to the library for a bit and am now back in my flat. I have to be back on campus at 7:45 AM to leave for London tomorrow.
Ew.
So early bedtime tonight, I think. Then I'll be back on Saturday night more than likely and will be posting pictures and all that then!
Love you all and miss you!
-Sam
Then we went back to the original pub to find that they hadn't put out the free food yet, so Jordan (the girl from Texas who was going to come to Ware with me) and I decided to go to a place where they had coffee and booze... but there was some singer in there, so instead we went to Penny Theatre. It was a pretty cool place. Eclectic and it used to be an old Penny Theatre (hence the name) but also a venue for bands. Apparently Radiohead played there back in 1992. Had my first pint (yeah, it took forever, didn't it?) and found how I'm a lightweight when it comes to that. Ha. Jordan and I hung around for a couple hours and drank our pints and talked. We actually have a lot in common, including the fact that we don't actually like getting wasted or anything like that.
Yay!
And we decided that instead of going to Amsterdam like everyone else for our spring break, we are going to go to a bunch of the smaller places. She wants to go to Ware, so I'll take her there, and we're gonna go to Liverpool and a few other places during the week. It's gonna be awesome.
Today I got my hair cut! And another picture. I like it a lot. After a couple hours of getting my hair done (longest time ever!) I went to the library for a bit and am now back in my flat. I have to be back on campus at 7:45 AM to leave for London tomorrow.
Ew.
So early bedtime tonight, I think. Then I'll be back on Saturday night more than likely and will be posting pictures and all that then!
Love you all and miss you!
-Sam
Monday, 1 February 2010
WARE did you go?
Yup!
I went to Ware today! :] Pictures start here, although there aren't many this time around. I got up and went to the train station, only to run into one of my American friends from Texas. Her name is Jordan and she's fantastic. While she will go out with people, we're a lot alike and I've been getting a bit closer to her. She's awesome. She was coming through the train station and returning from Paris where she had been for the weekend and when I told her where I was going she wanted to join me.
It was pretty cool.
Unfortunately, because I can't read, we missed the 10:25 train, so we decided to head over to a cafe on high street for about an hour before the next train was about to show up. Unfortunately, Jordan had class at 3 so she couldn't come with, but definitely wanted to come back with me! So today was my scouting trip and we'll probably go on our 'spring break' in a couple weeks.
I got on the train and this express train was awesome. Very nice and I nearly fell asleep! Took that into St. Pancras International where you can go out to anywhere, it's connected with King's Cross in London. From there I took the underground (first time!!) out to where I was to pick up the train to get to Ware. The underground was a lot like the El of Chicago, only well... underground. Obviously. Thanks to all those Chinatown trips, it wasn't hard to find my way around the train stations. When I got to my transfer, I had to wait a bit but finally got the train to Ware.
It's so cute! The High Street was small, but there were a lot of shops and a lot of people! I walked up and down the river a little bit and visited St. Mary's church. I definitely want to get a bit more information from everyone so when I can go back I can go and see a lot more. I didn't spend a whole lot of time there but it was enough to see a good portion of the town. Then I jumped on the train back and managed to get every single one of my connections only a few minutes before it was supposed to leave, including the one back to Canterbury!
Lucky, eh?
Then I came back to my flat. We didn't have hot water this morning and I have yet to see if it got fixed... and unfortunately our heat seems to be broken as well. Before class I'm gonna go raise hell over at the Warden's office if it doesn't get fixed by tomorrow afternoon. It's stupid and I'm freezing. Another reason why I think I'm going to get my hair cut short this week, just so that it's easier to take care of, with shorter showers and the like.
London this weekend! I booked my hostel with the group of girls I hung around Dover with, so that'll be fun. I might go see a show with Jordan if I can get a ticket and depending on what time and all that.
Today was fun and I'm definitely tired.
Love you all and miss you!
-Sam
I went to Ware today! :] Pictures start here, although there aren't many this time around. I got up and went to the train station, only to run into one of my American friends from Texas. Her name is Jordan and she's fantastic. While she will go out with people, we're a lot alike and I've been getting a bit closer to her. She's awesome. She was coming through the train station and returning from Paris where she had been for the weekend and when I told her where I was going she wanted to join me.
It was pretty cool.
Unfortunately, because I can't read, we missed the 10:25 train, so we decided to head over to a cafe on high street for about an hour before the next train was about to show up. Unfortunately, Jordan had class at 3 so she couldn't come with, but definitely wanted to come back with me! So today was my scouting trip and we'll probably go on our 'spring break' in a couple weeks.
I got on the train and this express train was awesome. Very nice and I nearly fell asleep! Took that into St. Pancras International where you can go out to anywhere, it's connected with King's Cross in London. From there I took the underground (first time!!) out to where I was to pick up the train to get to Ware. The underground was a lot like the El of Chicago, only well... underground. Obviously. Thanks to all those Chinatown trips, it wasn't hard to find my way around the train stations. When I got to my transfer, I had to wait a bit but finally got the train to Ware.
It's so cute! The High Street was small, but there were a lot of shops and a lot of people! I walked up and down the river a little bit and visited St. Mary's church. I definitely want to get a bit more information from everyone so when I can go back I can go and see a lot more. I didn't spend a whole lot of time there but it was enough to see a good portion of the town. Then I jumped on the train back and managed to get every single one of my connections only a few minutes before it was supposed to leave, including the one back to Canterbury!
Lucky, eh?
Then I came back to my flat. We didn't have hot water this morning and I have yet to see if it got fixed... and unfortunately our heat seems to be broken as well. Before class I'm gonna go raise hell over at the Warden's office if it doesn't get fixed by tomorrow afternoon. It's stupid and I'm freezing. Another reason why I think I'm going to get my hair cut short this week, just so that it's easier to take care of, with shorter showers and the like.
London this weekend! I booked my hostel with the group of girls I hung around Dover with, so that'll be fun. I might go see a show with Jordan if I can get a ticket and depending on what time and all that.
Today was fun and I'm definitely tired.
Love you all and miss you!
-Sam
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